I was contacted a few weeks ago by Jerky.com, and e-tailer offering a full selection of premium jerky products.

Personally, I’m a huge fan of jerky for a few reasons:

1) It doesn’t require refrigeration nor does it require utensils, which makes it a great snack choice when traveling

2) Meat jerky is typically high in protein and low in fat

3) I love the taste!

Being that I fancy myself a jerky connoisseur, I was pretty excited to have the opportunity to review Jerky.com’s product.

Now for the surprise.

I warned you all that I’m studying for my Core Conditioning Specialist Certification!

In addition to reading the course material, I’ve been reviewing pretty much everything I can get my hands on. Unfortunately, I’ve been finding alot of junk but every now and then a gem appears.

I’ve recently came across a series of articles by Eric Wong, the Strength and Conditioning Coach for UFC Fighter Jeff Joslin.

Check out Eric’s recommendations on core stability exercises in the article below.

Ultimate Core Stability Exercises For MMA Fighters Using A Swiss Ball

Okay - I know I’m in the middle of this training cycle. I’m not sure what week this is. Too many weeks finished. Too many weeks to go. Kind of like being a sophomore in college. You know you’ve finished your first year. You know there’s light at the end of the tunnel. It’s just that the past is a memory, and you can’t quite see the light yet. That’s what I feel like right now. I have some little tweaks and niggles all around. Sore legs. Tired quads. Tender IT band.

But, another week is done.

I did a bad thing, I got myself a new addiction. I made some muffins this afternoon that I added cappuccino mix, mocha coffee mix and chocolate chips to - very very tasty mocha coffee muffins. Very very addicting mocha cappuccino muffins too.

Recipe for them is as follows:

Mocha Cappuccino Muffins

3 cups Krusteaz Basic Muffin Mix
3/4 Cup cold Water
1/4 cup boiling water
3 tsp french vanilla instant cappuccino mix
2 tsp mocha instant cappuccino mix
1/2 cup mini semi-sweet chocolate chips
1/2 cup milk chocolate chocolate chips

Fill lightly greased muffin pans 2/3rds full and bake as directed on the box (400 degrees F for 20 minutes)
Makes roughly a dozen muffins

Optional ingredient you can add would be chopped walnuts, which I know would be my mom’s favorite vote - she loved adding walnuts to anything like that.

Tasty treat….Roasted almonds with a light dusting of sweetened cocoa powder. Find them in the nut section at Ingles.

Running and Biking our my two favorite aerobic workouts. They both are great work outs. Both are pretty easy to do with little equipment. Both to me are equally fun. Well maybe biking has a little bit of a lead for me. There is something about moving so fast with the wind in your hair or rather your helmet. I thought I would share with you the calorie burning advantages of each of these activities. I think it is nice to know those little calories a burning off of you.

Running and Biking our my two favorite aerobic workouts. They both are great work outs. Both are pretty easy to do with little equipment. Both to me are equally fun. Well maybe biking has a little bit of a lead for me. There is something about moving so fast with the wind in your hair or rather your helmet. I thought I would share with you the calorie burning advantages of each of these activities. I think it is nice to know those little calories a burning off of you.

I have totally slacked at blogging. Life has been pretty crazy. I won’t bore you with all the details, just tell you there has been a lot on my plate. I am hoping we are at the end of the tunnel because I can sure see the light.

Just because I have neglected my blog doesn’t mean I have neglected my workouts. I have been going strong. I have felt like I have seriously made some huge changes in the last little while. One being adding more miles of running during the week.

I have totally slacked at blogging. Life has been pretty crazy. I won’t bore you with all the details, just tell you there has been a lot on my plate. I am hoping we are at the end of the tunnel because I can sure see the light.

Just because I have neglected my blog doesn’t mean I have neglected my workouts. I have been going strong. I have felt like I have seriously made some huge changes in the last little while. One being adding more miles of running during the week.