mamavation: setting wellness goals & talkin' music.

so on monday i started a six week "fitness challenge" with my three sisters, my mom, & my nephew.  we're all putting in $25 & the winner takes home the pot.  we even have a facebook page to post our goals, update our progress & keep tabs on each other.  here's how it works:

• we all set five goals.  three of them are similar {#1: work out goal, #2: nutrition goal, #3: water intake goal} & two of them are personal.  here are my goals:

• each goal is worth a point, you can earn 5 points a day.  at the end of six weeks, whoever has the most points walks away with the $150 pot.  

these are some pretty hardcore goals.  i don't plan on working out 6x a week for the rest of my life, but for the next six weeks i'm sure gonna try.  same with the sweets.  and going to bed by midnight every night?  yeah right.  but doing little challenges like this keeps life interesting & keeps me motivated to push myself that much harder.

and who knows, by the end i may even like push ups.

yup.  i did my 30 push ups today outside on the back deck.  i'm 5/5 so far three days & counting!  i'm gonna win dem monies.

and one more thing that motivates me?

music.  BIG TIME.  i may be dragging all day long & the second i turn on my workout playlist i get antsy to get outside & hit the pavement.  i'm convinced i have some of the best songs to run to ever.  EVER.  wanna talk running songs?  hit up my facebook page & let's swap.

i've even increased my pace significantly by a little music-inspired trick.  i jog the verses & then sprint the choruses.  then when the chorus is over, it's back to an easy jog for recovery.  and?  i don't let myself check how far i've run on my gps during a song... only at the end.  that way i'm only looking every five minutes or so & the miles just roll on by.

so what motivates you?  what "games" do you play with yourself on your runs or during your workouts?  what goals have you set for yourself & what do you do as a reward for achieving them?

i'd love to hear it all.

{linking up with the domestic wannabe's "move it monday"}

click to vote.  now step away from the computer & get moving!

mama-vation: what works for me.

i had no idea how hard it would be to resume "normal" life after having a baby.  before parker was born working out had always been a HUGE part of my life.  i even had TWO gym memberships.  one gym had awesome classes that i loved {anyone out there take Les Mills classes?  ahh, my FAVE} & the other had great equipment & a pool.  those were the days.

anywho, post-baby i found it real hard to get to the gym.  one of the gyms i belonged to didn't have daycare so i'd have to go while sam was around & when he would finally get home for the day, the last thing i wanted to do was run out the door to a spin class.  then the other gym did have daycare but it was 20 minutes away & i hated leaving my new baby in there with 30 other kids & two strangers to watch over him.  nothing was working & i was a very frustrated {out of shape} mama.

long crazy boring story short, when parker was about five months old i stumbled upon Stroller Strides.  now parker & i get to be outside together enjoying an instructed workout with classes six days a week with other moms & babies alongside.  we've met so many awesome moms through Stroller Strides & i feel like i'm back to my pre-baby workout-aholic self.

it is so easy to get up & get out the door when you know you're gonna get to see all your friends, all your kid's friends, & then hang out around the playground in the sun afterward.  i have said this so many times... every mom should do Stroller Strides.

the other day a photographer came & took some shots of us working out for the owner to use in her advertising.  and they make me happy.

doing a plank with arm raises... no big deal.

talking to my friend lindsey.  do you look this happy when you're working out?  you totally should.

it's fun for the kids too.  they get used to sitting in the stroller for an hour, i swear.  and sure there are days when they cry & fuss, but we're all moms & we don't mind.  it's awesome.  and afterwards, they get to get out & run around with other kids.  win-win.

why wouldn't you want a built in playdate 4-6x a week?

that's my leg.

if this sounds like a commercial, it's not.  i'm not getting anything for this.  i'm just extremely happy to have found something that keeps me motivated & in shape.  and that gets me out of the house {almost} everyday!  it's seriously a huge part of my life.

so there you have it.  my mama-vational schpeal for the day.  i kinda wanna do more fitness & health type posts from time to time since it's a pretty big deal to me.  is there anything you guys would be interested in hearing or seeing on the blog?  how have you managed to fit workouts into your post-baby life?  what works for you or what isn't working for you?

let me know.

and maybe spare a click or two?  then drop & give me twenty.  do it.

weekday recap - {in iPhone pics} w.17

{so i'm pretty excited about this week's weekday recap.  why?  well, if you hadn't noticed in previous weeks my pictures sometimes sucked.  yeah... super fuzzy & blurry.  my iphone camera was pretty scratched up, but i got it fixed on tuesday.  YAY!}

the sun came out on monday which was amazing.  an outdoors run in the sun in march in the pnw?  definitely qualifies as amazing. my spring fever got about 15x worse.

we also discovered parker likes puzzles & watching tv while sprawled across sam's lap.  silly boy.

tuesday is the day everything changed.  we hit up the apple store & they fixed my scratched up camera lens for free... no more blurry phone pics!! huzzah!  i got a pink iphone case to prevent repeat damage & sam & parker celebrated by practicing some wrestling moves before bed.

everyone was pretty excited.

i slipped on my new toms {love!} & headed downtown for some errands & grocery shopping.

also?  i kicked off my new "clean eating" goal {a post on this to come} by treating myself to a shiny new klean kanteen so i can up the water intake.  fyi, i wanted one in every color but went with dark blue.  i may or may not go back for a purple one.  or a green one.  or a yellow one.  i may or may not have many klean kanteens in the near future.

i couldn't stop kissing p-ray's little cheeks after work on thursday.  i swear he is growing up so fast, & in just the eight hours of my work day, i felt like i was picking up a little boy rather than the baby i had dropped off at the sitter's.  who is this kid??

and parker's kinda obsessed with story time.  it's definitely one of our family's favorite parts of the day.

parker had a bit of a rough morning... and by rough i mean he was up by 7:00am & super cranky.  so actually, it was me who had a rough morning.  we still made it out to stroller strides where i did a 6 minute 45 second wall sit.  no big deal.

friday night our homies ryan & christie came into town.  yes, these friends again.  we must be awesome hosts because christie slept from about nine to midnight, then went to bed.  we are that cool.

did you take your "week in camera phone" pictures? 

there's only one rule to linking up... your pictures have to be taken by your camera phone. that's it!  you don't even have to have a picture for every day.  got one camera phone pic of something fun from this week?  link up!

grab the code below & put it in your post to have the linky with all the thumbnails show up on your blog .  and if you wanna be really cool, post a link to my blog so others can come here to grab the code, too.  the more kids who come out to play, the more fun it will be, right?

grab the code here:

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hawaii. worth giving up cookies for?

 ***my face is superimposed via photoshop.  if you couldn't tell, i laugh at you. and i think we should be best friends.***

i am officially counting down to our maui trip in t minus two & a half months, & part of this countdown includes thinking about how i should be watching what i eat a bit more.  a swimsuit in january doesn't bode well with my usual holiday gluttony.

these thoughts include stuff like, "ya know, maybe i shouldn't make four-dozen cookies for the third time in two weeks"  or, "late night DQ blizzard run?  we should probably go on a late night fruit-stand run instead."  i think about it, & then i laugh at how ridiculous i sound.  because who wants fruit when you can have an oreo cookie jar blizzard?  and who wants to eat healthy around the holidays?

i have been doing pretty good with the work outs.  stroller strides is getting me out of the house & making me sweat three times a week, & i'm liking it.  but when i come home & throw down a couple chocolate-chip pumpkin cookies, i may as well of been sitting on the couch eating bon-bons the whole time.

and when i say a couple, i mean, a-couple-every-time-i-walk-into-the-kitchen.

now here's my problem.  i don't want to stop eating this crap.  i like eating junk.  i love baking seasonal goodies, & i love going to get ice cream with my family.  it's fun.  i know that my work outs cancel out some of it, but seriously?  i don't want to put sam & myself on the fast track to diabetes.  i need to be healthier.  i need to set a precedence that will not lead parker into a life of childhood obesity.

so.  i'm a gonna be better.  i have got to break this sugar addiction, & i've got to do it for the right reasons.  my motto in life has always been, "everything in moderation.  including moderation."  i've gotta return to this.  sure, ice cream on the weekend should be fine.  because? a lifetime without ice cream isn't a life i want to live.  but ice cream on friday, ice cream & birthday cake saturday afternoon, a batch of cookies saturday night, repeat on sunday... isn't good.

i resolve to limit myself to one cookie after a meal, & indulge in a real dessert one day on the weekend.  starting.  right.  now.  

and bonus?  maybe i'll look alright in a swimsuit come january.  and maybe i won't have to superimpose my head onto girls with better bodies than me.  maybe.

this has been no-mom-talk-monday.  hit the badge & link up at "live beautiful" with your post that leaves the kiddie-talk out.  moms are people too!



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