Clean Eating

I mentioned clean eating in my blog a few weeks ago. Many of you may have thought, all right what exactly does that mean?

Clean eating is a lifestyle choice and this article explains it perfectly.

Although I do not eat 100% Clean I try to make most of my week and all the meals I make clean. My favourite clean eating recipe source is right here. You can find just about anything including deserts and cookies. Yum!!

How far I have come

For those of you who are trying to lose weight, or feel unhealthy and want to change it; I can sympathize with you. I have been there and know how it feels!

 Five months ago I was unhappy, sat on the couch feeling sorry for myself and couldn't fit into any of my clothes. I literally had to go by new pants so that I could leave the house not in sweats or yoga pants. It was sad... When my sisters saw me on FaceTime they both said "Ohhhhhh" out-loud. Depressing to say the least.

Now: I have lost 20 lbs

I feel so much healthier, I am happier, my skin has calmed down, my body doesn't hate me, and my old jeans are almost too big to wear! Sometimes I want to cry because I am so overly grateful, and ecstatic that I was able to turn my health around. My Mother is really the one who made it happen, and my husband and sister Ashley have provided me with such an amazing support. This is a really big accomplishment for me. I feel like a new person; Taylor and I like her much more!!

Some things I did to make the change:
Eat 3 meals and two small protein snacks everyday
Cut out sugar 6 days of the week
Work out 5-6 days a week
Lunged my butt off, no literally I would do 100 lunges in one day and my butt really has shrunk
Set up incentives for myself - shoes, new lulu lemon, once I lose 20lbs I am going to buy some new jeans

It takes effort but let me tell you it is so worth it! I can't wait to be a personal trainer and help people make this kind of difference in their own lives.

Big Salad right? This is one of my favourites! 

I eat this for dinner 4x a week (everyday I run and sunday)

I pile up a ton of romaine hearts chopped up, 3 oz chicken, dash of turkey bacon bits, and low cal dressing. The dressing I make is thinner so it can spread over the whole salad, because I hate dry salads!

Ceaser Dressing:

1 tbsp low fat ceased dressing

1 tbsp parmesan cheese

1 tbsp lemon juice

Whey

Whey Protien - this is what I have as a snack two times a day. This is also what I have most of my clients do while trying to lose weight, or gain more muscle mass. Protein shakes are your friend!

Whey protein shake and apple - my mid morning snack that I day dream about while my lungs burn while sucking in the hot humid air in Virginia on morning runs

Health is such a broad topic and there is so much "junk" or people that put out their own plans that are at super hard levels and unsafe for beginners to be taking anything from. So...

I am going to start a new little section on my blog. I know almost everyone out there strives to be more healthy and I would love to help teach you about the NASM model and help you incorporate some things into your own life. I am going to do this considering I am speaking to beginners since this is the target group that will essentially learn the most. I will promise to only preach what I am learning from my textbooks and classes and not be adding to any false ideas or my personal opinion.

There are three phases of training:

1. Stabilization

2. Strength and Endurance

3. Hypertrophy

(Most women will want to skip this phase 3+4 since it is bulking bulkier muscle)

4. Maximal Strength

5. Power

I want to talk a little about phase one of stability. This is a very important phase because it prepares your body, muscle and joints for the other phases. A lot of people skip this phase and this often ends in injury or over working the muscle. This phase helps you strengthen those stabilizing muscles, and increase difficulty by challenging your balance. You also want to do a low load and high repetition.

Things in the gym to help you do this: Stability disk (those half ball looking things), balls, foam rollers, bands, and my favourite TRX.

Example of a superset using this idea would be:

2x 10 reps of push-ups

then

2x 10 reps stability ball push-ups

This will work what is called your prime movers and then immediately after challenge the stability of the same area. This will help you body develop the balance and control needed to lift heavier weights and endurance later on in your journey in the gym!

If you have questions feel free to leave a comment with an email for me to reply

This information was taken from the

NASM Essentials of Personal Fitness Training Fourth Edition

Editors: Micheal A. Clark, Scott C. Lucett and Brian G. Sutton

Two Rules to feel Better in just Days

Two rules that will have you feeling better in days!

No Sugar, and Clean Eating

This means no processed foods, make everything from scratch and don't add cream, fatty cheese, or condensed soups. It's that simple. Use cottage cheese, and milk as subsitutes.

Yup I said it...

No Sugar

You can however pick a day to treat yourself. Every Saturday we eat out and I make a heart stopping yummy desert. But only one day a week - feeds that craving and helps keep you on track.

Paired with working out and cutting the junky food from my life I have toned up a lot, and lost weight. But better yet I just feel so much better!