Fitlosophy Fitbook: Fitness and Nutrition Journal

Where you been all my life?!  I am a big fan of writing things down, not only because sometimes I forget things instantly but because I like to look back and see where I started from. Yes it’s usually a pathetic start but mostly my triumphant progress is what becomes my motivation to keep going and fuels my curiosity of where I will end up.  If I don’t know where I started then how can I possibly know where I’m going?

This app has been the greatest finding of this month for me.  I don’t know who invented it or who thought out it’s wicked code but whoever that was they certainly had ME in mind.  Whosoever makes my life easier deserves my undying gratitude.  So here it is. My undying gratitude: The only way I know how to say THANK YOU, You’re Awesome! My Blog Post.

I know this App was made for me-ish. It’s got everything I could ever want or need in a fitness app.  Out of all the things it is, the one thing it’s not is boring.  I hate boring and this one is not.  It doesn’t have all the fancy bells and whistles of colors or pretty fonts or bikini girls.  All of it’s awesomeness is done in the background.  The huge database of food, the barcode search button, the goal keeping filled with encouraging reminders.  I'll tell you why this app is for me: (And you)

1. I forget stuff.  Plain and simple.  I’m not proud of it but it’s true. I forget clothes in the washer. I forget groceries in my trunk. I forget what I ate for breakfast. I forget stuff. The whole out of sight out of mind that babies have, still plays a big part in my life. If I don’t see it, it never happened.  Now I jot down my food as soon as I eat it and there it is.  Forever and ever.  I can bask in my self-disgust days later when I ate almost 1000 calories in two cinnamon rolls for breakfast.  “What is this?!” I ask myself.  “What kind of a monster are you?!” This, by the way, is one of my many self motivational speeches.    
2. I lose motivation.  I do. As soon as I do something, I lose interest in it.  Done, moving on, is how my brain works.  I can’t stand my brain sometimes.  Always so selfish in it’s ways.  “Can’t you see I need to be fit? What do you know, you’re a blob of fat.  You should be a bit more interested in MY needs!” My body and my brain don’t get along sometimes.  I have issues. 
3. I hate diets.  Loath entirely!!!  I can’t remember the last time I had to diet. I say HAD because who would, in their right mind, want to diet if they didn’t have to? I’m lucky like that.  I enjoy living in denial.  You should try it sometime.  It’s fun. But seriously, dieting is so yesterday! Healthy eating is the new black. Or whatever.
4. I love food.  My hispanic-ness wouldn’t have it any other way.  We love food so much we name our food whatever weird word we think of at the time.  “Mmm, this is so freaking good! I’m calling it a chimichanga!” 
5. I am a curious soul. I’m a girl. I get curious. Simple. Done. Moving on. I want to know what the heck I’m putting in my mouth and this app allows me to do that.  Calories? Saturated Fat? Monounsaturated fat? Carbohydrates? Trans Fat? Sodium? All those crazy words.  Turns out, they are very important and as soon as I start knowing what’s inside the food I eat, I start putting less of it in it.

So do I recommend it? You betcha! Food logs, healthy recipes, exercise tracking, steps counter, weight loss graphs, reminders, a huge fitness community (but I have no friends) and my favorite… it’s all FREE!  Yes, sometimes there is a small ad or two on the main page but it’s never intrusive or on your food log page.  These ads are quite graceful and usually fitness related.  Nothing wrong with that.

So, let’s be fitpals! find me and friend me and watch me fail miserably on all my fitness endeavors: Lorenaf23 But watch me try and try again.  So here’s to healthy eating, healthy living and healthy oh I can’t think of a third thing. Healthy friendships.  Ok, there you go! :)

Baby steps. Baby steps. This is the best and easiest way to make changes and I started January with just a few.  For my January ImproveMe, I began with the basics, maybe the foundation of the many more changes to come.  The important thing is to not only start but don’t stop.  The only way you can guarantee failure is when you stop, remember that.

I suffered from migraines almost monthly and just couldn’t figure out why.  I was sick and tired of feeling sick and tired and those pesky headaches wouldn’t let me be.  Then I read a list of some things I could do to improve.  It wasn’t so much what I was doing wrong, but what I wasn’t doing that had me feeling terrible.

1. Hydrate, hydrate, hydrate.  I can’t even begin to say how much this has helped me. It’s only been a few weeks but drinking the required amount of water has been amazing.  To find out how much water is necessary to take every day is easy.  Just divide your weight by 2 and that’s the ounces you need every day.  Anything less will create a deficiency and all your organs will start to suffer.  This is one area where my poor little brain just couldn’t keep up.  Just by drinking the recommended amounts of water every day has made such an improvement in my life, I can’t even believe it. My mind and body are already thanking me for this one!    
2. A vitamin a day keeps the crazies away.  I know this is about as basic as it gets but even though they are a must, I always ended up forgetting to take them. I have a million and one things to remember to do every day so obviously this one never even made it on my radar.  Although I usually eat healthy foods when I cook, I know it’s never enough.  I needed a little extra help and I have seen an improvement in my mood and concentration levels just by adding my daily vitamin.  I love my GNC Women's Energy vitamins. (There's also a men version)  
3. Got my running shoes back on.  I am not going to brag here because my starting point this year was pretty crappy.  I ran 1 mile in 18 minutes!!! I know, I know, it's pitiful but it’s baby steps. Don’t judge me... I can get better coach, I can!  Since I started I have already reduced five minutes on my time, so I am improving every time I run. Even with my heart arrhythmia these baby steps mean a lot. I am proud of myself for this but the most important thing is to not give up.  Exercise is about the most important thing you an do for not just only for your body but for your mind.  Exercising gets blood to your brain improving memory and function, improves your immune system, regulates your appetite and decreases your risk for heart disease.  Ok, wow, these are more than enough reasons to get moving!  I will be posting my monthly progress and I am so sure there will be lots of progress judging from where I started.  When you start at the bottom, there is only one way to go but up. 

I know sometimes it’s easier said than done to make changes but I have found a way to make things easier on me.  I have setup iPhone reminders for all these things and they have kept me going.  I created a “health” reminders list and I have a “water”, “vitamin” and a “run” reminders.  It’s my phone and I have put it to work for me.  I now have my own little Siri personal assistant and is always reminding me of what I should do next.  This frees up my brain to work on all other improvements in my life.  So now I don't have an excuse that I forgot to do these things. I even have a 'time to floss" reminder.  Yes, they work! :)

January had a good start for me so far.  Just by hydrating more, taking a daily multi vitamin and getting some exercise every other day has improved me in so many levels.  I was tired of feeling drained every day and didn't realize how small improvements could make in my life.  I am not stopping now that I see how much more efficient I have become and I need all the energy and attention for the many more improvements coming up.  A healthy foundation is always the best way to start.

More on how my Fitlosophy Fitbook has helped me with my exercise routine coming soon.

My love for books has been an ongoing one.  I was an avid and constant reader until I had kids and then spare time went out the window.  With no time and no peace and quiet, reading sort of became an impossibility.  I would hide in a quiet room with a book like a chubby kid would to eat a doughnut.  And I often had a doughnut too.  No matter, I had to get my fix.  Only to go months without finding time again.  My book shelf began to appear farther and farther away like it was getting sucked into a dark whole.  I resigned and waved my books goodbye.

Then I got a Kindle and it Rescued Me.
I got a kindle reader last month and I have not put it down since.  It hangs around me like my iPhone does, never more than a a food away and always within reach.   Reading has became fun again, reading has became, well, easy.  I find myself opening my kindle instead of opening my iPhone to read Facebook and I am actually getting something worthwhile from it.  My reading speed and comprehension started crusty but it's quickly becoming to speed up.  I vow that I will one day reach my speed reading level I had while in college.  But hey, baby steps.

Hello Kindle Unlimited. 
So I got a kindle and naturally the next step was to get a book or two.  Then two books became four, and four became 10 and then I had bought more books than I knew what to do with.  I have became sort of a binge reader and even though Amazon has some amazing deals on books every day through the Kindle Daily Deal, I was still raking up some serious dollars and that's never a good thing. You can find great books here for $1.99 or $2.99 but still there had to be an easier way.

With Amazon Kindle Unlimited you can read "unlimited" books a month for $9.99. I easily went through $10 in 1-2 books. Then I found out that while the title says "unlimited", it really isn't.  There is actually a 10 book limit... wow, how's that for "unlimited", but I guess nothing really is.  If you want to have more than 10 books, you just have to first return one. So if you really really love a book and want to keep it forever and ever, you can always just buy it. The premise here is that you read a book, return it and read another book and return it... do that repeatedly without a limit.

Kindle Unlimited is different from Amazon Prime in that it only allows you to check out one book at a time for free but it's only one book per month.  So if you read your book in three days, you're screwed, you can't check another one out until next month.  No way! Who has time to wait that long? I tried the Prime thing and after three days I began to itch and scratch like a withdrawing crackhead. I want my books and I want them now!  Not that I would know what crack withdrawal is like.

Personally Kindle Unlimited (ahem) is a great deal for me.  I can keep my reading binge going while keeping my book hoarding to a minimum. I hardly ever read the same book twice anyways. So while they may not have recently released books in that department,  you can always choose from over 800,000 titles at this time and more are always being added.  Books from Biographies, Children's, Technology, Fitness, Politics, Religion, Photography, Cookbooks, History, Parenting and more.  There is plenty to go around and there is always something for everyone on anything but you'll probably still buy a book or two here and there. :)

So no more book withdrawal for me and not more wasting money on book after book.  If you just want to read good books and you are insatiable in that department, then Kindle Unlimited is for you too!  All you need is a Kindle or the free Kindle app for your phone or tablet.  See, anyone can do it!

Bookworms, is Kindle Unlimited a good choice for you? :)

I wish I could start my year with this revolutionary way of remaking my life. A do-over. A new me.  Wow, that would be awesome!  Only I don't want it.  I don’t want a new me, I want the same me improved.  I want my new year to be like last year only better by improving on a few things here and there.  I want to see a continuation of what I have already accomplished last year.  After all, it took a lot of work to get here.

ME, to be continued...
This is how I want to continue into 2015.  I want to feel like my life is a lifestyle and not a complete and utter waste of time.  I don’t want to wipe my life clean and start over, that would be a lot of work.  I have worked too hard to get where I am right now to want to start over.  No way, no how.  This is why New Year, New Me has never really settled right with me.  Don’t want a new you, strive for an improved you.  Every year product manufacturers come up with an improved version of their product, why don’t we?

There is an easier way to a better life by improving on many small areas. Small areas we didn’t even know we had neglected. I find myself beat, exhausted with migraines at the end of the day. Why? What am I doing so wrong?  Maybe everything! By improving on several areas of my life I will eventually find the trigger point giving me the most trouble.  I can see right now many areas in my life are being neglected and there are so many, how can I make this work?  Easy, take one small change at a time. 

My Life Triangle:  Balance or Bust.  Follow along with me this year as I make many small but very important improvements in my life.  No change is permanent the first or second time you do it.  A lifestyle is a permanent change that although you can skip here and there, the important thing is to always get back on track.  Try and try again but never give up.  Nobody wants the old version of anything.  “Old and Unimproved” is completely out of the question here.  

BEHOLD my awesome graphics!!! My life it's all out of whack.

Personal Life:
This is where it gets tricky because there is so much room for improvement.  Me? Sometimes I hardly see much of me let alone tend to me, so this is definitely an area where I find some improvement. Ok, maybe a lot.  The healthy ME needs improvement (tell that to the apple pie I’m eating right now), the fun ME needs crazy improvements (migraines anyone?) and finally the organized ME needs improvement through the roof! Just to name a few.  I know, I am a procrastinator and seriously have too much junk going on in my head sometimes, but most importantly am I happy?  Am I?  I don’t know if I am going the path I should be going.  I have some serious issues here and unless I start directing myself better, I will never improve on the things that follow.  If I am miserable, everything is for nothing.

Find a way to be a better ME so I can be better to others.  Most of the improvements I will be making are here.  If I don’t fix myself, I cannot help others.  Plain and simple.  Neglecting my body and mind is not a good way to start.  Again this is a lifestyle and although some things may not be for you, many things will be. We are all human and we all pretty much have the same needs. I will be finding out the things that work and the things that don’t.

Family Life:
Believe it or not, sometimes I feel like I do too much in this area.  A small modification would be to not take everything too serious but allow things to flow in the direction where they want to go.  I can’t control everything and everyone and somethings should not be controlled at all.  Let it go, is what I need to learn to do.  Thanks Frozen.

This part of my life demands so much from me because it’s the most important part of my life.  This is where it all comes together or where everything crumbles.  They depend on me and I depend on them.  If they’re happy, I am happy and if I am happy they are happy, right?  Not always.  I feel like it’s my fault if they are not so I try harder and harder until I feel like a complete failure.  I need to learn to let everyone do their thang, learn from their own mistakes, make their own choices, fix their own dilemmas.  I can’t fix everything and everyone and I should not even try.  Parenting is not easy and after twelve years of trying I am still learning that what I know is never enough. 

Business Life:
A lot more work is needed here as well.  I do a lot already but it’s never enough. Never. Being self-employed requires a whole set of guts that sometimes I doubt I even posses anymore.  Did we start something that we cannot finish?  After going this far into it, can we quit?  Is this even the business that makes me/us happy?  Is it just about the money or really about helping others? What areas of business do I need to improve, start or do without?  Wooh, there is just so much going on in this part of the triangle.  Business life is hard but as long as I enjoy what I do, it’s all worth it. In theory it should be. If I want it bigger, better and more satisfying I need to work harder.  That almost sounded dirty.

My triangle of life is a bit rusty right now and most of the time they don’t balance out.  I am usually too focused on family and not enough on personal or business leaves zero time left for real quality family time. And around it goes.  My triangle is a messy mess sometimes but it’s what keeps me going.  I have to inspect every single part of it if I want to live a happy and more satisfying life. Or just simply live!  Stress kills you know. I need to find this balance point if I want to make it to the end of 2015 and beyond.

Ahhh much better.  This is where I want to be with my many small improvements. :)

Productivity in all areas at all times most of the time is not possible.  But that’s alright.  I need to learn that and tattoo it on my forehead and never forget it.  It’s very important to try and try again but it’s also important to let go. Do your best but remember there is no such thing as perfection. No biggie, it’s just life and you can always try something new next year.

Here’s to a making small but very important improvements towards a better YOU! I am excited because these migraines are kicking my butt.  The most important thing to remember here is to be YOU.  The real you.  Being happy with who I am is my best way to start.  Have fun, take care of your body and it will take care of you. Follow along with the label ImproveME. 

Hello 2015! We got a lot of work to do. :)