Strength Training Like a Grrrl

I've been humoring the idea of strength training. As you know from my last post, I Zumba, and that's really my only formal exercise... Not to say it isn't awesome (because it is).

Today I decided to kick myself in the butt and get to it. I did the Beginner Body Weight Circuit Workout from NerdFitness (after warming up for five minutes by jumping rope and running in circles around my couch—classy).

My first run-through of the circuit, I was thinking, "this is nothing." My second run-through I started to change my mind, and toward the end I began telling myself not to do a third run-through. Well, I did the third one. Then I stretched for five minutes and logged my workout on Fitocracy.com, gaining mondo points. That's when I realized that I was 10 jump-squats away from completing a quest, and I hopped up and did 15. Way to overachieve.

Perhaps the most entertaining bit of this whole thing was my boy cat's reaction. He was watching me all concerned throughout my workout endeavors. He started rolling around into funny positions, apparently giving me his impression of my behavior. When I was struggling on my last rep of the plank, he said in his feline way, "Mommy, what's wrong? Here, I'll help you up," and leaned against me. Then he proceeded to follow me around the house in case of sudden death, probably with the hope of an eventual zombiecat snack. (It's really hard for him to reach my brains when I'm upright.) He nearly got one, too, because I fell over sideways at least twice when trying to do normal walking-type things.

Now I'm wondering what it's like to have energy. I'll definitely do the circuit again Monday or Tuesday, but I'll have to make sure I do it at night... So I can pass out after some protein intake and call it a day.

Speaking of protein, I made up a black bean meatloaf recipe the other day. I had ground beef in the fridge that needed to be used probably a few days sooner (oops) and wasn't in the mood for Hamburger Helper.

Easy Black Bean Meatloaf

Prep: 10 minutes

Cook: 1 hour

Total Time: 1 hour 10 minutes

Ingredients:
Barbecue sauce (I like Stubb's)
1.25-1.5 lbs ground beef
15 oz can black beans, drained
1 cup bread crumbs (I used Italian-seasoned bread crumbs)
1 large egg
1 cup milk

Prepare:
1. Preheat oven to 350 °F.
2. Spread some barbecue sauce on the bottom of a greased 5x9" loaf pan.
3. Mix the beef, beans, bread crumbs, egg and milk together in a large bowl. You might as well use your hands because they're going to get messy soon, anyway.
4. Press the mixture into the loaf pan. The barbecue sauce will creep up the sides of the loaf pan. If you really like barbecue sauce, you can spread some more on top. Be careful, though—it will bubble in the oven, so if you use a lot of sauce make sure you put your loaf pan on top of a cookie sheet to catch any drips.
5. Put meatloaf in pre-heated oven and cook for one hour. It may still be a little pink in the center at one hour, so cut your first piece from the center to make sure the color is to your liking. Or, better yet, stick an instant-read food thermometer in the center and make sure it's at least the USDA recommended 160 °F.

You can add chopped bell peppers, jalepeño peppers, sautéed onions, corn... Whatever veggies you like. I was feeling pretty lazy. This meatloaf is fairly healthy as far as meatloaves go, not having cheese and all.



And just so you guys don't think I'm straying from the cupcake arena, I made an oversized cupcake the other day. I used a dense vegan chocolate cake for the cake itself, then filled it with a not-so-vegan Oreo and cream cheese mixture, slapped some canned vanilla frosting on the top and covered that with crushed Oreos. Fancy.

Zumba

Today was my "day off" because I needed to work Sunday. My work phone rang at least 10 times. I received 4 voicemails. I spent about half an hour on the phone. The worst part was that the people who were repeatedly calling me KNEW I was off. So annoying. But heaven forbid I not return an "urgent" call on my day off.

Today was also my first time doing Zumba in the past few... weeks? I was sick, then I was injured, then I was crazy busy. I do Zumba at home on my PS3. I'd love to go to the local Zumba studio but I can't justify throwing away that kind of money. $10 per class or I think it was somewhere between $50-100 per month? Yes, Golds Gym has Zumba for less $$, but the folks at Studio Ayo hooked me when they did a introductory session at the hospital and I think any other class at any other gym would disappoint me after that.

So today, not having truly exercised in weeks, I did one of the "intermediate" 45 minute classes on my PS3. I have a weak lower back from a car accident in '08, and I aggravated it in my trip-and-fall. The past few days it's left me apparently walking funny (I was told by coworkers that I was walking "like I had scoliosis" and that I was "walking crooked") which I attribute to a shorter stride length from right-sided pain/stiffness in my lower back. So it wasn't the EASIEST workout I've ever forced myself to complete, not that it was painful either, but it was very annoying to keep hearing my work phone ring and be taken out of my groove. Zumba calms me, and my phone ringing when I'm Zumba-ing does the opposite.

I attribute Zumba and drinking a glass of red wine several nights a week to an extreme drop in my cholesterol. In college my cholesterol was at 266 and I was only about 10 pounds heavier than I am now. October 2010 it was 206. November 2011 it was 191. January 2012 it was... 154!!! Even better, the first two (college/2010) were done fasting, but the very recent ones were non-fasting, meaning the true values are probably lower. (Though both times the only cholesterol I would have consumed at that point would have been in my coffee creamer.) I hope I haven't reversed my cholesterol improvement with not exercising.

The Zumba game's music selection can get boring. Not having DLC makes it worse. But I also still can't justify paying ridiculous $$ for a class at a studio, even though it would be far more entertaining.

In writing this post I discovered the Zumba website and store, complete with the pictured shoes.

Now, for some cupcake goodness:

These little devils are banana cupcakes with peanut butter frosting, and their fancier companions with Nutella in the cake and in the frosting. I needed to use two overripe bananas, so I mixed up a box of light yellow vanilla cake mix and added the banana mush. I think I added a dash of vanilla extract too. Half of them I added a spoon of Nutella to. (The Nutella will sink to the bottom but that's okay.) Once they were cooled, I mixed up some homemade peanut butter frosting using this recipe, and added a dab of Nutella to the tops of the ones with Nutella in the cake. I halved the frosting recipe and didn't need to use any milk. It covered exactly two dozen cakes. Yum! They lasted about 5 days on the counter, then the cake began to taste less fresh.