21 Days Weight Loss Challenge Link up!

Alrighty ladies and gents! Link up your Blogs if you are in the Weight Loss Challenge! My goal is to have a full list of everyone's blog so readers can easily hop from one blog to the next! Also, I love being able to see everyone's blog and to read up on the progress. Thanks in advance! Here is the HTML code to put in your  blog posts:

<script type="text/javascript" src="http://www.simply-linked.com/listwidget.aspx?l=50e3f6ef-7b8f-4344-9062-f4c1bdcf269e" ></script>

For those never using html.  It's not too bad!  After composing your blog post, there should be an option to write in "HTML" format.  Hit that button and everything should change to html language.  Input the code at the bottom of your post.  Hit save and see if the code worked!

**Note I did change the Linky HTML to reflect what is on the Doc from the Facebook Mommy Blogger Group. Thanks! :)** 

21 Day Mommy Blogger Weight Loss Challenge--Day 2

The Importance of Mindsets:

I have yet to work out today with some strength training, but am going to be focusing on what I read today in Dustin's Fit Moms For Life ebook. I took time to read about the mind.  

When it comes to commitment I find that unless I am locked in and cannot turn around or cancel--I follow through bearing my teeth and grinning.  Yet the case is not usually so when it comes to exercising.  Usually I start exercising but then stop after a couple of days.  I try and fail when it comes to exercising.  What is different than before all those many times is that I am learning to lay the foundation of setting a right mindset.  

Here are just three points that I found helpful in Dustin's book: 

1.  Put yourself first--For me.  I started by not taking time out of my day to focus on doing some exercises for myself.  Just like I put God first and take time out of the day to spend time in the Bible, I do need to take time to make sure that I am physically training my body to take on its responsibilities as a wife, mother, and daughter.  I need to strengthen the muscles I do have and not waste them.  So it is not selfish to take half an hour to an hour working out!

2.  Believe change is possible--Yes!  Yes, I can be one of those many women and mothers out there who have shed off the extra baggage.  I can do this.  I really can!  If I put effort and energy and give myself to this, I can expect change.  

3.  Practice positive thinking and speaking--Just like I got to keep my mind renewed by the Word of God and think on that which is true...I got to apply this in matters of  who I am.  Every day I am getting stronger.  I may not be able to do 30 push ups now, but with each try I am working myself to my goal!  When I think positively and even speak something as simple as, "Come on! You CAN Do This! Yes,Almost There! Keep Focus!"  I find that I can indeed get to the goal or finish that task.  For time in the work out I find myself thinking, "This really is killing me!"  and then begin saying, "This is really killing me, but it is going to feel good when I am done!"

Conclusion:

Mindsets are very important.  It is something to keep us going forward and moving in that direction until we've reached our goal.  With a clear goal before me and a plan I feel better prepared to accomplish what I have set out to do. 

  

Worked Out/Excercised:

45 minutes of excercising--Strength training, Cardio, Core, and Cool Down/Stretches
Hardest part was Cardio- High knee/Punching

Meals and Food Journal:

Breakfast: Yogurt, Eggs and Cheddar Cheese

Snack: Orange

Lunch: Whole Wheat Pasta with Homemade Tomato Sauce--shredded 7 Carrots, Onion, Celery
Snack: Carrots

Dinner: Oven-Roasted Chicken seasoned with Lemon Pepper and Montreal Steak Seasoning
With a Big Salad of Romaine, Carrots, Mushrooms and Toasted Sesame Dressing. 


Water intake: 8 glasses as of 10pm

My Goals for this program at the end of 21 days:
Main Goal:  Lose 25 lbs  I talked to Dustin 7lbs would be more ideal for 21 days :)  But am still shooting for an ultimate Weight goal of 25lbs in the long run!
Secondary Goal:  Do 30 Regular Pushups
Third Goal: To perform the "Plank" positions both front and side for 45 seconds!
Fourth Goal: Eat healthy and live an energized positive life.

Join the 21 Day Challenge next Month for March!
You can check out Dustin on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/dustinmaher
Don’t forget to follow the #21MBC hashtag on twitter.  If you are a Mommy Blogger and would like to try this program for free like what I am doing right now please contact me at sophieandmomma at gmail.com and I will get you the information to join up for the next 21 Day Challenge for March 2012!  You will receive the same free program that I did! If you have any questions let me know I would love to help!

Disclaimer:  This post is in conjuction with the 21 Day Mommy Blogger Weight Loss Challenge with Dustin Maher.  I am doing the Fit Moms for Life Program.  I have received the program for free and have not been paid to write this post.  All opinions are mine.  For more information on the program please learn more about it here: Fit Moms for Life 

If you are apart of the 21 Day Mommy Blogger Weight Loss Challenge would love it if you added your link below!  Visit these Mommy Bloggers and see their progress during this 21 Day Challenge!

21 Day Mommy Blogger Weight Loss Challenge--Day 1

Journal for Workout Day 1: 

I woke up geared up and ready to exercise.  I dreaded working out just because I was sore from two days ago on trying out the work out for the first time.  I was beat for two days.  My husband says I was a bit cranky the day after I worked out.  I think I just wanted to hit the bed and sleep.  But feeling the soreness was also indicative that I DID Accomplish Something! 

Today, February 1st.  I ended up not working out till 2pm in the afternoon due to taking care of my little one.  Work out was so good.  I sweated and pushed through the whole  program.  This is how the Fit Moms for Life Program goes.

First is Warm Ups:  The Key here is Big Easy Movements that get the blood flowing. About 3 minutes length
Second is Weights Training: What I am learning is that I need to strengthen certain muscles so that I can gain better posture in my every day life activities.
Third:  Cardio:  Get our heart pumping more!  3 sets of 45 second heart pumping activities.  We do a set of intense activity for 45 seconds and rest for 45 seconds.  A one to one ratio.  If we work out and push hard in a short amount of time we burn more and get more.  I do like it I have to admit.  Spurts of energy and putting everything I got in it for a short amount of time really is nice.
Fourth is Core:  Abdomen-stomach section strengthening.  I find that I have a lot to work on here.  My belly fat is in the way of those muscles down there! 
Fifth and Lastly is the Flexibility/Stretch Cool down Phase: Pretty self explanatory, but something that I always look forward to.  It marks the end of the work out and kind of makes me feel good about myself. 

Dustin recommends doing the full work out every other day and taking a day of rest.
OR as busy moms are sometimes choosing
 I have to admit that the work out was hard to push through, but I did it with the help of thinking about the gains of being  healthy.

Challenging Excercises that I found hard to do!

• Plank regular and side position: Position yourself like you are doing a push up.  Put elbows and hands down and  uphold for 45 seconds.  


• Side position:  Go on side and support body with one arm. I had to "cheat and bend one of my knees.  My goal is to hold both for 45 seconds or more!

• Push ups: Only did 10 instead of 15 for the first rep.

• Swimmers:  Lie on the floor belly down.  Extend arms in front of  you and move them up and down while kicking your feet up and down (like you're swimming).  Hold belly in and draw belly button in for a good core work out.  For some reason I find it hard to breath and cannot do this for 45 seconds!  Ended up just kicking my legs up and down or just my arms up and down. 

Things I thought about while working out:

• I want to have more energy for my kids.  
• I desire to fit into my favorite jeans again and not have to move  up to the next size.
• I do want to be able to look good and feel good again.
• It is for my betterment and state of mind to excercise!
• Only for an hour and a half and then I can rest and shower and relax!
• I will feel better after this!

Here are my measurements:

Arms:  14 inches

Hips:  41 inches

Waist: 38 inches

Abdomen: 43.5 inches

Thighs: 23 inches

Chest:  42 inches

Calves: 14 inches

Height: 5' 2 inches

Weight: 176.6 lbs

Meals and Food Journal:

Breakfast: Oatmeal with Apples and Cinnamon

Snack: Orange, Apple slices

Lunch: Lemon Pepper Chicken and Boiled Potato

Snack: Apple Slices

Dinner: Taco Salad and whole grain corn bread


Water intake: 6 glasses to drink

My Goals for this program at the end of 21 days:
Main Goal:  Lose 25 lbs
Secondary Goal:  Do 30 Regular Pushups
Third Goal: To perform the "Plank" positions both front and side for 45 seconds!
Fourth Goal: Eat healthy and live an energized positive life.


You can check out Dustin on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/dustinmaher
Don’t forget to follow the #21MBC hashtag on twitter.  If you are a Mommy Blogger and would like to try this program for free like what I am doing right now please contact me at sophieandmomma at gmail.com and I will get you the information to join up for the next 21 Day Challenge for March 2012!  You will receive the same free program that I did! If you have any questions let me know I would love to help!

Disclaimer:  This post is in conjuction with the 21 Day Mommy Blogger Weight Loss Challenge with Dustin Maher.  I am doing the Fit Moms for Life Program.  I have received the program for free and have not been paid to write this post.  All opinions are mine.  For more information on the program please learn more about it here: Fit Moms for Life 

Fit Moms For Life 21 Day Challenge: Intro

Alright so February 1st is the official start of the 21 Day Challenge: Fit Moms for Life Challenge! 
I am super excited because this is my first personal step to being a Fit mom, not only for me but for my children and husband.  I grew attracted and interested in joining this challenge because of Dustin Maher and his motto of "How to have Endless Energy to Outplay your kids".  Learn more about his program here, Fit Moms For Life.

Why I committed to this challenge:  I am doing this ultimately For Me.  It seems that my sense of being me ended when I got married.  I love being married, do not get me wrong.  Life just seemed to hit a "Fast Forward" switch where I never felt like I could take an hour out of my day to hit the gym or really take time out for myself.

With both of us working full time and me still having the duties of laundering, cleaning, and cooking--I felt myself feel swamped!  Choosing to eat fast food seemed the "easier" option for me.  Meals I cooked were high in sodium and trans fat.  I quickly felt myself grow out of some of my favorite jeans.  The more I grew out of my clothes I stressed out more and stress seemed to pile more pounds onto my belly.


Pregnant and life after birth:  Pregnancy seemed to slow life down a bit for me.  I was able to take time for myself and choose better options for food.  I ate healthier and did my best to take walks.  I lost weight after she was born, but soon gained them back.  I have to say life felt very much solitary.  I stayed inside for fear of anything happening to my little precious bundle!  As a first time momma, I felt like taking walks around our neighborhood was a bit scary.  No one was out there with me to take walks and make me feel "safe" and I did have a couple of weird people sort of follow me around which was not comforting for me.  So I stayed inside and did not do much to keep active.  I started eating sweets again too, which did not  help to make me feel good inwardly.

Why Fit Moms for Life?  

I love the concepts in his book.  Very down to earth and simple to understand.   I feel like the work out is doable, and with goals and mindsets set in place, I feel that I can follow through with this program.  Also, I like the idea of 21 days of commitment with other ladies working out along with me. 

The Program: Mommy Blogger Weight Loss Challenge is also Geared towards moms with an understanding of the "busy-ness" of Children, Household Chores, and Other Duties and commitments women may have.  I love that Dustin really values what we do as moms.  He offers strategies in his book and mindsets that are relevant to me as a woman and mother..] He is very flexible and offers encouragement gleaned from other moms facing weight problems.  Not to mention the workouts and interviews I have been watching are with a real mom!  I love seeing that it is not only I who tires and struggles, but the person on the video is too!  I feel like I can connect with the person working out--like she's not a professional body builder or anything, but a simple person.  So it is encouraging to press on and sweat it out till the end.

My Goals for this program at the end of 21 days:
Main Goal:  Lose 25 lbs
Secondary Goal:  Do 30 Regular Pushups
Third Goal: To perform the "Plank" positions both front and side for 45 seconds!
Fourth Goal: Eat healthy and live an energized positive life.


You can check out Dustin on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/dustinmaher
Don’t forget to follow the #21MBC hashtag on twitter.  If you are a Mommy Blogger and would like to try this program for free like me, contact me at Sophieandmomma at gmail.com and I will get you the information to join up for the next 21 Day Challenge for March!  You will receive the same free program that I did!

Disclaimer:  This post is in conjuction with the 21 Day Mommy Blogger Weight Loss Challenge with Dustin Maher.  I am doing the Fit Moms for Life Program.  I have received the program for free and have not been paid to write this post.  All opinions are mine.  For more information on the program please learn more about it here: Fit Moms for Life

I Propose a New Reality TV Show

 {GUEST POST}


I appreciate the guest post, Emerson Moses

First of all let me just say that I really like reality television. I will watch just about any reality show as long as it isn’t Bad Girl’s Club. That one is just too far over the line. Pretty much any other reality show is fair game. With that said I have a proposal for a new reality show that I have not seen. I have written blogs about how many wedding shows there are. Why not show the wedding from the photographer’s prospective? I say this in a knowing way because I know what it is like to be a photographer at a wedding. Photogging is my day job. Wedding photgrapher is my money maker. You should see the crazy rediculousness that goes on at a wedding behind the scenes. The guests are all sitting quietly in their seats waiting for the wedding to start and behind the curtain the bride is about to have a nervous breakdown because it is storming like crazy outside and her bride’s room has just flooded and everyone had to evacuate to another room. Or there was a time when the groom’s step mother tried to tell me how to do my job. That was fun… Do you think there is a producer out there reading this right now thinking what a brilliant idea this is? I hope so. Maybe you will see me on your direct tv channels lineup one day.



Disclaimer: This is a Guest post by Emerson Moses. It is also a paid post.  For more info on my disclosure and disclaimer click here: Disclaimer.  Readers should do their own research on products or services before paying for any kind of services mentioned in this post.  

BioKleen Promotion on Facebook

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