This weekend like all weekends flew by. We had several parties on Saturday… one was a 1 year old bday party and another was a party for my friend who got married back in June. Both were fun and the weather turned out great!

Sunday was a beach day for us…

We got up early, walked Cooper grabbed some coffees on our walk and then headed to the beach mid-morning. Ava loves it!

She was on the look out for seagulls. I am pretty sure she is the only person on the beach that likes them!

In the afternoon we did some stuff around the house and I completed a T-25 Cardio workout. T-25 has become my go to sunday afternoon workout. 25 minutes goes by so fast and I was dripping sweat! (I had to pause the dvd a few times because Ava was distracting me but it was still a great workout.)

We also did a little food prep. I had no game plan this weekend so I kinda just looked at what we had and starting cooking. Sometimes working on the fly is the best and I ended up getting a lot of veggie sides ready for my week ahead.

We made:

• Grilled Zucchini (with olive oil)
• Grilled potatoes
• Steamed Green beans
• Sauteed spinach
• Chicken salad with celery, tomatoes, & avocado

We have a lot of healthy eats ready to go in the fridge, yum!

I am off to teach my senior fitness class.. have a great day!

How was your weekend? Did you do any food prep for the week?

Sweat was dripping off of my face and my heart was pumping. I loved it. I enjoyed this workout so much more then the core speed workout I did the other day. I didn’t have to make any modifications for my shoulder and I was extremely happy!

The balance planks were my favorite.

I can already feel my shoulder getting stronger each day and I am not far away from being able to do more pushups and heavier weights!

After I completed that workout. I did some of my physical therapy exercises. All of these exercises are helping to stabilize my shoulder.

This first one is done with resistance tubing. you keep your arm extended straight over head, you lift your shoulder up slightly and let your arm fall back just a little so you feel it in your serratus anterior muscle. Since my injury, my shoulder blades have been winging out a bit so I am fixing it by strengthening the serratus muscle.

The second exercise is a wider row.

With this row you stop once your elbow is by your side. Again your are activating the serratus muscle.

Starting my morning with this workout made me feel so productive! I am hoping to keep up with these quick T-25 workouts on the days I am not teaching classes. I love the convenience of doing them at home and also the fact that they are only 25 minutes!

Before my workout I had this Pure Brownie Bar… YUM!! As you can see the picture is just of the wrapper because I was too hungry to snap the picture before

It only has 7 natural ingredients: Dates, Agave nectar, Brown Rice Protein, Cashew Butter, Almonds, Walnuts, & Cocoa

The Core Speed workout went by quickly and all of the movements required SPEED and being light on your feet. Some of the exercises involved the upper body so I needed to modify a few of them.. I am still not able to do full on ballistic movements like boxing, so I substituted more squats and jumping jacks in their place!

I loved the L-Squat movement.. it is similar to a squat jack that I do in my boot camp class!

I also added some knee pushups into my workout. I have been dying to try them. I don’t think my shoulder is quite strong enough to do them daily but I was able to finish 2 sets of 8. It’s a start and I’m okay with that!

I took this selfie of me and Cooper (I’m not usually a selfie taker)..  I wanted you all to see my sweat dripping in this picture but I think my main reason of taking the picture was to of course capture Cooper passed out on the couch. He worked hard too!

Happy Friday!

On Sunday I did the first disc of the T-25 workout. Shaun T really knows how to kick butt… but he also has an easier version of the workout and one of his instructors demonstrates the modified exercises so I followed her. It still had my heart rate up and 25 minutes was plenty for a first full body workout!! I have done most of the exercises before and it’s similar to my style of boot camp training so I was all for it.. I can’t wait to try his next workout!

Last night at boot camp, I was much more involved in the exercises and was able to do more. I still have to ease back into the jumping exercises and core work but I already feel like I made progress by participating in more of the boot camp workout. The workout was based on cardio & strength using body weight and man did it feel great to sweat! I know it’s gross but wiping sweat off my face felt nice.. I haven’t done that in a couple months!

When I got home my inner thighs and glutes were FIRED up! A mini-stretch session is a must today! I can feel how tight my quads are today and I know they will thank me if I get them warmed up and give them a good stretch.

I prefer to do a light warm-up before stretching, that way I get some blood flow to my muscles!

My to do list for stretching today: Quads, Glutes, Hamstrings, IT Band, & Calves

I will take some pictures of the stretches I do so you can try them yourself at home.

Do you stretch? Do yoga? How do you keep your muscles loose?

Tips for making your resolution stick! 

1. BE REALISTIC… choose attainable numbers for weight loss, think short & long term
2. MAKE A PLAN… how are you going to keep your resolution in 2 months from now?
3. TALK ABOUT YOUR RESOLUTIONS… tell someone about it or post it on your fridge
4. TRACK YOUR PROGRESS... keep a journal, measurements, or track weight on a calendar
5. REWARD YOURSELF… buy a new outfit, do not reward with food
6. KEEP ON GOING… If you hit your goal, change it up and keep moving forward 
   

FITNESS RESOLUTION I am feeling different this New Year’s since I have a newborn to share it with this year. My goals and resolutions are way different from last year.  Since I hit my pre-pregnancy weight, my Fitness resolution is to gain muscle and strength. I am currently feeling weak in the core and legs. To gain muscle and strength back I know I need time so it’s realistic to say I am going to ease back in with walking daily.  I will then add in 2 days of strength training for a few weeks. After 4 weeks I plan to add in full body training with core as a focus. SO my 1 month goal/resolution is to feel strong and have more lean muscle.

Here is one of my XMAS gifts from Santa.. T-25 If you haven’t heard of the trainer Shaun-T he is amazing and I love his body weight training approach. I am all about it.  My game plan is to use T-25 to help me gain back some of my lean muscle

HEALTH RESOLUTION I do have a health resolution. That is to eat more CLEAN foods. It is easy for me to sometimes grab a granola bar or protein bar on the go with my work schedule, so if  I plan on keeping my Sunday Food Prep days going I will be able to make more on the go snacks for myself and eat cleaner less processed snacks. I know it’s all about PREPARATION, so I need to tell Marc about this goal because I do need some help so we can both have food ready for the week.

HAPPINESS RESOLUTION Creating a resolution around happiness will make everything feel more enjoyable. I thought I would make a funny resolution for myself this year and one to make me laugh and hopefully make you smile. I have already started this resolution because I don’t need the ball to drop to get going on some positive changes. So here it is…….. LAUGH off diaper messes, SMILE for 2am feedings, & ENJOY fussy baby moments. So far it’s been fun to laugh at Ava’s diaper messes. It’s easy to get stressed and upset with the amount of laundry and clothing changes I have to do but it’s more fun to laugh at how the situation unfolds and how many diapers/wipes I waste trying to clean up the mess that I pretty much let happen. The 2-am feedings are not fun, let’s be serious. Buttt it’s fun to sing crazy lullaby’s that I don’t seem to know the words to! I don’t know how I forgot them, but hey Ava doesn’t know the difference yet so if it keeps her happy I’m good! Fussy baby moments… where nothing seems to keep her calm, I try to smile and enjoy all the random faces Ava makes and tell stories based on her expressions. (I tried this one yesterday with my mom and it made us laugh!) Ava’s faces can go from smiling to angry with eyebrows raised, to what are you looking at Grandma, to happy and calm..and repeat.

NOW IT IS YOUR TURN! WHAT IS YOUR NEW YEAR’S RESOLUTION?.. WHO WILL YOU TELL??