Pinterest Fitness Day 18: Health Benefits of Cherries

I went to the local farm the other day to buy produce and I discovered the cherries are ripe!  Yum!!!  This morning, I found a heart shaped cherry and it reminded me that these red beauties are full of antioxidants.  They also can help you get to sleep.  I found a nice summary of the health benefits from Oasis Advanced Wellness on Pinterest. Enjoy!

Pinterest Fitness Day 17: Bedroom Workout & Punjammies

Sometimes its nice to roll out of bed and workout.  Or perhaps in your pajamas.  That is what I did today.  I found the workout above on Pinterest.  A lot of the exercises posted through tumblr.com end up not showing up through the link, so I hope just by posting the image with the link on the bottom, I will give credit to whom it is due!

Anywho, this workout proved to be fun and invigorating---perfect to jumpstart your day!  The jumping jacks really help with that, of course.  I used my exercise ball to do the leg extensions to make it a bit more challenging.  I also leaned on my medicine ball to do the russian twists with to make it more of a challenge.  It took about 30 minutes and I built up a good sweat!

Speaking of pajamas, I want to point out that I exercised in my Punjammies.  "What are Punjammies?" Well, they are pajamas made by young girls and women in India who have been rescued from the grip of human trafficking and prostitution.  The International Princess Project is the organization that produces and sales the Punjammies.  In their words from their Facebook page, they are "ADVOCATING for enslaved prostitutes, RESTORING their broken lives, EMPOWERING them to live free."  To learn more about the Punjammies and the International Princess Project, you can go to www.intlprincess.org, and view the video above.  Human Trafficking is horrible.  HORRIBLE.  That word seems too weak.  There really are no words to show the shame, filth, and lack of human moral and compassion of human trafficking.  So, take a look at the video.  Each pair of Punjammies are made by a rescued girl or woman.  It is an awesome cause!  Oh, and they are super compfy! 

Pinterest Fitness Day 14: Waking Up to Exercise & Protein Poppers

The sound of crickets chirping from my iPhone alarm is not my favorite sound.  The crickets chirp is probably to best sound to wake up to, but it still isn't fun.  It is very hard to push myself to get up at 5:30 in the morning, but I must in order to get my workout in.  I found a post on Pinterest the other day that had some really good tips on how to make getting up early to exercise a bit easier.  (Find that post HERE).  One problem I have is trying to get breakfast down before a morning run.  The blogger even covered that!  She recommended Protein Poppers, which are basically balls of oatmeal peanut butter goodness!  I made them today and they are super easy!   (The recipe is included in the link above).  I will have to be disciplined and save them for my pre-workout meal because each ball is 100 calories.  They are small, quick, and packed with protein, which is perfect for a quick bit of nutrition my body needs in the morning.

Early morning yummy-ness  awaits!

Another favorite tip of the blogger is to sleep in your workout clothes.  This works wonderfully.  If I am in my comfy PJs, I am less likely to get up and exercise!  I hope you find these tips as helpful as I did!

PS:  I got 3 1/2 hours of dental work done today.  This was unexpected.  Needless to say, I just did an ab workout.  Here is one of my favorites!

AP Days 17-19: Took a break

I didn't get nearly enough sleep this weekend. Friday night, our baby girl was miserable and crying of and on throughout the night, so needless to say, I didn't hear my alarm to get up to exercise. I also took my regular rest day on Sunday, so I had a nice break. I woke up bright and early this morning. Okay, maybe not so bright. To tell you the truth, my eyes are stinging and I feel as though I'm going to hurl. But, I know, once I start working out, that will all go away. I need to press on. I need to pray for the strength to press on. Now down to business! On the plus side, I got down to 144.8! Woooohooo!