Questions of the Month: February

Three steps to a satisfying lunch!

Step one: Brown rice base

Step two: Top with roasted Brussels sprouts and pork

Step three: Top with vodka sauce and stir

Easy as 1, 2, 3!

Now let’s move right into some Q&A fun!

Questions of the Month: February 

It’s time for another edition of Questions of the Month where I address common reader questions that I received throughout the month of February. Let’s do this!

• How do you create your workout images?

I briefly touched on this in a previous blog post: Everyday Blogging Tools. I am still quite the smitten kitten when it comes to using PicMonkey to create workout images.

The website is extremely user-friendly! I used to create all of my workout images using Excel and Microsoft Paint, but PicMonkey is easier and offers a lot more creative options. I’ve used it for a lot of things outside of workout images and even created our holiday card and Friendsgiving invitation with PicMonkey.

• Your Crock Pot Challenge made me want to try some crock pot recipes, but I don’t have a crock pot. What crock pot do you use and would you recommend it? 

Ryan and I got our crock pot as a wedding gift from our friends Kaitlyn and Kailon. (They actually got engaged two weeks ago! Yahoo!) We use the Hamilton Beach 3-in-1 Slow Cooker.

I highly recommend it because it has 2, 4 and 6-quart interchangeable cooking vessels. We typically use the 2-quart option since we’re a small family, but the larger options are perfect when we’re entertaining or want to make a larger recipe to have leftovers to enjoy throughout the week.

• I’ve noticed that a lot of your circuit workouts say to complete a certain exercise for 20, 40 or 60 seconds. How do you monitor the time? Do you just estimate, use an app on your phone or do you use something else?

Luckily my gym has a clock posted on the wall with a second hand, so I usually just watch that. Ryan, on the other hand, does a lot of timed workouts and uses a GymBoss timer that beeps to signal when the time he programs into the timer is up. He raves about it! One of my friends who teaches group exercise classes at our gym uses the free Stopwatch app on her phone to monitor the time for certain exercises during her boot camp class, so that might be worth checking out as well.

Past Questions of the Month:

• January 2013: Tips for new bloggers, wrist wallet for running fuel, 5K training plans
• November 2012: Red lipstick, vitamins and non-healthy living blogs
• July 2012: Sadie’s harness, half marathon training, peanut butter
• March 2012: Heart rate monitor/running watch, roasting vegetables, planning workouts, protein powder