Happy & Healthy Holidays to You
May this holiday season be your best ever! Take good care of yourself! May you find a healthy alternatives to some of your favorite foods and take the time to take care of yourself. We’re all business at this time of year and it’s very easy to revert to bad eating habits which will sometime takeover. Try to use moderation when needed. We all succumb to temptations now and then, but we must revert back to the path to health and wellness to say healthy for the long term.
Make your plans today to embrace health for the new year. 2012 will be your best year ever, believe in yourself.
When is it Time to Hire a Personal Trainer?
How do you know when you need a personal trainer? Do you ever really know? Is today the day? Or can you wait until tomorrow? Do you feel your in need? Do you have time to exercise ever? Maybe the presence of a trainer would force you to make the time for yourself and your health?
Many of us feel we can do everything ourselves. We take care of our family needs. Everyone in our family and their personal health is our concern. We pride ourselves on being very responsible too. We take care of our own health in addition to the family. We believe were doing a fine job at it. So some of us think, why on earth would we ever need a trainer? We’re superwomen who do it all! We can train ourselves…right? Well maybe that’s the problem? We want to do everything ourselves. We never what to give over control to someone else. To put things out of our own hands of management to another person. Well that in itself is stressful! The losing control of part of ourselves, may really bring more control into our lives than we’d ever imagined?
Yes, by hiring a personal trainer you’ll give over some of your control in a way. Ultimately gaining more control over your health in the long run. You’ll gain in the process by getting into better shape. You’ll have access to more knowledge and advice than what you already have naturally. You’ll gain advice on nutrition, sleep, exercise, improving your exercise form, etc. all information we all can benefit from. We don’t always want to admit it, but it’s true. Maybe today is the day for you?
Fresh Strawberry Pie!
Ingredients –
1 (9 inch) pie crust, baked
1 cup white sugar
3 tablespoons strawberry flavored gelatin mix
2 tablespoons cornstarch
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup boiling water
2 pints strawberries, cleaned and stemmed
2 cups whipping cream (optional)
Directions –
1.Combine sugar, gelatin, cornstarch, and salt in a medium saucepan. Stir in boiling water. Boil mixture for 3 minutes over high heat, stirring constantly. Cool completely.
2.Arrange whole strawberries in pastry shell. Pour gelatin mixture over berries. Chill before serving.
Refrigerate 2-3 hours before serving so pie will set. Calories DO NOT count when serving strawberry pie! Serve with fresh whipped cream.
Metro News Press on Moms Indulgence
Toronto’s Metro News coverage of Moms Indulgence. Mariana Ionova – Thank you for covering our site with your article! 
http://www.metronews.ca/toronto/local/article/889951–sisterhood-of-tech-savvy-moms
Your Mom Body Image
One thing which really changes from having children is – our bodies. Also, your body image changes with having children. We go into motherhood with such positive views and don’t really think about some of the more complex issues which come with motherhood.
Some women will do everything under the sun to gain back their ‘before children body’. Some will go such great lengths to have surgery to just return to the body they once new. Others will choose to accept the changes and let it be. Being a busy mom, you don’t have the time focus on yourself as much. So often what would of bother you in the past doesn’t faze you, as it once might.
Which type of mom are you? Are you going to the gym regularly working on changing you body back, to it’s former self? Or are you just accepting the changes? Or are you a combination of the two? Some of us try for a while to make changes. Once it gets hard fitting into your schedule to get to the gym, some of us stop going. If it’s hard to make the changes happen in the gym, do you give up the fight?
We all go thought the process as mothers, women with several child go through the process several times. It’s all about you. Your own personal thoughts, feelings and opinions and what you choose to do with your life, truly reflect in your body. Nothing is more personal than body image. We either love or hate the state our body is in. We have natural views of our own bodies as women. Then we also have media pressure of the unnatural sort being forced and bombarded upon us. In our society we’re constantly sent image of what’s expected from us as women. So complex an issue no wonder our society is so confused, resulting with some taking drastic measures to change themselves?
Time to get in Shape for Summer?
Juillian Michael’s You Tube video!
We’re going to add a YouTube fitness videos, to inspire us all to get in better shape. Summer is here. We need to make the most of it and have the energy to keep up with our children. We can improve our fitness levels to not only to look better, but to have the energy we need as moms, to do all we do.
The Muffin Top Madness!
The downside of motherhood! Don’t let it get you down! We have all gone through it and come out the otherside. Nothing seems to mean the downside of motherhood more than muffin tops. Our own mothers did not tell us about the skin tags, the skin discoloration, the body changes and so on. Sometimes maybe, they feel we’re better off not to know ahead of time?
The muffin top, I’m not talking about our favorite part of a muffin when I say muffin top. The muffin top is a the spare tire around your waste. The first time when you put on your regular jeans after having a baby, the muffin top is the worst, it’s shocking! Almost every other part of motherhood we can handle except for all the body changes which come with having a child.
Well what can be done about your muffin top? The key is to do it all in moderation right after having a newborn. Improve your diet to a healthier one, fit in daily exercise when you can, sleep and hydrate. It’s easier than said than done in the beginning, but over time it can be changed. Everything takes time after having a baby, your body takes time to come back after giving birth. Even years later after giving birth the muffin top can be an issue for some. Stay with the basics of eating right and exercise. Since there is no real way to spot reduce your muffin top except for surgery, give it time. Put in place your health and wellness plan overtime the changes will happen. The muffin will be no more.
You Can Now Follow Us – Networked Blogs!
We’ve been using Networked Blogs for a long while, just have never advertised the link until now. Please sign up and follow us on FB too! Thank you for being such loyal followers of our work! Please sign up for our RSS feed (which the majority of our readers have already signed up) Now you can follow us via Networked Blogs. We love our followers!
5 Tips for Better Sleeping- For Kids and Parents!
National Sleep Foundation’s 2004 Sleep in America poll found that parents/caregivers lose an average of 200 hours of sleep a year, due to their child’s nighttime awakenings. In 2007, the same poll found that 20% of women are awakened to give care to a child during the night. Let’s face it moms, we are not getting enough sleep!
Sleep is always a hot topic, especially for families managing ADHD. Individuals, be they kids or parents, struggling to manage attention, often have issues with arousal, making it difficult to settle down, as well as wake up. Sleep, is always elusive for us. Add to this issue is the downward spiral of less sleep contributes to greater difficulty maintaining our attention. Below are 5 tips for getting a better night’s sleep, so you can a happier person and a more attentive mom.
Go outside! During the day, make a ritual of taking a walk. Sunshine helps regulate circadian rhythms or our sleep-wake cycle. Spend an hour or more outside everyday helps get us on a rhythm of rising with the sun and sleeping when it goes down, helping to offset that struggle with settling to sleep or arousing to get going.
Have a bedtime- even Moms and Dads! It is easy to slip into the notion, I can stay up and do _____, after the kids are in bed. Research is showing that those hours cannot be made up on the weekend. Regular 8 hours of sleep is required for a good attention and a sense of well-being. So set your DVR and go to bed!
Avoid pictorial-visual stimulation such as TV, computers, and video gaming devices an hour or more before bed. These types of sensorial input devices, create novel experiences that increases dopamine production, increasing arousal making it difficult to fall asleep.
Have a bedtime routine, that tells your brain, it’s time to settle down. Begin with self-care but then play instrumental music, dim the lights, read in a bedside chair (with a book light) or listen to a book on tape. For kids, complete bathing and teeth brushing, and then create your routine with your child. Maybe begin with reflecting on all the best parts of the day, and things they are thankful for, then read a book.
Practice some yoga and meditation. Consider adding some relaxation yoga techniques to your routine. Laurie Jordan, is soon to be out with her new book, Yawning Yoga, which walks families through a series of exercises especially designed to make kids more aware of their relaxation state, and to achieve that state. Begin with the Jiggle-wiggle test: wiggle your body to make sure it’s ready for sleep. In Dog-tired down dog, get on all fours and wag your tail. In Bedtime-Bug, lay in bed on your back, with toes in your hands, rock back and forth. The Lemon squeeze, is done lying in bed and suggests you squeeze you nose, toes, hands, as tight as you can and then relax. Notice the tension difference in your body. The Spaghetti test, is designed to continue making kids more aware of the tension in their bodies, by assessing if they are raw or cooked spaghetti. Next in the yoga bedtime routine, Good Night little body, wiggle each individual body part, as you say “good night” to each part. Finally end with pressing your palms together and saying “Namaste.” May the divinity in me honor the divinity in you.
Here’s wishing you a restful sleepfilled weekend!
Post courtesy of our friends at – http://www.powermomsunite.com
Pasta Fagioli
I ditched the original meal I had on my Menu Plan Monday for tonight…
I just wasn’t feeling Cheesy Potato Casserole so I made Pasta Fagioli instead!
What’s that you ask?
It is so quick and easy….
Ingredients
(2) Cans of Chunky Vegetable Pasta Sauce ($2.50 on sale at Alberstons $1.25/ea)
(2) Cans of White Kidney Beans (drained) ($1.39 x 2)
(1) Can of chopped spinach (drained) OR you can use frozen (thawed of course) OR fresh spinach (chopped). ($1.69 for canned)
16 oz of pasta (Elbow Macaroni, Rotini, Penne, whatever you have on hand) ($1.00 on sale)
Directions
1. Cook pasta as directed. Drain, keep 2 cups of pasta water.
2. Combine pasta sauce, beans, spinach, pasta and pasta water.
3. Cook on med heat for 10-15 mins.
4. Add salt & pepper to taste
Pair with some hot buttery french bread ($1.99).
MMM, good.
Post courtesy of our friends at – www.imnotsuperwoman.com