Learning to Run!

Any runners out there? I am not. I don't like cardio, of any kind. I LOVE strength training and could do it everyday, but cardio is NOT for me.

So in my quest to get my pre-baby body back I decided to start running. You're not living until you're pushing yourself out of your comfort zone. At least that's what Jillian Michaels keeps trying to tell me: "Get comfortable with being uncomfortable!". So, my sister and I joined a learn to run clinic through our local running store |The Run Inn|.

Thankfully the first few weeks have been somewhat easy, but we are running pretty slow - as in, I don't even break a sweat! So today I went on my first run outside of the clinic and thought it would be best if I pushed myself a little harder. I did 3 min run and 3 min walk 5x (a total of 30 minutes without warm up or cool down) and managed to go 5km! I was pretty happy! By the end I was willing my legs to move though, I'm not kidding!

I was also at a work conference all day and wanted to show you how you can stay fit and healthy with 3 kids and working all day.

So as for today:

6.30am - |Toneitup| |Bootycall| was 30 minutes of yoga

8.00am - M1 was 1C of Kashi GoLean cereal with 1/4C of unsweetened Almond Milk and 1/2 a banana. water.

8.15am - 1km power walk to the conference. water.

10.00am - M2 was 1 apple, 1/3C grapes and 1 domino size piece of cheese. water and green tea.

12.00pm - M3 was mixed veggies and some light meats. water. There wasn't a huge selection that fit the |Toneitup| plan. But I ate lots of veggies to fill up!

1.45pm - 2km power walk. black coffee and water.

3.00pm - 5km run/walk (3min run/3min walk 5x) water.

4.00pm - 1km power walk home and |Zico| Mango Coconut water.

5.00pm - M4 |ClifBar| Chocolate Mint, yum! Water.

8.00pm - M5 Slow-Cooker Salsa Chicken on Spinach with Asparagus and Peppers on the side. Water. (See recipe on yesterdays blog!)

I try to remember the importance of liquids! Drink up! (|Zico| Coconut Water, Plain Water & Green Tea)

I was also planning on fitting in a TRX workout courtesy of my wonderful friend and trainer PJ from |Fitness with PJ| (check out her facebook page!) but there was a big spider in my house and I wasn't about to go near that floor! LOL :)

What kind of workouts do you fit in your day?

Fall-oh! Fridays

In our house, one thing I am extra cautious about is making sure the boys get a good balanced diet. Almost everything we eat is from scratch. Each meal I make sure has a balance of protein, carbs and 2-3 different types/colours of fruits and or vegetables. I also make sure I balance that out over a day and week to make sure they get nutritional variety.

Because most of our food is made from scratch,I have to be intentional about finding ways to give our family healthy amounts of sodium. Sodium is good for you, trust me. The problem is that it is in EVERYTHING you eat that is pre-packaged so people tend to have too much in their diets. Not so with clean eating.

So I have come across some well-altered recipes that are healthy enough to serve my family but do involve spices so as to add some salt content. Throw away that pre-packaged taco seasoning mix, what a waste of a days worth of salt intake! Try this recipe from |AllRecipes.com| and you'll never go back!

One of our favourite fall crock-pot recipes (and a way to increase our sodium on a day that is quite low) is this Slow-Cooker Salsa Chicken recipe from |SparkRecipes.com| it's really fast and super delicious! Just throw some chicken, salsa (homemade is preferrable) and mushroom soup into your crockpot. (now typically I wouldn't recommend anything canned, but when you are in need of some sodium this works great. We buy the low-sodium version as to not add too much!)

... then sprinkle it with your taco seasoning ...

Cook for 6-8 hours on low and voila, you have a lovely dish!

I put mine on top of a bed of spinach with a couple teaspoons of greek yogurt and, of course, veggies on the side. For the boys in my house we serve it the same but with brown rice as well to add the carbs.

I would love for you to try this and let me know what you think. So yummy!

Eating the Pounds Away ...

So if you haven't already heard, I'm on this incredible lifestyle plan called |Tone It Up!|. This has changed my life. One of the main things it's brought to my life is a love for morning workouts, AKA |Bootycall|.

Most mornings the thought of a major workout makes me want to throw up. But this |Jillian Michaels| DVD is the perfect short, heart-pumping workout to start your day!

Now where I excel is healthy eating. Let me re-phrase that, ahem, clean eating! Lots of people call me extreme but I just can't see feeding my children certain things when I know what's in it. So what's so wrong with being extreme? I thought I'd share with you how wonderfully I can eat and still lose the baby weight!

Breakfast was a homemade |Tone It Up!| Pumpkin Spice Latte. Wow.

Breakfast was one of our favourites ... Pumpkin Spice Oatmeal! It's real easy. Just take 1C unsweetened almond milk, 1/4C canned pumpkin puree, a splash of vanilla extract, a pinch of cinnamon and 1 packet of stevia. Bring to a boil.

Add 1C of oats and turn to simmer until oats are cooked.

Once oats are cooked, add 2 tsp of unsalted almond butter. Top with 1/2 sliced banana and 1/8C of homemade, salt-free trailmix and VOILA!

Snack was apple slices and 5 dark chocolate covered almonds. Lunch was a |Tone It Up!| pasta recipe. SO GOOD!

I joined a local running clinic with my sister 3 weeks ago. I didn't have time to eat dinner before heading out for our run so I had a hard-boiled egg as a snack! When I got back from my 30 min run I did |Fitness with PJ| Gladiator routine 2x. Check her out on FACEBOOK. She is always giving advice, tidbits and posting workout videos!

Ah, now time for dinner! Spinach salad loaded with veggies and 1/4C of black beans and 1/8C of dry-roasted, unsalted cashews and of course, my |ZICO| water!

All in all today I ate lean, clean & green and did 1hr 30min of exercise as well as 3 60 second planks, 100 crunches, 60 jumping jacks & 50 side plank crunches. Not bad. Feels good :)

In the Beginning ...

At 22 years old, 7 months into my marriage, I found myself pregnant. Yay! At 20 weeks pregnant, on my husbands 27th birthday, we found out there were two. "Two what?" I asked. "Two babies." Answered the technician. "What do you mean two?" I responded. "Look," the technician answered in a frustrated voice, "two heads." She pointed. "Can you get my mom?" And that was the beginning of my journey.

When it came time to start feeding the twins solid food, I couldn't imagine feeding them anything from the store. So I started by researching how to make my own pablum and my obsession with clean eating began. I made all their food from scratch, no artificial foods or sugar. At 4 1/2 years old we still hold pretty true to those rules, it's the grandparents that break the rules :)

I eventually realized that it wasn't just the twins that needed to eat clean, so did I. So in February 2010 I started my own journey of eating clean and working out. I worked hard, really hard. I got myself down 17lbs. It was blood, sweat and tears for 9 months to get myself fit and healthy.

Then ... surprise :)

We were pregnant with another baby boy!

And now my journey of getting fit and healthy (and losing the baby weight!) starts again!