I am so excited to share my fitness journey in more detail with each of you through my lifestyle blog.  The truth is, I have struggled and had to work very hard to maintain my weight since a very young age.  I would easily say my freshman year of high school is when I was no longer “naturally skinny”, but because of that, I have learned to be very disciplined and created some healthy fitness habits along the way.

3 years ago I reached my all time heaviest.  I decided then to change my lifestyle.  I am proud to say I have lost 38 pounds and am in the best shape of my life!

The truth is – there’s no special secret to my regiment.  I eat healthy and work out regularly.  I do not take diet pills or follow any fad or crash course diets.  I believe that eating is 75% of the equation whether you are trying to lose weight or tone up.  The other 25% comes from cardio and weights.  Notice I said “and weights”.  Cardio is only going to burn calories and increase your stamina and get your heart rate up, where weights will help build muscle.  The more muscle (of course in a feminine, not bulky way for my liking) the more calories your body will naturally burn to maintain itself. I am by no means a fitness trainer, but I can be an encourager and an inspiration through my posts.

I do not eat out for lunch during the week nor do I eat out during the week at all, minus Friday evenings sometimes.  I also do not drink any alcohol, instead primarily water during the week.  Saturday is my day to be the most lax in my diet and drink a couple vodka drinks and/or wine.  Sunday I am typically a little lax on breakfast and lunch, but by that evening I am back to eating clean and healthy in my kitchen at home in preparation for the upcoming week.

As far as the workout side of my fitness journey, I try to do a cardio workout at least 4-5 times a week.  That may be going on a neighborhood walk with our bulldog, playing kickball with my hubby or walking on incline on the treadmill for 30 minutes at the gym.  Monday I try to make my full body day where I push to burn off everything I ate off the diet that weekend. And then i try to lift weights 2-3 times a week.  Past Monday, when I lift, I then do more of a target group.  Like legs, core, upper body, etc.  I used to be sooooo scared of weights because with my figure, I can easily bulk up.   However, weight training is what builds muscle and strength and has allowed me the most recent shred that I love seeing.  Just be sure to stretch well and still get in plenty cardio and you should be fine.

You can see a lot of my previous workout videos on my instagram account (@randacarrabba), but to give you an example of a full body workout, here it is.  Again, I like to focus the full body workout on Monday to get the week kicked off and going!

xo,