It's my birthday! And we've been celebrating all weekend (albeit in a relaxed way as I continue to get over my cold).
The fun started on Saturday when Seth and I traveled into Northampton so that I could pick up some green tea (Gold-Flecked Emerald Tips from Tea Trekker). I was out, and I wanted to make another smoothie from Green Tea. This time, I chose the green tea, pear, and almond horchata. This smoothie included iced green tea, pear, banana, grapes, and almonds among other things.
For once, it came out looking just like the picture in the book!
It was totally delicious -- very cool and refreshing. The almonds added an excellent grainy texture (to match a traditional horchata which is supposed to have a grainy texture from nuts or uncooked rice). The banana flavor is most prevaling when you first sip it, but you can definitely taste the pear towards the end. I was so pleased with this one, that I have another cup of green tea chilling in the fridge to make this smoothie again today. And boy do I need a healthy snack. This was the weekend of eating!
Exciting meal #1: Saturday night dinner at House of Teriyaki. I've been dying to go here again for ages. I got my favorite, a spicy Korea dish called, Spicy Kalbi Tang.
Exciting meal #2: Lunch at Johnny's Tavern with Dad and Lisa. I had a grilled cheese with avocado and tomato and truffle fries.
Exciting meal #3: Red velvet pancakes made at home by Seth! I had special requested this for my birthday from a recipe I found online (that included cream cheese butter to go with the pancakes). Red velvet cake is my favorite cake of all time and one of my favorite foods, so I was very much looking forward to this decadent dish.
Here are some pictures from the process.
Seth did an absolutely amazing job. They tasted just like red velvet cake.The pancakes and cream cheese topping were so rich that I was only able to eat three (semi-small) pancakes.
After all that indulging, it's salads and exercise for me this week. Fortunately, I've been able to get back into doing my Les Mills Combat workouts now that my cold is mostly resolved. I continue to absolutely love them -- doing the Combat workouts is a blast!
I still have not gotten to the point on the schedule when I get to do the Combat 60 Live (and I still have to check out the bonus Combat 30 Live DVD I got for being a Team Beachbody member). I'm looking forward to checking out those two new workouts. For now though, the Combat 45 is definitely my favorite. I love the variety of different martial arts disciplines included in that workout.
I was also very very lucky to get a super exciting fitness gift from Dad and Lisa for my birthday, P90X! (Lily, my coach, who sits in front of the television to supervise every exercise program I do, is also excited.)
I plan to get started with P90X when I finish up Les Mills Combat at the end of April. I did open the package though and explore the contents.
Like all of the Beachbody programs, they do a very nice job with the materials. Included with the dozen workout DVDs that make up the three month program is a nutrition guide (which, as always, I probably won't follow) and a guide to the program. I think these guides are absolutely wonderful. I loved the Les Mills Combat one which outlined all the different martials arts and also highlighed which moves you'd see in each workout.
P90X's fitness guide does the same thing. The guide includes a fit test, which you should be able to pass to start the program. (I'm good to go.) It also includes three options for the workout schedule: classic, doubles (where you do two workouts a day), and lean (a slightly easier, more cardio-focused schedule). I'm planning to do the classic schedule. My cardio is quite strong, so it's the resistance training, more heavily featured in the classic schedule, where I should really focus my attention. This guide also features write-ups about each DVD in the program and lists all the moves you'll expect to see in the workout.
The workouts are a mix of strength, cardio, and flexability, but definitely with a focus on the former. The workouts are:
1. Chest & Back
2. Plyometrics
3. Shoulders & Arms
4. Yoga X
5. Legs & Back
6. Kenpo X (which I expect to be awesome at after Les Mills Combat)
7. X Stretch
8. Core Synergistics
9. Chest, Shoulders, & Triceps
10. Back & Biceps
11. Cardio X
12. Ab Ripper X
I'm looking forward to trying out this amazing program and will definitely blog my thoughts on each workout.
As part of getting this program, some equipment is required. The first set of things you need to have are weights / resistance bands, which I'm all set for. I have, however, been wanting to get a new set of 10 pound weights for use with Les Mills Combat and thought they would be helpful for P90X too. The other equipment that is recommended is a chin-up bar. While it seems you can do the workout with just the weights, a lot of the moves seem to involve a chin-up bar. I've been kind of wanting a chin-up bar since it got heavily used in the Back & 6-pack workout in Asylum 2 (and I had to do the modifications with weights). This was the excuse I needed.
Today, I made a trip over to the local Dick's Sporting Good and came back with some new stuff.
The hand-weights are obviously all set, but there was some assembly required for the bar.
The bar went together in a fairly straight-forward way and seems to be fine with our door.
My house is almost a fully servicable gym!
For now, I'm off to make smoothie #2 of the week and enjoy the rest of my twenty-eighth birthday. I'm thinking it should be a good year.
No comments:
Post a Comment