Exercise Ideas & Lunch Thoughts...

I've been collecting exercise ideas, since changing things up is one way I can keep motivated.

You've seen this link on my blog, and truly, these are good total-body, relatively quick workouts...

 The five day workout series from EatFitFuel

I've also come across these, which are more specifically targeted at different areas of the body:

If I really want to push myself, I could work these in (3 days abs, 2 days arms, 2 days squats) on top of the other exercises.

I don't know. I'm still figuring it all out, though I'm seriously considering getting up half an hour earlier to get some exercise out of the way!

Now, on to lunch thoughts.

image courtesy of shockinglydelicious.com

I am definitely a salad-for-lunch kind of girl (woman). But the salad has to have some heft—some protein, something crunchy, something chewy... I like a lot going on in my salad!

So I turned to Andie Mitchell, and her great post on planning a 400 calorie salad. I love the mix-and-match approach, with a healthy green base, some protein, a little fat, and some fun and tasty toppings!

I've been really good this week at pre-making healthy breakfast options for a grab-and-go type of day (I'm sure most of you are familiar with those mornings!), so now I need to work on setting up a similar system for salads. I've gotten better about cooking up a bunch of chicken breasts once or twice a week. Next on the agenda: prepping beans, hard-boiled eggs, and veggies.

I'm also totally in love with Bolthouse yogurt-based salad dressings. A ton of flavor (and plenty of varieties to choose from), low in fat, some probiotics... what's not to love? The cilantro-avocado and Caesar are delicious, though I'd also like to try the roasted garlic, mango chipotle, and salsa verde-avocado! And I think I need the creamy balsamic!

So, when I come up with some awesome salad combos, I'll be sure to share!

In the meantime, ponder this...

image courtesy of nutrillynutrition.com