4 helpful fitness apps

or all it's pitfalls (oh Facebook, why do I just keep scrolling and scrolling and scrolling??), technology has a lot of useful applications for daily life.  This past year I started using a few apps that I've really enjoyed which are nice compliments to my fitness and healthy lifestyle goals, so I thought I'd share them!  I don't like using a ton of apps because it gets to be a little overwhelming and too much to keep up, so I stick to a few that I really like using.  Apps are nice because they not only help me track things, but they can give me motivation as well.  I love being able to visually see goals and check off workouts.  Do you guys use any fitness or health apps that you find you can't live without? 
Jawbone UP I'd say that one of my favorite apps is the Jawbone UP app.  I started using their UP24 band a few months ago and it's really awesome motivation to get moving!  Not only does it track your steps, it also tracks your sleep and lets you know how much light and deep sleep you got throughout the night.  You can set goals for steps and sleep and if you have the wireless UP24, it'll sync directly to the app throughout the day with Bluetooth!  I have an iPhone 4, which doesn't have syncing capabilities with the UP24, so I use my iPad mini to sync and then that is synced with my iPhone.  You can also link your UP app with other fitness or health apps, so I have mine linked up with my LoseIt! app, which I love!  The app itself is free, but you do need a tracker to go with it.  I got the wireless UP24 tracker, which is $149.  I like it a lot more than my fitbit zip, which I found difficult to remember to put on everyday and awkward to find somewhere to clip if I wasn't wearing jeans.  The UP is a bracelet, so I wear it all day everyday (except for wet situations like the shower.  I ruined one already by getting saltwater splashed on it when I was in Hawaii).  

LoseIt! LoseIt! is my favorite app for tracking my food.  Now that I'm doing Whole30, it's great for planning future meals too!  My favorite thing about it is that it makes me way more mindful of my eating.  Now that I'm doing Whole30 I have to be mindful all the time, but before that, it really helped me not just graze mindlessly and be intentional about how I fed myself.  I have the Premium membership, which allows me to sync to the Jawbone app, and also gives you the ability to plan meals ahead of time.  You can also join challenges, which is another fun way to get motivation, and they give you badges for eating well, working out consistently, and tracking consistently.  Who doesn't like little awards?  The app is free, but if you want the Premium account, it's $39.99/year.

Insane Tracker  For those of you who do the Insanity program, I found this little app which was a really nice way to keep track of what workout to do that day, enter your fit test results, and I liked getting to check off the workouts I completed!  Obviously you can do all this manually, but it's nice to have it all in one place, and it stores your fit test results so you can see how you did in comparison to the last one!  This app isn't free, but it's only $0.99 which isn't bad!
Nike+ Running I haven't been running in quite a while, but when I was a semi-consistent runner I really liked using the Nike+ app, which tracked my pace and route, miles ran, and would tell me throughout my run how far along I was.  Since I'm not an avid runner, this is the only running app I've ever used, but I really enjoyed using it!  It's also free!
 

fit week // albion fit giveaway

ne of the best parts of starting a new fitness routine? Having the perfect excuse to go out and get new, cute workout gear!  Okay, well the best part is feeling healthier and stronger, but getting new workout gear is a bonus.  You may be sweating your ass off, but at least your outfit can be cute, right?  I'm just going to keep telling myself that.  I've partnered with Albion in the past and have loved their gear, so when I was putting together this little week of fitness goal inspired posts, I contacted them to see if they'd be interested in teaming up for a fun giveaway for you guys, and they were!  We're giving away a pair of their Antigua Leggings and a Hot Pink Love Racer top, a great little workout outfit, nice for hitting the weights at the gym, going for a run, getting back to the yoga mat, or even pulling hard at the climbing gym!

Albion is also offering 15% off using the code "delightfully15" which is valid from Jan 2- Jan 10, so you can also take advantage of that in order to snag some new pieces!  Just enter the code at checkout to get the discount!  The giveaway will be live for a week and you've got multiple ways to enter, so there are even more chances to win!


a Rafflecopter giveaway

fit week // ningxia red energy smoothie

moothies are one of my favorite things to enjoy as a pre or post-workout snack.  They're easy to fill with nutritious fruits and veggies, and sometimes even a bit of extra protein.  I really like drinking a bit of Ningxia Red juice before a workout to give a boost of energy, but since you're only supposed to drink 1-2 ounces twice daily, I wanted to use it as an addition to my pre-workout smoothies instead of just taking a little shot of it.  The Goji berry flavor pairs great with other fruits and it's easy to add to almost any fruit smoothie.  
Gogi berries contain many essential amino acids, and also have the highest concentration of protein of any fruit. They're packed with vitamin C, contain more carotenoids than any other food, are high in fiber,  have tons of iron, as well as calcium, zinc, selenium and many other minerals.  Ningxia Red has stevia in it, so it won't be Whole30 compliant, since stevia is a sweetener, which means I won't be using it during my Whole30.  My mom is doing Whole30 with me and she just got the cookbook "Well Fed" so I'm excited to look through it and get ideas for meals!  Whole30 technically doesn't advise drinking smoothies, since, even though fruit is compliant, it does have a lot of (natural) sugar and, since it's liquid, makes it harder for your body to feel full.  I definitely anticipate a  having a few smoothies when I'm in a pinch, though, and it's nice knowing I can throw some frozen fruit together and have a quick smoothie when I'm having a hunger emergency.



Ingredients: 2oz Ningxia Red 1 Frozen Banana 1/2 c Frozen Mango Chunks 4 Frozen Strawberries 1 c Mango Nectar/Juice Add everything to a blender and blend well!  

fit week // whole30

or me, fitness and food are inextricably linked.  I never understood people who would eat fast food and binge on tons of sugary cocktails every night, then workout.  Maybe they looked how they wanted to, but I can't imagine they felt good.  The fact is what my body looks like will change, regardless of how much working out I do.  When I have kids, my body will transform in order to grow and birth a child.  When I age, my body will hold on to fat in new places, I'll find new wrinkles and grey hairs.  My body could change as the result of illness or injury.  I have some control over my body by choosing to be active and fit.  What I have the most control over, and what has the power to impact my health most, is how I choose to nourish my body.

I eat pretty healthily.  I don't eat fast food, rarely eat snacks like potato chips, almost never drink soda, and in general don't overeat.  The months leading up to Thanksgiving I was tracking my food daily, eating well, working out every day, and was pretty on top of my life in terms of fitness and food.  I decided to stop caring while we were on vacation in Hawai'i, because I knew I'd want to drink Mai Tai's and indulge a bit.  The whole next month was a blur of travel and I wasn't able to focus on feeding myself right or have time to fit in a workout.  Perhaps it's cliched to start a fitness or diet plan at the new year, but it really is a perfect time to settle into a new routine.  The craziness of the holidays are over and you're finally free to focus on your own health.

My friend Mandy recently did the Whole30 program in November and, while I was never enticed to do it before, I really enjoyed seeing her experience with it and was inspired to get my eating back on track with Whole30.  What is Whole30?  It's sort of like hitting the reset button for your body in terms of eating.  A lot of foods can disrupt your hormones, cause acne or inflammation, be addicting, cause allergies and more.  With Whole30, you strip your diet down to whole foods to help your body reset and then you can start adding foods back in to see how they affect your body.  Or, you might just end up feeling so awesome you'll stick with a Paleo type diet.  I know lots of people who've said that their Whole30 experience was pretty life changing.

Another thing I'm excited about is that Whole30 kind of forces you to be more proactive when it comes to meal planning.  I'm so so bad at meal planning.  We are fly-by-the-seat-of-our-pants eaters and it means we go out to eat more than we should, spend more money than we should, and don't eat as healthily as I know we could.  Whole30 requires a lot of foresight and planning, so you don't accidentally fall of the wagon, which is something I desperately need when It comes to making food.
I'll be starting my Whole30 on January 12th because I want to start with Mandy and she's starting her next round on the 12th.  Also, I'll be traveling until January 6th and I want to give myself time to prep properly.  I love reading on planes so I'm getting the book It Starts With Food, which is by the folks that started Whole30, to read on my flights so I can start working out my plan of attack in the next two weeks.


So what can and can't you eat with Whole30?  You can eat meat, seafood, veggies, some fruit, good fats from fruits, nuts, oils, and seeds.  Basically:  Whole foods.  No processed crap, no stuff with tons of ingredients you can't pronounce.

What can't you eat?  No sugars or real or artificial sweeteners.  No Alcohol.  No Grains.  No Legumes.  No Dairy (ugh, bye cheese!).  No carrageenan, MSG or Sulfites.

It sounds pretty restrictive, but really it's just 30 days and I'm excited to revamp my diet to be more focused on eating whole foods.  Ultimately I'm not sure if I'll end up adopting a more paleo-type diet at the end, but who knows!  I have a friend who has a mostly-paleo diet and she loves it.

I eat a ton of breads and carbs and I know that, while I'm not a big sweet tooth, lots of sugar finds its way into my diet in sneaky ways.  Whole30 is technically a "detox" since you're removing a lot of foods that can have detrimental effects on your health, so I've heard that the first week or so can be a bit rough, but after that, by and large, everyone I know who has done it says they feel amazing.

One thing I love about the Whole30 program is that it's not about weight (though lots of people do experience weight loss).  They stress that you're not allowed to step on a scale for the duration of the program, and I think that's important.  So much importance is put on the number on the scale, but that's not what Whole30 is about.  It's about feeling great, being healthy, and nourishing your body.


There are tons of resources out there for helping prep and stay on the Whole30 program.  The Whole30 site has a bunch of resources.  Jessica from WhatIWore has done Whole30 a few times and has a lot of helpful guides.  Mandy started a whole30 focused instagram account to help support others who want to hop on board.  I'm a newbie so I'll just be sharing my own personal experience here on the blog as I go and hopefully I'll have some fun Whole30 recipes to share as I get better at meal planning.

Are any of you guys Whole30 grads?  Have any favorite resources?  I know Pinterest is a great resource for recipes, so I'll definitely be pinning up a storm trying to get my meals planned!  Are any of you guys planning on starting Whole30 in January?  

fit week // kayla itsines bbg

lright folks, let's talk new year's resolutions!  I know this is a time when gym memberships skyrocket, diet plans abound, and everyone is feeling super confident about their fitness goals for the new year.  This week I'm focusing on my fitness and health plan for the next year, my goals, and my strategies for making my lifestyle as healthy as possible!

Over the past couple years I've really enjoyed pursuing my own fitness and feeling healthy and strong more so than I ever have before.  I did probably three-ish rounds of Insanity, off and on, for about a year and a half to two years and really enjoyed the results and routine of doing the Insanity workout.  But I'm ready for something new.  I love intense workouts, and I was looking for something that added in a bit of weight on top of cardio.  I do love how Insanity doesn't require any equipment, and that made it really easy to even do on the road (I did it in my grandma's living room and multiple hotel rooms), but I wanted to add more tone and muscle than I was getting by just using my own body weight.  I took to instagram and did a google search of inspiring fitness IG accounts and found Kayla Itsines' account and started following.  The snippits she posted of her workouts looked intense, and she used some weights in her workouts as well, both of which I was looking for.  I also really enjoyed seeing the transformations of real girls who had done her program, which really inspired me.  A lot of workout programs feature extreme transformations and vast weight loss, but that's not my story.  I'm a small person just looking to tone up, get strong, and feel healthy, and that's what most of her transformations show.  I was sold.

 

 
I bought and downloaded her Bikini Body Guide and I'm super excited to start it in January.  She has both a workout guide that takes you through 12 weeks of workouts (and if you finish and want to step it up even more, she has BBG 2.0 which goes from week 13-24), and if you're a workout newbie and aren't sure you can cut it at the beginning, she also includes 4 weeks of easier workouts to start you off and get you ready for week 1.  These photos are taken back in late November right after finishing month 2 of Insanity, before we went to Hawai'i.  I'll be taking new "before" pictures when I start Kayla's guide in January since by then it'll be nearly two months of laying around, eating holiday treats, and not doing any workouts whatsoever.  I feel fine in terms of how my body looks, but I want to feel stronger.  We haven't climbed at all in the last 5 months (okay, well, we just climbed one route in Joshua Tree last week, but that's been the first time in 5 months), which is sad, but our lives changed a bit and something had to give and it turned out that rock climbing got the short end of the stick.  I really enjoyed how strong I felt because of rock climbing and maybe we'll get back to it, but for now I just want to feel strong and I'm looking forward to Kayla's guide pushing me physically.

She recommends getting both the workout guide and her nutrition plan as well, but I opted for just the workout guide as I'm planning on doing the Whole30 program to get back on track with my nutrition after the indulgences of the holidays.  She just revamped her nutrition guide, though, and now offers vegetarian and vegan options, which I think is pretty awesome!  I'm neither vegan or vegetarian, but I know that a lot of fitness nutrition guides tend to overlook those areas.


I'll be talking more about my plans for Whole30 and kickstarting my health when it comes to eating tomorrow, but I'm planning on starting both Whole30 and my BBG workouts when I'm finally done traveling for the holidays, which will be on January 12th.  I'd love it if you guys wanted to get on board with me and support one another.  I'm super goal motivated, and one thing I've wanted to do in order to have a tangible goal is enter a body building competition, but unfortunately the one that I was looking into is on the same day as our next Adventures in Oz burlesque show this April, so I might have to put off that goal for a bit.  I'm so motivated by competition, and it's such a physical goal (though certainly daunting and a whole new world!) so I'd love to at least try it once!  Have any of you guys done body building competitions before?  For now I'm going to start with Kayla's guide and I also got a gym membership through Groupon, but maybe later in 2015 I'll be able to see if it's in the cards!

images via kaylaitsines.com and kayla's instagram
leggings in top photo via bombsheller