my first barre class experience!

I always used to be a creature of habit with my fitness routine. Twenty minutes on the elliptical and 20-30 minutes of resistance training was usually about as adventurous as I got. Then we introduced Spinning at the gym I work at and I got tossed into my first Spin class. Fast forward a year later and I decided to get Spinning certified so that I could teach my own classes.

Since then I've decided to make it my mission to try as many different kinds of fitness classes as I can. So far I've ventured into Body Pump, Zumba, and Body Flow. In the future, I hope to try aerial yoga, Bikram, and pole dancing, just to name a few! 

Here are some things I noticed in my first barre class, and what you might expect in yours, too.

+ YOU MUST WEAR SOCKS. My mom and I did not realize this and showed up in bare feet. Way to blow our cover of being totally new and confused. So we forked over $12 each for fancy grippy barre socks and headed on our merry way.

+ There are different barre heights. My mom didn't realize this at first and when we went to stretch our legs on the barre, she damn near pulled her leg out of its socket. Stand at the barre height where you can comfortably lift your leg onto the barre.

+ It's pretty intimidating! All of those soccer moms were in way better shape than me in their lululemon leggings and dri-fit strappy tank tops. The instructor herself was also RIPPED AS HELL. So I guess if this isn't motivation to take more barre classes, I don't know what is.

+ We took a 30 minute long sampler for this first barre class, so the instructor squeezed so much into that half hour. We began with some dynamic stretching, leg and balance work, followed by modified plies and releves. I know this because I'm a dance teacher, but I don't know if the average person is capable of performing this alignment correctly on the first try! Definitely watch the instructor closely and try to match your hips and body facing with hers. 

+ The weights section is HARD. Unless you've been doing this for awhile, 2 lb. weights are just fine to absolutely burn the living hell out of your upper body muscles. Two pound weights certainly don't feel like 2 lbs. after they've been lifted over your head at a fast pace for three straight minutes. 

+ Smaller movements (and more of them) are definitely the theme of barre. As someone who has taken ballet, Yoga and Pilates, I really enjoyed this weird fusion of all three.

+ It requires a lot of random equipment. A mat, a resistance band, two sets of weights, a small resistance ball, and a Yoga strap are just some of the accessories we played around with. Which can actually be a pain in the ass to gather and put away if you have somewhere to be after class!

So, overall... 

I really enjoyed Barre! I would definitely recommend this class if you want to try something new and don't mind being a little bit confused and overwhelmed at the beginning. The results honestly speak for themselves, Barre instructors are some of the most toned people I've ever met.

                                                                                                                                                                          

Have you ever tried Barre? 

What's your favorite specialty fitness class? 

Leave a comment, it means so much for me to actively engage with anyone awesome enough to visit my little 'ol blog! 

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Getting that ass back in shape

Everyone goes through weird phrases of life, right?

A month where you're really into peppers, or will only eat peanut butter if it's refrigerated, or will be completely obsessive over your fitness tracker... but then after awhile that random preference fades.

I've had this with SO MANY THINGS.

What side I part my hair on, if I like painted nails or natural, wearing stud earrings or not, shaving my arms for God's sakes, refilling a water bottle instead of using plastic ones, if I wanna be a blonde or a redhead, if I like rings on my fingers or not, making a smoothie per day, healthy eating, and unfortunately, working out consistently.

Life is an ebb and flow, and we change our minds, need new viewpoints, and get busy and distracted with a hundred zillion different things.

I'm making a HUGELY conscious effort to make healthy eating and living an ingrained ritual instead of just a passing habit.

This is all I did last week:

Spinning Monday night

Weight training Tuesday 

BodyPump Wednesday night 

Taught Spinning Thursday night

Friday rest day, took a walk

Taught Spinning Saturday morning 

Sunday hiking! 

Case mountain in Manchester, CT.
2.3 mile hike to the top and back down.

Overlooks Hartford and Manchester, some say you can see all the way to Springfield, MA.

Looking pretty douchey posing in front of rocks. Also, why do I look so short? Oh yeah, cuz I'm a 4 foot 10 inch chicken nugget. 

Man-made waterfalls are so pretty, but nothing compares to the beauties we saw in Costa Rica. 

See why I maybe have a reason to be proud of myself? You wanna know what I did to make sure all that activity happened last week?

This is the secret.

You have to plan it all out on Sunday night.

That's really it. I used to wing it and just think I'd find time to exercise throughout the week. Not true. Hah.

If I put it on my schedule, somehow, it magically happens.

Planning is the key to success. 

Guess what, it works with eating too. Last week Lucas and I meticulously pre-cooked an absolute shit ton of meals. Do you know what I had to eat? An absolute shit ton of brown rice, veggies, chicken, salad, eggs, and fruits. So many peppers.

Lucas grilled up this sexual buffet on Sunday since it was 78 degrees and we were praisin' the good Lawd for the spring weather. Chicken, pork, onions, green & red peppers 

Sunday afternoon egg muffin creation with peppers, tomatoes, Swiss cheese, and spinach. Yummy in the tummy and perfectly microwaveable. *thumbs up emoji*

Do you know how many pounds I lost?

5 lbs. in 6 days. 

I don't know if that's normal and I do realize that a lot of it is water weight and bloating decreasing because I'm no longer eating 4 servings of loaded mac & cheese and an entire Moe's chicken burrito with 2 cups of sour cream spread on top. But I have been 20 pounds overweight since getting in a car accident in November so this is really really really exciting news for me.

#30DayCleanEatingChallenge for the win.

Again, planning is the key to success. How are you going to succeed if you need to get your ass back in shape like myself? Plan it out, and watch results zoom on in.

Body Pump damn near killed me.

Yes, and this is not an exaggeration.

So yesterday I took my first Body Pump class after hearing about it from all these wonderful middle-aged personal trainer bloggers with kids and houses who 100% look like they have their lives together.

I wanna be like that, I thought.

I'll try Body Pump, I thought.

My friend and ex-coworker teaches this class up in Enfield so my boyfriend drove me 40 minutes north to have my ass handed to me on a silver platter.

The class began with a full body barbell warm-up that had me thinking "what the hell did I get myself into"

Followed by six minutes of squats. 

Followed by doubting whether or not I'm actually in any kind of shape at all.

With a sprinkle of muscles burning in a way they never have before.

And a dash of a shoulder track that I LITERALLY COULD NOT FINISH. There were grandmothers in there absolutely slaying and I couldn't even lift 5 lb. hand weights above my head. I wish I was kidding.

This was all accompanied by me scrambling with my barbell in between tracks trying to add weight and then take it off because LOLZ I have no muscle strength apparently.

Lunges for a whole, entire song. 5 seconds of rest in between sets. That's sufficient. (no it's not).

It was a full body barbell workout that lasted an HOUR with a killer set of abs thrown in at the end. Just for fun. Or actually to make you cry. You choose.

All jokes aside though, this was honestly one of the best group classes I've ever done. It was super high intensity, high reps, and low weight (even though they ended up feeling like a billion pounds after a four minute song with no rest time).

Each major muscle group gets a full song (or more) of work with minimal rest and short active recovery.

Maybe it's because I mostly just do cardio endurance focused exercise now with my Spinning class obsession and being a Spin instructor, but omfg, did this class make me realize how depleted my muscles are.

I will 100% be taking this class again.

It was hard core and awesome. 

Spinning Playlist #2

I don't know why, but I love this playlist way more than my first one. Maybe it's because I subconsciously made the whole entire first half of it be dominated by the queens of pop music who slay consistently, mixed in with just enough sprinkles of stank face hip hop and poppy electronic doo-dads. Either way, the class was feelin' me and I was feelin' them.

1. Sweet Lovin' - warm up song. Go over what a seated flat is all about, how to add gears. Mid-song everyone joins in standing flat. Explain this position, all the weight over your feet. Near end of song everyone joins in 3. Explain this position - flat feet, booty up, chest up, core tight.

2. Burnin' Up - standing flat until second chorus - add a gear and join in 3. Seated climb after chorus. Running w resistance in 2 during hook. During next chorus add a gear, 3. Running w resistance in 2 for the rest of the song.

3. Team - seated climbs, interspersed with standing "attacks"

4. Countdown - Anddddd the crowd goes wild for old school Beyonce. This song was super fun. Moderate resistance on the wheel to start. 2nd for verses, seated and ADD ADD ADD resistance for the countdown part of the chorus. So you'll have 10 seconds of heavy heavy seated hill pushing through that resistance for each chorus. Then take some off when coming back to 2nd. Woohoo! 

5. Water Dance - Rolling hills! Heavy in the saddle and attacks in 3rd on choruses.

6. Overload - Recovery song! Flat road in saddle for mos of song, add some resistance and switch between seated flat and standing flat. 

7. No Mediocre - 8 count jumps from 1 to 3, adding gears gradually.

8. Prima Donna - heavy resistance for alternating between seated and standing climbs.

9. Dangerous - heavy resistance. Seated climb for half of song, standing climb for second half. 

10. Don't Tell Em - moderate/heavy jumps 8 count jumps. Take only 1-2 gears off, jumps from 1 to 2.

11. Dessert - Rolling hills! Flat road with the heaviest attacks in 3rd ever(!) during the choruses.

12. FourFiveSeconds - cool down song. Flat road, upper body stretches on the bike, lower body stretches off the bike. 

You did it! 

I don't know why I ended up loving this playlist much more than I thought I was. I usually find it pretty difficult to pick good hill climb songs. And those hill climb songs are baller, man. 

If you have any Spinning song suggestions, please please please leave them in a comment! Or just your favorite song in general right now, that'd be pretty cool too. 

The pros & cons of working at a gym!

I've been working at the front desk and in sales at a gym now for a year and three months. Post college graduation, I was so lost. I worked as a receptionist at a law firm, as a dance teacher, as a substitute teacher in public schools (worst experience EVER), and interviewed to be a nanny. Then on a whim I applied to work at a new gym opening in my town and it's one of the best things that's ever happened to me. But with any good thing, comes some bad, annoying, and downright strange things. Here are the pros and cons of working at a gym.

PROS:
+ You own 20 or more pairs of black leggings, and that's all you ever wear.

+ You're a local celebrity. Almost anywhere you go in town, people recognize you as the front desk girl. Autographs, anyone?

+ You get paid to socialize with people and talk about fitness all day long. Great if you're an extrovert like me! (Possibly horrifying if you're an introvert.)

+ You are in close quarters with your coworkers and will spend hours and hours with them. You'll probably make some of your best friends here! Friends who lift together stay together. #squadgoals

+ You stay inspired by these amazing weight loss stories of your gym members. They are the ones that keep you smiling and remind you why you love this job, one before-after picture at a time!

+ You get a free gym membership and when you clock out, you're already at the gym! No room for excuses there kiddo!

+ If you don't know what to do for your next work out, there is at least one personal trainer on staff who will be more than happen to write you a workout plan that will kick your ass into next week as they stand by watching you and snickering to themselves.

+ You get to listen to bumpin' gym music all day long. And dancing at the front desk is usually not discouraged.

+ If you don't reach your daily step goal every day, you're not trying hard enough. You have a big ass gym to walk around all day. Between hourly walkthroughs of the facility, dancing at the front desk, and even walking to the bathroom, I usually hit 5,000 steps alone while I'm at work. Bam, bitches!

+ Sometimes people are in the best mood when they come in to work out. They ask you questions, engage in conversations about fitness, and make you feel like a powerful, all-knowing, expert-on-everything health and wellness goddess. Bow down.

+ The feeling of selling a gym membership to someone who is just so damn excited. You can tell how much this means to them. They're taking their health into their hands and they're committed. They're excited. They're asking questions and signing up for classes. These people are the bomb. The easiest sale and the most inspiring, by far.

CONS:
- You own 20 or more pairs of black leggings, and THAT'S ALL YOU EVER WEAR.

- You're a local celebrity. You can't even go buy a box of tampons at RiteAid without someone recognizing you as the front desk girl.

- For the most part, all of your coworkers are good-looking so there's a good chance at least a handful of them have hooked up with each other. Drama at the workplace, woohoo!

- You are in close quarters with your coworkers for hours and hours. You will get sick of each other. They'll do infuriating things and be stupid af sometimes. But isn't this true of all jobs???

- You spend nearly all of your 8 hour shift standing and walking around. Ouch, legs.

- You can't work out at your own gym for more than 10 minutes without someone who recognizes you as the front desk girl asking you for help on how a piece of equipment works. Sigh.

- Strange humans will hit on you, ask you out, and maybe even propose to you. Hey, it happened to my manager. It can happen to you. Consider buying a fake, plastic (but shiny and convincing) engagement ring for yo'self.

- Sometimes people are in the worst mood when they come in to work out! They can be a little dark cloud of frustration and angst. Your job is to break through this and make them smile!

- Any kind of billing issue. Damn, people sure can get pissed about their money.

- Trying to sell a gym membership to a frustrating person. There are those people who walk into the gym in a confused daze, are convinced they know everything about fitness and don't need classes, or need more time to "think about it". These people are so irritating! I'm sorry but if you have let yourself get to a point where you know you need a gym membership, there is no time to think about it. Especially if a doctor is telling you to. Trust me. I have your best interest at heart. I want to be the first chapter of your success story and I want to witness you achieve your goals. Trust me! Get a gym membership! Take the classes! It works if you work!


In all honestly, working at a gym is super frustrating sometimes but it changed my life for the better in all ways. I'm more active, happier, more social and outgoing, and I really have met some of my best friends here. If you're thinking of working at a gym and don't know if it might be right for you, ask yourself these questions:

• Do you genuinely enjoy being around people constantly?
• Is fitness and health a major part of your life? 
• Could you stand being on your feet for almost your whole shift?
• Do you handle rejection and frustration well/are you able to shake things off easily?
• Can you be over-the-top, enthusiastic, and motivational for a whole bunch of people who NEED you to inspire them to even enter the gym?

If you answered YES to these, then go for it! And let me know how it goes.

Do any of you work in a gym?

What are the front desk workers at your gym like?

Would you even consider working at a gym if you don't now? 

Group fitness class - Legs & Abs

On Monday there's a small group training class that takes place the hour after I get out of work at the gym and some Mondays I bravely decide to take it! The trainers name is Emily and she's kind of obsessed with working legs, so that's why I say "bravely". Legs are my least favorite thing to work out, mostly because I never have. I always assumed that being a dancer was enough of a legs workout, but since I'm not dancing nearly as much as I used to... alas. Gotta work those legs.

This is the workout that Emily gave us. We did a circuit of legs with an abs exercise, then a circuit of core with a legs exercise. Pretty neat stuff! For each circuit we did 3 sets of either 10 or 15 reps with short rest period to keep the cardio up. I try to aim for 15 reps because I try to be an overachiever. Lolz. 

The hardest part for me is during the ab exercises on the decline bench, to try and keep my back from popping off. This is really important, both for your lower back safety, and the efficiency of the exercise. Your ab muscles are what are gluing your back to that bench. So you get the most effective workout for your abs, especially your lower abs, when your back remains neutral on that bench! 

Starting Monday off right, amirite?! I sneakily convinced my friend Shawn to do this with me, and here you can see him demonstrating those deadlifts with an easy curl bar. Mwahahaha. This morning I am sore, but just the right amount of sore. I think it has to do with the fact that I spent some quality time with a foam roller yesterday afternoon, almost directly after I got home from this workout. Foam rollers are LIFE.

Did you do a Monday workout? If so, what muscle groups did you work and are you sore at all today? 

Monday consistently sets the tone of the rest of my week for me, so I'm super satisfied! 

Spinning Playlist #1

Yesterday I taught my first Spin class, EVER.
It was a little bit scary but honestly so fun. I just hope that I gave my students a good workout and they liked my music and walked away thinking, "Hm, I might come back next week!"

I practiced my playlist yesterday afternoon, so needless to say I was completely physically drained by 7pm, but found the energy to teach and jump around on pure adrenaline alone.

Here's the profile I used. I found that it's really hard, has not too much recovery time, and a lot of sprints. Oops! Way to kill 'em your first class, Danielle.

1. Black & Gold - During the warm-up song, which has a really great beginning section for talking and explaining safety precautions, we began in the seated flat. Then added light to moderate resistance and I demonstrated second and third position while the class followed along

2. Light it Up - Jumps from first to second position during the verses, seated acceleration while adding in resistance during the chorus.

3. Alive - First climb of the class. Add a gear every time the music gets more intense. First half of song seated climb, second half is standing climb.

4. Hands to Myself - 1 min. of recovery in seated flat. Jumps from first to second position during the song, adding in resistance while in second position during each chorus. 1 min. seated acceleration with heavier resistance during the very last chorus (it feels intense!)

5. The Right Song - Seated for verses, moderate to heavy resistance in second position for the chorus

6. Temperature - Jumps! Take two 8-counts to travel from first, to second, to third, to second, to first. Add in a gear in the saddle occasionally. Cut jump time in half to one 8-count midway through song.

7. Renegades - Gear training. Put three gears on, take two off. Repeat 3 times.

8. Something About You - Heavy climb. Add a gear about every 30 seconds for a total of 8 gears. First half of song seated, second half is standing climb.

9. Work - Jumps from first to second position during the chorus, standing flat for verses. Light to moderate resistance throughout.

10. Get Ugly - Seated with moderate resistance during verses. Seated climb with acceleration during chorus.

11. Wildest Dreams - BIG FINISH. 1 min. seated flat. Add in resistance as music builds. Sprints during the chorus, pop out to third position to gain momentum and back down to seated, peddle it out. Meet in second position to run up hill during first sprint. Second sprint is all out in the saddle until the end.

12. The Morning - Cool down song. Seated flat with upper body stretches while in the saddle and lower body stretches off the bike.

* I meticulously searched for the clean versions of these so as to not offend anyone in my class since I wasn't sure of my demographics yet.

For a first class, I think I did pretty well!
I do think that some things I could probably work on would be:

• Talking too much
• Being sure to clearly explain the different positions at the beginning of class
• Trying to get off the bike more
• Speaking more clearly since the mic SUCKS. 

I'll be posting all of my playlists here as they accumulate with descriptions of the actions for each song, so stay tuned! 

MY FIRST ZUMBA CLASS

Yesterday was one of the best days, specifically because it was the first day since September that I sat outside in a TANK TOP and my pale bare shoulders saw real, non-tanning bed/artifical UV rays. The glory. The warmth. The happiness. After my shift yesterday, I sat on my boyfriend's beautiful backyard deck, sipping tea, reading my book, and soaking up the 76+ degrees in March, global warming is a real thing, sorry for sometimes being happy about it, while Lucas and his friend, Chris, did real work/manly things and moved heavy patio furniture out of the garage.

I had plans to Zumba with L's mom that night and I almost bailed, because I was actually so nervous! Ok, so I'm a dance teacher. I didn't expect Zumba to be difficult for me. But I had never done it before! And Kathy is like the Zumba Queen. She goes two times a day some days! 

Ultimately I decided I had to go, since I hadn't reached my 10,000 step goal for my Fitbit yet. We went to this very small fitness studio called Wicked Z, where the drop in fee was only $8 and I can fuck wit that. This wasn't just a Zumba class, this was a Zumba Toning class, so they had me grab two of these little green weighted sticks with beads in them. They reminded me of morrocas (spelling? I guess Google doesn't have a spell check for that, awkward). 

Here is what I learned from my first Zumba class:

1. The most awkward part of class is the time that you're in the room before the class starts. Because unlike Spinning, where you're on a bike and can pedal and check your phone, etc, in Zumba you're just standing around with each other, staring at yourselves in the mirror. Awkwarddddd. Plus, Kathy is so freakin' popular in the Zumba crowd, she was chatting and laughing with her other mother-aged people while I was somewhat awkwardly sipping my water bottle and looking around. And stretching to pass the time and also since my quads are so sore from legs day on Monday I still can't really walk normally at all.
2. Most instructors don't talk much. Directions are given through claps and points when the steps are going to change. Most Spinning instructors talk a lot throughout the class about form and breathing, and telling you exactly what to do and when. Zumba, you just watch and catch on.
3. I sweat more than I thought I would. But it was also a lot less intense than I expected. My heart rate stayed around 160 the whole time, which is a far cry from busting through the ceiling 194 that I experience during a Spin class.
4. It's REALLY fun. There's a reason middle aged ladies love their Zumba. It is fun af. The music is bumpin'. The energy is great. The steps are pretty easy. It feels like you're dancing at a club. And - here's the real reason - it doesn't feel like work.
5. Because it didn't feel like work, I'm not convinced that I got a great work out. I think there are a lot of other things people can do that are, yes, more difficult, but that can produce better and faster results.

Here's my final verdict: I enjoyed Zumba and I'd do it again as a low impact cardio activity when I don't actually feel like working out, but want to do something more productive than laying on the couch. It made me happy and I burned more calories than if I were doing nothing. That's all that matters right?? Who am I to knock these dancing Zumba addicts with my serious Spinning mentality. 

Shimmy your troubles away!

What to expect at your Spinning certification!

Yesterday I went to Spinning certification class with two of my fellow coworkers!
Brief background on my Spinning experience:
I started Spinning in April 2016, so not long at all now, and before that, I was TERRIFIED to start. But the gym I work at started offering it, so I technically had to take it in order to know what I was talking about when I was recommending it to gym members.
And it was so much fun!
I mean, after getting over the initial feelings of probably-going-to-die, might-throw-up, and why-did-i-do-this-to-myself.
But honestly, it's one of the most gratifying feelings to finish an especially challenging Spin class, like a runner's high (which I've never actually experienced since I hate running).
So to expand our own knowledge, and start teaching these awesome classes ourselves, we decided to get Spinning certified!

We drove an hour and a half for our class in Newburgh, NY which was the furthest of anyone in the class! We are crazy! 

It was a long, exhausting rewarding day. Here is what to expect if you go to class to get Spinning certified: 

1. Bring like seven water bottles. No joke, I'm a fish so I probably needed more. It's such a long day and you'll be so dehydrated if you aren't constantly drinking water.
2. The first part of the day will be a lot of demonstrating bike set up and safety. A lot of people were pedaling on their bikes through this whole thing. OMG your butt will start hurting so badly. It doesn't make you look cooler to keep pedaling through this. Just sit on the damn ground.
3. Bring like a hundred snacks. Unless your MI (Master Instructor) is super strict, there will be plentyyyy of opportunities to eat snacks. Fuel that body, it needs those calories so much today.
4. Your first ride is demonstrating all the different movements in a Spin class and it's probably not going to be to music and it's probably not going to be fun. It's purely informational. But you will sweat soooo much during it.
5. BRING EXTRA CHANGES OF CLOTHES. After your first ride, you'll have a lunch break, a LONG lecture, and then another ride. You'll want an outfit for your first ride, one to change into after that, and then one to change into on your ride home from the class itself. I cannot stress this enough unless you love sitting in a puddle of your own sweat.
6. Try not to fall asleep during the lecture portion. Your body is going to start going into sleep mode after that effort during the first ride and after your lunch break. SIESTA MODE. I could barely keep my eyes open. I don't have any advice to help with this besides just to be aware this is when you gotta try to keep your eyes pried open.
7. During the lecture portion, you will learn SO MUCH. Don't try to take notes on everything, just things your instructor says that resonate with you about making a profile or music choices or transitions. There's time to read the whole manual cover to cover when you get home (or before the class if you're that extra).
8. You will think with every fiber of your being that there's no way you can do a second ride at the end of the day, but you somehow will anyways. It will be painful, euphoric, and exhilarating when it's finally over. You'll be so damn proud of yourself! I had the WORST stomach cramps during my last ride, and had to keep repeating this mantra to myself, "Pain is temporary, greatness is forever". Dramatic, I know, but it worked. 

Before: 

 After: 

After an eight hour day, we still had a two hour drive home, during which I quickly popped two Advil. I was so exhausted I honestly felt like my body was shutting down. It was one of the most tiring experiences OF MY LIFE. It'll hopefully be so worth it though, to share Spinning and the rewarding experience it carries with all my future Spin students! 

If you aren't eating breakfast you are sabotaging yourself!

Since switching my hours drastically from second shift to the morning shift (5AM – 1PM) I’ve learned that breakfast is literally maybe (ok not literally but close) the most important thing you will do all day.

If I don’t pack breakfast I feel helpless, frantic, and exhausted by 10AM. This is why breakfast is literally your most important meal of the day and why, if you aren’t eating it, you’re sabotaging your metabolism, health, energy levels, and OVERALL HAPPINESS FOR THE WHOLE DAY.

 Yesterday morning I woke up at 4:00AM and didn’t drink water or eat anything until 9:00AM. SABOTAGE. I have literally not felt more sluggish or terrible in months. That is 5 hours of being awake without nourishment or hydration. Actually…

 When you don’t eat or drink anything upon waking up in the morning, you have to consider that your body is also going the whole time you’re sleeping without food or water. Soooo to do a bit of quick math, I get a little less than 6 hours of sleep a night (I know, it’s terrible). But my body went 11 hours without food or water yesterday. ELEVEN HOURS. I can’t stress to you how miserable I felt. The easiest thing to do, for me, is keep a bottle of water on your nightstand and take nice long, slow sips right the second you wake up. Your metabolism doesn’t start working until there’s food in your body to burn. Again, depending on how long after eating you go to sleep, and how long you sleep, your body is going a long time without you putting food into it. Put food in your body within the first hour of you being awake to wake up your metabolism! I highly recommend something with protein in it, like a protein shake or peanut butter and banana smoothie, or even a packet of instant oatmeal with added fiber or protein.

Your breakfast is a set up for the rest of the day. Usually how I start my day eating-wise is how I end my day… unless I start my day with a yogurt parfait and end it with 5 homemade chocolate chip cookies. It happens! But most times, if I start out eating healthy and giving myself energy, that carries through to the rest of the day and influences the rest of my choices.

I am 100% a creature of habit when it comes to breakfast.
I’ll be eating either:

• yogurt with granola/fruit 
• scrambled eggs with feta cheese and spinach 
• instant oatmeal packet with added fiber/protein 
• banana with peanut butter 

These things are so easy to throw together and you can even make eggs in the microwave. Just eat breakfast, you will literally thank yourself so much for it!!!!