Hannah Lynn Fitness

Welcome Back! If you have read my last post , you would know that I have been sick the past few days; I thought this would be a good opportunity to talk about how to treat your body right while you're sick! I am going to go through some of the top tips that I follow to stay as healthy as possible when I have a cold or flu. Sleep A LOT This has to be one of the MOST important things while you are sick!! Your body is doing all it can to fight the bacteria or virus that is attacking it, so you need more rest than you usually would. It is important to get as much sleep as you can at night, but also if you can take naps during the day. Sometimes when I have a fever, I spend almost the whole day sleeping! If you are having a hard time taking naps, or are unable to for whatever reason, aim to spend most of the day on the couch. A little exercise and movement is good, but it is even more important that you spend the majority of your day off your feet. Drink Fluids Drinking enough w...

Happy Monday! Today's post is just a quickie- a 10 minute full body workout, NO equipment needed!! I have been sick this past weekend with the flu, and haven't been able to workout at all. I am not recovered yet at all, but I wanted to do a light, low-intensity workout! Like I said in my last workout post , I like to do full body workouts after having a couple days off. I usually structure my workouts with around 3 sets for each exercise, but this time I changed it up- you go through one set of all the exercises, and then repeat! One "round" took me about five minutes, so I completed it twice for a simple 10 minute workout! You could use this like I did on a sick day, go through one round in the morning to get your blood flowing, or even complete three or four rounds to make it a longer workout while on vacation :) I took no breaks in between the exercises, just keep on going! Okay, here's the workout: 25 Air Squats 25 Squat Pulses 20 Lateral Squat Walks ...

Hello again! A very popular question is "how do you build muscle?" Almost anyone who starts getting into fitness wants to know this! Whether you are trying to lose weight, get stronger, or change your body composition, building muscle is one of the most important elements (besides nutrition of course!). Let's get right into this! There are three main steps in gaining strength and building bigger muscles: Breakdown Recovery Overcompensation  The first step is muscle breakdown- this happens when you do resistance training such as weightlifting. Your body tries it's hardest to be as efficient as possible, and does not like to expend extra energy. So in order to get stronger, you need to push your body outside of it's comfort zone so it will adapt to a new amount weight it needs to lift. So when you exercise, you are not actually growing your muscles, you are causing micro tears in the tissues. This sounds like a bad thing, but it's not! Overtraining I...

Happy Sunday everyone! It's currently raining out, but it is so refreshing! Anyways, today's topic is another Home Workout! This past week I have been crazy busy almost every single day- which was fun but also kind of frustrating from a working out point of view. I tried to get at least a 15 minute workout in each day, and for the most part I did! I was so happy though on Thursday I could get in a 50 minute strength training workout in!!! As you can see by the title, I did a full body workout. I don't usually prefer to do full body workouts, but if there is a week where the last few workouts haven't been good hard workouts, I like to do a full body workout! This is because it ensures that each muscle group is getting worked, the muscle fibers are being torn a little bit (don't worry, this is not bad! This is how you gain muscle!), and get the blood flowing to all of my body. I like to use this as a little "kickstart" to fire up all those muscles that may...

Hello again! I sincerely hope you all have enjoyed your weeks so far! Today I want to share with you how I make my "protein" oatmeal; and no it doesn't have protein powder! If you want to, by all means add a scoop or even just a half scoop of protein powder! But this recipe actually gets it protein boost from- you guessed it- eggs. I know I know this sounds weird, and so many people freak out when they hear this! But hear me out for a second, and you can't even taste it! If you think about it, you add eggs to cake, brownies, pie, etc etc to help with the consistency and rise of the bake. What it does in oatmeal is it not only adds protein, but makes it thicker and gives it a creamier consistency. The way I do this is to "cook" my oats first- I do this in the microwave (45 seconds), but you can make it the old fashioned way in a pot, or even pour hot water on top of your oats. You can use the instant oats, but I use the regular "old fashioned"...

Happy Monday everyone! I know some people HATE Mondays, which I completely understand, but I try to think of it as a fresh start of a new week! There's just something refreshing about a fresh start, so that encourages me to have a positive view of the usually dreaded Mondays. Just some food for thought :) But that's not the only food I want to talk about today! I want to address what perhaps everyone has heard of- "skinny" drinks. I know I can't be the only one who faces the temptation to order a Starbucks drink and ask for it "skinny." Maybe because I feel like it justifies my buying whatever I am ordering, and find encouragement in the vague title. But do we really even know what's in those drinks? Why are they "skinny"? What makes them that way? Are they actually better for you? Do they actually help to keep you skinny? Let's find out! So traditionally, if you order a "skinny" drink, it means you would like the dri...

Hello again! I am excited to share with you a full week of my workouts! We've got heavy compound exercises, lighter accessory work, and even some cardio ;) This week is the beginning of my 2-week "mini" cut, so I have included some HIIT on my upper body days! I previously shared my workout split , and this is similar to it but with a few tweaks. This is primarily because of wanting to shape my arms for an upcoming banquet. I will touch on this later, but I am making sure I don't overtrain my upper body; I could actually damage the muscle, causing muscle loss or even an injury. Okay here is my week of workouts, featuring marathon training, lifting heavy, and even some HIIT. I am going to show you my workouts from Sunday to Sunday, so let's go! Sunday: Long Run!! I was gone all of Saturday, so I moved my long run to Sunday! It was so beautiful and sunny out, I even got a tan ;) This is the farthest I have ran in my marathon training (and actually ever!!). My...

Hello again:) I know the title of this post is quite alarming, but it is due to this article written recently. Basically, it states how because of the presence of acrylamide (more on that later), coffee shops may be required to have a sign posted warning people that by consuming coffee, they will be exposed to this chemical. There was a lawsuit filed in Los Angeles against shops like Starbucks for not publicly informing their customers of the presence of acrylamide in their drinks. Okay so what is acrylamide, and why is it such a big deal? According to the National Cancer Institute , "acrylamide is a chemical used primarily to make substances called polyacrylamide and acrylamide copolymers." These are used in products like paper, plastic, food packaging, etc. It is found in some foods and also tobacco smoke; these are the two most common ways for people to be exposed to this chemical. Acrylamide forms in coffee when the beans are roasted; it is actually in a lot of food...

Welcome (back) to my blog! Today's post is all about food- YUM! To tell the truth, I absolutely love chicken. But some people don't, and I don't always make the time to cook up chicken; I also think it's better to switch up your sources of protein throughout the week to get a wider variety of different nutrients. So today I bring you THREE other sources of protein that isn't chicken! Before that however, I want to say that I make what I call "protein bowls" for lunch 95% of the time; it is basically a salad with a lot more protein! They are so delicious, low relatively low in calories, and chock full of nutrients. Sometimes I just throw a handful of spinach and some chicken in a bowl and call it lunch, if I'm running late and didn't pack it the night before. And while leafy greens are one of the best vegetables (and foods overall) to eat, there are other types of vegetables that provide essential nutrients your body needs; hence the phrase ...

Hello again! This past week has been so hectic, but I hope to post a little more frequently even when life gets crazy. I am working on two posts I want to really want to put a lot of effort and research in, but today is a little update on my eating habits :) I use the app Lifesum I think I have spent less than an hour at my house today- I have been going going! I didn't any fruit today, and only two servings of vegetables. So tomorrow, my goal is to intentionally eat 2 servings of fruit and 4 servings of vegetables. I ate a total of 1611 calories so far, and this isn't quite enough for a "bulk." However I am not too concerned, because I chose to start my cut today or tomorrow, so I am counting this as sort of a transition day :) Life happens, and you have to learn to be flexible!  Here is the breakdown for the day: Breakfast: Peach Greek Yogurt (Chobani) and Steak Strips (Kirkland Signature) Lunch: Spinach Wrap with chicken, veggies, zucchini salad, a...