We’ve been wanting to try this restaurant, Nolan Kitchen, for some time now since the menu has ALL my favorites on it, and we finally made a trip today!! They are known for bunch, but since we had breakfast this morning we turned it into lunch (although the husband still got a Bloody Mary!) I have plans to go back with my mom for lunch and then for dinner with two blog reader friends in 2 weeks – I am getting my visits all in together! (Jennifer and Maran, get excited – it was great!)
I ordered the Portabello Sandwich, which came with balsamic portabello | mesclun | vine ripe tomato | goat cheese pesto. I requested the goat cheese on the side and we all couldn’t keep our knives out of it! Yum!! Goat cheese is one of my very favorite foods and it really “made” the sandwich.
Dressing and GC:
My plate also came with a side of greens –
I ate all of the greens, about 1 tsp of dressing, all of the sandwich and about 1/3 of the goat cheese. Plus a few of the husband’s french fries and a bite of his prochuitto panini!
Run
Before lunch we went for a 4-mile run around my MIL’s neighborhood. I have to say I left the husband in the dust today! I had lots of energy and have a new pair of compression capris from Land’s End that I swear made me run faster 🙂 They compress in all the right places and are very flattering – I highly recommend them! After our run we did a little cardio on the squirrelliptical with the MIL and some stretching and leg exercises.
Study
I am off to study the mechanics of the cardiovascular and respiratory systems for my lab exam tomorrow. Yikes! Too bad it’s not warm enough to study on the terrace. The sun sure is shining!
See you for dinner 8)
Amanda says
Wow does that panini look great! I have to learn how to make them from home!
Lisa says
Kath love the blog~* very inspirational…genuine…and just plain old lovely.
I am just wondering if Kath + ANYONE has any exercises that could help me out.
I have very muscular thighs and calfs, almost hovering on the too muscular side of things for a female! I am very self-conscious of them and I think they are partly due to genetics as I look back at pictures of when I was little and I can see extremely muscular legs! I am definately 100% grateful for what I have, so don’t get me wrong… I fully embrace what I have but I tend to get a lot of comments on my legs!
Anyways, I know some of you are personal trainers and exercise experts so I was just wondering what are some good exercises to be doing to slim down the thighs and which ones I should avoid (machines, cardio equipment, weights, etc..)
I am very clueless when it comes to the gym and pretty much just rotate cardio machines, spin a lot, and don’t do weights as I tend to build muscle insanely fast!!!
Any suggestions, exercises or helpful hints would be greatly appreciated. Also if there is anything dietary that could contribute to muscle growth?
Have a WONDERFUL Sunday.
goalie30 says
Lisa,
It sounds very genetic for you, especially if you “gain muscle fast” when you weight lift to have a muscular body. You should be happy, as a lot of us women struggle to gain muscle and definition from weight lifting! But I can understand that you may feel “over” muscular in certain spots without even having to try to. Yoga is a great way to stretch and supposedly length muscles, so you could try this a few times a week and see if this leans out your muscles at all. Otherwise, I wouldn’t recommend any heavy weight/ low repetition activities for weight lifting or lower leg exercises, because this will add to your bulkiness. I probably would stick with just body weight activities with no added weights and in higher reps if you do these for your lower body strengthening such as lunges, squats, calf raises. You can also “balance out” your physique by strengthening and making your upper body a little more muscular to match your lower body by weight lifting moderately heavy weights for sets of 10-12 reps each. In terms of cardio activities bulking up your lower body, using any of the machines at the gym such as the elliptical, stair-stepper, bike, etc are going to use your lower body muscles, but cardio is good to help keep your body overall lean, so I would just make sure to try and not to set the resistance to high, low to medium settings with higher leg repetitions per minute again would be better to help prevent lower leg bulk. Otherwise, you might again find swimming, fast walking, or running a little better for preventing bulking of the leg muscles while getting cardio in.
Dietary wise, you’d probably be eating massive quantities of protein to make the leg muscles get bigger, such as 1 gram of protein (or more) per pound of body weight is what most body builders eat. So you could back off a little on the protein if you are taking in protein shakes and bars and plenty of protein rich foods, but I doubt that this is contributing to your muscle mass if you aren’t adding a lot of extra protein consciously into your diet.
Hope this helps 🙂
Betsy says
sounds like a lovely day. Sun is shining here too…finally!!
Lisa
I’ve always had ridiculously muscular legs all my life. As a kid, I was a stick with muscular legs-there’s a funny photo of my swim team when I was 8 with my legs crossed sitting down, and my legs look so much more muscular than anyone elses and I was one skinny little kid. I’ve learned to live with it and embrace them as a runner. Now they’re my favorite part of my body! I love how toned they are!
Leng says
That panino looks amazing!
mel says
Lisa,
I popped out of the womb with muscles..haha seriously! I am pretty lean but I have large bicepts, strong thighs and calves, and just overall a lot of muscle! I think it is a good thing though bc I don’t have to work hard to build muscle! I do find when I run a lot (like 2 miles for me! haha) my thighs get more musclar and larger so I alternate walking with an incline, doing the ET, and running some! embrace those pretty legs! they are my favorite body part!! 🙂
Susa says
Strong legs are much better than some stick-thin things with no definition on them.
Protein alone will not make you gain muscle-and Yoga will not lengthen muscles (which is genetically determined).
I’d avoid weight machines in general, because your body does not move in a set plane and you get much more bang for your buck using free weights (greater calorie expenditure, since more muscles are involved-also better coordination and balance).
No cardio machines will make your legs big; so do what you enjoy. The repetitive movement might only make your thighs thinner ;O)
Our gym just got a new rowing machine which does not get the respect it deserves-it is one of the best pieces…lots of upper body work while still working the backside of the lower body.
Do your cardio to keep bf levels down, eat right end enjoy knowing that gals like me (yep, I am one of your typical Yoga instructor gals *rolleyes*) envy you, because they have to work twice as hard to get any muscle on their bodies! ;O)
Kiala says
Okay, okay, but I have to say that I did a cardio kick boxing thing that was super hard and I really, really liked it, for about 4 months straight about 4-5 days a week and it totally made my butt bigger.
I know, I KNOW that the body fat supposedly would have melted away and I would have just had a perkier rear end but that didn’t seem to be happening in a timely fahion so I quit and went back to the elliptical and spinning classes.
I AM JUST SAYING.
Jill - GlossyVeneer says
My husband and I love goat cheese as well, having it mixed into pesto sounds amazing! I wish I still had some in my fridge, but I used the last of it yesterday at lunch!
Sarah C says
Instead of lifting weights which bulk muscles, try muscle lengthening exercises like pilates and yoga. For your cardio, have you ever tried swimming?
Susa says
Kiala the gluteus mm. might have grown resulting in a bigger, but most likely higher, rounder and perkier rear.
Did you eat more? KB is very demanding and you might have gotten hungrier.
~Sarah-every woman should lift weights as a part of a physical fitness routine. Just like cardio and stretching (“regular” stretching or Pilates or Yoga).
I do teach Yoga and can assure you it will not lengthen muscles. I’d get a lot more students if I “sold” my class with that myth but I’d rather be honest. It is genetics and a lot of times the long, lean people are just drawn to Yoga/Pilates and not necessarily the weight room (a tall lanky person simply doesn’t do as well lifting weights as they would doing Yoga)….so I guess people just started assuming you do a lot of Yoga and you’ll be “long”.
Here’s a good article:
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0846/is_1_25/ai_n14938010
Sorry to disappoint :O(
Liz says
I had a question for anyone who has had expirience with this or knows…I am trying to gain some weight and perferably would like it to be more from muscle and tone, but I’m thinking this would be hard to do( given i’m female and don’t have super genes like SOME people:-p). What is a good balance of cario vs. weight training and besides the obvious protein, are there things Ishould be eating before and after working out to make it more effective?
Susa says
Me again (and then I will go ;O) ) :
trying to gain weight I’d do cardio only for heart health, probably 2-3x/week. Slow, steady.
Weights could be done as 3 full-body workouts per week or Monday upper, Tuesday lower, Thursday upper, Friday lower body day. Whichever suits you.
My meals are a combination protein, carbs and fat…I watch that it’s not too heavy of a meal before my workout and afterwards make sure you get your protein combined with easily digestible carbs (this is after the weight workouts) so that the protein will get to where it needs to be fast.
But that is just my opinion…I’m not the nutrition expert here. ;O)
I played around until I found out what works for me and how I perform (and recover-which is probably even more important) best.
I am sure others can give some good input.
Tina says
Ooh, love the goat cheese! I love it on anything!
P.S. We might be taking a visit to Charlotte in June! You’ll have to fill me in on the fun places to go/see! 🙂
Sarah C says
Susa,
I know that women should lift weights…Im a group exercise and spin instructor, plus I’m minoring in fitness training… 🙂 I do yoga to balance out all of the heavy lifting that I do on a daily basis. I was just answering someones question about bulky muscles. But thanks for the link to the article, I will definitely check it out.
How long have you been teaching yoga? I have just in the past few months been getting really into it! I love it!
Susa says
Hello Sarah,
yes, I love Yoga for balancing things out too! 🙂
I have been teaching for about 3 years now…it amazes me how the demand for Yoga has increased. I guess it’s because it is so versatile and you can perfectly make it fit your needs (Yoga as workout, as stress relief…). Well-you know 🙂
Someone shared a wonderful link with me so I will pass that on: www.yogadownload.com
Love it 🙂
Do you mind me asking where at in the US you are? I am from the South and health and fitness are clearly not a priority here 🙁
Jennifer says
Susa- Thank you for dispelling the myth that yoga lengthens muscles!! It simply does not lengthen muscles and I wish more people know this!
When it comes down to it, you can’t change the ‘type’ of body you were born with! You can only WORK with it, not totally make it into someone it’s not.
Sarah C says
Susa,
We’re both junkies…still online…haha! I’m just not ready for bed yet because of the time change!
I’m in the South too, in FL. I’m from Tallahassee (the real south) but currently live in Orlando for school (not the real South-just the transplanted North!).
I read that article about muscle lengthening-thats crazy, most pilates classes I’ve been to the instructor has stress that it’s building long lean muscles! That’s not my area so I just kind of went with it!
I agree with you about health not being a priority in the South, although I think parts of Fl are an exception due to year round bathing suit season 🙂 But most of my family is from Oklahoma and North Carolina, and in those states as well as GA, AL, TN, etc, it seems that they can and do deep fry EVERYTHING!
Liz says
Thanks for the feedback Susa!:-) I’m sure i’ll research it a bit more, and possibly go talk to a trainer or nutritionist
Kath says
Lisa,
I was blessed with huge muscular legs too. When I was overweight they were muscle + fat and now they have change proportions to be much more muscle than fat. I attribute that to all kinds of cardio. I don’t really do much lower body weight lifting other than squats, lunges, and jumps, but I find that running and the stairmaster have firmed them up a lot – in a good way. But the most effective has been losing fat all over my body to reveal the muscles underneath. I think you’d be surprised how many people would kill for big, muscular defined legs 🙂
Liz,
While I’m no expert, I would agree that to gain weigh I’d focus more on weights than cardio (doing a modest amount to keep your heart healthy) and eating calorie-dense foods that will allow your surplus of calories to go toward repairing and building muscle. It doesn’t sound like you’re headed down the milkshake/ice cream path to put on weight. I think nuts are the ultimate snack for those looking for an easy and healthy way to put on weight. Just my opinion.
Tina,
I’d love to get together when you visit!! Just lemme know when and where 🙂
Kath