One Mama Gets Fit

I'm trying to remember how I presented myself an additional 121 pounds ago. Like out in stores or meeting up with new people. Did I hold my head up or was I slouched down? Did I present myself in a way that people could come up to me and talk? Lately, I've been noticing that more people notice me. Not trying to sound prideful.  I hope it doesn't come across that way. But, more people smile at me and offer to help me (this could also be the amazing way Kenyans help out a mama with 2 young ones) and just generally look my direction. I can't help but wonder if it has to do with the fact that I'm healthier now. Do we judge people that are overweight and don't come up to them to talk or would we not offer to help them out in the store and instead go over to the person who looks more in shape? I think that we do.  I don't think it's done on purpose but I do think it happens. It's so sad. I also think that when I was carrying around al...

OH MY LANTA! My doctor called me an athlete today.  (She should be knighted.) She also said I had strong abdominal muscles and arm muscles (heck yes, she felt 'em!). After doing a pretty complete physical, she said I was healthy and strong. OH MY LANTA!! (Insert sobs here) Never in my life have I had someone in the medical field tell me that.  Do you know how AWESOME that feels? I've always been told the complete opposite. All this hard work pays off. Saying no to the junk pays off. Running 4-6 miles 6 days a week pays off. Lifting weights pays off. Holding that darn plank pays off. HIIT circuit after HIIT circuit pays off. This is a sweet moment in life that I'm at right now. I love that I'm HEALTHY. Now, to be honest, I still have 11 more pounds to go to be in the healthy range for my BMI…but she wasn't worried that I would get there soon…and I'm not worried either.  I'll get there this summer for sure! But, I'M HEALTH...

Oh. my. goodness. These honey-lime sweet potato, black bean, & corn tacos were DELISH. We ate it up so fast that I forgot to even take a picture of how lovely it was. Please, please, please make these.  So good. A couple changes we did though: We put the mixture of the potatoes, beans, & corn on a bed of lettuce (1 cup).   I decreased the amount of honey it calls for from 3 TBSP to 1 TBSP and it was still plenty sweet.  I think next time I might omit it altogether b/c the sweet potatoes are well…already sweet.   For the toppings, we skipped the cheese and topped with 1 TBSP homemade guacamole and 1 TBSP homemade salsa.   It was a quick meal too to make.  Bonus for busy nights.   For those of you that count calories…it was a bit over 300 calories (around 310) for 1 heaping cup of the bean/potato/corn mixture (actually 1 1/6 cups) plus 2 cups of lettuce and 2 TBSP of each homemade guacamole and salsa.  To make it feel li...

Or…how many times does it take for children to like vegetables or like new foods? Answer to both: MANY. Andrew loves cars, trains, planes, helicopters…anything that moves.  He knows that in order for those things to move they have to have fuel. We've taken that concept and talk with him about how we need good fuel too for our bodies in order to move and play all day.  We talk about how multiple times in the day we stop to "fuel" up our bodies (B, L, D, and a snack).  From there, we talk about what might be some good things we can fuel our body with and what might not be the best choices. He's doing great with this line of thinking.  Today in the store he pointed out cereal and told me "mama, this has lots and lots of sugar - this isn't a good way to fuel your body."  I then asked him to point out something that was a great way to fuel our body and he looked in our trolley and pointed to the spinach. He's getting it.  He generally knows what...

Butternut Squash Soup. Yum. Not too much to this post except that we have had this soup every week as part of our dinners for the last 3 weeks.  (Find it HERE .) Tonight we paired it with some sautéed zucchini and carrots. Make it.  You'll be happy you did. If you have a soup recipe (meatless) too that you love…let me know!

The way I started to focus on a healthier lifestyle was through trying to clean up my eating first. I lowered the amount of cokes I was drinking and then lowered how many chips (french fries) I was eating. SLOWLY (and I emphasis that word) I made changes to a healthier lifestyle. I started to purchase more fresh produce for the house….instead of chocolate. Things like that. Nothing was done overnight.  I don't think that would have worked for me at all.  It's just not my personality. My friend/trainer/nutritionist, Stephanie, taught me a ton about nutrition.  I read everything she sent to me on eating clean. It all just clicked with me. Then I watched a couple nutrition/food documentaries and those educated me as well. After watching "Fed Up" our family cut out sugar.  That was one that was almost an overnight thing…a couple items took longer..but for the most part after watching the documentary, we went through our house and cleaned up our eating e...

"It's from overuse.  You need to rest your foot." Two different doctors told me this statement after examining my foot - all swollen and bruised.  Tendonitis.  All you can do is rest it and ice it, ibuprofen, wrap it, etc, etc. Never in my life has someone told me I need to rest from certain exercises from overuse. It's always been the complete opposite - "you could do more exercise"! In a way, it's kind of a compliment - means that I've been moving in the right direction and working hard. And…also…I'll be honest it just plain stinks. I've cried.  And cried.  And cried again.  (thank you to some sweet friends that have listened to me as I have cried!) It's hard resting and not running (trying to avoid high impact exercises). Where is my outlet? Exercise has been my healthy outlet for all things this past year.  Not to mention my alone time, my prayer time, and numerous other things. With prepping to leave for the State...