Getting Fit for '14

Homemade Popsicles

noreply@blogger.com (Carrianne) — Tue, 01 Jul 2014 14:00:00 +0000

Can I just start this post off by saying how on earth is it already July?!?!?! Where has 2014 gone? It's like I blinked and BOOM we're already halfway through the year. Cray-cray!

Anyway, I'm coming at you today with a super duper easy peasy delicious and HEALTHY popsicle recipe for you. I figured since the Fourth of July is right around the corner, it'd be the perfect time to whip out my popsicle molds and do some "cooking." The word cooking use lightly, considering these are frozen. lol Anywhoooo, this popsicle recipe is just basically my go-to pre-workout smoothie frozen into a popsicle form.

Here's what you'll need:

1 banana
5 strawberries
1 handful of blueberries
1 tsp Chia Seeds
1/2 C orange juice
1/2 C vanilla Greek yogurt

Place all of your ingredients into a blender and blend until smooth. If you want to leave a few chunks in there for texture, that's totally fine too. Once you've done that, take out your popsicle molds and pour in the mixture to the fill line. With my molds, I can make four and still have about a quarter of the smoothie/mixture left. So I just drink the rest! Place your lids/sticks in the molds and then pop into the freezer for about 4-24 hours or until they reach the consistency you like.

Tada! Super easy. The best part is that each little popsicle only has about 60 calories and it's 100% natural. Pretty sweet, right?

Healthy Brownie in a Mug Recipe

noreply@blogger.com (Carrianne) — Tue, 24 Jun 2014 15:00:00 +0000

The other night I was craving something chocolate but didn't want to completely undo my day or splurge on a "yolo" snack (I was particularly proud of myself this day on the way I was eating). I knew brownies in a mug were quick & easy and we had enough ingredients for me to throw something together. First I tried a recipe on YouTube that all of three ingredients and literally cooked for just 50 seconds. While it was tasty, I felt like it was missing something so I decided to tweak it a little and came up with this! It has one extra ingredient, but is still healthy and just as easy. Hope you enjoy!

Ingredients:

2 eggs

2 TBS unsweetened cocoa powder

1 TBS agave nectar

1 TBS almond milk (I used original sweetened)

Mix everything in a mug, place in the microwave for 30 seconds. Once done, take out of the microwave and check it out. Mix it up and place back in the microwave for about 20 more seconds. It should create a nice cake-like consistency and you're done!

noreply@blogger.com (Carrianne) — Mon, 23 Jun 2014 13:00:00 +0000

Happy Monday everyone! I've got a Motivation Monday post for you for the first time in forveverrrrrrrr. *gasp* I know, I know it's crazy. Today I wanted to share with you a really awesome method you can use to set your fitness/weight-loss goals that's both effective and super easy. The other day I was thinking about how I feel like I've kind of plateaued/fallen off the bandwagon, which I've mentioned in previous posts, and that I'd like to set new goals for myself. I googled it and came across a ton of articles talking about the "Get Smart" method for setting goals. SMART stands for Specific, Measurable, Attainable, and Timeframe, which when broken down, totally makes sense.

After sifting through the articles, I decided I'd run back to my blog and do a post for MM where I'd walk through my own personal goals while explaining it at the same time. Kill two birds with one stone! Yay for multitasking! If you're curious to see which articles I'm basing my post on, you can check it out here and here.

So here we go!

Setting super vague goals like "lose weight" or just "being healthy" gives yourself too much room for disappointment with nothing definitive to work toward. So instead say you want to lose 5 pounds or lower your body fat by 10 percent. Or even that you want to feel lighter, happier, etc from living a healthy lifestyle/hitting the gym.

For my personal specific goals:

I want lower my body fat by 10% (since I'm not seeing any difference on the scale, but in how my clothes are fitting)
lose 1 pant size
Workout three times a week (whether at home or at the gym)

In addition to being more specific, try to create goals that are process-goals (working out 3x) versus outcome-goals (losing pant size, etc). It's changing your daily habits and processes that will help you on your journey rather than focusing on just the numbers,

After you've made your goals more specific, it's time to, well, measure them. For example: If you're going to focus on losing pounds, measure how many pounds you've lost each week. Half a pound? Great! A full pound? Awesome! The little victories will get you pumped and help motivate you to keep going. On the other hand, if you've done more process-based goals, write that down as well. You wanted to walk more? How long? How far? How many days a week? Keep track of everything and see what you accomplished at the end of the week. Then, if you need to you, you can make changes accordingly for the following week.

For me personally, my gym pact helps to keep me on track with how long I work out and how often. Next week I set it up to go to gym three times. In order for a workout to count, it has to be for at least 30 mins, whether I'm at home or in the gym.

So basically, here it is:

Workout once at home for 30 mins
Workout twice at the gym for 60 mins

40 mins of weightlifting
20 mins of cardio

I think this step is pretty self explanatory. If you have a hard time finding enough free time to run to the bathroom during the day, it's safe to say that telling yourself you'll workout for an hour a day is only setting yourself up for failure. Again, you want your goals to be something that's smaller and easy for you to achieve so you don't get discouraged. Start small and work your way up. (i.e. try to sneak in a twenty minute workout during lunch by walking instead of driving, do exercises at your desk, etc.)

My goals are easily attainable right now. I only work 12 hours a week because I'm going to school full-time, so I make my workout schedule fit around my classes and work. Of course, it's summer right now, so while I am still in school, my class is online. I workout at my gym twice a week with a friend, then once at home in the morning at some point during the week.

Set a goal for yourself that you can actually visualize yourself reaching. Like I said before, you can start small and always work your way up as you progress through your fitness journey. I wouldn't recommend starting off by saying that you're going to lose 60 lbs in two months. Your body can only handle so much and while it is possible to lose weight fast, chances are you're not losing fat, you're losing muscle and water weight. Aim to lose between half a pound and a pound and half each week for healthy weight loss.

Deadlines definitely create a sense of urgency within people. By giving yourself a time limit, it'll make your goal a top priority. Start off by giving yourself a definite start date for your lifestyle change. Once you've done that, take into account everyday life factors that might affect your start (school, work, relationships, etc) and try to resolve any issues before you begin. Once you've done that, give yourself a time frame and start making short-term goals. These short-term goals will act as building blocks to help you achieve your ultimate long-term goal, whatever it may be.

This week my short-term goals will be:

Drink at least 4 bottles (24 fl oz) of detox water a day.
Burn at least 100 calories during a workout.
Eat six meals throughout the day (bfast, snack, lunch, snack, dinner, snack).

Also be sure to account for setbacks. Remember that it takes 21 days for a habit to form, so these changes you're making will take time, and that's ok! The point is that you're making an effort to change your lifestyle for the better. Go ahead and give yourself a big ol' pat on the back.

I hope these helped you as much as they did me. Good luck to you on your fitness journey and in both making and achieving your goals!

Instead of music, try books!

noreply@blogger.com (Carrianne) — Thu, 19 Jun 2014 15:00:00 +0000

Ok. Sooo I have become obsessed with this app called Audible? I don't know, maybe you've heard of it? I joined last year using someone's link on YouTube to get a free book. The book I got? Fifty Shades Freed. I never finished it. As soon as I heard that I'd have to pay for a membership, I cancelled it ASAP. However, something in me wanted to try again. So I did. I got another free credit. This time I downloaded a chicklit book called Beautiful Bastard by Christina Lauren. It's a twilight-based-fan-fiction-turned-novel except much better. I freaking loved it. Once I got hooked on that book and realized I was almost done, I upgraded my membership (before the trial was over, mind you) and downloaded The Fault in Our Stars. I wanted to "read" the book before I saw the movie. Still haven't seen it, but I finished the audio book in like, two days. lol

Anyway, last week at the gym I had the genius idea of listening to audible on my phone while I pedal away on the stationary bikes. It keeps my mind off of what I'm doing, so I go further for longer. If you can believe it. I absolutely love doing this. It's such a great way to sneak in some "reading" time and expose myself to new books without really having to take extra time out of the day to do so. That sounds bad, but I'm sure you know what I mean. I can listen at the gym, in the car, in the shower (via a bluetooth speaker), during chores, etc. Super duper nice! I would highly recommend doing something like this.

Oh! and if you don't want to pay for books, I would check to see if your local public library has an online media mall. Mine does and there's an app I can download to use for both reading and listening to books. Since I finished both FIOS and Beautiful Bastard (and I have just under a month until my new credits come in), I decided to start listening to The Maze Runner. Hooked! (I'm even listening to it right now as I type up this post).

I would definitely recommend this if you're a bookworm like me, but don't really have the time to sit down and pick up a book during the day. It really does make the time fly at the gym!

Updated Workout Playlist

noreply@blogger.com (Carrianne) — Wed, 18 Jun 2014 15:00:00 +0000

I know, I know it's Wednesday and I'm not posting a workout. Since it's been a while since I posted anything, I figured I'd just share my workout playlist quick with you guys. So the other day I went on a music binge and bought a bunch of songs to update my workout playlist. I've become like, super obsessed with Magic! and rediscovered Italobrothers (remember that song colors of the rainbow?). This playlist has a mix of a little bit of everything. I've got some old school Blink 182, FOB, Sweet, and the Italobrothers just to name a few.

Anywho, I compiled everything onto a spotify playlist. I did the 8tracks thing, and while it's nice, it's a pain to find the actual songs on the site (for me, anyway). So I was extremely happy to find that spotify now has an embed option. Yay!

Without further ado, here's the playlist. Enjoy!

More progress :D

noreply@blogger.com (Carrianne) — Fri, 13 Jun 2014 15:00:00 +0000

Here it is...more progress pictures, from the back. Hahaha I went to a wedding on Saturday and (obviously) wore the same red dress that I wore out for my friend's birthday in April. It was about a month and a half between the two pictures. Although the picture is dark, you can see that my back/waist is still continuing to slim down. The roll in my back on the left is less prominent (hooray!) and as I was looking at myself in the mirror of the bathroom at the church, I noticed how loose my dress looked from the back. From the front it was looking tighter, but that could be attributed to the bra I was wearing (notice that it isn't the purple one?). Soo yeah. I'm ecstatic. It's so nice to see that I'm still making progress because I feel like I've fallen off the wagon and I'm working to get back on it.

P.S. So sorry for the lack of posts! It's been over a month. Life got crazy and not a whole lot has changed in my fitness journey. I'm still going the same days and generally working on the same things. I think I've got a new workout or two to share with you. I've definitely got new workout gear that I can share. :)

My when-I-need-to-shower-at-the-gym Workout

noreply@blogger.com (Carrianne) — Wed, 11 Jun 2014 15:00:00 +0000

Warmup - 30 secs ea.

Arm Circles

Upper Body Twist

Skipping on the Spot

Seal Jacks

Strength

Dumbbell Floor Press - 3 sets x 12 @ 15lbs

Cable Seated Row - 3 sets x 12 @ 15lbs

Dumbbell One-Arm Shoulder Press - 3 sets x 12 @ 15lbs

Abs 3 circuits @ 30 secs ea.

Oblique Crunch x 10 ea. side

Twist Crunch x 10 ea. side

Crunch x 22

Tuck Crunch x 22

Cardio

Stationary Bike x 12 mins @ level 10.

Cooldown - 30 secs ea.

Pec Stretch

Upward Dog

Shoulder Stretch

Triceps Stretch

Bicep Stretch

Egg White Scramble

noreply@blogger.com (Carrianne) — Tue, 06 May 2014 15:00:00 +0000

I love making this in the morning when I’m in the mood for something like a skillet, but don’t want all of the preservatives and crap that come along with the frozen stuff. This recipe is easy and takes maybe 20 mins top. It’s only 181 calories for the whole thing and is super filling. So here ya go:

Ingredients:

3 mini bell peppers or ¾ big pepper

3 mini potatoes or

9 TBS egg whites or

1 tbs shredded cheese

1 slices Canadian bacon

1 tbsp butter

1 tbsp fat free milk

Salt and pepper to taste

Chop up peppers, potatoes, and Canadian bacon. Place butter into a frying pan and allow to melt.
Once the butter is melted, throw your veggies and meat in and sauté. Cook until everything is golden brown.
In a separate bowl, pour 9 tablespoons of egg whites and 1 tbsp of milk and mix.
Once everything in the pan is ready, pour the egg over the mixture and cook egg as normal. I usually scramble mine up.
As they finish cooking up, add a dash of salt and pepper to your liking.
Once eggs are completely done, turn off the heat and add the cheese. Mix up and you’re done!

Workout Playlist

noreply@blogger.com (Carrianne) — Mon, 05 May 2014 15:00:00 +0000

Workout Playlist from xcarrieex on 8tracks Radio.

These are just a few of the tracks I like to listen to while I'm getting my workout on.

I'm on BlogLovin'!

noreply@blogger.com (Carrianne) — Tue, 29 Apr 2014 22:12:00 +0000

I'm on blog lovin'!
Follow my blog with Bloglovin

Flush out those toxins!

noreply@blogger.com (Carrianne) — Tue, 29 Apr 2014 15:00:00 +0000

I've been hearing from a lot of people about how they've been infusing their water with fruits and veggies. For Christmas my friend even got me an infuser water bottle. Lately I've been feeling super bloated and gross, so I started perusing the web for cleansing fruit combinations to try in my fruit infuser. I didn't really come up with anything I was interested in, until alas, once again Cassey over on blogilates posted a video for a "Natural Belly Slimming Detox Water" that was just what I was looking for! I've since replaced my regular water that I drink daily with this concoction for about a week now. I had a party last Saturday that I was going to and wanted to make sure I could rock my dress feeling my best. :)

Ingredients (for 24 oz. of water):

2 orange slices
2 lemon slices
3 cucumber slices
3 Mint leaves
Cold water

The part of my water bottle where I place the fruit is too narrow to fit full slices in it, so I cut everything in half. Once I've done, that throw everything together in my bottle and leave it in the fridge for an hour or two to make sure it's nice and cold. Cassey (and I) recommend replacing the fruit every 2-3 refills (probably closer to 2. Mine starts to taste super diluted right away so I try to replace them as often as I can to get all the nutrients). Just replace your regular water with the detox water throughout the day and drink for as long as you wish. Also try to remember to get the recommend 8-10 glasses of water a day (64-80 oz)! You will feel a world of difference once you're properly hydrating yourself.

Progress

noreply@blogger.com (Carrianne) — Thu, 24 Apr 2014 15:00:00 +0000

So I've heard from a few people that the best way to track any weight loss progress is to take pictures of yourself. I decided to do this. Kinda. I bought a dress back in February for Valentine's Day but didn't get the chance to wear it until last Saturday. As I was trying it on, I took pictures of myself to compare to the ones I took in February. I actually am making progress! It's been fairly slow, but it's something! After seeing my progress for the first time since I started working out, I would definitely recommend taking pictures to compare. That way, if you're like me and aren't seeing results on the scale, you have visible proof that what you're doing is working and it feels great! I once had a cardio kickboxing instructor tell me not to focus on what the scale says, but to focus on how your clothes are fitting and how you're feeling. I completely agree. Not to mention that muscles weighs more than fat, so if you're building muscle, you may gain weight before you start to lose it. Buuut anyway, that's my tip for today.

And if you're curious, here are my pictures:

Current Ab Workout at Home

noreply@blogger.com (Carrianne) — Wed, 23 Apr 2014 15:00:00 +0000

Abs at Home - 25 mins

Warmup (30 secs ea.)

Overhead Walking Lunge

Arm Circles

Horizontal Arm Swings

Butt Kicks

Upper Body Twist

Wall Ankle Mobilization

Spiderman Lunge

Seal Jacks

Circuit 1 x 3, 30 secs ea.

Lying Oblique Crunch

Exercise Ball Crunch

Tuck Jump

Exercise Ball Plank (feet down)

Circuit 2 x 2, 30 secs ea.

Side Plank w/ Hip Thrust

Leg Raise

Reverse Crunch

Exercise Ball Oblique Crunch

Cooldown

Child's Pose

Upward Dog

Strawberry Protein Pancakes

noreply@blogger.com (Carrianne) — Thu, 17 Apr 2014 22:02:00 +0000

Today I tried my hand at making strawberry protein pancakes again to see if they would turn out any better. Guess what? They did! This time around I actually had the psyllium husk that the recipe called for (which, by the way, if you're looking for it, I found at Fruitful Yield). The pancakes themselves tasted like egg. I probably didn't have enough strawberry chunks in them, so I topped them with whipped cream and gobbled them up! They didn't take too long to make and were a nice treat in the morning that was more than just a smoothie. If you're interested in making them, the recipe is below.

Here is what you'll need:

1 scoop vanilla whey protein powder (I used Trader Joe's brand)

1 Tbs Psyllium Husk

1 whole egg

3 strawberries chopped

1/2 cup water (or milk if you like them creamier)

Mix everything together in a bowl (including the strawberries). Spray a pan with non-stick spray and pour the batter onto it. I decided to make bigger pancakes, so I had enough batter to make three bigger ones. Otherwise it should make about 6 smaller pancakes. Cook them until they start to bubble, then slip and wait until they're a golden brown.

Recipe borrowed from Blogilates (surprise, surprise. lol).

Apple Cinnamon Protein Pancakes

noreply@blogger.com (Carrianne) — Tue, 15 Apr 2014 15:00:00 +0000

Good morning! Since my return home from vacation, I've been working to get back into the swing of things during the week. I wanted something more clean and healthy for breakfast that was more than a smoothie, so I searched through Cassey's recipes on Blogilates and rediscovered the Apple Cinnamon Protein Pancakes she shared on her blog. This is my second time trying them and let me tell you, they turned out much better! The first time I was a little NutriBullet crazy and used that to "mix" everything together. However, what I ended up doing was pulverizing the binding ingredient/thickening agent (oatmeal) into dust, thus leaving me with a runny mess of a pancake batter. So my end result was apple cinnamon protein crepes. I put peanut butter on mine...OH. MY. GOSH. Amazinggggg. The pancakes taste nice and appley so if you like apples, these are for you!

Here's what you'll need:

1/4 cup oatmeal
1 whole egg
3-4 egg whites
1 scoop vanilla protein powder (I used Trader Joe's whey protein)
Half a chopped apple
Dash of cinnamon

Mix all the ingredients in a bowl until it has a batter-like consistency. Pour onto a coated frying pan (so it won't stick) and cook on medium heat until you start to see bubbles. Flip and cook until done.

That's it! Easy peasy and delicious!

Calories: 342

Protein: 39g

Carbs: 28g

Fats: 7g

FFA - Recovering from my Strained Back

noreply@blogger.com (Carrianne) — Fri, 11 Apr 2014 15:00:00 +0000

Is anyone else noticing a theme this week with my back? Now, I’m putting this out there that I am not a professional nor do I claim to be one. I’m just sharing my personal experiences and what has worked for me.

As I've said, I strained my back three weeks ago today at the gym doing squats to a bench. I had really bad back spasms for a few days that kept me home from work that same day, but limited my mobility for a few days. I used warming pads on my back to keep the muscles loose and also downed a spoonful of mustard to help ease the spasms. As far as the gym went, I stayed out of the gym for a week and a half and limited my heaving lifting even though my back started feeling better after a week. The first time I went to the gym, I didn't use any free weights or resistance machines, just my medium weight resistance band. I used my PumpUp App to generate a quick workout for my upper body with some cardio. It was so nice and literally didn't put any strain on my lower back whatsoever. I haven't been to the gym since because of vacation, being sick, and my workout buddy spacing this week. Hopefully next week I'll be back in the gym and pumping iron. lol

Mustard for sore muscles?

noreply@blogger.com (Carrianne) — Thu, 10 Apr 2014 15:00:00 +0000

About three weeks ago, I strained my lower back at the gym. I’m assuming I did so doing squats to a bench because I remember I sat down quickly and kind of in a funny way. As I said in my post on Tuesday, I tried a smoothie to help relieve sore muscles, but needed something a little more to help with my back spasms. I heard through the grapevine (my grandma told my mom, who told me) that a teaspoon of mustard would help relieve my back pain. I put it off for a couple days just wearing one of those heat wraps on my back. That wasn’t working, so I finally gave in and tried a spoonful of the mustard. Once I finally choked it down, within minutes my back was feeling better; albeit not completely, but I was able to function more like a normal human being again.

I’ve tried googling this to find out why it works and have only found articles talking about making pastes with dry mustard and applying those to your sore areas. This is a trick that runners have been doing for years to help with leg cramps. I swear by it, and as much as I dislike mustard, it works. I’ll keep doing my research, but in the meantime, if you want a quick, rather natural fix to your muscles aches, gives this a try! What do you have to lose?

My lower body workout at home.

noreply@blogger.com (Carrianne) — Wed, 09 Apr 2014 15:00:00 +0000

Warmup (30 secs ea.)

Skipping on the spot

Standing Hamstring Stretch

Arm Circles

Walking Quadriceps Stretch

Forward Leg Swing

Spiderman Lunge

Seal Jacks

Strength

Dumbbell Squat - 4 sets x 12 @ 15lbs

Dumbbell Romanian Deadlift - 3 sets x 15 @ 15lbs

Dumbbell Lunge - 3 sets x 15 @ 15lbs

Dumbbell Reverse Lunge - 3 sets x 15 @ 15lbs

Dumbbell Plie Squat - 3 sets x 15 @15lbs

Glute Bridge - 3 sets x 15

Dumbbell Seat One-Legged Calf Raise - 3 sets x 15 @15lbs

Cooldown (30 secs ea.)

Butterfly Stretch

Lying Quad Stretch

Glute Stretch

Iron Cross

Hamstring Stretch

Hip Flexor Stretch

Calf Stretch

Abductor Stretch

Sore Muscle Smoothie

noreply@blogger.com (Carrianne) — Tue, 08 Apr 2014 15:00:00 +0000

About two weeks ago, I strained my back at the gym doing squats and I was desperate to find a remedy for the spasms without taking a bunch of pills. I mulled around on the internet and found some ingredients that would help ease muscle soreness.

Here's what I found would help:

Kale.
Cherries.
Pomegranate.
Wheat Germ.
Ginger.
Blueberries.
Flaxseed or other Omega-3s.

Out of those ingredients, I had a berry mix and kale. So I threw together a recipe adding in some strawberries, protein powder, almond milk, and yogurt.

So roughly about this much of each:

1/2 cup strawberries

1/2 berry mix

1 cup kale

1 cup milk

1/2 yogurt

Just put everything into a blender and mix away! This little mixture didn't really help with my back, but it definitely helped to prevent sore leg muscles the next day! Super duper yummy.

Motivation Monday - Find a buddy!

noreply@blogger.com (Carrianne) — Mon, 07 Apr 2014 22:45:00 +0000

Happy Monday everyone! Sorry for the inconsistency with my posts the past few weeks. I've had stuff scheduled to go up because I've been on vacation and just got back last night. This morning I hit the ground running with my 8am class and work tonight. Right now I'm sitting at work making myself look busy and give me something to do to kill the time. Soooo today's post is veering somewhat from the Cosmo article I've been quoting and working off of for my last few Motivation Monday posts, although it's still on the list and it's pretty simple. Find a buddy.

I've lost count of how many times I've heard and read about how having a workout buddy motivates you to go to the gym. Since I started working out and taking cardio kickboxing classes at school with a couple friends of mine. I ended up driving us because I was the only one with a car, so it made me accountable and I pretty had to go to class so they could go as well. If there were days when my friend didn't go, I found that I wouldn't go to class. Even now, and I need to fix this, if my friend can't go to the gym, I don't go. As you can see, having someone go with me is a huge motivator for me because it makes me accountable for someone else. For my Cardio-Kickboxing class I was the transportation and for the gym, he [my friend] can't get into the gym without me.

That being said, I would definitely recommend grabbing a friend to go workout. Here are a few reasons listed out as to why this would be beneficial to you:

It helps the time pass quicker- you're not watching the clock when you're talking to someone.
It makes you accountable so you don't cancel workouts - if someone is relying on you, it's not cool to cancel because you "don't feel like it." I've only had to cancel once, and that was because I hurt my back. We ended up hanging out instead.
They can see the progress you're making that you can't see yourself - I've been told by co-workers and the friend that I workout with that they can see me slimming down.
It's fun and makes you competitive - My friend and I silently compete against each other when we hit the stationary bikes at the end of our workouts. He gets upset when I beat him (but you didn't hear that from me).
You'll simply be more motivated - Seeing the progress that your friend(s) is/are making will hopefully inspire you to continue doing what you're doing/change your habits. I know my friends will scold me or talk me out of eating that side of fries with dinner.

Start a food journal

noreply@blogger.com (Carrianne) — Thu, 03 Apr 2014 15:00:00 +0000

I am soooo sorry that I completely neglected to post much of anything for the past week or two. I'm currently on vacation in sunny Florida and last week I was running around like crazy making sure I didn't forget anything. Anywho, today I wanted to talk about something that I've been doing for a few months now, and that is keeping a food journal. Studies have actually shown that doing so helps you lose about twice as much weight because it makes you aware of what you're eating and how much of it as well as making you accountable for it. I personally use MyFitnessPal or Lose It! to write down what I'm eating and drinking every day. Now you can use whatever you want for your journal as long as you're writing down what you're eating.

The cool thing about both of those apps is that you can enter in the number of calories you burned (if you know) and they will automatically adjust the number of calories you should consume that day and still stay within your goal. The PumpUp app that I use tells me how many calories I burn at the end of my workout or if you don't have or want to use that app, you can find another site online that tells you how many calories you burn doing certain exercises.

I have a few tips to help you with your food journal that I've found help me.

Write down everything. As bad as you may feel about your indulgences or "cheat" days, still put them in your food diary. It will help you keep track of where to make changes.
Don't forget portions. It may feel like a pain at first, but it definitely helps you realize how big your portions actually should be and gets you to be creative with your meals.
Don't wait until the end of the day to write everything down. Then you have to worry about remembering everything, how much you ate, etc.
Cook for yourself. This may be obvious, but I've found that cooking at home is a lot healthier than eating out and unless you're getting a basic salad with virtually nothing extra in it, finding low-calorie meals at a restaurant is difficult. Not impossible, but difficult.

Current Upper Body Workout at Home

noreply@blogger.com (Carrianne) — Wed, 02 Apr 2014 15:00:00 +0000

On days when I don't feel like hitting the gym and still want to get a workout in, this is the workout I go to. It's short and sweet, at about only 40 minutes using my body and a resistance band.

Upper Body Workout - Home

Warmup (30 secs ea.)

Arm Circles

Overhead Walking Lunge

Upper Body Twist

Horizontal Arm Swings

Vertical Arm Swings

Spiderman Lunge

Seal Jacks

Strength

Triangle Push-Up - 4 sets x 13

Band Overhead Shoulder Press - 3 sets x 16

Band Alternating Bicep Curl - 3 sets x 16

Band Pull-Apart - 3 sets x 16

Band Overhead Triceps Extension - 3 sets x 16

Band Alternating Front Raise - 3 sets x 16

Cooldown (30 secs ea.)

Forearm Stretch

Shoulder Stretch

Triceps Stretch

Bicep Stretch

Pec Stretch

Breakfast Smoothie

noreply@blogger.com (Carrianne) — Tue, 01 Apr 2014 15:00:00 +0000

I wish I had the guts to experiment with recipes and make up my own but I feel like that would turn out disastrous. Soooo instead I hit up places like pinterest and blogilates to find new ones to try out. Today's recipe came from pinterest, or more specifically Mindfully Frugal Mom. I like to make this the night before I have class (so on a Sun or Tues) and refrigerate it so I can just grab it and go in the morning. It's yummy, filling, and super easy since I have to leave at 7:15 for my 8:00 class. The recipe actually has quite a few calories, but I've tried altering it cut down on them. It went from originally having 630 to...*drum roll* 453. Not super great, but not horrible either. We want to keep in mind that this is a meal replacement smoothie so having a few extra calories isn't necessarily a bad thing.

So here is what you will need:

1/2 cup milk (you can use any kind you want. I use unsweetened vanilla almond milk)
1/2 cup Vanilla Yogurt (the recipe suggests stonyfield whole milk yogurt. I just used dannon light & fit fat free)
1/2 cup quick oats
1 banana
1 tbsp peanut butter (or any other kind of nut butter you want).
1 tsp chia seeds (optional but great for omega 3s!)
1 tbsp cocoa powder (optional)

Instructions:

Soak oats in 1/2 cup of water for 5-10 minutes.
Place everything into your blender in this order: milk, oats (with water), yogurt, peanut butter, banana, cocoa powder, chia seeds.
Blend everything for 30 seconds - 1 minute until everything blended and smooth. Serve chilled.

Like I said, I put it in the fridge overnight and just grab it in the morning. Easy peasy!

Workout Wednesday - Current Full Body Workout for the Gym

noreply@blogger.com (Carrianne) — Wed, 26 Mar 2014 15:00:00 +0000

Full Body

Warmup - 60 mins

Lateral Squat - 30 seconds

Forward Leg Swing - 30 seconds

Vertical Arm Swings - 30 seconds

Upper Body Twist - 30 seconds

Walking Quadriceps Stretch - 30 seconds

Yoga Plex - 30 seconds

Seal Jacks - 30 seconds

Strength

Dumbbell Squat - 3 sets x 12 @ 20lbs

Dumbell Bench Press - 3 sets x 12 @ 20lbs

Cable Seated Row (Palms Up) - 3 sets x 12 @ 20lbs

Dumbbell One-Arm Shoulder Press - 3 sets x 12 @ 20lbs

Dumbbell Bulgarian Split Squat - 3 sets x 12 @ 20lbs

One-Arm Dumbbell Swing - 2 sets x 12 @ 20lbs

Cardio

Treadmill - 26 mins - 3.2mph @ 5% incline

Cooldown

Lying Quad Stretch - 30 seconds

Shoulder Stretch - 30 seconds

Pec Stretch - 30 seconds

Lying Glute Stretch - 30 seconds

Glute Stretch - 30 seconds

Quadriceps Stretch - 30 seconds

Chocolate Chia Seed Pudding

noreply@blogger.com (Carrianne) — Tue, 25 Mar 2014 15:00:00 +0000

After putting it off and not being able to find them, I finally had the brilliant idea to just ask someone where the hell they keep their Chia Seeds at Trader Joe's.

Once I got home, I decided to try their chia seed pudding recipe and it turned out pretty good!

This one is fairly easy.

Here's what you need:

1/4 cup chia seeds

1/4 cup almond milk (I used unsweetened original)

1 TBS Agave Nectar

One spoonful unsweetened cocoa powder

Just mix everything together and refrigerate for 2-3 hours. Tada! Chocolate chia seed pudding.