Working Out ~ Tori

As a busy mom it can be incredibly hard to find time to work out. When there is a bit of time in my day I can think of so many other ways to fill that time. Quiet reading time, cleaning (as a mom to two young boys something ALWAYS needs cleaning), etc. The list goes on and on.

But the fact of the matter is that we all need to work out. What method we use to work out will vary, but keeping healthy is the main goal we all have in common.

Sometimes it's best to just quit over thinking and make some extra time in our day for working out. A little time each day will help us in so many ways.

Working out makes you feel better, helps you live longer, and (believe it or not) makes you have more energy.

And if you don't have time for a complex work out routine there are many simple ways to sneak in a few methods to help you. Maybe take the stairs instead of the elevator. 

Have a day planned at the park with the kiddos? Walk there instead of driving. Or walk to a place close to you that you usually drive to. No sense in wasting money on gas when you could enjoy the day and take a nice walk.

Set your clock a bit early in the morning (even 15-30 mins) to get in an early morning work out. Do some squats, jumping jacks, yoga, etc. Do zumba once a week. There are so many ways you can make working out a part of your daily routine without infringing on anything else. And although it may seem a task at first you will very soon notice some small differences in your days. Increase in energy, better mood, you will find yourself sleeping better at night, you'll find an extra little spark in your sex life, and you'll notice over time weight loss.

I for one like to get up a bit early. There's a window (albeit a small one) where everyone in my house is asleep and I can wake up without dragging my feet around. It's about thirty minutes and I use this time to get some workouts in. The house is silent, I have a space to myself, and I get at it. It's nice to have a bit of quiet time to myself and know that I'm bettering myself (even if a little bit) by getting my workout in. And even though I often find some of my muscles sore I notice a significant difference throughout my daily routine. I tend to be happier, have more energy, and feel more accomplished. 

Just remember that if your working out to maintain weight eating healthy also goes hand in hand with that. Not saying cut out everything delicious in your life. Life is short and we must live it. But here and there we can make better choices. 

By working out you will feel better about yourself, you'll feel more sexy, more confident. We can all use some of that right?

It's a great stress burner and it will calm you through some of those tough moments sure to pop up through your normal mom day.

Bottom line is exercise can be fun, and it can definitely make you feel better.

The best advice as one mom to another that I can give you is just don't put to high of expectations on working out. Often we set ourselves for too high of goals that we find difficult to reach. Everyone is different and we all work at our own pace. No body is the same. Just have fun with working out and be a friend to yourself rather than an enemy. 

If you have worked out all week long and there's no difference than the previous week don't be down on yourself. At least you haven't gained! And most importantly at least your keeping active and having fun.

Nobody is perfect and as long as your on the path to bettering yourself, you are on the right path. Have patience with working out and have patience with yourself. Don't expect the same results that someone else may gain from working out because you are not them. And most importantly, I can't say this enough, have fun!

Personal Goals for April ~ Tori

Today I'm going to share with you some of my personal goals I have set for myself for the month of April 2013.
This is going to be a simple post for me because I am a list person. I make grocery lists, goal lists, chore lists, etc. Even if I lose them and have to start over lists help keep me grounded, and I already have my goal list made out for the month of April.

Keep Exercising

I have been working out every day. I can't always get to all the routines I want to work through because when your a mom things happen. BUT...I have been making sure to exercise daily. I usually do so in the morning when everyone is asleep, but there are the occasional times my ruckus will wake up the kiddos and I either need to find a workout routine they can join me in (like yoga), or wait until everyone is in bed. This is part of a long-term goal in my weight loss mission, but exercising helps me feel so much better. I've been on this journey before, but I admit I've gotten lazy and given up time after time. I'm going to keep with it though because I am more determined this time around.

Keep Eating Healthy Foods

This has been the most hardest goal for me. I am a huge fan of chocolate. I'm talking BIG. When there is chocolate in the house I am suddenly an addict and I must get my chocolate fix. BUT, I have been doing my best to restrain myself. NOT to say I haven't slipped now and again because let's face it, as much as you guys think so, I'm not perfect. LOL (joke there, I'm really not that self-centered in real life I promise).

Anyway I have been watching portions, I've been watching what types of foods I eat, been watching calories, etc. It's hard for me because I love food. I love to cook, I love to eat, and I grew up with a high metabolism. I was able to eat any and everything without gaining weight, until the last five years or so.

I find that I have actually started craving certain vegetables and fruits since I've incorporated them more into my eating plan. I actually reached for an apple over a fudge round the other day! I almost had a heart attack myself. Even though I'm sure I'm going to fall off the healthy eating wagon now and again I'm determined to stick to this. I'm hoping I don't fall off, but I don't want to set myself up for disappointment either. I'm going to do my best to meet this goal, and so far so good. Gotta keep at it.

Take More Pictures

Even though I don't have as nice a camera as listed above (I do wish, however), I do have a camera. I take pictures, but not as much as I should I admit. I'm a lazy photographer. I love taking pictures so why I neglect my camera is a mystery. I'm going to work on that. While I don't share pics of my kids online I want to have more pictures of them. I take pictures of them often, but I need to more often. These years are too short for my liking. My oldest is five and while I love seeing how he has grown it makes me sad. Time is flying! I always get too caught up in life and forget to just be STILL. I rush around here and there, getting chores done, running errands, planning, and I don't take as much time as I would like to just ENJOY! And I want to document these wonderful times because they go quickly. If it's my kids making silly faces, us coloring, a flower with a bumblebee perched atop it, a tree blooming, I want to photograph it to keep for my memories. There's too much beauty in the world not to.

Spend More Quality Family Time / Relax and Enjoy

We always spend time together as a family. I play with my kids daily, we have lessons, activities, etc. But it's still not as much time as I'd like. No matter how much I urge it to take a vacation, Life comes knocking on my door followed by it's good friend Chores. But it's time to do more activities together. Hubby has been working quite a bit lately. It's been rough on everyone, but mostly the kids. The other day he was off and we were packing. The kids were being good and coloring quietly. We decided to take a break and color with them. It was all so reserved which is usually nice, but we were thinking when the last time we actually had some loud crazy fun. It was time to get our sillies out! So we all bundled up (as we had a snowstorm), and took the kids outside for awhile. We had a crazy insane snowball fight, and it was a blast! We all chased each other (even my 2 year old got in on the action), and just let loose. It was awesome, even the part when I got blasted square in the face with a giant ball of snow and it filled my nostrils (It was even crazy hilarious to me). There was so much crazy laughter, stress forgotten for the time being, and it was just some plain ole' quality family time. It was much needed, and we came back in and enjoyed some hot chocolate while all snuggled on the couch. Life gets so hectic that it's easy to rush through things, or be focused on one thing when your suppose to be having family time. Sometimes we gotta just relax and enjoy.

Organize Our Household

We are moving in a few short days, and upon our packing journey I realized a sad fact: I am not as organized as I thought I was. Seriously I need to get better with this, I'm a MOM! We are suppose to be organized with everything in it's rightful place! But I'll let you in on a little secret, I don't. SHHH!!! No wonder why I always have a cluttered closet in my house somewhere! So during my spring cleaning journey, and in the month of April, I will be eliminating tons of stuff while organizing keeps. There are so many ideas on Pinterest on how to organize. Pins I've pinned, and it's time to make good use of them. I have a lot organized, but I need to organize BETTER. I want to have NO cluttered closets, and I want every object to have it's rightful place. It may sound like a fantasy land, but it can happen. I'm bound and determined. LOL

So these are some of my major personal goals for the month of April. I have an entire list, but these are the main ones I'll be working on. Stay tuned for Priddymomma's post on Thursday and Leslie's on Saturday! I'm eager to hear their goals myself! :)

What are some of your goals for the upcoming month?

Kid-Loved Recipes - Leslie

This week is all about the foods our kids love to eat.  Right now A, being two, is in this picky eater stage.  Most of the time she's not willing to try ANYTHING new, which I find frustrating because I know that a lot of the time if she would just try it, she would like it.  We even try singing the "Try It, You'll Like It" song from Yo Gabba Gabba.  It has about a 5.3% success rate so far.  Or maybe that's me being a little too generous today.  *sigh*  Sometimes she even has a problem with things she previously liked, but now finds to be the wrong color or whatever other reasons that only make sense to a two-year-old. Or maybe they only make sense to MY two-year-old.  Or maybe they don't even make sense to her but she enjoys the way mommy's face turns dark red and has to leave the room for a minute.  Especially when a quarter of the plate is gone before she declares that her food is nasty and she doesn't like it, so can she have a cookie please?  That must be pretty funny!  Ha!

Anyway, on to the recipes!

French Bread Pizza
Ingredients:
Loaf of french bread
Your choice of pizza sauce, or make your own!
Your favorite cheese
Your choice of toppings
(Usually we have pepperoni or sausage available, black olives, and mushrooms)
Any herbs you like

Preheat your oven to 325*
 
If you use sausage or any other topping that needs to be prepared before being put on the pizza, do that first.  We always pre-cook our sausage into smaller, crumbly pieces ahead of time.

Get a cookie sheet and cover the bottom.  I like parchment paper for this, but I have used foil successfully as well.

You don't necessarily have to use french bread for this.  Sometimes we use pita bread in place of the french or even hamburger buns if you want more of a pizza burger feel.  If you do use french bread, cut it in half and then cut each half down to whatever sizes you would like your pizzas.  For a small loaf, often you can get away with just cutting the whole thing into quarters.  Larger loafs will be easier to eat if they are cut smaller than that.  You can also make it even healthier by using any sturdy wheat bread.

Arrange your bread onto the cookie sheet.  (An optional step if you are using the french bread is to spread a very thin layer of butter onto the cut side of the bread and put in the oven to pre-toast a little, about 5 minutes)

Add your toppings as you like.  I love this recipe because A can get up there and put whatever she likes on her own.  Usually I just spread the sauce on hers first and then she does the rest with a little help.  You can be as weird as you want.  It's your pizza!  Everyone here pokes fun at me for putting my pepperoni on before my sauce.  I can't help it that I like crunchier bread underneath!  Usually once everyone has their cheese on, we shake some oregano over the whole pan.  It makes such a big difference.

When everyone has their pizza the way they like it, put into the oven and bake just until the cheese is melted. 


Quesadillas
Tortilla Ingredients:
Your choice of cheese.  I like really any Mexican blends for this.
Tortillas (you can get wheat if you like)
For us, about 2 chicken breasts is good for 5 or 6 quesadillas
Quesadilla sauce (Optional, but so so good.)
Any other veggies you may enjoy with Mexican food (Optional)

Sauce Ingredients (Can be easily doubled):
1/4 C Mayonnaise
2 tsp minced jalapenos and 2 tsp jalapeno juice
     OR
4 tsp jalapeno juice
3/4 tsp sugar
1/2 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp paprika
1/8 tsp cayenne pepper
1/8 tsp garlic powder
1 dash of salt

If you choose to use it, make the sauce at least an hour or two (or even better, the day before).  Just put all of the ingredients into a bowl and mix until well incorporated.  Cover with plastic wrap and put in the fridge until ready to use.

Cook the chicken until all pink is gone.  We cook with taco seasoning or just a little cumin to give it a bit more flavor.  Shred the chicken.  I have found that using my stand mixer is GREAT for shredding chicken.  Just put the cooked breasts into the mixer with the paddle attachment and turn it on.  Shred until it's the size you like.  It saves so much time.

Turn your griddle or pan on medium heat.

You can spray your tortillas on one side with oil if you like or just leave them alone.  Spread a thin layer of the quesadilla sauce onto the whole tortilla (non oiled side).  Sprinkle a layer of cheese and chicken onto only half of the tortilla and then flip the other side over the top.  Place in the pan and cook until the cheese is melted and the outside is as soft or crunchy as you like.

I like to take a little of the sauce and use it to dip while I'm eating.  A wants to like the sauce so badly, but it is a little spicy and she usually complains after a couple of bites.  Haha.  She gets a little sour cream instead.  The sauce is online as a copy of the recipe Taco Bell uses for their quesadilla sauce.  I don't think it tastes anything like TB's sauce.  In fact, this sauce is WAY better than theirs.


Rice with Chicken and Veggies
Ingredients:
White or brown rice
Chicken broth
Garlic powder (optional)
1-2 chicken breasts
Vegetables that you and your kids enjoy

Cook the rice according to package directions, but use the chicken broth instead of water.  I use the Brown Minute Rice, so it's pretty quick.  I also sprinkle in a few shakes of garlic powder at the beginning.

Cut the chicken into bite size (not too big for little mouths) pieces and cook.  I season with salt, pepper, and garlic powder.

A likes peas, corn, and carrots with hers.  I usually steam the carrots and cook the peas and corn in boiling water.

Mix into bowl together and enjoy.

A LOVES rice, so this is a perfect healthy dish for her.  Seasons can be adjusted in whatever way you like.  Experiment and find what YOU like.  I sure do.


Pinterest Brownies
Source
Ingredients :
1 C sugar
1/2 C flour
1/3 C cocoa
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp baking powder
2 eggs
1/2 C vegetable oil
1 tsp vanilla extract
Chocolate or butterscotch chips (optional)
Nuts (Optional)

Preheat oven to 350*

I find that this recipe makes a fairly thin brownie, so we often double it for thicker ones and just let them cook a little longer.  (Keep checking them so they don't overcook!)

Spray or grease a square brownie pan well.

Add all dry ingredients to a bowl and whisk together.  Add to that the wet ingredients and mix until well incorporated.  Fold in any of the chips or nuts you would like to add.  I find that folding them in at the end makes mixing easier.  For me, anyway.  If you want, you can always put them in with the dry ingredients.

Pour into baking dish and bake for 20-25 minutes or until toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.


Other:

Roast Beast and Monster Sandwiches
This is something new we were actually able to get A to try.  We made the name fun, so she thought it was a blast and really liked it.  All it is, is a roast beef lunchmeat sandwich (use any bread they like) with muenster cheese.  That's it!  A won't eat any condiments, so hers is dry, but you can add any they might like.  We serve with fruit and pretzel sticks or carrot sticks.

Peanut Butter and Jelly
Ah.  The ol' go-to.  Please tell me you know how to make these.  :P  Served the same way.

Peanut Butter Sandwich
Yes, A will just eat a plain peanut butter sandwich.  She likes to have a banana and milk on the side.


A will eat just about any fruit as a snack.  Her favorites are bananas.  They seriously don't last long in this place.  She also loves strawberries, apples, pears, and oranges.  Her favorite veggies are carrots, corn, green beans, and peas.  Other snacks she loves are yogurt (we get Greek yogurt with fruit added), applesauce, pretzel sticks, and pita chips.

We don't try to force her to eat things she doesn't like, but a lot of the time I will have her try something more than once.  For example, at first she would not touch avocado.  She wanted absolutely nothing to do with it.  Then she would at least smell it.  Then I told her it was kind of like lettuce so she tried it, but hated it.  Now I will put a little on her plate and sometimes she'll eat a few bites and other times she won't touch it at all, but she's more open to it being an option.  Like Heather said, you can't expect them to like it if you just try once and then give up.

So there are a few things we make around here.  Hope you enjoyed!