Exercise Your Life ♥

Hey everybody Its Ashley here and I thought I would go ahead and talk about being healthy and living a healthy lifestyle! I know it's crazy challenging at times to always eat healthy and workout on a daily bases, but trust me on this one living a healthy lifestyle REALLY makes a world of difference in the way you feel and live your life!


Growing up I was always working out since I was a competitive gymnast for about ten years. I was always in the gym and never really struggled with weight issues. Granted I never really eat healthy = /  I still always stayed very fit. Up until I was about 15 that is lol , then things started to change for me even though I was still very fit I was not "HEALTHY" I was eating way to much and very unhealthy things ( such as fast food, for breakfast/lunch and dinner) . I noticed I gained alot of weight and clothing just didn't fit me like it had previous years before. So I decided to make a change in my life. At first it was not a good change, I thought that if I just dieted everything would get better and I would be happy and skinny. Boy was that a BAD choice. You see once I started this "dieting" thing every pound I lost was never enough I became very obsessed of EVERY calorie I took in , and before I knew it I had stopped eating all together. I became anorexic and got really sick, food had become a struggle for me and I hated it! I began to think nonstop about food every second of everyday. Every time I looked in the mirror I hated what I saw my self esteem  had dropped to nothing and for the first time in my life I could seem to love myself  or my appearance. I felt lost and scared , I couldn't stand to look at my reflection because when I did all I could see were the flaws.To make a long story short with LOTS of prayer from my family members I overcame this struggle , leaving a bad taste for food in my mouth. Over coming this disease was hard both mentally and physically, I ended up gaining alot of weight due to my metabolism had gone to nothing and it just couldn't seem to burn off my food normally.To this day I still have a hard time balancing out food  but its slowly getting better. I have learned to eat healthy and slowly coming to love my body again. So now that I have have spilled the beans to you , I hope that maybe my story can inspire someone out there to think twice about "dieting" and just focus more on being healthy and living a full and happy lifestyle =)


On to what this post is supposed to be about.... lol


 How I live to be healthy <3 I am no way shape or form a nutritionist or professional when it comes to nutrition these are just helpful tips I have learned through others and books I have read... So keep that in mind =)


So my daily workout routine consisted of a 40minute intense workout that I do every morning 4 to 5 times a week. I feel as though your body (or at least mine lol) needs a break every now and then we are only human after all. I do have a treadmill that I use for this, I do 10 minutes of fast walking / sprint running switching every minute. So I would walking the first minute then run the next and so forth and so on. I do this for 10 minutes , then I go to the floor and set a timer for 10 more minutes this time I do a circuit of ab exercises. after that I would go back to the treadmill and repeat what I did the first time. For the last 10 minutes I do a circuit of leg arm and butt exercises. During this workout I push myself to the limit so that I keep my heart rate up which is what helps the body to burn off fat and calories. Like I said I do this every morning before I go to work and then usually rest on the weekend.


When It comes to foods , I just try to make the best choices I can , I don't plan out meals or anything like that ... I have tried that in the past and its just not for me. I feel as though I can eat when ever I'm hungry as long as I portion control and eat the healthier options =) and that works for me.


Some of my favorite foods to go to are:
Apples
Bananas
peaches
grapes
watermelon
any type of veggies =)
turkey with Swiss cheese wrapped up together
protein bars(pure protein very low sugar are a thumbs up)
any types of salads
a handful of nuts
hummus with veggies dipped in it
low sugar oatmeal
ummm and a few other things. But that's mostly my favorites I like to experiment with different combinations.
Just remember to watch your sugar intake and keep in mind "calories in calories out" .




A good site to check out great healthy recipes is Hungrygirl.com they have AMAZING ideas for better food choices =)




I'm going to try to post different recipes and workout tips everyday . So just keep posted and follow for more. Ok guys thanks for reading this if you did and I hope you enjoyed. Comment below if you like =)