What To Wear: To The Gym

Hooded Jersey Top / Jersey Tank (pretty in pink) / Sports Bra / Yoga Mat / Watch (love this!) / Track Pants / Water Bottle (a gym essential) / Sunglasses / Earbuds / Jawbone / Hair Ties / Nike Sneakers
I wish I was one of those girls who likes working out but I do not think that is ever going to happen. I am not an athletic girl and I have long accepted the fact that I am never going to be. I do know that working out is important so I am always trying to make it a routine for me. Having pretty workout clothes like this pink tank top I find to be a huge help. Do you workout regularly? Do you have any tips for someone who hates the gym?

Chit Chat: Live Better

As we are entering in the last week of January are you still on tract with keeping your resolutions? Did you opt out of setting resolutions this year?

I shared some thoughts on resolutions a couple weeks ago. I spent some time over the week evaluating my current standing with my 2015 resolution. In 2014 I aspired to be kinder and this year my resolution is to live better. To accomplish my goal for this year I plan to break down having a better quality of life throughout the year into doable steps.

Currently I am working toward:

Trying new foods. I am a notoriously picky eater. Combine that with being a vegetarian and I know I cause a headache for friends when they are planning meals that I have been invited to. Not to mention it makes things as simple as eating out kind of difficult. To make this worse it isn't even really that I do not like these foods, it is that most foods I have never even tried. How do you get to my age and have never ate a pear? This year I am going to try new foods (concentrating on those that are nutrient rich). I had originally decided that I would try 20 foods this year but after having 5 in just the first few weeks of the year I removed a number from this goal and I am going to pick up a few new things each time I buy groceries.

Focus in on my style. I do not know if it is because of stress or because I'm not really happy with my job but I have become lazy when it comes to getting dressed in the mornings. I hate this and I am really surprised that this is a bad habit I have fallen into. I love fashion and clothes. Plus, when I love what I am wearing I feel better about myself and my total outlook is more positive. Also I have always heard dress for the job you want not the job you have.

Travel some place new. Last year I was lucky enough to take a few different vacations but they were all to places I have been before. This year I plan to expand my horizons a little and travel somewhere new. I haven't decided where yet but I will be researching options in the next few months.

Read more books. I read a lot but it mostly magazines, newspapers, and blogs. This year I want to read more books. Starting a book club last year has definitely helped with this but I want to kick it up another notch this year. Here are some books on my current reading list. Most of these books are for fun but I would love to also read more books that teach me something, change the way I look at something, or improve my life. Do you have any life changing book suggestions for what I should read?

Get out more. As an introvert it is so easy for me to get into a routine of staying home and being perfectly happy. I like socializing and going places but I also like staying home (and alone time). I am not someone who gets bored. In fact I cannot remember a time I felt truly bored so being home and periods of having no social engagements on my calendar has never really been a problem for me but being social and building relationships is important for health. This year I am going to make plans more often (and not cancel them). Next weekend Jessica and I are going out of town for a little shopping trip and to meet friends to see a movie. I have tickets in a couple months for the ballet. I have gotten together with some friends and we have purchased tickets for a board game convention (a little nerdy but should be a lot of fun). I have also enrolled in an art class. I can officially say progress is being made on this goal. I posted more about being a social butterfly here.

Stop wasting energy. I have always felt like I had some kind of obligation or responsibility to do things I do not want to do. This year I want to say no more often. I do not want to waste time and energy on things I do not like. I do not plan on engaging in activities I have no interest in or spending time with people who do not make my life better. I want to spend this year focusing on things I love and enjoy. Life's too short for bad food, bad books, and bad people.

Breaking a large goal into smaller steps feels good and I can easily note the accomplishments I have made. If you have some resolutions you are still struggling with step back and see if you can break it down into smaller actionable steps.

via: Abercrombie and Fitch Lookbook

10 Amazing Apps to Help You Be Healthy

When we make our resolutions for the new year, most of us will include to be healthier. Whether you are looking to eat better, exercise more, track your calories, or to motivate yourself to workout more often there are a lot of things that we could be doing to be healthy. There are also a ton of apps out there to make things easier. After doing some research I have picked out my favorites and they are all free.

STEP 1 // Spring or Spring Moves: Who doesn't love music when they exercise? This app picks songs from your playlist to play that match the rhythm of your movements.

STEP 2 // Fooducate: Using this app you can scan the bar code of a product and learn all about it's nutritional value. Plus this app offers healthier choices for the item you have scanned.

STEP 3 // GAIN Fitness: This personal trainer app offers over a thousand exercises with images and voice commands. What I love about this app is you can tell it what equipment you have on hand and it will customize the workout for you.

STEP 4 // EveryMove: Do you find yourself needing motivation to work out? This app tracks your activity and you earn points for working out. Points that you can redeem for things you love.

STEP 5 // Nexercise: This app is similar to EveryMove in that you can earn points that you can redeem for rewards. This app also lets you challenge your friends and family and compete against them to see who is exercising the most.

STEP 6 // Headspace: Ever find yourself dealing with a stressful situation? With only 10 minutes you can take a guided mediation to ease your stress. Everyone has just ten minutes, right?

STEP 7 // PUMATRAC: This app tracks your run to determine distance ran, pace, calories burned, and it helps you get the most out of a workout. This app helps you figure out when you get in the best workout.

STEP 8 // Human: Is it hard to find the time to workout? Maybe you can only grab a few minutes sporadically throughout the day. Human challenges you to get in your 30 minutes a day, whenever you can. It will track your few minutes here and there throughout the day and let you know when you have reached 30 minutes.

STEP 9 // Daily Yoga: Is a great yoga app for beginners. It has videos and images to guide you through various yoga poses and exercises.

STEP 10 // I Can Go Without: While you are making yourself a better you, why not help others out? If you have something you can go without today, like that coffee drink. You can pledge that amount to a charity of your choice.

via: 1

Chit Chat: Clean Eating

A couple of weeks ago Tracy and I decided to do the Clean Eating 7 Day Challenge. It was Tracy's bright idea to give it a whirl and I was up for giving it a go. Secretly though, I had my doubts about whether or not we would make it. I thought it would be too drastic of a change from our normal eating habits and that we both would be lucky to make it a couple of days. I mean, we were willing giving up chocolate, sweets, and fast food. I did have faith that Tracy would outlast me though.
I learned several things during our challenge though. It is very difficult to find clean foods in the small town that I live in. It is impossible to get clean bread here and unless you know what you are looking for, it takes a lot of time to scan labels for foods you can have. It took me like 20 minutes to find a pasta sauce that is clean. There are just so many foods out there that have sugar or chemicals in them, even foods you wouldn't think would.
During our week of clean eating, it came much easier than I thought. I was able to eat meals that I normally would, like lasagna, I just had to make clean choices when it came to ingredients. Tracy and I ate as much food as we wanted, we just ate clean food, and without even trying we both lost several pounds each. This really makes you wonder about the foods we had been eating. Have you tried clean eating before?
Tracy and I have decided that we want to continue eating healthier. We are going to try to eat clean 80% of the time. Living here, we can't buy all our foods totally clean, but we want to make the healthiest choices possible.

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Healthy Recipes For The New Year

{ Farmer's Market Pizza}
In my never ending quest to treat myself better I am slowly attempting to eat cleaner and healthier foods. When eating healthy I often find myself eating the same foods over and over which gets very boring very fast. I spent some time over the holiday breaking searching for new recipes to try and today I am sharing the four I am most looking forward to trying. I am a total pizza addict so I am most excited about trying this pizza recipe. What are your favorite healthy meals?

{ Barley and Lentil Salad with Roasted Heirloom Tomatoes}

{ Crispy Baked Sweet Potato Fries}

{ Tomato-Beet Salad}

Smoothies

After all of the overindulging the last few weeks I can seriously feel my body telling me it is time to get back into a semi-healthy routine again. I think smoothies may be part of the answer. This Blueberry Coconut Smoothie that uses frozen blueberries sounds delicious and like it would be part of a great breakfast or afternoon snack.

I am also considering finally trying green smoothies (like this or this) which honestly look kind of unappealing to me. Do you drink green smoothies? I found this diagram that may make coming up with flavor combinations easier.

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Fruit Salad

A new year means a fresh start. This year we hope to eat out less often and have more fruits and veggies. We thought we would start the year out with a fruit salad.

Ingredients:

2 refrigerated vanilla pudding cups
1 1/2 cups frozen (thawed) whipped topping
1 cup seedless grapes, halved
11 oz mandarin orange segments, drained
10 oz pineapple tidbits in juice, drained
1 cup fresh strawberries, sliced

Directions:
1. In medium bowl, mix pudding, and whipped topping.
2. Gently stir in oranges and pineapples. Add grapes and strawberries; toss gently to coat. Refrigerate until chilled before serving.
3. Serve topped with miniature marshmallows or chopped walnuts.