Happy Monday!! I want to be 100% honest with you...I have been a little off with my work outs lately. Nutrition has been just about 100% but I just haven't "felt like working out". For someone who loves the feeling of crushing a good work out and not mention the endorphins. To me that was my body telling me I was burnt out. 

Generally every 12 weeks (sometimes even shorter than that) because honestly I just need a break! I need to wake up feeling like ahhh I get to work out not I have to work out. 

So this week starts some new work outs and honestly I am excited!!! I am really happy with the progress I had with Body Beast and it was super fun lifting that heavy especially doing it with Mike! 

I am kind of making my own stuff up to be honest...as I dive deeper into training I find I want to really test myself so I am going to be increasing my work out time per day and really what I focus on.

Goals of the new programming?
~Target my weak areas and make them better: specifically I want to improve my shoulders and my legs/booty. So I will be working those muscle groups more. 
With the weights I will also be lifting heavy with less reps and sets (so 3 sets of 6-12 for upper/lower body and 3 sets of 20 for abs). 

~I will also be increasing my amount of cardio from...oh around 0 days to 3 days a week. (2 days of HIIT + one day of Steady state cardio) 

~ another keep thing is going to be nutrition. I have selected what supplements I'll be using but not so much what macro percentage. I am thinking 40 carbs 40 protein 20 fat but we'll see. I did find out I am a fat burner vs a carb burner which is crucial and main reason I have a hard time gaining real muscle mass. 

I will be taking:
shakeology + protein powder
glutamine
BCAA's
fish oils 
P90x recovery shake (post work out)


Also, I  think to reach where I really want to get to, it will take me about a year to achieve. So I will really need to have the big picture in mind and FOCUS!
So I want to compete...I originally thought I was ready now and for Bikini division I think I could fare okay...but I then realized, I don't want to do "okay" I want to add a little more muscle, and do a fitness or a figure show and I want to place! No more wallowing and not being out right with my goals, there they are!  


So then in all of these since nutrition is soooo key how can I or anyone else for that matter avoid feeling deprived? 

Well really, in my opinion, it comes down to lifestyle. We are a culture of people who do all things over food. Example: meeting with friends= lunch, celebrating hitting a goal at work= happy hour, birthday celebrating= going out + cake.
Rarely will you find that your friends and family will ask you to go celebrate your sister getting straight A's with a session of rock climbing or hiking. Not to say there is anything wrong with that BUT it all comes down to decisions at that point. If you are in the realm of "I need/want to lose weight" then eating all that crap just because it is there is NOT what is going to help keep that weight off. There are so many other ways you can enjoy life and friends without over indulging and over eating. The first is obviously changing your mind set and what senses you choose to enjoy the most.

Second, if your boyfriend/girlfriend has the metabolism or maybe just doesn't have those same goals as you, that's okay just be sure to hide his/her treats from line of vision. If you don't see it chances are you may forget you have them! 

Third, have "substitutes" that leave you feeling satisfied. Instead of eating ice cream try low sugar froyo or banana protein icecream (you can flavor this however you like!) or for me instead of eating all of his crap I may just have a fiber one brownie...no they aren't the best but I'd rather have something like that instead of a huge heaping plate of something I will really regret! 

Fourth, FOCUS. Is that chocolate bar really something you want or is it just a drop in blood sugar or increase in your stress level? I know this is a big one for me! At around 5 pm my levels usually drop which almost always means if I see it I will eat it. I have reworked my calories to prevent this from happening. It wasn't easy or always fun but it got my body where it needed to be.

Fifth, we all slip up sometimes. Move on and let it go! 

Have a fantastic Monday everyone! 

While the holidays seem to be the busiest time of the year it is sooo important to make time to still get in your workouts!

Fit in mini moments of activity through out the day if you are super busy!! Whatever it is, make it count!!

10 minutes? PERFECT! That is just enough time to elevate your heart rate and get in a good sweat!!

Mini workout to try:
~50 lunges (alternating legs)
~50 squats
~as many push ups you can get in 1 minutes
~jump tucks-- as many as you can get in 1 minute
~triceps dips on the ground (as many you can get in 1 minute)

Lately I have gotten a lot of questions on what I consider a cheat meal (I did a post a few weeks ago on cheats and why they can be good/bad too!) so I am here to show you what that is and how often I allow these!

For me a cheat meal is anything that I do not normally eat in my clean eating lifestyle! You can see some of those "normal foods" on my what I ate Wednesday posts as well! I will start taking some pics and displaying more cheat foods so you can see...I am of course human too!

So cheats/treats that I usually eat are pizza, french fries, Yogi Castle (froyo!), anything with white flour (pasta, bread, cakes etc) or excessive sugar (too much fruit, cakes, cookies, candies, etc). Some people get other cravings some don't but these are what I usually want!

How often? I keep it to a max of 2 things a week!
for example: Last weekend I had a bowl of ice cream and some pizza (2 different days) but those were my cheats and treats for the week!


The key is just getting back up and moving forward--I never feel guilt for these meals because I know a) it's a lifestyle and b) I know how to "damage control" it the next meal or day with healthy foods! I will say though since I cut sugar down to 35g a day (even natural) I get these cravings a lot less and usually during bouts of boredom!

What do you usually crave?