Hi!

I don’t know what was going on in my brain last night, but I was OUT OF IT.

1) I could not remember the ballet barre combinations for my life.

2) I forgot to turn on my car headlights at 8 PM. I didn’t realize until I got to my destination. (My town is very well-lit at night, don’t worry.)

3) I did some other questionable things concerning driving and my car….But I won’t get into those details.

I got home in one piece and I didn’t hurt anyone else, so praise God for that. I also ate this awesome salad (among other things) for dinner:

I know it doesn’t look like much, but I finally made use of the tahini sitting in our fridge in a homemade dressing! I just combined about 1 tsp. tahini, 1 tsp. yuzu (Japanese lime soy sauce, essentially), a squeeze of honey, and a squirt of water to thin it out. That stuff was goooooood. It was a little too much for the amount of spinach I had here, so I just added more spinach. 🙂 I want to add it to a soba noodle salad or something like that next time!

Anyway, here are my recent moves:

Monday: 5 min stair master + lower body supersets [10 pistols each leg + 20 Bulgarian split squats//20 hamstring ball curls + 20 single leg bridge pulses each leg] + 8 min ab tabata [4 rounds of reverse crunches, spiderman plank, and spiderman kick through right and left]

Tuesday: ballet!

50 Shades of Fit

The amazing Julianna @ Julianna Banana tagged me in the 50 Shades of Fit Featured Blogger Series started by the also amazing Kaila @ The Healthy Helper! You can read Kaila’s awesome introduction post about the movement here, but this is an excerpt of what 50 Shades of Fit is all about:

There truly are (more than!) 50 shades of fit and as long as you’re incorporating fitness into your life in a healthy way for the right reasons, then you’re doing it right! Too often I see people ridiculing other for ‘not lifting’, eating certain food groups (or not eating certain food groups!), and or for not being as physically capable as other are. But this is not fair!

Fitness doesn’t have an end point. It isn’t a mountain that you can get to the top of. It’s a continuum that  we’ll all be on for the rest of our lives and no one place on it is better than any other. Instead of criticizing, judging, or ridiculing others based on where they are, we should be lifting each other up, encouraging each other, and congratulating each other for making choices to stay healthy, physically, mentally, and emotionally.

So take a moment to appreciate where you are on your own fitness journey and try to remain positive and tolerant of where other people are on theirs. There’s room for all of us in this world.

– See more at: http://healthyhelperblog.com/2014/02/23/50-shades-fit/#sthash.LW0rFgQy.dpuf

Her words hit the nail on the head, and I couldn’t be more excited to participate in the survey questions that come with being tagged! So let’s get started:

Currently, what does “fit” mean in your life?

• Being able to move and groove every day (ahem, blog name), whether that means doing an actual workout or taking active study breaks every 20 minutes.
• Embracing rest.
• Feeling strong and energetic during my every day activities.

When did you initially get more interested in incorporating health and fitness into your lifestyle?

When I was younger, I figure skated competitively, and I always loved to do pilates, yoga, and workout DVDs with my mom (I’ve memorized the lines of certain workout DVDs…). I was never into sports because my hand-eye coordination from 1-10 is about a 3, but I still loved to stay active.

I’ll be honest and say that my interest health and fitness rekindled a couple years ago for vanity reasons, and that unfortunately turned into disordered eating habits. However, in the past year or so, health and fitness have become less about a nice figure and more about feeling happier, moving with greater ease, and treating my body with respect. Now I believe that I have truly become interested in health and fitness.

What are some of your favorite ways to get moving?

As Julianna said, there are SO many ways to get moving— it’s difficult to choose just a few! Some of my favorites include dance, circuit workouts (especially with burpees), yoga, Pilates, walking, and hiking.

Some activities that I still want to try include long distance runs (yes, running), a mud run/obstacle course, CrossFit, BodyPump, and and hot yoga! We’re talking long term goals here.

In what ways do you inspire and encourage others to add some sort of fitness into their lives? + What advice would you give someone who is just starting their fitness journey and exploring what works for them?

I can only hope that through this blog (and my off-blog geeky-ness about the benefits of staying active) I am able to inspire others to just move more. Anything is better than nothing, and starting small is the way to go. My daily workout used to be 15 minutes on the elliptical, and that was fine. As I started to push myself more and get out of my comfort zone, I realized that I enjoyed so many different things. A couple years ago, I never thought I could run a sub-8 mile, do 100 burpees in a row, lift heavy things, or even do a proper pushup, but with time (and sweat), those things happened. Believe me, if I could do it, YOU can do it.

Most importantly though, have FUN when you workout! Please?

{2012}

Thanks to Kaila for starting this rockin’ movement and to Julianna for tagging me!

Three people I tag to share their “shades of fit”:

Ashley @ Miles on Oats

Leigha @ Minou Girl

Jessica @ Story of a Girl

…and just…EVERYONE!

Hope you all have a wonderful Wendesday!

So tell me:

Have you ever tried tahini (not in hummus) before?

What does “fit” mean to you?

What are your favorite ways to get moving?