fitness – Cactus and the Wave

sweat challenge: new year, new booty!

December 1, 2018 No Comments

I am a procrastinator. A royal, class A procrastinator. I justify my tendency for putting things off until later with the fact that I tend to work better under pressure. And though that might in part be true, I also must admit (to myself) that I often struggle to find the motivation to get a head start…unless it comes to exercise. That is one thing I will always prioritize. Without it, I am a grump…and that just doesn’t feel good.

With 2019 right around the corner (what happened to 2018 anyways?!), I thought it a good time to get a head start on my healthy resolutions. In the same way that wearing cute workout pants motivates you to go to the gym, having a nice butt encourages you to keep it that way! I have decided to start my 2019 off on a stronger, rounder, more powerful step and close out 2018 feeling great.

Are you with me?!

Starting TODAY, you (or at least I) will enter the new year with a new booty.

The challenge: Each day of December, I will post a squat variation from the calendar above on Instagram. Starting with 100 reps, we will add one rep each day of the month (ie: December 25th, you will do 125 reps). Break up the reps as you need to – completing them all in one go, taking rests or even doing half in the morning and half at night. Up to you, just get ’em done!

Share your post-squat selfie on Instagram stories and tag me, @cactusandthewave, and I will enter you in a drawing to win some of my favorite feel life goodies including Vital Proteins collagen peptides, Schmidt’s Natural Deodorant and Rx Protein Bars!

cultivate, nourish, sweat

A morning routine worth waking up for

September 24, 2018 No Comments

Confession: I am not a morning person. Let me emphasize this. I am really not a morning person. Growing up both my parents worked in the nightlife business, my great-grandmother stayed up until the early hours of the morning chatting away with our family in the Philippines…our lives came alive at night. But then I got older, moved away to a tropical island and adopted hobbies that are made for the morning hours. What’s a night owl to do when the waves call your name at 6am?! Make the morning exciting.

If you find yourself in my shoes or simply just hate getting out of bed, here’s my morning routine worth waking up for.

Wake up call. My alarm is a groovy jam that sets the tone for my day. I make sure to pick something that won’t drive my boyfriend insane (which is mega important for keeping cranky moods at bay so early in the day!). I am also a serial “snoozer” but I’ve noticed that if I’m listening to a song I enjoy, I’m less likely to hit snooze and actually get out of bed.
Take a mindful moment. Before I climb out of bed, I try to complete a 5-10 minute meditation to set my intentions for the day. I love the app Insight Timer – they have thousands of meditations to choose from by length or theme. I tend to opt for a meditation on positivity, motivation or confidence to get me amped up for my day.
Hydrate. I head straight to the kitchen and prepare a hot lemon infusion with one whole lemon, apple cider vinegar, ginger, honey and a dash of cayenne pepper. I sip on this as I continue to get out of the door. Prep your infusion the night before to save a few minutes!
Quick clean up. I can’t start my day without brushing my teeth and washing my face. It just doesn’t work. Next, I apply a light face oil mixture of vitamin E, argan and rosehip that helps my face retain moisture during my workout. I also toss in a few calf raises while I’m brushing my teeth to get my booty moving! The bathroom session finishes with a quick dry brush – often to a groovy morning jams – to get my blood flowing and my body energized before I step out the door.
Sweat! If I’m not off to teach a class, I’ll head to the gym or do my own workout in the living room or on the beach. If I’m short on time, I opt for my high intensity 15 minute jump rope and resistance band routine. If you’re looking for workout ideas, I share my morning workouts on Instagram stories.
Nourish. I head back into the kitchen to chow down on a protein-packed breakfast. My go-to is a fruit and veggie filled smoothie bowl with collagen peptides from Vital Proteins and Superfoods from The Healthy Grocery or a breakfast salad full of fresh greens and a oil-free “fried” eggs.
Cultivate. While eating breakfast I go over my to-do list or listen to an inspiring podcast that gives me new ideas and a wave of fresh thoughts to start my day!
Clean up, round two. MC Shower Time aka a three minute shower hustle to scrub down with my skin stimulating coffee scrub, wash my hair and get glowing out the door. Not going to lie, sometimes I end up in my workout clothes until noon if I work from home…#noshameinthesweatgame.

My morning routine takes about 60-90 minutes (including my workout) depending on what time I need to get out of the door. If you’re reading this and thinking “who has an hour to spare!?” think again. You can make the time…and once you do, you’ll have a hard time giving it up.

Each person is different and our morning needs are different. Here are a few tips on creating your own morning routine:

Prep. A stress-free (or stress-less) morning routine starts the night before. Pack your lunch. Lay out your workout clothes. Write your to-do list. Leave the coffee pot out. Do whatever you can the night before to leave yourself more time in the morning for YOU.

Make it realistic. Some days (ie: Monday-Friday) there just isn’t enough time for all the self care you’d like to get your day glowing. Minimize stress and save the extra love for the weekend. A morning routine weekend edition post is just around the corner : )

Follow the #feelgoodlife formula: cultivate, nourish, sweat. Make a list of the things that energize you, that put you in a good mood and ignite your motivation. Pick the ones that are either the least time consuming or the most important and make them the foundation of your morning routine (#cultivate).
Eat a nutritious and protein-packed breakfast that will give you the energy to give the day your all (#nourish).
Move! Make time for a quick workout. And when I say quick, I mean it. If you don’t have an hour for the gym, no worries. Take five minutes to stretch, plank or even do calf raises while brushing your teeth. The latter is my go-go. Seriously.

If you’ve got a morning routine you love, I’d love to hear it! Share in the comments below!

cultivate, inspiration, journal, nourish

Feel good now: three ingredients to a life worth living

June 3, 2018 No Comments

My mom always told me “you don’t actually know anything until you’re in your 40’s.” Then she turned 50 and has since said, “you don’t actually know anything until you’re in your 50’s.” Reading between the lines (and the Moscow Mule in her hand), I have come to understand that what she really means is that, for most of us, it takes a lifetime to develop a true understanding of the lessons we’re meant to learn…and then to actually put those lessons into practice. We spend so much of our lives filled with worry and doubt, chasing this and that, we don’t actually get to feeling good about the life we’re living until…well, apparently…our 50s?

Since I’ve got such a wise mother who has a head start on mastering life’s lessons, I have made the conscious decision to learn the lessons early. To open my eyes. To pay attention. To make intentional choices that will enable me to live a life that feels good…now. I mean, the sooner we get started in practicing habits that help us thrive, the longer we actually get to enjoy the fruits of our labor.

Through plenty of trial and error, I have boiled a feel good life down to three key elements. Three elements that when mixed with energy, awareness and a lot of water, put you straight on the path to a life you’re excited to live.

Three ingredients to a life that feels good:

1. Cultivate. Our lives are pretty much a set of lines that we get to mold into whatever shape we’d like. We get to draw the boundaries of our comfort zones…and then redraw them over and over again. Cultivating a feel good life is about creating new experiences, expanding our horizons and investing time and energy in the things that make us excited to get up in the morning. It might be practicing a new hobby, planning a weekend getaway or developing a morning routine that gets you pumped for the day. You are the architect of your life. Design the life you want to live…and get to living it.

2. Nourish. If you want to grow rice, you plant rice. If you want to grow apples, you plant apples. If you want to grow joy…guess what? You’ve got to plant it. In order to live a feel good life, we first have to start by nourishing the elements in our lives that fuel us to feel good. Simple as that. Nourish YOURSELF. Practice self-care. Eat clean foods that make you feel strong. Take the bubble bath. Read books that call to your curiosity. Give into compassion but also learn when to say enough is enough. The areas in your life you give the most attention to are the ones that will thrive. It’s up to you to decide if you’re growing flowers or weeds.

3. Move. To quote the prodigious Elle Woods: Exercise gives you endorphins. Endorphins make you happy. Happy people don’t kill their husbands. You just cant argue with that. Sweating it out for even 15 minutes a day has a long lasting feel good effect. It gives your body (and mind) the strength it needs to do all that you ask of it. Exercise is active meditation, a gesture of gratitude, self love and an act of power all at once. The more we move, the stronger we are to roll with life’s punches. The stronger we feel, the more capable we are to lift those around us. Take the walk, go to the dance class, sign up for the marathon. Make the time to move. You (and everyone around you) will thank you for it.

Living a feel good life doesn’t mean that you are bursting at the seams with joy from sunrise to sunset. It means that you are actively creating a life you love to live. It’s about building an environment that brings you joy and arming yourself with the tools you need for when things aren’t so sunny. By cultivating new experiences, developing positive habits and nourishing our own well-being, we put the power back in our own hands to decide what kind of life we want to live. I don’t know about you, but I want to live a life that feels damn good. Right now.

If you don’t know where to get started or what path to take, reach out. Let’s build your feel good life together.

sweat

Tiny space, big moves: resistance bands workout.

August 17, 2017 No Comments

Being active is essential in living a feel good life. Movement, in and of itself, is proof that we are indeed alive. But far beyond six packs and bikinis, there is great reward in testing the limits of our own bodies. We learn where our comfort zone is… and we build the confidence to break out of it.

As a barre instructor, I am fueled by the dedication to self my students showed day after day. Despite bitchy bosses, projects gone wrong and inboxes that never seem to hit zero, these women come in the studio with a fierce attitude, ready to show themselves who really is boss. They push, pull and fight against the urge to make excuses. I thought of them this morning as I was ready to say “I can’t workout today because it’s really too windy outside.” Um, what?

A more reasonable excuse would have been: I don’t have enough space. I live on a boat, after all, and there really is not a lot of space. I mean, talk about tiny living. AND the ground under me is constantly moving. Do you workout in an earthquake?! Yet, even I know that space isn’t much of an excuse….and people do entire workouts on Bosu balls…sooooo as my mother always says: where there’s a will, there’s a way.

And when I have it my way, I always opt for a lower body workout. Today’s tiny space workout went something like this:

1 resistance band, 5 moves, 30 reps, 3 rounds through…and a lot of booty burn.

Subscribe here to get the full version download!