Holiday Challenge

I have been reflecting on my life a lot recently. Stress has gotten to me in the past couple years with graduate school applications and then actually starting grad school. I am happy with where life has taken me, but I want to challenge myself to get back to my "happy" weight. Now I would never consider myself overweight or anything, but personally I have a feel and look that I would like to be at. This is why I am considering doing a holiday challenge. Everyone always feels so miserable after the holidays because of the weight gain. What if we could spend time enjoying family time and intimate conversations instead of overfeeding our poor little stomachs? Joy can come from things besides food. The new way I am looking at food is for fuel! Would you overfill your gas car with bacon grease or cheese sauce? NO! So why would you want to overfill your stomach with junk and garbage when it will only leave you feeling miserable.

Set goals for yourself over the holiday season. Write them down (leave them in the comments below) to keep yourself accountable.

My goals for this holiday season:
1. Chew slow and savor every bite of food
2. Indulge in conversations with others rather than munching on food
3. Get my workouts in every day
4. Not to feel overstuffed after a holiday get together
5. Make sure to drink a bottle of water before every meal
6. Make my plate as colorful as possible (getting in vegetables at every meal)
7. Enjoy the reason for the holidays instead of making them revolve around food

This is my challenge for myself this year, and it starts TODAY. Why wait for tomorrow? BRING IT ON! Who's with me?

I am getting bored with my meal plan, so I will be planning a new one this week! (I get very excited for this... like really excited :D )

Peace...Later TATERS!

Weekend Thoughts

Random

I just thought I would give you guys some tips for meal prep! Here is a link to pinterest full of meal prep ideas: Clean Meal Prep

Do something little each day to show appreciation for someone who means the world to you! For example, if they usually drink coffee in the mornings, make them coffee before they get out of bed. Let me tell you...Little things mean the most! Small acts of kindness add up. A couple weeks ago my boyfriend left flowers on my bed so when I came home from a long day of work and class I had a wonderful surprise waiting for me. This made my whole week! So I challenge you to do small things for someone important to you this week.

I believe in treating yourself. For this reason, I like to try to bake something healthy for myself each week to include in my meal plan. Usually this is some type of cookie. I like to experiment in the kitchen and try to make my own recipes with my favorite ingredients. Some attempts have been major fails, others have turned out fantastic. Since I usually do not measure ingredients when experimenting, I have included some links for some cookies I would include in my weekly meals. I am really trying to work on portion control with these "healthy treats." I also change recipes when they call for something that is a dairy product (for example, dairy free dark chocolate in place of regular chocolate chips).

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookie

Banana Oatmeal Cookies

Avocado Pistachio Muffins

No Bake Brownie Bites

Today my creation involved these ingredients: raisins, almonds, chickpeas, and egg whites. I use my food processor all the time to mix up my recipes. I also love to make homemade nut butters (walnut, pecan, cashew, peanut, and almond butters) in my food processor. These would make great gifts for Christmas!

How to make homemade nut butter

That's all she wrote for today! Peace out!

Later taters!

Bring on the weekend and studying for finals

Staying Healthy in College

So it is officially the weekend. Next week is finals week for me (my first semester of finals in grad school... whoo). My meals are already made for a week, so look to my previous post for my meals for the day. Today's workout will be at the gym:

20 minutes on the stair climber

HIIT workout:

Circuit 1:

-split lunges X 12 each leg with weight 

-Jump rope X 60 jumps

-squats X 20 with weight

-Jumping lunges until failure

Repeat 3 times

Circuit 2:

-Plank (bringing one leg into opposite elbow then switch sides, repeat) X 20

-Jump rope X 60 jumps

-Bench rows with weight X 12 each side

-Jump squats X 20

Repeat 3 times

Circuit 3:

-Bicep curls with lunge X 12 with weights

-Jump Rope X 60 jumps

-Triceps kickbacks X 12 each side with weights

-Walking plank X 15

Repeat 3 times

If you do not have time to do each circuit 3 times, then run through each circuit only once! Use weights that allow you to correctly perform the movements. 

Another tip: Drink LOTS of water throughout the day (you will have to go to the bathroom a lot, but that is a good thing!) As far as supplements I take 2 capsules of CLA a day, a multivitamin, & 2 capsules of BCAAs. 

People make excuses that they do not have time to exercise. Well, I am in grad school and I have a graduate assistantship and I still find time to exercise. If it is important to you, you will make time!

Here is a link to my healthy eating pinterest board: Healthy Recipes Healthy Recipes #2

Here is a link to my fitness, etc pinterest board: workouts & health

I also like to know how the breakdown of how many macronutrients I should be consuming. To find yours out follow this link: IIFYM calculator

As far as the rest of my weekend... I will be studying for 3 finals. 

Comment and let me know what type of blog post you guys would like! 

Later Taters!