Best Apps That Assist With Weight Loss

"Keep Your Goals In Front Of You" 

In order to accomplish any goal, it's vital that we constantly remind ourselves why we started in the first place, especially when trying to lose weight.  It's no surprise that losing weight can be difficult.  We can become tempted, tired, or hit a plateu at any given moment.  

In most cases, we are on our cell phones 24/7 whether it be texting, emailing, surfing the web etc.  What we are constantly looking at and listening to affects us more than we can possibly imagine!  It becomes a part of who we are, it starts to define us.  This is why I think it is so important to keep a few apps on your phone that can not only assist you in your weight loss journey, but apps that will also keep you on track and motivated. 

1.  My Fitness Pal- Free 

This app is both iPhone & Android friendly.  This is one of the most useful apps you can use! From the beginning it takes your weight, height, goal weight, and lifestyle and then gives you recommendations.  This app completely takes the "guessing game" out of eating and eating out.  Not to mention.. its VERY simple to use.  You can scan the barcode on all the food items you eat throughout the day instead of having to enter and search for what you are eating.  It also has a plethora of restaurant menu items making it easy to track what you are eating when dining out (it even  has local restaurants!) My fitness pal also tracks carbs, fats, sodium & cholesterol so you are aware of exactly what you are putting into your body.  There is so much more that this app does.. I could go on and on, however if there is one app that you decide to download, it should definitely be this one. 

2.  Map My Walk/ Map My Run- Free 

These two apps track just about everything when it comes to walking and running.  They track route, pace, calories burned and distance.  It's simple to use and has several tools to keep you motivated throughout your workout.  Map My Run and Map My Walk feature voice prompts that give you updates throughout your workout but don't worry, the voice comes on in the background so you can still listen to your favorite workout playlist! 

3.  My Model- Free 

This is just a fun app.  You enter in your height, weight, goal weight, skin tone, face, hair, body shape and outfit. This app creates an image of what you look like now, and what you will look like when you reach your goal weight.  It also give you the option to track your weight loss so it will show model like figures as you get closer and closer to reaching your goal!  Like I said earlier, keeping your goals in front of you is powerful!  

4.  7 Minute Fitness- Free

  The challenge is to do 7 minutes a day for 7 months. This app gives you 7 minute workouts that require zero workout equipment.  Sounds easy right?  This app was designed to provide the maximum benefit of working out regularly in the shortest time possible.  The workouts include a variety of cardio, fat burning, strengthening, and stretching routines.  You can also upgrade later on to an app that costs a few dollars and provides more workouts but it's not nessecary.  

5.  Juicing- Free 

I like this app because it's free and offers thousands of juice recipes.  You can hit one button 'Add Ingredients To Cart' and it provides you with a grocery list.  It also shows the calories in each recipe and offers anywhere from a 1 day cleanse to a 30 day cleanse.  You can set reminders on this app and it will notify you of when you need to drink your next juice! 

6.  Bible Encouragement- Free 

Love this app! It provides encouraging Bible verses to accommodate you through the roller coaster ride of weight loss.  It's easy to use and it's so satisfying to tell God exactly how you are feeling.  There are over 35 different emotions to chose from, all of which provide Bible verses and a quote that correlate with what you are feeling.  

 7.  Daily Fitness Motivation 

This app shows motivational images and allows you to set reminders with motivational affirmations and images.  The affirmations and quotes will always put you in a positive mindset! 

8.  Songza -Free 

Have you ever gone to a workout, spin class, yoga, or aerobics class and LOVED the music?  This is the only place I have been able to find similar pump up playlists and the REAL artists are singing (not a knock off version of a song, a lot of the remixes online sound like kids bop) You can choose playlists based on your activity or your mood.  My favorite playlists are Massive Pop Hits: The Remixes and 00s Club Bangers ;) 

I hope you enjoy some of, if not all of these apps! I use most of them daily and I absolutely love them.  Don't lose sight of your vision and your goals.  Set those daily reminders to trigger your motivation and most importantly, remember why you started! Weight loss is a journey and all you can do is take it one step at a time :) You can do it! 

XoXo 

Ashley 

For Daily Tips and Recipes follow me on: 

Instagram: ashleynicolemora1 

Twitter: MissAshleyMoora 

How I Lost 20 lbs & Gained a New Lifestyle

How I Lost 20 Pounds and Gained a New Lifestyle

For those of you who don’t know me, my name is Katie and this is how I lost 20 pounds and went on to compete in my first fitness competition.

Up until college I had always been active and able to eat pretty much whatever I wanted. Once I got to college my whole lifestyle changed. I partied at least 3-4 times a week, started smoking cigarettes (ew, I know), only occasionally worked out (but kept eating what I wanted), and had a horrible diet that contained a lot of late night McDonald’s runs. I had a lot of fun in college but after gaining 12 pounds and having such poor health I realized I wasn’t happy anymore. This started my weight loss journey.

 I knew that I wanted to lose weight but I also wanted a new lifestyle that I could maintain and for that reason I didn’t take any weird diet pills, go super low carb, join Jenny Craig, whatever. I quit smoking because you can’t exercise when you can hardly breathe. Then I started to learn as much as I could about nutrition and I incorporated nutritious foods into my diet. I also minimized eating out because it’s easier to make cleaner food options at home and I cut out the binge drinking (obviously).  I started exercising at least 5-6 times a week (weight lifting and cardio mix). Last, I found new things that I enjoyed like clean baking and lifting weights. If you enjoy what you’re doing then the weight loss is all that much easier.

After losing 16 pounds on my own, I made the decision to compete in my first fitness competition as a bikini competitor. Through clean eating, heavy lifting, cardio, and lots of coaching from my Fitshop coach, Jenny, I lost 4 more pounds and stepped on stage. I wanted to compete to win but mostly I wanted to compete to show off what I had worked so hard for. Ask me a year earlier and I would have never been caught dead in a tiny red bikini ESPECIALLY on stage but the new me was happy, healthy, and proud in her own skin. I loved competing and being confident on stage and I found out that this was something I wanted to keep doing!

I’m not going to sugar coat it, losing weight and completely changing your lifestyle isn’t the easiest thing to do. But it can be done and it gets easier. Besides working out on my own I would sometimes see a trainer, Marisa. She would watch me get discouraged because I didn’t see the scale go down in a week and she always told me to keep going, never give up and never lose patience. Keep working and it will pay off! You might not see changes every day but if you give up then you won’t ever see those changes. It was also difficult for me to find balance with food. This was something that I struggled with up until very recently. I realized that you have to find balance and moderation. Eat healthy, work hard, but go enjoy ice cream with your friends once in awhile. Find that balance in your life to where you enjoy every minute of it. One ice cream cone won’t make you fat and it’s good for your mental health so go enjoy every bite. The next morning wake up, eat a healthy breakfast, and go get a good workout in. It really is all about balance and moderation because that leads you to a healthy LIFESTYLE, not just quick weight loss.

What kept me motivated throughout this journey was my drive to be better. If you’ve always wanted to be a bikini competitor then go do it! Only you can make those dreams come true through hard work and persistence. I’m lucky I had a lot of support but I also kept myself motivated by knowing what my goals were and how I wanted to achieve them. Very often I write my goals down so I can see them, I keep my trophy’s up from my first competition to remind me that I want to come back better next time, and I keep going, pushing myself to be my best self. Having visual goals helps to keep you motivated whether it’s to lose weight, step on stage, compete in a marathon, whatever it may be. You can do anything you set your mind to so keep going.

All of this is about finding YOUR happiness and being YOUR best self. Never forget why you started! I hope you enjoyed my featured blog! You can follow me on twitter and Instagram at katielynn_xo. Looking forward to chatting with you again soon!

Xoxo,

Katie

How To Get The Most Out Of Juicing

 This is a picture of a Juice Cleanse I did!

 Juicing is a convenient way to get your daily dose of fruit and vegetables.  A fresh juice is basically just a concentrated dose of vitamins, minerals, enzymes, and antioxidants that is shot immediately into our bloodstream so we can absorb all of the nutrients.  There are so many wonderful benefits that come along with juicing but it can be expensive. So I thought I would share with you some of the ways I get the most out of juicing. 

    The farmers market is the cheapest place to purchase produce and it’s local which is a plus.  I haven’t priced every single thing out but comparing complete trips to the grocery store, the farmers market was by far my cheapest trip.  I also enjoyed shopping at the farmers market because I wasn’t tempted by the cookie or chip aisle like I always am at the grocery store.  There was ONLY fruits and vegetables so I was able to go in, get what I needed, and get out!


 Fruits and Vegetables with a high water content will ALWAYS juice the best! For example apples, celery, and cucumbers are going to produce a lot more juice than kale or spinach.  So that is something to keep in mind when you are doing your grocery shopping.

There is a specific order in which you are able to get more juice when juicing! I have found this order of operation to be extremely beneficial, so I thought I would share :)

1. ALWAYS start with your leafy ingredients first! Spinach, Kale, Mint Leaves, Parsley, Rosemary, Wheatgrass, Cilantro.  These ingredients are going to produce a small amount of juice when you send it thru your juicer.  They are very beneficial but their water content is low.  You never want to save these types of ingredients for the end because they need some help getting pushed out.

2.  Second, if a recipe calls for ginger root, I will send that next.  Ginger is another thing you never want to save until the end to add in.  If a recipe doesn’t call for ginger root, I’ll do things like Jalapenos, lemons, oranges, grapefruit, beets, carrots, bell peppers… pretty much anything that is a little softer than an apple. 

3.  Last but not least you always want to save your hardest produce items for last… and by that I mean things like apples, celery, cucumbers, onions etc.  Saving these things to juice at the end cleans out whatever is hanging out in your strainer, therefore pushing out a little more kale or whatever wasn't fully executed on its own.  

Basically just remember when juicing,  go from softest to hardest!

I hope this was helpful to some of you who have recently started juicing! 

Happy Mothers Day to all the Mommas out there who read my blog! I so appreciate each and every one of you!  Have a blessed week everyone! 

XoXo,

Ashley 

For Daily Tips and Recipes follow me on: 

Instagram: ashleynicolemora1 

Twitter: MissAshleyMoora 

Me and my mom shopping in Florida last year!



 p.s Thank you to those of you who are taking time out of your busy schedule to read my blog! It means the world to me!

15 Ways to Use the Leftover Pulp from your Juicer!

If you are anything like me, one of the not so great parts about juicing is feeling like you waste so much. (and after spending a fortune on fresh produce this thought can be very aggravating... I know) Well, here are a few ways you can use all of the pulp from your juicer!

1.  Freeze it and save it for later use! It may lose some of the nutrient value by sticking it in the freezer however, you will still have a significant amount of fiber left in pulp!  (Place fruit and Veggie pulp in separate containers)

2.  Fruit pulp can be used to add a little kick to your smoothies, muffins, bread, cookies, bread, granola bars, pie or cobblers. You can blend it up or cook it! 

3.  Meat Loaf:  Add some fresh vegetable pulp to your meat loaf to make for a healthier and more delicious meal! (Use ground turkey to make it even more healthy)

4.  Omelets:  Add some veggies to your eggs with fresh vegetable pulp... so good!

5.  Soups:  Try making a vegetable soup with fresh juice and add some pulp for flavor and texture

6.  Lasagna:  There are some REALLY good spaghetti squash recipes out there, add some fresh veggie pulp for even more flavor with a healthy lasagna!

7.  Put it back into your garden:  If you have a garden you can use pulp as fertilizer or maybe you don't want to cook with the extra pulp,  just throw it anywhere in your backyard and let the earth do it's thing with it.  Might as well not waste it!

8.  Bulk your burgers up with some vegetable pulp.  

9.  For those with young kids:  You can sneak some of pulp into some everyday food.  For example, take some traditional Mac&Cheese and add some spinach, tomato, or kale pulp into their food and BAM, kids are gettin' more veggies! 

10.  DIY Salad Dressings:  With some fresh pulp, a little olive oil, and some vinegar you have your own homemade (and healthy) dressing! 

11.  Hummus:  Ok, I have had an obsession with hummus lately.  I just recently made my own and added in some fresh vegetable pulp and it was SO GOOD! A must try!

12.  "Tea":  Add some fruit pulp to some hot water, add a pinch of cinnamon, let it set and then run thru a strainer.  

13.  Pancakes:  Add some flavor and moister to some oatmeal pancakes! 

14.  You can use leftover pulp to make some homemade scrubs and face masks. 

15.  You can dehydrate the pulp and make crackers with it. 

This weekend I made muffins with my leftover pulp.  Here is the recipe for 

Orange Nut Muffins 

2 cups of gluten free flour 

3 tablespoons of honey 

3 teaspoons of baking powder 

1/2 teaspoon of salt 

1 cup of fresh juiced orange juice 

3 tablespoons of coconut oil 

3 tablespoons of orange pulp 

2 egg whites 

1/4 cup of chopped nuts (pecan, macadamia, or walnuts) 

 Preheat oven to 400.  Mix everything together and then bake for 15-18 minutes at 400! 

Peel Oranges 

Juice Oranges 

Save the pulp 

Put your gluten free flour in a bowl 

Add Honey 

 Add baking soda

 Add  Fresh OJ

 Then your coconut oil

 Two egg whites

 I crack my egg whites in a separate bowl 

 Add em' in

 Chop up whatever nuts you decided to use and add them in!

 Stir Everything together until there are little to no clumps

Bake for 15-18 minutes on 400 and then these babies are done! 

I also made some "Carrot Cake" muffins with fresh pulp that were TO DIE FOR! 

Carrot Cake Muffins 

3 cups of gluten free flour 

1 tablespoon of baking soda 

3 1/2 cups of carrot pulp 

1 cup of pineapple pulp 

1 cup of honey 

4 tablespoons of cinnamon

1 teaspoon of nutmeg 

6 egg whites 

1 cup of coconut oil 

1 1/2 cups of chopped walnuts 

preheat oven to 350.  Mix all ingredients together.  Bake for 45 minutes!

Enjoy!!!


Xoxo
-Ashley

For Daily Tips and Recipes follow me on: 

Instagram: ashleynicolemora1 

Twitter: MissAshleyMoora 

Game Planning

Author Karen Lamb said it best when she said, “A year from now you may wish you had started today.” 

And last year that’s exactly where I was.  After a year of not paying attention to what went into my mouth, I finally came to the harsh realization that summer was creeping in and needless to say I was far from feeling comfortable struttin’ my stuff around the pool.  I was frustrated, embarrassed, and fed up with myself.  I absolutely had to make a change, although making a permanent lifestyle change is never easy especially when it comes to food.  Whether you are trying to lose weight or just trying to start living a healthier lifestyle you have to “Sacrifice what you are, for what you will be become” –Eric Thomas.  I think THE most important thing a person can do when starting this journey is to remember that it is a JOURNEY.  It’s a process and it’s far from easy, but it’s completely possible to achieve those dreams and goals.  There will be good days and there will be bad days, there will be easy days and there will be hard days, but a year from right now will you be so happy that you started today.

The Mental Part 

For me personally there has always been an emotional attachment to food that I never realized I had before I started to cut certain things out of my diet.  For example, I like going out to eat on the weekends, I enjoy curling up on the couch with some popcorn while watching a movie, and when I find a sweet recipe on Pinterest that I can make for others, I feel like I hit the jackpot.  When I started to cut those things out of my life, I almost started to feel empty! How weird is that?!  On Friday night (a night that I would typically go out to eat with my parents) staying in felt foreign.  This to me was the hardest part about continuing to live a healthy life-style…. The mental part.  I’ve heard many people say before that diet is 80% of losing weight and the gym is the other 20%.  Well, my own personal opinion is that diet is 98% and the gym is 2%.  I constantly have to remind myself of a quote by Bill Cosby “Decide that you want it more than you are afraid of it” because that’s what it really comes down to…We are afraid of missing out, or not afraid of not tasting something.  We MUST cut ties with what our “norm” was and accept the new!

Getting Discouraged

We all get discouraged at times.  It’s just a part of the journey.  Getting discourage can hit us out of nowhere and sweep us right off of our feet!  These are the times we have to remember why we started in the first place.  If you fall off track with your diet… it’s not the end of the world. It’s so important to take BABY STEPS.  If you eat healthy for one day, you are not going to see results immediately (very unfortunate, I know) it’s a process that takes time.  And likewise, if you have been eating very healthy… one “bad meal” will not cause you to gain 10lbs.  If you end up cheating at lunch that doesn’t mean you have to cheat for dinner as well.  Someone once said to me, “If you dropped your phone on the floor, would you keep smashing it until it was completely broken?”  Of course my answer was no, and their reply was, “Well then why would you do that with your diet?”  It’s something that we all do at times… We have a slice of pizza that we weren’t intending to have and we think “well I already cheated… now where’s the dessert?!”  There will be days when you give in but that doesn’t mean you should give up.  Keep going, keep striving, keep dreaming, and keep reaching to achieve those goals!

Making a Game Plan

I am a firm believer in game planning.  It’s so important to sit down and actually take the time to write out your goals.  “A goal without a plan is just a wish” There is something about writing your goals down on paper that makes them so much more realistic.  I highly encourage you to do this! Once you have your goals written out, hang them somewhere so that you can look at them everyday! I have mine on my bathroom mirror and I read them every morning while I brush my teeth.  I also like to set mini goals.  If my ultimate goal is to drop 10lbs by a certain month I will divide the pounds by the amount of weeks I have and then I will set mini dead lines.  For example:

(Let’s say you weigh 135)

You want to weight 120
by May 1^st, 2014…Which means you have to lose 15lbs in 3 months.  That is about 1.25lbs a week. 

 I like to make mini deadlines so every two weeks I would set a different goal.  This
helps keep you on track and holds you accountable. 

I also like to sit down on Sundays and write out my meal plan.  I mean like, to the T! Every meal and every snack down to the portions! If you do this, there will never be any question on what you are going to eat, leaving minimal room for error! We fall off of our diets when we’re confused and unprepared.

Create A Dream Board

I know this may sound like a silly and tedious task but I am telling you it’s so worth it! (and I think it’s fun :) )  Make a copy of your goals and paste them into the middle of a blank poster board.  Once you have done that go thru magazines and cut out anything that inspires you! It could be a quote, a food item, or maybe someone’s physique.  I also like to print out pictures of people who are close to me that inspire me.  Giving your dream an actual vision is a powerful thing! Hang your poster in a place where you can look at it everyday and constantly be reminded of why your making
these changes!

What You'll Need 

I'm not finished yet but here is what my dream board is starting to look like. 

 I hope you all have a wonderful, wonderful week! 

xoxo

-Ashley

For Daily Tips and Recipes follow me on: 

Instagram: ashleynicolemora1 

Twitter: MissAshleyMoora