Sunday, September 28, 2008

I came, I saw, I ate some crap

Well, I had a very fun weekend!!! I love visiting my brother and sister in law. We always have a lot of fun. I did not make the best of choices, but I also did not eat very much all weekend. It's hard to say which is worse!
We had Buffalo Wild Wings for dinner and I really had every intention of ordering Naked Chicken Tenders and a side of broccoli. Didn't quite work out that way though.
Dessert was a Nestle Toll House cookie ice cream sandwich ( which for the record has no fat or calories--since I refuse to look at the nutrition information- the stats don't count).
Breakfast was whole grain waffles and turkey bacon.
The baby shower had lots of healthy choices to choose from. Hummus, pita bread wraps, tabouleah, salads ( surprisingly, none were drowned in mayonnaise!!), fruit bowls, cheese and crackers. I sampled most of everything.
For dinner at the in-laws we had fresh perch ( caught this morning), green beans and broccoli. Dessert was a mini Twix ice cream treat-it was very mini.
On the way home in the car I had a gas station cappuccino and many handfuls of Skittles.
Exercise was pretty much nonexistent on Saturday and Sunday. I never thought I would find myself ready for Monday to start! Bring it.

Saturday, September 27, 2008

Hittin' the road

Today my family is going on a quick road trip. It will be a nice, fast get away. We will probably not be eating the best while on the road. It's only a 2.5 hour drive ( give or take an hour---we have small children!)
My goal while away from my own kitchen is to make the best decisions possible. With these stupid gas prices, that means the best choices on the .99 Value Menus! If you try hard enough you can actually order some good stuff ( healthy) from those menus.
I also will be at a baby shower on Sunday so that might get a bit tricky with eating. There is usually a veggie and fruit platter at gatherings such as this. And there will probably be some funky salad with mayonnaise ( barf- I have never likes mayonnaise) that I won't be eating. I will do my best with what is offered.
And since Matt surprised me with a late night dirty meal last night. I need to be on my best behavior! I was saving my dirty meal for this weekend since I knew we would be away from home. Yesterday was tuna sandwich night and I was not feeling it at all. I had a big salad for dinner and 2 hours later I was super hungry again ( go figure). I knew better. I lifted heavy weights and did bike intervals earlier in the day and I always have a big appetite on very active days. If you ever get a chance to eat at Bennigen's Grill & Tavern, order the Turkey O'Toole sandwich. It's the best thing ever. Did I mention it came with a side of fries? Because it did and they were delicious!

Tuesday, September 23, 2008

Fail to plan, plan to fail...

That's kind of how I live my life. Today I had an excellent day-mainly because I planned out everything in advanced--my meals, my classes and my workouts etc.
I try and plan my menus from Sunday to Wed and then Thursday to Saturday. That usually works out really well for me. At the start of this week for some reason I did not have a plan, and I acted as if I had no idea what to eat! I mean, I went grocery shopping on Sunday so the kitchen was fully stocked.
We had pasta on Monday. We never eat pasta on Monday-that's usually our "end of the week meal because we ran out of everything else dinner". Either that or tuna sandwiches.
After dinner on Monday I did the menu up until Thursday. I felt so much better knowing I had it all planned out.
I am the same way when teaching exercise classes. I taught 3 classes today and each one got better then the next and I started off pretty up there! I like when that happens. I planned out all of my classes on paper in advanced today. It was either my great teaching abilities or all the coffee I drank before my classes.
The same goes for my own personal workouts. If I step into the gym without a plan I usually have a less then stellar workout. I try to at least make a mental note of what I want to accomplish in the gym and go from there.
I hope I don't sound like a robot. I'm a fun girl--really!
I know the whole planning things does not work for all families, but I feel it works best for mine. I just need to figure out how to plan to get 8 hours of uninterrupted sleep at night. That would be awesome.

Monday, September 22, 2008

Feel the pain

I am getting old. Either that or I am overtraining! I am sure it's overtraining......I'm not that old. My shoulders are a mess. I teach 8 classes a week and it is starting to catch up with me. My shoulderse are the first place to feel it, next it will be my knees. I'm not old. I really don't like backing off in my classes. I look kind of lame not doing the full 3 sets of ten pushups that I ask my classes to do. My problem is I might do that 3 days in a row. Not too smart. And then I expect to be able to workout on my own 3 days a week.
I am trying to figure out a way to separate reaching my personal fitness goals and teaching my fitness classes to my full potential. This is not an easy task, but I need to figure it out before I injure myself. In all of my 10+ years of teaching I have never injured myself ( knock on wood) and I want to keep it that way. It might help too if I incorporated more stretching in my day or a yoga class a few times a week.
I cannot believe I am actually certified to teach yoga! I taught it for about a year or so and stopped when I was 5 months pregnant with Amara. It's too slow for me. I'm all about action over here! I noticed a huge difference in my flexibility and I am the first to recommend yoga too. It's very hard to go to someone elses class after teaching 2-3 myself that day. The only exception is Zumba-but that's a given.
So I guess I have a lot to figure out in regards to finding balance in that area of my life. That and dinner. I have no idea what to make tonight. We usually end up having tuna sandwiches when I can't think of anything else.
On a side note ( I know, this is about the 3rd side note of this blog) the vegetable turkey meat loaf was a hit! Amara says she liked it ( with ketchup of course). Matt pretty much likes anything, so I was sure he would eat this without a problem. I liked the fact that it was really easy to make and that it's super healthy with all the vegetables inside. As Amara happily exclaimed "I can't even taste em'!!" Whew!

Friday, September 19, 2008

Not bad

I ended up making my turkey meat loaf about an hour ago. It looks interseting to say the least. I got the recipe out of a book called Eat Well, Lose Weight While Breastfeeding. I am positive I gained weight while following the guidelines of this book. Not sure how that heppened, but it did. So I do not recommend this book for weight loss at all!
Ok, here's the recipe:
Vegetable Meat Loaf
1 pound lean ground beef or ground turkey
2 cupes finely grated vegetables any combination ( carrots, zucchine, carrots, mushrooms, green beans, bell peppers, onions)
1 cup crushed crackers, unsweetened flake cereal or bread crumbs
salt and pepper
1 egg
Preheat oven to 350*. Mix all ingrediants in a bowl until they are well blended. Press into a 8-inch by 4- inch loaf pan. Bake for 50 minutes or until done. Serves 4.

I went to the grocery store today to buy my veggies. I went to the produce section because I know that a lot of the stuff will be marked down since a new sale starts on Sunday. I was able to get some organic yellow carrots for $1.50 and organic bell peppers for dirt cheap. I also bought some organic baby greens for less than $1.

I followed the instructions for the most part. I used lean ground turkey. I advise against using extra lean ground turkey unless you are a fan of dry meat. Although, the veggies might bring enough mositure to the loaf--I just thought of that-dangit! But we all need some fat in our diet so, whatever. I choose to use itlalian bread crumbs instead of cereal-that just seems weird. For the veggies I used yellow baby carrots, orange baby carrots, green bell pepper, onions and baby greens. I just piled a bunch in the food processor until I had a little over 2 cups. It actually turned out nicely. It looks kind of like confetti when you slice it. It counts as 1 serving of vegetables too. I ate a little piece, and it is moist enough so I might not need to use ketchup. I am sure Amara and Matt will though.

I used to cook all the time and I think I might start doing it more often. Maybe.

Thursday, September 18, 2008

What a day...

The last few days have been hazy. As I type it is 2:32am. I have no idea why I am awake-Miles has been sleeping since 7:30pm ( he woke up around 1:22am and was sleeping by 1:42am), I just never settled back into sleep for some strange reason. That's kind of how my day has gone today--or should I say yesterday??.
Amara had her fitness class today. So I decided it would be a good idea to walk there. It's only a 10 mintue walk from our house and we left a little late. Amara ( bless her heart) ran the entire way with me pushing Miles in his stroller behind her. We made it on time, good thing since class started late today for some reason. My plan was to take her to class and then enjoy a nice walk in the park a few feet from where Amara's class was held. Miles and I set out on our walk when I decided it was time to clean the ants off the stroller. ( Oh, I forgot to mention that..I noticed quite a few ants on the stroller when we left, but since we were late I let them be). None were on Miles and I wanted to keep it that way. I took Miles out of his stroller to clean the ants off. He ended up brushing up against the muddy stroller while I was cleaning...what's that you say?? That's not mud? Oh, of course not, it's dog poo! Nice. And to make matters worse I forgot the diaper bag at home and all I had was a tissue I snagged on the way out of Amara's school, of course it was full of ants and crumpled up. I wiped up what I could from Miles' pants and decided I was grossed out enough to walk home and change his clothes. We hurried home, got changed and disenfected and walked back to get Amara. What a start to my day!
At least Amara had a good time. She showed Miles and I more skills and then some! She was doing some walking lunges-I asked her if they did those in class. She said no, but you do these so I wanted to do them too ( tear) She also learned about whole grains and serving sizes which I elaborated on the imprtance of both.
I taught one class today ( Totally Toned) and walked a total of about 30 minutes and also had my weekly dose of my new obsession-ZUMBA!
I have fallen back into my good eating habits. I am not thinking about it, I just make good choices as if it is second nature again. Finally! Tonight for dinner we had tilapia. It's a mild white fish that is easy to make and tastes pretty darn good. I dreadged it in a few egg whites, seasoned it and then dipped it in Italian bread crumbs and baked it in the oven. I think tilapa is is one of Amara's favorite dinners. She usually takes about an hour to eat, but on tilapia night she takes less then 30 minutes-that includes her second helping of fish and she has to eat her sides first-tonight was sweet potatoes and broccoli. Stay tuned for my turkey meatloaf I am attempting tonight! I never liked anyone's meatloaf besides my dad's when I was growing up. I used to make one in college that used lots of salsa and corn that I thought was tolerable. I probably drowned it in ketchup
I never understood how restaurants even served meatloaf and why people would order it. That and pot roast in a restaurant-gross.
Anyway, I shuld try and sleep since I am sure Miles will get up as soon as I close my eyes..
The joys of parenthood- I wouldn't change it for the world!

Monday, September 15, 2008

Bottoms up!

Our family is settling in nicely with our eating habits once again. It's not that we were sitting around stuffing our faces with garbage, but we still did it a little more often then was needed. I am doing this first as a way to become healthy and to show my kids what it means to be healthy. That also means not making comments about how fat, ugly or dumb I am in front of her. That's easy for me since I am non of those things.....haha!! We are trying to teach her that it's not all about looks and all things beautiful ( she is in that stage of all things must be pretty) that it is important to eat well and exercise in order to stay healthy which will make her smart first and all the other things are just a bonus. Which leads me to announce that I have lost 4 lbs since the start of all this. Go me! Amara got her exercise in these pst 2 days by jumping in the puddles for at least 30 minutes for 2 days! It literally rained here for 48 hours without much of a break. She had the best time. I think I exercised 5 out of 7 days last week. Not too shabby. Matt made it to the gym a few times and went fishing.
Miles has been exercising--mainly his lungs. Not all crying thank goodness!
I think I was praising Miles' sleep habits a bit prematurely. That night was just a fluke.
He is now officially my problem child ( Amara is off the hook for now). Hopefully, whatever he is going through will be over soon. Like today. I have a feeling tonight is going to be another long night for us.
I need to take up drinking ( should probably start tonight). Not really, but all the "experts" make claims that drinking one alcoholic bevergae a day can do lots of stuff: increase good cholesterol, lessen heart disease, lowers risk of diabetes and breast cancer etc.
One study also claims that people that exercise and drink (I assume not at the same time) had a beneficial effect on thier heart. This is all good news. Or so I thought. The same study said to not start my 1 drink a day habit until I was 45 or 50 years old! Dang! Now I have to wait over 10 years to start my new hobby. I can either do that or have 1 drink a few times a week. I also know that "they" say red wines are best ( for all the good things that grapes provide) Anybody know of a cheap red wine that tastes sweet and more like a white wine?
Cheers!

Friday, September 12, 2008

Exercise- A family affair........




The past couple of days have been pretty good. Miles slept better last night, so that is good news for our household. He has been walking for about 1 month now so he is getting his exercise in these days. He was a pretty big baby ( 10 lbs. 10 oz.- I love to throw that in every chance I get). He is 11 months and around 22-23 lbs. Healthy guy with precious baby rolls galore. His face is starting to thin out with all his activity.
Amara has started her new gym class at her preschool. It's a great idea and I wish I thought of it. An outside source comes in once a week ( Rising Starz Fitness) and teaches the kids about fitness, self-esteem and nutrition. I asked her how she liked it. Her response, " I loved it!" After that she demonstrated a few donkey kicks, somersaults and a faux carthweel that she learned that day. I asked her if they talked about nutrition and she said, "fruit and oil". Not quite sure what the means, but she's only 4-I am happy she paid enough attention to the non-activity portion of class to tell me that much!
I think Matt made it to the gym twice this week, which for him is great. He does full body workouts on his lunch break. He is not really a cardio machine type of guy. He would rather play basketball although that has not happened in a few weeks. We are still working on that. He's the type of person that will eat well for a week, make it to the gym 3 times and play basketball 1-2 times and a 6-pack magically appears. No fair. Back off ladies-he's with me. He is into fishing and hunting, so that gets him plenty of walking in when the season hits.
I am back to teaching 8 fitness classes a week. It can really wear on me after a few weeks of this. I can get burned out very quickly. I am trying to avoid this by trying to do doing different things everytime I teach. It worked this week.
I did a Boot Camp style class with 1 minute drills. For another class I did compound exercises the entire class. One class I only used the Body Bar for equipment. My Spinning class is always different-this week it was hills and sprints. I like to teach classes the same way I like to be taught. I talk as little as necessary and I am not always in your face telling you " Good job!" and " Way to go!" I know, I know..that does not sound very motivating, but I do give kudos when it's needed. I let my classes know they are doing well. My feedback is great and a lot of people tell me the reason they keep coming back to my classes is because of the resasons I stated.
I ended up getting to the gym today and did my own thing- A full body circuit and intervals on the treadmill. Sometimes people cannot believe I still go to the gym after teaching all week. I have to, or I will go insane. End of story.

Wednesday, September 10, 2008

Cold Stone anyone???

Miles won't sleep. He is either:
a) teething
b) sick
c) both a and b
d) neither
e) likes to party all night
I have been going on auto-pilot these last few days. Not. Fun. At. All. Stressed to the max! The bad news is I am a total stress eater. The good news is I have not given in! Even when my loving husband called me tonight on the way home from running errands ( buying broccoli, chicken and turkey bacon). The conversation went something as follows.
Matt: Hey Marcia...I'm not trying to sabotage you or anything, but I am near Cold Stone..do you want me to stop?!!?!?
Me: NO!!!
Matt: Ok, bye. Just thought I would check.
This was a pretty big step for me. A month ago, I would have been all over that!! If you don't know..Cold Stone Creamery is just the best ice cream ever invented! Take a peek: www.coldstonecreamery.com/index.html
They do have some "healthier indulgences" options to choose from, including a Sinless Sans Fat-non fat no sugar added ice ceam ( um, no thanks!). If I am going to eat ice cream give me the real deal please!! If you ever get a chance to go there, I highly recommend it..in moderation of course!!
My 4 year old is learning what a "cheat" meal is but does not really like the word cheat. She wants to call our next cheat meal a fun meal instead--they sure do learn fast at this age! She's still a tad confused on why her cheat still has to include a side a broccoli though. Hmmmm, how to explain that one.......

Saturday, September 6, 2008

What a waste.....

Today was my first official " cheat meal" of the week. A cheat is basically an off plan meal that might be something you craved all week--basically something fried, cheesey, sugary and all things that I am trying to avoid.
I had Taco Hell and it was not even worth it.
I took Miles for a walk while Amara rode her bike for 30 minutes ( exercise for me--yay!). After the walk we just started driving and we ended up at Taco Hell. It did not even taste good. UGH!!! I even passed on the pizza today at Chuck E. Cheese. What was I thinking???
Sometimes "cheats" are needed and necessary for me to stay on track. Next time I will remind myself that if I just don't really feel like it then I won't have the cheat. Either that or just get pizza. I can never go wrong with pizza.

Thursday, September 4, 2008

3 days down and a lifetime to go

Well, it has been just about 3 whole days since I am "back on track" with all things healthy!
When I am off track, my whole family is off track..that's just the way we roll. We are back to eating ( hubby and I) 5-6 healthy meals a day. I feel good about this. I hate being "off track" and just eating like I don't care about myself. I do care about myself and my family. We were given life for a reason, may as well take care of it the best way we can! Our plan is to eat clean all week long and then we will have one dirty meal a week. This has worked pretty well for us in the past, we just let it slpi during the summer months. We were having a few too many dirty meals, snacks, weeks--you get the picture.
My exercise has also gotten back to where it needs to be. I do teach quite a few classes during the week, but I still need ( a personal choice really) to do my own thing as well. My new thing this week is Zumba. It's a latin inspired dance, aerobics, salsa, grapevine, booty -pop and hip shakin' type of class. It is not my type of class at all. I LOVE IT! It's so much fun to just go in and let loose and trip over my own 2 feet. I have taken 2 classes already this week and hope to add another one by this weekend. If you want to learn more about it : http://www.zumbafitness.com/index.php?acnt=GHZZU000&s_kwcid=zumba1464101708
I highly recommend this class to everyone. It helps if the instructor is awesome though!
Amara goes to preschool two times a week. They just added a new gym class too. I am very excited and happy about this. While in this class the teachers will discuss self-esteem, body image, nutrition and they even get to do fun gym stuff! These are all things we try to teach her at home, but I am happy that these things will be reinforced at school.
Miles is a grat baby with a great appetite. He will eat basically whatever I feed him. I hope he stays this way forever (having a good appetite, not a baby).
So here is to taking everything one day at a time!

Tuesday, September 2, 2008

Let me intorduce myself....

I probably should have done this a few posts ago, but having 2 young kids to chase around I must have forgotten.
My name is Marcia ( Mar-See-A..not Marsha!) and I have been married for 5 years and have two beautiful children- Amara is 4 and Miles is 10 months.
I went to a university and obtained a bachelors degree in Movement Science ( an extra fancy way to say P.E.)
I have been a certified fitness instructor since 1998 and have never looked back! Back then
( early 20's) I was not too concerned with what I ate. I could eat garbage ( and did) 75% of the time and maintain a pretty enviable physique ( if I do say so myself). I love teaching and love to help people reach their goals. I like to eat clean--not everything and not all the time, but a majority of the foods in my house are fresh and not out of a box. We do buy organic when we can, but let's face it-- is is expensive to eat right! I am phasing out high fructose corn syrup and trans fat in my home as well. HFCS is in just about everything.
Currently, I own my own small fitness business and I also teach classes at my local YMCA. I spend any free moment reading up on the latest and greatest fitness news, gadgets and diets. I just like to keep on the up and up in the industry.
I exercised all through both pregnancies ( oh, it's a myth that when you exercise you have "easy" labors....2 hours of pushing with both and lots of other gory details I won't type).
I think I might have loved being pregnant ( I foget sometimes). I probably would have enjoyed it more if I did not get so darned big (Amara was 8 lbs 5 oz and 3.5 weeks early, Miles was 10 lbs 10 oz. and 1 week early). I ate well for the most part( we all have our moments of shame) and was teaching anywhere from 5-11 classes a week during both pregnancies!
That about sums me up.
It is my mission to try and live a fun, healthy, balanced life and teach my kids to do the same!