Pinterest Workouts

Pinterest has become an obsession for many people lately - myself included. It includes pictures, quotes, ideas, etc on several different categories. One of my favorites is the "Health and Fitness" category. 

I'll be honest, I have pinned 131 pins related to health and fitness and until today I had only tried one other workout posted there. This afternoon I tried this workout that I'm sure several of you have seen floating around there:

 This interval set took me about 15 minutes and according to my Polar Ft40 (see previous post for details) I burned around 100 calories and had a 40% fat burn. **These stats are based upon my particular height and weight so you may have different results.**

I feel it was a pretty good workout if you need to get your heart rate going. Especially if you've been sloth-like as I have today :-P This would be a good warm up to a leg day. Being as though I did legs yesterday I was really hurting with the squats. haha. 

Hopefully I can try some more Pinterest workouts soon so you can either enter them into your own workout routine or not waste your time. :)

Just call me "Phoenix"

Yes, Phoenix as in rising from the ashes.Metaphorical ones of course. No need to call the Fire Department ;)

I will be the first to admit that I take on too much all at once. Hence why my last blog post was in October... In my defense, I moved, traveled out of state twice, and then the holidays came steam rolling through my life. Thank goodness I finally have a chance to sit and relax. And blog of course :D

So here I am freshly risen from the burdens of every day life and ready to share some of the fitness related things I've learned recently.

First off I have to say that I am slightly obsessed with Instagram and I find a lot of my fitness inspiration from people that I follow on there. Whilst social media stalking certain fit folks I noticed many of them have a heart rate monitor watch called a Polar FT40. It comes with a heart rate monitor that straps around your chest and the watch of course. You program your weight and age, etc and it calculates how many calories you burn during your exercise.

 I have been using it for the past week and I find that it is far more accurate than apps on your phone or the machines at your gym. It's also SO cool to see how many calories you're really burning from cardio and from lifting weights. I have always been a cardio-aholic and I have always believed (for some reason) that cardio was THE KEY to weight loss and calorie burn. Well, plainly said, it's not. I burn more calories from lifting weights - and lets be honest, I'm no Hulk so it's not like I'm lifting super heavy weight - than I do from simply running. In a shorter amount of time as well.

I am not trying to get you to buy this product (though you can from Amazon for about $80-$100). My point is do NOT be afraid to pick up weights. Seriously. It is INSANE that women think they will get "manish" from lifting weights. Have you ever thought about the time and practice it would take for a woman to even BEGIN to put on muscle? Especially enough to LOOK sculpted and muscular. Stop making excuses and pick up some weights - even light ones! You will look and FEEL better. And after all, isn't that what life is all about, feeling better? :-) Thought so.

Do something for yourself and find something heavy to lift and put it back down. I know some of you have children and I know they are the CUTEST chunky-chunks around. LIFT THEM UP and PUT them DOWN. ;-) And start now. Don't wait till the New Year, you know you want to look FAB for the big countdown. 

Good luck!

Meal Planning on $50 a week!

I am a little obsessed with lists and checking things off and planning things out (guess it's good I am a teacher). This week I really put in some time to plan out every meal I would eat. Oh, and I decided to do it all on only $50 per week.

I have a tiny problem with keeping my food spending within an acceptable range. I just LOVE to cook and sometimes give in to cravings and then BAM I have accumulated a pretty scary total in my grocery budget. (If you don't have mint.com you should go check it out. It categorizes your spending for you! Does anyone else get excited by pie graphs?!?!?!)

I decided that I was really going to stick to a budget for the rest of October and see how I could make it work. I thought that $50 a week was pretty reasonable being as though that would be around $200 in groceries total and that would be at LEAST $100 cheaper than I had been spending on groceries in the past. (My dad is probably flipping right now if he's reading this. hehe)

I spent $32 on vegetables at my local Freshfield Farms. I spent the other $18 at Whole Foods. Here's the breakdown:

Vegetables:                                                            Whole Foods:

3 Zucchini                                                                Chickpeas

1 red pepper                                                           Almond Milk

1 green pepper                                                       Eggs

steam in a bag broccoli                                          Soy yogurt

2 packages of mushrooms

romaine lettuce

5 apples

4 bananas

3 avocados

3 limes

1 GIANT head of cauliflower

1 tomato

First I made a list of all of the food I had in the house already in combination with what I bought for the week. I'll just give you a heads up that my meal plan for the week is on it's 3rd revision and it's likely it might change again. Revisions took place for several reasons: 1. I had to make sure that I was eating the food that would spoil first 2. I ordered some powdered pb online and it won't be here till Tuesday 3. I plan meals around the BF's schedule. He hates when I use the food processor so the meals that involves a lot of blending or noise I put at the end of the week HAHA. I'm sure there were more reasons, my being easily distracted, putting something on the list when I don't actually have it in the house, etc. I could go on and on. Here is what I have so far:

       Monday                         Tuesday                                      Wednesday

Bfast: Banana                Bfast: Banana & apple w/ PB      Bfast:Soy yogurt, apple w/PB

AM Snack:                              AM Snack:                                 AM Snack:

*pumpkin omelet w/              2 hard boiled egg whites           2 hard boiled egg whites

protein frosting

Lunch:                                       Lunch:                                        Lunch:

Cucumber, avocado, &         *Veggie "chicken" salad          *Roasted cauliflower & 

tomato salad                                                                               chickpea pattie
                                                                                                      w/ salsa

PM Snack:                              PM Snack:                                  PM Snack:

soy yogurt                              soy yogurt                                      celery & tofutti cream cheese

Dinner:                                    Dinner:                                          Dinner:

Veggie "Chicken"                Roasted cauliflower &                  *Zucchini noodles w/

Salad                                   chickpea pattie w/ roasted            basil & garlic pesto 

                                               zucchini & salsa                             sauce

    Thursday                                                                     Friday

Bfast:soy yogurt, apple & PB                           Bfast: soy yogurt, apple & PB

AM Snack:2 hard boiled egg whites               AM Snack: 2 hard boiled egg whites

Lunch: Broccoli, cauliflower rice,                   Lunch:  Salad w/ leftover veggies & beans

w/ corn & spices on top

PM Snack: Celery & PB                                  PM Snack: Celery & PB

Dinner: black bean, cauliflower                      Dinner:  Leftovers :)

rice & salsa lettuce wraps

What I did not include was a PlantFusion protein shake that I will have after workouts. That helps with keeping the dinner portions smaller. As you can see, the meals towards the end of the week get pretty vague. This is because I don't know yet how much will be leftover/if anything will have spoiled. Let's just call this trial and error week :)

The asterisk (*) by some of the meals means that I found these recipes from other people/blogs. I will post the details of those meals later but can by no means take credit for them. Like I mentioned in the blog before this one, I follow some amazing ladies who come up with these creations themselves. I modify them to suit my body's needs but the core of it all comes from them. If you are interested in the recipe look to their blogs or look here later for some specifics. :)

 Let me be SUPER clear about this weeks meal planning. I am by NO stretch of the imagination certified in nutrition or exercise. I do what works best for me.This is a flexible plan that I will most likely add to or take away from depending on my needs throughout the week. I have not calculated calories yet. If I have time that day I will use my myfitnesspal app to calculate what I'm putting into my body. I'll make adjustments based upon how I feel during the week. Other than that I am not suggesting that anyone follow this to a T. If you like some of the ideas on here, GREAT! If not, cool. This is an experimental week for me! If I can make it work, great! If not, I will adjust where my spending goes and try for another $50 week on Saturday. :) 

Enjoy your Sunday!

Eat Clean Til Halloween - Update!

Did you accept the challenge? 

I heard back from some of my friends and they said they were giving it a try! Whoo! I did my best to eat ONLY items that weren't processed... But I am a human (and a girl) so I slipped up more than once. I found that the days that I may have indulged were the days that I didn't plan my meals properly. FAIL TO PLAN - PLAN TO FAIL. This is just something that I try to keep in mind when I am tired and I don't want to pack any food and I just can't stand the thought of chopping something else or prepping some marinade, etc. The good news is, even with the slip ups I managed to lose 3lbs! Now, it's not my ultimate goal to drop weight, but let's be honest, there is a certain kind of thrill one gets when they look down at that scale number and it's smaller than it was 2 weeks ago. :) I did kick up my exercise routine so I know that helped, but I also noticed that I felt better during my workouts when I ate better!

I've been following some blogs and Instagram accounts of a few ladies who have this whole eating clean thing DOWN and they are super helpful as well. Here are the spectacular ladies that I follow:

http://getfitfeelsexy.blogspot.com/ This is Vevian's account and she is SO creative in the kitchen. I used the pictures from her Instagram account and her blog to help me do my meal planning for this week. (More details on the meal planning and calendar for the week later.)

http://powercakes.net/powercakes/ This is Kasey and I am SO inspired by her! She is SO fit and SO helpful. She is currently doing a #plantPOWER challenge during the month of October. Check here out for more details on how plants fuel our bodies with all of their yummy nutrients. 

http://livelifeactive.com/ This is Erin and it was her blog that I found that AMAZING list of clean eating foods! She was currently featured in a fitness magazine! How cool is that?! She also posted a push-up challenge (that I shared via FB) that I am participating in. Erin is definitely one of the ladies that I look to for inspiration lately!

PLEASE go check out their pages! They have recipes and tips and they are just so wonderful I know that you will want to get up and move just from reading what they have to share. :)

Ps. I hope it's okay that I gave them this "shout-out" I don't really know if there are "blogging rules". Eek! (Crossing my fingers!)

Intervals Work!

Happy Football Sunday!
 I'm headed out the door soon to get some cardio time in at the gym while the boy keeps the couch warm watching football ;)
Today's cardio is an interval set that I found online:

It's not easy and I don't do it often because the constant change in incline triggers some discomfort in an old soccer injury, but it is a great cardio blast on days when you don't have a lot of time. (Which is pretty much every day...)


 Oh, and here is another picture to remind you of how I feel about running...
  
Definitely don't see eye to eye but it's going to give me the results that I want!

After the gym I am going to hit up my favorite Publix (if you live in FL you know that some are better than others) and pick up the remaining items to complete my meal planning for the week. I already have most of the items but I found some great clean eating recipes online so I am making another trip to Publix and maybe Whole Foods this afternoon. 
I'll post my Meal Menu for the both of us later (with some pics). 
Have a great and fit Sunday!
 

Eat Clean Til Halloween: Challenge ACCEPTED

Okay, I'll be honest - I did not come up with that cute little tag line in the title. I was lurking on Instagram when I saw it hashtagged under a really fit girls picture. So my naturally competitive self thought, "Hey, I can do that!" (And you know YOU want to, too!)

If you know anything about the TV show, How I Met Your Mother, you'll get the "Challenge Accepted" in the title. (Oh how I love Barney!)

In case you don't know what eating clean means per say, here's my understanding (and what I plan on doing). Eating clean means eating unprocessed, whole, natural foods such as fruits, vegetables, quinoa, and beans. Basically anything that is man-made is not "clean". 

I guess I'm in an honest mood tonight because I'm going to share my food faux pas from earlier today. I may or may not have raided my student's snack cabinet at school today. So I consumed more than my usual amount of processed foods. These delicious but terrible treats included fruit snacks, rice crispie treat (oh yea, I went there), and some mini chocolates. Can you tell that I'm a little stressed at work? 

I'm really excited to start this eating clean challenge. I went to the gym today but I ended up with a bad headache from all the junk I ate earlier. I had to take 4 ibuprofen to kick it. In hindsight I wish I would have just made better food choices. I could have avoided a headache AND taking medicine.
 Due to my moment(s) of food weakness today I decided that I would benefit from jump starting my clean eating challenge with a detox this weekend. I plan on doing a 48hour detox that starts with drinking warm(ish) lemon water and involves juicing fruits and vegetables for main meals and drinking tea during the day to curb some of the hunger. You can also eat some Miso soup during the day if your hunger is too great. I learned about this detox from the book by Dr. Gillian McKeith, You are what you eat. I strongly suggest borrowing or buying a copy. It's an easy read and SO great. I could talk about that book for a whole post in itself, so I'll stop now before I get off track. :) 

I'm going to the store on Friday after work so I can pick up what I need for my detox weekend and food for my first week of clean eating. I'll post pictures, recipes, and explanations of everything that I do/buy. Please ask questions if you have any! 

Detoxing and eating clean is SO beneficial to your body. Everyone could use a good detoxing every now and again. Eating clean is a lifestyle choice that you could start with this challenge. Baby steps for now. If you are piling up on processed foods (i.e. things that you microwave and come in a cardboard box) then you might give this a try. I promise you will have more energy, better SKIN, and a whole different outlook on what food can do for you. It's the only body that you will ever get. Treat it RIGHT!

Do the right thing and SUIT UP (another HIMYM reference) with EATING CLEAN TIL HALLOWEEN!
 

Food Frenzy

I just wanted to share some of the cooking that went on in my kitchen today in preparation of a new work week! I have to say that I am mighty proud of what I accomplished in a few short hours.

Here's a list of what made/did:

1.  Chopped up all of my veggies: cucumbers, zucchini, onions, and red pepper.
2. Marinated and grilled a portobello mushroom for my mushroom burger
3. seared a steak and roasted some potatoes (for the boyfriend)
4. Prepared some mock "tuna" salad for the week. 
5. Banana bread using our spoiling bananas.

I took some photos :)

I'm pretty proud of every thing I accomplished being as though I don't feel great. Do what you can with what you have :-)

Man, I really stink at blogging!

Ya digging the honesty? :D

Well, it turns out that I am terrible at blogging. But in light of a newly formed resolve, I'll try to get better at it. 
Here's an update:
Summer is over and I have successfully made it through the first two weeks of school. I am giving myself a well deserved "thumbs up" for this accomplishment. However, I have NOT successfully made it to the gym consistently in the past two weeks. I cringe to actually admit the embarrassingly low number of times that I moved my body (outside of dancing with the kids every morning - which does in fact make you sweat) since school started. But here it is: 3. That's right only 3 times. 
Guess how awesome I feel? (Please tell me someone picked up on the sarcasm)

I feel "bleh". Which is actually a sound that people make and not actually an adjective. But if you're used to working out 4-5 times a week and you haven't had the time or energy lately, then you know how "bleh" feels. So, here's the question, what do I do now? I can continue to ABHOR the reflection in the mirror OR I can pick up my head and do something about it. 
I choose option B.

I figure since this is a new month it is particularly good timing to get back into a fitness routine. After all, the school year isn't going to slow down for a few more months. I need to get my body back into a routine and get my time management back in check. So, tomorrow it's on! 

Now here is a potentially helpful tip (and not my whining):
I typically spend my Sunday's (not resting) preparing for the week ahead. Whether it be lesson plans or food or outfits, I try to be as ready for the week as possible. This usually starts off with a clean house. My control freak side possesses my body and convinces me that I absolutely cannot even think about starting a new work week with a dirty home. So, I make sure the house is clean, laundry is done, shopping is done, and food has been chopped and tupperware-ed up. (This include portioning). THIS is the part of my old routine that I did not let go. I still pack super healthy lunches and snacks so I can make it through the week and don't have to worry about preparing something when I am late in the morning (every day). This week the planning day will be tomorrow being as though it's Labor day and I am not working. :)
The other day I planned out all of the meals that I was going to make for myself and the BF this week for dinner and got all of the ingredients. I hate those mid week trips to the store more than anything! They exhaust me and then make me feel like there isn't enough time to workout.  
Here's what I have planned for this week for breakfast/lunches/snacks: (Because which teacher actually has time to sit and eat a FULL lunch?!)

Tuesday: 
 Breakfast: Banana and soy yogurt
Lunch: Asparagus, hearts of palm, and tomato salad with a dijon dressing. 
Snack: Cucumber slices with "cream cheese"  and baked zucchini chips

Wednesday:
Breakfast: Banana and soy yogurt
Lunch: carrot "pasta" with Parmesan "cheese", red onions, and peas
Snack: More cucumber slices and "cream cheese" (I'm a creature of habit)

Thursday:
Breakfast: Fruit smoothie called the "Skinny Green Monster" I found it online and it uses spinach, almond milk, peanut butter, frozen strawberries, blueberries, and a banana.  
Lunch: Veggie burger salad (basically heat up a veggie burger and mix together the vegetables in the fridge. I guarantee this salad will have some cucumbers, carrots, shredded veggie cheese, onions, and a vinaigrette of some sort)
Snack: roasted chickpeas and soy yogurt

Friday:
Breakfast: Peanut butter and banana wrap (Spread 1 TBSP of PB on a wrap and slice up a banana)
Lunch: quinoa and wild rice blend, black beans, salsa, and Tofutti sour cream
Snack: Baked Lentil chips (Sooo good) and soy yogurt

If you're interested in details on how to make any of these meals/snacks, just let me know!

Just remember that if you have a change in the normal day to day that it's okay. Don't beat yourself up. Choose to reclaim control over your schedule and make time to do the things that are important to you. You'll feel a million times better afterwards. *Endorphins!!*

Well, Hello There, JUICER!!!

Let me just be honest. I bought my juicer WEEKS ago. I was too afraid to use it... (Yes, I was afraid of an appliance. No judging, please.) I even bought tons of fruit and vegetables... and still nothing. Until this morning!
I'll just come clean, I HAD to use it or my produce would have gone bad. So, I "manned up" and googled a juicing recipe, boycotted that because I didn't even have all of the ingredients and juiced up my very first concoction.
It came out a weird green/orange color.
It was still DELICIOUS.
Here's what I used:
1/2 apple (Next time I will use a whole apple cause I omitted the celery - didn't have any in the house)
3 carrots
1 cup spinach
1/2 cucumber

It was surprisingly refreshing. If you don't look into the color too much then it's just a satisfying beverage to get your day started. Especially post run (see previous post about my "successful" morning run.)
I'm going to spend some of my day off today experimenting with juicing possibilities. I will (hopefully) keep you updated on the successes and the failures of my juicing adventures. :)

Morning Run

It has previously been established (if you've read my only other post) that I don't necessarily like to run. Unfortunately it is one of the only forms of exercise that gives me results. No pain, no gain. This morning I had the puppy with me (Hades) so I decided to treat him with some exercise as well. (He had already been up for hours before me and was dying to go out.)
You know those days when you wake up and you think to yourself, "Oy, this is not going to be a good workout day." You just don't feel right. Well, this morning was one of those mornings. I have never been a fan of morning workouts to begin with. My body just doesn't seem to recognize that it's time to MOVE. But since I had this rare day off and I knew that rest of the day would get away from me without a workout. I went for a "run". I decided to get smart, I knew that if I took off running (in the Florida morning heat) right off the bat that I would surely come to my breaking point all too quick. So, I let the puppy get all of his smelling and lawn watering out for about 1/2 a mile and then started out on my jog.
It still sucked.
I have never been a long distance runner by any means. My typical run usually takes me from 2-3 miles. (I told you I'm no runner.) Today's 2 miler was a .... you know. I could immediately feel my legs getting heavier and that familiar knot in my right side (scar tissue from surgery 5 years ago) getting tighter and tighter. Jeez, if I didn't have this hyper dog with me, I would have shamefully quit LONG before I did. Luckily, this big boy (Hades) can run. He kept us going at a decent pace - aside from his NONSTOP sniffing and territory marking- for about 2 miles. Then I think the heat got him and he really slowed down. I let him rest for 30 seconds and then my Garmin (finally) beeped for the second time telling us that we had made it 2 miles. Oh good, now we get to walk the last mile home. :-/

Point is, I did it. I didn't want to. Not even a little. But I got up, put on my shoes, and left the house. That's all it really takes, too. Just putting on the shoes and leaving the house. It's all downhill from there. The fact that my workout is over for the day is the ONLY reason that I somewhat support morning workouts. Now I have the rest of the day to bore you with blogs (haha) or actually do planning for the last 8 days of school. Just remember, no matter how much you don't want to exercise, when it's over you always feel better. So go out and run (or keep the dog from eating other dogs like me), jump around, go on a walk and look for new places to rent (you know you're moving like me soon, too), or bike or take a class. Movement is key. I promise you won't regret it.

Hey, why not?

I am not the greatest blog writer to be honest. I typically forget that I even have one. However, I've been asked for food and fitness tips from several of my friends so I figured maybe someone else could benefit as well.

I am by NO means a fitness professional or a nutritionist. I just like to try new ways to get fit and I like to experiment in the kitchen. If any of this interests you, here are some things you should know off the bat.

I am a mid-twenties, chocolate obsessed, running opposed, exercise lover. Let me clarify, I'm a girl so I love chocolate (duh), I am NOT a natural born runner so its hard for me and as a result I don't make it long distances but I do it because it gives me results. I LOVE to exercise. Some days I hate it, some days I am just too tired to put my shoes on. But I always feel amazing whenever I'm done. Expect several blogs about failed exercise experiences and some successful ones. Haha.

I have dietary... limitations. I have GERD. It's just a fancy acronym for acid reflux. So, I experiment with foods that are healthy and won't aggravate my condition. When you notice the lack of fried chicken recipes, don't be surprised. :)