Today's Hotel Workout and Special Breakfast Tip

I'm officiating at a wedding in Sandusky, OH today and the parents of the bride kindly put me up in a nice hotel last evening. Although small, the workout room has a generous set up dumbbells (5 to 50#) and a bench (it also has a very nice treadmill and elliptical machine, but I had no need for either of those today). Here's today's complete workout, including the warm-up and a "finisher."

Warm-up (this warm-up routine I picked up and modified from Craig Ballantyne and I use it before almost every workout). Today I did it beside the adjacent pool rather than in the actual workout rooom.
-Bodyweight Squats 10
-Leg-swings (12/leg)
-Walking lunges (12/side)
-close-grip push-ups (10)
-Standing Stick-ups (10)
-Waiter's Bows (10)
-Planks (30 seconds)
-Pretend dumbbell deadlifts (10 reps but with no weight)
repeat warm-up 1X

Workout:
Set 1
-Dumbbell Deadlifts (10 reps with two 50# dumbbells
-Dumbbell Incline presses (also with 50# dumbbells. 10 reps)
-Single Dumbbell Rows (10 reps with 50# dumbbell with one hand and knee on bench)
Rest 1 minute and repeat. (Only got 6 reps of the incline presses on 2nd round.)

Set 2
-Dumbbell Swings (10 reps using 50# Dumbbell like a Kettlebell)
-Dumbbell Renegade Rows (6 reps/arm using 25# dumbbells)
Rest 1 minute and repeat.

Set 3
-Lying Hip Extensions (10 reps of extended for 10 seconds and relaxed for 5 seconds)
-Side planks with leg raises (15 leg raises followed by 15 seconds in standard side-plank mode. (1 round each side)
-Mountain climbers (50 reps of standard--not cross-body--mountain climbers with hands on floor.
Rest 1 minute, repeat.

Finisher:
Just outside was a parking lot. There I did two rounds of Ladder Sprints (sprint to 1st parking stripe and back, then to 2nd stripe and back, etc. up to the fifth stripe.) Originally I thought I would do 5 rounds of this with a minute rest between each one. Ha, I was wiped out after the 2nd one!

Okay, now for the breakfast tip. You almost always have three breakfast options. Choose Wisely from the options below.

Option 1: Eat no Breakfast. This option is fine if you like the fact that it gives you a 450% (yes, fourhundredfifty percent!) chance of being overweight!

Option 2: Load up on sugary cereal, butter and syrup-drooped pancakes and/or waffles, cake donuts and/or muffins, bagels with or without cream cheese, and some fancy-dancy breakfast beverage mocha and the like. This option is fine as long as you realize that this option is not at all fine! Seriously, if option 1 is like watching a perfectly fine pitch fly right on by in baseball for strike three, option 2 is like either a swing and a miss or hitting a nice fly ball straight to the center-fielder--it may seem better, but either way you're OUT!

Option 3: Choose a nice variety of slow-release carbs (oatmeal is great for this), natural fruit, lean protein, and, if you can, healthy fats. This option truly is more than fine, it's a great start to your day and, ultimately, your life!

For reference purposes, here were my options to choose from at the continental breakfast today at the hotel. See if you can guess what I chose!
-donuts
-glaze-covered pastries
-brown sugar
-butter
-waffles
-oatmeal
-boiled eggs
-3 sugary cereal choices
-flavored yogurt
-refrigerated pre-packaged breakfast sandwiches
-milk
-coffee
-kiwi-strawberry juice
-apple juice
-orange juice
-raisin boxes
-walnuts

Here's what I went with:
First, since they had cooked oatmeal, I asked if they happened to have any of the raw oats since that's the way I like to eat it at home with milk like cereal. Yep, no problem. They were glad to oblige, thought they also pointed out that there were regular oatmeal packets on the counter which I had overlooked. Oops! Anyway I ended up with:

-Raw oats in a bowl covered with one box of raisins and several walnuts that I just broke into pieces
-1 carton of skim milk to pour over the oatmeal-raisin-walnut mixture.
-2 boiled eggs.
-1 large cup of ice-water
-a smidgeon of orange juice in another cup.

-I also grabbed an orange and apple to save for a mid-morning or afternoon snack.

That's been my morning thus far...and, of course, writing this all down for you!

Have a great day! Devotions will be next!

Kent Wilson
Founder, Fit Under the Collar