Bas Rutten to the Rescue!

Mike and I just had some good news, I'm super excited! We have found a new gym :-) Mike has been on the phone to the trainer and all being well lift wise we will be going to train there tomorrow!! I'm really, really excited! They run a mini bus service too which is great for us since we don't drive, for 50p they will pick us up, how good is that! And there is a girl there close to my weight so I will probably have a girl to spar with, I hope they put me in with the lads too though so I get lots of different partners!

We had a surprisingly busy morning today! On busy days good old Bas Rutten comes out in audio form to shout our workout at us! It makes it so much easier to train when you don't have to think too much about it! We did his all round workout which is just under half an hour of intense bag work, squat jumps, push-ups, core work (check 1 for the week!), neck work and some tuck jumps thrown in for good measure..no rest! I did 65 push-ups in total... my arms feel like jelly hehe

I had a big baking session today, as well as baking apple buns recipe here, I made the chocolate raspberry cookies from Veganomicon, I love that cookbook! Instead of raspberry flavour for the cookies I made them with a ginger preserve and made chocolate ginger cookies. I'm going to enjoy these in my lunch box in my first week at my new job!


Since the animal pics seemed to go down well yesterday I took a few more today :-)

Sleepy cat

Tia reading my blog haha

My two favourite boys!

Aaaaah

How's everyone's core work going? Check out Laura's latest plank time.. hungover.. She has a stronger stomach than me! Hope everyone enjoyed their weekend!

21/02/10

AM
Today I did a variation of workout capacity 101 from Ross Enamait's book infinite intensity for a video (not of me I'm afraid!) and more info from the man himself, see here. My variation is really the same except it swaps chair dips for pull-ups, for two reasons, 1) I usually do this workout with Mike and we'd both be fighting for the pull-up bar if we both did pull-ups and 2) if I had to do 5 pull-ups each round it would take me all day!! Also my medicine ball slams were more like swings as our floorboards would probably not cope with medicine ball slams! Anyway the workout is...

• 5 Chair dips
• 10 Medicine ball slams (12kg)
• 15 Burpees
• 20 Jumping jacks

x 10 rounds in 18.55

This workout might look easy on paper but I promise you it is absolute HELL! My entire body hurt afterwards!!

I've blogged a few times about the caramel apple spice cupcakes from veganomicon, I wasn't sure about posting the recipe but I've seen it posted elsewhere on the web so I'm going to share it here too. The frosting makes these cupcakes really good, it's definately worth making.

Caramel Apple Spice Cupcakes
2 apples
2 tablespoons brown sugar (I use xylitol)
1 tablespoon margerine
1 cup of milk (non-dairy for vegan version)
1 tablespoon of lemon juick
1/3 cup of canola oil (I use applesauce)
3/4 cup sugar (I use xylitol and slightly less than 3/4 cup)
1 teaspoon of grated lemon zest (I leave out)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups flour (I use plain wholemeal)
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg

Caramel Penuche Frosting
1/2 cup sugar (I use xylitol)
3 tablespoons margerine
1 tablespoon molasses
2 tablespoons powdered milk (I use soy protein powder)
1/3 cup milk (non dairy for vegan version)
pinch of salt
2 1/2 cups of confectioners' sugar (I make my own with xylitol and use less than 2.5 cups)
1 teaspoon of vanilla extract
1/2 cup toasted nuts to top (I use cashews)

Directions
Cupcakes

1. Preheat oven to 350f or 177c
2. Chop apples into 1/4 inch pieces (leave skin on)
3. Heat sugar and marg in a heavy skillet over medium heat until bubbling
4. Add apples and cook until all liquid has evapourated about 12 minutes
5. In a large bowl mix milk and lemon juice allow to sit for a minute or so
6. Add oil, sugar, lemon zest and vanilla, stir
7. Sift in flour, salt, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon and nutmeg mix until flour is moistened, don't overmix
8. Fold in apples
9. Fill cupcake liners 3/4 full
10. Bake for 20-22 minutes until a toothpick comes out clean

Frosting

1. Combine sugar, margerine, molasses, powdered milk, milk and salt in a pan over medium heat, stir constantly.
2. Remove from heat and allow to cool slightly
3. Add vanilla and gradually add confectioners' sugar
4. It should end up thick and fudge like
5. Top cupcakes while the frosting is still hot
6. Top with nuts
7. Enjoy!!

PM
10 Chin-ups
Neck exercises