4/21: April Week 4 fitness Plan + meal ideas
First of all, Happy Birthday to my little bro Trevor! It’s so weird because I vividly remember when he was Livi’s age… now he’s all grown up and went to prom last night. I can’t believe he’ll be off to college next year.
How’s your April treating you?
It’s been such a beautiful month in Tucson -the weather has been dreamy- and I’ve felt pretty motivated as far as workouts go. I think it’s because my outside workouts are so quick and different each time; switching things up makes a huge difference.
If you’re looking for inspiration this week, here are some fitness ideas:
SUNDAY: Steady state cardio or long run
MONDAY: Upper body HIIT Blitz + Ab burner
TUESDAY: OFF or active recovery
WEDNESDAY: Lean mean leg workout + Hill challenge
For the hill challenge, go for 20-30 minutes of cardio. Start with a moderate speed and resistance, and every minute increase the resistance. When you can’t take it any more, hold it there for 2 minutes. Take the incline back down and repeat until your 20-30 minutes are over!
THURSDAY: Steady State
30-45 minutes, easy steady state cardio
FRIDAY: OFF
SATURDAY: Sweat and burn circuit with cardio blitzes
Here’s what’s on my tentative fitness plan this week:
SUNDAY: Teach Zumba
MONDAY: Shoulders, chest, triceps (no cardio)- 20-30 min
TUESDAY: Long run (5 miles with speed surges)
WEDNESDAY: Teach Zumba, Teach Barre, Power Yoga
THURSDAY: OFF (no active teaching classes scheduled as of now)
FRIDAY: Active recovery
SATURDAY: Total body circuit (no cardio)
As motivated as I feel with workouts, I am in a rut in the food department. With the Pilot’s TDY, it was too easy to have pasta, eggs, or soup with Liv, or end up at Chipotle. This week, I’m making real dinners.. or asking the Pilot to grill since he’ll be home and he’s the grill master 😉
Some meal ideas:
Plan and prep:
Roasted chicken
Wash grapes and place in a bowl (more likely to snack on fruit that way!)
Dinner ideas:
I feel stumped this week. I think i’m going to walk around the farmer’s market to see if anything inspires me.
What are you making this week? Anything new and fun?
xoxo
Gina
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I love your Sunday reminders to prep and plan for the week. They always inspire me to do just that! I work at a pilates/ Core Align/ personal training studio, but it’s not easy to get all of my workouts in when working full time (as is the case for so many people) so planning ahead for the week really helps me, and I like to see what your plan is too 🙂
Dinners…
I’m making a broccoli/cauliflower/potato soup at the moment. It’s easy and delicious. If it’s hot where you are, you could get a rotisserie chicken and turn it into chicken salad. Soup and sandwiches is a good dinner combo sometimes.
I’m the total single girl who eats salads for dinner every night. ha! Sometimes they get eggs on top, sometimes it’s a small salad with a giant sweet potato with peanut butter on top, maybe a taco salad… 😉
Tonight we are having Chicken Breast wrapped in bacon w/ savory sweet potatoes, lunch is spicy turkey burgers topped w/ avocado, and breakfast for tomorrow will be G.F. Apple Muffins. Love the fruit bowl! Hitting up the farmers market next Saturday for the first time in our new town, I can’t wait!!
I know what you mean about “off weeks” with dinner plans- that’s been my last week :-/ I sat down last night and looked through what we had (and just got at Whole Foods lol) and wrote out a plan. The bowl of fruit made me drool a little! Sadly summer-type weather- and food- has not come to the Midwest yet. The turkey burgers also looked AMAZING- I think I may be changing tonight from turkey chili to burgers 😉
Here are some things from my week’s meal plan/prep
Lentil loaf
Roasted squash
Baked sweet potatoes
Asian slaw w/ edamame
Snacks:
Fruit salad (w/ a little lemon juice and honey)
Hard boiled eggs
GF, Dairy-free Pinterest “breakfast” cookies
Looove your ab burners. Seriously they have pulled me out of a crunches rut in a big way. Thanks lady!
I plan to make this salad. I purchased the ingredients last week but didn’t have time to make it! 🙂
http://ohsheglows.com/2013/04/15/warm-spring-salad/
yummmmmmmm
I can’t wait to try that leg workout this week! I had a stress fracture in my foot and now my muscles are pretty imbalanced. I am working hard to correct that, and this is perfect, thanks!
I made a double batch of this http://www.peasandcrayons.com/2011/10/cranberry-curry-quinoa-with-roasted.html and it is sooo good! I am going to be eating beside brown sugar bourbon glazed salmon some days and then chicken some others. I am a single girl so I eat a lot of leftovers! It would also be great on salad and as part of a lunch!
Oh wow your brothers my age! has he decided on a college yet? U of A? Tonight my mom is making BLT’s which are OUT OF THIS WORLD!!! This week I am going to try to have a salad at least every other day if not every day and hoping to do that through May. Any salad beast ideas? What is your favorite thing to put on a salad?
I too, love my outside workouts lately, since it gets bright early now. I do sprints in the park, alternating with strengths exercises.
And tomorrow I will try to do Kierstons eggwhite bites, wanted to try them for so long!
http://www.candyfit.net/p/recipes.html?recipe_id=6045538
Thank you for the workout inspiration, I totally want to do the Upper Body HIIT Blitz!
I still haven’t worked out outside this year, I don’t really like it since I hate bugs hah.
I’m also so into upper body workouts these days. I’m really loving them.
You should make some more ab burners! They’re my favorite end to a workout! And I totally feel you with the food rut- I think it’s because I’m craving summer but it’s not quite here yet!
Definitely appreciate the reminder to plan for the week, it really motivates me to see you post your own plans!
I’ve been loving the Purely Twins workouts that Lori and Michelle have been posting — their 12 minute total body plank circuit, Strong Sexy Arms, and 15 minute HIIT workouts are really great.
I’m making quesadillas, chicken cheesesteak sandwiches, broiled salmon, and Mama Pea’s Curried Sweet Potato Puff casserole. I have zucchini muffins made, salad fixings prepped, and some protein thin mints in the freezer. Looks like it will be a good week!
Right now I have 2 lb elk roast in the crockpot with onion, carrots, and potatoes. Still pretty wintery in Wyoming though! A few ideas from last week- homemade crabcakes (with canned crab-easy & really good), Italian marinated grilled steak with asparagus, semi-homemade pizza w/ a Jiffy crust to save some time. Love your Sunday posts : )
I’m making Caprese Pasta with chicken tonight plus a broccoli and cauliflower salad.
Beyond that – who knows? Better get busy making some plans!!
I did some meal prep this afternoon too, but it was mainly for lunches. I prepped a bunch of salads and sauteed some chicken for my boyfriend. I feel like I’m in a bit of a food rut myself!
How is April almost over? Seriously this year is flying by!! I can’t wait to try the workout. I always love what you post and how it really mixes up my workouts. It is welcome!! 🙂
I need to do a better job at scheduling NO CARDIO into my workout calendar. I am such a cardio junkie…it is horrible. I just really love to take a mix of classes that are offered at my gym b/c other friends go and we have a blast!! I really want to focus more on gaining muscle and strength, which is hard to do when I’m not focused on it. I’m going to make a real effort to get in some heavy lifting this week (with short bursts of HIIT) in between –> burpees, high knees, jacks, step ups.
Girl, you and me both are lost on dinner ideas. Once that time of the day comes around, I have no clue. I have been relying on sweet potatoes and quick proteins lately. Right now I have a ton of veggies from my CSA in the fridge (kale, tat soi, beets, potatoes, onions, other greens, etc). I know how to cook them, but have no inspiration for yummy ideas with them. 🙁
I’m planning on trying Ina Garten’s salmon & guac sandwichs tomorrow – but need to figure out a way to cut the calories a bit!
http://barefootcontessa.com/recipes.aspx?RecipeID=938&S=0
whoa, those sound fantastic!
Weather is not so great here in Pittsburgh so went on a cooking frenzy. Made red and green lentil enchiladas, black bean brownies and delicious lemon chia pancakes. Just bought both peas thank you cookbooks and am loving the healthy vegetarian recipes. Also made the cashew ginger carrot soup to Brentford lunch during the week.
Ooh, amazeballs! That’s going on the prep list.
I made Paleo bacon Chili. sooooo good and filling. Filled with tomatoes, bell peppers, grass fed beef, onion, spices and topped with avocado and served over cauliflower rice. mmmmm paleomg.com has some amazing recipes! I just bought her cookbook and the chili recipe was from there.
Just posted my meal plan for the week!
I made these today and they were amazing: http://theascentblog.com/whole30-recipe-cinnamon-sweet-potato-fritters/
Also going to use my crockpot for a second time this week and make this: http://everydaypaleo.com/cumin-spiced-slow-cooked-pork/
i’ve been pretty inspired with food lately & feel like we have similar tastes so here are some ideas:
-warm quinoa salad with spring veggies from ohsheglows (made this for my bf’s birthday this past weekend – we both really loved it)
-cold quinoa salad with colorful veggies (whole foods seven-layer salad knockoff, also via OSG)
-a lemon lime pie with a saltine crust via npr
-homemade granola via buzzfeed, i left out seeds/dried fruit (i prefer fresh as i eat it) & added a touch of vanilla extract (put on top of greek yo & add a touch of honey + fruit if you like)
-i make a TON of pizza dough at once (via smitten kitchen’s first za dough recipe) & then i alternate between a mushroom-onion pizza & your three A pizza – love it
-thai chicken noodle soup via bon appetite – i think it’s on the epicurious website too, feel like you would love this
I’m not making anything too exciting this week since I’m moving on Friday! So I’m just trying to eat up the contents of my fridge/freezer with Mexican topped sweet potatoes, chicken stir fry with brown rice, and roasted veggies with leftover meatballs.
Our ultimate go to dinner…assemble however you want. Black beans, brown rice and a mix of mango red onion and avocado all on top of shredded cabbage.