Tag: work out

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Fitness

Favorite Health and Fitness Apps

No matter how long you have been following my blog, fitness and staying healthy is a huge part of my life. Whether itā€™s eating healthy or working out several times a week, I make my health a priority. One of the ways that I keep my health in order is with the help of fitness trackers and apps. Last year, I did a review of my Fit Bit, you can find that here.Today, Iā€™m sharing my favorite health and fitness apps. 

Fit Bit App

Ā Iā€™m going to keep this short and sweet, first, you donā€™t to have a fit bit to have the app, I used the app before I had the watch. This is by far my favorite fitness app. It tracks your steps, miles walked, calories burned, and how active you are. It also sends you all notifications whether itā€™s calendar reminders or text messages or phone calls, itā€™s super helpful. The app also allows you to track your food and water intake, your weight, and then one of my favorites, your sleep. Tracking my sleep is super important to me. When you wear your fit bit to bed, it monitors how long you are asleep for, and how much time you spend in light sleep, deep sleep, REM, and are awake. It gives you a sleep score every night too. I always find it interesting to see how rested I am. If these are all priorities for you, then this is a great investment.Ā 

The Fit Bit home page with all your stats
Here’s the sleep tracker

Health (Apple version)

If you are Apple die-hard fans and like to utilize everything with Apple, then this would be the App for you. You can use it with the Apple Watch, like the fit bit app, it tracks your steps, miles walked, sleep and how active you are. You can still utilize this app without having the apple watch, I did the same but found it wasnā€™t as accurate without having the watch on you. For example, my fit bit is more accurate with my steps and working out because I always have my watch on, however, since I donā€™t have an apple watch the health app isnā€™t always up to date. If you are an apple lover or have an apple watch, this is the route for you.

The Health app through Apple

Sleep Cycle

The sleep tracker through Sleep Cycle

This falls into the health section of apps. Like I said, I am always intrigued about measuring my sleep. This app is great for tracking sleep, you just turn it on before you go to bed and make sure itā€™s near you when you are sleeping. It will track how awake you are and how restless you sleep. It also doubles as an alarm clock too. This app is free and itā€™s simple to use. If you donā€™t care as much about the fitness and want to focus more on sleep, this is the app for you. 

These are my favorite apps for health and fitness, I will admit that I use the Fit Bit app the most since it meets all my needs and I utilize everything it offers. What are your favorite health and fitness apps? 

I hope this post encourages you to get out there and be active. Have a fabulous week!

Categories
Fabulous living

Things To Do on a Quiet Weekend

Hey Everyone!

Happy Tuesday!

I hope your week is off to a great start. I just got back from a very restful and much needed break at home. It was so good to get home for a while and rejuvenate for a bit. This is a big week, not only is it the last week before midterms but I am also leaving on Friday to head off to Rome, Italy for Spring Break!!!

So, why am I going to Rome?! I have been a part of a leadership program since Iā€™ve been in college and one of the last components of the program is to learn and apply everything we have learned these past three years for a week in Rome. I travelled to Italy when I was in high school and I canā€™t wait to go back and get a new experience for this second time. Iā€™ll be sure to post updates of my time abroad as well as several blog posts in the upcoming future. 

Now, moving on to todayā€™s topic: we are talking all about things to do during a quiet weekend. Whether you are a college student like myself, a young working professional, or a parent with free little time to yourself, I hope this post gives you ideas on ways to relax or activities to do when you donā€™t have a lot to do on the weekends.  

As a college student, I often find myself busy through the week with classes, meetings, and commitments. However, during the weekends, everything tends to slow down, people head home for the weekend, there is not as many things going on, and the weekends are generally quiet. During my time in college, Iā€™ve found many ways to occupy myself when things are quiet, there is only so much homework you can do and you can only get so far ahead in classes. Here are my favorite things to do on the weekend.

  • Binge watch the latest show on Netflix– Iā€™m currently watching American Crime Story ā€œThe Assassination of Gianni Versaceā€, Iā€™m obsessed with it. I loved watching ā€œThe People vs. OJ Simpsonā€ a few years ago and was so excited when they came out with a second season. 
Such a good mini series
  • Pick up a book and escape to a new world for a few hours– Although it is hard to come across time to read in college, free time on the weekend gives me time to get ahead on reading and relaxing. I just finished Jessie James Deckerā€™s book, ā€œJust Jessieā€ and I loved it. It was so easy to read and a good escape from my college books. Iā€™ll be posting my review of her book in the next few weeks. 
Such a fun book
  • Call up that friend you havenā€™t talked to in forever and catch up.-This is something I have been trying to do more this semester, I have been doing my best to reconnect with old friends, whether they are high school friends or childhood friends. There is nothing better than facetiming with a friend, swapping stories and sharing memories.
  • Self Care Night– After a busy week, take some time for yourself, whether itā€™s running a bubble bath and reading, doing a facemask, or painting your nails, pamper yourself with something special and make sure you are putting your best self forward for a new week ahead. 
Nothing makes me feel better than a fresh coat of polish. I wore this color for Valentine’s Day!
  • Take a walk or work out.-Not as relaxing but you will feel better after. Sometimes a walk outside is all we need to clear our heads and recharge our batteries. If a walk is not your thing then hit the gym and sweat the stress away. Get your blood pumping and heart racing and you will feel great after!
  • Do something productive– If you have checked all these things off your list of things to do, then tackle a project that has been needing your attention for a while, whether it is a junk drawer that needs cleaned out, a binder that needs organized, clothes than need laid out, or meal prepping for the week ahead, set time aside to get ahead for the week so you arenā€™t scrambling on Monday morning. 

I hope this list gives you some examples of things to do on a quiet weekend, although sometimes we crave the quiet and just need silence, it can also get boring and mundane. What activities to do you like to do on those few quiet weekends?

See you on Thursday for a new look of the day!

Categories
Fitness

My Fitness Journey {Part 1}

The only Ā picture I actually have from the gym, yep, no selfies that early in the morning!

Fitness has become a big part of my life this past year. Instead of writing one huge blog post about fitness, Iā€™m going to split it up into three posts over the next few weeks. The first one will be about how I first started getting into working out and being fit, the second one will be ways to work out whether you are at your home or a gym, and the third one is staying fit and not giving up.

So, letā€™s start at the beginning. Why did I get into fitness and working out?

We all have varied reasons for wanting to work out. Some work out to lose weight, others do it to get ready for summer.

I started working out last October, because I was bored, believe it or not! College is a lot of fun between activities, classes, and sleeping, but during my first semester I found myself with a lot of free time that needed filled, (there is only so much work you can do to get ahead in classes and only so much Netflix to watch). I started going to work out three times a week. I went once during the week between classes and then on Saturday and Sunday. I went by myself a lot, but eventually encouraged other friends to tag along (one of my favorite days was when my roommate decided to join me! I was on cloud 9!!!). My one close friend and I went a lot together during the fall, we had a similar schedule and would work out between classes. The gym was a wonderful way for us to hang out and get fit at the same time. She was my first gym buddy!

Every semester brings changes, from friends, to schedules, and classes. During my second semester, I had A LOT of free time. I had some days when my classes didnā€™t start until 12:30! Now, I am an early riser, I feel most productive in the mornings. I decided to change my fitness regime to working out first thing in the morning, thatā€™s right at 7 AM! I went three mornings a week before classes and then still on the weekends. Working out five days a week was a great stress reliever for me, when my schedule got so crazy, or I couldnā€™t focus anymore, the gym was a place where I could forget all my troubles and just focus on burning calories!

Please note, Shay and I NEVER look like this at the gym every morning. In reality, we look sleep deprived, sweaty, and stressed!

One of the biggest things I learned during my fitness journey is to have someone to motivate you! I found that during my spring semester. I started going every morning with someone who became one of my closest friends. I met Shayln in one of my classes and I found out we both loved to work out. Every morning no matter, rain, shine, snow, or even skunk (yes, we have encountered a few!) we met up at 7:10 to go work out, then we would come back and finish homework, study, watch Netflix, or even nap until we met up for lunch and then classes. Even though we were half asleep most mornings while working out and sometimes couldnā€™t even hold a conversation, we felt so much better after getting up and doing something productive. By having a routine, you meet people, when you see the same people every morning, sleep deprived and still running on the treadmill, you will become friends. Ā One of the things I miss the most about school in the summer is waking up every morning and hitting the gym with Shay!

Next upā€¦part 2, whatā€™s my work out routine and how do I keep up at home?!