Box Jumps

Have any of you guys attempted box jumps?

(Source)

The above picture is an extreme example of box jumps, but box jumps freak the crap out of me. I tried them for the first time during my one and only free session with a personal trainer and I was such a baby.

I’m afraid I’ll jump up, hit the box with my shin, fall and roll all over the gym floor, writhing in pain. I can do them as long as the box is a reasonable height, but super-tall box jumps really intimidate me.

There’s a guy at our gym that is the king of box jumps. He’s so entertaining to watch because he does 180s and balances one of those Bosu balls on top of the box and lands on it.

I hold my breath every time I watch him attempt a new trick. Today I told him he has to try out for Ninja Warrior.

(Side note: In case you’re looking for a fun plyometric/circuit workout that incorporates box jumps, click here for one of my favorites.)

My workout today did not include box jumps, but it did include a lot of great upper body exercises.

After a two-mile run, I did three sets of 15 repetitions of the following exercises:

• Superset One: Incline bicep curls + Upright rows
• Superset Two: Chest press + Tricep extension
• Superset Three: Ryan’s awesome shoulder move + Push ups
• Tricep pull-downs
• Superset Four: Kettle ball swings + Bicep curls
• Tricep dips
• Ab work: Various crunches on exercise ball

Breakfast

Today’s breakfast featured egg white French toast that I made by combining egg whites, milk and cinnamon before dunking a honey wheat English muffin in the mix.

Topped with bananas and syrup.

I intentionally used egg whites because yesterday Tiffany, a med school student, drew my attention to the cholesterol level in one egg yolk.

Of course I know eggs are high in cholesterol, but I didn’t realize that one egg has about 213 mg of cholesterol (all of which is found in the yolk) and the recommended amount of cholesterol for a healthy person is just 300 mg a day.

Egg yolks definitely have a lot of nutritional benefits as well, so I’ll definitely be enjoying them often, but as you may have noticed, I’ve been on a bit of an egg kick, eating two eggs a day most days of the week, and I think limiting the consumption of egg yolks when I’m eating them so regularly is probably a good idea since high cholesterol runs in my family. (Don’t worry – I will never give up my love for dippy eggs.) For more information about egg yolks and cholesterol, check out this Q&A article on the Mayo Clinic’s website.

The good news is that egg white French toast tastes the same as French toast made with whole eggs to me, so it works!

Godiva Coffee

Today’s breakfast also included something awfully special!

Oh baby!

I received two bags of Godiva coffee last week (pumpkin spice and caramel pecan bark) through the Foodbuzz Tastemaker program and was so pumped to try them.

Ryan, who hates coffee, even commented on how delicious the pumpkin spice flavor smelled this morning as it was brewing.

It smells like fall in a cup!

I loved the pumpkin pie spice flavor and could taste the hint of hint of cinnamon, nutmeg and pumpkin pie spice in every sip. I want to refrigerate a cup of this coffee and try to blend it up into some kind of a cold coffee drink. I bet it would be phenomenal.

Time to do some horrifically boring paperwork.

See ya soon with today’s Blog Talk Tuesdays post!