Whole Foodie Fitness

The weather has been so wonderful lately, it is finally cooling down here in Northern California.  I’ve switched over to hot coffee instead of iced & have been baking up a storm which makes it official in my book, it’s finally fall! I’ve been making quite a few different things but my favorite creation so far was a cake that I made to celebrate game two of the World Series.

Behold the Giants cake aka a giant orange edible baseball:

(This picture was taken with Derek’s crappy camera phone so it’s kinda blurry but you get the idea.) When I made this cake the Giants won.  Today I didn’t bake at all & sadly they lost so I may have to bake some sort of Giants themed creation for the rest of the series!

Yesterday morning I got a surprise in the mail from my twin sister.

She works at a Natural Foods Co-op about 40 miles from where I live & I’m always telling her how much I wish we had a place as awesome as her work to shop at around her so she sent me a box of her favorite goodies.

In the mix

• A 4 pack of Pacific Foods Vanilla Almond Milk
• Two Lara Bars
• Two individual packs of Justin’s Nut Butter
• Oatmeal flavored animal crackers for Bella
• Crofters Super Fruit Spread
• Dagoba Chai flavored chocolate bar
• Once Again Peanut Butter
• Late July Vanilla Bean & Green Tea Cookies
• Sunspire Almond Butter Cups
• Ground coffee
• Energy bites from the bulk bin

…and probably what I was most eager to try

Cheezy Kale!!

I’ve always wanted to try kale chips sprinkled with nutritional yeast but could never stomach paying for nutritional yeast before trying it. That stuff is expensive & I have been forcing myself to be a bit more thrifty lately. They were awesome & I can’t wait to make them myself.

I’m trying to think of what I should bake for her now, I really wasn’t expecting a package with this much stuff in it. So far on my list is almond butter cookies & macaroons! Derek’s dad saw the package & was kinda teasing me for it. He thought I called her & said I was going hungry or something!

My sister and are twins & are super close but are complete opposites. One of the biggest things that we have in common  has to be our love for “different” foods as some people would call it (I don’t think the things we eat are that different from other people but whatever.) Anyways, I guess this is just one of the ways we can bond while still living an hour away from each other!!

 

Hey everyone! A question I get asked a lot at work is what to do to loss fat in the mid section of your body & if it is a good or bad idea to do endless crunches. Well the first thing that I’ll say is something that many people are sad to hear,  it is IMPOSSIBLE to target one area of your body and lose fat in just that area.  You lose fat by burning calories (the best way to do that is through cardio) and where you lose that fat is somewhat based on genetics. Doing crunches are highly ineffective if that is the only thing that you are doing.

So now that we’ve got that out of the way… The good news is that you can target the areas that you want to define your muscles, this is done through resistance training!  So the magic formula for getting a flat stomach is cardio  (to burn fat)+ abdominal resistance training (to define your muscles).

Here are my 5 favorite core exercises!

1. The Plank

 

In my opinion this is by far the best move that you can do for your core & it is very challenging! Even holding this position for 30 seconds will make your abs BURN!

2. The Jack Knife

Takes a little getting used to but it is not as scary as it looks. You can start with the ball resting on your thighs for more stability.

3. Bicycle Crunch

This is a fun move that is also really challenging and effective.

4.  Mountain Climbers

I love this because it combines my favorite move, the plank, with some cardio when done at a fast pace.

5. Side Planks

Same idea as the regular plank but it targets your obliques!

Those are my 5 favorite moves! Try them out along with a regular cardio routine and you’re on your way to a flat stomach!

Also, it’s not a good idea to only focus on your stomach while in the gym. You want to build lean muscle all over to turn your body into a healthy calorie burning machine! Focusing on just one part of your body isn’t effective and leads to frustration. You will get the best results from training all of your major muscle groups, not just your abs.  Women should not be afraid that they are going to “bulk up” from resistance training. We simply do not have the hormone levels to do so, unless of course steroids are involved. 

Good eating habits are also very important & I can’t stress that enough. The saying goes, “Abs are made in the kitchen” & it is 100% true. You can workout all day but if you aren’t eating right you will be running in circles trying to reach your goals.

Good luck! Anyone can reach their fitness goals with a willpower and determination. It takes a lot of hard work but it will payoff in the end if you stick to it I promise! Thank you for reading my little blog, I’m having a lot of fun putting it together & I hope that someone out there is having fun reading it!

Something to talk about:

What are your favorite core exercises? What are your least favorite? Leave your answer in the comments!

Something to read:

An article & short video form two of my favorite fitness trainers about spot reducing fat and why it doesn't work.

Not like the candy bar! I'm talking about the giant bag of almonds that I scored + my new job = Almond Joy.



There are a lot of people who own almond orchards where we live so we get a lot of free almonds at the end of summer. Its one of the only perks about living in the country.

As you can see the bag is HUGE so I immediatly went to work trying to make some almond creations.

Almond Butter



Almond Milk



Almond Butter Cookies (these are dangerous)



...and a bunch of other almondy goodness snacks, recipes to come!!




I've been seriously neglecting my blog mainly because I just got a job at a gym and have been spending most of my time trying to get new clients and doing program designs for the ones I already have. That and I had a pretty crazy birthday weekend. I'm going to try to post more though, at least every other day!

So far I LOVE my new job! All of my coworkers and members of the gym are really friendly, I get to make my own schedule, the managers don't put too much pressure on you unlike other gyms, and best of all I get to put Bella in the kid's center when Derek can't watch her! I have yet to do this since I usually schedule my appoitments around Derek's work schedule but its really nice to have the option.

I really love training people, its great to see the looks on someone's face at the end of a workout because you know they feel like they accomplished something and instantly feel good about themselves. I'm glad I found a career that allows me to make a diffence in people's lives. When I walk into the gym I'm not going there just to make money like other jobs I've had, I'm going there to make people feel good about themselves and make important changes for their health. I feel very lucky to have a job that I actually look forward to each morning because I know that is very rare.


By the way I'm now offering virtual training with really great rates just because I love putting together programs for people and helping out whoever I can. Click the link at the top of the page for more info, seriously the rates are super cheap! I'm also going to be offering nutrition consulting in the future so look out for that.

Upcoming Posts:

"Larabar" recipes (peanut butter cookie, cranberry almond, & chocolate chip brownie)
Bootcamp Workout
Almond Butter Cookie Recipe
Open Sky store

How is everyone's day going? I just got finished slicing some fruit from our massive garden and put it in a bowl for instant snackage later on

Watermelon, honeydew, and yellow watermelon, yum.

Earlier I put together one of my favorite recipes, whole wheat and flax tortillas.



Homemade whole grain tortillas are very simple to make and are a lot cheaper and healthier than the ones that you find in the store (refined flour and hydrogenated oils anyone?)

Here's the recipe I followed:

4 cups minus 3 tbsp whole wheat flour
3 tbsp ground flax (or just 3 more tbsp flour if you don't have them on hand)
2 tsp baking powder
sprinkle of sea salt
1 1/2 cups water
3 tbsp olive or canola oil

Mix dry ingrediants together then add wet ingrediants and mix with your hands.
LEt the dough rest for about 10 minutes (this really does make a difference I just don't know why, so don't skip it).

Roll the tortillas out to your desired size. I like to do big ones for wraps and a few smaller ones for Bella or a small snack for myself. She's a pro at this step.


Heat tortillas individually on a pan for about a minute on each side and they're done! Simple as that!

My other favorite thing about these yummy tortillas is that there is so many things you can do with them.

You can roll them up with some peanut butter and raisins and top with cinnamon.



Wrap up a salad.



Or grill them a little longer until they're crispy and sprinkle with cinnamon.



My favorite way is with halibut tacos but we don't have any halibut right now :(

Fruit, a few tortillas, and an unpictured sandwhich thin with peanut butter: it definatly was a carbalicous day just the way I like it.

Today was a very non productive day and it flew by fast. I spent most of the day looking around the internet for a new camera for my birthday and I think I decided on a Fujifilm Finepix s1800.



Its a pretty nice bridge style camera for the price. At Target its on sale for $200. I would really love to have a DSLR like the Canon Rebel but I don't know enough about photography to "need" it and I couldn't ask Derek to spend that much money on me.

We really need to go grocery shopping. Today's eats were pancakes (again), peaches, watermelon, a saldad, and some peanut butter concoctions. Nothing really noteworthy and I'm without a camera today anyways.

My muscles are feeling great today thanks to this:




The Women's Health "Hot Body Yoga" App! If you have an iphone or ipod touch you should try this out. I wouldn't say its one of my top picks for yoga routines but if you need a just yoga quickie or if your muscles are tight going through a few of the short routines is pretty fun. The lovely Tara Stiles talks you through the poses.

She's a pretty badass yogi incase you didn't know :)



Question: Sometimes I feel kinda lame because most of the yoga I do is from DVD or something from the app store, I don't go to classes. Some people think you don't get the full benefits of yoga this way. What do you think?

I'm tired. Bella woke up just before 5 am today & decided she was not
going back to sleep. I was trying to think of a breakfast full of
healthy carbs that would wake me up & Bella and I would both like. We
went with whole wheat pancakes with peanut butter & "jelly" pancakes.
I usually stick with different oatmeal variations but the early rise
made me feel like I deserved a treat.

Whole Wheat Peanut Butter & "Jelly" Pancakes For Two



1/2 cup plus 2 tbsp Whole wheat flour (you canexpirement with other
types of whole grain flour)
1/2 cup milk or milk sub
2 eggs
1 1/4 tsp baking powder
Cinnamon & stevia to taste

Mix all ingrediants. Heat on a medium heat pan and flip when bubbles
beging to appear.

Jelly Topping
1/2 berries (I used blueberries)
2 packets of stevia
2 tbsp water
Mix ingredients together and heat in a sauce pan until warm. Spread
peanut butter over pancakes and drizzle with sauce.

This is one of my favorite breakfast treats. I usually save them for
when I need extra energy for a lot of cardio in the morning or days
like today when my coffee just isn't cutting it.

Plans for today so far:

Cardio + Weights
Clean house
Yoga
Maybe go shopping
Budget planning
Look around the internet for a new camera, Bella broke mine and I'm tired of cheap little $99 cameras so I'm hoping to get one for my birthday which is coming up.

This is actually two circuits, there is a seperate sequence just for your core. Complete the first sequence 3 times and then the second circuit three times as well for a great full body workout.
CIRCUIT #1


Do 12-15 reps of each exercise back to back at the end of the circuit rest for 2-3 minutes and then repeat the circuit two more times. (Do the plank once each circuit for 30 seconds)

Forearm Plank (30 seconds)





Stability Ball Rollout hold each rep at the plank postion for 2-3 seconds. For an extra challange perform this on your feet instead of knees.





Reverse Crunch





Bicycle Crunch




CIRCUIT #2

Do 12-15 reps of each exercise back to back, rest for 2-3 minutes and repeat two more times.

Weighted Squat (ommit weights if needed)




Stability Ball Chest Press





Stiff Leg Deadlift





Bent Over Row




Reverse Lung




Tricep Dip




Mountain Climbers, perform for 30 seconds at a fast yet controlled pace.