A blog that makes me go "YEAH"

  Once in awhile you can come across someone who really inspires you. Someone that writes something that you say wow~" I love that" or okay~" light bulb moment". I recently found a blog that has done just that. Lindsay's Ramblings is a VERY fit young lady. She is strong in her faith and her biceps. She is tiny but amazingly strong. I LOVE her attitude about weights and clean eating. What I have learned from reading her blog and archives are things I am going to put into my own training. LIFT HEAVY, have one cheat meal a week and that my body will only get better with time. Pick better goals..".training goals" not weight loss.I think the thing that has really hit me is this isn't going to be a quick fix this is going to take time.This quote is from Lindsay's blog a post from June 2011.

  "Getting an amazing body is hard work. It's not something you get in month, or even 3 months, or even a year! IT TAKES TIME. A LONG TIME. It's not just something you get by changing a few little things in your diet here and there or exercising a couple of days a week, or lifting light weights.

It's a CONSTANT changing of your habits and lifestyle. It's changing your whole mindset. It never stops-you must constantly evolve and try to become better and healthier. THAT is when you will get results. When you are willing to change. When you stop trying to just get in shape quick for that trip to the beach, and you start wanting to change yourself for the better, from the inside out."

  A couple of days ago Lindsay had a fantastic post about the scale. You should check it out. If anyone can convince you to go heavy Lindsay can. I feel so inspired I have always LOVED weight training and she is making me go harder. Her words and too die for muscle has me getting downstairs and pushing out some bigger weight on my sets.
  

This is Lindsay and she looks this way not to compete but because she loves to lift. Love it!!! Those arms and legs..yep..that's my inspiration!!!

Two videos I had to share

Meet 50!

    So in this post I want to introduce you to a woman who has inspired me.Now her journey began at 40...yep 40.The picture you see below on the left hand side is Tosca before.The picture on the right is Tosca now...ladies take note she is now in her 50's !! I wanted to write this post so maybe you will check her out. I am doing a guest post on her blog May 14th.This post is personal and not connected to that post. I want you guys to know about this women because she is inspiring and I think that by knowing her story you might feel inspired to Eat Clean and lift some weights.

  So Tosca was unhappy, overweight and miserable.She wanted to make her life better so she entered...the gym. Now I know from reading her story she began running on the treadmill. Then when she introduced weights she found her body changing.She wanted to share the information she had learned and began the "Raise the Bar" column in Oxygen magazine.I loved her from the moment I read her first column. I still collect her columns in my binder.What I love about the column is Tosca continues to share struggles and challenges.She rants... some of my favorites. She also is passionate about making changes for women, kids and getting people to eat better. I think the columns I have really loved through the years is when she has been critiqued and  people have said negative things about her and she has handled it with grace. She stayed positive, stated the facts and didn't let it bring her down.Classy!!

   Tosca's journey led her into the Eat Clean Diet series.  They all have fantastic information.My favorite is Your Best Body Now. This one speaks to me as I am in my forties and has the information going into your fifties.

     I was reading Oxygen magazine and I was so excited to see that she was bringing out the new Vegetarian Cookbook. I seen last month on her blog she was looking for guest bloggers and you would get the cookbook early~ for free!!!!! I thought I am going to take a chance.Well to my shock I was picked .I had my moments of self doubt...my mind saying "your not good enough". Then I pulled back and thought I am going to enjoy the moment and damn Tosca's sending ME a cookbook. I can't wait to share what I think and share the new book with all of you.

   So I have decided to let Tosca be my inspiration to remove these pesky thirty pounds .I am going to  really clean up my diet this year. Eat smaller meals more often and really watch my beverages.

      I have more appointments for my hip flexor injury this week. My xrays came back great but hearing that this type of injury can plague me for years is kind of overwhelming. I am meeting a new physiotherapist this week and she sounds really great. We are going to work on things I can do. Hopefully work on things I want to do this summer.Like WALK...lol. I know there are things I could be doing. Yoga keep me flexible. More weight training for the upper body.

I love this photo look at those arms.

     There are a few ways Tosca can inspire your journey.  If you want to check Tosca out, I have The Eat Clean Badge on the right of this post. Click it and it will take you to the Eat Clean Diet website.

    The Oxygen magazine...I know the women can be intimidating on the front but it has great articles on eating, working out (at home and the gym)  Tosca's column and one of my favorite sections the success stories.

    Check out her books and cookbooks she had one for the family, men and workouts.

    I was not asked to do this post in order to do the guest post. As you know I like to share things I LOVE and Tosca is a women I think you should get to know. It is important to have wonderful role models who only get better with age. And Tosca is defying age!!!!

    I thought I would include Tosca doing her 7 Citrus Salad from the cookbook. All this month they are doing videos from the cookbook. She has other videos to check out too. So I will post here when my guest post goes up. Until then check out Tosca and her Eat Clean Diet website. The Kitchen table has some amazing recipes and real people sharing their results. Check her out for some great advise and inspiration.ENJOY!!!

Inspiration

Josh and I made Chocolate covered Strawberries with vegan chocolate chips.I am going to do a post this week about them.

This is the Edamame Hummus. My friend Maura said her source was Skinnytaste blog.This was so yummy!!

My friend Gabi made this raw "cheesecake" made with macadamia nuts and orange. It was so very delicious.

   So last night I had some of my girlfriends over. We ordered East Indian food (Dana Mandi in Prince George) This was the second time eating the food from Dana Mandi.It was so amazing and all vegetarian.I have to order more often. We enjoyed each others company and went all candles for earth hour. We laughed at Josh's prompts to make sure this happened at 8:30. This was a much needed visit. Our lives get so busy that we don't get to see each other as much as we want or need to.

   It is funny how life has a way of bringing things into our lives when we open ourselves up.And I don't mean things...I mean inspiration,quotes, peoples stories and books.I had a wonderful evening last night and this morning heard a quote from Oprah "We are at different stages on the same journey." This struck me as the best way to describe last night.One friend is a long time vegetarian, another is vegan, another is implementing aspects of vegetarianism and one has been doing a raw diet for two years.Now we are all very different and the journey we take is very personal.It is fun to talk to my friends and learn something new and then try it in my life.

   Now when we get together we talk ideas and learn from each other. For me sometimes it can be one thing or several. Marci introduced us to TED speaker Brene Brown.I had never heard of her but I loved what this women had to say. Gabi brought my first raw "cheesecake" to enjoy. Maura brought a new recipe` Edamame hummus and it was so good. Every person took the time to do or share something special...food, a wonderful card(Anita) and sharing inspiration. That is what friendship should be~ inspiring each other to be ourselves and making us feel good about who we are.We spend so much time trying to be what we think others want us to be and what marketers would love us to be. We should just be happy with who we are because REALLY we can't be anyone else.So when you're with your friends admire who they are and tell them you love them.  Be thankful for these friendships.In today's world of negative let's give back the positive.

blog I have to share

  I found a blog this morning that I loved.JL goes Vegan(I can't seem to link properly..I'm still learning) she is a wonderful inspiration,athlete and of course Vegan.I liked the way she writes and she has some great bean recipes,loves wine and changed her life all after forty.I like stories like hers.Just thought I would put it out there and if your interested check her out.She is on Facebook too! let me know what you think?