deidre nicole: fitness

Before and After

It's been 6 month since giving birth to Liam and I'm starting to feel better about my body again. It was hard to see my body change so much. I was really discouraged the first month of my post-pregnancy body. Any woman would be right? Your body goes through so much in those nine months. I had to remind myself that my body wouldn't just bounce right back to what it was. It took 9 months for a baby to grow inside my belly and I would tell myself that it's going to take a little longer than a month to be where I want my body to be. When Liam was born it was the beginning of summer. I didn't want to miss out on going out in the sun but, I also didn't want to be seen in a swimsuit either. I decided that I didn't want to miss out on summer just because I was having insecurity about my post-pregnancy body. I just told myself that I had just gone through an amazing and wonderful experience and that my body at that moment was what it was and embraced my body for what it looked like. I didn't want my body to hold me back going out during the summer. It’s been a journey for me to accept my body and I'm starting to feel better about the way my body looks.

1 Month post-pregnancy

6 months

I just wanted to tell women that are pregnant or who just had a baby that you can get back to your pre-pregnancy weight. Just be PATIENT and remember that your body has changed a lot in those 9 months. Embrace what you got but, still work for the body that you want. Don't get discouraged!

Hey everyone! I just wanted to share with you a guide I try to follow everyday. This is from a nutritionist from Utah State University. I keep this on my fridge to remind me to have healthy eating habits. Remember these are just somethings that have been working for me. I'm just sharing some ideas that I thought could help anyone who wants to follow them.

Eating Habits

1. Eat every 3-4 hours

Eat smaller meals, more often to keep your metabolism up, and to keep yourself full rather than hungry all the time, trying eats 5 small meals each day. There are always great ideas on Pinterest to try out!

http://www.pinterest.com/deidrechambers/work-it-work-it/

2. EAT BREAKFAST!!

We've all heard the saying that breakfast is the most important meal of the day. The reason being is if you break down the word it says BREAK - FAST. You sleep 8 hours and when you wake up to eat breakfast you break the fast from not eating those 8 hours. Make sure to eat a great breakfast to start your day! Some great things to eat for breakfast are, granola, apples,bananas, oranges, nuts, bread with peanut butter, oatmeal.

Here is a link of ideas for meals that you can eat.

fitsugar.com

3. Variety

Meals- choose 3 different food groups

snacks- choose 2 different food groups

something to remember is that protein and fiber keep you full longer. Make sure they are apart of at least one of your food choices.

examples:

Protein: meat, dairy, nuts, beans, tofu

Fiber: Cereal 5+g/serving, bread, crackers, etc. 3+g/serving

fitnessmagazine.com

activelynorthwest.com

4. Balance
It's important to keep each meal balanced to get all the nutrition you need.

5. Portions

Grains- 1 to 1-1/2 fists

Protein- palm to 1st knuckle

Veggies- unlimited

6. Additions

- Fruits & veggies (2-5/day)

- WATER!!

-Protein &/or fiber with each meal time

-Activity- consistency is more important than intensity or duration

7. Emotional eating

Begin identifying reasons you would be eating when you are not physically hungry. Ask yourself when you are about to reach for something to eat, "Am I hungry?"

This is a great guide to follow if you aren't sure what and how you should be eating. I will be posting a few different guides to follow this week! I hope this can help anyone who is looking for ways to better their eating habits!

Here are some ideas for snacking healthy!

On the go low fat snacks:

-pretzels

-juice boxes

-low-fat granola

-graham crackers

-rice cakes ( add PB with strawberries and bananas to give more flavor)

-vegetable sticks or baby carrots

-fresh fruit (oranges, apples, bananas, and pears are good travel snacks)

-individual boxes of unsweetened cereal

-Nuts (1 small handful)

-bagel (whole wheat)

-pudding cup (vanilla is my favorite)

-beef jerky

SNACK ATTACK! Be prepared anywhere:

For the office:

-instant oatmeal

-instant soup

-raisins

-dried fruit

-low-fat crackers

Convenient store snacking:

-soft pretzel

-juice

-low fat muffin

microwave:

-pita pizza (top whole wheat pocket bread with tomato sauce, herbs, and mozzarella cheese)

-hot bean dip (refried beans, salsa, and chilies, served with tortilla chips)

Jorge makes refried beans fresh! SO good try it out! I also love the pita pizza! I add turkey pepperoni to mine.

Fridge time:

-nonfat yogurt

-cottage cheese ( I love eating it with strawberries, grapes, or pineapple)

- fruits or vegetables

-string cheese

Snack time:

-whole grain crackers with reduced fat cheese

-pita wedges with hummus (very good!)

-three bean salad. (I haven't tried this out yet but will soon!)

When to snack:

-snacks are important for a daily diet. (HEALTHY SNACKS) The body needs fuel every 4 hours.

-snacks prevents extreme hunger which can lead to over eating at a meal

-protein helps you feel full longer. meat, low-fat yogurt, and a small amount of nuts are great protein filled snacks.

-2-3 snacks a day are typical and should be kept to 100-250 calories. REMEMBER it's a snack not a meal

Good snacking that takes some time:

-sliced apples dipped into vanilla yogurt toped with a little bit of cinnamon

-banana dipped in yogurt and then rolled in granola

-baked potato topped with cottage cheese and salsa

-English muffin or pita bread pizza

-hot bean dip

-sprinkle parmesan cheese over fat free popcorn

-fruit parfait

-cereal topped with fruit

-frozen grapes

-fresh vegetables or fruit with cottages cheese

- peanut butter spread on graham crackers

-wrap leftovers in a tortilla and heat up

These are just a few things I try to eat for my snacks. Some I've tried some I haven't tried just yet. Hopefully this can help out with your daily snacking!

BODY PLEDGE

While looking at Pinterest the other night, I found a Pin called the body pledge and I liked it, so I decided to talk about it on today’s post.

Body pledge:

- I vow to start loving my body, however I am feeling, however I look and wherever I am.

Everyone has those days where you just don’t like the way you look. I definitely feel like that sometimes. It doesn’t matter if you are skinny, short, tall, curvy, fit, fat, most people have days where they don’t feel they look and feel good about their body. Lately, I have been trying to block out negative thoughts.

- I promise to stop the negative self-talk and fight back against my negative thoughts- not everything I think is true.

Sometimes I can think of myself in a negative way. For example, I’m not done with school yet; it has taken me longer to get it done, especially now that I have Liam. I think that makes me unsuccessful. I feel I’m behind in life. I need to remember that as long as I get done with school it doesn’t matter how long it takes me. I still want to achieve that goal for myself.

- I pledge to never participate in body group bashing of others and myself. This includes snide remarks towards other girls and picking apart myself.

I saw a quote the other day, “girls compete with each other. Women empower one another.” I have engaged in such negative behavior in the past, which I’m sure most girls have done. We all have personal issues and we don’t need to talk bad about other people to make ourselves feel better.

- I promise to refrain from hurting my body by-doing violence to it, not feeding it right and not taking care of it.

I want to live a healthy lifestyle, and the only to accomplish such a thing is by eating right and taking care of my body. My family has a history of health problems. I know I might not be able to prevent some things from happening, but I can definitely try to prevent it by taking care of my body. A healthy life is a happy life!

- I promise to try not to compare my body to others.

This I think is probably the toughest one. It’s hard not looking at others and not thinking, “oh I wish I looked like that” but we have to remember that everyone has different bodies. Own what you’ve got!

- I promise not be affected by the negative appeals of the media. I know the media does not set the standards on beauty and perfection.

Media likes to play with women’s minds and they are good at making us think that we need to look a certain way, well guess what? Those celebrities in the magazines don’t look like that either; it’s called airbrushing and editing. Stop comparing your body to what the media puts out there!!

- I promise to recognize that different body types can be beautiful.

No one in the world has the same body and all of us come in different shapes and sizes. I know several girls that are beautiful and most of them have different body shapes. Like I said before, own your body! No one else has what you’ve got.

- I vow to recognize my strengths, achievements, and attractiveness. I am a wonderful unique person.

Sometimes I struggle with this one. Some people might see my situation in a negative way, but I need to remind myself that what matters the most is to never let myself down. I can achieve anything that I set my mind to, as long as I believe in myself. Having a baby doesn’t mean that I will never accomplish any of my goals. On the contrary, it motivates me even more!

- I promise to not get down on myself when I make a mistake. I am human, and I know that mistakes are how I learn.

You live and you learn, you are bound to make mistakes. They can only make you a better/stronger person if you learn from them.

- I pledge to not change my personality or how I act no matter how I feel around other people. Those who do not respect my true self and me do not deserve my friendship.

I like this quote because you shouldn’t change your views, or how you feel about anything just to make someone like you. Be yourself and if someone doesn’t like who you are then do not waste your time, remember that time is the only thing in this world that we cannot take back!

- I vow to stand up for myself, and others, when I hear something harmful or mean said. We all deserve respect and love.

I need to work on this quote, sometimes I have a hard time speaking my mind and I really hate conflict. I want to be able to stand up for others and myself in a respectable way.

I hope you can take the body pledge and believe that you can accomplish whatever it is you want!

http://www.pinterest.com/deidrechambers/

SQUAT CHALLENGE

So, I've tried the squat challenge a few times. I will do it the first few days, then lose my motivation to finish the 30 days. I really want to accomplish the 30 day squat challenge!! I found the Plank challenge to try out as well. Hopefully, I will be able to finish both challenges! Wish me luck! I would love to hear feedback if anyone has tried this or if you want to do the challenge with me. I would love that!

I'm on day three right now. This is the picture of what I look like right now. I will update the picture after I make it half way to show how my progress is going.

Another great way to get your booty firm is the stair machine or incline on the treadmill.

I have stairs outside my house, which is way nice! I can feel the burn going up and down the stairs. Yesterday I had Liam with me and that made it more of a challenge with a 20 something pound baby strapped onto me.

good work out!

For the moms at home if you have stairs in your home that will work to!

See how many times you can go up and down. I would keep doing it till you feel a good burn.

The plank challenge is also 30 days to work towards being able to do a plank for 5 min.

This is what I look like right now. I will also post a picture half way through this challenge to show my progress.

I won't just be doing the plank challenge to work my Abs out. I will still continue doing other daily work outs to improve my stomach.

Join my if you want and let me know how it goes for you!

Update

Seriously the squat challenge... SO HARD! I do feel a difference though! I'm on day 17 and I have to motivate myself to do every single squat! It's a great feeling though when I'm done though. What I've been doing to be able to do all the squats is that I will break the squats into sets. When I'm at home I will do it through out the day. I also do some kind of work out video. When I make it to the gym I will add 5 pound weights to get a deeper work out. After each set of squats I do, I will then go on the stair machine for 5 minutes. I can really feel it working and feel that my butt is getting more firm!!

day 17

The plank challenge is getting more tough. It isn't as hard as the squat challenge that's for sure!

I'm up to 2 minutes right now. I also do other core strengthening work outs to build up my abs.

I can feel the muscle in my stomach but I know it will be awhile till it shows. I still have the mommy belly and know getting my stomach back will take a little bit longer.

30 day challenge completed

I DID IT!! Finally finished the 30 day squat challenge. Today was the last day and it feels great that I accomplished it. I can really feel a difference. My butt feels more toned and firm, and last week I wanted more of a challenge, so I started using 7.5 pound weights to get more of a work out. I didn't use weights every day during the 30 days, but when I did start using weights I could really feel the difference. It took a lot of motivation to get myself to do it but I'm so glad I finished it!! The plank challenge I'm still working on, it's more difficult than I thought. I don't have a lot of core strength, due to my pregnancy (moms you probably know what I mean.) I'm still working up to 5 minutes but I'm not going to give up! I'm now up to about 2 1/2 to 3 minute plank right now. If you do ever try these challenge don't give up! It will pay off!

Happy!

I'll update you guys later on a new work outs and what I've been eating the past few weeks to help me stay fit and get the toned body I've been wanting.

Wrong Idea (skinny fat)

Use to have this mind set about lifting weights

This is a little extreme but this is what image would come to mind about lifting weights

I totally used to be that girl who thought lifting weights would make look like a man... Well that isn't the case anymore. Jorge would always tell me I needed to do more weight lifting to get a toned body, but I never listened to him, instead I would just grab 5 pound weights. It would take a very long time to see any kind of result, and it never felt like I had a great workout. So this last week I decided it was time to try something new, instead of just doing cardio I have been doing more weight lifting with heavier weights. I have to admit that it has not been easy, and sometimes I have felt like just going back to cardio and light weights, but now that I have incorporated heavier weights into my workout I have been noticing better results. My legs feel more toned, my biceps are starting to get some definition, and my shoulders seem to be getting lean and muscular. Cardio is great for your body but if you are looking to tone your body, you might want to start weights lifting.

Get this idea out of your mind.

This is not me, I just wanted to show that weighing less does not necessarily mean you look better!

Looking good and being healthy is not the same as being skinny. In fact I have met a lot of skinny people who are very unhealthy, and think that just because they are skinny they look good. Look at the picture above, the girl on the right weighs 123 pounds, now look at the picture on the left, the girl weighs 137 pounds. Now why would she look better, but weigh more? The answer is simple she has more muscle and less fat. I'm not saying she looks bad on the picture to the left, but she definitely looks better at 137 pounds.

This is what skinny fat looks like.

Don't worry too much about what the scale says! If you see your body getting toned and looking great, do not mind the scale. Weight lifting will not necessarily make you look big and bulky.

Which one would you rather look like? Just remember to be healthy and keep working out. Try lifting weights more! I promise you that you will start feeling like you are getting a better work out!

Don't stop doing cardio though! I try to get in at least 20 minutes of cardio when I work out. I've been starting my workout with 10 minutes of cardio, and then I move onto weight lifting. When I lift weights, I do a couple of exercises then I run for 2 minutes at high enough speed to get my heart rate up. That is how I get 20 minutes of cardio without getting bored out of my mind! Here is an example of what I did this last week.

Leg day:

10 min of cardio

30 calve raises on bench press

40 inner thigh machine

40 outer thigh machine

3 minute run

12 squats

12 sumo squats

3 minute run

20 lungs R/L

stretch

I suggest choosing weights that you feel comfortable with don't over do it, but also make sure you are pushing your body. You want to feel sore the next day.

Arm days are where I struggle I never really know what to do when it comes to my arms. I usually ask Jorge what to do, because let's be honest guys target working out their arms the most. So he will show me a few arm work outs to do. My arm strength is pretty weak right now. I really want to work on the arms for sure. I will post my achievements in a couple of weeks!