Wednesday Workouts + #WhatIAteWednesday: Week 3
A weekend day of eating + workouts this week
Last week, I shared a typical day of eating and workouts. The week before I shared my workouts along with a special day of eating on NYE. This week I’ll share something in-between: a day of eating on the weekend along with my workouts for the week!
Weekend Eating
I’ve talked before about how I used to justify what I ate through exercise. This is a recipe for failure long-term if you have physique or health goals. If you eat well all week and then let it all go on the weekend, your body is literally taking 1 step forward, 2 steps back every single week. So, it’s no surprise that this kind of strategy tends to sabotage tangible results. I suspect it’s even more damaging to us psychologically, because we train ourselves into being the kind of people who allows ourselves to give up on our goals every single weekend. Not great.
This past year, I’ve been focused on consistency in many areas of life, in particular my nutrition. But, I’m still human and like to have fun and live my life. So, I’ve had to found ways of getting creative to both stay within my nutritional goals and enjoy the food I’m eating and special moments. This week’s post will give a concrete example of what I ate during a weekend day to give you some ideas of how to make this delicate balance possible!
On Saturday, we went to see the new Spiderman: Into the Spiderverse movie! It was absolutely delightful, so different from any movie I’ve ever seen before, and well worth going to, so please check it out! Going to movies are one of my husband’s and my favorite things to do together, but, for years we really enjoyed getting down with a large popcorn (plus refills) and giant (diet) sodas. While it was so much fun, I never felt great afterward and often even felt some level of regret. Yet, when I didn’t get popcorn I felt deprived. Feeling stuck, I was kind of pumped when KetoConnect made this video about movie snacks:
I’ve tried this 3-layer Snack bag Formula out twice now and am totally loving it! This week my bag included:
- Oven-baked cheese bites from Trader Joe’s
- Epic Bacon Jerky (unlike most jerky this had about equal amounts of fat and protein) — I bought this at our local Kroger but have also found it at Whole Foods in the past!
- Marcona Almonds with Rosemary from Trader Joe’s
I simply weighed out one portion of each item (~28–30g) and added those to a larger snack bag. It’s definitely less VOLUME than a huge bucket of popcorn, but also far more filling since these are low carb / high fat alternative snacks. Think quality over quantity here. I love getting a little bit of all 3 in one bite and savoring it. I also try to go slow and stop myself halfway through, wait a half-hour while I enjoy the movie and be more present, and then go back to the snacks if I’m still hungry later. It worked like a charm — I loved my snacks, I enjoyed the movie, and I did not feel deprived at all (plus I got a little bonus zing of feeling like I was doing my body a favor and sticking to my goals!)
After our movie, we hit up Costco and then drove home in a blizzard. Fun stuff. I got hungry again around 6:00 so I made an omelette because I’ve been going through a bit of a phase over here: 😂
My obsession with eggs did not stop there. I’ve been eating hard-boiled eggs quite a bit lately because their macros tend to be perfect for keto, but on Sunday I went a step further to try out a new savory fat bomb recipe from the KetoConnect Fat Bomb Bible: Bacon Deviled Eggs!
Finally, I ended my night with a sweet fat bomb from the KetoConnect Fat Bomb Bible: The Oatmeal Cookie Bomb Bites. These are made with pecans but somehow do taste remarkably like an oatmeal cookie! So fun!
Workouts this week
This week I switched it up a little and did TWO yoga classes back to back on the weekend. This meant my rest days fell on Friday and Tuesday. We were discussing on the Booty by Bret (BBB) facebook group how sometimes it’s difficult for us to take rest days. But most of us agreed that they are essential to see progress, especially with weight lifting. Every workout tears your body and muscle down. We only grow and repair when resting, so you gotta take those rest days!! Don’t neglect this!
Thursday the 10th —
- Warmup: 12 min. incline walk on treadmill
- Booty by Bret (BBB) Month 5, Week 2, Day 3Workout — deadlift specialization month — favorite move today was the B-stance Hip Thrust!
- Cool-Down: Day 3 of this pull-up routine from Bret Contreras:
Friday the 11th — rest day
Saturday the 12th — Advanced Power Vinyasa Flow at Harbor Yoga
Sunday the 13th — Advanced Power Vinyasa Flow at Harbor Yoga
This was my first time doing 2 advanced yoga classes back to back Saturday and Sunday. Loved it and felt like an awesome routine for the weekend!
Monday the 14th —
- Warmup: 12 min. incline walk on treadmill
- Booty by Bret (BBB) Month 5, Week 3, Day 1 Workout — deadlift specialization month — favorite move today was the CHIN-UP! Why, you might wonder…I’ll tell you why!! I finally got my first-ever unassisted chin-up!!! I wrote a whole blog post about self-limiting beliefs inspired it:
- Cool-Down: Day 1 pull-up routine from Bret Contreras shown above, scroll up (no way am I quitting now! I am hoping to get 2, 3, 5, 10 pull-ups, add weight, etc! Loving this empowered feeling!)
Tuesday the 15th — rest day
Wednesday the 16th —
For some reason I had unending amounts of energy today (probably because yesterday was a rest day?) so I hit it hard today:
- Warmup: 10 min. incline walk, then 5 min interval jog on treadmill
- Booty by Bret (BBB) Month 5, Week 3, Day 2Workout — deadlift specialization month — favorite move today was Barbell hip thrust! I think I matched my personal record (PR) from last month (155lb) today in week 3 of the month, so, I am hoping to set a new PR above that next week in week 4, the final week of this month’s workouts! 🤞
- Day 2 of the pull-up routine above
- Peloton 20 min. cycle class — I had to try this instructor, Dennis, at the suggestion of my brother-in-law and I was not disappointed!
- Cool down: 10 min. core routine from peloton, also with Dennis.
I think I’m going to switch it up this week and take another rest day tomorrow so that I can hit it again with lifting Friday, and then do back to back yoga again on the weekend. Maybe I’ll settle into that routine for a while (lifting M/W/F, rest days T/Th, Yoga on weekends. I like how that always allows for rest between days of lifting)…but I’m always changing it up, so we’ll see!
The most important thing is to enjoy your workout and your food. It really doesn’t matter what you do — the workout you enjoy, you will keep doing. Finding healthy food you love to eat and a way of eating that works for your body will bring a lot of peace and enjoyment — I love that the nagging voice I used to fight all the time about what I “should” or “could” eat is finally gone! Consistency matters more than anything, whether it’s with your nutrition, your exercise, or other areas of life! Showing up is half the battle. Have a great week, hit the gym, eat right and feel confident and happy in your skin! ❤
If you’re enjoying these Workout / What I ate Wednesday posts let me know by clapping! I am planning to do this for one more week (January series) but can continue if there is interest! ❤
