Meal prep container review

A few months back I got the meal prep containers pictured below. If you have been part of any fitness community or googled anything fitness related you've heard about meal prep and how important it is. I agree that what you put in your body is as important if not more than the physical aspect.

I bought these containers to aid me in the process of getting the right carb, vegetable and protein proportions down. They worked great for the first month. When I first got them I was leery of the flimsy edge fearing it would break within the first week. I was wrong and right at the same time. The edge didn't break in the first week it broke the second month.

I give them a lot of credit though for putting up with the abuse they went through. They held up in the freezer and microwave without snapping or leaking. They traveled in lunch boxes to and from work without the kids coming off and forcing you to have no lunch and a huge mess. All in all for the price I paid I can't complain too much. This is a lesson learned in the world of meal prep containers.

Refuse to quit

We all want to quit something at some point in our life. Sometimes quitting something is a good thing if it's negatively impacting your health and well-being. Other times we want to quit something for the simple reason that it's just to hard.

Thus type of quitting is not acceptable. Just because something isn't as easy as you wanted it to be doesn't mean it won't be worth it in the long run. I know I've wanted to quit several times on this fitness journey alone. But I know if I quit I'll just regret it a week from now.

I have struggled and I have gained but I have not and will not quit. Neither should you, whether it's a fitness dream or anything else you'd like to do, fight thru the struggles and the end result will be worth even more. I promise you it will.

New arm workout!

The above is a new arm workout I wrote for myself a week ago. I'm currently using 10 lb weights doing this one. Hopefully by then end of next month I can increase the weight a little bit. I'm also really excited to see the results from this one!

And here's some Monday motivation:

This can be used for anything in your life. It can be a fitness goal or any other goal, just make it fucking happen every damn day.

My personal H.I. I.T cardio plan

I wasn't feeling well yesterday so as I was hoping the kids didn't bring me a gift from school I wrote up my own personalized H.I.I.T. cardio plan.

I took some things from other workouts I'd found online and had been doing for a few weeks then wrote my own plan using the exercises I liked most or that challenged me the most at this point in time.

I'll post a pic at the end of this post so that y'all can see it. This has definitely helped me get my cardio in at least two to three times a week.

Picked up weights again!!

The above is a video of me I took this afternoon when I picked up the weights again and did some deadlifts after not touching weights for two months.

If I did the math correctly (which there is a chance I didn't) I did 3 sets of 10 at 70lbs. I was trying to concentrate on my form, proper breathing and pausing. I know I need to work on some shit still but I do feel like I've improved since starting weightlifting in June. However I am always open to constructive criticism just no negativity please. I am teaching myself everything as I go and working with what is available to me at this time.

Mental fitness

To every person mental fitness will mean something different. To me it means taking care of yourself and taking care of your mental health or mental fitness.

For the past almost 6 years now I've had anxiety and depression along with anxiety attacks. I never told anyone other than my mom and best friend until a year ago when I opened up about it on my other blog. Anyone that personally knows me also knows I'm my own worst critic.

A year ago I realized it wasn't just the gym I missed from my life but being able to mentally overcome a situation and be able to do the things I love to do like devour books and write on my blogs or write poetry or short stories. So I decided to change that.

I started with just setting some time aside for me, which was hard. I've always put everyone before myself. But when I did this by the end of the first month I felt kind of liberated. I started writing on my other blog again, which like me is completely random and probably contains quite a few cuss words as I can make a seasoned sailor blush 😁. But I also started reading again and devoured books of all genres.

Do I still have depression, anxiety and anxiety attacks? Yes, probably always will. Does it bother me as much as it did? No, I've opened myself up to basically the entire world and as I've said before if anyone ever needs someone to talk to or anything I'm always here and will always have your six.

In closing make sure you take time out for your own mental fitness while you're getting physically fit. Do something you love other than the gym and I promise you'll be glad you did.

What do you mean cardio doesn't always mean running?!?!

First let me apologize for being gone so long. It was completely unintentional and then my laptop and tablet shit the bed and my phone is a POS. 

But yes cardio does NOT mean you absolutely must run. It also doesn't mean that you have to use a treadmill, elliptical or spin bike either. For most people cardio is pure utter tortuous hell and I used to be one of those people at one time. I've ran 5K's in the past and was working my way up to a half marathon before my support system well quit. 

So now instead of running I tend to lean more towards H.I.I.T. Cardio. I do this at least twice a week but am shooting for four times a week.
Below are some routines I've been using that I found online while I'm currently making my own routine. Once I'm done perfecting my own routine if anyone would like to have it to use just let me know!

Non scale victories & pictures!

So I don't even own scale at the moment because for so long I let those numbers control me. If I didn't like what they said I would either eat less or run more sometimes  both. Now I'm going by some non scale victories and changes I can see.

Yesterday was the first non scale victory I saw and was also the last day of my arm challenge! I was quite pleased with the results and will post some pics at the end of this entry.

While I'm still learning I also am starting to feel more confident in myself, feel like i have more energy, able to do more both physically and with my kids. I also learned I have more to learn especially when it comes to the nutrition portion as my calories in are always way less than my calories expended. So I need to eat smaller more nutritious meals throughout the day so that my body doesn't convert the muscle I'm building into food for my body to keep going.

So with all that being said and knowing I need to buy a scale eventually here are my pics!

Friday Progress Report

So I'm almost done with the 21 day arm challenge (after having to start over) and am seeing progress! Its been slow and steady but I am seeing some muscle definition and muscle tone. I even have little baby biceps! Chicken arms are going away and any progress is progress. I'll post pics on the last day. I already plan on waiting a week and redoing it but this time increasing the dumbell weight to 10 pounds from 3 pounds.

I also started a new 12 week training program from an app I found on my tablet. The first workout today kicked my butt and I literally collapsed when I was done. Mainly worked legs and core today. So far it's a pretty good app as you can pick the program I'm doing for weight loss or one of their other ones. I took my before pictures today before I started and I'm actually really excited to post the final picture with today's picture so I can see the progress.

My iFit is working again after being MIA for a year. I've been wearing it for a week straight and so far I've realized that I eat less than I burn which is what you want to lose weight but you also need to feed your body right. So that is something else I'm working on. Right now my cals out are about twice as high as my cals in.

I'm a work in progress but I'm not giving up this time.

What I've been learning

So I took some time to learn some things and try them out and find what works for me. I've followed some great fitness people on IG and Twitter and have been learning and getting some great ideas from them.

I've learned that counting macros is not going to work for me with the kids and I can't afford to buy different food for myself. I can however count my calories without changing the kids diet to much to where they complain about the food.

I need to start meal prepping again irregardless of what people think or say. It'll not only make my dinners and lunches easier but the kids complain less surprisingly.

I break up my workouts throughout the day because of them. I clean and play with my kids throughout the day so to me it only made sense to break up my workouts as well. This isn't necessarily a bad thing but it might take me longer to see any results than if I did it all at once. This isn't exactly a bad thing but I'm usually a results driven person.

Knowing this I've made the decision to do my workout all at once during the day or at night when they go to bed. I've also got to eat healthy and more regularly during the day since I'm burning more calories than I'm eating which is not good for my body. I've also decided that while I love working out at home eventually I'm going to have to join a gym, which I've wanted to do for awhile but can't afford at this time.

With all that being said, I'm going to go plan my workout for today, plan out meals for grocery shopping tomorrow and of course play with my kids and clean.

Keep it moving!

Late post and today

I couldn't post yesterday due to myI internet always going out because of a thunderstorm and my craptasticItablet acting a fool. So I'll play catch up and do 2 posts in 1.

So yesterday i decided to work my legs. I found a good workout routine on line and did that one, along with walking lunges in the backyard and an hour of soccer. Here's the leg workout that i did and had my legs sore this morning:

And that brings me to today. Today I only did 45 minutes of soccer with the kids and the crossfit workout I had posted previously. I did however find a different ab workout that I'll be trying out later tonight to do on ab days when I get them set in stone. I am learning more about myself as I progress through this journey. Like I really do need to make a workout schedule so that I can be more consistent. I also need to start meal prepping again and just eat regularly on a daily basis. Realized yesterday all I ate were 2 sliced chicken sandwiches and I've only ate 1 today. So definitely need to work on my nutrition or none of this will matter.

AB DAY!!

So this post is late due to having internet issues today. And it was ab day! Yes I was excited about this day since my stomach is what I want to work on most and strengthen my core muscles. I did the following exercises today and cardio but I do cardio everyday.

I know this actually does the whole body and doesnt seem like a lot but by the fourth time I was on fire! With this I also got the crazy idea to do a :30 plank, :30 reverse plank, 25 crunches, 25 bicycle crunches. Plus the running around outside with the kids playing soccer and walking lunges up and down the hill.

First pictures

So I'm not even sure I want to do this but at the same time I want to if that makes any sense at all. So after deciding to take these this afternoon I also decided I was not ready to show my stomach yet aalthough I have them for personal reference and to maybe put up here one day. So after changing into cleaner clothes and smushing my boobs down here's the results of my before pics.

Random Saturday thought

So I was browsing IG and seeing all these fitness pages and it got me to thinking;" Should I start an IG for my progress and link it to this blog?". As of right now I'm not going to do that. The blog itself is only about a week old so i think its premature to start one. I'll take pics weekly maybe poist them on here and then maybe start up an IG for it as well. As I said before I'mdoing this for me but I would like to inspire other people along the way. So feel free to share any thoughts you might have or anything else. Happy Saturday!!!

Arm day!!!

Yes I know most people probably hate this day but I love it! I've always had scrawny tiny arms, I can help lift and move people three times my size but I still have chicken arms with a little muscle definition. My goal is to tone what I have and gain a little more. So this was my arm workout today:

This is a 21 day challenge but the exercises work! Since i can't afford to go to a gym and do all my workouts at home this is turning out to be perfect. I also did the workout session I've been doing for the past week, which is this one:

I am not saying this last workout will definitely make you lose 10 lbs and I honestly didn't check my weight before I started on this journey.I'm more focused on gaining muscle, toning what I have and losing that damn mombelly I got after 4 pregnancies, 3 of which I carried full term. Overall I want to look and feel better for me not for anyone else.

No time to eat!!

I'm the worst when it comes to eating 3 times a day, I barely remember to eat once. So I started making smoothies since they are healthy and fast. My favorite is a Strawberry Banana Oatmeal Smoothie. I make it with a cup of strawberries, 1/2 a banana, 1/4 cup of oats and 1/2 cup of Dannons Vanilla Yogurt. You can tailor it to fit your tastes and add in other ingredients. I've added in kale and it was pretty good.

After having one of those mid morning I went outside with my boys, played soccer, ran around, began teaching my 6 year old how to skateboard and did walking lunges up and down the little hill in our backyard. Its been a productive day overall. Maybe later this week I'll take some photos and post them so that throughout this journey I can come back and see my progress. And of course my smoothie pic won't post, I'll try again later...

My little walking lunge hill

Getting back into it

    I'm just going to be honest and say now that for the past 3 years I've been dormant and my only exercise was at work. That being said I work as a nurse and move all the time and lift people on a daily basis. But I used to do 5Ks just for the fun of it and I want to get back to that but also be better.

Last week or so I had heart to heart with myself and decided I wanted to feel better, eat better,be comfortable in my own skin,cut down on some of my own body shaming of myself but most of all just to be happy and to be able to do things with my kids for years to come.

I really didn't know where to begin even being a nurse I'm still clueless about something's :). So I did what apparently quite a few other people do as well and got on Pinterest researched workouts I could do from home and saved a lot of pins. I started doing 2 of those consistently several times a day and am actually quite impressed with myself and the fact I'm feeling a little better already.

My 3 kids are enjoying not only cheering me on but also doing them with me and picking on me. Now if they would just get on board with the healthier eating! One battle at a time lol.