Make working out so accessible that you have no excuse.

Make eating healthy so affordable, simple, and tasty that it’s what you crave.

I dare you to argue with that logic.

I’ve had several people get in touch with me and ask what my eating habits are and what I do for fitness. Unexpected and flattering, BTW.

I’m no “fitness star”. I’m just a woman out here trying to make decisions that help me look strong and feel confident in a sustainable way. If you’re on the same page, then here’s a look into my routine and what has shown me the most noticeable results.

FOOD

Trader Joe’s and Costco are my best friends. If you don’t have a Trader Joe’s around, find the alternative (Sprouts, etc.) If you don’t have a Costco membership, I bet someone you know does. Here are the staple items in my shopping list:

Trader Joe’s

Eggs

Avocado

Frozen Chicken Tenderloins

Organic peanut butter

Coffee

Celery

Carrots

Cucumber

Power Greens

Lemons

Roma Tomatoes

Brown Rice Cakes

Corn tortillas

Coconut oil spray

Olive oil

Apple Cider Vinegar

Ezekiel Bread

Pico de Gallo Hot Salsa

Fage Non-Fat Greek Yogurt

Brussel sprouts/Asparagus

Honey

Balsamic vinaigrette

Costco

Organic Black Beans

Organic Brown Rice

Frozen broccoli

Suja Organic Mighty Greens Juice

Spinach

4 trays of ground turkey

Almonds

Walnuts

Canned salmon/Canned Tuna

Premier Protein Drinks

If you want to add fruits to this list: bananas, grapefruit, apples, and blueberries are always great. Any natural, simple food is wonderful. Throw it on the list if it excites you.

Meal Examples:

Breakfast: Two hardboiled eggs with tomato and avocado and pepper on two pieces of Ezekiel bread.

Lunch: 3 chicken tenderloins in a salad of power greens, walnuts, and black beans with balsamic vinaigrette.

Dinner: Ground turkey tacos seasoned with garlic powder and black pepper, spinach, avocado, tomato, with chile pepper sauce in a corn tortilla.

Go-To Snacks: almonds, Greek yogurt with a touch honey, celery with a tablespoon of peanut butter, carrots, brown rice cakes.

Food Tips:

Spices are your friend. Garlic powder, basil, crushed red pepper, black pepper, and hot sauce. Seasonings can change the game when your food starts to get repetitive.

Infuse your water. I go classic lemon and cucumber. Apparently, hydration is amazing for you. I’ve spent many years being dehydrated because I hate public restrooms. If I can add water into my day, anyone can.

Drink coffee. Some people want to skimp on caffeine or cut it altogether. That ain’t my life. I drink it black and also use it as a pre-workout.

Find the veggies you like and cook ’em right. Remove the stigma you have about veggies by learning how to make them delicious. Stop steaming the damn things.

I still drink, but I stopped mixing. I drink my whiskey neat or on the rocks and I’m no stranger to red wine. No mixers means no extra sugar. And no headache in the morning 😉

Always have groceries. It’s a lot harder to buy take-out when you know you have a stocked fridge at home. Try to cook all your meals. I use the term “cook” lightly because I’m certainly not doing anything fancy over here. Bring your lunch to work or school. Not a morning person? Make double portions for dinner and save half for lunch the next day.

Always have a cooked protein. I always have hardboiled eggs on deck because the gorgeous little things cook themselves. Keeping other cooked proteins in the fridge is gonna make meal prep simple. Throw veggies with them. Boom. Done. (Canned salmon/tuna are your easy, backup proteins for when you don’t have something cooked and ready.)

Have a cheat meal, not a cheat day. The beauty of eating super-indulgent meals less often is that you’ll appreciate them more when you do. Savor them. Don’t feel like you have to give up the naughty stuff forever. Occasional indulgence prevents unfortunate binging.

Get full off of better things. Anytime I want to make sure I get full, I just eat extra veggies. I bring celery and carrots with me to work because I can eat a ton of them and they’re easy. You’re gonna want to snack. Keep healthy choices around so you don’t take down a box of Cheez-Its everyday. Because I would. I love Cheez-Its.

FITNESS TIPS:

I do all my working out at home. Get a workout mat, 3 sets of weights (I have 5, 8, and 1o), a fitness ball, and resistance bands. I have no excuse not to work out. My commute to the gym is 2 steps from my couch.

Get a cardio stepper. I took it a step further and gave myself this $60 cardio option for my living room. I use it for interval cardio, it helps with leg toning, and I can control the resistance and step height. I do 20 mins. max on it and watch TV the whole time.

Use YouTube as a personal trainer. I find all my workouts through a channel called FitnessBlender. Low impact, high impact, bodyweight only, 10 minutes, 30 minutes, abs, thighs, triceps. There are endless options to keep my workouts fresh. I pull up the workouts on my iPhone to guide me…then, watch TV the whole time.

Weight training is your friend. Cardio is good for burning calories and increasing endurance, but it can get boring. Add those weights or bodyweight exercises into the mix. Your body burns more calories maintaining muscle and all that new visible tone will motivate you to keep going.

Do SOMETHING. I work out 40 minutes to an hour at most. If I can’t that day for some reason? Oh, well. I do a quick 10-minute abs or whatever feels right.

Don’t get discouraged. Life gets busy. You’ll be bummed some days and wanna veg. You’ll have a hangover from going to that party the night before. It’s ok. Get back on track when you can and be proud when you do. The ideal mentality will have you seeing these perfectly normal lapses as tiny hiccups in your preferred routine.

There’s
a million posts on the internet about how to lose 10 pounds, how to get the perfect abs, what supplements you need to take, how many hours you need to put in. The “perfect” formula. It’s overwhelming and disheartening if you think you’re falling short.

Take it all with a grain of salt. Get to know what works for your body. Get to know what healthy foods you love. Make it too damn easy to make better choices. Don’t worry about going to extremes. It doesn’t need to take over your day or feel like punishment. Do a little everyday and make it convenient as hell.

It’s good for you.

Share this post with anyone who feels like being healthy is too hard.

Or who loves Cheez-Its.