"Do what you can, with what you have, where you are." I've been on the east coast visiting my family in Jersey for over a week. Between fitting in seeing my loved ones, being in the midst of my parents doing a major kitchen renovation (I'm excited to cook & bake in their new, beautiful kitchen the next time I come home!), and still working while I'm here, things have been very busy! Some trip highlights have included spending time down the shore with my parents while the weather has been gorgeous & mild here, and catching up with girlfriends from both college and high school. Oddly enough, when I left San Diego we were having a serious heatwave, and when I got to Jersey, it was unusually cool for the beginning of September. After living in a house that was a sweaty 85 ... [Read More]
workout inspo index
Health Benefits of Stretching + 6 Ways to Fit More Stretching in
Back in high school, I was a competitive cheerleading coach (and a competitive cheerleader myself). I remember telling my cheerleaders how important it was for them to practice stretching exercises often to improve their flexibility, and how I stretched every single day. Here am I, over a dozen years later, and while I'm no longer throwing girls in the air for stunts and memorizing choreography routines, stretching is still a practice that I implement into my active life on a daily basis. Some ways that stretching improves your health include: While you know that stretching obviously improves flexibility, it also improves the range of motion in your joints and blood flow to the muscles. This is why stretching can decrease risk of injury - and we all know that injuries are no ... [Read More]
Why I Yoga
"Every moment you are on this planet, every moment that your heart is beating and your breath is flowing, is an opportunity to celebrate. So many wonderful blessings come into our life, and when we're present, we see them. When we're strong and disciplined we push away the garbage, and when we're bold we make the big choice to light up the world around us, to celebrate..." - Outlaw Yoga Happy Friday & last day of September! Speaking of September, it's deemed National Yoga Month by the Department of Health & Human Services. It's the month where the worldwide yoga community celebrates the practice. As a yogi, I think that every month is yoga month, but this month I've definitely been thinking about my motivations for getting my Om on most days. Lately I've popped ... [Read More]
My HIIT Studio 6-Week Challenge Health & Fitness Results
Hello, hello! Last weekend marked the end of a 6-week challenge that I participated in with my favorite HIIT studio, The Fit Mill. I collaborated with the studio as the health coach for the challenge, and was a participant as well. We're all a work in progress, and I had goals that I was striving to reach at the same time that I was supporting the participants in reaching their own. The premise? A 6-week "Transformation" challenge to kick off 2016 in high gear. The rules were that participants had to workout at The Fit Mill 4 days each week, and then the studio and I provided goals, recommendations, tips, recipes, and support throughout the challenge. Pre-challenge and post-challenge evaluations were held to take measurements and gage fitness levels on a variety of exercises. The ... [Read More]
How I Recover from Challenging Workouts
Hey friends! How have your workouts been in 2016 so far? I'm proud to say that I've been kicking some serious butt lately! After taking a few weeks off of exercise being sick at the start of the year (I can't remember the last time I took even a week off of workouts before that!), I was so happy to get back into it. Working out truly just makes me feel awesome, balanced, happy and accomplished. (There's a reason this blog is called Foodie Loves Fitness people!) I'm in the midst of week 2 of a 6-week challenge with my HIIT gym, where I've committed to workout there at least 4x a week for the duration of the challenge. So far it's going great, but boy, do those HIIT sessions fatigue my muscles. Since it's the end of January when a lot of people are a good couple of weeks into ... [Read More]
A Holiday Gift Guide for the Yogi in Your Life
Hello friends! Have you started your holiday shopping yet? With it still being far enough out to order your presents online, today seemed like a great time to share my gift ideas for the person in your life that loves yoga. As a yogi myself, I own and love the products I list below, and actually just purchased 3 of these as Christmas gifts for fellow yogi loved ones. Let's get to it! Aurorae Synergy Yoga Mat Towel - You may remember that earlier this year I reviewed and hosted a giveaway for the Aurorae Synergy yoga mat towel. I absolutely love this mat, and am 99.9% sure that I'll never go back to a regular yoga mat again. It's just so much more comfortable than a typical mat. Recently I went to a yoga event where mats were given out to use, and I was so uncomfortable the whole ... [Read More]