Health and Fitness

Well, my first semester of college is nearly complete and I am so excited with all I was able to accomplish. Of course, being a homeschool mother of 4 children and one college student in addition to working part-time, taking care of all the household business and going to college myself, it is no wonder a few things slipped by the wayside.

That leads me to my own health and fitness. I am pretty sure I put on about 5lbs this semester due to poor eating and little extra exercise. So as the semester winds down, I want to take this opportunity to get back and track and set in motion some new habits that will hopefully stick as I start classes in January. Here is my plan...

Diet - I have been on many eating plans over the years and I have found nothing works as well as Trim Healthy Mama. It is a low glycemic eating plan that does not limit amounts of food, just the types of food you can eat either together or at all. Basically if you are eating high carb at a meal, keep the fat intake to a minimum. However, if your craving something with a higher fat intake, go low carb. Both meals need to have a good portion of protein included. The book is over 600 pages long and includes tons of recipes. I have gleaned many additional ones online at their Facebook page and THM blogs. I even have a Pinterest board dedicated to the plan. Just do a Pinterest search and a ton more will pop up. It is a wonderful way to eat but as all diets do, it requires planning ahead so you have the food you need available.

As far as exercise goes, I am going to get back into running. My favorite resource for this is the Couch Potato to 5K program. I have an amazing app on my iPhone that allows me to listen to my own music while getting cues when to run and when to walk. Before I had this app, I used NHS podcasts.

Two other apps I use often are My Fitness Pal to track my nutrition and Endomondo to track my distances when running outside.

So I have decided to also start adding in some weight training and I have currently requested "You Are Your Own Gym" and "Body By You". I need to be able to work out at home a few days a week. Just getting out is difficult as it takes so much time out of my day. I am hoping these will keep me from needing to purchase a bunch of equipment.

I would also like to add in Yoga and I have found a wealth of Youtube videos on the subject. When doing some research, I learned that Sadie Nardini is considered a great teacher so I will be trying out some of her videos.

So, finally, the plan is 3 days a week of running, 2 days of weight training with 1 day of Yoga starting Monday!