The thing that I found most challenging about starting to work out is that I had no idea what I should be doing, how often I should be doing it, and when I needed to take a break. Every person is different, and what I’ve gotten from reading is basically that your plan will be different based on what your goals are. Someone who’s training for a triathalon is going to have a different plan than someone who wants to get a little toned for bikini season or someone who wants to lose 50 pounds. And that makes sense, right? So the first thing I did in developing a plan was

• Make some goals

It actually took me a couple days to really think about this one! Why am I exercising? What do I hope to get out of it? What would I love to be able to accomplish? For me, personally, my goals are to become stronger, learn how to run, and gain muscle weight. The most difficult of those goals is actually going to be last one, but it’s probably the most important to me. With my health issues in the past year I lost some weight that I really need to get back, and I want it to be more muscle than flab!

• Pick some cardio + strength training

To have a balanced plan you need both cardiovascular exercise and strength training exercise. How much of each you do depends on the person but since my main goal is to build muscle, I want to make sure to do a good amount of strength training to build my muscles (also I don’t want to burn too many calories with a lot of cardio because I want to GAIN weight).

• Make a plan and stick to it!

I don’t know about you, but I’m a lot more likely to do something if I’ve already laid out a plan for how to do it. My current plan looks like this:

• Monday: cardio (interval running/walking on treadmill or elliptical)
• Tuesday: strength training (weight lifting and strength exercises at home)
• Wednesday: slow yoga/rest
• Thursday: cardio (interval running/walking on treadmill or elliptical)
• Friday: strength training (weight lifting and strength exercises at home)
• Saturday: cardio (speedwalking or cycling)
• Sunday: rest

One thing I’ve learned a lot from healthy living bloggers is that it’s super important to take rest days. So I take two a week, and sometimes if I’m feeling sore or just bored then I’ll do some slow yoga to stretch out on rest day.

CARDIO:

While I do want to learn to run, I get WAY too easily bored to just run a few miles every day. I’m also out of shape so that kind of exercise is really hard for me. I set myself a goal for at least 2 miles of total cardio work every time I go to the gym (I arrived at that number just based on my own fitness level right now), and depending on the day and my mood I do one of the following or some combo of them:

HIIT:

HIIT stands for High Intensity Interval Training. I learned about this workout method a while ago when Jason was participating in the Fit2Fat2Fit workout program. It’s a very efficient way to do your cardio, and I love it because it keeps you engaged and doesn’t get boring! You do a less than minute of running at high effort and then slow it down to a walk or jog for another minute or two, and then repeat. This is a good demo that I watched when I was getting started:

My HIIT treadmill workout is 3.8MPH for two minutes (that’s a fast walk) alternating with 7.0-8.0MPH for one minute (sprinting). I repeat that for 15 minutes.

Aerobic Interval Training:

Another option that I like is just regular interval training, which most treadmills have a setting for (which is why I like it!) that takes your speed and/or incline up and down automatically.  The intervals last longer than in HIIT but it’s still a lot more engaging that just running at a constant speed for your whole workout. Another interval option that I follow is the one in the Couch to 5K program, which is designed for beginners who want to learn to run.

Other stuff: I like to do the elliptical, bicycle, stair stepper, and other machines every once in a while to mix it up.

STRENGTH TRAINING: 

I love lifting weights! I always have! I just think it’s really fun. I loosely follow this plan for strength training, which is made for beginners and has been working great for me. I actually found it a bit too easy after learning the moves, so I either add an extra set of repetitions or add some exercises from this Shape magazine workout for beginners. I also add it a little core work with crunches and other exercises. There was a great Tuesday Trainer on Lindsay’s List with a bunch of core exercises demonstrated by other bloggers and I’ve been loving those! If nothing else, I stick in some planking at the end of my strength training.

I’m also doing the Bikini Series from the Tone It Up! girls which has been giving me some awesome workouts to add into my routine.

That’s what I’m doing for now but I’m sure that as I get stronger my workouts will look totally different, and hopefully I’ll work my way up to doing more intense workouts!

One last thing…

Don’t forget to stretch!!!

The first couple weeks I was working out I didn’t really stretch and that is DUMB. The second I started stretching I noticed a lot less soreness, and I know I’m a lot less prone to injury now that I’m stretching properly. I do a good 5-10 minutes of stretching before and after every workout. I do this stretching routine for strength training and this one for cardio days.

As always, if anyone more experienced has any advice, please comment below!

Great posts from the pros:

How to Build Your Own Workout Routine from Nerd Fitness

How to Create a Workout Plan from Fitnessista

How to Build a Workout Plan from FitSugar

Thanks for reading!

-Lauren

The Georgia peaches are TINY this year (apparently because it was such a mild winter?) but they are still as sweet and delicious as ever.

Church service was good and afterwards they were holding a picnic/fair for police appreciation/Memorial Day. It was great, they had bounce-houses and cotton candy and snow cone machines along with quite a food spread.

The offerings were mostly unhealthy (LOTS of burgers and hotdogs that had been sitting in the sun) but I did my best to make good choices. I managed to find a pasta salad, green beans, a barley salad, and some type of melon-cucumber salad. Everything was good!

Ashley was a big fan of the shaved ice!

After we headed home Ashley still wanted some time outside so the two of us went bike riding. Before we went out the door I made myself a quick smoothie with half a mango, half a banana, ice, protein powder, and some almond-coconut milk. Delicious!

We’ve been going bike riding nearly every day now! She rides and I walk/jog beside her, which is really nice. It’s exercise without feeling like exercise.

After some blog reading/relaxing in the afternoon, we heated up some leftovers for dinner. I don’t mind leftovers at all when they’re this good! I had BBQ pork, BBQ baked beans, asian veggie slaw, and green beans.

I LOVE this slaw, which I made yesterday to go along with mom’s BBQ. It’s so light and refreshing, much better than a mayo-based slaw in my opinion.

My mom is a professional baker so you can imagine that we are definitely dessert eaters over here. Tonight mom made mini peach pies, which were delicious.

We ate the pies along with some frozen custard from Sheridan’s, a favorite place of ours that’s right down the road.

I’ve got another “beginner’s fitness” post for you guys tomorrow, I’m excited!

Thanks for reading!

-Lauren

Yesterday I woke up a little later than normal (my summer internship hasn’t started yet so this is my chance to sleep in) but decided I should still hit the gym for a little running. I had a piece of whole wheat toast with peanut butter as my pre-workout snack before leaving my house.

I joined the Planet Fitness near us recently and I love it! It’s never too crowded and I love their philosophy, that their gym is a “Judgement Free Zone”.

I ran a difficult (for me) 2.5 miles. Actually I ran/walked it, but that’s the farthest I have ever gone! I was proud of myself for making it. And I was definitely hurting when I was done!

When I came home from the gym I made a few protein pancakes for breakfast. If you’re unfamiliar with a protein pancake, it’s essentially a pancake made of protein powder instead of flour. It sounds weird but somehow it works! For these I actually just mixed some protein powder into regular pancake batter that Jason had made for his breakfast. Yummy!

Afterwards I went ahead and got dressed and ready for the day. Girly side-note: I was wearing a sock bun, my new favorite hairstyle.

Then Jason, my mom, my sister and I headed out on a (unofficial) cupcake tour of Atlanta! SO many cupcake shops have opened up in this city and we’ve been wanting to check them out so we decided to do a bunch in one day! We were going to just hit up a few but ended up going to FIVE. First was the Great Cupcake Company in Buckhead.

Next was Smallcakes, also in Buckhead.

Then we headed to Cupz and Cakes in Cheshire Bridge.

Then we moved on to Carolyn’s Cupcakes in Decatur.

And we ended the tour with the cupcake shop in our town of Tucker, Sweet Dee’s.

Obviously we didn’t eat whole cupcakes at each shop, that would have been crazy. I got a mini cupcake at the first and then just tried bites of the others. I have to say, the prize DEFINITELY goes to Smallcakes. My mom got a chocolate caramel toffee cupcake that was OUT OF THIS WORLD delicious. Incredible icing, incredible cupcake. Most of the other shops disappointed us, which is too bad. I wouldn’t return to any of them except Smallcakes, which ranks along with other fabulous Atlanta cupcake shops like CamiCakes and Gigi’s Cupcakes. The cupcake craze is definitely in full swing over here! After all that sugar, I was in the mood for a savory and healthy lunch.

We had tacos for dinner last night, and I took some of those leftovers along with mixed greens to make a taco salad. On top of the greens is ground beef, salsa, crumbled tortilla chips, and a little shredded cheddar. Delicious! I love how the salsa acts as the salad dressing.

I made little Ashley a quesadilla in a multigrain tortilla for lunch, which she enjoyed while drawing (she enjoys a lot of things while drawing ).

Ashley has so much energy that she really keeps me active, which is a good thing. I swear she never gets tired! She really wanted some outdoor time after lunch so we headed outside for bike riding.

Outdoor time worked up an appetite so I treated myself to this vegan chocolate cupcake that we got from Carolyn’s Cupcakes. Pretty darn good!

A couple hours later dinner was ready! Mom made an awesome meal on the grill, the first official grilling of our summer! She made Armenian chicken, grilled corn, haricot verts, and rice pilaf.

My mom is SUCH a good cook. She’s like Midas–everything she cooks turns to gold! We were happy campers.

I rounded out the meal with an ice cold cerveza. Great ending to a great day!

Thanks for reading!

-Lauren

So terrible. SO terrible. I would normally not entertain the thought of eating something so fatty and processed and full of sugar multiple times in a week. But I’m telling you…once you have that first bite, it’s like an addiction! I’m not even kidding. I can’t stay away. Scary.

I can’t believe I had a donut for breakfast. It’s been years since I’ve done that. It slides right now and does absolutely nothing for your body but spike your blood sugar like crazy. But it was oh-so delicious. And I won’t be doing it again. At least I had some fruit on the side, right??? Like I said…I’m getting there.

Post Workout Snack: protein shake

My little sister and I did a couple Tone it Up Workouts after “breakfast” (I hesitate to call a donut a meal) and we had such a blast. I love both of these workouts!

Afterwards I enjoyed this delicious chocolate protein shake!

This brand is on sale at my local grocery store, and while I usually like to make my own smoothies, sometimes I’m just lazy! Especially after a workout…a lot of times I have no desire to lug out the ol’ blender. These Bolthouse Farms smoothies are delicious and have no artificial colors or flavors. I used to drink the chai protein one ALL the time when I was a vegetarian!

Lunch: chicken and colby jack cheese sandwich on whole wheat bread

Apparently I couldn’t wait to take a bite!

Dinner: multigrain spaghetti w/meat sauce, garlic bread, and baby mixed green salad (homemade croutons!)

It was my turn to cook dinner tonight and spaghetti is definitely a good choice for making a large quantity of food. With Jason and I here there are 6 mouths to feed! And one of them is a very hungry teenage boy (my little brother David).

And I’m back to drinking my Pellegrino sodas! My mom had a case of limonata waiting for me. Love it.

I need to get to bed, I have an early run planned for tomorrow (yikes!).

Thanks for reading!

-Lauren

If you haven’t heard of the film, this is it in a nutshell: A man in his 40′s who is overweight and suffering from an autoimmune disease along with other health conditions decides to try a 60-day juice fast (all raw fruits and vegetables only) to take back his health. Spolier: By the end of the film he’s completely free of his disease and living a happy, healthy lifestyle. It’s an awesome and dramatic story.

(Source)

I was SO SURPRISED to realize that the disease this man suffered from is pretty much the EXACT SAME CONDITION that I’ve been struggling with this past year. Can you believe that?! He talked about how something as simple as a handshake set off this histamine reaction in his body that would cause crazy swelling and discomfort, and I felt like he was seriously describing my symptoms! The main difference is that my condition is idiopathic (which basically means it doesn’t have a name or an explanation) and my swelling couldn’t be classified as hives because it’s not accompanied by itching. Also my condition was causing swelling that went beyond just the surface of my skin and actually caused my airway to swell more than once, which is what sent me to the ER back in the fall.

So as you can imagine, the documentarian’s story REALLY struck a chord with me. He started the movie on prednisone, the very same steroid that you guys might remember me taking for a long time (and for the record, I was taking more than twice the amount that he was). For months I bounced from doctor to doctor and test to test and no one had any earthly idea what was wrong with me. They gave me steroids because it was the only thing that would keep my throat from closing up and prevent my hands from puffing up like this all the time:

I REALLY appreciate all the kind words of encouragement and get well wishes that some of you gave me during those times. After I got off the steroids, I was just so relieved to be done with them that I never talked about it on the blog anymore. The reason I was able to get off those drugs is that I was fortunate enough to be referred to an allergist who was the FIRST person to actually understand what was going on and give me medications that aren’t steroids. The problem? There’s no cure, no explanation, and no way to be sure of what will happen. My official diagnosis is “idiopathic angioedema”. Translation: random swelling with no explanation. It’s a histamine reaction, but it’s not an allergy. These are the pills I now take each day:

Now I don’t know about you, but I happen to think that a health conscious person in their early 20′s should not need to take so many pills (considering that none of them are vitamins or supplements). It makes me concerned for how many I might need by the time I’m 40. They’re all supposedly harmless with no long term effects, but that promise doesn’t entirely satisfy me. Don’t get me wrong, I’m extremely grateful for the wonders of modern medicine. But at the moment, modern medicine has no explanation for me and can do nothing more that try to hide my symptoms. Watching Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead really reminded me (and even taught me some new things) about the incredible healing power of clean, natural foods.

I don’t think a full-on juice fast like the one in the documentary is for everyone (it’s definitely not for me right now, I’m still trying to gain weight), but the film did motivate me to start focusing on a diet rich in the wonderful micronutrients that fresh fruit and vegetables give us. I don’t know if I could ever be cured and free of medications like the men in the documentary, but I won’t know unless I try! I love healthy foods and try to be conscious of what I eat, but I know I can do much better!

I would really recommend the film to ANYONE! It was inspirational, informative, and entertaining. I hope I can force Jason to watch it.

Expect to see more fruits and vegetables around here. If you don’t see it, yell at me. Seriously.

Thanks for reading!

-Lauren

If you’d like to learn more about the juice fasting program and its health benefits, you can check out the site that branched out of the movie, Reboot Your Life. 

The Loveless Café in Nashville was founded in 1951 and has been famous for serving awesome Southern food to travelers since then. It used to be an actual motel run by the Loveless family, but the motel portion closed down in the 80′s and has been re-purposed as retail shops surrounding the restaurant.

The café itself is pretty small and the wait can be quite long (last time we tried to eat here we ended up bailing because the wait was 3 HOURS LONG), but we decided the wait would be well worth it so we just relaxed outside in the nice Tennessee weather.

After about 45 minutes our little buzzer went off and we excitedly went inside! We were seated quickly and after our very nice waitress got our drinks (sweet tea with lemon for me, of course) she said “I’m gonna go get y’all some hot biscuits!” YES. PLEASE.

Loveless is known for their handmade biscuits and all the hype is most definitely true. They were soft, pillowy, buttery, and SO fresh. You couldn’t ask for much more in a biscuit. They serve each batch with their homemade blackberry, strawberry, and peach jams, all of which were delicious. They were so good that the 4 of us ended up asking for a second plate later in the meal.

The biscuits were really the highlight of the meal, but all the other food at Loveless is great, too. For my entrée I got the fried chicken salad which was mixed greens, fried chicken strips, candied pecans, bacon, carrots, and tomatoes. I got their peach vinaigrette to go with it and the whole thing was awesome. Most of my family got fried chicken and everyone enjoyed their meals.

Overall it was a great visit and well worth the trip. I would highly recommend it to anyone traveling in the Nashville area! You’ll get to see a lot of nice motorcycles and the biscuits make you want to pinch yourself. And then eat another biscuit.

-Lauren

Lunch: AWESOMESAUCE

We went to this little hole-in-the-wall Dominican place to pick up a lunch special to go. GOOD HEAVENLY LORD. Some of the best food I’ve ever tasted. You never know when you’ll find a diamond in the rough.

We got Pollo Guisado (stewed chicken), rice and beans, and plantano maduro (fried sweet plaintains…my favorite food in the world).

Dinner: chicken and spinach quesadillas 

Dessert: milkshake!

My dad makes the most delicious shakes! This one has strawberries, bananas, protein powder, milk, and ice cream. Mmmmmm.

I’ve got to get to bed, I have an early morning ahead of me!

Thanks for reading!

-Lauren

Pampering my mom on Mother’s Day…

And just soaking up the time with my family, especially this little munchkin who I’ve missed so much!

I’ll be back to regular posting now and can’t wait to share all sorts of good food with you! Today my mom made some DELICIOUS white mountain rolls that seriously tasted like they were from a restaurant. The recipe can be found on Farmgirl Fare and I would HIGHLY recommend it. I’m getting hungry for another one just thinking about it.

I made shrimp pasta for dinner and we served the rolls and a mixed greens salad on the side.

We also opened a bottle of this Australian muscato. If you like muscato, this is a great choice with a great price!

The bread went so perfectly with everything! I miss being here where they keep real butter in the fridge! Clearly I could keep butter in my fridge in Virginia too, but I don’t because I know that if I have it around I’ll dump it willy nilly in everything. I love my Earth Balance and all but sometimes butter is just perfect. This was one of those times.

Excuse me while I go eat another. With more butter.

Thanks for reading!

-Lauren

We’re leaving for Georgia first thing in the morning, and one of the thing’s we were trying to finish from our fridge is my latest batch of strawberry jam. You can use storebought jam, I’m sure it will be just as tasty! The sweetness from the strawberries and the tartness from the balsamic go so perfectly together and would brighten up any salad.

I had this salad with a bowl of tomato-lentil soup on the side and I just LOVE the flavor of the dressing! I even put some over my veggies at dinner tonight.

You can put the dressing over greens with some fresh sliced strawberries like I did, or you could add it to any other type of salad or heat it and use it like a sauce. Personally I loved the peppery flavor of the arugula with the sweet and tangy dressing!

I have to go keep packing! Thanks for reading!

-Lauren

Breakfast (pre-workout): whole wheat toast with peanut butter and honey drizzle

Second Breakfast (post-workout): biscuits, bacon, egg, strawberries

Morning Snack: almonds

Bargain alert: Blue Diamond nuts are BOGO at Rite Aid right now!!! Snatch them while they’re still there!

Lunch: chili over brown rice with a dollop of plain greek yogurt

Afternoon Snack: protein shake (whey protein powder, Silk coconut milk, frozen banana)

Dinner: chicken parm tenders over multigrain pasta with grilled zucchini 

I have a RECIPE to share with you tomorrow…I know, I know…shocking. It’s been way too long. But this is a food blog after all, and I love sharing recipes with you all. Tomorrow is a good one, I promise.

Thanks for reading!

-Lauren