Fit Tip Tuesday: Setting Goals

Today I wanted to share with you all what helps to keep me on track with my workouts and eating healthy - really anything in life.

I will preface this by saying it's not always easy and it takes effort, effort that I have been lacking in the past few weeks. But that all changes and it changes right NOW!

Making goals and actually writing them down help me a lot! Currently my goals are to cut out the snacking/junk food eating and to not have a 'cheat meal' for at least 10 days. I want to do this to lose a couple pounds and tighten my core up BUT also to get over the need for sugar daily. I love sweets to the moon and back and my cravings have crept up on me and have left me feeling out of control.

Once I jot my goals down, I then think of a realistic approach to get me there. I like to focus on short-term goals and for me that is usually one or two weeks away. For the goals mentioned above, I believe I can realistically drop 2 pounds a week over the next two weeks and that I can cut my sugar craving down by getting it out of my system (this is where the no cheats/snacking/junk food eating comes in)

I'm going back to the basics. Back to what I know without a doubt works for ME and that is 'clean eating' - this term has been getting a bad rep lately with all of the "if it fits your macros" talk going on. I believe in both ways honestly. I believe doing what you are able to manage and balance without it becoming an obsession and without it becoming overwhelming. I love being able to eat "unclean" foods and fitting them into my macros but I think that is where I have become out of control with my sweets, so for now I need to pull back and make things simple for myself. Chicken, fish, tuna, veggies, berries, greek yogurt, almonds. Just to name a few. I don't need the pressure of tracking my every food intake all day. It's time consuming and tedious (for me).

So now that I have my goals down on paper with my approach - and it's all in writing - I feel like I have taken a positive step in the right direction. There is something about getting it down on paper, admitting that you need to make changes, that lifts a burden off your shoulders.

I challenge you to write one to two short-term goals down on paper today and underneath each, write down how you are going to realistically reach those goals. Then Just Do It.

Check it out!

Head over and read the interview I did for Annie at the Strong Brees - I really enjoyed diving into some answers for many of the questions I get asked on the daily!

Meal Plan - Week 4

Meal Plan for the week of September 23rd-29th is available for purchase and immediate download for ONLY $5 along with the meal plans for weeks 1-3! They will be on sale until Monday the 23rd - You can purchase them separately for $5 each or purchase all 4 for a total of $20!

Week 4's plan has a calorie range of 1615-1790 and includes the macros for each meal (6 meals a day) so you can adjust to fit your macros and your personal fitness goals.

Each meal is simple and a grocery/shopping list is included with each plan weekly.

You can purchase this plan as well as the others by going to the Workout Plans tab at the top of my blog page (you can be sent directly there by clicking on the highlighted words) or you can purchase the week 4 plan only, by clicking on the add to cart button below!

Workout Wednesday - Upper Body Burn

Today's workout will shape and sculpt those arms and back! Sexy arms are all the rage!

This routine is done using Supersets. A superset is when you do at least two exercises back to back without stopping. You can work the same muscle during each superset to really fatigue it or you can work a muscle and it's antagonist muscle - for example doing a chest press followed by a lat pull down.

 

For this routine we will be fatiquing each muscle group. Below each superset is a picture of the exercise.

4 Sets of 8-10 Reps

Superset (biceps, shoulders, back)
-Hammer curl to shoulder press
-Barbell rear delt row (back row)

 

Superset (shoulders)
-lateral raises
-cable one arm lateral raise

Superset (biceps)
-Slow tempo barbell bicep curls
-Cable hercules curls

Superset (shoulders)
-Barbell upright row
-Cable upright row

4 Sets of 10
Lat pull down (back)

Your upper body should be spent after this routine!!

Our Weekend Events

We had a very eventful weekend! My son Hayden's birthday is tomorrow, Septmeber 17th (he will be 7!! EEK) so we had one of his best friends over for a little sleepover Saturday. It was his first time having a friend stay the night at our house and to say he was excited would be the understatement of the year!

So Saturday we took the kids to Chuck E Cheese, the park, and then to Blockbuster to rent a movie. We made them a pallet, let them eat some ice cream after dinner and we were all in bed at 10 and up early at 6 AM Sunday morning!

Sunday after church I dropped Hayden's friend off at his house and headed home to do a million loads of laundry and to play a Dora game and War with the kids.

It was such a fun weekend! In two weeks we have the kids' birthday party and I am feeling so unprepared and un-organized. Usually I'm on top of these kinds of things. We are hoping to get the kids both new bedroom furniture and re-decorating their rooms - This may take a month or two but I'm hoping to have it done by Thanksgiving! LOL. Kids bedroom furniture is EXPENSIVE! Holy Cow.

I'm also working on my my CPR certification so I can take my NASM personal trainer exam and am so nervous/excited - this week needs to be spent on focusing on studying for sure!

Happy Monday All!

Comparison is the theif of Joy

Over the past year of being on Instagram I have started following quite a few people. I saw somebody that I thought had a great body, I followed. I saw great healthy recipe/food accounts, I followed. Well, over the past two weeks I have been really thinking about the people I follow. I would get on to check out my feed and see picture after picture of women who I deemed as having "perfect" bodies. It would leave me feeling bad about myself like I'm not working out hard enough or eating healthy enough. I began to compare myself to these bikini and fitness models and feel like I needed to look like them. It's not reality. I do not compete in figure and bikini competitions, I don't want to. I don't personally feel I have the time and energy -or money- to do that kind of thing. Hats off to all who do and double hats off to all the mothers that do it! I think that is amazing!

What I am getting at is, here I am 26 years old with two children and I am seeing picture after picture of these fitness models who many were barely in their 20's and have no kids. I am not taking away from what these women have and are accomplishing, it takes a lot of dedication to be that age and to have such will power and structure. But I, personally, must stop comparing myself to them. I am not them and they are not me. Just as they work their butts off to be in their best shape, so do I. We all have different circumstances and situations and we are all, for the most part, trying to do our very best and I want to let you know....you are beautiful and imperfectly perfect and doing the best you can with what you are given. We all are.

Our culture tries to define how we should look physically and we feed into it by allowing those opinions to shape our beliefs of ourselves and others.

If you find yourself making comparisons to other women thinking- they are better mom's, wives, DIYer, chef, have more money, smarter, prettier, fitter. STOP! You are perfect right as you are. God made YOU with a purpose in mind, with special talents and gifts to be used for a much bigger plan. Do more of what makes you happy and what you feel you are good at. Focus more on the good and less on the bad. Choose to be happy because you are uniquly blessed.

Today I am choosing happiness. I am choosing to feel beautiful, smart, like a good mom, a good wife, to feel fit and healthy - I hope you do the same! We are all in this together, we all have many of the same struggles and feelings. Let's support one another, give compliments as much as possible, offer help when needed, listen more and smile often.

Meal Plan Week 3 Available

Hey guys, the meal plan for week 3 is now ready for purchase and immediate download. You can purchase it two ways: on the side bar of this blog right under the pic that says 'efitmama's meal plan week 3' or by clicking the 'add to cart' button at the end of this post.

This week's calorie range is 1650-1800, macros are included for each of the 6 meals for each day so you can adjust to fit your personal macros. There is also a shopping list included. All of these meals are simple and don't require a lot of prep or crazy ingredients.

These meal plans are great tools in addition to your workout regimen. If you aren't seeing the results you want, more than likely it's due to the way you are eating, what you are putting in your body and how much of it.

For your personal macros you can go to www.iifym.com and calculate them and simply adjust the portions, ingredients, brands, etc...for the meals if needed.

Each weekly plan is $10 and can be downloaded immediatedly once purchased