Work Out Challenge: Weekly Fitness Routine

Hello There!

 

Hey everyone! So this is the second post to my work out plan – here I am going to explain my weekly routine, fitness goals, and a few recipes from Lauren’s site that I am going to be trying next week.

So let’s start with my weekly routine:

Monday – Wii Fit

Tuesday – Gym (Cardio & Weight Lifting)

Wednesday – Dance Central (X-box Connect)

Thursday – Gym (Yoga)

Friday – Zumba (X-Box)

Saturday – Gym (Cardio & Weight Lifting)

Sunday – Rest

My favorite thing about my schedule is that it’s so flexible. I work from home Monday, Wednesday, and Fridays so those days I will be working out from home but any of those days can be interchangeable for what I do!

Knowing ahead of time that I travel often on weekends, my Saturdays and Sunday’s need to be flexible as well so if I don’t make it to the gym on Saturday I can just move it to Sunday and if I can’t get there in time on Sunday I can do one of the workouts from home and make up for it the next week!

Being flexible is a huge thing in my life. My work schedule isn’t always the same, some days I work extra, some days I work less, some days get switched out completely! This routine is easy to work around as long as I am doing something each day and I have one day of rest it works!

On top of that weekly schedule I am doing a few things in the morning and at night that I can do from home. I’m starting out small and switching up what I do each morning and night and hoping to be able to do more as I go. Here’s a list of easy things to do right by your bed when you wake or when you are getting ready to go to sleep:

Crunches, push ups, lunges, jumping jacks, planking, leg lifts, and squats.

So far I’ve been trying to do 15 of three different things each time.

If you are interested in following a plan like mine but don’t have video game consoles or games please don’t worry! You can run to your closest Best Buy and grab some DVDs. There are thousands of fitness, dancing, and work out DVDs that you can use on your days at home!

Tomorrow I will be posting two recipes I’ll be attempting to have for this coming weeks meal plan as well as a list of other foods and snacks I’ll have around the house to keep me energized and healthy.

Do you have a weekly fitness routine?

What is the one thing that gets in the way of keeping up with a routine for you?

I’d love to hear what you have to say in the comments section below!!

Thanks for stopping by,

Love Always,

J

 

Work-Out Challenge!

Hello There!

I am excited to say I am attempting a work out challenge with an amazing friend of mine! We are posting on her website in the comments section what we are doing each day to keep each other motivated and excited. We are also sharing healthy recipe’s that we are eating in place of my (our – she is way healthier when it comes to eating already than I am) usual meals.

For those of you that know me I am NOT dieting. I am too skinny as it is so losing weight is not my goal. When I got my membership and successfully made the gym a part of my routine during the week – I did it to tone up my body. For all of you mom’s out there you know that your body goes completely crazy during pregnancy, birth, and after pregnancy it’s hard/impossible to get back to the same body as before.

My goal was to tone up my thighs and stomach. I also wanted my leg and arm strength that I had when I was in high school and the beginning of college. I miss my athletic muscles and being able to carry a good amount of weight. These days I feel like just carrying Emma around for a half hour is exhausting and my arms feel like they are going to fall off! It’s also annoying having to ask my husband to carry the heavy things for me all the time.

So here I go – I am starting my work out challenge to get healthy, toned, and get my muscles back! The gym has been a big step for me and since I’ve kept a routine and made progress I was really excited when I saw Lauren Conrad’s – Bikini Boot Camp Plan

This is from Lauren’s site the link is attached to so you can see her boot camp rules!

Eating healthier has been something that’s almost impossible to do in this house. Growing up the only diets I ever had to do was EAT MORE food. I naturally have a high metabolism and growing up I also had a lot of energy so that resulted in me being super skinny without any effort (which is not all fun and games as it sounds).

My husband doesn’t help with the food process in this house. He is a picky picky eater! I could go through the list of things he won’t eat but it’s just easier to say he pretty much eats meats, potatoes, pastas, rice, and bread. Occasionally he’ll eat some fruit.

Going on a healthy food diet is going to be a huge challenge for me in this household so I’ve found a few meals that I can make one day during the week and either freeze or refrigerate so they are easy for me to quickly heat up and Brian can still eat his favorites 🙂

Basically why I’m explaining all this is because I won’t exactly be following Lauren Conrad’s meal plan. Going cold turkey sometimes is not so easy for me and then I quit so I decided to make her plan fit my lifestyle better. So I’ll be working out and eating healthier in a way that fits me. For those who are like me and keeping up with lifestyle changes are hard for you, I really suggest starting slow and making it work for you!

So to start out I’m going show you a progress of how the workouts and healthy food is affecting me physically and mentally!

This is a picture of how I look now, what I want to work on, and such:

Ignore my messy hair and lack of make-up! So what I want to work on is getting my muscles back in my thighs, tone up a little bit everywhere but definitely in my stomach too, get my arms in shape and get those muscles back as well, and of course I could use a little tan!!

Check back tomorrow to see my work out plan and some awesome recipes I’ll be attempting!

Do you have problems keeping up with lifestyle changes like dieting, working out, eating healthier?

Is there something specific you’d like me to explain about the work out challenge I am doing?

Do you have tips and tricks you’d like to share about keeping up with challenges you face yourself?

I’d love to hear what you have to say in the comments section!

Thanks for stopping by!

Love Always,

J

Daily Life: Dreaming & Believing

This weekend has been any dreamers dream come true! For my entire life I’ve been planning, wishing, and hoping everything would fall into place and come true. I think most people would agree that when you get that motivation to make things happen in your life it’s a feeling that can’t be beat. This year has been one of the most exciting years for me. Not only did I get my business up off the ground but I’ve also conquered goals I never thought were possible. When I look back at everything that led me up to here – all I can do is smile.  Through all the hard work, dedication, and serious motivation I’ve come to find exactly what it is I have been trying to figure out my entire life – my purpose in this crazy world.

With that being said – this weekend I’ve been planning year number two of this crazy, awesome, dream life and I am SO excited to share all the goodies I have in store 😉 These next two months is going to be full of preparation for the new year and I’ll be sharing tips on keeping organized, maintaining inventory, craft show preparations, budgeting tips & tricks, great resources for marketing, apps you can’t live without, and other fun things. I want to give a little more to those dreamers out there that are ready to move on from the life they’ve been living and get inspiration to do exactly what it is you love! After all – it is your life!

Let’s get ready for this new year together and show everyone what we’ve got to give!

Love Always,

J

Daily Life: Who needs sleep?

It’s now day two of our trip and both E and I are lacking sleep! We got to Maryland in time for lunch and then checked into the hotel right at nap time. Instead of actually napping though E just laid in her makeshift crib and sung twinkle twinkle little star over and over.. I have to admit I am seriously impressed with how still and quite she was for the two hours but the napping part of it didn’t happen!! I was a little worried how the rest of the day would go and I had every right to be!

E decided since she had some down time she would be a riot at the viewing.. lucky me!! I spent the majority of the night chasing her around, watching her melt into a tantrum every time I said no, and try not to look to embarrassed when she growled and everyone. That’s right – my daughter RAWRS like a dinosaur or monster… at everyone. (Thank you Caillou)

That was pretty much my day yesterday 😛

This morning I woke up 4:30 and couldn’t go back to sleep. You would think from being completely exhausted I’d pass out no problem but that’s just not the case! Instead I’ve been up working on feature’s and miscellaneous work. So this car ride to Philly? I hope we both get some shut-eye 😉

Love Always,

J

Daily Life: Kicking My Kidney

If you don’t know me – then you don’t know my kidney‘s hate me. Freshman year of college I had kidney stones. I woke up feeling like my stomach was eating itself so I grabbed two packs of pop-tarts instead of one and headed to class. Sitting through class I wasn’t feeling to hott and eating was NOT making it any better. In fact I immediately stopped eating after a few bites of the first pop tart. I also have hypoglycemia so when I got hot flashes and immediately after that got cold chills I thought for sure I was going to pass out and I held out through class knowing I was missing everything the teacher was saying and it was going to be a rough week (this class wasn’t easy..). Class finally ended and I walked out of the room and realized that I could barely walk once I got to the door. My side was in so much pain I thought I was going to die. Somehow in a weird uncomfortable pushing myself kind of way I made it to my dorm where I fell on my floor and didn’t move for a half hour. It got worse. I started crying and it wouldn’t go away. At about that time my roommate woke up and freaked out, she got on WebMD and swore my appendix was bursting. She then dragged me to the school doctor’s office and I was still crying and almost screaming!! Finally got rushed into a back room and they shot me with some drugs because they couldn’t get my temperature, blood pressure, or anything because I was in fetal position screaming. An ambulance ride and a couple of hours later I was sent home with no answer to what was wrong with me. This happened twice more until they found out I had kidney stones.

Everyone says that kidney stones are the worst pain you can ever feel. I don’t know if it’s because I had my kidney stones first but a few years after that I broke my leg – didn’t hurt half as bad as kidney stones. A few years after the broken leg I gave birth – still was not NEARLY as painful as kidney stones. Yesterday at 1:00 a.m. My stomach started hurting and I thought it would go away. It didn’t. Mid-afternoon still hurting and I thought – crap it’s kidney stones isn’t it.. but it was a little different. This pain came and went away and came and went away every couple of minutes.

Last night I went to the hospital because it kept getting worse – now I was feeling like they were just like contractions – but hello!! I’m not pregnant!! Two hours of waiting and a few tests later. There’s a kidney stone that looks like it could drop – but it hasn’t dropped yet so it shouldnt’ be causing pain (very much like the result I got at my first trip to the hospital freshman year). Appendix test – not it. The only thing they can come up with is a kidney infection. I’m not sold on the answer just because last time it took three hospital visits for them to figure out it was kidney stones – but either way JUST TAKE THE FLIPPING KIDNEY OUT! I’m ready to divorce this kidney and move on with my life 😉

So a big apology to all of those who have been wondering why I have been MIA. My kidney hates me and I hate my kidney too 😛

Hope everyone else had a better week than me!!

Love Always,

J

Daily Life: The Notebook Begins

Okay, so I am not exactly sure what happened to me last night. It might have been the three cups of caffeine that I drank (I haven’t had caffeine in at least a month) or it might have been pure excitement and inspiration but I went into crazy mode! For those of you who don’t know crazy mode, let me explain.

You know that feeling when one idea leads to another and then you have a list of things you want to get or do to make it happen. Then you have a few questions that might involve doing a little research. Then you have this plan that sounds fantastic and a time limit and budget. Then on top of that you get this completely random totally off subject idea about something else. Then start planning and fantasizing about that. Next thing you know your mind is going in a million directions and you want to do it all!! Now!!

That was my crazy mode. It was so crazy that I couldn’t get any sleep. So like everyone suggest when you have a million things on your mind and all you want to do is sleep.. I wrote them down in a notebook but somehow that suggestion that is sure to work doesn’t. I find myself laying in bed going over everything I wrote down again and again yet still awake.

After finally falling asleep at 1:30 last night I woke up at 5:30 a.m. ready to go! I got this burst of energy like it was time to get up and get it started. Me being the person who daydreams, plans my day, budgets, and does some serious thinking in the shower – I thought that might be the perfect way to start the day. Nope. I couldn’t wait to get out of the shower to start doing all my plans that I had already planned to do.

Then here I am. After y shower. 6:30 a.m. and I have no idea where to start. My brian is so clustered with so many ideas at one time I want to do it ALL! Another problem: I only have half of the things I need to start half these projects..

Looks like I’ll be crocheting and waiting for my mom to go shopping with me. I need a clear head to help me stay on track! Until then I am keeping this new notebook beside and I might not let it out of my sight incase I have any more crazy ideas!

This could be an interesting day!

Love Always,

J

Daily Life: Crafting or Chopping?

Yes I was supposed to craft today, but instead I chopped off all my hair!! So I went from this:

to this!

Daily Life: Maybe Tomorrow, Maybe Not

You can probably tell by now that I haven’t finished the second elephant frame. Instead of staying in and dealing with my little tantrum toddler I decided to distract her by taking her out to eat. It’s amazing how that child goes from seriously demanding to completely entertained! We invited Nana and Dodo and went to this new italian restaurant. It’s AMAZING! While we were there we found it the owners were southern, which means they have amazing sweet tea, awesome food, and sweet desserts, which means I’ll be going back. A lot! Maybe you’ve heard of it? It’s called Travinia’s, if you’ve never been to one you should find one near you and check it out 😉

So by the time we got home it was time to put E to bed and I’ve been sitting on the couch since then. How do I get so exhausted? I’m wondering if part of my tiredness is coming from allergies. I didn’t even think about it until now but that could be part of it, or even the medicine I’m taking for it. I missed a day of taking the pills and nasal spray the night we went to the movies, I guess I was too distracted by my amazing day and going out that I completely missed it. I ended up getting sick that night and I’m not sure if it was the allergies or coming off of the medicine but it was a rough night! Has anyone ever had the same symptoms before?

So now I am just ready for April and May to be over so that these allergies will be gone and I’ll go back to being my hyperactive happy self 😀 I’m sure you miss that part of me too 😉

Well I work tomorrow so I doubt I’ll actually get the time to finish the frame until P get’s picked up. Good news is tomorrow will be an early day off so I might be able to get it done before dinner time!! Cross your fingers! I will be crossing mine 😀

Love Always,

J

Daily Life: The Doctor’s Orders

It’s true. I have allergies. I am now on three different medications and have another one in case of really rough days! I’m slowly starting to feel better and this house is slowly starting get cleaner 😉 Luckily we’ll be gone all weekend so we won’t have a chance on making it messy and this next week is going to be a little bit easier than usual. But I’d have to say where I lucked out the most is having an amazing mom to help me out this entire week when she could have been relaxing and reading instead. I really owe her a huge thank you..

Although my nose and throat don’t seem to be taking the hint from the allergy medicine, the rest of me is feeling MUCH better and honestly my nose was a lot worse than before. It also seems to be putting E in a better mood. She hasn’t liked mommy not being able to play or cuddle or just be coherent in general.

For those of you wondering about the crafting, it’s coming a long with a few days off from being sick but hopefully this weekend and week will get me back on track and I’ll be making frames and scarves in no time. Sunday morning I’ll be lounging in a hotel room probably reading or crocheting until check out time. It’s going to be SOOO nice to have some me time without any interruptions! I can’t remember the last time that I had a couple of hours of just me time without chores, noises, or anyone needing anything from me!! I am going to soak it up and enjoy every second of it 🙂

As for reading, I haven’t been putting reviews up about The Pretty Little Liars Series but I am on the 6th book now and I am still liking them. I am dying to find out who is so it’s been easy to just fly through these books! I would do a review about each one except they are the same! You think you know who A is but at the end of each book your wrong, and wanting to know even more! I’ve never been one for who-done-it books but this one has kept my attention.

Sorry for all the sickly posts 😉 Hopefully things will be better from here out!

Love Always,

J

You mean you actually read the instruction manual? Why..

My first sleeve is finally done!! For all of you who crochet out there I know you can remember your first project where you felt like you had no idea what you were doing and when you got part of it finished or all of it finished the successful feeling that I am feeling 🙂 I started the second sleeve but I have trouble counting when there’s other noises and distractions in the room .. aka B and football which makes him excited and talkative and .. well loud 😛 I love him. So I will be continuing that tomorrow while he’s at work 😉

I am the kind of person that has trouble following rules and taking hints. I started this project reading the instructions and since the first day I have been kind of doing it my own way, teaching myself something else and continuing. I have had to completely undo two half-sleeves and start over and I am so happy to say that I finally completed one even though if I had followed the instructions I probably would be almost finished with it. But that’s just the way I am..

The instructions on this manual are in all abreviations which in the back explain it in a little more detail but if you are anything like me who doesn’t really get it until I try a couple of times without the instructions being abbreviated then you understand my struggle. I know that this first sweater is not going to be perfect but it’s going to be functional and I am going to be so proud when it’s done! Then after that I hope that I like it enough to keep working on it and slowly get better with each one because this is the kind of project I can do and still be seriously lazy.. as long as B isn’t talking football in my ear 😉

Update on E: I checked her temperature after her nap and it’s still a 99.6 and it doesn’t seem to be budging. I gave her some more tylenol but if it’s still this way tomorrow I think I am going to be a little worried. This whole time I have been thinking that it is teething because she’s not eating food that she has to chew very well. She’s been shoving down all the half frozen fruit I have been feeding her thinking it will help numb up her gums. She was drinking great for me the first day of sickness but it’s been decreasing each day. Since it’s a low-grade fever it hasn’t been to scary for me but it has been a couple of days. There might be a call to the pediatrician tomorrow.. I’ll keep you updated on that.

Other then that I am debating between Christmas cards and reading right now .. maybe a little of both?

Love Always,

J