INSANITY- the 411

Hey! Thanks for all y’all who have watched the last video. Means a lot. I re-recorded this one and hope it’s better than the last.

WE HAVE A YOUTUBE CHANNEL!

Hi Guys!

I’ve made a youtube channel to support this blog! Please go and subscribe (if you would like to, of course) I will be posting videos as often as I can! Love you all lots, thanks for the support.

Love,
Mariah

MICROWAVE FLAXSEED WRAP

Flaxseed Wrap

     Should I start by saying ‘Happy New Year!’? I feel like you’ve probably already heard it about twenty times already. I had to take this opportunity to find a recipe I tried today! It’s amazing since it’s gluten free, low carb and quick. It’s (as you can probably tell) a flaxseed wrap! It’s so good and I’m sure you can mix it up to suit whatever’s in your pantry. The original recipe is found here!

Please try this! It’s such a good idea and massive timesaver! 

 

Ingredients: 

• 3 Tablespoons of ground flaxseed
• 1 egg (I used 3 tbs egg white)
• 1 Tbs melted coconut oil (I’m sure any other oil would also work)
• 1/4 Teaspoon of baking powder
• 1 Tablespoon of water

(These are the basic ingredients, I also added salt and curry powder to my wrap to give it more flavour so do as you will!)

 

Method:

1. Melt the coconut oil in the microwave for 20 seconds and then using 10 second burts. 
2. Add the egg and water and mix it all together. 
3. Add the ground flaxseed and your flavourings
4. Oil whatever you’re cooking it on (I just spread it on a dinner plate)
5. Microwave on high for 2 minutes
6. Allow to cool and eat!

 

This is a great, easy recipe which is super versatile and can be awesome when you’re trying not to consume too many carbs in your diet. If you try this, I’d like to know what spin you put on it- so tell me! I filled mine with a mixture of tuna, hummus and mustard, along with cucumbers, alfalfa, lettuce, carrot and avocado! It was super yum and makes for a great lunch! I think that it could be used as a tortilla as well! 

 

Have a great 2014 everyone!

 

Mariah 

 

 

INSANITY RESULTS

INSANITY | MONTH TWO?

Hey Guys,

 

If you haven’t already guessed this post is about month two of the INSANITY program! Today I did Month two, week two day 2. Wow. That’s a lot of twos! I’ve been meaning to write this post but I wanted to get through week one of month two first so that I’d have a more accurate perspective on how it is. 

I want to write a post about what I wanted to know about month two, how I find it and some tips to prepare during the gap between Month 1 and 2. Just so you know I’m only 18 so my body’s pretty much fresh from the womb and I think that makes Insanity a little easier on me… Not implying anything about you all! 

Okay! Here goes!

1. Is Month 2 hard?

For me, this is the number one question I wanted to know the answer to! I read a lot of threads and blog posts online and the people writing them were saying it’s super hard and it feels like the first week of Insanity (which I’d rather not feel again). After a week I can say that it’s not like the first week of Insanity… For me, the first week was really hard and I was really sore for the whole 6 days after every workout- even the recovery! Starting month two is easier because you’ve done month one. Essentially, the purpose of month 1 is to train for month 2. You get used to pacing and pushing yourself and learn your limits. It’s definitely more challenging than month 1 because of the length and the warm is really hard. Despite all of this, for me, I just do as many reps as I can do and I don’t feel guilty taking that break if it’s necessary. It’s all about quality you know? Just try your best and you’ll get results no doubt!

2. What can I do to prepare for Month 2? 

I know that I said that it wasn’t as hard as I expected it. Perhaps I should have lied because I think psyching myself up thinking it was going to kill me really made me feel relieved after I had done the first workout and didn’t die! During the core cardio and balance week I got really sick. Which is lucky, seeing as it was my rest week. But it kinda stuffed me up. My advice would be to 

a) Don’t slack off in the Core Cardio and balance workouts! Try hard. Shaun says not to burn yourself out etc. but I think that you shouldn’t see that as an invitation not to put in effort. Still sweat. Still pant. Still work. This will make the transition easier. 

b) In order to retain my cardio fitness I re-took up running in the mornings as well as cycling some days. I’d run about 4.5 km if I was running and ride between 6-10km if I was riding. This might seem extreme but I think doing a little extra will help you maintain your fitness. 

c) On top of the above, if I was feeling it I’d do the cardio abs or do some basic strength training (no where near as hard as Insanity). If you’ve heard of the drop 10 workout, it’s a good one to keep up your fitness (100 crunches [abs tight!], 90 jumping jacks, 80 lunges [40 ea. leg], 70 squats, 60 seconds sprinting on the spot, 50 sec plank, 40 jumping jacks, 30 squats, 20 high knees [1 rep = both legs] and 10 push ups). You’ll be so surprised how many reps you can do after working hard in month 1! 

As you can see I still worked hard during my rest week- even though I was sick! I think that this would be a good idea, if you can. It will pay off during Month 2. After everyone else has slacked off and isn’t used to working hard- you’ll still be alright!

 

This is just my personal experience and what I would advise. What you do should be up to you. Test my theory but if it’s causing you more harm than good then definitely stop. I really should be studying!!! 

 

Let me know how Month 2 goes!

 

x

Mariah

RIGHTEO END OF WEEK 4 INSANITY.

Sup peeps.

Today is day 3 of my ‘rest’ week and i’m a bit sick today but still managed to do my workout. The core cardio and balance is a pretty fun workout. I like doing the boxing exercises and this one has a fair few. I’ve been trying to keep super active so on top of that i’m running around 5km a day but today will probably do some cycling (20-40 minutes depending on how I feel)

Keep up the good work! I can’t really see any progress… I think the reason there was such a difference in my last photos compared to my first is because they’re taken a month apart. This is only a week! 

completely relaxed

Also completely relaxed.

‘normal’ (slightly contracted… This is how we are when we walk around, are just standing… we’re rarely completely relaxing our core muscles)

‘normalllz’

Whoop whoop!

Hope this is helping to push you. DIG DEEPER- If I can do insanity any of you can! Unless of course you physically can’t… then I’m sorry… BUT THE REST OF YOU. DO IT!!!

 

ily a tril.

Mariah

HEALTH POST | PANCAKES FOR THE HEALTH NUT

     After seeing a post on Cassey Ho’s blog I had to try out her two ingredient pancakes! Everyone knows that pancakes are delicious but I do know a few haters out there. Here’s a way to satisfy your pancake craving without compromising health. This recipe isn’t really low calorie but I’m sure you can make it so! I always have a breakfast which is generally higher in calories than my other meals just because I do Insanity straight after breakfast! 

     I was experimenting when I made these pancakes so there’s no set recipe but I’ll try and estimate what the measurements were because I pretty much eyeballed it. Changes in the measurements aren’t going to make a huge amount of difference. 

BLUEBERRY & BANANA PANCAKES

Ingredients: 

• 1/2 cup of blueberries (fresh or frozen)
• 1 Banana
• 1/2 cup of oats
• 1 scoop of protein powder (30g)
• 1 tsp of cinnamon 
• 1 tbs of Philadelphia cream cheese for cooking (could be ricotta, greek yogurt or other creamy goodness)
• Pinch of baking powder (I didn’t use this but I think it will make them fluffier)
• 1/2 cup of almond milk
• Greek yogurt and extra blueberries (to serve)

Method:

1. Put the banana, oats, protein powder, cinnamon, baking powder and any other flavours (peanut butter maybe?) that you want in a blender or something similar. (I used a bowl and a soup blending tool)
2. Add the cream cheese and blend. 
3. Add milk slowly until the desired consistency is reached. 
4. Blend blend blend!
5. Heat up your pan to about a medium heat. 
6. Spray with olive oil or any other oil/butter etc. 
7. Spoon some mixture onto the pan (make sure it’s a bit bigger than your spatula) and let it cook until a number of big bubbles form.
8. It’s pretty sticky but try to get the pancake onto the spatula, while it’s off the pan re-spray the surface and then flip over the pancake. 
9. Cook until… I don’t know 2-3 minutes? Then pop them on a plate!
10. Place the remaining berries for sauce in a microwave for about 40 seconds to 1 minutes
11. Stack up your pancakes and add greek yogurt and the berries
12. Voila! You’re done!

 

It’s about 522 calories+ without the sauce. I ate about 2/3 of the pancakes for breakfast this morning. So delish! 

So tell me if this recipe works! 

ily a trilly!

xx

Mariah

INSANITY PROGRESS | WEEK 2 ISH

     I’ve been so slack with uploading blog posts about my INSANITY! progress. That’s how much it’s tired me out. I can’t believe I’ve already done three weeks of this crazy program. Last week was week two and I came to the day where you do cardio abs as well as pure cardio and I’m pretty sure my face was the spitting image of grumpy cat. 

     These photos were taken close to the start of week 2. Yeah it’s not really at consistent intervals but oh well. At least I took photos okay! I’ll take more tomorrow and that can count as the next week. The title is probably more appropriate as the end of week 1. As you can see there are no photos because upon reflection I realized in the ones that I took I was wearing uniform as well as the fact all my sh*t was sprawled all over the floor. Tomorrow for sure! Now off to write a post about pancakes!

 

PANCAKES!!!!!

FASHION/PERSONAL POST | TATTOOS

     Today I wanted to talk to you all about tattoos. I know that there will be people out there who don’t like tattoos but I don’t think the point of tattoos is to please others… I love art and consider myself, at least a semi-artist. And if I’m going to have my body for the rest of my life, I’d rather it truly represent me. I love the way which tattoos can tell stories but I don’t think that all tattoos have to have a meaning- it can be purely aesthetic! I haven’t got any tattoos yet despite being 18… the reason why? a) I ain’t got enough money. b) I can’t decide what to get first! 

     I have a couple of tattoos which I am considering getting so I’ll post photos of examples of each and then a little explanation as to why I like them and blah blah blah. 

The first one which was my first idea for a tattoo is this cross. I actually would like it on the other side of the same finger as in the photo. I do believe in God so I guess that’s part of it and it’s also a large part of what I believe in in terms of morals etc. There are a lot of bad stereotypes surrounding Christians so I hope that this alone hasn’t swayed your opinion of me. 

I absolutely love this arrow tattoo! I think that I would only get one if I did. It doesn’t really have a meaning. It’s loosely about achieving your goals. You can do anything you aim for you know? 

 

The next tattoo which I am considering is a compass. After seeing Dani (Who is Sammi from BeautyCrush’s sister) and her compass tattoo and its meaning I fell in love. I think we’ve all had struggles with who we are and things like that. The compass is a symbol of finding who you are. I’d actually prefer a more simple design. Maybe an upwards pointing arrow with an ‘N’, representing true North, which is for me, a symbol of who you are, True North is always True North, and you are always you! 

 

Yay you can see the source! This is another tattoo which I love. I lied before… This is the first tattoo that I ever wanted. It has little to no meaning… I just think it looks beautiful and feminine. I love it behind the ear as a little detail. 

I’m sure most of you have probably seen this tattoo and I’m not even planning on getting it. It’s just an example of a Disney tattoo. Like most girls Disney was a big part of my childhood and I was in love with Aladdin! I would love to get an Aladdin tattoo but It’d have to be simple… So I’m not sure about that. 

Firstly… I love finger tattoos. And I love all of the ones above but I’d like to draw your attention to the triforce. The triforce is incredibly close to my heart as it was a huge part of my childhood… like massive! I wouldn’t call myself a hardcore Zelda fan but my grandpa introduced my siblings and I to Zelda and I don’t know who I’d be without it. It seems so stupid but it’s a huge part of me. The three components of the triforce also represent my brother, sister and me. Zelda was something that united us… even if we fought over the controller! When we played Zelda it was mostly me and my younger brother so it’s more about him because my sister was very very young. From the length of this paragraph you can tell how much I love this tattoo! I LOVE IT. 

SO CUTE! Yes I want a panda carved into my body with a needle filled with ink. I don’t think I want one this cutesy but I think the general concept is aligned with me. I just want the black facial features. The reason for this is that I love animals and as you probably know, the WWF has a panda as their logo. I’m so passionate about conservation etc. but also human rights so I’d like to find a tattoo to embody that as well. I hope to become a vet some day so I think that reflects this. 

 

Dear whoever took this photo… it’s terrible quality. I also wanted to get a tattoo of the Egyptian hieroglyphic owl. It’s the letter for ‘M’… which is my initial. I was inspired after my friend got a tattoo of the reed  for her name on her ribs. Also the owl is a symbol of wisdom which relates to my Chinese name as it means ‘poetry and wisdom’. So this tattoo relates to my identity in terms of my name. 

I couldn’t find a photo of this but I would also consider getting a tattoo of the sign or constellation of Gemini. I am a gemini and even though I don’t really ‘believe’ in astrology I think it’s a good symbol. Besides the fact I can be very varying in personality, it’s also about choice. I think that Gemini is a good symbol for the choices we make and the choices I’ve made in the past, a reminder I’ve made good and bad decisions. 

 

This has been an incredibly long post! Comment which one you like best (if you made it through this post without falling asleep) 

 

ily a trillyyyy

x

 

FASHION/HEALTH/BEAUTY POST | OOTD (+ RAMBLINGS)

Hey all! Today I’m just going to give you a run down of my OOTD for last weekend. I went with my Mum and sister to go and watch my sister compete in dance competitions as she is in a tap trio. The girls won which was awesome but I whipped up a sweet outfit (I actually whipped up two but I forgot to photograph it) so here it goes!

LET’S GET DOWN TO BUSINESS (note the Mulan reference)

This photo is very strangely cropped due to the fact that my sister was in it and I wasn’t really sure if she’d want her face broadcasted to the world. I just went for the usual casual/grunge/typical look today.

Headband- No idea (Mum’s)

Boots- Novo

Blue/green pleather skirt- Glassons

T- Local Thrift Store

Coat- Sportsgirl

Bag- Thrifted

close up of le bag

MAKE UP

don’t mind the nose piercing retainer

     Yeah not gonna lie my nose piercing retainer is highly seductive in this picture. Just thought I’d let y’all see what’s on my face! Just your basic brown toned eyeshadow with winged liner, bronzer for contour as well as a nice bright blush. For lips (kinda looks yuck in this photo) it’s a nude lipstick on the outer edges with a coral gloss in the center! 

HEALTH (more like food) 

     I went to a cafe called Rebecca’s at Port Fairy which was awesome! I ordered this lentil burger which is actually more like a falafel. There was also a pumpkin and cous cous burger available which I decided against just because I wasn’t sure how much cous cous there would be in the burger.

     This little beauty here was actually deep fried- which I was not a fan of and the burger wasn’t actually that tasty. However, the salad was so yummy and it was served with this warm, home-made sweet chilli sauce which is soo good. It also came with avocado- one of my true loves. So I was pretty happy. The bread is sourdough but I didn’t eat it so… let’s assume it was yummy.

Hope you enjoyed reading this!

ily a trilly x