Hi again,

Hope you’re not let­ting these frigid tem­per­a­tures get in the way of your workouts…i.e. stay­ing indoors wrapped in a warm blan­ket vs. tredg­ing out in the cold to the gym.…Yesterday’s classes were pretty packed though, so I’m guess­ing you guys are all stick­ing to the plan and con­tin­u­ing to work hard! Besides, noth­ing gets the body tem­per­a­ture ris­ing faster than an awe­some spin class or a fast-​paced run!!

Thank­fully, my foot’s feel­ing much bet­ter these days so I’m slowly increas­ing my mileage and pray­ing that it will con­tinue to feel bet­ter and I will even­tu­ally be back to my longer runs. I miss them!

What do you all do for your car­dio? What­ever kind of car­dio you’re choos­ing, I rec­om­mend that you focus on high inten­sity inter­val train­ing every­time. To put it sim­ply, you’ll get the biggest bang for your buck in the short­est period of time. Plus, it is the very best way to help max­i­mize your heart and lung’s effi­cien­cies. As your body becomes stronger and more fit, your high inten­sity inter­vals should lengthen as your recov­ery peri­ods shorten. Remem­ber, the main rea­son we per­form car­dio is to exer­cise the heart (fat loss is a bonus!), so be sure you’re mak­ing it work hard and help it to become the very best at its job!

Last night, I made a yummy din­ner and thought I might share the recipe with you. It’s pretty much a sta­ple in our house. My son how­ever, played hockey in the morn­ing and night and was more in the mood for his favourite meal, pizza. Now while it’s not exactly health food (pep­per­oni, any­one?), it sure looked deli­cious! He said it was the bomb.

So, while my son and hubby chowed down on this work of art, my daugh­ter and I enjoyed grilled lemon chicken, kale salad and roasted brus­sels sprouts. So yummy!

Grilled Lemon Chicken

Mari­nade:

6 bone­less, skin­less chicken breasts, butterfiled

1 Tbsp olive oil

4 gar­lic cloves, crushed

juice of 1 lemon (I used a meyer lemon which is so sweet!)

1 Tbsp dijon mustard

1 Tbsp bal­samic vinegar

pinch crushed red pepper

1. Place chicken in reaseal­able bag. Com­bine mari­nade ingre­di­ents and pour over chicken. Refrig­er­ate overnight prefer­ably, or a min­i­mum of 4 hours.
2. Heat sprayed grill pan over medium heat; add chicken breasts and lemon halves and cook until grill marks appear. (about 6 – 7 min­utes). Flip and con­tinue cook­ing until chicken breasts are cooked through.
3. Arrange chicken on a plat­ter; squeeze grilled lemons over top and sprin­kle with fresh chopped Ital­ian parsley.

I roast my sprouts in a 425 degree oven for about 35 min­utes or until very ten­der. Before going into the oven, I toss them in 1Tbsp olive oil, sea salt and freshly ground pep­per. Just before serv­ing, add a splash of bal­samic vine­gar. Enjoy!