The Tougher a Workout is, the Better

This workout is brutal, but done in less than 30 minutes. Grab your kettlebell and get it done with me...

This is a 20 minute AMRAP (as many rounds/reps as possible) of 4 different exercises, with both a Buy In and Buy Out of 100 kettlebell swings. The exercises are:
10 jump tucks
10 (on each arm) snatches
20 sumo jump squats
10 back lunge pass under and goblet lunge jump

MODIFICATIONS:
*You can break up the 100 reps of the swings to sets of 10 or 20 (or more if you're feeling tough) at a time. Take a break for 5-10 seconds after each set and then continue.

*If you've never attempted a snatch before, do not try them for the first time during this workout. Make sure you've worked on them safely and that you're comfortable and confident in doing them with proper form. Never allow the kettlebell to bang or smack against you and keep your wrist straight, don't let your hand bend back toward the top of your hand. If you're unable to do this, work on cleans until you can better control the kettlebell and then try snatches again.
​
*If the goblet lunge jump portion of the last exercise is too much and you're unable or feel unsafe or unstable doing it, then just do the back lunge pass under and increase the reps to 20 instead of 10. 

I struggled through this one, it's really tough. But you'll feel an amazing sense of accomplishment when you've finished. This workout is also incredibly energizing; you will be ready to go out and take on the day once you've got this under your belt. It took me 27 minutes total including the buy in and buy out. 

Over the past few days I've become a little fixated on perfecting a recipe for vegan chocolate pizzelles. They've mostly all come out kind of bendy in texture, instead of the nice crisp texture the traditional egg and butter ones provide. I'm working on it. If I can get them to work the way I want them to I'll share the recipe here. Pizzelles are amazing with a cup of coffee in the morning. It also feels like a rite of passage that I be able to make these properly since I'm Italian. Cooking is supposed to come naturally to us. I still like to have the protection of a recipe to ensure good results most of the time though, but I'm learning and always working on it.

​A recipe I'm loving though is the one for this (vegan) glowing spiced lentil soup from the incomparable ohsheglows. I opted to make a batch of this on Monday for my increase in iron needs this week, as lentils are a wonderful plant based source of iron. Women of "childbearing" (that have regular or fairly regular menstrual periods) age need the highest amounts of iron (18 mg/day) because of monthly blood loss; because where there's blood loss, there's iron loss. Once a woman enters menopause, the amount of iron needed is reduced to less than half that, at just 8 mg/day. Men over age 18 need the same amount, 8 mg/day.

It's touted that meat is the best, most readily absorbable source of iron, as it provides the heme form of iron, while plant based foods mostly provide nonheme iron. Nonheme iron just requires that you eat a little bit more of it though, it still gets absorbed and our body is able to utilize it exactly the same way it does with iron from animal proteins. It's certainly not essential to eat meat to get iron. Ounce per ouce, vegetables actually contain higher amounts of iron than meat, so eating a serving of vegetables really gets you the same amount, if not more iron than a serving of meat, depending on how much is absorbed and if you pair it with a Vitamin C rich food to enhance absorption. The soup I'm having tonight has tomato (a rich source of Vitamin C) so I'll absorb a great deal more of the iron from the lentils than if I were just eating lentils by themselves.

It's easy to meet your iron needs whether or not you eat meat, just don't feel obligated to eat meat because you think it is the best or only way to meet your iron needs, that just isn't true! Some other great non-meat sources of iron are beans, kale and other dark green leafy vegetables, sesame seeds, blackstrap molasses, quinoa, potatoes (also a higher source of potassium than bananas), oats, cashews, and sunflower seeds. Spinach is also a very rich source of iron, but there is much debate over whether or not the body is able to absorb the iron because it contains oxalates that bind with the iron and make our bodies incapable of absorbing and utilizing the iron it contains. I prefer to err on the side of caution and not rely on spinach for my iron needs, and if it turns out that maybe we do get a little iron from it after all, that will just serve as a boost to an already iron rich diet. 

Easy ways to incorporate more plant based iron in your diet can be oatmeal or quinoa with blackstrap molasses for breakfast and salad with kale, tomatoes, beans, and sunflower seeds for lunch or dinner. Do you get enough iron in your diet? How can you include more? 

I also was going to go for a run yesterday, but it was a miserably rainy and dreary day and I ended up not feeling very well anyway. I am hoping to maybe get out tomorrow, as I believe it's going to be sunny and I don't have a particularly brutal workout planned that would make it too difficult. We'll see how it goes! I hope to have the first new yoga for the weekend workout of the year ready by Friday. I'm looking forward to getting back into it, I hope you are too. Stretching is imperative after all these tough workouts we've been doing. Your body needs balance and active rest at least one day a week. Stick with me, I will show you the way; we'll do it together.