What defines YOU?

I used to be ALL about the scale. Constantly worrying about how much I weighed. Sometimes I would literally weigh myself about 3 times a day. I became obsessed with consistently looking at that number, usually only to be disappointed with myself.

       Being a college athlete, I had extra pressures constantly weighing on me. We would have monthly "check in's" where our body fat was tested. Imagine about 15 college aged girls who already have the pressure of society telling them they need to look a certain way, then go ahead and add on to that the monthly check ins we had; definitely not ideal for a healthy relationship with your body.
  Anyways, my point is that the scale literally means nothing. Scales don't tell you how strong you are, or how hard you worked that day. They don't tell you how pretty you are, how smart you are, or even how healthy you are. Eating right, and exercising is what will get you to your ideal look and shape. Rather than measure your progress by the number on the scale, go by how your clothes fit, and how you look in the mirror. Most importantly, don't get discouraged, we all start somewhere and change doesn't happen overnight.

   My advice would be to hide your scale, focus on eating healthy and being active rather than what that stupid number says in the morning. Don't let that number define who you are. Sure, go ahead and check your weight every once in a while, but realize that even if you gained weight, that could very easily mean that you gained some muscle and lost fat! Let me tell you, it's taken me years to finally get to this mind set, I had a lot of bad shit ingrained in my mind for so long. But I can honestly say that I am so much healthier mentally and physically. Weighing less than 120 doesn't make me happy. Feeling healthy makes me happy. Knowing I gave 100% effort to my day makes me happy, my husband and family makes me happy. At some point in your life you have to decide and realize what defines you and what makes you truly happy.

Working out used to be a chore for me, I honestly would only do it because I wanted to look good, or because I ate too much food the day prior. When you realize the importance of exercise and a good diet, it becomes fun! You learn to love it because it makes you a healthier and happier person in general, when this is your mind set that's when working out becomes less of a chore and more of an enjoyable activity.

There's a video going around lately of a motivational speaker named Lizzie Velasquez. She has a rare disease which ultimately could have made or broke her. She chose to make the most out of her life and her very unfortunate situation. Her story is all about how you define yourself, and how you can turn any situation into something worth living for. Here it is: 

   Isn't that video so inspiring? If you don't have time to watch it now, make sure you do later, you won't regret it! Don't let the scale define you. I let it define me before and I was miserable. Be happy, be yourself, and strive for progress, not perfection.

Fat Blaster Cardio Workout

Yesterday I went to the gym and really did not feel like being there, but I knew I needed to get it done, I had lifted earlier in the morning and went back for some more cardio in the afternoon (it was my day off of work so I had the time). I made up an awesome cardio workout on the Cybex machine. Have any of you used this machine before? I recently started using it more and I have fallen in cardio love. I know cardio machines aren't always the most accurate calorie counters but for what it's worth, this machine seems to burn the most calories, so that's always a plus! I was literally still dripping sweat when I got home from the gym and it only took 25 minutes! Here's what I did:   5 minute warm up Incline: 6-7  Resistance 30 (same speed thewhole time) then for 20 minutes...  30 second sprint at 35 resistance 60 second 'rest' at warm up pace and 30 resistance repeat I don't know about any of you but listening to music while I work out can totally change everything! I don't know what it is but I seriously get in the zone when I listen to good music. Golds Gym has wifi so I just listen to Pandora, I added a new station today (Till' I Collapse' by Eminem) and it was the bomb! 

This seriously kicked my butt. Switching up the speeds and resistance makes the time go by a lot faster too! I burned over 400 calories in less than half an hour! I'd say that's pretty good! So.....Try it out! You won't regret it :)

PIZZA PIZZA PIZZA!!!

I've been seeing all of these healthy pizza recipes all over my Instagram and Pinterest and the other day I decided to try my own! I was too lazy to actually make the crust (although I've heard cauliflower crust is amazing) so I decided to turn a low carb tortilla from costco into my crust. 

They look delicious do they not? My husband scarfed down two of these so fast! As for me, one filled me up plenty, I may have eaten some of the toppings on their own while I was making them ;) can ya blame me?

Here's what you will need...

Ingredients: Tortilla marinara sauce goat cheese chicken apple sausage (costco) spinach tomatoes 
Directions: Preheat oven to 350-400, bake tortilla for 5-10 minutes until slightly brown and crispy, then take out, flip over, and add all of the ingredients starting with the marinara sauce. Then put back in the oven for about 10 more minutes or until the cheese is melted. Then turn your oven to broil and broil that delicious pizza until the edges are crispy, mine burnt a little so keep an eye on it! Try and come up with your own combos for ingredients, almost anything will taste good on that delicious tortilla, I honestly just used what I had in my fridge, be creative! ENJOY

Trust the Process

Hello everyone! It's been a while since I have blogged, I partially blame it on the fitness competition taking all of my mental power... anyways, I've been getting a lot of questions about how I did the bikini competition, what I ate, what I did for workouts, etc. and I hope I can answer many of those questions, but first off, what I did to get there is probably a completely different journey for somebody else. I had an awesome trainer that I paid every month and he made up my meal plans and workouts specifically for me and my body type. So just keep that in mind ;) I didn't have just one diet the whole time either, it changed almost every 2 weeks, including my workouts. I started training July 9th, and my competition was this last weekend on October 19th, so all together I had about 15-16 weeks to get to my goal. My husband Phil also did the competition with me which made things a lot easier, he is a saint. Here's some before and after pics of us both from start to finish.

 It was a lot of hard work, but definitely worth it. I haven't decided yet if or when I want to do another one but for now I'm just going to continue to eat healthy and workout.

So you want to know what I ate these last 16 weeks?
Here's a list:

Proteins:
Chicken breast
Ground turkey
Top sirloin
Bison
Tuna
Tilapia, tilapia, tilapia
Egg whites

Carbs:
Rice (brown and white)
Sweet potatoe
Oatmeal
Ezekiel bread

Veggies:
Green beans
Spinach
Zucchini
Yellow squash
Celery

Fruits:
Banana
Strawberries
Raspberries
Blueberries
Grapefruit

And that's it folks. I had a cheat meal once a week up until the last two weeks before the show. An let me tell ya, there is no way I could've survived those 16 weeks without those. Did you know that cheat meals once a week are actually good for you? Read about it here: cheat meal link. My favorite treat to have and that I always craved was ice cream :) yummmy!

Something that made this whole experience a million times easier is that my sweet husband did it with me! We were with each other every step of the way. Having a support system if you're going to do something like this is so important. It definitely gives you that extra push to succeed.
It's so nice to be able to share this passion for fitness with him. We always have something to do together even if it is going to the gym for date night ;) Anyways, here are some more pics for those of you who have asked! I will be posting more about the entire process and what I'm doing now in posts to come!

  

Turn your Dreams into Plans

As many of you know I have been in the middle of a bikini competition prep. Its gotten pretty rough these last few weeks hence the absence of any new blog posts. I never thought I would be able to do something so hard but I am proving to myself that I can do anything! I have about twelve days until my competition and I can't wait. I've worked so hard and am finally starting to see the results I want.  If you feel like you are in a rut with your eating habits, or your workouts, or anything for that matter; don't give up. Patience is key to almost everything in life. If you make a plan and have some determination you will get there I promise! Stop wishing and pinning awesome bodies on your pinterest boards ;) and actually become those girls that you are pinning! Nothing is impossible. Here's a quick progress picture I took about  a week ago. Gotta love selfies :)

I am obsessed with this quote! Yes it's always good to dream, dreaming is where you can get soooo many ideas and inspirations, but even more important than dreaming is making plans and taking action so you can actually fulfill those dreams! There have been so many times during this competition prep that I have just wanted to give up, but then I remember why I'm doing this, why I chose to torture myself haha. I want to push my mind and body to its own limits and see what I am capable of. We all have so much potential it's unbelievable. So start taking action and make plans for your dreams!

P.S. I have recently started making meal and workout plans for friends, co-workers, etc. if you feel like you don't know where to start with any of your fitness goals, it always helps to have a plan written out for you. If you are interested shoot me an e-mail : sarahelizabethwensel@gmail.com and I will give you more details!