Workout Recap - Wednesday Workout on July 24th

I used the heart rate monitor again last night, and at first I was slightly disappointed with my results. I burned maybe 2/3 of the calories I did on Tuesday. But then I thought about it a bit more. First, my workout was 3/4 the length (time-wise) of Tuesday's workout, so when you calculate general calories burned per hour the numbers were pretty similar. Also, Wednesday workouts are a lot more static than any other workout. It involves more straight lifting, and isolated muscle groups. The point of this workout is to gain strength, and the fact that I did elevate my heart rate at some points and burned some calories is really just a plus. Joey thinks that next time I should leave the heart rate monitor on for the rest of the night. I could then see 1 - how many calories I keep burning after the workout is over, 2 - how many calories are burned doing every day tasks like making dinner, and 3 - how many calories I burn by doing absolutely nothing, like sitting on the couch. I think knowing my basal calorie rate will be helpful in interpreting anything that I see during a workout. Of course, I'm not using the read-out as a way to determine what I can eat during the day, or how much weight I should be losing. I'm using it as a read-out of my actual activity and how hard I was working.

To sum it up - I feel pretty proud that after yet another long work day, I came home and worked out hard! My workout is below. I used 10lb DBs for everything except the front+lateral raises, which I used 5lb DBs for. I looked at a previous workout and realized that I probably should have gone through arms and legs twice. Whoops. I was hungry and tired and didn't feel like spending any more time working out.

This is Day 3 of my 31-day challenge*. I fit all of this into the actual workout. To do this, you just have to make sure you get the following number of reps in the 2 Tabata rounds: >15 bicycles, >20 squat&press, >20 mountain climbers. I had to go a little longer than the 20 seconds to get 10 squat and press each round, but it was the last exercise so it worked out okay. If you're feeling more adventurous than I was, and you do two sets of arms and legs, then you won't have to worry about getting enough squats in!

*If you haven't started the 31-day challenge, start today! It isn't too late!

Heart Rate Monitor Results:

 

 

 This time my heart rate didn't go nearly as high, which is to be expected. I spent much more time "in zone" which was between 125 and 164. I actually kept going below the zone, but that makes sense since the zone is more of a cardio range, from 65-85% of your max heart rate. 

I also kept track of calories burned throughout the workout, to see what burned more than others. 

Tabata took 9 minutes total, and I burned 72 calories, at a rate of 480 calories/hour. Arms took 9.75 minutes and I burned 74 calories, at a rate of 493 calories/hour. Legs took 10.5 minutes and I burned 97 calories, at a rate of 554 calories/hour. Abs took 10 minutes and I burned 73 calories, at a rate of 438 calories/hour. Everything was roughly similar, with legs being the most work intensive section.

(Wondering why 72+74+97+73 doesn't equal 343? I kept the heart rate monitor on the whole workout, so it counted the breaks between sets.)

Also, I did all of this at home. I didn't feel like going down to the crowded tiny gym, and I hadn't prepared to take the bus to the regular gym. It worked out pretty well.

Recipe - Quinoa Salad with Roasted Broccoli, Tomatoes, Mushrooms and Feta

I'm going to have a long day on Thursday, and I know I'll be exhausted by the time I get home. I know I won't want to deal with cooking dinner, and rather than resort to ordering Chinese takeout (guilty of that last week), I cooked a double portion last night. I made a delicious quinoa salad that used a ton of veggies. I added roasted shrimp to mine, but you can add whatever you would like.

Recipe: Quinoa Salad with Roasted Broccoli, Tomatoes, Mushrooms and Feta
Adapted from: Annie's Eats
Servings: 3

Ingredients:
3/4 cup quinoa (I only had a little over 1/2 cup left and just made do with that)
1.25 cups vegetable stock
2 small heads broccoli florets, chopped into bite size pieces
6 medium mushrooms, sliced
1 pint grape tomatoes, halved
1 tbsp olive oil
1 tsp minced garlic
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
3 oz feta (either crumbled, or even better - from a block of brined feta and sliced into cubes)
Fresh herbs

Directions:
Preheat oven to 400 F. Line a large sheet pan with foil.

Put quinoa in a metal strainer, set over a bowl. Cover with warm water, so the quinoa is floating in it, but still contained in the strainer.

Put the broccoli, mushrooms and tomatoes on the lined pan (keep them in separate sections) and drizzle with olive oil. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Sprinkle the minced garlic over the tomatoes. Cook for 20-25 minutes, until everything is cooked and caramelized.

After the quinoa has been soaking 5-10 minutes, remove strainer from the water, and run under warm water for 15 seconds. Let sit for 1 minute to train a bit, then dump the whole thing into a small pot. (If this process sounds weird to you, just cook your quinoa however you would like. I just like doing it this way to make the soaking/rinsing process easier.) Add vegetable broth to the pot, and cover with lid. Turn heat to high, once it comes to a boil, turn heat to low and simmer for 15 minutes. Check to make sure all of the liquid has been absorbed, and then put the lid back on.

Fluff the quinoa with a fork. Dump it into a large bowl. Add any chopped fresh herbs, if desired. I used some dill and parsley. Pour in the cooked veggies, making sure to scrape off all of the bits of garlic. Add the feta, and toss together. Taste to see if you need extra seasoning.

Nutritional Info: (per serving)
341 calories
13 g fat
44 g carbs
8.9 g fiber
16.9 g protein

I think that's pretty darn healthy for a simple salad. I had mine with 11 medium-sized roasted shrimp, a piece of crusty bread on the side, and an ear of corn.

Pictures:

Quinoa mixed with herbs and feta

Roasted vegetable goodness

Roasted veggies added to quinoa mixture

All mixed up

Roasted shrimp on top

Workout Recap - Running on July 23rd (and day 2 of 31-day challenge!)

I'm still keeping with the running! Last night I completed my second treadmill interval workout. I really like doing them, it makes the time go by so quickly. It also is helping me develop a better stride while running at a faster pace.

I again mostly followed a treadmill workout from Fit Sugar, and just made a few changes.

One thing I did last night was use a heart rate monitor for the first time. Someone in my lab brought hers in for me to borrow, and I was really interested to try it out. I was curious how it would match up to the treadmill, for estimated number of calories burned. I was also interested in seeing what my heart rate got up to, and how long it took to go back to a resting state.

The number of calories burned was pretty similar to what I saw on the treadmill screen. I did my running first, and then the 31-day challenge exercises, and I meant to stop the recording and start a new one, so I could see the two separately. I accidentally hit pause and then continue, so it's all one recording. I checked close to the end of the treadmill workout, and it the heart rate monitor had me at about 30 calories less than the treadmill did. This could be due to the difference in bodyweight - I put in all of my information into the heart rate monitor, but just left the default 150lbs on the treadmill. (I weigh a little less than that.)

I'm going to continue to use the heart rate monitor as a way to keep track of how hard I'm working each workout. I still don't know how accurate it is in terms of calculating calories burned, at least in using the measure of calorie as something we can compare to calories we consume. In other words, I'm not going to use a readout of 655 calories burned as an excuse to eat 655 calories worth of food. But knowing that running for 45 minutes and doing floor exercises for another 15 minutes can burn around 655 calories, I'm probably slacking if the next time I do something similar, I see a much lower output. Although in the long run I should eventually see a lower output, since the hope is that the same exercise wouldn't require as much effort, and my heart rate shouldn't be as high. Here's hoping.

FYI about the workout - not counting the walking at the beginning and end, you will run just about 3.5 miles in the 36 minutes of intervals, which is an average pace of 5.83mph or 10:17 minutes per mile. I burned just about 500 calories in the total treadmill workout.

Pictures of the heart monitor report:

 

 

To be "in zone" you have to be between 65% and 85% of your maximum heart rate, which is calculated solely based on your age. I'm 27, so my max heart rate is 193, making my range 125-165. I was only below the range during the first few minutes while I was walking, then clearly spent most of my time over the range. I didn't go too far over though, since my average was 161. 

31-Day Challenge

I forgot to write down how many dips I was supposed to do, and just made a guess while at the gym. I ended up doing 8 instead of 6! 

For the crunches, I did 25 traditional (feet up, shins parallel to the ground), 25 bicycles (left+right = 1), and 25 V-ups