Just because you're on vacation and don't have access to a full gym or your normal fitness equipment doesn't mean you need to put your workouts on hold!  While it can be tempting to fall into full relaxation mode​ there are so many benefits to maintaining a workout routine, even if it's modified in time and intensity.  

​Have you ever taken the time to see what a recommended serving looks like?  It can be shocking how small a measured serving size is in comparison to the serving size we generally eat!  Do you even think about portion control when you’re preparing meals, eating out, or snacking? 

There is a mentality that “bigger is better” in our culture.  We expect large portions when we order meals from restaurants, we supersize our value meals, and many of us still live with the mindset that we are to clean our plates at every meal.  It’s no surprise that we eat mindlessly, take in too many calories, and struggle with weight. 
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Chances are you’ve been on at least one restrictive diet in your lifetime.   You may have tracked calories, points, or measured food.  While these tracking and food measuring methods can be beneficial initially to give you an honest look at your eating habits, the practice becomes tedious, impractical, and frustrating over time.  It’s important to develop skills that make it easy to eat moderately and mindfully.

​How do you spend your time?

Do you invest it wisely? 

Do your actions reflect what you claim are your core values?

Maintaining focus on the things that matter most to us is not as effortless as you might think.  It's easy to take for granted the amount of time available to cultivate all that is important to you.

Scrolling through your facebook, twitter, or instagram feed you are constantly exposed to images of various women and slogans depicting qualities that “real women” possess. 
Real women have curves.  Real women have muscles.  Real women have tattoos.  Real women lift heavy.  Real women wear heels.  Real women satisfy their men and make them sandwiches, real women BLAH BLAH BLAH, the list goes on for days! These slogans have the ability to both empower and degrade.  If you are in fact a woman with tattoos then you feel amazing, strong, and beautiful.  If not, are you somehow less?  Are you lacking?  If you aren’t tattooed and therefore aren’t a “real” woman, then what does that make you? 

Working out can be a challenge.  Finding the motivation to get off the couch can be the greatest.  While working out at home is convenient, many find they need the gym atmosphere to get them in the right mindset.  For others making the trip to the gym can make that challenge more difficult. There are pros and cons to working out in a gym or at home.  Even if you love working out at the gym, there are days when there just isn't enough time.  Maybe you hate the feeling that everyone is staring at you and you’re uncomfortable getting sweaty and gross in such a public setting. I feel your pain!  Enter the Home Gym.  With a few inexpensive pieces of equipment and your own body weight you can get an intense, effective workout without ever leaving the house!

I haven’t always been fit.  With the exception of three years of volleyball in high school, I didn’t grow up playing sports.  I was more of a bookworm.  I hated gym class in school.  Running around the track, and the various sports, it was torture for my uncoordinated, teenage self.  The only section of gym class I ever remember really loving was the weight lifting.  Those were my favorite few weeks of the semester.  After high school I got into weight lifting a little more… however it didn’t last.  Much of my twenties were spent in more of a party mode.  Going out to eat, parties, barbecues, and more.  We were young, and oblivious, and invincible!