Thankful for the "little" things

This little ball of sunshine is my sweet mini me!  I will openly admit that I LOVE that she is a tiny version of me.  I was jealous for YEARS with my older daughter.  The sun would rise and set on Daddy with my oldest...but this little stinker....she is Mommy's girl through and through.  We had her big holiday dance concert this past weekend, and my heart was bursting with pride watching her smile and dance up on that stage.  Sitting next to MY mom who knew EXACTLY who I was feeling...as she had felt that same way $%$& number of years ago with me on the stage.  She smiled, knew her dance, and you could see the joy sparkle in her eyes.  She LOVES to dance.

This beautiful crew is my oldest (in the middle) with two of her BFF's (whom I love like they're my own as well).  My big girl is strong and smart, tender hearted and funny.  I know why she is a Daddy's girl because I see so much of him in her.  The very best qualities he has are part of her soul.  She makes me so proud, and as my first, holds a special place as she is the one who gave me the gift of being a mom.  She gets more and more challenging everyday as she figures herself out and moves closer to the teenage years, but she makes my heart so happy it could burst!

And this guy right here...this is my hubby!  I loved him before I even knew him.  He really is the other half of me.  He gave me the greatest gift I could have ever hoped for (yep, you guessed it those two crazy yahoos above).  He loves me faults and all and he encourages, supports and believes in me. 

As I was laying in bed all snuggled up with mini the other night, the hubs came up and told me to get out of bed and workout.  He had just finished his workout, the big girl had already had an hour long riding lesson that day, the little one is in constant motion (although she does like to grab a small hand weight from time to time and join me...or join in a down dog).  I did NOT want to get up, but was so glad I did.  Feeling alive!  These three fill my heart...and are the reason I have to keep it in great shape! 

I am so thankful for my three "little things!"  No need for any gifts under my tree for me as long as I have them!

Feeling a Bit MisInformed

I don't know about you, but I take great issue with BMI calculators.  I always have, even at my skinniest.  It seems to me that they are just too arbitrary.  There is no consideration of musculature or activity.  My hubs, awesome man that he is, is on the end of the BMI charts that he does NOT want to be on...but his arms and legs are like tree trunks of pure muscle. And now, in the past two weeks I have had to more pushes over the BMI line.

I took my sweet mini to the pediatrician for her 4 year check up.  She is perfect.  Smart, funny, healthy, quite brave (she sat through two shots), and according to her BMI overweight.  The look on my face said it all I'm sure as my pediatrician explained how it's not a concern because of how strong she is...she has a lot of muscle (she comes from strong parents after all).  It did help that the doc also said that she hates the BMI stuff and doesn't put stock in it.  If our medical professional disagrees, that is enough for me.

My second push was my own biometric screening.  I am VERY proud to say that I was in the "green zone" on all areas: HDL, LDL, total cholesterol, triglycerides, glucose, BMI...but I was darn close to the overweight zone on the BMI (also the glucose...worry!!!!!)

While I struggle with my weight, I know my fight is not the same as others.  Mine is more of a vanity fight...but with health repercussions.  I watched my Dad collapse with a heart attack when I was 15.  I am lucky that he was ok, but I know my genetics and my eating habits and workout habits (or as of late lack of workout habits) is going to bite me in the butt!  I have heart disease, high blood pressure, diabetes and cancer looming out there in my genetic cloud...and I am trying to take action to overcome them all.  I will not be passive in my life.  While I am on the "normal" side I am barely hanging on there so I am taking action.  I am on the downward slope to 40, I have a family history that is not so great, and I have 2 amazing kids that I plan to watch grow old...so I have to take action and this whole BMI thing makes me think I am failing sometimes.

So in the interest of good health I got a Fitbit flex from my parents for my birthday, as I mentioned in my last post.  well it arrived yesterday and I promptly charged it up and have it on now.  Already adjusted the step goal to 12,000 since its been awhile since I tracked my progress and am ready to go.  To top it off, mini asked if we could workout together after reading (yet again) The Berenstain Bears and Too Much Junk Food.  I love that she is actively involved in her own health already...our example must be in the right direction!!

What are YOUR thoughts on BMI???

 

 

Step by Step

I'm not sure why all my workout machines pictures turn out so blurry, but I am happy enough that you can see the benefit.  This was in the cool down of my 10 minute walk on the treadmill this morning.  I have found that a nicely paced walk right before the  30 minute Muscle Conditioning Express class gets me loose, gets my heart rate up and gets me ready for a fast paced and intense workout.  Even though I have done this class once before, and knew it was going to kick my butt, I still had this mindset going in that because its only a 30 minute class it wouldn't be as beneficial as the others I have done.  Crazy right?!?!  Not sure how to get past that.  Especially since I work on the 3rd floor of my building.  I take the stairs everyday.  It's 63 steps up and 63 steps down.  I do that at least twice a day (when I get to work, leaving and coming back from the gym, and going home) so even if my workout itself is only a 30 minute one at the actual gym, I am still doing my part.  Top that with the quarter mile I put in to and from the garage...I'm actually moving more then I give myself credit for on a daily basis.  If only fitbit wanted to hook me up with a bunch of free gear to try out and sing the praises of (hint hint fitbit). :)  I have a pedometer but it kind of sucks.  It's be nice to see how may steps I average though each day.  Hmmmmm maybe I'll just bust out the old one to see.

I am looking forward to tomorrow.  It should be a GREAT workout day for me.  My boss gives us a half day off on the day before a holiday, so I WON'T have to get up at 5 to fit in a workout!  I can sleep in, see my girls as they wake up in the morning (maybe even take the little one to school), take my time and get in 60, heck maybe even 90 minutes at the gym, and then work a short day with a few programs going on.  That is the plan, although I use that word very loosely. :)

I was pretty happy yesterday overall as I feel like I planned well.  I knew we were going to have dinner with friends and that would mean indulgences that aren't everyday (lots of food, a beer).  I knew my caloric intake for the night would be high so on top of my kick butt Zumba class I cut back throughout he day on calories having:

Breakfast: weight control Quaker oats instant oatmeal, maple and brown sugar

Mid-morning snack: Yoplait light strawberry yogurt

Lunch: baked sweet potato, green bell pepper and a snack bag of peanuts

Talk about a fairly low cal day!  So I don't feel guilty today about indulging in a few empanadas, guac, con queso and chips and my 1 beer.  Even with the higher calorie foods, I still kept it to smaller portions.  Very proud of myself.

As an added bonus, my 3 year old asked if she could take swim lessons.  Just popped the question out of nowhere.  She knows swimming is good exercise...and its fun, wonder what brought this on?  Not sure but love that the kids are starting to see the importance of exercise.  Maybe the Just dance is inspiring her to be more active too.  In the past 2 weeks she has asked about playing soccer, swimming, and to play (multiple times) just dance.  All this in addition to our sweet little mom and me dance class.

    

Wacky Wedneday

     Today has just been crazy....well, the whole week has been actually.  Monday was the whole jury duty debacle.  Again, don't get me wrong, I would be more than happy to help weigh in on the scales of justice (as long as they didnt' require me to actually get on one), but the case I could have been on, is slotted to last 5 weeks.  REALLY?!?!  I mean, due process should be allocated for more than just the accused.  Oh well, not my concern anymore.
     Yesterday for my b-day the girls at work wanted to go out to lunch to celebrate.  We had decided a while ago to go to a cute little Italian place not too far from the office so we could walk there and back and help burn off all the yummy treats we would consume at lunch.  Walked over there only to find that it was closed due to a gas leak.  Oh well, that means we got an even longer walk in as we had to hoof it somewhere else...so I got to have birthday Panera-did I mention that I went to Panera on Sunday?  Oh well (seems like a new mantra).
     My oldest had a riding lesson last night so the little one and I were on our own for most of the evening.  I had planned on trying out a new recipe for my birthday and was actually kind of excited about it only to have the whole fam say "You can't make your OWN birthday dinner," so instead I got to wait and have a late dinner with the fam and open my gift.  (Which by the way is a sweet new Vera Bradley case for my iPhone...it's beautiful so total score on that).
     Today has just been the icing on the proverbial (birthday) cake though.  When the weather is nice my cat likes to live the life of an indoor/outdoor cat.  He generally always comes in at night (at my insistence) because he is little and  don't want him to get hurt or skunked or anything.  Since I fall asleep early usually with the 3 year old, my hubs gets the cat indoors.  So at 530 this morning when the thunder started booming and the rain began to pour down, my hubby says the cat never came back in last night, so...I get up and scurry about in my jammies with an umbrella herding the cat back into the house in the rain.  Then I go back to bed for 20 minutes, wake up and realize I never laid my clothes out the night before.  This means stumbling around in the dark to try and find things so as to not wake my hubby back up or the three year old who has by now migrated to my bed.  I go to her room and find the nail clippers with the mini flashlight on them to help navigate my way through my drawers and closet so I can get dressed after my shower.
     Traffic was CRAZY, which is generally not the case when you are on the road at 645, and then once I got to work people here were nutty.  No one wanted to be at work, and then problem after problem just kept popping up.  I am hoping that the rain will cause soccer to b cancelled so that maybe just MAYBE I can have a calm night at home with the fam with no activities and no stress.  Maybe even get in a home workout. :)
     I would be lying if I said I wasn't afraid of what tomorrow holds.  But, once again, all I can say is Oh well.

How has your week been so far?  My main source of fitness this week seems to be my exercise in futility! :)

Feel Good Friday: a great week

Friday, Friday, Friday!  TGIF my friends!  I have had such a great week. I think that instituting Feel Good Fridays has given me a subconscious reason to find the positive in things throughout the week.  It gives me something to look forward to at the end of the week (other than the weekend of course) where I can celebrate my accomplishments!  HOORAY!

So this week my Feel Good Friday has actually been inspired by another blogger,  Jenna Zemering, over at Stay Fit. Stay Classy. Stay True.  Earlier this week, Jenna did a post entitled What Are You Grateful For?, and it seemed a fitting topic for my overall week.  So my Feel Good Friday warm fuzzy is how grateful I am for where I am in my life.

Sure, I have those days where I feel overwhelmed...the kids, the mortgage, the salary free taxi service I seem to provide for all things activity related...but in the big picture those are all things I wouldn't trade for anything else in the world.  I am SO grateful for my amazing husband who stands by me no matter what, and my two beautiful and healthy daughters (did I mention that the little one had a GREAT 3 year check up this week...she is off the charts!)

I am grateful for a boss who values health and fitness as much as I do and who plans our workouts during free fancy gym week.  I am grateful that I am healthy enough to take advantage of free fancy gym week. 

I am grateful that my number got picked off the waiting list at work to finally (for a little extra cost) got me a garage spot rather than the open lot I have been parking in the past year and a half...and right before winter HALLELUJAH!

It has been a great week...but so far it has also been a great life and I am very blessed.  We sometimes get so caught up in everything else that we forget how each little thing is a gift.  I am "great" ful for my life and look forward to what the universe has in store for me, and we know that she has been talking my ear off lately.

So, what are you Feeling Good about this Friday???

Two peas in a pod

    
     My oldest daughter had a laundry list of food allergies as a kid.  As she got older, she would use the "allergy excuse" as a reason to not try something.  We would urge her to try a new food and her response would be "I think I'm allergic to that."  Now that she is older (almost 10) she just refuses to try things.  This would be okay in most houses I would guess, but in out house where my husband is the Kitchen King, it is no good.  He loves to cook.  He loves to try new things.  He has a very discerning palette.  Both my girls have inherited their dad's palette.  They can both pick up on small changes in flavor...different brand of butter, extra type of cheese in a melt.  With the older girl this is even more of an issue because she is only willing to eat certain things and notices if we change brands on something.  When I say certain things I mean it.  She loves pasta with butter, but hates red sauce.  Put that red sauce on a pizza though and we are golden.  Her diet choices consists mostly of: butter noodles, hot dogs, corn dogs, pizza, wings, watermelon.  She claims she likes green beans and peas, although I can't remember the last time I saw her eat them.  And God bless my husband, he continues to try with her.
     My youngest has her father's sense of adventure with food.  Now, when I met my husband I was what I refer back to as very "white bread" in my food choices.  I have become a pretty good risk taker though over the years.  He knows what I like and will make things that he feels confident I will try and enjoy.  There have been a few snafus in the past, but for the most part he has succeeded.  Our little one has his sense of adventure.  She is willing to try new foods all the time.  It is such a change from our first that I sometimes am taken aback.  It's so refreshing though to have her be so willing to try things. Our most recent "try" was snow peas.  I love to eat fresh snow peas right in the pod.  I love the crispness, I love the taste, I just love them.  I bought some fresh at the farmers market last week and my little one was tugging on my short asking to eat them too.  I showed her how you bite into them, and also showed her the cute little peas inside the pod.  After many attempts she decided that the peas inside the pod were what she wanted to eat, not the whole pod so we sat together and shelled peas for her to snack on. 
     My new goal is to find something new each week at the market for her to try.  She is so  open minded and willing to try new things (especially for a 2 year old), and maybe this will catch up with me to get me to try new things as well.  So excited to get chewing!