Category Archives: Fitness

I <3 you all…. but….

I am no longer going to be using this blog for my health journey. I’m going back to using one blog, and one blog only. Running one, let alone two, was getting to be out of control. I was slacking horribly on both. So as much as I don’t want too, this one will no longer be updated.

Please visit http://aglimpseintoerynsworld.com to continue to follow my health journey and my life in general. That one will be updated as much as possible.

Thank you for all of the follows and support and I sure hope I see you over on the other blog!

Social Media and Fitness

This may not be a ‘typical’ post for me, but it’s been something that I’ve been thinking a lot about and felt the need to write about. Maybe it’s the marketer in me…

Social Media. Exercising. Healthy Living. Three things that have become staples in many of our daily lives. It seems like no matter where I log onto, people are posting/tweeting/instagramming their exercise, food or daily adventures. I’m not complaining, I’m one of those people. I find that seeing those memes or hearing about another friend’s workout adventure is motivating. It makes me want to be active.

With the warmer weather coming, I think most of us have fitness on our minds. With warm weather comes swim suits and the beach. I know I want to be ready for that!

Social media has become a means for people to boast about their fitness wins, their diet woes and their major successes. It keeps us honest. It also makes it personal and holds us accountable. If you post on Facebook, ‘Heading to the gym after work!’ and then later post ‘Forget the gym, home to sweatpants’ chances are you’re a) going to feel some form of guilt (unless of course you didn’t go to the gym because of illness) or b) probably going to get some negative response. At least this is why I have found in my own fitness journey. I am that person who posts something and doesn’t always follow through. It is my laziness shining through and I am working to change that. Why do I think this happens? More than likely,  positive feedback was received for the initial post. People were happy for you, proud of you and wanting to encourage you. When they see the latter post, it may be de-motivating for others and some may wonder why you posted your first post in the first place if you weren’t going to follow through. I’ve found that if I’m posting it to social media, I better be following through.

Here are my views on how social media plays a role in fitness:

Facebook: This is easy. You post, people respond. It’s like sharing with 600 friends your success or your failure. Granted, not all of your Facebook friends are going to respond, but it’s a mass way to tell EVERYONE, ‘I’m going to the gym today!’, ‘Wow, my muscles are really aching after that workout,’ or ‘Totally didn’t go to the gym. My couch was calling me.’

I can guarantee, each one of those will get a response. And it may not always be the response you want. But Facebook is a great motivator when it comes to fitness. It’s like having a support group constantly surrounding you and supporting you. Not only that, there are plenty of great Facebook pages devoted to health and fitness. Some of personal favorites:

  1. She Rocks Fitness
  2. Tone it Up
  3. 100 Days of Real Food
  4. Fitness Magazine

Twitter: Twitter has a cool dynamic in the health world. I’m still just diving into it, but the fitness community really appears to bond together on here. As you connect with some of the health and fitness folks, you’re exposed to great tips, recipes and blogs. As I’ve made my journey into a healthier lifestyle, I’ve found many of these Twitter members motivating and helpful. I love seeing what they have to say, and since most of them blog too, I look forward to reading their blogs everyday! A few personal favorites:

  1. PeaceLoveandLowCarb – @PeaceLoveLoCarb
  2. Nurtitionella, MPH RD – @nutritionella
  3. Bess Be Fit – @bessharrington
  4. FitFluential – @FitFluential

Another awesome way Twitter functions in the health realm is their use of hashtags. Hashtags are great way to keep similar posts in one easily searchable area. One of my favorites is #SweatPink. It’s mostly all women, but it’s a lot of motivation and a lot of great people who are are living the healthy life!

Pinterest: Motivation. Motivation. Motivation. Seriously. If you are looking for motivation, join Pinterest and check out their Health and Fitness pins. You can find workouts, memes, and motivational quotes that will keep you moving. When I’m having a down day, I just hop on and take a look and am usually ready to rock and roll after that!

Instagram: Instagram is a visual Twitter. You can have followers and use hashtags to tag your picture so they can be found. It’s a cool way to show your cool new running sneakers, what you’ve been eating throughout the day and your latest workout that you were so proud of. Personally, I love Instagram. It makes my pictures look cool and it’s fun to use.

I know, I’m looking into this too much. I look at the use of Social Media as a way to fuel my exercise and my healthy living. Like I said above, it keeps ME honest. But at the same time, when I recently hit my first milestone (5 lbs!), I posted to Facebook and the feedback I got from it was incredible and really made me push. I couldn’t wait to post my 10 lb, 20 lb and eventually 30 lb milestone.

In today’s world, I think Social Media is great way to get healthy and stay healthy. I’m not where I want to be yet, but I know by posting my progress and my wins, I feel one step closer every day!

And for the record, I don’t consider myself in any way, shape or form an expert. I’m merely expressing my views on how I see Social Media fitting into the realm of health and fitness. There are plenty of others out there that are far more knowledgable than I am. Remember, this blog is just chronicling my journey and my thoughts :)

Stay tuned… at some point I’ll be posting a post about Apps!

An Active Weekend

Happy Monday everyone! Big surprise, we got more snow overnight. Oh the joys of living in New England. At least it made for a lovely morning with the sun shining off the snow covered trees!

Downtown Amesbury

My never-ending cold is currently ahead in the standings. Just when I though I was beginning to feel better this weekend, I woke up on Sunday morning minus my voice. Touché cold…touché. I could talk a little bit yesterday, however today, it’s gone. Cold – 1 Eryn – 0.

Despite my cold, I had a great weekend and I hope everyone else did too! I started it out on the right foot, beginning Friday night by hitting the gym with Nick. I was in a bit of a funk on Friday afternoon and after a solid 45 minute workout, I felt great and back to myself. Instead of my normal 2 miles on the treadmill, I decided to up my workout by climbing on the elliptical. I turned my music on and went to town. Despite my miles screaming and gasping for air, I zoned out and just went as hard as I could. All of a sudden, 12 minutes had gone by! I couldn’t believe it. Initially, I planned for a 30 minute workout, but instead of aiming for that goal, I started giving myself little challenges. First, I wanted to hit 2 miles, which I did around the 20 minute mark. Then I aimed for 2.5 miles, followed by 30 minutes, which quickly turned into 3 miles. At one point, I had my speed up to about 7.6 (never happened to me before!). When it was all said and done, I had completed 3.03 miles and burned 315 calories in 35 minutes! I was so proud of myself. I haven’t done that in a long time!

The proof.

While I waited for Nick to finish up on the Stairmaster, I hopped on a bike for about ten minutes. 45 minutes and 370 calories later, my weekend had begun.

Dinner is usually the real adventure in our house. At night, we are usually both so exhausted that we eat the easiest thing we can, which usually is salads or sandwiches. Friday night, despite being exhausted, I wanted to make ‘pizza’. A restaurant across the street from my work began making pizzas using tortilla wraps as the crust this past week and I was DYING to try it out myself. Nick made his Mexican in style while mine was more Greek. Below is how I made it.

Tortilla Pizzas – Greek Style

  • Taco sized whole wheat wrap
  • 2 tablespoons of Tribe Everything Hummus as the sauce
  • 2 oz of Grilled Chicken
  • 1/2 cup of chopped mushrooms
  • 1/2 cup of black olives (my obsession, although probably not a healthy one)
  • 1/2 cup of Mexican Cheese (Clearly not Greek, but only shredded cheese we had)

After completing putting it together, we baked the pizzas for about 10 minutes at 350. Basically until the tortilla looks crispy and the cheese fully melted.

When we pulled them out, they smelled DELICIOUS! I couldn’t wait to dig in.

All done!

Eating it was a challenge. We ended up folding it like a taco….thus turning it from a pizza…to a taco.

I also treated myself to a glass of one of my favorite wines, Cupcake Pinot Grigio. I’m a huge fan of all of their wines. They are inexpensive and well-made!

Saturday was a typical busy day for me. I teach riding lessons at the farm I grew up riding at. I teach all beginners and love every second of it. After arriving a bit early to see what my day would look like and realizing I had a bit of time, I saddled up my favorite lesson horse and headed to our indoor arena for a morning ride. Horseback riding has always been my escape. It’s my yoga. Every time I ride, I hop off feeling refreshed and ready to conquer the world. This ride was no different. Lucas and I had a great ride and we spoiled with a yummy peppermint after.

He’s just the cutest.

The rest of the weekend was filled with errands, cleaning and a bridal shower for one of my good friends on Sunday (I’m a bridesmaid!). And of course, trying to coax my voice to come back. Doctors appointment today to see what’s going on!

This morning did start on the right foot, despite not being able to talk. A cup of hot coffee was waiting for me thanks to my wonderful fiancé (Current coffee obsession: Vanilla Macadamia Nut by Kauai) and a protein shake for breakfast. I’m a big fan of the Lean Protein for Her shakes. They aren’t chalky and they taste like chocolate ice cream. In the past, I’ve mixed it with water but today I used Silk Almond Milk. We recently made the switch over to Almond Milk in our house and are loving the change.

Planning to hit the gym tonight as long as the coughing fits subside and the doctors says its okay. Either way, it’s day 3 of The Gorilla Workout!

What did you do over the weekend to stay active? Did you discover a new favorite recipe?

Squats: Challenge Accepted

Happy Friday everyone! I woke up to the warm sun coming through my slider, a nice hot cup of coffee…oh, and some extremely sore muscles from Day 2 of The Gorilla Workout. Yesterday's workout may not have seemed like much for someone who is out of shape as I am, it was definitely to easy. Day 2 consisted of 2 rounds of 15 Superman's and 15 Dead Bug's. The Superman's aren't awful and remind me a bit of doing 'The Swan' in Pilates, except instead of just your chest, you pick your legs and arms off the ground.

The Dead Bugs were a different story. For one thing, this move solidified what I've always known. I have ZERO coordination. Zip, zilch, nada. Like it wasn't even an out of shape thing. It took me, literally, three minutes, just to figure out how to put my left leg straight and my right arm back. It shouldn't take anyone that long to figure that out. Secondly, they look fairly innocent a first. Until I got about 5 or 6 deep. Then I wanted to cry. Clearly I have no ab strength right now.

I wish I looked as graceful as that. She's making it look easy....

Source

But we got through it. Of course we snuck a peek at Day 3 which is 4 rounds of 10 modified push-ups and 10 squats. Which of course called for me attempting a squat. This led into quite the discussion about how I'm doing them wrong and Nick proceeding to show me. As I attempted to do them the correct way, I realized that I flat out could not do one without lifting my heels to get down. Of course now I've realized that when I did Day 1, I probably did them completely incorrect thus not helping myself at all. Then another thought goes through my head…'Am I really THAT out of shape that I can't even do a squat?!' I blame my short tendons from my years of riding… (Totally a legit excuse right?). For the record, it can not be used as an excuse because I should be able to lengthen them by stretching and I am in fact just wicked out of shape.

So when I woke up this morning, I had brand spanky new determination at mastering squats. I was going to be able to do them if its the last thing I do! I may have to use a wall for a bit to build up some strength but I'm going to do it. So as I contemplated this post over my new favorite breakfast, Black Cherry Chobani with Cinnamon Raisin granola, I reminded myself that the best way to overcome something challenging is to work through it and challenging yourself. So I consider myself challenged.

Mmmmm....breakfast!
On a side note, every time I hear 'squats', I immediately picture LMFAO busting into the room and begin singing…. Is that weird?
 

Planning to hit the gym later for some cardio!

What is the one exercise that you find the most challenging? How did you overcome it?