It's almost here! The cider, the stew, freshly sewn costumes. Speaking of witch I need to make my utility belt to go with my leather jumpsuit. -yikes! I can't believe I'm going to be wearing that. But It did make for good motivation.
How are you doing on your goals, are you ready? In honor of my tight leather and your fitness goals as well I thought we'd do an ab check. So here is a Workout video dedicated to those abs of ours.
This whole routine is done from a plank position!!! Burn baby burn! Do the entire video 2-3 times or just supplement this to your normal routine for a good ab kick. Good luck. Keep your goals in mind your almost there.
Here are my prize pumpkins! No, they have not entered any contests but they've won the prize of my heart. I nurtured them from a young seedling, watched them sprout and grow. They are beautiful! And will remain that way until Monday, when I come at them with a carving knife.
It's been a family tradition to carve jack-o-laterns. Growing up we've tried to carve to most difficult images possible just to see the awe of the trick-or-treaters and parents as they climb our porch steps.
Last year as I started cleaning up the mess from carving, and not wanting to toss the little pieces of fresh pumpkin. I started thinking, "There must be something healthy yet tasteful I can do with them." And thus came..."Pumpkin Stew."
It was a hit, everyone loved it!!! This is now in the vault of my secret recipes. But it's nearing that time of year when we're all reminded to be a little more gracious and to serve our neighbors better. So I am sharing my sacred delight with you!
Remember this recipes only uses the scraps of pumpkin, whatever pieces you have left from carving is sufficient. Then after Halloween don't toss your jack-o-lantern either. I will show you how to make that into your thanksgiving pie.
Pumpkin Stew:
2 lb. stew meat cut into 1" cubes
3 T. Canola oil, divided
3 large potatos cubed
4 medium carrots, sliced
1 large green pepper, cut into 1.2" slices
4 garlic cloves, minced
1 medium onion, jullianned
1 tsp salt
1 tsp pepper, divided
1. c. water
2 T. beef bouillon granules
2 c. pumpkin carving scraps finely chopped
8 oz. condensed tomato soup + 2 Tb. water
3 tsp. basil
Brown meat in a skillet with 2 T. of oil. Brush 1 T. of oil inside a large crock pot coating well the bottom and sides. Add potatoes, carrots, green peppers, garlic, onion, 1/2 tsp. pepper, water and bullion. Then place the meat on top. Cook on low 2 hours. Place pumpkin pieces in crock pot. Pour tomato soup over top and sprinkle basil and remaining pepper on. Cook until pumpkin and veggies are tender. (aprox 2 more hours.) Stir and serve.
This weekend I was invited to a safety event sponsored by Graco. The latest research shows that if you keep a child rear facing until 2 then they are 5 times as likely to survive a car crash.
Think about this: what if you had Five times as much money, cars, clothes or muscles?
How's that perspective for you? This can really make a difference when it comes down to it. It's not that your a bad driver (I hope). It's that you and your children are out there with bad drivers, new drivers, in a hurry drivers. So it's important to do what you can to protect your precious gems.
click to enlarge
With this new announcement from the American Academy of Pediatrics came a problem. What rear facing car seat could fit a 2-year-old? That's where Graco jumped in. For your review I give you: "The Graco Snugride" (pause for dramatic effect)
As of now this is the only car seat on the market that can fit a premature baby all the way up to a two-year-old. So If you want to jump on the safety wagon this is the one to get.
They are very well build, nice quality. And can I be cheesy and say; that stroller can glide! You could definitely jog with it. The Purple fabric I just loved (which can come off and be thrown into the washer) and they have a neutral fabric as well.
Here is a video that demos for you how the seat can adjust for more leg room as the child grows -genius.
Remember when I said to have fun with exercise? Well here is a cheesy, fun, yet easy to fallow squat routine. The song used is the world wide phenomenon "Gangnam Style."
If you haven't heard it yet you can check it out on YouTube. I wasn't sure if the lyrics were clean so I check out the translation (because the song is in Korean) and it's clean. The singer/songwriter is making fun of those day dreaming of the life as the rich and famous. Thinking that they will get all the girls and everyone will want him. It's kinda cute he describes his dream girl as one who doesn't have to wear skimpy clothes to be beautiful. That's at least what I got out of it from a couple sites that had it translated.
Repeat the whole routine 3-4 times and don't be shy. No one is watching. Or, get your friends, kids, whoever and do it together. Mine loved it, and asked to do it over and over.
p.s. Sorry its fuzzy the lighting kept changing so my camera was trying to focus. We'll work on that.
-Enjoy
There is a nip in the air but it's not yet frigged. So what to wear?
Here are some essential pices to keep you working out in cool temeratures:
Start with a tank and layer on a light jacket. You'll be working out you need to plan for temperature changes. The jacket can come off when your sufficiently warm, or you can just unzip a bit for ventilation.
Next choose your bottoms. Is it really windy and you need pants? (I did this moaning) Or are you indoors and capris will do better, again giving you coverage but still ventilation.
Also pay attention to when your working out. This is one of my favorite tanks because bolds are so in right now the bright color allows me to be seen by cars as I go running in the morning.
Very importantly, the sports bra. If your serious about working out avoid a cotton bra. They wear out too quick and don't provide a lot of support. Not worth the money. Target, TJ Max and others sell good quality spandex poly blends for $14 - $25. Which is really reasonable compared to $50-$60 which you'll see at sporting good stores.
The weather is rarely an excuse for not working out. With the right gear its not only doable but can be fashionable comfortable too.
Yesterday I did some kickboxing for my workout. My kids joined me on this, and I'm so glad they did because my four-year-old taught me some new moves! He asked me if I have ever done "this," and he'd either try and do it or he'd explain it to me.
It felt so good that I've been an example to him in health and fitness to the point where he is trying to develop his own stuff. It was adorable. He made up the sequence below. The elbow blow I've never done on a bag before and the jump n' punch I've never even seen before! He mixed it with some other moves I've done previously, but he hasn't seen those in about a year. So to his credit this sequence is all him. I filmed this after I was done working out so I was really exhausted! But take a look at today's training moves from a 4-year-old.
(Did you hear him coaching me in the background?)
If you don't have a bag you can do this in the air. Still effective. Give it a try, it really can work ya! I'm adding them to my kickboxing mix from now on.
And here is the controversy: I was made aware of Dove's "Campaign for Real Beauty." Upon hearing about it I got excited and wanted to join the movement. Which is about getting away from ads and things that are all Photoshopped and airbrushed. And moving toward using real women as they are.
So you can see my interest right? I'm all about REAL. I believe in keeping oneself strong and healthy yes, but not starved or unrealistic. In looking deeper into this movement came those that criticized Dove because they say love yourself as you are, but yet sell anti-aging moisturizers and creams to reduce cellulite. Soo love yourself after their products?
Under Armor did a similar thing. Saying they were to "take it back." Away from the Photoshopped models and back to real women. Yet all the women in their promo videos and pictures were the skinniest I've ever seen. Maybe that's why they choose them? So they can say their not Photoshopped?
What do you think? Hypocrites, looking to gain confidence in a potential buyer? Or crusaders with pure intent?
For me I'm thinking... there OK. I feel computerizing pictures to change a persons features is crossing the line. But I don't feel it's wrong to were makeup or anti-aging moisturizers, or even be super fit. But I think we too can take it too far. To where we have to wear make up at all times or have to be super thin to feel good about ourselves. While this is not always easy, we do need to be comfortable with ourselves. I think they are marketers trying to market a product but they also bring good points to everyone attention.
So as for me I say: if you want, buy these products, yes do exercise but all in balance.
Just make it, and yourself enough. Lose unhealthy fat, gain essential muscle. Be better feel better but don't be unreasonable because your not a size 0. And at the same time don't give up because a Dr tells you you will never loose your belly fat because of a c-section, or because of hypothyroidism, or anything. Be strong, be smart, be you!
This weekend I talked with a ton of people about exercise and their habits. The consensus I got is that most people don't push past the burn or the fatigue. If we don't push past that burn or when we feel tired then we won't make any changes in our body.
Here is my slogan: "Challenge = Change," You will hear me say this so so much because it's incredibly true. Some times when my son does exercise with me he'll say "mom, this is hard." And I will say "yes, that's an exercise." Exercise is more than using your body, it's strengthening it. If you stop at the burn or fatigue then you've done a good thing and have used your body. But I know you want a Great thing, and to improve your body. So don't be afraid of failing, don't be afraid of yourself, push past it. Challenge yourself and make a change.
Even if you can only do 5 more reps or 5 more minutes. You've still increased your strength by that much and if you keep that up you will start to see results.
Also don't forget to have FUN! Exercise can be so fun. The other day my boys and I exercised for almost an hour and a half. I was sweating! Do you know what we did? We turned on some music and danced. We did everything from the Limbo Rock to the Party Rock Anthem. Then we used 1 lb. dumbbells as swords and tried to poke each other and chase one another all other the house. They loved it so much they asked for it again a couple of days later.
There are so many fun things you can do. I'll try and get some video of some great fun exercises so you can follow along too.
Remember to get results you need to push it and have FUN with it too.
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