Get Geared UP!

Lets get geared up for the new year!  This is a perfect time to make a plan and organize your calendar.  This year add health and fitness to your priorities!  Decide on your goals for the year.  Make commitments that can get you there.  Choose your fitness routine, your diet, it's your healthy life!  
The first Step is to look.  Don't just leap, make a plan.  Choose your goals, write them down, then break them into smaller steps.  Baby steps eventually become a full run!  Make workout dates with yourself and your friends and write them into your calendar.  Make weekly meal plans.  Commit to Change.  Small changes lead to big success!
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Ready? Set? GOOOOOO!

Living Well, Responsibly: A Mom's Journey Towards Fitness

Living Well, Responsibly: A Mom's Journey Towards Fitness: "A Mom's Journey Towards FitnessThis is a blog written be my upline coach, Tina. She went to the recent Beachbody Game Plan Event. What str..."

Go Local!

Yesterday, I gave my Beachbody business card to Wynant's Family Health Food, (South A Street, Springfield, OR).  In return one of the cashiers gave me two hand made hair-clips for my daughter.  She makes them herself as her own side business.  If you live around here you should go by and check them out.  Oh, and I buy most of my organic produce, Bob's Red Mill products, Wilcox Eggs, Noris Organic Milk, Nancy's Yogurt, Cliff Builder's Bars, Spiru-tein, and vitamins there.  They are always very nice and very helpful.  There's a butcher shop just down the street if you want some free range beef too.
Buying local, and organic, supports your local economy and personal nutrition.  Get to know your local businesses and farmers, for the best products in your community.
Our Ducks are playing Our Beavers today, CIVIL WAR!
GO DUCKS!

Review: Shakeology and Spiru-tein

I just compared the Nutrition Labels of Shakeology (chocolate) and Spiru-tein (chocolate).....Spiru-tein is much cheaper per serving, uses non GMO soy along with rice and pea protein, and provides essential nutrients lacking in Shakeology, notably Niacin, Biotin, and Vitamins D and E.  However, Shakeology offers a much more diverse collection of nutrients, notably Vitamins C, B1, B2, B3, B6 and B12, as well as a variety of super-foods.  As ingredients go I'd say that Shakeology wins out with huge array of plant based nutrients, apparently no soy, and added probiotics.  Spiru-tein has a much lower cost and provides great nutrition, importantly many not in Shakeology.
There is a lot of overlap, they both provide quality nutrition with protein, and a wealth of nutrients that most meal replacement drinks can't match.  They both taste great!
In the end, I recommend including them both as quick, easy, quality, calories.  Fast food for the health-nut.  Ideally we would all have time and money to buy and prepare only raw organic meals.  We can try, but these supplements make it easier to be healthy.
I also recommend investing in a high quality juicer.
You can get Shakeology through me or your Beachbody Coach, and Spiru-tien from your local natural health food store ( around here: Wynant's, Friendly Street Market, and probably available at Capella's and Sundance)

Holiday Season Struggles

Thanksgiving went swimmingly, we ate right and exercised.  Black Friday, on the other hand, went horribly wrong.  Got up, so proud about the previous day, only feeling a need for fiber and coffee. I think I went wrong by spending too much time playing with my new laptop, and not enough time doing my daily exercise or resetting my kitchen(I still haven't done a dish since before thanksgiving dinner).  I had Kashi Go Lean Crunch with milk for breakfast, then when lunchtime rolled around my daughter pried me from the computer and I had a peanut butter and jelly sandwich on multi-grain bread.-Today I finally read that two tablespoons of peanut better have about 25% daily value of fat.  Sure, I did get some things done yesterday, the goal was to do as little as possible, taking a rest day as a reward for doing so well on Thanksgiving.  Shortly after lunch we went on a mission to get new drapes, by the time we had finished at Home Depot, we were absolutely starving.  I'm not gonna tell you what we ate, because it was bad, but it could have been worse and my body insisted that it needed everything I gave it- and I didn't have any soda.  
Right now, before my toddler wakes up, I think I need to get yeserdays scheduled workout in.  All isn't lost.  Nobody is perfect, especially not me. Here's do doing my best and forgetting the rest!

Thanksgiving Success!

Yesterday was Thanksgiving Day!  There is no better holiday, in my mind, than one where the only goal is to get together and have a nice meal.  Generally Thanksgiving is the one day every year when 'no one diets', but we are doing P90X.  We have spent the last month giving our best to adapt our lifestyle to our diet.  -I consider the word 'diet' a little misused, as it simply means 'what is eaten regularly', and everybody eats regularly.-  Vegetarians usually don't eat meat just because it is a 'special day', why should we eat what we know is bad for us?  I planned our meal, and my day, according to what I know to be good nutrition.
The goal was something simple with low fat, low sodium, high protein, and high fiber.  The 'recipes' I used included no butter, no cream/or whole milk, no condensed soups, and added vegetables wherever they fit.
Here's what we had:

• Turkey- 'Foster Farms Natural', stuffed with big chunks of carrots, celery and onion, and roasted in a roasting bag, breast down.
• Mashed Potatoes and Carrots- four organic carrots, four potatoes, and half a red onion, chopped and boiled, then mashed with low sodium, free range, organic chicken broth.
• Green Beans- farmers market to my freezer in October, lightly steamed with dried cranberries, and garnished with almond flakes.
• Gravy- red and white onions sautéed with garlic and mushrooms in just a little oil, added chicken broth to avoid scorching.  I then pureed this with a tablespoon of my mashed potatoes and added it to a few cups of turkey drippings.  I added parsley, sage, rosemary, thyme, and a little salt and pepper, then stirred and heated to boiling.  It was probably the most complicated and least nutritious part of our meal, but was still healthier than the pan gravy I usually make.

It was all experimental but I told my family they could add salt and butter if they wanted, and I don't think anyone did.  Everything got great reviews, and everyone got stuffed with a healthy meal :)  My husband actually thought we were 'cheating' on our diet.  After dinner everyone but me had some Umpqua Chocolate Peanut Butter Ice-cream.
When my husband had left for work and everyone else had gone home I had a big cup of 'Candy Cane Lane'(Celestial Seasonings) Tea, then did the Plyometrics workout that I had intended to do that morning.  My $12 heart rate monitor said I burned about 1000 calories in that workout.  A perfect end to a great day!  I planned our meal and my day according to the fitness program I've been working so hard to stick to and I succeeded!
Maybe next year I can go with more organics and raw foods.

Catch the Wave!