Vacationing and staying on track!

Vacation is for rest, relaxation, and throwing all your healthy habits away right?  WRONG!!!!!!!  Some folks think it's impossible to stay on track while vacationing and I am here to tell you that you can!  I was recently in an area where the meals are almost always deep fried foods as well as meat and potatoes with every meal!  A vegetable cooked healthy is unspeakable!  And don't even mention the words working out!  I was there for four days and ended up losing at least a pound!  Yes, I had a couple meals that were not so great and definitely at the wrong time of day, but hey, I still left a loser!  How you ask?  I woke up and worked out and burned some major calories.  At least the resort I was at had a pretty good gym and I went to the grocery store!  My room didn't have a refrigerator or a microwave but I made due!  I bought organic and clean food that did not need refrigerated or heated up!  Tuna in water, salsa, pop chips, oatmeal, and of course fruit!!!!!  I kept my portion sizes to normal size and dinner would typically be a salad with some protein!  So what if the place you choose doesn't have a gym?  Get out and go for a walk/run for some cardio and use your room as the gym! If you don't want to use the furniture, use YouTube to find body weight workouts.  A good site to use is www.toneitup.com as well as www.gofitgals.com. So what about food?  Take my lead, go to the grocery store and shop!  Make sure to read your labels!!!!  Make sure it's clean ingredients and the label will also tell you the serving size.  But also ensure to have fun, rest, and relax!!!!!!!!

Health & Fitness Challenge!!!!!!

I know, it's been like FOREVER since I have blogged.  Frankly, there isn't much to blog about!  Work and kids have kept me pretty busy!  BUT, I did want to let you know that I am doing my own personal MINI CHALLENGE with some folks starting on Dec 26 and it ends Dec 31!  If you are interested in participating, go like my Facebook page!  Kim Gets Fit!  Tonight is the last night to "Officially" sign up, but you can always follow along, you just won't be able to win prizes!

DISCLAIMER!!!!!!!!  I am NOT a nutritionist nor a certified personal trainer!!!!!!  I am doing this to help motivate others and only teaching them what I have learned!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  YOu do this challenge at YOUR OWN RISK!!!!!!!!

Have a wonderfully BLESSED MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!!!!!!!!!

Too Much Pressure?

Ever since I started working, I have been FREAKING out and putting TONS of pressure on myself because I feel like I don't have the time I used to to workout (nor the energy) and of course, my eating schedule has been thrown off. I feel like I have gained weight, and losing definition. Well, this past week, I have kind of taken a breather, trying to refresh my mind and not put so much pressure on

 myself. You know what? That helped TONS! I allowed myself to eat whatever, in as much moderation as I could, but not come down hard on myself. You know what? That helped! No, not the eating wrong, but letting go of the pressure! That is key! When going full force in this journey, we MUST keep a clear mind and NOT put so much pressure on ourselves when we hit a slump. What we have to do is find what is going on with us, clear our mind and keep moving forward, without the pressure of feeling like a failure. UGH, I said the word. I have been feeling like a failure and that added more pressure on me. This weekend, I got that good long walk in and cleared my mind and became at ease with myself. Yes, I have some work to do to get back where I was in Sept. but it's not as much work as I have been making myself feel like it is. I also, took more rest days this week. SAY WHAT? Well, I did and you know what? I don't feel guilty! I put in some hard time this week and am proud of what I HAVE accomplished! Instead of focusing on what I haven't done, I am focusing on what I HAVE done! So, if you are like me and put tons of pressure on yourself to do this journey perfectly, STOP! IT WILL DRIVE YOU INSANE! Take this journey day by day, meal by meal, workout by workout. If you take this pressure off of you, I am sure you will be happier with yourself and with your outcome! 

Peace, LOVE, and SWEAT!

Sitting behind a desk now!

Well, today I started my office job.  I made sure I got up extremely early in order to get my morning workout out in before I left.  I was surprised at how few calories I burned during the workout.  I'm thinking it was because I did it without any coffee in my system and maybe I didn't give it as much effort as with caffeine?  Nonetheless, I still got a workout in!
I learned today that sitting behind a desk all day long is a BIG shock to my system!  It was very hard to handle.  Since today was just orientation, I got to come home early.  So I jumped right in and started cleaning on my house and then, ahhhhhhhhhhhhh, my workout before dinner!  I hadn't looked forward to a workout like that in a LONG time!  I can't wait to get my NORMAL workout hours set so I know exactly what is going on and I can have a new routine down in no time!  By no means, will I let having this position set me back!

Talking about set backs, they did give us free lunch for their cafeteria today, however, I prepared my meal and took my OWN lunch!  I am so happy I did because it sounds like the cafeteria does not have lean, clean, and green food!  I already know what I will be taking with me tomorrow as well!  Prep is key!

Bree Bond Guest Blogging!

I want to start off by saying that this blogging thing is actually much harder than what I thought!  New and fresh ideas almost every day is difficult especially when all you do is work, kids, and fitness, and healthy eating!  Yep, I lead a boring life!  So, I wanted to gift you all with something fresh, new and exciting and I asked a twitter friend to guest blog!  I was ecstatic when she accepted!  So without further ado, here is the YOUNG, FRESH and BEAUTIFUL BREE BOND!!!!!!!!!!!!  Show her some LOVE folks!

I’m just going to dive right into my guest post by first saying thank you to Mrs. Kim for asking to feature me and this post on her blog! I’ve always wanted a blog and think it’s the coolest when people ask me to a guest post, so thank you Kim. 

I’ll tell you a little about me. My name is Bree Bond; I’m a 20 year old from Texas, relocating to California to pursue my dreams of becoming an actress.  I am a National Academy of Sports Medicine certified personal trainer and self proclaimed health geek. I just recently received my NASM personal training certification after starting my fitness journey September 2011 through the Tone It Up nutrition program (which I HIGHLY recommend).  Anyways, when Kim asked me to do a post I had no idea what I wanted to write about… She asked me about a week after I had gotten my certification, which was also the exact time where I discovered an injury in my right hip flexor and lower abdominal muscles.  I was in severe pain and I am no baby when it comes to pain so when it hurt as bad as it did I knew I needed at least a week of complete bed-rest. *siiiiiiigh* Needless to say I had a lot of time on my hands…

So here I am sitting down to write this post-one-week-bed-rest. I went through so many emotions last week while lying in bed, all day every day.  (See, you use your core for EVERYTHING so it wasn’t an injury I could really just work around, I knew I needed to seriously let it rest) So, going from working out every single day (6 days a week) sometimes twice a day to a completely bed ridden was a hard pill to swallow for me.  I hurt my ankle when I was in 4^th grade and ever since I’ve had muscle imbalances on my right leg, as much as I tried to strengthen my right leg to match the left I was still left with an overcompensation usage in the right side of my core to make up for the strength differences.  This lead to overload of those muscles, which lead to inflammation, which led to my body saying, “woah bro, no more…” Yes, my body talks like a California surfer dude.  To avoid making you re-live my experience by describing every grueling detail, I just want to share with you all what I learned.

                  I knew all of these things but I am very  hardheaded  and sometimes think I’m superwoman,  this rest only solidified the knowledge I had and I see now that I needed something like this to snap me out of my stubbornness.    

                  I am all about pushing through plateaus, high intensity training, setting goals and having relentless determination to see them out, however… we are not indestructible.  I am constantly seeing things on Twitter like “#TeamNoDayzOff” or “#NoExcuses” and the list goes on and on. People on Instagram constantly making their training seem like torture because of how exhausted they are.  This makes me think, “Isn’t this supposed to IMPROVE our lives?” Now hear me out, I am a work out fool, it’s one of my passions in life, I would work out three-four times a day if it wouldn’t eventually kill me, but that’s just it, my body would absolutely give out.  We aren’t made for constant destruction which is exactly what working out does, it breaks us down so we can rebuild stronger. People ask me all the time how to push through a plateau.  A lot of people will say have a cheat meal, do empty stomach HIIT cardio blindfolded on one leg while wearing a top hat but you want to know my new found advice? Oh you’re going to hate it, I know I did but here it is; Give. Yourself. A. Break.  This is a personal trainer speaking; someone whose income depends on YOU wanting to get your butt to the gym but still I am telling you, give yourself a break.  Take a few days off; throw your body for a loop without shoving a Big Mac down.  Cheat meals only reinforce you old bad habits and aren’t conducive to fitness goals in my opinion. This brings me to the next thing I learned; Eating is everything.  You’ve heard “Abs are made in the kitchen” yeah? Well, here I am to reinforce that idea.  I changed nothing about the way I ate while completely resting, clean eats, 6-7x a day and I barely lifted a finger.  Here I am a week later to tell you that I did not gain a pound. Yes, some days I felt bloated.  Yes, some days I retained water and yes, some days I even ate more than I should have.  But you know what? I’m unchanged by it! How great is that?! One of the many benefits of being FIT, you can take time off, let life hit you and still maintain your fitness progress. Your body is smart, it knows how to work, and it knows how to adapt.    It’s impossible to lose your progress by giving yourself a break! Am I saying give up? Am I saying go “easy” on yourself? No, push, work, drive and then rest… J  You’ll actually come back completely restored and ready to work at your full potential.

Today is my second day back to training and I feel like I am actually making progress again! I am sore! I feel like I’m actually doing some work while I’m lifting! Before I was pushing myself to the point of exhaustion, my muscles to the point of severely painful inflammation and I wasn’t getting anywhere.  A rest day wasn’t the answer, a rest period was. 

I’ll leave you with these ideas.  Exercise and working out are two different things.  Exercise is playing with your kids, going on walks, riding your bike anything that gets your heart pumping a little more than usual.  Working out is for muscular endurance/strength.  It IS possible to live a HEALTHY lifestyle, maintain your weight and feel good without working out.  Working out does provide so many health benefits and I highly recommend it but, I just want you to understand that taking a break from working out and just living actively for a few days can be extremely beneficial too.  You cannot perform HIIT (High Intensity Interval Training) everyday and not expect some backlash. Space them out; take into consideration the time, intensity, frequency, type and the enjoyment of your exercise and workouts.  They’re all dependant of one another. HIIT 2-3x a week is great but mix it up with some low intensity cardio too, work all your body parts (everything is connected), throw in core training, foam roll, stretch, rest and repeat. Rest is just as important as everything else I listed.  Be committed to your rest days/periods as you are to your workouts. Even more so be committed to eating for your goals.  As long as you’re putting clean foods in your body at all the right levels and not being sedentary, say hello to improved health levels and fitness maintenance during your rest periods from working out.  Strive for healthy, set goals and be determined.  You are worth every second of this fight for fitness, but sometimes it’s okay to put your sword down.

                  You can follow me on Twitter; @BondBree and also find me on Instagram @BondBree!  I am always open to questions and willing to help with what I can!  Stay strong and beautiful.  Now go workout ;) <3

weight loss apps and my polar

Most people, like me, start their weight loss journey by counting calories.  But like me, they are not sure how many they are suppose to intake and burn, etc.  Well, the first answer to that is it depends on the body and fitness level.  What I have found to be helpful is an app called myfitnesspal.  It's easy to use and since I was able to download it for free on my iphone, it's with me always!  I can take pictures of label instead of hunting for the item, create my own recipes, save my favorite meals, etc.  It is a very useful tool to me and I always know where I stand with my caloric intake, how much sodium I have had, as well as sugar and such.  This site lets YOU organize what you want to see, you can input your workouts and you can even interact with other people if you choose to do so.  I have tried other apps to count calories and workouts, but they just don't seem to be as user friendly as this one.  It also tell you exactly how many calories you have earned after a workout, but be mindful of what you intake.  Also something to remember is that, even though a workout is listed and it may tell you how many calories you burned during the allotted time, that is not accurate.  Each person burns calories at a different rate, so it's wise to use something like a polar hear monitor when working out to get your actual calorie burn.  I never workout without my polar!  There are all different types of polar's and the price range is from about $65.00 (low end) up to $200.00 (high end) and could actually be even higher than that.  I have the lower end model but it works really well for what I want!  I would like to find an affordable one that would tell me my time, heart rate, and calories burned all on one screen!  If anyone knows of one, let me know!  Here is the link to both tools that I mentioned!

myfitnesspal - http://www.myfitnesspal.com

Polar - http://www.polarusa.com/us-en/products

Guest Blogger Coming Soon!

I know that sometimes I get stuck on the same ole' same ole', so I thought, hmmmmm, I need to switch it up for my readers.  So that is exactly what I am doing!  Keep your eyes out as I am sure you will NOT want to miss this!  So excited!

Oh and yeah, that HIIT workout I did from Go Fit Gals?  Yeah totally sore today, but it's a soreness I LOVE!  If you haven't already followed them, do so!  They are on Facebook, Twitter, and they are launching a Nutrition and Workout plan in just a FEW MORE DAYS!


Dominate,and annihilate your workouts!