Good morning! I was reading over your comments from last night and I said to Future Husband, "Gee, it’s so funny how many other grown women are going to go to the Britney Spears concert." And he pauses and says (in a cute British accent), "Oh. You call yourself a grown woman?"
🙂
Breakfast was a yummy whole wheat english muffin, egg, and cheese sammie with a little TWIST.
Yay – more sprouts! I just bought a box of sprouts, so you’ll be seeing a lot of these suckers over the next few days. 🙂
The savory egg + cheese went so well with the crisp sprouts! Yum!
On the side, I had a sliced banana.
It was a fun (although a little light) brekkie.
Presenting…. December Challenge – Keeping Abs FUN!
So, you probably haven’t noticed this…. but I never, never do ab work. Ever. I really DETEST sit ups, crunches, planks, the Captain’s Chair…. you name it, I’ve tried it and HATE it.
I’ve tried to figure out why I am so repulsed by sit-ups (after all, I’ll bang out 10 push ups while watching TV and I always do arm work at the gym). I think it’s a combination of boredom with crunches, and the fact that I feel like I don’t *need* to do sit-ups.
By that, I mean that since I’ve lost weight and started to run, I developed a sleek, but slightly rounded, tummy that I’m satisfied with. When we first started to date (when I was 10 lbs. heavier), I remember Future Husband once told me I had the "womanly" stomach of a "Greek goddess." Basically, now I have a slimmed-down version!
I’m not rocking a six-pack, but it’s not horrible, either! :)
I like myself the way I am, and combined with the fact that I’m insanely lazy about ab work, I end up never doing a single crunch.
BUT, since it’s the end of the year, I thought I’d throw in ONE MORE personal challenge for myself. Strong abs make you a better runner, after all!
The December Challenge – Making Abs FUN! consists of doing a different type of ab work every other day (not intensely) until the wedding. The wedding is in 31 days, so that’s around 15 different types of ab work! I’ll take a picture AND provide instructions. Sometime it will be basic stuff (like today), but hopefully it will get a little more interesting!
The staple non-crunch CRUNCH…. PLANKS!
Attempt #1 to take a picture:
Attempt #2 to take a picture….
OK! Finally – a real, uninterrupted plank! I did five sets of 30-second planks (hey, I’m a beginner).
Here’s how to do a plank correctly:
- Lie face down on mat resting on the forearms, palms flat on the floor.
- Push off the floor, raising up onto toes and resting on the elbows.
- Keep your back flat, in a straight line from head to heels.
- Tilt your pelvis and contract your abdominals to prevent your rear end from sticking up in the air.
- Hold for 20 to 60 seconds, lower and repeat for 3-5 reps.
What area of fitness would you like to improve in the most, and why?
I’ve been thinking about abs lately too. It’s so much easier to think about them than to actually do them.
Rock on with the ab workouts! I’m going to do whatever you do. Thanks for being my motivation to finally do it.
Also, cute doggies! My cats do the same thing. They LOVE it when I’m on the floor with them.