Be Your Best YOU

In today's fast-paced world, it is so easy to get caught up in the demands of your everyday life. I find myself constantly putting my mental health needs on the backburner, while I try to keep everything else in check. After some time of doing that, I realized that there is a way to do both.

Give Yourself A Break!: It's so common to overwork yourself to the point of exhaustion. I feel that it is so important to schedule regular breaks for yourself. These can be done by requesting off of work 1 day a month to give yourself a mental health day. This can also be by waking up a little bit earlier in the morning to give yourself some time alone with your thoughts.

Every year, we tell ourselves that we are going to get our summer body and every year we find ourselves failing at that task. Take control this year and make your dream come true!

First, you need to find a diet that works for you. If you want to get an idea of a few different types of diets, I have a previous post diving into those. There are so many diets out there to choose from, so if one doesn't work for you, then don't give up. Keep trying until you find one that fits your lifestyle.

Next, you need to find exercises and physical activities that you find enjoyable. Forcing yourself to do boring activities, or ones that don't seem to interest you is only going to give you a bad outlook on working out. Find activities that are exciting and challenge you so that you actually want to keep working out. It also helps to find a workout buddy to share these experiences with.

Contrary to what many people may think, protein is not the best fuel for your body necessarily. Yes, it does provide some nutritional benefits, but overall it does not provide as much energy as you may think. Protein is used as a last resort energy reserve, meaning it's main use is for other bodily functions.

Now lots of people automatically hear this word and think "Oh no, that makes me gain weight", which may be true if not ingested in consideration. But, carbohydrates are your body's main reserve for fuel. So many diets nowadays urge you to cut carbs out of your diet, but this is going to lead to burnout and low energy in your everyday life.

Life gets busy and time flies. I often find myself putting things off until the last minute because I always feel like I have more time than I actually do in reality. I'm here to tell you, stop putting that work to the side. Make time for yourself to do it. Here are a few tips and tricks that can help you to manage your time better in your everyday life:

Set a Timer: if you are putting off something because you feel like it will take too long, put on a timer for however long you want to work consecutively for; this could be 15 minutes, 30 minutes, really any amount of time you would like. While the timer is on, make sure you don't even touch your phone. Put it to the side and work for that increment of time. By doing your work in intervals like this, it makes it seem not as big of a task.

Use Rewards: after completing a task that you may have not been all that excited about doing, reward yourself with something. Anything that makes you happy, whether it be phone time, ice cream, a soda, or candy. The options are endless.

5-Minutes: now this one may not pertain to assignments, but it can help you to stay organized and keep yourself from procrastinating about cleaning your room. Each morning, wake up 5 minutes earlier than usual, and set an alarm for that 5 minutes. In that little bit of time, just take a moment to tidy up. Pick up the things that may have been out of place. Start to think about and plan out your day so you feel prepared.

Often times. dieting is one of the first things we do when we want to lose weight. However, we find it can extremely difficult to follow a diet. This is because it is so important to find the diet that is right for you. There are so many different diets out there and it is important to look into multiple to find which one works for you! We'll dive into a few popular diet options to give you an idea:

Intermittent Fasting: this involves essentially eating whatever you want (in consideration of course), just not whenever you want. Many people choose this diet because there are certain foods that they don't want to cut out of their diet but still want to make an effort at losing weight. This diet may not work for everyone, but if you are someone that doesn't mind eating in a little portion of time then this might be the diet for you.

KETO: this diet is very popular currently and it consists of high-fat and low-carbs. This causes the body to mainly use fat for it's energy rather than carbs.

Carnivore Diet: exactly as it sounds, this diet only allows for meat and animal byproducts. While this can be pretty healthy in general, it can cause a lack of certain minerals that the body needs.

One of the most common myths about losing weight is that many people think that all carbs are bad. This is far from the truth. Some people tend to try to cut out all carbs and end up turning to processed foods. Instead, it is better for you to eat good carbs such as ones from sweet potatoes.

Next, lots of people seem to think that they need to run to lose weight. Though it can help accelerate weight loss, there are many other ways of losing weight without cardio. One of these is dieting, it is just important to find which diet works best for you and your body.

Summer is coming quicker than we all imagined and now we have only about two months left to get our abs that we have always dreamed of. Every year, people tell themselves that they'll get abs and then always end up putting it off. You don't need fancy equipment, or even a gym membership. Make this your year with these exercises that you can do at home!

Plank: we all know it, and we all dread it, but it will pay off! Each time you plank, try to make it a little longer. You'll be surprised at what you're capable of with consistency.

Bicycle crunches: bicycle crunches works ALL of your core muscles, making it an amazing exercise to ensure adequate activation of your muscles.

Ultimately, this question is very subjective, but let's dig a little deeper into the benefits of each of these drinks so that you can decide which is the best choice for you!

Celsius is a well known energy drink that hit the market many years ago in 2009. This drink is known as a healthy option in the energy drink world because it has low sugar and includes healthy ingredients. Some of these include ginger, green tea and numerous essential vitamins. Unlike many companies that use aspartame to artificially sweeten drinks, Celsius uses sucralose. Along with all of this, Celsius was found to increase fat loss, muscle mass, and endurance when taken before exercise. Lastly, Celsius offers more than 30 different flavors of their product. Talk about variety!

Alani, like Celsius, uses sucralose rather than aspartame. There are many similarities to Celsius in ways such as promoting health and fitness, and giving a healthy energy drink option. Alani contains more vitamins than Celsius, but Celsius has a wider range of vitamins like vitamin C. Alani offers about 12 flavors of their drink, providing a good variety to choose from.

I used to find myself waking up, ready for the day, determined to be productive with my time. I then found myself gradually losing that feeling of productivity throughout the day... and I think I have pinpointed the cause.

The second I would wake up, the very first thing I would do is check my phone. Checking what texts I have, what posts are new, and ultimately filling my mind with things that have no value. After I get out of bed, I would get ready for the day and then go to eat breakfast. During breakfast, I fell into the same habit of checking my phone. Flash forward to the end of the day, I would think to myself, "So much for being productive today" or "I guess I'll just have to do that tomorrow". It seemed normal for a while until one day I stopped and evaluated how I was spending my time.

After evaluation, I deleted all of my social media and let me tell you, it was an amazing decision that I haven't regretted one bit. Before deleting it all, I was scared that I would be bored, or that I would miss out on important things happening on social media, but I realize my mind is so much more at peace now. There isn't the constant need to be on my phone, which leaves more time for other things in my life.

Now I don't know about you, but anytime I sleep in late I always wake up feeling groggy and not wanting to get out of bed. I am going to tell you why waking up earlier is more beneficial for you in many ways.

For the average person, the body needs no more than 9 hours of sleep per night. According to researchers, if you are consistently sleeping more than this then their might be a bigger problem at hand.

By waking up early, you get get better sleep because your body's circadian rhythm adjusts. Developing a consistent sleep schedule is key to waking up earlier in the mornings. This also provides you with increased productivity and even more energy.

It is so easy to get caught in an unhealthy lifestyle in this day and age, but so unbelievably hard to get out of those unhealthy choices. For many people, it seems quite impossible to start eating healthy along with keeping the body in physical shape through exercise. This is because so many people think that in order to see results, you have to get rid of everything you enjoy. The reality is... you need to start off with just a few small changes.

Put That Soda Down:

One bottle of soda can range anywhere from 39 to 77 grams of sugar. For perspective, it is recommended that women's daily sugar intake shouldn't exceed 25 grams, and for men 36 grams. When you find yourself feeling thirsty, try to fight the sugar craving and pick up your water; your body will thank you. By focusing on drinking water rather than soda, you not only will notice a difference in your physique overtime but you will also catch yourself feeling more energized and ready for the day.

2. Walk Those Few Extra Steps:

We all know those people (or have been those people) that will circle the parking lot over and over again to find the closest spot possible to the entrance of the store. An easy way to increase physical activity is to walk more. Though it is ideal to go on walks daily, not everyone has the time for that. Next time your schedule is busy and you can't fit in an exercise that day, park at the back of the parking lot. It doesn't seem like much, but every step counts! By parking at the back of the lot, you'll get a few extra hundred steps (at least) everyday, depending on how many errands you have to run.

3. Craving Sweets? Grab Some Fruit!:

When you have a sweet tooth, it is so easy to immediately scavenge through the pantry for candy just to immediately feel the guilt after you are done eating. By replacing those cravings with fruit, you not only are satisfying the sweet tooth, but are also supplying the body with many nutrients and vitamins that it needs to keep moving! There are so many different delicious fruits to choose from and making this simple switch can help more than imaginable by reducing risk of heart disease, improving digestion, strengthening the immune system, and fueling the body in a healthy way.