Hello everyone, and welcome to my new weekly fitness blog!
I’m Gia, I am currently a freshman, and health has always been a major focus of my life. I am going to be posting about my weekly workouts and goals along with my eating habits each Friday and hopefully inspire some people in the process.**If you want to skip my lovely intro and disclaimer, scroll down to the pic of me in my workout clothes to read about my week in fitness** DISCLAIMER: I am in NO way a fitness professional or a nutritionist, I just put a big focus on health and nutrition in my life and want to share what works for me. My mom used to be a personal trainer and I have learned a lot from her but that is as close to professional as I get. I do what I am comfortable with and I am satisfied with my health, I am just looking to spark some fitspo!
This me being excited to start this blog!
First I want to break down what a week in health is like for me and explain the goals I set for myself. Typically, I try to work out 4 times a week for at least a half hour. My workouts range from yoga, to dancing, to gym stuff, to going for a run. It’s really whatever I have time for and whatever I feel my body needs. I make sure I sleep at least 7 hours every night. Every day I try to drink at least 8 glasses of water (1 glass = 8 fl. ounces) and limit myself to one non-water drink a day. I allow myself to have coffee about 2-3 times a week, and I do not drink sodas or drinks with high sugar content. I take regular gummy vitamins everyday to get my essentials in. Recently, I have been aiming to cut back on sugary snacks, seeing that I have a MAJOR sweet tooth that needs to be tamed. I let myself have one unhealthy snack a day, because I am a firm believer in treating yo-self. I also do not eat red meat, although once in a blue moon I actually crave it. I stick to lean meats like chicken and fish, and I try avoid eating it every day, in turn no more than once a day.
Me enjoying the occasional cuppa Joe with my friend Abbie
Mental health is the most important aspect of health and wellness in my life. I suffer from anxiety everyday, but fortunately, it’s nothing that I haven’t been able to handle on my own. I do a lot to combat my anxiety and I have found a few daily things that help me keep myself in check. First, I try to do yoga once a week since it is a very nourishing and soothing way to exercise. This helps me calm down and feel cleansed physically and mentally. Everyday I use an app called Pacifica, made for people with anxiety. You track your mood and health habits on the app, where you can set goals for your day and log your progress. The app also offers guided meditation and forums where you can chat with other people suffering from anxiety as well. It offers a very safe and encouraging place to come to. I also practice deep breathing whenever I am feeling impatient or nervous. I keep caffeine intake to a minimum with coffee and tea to prevent myself from feeling jittery, which usually leads me to fall into small panic attacks. Every Sunday I reflect on my week in a journal entry and let it all out. I also make sure that I am organized and I tend to plan out my day the night before, so I don’t run into potential, anxiety inducing incidents of forgetting to do something or go somewhere. This allows me to wake up knowing what I will accomplish that day and set a stable foundation for a stable mind. Lastly I make sure to leave time for myself where I relax and do whatever I want!
OKAY! So now that all of the introductory stuff is out of the way, let’s get into my week in fitness! My goal for the next couple of weeks is to tone up a bit in my stomach and booty, and eat less sugar.
Here’s me at the beginning of this week, wearing Aerie leggings and a Nike sports bra
My Workouts by Day:
SUN– 30 min abs and arms yoga via YouTube
MON– 20 min cardio via YouTube AND 10 min stretch/cool down
WED– 15 min elliptical, 10 min Smiths machine squats (5 sets, 10 reps 110lbs), 10 min stairmaster, 10 min abs, 10 min stretch ALL at the gym
When I don’t feel like walking to the gym in the cold, or if I only have time to squeeze in 30 mins of exercise, I always opt for the at-home workout and I like to follow videos on YouTube. Typically, I do a yoga sequence with Yoga with Adrienne. This week I tried a full body workout video with Chloe Ting. My heart rate was definitely up the entire time and I was sweating with Chloe, but I am interested in finding some other fitness YouTubers. Today, I am going for a run, and then doing an ab sequence along with some stretches. I am a fairly new runner, so I keep the distance at a mile and just try to improve my time.
My 32oz water bottle from Aerie
As for my eating habits this week, I ate pretty healthy. I avoided sugary drinks completely and only had one DECAF coffee! (crazy, I know). I swapped out my usual Thursday morning coffee for a green tea. I really like drinking seltzer and sparkling water, so I had that when I felt like drinking something other than water. I buy the big Polar seltzers from Target, which are all natural and have no sugar whatsoever. I’m lactose intolerant so I drink Silk soy milk. Even if I wasn’t lactose intolerant, I would stick to soy because soy milk is healthy for you! My meals were pretty healthy all around, except for Sunday, because I wasn’t that hungry and just ended up eating fries and snacks, but hey, we are not perfect beings so therefore, I ain’t sorry. Otherwise, I had pretty well constructed meals, and tried to eat enough fruits and veggies everyday. I still need to work on cutting out sugary snacks though, because I am a little bit of a stress eater. When I finish work or class I always crave chocolate rather than confronting my stress mentally, so I need to snap out of that habit. It’s a work in progress! Lastly, I carry around a big 32oz water bottle everywhere I go, so I reached my water goal everyday, and on top of that, I got at least 7 hours of sleep every night.
So that’s all for this week! The upcoming posts will be shorter, and I am going to include more things like “Fit Celeb of the Week” and “Fitstagram of the Week” and such so stay tuned for new, health related content.
Have a good weekend, and don’t forget to love yourself!