Mornin’ all! I woke up today not feeling that hungry, so I decided it was a smoothie kinda day. But I was also feeling a little adventurous after last night’s culinary experiments so I decided to do another -
The secret ingredient: carrot! I pureed (as best I could) a carrot in my food processor and then moved that into the blender to make the smoothie (for some reason the FP wasn’t blending as well as the blender does..lol)
I made a mess of both appliances but it was fun 
The second secret ingredient was this packet from Vega. If you look behind my thumb in very small print it says “Vanilla Chai” – that was the secret!! I’ve had this packet for a while and since I’m not a huge fan of powders, I hadn’t remembered to use it up. But when finally realized it was flavored, I thought it would go well with the carrot. I used about 60% of the packet and saved more for later (All the info on the packet + brand can be found here.)
And this was one of the most delicious smoothies I’ve ever made!! Mostly because of the intense vanilla chai flavor and extra sweetening from stevia in the packet
Ingredients:
- 1 carrot, pureed
- 1 small banana
- ~1/2 cup soy milk
- 1/2 packet vanilla chai
- 1/4 cup rolled old fashioned oats, dry
- Handful ice
10 Minute C+K Challenge
In other excitement, Caitlin and I are teaming up to bring you a new challenge. As you may know, I hate weight lifting. I have to force myself to do it about 3x a week – just simple free weights of the major upper body and perhaps some lunges thrown in – but 10 minutes is about all I can handle. I know strength training is super important though, so I am always looking for new ways to get it in that are fun (yoga, for instance ) I’ve noticed that Caitlin will just drop and do 10 minutes when she gets up – no need to make a whole workout out of it. So when I sent her an email about how I thought that was cool, she challenged me to join in. We put our heads together and came up with the following 30-day challenge -
And I promise you this is KERF tested behind the scenes and it is for even the laziest lifters!
Guidelines:
- Do this routine ANYTIME when you have 10 minutes to spare, ideally every other day
- Move quickly between the exercises so you don’t have time to get bored
- The exercises are grouped into 3 sets of 2 for optimal memorization and swift movement – don’t stop!
- If you have knee troubles, follow Caitlin’s modifications. Knee Strength Moves can be found on Healthy Tipping Point if you kneed them, and here is a link to Caitlin’s instructional video: Caitlin’s Knee Moves (Plus an Appearance by Maggie and James)
Here We Go!
Circuit One
- Push-ups (as many as you can do)
- Squats (about 20) OR Knee Strength Move #1
- REPEAT
Circuit Two
- Bicycle Crunches (about 26!)
- Reverse Crunches (about 26!)
- Lunges with optional bicep curl (about 20) OR Knee Strength Move #2
- REPEAT
(We forgot to photograph the lunges!) (Reverse crunch: Lie on the floor and place hands on the floor or behind the head. Bring legs up so they are 90 degrees from the floor. Make a small contraction with your abs to lift your feet straight up to the ceiling and lower. This movement is very small!)
Circuit Three
- Chair Tricep Dips (about 15)
- Wall Squat (hold as long as you can – about 60 seconds)
- REPEAT
Finale!
- Hold a plank as long as you can
I’m going to do these RIGHT NOW!!
HAPPY BIRTHDAY MATT!!!!!!!!!!!
(That would be Larbs’ Matt in Boston )
{ 45 comments… read them below or add one }
I love love LOVE Chai, so that smoothie looks amazing! Love the challenge! Perfect for when you don’t have a lot of time (and who doesn’t have 10 minutes?!)
Have a great day!
That powder sounds yummy.
As for the strength training you are missing a lot of major muscle groups. Also, bodyweight moves are great for beginners but you really need to keep challenging the body with weights, getting heavier and heavier over time. I am a broken record with this one but I highly recommend the book New Rules of Lifting for Women as an excellent, highly credible info source on weight lifting as well as a fantastic 6 month program.
wow that smoothie sounds great! i love chai! i’ve tried just grating a carrot before throwing it into my blender, and it’s worked fine.
that sounds like an amazing smoothie!
Wow, now that’s a creative smoothie!!! LOVE IT!
Thanks for sharing that workout with us. Sounds like a GREAT idea!
I love the workout – I know I (and a lot of other readers, I’m sure) will be out of town this weekend and away from the comfort of our gym, so this will be a great subtitute.
When I post later I’ll be sure to put a link to your page since I love this idea!
I always have trouble remembering my circuits when I decide to work out. I start off strong and then totally brainfreeze. Squat? Plank? Bicycle? Gah!
I don’t know if that is TOO much concentration or a serious lack of it… but this will help!
That workout looks fun!
Jenn
Great challenge!! That smoothie sounds really good – vanilla chai? Nice!
Happy Birthday to Larb’s Matt
I love oats in smoothies! It really ups the chew/creamy factor
I am so excited about this strength workout!
I love the routine– thanks for putting this together!
Your smoothie sounds ROCKIN. I love chai tea, but it is usually so full of sugar if you order it at a coffee or tea shop so I rarely indulge.
Perhaps you could try brewing chai tea (just regular spiced chai teabags) at night, and then using the iced tea in your smoothie in the morning? It would have a little caffeine in it too! ….hmm maybe I should try this.. haha
That smoothie rocks! Thanks for posting that strength routine challenge, I am definitely making it a part of my daily schedule! Who doesn’t have 10 minutes!?
Happy birthday to Larb’s Matt!
I’ve been using carrots so much lately! Thanks to all my dad’s juicing I’m left with mass amounts of pulp! I think I’m going to turn orange.
The other day I made a bowl of oatmeal with carrots, and it was soooo yummy!
Lol that you wrote “kneed” when discussing Caitlin’s modifications….you must have food on your mind! Have a great day, Kath
i’m a strength hater too! sometimes in the middle of a workout at the gym, i just stop and leave! love these circuits, will definitely give them a try! probably while my frozen banana is in the blender.
After going to my first basic training class at the gym last night, I woke up to read this great post. We did a lot of those routines there. Very inspirational.
Big shout out to the Canadian Brendan Brazier that is behind the Vega products. Woohoo!
Forgot to add that is a good routine for when you are away from the gym! No excuse not t workout
I’m in!! I’ve been looking for an awesome morning routine!!
Hmm… is the orange monster the next big thing?!
I just commented on Caitlin’s blog that I’m totally in!! Now that it’s summertime, I’m outside doing a lot of cardio stuff and not inside in the weight room like I was over the winter. So I’m not only losing my muscle mass – but my strength!! This is a perfect routine to do quickly in the a.m. or before a bike ride
Carrots + vanilla chai = dreamy!!! I gotta try a similar combo!
The chai sounds really good. I LOVE chai. Does it have caffeine though?
i’m loving this idea. it’s so wonderful how everyone in the blog world motivates each other!
carrot in a smoothie? why have i never thought of this!? i think i’ll try it out with some coconut added in.
As a yoga teacher I just HAVE to comment or I couldn’t sleep at night (lol)…make sure when you are doing squats to point your toes forward, not out, and let the feet be hip distance apart…your hips are not as big as you think!
Possibly people know of a different kind, but I’m just always concerned about students knees in those kind of moves!
:0)
I would love to see a KERF experiment with heavy weights, low reps sometime!
I have lifted like that the past several years and it completely changed my body. I know some women are afraid of lifting heavy because they are afraid of “bulking up,” but women just don’t have enough testosterone in their bodies to do that. Heavy weights have made me lean and tight, not at all bulky!
a ten minute challenge is just what I need for my busy schedule today! thanks kath
It took me a few months of lifting to really like it, but I’ve been doing it in conjunction with steady state and interval cardio work for over a year now and have really seen changes in my body that I hadn’t seen after years of running/elliptical/biking.I love the circuits you have and will be incorporating them into my days
@JessicaR AMEN!! My experience exactly.
Heavy lifting helps not only build muscle mass (which we lose as we age) but also helps improve bone density (which we also lose!)
I am totally opposite from you! I agree with Lara’s post above to try NRLW for your strength training. I hate doing cardio but have found since my stamina is better I can do cardio a bit longer and have actually come to enjoy running. One thing I reeeeaaallly hate doing is ab exercises ugh! You look very solid and muscular, congrats on such a nice physique without having to do all the lifting!
I say you GO Kath! I say anytype of bone building strength movement is AWESOME. Doesn’t matter if it’s a
squat/chair pose
push-up/plank to down dog
lunge/crescent lunge
tricep dip/wheel pose
Girl… it’s allll GOOD. Love ya bunches, like bananas!!! You are so cute doing that tricep dip… nice legs, K. XOXO
I was just writing about how I am strength lazy and am definitely joining!!!!
yay how exciting!!! I’m so up for this challenge!
I’m totally doing this challenge – thanks!!
Fancy,
I wrote that on purpose for all the knees!
Mrs. Meyers,
I’m not sure if this one did – it was chai flavor.
rebecca ,
Thanks for the tip. I usually do squats properly, but holding them like that for the photograph was a bit tough so I widened my stance.
Kath
Thank you for sharing this workout. I absolutely love it and can’t wait to add it to my routine!
Simone
http://www.honeebeegifts.blogspot.com
LOVE the 10 minute challenge- i’m so in. PS have you seen the latest “South Charlotte Weekly” newspaper? There is an article about GH and a picture of your hubby on page 12!
Oh I’m going to try all of these exercises! Thanks! Diana
I’m sure you’ve heard of this one before, but The New Rules of Lifting for Women by Lou Schuler is a great strength training program! I highly highly recommend it. The workouts aren’t too long (between 30 minutes at the beginning and 40 minutes to an hour in the later stages) and it really hits everything. I didn’t like weights that much before NROLFW, but now I love them.
Also that smoothie looks really yummy!
I love doing strength training! I have a hard time making myself doing other cardio than biking or running…like I hate getting on the elliptical and stairs…UGH…
Those are great moves to do, good thinking putting the pics with them
I love throwing grated carrot in my smoothies. Adds such a nice sweetness!
And I love your 10 minute workout.
I love circuit training and I do it 3x a week ! It is so much more fun and interesting than just lifting ! I believe that doing circuits and HIIT has completely changed my body ! What a great challenge idea ! More people should try it. It is time efficient and effective, can’t get better than that !
Too fun! I love this post!!
I love the circuit training . But it did take me more like 20 minutes to do. Lots of fun tho.
Oh goodness, just gave that challenge a try – tougher than it looks! It was a great work-out, so thanks for sharing ladies! Definitely going to try to do that as much as possible!
I love that you have the challenge! I hate weights too and just prefer to run but most of the time it’s just that I’m not sure what to do!