I decided to try an at-home workout this morning because I have had this DVD for a week and needed a day to give it a try!
Ashley recommended it to me, and I ordered it off Amazon within 10 seconds!
I’m glad to have a nice basement space to do workouts. I just moved the ottoman out of the way and lit all the lamps for a more cheerful brightness.
Faith is actually one of the queens of anywhere workouts and is so creative with hers. I tend to be more all-or-nothing with workouts (not ideal, I know!) and crave higher intensity running, cycling, walking and things. It’s really hard to motivate myself to get my heart rate up in my living room and have it stay there! I have contemplated buying a treadmill for when the baby comes. I think not having to leave the house would be invaluable (because I love going to hotel gyms when you don’t have to leave the building!) However, treadmills are SOOO expensive (even used!) and I think hope on most nice days I’d be just as happy outside with a stroller, plus my gym has really cheap childcare starting at 6 weeks. So I don’t think the treadmill would really get its money’s worth. Thus, DVDs might become much more of the norm around here for those first few months. And any kind of free TV workouts too!
Summer Sanders’ DVD was pretty good. It was a bit more strength than I had hoped for (since I’m doing Pump twice a week) but I think if it had been all cardio bouncing it might have been too much. I did the longer (45 minute) Second Trimester workout. It ended up being a pretty good total body workout, and all the squats gave me a good burn. Pre-pregnancy I would have found it too easy (I didn’t break a sweat, but my muscles burned at times), but now that I’m itching for lower impact anyways, it was great.
I was sad to hear in the first few minutes that I needed a resistance band and couldn’t find mine anywhere! So I improvised with two jars of jam from the pantry : )
Sometime during the DVD, Summer said the word “chicken” and all of a sudden a SALAD with chicken sounded great for lunch! First home lunch salad in ages!!
The chicken was actually a grilled herb-y breast that we had stuck in the freezer as leftovers about a month ago, so I defrosted it and sliced it onto a bed of arugula blend along with half a cup or so of Rancho beans, avocado (YUM!), goat cheese (DOUBLE YUM!) and a dressing made of lemon juice and olive oil.
Confession: I’ve been using lemon juice from a bottle. And it’s been AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Remember how I would lazily complain about loving lemon juice but hating the process of slicing, de-seeding and storing fresh lemons? This little bottle has been wonderful to have on hand. I’m using lemon juice so much more, and the ingredient list = “organic lemon juice.” Call me a bad chef, but this is one shortcut I’ll be taking for a while. Considering the fact that the only way I will eat green things right now is with a dash of lemon juice, it’s been worth it.
Fruit cup on the side! Kiwi (fur and all) and strawberry.
Happy afternoon!
{ 79 comments… read them below or add one }
I love the Summer Sanders workout DVD I am actually planning to do my review of it this week.
I know that Play it Again sports has some good deals on equipment if you’re ever serious about picking up stuff for the house
The texture-freak in me won’t let me try a kiwi with the skin! I wish I could do it, because they are a pain in the butt to peel without wasting any fruit!
You can cut them in half and eat them with a grapefruit spoon too. (A regular spoon might work as well.) Hardly any wasted fruit that way!
I enjoyed the prental yoga session from yogadownload.com while I was pregnant. It was a great “stretch out the kinks” workout at the end of the day. Plus, it was a great way to sit quietly and reflect on the litle being (or beings in my case) that were growing inside my belly.
I’ve never been able to eat kiwi’s with the skin still on. Too furry!
I just bought two of those this morning
Wow, call me crazy but I have never heard of someone eating kiwi with the skins still on. How does it affect the taste/experience of eating the kiwi?
It’s not that much different than eating a peach with fuzz – just SO much easier not to have to peel it
I am also a kiwi fuzz eater. Everyone calls me out on it whenever I’m eating one in public, but the texture doesn’t bother me at all!
Hey, I drizzle straight up OJ on my salads- I don’t judge! Totally agree with you on nature > treadmill.
wow i’ve never eaten the kiwi skin!! It’s just so…furry
Fitting in workouts at home is something that I’m trying to get better about, too. I also tend to be all-or-nothing, and the act of getting dressed and going to the gym gets me in the zone for a good workout – I have a much more difficult time setting aside the time and going all-out in my living room. Wow, I’ve never had a kiwi with the skin on – seems like the “fur” would taste/ feel so strange! I have one kiwi left from my grocery run last week… maybe I’ll give it a shot.
I am loving kiwi right now! So good! And i’m the same way, I tend to be an all or nothing person with workouts and I really need to work on that!
Too funny, I’m eating an organic lemon at my desk at work while I’m reading your blog! I brought it from home and intended to slice up for my hot/cold water. But after lunch I was feeling really sleepy and thought I’d better get in some more water and slice up that lemon to put in. I started slicing it at my desk and thought “mabye a slice of lemon will perk me up” and I ended up eating the whole thing, sans water!
omg haha! I’ve never eaten one plain
I’m such a huge lemon juice in a bottle fan, no waste and super duper handy! Another beautiful looking lunch…photography skills never fail to impress!
Mmm, that salad looks fantastic!! A good craving, indeed
That salad looks amazing. I’m dying for a little chicken these days (I’m fasting for Easter so no meat/no dairy for me)!
And your strawberries look like they were just about as good as mine! I was so impressed with how tasty mine were at lunch today!
Glad you were able to rock the at-home, anywhere, anytime work out. That will probably become a way of life here in the near future. Was for me anyway
love the looks of the apple butter…YUM!
I always wondered if you could eat the fur on kiwi! Now I now. As an aside, I am IN LOVE with the ease and access to working out on a treadmill at home. We got a used nordic track for about $400 and I can’t imagine life without it. But I also don’t mind indoor workouts and do the majority of my exercise using DVD’s and the treadmill.
*know
I use lemon juice from a bottle all the time, add it to salads, with evoo for on chicken and fish, or in water in lots of ice!
I have a friend who is selling her BowFlex 7 Series treadmill for about $700-800. If you are interested, let me know! It’s here in Farmville which is only 1 hour from you!
Thanks for asking, but I just don’t know if we want to spend that kind of money (which is reasonable compared to the $2-3K they are most of the time!)
I totally understand!! Love your blog, by the way!
Thanks for the review – I’m def going to check this one out. I need cardio+strength+stretch since I’ve done NOTHING since prior to getting pregnant. Well, a bit of exercise in Jan before pregnancy nausea won out. Since we moved, the gym feels too far due to traffic. I’d love to get a treadmill, but the cost plus the fact I may not really use it (they’re SO BORING!) keep me from pestering my husband about it.
Thanks for the shout out, glad I could help inspire some at-home perspiring!
I recently switched from spinach to arugula as my salad bed.Is arugula better than spinach (nutrient-wise)?
I think they are comparable
Spinach is more nutrient dense.It has more vitamin A, C, K, folate, potassium, magnesium, manganese, and iron per serving. Arugula has a slight edge on the calcium front, though.
Dick’s Sporting Goods is having a HUGE sale on its Sole treadmills. They are stopping carrying them despite the sales guy telling us they’re the best selling treadmills in the store. We love ours, as do our friends and the Dick’s sales guy. We got a $2,000 treadmill for $699. We used a $20 coupon, a $100 gift card and signed up for the Dick’s rewards card that earned us back $30 in gift cars. they delivered the treadmill in two days and put it together. I’m having trouble getting outside because it is so convenient to run errands after work etc. knowing I can hop on the treadmill when I get home.
That is QUITE the steal!
The KidsZone freaks me out. I always think people send sick children and they don’t clean the environment, sick babies are no fun.
Also double-check the car seat straps if they put the little guy back in for you. They did for me once and buckled the bottom, but totally didn’t even use the chest straps. Thankfully I noticed right away when I picked up the car seat!
Totally loving your salad! Lemon Vinigraitte is one of my favourites with the warmer weather. Kiwi with skin on is the way to go…I read somewhere there is a lot of goodness in the skin…I actually don’t mind it…just knowing it is doing my body good makes it go down easier!
I’ve been doing this DVD too for about three weeks and I also really like it. I don’t have resistance bands so I’ve been using 5 lb weights and I think it works pretty well
So..eat the skin on kiwi, huh? Are you able to find organic kiwi? I eat the tail shells on shrimp. I figure it is probably a little bit of extra roughage and iodine, plus it makes sushi consumption less messy!
I eat the tails on my shrimp too! My family thinks it’s very strange. Then again, I eat the tops of my strawberries, greens and all. I can’t stand it when people only eat about half the strawberry! Also my apple and pear cores, more efficient and less wasteful to munch right through! Maybe my family is right about the strangeness.
Well, I tried the kiwi with skin tonight (I guess we all have kiwi in the fridge right now?) and I thought it was just fine. No more kiwi peeling for me! I eat the pear cores, but not the apples. Have never tried the strawberry greens, but will give them a try soon! I love your blog; it is helping me in so many ways! You ROCK!
You rock!!!! Wish I had your palate
At-home workouts are the best! No travel time and you can wear whatever you want. Plus, I imagine they’re much more convenient for moms — so good practice for you!
There’s no beating an in-class pre-natal yoga class– love all the pregnancy talk!! BUT, if you’re looking for another pre-natal yoga dvd, I have the Jennifer Wolfe Vinyasa yoga dvd, and it is NO joke. Since you’re already in such great yoga shape, I think you’d like it!
i’m possibly thinking about a treadmill these days — even though as you know we have nowhere really realistic to put it [thinking of shoving into a corner anyway
]. but i bet you will be able to get a little you-time to work out outside or at the gym [ie, since matt doesn't have josh's horrible 4:30 am - god-knows-when work schedule]. plus, that bonding time will be awesome for baby + dad!
my favorite yoga dvd is jennifer wolfe prenatal vinyasa! for me it was really challenging and a good workout. i actually wish i had stuck to it more
somehow running ended up seeming more appealing even in the later weeks [i know i'm weird.]
WOAH how funny that the commenter above said the same thing about jennifer wolfe while i was typing that
that’s awesome!
That’s a good sign!
I love where you put the light in the basement that Matt made you for Christmas! I wondered where you were displaying it. It is so cool! Being that you both are creative, I am sure that your children will be creative, too
I have been using lemon juice as well, but not for my greens. I have been using it on occasion to spice up water, because after so long, water gets boring. Like I have said before, I wish I had bubbly water at my discretion like you do sometimes
http://faithfulsolutions.blogspot.com/
We were happy to discover that organic lemon juice at WF about a year ago. We still occasionally buy lemons (need the zest sometimes), in which case we go ahead and juice them and freeze the juice for future use, but the bottled is SO much handier.
On my last trip to WF, I noticed that there was a different brand, also organic, in a larger bottle that was cheaper per ounce than the WF brand, so I bought one to try. I also noticed the lime juice, which I’ll try after we go through our current frozen stuff.
I will have to buy that DVD. I’m 11 weeks along with my 2nd baby. Also, was wondering what kind of goat cheese you are eating? My doc had told me goat cheese was off limits along with all soft cheeses due to possible Listeria. I love goat cheese and miss having it, so didn’t know if you found a safe kind to eat?
Congrats on 11 weeks! I buy the WF brand goat cheese, which is pasteurized. The risk is with UNpasteurized cheeses.
Awesome, thanks. I’ll check it out.
I put lemon juice on as much as I can! Love the bright flavor it gives.
It’s always nice to try new workouts! Especially when it’s full of workout ideas you could do at any locations! I have a pretty good space in the living room, that’s my yoga spot
Chicken salad does sound delish! I like the idea of freezing it and having it done already. I need to try that sometime.
I’m not a fan of bottled lemon juice, but I might give that a try.
I wish I had been more active during my pregnancy. The most exercise I did was lifting the remote. I’ve made some huge changes since then… Kudos to you!
You can eat the fur on a kiwi??? I had no idea! Amazing.
Kath,
I would love a post about body pump class, explaining which moves are done, and how much weight we should use. I have never been big on strength training, but I would love to get toned, especially around my abs! Thanks!
Hey Casey,
I’d like to write this, but i”m just not sure how helpful it will be. Every class is slightly different, and the amount of weight is totally individualistic. I did write this post on my thoughts on the class: http://www.katheats.com/campfire
I bought a brand new tredmill for 399 two months ago and I absolutely LOVE it!! I use it several times a week (and I also do crossfit) but I feel like I get my money out of it! Think about the cold cold winter….I would rather run/walk use my home weights than treck to the gym anytime! Just a thought. Have a good evening
Can you please share the brand? That’s a good price!
I seriously contemplated buying a treadmill when the baby was first born because I felt like I was never going to be able to get out and run again…but instead I bought a bunch of workout dvds and those have been my saving grace. And now that we are almost 7 months in, I am finding ways to make it to the gym again as well. So it looks like it was probably good idea that I didn’t splurge on that, now I really want a jogging stroller instead so baby girl and I can go together
Oh my gosh, anyone remember Summer Sanders on Nickelodeon’s Figure it Out (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Figure_It_Out )?! I immediately thought of that when hearing her name. Glad her career is doing well haha.
I like your square salad bowl, do you know where you bought it?
It’s a Pampered Chef item – a wedding shower gift!
Thanks!
Yay! I’m so glad you got it. I guess I didn’t consider how much strength it was since I was running while doing it (and never do strength — so it kicked my butt!!!). Anyway, as the weeks go on, you’ll really learn to love it . . . and be able to recite their witty banter. Hahaha. I still know all the words. I even did the DVD a few weeks postpartum with Ada in the Moby wrap <3 Hope it's a lovely day in your second trimester!
Oh man, I love the fact that you eat your kiwis with the fur still on. I thought I was the only one who didn’t peel theirs first, but apparently there’s another awesome chick out there who doesn’t either. So much of the fruit is wasted if you peel it. Plus you lose a lot of the fiber. Yay for fur!!
You’re so lucky you have a basement to work out in!! If I do a workout DVD I feel like I am stomping on the floor in our living room. Luckily I live in a house now but when I lived in apt, I always felt bad because of people below me!
First, I never you could eat the skin on the kiwi. I’m totally going to do that – it will save me so much time. Plus, there so small that it seems like I cut off half the fruit when trying to remove the skin.
Second, have you tried any of Cathe Friedrich’s workout DVD’s? Seriously, my heart rate gets up every bit as high as it does when I run or higher. Those things are intense!
Haha, love the weights! I’m sharing this with my grandparent’s right now. I doubt they have ever heard of their applebutter used like that and would get a kick out of it.
I’m working through my jam/butter collection – I promise I’ll get to this soon! But it might be the fall when I’m craving all things apple
I love the last ingredient of the apple butter
I totally wish I would have invested in some prenatal workout DVDs earlier on… How I just feel like it’s too late! Smart girl you.
I always forget to use lemon juice in dressings. Need to add it to my rotation of ingredients!
SKip the treadmill since you love it outdoors and jog/walk with the baby. My mom’s best advice “once the baby is 4 wks old go outside for at least 30 minutes each day” (no matter how cold) you can really bundle them up in a stroller – it helps them sleep better and get less sick.
I’ve always been curious about using lemon juice rather than real lemons but have not tried it. How long do you think the juice stays once it’s open? I’m slightly perplexed that it would end up going bad.
Since it’s an acid, probably a really long time. A few months?
Just a little for for at-home workouts: yoga journal has awesome FREE podcasts you can downland and a nice guided yoga app (2.99) that has guided audio and background music.
I highly recommend the new Knocked Up Fitness Prenatal Pilates DVDs. These moves kept me feeling good as I got bigger and were so helpful for random aches and stiffness, as well as maintaining strength. Would be a great addition to your basement workout rotation
http://knocked-upfitness.com/
Wow … eating kiwi with the fur on. Never even thought about it before but I’m really enjoying reading everyone’s food stories of what they eat and why.