New Year, New Challenges.

It's time for me to be honest with myself. 

It seems that its so easy to pretend that your body isn't changing

That you can eat whatever you want like the rest of your  friends and family

but then you start wearing sweat pants more often and baggier and baggier T shirts. 

You start to be in denial why your jeans get too tight. 

You start to lie to yourself daily - TOMORROW I will do better. 

I'm so sad to say that I Gained Weight. 

Weight that I worked SO HARD to lose. 

It took me almost a year to lose 19 pounds by eating healthy and exercising daily. 

But ever since I went to Disneyland in October, I haven't been able to reign in my eating habits. I haven't been able to stop finding excuses not to workout and not to have to eat clean and reasons why it would be okay to get a cookie with my salad at paradise....

I could feel myself slipping slowly into my old habits. Lying to myself and the people around me. Binge eating daily. Treating everyday as a cheat day. Using the Holidays as an excuse to eat like I was at a buffet. 

But I did all of these things. I did it and I was too ashamed and scared to step onto the scale. I kept thinking that I would go back to eating healthy and that I would go back to the way I was before. But of course it's not that easy. I finally had the courage to weigh myself today and I've gained 10 pounds. 

TEN POUNDS that took me MONTHS to lose. 

10 pounds I lost by WORKING MY BUTT OFF in a CrossFit gym that I no longer have the time or money for. 

10 Pounds that came from ordering salads when everyone else was ordering pasta, from eating fruit when everyone else ate ice cream, from prepping meals at night when everyone else was watching T.V.

I think you get the picture. Those 10 pounds were hard work, and I feel like I've just thrown in all down the drain. 

I remembered a quote that used to fuel me in the beginning. It was: "Eat to live, don't live to eat". I feel like I used to really know what that meant. I used to live by it. I would feel bad for the people around me who were fueled by the food they would get to eat, so excited for the dessert. 

I would feel power from turning down the bread and I would feel more motivated the more I stuck to my eating plan. 

Tomorrow I start, I mean REALLY start going back to the habits I had worked so hard to acquire. 

I will eat clean, healthy and fresh foods. 

I'm starting a new challenge to motivate me to workout daily (even if its not a crossfit wod) called the Spartan 30. 

I will take new pictures of me at my new weight -  even though I am extremely embarrassed that I let this happen and that I am not the person I wanted to be this year. 

Its 2014, and I hope to be able to make the most of it. 

- Dani

Fitness and Health New Years Resolutions

I absolutely LOVE making New Years Resolutions. The problem is, I usually don't keep them :/

Last Year I did AMAZING (not to toot my own horn) I pretty much stuck to my healthy eating/fitness goals all the way until about this October... Ever since I got engaged I have been eating TERRIBLE!

You'd think with an impending wedding I would be stepping up my game?? I have gained several pounds, my skin looks unhealthy and I am reverting back to old habits. 

THANK GOODNESS FOR THE NEW YEAR!

I always feel like the new year is a fresh start, where we can erase the mistakes of the old year and welcome the change of the new year. 

I plan to do just that! I have 4 months to get back into shape for my engagement pictures. 

Not only that, LAST year my goal was to do the Spartan Race, which I did and you can read about my experience HERE. 

This year my new fitness goal is to do a Sprint Triathlon this summer. A Sprint Tri is a ¼ Mile Swim, 12.5 Mile Bike, and finished with a 3.1 Mile Run. 

I started training for this in the end of this last summer but then became consumed with school and gave up my training. This semester, I am putting aside excuses and committing to training for the sprint tri!

There is one on May 19th that I am going to keep in mind as a goal!

Here are all of my fitness & health goals:

Happy New Years everyone!

-Dani

How to Pack the PERFECT Healthy Lunch!

As most of you know, this year I embarked on a new part of my life: The Life of an Education Major!

I spent many days eating lunch in classrooms, eating in teacher's lounges and eating lunch on the go. 

I knew if I wanted to maintain the healthy lifestyle I had worked so hard to create for myself, I would need to put in the extra time and plan my lunches ahead of time.

It took ALLOT more work/thinking power than just buying my lunches from the subway in the cafeteria, or just packing a traditional sandwich. 

Here is my recipe for packing my lunch:

I tried to stick to these rules as often as possible! I also packed things like full fat yogurt, cheese sticks, hummus and I ALWAYS pack a dark chocolate square for a treat!


Last but not least, I recommend BUYING A LUNCHBOX THAT MAKES THIS ALL POSSIBLE. I had a few different lunch boxes I would try out, but it was like lugging around a small suitcase with all the Tupperware stacked inside.

Then I found this cute website http://www.laptoplunches.com/ on Pinterest one day when I was pinning lunch ideas. I kept seeing people pinning Bento Boxes or Laptop Lunches and I was like - Those are SO cute! I ordered one in the mail, (quite possibly the most expensive lunchbox EVER) but it was SO worth it. As you will see from the pictures of my lunches below, it kept my food organized and neat. I no longer had to lug around a cooler of food and it incidentally kept my portion sizes PERFECT. (this is no advertisement, I am just a HUGE FanGirl).


Some of the Examples of Lunches I Packed:
I wasn't able to snap pictures of ALL my lunches, but I managed to get a good amount of examples! I always fill one container with protein, one with veggies and then wing the rest.

Chicken Salad, Banana Chips, Carrot Sticks, Full Fat Greek Yogurt Sprinkled with Slivered Almonds and a piece of Dark Chocolate.

Chicken Salad, Full Fat Yogurt, Cheese Stick, Carrots and Hummus, Cashews and Dark Chocolate (This Bento Box was packed to get me through a full day-night at school, 9 a.m. to 7 p.m.)

Steamed Veggies, Ham and Cheese Roll Ups, Almonds, Grapes and of Course, My dark Chocolate!

Chicken and Hummus, Steamed Veggies, Watermelon, Almonds, Cheese Stick and Dark Chocolate

Diced Chicken, Sweet Potato Fries, Grapes, Cashews and Dark Chocolate

Chicken Stir Fry, Grapes, Carrots and Hummus, Cashews, Cheese Stick and Dark Chocolate

Roast Beef, Apple Slices, Cashews, Yogurt and Dark Chocolate

Air popped popcorn, ham and cheese roll ups, carrots and hummus, and pinneaple

Ham and cheese roll ups, Pirates Booty, Trail Mix, Grapes

Turkey and Cream Cheese Roll Ups, Avocado, Peaches, Carrots, Almonds and Dark Chocolate

Ham, Salad, peaches, trail mix, dark chocolate

Egg salad, steamed veggies, peaches and yogurt

Chicken Lettuce Wraps Insides, Cantaloupe, Cashews, Yogurt and Dark Chocolate

(Skipped the Veggies today?? WEIRD!) Ham, Cottage Cheese, Almonds and Yogurt

Diced Chicken, Salad, Almonds, Yogurt and Dark Chocolate

Some of these lunches may look a little big... It's because they were packed to keep me full for 10 hours! Most of the time I packed, I USED LEFTOVERS! That is my main tip for you if you are going to try and pack lunches, it is SO much easier to make a little extra dinner and pack that, than have to create a whole separate meal. 

So Glad I finally got this post out there :) I hope this helps anyone struggling with packing lunches! Keeping it Gluten Free and Healthy kept me full the whole day, kept any uncomfortable bloating away and really helped me stick to my eating plan!

Love, 

DANI

I'm BAAaaaAAck!

I'm finally done with the most difficult semester of school I have ever been through!

I am SO exited to be able to write what I WANT to write about... Fitness, Food and FUN!

For the next three weeks, I don't have to write a single education paper, and it feels OH so good ;)

I celebrated the end of the semester by lifting! Woot Woot! What better way to celebrate?

Unfortunately, I lost ALLOT of my strength from not being as consistent in my workouts these past few months :/

I have to say, it was a little depressing to not even get close to my old max and get fatigued. 

HOWEVER! I know that with a little perseverance I will get right back where I was before ;)

Here's to getting back in shape!

xoxo

DANI

LAST DAY OF FINALS

TODAY IS MY LAST LATE NIGHT OF STUDYING. 

Wanted to leave this picture with you from the day after Jeff and I got engaged ;)

Back to my math....

Thanksgiving Workout!

Do twice, PLUS a set for each serving you had of each dish. I'm doing this 3-4 times through... 

I had an AMAZING Thanksgiving surrounded by friends and family. 

I actually made it to TWO dinners in one day. This was Jeff and I's first year at going to both Holiday's. 

My stomach really hurt by the end of the day, but it was so nice to be able to spend time with my current family and future family!

I'm finishing up all my final papers right now in order to be able to enjoy Christmas Break.. 

AND COME BACK TO THE BLOGGING WORLD!

I'm so excited, I've missed it so much!

xoxo

Dani

Halloween, Hill Workout and Wedding Plans!

This year I celebrated Halloween at school!

My friends and I were the 3 Blind Mice. Can you tell we are all a bunch of Elementary Ed Majors!!??

I love being in classes with people who share similar passions to me.

We were the only people walking around campus in costume.. and we LOVED it!

Stabbed Eyeball Cake Pops I made for the party at school!

I got in this AWESOME Hill workout this week. Jeff and I have been really into riding our bikes 3 miles to a park by our house and working out outside while the weather is SO nice!!

 Gecko Push-ups... I love them, but I hate them. I especially Hated doing them up hill. 

If you don't know how to do them, there is a video HERE explaining how!

DEAD at the end of the workout. 

ALSO Jeff and I have officially BOOKED our Venue!! Its at a pretty little place called the Shendoah Mill. I stole these pretty pictures off their website, because my phone really didn't do it justice:

This is where we will hold our ring ceremony and quaint little reception! We are so excited. We always wanted a cute little, simple reception and we think we found the PERFECT place for us! We are in LOVE! Now to figure out where we are holding our open house the next weekend......

xoxo

DANI