Wednesday morning has arrived again! Funny how quickly it comes up with a short week. Note = not a complaint by any means.

I devoured some pretty tasty eats yesterday. I could even say my meals yesterday rivaled the ice cream, cheesecake bars, and healthified /proteinified twice baked potatoes from this weekend. I know I had quite the full, satisfied belly all day long. Also not a complaint by any means. Time to share the delectable feasting with you all for another edition of What I Ate Wednesday!

I warned you that my meals this week would inevitably include two things – berries and watermelon. So it should come as no surprise that my breakfast looked the exact same. And that I don’t feel the need to take a picture of said exact same breakfast two days in a row…so behold the recycled photo!

I have no shame in recycling blog photos when necessary. Besides…it’s so pretty. Plus, I can only have so much creative energy when it comes to food. And I had creative juices going for lunch.

A plate chock full of color! We have quite the load of produce to work through this week so I piled up the watermelon, grapes, carrots, and cucumber, then got to work on the star of the show. English muffin pizza!

We had some fire roasted diced tomatoes for another recipe that I needed to use. What better way than to make pizza sauce for English muffin pizzas, right? Maybe not super original, but definitely super delicious!

I blended up about 1/4 cup of the fire roasted diced tomatoes with an immersion blender while my English muffins got started toasting in a toaster oven. I then topped both muffin halves with the sauce, oregano, red pepper flakes, and shredded cheese. I toasted them a few minutes more until the cheese got nice and melted. Pizza for lunch = win!

When snack time rolled around I wasn’t as hungry as normal and only wanted more fruit. I shall seriously miss the plethora of fruit when summer comes to pass. But let’s just pretend that will never happen, mmmkay?

I crafted together a yogurt bowl to reflect my love of summer. Pineapple Chobani yogurt. Fresh mango chunks. Bites of banana. A splash of light coconut milk. A sprinkling of Cheerios. 

The tropics in a bowl with such a perfect blend of textures and flavors.

After so much delicious food I probably could have stopped there for the day, had dry toast for dinner, and still gone to bed with a happy belly. But where’s the fun in that?

Instead, I went big with one of the best recipes I have stumbled across in blog land recently. “Best” namely because its so easy. And Mama Pea only has her own cookbook and all. I kind of adore her. Big hugs, Sarah! The peanut noodle bowl was a huge hit! 

I adapted it only the slightest bit – zucchini instead of bell pepper, no cilantro, udon instead of rice noodles – so please give her recipe a look and get in on the tasty action!

And that’s where we end – with me fully intending to eat the exact same things all day today. Delicious, filling, nutritious, and fun? If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it!

• How often do you use blogs for recipe inspiration? 
• What is a food combo that never fails to leave your belly super satisfied?

Remember all that good food making substantial fuel for my workout this morning? Well, I wasn’t joking. Apparently, my love for circuit training comes with good reason. The full body style workouts broken into three mini circuits always leave my body challenged and me with an endorphin rush. Today’s workout looked like this:

I also followed that up with 30 minutes on the elliptical completing one of my favorite cardio intervals.

Repeat the 3-2-1 combo for six total intervals and embrace the sweat. But let’s get back to the circuits shall we?

3 Reasons To Love Circuit Training

• Circuit workouts challenge both strength and cardiovascular endurance. Going through a circuit, completing each strength training move one right after the other, gets the heart pumping while still focusing on building strength. The two combined can certainly push the body in new ways.
• Circuit workouts provide an efficient and effective workout. I can complete a full body workout  in half the time because the circuit allows me to go continuously without stopping for breaks between each exercise.
• Circuit workouts have endless variety. Simply switching up the order of moves can stimulate the workout and make it feel new. I can toss in so many different moves to never have a stagnant routine!

Don’t Allow These 3 Things To Keep Your From Trying Circuit Training

• Problem: Taking up too much equipment or space. Solution: Pick exercises that all use dumbbells or free weights. Plan out a routine that incorporates more bodyweight exercises. Consider equipment grouped together in the gym and focus on moves easily done in one concentrated area. Visit the gym at a down time to have extra space/equipment available. If all else fails, you can share!
• Problem: Don’t want to look silly going from move to move. Solution: Go in with a plan and possibly even an idea of some back-up exercises. Also, remember most gym goers are more concerned with themselves than someone else’s workout. And I tend to think people moving through circuits look like they know what they’re doing and are in there to work.
• Problem: Circuits will be too difficult. Solution: Choose simpler moves. Complete a shorter circuit. Focus on basics. Go through a circuit only one time through and gradually build to going through two, then three, then four times per circuit.

I believe circuits are well worth the effort. They may take a little adjusting and have a bit of a learning curve when first incorporating them into a workout plan, but I find nothing like a great circuit when it comes to strength training. I simply plan out a good basic outline and plug in different moves – which no matter what combination I choose, always provides a quality workout. I like to do circuits that follow a pattern like below:

• lower body move
• chest or back move
• plyometric or other compound body move (like burpees or kettlebell swings)
• lower body move
• chest or back move (whichever I didn’t do earlier)
• shoulders, biceps, or triceps move
• shoulders, biceps, or triceps move

I may also add in some core work or split the above into mini-circuits like I’ve done recently. I simply like to alternate between upper body and lower body work, focus on the larger muscle groups, and add in some extra plyometrics or other short bursts of cardio to really keep my heart rate up. I like to call it methodical madness. It may seem crazy hopping from one exercise to another, but I always keep my movements controlled with good form. I don’t rush through the workout. Methodical madness sounds about right…and it works for me.

Ever tried circuit training? If yes – do you like it? If no – what holds you back?