Who to Follow for Inspiration

Here’s the lowdown on who I follow to keep myself in the zone! A collection of the social media sites and people I have found the most helpful on my journey.

Buff Dudes
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Instagram @BuffDudes

Quote: “Healthy Food Recipes & Gym Workout Routines.

Lose Fat, Gain Muscle.

B.U.F.F.: Better Understanding of Food & Fitness. Dudes: The ones who’ll show you how to get it.”

Follow them on:

Youtube – Buff Dudes

Instagram – @buffdudes

These guys have it all: exercises step by step, motivational videos, food suggestions. The are worth taking a look at. Additionally, they are funny guys, and keep it real about what works and what doesn’t. This is a valuable lesson to learn in health. Have fun while staying healthy!

Lift Like a Girl
Lift Like A Girl - gallery

About Nia Shanks Lift Like Girl

Quote: “First, and most importantly, Lifting Like a Girl means becoming the most awesome and strongest version of yourself.”

Follow her on:

Blog

Nia Shanks provides her viewers with a lot of extensive knowledge, while simultaneously teaching women to be proud of their own strength. I feel like a lot of times women are sacred of being strong, but they forget that strong is beautiful too. Shanks makes it a point to remind us of that fact. Lift Like a Girl is funded by the viewers and Shanks takes into consideration what her audience is interested in knowing more about.

Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson
Dwayne gallery.png

Dawyne The Rock Johnson – Facebook

Quote: “Success isn’t always about ‘greatness,’ it’s about consistency. Consistent, hard work gains success. Greatness will come.”

Follow him on:

Facebook

Instagram

Twitter

YouTube

The Rock is just awesome. He really gets to the heart of what self discipline is without losing sight of the fun things in life. The balance he walks is extremely admirable. If your thing is following a celebrity, this is the guy for you! He is very active in social media and you will stumble across great posts on a constant basis. Not all of them are pertaining to health and exercise, but a good sizable portion of them are. Warning: Large portion of posts are about his adorable dogs and whatnot, so be ready for all the cuteness!

The Kitchn
the kitchn gallery

The Kitchn – Cookbook

Follow The Kitchn at:

Blog

The Kitchn is really great for those of you who are off campus and really enjoy the act of cooking. This way you are able to know what is in your food and you can find healthy recipes. Once you go into the recipes tab you can pick recipes by what you are looking for using the filters, they have recipes for low sodium, gluten-free, high fiber, and much more health options and also allergy filters!

A Couple Cooks
A couple cooks gallery

A Couple Cooks – About

Quote: “Eat Healthy and Whole”

Follow Sonja and Alex Overhiser on:

Blog

Sonja and Alex are a married couple that specializes in simple and healthy meals, so if you like to cook, but you prefer to take as little time and preparation as possible (I fall under this category myself) then this is the cooking blog for you!

SparklyWarTanks
Sparkly War Tanks  - Profile gallery

SparklyWarTanks – About Quote

Quote: “Lets journey together.”

Follow Nina on:

Blog

Nina is one of my fellow classmates at Syracuse University, and she has made this beautiful blog dedicated to teaching women about how to love and take care of themselves. For a health journey as well as a life journey this is extremely important. One of the reasons women often feel like either quitting or going to extreme measures in order to meet their goals id because they feel like they aren’t good enough to be able to reach their goals in a healthy and confident way. If you want to keep a healthy body you must also keep a healthy mind. Nina’s blog gets at the heart of what it means to take care of your well-being, being confident, and taking life and its problems in stride.

College is for learning!

I know that as college students a lot of us are encountering using an actual gym for the first time, and you may feel like you shouldn’t go to the gym because you don’t know how to use the machines, or maybe you feel uncomfortable since it is totally new to you.

I made this video to show you just how friendly gym folks are! College is for learning and now is the time to build healthy habits! Knowing how to use the gym is a learning process just like any other. However, unlike any other, it is a lot more hands on than we as students are used to. Go out and enjoy learning by first hand experience. This blog is meant to help you learn and give you ideas, it is up to you to make up the other half of the learning process!

Awesome Lunge Variation

This one goes out to all of you that have been doing this for a while!

This is a great advanced variation on lunges. You will be in pain for days! Go do great things!

The object she is standing on is called a Bosu Ball and is great for developing your balance skills. This means you get to work out your abs in addition to your legs.

If you aren’t fluent in the art of lunges, I do not recommend this. I would suggest, that first you get comfortable with regular lunges and then you can try this variation. Nothing to be ashamed about, but it is a great goal to set your sights on. Stay motivated.

Alex

The Basics: Bicep Curls

This week we have another oldie but goodie. Bicep curls!

I think bicep curls are another exercise that is extremely versatile, just because you have so many options on how to do a bicep curl. For the sake of learning; however, I ave chosen a video that shows you just a very basic bicep curl. Where you decide to take it from there is up to you!

I think that bicep curls really don’t get as much attention as other exercises part of the traditional basic spectrum, but I think they are great because they are straightforward, simple, and to the point. There is not fancy preparation or any flourishes with a bicep curl. I doesn’t look complex because it isn’t complex.

Here is a video that will teach you the basics of the basics!

I recommend 4 sets of 12 to 20 repetitions of a decent weight. Te weight should be heavy enough that it feels like your working hard to do the exercise, but not too heavy that you cannot control your form.

I know this may seem like a lot of sets or reps, but I always find that because the biceps are naturally strong muscles (we use them more than we think in our day to day lives), I have to work harder to feel the workout the next day.

Happy gym day!

Alex

Nutrition: What is a serving size?

What is a serving

What is a serving size according to your hand size?

Hi my fellow college foodies!

Usually, on this section I post more about specific foods, but I stumbled upon this diagram today and I think it would be helpful for considering serving sizes for each individual part of the food on your plate.

It’s important to remember that our bodies are all different sizes, so being able to portion out food this way is useful because my hand as a female standing at a height of 5’6″ is of a very different size when I compare it to a male standing at height 6’3″. This way we are able to cater to our own body’s needs.

As college students, especially those of you who are freshies (been there done that!), it can become somewhat difficult to know how many calories are in certain foods. That’s my reason for including this section on this blog. I want us all (myself included) to take an initiative to be conscious of what we are putting in our bodies. What vitamins are you providing for your body? What nutrients are you perhaps lacking?

However, A LOT of the time you’ll see me refer to the serving size of a food, as a cup or in terms of ounces. Obviously, I don’t expect you to be able to mentally weigh things in your head. So you can use this to measure your serving size for food. I have this picture saved on my phone and whenever I want to know about a serving size or anything like that, I take a look at it. I find that it really helps me to not overeat at the dining hall (ours is set up so it’s all you can eat buffet style. I know at some dinning halls you pay for the food individually. Here, at SU, walking into the dinning hall cost one meal swipe).

So go ahead and save this on to your phone! It’s very much worth it!

Happy eating!

The Basics: Bench Press

Alrighty my my upper body fanatics!

Here is a long awaited video!

Bench Press is one of my favorite exercises, and I think that everyone should invest time and effort into putting this into every upper body workout.

This exercise is not only wonderful for all you guys that are looking to develop your pecs (pectoral/chest muslces), but also for the LADIES!

I think that there is a huge stigma against ladies lifting weights to begin with, and this only intensifies if the weight is more than a 10 pound dumbbell or if it’s an exercise for the upper body. However, I am here to tell you something super important!

As some of us may know better than others, if you have breasts, gravity is not kind to our bodies over the course of time. BUT I am here to tell you that developing your chest muscles can help you maintain perky boobies! Who would’ve thought! Well it’s true, so before you disregard working out your upper body and chest area, think again!

TIPS!!!

Try to do 3 to 4 sets of 12 to 15 reps for this exercise. Remember that the bar by itself already weights 45 pounds, so when you add weight to the bar, keep that in mind. It should not be too easy nor too hard to do this exercise. If you are trying more weight than previously for the first time, be sure to have someone spot you, a friend, a floor trainer at the gym, your gym bro, that cute guy or girl you’ve spotted several times at the gym.

Enjoy your workout!

Alex

Nutrition: Cherry Tomatoes

grape tomatoes

Bowl of cherry tomatoes.

Also known as grape tomatoes, cherry tomatoes are bite sized tomatoes that are great for snacking on and for salads. They taste good raw, or even cooked in pasta. Sometimes I take a Ziploc baggy of cherry tomatoes to class. They are low in calories, but high in Vitamins A and C, which are important around this time, when everyone begins getting sick in the campus dorms.

One cup contains:

  • Vitamin A – 25% of daily value
  • Vitamin C – 32% of daily value
  • Calories – 27
  • Fat – 0 g
  • Cholesterol – 0 mg
  • Sodium – 7mg
  • Carbs – 6 g
  • Fiber – 2 g
  • Sugars – 4 g
  • Protein – 1 g