How To Make Your Muscles Scream

Written by on in Breakfast, Dinner, Tidbits and Treats, Trips, Workouts

If someone writes a book about Insanity, I think that’s what it should be called 🙂

My weekend at home was absolutely lovely. Time spent with my family is always, as you know, one of my favorite things to do! I went back on Wednesday last week to watch my brother’s closing ceremony. Some of you know that he attends a school for kids with autism – each year they have a performance to kick off summer that includes music, video and, in this case, dancing!

The video above is of my brother doing the South African Diski Dance. He’s the tall guy in the middle there – I can’t believe how much he towers over me now. But I am so proud of him!

Throughout the weekend, my mom and I did several brainstorms for the wedding and I started putting together the pages of our guest book. In between trips to craft and bridal stores, we enjoyed several delicious meals from Papa Bender.

Breakfast included Mickey Mouse pancakes topped with blueberries, blackberries and raspberries.

These made me want to take a trip to Disney World – and visit some of the Florida bloggers 😉

One of the pancakes also had a poached egg on top, which tasted so good with the doughy cakes!

Papa Bender also cooked up a blog favorite: fajitas!

As usual, we had all the fixins: chicken, shrimp, peppers, onions, black olives and tomatoes.

We used Flatout wraps for the occasion 🙂 By the way, there are still two days left to enter the contest to win free Flatout for an entire year! If you haven’t heard, you can read the details here.

The fanciest meal of the weekend was PB’s Parmesan-Rosemary Crusted Filet. I kid you not, this melted in my mouth. He used a variety of herbs and spices such as rosemary, oregano, pepper and garlic with Parmesan cheese to really make it flavorful. Every bite had me saying, “Mm!!”

I may have had more than one piece 🙂

We drank some delicious wine with our steak called Decoy.

It was smooth, full-bodied and delicious, complementing the flavors of the filet quite perfectly.

It was good to have plenty of food for fuel this weekend as I kicked off the most insane set of workout DVDs I have come across yet.

Source

Sunday marked my first official day of Insanity! We had to move the workouts around a bit this week because we are attending a wedding, so I did the Fit Test and Plyometrics over the holiday weekend. Today will be my fifth official day on the program and I’m very impressed so far!

I will do a more formal review at the end of the week, but wanted to share my initial thoughts with you as we get started, since I noticed in my announcement post that many of you are thinking of starting or have already started the journey along with me! That rocks!

Here’s my two cents:

  • My calves and lower back muscles are killing me – in a good way! I have not been this sore after a workout in months and it feels fantastic (sounds insane, but it’s true).
  • I love that the workouts are 30-45 minutes each. They are incredibly intense, but the shorter time frame (P90X runs 50 minutes to an hour) makes it seem more manageable mentally.
  • It’s cool that you can do it anywhere that you have a functional DVD player. Bobby has been doing some of his Insanity workouts outside when its nice out and we plan to continue that through the summer. It has been a little different not using weights for arm exercises, but we’ll see how it goes!
  • You can do it in a tiny apartment 🙂 Pretty much all the space you’ll need is just enough room to be able to do push-ups or side-to-side jumps – at least so far!
  • Shaun T is super cool and motivating! He’s also realistic and encourages people to take breaks when their form is slipping – which is very important.

I will have much more to share in the coming weeks, I’m sure. In fact, I’m off to do the fifth workout as I finish typing this post 🙂

Question: What are your new workouts for summer? I’d love to hear your routines!

Catch ya later!

Abrazos,

32 Comments

  2. I love Shaun T- Can’t wait to hear your review at the end of the week and to hear about the results.. I’m so tempted to buy either this or 30 day shred right now.. so many decisions!

  3. I’m so jealous of Insanity…. ok maybe jealous isn’t the right word, haha but I really would like to give it a try. Half of the time recently I’ve had great workouts, while half the time I just half ass it by walking to the gym, spending 5 minutes on the machines and then walking home… lame!

  4. Jenn,

    I think Papa Bender must have got his weekend cooking mojo from DziaDzia!
    Dzia Dzia loves to cook and did so on weekends before he was retired.
    (when he wasn’t busy with all PB’s,Barb and Bill’s band activities) .
    As PB will tell you the younger half had it made!

    Aunt Janet

  5. I agree with the subliminal messaging of your pancakes that you should come to FL. 😉 Obviously. 😀

    So glad to hear you’re loving Insanity – I still want to try it one day! 🙂

  6. I’m very interested to see how you like Insanity. It’s always interested me, but I don’t know if I’ve got the intensity level.

  8. Loved the video! Congrats to your bro on the closing ceremony!! Ah- papa bender! So when are you going to do a giveaway where we get to come to AZ and eat some of Papa B’s food ;). I want fajitas!! Glad you’re enjoying the insanity! My schedule is pretty much the same due to teaching. i am trying to fit in one good run a week too though. Can’t wait to hear/see more wedding details.

  9. wow, i really want to try insanity, but i am very scared and it’s a bit expensive for me. i cant wait to hear your full review of it! lovelovelove the mickey mouse pancakes and of course the flat out wraps!! i’ve been getting into the short, intense workouts at BodyRock.tv which i hear are similar to insanity workouts. they are brutal, but i feel amazing afterwards!

  10. We have been loving Insanity too!! We look forward to see how our bodies progress with this crazy workout. Shaun T is amazing!! He sure makes you want to be insane, haha.

  11. Congrats to your brother for doing such a great job at his closing ceremony – that boy can dance!

  12. Congrats to your brother! I’m running a marathon on Sunday, so I can’t wait to get back into strength training!! I’ve been missing it a lot. I’m going to go to yoga a ton and the Tracey Anderson mat method. I eventually want to try Insanity. I think I would love the challenge!! And I love that the workouts are shorter.

  13. I am doing P9OX!!! I am happy to take a break from marathon training for the summer:) I will also be swimming and cycling more too!! Can’t wait to hear more about insanity!

  14. So when can Papa Bender come cook for me?
    I don’t have much new in my workouts this summer (yet) except I’ve been having fun adding swimming into the rotation. So refreshing and great exercise! Does water skiing count as exercise too??

  15. <3 the Mickey Mouse Pancakes 😀 And love hearing the wedding details hehe – is your guest book going to have any pictures of the two of you?

  17. i can’t wait to hear more about Insanity! I would have loved to try p90x, but those long workouts just do not appeal to me! I remember when I got The Firm and loved everything about it except the hour long workouts. That’s just too much to do in my own house – if I want to be active for an hour, I want to be outside!

    That picture of you and your brother is precious 🙂

  18. I really want to try Insanity now! I like that the dvds are shorter, but pack in a lot of intensity. I have been doing a combination of P90X, 30 Day Shred, and pilates lately. I have to mix it up since I get bored watching the same dvds all the time!

  19. Nice job on the workouts! All you need is 30-40min of intense workout to get in shape.
    Your brother did a great job on the dance!

  20. Thanks for the low-down on Insanity- I have been thinking about trying it. I am a little nervous because it has been over 6 months since my last P90X bout (I do a couple of the workouts a week now plus walking) and I am definitely not in as good of shape this year, but the before and after pics still show people who are out of shape doing this program, so I guess it is okay still?

  21. Oh my word! All of the food shown in this post looks phenomenal. Wish I could cook like that! I really need to get in gear and take a cooking class, they are just so expensive in the downtown Chicago area.

  22. Congrats to your brother. He’s got skillz!!!
    I recently started running for the summer. I am trying the run/walk or Galloway method which seems a bit slow for me. But that’s just my cardio. I’ve been into Physique 57 for a while and am going to continue with that mixed with some Jari Love and some Billy Banks until after our vacation in July. That’s when I’m hoping to start INSANITY. I also just pre-ordered the Bob Harper DVD series. Those things look intense! Can you tell I’m a DVD junkie?

  23. Haha I have watched the Insanity infomercials while at the gym. Watching made me tired!
    I am concentrating on lots of toning for summer. I love running, but I feel like marathon training leaves me too skinny but not strong.

  24. Ah! My dad use to make my Mickey Mouse Pancakes all the time when I was little. I forgot how much I loved them. Must recreate this soon! 😉

  26. MMM! A poached egg on fluffy pancakes….sounds like a perfect combo!

    I have heard that Insanity workout kicks your boootay!

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