Gym Life Hacks

Good Morning! Happy Friday to you guys 🙂

I am not off relaxing, doing errands, etc. I had some work things to take care of this morning so not too pleased, but HOPING to make it to Zumba tonight at 6pm! Odds are not looking good since I’m probably going to be stuck in Baltimore City at rush hour. Bummer, always next week I guess?

Moving on, I’m sure you guys have seen all over the TV and internet a little something called “Life Hacks”. Buzzfeed articles, Pinterests posts, heck I was even listening to Jimmy Fallon talk about them! What is a life hack? Basically something that makes your life a heck of a lot easier when doing tasks. For instance THIS ONE I found trying to give you guys an example: Accidentally text the wrong person? Immediately put your phone on airplane mode and once it fails to deliver, delete the message! 

HOLY MOLY would that have saved my life a few months back. Let’s just say I accidentally texted one of the surgeons something I didn’t really want him reading. It could have been way worse, but yes I talked about him and texted it to him. MAJOR FAIL. I realized it as I was sending it and it could have saved me a lot of embarrassment. So you’re welcome for that life hack.

Anyway I thought I would make a list of my own GYM LIFE HACKS.

  1. Wash your sports bras in the shower when you shower. They will last longer being hand washed. We all have those few favorites. My Lululemon bras are definitely worth doing this.
  2. Take BCAAs during or after your workouts for muscle recovery. Link to my favorite on my sidebar 🙂
  3. Work out with a partner to work even in between sets. Just because my partner is lifting, doesn’t mean I didn’t get a little extra push. Because I work with a huge guy, I’m helping to load and take off his plates on the machines. Lifting 3 45lb weights to stack is not an easy task! I’m getting an extra calorie burn just by helping him.
  4. Foam roll- Cannot stress this enough. It’ll help cut that post leg soreness.
  5. To help remove plates easier, put a 5lb in between heavier plates, it’s easy to grasp.
  6. Keep an extra pair of pants in your workout bag. YOU NEVER KNOW. I always fear squating and then… RIIIIP
  7. If you have time, do cardio in the morning before eating anything. You are working off of fat stores here and burn more. I don’t have the pleasure of doing this with my work schedule, maybe one day 😉
  8. Big cables taken? You can easily use the chest cables or shoulder cables to do cable kick backs.
  9. Trying to take a picture doing an exercise but you don’t have a friend to take it? Record yourself, then screen cap the video. I do this A LOT! Delete video to save your phone space 🙂
  10. To manage fly aways at the nape of your neck, do an underside braid. Super cute too!Source

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Yesterday at the gym I was doing cardio with coach and whining about cheesecake. Yes cheesecake. Thursday was national cheesecake day and I thought one piece couldn’t hurt! The world WANTS ME TO HAVE IT! He said NO of course… and said here I’ll buy you a protein bar, pretend it’s cheesecake. It wasn’t 🙁

Pretty good though, but I was also starving.

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Here’s something coach will never understand. My obsession with food. He doesn’t get it. He’s one of those ‘food is fuel’ people. While I believe that, hey I’m still all about taste. Life is too darn short to be eating plain chicken and rice all the time. I wouldn’t survive off of that, which is why I have all my recipes, and why I created my bikini recipe e-book.  Then after thinking about this situation a lot last night, I realized he has A BIT of a point. I’m OVERLY obsessed with food. To the fact that it’s all I think about, planning, prepping, how I can make something taste like this or that, how I can squeeze in a cheat, etc. It worries me a bit. I have pretty much “dieted” since I was 17 (a good 12 years!), and in my late twenties I went from “dieting” to just a healthier lifestyle. Since the bikini stuff, I have gotten out of control. I blamed it on, well WHO DOESN’T LOVE FOOD? IT’S NORMAL! Not sure my thoughts are NORMAL at all. I also blame a bit of it on Instagram actually. I follow a lot of foodie accounts so I look at it all day. Obsessions start by what you surround yourself with.

I really am not that proud of this little foodie obsession. If it was just my regular healthier options, then that’s fine. But when did I become the girl begging her coach to take her to the cheesecake factory for blueberry cheesecake after the gym? Not sure… I’m obsessed with the bad stuff, and I’m sharing this to let you guys know I crave like everyone else. Sometimes I cave, sometimes I don’t. Putting the caving days behind me this weekend because I need to get a little more serious with my prep. My kitchen is going to be completely cleared of ANYTHING that could possibly tempt me. I’m even talking about old chocolate chips I bake with here and there. It’s gotta go!

Anyway, off to get things done this Friday! Have a great weekend and see you guys Monday 🙂

XOXO With a Cherry On Top,

-Minnie

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7 Comments

  1. Chelsea @ A Fit LittleOne

    I completely get the obsession. I choose to follow the Paleo Diet, mainly because I’m already gluten and lactose intolerant, so this just helped me to get rid of the processed foods. But the rest of my family doesn’t follow this, and I do live at home { hopefully be moving out next summer }. So a lot of times all the smells and bad foods { meaning processed } really get to me, to the point where I eat way too much of it. It’s been recently, where I’ve decided to go 100% clean food, that for some reason it is just easier for me to not want all the other foods. I’m not even tempted anymore. So maybe once you have no temptations near you, it will be easier, so by the time you are around those foods, it won’t even be a temptation :).

    1. Katie

      Chelsea I give you MAJOR credit for keeping up with your healthy lifestyle and living at home. When I moved back in during PA school I was so bad with my diet. Not blaming my parents at all, but I would just go in the cabinet and eat whatever. I knew better. Living on my own I have better control lol

  2. tamsin

    As someone who has had an unhealthy relationship with food in the past, it is something which can nerve me at times. Being obsessive over certain foods is not good for you both mentally and physically and is something I still find myself getting caught up in sometimes. It takes time and patient to fully recover but being positive is key. Don’t feel bad for wanting cheesecake, your human! Tam 🙂

    1. Katie

      I agree! It’s mental and physical. In my college years I had a BAD relationship with food, but I no longer see it as the enemy. I think I’ll always obsess a little, but I’m better than I used to be thank goodness!

  3. Katie

    Kudos to you for recognizing that focusing too much on food all of the time isn’t necessarily healthy. I have to wonder, though – isn’t a super-strict diet and complete focus on physical appearance (ie. prep for a bikini contest) pretty much guaranteed to further fuel that kind of disordered thinking? You seem like a smart girl; I’m just curious as to why you’re continuing to pursue bikini competitions when you’ve evidently seem some of the warning signs of disordered eating/thinking that I know a lot of competitors really struggle with. Just my two cents.

    1. Katie

      I wouldn’t say I have disordered eating.. that’s taking it a BIT far. I know my body’s limits and competing has NOTHING to do with disordered eating for me. I’m really sad that you would connect those two and assume that. I compete to push my body to the limits and complete a challenge, plus I love the stage. I do think about food like I said, but I don’t succumb to it and if I do it’s a treat. My diet is strict on stage, but I still get all my nutrients and have a good calorie count, it’s just a different kind of eating.

  4. Tracy

    Hi! I cannot tell you how much this spoke to me. I too think I have a bit of a food obsession – as in, I often think of what my next meal will be as I am finishing my current one. I usually keep that thinking in check, but it definitely is a way of thinking that pops in my head way more than I’d like. I recently had to get rid of a bag of chocolate chips too. They just call to me from the pantry!!
    Thanks for your honesty always. I admire the hard work you put in, in and out of the gym, but love to know that you still have daydreams of cheesecake! Keep up the good work. We are all cheering for you!

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