Must Read Blogposts For the New Year

It's officially 2014!
Brand new spanking year.
Today is the first day of a 365 page book, make an amazing and inspiring story.

Vacation Victories: IIFYM/IE Update & My Goal for the Future

Hello fit fam!
If you didn't know, I've been on vacation for around 10 days in wonderful Florida!... Even if it did rain almost every day I was there. Below are some tasty foods I ate while on vacation and an update on how I ate. And how I actually LOST weight on vacation! Even though we shouldn't care about weight ;]

"My last cheat I SWEAR" Approach: How I Stopped Binging

How many times have you used THAT line huh?

From Layne Norton's Instagram

"Oh snap, I'm getting SERIOUS tomorrow... sooooo I might as well eat all the bad stuff I can now because I won't have any for a while..."

The next day comes around. You do fine for a few days... or one.... and then you mess up a tinyyy tiny bit... and that sets you off. You eat one cookie, which turns to 2, and then before you know it you've eaten the whole box!

"Ah crud.... messed up... OK starting fresh TOMORROW.... but since I already messed up, I should finish off that peanut butter too, and then tomorrow I'll start fresh..."

And repeat.

Sound familiar to you?

Happy 4th of July! Tips on Dining Out & Bearded Brothers Energy Bar Reviews

HAPPY 4th of July! Independence Day!

Hope everyone has a wonderful day spent with their loved ones, happiness, laughter, and good food! OH NOOOO what happens when you have to go dine out or are put in an environment with different foods that aren't normal to your "clean eating". 

Here are some tips to dining out! 

Why Crash/Quick Diets Suck - Metabolic Damage

OMG It's JUNE
And It's soooooo close to SUMMER TIME
Time to get thin real quick, not eat anything, workout for 10 hours a day, become mooody and weak and tired, YAY!..... uhm.. NO

Trust me.
I've been there.
Always looking for the fastest and quickest way to get slim and lean.

But guess what I was doing to myself and my metabolism?
SELF SABOTAGE - that's what.

Cutting/Leaning/Fat Loss OH MY! And Kickstarting My Healthy Lifestyle Journey.... Again

So a lot of you have asked me about:

Cutting / Leaning Out Stage

However, I feel these terms are more for bodybuilders or competitors. They usually follow bulks or off season with on season leaning out to get to very low body fat percentages for competitions! And they are veryyy strict with their diets and workout, which in my experience, when I did this, didn't turn out so well for me because I rebounded back to the beginning of my journey - same [if not more] weight, measurements, and body fat.

So instead I like to call it the

Fat Loss Stage

aka. the 

Healthy Lifestyle

I say the Healthy Lifestyle, because basically if you're living the healthy lifestyle:

Eating right, keeping consistent workouts, and being body, mind, and health conscious, 

you should be losing fat because you're not stuffing it with the usual processed nasty fatty foods!

Endless Cardio is NOT the Way! And Workouts for Fat Loss

"Cardio: the only way to lose fat!"
Uhm... WRONGGGGGGGGGG

Like most people, at the beginning of my lifestyle journey I thought the only thing girls did in the gym was hop on a bike/treadmill/elliptical/cardio machine and go and go and go till they couldn't go no more! Oh how FALSE that is!

Did you know you're doing your body more HARM than good? Slowing down your metabolism, making it harder for your body to lose fat, and breaking down gorgeous muscle??!!? I know CRAZYYYY.

I wanted to post some wise words from a friend of mine, @Mrgeecue or Nate, from Instagram, and his thoughts on endless cardio.

Junk Food Confessions & The Maintainable Lifestyle Rules

So I uploaded a new YouTube video HERE on my Junk Food Confessions, based off of Jenna Marbles video HERE!
Hope to make you all feel a little less guilty about your slip ups! <3
And at the end I kinda babble about the lifestyle and binging.

Soooo here's just a short little list of things I'm incorporating into MY own lifestyle to make it comfortable and maintainable!

• workout at least 4x a week
• have a treat when needed, but savor the taste and never have more than you need
• make sure your workout makes up for the treat
• broaden social activities to keep busy
• more family and friends time
• eat clean 80-90% of the time
• NO restricting [no no carbs, no fats, no protein, etc]
• no starvation
• eat when you're hungry, don't when you're not
• make sure to learn "head hunger" from "stomach hunger" - are you just bored or actually hungry?
• tips: drink water - then see if you're hungry
• get yourself busy with an activity
• if you're actually hungry, then eat!
• compliment yourself at least 1x/day and love yourself
• eat nutrient dense food over empty calories
• ex: if you're eating a treat, instead of a pure bar of sugar, eat something with whole nuts in it for some dietary fats and protein
• ENJOY THE LIFESTYLE