I heart spaghetti squash

I fell in love with spaghetti squash the first time I had it. It's really simple to make, lasts for 10 days in your fridge once cooked, and substitutes any pasta or noodle fantastically :) Case in point is the "Pad Thai" that I made the other night. This is a really quick weeknight meal. Especially if you precook the squash and chicken. I always take the time to cook some protein up in the beginning of the week and use it for quick dinners so I'm not tempted to eat out. I also always have some frozen veggie steamers on hand. Frozen foods may get a bad rap, but frozen vegetables in particular are actually fresher than the veggies you get at the grocery store. Also because of the treatment required before freezing, they have lower traces of pesticides!

The other night when I got home from the gym I was really craving some thai food. So I looked through my pantry and fridge and made up this concoction. This pad thai inspired dish really hit the stop and satisfied my craving the healthy way. It had all the flavors that I enjoy about pad thai even though I didn't have all the ingredients I would normally use on hand. For the full recipe please visit the Flavor section of my page :)

Get in my belly!!!

the early bird gets the worm

June marks the beginning of a lot of things for me including summer happy hour, pool, beach, weddings, birthdays, and busy season for me at work. With all of that it becomes easier and easier to not have time for the gym. I either work late during the day or the summer heat gets to me on the weekends. Really it's just laziness and excused :p Last week was definitely and indicator of this. Although I managed to hit the gym a few times during the week, it was very minimal in comparison to my usual workout routine. But I didn't let that derail me because every day is a new day. Just because last week wasn't a good gym week for me doesn't mean this week can't be great. So I sat down and looked through my schedule to see when I could fit in gym time ... and I decided I'd being working out in the morning again. Working out in the morning is a little rough for me because it requires a lot more planning than just throwing gym clothes into a bag, but I just need to suck it up since that's the only reasonable time for me right now. So here is my Week 5 (although technically 6) workout. 

Today's early morning sweat session

Week 5

Exercise Plan

Since I don't usually have as much time to workout in the morning as I do in the evening, I decided to do less cardio, but focus on fat burning or HIIT cardio sessions. My goal is that if I have extra time in the day I'll hit the gym for an additional afternoon cardio session. And if I don't, then at least I got 30 minutes of cardio in that day.

Check out the new layout for my fitness page!

M: Rest
T: Back and 25 minutes StairMaster
W: Chest, Abs, and 30 minutes StairMaster
Th: Legs
F: Arms, Abs, and 30 minutes HIIT workout
S: Shoulders and Spin
S: Legs

Anyone who has never made a mistake has never tried anything new

More and more people are incorporating weight training into their normal routine, which is great. However most of them are also making some common mistakes. Here are some I see often and how to avoid them.

Skipping Warm-Up

You wouldn't start your run out with a full out sprint right? You'd normally take a little jog and loosen up beforehand... well the same goes with weight training. Before you pick up those dumbbells do some small movements with your own body weight or lighter weight. If you don't have too much time at the gym, try incorporating the warm up into the routine itself. Here is what I do...

• Legs: 5-10 minutes on a bike or walking
• Arms: curls and tri extensions with some light weight
• Chest: pushups

Sacrificing Form

Proper form is the most important factor in injury prevention. Make sure to watch videos on proper form or ask a trainer at your gym (they are more than happy to help for free). Bodybuilding.com has great instructional videos. Try mastering the proper form with your own body weight before adding more weight on. But some overall key tips:

• Stand up straight
• Look forward
• Stabilize your core
• Don't lock out.. keep a slight bend in your joints

More is not always better

We all have the tendency to do more reps, more weight, more sets ... but doing this too quickly could lead to really hurting yourself. After you have mastered your form slowly add more weight. Most of the time you want to aim for about 85% effort when weight training.

Monday Muffins

This weekend I decided to put some old bananas to good use. I usually make banana bread with my extra ripe bananas, but this time I wanted to make something a bit healthier with less sugar. Plus I wanted a quick snack that I could grab on the go.... enter these banana oatmeal raisin muffins. These muffins are a great mix of the goodness of banana bread and oatmeal raisin cookies. I have to be honest that these aren't cakelike but considering there is no flour in them, they aren't that dense and are super moist. If you want to bump up the protein in these, throw in a scoop of vanilla protein powder (unfortunately, I only have chocolate protein on hand). Check out this recipe and a few more under my flavors section.

What do you eat as a quick snack?

Nutrition: 1 muffin, 128 cals, 22g carbs, 3g fat, 4g protein