Post Thanksgiving Blues

I'm sure many of you indulged this past weekend with Thanksgiving festivities and travelling to relatives' houses.  My mom is a fabulous cook, and I definitely cheated on non-paleo treats this weekend.  I had a couple moments of severe food guilt and bad body  image.  I've decided to move on and get on a plan to look fabulous for Christmas.  Lots of water, logging my food, exercising, and working on moderation during the slew of holiday parties and events on the calendar already. 

 I've found drinking some lemon water in the morning has helped.  I also have started taking all my multivitamins and supplements including probiotics (helps with my IBS), Super B Complex, and the new addition of CLA tablets.  Tonalin CLA is derived from safflower oil and supposedly helps with reducing fat and increasing resting metabolism.

I'm coming to terms with some weight gain I've had recently and have decided that if I can lose a couple inches I KNOW I've gained lots of muscle from consistent strength training through Tina's Best Body Bootcamp .  Maybe with healthy eating and exercise, the CLA will help!

With my increased consistent use of supplements I've been turning to a lot of online shopping.  It's easier, and I can find great deals to save me money.  I've come across a site called Vitacost who was looking for people to review their products. Vitacost sells the high quality health and wellness products I want at super affordable prices.  According to Vitacost, they have over 2,000 of the top natural brands and health living products such as baking flours, chia seeds, vitamins, protein bars, and pre-workout aminos.

The thing that makes it the most affordable is that if your order is $49 or more you get FREE SHIPPING.  Even if you are only picking up a few things that total less than $49, your order will ship for only $4.99, no matter the size.  Like I said, I'll be reviewing some products from them, if you are still skeptical.

I thought I'd just pass on a great find, especially since like the whole world, they are having a Black Friday/Cyber Weekend sale which ends Monday Night (11/26) at 11:59 where you get 15% off EVERYTHING! Check out Vitacost. 

What supplements or health products do you love and use?

Holiday Tips for Staying Fit

Hello all! I'm still trying to figure out how often to blog and have been super busy!

Tina's Best Body Bootcamp has been great. It's been more difficult to fit in the longer workouts for strength training so I've just been doing the best I can, but I'm excited to get sweating a lot before Thanksgiving. The isometric hold sets were killer, but I love challenging myself to use heavier weights, even if it's just for 1/3 sets.  I can't wait to kick it into high gear for the holidays!

 I've also been trying to do a Whole 30 challenge this month also where you eat all whole unprocessed foods on a paleo diet (no grains, no dairy, no sugar, etc.).  I've cheated a bunch, mostly with a couple glasses of wine or beer. I'm not losing weight really, probably due to the cheating.  I have noticed a lot less bloating though.  I also have IBS (sorry TMI) and not eating any grains or essentially being gluten-free has helped A LOT.  That is probably the best thing I've learned from this challenge. I knew if I made it a pass/fail challenge on myself I'd feel awful so I've been focusing on being conscious of what/how much I eat and hopefully going to take it up a notch after Thanksgiving. I am determined to lose 5 pounds by Christmas and feel GREAT for New Years!

Since Thanksgiving is coming up I thought I'd share some of my holiday tips for staying fit.

1. Limit drinking.

My alcoholic drink of choice is two glasses of red wine or a vodka/club soda with lime. I also like the vodka/club combination because if you drink just club/lime in between, nobody knows or will ask why you're not drinking.  It's not just alcohol but all the holiday punches, hot chocolate, and Starbucks peppermint mocha lattes to watch out for.  I always try to go for a skinny latte at Starbucks and just limit myself to small glasses or tastings of high sugar/calorie liquids!

2. Buy a new outfit!

I'm going to buy a really cute sparkly dress for New Years and a cute dress for Christmas that I want to look fabulous in.  I'll leaving it hanging on my closet door so I see it as a reminder every day.

I'm thinking this dress for Christmas-SO cute!


3. Bring something you want to eat to a party!

I love baking and making really awesome sweet treats.  We all know sweet treats and indulgent foods are happening almost every week from Thanksgiving to Christmas due to all of the parties and get togethers.  My usual strategy is to make a delicious sweet treat but also bring something more healthy such as a lightened up spinach dip or fruit salad.  People appreciate the unique dish (I mean who really needs 5 plates of box cookies and brownies!) and then you know there is something that is healthy for you to snack on too!

4. Most of all, enjoy in moderation!
This is such a cliche, but I believe in treating myself.  I know because I indulge in sweets and alcohol, I'm never going to have the fitness model body but enjoying time with friends and family and good food is important to me, especially around the holidays.  I always just try to fit a workout in, drink lots of water, and make sure I'm eating enough protein and veggies.

Please comment if you have any other tips for the holiday season or really great recipes you'd love to share!

Bootcamp and Food Guilt

Hello all! I'm just finishing my 2nd week of Round 3 of  Tina Reale's Best Body Bootcamp! (More info at http://www.tinareale.com/best-body-bootcamp/)  It's been great for me because after running my first two half marathons in September and October (WOOHOO!), I'm looking to take a few months to really start strength training more to get toned for the holidays! I love having a plan to tell me what exercises to do and learning to try new things because usually 

I stick to the basics in the gym i.e. bicep curls, tricep dips, deadlifts, etc.  Moves like the scorpion or wall squats have been challenging but it's fun to try to up my weights and get a good sweat on. So far, I highly recommend signing up for the next round if you get the chance!

Halloween weekend was hard for me. I had a low after going out last Saturday and drinking booze and then binging on candy corn and chocolate. Then I just dwelled on how awful I am and bad I look and how it's all my fault.  I need to stick to the MyFitnessPal calorie  goals while minimizing treats.  I know it is unreasonable to just suddenly start eating extremely 100% clean eats so I'm going to focus on ENJOYING one "cheat" a week and allow myself to  balance out some less healthy things I love with more veggies and lean protein.