Learning How To Balance

For "NO EXCUSES" NOVEMBER - I'll be doing 3 challenges Plank Challenge Squat Challenge SparkPeople's #Fit2Feast Challenge I'll be keeping an update on my blog on SparkPeople ! 

With the time falling back this coming weekend it's going to get dark earlier and earlier - which in our house brings on the urge to hibernate!  BUT... I keep telling myself that a 30-45 min workout is less than 4% of my day!!  And with all the resources I have there are NO EXCUSES!!   I really struggle with motivation in the winter months... but I've joined some challenges and I WILL stay on track!  I found a great article on Body & Soul with a few tips on how to stay motivated during the winter months:  Set a goal! - keep them simple and small Focus on the benefits - how great you feel! REWARD YOURSELF - when you reach one of the goals you've set - celebrate!   Another article from FITBIE gave readers tips - “I mark my daily Outlook calendar with my workouts as if they were actual appointments. It helps me make sure I plan around them and don’t bail at the last minute.” – Jesse Y., Phoenix, AZ   “This may sound silly, but I k...

How to Survive the Holidays...One Bite at a Time! October through December can be a minefield of challenges for those who struggle with the  eat-repent-repeat cycle . Food is everywhere, from your television to your child’s  trick-or-treat  stash. The constant exposure may eventually lead to cravings, overeating, holiday buffet-hangovers, guilt, and vows to do better tomorrow—or on January 2nd.  The best strategy is to eat what you love  fearlessly . While that may sound counter-intuitive, studies have shown that labeling the foods you love as forbidden can actually increase their power over you. When you think of the foods you love as "bad," you may feel guilty for even wanting them, and deprived because you’re not supposed to eat them. As a result, you may yourself visiting the break room in search of holiday treats.  Eat What You Love, Love What You Eat Banish the special occasion mentality.  You'll be less temp...

It's important to keep yourself motivated and to reward yourself for sticking with it and reaching your goals!! Here are some non-food reward ideas! First - Here’s how to set up a good rewards system: * Choose some benchmarks and reward levels. (small rewards, milestones, and BIG GOALS) * Make the reward meaningful to you. * Small rewards can be used for meeting smaller goals. (maybe for tracking each day) * Don’t use food as a reward. * Plan to celebrate. Sparkers Ideas: * Buy yourself some flowers * A pretty candle or bath stuff. * New make up * Start a reward jar…put in strips of paper each with a small reward and pull one out each     time you reach a goal. Or you can put in $ for each goal you reach and then have     money saved for a bigger reward when you reach a bigger goal. * A new book * New nail polish * New jewelry, earrings * A movie * Going on a day trip somewhere cool * Have a spa weekend at home just relax for a full weekend take the kids ...

I've moved over to SparkPeople for tracking food/exercise and trying out teams and challenges.  I'm ♥ing it so far.... I like My Fitness Pal - I've used it for a long time but I've noticed my attitude has been stale lately... bored... unmotivated... blah!  So I thought I would shake things up and try a different site, different teams, different challenges...  They have great motivation cards... see to the left. So to start they have a stage based SparkDiet... the first stage is "Fast Breaks" - Helps you focus on smaller goals - which are stepping stones for PROGRESS!  The first step in FAST BREAKS is "knowing what you eat" - I feel like this is for the beginner - one who never tracked their food before. I've been doing this for a while (on another site *gasp*) but what an eye opener! There are pros and cons to tracking your food though. When your tracking and eating healthy.... big smiley face. When you mess up, have a bad day, and you ST...

How many times have you "started over"/"today's a new day and a fresh start"?  I'm so annoyed with the motivational quote " if you're tired of starting over stop giving up " - It's not that I give up... because I do keep going too!  I find the "wagon" and get back on track!  I guess I'm starting to realize this really is a lifestyle change that is going to have speed bumps, rough patches, times where I'm not focused, etc.  The point is I do get back on track - I'm tired of feeling guilty for my weekend indulgence & for losing focus!! I was reading a blog post of a SparkPeople user that was really eye-opening! Everyone has bad days, everyone loses sight of their goals, it's part of life!  Life can and will always get in the way!  It's what you do after the stumble, set back, (whatever you call it) that matters. *******************************************************************************************...

My husband and I made - homemade red pepper flakes today.  They are SCREAMING HOT.... but I like 'em! From husband's Facebook post earlier today: My dad had a Hispanic neighbor give him some "really hot" pepper plants. They turned into a bumper crop! Now, he has (no exaggeration...) THOUSANDS of tiny red hot peppers. And, these little fella's are INSANE hot! So, we're drying some out in the oven at a low temperature and we intend to run them through the food processor (outside) and make our own red pepper flakes. If it doesn't work.... we can try something else. Peppers are everywhere in Dad's garden.  

I've been posting a lot of fitness/health posts so today I thought I would post a little treat... portion control is up to you. :)  Just made these cookies!! LOVE how easy they are and I added a 1/4 chopped chocolate chips and 1/4 pecans - but I think if you just made them with banana and oats they would be good too. I chopped up the chocolate chips so they would mix in more and go more thru out the cookie... that was almost too much chocolate chips. I'll cut back a lil' next time. I put the oats in a food processor (you could use a blender too) to chop them up a little. Added thawed, frozen bananas and blended until it was blended. The mix made 13 cookies for me... the other recipe I'm not sure it would make 13 cookies.   The original recipe is the first pic - the second pic is what I made. I added a few more ingredients. Source:   The Burlap Bag   Autumn version : (Pumpkin instead of banana) Summer version : (Peaches instead o...

I found this article that really hit home with my last post so I thought I would do a "Goals - Part #2" just to keep that thought going.... This list is more geared towards weight loss goals but that may not be your goal at all...your goals may not have anything to do with weight but this will get your gears turning for ideas to set goals and (see image below) !! This article was from the blog Delightfully Fit - 50 ways to stay motivated to lose weight . I LOVE IT! It was written by one of my FAVORITE fitness writers, wellness coach and trainer - Jessica Smith.  I'm not going to list all 50 but here are a few that I wanted to touch on: 1) Think wellness not weight loss. Do you only make good food choices when you are trying to lose weight? This could lead to rebound weight gain if you go back to your old habits once you’ve reached your goal. You have to eat every day, so why not eat better every day? 2) Set reasonable goals. Ask yourself...

It's time to put some goals down on paper - I've gotten into a rut of .....blah, logging food..... blah, logging exercise.... forgetting what I ate... so I eat dinner then look back on My Fitness Pal and HOLY MOLY... Well, that day is shot!  So I've started a a written journal too. (I looked up FitBook pages - those are great journals but I didn't want to spend $30 just yet.)  I'm still gonna do my phone app but this will let me journal a little more too.   So how does writing down your goals help? Well they won't help if they aren't realistic!  Take baby steps when first setting goals.  You shouldn't expect to lose 10 lbs. in a month.... so be realistic with what you set out to accomplish.  If you make it too hard on yourself - you won't stick with it.  Think LIFESTYLE CHANGE not - I'll do this until I lose 20 lbs. then I'm done with it. Keep your fitness fun and different.... BUT make a plan, make a schedule, know what you are going...

You will never regret working out... can you say that about not working out?   Weight loss:   3,500 calories = 1 pound That sounds SO overwhelming but that doesn't mean you have to burn 3,500 calories. That means to lose 1 lbs in a week you have to create a deficiency of 3,500 calories. So you could burn some and cut back on some foods. Exercise: Everyone is different so it's hard to put a "overall" rule out there but studies have shown that If you're trying to lose weight, 50 minutes of cardio exercise along with regular strength training might be what it takes to see the results you're hoping for.  If I've learned anything - it's that you can't treat exercise like a convenience - it has to be treated no different than brushing your teeth everyday or like a lunch date with your bestie. Hence #2 below... MAKE A SCHEDULE - what workout on what day... done.  Now you don't have to think about it! Here are a few rules from the Huffi...

"Started over" today b/c I felt off kilter! I got off track w/ my schedule and then everything else got off track. So tonight I did  #TURBOFIRE  - #FIRE45  "new to class" and 72 mins later w/ 603 cals burned - I'm feeling WORKED! 

I don't know about you but by the time Friday gets here... I'm ready to ditch the logging (of food) and have a few bevies with a big piece of pizza. Then I beat myself up about it and do it again Saturday night. WHY CAN'T I STOP THE INSANITY??!! By Sunday I've come down off my craziness and get back on the "healthier choices" train! While this isn't going to help my "bailing on healthy choice weekend" - one of my goals this week is to prepare my lunches the night BEFORE - so at 8:30pm I'm going to head to the kitchen and get my lunch stuff together. This is going to help me have more time to workout in the AM and get out the door easier! One step at a time - it's a process! I ♥ this post (below) from Pieces in Progress (tumblr) - She has some great recipes, posts, At-Home workouts, motivational posts, etc. I'm constantly reading and looking for ways to jump start my brain for the weekend but I haven't found that switch yet! ...

Boy have I been a blogging slacker!  Ha!!  I haven't been an exercising slacker though!!  WHOOP!  WHOOP!  I will say - with the weather we have been having here - It's been awesome to walk to the lake and trails and a boost for my calorie burn too!  So far I've done my first EVER HIIT WORKOUT!!  I have to admit - I could've given more to my very FIRST "HIIT" workout but I thought it might kill me! "HIIT WORKOUT" - just the name sounds intimidating so I was nervous. But since it didn't kill me - I'm looking forward to doing it again! :): Thursday (8/15) Friday (8/16) Got my CARDIO PARTY on that morning!! Saturday (8/17) Core 20 / Stretch 40 I loved the Core workout - the stretch started out with more yoga than stretch - I just can't get into yoga.  I need to SWEAT to feel the workout - and with yoga I know it works, I know it builds muscle - I'm just not into that right now.  I WANT PUMPED UP WORKOUTS!! ...

Day 2 of TURBO FIRE was rough!  I did the Fire 30 again...trying to get my body used to the moves, fast pace, etc. My body was in denial!! Tired....tired...tired!  I'm sure tomorrow will go better however I plan to do the HIIT 15 and one of the stretch sessions!  I've stayed under my calories for the past two days which doesn't sound like much but considering my calories lately... I"m feeling pretty good!  HA!  

I did my FIRST TURBO FIRE WORKOUT this AM!! The "New to Class" was a huge help!! LOVE IT ALREADY!  I can tell when I start the actual "class" (instead of the "new to class") I will be POURING SWEAT but I ♥ the program.  High Energy ~ Motivating ~ GETS U FIRED UP!!! I have to admit... when the first "Fire Drill" came up - I got a lil nervous but it ROCKED!!! Then the second one came up and my legs said "oh dear"...but it ROCKED too!  Now I'm not doing them at the "class" level yet... the "sumo burpee" thing is crazy hard - by the 4th one I'm needing a crane to get my butt up off the floor ...BUT I'm sure when I get thru one whole fire drill - keeping up with the class...I'll probably cry from "HOLY CRAP I DID IT!!!!!"  Ha!!  More to come..... - Get Movin' - Get Heatlhy! -

As I find myself a little nervous about starting the Turbo Fire program, I read this: You are stronger than you think!  I know it will be hard, I will sweat like a pig .... but I'm looking forward to the challenge and completing the program.  I've never completed anything like this, I did a few of the P90X DVDs when I was in a church weight loss group about 3 years ago....and I lost 17 lbs!  And let me tell ya.... Those workouts were H*A*R*D!  But as the saying goes... "If it was easy.... Everyone would be doing it"!  It's all about: MIND OVER MATTER IT'S YOUR WILL AND DETERMINATION THAT WILL GET YOU THRU BELIEVING IN YOURSELF IS HALF THE BATTLE PUSH YOURSELF-NO ONE WILL DO IT FOR YOU IT ISN'T SWEAT - IT'S LIQUID AWESOME (I ♥ that one!!) So I will begin this program with all of these inspirational quotes and move forward with one of my all time favorite quotes in mind ...

Got this from Chalene Johnson's blog !  This is so true!!  People ask for advice all the time... How can I get motivated?  What can I do?  Only YOU can do the work, get yourself motivated, and make the decisions it takes to get healthy!!  It's NOT easy... if it were EVERYONE would be doing it!!  You will have ups and downs.... it won't always be butterflies and rainbows.  But you WILL feel good and ~ ENERGIZED ~ !!! My Turbo Fire package is on it's way.  I'M PUMPED!  It's gonna be tough but I feel the need for a challenge.... and I'm SURE TURBO FIRE will do just that.  

Looking forward to getting started on the program....

Got back from SUMMER MARKET in Las Vegas on  Wed. AM (like 2:00 AM) - UGH!   Had a good time but I ate waaayyyy too much - didn't exercise enough - and considering how dry it was ~ didn't drink enough water either.  The time difference is brutal coming home so here I SIT on Saturday watching the movie "CLUELESS".   I should go out and walk to get my body moving!  I'm learning that LAZINESS perpetuates LAZINESS!!  That's a bad habit to start!!   So my next big "deal" is to determine which to purchase - FOCUS T25 or TURBO FIRE!!!   One minute I lean one way.... then I go the other way!  Walking will help clear my mind and then I will purchase!  Stay tuned...