life according to us

"Do I eat this or that?" Jessica's Journey...February 27th

2012-02-27T14:58:00.001-06:00

My husband thinks that I have found some hole in our universe and climbed through.

I have made a few changes this week that has caused him to wonder who I am. These changes are things that are not normal for me and really are unlike anything that I have been the last 11 or 12 years.

I am learning 2 things about change:

Make little changes. If I make little changes then I will probably stick with the changes I have made.

I would love to overhaul our entire eating here at The Williams House. That isn't going to happen. We have replaced a lot of our food with healthier choices and we will continue to change things out gradually. I recently was reintroduced to Trader Joe's in town and am amazed at how comparable their prices are for the same food that I buy at the grocery store, or even a better option than the store...like organic!

Replace some of the things I used to consume with healthier choices.

Diet Pepsi needed a replacement. I have found it...coffee. I even made my own pot of coffee today, all by myself! I have NEVER made a pot of coffee. Yes, I am thirty (cough, cough) years old and I have never made a pot of coffee. I can see myself drinking more of this dark liquid :) Luckily I have access to some great coffee beans ;)
Bread can easily be replaced by eating yogurt, almonds and some fruit or some other snack that includes a protein and a fruit or vegetable.

I found this picture recently on Pinterest (yes...many ideas come from this great site). I think it sums up a lot of what we think we want to eat and what our body is really telling us to eat. I really enjoy the one labeled PMS and the other category of Alcohol or Marijuana.

source

Ultimately I do want to eat cleaner...meaning, reducing our processed foods. Am I perfect with my eating? Nope.

I know that I write a lot about food. If I am serious and truthful about my journey, food is a huge part of this for me. Writing down what I am trying to do may help someone else see that they too can conquer this issue that so many of us have with all those items on the shelf.

I am super motivated right now too because one of my friends just reached a goal that she had been working on for a long time. I am very happy for her! I realized though that there were things that I can change to help me reach the goals that I have for myself. If I want to reach those goals then I must be honest with myself and sacrifice my taste buds for the foods that they loves to taste and find alternatives that are healthier.

My workout today:

It's been awhile since I wrote about a workout that I have done. Sickness, blah, blah, blah. I am thinking I am now back on track.

I started a new phase today. I didn't get to finish everything and since I was short on time I decided the one exercise I would need to skip today was the Romanian Deadlifts. I will do those tomorrow along with some cardio intervals.

Today included several new exercises so I had some learning to do. I already know that I did some wrong or with technique that wasn't the best. Of course I didn't figure this out until after I was done but at least I have the knowledge for next time. It did feel like most of my time today was spent on squats. Squat this, squat that, hold this squat...squat, squat, squat. I was finishing up with some squat intervals at the end (jump squats...I hate, hate, hate these!...squats and then holding a squat) and at the second set I thought my legs were going to fall off. My legs were no longer holding muscles and bones...it was just a Jell-o mold.

Today was also different for me because I forgot my headphones. Music inspires me, gets me moving and sometimes wakes me up as I sit on the floor in the gym. No headphones. I even searched the car to see if the kids had a pair in the back. (they cleaned the car out yesterday...so no headphones for me). And...yes, there is an and...the music at the gym was off. What?!? The one day I don't have my headphones is the day that they decide to just leave the music off. I made it through though but I will make sure that I have my headphones for tomorrow.

The trainer that I work with also has some information on his site about change. You can view that info here!

Are YOU ready for a change and for results?...Precision Nutrition Workouts

2012-02-24T14:10:00.002-06:00

For a few years I was working hard at the gym, changing my diet in different ways that I thought would help and going about this "losing weight...getting healthy" thing with just the knowledge that I had. Let's just say that the knowledge was pretty limited. There are so many conflicting resources that are printed in books and online that I just wasn't sure who to believe.

I was stuck on the treadmill and elliptical and convinced myself that if I just increased the time on those machines I would lose weight. My problem was time. Increasing that time on cardio would help get the inches off, right? I would stay on the elliptical for 45 minutes or more and run 5k's on the treadmill until my feet were tired and numb.

I had already lost quite a bit of weight but I was stuck and I just couldn't get anything to budge. My plateau of losing 0 pounds and losing 0 inches continued.

I started strength training with a program that a friend had designed for me. This program changed the way my body works, the way my body feels and the way clothes look on me. It is hard work and takes time and dedication but I can see the results!

Right now my friend, Jeff, has a great deal on his program! You can find out more by clicking on his website featuring this program. If you are thinking about exercising, wanting to get in shape or not sure what to do next...this is probably the best opportunity that you are going to find. I can also tell you from my own experience that it really does work and that Jeff does a great job helping answer questions, providing pictures or links to videos on what I should do for the exercises that are new to me and also by informing me of the foods I should eat and what I shouldn't eat.

Want more proof? Look back through my blogs and you will see the journey that I have taken. There are pictures in there...so good, some not so good. :) I started the program with Jeff on October. 31st, 2011 and am still working hard. I started by lifting those very pretty and colorful weights and am now doing things with weight machines and barbells that I didn't even know where possible and at weights that I didn't think I would be able to lift. My journey is not over and I am constantly learning but this is truly an exciting adventure!

Go click on the link for Jeff's website which features the new program that he is offering. If you have doubts...go call around and find out what a personal trainer costs at one of your local gyms. I think you will be shocked to see how much you can save just by doing this program.

If you want to ask me questions, feel free! Just post a comment below.

Sidney's 2012 AWANA Grand Prix

2012-02-22T21:12:00.000-06:00

It was a nail biter folks!

Sid won 3 times in a row and some were neck and neck. Her Kleenex box design of a car pulled through though and was a winner. Over and over she kept going to the top of the track to brace her car and have it positioned just right.

Then, she fell into (bum, bum, bum) the loser's bracket.

(at this point Chris and I thought that she was done racing)

All of a sudden Sidney has appeared at the top of the race track again. Her car is positioned and braced. Over and over (at least 8 to 10 more times...at least it seemed like that), Sid kept winning.

Other parents were living vicariously through Sid as she had a huge smile beaming. (the other parents actually told us this since their childs' cars were not even finishing down the track...but their cars looked pretty cool!)

There were tears of joy tonight. There were tears of sadness as well.

Quinn was a tired little man tonight and so he and I took off early so he could find his nice comfy bed. Those were part of the tears for the evening.

It was 8:15pm and the night of excitement at the AWANA Grand Prix was not over.

The award ceremony for design, craftsmanship and winners of the races were next.

After the entire crew came home I was settled into my couch. Sid had a look of disappointment on her face as she came in with her car. But, she also had a hand behind her back and a little bit of a smirk on one side of her mouth. She started to tell me that she didn't win anything but that little glimmer of a smirk kept getting bigger. I started my "mom" speech about how it was ok not to win every time and that she still did an awesome job tonight. And then, I realized she was lying! That stinker. She pulled a trophy from behind her back. 1st place in Design!!!

(Chris and I were both shocked)

The second set of tears were from our middle child. Seeing his sister win a trophy for design, a trophy that he dreamed about as he was preparing his car for the Cub Scout Pinewood Derby...well, that was just devastating for his little soul. We pulled through as a family though and have learned a valuable lesson tonight (two actually):
1. always talk nice about the other people racing and the other cars that are racing
2. no matter what the outcome, we always need to support those in our family. We need to encourage those that are sad when moment doesn't turn out the way that they expect and we need to take those moments to congratulate those that did win a trophy during the race.

Congrats, Sid! I think she went to bed with a smile on her face tonight :) (Micah...well, maybe not so much.)

"Laundry Detergent" Frugal Mommy Moments

2012-02-20T10:10:00.000-06:00

I have a list of other items that I have learned that our family just doesn't need and that we can either do without or use an item that is similar but cheaper.

Today I am sharing what we do at the Williams house for our laundry.

Now, before you shake your head and start thinking negatively about changing the way you do laundry just stop and think about how much money you spend on laundry detergent, softener and dryer sheets. I don't use any of those name brand, fragrance full items that are very colorful on the shelves in the store. (Gasp!) And our clothes still get clean.

I first started thinking about going fragrance free when Quinn was born. All three of our kids had eczema really bad but Quinn had it the worst. At one well check visit at the Dr.'s office they noticed a spot on his face that was so bad that he was going to need an antibiotic because it was getting infected. The Dr. kindly mentioned that we should think about going fragrance free to help him and to also continue to help the other kids. At that point they still had bumps on their arms of eczema. I got rid of the smelly shampoos and soaps in their bathroom and bought a local brand that was safe to use. At that point I started purchasing fragrance free laundry detergent. That stuff is expensive!

We go through a lot of laundry at our house. With our family clothes and items, day care items...we have a lot to wash every week. The only time the washing machine isn't started at our house is if I am sick or we are out of town. Otherwise, we do at least one load a day but usually 2 or 3 a day.

How do I still get clean laundry but save on cost?

I searched, I tried and searched some more. (Pinterest is really a great resource!)

Our results are: 1) we don't use fabric softener and actually haven't for over a year or more, 2) instead of dryer sheets we use Norwex dryer balls. These works perfectly for us and there is no smell. I did try using the fragrance free dryer sheets but those still had a smell to them. 3) we now make our own laundry detergent.

I finally found a recipe for laundry detergent that I like and that works for us. I tried a few different ones. Some you had to melt the soap, others you had to do things in a certain order. Below is the recipe that I found that seems to work best for us:

Laundry Detergent

In a bucket combine the following:

1 cup of Arm & Hammer Washing Soda

1 cup of Borax

1 bar of soap that has been grated and crushed. Make sure that it is a fine powder so the soap blends in with the rest of the ingredients. (I have a large supply of Ivory Soap but there are others that can be used too.)

Stir these together. I use about 1 Tablespoon for each load of laundry.

Result: Our laundry is clean and doesn't have a smell and this lasts our family almost 2 weeks.

Other tips:

I will also sometimes put in OxyClean for the whites.

I have seen others comment that they like a smell and so they include a few drops of essential oil in a fragrance that they like.

"Stories, inspiration and women" Jessica's Journey...February 17th

2012-02-17T14:23:00.002-06:00

Want to get that extra push to do something you've never done?

Want to be inspired by others?

Do you want to learn from others and see what they are doing?

I've talked about Girls Gone Strong before and really...nothing can inspire you more than seeing and hearing from other women that are on a journey themselves. Women lifting 400 pounds or more?!? (I've watched some of their videos and they are amazing and very strong women.) Hearing stories of determination and accomplishment and women setting goals that they are reaching; that is some great motivation to push yourself a little bit harder the next time you are at the gym. The resources that they provide and the stories that they share are always full of great information too. The community of women supporting each other...it's just priceless.

Check out this site that talks a little bit more about Girls Gone Strong. People were asked to write in about what it is to be part of Girls Gone Strong in twitter style. I don't think everyone followed that size limitation of their post but regardless of the length, all of the entries are motivating. Look closely...you may just see a name you recognize. ;)

To find Girls Gone Strong on Facebook...just click here.

Remember...people are watching "Jessica's Journey" February 16th

2012-02-16T16:10:00.000-06:00

A few weeks ago I was sitting in a meeting and a tray of delicious cookies, bars and chocolaty treats were just a few steps away from me. You know how tempting that is? The smell alone could make me eat an entire tray of that stuff. That day I was eating very well and for supper I had a plate full of salad. I know, your mouth is watering as you read about the wonderful lettuce I consumed.

I did walk over and grab one delicious bar that had chocolate chips mixed in as well as yummy caramel. So yum!

As I was eating this piece of heaven, a comment from a person next to me was muttered, "I'm not a good person to be with if you want to eat healthy". This person stumbles on this blog occasionally so I am sure they will read this at some point. (Hi!) The comment made me think though. I need to remember...people are watching.

I have lost a lot of weight...60+ pounds. I know that the people who have been around me these last few years know that I have lost weight. People have been watching. People have been reading. But what they don't see are the daily and sometimes hourly struggles that I have with food. Food is my downfall. Every day, every choice is just that...a choice. If I decide to make my meal something that wouldn't fall under the "healthy" category then I know and I understand that those food items were my choice. No one made me put those items in my mouth. No one made me walk over to that table of yummy treats during that meeting, pick up the beautiful looking bar (I did pick the smallest one...fyi) and eat it. I let myself do that.

Losing weight is a private battle and a public battle. The private part is what goes inside of us during this change...all the mind talk, all of the accomplishments that we see, all of the conversations that we have with ourselves to help us get to a goal that we have in mind. The public battle is what everyone else sees. The public sees what we do at the gym (if they are there), they see what we are eating when we are with others and probably analyze every bit that we take and they see the physical changes as a result of both of those things.

After the comment was uttered to me I was reminded of someone that I admire a lot. I would see this person at church and most of my conversations with this person was around food and weight. This lady has accomplished so much...in fact she was featured recently on PBS regarding the Mayo Clinic Diet. She has encouraged me from the beginning to be healthier and I am so proud of all that she has accomplished and am so glad that I met her. The comment spoken to me helped me realize what I used to mentally think about this person that I admired. At that time, I was trying to stay with the right foods and make the right choices and it was so tough in the beginning (still is though!). I would watch what she was eating and what she was drinking and I would give her the same type of comments that I received during the meeting I was at. I would analyze the choices that she was making and as I would make comments to her she would actually give me at times the number of calories that were on her plate. I was probably secretly judging what she was eating and trying to justify what I had on my plate based on what she had on hers. How stupid of me though! I had no idea what she was eating throughout the day. I had no idea what she had to tell herself to keep going each day. I had no idea what type of workout she already did that day or how many calories or types of eating plan she was on. This lady runs marathons for goodness sake! She can have 2 pieces of pizza.

Remember...people are watching.

You will see me at Culver's. You will see me dining out with my hubby Saturday night at a restaurant in the area (thank you Mark & Bonnie for watching the kiddos in advance!). You will see me having an occasional Diet Pepsi. What you won't see though are all of the salads, vegetables, fruit, lean protein, water, water and more water that I drink and all the stinking time that I put in at the gym...unless you also get up at 4:30am and go to WOW. (PS...if you do, find me! I would love to work out with someone and help me be more accountable!) You won't see the exercises that I do with the kids to help them be healthy too and to help get them moving.

I have changed a lot physically. I have changed a lot mentally. I need to remember that people ARE watching my actions and looking to see what I am putting in my mouth. Please don't be disappointed though if you see me putting something unhealthy on my tongue. I am not perfect, I will not be eating healthy 100% of the time but I will try the best that I can. Overall, I understand that getting healthier is my choice, each bite that I take is my choice. Researching and trying the exercises that I have been given from Jeff takes time and it is my choice to make sure that I have a time in my day to workout.

Hopefully the choices I make will inspire others to be healthier too, since I now know that they are watching what I am eating. ;)

Now...if only they would join me at the gym...I could have a lot of fun showing them how to do deadlifts :)

My Update:
I have 2 workouts left in this current phase. I will be tackling one of these tomorrow. The last week I got hit with a huge asthma attack and was really having a hard time getting this back under control. I did make it to spin class today though and was able to get through the class without needing to leave or needing to use my inhaler. This is a huge improvement over how I was even on Monday. Monday I went to the gym and was going to just try to do what I could. After 4 minutes on the elliptical, level 1, I was out of breath and had to get off. Level 1...I couldn't even go full speed either! This phase is almost over but it is the last week, which is the hardest. Soon, soon, soon...I will have accomplished another phase!

Love

2012-02-14T12:16:00.001-06:00

The lunch for the kids today :)

We took pb&j and used a cookie cutter to make a heart in the bread.

We had strawberries cut up that went inside the heart and then we also put them on the side to make a flower arrangement. Sugar snap peas are the leaves and stem.

We also had dried apples and cut these so it spelled the word "love".

Let the Renovation Begin

2012-02-11T21:31:00.003-06:00

Our house is no spring chicken. We moved to our home when Micah was just a baby so we have been here a few years now. We have changed all the appliances, painted every room in the house except the basement, replaced counter tops, gutted a bathroom and about ready to gut another one. The house is more than 20 years old and it shows. Things are starting to show their age and as the homeowner we are responsible to take care of those things and keep our house in shape.

Today we started renovation #4 (not really sure on the number...we will just pick that number). We are getting rid of the 20+ year doors that were hollow and the lovely and yet oh so dating trim of Golden Oak and replacing with 6 panel doors that will be white along with white trim. The doors won't take much time...in fact they are about halfway done already. The trim will take us some time to change throughout the main floor. At the moment we have quite a bit off and ready to be sanded and painted tomorrow. Eventually we will get rid of the bi-fold doors on the main floor, replace with 6 panel bi-fold doors and have those painted also along with the trim around those.

Here are a few photos of our progress. I didn't take any pictures of our old doors...so ugly, they probably would have broken the camera lens anyways.

See that crowbar...I got that trim off :) Good thing I've been working out!

Chris working on the door to the basement.

The original door wasn't even nailed in on one side of the frame!

Isn't it crazy what you can find when you start to remodel?

"The Right Dose"...Jessica's Journey, February 11th

2012-02-11T10:55:00.000-06:00

The number of things that a mom does each day really could qualify as a degree in a number of different things; pharmacist, chef, teacher, police officer, taxi driver, maid...the list really is never ending.

All these different roles that we have as moms can lead us to forgetting one of the most important things...taking care of ourselves.

A few years ago I was unhappy. I was so overweight and I just felt miserable. I didn't want to see a picture of myself, be in a picture or go by a mirror. I had zero energy for my kids and family which meant that I had zero energy for doing anything that I wanted to do. I ate horrible things, put horrible stuff in my body on a regular basis and never made time to try to make myself better. I was 60+ pounds of pure fat heavier than I am now. My BMI was way above what it should have been. I just felt gross and yucky.

Until one day...

Somewhere deep inside of me I wanted to change. I think the words "you may need a hip replacement" was ringing in my ears and somewhere sparked the desire to see things differently. I didn't want to accept that this was the outcome for me. I didn't want to go down the path of needing parts of my body replaced when I was still in my early 30's. Why were the doctors telling me all of this and yet not telling me what was so obvious...that I needed to lose weight?

Now I love the gym. I love being able to get a workout in before my family wakes up and before my work starts for the day. I have to think of this as a second job though. I am learning that the right dose of the gym is 5 to 6 times a week with at least an hour or more of working out that includes heavy weights, intervals, and some cardio. If I don't have a priority on this I know that I will one day hear those words "hip replacement" again. I know that if I don't change the behavior that my BMI will again be very high and in an unhealthy zone.

The right dose of food is something that I struggle with constantly. Why oh why do we have to have restaurants, yummy chocolate things that are so delicious and companies that make processed foods? I am trying to eat more fruits and vegetables and am learning to like more and more. I am working on swapping out some foods for others but still have those moments where I would just love to go eat some ice cream or brownies. I have started writing on the side of the blog foods that I am learning to love. 2 years ago I don't think I was eating any of these foods. Before I was eating bags of potato chips, now I will eat Greek yogurt. I detested the word and thought of salad. Now I try to sneak in spinach in various places...even in the pizza sauce that we made last night!

Taking care of myself is a struggle at times but I am learning what my body needs, have seen a lot of changes and am still learning what I need to do and when.

At the moment I am in the middle of the biggest asthma attacks that I have had since October. Yesterday was a very rough day. Today is better but has the possibility of taking that corner and becoming a horrible day. I am constantly trying to figure out the right dose of medicine that I should take for this breath taking illness and am trying to find non-medicated ways to help with this illness too. On days like today this is what I pump into my body just so I can take in a breath that many people don't even realize that they are taking:

inhaler at least every 4 hours (my body knows when that 4 hours is almost up. I am able to take just shallow breaths and am coughing a lot by the end of that 4 hours)
steroid inhaler before I go to bed
Singulair before I go to bed
this little pearls that I swallow every few hours throughout the day to help keep the coughing a minimum. These can make me dizzy though so during the work week I only take them at night. On weekends...I have them several times throughout the day.
warm drinks & soft foods for my throat. During these wonderful attacks my throat gets really irritated from all of the coughing.
water, water, water
rest...meaning I don't get to go to the gym until I can talk without coughing again.

Today I have my pharmacist hat on and my mom hat has been put to the side. There are a lot of mom duties that I should be doing on a Saturday but I have to rest and just lay down as much as possible while I can and keep my talking to a minimum. I am trying not to dwell on the fact that I didn't get to go lift weights this morning but the thought is in my head constantly today. Two days now in a row that I wasn't able to go.

The right dose of everything that we need in life takes trial and error. Today is a trial and error day. If I keep on doing the right dosages of medicine, the right amount of talking, the right amount of rest...I should be back to the right dose of exercising soon.

Momastery...it's a Monkee

2012-02-09T13:49:00.000-06:00

Last week...received the e-mail that a great person in our life is not able to fight her cancer any longer.

Today...in between trips to stores with the kiddos all bundled up...received an e-mail from our friend with her update. She is home. She is ready to go to her next home, or least she is getting ready for this last part of her journey here on earth. It is still just hard to comprehend that this really is happening. The thoughts go through our mind of what we would be thinking if this was the path that our life would take. I know the history in my family with that hateful word that starts with "c" and hopefully I never have to hear that news again about someone that is close to me or even myself. The odds are against us though in this country. Cancer seems to be winning.

I was going through some blogs that I look at once in awhile and one caught my eye today. I still am not entirely sure what this blog is but I am curious about it. I learned A LOT more today and I wouldn't be doing the right thing if I didn't pass along the information.

This blog tells stories. This blog helps others that need help. This blog has it's rules. This blog has a heart...or at least the people associated with this blog are very caring and generous and their compassion pours out from the computer screen.

The blog is called Momastery.

Right now the blog has a story about a family with 8 kids. The oldest is 18 and the youngest is just a little one. The mom and dad work hard to raise this family and part of that working hard has included no vacations...ever. The mom just found out that she has stage 4 pancreatic cancer. Click here to read more about their story and how you can help this family make a memory that may be one that lasts forever.

I know that the blog is asking people to help them make this memory. The only question that I have for those who are cynical or say that they can't is this..."Would you want someone to help you if you were in this situation?". $5 is a meal at a drive-thru, $5 is practically the amount that a coffee is at one of those non-Narrow Road Coffee houses ;), $5 is just a little bit of what you probably overspend at the grocery store already this week. $5.

UPDATE: They raised over $25,000 in 10 hours! They are always looking for more people to help out. Their website is updated pretty frequently with new people and families...so be on the lookout.

"When you want something..." Jessica's Journey, February 7th

2012-02-07T21:01:00.005-06:00

Need I say more?

"I hate my mom" ...says my kids

2012-02-06T15:02:00.000-06:00

My kids didn't actually say that they hate me but I am sure that their thoughts were revolving around those words during one of our mornings a few weeks ago.

What was going on in our house that particular morning? Here are a few details for you to get you up to speed...

Micah saved up his money and bought a DS (we paid for half for his upcoming birthday). Sid has Chris' that he used to use. Now the kids can play some picture thing together on Wi-Fi and some games.
The kids had to clean their room before they could use the DS. Chris found Micah playing his DS while he was supposed to clean his room so he lost it for 2 hours. Then Chris went to work and I got to deal with the torturous 2 hours of question after question of when he could get it back.
After the kids played their DS they did play outside, all on their own! This was my only time of no one staring at me with a pout or frown during our day.
The kids had 2 things to do before we started making lunch at 11:30am. 1) Clean off the kitchen table from breakfast time, 2) sweep the floor. They knew I wouldn't be starting lunch until those were done. I was very clear about this.
I waited for my two big kids to clean the table and sweep the floor but instead of doing these things right away they decided to go on the computer and on a DS.
I waited, and waited and waited...for 90 minutes! I would like to think that I was a very patient momma that day and that I gave them enough time. During this time I fed the day care kids, did the dishwasher and made supper for the night. Not once did they ask if it was time to eat...they kept on playing.

In the end of those 90 minutes I had one son who was still playing his DS. Just so you know...he did pass the level he was on. Whoopdi-do. (I say that as sarcastic as possible). He announced this triumphant win just as everyone else in the house was finishing their lunch.

Keep in mind that the table and the floor still have not been done.

I had a nice chat with my food loving son and explained to him that he missed lunch today. There were tears, lots of sadness and some hatred for me I am pretty sure. Food is everything to him. He plans what we eat the day prior at times and loves to inform me when we are out when it is time to eat...just in case I didn't know. I was very calm through this wonderful discussion and not a single scream was offered to my son...I was so proud (of myself). :) I could have screamed at both my kids but that really wouldn't have had the same effect as how I delivered the news to them that they both lost their DS for the rest of the day.

Some parents may ask "why?". Why did I take the DS away for the rest of the day? Well, see I am a parent that follows through with what I say. If I tell my kids to do something, I also expect them to do it. If my kids don't follow through with what I ask, we have some consequences. Example, clean the table and floor before we eat. The kids didn't do that. DS GONE! Why didn't I just do those 2 jobs? I could rant on and on about what else I have to do in the house but the fact is, I asked the kids to do those 2 things. They do these 2 things, or their expectation is, that these 2 things be done after every meal by them.

I am not trying to be an evil mom but I have seen what kids turn into when consequences are not set in front of them and then followed through by the parents. Parents...did you see those two words in there...FOLLOWED THROUGH!

My time with my little kids is slipping away fast. A few years ago we had the battles of "putting toys away", "not using the potty", "not hitting our friends" and many different sleep issues with the kids. I'm not going to say that these are little things in the world of parenting because we had some days and probably weeks where it just seemed like nothing would ever change and our kids would end up living in our basement once they dropped out of highschool because they still didn't want to use the potty.

We had months and months of a specific little boy that didn't want to sleep in his crib or bed. Who knew that the solution would be to get a bed that was just like his brothers. He wanted to be big too. We also had screaming battles with Micah when he had to patch his eye. Every day was sheer torture for me as I heard him cry and scream as he would bump into things or tear the patch off of his eye. Did I want to torture him? No, but I knew that if I didn't follow through with the instructions that the doctor gave us that Micah would lose the sight he had in the eye we were trying to help. Sidney was no angel either and although she was nice and quiet most of the time, there seemed to be an evil monster inside her when she didn't get her way and she would scream and kick for 30 minutes or more (a few times even longer).

Our current issues are different than those early years and I believe that our family is adjusting, or learning to adjust, to all different types of social, school and time management applications. Those are nice words for saying that the kids have had issues on the bus and with friends at school, homework seems to be very heavy this year and the responsibility is starting to shift from teacher to student which we are still working on and learning about. The saying, "there isn't enough time in the day" isn't just coming from Chris and I now, I actually heard Sidney tell me this as she was getting ready for school today.

The future is up in the air. I can't predict what we will have going on anymore than you telling me what your future will be like. I am learning more and more about my kids' personalities though and they are truly amazing. I am also seeing that our teenage years are not far off and that frightens me just a tad (ok, it really freaks me out!).

My hope is that our future will be representative of the values that we have shown our kids. I know that if I follow through now with what I expect from my kids that I will have kids who will listen to me and respect me in the future. They may not listen to me all of the time, what teenager does, but I hope that when it comes to the important things that they will know that I will have to follow through but also realize that they can always talk to me about something.

I know a lot of kids (a lot may actually be an understatement) that haven't had parents show them values or rules. The person who made the rules in the houses they lived in was the child. I actually have kids that have told their parents (these are bigger kids) that they didn't want to come to my day care because I wouldn't let them play video games while they were here. Guess who made the rules in that house? The child. The response that the parent gave me was, "I feel so bad because I don't get to see him during the day and then he just wants to play his games. He asks over and over if he can just go home when I pick him up from school so I can be with him and he can play his games. Isn't it ok if he plays those until he gets picked up?" That child no longer is at our day care. I cringe at the thought of what is going to happen to this boy in just a few short years.

A family should work together but the parent should actually parent. This means all times, not just when it is convenient for the parent. I had those moments where my 3 year old daughter was screaming at the top of her lungs in Target. This happened several times. After a few times she learned that this was not appropriate behavior at a store because I took the time while we were at the store to discipline her. This may have been disruptive to other customers but should I wonder if I was bothering someone else or should I show my daughter that she had consequences for throwing fits in the aisles when I wouldn't buy her a snack? (sorry if you were ever at Target on one of those days! She was really loud too!)

I am still in this journey of being a parent. I have learned a lot about what to do (and some "not what to do") from my own family, which I am sure we could all say from our own backgrounds. Another great resource is www.FocusontheFamily.org If you have a question about parenting there is probably an answer here. Lots of great reviews on books, movies and games as well for parents to look at before they are purchased for their kids.

Thoughts from today

2012-02-04T23:16:00.000-06:00

The other day I wrote on Facebook that I was happy about a few different things:

it's date night (Chris, where are we going?),
it's warm outside for MN,
my wrist is slowly getting better,
that I can pray for a wonderful person that needs it,
that my kiddos are doing great and
I hit one of my goals this morning at the gym!

Not only did I survive taking the kids out to eat by myself for Micah's birthday but also the birthday party for my middle child. I had a cranky 4 year old that wanted to be the center of attention the entire time, a 10 year that wanted to help but also mix that in with being in charge...when it was convenient for her, and also had 11 little kids ages 4 to 10 in a room (get this part) with 2 snakes! Oh...and I was by myself. Chris had a high fever today and wasn't feeling good so I had to venture on my own. It was interesting...let's just say that. Sidney actually was a very good helper although she is still a kid and just wants to have fun too. Sid scooped up the ice cream for me and helped clean up the room a bit.

Today was a crazy day and I am tired but I also just need to unwind a bit. So much going on today and my mind isn't ready to shut off. Here is a little bit of what I was thinking today, a lot actually stemming from what I wrote earlier this week:

Chris and I never did get our date night which not only disappointed both he and I but made me realize that the kids had to come first. Micah has been having some hard weeks at AWANA. Not sure what the deal is exactly but it all sortof escalated on Wednesday as soon as he walked in the door from school. (Never call me at 4:30pm...this is when Micah and Sid walk in the door and if things are not going well for them for any reason, anything that I planned for the next 30 minutes is just forgotten. They won't let me get to whatever it is anyways and I need a moment to catch up with them briefly too and see how their day was.) Micah is our emotional kid and when something goes wrong it is usually something that he will get worked up over. This particular day, it was a scratch from earlier that at some point did have blood on it and thus required a nurse (not his first trip to see her) to get a bandaid. I am sure that the nurse in their school knows Micah by name. Other things happened too and to top it all off, Micah didn't get a verse memorized so he didn't feel ready for AWANA. Ok. We have really been slacking at AWANA this year and memorizing verses has taken a back seat to make room for school work. Why he picked this night to make this an issue is beyond me. To sum it up, he didn't go to AWANA. He did however get his pj's on and spent the night right by our side playing with toys and talking. I think he just wanted to be with us.
Today I thought, "wow, our snow is almost gone". That was the extent of this thinking today. :)
My wrist is getting better but I did try to lift a car seat yesterday and BAM...something hurts. I shouldn't have done that. Kids in car seats can be so heavy! All you moms out there that are carrying babies in car seats, check out your arm muscles cause I know that you are carrying 30+ pounds all the time, in and out of that car.
Most of my thinking today has been about a great friend and person that I have gotten to know. The person hasn't just been in my thoughts but the family as well. A lady that helped me start Teen MOPS and who also went to several of the Sisseton mission trips was diagnosed with cancer a few years ago. Her battle has not been easy and she has been doing clinical trials for awhile now since all the other medical resources have been used. This lady is one tough mom but she is so strong. Her faith is also right on the surface and she is so encouraging. She is definitely one person that you can look up to...and in today's world these people are hard to find. Her fight is almost over and reading the news that this is the next step is just heartbreaking. I know she has really been feeling yucky the past few weeks and I have looked to see if she is at church with her family and I haven't seen her sitting in the seats for several Sundays. I know she will be in a better place but we will still miss her, a lot! It's hard to have a bright, cheery day when you know the pain that a family is going through right now. It's also hard to not celebrate each moment that you have with people when you see how short life can be. She is one person that I wish I could have spent more time with but I am very glad of the times when I did get to know her better. Can someone just find a cure for this cancer stuff already please?
The kids are doing great and tonight I got to see how much one child really loves someone else in the house. Our birthdays in the house consist of us going out to eat. Once the lunch was over, the birthday party was over and our errands were done...I was exhausted! I ran out to get Chinese food (I wasn't cooking anything remotely good or healthy after today) and I put myself on the couch and haven't gotten up since. Sid went to a friends house for a sleepover and everyone in the house, except me, went to bed at 8pm. At 9pm Micah comes downstairs sobbing. He missed Sidney and since it was his birthday he thought that she should be here with him. Tears, tears and more tears. He was crying so hard I couldn't even understand what he was saying. He thought that Sid loved him though and would have wanted to be here on the night of his birthday. Warning girls...whoever marries Micah better keep his birthday open and be with him all day! I think he is going to expect it.
Thoughts of the gym are not escaping me at any point today. If I walk a little funny or don't seem to move a lot it is because I CAN'T! Foam roll, foam roll, foam roll. I know. The gym did this to me. It hurts! But...I lost an inch in my hips this past month. An inch people! That saying, "no pain, no gain" is so true but don't you ever just want to rip out the tongue of whoever is saying it because the pain is just not fun to endure? That might be a bit harsh, but really, why does it have to hurt so much? At least I know that the exercises are working and that I am getting stronger.

Narrow Road Coffee is now serving...

2012-02-03T14:20:00.000-06:00

Narrow Road Coffee is working hard at providing great coffee.

There have been lots of great comments that we have been hearing from those drinking Narrow Road Coffee! Thank you for those and thanks to those that are purchasing the coffee. Feel free to post on Facebook or leave a comment here about Narrow Road Coffee and/or the coffee that you tried that you liked.

Narrow Road Coffee also has some news to share...Narrow Road Coffee is now Fair Trade Certified!

Did you know that you can find Narrow Road Coffee at several places in Rochester now? Here are just a few:

Christ Community Church. Several bags were purchased recently for the kitchen area of CCC and orders for the cafe have been pretty steady. If you have been drinking coffee lately (real coffee...not the specialty drinks) at CCC there is a pretty good chance that you were probably drinking Narrow Road Coffee.
Rochester Produce continues to sell Narrow Road coffee. The bags are for sale and sitting on their shelves.
Lasker Jewelers also serves Narrow Road Coffee.
There is some news of an organization in town that will soon be selling Narrow Road Coffee as well. Details are still being worked on but it is pretty close to being finalized.
Coffee can also be ordered each week. The guys usually roast at least once a week to fulfill the upcoming orders. Just get your purchase in and they will have fresh coffee for you as well! Sales information is available at their website and Facebook.

There are a few different kinds of beans that are in the works at the moment and those are:
1. Guatemala Huehuetenango (medium roast)
2. Colombia El Pital Microlot (dark roast)
3. Ethiopia Sidamo Decaf (medium/dark roast)

Want more info about Narrow Road? Check out the tab at the top of the blog for "Narrow Road Coffee" or just click here. There are links to their website and Facebook page as well.

Chris and a friend in Rochester, MN started Narrow Road Coffee just over a year ago. These two guys not only take time out of their work and family schedules to roast coffee and get it sold but also give away 25% of the proceeds to missionaries.

Free song & great workout song...or just great song in general

2012-02-03T11:31:00.000-06:00

My favorite song of the week!

There are certain songs that get me to move a little bit faster. Sometimes I need that push to keep going, to get that elliptical as fast as I can or even just to wake up at 5am.

You can find me almost every morning sitting on the mats at the gym at about 5:15am getting my ear buds in the right spot and my music ready. I could probably still lay down and fall asleep at that point but you stick a certain song on and it helps keep you moving and somehow fuels you to pick up your feet and move over to get your stretches done.

Some songs give me that great pick-up and other songs help me get my heart rate back to a normal level. I did find a good one of those recently..."Now You're Found" by Esterlyn. You can get that song free right now at Air1.com. It is free until February 12th, 2012...and then another one will be available. This website has a free song every couple of weeks and a lot of these are current songs that are in the charts for Christian music. I get a lot of music from this site and I listen to them quite a bit. (the day care kids actually know the station and cheer when they hear the station say "Air1.com". I get through our lunch time by listening to this station.)

My favorite song this week is more of that fast paced type of song...plus, it is just a great song. Listen to it and watch the video! The song is by Newsboys (history lesson...Chris and I saw them in concert a very long time ago when they had the original lead singer. I saw the current lead singer when he was part of the band DC Talk).

Enjoy.

"I accomplished a goal!" Jessica's Journey, February 1st

2012-02-01T20:42:00.000-06:00

Why set goals?

I was reading a few different websites that talked about goals and why they should be set. One comment that I found, which I thought was just hilarious but also very true, was the following:
"Without goals, we are just like a headless chicken running around a field without anything to aim for. A goal will help to provide us with guidance and direction and help us move forward in life." source

A few weeks ago I set a goal to lift 200 pounds of weight with the glute hip thrust.

I had one thing in my mind when I went to the gym. Put 200 pounds of weight and lift it. I wanted to complete this goal today and was going to try as hard as I could to accomplish this goal. The last time I did this exercise I got to 170 pounds. Adding 30 more pounds was a stretch and I wasn't sure if I could accomplish this goal today. If I couldn't reach the goal today, that was ok. I would just try again the next time.

Today, I did it!

Now I am working on the next few goals that I have:

do a SLDL or RDL of 200 pounds. I have a bit to go on this still but I will get there. Today I did 140 pounds on the SLDL. Slowly but surely I will reach this goal too.
keep track of my foods on www.myfitnesspal.com for one week straight. I have not done very well with this lately. Eating healthier is probably one of the hardest things that I have done. I would much rather lift weights all day than keep track of what I am putting in my body. Maybe it is the accountability part, maybe it is the fact that I am just lazy and don't want to do it (that's part of it) or maybe I think I'm hiding foods that I'm eating if I don't write them down. Overall I know that I'm trying but some days are just tough. My days are not usually quiet with my lunches and snacks all ready to go for the day and me sitting quietly at a desk or cafeteria. Sitting down happens rarely during my mornings. I usually need something that I can grab fast because fast is what I have time for. Healthy foods that are fast require preparation for some and others that are just easily accessible. Adapting to these changes is hard and is a challenge! I will make this goal though. Baby steps though...one at a time so I can make these changes my lifestyle. Gradually switching out foods, eliminating certain yummy things that are my favs and getting rid of some things for good...baby steps.
I have been working towards one specific goal for over much more than a year now and the reality is hitting me that I will soon be reaching this goal as well. I will be jumping up and down when it is accomplished. I don't share this goal though with many so it is a secret for now.

A great article by Jen Comas Keck talks about "eating an elephant". People set goals and want to change the world and think that they need to change absolutely everything all at once. This behavior will last a short time, but soon...all the bad habits come back, little by little.

I have big goals for myself but to get to those big goals I first must make smaller goals. Accomplishing the little goals gives me more momentum to finish strong and achieve what I have been working towards.

An example of this is the glute hip thrust exercise. I've seen videos of women that are a lot smaller than me lift 400 lbs. My goal is 400 lbs. To get to that big goal I am making smaller goals...200, 240, 280, etc.

What is one big goal that you have? What are the smaller goals that you need to put in place to reach that big goal?

My Butt Hurts! Jessica's Journey...January 31st

2012-01-31T14:35:00.000-06:00

There are many moments where I wonder why I am making my body hurt. Today, my butt, my thighs and somewhere in my upper abs just plain hurt. (there are still some layers of ~~fat~~ other substances above those muscles so I can't really tell what hurts...just know that deep in there I have pain)

I am sure you are just jumping at the chance to hurt as well...am I right?

Since I KNOW that you want to feel the pain from working muscles that are in need of some exercise I am giving you my workout that I did yesterday. Here's the catch. If you read this you have to try at least ONE of these exercises in at least the next 3 days and feel free to comment on what you thought! Send me an e-mail, write on this blog or find me on Facebook. If you don't want to try new things then you'd better stop reading. :)

Rear Foot Elevated Split Squat Body weight (no weights used) for 3 sets. 8 reps in each set.

rear foot elevated split squat
photo taken from this source

This is exactly as it sounds. I find that this one really helps me not only work on balance but I can feel the muscles in my quads working as I do this exercise. I can't think of the words to describe it other than I know that this works my quads and my butt. I'm pretty sure this exercise is why my butt hurts so much today.

1 Arm Dumbbell Bench Press 25 lbs for 3 sets. 8 reps in each set.

1 arm dumbbell bench press
photo taken from this source

This one may not sound fun but I really like this one. I was a bit worried about my wrist because it still hurts from last week and very stiff right now. This was the first day that I really did strength training since last Tuesday. I told myself that if it hurt while I was doing an exercise that I would stop because I know that the wrist is still healing. It didn't hurt but I do know that I was making some of those grunting noises while doing this exercise. 25 lb is pretty much my max for 8 reps. I might have been able to do 9 but I know I wouldn't be able to do 10.

Ab Rollout using bodyweight (no weights) and doing 2 sets. Each set has 12 reps in it.

Ab rollout with swiss ball
Photo taken from this source

I have done this exercise now in two workouts. I am not fully liking this exercise yet and I think it is mostly due to the fact that my core still has a long ways to go. I also think that I may fall off this ball so that could be part of the love/hate relationship still. I am sure this will be a lot better next week but for now...I just like this one. I've been told to do it so I'll still do it. I just don't want to.

Push Ups 3 sets of 8 reps

I like push ups. Would I have said this a year ago or 6 months ago. Heck no! I couldn't even do 1 without wanting to collapse. I am still working on form but each time I am getting closer at perfecting this. I also don't break into a sweat when I see the words "push ups" on my workout list.

Alternating X Pull Downs 22 lbs with 3 sets. 8 reps in each set.

I can't find a good photo of this one or a good explanation. I'll try to explain...at a cable machine you make an x with two cables by holding onto the handles with the opposite arms. I take turns with my arms and pull one down, across my body, slowly and then slowly go back up. I then do the other arm. I like this exercise a lot!

Cable Lifts 27 lbs. with 2 sets. 12 reps in each set.

cable lift (reverse wood chop)
photo is from this source

At a cable machine you hold onto a handle with both hands and start in a lower position. You bring the handle across your body as you go up and end up closer to your upper torso or shoulder area. For me this just depends on the weight and the number of reps. When the reps are higher or the weights are heavier, I tend to start using my back rather than the muscles I should be using and so I change this a little bit so my movements aren't as big and closer to my torso. The lighter the weights the farther down I can start (below hips)and higher I can end up (past shoulders).

You would think that this wouldn't make you break into a sweat. Just bringing a cable across your body, back and forth, back and forth. It is a workout! I am usually out of breath when I am done with one set.

Intervals

I finish up my workout by grabbing my Gatorade and heading over to the elliptical. Once in awhile I will go on the treadmill but normally I go to the elliptical. Right now the intervals that I am doing are:

40 seconds as hard as I can, 20 second break, repeat this 7 times

Don't forget...now you read this so you have to try one of these. Let me know what you did and what you thought of the exercise! Several of these can be done at home so you don't have the excuse of not having a gym membership for this one. Have fun!

*So, after I wrote this I was told to increase my weights in the x pull down and the cable lift. I will. I have the amounts that I should be able to do and they scare me a bit but I will work towards that goal. I also have a goal to get to 200 lbs on the glute bridge thrust. I am at 170 lbs. right now. I am still dealing with a wrist that is sore when I move it certain ways and it is very stiff but it is a lot better than it was.

Feed My Starving Children

2012-01-29T13:45:00.002-06:00

I LOVE showing my kids ways that they can help others. At the moment we have a lot of attitudes of entitlement in our house. Getting the kids to see others, help others and just be more thankful can only do good things for them. Helping others and learning about the lifestyles of different cultures and the needs that other kids have will just help them in the long run and hopefully help their hearts be more loving towards others.

Sid and I had the opportunity to help a group this past weekend called Feed My Starving Children. This group packages meals and then sends them to countries where kids are actually starving and not making it to see another day. In fact, 18,000 kids die every day from starvation. 18,000! That is a huge number and the resources are right in front of us. These kids just need the food brought to them.

There are a lot of ways to help this great organization. Donating money, spending your time packing meals or even prayer...all great ways that you can help kids live another day. Wouldn't we want that for our kids if we were in a situation where we needed help?

If you ever would want to pack up some meals in the cities, I am sure that Sidney and either Chris or I would join you!

I knew you wanted to see me with a hairnet on...didn't ya?

We are all done! Our group packed over 35,000 meals which will feed over 90 kids for an entire year. During the 6 sessions that our church had of volunteers, 202,000 meals were packed! AMAZING!

My Gym Prodigy

2012-01-28T14:09:00.002-06:00

My little gym prodigy...Sidney :)

6:10am, Sid was ready to go to the gym. Not many 10 year olds that I know want to hit the gym that early in the morning. She was really excited about it and was dressed and out the door even before me.

Today Sid and I got warmed up and then we did some strength training. I try to show Sid some different things while we are at the gym, see what she might like doing and also let her do some things that she wants to improve on.

Sid loves doing leg raises on the captains chair. Last time she tried she couldn't finish one rep. I keep telling her that all she has to do is practice and eventually she would get better and be able to finish one. When I first started working out I had a friend that would do a few reps on the captains chair and I would be so jealous. I couldn't do it! I tried and tried but my muscles just weren't working and I couldn't lift my legs anywhere close to my chest, let alone off the rests for my feet. Every week I would try again. Eventually I got to the point where I could do these exercises and start trying to do more advanced ones where my legs are straight out rather than bent. Today, Sidney found out that if she does practice she does get better. She was able to do 1 leg raise on the captains chair! She was so excited.

We also tried an exercise where you put your legs up on a ball as you are laying down, you raise up your hips and core and then bring your feet towards you while they are raised up on the ball. Sid was able to do a few of these after she figured out how to balance. She was very proud of herself when she was able to hold herself up on the ball for a few seconds (long enough for me to take her picture!).

Look at that smile!

That is a smile of knowing that she is accomplishing something that she wasn't able to do before.

Free Cookbook from Sparkpeople

2012-01-28T13:16:00.002-06:00

Although I really want to win this I also wanted to make sure that I shared this great news with you! Maybe YOU will win!

Sparkpeople.com has great stuff, great offers and a great website that you can use to help stay healthy, get information on many different areas of fitness and food as well as a great community of people that are right there with you the whole way.

In less than a week Sparkpeople.com will be giving away 2 of their cookbooks. They just gave 2 away and had such a great response that they decided to give more away. How generous, right?!

Here is the link to enter to win this cookbook.

"Barbell Glute Bridge" Jessica's Journey January 27th

2012-01-27T09:39:00.000-06:00

One of the exercises that totally freaked me out (and I mean TOTALLY!) was the barbell glue bridge.

This is an exercise that really is hard to explain. A visual is much better. Amazingly...Girls Gone Strong just put out a video this morning of this exact exercise. It's like they were reading my mind.

It looks really tough and the name alone sounds very complicated. But, I can do this! (and I don't have any foam or cushioning on my bar...I need to figure that part out next) I am up to 170 lbs. lifting and my goal is to be at 200 lbs. soon. Not sure when that "soon" will be but it should be soon. :) I may attempt at doing some lifting Saturday morning as long as my wrist is doing ok. This may be one that I try to do...wonder if I can get to 200 lbs. tomorrow?

Stinkin' snowboards" Jessica's Journey, January 26th

2012-01-26T14:36:00.000-06:00

I had a bit of a setback. Have no fear, I will be back to lifting soon!

On Monday the kids had a snow day. As many people do on snow days, we played outside and enjoyed the new snow and the brisk, cold weather. One of the things that we did was ride on sleds, that was the kids mostly, and I did a lot of shoveling. I cleared the entire driveway and then cleared it again after the kids kept dumping snow all over it with their buckets full of snow and their sleds that they filled up and then dumped. Besides shoveling I also decided to try out this very colorful object that is used to go down hills. That object would be Micah's snowboard. The front of our yard is a gradual hill and I thought it would be simple. Just hop on the board with both feet in the spots where they go and slide on down. I was wrong and I now give a lot of credit to those who can successfully snowboard. As a result of me not knowing what I was doing and being in my 30's (I am sure age has something to do with my lack of coordination) I fell. I didn't just fall, I landed on my left wrist.

My wrist wasn't too bad and felt a little sore but wasn't horrible. On Tuesday morning I decided though that I'd better get something to help stabilize it. I came to this realization as I was doing my workout and with each weight and activity I could feel pain. Each time I turned my wrist, Ouch! If I pressed on the palm or tried to pick something up I could feel the pain go down my arm. Somehow the combination of falling and lifting sent my wrist into major ouchiness. (I know...that's not a real word)

My wrist is doing better but there is still pain. A few more days and the pain should be gone and then I can go back to the weights. I did go to spin class today and there were several moments where I tried to hold on to the bike and the pain was just a bit too much. Spin class with 1 hand is interesting. Makes you use just your lower body a lot more though...which is what spin is all about.

I was planning on finishing up my week tomorrow but I don't see that happening. :( Bummer, bummer, bummer. I will be at the gym and I will just do what I can and what doesn't make me cringe. In the past I probably would have just stayed home and slept in if I had an injury like this. It's a new me though! I can't let this little injury stop my journey. No excuses!

Teen MOPS...my night of "helping" with the group

2012-01-24T21:41:00.000-06:00

My days lately are full of kids that are sick. Today was no exception.

This afternoon I was cleaning up puke, disinfecting every area that kids touched, every area that kids threw up on...just one of those days where you want to hole yourself up in your disinfected house (or in a shower just so you can feel clean again) and not go anywhere.

I did have an obligation tonight though. Although I was so tempted to text my friend and tell her that I wasn't going to be able to make it because I was still needing to clean things up, I didn't. I was ready for an escape from the bleach smell. I was ready to go see something that at one time encompassed everything that I did, thought and had time for. My passion at that point in my life was Teen MOPS.

I was a bit nervous because I knew that I wouldn't know some people. I thought I would feel out of place because of that and I honestly had no idea what I was going to be doing at this meeting. Usually there are details sent out to people that are helping out. No details here. I was the one that said when I would be able to make it. I asked questions about what I needed to do, many times, to several people. No answer.

The control side of me was for some reason ok with this lack of control and lack of information. Very strange for me. Teen MOPS is not something that I have control of though anymore. At one point in my life it was one of my babies. In fact, my babies grew up with Teen MOPS being a part of their lives day in and day out. Going to Teen MOPS meetings was the norm for my little ones. Helping with Teen MOPS, the kids in childcare, preparing crafts and materials for the meeting...my kids were right there the entire time.

Walking into the room where the girls were was like talking with an old friend. Honestly though, it was a bit awkward at first. No one still had answers for me when I asked what I needed to do. I was there to help. I needed a task. Nope. I got to eat food. I got to chat it up with the speaker and a few girls that I hadn't seen in 9 months or so.

The meeting started and I found a place in the back. (Still not knowing what I was to do...by the way) Jenni started talking and then the reason for me being at the meeting was revealed. The group had wanted to thank me for starting up Teen MOPS so many years ago. They made a card for me, gave me a t-shirt (in my now current size) and a beautiful picture with one of the quotes that I have on Facebook.

I truly appreciate all of the volunteers that are working with the teens now and the kids that are in the childcare. This program can continue because of them and their willingness to help others.

I so love those girls! Tonight I got to sit back and listen to them talk, encourage and educate each other. Yes...there were speakers too. The speakers did a great job! The girls though...the girls that I knew before were timid, shy, scared, confused, some in financial problems, drugs and alcohol controlled some of their decisions, some in abusive relationships, others just trying to learn what it was that came with the title "mom". Tonight I saw girls that grew up and showed a maturity level that I hadn't seen before in their words and lives. The girls are growing up. They are learning all about this mom thing and getting the help and friendships that they need through Teen MOPS.

Teen MOPS is all about showing teen moms that people love them and educating them on what it is like to be a mom. I know that a lot of people give teen moms a bad rap. Yes, not every teen mom makes the best decisions. Yes, not every teen mom out there is doing the best for her kids. But...before you give someone a stamp of being a bad mom just because they already have the label of "teen mom", you really need to learn their stories. You need to actually talk with them, see where they started and find out where they are at now. I know that every choice I have made in my life hasn't been the right one but I hope that people don't give me a label of being a bad person just because of some choice I made in my past.

If you think that teen moms aren't doing a good job then that might just be your calling to go help them. Find out if there is a group already in your area. If not...think about starting one for the teen moms in your area.

You can find out more about Teen MOPS at www.mops.org

The Dreaded Scale Jessica's Journey...January 24th

2012-01-24T12:40:00.000-06:00

The Dreaded Scale.

There was a time in my life when I would walk by the scale and have these feelings:

hate for myself
complete hate of a certain number that I was trying to beat and just seemed to always tread above that goal line
the thought that I, myself, was a failure for not being able to reach this goal
thinking that I was worth less because I wasn't a certain number that society said I should be
panic when I knew that I was going to the doctor and that a scale would be greeting me (out in the hallway where people are all around...a fear for every woman I think)
questions about why I couldn't be built differently. It always seems like those girls who are a size 0 to size 6 could wear just about anything and yet I didn't have as many options since I wasn't in those single digits

I am sure that I had a lot more but overall...I hate the scale.

Hate is a very strong word. I know. It is true though. I can guarantee that I am not the only one out there that has the same feelings for this object that sits on the floor. It feels like it only has one job...to mock us and how we look.

I know that I'm not the only one who feels this way either. There are a lot of women in this world that are facing many battles with their weight. I see at the gym some women that weigh themselves on the big, almighty scale before, during AND after their workout. I see women that look at that object with those numbers on it and I see the disappointment in their faces. I have seen women at the gym that are fighting a battle with their bodies and mind and some of them are trying to survive but their mental illness of bulimia or anorexia are winning.

When I first started going to the gym there was a woman who was glued to the treadmill every morning. The incline was up in the 10's (maybe more...I don't go that high so I don't know for sure) and she was just marching along and hanging on to the front of the treadmill for her life. Little by little you could see the changes in her body. Her arms were starting to trim down, her legs were slimming and any extra weight that she did have on her body was melting off. I didn't know why she was exercising the way that she was until I tried it one day. I put that incline as high as I could go and I went as fast and as far as I could. The calories that I burned that day...according to the treadmill...was huge! No wonder she was on this everyday. There was a point though when this exercise for this woman became more of an addiction. The last few times that I saw her she was too thin and she kept right on walking at that high incline.

Another woman that I see once in awhile but not often is severely anorexic. I don't have to ask her anything or even talk to her...I can just see it. She walks from the scale to the elliptical and then to the scale. Her bones are sticking through her skin basically and the sight is not attractive, it is sick looking. This person is the picture of anorexia. My insides break for her each time that I see her because I truly hope that she is getting the help that she needs for this disease. You may ask if I have approached her and no, I haven't. How do you approach a complete stranger about this?

The scale can hold many women captive and it is time to start looking at this scale differently. My mind is learning to grasp this and I rarely go on the scale. I am learning that the number isn't a true picture of me. The number that flashes doesn't define me.

The next time you step on the scale think of these things instead:

My muscle weighs more than fat and this number is not accurate number of how healthy I am.
My family loves me just the way I am.
The world has a twisted view of what beautiful is and what is shown in the media and tv is not even real most of the time.
If I step on this scale and it is a number that I don't like I can't let this ruin my thoughts or attitude for the day (or the week) and can't use this as a measure of my success.

At the gym this morning there was a sign up above the big Goliath of a scale that is located in the women's locker room. I had to take a picture of it and share.

American Heritage Girls

2012-01-23T20:43:00.000-06:00

Growing up I was part of Girl Scouts. Was I the best Girl Scout? I doubt it. See, I am not a huge fan of dirt, cooking isn't a huge highlight in life for me and being outside in a sleeping bag when I could be inside on a mattress. Am I right? Who's with me? ;)

Sidney is part of a group called American Heritage Girls...a.k.a. AHG. There is camping, badge earning and so much fun. The leaders all are so dedicated and you can tell that they truly enjoy and love what they are doing. The whole organization is also Christian based which is great for girls that are growing up in a world that we are living in today.

Tonight was the winter ceremony for AHG. Sid earned 5 badges and worked so hard at these. 3 of the badges she earned at camp and these are already on her uniform. She did receive 2 other ones tonight though which I get to sew on for her.

So proud of you Sid! Keep up the good work.

Pinewood Derby

2012-01-21T21:23:00.001-06:00

What a day! We have had smiles, hope, anticipation, nerves and then...sadness.

Micah worked hard on his car for Pinewood Derby and really made a nice looking car. He did have a very slow car though compared to others but he was going for looks. He made an ambulance and it was pretty cute.

We are working on emotions tonight and with the most emotional child in our family, losing is tough. A little but of ice cream, some hugs and talking and we will just work on getting through this night.

Micah, you did awesome and we are proud of you!

Here is an after race photo, watching the race and a pre-race photo...

The Big Buzz @ the House

2012-01-20T20:18:00.004-06:00

Lots going on right now in the Williams house. Here are just a few tidbits:

Micah's Pinewood Derby with the Cub Scouts is tomorrow. The last minute prep work has begun on his car. It is very excited (and stressful for a few in the home). I myself will be painting a little bit this evening. ~~I can't wait for this opportunity to help out ;)~~ Nevermind, Chris just did my part so I guess I am just a spectator.
Sidney is working on a science project. At the moment she is still working out the details and some of that involves talking with a classmate on the phone to set up times to work on it together outside of school. Sid is not great at using our iPhones and likes to hold it way past her ear so she can't even hear what someone is saying. Technology scares her a bit but she lives in a house full of it so she better get used to it cause it's not stopping anytime soon.
Sid and Micah also just got e-mail! They are so excited. If you ask them they will probably tell you their password. We are still working on the security aspect of this. :) Sid has been checking hers constantly since she got home from school and Micah already has plans to check his e-mail right away when he gets up in the morning. Sid likes to include little hearts in her e-mails also.
Quinn...well, he wants to be involved with everything and have the last word always. He is working hard at writing his letters and is doing very well with these during our learning time at day care. Yesterday he told someone that they needed to be responsible, yet in his 4 year old little language he said, "rebonbible". It was so cute!
Narrow Road Coffee just received more samples for their next new coffees that they will be selling. I always get a phone call wondering if the samples have arrived yet...there are some anxious people ready to roast.
We have 2 birthday parties to go to this weekend. Still don't have gifts for those yet.
Starting Sunday we (meaning I or something our family has to attend) have something going on Sunday night (choir for me), Monday night (AHG awards night), Tuesday night (I am going to help at Teen MOPS...it will be nice to see everyone again!), and Wednesday night (AWANA & Choir practice). By Thursday I am going to be ready for a break I think. Somewhere in the midst of our week I need to figure out what Micah is doing for his birthday party and get that scheduled and some invitations done as well.
Oh...and the kids are loving this snow! They want to go out right away and play in it once they wake up. Hopefully it is somewhat sticky for them because they have big plans for their forts and snowmen.

"Exercises to do at home to tone up" Jessica's Journey, January 20th

2012-01-20T15:54:00.000-06:00

It's the weekend!

I sooooo did not want to get up this morning and head to the gym. I think it was the lack of sleep catching up with me from the night before. I went though and felt so much better once I did go. I tried some new exercises and this is almost always how it works...the ones that I thought I wouldn't like, I love! The ones that I thought would be easy...ummm, not so much. There is a new one where I use an exercise ball and have to roll onto it, over it, some sort of combo thing there. It is not fun. It is really hard for me! And I thought that was going to be super easy.

I just had to share this article that I read today. This is a must read (well, if you are a woman)! There are some excerises on here that you can...and should...do at home. Also, some extra motivation for you to keep working hard are some pictures of the person that wrote the article. This is sortof like a before/after photos BUT...it includes her measurements. Take a look at those ladies and see the difference and how smaller or lower in numbers doesn't always equal better. This just gives strength training another pin on it's board in the positive area. If you are a visual person and need that picture to see what you could look like if you work hard then be sure to read the whole article. Great stuff in there.

Here is the link...did you click on it yet? Here is another chance. :)

Jessica's Journey...January 19th "no excuses"

2012-01-19T13:41:00.000-06:00

This is a "no excuses" type of day.

Last night I tried to sleep but just couldn't. There was so much going on last night that I'm not sure I am even awake enough now to fully remember everything correctly.

I did try to start slowing down for the night and attempt to close my eyes shortly after 9pm. Quinn was still up so he joined me and was just a chatterbox (reminder...no nap for him during the day today no matter how much he needs one!). I tried reading. I tried sleeping. I tried counting things. Nothing. I finally decided at 11:45pm that I should just go try to sleep in Sid's room. I thought I would be able to finally shut my eyes and catch some zzz's.

Midnight. Beep. Beep. Beep. What the heck is that sound and where is it coming from?

Micah set up his clock again and had the alarm on and since it wasn't set it went off at midnight. This has happened before. :(

4:40am my alarm goes off. Time to get outside and enjoy the -28 degrees that are welcoming all Minnesotan's today and drive on over to the gym.

If I can still get to the gym after only 4 1/2 hours of sleep and get out of a nice cozy bed so early in the morning...so can you! I still have to work 10 hours today (in fact, there are 10 little kiddos with me) and I have no caffeine in the house.

I know I won't have any trouble falling asleep tonight!

No excuses, people! You CAN find time to exercise!!

My Workout Today: I did day 2 of Phase 4. This had a few new exercises in it for me and it was a day for me to really just figure some things out, see what weights I should do and watch my form. One new exercise that I did, which I was a little bit freaked out about, was a Body Saw. I did this without the slides. It doesn't sound like fun but it really, really is! I also did a lot of squats and lunges today and I already know that I will probably be feeling this by the end of the day. Time to get out those foam rollers I am thinking.

Jessica's Journey...January 18th "when should you replace your shoes?"

2012-01-18T15:29:00.000-06:00

Yesterday I ran in my "old" pair of shoes for the last time. The shoes look fine and I even got a comment at the gym that my shoes look new. My feet, knees and hips are telling me otherwise.

So when ARE we supposed to change our shoes that we exercise in?

From all the research that I have found this seems to be the result:

If you feel pain, it may be time. (this is the best indication for me but I often wait to long) The knees seem to feel this the most and you may start to be sore in those areas if the cushioning in your shoe has broken down. I feel this also in my hips and in my feet. In fact, yesterday I ran in my old shoes and all day my feet were really hurting me and my knees.
About 300 to 400 miles of exercising seem to be the average amount of time for replacement. If you are running outside or on rough surfaces it could actually be earlier than this. A great way to figure out the mileage is just to keep track at each workout. You could also keep track for about a month and just use that month as your general rule if your workouts are consistent each month. Just multiply the months to figure out when you get to that 300-400 mile mark. I have read that your size, body type, how you exercise and the activities that you do also play a big part in this. Your tread may still look great but that doesn't mean the inside of your shoe is still doing what it was designed to do.

Source

I really hope that those who start out exercising take a moment to look at the shoes they are wearing. Running in shoes that are the wrong pronation or a shoe that no longer provides the support that it was designed to do can really bring pain to your joints. While I had physical therapy this was a big comment that was given to me. My physical therapist put in additional support in the shoes that I wore everyday, told me to not wear flip-flops until I was better and consider purchasing new shoes that provided the support that I needed.

At the moment I have 3 or 4 pairs of tennis shoes that I have accumulated for the past 2 years. They are great shoes and I still wear them but just can't go running or have an intense workout with them anymore. When I run in them I am sore. Since I have only worn these shoes in the gym they actually look new. What can I do with these shoes? It seems like such a waste to have all these shoes sitting in my closet when they could be used for something else.

Here is a website that lets you know what you can do with your used shoes. Before you throw your next pair away consider giving them to one of these places. I believe the Running Room in Rochester, MN also takes them. Here is the link for you!

Yummy Pork Chops

2012-01-17T20:57:00.000-06:00

Yummy Pork Chops

Who says you don't have time to cook? Here is a recipe that just requires a little bit of time at the stove. You could have this meal done in less than 30 minutes probably.

4 pork chops, 1/4-inch thick

Salt and pepper, to taste

½ cup Dijon mustard

1 teaspoon mustard powder

1 teaspoon dried french thyme

1 teaspoon crushed garlic

1 tablespoon coconut oil

Preheat oven to 425°F. Season pork chops lightly with salt and pepper. In a small bowl, combine mustard, mustard powder, French thyme, and garlic; mix well and spread evenly over both sides of the chops. Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium-high. Add the chops and brown for 2 minutes per side. Transfer your skillet to the oven and cook for an additional 5-8 minutes, until no longer pink and cooked through. Serve over sauted baby spinach.

(my kids likes the pork chops...my veggie lover loved the spinach but the non veggie lovers did not :) I also put slices of green pepper, red pepper, slices of parsnips and some garlic with the spinach)

Source

MLK day and what the kids had planned

2012-01-17T15:17:00.001-06:00

During school the last week the kids were really talking about Martin Luther King Jr. and had a lot to share with me yesterday about this man and what was accomplished through him. It is great to hear the kids talk about something and you can just see in their eyes how proud they are that they remember certain facts.

The kids had the day off from school and with the kiddos home that means we have extra kids eating, more kids at the house during the day which means more work for me all day and night. We also were basically unpacking and trying to catch up on laundry before the kids needed clothes for the week again. I think I did about 7 loads of laundry yesterday. This included their coats and snowpants which desperately needed some clean water and soap on them. Gross!

My two bigger kids had also planned to clean up their rooms a bit. When Sid gets into an organizational frenzy...watch out! She had bags for Goodwill, bags for garbage, bags for a future garage sale and just a big ol' mess. Micah was crying the night before because his room was so messy (it really wasn't that bad) so he got in on the crazy train also and gathered a lot of stuff for all those different bags.

At about 5pm we remembered that we had homework to do (oops!) so the kids finished that up and then it was food and our nightly activities that the kids are in this year.

Notice that I didn't talk much about the littlest one...a.k.a. my quick tempered, smart mouthed 4 year old. Quinn usually is pretty good but lately he is starting to act a lot like his brother was at this age. Right about 3:30pm/4:30pm he gets an attitude. I think this comes from him mostly being tired and it just makes him cranky towards everyone and everything. I sent him to him room at about 4:45pm and he was asleep when it was time to eat at about 5:15pm. Quinn slept until about 7:15am this morning. I guess he really was tired.

We started something new in the house too and we will see if we can keep up with this. The kids have verses to memorize for AWANA each week and we usually tend to fail to remember to work on these until about Wednesday at 4:30pm when they get home from school. We bought some vinyl that you can write on with chalk and are using this to help us keep track of the verses throughout the week. Micah has Psalm 23: 1-6 to do just for this week. That is a lot for a 1st grader...in my opinion. He is great at memorizing though so we will see if he can pull it off. Sid's verses are just these long ones that are really good but they are so long. She has always been good at memorizing too but this year AWANA has been put on the back burner with her so hopefully this will help a bit.

At some point we will be getting those Thank You's done from everything that they got at Christmas. We also need to get to the store because our fridge basically has spinach, parsnips, carrots, Greek yogurt and lots of lemons in it. Oh, and a little, tiny slice of apple pie that Chris' mom made this past weekend. (I think Chris left that in there just to tempt me all day long. Don't worry...it is still there.) Hmm. Thank You cards or groceries. Which one is more important today? I'll have to check and see what the kids are doing for lunch tomorrow first. If it is cold lunch and I have to make it...today may be the day that is needed for a trip to the store. Pretty sure the kids would get beat up if I sent them to school with parsnips as their snack. :)

Jessica's Journey...January 17th "True or False"

2012-01-17T11:00:00.000-06:00

While at the inlaws this past weekend I noticed a magazine by Sams Club, that was sitting on the table in their living room. On the front of the cover was the all amazing, almost always screaming (at least that is what we heard a lot of on The Biggest Loser), Jillian Michaels. Of course that drew me into actually opening up this magazine that is distributed by Sams Club. I never did read that article though.

What did catch my attention was a little corner of a different page that talked about the true & false of fitness. I skimmed it and as I was reading I realized that it was again a lot of what I had been reading lately.

I still think that a lot of women believe a lot of these false truths though with fitness. I actually heard this several times over the past few weeks that we have been traveling and a lot of these are things that I thought before too. "I really want to lose the fat in my arms." "I just need to shrink my butt." "I really want to be a certain weight, that is my goal and I can get there if I just eat this really bland, disgusting weight loss product." And yes..."If I lose weight it just comes off in my boobs and no where else so exercise doesn't work for me."

The picture isn't the best but hopefully you can see it enough to read through the article. Maybe if we keep spreading the word about these things more people will start believing them and realize that exercise and eating the right way is the best way to be healthy and lose weight if that is their goal.

The words that got hit with the flash from my camera say..."Women don't have enough testosterone to bulk up the way men can. Research shows that heavy resistance training burns more calories than the same amount of cardio."

Women...that right there should make you want to go lift something. Hello!?! Burns MORE calories than the same amount of time on the treadmill or elliptical...enough said for me.

My Workouts: Yesterday I officially started Phase 4. I don't think I have ever been so nervous about an exercise as this specific day. I really had to mentally prepare myself for this workout and to be honest...that took about 4 days before I knew I was ready. I also think that my body itself needs time to heal and mend after a really tough week, like last week. By the end of the week I was having some different things going on and was also just worn out. My eyes were twitching, and still do, all throughout the day and I just needed to take it a bit easier. My hips were back to their old games and causing some pain and I literally had hours where I couldn't sleep just because it hurt so bad. Listening to my body...I am working on that. :)

Here is one of the exercises that I did yesterday. This was why I was freaking myself out. To sum it up...I put 90 lbs on a bar that weights about 35 pounds. I slid under the bar so it was sitting on my hips and then I lifted the bar up with my hips. Here is a picture of someone on the web doing this exercise to help give you a visual.

I survived though and made it through without any problems. I didn't lift as much as I could have but it was a start and now I know that I can even lift more. Now I am ready to do more new things tomorrow during day 2 of Phase 4. I will be mentally preparing for those new exercises throughout the day today. I did do a lot more weight than my normal that I have been doing during the straight leg deadlift. I lifted about 120 pounds with that too and that was very awesome! Having grips helps me a lot!

I have to say that I am pretty proud of sticking with this and trying new things. I would have to say that one of the toughest things is getting out of bed each morning, all on my own and then working out all on my own. I am motivated to change and get healthier but luckily I am self-motivated. I can really see the benefit though of having someone meet you at the gym or having a buddy because there are days when I don't want to go and when I don't have as much motivation.

Jessica's Journey...January 12th "Is it ok to indulge?"

2012-01-12T21:40:00.000-06:00

Today is pretty much our first day of real, Minnesota weather. We are in the negative numbers (with windchill) today...I am pretty sure that this is the first time this winter that we are in negative numbers.

I came home from the gym, shoveled the sidewalk and driveway in this horrible weather and realized that my fingers were now freezing cold and that my hair was frozen since I didn't dry it all the way before I came home. Stupid...stupid. Now I felt like my body temperature was in those negative numbers too.

The big kids had to be out in this weather today and I felt bad that I wasn't able to drive them to school today. Working moms...even those that work from home...don't always get to share in those simple pleasures as driving your kids to school and it breaks my heart at times. It is too cold for kids to be standing on the corner waiting for their bus. As a mom, I compromised with my feelings and tried to help them feel better and give them something to look forward to in their day...after they had been out in the windy, negative temps that we are dealing with today. What did I do? I promised them that I would make puppy chow.

All morning I knew in my head that if I made it I would eat it.

I at least waited until this afternoon until I made it so I didn't have the temptation in the house all day.

While I had a bowl of puppy chow in my hand and was tasting the yummy, chocolate covered cereal I received an e-mail. Here was the title, "Why Shouldn't I Indulge?" by Lysa TerKeurst. Is that ironic or what?!? Naturally I waited to read the e-mail until about an hour ago. That's just my style. :)

I thought I would share the content of the e-mail since it was so relevant to my life today.

“I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made.” Psalm 139:14a (NIV)

God made you wonderful. Psalm 139 says so. You are beautiful and loved just the way you are, whether you’re a size zero or a size thirty. But, if your size is a struggle or a place of defeat, God loves you so much He doesn’t want you to stay there.

There was a time when I felt utterly defeated in the area of food and health. I knew I needed to make changes, but not because of the number on the scale or my clothing size. I knew it because of the battle that raged in my heart. I craved, I desired, I thought about, and arranged my life around food.

Yet I was a Bible teacher, a woman who loved Jesus. Why couldn’t I figure this out? I had found victory in so many areas of my life, but this area alluded me. I constantly asked, “Why shouldn’t I indulge?”

One day, I looked up the definition of the word indulge, which means to act in an unrestrained way. For me it was unrestrained eating. You see, eating in its proper context is not the problem. God gave us food for nourishment, strength and even celebration. The problem comes when pleasure is unrestrained.

I had to get honest enough to admit that I relied on food more than I relied on God. I craved food more than I craved God. Chocolate was my comfort and deliverer. Cookies were my reward. Salty chips were my joy. Food was what I turned to in times of stress and sadness ... even in times of happiness.

I knew it was something God was challenging me to surrender to His control. Really surrender. Surrender to the point where I’d make radical changes for the sake of my spiritual health—perhaps even more than my physical health.

Part of my surrender was asking myself a really raw question. May I ask you this same question?

Is it possible we love and rely on food more that we love and rely on God?

Now before you turn your computer off, hear me out. This question is crucial.

We have to see the purpose of our struggle with food as something more than getting to wear smaller sizes and receive compliments. Shallow desires produce shallow efforts. These good things are nice, but not as appealing in the moment as a cinnamon roll, or those chips, or that brownie.

The process of getting healthy has to be about more than just losing weight and focusing on ourselves. It’s not about adjusting our diets and hoping for good physical results. It’s about recalibrating our souls so that we want to change for the right reasons: because we are fearfully and wonderfully made by God. And created to live in victory, not in defeat.

I discovered that pursuing a healthy eating plan for these very reasons was one of the most significant spiritual journeys I’d ever dared to take with God. Today, I invite you to journey with me.

Dear Lord, if I’m being honest with myself and You, I know sometimes I rely on food more than I rely on You. I want to recalibrate my soul and change for the right reasons. I want to see You in and through this entire process. Please be with me, Lord, each day. In Jesus’ Name. Amen.

Source

Today's Workout: Spin! Awesome class today. The last few days I have been noticing that I have a lot of eye strain. I took a nap tonight (now I'm not tired) to see if that would help at all and I have tried to stay off my laptop a lot today but it really is anything that I do, read, watch tv...look at something. I've tried wearing my glasses more to see if that helps but it is just getting to the point where my eyes are being annoying. I've tried drinking more today (water...people!) too to see if that would help. So far it hasn't. Hopefully tomorrow will be better. After feeling like this today I did decide that Friday morning I will just be running and won't be doing any lifting...aka strength training. We have our third and last Christmas for the year this weekend so we will be traveling for a few days. Over the river (Mississippi) and through the woods (all of Wisconsin) to Grandma's (and Grandpa's) house we go! Illinois, here we come. As long as I am back to normal by Monday I will start phase 4 then. My body might need these few days to rest up a bit.

Jessica's Journey...January 11th "time to play & eat"

2012-01-11T14:29:00.001-06:00

Phase 4...Phase 4...Phase 4

I got my e-mail yesterday with everything that I need for Phase 4. All I can say is...hmmm. How in the world am I going to do those exercises? They look very complicated and hard.

As I start a new phase I tend to always have a bit of panic going on in my mind. I have moments where I doubt myself and don't think that I will be able to handle this next step. Ever had one of those moments where you start to doubt what you are capable of?

I started to Google different things yesterday for the exercises because I like to try to see how other people do things so I can try to do everything as best as I can. There are some exercises that also have spoiler alerts throughout the web that indicate if I do something the wrong way that I could injure myself. The last thing that I want to do is injure myself. So research, research and more research. Thank goodness for YouTube!

As I was getting my gym bag ready for the morning it occurred to me that I still didn't know what I was going to be doing there. I didn't feel confident enough to start the new phase yet because I still wanted to look some different things up and had a few questions I needed to ask to get some clarification. This is probably the first day in a very long time that I have gone to the gym and had no idea what I was going to be doing. Very weird feeling for me.

Turns out...someone didn't put some of their "toys" away at the gym and so I got to play with them this morning.

One thing that I haven't done yet was deadlifts with a barbell. I have always used dumbbells and this was getting very tough on my arms and hands. Those big barbells are intimidating and I just hadn't taken the step yet to use those. This morning there was a shorter barbell just sitting on the mat, all by itself, just asking to be lifted. I wasn't too sure how much this barbell weighed, I think that was the part that I was most timid about...just not knowing what I was lifting and using. I was pretty sure that it weighed more than 15 pounds but I don't think it weighed more than 35 pounds. I did do a few sets of push presses with the bar at first just to try to figure out how heavy the bar might be. (Have I mentioned that I really like push presses? They are so fun.) I started out small with the weighted plates as I put them on the bar. I put on the clamp at the end and then...my new grips! (Love those too!) At the end of my lifting I had 90 lbs on the bar. Next time I will have to do a little bit more.

This morning I played. Now I feel a little bit more confident on using the barbells and that is getting me one step closer to being ready for Phase 4.

I have been working very hard at what I eat too. I know that food is my downfall...I like to eat. Since Culver's is just a few blocks away and they have the only ice cream I can eat without getting sick...and McDonalds, Wendy's, Buffalo Wild Wings, Arby's, etc. are just minutes away...the temptations are everywhere. This past weekend we had a family Christmas and my brother and sister-in-law introduced me to an app that they use to help track their food. I have been using pen and paper but that isn't always with me and then I forget to write things down. If I am truly accountable to my food I have to have something with me all the time. I checked it out and I have to say that I really like it. Probably the best feature for me is the ability to scan in the barcodes of whatever it is that I am eating. I can also put in my workout that I did that day. One other cool feature is that I can see what my friends are doing for a little extra motivation. If you want to see what I am really doing everyday and help keep yourself on track with your food go check out www.myfitnesspal.com. Just add me as a friend (you can send me a comment if you would like my e-mail address) and you will get to see the days I am really good with what I eat and the days when maybe I'm not quite as good and get to see what I am doing with each workout.

I also came across a really funny video today by StreamFit. You can view it here on YouTube. It reminds me of me at times and what I am thinking and what I see other people doing while they are at the gym with their trainer. I love the part about the foam roller. I just got mine and am a bit scared to use it because I heard that it hurts. Why this video has to have a bad word in the title is beyond my comprehension...so just ignore that. I don't remember hearing any actual bad words in the video...just the title. (I just watched it again...one word that isn't great that I found) Probably did that to get more people to view it...again, something else I just don't understand. This is pretty funny though.

Oh...and now our snow that decided not to be here for Christmas is back. Minnesota, I think our winter is now here. (Ok...it may be back to 50 degrees next week...who knows!)

Jessica's Journey...January 9th "video time-Quinn and push-ups"

2012-01-09T21:58:00.001-06:00

A few days ago I wrote how I did some push-ups with one of my kids on my back. Then...a comment was given on how I should make a video of this.

Today, I did.

I know that I need to work on my form. It is horrible. I knew that as I was lifting Quinn up. I need to also work on bringing my upper body down farther during my push-ups. They really are a lot easier without a kid on your back. Quinn, my 4 year old, is over 40 lbs and he is really heavy on my back. I think I'm still hurting a bit from it.

The video that we took was actually the 4th time that we tried this. The person who took the video for me is 8 years old so we had to do a few rounds to make sure we were actually in the video. :) I think that she did a pretty good job on this take.

Here you go! Now go put a kid on your back and do some push-ups. They think it is fun!

Today's Workout: Other than the 16 pushups or so that I did to try to get a video made this afternoon, I finished Phase 3!!!! Phase 3 was 4 weeks and each week had 3 different workouts and they got longer and harder each week. Example...every single set that I did today in every exercise had 14 reps in it. When I started this phase, I started with 8 in the sets. I am very glad to be finished with this stage.

The hardest exercises for me during this last week was probably inverted rows (where you hang off of a bar and then pull yourself up) and a reverse cable cross (I think that's what it is called). The inverted rows are difficult just because my hands like to slip off or get weak towards the end of the sets. The reverse cable cross is just awkward for me. Planks...any kind...those are tough for me, always. They are better than what they were at the beginning but they still require a lot of focus and strength.

What was so-so during this phase? At first the core rows were difficult but they did get better and I actually put weight with them. In the beginning I did not like doing these. I think the reason was partly because I once took a circuit type of class and one of the exercises was a core row. I couldn't do it, the only one in the class that couldn't do it. That kindof takes your confidence and squashes it into a pulp. When I did the core row last week they were pretty fun. (I know, these are crazy words coming out of my mouth considering 4 to 6 months ago I couldn't do one at all).

What I liked. I like barbell push presses. I really, really like these. I like doing deadlifts too. Towards the end my hands were really getting torn up but...guess what came in the mail today? My grips are here!!! Now I know I can do a better job at deadlifts and probably increase the weight faster. I also liked a new one that I got to do where you have a foot up behind you and then squat on one leg. Very fun and challenging.

My biggest challenge right now is my food. I am really working hard at this but this is my downfall...pretty sure. I like tasty food but am learning and realizing that the healthy options are much better for me than others. I feel better when I eat better.

Jessica's Journey...January 4th "no excuses"

2012-01-04T14:20:00.001-06:00

The Biggest Loser started up again yesterday. I don't usually watch commercials or too much tv lately so I didn't even know that it was on. But I was so excited to see it when I scrolled through the shows that we had recorded.

"No Excuses"

This motto or theme for the show during this season is "no excuses". I have had so many excuses that I have used as to why I shouldn't work out, why I SHOULD eat that piece of chocolate, why I SHOULD just sit on my butt and watch a show without doing anything else...the list could go on and on.

Saying that there will be "no excuses" is pretty big. That means that you are going to go the gym even when you don't feel like it. That means that you will always eat what you are supposed to. That means that you are on board 100% and you aren't backing out...because you don't have a reason to.

"No Excuses"

I am trying to wrap my mind around this and it is tough. It is almost as if my mind is saying...you are doing this healthy thing but my body is saying...you are getting older and you aren't in shape enough to do this and everything is tired.

I know I wrote once before about how getting healthier is really something that you have to accomplish not only physically but mentally. This is a mind thing. The conversation that I had with another fellow gym member led me to realize this. This woman was working so hard. She was there everyday, just like me. She did so many different things and was trying everything. There was determination in her eyes. During our conversation I mentioned that I was proud of her for being at the gym each day. I didn't know her but it was more of a casual acquaintance, someone that you grow accustomed to just because you see them everyday at the gym. She mentioned to me that her mind has to be in this game of getting healthy. If her mind wasn't in it this would all be so much harder.

Sadly, I have not seen this women in a few months. She has gained weight just from what I could tell from the last time I did see her at the gym. I am not sure if her mind is still in this game and am wondering if the excuses are having more control than her mind.

I also think of all the new people that are now trying workouts, trying a gym and trying to get healthier. I haven't seen a lot of new faces but there are a few...and they are trying really hard. But, will I see them in 2 weeks, in 3 weeks or in 4 months still? Only time will tell. It all depends on if their mind is in the game or if their excuses are back in control.

My Workout Today: I realized today that I am on week 4 of Phase 3. All along I thought this phase ended at 3 weeks. No wonder it feels long. I knew today was going to be tough. I tried to prep myself ahead of time though and get a few new songs to help motivate me through my workout. I found one that worked great! It is called, "One more" by Superchick. My 1st and 2nd sets I do pretty well. My 3rd set needs an extra push...especially when I am doing 14 reps of an exercise. Just imagine...pushing a barbell over your head that is 40 lb 14 times, then 14 times again (as your arms are screaming at you to stop) and you still have to do it again 14 more times. If I could scream at the gym I probably would have but there is a nice, big, white sign that says no screaming. :) Today I had a really hard time with my deadlifts. My hands and lower parts of my arms were just tired and I could feel the muscles in those really get fatigued. I am not sure that I have ever felt that before. I also don't have grips yet and I think if I had them I would be able to do these better. I ordered them (along with a foam roller!) and I should have these sometime over the weekend. At the end of the workout I walked into the locker room. My arms were hurting and were feeling like Jell-O. I then realized that I need to ask myself at the end of each workout, "Could I have gone any harder today?" Today, I don't think I could have.

Funny thing and then a fun thing...
I always seem to do something funny or embarrasing at least once a week while I am at the gym. This morning I was stretching and knew what was around me but since it was 5am I must have still been sleeping just a tad. I went to stretch my quads and as I was pulling my foot up I hit a stack of steps that someone had made a nice tower of. It was pretty loud as they all tumbled down. (Isn't it great when people don't put their stuff away after they use it?)

The fun thing was something we did at day care yesterday. This was really fun for the kids! Great exercise for parents! Do push-ups (not the whimpy, girly ones...as I told my daughter) and have a kid on your back as you do them. I was able to do a few push-ups with Quinn on my back. Kindof cool! See...something you can do at home with your kids. They love the free ride, even if it is a quick one. :)

Jessica's Journey...January 3rd "in...out...in...out"

2012-01-03T15:35:00.001-06:00

In...Out...In...Out...In...Out...

I am looking at our schedule for January and...I can breathe! Other than 2 more Christmas celebrations with families that is about it as far as extra activities go. February we start up with swimming lessons and karate again for Micah (as long as I get him registered...mental note to do that) and then our weekends are busy again, birthday for Micah along with a party somewhere and sometime and I'm sure there is a production at school or something that we will have to go to.

For now...I am going to breathe in...and breathe out...breathe in...and breathe out...and just enjoy January.

What a good month for us to get some snow, have a nice cozy day sitting in front of the fireplace as fluffy, white snow lays on the ground for us. Not! (at the moment in Minnesota I can still see more grass...dead grass...than snow) It's coming though people. God has not forgotten that the people who live in Minnesota expect some sort of a winter.

As I am breathing in...breathing out...I am also reflecting on my choices of what I put in my mouth during the month of December. To say that I made great food choices and only had salads when eating out would be a complete lie. I am going to be honest and tell you some of the food choices that I ate. Feel free to look these up and see the calorie content. I am not going to do that...I already know that these were high calorie items.

Kwik Trip brownies...sometimes with walnuts, sometimes without. This was a trigger food for me for some reason. I'd go to Kwik Trip, I would buy brownies. I have no idea why and they really didn't taste all that good.
Pie. Not just any pie...pumpkin pecan something or other. I had some at Thanksgiving and I made 2 that I took to my parents house last week.
chocolate covered pretzels.
Oreo truffles. Oh my goodness. These were awesome. Not sure that I actually regret eating these...they were amazing! Hanna Lucier...I ate them all. Do not ever share this recipe with me.
Orange slices. I love these little fake pieces of fruit. Pure sugar. I know. But, I love them.
Spritz cookies. My mom made these and they bring me back to being a kid. I can't make them like her. I've tried and they just don't work (probably a good thing in disguise). Family recipe though and it is awesome.
Diet Pepsi. Not as bad as I was but at least 1 a day.

Is that enough or do I need to keep going? I think that is enough for now.

Today I was really feeling guilty over all the horrible things that I put into my body. Those were my choices though and I am owning up to them.

The last couple of weeks (while consuming this food) I have felt tired, run down and just not motivated. Any correlation? I think so.

As the guilt was weighing on me I received an e-mail. The title was "What to do after a binge" and was from Sparkpeople.com (great resource for those looking to get healthier...and it is all free!) I am going to say that the entire month of December was a binge so on I read.

Want to read this article too? Here is a link for ya. Go ahead. You know you feel guilty about what you ate too so read this and learn from it.

Today's workout...I ran today. It was great! I knew that I would have a hard time getting back into the routine of things so I didn't want to start my week with day care kids again by getting up at 4:30am. Getting up at 5:00am seemed so much better. I did some interval running today and finished by running at a speed of 7.5. I usually run at 4.5 or 5 so this was really a big accomplishment. When I run I have to do the hip abductor and adductor machines to help keep my pelvis aligned and where things should be. Running does irritate my hips if I don't do these machines so it is important that I keep up with these exercises after running. I can move a lot of weight though with those machines. Want to know how much I did today? Ok :) I started off 2 years ago being in the 40's and 60 lb weight range. Today, I did a max of 165 lb with one and 215 lb with the other. I do a set of 10 reps and repeat these 3 times. Hips are good to go!

Tomorrow I will be starting day 1 of week 3 in Phase 3. Week 3 is tough! Week 3 is tough! Oh...I already said that. Well, it really is. 14 reps in most exercises. There are a few where that is going to be very hard, like really hard. Gotta keep the saying, "I can do it" in my head though. Even if I have to stop for a second and then keep going...I will finish this week.

Jessica's Journey "Nice girls can lift too"

2012-01-01T21:06:00.000-06:00

Saturday morning at the gym.

I'm getting my shoes on to get ready for my workout. These two women come in to the locker room. One is looking at her phone and talking about a text that she got. At least every 5 words either had the f word in it or some other profanity. Their story pretty much was (from what I heard as they were talking very loudly right next to me) that one of the girls' boyfriend or husband left in the morning at 5:30am and she knew where he was going (imagine a girl...white girl...that is bobbing her head back and forth from side to side as she is talking). She texted him and then she got a text back from the other person he went to see. I'm amazed that another person wasn't stampeding into the gym to fight this woman based on what she was reading from the text that she got. Did I mention the swearing? If those were my kids they would have had huge amounts of soap in their mouth!

There are several websites that I visit as well that offer a lot of advice and encouragement to keep moving, to keep lifting and to keep trying new things to be healthier. One thing that is very discouraging though is the language.

I can be motivated by someone who uses nice words just as much as someone who uses a "naughty" word. I know that the trend for what is acceptable and what isn't in regards to words has changed. I know that I grew up in a home where the word "crap" and "shut up" are still not encouraged and will get you a stern look. I am appalled though by the word "a**" and I can say with 100% certainty that this will be the only time that you will see me write anything close to what that word is. Maybe I am around little kids so much that I am concerned about what they are hearing (fyi...we say "bumper") because...well, kids hear things and repeat them. If they keep hearing what this world is saying now, who knows what will be acceptable to say once they get to be my age.

Why is it though that people in the fitness world and our tv community (and lots of other people) think that this word is just another common word now? I hear it on tv and I am ready to shut it off. I see it on a webpage and although I love the advice I don't know that I want to fill my head with words like that.

My thought is...nice girls (with clean mouths) can lift weights too. Nice girls can exercise. Nice girls can be part of this fitness world.

So women, is it about time that we fight back with nice words? How about we offer nice websites for the fitness community that doesn't have bad words on it?

I may just have to think about that. Hmmm. I think I may know someone who can make a website like that. I know you are reading this ;)

Today's Workout: First workout for 2012. I finished up week 2 of Phase 3. Yeah! I really wanted to be done with this week LAST week but...with seeing family, Christmas and getting sick...I just have to do what I can do. The best part was that when I was done I decided to do some push presses and I took out the 50lb barbell and was able to push press a few of those. It was fun and I felt really good. I was also able to do the intervals on the elliptical today. Last week I only did them on the bike because I wasn't feeling 100% with the cold that I caught. (Intervals are what I do at the end of my workout. It changes with each week by increasing the length of how long I do the "hard" part. For instance, this week I just finished was 30 seconds easy, 30 seconds really hard and repeat this 8 times. Intervals are a great way to burn that fat!)

Jessica's Journey...January 1st, 2012 "New Year, back to basics"

2012-01-01T19:36:00.001-06:00

January 1st was my date to do measurements again.

Was I looking forward to these? Yes and No.

Yes...because it was another month where I worked hard and I was anxious to see if I gained any weight or if my measurements had changed at all.

No...because it is the month of post-Thanksgiving and Christmas celebrations galore. I tried to eat healthy but I had a lot of days where I didn't. My food journal was put to the side as I was focused more on Christmas and everything that I needed to do for this holiday. I was enthralled with the kids and their needs and was just ready for vacation and to spend time with my family on our days off. I was also sick 2 full weeks of December. When I am sick I don't stick to eating healthy...I just eat what I can.

My results. I didn't gain weight. I didn't lose weight either. My measurements are the same.

After I measured everything I did have some disappointment. I won't lie. Then the reality hit me that this is the month where I have heard people gain 5 lbs...just from eating all the crappy food that is out there for the holidays. I didn't!

What I learned. I need to follow through with food journal and with the form that I have been asked to fill out for my plan. When I don't keep tabs on what I am eating things get out of control...mainly, me.

As I lift up my bottle of water...here is to a New Year. Here is to drinking more water. Here is to eating healthier. Here is to following the plan and trying to get the fat loss percentage to decrease.

Jessica's Journey...December 31st "Happy New Year!"

2011-12-31T21:35:00.000-06:00

Last day of the year. Two hours lefts! Anyone else think that this year flew by? I even didn't realize that Saturday was the last day of the year until about Thursday. All along I was thinking it was on Sunday.

I have had this past week off and I have really enjoyed it! Maybe that is why I am not really sure what day it is. Not sure my body is ready to get back into the groove of getting up at 4:30am. Those first few days are going to be torture. I've still been getting up at 6/6:30am ish but two hours before that...oh my! My alarm may have to be extra loud and put across the room just so I get out of bed.

Everyone seems to be talking about resolutions and what they have planned for this year. I do have a few things on my mind but instead of resolutions...let's just call them a "Things to do" list. If I say that they are resolutions am I really just saying that "I want to do these things but I'm really not committed to actually follow through"? For me, that is what the word resolution seems to bring. Making my "to do" list for the year is just better for me. I am a list person and I like to cross things off.

So what is on my "Things to do" list? Here are a few: (Ok...my hands are trembling at this list a bit because I know that by writing them down I am committing myself to these)

Secret. I can't say this one. But, this is something that I thought up a few months ago and really wanted to start the first of the year. Sometimes my family will be involved. Sometimes it will just be me. After 2012 has started off and is on a roll I will probably share this on the blog.
Warrior Dash. Can't believe I just wrote that. Ahhhhhhh! I am not a mud person. I am not a girl that likes to get dirty. Never have. I like to get disgusting at the gym though and don't have a problem dripping with sweat. When there is dirt involved and a chance for that to turn into mud...I don't get very excited. Do I think I can run up a hill that is actually used for skiing? Umm. No. But, I know a few people that are crazy enough to take part in another race called the Tough Mudder. (You know who you are and I still think you are crazy). If people can do something like the Tough Mudder and people that I know have survived the Warrior Dash, I can do it too. I will be nervous and really scared but I can do it. Now, I just need to find someone to do this with. Anyone? I do need some motivation by having someone by my side to finish this thing. The one that I want to do is on June 30th or July 1st in South Hastings, MN. PLEASE...PLEASE...join me!
I will be doing more with my blog too. I am working on some kinks and have to learn some more in order to get my blog to do what I want it to do. I have a plan though and am not sure when it will all happen but it will be a work in progress for awhile. I do know a lot of people with kids though and want to have a day where I write about being a parent and all the fun, trials and discussions that go along with the job of the big M-O-M. I really enjoy being in the gym and learning new things, seeing results based on what I am doing and learning from what others write and tell me...so a day will be dedicated just for all of that. That is 2 out of 7 days. Hmm. See, it is still a work in progress.
Another item on my to-do list is continuing to help Jeff spread the word about his business so he can help others. The results say it all. If I didn't have Jeff telling me what to do (and then actually doing what he says) I would still have a waist that was the same size. I wouldn't have the flexibility that I have and am continuing to work on in my hips. I wouldn't have the confidence that I do in the gym. Let me say that one again...I wouldn't have the confidence that I have when I am in the gym. Today, I took a 50lb barbell and did push presses with it. I've been stuck at 40 lbs and just for fun I thought I would try a 50lb one this morning. Now I usually take this into the area for the women so I don't have to do this in front of everyone. The 50lb barbell is a bit heavier though and I really didn't want to bring it to the other side of the gym just to lift it above my head a few times. So I did it in front of everyone. And...I didn't care at all! I would never have done this (nor could I have done this) 9 weeks ago when I started. To sum it up...I have had great results with his plan and I can't help but want to tell everyone. I will be working with his blog as well and hopefully helping lots of people get healthier.
3 5k's. Last year I did two...the Stay Out Of The Sun Run in Rochester, MN and the Applefest Run in Fort Dodge, IA. What additional one should I pick for 2012?
Our family has already made a lot of changes in our food to establish healthier eating. This will be continued and little by little we will keep eliminating the "bad" stuff and substituting it for healthier options. The best part is that my kids don't even seem to notice anymore when a change is made. We aren't an all organic family (hello...I run a day care and that would make me raise my fees a lot) but there are a lot of things that we don't eat or have in the home. Little by little we will keep eating the things that we are meant to eat rather than what was chemically processed for us to eat.
My health. This past year was quite the year for me health wise. Whooping cough. Bronchitis more times than I can count. Asthma being diagnosed. ER visit for severe dehydration as a result of having bronchitis. Trying to figure out the right medicine for my asthma. Burst eardrum. Sinus infections (2 in the last 2 months). I think that covers the big stuff. I've had several scary days this past year where I thought I would need to visit the ER just because I couldn't breathe well. Every single cold that I got turned into bronchitis which was then at least 4 weeks of coughing and just not feeling my best. The last 2 colds that I have gotten didn't turn into bronchitis and I only had 1 day that was difficult and where I had my inhaler right next to me at all times. My guess is that I am starting to figure out the asthma stuff and that the medicine that I'm on is working. My to-do is to keep working on figuring out what I need to do to stay healthy and to listen to what my body is telling me.

If you are thinking of making a resolution or a "to-do" in regards to getting healthy, here is a great quote that I saw today on Facebook. Maybe it will inspire you a bit too. (just substitute the word "darn" for "damn"...that isn't me talking and if you know me you know that already)

Happy New Year!

Jessica's Journey...December 27th "tips for beginners on strength training"

2011-12-27T21:55:00.000-06:00

There are several women and groups that I am learning that are the ones to watch and learn from...Nia Shanks is one of these women and is part of a group called Girls Gone Strong.

Today I cam across another article written by Nia that I wanted to share. It is great for anyone just wanting to get some motivation to start exercising or to get a little bit healthier than they already are, has great notes about what to do for strength training specifically and also just some great basics for a beginner. The article is below. Enjoy!

I don’t devote many articles to beginner strength trainees, and this is a mistake on my part. To make up for my lack of beginner trainee information, this article is devoted to women who are just starting out strength training or want to get serious about it.

Please note that “beginner strength trainees” can also include those who have worked out with machines or even with free weights. A beginner is someone who hasn’t learned proper technique or trained consistently with a few simple, but basic barbell and bodyweight exercises.

Even if you’ve been going to the gym for years and doing triceps kick-backs, Smith machine lunges, and used many exercise machines, you’re still a beginner. As another example, if you can’t properly perform (or aren’t sure if you’re properly performing) lifts such as squats, deadlifts, push-ups, inverted rows, vertical and horizontal presses, lunges, chin-ups, and other basic compound movements, then this beginner information is for you.

If you’re an experienced female trainee (or a man), I hope you’ll benefit from this article. If nothing else, I ask that you please pass it along to women who could benefit from the information.

Now let’s get into the 11 Beginner Strength Training Tips for Women.

1) Learn Proper Form

This is crucial; you need to devote some time to learning proper exercise form from the very beginning. It’s much easier to learn proper form initially than to develop poor habits and try to break them later.

I highly suggest working with a knowledgeable strength coach or learning from reputable demonstration videos. For this reason I included instructional videos in Beautiful Badass because it’s important to use proper form if you want to get the best results possible and train safely short- and long-term.

As an example, if you perform a squat improperly by only doing a quarter-squat with the weight primarily on your toes for instance, you will not get the full effects this exercise has to offer, and you risk injury. By learning proper form (squatting to or below parallel, keeping the weight centered on your feet, pushing out your knees, etc) you’ll also work your glutes, hamstrings, and other muscles you wouldn’t have otherwise with the quarter-squat variation, and you’ll also be performing the movement in a much safer manner.

2) Stick to the Basics

This is something I’ve written about in Back to Basics for Better Results and Back to Basics Part 2.

If you’re just getting into strength training (or finally getting serious about it) you will be better off sticking with a few exercises for the first few months. Why? Think about it this way – what would be easier for you to memorize in the shortest amount of time: 7 different riddles or 20? Obviously the fewer would be easier and quicker to memorize.

It’s the same with your body when you just start lifting weights. Your body will remember/memorize a few movements much more quickly.

Do yourself a favor and master the technique and improve your strength on a few basic exercises. Some favorites for beginner female strength trainees are as follows:

Squat
Deadlift
Reverse lunge
Glute bridge
Push-up (or a similar horizontal press)
Inverted row (or a similar horizontal pull)
Chin-up
Overhead press (if mobility allows)
Plank

That is a total of 9 exercises. You could simplify that list even more by removing the lunge, glute bridge, and plank and focusing on just 6 exercises.

Don’t be fooled into thinking you need a ton of different exercises to “keep your body guessing”, to “shock your muscles”, or that you must work every muscle individually with isolation exercises. In the beginning you should focus on a few basic compound exercises, master your form, and get stronger (more on this point in a minute).

3) Use Acceptable Alternatives

You may have mobility issues that don’t allow you to safely and properly perform certain exercises, or you may not have the equipment available to perform the recommended exercises. Either way, you should use appropriate exercise substitutions.

For example, I’ve heard numerous women say they can’t perform a barbell back squat because they have bad knees, or for some other reason. The majority of the time these women aren’t properly performing a back squat (see the quarter-squat example mentioned in number one) but this can be corrected by learning proper technique. However, some people genuinely have trouble performing a back squat and think squatting on a Smith machine is a good alternative.

I understand the logic, but a Smith machine squat is not an acceptable alternative to a traditional back squat. Instead a more appropriate substitution would be a goblet squat or a front squat.

As another example, if you don’t have the mobility to deadlift a straight bar off the floor, you shouldn’t dismiss deadlifting all together. You could try trap bar deadlifts, rack pulls, or even single leg deadlift variations.

Not everyone has the ability to perform some of the most basic barbell lifts, and that’s why I included a list of acceptable substitutions in Beautiful Badass.

4) Focus on Getting Stronger

I’ve discussed this before in Lift Heavy. Get Strong(er) and Look Better and Get Strong – Get Confident! I believe practically everyone should focus on getting stronger no matter what their primary goal. It’s especially important for beginners because they need to develop a base level of strength.

Focusing on building strength is the best way for a beginner to get results, and it’s highly motivating. Beginners make fast initial strength improvements due primarily to neural adaptations. It’s not uncommon for someone to be able to add weight to the bar for weeks in a row when they just start lifting weights. These strength gains aren’t a result of increased muscle, but from the nervous system. Getting stronger week after week is very motivating because you experience positive progress.

Another reason to focus on getting stronger is because beginners lack the necessary strength to make some popular boot-camp or circuit type workouts productive. A beginner is better off keeping the reps fairly low so they can use as much weight as possible. Many boot-camp workouts call for high reps and multiple exercises performed one right after the other with minimal rest.

A beginner with little strength won’t be able to use an appreciable weight for sets of 10 plus reps, and so the impact won’t be nearly as effective as using a heavier weight for sets of 4-7 reps.

As an example, if a woman who can deadlift 95 pounds for 5 reps was to perform a circuit-type workout that called for 12 or more reps, the weight she would use for the high reps would be so low that is wouldn’t elicit a strength response or even challenge her to an appreciable degree.

Here’s a visual to make sense of that scenario:

This would be a more appropriate deadlift workout for a beginner, assuming her work weight is 95 pounds for 5 reps.

95 x 5 x 5 (95 pounds, 5 sets, 5 reps each set)

Total work load: 2,375 pounds (95 pounds x 5 reps = 475 pounds. 475 pounds x 5 sets = 2,375)

Here is the work load if a beginner performed higher rep sets, assuming a work weight of approximately 60 pounds for 12 reps.

60 x 3 x 12 (60 pounds, 3 sets, 12 reps each set)

Total work load: 2,160 pounds (60 pounds x 12 reps = 720 pounds. 720 pounds x 3 sets = 2,160)

That’s a difference of 215 pounds.

The beginner would have a higher work load with the lower rep workout (5x5). In addition, lower rep sets are better for beginners because they are more likely to maintain proper form on each rep. When a beginner performs higher rep sets, their form is more likely to break down as the set goes on because the smaller, weaker muscles fatigue before the larger muscles.

5) Know that You will NOT get “Big ‘n Bulky”

I’m sick and tired of telling women that lifting weights won’t make them “big ‘n bulky”, but it’s necessary because that myth is still thriving. I’ll keep this point short and simple – excess body fat is what makes women appear “bulky”, not having muscle. (Obvious exceptions are women who use anabolic steroids).

Strength training will allow you to build muscle, increase your metabolism, burn body fat, and ultimately help you achieve the lean and “toned” appearance you desire.

Tell you what, if you start strength training per the recommendations in this article and end up all “big ‘n bulky” despite having a healthy level of body fat, give me a call and we’ll meet up so you can scissor kick me to the head. That’s how confident I am you won’t bulk up into a she-man.

6) Be Consistent and Don’t Give Up

We want results, and we wanted them yesterday. Our culture is all about obtaining instant gratification; believe me, I am no different. For example, it has been my goal to achieve a triple bodyweight deadlift for years now. That is a goal I have had for years and still haven’t reached it.

Granted, I have set smaller and more quickly achievable goals along the way, but the point is that you must be consistent and keep working toward your goal, and celebrate the smaller ones you achieve along the way.

Don’t expect to start strength training today and witness results overnight. However, most women who just start strength training notice some changes the first week. They feel better, have more energy, build confidence, and get more motivated to keep training.

Don’t start strength training for one or two months and then stop. Make this a lifetime habit.

7) Set Motivating Goals

The goal of spending an hour on the elliptical machine three to four times per week is not motivating, and it’s one of the reasons why long duration cardio is inferior to strength training when it comes to building a stronger, better looking and healthier body.

Maybe you currently can’t perform 10 push-ups or deadlift more than 100 pounds. Set motivating, performance oriented goals like “perform 15 push-ups” or “deadlift 1.5 times my bodyweight”.

Even if you just want to lose body fat and look better in your clothes, I highly recommend setting performance goals. By setting performance goals – like performing 10 push-ups, 5 chin-ups, deadlifting 1.5x your bodyweight, etc – you will be more motivated to train consistently. It may sound odd, but all of my clients with the primary goal of losing body fat focus solely on getting stronger and improving their performance in the gym.

They have more fun, enjoy training, increase their confidence, and within a short period of time realize their clothes are too big and they love the way they look.

If you want to be motivated to train week after week and month after month, set positive training goals.

8) Don’t be Intimidated

I receive numerous emails from women who ask how I first mustered up the courage to lift weights in a gym filled with men. Personally, I never had this problem, but I’ve helped others who have.

Please, don’t be intimidated to go in the weight room. You don’t have to be squatting double bodyweight or be able to perform 10 chin-ups to deserve to be in there. All that matters is that you do your very best and you get in there consistently.

My advice on this topic? Just suck it up and get in there. Focus on what you’re there to accomplish and nothing else. Before you know it, you’ll feel at home in the weight room.

9) Follow a Beginner Training Program

If you’re a beginner, you need to train like a beginner – this will be the simplest and quickest way to get results. Don’t make the mistake of following a training program for an intermediate or advanced lifter. While it may sound like a great idea, I can promise that you’ll get far better results by following an appropriate training program.

Because of this fact, I recommend the Beginner Training Program in Beautiful Badass or another tried and true beginner program, such as Mark Rippetoe’s Starting Strength.

Don’t make the mistake of thinking you’ll achieve faster/better results with some advanced or technical training program.

10) Be Excited!

You hear it from strength coaches and experienced strength training individuals; everyone would like to go back to the beginner stages because that is the time to make the best and fastest progress. Hell, I wish I could be a beginner again and use the knowledge I now possess because my results would’ve been awesome!

As an example, I worked with a male client recently who consistently “worked out” but had never done basic barbell lifts like squats, deadlifts, overhead presses, and rows. After only a few short weeks of following a beginner program, he was squatting over 200 pounds and deadlift over 300 for reps.

Maybe you can’t perform a chin-up or squat more than an empty bar, but you will experience tremendous progress in the beginning as long as you follow the information in this article. In just a matter of weeks you’ll be amazed as the progress you achieve.

11) Start Today

Don’t say, “I’ll start tomorrow” or “the New Year”. You need to take action today. What does your first step need to be? Perhaps you should find a local strength coach who can teach you proper exercise technique. Maybe you need to get a great training program. Or perhaps you just need to get in the gym.

Whatever first step you need to take, do it today.

If you benefited from this information or know others who would, I ask that you help me help as many women as possible by hitting the Tweet and Like buttons below. Thank you!

Source

My Workout Today: I was at the gym this morning and started week 3 of Phase 3. I almost forgot how hard week 3 can be. The number of reps are increased and those last few is when my body is screaming to stop. It takes a lot of encouragement to get through week 3 and I am very glad when week 3 is over :)

When I read this article today from Nia, #8 hit home. I was just having a conversation this morning about how the big bars (for deadlifting) are intimidating. I am reluctant to use those eventhough I really need to get to that area and do it. I think part of the issue though is that I am not confident because I don't know what I am doing with those. I haven't ever really watched anyone use those so I haven't figured out by watching what I should be doing. Soon...soon I will be using those big bars for deadlifting.

I will be taking a day or two off from the blog as I will be visiting some family. We have a little bit of a family reunion going on tomorrow. One of my aunt and uncles will be driving through Iowa and staying at my parents house. I haven't seen them for at least 6 or 7 years so it will be good to visit with them for a few hours.

I will be getting in a quick workout in the morning on Wednesday (not sure if I will be running or if I will do day 2). I will be back to the gym Friday morning. :) I may also try to do some sort of a circuit thing with my family on Thursday before I leave. Not sure if they will be up for it or not but we will see what kindof time we have while we are there.

Favorite Thanksgiving and Christmas Memories for 2011

2011-12-27T21:06:00.001-06:00

My favorite Thanksgiving memory this year...well, I guess I have two.

1) Chris, Sidney and Quinn laying on the floor and couch in the living room from Saturday night until pretty much Wednesday morning before we left to head to Illinois to be with the Williams family. Those three got stuck with the flu and were not in good shape. I seriously did not think we would be going so I even bought a ham (and got a turkey for free!) since I had already started to make our fridge bare for our travels and we had nothing for a Thanksgiving at our own house. We did make it though and I am pretty sure we passed on the illness to a few others in the Williams clan. Quinn and I ended up getting sick the day after we got home but not as bad as Chris and Sidney were the first time. Quinn had a 102.5 degree temp when I tested it on Monday and I didn't even let it finish before I pulled it out from under his arm. He was in tough shape and ended up having a pretty nasty ear infection.

2) Memory two at Thanksgiving would be of some tender conversations that I had with my niece. She just opens right up and tells me everything about what is going on in her little life and what she does every day. So cute!

A few favorite memories from Christmas this year are:

1) The two bigger kids were bringing gifts home from school that they had made. They started putting these under the tree and were very excited about these schoolmade projects. The little one was a bit jealous and also wanted to be part of this fun. After a few tears he then decided he was going to give a few things as well. He went up to his room, found a notebook and tore paper out and then "wrapped" up items in his room that he wanted to give to us. He probably did this with about 10 different things and was so excited! You know Quinn gets excited when he starts jumping up and down. I found out after talking with my dad a few days after this that my little sister, Jaclyn, also did the same thing one year.

2) Listening to Air1 Christmas. This has been on nonstop this year. Even the day care kids know the words "Air1". Air1 is a radio station, I guess they are around different parts of the country, but they are also online. They have free songs once in awhile and they also had a station dedicated just to Christian Christmas songs. You can check them out here.

3) Driving around looking at Christmas lights. It is a tradition in our house to have the kids get their jammies on, drive through McDonalds (they are the only ones open) to grab some supper and then drive around the town to look at lights on Christmas Eve. This year we tried to stay in the older subdivisions and this was kindof a dud. When you go looking for awesome lights it is amazing at how many you can't find. Next year we will probably have to head back out to the newer subdivisions. We always have luck there.

4) Luminaries. Chris passed on a tradition from his family and makes luminaries with the kids. They put these out on Christmas Eve after they have put some sand and a candle inside an empty milk jug. These usually burn all night and we always have a few cars that drive really slow by our house to look.

5) Reindeer Food. Sidney did this with a class at some point in all of her school years and we just continued this after that point. The kids make "food" for the reindeer and then sprinkle it in the snow (although this year there was none so we just did this in the driveway). This is what you need to make the "food"...oatmeal, glitter, cinnamon, sprinkles for cakes/cupcakes. You can also do anything, the kids think it is cool no matter what they get to scoop into a bag.

6) The music. I am a music type of person. Music is what inspires me, motivates me and just gives me warm fuzzy feelings...if it is the right song. The music at church this Christmas Eve was mostly songs from one of the past choir weekends at church...so, I knew the music. This past year that we did the music was probably one of my favorite choirs too. So, singing as a congregation to these Christmas songs was a favorite for me this year.

7) Games. Sid has become quite the game player. She is developing a pre-teen attitude as well and can be quite boastful when she wins a game. Yesterday she played Risk with Chris...and won. Today she played Stratego with me...and won. All I can say is...she is going down. :)

8) Micah and Quinn are best buds. Although they are a few years apart they are true brothers. They wrestled more today than I think anything else that they did. I have to remember that boys are loud, boys are obnoxious and crazy sometimes and that boys need to be told more than once to do things...or to be told specifically what I am asking them to do. When the boys are playing everyone knows it because we all just want them to go outside to play. They are so loud! Their emotions though on Christmas morning were very genuine and they were very patient and thankful. The boys may be loud but they do have some great hearts. Micah has commented many times during his prayers this past month that he hopes that people remember the true meaning of Christmas. Micah is great at praying and picking the right words to say. He always has been really good at talking :)

Jessica's Journey...December 26th "measurements & food""

2011-12-26T16:51:00.002-06:00

In a few days it will be the start of 2012. Two thoughts are going through my head today as I get closer to that 1 on the calendar. Measurements & Food.

Measurements. I will do measurements again on that first day of the year and see how I am progressing on this journey. My anticipation is that I won't have as dramatic results as the first month but that I will still see some minimal changes. I know that my clothes are fitting differently so even if I don't see numbers changing all the time with the measurements I do know that my body is adjusting to this different lifestyle. My arms have changed and now I am seeing changes in my legs.

I had a moment today where I realized that my current pant size may not be realistic for me. My clothes fit in certain part of me but other parts seem like they are still holding on and not wanting to let go of the fat. This makes finding clothes that fit right a bit harder. My belt has been cinched down another notch yet my hips seem to just want to hang on forever to what it has grown accustomed to these past several years. This can be quite frustrating. Mentally, I don't know that I am ready to go to that next size down. I remember having this issue when I went from wearing XXL and XL in most things to a size L. A Medium seems crazy to me. Every brand is different too but I am learning that what I can wear in one brand may be a size or 2 different in another brand. Isn't women's fashion great? (Can't say that Walmart or Target is the best place to get fashion advice or quality in sizes but that is where most of my clothes come from)

Challenge for you...if you haven't measured yourself lately pick January 1st as a starting date for you. Track these each month. Don't...and I really mean don't...measure each day or each week. Once a month is more than enough. Just grab a string and put a marker line on the string for each area and then measure or grab a flexible measuring tape to use. Here are a few things that I measure and keep track of: Neck (just started this one in October), Chest, Belly Button area, Waist (the largest part of your waist), Hips, Thighs (the largest part), Calf, Upper Arms (both...and they aren't always the same)

December wasn't the best month for me with my food. I will be working very hard at finding new recipes to use that fit with the plan that I have been given. I have been working on this food thing in baby steps and changing little things as I go along this journey. The big thing for me that I have changed is how I eat when we go out to eat. During the month of December I have ordered salads at least 75% of the time when we have gone out. That is a lot of greasy burgers and fries that I did not consume. At home I have learned one thing: if I have the food in the house, I will eat it. It is all back to that willpower thing which I totally lack. As long as I don't buy the food that I shouldn't eat, I will be ok. As long as I don't make the food that I shouldn't eat, I will be ok. Everything that I put in my mouth is my choice. I just have to remember that as I am standing at the fridge with the door open or looking in cabinets during the afternoon when I am hungry.

Baby steps, baby steps. Measurements and food. As I continue to do my workouts and spend my time at the gym and eat the right things then I will see the results in the measurements.

Workouts this week: This is a bit of a different week for me because I am on vacation! It would be a lot better if I felt good but vacation is vacation. I have to treasure these days that I get, especially the ones that I get with my kids being home. I was planning on going to the gym this morning to start off the next week of the phase. I got a nasty cold though and was really in bad shape Christmas day. I managed to get a nap in while the turkey was in the oven and before I needed to start making other food for our feast. The nap helped but I still didn't feel very good. My goal was to just get enough sleep so I could hopefully be well enough to go to the gym on Tuesday. Today I can tell that my cold is starting to go away but it has made my asthma flare up pretty badly. Breathing is not an easy task today and my inhaler is with me at all times. I am planning on getting back to the gym in the morning on Wednesday. My intervals will probably have to be done on the bike and not the elliptical.

Wednesday, Friday, Saturday & Sunday will be additional days for working out.

The Nativity Story...for us that live in the technological age

2011-12-25T20:55:00.000-06:00

This was a very popular video last year and I thought I'd share it today. Seemed appropriate...being Christmas and all :)

Merry Christmas!

Jessica's Journey...December 23 "the point of exhaustion"

2011-12-23T23:26:00.003-06:00

I have had a few moments where I know that I have been at true points of exhaustion.

First time...when Quinn had a reaction to medication. It was about a full week of no sleep (or about 1 to 2 hours a day and night and a nap if it was possible while watching Quinn during the day), still working some of those days and doing extra activities. It was just before Christmas and of course everything seemed to happen that week. My point of exhaustion came when I was standing on stage in front of our church and knew that I was going to faint if I didn't get off at that moment. I was in the back row and getting off a stage without drawing attention was not going to be easy. God planned the perfect moment though and had the person who was helping the kids sing during the last Christmas song get off the stage. She stood in front of me. I just followed her out. The only people that knew were those in the choir and my husband. During the second service I didn't join in with the choir. I knew I wouldn't make it through. Instead, I stayed to watch and stood in the back. Sidney was part of the kids choir so she was going to be up on the stage so I had to stay plus, I wanted to watch her. I stood in the back and was so exhausted I just cried. Our pastor walked in and stood by me. I tried to stop crying but I couldn't. My body needed sleep and I was losing control.

Second time...not too long ago. See, I have a tendency to not know how sick I really am. I am learning and trying to figure this out and am getting better, I think. :) This time I didn't figure it out fast enough though. I was sick, was having another bout of bronchitis and my coughing was taking its toll on me. I was working every day, still doing everything I needed to do and even went to the doctor to try to get another medicine to try to help get rid of the cough and also to be preventative and get my flu and pneumonia shot. I was trying to do the right thing! The doctor was not entirely helpful. In fact, she forgot that I was getting my shots and I had to remind her that I needed those as she was walking out the door. She also asked me if I was feeling out of breath. I answered "yes" because when it feels like someone is choking you all the time or someone is sitting on your chest I would say that this would constitute as feeling out of breath. I couldn't breathe without coughing. Her answer (get this...) was, "Well, you don't look like you are out of breath." Lady, I think I know what I feel like and what I feel like is not normal. That night I woke up and thought I was going to be sick and the next thing that I knew was Chris waking me up. I was laying on the bathroom floor and had fainted. My blood pressure would go crazy as soon as I sat up and when I stood I was dizzy and sick. After 2 days of doing pretty much nothing, I finally got enough energy to fold a basket of laundry.

This morning at the gym I felt exhaustion in my arms as I was doing curls/presses. My arms didn't want to lift any more weight. They hurt so bad! I couldn't lift as much as I did last week and that made me feel like I was failing. I wanted to quit. That would have been the easy thing to do.

After I was done with all the exercises I finished up my intervals on the bike. My legs were burning, there are no other words to describe it. I kept telling myself that I only had 4 more times to go...then 3...then 2...last 1. I can push as hard as I can cause this is the last one! Just 10 more seconds. Anyone can push hard for 8 seconds! Done.

I reached my point of exhaustion today during my workout.

I wiped the sweat off the floor, the bike and the different sections of the bike where I dripped all over. It was truly disgusting.

Am I glad that I went to the gym this morning? Yes. Am I going to stop when I am tired? No. I will stop when I am done. Even if it means that I will be exhausted. The guy that helps me wrote once that I can always rest in the car on my way home from the gym. How true is that!?

My Wish

2011-12-22T21:26:00.000-06:00

This post isn't for everyone but is for those that have been a part of my life or my family and have made a choice to not want to be part of our lives. I'm pretty sure I have said most of these words to you already and may not have said them as nice as this lovely quote from a song but...this is my wish for you.

We really do love you.

Jessica's Journey...December 20th, Build Your Own Boot Camp

2011-12-20T15:55:00.000-06:00

I know that a lot of people want to get in shape starting January 1st. (I'm not going to get into how you really should just start today rather than wait other than this...why are you waiting?) But, there are a lot of people that can't afford a gym, a personal trainer to tell them what to do or even have the ability to figure out how to do this in their own home.

Now you CAN build your own boot camp!

I just got in the mail yesterday a note from our clinic that we go to. Here are the notes, word for word (except my comments), from Olmsted Medical Center that I wanted to share with you so you can get on track today (or January 1st if you really want to wait): (Some of you know we live in Rochester, MN...the town with the BIG Mayo Clinic...but we don't go there unless someone in the house breaks their arm..Sidney...or needs more specialized care. Who knew that a town with Mayo Clinic would even have a different place to go for health services, right?)

Basic Training: Build your own boot camp workout
The secret to this trendy tone-up is mixing calorie-burning cardio intervals with moves that build strength using the weight of your own body.

The warm-up: start with 5 to 10 minutes of easy motion, such as walking in place. (Ok...turn the tv on and walk while you watch for 10 minutes or put on some music)

The moves: Choose 8 to 10 strength-training moves that work all major muscle groups.
One example: 12 to 20 push-ups. (personally, I think that is a lot of push-ups for someone just starting...especially if you are a woman that doesn't have much upper body strength. Do what you can and just try to increase these each time you exercise)
Others...Bridge (for your abs, butt and hips. Lie on your back with your knees bent and feet flat on the floor. Contract your abs and glutes, exhale and lift your hips off the floor. Inhale and lower down to starting position. Repeat 12 to 20 times.)
...Squats (for your hips, thighs, and butt. Stand in front of a sturdy chair. Place your feet slightly wider than shoulder-width apart. Extend your arms in front of you. Slowly bend your knees and lower yourself down until you're almost seated, taking care not to extend your knees past your toes. Slowly rise back up. Repeat 10 times.

The intervals: After every two strength-training moves, do 60 seconds of cardiovascular exercise, like jumping rope or dancing.

The cooldown: when you're done, do another 5 to 10 minutes of gentle motion to lower your heart rate.

The payoff: This type of workout can burn up to 600 calories an hour, while strengthening your muscles and improving your endurance.

I would add...after your boot camp, go and eat something with protein and make sure you drink lots of water throughout the workout. If you are sore later or the next day and don't think you can do it again...that is just your body telling you that it has been awhile since you have used those muscles. They might hurt right now but they liked being used and they want you to do the workout again and with even more repetitions or weight added. You can do squats and grab a jug of milk so increase the weight.

At the moment, I am sore all over from the workout yesterday. My shoulders, my upper back, my elbows (I hit a weight on one of my arms and bruised it), my legs...oh, my legs! I think I still have some pain from the workout last Friday or it has just continued. I am in pain. Did I sleep in today? Nope. I went to spin class.

As my spin instructor said this morning, "each day we have choices that we will make. They are our choices to make."

My choice is to continue to get healthy, learn as much as I can about this journey and keep working hard.

Side note...I was putting my laundry in as the kids were eating breakfast this morning. I showed my kids my shirt from this morning...completely covered in sweat. So gross. My daughter made the best face...she was just disgusted by it. All that sweat though...that was because I chose to get up out of bed, go to the gym and be challenged by others who were pedaling their bikes so fast you couldn't see their feet. :) Well...maybe not that fast. ;)

Still wondering if you should try this or something else with exercise? This will help you decide what to do...

Jessica's Journey...December 19th. The "not so pretty" side of strength training.

2011-12-19T12:11:00.001-06:00

This morning I did some deadlifts with the most weight that I have tried so far. Two dumbbells, one in each hand...both at 52.5 pounds. That is over 100 pounds that I am holding on to with just my palms and fingers. It's pretty fun :) I try to increase the weights each time and when I able to finish the number of reps I am told to do it is just an amazing feeling.

(...I know a lot of you are thinking that I am just crazy for saying that lifting weights is a fun thing to do but...have YOU tried it? Don't say I'm crazy until you have tried it yourself. Deal?)

The "not so pretty" side of strength training is what happens when you lift weights. I was done with my workout 6 hours ago and my hands still feel like they are raw. The pain in my fingers, the bumps that are developing, the dryness and skin peeling away...it is all just plain disgusting. I took a picture of what my hands look like so you can see a little bit. I have callouses that have formed and are continuing to form. Can you see them on my hands?

The "not so pretty" side of strength training is leading me to my next adventure...wearing gloves. I really don't want to do this because it will just make me stand out that much more at the gym but I think that if I continue to strength train without gloves my hands are going to be in really bad shape.

So, I could get my gloves out and wear those or...I could take this advice that I found on the Girls Gone Strong Facebook page...

My female client was teasing me about my calloused hands the other day...But you know what?

I LOVE my calloused hands and wouldn't trade them for the world! They are a hard-earned badge of honor and I wear them proudly! They are the reason I can hold onto 350 lbs without straps, they are the reason my hands don't fail when I am using 245 lbs for reps on RDLs, they prove that day in and day out I put time and effort into challenging my body. They are the reason I don't need help moving furniture or carrying groceries or changing a 5 gallon water jug...So yes, she can tease me about my calloused hands, it just makes me love them more because they are so rare.

- Molly

I just happened to stumble on that comment today and now I may just use those gloves for spin classes. Not sure yet...my hands still hurt :)

The other "not so pretty" side of strength training is the pain in stretching. On Friday I tried a new exercise. I was actually really liking it (it was the straight leg deadlift) and I worked hard at going slow so I could focus on my form. I did a bit of research about this type of deadlift as well and was aware that without the proper form the possibility of injuring myself was higher. It is now three days later and I still am sore on the back of my legs. Three days! I went to stretch this morning on the mats before I started my workout and it was just very evident how tight my muscles were as I got down on the mat. I tried to touch my toes, which is usually not hard for me to do. This morning I couldn't touch my toes without being in A LOT of pain. The "not so pretty" side was me grimacing as I was trying to get the tips of my fingers to the tips of my toes. Ouch...ouch...ouch!

What else is "not so pretty"? Imagine, if you will, doing 10 reps of deadlifts with a 52 pound weight in each hand. At the end of moving with these 10 times, the dumbbell almost slips out of one hand and you then know that you can't get both weights back to the rack without either falling or dropping something. You put one weight down on the floor as you continue to carry the second weight back to the rack. You make it there! Big accomplishment after just finishing your deadlifts. Just as you get to the rack you have huge drops of sweat drop onto the weights from your face. Now I have to clean those...but at least it shows that I was working hard this morning. But it was still "not so pretty".

My workout today:

I did something new today...can't remember the name of it but I did have to do a little bit of setup in order for it to work. I had to move some of the weight benches around so I could use some other machines to balance if I needed to. To sum up what I did I had to put one leg up on the weight bench behind me and then do some lunges while keeping that leg up. I was pretty concerned about my balance and I was glad that I had another machine by me to hold onto once or twice. Somehow I also managed to scrape up my leg when it slipped off the weight bench but it seems to be a lot better now . It was pretty blue and purple for a little bit. Talk about "not so pretty"...that was me today. :)

Jessica's Journey...December 16th

2011-12-16T15:42:00.001-06:00

I hear this a lot..."I can't believe you get up that early to go workout!"

What those people don't hear is the voices in my head that are having a conversation at 4:30am. (No, I'm not crazy...just don't know how else to describe this).

See...my alarm goes off once. Sometimes I get up right away.

Then there are other days when my alarm has to go off twice. These are most days when I have to really work hard at pulling the covers off, climbing out of bed and walk across the room in the pitch black darkness. Our house is also really cold at that time of the morning. I am pretty sure that I saw a 6 and a 0 on the thermostat this morning. That's cold, people!

As I am rubbing my eyes and trying to figure out what to wear that morning there is a conversation going on in my head.

"I could just go to bed."
"I can't go to bed. I have to go to the gym."
"No, I can go back to sleep. I'll just wake up again in a few hours."
"I know that I can't get back to sleep. I will just toss and turn."
"If I do go back to sleep I will probably just feel guilty for not going to the gym."
"I have to go...I didn't go on Wednesday."
"Ok. I'm going."

I went. I felt good afterwards and I am very glad that I made it to the gym.

I finished week 1 of Phase 3. Wanna see how happy I am about that? Well, you are anyways, even if you don't want to. (Caution...this was just after I finished so I am a little bit gross in this picture. A lady in the locker room was laughing at me for taking a picture too. Oh...and don't you just love the colors in our locker room. Bright green. If that doesn't wake you up I'm not sure what will. Just walk into WOW if you ever need to fight sleeping.)

The only thing that I don't like about finishing up a week is knowing that next week things get harder. The hardest part for the start of each week is the increase of intervals. My body now likes going full speed for 30 seconds and then resting for 30 seconds and doing this 6 times. Next week I repeat this 7 times and I have to say...I already know that my body will be ready to stop where I was at this week. That first day is tough. Second day...little bit better. Third day...I forgot what I was complaining about.

Tomorrow morning I am going to the gym with my 10 year old daughter who...get this...wants to lift weights. I may have created a monster. :)

Why do I look at...

2011-12-16T14:13:00.001-06:00

Why I look at Familyfun.org is because of insane projects like this. Why I think I can do these projects? I have no idea.

I won't even tell you how long these silly snowmen took me. You could tell that they were snowmen, right?!

Cookies galore!

2011-12-15T21:47:00.001-06:00

The kids and I started our "cookie" making today.

We started the first step of our snowmen that we will be taking to a cookie exchange Friday night. To sum it up, we have been to 3 stores for supplies and forgotten supplies and I have to visit another one as I come home from the gym in the morning...to get 1 more thing.

The snowmen are kindof cute though so far. I don't think they will look anything close to the picture I found that was with the recipe but it is with a try. The kids had fun tonight too.

Jessica's Journey...December 15th

2011-12-13T22:56:00.001-06:00

7:15am. Workout is done. I am back at home and I think I am ready for my day. I do wish though that I could start this day over.

Can't say it was the best day...not that the exercises weren't good because I really did push myself. It was all of the other stuff that factored in this morning that made my gym time just a little less than desirable. So, I made up this list in my head as I was driving home of what the reasons are why you shouldn't go to a gym. (This is supposed to be funny so don't think that any of these can actually be an excuse not to exercise)

Top 5 Reasons Why You Shouldn't Go To A Gym:
1. Lost & Found Box. I have been a frequent visitor of this box at our gym. I can't say that I am a very forgetful person but I do seem to forget a lot when I am at the gym. So, here are some of the things that I have looked for in this lost & found box in the last year. Today I found my tennis shoes in the lost and found box. That's right. My shoes! I picked up my bag this morning to head to the gym and noticed that my bag was a little bit lighter than normal and then saw that my shoes were missing. I came to the conclusion that if someone took my shoes then they just needed them more than me. If they were still at the gym then that would be wonderful as well. A few of the other things that I have lost at the gym have been jewelry (Tiffany...yes, expensive, bracelet that someone else now owns), phone/iPod case (also not found) and earring (I did find this under an elliptical).
2. Security. This is more of me saying that I am a danger to your security. See, this morning I had my headphones on still and was still in my own little world as I was getting stuff ready for the showers. At the moment there are some pretty big issues with the showers at the gym. Here is a run down for you...no hot water for about 3 weeks (and not always posting a sign about this), no handles for the showers to turn the water on (this happens once in awhile...I have no idea where the handles go or how they just show up again), burning hot water with no cold temperatures, inadequate size of shower curtains (to save money, the gym took a shower curtain, cut it in half and now 2 showers use that 1 altered shower curtain), and lastly...leaking showers. The showers now leak so bad that it puts a huge puddle in the middle of the floor that is about the size of my kitchen floor. As I was getting ready for these wonderful showers I didn't notice that one of the showers was already taken. I didn't want the shower that leaked a lot. I didn't want the one that didn't have a handle and then I knew that one of the showers was already taken. So, I went to the last shower and opened the curtain. Oops...someone WAS in there! I did end up using the shower without a handle after that little mishap this morning.
3. Different views on how to clean. Again, this morning (what was it about my day today!) I got done with my set workout with a few minutes to spare. I hadn't been on the row machine for awhile so I thought I would challenge myself and see if I could do as well as I did a few months ago. I could not, but I did finish. As I was on the row machine, one of the guys that works there decides to vacuum around the machines that are close by. He keeps getting closer and closer to where I am and in my head I am trying to focus on what I'm doing but the thought of, "He seriously won't clean under me while I am on this machine" kept repeating in my head. Well, I was wrong. I am rowing back and forth and as I am moving all over the place he takes the vacuum and puts it under my machine. Seriously! The row machine doesn't sit far off the floor so needless to say, it was a bit awkward.
4. Psycho Drivers. The other day I wrote on Facebook about this lady that ticked me off while I was driving. She was on my butt and I couldn't even see her headlights...it was that close. We were on a road where she could have passed too but she just chose to stick close to me. I then got on the highway as she continued to ride my tail. As soon as we were on the highway she whipped around me and then cut me off as she pulled back into the lane. All this while no other cars were on the road. Guess who I got to see this morning as I was going to the gym? The same lady. Although this time she didn't do these things to me, she did it to the guy who was driving just ahead of me. She did everything the same as she did to me just the other day but added a semi to the people that she cut in front of.
5. Cost of Wardrobe. There is this great website called Pinterest (I know some of you know about this site...if you don't, ask me for an invite...I'll send ya one) and lately there have been some posts listing different weight loss problems. The one that was listed talked about people only see you in workout clothes. Ain't that the truth! See, there really are reasons for this. The first is that they are comfy clothes. Why wouldn't you want to wear yoga pants, sportsbras and stretchy shirts or sweatshirts all day? Second, there are times when you are losing weight when your regular clothes don't fit you. It is that awkward stage where you can't buy that new pair of jeans because they won't fit yet but you don't want to buy that bigger size because hopefully in a few weeks they won't fit. And really, they just look sloppy when your clothes are too big. My budget for workout clothes has far exceeded purchases for anything else that I have needed this past year.

My workout today: I did day 3 of Phase 2 today. (I did day 1 on Monday and am saving day 2 until I have a chance to look at the exercise a bit more so I know what I'm doing...which will be tomorrow morning). I really pushed the weights up today...that was my goal...try to increase the weights. I think I did on everything except one exercise which was the curl to press. You take dumbbells and curl them and then press them over your head. I could not increase this one and in fact almost couldn't do all of this...but I did finish!

On to a better day...I am restarting my day...now :)

Jessica's Journey...December 13th

2011-12-13T17:51:00.004-06:00

I was a cardio queen. Hop on the elliptical, click on a program, kick up the intensity level and just go. I have even been known to be on an elliptical for 50+ minutes just so I could get a bunch of calories burned. Seeing that number on the screen of how many calories have been depleted from my body is a good feeling, isn't it?!

You may change your mind just a little bit after reading this article from www.sparkpeople.com.

Spending a good 60 minutes on the treadmill is a surefire way to make you feel accomplished. After completing the machine's fat-burning workout, you feel great and quite proud of yourself as you stare at the number flashing on the screen: 752 calories burned. "Wow," you think. "That's enough to splurge on a little dessert later."

The old saying goes that what you don't know can't hurt you, but that's wrong when it comes to cardio machines. What you don't know about that treadmill, elliptical, stair stepper or stationary bike may not cause you physical pain, but it may significantly hamper your fitness and weight-loss goals. It's time we set the cardio-machine record straight! Read on as we bust four common cardio machine myths—and help you avoid their lure.

Myth #1: The Fat-Burning Program Helps You Burn More Fat and Lose Weight
I see this happen time and time again at the gym. People hop on their piece of cardio equipment, run through the program options and become seduced by the "fat-burning" program because they're looking to lose weight. I mean, really, who doesn't want to burn fat? But what the program options aren't telling you is that the fat-burning program was designed to keep your heart rate pretty low, as research over the years has shown that when you're working at a lower percentage of your maximum heart rate, you burn a higher percentage of fat as fuel. However—and this is a big however—because you're working at a lower intensity, you're also burning fewer calories. So if you only have 30 minutes to work out, you may only burn 200 calories with a fat-burning program, while if you were following a more intense "interval" workout, for example, you might burn 300. And, as we know, it's all about calories in versus calories out when it comes to weight loss. But it doesn't matter where those calories burned are coming from—just that you're burning as many as possible. So don't be fooled by the alluring programs on the cardio machines.

Action tip: Add intervals. Interval workouts, whether programs on the machine or created by you, a trainer or SparkPeople (click herefor our printable interval training workouts), will always give the most bang for your calorie-burning buck. If you need further proof of why interval workouts are so great, check out this article. To set up your own calorie-burning interval workout, simply increase your intensity to a hard pace for 30 seconds followed by 2 minutes at an easy pace; repeat for up to 30 minutes. Once you’ve mastered that, try 1 minute of a hard intensity, followed by 2 minutes at an easy pace.

Myth #2: The Calories Burned Display on the Machine is Factual
I know how awesome it is to see a big number on the calories-burned screen after a hard workout. But the sad truth is that that number is usually inflated. If you think that you burned enough extra calories this morning to eat that cheeseburger for lunch, think again. Even when you specifically enter your gender, weight and age, your estimate (yep, it's just an estimate) could be off by tens to hundreds of calories. Hundreds! In fact, the majority of cardio machines manufacturers test their equipment on big, muscular guys and not your everyday Joe. Because of this, the estimated calorie burn that is programmed into the machine is based on a large man who burns tons of calories just breathing. If you're a female, this is specifically problematic. So, literally, tread lightly!

Action tip: Be cautious about calories burned. On average, most people burn about 100 calories per mile walked or ran. If your cardio machine’s calorie count registers way more than this, then err on the side of calorie caution when planning your meals for the rest of the day. In general, all machines and online calculators offer mere estimates of calories burned, so never take them as fact. A better and more accurate way to estimate your calories burned for any workout is to invest in a good heart rate monitor that estimates calories burned based on your actual workout intensity.

Myth #3: Running or Walking on the Treadmill is as Good as Running Outside
I heart the treadmill. Treadmills allow you to run at a variety of paces and inclines while avoiding any nasty weather. However, if you're preparing for a running race or walking event, you need to know that the treadmill does not challenge you as much as doing the same activity outside. In fact, the motion of the treadmill belt actually slightly helps pull your feet back, thereby allowing you to shorten your running and walking stride and put forth less energy. Less energy means fewer calories burned. In addition, the treadmill is set at a totally flat or slight decline, which also makes your run or walk easier than it is in the great outdoors. Therefore, if you're used to running or walking on the treadmill, you'll be in for a big wake-up call when you head outside and find that you can't run as fast or as long without becoming winded.

Action tip: Change your scenery. Once a week, trade your indoor workout for a power walk or jog through your neighborhood or a park. The change of scenery will help give your body and your mind something new to focus on. As your muscles work harder to propel your body (without the help of a moving belt), you'll burn more calories and better gauge your true running or walking speed. If outdoor workouts aren't an option for you, add incline to your treadmill to help offset momentum of that treadmill belt.

Myth #4: You Should Change Your Workout Intensity Based on the Heart Rate Display
The built-in heart rate monitors on cardio equipment sure are handy. After all, they sense your pulse (heart rate) from your fingertips and hands! However, your pulse isn't as strong or accurate when measured from your hands as it is when it's measured closer to your chest. Plus, these displays rely on sporadic data, which is only available when you hold on to the console or handles. This is typically a bad idea, especially if you're running or walking fast or if holding on compromises your form or causes you to lean into your hands—a sure sign that you're not really working as hard (or burning as many calories) as you may think.

Action tip: Listen to your heart. Consider investing in a heart rate monitor with a chest strap. These are the most accurate and reliable ways to measure your exercise intensity continuously and safely as you work out—without compromising your form. If a heart rate monitor isn't in your budget yet, use the Rate of Perceived Exertion or the Talk Test to measure your exercise intensity. You'll find details on these methods and more in our Reference Guide to Exercise Intensity.

Above all, remember that when it comes to exercise—on the cardio machines or not—everyone is different and no machine can really be accurate for everyone. Some are more accurate than others are, but always listen to your body and continue to track your workouts on SparkPeople's Fitness Tracker. After all, you know yourself best—and that's no myth!

Source

Future Cub Scout

2011-12-13T14:18:00.002-06:00

Micah has been working hard at learning all the sayings and quotes that he needs to know for Cub Scouts. He is doing a great job! (And he even has a great mom who got all of his patches sewed on just before his meeting last night...good job to me)

Anyone who has more than one kid knows that the youngest child likes to mimic and be part of a group...just like they were in it themselves. Sid is in AHG...very similar to Girl Scouts. Micah is now in Cub Scouts. Quinn...ummm...he thinks that he is in Cub Scouts.

Last night Micah was practicing one of the sayings..."I, Micah Williams, promise to ..."

Here is Quinn's version (word for word)..."I, Micah Williamson, promise to..." and also "I, Micah Wilson, promise to..."

Each time. So funny!

Jessica's Journey...December 12th

2011-12-12T21:12:00.001-06:00

I have a lot going on right now. These last few weeks of December seem to be loading lots on my plate. Some...I graciously added and am excited about. Others...just routine or business related to-do's that are a must to get done regardless of if I want to do them or not.

Two things that I have learned and am glad to say that I am sticking to is:
1) Say "no" to things.
2) Sometimes you just have to have a little bit of grace for others because hopefully when I need grace it will be remembered and/or given to me.

Saying "no". As I am getting busier my blog posts about my journey may not be as frequent. I do know that if I have something that I want to share I will make sure that I get it out there on the web. There are going to be some days though coming up where I have to say "no" to some things and looking at blogs, writing on blogs, etc. are going to fall to the side.

Not only have I learned how to prioritize different things (the kids and their needs/activities are more important than folding the laundry or wiping down all my counters) but I have learned to say "no" to different activities too. I don't jump at each opportunity that is given to me. When I see that something needs to be done, I don't step up right away either to make sure that the need is taken care of. I used to do this...a lot! Now, I don't have time. I know that I don't have time and if I did over commit myself I would be adding tremendous stress to my life and my family.

Grace. Recently I have had a lot of different situations where I could have gotten really mad at someone and expressed that anger in a not so nice way. Do I always have a good day. Heck no! Do I get reports of bad things happening with my kids or something that might need to be addressed at school? Several times this year, actually. Do my kids act like angels all the time? Well, if you saw Quinn in the post office the other day while we were getting stamps you would know that my kiddos have their moments that don't make me very happy.

Today I had an "ah-ha" moment though. I could get upset by people being rude at the store while they are doing their shopping for Christmas (we all know that there are some rude people out there!) or...I could give them a little bit of grace. I could be irate because of what someone said or e-mailed to me or...I could give them a little bit of grace. I could think to myself a thought about someone just because of how they acted towards me or the words that they chose to have to me or...I could give them a little bit of grace.

My heart will have a smile in it if I just have grace as well for all the situations that I have in my life.

That really doesn't have anything to do with my workout today...but I just had to share it. It was on my mind tonight after the day that I had and I just thought that having grace was a better action to take than other ways that I could express myself.

I did start Phase 3 though today. I can now officially dead lift 100 pounds 8 times in a row. I could probably lift more if I just did it once or twice but not sure that I could lift more yet 8 times in a row. I was asked to increase the weights on a few things today and I did...and it was tough. But, not as tough as actually getting out of bed today. Once I was at the gym my motivation was there but I was really struggling today to even get moving.

There is this one exercise that I seem to do A LOT of (it's ok...it isn't that bad but I do it all the time it seems and it takes my breath away) and I now am past the weights in the women's room and am using the weights that are out in the bigger area of the gym (a.k.a. the big body builder area). These weights have a different feel than the ones in the women's area so that takes a little bit of getting used to but...it felt pretty powerful to be doing these corkscrews with a 40lb weight. Thought I was going to die when I was done but it was worth it. Plus, I knew that I had fewer reps to do today than last week so I was sure that I could finish these.

Tomorrow is going to be a very long and tough day...I already know. I will be starting my morning with a nice run just so I can get my head cleared before things get crazy. :)

Sidney and school

2011-12-10T22:38:00.001-06:00

Sid is one of the top 50 kids in her school in Study Island (she's around the middle but forgot to look at the number) and is a Fast Math champion! The kids work on math skills each week while they are on the computer. Once they complete a section they get up on the wall. Sid is pointing to her picture in the line of 4th graders that are currently on the wall for Fast Math.

Way to go Sid!

Quinn...izims

2011-12-10T21:54:00.001-06:00

Quinn was getting ready for his big day (being home with mommy). He had his clothes and he had already gotten his underwear out.

Quinn wears about a size 4 and he grabbed a size 6...since his big brother has some too in his drawer. Micah mainly wears boxers though.

I let Quinn know that the one he grabbed was too big for him and that he really grabbed Micahs size.

Quinn's reply, "Mom, Micah wears boxers. I wear underwear. These are mine."

Jessica's Journey...December 10th

2011-12-10T18:16:00.001-06:00

My list of things-to-do today are pretty big. But...they are officially done. The most important thing that I did today though was first thing this morning at 6am.

A few weeks ago a very small note was placed on the counter at the gym that I go to. This tiny teeny note states that those with certain types of memberships can now bring their children if they have a note from a doctor that can be kept on file. See, normally you don't see kids at our gym except when it is during times when the childcare is open. There are 2 kids that do work with a trainer a few mornings a month when I am around but those are the only ones that I have ever seen working out at the gym.

I heard about this note and checked it out and was thrilled!

This morning at 6am I woke Sidney up, like we had planned, and we went to the gym.

Sidney, who is 10, loved it! She has wanted to go with me for a really long time but I haven't been able to take her, except to the childcare area. I know that kids need more exercise in this country and my own kids aren't that physically fit. My kiddos aren't overweight but other than just playing outside and the very small amount of time that they get in school for gym, that is all the physical fitness that they get.

Parents, I know that you think it is hard to get time to exercise for yourself. What about our kids? If we don't make time to get to get in some exercise how are our kiddos supposed to learn that being healthy is important?

Want to know how much exercise your kids should have? According to www.mypyramid.gov here is what is recommended:

CHILDREN AND ADOLESCENTS (6-17 years)
Children and adolescents should do 60 minutes or more of physical activity each day. Most of the 60 minutes should be either moderate- or vigorous intensity aerobic physical activity, and should include vigorous-intensity physical activity at least 3 days a week. As part of their 60 or more minutes of daily physical activity, children and adolescents should include muscle-strengthening activities, like climbing, at least 3 days a week and bone-strengthening activities, like jumping, at least 3 days a week. Children and adolescents are often active in short bursts of time rather than for sustained periods of time, and these short bursts can add up to meet physical activity needs. Physical activities for children and adolescents should be developmentally-appropriate, fun, and offer variety.

YOUNG CHILDREN (2-5 years)
There is not a specific recommendation for the number of minutes young children should be active each day. Children ages 2-5 years should play actively several times each day. Their activity may happen in short bursts of time and not be all at once. Physical activities for young children should be developmentally-appropriate, fun, and offer variety.

In case you were wondering, here is how much physical activity an adult is supposed to have according to www.mypyramid.gov:

ADULTS (18 to 64 years)
Adults should do at least 2 hours and 30 minutes each week of aerobic physical activity at a moderate level OR 1 hour and 15 minutes each week of aerobic physical activity at a vigorous level. Being active 5 or more hours each week can provide even more health benefits. Spreading aerobic activity out over at least 3 days a week is best. Also, each activity should be done for at least 10 minutes at a time. Adults should also do strengthening activities, like push-ups, sit-ups and lifting weights, at least 2 days a week.

Maybe our world is just thinking that our kids are just fine...there isn't any need to get our kids to move more. Let's just take them to McDonalds when they want. When they are cranky or do something great we can just reward them with treats. Every holiday we need to continue to make sure that we have lots of candy for all of our precious little ones. Give the kids what they want any time that they throw a fit just so they stop. This is what our American world has come to. This is our reality. And the truth is that our kids need a healthy lifestyle just like adults.

I did a little research and found the following from The American Heart Association (the heart is a pretty important muscle so I'm thinking we might want to listen to them):

Today, about one in three American kids and teens is overweight or obese, nearly triple the rate in 1963. With good reason, childhood obesity is now the No. 1 health concern among parents in the United States, topping drug abuse and smoking.
Among children today, obesity is causing a broad range of health problems that previously weren’t seen until adulthood. These include high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes and elevated blood cholesterol levels. There are also psychological effects: Obese children are more prone to low self-esteem, negative body image and depression.
Excess weight at young ages has been linked to higher and earlier death rates in adulthood. Perhaps one of the most sobering statements regarding the severity of the childhood obesity epidemic came from former Surgeon General Richard Carmona, who characterized the threat as follows:
“Because of the increasing rates of obesity, unhealthy eating habits and physical inactivity, we may see the first generation that will be less healthy and have a shorter life expectancy than their parents."

How do you prevent and treat overweight in children?

Reaching and maintaining an appropriate body weight is important. That's why recommendations that focus on small but permanent changes in eating may work better than a series of short-term changes that can't be sustained.

Reducing caloric intake is the easiest change. Highly restrictive diets that forbid favorite foods are likely to fail. They should be limited to rare patients with severe complications who must lose weight quickly.
Becoming more active is widely recommended. Increased physical activity is common in all studies of successful weight reduction. Create an environment that fosters physical activity.
Parents' involvement in modifying overweight children's behavior is important. Parents who model healthy eating and physical activity can positively influence their children's health.

The last thing I wanted to share was a link to some comments made from an article that Newsweek put out in 2000. Eleven years ago there was already awareness that the health of our kids was deteriorating. The article, "Fat for life?" touched the lives of many people. Click on this link to read what others said about their health, about their kids' lives, about the jobs that they have that impact kids and how our society needs to change to help our kids.

My Favorite Christmas song of 2011

2011-12-09T09:24:00.001-06:00

I always seem to have at least one favorite song during the Christmas season. This year I have been listening to Air1 Christmas and this one song just keeps coming on. I am drawn to the computer each time to see the name of it so I will hopefully remember to someday buy it.

I was listening to the station again this morning and we were working on crafts and the song came on again. Kids...don't go crazy with the glitter! I have to find this song.

I found it and just had to share it with you too. Enjoy! It is called "How Many Kings" by Downhere

Jessica's Journey...December 8th

2011-12-08T21:36:00.001-06:00

Today was a pretty cool day...I'll share more about why in a few days.

Today I wanted to let you know about a great challenge that is out there from Walgreens and The Biggest Loser.

Walk.

I know that when I started trying to lose weight that just getting the motivation to get my butt off the couch and move was a challenge all on it's own. I didn't want to wake up early. I didn't want to eat right. But I had to start somewhere. I needed some motivation.

For me, that motivation came from others.

I had a few friends that met me at the gym. I doubt that I would have started going to the gym if it wasn't for them meeting me there. (Thanks Lori, Caroline and Kristine!) I also joined a group that our local TV station had that was somewhat like The Biggest Loser. I really wanted to be part of a team that competed in this but I wasn't chosen which kindof bummed me out a bit. I kept moving and trying to lose on my own. I joined www.sparkpeople.com as well and that was a really good motivation for me. Tons of great tips, groups to join, ways to track what you eat, drink, measurements, exercise, energy level, etc.

If you are looking for some motivation, maybe this will work for you. Walgreens and The Biggest Loser teamed up to provide a site that lets you get rewarded just for walking. Get motivated from others and what they are doing. You can check out the website here.

Now you might be saying, "But Jessica, I live in a state that has snow and is cold. I can't walk outside." Well, you can but I know that I don't want to right now. So here are some other options for you on where you can walk:

the mall (I was just there today and there are tons of people walking and actually a lot of people in wheelchairs too going around the mall),
your work,
Fleet Farm (that place is huge! Lots of room to walk),
some of the local schools have their gyms open to walk. Check out the community education site here for Rochester, MN.
Target
Walmart (just take a shopping cart and go around the perimeter a few times...no one will even know you are just doing laps)

Turn off your computer, get up off your couch and get going...see how many miles or minutes you can log in 1 week.

Jessica's Journey...December 7th

2011-12-07T14:35:00.001-06:00

The photo above is not actually me...just in case you were wondering :)

When you think of "strength training" what comes to mind?

Big and bulky people? The big, heavy weights that just seem impossible to pick up? The big mirrors where people seem to just stare at themselves? The grunts and moans that you might hear from some people when they have a dumbbell in their hand?

That is what I used to think too.

There is a group out there called Girls Gone Strong. I've been reading some of their information for a few weeks and today I got a link from a friend about an article that was recently written by one of the members of that group. It is all about why women should do strength training. You can view the article here. (Thanks, Caroline for sending it to me!)

You might think that you already are...lifting weights on some of the machines in the women's area. Trust me...those aren't working as well as a dumbbell or lifting your own bodyweight. Plus, you don't even know how much you are lifting on some of those machines. A 1,2,3,4...scale is not the same as the number on the side of a barbell or on the cable machines. I used to be so scared of these...I would see people moving in all sorts of ways and pulling weird rope type of things and just wonder why they were doing those.

I think that #8 should be this...your muscles aren't just working and burning calories while you are at the gym...your muscles are still working even after you leave the gym. Which means, you are burning more calories throughout the day than if you just did a cardio workout at the gym.

I have always heard...and read...and can't even remember all the people who have said this to me...if you just have 20 to 30 minutes to spend at the gym you should go and lift weights.

Now, go read the article. Hopefully that will inspire you to go lift a milk jug, a kid (just joking...well, you could!), do some planks or something that requires you to lift something.

Now here is an offer for you that live in or around Rochester, MN. My gym membership lets me bring someone free anytime that I go to the gym. So...if you would like to join me you are more than welcome! Just send me a note (mominmn@gmail.com), find me on Facebook or make a comment here. I'd be happy to bring you. I do go pretty early but you can be there the whole time I am there or just a part of it.

Lastly...if you are interested in having your own strength training plan designed for you...with any injuries or weaknesses in mind...I know someone who can help you out. His name is Jeff Burbank and you can find him on Facebook too or just e-mail him at jeff@burbankdc.com.

Jessica's Journey...December 6th

2011-12-06T21:00:00.001-06:00

What can I write about today...

Goals.

I see 2 days left of phase 2. 2 days!

Phase 2 has really pushed me and I can't say that I have enjoyed every minute of this week (and it's only Tuesday). The exercises aren't horrible but they aren't easy. I think the biggest thing is just increasing how many times I am doing each exercise. I get to the amount of reps that I did last week and I can just feel my muscles screaming at me to stop at that same number. Well, guess what? Jeff didn't write down 12 corkscrews this week...I am up to 14. Everything is increased!

One of my goals is to get into a certain pair of pants that I have in my closet. I am getting closer and closer to being able to wear these. They are capris though and since we have a few inches of snow on the group these will be staying in my closet for awhile.

I am currently thinking of what other goals I need to set for myself. At the moment I have no idea what goals I should put in front of me...besides what I want to wear. I have a few things in mind for goals but that is has far as I have gotten...just in my mind.

Time for bed. I have a long workout in front of me in the morning. This one is my favorite (well, some of it is) out of all the days so that does give me a little motivation to finish.

Funny...I'm watching The Biggest Loser right now (shocker!) and some of the exercises they are doing are ones that I do. So cool to see other people doing what I do.

Today at the gym...I did a little bit of running. Last night I was really wanting to run when I got to the gym and not attend spin class. I haven't been able to run for a bit since I was sick. I have no idea where the urge to run came from but it was there. And then I woke up this morning. Why did I want to run again? I still did and I had a good time doing some intervals on the treadmill. I went just over 2 miles and felt great! I didn't cough uncontrollably like I sometimes do and that was probably the best feeling of all.

Jessica's Journey...December 5th

2011-12-05T20:27:00.001-06:00

When I think about quitting I will read this to myself.

When I get to my goal I will be reading this out loud for anyone to hear.

Sid & the ice

2011-12-05T11:55:00.001-06:00

Sid is part of a group called AHG. It is a lot like Girl Scouts but is Christian based and is run through churches. (If you have a daughter you should see if there is a group in your area...great group! There are 3 in Rochester now)

The AHG group has outings and fun activities for the girls and one of those was ice skating at one of the rinks that we have in town. (Hockey is pretty big here so yes, we do have more than 1 rink...I think I even saw a hockey mom that I know while we were skating and at least one of her little men...#9)

Last year we also went to this event and Sid was crying on the ice because she was so scared and she just didn't want to fall.

This year, she went around the ice with "the helper" (which looks just like a walker) three times and then we went around together for about another 45 minutes. My hands, and hers, were very sweaty from holding on to eachother. We got out to the middle of the ice a few times and for at least the last 20 minutes she wasn't holding on to a wall at all. She did great and was very confident in herself by the end of our skating. She even tried letting go of me AND the wall a few times. We had a really fun time!

Here are a few pictures of her. The first is towards the beginning of our skating. She is looking a bit nervous and was trying to figure out how to balance with "the helper".

This is at the end. Look at her smile! Sid is with one of her best friends...Skylar. Skylar is a great friend to Sid and saved "the helper" for her at the beginning while we got our skates on.

Our Tree & Mr. Silly

2011-12-05T11:41:00.001-06:00

We ventured out of the house the other day to get our Christmas tree. It is usually our tradition to get this after we return from our Thanksgiving travels. Unfortunately, Quinn and I were pretty sick when we wanted to go so we had to wait until this weekend.

A storm was headed our way on Saturday so we got the tree just as the snow was starting to fall. It was very pretty...driving over to Walmart North parking lot, passing Gander Mountain and finding our parking spot just across the street from Kwik Trip. Ok, it might have been a little bit better if we were actually walking through a forest or a place that had trees we could cut ourselves but this works for us. Plus, we had a coupon! :)

The tree is up and we seem to have a leak somewhere in our tree stand so we delayed decorating until we knew that our tree was safe and secure and watertight.

Here are a few pictures of our adventure.

And...then the storm hit. In about 2 hours we got enough sticky, wet snow to build things...and it kept snowing and we now have about 5 inches of snow. Here is some of the snow that we got and the snowman (Mr. Silly Snowman) that Sid and the neighbor built that afternoon.

Jessica's Journey...December 4th

2011-12-04T21:12:00.001-06:00

Priorities in the Williams house are all crazy at the moment.

We have a Christmas tree but it won't get decorated until Tuesday night.
Kids do have all their homework done but only after one kid forgot said homework a few times this week.
We failed to review spelling for one child's test last week.
Refused to sign an agenda for another child because homework wasn't brought home.
AWANA wasn't studied with the kids prior to Wednesday (or at all for some).
Sid's AHG group (similar to Girl Scouts) has forms due tomorrow and Sid has lost them.
Kids are in a program this coming weekend and have been practicing every Friday night for about 2 months. I'm ready for my Friday nights free again.
Next Saturday we have something going on starting at 8:30am and keep going all day with something until 7pm, except about 2 hours during the day. I'm already exhausted just looking at that schedule.
...and probably several other things that I have already forgotten about that we were supposed to do but didn't do.

The gym was no different for me this morning.

Somehow I didn't plan out my time quite right today. It is Sunday so generally I have a little bit more time to flex and play with than a normal day. Today I had to be at church b7 8:45am so we could do nursery. I thought (notice that the word "thought" was used) that I would have enough time for everything today. Not even close. I got up pretty early and just didn't have time to do everything I was supposed to and get ready for church today the way that I wanted to get ready. I almost finished all my exercises but didn't get to finish one set of one and my intervals were at a little bit faster intervals than they were supposed to be. I just didn't have time to get it all done today.

This week I will be paying a little more attention to my time at the gym...cause I really don't want to be waking up any earlier than 4:30am. And, I will try to do better at prioritizing with my kiddos with their to-do lists.

The Williams house has a lot going on right now...deep breathing techniques starting...now.

I am ready for a snow day...just so my kiddos can have a break and so we can do a few of the things we are supposed to get done that are on our to-do list.

Merry Christmas!

2011-12-04T13:41:00.000-06:00

Photo Card

View the entire collection of cards.

Jessica's Journey...December 3rd

2011-12-03T21:39:00.001-06:00

I took yesterday off from writing. I did hit the gym and finished up week 2 of phase 2. What a great feeling! But, I was ready to throw in the towel and be done. I was exhausted and just didn't think I could push any harder. Rep after rep, weight after weight...it was very tedious. But, I had to keep telling myself, "I'm almost done. I'm almost done. Keep going." I had to be the person that kept me going and be positive that I could do this.

Now, what about those people in our lives that aren't always so positive? If you have ever tried to accomplish something, anything...doesn't have to be health related...you know that there is going to be someone that wants to sabotage your success or just not offer any support for you.

I recently had a phone call with one of those people. I was so excited to share my success and wanted to pass along some information and even see if I could do some sort of a circuit type of workout with this person and a few others based on what I have been doing. The conversation not only irritated me but it also reminded me how much I hate drama that isn't necessarily needed. I started by answering the phone with a smile and ended by just wishing that I could get off the phone as fast as I could. I would love to help this person and get them to exercise more and show them some of the things I have learned but I don't think that is ever going to happen. The conversation was horrible and when I was done I think I probably could have had a huge piece of chocolate cake and just sat and watched movies all night and also sprinkled some M&M's or Snicker pieces on the cake while I ate.

I didn't have cake. I don't have any in the house. :)

I do know though that this person has done this with other areas of my life where I wanted to share what I was doing or what my family is doing. Today though the conversation turned to how sick they have been, how their kids aren't ever going to be as good in the same areas as my kids and how much weight they have gained since last year this time. Well, I'm on the same medicines as this person right now and was taken to the ER a month ago and almost didn't spend Thanksgiving with family because everyone in our house has been sick in the last 2 weeks, I don't care if their kids can't do the same things as mine...kids are different and they aren't all supposed to be the same...and if you want to lose weight then exercise. The conversation though was completely one sided and I wasn't able to say any of those things to this person because they weren't really wanting to listen.

Instead of eating cake (oh, yummy chocolate cake :) I talked with my husband and vented to him about the situation. Then...I went looking for how I might be able to handle this situation since I am a girl and as many know...girls don't just let things go. We like to think, dwell, think some more and keep coming back to the conversation and what was meant by different expressions and words. (I'm right, aren't I, ladies?)

Here is some advice I found from someone that was having some "not so encouraging" conversations...
To sum this all up: You have to be true to yourself. It's your body, your health, your life. Nobody else knows what life is like in your shoes. If others are encouraging and helpful - WONDERFUL - invite them to be part of your journey. If they are critical and sabotage your best efforts - you may have to distance yourself from them for the journey until you are well set in your new lifestyle.

Tomorrow is a new day! Thanks to all of you who have been positive to me. I appreciate it!