My Basement Gym

This week began week 1 of Tina Reale’s Best Body Bootcamp! This is the third round Tina has held, and the second attempt for me. Tina provides a comprehensive set of workouts every two weeks, along with lots of options for support and tracking. It’s a heck of a bargain for $25 – plus you can earn up to four entries each week for the cash prizes.

This time I’m keeping things simple.  I have a painfully short attention span lately, so my main goal for this round of bootcamp is simply to get my workouts in. A lot of other things fall into place for me when I get my workouts in regularly – and the summer was sporadic for me, at best. I need to get back in gear! I’m not going to focus on any mini goals right away, but may add some other goals in a few weeks if I’m feeling strong with where I am with hitting my workouts.

I’ve been trying some new workout dvds with my Kineticflix subscription, so my rotation mostly revolves around what workouts I have on hand from them.  I’d also like to try some of Tina’s provided workouts at some point, but any solid workouts I get done will be a win for me. Let’s do this.

Summer-like dog walk...in March!

Week 2 of Tina Reale’s Best Body Bootcamp is in the books! Week 2 went alright for me, though I could have done better. While I got in a few solid workouts and some bonus activity with dog walks and a bike ride, I fell short of my goals for week 3. I only completed 4 of my 5-6 planned workouts and ended up with 3 days of bonus activity out of the desired 5 or more. Still, I ended the week feeling pretty good, and learned that I need to do better about getting my main workouts in during the week, since I tend to let other things get in the way on the weekend.  I did get all of my water (and then some) in and it’s finally starting to feel automatic to keep up on my hydration – with my water bottle, of course.

I’m looking forward to a stronger finish in Week 3, and am going to give myself lots of no-dread workout options to make this week fun. The weather continues to be unseasonably warm, so I’ll likely get outside for a few more bonus workouts, too.

My mini goals for Week 3

• Drink 48 ounces of water, in addition to any water I consume during workouts
  This goal will remain in place, as it really makes me stay aware of how much water I’ve consumed throughout the day.
• Green Smoothie Week!
  This mini challenge should prove to be interesting – I’m pledging to get in at least 5 green smoothies this week. I really enjoy smoothies, and have had a few green smoothies in the past, but want to up the ante by trying some new recipes and also trying some greens and chocolate combos to go outside my comfort zone a bit.  And get in some extra greens, of course! 

Week 2 of Tina Reale’s Best Body Bootcamp is here! Week 1 went quite well for me. The timing of this challenge was just right to get me refocused on healthy habits, and I’m pleased with how my workouts went last week. I was able to get in 5 solid workouts, and also met my mini challenges 5-6 days last week. To track my water intake, I used my trusty water bottle, which I normally have on hand most of the time, anyway.  The little meter on the lid came in handy for tracking how many bottles I had consumed, since I apparently find it hard to keep count, heh.

I also met my other mini challenge of preparing a healthy lunch 5 days last week. I didn’t have to work all 5 of those days, but I still prepared a healthy option rather than grabbing something from the pantry or freezer – so, mission accomplished! Two of my lunches were bases on this tasty recipe for Chilled Peanut Soba Noodles. Yum! I made half a recipe, added in some veggies and chicken, and divided it into two lunches.

For another day’s lunch option, I was running low on time (and groceries) and stared at the fridge and dug through the freezer to come up with an easy egg dish, with a side of (frozen) berries and a mini whole wheat bagel. To prepare the eggs, I sauteed some frozen spinach and added in some leftover turkey sausage, before cracking two eggs into the pan and scrambling. Then, I added a bit of shredded cheese – and black pepper and bacon salt for some extra kick.  Again, yum! For the last two lunches of the week, I used up some more leftovers and things I’ve been wanting to cook up by roasting a spaghetti squash. I also saved the seeds to roast up for a snack.  After the squash was roasted, I divided it into 3 servings, preparing two of them in a spaghetti-like fashion. I topped them with a bit of parmesan and mozzarella cheese, leftover chicken, and marinara sauce.  For the rest of the squash, I topped it with some zesty Italian dressing and some spices to have as a cold snack. And forgot to take pictures of that, of course, heh. 

Week 2 is going well so far, and I’m still following my own workout rotation and look forward to changing it up next week. I hope to have time to get some workout reviews posted soon, but time will tell!

My mini goals for Week 2

• Drink 48 ounces of water, in addition to any water I consume during workouts
  I’ll still consume the as much water as needed during my workouts, but also want to be sure to get 48 ounces of plain water in addition to anything else I drink. This goal was very helpful to me in Week 1, and I was surprised to realize how easily it is for me to get away from getting my water in when I get busy – or when I’ve had a latte or a smoothie. I want to keep this as a mini goal to continue to stay aware of my water intake.
• Get 30 minutes of bonus activity at least 5 days this week
  My original thought on this mini goal was to get in some extra movement by playing an active Wii game, more dog walks, and maybe some walking workouts. The weather has been unseasonably warm though, so it’s looking like it will be more about getting outside since it feels more like May than March! I might even get my bike out if the trail continues to dry out.

Here’s a switch! I’m joining a bootcamp challenge starting today, March 5th running until April 30th led by Tina Reale. Now, I admit that normally anything with the word bootcamp in it is something I try to avoid.  In fact many of the workouts I have with the “b” word in the title are still waiting to be tried – or I may have tried them and am not itching to do them again anytime soon. There are some exceptions however, so I was intrigued by the flexibility of this challenge – you really can make it your own; bootcamp style workouts or not.  Full details on the challenge are available on Tina’s site.

I’ll be following my own workout rotation to start with, as I have some new workouts that I want to try out.  I reserve the right to try out some of the workouts Tina will be sending to us week, of course. There is also an option to add in two mini goals each week, to help with your healthy habits – and to increase your chances of winning the weekly prizes, too. 

My mini goals for this week (which may remain the same for most of the challenge) will be:

• Drink 48 ounces of water, in addition to any water I consume during workouts I’ll still consume the as much water as needed during my workouts, but also want to be sure to get 48 ounces of plain water in addition to anything else I drink
• Prepare and pack a healthy lunch/dinner for work
  This is something I usually do anyway, but lately I haven’t been cooking meals/snacks as often when it’s something just for me