my little garden

This morning, the rains are here and I don’t mind a bit. It’s helping the boys sleep in a little and it’s watering my little garden. Or, I should say He is watering my little garden. I keep telling my husband that it’s one of my most favorite places to be in the whole world. Summer is half over and it saddens me to think that my garden is coming close to its peak…well, I’m sad and excited at the same time. From a distance, it looks like a mess!

My messy little garden

But, if you look more closely, you’ll see the good stuff!

Butternut squash

Yellow crookneck squash

Almost ripe tomatoes

WATERMELON!

Sugar snap peas

Sunflower

God has blessed my little garden and I’m so thankful.

My baby boy, Elam, will be one on Monday! Isn’t that hard to believe? Looking back on a post from a year ago, time has flown and he’s changed so much.

Little Ezra is 3.5 and is saying the funniest things. Like, shoulders are “shirtles”. Gotta love it.

My Thrive ministry is taking off slowly. Check out my separate website for more details about that.

Enjoy the rest of the summer!

so stinkin’ excited

A lot has happened since my last post! I’ve started my own business/ministry and it’s really just falling into place. I believe that’s because God gave me the vision and he’s working out all of the details. 🙂 Check out my website!

My logo!

I’m teaching my first Thrive Cardio & Strength workout tomorrow…I’ve taken contemporary Christian music and choreographed a 30 minute routine. We’re going to start the session with a prayer and end with a short devotional. Then, I’m having my first seminar at my church on June 15.

Life is good on the home front too! I’m enjoying the extra time with my boys (including my husband) and my part-time job doing web development is going well. We develop our sites on WordPress now, so that helps!

What’s going on in your world?

oh, blog, how i’ve missed you!

I have missed blogging so much (among other things). My life is moving is warp speed, which I’m sure is the case for most of you. Since November, I’ve been Acting Director at the fitness facility where I work. It’s been challenging, both professionally and personally. The holidays were good and I tried to separate work from home life, but I did find myself thinking about work too much while at home.

My boys are growing up so quickly and they seem to change daily. The oldest will be 3 at the end of the month and the baby will be 6 months in a couple of weeks as well. They’ll be 18 before I can blink, I’m sure. I really am trying to enjoy every minute with them. Don’t get me wrong, there are moments that are trying when your two year old screams, “No, mommy!” when you try to tell him something to do, but thankfully those moments are fewer than the good ones.

I did manage to set some 2015 goals for myself a week or so ago. If I don’t get them down on paper and in my face this month, they aren’t going to happen. This is what I have on tap for me this year:

• Spend time studying and applying what I learn about the Fruit of The Spirit
• Take each aerobics class offered at our wellness facility in order to better help members and guests
• Spend more quality time with my husband, kids, and extended family
• Compete in one sprint and one international triathlon (I missed last year since I was pregnant)
• Get back to meal planning and cooking
• Reduce the sugar in my toddler’s diet
• Expand our vegetable garden and can/freeze some produce at harvest

I looked back over my 2014 goals and I’m happy to report I met most of them! These are the ones I missed…

• Help lead one person to Christ – No one came to me and said they were saved because of anything I said or did this year, but I hope I’ve witnessed more. I feel like I have been more comfortable in that over the past year.
• Perform at least one pull up – I give up on that one. I don’t think I’ll ever do that.
• Potty train our son – They say that happens on the kid’s own time. I have to add that back to the 2015 list because it has to happen this year or BUST!

What’s goals have you set for yourself this year? I hope to make it back to blog before February…at least by Groundhog Day!

what a “treat” – i’m certified!!!!

I just got an email that I passed and am certified as a LesMills BodyPump instructor!!! I only had to record my video THREE times, so I was tickled pink (or orange and black if you want to go Halloween themed) to find out. It was harder to get certified for this than my ACE Personal Training. Woo hoo! Happy Halloween!

scary sore!

We were both smiling under our masks…then we realized it didn’t matter because you can’t see our faces! Duh!

My friend and co-worker Michaela took my class this morning and we both wore masks getting started. We had to shed them in order to breathe during the workout, though. It was HARD and I’m going to be SORE tomorrow (and probably Friday, too)! If you missed it, here’s the workout from yesterday’s post. Both of us ended up taking BodyPump yesterday evening. Well, I ended up TEACHING it instead of taking it. I wasn’t planning on it, but the instructor had an emergency and I filled in. It was fun. Tomorrow will be a rest day for me, but I hope to jog and swim Friday. I did end up swimming 14 laps this morning after class – I’ve been out of the pool for two weeks, which is too long.

spooky superset workout by ACE

Thought this workout looked cool so I think we’ll do it in my 6:15 am class tomorrow. I was going to do BodyPump, but this has some neat, different moves and is themed. Now, I just gotta figure out what to wear as a costume tomorrow. My son has a “green goblin” mask and I could wear it. Freaky!

kickin’ sugar habit and lovin’ it

I’m leading a team of 5 folks in a weight loss competition right now – we have 2 weeks left after this one and so far, my team members are doing great. When I say “leading”, I’m the personal trainer for the group. I meet with them once a week for an hour to discuss nutrition and we do a workout. Anyway, the past two I’ve led, I was pregnant, so weight loss was not on my personal list. However, now I’m 3 months postpartum and really trying to get back into shape. I was losing some weight, but then I got stuck. Then, I contracted the stomach bug and lost 3 pounds over a weekend. After that, I was on a roll again and I think I’m back down to my pre-baby weight of 155 pounds (within a pound depending on the day).

A lady that was on my first weight loss team came to speak with the current team members about how she has lost 36 pounds in 10 months. It’s pretty much common sense, but she has opened my eyes to the devil SUGAR! It’s in everything (which I already knew), but I’ve really started paying attention to it.

Did you know that adults shouldn’t really consume more than 24 grams of added sugar in a day? That’s the equivalent of 6 teaspoons. Check out this recent article by Reader’s Digest that backs it up and also gives some recipes and tips on breaking your addiction. My friend that gave the lecture brought me a newspaper article just this morning with even MORE sugar info. Here’s a short excerpt to put it into perspective:

So it pains me to use M&Ms as an example, but one ordinary-size packet (1.69 ounces) contains 31 grams of sugar. This year, the World Health Organization recommended that sugar consumption should equal no more than 5 percent of your daily caloric intake. For the average adult, that’s about 25 grams of added sugar per day. The WHO isn’t just worried about the 69 percent of Americans who are overweight or obese. Diabetes and obesity are rapidly becoming a global concern.

My packet of M&Ms already exceeds 25 grams of sugar. If on a day that I eat the M&Ms I also have a 12-ounce Coke (39 grams of sugar), a one-cup bowl of Raisin Bran Crunch (19 grams), one serving of Campbell’s tomato soup (12 grams) and a 6-inch turkey sub from Subway (7 grams), that puts me at 108 grams of sugar, or over 400 percent of the WHO’s daily recommendation. And that’s in 950 calories. So either the WHO’s recommendation is ridiculously low or much of the reason the world is getting so fat — and not just fat, but sick — is that we’re swimming in an ocean of sugar and don’t even realize it.

Either way, about 2 weeks ago, for some reason the desire for sweets just kind of left me. I still add a teaspoon of raw sugar to my coffee each morning and I like my iced tea mildly sweet, but I’ve really cut out the cookies, cakes, etc. I feel better and I’m dropping the weight that is normally hard to get off.

I encourage you to look at your sugar intake and see where you stand, then make modifications if need be. There are TONS of resources out there to help, but let me know what your hurdles are. My best piece of advice – DON’T BUY IT! If you don’t buy it, you can’t eat it. 🙂

Next up…how to get my toddler down to 16 grams or less of added sugar. This one is gonna be fun…

want to be a personal trainer?

When I changed jobs almost two years ago, part of my job duty was to become an ACE (American Council on Exercise) certified personal trainer, which I accomplished. I’m really glad I did it because I’ve wanted to do it for years. I’ve enjoyed being a personal trainer these past 18 months or so. In addition to helping people meet their fitness and wellness goals, I also get great emails with tips and updates from ACE.

I got one today about the Ash Hayes Scholarship that is helping folks who want to help our youth obtain their personal training certification at almost no cost! If you’re interested, check out the scholarship information and apply.

Click the image to be taken to the ACE website and apply or learn more.

30 second core workout

Yep, you heard it folks! Just 30 seconds to your perfect middle. 🙂 Yeah, right. Here’s what I just got finished doing as my Friday workout since my foot hurts too much to be on it long…

Perform each exercise for 30 seconds before moving along to the next move. Rest up to 10 seconds between each exercise and repeat up to three times, resting 1 minute before repeating.

1. Plank Ups (go from elbow plank to straight arm plank then back down)
2. Flutter Kicks
3. Reverse Crunches
4. Left Side Plank
5. Superman
6. Right Side Plank
7. Mountain Climbers
8. Russian Twists (with medicine ball)

I repeated it three times. Those flutter kicks will get ya! And those plank ups…ouch!

workout week

It’s been a great week of workouts for me and I hope to squeeze another good one in today. Monday, I jogged/walked outside and did really well. I surprised myself and jogged about 80% of the distance (probably 2.5 miles or so) which isn’t too bad considering the baby is only 8 weeks old and I haven’t jogged any distance in almost a year.

Tuesday, I taught the noon BodyPump class and was sore through yesterday, in my biceps especially. I’m teaching the class Tuesday and Thursday next week and have to record my second video. I really hope I pass this time!

Wednesday, I took the noon BodyAttack class. Thankfully, it was only 30 minutes because it’s a tough one! Empty your bladder before you take that class because you jump around A LOT!

Yesterday was a rest day, but I hope to either do BodyPump on my own today or swim laps. I have this terrible plantar’s wart on my foot that is causing some serious pain, so I want to swim, but I need to practice Pump. However, I’ve not swam all week and I really enjoy my time in the water.

I had a personal training session with a gal this morning and she did this workout. What do you think?

300 Rep Full Body Workout

Warm Up: 15 seconds of each exercise (repeat three times)

• jumping jacks
• walking high knees
• walking butt kickers

Main Set: complete circuit 2-3 times

1. 50 jumping jacks
2. 40 flutter kicks
3. 30 lunges (plyo lunges to make it harder)
4. 20 bicep curls
5. 10 burpees
6. 10 bench dips
7. 20 push ups
8. 30 squats (jump squats to make it harder)
9. 40 triceps extensions
10. 50 high knees

This was my inspiration for the workout – http://tarasabo.blogspot.com/2014/07/guest-post-300-rep-high-intensity.html