Ab-Tastic!

Let's face it, abs are one of the hardest parts of the body to attain. No one wants to do sit-ups, crunches, or planks, but sometimes you just gotta suck it up. There are plenty of different exercises to be done to help sculpt a six pack, but I'm only going to talk about the main 6 I do plus a few alternatives.
In a previous post I talked about my favorite weight loss app IntervalTimer and how absolutely amazing it is, I still stand by that claim and finally will tell you about my ab routine like I promised. You don't really need the app to do the workout but it does make things simpler, but if you don't have room for another app you can just use the timer of your phone. Just be sure to pay attention to how long you are doing each interval and set!
Now, it took a lot of trial and error before I came up with the six moves that I felt worked my abs the hardest. These are the first 6 exercises that I did when I began my ab routine:

• hold a crunch
• toe touches
• bicycles
• leg lifts
• Russian twists
• plank

*Keep in mind that these are all at 1 minute each with a minute rest between each new set resulting in a 20 minute workout in total.

After a while I realized that doing the toe touches and bicycles were actually hurting my neck half way through my second set, so I started to look for alternatives to these exercises. That is when I discovered pull overs and side bends. A pullover is when you lay down on the floor and bring your knees up as if you were sitting down, then take a weight and bring your arms down behind your head keeping them straight and almost touching the floor, then bring the back up and repeat. You should feel it in your arms and a pull in your upper abdomen. Side bends are pretty self explanatory, I take my kettle bell and lean down stretching my obliques, instead of one minute each I do 30 seconds each side.
Hopefully this can help you get your stomach ready for bikini season, or any season for that matter!

Eggs for Days

Good morning my lovelies!
This morning I wanted to fit in a quick workout before I had to go to work which meant I also needed to make a quick but protein filled breakfast. Avocado toasts with an over easy egg is the perfect way to go. I use 9 grain wheat toast, depending on the side of the avocado either a half or a quarter which i mix with a pinch of salt and some pepper, and finally the egg which I cook with olive oil instead of butter and top with pepper and cayenne.

Here is an easy layout of how I make this breakfast:

1 piece of 9 grain wheat bread
1/2 or 1/4 of an avocado
             with a pinch of salt and pepper
1 egg
1 tablespoon of olive oil

Start by toasting the bread so that it is going while you do everything else. Then put the olive oil in the pan and turn it on low to heat up the pan, next put the avocado in a small bowl and mash it up mixing in the salt and pepper. By now the pan should be hot enough for your egg, at this point after you've cracked your egg into the pan its just a matter of watching it until you feel its cooked enough to your liking. I tend to like it cooked just a little bit extra to be sure its cooked through but that the yolk is still liquidy. And now you're done! Just put the avocado on your toast and the top it with the egg and add as much pepper and cayenne as you'd like!

Also as you can see I've reduced the amount of vitamins I take now. I had already taken my multi, fish oil, and probiotic, but now I don't only take my D every other day but also my turmeric and Iron. I still take my B12 and Kelp or Iodine daily but I've cut out the vitamin C all together unless I feel a cold coming on.

I hope you all have a wonderful day, it's raining where I am and I still have work and then a test after so I will have a full day but still a good one!

xxBrianna

A Second Beginning

Happy New Year!
Well I know it's been a few months since I've posted anything and I really have no other reason that I just wasn't feeling it. But in the time I've been gone I've lost almost 10 pounds and have been keeping up with my exercises. After the New Year I wanted to wait a little before coming back on here to see if I would really continue to maintain my commitment to a healthy lifestyle and so far I have. I even get a gym membership since I got a raise at work I could afford one again.

So much has happened to me over the last few months and through the holidays I honestly couldn't be happier. Besides the weight loss and raise at work, I have an opportunity to be a production assistant for America's Got Talent and though it's not my dram job, it's a foot in the door and a step in the right direction. Once you're in, you're in and that has a huge amount of other opportunities for me to choose from. I also have a boyfriend who is the absolutely most amazing man I've ever been with. He is so loving and caring and is so good about the little things which is something I've never had before.

Now back to the blog, I think I want to make this not just about fitness but also about my everyday life because let's face it, your everyday life has a lot to do with you being healthy and fit. It will mostly be about my fitness routines and clean eating but I'll also give you little updates about my life just to show you where my mind is at. I really want to keep this up so I'll try to post daily on here but I will post daily on my Instagram and Snapchat! I hope you all had a wonderful New Year and Happy Holidays! See you all tomorrow!

xxBrianna