Cardio Circuit Workout

Ryan and I both awoke in quite the chatty mood. We began our workouts with 20 minutes of side-by-side cardio while we talked away. I love that Ryan is now integrating cardio into his daily workouts. It makes the first 20 minutes of my workouts a lot more fun!

After 20 minutes on the elliptical, I headed into the gymnasium to complete a cardio circuit workout.

I’m not sure if you can tell in the above picture, but I’m wearing a neon green sports bra and bright red running shorts. I told Ryan I felt as though I looked like hyperactive Christmas in this getup. (Also, this gym wear is updated on the Fashion page since I’ve had some requests for workout attire posts!)

Once I entered the gymnasium, I was thrilled to see that it was deserted. Since no one was there, I queued up my phone to blast the Lady Gaga station on Pandora to help power me through my workout.

(I think it’s time for me to wash my mini gym bag, huh?)

I based my circuit off of my favorite circuit workout, but added additional sets of jump roping into the mix.

In the end my workout looked like this:

• 50 jumping jacks
• 30 sec. jump rope
• 20 alternating lunges
• 30 sec. jump rope
• 10 tuck jumps
• 30 sec. jump rope
• 20 squats with 15 lb. dumbbell
• 30 sec. jump rope
• 60 sec. high knees
• 30 sec. jump rope
• 10 jump squats
• 30 sec. jump rope
• 10 burpees (I hate these!)
• 30 sec. jump rope
• 60 jumping jacks
• 30 sec. jump rope
• 20 sec. mountain climbers
• 30 sec. jump rope
• 25 push ups (girly style)
• 30 sec. jump rope
• 60 sec. plank

It was awesome and took me about 15 minutes to complete, though I rested a little longer in between sets than I would’ve liked because I kept getting crampy. I think I chugged way too much water during my time on the elliptical and it made me cramp up. Not so fun!

Had I not been crampy, I would have done one more set of this circuit and called it a day. I think doing this circuit two or three times through would be a fantastic workout!

After finishing the cardio circuit, I completed 15 minutes of easy running/incline walking on the treadmill while waiting for Ryan to finish his workout.

Breakfast

After the gym and Sadie’s usual morning walk, it was breakfast time!

I’ve seen Kath post about her dough boy smoothies over the past couple of weeks and have wanted to try my hands at her creation for a while now.

Last night I combined the following in the blender:

• 1/2 c. old fashioned oatmeal
• 3/4 c. almond milk
• 2 tbsp. chocolate PB2
• 1 tbsp. chia seeds

Then, this morning I added:

• 1/4 c. almond milk
• 3/4 c. frozen strawberries

After blending away, this little beauty awaited me:

Lovin’ all the pink!

Though I had no problem demolishing this entire bowl, I would make some changes next time, like using a frozen banana rather than strawberries because the frozen strawberries made the concoction a bit icy rather than super creamy. I might also add a scoop of vanilla Greek yogurt to give this meal a little more staying power.

Time to rinse out my bowl and head to work.

Two more days ‘til the weekend, people! Two more days.