Guest Blogger: 2 Girls, a Guy and a Diet

Sandy and I have been BFF's since high school, in dance gym.

Because we could not dance. So we bonded instead. We also passed notes in math class senior year. Neither one of us did well until I dropped it for freshman art, and she went on to ace the course.

I wrote about her on this blog before, when she got engaged!

I just adore Sandy. She's smart and funny and gorgeous, and I compare us to Jess and CeCe on New Girl. Perhaps just because I'm awkward and she's a model, but that's a good enough comparison, no?

She's much too far away in Iowa, but one month from now, we will be reunited!

Anyway, Sandy, her fiance, and her roommate started a blog recently, and I was so excited that I wanted her to guest post for me pretty much immediately.

I will shut up now and let her take over, but be sure to stop by and show them some love! 

Find their blog here.

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Hello to all of Heather's readers!

I'm Sandy!  I'm honored to do a guest post for my dear Heather.  I've known her since sophomore year of high school and we've been attached since.  I couldn't ask for a better bestie.

And now, the point of this post!

If you're anything like me, its difficult to commit to a diet.  I'm all talk when it comes to sticking to a regime/exercising.  The initial excitement of coming up with rules for a diet and grocery shopping (and buying workout clothes I never use but spend a fortune on), it ends there.  

But after numerous failed attempts, I think I've zeroed in on what to do to keep my mind strong and focused on doing what I set out to do: get healthy and happy.

To the sweet tooth's (ME!!)

Ugh, no matter how well I'm doing during the day, there is always a time of night when all of a sudden, I can't get my mind off chocolate and ice cream.  So here are some easy ways to indulge and not be horrible to your diet.

1. Banana with 1-2 tablespoons of natural peanut butter and a tablespoon of Nutella.  You can even add a little bit of fat free Cool Whip.  Just spread it all over the banana and eat!  Its seriously satisfying.

2. Baked apples.  YUM.  Just take 2-3 apples (Honeycrisp holds up best) and cut out the cores and place in a glass dish.  Mix a cup of old-fashioned oats, 1.5 cup of vanilla almond milk, 1 tsp cinnamon and nutmeg, and sweetener (that's optional).   Stuff the apple with the mix and pour everything that's remaining (including the milk) into the ban surrounding the apples.  Preheat your oven to 400 and bake until your apple is firm but soft on the outside.  Your milk should have been absorbed by the oats.  Bake for about 30 minutes.  Top your apples with low fat vanilla ice cream or Cool Whip.  To add sweetness, add natural maple syrup.

To the serial non-committals and beginners:

1. Friends are motivation.  The more you recruit to diet or exercise with you, the more likely you are to stick to your plan.

2. Look for group fitness classes!  Honestly, when you're working out with a bunch of other people, you're less likely to stop halfway through or get too lazy to continue participating.  Fun (and heavy cardio) options include kickboxing and Zumba. 

3. Don't bite off more than you can chew.  To jump from no exercise and poor eating to cutting junk food out completely and going to the gym every day of the week is a HUGE change.  Start slow, if you're starting from nothing, plan on 2-3 days of cardio a week and cutting meat out one full day a week.  Make it a rule to not eat after dinner or walk to class instead of taking the bus.  Cut the number of calories you eat by 100 a week until you're eating how much you expect to be eating to lose weight.

4. Motivate yourself!  Put a dollar in a jar for every workout you do.  After a month, you have enough to eat out with your friends or buy something small and for yourself.

5. Keep a log of EVERYTHING you eat during the day.  No matter how small or insignificant.  Studies have shown people who calorie-log lose more weight.

6. Drink water!  I used to hate water and looooveee sugary-carbonated drinks.  Start to cut out how much non-diet soda you drink.  Once you've made a complete switch to diet, start to limit yourself to one soda a day.  Over weeks, cut out another day of no soda until you eliminate the habit completely.  Indulge once in a while though!  Like when you eat at restaurants, etc. It gets easier and no one will be prouder of you than yourself if you stick to your goals.

Thanks for reading!  My roommates and I are newbies to the blogging world and just published ours online.  So visit! http://3collegeroomies.blogspot.com/

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