Fitness & Food Updates & How to Wear Your Hair at the Gym

Keeping up with my fitness and eating posts is important because it motivates me to be accountable.

I mentioned on Facebook that a new fitness studio opened less than a mile away from my house, which is awesome because the one thing that always frustrated me was having to drive to go to the gym (I don't mind driving, I just hated driving really far---I was spoiled because at our old house, our gym was also walking distance).

My fitness for the last month or so has been two sessions with my trainer per week and one Bar Method class. Some weeks I only got to do one training session because of scheduling.

I really need to step it up and start doing cardio and just working out more consistently in general.  I have noticed I am not getting as toned as I'd like and I know it's because I am not doing enough cardio and not helping my endurance.  My trainer gave my friends and I some treadmill workouts to do that are 25 minutes but super high intensity so I'm going to try to incorporate those and see how it goes. Now that I'll have a gym nearby, there will be no excuses, even on weekends.

On the eating front, I've been doing well. Eating less sugar (smaller portions) and eating lots of fruits and veggies. H and I have also been focusing on eating salads or veggies as side dishes for dinner instead of carbs (sometimes we have potatoes).  

Here are some of my lunches and dinners lately:

Tortilla soup and a turkey half sandwich for lunch

Garden salad with balsamic dressing and grilled chicken for lunch

Salmon with basil pesto and potatoes for dinner

Chicken breast and green beans for dinner

Omaha Steaks chicken stuffed with broccoli and a side salad 

(the famous peach basil oil salad)

Salad with chicken, red onions, cherry tomatoes, grapes, chick peas 

and tangerines with a raspberry vinaigrette 

From my work cafeteria- chicken with lemon sauce, green beans and corn

Tuna in water with dill, celery and onions

Grilled chicken and steamed veggies

Salad with chicken, onions, chickpeas, grapes, cherry tomatoes, mandarins

Obviously I am just showing my healthiest meals here for ideas---I also still eat Chinese food, pizza and other not so healthy foods---but I try to limit that to weekends.

I also recently purchased Tone it Up's Perfect Fit Protein. I needed more protein in my diet and you can also use this to bake and make pancakes.

My favorite snacks in the last while have been:

• Chobani Greek Yogurt (love the 0% raspberry, strawberry banana and vanilla flavors) 

•  Ezekiel Cinnamon Raisin Bread

•  Justin's Chocolate Hazelnut Butter and Justin's Vanilla Almond Butter

•  Cherries, strawberries, peaches, apples

•  Luna Bars- Iced Oatmeal Raisin 

•  Skinny Cow Heavenly Crisp bars- 110 calories for dessert 

•  Weight Watchers chocolate raspberry popsicles (80 calories and delish!)

I get a lot of questions about how I keep my hair fresh when I work out.  I have been sweating more during workouts because of the weather (and because our trainer works us hard!) so I have been sporting a super-high topknot to keep my hair off of my face. I used to wear ponytails most of the time but then the ends would get sweaty from rubbing on my back. Ew. Typing that out feels kind of gross. Anyway, I just put my hair up and wrap the elastic around the topknot three times. Like so:

Some workout outfits:

(outfits are all Lululemon except for green and pink Target tops)

Easy peasy.  When I get home from my workout, I immediately shower and then I take the elastic out and brush my hair and go about my evening wearing it down.

Have a great weekend everyone!