November Workout & Challenge + Iced Mocha

Welcome to November everyone! It is two months before the end of the year and two months to get myself back on track to make sure I live up to my 2014 New Years Resolutions – which were pretty much to just lose weight and workout. So to do this, despite my current upward scale movement, I created an easy and easy to maintain workout calendar and not-to-ridiculous workout challenge for the month. And instead of making some pre- or post-workout snack, which I don’t need and normally just scarf way too many of, I am giving you my so cool (pun intended) Iced Mocha recipe. Hope your November goes downhill with weight-loss with my November Workout & Challenge and you enjoy your morning Joe with this Iced Coffee recipe.

So it’s a big holiday month for us, and with that holiday comes tons of eating. Tons of eating awesome calorie-loaded foods. And pumpkin pie. Cause that’s a separate food group all-together. So to help keep myself on track leading up to that big ole food day I created a monthly workout calendar that will not only be easy to keep (cause working out is not my problem, it’s saying No to food) but I also set an easy to keep Thanksgiving week workout regimen. Which is equally interchangeable with whatever I can make myself do. Cause I get to go home for Thanksgiving! A whole week of being away from a normal routine and my brain going into vacation-mode, so workout videos are going to be my besties for that entire week. If I am lucky, my SIL will be there and we can get some sisterly time in doing some PiYo or long walks, short jogs. But workout videos will be the easiest thing to manage during the busy holiday visiting with relatives that will be happening, and the easiest thing to transport on an airplane.

As for the workout challenge I made something that will be easy to stick with (hopefully) and will keep me honest and toned. Because those go hand-in-hand obviously. So to do that, and to work my ever-loving bloated ab section I decided to do a double-duty squat with a twist, which is pretty simple. Squat down then twist down to the side with a light weight in your hands then stand and twist up in the opposite direction, like you are going to throw something over your shoulder – that’s one rep. The next is a laying down back fly, which is nice cause you can relax your legs while working your back. Lay flat on the floor on your stomach with your arms out like a T and legs out straight. Point your thumbs up towards the ceiling then lift arms up and back squeezing your shoulders, then lower your arms. That’s one easy rep. The last exercise is a straight leg ab lift. Lay flat on your back (just flip over after the back exercise) then lift your straight legs up and then lift your arms and shoulders up to touch your toes; stretch arms and legs out only as far as you can safely go without arching or straining your back then lift back up – that’s a rep. I have also forced myself to do 100 crunches a day, whether it’s in the morning or afternoon I make myself lay down on the floor, prop my feet on the bed and crunch. Gotta work the abs anyway I can – usually by will alone, since nothing else is working.

As for the oh so yummy iced mocha can I just say yum. And brr. Fall was probably not the time to perfect this icey coffee, but I had been wanting a frappuccino so badly that I had to do something that would stop me from breaking my 3 year resolution to not buy Starbucks and to save money. So creating my own that is way healthy was a must. And how to make and want a healthy frap? Add a banana! Yup, a banana. It’s easy and no “ice” required. And by ice I mean, water ice. My icey mocha is all about coffee ice cubes! What a super cool way to not toss out your leftover coffee! First freeze a tray of coffee. When ready toss the cubes, 1/2 a banana, about 1/2 cup light vanilla almond milk, and sugar-free chocolate sauce into a blender. Blend until smoothish, adding a little more milk if needed. Enjoy!