TGIF! Thinking ahead and preparing for Friday night temptations

I know it's Friday evening right now and maybe you're thinking about going out to eat, football games or unwinding after a long week. What you're probably NOT thinking about is making sure you get your workout in! 

The great thing is...my challengers THOUGHT AHEAD! They drank their Shakeology to keep cravings in check for Friday night happy hour. They logged their workouts early before work and before excuses could set in. 

I am so proud of each person in my group that is putting in the hard work to improve their health. It's so much easier to do when you know you're not alone. That's why I love hosting private accountability groups.

Keep it up, everyone! 1 week left in the month!

Grow It, Try It, Like It!

My husband went to a health and nutrition education conference a while back and came home with a form from Team Nutrition USDA with all sorts of educational nutrition resources from grades preschool on up through middle school.

Today I got a box of the "Grow it, Try it, Like it!" preschool curriculum in the mail that he ordered for me. It's awesome and my inner teaching nerd is drooling over these things as Addie sleeps nearby. 

It has sight word booklets and a different unit for 6 different fruits and vegetables that features activities like hands on stuff, eating and recipes, learning how they grow (and even planting your own), stories and songs, physical education activities, and even take home materials for the teachers to send home with kids.

I think it's a great curriculum and every school should be teaching about proper nutrition, getting in touch with growing your own food, and staying active. It would work great for homeschooling moms too!

If you'd like more information about this curriculum you can see here: http://www.fns.usda.gov/tn/grow-it-try-it-it 

#growittryitlikeit

Country Heat thoughts- Day 2

            I wanted to share with you some of my thoughts on Country Heat so far. I missed Monday so today is only my second day of it, but I did my second routine today and my skin is glowing and I am dripping and just as sweaty as I got in 22 Minute Hard Corps. So I'm really surprised- honestly I bought the program because everyone else in my room at Summit bought it too, and I said, “okay everyone else is doing it, I guess I'll do it too.” That's kind of how I felt last year when I bought Cize, which was more of a hip-hop dancing program. I ended up loving Cize, by the way, and I can already tell that I’ll love this program, too.

            I'm not watching the clock at all during the workout. I am out of breath when I’m doing it; I don't know how Autumn does the program and talks the whole time! You don't need a home gym for this, there's no equipment, there's a girl who doesn't even do the jumping so there's no impact or anything. I’ve just been using my living room floor: if you can take 2 steps to the right and 2 steps to the left, forward, and back: that's all the space you need! I'm really pleasantly surprised! It's fun and it is more of the fun, upbeat country songs that have been on the radio lately. It's not line dancing at all; it is cardio.

            They're all really simple moves and I think honestly my favorite part so far is the move breakdown. It's like a 20-minute separate track where she goes through each move at walking speed, so for me that's really helpful. I even had to replay a couple, because if you're trying to learn them as the music is going you're gonna mess up. So I really love the move breakdown a lot.

            There are some moves that I have not gotten the hang out quite yet since this is only my first or second day doing some of them, and it's kind of nice that once you do that round of them you're done and you're onto another move. I've got a few other people doing Country Teat with me in my group and so far I think that they love it too. The fact that it comes with Shakeology and the portion control containers just makes it well rounded and you know that you're getting your nutrition taken care of. I think you're easily burning 200 calories in each workout at just half an hour.

            If you want to join in or learn more information about Country Heat (or any other program for that matter), please comment below, email me, or reach out to me on Facebook: www.facebook.com/boeknowscleanliving 

Here's a view of me dancing while Addie plays in the living room behind me.

8 Great Smarts by Dr. Kathy Koch - why parents have a responsibility to teach their children in the way they were created to learn

            I just listened to an amazing another amazing podcast from Dr. Gary Chapman; it’s called Building Relationships. I've only listened to 3 episodes so far but each time there is a different featured speaker/author and topic. Tonight I heard the episode from April 2, 2016 with Dr. Kathy Koch. I saw her speak at the Hearts at Home conference last fall. She's an amazing author and I have another one of her books called “Growing up Social”, but in this podcast she was talking about her book “8 Great Smarts” tells about the 8 different ways that your child can be gifted.

            She explained what each different smart is and different ways that you can connect with your child and foster that giftedness and if they're not strong in one area you can get them interested in it. I totally loved it and I’ve decided that I'm going to be buying a copy of that book for both of Addison's teachers this year. I think that if you take that extra step to really understand your kids as a parent, then you can foster excitement in them for everything around them.

            I really feel like some people may have an issue with helicopter parenting and that sort of thing, but I don't feel like I'm a helicopter parent. Instead, I feel that I am an involved parent because I feel that especially in this age with so much information available, I feel like it's my duty and it's my responsibility not just to hum along and give her clothes, give her food, send her to school. That’s the bare minimum. It's my responsibility to identify the strengths and the uniqueness that God has put in her and help her develop them. It's also my responsibility to find those areas where she is not as strong and to help her identify that and work through those challenges.

            I think some parents just kind of float by with the absolute minimum needed to raise their kids and I think that with all of the knowledge out there  – there's books, there's podcasts, there's so many different things – why not take advantage of all that knowledge and truly pour your heart and your passion into making your children become the best people that they can be?? Our kids are going to be the adults of tomorrow; if we want a better country, if we want a better world as we're getting old and gray, then we better put the work in now to be creating these amazing children that we are blessed with.

            That's one of my passions. I am a stay-at-home mom and I'm blessed with all day to be able to do that with Addie and spend time with her. If I wasn't doing that with my day then I don't think that I would be taking advantage of the gift that I have in being a stay-at-home mom. If our kids’ teachers aren't fully immersed and reading books like 8 Great Smarts on how to foster excitement and intelligence and all sorts of different gifts in the children that they are teaching every single day…then I think that they're in the wrong profession-plain and simple! If you don't have a passion for the kids that you teach every time and wanting to make them the best people possible and leaving an imprint on them, a positive imprint on them, then you need to stop teaching. Because you're sure not in it for the money, so I don't know why you’re there if you're not there for the kids and making them better people.

            I will be listening to this podcast again because it was so full of amazing information, and I’ll be ordering myself a copy from Amazon tonight and also copies for Addison’s teachers this year. I think that this kind of knowledge is something that not only every parent should have but every teacher should have because they are very big influences and our kids as well. So I encourage you to not only look at that book, but also follow Kathy on Facebook. I'm sure she's a wealth of knowledge. It’s bedtime but I just could not go to bed without sharing my excitement for this new book that I'm going to be reading.

            If you're a parent or a teacher or even a volunteer for a kids program (like I do for our church program AWANA), I think if you are involved in kids lives in any way you need to realize what a gift that you're being given: the gift influence on these young kids. You really need to take that seriously and do what you can to leave them better than when you first found them. Can you tell I’m passionate about this? I'm not an official teacher, but I teach my daughter every day so I feel like I'm a teacher!