Reality of You

Real talk about health, fitness, and weight loss.

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7 Day Clean Up: Staying Motivated to Work Out [Day 2]

7daycleanupnew

This is part of the 7 Day Clean-Up Series. See all posts in the series here.

Hey everyone! Welcome back! Today we’re going to sit down and get an epic workout plan in place for you, talk about ways to maintain that workout plan, and the secret to staying motivated.

Day 2: Making a Workout Schedule

Step 1. Design your weekly workout plan using this guide. Make sure you’re working out enough days to reach your goal and have a good balance of activities you enjoy. For example, I love yoga so I do it all the time, but I find variety by trying different types of yoga like hanging yoga and different vinyasa flows.

Step 2. Create a workout calendar. I have a workout calendar I hang on my wall, and I make myself check off each workout so I feel motivated to get it done so I can check it off. I highly recommend making one of these! At the start of every week it helps to plan out what workouts you’re going to do so that you can stay motivated and look forward to it.

Step 3. Double check to make sure your workout schedule isn’t falling into any common traps or problems. Having a balanced schedule is a bit of an art, but make sure it’s well rounded with strength and cardio and you should be golden.

Here’s this week’s workout schedule for me: [Read more…]

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Build Your Own Acai Bowl: How To + Recipe!

 buildyourownacaibowlFind more delicious and photogenic recipes here

Acai bowls are the hottest things in superfoods since Forever 21 discovered Kale. Have you been to Nektar? Sure you have. Acai (pronounced ass-ay-EE or somethin like that) are those bowls sold at Nektar, and they’re essentially thick smoothies with delicious toppings, but with the benefits of the acai berry superfood. [Read more…]

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6 Ways to A Healthier Start to Your Day

healthierstartoyourdayIf you’re like me, mornings can be a challenge. Recently, I’ve found myself getting up earlier and earlier to fit in workouts and better breakfasts, and it’s changed my view on mornings.

Here’s how to get a great, healthy start to your morning!

1. Fruit first thing in the morning, then a clean, healthy breakfast with protein, fiber, and calcium. Break the fast and eat some fruit first thing after you wake up — fruit in the morning boosts energy. Also, make sure you eat a clean, healthy breakfast that will energize you. Find my clean breakfast ideas here! [Read more…]

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Do Juice Cleanses Actually Work?

realityofjuicecleansesThose of you hooligans who have been following me for a long time know that I am a fan of using detox water, juicing, and smoothies as a way to supplement a healthy diet and get the most nutrients in your diet and promote healthy digestion and maximum hydration.

However, I do not believe in restricting your diet to ONLY these things. As I’ve said before, the only way to see results that last is to find a balance of clean foods and exercise. Selecting only one food to eat for periods of time can actually hurt your progress. (Such as that ridiculous fruit-only fad diet that is such a bad idea on SO many levels.)

So what about a temporary juice cleanse? Does that help flush your body of toxins and start fresh? Or could it be the cause of cravings and the start of an unhealthy cycle of calorie restricting? [Read more…]

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Recipe: SUPER CHARGED Avocado Eggs

avocadoeggsGood morning! And by morning I mean 11:56am because I went to the Ed Wood film festival last night where my film was showing and stayed out super late so this is me sleeping in.

This is my go-to recipe for “mornings” like this because I need something to keep me fueled up for the rest of the day so I can get through yoga, my shift at work, and tons of pre-production for tomorrow’s shoot and not fall asleep in the middle of everything.

The spice from the chili powder wakes you up, the healthy monounsaturated fatty acids in the avocado nourishes you and speeds up your metabolism as well, and the protein keeps you full. Add a slice of whole wheat toast to help your body better utilize the protein from the eggs. Also whole wheat toast is the bomb. [Read more…]

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54 Healthy Habits for the New Year

54healthyhabitsforthenewyearThe reason most people’s New Years’ resolutions fail is because they try and do everything perfectly right from January 1st. They cut out junk food, exercise seven days a week, and they go on a juice cleanse and start detoxing.

The problem is, for most people this isn’t sustainable. February rolls around, and they’re back to their old habits, except this time they feel ashamed that they weren’t able to keep up with such a hard, sudden change.

This year, do your New Years’ Resolutions right. Want to get fit? Healthy? Take it week by week. Make one small healthy change every week in 2014. January 1st, begin eating one piece of fruit each day. The second week, start eating one vegetable each day. The next week, begin exercising twice a week. Then three. Then four. Gradually build upon each of these healthy habits.

This works because only gradual changes will stick.

Need some ideas for small healthy habits? You’ve come to the right place!

Here are 54 health and fitness habits to build in the new year: [Read more…]

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How to Design Your Weekly Workout Plan

createyourweeklyworkoutplanfitnessweightlossCreating your weekly routine is critical in staying focused and reaching your health and weight loss goals! Workout plans vary depending on if you’re training for events, want to burn fat, or simply just want to stay active.

Here’s my handy-dandy guide on designing your weekly workout plan:

3 Important Elements of a Weekly Workout Plan

[Read more…]

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10 Best Fitness and Weight Loss Apps

best fitness and weightloss appsMy most important fitness tool is my phone! There are a ton of great apps to help you reach your health and fitness goals. Here is my top ten list of apps I can’t live without:

  1. Half Marathon Trainer. Check out my review here — I love this app, and it’s a great way to train for your first half marathon! The app uses walk/run or jog/run intervals in order to help you train safely and efficiently. [Read more…]

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3 Best Half Marathon Training Tips!

3 top half marathon training tipsHey guys! I just ran 7 miles today as part of my half marathon training plan, and I thought I’d give you guys my TOP 3 TIPS for running so far your legs almost fall off.

Also it’s good preparation for zombie apocalypses/Hunger Games that could be present in our distant futures. Train now, survive later!

TIP #1: START HYDRATING 3 HOURS BEFORE YOUR RUN

[Read more…]

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6 Things I Wished I’d Known About Health and Fitness

6 things I'd wish I'd known aboutI’ve spent the last four years of my life learning all I can about health and fitness and tracking down photos of cats that look like Ron Swanson. If I had a time machine, these would be the things I would have told myself at the beginning of my journey:

1. Calorie counting promotes obsessive behavior.

Sure, calorie counting can help you get a better picture of how much you’re eating and if you’re snacking on junk food when you’re not hungry, but you shouldn’t do it regularly.

2. Weight loss isn’t necessarily the same thing as fat loss.

You may be thrilled when the numbers go down on the scale, but the scale is unreliable. What you weigh depends on a number of factors, including the breakfast that’s digesting in your stomach, the salt content in your body, the amount of water you’ve drank that day, among other things. When the scale decreases, it could be just a fluctuation in those variable. Or, if you’re not doing enough strength training, you could be losing valuable muscle mass, which leads to a slowdown of your metabolism and fat gain in the long run.

But when you get rid of fat and replace it with muscle, you may not gain or lose any weight, but you’ll be slimmer since a pound of muscle takes up less space than a pound of fat. More on this subject here. [Read more…]