Beginner's Low Impact Workout ! Cardio & total Body Toning

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ryHP0rBh8Lw

The video is very helpful for beginners, especially since it demonstrates each of the exercise. This workout is kind of TABA style, 30 seconds on, 10 seconds off. This is great for cardio and toning your muscles all over your body. This routine is also good for people who are fit, but would like a low impact workout because of any injuries or you can use it for active rest.

1. squat with a front kick. Squat as far down as you can control and when you come up, kick with your foot. Alternate which leg you kick with each time you come up.

2. Front Lunges with a bicep curl. Do a regular lunge with good form, making sure your knee does not go past your foot and you can control your weight as you go down. As you go down, do a bicep curl.

3. Jumping jacks. Make sure you go as fast as you can. Contract both your upper and lower body to get more calorie burn and tone.

4. High knees. bring your knee up to your hip, make sure it is at a 90 degree angle. Bring the opposite arm up as well. Make sure to contract your muscles to get more out of the workout.

5. Plank walk downs. Start standing up and walk your hands down until you are in plank position. When you are in your plank, tap each shoulder with your hands and then walk your hands back up to standing position. This move is great because it works not only your legs and arms, but also your core.

Repeat this workout 2 or 3 more times.

Vegetable Tomato Stir fry Recipe!

This is definitely one of my go to meals for lunch! It has whole grains, vegetables, and a lot of protien that will keep you full for a long time and give you a lot of energy. I hope you like recipes because I love sharing healthy desserts and meals that I create in the kitchen! All you need is:

-1/4 cup of brown rice(I just heated up leftover rice that was already made earlier)
-1/4 cup of black beans. You can either cook them yourself by soaking them or just by them in a can. Make sure if you buy canned beans they do not have any preservatives & wash them off. This will prevent digestion issues. (Being gassy haha)
-A mix of your favorite vegetables. I used green beans, peppers, onion & snap peas. You can work with whatever you have and your favorite combination. Or, if you are too lazy you can buy a mix of frozen vegetables and just defrost them (make sure they do not have preservatives though!)
- Next I added a variety of spices. Usually I add them in as I cook if I cook them on a stove. I add a lot of pepper, parsley leaves, basil, and Italian seasoning.
-Next add your tomato pasta sauce. Again, make sure it is pure tomato sauce and there is not sugar and other unnecessary things added.
-If you choose to microwave, mix everything together and cover your plate or bowl with a paper towel so the sauce does not splatter everywhere. If you cook on the stove, you can add the sauce as it is cooking and wait for the vegetables to turn a light brown so they will taste nice and crispy!
This meal is so easy to make,but a lot people think that healthy cooking takes too much work even though it doesn't. Hope you guys make this!

Easy & Clean Delicious Oatmeal Cookies!

These cookies are super delicious and 100% clean (unless you add chocolate chips!) They are chewy and have a kick of cinnamon to them. I also made a video on them if you would like a demonstration on how to make them.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q33qkABmYLo
Anyway, here are the ingredients.

Dry ingredients:

- 1 cup of oat flour (you can take raw oats and put them in a food processor if you do not have any)

- 1 1/2 cups of raw rolled oats

-1/2 teaspoon of baking soda

-1/2 teaspoon of baking powder

-1/2 teaspoon of nutmeg

-2 tablespoons of cinnamon

-1/2 cup of nuts, seeds, dried fruit or dark chocolate chips

Stir the ingredients 

Wet Ingredients:

- 1/4 cup of applesauce

-1/2 cup of honey

-1 teaspoon of vanilla extract

-1 egg

Mix all of the ingredients so if forms a thick cookie dough. Preheat your oven to 330 degrees and refrigerate cookie dough for 15 minutes. 

Once the 15 minutes is up, lightly grease your cookie sheet and drop the dough onto the cookie sheet. 

Let cookies bake for 10-20 minutes on 350 until they are golden brown.

Take cookies out of the oven and wait for them to cool. Should take about 15-20 minutes.

These taste so good for being pretty healthy! They are healthier than most granola bars on the market since you know exactly what you are putting in the cookies and there is no processed ingredients.   

What Diet is Best for Me?

    Okay so when you are first starting off with your health and fitness goal, it can be very confusing and stressful. Society makes it seem so much more complicated than it actually is! There are people telling each other what and when to eat and there are so many different "diets" people follow. There is high carb, paleo, weird coffee and tea diets, etc.
   The only thing you need to do is listen to your body. That is it. That does not mean if you are hungry to grab a bag a chips, but everyone's body is different. Some people's bodies need more carbs than protein and other people respond better to higher protein and fat. It just depends on your body. The best way to go when you are starting off is just eat balanced meals. Eat clean fruits and vegetables, a small portion of protein and grains and go from there. Also, eat when you are hungry. If you get hungry every hour, then eat! If you stay full for 4-5 hours then do that. Again, everybody is different. What works for you most likely does not work for your friends or even family members. Once you get used to listening to your body and eating clean whole foods, it is much easier to tell what your body needs. Also, do not deprive yourself of all unhealthy food! If you are at a party and really want a dessert, eat it! You just have to make sure you only have a small portion and eat it in moderation. Make sure you actually want it and you are not just mindlessly eating because it is sitting in front of you and it looks pretty. If you end up eating too much, it is okay! We are all human, just go right back to your good habits and remember how good your body feels physically and mentally when you make healthy choices. Remember, everything is healthy in moderation:)

Low Impact at Home workouts for beginners! Introducing Strength Training & cardio!

If you are brand new to working out and do not know where to start this is the place for you! You need very minimal equipment or none at all is perfectly fine.
1. The first thing you always start out with is a warm up. Warm ups should be about 2-5 minutes, just to get your muscles warmed up and get the blood flowing so you are ready to go. You can start off with very light jogging, dynamic stretching (stretching one muscle for 10-15 seconds) or other forms of light cardio like jogging in place, butt kickers, jumping jacks, or even lunges in place. If you need any examples, youtube is a great place to help you out!
    

2. Now it is time for resistance training. You can chose to work out one muscle group per day and just focus on that. I like to do all over body resistance training.
- Start off by doing 8-10(reps) crunches and repeat 2-3 times. (2-3 sets)
- Now it is time to workout the arms! Start off by doing anywhere from 3-5 pushups and repeat 2-3 times. Push ups are a very brutal workout when you are first starting out, so do NOT get discouraged if you have a hard time. Take a break and do the best you can if you need to.
-Now it is time to work the lower body. In my opinion, I think lunges are a great way to start when introducing lower body workouts. It is very easy and effective for toning your legs and butt. Do about 5 lunges on each side(10 in total) and repeat one more time.

3. Yay! Good job you just finished your resistance training. Now it is time for a quick cardio session. Cardio is very easy to get in. You can bike ride, jog, dance, walk etc. Cardio machines are effective as well, but not necessary. Do a 10-15 minute cardio session. Make your cardio fun by doing something you enjoy and putting on your favorite music.

4. Now it is time to cool down. Cool downs should be about the same length as your warm up(although I am guilty of cutting them shorter!) Your cool down should be light cardio with some stretching. Make sure to stretch your muscles! It is VERY important for muscle recovery.
If you would like some at home workout ideas, going on youtube and following the workouts on your phone or TV is VERY helpful. I do this almost every time I workout since I do not have a gym membership. I recommend Fitnessblender. They have FREE effective workouts for every fitness level (beginner, intermediate, & advanced) Look up fitnessblender beginner workouts and I am sure you will find some great effective workouts to do!

Hope this helps! Comment if you have any questions or requests. I will be making blog posts for all fitness levels & recipe ideas, so stay tuned! I am also thinking of posting workout videos if you are interested in that. Let me know, I would really appreciate feedback. Thanks so much for reading:)

What I eat in a Day!

This is basically what I eat on a daily basis. It switches daily except for breakfast. For dinner, I usually try and have meat like chicken this is just what I ate for today! I do NOT follow any special "diet" such as paleo, high carb, low fat, or veganism. I just eat what I feel that my body needs! (balanced foods)
Breakfast: I start off by eating a banana and water. Then, I will make 2 slices of toast and spread peanut butter on them and throw some berries or grapes on the plate. I love to start my day off with lots of fruits and carbs. I also drink coffee.  Before lunch, I also had a snack which was an apple and some nuts.

Lunch: Lunch is so important whether you are at school or work. For lunch today I basically worked with the leftovers in my fridge. I used some brown rice and threw in lots of kidney beans(my new obsession!) They are really high in protien and carbs and low calorie so it will keep you full for a long time. We had left over green beans from last night's dinner, so those got thrown in and I threw in some carrots, onion, and pepper and microwaved it! I had 2 servings because I ate this after my workout and was really hungry. ( and it was soo good!) Before dinner I was hungry and ate an orange.

Dinner: My dinner this night was very similar to this picture. Before my dinner every night I always have a salad. But otherwise I'm eating some vegetable pasta mixed in with vegetables like carrots, pepper, onion, celery, etc & added the same beans and tomato sauce. Then I just threw it in the microwave & it was soo good! This is def. my favorite meal out of all of them. I most likely had 2 servings, but I can't remember.

After dinner I always have some dark chocolate for my dessert. Chocolate is def. my weakness! I love to eat healthy foods because it is what make my body feel good, it does not have to do with my weight. I would be the same weight if I ate junk food all day because my metabolism is very high. I find eating right gives me so much more energy and the more you eat it, the less you crave junk food. (it's not a myth!) I occasionally will eating unhealthy(pancakes are my absolute weakness!) and will not beat myself up if I mess up once in a while. After all, we are all human! As a side note, what I ate today was for the most part vegan friendly, but I am not a vegan! I eat chicken and turkey a lot! 

Ways To Begin A Healthy Lifestyle in 2016!

So you've made your New Year's resolution to lose weight. Again. You decide to start exactly January 1st by getting up at 7 am and go on a morning jog. You also decide you will go on a major diet. No pizza, ice cream, or chocolate. Only fruits and vegetables. Your alarm clock rings at 7am. You look at your alarm, turn it off and think "Eh, there's always next year!"Lots of people make this mistake. They might be inspired to live a healthier lifestyle because they want to lose a lot of weight or they decide that they want to make their diet cleaner. But are they really committed?1. Be realistic. Decide what your goals are. If you would like to lose weight, realize it will take time and commitment. Fat doesn't magically disappear in 3 days. If you would like to try to be more active or eat healthier as your goal, it will take just as much commitment as losing weight.2. Start Slowly. Slow and steady wins the race! Start by making small changes. Start off by eating a healthy breakfast instead of just grabbing a poptart or skipping breakfast altogether. If you eat pizza every week that is fine for now, but maybe instead of eating two slices eat a slice with a side of steamed vegetables. As for workouts, start with low impact workouts. Just try to get some activity and movement throughout your week. Start off by taking a walk two to three times a week. Every little step counts!3. Work to improve your lifestyle. So you've cleaned up your diet a bit by eating a healthy breakfast and stay active during the week. Take it a step further! Slowly start replacing your junk food with healthier options. Even if it is just replacing your bag of chips at lunch with an apple. As you slowly make changes, you will feel the benefits and be motivated to change.4. Realize that what you put into your body is what you get out. If you have bad acne or oily hair, fatty greasy foods can cause this. If you limit the fatty foods and replace it with whole real foods, you most likely will see a difference quickly!5. It is okay to reach out for help! I think this is a very important step that lots of people need to realize. It is good to ask for help. Whether you ask for help by having a friend or family member help you,  hiring a nutritionist, dietitian, personal trainer, they want to help! That is their job an passion, they will be more than happy to help you. The internet is also one of the most helpful tools out there. Go on youtube and look up beginner workouts and google clean recipes. The internet is the most effective and motivating tool for me.6. Do not be hard on yourself. If you go a week without eating fast food, but then you slip up, it is okay! Forgive and forget. The next day go right back to your healthy habits. I think one of the hardest things about changing your lifestyle is yourself because you are your worst enemy.Hope these tips are helpful. They came right from the top of my head, so look out for new posts very soon. I am just getting started:)