I am a firm believer that you don’t have to spend hours running/working out to achieve results. High intensity interval training is a great way to challenge your body in a shorter amount of time.  20-25 minutes is all you need to get in a great calorie burning workout when you work at higher intensity!

Enjoy!

One of my favorite things to look for is new workouts.  I have found myself feeling lately that there are too many workouts, but not enough time to do them all! But that is a good thing.

I want to add my little mark to that website by posting this workout for others to “pin.” This workout is a basic workout in the sense that all the moves are basic moves.  That doesn’t mean they aren’t challenging though.  These just build the foundation to more advanced moves.  Sometimes getting back to the basics can be refreshing. If you have any questions on how to do any of these exercises, you can google the name and you will find videos/ images of the move. Oh and as a side note, if you have dumbbells at home, you can complete this in the comfort of your own home!

Complete this workout 1-2 times/week.

Let me know if you do this and what you thought!

Have you joined Pinterest? If so, what are some of your favorite things to search for on there?

With that said, I have to post a recipe that I recently made for my family with two goals in mind:

1-It had to incorporate sweet potatoes since I had a couple that I did not want to go to waste

and

2-It had to have lentils in the recipe since I had little to no meat in my freezer, and I was not about to spend anymore money on groceries for another week.

Google came through for me, and I came across the blog The Clean Eating Mama and she had a recipe that was just what I was looking for.  I knew this was a winner in our house when my husband said that he loved it.  This is coming from a man who normally politely eats my vegetarian meals but secretly wishes I would just give up the vegetarian thing.  This will be on our recipe rotation for the next few weeks I think.

Lentil and Sweet Potato Soup

(from The Clean Eating Mama)

Ingredients:

• 2 cups lentils
• 6 cups vegetable stock
• 1 medium onion
• 2 cups diced sweet potato
• 1 T garlic
• 3-4 carrots, chopped
• 3-4 celery stalks, chopped
• 2 T dried basil
• 2 T dried parsley
• 1-2 bay leaves
• 2 T extra virgin olive oil
• 1 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp pepper

source

There are so many days when I put the kids to bed, I look at their beautiful sleeping faces and I question how I could ever get upset with them.  They look so sweet and innocent when they are sleeping.

But then they wake up, and 15 minutes later one of them is in time out for hitting their brother with a car or pushing the other one down for no real reason.  That’s when I remember that it is indeed possible to be upset with them!

I always kick myself for losing my cool with me kids after everything is said and done.  It was not necessary to get upset about it, but more often than not I do.  I hate that.

This past week as I was reflecting on me as a mom, I felt that I could definitely do better and that I needed to start from how I discipline or correct my children.  I love it when answers come so direct as that.  It makes it easy to know where I need to start!

Here are a few things that I have thought about and am trying to do in my home when it comes to disciplining or correcting them:

Positive Reinforcement

A few months ago, I posted about how using positive reinforcement to help get rid of bad behavior.  I seem to forget quite often just how true this is, so I have tried to carry out this more and more in my home.  If I see one of my sons doing something really great, I will call them out on it.

Ex: Before nap time we clean up toys.  I aways sing the “Clean up, clean up” song and usually with that and a little coaxing we get the toys picked up.  It’s cute because my 19 month old has started singing a long, but he says “Wee Wup, Wee Wup. Wa Wa Wa Wa.” It really is just the cutest thing. Today my oldest was really dragging his feet with getting toys picked up, but my youngest was on the ball! I watched him as he picked up a toy and put it in the right spot, and I was amazed! I quickly went over to him, picked him up, and gave him a great big kiss and told him “Yay! You are a big boy for picking up!” He gave me the cutest smile and then went on his way picking up.  I felt right then that that positive reinforcement was much more effective than me nagging my kids to pick up their toys.

Removing Yourself From the Situation

If I am really upset about something, I will just leave the room for a few minutes to calm down.  I tend to react quicker than I should, so this definitely helps me to keep my calm and not say the first thing that comes to my mind.  That is definitely a good thing

Ex: Sleep has been a constant struggle for us.  We are getting better I think, but we have our days when the boys wont calm down for nap time or something and for some reason I get really on edge.

This was the case for nap time today.  My youngest was jumping around and laughing in his crib, and for some reason I was super frustrated about it.  (Sometimes I really don’t understand why I get upset about the things that I do.) So I closed his door and went to my room for a few minutes.  Sure he cried and fussed, but he was safe and fine.  I was able to come back a few minutes later calmed down.  He also knew that I meant business and that it was really time for bed.  He was asleep 5 minutes later

Correcting With Love and Taking the “No” Out of It

Sometimes my first reaction to something that has gone wrong is to say no and be upset.  No one in the situation feels good when that happens, so I have tried to instead keep my voice calm and to correct with love instead of anger.  I also try to stop saying no all the time and instead say something like, “It is not nice when we hit.” or “It is not safe to climb on the couch.” or something like that.

Ex: My youngest likes to hit a lot, so I have tried to get down at his level when he hits and show him how to be soft.  I take his hand and gently put it on his brother or myself and say “Soft, Soft.” I will try to say something like “Don’t him.  Be soft.” to him instead of saying, “NO HITTING!”  He inevitably hits someone a few minutes later, so we repeat it a lot during the day.  

I am not perfect in any of these things, but I feel strongly that these things are much more effective in my parenting than any other technique that I have ever used.  Let me know if you have tried any of these and how they worked for you!

What are some of your tried and true parenting techniques for discipline and correction?

I know I will probably never be a “big time blogger,” and I will probably never make money off of this blog.  That’s ok! I want to blog about things that could POSSIBLY inspire other moms/women/people/etc.  So I hope to share things with you that will uplift and maybe even inspire you!  If you have something specific that you want me to talk about, let me know!

Coolest App Ever

For those of you with a smart phone, you have got to try this app out; Nike Training Club.

source

This is a great tool for working out at home if you don’t have access to a gym or time to go to one.  Its like having a personal trainer on your phone! I am constantly looking for new workouts, so this is so fun for me to have! Some people have fun buying shoes (which I do too from time to time ) but I have fun finding new workouts and trying them out.

This morning I did a workout under the category “Get Toned” called “Fit Zone.”

source

It was 45 minutes of pure crazy.  It was intense, but that is what I love about a workout!

This is a great tool if you are looking to change-up your routine, so download it try it out! Let me know what you think if you try it!

What are some of your favorite apps?

Here are a few of my favorite intervals that can be done on any piece of cardio equipment:

• Pyramid

1-5 min: light cardio for warm up

6-7 min: 1 minute at high intensity

7-8 min: 1 minute recovery

8-10 min: 2 minutes high intensity

10-12 min: 2 minutes recovery

12-15 min: 3 minutes high intensity

15-18 min: 3 minutes recovery

18-20 min: 2 minutes high intensity

20-22 min: 2 minutes recovery

22-23 min: 1 minute high intensity

23-24 min: 1 minute recovery

24-30 min: light cardio for cool down

• Incline Pyramid

• Basic Interval

Warm up 5 minutes

1 min high intensity

1 min recovery

Repeat until you have reached desired time

Cool down

•  Song Intervals

Warm up 5 minutes

Go at a medium pace and then sprint or go at full intensity through the chorus of the song.

Repeat for 5-8 songs

•  Ladders

Warm up 5 minutes

10 sec of work, 10 sec of rest

20 sec of work, 20 sec of rest

30 sec of work, 30 sec of rest

OR

10 sec of work, 10 sec of rest

20 sec of work, 20 sec of rest

30 sec of work, 30 sec of rest

30 sec or work, 30 sec of rest

20 sec of work, 20 sec of rest

10 sec of work, 10 sec of rest

OR

15 sec of work, 45 sec of rest

30 sec of work, 30 sec of rest

45 sec of work, 15 sec of rest

60 sec of work, 60 sec of rest

Another way to get in your cardio is to do plyo moves between 2-3 different strength moves.

Ex: Perform a set of lunges and then a set of bicep curls until you have completed the desired number of sets.  Then add one of the below plyo moves to get your heart rate up!

Here are some plyo moves you could do:

• High Knees
• Butt Kicks
• Burpees
• Mountain Climbers
• Jump Squats
• Jumping Jacks
• Jump Rope
• Sprints
• Speed Skaters
• Fast step-ups
• Air Jacks
• Long Jumps

I was feeling a little stressed out about food and money this morning, but then I was reminded that God is mindful of our little life here and will bless us with what we need.

Today my blessing came in the form of apples….

A friend of mine mentioned that her family went apple picking and had WAY too many apples.  She asked if we could use some. I couldn’t help but think she was guided to know that we needed some help.

Now we have a counter top full of apples, and our kids will continue to get their daily dose of fruits in their diets.  I am one happy momma

I can guarantee that there will be plenty of apple recipes coming soon, but I could definitely use some ideas here.

What are some of your favorite apple recipes??

All I have to say is that my arms and legs will never be the same.  This DVD is over an hour-long, and you spend most of the time doing some crazy variation of a bicep curl, tricep extension, lunges, squats, push-up, and planks.  It is intense! By the end, my arms were seriously SHAKING as I was trying to hold a plank.  I have never done a workout that has pushed me as hard as this workout did, and I so glad I bought it. I might not be able to pick up my kids tomorrow as a result, but the workout was seriously awesome!

The only down side to this is that it is over an hour-long.  Most of the time I just don’t have that kind of time to workout in front of the TV.  I woke up super early this morning to make sure I could get it done before my husband left, but I know if I would have tried to do this after he left with both of my kids up, I would have had two kids on top of me while I was trying to hold a plank or something like that.  It might have made the workout more intense, but I really wasn’t looking to add ANY intensity to this workout.  It has enough on its own!

Bob Harper, you have me convinced that you are in fact meaner than Jillian now though.  Well done.

*I am in no way endorsing this product or trying to sell you something here. I am also not getting paid to say any of this.  I just wanted to pass along a great fitness find to other women who tend to workout at home more than at the gym*

What are some of your favorite workout DVDs??

We all know that we should eat healthy.  We feel better when we do! But some people think that eating healthy means eating gross food.  If all healthy food tasted gross I know I wouldn’t eat it, but luckily that is not the case.  Thankfully, there are some good things out there that not only taste good but are good for our bodies as well!

I learned a great saying that helps you remember foods that you should incorporate into a healthy diet, and all the foods on the list taste quite delicious!

ABS DIET POWER

• A: Almonds and other nuts
• B: Beans and legumes
• S: Spinach and other green veggies
• D: Dairy (milk/yogurt/cheese)
• I: Instant Oatmeal (I would recommend you eat less processed oatmeal like old-fashioned oats, but this starts with an I so it works )
• E: Eggs
• T: Turkey and other lean protein (chicken/lean beef)
• P: Peanut Butter and other nut butters
• O: Olive Oil (watch your portions on this!)
• W: Whole grains (pasta/breads/cereal/etc)
• E: Extra protein (whey protein powder)
• R: Raspberries and other berries

Don’t eat healthy just because you know you should, do it because you enjoy it! Because trying to enjoy this journey of life is really the best way to go

What are some of your favorite healthy foods??

I am passionate about a few things in my life; my faith, my family, and my health.  My wish is that others will feel the love of God as I have.  My wish is that others will understand the importance of the family in our world today, and my wish is that others will treat their bodies as gifts and to take care of them.

Our bodies are gifts.  We cannot get a new one when this one breaks down.  We can’t exchange it for a “better” body.  I believe we were sent to earth in our specific body to carry out a specific plan.  Our bodies might be flawed, but those flaws are there to teach us something.

I have an Aunt who was born with multiple birth defects and has had a lot of hard times as a result of the body she was born with, but I have never met someone who was more in tune to the will of God in their lives.  Despite the challenges that her body gives her every day, she moves forward knowing that one day she will gain the “ballerina body” that she has always wanted.  She can’t control what has happened to her body, but she has tried to make the best of it.  That is amazing to me!

We cannot control certain things in regards to our body; sicknesses, injuries, etc. But we can control how we treat out bodies and the respect that we give it.  We can treat our bodies with respect by moving our bodies every day.  We can treat our bodies with respect by fueling it with food that will not only fill us up for the day but that will nourish our body and strengthen it for whatever our bodies will be forced to do.

I know this might sound so preachy, but I feel so strongly about this today.  Our bodies are amazing gifts.  We have the power to resist things that will hurt our bodies simply because we have one! My wish is that anyone who reads this will take the time to evaluate how they treat their bodies and to commit to do better.

Take a walk instead of sitting down and watching a show.

Find the things that you love about your body instead of the things that you hate.

Try to eat foods that will give our bodies strength and nourishment instead of focusing on just eating just because!

Be grateful that you have a body!