Archives for January 2016

My Daily Diet

As an avid YouTube watcher and blog reader, I love to know what other people eat in a day. I see it as a great way to get ideas for meals or to switch up my own diet. Therefore, I thought I would share my daily diet.

I am a big believer that everyone needs to find a diet the complements their own lifestyle. For us, like we mentioned in our food philosophy post (here), we try to find balance. Our daily meals consist of

High protein (approx 140g of protein) because we do lift weights
Lower on carbs and higher in fat because we sit in an office all day (approx 150g of carbs & 50g of fat)
Plenty of fruit and veggies in every meal to include fiber and vitamins
Almost everyday eat something sweet because we LOVE chocolate and pastries

Breakfast (Meal1): I bought a green smoothie with kale, banana, apple and whey protein.

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Snack (Meal 2): Justin’s peanut butter packet, an oranges and passion fruit orange tea

Lunch (Meal 3): A salad with kale, spinach, dill, feta, avocado, tilapia, and lemon as dressing

Snack (Meal 4): A Kind Double Chunk bar

Dinner (Meal 5): Tuna Cakes made with sweet potato (a recipe on IG account) and side of steamed broccoli

– Danni

Importance of Staying Healthy Past Thirties

Lifestyle Self Improvement

As we approached our thirties we started noticing differences in our metabolism and skin, as most people had warned us. Now that we just turn thirty, we are making a couscous effort to take care of ourselves to stay as youthful as possible. Here are tips on how to stay healthy past your thirties.

Proper Nutrition

As we get older our metabolism rate decrease by 2% or more per decade. In other words, we can’t consume the same amount of food as we did in our twenties (Link). As you age it is more important to pay attention to what you put in your mouth. Make sure the foods you eat are full of fiber, vitamins and minerals. And the best way to do this is to learn to cook. That way you can control what goes on your dinner plate.

Resistance Training

Our muscles growth is a major part on how body will function as we get older. If you don’t continuously put your muscles to work then they can shrink (Link). It is important to learn any form of resistance training in order to work and build your muscles. Here is guide to get you started (Link).

Staying Active

Although resistance training is important, so is finding some form of physical activity that you enjoy. This can be as easy as taking long walks or biking around your neighborhood. Regular activity can help boost energy, keep the heart healthy, and even reverse symptoms of aging (Link).

Stretching

Our bone formation slows down as well as we get older, which hits the peak by the age of 35. The health of our skeletal system can be affected by poor alignment caused by muscle and ligament imbalances. Which results in bad posture, joint problems, and other health issues that are harder to reverse as we age. Therefore it is important to take the time to stretch and reinforce weak joints and muscles. Here is a great article on how to correct body alignment (Link).

Beauty Routine

It is not a secret that as we age our youthful skin starts to fade. This is due to a breakdown of our collagen and elastin (Link). Taking care of your skin as early as possible, can reduce the viability of fine lines and age spots. Learn proper skin care that suits your skin type and find what works for you. Here are skin care tips for your 30’s (Link).

California’s Pacific Coast Highway Road Trip

California Lifestyle Travel

This New Years we finally had a chance to do a California’s pacific coast highway road trip. I can see now why it’s considered one of the most scenic highways, with the ocean on one side and the beautiful green landscape on the other. We drove from Los Angeles to Carmel-By-The-Sea and along the way we stopped at some amazing places.

Day 1

Our first stop was in Los Almos in Santa Barbara County. This place use to be a popular stage coach stop from 1861-1901 and recently gained popularity as weekend destination for wine tasting and great food.

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Bob’s Well Bakery in Los Almos

Our second stop was to see the hundreds of Elephant Seals in San Simeon. Although it wasn’t planed to stop here, this ended up being the highlight of our trip. It was amazing to see how massive they were.

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Elephant Seals in San Simeon

To avoid driving the winding roads in the dark, we decided to drive straight to our hotel in Carmel-By-The-Sea. After we checked in, we visited the town for sea food and moscow mule.

Day 2

We woke up early and visited the charming town one more time for our caffine fix and a bite to eat. Although we had visited Carmel when we were young, we hadn’t remember how charming this seaside town was.

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Pacific Coast Highway in Big Sur

Our first stop of the day was to visit McWay Falls in Pfeiffer Burns State Park This is an iconic site in Big Sur. It’s a great reminder how beautiful mother nature really is.

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McCoy Falls in Big Sur

Next stop was to some wineries for some drinks. Paso Robles is one of many places in California for wine tasting. We visited two wineries and sipped on some great wines.

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Parrish Family Vineyard

We had never visited San Luis Obispo, so we decided to spend our last night there. I had never had any interest to visit this town, but I clearly didn’t know what I was missing out on. This is without a doubt a California hidden gem.

Day 3

After breakfast, we took a tour around the SLO Missionary. I love visiting the California Missionaries since they hold so much history.

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For those who live in California or just visiting, I would highly recommend this drive. I wouldn’t even mind doing it one more time.

– Denise

Best Full Body Circuit Training

Circuit Training Exercises

Source: Nike 2015 Campaign

After a long holiday season and gaining those extra pounds, it is hard to return to the gym. So when we want to get the most out of a workout, we do a full body circuit. It targets all muscles groups, gets our heart racing, fires up that metabolism and it is quick and painless. Well no workouts is painless, but hey! beauty is pain. Right??

Perform each exercise 10 times before moving on to the next. After all exercise is completed, rest as long as you need and repeat for two more time (3 sets total).

1. Step-up to lunge with bicep curl (10 each leg)- See Here

2. Bench dips- See Here

3. Front squat to push press- See Here

4. Push-ups

5. Dead-lift with a bent over barbell row- See Here

6. Sit-ups

Reminder: Use lighter weight because of the high volume of exercise. Also, some of the moves are advance, so if you’re a beginner to lifting remove the second part of the combo exercises. For instance remove the pressing from the front squat to push press combo.

Goals For The New Year