Vanilla sweet cream ice cream filled with chunks of birthday cake and plenty of sprinkles is as much fun to make as it is to eat!

This birthday cake ice cream is my current favorite flavor. And yes, I just declared a new favorite ice cream for at least the 10th time on this website. How could I possibly choose a forever favorite when I’m constantly trying new flavors to share with you?

Prior to making this ice cream, I don’t remember the last time I tasted a funfetti cake topped with sprinkles frosting. Let me tell you, this cake was a time machine back to my childhood. I remember enjoying these cakes so very much at birthday parties. (And there simply aren’t enough opportunities for funfetti cakes as adults – let’s change that, ok?)

Could I have made the cake and the frosting from scratch for this ice cream? Absolutely! Could you do that? You bet! That said, there are a couple of reasons why I didn’t mess with doing that for this ice cream. First, if I’m being honest, it felt like overkill for a batch of ice cream.

And second, I don’t think it will make that big a difference. Might it be even tastier? Maybe, but not enough that I was willing to work through three different recipes just to make the ice cream I was craving.

Birthday Cake Ice Cream

You’ll need the following ingredients to make this recipe:

• Read more

Motivation Tips For Group Fitness Instructors

For today’s post, I wanted to talk about motivation tips for group fitness instructors: what I’ve found to work in my years of teaching, what only works for some people, and what falls flat, no matter what. I would love to hear your thoughts and experience as group fitness participants or fellow instructors!! Whether you’re leading through a screen, like many instructors are after Rona, or in person, motivation strategies are super important. You want to transmit energy and inspire individuals and group exercise participants both effectively and authentically.

What works (almost) every time:

Use great music with a diverse playlist.

This is one of my favorite things to do! Include a mix of music in your playlists, because someone in class will love the *weird song* you picked. For example, I’ll throw in a random oldies or country song just to keep things fun, and will also try to mix up top 40s music with more alternative and instrumental styles. If you make an entire playlist based on one genre (like EDM or top 40s) one person in class will love every song, but one person will hate every song and possibly never come back.

Call out participants by their names.

I think it’s so much more meaningful this way and shows participants that you care about them.

Acknowledge their hard work and push them to take it up within a safe level.

I talk more about this here! It’s SO important to encourage participants to listen to their body, modify as needed, and be proud of them for showing up!!!

Demonstrate proper form and ways to modify or progress an exercise.

When participants have confidence in the moves and know they’re not setting themselves up for injury, it’s more motivating. 😉

Emphasizing the muscle group they’re working.

Explain why it’s important (“a strong core helps protect our low back and support everyday movements”), and helping them put their mind to muscle.

Just be quiet.

Sometimes it motivating and powerful to be quiet for a bit and let the energy and music do the talking for you.

What works sometimes, depending on the vibe and your personality:

The more “woo” side of things, like visualizations.

During a spin class, sometimes I’ll say something like, “Imagine the people you love standing on the side of the road right now holding a sign to inspire you. What does the sign say?” Or “For our sprint, we’re riding against your biggest competition. Maybe it’s someone from work, or maybe it’s someone who doesn’t even know who you are.”

Hands-on adjustments.

Some people love these and some people hate them, so it’s good to ask at the beginning of class if there are injuries or if anyone is uncomforta

Sharing five things I do before bed each night in today’s podcast episode!

Here’s what I talk about:

– My anchor nightly habits that help me to get higher quality, restorative sleep

– The WHY behind each of them

and some little tips along the way 🙂

156: Five things I do before bed each night

Resources:

Topical magnesium

Topical magnesium for kids

Balanced magnesium (use FITNESSISTA10)

Cornea Care eye mask

Partners:

I’ve been using Nutrisense on and off for a couple of years now. I love being able to see how my blood sugar responds to my diet and habits, and run experiments. You can try out Nutrisense here and use GINA50 for $50 off.

Join us for Fit Team! This is my online fitness community and you can try it free for 7 days.

I love love love the meals from Sakara Life! Use this link and the code XOGINAH for 20% off their meal delivery and clean boutique items. This is something I do once a month as a lil treat to myself and the meals are always showstoppers.

If any of my fellow health professional friends are looking for another way to help their clients, I highly recommend IHP. You can also use this information to heal yourself and then go one to heal others, which I think is a beautiful mission. You can absolutely join if you don’t currently work in the health or fitness industry; many IHPs don’t begin on this path. They’re friends who are passionate to learn more about health and wellness, and want to share this information with those they love. You can do this as a passion, or start an entirely new career.

You can use my referral link here and the code FITNESSISTA for up to $250 off the Integrative Health Practitioner program. I highly recommend it! You can check out my review IHP Level 1 here and Read more

No Bake Banana Pudding Pie with Nilla Wafer Crust

Indulge in this delicious no-bake banana pudding pie with a crunchy Nilla wafer crust. It’s the perfect dessert for any occasion and requires minimal effort to make.

I know it’s kind of a long title, but I wanted you to know that’s it not a graham cracker crust (which you can totally use instead if you want). And technically it’s not no bake pie either because you do have to bake the crust. Well, no you don’t. Oh gosh, this no bake banana cream pie with Nilla wafer crust is getting confusing let’s just shoot through a few facts (I’m channeling my inner Dwight Schrute from The Office)…

1. Fact~ I’ve never seen all of The Office, but I have seen episodes and it was hilarious.
2. Fact~ This crust uses Nilla Wafers not Graham Crackers.
3. Fact~ I have called them Vanilla wafers my whole life until I made this recipe and realized that is not the name on the box.
4. Fact~ You totally do not have to bake the crust. It just won’t be as hard on the bottom but it’s still wonderful.
5. Fact~ The rest of the pie is no bake and I mean it. It just whisking and stirring and folding.
6. Fact~ I actually made, photographed and wrote this post in December, but I’m posting in spring because I couldn’t justify one more treat during the already full schedules of desserts.
7. Fact~ I love pie. And the number 7.

Ingredients for a Banana Pudding Pie

It’s surprising how few ingredients you need to make this super easy banana pudding pie recipe. Here is what you will need:

Crust

• Nilla Wafer Crumbs: I like to grind the cookies in a blender. A food processor would work great too.
• Sugar: adds a little sweetness to the crust
• Butter: binds the cookie crumbs and sugar all together to form the crust

Filling

• Banana Cream Instant Pudding: grab the 3.4 ounce box of instant pudding mix and make sure it isn’t the sugar free kind
• Milk: helps create the banana pudding
• Cream Cheese: adds richness and creaminess
• Sweetened Condensed Milk: adds sweetness and creaminess to the filling
• Cool Whip: feel free to use sweetened whipped cream if you prefer not to use Cool Whip
• Bananas: adds natural banana flavor to the pie
• Nilla Wafers: adds texture to the filling and looks pretty scattered on top

If you are looking for a traditional banana cream pie with everything made from scratch, we have that recipe for you too

Sharing a glimpse of how I structure my weekly workouts.

Hiiiii! How are you? I hope you’re having an amazing morning! We’re at Disneyland today and I can’t wait to ride all of the rides, eat Disney treats, and enjoy some fun memories with my favorite people.

While I won’t be getting in any *official* workouts this week, I’ll definitely be walking 20k steps per day (minus the long drive home). For today’s post, I thought i’d share a little bit about what my workouts have been like lately and how I structure my weeks.

It varies week by week, but here are some of the things I like to include:

3 strength classes – I’ll mix it up between F45, pure barre Define (my fave right now!), and Fit Team strength workouts (low-impact modifications)

1-2 hot yoga or barre classes (I teach barre every other week and do about 80% of the workout with the class)

1-2 cardio days on the Peloton and/or Sculpt Society (this link gets you a free trial on the app!)

1-2 days OFF

Week of workouts

Here’s what a week might look like:

Sunday: OFF

Monday: Hot yoga or power yoga

Tuesday: F45 total body or Fit Team total body

Wednesday: Peloton or Sculpt Society

Thursday: F45 legs or Fit Team legs 

Friday: pure barre (Define or Classic), or Pilates

Saturday: Hike, Sculpt Society, or off

I also walk Maisey every day (usually 1-2 miles around the neighborhood) or stroll on my walking pad during meetings

You might notice that it’s not a ton of cardio, and not a lot of interval training. I FINALLY feel like I’m in a place where I’m able to push myself a little with cardio again. Cardio releases histamine – it was a trigger for my eyes- and can also deplete you further when you have autoimmune symptoms. I noticed last year that I couldn’t push myself the way I used to because I’d be sore and exhausted for days. I also got sick twice after very hard workouts, which was unusual for me.

This kind of schedule has enabled me to stay active without overdoing it. It’s working for me right now 🙂

I’d love to hear how you structure your week of workouts!

If you need help setting up a workout plan, I have a freebie you can download here.

You can also try Fit Team free here! This is my full wellness hub with new strength workouts each month, a schedule for how to build your wekely plan (and substitute group classes), recipes, meal guides, educational modules, and playlists. Join the team here.

Have a great day and I’ll see ya soon!
xo

Gina

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