Full Body Cable Machine Workout and Eating on a Business Trip

So I spent the last 5 days in Austin, Texas, on a business trip along with my boss and 4 co-workers in a hotel and at a conference all day long.

Exibit A- I am teaching at the conference

I told you a few weeks ago I am starting prep for my next photo shoot, so it was imperative to me to a) nail my nutrition while I was away and b) get in my workouts.

When we got to the hotel, the gym consisted of a treadmill, an elliptical, and a nice cable machine. That was it.

I made due with it! Hey this a chance to be creative, right?

Full Body Cable Workout

Superset #1 (set one cable for the appropriate weight
A1 Standing Cable Hip Thrust 3 sets of 10 reps
A2 Seated Rows 3 sets of 10 reps

Superset #2
B1 Cable Deadlift 3 sets of 6 reps
B2 Chin Ups 3 sets of as many reps as possible

Superset #3
C1 Bent one legged cable kickbacks 3 sets of 20 reps
C2 Cable Lateral Raises 3 sets of 20 reps

Superset #4
D1 Standing Cable Hip Abduction 3 sets of 20 reps
D2 Front Raises 3 sets of 20 reps

Here is a snippet of the workout:

Nailing Nutrition on a Biz Trip

So, my saving grace on the nutrition front was that the hotel served breakfast so I was free to skip that to hit the gym and shower later. Happily, coffee flowed freely at the conference so I could have my fill all morning.

I packed a few Quest bars for snack.  Most of the time, I had a decent choice for lunch and dinner, making sure to choose some sort of veggies to fill up on and a lean protein.

Trying to pick through tough choices at the food trucks at lunch one day, I chose a pulled pork sandwich and a kale salad

Most of the time, if the option was available, I had some sort of salad with a lean protein (usually chicken) and dressing on the side for lunch. At dinner, I would choose a lean protein with a vegetable side. One night was sushi, another was scallops over a corn and okra relish. When you are at the mercy of other people's choices, don't make it a big deal and go with the flow ;) you can ALWAYS control how much you eat. 

X- Liss

Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Protein Cookie Dough and Quest Bar Super Couponing

So I have a little news update in my life - I have been writing a series of fitness oriented cookbooks for Venus Index Immersion customers lately! I somehow managed to get almost 10 books written before I realized I have not told a soul outside the company haha! I guess when my nose is to the grindstone, I just forget to announce things? Who knows!

Anyway, the recipe that I want to share with you today is a spin off of a recipe that I wrote in the Venus Index, Cooking with Protein Powder Cookbook- Chocolate Chip Protein Cookie Dough. If you are already a Venus Immersion customer, this cookbook is in your Immersion modules already! If you are not already an Immersion customer, here is where you can go to find out about it and sign up - LINK TO IMMERSION PAGE

I happen to reeaaaallly love peanut butter, so I just thought my original recipe would be extra awesome with more peanut butter in it ;)

Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Protein Cookie Dough

Serves 2

Ingredients
1 scoop protein powder (I used Optimum Nutrition Gold Standard Whey in Extreme Milk Chocolate)
4 TBSP peanut flour (I used PB2)
1 TBSP mini chocolate chips
1 TBSP peanut butter chips (you could sub completely one or the other)
2 TBSP apple sauce (I tried it with pumpkin puree too, but I preferred the apple sauce)
2 TBSP egg whites (I used Egg Beaters)
Stevia to taste (I used 1 TBSP of granular)

Directions: Mix all the ingredients in a bowl except the egg whites. Start adding the egg whites a tablespoon at a time until it becomes a dough consistency. Form dough into two balls and wrap in plastic wrap for at least 6 hours, or preferably overnight. (This step is important for that cookie dough texture!) Enjoy!

Nutritional Stats per Serving

200 cals
6 g fat
17 g carbs
20 g protein

How to Super Coupon Quest Bars

.... one more thing.... Want to know my little secret to get Quest bars for $1.06??? At GNC, ask the cashier if they have any reduced for clearance. My store marks them down to $1.50. (The deal is that they will expire in 60 days or less which would force the store to toss them if they don't sell.) They last about a week at my house LOL

If you have a GNC card, that will further reduce them. Then I use whatever coupon I got via email or in the mail last (this one was $5 off $30). Boom. 

X- Liss

Drawing the Line

Whelp I hit the top of my range and I am drawing a line TODAY! 

Where I drew the line at

I came back +3 lbs from Miami in April ....

The hubs and I in Miami

and added another +2 lbs from a family trip this past weekend. Grr.

My cousins and I at our annual family reunion

I did not get a shoot done in April like I had planned so it is 10 weeks from today.

I am going to continue to lift (back to full body) 6 days a week with additional shoulder and glute work. I am adding in some walking/jogging/sprint intervals most days as I am pretty inactive in the summer and my standard poodle, Olive loves to go too  ;)

Cals will be less than 10K/week, and I would like to keep them closer to 8K most weeks. Maintenance cals for me are 10500-11500 a week. Most weekdays I will push my first meal back to 3 pm or so, it is just easier for me. Weekends will be maintenance days. That's the plan!

My point in posting this is that NOBODY stays at their goal weight. Even John Barban, myself, or any other fitness professional does not live at their photo shoot look everyday. Your body is in a constant swing and fluctuation. The KEY is to keep these swings smaller. Five to ten pounds instead letting it go to 30 or more pounds- that is just too much work.

So you just have to put your head down again, and get to work; if you have done it once, you know what to do. It still does not make it easier. Nobody LIKES to have to lose fat. It sucks, especially at first. But after a week or so, you get used to it again. You start to see results. The victories feed the next decisions.

You got this!
X- Liss

Glute and Shoulder Booster Video Workout

The past year has been mostly focused on building my glutes. In doing so, I have learned SO much about working them and all the nuances, who knew there was so much info on backsides? HAHA!

My other focus has been shoulders. I have managed to bring both of them up in circumference, and am looking forward to really comparing in photos soon as I am looking at a shoot date in the next 8-12 weeks. But the proof is there in the mirror!

So what I have been doing is adding on additional glute work and some days shoulder work to my lifting days 5-6 days per week. Glutes can handle high volume and frequency, but also need a lot of variation to hit all the musculature. Shoulders seem to do best with a lower frequency and lower volume. I hit them 3-4 days per week, and the volume is much lower than my glute work. My main workouts are full body from Venus Index aka Venus Factor.

Before I start a workout, I like to do hip thrusts or bird dogs to engage my glutes and get them firing.

Standing glute work- In the video are:

1) standing rear leg raises 
2) standing bent rear leg raises 
3) standing hip abductions
I did all for 3 sets of 10 with a 10 count isometric hold at the end of each set.

Here is one for your glutes and obliques - the banded side-lying clam raise

*feel free to take off the band to take it down a notch!

I did 3 sets of 10 per side.

This is my Shoulder Blaster Ladder that I used as a finisher. I did:

1. Lateral Raises

2. Front Raises

3. Overhead Shoulder Presses

4. Upright Rows (not in video)

For this ladder set, I started with 10 reps of lateral raises. Then I did 10 reps of ladder raises plus 10 reps of front raises. ..keep adding in the next exercise until you do all four. Then the exercises will start dropping out after 4 sets, so the next set would be 10 reps front raises, 10 reps overhead shoulder raises, and 10 reps upright rows. Next set, the front raises will drop out.

These all burn SO good! Add one of these, or all of them, onto your next workout and let me know what you think!

X- Liss