Garmin Forerunner 225 Review

I have been waiting to write a review for my new favorite toy for about 3 weeks now. I wanted to really break it in and live in it......... and do some troubleshooting before reviewing it. 

I had been wanting an activity tracker for sometime...something about carrying my phone during an entire 10 mile run makes you wish for something that is handsfree. 

I spent a lot of time talking to others, looking at others trackers and in the store. I finally went for the Garmin Forerunner 225 after I was given a coupon for 20% off at Lukes Locker for a tracker. I went for the Garmin 225 for several reasons. 

1-Its the newest of the forerunners, therefore more updates and a sleeker design.

2-It has a hinged wristband, where most other trackers are all one unit and that can cause wear down as you constantly bend it. 

3-It is so stinking easy to use, 4 buttons total and with one push I can start, pause and save a run. 

4-Garmin is known to be the 2nd best GPS system in the world, only behind the company that the US military uses. 

A Saturday run with some loops around a lake!

A Saturday run with 3 other ladies!

5-It syncs with my phone so gone are the days of having to input my workouts and letting my phone guess how many calories I had burned. It even syncs with MyFitnessPal, which is the calorie counter app I use and therefore I know how many calories a day I need to consume to maintain, lose or pack on weight. ITS WONDERFUL!!

6-It tracks my steps and if I don't move for more than 15 minutes it tells me to MOVE!! Most of the time I like this feature but I think its quite annoying that the minute I sit down to use the potty it BEEPS!!!!

I really try to hit my goal every day. My goal changes every day and is set by the Garmin based on my stats. A normal day for me is 15-18,000 steps. That includes a 5-7 mile run and a full day at work, circling students as they work...offering advice and grabbing supplies. Art is one of the most active subjects as its a constant lab!!! CREATIVE CHAOS!!

7-It tracks my sleep, .........deep and light sleep. I am always surprised to see that I only get 3-4 hours of deep sleep and the rest is pretty light and interrupted. 

Ha, this was on a Tuesday night after being awake since 3:40 (i drive to a friends house about 10 minutes away so I have to wake earlier on Tuesdays), a six mile run and a LLOONNGG day at school......Yup, out at 7:28 and back up at 4:10 to do it all over again.

8-The absolute best feature though is the blue tooth connection which allows me to read any incoming text messages or emails from the front face of the watch. I am always worried that Adam will need me during one of my longer runs and I wouldn't know without carrying my phone. This shows me who is messaging me and the first line of the message. I can choose to scroll and read the rest or ignore it. This also helps with my running group. If someone opts out due to a sick kid or bad weather I get it on my watch and I can go ahead and start my run. 

As great as the forerunner is there is one thing that annoys me. I recharge it probably 1 or 2 nights a week during dinner or when I am sitting down to watch TV. After I do that I have to restart the watch in order to get back all of my activity tracking. It doesn't loose my history but its just one thing I have to remember to do or else it will forget to track my sleep or steps the next day. 

I also waited to review the forerunner until I could compare it against my treadmill. They are up front with letting you know that the GPS isn't 100% accurate indoors and most of the time when I am running on the treadmill its because of bad weather which also affects GPS. So the last two times I have run on the treadmill there has been about .4 miles of a difference...Almost 1/2 a mile...even though it counts every step (hmmm?). I trust the treadmill more on those days because I like to do interval training..meaning I run for a steady pace for 3 minutes, then bust it for 2....repeat again and again until I hit 5 miles...that is probably hard to keep up with for the Garmin as I am indoors. 

The forerunner is waterproof up to 2 feet, keeps a history of my personal records and maps my runs so I can repeat them. All in all its a great watch/fitness tracker and I love that it syncs perfectly with my iPhone 6. 

Fitness Wednesday-Cheat Days

I had to share this article I recently read as it matches my personal philosophy for "cheat days". 

I tend to sprinkle in treats every other day....and treats being dark chocolate covered raisins, low fat no-sugar added frozen yogurt from Braums and Cinnamon Bread. I will choose one of them and save enough calories over the day to have it as my dessert and I SAVOR EVERY MOMENT OF IT. I won't even start to eat my treat until all 3 kiddos are down for the night and I am sitting in front of the television watching a cooking show. 

I also agree that anytime I have overdone it, even with healthy food, I pay for it the next day...thats why serving size matters and taking your time to eat so that you feel full is also important. Anyways, here is the article which articulates this philosophy a thousand times better than I ever could. 

The Argument for Cheat Days: Rewarding Yourself
Some say that giving yourself days of indulgence is giving yourself a needed break from your diet. These cheat days are a relief valve that help you stick to healthier foods.
The philosophy behind this basically goes something like this: Healthy eating requires some willpower—willpower you’ve used to keep yourself from forbidden foods—so to reward your constraint, it helps to have one scheduled day (or meal) per week where you’re allowed to eat some of the treats you’ve been avoiding. When you give yourself a window to enjoy these off-limit foods, it’ll satisfy your cravings, replenish your depleted willpower, and, some studies suggest, even increase your production of the hunger-dampening hormone leptin while boosting metabolism.
The Argument Against Cheat Days
So cheat days sound like a good thing, right? Not so fast. The the logic behind these days has more than a few flaws, and it’s due to the psychology and physiology behind them.
The Name Is to Blame
The trouble with cheat days starts with the wording.
“The very phrase ‘cheat day’ sets up enjoying a meal as something forbidden,” says Sondra Kronberg, R.D., executive director of the Eating Disorder Treatment Collaborative. “Separating foods into ‘good’ and ‘bad’ categories encourages you to associate eating with guilt and shame.” This means that instead of enjoying everything we eat, we feel bad about ourselves when we eat something we consider “bad.”
What’s more, when we deem certain foods “bad” or “cheating,” the negative name doesn’t help us pump the breaks.
“When a food is off-limits, it can develop a specific, emotional charge,” explains Melainie Rogers, RD, a nutritionist and eating disorder specialist. “You begin obsessing over it, fantasizing about, and looking forward to that ‘indulge day’ all week. Then, when you finally have access to it, you overeat.”
On the flipside, labeling foods as “good” or “healthy” can also backfire. Science shows when we think something is healthy, we’re not concerned with portion control and thus overdo it—whether it’s a “normal” day or a “cheat” day. Yes, there can be too much of a good thing.
Along these same lines, thinking of a meal or snack as “healthy” can have a surprising affect on our hunger. Studies show merely considering items we put in our mouth as “healthy” can literally make us feel hungrier—especially if we select a “good-for-you” item out of obligation over something we’re truly hungry for.
Attack of the Calories
Folks who assume they can compensate for giving into temptations—say, by holding themselves back on all days except their cheat days—are actually less likely to reach their dietary goals. This is because they’re more likely to consume a greater number of calories, not just on their cheat day but on the days following it.
Restricting ourselves throughout the week and then slamming our bodies with sugar and fat once our cheat day rolls around, can have “a massive impact on blood sugar and insulin levels,” Rogers says. “You’ll wake up the next day craving more sugars and simple carbs, and you’ll find yourself feeling pretty ragged. And if you repeatedly increase your caloric intake above baseline, you may inadvertently end up gaining more weight over time.”
Cravings serve as a sign that your nutritional approach isn’t sound. “Most cravings come from overly restricting your food intake, using food as a drug, or over exercising,” Kronberg says.
Binging Leads to Extra Cheat Days
There’s a very fine line between a cheat day and a free-fall into food binging, especially if you’re, “white-knuckling it during those other six days of sticking out a meal plan you don’t particularly like,” says Ryan Andrews, R.D., author of Drop The Fat Act and Live Lean and coach with Precision Nutrition. Once that day of indulgence comes, it’s not about enjoying the foods you haven’t had all week. Instead, you’re approaching it out of a need to consume all you can before the day goes away. “It feeds into a feast-and-famine cycle,” Andrews says.
We can thank our biology for cheat days turning into these all-out food fests. We’re wired to chase down food when we’re caught in the feast-and-famine cycle. “People will eat beyond satiety when they’re coming from a fear of scarcity,” Rogers explains.
Binging on a cheat day also makes it challenging to confine cheat-day foods only to that designated 24-hour window. “It’s very hard for people to compartmentalize their diets,” Rogers says. “‘I’m only going to have those cookies on Saturday’ can easily spill over into ‘I’ll only have a few cookies Sunday too.'”
The Solution: Stop Restricting, Start Enjoying—in Moderation
So if cheat days don’t work, are we all better off eating whatever we want, whenever we want?
Well, not quite, says Corby K. Martin, Ph.D., a clinical psychologist and food intake researcher at Pennington Biomedical Research Center. “Following a healthy diet means including a number of foods—all of which are consumed in moderation,” he says. “If weight loss is the goal, this usually means three square meals a day with planned snacks, incorporating treats but in smaller portion sizes.”
Research suggests eating a balance of foods—with none of them off-limits or labeled “bad”—is the best way to reduce the kinds of cravings that can lead to a binge.
During the first week of a new diet, most people experience an increase in hankerings for coveted foods, but when people stick to a balanced weight loss diet, the tendency to occasionally overeat actually goes down over time, Martin says.
So what does a game plan for a healthy eating with no cheat days look like? Remember these three things:
1. Listen to your appetite.
“If you want to eat spaghetti and meatballs for dinner, have it!” Andrews says. “Don’t find the low-carb version with the fat-free sauce. If you actually eat what you want, you’ll likely end up eating a more reasonable amount of it.” Eating in tune with your hunger is a principle of intuitive eating, and it’s shown to have a positive effect on both your weight and your wellbeing.
2. Enjoy treats from time to time.
Research shows (and experts agree) that sprinkling reasonably sized desserts or treats into your daily diet encourages you to find pleasure in meal time again—and that pleasure will help ensure you don’t feel the need to go overboard.
So instead of confining your treats to one single day, drop them into places throughout the week. For example, enjoy: “a cookie or a few pieces of chocolate after dinner on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays,” Rogers says.
3. Savor every bite.
Once you place any item of food into your mouth, take a moment to: “taste, smell, and experience it as a whole,” Rogers says. “When you take the time to be mindful about what you’re eating, you tap into your satiety cues.”
The Takeaway
Forget about designating a cheat day to reward yourself. Denying yourself most of the week and then indulging like crazy on your one day “off,” just promotes guilt, anxiety, and shame around eating—which means you won’t likely get to the health outcome you’re looking for. Instead, make every day a great day by listening to your appetite, periodically adding in some of your favorite foods in small portions, and savoring each and every bite of everything you eat. This sustainable approach will help you think of all of your eating as enjoyable, and that’s what gets you down the road to where you want to be.

Fitness Friday-Monday Edition :)

As usual, I am behind on blogging. I honestly would rather take naps though on the weekends than catch up on the blog, especially now that I am training for a 20k, 1/2 marathon and full marathon. Saturdays are my long run days and therefore a nap on Sunday after church is a MUST. Saturday naps hardly ever happen as we spend our Saturdays at birthday parties, sporting events, church events or cleaning up the house....but Sunday, oh glorious Sunday....weight day, church, lunch, NAP, dinner, tv time, BEDTIME....love it!!

So my next tip for staying fit is having a routine....with both exercise and your diet. Routines are proven to be the desired form of educating students because they know what is expected of them. Routines are what defines us as families...routines for holidays, birthdays, bedtimes all give us a sense of belonging. Routines give us peace, can help us make decisions easier and keep us from making rash decisions.

My SCHOOL YEAR exercise routine is the same every week so that I know what nutrition I will need to recover, what I can and can't accomplish during the time I have to exercise and if and when I need to add in a recovery day.

School Year Work Out routine (which differs heavily from my summer routine)

Sundays-Weight Circuits with my girls at 6:00 (5 rounds of circuits that we perform 3 times each). They focus on legs, arms, core and back. There are 3 of us that meet on Sundays and we take turns writing the circuits. This is important because I will avoid burpees all day long...but one of my girlfriends adds them into all of her routines!!!! I love lunges but another girl HATES them...this way we all keep from doing the same routines and really challenge our bodies.

Bar Squats ...HURT SO GOOD :).

Mondays-4:45 am. A 5 mile run around Colleyville with my girls. There are 5 of us that run this route. It takes us through several nearby subdivisions and across several big highways that are dead at 5:00 in the morning. This run has a 4 mile cut off so if we are tired we can always stop short of our goal of 5 miles. We have met the newspaper man many times on this route and I jump every time he approaches us slowly and hurdles the paper out of his window. Geesh.

Colleyville Run...including a run right past Braums...good thing they are closed that early in the morning :).

Tuesday-4:45 am. A 5 mile run down the Cotttonbelt trail that has some hills and wide sidewalks so we can run side by side. Us ladies like to talk ...ALOT...which is how the time FLIES by!!! This trail runs all through the mid cities and we start at my friends house in Hurst and run to the watertower in Colleyville and turn around. This one also has a cut off at 4 miles so that some of us can adjust for time or soreness. This trail is usually busy with bikes this early in the morning and they are normally wearing bright lights...it reminds me of the twilight zone every time. This trail also has llamas and lots of bridges!

Straight down to the water tower and back. If we want  to go the full 5 we head back down Glade and turn around when the sidewalks ends :).

Wednesday-Off day for my running group but DANCE NIGHT for my Zumba group (mainly teachers from school)!!!! My groupon just expired for Zumba and since I hate to pay for exercise I have started walking on my treadmill while I read every Wednesday morning at 5. So far I have read "Shepherding a Child's Heart" and "Thank you for Arguing" and I started a murder mystery last week. I normally walk for an hour, at a low incline....just enough to get some movement but still give my body a rest day.

We all showed up to Zumba in our pink and black!!!

Thursday-4:45 am. Stairs and Weights circuit at our school. We have 2 flights of stairs at school so we have 6 circuits we work through 3 times each. (ex. Run 3 flights of stairs, 15 tricep dips, 30 standing russian twist with weights). Each circuit has you doing something different on the stairs...like running them with high knees, jumping up them with both feet, skipping every other, bear crawling up them, etc.) There are 5 of us that come on these days and we all take turns writing these circuits too. If one of us needs to skip stairs then we run sprints in the gym instead...THE KEY IS GETTING YOUR HEART RATE UP!

Friday 4:30 am. 6 mile run through the main part of Keller. We meet at our friends house who lives off a main road in Keller and run a heavy hill course and normally through sprinklers..MY FAVORITE. There are normally 4/5 of us that head out there. We start 15 mins earlier to allow for a  longer run and longer travel time. This run always gets me turned around, I couldn't ever do it alone since I have no clue when to turn, they are always yelling at me as I pass the turn and have to circle back :). It is so early though that I can't see a lot of where we are at and I hardly ever stop to look at the street signs...I GOT THINGS TO TALK ABOUT PEOPLE!!

Saturday 6:00 Park Run. We aim for these runs to be fun and exploratory. We pick different parks all over the Metroplex and plan out longer runs. Right now we are building up to our 13.1 race, trying to all get it down under 2 hours. These runs have taught us many life lessons, like EAT before you run more than 5 miles....wear things that don't rub your thighs, armpits and toes....long runs KILL your body sooo much more than short ones. Plus, we run later which means its hotter. This past weekend the weather was PERFECT and I was in such deep conversation with one of my friends that our intended goal of 10 miles turned into 10.5 before we ever thought to check our distance. NOW THAT IS GOOD CONVERSATION. We all feel like we get a double work out as we have to huff and puff up a hill while we talk. That's our story and we are sticking to it!

This park run started and ended at Sparger park. There are wooded trails with BIG HILLS all around Sparger. My sweet friend and I were so deep in conversation that we ran several loops 2 or 3 times :).

This routine has allowed me to run 104.5 miles just in the month of August. I set a PR in August too, running 7 miles in 1 hour and 1 minute. I LOVE IT!!!

As far as routines go with food, I have about 20-25 foods that I KNOW I enjoy and exactly how much I can have to be full. I rotate through these every time I go grocery shopping. As long as I have 3/4 of them at home I am never tempted to eat fast food, or like this past weekend... I said no to Pizza, Cake, Cupcakes and Chips at ALL 3 BIRTHDAY PARTIES... I had my roasted sweet potatoes and apple mixture for dinner already packed in a tupperware and popped a bag of Kettle Corn popcorn to munch on at another party.

These foods include a smoothie every morning, normally full of spinach, a fruit and Advocare Spark. Other foods include dark chocolate raisins from Sprouts Bulk, egg whites, Tropical Fruit Trail Mix from Sams, Rice Cakes with PB2, Bananas, Oatmeal and Grits 100 calorie packets, Edamame, Canned Tuna, Turkey Lunchmeat, Carbmaster Yogurt, Cheerios, Apples and KIND bars. I also eat a lot of Dr. Spreagers Super Green patties, roasted veggies and almonds.

Egg whites on top of roasted cauliflower, asparagus and peppers with Siracha sauce!

Routines also include knowing where I can eat out and exactly what I will order before showing up there! Panera Chicken Strawberry Poppyseed salad with No Fat dressing!

Yummy Dessert, Apples with PB2!

A GOOD GOOD Smoothie!!! Spinach and Spark..then I either add a frozen banana, frozen pineapple, 60 calorie vanilla yogurt or almond milk!!!

Having a routine allows me to feel like I am in control of my health, like I can plan ahead and I am hardly ever in a situation where I can't fit in a workout or eat a healthy, low calorie meal or snack!!

Fitness Friday-serving size

Its a miracle that I am writing a Fitness post and on a Friday...especially as this was our 2nd day back to school. School thus far has been fantastic.

Little Man can't wait to see his teacher each day and even though he has had an accident in nap time both days I think he is loving school. He is exhausted every day and when I asked him what he learned today he said " Jesus died on the cross and my teacher says say Thank You". Good life lessons.

Ribbit has told just about everyone that she is in the 'older kindergarten'...and you know if that is what she says to get through this year of repeating kindergarten then thats fine with us. She did say that she was embarrassed to be the oldest but her big brother reminded her quickly that she will be the first one in her class to drive a car...that cheered her up!

Goober LOOOVVVVEESSS 5th grade. On his first day he ran into my class after school and said " I wish 5th grade could last forever, I love my teachers and I get to do some of my HW on the computer"!!! Today he started violin lessons again...after taking lessons in 2nd grade. He was thrilled to see that a lot of his boy buds are also taking strings this year so life is good as far as he is concerned.

I HAVE AN AWESOME SCHEDULE and am free to eat lunch with all 3 of my kiddos most day..SCORE. I am volunteering to serve hot lunch for Goober's grade every Friday (something normally only stay at home moms get to do) and I have an art class first thing on Friday morning......WHAT? I have never ever taught art until noon at the earliest...I won't know what to do with students who are bright eyed and bushy tailed :).

So now onto Fitness Friday.

One of my biggest changes to my diet was SERVING SIZE. You can think in your head all day long that trail mix is healthy but little do you know that you are eating 4 servings of it in that one bag you bought at the gas station. You can tell yourself that one store bought pre made smoothie is healthy until you realize there are two servings in it and tons of unnecessary sugar.

I also heard that on Weight Watchers most fruits and veggies don't equal any points. I get the point of that with spinach/ onions/ tomatoes and other veggies that aren't too high in calories and/or sugar. BUT fruit should definitely be counted into your calories and/or points for the day. Bananas are very high calorie and berries are very high sugar.

To help measure and portion everything just right I got some tools for the kitchen. First is this measuring cup scale. You can weigh food using grams or ounces. I use this mainly for meats and or seafood. Its super quick and I throw it in the dishwasher afterwards.

Here is a sideview of the measuring cup scale I use. I also keep tons of measuring cups and spoons on hand. I have 3 different kinds of measuring cups and several tbsp and tsp measuring spoons.

I think I have said before that I have about 15-20 low calorie, tasty, high protein, good fiber, low sodium foods that I know I can count on and I cycle through those for my main meals. I do snacks a little differently using my favorite fruits or crackers and just eating smaller servings of them. For my meals though I WILL MEASURE EVERY TIME. I don't care if its the 3500 time I have had a chicken breast that month I will still measure out 4 ounces. I measure any cereal, any coconut milk, trail mixes...basically anything that doesn't come prepackaged as one serving. This has helped me learn what a healthy serving looks like and helps me to continually count my calories. 

Here is one example of logging my calories every day every measuring out food. I had exercised a ton that day..running 5 miles that morning and going to a Zumba class that night. A normal day of exercise though looks like burning around 500 cals. Anyways, you can see my dinner was very lean that day...Tofu noodles, 1/2 cup of peas and carrots and 3/4 cup of Light Alfredo sauce.
If you are worried about my low cal diet just look below it...I ate 462 in snacks ..mainly a protein bar and almonds that day..high PROTEIN AND HIGH CALORIE!!!

Fitness Friday-Summer Recipes

One of my favorite things to do is rethink a high calorie dish into something super tasty but with at least 1/2 of the calories and hopefully with lots of protein!!!

I have also found that by allowing more healthy carbs into my diet I am able to take longer runs and run longer on consecutive days. Joining the running group has allowed me to reduce my mile time by even more but has also made me a hungry beast and sometimes carbs are honestly all that keeps my stomach from constantly growling. I am sure that to everyone else in the world it looks like I am constantly eating..and that is true ..but its 150-250 calories every 2 hours!!

One of my running buddies Lindsey has this thing for carrot cake...and who can blame her??? So I made it my mission to make her a low calorie carrot cake muffin.

Here are the ingredients:

Carrot Cake Muffins:
1 cup shredded carrots
2 tbsp. coconut flour (I included this give the cupcakes a denser texture)
1/4 cup whole wheat flour
1/4 cup white flour
1/4 cup golden raisins
6 tbsp. egg whites
1/4 cup chopped pecans
1 musselmans snack size cinnamon applesauce
1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. baking powder
1/4 cup yogurt chips..found in the Sprouts bulk area--you could probably substitute white chocolate chips too but I liked that these were mini and DELISH!!
LOTS OF CINNAMON
1 package of instant oatmeal-plain
1/4 cup water

Like all professional chefs do I added everything to one big ole bowl and stirred it all together. I then sprayed my tin, put the oven at 350 and cooked them for 19 minutes..weird time I know but I was also cleaning my kitchen since we are having guests over for dinner tonight, refereeing a Wii argument between my boys and getting ready for Zumba with my little diva...19  minutes was perfect for some caramelization on the bottom of the muffins.

THESE ARE SOOO STINKIN GOOD!!! I  ate two when I got home from Zumba and called it lunch. Even my "non cake loving" husband ate one and said "these taste like carrot cake". SCORE!!!



Another favorite meal (115-140 cals (if you leave off cheese its less)) of mine has been mushroom caps as substitutes for hamburger buns!! AND, I can get two of these babies for .99 cents at....you guessed it, the 99 cent store right up the road!!!!

I heat these up a little in a pan with some balsamic vinaigrette, flipping them so that both sides get a little seared. (each cap is around 25-30 cals)

Then I make my "patty" with egg whites and spinach. I have found the best way to make a patty is to put my spinach in a microwaveable bowl and then pour my egg whites over it. I nuke it for 1 to 2 minutes and then it slides right out in a patty shape. (57 cals for 6 tbsp of egg whites and 1 cup of spinach)

I put a wedge of Spicy Pepperjack laughing cow cheese in my mushroom cap and let it melt while cooking the egg white patty. (35 cals)

I topped it all with Pineapple Pico. The mushroom cap is so hearty that this normally fuels me for 3-4 hours. (28 cals for 2 tbsp)

Pineapple Pico Ingredients:
cubed pineapple, cubed tomatoes, cubed jalepeno, cubed onions, cubed red peppers and cilantro

I want to add cucumber to my Pico next time!!!



What are your favorite recipe remakes?

Fitness Friday-CRYO!

This was schedule to go out Friday but thanks to my husband and mom I was out busy celebrating my birthday Thursday night, all day Friday and most of the day Saturday!!!...Better late than never!

First, on my 7 mile AWESOME group run this morning we all started trying to figure out how many more weeks we have until school starts back. Three of us are teachers and I couldn't help but notice that I had the loudest groan when we figured out that my inservice is around 3 weeks away. Can you blame me though when you have had this kind of summer? 

Watching my kiddos play in the sand, chase waves and GET ALONG while I sipped on a banana/mango smoothie and sunbathed...even if all of this lasted only 5 mins?

 And what about all of those yummy summer snacks we have enjoyed on the beach, front porch, trampoline, at the splash park and sitting around our friends pool?

 And who wants to write a syllabus, or grade papers or get dressed up when you can wear comfortable bathing suits and play in the sand all day?

But then again, who would teach the fantastic subjects of ART AND BIBLE to fantastic kiddos, at a school where my faith is allowed and encouraged to be shared? Who would get to hug all of those smiling kiddos and watch them cover themselves in paint and clay? Who would get to watch the bible come alive to my 8th grade girls?....ahh, its hard to say which I love more...summer or my job!!

My beautiful, talented and inspiring high school art teacher Mrs. Johnt. She had a huge impact on my life and is a big reason as to why I teach Art. We try to see her anytime we are at the beach as that is where she and her husband have retired. Thanks for meeting us at Sea and Suds!!

Sooo back to Fitness. I once again want to talk about Cryotherapy as I have seen and heard even more positive testimonials. I signed up for 3 Cryo sessions at Cryo Nation in Grapevine. I got it for a great deal of Groupon. I was so excited that they agreed to let me go in for 3 full minutes, as before I had only been allowed to do 2 minutes based on body fat/ blood pressure.

3 minutes is SOOOO stinking long when you are already cold natured and have frozen gas being blasted at you.....I thought the last 30 seconds were comparable to the last 30 seconds of a ab class :). However, the effects are amazing. I heard and spoke to several clients as I waited for my turn who have had greater pain relief with Cryo after knee surgery than going to rehab.

Right after I stepped out. I literally had to make myself move...almost like breaking through the soft shell of ice that covered my body!

 I also spoke to the Chiropractor who shares the building and he was telling me how Benjamin Franklin said that doctors of the future would be more concerned with the skeleton and body temperature. Now who knows if thats true but the more he spoke the more it made sense. I have heard people who are alleviated of their migraines after getting the spines adjusted. I have a close friend who no longer deals with foot pain, plantar fasciitis, due to getting 2 cryo sessions a week after years of pain.

My new favorite, the spine roller table. At Cryo Nation you can lay on here for 10 minutes before or after your cryo session. I need one at home for sure!

So a little TMI but useful info for you before going is that you are naked in the Cryo tube. I always crack up because they give you gloves, socks and slippers to wear...you can wear your under garments but they always encourage you not to due to all the nerve endings in your rear!! I always feel so silly but no one else sees you :)

As I stepped in I couldn't help think to myself "beam me up  Scotty...it is rather time travel device like looking!!!

Fitness Friday-Cooking with your kids

One of the quotes that is constantly in the back of my mind is "You can't out train a bad diet". In other words, you can work out 3 hours a day but if you still choose to eat junk you probably won't see a big change...and you probably won't perform your best when you exercise. I also have heard several certified trainers say that losing weight and building muscle can be attributed to 80% diet and 20% exercise, once again showing just how important a healthy diet is. 

For those reasons I am constantly introducing our kiddos to better food options like carrot fries instead of french fries. We also encourage them to drink water, milk and flavored water...hardly ever serving them juice or soda unless thats the only option. 

I also don't have a thorough history of my kids birthmothers health history. Meaning I have no clue what health problems run in their family tree...therefore we are prepping them to lead a healthy lifestyle no matter what. 

One way to get your kids involved is to take them with you to workout. My kids normally go with me 1/2 times a week to workout, depending on our schedule. Sometimes they lead it, which ends up being our favorite workouts, full of "birdie flies, kangaroo hops, running, skipping, burpees (that name is just so funny), sumo squats, sprints, bear crawls, crab crawls and anything else we can think of that is animal related. 

Another way is to get them involved in the kitchen. My kids love the show Master Chef Jr on Netflix. They could watch the pie challenge over and over again...and each time they laugh just as hard when the judges get a pie in their face. After watching it we decided to make homemade pasta and homemade frozen yogurt. 

Here are the kiddos judging my dinner one night. They graded me on presentation, taste and how healthy it was. They must have whispered back and forth for 5 minutes. They kept saying "be nice to mommy", "its not as good as Chick Fil A", "well she did put ketchup on ours!". They are not very good at whispering :). 

This was the meal they were critiquing. Ahi Tuna steaks with capers and cauliflower rice with chunky tomatoes. They only had a small helping of tuna and I did make them some roasted potato fries as well. I think in the end I got an over all "Great" from the harsh judges...they wish they could have dino nuggets instead :). 

We chose to make Homemade Ravioli with chicken and cheese filling and Strawberry Balsamic Mint frozen yogurt for our dinner. 

Big Man cut up all of our strawberries for the frozen yogurt. 

Big girl added all of the other ingredients into our food processor...whole milk yogurt, fresh mint from our garden, lemon, pomegranate balsamic vinaigrette and vanilla. 

Now the fun part of mixing up our pasta dough. I opted not to go buy any fancy tools but just let them use their hands and utensils we already had. They LOVE to wear their aprons!!!

Flattening our our ravioli, we had a method. Flour, push, stretch, flip. Repeat.
We made our dough using whole wheat flour, eggs and water. 

We then cut our dough, filled it with cheese and chicken and tzatiki sauce. Then we use water to make the edges sticky as we folded another piece of dough on top and used a fork to seal it.

Each kid made 2 filled raviolis and then several spaghetti noodles. They watched them boil and then we added in sauce, mushrooms, shrimp and spinach and topped it with parmesan cheese.

I will be the first to admit that the pasta did not look appetizing. It was thick and just plain ugly. BUT, they LOVED it and they were so proud of their work. They ate almost everything and what they didn't eat Adam did!!! I taste a spaghetti and it didn't taste awful. 

Baby Boy's Ravioli was about as big as him!!!

All the while our frozen yogurt was churning away in the ice cream maker. We went for a walk after dinner to let it finish. Unfortunately on that walk, Baby Boy through a tantrum and went to bed without dessert. The other two gobbled up theirs though..it was only 100 calories per 1/2 cup and they decided to add some chocolate syrup on top to make it taste like chocolate covered strawberries!!!

What cooking with kids successes have you had? Any failures? I will say with every bone in my body that cooking with kids is cleaner and easier than doing art projects...and that is coming from an ART TEACHER!!!..it may have something to do with the fact that we can't eat our art projects!!

Fitness Friday-Add Weights!!

First things first. I found this push up challenge and decided we as a family should compete.
Results:
Adam-40 which puts him at Good for his age
Kinzie-36 which puts me at Good as well..I have to note though that I didn't do modified pushups on my knees like it suggest, I did the whole SHEBANG!!!!
Elijah-20...which puts him at fantastic :).

Moving along. I have joined a running group, which I LOVE. I never wanted to join before as I thought I would hold them up or I would trip on the others (I'm a close runner) or it would be too much of a commitment. NOT TRUE!!

I have run three times this week with this fun groups of girls and every time I have loved it. We run from 4:45-5:45 or 6 in the morning so that we beat the heat and mosquitoes. There are normally anywhere from 4-6 of us so we tend to break off based on pace. If one breaks off though she has to have a buddy!! They never run the same trail twice but they know the area so well that in the midst of our in depth conversations they will say "right Kinzie" or "at the next speedbump turn left" and then carry on. I have learned so much about the 2 in the group I already knew and then have made quick friends with the 2 I didn't know. This week total we have hit a little over 17 miles and I swear it went by super fast.

I have also added on people to my circuit training and weight room days so I hardly ever work out alone anymore which is honestly part of the fun...catching up and sharing life.

So back to the title of this post...ADD WEIGHTS. I started really picking my runs apart to see how well I would do on hills, where I hit my stride and how strong I finished. I looked back over all of my runs since I started long runs last August. I noticed a period of about 2 weeks where all of a sudden my splits (average pace per mile) went from being 11 to 13 minute miles down to 10 minute miles. Looking back into my workout planner I saw that those two weeks are when I started lifting weights.

I also noticed that back in December my times got ever better, dropping down to 8 and sometime 7.5 minute miles and that is when I started lifting heavier but doing smaller reps. ITS AMAZING how our body works. The stronger and leaner I got the better athlete I became...I mean that is such a "DUH" statement but it really helped me see my need for weight room days. A lot of women are scared to lift and if they do they lift light. I totally think you should start light but then GO FOR IT. Add weights onto the bar, into your squats and lunges. There is hardly any bodyweight movement that you can't add weights onto.

I also noticed that in my splits my first, middle and last miles are always my best times. I tend to let my mind wonder or my conversation with a friend slow me down unless I am being intentional. This morning I knew that my great conversation with Leianne, plus the fact that I had no clue where we were half the time had slowed me down so I sprinted the last 1/4 of the mile just to make sure my heartrate was soaring. Then I went and lifted weights with several other friends...the results? I have been HUNGRY all day...not like I "love food so I am hungry"....nope, my stomach is churning and gurgling hungry...I keep doing small meals with lots of water but 6 miles plus lifting has made me RAVENOUS.

An easy weight routine to start is to take 5/8/10 lb dumbbells and do the following:

40 squats (let dumbbell touch the floor)
30 lunges (hold dumbbells in your hand)
20 russian twist (in sit up position/ feet up off the floor/ one weight in your hands, twisting from side to side as you let the weight touch the floor on each side as you go)
10 pushups with rows (lift the black up to your shoulder from push up position)

Do that 2 or 3 times and you have a pretty good full body workout going on!!

Happy 4th of July!!

Who remembers these red, white and blue babies?

Eating for your blood type-Fitness Friday

I had a wonderful, super thought provoking conversation with a co-worker at inservice. She loves to exercise but over the past year has been diagnosed with an immune disease that runs in her family. It causes her joints to become inflamed and she just has a harder time moving in general. Her dad found this diet formulated by Dr. Peter D'Adamo that suggest food you should/shouldn't eat according to your blood type. My friends father began following this diet and had great success with it, even to the point where he was able to come off some of his meds. My friend recently started this diet and in 3 weeks had seen great results in her own issues with digestion and inflammation....even her boys who have a different type had better energy, digestion and focus when they ate according to these suggestions.

Here is the science behind it. Dr. D"Adamo's website--Give yourself some time because this website is super interesting and very thorough!

Here is the basic summary for each blood type. You can also read on the site how these diets affect weight loss, exercise, disease, cancer risks, stress, sleep patterns, etc.






 So what did I do with this? Well I was already working on integrating more purple food into my diet to help raise my good cholesterol levels so I was snacking on eggplants, choosing red wine over white and found purple sweet potatoes at Sprouts :).

So, to try some of these ideas for my Type A blood I went from having salad with some sort of protein (mostly tuna, turkey and chicken) to having at least one salad a day that is completely vegan...using lots of different greens, veggies and edamame to get lots of protein! I also upped my tofu consumption from 1-2 servings a week to 3-4. I also started cooking a lot more fish and shrimp!!! I can say that I haven't noticed any significant changes but then again I didn't have anything that needed fixin ;). I do love that I am eating tons of greens daily. There has been only one day where I haven't had a salad in the last month but that morning I made a big ole KALE smoothie....it was nice and chunky. Slurped that thing down with a few winces here and there.

Any thoughts on this diet? Any success stories?   Totally interesting right?

Fitness Friday-keeping my routine while traveling

I have to admit that the one thing I was worried about not packing for our 2 week road trip was my scale. I knew that I could find all sorts of ways to exercise. I knew that I would track my calories daily on Myfitnesspal on my phone. BUT, the scale is what lets me know if my technology and efforts are keeping me on track. After saying all that I have learned that nothing is as reliable though as my own eyes/wardrobe. The scale can be off by water weight, certain times of the month, high sodium diet, etc. The myfitnesspal can be off if I eat things that aren't part of the database (eating out a lot, casseroles, etc). My efforts on a hot beach sure do feel like a lot, even though I can do the same workout at home and sweat 1/2 as much ;)...but my eyes and my wardrobe normally don't lie :).

So with all of that said. I stepped on the scale the morning after we got home from our 2 weeks and it hadn't budged one ounce. THIS IS HUGE. I gained a solid 4 to 5 lbs after our 4 day Disney cruise 2 years ago!! I gained 3 to 4 lbs on our Disney vacation last year right before I started my health journey. My HUBBY gained a solid 5 lbs on this trip...but then again he is trying to gain muscle and he ate and drank like a beast..poor guy doesn't get all summer to vacation and he took full advantage of it.

I went into these 2 weeks knowing that I would keep my healthy eating up but only 80% of the time. I was going to enjoy my brothers rehearsal dinner and his wedding but I was not going to leave either one super bloated and I was going to stop eating when I was full. I also knew that I would probably drink more alcohol than normal but that I would stop at one per day. Total I had two meals that I would normally never eat and guess what they both were?...FRIED OYSTERS with a side of hushpuppies and coleslaw..GOOD OLE BEACH FOOD...all of my other seafood I ordered steamed or broiled!!!!  I probably had 5 glasses of red wine over the two weeks, but I don't think I finished one of them and then I tried a buschwhacker out of pure curiosity...ICK.

I worked out everyday as well, anyway I could, except our last day of traveling. We literally slept in our clothes that we drove up to Nannie and Papas in, not wanting to unpack yet again. Then we drove the rest of the day and got home at midnight. I will give myself a pass for that day :).

If I could offer any tips for sticking to a routine while traveling it is this.

DO WHAT YOU CAN WITH WHAT YOU HAVE!!

I knew that I would have access to a gym on certain days but just in case I took my yoga mat and handweights and ended up using them 3 days on our condo balcony...I could have lifted all day with that beach view!!!. I also took my own snacks and cereals knowing that some days I may not have any healthy options. When I had access to my parents gym, I USED IT!!! I even got to use a row machine for two days as they just added them to the gym. When I had access to the hotel fitness room, I USED IT...sure all they had was a treadmill but I ran that thing to death and did bodyweight moves beside it to get in a good circuit! When I had the beach I RAN/WALKED and lifted weights on it. When I had a long stretch of road I RAN IT (something I never do here since the traffic is wicked). And the day I had kids who wanted to go to the splash pad we went there and while they rode with my dad there and back in his car...I RAN TO IT AND BACK to my parents house while Goober skateboarded beside me.

I saw 2 or  3 of these guys on my beach run. Let me tell you, a 3 mile run is SOOO much different than a 3 mile road run..DANG, that was rough!!..BUT BEAUTIFUL

Early morning run on the main road to the beach, hardly any traffic but tons of runners. See those clouds? Yup, I GOT DUMPED ON!!!

This is from my hour long beach walk...I walked almost 3 miles, which sounds slow but not in sand, I was booking it...and the next day my hips were super sore and my feet were swollen (the fried oysters might also be to blame)

Rowing. I would row hard for 5 minutes, then do a circuit of 3 weighted exercises. Total I would get in about 25 minutes of rowing and about 20 minutes of free weights. I checked my HR after each 5 min rowing section and it was always soaring...170/180.

My last workout with my brother as a single dude. This was the morning of his rehearsal dinner. You can see I had on my gloves so that I could do another rowing/free weight circuit. Chris and my hubby lifted and chatted the whole time. I love those two!

Another beach run on a beautiful morning. It was fun to outrun the waves and see all of the other runners who like to get out super early!

This is from another beach walk where I swear I saw a water spout starting. Adam has the same picture from our condo balcony!