Are you ready to gain strength, improve agility, mobility, balance and core strength? Then you NEED to join me for Balanced Strength! My new 4 week program with a bonus 5th week of express (under 20 minute) workouts is for you.

Each week you will have two upper body workouts, two lower body workouts, one of the lower body days are either Pilates or knee strengthening workouts, and one agility, mobility, balance & stretch workouts. Core work is added to upper body days. There are also five bonus workouts that are under 20 minutes. You can do them as a bonus week 5, or you can use them on days when you have less time.

This program is a follow along, video program with crib sheets and a calendar to guide you. I do the workouts with you and go over form and tips. You can also choose to just use the crib sheets and workout on your own. The crib sheets include how many sets and reps you do of each exercise, the equipment needed and how long the workout is for the video.

The calendar tells you what order to do the workouts in, how long they are and what muscles are being worked for the day.

Most workouts are roughly 30-40 minutes and all express workouts are under 20 minutes.

I hope you plan to join me for this balanced approach to getting stronger and improving your overall fitness ability. You can pre-order this program for $24.99 starting today before it releases on April 27th.

Order here:

Workout Programs

Do you love a good cinnamon roll? They especially delicious when they are warm and gooey! Try these protein packed cinnamon rolls instead of the store bought, highly processed ones.

Ingredients:

2 cups all purpose flour

3/4 cup vanilla protein powder (I used French vanilla by Legion. I have a discount code too! It’s juliej)

1/4 tsp salt

1/4 cup coconut sugar

3/4 cup dairy free milk

3 tbsp butter

2 1/4 tsp yeast

1 egg

Filling ingredients:

1 tbsp softened butter

1/4 cup brown sugar

2 tsp cinnamon

Mix all dry ingredients together in a bowl. Warm milk and butter over low heat on the stove. Don’t allow it to boil. Once the butter is melted, add the egg and whisk. Remove from stove and add yeast. Add the wet mixture to the bowl of dry ingredients and mix well.

Lightly flour the counter and knead the dough. Let the dough rest for 5-10 minutes. Once the dough has rested, roll it out flat. Add 1 tbsp softened butter on top and the sprinkle cinnamon and brown sugar on top. Roll into a log shape and cut into neat rolls. Place in a pan (I used a stone pan), cover with a towel and let rise for 1 hour.

Heat oven to 350 and cook rolls for 25 minutes or until golden brown.

Do you love frosting on top? Try adding this protein frosting!

6 ounces cream cheese

2/3 cup vanilla protein powder

1/4 cup dairy free milk

Whisk Ingredients together until you reach the desired consistency. Add on top of warm rolls!

These rolls are about 200 calories, 20 grams of protein, 25 grams of carbs and 10 grams of fat depending on the ingredients you use.

Enjoy!!!

Here is a tasty recipe for a quick treat! You can keep these little snacks in the fridge when you need something small or as a dessert.

Ingredients:

1 cup rolled oats

1.5 cups pitted dates

1 scoop chocolate protein powder (I used Dutch Chocolate by Legion)

1/4 cup raw honey

1 cup almond or peanut butter

Handful of chocolate chips

Directions:

Puree dates in a food processor. Place all other ingredients in a bowl and mix well. Add dates. Once everything is combined, place on wax paper and place in fridge for 30 minutes. Then roll into balls and store in a glass container. Keep refrigerated.

Tip: if you have loose rolled oats or pieces of dates that didn’t stick, keep them in a small jar in the fridge. You can use them as toppings for oatmeal or yogurt! You can also add nuts, dried fruit, or anything else that sounds good! You can also try different flavored protein powders to mix up the flavor!

Enjoy!!!

Is there anything more delicious than a banana nut muffin? Yes! A Maple banana nut muffin!! If you like muffins but want a healthier version, give this a try!

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups self-rising flour

1 scoop Maple Donut protein powder (I used Clean Simple Eats)

1 cup unsweetened vanilla almond milk

1/2 cup pure maple syrup

1/4 cup avocado oil

1 banana cut into chunks

1/4 cup chopped pecans

Directions:

Mix flour and protein powder together. Add milk, maple syrup, & avocado oil. Mix well. Add banana and pecans. Mix gently. Pour into muffin cups. I used silicon cups. Bake at 350 degrees for 20-25 minutes or until lightly browned.

These muffins are delicious and are a much healthier option than regular muffins. Store in the refrigerator since there are no preservatives. Enjoy!

*Nutrition: per muffin

Calories: 140

Carbs: 18 gr

Protein: 3 gr

Fat: 6 gr

Sugar: 5.6 gr

What does it mean to choose healthy foods? Sometimes what we think is the healthy choice is actually not😬. We might see pre-packaged food that has healthy language written all over it and assume it is a good choice, but in reality it is marketing to deceive us.

I am going to keep this as simple as possible. While it might seem hard to choose healthy foods, it’s actually quite simple. It’s just not easy to stick to.

First, avoid highly processed and pre-packaged foods. The best choice are foods with very few ingredients and that come from nature and not a factory. Granola bars might sound healthy, but the reality is that they are highly processed, full of sugars, additives, seed oils, and artificial flavors. We want foods that grow in the ground or on a tree or bush. A potato grows on the ground but a potato chip is made in a factory.

Another thing to consider is choosing foods with nutrients, minerals & vitamins, and macronutrients. Vitamins from fruits and veggies are much better than “green powders”. Macronutrients are best from lean protein sources, complex carbs and healthy fats, rather than protein bars, processed breads and saturated fats. My go-to tip is to ask myself where the food came from. Is it something I can find in nature or did it come from a factory?

Now, I realize that sometimes we need convenience and easy meals. I get it. We are all busy and need help. When you decide to choose processed foods, look at the ingredient list. What is in your food?

Some easy choices are frozen veggies (no extra ingredients), frozen fruit, Greek yogurt, packaged turkey burgers, ect…

It’s not easy to change habits, choose the healthier option, and be intentional about what you buy and eat. Your health is worth it! It gets easier the longer you do it, and you will feel your best when your body is well nourished.

When you think of “exercise”, what comes to your mind? Do you think of an aerobic class? Maybe going for a jog? Or do you think of lifting weights? None of those are wrong, but it’s so much more than that!

Exercise is a broad term we often use to describe some type of workout, but there are actually a few key components we need to incorporate to create a well-rounded exercise plan. Exercise should not be random movements that only serve to make you sweat and burn calories. It should be purposeful!

Here are the key components of exercise:

1. Strength training! You should be lifting weights at least 3-4 times per week. It is important to keep muscle mass as well age and hopefully keep adding more.

2. Stability. We want to incorporate balance training and exercises that challenge our stability. As we age, we start to lose our stability unless we actively work on improving it.

3. Aerobic efficiency. We need to improve the capacity of our cardiovascular system and its ability to bring in and transport oxygen through the body.

4. Aerobic capacity. We want to improve how well our body uses oxygen as efficiently as it can.

These key components should be included in your weekly workouts as much as possible to improve your overall health. It doesn’t have to be complicated either.

Choose basic strength exercises to build more muscle. Try standing on one leg at a time while you cook or talk on the phone or walk along a curb to challenge your balance. You can also try standing on a balance trainer while doing light strength training. Go for a walk and work to increase your speed. Try throwing in sprints for short distances. If you love biking or swimming, try increasing your speed or distance. Throw in a Tabata workout (high or low impact) or HIIT training 1-2 times per week.

Adding these components in will have BIG rewards!

Deciding what workouts to do each day can be overwhelming and challenging. If you are not following a program with the workouts scheduled for you, it can be hard to know where to start. What should you do on each day? I am going to share my favorite workout split and how I create my workouts.

The first thing you need to determine is how many days per week you plan on working out. That will determine how you set your workout split. I like to do 5 days of strength training, 1 day of dedicated mobility & stretching, and an active rest day. I do stretch & work on mobility in each workout, but I set aside a day to do a longer session of it once a week. I also add core work in 4-5 days per week and walk daily.

First, I make a workout split schedule (the muscle groups I will work each day). Then I decide what exercises I will include in each workout. I will do that set of workouts for 4-6 weeks before switching up exercises or adding new things in. It gives me the chance to really focus on the selected exercises and challenge myself weekly by increasing weights or reps.

This is my favorite workout split. I know what I’m working on each day during the week and I look forward to it.

Next I create my list of exercises for each day. I typically choose 6-8 exercises to focus on. I love pairing my exercises in supersets (2 exercises back to back), and repeating each round 3-4 times with a 60-90 second rest between sets.

Example:

Back & Biceps: warm up 4-5 minutes first

Round 1:

Back Rows-10-12 reps

Back Fly- 10-12 reps

Rest 60-90 seconds (repeat 3-4 times)

Round 2:

Bicep Curls- 8-10 reps

Hammer Curls- 8-10 reps

Rest 60-90 seconds (repeat 3-4 times)

Round 3:

Wide Row- 10-12 reps

Preacher Curls- 6-8 reps per arm

Rest 60-90 seconds (repeat 3-4 times)

Core: 20 reps, 2-3 times

Weighted dead bug

Reverse Crunch Heel Tap

Stretch!

Get the idea? Create the workout split you like and then fill in the exercises you want to do with the rep range and how many sets you plan to do. The exercises do not need to be complicated, in fact, simple is better. You don’t have to lift for a long time (I am usually done in 35-40 minutes), and you don’t need a lot of equipment. If you don’t know what exercises to include, consider paying a good trainer to create a workout routine for you. If you are unsure of how to do each exercise with proper form, get a personal trainer until you feel confident.

Your workouts should be challenging but not so hard that you are in a puddle on the floor at the end. You want to work hard but also work smart! Using good form and basic exercises will help you stay injury free while building muscle.

If you have only 3 days per week to workout, you can split your workouts into Push, Pull, Legs. Push exercises are muscles that push weight away from your body. Pull exercises pull weight towards your body, and legs is well, leg day.

Day 1: Push Workout

Shoulders, Triceps, Chest

Day 2: Pull Workout

Back & Biceps

Day 3: legs

Lower Body Workout

If you have 4 days per week to workout, you can use the same workout split I do but eliminate the second lower body day.

I hope this gives you ideas for creating your own workout split and how you can set up your workouts. Seek help from qualified trainers if you need to, and be committed to your workouts!

I love making my own jelly! It is so easy to make and there are NO unnecessary ingredients. Give this 3 ingredient recipe a try!

Ingredients:

2 cups frozen organic blueberries

1 tbsp culinary lavender

1/2 lemon juiced

Directions:

Heat ingredients on stovetop over low heat. Once blueberries start popping, mash with a spoon or masher. Continue to cook until jelly thickens.

Remove from stove and let cool. Add jelly to a small mason jar and store in fridge.

Here is a question I get asked a lot, “how do you show up day after day and stay on track with eating?” I think people are hoping I have some magic trick that makes it easy to be consistent with my workouts and eating, but the truth is that it happens because I am disciplined and committed. That’s it! That is the magic trick. It’s not fancy, a quick fix or easy. It’s just a matter of determination and self discipline.

Let me start off by saying that I have NOT always had self discipline. In fact, as a kid, teen and young adult, I was pretty lazy and did the bare minimum in most things. Even when I was a dancer, I just gave enough effort to be an ok dancer, but I never worked my butt off to be better. As a student in school, I did whatever got me by but never gave true effort. When I first got into working out, I never pushed myself, never fought for that last rep or did anything that was hard.

I finally had a light bulb moment when I realized that I wasn’t seeing results like I knew I could. I wanted to be stronger and eat better, but I just didn’t give it my all, until the day I realized that I would always be stuck where I was until I did something different. I slowly started working harder in my training and really challenging myself. I stopped buying junk food as a “treat” and started paying attention to what eating healthy really meant. I slowly started seeing results and that is when I turned a corner. I was NOT just half in anymore. I was committing to really working for it!

The awesome thing is that the harder I worked, the more self discipline I developed. I WANTED to work hard, and I WANTED to eat well. I could feel what it did for my body and mind. That self discipline started showing up in other areas of my life too. Instead of doing the bare minimum in other areas, I was giving it my all no matter what I did.

16 years later and I don’t have to think about IF I will workout or eat well. I just do it! It is now my way of life, habit and commitment. It was a slow journey to get where I am now, but every step of it taught me something new and unlocked new lessons for me. I fell more in love with taking care of myself and proving that I could do hard things. As I have aged, my training has changed to adapt to my body, but my effort and commitment is still there and strong.

There is NO easy and quick trick to develop self discipline and commitment. It is something you DECIDE to do and follow through with. The great thing is that the longer you do it, the easier it becomes to stay committed. I am so thankful that I am not that person I was a long time ago who did not work hard for things. I have gained so much by working hard and not making excuses for myself.

You CAN show up for yourself and work hard, and you CAN make eating well a priority. It won’t be easy, but it will be worth it. Find a program to follow (I have 6 for you to choose from), and get help with nutrition if you feel lost, but don’t wait to get started. Start now! Your health and wellness is worth it!