Entries by andrea

I Can’t. Cook. One. More. Meal.

Hello my friends. Slipping into this quarantine is becoming a rhythm I’m actually getting used to. I had a hard time in the beginning letting go of eating out and running to grab something easily and quickly. I’ve now just accepted that I’m preparing everrrryyyytttthinnnng, but I’ve also learned you don’t have to actually cook everything! Hooray!

Especially now that the weather is warming up, cold foods sound good again. Here are a few ideas on how to simplify meal prep without even turning on the stove or oven:

Make your first meal a protein shake. Nutritious, brainless, and quick, they pack protein, carbs, fat (and even greens and coffee if you want!) ALL IN ONE beautiful glass. There are so many options and flavors, too. If you need an ideas, I happen to know of a killer recipe collection that offers all-natural, organic, homemade recipes.  

                       

For lunch, an everything but the kitchen sink is an ideal mid-day meal. It doesn’t take long to make and you can incorporate protein like chicken, eggs, fish, beans, etc. Throw in a little avocado and dress with lemon juice and a teensy bit of olive oil. Done, and done. I like to have a piece of fruit for dessert for my carb and then a cup of coffee to seal off the cravings valve. LOL.

Dinner doldrums? MAKE A PLATE! Make a ‘charcuterie’ plate of nitrate/nitrite-free salami or turkey or prosciutto, cheese (preferably raw and organic), tomatoes, carrots, olives, kale chips (or any healthy snackie thing you prefer). You can even reward yourself with a glass of wine (I’m all about a reasonable indulgence ;).

If you’re still hankering for a snack, I like to pop my own healthy popcorn on the stove. Just drizzle the bottom of a pot with coconut oil, turn your burner on high, add 1/4 cup organic kernels, cover with a lid, and pop until the pops are a few seconds apart. Top with simply pink salt. Or try cinnamon, stevia, and salt. Or salt and a lot of pepper. Get creative!

I hope you find these ideas helpful and help ease your cooking load!  🙂

By the way, if you’re needing help with accountability on your workouts and clean eating, please join us over at www.21dayhomeworkoutchallenge.com for the swift kick in the pants you’re looking for. 🙂

May 2, 2020 /0 Comments/by

HOME GYM EQUIPMENT ESSENTIALS

Hello friends from quarantine. Sigh.

So the gyms are closed. You can’t take your favorite in studio class with me. 😉

While you don’t really need equipment to get a great workout – there’s so much your own body weight can do – it really does help you to motivate, challenge your muscles, and it’s just fun to have some new toys.

Here’s where I’d start in terms of purchasing essentials for your new home gym. This suggested equipment is reasonably attractive and has a small footprint, so you can store it in a closet or easily move it around.

                       

                       

BASIC DUMBBELLS

If you’re going to invest in dumbbells (they aren’t cheap), spring for the “little black dress” of dumbbells that will hold up forever, look professional, and are easy to match for when you decide to build on. Classic hex dumbbells look great on a small home rack. Go for 2 – 5 sets of small, medium, and heavy weights. For me I’d have 5’s, 8’s, 12’s, and 15’s for a good starter set. I wish these didn’t have an obvious logo on the ends, but Amazon is pretty well cleaned out of plain hexes at the time of publishing this post. You might want to recheck before purchasing.

STABILITY BALL

A stability ball can be used in place of a bench for presses, a multitude of ab exercises, hamstring curls, and so much more. You can even sit on it while you work at your desk for better posture (and more fun :). I recommend most getting a 65cm ball and very tall folks going for a 75cm ball. 55cm is pretty small.

MEDICINE BALL

A 6lb or 8lb medicine ball is hands-down one of my favorite pieces of home equipment. You can slam with them, woodchop, do push-ups, soccer toe taps, pullovers, imaginary jump shots, walking lunges, etc. etc., etc. I also personally prefer using a medicine ball over a foam roller for self-myofascial release – I find the density works so much better and the shape of the ball gets nice and deep into the tissue. I’ve legit had my same personal medicine ball for 12 years and it looks and has held up great.

MINIBANDS

Minibands provide a ton of bang for the buck – they’re terrific for working your legs and glutes, develop the stabilizers that protect your knees, and encourage your body to activate the glutes – essential in preventing back pain. Miniband exercises are also great cardio! The “Glute Guy” Bret Contreras created his own miniband which is also a great choice.

BRAIDED EXERCISE BANDS

I love working with exercise bands to burn out my muscles. I’d invest in a good band over dumbbells if I had to choose. But don’t just buy any band – the braided bands are a must! These are the best because they are so sturdy and last for YEARS. Do not buy cheaper bands, they will snap and youch, does it hurt. These are currently sold out on Amazon unfortunately.

JUMP ROPE

Yes, you can pretend jump rope, but actually jumping rope is infinitely harder, a terrific calorie burn, and fun. They’re a great finisher to a heavy lifting circuit or just 2 minutes will give you an energy burst when you’re feeling an energy slump. Do not waste your money on expensive jump ropes! My favorite jump ropes are called licorice ropes and they look super cheap but they are THE BEST. You can get them HERE. You can also find adjustable jump ropes from Sportime HERE – I realize you might not need a set of six, but they’re so colorful…and maybe you can spread the love to your favorite people and get them hopping too!

PULL UP BAR

Pull-ups are exercise gold! I love that you can just crank out a few every time you walk past a doorway. And this bar is great because you can just put it away when you’re done. It might smudge up your doorway a bit, but it’s nothing a Magic Eraser can’t fix.

BOOTY SPROUT

If you really want to focus even more on glute/leg movement, I bought one of these Booty Sprouts and have really been digging it because you can use it for a variety of things – like bulgarian split squats, a bench press, and as a squat target in addition to being a hip thrust machine. Doing hip thrusts on a medicine ball gives a fantastic burn as well, so this is more of a fun home toy for extra emphasis.

Don’t forget the beauty of a few sprints to the end of your street. Just sprint for you life to the end of your block, walk back, and do it again.

Also, if you’re having a hard time motivating to workout at home, you can join my 21 Day Home Workout Challenge HERE or also just schedule a livestream class with me and my team HERE. 🙂

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

April 18, 2020 /0 Comments/by

How Flexible Dieting (& Eating 1000 Extra Calories a Day) Helped My Fit & Healthy Friend Lose Over 20 lbs 😱

You guys. My friend Shannon here (who is pretty darn fit) (and a mother of two) has been in the fitness industry forever. She’s a fitness expert, widely published model, personal trainer, and co-founder of the Fit Mom Diet.flexible dieting

She’s been been posting on Instagram the last few months how she’s been diligently tracking her macros (carbs, fat, and protein), and has lost over 20 pounds by eating more than 1000 calories EXTRA each day.

Check out her progress pics below. 😱

Yes you are reading those numbers right. She’s actually increased her carb intake by a whopping 115 grams and has still managed to lose body fat!

She’s gone from eating around 1200 calories a day to more than 2200 calories a day.

Although I haven’t written a blog or newsletter in over a year since having my baby, I had to come out of web hiding and share Shannon’s awesome story with you.

Do you want to know how she did it? Have a watch below!

 Enjoy!

Make sure to follow Shannon at @sjdougherty and her macro coach Kari Burghardt from The Body Shop @kariburghardt.

If you have any questions at all, please drop them in the comments below! We would love to hear your feedback!

Thank you for watching and being here. 🙂

June 30, 2019 /0 Comments/by
, ,

Diet And Fitness Lessons From Europe!

Last fall, my fiancé and I ventured out on a nearly month long adventure in Croatia, Slovenia, and Italy.  As a fitness and nutrition expert, I’m normally quite staunch about what I eat. I truly enjoy my food and never feel deprived. I prefer the taste of real food, gigantic salads, colorful soups, pastured proteins, and […]

March 28, 2017 /0 Comments/by
,

Step off the A Team and Join the B Squad

I was on the phone with a former client recently and we were talking about how she’s been consistent at the gym and with her healthy eating, but not really bringing her A game.
 
She didn’t feel good about it even though she certainly wasn’t totally slacking off either.
 
I actually congratulated her and told her that she found the answer to long-term health and fitness, and also, well, everything.
 
It turns out, when we bring our A game all the time, we have no room for improvement and teeter dangerously on burning out.
 
Life is a matter of balance, so when you swing high for too long, you inevitably swing low.
 
When your diet is completely clean, how can things improve when you want your body to change?
 
When you are crushing it at the gym day after day, where do you make adjustments to improve (and avoid injuries too)?
 
There is a lot of talk about balance in life, but there are so many messages encouraging us to crush every goal. To be at the top of your game. It can cause fear and feelings of guilt for not being on A game mode at all times.
 
Really though, life is a marathon and not a sprint. Sprints are meant to be brief. Then they come with long periods of rest and recovery.
 
Let’s take a closer look at how this applies to nutrition.
 
If I started every morning with a perfectly balanced green protein shake, salad with wild caught fish and olive oil and vinegar for lunch, and a 4oz grass-fed steak with sweet potato and steamed broccoli for dinner, I’m eating a near perfect diet.
 
Which is wonderful. But, what happens when my fitness efforts stall, when I want to shred up a little for a beach holiday, when I succumb to 2 slices of pizza and gain 5 pounds overnight?
 
There is simply no room for improvement in a perfect diet.
 
We hear a lot about the 80/20 rule in nutrition, which means we eat clean 80% of the time and indulge the other 20% of the time.
 
I have a different name for it: I call it my B game. 🙃

Also, the idea of committing to bringing your A game day after day can be completely overwhelming. The mere thought can cause many folks to wind up bringing zero game at all.

My B game principles are applicable to not just nutrition and working out, but also work, relationships, finance, and every other part of your life.

So, if you’re bringing zero game at all, just shoot for B! The fact is that you will wind up bringing your A game when you need to and when you want to.

If you’re constantly on your A game, give yourself permission to dip into your C game a little bit. Then come on up to the B squad, where we can sustain success for much, much longer and, with better long-term results.

March 20, 2017 /2 Comments/by

How to Take Your Nutrition Up a Notch

You make sure to eat lots of fruits, vegetables, lean proteins, and nuts and seeds. You even may go so far as to buy organic, low fat milk. But, if you’re interested in diving deeper into nutrition and eating as much for health as you do for aesthetics, it’s a good idea to ditch modern […]

February 27, 2016 /0 Comments/by
,

9 Ways to Stop a Sweet Tooth In Its Tracks

Even the most clean-eating health nut can get sucked into a gnarly sweet tooth from time to time. And while it’s no big deal to indulge on occasion, regular consumption of added sugar can actually cause you to crave more sugar. Drat! From fruity to chocolatey, here are some of my simple, quick swaps to […]

February 27, 2016 /0 Comments/by
,

Restaurant Meals Just a Little Healthier

For the health and fitness conscious, eating out can seemingly come at a cost, but never fear, there are wonderful ways to dine, socialize, and enjoy traditional restaurant dishes while keeping it a bit healthier! Eggs Benedict Try ordering your eggs benny on a bed of greens, like raw spinach. The heat from the ham […]

February 27, 2016 /0 Comments/by
,

Why I’m No Longer Paleo

Have you heard of The Paleo Diet? It’s a popular, controversial diet with a passionate tribe of followers who subscribe to eating only foods that their Paleolithic ancestors would have eaten. The diet restricts all grains, dairy, hydrogenated fats, soy, alcohol, and sugar and promotes organic, whole, unprocessed food. What’s left you might be asking? […]

February 27, 2016 /0 Comments/by