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Friday Fun…Be a Good Tree!

Here’s a little Friday Fun.

My mom actually owned this album back in the day. She would put the record on and attempt to do the exercises that Jane was describing, without actually being able to see her. My good friend Jenelle and I stumbled upon one of these “workouts” one night and decided to join the fun. For giggles, we took everything Jane said literally. She would say something like,”Lift your right leg, raise both arms, now twist, twist…” It ended up being much like a game of workout Twister which eventually ended when we collapsed in FITS of laughter! I guess if nothing else, we all got a pretty decent ab workout. 🙂

After that, my mom was an avid Jazzercizer! She would don her most fabulous Jane Fonda-inspired workout attire, and head to class with her towel and her water bottle, and sometimes, me. Jenelle’s mom even started up a Junior Jazzercize program and we would meet at her house and workout together with our friends to all the latest and greatest hits of the 80’s! The Pointer Sisters come to mind. I remember ‘jumping for my love’…in leg warmers. What a blast!

Times and workouts have changed a bit since then. For one, I can actually SEE what Chalene Johnson would like me to do when I’m working out, which is awesome! I don’t own a pair of tights OR a leotard…which is a good thing for EVERYONE! I still think leg warmers were kind of sweet, though totally useless; I have fond memories of my exceedingly warm ankles. 😉

So here I am…in this new and exciting fitness business. How did I get here? It’s becoming plainer and easier for me to see every day. This has ALWAYS been a part of my life. I didn’t realize it then, but my mom-who we’ve already established was a health nut before it was cool-was a fitness junkie, too! She still is, in fact. In her 60’s now, she is still an active runner, competing in a few 5 K’s every year. She also just finished “Slim in 6”, and loved it! But she is always looking for MORE! She is definitely my inspiration.

The lesson to learn here I guess is that apples don’t fall far from trees. Be a good and healthy tree, and your apples will take seed, and grow up to be just like you!

I love you Apple Tree!

Always,

Your Apple

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30 Day Results Are In!

There are some excellent results coming from my October Challenge Group!  With 5 challengers reporting so far…check this out…

In 30 days they have lost:

5.1 pounds and 6.25 inches

9 pounds and 6 inches

3.4 pounds and 6.5 inches

8 pounds and “I lost my before inches number, but it must be less now”

5.6 pounds and 9.5 inches

Five of the participants so far have reported losing a total of 31.1 pounds  and 28.25 + unknown 🙂 inches !!!  And more importantly…they’re still in it, pressing forward and committed! We are all using programs such as ChaLEAN Extreme, Turbo Fire, Yoga Booty Ballet and Tony Horton’s 10 minute Trainer. You don’t need a gym to get results like these! The participants were all able to accomplish this while working out in their own homes, and eating well. Most importantly, we keep ourselves accountable and provide support to each other along the way! I cannot wait to see how we all do over the next 30 days.  I love my job!

Also…want to see how I make my Shakeology every day? It’s quite possibly my favorite meal of the day. I actually start looking forward to it the night before. Is that weird?

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Hold On to Your Bootstraps!

I wanted to find a fun way to show people who are curious, what it is that a Beachbody coach does all day. 🙂 It’s really not all that different than being a stay at home mom. And anyone can do this, not just a stay at home parent, but anyone who has an interest in making time for health, fitness and helping others. I am fortunate to have found something that lets me be here with my kids, focus on my heath, work with other people who want to do the same thing, and… make money doing it…BONUS! As silly as this video is, it’s not much of an exaggeration to tell you the truth. I may not ACTUALLY move this fast, but sometimes it feels like it! I’m a mom on a mission.

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Just a Quick Post Today + BONUS Sushi Recipe!

We started having a little too much fun with my clean-eating challenge pictures.  If you look hard enough you’ll find the Green Lantern in one of the food pictures each day.  We crack ourselves up over here.  Day 14 started with coffee, and my homemade vanilla coffee cream (the recipe is a few days down in the blog), and an “omelette” that sort of fell apart :(. I had an apple with chocolate PB2, mixed with a little yogurt for dipping, as a snack. Lunch was another tasty, colorful salad. I did my workout and then ENJOYED a Tropical Strawberry Vegan Shakeology…so tasty! And for dinner, I had part of a spicy tuna sushi roll made with brown rice.  I was low in the calorie department, but felt fine…so there ya go.

Day 15 was organic oatmeal for breakfast (with coffee…duh!) and a hard-boiled egg. I grabbed a honey crisp apple and some almonds for snack.  Of course I had my Shakeology after my Chalean Extreme workout. I made an extra lean turkey burger and sweet potatoes from our CSA for dinner.  I LOVE PICKLES (sorry, I just had to get that off my chest!) And when I’m low on calories…it’s popcorn, for a little chill time on the couch with the family. 🙂

Day 16…more than half-way done with my challenge.  Can you find the Green Lantern.  He may never recover from this challenge.  He might be scarred for life. I had an omelette and some cinnamon raisin Ezekiel toast for breakfast. I enjoyed my Shakeology after a super sweaty TurboFire workout. Look at my pretty salad that I made for lunch. Eating a rainbow just isn’t a sacrifice! I made a snack with plain greek yogurt, blueberries and almonds. And then I rocked a tasty dinner of HOMEMADE quinoa and brown rice California roll sushi for dinner! Anyone can make this! You can use the tried and true old-school method of rolling with a bamboo mat, or you can use one of these nifty contraptions:

 It kind of looks like some sort of Star Wars laser shooter thingie. You can order it on Amazon and it really makes the whole process easy and fun.  The kids enjoyed helping me make our sushi!

And here is the recipe to make your own HEALTHY brown rice & quinoa sushi rolls:

Enjoy!

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I Swore I’d Never Do This!

Check out these statistics: 69 percent of children aged 2-5 can use a computer mouse, but only 11 percent  can tie their own shoelaces. More young children know how to play computer games (58 percent) than swim (20 percent) or ride a bike (52 percent).  There is no gender divide either. Boys and girls under the age of 5 are equally capable  of using technology.

So, I’m about to do something I said I’d never do.  I’m going to say something that used to make my skin crawl when my parents would say it to me.  At the risk of sounding like an old lady, I’m just going to say it:  When I was a kid….

When I was a kid, I played from morning til night, outside usually.  I’d ride my bike, play kickball or kick the can (my personal favorite).  I’d climb trees, play football with the boys in the neighborhood and jump rope with the girls.  I was a bit of a tom-boy, the son my dad never had. 😉 It wasn’t just me either, it was all of us.  We played…a lot! I was thinking recently about the trend of childhood obesity and wondering how much the changing times plays a role.

Technology has taken the place of Nerf balls, jump ropes and bicycles.  I’m not saying that kids NEVER do these things anymore, but you have to admit it’s probably far less than when we were kids (look, I said it again…pretty sure another gray hair just sprouted out of my head). My kids go in streaks where they’ll play outside for a good chunk of the day, and then suddenly a video game, or an app, or a tv show takes precedence. My personal favorite is when the neighbor kids come over and ‘virtually’ play with each other; everyone on their own personal device. It’s bizarre. But, I’m an old lady, what do I know?

I’m not going to make the argument that all of this technology is a bad thing. I think it’s awesome that the kids have all of this information at their fingertips. The things that they can do on the computer never cease to amaze me! I think the Wii is a pretty cool thing, too.  At least they’re moving right? And I’m just as guilty of enjoying my own technology. You will rarely find me without my smart phone in hand, or laptop on my…lap. (duh :P) But I’m a grown up, on the way to being an old lady, and I played my heart out as a kid!

I don’t actually have a real solution to this conundrum.  I’m not really an advocate of forcing my kids to play. That seems silly right? “Go outside and play, and have fun, or you’re grounded!” ??? I do want them to WANT to play outside and be active, however. For now, I think we have a pretty good balance. I don’t worry too much about my own kids. I’m just concerned with the trend, and how it started, and how we’re going to end it.

We are a fast-moving, information-seeking, technology-loving society. We eat more and more fast, convenient and processed food as a result. And that is a topic for another day…don’t get me started!!!

And that brings me to my 30 Day Clean Eating challenge, Days 12 and 13.

Day 12 was fairly unremarkable. I’m falling into a groove now! I made a 1 egg plus 2 egg white omelette with peppers, mushrooms and reduced fat feta for breakfast. I had another quinoa salad for lunch. Shakeology, almonds, and an apple for various snacks during the day. For dinner we went out for Mexican food with friends to celebrate a birthday. I did well with grilled lime swordfish tacos (white tortillas weren’t the greatest, but what can you do?) with a cabbage and carrot slaw and avocado. They were really tasty!

Day 13 was a long day. I was up a 5:00, so spacing my meals out was a bit of a challenge. Coffee and a 1 egg/2 white mushroom, spinach, reduced fat feta scramble for breakfast. Tropical Strawberry Vegan Shakeology is my new favorite!  It’s so yummy! It was leftover turkey chili for lunch. I enjoyed a beautiful, red honey crisp apple and almonds for a snack.  We had a chicken fajita dinner at my parents’ house. They really hit the spot! I put mine in a wheat tortilla with chopped tomato, avocado and onion.  They were so colorful and delicious. Finally, I chilled on the couch with my husband and a bowl of popcorn.  It was a really good day. 🙂

Now I’m going to put this laptop down, and go play. I’m doing TurboFire for my workout today and I’m pretty sure that counts! It’s too fun not to be considered playtime!

Now go play!

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Cleaner Eating Challenge, Day 4

Yesterday was Day 4. Does this look like sacrifice people?  I keep waiting for it to get harder, but I think it’s actually getting easier.  I know my ‘weak’ times, and I avoid missteps by planning ahead and having healthier, cleaner alternatives to the quick, easy, mindless snacks I would have typically been grabbing for during those times of day.

So everyday, all year round, starts with a Christmas mug-o-coffee.  That’s a given.  After my workout, which was TurboFire 45 (the most funnest workout ever!) I had my Shakeology (yawn…haven’t we done this before?).  Hey, I’m a creature of habit, what can I say?  I think we all stick with what works.  This is one of the fast, convenient foods that takes the place of junk alternatives or food that requires a little more prep time.

I love a good salad!  This one was delicious!  It was romaine, tomatoes, reduced fat feta cheese, sweet peppers, onion, avocado, craisins, almonds plus homemade dressing (1 T. olive oil & 1 T. balsamic).  I threw this in a “to go” container and ate it while I was waiting for the kids to finish a class.

I was a little hungry when I came home, so Ezekiel toast, almond butter and 1/2 banana to the rescue!  I made a tasty chicken, pea pod, pepper, pineapple (lot of p’s!) for dinner and had mine with a side of quinoa instead of rice.  It was so filling!  I love warm pineapple!  Something about it just makes me happy.  🙂

I was way low on calories so I had a bowl of popcorn for a snack after dinner.  I even popped it in a little oil and put a little real butter on top.  Everything in moderation, right?  My calories still came in slightly on the low side for the day, but I didn’t feel hungry at all.  Eating 5-6 smaller meals during the day is really key to keeping your metabolism going as well as staying on top of your appetite.  You know how they say that if you ‘feel’ thirsty, you’re already getting somewhat dehydrated.  Well, if you ‘feel’ hungry, that’s when you grab for food that’s not always your best choice.  Keep yourself hydrated and fed throughout the day to avoid disaster!  And download a slick app like My Fitness Pal to help you track your calories throughout the day.  If you don’t know how many calories you should be shooting for each day, go to www.freedieting.com and use the handy calorie calculator to figure out your daily calorie goal.  Once you get the hang of it, it’s a piece of cake…well maybe that’s a bad comparison!  It’s a piece of fruit! 😉

Stir fry recipe here: