Rest & Exercise (Part 2 of healthy eating)

Oh hello there!

Thanks for visiting my blog again. That makes me happy :)
I hope the tips and suggestions I put up here help you a bit, and you get to make a smarter, healthier decision next time you go grocery shopping, eat out, or think about exercising.

This post is the second part of how to be healthy (The broccoli must die entry). I will be focusing mostly on exercise and rest today.
Last time we talked about proper nutrition, how to stay in track, what to do and what not to do.

• Nutrition (continued)

By the way I totally forgot to add this to the nutrition entry Wednesday, but eating breakfast is absolutely super important. When you're sleeping you're not giving your body food those 7-8 hours that are sleeping. If you wake up and don't give yourself food in the morning your body goes into starvation mode- trust me, you don't want that happening! It's an awful thing to do to your body! Just like those stupid diets "Drink/Eat this and you'll magically loose weight." or the ones "Starve yourself to loose weight". BTW I'm not even going to talk about those types of "diets" because they really piss me off, they're awful and damage your health/body and since I'm talking about how to be healthy, and how I stay healthy that's completely out of the picture.

Fun fact: those that never skip breakfast are more likely to stay at a healthy weight when they get older. So logically as you get older you have more health problems and being overweight could be one of them for you, unless of course, you eat that yummy breakfast of yours! ;) Then it's one less problem you have to worry about.

• Exercise

If you are friends with me on Facebook, or are following me on Instagram (albanianicandy), you probably know that I love exercise/ working out. It used to be something casual for me a few years ago, not really important to me. I'd play soccer twice a week, go hiking twice a week, play volleyball 6/7 days in the summer, go on walks everyday and that was about it back then. It wasn't really a workout per say, and I never saw it as one. However, I made sure I was doing what I loved, having fun, and I naturally stayed active due to all the physical activities I participated in.

Today, exercise is a must and important to me. It's not about being thin!!! (Those exclamation points were for the ones that think it's everything about how much you weight/ what size you wear.) It's about being strong and happy!

Please refer to my iLIFT post a few weeks ago, for different fitness goals you might have. Also, I'm not a specialist by any means. This is all the stuff I've been learning and reading about for the past few years for fun, as I'm really into health/food/fitness nowadays. Also, it's a plus that my fiance is a Health Coach and knows pretty much everything I ask him, and muuuch more!

If you're trying to get in good shape, I'd suggest some cardio with strength training/ weight training. If you do a combo of that you'll get in really good shape in no time-- you have to stick with it AND be patient with yourself though. It's a process and it still needs time. Nothing happens overnight. ;)

From my experience and my research, exercise is great for your overall health. It gets you stronger, you release the school/work/life stress out, revs up your metabolism, and you are happier and more confident in yourselves. Who doesn't want these benefits??!
Imagine an almost (bad) stress free life, being super productive, energetic, happy, confident, and strong.

 Sounds too good to be true? Well, it's not! I've experienced all these since I started working out on a daily bases, so you should give workout a try ;) Plus it gets better each day, as you get stronger. The first 2 weeks are probably the hardest ones as your body is still weak(ish), and not used of all the new exercises you're doing.

For the ones that don't have a gym pass, don't have enough time to go to the gym, or do anything like that I have a workout plan I created for myself when I'm super busy and it looks like I might not head to the gym that day. No equipment needed for this workout. Stay tuned as I'll publish it next week. Probably Tuesday.

Also, make sure you don't workout on an empty stomach, that way you'll have energy during your workouts and will push longer, as well as be more productive. If you workout on an empty stomach you'll probably burn muscle instead of fat. You don't want to burn muscle-- that's what's pushing you and making you stronger. Pretty much the more muscle you have the stronger you are, and the less fat you'll end up having in you're eating right too.

Also, try and avoid eating right before a workout. It will make it harder to workout, and you will most likely feel sick. This is what you need to do: i.e. you're hungry and need to eat dinner, but don't have 1-1.5 hours to wait for the food to digest so you can go to the gym later. You rather eat something quick, hit the gym, then eat your dinner. In this case I've found out that protein shakes, or a banana or something small like that works out for me/ most people to keep you full enough to push through your workout. Remember, you know your body best so do what feels best.


Last thing about working out: make sure you have a water bottle near by, to stay hydrated.

• Rest: 

Rest is pretty much getting enough sleep each night. 7-8 hours of sleep are important and necessary for your muscles to recover fast (and the soreness to go away faster). A combination of rest/ sleep as well as protein is actually the best thing you could give your body. The faster you recover the faster your muscles are getting stronger, and ready to be worked out again.

If you plan on exercising every day, make sure to take a day off.Your body needs a one day completely off from exercise to fully recover from all the workouts you did during the week.  I like resting and relaxing on Sundays for example. Typically I won't do any type of workout then. I might go on a fun little walk, just for fun to clear my mind and enjoy the day but that's about it. Now that's been pretty freezing that Sunday walk is pretty much out of the picture :(.

Well, that was it ladies and gents! I hope you enjoyed this just as much as I did writing it! :) haha

Maybe I'll put my gym or at home workouts up here too, for the ones that want a little challenge ;)

Stay tuned for a very yummy, healthy and cheap recipe and a workout possibly next week! 
Unless I change my mind and let the recipe out this weekend ;)

xxx Disola

Instagram: albanianicandy

For your entertainment: 

Why cats are better than babies

(Shout out to my favorite cat lady Janet haha)