How to get even fitter

HELLO!!  This has been the never ending day!  My goal was to post Monday and Wednesday, but I’m now changing that to twice a week!  Ya never know how a day is going to go sometimes.

Alrighty!  Oxygen Challenge update!  I have 1 month left and I’m seriously getting serious now (:  I talked about having a treat day once in a 10 ten period.  I’m going to do that, but only after October 9!  For 1 month I’ll be sticking to my diet plan 100%.  This month I’ll be carb cycling.  I think I kind of do that already, mostly because I feel guilty after a pig out day and then I go low carb for several days!

First off, I saw this awesome awesome quote from Jennifer Lawrence.  She’s the Hunger Games star.  I love love what she says here:

So, let’s get right to the topic of the day.  How to get even fitter.  Most people I see at the gym don’t seem to change.  I guess everyone is about maintaining.  I am NOT however.  I’m about always improving (:  And I’m not talking about looking sickly thin with no muscle.  Wherever you are on your fitness journey, here are a few ways to push it to the next level.

• Mix it up!!  Stop doing the same workouts day after day.  How boring is that anyway.  I constantly change things up.  I also do a lot of the same stuff too, but I keep my body guessing.
• LIFT LIFT LIFT!  If you want to see your body change, lift weights.  If you’re already lifting, ADD weight and or ADD another set.
• Never miss a workout!  Stay consistent.  I schedule my workouts several days in advance around whatever I have and I never miss them, unless I have an emergency.
• CUT OUT WHITE FLOUR and WHITE SUGAR.  This is even bigger than lifting.  One way to help track your diet and calories is My Fitness Pal.  I LOVE this thing.  It gets tiring to enter in your food every single day, but it helps me eat better and less.  I’ll be doing this for the next month 100%.

So, my goal for the next month is to lower my body fat.  I’m shooting for 13% by October 5.  In order to do this, I’ll track everything I eat in My Fitness Pal.  I’ll cut out sugar and simple carbs and INCREASE protein.  The other day I found a page I’d saved from a magazine from 3 years ago.  It had a low sugar meal plan and a recipe for Chocolate Energy Truffles.  Here are a few examples of what you should be eating to stay low sugar.

• oatmeal, blueberries, hard boiled eggs, protein shakes, strawberries, turkey, whole wheat bread, veggies, hummus, plain greek yogurt, salmon, brown rice, salad greens.  SIMPLE, right?

And if you’re craving some sweet SUGAR, here is the truffle recipe:

1/3 c vanilla protein powder

3/4 c natural chunky peanut butter

1/4 c instant nonfat dry milk

1/4 c agave nectar or honey

1/4 t cinnamon

1/2 t coconut extract

1 T ground flaxseed

2 T cocoa

Combine all ingredients and roll into balls.  Store in airtight container in the fridge.  I think I’ll be making these tomorrow!

Well, I’ll end with two fun photos.  The first one is an ad for the Big Cottonwood Marathon that I ran two years ago.  I came across this picture on Facebook and as I looked closely, I realized the girl in the green was ME!  Ha Ha!  I’m famous (:

And here is a more recent pic from last night!  We did a HIGH fitness class at the park and all the instructors wore these cute matching $5.00 shorts!  It was such a fun night!

I’m a crazy exercise fanatic, but that’s me and I’m glad I am ME (:  Have a wonderful wonderful weekend!!!  Work Hard Always!

Back At It

Hello and happy Saturday September 5th!!  I think this has been my longest break from my blog.  I didn’t even do it on purpose either!  What have I been doing?  What have I not been doing!?  Here are a few bullet points of the last 2 months!

• Family family family.  July and August we had family in town and we were going going!
• Injuries!  Probably my most major set back ever!  Stress fracture.  For some reason this one threw me back big time.  I started biking which helped A TON, but I wasn’t myself without my crazy cardio sessions and lifting and then of course I went WAY downhill in the food department.
• First Bike Race!  Loved loved biking through the beautiful mountains where I live.  Absolutely breath taking.
• Climbing back from my stress fracture and I strain my calf muscle!  Luckily it wasn’t major and I’ve been trying to stretch more!
• Started running and training for a 1/2 marathon at the end of this month.  Never been more slow in my life except after pregnancies!  It’s killing me!!  I’ll get there.
• Finally figured out a good eating plan for me!!  I’ve been trying to follow the Oxygen Challenge and I’ve had a hard time following the DIET of course.  I’ve started over many times and binged too many times.  My NEW challenge is 1 in 10 days.  Every 10 days I take 1 day off!!  So far, this has been a miracle for me.  I only struggle the first 3 days after eating crazy and then I’m fine with my healthy eating.  I’ve been loving cooking healthy meals and snacks lately and I feel much happier.  I crave healthy sugars like oranges, watermelon, and PEACHES (:  My body changes so quickly when I CUT out the sugar.  Eating healthy motivates me to EXERCISE.
• Speaking of exercise…I’m addicted if you haven’t noticed.  Right now I’m following a Jamie Eason program that I love.  I’m lifting 5-6 days a week, running 3 days a week, and teaching my wonderful HIGH class!

Here are a FEW pics. of my latest and greatest events!

HIGH FITNESS crazy workout party! How fun to be a part of a teaching crew for 300+ people!

Summer dates with my kids!

Bike racing with my besties!

Working the T25 on vacation with my sis!

My family !!

Summer family reunion! Love them!

School is in full swing now and my life is hopping and hopping!  We keep busy!  Now that I’ve caught everyone up with my life, I’ll share my FITNESS TIDBIT of the day!!!

DO NOT DEPRIVE YOURSELF!!  Whenever I go too strict with my diet, I get in a big mess with my head!  Keep challenging yourself, make goals, fall off the wagon, and rethink your plan.  Work Hard, Lift Weights, Get Sleep, Eat Healthy, and SMILE!

I’ll share some meal plans next week!!  Hopefully, I can blog twice a week!  Meals on Monday and Workouts on Wednesday with pictures of life on both days!  Have a wonderful Labor Day weekend!

12 Week Oxygen Challenge

Alrighty!  I’m going to start off telling you that my computer is having major SLOW issues!  This post will be short and sweet due to my lack of patience!  I have a WONDERFUL trip to report on and an AMAZING 12 week challenge that I’m about to EMBARK on coming up TOMORROW!!!

I have been waiting through the longest month to get started on this.  With my injuries and knowing I’m starting a strict challenge, my exercise and healthy eating life have taken a small dive!  Yesterday I took before pictures and went through the whole measurement thing.  I’m going to weight myself a lot, but I’ll only do measurements and progress pictures every 2 weeks.  This is what I’ll be talking about clear up until October 7th!!!  Seems so far away!  I’m excited to get in the best shape of my life.  My stress fracture is healing up awesomely and hopefully I’ll be able to step it up big time next week!  I do have a small snag in my calendar this week.  For 3 days we’ll be on Pioneer Trek.  I won’t be by a gym (: nor will I be eating exactly what I should, but at least I’ll be walking and walking and walking!

First off, back to my wonderful and amazing trip to SAN DIEGO!  Last December, I purchased 2 tickets to ONE DIRECTION for my 14 year old daughter.  Best money spent!  This trip was a dream come true for her and I was so happy to be a part of it.

We had so much fun being inseparable for 3 days!  We rented a cute mustang convertable and drove all over.  My brother lives close by so we stayed with him and did a few things with his family.  His cute twins enjoyed riding in the backseat as we cruised around singing!  We loved the beach, shopping, sight seeing, and of course One Direction!  Just watching my daughter at the concert was entertainment enough with her crying, jumping up and down, and screaming!  I was quite proud of myself for my mad navigating skills.  I never imagined a concert so huge!  It was in a football stadium that was completely sold out.  65-70 thousand people!  Not to mention Comic Con was going on at the same time and I guess San Diego is headquarters to that big deal too!  Here are some pictures from the trip!

As for my challenge, I’ll get ONE good day in and then be AWOL for a few.  I’ll be following the plan 100%  Back to My Fitness Pal too!  I took a little break from that!  After reading through the material and nutrition program, I wasn’t surprised by anything!  Mostly, I need to remember to eat more often, protein, drink water, and eat lots of veggies.  I haven’t seen the workouts yet, kind of dying to see them!  I’ll be back soon with Trek adventures and tips on how to STAY in the game with being healthy!  My FAVORITE way to be!  I also have a slew of family coming to town right now!  We’ll be hoppin’!!  (:  Remember:

Oxygen Challenge and Biking!

Happy Summer Day! Every week I’m sure I talk about a new challenge or goal I want to work on. Well, I found one that I will not change for 3 months!! This last challenge I did with my friends was o.k., but I felt like I didn’t really get into it like I wanted to. SO, when my Oxygen magazine came in the mail on Saturday, I was so HAPPY to find just what I was looking for. Two of some of my favorite fitness gals are teaming up with Oxygen magazine and offering a 90 day challenge!

You pick which team you want to be on and then follow the workouts and nutrition program for 90 days.  Look it up at Oxygen Magazine.  I’ve always wanted to try a personal trainer or to get in such crazy fit shape for awhile and well…I’m not getting an younger so SEIZE THE DAY! My only problem is that it doesn’t start until July 15th!!  One month!  I don’t want to get in too good of shape too soon (: so I think I’ll coast for a few weeks, which I NEED to do.  Both of my feet have very annoying injuries right now.  I’ll use this month to rest up and take up BIKING!!!

Last week, I borrowed a friend’s bike!  I really should of taken a picture.  She leant me the WORKS, outfit, shoes, helmet, and an incredibly nice road bike.  I’m pretty sure it was the bike, BUT I think I have a knack for it (:  We went along an awesome 12 mile out and back hilly road.  I LOVED it!  #nevertooyoung right??  And the best thing, my feet didn’t hurt at all and I felt like a got a killer workout!  I’d love to bike in the summer just around sunset when it’s cooled off or in the early morning when the sun comes up.  I just need to convince my husband now that this is a good thing!

Back to my challenge, I’m picking Erin to follow.  I bounced back and forth a little bit, but I think she is more like my personality and style!  Here are a few pics. of her with words I live by as well!  I think I need to get my sister on board with this one at happybeinghealthy! 

I’m kind of in a quote mood!  I’ll end with a few more that I liked today and a pic. from my latest HIGH class!  I will miss my HIGH and RUNNING, but I’m tired of only being able to go 1/2 way!  A rest will make me stronger I know!  Have a wonderful DAY!  Enjoy every golden sunshine and SMILE!