Fitness Friday {motivation}

Motivation is necessary when trying to meet health goals.  I’ve tried many forms of motivation:  rewarding myself with cheap jewelry, a yummy treat on cheat day, new clothes.  But I think the best motivation is seeing results.

Despite the fact that my healthy eating and increased exercise attempts have been rather weak, I am seeing results from the meager attempts that I am doing.  For instance, I bought a dress…and it was a size smaller than I normally buy at this particular store (whose clothes run a tad small so I rarely buy there).  I took the dress into the dressing room thinking that it wouldn’t fit. 

Guess what?

It did fit!  And it’s cute! 

And then there’s the jeans that I haven’t worn in a while because they were too small.  I tried them on the other day.

Guess what?

They fit!  Yay!

That, my friends, is Motivating!

Knowing that even my less than whole-hearted attempts have given results motivates me to work harder towards achieving my goals. Imagine how much actually giving this healthy living thing my full attention could change my life.  If just changing a little has helped, how much more can doing it wholly help?  

Have these results made these changes completely easier?  No…I still dread getting out of bed to exercise but I know that doing so will give me results.  Not to mention, I feel so much better after I’ve gotten started.

So I have a new goal.  In my closet is a bin full of clothes.  There are some really cute sweaters, jeans, and skirts that I haven’t worn in a long time.  They are only the next size down from what I wear today.  My goal is to fit into those clothes by winter time.  Since we are in the deep south, cold weather usually starts in December or late November  {and sometimes even later than that} so I’ve got a few months to reach this goal.  I’ll just go ahead and say that I will fit into these clothes by Thanksgiving.

I’m also going to be joining in on the 42 Days to Fit Challenge over at Marathon Mom.  If you’re looking to get healthy click the link above.  It may be something you’d like to join in on also. 

 

Affordable {but fun} date nights

 

David and I have been focusing on making our relationship a priority.  Let’s face it, between homeschooling, the kids’ extracurricular activities, church ministries, David’s work, and general house keeping…well, there’s not a whole lot of time to devote to our relationship.  However, we are choosing to find the time.  And we especially choose this since we’ve heard that research shows that many divorces occur after the children have left home and the parents find that their relationship has cooled.  I can’t help but wonder if we parents turn our focus on our children, homes, and busyness so much that we lose sight of each other.

In that light, we’ve decided to try to take one night a week for just us.  Though in reality, it is usually more like 2 nights a month.  We take what we can get.  {smile}

Since we are a one income family, we don’t have a lot of money to spend on our dates.  We’ve had to get a little creative.  But we’ve found that it doesn’t take much money at all to make our time together fun and to strengthen our relationship. 

Here are a few of our cheap affordable dates:

• An ice cream date while our teenagers babysit

When we did this, we brought back some ice cream for the children.  So it was a win-win for all:  ice cream for them and time to talk for us.  This is really affordable if the ice cream shop is having a cheap ice cream night or you pick up a tub of ice cream from the store on the way home.  Total cost:  about $10

• Shared meal and a Netflix movie

For months I carried around a restaurant gift card in my wallet and waited for an opportunity to use it.  I used half of it to go out to eat with a friend.  One weekend while the kids visited grandparents, David and I used the other half to order a meal that was big enough for us to share.  We picked it up, brought it home, drank our own drinks, and watched a Netflix movie.  Chinese food take out is pretty affordable and easy to share too.  Total cost:  about $7 dollars since we used the leftover money on a gift card 

• Shopping

Last weekend, David and I went shoe shopping with some of my birthday gift money.  How do I know that David loves me?  He said he had fun talking and laughing with me as I spent my gift money on shoes.  We’ve also been shopping at hardware stores and grocery stores.  Like I said earlier, we take the time when we can get it.  {smile}  Total cost:  free when it’s gift money or the cost of what we are purchasing

• A coffee date

Every once in a while, we will pick up a cup of coffee and talk while we sip.  Total cost:  about $7 – $ 10

• A real deal dress-up-and-sit-down-and-eat date

For anniversaries, we try to get away to our favorite steak restaurant and eat a meal out.  On occasion, we will go there “just because”.  We try to order wisely and drink water so we keep our costs low.  Total cost:  Usually about $25 - $30

• Stay at home and cook date

We’ve had a few dates where we have used what we had around the house and cooked a meal for us.  When we do this, we usually watch a Netflix or Red Box movie.  This is usually done when the kids are visiting grandparents.  Total cost:  cost of food and movie

• Ideas for future dates

The dates above all cost money but it can be done even cheaper than this.  Some ideas are:

• sitting outside in the evening under the stars with some homemade lemonade or sweet tea {hot cocoa if cold}
• early morning coffee {probably not much talking then since one of us is not a morning person}
• walks down the block in the evenings
• movies after the kids go to bed {love Netflix}

I truly believe that it is important to make sure that we focus on our marriages and each other.  This is hard to do when our children are very little.  I will admit that it has gotten easier to do as our children have gotten older.  But I believe that even the little things add up in our marriages.

Do you have some affordable date ideas?  I’d love to hear it! 

This post is linked to: 

Fitness {& health} Friday

It’s Friday and time to check in with my updates on the health goals that I’ve been working towards.

Let’s start with the good {smile}…the getting more sleep goal has been easy.  The lights are not off every night by 10:30 (usually closer to 11 or 11:30) but I have been getting 7 or more hours of sleep most nights.  Of course, this is easy during the summer because I’m not as pressed to get up early in the mornings.  Once school kicks off again, I will have to be more diligent about getting in bed and lights off by 10:30.

So that goal has been easy to work on.

Now for the not so good…exercise this week was just lacking.  And I’m not going to make any excuses.  I was just lazy and unmotivated in the exercise department.  I did exercise…one day.  Sad, isn’t it?  I am planning on getting in some heavy duty garden work tonight though.  I do count that as exercise because working in the garden really does get my heart rate up.  (Particularly the kind of work we’ll be doing tonight – raking, pulling up plants, cultivating – all of those activities are pretty rigorous.)  So it’s been a bad week for exercise.  I really didn’t want to tell y’all how badly I’d failed in the exercise department this week but it feels good to have that off of my chest.  {smile}

Goals for this week

• EXERCISE!  {smile}
• Get seven to eight hours of sleep a night
• Drink only one soda a day (with the ultimate goal of eliminating them for good…baby steps)

Eating well

I believe that exercise is important in order to have a healthy body.  However, I believe what we put into our bodies is just as important to our health.  For our family, I try to limit the amount of processed food we eat.  Our family’s biggest processed enemy is sugar.  Most of my sugar is from soda (hence my new goal above).  We are trying to make changes here and there along the way to steer our family towards a real food diet. 

I’ve been researching some “diets” that focus on eating real food.  I’m going to give you some links that I’ve been reading.  If you happen to know about these diets or eat this way (or would simply like to discuss the info), I’d love to hear your thoughts and input.

• Paleo diet  (I almost didn’t link to this because it contains some coarse language but the information is good.  Please read with discretion.  Here is another link to a visual representation of the Paleo diet.)
• Beyond diet (I watched most of the video.  It is long but informative.)
• Eating clean
• 100 days of real food

Next week I hope to discuss more of how we are incorporating real foods into our large family of picky eaters.

Some apps and links to help you in your quest to healthiness

There is so much out there in the tech world to help us as we try to get healthy.  I wanted to share a few that I use.

• Couch to 5K site
• Couch to 5K app (I have the C25K Lite (Android) which is free.  It beeps to let me know when it is time to change from running to walking and vice versa.  It was very helpful.  Here is an app for iphone.)
• Fit for My King (book about the author’s weight loss and maintenance using a real foods way of eating and devotions to use as you eat this way)
• Cardio Trainer app
• My Pinterest health page (links to many different exercises – good for the days that you don’t have much time but still want to do some exercise as well as other links)
• My Fitness Pal
• My Fitness Pal Android app

How about you?  How are you doing on your journey to a healthier you? 

Fitness {and health} Friday

Last week I wrote about taking care of ourselves especially those of us who are busy in our lives taking care of others.  (Wait…wouldn’t that be all of us? {smile}) 

So how did you do with your commitment to get moving more?

As is typical of Adriane, I planned too big.  I had originally planned to exercise five days a week.  You see, before I got sick 7 weeks ago, I was exercising at least three days a week.  I figured that it would be easy to jump in again at five days a week.  {Ahem} 

By now you’ve probably figured out that I did not get in five days of exercise last week.  You may have even figured out that I’m not going to meet that goal this week either.  (And before you think I completely flaked out…I did get some walking in and I did some pushups with my older boys.  It was a little but just not what I had planned.)

And I could blame it on the rain…

But I won’t.  (Even though it has been raining a lot!)

Honestly, the biggest reason for my not meeting the goal is what I’m going to focus on this week in this post (instead of eating well as I had previously mentioned).

So what derailed my efforts to move more?

My Kindle.

{smile} 

Yes, really…

And now you’ve heard every excuse out there!

So it goes a bit like this…Usually, I don’t read fiction.  The reason I don’t is because if I really get into a book, I can not put it down.  Last week I downloaded a few free fiction books on my Kindle.  And then I proceeded to stay awake until 3 am (3 am!) reading these books.  Not just one night either.  We’re talking a few nights of this.  And that would be ok if I got to sleep late but some of my kiddos get up with the birds.  That makes for one tired mama who could not did not exercise.

So I’m blaming it on my Kindle! {ha}

However, it has made me realize that what they say about sleep is very, very true.  Our bodies need adequate amounts of sleep in order to function well.  Sadly, research shows that many of us are receiving way less sleep than we need. 

So the goals for this week are:

• Even though I blew it last week (so thankful for second chances) I will exercise 3 – 5 times before next Friday. (Five is better but I will cut myself some slack.)
• I will turn lights out before 10:30 every night.  (For me that will be about 7 hours of sleep.)

And with that, I’m off of the computer for the night.  I have 20 minutes to ready for bed and read (and it won’t be fiction either) before I turn off the lights and let my body rest before a new day of taking care of my family. 

I’d love to hear how you’ve done with your exercise!  I plan to bring you all a better report next Friday!

 

Caring for the caregiver

Do you not know that you are a temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?  I Corinthians 3:16

image from FreeDigitalPhotos.net

 

Six

That’s the number of weeks that I’ve been sick with a cold, laryngitis, sinus infections, and a horrible cough.

Six

That’s the number of weeks since I’ve exercised.

Two

That’s the number of times I’ve visited the doctor over the last few weeks.  I won’t even give you the number for the amount of medications I’m having to take!

 

I promise that this is not going to become a pity party post.  Before I even got sick, I all ready had this post in my mind.  You see, this mom sometimes get so caught up in taking care of others that sometimes (ok, often) this mom tends to neglect herself.  I don’t even have to be sick to “forget” to take care of myself.  Like I said, I had this post planned months ago and that was before I became sick.

And you don’t even have to be a mom to be like this.  I think women with our nurturing natures tend to put ourselves kind of low on the priority list.  We are designed to help and care for others.  These things are good things.

The problem starts when we completely forget about taking care of ourselves. 

And when I start down that road of being too busy to eat well, exercise, or nurture my own soul & mind, things can get bad.  I usually get really sick…so sick that I am forced to slow down, eat well, and…well, usually I can’t exercise.  And I start to see that I should have been doing these things the whole time! 

It seems every time I get this sickly, I hear those words posted above about us being the temple of God.  I realize that I’ve failed to care for His temple.  God’s temple deserves to be cared for.  It needs to be focused on daily.  How in the world will God’s temple fulfill His work and purpose if it is not in good health and able bodied? 

How will I care for my family, our house, my friends, my neighbors, etc if my body is not in working order?

These past six weeks, I have seen the answer to that question and it ain’t pretty!

My goal for the month of July is to make taking care of myself a priority.  Every day I will set aside time to exercise.  I will eat healthy foods.  And I will nurture my soul and my mind, even if only for ten minutes of the day.

I’m not going to neglect my family, house, friends, neighbors, or ministries.  I’m just going to be sure to focus on daily doing healthy things for myself.

Surely, I can find 30 (or even 20) minutes a day to exercise.  And surely, I can make sure that my meals are healthy and resist the urge to drink that calorie-laden soda.  I know I can even find time in my day to spend time with God to nurture my soul and maybe even 10 or so minutes to do something I just love like blogging or sewing. 

And I will not feel guilty about it!  I will not feel guilty for carving out time and prioritizing caring for my body, my soul, and my mind.  (That’s a note for myself!  Listen up, self!)

So I’m going to baby step into this.  I’m going to focus this week on exercise.  I’ve planned ahead what exercises will be done on what day so there will be no excuses.  Here is a calendar of exercise that I plan to do for the month of July:

  planned exercise for July ~ will change color on days of actual exercise (You can click to enlarge)

Goals for week one of July:

• To exercise five times a week – mainly walking this week.  Then next week, I will try to add in strength exercises again. 
• Using a calendar, plan all exercise for the month of July.  Post on blog for accountability. 
• Make it a family affair – get the family to walk in the evenings. 

And this video might encourage you to find those 30 minutes everyday.  I know it sure encouraged me!

 

Next week, I’ll focus on eating well!

Ok, ladies…anyone up to the challenge of taking care of ourselves this month?  If you’d like to join along with me, please leave a comment and let me know what you’ll be doing this week!

We love books ~

 ~Hopefully this chaos will lead to order in our home library~

We have a lot of books in our home.  I love books.  One of my favorite places to visit is the library.  And I’m very serious about that statement.  I love the library!  :) 

 

This week, I am in the middle of organizing our home library and school books.  I am hoping that this work before school will lead to me being able to find our books throughout the school year a bit easier. 

 

I will share some of our favorite books this year…both children’s literature and books for mom.  Right now I am reading some books that I try to reread at the beginning of the school year.  These books inspire me as a homeschool mom. 

 

I found A Charlotte Mason Companion last year and loved it. 

It is a great book for those who are interested in educating using a Charlotte Mason-style philosophy.  I find this book encouraging and informative.  I am reading it before the school year  begins to remind me of ways to educate my children in a Charlotte Mason style.  Reading it has excited me for the beginning of this school year! 

 

 

 

 

 

Another book that I love to read is Educating the WholeHearted Child. 

I love to use real books in our school and this book shows me that I can do just that.  The author Sally Clarkson has written many great books.  She has a blog here  and a website here too.  I saw on Amazon where there will be a new version of this book released in January. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A friend gave me this book years ago.  I go back to One Hundred and One More Devotions for Homeschool Moms again and again.  It seems to help me to read of other homeschool moms and their successes & struggles.  This seems to keep me going on those particularly tough days. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

These are three books that I am reading right now.  Do you have any books that you read to inspire you as a homeschool mom or get you ready for the new school year?