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Showing posts from 2014

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Vacation!!

Hello fit friends!! I am leaving for Cuba on Saturday and I cannot wait to be soaking up the sunshine. It's been fairly grey here in Winnipeg for the last few weeks... I'm definitely feeling the effects of no sunshine. I also get to see a very good friend of mine who moved to another province last January so I haven't seen her since she came back to visit in June. What better way to reunite than meet up in Cuba?! With all the Christmas gluttony I'm definitely not feeling 'beach ready' but I still feel mostly good about my body. I know I can't complain because I'm in good shape but like the majority of people who workout and haven't committed 100% to a clean diet, I want less fat on my stomach and more definition. I've been loosely following the three day 'quick fix' that came with the 21 day fix program. This meal plan is approximately 50% protein, 25% fat, and 25% carbs. I'm finding for the most part that I'm actually not h

I'm certified!!

I haven't posted in a few months... things have been a bit crazy. I passed both my written and practical exams and have now received my certification to print out :D Check out my business website: www.kschickfitness.ca

PTS Exam

Hello fitness friends! I took my exam for my personal training certificate last night and even though I studied my ass off I'm not feeling very confident about it :/ It can take up to two weeks to find out which is absolute torture! To begin with I will be offering online services by providing workout programs and meal plans. I am NOT certified in anyway in regards to nutrition but I have done hours, if not DAYS worth of reading about nutrition. Again, I'm not claiming I'm a nutritionist or dietitian but I can at least help you figure out what you need to be incorporating into your diet. I'm still deciding on a business name and will be creating a new website for my business but will continue to post here on my blog for personal stuff :) I will let you know when the website is up and look forward to helping people change their lives in a great way.

Stuffed bell peppers

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So last week I was seriously craving stuffed bell peppers so that is what I made for lunches this week. I rarely measure stuff when I'm cooking so the measurements will be approximate but remember you can always adjust recipes to better suit your taste! This recipe made way more than what I needed for the 5 peppers I had but I'm freezing the rest for another batch :) Ingredients: 1/3 c. chopped onion (I used a quarter of a large onion.) 1 celery stalk 2 to 3 cloves of garlic (I use the mince garlic you can buy in a jar from costco so I used over 1 tsp of that) 2 lbs ground beef (you can also use ground turkey or chicken to make this lower in calories) 1 carrot, shredded 5 mushrooms 1/3 c. kidney beans tomato sauce/crushed tomatoes 2 cups of brown rice (cooked separately) bell peppers Parmesan cheese Bake at 350F for 20 minutes  Preheat your frying pan at medium low heat and get your rice cooking. Use a few tablespoons of oil (can use whatever o

PTS course

This weekend was crazy... I feel like I need another weekend. I had to take Friday off work so I could attend the three day course for my personal training certificate. It was a lot of fun, I met some new friends who have the same passion for health and fitness, and I'm looking forward even more to start training people and helping them change their lives. One of the ladies (women just makes us sound old haha) I met there is competing in November and has a blog as well. Check it out here ! Another thing this weekend did for me was realize how much information there is to know. I'm glad I changed my exam for a later date because I want to ace this exam. I haven't really decided where I'm going to work out of but I'm going to try freelancing first and see how that goes. Maybe if there is enough interest I can coach online? Leave me a comment or PM me on my facebook page if you would be interested in something like that. I've been a bit absent from here d

End of vacation, new start

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Hello! Yesterday was Flex Friday so this was my picture after I finished a FitnessBlender workout. I finished the Nike Training Club program last week and then went to my family reunion. I didn't workout for 5 days and ate like crap. I'm happy to be home and to be getting back into my routine. I wasn't drinking enough water there, drank alcohol every evening, and was eating poorly and too much. To kick things off I am doing the 5 day challenge from www.fitnessblender.com  that they posted last week. I'm on day 3 today and I love it so far. Their workouts are a really good blend of strength and cardio, and the have the warm up and cool down. I was going to start another NTC program on Monday but I think I may buy one of Daniel and Kelli's 8 week programs since I'm enjoying their workouts so much. (I'll let you know what I decide) Next weekend I am going for my personal training course so I can become a certified personal trainer. My exam will be

NTC - update

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Hello! So I am on week 3 of the Nike Training Club program but I did week 1 twice. I missed the second day because of golfing so I still did the assigned workouts for the day but it didn't mark it off. I've been pushing myself with heavier weights - last Saturday I was using 15 lb hand weights for most of the exercises and 5 lbs for the flyes. This morning's workout was shoulder ripper and leaner legs. My shoulders were definitely ripped lol. Tomorrow is rest day on the NTC schedule but it is Turbo Fire day for me haha. In this program there is 45 minute of 'advanced' yoga on the second day of your workout week and then the fourth and seventh days are rest days. I personally hate yoga but I've been sucking it up and have been doing the scheduled yoga (with much cursing and frustration). When I first created this program I had included running but due to my knee/IT band being bothersome and painful I deleted it and recreated it without the running. Inste

Nike Training Club

I know I said I was going to finish the Melissa Bender sculpted abs challenge (which I still plan on doing) but I was looking through the Nike Training Club app on Sunday and realized you can create a 4 week program with it, so that's what I did! Today will be day 4 but I missed day 2 which was a 45 minute yoga routine. Yesterday was legs and back, today is an overall body weight workout. I don't think I'll have time to do it tonight after work because of plans but I will smash it out tomorrow with tomorrow's scheduled workout. My legs are so sore in a good way. I missed this feeling. I've really let myself get doughy and have gained 5 lbs from my bad food choices. No one to blame but myself and I just have to get back on track. I really recommend checking out the Nike Training Club app because it has 15, 30, 45, and 60 minute workouts. You can choose if you want cardio, strength training, or heavy weights. So far I really like it!

Fruit salad

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Yesterday when I was grocery shopping I decided I'm going to have fruit salad for my purple containers. I'm still having a really hard time saying no to bad foods but I'm trying to stick to the 21 day fix meal plan as best as I can. Fruit salad is my favorite way to eat fruit because you get to eat a bunch of different fruits at once - you don't have to decide if you want a banana OR an apple. These are my favorite fruits for fruit salad. I should have grabbed a melon (cantaloupe or honeydew) but that'll have to wait until next time. I love the combination of oranges and grapefruit, the citrus just adds that something something to it and prevents the apples and bananas from turning brown. Ingredients: 1 banana 1 gala apple 1 orange 1 grapefruit 1 1/4 c grapes lemon juice I like to cut my fruit into fairly small pieces so I can have a bit of everything in every spoonful :) I cut the banana in half lengthwise and then cut into slices

Melissa Bender 30 Day Sculpted Abs Challenge

In May I started Melissa Bender's 30 day sculpted abs challenge.  I haven't finished it but I have about half left so I'm going to finish them and then I want to finish the rest of the free ZWOW's since I made it up to ZWOW #52. Here are the links to the videos and the workout breakdowns! Day #1 All Levels: Max reps during each 50 second interval, 10 seconds rest between exercise. right plank step - 18 left plank step - 17 up dog/down dog - 6 bicycle abs - 64 toe tab sit up - 8 cross plank right - 14 cross plan left - 15 bicycle boat - 20 temple tap abs - 18 knee tap plank crunch - 10 Day #2 All Levels: Max reps during each 50 second interval, 10 seconds of rest between exercises. high knees - 67 burpee - 10 lunge kick right - 20 lunge kick left - 21 mount climbers - 44 1 leg hip thrust right - 18 1 leg hip thrust left - 20 speed skater - 40 jump squat - 26 plank jack - 31 single leg stand right - 11 single leg stand left - 9 hip lift/leg li

Summer challenges

Alright... so my last post was about recommitting to the 21 Day Fix diet but I was defeated again. Sugary treats and unhealthy dinners are going to be my demise. But I refuse to quit trying. For workouts I've been doing the challenge from my friend's website, HIITmx . You sign up and you get an email every day that has your workout break down (in English, even those his website is in Spanish. If you use Google Chrome is has the option to translate it.) His workouts are awesome! They work every body part and my abs are getting more defined just in the short time I've been doing the videos. Some days I do 6 rounds for a 40 minute workout and some days I'll do 4 rounds and pair it with a Beachbody video (Focus T25, Turbo Fire, PiYo). I haven't run since last Sunday because my knee is still causing pain. I've been told that it is because my IT band it tight and it's causing pressure on my arthritic knee. I've been doing more stretching but it hasn't

Groceries

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I actually didn't need to do much grocery shopping this week. I ate out on Thursday, had a BBQ at my mom's on Friday, and wasn't home on Saturday afternoon until Sunday evening. I still had my bagged salad, carrots, and stir fry. All I had to pick up was some more fruit and some protein. For lunches I cooked up 3 chicken breasts seasoned with Clubhouse Greek seasoning. Chopped them up and measured them out with the protein container. For carbs I cubed a yam and steamed them in a pan and then added some coconut oil once they were soft so they would brown a bit. So my lunches are chicken breast, yam, and sweet kale salad. Cheese is allowed in this program so I bought some since it was on sale. I also bought some large flake oats to try out since overnight oats are better with these and I only normally buy quick oats. (This post has been pending for a few weeks... thought I should finish it) I have to say the large flake oats are really good for using as overnight o

Egg salad lettuce wraps

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I was craving egg salad the other day so I whipped these up in a few minutes. I don't buy or use mayo so I used sour cream and dijon mustard instead. I grate the hard boiled eggs because I like the texture it makes them, instead of mushed up. Add chopped celery and onion, season with salt, pepper, and paprika. Wash some romaine leaves and divide the mixture up between them and enjoy!

New challenges

I've decided that this is the year I'm going to push myself out of my comfort zone (even more than last year) so I signed up for a Mud Hero run! I have 3 months to prepare for this 5 km race that has 16 obstacles. Even though I workout regularly I do not run - so I figured I should start working on it. I finished the first month of Insanity and loved it, but I need to focus on running. I was looking through my workout journal (because I started a new one!) and I remember that I felt the most toned last April and May. So I looked back in my book and found that I was doing ZWOWs and Bodyrock videos, and doing cardio with them every other day. So my goal is to do a HIIT, mostly ZWOWs in their order again, 5-6 days a week and running 3 days a week. I'm going to also sign up for the Color Me Rad that would be July 19 with a friend I work with, so there's another reason that I need to get into running shape haha. Have you pushed yourself before? I think everyone sh

Restocking my empty fridge

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It's been a while since I posted a grocery shopping haul so I remembered to take a picture last night when I was putting groceries away! I've been a bad girl the last few weeks - lots of treats and alcohol, so I've gained some weight. We had a food day at work today and I went a bit nuts so I'm reeling the reigns in and am determined to be good for at least a week. I bought stuff to make smoothies for breakfast and fresh veggies for salads and stir frys. So what I bought was: baby spinach romaine lettuce red onion bell peppers celery mango cabbage bananas apples strawberries cucumbers canned corn plain yogurt Special K protein cereal milk pineapple juice I don't normally drink or buy juice but I thought this would be delicious to add into my breakfast smoothies :) I'm going to make some more roasted cabbage and sautee some up with onions and garlic... mmmm. I never thought I'd enjoy cabbage this much haha!

Chicken breast for salad

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I've been taking salads for lunches the last 2 weeks with chicken breast as the protein. I cut up 2 chicken breasts into long strips and let them thaw out. Put them in a baking dish and top with fresh chopped garlic and onion, rosemary, paprika, chili powder, basil, thyme, and oregano. I tested one strip out with curry powder and I wasn't crazy about it with this combination. Bake at 325F for 25 minutes and flip. Bake for another 10-15 minutes. I of course used my meat thermometer and cooked it until it reached 175F. Bon appetit!

Roasted cabbage

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The other night I realized I had half a head of cabbage that needed to be used so I remembered that someone in my fitness group had posted cabbage steaks. So I used that and adapted it to this. Preheat the oven to 400F. Slice the cabbage into 1" thick slices and lay them out in a single layer on a baking sheet. Drizzle with some olive oil and season with salt and pepper. I also used Johnny's garlic spread seasoning. Garlic salt/powder or fresh garlic would also taste great with these. Bake them for 25 minutes and flip over. Bake for another 20-25 minutes or until they are the tenderness you like. I like mine a bit crunchy but they were nice and soft on the outside. They had such a great flavor I couldn't stop munching on them as I was putting them away lol. They were a bit difficult to flip over because they were falling apart so next time I might leave the stem (is that what's it's called?) attached and cut the entire head in half and cut each ha

Lunch: chicken, sweet potatoes, and sweet kale salad

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This week's lunches are rotisserie chicken, sweet potatoes, and kale salad. I was going to buy fresh chicken breast but I was too lazy to cook them so I bought a rotisserie chicken instead. I will say it again that Costco has the best chickens. This one is from Superstore and it doesn't have much flavor.  This salad is awesome. It comes with poppyseed dressing, dried cranberries, and pumpkin seeds. In Canada it is available at Costco and Superstore. It's about $6 a bag but I think it's worth it! Cut all the meat off the chicken and divide into containers or put all the meat into one container so it's easy to grab and eat. I made 4 lunches out of this and had the drum sticks left over for dinner. I bought a huge sweet potato and cut it up into smaller pieces so it would cook faster. Toss them in a bowl with olive oil to coat, lay them on a cooking sheet, and sprinkle with pepper and cinnamon, or whatever seasoning you like. Bake at 400F fo

Cauliflower breadsticks

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Last night my cousin and I had a fairly late dinner because we were waiting for these bad boys to be ready. I bought a head of cauliflower when I went for a quick grocery trip on Sunday since they were reduced to 50% off for quick sale. We already had some in the fridge so I decided to give this recipe a try. I probably used half the cheese it called for because we only had a little piece in the fridge. Overall I thought they were a really great alternative to breadsticks. They tasted great, had a great texture, and they weren't flimsy at all! I will admit that it was a bit more labor than I'm used to for making dinner. I have a little tiny food processor so the whole head of cauliflower took about 10 batches to make it into 'rice'. I opted to use the microwave instead of boiling it on the stove. I put water in the microwave-safe dish and put it in for 5 minutes. I let it sit in a strainer for about 5 minutes and then used a towel to squeeze the rest of th

Veggie quesadilla

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Instead of going out for my cousin's birthday (on her actual birthday) we headed over to my mom's place and made a delicious dinner of french onion soup (packaged) and home made quesadillas. We didn't add any protein because we were already eating fairly late but you can always add chicken, fish, etc. The filling is: spinach fried onions fried mushrooms cheese sliced tomatoes Use cooking spray or a bit of oil in a large preheated pan over medium-low heat. You can assemble the quesadilla on a cutting board but I find the transfer is a bit hard so I do it in the pan. Put on a layer of cheese at the base - we used sliced havarti. Then put your onions, mushrooms, spinach, and tomatoes, and top with another layer of cheese. I did sprinkle some feta in between the spinach and tomato for some extra flavor. Fold the tortilla over the other half and let it warm through. When it is brown or slightly crispy flip it over and let it crisp up on the other side. Dep

3 days of dining out

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This past weekend was a lot of dining out for me. Friday and Saturday night, and brunch on Sunday morning. I've been doing a lot of eating out in the last 4 months. Since I have broken up with my boyfriend 4 weeks ago though, I've cut back since I much prefer to eat at home. It's less expensive and you know what is in your food. :) So Friday night I went out with a friend for drinks and dinner at Boston Pizza. I was very close to ordering a pizza but I made pizza on Wednesday night and I had eaten pizza for the last two nights. Instead I went for the starter size Mediterranean salad and a fishbowl of booze. I know alcohol isn't clean but you have to find a balance between clean eating and living your life. On Saturday night we went out to celebrate my cousin's birthday, which was on Monday. We went to a restaurant that I'm not too familiar with so I didn't know what would be good. I was really craving a burger so I got their cheese burger wit

Tuna boats #2

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Before my cousin and I went grocery shopping I had slim pickins in my fridge so on Saturday evening I whipped up this tuna salad that we enjoyed with romaine leaves as the wraps for dinner. It turned out way better than I was expecting! 1 can of tuna half a small avocado, mashed 1/4 c. chopped cucumber 4 pitted black olives 1/4 of a gala apple chopped onion feta cheese romaine leaves Drain the tuna and fluff it up in your mixing bowl. Mash the half an avocado on the cutting board or in the bowl and mix with the tuna. Add in the cucumber, black olives, and apple. Season as desired: I used salt and pepper, and some Clubhouse Greek seasoning. Mix in your feta cheese and you're set! Load them onto your romaine leaf and enjoy. The apple really added a nice touch (thanks Crystal! She suggested adding it) because I could tell it was missing something but couldn't figure out what. This made enough for 2 and I was stuffed after.

Lunches - steak and (sweet) potatoes

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I have the day off today and I didn't have time to prep on Sunday so I'm prepping lunches today. I have my cousin staying with me for a month while she does her practicum at our local newspaper and it's fun because we share a passion for eating healthy and working out. Last night we went grocery shopping because my fridge was bare! My fruit bowl looks amazing! My cousin eats way more fruit than me; I usually just eats bananas and apples, and sometimes a fruit salad with grapefruit and oranges. We got mangoes, pears, nectarines, bananas, grapefruit, and oranges. I had frozen vegetables in my freezer so I steamed them in my rice cooker using a metal basket. Seasoned with coconut oil, pepper, and Clubhouse Greek seasoning. I picked up some steak last night since it was under $4.00. Seasoned with some steak seasoning and BBQ sauce, and pan fried to medium well. For my carbs/starch I baked some sweet potatoes. I tossed them in some olive oil, spr

Insanity - Round 2

I realized I haven't posted in a while.. and I've abandoned some more  programs. I know it is a bad habit but I liked doing workouts that work for me and my schedule. I started Jamie Eason's Livefit trainer from bodybuilding.com and it was a really great workout but I got frustrated with the gym in my building. I can tell I would have wicked arms if I continued that program; if you have access to a gym I would suggest giving it a try! I started the Melissa Bender challenge she posted in December too but I was sick for a few days and my knee was hurting from Mexico so I was taking it easy. I was still doing them every other day and have done up to Day 9. On Tuesday I started Insanity because I've been fairly lenient on what I'm consuming and have gained some inches again. The problem with Insanity is that I sometimes don't have 40 minutes to workout every day so I would stop the program. However, this time I plan on subbing out for a T25 video if I don

New containers!

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Does anyone else get excited about new containers?! haha. I know, I'm lame. I've been noticing for a few months that my lunch containers have been leaking so I thought it was time to retire them when I saw these on sale at Superstore. I think they were regularly around $20.00 but they were on sale for $11.00. I really like them because they have quite a variety of sizes and the lids and nesting containers make them really easy to store and pull out. I was previously using Ziploc reusable containers but these are a bit heavier plastic and were about the same price for a better quality. I'm too cheap to throw out the Ziploc ones so they'll be retired to storing food in the fridge instead of being used for work lunches.

My workout calendars 2013

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I use my Google calendar to keep track of my workouts in addition to my workout journal. I like a visual to see how much I've worked out so when I'm feeling lazy I can see that I've been dragging my ass and that motivates me to workout.