Why I love HIIT

Hello Fit Friends!!

    I hope y'all have had a fabulous week and a great start to your weekend :)

    So this post is going to be about why I love high intensity interval training or how you see me post it all the time, HIIT. 

    We all know my back story, if you don't go back to my first post and read up! I started my adult fitness journey by learning how to love running. Pretty much the majority of last year I ran a "distance" (4-6 miles) runs 5-6 days a week. In April I ran my first 10k with my bff Maddy. It was so fun. I LOVED racing and imagined myself running more 10k's, half marathons and maybe even a marathon someday. And then: I. just. stopped....  After 4/7/13 I did not run 6 miles again (until today!). I don't know what happened. Well that's a lie, I know what happened. I got bored. I get bored easily (it really is not a good quality) and I get bored REALLY easily when it comes to working out. I don't like doing the same thing day after day week after week. Which is probably why I thrived in doing "fire station" work outs with my husband. 1: I didn't have to plan them, he did. and 2: they were different (or variant) every time.

    So I guess after I hit my goal of my first 10k I just kind of jumped off the bandwagon of distance running. I ran 3 miles here, 4 miles there but most of my runs were 2-2.5 miles just to say I "ran" that day. The last time I did steady cardio was on May 21st. I know this because my map my run app told me :) Since the end of may all of my cardiovascular training has been in the form of HIIT and I am hear to tell you why I love it.

    But first I'll give a little more clear explanation of what HIIT is. As I said previously, it stands for high intensity interval training.  HIIT is done by performing a short warm up, followed by 3-10 episodes of high intensity exercise that is separated by lower or medium intensity exercise and then followed by a cool down. The purpose of HIIT is to improve athletic capacity, improve glucose metabolism and to improve fat burning. 

This is how I do my HIIT- 

    I usually 1 do a combo of stair/running HIIT training: 
5 rounds of 1:2 ratio (1 minute all out, 2 minutes walking) on the stairs. I run the stairs as hard as I can for 1 minute and then walk around for 2. I usually do this as a warm up. I then lift weights and resistance train for about 30-45 minutes and end with HIIT running.
5 rounds of 1:2 ratio- run all out for 1 minute and then walk for 2 minutes. 

    That is a typical work out for me when I have weights/stairs available (about 4 days a week) the other days I do 10 rounds of 1:2 ratio running at the track.  

    Typically I burn about 300-400 calories in 10 rounds of HIIT running. Now let me point something out thats amazing about that. In 29 minutes (the time it takes me to do 10 rounds) I am only actively running for 10 minutes. And I burn that many calories! Now if that's not amazing I don't know what its. 

    My goal in HIIT is to always try to lower my heart rate as much as possible during my rest periods. Typically, my heart rate for the majority of the rounds is between 160-170. I then try to lower it to at LEAST 120 during my rest periods. Sometimes I can get it to the 110s or lower (especially in the first few rounds) This is important because it shows how quickly my heart can recover, which shows endurance and cardiovascular strength . I have been pretty consistence in getting my heart rate as low as possible during my rest periods and I also find it is harder to get my heart rate elevated in the first 1-4 rounds of HIIT (which is why if I am only going to do 5 rounds, I do it at the end of my work out when I'm already pretty fatigued) The last round I always try to max out and get my heart rate up to 180 (my max heart rate is 184). This is always a good challenge at the end of my work outs!

     Okay, this brings me to today. As I said above the last time I ran 6 miles was in April. The past few days I have just been itching to start distance running again. I told myself I was going to wait until the weather cooled down a bit (I just couldn't imagine running 6 miles in 104 degrees). But I woke up today and the desire was just too strong. So I laced up my trusty nike frees and hit the pavement. Before I started I had decided I was going to do at least 4 miles but I really wanted to do 5. About 1/2 mile in I decided to do 6 and I just kept my mind focused on that the whole run. 

     The first 2-2.5 miles were a breeze- I felt FANTASTIC! Around mile 3 I started to struggle a bit. Mile 4 (which is always my most difficult mile) was rough. And I pushed through miles 5-6 with a vengeance. I felt so accomplished (and exhausted!!) when I finished. Was this the best run I had ever had? No. Did I make a PR or even keep a consistence pace? Definitely not.   The point of this is to explain what an amazing effect HIIT has had on my body. I have not ran that kind of distance in 4 months- any runner knows that you have to get your body accustomed and trained to run certain distances. I would say (most) anyone could go out and jog a mile or 2. But when you get up to 3, 4, 5, 6 and beyond it takes a little bit more getting used to. Although I haven't been training my body for these type of runs for a few months, my cardiovascular strength was still intact from HIIT. Also, my muscles were so much stronger from all the weight lifting and resistance training I have been doing this summer.

My face pretty much explains how I felt after I finished. 

      Now, will I be running 6 miles 5days a week again, NOPE! But will I be doing it maybe once a week or every other week, definitely! Because I love it! 

       Another difference between distance and HIIT is the amount of time my body stays in "fat burn" vs "fitness" mode. My awesome polar heart rate monitor watch (Polar FT40F if you're curious) lets you know how much of your work out is spent in fat burning vs fitness mode. In a typical work out that I do 5-6 times a week I will burn between 400-600 calories and at LEAST 30% of it (more like 40-50%) is in the "fat burning" mode. When I did my run today I ended up burning over 1000 calories (by the time I got my heart rate to resting) but only 15% of it was fat burning (probably the 10-15 minutes it took my heart rate to lower! ha!) My heart rate for the first 2 miles was in the high 150s to the 160s, by mile 3 it was in the high 160s and miles 4-6 it was in the 170s the whole time. So, although it was a great cardiovascular work out today, it wasn't the best for "fat burning" which is why i will limit my distance running to only once a week. I am trying very hard to put on muscle right now. 

So that's my thoughts on the benefits of HIIT. The important part is finding a workout that you love and can see your self doing consistently for long periods of time. It doesn't matter what it is, just get up and move your body! This just happens to be my current choice of exercise :) 

In case anyone is wondering vegan week 2 has been awesome. Besides being tortured by my husband with a delicious PTerry's cookie and milk I have had a great week :) I have made so many delicious vegan meals and my body just feels like its working so much more efficiently. I can't wait to see what I continue to feel like these next four weeks. 

Alrighty kids its time for me to pop in a movie and enjoy a relaxing Saturday night at home. (Man, I'm old!) 

Until next time,

Live the fit life,

xoxo Katie :) 

Vegan Week One

Hello Fit Friends!! I'm excited to say I have now made it 7 days as a vegan. This week has had its ups and downs but I am happy to say that I have survived it and I am looking forward to these next 5 weeks! So you all know how day one went- recap: I was full :) 

Day two I would say was a good day as well. On Tuesdays Matt and I play on a softball team with a bunch of friends. It is such a good time, I really didn't think I would enjoy it much (I had never really played softball before) but it is SO much fun. That being said, Tuesdays are really really really long days- My day starts when I get up from work at 5 am and really doesn't stop until 10-11 at night. That day I got home from work, went and did a session of HIIT running at the track at the middle school by our house (I have found that I really like to HIIT run on a track, I don't like ANY other kind of running on tracks, but it works really well for HIIT) As soon as I got back from running I whipped up this amazing recipe from OhSheGlows.com: 15 minute creamy avocado pasta. Check out her website for hundreds of more amazing recipes! I seriously spent a good 2 hours on there one day and barely grazed the surface. Here is a pic at my attempt at this fabulous recipe (I added mushrooms because I just LOVE mushrooms and Matt was adding chicken to his so I felt like I needed something extra too) 

Not the prettiest dinner you've ever seen but it was delicious!  I will say this though, the recipe calls for 1-3 cloves of garlic-- I LOVE garlic so I put 3 in there and it was a taaaadddd garlicly- I will probably only do 2 next time. It made about enough for 2 servings however we could have stretched it to three probably. 

After we ate dinner we went straight to our softball game. Now let me tell you something else I've learned that I love about softball, I burn A LOT of calories during a softball game. Anywhere from 400-800 calories depending on how many times I get on base. I think part of it is that I am nervous a lot of the game(as I said I haven't played much) so my heart rate is elevated for almost an entire hour.  So after our game I had burned (with exercise) over 1200 calories that day. This doesn't include the 1700 or so calories my body naturally burns just by living (breathing, digesting, temperature regulating etc) each day. So after the game I was FAMISHED! We stayed for a little bit so Matt could drink some beers with the guys but around 9 o'clock I demanded we leave because 1: It was now my bed time and we had a 40 minute drive home still and 2: I was turning into a "food diva" because I felt like I was dying of starvation. So we got home and I ate a left over black bean burger from the night before w/ some salsa...annnnd a half PBJ sandwich (oops!) all still vegan but probably not the  best choice :) 

Now onto wednesday... Let me say this... Wednesday....was...ROUGH.... I almost gave up wednesday because I felt like I was dying. Let me preface this by saying that I had been having a pretty consistent headache since about Friday night. I don't know what was going on but it had been there and I had kind of just been trying to ignore it. By Wednesday I had reached a breaking point and I thought that I was doing something wrong. I thought I wasn't getting enough protein, or iron, or something that was making my body feel this way. If y'all know me you know that I suffered from chronic headaches for a good 5 years until my stubborn self finally went and got allergy tested and found out that I was allergic to hmm...every seasonal allergy that exists in central Texas. But my headaches have been pretty controlled with allergy mediation for the past 18 months so it was really strange that I was going on 5 days feeling this way. I was also dizzy, nauseous, fatigued and on wednesday night I even ran a slight fever.   I thought I was either 1: doing something terribly wrong to my body or 2: actually coming down with the flu or some other illness. 

That night Matt and I made vegan fajitas using portobello mushrooms as our "meat" (well technically Matt actually ate real meat) and they were delicious! We also made homemade corn tortillas.  Side note: homemade corn tortillas are so easy to make. You literally just have to have 4 things. 1: corn masa (you can get it at any store, we got ours at HEB) 2: water (who doesn't have water?) 3: a tortilla press (honestly you could probably use a heavy book) and 4: a stove. BOOM homemade corn tortillas! They are wonderful and don't have any of the nasty preservatives store bought ones can have. (and they're gluten free!) 

Here's a pic of our portobello fajitas on our homemade corn tortillas topped w/ avocado and salsa: 

After we ate dinner I pretty  much felt like death so I went straight to bed. I woke up Thursday morning still feeling  pretty crappy. I had a bad headache, I was dizzy and really fatigue (even though I got a good night sleep). On thursday morning at work I text my dad's girlfriend Donna, to tell her that I unfortunately wouldn't be able to come over that afternoon to say goodbye to her daughter, Stephanie (who was leaving for college the next day) due to me feeling so badly. She then told me that I might be going through a "Healing Crisis" from changing my diet. I then quickly googled "healing crisis" and was so relieved to find out that this was EXACTLY what was happening to me (Thank you, Donna!). Basically a healing crisis is when you change  your diet in a way that causes your body to expel all the toxins it had in it prior to the change. This can last anywhere from 1 day to 2 weeks (or longer) depending on each individual person. Now, I was eating a pretty healthy diet prior to going vegan, but I was also carb backloading which allowed me to eat (some) junk. It expels the toxins anyway it can, though all your major organs which then causes the side effects of : headaches, nausea, malaise, fatigue, and fever. Bingo! Once I realized that this is what I was going through and that I wasn't doing something wrong I instantly felt more motivated to just push through these few days so I could start feeling great again. I drank a TON of water on Thursday hoping to expel the toxins that way and when I got home from work instead of working out (like I normally would) I took a 1.5 hour nap to really rest and re-set my body. I woke up feeling 100x better and made this for dinner: 

A mixed green salad w/ sliced strawberries, blueberries and almonds (no dressing) 

      

 Portobello mushroom and eggplant (from our local Bastrop Farmers Market!) sauteed in olive oil with a side of baked sweet potato and quinoa. 

I actually ate the salad while I was cooking the other stuff because I was really hungry when I woke up. Side note: I mentioned I ate my salad w/ no dressing. I actually eat MOST of my salad's w/ no dressing. To me if a salad has enough good tasting stuff in it I typically don't need dressing. If I am going to have dressing I will use a balsamic of some sort. We got two delicious balsamic vingarettes from Con'olio here in Austin, super cool place (Thanks, Kathy for recommending that place to us!) 

Friday was a brand new day for me and I felt like a brand new person. I had pushed through my bodies healing crisis and I felt FANTASTIC! On Fridays my friends at work and I always go out to eat so this week we went to Torchy's and I got their "independent" w/ a few modifications.  This taco usually comes w/ fried portobello mushrooms (I just had it not fried) and it usually has cheese on it, I just got it with no cheese! I was so delicious! 

Tip about Torchy's that my friend Katie taught me: If you order your taco on corn tortillas (which I always do because I prefer corn) They will give you two tortillas for 1 taco. Also, they always give you enough "filling" to make 2 tacos. This is what I did here. What you see is actually one taco split into two. Awesome, right?! 

Friday night Matt was working so I just had left overs from the night before. Saturday his sister and dad came to town for the afternoon so after we made a stop at our local farmers market where we got amazing organic pretzel and whole wheat bread, locally grown bell peppers, egg plant and jalapenos, and Matt got the "best gumbo he's ever had" (cc: our friend Josh's parents: hereslebouefcatering.com - check them out!!)  We then went to lunch at our favorite local restaurant Bastrop Brewhouse. I ordered a spinach salad w/ strawberries, blue berries, apples, pecans and tomato and again had it w/ no dressing (there was no need!) I forgot to take a picture before but wish I would have taken one after because there was NOTHING left on my plate(Clean plate club!!!). This was the first time I have ever eaten an entire salad at a restaurant. Later that day after I worked out I had my first protein shake w/ my new protein: I got it at Whole Foods, but I also saw it at Sprouts (for cheaper) later that day! (bummer!!) 

One: that protein is delicious

Two: yes that is a green protein shake made w/ chocolate protein

Ingredients:

1/4-1/2 cup of coconut milk

1-2 cups of spinach

1/2 cup of kale

1 tbs peanut butter

1/2 banana

1 tsp ground flaxseed 

1 scoop chocolate plant fusion protein

I cannot express how much I have been loving my green smoothies. My morning ones are different than my post-work out ones. The base is always the same: 

1/4/-1/2 cup of coconut milk

1-2 cups of spinach

1/2 cup of Kale

1 tsp ground flax seed

But then I add:

1/2 banana

1/2 cup frozen pineapple 

1/2 cup frozen mango

1 tsp of mango strawberry spark

1/2 cup of ice.

I always bend the coconut milk and greens first (I found it works better this way) and then follow it up w/ the banana, flax seed, and frozen fruit/ice.

It is like drinking a tropical paradise!! I LOVE it!. 

Well guys thats week one.. So far I LOVE being vegan and will continue it this week. I have not missed eating meat at all. I honestly haven't really missed dairy that much either. Plus all the benefits out weigh sacrificing these simple things from my diet. I have so much more energy. I don't get sleepy mid afternoon the way I used to. My skin looks better. My digestive track seems healthier. I never feel bloated or have tummy aches (unless I eat too much but that quickly goes away) I am not worried about how many calories I eat because I know that the foods I'm eating are way less calorically dense then the ones I was eating before. I have lost 1 pound (not my goal but a great side effect) and overall I just feel better. 

Today I plan on working on some vegan baking recipes that I have either found on pinterest, from ohsheglows.com or from the new "healthy deserts" book I bought from Muffin Topless (muffin-topless.com) I'll let you know how that goes! 

One last thing I though I'd share. It was cool outside this morning so I decided to take my laptop (and my fur babies) outside to blog. Here's my current view: I LOVE our deck and our yard. It is so peaceful and quiet :) 

annnd another one of Miss Stella And Mr. Jameson. I just love these two :) 

I hope you all had a fabulous week and weekend! I'll see ya next time.

Live the Fit life,

xoxo Katie 

Going Vegan Day One

Two words to describe day one-  I'M FULL!!! 

So a little preface- for about 2 months I have been doing a program w/ Matt called carb back loading- to put it simply (it is really quite complicated if I tried to explain the science of it) we only eat 30 grams of carbs or less during the day- Work out like beasts at 4pm and then carb backload after our work out- which means we ate A LOT of carbs. The program is designed so that you can simultaneously build muscle while still shedding fat- instead of having to cycle bulking/cutting phases.
So you can imagine, once dinner time rolled around I was STARVING. The difference I noticed today was that I could barely eat dinner I was so full!! Even though I had just worked out (almost) as hard as I usually do. Here's what I had today:

Morning smoothie: 

4 strawberries- 1/4 cup raspberries- 1/8 cup of blueberries- 1/2 banana- 1/2 cup of kale  and 1/2 cup of unsweetened vanilla almond milk- 1/2 of scoop of strawberry mango spark(i usually don't have caffeine in the morning but I was REALLY tired this morning)

The whole thing was about 150 calories (of deliciousness!!) I plan on getting some coconut milk and coconut oil to add to my smoothies this week. 

Mid morning I ate a mix of almonds and sunflower seeds to hold me over for lunch where I had: 

1/4 cup of quinoa and mixed veggies (bell peppers, squash, zucchini and mushroom)

This held me over for about ehhhh 45 minutes :( and then I had a brown rice cake w/ a tablespoon of peanut butter. And then about an hour before my work out (3pm) I had a luna bar-- I usually don't eat protein bars of any type (because they are all usually terrible for you) but I LOVE Luna bars- all the ingredients are all natural and they are all vegan, gluten free, dairy free, soy free, non GMO and kosher. Most of them have a max of 4-5 ingredients. Which is AWESOME- I had the carrot cake one today- it was okay- I had the peanut butter and jelly one yesterday and I loved it. 

After work I headed straight to work out- I figured I'd include it in here incase anyone is interested- I started with 5 rounds of HITT- 1:2 ratios- I run as hard as I can for 1 minute and rest for 2, repeat 5 times (I typically do 6-10)

I was feeling pretty tired today(didn't sleep well last night) so I just did 10 rounds of: 10 stiff leg dead lifts, 10 squats, 10 push ups, 10 calf raises. AKA 100 of all. Followed by 3 rounds of 15 inclined abs. 

As I said before I had planned on continuing using my after work out protein shakes- even though they are whey based- annnd I felt like I was going to vom after drinking it- I just don't think my body was accustomed to eating that much during the day. 

For dinner I made black bean burgers (thanks for the recipe, Bailey! I loved them!)  I had them w/ a side of avacado and salsa, kale, bell pepper, mushrooms and garlic. It was a chore getting it down!  Not that it wasn't delicious, but I was just that full. 

So overall today was a good day. I did not feel deprived at all- I have not missed meat or dairy at all (yet!). 

I probably won't post everyday since most days will be like today- but I will give weekly updates on recipes I've tried and liked (or disliked) as well as how my body feels with this new change!

Thanks for reading guys!

Live the Fit life,

xoxo Katie 

Going Vegan!

So as we all know I LOVE documentaries. Netflix has a great database for documentaries and I take full advantage of them. My two most recent faves were Farmageddon  and Vegucated. I highly recommend both and if you have Netflix they are both on there,

Boom! Easy peasy!

Farmageddon looks into the way our government over regulates local organic farmers while they let farm factories slide on by. I was disgusted after watching this documentary and it furthered pushed my desire to eat local and shop at farmers markets, which Matt and I have begun to do! Yay! Our local one in Bastrop is pretty small but we got some AMAZING bell peppers, eggplant, pretzel bread and honey -- all grown or made locally- and definitely plan on going back. I also have been trying to find a farm where I can buy raw milk. The benefits of raw milk are astronomical:  proteins, it's lactobacalli bacteria intact (which allows people with lactose allergy to drink it!!), good fats,

vitamins, minerals, enzymes, and beneficial bacteria. 

Matt actually did find a farm near us that does sell raw milk (and milk products such as yogurt and cheese) that we plan on checking out. However, my raw milk hunt is temporarily MOOt because.....

Last night I came home, flicked on Netflix and found a nice little documentary to watch: Vegucated.

This documentary follows 3 meat loving New Yorkers as they go vegan for 6 weeks with the help of the film maker who is vegan herself. This documentary was a huge eye opener for me. Matt and I have been buying "free range" chicken and eggs and "grass fed" beef for awhile now and we will continue to always do so; we are even in the talks about getting our own chickens.  However,  learning about how the majority of Americans get their meat, eggs, and dairy, from farm factories that cruelly treat the animals and brutally execute them once they've served their purposes was horrifying. Here's the facts that stuck with me: 

1) male baby chicks serve no purpose so they are therefore killed immediately either by being GROUND ALIVE or just thrown in the trash to starve/suffocate to death

2) Other chickens are killed by being hung upside down, heads in water and then electricity is shot through the water. after they live their entire lives in tiny cages where their beaks are sawed down so they can't peck each other to death

3) pigs are thrown into boiling water to be killed and sometimes skinned while still alive. 

4) baby calves are taken from their mothers within 48 hours of life and either sold for veil, killed, or sent to another farm to live a horrible existence.

Had enough? Yeah me too. Now, not ALL farms are like this, but the majority of them are, and that's enough for me to try to give another lifestyle a try: a vegan lifestyle. The documentary goes into way more details of how beneficial a plant based diet is for our bodies and the earth, but I am not going to go into the details. Watch the documentary! You won't be disappointed :) 

So this morning I presented the idea to Matt about me wanting to try to go vegan for 6 weeks (as they did in the documentary) and his first response was "I'm not doing it!!!" "I can't survive that way" "I NEED meat."  Which I totally expected. He has a career that causes him to exert A LOT more energy then I do. I know he COULD do it, but I also understand that he does not want to, and I respect that. Just as he respects the fact that I want to try to do this. So we packed up and drove into Austin to go to Whole Foods. I stocked up on lots of veggies, fruits, some quinoa, peanut butter (a must have in my life) and a few other vegan substitutes- such as Nada Moo vegan ice cream- made with coconut milk. It's all organic and all AMAZING! I love it! I felt I would struggle the most when I watched Matt eat things I couldn't (like ice cream-- oh how I love ice cream) but having this alternative substitute will be great for me!

So that's my background on the start of this 6 week(and maybe forever journey) 

I am going to be tracking my struggles and accomplishments, my likes and dislikes, my new favorite dishes and things I could live with out. I plan on going full vegan my first week (giving up dairy is going to be hard for me, I love Greek yogurt and cheese-- I also plan on continue using my whey protein for after my workouts- I want to continue to build muscle) But I will have NO meat for 6 weeks. I hope you'll follow my journey on this! I have already had so much support from friends on Facebook and would love if y'all commented/questioned on here too.  

Til tomorrow,

Stay fit friends.

xoxo Katie 

The Dreaded D Word

Hello All!

Welcome back :)

So today I want to address a topic that I feel very strongly about, and it all starts with the word DIET! 

I HATE the word diet, well, mostly I hate how society uses the word diet. Everything is DIET DIET DIET! The "new" diet, the "IT" diet, diet pills, diet drinks, diet food.... How many times have you heard someone or even said yourself, "okay, I'm starting my diet tomorrow..." Does anyone ever stop to really think about what that word means... Technically speaking, a diet is just the food or drink regularly consumed by a individual or group of people. However, our society has turned it into a word that means you have to deprive your body of calories in order to lose weight and to get the figure you want. This is NOT true!! You can actually feed your body the nutrition it needs, never feel deprived AND lose weight!! It actually inhibits your weight loss when you starve yourself because your body goes into panic mode and starts to store fat. This is no bueno. 

Anyone who knows me, knows I can go from happy go lucky Katie, into DEMON ZOMBIE in a matter of seconds when I get rapidly hungry and my blood sugar crashes. Just ask my husband....or my friends, or family... or ANYONE who has been in the vicinity of me while I feel as if I'm starving.  I am not a pleasant person. I have tried to "diet" a numerous times in my adult life, all unsucessfully. I just can't do it. It wasn't until I decided to change my outlook on life, food, nutrition, and fitness that I was able to eat, satisfy my hunger, while still fueling my body with food that it NEEDS, not food that I WANT, and STILL lose weight and get fit.  

Diet's DO NOT work. Plain and simple. Diet pills don't work (instant gratification, yes possibly, long term satisfaction, no.) Healthy nutrition and consistent fitness will get you the results you want in your body, while also allowing you to live a life full of happiness and good health.  Our society is obsessed with instant gratification. We all want, what we want, and we want it NOW! If you live your life constantly wanting instant gratification you will likely live a very unhappy life in the long run.  Nothing in life that is worth it comes easy. You have to work HARD at things in order to make you appreciate them. Your health is no different. 

That all being said, lately I have become more and more interested in all these "diet" gimmicks out there. The one I see most often, literally on a daily basis, are microwave meals. Now I'm not talking about food you cook at home and then microwave, or even the food you can by at healthy food stores that is made with fresh ingredients and packaged weekly. I am talking about the brand name, freezer section, microwave meals. Company's brand these "meals" with words like, "lean and healthy", but there is nothing lean or healthy about pre-packaged, preservative packed, nuked food.  I literally see about 25-30 women and men a day eating these meals. Each time I walk past I just want to stop them and say, do you REALLY want to put that in your body? But I'd probably get slapped. 

Now I'll be honest, I used to eat these meals regularly, however I used to do a lot of things that were terrible for my health on a regular basis. Granted, is eating a pre-packaged microwaved meal better than a big burger and large fries? In some ways, sure.  It's lower in calories, thats for sure, but it's still not healthy and people are being deceived by marketing. 

Everyone, for the most part, knows that in order to lose weight you have to burn more calories than you take in. Pretty simple concept. Therefore most people think just limiting their caloric intake will give them the results they want, with out thinking twice about nutritional value of the calories they are eating. Sure, you can limit yourself to 1300 calories a day, do it for a month, lose a few pounds. However, without completely changing your lifestyle could you live on that "diet" forever? Probably not. Therefore as soon as you stop limiting your caloric intake you will likely gain back all the weight you lost and then some. Why? Because you didn't change WHAT you were eating, you just changed how MUCH you were eating. Also, most "diet" foods are horrible for you... I have become a "label nazi" in that I read the labels on EVERYTHING!!! If it has things I can't pronounce or don't know what it is I generally won't eat it. Why would you put things in your body when you don't know what they are, or how they will effect it? My husband actually gets annoyed at how often I read labels. But I would rather know and make a health conscious choice then turn a blind eye and ingest unnecessary chemicals. Makes sense, right?

  I had to change the way I looked at food, and focus on eating healthy, clean, fresh, non-processed food. If you do this too, you will not only lose weight, but you will feel 100x better and in turn will be likely to keep that weight off for the long haul. 

Now back to these dreaded meals. Microwave meals lack nutritional value. It is all in the processes it takes to create them. They lose all of the vital nutrients and minerals that may be in those veggies or meat you are eating and therefore are just EMPTY calories. Yes they are LOW in calories, but the calories you are consuming are not doing anything for your body. 

The food  is chemically altered as it is heated by the microwave. When you then eat those meals you ingest those chemicals into your body.  They are heavily filled with preservatives and chemical additives (they HAVE to be to last as long as they do in the freezer).  Just think of it this way. If you made say a turkey breast and some veggies and you put it in your Tupperware and stuck it in the fridge/freezer. How long would you let it sit there before you threw it out from going bad? A week? A month? Now how long would you leave a packaged meal in your freezer and then eat it  no problem? Thats because it has chemicals in it to preserve the food. 

Fresh ingredients will ALWAYS be a better choice for your body. Poor quality ingredients (like those found in microwave meals) have to use additives to make them taste better, and lets be honest, none of them taste very good anyway. How many times have you eaten one of those meals and walked away saying "MAN! That was tasty! I am so full and satisfied!". Mmhmm thats what I thought, never!!

       As soon as a vegetable or fruit is picked it immediately begins to lose its vitamin and mineral content. By the time the fruit/veggies in those meals are processed, packaged, and make it to your microwave, they have almost no nutritional value.  Which brings me back to my point that you are just eating empty calories. If you are going to limit your caloric intake a day (which isn't a bad thing, you have to limit your calories if you want to lose weight, but just make sure the calories you eat are not empty calories.) Wouldn't it make more sense to take in calories that are going to give your body the nutrients it needs to aid your goals?
       Trust me on this one. MAKE YOUR LUNCH! Bring a sack lunch from home. Fill it with fresh healthy foods: protein, vegetables, fruit, complex carbs. Things that will make you actually feel full and satisfied while still fueling your body with things it needs to thrive. You will feel a million times better and you WILL see a dramatic difference in your body. 

I don't mean to offend anyone who chooses to diet this way, or diet in general. I just know from personal experience what works for me and what doesn't. Thats what I want to share with you guys. I was so naive at one point, and I still have a lot to learn. I am constantly reading fitness and nutrition articles and watching documentaries to learn more. I just really wanted to get this one out there since I know so many people fall to the marketing scheme of these meals. 

You CAN lose weight the healthy way. Yes it took me almost a year to lose 30lbs. I probably could have done that a lot faster if I chose to do it in an unhealthy way. But it has been 4 months and I still haven't gained any weight back. I continue to fuel my body with healthy food because it tastes good and makes me feel good. I resist temptation and things I find to be empty calories. I choose wisely what and when I put things in my body. Yes I have "cheat meals" but for the most part I eat a healthy, clean, diet. (there's that word again!)

You can do it too. Just think. You only have this ONE body to live in for the rest of your life. Give it the best chance you can at a healthy, satisfying, successful life. 

Until Next time, 

Eat fresh, eat clean, train hard, train mean, live lean and of course,

Live the Fit Life. 

Fojtik Fit Life - My Story

Hello All! 

  Over the Past 14 months I have developed a serious passion for health and fitness. Through out this last year I have learned so much and there have been numerous occasions where I wanted to share things I've learned with others but didn't have an outlet to do it. So I decided it was time to start my own blog. I'll start with a little bit about me and my "journey" (hate that word!) 

Growing up I played soccer since I was  4 years old. Which meant I was practicing 3 days/week plus weekend games (sometimes 5 in one weekend!) so needless to say I NEVER was concerned about my weight/fitness when I was growing up because I was kept fit through soccer.

Freshman year of college hit and I would say I definitely gained the dreaded freshman 15. Throughout college I would work out here and there, play intramural sports and keep fit by walking up the OUTRAGEOUS hills at Texas State (eat em' up cats!)  

After college, in about the 2nd year of the relationship with my (now) husband is when I really started to feel self conscious and notice my weight. It kind of was one of those things always in the back of my mind but I wasn't ready to really do anything about it. I tried P90x for awhile, it was an intense work out, but I didn't adjust my eating habits and therefore no difference was really made. I would "run" here and there, but I would be huffing and puffing by a mile and give up, just telling myself  "I'm not a runner". 

10/10/10- I got engaged! YAY! Wedding planning commence! For the next year Matt and my lives were CONSUMED with wedding planning!! Most girls get engaged and immediately think about getting in "wedding shape". This NEVER crossed my mind. I know crazy right? Now let me stop right here and say that "technically" I was never "overweight" I am a tall girl, 5'9", so I was weighing in the "normal weight class" for my height. And thats how i justified it. I thought this was just how my adult body would be. 

So Matt and I got married 12/4/11 (BEST day of my life BY FAR!!) and we immediately honeymooned in Punta Cana Dominican Republic.  The resort we stayed at was AMAZING. And the food was even BETTER! We both ate to our little hearts  desires and spent the rest of the time laying on the beach, and well, you know ;) (sorry dad!)  so we get back and we've both gained at LEAST 5 lbs. And then the holidays hit. By the time January 1st came around I was at the heaviest weight i have ever been..... 160lbs. (this is the first time I've admitted this publicly... deeeeeep breath katie) I knew i needed to get into shape. And I was ready to start. 

I did what everyone does in the New Year, I started going to the gym! I would go straight from work, do about an hour of cardio on an Arc Trainer, and then piddle around on the machines for 15-20 minutes and go home and walk my dog. By doing this from January-May I would say I lost about 8-10lbs, which is GREAT! My original goal was to lose 15lbs. I wanted to weigh 145. I plateaued at 150. I wasn't losing ANY weight. Granted, I really hadn't changed my diet thaaaat much, I would say I was just eating less, but not exactly healthy. 

I honestly remember the first time I saw 149 on the scale. It was around June 1st. That was the fist time I remember weighing in the 140s in YEARS. I was ECSTATIC!!! 

Everything changed (for the better) in July. My husband, Matt, is a fire fighter. One of the stations he works at is really close to where we used to live in Austin and during the summer he started working out there quite a bit (when he was and wasn't on shift) so I occasionally would go up there with him and try to keep up with little things he did here and there. I began lifting and squatting weight more. I would run laps in the field outside the station. Matt had begun running group work out sessions with some of the guys at the station. They were doing fire related activities (pulling fire house, hammering tires, flipping tires, running stairs with bundles of hoses, whipping hose etc.) Up until that point I would just do my own thing while they did that because I thought I COULDN'T do what they did, I thought I wasn't strong enough. Then one day I thought, what the hell, I'll just TRY it. And you guessed it, I COULD do it! Granted, when i first began (and even now with some things) I couldn't flip or pull as much weight as the guys could. I would carry a smaller bundle or flip a smaller tire, I eventually worked my way up to the medium size tire that even some of the guys still use. I was doing everything they were doing with modifications here and there. 

By August, with the weight training being a regular thing, (5-6 days per week) I began to see major changes. I believe when Matt and I went to NYC in august i was 146, and thanks to walking 5-10 miles a day there, 144 when we got back! I had hit my first goal. At this point I was becoming more and more conscious about my diet.


Now let me just say, I HATE the word diet how it is used in our society. I am NOT and never WILL be "on a diet". Diets DON'T work, but that will be a whole other blog. Lets just say I started paying attention to nutrition annnnd RUNNING!

Like I said before I had always said "I'm not a runner" (even in soccer!!) I DESPISED running. But my husband, and common sense, has always told me that running is the BEST cardio for your body. The most natural form of cardiovascular work out you can do. Great for your heart, great for your joints, great for your muscles and GREAT for weight loss! Like I said, january 2012 I couldn't run a mile w/out stopping. By october-november I had jumped to 4-5 miles w/out stopping. By January 2013 i believe is ran i my first 6 mile run! My BFF and I had decide to do the Capital 10k this april and I wanted to start training, so one I day I just decided to try to run 6 miles and I did. And now I LOVE running. (more of that later as well)  

Over the fall I became real serious about nutrition. I have always been a really picky eater, I didn't eat many veggies and only certain fruit. But I watched tons of documentaries, read blogs and different articles and decided to fuel my body instead of just feeding it. I am PROUD to say that by January 1st 2013 I had lost 30lbs and weighed in at 130!!!! Such an AMAZING feeling y'all. I never EVER thought I would weigh 130. I now typically fluctuate from 130-135 depending on my fitness level and food consumption and I'm happy here. This year my goal is to put on some muscle mass and continue to work on fueling my body with food that is good for it. 

Here is what i call a "progress pic" and probably one of the ones i'm most proud of. On the left is me in January 2012 (160lbs) Right is From January 2013(130lbs) I've also dropped from i size 10-12 to a size 4-6. I haven't been a 4 since my freshman year of high school!! 

So thats my story. Sorry it was super long. I didn't expect it to be but I feel its necessary to explain where I came from and where I'm headed. 

The blog is called living the Fit life with the Fojtik's because I am 100% in this with my husband. He is my ROCK and I would not have made it this far with out him. He is an amazing cook and always comes up with awesome healthy meals for us to eat, and we work out together almost every day, he motivates me to push myself harder, and we even recently have been able to run together since I've quickened my pace, which is something I've always wanted to do.  I've had my ups and downs and learned a lot over this last year and cannot wait to share it all with you guys. I plan on posting fitness and nutrition tips, funnies, healthy recipes, work outs and motivation. Thats what this is all about. 

So please come back and check out my blog! I PROMISE not every post will be this long and all about me! 

Hope to see you soon, until next time.

Live the Fit Life!