Happy Thursday, friends! I’m so happy that my blog friend Emily is guest posting today! I’ve read her blog for so long now that I can’t remember when I or how I found her blog, but I do remember liking her blog immediately. And now she’s become a very good friend in real life! I’m guest posting on her blog today so head over there to check it out!
Hey all! Last week Sarah had the great idea to do guest posts. We realized that after all this time of being such good blog friends, that we have yet to do one! When we were throwing ideas back and forth, she had the suggestion of writing about being healthy. I knew that’s what I wanted to do, because that is something I have really been focusing on the last few months, not to mention I love reading posts about health and fitness myself.
First, let me back up a bit and introduce myself. I am Emily, and I blog over at A Little Bit of Emily. I love to read, cook, and decorate. I started A Little Bit of Emily a little under two years ago after reading and loving so many other blogs.
Being healthy and fit is something I have definitely struggled with, especially in the last few years. While I always worked out, I mostly stuck to cardio with minimal, if any, weights. My diet has never been that great. I just love food, especially not-so-great for you food! Luckily, the past few months I have been able to change that.
Back in November, I started doing the 21 Day Fix. If you are looking for a great at home workout program, I can’t say enough good things about the 21 Day Fix. I shared my review after completing one round, and after completing another round, I think it still holds true. While I don’t know if my actual weight has changed, I know that I am toner and feel better all around. The workouts are great, a mix of cardio and weights, but I have to say my biggest takeaways have been from the meal plan. These are things I am continuing to keep up with, even without doing the set workout program.
Protein, protein, protein…and more protein. I realized I have not been getting enough protein in my diet. This has been key, because it helps me stay fuller throughout the day, and helps to fuel my workouts. For example, I will have eggs in the morning, chicken with lunch, Greek yogurt for a snack and then a protein for dinner which always varies.
Lessen the carbs, lessen the cheese. It hurts my heart to write those words because carbs and cheese are two of my favorite things. For me, the key isn’t to cut these out completely, but just eat less. If I tried to completely go without, then I would totally lose restraint and over indulge. Totally counter productive. I keep my meals relatively simple during the day, and then cook something I really enjoy for dinner. That’s when the carbs usually come in…and the cheese.
Eat your veggies. Not my favorite thing, but necessary. The best way for me to get veggies is with salad. My advice? Find your very favorite salad dressing – it makes all the difference in the world. I literally crave salads now, and I have to say it is probably due to the salad dressing (Mona’s). I pretty much always have a salad for lunch, then will sometimes have one again with my dinner. They are very simple, just lettuce, red pepper, carrots, sometimes cucumbers and green olives, but goodness they are good.
Meal plan and prep. Every week I take a little bit of time to go through each meal of the day, think about what I am going eat and make my grocery list. I then spend an hour or two on Sunday getting everything ready for the week. This means making eggs muffins, prepping salad, and any other meals that can be done ahead of time. Sometimes the last thing I want to do on Sunday is prep, but my week goes so much better and smoother if I do. I also take some shortcuts, like using frozen chicken strips and shredded carrots, which helps makes things a lot easier, too.
Measure out portion sizes. This may seem tedious, but it’s really worth it. To make it easy, I bought a bunch of smaller size tupperware containers to hold things like fruit and then chicken for my lunches. I portion food into the containers during my prep on Sunday, so throughout the week I can just grab and go, knowing I am getting the correct serving size. When I make dinner at home, I often have rice, so sometimes I will just take a measuring cup and scoop out the appropriate amount onto my plate. You will be amazed at how much food you actually get!
Those are just a few things that have really helped me get back on track with being healthy, specifically eating healthy.
Thanks so much for having me, Sarah!
