- Late night studying
- healthy snacking
- Mozart on Pandora
- and scented candles…
…Welcome to the Healthy life of a Fitspirational College girl!
If you’re going to snack late at night (especially if you’re studying and need some extra brain power) skip the chips and grab some carrots and oranges!
Healthy food will give you natural energy that helps you stay awake and alert to study. A few cups of coffee or a bag of candy will get you really hyper and then make your body completely crash.
It’s 11:30pm in CA right now and I’m up studying for my Spanish exam tomorrow.
I can LITERALLY feel the natural sugar from the oranges helping me stay alert and study.
Don’t just take my word for it… TRY IT OUT!
I’m not posting about my healthy ways just to entertain you. I hope to inspire you to be healthy and actually follow through with the Fitspirational techniques that I do.
Grab some healthy snacks, and pull out a text book and let your brain and body work together to get good grades in school!
A+ in Spanish, I can feel you coming already!
Xox Brittany,
Part of living a healthy lifestyle in college, is studying and improving your education!
What do you guys listen to when you study???
For all of you out there who are having trouble focusing on studying because you’d rather be working out or on your health blog… this is especially for you!
What pandora stations, artists, or music genres do you find helpful to listen to when you’re studying (while hopefully munching on a healthy bowl of fruit) :)
Me:
- Even though I’d rather be listening to Taylor Swift, I’m going through a classical music phase right now. I’m currently hitting up the classy fabulous “Wolfgang Mozart” station on Pandora as I type this while studying for my Spanish Exam tomorrow. I find the beautiful (wordless) music, helps me tune out all the distractions around me, without the desire of wanting to sing along (hense, the wordless aspect of classical music.) Mozart must be working, because I ACED my World Religions exam last week, and listened to him the ENTIRE time I was studying! MOZART IS BOSS!!!
What music helps YOU study?!?
There are millions of people out there (you may be one of them) who are allergic to many different types of food. Almost everyone knows a friend or family member who has a dairy or nut allergy, and of course they find ways to survive without eating those specific foods.
But what if you didn’t know what you were allergic to?
One of my sweetest sisters in my sorority has been feeling so sick for the last few months, and can’t seem to pin point just what it is that is making her so sick and nauseous.
She’s tried taking out gluten, dairy, and her favorite trail mix from her diet- in hopes that one of the three may be the cause of her constant discomfort.
Unfortunately, none of the 3 seem to be causing the problem.
Time for a new plan-
At our sorority retreat this weekend, I spotted her brilliantly writing down a food log that allows her to keep track of which foods she eats. This is so simple, yet absolutely genius.
Of course, my automatic reaction was to blog about it. If she’s struggling with food allergies, I bet SO many of my followers are as well. I hope you guys apply this to yourselves, and keep it in the back of your mind for anyone else you know too.
1.) If you suspect that you’re struggling with a food allergy, write everything down that you eat.
This is HER list, she was sweet enough to let me blog her actual list which I loved because it gives you guys a REAL example about what someone who is trying to diagnose a food allergy is ACTUALLY doing. Check this out, and get inspired to make your own!
2.) You can also take it a step further, write down how foods make you feel if they don’t agree with you. Perhaps your allergy is to an ingredient IN a food that you’ve been eating.
3.) Pin-pointing down the basics:
- Dairy Products
- Different Types of Nuts
- Seafood and Fish
- Wheat
- Eggs
- Gluten (breads, pasta etc)
Check all of these foods against your allergy symptoms and move on to other foods if none of these “test positive”. From there, you should move on to fruits and vegetables because those are also common allergy triggers. Hopefully you’ll find the trouble maker sooner than later!
4.) Also, it is really important that you tell your Doctor about it. He can give you some tests of his own that will help you narrow things down too.
5.) Follow through by eating a clean/light diet so your stomach can rest until you diagnose what your allergy is. This is her salad that she ate when we went out to lunch at our sorority retreat. (That salad WAS SO BIG!!! She got 2 meals out of it haha.) Notice how she’s sticking to LOTS of vegetables and lettuce (which actually cleans your body out.)
Remember you’re not alone, and there are so many resources on your side to help you find out what’s making all that trouble in your precious body.
Be strong and persistent like she is.
Write things down, take thorough notes and don’t give up until you figure it out.
No one wants to be that person at a restaurant that turns into a red itchy blow fish after eating a bread roll at dinner.
You’ve got this ;)
PS- Any advice for my sorority sister, or anyone else who is trying to self diagnose an allergy, message me here!!
Xox Brittany,
Those are some amazing questions girlie!
Yes, I’ve done it three times already all the way through. I’m a bit of an over achiever so while doing The Shred, I still went to classes at the gym and did morning runs etc. It’s only a 24 minute video, so as long as you space it out you shouldn’t have to give up what ever else you’re doing. For the first level though it’s a bit intense so I do recommend toning it down on other exercises until you get in the groove of it you know?
As far as having to be done every day, yes that is absolutely recommended. However, we’re all human and have busy lives (this I know) so it is 100% realistic to have to skip a day or two in between those 30 days.
What I would do, is if I had to skip a day doing the shred I would add an extra day to the end of my 30 days.
Don’t make it a pattern though, the first time I did the shred I got to day 17 and skipped one day, then thought to myself “Oh, it’s okay I’ll just skip one more day and then add two to the end…” then two turned into three, then four, then I ended up just not finishing it at all! I started completely over a month later. When you skip one day, make SURE you discipline yourself to keep it to one day.
I had GREAT results! I have a thin build already, so doing the shred for me was great because I wasn’t “Thin” or “Skinny” anymore. After the shred I was kicked into “Toned” and “Fit”! The Shred gave me defined abs, arms and especially legs.
The best part by far though was my mind’s new mentality! I was thinking differently, eating differently and had at least DOUBLE the energy as I did before!
It’s absolutely worth it :)
Any more questions just ask hun!
Xox Brittany
Hi hun!
I just answered this same question a few anons ago. Check out my 2-Hour-Anon-Thursday page to see my complete answer!!
Basically your body is at a plateau because you’ve been doing the same exercises for so long. You need to switch it up to give your body something new. Also, you can’t just do sit ups and jumping jacks and expect to see a change. Mixing cardio and strength training is necessary for seeing intense results!
I’m not sure what you mean by “controlled” eating, but make sure you’re not restricting your calories.
Eat healthy, pack in the fruits and veggies and drink a LOT of water!!!!
Good luck hun, make sure to check out that link I put up there to my page to see more :)
Xox Brittany
Hahaha you’re so funny!!
No no no, you should totally change your super hero name to “Future Flexible Girl” because I know you can definitely be flexible if you dedicate yourself and stretch every day! (I promise I’ll make a post about improving flexibility soon :)
Anyway, healthy school snacks - GREAT question!!
I get this question a lot, I should probably write this down and put it on my blog somewhere.. definitely going on my “To-Do” list!
Here are a list of my absolute favorite snacks I like to take with me to my college classes (I call them “Purse Snacks”):
- Hummus and Pita
- Apples with a side of peanut butter
- Ants on a log (Celery with peanut butter, raisins sprinkled with cinnamon on top)
- Portable Parfait (Greek yogurt, with a baggy filled with 3 different fruits I can mix into the Greek yogurt when I’m ready to eat it)
- Nutella & banana on whole wheat toast
- Dried mangoes
- String cheese
- Sliced Cucumbers w/ a bit of ranch dip
- Baby carrots
- Nuts! (I like fresh almonds, and cashews the best)
Those are just a few of my personal favorites :)
Write these down okay “Future Flexible Girl?”?
If you actually write a list of these snacks, plus or minus your own and literally put it in your kitchen, it will be REALLY helpful when you’re trying to plan out your snacks the night before school!
That is what I do, it’s a real time saver with a really busy schedule.
Have a fabulous day!!
Xox Brittany
I just received a wonderful question from a follower who was allergic to nuts, which inspired me to do a bit of research to find some healthy and delicious food substitutes!
If you have a Nut or Gluten allergy, eating healthy (or eating at all) sometimes can be a bit more challenging.
However, it is NOT impossible!
When it comes to Peanut Butter, there are a wide variety of brands that specialize in making peanut butter sensitive to your needs!
All of these pictured above are:
Kosher
Hi girly, nice to meet you!
I’m so sorry you’re allergic to nuts, that has got to be hard to deal with so I applaud you for doing it!
You’re in luck though, I know about an AWESOME website for people with nut allergies that will be PERFECT for you!
They even have Peanut-FREE peanut butter (which may sound a little crazy but it’s real.) I’ve actually tried it before because one of my sorority sisters was allergic to nuts as well and she had it :)
The website is called: Peanut Free Planet <Click that link
I linked you directly to the page where they sell it.
Great job on getting that protein in, you go girl!
Xox Brittany
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WARNING- The content you are about to read is VERY girly!
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We just figured out the BEST way to watch a torture scene during any movie!!!
I hate seeing blood and gore, but LOVE action movies (not such a great combination, I know). So when the torture scene came on during “Taken 2” one of my best friends and I muted the volume, and put the Legally Blonde soundtrack on FULL BLAST!!
You haven’t lived, until you’ve seen a full grown hairy Albanian man lip singing “OMG you guys” to Liam Neeson in chains.
Thankfully since it’s 12:12 at night, I can definitely tell you I won’t be having nightmares. Just Elle Woods dancing around in my dreams singing!
Xox Brittany,
Just tried the vegan Pad Thai for the first time and it was pretty good!
Definitely not my favorite Thai dish, but it is up there for sure.
This lunch was packed with protein, and being a vegetarian it is really important to get in as much protein as possible.
Pad Thai noodles are made out of rice (which naturally has protein in it), so they are way better for you than starchy spaghetti noodles.
I added tofu, and mixed in some nuts on the side making it have at least double the protein!
There you have it, another delicious fitspirational college lunch!
Xox Brittany,
The Fitspirational Blonde
Hi Mary!!! I love that you introduced yourself that is the cutest thing ever <3
It’s wonderful to meet you, I’m Brittany :)
First of all, congrats on your decision to start out your fitspirational life!!!!
When it comes to counting calories, I absolutely don’t do it. I don’t like promoting calorie counting because I don’t want my followers to literally get addicted to counting calories and have to look up the amount of calories a food has before they eat it.
If you’re ready to start a healthy lifestyle, I recommend that you decide this isn’t just going to be a phase to “lose weight” for the summer, or to “eat healthy” only until you get the results you want.
Make the life choice that you want to live this way for the rest of your life!
Here’s how I recommend you start.:
- Eat more veggies. Go to the store today and buy a basket of veggies. Eat them raw as snacks (dip in hummus if you like, not fatty dressings), steam them as side dishes for lunch and dinner, puree them and put them into your usual recipes, eat a salad before your meal. You can start with just one of these changes, and slowly add more veggies each week. This is an easy change but it’s actually huge — more fibre, more vitamins and minerals.
- Just as you did with the veggies, add in the fruit. Make smoothies (I literally make a smoothie EVERY morning without fail.) Get creative and add fruit in as a substitute for the sugary snacks that you’re used to!
- Get rid of the junk. This is actually a bit of a drastic change but it makes a really big difference. Take all the junk food in your house (chips, pastries, ice cream, cookies, prepared foods of any kind, fried foods) and toss them. Clean out your fridge and pantry. Buy fruits, veggies, nuts and beans instead, and try some new flavorful recipes. If the junk isn’t around, it won’t tempt you.
- Add exercise- If you’re having a hard time with this, take a class at your local gym! This will get your endorfins and pumping and will motivate you to continue the healthy exercising pattern. Also, try starting and or ending your days with a light jog. Start slow, then add more exercise as you get used to the little changes. I highly recommend the 30 day shred as a beginning point if you want to see quick results in a short amount of time :)
If you have your heart set on counting calories (which again I don’t recommend) try to get 1,300-1,500 a day! Fruits and Veggies will by FAR get you the least calories for the most amount of food.
Let me know how it goes Mary, I know you can do it!
Xox Brittany,
The Fitspirational Blonde
We crave sugar because we are looking for energy.
You may not eating enough which leads to having intense sugar highs followed by crashes, followed by wanting more sugar and then crashing again. Your body is continuously craving sugar and seems to never get enough.
How to fix this?
Eat more often. As I’m ALWAYS telling you, carry snack with you!
Snack Ideas:
- Carrot Sticks
- Pita and hummus
- Fruit (raspberries, blue berries etc)
- Peanut butter and celery
- Low-Cal popcorn (meaning not drenched with butter)
If you love sugar, then you love the way it makes you feel while you’re eating it… but NOT the way it makes you feel afterwords.
How can you tell that you’re addicted to sugar?
Try going just 2 days without it. Can’t do that, then chances are there’s a high probability that you’re addicted!
Fitspirational steps to take if you’re a sugar addict: (YES THIS IS A REAL ADDICTION)
- DON’T DROP SUGAR ALL AT ONCE. This is setting yourself up for FAILURE. You will not, and I REPEAT- WILL NOT be able to drop sugar in one day, or maybe even one week. It is a slow process and takes time and dedication, but it will ABSOLUTELY BE WORTH IT once you’re off of it completely. Sugar turns into FAT.
- Slowly ween yourself off of sugar by replacing it with healthier natural sugars. For example, apples have a very high natural sugar. Every time you crave a chocolate, eat a few apple slices :) Add some Peanut Butter too for some extra flavor in there.
- Drink a LOT of water. A lot of the time when you’re feeling like you need a sugar high, it is actually your body telling you that you’re dehydrated. Drink 3 glasses, wait 1/2 hour and see if you still want it. (PMSing doesn’t count. If you’re PMSing and you are craving a chocolate… EAT THE CHOCOLATE- Coming from a girl with INTENSE cravings during that lovely monthly gift from mother nature)
- Cut down the sweets in your drinks! There is SO much sugar in the drinks that we intake, that a huge percentage of our daily sugar comes from drinking. FACT: did you know mountain dew has 19 TEASPOONS OF SUGAR IN ONE SERVING?!?!?!?!! How is that even legal? I did an entire presentation on this in my Spanish class and everyone was SHOCKED.
- Exercise! This may sound crazy, but exercising really will help you beat a sugar addiction. There is something about exercise and endorphin that makes you want to eat better and takes your mind off of cravings.
I’ve given you the tools, now it’s your turn to take them into your hands and apply them.
A majority of America has no idea what it feels like to feel their full bodies potential.
Don’t be a part of that majority. Get UN-addicted with me NOW!
Xox Brittany,
I don’t care WHAT your momma told you growing up. If she gives you a plate this size you DON’T have to eat everything on it!
Eat 1/2 and save the rest for later.
If she gives you trouble about it, tell her to MESSAGE ME and I’ll explain to her the ridiculous change in portion sizes around the world!
Xox Brittany
(Source: motiveweight, via tobejuliaagain)
Hi!! It’s wonderful to meet you, I think YOU’RE fabulous!
I like you already :)
The 30 day shred is a pretty intense workout all on its own. I’m a bit of an over achiever though, and do other exercise as well!
I do recommend doing other fitness activities as well as the shred, only because it is only 25 minutes. It is not necessary though and don’t feel pressured to if you’re having a hard time with the Shred on its own.
While on the shred, I still take Zumba classes (it’s one of my favorite things) and I also still go on runs and hikes pretty often as well.
It’s all up to you though. Listen to your body!
If you start the shred and think it’s a piece of cake then add something else in your day! If you’re having a hard time 1/2 way through, take it slow and just focus on getting through that.
:)
Xox Brittany
You are NOT measured by a number.
Your self worth and beauty is NOT determined by a scale in your bathroom.
You are beautiful JUST the way you are.
I do NOT promote counting calories, and I do not promote stepping on a scale every 5 minutes in hopes of loosing a pound.
- Eat healthy
- Drink water
- Exercise regularly
Earn your body, don’t starve yourself there!
If you’re struggling with this PLEASE come and talk to me. There are so many better ways, I promise!
Xox Brittany
(Source: theloveyourselfchallenge, via fitforinfinity)
