Why I must workout today...

Two words...GiGi's cupcakes. 

My sweet, dear, happy birthday-singing husband brought home GiGi's Cupcakes.  These are easily the most delicious and sinful cupcake you've ever seen.

Even Rachel was excited.

Of COURSE I chose the chocolate on chocolate!

When asked which one she wanted, Elizabeth said, "That one!" and pushed away the rest of her tuna melt (Exhibit A).  We let her have half of it and I swear, she didn't leave a crumb.

So today I lifted a little harder, ran a little more and have eaten a little cleaner...especially because..well, you saw that beginning picture...there are still three and a half more cupcakes in my refrigerator...

Have a great day!

Winter Fish Tacos

Ok, you are seriously going to have to just trust me on this one.  Scott and I love fish tacos and have a summer recipe with mango salsa and lime that we make about every other week.  I can't even remember where I got it.  One day, I'll find it and share it with you. 

So, I was reading a recipie for a chicken taco that called for acorn squash and I thought that might replace the sweetness the mango salsa offered for a more wintery fish taco.  

Wait!  Don't close out the window just yet!

Can I just tell you, it was amazing?  Really.  My husband even finished off all the food on the table - you know, so we wouldn't have any left-overs. 

And I haven't even told you the best part...BOTH OF MY CHILDREN ATE IT!!  100%!!  Two for two!! 

So I have to share...

Winter Fish Tacos

I used a pound of tilapia for this and it would probably feed four average eaters.  I love using tilapia because it's relatively inexpensive and doesn't have bones.  Plus, it's very mild tasting and works in most dishes.  

Take an acorn squash, split it down the middle and scrape out the seeds and pulp.  Place cut-side down in a baking dish with a little water.  Bake at 350 for about an hour.  

After the hour, take out your squash (leave your oven on) and spray a cooking sheet.  Cut your fish on the diagonal and place on the sheet.  Then (once your squash is cool enough touch) peel your squash and chop into cubes.  Divide them around your fish on the same sheet.  Sprinkle the whole thing with chili powder, cumin, garlic powder and salt and pepper.  Throw back in the oven at 350 for about 10-15 minutes (just watch the fish cook).

While this is cooking, chop one good sized tomato, an avocado and make some slaw with some chopped cabbage, a little mayonnaise and salt and pepper.  Throw your fixings into separate bowls.  Heat 6-8 flour tortillas between two damp paper towels in the microwave for 45 seconds.

Assemble your tacos and add salt and pepper (or hot sauce, if that flips your skirt).  We had this with steamed broccoli and cauliflower. 

Seriously, it is so yummy.  Something about the sweet of the squash with the fish...oh, stop wrinkling your nose! Try it!

mmmmm...Soup!

I love soup in the winter time.  There is just something about the warmth and the smell in the house that makes me feel all domesticated.  It also offers us a major bang for our buck in the vegetable department.  

I'm known for my "dump soups" = just throwing stuff in a pot and seeing what we get.  (And when I say "known," I mean in my house...ha!)  Sometimes my "dump" isn't too shabby, as was the case Sunday when I decided to make bean soup.

This was so random because I've never even had it before but something got me thinking on the line of beans so I bought a bag and started dumping.  I started off with a mind to use a left-over ham bone, but ended up in a more Italian direction.  If you decide to try it, let me know what you think!

Italian-y Bean Soup

Take a 1 lb bag of beans (I used white beans) and set them to boil in 12 C water.  Let them go for an hour.

Towards the end of the hour, take your Dutch oven (do you have one of these??  I LOVE mine!) and heat a little olive oil.  Throw in one chopped onion and some minced garlic (I used a clove).  Then add three chopped stalks of celery (with the leaves) and a couple chopped carrots.  Then add 1 C smashed tomatoes and 1 can of diced tomatoes (with the juice).  Season with salt, pepper, Italian seasoning, rosemary and a bay leaf.  Then dump in your beans (with remaining water) and let cook for another hour.  Before serving, add a half bag to a bag of fresh spinach to the top.

Don't let your kids see you do this or they'll freak out.  Just give it a second...

And it'll cook right in there!  Spoon into bowls and sprinkle a little Parmesan cheese over the top and you've got a supper healthy comfort meal with very little to no fat!  Of course my husband (who agrees with Emeril in the necessity of using pork fat) commented that Italian sausage would have been excellent in here and it would have.  But I didn't have any.  If you want to add that, just cook it up in your dutch oven in the very beginning...remove the cooked sausage and cook your veggies.  Then add back in your sausage with the beans.  

50% of my children enjoyed it immensely.  I'll let you guess which one...the white beans got soft enough that she could feed herself...which she obviously loves!  You could serve this with crusty bread but that's really all you would need.  It's very filling!

Enjoy!

Snow Day!!

We woke up to 6 inches this morning!  Everyone was excited...except the dogs.

Well, and except for ERS in her snowsuit.  In her defense, it is an 18 month suit and was way too big for Rachel.  So we rolled with it.  She looked like a little Maggie Simpson impersonator.  You can see her pants sticking out of the bottom.  Oh, we have no boots or gloves either.  Scott is going to stop by Target on his way home.  ha!

"Here Rachel, let me take your boots off."  You can see RLS was less than thrilled about the mittens.

I'm not really sure about this stuff mom...but it has me distracted from the snowsuit.

Rachel enjoyed the snow for a little bit.  Why yes, that is a snot rocket, thank-you-very-much.

Getting braver...

Well ok, if Rachel likes it.

Back inside, we all enjoy hot chocolate.  My two little birds drink it off the spoon.  Here is Rachel straining across my leg for another spoonful.

Elizabeth, wanting to know who ate all the marshmallows.

My husband's thoughts: Get the most out of your Gym time!

Admittedly, I was a little surprised to receive the invitation to write an occasional post on Annie's new site.  I have enjoyed reading her family blog and have supplied some back office support for her newest writing endeavor, but never anticipated putting my occasional life and training rants out onto the blogosphere.  

I'm interested in the chance to occasionally jump in some areas where Annie gets questions.  She seems to think that some people may enjoy reading my "off the cuff" training theories.  

I have a slightly different, maybe more scientific background than Annie's, but we both are very passionate and sold on the value of physical fitness and the lifestyle that accompanies it.  I've enjoyed the chance that we've had to be a part of each other's physical fitness lives since we met in graduate school.  We always have enjoyed training together, planning meals and trying to demonstrate good habits for our girls. 

That being said, Annie and I were talking on Saturday about the amount of people at the gym - as we were looking at more than double the crowd for a typical Saturday morning at the Y.  A lot of gym-goers hate the first three months of the new year because the resolution crowd is at the local training center.  I went through that phase at one point in my life, but I'm now on the other side of the coin.

I enjoy seeing and meeting some new people and maybe thriving a little bit on the new energy of the people who have all decided to make a change in their life for the new year.  The gym's going to be crowded.  Treadmills are going to be used.  All the cool gadgets are going to be taken.  It's a great time of year to do something different.  If you're a treadmill runner, this is the perfect time to introduce yourself to the squat rack.  If you always are a "Monday bench presser", maybe this is the time to switch your workout to doing pushing movements on Wednesday instead of Monday (like everyone else).  

Over the course of my traning life, whether it be at my current local family YMCA, a college strength and conditioning center, a trendy suburban gym or the most hard-core basement training dungeon, usually the most effective equipment for true body modification are never being used.  The advanced, trendy "butt-blasters," NASA inspired elliptical machines, or some $28,000 piece of Nautillus equipment will all have 30-minute wait times for use right now.  It's now a great time to learn to create your own workouts with dumbbells, barbells or body weight.  You can get the most efficient strength training and cardiovascular training done with a few simple tools.  

As we move through this writing process, we'll start to throw out some specific circuits and workouts that may get you out of the local gym rat-race January through March.  This week, do yourself a favor and instead of being a little mad because you can't get on the treadmill one morning, try to see how long it takes you to do the following simple circuit:

4 exercises, 4 sets of 20 each with a 30 second break after the end of the set

Body weight squats

Bent row (with barbells or dumbells)

Push-ups

Back step lunges

This circuit will work all major muscle groups, should get your heart rate up into the correct interval, fat-burning range, and you should sweat.  These are all key factors in any good workout.  

I once heard Dan Gable say that we as humans waste a tremendous amount of time and energy trying to figure out the easier way to do something.  This happens all the time when we're at the gym.  I challenge you this week to try to fight that urge instead of obliging it.  Find those unused tools in the gym.  Don't over-think and go to work!

Got questions for Scott?  Email us at mamawantsherprebabybodyback@gmail.com.

Tuesdays with Daddy

 

Tuesday evenings, I give a couple lessons and Scott gets home early and takes care of the girls.  Normally, I have dinner ready on the stove and the house semi-picked up and he feeds them and gets them ready for bed.  NORMALLY, it is a pretty seamless process.  Tag-off!  Daddy in for Mommy!

The past two Tuesdays, Elizabeth has had other plans.

We went great for about a month and then last Tuesday, the wheels fell off.  Dinner was over and the girls were playing.  Scott was cleaning up the kitchen and got a phone call.  During the call, Rachel crawled past him and he noticed a massive poop stain up the back of her onesie.  Rushing off the call, he scooped her up and took her to her room to clean her up...not noticing Elizabeth passing him with the stool from the bathroom.  It was bath time, so he left Rachel naked and walked out to find Elizabeth, standing on the stool, dumping dirt out of the Christmas cactus all over the floor.  (She has NEVER messed with that plant!!)  

Then, as he was filling up the bath tub, the sound of water was too much for naked Rachel and she peed all over him.  So I walked in the door to a living room floor of cactus dirt, an unhappy (and wet) daddy and two bathing beauties in the tub.  

We really thought it was a fluke until last night.  To hear Scott tell it, the evening was going great and the girls were both in good moods.  Elizabeth was an angel, reading her books in the living room, so he decided to go ahead and give Rachel her bath.  He was rinsing her off when he heard Elizabeth behind him.

"Daddy, wite walls."

"What, honey?  You like the water?  Do you see Rachel in the water?"

"Daddy...wite walls!"

It was then that he noticed the orange crayon in our two-year-old's hand.  (Now side note that we color every day and EVERY DAY I make sure I pick up all the crayons so Rachel doesn't eat them.  She has never gone towards the walls.)  Who knows where she found this crayon...under the bookcase or something.  He turned around and the lid and seat of the potty was orange.  He put Rachel in a towel and walked down the hallway and there were big, loopy squiggles all down the walls in the hallway.  

Elizabeth, during her color time...I have no idea how I could have lost track of a crayon!

"Wite walls, Daddy!!"

So he got Rachel dressed and found the Magic Eraser (which has saved our lives many times!) and cleaned the walls.  When I walked in the door, Rachel was happy and Elizabeth was in the tub.

"How did it go?" I asked my husband.

"Did you notice anything when you walked in the door?" he asked.

"Noooo..."

"In that case, it went great!"

Workout with my Mama

My mom has been visiting for the past week and I had the wonderful blessing of getting to workout with her everyday!!  Talk about an example in commitment!  She jumped right into our  routine and went to the Y with us (someone else to help me haul in my circus = AWESOME!).  Mom's usual week consists of walking the hills of WV for cardio every day and then doing two days of weights in her living room.  So it was nice to push her outside of her box for a little bit. 

My mom...in the process of making bread for our New Year's dinner!

Let me take just a moment to brag on my mom.  She is 60 years old and you'd never guess it to look at her.  She has made a life commitment to be in shape and eat right - currently, she is on a mission to build her bone density without the use of prescription drugs.  She only drinks water and tea and rarely eats fast food or drinks soda.  Her one vice is chocolate (I get it naturally!) but she curbs that craving with dark chocolate covered raisins.  She is constantly learning and got into weights at the same time that I was learning (after I graduated high school).

People always complement her on her energy and I take a lot of pride in the fact that we are alike in that area.  Thank you, mom, for your constant example and I am so proud to be your daughter.

I am going to include our workouts in case you are looking for ideas for your week - I would label this as intermediate.  Good luck!

Mother/Daughter Workout of the half-week  (she didn't get into town until Tuesday evening, so this begins on Wednesday.)  When you workout with a partner, it's nice to alternate your lifts because no one gets stuck standing around.  Unless you are lifting heavy - then you might need the rest time.  But we were after burning calories, so we kept moving at a pretty fast pace.

Wednesday - biceps 

Warm-up walk for 15 minutes on track

Super-women (challenge of the week!) - 10 each side

3 x 10 Cable bicep curls with bar (alternated with)

3 x 20 Crunches on the ball

3 x 12 Single arm bicep cable curl (alternated with)

3 x 12 Tricep rope pushdowns

3 x 15 DB hammer curls (alternated with)

3 x 15 DB single arm tricep overhead press

15 minute walk-to-jog treadmill intervals

Thursday- legs and abs

Warm-up walk for 15 minutes on track

Super-women (challenge of the week!) - 10 on each side (less grumbling today by my mother!)

3 x 15 leg extension machine (alternated with)

3 x 15 straight leg (or bent knee) raises on Roman Chair

3 x 15 leg curl machine (alternated with)

3 x 20 incline sit-ups

3 x 15 leg press followed by 3 x 15 calf presses (alternated with)

3 x 25 Russian twists on floor with 5 lb weight

Friday - chest, back and shoulders (we didn't alternate these)

Warm-up walk for 15 minutes on track

Super-women (challenge of the week!) - 10 on each side

3 x 10 bench press (a first for my mom!!)

3 x 10 hammer-strength incline press machine

3 x 10 lat pull-downs

3 x 10 machine rows

3 x 10 lat raises followed by 3 x 10 front raises

Saturday- full body and abs

Warm-up walk for 15 minutes on track

Super-women (challenge of the week!) - 10 on each side

10 box (or low step) jumps

20 flat-back toe touches with a medicine ball

10 straight-leg feet lowers

10 bench step-ups holding a weight over-head

3 x 10 butt blasters

15 minute walk-to-jog treadmill intervals