Busy day!

• Just a quick post as we have my in-laws over today - they were all anxious to see Florian now that he is back from his big adventure...
• Our raw vegan dinner last night was delicious! The best course was the beet ravioli filled with cashew puree - it was absolutely wonderful. It was also nice to just sit back and be served a beautiful, healthy meal. I felt spoiled!
• My workout today was HARD - my legs were still so sore and tired. We had to run 40 minutes - I don't think I have run so slow in ages but I kept thinking about how it would be getting the blood flowing to my muscles and help them heal so I just keep slogging along. We ran to the Finnish track, did three loops and ran back...
• There were also drills on the schedule, which we did, but with not much enthusiasm...
• Then I was busy cooking lunch, making crumble, getting veggies prepared for the buffet for this evening...on my feet all day... It is going to feel so good this evening when I can finally crawl in bed!
• I am keeping my fingers crossed the legs feel better for tomorrow = an interval run!
• Hope you're having a happy Sunday, too!

Sore!

Luckily today's program is easy cycling or walking, 40-60 minutes. I just got 20 minutes in this morning, to go get the weekend newspaper, and then this evening Stefaan and I are walking downtown to go out to dinner (it's a special vegan raw dinner that's held every couple months at a cafe in town - I am really looking forward to it!)

For those of you who were wondering, like me, if it's okay to do your cardio first, before weights, I talked to my sister Jenny (who is a personal trainer and my fitness hero) about it last night. She said it's okay either way, depending on what your goals are. That makes sense! She did say that if you have to do interval or tempo training she would run first and do the weights second or on another day. But for people who have a regular running schedule it's okay to do the weights first and then run - unless you are training for a big race. She said easy cardio after a weight workout helps the muscles get rid of the built up lactic acid, so it's actually beneficial.

So that makes me feel better! But not any less sore... ;-)

My *ss is gr*ss

OMG. Killer workout. I'm back to doing my Matt Roberts program and today was tough. I kind of brought it upon myself, though, by doing the weight circuits first and the cardio second. I had (to me) really good reasons for doing this, however:

• when I do cardio first I get really sweaty and disgusting looking and hate looking at myself in those mirrors when doing my weights afterwards, so I prefer to do weights first while I am still "fresh"
• if I get to the gym when it opens and do my weights first, the weight room is really quiet and I can get things done before more people arrive, and then retreat to the comfort zone of the treadmill as things get busier

Makes sense, right? Maybe not. Today's weights were four sets of each of the following exercises:

• dumbbell chest press 15x
• pec flyes 15x
• seated rows 12x
• biceps curls 15x
• squat/overhead press combo 15x
• stationary lunges 15x
• hyperextensions 20-30x (this is like a superman)
• step-ups 20x per leg!!! aaarrggghhh

This took me 55 minutes to complete and my legs were shot - and then I still had to do 30 minutes running on the treadmill, not to mention bike home. Help!

I wasn't sure if I was going to be able to make it but I just told myself this was good practice for when you are running a race and your legs are really tired but you still have another half hour to go before you cross the finish line. So I put some good music on my Ipod, loud enough so I wouldn't hear my feet slapping on the mill and got going at a slow pace. It was hard. I took walk breaks. But I did it. And actually, after 20 minutes, things seemed a little bit easier. But man, was I glad when it was done. And I then I biked home - really really slow!

I may just have to reconsider my bright idea of doing the weights first...

He's Back!

We almost didn't recognize him as he came out of those airport doors! Florian arrived safe and sound this morning, with a suitcase full of trendy clothes...and a big hug for his mom, who has been missing him a lot these past three weeks. It was hard for him to leave, having had an absolutely wonderful time with Grandma, Grandpa, cousin Allie and Aunt Christy, who all took good care of him for me. Thanks, y'all!

We're back! We had a great time and here are a few highlights of our trip:

As you know I was really looking forward to meeting fellow blogger friend, Fran. It's a funny thing to finally meet someone in person whose blog you have been following for some time - you actually know a lot about them already and it's as if you are old friends who simply haven't seen each other in a while. We spent Sunday morning talking as if we had known each other for years! I found Fran to be just the way she comes across in her blog - very friendly and open, straighforward, down-to-earth, kind and easy to talk to! We found we have a lot in common besides running - but I have to admit, we did talk a lot about running, training and the races we are planning to do! With all of the other things we talked about, the time flew by. I am happy that we already have a date to see each other again - when we run our 15K together in October - and I am so pleased we had the chance to get together - thanks, Fran!

I saw Fran on Sunday morning; on Saturday we spent the whole dat the Hoge Veluwe National Park, which is fabulous. Not only does it have miles of biking and walking paths (we did a 30 km bike ride with the boys) and gorgeous landscapes, but it also has a top-notch art museum right in the center of the Park, where we spent a few hours looking at Van Goghs and other beautiful works of art. I also discovered that there is a race here in October (which Fran did last year) and this is definitely going on my bucket list of races I want to do.

Sunday afternoon turned out to be very rainy, so we decided to take it easy and enjoy our bungalow, reading books and watching the last day of the Tour de France. And then Monday we took one last bike ride before we had to return them and then went to one of our boys' favorite zoos - Apenheul - where the smaller monkeys run freely among the visitors. Always very fun and eye-opening to see how much human behavior is similar to apes, if you know what I mean!

All in all it was a great short getaway...

Now it's back to normal life, working out and running and ---- we pick up Florian at the airport tomorrow morning (yay!), and I am so ready for him to be home - even if he's not ready to leave Grandma and Grandpa's...

Intermezzo

You know I put my Matt Roberts plan on hold til we get back from the Netherlands next week. But today I decided I would go back and do the first workout from the book, because I was getting a little concerned that doing "nothing" would make picking it back up that much harder next week. Not only that, but my arms were starting to feel mushy!

The first workout was 20 minutes of cardio (I went out and got a nice run in for half an hour) and then a resistance circuit followed by abs. I was sweating like a "varken" but very happy to have gotten it done! Now I don't feel like such a slacker and hopefully I won't be super sore when I get going again next week...

My husband is flying in from Poland this evening, we will pick him up at the airport and continue on to his cousin's graduation party tonight...then tomorrow we head off to the Netherlands. We have rented bikes for the whole weekend so I am not worried about being lazy this weekend. And Sunday I get to meet Fran, which I am really looking forward to!

Not sure if I will be able to blog while we are gone, but I will certainly file a full report when we are back next week!

Goodbyes

My godchild and his grandparents and cousin left yesterday to return to France. I love having visitors and we had a great time with them. It also forced me to dust off my rather dusty French! The downside to having visitors is when they leave the house is so empty! Plus I know it will be a while before I see my godson again. So while my kids were being lazy and staying in their pyjamas all morning I decided to go for a short run to shake off the blues. It felt good to get out and just follow my feet and I ended up getting 5 km in by the time I got back home. Nothing better than a good run to improve your mood, right?

Then in the afternoon, I took my boys to see the latest (and last) Harry Potter. Seems like it was a day full of goodbyes...

Weekend wishes

Just a short post - we are having a quiet Saturday afternoon waiting for our guests to arrive. I've been catching up on blogs and looking at all the pictures my father has been sending from Colorado, where Florian has been having a fabulous time, as you can see here! It makes me happy to see him so happy.

Have a great weekend!

Rainy Day at the Zoo and Changing Plans...

Yesterday I met one of my best friends at the zoo with our kids. The weather report was dreadful but we decided to embrace the weather, dress warmly and just go. It turned out to be a great day in spite of the fact that it rained pretty much non-stop: we saw lots of animals that would be hiding on a hot day, and practically had the zoo to ourselves. And the kids didn't seem to mind getting wet and muddy but I have to admit I was glad at the end of the day to get in the car and turn up the heat full blast!

I have decided I am going to put my Matt Roberts training plan on hold for the next week. We have some special visitors coming this weekend (my godson and his grandparents from France) and then at the end of next week we planned a last minute get away to the Netherlands. I don't want to be all stressed out about not being able to get my workouts in - I want to enjoy myself. So I thought about it a lot and decided to get some runs in where I can for now and then start right back up with the program when we get back. What is a week in the grand scheme of things, right?

Finally, other exciting news is that while we are in the Netherlands, Fran and I have arranged to meet up! I am so looking forward to meeting her! It's funny how you get to know someone by following their blog and you feel like friends already - yet, you have never met. And now we will - how exciting!

Catching Up

You would think summer means you have more time to do things, not less, right? Well, ever since the last week of school things have been rather busy and I think it's going to continue that way for a bit longer. But in a good way!

Sunday we took the boys to Antwerp to visit the fabulous new MAS museum (here we are to the right in the "Felix Pakhuis", an old shipping warehouse that is now a protected monument).

On the exercise front I have been getting my Matt Roberts workouts in - but man, they are tough! I was REALLY sore from them this weekend. Today is an active rest day, so I walked downtown to the library and will take the boys swimming this afternoon.

Tomorrow I have a hill repeats workout on the schedule - I haven't done one of those in a long time! I am very curious to see how that will go and keeping my fingers crossed the weather isn't too terrible - forecast says RAIN. I'll keep you posted - have a great day!

Just like Bootcamp: Matt Roberts Week 1, Day 5

After spending all day yesterday expending energy worrying, I got up this morning ready to get my workout in. It was supposed to be 20 minutes of cardio followed by a circuit of strength training.

One of the nice things about this program is that he really encourages you to try other types of cardio, and not just do the same thing all the time. So in that spirit, I decided to bike today, which meant I could combine it with dropping some papers off at the bank. So I got that done and headed home, which ended up being 30 minutes of biking, which was okay with me, since biking is less strenuous than running (especially when you have to stop at traffic lights and such every now and then) I was glad to get a little extra in.

So then I get home and I start doing the strength training circuit and I realize pretty quickly that it is hard! Not only that, the first circuit took me 15 minutes, and I was supposed to do 4 of them, so I was thinking, "This is going to take me an hour - this is just like the bootcamp my mom goes to!" And yes, indeed, that is what it felt like - bootcamp. OMG! Here's what I had to do (4x):

• alternating lunges 20x each side
• bicep curls 15x
• lateral lunges 20x each side
• tricep extensions 20x
• hamstring curls on a swiss ball 20x (this one was a killer!)
• push ups 15x
• step ups 15x each leg
• seated row with an elastic band around a chair 15x

After the second round I was debating about only doing it three times, but I finally just told myself to suck it up and do the whole thing. I knew I would be disappointed with myself if I didn't. By the final circuit the lower body exercises were getting really hard - my legs definitely felt like jello afterwards. But I was really pleased I did it!

So if you are in need of a good workout - check the book out! I am really happy with it and looking forward to completing the entire 12 weeks. It's going to be tough, though!

Made it!

Florian made it safely to Dallas! Yay!

Matt Roberts Week 1 Day 4 & Chickpea-Spinach Curry Recipe!

Gosh, thank goodness today is another rest day! For two reasons:

• I had to get up at 4 am this morning to get my 16-year-old off to Brussels airport on time for his big trip to Texas, and I feel tired!
• my chest and arm muscles are really sore from yesterday!

It felt so weird to watch my son go through the security line and then wave goodbye to him, and then leave the airport without him! No, I didn't cry ;-) but I know I am going to miss him a lot the next three weeks. Thank goodness for cell phones, he has been texting me and I called him before he got on his flight to Frankfurt. I am just keeping my fingers crossed that he manages to find his way there and gets safely on his next flight to Dallas. I think I will only relax when I get the phonecall from my parents that they picked him up!

So, I think I will take a walk this morning and go pick up the newspaper - it will help me wake up and feel a bit perkier today. I also promised my two younger boys that we would go see a movie this afternoon - that will mean another good walk and hopefully NOT taking a nap during the movie - ha ha!

Florian was really happy with the Indian "feast" I made for him last night. His absolute favorite is the chickpea/spinach curry, which was a recipe I found on the BBC food website. I think I gave the link to it in a post a while back, but I changed it a bit so this time I will just give you the entire recipe, in case you want to try it. It is yummy, healthy and most importantly - very easy! Let me know if you try it!

Easy Chickpea-Spinach Curry

1 t olive oil, 1 lg onion, chopped, 2 garlic cloves, peeled and chopped, 1/2 t ground ginger, 1 t cumin, 1 t tumeric, 2 t curry powder, 1/4 t freshly ground black pepper, 1 T tomato paste, 1 med red pepper, diced, 1 can chopped tomatoes, 1 1/2 c vegetable stock, 8 oz fresh spinach, 1 can chickpeas, drained and rinsed, 1 t garam masala

Heat the oil in a deep frying pan or stock pot with a lid. Fry the onion and garlic 3-5 minutes til softened. Add the ginger, cumin, tumeric, curry powder and black pepper and fry for an additional minute or two. Then add the tomato paste, canned tomatoes, red pepper and stock and simmer for about 15 minutes. Add the spinach, chickpeas and garam masala and heat through until spinach is wilted. Enjoy!

We usually have this with rice and a salad with cucumber and orange slices, and a couple of other Indian dishes. I actually tried the Cabbage and Pea Curry from "Appetite for Reduction" as well last night and it was really, really good.

Okay, now I am off for my little walk...have a great day!

Matt Roberts Week 1 Day 3

I really didn't feel like going to the gym today but I knew I had to or I would have to re-arrange the rest of my program for the week, and seeing as I have only just started, I really didn't want to do that. So I got on my bike, reluctantly, and went.

The first part of today's workout was an interval run: 30 seconds fast, 60 seconds easy, for a total of 22.5 minutes. I haven't done intervals in a few months, but something in the book stuck in my mind: "concentrate on making the effort that you put into the work periods of 30 seconds today much harder than you would normally do for your cardio training." So I had this in mind when I started out, and I really did my best to push those 30 second intervals - and this is where training with a Garmin for the past year really helps - I have a much better idea of the different paces I tend to run, and so I knew what would be a much harder pace for me. I started out conservatively at 12 km/hr, but by the end I was doing intervals at 13.5 km/hr or 4:26 per km, which was awesome!!!

The big downside to doing the interval run first is that I look disgusting when I am done - all hot and sweaty and really red in the face. And I still had to do some weights - gaaaahhhh.... So I freshened myself up a little bit before that.

The weights didn't seem like it was going to be a big deal or difficult - it was four exercises for the upper body and I had to do four sets of each with 15-20 reps. OMG!!! My arms feel like absolute jello - it was really hard. Thank God tomorrow is an active rest day - I am going to need it.

Here's what I had to do:

• dumbbell chest press on bench: 20x 5 kg/20x 6 kg/20x 6 kg/15x 7 kg
• seated shoulder press with dumbbells 30x 3 kg/15x 4 kg/13x 4 kg/12x 4 kg
• seated row machine 20x 10 kg/18 x 10 kg/17x 10 kg/20x 10 kg
• standing upright row with dumbbells 20x 3 kg/17x 4 kg/16x 4 kg/15 x 4 kg

And thank God I don't need my arms much to bike home - if my legs had felt like this, I am not sure if I could have made it.

My eating for today looks like this:

• breakfast was a huge smoothie with flaxseed, 1/4 c soymilk, romaine lettuce, spinach, cucumber, 1/2 banana, 1/2 cup pineapple and 1 apricot
• lunch was a millet/kidneybean stew with eggplants and tomato and a bit of vegan parmesan sprinkled on it, with a big salad with 2 T sanctuary dressing
• plan for dinner: my oldest son is requesting Indian food for his last dinner at home tonight (he leaves tomorrow for three weeks in Texas at my parents' house!) so I am making that chickpea and spinach curry from the BBC website and a cabbage/pea curry from Appetite for Reduction.

Phew! Now I really need to go get my shower so we can start getting him packed.

Hope you have a great day!

Matt Roberts Week 1 Day 2

Ha ha - day 2 is a rest day! Well, an active rest day... as soon as I can pull my youngest away from the Playstation, we are going to walk to the newsstand and the bakery this morning. It's a beautiful morning and a 30 minute walk sounds like just the ticket.

I am actually not as sore as I thought I would be after yesterday's workout. I think it does help that I was working out with weight regularly the past few months - I guess it wasn't such a shock to my muscles to start up a new program.

Eat to Live going very well - I made the most delicious vegan "Ranch" dressing with silken tofu for my salad last night from the cookbook "Appetite for Reduction". Seriously delicious - just knowing I have a jar of it in my fridge is making me look forward to my salad for lunch!

Starting Matt Roberts

Hey there! The end of last week - last week of school - and this weekend were crazy busy for me. I did manage to get a short run in on Saturday because I knew I wouldn't have time on Sunday, since we had a brunch for my mother-in-law's 70th birthday. Here in Flanders, a brunch means you start eating at 12 noon and you don't stop til 5 pm. You also get non-stop refills of wine. It's extremenly decadent in a way that just doesn't appeal to me. But for a lot of the older generation in my husband's family, this is the preferred way to celebrate a special event. We have been to quite a few of these over the years, and honestly? They are deadly.

Personally, I get stir crazy at these things after about two hours. Luckily it was nice weather and there was a little playground at the place, so I went outside with the kids for a great deal of the afternoon. I was also really reasonable about my food choices - I only visited each buffet line once (there is a first course buffet line, a main course buffet line, and a dessert buffet line) and chose the healthiest things I could.

Anyway, what better way to recover from spending Sunday at a Flemish brunch than starting a new fitness program today?

I mentioned a while back that I was going to do the 12 week program from Matt Robert's latest book "I Will Make You Fit Fast". I didn't think the first workout was going to be too hard, but I have to admit my legs and especially my arms felt like jello after I got done!

The workout started with 10 minute walk to warm up, then a 20 minute run (okay, so far so good - no problem). Then there was a 4 minute strength training circuit I had to do four times which was really tough on my arms, and then I finished with an ab circuit. Phew! I am sure I will be feeling it even more tomorrow, so thank goodness it is an active rest day, and all I have to do is take a walk!

I didn't do so good on Eat To Live over the weekend, but today I got right back on the wagon with a delicious smoothie this morning and an eggplant and kidney bean stew with millet at lunch. This recipe was delicious! This evening will be a big salad. I am going to try out a recipe for vegan Ranch dressing with it.

Hope all is well with everyone!