Eat Dance Live

Today I wanted to talk about those things in life that we know we should  do but for some reason never actually end up following through with. Whether we use the "I'll start tomorrow" excuse or something similar, we always come up with all sorts of justifications as to why we shouldn't start now (none of them ever that valid). For example, how many times have I said that I should get back into yoga? Probably more than I've actually started up the practice again. Still, it's on been on my mind a lot lately. The yoga world has become such a huge thing these days (both for better and worse I'd say), but still there is such an appeal. For starters, when we think yoga, we always get inundated with these kinds of images:      Well, you often get these pictures too, but you get my point:    Pictures like those first ones show that there's suppose to be a magic to yoga, a je ne said quoi  about it that will do everything from make you a better pe...

For a change, I'll allow myself to boast and say (perhaps again) that I've always been fairly flexible. It might have been the years of dance or perhaps my obsessive childhood perseverance of trying to remember to stretch during commercials... whatever it is, something paid off.  I mentioned a while back that, for almost a year now, I've achieved my lifelong goal of easily being able to go into the splits . I also posted the basic stretching routine , which I do after every workout, that I think really contributed to where I am now. After reaching my splits goal and all sorts of other crazy stuff, I've decided to up the ante. As of today, here are some of my goals for the year ahead. Good thing I've started dancing a couple times a week again... Hopefully, that will both help and motivate me to get there. 1) The Standing Splits (not necessarily on pointe, but hey, why not dream big) 2) Laybacks like I used to be able to do... a la Rachel Brice...

One PhD comps exam down, one to go! That's kind of what took up the latter half of my week, but it's such a relief! Yay me. So, a week or so ago, I was invited via Facebook to Danny David's (aka. rawfitnessguy ) "Awesome Raw and Crazy Sexy Ripped Body" Challenge . I'm always a supporter of any fitness challenge, so a raw fitness challenge? Sign me up! Conveniently, this challenge is just in time for another time of the year when I try to reboot my workout routine. I'm currently almost kind of as high raw as it can get, but curse you, yummy vegan restaurant job for feeding me your deliciousness once a week. I have to say that has been having it's ill effects... once again, I'm not whining (okay, maybe just a little, though I know it's totally self-inflicted), the difficulty with digesting non-raw foods is something you quickly come to understand/experience once you eat high raw too! So I decided to stick to a few things: Grains in whatever ...

Things that were awesome about today: 1. Seeing this on my way home from the post office 2. Receiving goodies from Nativas Naturals for having won this contest 3. Really getting off on buying organic bananas by the case 4. Choosing to take a deep breath, and not stress out too much about this (T-7!!!!) 5. Discovering, Courtney's awesomely crazy sweaty beast incline workout (don't let the "walking" fool you) 6. And of course, the cuteness that is my kitten Have a great weekend!

I have to prelude this post with the disclaimer that I am ideally a fan of whole-food based nutrition. Having dedicated myself more seriously to LFRV-ism over the past week, it's obvious that I will always pick the banana over the vegan supplement. That being said, I do also respect and recognize the place that supplements and protein powders hold for some people, especially vegan athletes. I've used them in the past, and when they're organic, natural and plant-based, I think they're great! So last week, the lovely people at Sequel Naturals sent me a couple packs of their Vega Sport to try out. (They ship both in the US and Canada!) As you may know, Vega was designed by plant-fueled triathlete, Brendan Brazier, and if there's a guy who knows vegan fitness nutrition it's him. He's got pre-workout, during-workout, and post-workout nutrition down to a science. As a triathlete, he's worked really hard to find optimally-absorbable vegan supplements and p...

Sometime in the middle of last week, I signed up for Gina's annual Summer Shape Up Challenge . This year's is an awesome 4 week routine (with optional meal ideas) and I've been loving it so far. In fact, I love her workouts so much that I mentioned her first Summer Shape Up Challenge (a full-on 12 week program she came up with in 2009 ) in an earlier post I wrote about the 5 best workouts of my life . Having just launched into a new SSU series, I thought I'd talk about the flip side of that coin by sharing exercises that I just dread. Conveniently, a lot of these are features in Gina's latest SSU so I guess I'll have to conquer my fears! I know, I know. They're really effective. You have to work up to them. It'll all pay off in the end, but as much as I love weights or bootcamp style workouts, whenever these babies appear in my routines, I kind of want to run for the hills: 1. Burpees: Push ups, planks, jumping up and down, all of these moves I love in...

This was the last thing I thought I would post about today, but the lesson I learned this week is that there is always a way to veganize your life. On Monday, I decided to revamp my workout and food by starting Tracy Anderson's 30 Day Method . It's only been three days so far but as of right now I LOVE it. Despite what a lot of people say, it's a lot of fun, isn't that time-consuming, and after three days I'm feeling fantastic. While I was totally game for the workout portion (except that I won't be in a gym for 30 days, which is beyond weird), I was a little nervous about the diet portion. But not to fear! I was sold on this program as soon as I saw that her food component actually has both an omnivore and a vegetarian (which is mostly vegan) option. Even better is that it's all whole foods, and is mostly raw, very vegan, and everything that isn't is very easily convertible. In fact, I've only had to make two substitutions over the past twelve meals...

I've mentioned this a few times in a variety of different ways, but I have often gotten comments and questions about flexibility. The secret? Stretch. No really. Stretch. After every work out. It's super simple, it only takes about 5-10 minutes and you can do it wherever and whenever you want. At the gym? Sure! Watching TV? Of course (more on that later)! To me, stretching is one of the three legs of the perfect fitness stool (the other two being cardio and strength training). Stretching is great thing to do, especially after exercise, but it's definitely under-appreciated. (If you're interested, that is a picture of me on an OmGym last year... They're awesome, though it depresses me to see how tanned I am when I don't undergo a Canadian winter.) Here are only some of the things stretching and flexibility achieve: relaxes your muscles after your body has undergone a lot of stress and impact (under a lot of stress and trauma, your muscles shorten, which will pul...

Over the years, I've learned lots about how both to fuel and recover from a good workout. From my post-workout rest and nutrition tips , to some recovery smoothie ideas , to the much perfected rebound ball recipe I wrote back in the early days, this household has workout recovery in the bag. Obviously, the two most important things to do after a workout are rest and proper nutrition. Though we don't do it often, I find that early morning workouts require a different kind of muscle rebuilding strategy, especially if your planning a serious weights workout. While I don't usually do this and stick with morning cardio, Andrew is a big fan. Having said that, neither of us recommend you do weights on an empty stomach. Eat anything before you hit the gym, whether it's a couple of dates, a banana, or anything to get your blood sugars running. For after? I've expanded the infamous vegan overnight oat recipe to post-weights workout perfection. Why oats over the usual...

So I've heard time and time again that working at the office or getting a "real job" is what often leads people to poor health habits. People's results usually end up spiraling into some vicious cycle of of weight gain and lack of motivation. The stereotype is that starting in her 20s a woman will gain about a pound or two per year until menopause... That adds up pretty quickly! However, defying everything that most people always told me about getting that desk job, I managed to get in the best shape of my life during a period when I was juggling a really demanding internship (aka. the desk job), completing my MA (so a full course-load), and maintaining a social and home life. So it's not impossible! I'm not trying to toot my own horn here, but I'm just trying to highlight that it's not difficult to maintain a certain way of life if you choose to make it a priority. So what was the trick? Here are a couple pointers I've come up with: 1) Walking as ...