Iron juggling

I already mentioned how I use resistance bands for strength training, using them primarily for upper body exercise, while also doing push-ups, and bicycle crunches.

Here are some other things I use for strength(or resistance) training:

Use a walker to do dips: Just like the dip bars at the gym, you can use a walker to do the same thing. Great for improving upper body strength.

Juggle with heavy balls: These balls are tennis balls that were stuffed with pennies and sealed shut with epoxy and duct tape. Not only do they help strengthen the muscles used for juggling, their weight may also make a deeper imprint on muscle memory so that I juggle better. They weigh 1 pound each, which isn’t much but after several minutes it does get tiring.

Ankle weights: A necessity for building strength in the legs for runners. But they shouldn’t be used while running, that can increase the risk of injury. This is the All-Pro brand, I’ve had them for almost 10 years and they have served me well. The velcro has deteriorated a bit unfortunately, but it’s not a major problem.

Medicine ball: This helps build explosiveness, especially when you throw it. You can also do a variety of lifts with this to help build ab muscles. I made this myself, it’s just a basketball full of sand. It weighs about 23 lbs.

Hand exerciser: Jogglers need to have strong hands!
If anyone has any recommendations for equipment or strength-training exercises, please let me know.

Trader Joe’s 17 Bean & Barley Mix

Trader Joe’s 17 Bean Mix is terrific for making a hearty winter soup. It has baby lima beans, black turtle beans, blackeye peas, dark red kidney beans, garbanzo beans, great northern beans, green lentils, green split peas, large lima beans, light red kidney beans, navy beans, pink white beans, yellow split peas, and pearl barley(if I am missing something, let me know). I’m used to eating just one type of bean or lentil in a meal, so this was an interesting change last night.

It has 13g of protein per serving, but I made and ate about 3 servings. I soaked the bean mix overnight, then cooked them in vegetable broth, along with kale, olive oil, black pepper, red pepper, and garlic powder for about 50 minutes. I had a little bread on the side. It was a very filling meal, full of so many different textures and subtle tastes, due to all the different types of legumes.

It was delicious, but the only problem was that the smaller lentils and beans cook a lot faster than the larger ones. So the lentils have to be turned to mush just to ensure the kidney beans are soft and cooked enough. This is the reason I usually prefer cooking just one type of legume.

Other than that, you can’t go wrong making soups or stews from this. It’s a great, high protein meal to come home to after joggling for several miles in the cold.