Tracy Evelyn Health & Fitness

My husband came home from work the other day and said it was official - he has become a soap snob! I made our own soaps a few weeks ago and we are both obsessed with them. They smell amazing, they are cleaning our hands, they are nourishing our skin with oils, and they are HEALTHY for us, NO added fake fragrance. Here is what you need - You need a glass soap dispenser (I got a foaming one from Fred Meyer and its AMAZING), some unscented castile soap. I bought Dr. Bronners from Fred Meyer - here is the link on Amazon . You will also need whatever kind of liquid oil you are comfortable with. I used Sweet Almond oil in one and Fractionated Coconut oil in two others. Also you will need some Young Living pure essential oils - cleanest of clean oils with a Seed to Seal promise! Here is your How To! Add 2 tablespoons unscented castile soap to soap dispenser. Add 1 teaspoon of either the sweet almond oil or fractionated coconut oil (you can also use grapeseed oil or avocado oil -...

...done anything CRAZY? ...kissed like the world was going to end? ...snuggled up with a newborn baby? ...danced alone in your underwear? ...cried (I mean REALLY CRIED) while reading a good book? ...believed in something so much that it came true? ... I challenge you to do something today you would be proud to put on a list of Have You Ever's! xxoo

GUYS! I'm not really a 'DIY'er. It's not so much my thing. I'm not very good at following recipes and generally if someone says 'Hey - do this...'  I say 'YOU do that'. I put aside my contempt of being told what to do and researched a bunch of different laundry detergent options. I kind of mixed a few of them up and yesterday made my first batch! I decided to just do one load worth at a time because I didn't want to make a big amount and then hate it. Here is the recipe I used - 4 tbsp Dr. Bronners Castille soap - baby - unscented 1/4 cup Borax 1/4 cup Super Washing Soda 4 drops YL Purification Essential Oil 4 drops YL Lemon Essential Oil 4 drops Lavender Essential Oil Just dump each item into the washer with your clothes! and you guys - I almost died and went to laundry detergent heaven when that washer stopped and I smelled those freshly washed clothes. Mmmm. So fresh and so clean, clean. I'll probably only put the ...

You guys ever feel like your sports bra is squeezing the life out of you? Maybe its time for me to cut back on those sugar cookies... Or maybe add in an extra workout! Here's an easy one to follow! Tabata (20 seconds work, 10 seconds rest for 8 rounds!) - jump squats - situps - weighted lunges - plank - push-ups - kettle bell swings - deadlifts Pick 3-5 of these and go to town!  Do 8 rounds of each or do every other to mix it up! Enjoy! Found here on my Pinterest xxoo

If you didn't guess it by the title - I've started using Young Living essential oils!  I am absolutely overwhelmed with the amount of love and support from the YL community and the team I get to be a part of. Last week I told my sister I was ready to buy my Premium Starter kit. We chatted for a few days about the business side of it and I was VERY leery. As soon as I got my kit, I rolled on some stress away and started up my diffuser with 4 drops of lavender and 2 drops of Copaiba. I pretty much melted into a puddle on the floor and leafed through all the amazing information that the kit came with.  I'm still very new to oils but learning SO much! How the oils work through frequencies in the body and how the oils are absorbed on your skin, what smells work well together. I'm most excited to learn about how they can aid people in their journey to healthy living!  If you have any questions or are slightly interested, leave me a comment and I will send you some infor...

A lot of people struggle with shoulder pain or stiff shoulders that don't want to move. The more time I spend in the gym, the more I notice the soreness and stiffness that goes alone with working out. Here are a few things you can do to keep your shoulders healthy and moving longer. - Build a healthy foundation for your shoulders. Something I have my clients do at least once a week is called Y-T-W's.  Hold some 2.5 pound plates or hand weights, bend at the knee slightly and with a tall proud chest and straight tight back lean forward at a 45 degree angle. Keeping your arms straight, lift your arms up and create a Y shape, 10-15 reps, then lift your arms laterally and create a T  shape 10-15 reps and finally, pull your elbows up first and then rotate your hands upward so your head and arms look like a W. - Mobilize! Breaking up the facia build up in and around your shoulders is really important, it helps them move around better and feel better too. My favorite tool (and the...

How could she not be the cutest glasses wearing Peanut you ever saw?! Watch out world, she has BIG things planned, and her little brain is working overtime in Kindergarten!  She has already started reading me books, and nothing could make me happier! xxoo

I like to have my clients at the gym do some squat variant almost everyday, goblet squats, back squats, thrusters, air squats, single leg squats - the list could go for a while.  Obviously I LOVE to squat - its always challenging and engages SO many muscles!  Here are the muscles that wikipedia says the squat works :   ... thighs ,  hips  and  buttocks ,  quadriceps  femurs muscle ,  hamstrings , as well as strengthening the  bones ,  ligaments  and insertion of the  tendons   throughout the lower body.  As well as developing  core strength .  Isometrically , the  lower back , the upper back , the  abdominals , the trunk muscles , the costal muscles , and the  shoulders  and arms are all essential to the exercise and thus are trained when squatting with the proper form. HOLY MOLY people. That's A LOT of muscles being worked! With all those muscles working properly, yo...

Here is another simple workout for you to do at home!  (Check out the  first   at home workout too!) Sometimes it's after dinner and all you want to do is sit on the couch and watch tv with your husband (aka - my life). Instead of plopping down on the couch - warm up with some in place high knees or jumping jacks for a few minutes and get your timer going on your phone! Do 1 minute of lunges 1 minute plank (on hands or forearms) 1 minute overhead presses with whatever hand weights you have (even if all you have is a few cans of food! Seriously! Just don't stop for the whole minute!) 1 minute rest Go through this series 3-5 times and make sure you're working for the entire minute! You will get sweaty, I promise! Have fun! xxoo

Just made this delicious chicken for dinner and my taste buds are forcing me to share it with you! SO GOOD. Crispy Coconut Chicken with Spicy Honey Orange Sauce Please make it ASAP.  We had ours with some brown rice (you could do quinoa) and some steamed broccoli! Your mouth will thank you. Check out my  Pinterest  boards for more meal ideas!! xxoo

Do you guys use some sort of smart watch or fitness tracker to keep track of your calories burned or steps? When I started personal training in June, I decided I needed some type of 'smart' watch to help me at work with timers and keeping track of when I had clients coming in.  I started out with the Fitbit Flex - which I liked a lot for basic tracking. It did a great job with keeping track of my steps and my calories, but seeing my sucky sleep pattern was disheartening, so I got rid of it, haha! Fitbit Flex Next I moved on to the Garmin Forerunner 235. This was SUCH a cute watch - I got it in teal and it was so perfect! The Garmin was also great for tracking, and it even had some smartwatch capabilities, it would tell you when you had a text or email come in and it had a great timer as well, but after just one day of using it, I decided I wanted a watch that had MORE of a smartwatch feel. Garmin Forerunner 235 Yup, you guessed it, I went and exchanged the Garmin ...

Getting back into my training groove finally - and excited to start sharing some at home workouts and fitness tips! Here is a quick burner for when you / your Kids are napping - or watching tv. Husband is playing with the kids outside. Wakeup before anyone else in the house. Just have a few minutes to get some fitness in! 15 min AMRAP (As Many Rounds As Possible) 50 Single or double under with jump rope (or pretending to jump if you don't have a rope) 40 Air Squats 30 Sit-ups 20 Burpees 10 Push-ups Have fun!  Youtube any movements you aren't sure about, or if you need a modification for one of the movements, just ASK ME! Go get your fitness on! xxoo

I turned 30. I started a whole NEW decade! I decided to kick it off in the happiest place on earth!  DISNEYLAND!!! I harassed my sisters and forced them all to go spend a ton of money with me in SoCal and had an amazing time. Here is just a few pictures to get me through another month of no longer being at Disney *insert extreme sad face*. I'm so grateful to have 4 sisters who love me enough to spend their time (and money!) coming all the way down to California to celebrate with me. We spent the whole day Friday (my birthday) in Disney and then Saturday we spent hanging out around Huntington Beach, getting mani-pedi's and eating AMAZING breakfast burritos from Nick's in Seal Beach. 30 is going to be a great, great decade. xxoo

This past weekend I had the opportunity to participate in a Holy Yoga  class and it was AMAZING. When working out I never have related my body movement and thoughts with my relationship with God, but the more I moved through this class the more I felt Him speaking to me. Working through my family woes, my heartbreak over things from years past - I could just feel him pushing His way into them. Things that I had been shoving inside deeper and deeper into my heart where I wouldn't have to think about them, but always felt them lingering. At the end of the class we laid in childs pose or on our back and the instructor came by, anointed us and prayed over us individually while she manipulated our postures to be better (if we needed) and even rubbed my shoulders briefly . As soon as I felt her push on me it was as though she was helping me push those old harbored feelings and thoughts out - in that moment I felt God and released those bad feelings and cried. Shake cried. It felt amazi...

As a 'new' Personal Trainer and less than part time blogger, I decided I needed to increase my daily reading, first to know more for my clients and second to be more well read. When I became a mother, reading started to slip through the cracks and I read only 3-5 books in two years. Reading has always been something I love to do so this year I decided to try and read one book a month, and so far I'm ahead of schedule! Here are the most current books that I buried my nose in  : On Writing Well by William Zinsser This book was fantastic. I started reading it because I wanted to start blogging more about my personal training. There were a few times that I felt he was telling me things that I - as a seriously part time blogger - would never use, but most of the stories William told were so well thought out and beautifully written. It did really make me feel like I could be an author! The way Zinsser describes how to be a writer was so easy to understand. I know I won...

As a woman who LOVES lifting weights, clients often tell me that they aren't interested in looking 'bulky'. A few weeks ago I even had a client tell me she was concerned about her friend who had been lifting weights at the gym and looked like she was gaining weight from it (insert HUGE  eyeroll).  Let me be very clear when I tell you that unless your plan is to bulk up -   LIFTING WEIGHTS DOESN'T MAKE YOU BULKY. In fact, lifting weights helps your bone strength through something called the Mechanostat Theory . It tells us that our bones are always adapting to what we are exerting daily, so if you aren't active and using your muscles often then your bone density slowly gets weaker because they don't have much that they are working to do. The more you lift weights and add muscle to your body, the more your bones are working and supporting and the bone mass will adapt. We all know that as you age, your body will lose muscle mass (1-2% a year after 30 if ...

..that it has caused a MAJOR obsession with workout gear. I'm not joking. I buy WAY too much crap for the gym. I currently own at least 10 sports bras, 7 pairs of shorts, 6 pairs of gym shoes and 15 pairs of workout pants. That's a problem. These are just a few of my favorite pieces from my clothing collection - Found on sale at  Eastbay  right now! Also on sale on  Eastbay ! Nike These photos make it seem like I have a Nike addiction. Well. I guess I probably do. I've promised myself that I wouldn't buy any more workout clothes for the next few months. I'm going until November!  Its been almost 3 weeks, GO ME!! xxoo

Every year since Mark and I have been together, he has purchased me a pair of shoes for my birthday. I'm not sure if I just started assuming I would be getting shoes, or if HE started assuming I would be getting shoes, but here we are 6 years later - and I got some new birthday shoes! These shoes are pink and cozy and perfect for my coaching job and also for working out in. They are NO BULL trainers and I love them so much that I don't want to wear them because they might get dirty. Last year it was the Nike Metcon 1's in black and white. Which I love. Because I do CrossFit. The year before that it was Reebok Trainer 1's in gray and pink. 2013 was a pair of yellow Reebok Nano 2's. 2012 was some pink polka dot Nike's so that I would start working out because I had become a bit fluffy and apparently I needed new shoes to lose the fluff. 2011 were some sort of flats that I can't remember for the life of me if they were the black sparkly ones or t...

A few months ago our family had a sit in front of the tv and binge on food movie night. We decided on Inside Out because we heard it was adorable-what I didn't know was how touching it would be- and how much it would make me cry! The movie does such a great job explaining emotions and our need for - and the importance of - our emotions working together to understand the things we feel so deeply. One part of the movie that really resonated with me was the huge impact that your 'core memories' have on you emotionally. The girl Riley had 5 core memories, Silliness, Hockey, Friendship, Honesty and Family.  Honestly I cried a WHOLE BUNCH during this movie, but even this simple part explaining these core memories made me sad. My little girl doesn't get to keep her core memories. Her life is SO much different than when she was born. Does she still have these old core memories? Are we rebuilding them or is she holding on to the old ones? Will we be able to build these i...

Guys.  This recipe looks AMAZING and I'm going to be making it ASAP.  Check out paleomg.com for more amazing ideas like this one! You're welcome ;) picture from paleomg.com Sweet Pulled Pork Waffle Sliders Print Prep time 20 mins Cook time 8 hours Total time 8 hours 20 mins Serves:  4-6 Ingredients For the pulled pork 2 pounds pork butt 1 yellow onion, sliced 1 tablespoon garlic powder 1 teaspoon onion powder salt and pepper, to taste For the mayo ⅔ cup avocado oil 1 egg 1 teaspoon lemon juice 1 teaspoon dijon mustard ¼ teaspoon garlic powder salt and pepper, to taste 1 teaspoon maple syrup (use 1 more teaspoon if you would like it sweeter) For the waffles 2 cups almond flour ½ teaspoon baking soda ½ teaspoon garlic powder salt and pepper, to taste 3 eggs, whisked ½ cup canned coconut milk 2 tablespoons bacon fat 3 pieces of  bacon , cooked and chopped 2 tablespoons chives, finely c...

I'm excited to announce that I am working a new TRAINING job! Personal training is different than the CrossFit background that I have, but I am able to apply the same concepts with all my clients! I emphasize good form over heavy or quick repetitions. I preach good food and ENOUGH food. I want to help you LOVE your body inside and out! I am working one on one with clients and in a fun group setting! Message me if you want some information on coming in to see me, I'm working some awesome people over at Wimberly Training  and having a blast! xxoo

A lot of women come into the gym wanting to be thinner, to look more lean and be toned.  These are all nice things. More than your body LOOKING a certain way, I want to encourage you to start looking at WHAT your body can DO . How well does your body move ? Can you pick up your kids after a long day at work? Do you have the energy to go for a walk in the evenings with your husband after dinner? Are you able to make it through a 3 mile hike on the weekends? If you are shaking your head and a little embarrassed, DON'T BE !  We all have found ourselves there at some point, and NOW is your time to start turning it around. Find a gym, a trainer, a nutrition coach to help guide you to being healthier. Find out what your body is capable of and look in the mirror and be PROUD of what your body can do. My body can SQUAT, it can PICK UP my child, it can walk for MILES. Go and find out what your body is capable of, I bet you will surprise yourself! xoxo