Fit Tuesday: Inner Thighs

Hey there!! Recently a long-time reader, and great blogger tweeted me to ask if I'd post a Fit Tuesday on Inner Thighs, so here you go! Oh, and please don't be scared jealous of my sexy hair!! It took a long time to do it, sorry, no tutorials on this one! :)

I want to start by saying, if you have target areas that you'd like to improve- do focus on them, but don't isolate those areas all the time. It's good to keep your workouts varied and to continue working your whole body including your "trouble spots." Here are a couple of my favorite inner thigh moves:

1. Plie'- These are a move I learned in ballet! Plie' is actually a French word. Anyway, stand with your feet a bit wider than your hips and bend until your thighs are parallel to the ground. You may do these with your arms straight out in front of you, out to the sides in a "T" or add resistance like I did, with weights! Do these for about 46-60 seconds.

           

*be sure to tuck your butt under while you do these and keep your abs tight!!

2. Chair kicks: Stand straight up behind a chair and kick your leg inward as shown in the photo. Swing each leg in and out for about 45 seconds per set, in a controlled manner. Keep your abs tight!!

{via}

3. Lunges: Most of you know what a proper lunge looks like. You can do these with weights as well! 

4. V-Sits: I love these!! Begin with your legs out in a V shape, a couple inches off of the ground, and lift them to a 45* angle. Keep doing these in a controlled motion for 45-60 second sets! Keep those abs in :)

3. Lateral Band Walks: Both legs should be in a mini band, just below your knees. Then walk side steps for 20 feet, then back 20 feet!

4. Single-Arm Dumbell Swing! Challenge!! Grab your dumbell with an overhand grip. hold in front of you at waist level. Bend at hips and knees and lower torso to 45* angle to the floor. Swing dumbell between legs. Next, keeping arm straight, thrust hips forward and straighten your knees. Bring dumb bell to chest as you stand up. Now squat back down and do over...

Last 2 taken from Women's Health BIG Book of Exercises

Need a break?? Go enter my $50.00  SPA GIFT CARD GIVEAWAY  Sponsored by Trop50 NOW!

Any other favorite thigh exercises you like??

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Or ask questions via Formspring!

Thirsty?? And SPA GIVEAWAY!!!

Happy Tuesday, friends!! No, I haven't forgotten FT {Fit Tuesday}- it's coming later. I wanted to tell you about something! If you've been reading for awhile you may or may not know that I rarely drink anything other than water. I also detest milk!! Milk of any kind... soy, almond, etc. I haven't even tasted any since I was very little. Anyway, I was contacted by Trop50 recently. They wanted to know if I'd be willing to review their orange juice. At first I wasn't sure. I want to stay true to who I am here, and keep it real with you all. However,  I saw that they have one that's fortified with Vitamin D and Calcium. BINGO!! I am always trying to find ways to get those two nutrients in my body with more than just vitamin supplements, so I was sold. I picked up my Trop50 this weekend. I got the pulp-free, Vitamin D and Calcium fortified. I rarely drink any juices, so I just had a small glass... it was so good that I went ahead and got two refills over the next hour or so! It's called Trop50 because it has 50% of the sugar and calories than their regular orange juice with just 50 calories per serving!! I also liked this since I prefer to eat my calories rather than drink them!

My friends at Trop50 are so awesome that they also want to offer a Fierce|Fabulous|Fit reader a $50.00 SPA AND WELLNESS GIFT CARD*!!

participating spas

{Rules to Enter}

"Like" Trop50 on Facebook

"Like" Fierce|Fabulous|Fit on Facebook and

for an extra entry tweet about the giveaway and tag with #Trop50
for a 3rd entry, follow FFF on GFC or BlogLovin' {tell me which in your comment}

Feel free to copy and paste this tweet:

I just entered the #Trop50 Spa & Wellness giveaway @fiercefabfit you can too, here: http://ow.ly/8MZVn 

 also, be sure to leave your email address so I can contact you if you win!! :)


Please leave a comment when you have liked both FB pages, and a seperate comment if you tweeted about the giveaway or followed FFF!!! 

Winners will be announced on Tuesday February 7th!

Another fun thing is, if you head over to the Trop50 Facebook page {HERE } to learn about their Trop50 True Resolutionspromotion; tell Top50 about a resolution or goal YOU have for the year of 2012, and enter to win Trop50 coupons for you and your friends! Enter NOW,  because it ends TODAY!!
True Resolutions

I received the product mentioned above free of charge for editorial consideration, and I’m also eligible for additional incentives. However, all opinions expressed are 100% my own

Come back later for Fit Tuesday: INNER THIGHS!! Post will be up around 6:30 pm pacific time.

Do you like what you see? Consider following along:

 

You may also find me on  Facebook & Twitter

Or ask questions via Formspring!

Goodbye, Google Friend Connect!

By now I'm sure most of you have heard that Google Friend Connect is going away. I have to be honest, I'm super bummed about it. I've really enjoyed seeing that number go up almost daily over the past few weeks. It feels so good every time I notice that one more person made the decision to click "follow." Well, Google has decided to do away with it, likely to force us all to use Google + more. I am still considering this, but to be honest with you, I'm not sure Fierce|Fabulous|Fit will move in that direction. I just don't like Google+ that much. However, There are other ways to follow! If you're on Facebook, you can follow there. I usually post my posts on my Facebook page as I publish them. Like me on Facebook HERE. Then, there's BlogLovin'. BlogLovin' is actually what I use to follow blogs! Click here:

to follow me on BlogLovin'. BL will automatically post when I publish, and it keeps track of which posts you've read. If you're a reader and a blogger I would highly suggest this site to follow your blogs with! All the other ways to follow along including RSS and getting my posts in your email inbox are through the icons in the upper right corner of my blog page. Those include email, RSS, Twitter, Facebook, BlogLovin', Pinterest, and Formspring.

Bloggers, what are you doing to replace GFC?


What is your preferred way to follow your favorite blogs?

A HUGE thank you for the outpouring of love and support on THIS post the other day... your kind words and tweets mean so much to me during this time and always! If I haven't responded to your tweet, comment or email yet, I'm getting to you!! Promise :)


XO,

Do you like what you see? Consider following along:
 

You may also find me on  Facebook & Twitter

Or ask questions via Formspring!

FBFF: New Trends

Katy over at ModlyChic, is the founder of Fashion/Beauty Friend Friday {FBFF}. Each week, Katy puts some thought provoking questions together and emails them to us. On Friday we all post our responses. It's s a fun, diverse and creative blog community! If you're interested in being a part of this fabulous group, head over to Katy's FBFF page for details


1. With Fashion week just around the corner, we are all beginning to
focus on the upcoming trends for fall. But what about the trends
hitting stores now? What are you coveting?

Metallic Basics and Bright Orange pieces are two trends that I'm really into!!

{via}

{via}

2. How do you incorporate new trends into your wardrobe?

When I want to try a new trend I don't usually splurge on it right away. I'll usually purchase an affordable piece- faux leather for example, before buying the spendy version. I do this to try it out and make sure I'm really feeling it before I go spend a fortune on it and then decide I'm not into it. 

3. What trend are you seeing and not loving?

Peplum. I'm really not into it!!

4. Do you feel the pressure to constantly update your closet with the
latest trends?
No, I really don't. I feel pressure to constantly update my closet with stuff I love though!! *wink, wink*

5. Where do you find inspiration that takes the trend and makes it
accessible to you and your personal taste?

Tweaking editorial looks in magazines, on television and most of all, fellow bloggers. 

It's fun to be back into FBFF, right??

If you haven't done so yet, please check out my post from yesterday. 

{Stepping Out of A Dark Place} It took a lot of courage to publish. It's definitely the most transparent and vulnerable I've gotten on the blog before. I'd love the support!

XO,

FFF on Bloglovin' | FFF on Facebook | FFF on Twitter

Stepping Out of A Dark Place

I wasn't sure if I'd have to courage to publish this post or not. If you follow me on Twitter, you may know that today just wasn't good. Getting out of bed felt like the hardest thing I've ever done, and when I finally did get up {late} and dragged myself to work looking like hell, I had no motivation to do anything. I have had more and more days like this lately. Depression is something I've battled for many years. I think partly it's in my genes, partly due to battling chronic illness, and who knows why else... anyway, I've been on anti-depressants off and on for most of my 20's and have struggled off and on regardless. I felt like there was a major dip in my mood accompanied by anxiety over the past few weeks. Nothing suicidal or anything, but I just get so down, lose my motivation and get extremely anxious!! Today I felt like I needed to either get in my bed and hide from the world, or go do something. So I took a long lunch break and hit the stairs. I hadn't ran them in quite awhile due to all of the rain here. The stairs are old and uneven, so they tend to be slippery and unsafe after days of rain. But today there was a break in the rain {thank you, God} and I decided to put on my running shoes and hit go for it!! I had to keep it short {about 30} minutes, since I wasn't properly fueled for a workout and hadn't drank enough water. But I feel so. much. better.

I hope this doesn't sound like a sob story, that's not what it's meant to be. I know I'm not the only one who suffers from depression and anxiety. Depression is so isolating if you allow it to be. So is anxiety. I think they have more power in isolation. Not talking about it is what {I believe} sends you spiraling deeper. So here I am, talking. I feel like the past few weeks I've really struggled to put on a happy face, to get dressed to get work done, to just do life. In light of this, I am making a conscious effort not to be silent about it, and to keep pushing myself and to seek support when I need it. I'm hoping to have more outfit posts as accountability to get moving and get really dressed. Not for vanity but because, let's face it- it feels good to look good. As far as support goes, my best friend and my love and two solid rocks in my life. I tell both of them everything and although J doesn't know what anxiety feels like, he listens and comforts me. He also reminds me that God is my rock. He helps me remember that I am never alone.

Stopping everything in the middle of the day and running the stairs probably sounds really odd, but it helped so much!! The endorphins are flowing and although I'm still a little down, I feel more hopeful and more energized! The stairs are a challenging workout. I always feel accomplished after pounding out a few sets of those. {It's a really good workout, I'll post the details of it soon, I just didn't want to take away from the post}

city view from the top of the stairs

I want to make an important distinction here. There are bad days and there is clinical depression. I know I battle clinical depression. I do take medication for it daily, but that doesn't completely keep the dark days/weeks away. I'm choosing to be proactive right now, and for me, that includes activity and sticking to the goals I mentioned above.

This was a tough post for me to write. I strive to be honest on my blog, and I wanted to be honest about this. I think often when reading blogs you see "happy" people and all the "happy" things in their lives. Bloggers don't always share the hard stuff. I'm such an advocate for wellness, and I wanted to share with you all that I'm not perfect. I'm not always well, but I'm working on it. I also want to give credit to Jessica and Elissa. These two women write the most courageous posts, and their courage gave me the extra push to be more vulnerable to all of you. It was really hard for me to know the right words to say. I just spoke from my heart. So that's me, getting vulnerable and being transparent. I just want to walk it like I talk it. Thank you, all of you for reading. It brings me joy to post about my passions and to get your comments, emails, tweets, fb likes, follows, etc. I appreciate each and every one of you and I know there are brighter days ahead!!

sweaty with a genuine smile after my stair run!

Much Love,

FFF on Bloglovin' | FFF on Facebook | FFF on Twitter

Wednesday Link Love

Hi Friends!!

I don't usually do these posts, but there are a few posts I read in the last couple of days that I felt I should share with you:

 + Fitness Goals by Jessica over at Monster-Cakes This is a short and sweet post about Jessica's fitness goals. What I love about it, is it's all about loving YOU! Go, Jessica! Ah, I love her blog!!

+Things Blogging has Taught Me by Lindsay at Lean Green Bean. Bloggers, we can all relate no matter what your blog is about! Check her out!!

+ Weight Loss Journey: Tale of Mother and Daughter by Collette over at Statements in Fashion Looking at her you would never know that she's a Weight Watchers member who has lost a significant amount of weight. Way to go, Collette! Read this post to see how her and her daughter have found their healthy lifestyles!

+ Polka Dot Jeans and My Relationship With Food by Elissa at Dress with Courage If you've ever read Elissa's blog, you know it's filled with eloquent posts from the heart. Her honestly and transparency is something I value so much. Her posts are thought-provoking and inspiring and she is a truly gifted writer!!

+ My New Favorite Song and... by Janae at Hungry Runner Girl Check out how she does workouts with her playlists!! It's simply brilliant!

+ Trick Up the Sleeve by Dani at Life's A Journal featured a really cool DIY on how to turn your blazer into a statement piece!! I might have to try this one :)

A little something for you to ponder:

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A {Semi} Wordless Fit Tuesday

Today's Fit Tuesday is brought to you by:

PINTEREST

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Source: tumblr.com via Krystle on Pinterest

COMING SOON: The Wellness Project. Check it out and consider participating!!

I made some too!! :)

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Which of these do you find most motivating or inspiring? 

Do you have any favorite motivational/fitness quotes? If so, please share them!