It seems like HIIT (high intensity interval training) is the big thing right now, and I admit that I've been trying to incorporate that philosophy into my workouts. The first time I tried alternating 1 minute sprints with walking on my "runs" I shaved almost a minute off my mile time, and the second time I tried I kept the same pace as the first. Due to weather, schedule and health over the last few weeks I haven't been able to run outdoors again but during my last two cardio sessions at the gym (including today) I alternated between 1 minute of running as hard as I could (on the Arc trainer) with going at almost a walking pace for the first 10 minutes of the workout. I finished the last 15 today and 20 last week at a moderate pace. I don't know if it's doing anything useful but I find it both more challenging and more entertaining than keeping a moderate pace for the whole workout.
On my strength training days I've been trying something new as well. I used to do 20-30 reps at a steady, quick pace on a weight that was moderately challenging. I read this post about the Body by Science approach to working out, and I've started doing something more akin to that. Now I set the machine (or pick the dumbbell) to the heaviest weight I can manage and do 10 slow reps. Then I usually do another 10-20 at a more normal pace. I was able to jump up quickly in weight and I feel like it's been more effective.
Food this week has been interesting. I ate plainly on Sunday and Monday because of my stomach, but had a normal dinner (baked penne with squash and spinach) and lunch (leftovers) yesterday. Unfortunately just after I ate the gorgeous salad pictured below, my stomach freaked again. So it was brown rice for lunch. I'm still going to make tempeh sloppy joes tonight for dinner, cross your fingers!
Southwest Potato Salad (with a few tweaks based on what we had, like adding kale and banana peppers)
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