About Me
Hey everyone and welcome to my blog! My name is Angela, I'm 26, and an energetic blogger. I started out on a free health and fitness website called Spark People in June 2009 and made the switch to the real blogging world in February 2011. My blog always had a health and wellness theme to it but it was basically just about me and my life. There are various topics you can expect to read on here from time to time though so I'll go through those. Thanks for stopping by to take a read and I hope you find something you enjoy!
Health, Wellness, and Weight Loss
This could be considered the main theme of my blog. No matter what topics I branch off into, it usually centers around leading a healthy lifestyle. I wasn't always interested in being so healthy. I had joined Spark People in order to lose weight, topping out at 192lbs. On my 5'5 frame, I was considered obese and needed to do something about it. Motivation is always a flighty thing. I call it determination that finally got me to hunker down and lose the weight. I reached 144lbs in June 2010 and although it wasn't my final goal, I've hovered around 140lbs since then. No longer is it about losing weight but more about losing the fat and toning up. My goals have evolved throughout the whole journey to reflect what I needed at the time but it was always about being healthier. Of course, losing weight would come with being healthier and that was a nice bonus!
Food
Concentrating and thinking about food all the time is a critical part of losing weight. My life started to center around not only the calories, fat, carbs, protein, fiber, and sodium that I put into my mouth but also the types of foods I put into my body. It took me a long time to discover Clean Eating (although I don't exactly adhere to it but its the same idea). I have a revelation over a package of chocolate chip cookies that made me really start to delve into what was in my "food". From there, I started a series of food blogs that I called Food Showdowns. The idea was to find the dieter's version of a food and then find the clean, all natural, just as healthy alternative. You may see that here once in a while as I find new products that are natural and healthy!
On top of that, I often do food blogs: a picture diary of everything I ate in a day. This is generally to give other healthy go getters ideas on light and fit foods to add to their diets. It is also to help keep me in line. I often do them when I begin to struggle and find myself slipping into "old habits".
FitnessOn top of watching your food intake, weight loss should also be about fitness. Sure, you can lose weight but cutting your calorie intake but I believe you will still be unhealthy. I'll pretty much try any form of fitness but my favorite has to be running. I started out with the Couch to 5K program (or C25K for short) to get me started. I was never a runner and I mean it. C25K was rough but it really worked. I ran my first 5K in September 2009, just a short 3 months after I had first started with 1 minute intervals. This is what kick started my love for running and built my cardiovascular endurance to handle other forms of exercise.
Like I said though, I enjoy many forms of exercise. I participate in Zumba, tennis, outdoor biking, spinning, weight lifting, step, etc. I often go to classes at my gym but also love to do things outside with my husband. Strength training is definitely one of my favorite things and I believe is essential for everyone! I keeps you healthy and when it comes to weight loss, it really helps you slim down. Weight isn't always everything, measurements matter too. Besides, muscle looks nice and burns calories all throughout the day rather than just the time you are doing it (like cardio). Feel free to ask me about any of the fitness activities I mentioned here (I get a lot of questions about Zumba) or suggest new ideas for me!
Farming
Yes, you read that correctly. Farming. I have a professional job and my husband works all day too but we enjoy trying to farm for ourselves. As of today, we own 32 chickens: 26 we bought and 6 we incubated ourselves. Tending to chickens turns out to be extremely easy (and we had some help from my parents since we live with them for now and they had chickens previously). We love having our own fresh eggs and being able to share them with friends and family. There is nothing like cooking your own eggs that you just collected from the hen house.
As for growing our own food, we've dabbled a bit but without much success. We grew some things and the deer that live in the nearby woods enjoyed our food very much. The bugs also enjoyed our corn after a very wet weekend. The only thing we managed to really grow was Kale which turned into the plant that wouldn't die. The 2010 season was our first attempt and we are debating on 2011. Apparently farming is a lot of work and honestly, we are just too busy to handle it. But I'm sure we'll try it again and I'll be documenting it here.
Going GreenFinally, to go along with the farming and other healthy living things, I may mention going green now and then. Its been less of a concern of mine lately but I try to keep it in the back of my mind. Its something that I believe we all need to think about to keep the planet healthy. If I do little things that are green, then maybe someone else will see it and do it also. The trickle effect can make a difference even if I can't alone.
