Family’s Healthy Lifestyle

It is so fitting that this week’s blogging carnival question for Mamavation is “How do you encourage your children to contribute to your family’s healthy lifestyle?”.

This week my family has reached several of our goals, together. My husband and I have continued engaging the boys in discussions about what is healthy for our bodies. It touches my heart that my 5 year olds now bring up the topic on their own, daily. We have been having the boys help with meal prep at each meal. We talk about each ingredient that goes into our food and where it came from and why it is good for our bodies. Since the boys are helping make the food, they have been more willing to try new things. This is HUGE for my picky eaters. They have actually had turkey sandwiches (after we cut them into cute shapes with cookie cutters), healthy lasagna, chicken and cheese quesadillas with flax seeds, homemade blueberry muffins with flax, and (I can’t believe it) ceasar salad all in a matter of a week. I have kept fresh fruit ready in the fridge all this week so when they tell me they are hungry, which seems to be about every 30-45 minutes lately (growing?), they can help themselves.

At dinner this week, we have been talking as a family about what to plant in our garden. We want to plant vegetables that the boys will want to eat. So we asked them. So far we have agreed on: green beans, bell peppers, Serrano peppers, tomatoes (the type is up for debate), basil, cilantro, strawberries and lettuce (varieties not yet decided). Hoping to add sweet potatoes to that, but so far I’m not winning that debate. The boys helped plant the garden last year and they ate the green beans, I’m hoping for the best again this year. We will be receiving some vegetables from my mom who ordered from a local CSA Farm in our area. She lives alone and is splitting with another family, but she still won’t be able to keep up with the amount of vegetables she will receive.

I will continue challenging the boys, and my husband, with healthy foods. Now I need to move on to exercise. I have been researching more family classes at my local YMCAs but also community programs. Today, we as a family, went to the YMCA for a Family Fitness class and the boys were so excited they were literally running circles in the hall waiting for the class to open. They were all smiles from ear to ear during the class as we ran, jump, skipped, danced and drummed on stabilization balls. Afterwards they begged, not too hard, for all of us to race around the track a few times. It was such a wonderful feeling to be working out as a family. I cannot wait for the snow to melt so we can get out on our bikes and ride for miles and miles, play baseball, learn golf together, and so many other family activities. I vow, with all of you reading as my witnesses, I will get all of us to do at least 60 minutes of exercise a day. My goal, is for us to do it as a family. I will engage my boys by letting them help decide between a list of activities.

For how hard I have struggled the past few weeks with my own motivation, I feel like I have crossed the finish line after all. My race is not over since there is always more. But I found my motivation again this week and my drive to continue leading my family down the path to better health. To the lovely Mamavation Moms of this campaign, I love you all and I couldn’t be more proud of each and every one of you. We have laughed, sweated, and cried along with you. Your journeys are not ending. You have been given very valuable tools and all of you have the strength to continue on even when the campaign is over. You will not be alone, we are still here for each of you, as your Sistas, forever. Mhuh!

Mamavation Monday post on Tuesday

Yes, yes. It is Tuesday and I am stuck on Monday. But let’s get down to business. I am feeling stronger this week and noticed a difference when doing push-ups. Yeah! Hubby says he is noticing a difference and that I am gaining more muscle tone. P90X is helping me once again!

I am still struggling with nutrition. This is nothing new for me, but I am going to try some new tactics. First, I am going to alter my eating habits. I have been reading some samples on my Kindle for two cookbooks. The first one is called Cinch! Conquer Cravings, Drop Pounds, and Lose Inches, by Cynthia Sass. This name and book may sound familiar to many of you, @bookieboo from Mamavation.com is hosting a twitter party this Thursday January 20th from 8-10pm EST with Cynthia Sass, M.P.H., R.D. What has intrigued me about her book is that it starts like a cleanse, or detox,  with a 5 day jump-start then you follow a menu of meal plans for another 25 days that help maximize fat-burning and improving one’s ,metabolism. It teaches you to eat cleaner and healthier. The other cookbook I was reading as a sample on my Kindle was Now Eat This!:150 of America’s Favorite Comfort Foods, All Under 350 Calories by Rocco DiSpirito. Rocco’s Cookbook focuses on Healthy versions of the foods we crave and often have to give up when eating healthy. Rocco is focusing on teaching us how to replace fats, sugar, and cutting back on calories without sacrificing taste. I want to learn how to cook with Greek yogurt, I want to learn how to cook the foods my family loves and knows but make them healthier and guilt-free. So by using Cynthia’s Book first to “detox” my system I can start a new with Rocco’s book and make my family, or my picky boys, think that I haven’t changed their beloved favorites. It’s worth a try and I am in need of a good nutritional over-haul. Now, to pitch the idea to Hubby!

So my goals for the week:

Continue with P90X, Drink more water, talk hubby into my nutrition plan.

I would like congratulate our Mamavation Campaign 7 Moms @christlikemommy, @beeacutie2, and our L.A. Mamavation moms @KateColman77, and @ninemoremonths! You ladies are going to ROCK THIS!

Another Monday

I don’t know about the rest of you, but for me, Monday came way too fast. Last week was jammed with running errands, kids activities, my garage sale, working extra shifts, the list could go on and on. Eight months ago I would have said the hell with working out, going to the gym, popping in a workout DVD. Not anymore. Even with the busiest of days/weeks/months I am still determined to make the healthier choices. I WIll get my body to move in a way that is beneficial to my health. I WILL make healthier food choices for me and my family. Did I accomplish this last week…I did still get to the gym 3 days last week. I did not go on Monday or Wednesday due to some heavy landscaping of my front yard. Guess who did the landscaping? Yep, me and my trusty shovel. My boys helped too when it came to spreading out the mulch. It was my makeshift Strength training workout. My food choices could have been a little better but even when eating out we made decisions to eat healthy off the menu.

With all of that, my highlight for the week was convincing my family to take a Family Yoga class with me at our YMCA. We had so much fun. At first I thought there was no way my boys, very active almost 5 year olds, were going to be able to stay focused long enough or quiet long enough. The beauty of the class, they didn’t have to stay quiet. We pretended to e erupting volcanos as a warm up. We became a family of interconnecting trees while doing our tree poses. We were nice cats and mean cats while doing cat stretch, down dogs and up dogs were also included with sound effects. At the end we got to make our own family animal pose for people to guess. We even had a small relaxation session at the end, where we played a “game” to see who could fool the “teacher” into thinking that they were asleep while we “dreamt of our favorite activities to do as a family”. At the end of class the teacher had out yogurt for our healthy snack. I am hoping the Y does another Family Yoga night again soon. My husband and I cannot wait to take the boys again. I have caught them doing yoga poses around the house now to. It is so cute to see them stretch and learn how much fun it is to be active.

This week I am going to continue with my workouts. But I am going to focus more on nutrition. A suitable goal since our Mamavation TV Guest this week is the wonderful Pete Cohen. He is a Life Coach, Health and Fitness Professional with so much personal wisdom that he delvers in a down to earth way. His new adventure is a nutrition program that is individualize to each participant. How cool is that! He goes in depth with vitamins, minerals, nutrients, herbal teas, essential oils, and foods to give you energy and to help you be healthy and as fit as possible. To find out more visit http://www.petecohennutrition.com/ Join us LIVE on Mamavation TV to hear more from Pete himself tonight 9pm CST.

Congrats to our SOTW Joanna of  @way2gomom! She is a fabulous Sista and is there to give motivation a nd support when it is needed most!