Kids & Healthy Habits

Eating healthy starts early.  My mom was a nurse and was always cognizant of what she fed us.  It was always a balanced diet.  She never bought dessert, she'd always make it from scratch.  There were five of us, so it couldn't have been easy!  With just two little ones at home and food allergies (not my kids, but kids at school) you have to be careful what you are feeding your kids.  Here is a sample of what I put in their lunch boxes for pre-school.

So, what is the "key" to looking like this:

PLANNING! Food prep.  What happens when you have the best of intentions to start new and eat well, you are gung ho and ready to go but you don't have your food prepared? You eat breakfast and then a couple of hours later you are hungry but you ignore it and then lunch time comes and goes and by the time you know it, it's time for dinner, you go home and you eat EVERYTHING in site - sound familiar?  If you had prepared your meals ahead of time and had them with you, all you would need to do was eat what you had prepared and you would be good to go.  So make a list and take it with you to the grocery store.  Never shop on an empty stomach!  Pick one day during the week (Sunday's work best for me) and prep all of your food for the week.  Then all you have to do is eat what you have prepared and you will be happy and healthy!  That's it, it's not rocket science, go give it a try ;-)

Happy 2014!  It's been way too long! I'm back, oh boy am I back! Well, what is new with me?!
I have a 3 year old and soon to be 5 year old that are keeping me soooooooooo busy!  I have neglected this blog and I do regret it, so here is hoping that I can start posting on a continual basis with some great information that will help you all achieve your exercise and fitness goals!  Here's a little photo summery of my year in 2013...

Now onto fitness!  I had hip surgery this past fall so I froze my gym membership and have been working out at home ever since.  I have to say, I'm LOVING it!  It is SO nice to wake up early (5 am) and get my workout over with and still have time to feed the kids/dogs, shower and drive them to pre-school. That leaves me with a few hours to do housework and grocery shop and do the things I need to do alone - so nice!  So am I missing driving to the gym every morning and spending nearly two hours there - not so much!  I miss my trainer and my friends but I see my friends every week and this is a nice break for me.  I have been able to focus on healthy eating and doing the workouts I enjoy which consist of:
Spinnervals The Pain Cave
Spinnervals Hillacious
Spinnervals Sweating Buckets
Cathe's Pedal Power
Cathe's STS
Cathe's X10
Susan Chung's Rapid Fire
and many, many more!

Am I doing my own dvds you ask?  No, but tomorrow I plan on doing Cardio Kickbox Challenge and I'm really looking forward to it!

So what is the secret to staying healthy and keeping the pounds off?  Come back tomorrow and I'll share ;-)

Pantry Makeover

Newly Organized Pantry
 

Organized Kitchen

KITCHEN PANTRY BEFORE:

DURING: The key here is to get it all out and start with a clean slate. Go through everything and don't be afraid to TOSS or DONATE what you don't want/eat! Make room for what you do eat.

KITCHEN PANTRY AFTER:

KITCHEN CABINETS BEFORE:

Don't be afraid to move things around - make it work for you. I had to re-work this cabinet a few times before it felt right.  I wanted the kids foods/snacks all in one place.

AFTER:

COOKING CABINET BEFORE: 

AFTER:

CORNER CABINET BEFORE:

 

AFTER:

REFRIGERATOR AFTER:

I still have to line the pull out drawers! I ran out of refrigerator liner paper.  I bought all that Marshall's had so I have to wait a few days for them to restock ;-) And I just may make some pretty labels for the condiments in the door - why not?!

FREEZER AFTER:

Everything here is labeled! I can't tell you how much easier it is to have a dedicated shelf for each thing.  Bread, Leftovers, Fruit, Veggies, Kids Food, Meats/Fish, Grains. I used file folders to separate each food, so there is a folder between the salmon and the sole and so on...

SPICE CABINET BEFORE:

SPICE CABINET AFTER:

Happy Holidays!

Starting January 1st we will be kicking off a new year new you series with healthy diet, recipes and free workouts!