A dear friend turned me on to this fabulous program - MomSanity



It is all encompassing (obviously geared towards moms) but they cover workouts, nutrition, and your faith. I absolutely ADORE the concept.

MomSanity is comprised of 3 beauties: Debbie Wilkins, Kate Horney, and Emily Saunders. Read more on them here: http://projectmomsanity.com/?page_id=30

What I love is that they have CREDENTIALS! They actually know about & were educated on, the topics that they discuss.

Debbie's Bio: Having children did a number on my body and eating a teenage boy’s diet wasn’t helping my jeans zip.  That’s where Emily came in, 2 years ago.  She taught  me about nutrition and exercise in a way that was so new and exciting and made sense!  I was on board!  I have done a 180 with what I put in my mouth and how I work out and it makes me feel so healthy and fit.  I am so thankful God had such high standards for me.  I am now a certified Metabolic Effect (ME) Personal Trainer and a certified ME Group Instructor.  Check out my Fitting in Fitness and Nutrition blog for more information.


Kate's Bio: In addition to being a wife and new mom, I’m also a Metabolic Effect Fat Loss Coach, an Entrepreneur and a Personal Trainer with a degree in Exercise Physiology.


Emily's Bio: She is a Metabolic Effect Certified Personal Trainer, Nutrition Coach and Group Fitness trainer with a passion for helping others attain and SUSTAIN the fat loss lifestyle.  She holds a BS in Business from Wake Forest University and loves finding new and creative ways to share the fat loss lifestyle with others.  Emily is excited to share her journey with other new and not so new Moms trying to achieve true balance. As a reformed “cardio queen” she enjoys sharing quick and effective workouts with Moms who struggle to “do it all”.

I've been tracking their program for a few weeks now - I think it's awesome.
They refer to it as "Momsanity Sisterhood".

There's much more you can read about with this program, but here's what stuck out on their blog:

Our goal for the Momsanity Sisterhood is to create a unique place where Moms can struggle and grow together while putting God first and balancing family, personal goals and a healthy and fulfilling lifestyle.  

They go on to explain:

We will give you the content and the tools that you need for success like Mom-focused-quick-and-effective-do-anywhere-workouts with a Coach in your ear encouraging you along the way, nutrition information that you can use to create your own personalized plan and goals, weekly recipes, bi-weekly videos focusing on changing old habits and/or establishing new healthier ones, a monthly Bible verse that we will memorize together, a prayer calendar that will help all of us prioritize our time with the Lord, and an exclusive Facebook page where you can tell all, ask all, cry the blues, celebrate small victories, share your prayer requests and praises and much much more with your adopted sisters by your side. 

 If you're looking for accountability & a lifestyle change - check them out! Even if this is not up your alley, I do encourage you to really investigate the author of that new fad diet book or the "trainer" of that new workout regimen. Stay educated on who these people are & be conscientious of their credentials. If they are an MD of Gynecology telling you how to eat, you might want to look elsewhere ;)

I previously mentioned that I read the Compound Effect as my summer read this summer.

I really feel like this book gives more insight to our 'instant gratification' / 'gotta have it now' society.

Darren Hardy reiterates that making small changes over time will "compound" and have a good / bad effect on every facet of your life. I really think that if more people took the slow & steady mindset, and made small changes to their daily life they would be FAR MORE likely to stick with a healthy lifestyle.

Think about it, how many times have you started a new workout or new diet and gave up after a week, 2 weeks, or a month? Why did you give up? Were the results not coming quick enough?

Here's the thing....time is not going to stop for you. If a year is going to pass, why not keep working at a goal for a year & then see where you stand?

If you want to get those rock hard abs, it's not going to happen in a week! I love following the body building competitors online. They constantly post "transformation" pictures, and never once has the caption read "after 1 week I went from flab to abs!". No it's been months & months on end.

So here's my challenge to you: find one thing about your daily routine that you can tweak to produce positive change a year from now. 

Don't set yourself up for failure! Don't say "I'm going to cut out ALL CARBS". That is RHONJ crazy! Your body will end up craving carbs and the moment you indulge and eat bread, you'll get depressed & totally abandon your new "diet".

Rather than abandoning a necessary fuel source (carbohydrates), why not take out from your daily routine, that brownie after lunch, or that bowl of cereal at 8pm? It's small changes like that, that will produce long term changes.

More on this to come because I am on SUCH a high right now :) and a soap box apparently!

Have you ever tried a fad diet?

I keep reading all this hype about how Kate Middleton & her mom, may or may not be on this Dukan Diet. 


And it just got me thinking about how insane some of these fad diets are that people try.

Speaking from experience, I've tried Atkins & I attempted the Lemonade Diet. This was all prior to my education on health & fitness.

Looking back, it's kind of sad because I was only 15 when I tried Atkins for the first time. I didn't last long by any means. But, to be so young & wanting to diet?

I attempted Atkins again my freshman year of college ~ it was HORRIBLE. I hated it. I hated the feeling that overcame my body by avoiding carbs, I never had energy, and I always had a headache.


I even tried diet pills. One in particular left me insanely shaky - it was actually pretty scary.

The Lemonade Diet was the devil. I couldn't stomach the mixture.


What in the world was I thinking???

*This is a total soapbox moment*, but honestly, say someone does drop 10 pounds from one of these "fad diets"...there's a few things to consider & use to judge whether it was a "healthy" weight loss:

1. How quickly did the weight come off? Was it a week, 2 weeks, a month?
Set aside Biggest Loser & how quickly they lose weight...and how MUCH they lose in a week's time. (They are working out 8+hours / day, plus they eat no junk food, & their menus are tailored to their specific needs).
It's normally considered the healthy average to lose no more than 2 pounds a week - for the average person. So if someone on the Atkins diet has lost 10 pounds in 1 week...um, no good.

2. Was the person exercising?
Ever heard of "skinny fat"? If you drop weight, and don't incorporate any exercise, it's called "skinny fat".  

3. What was the person eating?
Nothing against Weight Watchers, but if a person on Weight Watchers was just getting their points per day from the WW snack items that come with point value on the label (like brownies or cookies) or even the "100 calorie" packs of oreos, crackers, etc.; where is the nutritional value in that?

There are other markers to look for, but chances are good, this person is going to gain their weight back once the diet ends, plus some. I've seen it first hand.

It really is all about a lifestyle change.

Eating the proper nutrients, weeding out the junk, and incorporating cardio as well as strength training.

And it's definitely not about depravity.

Our society is so much into instant gratification, that people are willing to put their bodies through these insane diets, rather than just getting off their butts & exercising, or changing up their eating habits & giving up McDonalds for dinner.  

I am just as guilty as the next when it comes to wanting results now - I get utterly annoyed when I send an email to a coworker & don't get a response in the next 2 minutes.  

Regardless, let's put a little effort in, & really do things the healthy way; so that these changes last a lifetime, & not just a week or a month.

Thoughts???

I really wanted to do something other than run today. My hamstrings have been feeling really odd & with IronGirl Sunday, I did not want to risk anything! So I opted for P90X's Cardio X.

Cardio X is a mixture of yoga, kenpo (aka kickboxing), plyometrics, and core synergistics (core focused moves). It's a really great workout, especially since it keeps my attention & I don't get bored :)

one of the plyo moves - "the heisman" 

I really wanted to do another workout once I finished Cardio X...so I browsed the OnDemand selection & found this:


ExerciseTV has a butt load of workouts on there...but I thought I'd sample Chris Freytag's lower body circuit, part of the 10lb slimdown system. It was 20 minutes, and I totally felt the burn halfway through. I didn't find it challenging as far as complicated moves. Her cueing was spot on & really, the level of difficulty is more due to the repetitions. It's 3 circuits & you repeat each circuit. It's fast paced & really left me wanting to see how her other workouts are. There's even a free download online of a schedule to follow, to possibly drop 10LBS...

You can get the plan here

I feel like things like this just further re-enforce the fact that you don't have to have a gym membership to be healthy. If you have 20 minutes to spare during the day, you can totally jump start a lifestyle that incoporates working out. If it's important to you, you'll make the time to workout.

I'll get off the soapbox now.

This one also looks like a good workout! It's definitely on my list of new workouts to try.

Now it's time for me to stop procrastinating & go do laundry. Bleh.