Tone Those Legs!

Hi friends! I was trying very hard to blog yesterday, but I couldn't get my host site to work. Every other site was working on my computer except for Weebly, and I eventually just had to give up. 

I've been having lots of fun since recovering from my gum surgery (I got the rest of my stitches out on Friday and can now eat whatever I want) thanks to the arrival of my friend Irene and family birthdays. Irene is going to graduate school in Boston, and she's on a break this week. She got into Chicago at 7 pm and was dropped off straight at our friend Andi's apartment to hang out with us. That's how much she loves us. 

We boogied down at Old Town Social. Cold weather + no standing in line = happy me!

Andi, me, Kate, Irene

Our friend JJ from high school and college also met us there. I thought that he was living in New York, but he moved back to Chicago a few months ago for law school. I was so surprised and happy to see him. Here's a fun fact: we "dated" for a few weeks in sixth grade. I think he met me once (we went to separate junior highs) and then asked me to be his girlfriend in an e-mail. We went on two dates that involved his dad picking me up and dropping us off at the movie theater. He bought me popcorn, and I apparently hogged it all. It wasn't really working out, so one of us "dumped" the other. I honestly can't remember who did it. 

Andi and JJ

Shelly made Irene laugh very hard

I drove back to the suburbs yesterday morning so that I could get lots of homework done before going to dinner for the March Birthday Club. I call it the March Birthday Club, because my mom, dad and grandma almost have the same exact birthdays. Funnily enough, the same situation exists in Alastair's family. I talked about here last year. 

We went to Wildfire, which is always good without fail. We started with bread rolls and butter (not pictured), and then we all got chopped salads. Their signature salad comes with chicken, avocado, tomatoes, blue cheese, scallions, corn, tortilla strips and lime vinaigrette already mixed into the salad. I always request my dressing on the side, but this salad was very lightly dressed. It was perfect. 

I haven't been to Wildfire in years, but I used to always order the Cedar Planked Salmon with brown sugar glaze. I knew I would enjoy it this time too, so I ordered that. At our table, it was pretty much all salmon and steaks. 

You can choose whatever side you want with your main dish, so I went all out with the cheddar double stuffed potato. I think it was four times the size of a regular baked potato. 

Since we had three birthdays at the table, we also had a lot of dessert! I had a few bites of the chocolate cake with the ice cream. 

My meal also was a wonderful lunch today. I wasn't willing to throw away more than half of my potato last night!

My Friday Leg Routine 

Last night's meal is indeed not the best way to get toned legs. With a combination of moves from P90X and other exercises that I know from experience, I made my favorite leg workout yet. This is what I do on Fridays:

Squat Set:
Normal squats (toes pointed forward) with weights
Sumo squats (wider stance, toes pointed out) with weights
Alternating curtsy squats 

60-second wall sit

Curtsy Squat

Source

Lunge Set

Balance lunge with foot on chair

Source

Walking lunges with weights
Side lunges with weights
Back lunges with weights

Miscellaneous/Floor routines

Calf raises with weights (feet facing out/forward/in)
One-legged deadlift
Side leg lift on floor
90-degree leg lift on floor
The crab (lie on side, bend knees at 90 degrees, keep toes together and lift knee to work inner thighs)
Leg circles on side
Get on hands and knees, straighten one leg and pulse up using glutes
Same routine as above, but bend knee so that the heel is facing the ceiling. You will feel it in your glutes. 

Let me know if you need better explanations of these. If I was really good, I'd be posting pictures of myself doing them (but I'm not always that good!).