My side workout

So, I've been doing good sticking to my P90X/Turbo Fire hybrid program. I did have one sick day last week causing me to miss my Wednesday workout. I tried to do it on Thursday and got through about 25 minutes. Then I decided to go ahead and push through the program doing my Thursday workout on Friday, my Friday workout on Saturday, and counting Wednesday as my rest day instead of Saturday. So, basically I haven't had a rest day since last Wednesday, when I was sick! I'm ready for tomorrow!!

Add to all that the fact that I've been seeing another workout on the side. In addition to my Beachbody workouts, I've been spending 2 days a week with the lovely treadmill. Let's be clear. I suck at running. I just can't do it, never could. My biggest problem is my knees. I get this sharp pain that shoots through my knee and almost makes me fall over. I went to a doctor and he basically told me that my joints were too flexible to keep the knee cap in place. He said that I should never run marathons (if you say so doc), but that if I strengthened my legs I could get to the point where a few miles would be okay.

Given my running suckness and knee issues, and the fact that I'm already doing a pretty serious workout program, I'm taking the running very slowly and lightly. Again, only 2 days a week and more of a run/walk interval program. I started with walking 3 min, running 3 min for a mile. Did I mention that I also run slowly?? Then I moved up to doing the 3/3 interval for half and hour, then walking till I hit 3 miles. Now I'm walking 2 min, running 4 minutes for 30 minutes, then walking till I hit 3 miles. There's a lot less walking at the end now! I'm not quite sure what the next interval will be, but I'll cross that bridge when I get there.

So, what about my knee? I've been doing a lot of reading about running techniques. The most helpful was that you should run toe-heel, not heel-toe. This creates a lot less impact on your knees. And a helpful salesman at Luke's Locker suggested focusing on keep my body centered, as opposed to leaning forward. So far, it's been going very well! You know, for a slow runner who can't run more than 4 minutes at a time. :-)

Side note, I'm thinking of doing a Shakeology giveaway. Would anyone be interested?

image from here

double workouts and recipes!!

Okay, don't get too excited because I'm only linking to recipes that I've tried. I can't even fathom how to come up with my own!! I can barely hard boil an egg... okay I usually google it because I forget how. :)

Moving on, I started this morning with Yoga X, the dreaded 92 minute, very athletic, yoga workout from P90X. Apparently the universe wanted to screw with me because my son woke up an HOUR early today. Yep, the last hour of my yoga. He did okay for about 10 minutes before getting bored. Then he had to go to the bathroom. Then he demanded I turn on his bedroom light, which woke up his sister. (If you've stumbled on here without knowing my background, I have boy/girl twins who are 3.5 years old and share a room.) So, when my daughter woke up it got really interesting. She considers any small space a challenge. If we sit down with our knees bent, that's a tunnel she must crawl through. So, every yoga pose that created a "tunnel" she had to crawl through. Occasionally she would hang out in said tunnel. At the end you are supposed to sit in lotus pose, which prompted my son to sit in my lap, so I sort of missed the point on that one.

Next week I'll have to wake up earlier. And maybe not be so noisy? I have no clue why that child woke up!! It's not like he EVER goes to bed early.

Since these first few weeks aren't too heavy on the cardio, and since I've set a goal of averaging 12,000 steps per week, I decided to hit the treadmill at the Y for my second workout. Now, I am not a runner. I tried to be once, but my knees couldn't take it. So, I'm taking it VERY slow. I'm only running once a week, and it's more of a run/walk. This month I'm doing a 3 min walk/3 min run for 30 minutes, then 5 minutes of walking. Except today I walked 10 more minutes because I have barely any steps!! So, there's workout number 2!

Now to be honest, working out is sort of the easy part for me. I worked out all last year, usually waking up between 4:30 and 5 to do it. The hard part? Eating right. I tend to eat healthier foods, just way too much and way too often. I started the year with the goal to avoid sugar and eat protein at every meal. No weight loss. So, yesterday I started tracking my meals. I've been using my bodybugg since January 1st to track the calories I've burned and steps I've taken, but to get the full effect, you have to suck it up and track what you eat. I need to see that I've burned more calories than I ate. Do NOT trust what machines or magazine articles estimate you've burned. ESPECIALLY if you're short. I burn way less than I thought.

I'm also trying healthier recipes so my whole family eats better. It's pretty easy to google "healthy chicken recipe" or "healthy meatloaf" so that's a good go to for me. Here are some of my favorite sites for healthy eating.

Cooking Light - these tend to be a little more involved, so I have to be really in the mood here.
Dashing Dish - super cute blog with simple healthy recipes and even desserts!
Michelle Myers online - not a cooking blog, but there are recipes and tips on staying healthy
PBS Parents Kitchen Explorers - I love everything about this website.

So, what am I cooking now?

Yesterday I made this mango chicken, but forgot the hummus. Oops! We poured it over quinoa, but I might have to do it over salad once Shawn starts working late!

Tomorrow I'm making these little meatloafs. Meatloaf is one of the few dinners everyone in my house agrees on!

As soon as I buy the ingredients, I'm DYING to try this. It seems so simple, which is right up my alley. And it looks delicious.

So, where do you go to find healthy foods?

image from here