A Life Of Gymspiration

Hey Everyone! I figured this would be the best place to post this, so here goes.... I have been selected to do a success story for 24 Hour Fitness! There will be two components to it. First will be the Personal Training Success Story which will go on the wall of my gym. It will have a before and after picture and I will write something up. As soon as that is all completed, it will go on the wall. I have dreamed about being on that wall for the last 2 years, so this is a little surreal. After that is completed, we will start to film a video in the gym of me working with a trainer, I'll do some other shots and the video will be submitted to the 24 Hour Fitness Stick With It campaign for all to see. Once that is all up I will post it. I am beyond thrilled for this all to take place. It's something I've worked really hard towards. I debated waiting to do this all until I reach my goal (I'm really close, but not quite there yet) but a few people (namely Megan, my wonderf...

Hey Y'all! Happy New Year! How is your 2013 going so far?? Did you make any resolutions? What were they? I typically don't make resolutions. That's a lie. I usually do, but they are things like "be more social" "be a better friend" and stuff that I have really good intentions of following through on....but don't. I suppose that's how it goes though huh? I will try to be better about posting in here, but I make no promises. The end of the year got kind of crazy. I should be hitting the gym full force next week (been sick now that I'm back at work- I need a hazmat suit) so hopefully will be posting about that soon. I wanted to take some time to share some recipes first though. I'm super excited. I bought a desk calendar that is put out by Cooking Light and each day (well actually the days are grouped together in twos or threes) is a recipe card. Super cool. I haven't tried any yet but I have a feeling something good will come out of th...

I don't know about you guys but I loooove sloppy joes. I did as a child, and as funny as it is I never think to make them.... until they're served at work and then it takes all my willpower to not eat them. A while back I bought this cookbook ( The Biggest Loser Cookbook) which I absolutely LOVE and recommend it to everyone! It has a very healthy version in it. And it's quite delicious as well, so here we go! :) SEXY JOES 1 lb. extra-lean ground chicken (I actually use 99% fat free ground turkey. Ground chicken is very hard to find, though you can ask any butcher to grind chicken breasts for you. I'm just shy and anti social haha) 1 Tbsp. White Vinegar 2 tsp. Worcestershire sauce 1 1/2 tsp. honey 1/2 tsp. hot pepper sauce (I used regular Tabasco) 2/3 C. chopped yellow onion 1/3 C. chopped green bell pepper 3/4 C. low-sodium tomato sauce 3/4 C. Chili Sauce 1/4 tsp. chili powder 4 whole-grain or whole-wheat hamburger buns (I actually use sandwich things- fewer ...

I have 20 minutes before I need to be in bed (and have not had a free minute since I woke up at 5 this morning. geez!) so hopefully this goes fast. :) We'll start with food. Breakfast Muscle Milk Light Cake Batter  Now I'd been doing 2 scoops but I noticed that I would get so busy once I got to work that I would forget to drink it and then I'd end up throwing half of it out anyway. So today I only did one scoop with 3/4 C. milk. Cut the calories in half, but of course i was hungry (as I always am lol)  1 piece of cinnamon sugar toast that my dear friend Kelly made (she makes it the best!) Lunch 1 serving Linguine Alfredo. Yum! 1 Yoplait light strawberry (only 90 calories AND King Soopers is having a sale 20/$10.00 hooray!) 1 Sargento light string cheese (I think around 100 calories) Snack 1 Strawberry Nutrigrain bar and some plain granola :)  Dinner 1 serving homemade chicken noodle soup (I'll post the recipe later this week if I ever get some free time!)...

First and foremost I will post this recipe I made tonight. It will be my lunch at work this week. I haven't made it in a long time and I am quite excited to eat it!  LINGUINE ALFREDO 1 Tbsp Butter 2 Garlic Cloves, Minced 1 Tbsp All-Purpose Flour 1 C. Fat-Free Milk 1/4 C. Fat-Free Cream Cheese 1/4 C. Grated Asiago or Parmesan Cheese 1 C. Broccoli Florets 1 Medium Red Bell Pepper, seeded and cut into 1-inch pieces 1 Carrot, thinly sliced 4 C. Hot cooked Linguine 1. In a medium nonstick saucepan over medium-low heat, melt the butter. Saute the garlic until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Whisk in the flour, then gradually whisk in the milk; cook, stirring constantly until slightly thickened, about 2 minutes. Whisk in the cream cheese and Asiago; cook, stirring until smooth, 1-2 minutes. Remove from the heat and cover to keep warm.  2. Meanwhile, place the broccoli, bell pepper and carrot in a steamer basket; set in a saucepan over 1 inch of boiling water. Co...

Alright everyone! I need your input! I want to know what you all are looking for from this blog. Basically what it boils down to is if no one wants to read the daily thing then I'm not going to do it, but if it's helping people I will. Let me know what you want. Love y'all! Jessica

Today was a better day. I didn't set my alarm with the intention of sleeping in. I had plans with a friend at 1 and really hoped I'd wake up in time to get a workout in before that. Flash to me waking up on my own at 8:45. So almost 9 hours- I guess that's decent. :) I hung out around the house for about an hour and then started getting ready to hit the gym. When I woke up I noticed that my arms were pretty sore from yesterday's workout and that made me so happy! :)  CARDIO Treadmill. 35 minutes. I started to do the interval, but a bunch of times I'd either up the speed or just keep running longer than the original minute. It also depended on the song playing at the time. :)  STRENGTH Leg Curl Pretty self explanatory based on the picture. I did 15 reps with the weight set at 79 pounds (#4).  Leg Extension Same as above- 15 reps but 66 pounds (still #4).  Do 3 sets of those. :)  Hip Adductor 15 reps at 100 pounds ...