If you’re a fitness/healthy food/recipe blog like this! My dash is DEEAAADDD.

(And I DO like blogs with personal posts too, so don’t be afraid to like this is if you do a lot of personal blogging!)

What’s your favorite/biggest weakness holiday food/dessert?

I can’t pick just one! Ugh! I have a huge weakness for caramel corn. But every year my family and my cousins get together and spend all day baking loads of cinnamon rolls from scratch and they are absolute heaven.

So I’ve been meaning to start this for months now, but I honestly forgot about it. It’s probably the simplest, least time consuming fitness challenge you can do, but you will get insane results from it.

Until New Year’s Day I’m going to start doing 50 squats a day in November and then up to a wild 100 squats a day in December. These are simple bodyweight squats.

I started doing this while I was home for the summer and it gave me awesome results. But because of school I’ve been sitting on my ass more than working it, so it’s time to kick it again.

I hope you guys will all do it with me! C’mon, it’s easy! 50 a day. Break it up if you want to even. 25 in the morning, 25 at night. Whatever floats your butt.

“You reblog more butts than I do!” -My boyfriend.

#fitblrproblems

1. Practice at least 2-3 times a week, especially now that work hours are cutting back.
2. Be more diligent about my diet; bringing dinner to work instead of ordering there, keep bringing healthy snacks with me everywhere, cut back on sugar.
3. Drink. More. Water.
4. Have at least one cup of tea a day.
5. Don’t stress out about work and school.
6. Read more.
7. Try some new recipes.
8. Don’t overeat over Thanksgiving break.

I’ve found that whenever I’m dressed in something I feel good in, I don’t feel the need to snack as much. Tonight after my shower I put on a pair of comfy, baggy lounge pants that my boyfriend loves my butt in as well as tight tank top. For some reason this simple ensemble makes me feel slightly sexy, like bedtime sexy. I noticed tonight that I had my small, after dinner smoothie and a mug of tea and I haven’t really been focusing on wanting to eat as much because I feel cute in what I’m wearing, and I don’t want to ruin that by overeating and feeling gross and down about myself. Whereas the last few nights when I’ve worn sweats and a t shirt to bed I’ve eaten uncontrollably.

Give it a try. Next time you’re hanging around doing homework put on something cute, sexy, or heck, even just a bikini if you dare. Drink some tea or water and see if it makes you not want to mindlessly snack.

I’ve been really down about my body lately because I haven’t had a chance to workout in over a month, and when I finally got one (three days off in a row between two jobs!? unheard of!) I’m super sick. I feel gross in pretty much everything and I can tell I’m losing the tightness in my body I had this summer. 

So I decided to do a list of positive things I noticed tonight after getting out of the shower. After spilling the base of my smoothie (soy milk + protein powder + psyllium husk + carpet = disgusting pasty mess) I need some positivity.

• My arms. I will forever love my arms. Yoga has given me killer arms. When the shadows hit them just right I can really appreciate how toned and strong they are.
• My skin. Even though I have a huge spot right on my cheek, 90% of the time my skin is near flawless. It’s all thanks to genetics so I can’t take credit for it, but hey. It’s a blessing and something I’m complimented on.
• My eyes. I feel like I’m the only person with brown eyes who loves their brown eyes. So many brown-eyed-beauties dream of having blue or green. Love what you have! I love my big brown doe eyes. And my boyfriend endlessly tells me how much he loves them too.
• My waist. I have a really dramatic wasit-to-hip ratio. Last I checked it was 26-36. It helps that my hips are ridiculous (too ridiculous. my boyfriend is crazy about them but I could do with a little less hippage) which makes my waist look tinier, but hey, I’ll take what I can get.
• My boobs. So they needed a little help of a reduction surgery, but I couldn’t be happier with them now. After giving them a little nudge with a knife, I was able to start exercising and it helped them to drop in size even more. Not only did they get to a perfect size for my body, but after doing a lot of chest work this summer they are naturally high and firm enough for me to feel fine in a tank top without a bra on (for just around the house, of course).

I may not be 100% happy with my thighs, my hips or my stomach right now, but I need to understand that I’m working incredibly hard. Working over 20 hours a week and being a full time student and making time for an incredible boyfriend and time for myself is difficult. But I can’t wait until I can get back into the swing of things again.

So I took a trip to Trader Joe’s a little bit ago and I am in HEAVEN! I got some truly awesome things, and if you like pumpkin then you need to get your butt there now (or any other store that sells some of these things)!

Brussels sprout stalk
 So you like brussels sprouts but you don’t like paying $3 for a tiny bag. Get a stalk! A stalk of brussels is only $3 and after removing them from the stalk I filled over two tupperware containers!

Country Pumpkin Spice Granola
Oh my gosh. I don’t even want to put this in anything, I just want it as a snack. It is SO DELICIOUS! I wasn’t going to buy it but a guy working there said he puts it in his blueberry yogurt and that it’s to die for. Uh, he was right. I’m so excited to add this to my morning greek yogurt tomorrow! My roomie also bought a pumpkin spice chai latte powder mix that smells SO good, and there were TONS of other seasonal, pumpkin goodness there!

Sugar Snap Peas + Garlic Hummus
 Currently snacking on this delicious, healthy combo right now and I’m in heaven. The crunchy, sweet snap peas mixed with the luscious, garlicy hummus is such a yummy and healthy snack!

Honeycrisp Apples
Everyone remain calm and try not to trample each other rushing into the store. I was sad that there were only two, sad, lonely, bruised ones left, but now that I know they’re back in stores, I’m going to keep my eye out! They are the BEST, sweetest, most delicious apples you will ever eat!

Dark Chocolate Coconut Caramel Bar
Okay I caved. Dark chocolate, coconut, and caramel are probably my favorite sweet things. I saw this luxurious bar for only $1.99 and couldn’t resist. It’s only 55 calories and 2.75 grams of sugar in one square (comes with 8). As soon as I got in the door I tried one and ooohhhh myyyy laaawdddd is it DELICIOUS! Totally worth every calorie. I can’t wait to enjoy a square with my coffee each day.

Think of it this way.
Someone wants you to do something. They’re rude, bossy, abusive, starve you, and beat the shit out of you constantly.
Obviously you’re not going to want to do what this person tells you to do because they’re a JERK.

Don’t be a jerk to your body. Don’t run it down and not reward it and nurture it. If you want your body to lose fat and gain muscle and to look bangin’, treat it the way it deserves. Give it the fuel it needs to workout the way you want. Give it the nutrition it needs to burn fat and build muscle. Treat it to a sweet treat now and then.

You can’t expect your body to do what you want if you’re not going to take care of it.

So I have work in 30 minutes and I didn’t have very much time to make anything to eat before hand, so based off what was in my fridge, I came up with this:

I steamed broccoli then put it back in the pot with some olive oil, salt, garlic, chicken manga habanero sausage and a mashed avocado mixed in! It’s SO yummy and flavorful and HEALTHY! Tons of protein and flavor from the chicken sausage, healthy steamed broccoli and a delicious, buttery avocado! I overcooked my broccoli a little because I wasn’t pay attention :( but it’s still so good! And there’s plenty to save for leftovers!

there’s always those few nasty carrots in a bag of baby carrots.

you know what i’m talking about.

you’re sitting there eating your baby carrots and they’re so sweet and delicious and then the moment is ruined when you grab one of those ones that tastes like gym sock.

So for a class I’m taking I had to get my stats because the big part of the grade is whether you improve or maintain your stats by the end of the year. I’ve been wanting to know my body fat % for a while since I’m pretty tiny and at a good weight, I just want more muscle and less fat. And I know calipers are really inaccurate, and this was the method our teacher used, but here are my stats:

5’4.5”

115 lbs (so pissed. I was at 117 before I left on an empty stomach. 115 was taken with clothes on and right after eating a sandwich!!!)

16.9 fat on tricep

23.5 fat on waist

22.6 fat on thigh

————-

24.6% body fat 

I’m not surprised that I have more fat on my waist than my thigh. My thighs are like bricks but I’ve always carried weight in my hips up. I still have a small waistline, I just have a bit of squish on my sides and lower belly. 24.6% is actually right in between athlete and average, so I’m pretty happy with it. I hope to be much lower by the end of the year though! Hopefully I can keep up my exercise routines and healthy diet enough to get it lowered to at least 22%!