Happy Monday everyone! I've got a Motivation Monday post for you for the first time in forveverrrrrrrr. *gasp* I know, I know it's crazy. Today I wanted to share with you a really awesome method you can use to set your fitness/weight-loss goals that's both effective and super easy. The other day I was thinking about how I feel like I've kind of plateaued/fallen off the bandwagon, which I've mentioned in previous posts, and that I'd like to set new goals for myself.  I googled it and came across a ton of articles talking about the "Get Smart" method for setting goals. SMART stands for Specific, Measurable, Attainable, and Timeframe, which when broken down, totally makes sense.

After sifting through the articles, I decided I'd run back to my blog and do a post for MM where I'd walk through my own personal goals while explaining it at the same time. Kill two birds with one stone! Yay for multitasking! If you're curious to see which articles I'm basing my post on, you can check it out here and here.

So here we go!

Instead of music, try books!

Ok. Sooo I have become obsessed with this app called Audible? I don't know, maybe you've heard of it? I joined last year using someone's link on YouTube to get a free book. The book I got? Fifty Shades Freed. I never finished it. As soon as I heard that I'd have to pay for a membership, I cancelled it ASAP. However, something in me wanted to try again. So I did. I got another free credit. This time I downloaded a chicklit book called Beautiful Bastard by Christina Lauren. It's a twilight-based-fan-fiction-turned-novel except much better. I freaking loved it. Once I got hooked on that book and realized I was almost done, I upgraded my membership (before the trial was over, mind you) and downloaded The Fault in Our Stars. I wanted to "read" the book before I saw the movie. Still haven't seen it, but I finished the audio book in like, two days. lol

Anyway, last week at the gym I had the genius idea of listening to audible on my phone while I pedal away on the stationary bikes. It  keeps my mind off of what I'm doing, so I go further for longer. If you can believe it. I absolutely love doing this. It's such a great way to sneak in some "reading" time and expose myself to new books without really having to take extra time out of the day to do so. That sounds bad, but I'm sure you know what I mean. I can listen at the gym, in the car, in the shower (via a bluetooth speaker), during chores, etc. Super duper nice! I would highly recommend doing something like this.

Oh! and if you don't want to pay for books, I would check to see if your local public library has an online media mall. Mine does and there's an app I can download to use for both reading and listening to books. Since I finished both FIOS and Beautiful Bastard (and I have just under a month until my new credits come in), I decided to start listening to The Maze Runner. Hooked! (I'm even listening to it right now as I type up this post).

I would definitely recommend this if you're a bookworm like me, but don't really have the time to sit down and pick up a book during the day. It really does make the time fly at the gym!

Progress

So I've heard from a few people that the best way to track any weight loss progress is to take pictures of yourself. I decided to do this. Kinda. I bought a dress back in February for Valentine's Day but didn't get the chance to wear it until last Saturday. As I was trying it on, I took pictures of myself to compare to the ones I took in February. I actually am making progress! It's been fairly slow, but it's something! After seeing my progress for the first time since I started working out, I would definitely recommend taking pictures to compare. That way, if you're like me and aren't seeing results on the scale, you have visible proof that what you're doing is working and it feels great! I once had a cardio kickboxing instructor tell me not to focus on what the scale says, but to focus on how your clothes are fitting and how you're feeling. I completely agree. Not to mention that muscles weighs more than fat, so if you're building muscle, you may gain weight before you start to lose it. Buuut anyway, that's my tip for today.

And if you're curious, here are my pictures:

Mustard for sore muscles?

About three weeks ago, I strained my lower back at the gym. I’m assuming I did so doing squats to a bench because I remember I sat down quickly and kind of in a funny way. As I said in my post on Tuesday, I tried a smoothie to help relieve sore muscles, but needed something a little more to help with my back spasms. I heard through the grapevine (my grandma told my mom, who told me) that a teaspoon of mustard would help relieve my back pain. I put it off for a couple days just wearing one of those heat wraps on my back. That wasn’t working, so I finally gave in and tried a spoonful of the mustard. Once I finally choked it down, within minutes my back was feeling better; albeit not completely, but I was able to function more like a normal human being again.

I’ve tried googling this to find out why it works and have only found articles talking about making pastes with dry mustard and applying those to your sore areas. This is a trick that runners have been doing for years to help with leg cramps. I swear by it, and as much as I dislike mustard, it works. I’ll keep doing my research, but in the meantime, if you want a quick, rather natural fix to your muscles aches, gives this a try! What do you have to lose?

Start a food journal

I am soooo sorry that I completely neglected to post much of anything for the past week or two. I'm currently on vacation in sunny Florida and last week I was running around like crazy making sure I didn't forget anything. Anywho, today I wanted to talk about something that I've been doing for a few months now, and that is keeping a food journal. Studies have actually shown that doing so helps you lose about twice as much weight because it makes you aware of what you're eating and how much of it as well as making you accountable for it. I personally use MyFitnessPal or Lose It! to write down what I'm eating and drinking every day. Now you can use whatever you want for your journal as long as you're writing down what you're eating.

The cool thing about both of those apps is that you can enter in the number of calories you burned (if you know) and they will automatically adjust the number of calories you should consume that day and still stay within your goal. The PumpUp app that I use tells me how many calories I burn at the end of my workout or if you don't have or want to use that app, you can find another site online that tells you how many calories you burn doing certain exercises.

I have a few tips to help you with your food journal that I've found help me.

1. Write down everything. As bad as you may feel about your indulgences or "cheat" days, still put them in your food diary. It will help you keep track of where to make changes.
2. Don't forget portions. It may feel like a pain at first, but it definitely helps you realize how big your portions actually should be and gets you to be creative with your meals.
3. Don't wait until the end of the day to write everything down. Then you have to worry about remembering everything, how much you ate, etc.
4. Cook for yourself. This may be obvious, but I've found that cooking at home is a lot healthier than eating out and unless you're getting a basic salad with virtually nothing extra in it, finding low-calorie meals at a restaurant is difficult. Not impossible, but difficult.