My Motivation For The GYM!!

When I first started working out, eating clean and living a healthy lifestyle I had a hard time staying motivated; I think that is why I ended up giving up after about three months. It can be very hard to stay motivated for some people. After meeting my boyfriend he begged me for almost a month to come work out with him, I declined every time thinking that I would just embarrass myself in front of him. He is a very physically fit individual and I was afraid that I would not be able to handle what he wanted me to do at the gym. Finally one day I just went with him and not only did it shed a new light on how I saw him but is gave me motivation to go back.

 One thing that gives me motivation is my boyfriend, when I see him in the gym pushing himself to the max; it just makes me want to push harder. I have the chance to work out with my best friend and boyfriend, how could that not be motivating. He is there to celebrate with me when I get a PR on my squats or my chest press. Like this past weekend I was actually able to train heavier on my legs because he was there to motivate me to go harder. I hit biggest PR on my squats and no it wasn’t because of him, it was because I could visualize myself doing it.

            When I visualize myself doing something in the gym, I swear it pushes me even more. I see other girls in the gym going harder than me and I say to myself I can do that. So I start setting goals for myself in the gym. One goal that I set myself was to be able to run a minute mile or my most recent PR on my squats. Setting goals pushes me to want to go to the gym and give it my all. So I take a few minutes every week and figure out what I want to get better at. Right now I want to be able to more push-ups, and pull ups. I injured my shoulder about 4 months ago and really wasn’t able to do them, so I want to be able to do more of them again.

            One of my favorite ways to stay motivated though is buying new gym clothes. I probably buy a new gym shirt or pants at least once every two months. This shows me that I have come so far and I get to see how my new muscles look in different clothes. I know for me it gets going to wear new things and see myself working out in them at the gym. If you were to look in my closet you would see tons of hoodies (for cardio), leggings, Nike pro shirts, and can’t forget the tank tops I like to wear when it is hot in the gym. A lot of the time I get ideas from one of the girls I follow on Instagram, she has some of the cutest outfits and is a great person.

            Following fitness people on Instagram also helps me stay motivated. I see this women that have lost so much weight by eating healthy or by working out in their own homes. But one girl that I love to follow and look at is Kelly Sheehan, she is a bikini competitor. Now I do not want to be a bikini competitor, but looking at how she handles different situations helps me get through mine. The day that she liked my photo I remember training so hard at the gym. She talks about real life things and how she handles them.

These are just some of the ways I like to stay motivated, but you can always try some of this tips from Bodybuilding.com article “20 Ways To Stay Motivated In 2016”. Keep up all the great work guys, would love to hear some of your guys thoughts on what you do to stay motivatied! Have a great weekend Fit Fam!

Off Track and Bloated Belly

So this past weekend was on heck of a long one. I had so much homework and stuff going on I totally fell of track on eating good. So first it started with Friday I take the little girl I nanny for, Chloe, lunch. Now most time she will pick a place that I can at least get something somewhat good for me. But today all she wanted was pizza, now normal days I pack myself food for me to eat at their house, but since it was Friday I didn’t. Problem number one, I eat pizza. So no biggie right, a couple pieces of pizza won’t hurt me that bad, well I was supposed to go to the gym after work but got held up at work and didn’t have time to make it before I was supposed to meet my boyfriend for bowling. So there was problem two, I didn’t make it to the gym that night. Here comes problem three, when at the bowling alley for almost 5 hours you get hungry and when you leave you just want something quick, this is where I inserted chicken nuggets and fries from Wendy’s into my mouth, at 11:30 at night. So I ended that day on a bad note, I could just turn it around tomorrow I told myself. Are you ready for problem four? Well the following morning I started the day great had my egg white and ham omelet. Great start right, I then sat down to do some homework while my boyfriend, Matt, was running errands. By the time he got done I was hungry again and he wanted to go to the gym, yay gym time I can work off the crap I ate last night. Nope, I ended up eating crap again before we went to the gym. Again no biggie I still made it to the gym and pushed myself as hard as I could to get the most out of all the bad food I ate. Then to finish off my Saturday night we ended up getting fast food again because there was no time to make something before we had to be to his brother’s house, problem five! Now problem six, all I did on Sunday was do homework; which meant a lot of sitting.

So this past weekend wasn’t the best but I wasn’t going to let it ruin my week ahead. I had recently found this new company called AdvoCare, they have great product for people trying to lose weight, get fit, and just lead a healthy lifestyle. So I ordered myself their 10 day cleanse, telling myself this was going to be my kick start to get back on track. So I made a point to go to the grocery store after work on Friday and pick all the groceries I would need for the week ahead. In the picture to above I have all my food for dinner’s lunches and snacks. After I got all my groceries home, I meal prepped my heart out. The picture to the right is just a few of the portioned out things that I am eating for snacks this week. On top of what you see here I picked up a couple protein bars and my protein powder to drink after my work outs. I am no nutritionist or physical trainer by any means, I just read articles online about things that are good for your body and what is not good for it. Now we are all human and we have hard times so don’t get down on yourself for one bad meal or missed work out. I was a poor example of this, I let all the hustle of the busy weekend get to me and ate bad. But the best thing to do after you fail is to get right back up and on track. This week has been ten times better, I have been eating my prepped meals and staying away from that fast food. And this week on Friday I am going to come prepared if Chloe wants bad food. I hope everyone is having a great week, and killing their work outs. I just finished leg day before this, now it’s time to eat and relax, have a great week Fit Fam.

No Time to Get Your Sweat On?

So the other day I was in a bit of a rush, my boyfriend was bowling in the Michigan Masters, and I needed to get a quick work out in. One of the hardest things for me is trying to fit everything I want to do into my day. Here is my typical day wake up at 6:30 am to go to the gym, workout for about thirty minutes, get ready for work, then I work from 8 am to 5 pm, most of the time. Now my day does not end there, I then go pick up my dog, go home and make dinner, and sit down to do homework. So on Saturday I got all my homework done for school and rushed off to the gym. Now everyone knows this time of year there is a lot of people in the gym. That being said I had no choice but to do a quick cardio work out. Yes it sucked but that was the only option I had, seeing how almost every weight bench and machine was taken. I didn’t just want to give up on working out that day because I knew that I would not be eating the best the rest of the day. So I hopped on a treadmill (dread mill) and did two minutes of warm up. For me this is a steady walk, just to get my blood flowing. After that is when it gets difficult, I began doing sprints. 

This is where you run at a fast pace for 40 seconds then hop your feet to the side of the treadmill and rest for 20 seconds. I normally do this for 20 minutes and do a two minute cool down of a steady pace again. 

As you can see in the image above I was tracking my heart rate with my Polar H7 Heart Rate Sensor, and it tells me how long I was working out for and how many calories I burned. I started tracking it early because I just got it and was playing around with it. You can also see in the image that at the end my heart rate dropped, that’s where I began my cool down.

So I can see how for most people say that they don’t have time to work out. But hey guess what we all have the same 24 hours in a day, it’s all about how you use your time. One thing that I always go to when I don’t have a lot of time, or heck I just don’t want to wake up as early, I do a quick 30 minuet work out by doing super sets or circuit training. I don’t know how many people go to Planet Fitness, but they have a great 30 minuet circuit that even beginners can do.

A Great 30 Minute Workout

SUPERSET

1.       BARBELL CURL

a.       2 warm-up sets of 10 reps

2.       LYING TRICEPS PRESS

a.       2 warm-up sets of 10 reps

SUPERSET

3.       BARBELL CURL

a.       3 sets of 10 reps

4.       LYING TRICEPS PRESS

a.       3 sets of 10 reps

SUPERSET

5.       HAMMER CURLS

a.       3 dropsets to failure

6.       SEATED TRICEPS PRESS

a.       3 dropsets to failure

SUPERSET

7.       STANDING BICEPS CABLE CURL

a.       1 set of 25 reps

8.       TRICEPS PUSHDOWN

a.       1 set of 25 reps

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Eating healthy when you have kids home 

One of my biggest struggles when I first started being a nanny was eating healthy when Chloe was home from school. She would always want to eat pizza rolls or her favorite chicken strips. Now yes these things are not horrible for you in moderation, but who can just eat a serving size of pizza rolls. So when she would be home it was just easier to eat what she was eating, so that when she was done so was I. But a few months after doing this I noticed I was gaining weight. At my previous job I was always on my feet and moving so I was constantly burning calories and never had time to eat. I tried to ignore the fact that I was gaining weight and still ate what Chloe was eating. Well then my favorite pair of jeans no longer fit me and that was the finally straw.

My boyfriend got me in the gym and started working out with me. He would show me how to do certain things like squats, dead lifts, bench presses, and one of my favorite things to do use the cables. But that wasn’t enough so I started trying to eat better. But it was difficult when Chloe was home because when she was done eating she wanted me there with her to play and I was still eating.

Then I started to learn that it was easier if I brought food from my house that I already had made. I would make Chloe’s food aka pizza rolls or chicken strips and heat my food at the same time. It was perfect her food would get done and mine would be done shortly after.  So some tips I have for the moms or dads out there with children that stay home from school on sick days or for whatever reason are:

• Prep Food- Cut up veggies and store them in zip lock bags so they are easy to pull out and eat.
• Cook Food at the Same Time- If you can cook your food and the child’s food at the same time, this way when theirs is done so is yours.
• Introduce New Foods to Child- Another thing that you can try, is to get them to eat what you are eating instead. You never know they may like it.

I know some of these maybe difficult when you have a kid begging for their lunch or a snack. But if you just be patient and make sure they understand you are getting them something to eat it will all work out in the end.

Staying on track even when Chloe wants Leo's Coney Island for Lunch!!