♡ Challenge Yourself- Blogilates & Paleo waffles

Hey there! As you know from my May Favorites post I have recently found Blogilates on youtube, it is a blog as well and the writer Cassey creates monthly fitness calenders with different combonations of her videos for different areas of the body. As soon as I found her channel I totally fell in love with her workout routines! They are so fun and challenging. Which is great, one of my favorite fitness quotes is "If it doesn't challenge you, it doesn't change you", and that's so true. 
I think my body got used to my old routine, even if I switched up the moves I wasn't pushing myself, and if you don't push yourself you don't get stronger or leaner. I found her beginners calender on her blog and printed it out, since I'm the only one in my family who is this much of a fitness junkie I have no one to do it with around here, so Micah (my boyfriend) is doing it with me! Not always the blogilates workouts, but just keeping up with exercise in general. :) It makes me realize how strong I am and how strong I THOUGHT I was. :P Cassey is kicking my butt with these routines....Literally :P

They are great though! I just got through the first week and it was hard, but worth it. I feel so motivated to get my body to the place I want it to be. Please know I'm not doing this to "get skinny"...I don't want to be skinny. I want to be TONED. And my point of this is to take special care of my body.

Here are some of my favorite blogilates videos!
5 Best Thigh Slimmers
5 Best Butt Moves
Perfect Legs Workout
Hips, Butt, and Thighs
Toned Arms & Sculpted Back
Butt Lift & Slim Thighs
Feel Good Soul Stretches
What Makes You Bootyful

Along with the workouts I'm trying to be healthier in my eating habits. My main goals are to not eat so much, limit my sugar, and limit my intake of packaged foods. Pretty much just to keep a clean diet: Fruits, veggies, fish, lean meats, nuts and seeds. So..paleo pretty much. I'm still gonna let myself have those not-good-for-you foods, but just not as often or as much.
Here have been some of my favorite meals I've been enjoying over the past week...

 I had a tuna melt- tuna, extra sharp cheddar cheese, spinach and carrots on a GF wrap.
Raw carrots, and quinoa mixed with spinach.

 Yummy chicken salad with baby spring mix, chicken strips, oranges, carrots, and orange poppy seed dressing.

 One of my work lunches was a quinoa salad with lettuce, kale, broccoli, and carrots.

 Some broccoli and carrots before I steamed them.

 And here are the steamed veggies with some chicken strips. And a side of salad- baby spring mix, carrots, orange and pineapple.

 Okay this had to be my all time favorite salad. Baby spring mix, spinach and romaine with chicken, oranges, berries and pecans....I could eat a salad like this twice a day! So good!

 Here is a pre workout breakfast. A banana, peanut butter, pecans and applesauce.

I gotta say I think these are the best paleo waffles I've ever made! Here's the recipe...

Original recipe:

• 
4 eggs, separated
• 
2 Tbsp. coconut oil, melted
• 1 tsp. vanilla
• 1/2 tsp. baking soda
• 1/8 tsp. salt
• 1/4 tsp.  cinnamon
• 1/3 cup almond milk or coconut milk
• 1/4 cup coconut flour
• 1/2 Tbsp. honey

Mine: 
I used 3 eggs and 1/4 mashed banana. And since coconut flour has a gritty/dry texture I only did half coconut flour and the rest arrowroot powder and that made the texture SO much better!! Everything else I left the same but added chopped pecans and chocolate chips.They were soft, light, fluffy and AMAZING!! So please try using the arrowroot if you make these!
*You can also add 1/2 cup of oats to add some more protein. :)

What to do:
In the bowl of a large mixer, beat egg whites until stiff peaks form. In a separate bowl, sift together coconut flour, baking soda, salt and cinnamon. In a medium bowl, mix together coconut oil, vanilla, almond milk, egg yolks, banana, and honey. Stir the coconut flour mix into the egg yolk mix.
Mine only needed to cook for about 6 or 7 minutes, keep an eye on them cause they burn easy. 

So there is what I've been doing to challenge myself! I'd love if you joined me with this healthy life style. It's so worth it!!

Stay Healthy,
Taylor