New Year, Better You

Don't strive to change dramatically this year, that is unrealistic and unnecessary. Small changes you can actually live with in your daily life are where the money is. Make changes you know you can be consistent with; small changes often have the greatest success. I'll talk much more about this below, but first I have a just under 30 minute, super fun, new kettlebell cardio workout for today. Let's kick off 2017 right! Try it with me...

This workout is 5 rounds of:
20 kettlebell swings
10 burpees
10 (on each side) kettlebell clean and press
20 goblet squats

After 5 rounds you will have completed 100 kettlebell swings, 50 burpees, 100 total (50 on each side) cleans and presses, and 100 goblet squats. Grab your kettlebell and let's get it done!

This workout was so fun. I found myself able to push harder each round and kept challenging myself to go faster. I hope you have as much fun with it as I did, let me know how it challenged you or if you kicked my ass, please comment and let me know. We always have room for improvement, I'm competing with myself every day to do better, get stronger, and move faster. I hope you are doing the same.

​For this new year, or any time you resolve to make a change, you don't have to overhaul your whole life, just add in a little bit of exercise and make healthy food swaps. You don't even technically have to cut any foods out of your diet. It's as easy as switching to a whole grain bread (I like Food for Life's 7 sprouted grains) instead of white bread. Don't give up bread! Instead, just by making this switch, when you go to eat a single sandwich, you nearly quadruple (depending on the variety of bread you choose) the amounts of protein and fiber that would have been present in the same sandwich with white bread. Protein and fiber are both so important for satiety. Protein is also essential for building lean muscle, while fiber adds bulk to stool and aids in elimination. Fiber also binds with cholesterol; it literally pulls it out of your blood so you can excrete it. All you have to do is eat some fiber to reap these benefits; no tricks, no pills, no other dietary changes except adding higher fiber foods into your existing diet. You'll thank me when you're finally not straining to have a bowel movement, or having better eliminations than just little pellets. If you're one of these people right now, no that isn't normal, you need to eat more fiber and to drink more water. A banana and/or an apple a day greatly contribute to the fiber cause as well. Have one with breakfast or as an afternoon snack with some nuts, cheese, or yogurt. Simple! You'll be feeling better in no time. 

As far as exercise goes, I have so many different varieties and lengths of workouts for everyone no matter where you are in your fitness journey; there's something to fit everyone's needs. And if something's missing or you're looking for something specific that you want from me, let me know and I'll see if I can't make it happen! 

Personally, I've been thinking I may take running back up a little bit this winter. The cold/cooler months are always my favorite times to run; I sometimes become too uncomfortable to keep up with it as much in the warmer months, but I've always loved and been inspired to run in the cold. I'm a winter baby, so the cold is where I feel most alive. I loathe and dread the heat. It's unpleasant for me to even be in a building where the heat's turned up just a little too high on a cold day; just so awfully dry and warm, and it always bothers my allergies too. I'd rather be a little bit chilly and snuggle up in a cozy sweatshirt or blanket, those are my perfect conditions. At any rate, I'd like to take advantage of these preferable outdoor activity temperatures while they last. I'll let you know how it goes if I can manage to brave it; I get shy being outside where people can see me too. That's usually something that's quickly overcome by the desire to be doing what you're doing though. That and the fact that literally no one cares, pays attention, or judges you, and you're never the only person in your area that does it. Just have to suck it up and do it! I'm thinking tomorrow may be the day, we'll see how it goes.

I guess you could call starting to take up running again a resolution of mine. I hope to do this and to be a bit more open with my life this year, as I realized I closed myself off more and more as the year went on. It's strange because this is opposite to the open and honest person I am; I love sharing and even oversharing aspects of my life and my thoughts and feelings about a myriad of topics, often when no one's asked! So I'm going to do better at making this website not just a place to share my workouts, health, and nutrition info, but a place where I share a bit more of myself as well. I hope you'll share your goals and struggles with me as well, we're all working on our health and ourselves together here.