Sunny with a chance of vitamins?

Hey everyone!

The weather is finally warming up and I am super excited because this means I can take many more of my indoor activities outside!  It certainly has been long winter this year and I don’t know about you but until yesterday I was suffering from some major cabin fever.  Yesterday was the first day that it was warm enough to head outside without being bundles up in 4+ layers so my boyfriend and I took a lovely walk to our nearby grocery store.  The feeling of being outside is energizing and truly is one of the best things for your mind and your body.

I recently read an article about how 40%-75% of people are vitamin D deficient and in case you didn’t know the best way of getting your daily dose of Vitamin D is by the sun.  Now you can imagine those percentages in the winter…personally I know that my vitamin D levels were certainly below normal despite the fact that I do walk a fair bit daily across campus and to get too and from school.

Now as a full-time student I can completely understand the struggle to make time for yourself.   Lately, I think that area needs some work myself, but lets take today as a fresh start!  Eat healthy, do some stretching get your work done and get outside today! Enjoy all that the world has to offer.  I assure you its only going to do great things and you’ll love the benefits afterwards!

Let me know your favourite spring time outdoor activity 🙂

xoxo

Julia

Fitness Check #2 INSANITY- Power Oatmeal

Hey Everyone!

I seriously can’t believe who fast time is flying. Between managing school, work and my INSANITY program the days are just flying by. Today is DAY 15 for me and my INSANITY program.  It truly is such a great accomplishment for myself thus far and I am loving every bit of it.  I’m so proud to say that my fitness results have increased by a total of 26%!  This is super wild for me and I am so excited to be able to track my progress throughout this program.

Today I wanted to share with you my recipe that I use EVERY morning to provide me with the energy I know that I need to get through the day!

I call it POWER OATMEAL

What you’ll need is…

1/2 cup of quick oats (noon-flavoured)

1/2 cup of boiling water (this may vary)

1/4 teaspoon of cinnamon

a handful of mixed berries

This recipe is super fast and simple and is perfect for people on the go and those who like me don’ have much time in the morning to make an elaborate breakfast.

Simply throw all the ingredients into a bowl and add as much or as little water as you like depending on your preferred texture of oatmeal. And that’s it!

I hope you love this recipe as much s I do, let me know if you re-create it or want to share some of your oatmeal or other breakfast ideas.

Have an awesome day!

Julia

Delicious Vegetarian Lasagna Recipe

Hey everyone!

As most of you are aware, I am on Day 7 of my INSANITY program and am well on my way to improving my life style for the better.

Last night for dinner I made the most delicious vegetarian lasagna. This lasagna is not technically a typical lasagna because it has no pasta layers- just veggies! Consequently, my veggie lasagna recipe has less than half the calories of a normal one and is perfect for those of you who want a delicious healthy meal while watching the fat content.

Let get to it!

Ingredients

1 can of your favourite pasta sauce
1 strong cheddar cheese (grated)
2 small zucchinis
1 large eggplant
1-1/2 cups of Italian breadcrumbs

Directions
1) To start, partially remove some of the skin from the eggplant. Mine looked all striped after I was done.

2) Slice and discard both ends of the eggplant and slice the rest of eggplant into about 1/4 inch slices.

3) Arrange the eggplant on a plate and generously salt the eggplant. This will allow the bitter juice held within the eggplant to come out. Place a piece of paper towel over the salted eggplant pieces and allow it to sit for 20 minutes.

4) Peel your zucchini’s and thinly slice them.

5) In a casserole dish begin to layer your vegetables, sauce and cheese. I began with a layer of sauce on the dish then added my eggplant, breadcrumbs, sauce, cheese and zucchini. I repeated this process until all my vegetables were used up.

6) In a pre-heated 425 degree oven bake your lasagna for 30-40 minutes. What you will be checking for is the cheese to be melted and the vegetables to be nice and soft.

7) Allow your lasagna to sit and cool for 30 minutes. This allows everything to set and hold a layered shape.

I hope you enjoy this recipe as much as I did.

Let me know if you try it out #Juliasveggielasagna

Recovery Workout Drink!

DAY 3 INSANITY Update
Its already Day 3 for me in my INSANITY program and I guess I can say so far so good. I thought I would be a lot more sore than I currently am so that is certainly a plus. Yesterday’s plyometrics cardio circuit went really well I truly enjoyed it. I was kinda nervous because plyometrics always reminds me of one memory of doing a plyometrics workout and almost passing out… luckily that did not happen this time and I actually got through it standing upright!

So I thought I would share a recipe that my dad created when he used to workout… Im working on getting him back into it. Anyways, I have given it the name banana milk and it is super easy to do and only requires 3 ingredients!

Banana Milk (one serving)

1/2 frozen large banana
1/2 cup of skim milk
1/2 of a teaspoon of peanut butter

Simply combine all the ingredients into a blender adding as much or as little milk as you prefer depending on you preferred consistency.

I absolutely love this drink as a post workout drink. It provides you with the sweetness and substance you crave after a high intensity workout.I also think it would double as a great drink for breakfast!!

Tonight I will be tackling Cardio Power and Resistance- I’ll keep you updated!

INSANITY WORKOUT PROGRAM DAY 1

INSANITY

Hey Everyone! Didn’t realize it’s been that long since posted a blog. Considering my crazy summer and getting back into the swing of things at school it was certainly a challenge to even ponder the thought of blogging. But now, my goal is to manage my time to get back into blogging as a truly enjoy it and love the community bloggers. OCTOBER 28 has been the day I have planned on beginning the INSANITY program. It seemed as though it was a perfect date being the last day that anything major or highly demanding that was in my way for the month of October.

For those that aren’t familiar, INSANITY is a high intensity cardio workout program similar to P90x that has a duration of 60 days of different circuit training workouts. Beginning the INSANITY program is a choice that I made based on my current workout regimen. I felt as though my usual running and variety of strength training exercises just wasn’t cutting it. I wasn’t pushing myself and oddly enough it was becoming boring. This will hopefully provide a whole new twist and I am looking forward to it.

My plan to to blog every couple of days. I will be posting things such as updates on how I am doing with the program along with healthy recipes for others that are interested in what I will be eating while doing the program.

Okay so let get right to it…

Day 1- Fitness Test

So the fitness test in my opinion went okay. The video incorporates values that you should be starting at before you do the actual program and I was happy that I did fall into those categories. Basically it involved a series of endurance tests that made you count how many repetitions you can do of each exercise in one minute. Im looking forward to tracking my improvement over the course of the 60 days. I also completed the pure cardio workout after I finished my fitness test just to give myself a jumpstart with the program. I know that this week will certainly be the hardest, so I am going to try my best to remain positive and motivated.

Pesto Recipe

Hey Everyone,

Summer is here which means that my family garden is well on its way to growing a delicious harvest of fresh vegetables. Recently we have had our basil plants take off and grow a significant amount of leaves so we decided our best bet was to create a delicious pesto sauce.

Ingredients

8 cups Fresh Basil Leaves

2/3 cup Toastes Pine Nuts

2 tsp Garlic Salt

Salt & Pepper to taste

4 tbsp Lemon Juice (about the juice of one whole lemon)

4 tsp Lemon Zest

1 1/4 cup of Extra Virgin Olive Oil

3/4 cup Freshly Grates Parmiggiano Reggiano

Directions

1. Begin by toasted the pine nuts until they are a light golden brown. Be careful as they burn fast!

2. In a food processor add the basil leaves, toasted pine nuts, lemon zest, lemon juice, garlic salt and salt and pepper. Begin grinding all the ingredients while slowly adding a steady stream of olive oil.

3. Once all is combined, stir in the parmiggiano reggiano.

Tips!

*Toast your pine nuts on a skillet over the stove top on low heat. In this way it gives you more control over the heat not burning them because speaking from experience I burned mine far too easily when I placed them in the oven.

*Store your pesto sauce in a mason jar for easy and quick storage. Before serving give the sauce a stir as the oil may separate a little.

I really hope you enjoy this recipe. i never have made a pesto sauce with lemon before and I have to say that it makes all the difference. It adds that extra bit of zesty flavour that livens up the sauce making all that more summery and great for a BBQ side dish!

The Best HEALTHY Dessert EVER!!!-Stuffed Apples

Okay so I am super excited about this recipe that I literally just created after I looked at a picture on pinterest for a recipe for stuffed apples that had about 7 times the fat and calories than my recipe! 

Getting right to it because you will want to make it now!

Ingredients

3 golden delicious apples

2 packets of maple brown sugar oatmeal

2 teaspoons of cinnamon

a pinch of salt

2/3 tablespoons of brown sugar

2 tablespoons of margarine or coconut oil or butter if you want

Directions

The directions are super easy, slice the apples in half and core the apples with a small melon baller. mix all the other ingredients together in a bowl and stuff each apple with the filling.  Bake the apples in any oven safe dish you have on hand at 350 degrees for 40 minutes.

PS. To check if they are done stick a fork through the apple and if you can do so without much effort they are fully cooked through.

BONUS!!! YOUR HOUSE WILL SMELL UNREAL DURING THIS COOKING PROCESS.

WORKOUT WITH ME- July Workout Plan!

Hey everyone, 

So I haven’t posted in a while and I suppose you can say this is where the excuses start… and I would say they are the same excuses for slacking on my workout routine.  Hoping that July is a lot less eventful I have created for myself and for whoever wishes to join, a simple and basic workout routine that can be altered to fit any fitness level.

I plan on posting a few time to provide updates and encouraging words.I hope you enjoy it and keep me updates with your success.

Love, 

Julia xoxo

PS… Who says you have to start in July…. START TODAY 🙂 

JULY – 31 days…. READY SET GO

Each week is made up of a minimum of 5 workout days…sometimes 6 but that is up to you to decide.

Out of the 5 days- 3 days will be cardio/strength and 2 days will be cardio/abs

Cardio Strength days…

Start: Initial Warmup / Stretch  (I like to walk for 5 minutes) 

Running for 40 minutes

Uphill walking for 15 minutes

Minimum of 30 burpees (WITH THE PUSH UPS) or how many you can do in 10 minutes

     FUN FACT *In this workout you are targeting 6 main muscle groups Deltoids, Gastrocnemius & Soleus, Gluteus, Hamstrings, Quadriceps,  Triceps !!!

 

Cardio/ Abdominals

Your favourite warm up

Running / Jogging 40-60 minutes

Your favourite ab workout 

Here are some of my youtube favourites… 

**Level 1 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c140_bqmfF0

**Level 2 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=44mgUselcDU

**Level 3 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6fN4IP30bnk&feature=kp

I absolutely LOVE Passion 4 Profession ab workouts.  Over the years I have gone through all 3 levels and have to say in comparison to the P90x, Insanity, Jillian Michaels and Blogilates these are my favourite because I find they are most effective and most challenging for my fitness level.

On the weeks where you wish to add your 6th day I recommend doing either the scheduled cardio/ ab workout or a variation of it as sometimes overdoing strength training can result in negative results…and unfortunately I do speak from experience. 

 

 

 

Still Alice- Lisa Genova Book Review

Book Review on Still Alice

After it being highly recommended to me, I finally got to reading a book called Still Alice.  Still Alice tells the fictional experience of a girl who was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease.  The book follows her on her journey through her emotional acceptance of the disease as well as the struggles she and her family go through on a day to day basis. I really did enjoy this book.  I found that the author was able to effectively communicate multiple perspectives and stuck to a fairly realistic plot. I found that she provided readers with an eye opening point of view.  As mentioned in the book, when someone is diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease much emphasis and support programs are offered to family members and friends but not much is there for the actual victim.  Being able to read this point of view from an Alzheimer’s victim allows readers to get an insight into their emotional battles with themselves along with insight into their process of denial which hopefully leads to acceptance. 

Despite how much I thoroughly enjoyed this read, I found myself wanting so much more.  The ending leaves you with a door open to numerous plot possibilities.  It would have been nice to have been presented with some sort of closure.  As a reader you grow with Alice and become very attached to her and empathize with her situation, for me the ending did not allow me to understand the final chapters of Alice’s life which is what I would have preferred.  From a critical standpoint I also felt as though when going from one chapter to another they represented distinct “chapters of life” and did not show the transition from one to another.  I found myself having to reread in order to comprehend the sudden and quick transition from one chapter to the next. 

Overall, I would recommend this book. It is very well written and certainly deserves more awareness.

Let me know if you read the book and what you think!

xoxo 

Julia 

Super Easy Taco Recipe!

Taco Tuesdays are always a hit at my house!

But this week I just couldn’t wait one extra day to make them.  Taco Monday still works right? I have always loved a good taco mixing up the types of ingredients and fillings to put inside.  This week I didn’t go too wild with the recipe and stuck to a classic taco, but played up the fillings.

Here it is….

TACOS

1 pound of extra lean ground beef

1 package of taco tex mix (I used Old el paso)

1 package of taco shells

2 diced tomatoes

1 diced yellow onion

1 cup of grated marble cheese

salsa

plain greek yogurt (you can use low fat sour cream, but this     is a healthier option)

4 mini red bell peppers

mixed herbs

extra virgin olive oil

salt and pepper

Instructions!

1. For the meat: In large heated pan place about 2 tbs of extra virgin olive oil.
2. Over high heat place your minced meat in the pan and break it up with a fork or any handy dandy meat tool you have on hand.
3. Once the meat is fully cooked and there is no pink in sight add the package of taco mix to the meat and continue to cook for another 8-10 minutes.
4. Veggie salad: On a separate heated grill pan place 2 tbs of extra virgin olive oil.
5. Core and slice your peppers in half and place them directly on the grill, grilling each side until there are nice visible grilled marks.
6. Once they are done, remove them from the grill and place them on a cutting board to slice into strips and place in a bowl.
7. In the same grill pan add half of a yellow onion and allow the onion to cook until they obtain nice grill marks.
8. Once they are done, add the grilled onions to the same bowl with the peppers and add herbs, salt and pepper to taste

Now its time to build your tacos!!

Some of my favourite toppings are tomatoes, onions salsa, plain greek yogurt, shredded cheese and the grilled veggies!

I hope you enjoy this fairly classic recipe and wish you all a Happy Taco Tuesday!