Taking Care of Yourself

As some of you may know, on November 2nd, I hurt my neck at the gym. It didn’t feel different than other times in the past when I turned it the wrong way, but after two days, I ended up going to the Emergency Room. BIG mistake. Growing up, playing sports, I had many trips to the emergency room. Throughout college, two more that I can remember. While living in Boulder, another two that come to mind. In our first five or so years in LA, I had been accident free… or perhaps I just toughened up and dealt with issues myself. I don’t know why I decided to head to the ER at Cedars-Sinai on November 4th. The doctor, who I won’t name, was your typical doctor. To be honest, I haven’t cared much for any of my doctors in the past. I give credit to one chiropractor and one eye doctor that I’ve worked with; everyone else seemed like a robot, or some kind of societal drone. This man was no exception and did nothing other than tell me to be careful, write some useless prescriptions and order some tests.

Dec012018

The Push Up & Plank Challenge

While many of you are probably preparing for Freeform’s (although we all know it as ABC Family) 25 Days of Christmas, which starts today with Kittens vs Christmas Trees, there are others stressing about their physical health during the month of Thanksgiving all the way to Christmas. While we spoke about optimizing your health from a food and fuel point of view yesterday, we have a simple, yet rewarding challenge to issue for this month… starting today!

Everyone can do push ups and planks. By that, I mean, there are a lot of people who cannot swim because they do not have access to a pool or body of water. There are people who cannot cycle because they do not have a bike and cannot afford a membership to a gym. Nearly everyone can roll out of bed in the morning and get on the floor to put down a set of push ups and a plank.

Nov222018

Whole Wheat Pumpkin Banana Bread

You guessed it. MORE PUMPKIN. Winter isn’t here yet, so that means it’s still pumpkin’s spotlight! I had extra pumpkin leftover from those whole wheat pumpkin chocolate chip cookies so I searched for another healthy-ish recipe. I found the perfect one at Well Plated for Whole Wheat Pumpkin Banana Bread. I also had two very ripe bananas just asking to be baked. And guess what, it was a natural pairing. This is a great recipe if you want to contribute something healthy to the Thanksgiving table. It’s fall-like because it has pumpkin and is sure to be a popular dessert!

This recipe uses little sugar, not much butter–I was surprised by how healthy it was. I changed a few things from the original recipes (such as taking out the nuts), but it still ended up great. The thing that makes this recipe take a little longer is that for best results, you should wrap it in plastic wrap and let it sit in the fridge for a few hours or even overnight! And beware, the texture is very pumpkin-y just in case you’re not into that.

Nov112018

Building Hamstrings

We don’t often repost content from other sources, but sometimes, we come across an article that is presented in a manner that we find very easy to digest. While we’d never heard of Stack as a media source before, every week, I receive newsletters from the American Swimming Coaches Association, with important articles relevant to swimming. Sometimes, I don’t even read through them, but this headline caught my eye: 4 Simple Ways to Build Stronger, More Resilient Hamstrings.

Oct262018

Fit’s Go-To Healthy Lunch: Salad Kit + Tuna

If you see us on social media, you often see us going big when we eat. Sure, we definitely enjoy dining out and eating big, but most of our meals are pretty dang healthy. That’s how we can afford to eat whole pizzas or all-you-can-eat sushi! Fit works from home which means she typically has the pantry at her disposal. This can mean glory or disaster. Luckily, we keep a pretty clean pantry (ignore the sour candy that Fit stashed behind the electric beater), so there’s not many “bad” options to fall for. Still, she tries to decide what she’s going to eat for lunch at the beginning of the day, or better yet–at the beginning of the week.

On most days, you can find Fit in the kitchen (usually on a phone call or meeting), assembling her lunch. Yeah, I said assembling because she plays it smart. Fit’s go-to healthy lunch is half of a salad kit and a can of tuna. It takes under five minutes to whip up, even when she puts some flair into it! Salad kits are a blessing. Sure, they may not be quite as cost-effective as a huge tub of spinach and some carrots, but they have variety and make a healthy lunch delicious and easy. Making salads from scratch can be somewhat tedious with all the chopping. She usually waits until they’re on sale for like $2.99 and then buys a bunch for the week. And because she has a “baby belly,” she only needs half of one per lunch.

Oct242018

Whole-Wheat Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies

Whew, that title is a bit of a mouthful, huh? Well so are these cookies! Though they be small, they are mighty with flavor and warmth! Yes, another pumpkin recipe. And don’t expect it to be the last! Fall is my favorite season of the year, I think, and although Los Angeles isn’t very good at crisp weather, I’m still gonna do the pumpkin up! Whole-wheat pumpkin chocolate chip cookies, here we come! I based this recipe off of Tried and Tasty’s wonderful recipe!

Sep222018

Hungry & Fit’s Go-To Healthy Snacks

Here at Hungry & Fit we eat…a lot. We have different styles, but there is always a lot of food involved. Hungry is more of the wolf-type; he will eat an inane amount of food and then be good for a while. Fit is more deer-like, grazing across the day. She eats small snacks and meals…every hour or so. So yes, a lot of food is consumed in the Hungry & Fit household. That means we have to be stacked when it comes to food options. Fit will usually gravitate toward smaller meals or snacks. It’s very important for us to have healthy snack options available at all times so we don’t go down a bad road.

Sep182018

Guilt-Free Vegetarian Lasagna

Lasagna. Thick noodles, layers of cheese, sauce, more layers of cheese. Comes with a side of steaming hot guilt. Oh, did I ruin it? Sorry. Yeah. Typical lasagna is heavy, full of lots of cheese, meat, and white starches. Hey, that’s totally fine in moderation, I’m all for it. However! I have discovered (thank you, American Heritage Cooking) a wonderful guilt-free whole-wheat vegetarian lasagna. Before you turn your nose up, IT TASTES GOOD. It tastes good by my standards, it tastes good by HUNGRY’S standards. That’s when you know it’s good. He takes his cheesy pastas seriously and I kid you not when I would catch him continually digging into the dish of lasagna heaven. I could eat this lasagna without feeling like a ball of cheese after who needed to be rolled to bed. I ate it, I felt great, and then I ate it the next night.

Aside from the healthiness, I was worried about the difficulty. I don’t think I had ever made lasagna before on my own. But really, the hardest part was chopping up the vegetables! So yeah, not too bad. It’s just layers. Layers of the best stuff of life. So yeah, let’s dig in.

Sep082018

Getting Ready to Get in Shape This Autumn

For many people, the summer is the most active season, thanks to time off from work, days at the beach, and a diet that’s more full of fresh fruit and vegetables. However, for many people, especially those in warmer climates, the summer can be too hot to work out as often as they would like to, especially if their workout of choice is running in the great outdoors or playing sports outside. Luckily, now that the fall season is approaching, the weather is often just right for working out. Are you ready to get in shape this autumn?

Sep012018

Stop Being Ashamed of Your Cellulite

ATTENTION MOST WOMEN, SOME MEN: STOP BEING ASHAMED OF YOUR CELLULITE.

Our society has many body-shaming problems and a big one is cellulite. Yes, cellulite, that dimpling of the skin in fattier areas. Guess what, it doesn’t mean you have a bad body, are fat, or that you need to do anything about it. Women, mostly, are ashamed to have it, yet 90% of women have it! It’s yet another impossible societal standard that people are kept to. And guess what, it’s nearly impossible to remove because it’s so natural to how our cells are formed. I am so sick of people (especially women) being embarrassed of it. Perfectly fit people have it–I have it! 90% of women!