One Mama Gets Fit

Tomorrow begins my 36th year of life. My 35th year of life has been nothing short of amazing. One year ago on my birthday, my husband and I sat at our favorite little sushi and Korean restaurant in Nairobi and we together declared this year as the "year of me". Ha. Sounds a bit narcissistic, eh? Selfish? At first I was like…this is silly. But it wasn't. Not even in the slightest. In my 35th year of life, I decided it was time to take care of me and learn how to be healthy. I am beyond thankful for my husband who has supported EVERY SINGLE DAY of this past year.  He has encouraged me beyond measure.  Only uplifting and positive words have come from his mouth this entire year.  He pushes me.  Motivates me.  Challenges me.  Tells me how proud he is of me and how much he loves me. I am blessed. Learning about nutrition and how to properly fuel my body has been life-giving.  I am forever indebted to Stephanie Martin (check out her ne...

well, first.  sweet 2 months later I'm writing.  eek.  i would have thought i would have more time to write stateside.  hmm.  not so much.  oh well.  it's probably just as well too - means i'm spending great time catching up with folks.  and well, that is just lovely. 2.5 months ago my sister mentioned doing the indianapolis women's half or 5k with her and mom.  i didn't think we would be in the city at the time so i declined.  plus, i was just getting over a stress fracture in my foot and didn't really want to press my luck running. but, over the past 2.5 months my foot has felt better and better and my running outside has increased. i decided i could do a thanksgiving day race with them and my husband and also a race in december.  actually, there's a race in december that kyle has wanted to run that's a half but i have been a bit sheepish about doing that distance so i've been settling to do the 5k of it. a half just seeme...

I like to keep things light and happy on social media. I ask for prayer requests time to time. But, most of all, I like to use social media as a way to brighten someone's day with a smile or chuckle. Light.  Happy. "How is it coming back?" Most popular question that we have been asked - by far. Overall, great.  We are enjoying being with family and starting to see friends that we haven't seen in a couple of years. Reunions are sweet. This is where things may not be so light or happy. I've been heartbroken upon returning to the States. There is a serious problem here in the States with obesity. I speak from love.  I have been overweight or obese almost my entire life.  I know what it's like. And, even now, I am still considered overweight in the BMI chart by a couple of pounds. I see it with fresh eyes. Fresh eyes of not being here for almost 3 years. Fresh eyes of changing my lifestyle completely to desiring it become healthy and ...

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...