Hey there! How was everyone's Labor Day weekend?

Mine was great - considering the awesome protein pancakes recipe I'm about to share with you :) On Friday evening, Michael and I headed up to the Poconos to stay with a couple of our friends at their house. I had never been up there before and it was just beautiful. So peaceful, quiet and we couldn't have gotten more lucky with the weather. I don't have many pictures because I wanted to disconnect a bit this weekend from technology. On Friday night we sat on the porch and had a few too many drinks in the cool weather. We had intentions to get in a workout Saturday morning, but instead we slept in and drove up the road for a diner breakfast - you know, the greasy kind that cures all feelings of a hangover? So great.

After getting some food in our bellies, we geared up for a full day at the lake with a huge cooler filled with LOTS of beer and snacks. We got to the lake and headed into the water for a full day of floating - with our floating cooler. We swam (floated) all the way to the other side of the lake and back, and didn't get out of the water for a good 3-4 hours. 

Obviously in Gator gear for an awesome Gator win on Saturday night! Full of beer and all sunned out, we headed back home to relax and grill a delicious dinner of chicken, asparagus and zucchini. 

We headed back to Philadelphia yesterday late morning. Today has consisted of lots of relaxing! I got in a great workout earlier, mostly because I had all the time in the world and didn't have to rush! I love that, don't you? I'll post my workout later this week - it was a sweaty one! Now we're just enjoying being lazy (aka blogging + watching Arrested Development the rest of the day) before getting back into a busy working routine tomorrow.

Before working out, we woke up slow and I wanted pancakes, but after a weekend full of not the healthiest meals, I wanted a healthier version - cue the homemade protein pancakes! These are easy to make and if you're one of those "ew cottage cheese!" people, I'm sure greek yogurt would work just as well :) 

[yumprint-recipe id='1']

Hello! Happy hump day :) Just wanted to check in before I head to work! Wednesdays are always a nice reminder that the weekend is only two days away. It's also nice because it means that most of my long days are over. On Tuesdays after work I head down to a City Fitness gym on the other side of the city to workout before I teach from 7-8. I don't get home until about 9:30 because the trains run every hour and I catch it at 8:52. Womp long day. But I can't complain because I do get paid to workout and do what I love so I'm very lucky for that!

Monday was also a long day and I couldn't wait to get home and relax. Relaxing turned to cooking in the kitchen for about an hour and a half, although cooking is very therapeutic to me.

Dinner was roasted veggies with sautéed ground beef and kale. Topped with Parmesan cheese and sriracha (always sriracha.) I also whipped up my lunch for yesterday and today. A big hearty salad that I add chicken to at work. It has Trader Joe's sweet leaf lettuce, tomatoes, red onion, cucumber, feta cheese, chick peas and fresh dill. Along with this salad, I bring many snacks. I like to nosh all day so I make sure I have plenty of healthy snacks ready to go. I brought some leftover ground beef & veggies, an apple and these protein balls (except made a new batch with peanut butter instead of almond butter and they're way better!)

Last week I managed to sneak in some quick workouts despite it being a busy week (who am I kidding, that's every week.)

Sunday - 4.35 mile run after my family left. This was a good one!

Monday - REST :)

Tuesday - This workout from peanutbutterrunner.com

Wednesday - HUMID 3 mile run. This one sucked a little.

Thursday - 3x15 reps of the following exercises: Dumbbell deadlift + squat jump, lunge with pulse (15 each side), single arm dumbbell row (15 each side), pullover with sit-up, heel tap bicycle crunches on bench, row 2 minutes.

Friday - 5x10 reps of the following exercises: Band assisted pull-ups, lunge jumps (10 each side,) deadlifts, thrusters, push-ups, burpee box jumps. This one was great and can be done in under an hour!

Saturday - REST :)

Sunday - 5 mile run. This was great except for the last mile when my earphones stopped working.

What's your favorite way to sweat?

- Rach

Hello there! I have another great workout for you today. This workout is adapted from a class that I teach on campus called Cycle Circuits. It mixes cycling and strength work on the floor for a sweaty total body workout. For the class, I alternated between two drills on the bike (about seven minutes) and the total body circuit on the floor. You can use any type of cardio for the workout though! I would do about five minutes of cardio and then complete the circuit and complete those two portions three times in total. This class always flies by. You could even give it more variety by switching up the type of cardio you do in between circuits. For example, five minutes running, five minutes on the bicycle and then five minutes jumping rope or battle rope intervals.

The best part is that for the circuit portion, all you need is a set of dumbbells. This workout can easily be done anywhere!

For the squat with a press and twist, you literally just squat, overhead press and pivot one foot to twist to one side - this exercise is great, it works the entire body and engages the core. Alternate sides!

If you have not heard of a renegade row, it looks like this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gja70kgtvoQ

A spiderman plank looks like this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dvAm7Gw0klA

Enjoy!