5 Tips for Getting Back Into Fitness

Getting back into a routine after a hiatus can be overwhelming. I took a break from fitness this past summer when I had health issues and ended up putting off getting back into working out and eating healthy more than I should have. After going through this, I learned a few things that I hope help you get back on track.

1. Start but go slow. 
Sometimes it can be overwhelming just to start but the important thing her is to just start. I had so much anxiety over thinking about starting again. I knew I wouldn't be where I once was on day one and it saddened me. I had to go slow - pause the workout multiple times if need be. Things that were once easy for me to do weren't. I was okay with that because I knew that by starting, I was progressing already from where I was yesterday of doing nothing. Even a little bit, a few minutes here or there, can add up to a great overall picture. You don't have to be perfect to start, you just have to start.

2. Plan ahead. 
Don't let yourself fall off track due to poor planning. You must plan ahead to be successful. Take some time out to plan out your meals for the week. I can't stress enough how important meal planning has been in achieving my own goals. And if you are going out somewhere, plan ahead and take health snacks. In the beginning, it might also take a little more time to complete your workout, so plan ahead and don't get stressed out if that 30 minute workout takes an hour or an hour and a half.

3. Don't compare.
Along your journey, you probably see your friends posting about what they're doing or eating, or even hear it from them. Or perhaps they try to persuade you to go out to eat with them, not exercise, or eat unhealthy.  Whatever the case may be, you must ignore their advice and trust your own journey. Only you know your body. It is your journey and not anyone else's. It doesn't matter what someone else is doing or isn't doing. The only person you should be comparing yourself to is the person you were yesterday. Yes, that's right - yourself. As long as you are progressing, what does it matter? Don't let other people's opinions of you persuade you elsewhere. 

4. Focus on short-term goals.
It can be easy to get distracted by focusing on the big picture. Often we can think negative thoughts such as, "I'm not losing weight fast enough," or "I can't do a squat so why bother?" We must throw those out and focus on more short term goals. Sure, those are great long term goals but we must ask ourselves what can we do to get ourselves there? It could be to complete 5 minutes of a workout. By doing so, we become stronger and work towards our long term goals. Eventually 5 minutes can turn into 30 minutes and that squat that you wished so hard you could do before is suddenly your warm-up. So set up your short term goals as well as your long term ones.

5. Don't beat yourself up.

We all make mistakes and we stumble from time to time. Failure is just part of the process. We have to fail from time to time to learn and grow into strong individuals. We cannot beat ourselves up for failing. How can we get better if we don't fall? It gives us a place to learn from - see what we could have done differently to prevent it from happening again. 

It's okay to fail. Pat yourself on the back and say "I'll do better next time." It is in the past now, even if it just happened. Let it be. Move on and learn from it. Move forwards, not backwards.

Lemon Pepper Green Beans

Green Beans are one of my favorite vegetables! I love the fresh ones instead of frozen as they offer that extra crunchy texture.  I grew up on frozen ones and kind of grew tired of their soft, fluffy nature. (No offense!) And let's face it - I LOVE my crunchy foods! In fact, I'm certain that's why I absolutely have a problem with loving fried foods so much. (Ahh now I'm dreaming of french fries and corn dogs) :/

Anyhow, back to healthy foods as I'd like to keep my newly found waist line and health! As you can tell, I'm a foodie - that hasn't changed since losing weight. So for me, healthy foods have to TASTE good as well as BE good for me. And growing up, microwaved green beans seemed to wear on me - there was no real flavor added, and they seemed a bit mushy, as I mentioned before. So, I had a task for myself: make a vegetable dish that tastes good as well as one that is good for me. 

I stumbled upon fresh cut green beans by accident. A few years ago my husband and I decided to host our very first Thanksgiving and came across freshly cut green beans. I was embarrassed to admit that I never had these before - I didn't have the healthiest childhood growing up and all the vegetables I usually had were frozen. But I went along with it to not embarrass myself. My husband did the shopping and came home with them and I pretended I knew what I was doing. That was the beginning of this recipe. I didn't want to serve my guests boring, flavorless green beans so I basically threw together some spices and prayed that it worked - and it did. Since then, I've added my clean eating twist to it to make it even healthier - and one that we can have all year round and not just on Thanksgiving. I hope you enjoy it as much as my family does - my husband devours it to this day and he is a picky eater when it comes to veggies!

Cooking Time: 25 Minutes
Servings: 6

Ingredients:
1 Pound Green Beans (fresh cut and trimmed is best)
2 Tbsp Canola Oil
1/4 Cup Sliced Almonds
2 Tsp Lemon Pepper Seasoning

Directions:
1. Steam green beans using a steamer with 1 inch of boiling water, covering for about 10 minutes.
2. Drain green beans.
3. Using a skillet, saute Almonds in the Canola Oil over Medium Heat. They are done when they look lightly browned.
4. Add in Green Beans and mix around, coating evenly.
5. Add in Lemon Pepper and coat evenly.

Nutritional Info:

Calories: 81
Fat: 5.9g
Carbs: 6.3g
Protein: 2.3g

7 Day FREE Intro to Clean Eating - Starting March 2nd!!

Do you often find yourself wanting to get healthier but not sure where to start? Then come join my FREE 7 Day Clean Eating Challenge on Facebook that starts on March 2nd, where I provide you with information on what clean eating is, provide an optional meal plan and grocery list, accountability, motivation, and more! It is offered through a closed group on FB so no one will see what you write. It is open to all so feel free to invite your friends as well. Let's kick off spring the right way! 

If you are interested in joining message me below, send me an e-mail, or add me and send me a message on Facebook by clicking here and I will add you to the group!

The Importance of Reading Labels

We've all heard it's important to read food labels. But with so much information out there, it can be hard to know what's good and what's not. What are we actually reading and looking for? Ingredients, sugar, calories, etc.?

This week I had a lesson in reading labels. Normally, I read labels when choosing foods but I'll admit that there are times when I just don't have the time to for one reason or another. Life get's in the way as I'm sure it does for most people. So sometimes I'm guilty of falling for the trap and buying something that claims it's healthy instead of confirming it for myself.

It's kind of scary if you think about it - we live in a place where we can't trust the food we are buying. Foods claim to be good for us when they aren't. So being prepared and knowing how to read labels really become important in choosing the best quality of foods for our families.

If you had to choose between both pictures below, which would you think is the healthier choice: the greek yogurt or the ice cream?

At first glance, my choice was the greek yogurt. We all know ice cream is bad for us and greek yogurt is good for us. Seems like an easy choice, right? Let's take a closer look at the labels to see. The first label is for the ice cream and the second is for the yogurt.

As you can tell from the label, one serving of the yogurt has more than twice as much sugar and nearly just as many calories as one serving of the ice cream! This is a perfect example of why reading labels is important. Certainly I don't want to be eating a food that is worse for me than ice cream and had I read labels from the beginning, I might not have ever purchased this yogurt. When choosing a greek yogurt, I have found it is best to choose the unflavored ones or even the new Oikos triple zero, which have a low serving of sugar. 

Have you had a lesson in reading food labels? I'd love to hear about it!

Tim's Chocolate Banana Shakeology

One of my goals for this year was to have healthy eating a family affair and not just my own. I don't know about your families but my husband does NOT enjoy "healthy eating" - or so he used to say. 

Before I got healthy, we often would frequent fast food and restaurants more than daily, I'm afraid to admit, especially In-and-Out Burger, which is still a weakness of mine to this day!

 Somehow -I'm still not sure how other than luck -  I convinced him to give clean eating a try. (And don't tell him I told you but he is actually quite the picky eater!) He had been wanting to eat healthier for awhile now and I asked him "why don't you try clean eating for a week and see how you like it?" He hesitantly agreed.

I helped plan his meals for a week and he seemed to enjoy it. I even heard a "this isn't so bad" at one time! So then I asked if he would try Shakeology.

He is familiar with what Shakeology is as he had done P90X in the past but never actually tried Shakeology. He was afraid he wouldn't like it and didn't want to "waste" money on it (even though before we were spending ~$60 a day at burger king and mcdonalds lol). So I offered one of my samples to him to see if he would like it or not. He said he "guessed" he could give it a try.

Not only did he end up liking it but he came up with his own go-to daily Shakeology recipe that I'd like to share with all of you today. It's very easy to do and tastes great! I hope you all enjoy it as much as we do. Chocolate Shakeology is now a staple in our home.

Tim's Chocolate Banana Shakeology

Ingredients:
1 Scoop Chocolate Shakeology
1 Large Banana
12 oz. Coconut Milk

Directions:
1. Blend ingredients until smooth.

Containers:
1 Red
1 Yellow
2 Purple

21 Day Fix Extreme - Day 1

Omg it's finally here!!

If you're wondering why I'm not posting about Body Beast, I've decided to put that on hold for a little while and try something different: the 21 Day Fix Extreme. All my friends were posting about it coming out and I have to admit - I was curious. So I looked into it and it was 30 minute a day workouts - just like the normal 21 Day Fix - only the workouts and eating plan are a bit more extreme. Being a fan of extreme workouts, I knew I just had to try it.

Here is the video on the program: CLICK HERE

Today is technically preseason of my 21 Day Fix Extreme Exclusive Test Group (actual workouts are due to begin on the 16th) but I decided "hey, why not start today?"

As I mentioned before, the nutrition plan is a bit different. For one, there are NO CHEATS!! There is also a second optional eating plan called "Countdown to Competition" that is for those looking for even more extreme results. I had a look at it, and it seems to be really low carb, in that there is no bread, etc. and most of the meals are fish and vegetables - even the snacks! I think I will wait on that for now as I like food too much haha.

Here is the workout schedule for the 21 Day Fix Extreme:

Monday: PLYO fix extreme
Tuesday: Upper Fix Extreme
Wednesday: Pilates Fix Extreme
Thursday: Lower Fix Extreme
Friday: Cardio Fix Extreme
Saturday: Dirty 30 Extreme
Sunday: Yoga Fix Extreme

Look at that -NO REST DAY! This is a new concept for me. I've done extreme programs before like P90X, etc. and those all had rest day and double schedules. Not THIS program. This program has NO DOUBLES SCHEDULE because it would be too taxing on the muscles. I was still skeptical...until I tried the workout today and O-M-G my legs were jello!! Where did they go?!?! I had to pause the video a couple of times but I MADE IT!!! Within the first 5 minutes, I was dripping with sweat - something I can't say I've had happen with other workouts I've tried. Not even the gym or other extreme workouts pushed me to the limits that this program did. I could barely walk afterwards!!

I will post my meal plan at the end of the week to give you guys an idea of what I ate. I'm trying to get my husband to do this next after he finishes P90X3 but he is still not sure. So hopefully my results will help motivate him. I know I am going to have great results in this program, even though it is only Day 1. And I am actually EXCITED to get up and do it again tomorrow, even though it absolutely killed my body today. But that is the beauty of a fitness journey. Sure, some days you have to modify some moves and you feel like you got hit by a truck but soon what is hard for you today will be your warmup the next - your new normal. And I don't know about you but I CAN'T WAIT for that day!

There are still a few spots left in my 21 Day Fix Extreme Test Group that starts on the 16th so fill out the application at the bottom of the page to reserve your spot! It's not too late!!

My 3 Week Body Beast Results

It's Monday again!! Who is excited?!?!

I know a lot of people HATE Mondays, but remember - it's another day you are ALIVE!! Remember to celebrate every day that you are alive - it is a blessing and something a lot of people take for granted. So tell your loved ones that you love them, cuddle your fur babies/ real babies, and do something AMAZING today because you CAN!!

This week I stayed SUPER busy. I don't know if you're like me but I have 2 jobs, go to school, and have a life, or try to, outside of all of that. So time management for me is key to success. I held a 7 Day Clean Eating Challenge Group this past week and it went well. If you missed it and would like to sign up for my next one, I do one each month, so CLICK HERE  to sign up for the next one!! And if you were one of the lucky ones that got to join, what was one thing that you learned?

3 Weeks goes by so fast! I feel like I just started this program but here I am, finished with the first block of the program!! I struggled a bit with time management this week as I mentioned before. I usually schedule in my workout times like an appointment so I don't miss it. I also had 20 assignments due for school this week so perhaps that was the issue. I still managed to get my workouts in but boy am I tired!! I feel like I lacked on sleep this week which is bad for weight loss/maintenance. Sleep is just as important as nutrition. When we don't get enough sleep, we don't have the energy we need to for the day and it can actually make us gain weight. Cravings kick in and our bodies become stressed - holding on to hormones that also make us gain weight. Overall, lack of sleep is a big weight loss fiasco! So my goal for this week is to get more sleep!! What are yours? I also am working on getting more recipes

So now I'll get to what you probably came here for...the results!!

When I first started this program, I thought I'd maybe gain 1 or 2 pounds of muscle at the most. But to my surprise, I ended up gaining 5 lbs of pure muscle!!! Wow!!

I couldn't believe my results!! I'm telling you - these programs WORK!! Even with my extra skin from excess weight loss, I saw definition start to show in my shoulders.

If you want to see daily posts on my fitness routines, be sure to check out and like my page on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LisaRichardson177

My husband also recently started his journey with fitness. He had gained a few pounds over the holiday season and wasn't happy so I helped him get on track with his food and he then decided to give P90X3 a try. He is having such good results I can't help but share with you guys!! He ended up sticking with clean eating, Shakeology, and doing the workouts and lost 4 inches in the first week. That's crazy!! I'm so proud of him for sticking to it. He's a busy guy so time is critical for him as well. Hopefully one day he will let me share his before and after photos with you guys!!