Get FIT with me!!!

Back to School time is a great opportunity to re-evaluate schedules, routines, lifestyles and tweak them for the better.  It is a time when kids who are actually GOING back to school have to adjust from a summer schedule to a Fall Routine.  This usually means earlier bedtimes, earlier wake-ups, morning routines, after school routines, bedtime routines and the like.  Homeschoolers often have to make many of these adjustments as well.  These schedule changes tend to make us adjust when and how we eat and move our bodies as well.

It seems to me that Back to School time is an amazing excuse to re-work the fitness and nutrition routines that have easily gotten out of whack over the summer (or years... in my case).

It's funny how just a few weeks ago I was thinking that I needed to get serious about making some changes in my life (after stepping on the scale and seeing a number that was WAY too close to my hospital admission weight when I went in to birth my last baby)!!  I then started seeing other bloggers posting about the same thing!   Hmmmm, there's something to this Back to School Drive.

Will you join me in getting fit?

You can hop on board one of the programs I list below, you can find another one you like better, or you can totally create your own.   I, like in everything else, can not seem to follow any given program (in any topic) exactly as it is given.  So I will give you link ups to two of the bloggers that I am following and I will tell you how *I* am tweaking them.

I'd love it if you would get FIT with me.  I'd love to have company.  Even if you decided to focus on only ONE SMALL AREA or GOAL it would be GREAT to have you along.

My Motivational Links
These two ladies have opened up and are being completely vulnerable.   They are revealing information about their physical state that I am not yet sure *I* will be opening up.   (The young girl inside of me that used to dance 6 hrs a day and looked it is still quite shy and honestly horrified when she looks in the mirror to see what has happened after 16 years of marriage, eating as if she is still dancing 6 hrs a day and birthing 3 children.)

I think Tristan at Our Busy Homeschool is starting simple with simple goals of working out each day using the T-Tap program and measuring herself weekly. 

You can follow her 30-Day T-Tap Challenge here.   Sign up for her emails to catch her posts on her success as well as learn more about her life and her homeschool with 7 children.

The other link that I look forward to reading each day is from Brandy at the Marathon Mom.  Brandy has 8 boys and has issued a challenge called "42 Days to Fit"  You can have the daily challenges, informational offering and journal pages delivered to your inbox if you sign up on the right side of her website homepage.   In Week One, she is offering up journal pages to help us look at those things that hold us back, those things we struggle with and what our goals are.  The week 1 journal also includes a Fitness Test which will show us how far we have come.  She will be offering dietary changes and suggestions along with menu suggestions.  She has mentioned a desire to reduce carbs which is one of my own goals and on her recent blog post she mentioned many of the things that hold me back like not eating with my children, grabbing sugary and carb snacks when I am starving, being hungry at bedtime, and being addicted to Dr. Pepper.   I look forward to following this journey with her, yet admit to myself that I already have some pretty specific BEHAVIORAL goals that I will be focusing upon. I might not go in as deep as she is taking it but I MIGHT add in more if it seems like it will work.  Right now my goal is to become regularly successful in the goals that I have selected.  Once those are routine I will take it even farther (I hope).

I typed my goals the other day but in order to have everything in one spot I will type them again here.

HERE ARE MY BEHAVIORAL GOALS:
1) Go to bed (for SLEEP...not Netflix or Facebook) at 10 PM or before.
    Get body out of bed by 7:30 AM. If I want to check email and FB in bed like I have grown accustomed to, I will need to wake up earlier.  I might need to reintroduce myself to the Alarm Clock!!!

((If you work out of the home or have to get children to school or on the bus, please don't hate me.  I have not had a routine like this in a couple of years now.  I was THRILLED when my children stopped jumping on the bed in tears until I got up with them at 5:30.  When they learned that they could wake up and play until I got up to feed them and started letting me sleep until 8 or 9 my life turned to bliss.  Unfortunately, I also took advantage of this and became a night owl who then got nothing accomplished until 12N, fed her children lunch at 1:30 and then was occupied by the nap time, afternoon blood sugar drop and supper routine everyday.  No WONDER I was accomplishing NOTHING!))

2) Exercise 5 days a week minimum.  I will be using Leslie Sansone's Walk Away the Pounds DVD.  I am starting with her 1 mile walk.  When it gets easy I will move up to her 2 mile walk.  I will also be using Jillian Michael's No More Trouble Zones DVD, focusing on her abdomen/upper body circuit and later her Core Area circuits.   I have not yet set an exact schedule.  I know my rebellious self well enough that I know I FIRST need to just DO SOMETHING daily.  Later I can regulate when and what I do on what day.   For now her very short abdomen circuit is a killer.  I'm taking it slow.

3) Dietary Changes:  My goal is to reduce my carb intake.  I am not cutting out all carbs.  I am not going Dr. Atkins on anyone.  I merely want to aim for more stable blood sugars by grabbing protein based snacks and meals and back away from the breads, chips, crackers, cereals, etc.   I will be finding ways to put more protein into my/our diet and will personally be reaching for hard boiled eggs, nuts, peanut butter, etc. for snacks instead of the super easy processed flour stuff. When we do eat carbs I want them to be less processed, slower to digest carbs like oatmeal and full grain carb bread, but as a treat instead of a staple.  I previously cut back on sugar and currently am okay with the Dr. Pepper cravings but I now hope to avoid the tootsie rolls that we offer the kids for snacks and hope to NOT eat spoonful after spoonful of the honey comb sitting in my cabinet!   Hello, my name is Kristi and I am a sugar/ corn syrup addict!!

4) I also just today have decided to do at least one set of body measurements now.   I am not sure if I will join in with Tristan and measure every week but hope to measure then on occasion.   She has seen great results in just one week of doing T-Tap daily but I am not sure I am ready to go there. I do see benefits in a "Before" assessment however so I will do this ONE now and see how it goes from there.

Will you join me in getting FIT?

Will you think and pray about making at least ONE change to commit to?

A snack substitution?  Running around the yard with the kids instead of kicking them out so you can eat the chips you've been hiding?  Saying "no" at meal time after you've eaten your portion instead of eating more because it's "so good."  Exercising X amount each week?  Measuring your body with me? (shudder)

What can you commit to do with me?

If you are ready to jump on board, what will your goals and foci be?

I'd LOVE if you comment below!

Personal Fall Changes & Goals

I am attempting (slowly) to make three changes to my life. 

1) Eat less carbs and snack more on protein to steady my blood sugars pre-emptively instead of responding to sluggish moments with quick carbs.   I am not diabetic but have lots of diabetes in my family and I will openly admit that I AM ADDICTED TO SUGAR, corn syrup containing products, and sweets of any kind.

2) Get back into a "Morning Person" routine, turning away from the Night Owl time wasting that I have become so good at. 

and

3) Once awake in the morning I want "workout" to be the first accomplishment after my contacts are in and my teeth are brushed.   Right now I am trying to do Leslie Sansone's 1 Mile Walk Away the Pounds and am horribly embarrassed at how a simple video can kick my patooty and make my lungs hurt!!  My goal is to have the 1 Mile Walk be my baseline and then add in Jillian Michaels' No More Trouble Zones abdomen circuit a few times a week instead of the walk.

This past week I found a great series with some AWESOME hints about how to get back into a Morning Person Routine.  I have finally been convicted and am beginning to HEAR the echo of this advice everywhere I go.   (Hubby has been telling me this for years!! Please don't tell him he's right!!)  On occasion I have even been successful in experiencing the rewards of getting up early---and by early I mean out of bed by 7---PLEASE DON'T HATE ME. . . . but it's REALLY HARD when the toxifying, addictive quiet of a sleeping house tries to lure me into "just one more chapter" or "just one more episode" at night.  :)

Have you struggled with any of these?

Do you TOO want to join me in these goals?

Can you help me come up with some realistic (cheap or free) rewards that might drive me toward success and won't negate the work I am trying to accomplish? 

What do you reward yourself when you accomplish X-numbers of successful days?

Corn!

Corn!

Can anyone guess what I will be doing today?

(So thankful for a neighbor letting us know that they had too much.)

Who said summer days were lazy days.....

did NOT have young children, gardens nor a farm!!

I greatly apologize to all of you loyal readers who have heard not a word from me in TWO MONTHS!!!

We have had T-ball, slow pitch, summer library reading program, piano lessons, 4H county fair, visits from grandparents, a field trip to a Pioneer Village and a Super Hero birthday party.  We have been church shopping and also have had to start researching for a new homeschool co-op.  The kids have been riding bikes, running around, helping with the farm animals, reading like crazy and creating many Super Hero dramas.  I have battled my PMDD along the way and am learning how this introverted mother can best handle her 2 youngest and VERY INTROVERTED children.

I also have had to learn how to cook with Yellow, crook neck squash, how to use honey comb instead of extracted honey, and how to make refrigerator pickles with our HUGE pickles  I have also been busy (but not busy enough) weeding and picking produce.

Yesterday, Hubby took over the kitchen to cut squares of honey comb to package for sale and then melted the wax away from the honey starting the process to make Honey Mead while stocking our wax supply.  We've made beeswax lotion bars to sell and we think we have a buyer for the bee pollen that we collect. 

The loggers have also returned to our property and are hopeful that they can finish logging the trees on our rolling 10 acres so that we can expand our pasture land for our 27 sheep.

Are you tired yet?  I think these are the HIGHLIGHTS! I am sure there is much, much more that we have been doing.  I so badly wish I had more time to sit and compose blog posts.  I love this little blog and think up posts often while I am doing my work but since I have not yet found the interface that will transfer my thoughts (as interrupted as they are) into a blog post for me you are unfortunately stuck with silence.   :(   So sorry.

As I have been saying all of this REALLY HOT AND DRY SUMMER.......

WINTER IS COMING!!!

I am hoping to blog more this winter.....although then you will not have as many fun pictures of us working this summer.   :(

Maybe someday life will let me catch up?