Advertisement
Tell us about your site Fit Foodies, Healthy Life.
I started my first blog Skinny “Fatkids” in February of 2011 as a way to hold myself accountable to healthy eating and working out. I had always been into fitness and clean eating but my first semester of law school (Fall 2010) my health took a backseat to the stress of school and the packed schedule I had. January of 2011 second semester rolled around and I knew I had to make my health a priority or I would never survive the next 2 ½ years. I started sharing my clean, easy recipes, and workouts I was doing and the blog grew from there. When it came time to choose a domain name I decided on FitFoodiesHealthyLife.com because I liked the message that it sent. That you can LOVE food and find healthy versions of your favorite recipes, and that it really is about leading a healthy life, not just a quick fix.
What has your health and fitness journey been like throughout your life? Have you always been into health and fitness?
I started ‘sports’ when I was six and joined a swim team. I loved it and stayed with it until I turned 14 and started high school. Then I did competitive cheerleading year round all through high school. I stayed with cheerleading my freshman year of college on the Varsity team and decided not to continue the next three years to focus on my grades. I kept active with light weight training and ashtanga yoga (love). Once I was out of college I discovered Oxygen Magazine and The Eat Clean Diet and have never looked back. The first semester of law school was really the first time that some form of physical activity was not a constant in my life. Today I absolutely love weight training but I still enjoy yoga, hiking, and mountain bike riding.
Can you tell us about your 300 in 365 challenge?
I am part of numerous online forums and one of them had a ‘number challenge’ idea for the year of 2012 instead of a new year’s resolution. The number could be anything, miles ran weekly, yearly, number of pushups, squats, etc. It was meant to be a personal goal to work towards for the whole year.
I made my goal 300 days of physical activity out of the 365 days of the year. That could include walking the dogs (once a week) and gave me some wiggle room in case I get sick or go on a vaca. Right now I am at 94 days (206 left) and there are 245 days left until the new year so I am doing pretty good. *I realized after I named it that there are 366 days in this year but didn’t want to change it J
Going along those same lines, how do you stay motivated to maintain a healthy lifestyle?
The biggest way I stay motivated is knowing how I feel when I don’t maintain my healthy lifestyle. I don’t sleep well if I don’t exercise, I am sluggish if I eat unhealthy foods, my skin is worse and I generally just don’t feel good. Second, my fiancée is also really big into fitness and eats clean about 85% of the time so that helps. I am also a huge advocate of a balance in life and so I enjoy my glasses of wine, and occasional meals that aren’t 100% clean and I don’t feel guilty about them. For me restrictions are not helpful and so I don’t put them on myself; by knowing I can have whatever I want, I generally chose what I think is the healthiest option. And finally, my blog readers are a huge motivator now; I absolutely love getting positive comments and e-mails from them that something I wrote or shared helped them in their journey to a healthier lifestyle.
What are your top tips for others to set meaningful and attainable health and fitness goals?
When I was trying to get back on track I set weekly and monthly goals and wrote them down. I also wrote mine on my blog so they were out there in the world J but even if you just write them down for yourself, you are 50% more likely to follow through with them. I chose small things like go up in weight on one exercise and bigger things like 30 minutes of physical activity for an entire month. Pick one thing to focus on at a time and go from there.
Being a busy law student, how do you manage to still eat healthy and workout with such a busy schedule? Any tips?
Plan ahead! I am a huge scheduler. I schedule my workouts by the week (or month) and often that means going to the gym at 5:30am when it opens so I can get my workout in before school. Sometimes I have to go after work and I will have everything in my car so I have no excuse not to go. I also do all my grocery shopping and bulk cooking on Sundays (and sometimes again on Wednesdays) so that I don’t have to worry about it during the week.
How are you getting ready for the summer? Can you give our readers a sample workout plan that you would use for a day or week that they could try?
I recently finished Jamie Eason’s 12 Week LiveFit Trainer and posted my review of it here. I am currently doing a 12 Week Plan from James Wilson to prepare for a fitness competition in July.
You can also find other plans I've written out here.
What does “healthy” mean to you?
Healthy to me means finding a healthy balance that works for you. Everyone is different and what works for one does not work for all. For me it means working out regularly, drinking tons of water, eating six healthy meals a day, and getting enough sleep. It also means indulging here are there without beating myself up or feeling guilty about it. And finding time for the things you enjoy that are just for you, for me that is the gym and my blog.
Are there any inspirational quotes or philosophies that help motivate you?
My number one favorite quote is Plato: Lack of activity destroys the good condition of every human being, while movement, and methodical physical exercise save it and preserve it.
I also really like George Eliot: It’s never too late to be who you might have been.
Read more about Monika's adventures in clean eating and pick up more great workouts and advice by visiting Fit Foodies, Healthy Life!
