Eat Clean, Train Dirty

Hello all! I hope you guys are all familiar with the phrase "30% gym, 70% diet", thats right people, what you eat is so very important. You can't just workout and eat whatever you want and expect to reach your optimum health. When you get done with a grueling workout, when you go home, don't you just want to eat tons of fruits and veggies? It just feels good, and you feel good. As you go on throughout the day, sometimes you forget just how good it made you feel. When you fuel your body with fruits, veggies, whole grains and leans meats, your body loves you and you love you! I'm lucky enough to be rooming with two other health nuts so we try to eat the freshest stuff. I'd like to share every once in a while the foods we enjoy daily!

Vegetable Turkey Wrap: Tomatoes, Alfalfa sprouts, spinach, turkey and vegenaise on Multi-grain flat bread with Flaxseed.

Its also great with cucumber and avocado! But you can add any other vegetable you'd enjoy. Another thing my roommates and I enjoy is the wheatgrass we have growing in our apartment! Can't wait to add that to our smoothies and even have wheatgrass shots! Wheatgrass is said to help aid in detoxification of the body and cancer prevention. It is also said to be highly concentrated in nutrients. That a teaspoon of wheatgrass powder has the same benefits as a whole serving of spinach. Sounds excellent to me!

Have an excellent and healthy day! Eat clean and train dirty, your body will thank-you.

Win the first battle of each day

That would be waking up! My coach had a friend that always said, if you conquer the first mental battle (waking up after that alarm goes off no matter how early), then its easier to win other battles throughout the day. Battles about eating right, about working out, about feeling good about yourself, about getting along with others, and so on. We all face battles everyday, lets conquer that first one and conquer the day! When your alarm goes off, get up! Face the day and #makeitcount as Nike would say.

I needed this motivation today. When my alarm went off at 5:45, I was really close to sleeping through practice, I did not want to get up. But I did, we had a great practice, I'm happy with myself, and I got motivated. Make today count!

Crossfit and Making Goals

Picture taken from this blog at the 2011 Crossfit games

Recently I started doing Crossfit. I've only done it about 3 times, but yesterday was the first time I did Olympic style lifting. I'm so sore today. Times that soreness by 100 and thats how sore I am.

How I felt when I was doing it yesterday:
-Powerful
-Strong
-Awesome

How I feel today:
-Stupid because I can't even take my own sweater off. Thats right, my roommate had to rip it off me.

But it feels great. And it really was hard, the workout consisted of pull-ups, split jerks, knees to elbows, hang cleans, and back extensions, 15 of each and then 3 sets of that.

This was the type of workout that I needed to constantly remind myself of the goals I had set for myself. When you workout with a goal, and remind yourself of it often, its easier to push forward and not give up. I encourage you all to make goals for yourself! Whether you're just starting out, or if you're a seasoned athlete. Make short term and long term goals and let me know about them!

You all should try Crossfit, if you are capable. Its simple, you go to their website, and each day they have a workout of the Day (WOD), and you do it! For you ladies, you should read this article about women and crossfit. Its inspiring!

Have a good healthy day and get that heart of yours pumping!

Smoothies all day long

I don't know about you, but I just love smoothies. They're not only delicious but they're great for you too. As long as you make them with the right ingredients! My roommates and I love making smoothies after a hard workout. It gives us a boost in energy and isn't something thats really heavy, if you know what I mean. Often, we'll add some protein to it to give it a little extra boost.

Our favorite is the one pictured above. In it we put: Strawberries, blueberries, bananas, spinach, Greek honey yogurt, ice cubes, and Chia powder. We just put in ingredients until it tastes good, which is almost always first try. How can you go wrong with fruit?

Chia powder comes from chia seeds and is great for athletes. It's a great source of Omega 3 oils and Omega 6 oils, and provides antioxidant activity. For a more detailed explanation of the health benefits of Chia seeds go here.

Other great smoothie recipes are:
low fat, good source of protein smoothie
Banana Peanut Butter Smoothie
Banana Oatmeal Smoothie
Mango, Detox, and other Smoothie recipes

Make sure as you're going through you're day, that you're fueling yourself with foods that will help your body! Make one change today in what you eat, that will help you in the long run. Its your choices, and your results that you live with.

Have a healthy day!

You say I can't do it? I say false

Have you ever had someone tell you you couldn't do something? Like lets say, you're someone that is not much of a runner, and you have a goal by the end of the year to do a half marathon or something. Don't you almost love it when someone is like, "honey, be a little bit more realistic, can you really do that?" PSH. thank you for saying that because that made me want to do it 100x more.

Its like they challenge you. And you accept it just so you can shove in there face later. HA I did it. Its the best.

Recently I've been working on my bench press, not tons, but I'm doing it, and slowly working up to more and more weight. Well I was at the gym the other day and lets be honest, my arms aren't used to it yet, so I'm still fairly weak. I was doing about 65 pounds and the guy next to me kinda leans towards my friend and I and he's like 'wow, you got a lot of weight there!' in a sarcastic tone. umm ya, thanks for making me feel weak. He then went on to explain that thats fine because he wouldn't want a girl benching more than him. Alright. Challenge accepted.

Running

I was reading Born to Run by Christopher McDougall and part of it got me thinking about this.

How many people actually enjoy running? When you think about it, most people start running to end something, to reach a goal. But what happens once you reach the goal, do you stop? Some people run to lose weight, to be strong, to be fit, so when you reach that goal weight, yes you are satisfied. But the way you got there was running, making it sound like a chore.

It is not! Running should be something you love, and I'm not saying that if you don't love it but are doing to be fit to stop, all I'm saying is if you run, but don't enjoy it, change something in your head and heart or something with your runs so you can love it.

Love the way your body is capable of running such distances, love the way you feel after a run, love the burn that lets you know you're getting stronger, and love the way running lets you be free. Your mind is free to think, your legs are free to run. Its like a free escape from this crazy world.

I encourage you to get out there and run today, not because of that pie you ate last night that you're feeling guilty of, but because you want to.

Saturday, a day to beast it

Saturdays are my favorite day when it comes to working out. The way I see it, is that theres no classes or work, so all my energy can go into a day of sweat and pain, glorious sweat and pain.

I started off my day with a good run in 20 degrees. We've been blessed this winter so far with positive temperatures, knock on wood. Today though I didn't wanna just run, since I did that  every other day this week. I threw in some stairs. Oh those glorious stadium stairs. Oh that burn. You know that feeling when all you wanna do is stop but instead you push harder? A motto I heard that I like to remind myself of is "I don't stop when I'm tired, I stop when I'm done". I told myself I would do 4 sets of those stairs with running in between each set. I wanted so badly to stop after 3, but who would I be cheating? Myself completely.

How many of you have physically and mentally been done but then for your own benefit continued? It feels so much better doesn't it. So much better to say you ran that extra mile, or you pumped out those 30 more pushups, than to say that you were tired so you gave up on it, on yourself.

After stairs and some more running, I was able to make it to the gym for a solid arm and abdominal workout. My roommate stef and I wanted to do muscle failure today. And that we did.

Shaking muscles, barely being able to pick things up, or even grip things, thats what our night consisted of. And it feels so good. Looking forward to my rest day tomorrow where I can bask in my sore legs and arms.

Get out there and make a change today that will help you be better tomorrow!

Have a good weekend and run or walk, walking's good too. Do pushups, lunges, bike, swim eat fruit, eat veggies, drink water, whatever it is you do, and have a healthy day.

The Start

Well its a new year and a new beginning. What have you been doing to become the person you want to be? Or to have the body you want to have? All I know is that its your choice to change. I've been a teenager, I know what its like to be insecure, to want something more. But it all lies in what you choose. The choices you make will result in the outcome you see. What have you eaten? What have you done? If you complain about your body but do nothing to change it, I don't want to hear it. Turn that complaining into full blown will power to change. Do what it takes to be happy with yourself. I dare you.

This is my blog about my journey through fitness and health. The ups, the downs, we all have them. But its time to push through it all to a life long journey of passion, health, and fitness.

Here we go!