Wednesday, August 27, 2014

A Mile a Day Challenge


My health coach, Malorie, challenged me to run a mile every day (1.6km). I'm NOT a runner, so I wasn't too excited about the challenge. (I'm just trying to be honest here. Sorry Mal!) Since I'm not a very fast runner, my first goal is to work myself up to running a mile in under 10 minutes. 

With my daily workouts, I run no longer than 400 meters at a time. I'll run, maybe, 1600 meters (a mile) in an entire workout, but it is always broken up into 400 meter intervals with other exercises mixed in. 

can't even remember the last time I ran a mile STRAIGHT, so I really didn't know AT ALL how far I was from the 10 minute goal. No idea! So, I went out to an outdoor track . . . alone . . . at night, and ran my little heart out. 

Today's time: 11:40!

Not bad, right!? The time might not be totally amazing, but I feel totally amazing for having done it. Now that I know where my starting point is, I am excited to see how I improve over the coming months.

So now, I invite you all to take part in the mile a day challenge with me! I challenge you to start September 1st, or today if you really want to, and run that mile! You are invited to share your times, or not, or whatever! Just keep it positive and just do it!

One mile a day for the entire month of September. I will pushing myself to reach my 10 minute goal, but I encourage you to customize it to your own fitness level. Heck, you may already be running a mile in 8 minutes! So whatever your starting time is, work each day to improve it. 

Giving you all a cyber-high five!
Jenny

Tuesday, August 26, 2014

Just Do It!

I just gotta tell you  all how lucky I am to have an amazing mother-in-law. My family and I are living with my in-laws for a few months (Tanner's school/work stuff) and although it is a bit of an adjustment, I am loving having an extra "Mom" around to help out with my three young kids. If it wasn't for her, I would be finding it very difficult to focus on making healthy choices for myself. This stage I'm in is hard on me AND the girls because healthy habits are not habits yet, so I find myself constantly thinking about food, water, and exercise while trying not to stress myself out (because I'm stress eater!). One day I will have built the habits and have the balanced routine, but until then I have my mother-in-law. Bless her heart.

With three little kiddies, I have to get creative with how I fit in my workouts. Usually it's during nap/movie time or when Tanner's home at the end of the day. But today, my amazing mother-in-law let me do my workout while we took the girls to the park! Today's workout was a little longer and she took care of my girls so that I could do it!



It's pretty obvious that these girls love their Grandma A.

And obviously I do, too!

I remember to years back, even just this past year actually, when I would think that conditions had to be perfect to get a workout in. I had, like, this mental checklist and if anything was amiss then I couldn't exercise.
- Wake up early before everyone else. CHECK.
- In a good mood. CHECK.
- Weather not to cold (or hot). CHECK.
- Hair brushed and clean(ish) clothes on. CHECK.
- Shoes on. CHECK.
- iPod . . . charged? . . . crap. I'm going back to bed. 
No joke. I've seriously done this! It was like I was looking for any excuse to get out of going for even a simple walk. I am learning to make less excuses and to just DO IT! Workout in your yard, your basement, your garage, at a park, at night. It doesn't matter as long as you get your body moving! I'll admit, I was a little nervous doing today's workout at the park, because there were a lot of other people around to watch me, but I did it anyway.


All the way from this blog, where my sister-in-law Malorie is a guest contributor, here is today's workout (with a few tweaks to suit my fitness level), all of which I did in/around a playground. This was a hard but fun one, so enjoy!

3 ROUNDS of:
20 squats
10 right leg step ups
10 left leg step ups
400 meter run

Then 3 ROUNDS of:
15 high sumo squats holding a 15lb weight
20 over head press with 15lb weight
150 rope jumps (Jump rope)

Then 3 ROUNDS of:
30 sec plank hold
25 bicycle crunches
20 tick tocks right and left with 15lb weight
25 rows with resistance band (pictured above)

Wednesday, August 20, 2014

Old Habits Die Hard

Today I want to talk a little bit about habits and the power that these habits have on our lives. Bad habits, although tenacious little buggers, are NOT impossible to break. This was a big "Aha! moment" for me. Even just a couple months ago, after months of trying (and failing) to exercise and eat better, I held up my hands in defeat saying "That's it. This is just who I am and there is nothing I can do to change it." I succumbed. I gave up.

I don't know what changed my mind about that. But I did, and I started again.

I am learning that unhealthy habits were formed over a lifetime and they are not going to go willingly. It's in my subconscious, really. I feel like if I'm not paying attention I'll munch and snack all day long, sit and watch TV for hours at night, stay up late, eat larger portions at dinner and then seconds and then dessert. I guess that's why I feel like I'm always thinking about my workouts, planning healthy meals in my head, wondering if I'm drinking enough water. Perhaps I'm afraid that if I stop and relax my mind I'll mindlessly eat a whole bag of chips, or whatever. In fact, the couple of weeks I was so gung-ho. All I could think about was what healthy choice I was going to make next, that I ended up a little burnt out. Making big changes is HARD and my old habits were/are not going to go willingly.

But I'm not going to give up.

In fact, I was stressed today and ate pizza tonight for supper. (Emotional eating is a horrible habit of mine.) Initially, I felt super bummed and thought that I am totally incapable of change. But then, I reminded myself that I am NOT DEFINED by my habits, because habits can change while I still remain me. I will always be Jenny.

I ALMOST went right to bed after tucking the girls in to sleep. It was getting dark even, but then I thought "Nope! I am going out!" So I asked Tanner to come with me as my bodyguard in the night and we headed down to Tanner's old high school track to do today's workout.

2 ROUNDS OF:
5 push-ups 10 squats 100 meter run 10 push-ups 15 squats 200 meter run 15 push-ups 20 squats 400 meter run After finishing two rounds complete 50 sit-ups.




My bodyguard, Tanner. Isn't he handsome :)


So there.

I chose not to let poor choices and bad habits get me down. And I taught myself that it's never to late to make a healthy choice. With each choice and with each step, I KNOW it will get easier. 

"Good habits, once established,
are just as hard to break as bad habits"
- Robert Puller

I sure hope he's right.

Wednesday, August 13, 2014

Say Hello to TJ and Mal

I just want to let you all know how very very excited I am about today's blog post!

Because of my past experiences with making healthy lifestyle changes (or, in reality, my insbility to do so) I knew that if I was going to be successful I needed an awesome back up crew (you guys) and an even more amazing (if that's even possible) health coach(es). So, I called up the healtiest people I know, my brother-in-law Tj and his amzing wife Malorie. I am so happy that I was confident enough to reach out to them for help, because with out them I would be lost. Each day they send me my amazing workouts, sometimes even with video to describe movements I'm not familiar with! I can also Skype with them whenever I need to. That first week, we Skyped everyday! There is something about the two of them together that gets me motivated and inspired to be healthy and commit to what I have set out for myself. And they are so funny together, because they are always pushing eachother to be better and they don't always agree on everything :)

I asked these two to answer a few questions for you all, so you can get to know them a little more and so that you know who I'm talking about in the future (as I know I probably will many more times!)

So, it is my pleasure to introduce to you the power house couple, TJ and Malorie!



Q: If you could each introduce yourselves to a complete stranger in only 7 sentences what would you say?

M: My name is Malorie! I have a passion for health and fitness. I probably love food way too much. I’m obsessed with my dogs and love animals. I married the love of my life and best friend four years ago on the 14th! I have danced for 20 years and it will continue to be a passion of mine. I have watched way too much Netflix the past month…
T: Hi, my name is TJ. I graduated BYU with a degree in Exercise Science. I love Nibs. I love Mal. The days that give me the most joy are when I have Nibs and Mal. Believe it or not, I was smart enough to get into dental school. I too am obsessed with Mal’s dogs.

Q: When did health and fitness become important to you?

M: My dad has always been an advocate for health and fitness so I kind
of grew up with it in my home. I think I really started getting into it when I graduated high school and realized that I couldn’t just keep eating the way I did without exercise and expect to keep the same body.
T: 10th grade. It was at that age where I knew that my health and fitness would have to improve in order to excel in rugby.
Q: If you could set straight one myth about health and fitness what would it be? 

M: One of my biggest pet peeves is when people say they cannot improve on their health and/or fitness because of their “genes.” When I was younger I remember someone telling me I was naturally weak. I would never have strong arms or abs. It was how I was built. I wish that person could see me now. Yes, it may be easier for some people, but with hard work, you can do anything you set your mind to regardless of your so-called “genes.”
T: People who think that they need to be at a gym for two hours every day in order to see result are completely wrong. Simple as that.

Q: What is your favourite way to get your sweat on?


M: I love GPP Fitness. It’s quick. It’s intense. And I sweat buckets.  
T: Even though I enjoy other things, running is my go to workout. 

Q: When you are having a bad day/week where do you find your inspiration to get back on track?


M&T: We are going to answer this one together because we have the same thoughts on this one. When you wake up Monday morning after a weekend or week of over eating or being lazy, you don’t feel good. Period. That gross feeling we have after eating a bunch of crap is motivation enough to get back on track. You feel sooo much better after having a successful week of clean eating and exercise!
Q: If there is someone reading this right now who's ready to start making steps to a healthier life style, but doesn't know where to start, what advice would you give them?

M: Go in 100%. If you are going to do this, then do it! You’ve got n
othing to lose and everything to gain. You can’t just decide to start working out without fixing the diet or vice versa and expect the results you want. You’ve got to make a commitment on both ends.
T: You need to set obtainable goals. Start out small, and the confidence you gain will push you towards bigger and better.  

Q: Nobody's perfect, so what's YOUR guilty pleasure?

M: I am an ice cream-aholic. Holy moly I could eat that stuff all day. If you haven’t had Butterfinger ice cream… don’t start…
T: Nibs and Diet Pepsi. Best combination ever.

Tuesday, August 12, 2014

A Smoothie a Day



Breakfast is the most important meal of the day, but with three little kids to feed and all the chaos that comes with them, preparing and eating a healthy meal for myself turns out to be a near impossible task. So, thanks to Pinterest, I found a couple yummy-looking green smoothies to try and make mornings easier and healthier.

The two that I decided to try first were from here and here. A green apple and kale smoothie and a strawberry and spinach smoothie. 

On Monday, I went out to the grocery store to purchase all the ingredients I would need. It was a memorable experience as I bought kale for the very first time in my life. I didn't even know what it looked like or where to find it! Ha ha! Same goes for flax seed! I felt pretty awesome at the checkout, with all my veggies and fruit and flax :)

In under a hour I had washed, chopped, and portioned out all the ingredients together in ziploc bags for freezing. I was able to put together 6 packs of each smoothie. After looking at my grocery bill, I calculated that each pack cost around $2! Sa-weet! 

Here are the recipes for each:

GREEN APPLE AND KALE
- 1 cup Kale (stems removed, coarsely chopped, firmly packed)
- 1/2 cup Parsley (loosely packed)
- 1 Granny Smith Apple (cored and chopped)
- 1 Banana
- 2 1/4 cup Water (to be added just before blending)

STRAWBERRY GREEN SMOOTHIE
- 2 cups Strawberries (Frozen)
- 1/2 Banana
- 2 Tbsp Flax Seeds
- 3 cups Fresh Organic Baby Spinach
- 1 cup Unsweetened Vanilla Almond Milk (to be added just before blending)


I was excited for the next morning to give one of the smoothies a try, but unfortunately a little accident in our house caused me to have to bring our middle child to the hospital, nothing serious, but still unpleasant :( I was back at the house by noon, so I quickly pulled out an apple and kale smoothie pack from the freezer and gave it a whirl in the blender. 

Bleh!

I still don't even know what kale tastes like because the smoothie tasted entirely of parsley. If it were not for the fact that the smoothie was ice cold, I would have tried to chug the whole thing as quickly as possible just to get it over with. Okay. Okay. Maybe I'm being a little harsh. It wasn't THAT bad, but it wasn't THAT great either. Also, as I suspected while portioning out the ingredients, 1 pack yielded 2 whole servings. I ended up sharing some with the whole family. Everyone said that they liked it, but nobody drank very much of it either. I think that for the future I will remove some of the parsley from the pack before blending. We'll see if that works, and I hope it does because I will be very annoyed if food goes to waste. Especially if it's HEALTHY food that I so proudly bought at the store this week.

Tomorrow I will be trying the strawberry spinach smoothie and I'm thinking that it will go over better than the kale one. But I am also certain that as my body and my tastebuds get used to new flavours I will be trying all sorts of healthy green smoothies will all kinds of new and delicious fruits and veggies.

I am still learning and it will only get better (I hope)!

Sunday, August 10, 2014

Thinking About the Good

So this challenge I've given myself started off with a bang. Boy, oh boy, was that first week amazing! I was feeling so pumped about eating healthy, exercising, and sharing it all with you. I exercised everyday, cut down on my calories, upped my protein and water, I even lost a whole 8 pounds in that first week! Needless to say, I was on a total high.

By day 10 I was feeling confident, maybe a little too confident. So on Thursday I decided I would indulge in just a small piece of chocolate my father-in-law bought for s'mores that evening. I thought "I've been doing so great, I'm just going to have one piece. I deserve it." Well, that one piece turned into the entire chocolate bar. Sad face. I was kidding myself when I thought I could control myself and have just a little bite. I have an all-or-none personality (and it's something I trying to work on), so once I started that chocolate bar I knew what was going to happen; I'd go all crazy on that 230 calorie bar of chocolate-y goodness and feel sick about it for the rest of the night. In the end, that guilt and loss of confidence in my ability to change trickled into Friday, and then Saturday, and then into today. 

I kept asking myself (and my husband Tanner, who is supporting me 100%) if I really could do this. If I really could change. Maybe I was just kidding myself. Maybe I was just fooling all of you. 

But then I snapped out of it. Sometime, this evening I came to the realization that I am NOT defined by these last three days! I have spent my entire life creating these unhealthy habits, and I am not going to change completely in a week. This is going to be hard work. But I just need to believe that I am worth that work, and that I have the capacity to do it. I also realize that I need to give myself more slack and to think on the good choices I've made, rather than all the poor ones. For example, we took a trip this weekend as a family, visiting family and friends, and even though I may not have made the BEST decisions in terms of food, I DID get all my exercising in while we were away.

While staying with some friends Friday and Saturday, I told them about this challenge I've started for myself and my desire to be healthy and fit. I went on to tell them that as part of this challenge I need to exercise every day. They were curious about what kind of workouts I do and we all came to the fun idea that we should do the next mornings workout all together! Boy, was that fun!

I got the idea for Saturday's workout from my sister-in-law and bother-in-law (who I will formally introduce to you later this week) and it's called Hit the Deck. For this work out you need a deck of cards. Place the cards in a pile face down, and flip each card over as you work your way through the deck. So this is how it goes down: spades are squats, clubs are push-ups, diamonds are sit-ups, hearts are burpees. So let's say that the first card you flip is a 6 of spades, you would do 6 squats and then flip the next card. 10 clubs is 10 push-ups. 9 of diamonds is 9 sit-ups. You get the idea. All face cards are 10 of whatever the exercise is, and, if you are playing with them, jokers are a 400m run (when we did this on Saturday, we couldn't all  go for a run as we couldn't leave our kids alone in the house so we did 2 mins of skipping instead). This is a tough, but really fun workout as you never know what card/exercise is next. If you do it as fast as you can you really get your heart rate up there and really get your sweat on. In the end we ended up doing 85 squats, 85 burpees, 85 sit-ups, and 85 push-ups! Pretty awesome! It was my first time doing the Hit the Deck work out and my first time exercising with others and I am certainly it will not be the last for either. 

Here is Tanner and I with our friends, the Hoves, post-workout. 



So this weekend, even though I made some not-so-awesome choices, it certainly wasn't the biggest failure of my life and I can move on and only get better. Something else I learned this weekend is that you can never undervalue the importance of surrounding yourself with people who have similar goals and ideas about fostering a healthy lifestyle. 

So here I am, sitting at the computer, feeling bloated from the delicious piece of pie I ate after Sunday dinner, looking forward to the days ahead. I am not perfect and what I am doing is not easy, but I can do it.

I got this. 

Monday, August 4, 2014

More Energy = More Playtime

So it's only been 6 days and I am already feeling quite a difference! For example, today I went outside on the front lawn and played pre-K-style baseball for as long as it took my girls to get tired out. Before it used to be me who had to stop games early so that I could have a break! I've lost count long ago how many times I've said the phrase "Not right now. Mommy's tired." It breaks my heart every time I say those words. I'm am mom in my 20s and I had less energy and stamina than most grandparents. I don't ever want to miss out on opportunities to play with my girls, to go outside exploring, to try new sports, or to teach my girls how much their bodies are capable of. This challenge that I'm doing is not only for me, but for my family!

Today, I just feel awesome :)

I tried out a new recipe for hummus today. It is so darn delicious! I made a big batch of it for lunch. Right now only June and I are hummus fans, while Tanner, Gwen and Lily are on the fence. But I have no problem with that, because that means there's more hummus for ME! (and June, too)

This recipe comes from here. It is so very simple, and so very yum! I ate a lot of it at for lunch with a plate of veggies.


HUMMUS

  • 2 cups of chickpeas (about 1 can)
  • 1 garlic cloves
  • 1 Tbsp olive oil
  • 1/4 cup tahini
  • 1/4 cup lemon juice
  • 1/4 water
  • 1/4 tsp lemon pepper
  • sprinkle of crushed red pepper, optional 
  • salt, to taste
The directions for this is pretty simple. Put it all into a food processor or blender and pulse away until it is smooth! It takes a little bit of time and scraping with a spoon to get those chickpeas blended, so don't go adding extra liquid too soon or else your hummus won't be as thick. And don't be afraid to add more seasonings to your taste (I, myself, tripled the garlic because I can't get enough of it!)

Hope you enjoy this hummus as much as June and I!

Next, I wanted to share TODAY'S WORKOUT:

As fast as you can, do TWO rounds of
- 400 meter run
- 20 walking lunges (10 for each leg)
- 20 alternating bicep curls (20 for each arm)
- 20 toe tap downs
- 20 overhead tricep press
- 20 side lateral raises
- 20 sit-up
- 20 jumping jacks

I don't have any weights yet in my house, so for the bicep curls and tricep press, I just used the heaviest cans I could find in the pantry. Whatever works right!? My arms were too weak to use weights for the side lateral raises, so I just used my own body's resistance. I just had to make sure that I really did the entire exercise AS FAST AS I COULD in order to keep my heart rate up. 

TOMORROW, I am going out to dinner with all my sisters and I'm nervous about eating out and having all these delicious, but high calorie food options. I'm planning ahead, though, and am going to check out the menu tonight so that the choice is made before I even sit down. Wish me luck!

Sunday, August 3, 2014

Loving Myself


I bought a little notebook and wrote these words on it. Move your body. Eat well. Love yourself. The book pretty much follows me around everywhere I go (much like my water bottle) as I use it to record my water intake, what I eat, workouts, recipes, and, most importantly, how I am feeling.

Love yourself.

Love yourself.

LOVE yourself.

This is a phrase that I had a hard time understanding where it fit in with positive body image and the need for weight loss. I mean, I didn't want to loathe my body into losing weight, but I didn't want to love it so much that I was content with being overweight. Does this make sense to anyone?

In some strange way I associated following a restricted diet and exercising everyday with hating one's self, or, at the very least, dissatisfaction with one's body. I'm reading back that sentence it just sounds crazy, but that's how I felt. I'm only now beginning to understand that loving yourself doesn't mean that you need to be contented with whatever you current situation is, be it health or whatever. I'm learning that I can love my self and love my body NOW! and I can show that love by taking care of it as that sacred gift from God it is.

It is because I love myself that I will MOVE my body and EAT WELL. I am not moving my body and eating well so that I will love myself. It's not about getting skinny for me. It used to be in the past, but that mindset so very damaging, physically, mentally, and spiritually. Now, it's all about loving myself at all stages.

So on that note, I want to share with you my "before" photos of the body that I LOVE!