HAVE YOU WRITTEN OUT YOUR TO-DO LIST TODAY?

I'm a list-maker, and I know lots of other women are as well. When you have to juggle children, a career, a social life, and a household it helps to map everything out that you need to be doing!

When I make a to-do list for the day, my workout is always on there.
It's that important! It can take awhile to reach the place where you know your workout is just as important as any other part of your day. It can take awhile for you to get to the place when you feel really, really bad if you miss a day or a week of exercising. If you haven't reached that place yet, if you're not totally sold on being and staying healthy, keep at it. It will come. It has to, after all, or you will most likely continue on a road of unhappiness with yourself. We don't want that!

So today, schedule in your workout just like it's any other part of your day that goes without question as to whether or not it gets done or not.
You had to show up to work this morning. You had to attend that meeting. You had to join in on the conference call. You have to pick up your children in a few hours. You have to get them to football practice. You have to make dinner. You have to do the laundry. Is any of this sounding familiar?

All of those things include other people besides yourself. Unless you happen to live alone, but most of you, I know, do not. While you are doing these things, you're partially doing them because someone else needs them done.

So what can we do that is just for us?
We can schedule in some exercise...some time that is only for ourselves and our current and future wellbeing. You would encourage a daughter or son to stay happy and healthy, right? So why not yourself? Besides, they are watching. If we neglect ourselves and our health, unfortunately but most likely, they will also. If we are happy and healthy, they will be also.

Take it one day at a time.
You don't have to remind yourself of some huge goal or extraordinary weight loss success you have envisioned in your mind. Just take it one simply step at a time. Take TODAY and do what you need to do for this day. With consistent days like this, where you are making a big check-mark next to EXERCISE on your to-do list day after day, you will see results before you know it.

Have a great week!
Amanda

Obesity in America

I came across something today that I wanted to share. We hear over and over in the news about the obesity in America today, but this website and the visualization of the growing obesity in our nation made the reality so much more clear to me.
Visit this website and watch as the percentage of obese Americans grows each year from 1985 to 2007. http://www.cdc.gov/nccdphp/dnpa/obesity/trend/maps/
While being lean and healthy was once the norm, I'm afraid that the opposite will soon be true.

Pumping Iron

A couple of week's ago I was visiting family. The day included a meal and after a few comments were made about my sticking more to poultry and seafood I was, yet again, told that I needed to eat red meat for the iron.
If others choose to eat red meat and lots of it, that's fine. I don't try to push that part of my diet on to others. But it can get a little irritating to have others make remarks to me about my own choices, especially when they really have no evidence or research to back up what they are saying.
Most people that are in the older generations, however, have always heard that you need your iron and you get it from your meat. They were raised meat-eaters and aren't quite sure what to think of the more eco-conscious ways of eating that are becoming popular today.
It's important for those of us who are health-conscious to know our facts and be able to back up what we believe. It's comforting to have good reasons for what we do when faced with a house full of family holding their own ham and pie-filled plates wondering at your strange new eating habits.
Iron IS very important for our bodies. We need iron to sustain our energy levels and to keep our blood pressure up to normal levels. (Some, like me, actually tend to have low blood pressure and so it's extra important to make sure our iron levels are desirable.)
According to the McKinley Health Center at the University of Illinois, good sources of iron include beef, chicken, turkey, seafood, kidney beans, baked beans, spinach, lima beans, apricots, almonds, and even molasses.
Although meat tends to have a larger quantity of iron, these other foods (such as beans) also have amounts that can satisfy your daily iron needs.
The Recommended Daily Allowance (RDA) for iron for non-vegetarian women is 18 mg/day. The RDA for iron for vegetarian women is 33 mg/day. These numbers are for pre-menopausal women. The numbers are higher for vegetarians because those sources of iron that not meat are not as easily absorbed as those that are meat. However, a vegetarian simply must be aware of the foods she is eating and make healthful choices. In other words, a good vegetarian would always be taking her health into account, and not just living on a diet of doughnuts and chips!
There are ways to aid the absorption of these non-meat sources of iron. The McKinley Health Center advises eating those vegetarian sources of iron with a good source of vitamin C, such as an orange, broccoli, or a tomato. Also, you could choose to eat a vegetarian iron source along with a meat source of protein. Or, cook the vegetarian iron sources in a cast iron skillet or other iron pot. These three methods will aid the absorption of iron for those who fear their iron levels may be down, or for those who are vegetarians.
People may still think us health nuts are crazy. BUT truth be told and in my experience, the majority of the people that have something to say are completely unhappy with their bodies and their health. Instead of getting defensive, it may do them well to get them informed.

Where In The World Is Amanda?

I've been gone too long from my blog, I know! But there has been quite a lot going on here. Let me briefly fill you in.
I began at Gold's about six months ago and my schedule quickly filled up. As much as I would like to be at the gym all day long helping people with their weight loss (Yeah, maybe "all day long" is an exaggeration. Just like you, I experience burnout now and then too! I've come to know my limits!), I just can't. My children are my priority right now. But some of you know that struggle between the two, I'm sure.
So I have stopped taking new clients. Some new and exciting changes will soon come to fruition. But those details can't be discussed just yet. But the one that can is my Backyard Bootcamp that I am very excited about. Plans are being made for local friends and neighborhood women to come together each Saturday for eight weeks to get ready for bikini weather!
I am chugging away on my school classes as usual. By the way, I should be finishing a book right now while the kids are napping because I have a test on it tomorrow!
On top of the busy schedule and adjusting back and forth from mommy-mode to kick-butt trainer, Emma decided to stop sleeping through the night! Noooooo!
All you moms know how important a good night's sleep is, especially when you must find the energy to entertain the babes for hours on end!

But you know what I've realized through all of this? WE MOMS ARE TOUGH!
My husband whines when he has a toe cramp. But we moms, we just learn to take what comes at us and go with it. We've got children to care for. We can't just stop everything and wait for someone else to handle it all, because if your household is anything like mine, if you want it done (and done right!), you do it yourself!

So maybe we can't get it all done all the time....but we're doing a pretty good job I think! Go moms!!!! We're good.

Confessions of a Traineraholic

I am almost in the best shape of my life. There was one time in my life when I felt a little better about my body (even though I was about the same weight) and that was just before our second child, in 2007. Even still, I'm pretty close to that body.
However, I'm not happy with my latest habits. Because I'm still nursing, I can take in more calories than I could if I weren't nursing, which makes it easier to maintain a good weight. It also makes it easier to snack when I feel like it. Intense weight training also makes it easier to do that, which I had been doing up until my work schedule became so booked that I can no longer work out before or after I work with my clients.
So while my habits are still better than most, they're not up to my usual standards.
For about the past month I have rolled with the punches of a busy schedule and gotten more and more frustrated. I hate not getting a really great workout most days of the week. I feel like junk after eating junk!
If you know me you are maybe thinking, "Amanda, just shut up because you have no real problem here!" Ah, but that's where we deceive ourselves. My clients did not all become unhappy with their bodies overnight. It was a very slow and gradual process. They also have very busy lives full of children and work schedules and dinners to make. But don't you see? If I don't do something about this last not-so-good-month now, where would I be down the road? We have to catch those bad habits quickly and nip them in the bud before they get out of hand!

It is 5:55am and I already snuck in my exercise...biceps. The hubby may think I'm crazy...but really, is that anything new? Just as a pro surfer needs to surf (yeah, in his dreams) one with high hopes in the fitness industry needs to train...herself! At this point in my life, I'd rather lose an hour of sleep to spend on myself than go one more day wishing I had some time to do what needed to be done. Besides, it's a vicious cycle. No exercise > Compromised eating habits > No exercise > A little bit worse eating habits....and on and on until someone reverses the cycle.
I've laid it all out on the table. My past month hasn't been perfect. I have a suspicion yours may not have been either. But it's March now. Most resolutions have been left behind long ago. But it's the time to pick them back up. Spring and summer are just around the corner. It's time, this year, to feel really great in that bathing suit! It's time to know you worked hard to be in the best shape of your life and the healthiest you've ever been!
Now let's go scramble up some egg whites! I'm hungry!

Dr. Oz This Morning

Dr. Mehmet Oz, Oprah's go-to doctor and author of You: The Owner's Manual, You: Being Young, and most recently, You: Being Beautiful, along with several others, had an important tip for all mothers on Good Morning America this morning. I thought it was so important that I couldn't keep it to myself.

He said of our children:
"They're going to treat themselves the way you treat yourself."

Women have a tendency to have low self-esteem, especially those who are overweight and living an unhealthy life. Our children see this and the things that we do to ourselves and also the things that we don't do for ourselves. As they age they will begin to do as we have done.

Today I'm extending a challenge to you all. Are you treating yourself the way you want your children to treat themselves? Are you seeing yourself as you want your children to see themselves? What needs to be done in order to fix this problem, if there is one?

Take care everyone, and have a great day!
Amanda

Be Better

Today I woke up to some discouragement, as we all do at one time or another, in one form or another. But instead of wallowing in my self-pity I am deciding that I will press on today. Discouragement is inevitable in every life. Some days we don't seem to have the energy to take it and then choose the higher road. We let it get us down, down, down about ourselves and our abilities.
If you've felt discouragement lately, whether it's that your weight is creeping back up, your exercise routine hasn't been as consistent as you had vowed, your kids are out of control and wearing on your nerves, your husband isn't supportive, you lost your job or sales are down....gee, there are plenty of reasons to be down right now, aren't there?
BUT there are also plenty of reasons to push past whatever was said to you, whatever you had wanted to accomplish but didn't, whatever hurt you. Your children are beautiful, healthy, and the loves of your life. YOU are living, well, and able. You WILL get past this. Most importantly, you still have the desire and passion to get you past this and where you want to be.
I read something this morning from PFP magazine, a publication for fitness professionals, that I wanted to share with you.
"The greater importance you place upon your own ability to function and perform at your best, the greater joy you bring to those who rely upon you as well as those you love.
The power to master 2009 goes far beyond another resolution. You can chart the course and love every minute of it. You can choose your emotions. You can choose your health. You can choose your body. There isn't any need, nor is there any value, in emotions such as envy and regret. There isn't any value in self-criticism and desperate resolution. Don't resolve, committ--really commit. That doesn't mean be perfect. We are prone to human fallibility, and perfection is a quest that only leads to a sense of failure... Don't be perfect. Just be better, always better."

May we all do the best we can with what we are given and be the best we can be with who we are.

Thanks for reading! I see all of your comments and wish you all the best!

Amanda