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My Fitness Pal
Hey Everybody!
Today I am informing you about an awesome app that can help you see what exactly you are eating. It is called MyFitnessPal and it is free! You do not have to use it in premium mode to use any of the things I will mention below.
I first learned about this app when I was doing personal training at VASA. My trainer recommended it to me to see how many calories I was eating compared to what I should be eating to hit my goals. Sometimes you have no idea that you are eating, way too much or even way too less than you should be. I originally typed in what I wanted and it really did turn out that I was not eating enough. Not only that but I was not getting the amount of protein that I needed in order to build my muscles.
Through the app you can track your weight, water intake, exercise, and what you are eating. My two favorite features are the ability to scan the package of the food you are eating and being able to input your own recipes into the app. Scanning the food takes away all the guessing, all you have to do then is figure out how much you ate. The recipe feature is also very helpful because if you are anything like me, you probably eat the same recipes over and over so you can just select it and put in your own serving size.
Once you have input all of your food intake for the day, you can see what your macros look like too. You can see if you are eating in one category more than the others. Knowing this can help you adjust your diet for the future to achieve your goals. It also shows you your daily nutrients so you can also see how you are doing in that aspect.
I chose to write about this app today because I know that a lot of people really stress about eating around the holidays. My personal opinion is eat what you want on the holidays but don’t make it a habit. Everything should be eaten in moderation. Also don’t completely stuff yourself to the point of making yourself sick. You won’t feel good or be happy. Just get a little bit of everything you want.
This app can help with New Years resolutions as well. You can type in how much weight you would like to gain or loose and the app will help you to find a healthy way of achieving that.
Thanks for taking the time to read my blog! I hope you have a happy holidays and get to spend as much time as possible with those you love.
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Perfect Pesto Pasta
Hey Everybody!
Today’s recipe is one for a crockpot pesto chicken pasta. Shane and I have been really interested in finding meals that we can prepare in the morning and eat pretty soon after we get home from skiing. We are always exhausted and the last thing we want to do is cook. I originally got this recipe from Pinterest from themagicalslowcooker.com by Sarah Olson. I have made a few modifications as I wanted to make it a little healthier!
This recipe generally takes about 5 hours and 15 minutes from start to finish. Although you can cook the chicken longer if you are not home during that time frame! This recipe is for 8 servings so plan accordingly. Shane and I usually half the recipe!
Ingredients
1½ lbs. Chicken Breasts
½ tsp. Salt
¼ tsp. Pepper
1 jar (6 oz.) Pesto (I used Barilla Rustic Pesto)
¼ cup Salted Butter
2 Tbsp Lemon Juice
1 box Veggie Rotini (I use Ronzoni)
½ cup Parmesan Cheese
1/2 cup Lowfat Shredded Mozzarella Cheese
¼ tsp. Dried Basil
Instructions
- Add
liner to your crockpot. This will make cleaning up 10X easier! - Add the chicken to the crockpot. Sprinkle with the salt and pepper. Spread over the pesto, pour the lemon juice over the chicken. Cut the butter into slices and lay over the chicken.
- Cover and cook on low for 5-6 hours without opening the lid during the cooking time. *We have cooked ours up to 10 hours like this and it still tasted fine!
- Near the end of the cooking time, cook the pasta according to the package directions and drain well.
- Shred the chicken by taking it out of your crockpot and putting it into your KitchenAid. Use the flat beater attachment, lock the KitchenAid and turn it on 3 for 30 seconds. This should shred your chicken evenly. Add the chicken back into the crockpot. (You can also shred your chicken with forks, I just prefer to use my KitchenAid because it is easier!)
- Add the cooked pasta and the parmesan cheese to the crockpot, stir everything until the pasta is coated with the buttery pesto sauce and the chicken is evenly dispersed throughout the pasta. Add the mozzarella cheese over the pasta. Cover for about 15 more minutes or until the cheese has melted.
- Garnish with dried basil. Serve and enjoy!
I really enjoy this recipe and I hope you do too. It is perfect, heated up for leftovers as well! Let me know what you think about this recipe in the comments below. If you love this please subscribe as well!
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Commit to Acts of Kindness
Hi Everybody!!
Today’s post is about committing to doing random acts of kindness to help with your self-care. We often times have way too much going on in our lives and are extremely busy. When you do an act of kindness it doesn’t have to be something elaborate. It can be something small like: holding the door for someone, smiling at someone, greeting someone, giving someone a compliment, helping someone with their groceries, picking up something someone else dropped, etc. The possibilities are endless!
By doing something small you can have a huge impact on someone. They may even want to do something kind for someone else. This can cause a ripple effect and may even come back to yourself one day!
Doing kind things for others can have some amazing benefits. It can reduce your stress levels and boost your mood. It can increase your life satisfaction. It also helps to create a positive atmosphere around you. These benefits alone would make doing these things worth it but there are even more benefits!
Doing a kind act can really help the person that you do it for as well. We don’t know what is going on in others peoples lives. Maybe they are having the worst day ever and you just helped them through it. Maybe they were losing hope, but you just gave them one more thing to hold onto. You really never truly know.
“A Random Act of Kindness, no matter how small, an make a tremendous impact on someone else’s life.” – Roy T. Bennett
Commit to doing at least one random act of kindness every day for the next week. See how it makes you feel. Come back and leave a comment on what you did. If you already do this please share your experience below! I would love to here about it. The holiday season is a perfect time to start this!
Let’s make this world a better place to live.
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Biceps Workout
Hey Everybody!
Today’s workout is a biceps workout! As I have explained in previous posts, I struggle with golfer’s elbow so I normally don’t do a ton of bicep workouts as they seem to aggravate it the most! Here are some of the exercises that I do in order to keep my biceps toned. I like to use lower weight while doing these, somewhere in between 10-20 pounds.
4 sets of 10 reps
10 Reverse Barbell Curls
10 Barbell Curls
10 Dumbbell Hammer Curls
10 Bicep Cable Curls
Here is a video on how to do each of these exercises. It is sped up just a little bit.
A few tips are: keep your elbows at your sides, don’t bend your wrists, and grip the barbell so it is parallel to your shoulders. As always, listen to your body. If something hurts don’t do it. Always start with the lowest amount of weight and increase from there.
I hope you liked today’s workout. Don’t forget to subscribe below so you don’t miss any of the workouts or meals! Thanks for your support and I will see you again next week.
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