Happy Thanksgiving – What are you thankful for?

Thanksgiving, Happy Thanksgiving, Acorn

I know this seems a bit “cliche” but I figure, there is no other way to spend this Holiday. If you don’t celebrate this holiday, you can still do this activity, because it should be everyday that we are thankful for something. I thought about doing a special “Thanksgiving” video, but I had just woken up and decided no one wants to see this! lol. Instead I decided to write this blog post instead. Please reblog it, and share it with your readers, I am hoping it gets to as many people as possible… a chain reaction! – Shay-lon Moss

Tell me readers, what are YOU thankful for? – It can be one thing or many things, it can be people, objects, relationships, etc. There is no limit to this. I would love to come back from my weekend away and read everything all of you have said you are thankful for.  Let this be a reminder, what being thankful actually means: Please & relieved, expressing gratitude. 

I will start this off with what I am thankful for.. 

  1. For being able to see 24 years of my life
  2. Spending another Thanksgiving with my loved ones
  3. Having the courage to create this blog – and speaking to wonderful people
  4. Family & Friends 

Of course the list could go on and on and on.. but it is now your turn.. WHAT ARE YOU THANKFUL FOR?

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving Everyone! 

Your blogger friend,

Shay-lon Moss

Sweet Potatoes!

Sweet Potato, Red Purple, Pile Up, Fruit

That is right! I don’t like sweet potatoes, never have and probably never will. Why? because they are gross. I don’t see how people can enjoy them so much, even most of my family love it, except for my two siblings. Another thing is, I see everyone all over social media who is into “eating healthy” and fitness sharing pictures of sweet potato dishes – I am over here like.. seriously.. -_- 

Part of me is jealous, because I wish I could stand to eat them, but then part of me is like.. hahahahahahhahaahhaha have your sweet potatoes; I will continue to eat my russet (even if isn’t the “best” choice). Anyways after seeing so many pictures, dishes, recipes dealing with sweet potatoes, I decided I would make a blog post about it (in a good way) and share with you the benefits of adding sweet potatoes in your diet and then maybe you can decide why it is such a popular choice for health experts. 

 

Why, Oh why, The Sweet Potato?

 
  1. They are inexpensive
  2. available all year long in most places
  3. High in vitamin B6
  4. Vitamin C
  5. Vitamin D
  6. Have Iron and promote a healthy immune system
  7. Good source of magnesium
  8. Potassium
  9. Do not cause blood sugar spikes
  10. Anti-inflammatory nutrients
  11. Antioxidant nutrients
  12. promote healthy skin and hair
  13. good for stress because of the magnesium
  14. good source of dietary fiber
  15. Have said in studies to help prevent cancer – and protect against the effects of aging

Also, Yams and sweet potatoes are two different things that look a lot alike and many people do not know this, YAMS are rarely sold in most stores in the U.S and as said before sweet potatoes are widely available. 

So for these reasons, I wish I could eat sweet potatoes and enjoy it, hell I wish I liked YAMS too, but I don’t. Do any of you not like sweet potatoes? do any of you love them? share your thoughts on sweet potatoes in the common section and don’t forget to share this post on social media so people you know can be informed about this lovely food!

 

Your Fitness blogger,

Shay-lon xxx

My Gym Workout – Nov. 23rd

Sport, Exercise, Gym, Dumbbell, Health

Hello FitFam,

I have to admit by saying that today I was not prepared for the gym, not that my body was hurting or my brain wasn’t functioning right, it was the fact that I had not came into the gym with a plan written down for my workouts. I have been doing well with having my workouts written down prior to entering the gym, I bring my notepad and a pen with me and write down the amount of weight as I stroll along, but today it was a blank canvas and it caught me off guard. I was close to calling it a “cardio” day but if I did cardio for a full hour or so, then my gains would risk leaving. What I did instead was call it an upper body/Ab day since leg day was yesterday and I didn’t have any particular parts of the body that I wanted to work on today. With this being said, it was a short list, simple list but exercise doesn’t haven’t to be long and complex to be beneficial. 

 

Warm up:

 
  • I didn’t perform a proper warm up because I was too cool for that today. 

Workout Session:

  • One arm pulley row (pyramid): 4 x 12, 20lb, 27.5lb, 35lb, 42.5lb
  • Dual pulley row (Pyramid): 3 x 12, 27.5lb, 35lb, 42.5lb
  • Triceps pushdowns (pyramid): 4 x 12, 20lb, 30lb, 40lb, 50lb
  • Abdominal crunch machine: 5 x 20, 70lb
  • Triceps dip (standing): 4 x 12
  • Cable Crossover: 4 x 10, 20lb
  • lat pulldown machine: 3 x 12, 70lb
  • cable curls: 4 x 8, 25lb
  • cable upright rows: 5 x 8, 25lb

That is all folks, because I did not do a proper cool down neither. Tomorrow the gym closes at noon for Thanksgiving and reopens on Friday. Chances are, I will be at the gym tomorrow, but not on my blog tomorrow because I have cooking to do and getting ready for the dinner. I most likely will not be on my blog Friday because I have to work all day, but if I find time, I will. The weekend I will not be on the blog because I give those days to myself. If I don’t speak to you before than, have a wonderful Thanksgiving! also feel free to share workouts in the comment section.

 

Your Fitness blogger, 

Shay-lon xxxx

Period Cramps & Exercise

So… Some of you are perhaps thinking, is she really about to talk about periods… and then equate it with exercise? Will this really about periods, or is she kidding? OMG PERIODS!! NO..GROSS.. I DO NOT WANT TO HEAR OR LEARN ABOUT FEMALE PERIODS. Let me break the ice by saying, this is less about periods and more about how to exercise/what exercises one should do on their periods when experiencing cramps. Now my answers are not 100% because we all experience different periods, some are longer, some are shorter, some have no cramping, some have a lot of cramping, some have heavy flow and some have light flow, some have angry bitch face and some have happy smiles, some have take 10 pills make it go away, some have 2 Ibuprofens and we are good, some have birth control, others do not, some have 1 pad, some have 2- or more, some have tampons that need replaced in minutes, some have tampons that need replaced in hours, some say sex helps, others do not, some have just recently hit puberty and some have hit menopause, some are young, some are older, some are vomit, some do not, some take showers during this time and some do not! lol.. okay but seriously, everyone gets the point, our periods are all different. This is why I am going to speak from my own experience & then also give some advice that others have shared with me. 

 

Periods. Periods. Periods. Periods. Periods. Periods. Periods. Say it all together now. PERIODS! I did this exercise in hopes that as adults we can get past the fact we will be discussing the female vagina excreting blood and ways to stay fit while doing so. If this seems like something you cannot handle, feel free to skip to my blog post where it shows me doing the side-lying leg raise where periods will not be present. Men, this information could be helpful for your spouse, girlfriend, bestfriend, mom, so please don’t dismiss it. 

 

Class is now in session…For starters, I have issues. Not the type of issues that send me to the mental ward, but the kind that physically tears me down and makes me hate my life once a month. I have for one have endometriosis, secondly have I have cyst in my ovaries (that are not cancerous but Dr’s won’t remove because of my age), I have another dysfunction dysmenorrhea. I will explain these terms so you are that much smarter:

 
  • Endometriosis: A disorder in which tissue that normally lines the uterus grows outside the uterus. 
  • Dysmenorrhea: Painful cramps that may occur immediately before or during the menstrual cycle.

I have had both of these issues since the very first day of having a period, but wasn’t diagnosed until my late teens, early adult hood. I have been on medicines since then. I have had to go through so many medications that naming them all would take some time and I don’t have that. I will make mention that birth control pills do not help me, I gained weight and stopped taking them. I have had to up my doses in meds because I get immune to them fairly quickly. I currently am taking a different medicine and one pill is 800mg but I believe it is no longer strong enough for me, so I will either take more than one pill . or have my Dr. up my dose or try me on something different. I will soon need to make an appointment with my GYNO Dr, to see if anything else is up with my body. I have thought about surgery since I do not want kids, but that is out of the question because of my age. Anywho long story short I am okay and healthy! thanks for the concern, but when my monster comes around each month.. well.. people will know.. because well… my moods. In my particular situation, I don’t find that exercise is comfortable on my first day of my period (because that is when all HELL breaks lose for me) – so instead, I will workout the days leading after that, thankfully mine only last 4 days, so it flies by fairly fast. For others, exercise is not an option & that is fine. We will drop you off at this stop. 

 

Next stop… Exercise is bound to be odd on your period (for those that do exercise when on their period), you may feel gross, uncomfortable and will most likely not want to participate in any high intensity exercises. This is how I feel.

 

What do we do…  

  1. Walk. Walking gets you moving without injury or danger, light walking, nothing too fast
  2. Runners have said it helps to do light jogs, maybe for you this is true, not for me
  3. Yoga. Choose a Yoga class that doesn’t require anything that would cause you to be uncomfortable while on your period
  4. Planks- planks are easy to do while on your period.
  5. Swimming- it can be relaxing because of the water hitting our tummies just right

Anything more than these would be individual to each person. Maybe nothing on this list works for you, then you will need to find your own relief another way. It is appropriate to lay down on your period and get sleep, drink water and take it easy but because I can’t stand bloating, gaining weight and feeling somewhat lazy, I like to do exercises my 2nd to 4th day of being on my period. I hope all of you women will find this list to be beneficial, also feel free to share exercises you do while on your period! 

 

Your fitness blogger,

Shay-lon xxxx

Topic Tuesday YouTube Fitness Video

“Side-lying leg raises”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WJk-e_5bt14