Fit Trick: Stay Hydrated Using a Lime

Water. The single most important life-sustaining element on the planet.

Staying hydrated is the easiest way to get healthy and slim, but it's also the easiest thing to forget to do, especially if, like me, you're not in the habit of drinking water regularly throughout the day.

I needed a way to remember to drink water and keep track of how much I have had/have left to drink each day. There are tons of nifty apps for this that may work for someone more diligent than me, but I needed something a little less tech-y yet equally nifty enough to keep my interest every day.

They say that you need at least 8 glasses of water a day, but I don't want to have to count every ounce that I drink every day. So I started cutting up a lime into 8 pieces and dropping them in my water throughout the day. And it works! I remember to keep drinking water, and have a visual reminder of how much I have left to drink based on how many pieces I have left.

How To Use Limes to Get Your 8 Glasses a Day

(In 2 Easy Steps)

Ready for a week of hydration!

1. Cut a lime into 8 pieces.

(Protip: It's easier to cut each piece through its center,
rather than trying to make bar-style wedges)

2. Add a wedge of lime every time you fill up your water.

Store the lime pieces in a small air-tight container.

Even if you use different cups, you'll always know how many glasses you've had throughout the day by how many pieces are left. Keep adding wedges as you refill your glass until you've used up the whole lime!

3. Reap the Benefits.

You'll be amazed at how much better you feel after making this a habit. The water will help your body function better, you'll lose fat easier, and the lime helps your liver get toxins out, it's a win-win-win!

Bottoms Up!

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!!

Training day - Christmas edition

Because of the holiday, we moved training day to Monday so that I could get my session in before Christmas

Today was not a stellar day. To be honest, I felt like absolute crap today. I feel fat and blobby, and my eye was (and still is) bothering me like crazy. Just the one eye. Like either something is lodged in my contact lens that is microscopically wreaking havoc on my cornea, or there is something lodged in my sinus cavity that is wreaking havoc inside my face

Either way, not a great state to be in when heading to the gym. So it was perfect that today was training day, because if there is ever a time you need someone else there to push you, it's those days when you really wouldn't be there on your own.

We started with some great news! Jason can start training me in the evenings again, which is so great (for me)! As much as I like being able to go home earlier on Tuesday, it's just a little too much to be training during the day. 

So we started by testing my pullups, aka Jason showing me off to the rest of the guys (actually that seems to be an ever-increasing theme of our time together, hehe). I managed better than I thought I would, I did at least one by myself, and the rest with just a wee bit of a nudge. So yay me

Then we went on to the real stuff. Squats, of course. What else would I be doing on a Monday afternoon right before christmas besides dominating the squat rack and putting grown men to shame? I started with just the bar, then worked through the weights until we ran out and J had to go allllll the way to the other side of the room to get some more. And I kept squatting, ending with.....185lbs!! Woohoooo!

So we left the free weight room before my jumping and skipping around got annoying, and headed up front to the training area, where J gathered two 20lb dumbbells and the tall box. So I went through a series of:

10 clean & press and 10 box jumps

Then

10 step ups & 10 renegade rows

Then we ended with my buddy, the 25lb Kettlebell for 25 snatches, each arm. I was skeptical at first, but Jason didn't even blink, and he even let me chalk up (much to my eye's dismay), and I actually did it without tearing my hands, without wanting to die, and without complaining!!

Of course afterwards, my eye was insanely unhappy, and my hands were too chalky to do anything about it. So I spent most of the stretching time with a towel over my face, so Jason just had to guess at some of the faces I was making ;)

"Did you bring your glasses?" No, Jason. That's something a smart person would do. I'll just lie here in agony.

Merry Christmas everybody!

Thursday Workout

big things going on this week! And I swear, Jason is trying to kill me, and make sure everyone sees it happen :)

Today Jason sent me a workout that is a continuance of the "bring mayu to her knees, flailing into a tiny pile of pain" theme for this week. So many squats, preceded by so many lifts.  I am a lucky girl though, because he came by and helped coach me through the first half of the barbell portion, because he is the coolest!  And it made me feel a lot more confident especially being in the Free Weight Room (shudder) with all the big guys. But by the time I was lifting 90 pounds over my head, they would have backed off anyways!

So, here is the workout for today. I do not recommend this if you have never lifted before. (Insert television disclaimer here: do not try this unless you know what you are doing!)

Workout:
Warm-up 
Hindu squat- 50
Hindu pushup 25
Back bridge- 60sec hold
Cossack squat 20

clean and press- 60-10, 70-8, 80-5, 90-3
Kb swing- 45(blue) 3x15/15
Front squat 50-12, 70-2x8
Tuck Jump- 3x12
Plank to Pushup- 2x10
V-ups- 3x12

Training day

Today was a great day.

I have some really exciting things lined up for the (hopefully very) near future so was even more bouncy and excited than usual as I bounded into today's session.

We started at the squat rack, but before squats I had to do barbell cleans, first with just the bar, then working up to 90 lbs. 90!! I'm finding all new places to get bruises this week, my poor shoulders (good thing it's freezing outside = long sleeves)

Then we finally got to squats, and Jason had no mercy (actually come to think of it, I'm surprised I can walk as functionally as I am after today's workout....but I'm jumping ahead. Well, shuffling at this point, no more jumping today, please!) today I could really feel the weight on the last rep of each set. And the last set was at 175lbs!!! Yaaaaaaaas. I'm almost squatting 200lbs that's crazy! ('we'll hang a kettlebell around your neck' he says) hahaha, Yay me.

So we finished up that insanity and moved up front for bulgarian bag conditioning. It's been a while, but I still got the groove down, it was a suspiciously basic group of exercises: just 10 spins each direction, 10 powersnatch, 20 squats, and 20 alternating jump lunges. Nothing too crazy right? Yeah, not until the last 5 jump lunges where my legs are on FIRE and I collapse immediately after its over. Seriously. After the first set it took me a few seconds to pick myself up off the floor and get my legs to calm down.  The second set was a bit better, until I found out there was a third set. Aaarrggghhhhh As soon as I finished and dropped the bag, I was DOWN. Jason felt very proud of himself today, hahaha

We finished with stretching, where I mastered the method of 'keep talking so you don't notice the pain'

Getting ready for the new year

Well, It's almost that time of year, when the world will make the age old New Year's resolution to get in better shape.  And then most of us will promptly head to the fridge for another slice of leftover pie.

That certainly was me a few years ago, and I still have bad habits now, especially with food. I wish being healthy was easier and more rewarding sometimes. But just like anything worth having, getting in shape takes time, work, and dedication. I've learned a lot this year about what it takes to be one of those skinny girls that you hate. Dare I say, I've kinda become one of them.

Figuring out what works best for me took a lot of trial and error (mostly error), but slowly and surely I'm making progress and have picked up a few tricks along the way that make weight loss realistic and achievable, and maybe they could work for you too.

Now, mind you, I'm not talking about just getting skinny. There are plenty of easy ways to get skinny, and easy ways to die in the process. I don't condone that. If that's what you're looking for, then you're reading the wrong blog, because I don't have anything for you here. I'm talking about being healthy, and fit, but yeah I'm not gonna cry over a few lost inches along the way.

If you're just starting out on a healthy lifestyle change, or even just toying with the idea, you may be overwhelmed and confused by the sheer volume of "things you have to change RIGHT NOW to get in shape." Making a 180 degree lifestyle change isn't as simple as they make it sound on TV.  You're not only changing your behavior for yourself, but changing your identity with the people who have known you for a long time. This is not something you can do incognito. And that's what really makes it so hard.

People will notice, and people will comment. But hang in there, because the comments will change from "what are you doing, that's weird" to "you look great, how did you do it?!" And even better, seeing those people work on improving themselves too :)

Over the next few weeks I hope to have time to write up some tricks to take all those fitness tips and actually make them work in real life. There are some really simple changes that worked for me to stick to better habits and stay on track!

Fitness tip # 1: Hire a personal trainer!!!! It can be expensive. You can afford it. Yes you can.

It's not too late to ask for training money for Christmas! That what I do, for Christmas, birthdays, anytime you would normally get presents, I ask for training 'donations'. No one will question this. Trust me.  You might even get a cute little ditty to go with it!

It's Tuesday, its training day!

Today's session was kinda awesome. Ok, it was really awesome

First of all, we started with the dreaded measurements, and I actually lost weight! And some fat! (Wait, does that mean my holiday recovery soup actually worked?)

So, we're ending the year at 131lbs, 25% bodyfat, and a 28" waist. I'll take it!  now to see if i can actually be disciplined enough to get my bodyfat down even more. The short term goal is to drop another 4%, so we'll see how I do, yikes!

I wasin a really goofy mood today, which always makes the workout more fun, for me anyways. Then Jason has to stand there pretending like he doesn't know me, despite holding my clipboard and telling me what to do, hahaha. Anyways, we started the session with a quick warmup, 3 point lunges then with the 35lb kettlebell: swings, clean, and press  (10 each), you know, whatevs.

Then I had a go with a 60lb barbell for deadlifts, rows and cleans (again, 10 each). This time i had to try to do them without stopping, which was killer on grip, so its a good thing that next up was Squaaaaaaats.

So many squats. So many weights. So many observers. So many comments (You know it's a good day when another trainer is impressed!)

There's something about the squat rack that gets people's attention. Maybe because its right next to the water fountain, or that it makes loud noises sometimes, or mayyybe because a 5'1 girl is squatting. With massive weights propped across her shoulders.  Maybe that's it.  Today we quickly worked our way up to 170 pounds!!!! Whaaaaaaaat, that's crazy. I'm scared that my legs will pop off in the middle of my sleep. I may not be able to walk tomorrow. Or the next day. We'll see what happens

After an epic schooling of the squats, we ended with more kettlebells. Only problem was, the 35lb bells were occupied, so I HAD to use the 25lb bell (oh darn) so I did one set of snatch/overhead squats, and by the time I was ready for the next set the 35s were free (really, oh darn) so I finished with those

Well, really I finished with stretching. Yay stretching! Best part of my day. Also the most painful, but I guess that's why they say no pain no gain!

Tuesday training day

It's Tuesday!!! and I almost didn't make it in time, stupid work getting in the way of real life, Grrr. And as it turns out, J was in the same boat because as I came running in to change, he had to go to a meeting right when my session was about to start! Yipes! So he sent me off with instructions to warmup on the rower to 2500km, which I did in 12 minutes! Unfortunately his meeting didn't end for another 5 minutes, which left me sweaty and wandering around in circles for a bit.  But eventually he broke free and we got straight to work. I've always wondered what half-hour sessions were like since no one seems to do them, and today I found out the real reason why: they are INTENSE. Not like non-stop crossfit ninja warrior intense, but it felt like we basically did the same amount of lifting, in half the amount of time, and my body felt it (in a good way, not in an injury way, that would be bad)

We started at the squat rack, which is quickly becoming my favorite little contraption (much more so than the pull-up bar ever was). Today was kind of a combination of all the previous squats sessions, where I progressed up the weights, but maintained more reps while doing so, going from 15 body weight squats and ending with 6 155lb squats (one hundred and fifty five!!! I can squat myself and a medium-sized dog, crazy!)

After blowing the squat rack out of the water, we moved on to kettlebells, progressing with working two bells at once. With two 25lbs, I did a non-stop set of 10 swings, cleans, squats, and press. And ohhhhhhh mannnnnnn I didn't think I was gonna make it through the last set. But somehow, finally, I was down to the last three presses, and then it was done. just in time for J to bring over the red 50lb bell, for one arm swings. And I pretended to be fine with this concept. No I didn't, I was whining like usual, but J is impervious to my wiles and made me do them anyways

Then it was back up front with just enough time for....stretching I hope? No, silly! Time for the big ropes. Oh my arms. Oh my legs. Oh my. Alternating ropes (argh) and double ropes (slightly less argh) and then I was DONE. No mas. Finito. C'est tout.

All I had left in me was enough pain tolerance for stretching, in which I think my spine was hosting a competition for which vertebrae could crack the loudest.

Holiday Recovery Soup

Well, Thanksgiving is over, the damage is done. We all ate more than we said we would (and I already said that I'd eat a LOT), and now the inevitable blob of belly fat is starting to congeal and set up shop around your waist.  The week of glorious binge eating is officially over, and now begins the month of undoing all that damage (just in time for the Christmas feast, oof).

If you've never done meal-prep before, right now is a great time to start. Basically you plan out every meal and snack that you will eat for the week, and then you don't have to think about it! And if you are like me and hate cooking, plan out meals that you can make in big batches, all at once, then portion it out for the rest of the week.

I haven't been prepping much lately, and it shows. My best months are the ones where I just take a few extra hours of effort to plan out my food for the week, and stick to it.

For this upcoming week, I have an overly-simplified plan to combat all the pies I ate in the last four days. 

Seriously, so much pie. Soooooo much.

For lunches, I cooked 2 cups of quinoa and divvied up the yield into old 8 ounce yogurt containers. I also baked 4 chicken breasts and divided them into 5 servings - about 3 ounces each - and topped off the containers with broccoli 

Not too shabby!

Before making those, I had started a big pot of veggie soup stewing to have for dinner this week. The best thing about making soup is that you can really just throw in whatever you want and however much of it you want, and it'll probably taste great. There are many variations of this type of soup all over the Internet, but this is what I made, and it came out pretty good. I'll call it:

Holiday Recovery Soup:

Ingredients:

5 medium sized carrots

2 bunches of celery

1 cup diced shallot, onion and garlic

1 can garbanzo beans

1 can black beans

8 cups liquid (i used 4 cups veggie stock and 4 cups water)

Bag of kale

Seasonings (about a teaspoon each):

Olive oil

Salt

Pepper

Garlic powder

Paprika

Ginger powder

Brown mustard seeds

Prep the ingredients:

-Finely chop the onions, shallots and garlic together (or buy them pre-chopped like I did)

-chop carrots and celery

-combine dry seasonings in a small bowl

-rinse and drain garbanzo and black beans in a colander

Make the soup:

In a large pot, heat olive oil over medium-low heat. Sautée the  onions, shallots, and garlic for about 5 minutes, then add the dry seasoning and sautée for another minute. Stir in the carrots and celery and cook over medium heat for about 3 minutes. Add the garbanzo and black beans and 8 cups of liquid. Bring the soup to a low boil, then simmer covered over low heat for at least an hour.  After that, rinse the kale (removing any stems) and stir into the soup, simmering for an additional 20 minutes. Then enjoy!  As with all soups, the longer you let it sit, the better it will taste

By the time you're done, it should look a little something like this: