Fight the Workout Blues

I know, I know. It’s cold outside, you’re tired, it’s so dark, you’re so busy, blah blah blah. News flash ladies, no one can MAKE you be healthy but you. You have to want it bad enough to banish those excuses and stay motivated. Things that have helped me stay on track and keeping up with my fitness are keeping a photo handy of me at the size/weight I’m aiming for. Looking at that photo reminds me that my body is capable of being where I want it to be – I just need to work for it.

Another way I’ve managed to stay motivated is by doing classes at my local gym. I don’t know about you but I’m not good at going to the gym and doing a routine. I get bored, I don’t push myself hard enough and I rarely work up a sweat. In classes though, I don’t have to think. I just follow the teacher’s instructions and the group structure pushes me to work harder. Next thing I know, an hour has passed and I’m dripping sweat. In order to not get bored with the classes, I try to create a workout schedule that is realistic for me and where I’m hitting a few different classes a week.

The key is find out what works for you, it’s not the same for everyone. Find what gets you motivated and do work ladies.

Weekly Meal Plans

Sticking to food resolutions can be hard when you come home exhausted from a long day at work. For me, having a meal plan has not only helped in those situations, but also when it comes to grocery shopping. No longer am I blindly shopping and wasting good produce and money.

I scoured the internet and found a Weekly Meal Planner that had enough space for me to list my 3 meals per day, plus a shopping list on the side. Once I did my grocery shopping, I stuck the planner side to my fridge. So now when I go to open the fridge I have a handy reminder of what I should be grabbing in there.

It also helps that I found my weekly recipes off of healthy websites that had already figured out the points/calories for me. This has helped me to stay on track by pre-counting the calories or points per meal so I am less likely to splurge and overeat.

Do you use a weekly meal planner? Which one is your favorite?

Easy Fitness Tricks for the Workplace

So it’s a new year and I’m sure, like everyone else, you have losing weight or getting back in the gym on your list of 2014 resolutions. The biggest mistake people can make is pushing themselves too hard too fast. You have a whole year to complete this goal and you don’t want to burn yourself out right at the beginning. Since you spend the majority of your time at work, why not start there.

Introduce some easy fitness tricks/swaps here and there throughout your work day and build on those. For example, I bought a stability ball online and go back and forth from the ball to a chair throughout the day at work. The longer I can stay on the ball the better of course, but I’m working on it little by little. You may feel funny sitting on the ball but when your co-workers catch wind of how much better your back feels, how your posture has improved, and your core has strengthened, they will be lining up to borrow it.

Another easy way to incorporate some fitness into your work day, every hour get up and take a quick lap around your office, or to the break room for some water. Try to make this break last about 10 minutes, if you don’t have anywhere to walk too, do some light stretches near your desk. Again, may look silly but when you don’t have the classic ailments of a desk worker you’ll be thanking me!

Lastly, check out this diagram for some easy and helpful chair yoga poses! Which is your favorite?

Chair Yoga for Work Fitness

 

 

 

Surviving Holiday Goodies

Looking for a way to make it through all those delicious holiday meals, sweets, and treats without packing on the pounds? Here are a few tips to help get you to the New Year in fab shape! 

1. Move workouts to the A.M. If you’re like me and typically work out in the evenings, you might want to consider moving it to the morning. That way you’re not missing a workout to go to that holiday party and vice versa. It will also help you feel less guilty indulging in a sweet treat or holiday cocktail.

2. Eat a healthy breakfast. Starting the day on the right foot with a breakfast high in protein can help you make better food choices throughout the day. This is especially important around the holidays when it seems you can’t hide from a bevy of delicious foods at every turn.

3. Don’t deny yourself an indulgence. It’s absolutely ok to treat yourself to dessert, just eat in moderation. Also, by allowing yourself a sweet here and there, you are less likely to break down and gorge yourself.

What’s your tip for making it through the holidays without adding on the inches?

How Do You Avocado?

It’s not secret that avocados have great benefits. If you don’t know what we’re talking about, check out Subway’s latest commercial and avocado promotion. Avocados have antioxidants that protect your vision, good-for-you monounsaturated fats which keeps your heart healthy, and fiber to fill you up so you actually feel full. It’s a fantastic “flat-belly” food.

Sold yet? Well if you are looking for ways to incorporate avocados in your diet, here are our favorite ways to enjoy this super food.

1. Plain Jane: That’s right, eat it as is. Many people either slice it up or just halve an avocado and enjoy the natural flavor! If you want to switch it up, sprinkle just a tiny bit of salt on it for an added punch to the flavor.

2. Smeared: Try using avocado in place of mayonnaise or cheese in your next sandwich. It helps lighten the calorie content, while adding 20 vitamins and minerals to your meal. Not to mention the consistency could easily be mistaken for the goodies you replaced it for.

3. Smoothie: We’ve all seen those scary green shakes. In reality, they’re not that bad. Since they mostly contain green foods that have no distinct flavor of their own, whatever berry or fruit you add to the mixture dominates your taste buds. Mix up a smoothie of spinach, avocados, yogurt, and bananas for a snack or meal full of goodness!

4. Martini: You can either make this at home or see if your local martini bar can mix this up for you. It’s a combo of fresh lime, basil, mango vodka, rum, and avocados served ice cold.

5. Guacamole: Who doesn’t love a good guacamole? Just make sure it doesn’t have too many added ingredients and enjoy this delicious dip on your tacos, salads, or with tortilla chips!

What’s your favorite way to eat avocado?

PB & Banana Cold Oatmeal

We all know that the best breakfast for a flat-belly is oatmeal. But during those hot summer months, or if you live in Florida like me – every month, the last thing you want to eat is something hot. So why not make your oatmeal cold? This is a spin-off of my breakfast smoothie recipe. I love it because it’s easy to mix up the “toppings” so that you are able to keep breakfast interesting and healthy everyday.

What You’ll Need:

• 1/4 c Old-Fashioned Rolled Oats
• 1/4 c Low-fat yogurt (or yogurt of your choice)
• 1/4 c Reduced-fat milk (or milk of your choice)
• 1/2 banana
• Spoonful of peanut butter
• Small air-tight container

Directions:

Put your oatmeal, yogurt, milk, and peanut butter into your air-tight container and mix up. Seal and refrigerate overnight. In the morning cut up your banana on top of your oatmeal mixture and voila! Peanut butter and banana cold oatmeal – delicious and a great source of protein and fiber first thing in the morning!

You can interchange the peanut butter and banana for berries and honey, or just cinnamon if you’d prefer.

What are your favorite oatmeal toppings?

Get Rid of Those Pesky “Love” Handles!

Tired of that extra little flab hanging out around your hips? Try these easy to do, even at home, fitness tip!

All you’ll need is you, a flat surface, and a broom or something of similar shape. Standing on the flat surface with your legs spread shoulders width apart, hands holding the broom straight up above your head. Keeping your arms straight, bring them down to your right side as far as you can go, remembering to keep your arms and legs straight. Slowly, return to your starting position, then move to your left side. This is 1 repetition.

Start off doing  6 reps at least 3x, and gradually work yourself up to more. In a few months, maybe even a few days we guarantee you’ll notice a difference!

What fitness tips do you have to share?

The Benefits of Frequent & Small Meals

It seems like we all grew up learning that you should eat 3 meals a day – breakfast, lunch, and dinner. But there’s actually a lot to be said for having more meals of smaller portions each time. Here are some reasons that you should consider having smaller and more frequent meals instead of just those traditional 3.

• Your stomach isn’t as big as you may think. By having more frequent and small meals, you’ll be less likely to gorge yourself at any one time.
• More frequent meals will keep that metabolism going all day long – helping you burn up those pesky calories!
• Snacks can help your workday fly by! You’ll be keeping busy and keeping your energy up. Just make sure you’re eating healthy snacks – fresh fruits and veggies or some trail mix some good ideas.

This is a great way to help with any weight loss goals you may have so you should definitely think about giving this a try.

Have any of you tried this? How did it go?

Let’s Yoga It Up!

Are you a yoga fan? I am and have been enjoying its benefits for quite some time now. Not only does yoga help me center myself mentally, it has helped my center myself physically too. My coordination has improved, as well as my agility and flexibility.

After having done yoga for so long, I thought hot yoga wouldn’t be so bad. I figured it would be like doing yoga in a sauna, warm but not scorching. Boy, was I wrong. The class I attended was a power yoga and while it was hot, it wasn’t as hot as a Bikram yoga class can get.

In my power yoga class, the heat crept up on me and before I knew it I was drenched in sweat and I was literally dripping. This was a 80-minute class and I’m almost positive that this happened not even 15 minutes in. You can only imagine what it was like for the remaining 65 minutes. My tweet post class read, “Holy Sweat Gods, that was intense! But I made it through! #hotyogaisnotforsuckas” You can draw your own conclusions about that. 

Thankfully, I had prepared to be drenched and brought a towel for my yoga mat, a towel for my face, and plenty of water in with me. You can take a break anytime you want during the class and rest or hydrate. I managed to keep up and not have to take any breaks but man, was my body sore the next day. Personally, I don’t mind that because it means I worked out parts of my body that needed it. No pain, no gain right?

I can say that I enjoyed both types of yoga classes and will most certainly be attending more hot yoga classes in the future. Who knows, maybe I’ll even build my tolerance enough to try out a Bikram class.

Have you tried a hot yoga class before?

Dance Trance!

Have you heard or taken part in this fun fitness craze or a similar one, like Zumba? I was introduced to Dance Trance by a friend who knew I loved to dance, so I thought I’d try it out with a friend and enjoyed the class quite a bit. For those of you who don’t know what I’m talking about, here’s a little rundown.

Dance Trance is designed to give you a sweat-inducing workout, while having fun dancing to popular songs! Really, that’s it. The class I went to wasn’t a full on Dance Trance class since I didn’t know any of the choreography to the songs yet. Instead I took a “Break Down” class, where I learned 2 dances in the span of an hour. I’m not ashamed to admit, I was definitely sweating from learning just those two!

Typical Dance Trance classes go through 12-20 songs back-to-back depending on the length of the song, in an hour class. They moves range from all genres of dance; hip-hop to ballet. Don’t worry, all classes are lead by certified instructors, all ages welcome – they even have kids classes! All in all it was a fun workout that I would definitely try again!

Have you tried Dance Trance or Zumba?