Week At A Glance

One thing that really helps with creating and maintaining a healthy lifestyle is to plan out your week. If you already know the choices you're going to make throughout the week, you're much less likely to make bad ones. A schedule of your week gives you something that you have to be accountable to, especially when it comes to fitness. Here's what I do each week to stay on track.

Grocery Shopping:

My number one weight loss tip would be to MAKE YOUR OWN FOOD. Always know exactly what you're eating and how it is helping or hurting your body.

It's important to create a grocery list before you go food shopping because it keeps you from making impulse buys (costing you more money) and buying junk food that you don't want in your house. Don't forget to purge your home of all crap before starting a diet. Also, planning out your meals for the week will keep you from cheating on your diet because you know exactly what you're going to be eating and when.

You want to stay mostly on the border of the grocery store, which is where the produce, dairy, and protein is. Don't go wondering down the cookie and cracker aisle because, as much as you'll hate to admit it, you DON'T NEED ANYTHING down there. Trust me, it's just torture. The only other aisle I go down is the oil/ canned fish aisle so that I can get my olive oil and tuna. 

Daily Meal Plan:

Breakfast: Egg whites with vegetables (broccoli and mushrooms are my favorite) you can also add bacon/ turkey bacon if you think you need it

Snack: Carrot sticks, other vegetables, fruit, nuts, guacamole, hummus

Lunch: Lean protein on a salad (I use olive oil and lemon juice for my dressing)

Snack: Carrot sticks, other vegetables, fruit, nuts, guacamole, hummus

Dinner: Lean protein with vegetables (no butter!)

"Dessert": Depending on what time you have dinner, you may get hungry again. If you're feeling hungry after dinner, try drinking a big glass of water to see if the feeling goes away. If it doesn't then I'd recommend a low-sugar fruit, but not within 2-3 hours of bedtime if you can help it.

Cheat Days/ Alcohol:

I don't believe in having an entire cheat day because, honestly, I could eat an entire week's worth of calories in one day and blow all of my progress. You want a reasonable cheat meal to kick cravings, reward yourself, and shock your system. What you don't want (and I've learned this the hard way many times) is to get on the scale the next morning having gained several pounds and blown your whole week.

Let's be reasonable here. I'm 23-years-old. I'm going to drink alcohol.

I like to reserve my alcohol intake for my cheat nights. Again, be careful of what you're drinking because you can ruin your progress with alcohol as well. I wouldn't have a lot of alcohol before your cheat meal because it's going to slow down your metabolism and increase the affect on the extra calories your taking in. Shy away from high-calorie beers, ciders and cocktails. I'm a big tequila fan so I like tequila and orange juice or tequila soda water and lime. You can do vodka and rum the same way- just watch the calories in your mixers.

Exercise:

I find it best to work out 5 days in a row and then let your body recuperate for 2 days in a row. If you have a weird schedule, do what works best for you but try to workout 4-5 times a week for at least an hour.

Monday: Lower Body strength/conditioning with weights followed by 30 minutes of cardio

Tuesday: Upper Body strength/conditioning with weights followed by 30 minutes of cardio

Wednesday: Cardio-intensive for 45-60 minutes total

Thursday: Total Body strength/conditioning with weights followed by 30 minutes of cardio

Friday: Cardio-intensive for 45-60 minutes total

That's it! Remember, if plan out your week and make smart choices, you'll see the progress you want to see.

xo AJB

The Ultimate StairMaster Booty Workout

Let's be honest, just because we're losing weight and getting in shape doesn't mean we want to have the figure of a 14-year-old boy. There's a lot of value in having a perfectly sculpted butt (emphasis on sculpted, not just big). I'm naturally "gifted" on top, so I put a lot of focus on making my backside look just as good because I certainly wasn't born with anything back there. It really doesn't take that much time to start building a good butt and it can give you added confidence while you're trying to lose weight in other areas. If you put on a pair of pants or a tight skirt/dress and think "DAMN, my booty is rockin'!", you're likely to overlook other areas of your body that you would normally be nitpicking and feeling insecure about. And seeing faster progress back there will give you confidence that you can make the same progress in other areas.

There's a lot to think about when sculpting your behind. You of course want the bulk in the middle, but it's important to do exercises that round the top and lift underneath. Do you really want a big butt that sags? No, you want a butt that's lifted and sexy. I'm going to do other posts/videos with different exercises, but here is a great way to start sculpting your booty while getting in a good cardio routine. It has different speeds so you can raise and drop your heart rate to burn more calories and different stepping moves to sculpt different areas of your butt and legs.

Sidenote: The StairMaster looks intimidating, but once you get used to the steps it's really easy and a lot of fun! Start on slower speeds and bump them up as you get more comfortable.

The Ultimate StairMaster Booty Workout

(20 minutes plus cool down)

Minutes:

0-2: Double Step w/ Donkey Kicks @ speed level 5

2-3: Side Step Left @ speed level 10

3-4: Side Step Left @ speed level 8

4-5: Side Step Right @ speed level 10

5-6: Side Step Right @ speed level 8

6-7: Normal Step @ speed level 4

7-10: Backwards Step @ speed level 8

-repeat this routine for minutes 10-20 and then cool down-

Terms Key: 

Normal Step = one step at a time, as you would normally walk up stairs

Double Step w/ Donkey Kick = skip a step in between and whichever leg is about to step up, kick back as high as you can twice

Side Step = turn your body as much to the side as you can and cross your bottom foot over your top

Backwards Step = turn your body completely around (180 degrees) and step backwards up the stairs

Cool Down = do a normal forward-facing step at a slow speed for 3-5 minutes to drop your heart rate (if you don't cool down after cardio, you risk passing out from lowering your heart rate too quickly)

xo AJB

The Scale: Friend or Foe?

I think the use of the scale is one of the most debated issues regarding weight loss. Should we even use one at all? And if we do how often? How do I know if I'm losing weight and reaching my goals without obsessing over every little number. It's different for everyone but I do believe you need to check in with a scale at least every couple of weeks.

I know, I know, the scale isn't the only way to assess progress. You want to LOOK good. You want your clothes to start feeling loose. You want people to say, "have you lost weight?" You want to see the infamously unattainable inner-thigh gap (sigh... and ugh). Maybe the way you know you've lost weight is when you can wave goodbye to someone and not have your arm flab flapping all over the place.

Whatever your way of knowing you lost weight is, you still need the scale. We all have our "healthy weight range" regardless of how much muscle we are putting on or how bloated we are from our periods. Yes, I just used the "p" word. If you don't know your target weight range, just ask your doctor. It's really that simple. And the only way to know when you've reached that range is to use a scale.

Okay, so now that we've all agreed that we need to use the scale, the question is: how often?

I think a happy medium is to weigh yourself once a week. If you weigh yourself too often you will honestly drive yourself crazy obsessing over it and when it doesn't go well every single day you're going to want to give up. We all have bad days or weird days where we think we were super strict but somehow gained 0.7 pounds and then we want to cry into a pint of Ben and Jerry's ice cream because, you know, what's the point anymore? And that's no way to build confidence in ourselves. If you weigh yourself once a week all of your bad, weird, good and great days will even out and give you a solid number of how your week went overall. And if you don't like the number, you can look back on the week and say "hmm well this and this and this probably explains why I'm not happy with the number so I'll change these variables next week." If you wait too long to weigh yourself and you're not happy with your progress, you won't be able to look back and remember the specifics of your weeks and days to figure out what is holding you back from success.

Remember, like everything in life, moderation is key.

xo AJB