My Awesome Birthday

  So for my birthday yesterday I got four new water bottles (I have a weird obsession with water bottles, don't ask) I also have an obsession for school supplies.  It started when I was 8 and I can't seem to get rid of it.  There is something about a new thing of pens and pencils, gets me every time.  I also got a card from Jordan that said I could do cross fit for one month and he put money in it for me to use.  So excited to die next month!  Cross fit is so insane, I'm at least going to do it for a month.

I also got how i met your mother season 7 from my awesome brother Brian!  This should keep me entertained for about a week.  Maybe I should try to control myself to one episode per day so I am not sad like when Lost or prison break ended.  

Me with my birthday present (I don't ask for much, just some water bottles)

 me with my cute sisters

My obnoxiously tan family!  Like seriously have they not heard of skin cancer?  just kidding.   I am so white compared to them.  I don't like torturing myself outside in  in Arizona.  I only go outside if its from 5-8 am or 10-12 pm.  

Here is the cross fit work out I did last week:

warm up: 1 mile or 2,000 m row

Filthy Fifty
50x box jumps (there was a tire there and you had to jump on and off of it fifty times)
50x pull ups (I used a band to make it easier, not possible to do regular pull ups ahhh)
50x kettle ball swing
50x walking lunges (each leg)
50x toes to bar (hang from a bar and bring your knees to chest or make your toes touch the bar while hanging on)
50x push press
50x back extension or dead lift
50x wall ball (take a 20 pound ball and squat down and when you come up throw the ball as high as you can against the wall and catch)
50x burpees
50x double unders  (or jump rope 100 counts)

I about DIED.  The entire time there is super loud music and a guy yelling at you and everyone is going super fast.

Here is a preview of cross fit for those of you who haven't heard of it

The workout I did today took about an hour and forty minutes.  Ugghh too long.  I wanted to fall over by the end of it.  

Please do not pay for a personal trainer ever.  Cross fit is wayyyy cheaper and such a better work out!

Day 5

Go without sugar for a day and find the high fructose corn syrup in your house.  

 Have fruit for dessert instead of cookies and ice cream.  Go through your pantry and fridge and see how many things say high fructose corn syrup on them.  Try to eliminate some of these items.  You will be surprised at how much of your food says high fructose corn syrup.  To make high fructose corn syrup glucose is genetically modified (by adding enzymes to it) to form fructose.  

All of these foods contain high fructose corn syrup:

Solutions:

Go through your pantry and fridge and get rid of at least a couple items that have high fructose corn syrup.  To start off you should get rid of your ketchup, peanut butter, and dressings.  Dressings always have a lot of high fructose corn syrup.  

Make your own dressing

All organic foods do not have high fructose corn syrup in them.  

When I first went through my entire fridge and pantry Jordan was yelling at me as I was throwing everything in the trash.  Everything I threw away he would say, "Oh come on, I love those!"  I only got half way through and decided to go through the rest of the pantry when he left for work the next day.  I had no idea how much of the foods that I buy had genetically modified glucose (high fructose corn syrup) in them.  

You will be shocked!  And then you might want to punch something like I did.  I was punching my pillow and yelling stupid government controls what I eat!  They are so stupid!  I hate them!  For my birthday next week Jordan wants to get me a punching bag.      

Read here about how high fructose corn syrup was first produced.  We didn't start putting high fructose corn syrup in our foods until the 1960s

Day 4

Meatless Day

Choose one day a week that you will not make any meals with meat in them.
I like Monday because it sounds the best...

There is a strong correlation with the amount of meat you eat and cancer rates.
Lots of information on this in the book, "The China Study." Read here to find out more information.


Dr. Campbell "There are virtually no nutrients in animal-based foods that are not better provided by plants."


Meal Ideas:
black bean burrito with salsa, avocado, and potatoes.
couscous with sweet potato and squash on top
whole wheat pasta with tomato sauce topped with mushrooms and squash
salad with black beans, corn, tomato, avocado, and almonds.  
veggie pizza 

Apparently lady gaga didn't get the memo on meat.  

Day 3

  Try to buy all the foods on the dirty dozen list organically.  These foods have the most amount of pesticides.  

A huge thing of organic spinach is around $3-4 dollars at Costco

Sprouts has the cheapest organic food section

A CSA program is definitely the best deal  

Day 2

Have at least five servings of vegetables per day!  


A serving size is 1/2 cup of cooked or raw vegetables or 1 cup leafy vegetables (spinach)


Ways to get in your vegetables

make a delicious green smoothie in the morning.  You can get in 1 cup or more of kale/spinach by doing that.  

I like to cut up squash and dip it in hummus.  Ps..I didn't know you could eat squash raw until two years ago.  Ever since then it is my favorite veggie to eat raw.  

side salads.  Click here for the recipe

sweet potatos steamed in a steamable bag!  So easy, just cut up sweet potatos and steam for five minutes and they are done.

Edamame/soy beans.  Always a favorite.  I buy the giant costco bag of these.  For added flavor add 1/4 cup of balsamic vinaigrette dressing to your edamame.  I first had this at Roys restaurant on our honeymoon and it was so good!

5 Day Challenge

Last night I got a text message that said, "Thank you for subscribing to cat facts, we will now send you fun cat facts by the minute."  What in the World!  I thought it was someone I knew just messing with me.  They really weren't kidding when they said by the minute.  The texts kept coming and coming all night.  I don't know anyone who would go through that much effort of texting me for a joke.  I sent them a message back and said, "If I saw a cat in the road I would run over it with my car."  But this did not stop the texts.  Here is one of the messages: "The way you treat kittens in the early stages of it's life will render it's personality traits later in life."  Also the area code is California so I just cannot figure out this mystery.  I think that someone put my number and subscribed to cat facts!  I would much rather be getting dog facts, or anything slightly interesting.  There is nothing interesting about a cat to me.  Is there some new app out that I don't know about that can text people non stop?
Anyways...on with the Challenge!

5 Day Challenge

I'm going to write about one easy thing you could each day to get healthier




Lets start with the most simple

Drink more water!
try to drink 2-3 liters per day
3-3 1/2 is best!
Water does so much for your body and it is so easy just to drink more of it.  You may end up having to pee every half hour all day long, but at least you'll be healthy!
When I am focused I take a gallon jug and fill it up with water the night before.  The next day I keep refilling my water bottle with the gallon water bottle from the fridge and try to drink it all by the end of the day.  I have never completed the gallon challenge yet.  But I am convinced that this week I will do it.

Label your water bottle with permanent marker!

this way when its 2 in the afternoon I know that I should be close to the line in order to reach my goal

Add flavor to your water!

My favorite thing to add to water is cucumbers.  It gives it such a fresh taste.  

hint water: my new favorite flavored water.  There are so many flavors.  

Whether you are wanting to lose weight or not drinking more water is a great way to stay healthy.  It maintains the balance of body fluids in your body.  Water also helps energize your muscles and helps your kidneys.  The list goes on and on.  Some days I wish I could just get an IV of water to my arm because I get really sick of drinking it.  Also I hate going to the bathroom every half hour.  Its super inconvenient.


Come back tomorrow for day 2's challenge, and grab the button if you want to get healthy!

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I made so many low calorie delicious drinks a while ago but I lost the recipes I made somewhere.  I am going to try to recreate them this weekend.  They were so good!  

The winner of the giveaway is:

Tiffany

email me at healthywithsam13@gmail.com  if you are still interested in receiving this giveaway.  

  

First Giveaway!

For the personal training session I will come to your house and give you a thirty minute workout in the convenience of your home.  I will bring all the equipment you will need.

For the nutrition consultation I will come to your house and meet with you.  We will go over your nutrition needs and go through your pantry.  I will bring a list of healthy foods you can buy at the grocery store.  We will plan out nutritious meals for you for a week.  This can be done through email if you live out of state

Leave a separate comment for each thing you did 

or email me at healthywithsam13@gmail.com and tell me what you did.

Ways to Enter:

1)  Subscribe to email (or have subscribed)

2)  Like Healthy with Sam on facebook (or have subscribed)

3)  Pin any of my recipe posts to pinterest  

4)  Tell me one thing you want me to write about

Pinterest Favorites

These are some of my favorites from pinterest!  I have made all of these and love them.

fresh caprese quinoa salad

balsamic vinaigrette dressing

I make this dressing at the beginning of every week to use on my salads.  I love it!  It is so easy to make and tastes so good.  It has about five ingredients.

buffalo chicken lettuce wraps

love these!

flavored water

creamy avocado pasta

Red quinoa and black bean vegetable salad

no bake chocolate peanut butter chews

I made these when I was craving a dessert one night.  Definitely hit the spot.

Strawberry shortcake stacked pancakes

The Many Options We Think We Have in a Grocery Store

Every time you go to the grocery store you probably think you are choosing foods from so many different companies.  When in fact you are only choosing from a handful of companies.  this chart is interesting to look at!  We aren't making that many choices at all.

Favorite Apps!

Here are some of my favorite apps!  

Livestrong app

This app is so great, you can use the app or just use the website.  This is a great way to keep track of your calories!  I hate keeping track of my calories but it will definitely keep you focused if you are trying to lose weight.  You can also use it to make sure you are getting enough protein or vitamins.  

My fitness pal app.  

I haven't used this one as much.  For some reason I just like the livestrong one a little better. 

Strava bike app

All you need is a smart phone or GPS.  You can map and record your bike ride and compares it to anyone else who has done that same course.

Strava running app

Same idea as biking, just track your running route and compare to other people.  Or you can just track it for yourself.  This is better than the other apps out there to track what you run because all of your friends can sign up to use this app and then you can see what routes they did on certain days and what their time was.

fitness buddy app

This app is by far my favorite!  I just started a job as a personal trainer at a gym and have been using this every day!  It is so great!  Hundreds of exercises.  

It has exercise programs you can use on the app.  I like making my own though.

You can use the image of the body to click on a muscle and hundreds of exercises will come up to work a specific muscle.

You can also keep track of your weight, bmi, and measurements.  This is great to keep track of when you are trying to gain muscle and lose fat.

If you don't already have this app, you need to get it asap!  Its fun to take with you to the gym.  You can also create workouts and label them.    

If anyone has any questions about nutrition or getting started with a weight lifting program please let me know.  I am glad to help with anything.  You can email me with questions at healthywithsam13@gmail.com.  Later this week I will be posting an exciting giveaway.  So get excited!