It's almost summer!!

Can you believe that it is June already? I mean, when did that happen? I feel like I was just making May's calendar yesterday. I hope you are all enjoying this amazing weather, I know that I am!
Since June totally crept up on me (and I have not yet made a calendar for June's fitness challenge) I have decided to make June a catch up month. If you are like me and Candy, you might possible have a month or even two that you have not completed yet! What better time to do that? If you don't have any make up to do, then first I am going to give you a nice big pat on the back. Second, I encourage you to make your own fitness challenge! If you are like me and burpees are your sworn enemy, then make it a whole month of burpees. Whatever it may be, just challenge yourself!
For the diet challenge, I am going to make it the same. Pick something that you are having a hard time staying away from and do it! Don't limit yourself to just "no sugar" or " no whatever". Maybe you are just having a hard time keeping yourself from "cheating". Limit yourself to only one cheat a week. You get the point. Pick something and do it!

xo
Hannah

PS: I almost forgot! A Tone It Up Utah friend of me and Candy is custom designing our blog for us! I am so excited to see what she comes up with. Stay tuned to see it! (:

May I See Your Beach Body?

No? Okay, that's fine. I am not ready to show mine either! BUT don't you worry. Our fitness challenge this months focus' on all those areas that we need to look great so we can show off our beach bodies! The moves this month vary quite a bit, so we won't be doing the same old thing everyday. When I was putting the calendar together, I was even surprised to see some moves that I wasn't too familiar with. Yay for new things! If you read over it and start to panic, just stop. I am going to provide YouTube videos you can watch to show you how to complete each move, and remember you DON'T have to complete all of one days moves at once! Do one move in the morning and the other at night, or do half the reps at a time. You could even just do a couple at once. Like 10 every hour. Whatever works! The one move we do want you to do "at once" is the plank. Don't split the time up, do the full time for one plank! Without further ado, here is your May calendar!

How do I do this??

Kick downs:

Skater Slides:

Russian Twists:

Superman:

Donkey Kicks:

Plank Walks:

Wood Chops:

Mountain Climbers:

Standing Side Crunch:

Plank Jacks:

Seal Jacks:

Froggies:

And there ya have it! I am going to leave it up to you guys to decide if you want to do the number of reps on each side or total!
NEXT!
Let's talk about our diet challenge! For this month, I have chosen processed foods! I really don't eat very much, if any, BUT I want to stay away completely!

BIKINI SERIES!!

Hello lovelies!!
So this is a little late, but Candy and I have been super busy! Monday marked the first day of the annual Tone It Up bikini series! This is our first time doing it, but we are so excited to be a part of it this year. The bikini series is an 8 week challenge to really get our bodies in shape for swimsuit season. Karena and Katrina send out a weekly workout schedule that tell you exactly what to do each day. We are also working toward 100 or 150 miles by summer (June 21st). I have decided to go for the big 150, because I really want to challenge myself! Unfortunately Candy can't run for the next couple weeks ): On top of everything they send you, there are prizes!! They pick a couple winners who get to go anywhere in the world they want with their best friend. There are also weekly prizes. So what are you waiting for?
This is the link for the first weekly schedule and to sign up for the bikini series. When you sign up, you get a free starter pack that includes tips and tricks as well as yummy recipes!

http://toneitup.com/2014/04/the-1st-bikini-series-weekly-schedule-%E2%98%80/

Brownies!

How can you get any better than a delicious chocolaty brownie? A HEALTHY delicious chocolaty brownie!! Today I am going to share with you a new recipe that I just found for black bean brownies. Stay with me, I know exactly what you are thinking. I made these last Sunday and Candice and I thought they were delicious. John also ate his in one bite! I will admit, I was a little weary to try them, but I had to try it out. So without further ado, here is the recipe.


Black Bean Brownies

- 1 can black beans (19oz can) drain and rinse well

- 3 tbsp coconut oil - melted

- 3 eggs

- 1/2 cup cocoa powder

- 1 tsp vanilla

- 1/4 cup carob chips

- 2/3 cup coconut sugar (brown sugar, some stevia, etc would also work) 

- 3 tbsp peanut butter - melted

In a blender or food processor, puree beans, coconut oil, eggs, cocoa powder, vanilla and carob chips until smooth. Transfer mixture to a mixing bowl and stir in the sugar. Pour brownie mixture into parchment paper-lined pan (8x8). Spraying the pan with cooking spray also does the trick, and I used a little bit bigger pan. Scoop, pour or dollop peanut butter onto the top of brownie and swirl with a butter knife. Bake @ 350^oF for about 25 minutes until set. Let cool on a wire rack. Cut and enjoy guiltlessly! 

**I only have one jar of what I like to call bathroom coconut oil, which means I use it on my body and hair, and don't have one for the kitchen at the moment. So I just used vegetable oil instead. Less healthy, but it worked. I also didn't have any coconut sugar, so I subbed in brown sugar. If you are wanting to buy some coconut sugar, I saw recently that you can get a pretty good sized bag at Trader Joe's for like 4 bucks.

Let me know what you guys think about the recipe. I bet you could get some picky eater kids to eat them and not even know what it is! (:

xo 

Hannah

Y'all Ready For This?

Hello again ladies! 

Candy and I did some talking and we realized that we have not done any fitness posts! Although we love ALL of the Tone It Up fitness routines, some of them can be fairly difficult. We tried to think of one that was easy, but not too easy, to cater to everybody's different fitness levels. This routine was from the first Love Your Body series from last year and is a great leg workout! Since we are focusing on our arms for the month, we decided to give you a different area to work on. With this routine, and any future ones, please modify (if you need to) to your level. DO NOT HURT YOURSELF! Since there are already two of us down and out due to injuries, we need to make sure to listen to our bodies and not add to that number! Yes, you should push your body, but learn when your body is telling you 'enough'. 

Do this 3 (yup, I said 3!!) times through, with however many reps it says per move. If you can only do half the reps, GREAT! If you can only do it one time through, GREAT!

You can do this!!

After you finish this routine, let us know how it went! Was it too easy? Was it too hard? We would love to hear some feedback! Also, if there is a certain area that you would like us to focus on for our next fitness post, please let us know! We are going to try and get these posts up more often so you have a variety of routines to choose from. Of course, all of the routines are on toneitup.com!

xo

Hannah

April has arrived!

Happy April, my loves!

This is finally happening...spring is HERE at last!  Although it was a very mild winter, I just could not wait for spring (and all the amazing-ness that comes with it) to arrive!  I hope you are all getting out there and enjoying the warmer temps, beautiful sunsets, PERFECT running weather, chirping birds and blossoming flowers. I know I am.

Sorry we are a few days late on this, but below you will find you April calendar.  This month we will be focusing on our awesome arms with this all about arms daily workout challenge...just in time for short-sleeve season.  So get at it, ladies!  Lets get those guns out and ready to impress the world :)

In addition to our monthly fitness challenge, we are ready to go for another diet challenge.  Since we are still going strong with our Lent diet challenges (hopefully....) this month is almost going to be like a double diet challenge.  Yeahhh baby!  We are going to give you a difficult, but extremely rewarding one.  Ready???  It's no BREAD!  Bread, rolls, hoagies, toast, all of it.  Bread in all forms.  

I know it sounds hard, and it will be at at first. But, I promise you this is so doable and so worth it.  You will see such a difference in your energy levels when you are relying on good, healthy, whole foods to fuel your day instead of crappy, refined carbs.  You will feel less bloated (hoorah for that!) and just all around better! The best tip I can give you is to lettuce wrap everything!  Lettuce wrap your burgers, sandwiches, everything. Lettuce will be your new best friend. Check out our delicious recipe for Thai Lettuce Wraps for a great idea to get you started.

I'm so excited to hear about your results, so make sure and leave comments, words of encouragement, recipe ideas, etc. below.  You can do this!

New Recipe!

Happy Monday everyone!
Today I want to share with you a new recipe that I just tried last night, Thai Lettuce Wraps! The recipe was featured on the Tone It Up site, it is delicious and man approved!
Here is the recipe:

Thai Lettuce Wraps
Makes 4 servings

Ingredients:
- 1 lb lean ground turkey
- 1 Tbs grapeseed oil
- 1/2 small onion, chopped
- 1 red bell pepper, diced
- 1 green bell pepper, diced
- iceburg lettuce, washed & laid flat to dry
- 1/4 cup low sodium soy sauce (if you are gluten-free, use GF Tamari)
- 1/3 cup hoisin sauce (if you are gluten-free, use GF hoisin sauce)
- sea salt, ground black pepper, paprika, and garlic powder to taste

Directions:
Heat oil over low-to-medium heat, add diced onions and peppers; cook for 2-4 minutes (or until onions are translucent). Add lean ground turkey, season to taste, and cook until turkey juices are well browned. Once turkey is cooked, add the soy sauce and hoisin sauce to the pan and mix well. Turn off stovetop and set mixture aside to cool slightly (about 5 minutes). Meanwhile, line a tray with flat, washed pieces of iceberg lettuce. Wraps can be small or large depending on the size of your lettuce leaves. Each "portion" should contain about 4 oz of ground turkey. This dish pairs well with dark leafy green veggies like bok choy, kale, broccoli and spinach!

Nutrition Facts:

At 400 calories per serving, these wraps provide 55 grams of protein and just 20 grams of carbohydrate.

So once again, when going through this recipe, I realized that I left a few things out. I did not add the paprika or garlic powder. Moral of the story? I should pay more attention to recipes, but it was still delicious! Instead of grapeseed oil, I used almond oil because I had it on hand. You can really use any kind of oil, but keep in mind that the calorie content will change with that. 

Try it out and let us know what you think! Seeing as we have ZERO comments from anyone, we would love to hear some feedback from everyone. Are you enjoying reading our blog? Is there something that you would like us to post? Are you even reading the blog? (; etc.

Happy cooking!

Ps, I hope you are all kicking your March fitness and diet challenges in the booty!

Here is the link for the recipe on Tone It Up:

http://toneitup.com/2014/03/featured-member-recipe-warm-savory-asian-wrap/

Here is the link to the original member recipe:

http://community.toneitup.com/recipeitems/101036/863/turkey-lettuce-wraps

Still to come:

-Motivation boards

-Weigh in Wednesdays

-Tiny Tea

-Perfect Fit 

-500 mile run

-Cafe Rio Chicken

-Nutrition Plan