Have any of you guys attempted box jumps?
(Source)
The above picture is an extreme example of box jumps, but box jumps freak the crap out of me. I tried them for the first time during my one and only free session with a personal trainer and I was such a baby.
I’m afraid I’ll jump up, hit the box with my shin, fall and roll all over the gym floor, writhing in pain. I can do them as long as the box is a reasonable height, but super-tall box jumps really intimidate me.
There’s a guy at our gym that is the king of box jumps. He’s so entertaining to watch because he does 180s and balances one of those Bosu balls on top of the box and lands on it.
I hold my breath every time I watch him attempt a new trick. Today I told him he has to try out for Ninja Warrior.
(Side note: In case you’re looking for a fun plyometric/circuit workout that incorporates box jumps, click here for one of my favorites.)
My workout today did not include box jumps, but it did include a lot of great upper body exercises.
After a two-mile run, I did three sets of 15 repetitions of the following exercises:
- Superset One: Incline bicep curls + Upright rows
- Superset Two: Chest press + Tricep extension
- Superset Three: Ryan’s awesome shoulder move + Push ups
- Tricep pull-downs
- Superset Four: Kettle ball swings + Bicep curls
- Tricep dips
- Ab work: Various crunches on exercise ball
Breakfast
Today’s breakfast featured egg white French toast that I made by combining egg whites, milk and cinnamon before dunking a honey wheat English muffin in the mix.
Topped with bananas and syrup.
I intentionally used egg whites because yesterday Tiffany, a med school student, drew my attention to the cholesterol level in one egg yolk.
Of course I know eggs are high in cholesterol, but I didn’t realize that one egg has about 213 mg of cholesterol (all of which is found in the yolk) and the recommended amount of cholesterol for a healthy person is just 300 mg a day.
Egg yolks definitely have a lot of nutritional benefits as well, so I’ll definitely be enjoying them often, but as you may have noticed, I’ve been on a bit of an egg kick, eating two eggs a day most days of the week, and I think limiting the consumption of egg yolks when I’m eating them so regularly is probably a good idea since high cholesterol runs in my family. (Don’t worry – I will never give up my love for dippy eggs.) For more information about egg yolks and cholesterol, check out this Q&A article on the Mayo Clinic’s website.
The good news is that egg white French toast tastes the same as French toast made with whole eggs to me, so it works!
Godiva Coffee
Today’s breakfast also included something awfully special!
Oh baby!
I received two bags of Godiva coffee last week (pumpkin spice and caramel pecan bark) through the Foodbuzz Tastemaker program and was so pumped to try them.
Ryan, who hates coffee, even commented on how delicious the pumpkin spice flavor smelled this morning as it was brewing.
It smells like fall in a cup!
I loved the pumpkin pie spice flavor and could taste the hint of hint of cinnamon, nutmeg and pumpkin pie spice in every sip. I want to refrigerate a cup of this coffee and try to blend it up into some kind of a cold coffee drink. I bet it would be phenomenal.
Time to do some horrifically boring paperwork.
See ya soon with today’s Blog Talk Tuesdays post!
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Just some food for thought – I have read in a few places that the cholesterol in eggs is not linked to elevated cholesterol levels. But you are right, 2 per day on most days might be an exception, as too much of any animal product is linked to high cholesterol
amber, an awesome blog reader, mentioned this yesterday! i would really love to read more about this! do you have a link to any of the articles you read?
I also have read a couple articles lately about how eggs have little effect on ones dietary cholesterol. trying to find the articles now and will post!
I can’t remember which sources I originally read this from – but I googled and here is a random one that came up: http://www.wellnessletter.com/html/wl/2008/wlFeatured0308.html I believe it was the University of Connecticut that came out with the study I read about before, but this article mentions a study from Harvard also. Also, this isn’t related to eggs, but here’s another article a friend sent me the other day that is probably of interest to anyone who wants to promote healthy living! 🙂 http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/25/opinion/sunday/is-junk-food-really-cheaper.html?_r=1&pagewanted=all&src=ISMR_AP_LO_MST_FB
thanks kristin!
Yep, it is true. The high cholesterol levels in the blood usually are linked to various sources such as saturated and trans fatty acids, and not so much cholesterol found in eggs. These studies were conducted over long periods of time and using hundreds of participants (and their blood levels and eating habits).
Of course being wise about what we put into our mouths is important, but sometimes there are old wives’ tales floating around in regards to food and health. Egg yolk’s cholesterol level being on of them! 😉
Yep – blood cholesterol is mostly linked to trans fats, not eating dietary cholesterol. Unless you actually already have high cholesterol, eating a couple eggs most days is definitely not a problem!
I am a nutrition and dietetics student right now and agree with you girls above! Cholesterol found in eggs has no effect on your overall blood cholesterol. Eating one yolk a day is actually extremely beneficial because there are so many nutrients in the yolk like choline, Vitamin D, folate, and B vitamins. Please don’t believe everything Google says! As long as your diet is otherwise pretty “clean” and free of trans fats and unnecessary saturated fats, eat the egg yolk!
Thanks for all of the extra info! I was starting to wonder if I was crazy because I didn’t see anyone else touching on this. Especially since I don’t even eat eggs… lol
I LOVE box jumps they are really fun and challenging, but scary at first! One of those things you just have to do with full conviction and you can’t second guess yourself half way through.
xoxo
Merri
you WOULD love box jumps you SSP crazy lady! 🙂 (p.s. i miss you.)
omg i would love to try that pumpkin spiced coffee 🙂 YUM YUM!
Box jumps intimidate me too – I do love me some plyometrics though!
Omg that coffee sounds amazing! I really need to go find some pumpkin spice flavored coffee grounds! And I love box jumps- I don’t usually do the super high ones, but they really let me feel the burn! Also, I’ve heard that it’s fine if you eat as many as 7 eggs a week, or 1 a day- more than that and that’s where the cholesterol becomes a problem!
Just FYI dietary cholesterol has little effect on serum (blood) cholesterol 😀
Well, I am a 4th year veterinary medicine student, and I know a bit about cholesterol. Eating cholesterol, while maintaining a relatively healthy diet and lifestyle (which you definitely are doing) won’t do anything to your cholesterol levels. Most of the cholesterol in our bodies is actually produces by the liver, and we don’t use the one we have eaten 🙂
very interesting. thanks for sharing, marina! i love hearing from educated readers!
No prob 🙂 I adore eggs, so I was worried about cholesterol before, but science comforted me :))
Wow! I dont think I could box jump like the guy in the picture! I’ll probably hurt every part of my body 😛
Your breakfast looks delicous! I love making egg white french toast 🙂
I am also TERRIFIED of box jumps. I watch them do it on Biggest Loser and think NO WAY!
Your egg yolk discussion is also why I eat a lot of egg beaters.
Off to my session with the trainer!
The Kidless Kronicles
If high cholesterol runs in your family what you should really be more concerned with is saturated fat- I have super high cholesterol which most people don’t believe because I’m tiny and very active. Damn genetics! 🙁 I tried to look for pumpkin spiced coffee yesterday and failed- I need to go on another hunt today, looks delicious!
Love the idea of box jumps!!!! Definitely need to add more Plyometrics in my next workout. Have you done the Plyometrics workout from P90x? So hard, but one of my favorites!
no! i really want to try it though. i’ve heard it’s killer!
I just go with eggbeaters, and stock it by the gallon (daily breakfast). Easy and very low in fat/cholesterol.
I would agree with most people on here: saturated fat is what elevates your cholesterol (or the bad LDL levels of it anyway). That and trans fats, which lower your HDLs as well as raise your LDLs! I personally like eggwhites more than eggs because they cook quicker and are higher in protein, but eggs are just something that are a huge staple of my diet being a low-grade vegetarian. However if cholesterol runs in your family, can’t ever hurt to be proactive! 🙂
I usually have to psych myself up for a minute or two prior to a box jump. I put a leg up and down estimating the distance. Then once I start, I’m fine. I’ve only fallen maybe once or twice. And the only thing bruised was my ego.
Studies show that it’s not actually cholesterol in foods (ie prawns/eggs) that raise blood cholesterol but instead saturated fats & trans fat! That being said, I’m an egg white lover and only eat the yolks when I’m eating eggs sunny-side up! THat breakfast looks like such a treat! Also I’m loving your new workout sched as I’ve also started breaking up my upper and lower body workouts…have already bookmarked this for Friday 🙂
http://www.cholesterol-and-health.com/Cholesterol-Rich-Foods-Raise-Blood-Cholesterol.html
http://stronglifts.com/cholesterol-saturated-fat-how-many-eggs-daily/
These aren’t the mayo clinic website, but there are a bunch of websites that state that there is no correlation between eating cholesterol and increasing your bad cholesterol (or at least the majority of people aren’t affected by it)…so eat your yolks sister…they contain vitamin D which most females lack and is very important for our colon, bone and breast health 🙂 And the yolks double the protein you get from your eggs. Eat up!
The pumpkin spice sure sounds good but I’m not a fan of flavored coffees so I’m a little hesitant. But I’ll at least imagine it’s deliciousness until I force myself to try it. 😉
I see others have mentioned this already — but the cholesterol in eggs is not what raises your blood cholesterol.
I love eggs and the yolk is my favorite part!
We do a lot of high box jumps in the sports conditioning class at my gym. One thing I learned when I was dancing in college and I was forced to do a lot of rolls/cartwheels/etc in my modern class, is that falling really isn’t as bad as you think. You need to fall once to see that you can handle it. It’s highly unlikely that you’ll fall, but if you did, you could handle it. Our bodies are meant to deal with far greater pain. Understanding that has given me the guts to try lots of weird exercises and “stunts”.
Also, I’m a little too busy right now to find the research, but I thought it had been proven that eating cholesterol doesn’t actually raise your cholesterol. I thought that was just a hold over from the “fat is bad” diet phase… In response to some of the commenters, I’ve heard that saturated fat raises both good and bad cholesterol equally, so it’s kind of a wash. But I read that on the internet so…
I’ve never even heard about box jumps before, but those sound seriously intense! That coffee looks fantastic, I’m definitely going to have to try and find a bag 🙂
I made dippy eggs this morning for my son who has a cold. Epic fail.
You’re right, box jumps are super scary. I used to have to do them in college, and trust me I busted my shin plenty of times….it’s not fun. Especially in front of a weight room full of talented athletes!
That coffee looks scrumptious 🙂 <~ love that word!
Wow, that intimidates me too…I’d still like to try it (with very low boxes!)…
My goodness.
The coffee looks soooo good (I’m off it right now) and I think I’m going through withdrawals, lol.
Wow I’d love to be able to do that!
As a few others have mentioned, the cholesterol in egg yolks (dietary cholesterol) is not linked to blood cholesterol. In the past decades, eggs have received negative attention, but scientists are now discovering that the cholesterol in eggs is not directly linked to raising LDL blood cholesterol (the bad cholesterol). However, saturated fats do raise LDL cholesterol levels–which you’re obviously aware of. To be safe, I would suggest checking your cholesterol levels with your doctor, but I would guess that you are fine since you make a conscious effort to eat MUFAs, which raise HDL levels and lower LDL levels.
Okay, the biology nerd in me needs to go back in hiding!!
I think I am going to do a post on this topic soon since it’s always debatable and tends to make people afraid of eggs. Like you mentioned, the yolks contain a lot of vitamins and protein!
I pulled up a couple of articles if you’d like to check them out.
http://www.askmen.com/sports/foodcourt_60/66_eating_well.html
http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/nutritionsource/what-should-you-eat/fats-full-story/
I hope this helps! 🙂
I need that coffee!
And I go back and forth with eggwhites. I think, like you said, moderation is best. The egg yolks have benefits and taste delicious, but maybe not all the time:) Sometimes I feel like a “health snob” when I order egg whites though.
Box jumps are my jam! I love ’em. I had been doing them often and I could tell a huge difference in my hip flexors and my ability to pull my legs up. I felt that my running stride benefitted.
That coffee sounds amazing! I have been wanting pumpkin spice coffee for a while now! Thanks for the link to the workout!
I love the strategically placed bananas 😉
And ok, not to freak you out even more about the box jumps…buttttt…when I was in high school & was at track practice we would ALWAYS do box jumps & they would freak me out too, but eventually I just got used to them. (after years of doing them, it kind of does that to you 🙂 ) But, one day after we had done some HARD core running, we had to do lunges with weights for like 50 yards each way & then come inside & do box jumps. Well, needless to say, I was DEAD tired, so I was kind of not focusing on the jump & when I did jump, I missed the platform & scraped the front of my leg on the front of the box (the corner had sharp metal things on them). At first, I was like, eh..whatever. But then when one of the other girls noticed what happened she was like ‘Holly! Omg, your BONE is showing!’ EW! Since the front of your leg has like barely any skin it doesn’t take much for your bone to show, but it was disgusting!! Beware of those box jumps!! 🙂
Box jumps freak me out too! A while ago, I couldn’t do them at all, but over time I’ve just worked on jumping up onto a step, and adding risers each week as I feel more comfortable. Still, they’re a challenge for sure! The guy you described sounds crazy!
I love me some box jumps. I do them in crossfit and with my personal trainer all the time. But I did almost face plant and got a huge bloody scrape on my shin because I missed one time. But my legs look great from doing them! Except for that bloody part.
Those box jumps look insane!
The Pumpkin Spice coffee is soo good. It makes the whole house smell delicious.
my trick for box jumps? don’t look at the box… just jump.
Egg yolks DO NOT raise cholesterol!! Dietary cholesterol has little effect on body cholesterol. In fact if anything eating egg yolks lowers LDL cholesterol (the bad kind of cholesterol) and raises HDL cholesterol (the good kind of cholesterol). Your med school friend really has some learning to do if she believes that egg yolks are still “bad”. This research is very out dated, Many doctors still preach this like it’s cold hard fact, when really it could not be further from the truth.
Eggs are a near perfect food source, they are a complete protein, full of omega 3 fats, vitamin d, b-vitamins, as well as chock full of other nutrients that are not available in egg whites. Egg whites really don’t have any nutritional value besides protein. Not to mention eggs are a WHOLE food, and keep you full and satisfied for HOURS (thanks to the fat and protein), unlike the excessive amounts of processed foods you eat…
I’ve refrained from posting for a while, but that really made me mad and I needed to say something.
Your excessive intake of refined carbs, sugar, and dairy are going to negatively effect your health much sooner then eating an egg will.
i agree that egg yolks are beneficial! i linked to an article about the benefits of egg yolks in the above post and understand that they are a wonderful source of many nutrients. i appreciate you following up with me about it and never said i plan to eliminate egg yolks from my diet at all – in fact i said “I’ll definitely be enjoying them often.” i just read into the article from the mayo clinic, a source i feel is reputable, and they recommended limiting cholesterol intake to 300 mg a day and since i was actively eating 2 whole eggs – or 400+ mg of cholesterol before 8 a.m. every day – i figured my diet would likely benefit from reducing the consumption of egg yolks a little bit.
Hey julie, no I didnt think that you were implying that I was an egg yolk hater, but its comments like this that made me want to clarify!! 🙁
Your fears are real! In high school we had to do box jumps as part of our jump training for volleyball. Most days it just involved one box with rapid jumps, but one day a week we had to stack two and place it between two spaced single boxes. Pretty sure I can still feel the dents in my shins from not clearing the stacked boxes. I definitely had my share of falls, and even crashed into a rack of barbells! Its worth a try though, once you get over the fear of falling it’s actually really fun!
I took an exercise physiology class last year and we had to do box jumps for a lab. They are kind of scary, and doing them in front of the whole class was sort of awkward. They might be worth it though- they’re so satisfying. 🙂
I got that coffee too! I’m loving the pumpkin one. It’s delicious. I was thinking the same thing about it as iced coffee. I can’t wait to try the other flavor! 🙂
I would totally trip over the box and fall flat on my face! Those look INTENSE! I’d totally be a scardy cat. That coffee looks amazing I love coffee and it would be perfect for fall 🙂
Box jumps are so bittersweet. They’re a great workout, but they are challenging and scare the crap out of me too. I really enjoy plyometric work, so I do them every so often, but they still make me nervous.
Interesting about egg yolks! Very good to know!
In my nutrition courses, we’ve actually talked about how the cholesterol from eggs is not actually that bad. I found this short article from Harvard, http://www.health.harvard.edu/press_releases/egg-nutrition
Thanks for the awesome workout suggestion! Those really help me to schedule my time at the gym too so thanks!
Uh, box jumps look terrifying to me too.. This egg thing is interesting. I have always brushed off the cholesterol fact, and frequently eat at least 2 eggs a day. I always assumed that cholesterol issues were mostly genetic, but I really have no idea how I came to that assumption..
Up until a few years ago, I opted for egg beaters and egg whites when I went out for breakfast. However, recently there have been many articles about how the cholestrol in an egg does not affect your actual cholestrol level in your bloodstream. Moreover, I recently learned in culinary school (we had a few nutrition classes) that the egg yolks contain over half of the nutrients in an egg, so by not eating the yolk you are missing out on a lot of the great nutrients in eggs. I see your point about reducing the number of whole eggs that you eat, but I would definitely consider reincorporating the yolks (maybe you could have one full egg and 1 or 2 egg whites in your breakfast?).
On a side note, I too have a fear of box jumps but I try to do them once in awhile!
I have to be a big nerd here- but I AM a photography teacher overall.
I LOVE the stop-motion photos at the top of your post!! Very Eadweard Muybridge (a pioneer in darkroom photography).
You just gave me a great idea for an assignment I can give my kids! 🙂
awesome!! 🙂 i thought it was a really cool picture.
box jumps=no-go for me since I have enough trouble trying to keep my balance by just walking 🙂 But i’m impressed by people who can do them, lol!
I’d be interested to find out more about this subject bc I tend to eat egg beaters for the same reason. Considering my love for hard-boiled eggs and egg salad sandwiches…I figure switching up with egg beaters could be a good thing, I dont mind them!
that coffee looks delicious, i’ve been tempted to grab a bag of the DD pumpkin coffee but now i’m re-thinking it after this post 🙂
I’m so so so glad that I am not the only one who is afraid of box jumps! That is such a relief, I thought I was a lone weirdo 🙂 They scare the crap out of me.
I wouldn’t worry too much about the egss. Despite what seems to be common knowledge, many recent studies show little to no link between dietary cholesterol and blood cholesterol.
Further, the ratio of fats in the eggs means that you have almost as much good fat (cholesterol lowering) as you have cholesterol.
eggs are definitely a catch 22. the high cholesterol is worrisome, but the fat and extra protein from the hold really helps keep me full. you’re right, though, everything in moderation!
either way, i like egg white french toast better…i think the egg whites provide a crunchier outer crust. yum!
Julie,
I am a registered dietitian and agree with the others who say there is no need to decrease your intake of eggs. Saturated and trans fats have much more effect on raising blood cholesterol than dietary cholesterol. I just hate to see people cutting out a healthy food they really enjoy because of the wrong information! 🙂
By the way, I love your blog and recipes…keep up the great work!! 🙂
this is great information. thank you for taking the time to share, katie!
Box jumps are all mental. I was scared of the medium box forever- but it’s not bad at all. Start with the smallest one and add plates to build confidence. You can do it!