Author: peggielarsen

Body Image Without Prejudice

Body Image Without Prejudice

Do you train for looks or do you train for health? Is there anything wrong with either? I know I will never be skinny. I’m not built that way, nor would I want to be. I actually really like my muscles. I worked my ass 

Finish what you start

Finish what you start

  Finish your program or whatever project your are doing. I know, it’s hard. I even have trouble finishing a program. You either get bored with it, or you find something else that looks better or more fun, or more something. Why are we always 

Step 1…get a box

Step 1…get a box

I remember stuff from when I was way little. I can remember things from when I was about three years old. But today, we are talking cereal. The reason behind this blog post is because my friend and I were talking about this the other day. Even though we were texting back and forth, I can assure you were dying laughing, texting about this very subject. What does this have to do with remembering things when I was little (by little I mean probably around 9 or 10)? Grocery shopping. We shopped at Sooper Dooper. A great little local grocery store, where I ended up working all through high school.

We rarely got to go grocery shopping with our mom when we were little, but when we did, we would hang out in the cereal aisle while our mom was shopping. The cereal aisle was in the center of the store, across from the frozen foods. Once she got to the cereal aisle, we would get the look. You know that look. The one that pretty much insinuates that we should not even bother asking for it. See, we always wanted Cap’n Crunch or Lucky Charms or Sugar Pops, or basically some of that sugar laden, chemically laced cereal. What we mostly always got was Rice Krispies, Corn Flakes, Wheat Chex, Cheerios or Puffed Rice—GAG. That stuff was so disgusting. Do you remember? It came in a bag, not a box. Cheap! That should give you a clue. To this day, I still hate that stuff. It was like eating a piece of cardboard, laced with air. You couldn’t put enough sugar on that crap. Her argument, if I remember correctly, is that the sugared stuff was too expensive.

But once in a while we could catch her in a weak moment, or in reality, she was probably sick to death of us bugging the crap out of her begging for sugared cereal. Once in a while we begged enough. We got to pick a box of sugared cereal. The good kind in our eyes.

Do you remember how many kinds of cereals there were? Just like the cereal aisle now. A crap ton. So we would look at every box trying to decide what good kind we were going to get. Sometimes we just wanted the prize that came in the box. Scouring and scouring forever to find the best crap cereal with the best crap prize. It took a while sometimes. Quisp, Sugar Pops, Corn Pops, Cocoa Pebbles, Fruity Pebbles, Frosted Flakes, Lucky Charms (my personal fave), Life, Golden Grahams, Count Chocula, and the list goes on and on. Those tricky cereal marketing people. How is anyone supposed to pick with that many kinds?

Like I said, Lucky Charms was my personal fave. I also liked Cap’n Crunch with Crunchberries, although if you ate too much of that the roof of your mouth was shot for a few days. The only bad thing, in my opinion.

To tell the truth I’m not sure how healthy or frugal our mom thought she was being. I can vividly remember sitting at the table, putting my Cheerios in my bowl, adding milk, and then adding teaspoon after teaspoon of that pure white sugar. Our sugar bowl was pink depression glass. It was a cool sugar bowl. I bet I put at least six teaspoons of sugar on my Cheerios. Then the cereal feast. Once you got to the bottom of the bowl, you could see the thickness and syrupyness (not sure if that’s a word) and the gray color of the sugar that had leaked through all the Cheerios and made it’s way to the bottom of the bowl. Mmmmmmmmmm. Wheat Chex was really good this way too.

Buuuuttt, that’s rookie stuff. Moving on to the pro cereal eating session. I know most everyone has done this. It’s not foreign to any of us. Anyone in my circle of friends anyway. Step 1, get a box of cereal. Step 2, get the bowl. Step 3, get the spoon. Step 4, get the milk. Finally, step 5, belly up to the table. We will use my personal fave Lucky Charms in this cereal eating session. Okay, ready?

Channel yourself into your younger self sitting at the table. You fill your bowl with Lucky Charms. Next you pour the milk, not too much, not too little. Next comes the spoon, you have to dunk all the cereal into the milk, including the cereal against the sides of the bowl. And now, you start eating. As you are eating you peruse the back of the cereal box and see what’s happening on this box. Any good prizes? You probably read the ingredient list too, although at that age it really doesn’t mean anything. By now, the cereal is getting a little softer and is almost gone. Hmmm, but you still have milk left. So you add more cereal, just enough. Or not. Now you have to add a little more cereal. Repeat until the milk or the cereal is gone. That, my friends, is the pro version of sugar-laden cereal eating. You didn’t get the gray sugar at the bottom. You got the sugar throughout the whole cereal eating experience. Pure heaven in a bowl. I haven’t done that in years, probably 10. Thank God! I have to admit, I bet I could still do it.

Do you remember? What were your favorites? I’m glad we didn’t ever get the Crunchy Loggs!!!

 

Vegetables suck (for some people)

Vegetables suck (for some people)

What do you do if you don’t like vegetables? Really? This is a real thing? I love vegetables and I feel bad for people who don’t. You know they are good for you and you want to be able to eat them, but you just 

how far into the rabbit hole are you?

how far into the rabbit hole are you?

  How far into the rabbit hole are you? Do you ever feel like life just sucks and you can’t squeeze out one more drop of positivity or motivation? Have you started eating crap and skipping your workouts? Are you an emotional wreck to the 

push yourself

push yourself

 

Every Friday I have a long workout. I love it…once I start. Anyway, sometimes I feel like just saying fuck it and not doing it. I try to make excuses like I’m too tired, or I don’t feel like it, or it’s okay if I don’t workout today, I can do it another day. And sometimes I even want to just half ass my workout. You know, the oh here we go again workout. Or the look at me, I’m working out, just for the sake of sake of working out. I hate when I get in that rut. I’m not even sure I would call it a rut, but you know what I mean. Then I start to think, is anything even happening? Is this workout even doing anything? Is my body even changing? Here is where I need to check myself. I need to ask myself if I’m doing everything I can to push myself. I really hate to half ass stuff, especially when it comes to workouts.

Here is where I make myself dig deep and lift heavy. Yep, you heard me. Lift heavy! If you want to see some changes in your body, you need to push your body. You need to lift heavy AF. You need to give your muscles something to talk about. Make shit happen. Burn some fat off your body.

Women—you will not get bulky. Contrary to popular belief, muscle does not weigh more than fat. A pound of muscle and a pound of fat, both weigh a pound. Buuuttt, muscle is so much more compact. Nice and tight. Fat is fluffy. Who wants to be fluffy? Not me.

Add some weight to your workouts and see what happens to your body. Push yourself and change your body.

Let me know how it goes. Try lifting heavy for a few weeks and just see what happens.

 

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in the name of science–translation: figuring your sh*# out

in the name of science–translation: figuring your sh*# out

Use your body as a science experiment, because truthfully, what have you got to lose? Have you ever done any experiments? Obviously, we all have done some type of experiments when we were kids or when we were in school. But, I’m talking about now, 

Numbers

Numbers

Why do numbers affect us so much? Specifically, the number on the scale. A little comparison. The scale weight usually pisses us off. The calories burned during a workout on the treadmill, usually make us happy. Both numbers don’t reflect the truth. I mean look 

Seriously, Just Eat Right Already!

Seriously, Just Eat Right Already!

What does eating right even mean?

You hear it all the time. If I could just eat right then I would lose weight. Or, wow, if so and so would eat right they would feel so much better. But seriously, how many of you eat right? What is eating right? So if you don’t eat right, does that mean you eat wrong?

Let’s explore. First of all we need to figure out what eating right means to us. Eating right to me means eating fresh whole foods, protein, fruits, vegetables and good fats. No sugar and no packaged foods. I do, however, like a nice glass of wine. I know that wine all the time doesn’t do my body good. I sure wish it did though. I love wine. If I am eating super strict I cut all alcohol. If I am eating somewhat strict I usually have a glass or two on Friday nights when we go out to eat. If I am not eating strict, I still eat as above, but I will drink wine about 3 to 4 times a week.

But, what if someone doesn’t even know what whole foods or protein or anything I mentioned above looks like. I can’t imagine someone would not know what a fruit or vegetable looks like, but I can see how someone might not know what protein or good fats are.

Fats – Considered heart healthy, good fats include olive oils, avocado oil, coconut oil (finally coming into the mainstream), grass fed butter, olives, avocados, and nuts. Nuts, need to be eaten in small quantities because a small amount packs a huge calorie and fat punch. If you like macadamia nuts, you can totally relate. Ummmmm, I ate the whole bag. Portion control is a big deal here for nuts. Fats have 9 calories per gram, as opposed to 4 for carbohydrates and meats, so you can see they are about twice the amount of calories as the other foods.

Vegetables – cabbage, spinach, lettuce, squash, celery, carrots, beets, radishes, sprouts, and things like that. Low calories, also considered carbohydrates and are considered super healthy. I love, love, love, vegetables.

Fruits – strawberries, apples, blueberries, oranges, grapefuit, raspberries, bananas. Nature’s sugar. Why in the hell would anyone add any sugar to these fresh fruits?

Protein – the meat group, beef (preferably 100 percent grass fed and finished), chicken, turkey, eggs, wild game (not touching these lips), and fish.

Let’s put a meal together now. This is a sample of what I eat when being super strict.

Breakfast: So because I know my body doesn’t function well on cereal and milk, sometimes I will eat oatmeal, not the instant though. I use the rolled oats that need to be cooked in the microwave for about 3 minutes and about 10 minutes on the stove. I then add protein powder into the oatmeal. I will also add some eggs to my breakfast. This works for my body and doesn’t give me a crash later in the morning. If I don’t eat the oatmeal, I eat eggs A LOT. I really like eggs and sausage and avocado.

Lunch: Lunch is probably the easiest meal for me. I love to have a giant bowl of spinach and cabbage or any other kind of salad as the base. I then add some tuna or chicken and a little bit of olive oil drizzled over the whole thing. Light and energizing.

Supper: Usually chicken or salmon or beef and a big pile of vegetables like broccoli and brussels sprouts, all drizzled with olive oil.

I also drink a lot of water during the day. I probably drink more than a gallon of water every day.

I rarely do dairy. My body does not like it.

The above is eating healthy, FOR ME. Although this would be a good way to eat for a lot of people, it might not be for everyone. You need to figure out what works for you.

There are so many ways of eating: Paleo, Ketogenic, low carb, low fat, high protein, and the list goes on and on. It gets confusing and it can be hard to figure out what really is healthy. THAT is where you have to experiment with things. It definitely becomes trial and error. Sometimes Paleo is awesome for people who are overweight and have Type 2 Diabetes, but it might not be for you. Eating right for you, may not mean eating right for someone else. Every single body is different and every single body reacts differently to different foods. Remember that. Just because Paleo works awesome AF for you, does not mean it is going to work like that for someone else. As much as I love Paleo, I know it’s not the only way to eat right.

Change things up until you find something that makes you feel amazing. It can be very interesting and empowering to know that you are in control of your own health. Isn’t that how it should be anyway? I think it should be. I don’t know about you, but I want to figure out things myself first.

When I get older, I don’t want to have to take a bunch of different medications to combat any problems that could have been prevented with nutrition in the first place. After all, let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food. Sound familiar?

 

 

Lose 10 pounds in 2 weeks – GUARANTEED

Lose 10 pounds in 2 weeks – GUARANTEED

Guaranteed 10 pound weight loss in 2 weeks-   Can anyone really guarantee results? Is that even possible? I see it all the time. All over the internet. All over gyms and in print ads. Back up a second. What kind of results could be