Lifting at the Gym: My First Love PLUS What I Ate Today

For the past 6 months I have mostly done HIIT workouts. I have done lots of lifting circuits to get my heart rate up and burn fat. I enjoy circuits because they are SUPER quick and you get the most bang for your buck in a short amount of time. With our families’ busy schedule I have enjoyed these workouts because they don’t take up my whole day. I can get cardio and lifting in quickly and then move on with my day. When I do fit in cardio these days it has been Tabata style sprints. I swear by sprints when it comes to cardio if your goal is to burn fat. You can burn way more fat in a shorter amount of time by doing 20 minutes of sprints rather than 1 hour of steady state cardio. Also, when you do cardio for more than 30 minutes your body tends to want to hold onto fat rather than burn it. I used to do an hour of cardio or more back in the day and wonder why I couldn’t tackle that stubborn belly fat. Go figure.

Anyways, today was wonderful! A family friend asked me if I could go to the gym today so that our daughters could play in the gym childcare together. I have not lifted at the gym in 6 months!! And while I have had some great workouts at home in shorter amounts of time, I didn’t realize just how much I missed my “happy place”. I spend most every hour of my waking day with my kids. And while I adore them and wouldn’t trade my job of homeschooling mom for anything in the world, there is nothing quite like 2 hours of “me time”. Dropping kiddos off at a quality gym daycare knowing they will be well cared for and enjoy games and crafts while I get a care free 2 hours to stretch, lift, and do cardio is heaven. I was able to lift heavy for the first time in months. It was glorious! I even got to do bent knee deadlifts which I haven’t done with a barbell in months.

Here was today’s workout. I focused on back and biceps:

• 5 min warm up walk on treadmill.
• Dynamic Stretches
• Warm up set of lat pull downs
• 3 drop sets of lat pull downs
• 3 drop sets of hammer pull downs
• Warm up with bar (bent knee deadlifts)
• Multiple sets of bent knee deadlifts increasing my weight by 20 lbs each set until I could only do 2 reps
• 3 sets of bent over barbell rows
• 3 sets of straight arm cable pull downs
• 3 sets of bend over delt raises
• 3 drop sets of dumbbell curls
• 2 sets of barbell 21 curls
• I then did 30 minutes of cardio on the elliptical increasing the intensity as I went along. My legs were still cashed from leg day the other day so I didn’t dare do sprints on the treadmill.
• Then I finished up with static stretches.

Then I casually went to pick up my kiddos who didn’t want to leave the awesome daycare there. They were playing with play dough.

I may have to fit at least 1 gym day a week into my routine this summer now that we are on a more relaxed schedule for homeschool.

Oh, and here is…

What I Ate Today:

Breakfast: farm fresh eggs with red bell peppers, spinach, salsa, raw garlic, and spices with a side of groats with one TBS of chia seed/flax seed/hemp seed mix with cinnamon and fresh grated ginger and topped with a couple crumpled up walnuts

Post workout snack: I had 2 protein brownies right after my workout and I was still hungry when I got home so I ate a small bowl of plain greek yogurt with a splash of liquid stevia and vanilla extract and a scoop of homemade almond butter. I also munched on some carrots.

Lunch: 2 homemade oat tortillas. These things cruble apart but they are SO good I don’t care. 🙂 I also had a salad with leftover chicken from our “crispy chicken dinner” the night before topped with salsa, fresh raw garlic (I eat a LOT of garlic), turmeric, cayenne pepper, and sea salt.

Dinner: Fajita style chicken over a bed of romaine lettuce.

So there you have it. That was my workout and all my meals today. I highly recommend HIIT workouts when you are short on time but I prefer a heavy lifting session at the gym any day I have the time.

Feel free to comment below with any questions or let me know what workouts you enjoy best! Do you prefer gym time or quick at home workouts? Do you prefer to workout outside or inside?