6 weeks to a 6 pack...How I Am Preparing to Tighten, Tone, and Lose Inches Around my Waist.

ALL ABOARD!!! There are a lot of trains of my life and if you have read my book you know this. This month's train is the fitness train and I am moving full speed ahead and I am inviting you to join me. So what are you waiting for? Let's get everything you need to be successful and go down this journey together.

This first fitness blog is to set you up for success. I am currently using the macro diet and I could not live my life without the MyFitnessPal app. So stop your scroll right now and go download the app.

Quick over view of the macro diet. My calorie count is set on MyFitnessPal to 1600 calories for everyday. You can set this under the "goals" tab. Then I set my Macro nutrients in percentages and the app calculates exactly how many grams of each you will need every day. Macro nutrients that I log are Carbs 40%(about half of those are veggie carbs the other half are complex carbs, I.e. sweet potato, rice, or potatoes, black beans), Protein 30%, and Fat 30%. I am a mesomorph body type so I put on muscle pretty easily. If you are an endomorph than definitely lower those carbs and if you are an ectomorph add a little more carb to your life. I try to round out every meal this way but some times life just gets in the way and at the end of the day I just want to hit my daily macro goals. That is just a quick synopsis but you can definitely do your own research to learn more about the macro diet.

Things you will need to buy, or maybe you already have them, in order to be successful...

1. This scale is a must for logging your food. It has over 37k reviews on amazon with 4.5 stars.

2. This ninja bullet is my go to for turning my protein shakes into a peanut butter chocolate smoothie that tastes more like desert than a protein shake.

3. My good friend Teresa Henke with believe fitness just turned me on to this Protein and honestly is tastes amazing and is way easier on my stomach than other whey proteins I have tried. If you're like me it is really hard to eat 100g of animal protein so I almost always end my evening with a peanut butter chocolate protein smoothie to round out my macros for the day. I will post recipes soon.

4. Microwavable veggies rice and quinoa packets will save your diet on a pinch. Lets face it we just don't all have the time to meal prep or spend hours laboring over a paleo meal. I like cook a lot of meat on Sunday or Monday, enough for 3-4 days and order this and this in bulk to keep on hand when I don't have to time to cook. Also these black beans are amazing on a pinch to for a great Mexican dish.

5. Did I mention I love sweets? Oh my gosh I still each pancakes and waffles on this diet. Of course they either a swerve waffle mix or my own protein pancake recipe which I will share on here soon. This calorie free syrup is may favorite and they have every flavor of syrup you can thin of.

For exercise I have been limiting my cardio to a once a week run because I have been running off my butt. Unfortunately cardio is just muscle eliminating for me and lifting weights actually burns more calories than cardio. When you break down your muscles with weight lifting they are actually working for 24 hours to rebuild and that whole process is burning calories where as cardio only burns for 4-8. I have been doing a very short, 7-10 min cardio burst on the assault bike or rower and then spending about 30-45 min on weights doing a different muscle group every day. I am trying to stay on a 3 days on(working out), 1 day off, 2 days on, one day off. Rinse and repeat.

Lets talk wine for a quick a second. I am NOT eliminating wine. I am however limiting my consumption to two times a week and making sure that after every glass of wine I drink an 8 oz glass of water.

I am giving myself my one cheat meal a week where I super carb load and eat all things bread(French toast). Research shows that carb loading can temporarily raise metabolism and increase levels of leptin, a hormone that blunts hunger, which, together, could help promote weight loss. Bonus!

My last and final tip. Make this diet conducive to your life so you won't give up. If you really like popcorn, like me, its ok once in a while to save all your carbs for that bowl of popcorn at the movies. Just FYI...MyFitnessPal has Alamo drafthouse popcorn already broken down into macros with and without butter.

That is my overview! Please be on the look out for recipes and protein shake ideas and possibly even a WOD(work out of the day) or two.

My next post will be what I eat in a day complete with my favorite beef and broccoli recipe.