How to start working out early in the morning!

So, one of the most common things I hear from people is that they really wanna start getting up earlier and working out first thing in the morning, but they just aren't a morning person and don't know how to do it. 

When I was working full time I actually was getting up at 4am to workout before my day began.  Seriously - 4AM!  I am SO not a morning person and I am actually one of those people that needs like 8-10 hrs of sleep per night to even function.  So... this was not an easy adjustment for me.  But I did it for months!  

Here are my biggest tips on how to get it done:

1. Go to bed earlier - if you are getting up an hour earlier then go to bed an hour earlier.  Do NOT sacrifice sleep to get your workout in!!  Lack of sleep is going to hinder your results too!
2. Sleep in your workout clothes (this saves you a lot of time in the morning so you don't have to get up, get changed and then workout) 
3. DO NOT HIT SNOOZE!!  Seriously - it is a TRAP! 
4. As soon as the alarm goes off SIT UP.  Put your alarm on the other side of the room if you have to.  For me, I just told myself the night before (like a little pep talk, honestly) that as soon as my alarm went off I was UP!
5. Don't think about it - just get up.  You will be telling yourself "I am so tired" just shut your mind off and get up.
6. Go workout - right away.  Once again don't think about it just do it..  I seriously used to not really fully wake up until I was 5-10 mins into my workout and then I was feeling really good.

You will have trouble getting to sleep right away at your new earlier bedtime the first few nights, but trust me after the first couple nights it will be a lot easier to get to sleep at that early time cuz you'll be pretty tired.  You  will actually be quite tired for probably the first couple weeks, but just push thru and your body will adjust and then you will have more energy than ever - seriously! 

Do you workout in the morning?  Are you going to try these things out to 

Spinach & Feta Stuffed Chicken Breasts

Spinach and Feta Stuffed Chicken Breasts (recipe adapted from food.com)

Serves 3

Ingredients:

• 3 chicken breasts
• 2 tsp olive oil
• 1 tsp minced garlic
• 5 cups baby spinach
• 3/4 cup feta cheese
• 1.5 cups seasoned bread crumbs

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350
2. Prepare chicken for stuffing either by slicing the chicken breasts almost completely in half, but not quite - you wanna leave the two halves attached still.  Or you can beat the chicken breasts to make them super thin.
3. Cook the spinach, garlic and oil on the stove top until done 
4. add in the feta cheese and mix well
5. distribute spinach mixture onto each chicken breast
6. wrap chicken around mixture and secure with a toothpick
7. Roll each breast in bread crumbs until well coated
8. place on baking sheet
9. Cook for 30 minutes or until cooked thru
10. ENJOY! 

This went over really well in my house even my almost 5 year old daughter gobbled it up!  YUM!

CONFESSION - I fell off the wagon! How am I gonna get back on??

You hear about it all the time - heck maybe you've even experienced it.

Someone lost a whole bunch of weight - and then started falling back into bad old habits and sslllllooowwwlllyyy started putting weight back on.  

You think - oh that'll NEVER happen to me, I'm different man!  I got this under control! 

At least that's how I thought.

I was interviewed once about my weight loss story and in the interview I was asked if I ever worry about gaining the weight back.

"No, my whole lifestyle has completely changed - I KNOW I will NEVER go back down that road!" I answered with confidence.

Yet, here I am.

I am currently 20 lbs higher than my lightest weight - the weight I had reached at the end of my 21 day Ultimate Reset cleanse last December.

I don't think this qualifies as "water weight" or a "little bit of bloating from a weekend of eating bad"... I've been telling myself this about my growing waist size and as the number goes up and up on the scale - "oh... that's just water weight... I'll lose it in like 2 days once I'm back on track!" 

You know what that's called?

DENIAL! 

I have spent the majority of this year in DENIAL!  Denial about the fact that - no, I do NOT have this "under control" and yes, maybe I do need to get serious about tracking everything I eat again and get back to ONLY one treat a week... My one treat a week has really been 4 treat DAYS each week... Needless to say this isn't getting me very far.

So, you're probably wondering - wow Lara... so what are you going to do?? 

Well, I have figured out a couple things about myself in this last year. 

1)  I NEED to be doing a workout program - complete with a set schedule and I need to follow the schedule that it came with.

2)  I need to get back to doing a workout that I actually love and enjoy.

See, here's the thing - I have consistently kept up working out yes.  But not following an actual program I slacked off during my workouts and there were some weeks that I did only workout 3 or 4 days... This is not acceptable for me... For me I gotta workout at least 5 days... AT LEAST!  This was one of my "rules" that I set in play when I first started on my journey back in 2011.

So... I was gonna jump back in with both feet and go right to the Insanity Asylum workouts - cuz that was gonna get me FAST results!  HARD WORKOUTS = FAST RESULTS! 

Yeah... that lasted a day.  Hard workouts only equal fast results if you actually DO them.  I know, sad :(

I finally realized - Okay... I'm trying to get back into a groove where I LOVE working out, just like I used to at one point... Maybe I should try to get back into this with something I actually enjoy.  

hmm.. weird concept right? 

So I pulled out my FAVE program - Les Mills Combat and OMG SO.MUCH.FUN!!! 

Last week was week 1 - I am going to complete this program again and I will be done it just in time to do the brand new Insanity Max:30 program that is being released at the beginning of December! 

I HAVE TO stick with this so I am ready for Max 30!

I didn't really enjoy Insanity when I did it 2 years ago... But I still did it because I was in the groove where I loved working out - sticking to combat all 60 days will get me back in that groove, I know it will... It already almost has in just a week!

Max:30 is also going to be INTENSE so I wanna be back in tip-top shape to start it! 

Two other things I am doing to get back into my groove of eating right, tracking everything I eat and seeing the number on the scale go back down -

1)  Shaun T's Dietbet!  I bet $30 I would lose 4% of my body weight in 4 weeks... I'm really gonna double that tho - just watch me! 

2)  4 weeks NO JUNK FOOD OR BOOZE challenge!  4 weeks of No chips, no candy, no donuts, no booze, no soda, no cake, no cookies!  I got an accountability group I'm going to be setting up and I will succeed - yep... NO CANDY FOR ME AT HALLOWEEN! 

Wanna join me in any of the above??  Send me an e-mail lara.curry85@gmail.com and... 

LET'S GO!!!!! 

Noodle-less Lasagna

Who doesn't love lasagna??  I know I do!!  It is definitely one of my favourite comfort foods, however it is so high in calories that it's definitely been forever removed off my menu (except for maybe the occasional treat night).

Well, I introduce to you - NOODLE-LESS LASAGNA!  That's right... it's all the deliciousness of lasagna with NO pasta!

Serves 6

Ingredients

• 3 medium Zucchini's, thinly sliced lengthwise
• 1 lb of lean ground turkey
• 1/2 a medium yellow onion
• 2 tsp diced garlic
• pink himalayan salt, black pepper and garlic powder to taste
• pasta sauce of choice
• 24 oz of cottage cheese
• shredded mozza cheddar cheese

Directions

1. Pre-heat oven to 350 degress Farenheit
2. In a skillet on medium-high heat add ground turkey, onion, garlic and seasonings and cook until turkey is browned and cooked through
   
3. add about 1/2 cup of pasta sauce and mix into the turkey mixture
   
4. Spray a baking dish with non-stick spray and lay the first layer of zucchini "noodles" just like you would lasagna noodles
   
5. add half of the turkey mixture on top of the "zoodles"
6. add half of the cottage cheese on top of the meat mixture
   
7. repeat steps 4, 5 and 6 ending with a third layer of zucchini noodles on top
8. spread about 1/4 cup of pasta sauce (just a thin layer) on top of the zucchini
   
9. sprinkle your cheese on and cover with tin foil
10. Bake at 350 degrees Farenheit for 45 minutes, remove the foil and bake for another 10 minutes until cheese is a bit browned
11. Serve and enjoy! 

Couple things I will change for next time... 

It was quite watery from the zucchini... I googled how to help that and I read that if you "salt" the zucchini"noodles" for about an hour before hand it will pull the moisture out of the zucchini!  Basically just put the zoodles into a colander, sprinkle salt on top and toss it around until they are evenly covered... leave the colander over a bowl to collect the water that gets pulled out... after about an hour place the zoodles on paper tower to wipe away any moisture left... I will update this post once I try this :) 

Otherwise though, the taste was PHENOMENAL!  It was so very delicious!!!  The water wasn't that bad of a thing, just made it a bit more difficult to cut and scoop out regular pieces :)  I actually showed me making it in this vlog too :)

How to Meal Plan!

So I know that one of things that can MAKE or BREAK your success in your weight loss and fitness journey is meal planning.  

We've all heard this familiar quote:

Honestly, this quote annoys me... Not because it's not true (it is 100% true) but because I am not the planning type.  One of my biggest hurdles in my own journey is meal planning, but when I do it the reward is amazing because I feel better, my clothes fit better, I have more energy, etc,etc,etc.  It is also nice to not have to just "wing it" during the week with what I'm gonna eat! 

So since this is an area a lot of people struggle in I decided to share with you my SUPER SIMPLE steps to creating your meal plan!  I have meal plans that I like to provide my clients, but I find that it's better to make it yourself because then you will put on it foods that you enjoy and are more likely to stick with it :)  (note: I am not a nutritionist or a certified dietician, this is simply what I do and have done to meal plan in the past :) ) 

1. Grab a notebook and a pen (or just a blank piece of paper would work too) 
2. Get a source for your foods - ie. if you are calorie counting open up My Fitness Pal or whatever you use to calorie count that has a good food database - this will prevent you from having to get up a million times and dig through the pantry and fridge to find calories in foods.
3. Figure out how many calories or servings of food you will want to "save" for dinner each day first off (hint: if you are calorie counting and following a 1200-1500 calorie base, I recommend trying to keep Breakfast, Lunch and dinner around 300-400 calories and snacks around 100-200 calories)
4. Start creating your meal plan - I usually give myself two options for each Breakfast, AM Snack, Lunch and PM snack so I can switch it up throughout the week - you do not want to try and come up with 7 different breakfasts, snacks and lunches - that would take you way too long, be way too overwhelming and cost you way too many groceries!! Remember we want you to follow through on this so keep it simple! 
5. As you are coming up with the items you are going to have for each meal/snack go into My Fitness Pal (if you're calorie counting) to add up the calories as you go.  Or if you are using another meal plan, just count for each item as you go! 
6. Then comes the fun part!  Make up 7 different dinners!  I usually try to have one fish, one red meat and one pork each week and then keep the rest chicken or ground turkey... Need recipe ideas?  Check out the recipes page here or some of my favourite sites for recipes are skinnytaste.com and thegraciouspantry.com
7. Create your grocery list!  I usually do it as I go, especially if I am trying new recipes and there are ingredients in the recipe I need to get as well!  
8. THAT'S IT!  head out the grocery store with your list in hand and grab all you need for the week!  This will prevent you from needing to run to the store mid-week... Want to see more in depth how I meal plan?  Watch my video! 

Are you a habitual excuse-maker?

Do you find yourself coming up with a ton of reasons as to why you can't workout or eat right?  Let's face it - life happens!  Sometimes it is just way too difficult, maybe even impossible to squeeze that workout in or to prep that healthy food.  The thing is however, that EVERYONE has life happen while they are on their fitness journey.  It's that CHOICE that we all have of whether you are going to USE that excuse and skip that workout or if you are going to power through and get it done anyways - NO.MATTER.WHAT.

I know some of you may be sitting there reading this thinking - "well no what I'm going through is different - I don't have the choice, I just literally don't have the time to workout or prep healthy food!"  If you're thinking that then you are probably not gonna like what I am about to tell you.  You absolutely DO have the CHOICE.  There are workout programs out there that are only 25 minutes, 5 days a week... 25 minutes!!  I am going to bet that you probably spend more than 25 minutes each day contemplating stuff that you need to get done... or doing your hair and makeup for the day... Or watching your favourite TV shows.  We all have the same 24 hours in a day, it's your CHOICE what you do with that time!  Yes, you may have to sacrifice watching your favourite TV show... you may have to get up 30 mins earlier or go to bed 30 minutes later - but if your health and energy are worth it, you will find a way!  

As for time to meal prep - I have some amazing news for you.  Guess what!  Spending just a couple hours prepping food on a Sunday will actually SAVE you a ton of time preparing all throughout the week!  It's also super simple and I will make a separate blog post on meal prepping soon, but it's literally as simple as seasoning and throwing a bunch of chicken breasts in the oven and leaving them to bake... Roasting some veggies in the oven at the same time as the chicken and cooking up some brown rice... BOOM!  Easy, simple and DONE!  Guess what?  You're also gonna save yourself a ton of money by not needing to eat out and pre-packaged, processed foods are NOT always cheaper.

So... Are you gonna choose to find excuses or are you gonna choose to find a way to get it done?