New 5 Min Workout and a Few Words on Nutrition

I come bearing another 5 minute workout for everyone to try! Just for some variety. Try it with me and let me know how many rounds you were able to complete in the comments. 

​This one is...

5 minutes of:
10 jump squats
20 bicycle crunches
10 jump lunges
​
Note: If you can't do jump lunges then just do regular lunges; the cardio won't be as intense but that's ok. Same thing for the jump squats, just do squats if you need to. It will just be more of a strength based workout than cardio. If you're able to jump then challenge yourself and do as many rounds as possible.

I've found that comparing yourself to and competing with others can be kind of demotivating. Sometimes it can inspire us to be and do better, but never let it get to a point where it makes you feel badly about yourself. That's why I think competing with only yourself is so much more rewarding and fun, cause you just keep getting better and who could feel bad about that? If you do just one thing better than you did yesterday or last week, like completing a workout faster/getting in more reps than before or eating a salad with dinner instead of mac and cheese, that is great progress! And progress can continue to be built upon to bring about great change.

​Even though I'm vegan, I do not think that everyone else should be too. I never push that on anyone, our diets are a very personal choice. I promote eating more plant based foods, but meat, dairy, and animal products are fine in smaller amounts. It's the same thing they've been telling us since we were in school: greatly emphasize fruits and vegetables and have smaller servings of meat and dairy. A portion of protein is only the size of your palm, so any piece of meat that greatly exceeds that size is just too much. We really don't require enormous amounts of protein, if you just have small portions in every meal and snack you will easily get more than enough each day. This also ensures that each meal and snack will be much more filling. Have you ever tried to eat a piece of fruit (for me this happens especially quickly with apples) by itself and you're hungry a half hour later? Fruits are only made up of simple carbohydrates, aka sugars, and they break down very quickly after we eat them. If you eat fruit with some nuts/nut butter or cheese, both of which contain fat and protein, this will slow down the digestion of these simple carbs, keeping you feeling fuller longer. This will stop you from going back and snacking on something unhealthy less than an hour later. 

Why am I talking about all of this? There's a lot of misinformation about nutrition out there, and I want to try to boil it down for you and make it easier to understand. I also want to show you it's not as hard as you might have thought to implement healthier eating habits. You don't have to go crazy, start small. Making small changes that you can live with are better than huge ones that you can't. Don't do too much too fast. Start with just trying to eat less of something, either in the number of times a week you eat it, or in the amount you eat each time you have it. Like if you have a bowl of ice cream every night after dinner, try to have a few spoonfuls less each night, then try to only eat it every other night, and continue until you're not eating it as regularly. You'll start to want it less and you'll enjoy it so much more when you do instead of just eating it out of habit.

It's not so much about always cutting foods out entirely though as it is to having smaller portions of the really sugary and salty stuff. You can have a piece of cake, but a sliver is better than a huge slice, and you can have some fries, but a handful's better than a basket full. Try to really savor and enjoy the taste when indulging in the junk foods we all love so much. It's so much more satisfying than shoveling a huge amount in and feeling bloated regret. It's also so helpful to make even swaps, like whole grain bread instead of white bread (but check the nutrition info for excess added sugars, you don't need em!) Do not cut out whole food groups. Low fat diet? Bad! No carb diet? Very bad! We need carbs for energy, our brains literally run on sugar (they need 600 calories of glucose a day), so if you don't eat any carbs your brain literally starves. You know how tired you feel when you don't eat for a while? This is one of the reasons why. That doesn't mean you should go grab some pixy stix, but a sweet potato that's rich in complex carbs (which break down slower than simple) will do your brain a world of good.

This was a lot of information, but I hope that it's started to show you that change can be easy. Start small to achieve big results. This worked in a big way for me and I know it will for you too. Let me know how it goes and what changes you'd like to make in your diet and lifestyle.