Groovy Smoothie

It's a new week! 

Even though it's Monday I hope today isn't going too bad for ant of you. Mine is pretty nice since I have work off but I do have a test later, though I am more than prepared for it. Yesterday I slacked on working out but today I worked on my whole body rather than just one section like I normally do, so as a post workout treat I made myself a fruit smoothie. 

I absolutely love making smoothies, I have a whole book on green smoothie recipes. I know its overkill but I just NEEDED it! I know you you all know what that's like. Here is my favorite recipe for plain fruit smoothies:

1 banana

4 medium sized strawberries

4 peach slices

a handful of raspberries 

a handful of blueberries

1/4 cup of orange juice

any kind of protein powder

Now from working at a health food store I as able to get my hands on a multitude of expensive protein powders for free, so I know that gives me a bit of a leg up but honestly like I said before when talking about vitamins, you get what you pay for. My absolute favorite brand is Garden of Life, I have a few different types of proteins from them. So far my favorite has been there new product the Raw Protein and Greens because if I use it in my fruit smoothie I still get a serving of my greens. It also tastes great in almond milk! 

I also want to talk about the blender I use. The Ninja blender is seriously the greeting thing I own, the smallest container is the perfect size for making a single serving but it also came with a 30oz and 72oz blender cup. It was $80 but I use it like everyday so I think it's totally worth it. I would recommend this to anyone and everyone I swear by it! 

xxBrianna

Easy Peasy in Home Gym

Hello my sweets!
I hope you are all having a lovely week. Mine has been filled with lots or homework and prepping for my presentation tonight in my Child Development class, so wish me luck! I know I haven't been posting that much and honestly I have been feeling very depressed lately and just had no energy to do anything. I have kept up with my workouts and clean eating though so I am glad for that. I'm going to try to be more active and post snaps and photos on Instagram a well.
Anyways! Today I wanted to tell you about what I use when I work out at home and how easy it is for you to have everything you need for a full body workout. In my room I have a small little set up with all my equipment (when I say small I mean small) that I use for my daily routine.

First off, having a yoga mat is probably one of the more important things to have because well its what you do all you workouts on. The floors work just fine but it's not as comfortable and can hurt your knees. Mine I got at Target for $20 but you can literally get one anywhere. Next would be some type of weights. In my opinion having a kettle bell is really the perfect thing to have because you only need to buy one and you can use it to sculpt your whole body. I bought mine on amazon for $12. It's a 10 pound one and does wonders for me. When doing my legs I use it for dead lifts, for abs I use it when I do Russian twists, and arms are just self explanatory!  I also have two 8 pound dumbbells that I use when working out my arms. They aren't really necessary but they were a gift so that's why I have them. I'll talk more about them when I post about my arm routine.

Two other pieces of equipment I think are important (and cheap) are a jump rope and resistance bands. Jumping rope is such a great form of cardio for those who don't like to run. Guilty as charged! It also forces you to go outside where I sometimes do my whole routine if it's nice enough weather. Now resistance bands are awesome because you can use them while your sitting on the couch or laying in bed watching your favorite Netflix show. The ones I have I got off amazon for about $25. It came with 5 different bands with increasing weight resistance and hand and feet straps. I love using them because I can just be doing nothing and still get a tiny work out in.

Hopefully this can help any of you who are trying to find the right things to use at home and are on a budget! Trust me I have bought things that I was sure I'd use and never have, like my super awesome TRX bands that are still in their bag, but the things I have mention here I use almost daily and I hope you will too!

xxBrianna

Açai Please

Hello hello hello!
Hope you all had a wonderful week, mine has been slowly getting better. I'm still not 100% but no as bad as before. Today I wanted to talk about my new favorite food to eat, açai bowls! On Instagram I talked a little bit about the brand Sambazon and how amazing their different blends are. I use the açai frozen mix packets and I also have a tub of the sherbet. My favorite recipe is actually one they posted on their Instagram, though I modified it slightly:

4 strawberries
1/2 cup of raspberries, blueberries, and blackberries mixed
1/2 banana (other half goes on top)
1 tablespoon of almond butter
1 teaspoon of cocoa powder
1/4 cup of almond or coconut milk
1 Sambazon packet

After I have blended it all and put it in a bowl I slice the rest of the banana for garnish, I also use granola, coconut shavings, strawberries, kiwi, almonds, and even cacao nibs. Of course you can use whatever you want but this is my favorite mix! I hope you all can enjoy this and have a wonderful weekend!

xxBrianna

IntervalTimer

Hello hello!
I hope you all are having a great week! I know I certainly am. School has been great and I've been keeping up with my daily workouts. I have plenty of apps to help with my weight loss goals and workout routines but I think my favorite one would have to be IntervalTimer. My friend showed it to me and I immediately fell in love. It is simple to navigate and easy to use. You can choose between a simple or complex routine and how many sets and cycles you'd like to do. I have a different routine for each part of the body I want to work on, basically legs, arms, and core. I usually do two of those a day so here is an example of what I would do:
Monday - legs and arms
Tuesday - arms and core
Wednesday - core and legs
And so on. Today I did legs and arms but I'm only going to talk about my leg routine today. I do 6 different sets for one minute and repeat it 3 times so it takes about 20 minutes to complete. You have one minute to complete each interval so I always try to do as many as I can. I start with squats, to kind of warm myself up, then I do donkey kicks and leg lifts (one minuter per side so a total of 4 minutes) and end with a minute wall sit. When I first started I didn't think that it would be difficult but boy was I wrong. This kicked my ass and I was drenched in sweat. Just wait until I get to my core workout, you might actually cry.
I hope this can be of any help for you guys!

Morning Ritual

Good morning everyone!
This morning I want to tell you guys about my daily vitamin regiment. It took me a while to find the right combination for me so some might be for you and some might not. There have definitely been days that I've completely forgotten to take them or left them at home when I leave for work but I've gotten much better mainly because I have hypothyroidism and I need to take my Iodine every day or else I'll feel extremely exhausted and sluggish. I also have a small advantage at getting these products because I used to work at Sprouts grocery store in the vitamins department where I got discounts and free employee samples. Sometimes I really miss that job just for the perks. When buying vitamins I do recommend getting the more pricey ones because you are getting what you pay for. Though if you do go to a Sprouts or even  a Whole Foods you can buy their name brand products and they are cheaper and just as good as the more expensive names. Now onto the one that I take.

Starting from the left I take the Garden of Life 30 Billion probiotic because I am lactose intolerant and it surprisingly has helped me a lot. Next I take the 50mg Iron by Solaray because I've always bruised easily and would be very tired and weak in the mornings, I take the organic Women's Multivitamin from Garden of Life as well. The fish oil I use is my Carlson and it is the fish gelatin not the beef. I don't take my Vitamin C by Garden of Life daily, I take it maybe 3 or 4 times a week, unless I'm sick and then I will take it everyday. My Turmeric by New Chapter is probably my favorite  because it is good for so many things. I plan on doing a post just on the benefits or Turmeric so I'll get into that later. I skipped the Kelp by Nature's Way in the back because I wanted to talk about it when I talked about my Iodine by Eidon in the dropper since they both are for my hypothyroidism. I alternate between the two depending on what time I take it. If it's early in the morning I'll take the kelp but if it's later in the dayI used the dropper. I take a 5000IU Vitamin D by Country Life every other day because Vitamin D is one of the most common deficiencies amount people and they don't even know. I take it every other day because I spend a good amount of time outside and I knew the bottle would last me longer. Finally I take a 500mg Vitamin B12 by Country Life because I don't eat very much red meats and it helps with my energy levels.
I hope this was informative to you and if you have and further questions please ask away!

xBrianna

Just a Broke Girl

Hello my lovelies!
I'd like to take a quick moment to introduce myself, my name is Brianna and I am currently living in Los Angeles and work for Starbucks. For a long time I have struggled with my weight and feeling comfortable with myself, but as time went by I realized that I was beautiful the way I was and should change only for myself and not for any one else. So that's exactly what I plan to do with this blog. I know there are a million other health and fitness blogs out there but I hope that this one will help all those out there to realize that things don't happen over night and that you will mess up, you will skip a day, forget to eat healthy or exercise. But that's okay! I want everyone to see through the eyes of some broke millennial that getting in shape is possible for anybody.

Today I start school again so I'll be sure to keep you all updated on all of that, but I plan to update this blog as few as 4 times a week. I'll be posting different workout routines I do and recipes for meals and snacks. If you want to see more of any of that you can follow me in Pinterest, which is where I get many of my ideas and tweak them to fit me better. Also you can see my daily life on Snapchat (brianna_ashley1) and Instagram (separate from my blog account). I hope I can inspire at least one person with this but the more the merrier!

xBrianna