Exercise & Fitness

Well, I thought since it is a new year I would stop lurking at all the "Show Us Your Life" entries and start posting some things.

As far as diet and exercise goes, the only exercise I get now is chasing the "One Who Only Runs...Everywhere" and my diet is anything I can stuff in my mouth between housework and chasing her around keeping her out of everything I just put away.

Here she is, the hummingbird in action


Seriously though, I am not trying to lose any weight this year. I am trying to get healthier. We are trying to have another baby soon so I have put the diet on hold and just started eating better. Stuff like oatmeal in the morning, salad or sandwich at lunch and dinner is usually chicken and a grain and veggie. A pretty basic diet of nutritious foods, less sugar and more water.

Exercise is something I dislike yet I still do it so I can keep my energy levels up. I walk, dance (which I love, ballet or jazz, put on some music and off I go, Allison also loves to join in but only to Stevie Wonders "I Wish"), I also do some stretching and some core exercises. Nothing to exhausting and always something fun.

Hey, if you are a new reader please leave me a comment I would love to hear from you, I love reading blogs so leave me a link and I will check it out.

Everyone have a wonderful evening and a great weekend!!!

Getting Started...For Real This Time

Well tomorrow is the day that I start posting my food journal and hopefully pictures of the food (Allison's pics will be posted also, they are the priority). I have set my 1st goal at 10 pounds. My ultimate goal is to lose most of the baby weight about 20 pounds and get healthy again so we can start on baby #2 next year.
I am sooooo excited about that. We have decided that 2 was going to be the max number of children in this household, even though I originally wanted 1 then I changed my mind and wanted 3, but I will be happy with 2. We will have a preciuos family of 4 hopefully sometime next year.

Here is my game plan for the next 4 weeks to get me back on track now that I have an ultimate goal.
My focus for the first week is going to be walking 5 days a week for 30 minutes and cleaning up my diet, trying to eliminate the sugar and coffee and junk food.

The second week I will be focusing on increasing the walks to 45 minutes a day and adding more water, fruits, veggies and lean proteins. I have no problems with adding good for you carbs since I love bread and I just figured out that the whole wheat bread I get from Trader Joes is only 1 point per slice, jolly good find.

Week three I will continue to walk 45 minutes and start with some toning exercises, mostly working the core muscles and adding in some arms and shoulders (I love me some toned arms and shoulders). Hopefully my body will be detoxed from the junk and I will begin to feel like the healthy me again.

Week four I will focus on getting my family (Scott mostly)into the healthy mode. I will start eliminating the junk from his lunches and start getting him to eat more fruits and veggies (hopefully). Maybe if I serve his good foods with ketchup he will eat it...hahaha.

Any way that is my plan starting on Monday. I hope you all had a great weekend.
Enjoy the day!

Clean eating & weight lifting on a budget

After I had my baby I told made a promise to myself that I would get back into shape after 6 months. So I have challenged myself to something I call "The Hardbody Challenge". I started it 2 weeks ago and so far so good. The rules of the challenge are very simple, 1) Eat Clean 80% of the time(I still use a brown sugar and some commercial spices, canned soups) 2)Lift Weights 4 days a week and 3)Do Cardio 5 days a week.
Now we are on a pretty tight budget since I am a stay at home mom so I plan 2 weeks worth of clean menus that I rotate. Groceries run me about $180 for 2 weeks and that includes formula/baby food, breakfast, lunch, snacks, and dinner for me, my husband and daughter.
So lets break it down; Breakfast is usually Oatmeal (quick cook) with 1 1/2 Tbsp of ground flaxseed, 1 Tbsp of raisins and 1 Tbsp of brown sugar. I make 14 baggies of the stuff - lazy mans breakfast, grab and go stuff. If i'm feeling adventerous than I make an oatmeal pancake, moisten 1 baggie of oatmeal with hot water then add 1 egg white, cook like a pancake. Pretty good and you get some protein. Oatmeal and eggs are cheap so this is my main breakfast, also the yolks don't go to waste cause my daughter gets those for breakfast.
Lunch is usually a wrap 3 oz lean ham or turkey, mustard, lettuce and tomatoes in a tortilla or a pouch of tuna with a salad, or leftovers. Pretty simple to make ahead and take with you if need be.
Snack are Chocolate Raspberry Luna Bars (my favorite), lowfat yogurt with berries and/or mixed nuts, hummus (homemade) and either veggies sticks or whole wheat crackers. Also, all natural peanut butter or almond butter on whole wheat toast and 1/2 banana or strawberries sliced on top.
Dinner is a rotation of chicken fajitas, chicken breasts dredged in wheat germ and baked with veggie, 95% lean burger with whole wheat bun, 1 Tbsp ketchup, lettuce & tomato, veggie couscous with tofu, grilled chicken & quinoa with veggie, and crockpot chicken, potato & cottage cheese. All easy to make ahead and freeze or refrigerate ahead of time. I also keep cooked brown rice, asparagas and extra veggies in the freezer for quick sides. Beans and canned fruit in there own juice and canned chicken are in the cupboard for a quick change of pace if I get in a food rut.
Now for my workout, I cannot afford a gym membership so I have created a workout that I enjoy and I can get done in half an hour since the little one doesn't sleep very long after I get up at 5:30 am.
First thing, I have a gym bag packed that I keep next to my purse. I keep 2 pairs of workout clothes, a t-shirt, ipod, running shoes and a pair of socks. I change into my workout clothes as soon as my husband leaves for work and put on my sneakers, that way I can't climb back into bed. I fill my water, check on the sleeping (hopefully) baby and take my vitamins. Then the workout begins. I lift weights first thing because cardio is easy to do during the day with Allison in the jogger.
I am just starting out and I am not a professional so I am doing what I think is good enough for me. I always watch my form when lifting and lift slow and steady. So here is the breakdown.
Monday & Thursday - Upper Body. I do 3 sets of 10 reps each of the following with 10 lb dumbbells, Bicep curls, tricep extension, arnold press, flat bench flye, rear delt flye, dumbbell press, dumbbell lateral raise. I add 20 cruches and 10 reverse cruches after each set.
Tuesday & Friday - Lower Body. I do 3 sets of 10 reps each of the following with 10 lb dumbbells, dumbell squat, dumbbell dead lift, weighted calf raise, weighted lunges, rear leg lift, kneeling kick back, hip raise, lying leg raise. I add 20 cruches and 10 reverse crunches after each set.
Wednesday is rest from weights.
Monday through Friday I take Allison for a 3 mile walk/jog. I am also training to run my 1st 5k by the time I'm 32 - should be no problem.
So, there it is my diet and exercise plan that doesn't cost me more than $90 per week.
Workout credit goes to Oxygen Magazine, I get all my ideas from them and diet plan is based on the principals of Tosca Reno's
Eat Clean Diet book series