Saturday's Stretch & Flexibility -- Yoga Hip Openers

After a day of gardening and planting flower pots, I need these hip openers!

From another new YouTube channel called Leslie Fightmaster.  Here is an intermediate class. Do what you can, only take poses as far as your body wants to go.

Friday's Funny

Happy Friday!!!

Thursday's Total Body/Cardio Workout -- New 31 Day Video Challenge

Keeping in theme of trying something different, today's workout comes from another new channel on YouTube called AXFIT.  I get a lot of ideas for my interval classes from here.  I just noticed a 31 Day Challenge that was posted by them.  It started on May 1, but you could start it today!  The first video is the introduction.

Since today is total body, I posted the Day 5 full body workout.  They are doing a deck of cards workout similar to those I've posted in the past (another deck of cards workout).  One exercise per suit doing as many reps as the number on the card.

These are short workouts that have no warm-ups or cool downs.  Please do those on your own.

This was day 1

and day 2

You can find the rest of the workouts here:  Challenge Workouts

Wednesday's Wild/Warrior Workout -- The 500 Workout -- Fat Killer

Today's workout comes from another new channel I found on YouTube called Insane Home Fat Loss.

It consists of 5 exercises (the reps aren't all done at once):

Frog Jumps - 100 reps

Burpees - 50 reps

Knee to elbow plank - 100 reps

Push Ups - 50 reps

Mountain Climbers - 200 reps

No warm up or cool down are provided.  Please do those on your own.

Tuesday's Trunk and Core -- Upside-Down Pilates - Resistance Band Work

The challenge for this week was to try something different, so I thought I'd find some new types of workouts to post.

Don't worry, you don't have to stand on your head to do this workout!  Upside Down  is the name of a Pilates studio in Hawaii and also the name of a YouTube channel I recently found.

In this workout, you will use a resistance band.  You can use one like they show in the video, or one with handles, adjusting your grip to provide the right amount of resistance.  The focus in this 30 minute workout is the abdominal and back muscles.

If you are unfamiliar with Pilates, or don't have a resistance band, you can do the workout without it.

Monday's Motivation + Challenge of the Week

Happy Monday!!!

This week's challenge: Try something new and/or different.  Try a different type of exercise class/video.  Try a  new vegetable.  Try a new version of an old recipe.  It doesn't have to be anything too daunting, just BE ADVENTUROUS!!! 

Sunday's Recipe Share -- Pork Chop Cacciatore

For Easter, I bought some jarred Eggplant and Vegetables to use as an appetizer.  It was really good, it was a mix of eggplants, peppers and onions in a tomato sauce.  Regardless, I did end up having quite a bit of the jar leftover, so I decided to mix it with some marinara sauce that I also had in my pantry and make some really simple Pork Chop Cacciatore.

I simply heated the leftover eggplant mixture, mashing it with a fork along with the entire contents of the can of marinara sauce.

I heated up a large skillet and added some extra virgin olive oil to it (you could use a dutch oven as well).  I pan seared the pork chops--I had 4 or 5--I did two at a time.  Then I put all the chops into the pan and dumped the entire pot of sauce over the top.  I covered it and let it simmer on medium heat for an hour or so.  That's it. Tender and delicious!