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Byn’s “Must Have” Meals

Hi Internets!

This week, I’m gonna get a little more personal all up in here. Something I get asked a lot is how I eat specifically. Well, let me first say that my diet is far from air tight for losing weight per sey since I consider myself at more of a maintenance stage. However, I will share with you some of my “go to” meals and snacks when I’m looking to eat healthy and when I’m crunched for time.

*Note: I believe in a balanced diet of eating a variety of healthy foods. I know there are a lot of varying opinions about what to eat and what not to eat (e.g., some think starches are bad, high fat is bad, cholesterol ect, ect). Call me a traditionalist, but I follow government/physiologist established guidelines, because some pretty smart people spent a lot of time constructing them.

Breakfast:

The first meal of the day has been a long process for me to “get right”. I grew up in a house where breakfast was an option rather than a necessity. Let me start off by saying that what you’ve heard is true… breakfast is very important for overall health (and definitely weight loss). There have actually been studies that have shown correlations between those who eat breakfast with having lower mortality and morbidity rates.

So what do I eat for breakfast? Well, it varies, but at the moment I am hooked on one meal in particular…

2 soft poached eggs, half an avocado, and 2 pieces of light rye toast, salt and pepper.

Directions:First, I poach my eggs (I recommend an egg poacher) and toast my light rye. Then I use the avocado (healthy fat) as a spread instead of margarine. This meal takes me 5-10 minutes to make maximum. I think we can all find time for that right?

The eggs provide long lasting protein, the avocado provides healthy fat (which I’ve read is important in the morning, especially for women), and the light rye gives you a kick of energy without too many calories.

Other healthy breakfast options that follow my general guidelines of a balanced meal are….

• 1 cup of oatmeal (make with water for less caloric intake) with fresh berries/banana

• 2 egg omelet with a variety of vegetables (this one takes much longer)

• 2 pieces of light rye with peanut butter/almond butter (organic is healthier) and 1 banana

Snacks:

I recommend snacks in between “meals”. Some people snack throughout the day with having breakfast as their only “big” meal (say over 400 calories). I do agree with this perspective, but I find it takes the fun out of cooking a little bit. Also, sometimes with continuous snacking essential nutritients can be overlooked since “snack” foods generally can be pretty limited.

My rule of thumb is to never go more than 3 hours without eating something. Here are some awesome snacks to help you out.

• Nuts: any type of nut is going to provide you with protein and healthy fat. Where most people fail with nuts is a) how they are prepared and b) the serving size. For nuts a serving size is the size your palm. Only have one serving per snack period. Also, you want nuts without any crap on them. What I mean is salt, sugar coating, potato coating (although delicious)… ect.

• Raw Vegetables and Cheese: Also a favorite snack of mine. I prefer baby carrots for my vegetable snack because they take no time to prepare. Other options can include, bell peppers, snow peas, Baby tomatoes.... really whatever you like raw.  The cheese is included for protein. I usually eat block cheese and not a lot of it (maybe 1 or 2 slices). An even healthier option would be cottage cheese for your protein.

• An Apple and Peanut Butter: I find this one is awesome 1-2 hours before a workout. It can be a little messy if you take it into work. For example, I just cut up an apple, throw it in a Tupperware and scoop 1-2 table spoons into the Tupperware. I know they do have little containers but I always seem to loose them. I figure that’s why they make napkins. Organic peanut butter/almond butter is a healthier option.

For snacks the major thing to remember is you want protein to be included in some capacity along with something that is low calorie and filling (veggies, fruit). Above are 3 easier options, but if you have more time to prepare things feel free to get creative (e.g., quinoa salads, chicken breast ect). I just don’t like/have a lot of time to spend preparing my meals most weeks 

 Lunch:

To me, lunch is an option unless I have had like an 11am workout or a really busy (active) morning. Often I will just have 3 or 4 snacks throughout the day until dinner. However, there are some “go tos” for me for healthy lunches. I find they essentially almost mimic my snacks in larger form.

• Salad with a Healthy Fat and Protein: Healthy fats can include your dressing (I recommend 2 table spoons of olive oil and 1 tablespoon of balsamic vinegar), half an avocado or nuts. Your salad can basically be a combination of any vegetables/roughage you want. I often will use baby spinach because it’s high in iron and I can use it for stuff like stirfrys. Protein can be chicken, turkey, lean cut steak, tofu, nuts …. You get the idea. For protein serving size, keep it to as big as your palm.

• Left Overs: This can be an awesome motivation to cook healthy at night! For example, my lunch today is a chicken/veggie coconut curry stirfry with rice noodles that Scott and I made yesterday. Just make sure you watch the serving size. Other awesome meals that work great as left overs…. Grilled chicken breast and mashed cauliflower and vegetarian Mexican rice (see below)

Dinner:

Ideally, you want to eat dinner within the hour after working out (if you work out at night that is). For dinner we generally follow the same rule of thumb as breakfast with the idea of left overs for the next day.

One important note for the left over strategy…. Make sure you put the left overs away before you eat. I say this because, if you’re like me, you’ll go back and get more if it’s still out.

Below I’ll provide one of our favourite and very quick meals:

Mexican Rice (note: brown rice is healthier, but we use white because of $$)

Ingredients

• Rice (1-2 cups for 2 adults)*with the idea of leftovers

• 1.5 Avocado (for 2 adults)* with the idea of left overs

• 1-2 cloves of Garlic

• Lime juice

• ¼ Onion

• Salt and pepper

• Salsa (homemade is healthier)

• 1 packaged of Veggie ground beef (e.g., Yves Veggie Ground Beef)  OR 1/2 lbs-1lbs of lean ground beef/chicken

• 1 package of taco/burrito flavouring (light)

Directions:

• Cook the rice

• Cook the ground beef and add the taco flavouring as directed

• While the first two are cooking make your guacamole by adding the avocado, lime juice, raw diced onion, garlic, and pepper in a bowl. Now mash the hell out of it.

• Add the meat/veggie meat to the rice and stir

• Serve in a bowl (or plate haha) with 1-2 tablespoons of guacamole and as much salsa as you want

Alrighty! Well, I hope y’all found this post helpful in some capacity. Again, I am not a nutritionist, but I find that this semi-meal plan thing I follow works well for me and gives me lots of energy for my work outs.

As always, questions, comments, or concerns are greatly appreciated and anticipated.

For more information on nutrition take a look at my previous blog posts!

~Byn

Cool Summer Workout to get you Hot!

Hi Internets!

One of my clients from my Friday morning class suggested I put the workout we did this morning online, and I think it is a fantastic idea! This workout can be done with only two 5-15lbs dumbbells and is definitely a heart pumping, legs shaking good time!

The layout of the circuit is as follows

• 1 minute long for each exercise
• Cardio drill coupled with a resistance drill
• Start with 2 exercises for round 1, add 2 more for a total of 4 for round 2, add 2 more for a total of 6 exercises for round 3 and so on.
• Today we went up to 8 exercises (4 rounds) then worked our way back down starting with the last 2 exercises (see below for more detail)
• Take breaks in between rounds (or when needed haha)

For my trainer friends: This really can be done up to as many exercises as you want in a row (e.g., 12 exercises would be 6 rounds). If you're wondering how long this will take, we did 4 rounds up and 3 rounds down and it took us 45 minutes-ish this morning.


Alrighty, now that you are completely confused, here's the workout (it'll make more sense in a second).

* Indicates no equipment other than dumbbells.

To view each exercise, click on it.. (note: I could not find some exercises online so I'm gonna take video clips of myself this weekend for yall)

Round 1: 2 Exercises, 1 minute each 

1. Lateral Bosu Run  (28 sec into video) OR Speed Skaters*
2. Lateral Step Squat to 1 Legged Shoulder Press (Alternating Sides)*

Round 2: 4 Exercises, 1 minute each

1.  Lateral Bosu Run OR Ski Jump*
2. Lateral Step Squat to 1 Legged Shoulder Press  (Alternating Sides)*
3. Mountain Climbers* (try and make sure your back is straighter than the guy in the video, e.g., hip down)
4. Lean Lunge to Front Raise (Alternating Sides)*

Round 3: 6 Exercises, 1 minute each

1.  Lateral Bosu Run OR Ski Jump*
2. Lateral Step Squat to 1 Legged Shoulder Press (Alternating Sides)*
3. Mountain Climbers*
4. Lean Lunge to Front Raise (Alternating Sides)* 
5. Bosu Toe Taps OR Stair/Box Taps*
6. Straight Leg Deadlift--> Bicep Curl --> Shoulder Press Combination* (note: the clip is using a barbell, you can also do this with dumbbells)

 Round 4: 8 Exercises, 1 minute each

1. Lateral Bosu Run OR Ski Jump*
2. Lateral Step Squat to 1 Legged Shoulder Press (Alternating Sides)*
3. Mountain Climbers*
4. Lean Lunge to Front Raise (Alternating Sides)* 
5. Bosu Toe Taps OR Stair/Box Taps*
6. Straight Leg Deadlift--> Bicep Curl --> Shoulder Press Combination* 
7. Dumbbell Swings*
8. Step Back Back Row--> 1 Leg Chest Fly* (Alternating Sides)

 Rest: 2-3 minutes (to make the above circuit easier take a 1-2 minute break in between rounds)

Round 5: 8 Exercises, 1 minute each

1.  Dumbbell Swings
2. Step Back Back Row--> 1 Leg Chest Fly* (Alternating Sides) 
3. Bosu Toe Taps OR Stair/Box Taps*
4. Straight Leg Deadlift--> Bicep Curl --> Shoulder Press Combination*
5. Mountain Climbers*
6. Lean Lunge to Front Raise (Alternating Sides)*
7. Lateral Bosu Run OR Ski Jump*
8. Lateral Step Squat to 1 Legged Shoulder Press (Alternating Sides)*

For Rounds 6, 7, and 8 continue to remove 2 exercises until you are left with exercise 7 and 8.


So there you have it! Fun eh! For my followers who I'm not currently training I would love some feedback on this workout.

Stay Strong!

~Byn 

Body Weight Workouts - Series 2, Week 6, Day 5

WORK:
2 Rounds of:
Max Effort Wall-Squat
15 Jump Squats

INTENSITY:
6 Rounds of:
12 Sandbag Squat and Throw
6 Strict Pull-Ups

RESET:
2 Rounds of:
20 Box Jumps
50 Supine Bicycle Kicks (1 Leg, 1 Rep)


Sandbag Squat and Throw

Body Weight Workouts - Series 2, Week 5, Day 7

WORK:
21-15-9
Bench Dip
Diamond Push-Ups
Suspension Row

INTENSITY:
Rest Day

RESET:
"Short Tosh"
Run: 3 x (100m + 200m + 400m)

Tosh: Rest the exact time it takes you to complete the interval in each set
(Ex: 200m Run takes 35 Sec, Rest 35 Sec, then Run 400m, Rest 400m time, etc…)

Body Weight Workouts - Series 2, Week 5, Day 3

WORK:
Consecutively perform 21 Reps of:
Flutterkicks
Leg Lifts
Toe Touches
Hip Bridges

Consecutively means WITHOUT STOPPING between exercises

WOD:
Rest Day

POST:
2 x 5k
Rest 10 to 15 minutes between sets. Keep splits between 0:45 and 1:00.

Body Weight Workouts - Series 2, Week 4, Day 4

WORK:
3 Rounds of:
5 Clapping Push-Ups
10 Kipping Pull-Ups
15 Air Squats

INTENSITY:
Body Weight: Nancy
5 rounds for time of:
400 meter run
15 HSPU
15 Jump Squats

Post time to comments.

RESET:
2 Rounds of:
5 Hip-Ups
10 Supine Bicycles
15 Sit-Ups
20 Toe-Touches
25 V-Ups

Body Weight Workouts - Series 2, Week 4, Day 3

WORK:
3 Rounds of:
50ft Bear Crawl
10 Inch Worm Push-Ups
10 Walking Lunge Steps

INTENSITY:
"Death By Burpees"

With a continuously running clock do one burpees the first minute, two burpees the second minute, three burpees the third minute... continuing until you can no longer complete the allocated number of burpees within the minute.

Use as many sets each minute as needed.

Post number of minutes completed to comments.

RESET:
100 Prone Knees-to-Elbows*

*Prone Knees-to-Elbows (aka Cliff Climbers) - Start in the Push-Up position, explosively and with as straight of back as possible, bring your knees up to touch your elbows (your feet will land on the ground). Explosively return to the push-up position. This is one rep.

Body Weight Workouts - Series 2, Week 4, Day 2

WORK:
3 Rounds, 10 Reps each of:
Bench Dips
Walking Lunge
V-Ups
and 50' Bear Crawl

INTENSITY:
Rest Day

RESET:
3 Rounds of:
800m
Rest 60 Seconds

Penalty: Hold splits within 3-5 seconds; else 2 Burpees per second outside split

Body Weight Workouts - Series 2, Week 2, Day 4

Suspended Pike

WORK:
For Quality, 2 Rounds of:
25 Suspended Pikes
50 Suspended Mountain Climbers (1 leg, 1 rep)

INTENSITY:
Rest Day

RESET:
3 x 1200m Run
Rest 3:00 min between sets

Body Weight Workouts - Series 2, Week 1, Day 5

WORK:
2 Rounds, 10 Reps of:
Air Squat
AbMat Sit-Up
Superman Back-Extensions
Dips

INTENSITY:
Body weight version of Regionals WOD 6
For Time:
3 Rounds of:
Pistol Squats, 21 Reps
7 Bar Muscle-ups (Pull-Up Bar)
then,
3 rounds of:
21 Split Squat Jumps
21 Toes-to-bar
then,
200 foot Bear Crawl
28 Burpee box jumps, 24" box
200 foot Bear Crawl
3 Bar Muscle-ups

Scale Bar Muscle-Ups first to strict Chest-to-Bar Pull-Ups (with or without kip) @ 1:1
OR Kipping Pull-Ups @ 2:1

RESET:
10 Minutes of Hip and Leg Mobility work

Body Weight Workouts - Series 1, Week 6, Day 5

WORK:
400m Walking Lunge

INTENSITY:
REST DAY

RESET:
60 Second Cobra pose
60 Cobra Push-Ups
60 Second Handstand
60 Hollow Rocks

Body Weight Workouts - Series 1, Week 6, Day 2

WORK:
2 Rounds of
Max Reps, Toes to Bar (before losing grip)
Rest 60 seconds;

Then:
Bottom to Bottom - Tabata Squats, 4 rounds (2 minutes)

INTENSITY:
Five rounds for time of:
Sandbag Overhead Walking Lunges, 50 feet
21 Burpees

Let trailing knee gently kiss the ground on each lunge.

Post time to comments.

RESET:
800m Jog
100 Sit-Ups

Body Weight Workouts - Series 1, Week 5, Day 6

WORK:

5 Rounds of:
5 Bench Dips
5 Ring Rows
5 Diamond Push-Ups
No Rest

INTENSITY:
5 Rounds of:
30 Burpees
Rest 2 Minutes

Post times for each round, excluding two minute break

RESET:
2 Rounds of:
Walking Lunge, 50'
Cobra Pose, 60 second hold
Bear Crawl, 50'
Plank, 60 second hold

Body Weight Workouts - Series 1, Week 5, Day 4

The Sampson Lunge / Stretch

WORK:
10 Minutes, Handstand work

- Work on getting comfortable standing on your hands. If that is doing wall walk-ups for 10 minutes, great. If that's kicking up against the wall into a hand stand, do that. If that means practicing hand stand walk...you get the idea.

INTENSITY:
Rest Day

RESET:
For Quality, complete 3 rounds of:
5 Bodyweight Man Makers
10 Air Squats
15 Sampson Lunges (1 leg, 1 rep)

Body Weight Workouts - Series 1, Week 5, Day 3



Remember when you felt this boundless energy? You can again!

WORK:
2 Rounds of:
10 Suspended Body Saws
20 Suspended Mountain Climbers (1 leg, 1 rep)

INTENSITY:
For Time, 200 Reps of:
Suspended Squat and Row

If you do not have a suspension trainer:
For Time, 200 Reps of:
Jump Squats

RESET:
2 Rounds of:
10 Spider-Man Lunges
10 Cobra Push-Ups
60s Plow Pose

Suspended Squat and Row

Body Weight Workouts - Series 1, Week 4, Day 6

WORK:
Any combination of 40 reps:
Sandbag Split Squat Jumps, each leg
Sandbag Swings
Sandbag Box Jumps

INTENSITY:
5 Rounds, For Quality of:
3 Sandbag Windmill, each arm
6 Inverted Ring Rows
9 Suspended Body Saw

RESET:
2 Rounds Of:
10 Scorpion Kicks
10 Clapping Push-Ups

Body Saw

Body Weight Workouts - Series 1, Week 3, Day 7

WORK:

10 Minutes, alternating between Free-Standing Handstand (as long as possible) and 3 Cartwheels.

INTENSITY:
Three rounds for time of:
100 meter Bear Crawl -or- 50 SDHP with Sandbag
20 (GHD) Sit-Ups
10 Towel Pull-Ups

Submit times and exercises to comments!

RESET:
For Quality:
10 Skin the Cats
20 Suspended Knee Pull-Ins*
30 Suspended Mountain Climbers

*Start in the push-up position with your feet in the straps. Contract the abs to bring the feet in towards your elbows. You should end up in a pike position with your feet still suspended. Return to the suspended push-up position to complete one rep.

Body Weight Workouts - Series 1, Week 3, Day 4

WORK:

20 Hollow Rocks
15 Knees to Elbows
10 Toes to Bar

INTENSITY:
Bodyweight CF Games 2012 Open WOD 12.4
Complete as many rounds and reps as possible in 12 minutes of:
150 Split Squat Jumps (1 Leg, 1 Rep)
90 Double-unders
30 Muscle-ups
RESET:
3 Rounds, 10 Reps of:
Wall Kip-Ups*
Walking Lunge
Dive Bomber Push-Ups

*Wall Kip-Ups: This is a handstand, but keep your hands planted on the ground. Kick up to the handstand for one rep

Split Squat Jumps

Body Weight Workouts - Series 1, Week 3, Day 3

WORK:

Practice Hollow Rock for 10 minutes. If you have the hollow rock mastered:
Tabata Hollow Rock
20 Seconds On, 10 Seconds Off for 4 minutes

INTENSITY:
Bodyweight “Jerry”
For time:
Run 1 mile
150 Cliff Climber*
Run 1 mile

RESET:
For Quality
30 Suspended
30 Suspended Push-Ups
30 Air Squats

*Cliff Climber - Start in the push-up position. Be certain to contract the core, and do not round your back. One the first count, bring both knees explosively up to your elbows. Keep your chest up, do not let your head sag. Not doing so will put unnecessary strain your lower back. On the second count, explosively return both feet to the original push-up position. This constitutes one rep. Note: this movement could also be called a variant of "knees to elbows".