Paleo Fried Chicken

Sorry it took me so long to get this recipe posted.  I've been crazy busy!  In fact I had to impromptu my workouts this past week because I didn't have time to sit down and write up a new routine!  It's about that time again to switch it up, so I'm going to get working on that right after I post this and get some homework done.  So this dish is delicious!!!  And you won't feel bad about eating it either!

PALEO FRIED CHICKEN

ingredients:
2 tbsp sea salt
1 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp black pepper
3 whole eggs
1/3 cup water
1/4 cup hot sauce
2 cups Almond flour(or just grind almonds into a fine meal in a food processor)
1 tsp black pepper
4 chicken breasts
coconut oil

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350
2. Warm enough coconut oil in a large skillet to cover about 1/3 inch.
3. While oil heats up, combine almond flour and 1 tsp black pepper in a large bowl
4. Combine sea salt, garlic powder, and 1/2 tsp black pepper in a small bowl.  use the blend to lightly season both sides of the chicken( you will have some left over)
5. Mix eggs, water, and hot sauce in a medium bowl. one by one put chicken through egg mixture, then dredge in almond flour mixture
6. Working in batches, place chicken in oil.  Fry on each side for 2 or so minutes, then transfer to a cooling rack set inside a shallow rimmed baking pan. sprinkle the rest of the garlic mixture on the chicken before baking.
7. Bake chicken for 30-45 minutes

ENJOY!!!!

Paleo Chocolate Cake

Ok so last night, I just couldn't take it! I needed my "sugar" fix.  So I tried to find something that I had all the ingredients for since paleo uses some different ingredients that will sometimes be more costly or harder to find in podunk illinois : (  Anyway, so I found this and said, Let's go for it!  I made this just a bit differently than the recipe itself and I have to say it was quite delicious!!  I used a 9x13 pan and I ate like 1/4 of it....oops  Great news though!! I didn't feel like a big pile of crap after eating it!  that's probably why i kept going back!  My stomach wasn't bogged down and I didn't have that shame that usually comes with me having sweets.  It was great!!!  It wasn't super sweet since it doesn't use sugar, but it was sweet enough to give me my fix.  So in love with this paleo right now!  From the results I've seen in my body and now with this dessert recipe, I am feeling great about the decision to try this!  Anyway, without any more delay here is the recipe I found(with a little tweaking I did)

Paleo Chocolate Cake

Ingredients:

• 1 cup chocolate chips (I used vegan carob chips...which don't melt well, they clump and crust up, but I just removed all the clump and used whatever melted into the oil which was great because it lowered the chocolate content and still turned out great!  Dark chocolate chips are also a great healthy alternative!)
• 1/2 cup coconut oil
• 6 eggs
• 1/2 cup raw honey
• 2 teaspoons vanilla
• 1/2 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
• 1/4 cup coconut milk
• 1/2 cup coconut flour
• 1/4 cup cocoa
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Over low heat, melt the chocolate chips in coconut oil.
3. Allow this chocolate mixture to come to room temperature. (i cheated and stuck it in the freezer for a few minutes)
4. In a large bowl, whisk together eggs, honey, vanilla, apple cider vinegar, and coconut milk.
5. Add cooled chocolate mixture to the egg mixture.
6. In a separate bowl, whisk together the coconut flour, cocoa, baking soda, and salt.
7. Add the coconut flour mixture to the egg mixture. Whisk together until the lumps are pretty well worked out.
8. Add to a well-greased 9×13 pan
9. Bake for 15 minutes, or until a knife inserted into the center comes out clean.

The original recipe says to use a 9x9 pan and cook for 30 minutes but I just set a timer for 15 minutes because I figured, bigger pan, and 30 minutes is forever and I didn't want to burn it.  When it doubt, set a lower time limit.  I'd rather have to check it more often and get it perfect than ruin it!  It's so great, ENJOY!!!!

Paleo venture, thus far

So I have not completely gone paleo, I've been having trouble giving up my morning oatmeal/ bagel....not at the same time, but those are my two go to breakfasts!  I am NOT a morning person, so being able to have something ready in 1 minute or less is great for me, plus the added bonus of some carbs for energy.  Other than that, the past week has been paleo.  I have to say, I can tell a difference in my body starting to show some more muscle, especially in my abs and backside.  The biggest problem I'm having is the slump of being tired throughout the day without my usual midday carb like brown rice.  Hopefully my body will adjust.  It's been SUPER hard for me to give up my sugar, especially my end of the day dessert, but so far I've done ok.  A couple nights ago I cooked some apples with cinnamon, a dash of sugar*yea yea I know but it needed something to counteract the cinnamon* and some pecans.  Turned out great!  And last night I had an orange and some walnuts.  Not as good as the apples but it worked.  I'm just going to have to continue to push on and try to develop a routine and hope that sooner or later(preferably sooner) I will get used to it and not crave sugar so much.  It's like my cryptonite!!!  It hasn't been to terrible awful cutting out other things.  I think I'm doing ok.  Still rough but hopefully I'll get it all together and get out of the beginner's slump!!  Well that's really all for now : )

Exciting little venture

So the more I go through my days and get frustrated with eating and having to pack meals or get meals or just plane have to deal with food at my house and the temptation to eat it all, the more I think I just need to get it together and make a change.  I've been reading a little more into the paleo lifestyle and I think I may just give this a whirl. Yes it will make some things harder, but I think that I will make this a family change.  No more crap in the house, no more temptation sitting in front of me because my kid or my husband likes to eat it.  Something that will be healthy and beneficial for all of us and will be good for all of us even though we don't all have the same specific goals(such as packing on the muscle and getting the body fat percentage down).  So I'm going to be working on a list and slowly getting things together and weeding all of the other stuff out.  It may take a month to get this all together considering I'm not just going to throw out food and spend a ton to buy new food all at once...because well, we don't have money to just toss around like that so it will happen, just not right away.  So yea, there it is!  Big decision, but I feel good about it.  It's going to be hard at first I'm sure, but I know I can do it and get into the groove.  I'm just going to have to get better at planning and packing meals and keeping my willpower in check, but hopefully I can find some baller recipes that will satisfy any cravings that come my way and keep me healthy!!  I would also like to have some herbs growing fresh to cook with and so I don't have to buy so much of it at the store and stuff.  So yea! when I'm up and running I will let you guys know.  And as for my updated pictures, sorry it's taken a while, I have been so crazy busy with work/midterms at school/ my sister's wedding is this weekend and I'm going to have a lot of company......but I promise I will try to have them up in a week or 2!  yay for good decisions!  I hope this will help me tremendously in my battle against the evil junk food and help me reach my goals.  That is all for now! : P

NEW WORKOUT ROUTINE

As I said in my last post, I felt that I needed to change my workout routine.  It's good to switch it up every so often so your body doesn't get used to the same routine and start to plateau.  I did the beginners body building workout for 4 weeks and saw awesome results but I felt that it was necessary to kick it up a notch and rearrange my days.  So here is a little breakdown of my days.  Monday-Back and shoulders and cardio.  Tuesday- Abs. Wednesday- glutes and hamstrings and cardio.  Thursday- chest, biceps, and triceps.  Friday- legs.  Saturday/Sunday-  I do cardio one of these days and the other is a rest day.  If you want to see a more detailed list of specific exercises you can look at my weighttraining.com page.  I havent "logged" a workout for a while but I made sure to log them for the first week of this new program so you could see it if you wanted to.
http://www.weighttraining.com/users/chelseakylene

This is not a premade workout like the beginner's bodybuilding plan I did, I just decided what days would be what and then looked up exercises on bodybuilding.com and made a list.  I can already tell you that after the first week, I can totally tell this is going to be some good stuff!!! Especially my glute and hamstring day!  And I'm trying to kick up my cardio too.  There are a few exercises that I may not have logged just because I couldn't find them, or there may be some that I did differently than what is described but that was the closest thing to it.  If you see resistance band...I don't use those, chances are I used a dumbbell.  I also am not a fan that the website doesn't have a "crossramp" machine on it's exercise list and that there is no resistance option when you log cardio.  My cardio looks a little sad just looking at the time and distance.  so here's a better breakdown.  Monday I did 30 minutes on a stationary bike, did 6.5 miles at a resistance of 8.  Wednesday I did the crossramp(not the stair stepper) for 20 minutes, 10 incline, and a resistance of 10.  I also did a 6 incline on a treadmill going 15 minute mile pace for 20 minutes.  I chose to do a little harder intensity and less time on wednesday.  I am going to try to keep some form of this in my cardio at least once a week.  So that is basically it for the new routine.

I will be taking some pictures here soon so we can compare them to my pictures from a year ago.  One year ago today I finished the 8 week rushfit program.  It helped me get started in my journey to a fit and healthy lifestyle.  So we will look at some pictures from before the program, after I finished, and me now!  I'm kind of excited to see the changes!  I'll try to post that in the next few days

You are what you eat (the struggles of food)

No seriously!!!  If you eat crap, you will look like (and feel like) crap!  Like I said in my last post, I am totally all for a cheat meal here and there.  We are humans, we shouldn't deny ourselves some of the great food there is to taste! But within reason!  Food is amazing, no doubt, but unless you are a food critic, or married to a chef, you aren't getting the top of the line meals all the time. You're ordering the same mediocre pizza, eating the same thing at the same restaurant, or chinese buffet every week.  I give myself some cheating room if I'm in the city with my friend or on a mini vacation, and that's ok.  But it's a split, heavily in favor of eating right.  Everyone has a different philosophy about it, some people say 80-20, some say 85-15, I'm more of a 90-10 kind of person.  Maybe it's because of the way I see myself fall off the wagon or lose results quickly depending on what I eat.

I'm not saying I'm perfect, because I definitely am NOT!  I not only fall off the wagon sometimes, but I roll down the hill hitting every rock on the way down.  When I fall off the wagon, boy you better believe I just straight get a running start and just jump off.  It's completely frustrating and I kick myself every time, but it's all on ME.  It's no one else's fault that I couldn't keep my will power in check.  That's why I prefer such a drastic split between eating clean and cheating a little.  Because my will power is so weak, and gets even worse when I'm overly tired like I have been since I added school into my already crazy schedule. So having an entire cheat meal is a will power killer to me.  I try to just have a small dessert or something and not an entire meal, because then I just crumble.  I have to keep a smaller split so I don't give myself too much room for my running start off the wagon.

So basically, I just got off on a whole tangent there, but I know that some people look at me and think, "you're tiny, you can eat whatever you want, shutup, don't talk to me about struggling with weight or diet or whatever"  But it's so untrue.  I know that I am in no way, shape, or form someone who struggles terribly to lose weight, but there is still a struggle.  For instance, a couple of weeks ago, I fell off the wagon for about a week, I had good meals here and there, but not too often.  I over indulged and as a result, I gained 4 pounds, and not the muscle weight I am wanting.  Some people may say oh big woop, but that's a big thing to me, that's about 14,000 calories I had to burn on top of my normal exercise routine.  That's 4 more pounds of fat that I have to get rid of so I can be more defined in my midsection and back side (because you know that fat isn't nice enough to go to my chest : P)  So I guess I just want people to realize that no matter how skinny, fat, toned, built, whatever, MOST people are in some kind of struggle with their diet or exercise routine.

Yet another tangent there so here's my point: FOOD IS IMPORTANT!!!  Nourish your body, don't punish it!  I know when I eat clean for a while, if I have pizza or something, my stomach just about kills me trying to digest that junk!  I told you guys that a couple weeks ago I slipped big time, for about a week or so, gaining that weight and looking at myself in the mirror thinking, what are you doing, you are going backwards, don't do that!! Because once you start it's so easy to just keep going.  Very rarely does someone straight up just gain 20 pounds, it all starts out small.  4 pounds here, a couple pounds there, and before you know it, it has gotten out of control.  So don't let a few pounds here just be a nonchalant thing.  Make it a big deal to yourself, maybe not to the world, but to yourself. Make sure you don't let things like that just slip by, I'm not saying punish yourself and be overly hard on yourself, but look at the gain and say ok, it's done, now what am I going to do to fix it.  I just added an extra 30 minutes of cardio into each of my 2 cardio days and ate super clean until I lost it, and guess what, I'm almost there.  after only a week and a half/ 2 weeks, I'm seeing the loss, and I'm seeing my abs again.  THAT is how important eating clean is, a small increase in workout and huge clean up of diet and I'm always amazed at the difference in my body in such a small amount of time when I change my eating habits. But very importantly: I didn't beat myself up about gaining the weight, because that's done and over with, I DID come up with a plan and stuck with it!  And you can too.  I know it sucks and it feels like it's so time consuming but you can do it!  I know there are a million excuses but you can do it!  Look at the problem and come up with a solution.  If it's well, I have kids or I don't have time, I totally understand. This summer was killer for me with having connor home all the time I couldn't just leave him to go to the gym, so I turned my computer on and I did my workouts in the living room either alone or using videos from youtube.  Little kids who can't occupy themselves can be a problem when it comes to workout time but that just means maybe you'll have to stay up or get up 30 minutes, an hour, or however long later/earlier.  I know it's hard, but if you make a plan it's so much easier to stick to it. Your body will adjust, it may take a while but push through and i promise you will adjust.  I didn't think I'd be able to do it, but I am! I'm doing it right now!!  You can too! Don't get discouraged, just do what you can and be proud of the efforts you make!!

 I get on such long rants here and I think I will go back and read through this because sometimes I think I'm just rambling about whatever comes to mind and not making sure this makes sense lol.  So hopefully I'm making sense, if not...well I'm sorry, I'm only half through my coffee, but hopefully you get the gist. And hopefully I helped a little with some type of inspiration or helping you make feel better and know you aren't alone in your struggle.  so that's it for today : )

Diet (hate that word) thoughts

Let me first off say that I hate the word DIET!  It is such a negative word these days.  People say, I hate dieting, or fit people taking about their "diet" and others just respond "oh my god, you're so tiny, you don't need to diet"   People don't think of diet as your regular eating patterns and habits, they almost always think of it as a weight loss program.  SO UNTRUE!!!  The dictionary has 5 definitions for diet and only one of them has weight loss in the description:

1.

food and drink considered in terms of its qualities,composition, and its effects on health: Milk is a wholesomearticle of diet.

2.

a particular selection of food, especially as designed orprescribed to improve a person's physical condition or toprevent or treat a disease: a diet low in sugar.

3.

such a selection or a limitation on the amount a person eatsfor reducing weight: No pie for me, I'm on a diet.

4.

the foods eaten, as by a particular person or group: The native diet consists of fish and fruit.

5.

food or feed habitually eaten or provided: The rabbits were fed a diet of carrots and lettuce.

"diet" is an important part of living and being healthy!  What you put in your body can make or break you!  Why would you kill yourself with an hour of cardio to burn fat and turn around and eat pizza or cheese fries!  You just killed yourself for NO REASON!!! And that is really frustrating, especially when you obviously don't see any results from your gym sessions.  I know that we are all addicted to our conveniences when it comes to food. I am soooooo guilty of that.  Working 2 jobs, going to school, having a child in school, and a husband, I am always busy!  when I get home, or if I'm even home at all, I just want something quick!  And I don't want to have to take the time to put together a meal and pack it for the next day, it's irritating and time consuming and I NEED TO GET OVER IT!!!  I need to suck it up and do it!!!  I at least try to make healthier decisions if I have to do fast food but let's be honest, there's not that much out there that is "healthy" from a drive through.  

But seriously, for most people, diet is 80% of what you see!  I WISH WISH WISH it was 80% exercise because I can manage that!  I kick ass at the gym, but it's not! It's what you put in your body, what you use to fuel it, and nourish it, THAT's what makes the difference.  Now there is a portion that is genetics, and that is something I have to let go of, because I cannot change that!  I wish I could, but I can't so I'm just going to work harder for some areas.  

Anyway, That's my little rant on that, so on to what I'm really on here about.  I need to get on a schedule, program, regimen, whatever you want to call it.  I need to get consistent and I need to get back to healthy.  I have been cheating way more than I should as of the last month or so and I have to get back to it.  It's so hard when you aren't just feeding yourself though, as I said, we are attracted to convenience and we all know that a 6 year old would rather eat macaroni and cheese and pizza instead of chicken and rice.  So I've been looking at the Paleo diet.  I need to do some more research to really dig in deep and find out about it.  I have read that a lot of body builders stick to this diet and I can see that, a lot of what I eat when I'm eating healthy is leaning more toward the paleo side.  My biggest problem is SWEETS!!! They are a killer for me!!  I totally believe in having a cheat meal once a week or every 2 weeks just to keep your metabolism in check and make sure it isn't getting too comfortable.  Sort of the way you would change up a workout so you don't hit that plateau.  But darn my sweet tooth!!!!!  I want to eat cookies and ice cream!!!!  I must overcome this demon!!!  So any suggestions on "good for you" desserts that will satisfy my sweet tooth and not destroy my diet would be helpful!!!

So yea, I'm thinking that the way to go about this is to change my whole family's "diet"  I hate to hear my son whining about his food, and I end up sitting at the table for another 2 hours trying to get him to eat, but sometimes I guess you pay the price to make your kids eat healthy sometimes, and I'm sure that he gets to pig out on other food when he's at his Dad's every other weekend so yea.  I'm thinking I just need to totally revamp my cabinets and go for something that I can do for the whole family instead of trying to make my own meals along with everyone else's.  

New workout routine

So I totally loved doing pilates with Cassey, but I feel that I got a little burnt out and needed to add some more variety into my routine.  Variety is very important in workouts, it helps keep your body guessing and the overload process going.  So I did Jillian Michael's ripped in 30 for a couple of weeks(no I didn't finish it...I know..i suck).  I was kind of on the line about it.  I felt like I wasn't getting as intense of a workout when I was done.  It was pretty intense during the workout but afterward I just didn't have that workout high...and well..it's like a drug and I just gotta have it or I don't feel like my workout was good enough!!

So if you know me or follow my life then you know that I just started going back to school to finish my bachelor's degree(maybe a masters after that but we will see).  I am majoring in Kinesiology and Sports Studies with a concentration in Exercise Science.  I'm so excited to learn more in this field. I feel like it will help me get a more accurate understanding of what's really going on when I'm working out and how to keep myself going strong!  I'm thinking I may add a double major and try doing Sports Management as well because I'd love to work for a team of some sort, but that is a HUGE decision and I'm going to do my classes for at least a year and decide how I think I will handle the work load of a double major(which will also include a business minor).

I've been getting my workouts in very well in between and before my classes so far, thank goodness for such a wonderful rec center at the college(and all of my classes being in that building!).  I totally ran into this female body builder at the gym, she was like 2-3 inches shorter than me and RIPPED!!!  I loved it! She looked great, so that inspired me to start a more vigorous weight lifting routine!  If you want to see the routine I'm following here is the link http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/matt88.htm  There is a lot more in there than just the routine, such as nutrition and supplements, but the beginning routine is there.  Oh nutrition, I battle so much with diet, I have such low will power when it comes to food, especially sweets!! And I have found that with my busy schedule I am running on fumes so I imagine my iron levels are low which is making me crave red meats : /  Anyone else struggle with diet??? I'd love some advice or just to know that I'm not alone in this fight!!!!  Anyway, back to the routine:  I follow it the way it says aside for rest days.  Wednesday and Saturday are my cardio days(maybe some pilates or yoga too)  But mostly cardio just to keep my body fat down(not that it's up!!!  just wanting those muscles to really POP!!)  I'm so excited for this routine, lower body and abs I definitely have added some extra stuff in because my legs are so much stronger than my upper body, but hopefully I will get that upper body rockin!!

So one more little update for you before I sign off...because I've been gone from my blog so long this is getting crazy long!  Just wanted to talk about the fitness test I had to take for one of my classes.  I did a lot better than I thought(I get so nervous when people want to basically rate me on my fitness level, I find I'm behind what I think I am) But I did pretty well.  I found out I had low blood pressure, not too low but a good low.  I need to work on my hand grip a bit, my upper body strength is terrible...oops, but I leg pressed 290 as my max!  So I felt like a boss there!  flexibility was good, so just working on upper body and my cardio needs a little work too but that's alright, if I only had 2 things out of all those that really needed work then I feel successful!  So that's it for me right now!!

Tuesday June 26, 2012

So today I got up to run.  I had some water and a banana and I ran about a mile and a half but I had an important phone call so I was talking the whole time so it was hard to breath correctly!! I went another mile but it was a combination of running and walking.  I came home and gave the pups a tubbie and cleaned their cages, then it was breakfast time..I had some protein pancakes with some PB2 yum!

For my afternoon workout I really killed it!! I did bikini blaster 1 and 6, half of bikini blaster 1 again, bikini booty thong workout, and fat melting cardio.  I logged it all on my weighttrainer.com Some how my bikini blaster 6 got logged twice though, oops.  There is nothing close to elevated leg circles though so those didn't get logged : (  Can't wait for ALL of cassey's workouts to be on the site so I don't have to search forever and a day to find something close to the workout I did.  So I got a NOS preworkout drink and a protein shot at the vitamin shoppe on my way home from Chicago sunday.  Have you tried these????  The preworkout drink was actually not bad!  But I didn't really feel like it gave me a boost, maybe I've just been dragging a little lately, still getting nauseated throughout the day.  I felt fine this morning until I ran, seems that working out makes it a little more intense, but not during the workout, only after.  Oh well, hopefully it will be gone in a few days!

I had to work at the restaurant tonight, but look at the yummy rice the cook made me!! white rice, tomato, onion, and red pepper mmmmmm!!!  So that was pretty much my day today!!  Here's my link to my weighttraining.  if you click on all workouts, it pops down to all the ones I logged, since I logged more than one todayhttp://www.weighttraining.com/users/fitstylist/workouts/2012-06-26#

Monday June 25, 2012

So little recap on this weekend, I went with a friend to Chicago.  We saw the White Sox play(and WIN!) Had dinner at Dick's Last Resort.  We walked around the city for a bit(so beautiful)  then went back to the hotel.  We got up and went to Millennium and Grant Park, then we tried to go to the Chicago Diner for some yummy vegetarian/vegan grub but sadly we found out that there was a Pride Parade in Boystown so there was absolutely NO parking.  So after 30 minutes of being rerouted and not finding parking we just decided we would stop by where my brother lived and have lunch in Matteson with him.  I haven't seen him in forever so that was nice!  Here's a couple pics from our trip





Planking at Millennium Park

us at the Bean

 

 So today was kind of a rough day, I wasn't feeling well.  I was nauseated all day and working out made me feel worse.  But I tried to push through as much as I could.  I did bikini blaster 5, muffintopless.  closed my browser because I wasn't feeling well, then i said, no keep going.  So I did half of bikini blaster 1, thought I would be sick so I closed my browser, said no keep going, went back and did blogilates, you've got flat abs, thought, I'm done for sure now.  Nope! Kept pushing, and did some fat burning cardio.  Then I went to the Y and did a few machines but whew I was definitely nauseated after that so I was done.  Here's a link to check out my workout for today

WEIGHTTRAINING.COM 

Here's some of my meals from the day.  I started out with protein pancakes, which I put some cherry, vanilla granola in

For lunch I had some baked chicken with spinach, sriracha and some mandarin oranges

For supper we had some grilled chicken with green beans and corn.  I put some cayenne pepper and lime juice on my corn.  YUM!  a little later I had a smoothie with banana, strawberry, spinach and almond milk.  My son even liked it! he helped me drink some of it. 

So that was pretty much my day today.  Praying I am not so icky feeling tomorrow so I can really get a good workout in.  I'd like to get a run in tomorrow morning!  That's a wrap for my day!  I plan on spending a couple hours relaxing on the couch right now.

Friday June 22, 2012

So today was busy and slow all at once!! Slow at work(mostly because I was sooooo tired!!  I didn't finally get to sleep until about 230ish)  All the benadryl really messed with my system and made it to were I couldn't fall asleep last night without it, but I pushed through, so hopefully I will sleep tonight!  Because tomorrow one of my girlfriend's and I are headed up to CHI-TOWN!! HOLLA!  We are going to a Sox game and then staying the night and having adventures on Sunday.  Lot's to look forward to!  So here's just a few things during my day.  For lunch I had some chicken with tabasco and some DE-LICIOUS Sugar Snap peas!! mmmm

So the new frozen yogurt place opened right next to the salon and I've been waiting for it FOREVER!!  I was sooooo excited!  It's pretty awesome!  I had some nonfat blueberry tart frozen yogurt with some granola, almonds, and fresh strawberries!! oh it was HEAVEN!















So I did arms today because I have been neglecting them in order to work a little more on my abs and booty.  I did some multitasking by touching up my hair and letting it process while I worked out!  It works because most arm workouts don't require putting my head on the floor : P  So to start off I did the Call Me Maybe Squat Challenge to warm myself up and get my heart rate up and well I just haven't done it for awhile.  So with my heartrate up I did Bikini Blaster 4, Awesomesauce arms and then did some fat melting cardio!  woop woop! Here's my workout pic, the foils add a great touch, don't you think?!?!






After my workout, I washed my hair, of course, and then we went and helped unload a Uhaul for some family who moved to town...Now THAT was an arm workout! For supper everyone went to monicals...I haven't had pizza in forever!  It looks delicious but I know it's bad for me, and I also know that it will kill my insides if I eat it because I don't eat like that anymore!  So I had a chicken pecan salad with red bell pepper and onion. I love onion on my salad because it gives the salad enough flavor that I can eat it without dressing.  So I must go now and hopefully finish my yoga mat bag I started last night and finish packing for tomorrow.  Here's a link to my workout I logged on weighttrainer.com.  Good night all!

http://www.weighttraining.com/users/fitstylist

Thursday June 21, 2012

So the past few nights I have been breaking out in hives after 9pm like clockwork!  I have never had this happen and have no idea why it's happening. so I've been taking benadryl(one per day mind you) and so I feel like I've just been in a drug induced fog all day! Which is no fun at all and makes me feel awful on top of the allergy cold I've been fighting.  Nevertheless, I pushed through today and worked out for about 2 hours! woop woop!  I started out with some bikini blaster 1 HIIT it hard!
Blogilates Bikini Blaster 1

Not going to lie, I didn't go as intense as cassey, but I worked it!  Then I moved on and did about 14-15 minutes of the Bikini Blaster 6: BOOTY BOOTY BOOTY!  I've really been pushing my glute workouts lately.  I have such awesome quads and calves, I'm really working on getting that nice perky, lean boo-tay!  And I know Cassey will give it to me : P
Blogilates Bikini Blaster 6

Then I did some more cardio, I ran for about a mile and a half, which was pretty good in the heat considering I'd already been pushing hard through my drug coma!  I probably could have done a little more but I wasn't going to kill myself.  So then I went into the Drive By Inner Thigh Challenge and the What Makes You Bootyful butt challenge! 
Drive By Inner Thigh Challenge
What Makes You Bootyfull Butt Challenge

So then I ended with some oblique and muffintop exercises with the weights, just did about 50 reps for each side with the 2 exercises, so 200 reps and I used a 5LB weight today instead of the 8 I usually use.  So that's pretty much my exercise for the day.  I had a nice grilled chicken salad with about a TBS of medium sauce for the dressing. mmmm.  If you want to check out my workout on weighttrainer.com then here's the link, as well as a link to my mapmyrun.  It's been a challenging day but I triumphed!!!

FitStylist Weighttrainer
Fit Stylist Mapmyrun

First Post

So this is my first post and I just want to start off by explaining that this is just my personal blog for my fitness and health journey.  This will pretty much contain a lot of my triumphs, struggles, and everything else that pertains to the fitness and health part of my life.  Not to say I won't throw some other things in there depending on different things that happen or pop up during my day.  I probably won't post everyday, but I will do my best to consistently update you on everything.  Thank you all so much for subscribing/following/supporting me : )  This is a very important part of my life and even if I'm only speaking to a small audience, it's still worth it to me.  Heck, even if it's just something I can use to work through my own struggles and praise myself for things I've overcome then I'll be glad!  Thanks again!