I sit here, typing, as I stare out my window at the Gardner (a highway) and Lakeshore Blvd thinking to myself... "I'm SO glad I'm home right now...". The streets are PACKED. There must be a Blue Jays game tonight, or something at the Air Canada Center.. either way, I don't really care, I just feel bad for all those poor souls down there. Sigh... anyways...
How are you?
I'm drinking some white Skinny Wine so I'm doing well thank you :). Tomorrow is technically my Friday because I have literal Friday off, woohoooo!! I'm excited to just chill out and relax most of the day! I plan on doing some writing, doing some studying and maybe taking a well deserved nap! I absolutely love taking naps, and I think everyone should do so... BUT more on naps later ;).
This week has been so-so in terms of workouts. I didn't get to workout today because my day was jammed packed, I had an appointment and C and I did some grocery shopping and just got in (literally)... however I'm sore from yesterday's workout! I walked into work in the morning and Second Trainer Friend was there so I convinced him to workout with my at lunch time. We did a lot of back exercises after establishing a while back that even though I have a really nice toned back, my lats are weak as shit, which in turn is making it hard for me to conquer a pull-up, or pull-ups plural (someday).
Anyways, we started with assisted pull-ups. We didn't use the Gravitron machine, we used a band and the actual pull-up cage. We did 4 sets of 1 pull-up with the band with a 4-second negative. They started out fairly easy and by the end of the 4 sets (or reps lol) they got a bit hard. We're going to do that one more time this week and then move onto 4 sets of 2 reps next week, and so on, and so on. Because Second Trainer Friend knows I want to get rid of my armpit fat, we decided to tackle the bench press, with dumbbells. We also did it on an incline bench for that little bit of added resistance. It was fun! I benched 2x25lbs dumbbells (lol if you saw my tiny arms you'd be impressed!) 10 times, 3 sets. We did pull-overs with a dumbbell, lateral press-downs, and some core exercises that I was much too weak to complete. I eventually gave up and just started doing leg lifts lol! I'm flipping sore today though... frig.
Last night C had a gala to attend for the 50 Best Managed Companies, so I went for dinner with Michelle from www.pushpumpprogress.com, her fiance and two of their friends for Michelle's birthday dinner! We went to this restaurant by the Air Canada Center called E11even, which has quickly become one of our favorite places to go together! Michelle and Dan are usually going to a concert at the ACC whenever we go there, so it's quite convenient. Actually, last time we dined there was the night that Dan proposed to Michelle and Dan tried to get C to be the secret photographer. Dan was a bit nervous at dinner, barely ate and decided to wait to propose at the concert... How cute! He actually got to eat his dinner this time, hopefully he enjoyed it! I had the Seared Tuna Salad and a side order of the Truffle Parmesan french fries which are TO DIE for. The tuna salad there is SO unbelievable, I had it the first time I went there for a client lunch and still talk about it to this day. Mm, my mouth is watering now, I just love food so much.
Denise, Michelle and I... aw :)
Today is Wednesday which means it's also What I Ate Wednesday. I'm not consistant in posting on these days, so when I do I try to remember to take pictures of my food! I take all of my food to work with me, and try to avoid purchasing food at work, so today this is what I prepared!
Ok! Lets go through this one at a time...
In the bottle is my breakfast green smoothie which includes spinach, cucumber, strawberries, half a banana, pineapple, grapes, flax seed, Greens+, coconut water and ice! Mmm it's so good. I usually make some extra so that I'm able to freeze some of it to add to my next smoothie so it helps make it thicker. Delish! The bigger container is full of my typical lunch of raw veggies. I just love vegetables so much and I love them the most when they're fresh and crunchy. I had baby carrots, cherry tomatoes, mini cucumbers and an orange bell pepper. The smaller container is half of a salmon fillet I had made for dinner the night before. In the front are 2 hard boiled eggs and 2 of my banana bars for a snack! For dinner I'm going to be having some roasted chicken and kale and broccoli. NOM NOM NOM!
So I mentioned before I was going to explain why everyone should nap. I 10000% believe that we should have an hour to nap during the day. I guess it could be like "lunch break", but I mostly mean in addition to lunch lol. On the weekends I totally take advantage of the fact that I have no where to be so I nap most weekends. I've done some research, and have come up with some reasons WHY you should also nap :). I think we were all so silly as small children. Actually having scheduled nap breaks.. WHAT WERE WE THINKING NOT wanting to take them!?!? I just want to point out some famous people I came across that are nap takers:
* Leonardo Da Vinci
* Napoleon (not Dynamite)
* Thomas Edison
* Eleanor Roosevelt
* John F. Kennedy
* Winston Churchill
There has to be a reason why some of the most famous leaders in history took naps... don't you agree?
1. The National Sleep Foundation recommends a short nap of 20-30 minutes to improve alertness and performance without leaving you feeling groggy or interfering with night time sleep.
2. A nap can help prevent burnout. We're not meant to race without rest... Taking a nap is like a system reboot - it can help relieve stress and gives you a fresh start.
3. A nap heightens sensory perception. It can help restore sensitivity of sight, hearing and taste. It improves your creativity by relaxing your mind.
4. Naps can help prevent heart disease. People who take a mid-day nap at least 3 times per week are 37% less likely to die of heart disease and working men are 64% less likey! Umm.. hello? Obviously we should be taking naps.
5. Naps increase productivity. A Harvard study demonstrated that a 30-minute nap boosted performance of workers returning their productivity levels to the same as it was at the start of the day. BOOM.
(source)
So I've convinced you to start taking naps, right? Not only does make you MORE productive, but it increases creativity, improves alertness and helps prevent heart disease. I don't think I could think of anything BAD about napping. Mind you, my naps aren't 30 minutes long (usually 4x that) but I think the benefits are all the same!
Q: Are you a nap taker?
Q: Did I convince you to try napping if you don't? :)
This post comes to you from a Sarah running on lack of sleep. xoxo
