Sunday, January 26, 2014

Workout Plan Week #4

I hope you had a great weekend. Mine was busy, but I got a lot done and got to spend some time with people I don't usually get to. I'm hoping this week will bring great things for myself and for you too! I am on a journey to find positivity in life as I feel negativity is too present. We tend to focus on that and it gets the best of us. I find it to be mentally exhausting, which in turn causes physical exhaustion, which in turn can keep you from exercising. Don't let that happen. Find a way to work through it, to let it go. I have a very hard time with that. A great way to do that is exercise though! So having said all that,  get ready to kick it up a notch this week! Last week was a little easier, but this week we are going to burn some major calories. Be ready to be sore! I love kickboxing and it is a major calorie burner, so for this weeks cardio, we are doing Kickboxing. It will be tough but it will be a great week of working out. I hope you enjoy it!

Monday: "Kickboxing for Weight loss" by JessicaSmithtv

Tuesday:"The 12 Minute Killer Core Workout" by Sean Vigue Fitness

Wednesday: "20 Minute Yoga Flow and Stretch" by Melissa Bender

Thursday: "Jillian Michaels Kickbox Workout" by Jillian Michaels

Friday: "Max Strength-Inner Thigh and Lower Body Fitness" by BeFit

Stay Active!
~Mandi


Love this

Sunday, January 19, 2014

Work out Plan Week #3

Happy Sunday to ya. Hope your ready for a new week of work outs. This week I thought it would be fun to do boot camp type workouts for cardio. They are quick workouts, but will challenge you. I also continued to split up the strength days into upper body and lower body. Although each workout, you end up working a little bit of everything. This week should be effective. All workouts are relatively short, but should work you to the max. I know the last two weeks I have had sore muscles that I didn't even know I had! Get out and enjoy this beautiful day, get some vitamin D!

Monday: Navy Seal Workout by XHIT Daily

Tuesday: HIIT Fit- HIIT Workout: Upper Body and Abs by Lionsgate BeFit

Wednesday: 20 Minute Weight Loss & Fatburning Yoga Workout by Sadie Nardini

Thursday: Total Body HIIT Boot Camp Workout by Fitness Blender

Friday: Lean Lower Body Workout by Melissa Bender

Stay Active,
~Mandi

COMMITMENT

Sunday, January 12, 2014

Work out plan 1-13 through 1-17+ new recipes


Happy Sunday! Hope you're ready for a new week. I know last week was tough, and this week is going to be tough too. I chose to do tabata style workouts for the cardio as they are scientifically proven to burn a ton of calories and pilates for strength. You will love the yoga this week as I chose one to really stretch out those muscles. Remember to stay focused and strive to improve your endurance and reach your goals. I want you to know that I am here for you, if you need a little encouragement or advice, please let me know. Have fun with these workouts. And if you need to modify, the best way is to take the jumping out, just step in and out of the movements. You are creating a much healthier and fitter you, so keep up the good work! Also remember to drink 6-8 glasses of water each day to maintain hydration.


Monday:"Tabata Best High-Intensity Fat Burning Cardio Workout" by Fitappy.com

Tuesday: "Denise Austin: Abs & Core Pilates Workout" by Denise Austin

Wednesday:"20 Minute Yoga Class With Hilaria Baldwin: Deep Stretching" By Hilaria Baldwin via Plumtv

Thursday:"12 Minute Tabata Training" by HASfit

Friday:"Comprehensive Pilates Leg Workout" by Fitnessblender.com

Recipes:
15 Minute Salmon Cakes with Fresh Tarter Sauce

Strawberry Avocado Salad

Happy exercising and healthy eating!

Stay Active
~Mandi

Good one! Very true.

Sunday, January 5, 2014

New year New You Workout plan for January 6th-10th


Here it is!

Ready to challenge yourself this week? Kick off the New Year right. Follow this workout plan to get your blood pumping, your muscles burning, and kick up your metabolism! You may hate me while you are doing these, but you will love me when your done! ;)

Monday Cardio:
"15 Minute When I Say Jump HIIT Cardio Workout" by Fitness Blender

Tuesday Strength:
"15 Minute Crossfit Workout" by XHIT Daily

Wednesday Cardio Yoga:
"Power Yoga Vinyasa Flow Cellulite Reduction FULL CLASS exercise weight loss workout flexibility" by Ali Kamenova

Thursday Cardio:
"ZWOW 53 Time Challenge Tight Body Workout" by Zuzka Light

Friday Strength:
"#1 Home Strength Training Exercise Class" by HA Sfit

I want you to check in each day on my facebook page at www.facebook.com/leanandcleanwithmandi. We need to keep each other accountable!

Let me know how you like these! I promise next weeks yoga will be a little more relaxing :)

Have fun with this and remember, you don't have to be perfect. It is completely ok to modify exercises to your level. Just as long as you are moving.

Stay Active
~Mandi

I have to remember this...

Sunday, December 29, 2013

I'm back! Let's talk about a plan for a New Year, New You!

Hi All!

2014 is fast approaching. A year ago, I made it a goal of mine to start this blog and it has been fun, although I slacked a little for the 2nd half of the year. I'm ready to do something a little bit different with it this year. I am going to be researching the web high and low to find some great, effective, fun workouts and develop weekly plans out of them. The goal is to provide you each week with a new 5 day challenge. I am going to have them strategically lined out to include 2 cardio, 2 strength and 1 yoga/stretch routine. This is how it will look: Monday-Cardio, Tuesday-Strength, Wednesday-Yoga/Stretch, Thursday-Cardio, Friday-Strength. We are going to Sweat, Burn, Stretch, Sweat and Burn!!! Saturday and Sunday will be for resting, however don't be a couch potato on those days! I will post the whole plan on Sunday, and will be posting each individual workout daily on my face book page... www.facebook.com/leanandcleanwithmandi. I urge you to "like" my FB page as I will be sharing motivation, recipes, articles, etc there as well.

I am hoping by doing this, it will encourage and motivate and make it easy for you to follow a plan. Some people are intimidated by figuring out what to do on their own, so I want to help and provide this for you. I would love for you to follow my plans, share them with others and keep me posted on your progress, before and after pictures, weight/inches lost and anything you want to share! I am truly excited to be doing this and want you to be excited too!

Which brings me to my next point. Accountability. I know that to work out on your own, even to eat healthy on your own, can be challenging. Only a small amount of us can be so motivated to live a healthy lifestyle, we will do it no matter what those around us are doing. However the majority of us need a boost in motivation. I believe accountability is one of the most helpful tools to be successful for yourself. If you know that there are people doing a challenge along with you, who are counting on you to motivate them, who are wanting to share with you in the experience, you will be highly motivated to complete your goals. So by participating in this challenge, I want you to feel accountable to me. And to others who are also participating. I want you to check in here on the blog or on my face book page...each day if you have to...to let us know you completed your workout! And if you made healthy food choices that day! Or whatever you want to share! I want this to be a community where you can feel comfortable, accountable and successful! If you feel like skipping out or giving up, remember that I will be a smidge disappointed, because I have worked hard to develop these plans! I have watched every second of these workouts, to make sure they will be the best I can find! You don't want to let me down, now do you? ;) lol....ok....now get geared up because I have put together an awesome plan starting Monday January 6th! I can't wait to share it with you! You are going to love it!!

Stay Active
~Mandi

Pick one!


Saturday, November 23, 2013

Guest Post-Personal Story

As a way to restart my blogging, I thought you all might like to hear from someone other than me about their personal health and fitness journey for once....so meet my little bro, Kyle. Yes, he is the one who did Insanity about a year ago...sooooo what's happened since? Here he tells us....

"Insanity: Been there... Done that... Got the T-Shirt (Literally, there's a picture on my facebook!)

As all of you have probably read the blog about me having major success doing Insantiy, it was true. If you didn't read it, here's a quick recap: At the beginning of this year, I weighed the most I ever had in my life at 242lbs and decided to join a 90 day weight loss competition. For the first 60 days I stuck to the Insanity program pretty hard core, not missing a day, and lost 30lbs. Then, I used the Insanity dvds to lose another 10lbs for the final 30 days.

Before I talk about the workout habits, I'll start by saying I changed the way I ate. I got rid of drinking soda and alcohol for the duration of the contest. I never missed a meal and always stayed full. I cut out the carbs while cutting back on the sugars and sodium as well. Chicken was my best friend.

Insanity was great, especially for a guy like me who had never worked out before. But for those of you who are looking to get in shape, I'm here to tell you there are other options. Let me go on record now and say that I'm not knocking Insanity, that it is a great program and you really are guaranteed results. By doing Insanity, I learned how my body reacts to certain workouts and what workouts were best for me. But let me explain why I have since changed my mind on how great the program is. For the first month, you are working out 45 minutes, six days a week. Doesn't sound too terribly bad, but it gets worse. The second month, you're working out from one hour to one and a half hours for six days a week. All the workouts are very high intensity work outs that work out every muscle in your body (which is a very good thing). But why are you guaranteed the results? Because you're simply just being active. And with this program, you're being extremely active. Insanity was a great start, but, in my opinion, it's not realistic to continue unless you don't work and get bored during the day. And if you're anything like me, you're a busy person who can't dedicate that much time in working out.

So what happened after I lost the 40lbs? Nothing good. I stopped working out because I was tired of the routine. I stopped eating healthy because I deprived myself of all the good unhealthy foods for 90 days. Then, seven months went by and the weight started coming back. I gained back 27lbs before I decided to start a healthy lifestyle again. Let me explain a little bit further on why I stopped.

I knew the weight was coming back, I wasn't blind. I could start to feel uncomfortable again but I was scared. I was scared that in order to get back on the right path I would have to work out for an hour every day, 6 days a week (even though my sister told me that you don't have to). Day after day, I would tell myself, "Well, I will start next week" but never did.

Finally, three weeks ago, I got a group of friends together to all participate in another competition. This time, I'm taking a new approach. As you've probably heard my sister say before, never ever tell yourself you're going on a diet. Diet's will not last, you have to commit to a change in lifestyle. This time, I'm trying to find a realistic lifestyle to start living. My sister told me about a website, www.fitnessblender.com that has page after page of free workout videos. They literally have so many different types of workouts, I dare you to visit the site and tell me you can't find some that works for you. They rate their videos 1-5 (1 being easy, 5 being most difficult) and have lengths from 5 minutes to over an hour. This year, I spoiled myself and bought a smart TV and found out I can watch these videos on the TV. Therefore, I can again work out in the comfort of my own home and not embarrass myself at a gym.

These past three weeks, I've lost 8 lbs. I've targeted the videos on FitnessBlender where the difficulty is three or four and 15-20 minutes long. I work out about 4 -5 days a week and have gone back to my healthy eating habits. I did get discouraged last weekend when I ate pretty bad and thought I ruined a week of weight loss, but I learned that by going back to eating right and continuing to work out, your body gets rid of the bad stuff really quickly.

So at the end of the day, I'm here to say, just stay the course. Don't think you have to work out with the extreme of programs like Insanity or P90x, just start small and get active. Let yourself have your cheat meals and not worry about it. As long as you continue to work out, you'll be just fine."

And there you have it! If that's not inspiration that you can do it, I don't know what is. It is easier than you think and so within your reach. Keep it simple, stupid...right ;) lol...eat clean, fresh, healthy and exercise realistically and smart. You make the decision to pull the trigger, I can give you ammo!!

Hope you enjoyed hearing his story and feel inspired to begin your own! :)

Until next time,
Stay Active!
~Mandi

Absolutely.

Sunday, September 1, 2013

Cellulite + Chicken and Squash Recipe

Happy Labor Day Weekend.

I have been thinking about something to write about in my blog and I decided to discuss cellulite. If you are a women and reading this, you probably are cringing because we all hate cellulite and we want to know, why do have it and what can we do about it?!?!

I wish I could say I have found a quick fix to this problem, but unfortunately it doesn't exist. As a woman, we have 3 layers of fat, or adipose tissue. We tend to carry the majority of this in our lower body. There is connective tissue that connects our skin to our muscle by fibrous cords. The adipose tissue cells accumulate between these tight cords and poke through the collagen causing a dimpling, puckered look.

There are certain factors that contribute to the worsening the appearance of existing cellulite. Hormones, such as estrogen, weaken the collagen in our connective tissue causing more dimpling. Weight gain also contributes due to too many fat cells trying to be contained between our muscle and skin. Stress, genetics, fad dieting and lack of physical activity also are culprits to the problem.

Cellulite is not a medical condition. Many of us have cellulite and it doesn't exactly mean you are unhealthy or not fit. I have had cellulite since I was a teenager on my thighs. Even when I weighed 105 lbs and ran almost everyday, I had cellulite. I have cellulite now, even though I am the most physically fit and toned than I have ever been. It is a fact that I have had to learn to accept.

I researched a few different types of "treatments" that I wanted to share. First are over the counter creams. There are no studies that show these work and most people do not see any effects. Also some of the ingredients can cause skin rashes. I have tried some myself and have not found any to work. Another treatment is laser. These can work temporarily, but take multiple treatments and are expensive. They tend to last only about 6 months. Then there is liposuction. I used to joke and say I was going to do this. But in reality, it can change the shape of your body, but doesn't take cellulite away. It can actually make it worse. Think of it this way, if you had a barn full of cows and took the cows out, the barn might look nicer, but the barn is still there. All you have to do is open the door, and back comes the cows. That's liposuction. It's very easy for those fat cells to accumulate back into the existing open spaces.

What really works? Reaching and maintaining a healthy weight by eating clean and exercising. Increase your muscle tone. This helps to decrease the appearance of cellulite. Stay hydrated. I know you are thinking, really Mandi? That's the same thing you preach over and over again. But it's true, everything boils down to altering your everyday lifestyle habits to healthy, fresh, clean choices and physical activity!

Here is a recipe I have been wanting to share with you because it is delicious!
Chicken and Squash Bake:
(You could use zucchini instead of squash and olive oil or coconut oil instead of butter)

4 boneless skinless chicken breasts, each cut into about 4 strips (about 1 1/4-1 1/2 lbs)
Garlic salt (or garlic powder to decrease sodium)
Lemon Pepper
10 cups yellow squash, washed, sliced 1/4 inch thick (cut large slices in half)
6 ounces fresh spinach leaves, coarsely chopped
3 tbs of butter (or oil)
4 ounces sliced Muenster cheese (or any cheese you would like)

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Grease 9x13 baking dish and place chicken inside. Sprinkle with garlic salt or powder and lemon pepper, turn chicken and repeat. Cover with foil and bake for 60 minutes or until chicken is fully cooked. After about 30 minutes of baking, heat 2 tbs butter or oil in a large stock pot. Sauté squash until tender. Add remaining tbs of butter or oil to pot. Add spinach leaves. Cook and stir just until spinach is wilted. Remove from heat and toss with a pinch of salt if desired. Take the dish of chicken from oven, uncover and spoon the squash mixture over the chicken. Place slices of cheese on top, enough to make a thin layer over the vegetables.

If you prefer to Grill ( I prefer it this way rather than baking as above):
This is much faster! Sauté veggies, grill the chicken and assemble in the greased baking as above. Broil in the oven just until cheese is melted and top is browned.

I hope you have a great rest of your Labor Day weekend.
Stay Active
~Mandi
 Challenge yourself!