Going Raw

I just spent a week in west palm beach, Florida at a place called the Hippocrates Health Institute. My dad came down here for 3 weeks in July, came home and was so excited about everything he learned that he tried to get my entire family to come. Most people thought he was crazy but I have a very open mind and am always interested in anything related to nutrition, so I told him I would give it a go, and my cousin came as well. So what is this hippocrates place? Well you can google it or look on their website to get the fool scoop because it would take me a novel to explain how amazing this place is. Basically, it is a place where you can go and stay for 1, 2, or 3 weeks and they promote health and wellness through an all raw vegan nutrition program. Many people who come here are here because they have some sort of illness and they have been told that there is no type of western medicine that can help their illness. That is why my dad came. He has been battling stage 4 prostate cancer for 2 years and was told that he could do hormone therapy, chemo, and then wait to die. He did hormone therapy, and after basically becoming a menopausal woman for a year and a half, said he had enough. Chemo often makes patients worse off than they were beforehand with no real positive results, so he decided to go a different route. He spent 3 weeks at hippocrates eating all raw foods and dropped his cholesterol by over 100 points, lost 20 pounds and 4 inches off his waist, and has more energy than I can even handle. This is an amazing place and is filled with people who have completely reversed debilitating diseases just by changing their diet and their attitudes. What I love most is that it is all science based. There are endless amounts of information and facts that prove why humans are supposed to be consuming a raw, plant based diet, but because of the American Medical Association and the Pharmaceutical companies, people all over the world have been led to believe that what is actually abnormal for our bodies (meat and processed foods), is normal now across the world. 60% of Americans are obese and that number is even higher in England. Did you know that only 10% of a supplement needs to come from a natural source to be labeled NATURAL??? B vitamin supplements are mostly coal tar. Calcium supplements and Vitamin D supplements are mostly oyster shells and chalk. E vitamin supplements are 80% turpentine! Fish oil (which I have been taking forever!) is a known cancer causing substance. For the last 20 years, HUMAN genes have been spliced into pork genes to make pigs grow faster to be ready for slaughter sooner. You can eat a completely raw vegan diet and still get all the macronutrients you need. I could go on and on about all the facts and information I have been given this week. I know this all may sound crazy or made up... believe me I thought it was at first as well, but you just can't argue with science, and they definitely have the facts to back up and the track recored to prove that what they are teaching is 100% real. I want to share more information with anyone who has an open mind and is willing to listen.

Where's The Meat?

Not on my dad's plate anymore! My dad just spent 3 weeks in West Palm Beach, Florida at the Hippocrates Health Institute seeking a way to rid his body of cancer and avoid the typical western medicine path. Most cancer patients are given three treatment options: radiation, chemotherapy, or surgery. Those are the only three cancer treatment options that have been offered for over 100 years, but they don't work. Chemo pumps your body full of toxins and often makes some patients worse off than they were before treatment. White blood cells and other lines of defense in our immune system are the only things that can actually kill cancer cells... so why not try something obvious, and make these natural defenses stronger instead of weaker by pumping the body with chemicals and filling it with radiation? Simply, because doctors wouldn't make enough money if all people had to do to cure their illnesses was eat a specific diet, and the drug companies would be out of business... and let's be honest, drug companies do a large part in running this country. Think about the number of commercials you see in one commercial break that are advertising some new drug. At the Hippocrates Health Institute, they are curing people by simply providing them with the knowledge that they need to cure themselves. It all has to do with diet and exercise, but mainly diet! My dad has been following an all vegan, raw foods diet since being at HHI. His macronutrient needs of protein, carbs, and fats are still met everyday but he eats no meat of any kind, no alcohol, no sugar, no processed foods, and nothing heated over 110 degrees. I have a lot of questions about this lifestyle, and am excited to go to HHI next week and just be a sponge for a week, absorbing all the information I can. I saw my dad for the first time in 3 weeks yesterday, and let me tell you, the results do not lie! I have never seem him look so good or so happy. He was full of energy and life, and at almost 50 years old, was sporting a set of 6 pack abs! He was only there 3 weeks and he looks like  he lost 20 pounds, looks 10 years younger, shaved over 100 points off of his cholesterol, and has been more excited about living than I have ever seen a person be before. He got up at 6 am this morning to go running, went to lift weights with me at 9, then went to hot yoga at 4. The man cannot be stopped! I am so excited to go down to Florida and learn everything I can about making my body as healthy as possibly and living a lifestyle that will keep me strong and thriving for the rest of my life. While a completely raw and vegan diet may not be a realistic lifestyle for a busy college student like myself, after I learn all I need to know, I am going to incorporate this diet into my life so that I will be following it about 70-80% of the time.

<3 Health and Happiness

Smooth Operator

It's summertime.... And for summer reason it is particularly hot and sticky this summer, so who doesn't love to sip on a refreshing smoothie?! Smoothies are great ways to get something healthy and filling in a hurry. However, you might be getting more than you bargained for with a smoothie in the sugar department. In Virginia Beach everyone loves Tropical Smoothie. Other areas of the country have places like Jamba Juice to cool them down in the summer. When you go to these places and look on the menu you can see what the main ingredients are in the smoothies, but not EVERYTHING is listed. One day I was curious so I tried using my eagle eye vision to look over the counter at the back wall to see where they had all the recipes listed for each smoothie. These are the complete recipes that only the employees see, so they know how to make each smoothie. I noticed that in each smoothie, the first ingredient for almost all of them was 1 scoop of turbinado sugar, and the 'scoop' was not a little one. Now, for those of you who don't know, turbinado is a less refined and less processed form of table sugar, so it is a better option in that sense, but sugar is still sugar. Fruit is already very sweet naturally, so next time you go to a smoothie place, ask them to skip the sugar, and if you wanna get even more out of your smoothie tell them to throw in a scoop of whey protein! I promise that smoothie will be just as tasty and refreshing and your body will thank you! :)

<3 Health and Happiness

BACK AND ABS

Woke up early today to hit the gym and was lucky enough to have my girl Stephanie Alexander to go with me! When I told her we were going to start with stiff legged romanian deadlift I couldn't help but notice a mixed look of both fear and confusion on her face haha. First, she told me that she had no idea what a romanian deadlift was and then she told me she had never been in the part of the gym before with all the weights because she usually just sticks to the ab room (or the "girly room" as she called it). Steph is an athlete so I wasn't worried at all about whether or not she would be able to keep up, but it did make me laugh a little bit because I forgot that most women are like Stephanie, and are kind of intimidated at first by the weight room.... And it's not because they aren't capable of lifting weights, but they just don't know what to do or where to start! Do some research on weight lifting, ladies (there's a lot of info out there!), grab a good girlfriend, and have fun together in the weight room learning what to do! You have nothing to lose, but everything to gain, so don't be scared of the iron! :) Today we did a back and abs workout! Tomorrow I'm gonna throw a crazy leg workout at Steph, so hopefully she'll still love me after I turn her legs to jello haha :)

Romanian Stiff Legged Deadlift
Hanging Leg Raises
Seated Cable Rows
Kneeling Cable Pulldowns for Abs
Bent Over Barbell Rows
In n' Outs with Physio Ball
Back Extensions... full and partial range of motion reps

<3 Health and Happiness

Muscle Mashup!

I haven't been able to get to the gym for a few days since it was closed for the holiday weekend, so today I did an intense total upper body workout. I used a combination of weighted, body weight only, isolated, and compound exercises, so it was a bit of a mashup of a workout, and 90 minutes of nonstop intensity! I moved quickly today between sets, trying to keep my heart rate up throughout my entire workout, and let me tell ya I was exhausted by the end! It was awesome and extremely fast paced... just like me! haha... It felt amazing to get in the gym and workout really hard after a few days of not lifting, and my body is definitely thanking me for getting out all of that built up energy! (I'm a naturally hyper person and after a couple days of no intense exercise I kinda get like a hyper puppy that hasn't been walked or played with haha). So here's my workout! It's a lot of different exercises, but if you keep your waiting time between sets to a minimum you will feel like this workout flew by.

Pushups (4 sets of 15) SUPER-SETTED with...

Side to Front Shoulder Raises (raise your arms straight out to the side, around to the front, then down to your thighs... do this for 10 reps)

Dumbbell Bench Press (3 sets) SUPER-SETTED with...

Tricep Kickbacks with Dumbbells (3 sets)

Lat Pull Down  (3 sets)

Hammer Curls (3 sets) SUPER-SETTED with...

Back Extensions (3 sets)

Tricep Cable Pulls (3 sets)

Seated Cable Row (3 sets)

Hanging Knee Raises (4 sets of 15)

Plank on Bosu Ball (3 sets for 60 seconds each) 

In n' Outs with Physio Ball (3 sets of 15... get in push up position with your feet on then physio ball then bring your knees towards your chest then back to the starting position)

An awesome workout ALWAYS makes you feel better! Even if you don't feel like going to the gym, make yourself go because once you get in there and get into your zone of focus, your mind and your body will be thanking you later for getting off that couch! 

<3 Health and Happiness

Hungry? Don't Grab a Snickers!

Happy 4th of July, everyone! Unfortunately, because it's a holiday weekend the gym has been closed and I don't have much to blog about in terms of my lifting routine... No offense America, but your birthday is really not helping me in my fitness goals. Nonetheless, I have adjusted my nutrition for the weekend based on the fact that I cannot get into the gym to lift. Here I have a few pictures of foods I have been eating the past couple days. I always love looking at pictures people post of what they eat because it gives me new ideas and inspiration for ways I can shake up my meals! 

This is a steak I grilled up (cooked medium-rare of course!) with some mixed greens. Gabe and I found this amazing salsa at the store that is literally just chopped veggies, cilantro, and some lime juice... It tastes amazing and is much better for you than many other salsas that have a lot of added salt. I like using the salsa as my salad dressing and I like dipping my steak in spicy guacamole instead of the steak sauces that are filled with salt, sugar, and ingredients that are definitely not natural! Just making small substitutions in your diet can make a big difference!

Here is what Gabe made for breakfast one morning... It is an omelette made with egg substitutes, turkey bacon, spinach, and topped with that yummy salsa. He also made some oatmeal and added some cinnamon and fresh strawberries. Cinnamon is a really great way to add flavor to your breakfast foods without having to add sugar.

Gabe and I got some fresh salmon portions from the grocery store and created this delicious dinner! We brushed olive oil and a mix of Mrs. Dash spices (all salt-free!) onto the salmon, squash, and zucchini and then grilled them. We also added some mixed greens to our plates and cooked some fresh broccoli in the oven for about 15 minutes. That dinner was so amazing! Grilled veggies are a great side dish in the summertime.... they are filling, full of vitamins, and low in calories and fat.... what more could you ask for?!

This was my breakfast this morning... An omelette with egg substitutes, diced veggies, and turkey bacon. I then toasted some ezekiel bread and spread sugar free strawberry preserves on top. Since I can't lift for a few days I have been limiting my starchy carbs to breakfast time.  

It wouldn't be 4th of July weekend without some kebabs! We had some steak kebabs with onions and green and red peppers that we seasoned with Mrs. Dash grilling spice. I then just had a salad of mixed greens with a little splash of Marie's Parmesan Caesar Yogurt Dressing. Marie's brand dressings are definitely something to add to your refrigerator. They are all natural yogurt dressings, so they are low in sugar, salt, and fat compared to other dressings, and they are also made from all natural ingredients. It is not something I use often, but nice just for every once in a while on a day where I haven't had much fat.

This last item on the menu may not look the best, but it is definitely my favorite when it comes to killing a sweet tooth. This is protein pudding! I get a box of instant, sugar-free, zero calorie Jello pudding mix (cheesecake is my fave), and I add a scoop of vanilla protein, some skim milk, and a bit of cinnamon. Then, you just whisk it together and let it sit in the fridge to get that pudding consistency. It tastes amazing, and is more filling and less guilt-ridden than that candy bar or ice cream you would usually reach for.

I hope everyone had a safe and happy holiday weekend! Not that I don't love a long weekend, but I can't wait for the gym to reopen tomorrow! :)

<3 Health and Happiness

Work Those Quads!

Today at the gym I did a leg workout, but most of my focus was on my quadriceps since I did a specific hamstring workout earlier this week. With my workout today, to make my legs even more sore than usual, I did heavier weights on the weighted exercises and gave myself hardly any waiting time between sets for some extra fat burning.

Seated Leg Extensions (4 sets supersetted with 12 Jump Squats)
One legged squats using the smith machine (3 sets of 6 on each leg... hold one leg out straight in front of you as high as you can and squat down as low as you can with the other leg; keep the elevated leg up the entire set)
Split Legged Lunges with Smith Machine (3 sets of 8 on each leg... place a bench behind you and place you foot behind you on the bench while the other foot is not directly under your hip but a little in front of it; then do 8 lunges and switch legs)
Push-Press Barbell Squats (3 sets of 12... hold the BB at your chest with your elbows pointed down, then squat as low as you can; as you come up from the squat simultaneously press the BB over your head)
Leg Press Machine (4 sets)
Side Lunges (3 sets of 8 on each leg... start with your feet together, then reach out to the side with your right leg and lunge so that your toe, knee, and nose line up... make sure your toes stay pointed straight ahead the whole time. Do 8 then switch legs)
Ab/Adductor Machine (3 sets on each machine)

Enjoy that jello leg feeling! :)

<3 Health and Happiness

Goin HAM... Back and Hamstrings Workout

Today I changed up my workout by doing back and hamstrings. I usually just include hamstrings with my leg day workout, but I really wanted to focus on hamstrings today. Females are naturally quad dominant, meaning that our bodies naturally lean toward are quadriceps being stronger than our hamstrings, which is why so many females suffer from ACL tears as opposed to males. Males also have a quad/hamstring strength imbalance as children, but as they get older this uneven strength in leg muscles begins to even itself out. With females, however, our bodies work the opposite way... As females go through puberty hamstring strength gets worse as quad strength increases, making the imbalance even worse with time. This is why it is really important when you go to the gym, to not forget about the exercises that are SPECIFICALLY geared towards increasing hamstring strength. With all that said, HERE is the workout I did today :)

Romanian Stiff Legged Deadlift 
Torture times 5 using lying hamstring curl machine (Ok I made this one up myself, so try to hang with me as I attempt to explain my creative genius/ creative method of hamstring tortue)... Lay flat on your stomach like you normally would on the hamstring curl machine; complete 5 reps of curls at a full range of motion then without taking a break, curl so that your legs are pulled as close to your butt as possible and complete 5 reps in which the range of motion is from your butt to halfway down; after your last rep, lower your legs past the halfway point down to where your legs are almost at the fully extended resting position but not quite because WE AREN'T RESTING YET; from there do 5 reps in which the range of motion is from almost fully extended legs back up to the halfway mark; then do 5 reps with complete range of motion. DONE. now try to walk. and then do the whole thing 3 more times :)
Back Extensions
Lat Pulldown
Cable Kickbacks
Bent Over Barbell Rows
Single Leg Deadlift with dumbbells
Single Arm Dumbbell Rows


There ya have it! A workout guaranteed to make getting out of bed the next day be extremely painful :)

<3 Health and Happiness

Fuel for Thought

Ok, so Gabe and I made some pretty delicious food earlier today and I just thought I would share (Actually, Gabe was so excited about his food that he told me I needed to put it in my blog :) haha). So here's what we made!


Here we have what Gabe created. A baked sweet potato ("baked" in the microwave) with cinnamon and a quarter cup of sugar free syrup (only 15 calories in 1/4 cup!)... And he also cooked some lean ground turkey meat with fresh salsa, some sautéed spnach, and Mrs. Dash chicken grilling seasoning. It might not look fancy, but it tasted awesome and is a good example of a balanced meal. Here's the numbers breakdown of this meal:

• a little under 600 calories
• 40 grams of protein
• 47 grams of carbs
• 18 grams of fat

And here is my protein pancake! I added a banana to it to get me some extra calories because I had an intense workout ahead of me... This may sound weird to some people, but I have a hard time meeting my calorie goal everyday and most of the time have to force feed myself or Gabe will remind me to eat more. Don't get me wrong, I love food, but eating is just not something that I think about a lot, and I tend to forget to eat lol. One of the things I have really been working hard on is making sure I eat about every 3 hours and get more protein. I aim to eat a gram of protein for every pound of body-weight, so about 150 grams a day for me. 

Just mix together a banana (easier if you mash it first), 1/2 cup blueberries, 1/2 cup oats, 1 cup egg whites, 1 scoop of vanilla protein powder (any flavor will work!), and cinnamon to taste. After I cooked the pancake I put sugar free syrup on it. Numbers breakdown:

• 630 calories
• about 50 grams of protein
• 45 grams of carbs
• 0 grams of fat

Get in the kitchen and make your body some fuel! :)

<3 Health and Happiness

What Motivates You???

     Motivation. It's just one word, but it carries a lot of weight to it and is fascinating to me because the word motivation means something completely different to every person. I feel like every single person has something that motivates them, whether they admit it or not. There is motivation behind every action we take. Some people had amazing motivation at a point in their life and maybe now that motivation has gotten buried beneath other things, but it's never to late to find that motivation, put it on the front of your mind, and let it lead you through the day. Our motivations may change and evolve over time, but they are always there. I know a lot about motivation, losing it, rebuilding it, questioning it, and being confused by it. When I was about nine years old, I decided that no matter how long it took, I was going to be in the Olympics for Taekwondo one day. I carried that motivation with me everyday. Sometimes it got muddled and faded a little into the background, but it was always there. When I kept training through vomit, tears, and snot bubbles that motivation was there. When I would wake up at 4am during high school to go kick by myself before school started, that motivation was there. When I made national team and won silver at Junior World Championships in Turkey and bronze at the Pan Am Games in Puerto Rico, that motivation was definitely there. Even this past December when I got a concussion in a car accident, less than a month away from the most important step in getting to the 2012 Olympics... my motivation never faded. Although the 2012 Olympics is no longer in my future, it doesn't make me any less motivated to strive to be the absolute best at everything I aim to accomplish.
      There are many things that motivate me every morning when I wake up. My amazing mom, who has always been my number one fan and supporter in all my endeavors, motivates me more than she knows. My dad, who has the will power and attitude for life that could throw even Ghandi for a loop, is so motivating to me, and still even 2 years in the running with stage 4 prostate cancer, looks like the picture of perfect health. He is a perfect example of what kind of attitude to have when life doesn't exactly go the way you planned, and reminds me all the time how important it is to just live for each moment. My brother inspires me everyday even though he may not know it, and so does my boyfriend, Gabe. He pushes me to be my best and challenges me in ways that no one else does. A lot of my motivation everyday comes from the people that are most important in my life, but also from within myself. I have a strong desire to make a difference to someone, to even just one person, and to do things that no one else has done before. From a young age I have never been one to settle for mediocrity or follow the crowd... I mean, when I was six I decided I wanted to start kicking girls in the face instead of doing ballet (although, I still made sure my mom put bright bows in my pig tails) haha. I stay humble, work hard, and throw everything I've got at whatever goal I'm striving to achieve. After all, no one can achieve something if they hold back and don't even try. I'm not afraid of failure because I know that with every failure, I will gain an opportunity to learn something and get closer to success the next time. I would rather try and fail a bunch of times, then just sit back in my comfort zone and never fail at anything because I'm too afraid to put myself on the line. I have a lot of goals that I am very passionate about, and I plan on making all of them a reality one day. 100%. No doubt about it. :)

TueSDay stands for Total Shoulder Destruction

Here's what my shoulder workout looked like today. I used a combination of isolated and compound exercises.

Seated Shoulder Press... (4 sets)

Incline DB Front Raises... (3 sets)

Standing DB Lateral Raises... (3 sets... hold your arms straight out to your side on the last rep of each set for as long as you can)

Standing BB Rocky Press... (3 sets... using a barbell, alternate bringing the bar up and down to the back of your neck and then up and back over to the front)

Cable Lateral Raises (3 sets)

Assisted Dips on the Parallel Bars (50 reps... take as many breaks or sets as you need to, just reach 50!)

BTW if you want to taste the most amazing protein in the world, try Up Your Mass Fudge Brownie flavor! Best tasting protein I have ever had! Tastes like you are just eating brownie batter! Nom nom :) I'm a bit of a chocoholic, and if I can get it in protein form, it's a win-win situation! I ordered the protein from Bodybuilding.com last night around 8pm and it was on my doorstep by 11am this morning... talk about instant gratification! 

<3 Health and Happiness

What's in YOUR shopping cart???

Some people consider going to the grocery store, a tedious chore that they prefer to put off until their fridge is completely bare. I, however, love going to the grocery store! I think of it as an adventure each time I go, excited to see all the good food and discover what new recipe will be inspired by my shopping trip. Unfortunately (and for reasons I cannot even begin to comprehend), buying wholesome, fresh, healthy food is pretty expensive... Don't get me started on how our society can justify an entire meal at McDonald's  being cheaper than a pint of blueberries. However, if you budget your money correctly, stay organized, and shop smart, you can make affording healthy food possible. Next time, you are in a store and see a $50 shirt you think you just can't live without, think about all the amazing fuel you could power your body with by using that $50 at the grocery store! Takes some willpower if you are a shopaholic, but your body will thank you! Tonight I went to the grocery store, and here's what was in my cart:

• strawberries
• blueberries
• golden delicious apples
• bananas
• sweet potatoes
• celery
• spring mix salad
• provolone cheese slices
• la tortilla wraps
• plain multigrain rice cakes
• ezekiel bread
• steaks
• turkey bacon
• greek yogurt
• egg whites
• egg substitutes 
• skim milk
• sugar free strawberry preserves
• fresh salsa
• kashi dark chocolate and coconut bars (for when that sweet tooth hits me)
• honey bunches of oats with almonds
• flax seed oil

Here's a tip to check how healthy your shopping is! For those who haven't heard this little self-gauging tip before, next time you go to the grocery store, pay attention to where you are in the store. You are most likely going to make healthier choices if you do most of your shopping along the outer edge of the store as opposed to the aisles in the middle. The aisles in the middle are where foods are displayed that do not require any refrigeration, which is mostly processed food; cookies, salty canned soups, candy, chips, cake mixes, etc. If you notice, fruits, vegetables, meats, eggs, and dairy products, are all going to be found along the outer rim of the store.

<3 Health and Happiness

Monday Madness!

Happy Monday! For many people, Monday is an unwelcome visitor and a signal to start counting down the days til it's the weekend again. But hey, when Monday comes it's never a surprise, right? You know that Monday will always come no matter how long you try to make the weekend last or how many times you wish on eyelashes and 11:11 and shooting stars that Mondays will be eradicated... So, do your mind a favor, throw the universe a curve ball, and look forward to Monday! Say bring it on Monday... I will RULE you! Chances are, if you have a kick-ass, "I'm unstoppable" mentality to start off the week, it will carry through the rest of the week, and it will be the weekend before you know it! Your brain is a pretty powerful thing... every thought you have is like a radio wave into the universe, and the signals you send out are the same signals you will get back, so why not send out some good signals?? Start your Monday with a bang and the rest of your week will follow suit.

I always like to make my Monday workout a little different and exciting, so I start my week off motivated and engaged in my workout. It makes me feel excited about my workouts for the rest of the week. Even just adding a new exercise to your routine, a new song to your playlist, changing the order of your routine, doing different variations of supersets or dropsets, or decreasing the waiting time between each set can shake things up and break up the monotony that people feel on Mondays (or any day for that matter!).  Just little things can make me more motivated and excited to workout. For example, I just ordered a new flavor of protein powder (Up Your Mass Fudge Brownie), and I know that the day it gets here I am going to be so excited to go workout just so that I can have that new protein in my post-workout shake. My headphones also just broke so I ordered some new ones, and I cannot wait to workout with them!

For today's workout, I am going to be doing biceps and triceps and alternating sets involving weights with sets that just use my body weight to perform them. As soon as I finish my weighted exercise I will immediately begin a set of a body weight exercise (for those who do not know, performing one different exercise after another is called a superset).

Arms:
Alternating Seated Bicep Curls (3 sets with 15 push ups right after each set)
Skull Crushers (3 sets with 12 bench dips right after each set)
21's (3 sets with incline push ups right after each set)
Overhead Cable Extensions (3 sets with assisted parallel bar dips after each set)

[After these exercises, I will do abs. Although there are only 4 weighted exercises, my arms are definitely exhausted because they are supersets.]

Abs:
Hanging Leg Raises (3 sets of 15)
Rainbows (3 sets of 20) (Using a med ball and with your feet together and arms straight the whole time, slam the ball to one side of your body then catch it again (arms still straight), and quickly bring the ball over your head like a rainbow and slam the ball to the other side)
Plank on a bosu ball (3, 1 minute planks) (elbows on the flat side of the bosu ball and feet on the ground)
Cruches on a declined bench with barbell (3 sets of 15) (laying on a decline bench, hold the barbell straight over your head and try to reach straight up with the barbell as high as you can)

Buns and Thighs!

It's leg day, people! Lift heavy, get a good pump, and never allow yourself to do less than you are capable of. Your mind is so important during every second of your workout; never let your mind leave the gym to start thinking about other things. Our legs are huge muscles, and take a lot of energy to exercise, so let your mind work WITH your body as much as possible.

• Leg Press Machine- feet together, 5 partial reps after your reps at a full range of motion at the end of every set 
• Wide leg barbell squats super-setted with Jump Squats
• Smith Machine Lunges
• Hip Ad/Abductor Machine- at the end of every set hold for 30 seconds then do 5 partial reps
• Weighted Bench Step-Ups
• Lying Hamstring Curls

Enjoy your workout! I hope you won't be able to walk afterwards :)

<3 Health and Happiness

Pump Up The Volume!

My music is an absolute necessity when it comes time to hit the gym. I gotta have music blasting in my ears that is fast and upbeat, with a tempo as hyper as my energizer bunny personality.  When I have the right song playing, I fill unstoppable in the gym, like there is no wait I can't handle. Here are a few songs that are on my workout playlist... you can click on the song to hear it :)

Hands Up- Steve Aoki & Afrojack vs Vandalism edit

Ghosts n Kesha n Afrojack

Take Girlz Over Control Mashup

C'mon Fat Bass

Party Rock Anthem (Remash)

Jump Poltergeist

Warp It Down (John Roman Mashup)

Turbulence

You Used To Hold Me

Rock N' Roll

These are just a few of the songs on my workout playlist, but they are my favorites! Benny Banassi, Calvin Harris, Afrojack, Steve Aoki, Kaskade, and Skrillex are all people you can't go wrong with when you wanna get that extra pump in your workout! 

<3 Health and Happiness