Christmas has passed and now we all feel like giant watermelons, right? Haha totally kidding but I personally have felt this way quite a few times over the past 30 days. When starting this “30 Day Challenge” I wasn’t even sure what I really wanted to accomplish or what point to prove; besides enlighten others on how to start a healthy lifestyle. I had multiple friends ask me what challenge I was doing, or why I was eating a piece of cake after dinner. I started to think about it and I wasn’t doing a “challenge” per say but I was in the process of training myself to get back on track to being healthy. At that moment, I decided this would no longer take 30 days, it could take a lifetime depending on how I or other’s handled it. With that being said I changed my original “30 Day Challenge” to “The First 30 Days.” The first 30 days consists of changing bits and pieces about your life to get on the right track.

The first 30 days will consist of 3 main things:

1.     Portion Control

2.     SLEEP

3.     Making time for some sort of workout, if you are not already a gym freak like me

Starting off with PORTION CONTROL.

STOP eating your entire entrée of Chicken Fettuccini from Olive Garden, just don’t do it! I am not going to sit here and tell you to order something off of the “Lighten Up” menu from every place you go to. Remember this is the first 30 days of getting on the right track. I personally TRY my best at restaurants to order something simi healthy BUT it doesn’t always happen. For example, at the beginning of the first 30 days, I went have dinner at chili’s. My mother in law and I shared the triple dipper and the cookie skillet…seriously so bad for you, I know! I chose to get the mini burgers with only lettuce and pickles, and the baked potatoes skins. I only ate the Patti from the burger and did not get sour cream on the potatoes skins. In addition to drinking 1 glass of water before I even took a bite of food, which helped to fill me up and not over eat.

If you go out to eat a lot try these few things:

***One glass of water before your meal (Even if you can’t give up your Dr.Pepper) just have the waiter bring a water + Dr. P. Be sure to finish that one glass before you eat your meal. (This can be done at home as well)

***If your not sharing a meal with someone, have them box up half of your meal before you even get your plate of food. OR save money+calories and split a meal with whoever your with.

***If it’s fast food, order a kids meal! I know Chick-Fil-A offers a grilled chicken option, which is clearly better for you but I have yet to try it. I am too inlove with those deep fried nuggets. If I’m going to eat Chick-Fil-A it will more than likely be a kids meal 4 or 6 piece with fruit or a yogurt parfait. I do love their fries but it’s not a “Must Have” for me. If you want the chicken and fries, that’s fine! Just get a kids meal and add a bottle of water.

Next topic is SLEEP

Am I the only one up until midnight playing on my phone or computer?!? Seriously, so bad for you! Research has shown, that people who turn their electronic devices off an hour before bed, fall asleep sooner and rest better. (But I love instagram) Seriously the struggle is real sometimes but it does help!

A few tips when it comes to sleep:

***Create a realistic bedtime! If you know you will be awake until 1:00 AM on the weekends, don’t set yourself up for failure and try to go to sleep at 9:00 on weekdays.

***Quit Snoozing! I’ve been doing this almost daily with the holidays and it will catch up to you. If I begin snoozing until 9:00 everyday, I won’t go to sleep until midnight. It messes up your entire cycle that you try and create for yourself.

(There’s an app I use called “SleepCycle” I can’t remember how much it was but I HIGHLY recommend it. You set a time frame from when you should wake up, for example 8:00 AM-8:30 AM and the clock will decide based off of how much sleep you have gotten, what time you should be waking up. It monitors your sleep and provides you with a sleep statistics chart daily and then gives you a graph that shows which days you got the most rest. This will help you to see if you slept for 6 hours one night and 8 hours for the other, which was more beneficial to your health.)

Last but not least, working out…Music to your ears right? Haha

Start off with what works best for YOU. Like I stated in my last blog post…I was working out 3 times a day and still not “healthy” per say. If you don’t have time after work, then take those 15 minute breaks at work to run up and down the stairs. A few coworkers and I use to do that when I worked in an office. If people are allowed smoke breaks, then your allowed an exercise break! If there are not any stairs in your building, then step outside and do some lunges or just walk around. JUST DO SOMETHING.

Tips on working out:

***NEVER overdue it. What I mean is, do not set goals that are unrealistic. If you have not set foot in a gym for 10 years, do not tell yourself, “Tomorrow, I’m going to run 2 miles, do abs, and lift a few weights.” You literally just shot yourself in the back because you will probably kill yourself with unrealistic goals. If you never workout, then start by walking a mile, do a few squats, or jumping jacks. Only you will know what your capable of.  If you overdue it, your just going to hate yourself and working out.

***Set goals! I know you hear this all of the time but it’s true. Set a REALISTIC goal and then reward yourself. The scale for me was like the devil for many years. I would live, eat, breath, workout, on it…seriously it took over my life, so I’m not a huge fan of what the scale says but I do think it’s important to weigh yourself ONE time every week. Choose a day, I like Fridays (In the morning) and weigh yourself at the same time, same day, every week. My new favorite thing is body fat percentage. I have had my body fat percentage taken with clamps, and through a machine. This means much more to me than the scale.

***Reward YOURSELF…Not with food though. I have NEVER told myself, “If you workout 5 days this week, hardcore, you can have that double doozie. UM no, if I want a double doozie, I’m going to eat that double doozie whenever I decide I want it. We are not robots and if you follow what I said above about portion control then you can have a double doozie, just don’t eat the giant one by yourself or 5 times a week. Reward yourself with new workout clothes or maybe a new lipstick you’ve been wanting. I have learned that rewarding yourself with things that will boost your confidence will go a long way.

I am going to finish off “The First 30 Days” with a few things that I personally use or have tried, in addition to food choices, and workouts I have created. As the months go on, I will share more about being 85% healthy rather than 50% but at this point, if you haven’t already, I want you to start making daily changes to your lifestyle that are realistic before I blow up with the million healthy food choices you should be making!

WORKOUTS

***Please modify time & speed to your likings these are mainly for people looking to kick cardio into high gear

FOOD CHOICES

***All of the above items besides the turbo tea and quest bars can be found at whole foods! I am obsessed with the olive oil! If you are local to Lafayette, try out sports shack for a good deal on quest bars and turbo tea <3

PRE-WORKOUTS/SUPPLEMENTS 

  ***The first image are all products from whole foods, and even though the pre workout does, work I much prefer spark or slam by advocare! I began selling advocare to get the discount and I love it! If you need more info on it, just ask! If you've tried advocare & it's not for you, I would check out whole foods and grab some sample packs like I did!

My 30 Day Results! Remember, I am NOT doing anything besides what I have talked about above. No meal prepping or anything of that sort. I am beginning to change parts of my diet and even though I've hit almost a halt in my diet/workout routine because of the holidays, I did manage to maintain 119 pounds began with 16.9 % body fat which dropped down to 15%. Body fat can fluctuate so it is always a good idea to get it tested more than once and combine the average. My personal goals, are to tone up more & get a butt going (Yes that means more squats)! I am not trying to lose weight by any means but I have noticed that my clothes are fitting much better around my hips :) If you would like to give "The First 30 Day's" a try, please send me your results and we can talk about what helped you! Remember, you can only set goals for yourself and take it 30 days at a time! I will be back in 30 Days with more info on food choices, workout plans, etc. <3

Stay Strong & True to Yourself <3

xoxo Angelina

-All photo displayed were taken & are copyright by Angelina Wagnon Photography