Back from Phoenix

I'm back from Phoenix! Land of palm trees and sunshine. Definitely my kind of weather! Highs in the mid-80's... lows in the upper 50's. Life is so tough there. Right. :)

My hubby, Makenna, and I left from Omaha Thursday evening to join my in-laws at their new vacation home in Surprise, Arizona. We came in late Thursday, stayed Friday and Saturday then took off Sunday morning to head back to our snowy home. But I could have stayed in Phoenix forever. It was just beautiful!

The absolute best part about being in Phoenix is being surrounded by people living an active lifestyle!

I took Makenna for a walk both Friday and Saturday and never failed to run into someone out running, biking, or walking their dog. While Surprise is known for it's retirement-like communities, I've found that's also a good thing. My in-laws have access to two gyms within walking distance of their home.

To top it all off, a few minutes in a vehicle lead you to the White Tank Mountains. The whole family headed out that way to get some exercise on Saturday. I can't reiterate enough how much mixing up your routine and doing something enjoyable can keep a person active. Walking on the hiking trail didn't even feel like exercise and I was able to put in a couple of miles.

Even my little Missy had a great time on the hike!

She didn't walk the whole way by herself, though. She had to hang on to her "PoPo's" hand for a little while.

The rest of the time she wanted to run like her Aunt Chelsey and Uncle Taylor (Cory's siblings who decided to run the hiking trail while the rest of us walked). I can't wait for her to get a little older and more interested in staying active. My ultimate hope is that she'll want to start joining me on runs someday!

Anyway, I'm now back to the mecca of snow and cold. Oh the lovely Midwest. November through February = an increase in inactivity. Something we constantly have to fight here! But heading to a warm environment reminds me to stay at it.

Speaking of which, I better hit the sack if I'm going to be up for a workout tomorrow morning! :)

5 Steps to Reduce Stress in the Morning

Let me share a story with you: 

It’s 6:30 am. I’m bounding up the stairs from our basement feeling rejuvenated. My 45 minute walk is complete for the day! I’ve already been thinking about how I’m going to cook up a big ol bowl of oatmeal for myself as soon as I’m out of the shower. It’s going to be a great day! My husband’s ready to leave so I kiss him goodbye and grab my towel. 

I take my first steps toward the bathroom when I hear it. Rustling and mumbling coming from my toddler’s room. I look at my watch, it’s 6:35… could she be up already? How is that possible?? I pause and wait to see if I’m just hearing things. But the next mumbling of “Mommy” tells me I’m right. She’s awake. I’m instantly irritated. I barely have enough time to get myself ready this morning! How am I going to get everything done and entertain her at the same time?

After another cry of “Mommy,” I groan and drag my feet to her room. Let the day begin…  

The next hour of the morning is spent rushing around the house. Me trying to hurry my little girl through everything. Her crying because she’s hungry (and quite possibly still tired). Oatmeal is now switched out with cold cereal because it’s fast and easy. Now we’re both crabby as we rush out the door to get to daycare. 

I arrive at work, five after 8, hair half wet, and wondering what the heck just happened to my morning... 

Does this happen to anyone else? I’m hoping I’m not the only working mom out there who struggles to balance it all in the morning. 

My wonderful daughter has inherited my “morning person” gene, I’m afraid, and for the last two weeks has not slept past 6:30 in the morning. In fact, it was 6:20 this morning that she first woke up.

After a few mornings of this, I realized that I had a choice to make: Either I could keep complaining about how our mornings were awful (which would in turn would keep making them awful), or I could accept the fact that my little girl was just going to be awake earlier and I needed to be more patient and thankful to get extra time with her. 

I chose the latter. I’ve made a few changes to my “routine” to make the mornings easier for both of us, and I thought I would share what I’ve learned so far: 

Tip #1: Start earlier. 

I now start my morning routine about 10-15 minutes earlier in the day than I used to. These extra minutes allow for a little less rushing, and most importantly, time for both of us to get a healthy breakfast! It does mean 10 minutes of less sleep, but it still allows me to get my workout in in the morning before the day takes over. 

Tip #2: Prioritize to stay flexible.

There are several things I like to get done each morning. But I’ve learned I just need to let the little things go. If I leave a total mess in the kitchen from breakfast, it’s ok if I don’t get it cleaned up before leaving for work! It will still be there when I get home. Just as long as I don’t leave the house without my coffee. :) 

Tip #3: Lay everything out the night before. 

I’m sure you’ve heard this one before, but I will personally testify that laying out my clothes, Makenna’s clothes, and anything else that needs to make it out the door in the morning before I hit the sack, makes for less stress in the AM. 

Tip #4: Realize you can’t control everything! 

Even with all this planning, something’s still bound to go wrong. And even if I’m in a good mood, Makenna could still just be having a crabby morning (Don’t we all?). So I’m learning to just take a deep breath and accept it. 

Tip #5: Start with prayer. 

This is completely a personal choice for me, but I’ve found that if I can start my morning with a few minutes of prayer, I get out of bed with a more positive attitude. It’s nice to get my head clear before starting the rat race of everyday life. 

Well there you have it - Things I’ve just been learning along the way on this road called “Motherhood.” Trust me, not every morning is full of rainbows and unicorns! But I completely believe in the old saying: “Lord, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference!”

Maternity Workout Gear

As I’ve researched and posted about before, one of the best ways to get motivated to workout when pregnant is to find the right wardrobe. Let’s take a moment to identify what is not the right wardrobe:

This was me earlier this week. Typical T-shirt and running shorts. Luckily I was just at home doing a DVD in my basement! Looking at this photo now, it in no way inspires me to conduct another sweat session. And maybe this is a good thing, but there’s also no way this stretched out Tee is going to fit postpartum.

So, this weekend I set out to find some clothes more fitting to be seen in public. When shopping for clothes, I usually know my favorite online store or shop to visit. But when I sat down at my computer Sunday, I realized I had NO idea where to look for maternity fitness gear.

I stared at a blank browser.

Ergo,I did what any sensible modern chick would do: I Googled.

Here’s what I found under “Maternity Workout Clothes”:

• Motherhood
• Old Navy
• Gap
• A pea in the Pod
• Destination Maternity
• For Two Fitness

After looking at each site, however, I found some issues: 

• Most places wanted me to spend at least $70 for a pair of yoga pants. One. Pair. I’m kind of a frugal person, so this seems like a lot for one pair of pants that are only going to be worn sporadically for the next 13 weeks!
• Some of these websites confused the term “activewear” with “loungewear.” Not the same thing. Some tops just did not look like they were designed for an actual workout. 
• Even though some of these sites had some cute stuff, there really was not a lot to choose from. 

All in all, I was kind of disappointed by the results.  So, I chose my best option: Old Navy. I got a few pieces (all for under the cost of one pair of yoga pants on other sites, I might add) that should do me for a little while. Here’s what I picked out: 

Just a few, simple pieces. But at least I know they will fit when I put them on each morning! I can't say the same for my T-shirt and stretched out shorts. As soon as these new clothes arrive, I'll be putting the shorts away. And, depending on how these turn out, I may be back for more! 

Oh, and as one last side note, while the For Two Fitness website was a little out of my budget, they did have a really cute tank that I would love to purchase for my next pregnancy: 

Fun, right? 

Ok, time to wrap this up and head to bed. It's now been snowing. YES. SNOWING. For the past two hours. I think my treadmill in the basement will be a little more welcoming than a cold gym in the morning. Hello, winter... 

Pregnancy Project Review

This morning my rise-and-shine workout was with the TracyAnderson! 

Ok, not in real life. Lord knows I would love to be able to afford a celebrity trainer to actually come to my house for a few sessions!

Though she wasn’t with me in person, I did decide to give her “Pregnancy Project” DVDs a try. She has 9 DVDs in this pack - 1 for each month of pregnancy. Kinda cool, right?

I wasn’t sure what to expect in a DVD for preggo women. My previous experience with workout videos usually end with me wondering how the heck these women can even finish a set without dying.

And, let’s not forget all of the P90X and Insanity infomercials we’re prone to seeing on TV. Yeah… not doing THAT at 7 months pregnant.

With all of this in mind, I still stuck Tracy’s DVD in the good ol computer and went to work, expecting to feel the same way I do after most DVDs… sweating and wondering if I’ll ever have the strength to finish those sets at the end.

But I was pleasantly surprised by this one! Tracy only uses a mat, a chair, and 3 lb. dumbbells to get you moving. And her main focus is stretching which is exactly what I feel I need at 7 months in.

She mainly focuses on stretches to help the hips and a few arm moves to open your chest. I was slightly breaking a sweat by the end of the video, (and I won’t be surprised if my butt is a little sore tomorrow from doing different variations of the fire hydrant move), but I didn’t feel strained in any way or exhausted after I was done. In fact, I felt rejuvenated!

I even feel like this set of DVDs gives us expectant mothers zero excuses for not exercising or staying active. Let’s be honest, we all have a chair in our house. And if we don’t have 3 lb. dumbbells, I bet there’s a couple bottles of water or cans of soup somewhere. Other than that, all we need is 40 minutes. Seriously. Easy.

Anyway, to sum up my experience this morning, I have to say that I’ll definitely be using her DVD’s for the remainder of my pregnancy and would recommend them to any other preggo mama’s out there.

Thanks for the morning, pick-me-up, Tracy!

30 Days of Inspiration

I’ve been trying to write this post for some time now, but struggled to find the right words. I’ve gone into my Google Docs, read what I spent hours writing the day before, and then highlighted and deleted the whole dang thing more than once.

What I want to get across in this post, is what has changed for me over the past 30 days of blogging. No doubt you’ve noticed an uptick in posts - I wrote more in the month of October than the rest of the year combined!

*Confession time* At first, blogging in the beginning of October started out for selfish reasons. Blogging has always been an outlet for me - A way for me to organize my thoughts so I can finally lay them to rest instead of letting them keep me up all night. I was (still have been, if I’m being honest) going through a transitional time in my life where I felt I wasn’t in the right place, but I didn’t know where to move next. I wrote some about this in a post earlier this month. 

My goal for the month of October was to write at least twice a week about the things I was going through. As I was re-reading my posts for the month, I realized that most of it has to do with staying healthy and active during my second pregnancy. For those of you who know me, you know that I love running and staying active and healthy through my entire life is a high priority for me.

So, it really got me thinking… Are there other women out there going through the same struggles? The struggles of somehow making an active and healthy lifestyle a priority all while balancing family, work, and faith? Maybe I’m not alone. Maybe some of the stuff I’ve been writing about are things other women are thinking about, too. 

In light of this, I’ve taken the past week off of writing, and started really digging into what it would take to bring my blog to the next level. How can I share with other ladies what I’m learning right now? Not just workouts and recipes to stay fit (especially while being pregnant), but how to live an overall healthy lifestyle and keep everything balanced at the same time.

Because of this thought process, I’ve officially spent a few bucks and bought my own domain: FitandFreshLife.com. It’s going to be my new blog home as soon as I can get the design finished, and I COULD NOT be more excited!!

After taking the past 30 days to write, write, write, thinking it was all just making me feel better, I realized that sharing any info I find can help someone else, too. And that’s a much better goal for me than just spurting my ramblings out online. Over this past month I realized that a better calling for me is to blog to help others, and that’s what I intend to do with my new site. 

It’s been a crazy month of ups and downs, and it was definitely difficult to get my posts done at times, but I really feel that God is tugging on my heart strings to write and share for the benefit of others. Yes, my own personal musings will still show up every now and then (lucky you! ;) ), but us busy moms have to stick together if we’re going to make healthy living a priority for ourselves and our children!