Why I love HIIT

Hello Fit Friends!!

    I hope y'all have had a fabulous week and a great start to your weekend :)

    So this post is going to be about why I love high intensity interval training or how you see me post it all the time, HIIT. 

    We all know my back story, if you don't go back to my first post and read up! I started my adult fitness journey by learning how to love running. Pretty much the majority of last year I ran a "distance" (4-6 miles) runs 5-6 days a week. In April I ran my first 10k with my bff Maddy. It was so fun. I LOVED racing and imagined myself running more 10k's, half marathons and maybe even a marathon someday. And then: I. just. stopped....  After 4/7/13 I did not run 6 miles again (until today!). I don't know what happened. Well that's a lie, I know what happened. I got bored. I get bored easily (it really is not a good quality) and I get bored REALLY easily when it comes to working out. I don't like doing the same thing day after day week after week. Which is probably why I thrived in doing "fire station" work outs with my husband. 1: I didn't have to plan them, he did. and 2: they were different (or variant) every time.

    So I guess after I hit my goal of my first 10k I just kind of jumped off the bandwagon of distance running. I ran 3 miles here, 4 miles there but most of my runs were 2-2.5 miles just to say I "ran" that day. The last time I did steady cardio was on May 21st. I know this because my map my run app told me :) Since the end of may all of my cardiovascular training has been in the form of HIIT and I am hear to tell you why I love it.

    But first I'll give a little more clear explanation of what HIIT is. As I said previously, it stands for high intensity interval training.  HIIT is done by performing a short warm up, followed by 3-10 episodes of high intensity exercise that is separated by lower or medium intensity exercise and then followed by a cool down. The purpose of HIIT is to improve athletic capacity, improve glucose metabolism and to improve fat burning. 

This is how I do my HIIT- 

    I usually 1 do a combo of stair/running HIIT training: 
5 rounds of 1:2 ratio (1 minute all out, 2 minutes walking) on the stairs. I run the stairs as hard as I can for 1 minute and then walk around for 2. I usually do this as a warm up. I then lift weights and resistance train for about 30-45 minutes and end with HIIT running.
5 rounds of 1:2 ratio- run all out for 1 minute and then walk for 2 minutes. 

    That is a typical work out for me when I have weights/stairs available (about 4 days a week) the other days I do 10 rounds of 1:2 ratio running at the track.  

    Typically I burn about 300-400 calories in 10 rounds of HIIT running. Now let me point something out thats amazing about that. In 29 minutes (the time it takes me to do 10 rounds) I am only actively running for 10 minutes. And I burn that many calories! Now if that's not amazing I don't know what its. 

    My goal in HIIT is to always try to lower my heart rate as much as possible during my rest periods. Typically, my heart rate for the majority of the rounds is between 160-170. I then try to lower it to at LEAST 120 during my rest periods. Sometimes I can get it to the 110s or lower (especially in the first few rounds) This is important because it shows how quickly my heart can recover, which shows endurance and cardiovascular strength . I have been pretty consistence in getting my heart rate as low as possible during my rest periods and I also find it is harder to get my heart rate elevated in the first 1-4 rounds of HIIT (which is why if I am only going to do 5 rounds, I do it at the end of my work out when I'm already pretty fatigued) The last round I always try to max out and get my heart rate up to 180 (my max heart rate is 184). This is always a good challenge at the end of my work outs!

     Okay, this brings me to today. As I said above the last time I ran 6 miles was in April. The past few days I have just been itching to start distance running again. I told myself I was going to wait until the weather cooled down a bit (I just couldn't imagine running 6 miles in 104 degrees). But I woke up today and the desire was just too strong. So I laced up my trusty nike frees and hit the pavement. Before I started I had decided I was going to do at least 4 miles but I really wanted to do 5. About 1/2 mile in I decided to do 6 and I just kept my mind focused on that the whole run. 

     The first 2-2.5 miles were a breeze- I felt FANTASTIC! Around mile 3 I started to struggle a bit. Mile 4 (which is always my most difficult mile) was rough. And I pushed through miles 5-6 with a vengeance. I felt so accomplished (and exhausted!!) when I finished. Was this the best run I had ever had? No. Did I make a PR or even keep a consistence pace? Definitely not.   The point of this is to explain what an amazing effect HIIT has had on my body. I have not ran that kind of distance in 4 months- any runner knows that you have to get your body accustomed and trained to run certain distances. I would say (most) anyone could go out and jog a mile or 2. But when you get up to 3, 4, 5, 6 and beyond it takes a little bit more getting used to. Although I haven't been training my body for these type of runs for a few months, my cardiovascular strength was still intact from HIIT. Also, my muscles were so much stronger from all the weight lifting and resistance training I have been doing this summer.

My face pretty much explains how I felt after I finished. 

      Now, will I be running 6 miles 5days a week again, NOPE! But will I be doing it maybe once a week or every other week, definitely! Because I love it! 

       Another difference between distance and HIIT is the amount of time my body stays in "fat burn" vs "fitness" mode. My awesome polar heart rate monitor watch (Polar FT40F if you're curious) lets you know how much of your work out is spent in fat burning vs fitness mode. In a typical work out that I do 5-6 times a week I will burn between 400-600 calories and at LEAST 30% of it (more like 40-50%) is in the "fat burning" mode. When I did my run today I ended up burning over 1000 calories (by the time I got my heart rate to resting) but only 15% of it was fat burning (probably the 10-15 minutes it took my heart rate to lower! ha!) My heart rate for the first 2 miles was in the high 150s to the 160s, by mile 3 it was in the high 160s and miles 4-6 it was in the 170s the whole time. So, although it was a great cardiovascular work out today, it wasn't the best for "fat burning" which is why i will limit my distance running to only once a week. I am trying very hard to put on muscle right now. 

So that's my thoughts on the benefits of HIIT. The important part is finding a workout that you love and can see your self doing consistently for long periods of time. It doesn't matter what it is, just get up and move your body! This just happens to be my current choice of exercise :) 

In case anyone is wondering vegan week 2 has been awesome. Besides being tortured by my husband with a delicious PTerry's cookie and milk I have had a great week :) I have made so many delicious vegan meals and my body just feels like its working so much more efficiently. I can't wait to see what I continue to feel like these next four weeks. 

Alrighty kids its time for me to pop in a movie and enjoy a relaxing Saturday night at home. (Man, I'm old!) 

Until next time,

Live the fit life,

xoxo Katie :) 

Vegan Week One

Hello Fit Friends!! I'm excited to say I have now made it 7 days as a vegan. This week has had its ups and downs but I am happy to say that I have survived it and I am looking forward to these next 5 weeks! So you all know how day one went- recap: I was full :) 

Day two I would say was a good day as well. On Tuesdays Matt and I play on a softball team with a bunch of friends. It is such a good time, I really didn't think I would enjoy it much (I had never really played softball before) but it is SO much fun. That being said, Tuesdays are really really really long days- My day starts when I get up from work at 5 am and really doesn't stop until 10-11 at night. That day I got home from work, went and did a session of HIIT running at the track at the middle school by our house (I have found that I really like to HIIT run on a track, I don't like ANY other kind of running on tracks, but it works really well for HIIT) As soon as I got back from running I whipped up this amazing recipe from OhSheGlows.com: 15 minute creamy avocado pasta. Check out her website for hundreds of more amazing recipes! I seriously spent a good 2 hours on there one day and barely grazed the surface. Here is a pic at my attempt at this fabulous recipe (I added mushrooms because I just LOVE mushrooms and Matt was adding chicken to his so I felt like I needed something extra too) 

Not the prettiest dinner you've ever seen but it was delicious!  I will say this though, the recipe calls for 1-3 cloves of garlic-- I LOVE garlic so I put 3 in there and it was a taaaadddd garlicly- I will probably only do 2 next time. It made about enough for 2 servings however we could have stretched it to three probably. 

After we ate dinner we went straight to our softball game. Now let me tell you something else I've learned that I love about softball, I burn A LOT of calories during a softball game. Anywhere from 400-800 calories depending on how many times I get on base. I think part of it is that I am nervous a lot of the game(as I said I haven't played much) so my heart rate is elevated for almost an entire hour.  So after our game I had burned (with exercise) over 1200 calories that day. This doesn't include the 1700 or so calories my body naturally burns just by living (breathing, digesting, temperature regulating etc) each day. So after the game I was FAMISHED! We stayed for a little bit so Matt could drink some beers with the guys but around 9 o'clock I demanded we leave because 1: It was now my bed time and we had a 40 minute drive home still and 2: I was turning into a "food diva" because I felt like I was dying of starvation. So we got home and I ate a left over black bean burger from the night before w/ some salsa...annnnd a half PBJ sandwich (oops!) all still vegan but probably not the  best choice :) 

Now onto wednesday... Let me say this... Wednesday....was...ROUGH.... I almost gave up wednesday because I felt like I was dying. Let me preface this by saying that I had been having a pretty consistent headache since about Friday night. I don't know what was going on but it had been there and I had kind of just been trying to ignore it. By Wednesday I had reached a breaking point and I thought that I was doing something wrong. I thought I wasn't getting enough protein, or iron, or something that was making my body feel this way. If y'all know me you know that I suffered from chronic headaches for a good 5 years until my stubborn self finally went and got allergy tested and found out that I was allergic to hmm...every seasonal allergy that exists in central Texas. But my headaches have been pretty controlled with allergy mediation for the past 18 months so it was really strange that I was going on 5 days feeling this way. I was also dizzy, nauseous, fatigued and on wednesday night I even ran a slight fever.   I thought I was either 1: doing something terribly wrong to my body or 2: actually coming down with the flu or some other illness. 

That night Matt and I made vegan fajitas using portobello mushrooms as our "meat" (well technically Matt actually ate real meat) and they were delicious! We also made homemade corn tortillas.  Side note: homemade corn tortillas are so easy to make. You literally just have to have 4 things. 1: corn masa (you can get it at any store, we got ours at HEB) 2: water (who doesn't have water?) 3: a tortilla press (honestly you could probably use a heavy book) and 4: a stove. BOOM homemade corn tortillas! They are wonderful and don't have any of the nasty preservatives store bought ones can have. (and they're gluten free!) 

Here's a pic of our portobello fajitas on our homemade corn tortillas topped w/ avocado and salsa: 

After we ate dinner I pretty  much felt like death so I went straight to bed. I woke up Thursday morning still feeling  pretty crappy. I had a bad headache, I was dizzy and really fatigue (even though I got a good night sleep). On thursday morning at work I text my dad's girlfriend Donna, to tell her that I unfortunately wouldn't be able to come over that afternoon to say goodbye to her daughter, Stephanie (who was leaving for college the next day) due to me feeling so badly. She then told me that I might be going through a "Healing Crisis" from changing my diet. I then quickly googled "healing crisis" and was so relieved to find out that this was EXACTLY what was happening to me (Thank you, Donna!). Basically a healing crisis is when you change  your diet in a way that causes your body to expel all the toxins it had in it prior to the change. This can last anywhere from 1 day to 2 weeks (or longer) depending on each individual person. Now, I was eating a pretty healthy diet prior to going vegan, but I was also carb backloading which allowed me to eat (some) junk. It expels the toxins anyway it can, though all your major organs which then causes the side effects of : headaches, nausea, malaise, fatigue, and fever. Bingo! Once I realized that this is what I was going through and that I wasn't doing something wrong I instantly felt more motivated to just push through these few days so I could start feeling great again. I drank a TON of water on Thursday hoping to expel the toxins that way and when I got home from work instead of working out (like I normally would) I took a 1.5 hour nap to really rest and re-set my body. I woke up feeling 100x better and made this for dinner: 

A mixed green salad w/ sliced strawberries, blueberries and almonds (no dressing) 

      

 Portobello mushroom and eggplant (from our local Bastrop Farmers Market!) sauteed in olive oil with a side of baked sweet potato and quinoa. 

I actually ate the salad while I was cooking the other stuff because I was really hungry when I woke up. Side note: I mentioned I ate my salad w/ no dressing. I actually eat MOST of my salad's w/ no dressing. To me if a salad has enough good tasting stuff in it I typically don't need dressing. If I am going to have dressing I will use a balsamic of some sort. We got two delicious balsamic vingarettes from Con'olio here in Austin, super cool place (Thanks, Kathy for recommending that place to us!) 

Friday was a brand new day for me and I felt like a brand new person. I had pushed through my bodies healing crisis and I felt FANTASTIC! On Fridays my friends at work and I always go out to eat so this week we went to Torchy's and I got their "independent" w/ a few modifications.  This taco usually comes w/ fried portobello mushrooms (I just had it not fried) and it usually has cheese on it, I just got it with no cheese! I was so delicious! 

Tip about Torchy's that my friend Katie taught me: If you order your taco on corn tortillas (which I always do because I prefer corn) They will give you two tortillas for 1 taco. Also, they always give you enough "filling" to make 2 tacos. This is what I did here. What you see is actually one taco split into two. Awesome, right?! 

Friday night Matt was working so I just had left overs from the night before. Saturday his sister and dad came to town for the afternoon so after we made a stop at our local farmers market where we got amazing organic pretzel and whole wheat bread, locally grown bell peppers, egg plant and jalapenos, and Matt got the "best gumbo he's ever had" (cc: our friend Josh's parents: hereslebouefcatering.com - check them out!!)  We then went to lunch at our favorite local restaurant Bastrop Brewhouse. I ordered a spinach salad w/ strawberries, blue berries, apples, pecans and tomato and again had it w/ no dressing (there was no need!) I forgot to take a picture before but wish I would have taken one after because there was NOTHING left on my plate(Clean plate club!!!). This was the first time I have ever eaten an entire salad at a restaurant. Later that day after I worked out I had my first protein shake w/ my new protein: I got it at Whole Foods, but I also saw it at Sprouts (for cheaper) later that day! (bummer!!) 

One: that protein is delicious

Two: yes that is a green protein shake made w/ chocolate protein

Ingredients:

1/4-1/2 cup of coconut milk

1-2 cups of spinach

1/2 cup of kale

1 tbs peanut butter

1/2 banana

1 tsp ground flaxseed 

1 scoop chocolate plant fusion protein

I cannot express how much I have been loving my green smoothies. My morning ones are different than my post-work out ones. The base is always the same: 

1/4/-1/2 cup of coconut milk

1-2 cups of spinach

1/2 cup of Kale

1 tsp ground flax seed

But then I add:

1/2 banana

1/2 cup frozen pineapple 

1/2 cup frozen mango

1 tsp of mango strawberry spark

1/2 cup of ice.

I always bend the coconut milk and greens first (I found it works better this way) and then follow it up w/ the banana, flax seed, and frozen fruit/ice.

It is like drinking a tropical paradise!! I LOVE it!. 

Well guys thats week one.. So far I LOVE being vegan and will continue it this week. I have not missed eating meat at all. I honestly haven't really missed dairy that much either. Plus all the benefits out weigh sacrificing these simple things from my diet. I have so much more energy. I don't get sleepy mid afternoon the way I used to. My skin looks better. My digestive track seems healthier. I never feel bloated or have tummy aches (unless I eat too much but that quickly goes away) I am not worried about how many calories I eat because I know that the foods I'm eating are way less calorically dense then the ones I was eating before. I have lost 1 pound (not my goal but a great side effect) and overall I just feel better. 

Today I plan on working on some vegan baking recipes that I have either found on pinterest, from ohsheglows.com or from the new "healthy deserts" book I bought from Muffin Topless (muffin-topless.com) I'll let you know how that goes! 

One last thing I though I'd share. It was cool outside this morning so I decided to take my laptop (and my fur babies) outside to blog. Here's my current view: I LOVE our deck and our yard. It is so peaceful and quiet :) 

annnd another one of Miss Stella And Mr. Jameson. I just love these two :) 

I hope you all had a fabulous week and weekend! I'll see ya next time.

Live the Fit life,

xoxo Katie 

Going Vegan Day One

Two words to describe day one-  I'M FULL!!! 

So a little preface- for about 2 months I have been doing a program w/ Matt called carb back loading- to put it simply (it is really quite complicated if I tried to explain the science of it) we only eat 30 grams of carbs or less during the day- Work out like beasts at 4pm and then carb backload after our work out- which means we ate A LOT of carbs. The program is designed so that you can simultaneously build muscle while still shedding fat- instead of having to cycle bulking/cutting phases.
So you can imagine, once dinner time rolled around I was STARVING. The difference I noticed today was that I could barely eat dinner I was so full!! Even though I had just worked out (almost) as hard as I usually do. Here's what I had today:

Morning smoothie: 

4 strawberries- 1/4 cup raspberries- 1/8 cup of blueberries- 1/2 banana- 1/2 cup of kale  and 1/2 cup of unsweetened vanilla almond milk- 1/2 of scoop of strawberry mango spark(i usually don't have caffeine in the morning but I was REALLY tired this morning)

The whole thing was about 150 calories (of deliciousness!!) I plan on getting some coconut milk and coconut oil to add to my smoothies this week. 

Mid morning I ate a mix of almonds and sunflower seeds to hold me over for lunch where I had: 

1/4 cup of quinoa and mixed veggies (bell peppers, squash, zucchini and mushroom)

This held me over for about ehhhh 45 minutes :( and then I had a brown rice cake w/ a tablespoon of peanut butter. And then about an hour before my work out (3pm) I had a luna bar-- I usually don't eat protein bars of any type (because they are all usually terrible for you) but I LOVE Luna bars- all the ingredients are all natural and they are all vegan, gluten free, dairy free, soy free, non GMO and kosher. Most of them have a max of 4-5 ingredients. Which is AWESOME- I had the carrot cake one today- it was okay- I had the peanut butter and jelly one yesterday and I loved it. 

After work I headed straight to work out- I figured I'd include it in here incase anyone is interested- I started with 5 rounds of HITT- 1:2 ratios- I run as hard as I can for 1 minute and rest for 2, repeat 5 times (I typically do 6-10)

I was feeling pretty tired today(didn't sleep well last night) so I just did 10 rounds of: 10 stiff leg dead lifts, 10 squats, 10 push ups, 10 calf raises. AKA 100 of all. Followed by 3 rounds of 15 inclined abs. 

As I said before I had planned on continuing using my after work out protein shakes- even though they are whey based- annnd I felt like I was going to vom after drinking it- I just don't think my body was accustomed to eating that much during the day. 

For dinner I made black bean burgers (thanks for the recipe, Bailey! I loved them!)  I had them w/ a side of avacado and salsa, kale, bell pepper, mushrooms and garlic. It was a chore getting it down!  Not that it wasn't delicious, but I was just that full. 

So overall today was a good day. I did not feel deprived at all- I have not missed meat or dairy at all (yet!). 

I probably won't post everyday since most days will be like today- but I will give weekly updates on recipes I've tried and liked (or disliked) as well as how my body feels with this new change!

Thanks for reading guys!

Live the Fit life,

xoxo Katie 

Going Vegan!

So as we all know I LOVE documentaries. Netflix has a great database for documentaries and I take full advantage of them. My two most recent faves were Farmageddon  and Vegucated. I highly recommend both and if you have Netflix they are both on there,

Boom! Easy peasy!

Farmageddon looks into the way our government over regulates local organic farmers while they let farm factories slide on by. I was disgusted after watching this documentary and it furthered pushed my desire to eat local and shop at farmers markets, which Matt and I have begun to do! Yay! Our local one in Bastrop is pretty small but we got some AMAZING bell peppers, eggplant, pretzel bread and honey -- all grown or made locally- and definitely plan on going back. I also have been trying to find a farm where I can buy raw milk. The benefits of raw milk are astronomical:  proteins, it's lactobacalli bacteria intact (which allows people with lactose allergy to drink it!!), good fats,

vitamins, minerals, enzymes, and beneficial bacteria. 

Matt actually did find a farm near us that does sell raw milk (and milk products such as yogurt and cheese) that we plan on checking out. However, my raw milk hunt is temporarily MOOt because.....

Last night I came home, flicked on Netflix and found a nice little documentary to watch: Vegucated.

This documentary follows 3 meat loving New Yorkers as they go vegan for 6 weeks with the help of the film maker who is vegan herself. This documentary was a huge eye opener for me. Matt and I have been buying "free range" chicken and eggs and "grass fed" beef for awhile now and we will continue to always do so; we are even in the talks about getting our own chickens.  However,  learning about how the majority of Americans get their meat, eggs, and dairy, from farm factories that cruelly treat the animals and brutally execute them once they've served their purposes was horrifying. Here's the facts that stuck with me: 

1) male baby chicks serve no purpose so they are therefore killed immediately either by being GROUND ALIVE or just thrown in the trash to starve/suffocate to death

2) Other chickens are killed by being hung upside down, heads in water and then electricity is shot through the water. after they live their entire lives in tiny cages where their beaks are sawed down so they can't peck each other to death

3) pigs are thrown into boiling water to be killed and sometimes skinned while still alive. 

4) baby calves are taken from their mothers within 48 hours of life and either sold for veil, killed, or sent to another farm to live a horrible existence.

Had enough? Yeah me too. Now, not ALL farms are like this, but the majority of them are, and that's enough for me to try to give another lifestyle a try: a vegan lifestyle. The documentary goes into way more details of how beneficial a plant based diet is for our bodies and the earth, but I am not going to go into the details. Watch the documentary! You won't be disappointed :) 

So this morning I presented the idea to Matt about me wanting to try to go vegan for 6 weeks (as they did in the documentary) and his first response was "I'm not doing it!!!" "I can't survive that way" "I NEED meat."  Which I totally expected. He has a career that causes him to exert A LOT more energy then I do. I know he COULD do it, but I also understand that he does not want to, and I respect that. Just as he respects the fact that I want to try to do this. So we packed up and drove into Austin to go to Whole Foods. I stocked up on lots of veggies, fruits, some quinoa, peanut butter (a must have in my life) and a few other vegan substitutes- such as Nada Moo vegan ice cream- made with coconut milk. It's all organic and all AMAZING! I love it! I felt I would struggle the most when I watched Matt eat things I couldn't (like ice cream-- oh how I love ice cream) but having this alternative substitute will be great for me!

So that's my background on the start of this 6 week(and maybe forever journey) 

I am going to be tracking my struggles and accomplishments, my likes and dislikes, my new favorite dishes and things I could live with out. I plan on going full vegan my first week (giving up dairy is going to be hard for me, I love Greek yogurt and cheese-- I also plan on continue using my whey protein for after my workouts- I want to continue to build muscle) But I will have NO meat for 6 weeks. I hope you'll follow my journey on this! I have already had so much support from friends on Facebook and would love if y'all commented/questioned on here too.  

Til tomorrow,

Stay fit friends.

xoxo Katie