Tiff's Tips: on mindful eating

eating properly throughout the holidays is not easy. there are so many extra stressors going on over the next couple of weeks, it's really easy to overeat and feel like crap. 

and this isn't a post telling you to diet throughout your holidays, but there are lots of great strategies to keep yourself from overeating without stressing yourself out with diets when you should be focused on enjoying the holiday season with your friends and family.

these tips are not just for the holiday season, but things you can apply to your life everyday.

1.  Fill your plate with less than you think you will want.  
   1. Odds are you aren't going to miss it
2. Use smaller plates and cutlery 
   1. makes your meal seem bigger than it is, so you'll think that you're eating more than you are! 
3. Seat yourself away from the food
   1. this may be more difficult in a family dinner buffet style setting, but even in that, don't sit with your favorite foods right under your nose. make it a pain in the ass to get your second servings. 
4. eat slowly
   1. take your time and don't power down your plate of food. enjoy the food you put on your plate!
5. wait to go back for seconds
   1. if you are continually eating, it's really hard to have a chance to listen to your body to tell you if you're hungry or not. so take a moment before you decide to get second helpings. 
6. drink lots of water
   1. sometimes you can confuse dehydration and hunger - so make sure you are drinking water throughout the day so you can know that you're hungry and not thirsty!  (also, water is great for you in a million different ways- so drink some!) 
7. don't deprive yourself
   1. for the holidays and all days ~ enjoy the foods you like to eat! if you restrict yourself from it, you're more likely to binge on it later!

 there ya have it. easy ways to eat well and feel good throughout the crazy next few weeks and throughout your day to day life! 

a lot of the research from this blog post comes from Mindless Eating: Why We Eat More Than We Think by Brian Wansink,PH.D which is a really interesting read and had a lot of great insights on mindful/mindless eating which is something i've been working on, personally. 

any questions? drop me a line on my facebook or instagram page or leave a comment below!! 

my first kettlebell competiton!

if you follow me on any of my social media (which i am gonna assume you do if you are reading this) you'll know that this weekend was my first kettlebell competition! it was SO MUCH fun and now I am so ready to do another one (once my hand is all healed up, tbh)! 

this post is basically gonna be a wrap up of my sets and how i feel about them. also i need somewhere to post all the great pictures and videos I got from it.  

all my prep for deck the bells came from my bad ass coach, Brittany van Schravendijk (i am so hoping I spelt that correctly), also known as @kbfitbritt and I did most of my actual kettlebell sport workouts at Kor Strength and Conditioning in North Park. 

All of the following pictures and videos are taken by my awesome boyfriend Colt Magana. Video is on a GoPro Hero 5 Session, pictures on a Google Pixel 2! 

Snatch Set! 

10 mins, with a 12kg bell! 

This is the event that I was really training for over the past 5 months. 

My goal was 200 reps (I hit 198! :) ) 

below is the full video if you want to watch me swing a bell for 10 mins straight 

I am outrageously proud of myself for this set, because it was my first ever competition set. I was straight up shaking when i got up to the platform... and probably throughout my first few minutes too...and maybe after. (i'm only kinda joking there)

i don't think i thought throughout this set anything other than, "breathe" and "OK" to my coach's cues. i was concerned that i was going to slip into some sort of negative self talk, but we did go through a lot of mental prep with Britt, so I had plans on plans so I wouldn't do that. and the plan A mental game plan went great. and because I had SO much adrenaline going it knocked out my cough that i has been fighting off for the last week and a half. (woo!) 

most helpful, was the cues from my coach and teammates. SO appreciated that. and by the last minute I was able to rep it out really fast that last minute. I think I hit like 25 reps that last minute which is pretty solid for me. And then I hit 198 reps! Which is a PR for myself! 

onto my One Arm Long Cycle! (clean & jerk)  12kg, for 5 mins. I hit 59 reps! First in my flight, and 3rd overall! 

Not something I really trained for as much as snatch. I did practice clean and jerk a lot on my own, with hardstyle bells more so than comp bells, but it clearly translated pretty well! 

this one I had an audience outside of my team and Colt cause my friend Josh and his lovely ladyfriend Ashley came and watched me! :) 

here is the whole set for your viewing pleasure: 

I didn't have as much coaching in this event, but i felt really solid throughout it, and it was 5 minutes, and I felt really good during the set. Long cycle is just a lot of breathing, so it was just getting into that breathing rhythm and sticking with that. 

so i was and am very happy with how that set went! 

so, all in all, i had a great first comp! i am really proud of how i performed and really excited to do another comp! i learned SO MUCH about kettlebell sport and all the scoring and just little things i didn't know and I got to see amazing lifters do amazing things, which was and is SO inspiring for me to keep on going with this sport! shout out to my awesome team and for all the awesome performances that came out of Deck the Bells! legit, got to see a woman break the world record on 2x20kg long cycle.so amazing. so excited i got to do my first comp in the kettlebell world with my home gym, full of all sorts of great people! 

onto the next! 

if you are interested in following my future kettlebell lifting comps or if you want to kick off your own fitness journey check me out on instagram and facebook and drop me a line!

Tiff's Tips: Create a Fitness Community

getting fit is not easy. changing your routine and your lifestyle and making time for things you don't necessarily enjoy or want to do everyday.

so how do you keep going on the days that are tough? 

by creating a fitness community for yourself!

now what is a fitness community?? 

a fitness community is simply a support system for your health and fitness goals. 

you can create this a few different ways!

1. first (and most obvious) way is with your family and friends! get them in on your fitness! have them workout with you. or even just remind you to get up and go to the gym. or get healthy recipes to share. or you can create fitness challenges between your friends and fam so you can all feel a bit healthier. maybe you can go on walks on your lunch breaks with your co-workers! the possibilities are endless. 

2. go to workout classes at your local gym and create your own in-person fitness community! people who go to workout classes are some of the most consistent gym-goers! if you start going to classes regularly you will definitely start recognizing people and make friends and they'll notice if you start skipping classes regularly! 

3. get a trainer! they'll keep you accountable AND will tell you what to do when you go to the gym so you have no excuse to not get it done. they will support you and make sure you are going to hit the goals you set for yourself. (btw, hiii! i have in person & online training available!) 

4. fitness app communities! there are about fifty trillion different fitness apps out there right now, and with that, SO many people on them and that means that there are SO MANY people you can connect with. FitBit has challenge boards, Nike Run Club allows you to get people to cheer for you while you run, MyFitnessPal has forums to meet people. Just to name a few, because there are honestly too many apps for me to even keep track of. Find the one(s) you like and make friends on it, so you have an awesome virtual support system. 

5. facaebook group communities! just like apps there are even more facebook groups. if there is something you like on the internet, there's probably a subgroup of those people who are also exercising. seriously, check in those groups if there is a fitness based subgroup or just search for it. you already have one common interest, might as well add fitness into the mix! 

6. instagram communities! instagram has become my favorite for my fitness community. just by searching through a hashtag you can find so many people who are interested in the same kind of fitness you are. instagram has an AMAZING fitness community and you can find so many people going through the same thing you are. and instagram is great to use as a log for your gym days and/or for your food. it's a great tool to use! 

so there ya have it. 

having some people from ALL these groups is definitely ideal, but sometimes that's just not reality for all of us, so even if you can't get your friends and family to get involved in your health and fitness lifestyle changes you can find people all over the place to help you be as successful as possible!

want more support? contact me on my instagram or facebook or email me at tiffnessfitness@gmail.com to find out about getting in on a personalized training program!