Fitness FRIDAY .... soap box!

To breakfast or not to breakfast??

I am asked this question a lot, being in the fitness industry for so may years.
Excuse me while I climb up on to my soap box people ... get ready... 

EAT BREAKFAST!!!   

In simple terms ... your body's metabolism goes to “sleep” after the last time you eat.  (For most of us, that is a late night snack before you go to bed, for others, it is dinner). 

Think about it this way:  You eat dinner at 8 pm, you go to bed at 11pm, you wake up at 7am.  From 8 pm to 7am your metabolism is "asleep."  That’s 11 LONG hours of not burning off brownies calories.  When you eat breakfast, your metabolism "wakes up" and starts working, earlier, for the day.  If you SKIP BREAKFAST your metabolism stays in slumber until you eat... lets say lunch.  You have wasted hours and hours of burning calories if you wait to eat.  Not to mention that your body doesn’t have a constant steady stream of food to turn into energy and steady your blood sugar for the day.

Be healthy, eat breakfast.  Get your bodies working properly!  You will find that your day starts better, you’ll be more focused, your body will be primed for a good days work and you’ll have more energy.

If you are not a "breakfast" person, find something small that will jump start your metabolism for the day.  (ie:, tiny whole wheat bagel, cheese stick, turkey lunch meat, banana, 90 calorie granola bar, yogurt, handful of almonds). 

And now, back to the workout for the week!!! 

Your workout this week:

Go BUY a pair of dumbbells/hand weights for your house. 
(Target, WalMart, Play it Again, Sporting Goods store).  To determine the weight you should buy, pick up a set of weights; press them over your shoulders and above your head.  It should be somewhat difficult to do this.  On a scale of 1-10, 1 being easy, 10 being hard, this press should be at least a 6.  If it is not a level 6 on your scale, get heavier weights.  If you do this test in the store, you will purchase the correct weight and be able to do multiple exercises with this one set of weights. 

Next week we will start using weights in our weekly Fitness Friday workouts. 

Walk Walk Walk(or jog) ~ 30 minutes or more 4 times BEFORE next Friday.  Now when I say walk, I mean furiously!  Walk/jog fast enough that you actually get out of breath and sweat!!!

Crunches  ~5 days, through 4 commercial breaks while you are watching TV. Muuaaaahahahahaha!! (evil laugh inserted here)  Squeeze your abs at the top of each crunch. 

Push Ups ~ 4 days, You can do these on your knees or up on your toes.  You pick ... however, you must get low enough that your chest "burns."  4 sets of 12 repetitions.
 
Planks  ~  push up position, or on your elbows and toes with everything else off the floor, pull your bellybutton into your spine and HOLD IT  FOREVER!!! Do as many as you can for 5 minutes.

Wokr hard, eat breakfast and post your progress or comments.
Amy

Organizing

Take a look at our "Organizing" tab for tips on organizing your family & house! 

Featured on Remodelaholic!

We are very excited to be featured on Remodelaholic today! They have a wonderful website and featured my kitchen re-do… Be sure to go visit them!  Thanks Remodelaholic!

What should I make for the class art project?!

Hey Crafties!   Did you do your Fitness Friday workout???

Newest obstacle .... As the all unknowing Grade mother, I was thrown into a class art project with one week to figure out what to do, get the students to help make it, and turn it in.  WHAT?! 

Of course I was panick stricken ... ackkkhhh! 

So my brain started to churn and I remembered that my sister painted some stools for my boys' rooms several years ago.  They are precious!  Ah Ha ... thats a great idea.  Paint a stool.  Now, what can I paint that 26 students can say they helped paint?  Hmmmm ......  each student can use their fingerprints .... fingerprints can make bugs .... fingerprints that are ants .... ants like picnics .... ants like sugar.... sugar is sweet .... sweet is watermelon!  YEAH!!!  That is it!!!!!!

I have my idea.  Each kid brought $1 for the project.  I was able to buy a stool at Target and lots of acrylic gloss paint from WalMart. 

I sketched the watermelons and ant lines on the stool with pencil.  I wanted the students to see where the ants should be on the stool ... so I drew a line where they would put their fingerprints.  I had each student dip their pinky finger in black acrylic gloss paint and paint 2 of their fingerprints on any of the lines. 
As you can see, some of the ants are A LOT bigger than others.  LOL.  That is ok! 

Paint your initial layer of color, let it dry, repaint more layers until you like the consistency. 

 I added an ant hill on one side. 

Put a small black dot on each fingerprint for the ant's head.

Each head gets 2 small antenae with 2 small dots on top of each head.  I used a fine tip black Sharpie marker. 

Add 8 tiny legs on each fingerprint for the legs.  I used the Sharpie here too.

Add a few streaks of green and black for some grass for the ant hill. 

Add some black ovals in your watermelons for seeds. Erase your pencil lines! 

I sprayed it with Krylon Spray Paint Clear Gloss so the acrylic paint would not chip off.    
Maybe their class stool will get a good bid at the art auction!
Amy

Fitness FRIDAY!!

Here we go ... into the world of sore muscles!  Now I know all of you have a pair of jeans that you love.  Jeans that fit "just right."  The question is ... can you fit into them this Fall??  Let's make sure .... this is your workout for the week.  We are starting out slow.  You can do this WITHOUT equipment. 

Walking lunges x 100.  oh my!  (take BIG steps in front of you, make sure your knee stays over your ankle - if your knees are over your toes, you have to take BIGGER steps forward!)  Lunge down your hall, in your backyard, in the driveway. 

Wall sits - 1 min x 3  Ouch!  (put your back on the wall, legs are sitting in an invisible chair/90 degrees parallel to the floor) 

4 minutes of Abs - you pick!  Crunches, full sit ups, planks (looks like push up position, but you hold that position - pull your bellybutton into your spine)

Your GOAL is to do this workout at least 4 times BEFORE next Friday.  Leave a comment on your progress, soreness, etc.  Keep up the good work!
AMY