Hi, friend!
If you're here I'm thinking it's because you're interested in getting yo booty into shape. If that's the case, you're in the right place!But can I also just share that what you do on a daily basis is such hard work. The mom life is good stuff but man can it be hard. So the fact that you're even considering doing anything but collapsing on the couch during nap time while slipping into an oreo-induced coma is worthy of a big ol high five.One thing I found pretty early into motherhood is that when I make working out a priority, I'm just a happier momma. Taking care of yourself is sometimes the last thing on the list of what has to get done but I promise it's worth it.If you're like me, the idea of spending over an hour a day doing anything (especially working out!) is laughable. Maybe your kiddos are in school so you've got some extra during the day time, but over here we are in the trenches of the toddlerhood so any workout has gotta be fast and effective.I try to incorporate three to four thirty minute high intensity workout sessions weekly, plus two cardio sessions.A typical HIIT (high intensity interval training) workout looks like this:7 minutes: (go thru the circuit as many times as you can)15 burpees15 toe taps20 jumping lumges (10 per leg)1 minute plank with a twistREST for 1 minute7 minutes: (go thru the circuit as many times as you can)15 pushups20 stair climbers (literally just climb my stairs)15 commandos50 mountain climbersRepeat the first circuit again followed by the second circuit (28 minutes total)On days when I need to get in my cardio, I like to fast pace stroll 100 pounds of girl child upand down the KILLER hills in my neighborhood OR if Matt gets home early enough (or on weekends) I go for a run. Fun fact: I burn three times as many calories walking for 3 miles with my girls than I do running 6 miles alone. That'll bless ya!Speaking of running, I used to be an avid runner and just within the past year switched to interval training with weights. I'm not hating on running because I really do enjoy it! But while running is a great cardio workout, it's not great on your joints and it's also not (gasp) a super effective form of working out if your desire is to tone up muscle groups and really burn fat effectively. I'm not claiming to be an expert by any means. I just know what I've learned from my research.The goal with working out (especially if you're limited on time!) is to work harder and smarter. If you can't spend two hours in the gym every day, just kick your tail for 30 minutes at home! Some days I workout longer, most days I don't.Just get up and move every single day and you'll be able to tell a difference in your energy level. If you've got really specific goals, write them down and start right away. You got this, momma!
Workout Gear Found Here:[showshopthepostwidget id="2328999"]
NYC Day 2
For those of you who are new around here, I went on a trip to New York in December with two of my sisters and one of my best friends. We were there for a long weekend during the most magical time of year.You can find the recap from Day One HERE. Now let's jump in to Day Two!We woke up pretty early on Saturday morning to make it to our breakfast reservation at Sarah Beth's. We visited the central park south location because we planned to spend the morning wandering around Central Park. I'd highly recommend making a reservation before you go. They get really busy. The fat and fluffy french toast is literally to DIE for. Guaranteed to make you feel fat and fluffy as soon as you finish. I'd recommend splitting since the portions are huge. My sister, Anna, ordered the green and white scrambled eggs so we had something savory (and somewhat healthy) to go with our fat and fluffy french toast.
After breakfast, we walked thru The Plaza Hotel (since it's right next door!) and then made our way into Central Park. Walking thru the park was one of my favorite parts of our trip. There are so many iconic views but it's also just such a beautiful space. I'd recommend visiting Bethesda Fountain area while you're in Central Park. It's stunning! If you visit during warmer months, you could also take a boat ride while you're there.
We took a car back to The Palace to change clothes and get ready for lunch.Funny side story: This particular morning, my sister let me borrow a beautiful Italian coin necklace that was given to her by grandfather after my grandmother had passed away. At some point when I was getting our of the car to go into the hotel, the chain broke and the coin fell onto the seat of the car. When we got up to the hotel room and I took off my coat, the chain fell off but the coin was nowhere to be seen. I FREAKED. OUT. We looked everywhere for it and Mary Margaret said she thought she saw a coin on the seat when we got out of the car. After a very lengthy and difficult process of tracking down our Uber driver (he spoke hardly a word of english), we were finally able to get the coin back by midnight that night. Talk about a heart attack!
After we changed clothes, we got a quick burger and fries at Shake Shack and then walked over to The Met. We passed some beautiful brown stones on the way there. It's amazing what you just stumble upon in this city.
The Met was absolutely beautiful! We decided to purchase The City Pass to save a bit of money on some of the sight seeing we wanted to do. It was well worth it.Once we were done at the museum, we headed back to get ready for dinner. We made a quick stop at Laduree for some macaroons and holy moly y'all. These are to the most delicious things I've ever put in my mouth! Not only is the little store front like stepping back in time to Paris in another century, but these little cookies are heavenly. You must get you some while you're here.
On our second night we ate at Butter in Midtown. Split an entree to save room for dessert. They have a pastry chef on staff and the man knows how to make a dessert. We split the crispy chicken with the sauteed black kale and for dessert we had the raspberry beignets with vanilla dipping sauce. Y'all. My mouth is watering just thinking about how amazing it was!After dinner we walked back to our hotel to change into warmer clothes so we could go gawk at the tree and watch the light show in front of Saks a few more times.We got in bed a little on the earlier side that night since we were all worn out. Plus we knew we had a long day of seeing all the things the next day!Here are a few links of what I wore on Day Two![showshopthepostwidget id="2320007"]Day Three includes our crazy experience having tea at The Plaza, as well as our time spent in DUMBO and what we did our last night!Stay tuned!
Meal Planning Made Easy
Some of you might not know that I grew up in a family of eight kids. My mom (rock star that she is) was an incredible meal planner. She pretty much had to be since we had a tight budget and lots of mouths to feed.I can still remember as a little girl watching my mom plan out our meals two weeks in advance. Then she would make a grocery list and get everything she needed for those two weeks. She had it down to a science and it was an incredible thing to behold.Once Matt and I got married, I remember trying to plan our meals the same way my mom used to do it. It didn't quite work out in the beginning... I was used to buying food for LOTS of people! Let's just say in the first few months of our marriage, we threw away a lot of spoiled produce. Ooopsies.I did finally find my stride and I want to share with you what works for us. I realize everybody has their thing so best case scenario is that you take a little something from this and tweak it to make it work for you.First things first, we sit down at the beginning of the week and talk about our plans. If we will be eating out certain meals, we write them down so we don't end up with extra food we don't need. I then plan out what we are going to need for each meal that week.I love using my Simplified Planner for meal planning. It's so nice to have my calendar, to-do list. and menu all in once place. Not to mention it's just so pretty!
Once we figure out our schedule, I make one trip to the store for the week. Sometimes I get stuff to carry us into the next week, especially if it can be frozen. Most of the time though it's just what we need for that week.A normal week looks like this for us:Monday: Breakfast: Toast with raw honey, scrambled eggs, orangesLunch: Carrots with hummus, rolled up turkey with cheese, apple sauceDinner: Honey baked chicken, green beans, sweet potatoesTuesday:Breakfast: Waffles (frozen organic) with sliced bananaLunch: Smoothie and pretzelsDinner: Kids Eat Free at Fickle Pickle (Yes, Lord!)Wednesday:Breakfast: Smoothie and scrambled eggsLunch: Chick fil a play date with friendsDinner: Baked salmon, broccoli, and brown riceThursday:Breakfast: Toast with raw honey and peanut butterLunch: Black bean and cheese quesadillasDinner: Nachos with ground turkey, shredded spinach, black beans, and cheeseFriday:Breakfast: Cereal and almond milkLunch: Carrots and hummus, turkey and cheese, strawberriesDinner: PIZZASaturday:Breakfast: Chick fil a (don't judge me)Lunch: LeftoversDinner: Date Night!Sunday:Breakfast: Gluten free Pancakes and chicken sausageLunch: Family Lunch after churchDinner: Pasta with spinach and chicken sausageIn addition to all the items I need for meals, I also get snack foods to keep for me and the girls during the day. Matt isn't much of a snacker and with his diet limitations, snack foods are hard to come by!The biggest game changer for me when it came to meal planning was just deciding to actually plan. I know that sounds ridiculous but I spent many years just kind of flying by the seat of my pants. Cooking when I felt like, begging to eat out when I didn't (can I get an amen?). Taking the time to sit down and plan out our week set us up for success in so many ways. We found we were eating cleaner since we were making eating decisions in advance. We also found that we were managing our budget better by knowing week to week what we would spend.I hope this helps to get you off on the right start. If you aren't a planner by nature, just start out planning a few days out of the week. I'll tell you though. This way of planning things out frees up a lot of time in the long run! You might just learn to love it!Happy Meal Planning, y'all!
New Year 2017
Happy New Year, friend!Each year, rather than making resolutions, I like to find a word to focus on for the year and then add some goals that I want to start or continue.My word this year is Abundance.I find myself operating out of a scarcity mentality in so many areas of my life and I really want to shift my thinking in that area.There's more than enough of God's sweet blessings to go around. I want to rejoice in the victories I see in other people's lives with total abandon because I know that a rising tide lifts everyone up!This means that ANY form of comparison has to go. In my line of work it is so very easy to get caught up in comparing yourself to others but this always leads to toxic thinking. So no more!I also want to believe and claim abundance over our marriage, our health, our finances, our girls, our home, our present, and our future. Dreaming BIG dreams over here and I'm not going to shy away from writing them down and giving them over to Jesus so I can watch Him blow us away!__________________________Even though I'm not big into resolutions, I do love treating the first of the year as a benchmark of sorts to help me stop, take a breath, and just reflect. Here are a few areas of reflection... hehe. :-)I'm still going to continue my normal workout routine but I want to clean up my eating, especially after this Christmas eating extravaganza. #worthitThe key to clean eating is planning out my meals in advance and not keeping sugar in my house. Sounds simple enough, right? Yeah, you haven't seen the chocolate situation that unloaded itself out of my Christmas stocking into my pantry. Jesus, take the wheel.I'll have a blog post coming up on meal planning as well as the workout routine that works with my crazy mom life schedule.I think my biggest shift this year is going to be putting forth an effort to plan ahead more diligently. We had so many changes happen this past year that we just kind of rolled with. Most of the year I was just winging it. All of it. I find I approach daily tasks with a lot more joy if I have a plan to implement and if I have the time in advance to make sure I can get things done the way I want to.I want to play more with my girls. They are both at such a fun age! But they have also just recently gotten to the point where they will play happily together for long stretches of time so it's tempting to always let them do their thing while I get stuff done. But seeing how their little faces light up when I join them is worth it every single time. I'd rather have dirty floors and happy kids. Actually, I'd rather have happy kids and a housekeeper that cleans my dirty floors! Let's be real.Matt and I have always been pretty consistent about going on dates, but this year I want to be more intentional about the time we have at home. Less TV and phones, more talking and laughing. Easy peasy. I hope. Ha!Finally, I always like to evaluate my relationship with Jesus and make sure I'm continuing to walk with Him on the regular. For me, this looks like a consistent devotional that I can do every morning. Also just spending time in the Word AND writing down the things I'm grateful for, worried about, or just what's taking up room in my thoughts. In Psalms it says to "cast your cares on the Lord because He cares for you." I find myself sinking into anxiety only when I'm keeping my thoughts to myself instead of trading my heavy burden for the light one He offers.Y'all I can honestly say that I've never been more excited for a fresh and new season! I would love to hear from you about what you're taking time to reflect on and adjust in this New Year.As always, thank you so much for reading! You are loved!
The Loft Sale
Hi, friends!Hope you're having a great start to your new year. I just wanted to pop in to show you some of my favorites from The Loft's HUGE 60% off clearance sale. Yes, you read that right. It's an additional 60% off clearance![showboutiquewidget id="527975"] Now who is getting pumped for the premier of The Bachelor tonight?! I can't decide if it's going to be incredible or the literal worst. Only time will tell. But one thing is for SURE... it'll be the "most dramatic season yet". Oh, Chris Harrison, how I've missed you!