Here Comes the Weekend, Set off Your Sirens

The title is from a P!NK song called Here Comes the Weekend. It’s one of my favorites! If you haven’t heard it before I suggest you take a listen on YouTube. It’s great!

I blasted it on my way home yesterday 🙂

This is the first time where I feel like I have a real weekend with work. My previous job I worked Friday NIGHTS. Who does that? It was awful and although I don’t go out and party or drink Friday nights like the rest of the world, it gets a tad depressing when you log on Facebook and see every single post saying TGIF or the weekend is here! Bummer…

But yay to being a normal person again! Even though my day was long yesterday and I didn’t get lunch (thank goodness I was smart and downed some greek yogurt at 550am), it was awesome! I spent the majority of the day in the OR and the surgeon I was working with was fascinated by my love of health and fitness. I gave him new workouts to do, and then he had me help other people in the room too. It was pretty darn cool! Day two and I’m accepted and respected. I made the best decision of my life to leave my previous job. I was scared at first, but yesterday I learned more in one day than I had in the past year.

I know WONDERFUL things are to come and the geek in me is so ready to learn and get my hands dirty! 🙂

When I came home around 5:30 Phoebe was ecstatic to see me again. And after giving her the appropriate love and kisses…

I hit the fridge! I inhaled some egg whites, a banana, and a few bites of chicken breast to give me enough energy for the gym. Phoebe wasn’t too happy when she saw me putting on gym clothes, but it has to be done.

I squeezed in a VERY effective 1 hour gym workout. To get everything in that I would normally do, all my lifting was non-stop, hardly any breaks. If I finished one set of something, I would move right to a set of some other muscle group so I had time to let the first muscle group recover. This actually was a HUGE calorie burner. For instance 1 set of barbell back rows, then 1 set of side bends, then back to the rows. NO BREAKS!

When I find a replacement battery for my Polar watch (heart rate monitor), I’m going to put it on to see how much I burned doing it this way. Just by feeling my pulse, I could tell it was in the high range the entire time! Plus I was really sweating!

I did back yesterday, here was my workout (of course this is the master list, but it was all mixed up to fit everything in!)

• Narrow grip barbell rows, 50 lbs, 15 reps x 2 sets, then 60 lbs, 12 reps x 2 sets
• Wide grip barbell rows, 50 lbs, 15 reps x 2 sets, then 60 lbs, 12 reps x 2 sets
• Bent over dumbbell rows (hinge from the hips until your back is flat, slight bend in knee, row the dumbbells tight into your body and back down), 15 lbs each hand, 15 reps x 4 sets
• Assisted Pull ups alternating wide and narrow grips, 10 reps x 4 sets, here’s a picture of the machine to show you what I’m talking about!

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• Muffin top BLASTERS. These are a little something I came up with to guarantee you have NO MUFFIN TOP! Take a 15 lb weight and place on top of your shoulder, bend the knee slightly, hinge forward (flat back). Hold onto the weights. You are going to act like you are doing a standing crunch. Pretty much it is a rocking motion, forward and back. It REALLY works your lower back to make sure nothing is sticking out of your jeans! I tried taking a picture but it was very difficult. Here is the general idea:

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• Side bends using 30 lb kettle bells, 10 reps x 4 sets each side
• Standing ab oblique crunches using 12 lb kettle bell. Left leg out diagonally, right arm extended holding the kettle bell diagonally. Bring your left knee to right elbow, crunching in your body, and back out. 12 reps x 2 sets each side

Of course I did my cardio too! A tiny bit of stairmaster and then some arc trainer to complete my workout. Felt great. Although it was a long day, I had a lot of energy!

When I came home I had a great dinner

There is brown rice under there, and I put some of this hot sauce on top:

Overall, great day. I promised to have a recipe up today, but forgive me. My body definitely needs to adjust to this new lifestyle. I usually blog at night and post it in the mornings, but I just passed out around 9:30. I would stay up till 2 on my breaks! Oh how things change so quickly 😉

I’ll be cooking a lot tonight to prep for the week, so definitely will have something up tomorrow!

XOXO With a Cherry On Top,

-Minnie