Janae Says...

Something I’ve noticed in the past two years or so is that there are cycles, or trends, if you will, in types of dieting and nutrition. I have followed people on Instagram (try @skinnymeg31 , @jazzythings , @dallassrae , @busygirlseatclean , @corinanielsen , @shivalicious89 , @trishallen , @fromfatgirlto5k , @fitalicious_me , @tastyhealth ) and watched their journeys. Some of them started overweight and lost a lot of weight. Some of them started thin and got healthy and toned. Some of them decided to do bikini and physique competitions. Some of them got to an unhealthy weight, ruined their metabolisms, or developed eating disorders. Many of them have evolved in the way they think about nutrition. While they all have had different paths, they have the same goal: health and balance. They also love food! I’ve learned a lot just by reading their posts, seeing their food, and observing their development. There are a few dieting trends I see that have lingered in the last couple of y...

I realize that a post about food may not seem like it belongs in a “workout Wednesday” post. However, health is not just about physical fitness. Health depends largely on how we eat. So I wanted to do this post to change things up a little bit and talk about food. Have you guys seen this? OK, so maybe you shouldn't be eating fake food. But that doesn't mean you can't eat healthy food that's fast, cheap, or easy. A few years ago, I started eating salads for lunch every day at work, er… almost every day. This wasn’t with the intent of a “diet” (which apparently confuses my coworkers). It was partially with the intent of making healthy eating choices for myself. But, truth be told, it was mostly with the intents of least resistance, and lowest cost. I don’t think I’m alone when I say that I don’t like for things to be huge ordeals. Humans like the path of least resistance, right? I keep my cooking as simple as possible because if I complicated it, I’d neve...

As I’ve explained in the past, my feelings on becoming a mother are very complex, too complex for just one piece of writing to suffice. I got a lot of encouraging feedback and great opinions on my last post about motherhood. I thought I may as well continue the series and articulate some more of my anxieties. The more I write, the more clarity I get. Those close to me and familiar with “personality tests” know very well that I am a blue personality. If you know anything about blues, you know that they love intensely, with just about everything they have within them. To be loved by a blue can be a pretty awesome experience, especially if you get to experience their romantic feelings. But to be loved in any regard by one of us is a gift. From all of the tender things I’ve read about motherhood and parenthood in general, the feelings of love experienced by a parent seem to be indescribable. The feelings you must have for a perfect little Spirit straight from Heaven, whom you worked wi...

Every summer I get asked by friends, family, and strangers alike, “So what do you do during the summer?” This is always asked in an interesting tone. Like, “You’re so lucky you have all that time. What could you possibly do with all that time?” I think a lot of people have images of me or other teachers just sitting on their couches in the summer. If you’ve ever had a weekend to spare as an adult where you didn’t really have any solid plans, you probably understand what it’s like when a day kind of runs away from you. If I’m being perfectly honest, some summer days are just like that for me. But I also need it. I need things to slow down, and I need to have nothing to do. The level of stress I carry during the school year is indescribable, so I and my fellow educators need to just have nothing to do. The truth is though, that most days aren’t like that. In fact, a lot of teachers spend their summers in trainings and classes, for what? To become a better teacher, of course! We hav...

I posted a long time ago about how odd it was to me to have a doctor call me “athletic.” Having never been enrolled in sports, never particularly enjoyed P.E., fallen in the higher categories for BMI, and performed well in school, this was a revelation to me. When he called me that, it was like serious validation for all the physical activity I had been doing for quite some time. I had a friend invite me to do a half marathon with her, which I ended up doing alone. Still, she invited me. During training, I would hear from all kinds of people, “Hey, I saw you running the other day.” Then a friend and fellow blogger referred to me as one of her “fit” friends. What? Really? People see me that way? And another friend asked me to do a Spartan beast training with her. And she asked me to go to a partner challenge class at her kickboxing place, which I did. And she asked me to consider doing Ragnar, which I passed on. A high school acquaintance invited me to do a workout ...

A few days ago a Facebook friend of mine posed a question: “Curious question, Facebook world - how do you decide what's worthy of a post on Facebook? I find it very interesting the wide swath of sharing. How do you decide what to post?” This got me thinking, as I actually am pretty selective about what I post these days. I remembered a funny video my friend posted a long time ago. Enjoy. I will readily admit to having been the publicly emotional girl quite a lot in my past. I think I’ve improved upon this. I try to keep posts simple, and if any of them are vague, it’s deliberately so as I don't like to get too personal on Facebook. I also used to check-in at the gym every day when I first started getting into fitness; it was more of a way to keep me accountable and help me keep track of my visits. But I realized it bugged people, and I don’t do that anymore. So I hope I no longer fall into any of those categories in the video because they all irritate me to no end. I su...

This is a topic I feel merits some attention. When it comes to exercise, form is everything. If you want to keep doing something and stay in good condition, you have to watch your form. This goes for everything, from running to weight lifting. I found myself in a conundrum in my “total body conditioning” (step interval) class last Wednesday. A lady next to me was doing deadlifts incorrectly. Her back was curved, meaning she wasn’t working the right body parts, and she could injure herself. I wanted to say something to her because I didn’t want her to get hurt, but I’m not the teacher. Tuesday in BodyCombat (kickboxing) class, a girl was lifting her head up, bending her neck, while doing crunches. This is not the right way to do a crunch, as you should focus on lifting your chin to the ceiling. Keep your chin off your chest, and let your abs do the work—not your neck. Again, they weren’t fully working the core, and could have potentially done damage to their neck. I said noth...