For all my followers with any Nut, or Gluten Allergies!

I just received a wonderful question from a follower who was allergic to nuts, which inspired me to do a bit of research to find some healthy and delicious food substitutes! 

If you have a Nut or Gluten allergy, eating healthy (or eating at all) sometimes can be a bit more challenging.

However, it is NOT impossible.

When it comes to Peanut Butter, there are a wide variety of brands that specialize in making peanut butter sensitive to your needs!

All of these pictured above are:

Peanut Free, Tree Nut Free, Gluten Free, Dairy Free, Egg Free, Soy Free  
Kosher

There is even CHUNKY (nut free) Peanut butter! 

I went a bit further than just peanut butter, and found Nut Free, egg free, and tree nut free CUPCAKES! (Not gluten free though)

Sweet Alexis Chocolate Cupcakes are always peanut free, tree nut free, dairy free and egg free! Enjoy the delicious chocolate cupcakes with icing on the side for your next allergy friendly event.

Check out the website if you have allergies, are looking to try out the Vegan life, or just want a healthy substitute to your favorite sweets!

Peanut Free Planet

SHARE this with your followers, you might just really make someones day a whole lot easier :)

Xox Brittany,

The Fitspirational Blonde

8 Ways to get your health back on track!

Hey you! Yes YOU:

• Have you slipped out of your healthy ways?
• Forgotten how to eat healthy and let your body get used to eating sugary processed foods?
• Even if you're NEW to the health lifestyle, ever wondered how and where to begin?

IT'S NOT TOO LATE TO GET BACK ON TRACK, OR START YOUR FITSPIRATIONAL JOURNEY!!



Here's some really great ways that I've PERSONALLY found to get back on track :)

1. START NOW- I don't care what time it is, I don't care what day it is, make the decision to start now.
2. PLAN YOUR MEALS OUT- Eating is step one of getting your healthy self on track. If you PLAN out your meals for the rest of the week, you won't be tempted to eat something unhealthy just because it's there. You'll have a plan. 
3. FITNESS JOURNAL- Make your very own fitness journal! This is the single BEST place to plan out your weeks meals. See my "Fitness Journal" for my fabulous method on food planning!
4. GO INTO THE KITCHEN WITH A MISSION- After you've made your week's food plan, go into the kitchen and ONLY prepare what you PLANNED to eat for that meal. Use "healthy tunnel vision" and pretend everything else in your fridge isn't there. 
5. GET YOUR BUTT UP- Having trouble getting motivated to exercise? Take a class! All you have to do is put on your fitness clothes and get yourself there. Once you've completed a class, your motivation to continue exercising will increase immensely!
6. DON'T LET ONE BAD DAY TURN INTO A BAD MONTH- Just because you've had one bad day, whether it be eating donuts and ice cream for breakfast and watching sex and the city all day, or just not having time to exercise that day. Don't let that un-motivate you. Realize you've come so far, and USE that bad day as motivation to do better tomorrow!
7. WATER- Drink it. I'm not kidding. If you've been eating unhealthy lately, a GREAT way to naturally detox your body is to flush it out and drink a LOT of water.
8. WRITE- Take time out of every day to write down how you're feeling? Are you feeling motivated and happy about your progress? Write about it. Are you feeling lazy and bloated? Write about it! Every day will be different, but it will really help you later on to go back and look at all the good days you've had, and all the bad days you've over come!

Everything I've written on my list is from personal experience. I'm a real girl with real challenges. I've had bad days, weeks, and even months too! This list has literally kept me going, and helped me come as far as I have to be the Real Fitspirational Brittany that I am today.

*Bookmark this list.* -Come back to it when you're feeling like you've gotten off track and need that extra push to keep going.

Need a little more motivation? Just ask :) I don't bite I promise!

Xox Brittany,

The Fitspirational Blonde

Stop buying unhealthy snacks! "Go-To" quick fruit-

Cutie tangerines are seriously my “go-to” quick fruit.

I used to be so used to opening the cabinet and grabbing a bag of Cheetos or a bowl of ice cream from the freezer, but since I stopped buying ice cream and started buying cutie tangerines, now I go for cuties!

They’re a great purse snack too… (as long as you don’t forget to take them out of your purse and eat them… which I learned the hard way.)

*RIP my stinky old orange smelling purse, I miss you.*

Purse snacks are great to take with you to snack on while you’re out. They will stop you from driving through a fast food restaurant.

SO: If you fill your cabinets and fridge/freezer with foods that are good for your body, you won’t even have the option to eat unhealthy foods!

Your body will grow used to eating healthy foods and soon, you will no longer crave the sugar and salt.

Xox Brittany,

The Fitspirational Blonde

Easy- Pesto Sauce!

Pesto has become one of my absolute FAVORITE sauces on earth.

After tasting Pesto FRESH from an Italian restaurant, I couldn't believe how gross the grocery store pesto tasted that I had been buying for all these years. Now that I compared it to fresh home-made pesto I am spoiled!

I found out pesto can be made with many different types of herbs, but after doing a bit of research I discovered that Parsley is healthier than the traditional basil.

So after my trip to Trader Joes (aka my second home) I picked up all the necessary ingredients, and didn't spend that much at all!

It was so incredibly easy to make, and I even had enough left over for a few days after :) Over all, it is DEFINITELY cheaper to make it yourself with fresh ingredients at home then buying it pre-packaged and processed at the store.






What you need:

• 1 1/2 cup Parsley (or whichever herb you'd like to use)
• 1.4 oz Pine Nuts (you can also substitute walnuts)
• 1 Table spoon of Almonds
• 14/cup of Fresh grated Parmesan cheese
• 2 cloves of freshly chopped garlic
• A pinch pf Black pepper
• 1 Tablespoon of Olive oil

What to do:

• Blend it.

Literally that is it, it doesn't get easier than that!



This is what it should look like after you're done blending it all together. 

If your consistency comes out too thick, add water! If it comes out too watery, add more nuts!



**Note** It was a bit hard to get my blender to blend all the ingredients together (this is my boyfriend Bryan squishing everything with a masher in there.) 

We have started to LOVE cooking together as a couple!

Be patient! Don't stick your hands in there. Add a bit of water if you're having trouble blending it, and mash it around with a spoon :)







^Finished Pesto Spaghetti!^

My best friend Allie came over and we all 3 had pesto pasta for dinner and it ended up turning out SO delicious!

I definitely recommend impressing your friends and family with some home made pesto of your own :)

Have a fabulous and healthy day <3


Xox Brittany,

The Fitspirational Blonde

Don't let this be your heart

This made me SO nauseous.

Sometimes it takes looking at something out of our comfort zone for it to become real.

That just got real for me.

Xox Brittany

The Fitspirational Blonde

Grocery Shopping Tip- Full vs Hungry

Healthy Grocery Shopping Tip-

SHOP AFTER YOU'VE EATEN!

If you shop when you're hungry, your body will want to eat EVERYTHING in sight and you will end up buying twice the foods that you would have bought if you were full.

Save money, save time, save space in your shopping cart :)

Shop Full.

Xox Brittany,

The Fitspirational Blonde.

Cupcake Attack!

I don’t want you to have a heart attack every time you pass a Sprinkles Cupcake… But I also don’t want you to get a heart attack from eating at Sprinkles Cupcakes like 5X’s a week!

We all have our guilty pleasures (Chocolate, Cupcakes and Starbucks are mine) and just because we’re living healthy lifestyles DOESN'T mean that we have to cut them all out!

Just eat in moderation.

Split a cupcake with a friend, grab some tea at Starbucks (I am an Earl Grey Tea lover) instead of a sugar packed Frap.

Balance out the non-healthy foods with healthy foods. For every cupcake you eat, try eating 2 pieces of fruit :)

Xox Brittany,

The Fitspirational Blonde

This describes EVERY 4th of July Party I've ever been to!

But in my wonderful 23 years of life, I've discovered that there are plenty of fabulous things vegetarians can make on a grill too! (Asparagus, grilled cheese sandwiches with avocado or tomatoes, and PLENTY of other delicious grilled veggies!!)

Don’t be ashamed to be the herbivore out of a gang of Meaties, show them your ways I bet they’ll want some hummus too :)

Xox Brittany

The Fitspirational Blonde

Surround Yourself With Things That Motivate You.

I don’t know what it is about PINK fitness gear and clothes that just makes me want to JUMP up and start running around the block with a smile on my face.

This may explain the fact that:

• I own 6 PINK sports bras 
• My running shoes are PINK 
• My weights are PINK
• My water bottle is PINK
• ...and I’m not even going to talk about my underwear collection on here (but it’s Pink too.)

What can I say, I like to surround myself with things that motivate me to do what I love!!

Xox Brittany

The Fitspirational Blonde

The future of your body

Fill your body with foods that you want to support you when you’re 70.

Imagine how you’ll look and feel if you’ve spent a lifetime filling your body with pringles and jolly ranchers.

Xox Brittany

The Fitspirational Blonde

Early Morning Heat Yoga!

If you've been following me for long enough, you KNOW I'm FAR from a morning person, but I think I've finally found the motivation to get my lazy blonde butt out of bed early!

HEAT YOGA!!

My best friend found a GREAT deal at our local Yoga Studio for one free week of Heat yoga!

I'm really into trying new things lately, and this was definitely an INCREDIBLE new thing to try. If you've never taken or heard of heat yoga before, it's where you literally do yoga in a room that's REALLY hot.

Your body sweats out a lot of its toxins and it's SO good for not only your body, but also your mind because it helps you relax and leave your life at the door for an hour :)

Yesterday at 7:15am was my VERY FIRST heat yoga class with my bff, and of course we accidentally picked the HARDEST class in the whole studio.

About 1/2 way through the class, I felt like I was going to DIE and the whole class looked like we had JUST jumped into a swimming pool together from all the sweat! Gross right? 

Then I remembered this quote by Jillian Michaels... so I kept going anyway!

After it was over though (and after a REALLY long shower) I felt AMAZING! Refreshed didn't even begin to describe how I felt. The hot suffering was worth it and the best part was it was only 8:15am and I had got my morning workout out of the way already!

Getting up early is definitely going to be a new fabulous habit that everyone should try... but don't do it because you HAVE to... Do it because YOU WANT TO!!



Xox Brittany,

A-Fitspirational-Blonde