I’ve gotten a bunch of emails asking about my homemade “obstacle course”, so I thought I’d explain what I’m talking about. 
I do most of my exercising in the basement, unless I am outside walking. I have all of my equipment down there (elliptical, recumbent bike, weight bench, etc.). So, over the winter when I couldn’t walk outside, I set up a a mini obstacle course in the basement with my Reebok step board and thigh stepper in an attempt to emulate the natural terrain changes of the outdoors. I just walk around in a big circle with the step board and thigh stepper in the course. I change things up often, so while I’m walking around, going over the step board and stuff, I sometimes carry light weights, do random jumping jacks, dance, or challenge myself with random goals (e.g., go up and down on the step board 20 times as fast as possible). It’s not my main cardio, I consider it my “fun” activity for the day, although I do work up a really big sweat doing it. Sometimes I incorporate my elliptical and recumbent bike into the mix. I’ll walk, jump on the elliptical for a minute, then go back to the circle, etc. I mostly walk around in a large circle with the step board and thigh stepper on opposite sides of the circle, so that they are halfway through each turn.
I drew a picture of it in Photoshop to give you a better idea of what I mean LOL
I should probably stick to cooking, obviously drawing isn’t my niche! 
hahaha Anyway, when we buy a house, I want to make an outdoor obstacle course. I got the idea from military-style boot camp obstacle courses and I thought it sounded like fun and it is! There’s infinite possibilities. You can make them inside or outside and it doesn’t have to cost anything. I got my Reebok step board for Christmas, but you could probably build something similar. I want to buy a few more boards to make it even more interesting. I like a lot of variety in my workouts and being walking is my favorite activity of all, it’s fun to spice that up, too! And like I said, it’s not like a casual walk that doesn’t even get your heart rate up. I get super sweaty and my heart rate is raised the first few laps. As I get in better physical shape, I’ll do more and more challenging things, like: walk, stop and do push-ups, etc. There’s so many different things you can do to workout, so don’t think you need money for a gym membership or to buy expensive equipment. If you take a few minutes to sketch out a fun little obstacle course of your own, I’m sure you can come up with lots of fun ideas! You might actually look forward to doing it, plus you can save lots of $$$ doing it all at home or rigging things up from things you have laying around or can get for free, like used tires, a piece of rope for a jump rope, etc. I’m going to publish an article in the near future that talks about some things you can make at home to use for a workout. Hope this gives you some inspiration. Let me know if you make an obstacle course, I’d love to hear new ideas, too!! 
I wanted to go outside to do a driveway walk yesterday, but of course, it started to rain just as I was heading out. So, I rerouted to the basement for a romp in my obstacle course. But first, I had something to eat. An almond butter and strawberry fruit spread sandwich with 1 cup Calorie Countdown fat free milk (45 cal):
1 TBSP MaraNatha creamy almond butter (95 cal) with 1 TBSP strawberry Polaner All Fruit (40 cal) on 1 slice 9 grain and seed bread (160 cal). OMG, creamy almond butter is SOOOOOOOO good!! I dipped into the jar a few times during the day. 
It’s so creamy and yummy! Mmmm! This sandwich and milk combo was a great pre-workout snack for about 350 calories. YUMMMMMMM! Only thing is, it’s not very much food for so many calories. I could seriously eat like 4 of these sandwiches — all at once! lol
My workout consisted of:
- 60 minutes obstacle course
- Upper body strength training
- 20 mins HIIT on recumbent bike
When I came upstairs, I drank a bottle of Vitaminwater 10 and ate a Kashi Dark Chocolate Coconut Fruit & Nut granola bar (120 cal)
I was soaked with sweat, so I took a shower because I can’t stand sitting down to eat when I feel sticky and gross. After my shower, I made my post-workout meal. I was SO hungry! So I didn’t skimp on the grub! 
- A poached chicken breast wrap with avocado, blue cheese crumbles, lettuce, tomato and hummus
- 14g Snyder’s unsalted mini pretzels (55 cal) with 8g MaraNatha creamy almond butter (45 cal)
- A chocolate “Shakers” milkshake (190 cal) made with 8oz Calorie Countdown fat free “milk” (45 cal)
First I made the wrap by spreading 1 TBSP Sabra hummus over 1 La Tortilla Factory low carb wrap (80 cal):
Then topped it with: 2oz poached chicken breast (70 cal), 50g Haas avocado, mixed lettuce leaves, tomato slices, and 7g blue cheese crumbles (25 cal)
And wrapped it all up…
We found these milkshakes in Shop Rite. If you know what Dippin’ Dots are, that’s pretty much what’s inside. Then you add in milk and shake it like you mean it!! (That’s what the bottle actually says 
) lol It was like a mini workout shaking up the milkshake! haha The taste was pretty good, but I think it would have been better with skim or 1% milk. Calorie Countdown milk has a bit of an artificial taste being it contains Splenda. But for just 235 calories, it’s a yummy post-workout milkshake. You could add some protein powder to it to make it even more ideal for post-workout recovery.
MMMMM! Almond butter on the pretzels = heavenly!
I was pretty worn out the rest of the day, so this was the last “meal” that I ate. Hubby and I had a bedtime snack and then called it a day. It’s raining again today, so I guess a driveway walk is out once again. 
Boooooo! Ah well, obstacle course will be fun, too! 
I better go get started, I’m hungryyyyyy.
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