Birthday Body Blast!

Hey everyone! Welp, it's my birthday. 25 years ago I came screaming into this world, and I haven't stopped :). As of today, my insurance rates just plummet, and I can rent a car without an age penalty. It's the little things!

Given that it is my 1 out of 365 days in the year I owe it to myself to be in a good mood ALL day. Sounds like a small thing, but I'm wound up pretty tightly as most of us SUPER Type-A's are. The only sure fire way for me to feel great and be in a positive head space is to do a grueling workout and come out the other end knowing I achieved something I previously thought I couldn't. I made sure the very first thing I did this morning was get in one of my two workouts for the day.

Workout 1: Legs & Cardio Challenge

I did jumping jacks in the 20 sec intervals instead of high knees because of my right foot. Coming down on it with all of my weight is just. Not. Happening. Here were my scores.

Round 1 Time: 4:11.14
Jumping Jacks Intervals: 26/26/27/26/27/27/27/26
Round 2 Time: 4:05.51
Jumping Jacks Intervals: 28/28/28/26/28/27/28/28
Round 3 Time: 4:02.16

That's 433 total jumping jacks and 180 total Chair Step Up to Back Lunges in ~20 minutes. Have I mentioned how much I heart High Intensity Interval Training?!

Then I had breakfast with MKBBF. We had a bell pepper, onion, crimini egg white scramble and banana flax seed pancakes.

Banana Flax seed Pancakes - Makes about 4 6 inch pancakes. The portions in parenthesis are for one pancake for those of you who are division averse - so you can just multiply to make the amount you like.

2 bananas (.5 banana)
4 egg whites (1 egg white)
1/2 cup flax seed meal (2 tbsp flax seed meal)
1/2 cup blueberries - frozen is OK (optional - for topping only)

If you're using the blueberries to top your pancakes - put them in a pan over low heat and cover. Cook for about 10 minutes. 5 minutes if they're fresh.

Mash bananas, add egg whites and combine, then flax seed meal. Heat a nonstick pan over medium heat for about 20 seconds. If you don't have nonstick cookware, use a bit of coconut oil to keep the cakes from being impossible to extricate from the bottom and flip. Pour about a 4 inch round pile of the batter and use the back of a spoon to spread it out a bit. You don't have to do this, but I've found they cook more evenly through the middle if I do. Cook for about a minute and a half or until the edges start to look cooked. By that I mean, once the wet shine of the batter goes away. Then little by little using a plastic (not rubber - that's a nightmare) spatula, separate the cake from the pan and flip. Cook for another minute and a half or so and pull off the heat.

Serve on a plate and pour the blueberries over the cakes. These are quite sweet, and you shouldn't need maple syrup. If you do, remember to use REAL maple syrup. Aunt Jemima's poison sugar water does not add to these cakes. It detracts. Trust me :)


Workout 2: New 300 Rep Workout

You may wonder why I'd do two workouts on my birthday of all days. It's because of the reason above. I deserve to be in a great mood for all 24 hours of my birthday, and if I have to bust my ass for an hour of it to achieve that, it's an hour well spent :).

ROCK!

*******UPDATE*******

Workout 2: New 300 Rep Workout Time:
26:07

I missed Zuzana by 5 seconds. DAMN it!

I did the 30 pull ups kipping instead of using a chair or a band. Have been able to do kipping pull ups for as long as I can remember. In fact, when I was a gymnast what I now call kipping pull ups were then referred to as cheated pull ups hah. Oh, how things change. I can still crank out strict pull-ups, don't get me wrong. But I am presently unable to do 40 in a row like I once could. The issue with the kipping ones recently has been this: I have one of those over the door jam pull up bar things and the way I would flip my hands at the top of the pull up would jostle the bar almost out of position (DANGER!). I figured out how to do them and get the full effect of the kip without the grip flip, so it was exciting to put that to use in this workout.

Yes, I just said pull ups are exciting. Don't judge me!