My Life in Pictures

Today was a great day.  I'm not sure if I'm saying that because I just drank my obligatory cup of post-exercise Ovaltine, or what.

I started the morning off with an early morning phone call from a great friend whose conversation I always enjoy and he got me thinking about things I like to think about-- While talking to him I made this piece of artwork- it involved a rubber band, a red sharpie, a  green highlighter, and a blue pen.  It's on sale for $4,000.  Let me know if you are interested.

 so...consequently I think I got a little lost in my head and not absorbed enough in my work so I had a slow start, but I eventually chugged along and made some serious progress!  I had great music to listen to too so the work day just flew by!!! Woo!    

Then I went to the gym.  Wooo-weee.  I'm still getting back into shape and my allergies are making a roaring comeback to great the beautiful Spring weather.  

C'est La Vie. 

Needless to say it's going to take me awhile to get back to the cardiovascular shape I was in if my asthma doesn't settle down.  I'm not too concerned though, I'm not that out of shape.  It's just when you remember doing something more efficiently in the past, doing that same exercise less efficiently makes you realize your decline.  I'll get it back though, I'm confident about that!   

I told Megan that I didn't think I could write my workouts down on my blog, but I took a picture of my workout today to get a peek into the typical workout of Annie. 

So typically I do 4 sets switching between the A and B of a set without rest (or little rest) to make the workout more cadio-esqe.  I use to do 5 sets but time constraints have shortened my workout.  This one is kind of confusing because I only got through set 3 before I was to meet a friend to go on a run, our run was only 17 minutes long (as we are out of shape...haha) and then I picked back up with the last set.  The time each workout took, my average heart rate and my peak heart rate are recorded next to the respective chunks.  My heart rate got pretty high which I try and maintain-- however if I don't do many leg exercises my heart rate does not get very high because leg exercises typically engage the whole body and since the leg muscles are the largest/strongest it takes more blood (and thereby increases your heart rate).  

I got this idea of working out from a workout book that I highly recommend.  If you are a guy they have one made for men as well but I can't vouch for it as I have not used it.  Here is the book for ladies:

My only complaints is that the binding is not very sturdy so if you use it as much as I do pages will start to fall out.  I love this book!   It has 619 exercises separated by what muscles you are working, each exercise has pictures to show you how it is suppose to look and then there are a ton of different workouts in the back.  I use to do the pre-made workouts in the back and I do highly recommend them, they are great and challenging!  

Now I was reading Women's Health magazine the other day and saw an advertisement for a similar book:

It made me laugh.  But then again, given how much I LOVE "The Women'sHealth Big of Exercises" maybe "The Women'sHealth Big Book of Sex" is worth a shot....just sayin'. 

Now-- one thing I must share with you all is the DELICIOUS dinner I made last night.  It was literally a party in my mouth.  I took one bight of it and just couldn't contain myself with how delicious it was.  I think my roommate thought I was weird that food got me that excited but I couldn't shut up about it.  I may have even texted 1 or 2 or... people about how friggin delicious it was.  Here is the link to the recipe: Recipe

I changed a couple minor things to that recipe-- I didn't fry it in 2 tbsp of oil, I just lightly coated the pan with EVOO and I used a bit of rice vinegar instead of rice wine.  I also served this dish over quinoa rather than brown rice.  All of my sauces and broths I used low-sodium since Chinese food has a tendency to pile on the SALT.