Is this thing on??

Hello, its me, i was wondering if

…i have any viewers out there??? just kidding.  According to my Site Stats, I have at least one (shout out to my mom for being my number one fan)!!! Ever since I started this blog I have had a total of 10 visitors and 21 views. So far, my most popular week has been the week of September 12-18th, I had 2 visitors and 6 views. My most popular post of the year is “IIFYM?”, which has 3 views so far, which isn’t much but is a lot better compared to the 1 view on the rest of my posts (that 1 viewer was probably my mom, hi mom). I think this post has had the most views so far because managing your macros is a always a hot topic in the fitness world and is just interesting to anyone who is looking to get a healthier diet, which is something almost everyone wants. Something I found surprising in the Site Stats data was the fact that I even had any viewers at all. I really didn’t expect to get any views considering I only shared it on my twitter and I am hardly active on my account and don’t even have that many followers. I didn’t get a lot of views what so ever but I had a few and that was more than what I expected so I’m okay with it.

For the most part, I really enjoyed becoming part of the blogging community. It has taught me a lot about not only fitness and health but it has also taught me a lot about how to utilize social media for research and promotional purposes. I think the most effective tool in this blogging experience was learning how to connect my blog to my social media accounts so that I can publish my work for others to see without having to personally tell them to go read my blog. Another tool I think is very useful in the blogging world is how we learned how to check the stats of our blog. It is important to know when most people view your work, and which posts were viewed more so that you can learn what kind of material appeals to your readers better and what time of week and day is best to post at so that you can get more views, because the more views, the more successful your blog is.

Something I want to improve in my blog is the strength of my research and how I break it down to my readers. I feel like for some of my blogs, when I was talking about something new that I had to research, I had a hard time writing out any hard information without sounding too much like a research paper so I left most of the talking for my links to do. I would love to learn how I could do this because I really did enjoy this blogging experience and have discovered that there are people who have careers in blogging and not only does it sound like a fun way to make a living but I would also get to make money while writing, which is one of my favorite things to do, and I would get to write about fitness/health and whatever else I’m passionate about. Hopefully I can learn how to do so from fellow blogger Lilly.

photo from BREAKFASTATLILLYS.COM

I know this is a long shot but it would truly be a dream come true if I could take this very blog, and build my own little fitness empire from it. I’m sure I’m not the only 20 yr. old girl who dreams of being fit, happy, healthy, living in a nice pair of lulu lemon leggings and blogging about it, and getting paid to do so. On a more realistic end of the spectrum, I can’t life out my fantasy of being a cute little fitness blogger, I could most definitely utilize blogging for my future real estate career. It would help me get connected with other agents on a more casual level and would help me to learn everything there is to know about the business. I could also see myself using the Site Stats Data to tack what most attracts my clients and improve my blogs/advertising based off whatever data I collect.

IIFYM?

I don’t know about you guys, but dieting is hard for me to do, but there are some others who have it down to a science and . There are all different kinds of diets someone can do to accomplish a certain thing with their body. Whether it be to gain muscle mass, lose fat but maintain muscle, or just lose weight in general.

I’ve shown you guys just a little bit about meal prepping and how that can help you get a better diet and help you achieve a better/healthier/stronger body, but I have recently learned a little bit about counting macros which I hear is like meal prepping but it gives you a little more cheating freedom. From what I understand, it’s basically eating whatever your little hungry heart desires, as long as it “fits your macros”. I still don’t have any idea on how to count or measure macros in my daily diet

Does this fit my macros??? (i hope so)

but this beginners guide to counting macros has all of the basic information I need in order to learn how to do so.

I think this diet has become a trend because I would guess that it probably has a higher success rate compared to a normal strict diet where you have to refrain from all the yummy foods that aren’t good for you. Personally, I would really like to try this type of dieting (ya know, one day when I have time to count every macronutrient I consume), because according to all of the fitness freaks I follow on social media, it sets you up for success and gives you the results you want. I say it sets you up for success because, in my opinion, some other diets are destined to fail because they usually call for cutting yourself off from sweets and bad cards cold turkey, and there isn’t anyone I know that can do that and not be miserable. So it will be exciting to get to try this possibly complicated but really beneficial diet plan.

Lets drink lots of water, eat clean, train dirty, LIVE HEALTHY and BE HAPPY together!!

30% gym, 70% DIET

groceries for meal prepping

They say that a 6 pack is built in the kitchen. And this my dear friends, is sad but true. Sad because well, we all have a deep love affair with food, true because I have tested this theory myself. So when it comes time to get the body you want/need, you have to sacrifice all of the yummy chick-fil-a, tacos, and all curing ice cream. *wipes tear*

Once upon a time when I was the fit freak that I wish I was once again, in high school, is when I meal prepped for the first time. I prepped my meals and snacks every Sunday night for about a month. At first it was so miserable and I was so hungry all day every day, but after the first week that all went away and I started seeing results so it was worth missing out on all the yummy food. In those few weeks that I prepared all of my meals, I lost a total 0f 15lbs!!!! AMAZING, I know. And I knew it wasn’t all water weight that I was losing because it took a while for me to see the results, and to feel the difference, so I knew it was fat that was coming off. Only because when I lose water weight, I lose up to like 6lbs in a week then that’s my stopping point for a while.

So I therefore, am living proof that meal prepping DOES WORK, and that it is WORTH IT. Two of my top favorite fitness fanatics, Paige Hathaway and Kayla Itsines, both have the best tips on how to meal prep if you’re a beginner and if you’re on a budget. To learn how to meal prep, and then cook meals on a budget, visit “Meal prepping on a budget pt.1” and “Meal prepping on a budget pt.2”. To learn more about all the in’s and out’s to meal prepping and what all you have to do, visit “Meal prep 101 for beginners”.

Although it might seem like meal prepping would be more expensive and take more time (which it does take a little while to prepare once a week), it can actually be a lot cheaper than buying normal fast food meals every day, and it can save you a lot more time during the hustle and bustle of your everyday life when you don’t have time to make a healthy lunch or dinner, you can just grab your prepped meal from the fridge and viola!, a healthy meal in just a couple minutes. So, give it a go, let me know how it goes for you!!

Lets drink lots of water, eat clean, train dirty, LIVE HEALTHY and BE HAPPY together!!

 

Juicin’

my morning juice drink and the amount of water i TRY to drink on a daily basis (oh, and GO COWBOYS)

One of my favorite ways to get to feeling my best and brightest is through juicing. We all have those days when we haven’t been eating the best, you start feeling sluggish and well… like a mozzarella stick, or a busted can of biscuits, well at least that’s how I start feeling. So sometimes in order to get a quick fix I will drink nothing but fruit and vegetable juice for every meal or for the first half of the day and my tummy is back to feeling somewhat flat (or should I say, not bloated) and clean once again. Not only does it help to make my stomach and diet feel better, but also it gives me a lot of energy and mental clarity. It’s such an easy, natural, refreshing way to cleanse your stomach and rejuvenate your mind.

There are plenty of different kinds of juices you can make. What I usually do is get on Pinterest and look up a juice for whatever feeling I want to cure. For example, sometimes I’ll search “bloating” or “stomach cleanse”, you can find a juice for pretty much anything that you could be feeling is wrong in your body. For further beginner information on juicing, visit http://naturedetox.org, you’ll find plenty of information about all of the different ways juicing on a regular basis is beneficial.

All you need to make any type of juice is whatever fruits/veggies your ju

the basics

ice of choice calls for, and a blender/juicer. Now this is where the only tricky part of juicing comes into play. A major key to juicing and it being worth it, is having a good juicer. I say this from experience. When I started juicing, I bought the cheapest juicer on the shelf, and it robbed me from getting the BANG for my buck. With a cheap juicer, there is a lot of pulp, which means a lot of wasted fruits and veggies. SO, if you’re serious about juicing, go ahead and spend a few extra dollars on a nice juicer so that you can get as much juice as possible and you aren’t throwing money (aka all the waste pulp), down the drain. Even though it might be a little expensive to juice sometimes, it is so worth it and I highly recommend it to you, my friends & cherished readers.

Lets drink lots of water, eat clean, train dirty, LIVE HEALTHY and BE HAPPY together!!

 

Brittany Dawn

Brittany Dawn

I’m not sure about y’all, but when I encounter fellow fitness bloggers online, they all seem almost…make believe. Ya know, those girls who were born skinny and only had to do sit ups for like a month to get their six-pack and they promote all of those phony pre-workout supplements and “skinny-detox green teas ”. Until I found Brittany Dawn…she’s one of us, and that’s what makes me love her so much. (Well, besides the fact that she was born and raised in my hometown Dallas, Texas)

She started from the bottom, and now she’s here (sorry for that sad Drake reference haha), living the fitness model life that we all deep down wish we could live. I love her because she is so grounded, she is constantly reminding all of her followers that she is a real human who was once not fit and unhealthy which gives us all (or at least me) hope of one day potentially being as successful as she is.

In her blog posts she talks about real life- real people problems. She talks about how to keep up and maintain your goals throughout all the hustle and bustle of the normal everyday crazy life that we are all living. She talks about what to do when you’ve gone off-track, she gives important information about different foods and tells us what they are, what they do for the body and if they are good or bad for us. She isn’t strictly a fitness blogger though, she has been known to throw in a few beauty tips here and there because all of her fans are always asking her about her eyelashes, lipstick, extensions, where she gets her clothes and all that good stuff.

Out of all of the fitness model blogs and social media sites I follow, I would highly recommend you follow her as well. She is such a positive influence on my life and is most definitely one of my role models. Hopefully one day I will make a big come up and will get the opportunity to meet her, work with her and be friends. But until then, ill keep dreamin’. GO FOLLOW HER and….

Blog: https://bdawnfit.com/blog/

Twitter/Snapchat/Insta : bdawnfit

Lets drink lots of water, eat clean, train dirty, LIVE HEALTHY and BE HAPPY together!!

Strugglin’

words to live by

Being a college student alone is anything but easy. And its even harder when you top it off with 2 jobs, being a dog mom, trying to be fit/happy/healthy, all whilst keeping your sanity. IT IS HARD. I’m the kind of person who when I get stressed, I just can’t function correctly. I get sad, I stay in bed, and put all my responsibilities to the side until I can’t put them off anymore. Its not good. As a matter of fact, it is taking everything in me right now to stay focused on this blog post and to get it done.

dad’s best advice; NEVER GIVE UP

But with this blog, I want to teach myself, and hopefully my readers how to stay positive and motivated. I’ve heard before that your thoughts turn into your actions. So even when you’re not doing the things you should be doing, like hitting the gym and eating clean, if you’re still thinking about it, you will eventually start living that healthy lifestyle you’re striving for.

It is times like these that I will look back on one day when I am my best, happiest, healthiest and most fit self, and be proud of myself for all of the progress I have made, even if it did come a long rather slowly. Any progress at all is always good progress. Rome wasn’t built in a day. So i need to be patient with myself and conquer any challenge i come across and get back to grinding until I am where I desire to be.

Growing up, my dad always told me these three simple yet powerful words, “NEVER GIVE UP”. I never knew such small words could mean so much to me one day. I never thought anything about this simple advice until recently, as an adult. Once I grew up, I realized that my dad started from the absolute bottom and climbed his way to the top and is a successful man because he never gave up…so how could I ever expect myself to be an exceptional woman if i allow myself to give up? I couldn’t.  I keep this quote in mind any time I’m beating myself up about not waking up in time for the gym, or for not meal prepping like I’m supposed to, and remind myself that if I don’t give up, I hang onto my goals, and I dream about them all day everyday, then it will eventually become my reality. I want it, so I will make it happen, one day.

A encouraging quote from my favorite fitness queen…Paige, of course.

Lets drink lots of water, eat clean, train dirty, LIVE HEALTHY and BE HAPPY together!!

Namaste

pics or it didn’t happen, am i right?

 

Yesterday I attended my first ever yoga class. Its something I always wanted to do, but was always too scared to venture out and do it alone. Until, I recently made a new friend, Kristina. We are almost the same person in so many different ways, especially in the fact that we are going through the same struggles at the moment. She told me about her yoga classes she goes to, how it helps her to relax, meditate and to be at peace with whatever life is throwing at her, and I thought to myself, I need all of those things. So I went. Best decision of my life. I was nervous at first but it was a beginner class so I was able to keep up, but it was still a challenge at the same time. Oh, I should probably mention that it was a HOT yoga class, and I think I was a little under hydrated so there was a point during th

choose your friends wisely

e class where I felt like I was going to pass out, so that wasn’t fun and a little bit scary. In preparation for my next class, I will be chugging water all day-every day. Which brings me to my next point…

 

[SIDENOTE: we haven’t been friends or long and she has already helped me grow so much by challenging me and pushing me to do new things that make me a happier person. Some friendly advice, check your own friends, are they pushing you? are they helping you grow? are they a positive influence on your life? if not, maybe you should re-evaluate your choice in friends. They effect your life deeper than you think.]

Staying hydrated plays a huge roll in staying happy and healthy. Not only does it keep you alive and well during a hot yoga class, but it also helps all of the following…

• Flushing toxins
• More energy
• Weight loss
• Better immune system
• Better skin

…just to list a few. I have discovered that I feel so much better when I am constantly chugging water all day. It gets boring because of course but when you finally start to notice the benefits, its worth it and you’ll just want to keep drinking more. The links below will help to explain why it is so important to drink one of Earth’s finest juices in large amounts. I don’t know about y’all, but considering water is free and can promote weight loss, i will be drinking it all. the. time. any chance i get. Got to do whatever it takes to get my dream bod, even if its something small like drinking more water.

https://authoritynutrition.com/how-much-water-should-you-drink-per-day

www.mindbodygreen.com/0…/10-Reasons-Why-You-Should-Drink-More-Water.html

surround yourself with the kind of people you’re striving to be like

SOOO, my 2 biggest lessons learned from this first experience of doing yoga with a new high quality friend, is that i need to drink more water, and be more conscious of the people i hang out with. Water and good company can cure more than you know!! I will definitely be making another trip back to yoga class (once i have the funds… the struggle is so real), hopefully with my new friend. Im hoping to make this a routine thing because just after the first class i had a sense of mental clarity, i felt in touch with myself, and had the best day ever after class. Hopefully after a few yoga sessions and a few gallons of water later, i will feel happy and healthier both physically and mentally. I encourage you to get out there and try it yourself and let me know what you think of it!!

Lets drink lots of water, eat clean, train dirty, LIVE HEALTHY and BE HAPPY together!!

 

 

eat clean, train dirty

As of right now, my current healthy lifestyle consist of occasional cardio sessions, a 50-50 meal prep/fast food diet. So basically I’m not all that healthy. By the end of this I am hoping to be consistent in the workout regimen I have come up with and to have a clean diet. I get a lot of my inspiration from this one specific fitness model, Paige Hathaway. I stalk every social media page she has and would love to take part in one of her fitness challenges but, we all know how tight money can be with a college student budget. Hopefully, I will be able to create a challenge for myself and get the same results I would have gotten with her workouts and diet plans.

This is Paige. BODY/LIFE GOALS.

 

Paige Hathaway’s website: https://paigehathaway.com …click it for some SERIOUS motivation.

Diet: For my diet, throughout this blog, I am going to first cut out all fast food and soda. It’s a baby step but it will make a huge difference considering how much I eat out. By then end, I’m hoping to seldom eat sugar, never eat out, and mainly eat whole foods. Since the semester started, I have been meal prepping, which consist of chicken, broccoli, potatoes, brown rice, smoothies and just about anything with kale and/or spinach. It’s a terribly boring diet but I am planning to find new ways to have a clean diet but make the foods more enjoyable.

Exercise: So far this semester, I’ve gone to the gym a total of maybe 5 times, sad, I know. It’s time to really step things up (like onto the stair master). My new plan is to go to the gym everyday, sometimes twice a day. Monday, Wednesday, Friday, I am going to make it a point to go in the mornings before class for about 45-60min of cardio, then, go back in the evening for weights. As for Tuesday and Thursday, I will be starting Yoga at 6am with one of my good friends, then in the evenings, I will be back at the gym for more cardio and weights. I am a little nervous about doing yoga because I haven’t ever done it before but I think it will be the perfect opportunity to meditate and learn more about my body and what it can do.

I can’t wait for Monday morning, it will be a challenge to get up at 5am and get that cardio done but I know it will be worth it. It’s time for YOU to get up too and get active.

Lets drink lots of water, eat clean, train dirty, LIVE HEALTHY and BE HAPPY together!!

 

Hello,

Hello readers (if there are any besides my grader and mom)!! My name is Cristina (call me nina) my blog will be about learning to live a healthy lifestyle. I chose this topic because I am trying to live a healthy lifestyle, but in college, that can be a little difficult. So, I figured, why not make this lifestyle part of my school work, that way I have to be healthy and do healthy things or else I wont get a good grade.

With this blog I am hoping to explore new diets, workout regimens, meditation techniques, and anything else that helps me feels happy and healthy. My audience is any other person who is trying to become their fittest and happiest self. I specifically am aiming more towards college students, simply because we are all in the craziest chapter of our lives where its hardest to maintain a healthy lifestyle. Hopefully, thru my research and practice, I will be able to help myself and others find an easy way to make their lives happier and healthier day by day. One baby step at a time.

Health, fitness, and happiness have always been something I find major interest in and I am beyond excited to take on this blog journey. Blogging about fitness has actually been something I always wanted to do, I just never had the courage to do it. But now that it’s a part of this class, I HAVE to do it, and I think it will be the first assignment I have ever enjoyed doing since the beginning of my college career. I cant wait to get happy and healthy with y’all.

Below, I’m attaching a list of small things you can change in your daily routine to make your lifestyle healthy!!

Lets drink lots of water, eat clean, train dirty, LIVE HEALTHY and BE HAPPY together!!

here’s a nice little selfie so I’m not just words on a screen