23 tips to incorporate fitness for busy moms!

1.Schedule Every Sunday sit down and set times to workout throughout the week. Pre-planning gives you time to make adjustments and make it work! 2. PLAY with Your Kids The towels can sit in the basket a little longer, get up and be the tagger! Shoot basketball hoops, play volleyball. Hide and seek. Just move with your children! 3. Workout at the Park The park is an outdoor gym waiting to be used! There is nothing like getting in some step-ups, tricep dips and push-ups at the picnic table. 4. Keep a Resistance Band in the Car A resistance band is the perfect addition to the half of your house you take in the car. You've got 15 minutes until practice is over - why not! 5. Pre-Plan Your Workouts Know what you want to achieve each week, making sure you have a balanced workout. 6. Use a Fitness DVD Especially with little ones, there are days when you just don't make it out the door. Have a couple workouts that you like and can pop in during nap time. 7. Pack Your Lunch Too Pack your own healthy lunch so you can avoid the fast-food run during your lunch break. 8. Create a 30-Minute, At-Home Workout The unpredictibility of the day sometimes presents little windows of opportunity that we didn't expect. When it does, be prepared with a workout that is ready to go. 9. Play Date for Kids = Fitness Date for Moms While it may not run as smooth as a group fitness class in a gym, it gives you the opportunity to workout with friends. Milestones and gossip can all be discussed during sets of squats and lunges! 10. Don't Indulge in your Children's Snacks Leave the cookies and macaroni and cheese for the kids. A few handfuls here and a few bites there leads to unwanted pounds here! 11. Develop a Support System Surrounding yourself with people who encourage and support your fitness goals is crucial to your adherence. 12. Get Your Z's Setting a bed time for yourself can be the difference in being a happy and healthy, energized mommy. 13. Use Weights Lifting dumbbells is not going to make you look like He-man. Resistance training is key to being toned, reducing body fat and increasing bone mineral density. 14. Find a Gym with Childcare If finding a sitter is what keeps you from working out, sign up at a gym that offers it. 15. Find What Motivates You Maybe it's being able to run with/after your children or the competitor within, know yourself to move yourself.  16. Challenge the Kids What kid doesn't want to do something "better" than mom? Set up an obstacle course in the yard or put on your helmet and "tour de France" the neighborhood. I personally love doing sprints with my boys...they push me like nothing else. 17. Do What You Like Incorporate activities that you enjoy! If you enjoy it, you will find a way to keep doing it. 18. De-Stress Don't laugh, it is possible! Exercise is an excellent stress reliever. Looking for something more - try some Yoga or Tai Chi. Hire a babysitter for a couple of hours to just have some alone time to recharge. 19. Use Your Baby Incorporating your baby into your workout provides some extra resistance for you and fun for them! 20. Set an Example Monkey see, monkey do. Don't be surprised when your kid(s) join in your living room kickboxing workout and have a blast. 21. Invest in Your Shoes Whether you are jogging, walking or taking a class, wearing the proper supportive shoes for the activity will help prevent unnecessary injuries. 22. Set Goals Whether you want to get in 3 workouts this week or complete a 5k, doing a fitness competition setting goals will keep you on track. Hang your chart next to the potty chart, and you both get prizes! 23. Love Yourself Most importantly you have the most important job in the world and you are awesome! Believe it and feel it!

Sweet potato Chocolate Chip Muffins

Makes 12 muffins
1.5 cups oat flour
1 scoop  whey protein powder (vanilla)
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp pumpkin spice
1/2 cup stevia baking formula (or 12-14 stevia packets)
1/3 cup mini semi-sweet or sugar-free chocolate chips
1 baby food pack sweet potato
1 baby food pack unsweetened applesauce
4 egg whites ( I used 1/2 cup liquid egg whites)
1 tsp maple extract
* To make oat flour, just grind up old fashioned or quick oats in a blender or food processor. Or you can purchase ready made at Whole Foods.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Mix together dry ingredients in one bowl. Mix together wet ingredients in another bowl. Add the wet mixture to the dry and stir until blended. Scoop batter into a sprayed muffin tin and/or lined with paper liners.
Bake for 15-16 minutes until a toothpick comes clean.

Great thing about these muffins, they refrigerate well! I make a batch, put rest in refrigerator. When i am ready to eat I heat for 30 secs in micro.

6 Tips to Balance Life and Gym

 

If you’re devoted to your training schedule, it can be difficult to fit everything in – especially if you have a busy career and a family as well. Here are seven tips from our experts on getting the most out of your training, while still fitting in all of the things that count.

1) Get Your Priorities Straight

Work out how important training is to you, and balance it against your other obligations and the things that you want to get out of your days, weeks and months. The first step is to identify which things other than training are essential, and require you to work in training around them. Then identify the things that take up your time that are not as important as your training, and working out how to cut back on these things to allow you to spend more time in the gym or on the track.

2) Be Consistent

Keeping your training regimen routine is key in making it a constant part of your life. It’s not possible to get in a hour long workout every day, but if you at least manage to go for a 20 weight training session or 20 min interval training for cardio, every other day, you’ll be making a major positive difference.

3) Make a Schedule and Stick To It

Sticking to a schedule is important, but it can be tricky if the rest of your week is a little unpredictable. Keep it as loose as you can, but make sure you stick to it. Map out when you’re doing weights, cardio, or some combination of the two, and try to stick to this as much as possible. Look for areas in your schedule where you can cut down time wasted, such as watching TV or sleeping late on weekends.

4) Keep The Peace At Home

If your partner isn’t an athlete and you are, you need to make sure that they understand that they are important to you, and that your training isn’t going to dominate your relationship. Sit down with them and talk through your training schedule, and see if you need to make any compromises to accommodate them and keep everybody happy. You can’t schedule in quality time, but you can at least make sure there are times in your schedule when it can happen. If your partner also enjoys working out, make time to workout together.

5) Be Creative With Your Time

If you drive to work, think about riding your bike there. Maybe get bike racks fitted to your car so you can drive if it’s raining, then cycle home in the evening if it clears up. Buy a treadmill or  an exercise bike and work out on that while you’re watching TV – any time you can combine training with an everyday activity is more free time you’ll have to do the important things.

6) Quality, Not Quantity

Simply training constantly isn’t always the best approach. Many runners might not be getting the most out of their training programs, because they’re spending too much time on one type of training. If you get a fully balanced training schedule worked out that includes prolonged, steady state aerobic training and threshold work, speed intervals, technique work and/or resistance training, you’ll be able to train for less time, and get more out of your workout.

Clean Eating Turkey Chilli

This is one of my go to busy working mother and wife recipes! Only takes minutes to make. Makes enough for the family. You can even freeze and save for later.

Turkey and Bean Chili
Serves 6
1 cup chopped white onions
4 small garlic cloves
1 pound lean ground turkey breast (99% fat free)
Garlic Salt
2 tablespoons chili powder
1/8 teaspoon crushed red pepper (optional)
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon ground coriander
1 15-ounce Red Kidney beans
1 15-ounce can black beans
1 10-ounce can tomato puree
1 14.5-ounce can diced zesty chilli tomatoes
1 can tomato paste
Chop the onion and mince the garlic.  Add the turkey to a large pot with the onion and garlic.  Continue to cook on medium-high heat until the turkey is no longer pink.  Add your spices to the turkey mixture so that they can release their natural oils (chili powder, crushed red pepper, coriander, cumin, and season with a little bit of garlic salt.  Allow to cook for about 1 minute or so.  Drain and rinse your beans.  Add them to the pot along with the diced tomatoes, tomato paste and tomato puree.  Allow mixture to come to a boil then reduce the heat to low and allow to simmer for about 20 minutes.

You can also put on top of brown rice if you like.

Serving size 1 cup.  Calories 211; protein 23; fiber 5

Enjoy!!

Think you need alot of different equipment for an effective workout? Please read on....

I did not write this..however I wholeheartedly agree with this article.

Enamored with Exercises

by Patrick   on January 24, 2012

One of the hardest things for a coach can be which exercises to put into their program and which to leave out.  These days this problem seems to be even more challenging because there appear to be so many options with regard to various training tools and people trying to invent “new” exercises:

• “When do we do kettlebells?”
• “Where should I program in the TRX exercises?”
• “At what point during the workout should I do the Turkish get up?”
• “Where do we do speed work?”
• “What about plyometrics?”
• “Should I use the agility ladder?”
• “Do we deadlift or squat?”

On and on the list goes and in the end I think people can get paralyzed with all the options that they end up doing EVERYTHING!
It is easy to get enamored with certain exercises and feel that your program is inferior without them – “If I don’t do Turkish get ups my athletes will never improve.”
The fact of the matter is, there is nothing wrong with any of the exercises above.  What is more important is how you use them. As I stated, people end up getting so hung up on certain exercises and training tools that they don’t know how to write a program without them.  This leads to programs that are incredibly long in duration and sometimes a bit muddy in terms of their focus and direction.
Less Is More
A few weeks ago, on his facebook page, my friend Charlie Weingroff posted THIS link to the old Bill Starr 5×5 program and asked “Does it need to be more complicated than this?” 
I really don’t think it does!!
In reality, I believe that you can actually do a ton with only a hand full of exercises if you can do them well and know how to manipulate other training variables in order to get what you want out of them in terms of the specific stresses you are looking to impose on the individual.
Talking with my friend Joel Jamieson the other night he echoed these sentiments stating that, “There are really only about 7 or 8 exercises I use any more. I may throw something in that is “different” every once in a while just to keep people from getting bored, but I always come back to my main exercises. It isn’t like the squat just stops working! Look at Bondarchuk’s program. His throwers do the same five exercises year round!”
What I love about the Bill Starr program, linked to above, is that it uses only a small group of exercises – you can squat, press, and power clean or you can squat, press, and row – and you get good at doing the basics!
Nothing fancy, no crazy bells and whistles, just basic exercises and you do them three days a week so that you get really, really good at doing them.
This simple view of training is something that I appreciate most from guys like Dan John (his Intervention DVD was excellent) and Dr. Ken Leistner (one of these days in the near future I am going to buy this collection of all of his old Steel Tip articles).
I know it is easy to get enamored with exercises and believe that one exercise may have some sort of magical power. We have all been there before! However, I urge you to step back and remember that not only are the basics key…they also work! Pick 3-5 exercises that you feel are cornerstones of your training program and hammer them out. Instead of constantly rotating the exercises around change the rep ranges, sets, rest interval, and rep tempo to impart a different type of stress on the body and to get something different from the same lift.
The longer I work with people the more I find that my list of exercises begins to shrink.

Patrick