My Fit Foods

I have been wanting to try out My Fit Foods for sometime now and am excited to share this review with you. We all lead super busy lives and with that comes the convenience of Fast Food. With working 10 hour days and then spending an hour at the gym it can be hard to prepare healthy dinners. This has always been my biggest struggle. My boyfriend has always been super supportive and often helps out with the cooking but even his schedule can make it hard at times. My fit foods solves this problem! The meals are healthy and properly portioned. They are not frozen and are labeled with expiration dates. The only down fall is this sometimes means making multiple trips to the my fit foods store. This is a small inconvenience that is worth the pain in order to receive fresh meals. When I first did my research and read reviews I became worried about the sodium content of the meals. The sales lady in the store however put my mind at ease by showing me how the meals are coded. They take all diet and health restrictions into account and have a nutritionist on site to help with these concerns. My fit foods is reasonable (roughly around $7 dollars a meal), I received a discount for being a fitness Instructor, they are healthy, and they taste really good! I highly recommend them.
http://www.myfitfoods.com/

Pat’s Run

Sometimes I run for the workout, sometimes for the music, and sometimes like on this day it’s for the cause. I am proud to be an American and the story of Pat Tillman is one that hurts my heart greatly. This is a man that gave up everything to fight for his country! I do not come from a military family. I have a few Uncles that served and a cousin that is serving now but it’s not something that I grew up around by any means. My Patriotism comes from growing up in a time frame when the pledge of allegiance was still in the classroom and people removed their caps at baseball games for the National Anthem. It comes from watching the attack on 9-11 on the television and trying to comprehend why our country seems to always be fighting some type of War. This is the reason I chose to run the 10th annual Pat Tillman run.

When I was tired at mile 3 I stopped for a brief second and a man with a prosthetic leg passed me. I instantly found myself wondering what his story was? Perhaps he was a soldier at one point? I then started thinking about the Boston Marathon bombings and those that may never run again or if they do it most likely will be like this man. This amazing athlete! I thought to myself “suck it up Sara” and I ran the lat 1.2 miles with me head held high.

I had the honor of meeting up with my friend Kasey at this run! This meant a lot to me as Kasey is the type of person I find myself looking up to. She is dedicated to running, biking, and yoga. She does everything with so much heart and it really inspires me.

I have said it before and I will say it again. The best miles are those that you share with friends. 

 

Zumba Jitters

Today I decided to face my fear of leading a song in Zumba class. I have always been a 3rd row warrior and have only made it up to the front row once before, okay maybe twice. Regardless I have never instructed and the thought has had me in a panic more than once. It’s funny I want to be a Zumba Instructor, I got licensed, I just received a call to schedule my first audition to teach for a major gym, yet I still have the jitters!!! I just keep thinking back to my day job where I hold compliance training for employees. The first time I had to get up in front of fifty plus employees, my heart was pounding. It took me a few weeks to properly channel the adrenaline rush and a few months to feel completely comfortable. I am sure this process will be the same!

I chose a song that I learned from my very first instructor. I thought it would be a good song since it’s high energy, easy to follow, fun, and something we have not seen in awhile. The song is “getting nasty” by Lady Lauren. I got up in front of the class and man was I nervous. I had a little hiccup and lost my place but I was able to get right back on track and the class was forgiving and stuck with me. I realized that I need to work on smiling more and using the mirror. This is obviously going to come once I gain more confidence. My Mentor told me I did great and she could tell that everyone was having fun and able to follow along. That feedback alone makes me feel like there is hope.

I still have a ton of hard work and practice a head of me. I have to put together a warm up, a cool down, and 2 full songs for my upcoming audition. This audition is an opportunity that I am truly grateful for and I know that whatever is meant to happen will happen. We all have to start somewhere, right?

ZIN

There are no words that can justify the excitement I felt after receiving my Zumba license. The experience was similar to the emotions I endured when I completed my first half marathon. At first I was pumped up and counting down the days, as I got closer to the class I became more and more nervous, and then the day of I was running on pure adrenaline. I expected lots of dancing obviously but I really did not expect 6 hours of it straight! Truth is it went by so fast. Time flies when you are having fun. At the end of the day I looked at my watch and was shocked to find that I burned 2040 calories with 6+hours of dancing. We learned the four basic steps that are taught in the B1 license class (Reggaeton, Cumbia, Salsa, and Merengue) these are steps I have been doing for the past year, I just did not know it. We learned about the history of Zumba, the community of Zumba, and the formula that will help us to be successful Zumba teachers. The resources and support that I have with joining the ZIN- Zumba Instructor Network are amazing and help me feel reassured. I am excited to play around with the choreography and hopefully in the next month or two, I will start teaching part time.

This is just the start to a very exciting journey!

April

My April Goals are all about burning calories! I’m adding in weights & adding various classes to my schedule. I also just purchased a new yoga mat. I want to get in a routine with daily sun salutations. Does anyone else practice yoga on a regular basis? I’d love to hear about it. Are you a morning or a PM yogi? Do you take a class or practice solo? My yoga practice has never been a true practice. It’s been a class here, a YouTube video there, an occasional group on, or a random free class. I really want to build more on this and invest myself in the word “practice”.

In addition I am getting Zumba certified on April 19th and I’m running the 10th annual Pat Tillman run on April 26th. So stay tuned for one awesome month!

Bad News, Good News, Better News

This post is a follow up to my March Miles post. As a reminder my first goal was to clock more miles (walking, running, hiking) through my Nike Plus account, beating my personal best of 39.3 miles in March of 2013. This is where the bad news comes in. I clocked in 19.51 miles and I believe I had about 8 miles achieved without utilizing my Nike watch but even with those 8 miles added in, I missed my goal.

Now the good news is that I did reach my other March Goals. I had a blog posted with additional goals but it appears it may have been deleted on accident (sad face). My other goal was to really amp up my Zumba activity since I’m getting certified as an instructor in April. My goal was to attend 3-4 classes a week and to try a few new Instructors, well new to me anyways. I destroyed that goal and had a blast doing it. I am finding more and more that my true passion for fitness comes with a good rump shaking.

The GREAT news is with my increase in Zumba I started looking at my Nike data differently. I may have not hit my goal for MarchMiles but I killed it with my Nike Fuel and calories burned. Here’s a comparison.
March 2013 I had 5,271 in Nike Fuel and 2,419 calories burned
March 2014 I had 32,458 in Nike Fuel and 6,559 calories burned.

That’s an increase of 27,187 in Nike Fuel and 4,140 more calories burned!!!

This makes me super happy! I will take the amount of workouts & calories burned over miles any day. Stay tuned for my April Goals as they will be geared towards a bigger bump in activity!

GCU run to fight!

I was stoked to be a part of the GCU run to fight Children’s cancer! As an Alumni member, employee, and a runner I was all ramped up and ready to go. Not having completed a run since December I set my goal to finish with a 13 minute pace and I nailed it.

so here is my race review:
LOVED The race shirt and finishers medals were awesome! The packet pick up was quick and well organized and the after party in the quad was awesome.
NEEDS IMPROVEMENT The parking situation was horrible. It took me 45 minutes to get from the freeway exit to the garage. I missed the 5k and had to run with the 10k runners. In addition I was on the second floor of the garage and it took me an hour just to exit the garage.The bathroom situation was also something that could have been better. I would suggest getting port a potty’s or opening up more bathroom locations. Last but not least, where were the cheerleaders? Dance squad? It would have been nice to see them at the finish line.
All in all – it was a fun run! I would love to see them add more waves to
Allow for those walking or with strollers. This would also make the course less congested.
LOPES UP

March Miles

The cool thing about being a runner is you can compete with yourself! I’ve always been the competitive type. I’m still known to get on the elliptical at the gym and secretly race the person next to me. Seriously I did this way before this fancy e card was ever created…

So I recently was thinking about last year and I noticed I lost most of my weight last year in the month of March. I pulled up my NikePlus stats and sure enough I logged the most miles last year in the month of March as well. Humm could the two things be related? Maybe

only one way to find out and that’s to do it again! But the competitive side of me can’t just do it again, I have to do it bigger and better. So my goal is to beat my miles logged last March. I have to beat 39.3 miles. I will beat it oh yes I will. I’m excited because I really have not completed a run since December so this should help to re motivate me. I also have a 5k scheduled March 8th for the GCU children’s cancer run so that will get me amped up as well. March Miles is a great way to keep the New Years resolutions and goals on track. Who’s with me???

48 hour juice cleanse

I almost made it 48hrs with pure juicing but after getting extremely light headed in tonight’s Zumba class, I broke down and put food in my tummy. So here are some of my thoughts on the first 48hrs…
If you drink lots of caffeine you might want to cut down before going cold turkey!

the head aches and crabbiness I felt the first day was insane. You should also prepare yourself for some sleepless nights. The first night I slept poorly between my tummy growling and having to Pee every half hour.

Day 2 I felt a renewed energy! Like I could take on the day and smile at strangers, that sort of thing but it didn’t last long. Around 6:00pm I had my Zumba class and it was intense. By the end of the class I felt nauseated and extremely light headed.

I felt a little like a failure when I told my boyfriend I needed food. He understood though and told me with my workouts I need to fuel my body, I need protein. So I’m not giving up on my juice journey, I’m just adjusting. Instead of juicing every day I’m going to juice 1 meal for sure and maybe 2. I also am going to try smoothies so I can get more fiber. Juicing is suppose to better for a cleanse because all the pulp is removed so your digestive system gets a break from everything but if I’m doing it for a meal replacement than a smoothie may be a good fit as well. Plus juicing is expensive so it’s kinda sad to see all that pulp being thrown out. I need to build a garden and start a compost when we move…just a random thought.

I must share with all of you that my favorite blend so far was: 1eggplant, 2 zucchini, 2 apples, handful of kale.
It was yummy!!! I also like a carrot, apple, lemon blend for breakfast. Stay tuned and I’ll check in soon to share more on my crazy journey.

Preparing to Juice

This is a follow up post from last month about starting a juice diet. I returned from my wonderful vacation in the Philippines, feeling about 10 pounds heavier but I refuse to get on the scale. Truth be told I plan on weighing myself at the gym tomorrow before I start the juicing process so I can track my loss. I am however dreading that moment! I ate so much rice, fruit, and bread in the Philippines, so I am scared of the outcome. Even worse was my cravings for American food upon my return and giving in to those cravings. I am hoping this detox will get me back on the right track. So here is how I am preparing for this new venture.

Before purchasing an expensive juicer I wanted the opportunity to see if this is really something I can commit to so I am borrowing the Jack LaLanne’s Power Juicer from my boyfriends parents.

In hopes of saving money on the juicing process I hit up Market on the move. This is a great non profit that gives the community the opportunity to take away up to 60 pounds of produce for $10. I was looking for carrots, apples, kale, and celery. I did not luck out on the main items needed but I did score some other great alternatives. I got Eggplant, zucchini, squash, bell peppers, tomatoes, cherry tomatoes, and green beans. I will most likely give away the green beans and some of the cherry tomatoes due to the amount I received but I plan on experimenting with the rest.

I will hit up the grocery store later today to get those main items I was hoping for. In the mean time I jumped on the internet and came across a few recipes to utilize the other items. The eggplant seemed like the weirdest item to me but when I did a google search I found that it has some amazing benefits and can be added to any juice option. I then played around on pinterest and came across this image below which gives some great options for utilizing bell pepper and tomato (Thanks juicingMomma.com). Lastly my friend Kim told me that I can use zucchini in place of any recipe that calls for cucumber.

Next up is washing and prepping my produce. My friend Kim told me that she washes all her produce in vinegar. I normally just use warm water and a scrub brush so this was something new to me. I looked it up on pinterest and sure enough it looks like it is something that is recommended across the board. The vinegar will remove the dirt and kill off any pesticides.

I am excited for this! And a bit nervous as I know it will take some getting use to. I am sure I will struggle and hate the taste of a few juices. I heard it’s all about trial and error. Wish me luck and I promise to report back in a few days with an update.