thursday workout

135lb Deadlifts
14kg Kettlebell presses

monday workout

Deadlifts with 135lbs x5

Squats with two 12kg kettlebells x10

Presses with two 12kg kettlebells x10

Windmills with an 8kg kettlebell x10

Push-ups x10

thursday night workout

5 sets of 10 reps using the barbell:

- deadlift
- row
- clean
- squat
- press

5 reps using these rolling dumbbell things:
- one arm
- other arm
- both arms

monday night workout

Repeated twice:

5x - Deadlifts, at first 50lbs + barbell, then 70lbs + barbell
5x - One-handed presses, each side, with a 12kg kettlebell
5x - Assisted pistols on the Smith machine, each side
5x - Assisted pull-ups on the Smith machine (first time one-legged; second time cross-legged), each side
5x - Push-ups
20x - Double-handed swings with a 16kg kettlebell

Lastly 15 rollouts on the ab wheel.

Thursday night's workout

laddered sets of 10 kettlebell swings:
8kg -> 12kg -> 16kg -> 20kg (omg 44lbs!!!) -> 16kg -> 12kg -> 8kg

10 assisted pull-ups on one leg
10 inchworm push-ups
10 chair pistols on each leg

Repeat all that again, but with the kettlebell swings going:
20kg -> 16kg -> 12kg -> 8kg -> 12kg -> 16kg -> 20kg

and the assisted pull-ups on the other leg

Monday night's workout

Three sets:

- 10 single-handed swings on each side (16kg kettlebell)
- 10 kettlebell squats (single 16kg kettlebell)
- 10 single-handed presses (12kg kettlebell)
- 10 reverse rows on the Smith machine
- 10 kettlebell lunges each side (passing the kettlebell between the legs)
- 10 push-ups

stair climbing

67 floors, up and down!

workout

3 sets of:
- standing cable rows, as many as possible, one minute each hand
- standing cable presses, as many as possible, one minute each hand
- jump squats, as many as possible for one minute

Total that was only 15 minutes of exercise, but I must have taken 15 minutes of rest because I only got through 3 sets of that. It was tough, tiring, and I tried not to get nauseous. It really did not help that this was a morning workout and I wasn't able to eat early enough beforehand (what I did eat was only a cup of yogurt). Plus we went to sleep at 3am last night, and right before that we had pancakes, eggs, hashbrowns, and sausages at IHOP for dinner (at 2am).

kettlebells!

Last night:

18kg kettlebell~
- 40 swings
- 30 swings
- 20 swings
- 10 swings
(100 total)

- 5 on each side - squat, transitioning into a press upon standing back up
- 10 on each side - rows

The entire set repeated twice, and then just a third set of the swings (300 total swings in 30 minutes!).

Thursday workout

6x total with double 8kg kettle bells (all two-handed):

- 5 reps of: clean, swing, high-pull, snatch
- 5 reps of: squat, press
- 5 reps of: rows

Monday workout

- 40 consecutive double-handed swings with the 16kg kettlebell (35 lbs - a personal best!)
- 15 on each side - lunges with the hind foot resting on a bench
- 15 on each side - one-handed reverse rows
- 15 push-ups

I even went through all that a second time, up through half of the one-handed reverse rows before I started feeling nauseous.

Workout

Thursday -

with the 8kg kettlebell
{
10x with each arm - clean, squat, press, snatch
10x in each direction - circular reverse rows
10x on each leg - one-legged squat variation (with leg lifted behind)
} x 2

10x each arm - dumbbell ab rollout, with only 1 arm extended at a time

exercise - Monday

I think Monday's workout was with the 12kg bells...

- 30 double kettlebell swings
- 10 double kettlebell presses
- 15 double kettlebell push-up, deadlift, rows
repeated twice

- 15 leg lifts (keeping one leg vertically as straight as possible, lower the other leg all the way down then lift up & alternate)

whoa my gourds!

I actually got blisters from last night's workout!

10x10 double kettlebell swings (two 26lb kettlebells)
15x2 renegade rows with the 18lb kettlebell (but with my supporting arm up on a bench)
15x2 lunges (I forgot which one I used)
5-4-3-2-1 kettlebell squats with the two 26lb kettlebells cleaned to the shoulder

Thursday workout & 4th of July weekend

Thursday:
- 30 double handed swings with the 16kg kettlebell
- 10 push-ups
- 10 sit-ups
- 10 lunges each side

repeat x5 = omg, 150 kettlebell swings with a 35lb kb!

Saturday:
Peggy's b-day bbq!

Sunday:
Fireworks in Fullerton with Lawrence's cousins! I spent the afternoon making a huge bowl of guacamole which everyone seemed to enjoy. :) I used the recipe from the How To Cook Everything book. I really need to start photographing my cooking too. There needs to be a pretty Ravelry-esque site for every niche!

I also picked up another plant. I've now got on the balcony: a tomato plant, a pot with cosmos seedlings, and a window planter with basil, thyme, rosemary, mint, cilantro, and serrano chili.

cooking

From Mark Bittman's How To Cook Everything:
- Black Beans and Rice
- Lentils and Potatoes

From Cinnamon Spice and Everything Nice:
- Broccoli Cheddar Cheese Soup

Soup turned out great. For the black beans and rice, I used canned instead of the dry beans called for in the recipe. I think I needed much more water while it baked because the rice took a long time and was still pretty hard by the time I was done. I guess I thought as long as the stuff was liquid, the rice would be getting water - not true. I used red lentils instead of the brown called for in the other recipe. Apparently red lentils cook A LOT faster. It was my first time cooking lentils and I wayyy overcooked it. It turned out to be more of a mashed lentils and potatoes dish than anything resembling an Indian dal.

In the end, I didn't get to do more than taste a few partial spoonfuls of each. It's almost 2am and I'm too tired to be hungry. Ordinarily I'd be fine but I had a workout tonight and I probably really need the protein. :/

Oh, and by the way, tonight's workout:

3 sets of 10 reps each of the following series (using a 45 lb. bar)
- partial deadlift
- bent-over row
- clean
- squat
- press

Long posts are hard

I don't have the time to write out all the long posts I'd like to write but I still want to post about my experiences for posterity.  Eventually I'll get caught up on the backlog I suppose.  Meanwhile, I can't let that prevent me from posting.

Last night I worked out with kettlebells again for the first time in a long time.

12kg
- 30x two-handed swings
- 30x left-handed swings
- 30x right-handed swings
- 15x alternating single-handed swings (30 total)

2x 8kg
- 10x alternating presses (20 total), followed by 10 seconds holding both straight up
- 20x double swings

2x 16kg
- 15x double suitcase deadlift

After my workout, Lawrence surprised me from behind as I was talking to him on the cell phone.  :)  We went to the Container Store to scout out our organization options.  We'll probably be getting kitchen shelving as the kitchen at our new apartment has limited counter space.  We need something we can put the rice cooker & stand mixer on.  I'd love to custom design something using their modular kitchen shelving units.  I think I've also finally come to terms with the quantity and quality of my stash.  There is a ton of yarn that I can and should donate because while I MAY take the time to devise a suitable project, it would be so rare of an occurrence that I would just be fooling myself.  I'd like to cut down on a lot of the yarn I have so that I'll actually use the nice stuff and not feel overwhelmed by it.

I suggested going home to cook something for dinner but then we both realized we felt like Indian food.  We went to All India Cafe in old town and had some Palak Paneer, Aloo Gobi, rice, & garlic naan.  It isn't my favorite Indian restaurant (I can't say I'm crazy about any of the ones in Pasadena I've been to) but the cauliflower in the Aloo Gobi was sooo good!  We thought to ourselves how marked up the prices must be.  Each of the vegetarian entrees were about $8-10.  Portions were not huge and comprised largely of non-exotic vegetables - cauliflower, potato, spinach.  Since these are also Indian home foods, how difficult could it be for us to cook it?  We'll see.  We saved enough leftovers for my lunch today.  I also sliced up some char siu (bbq pork) that I made last week.

differences in DDR style

Playing DDR with Lawrence can be interesting because our minds work so differently.  He tends to pick up the visual cues of the arrows reaching the top rather than listen to the beat to aurally anticipate the arrows.  I'm the opposite - if I had to rely solely on the visuals, I would find it very difficult to react in time.  Instead, I listen to the beat so I can anticipate the timing of the arrows.  This can come in handy when you've got a bunch of quarter, sixth, or eighth notes in quick succession.

I'm also better at jumping.  He's got longer, muscular legs and is very heavy on his feet.  That makes jumping a slow and clumsy process for him.  Thus, he hates playing songs that have lots of Air while I love them.  I've always loved jumping - I think it's the sudden burst of energy.  I can go all out, let go, and not hold back.  Give 100%.  Maybe that's why I hate long distance running?  You can't give 100% because the point is to hold back and maintain a steady state for a long time [zzzzzzz].

We played DDR last night because Lawrence realized he needs to lose weight so that he doesn't stretch out the seams of his new A.P.C. raw denim jeans.  We hope to go running tonight.

Tonight I also wanted to make buns.  I started on the fillings yesterday.  I have a slab of pork butt marinating in sauce.  I made a ground pork butt & napa cabbage filling.  The pork butt will go in the oven tonight and come out as delicious cha sao/cha siu (Chinese bbq pork).  I'm going to make two different bun doughs cause I'm following two different recipes.  In the end, I will [hopefully] have some steamed bbq pork buns and some sheng jian bao (Shanghai pan fried buns).

monday workout

Monday was at Melody's house (yay!):

10lb sledgehammer:
- 30x circular swings on each side

6lb sledgehammer
- 30x vertical swings on each side
- 20x body twisting while holding the hammer sideways at a 90 degree angle

small ball peen hammer
- hold bottom of hammer with arm held straight out and let the end lower towards the arm, then pivot it straight back away from the arm

heavy ropes:
- 30sec. double wave pattern, both arms moving together
- 30sec. alternating wave pattern, arms alternating
- 30sec. sideways wave pattern, arms moving sideways out & in

25lb sandbags:
- lift, toss in arms, toss in hands, lift above head, toss back down in arms, then hands, then ground
- alternate lifting over a shoulder and touching the end to the ground
- alternate lifting over head to touch each shoulder

Workout & cookies

Tonight's workout:

- Holding onto one end of a 45 lb. bar with both arms held straight out, lunge to one side.  Lunge to the other side while bringing the end of the bar over.
- Lunges with a 24 lb. bar held on one shoulder, repeat with the bar held on the other shoulder.
- Raise the 24lb. bar, lifting it straight up hand over hand, then lower it hand over hand.
- Assisted pull-ups.
- With upper back resting on a balance ball and a bar held with arms straight, bring one tip over the head to touch the ground and then the other tip between the legs to touch the ground.

On my way home from the gym, I went to Sur La Table and bought a BeaterBlade mixer attachment with silicone wings that scrape the sides of the bowl and a Microplane zester.  I also stopped by Gelson's for a bag of key limes and a bag of King Arthur All-Purpose Flour.  This was so I could make a batch of key lime meltaways, recipe courtesy of smitten kitchen (adapted from Martha Stewart's recipe).

[cooling on the rack after baking]

[after being coated with powdered sugar]

Delicious!  The flat beater attachment worked perfectly.  I might need a little more sugar in the dough.  I also wouldn't mind adding more lime zest.  I definitely need to use regular salt instead of Kosher salt, which was the only salt I had.  :<  The texture of the cookies, however, turned out perfectly light and powdery.  Too bad Lawrence doesn't like citrus zest of any sort in anything.  I'm too lazy to take pictures since it's so late at night.  I still have another log of the dough in the fridge so I'll take pictures of the next batch.