Green Smoothies: A love affair

Mitch and I have known about green smoothies for a long time. Only, we had it all wrong. We would make one every once in a while, to feel like we were doing something good for ourselves, but we would dump a couple cups of milk, tons of berries and bananas, a handful of spinach, and usually a couple heavy swirls of honey, into the blender. Not that all of that stuff isn't good for you in one way or another, it's just that we were doing it all wrong.

For our 4 year wedding anniversary, on June 29th, my AWESOME husband surprised me with something I've been asking for for a looooooong time. A Blendtec super blender! To say that I was thrilled with this gift would be a total understatement. It's basically the only kitchen appliance I use now {other than the stove, oven, and coffee pot, of course}.  These guys are pricey....but seriously...SO WORTH IT!

Anyhoot, the blender could not have come at a better time, because I had signed us up for a green smoothie challenge that would start on July 1st!  I was just going to attempt making smoothies with our older blender and just tough my way through all of the kale bits that would get stuck in my teeth. Yuck.  I don't have to worry about that now!!

The new challenge from the girls over at Simple Green Smoothies started on the 1st, but I couldn't wait to use my new toy, so we started smoothie-ing it up a couple of days early with our own creations.  Once the challenge started, I began receiving a weekly email with a shopping list for ingredients and 5 new smoothie recipes to try out.

I got the first email....WOW!  Were we doing it all wrong!  The gals have kick started something amazing for us.  I now use NO peanut butter in our smoothies, I PACK 2-3 cups of spinach or kale into the blender, and use either water, coconut water, unsweetened almond milk, or coconut milk as my liquid base.  I also usually throw in a tablespoon of chia seeds and a tablespoon of bee pollen, instead of honey.

I love how each week, the smoothie girls challenge us to use a variety of fruits {week 1:tropical fruits, week 2:stone fruits, week 3:melons, week 4:berries}.  I have always typically been a strawberry, blueberry, banana, kind of girl.  I have discovered so many new things that I LOVE and even made a few that we didn't love so much, but that's ok.

Let me tell you about some things that have happened since we've been doing at least one smoothie a day for the last 25 days...

• We don't drink coffee in the mornings.  More importantly, we don't feel like we need coffee in the morning, anymore.  We wake up feeling as energized as a thirty something year old couple with a toddler could possibly feel, and we get a good workout in, then it's smoothie time!  Usually, I'll have a cup of coffee in the afternoon or when I'm sitting here writing.  Not because I need it, but because I want it.  
• My hair is growing like the Zed's in Dr. Suess' Red Fish Blue Fish {the ones who need a haircut every day because their one hair grows so fast}.  
  
  Okay, that was a total parent  reference, but basically, my hair has probably grown an inch {at least} in the last few weeks.  Downside to this is, the hair on my head isn't the only hair growing faster.  I'm having to shave every day now!  {Side note: when I met Mitch, I did actually shave every day....then I became a mother and that all went out the window!  lolz}
• My nails are growing super fast and they are strong!
• My skin has started to clear up.  I have never had a problem with bad skin.  Then, I turned 30 in May and it's like my body decided to hate me.  I started breaking out like crazy!  Adult acne?? Maybe.  I'm in full denial.  BUT! These smoothies have really helped to curb the teenage pizza face. Thank Goodness!
• I'm losing weight {and inches} and feeling great!  I mean, aside from the health perks, is there any better reason to LOVE green smoothies!  I have not only broken my plateau for weight loss, I have blasted that sucker!  It feels awesome.  And it's only been about three and a half weeks.
• The Sophster wakes up every morning and runs into the kitchen to tell me that she is hungry.  When I ask her if she'd like for me to make her breakfast, she always says "No, Mommy!  I want a SMOOVIE!"  The kid LOVES her green smoothies!  She is relentless in the mornings until she has one to slurp on.  I love that even if she refuses to eat anything other than pb&j for the rest of the day, I know that she has had her some green goodness for the day.  Mommy win!

So why not commit to drinking one green smoothie a day?  They are easy, delicious, fun, and all of that stuff I just wrote up there!  Plus, you can get fun accessories for them!  Like these Heritage mason jars from Ball:

Ball Jar Heritage Collection Pint Jars with Lids and Bands, Set of 6
Or these funky little stainless steel straws to drink from:

Epica Stainless Steel Drinking Straws, Set of 4

We're also shopping around for some "to go" lids for our green goodness. Something we can stick a straw in and slurp on when we are on the road. I really like these, from EcoJarz, but they are out of our price range.  I may end up just talking Mitchy into drilling some holes into some lids, popping some rubber grommets {grommets? gaskets? I'm so hardware savvy...}, in the holes and sticking straws in them.  Whatevs.  No need to be all fancy if it's going to cost us so much!

Anyway, what are you waiting for?!?  Grab yourself a smoothie slurping buddy and start your love affair with these awesome awesome things!!

Do you Green Smoothie?? I'd love to hear what the amazing green goodness has done in your life! Also, what are some of your favorite smoothie recipes? We're always down to try something new around here!

Independence Day 2013

This year for Independence Day, we didn't do anything crazy exciting.  Just spent the day crafting, playing, and spending time with some good friends of ours, but I'm going to write about it anyway....because for the life of me, I can't remember what we did last year and I don't want to forget again. :)  Last year, Mitch was deployed and The Sophster was barely 17 months old, so I don't think we did much....anyway....

This year, we decided that we would have some fun!  We started out by doing a little craft idea {that I may have hi-jacked from one of my super creative mommy friends} and made a flag!  This was a super easy craft.  All things I had on hand, only a couple of minutes to prep, and Sophi had a blast!  There's also that part about learning through play and such. ;)

All I did was cut a medium sized rectangle out of a piece of blue construction paper, and a bunch of small squares from red. Then, I wrangled the toddler {all it takes is telling her she gets to glue something and she is THERE}, gave her a white sheet of paper, put some glue down, told her where everything went, and put her little fingers to work! Meanwhile, we talked about the meaning of Independence Day, the flag, what it is to be free, etc. I'm pretty sure she had no idea what I was talking about, but whatevs. We had fun, anyway. She was very proud of her flag!

Once it warmed up a bit outside, we decided to go outside and help Daddy wash the vehicles. I put The Sophster in her bathing suit, we set up the baby pool and the wacky waving sprinkler thingy, and we headed outside. She pretty much ignored the sprinkler, but she had a great time helping Daddy wash the cars and transferring sponges from the wash bucket to her pool and back again.

After The Sophster woke up from her nap, we headed over to a friend's house for some swimming and fireworks! Being the bad mommy blogger that I am, I didn't take pictures of either of these things. Oops! We did have a nice time, though. Sophi got to spend some time with her friend Anslee, and Mitch and I got some good QT in with our friends {and a bottle of wine}. My girlfriend, Jessica, gave Soph a fishing lesson. She loved it and I'm sure it won't be the last time we sit on a dock and yell "Here fishy fishy! Come out Mister Fishies!" over the side. ;)

We hung out and waited for fireworks, but they didn't start until 9:45 and by then, Sophi was beat. She wanted nothing to do with those fireworks and was demanding to go home! Alas, maybe next year she will be ready for the fireworks. We did set some small ones off, but again, she was too tired to care much at all.

Anyway, that was our Independence Day! It's never too late to write a post about a holiday when it's loaded with cute toddler pictures, right??? Hope you had a great holiday, too!

Derailed

Ugh...I have been on a serious hiatus the last couple of weeks. I mean, aside from all of the super busy/fun stuff we've had going on, here is how my train of thought has been when it comes to sitting at the computer and writing in my spare time: "Hey, I think I'll blog a little....or...maybe I'll just paint my nails...or maybe I'll catch up on the dvr...or maybe I'll just goof off and stare all glazed eyed at Facebook/Pinterest/Instagram". Seriously. I am having a major derail moment and I'm trying to get myself back on track here, people!! ;)

Here are some things that have been going on, that you will be hearing about soon.

• Independence Day family fun
• Green Smoothies and how they are changing our lives
• Our older kiddos came to visit us for a few days 
• A really neat craft that we did with the kids
• Mitch and I finally had our anniversary getaway to Orlando
• Our living room reveal and couch pic {if you follow us on Facebook, you might have helped us pick a couch a while back!}
• Our dining room, turned play room makeover
• Another workout update {for August}.  Big things are happening here, folks!

 And of course....

• Just some fun stuff that The Sophster has been up to lately! :)

Thanks for sticking with us!  Looking forward to getting back to the grind again real soon!

Do you follow us everywhere else, yet?  You can click on the buttons to the right, or just click the links below! :)


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July Fitness Goals and June Fitness Recap with Progress Pics

It's that time again! Time for me to come clean about how I've done with my fitness and diet this month! I'm really happy to report that I've done pretty well this month! Yay me! Let's talk about what my goals were for June!

I talked {typed, whatever} some last month about how drinking had become a bit of a problem around here for us. We had both turned into an "at least one or two cocktails a night" couple, and while we weren't getting wasted every night after we put The Sophster to bed, it was enough to recognize that we were starting to form a really bad habit. So, we committed to not drinking on the weekdays and only on the weekend IF we worked out that day, and even then, we wouldn't overdo it. It was tough at first, but for the most part, we did it! We had a couple of slip ups around the beginning of the month, but on the 18th, we started a challenge to drink one fresh green juice a day for 30 days. This meant that alcohol and red meat were OUT of our diet! And we stuck to it! Well, the not drinking part anyway. We quit on the juice challenge two weeks in. It was very costly and very time consuming for me to juice and clean up every.single.night. So, on July 1st, we jumped in on a green smoothie challenge! More on that in a bit...

My actual work out goals for June were to keep running {yay! We got a treadmill and I don't have to run in 90* temps and 100% humidity anymore!}, redo the squat and plank challenges from May, add in an Ab challenge for June

How'd I do? Eh...not so great. I did them every single day for two weeks. TWO WEEKS I made it! And then my {self diagnosed} ADD kicked in and I got bored. It wasn't enough for me anymore. I needed more that a quick run, squats and ab work. So I decided to pick up and dust off a book that I ordered last summer and read all of about two pages of, The Body Sculpting Bible For Women. I started delving into the front part of the book, where the authors go into detail about connecting the mental to the physical, in order to get maximum results. They talk all about form, what time is best to work out, the science of the body and why it works the way it does for working out. Anyway, it's a great book. Don't know why I never read it before! One of the highlights for me one morning, as I was sitting and reading, and waiting for The Sophster to wake up, was a section about the best time to workout! It said first thing in the morning, because you will burn 300% MORE body fat that way!!! My first thought was "WHAT AM I STILL DOING SITTING IN BED?!?!"

The Body Sculpting Bible for Women, Third Edition: The Way to Physical Perfection


I decided at that moment, that I would not sit on my butt and wait for Sophi to wake up in the mornings anymore. The next morning, I turned on the Insanity Fast & Furious workout. It was quick, and since I hadn't done the Insanity dvds since last summer, I wanted to be able to get out of bed again the next morning. I got up, pressed play, and did my workout. I felt amazing! Getting my sweat on before 6am, and knowing just how much fat I was shredding through! Having an awesome heart rate monitor is a huge help, too. I love being able to see the actual calories that I am burning!

Polar FT4 Heart Rate Monitor (Purple/Pink)

The Fast and Furious dvd went really well. I mean, I was sore as crap for a couple of days, but I got through it without feeling like I would die. So, I decided to start a new {to me} Insanity workout: Asylum. I've been doing this {almost} every day for just over two weeks and I have to say, I really love it. I feel stronger {I totally have biceps now!}, and I am always excited to see between a 400-700 calorie burn in 35-60 minutes. Plus, it leaves me feeling awesome for the day!

Then, one day, something amazing happened! Mitch asked if he could join me for my morning workouts!! Duh!! I love getting sweaty with that stud! ;) So now, not only do I have the HOTTEST workout partner around, Sophi and I get to have that extra hour or so in the afternoons with Daddy, since he doesn't need to go to the gym on base before work every day! WIN/WIN! :)

I totally just realized that I have the same outfit on in both of those pictures. Somebody tell my husband I need more workout clothes! ;)

Anyway, here are my stats from last month compared to this month:

I didn't change much in the measurements department. Which in hindsight, makes sense because I lost so many inches last month. But, I do show an almost 4 pound loss, which is awesome!

Last Months Numbers {in inches}:
Shoulders: 41
Chest: 34
Bicep: 10 {x2}
Forearm: 9 {x2}
Waist: 28.7
Hips: 38
Thigh: 22 {x2}
Calf: 13 {x2}

July Measurments:

Shoulders: 40
Chest: 33.5
Bicep: 10 {x2}
Forearm: 9 left, 8.5 right
Waist: 28.5
Hips: 38
Thigh: 22 {x2}
Calf: 13.5 {x2}

So basically, my measurements this month are like my weight last month. A whopping 1.2 inches total. Can you see a difference?

Here is last month's progress pic and this month {be prepared for yet another outfit repeat}:

Bwahahaha how about that game face?!? I'm so hardcore...not really, though.

I can tell a difference in my waist and would you check out those biceps?! Ok, they aren't much, but I'm proud of them dang it!

Here is my goal line up for July....

-Keep up with the not drinking unless I've had a great workout in and it's the weekend {can I get a pass for some wine on the 4th, please?!} ;)
- Keep up with Asylum. I'm so glad that Mitchy is on board with me now and he will make sure that I stay committed for the full 30 days! We're half way there already!
- Run on days when Asylum isn't high intensity cardio. I've learned that I run better when I don't do it every day. Imagine that!
- Talk Mitch into ordering us the new Beachbody Shaun T workout, Focus T25. I am DYING to try this workout. The success stories are ridiculous. The best part, of course, is that it is only 25 minutes a day, 5 days a week! That's it! We won't have to worry about our sweet munchkin waking up and coming out into the living room when we are trying to wrap up our workouts. Seriously. Somebody tell my husband that WE NEED THIS WORKOUT! :)
- Continue to drink a green smoothie a day. It's a great habit, and with the cutest smoothie slurping partner in the known universe, why on Earth would I stop?!

-I also started the July Arm Challenge from the Fit-Tabulous Facebook Page. I was just talking to Mitch a few days ago about how I want to start putting more focus into my arms {specifically, my triceps} because I have a heck of a time trying to do a tricep pushup {OUCH!}. So, I'm giving this one a shot. We all know how well I do with challenges, though. So we shall see!

Are you following me on My Fitness Pal, yet?? I'm having my best run yet! I've logged in for 37 days straight so far! Please please please, if you are a member, follow me! Comment on my daily food logs. Help keep me accountable!

MyFitnessPal - Nutrition Facts For Foods

Are you doing any specific challenges for the month of July? Did you reach your goals for June? I'd love to hear what you've got going on in your fitness calendar for this coming month!

What Father's Day Means To Me

If you have been reading this blog for any length of time, you know that I have never really had much of a relationship with my father. If you are a newer reader, I'll recap shortly.

My parents were married until I was eight years old. I was the biggest Daddy's girl ever in the universe.

That is, until my dad became a drug addict who cheated on my mom and eventually abandoned his family. I didn't see him again until I tracked him down when I was eighteen. He was still on drugs and had no real interest in being in the lives of his children then, either.

And finally, when my nephew was born in 2010, my brother reached out to him again. Thankfully, this time he is at least off drugs {as far as we know}. He seemed to be doing better, was engaged, has a nice home, a steady job...etc. I tried my best to make it work for close to a year.

I had a hard time trusting him, after all of the years of pain, and just before I gave birth to Sophi, I cut ties. I caught him in lie after lie. That isn't something that I want in my daughter's life {lies and him coming in and out of her life}, so I called it quits.

Needless to say, for pretty much my entire life, Father's Day was either a bitter day for me, or a distant memory....

Until The Sophster was born.

Even though Mitch was deployed when Sophi was born, and has been deployed for nearly a year of her life, he has always been there. The night she was born, he made it a point to stay up all night with me, on Skype, supporting me through my labor and celebrating the birth of our beautiful girl!

Sophi and I went through a very difficult first four months without him home, but he was always there. Then came homecoming. I was nervous about how things would go with them meeting for the first time, but she knew who her Daddy was, and he stepped right into that role like he had never missed a minute.

He has never complained about changing a dirty diaper, he always makes time to play with her, even with his crazy work schedule, he ALWAYS tells her how much he loves her, he doesn't anger when she refuses to talk to him and comes screeching to me. And she loves him for it.

And I love him even more for it.

Where most girls have wanted to find a man like her Dad, I have always wanted to find a man who is the exact opposite of my dad, and I did. I thank God every day for my husband. He is my knight in shining armor, the peace to my chaos, my voice of reason, and the best Daddy I could have ever asked for, for our child.

So babe, THANK YOU for always loving your girls, for always being passionate about your family, for being the BEST DADDY I've ever known, and for teaching me that Father's Day is a day to celebrate, and not a day to scorn.

We love you more than anything on this Earth! :)


Happy Father's Day, to all of you amazing Daddies out there, who choose to be there and love your babies unconditionally! You deserve all of the good things in the world! Thank you for stepping up and being REAL MEN!

Montessori....Maybe It's Not For Us.

As a parent, I want to do everything "right" for my child. I want her to learn the best way possible, use the most popular most affective methods, and to teach her without making things too complicated or frustrating.

When I first started reading about Montessori schooling, I thought it was just the coolest thing ever. I thought, "this HAS to be for US!". But the more I read, the more overwhelmed I get with it all. I don't know a better way to say it than simply, overwhelmed. But Montessori is supposed to be simple, right? Don't get me wrong here, I still think that it is SUPER cool, and I love the concept...I'm just leaning towards the "maybe it's not 100% for us, after all", thought.

I've made it very clear in other posts that I am a little on the messy side and quite unorganized {Thank God for my organized husband!}, so the thought of keeping shelves in order, switching out trays for tot school {while keeping bins of tot school stuff neatly stored away}, and creating perfectly put together play shelves every month, makes me a little on the twitchy side. lol

I do like to put together "trays" for Sophi to come out to after her nap sometimes, but not every week, and certainly not every day. I do think that setting new things out, showing her once how to do it, and then watching her come up with many many other ways to play with that specific thing, is outrageously fantastic! I love learning from her! She teaches me new things all of the time.

Sophi's toys definitely need a serious overhaul right now.

She is currently taking over the house with her stuff.



This is too much, yes, but I don't think I will ever get her down to just a few shelves and some trays every week. So, my goal now, is to STOP FEELING GUILTY about not being the perfect Montessori mommy. My kid is smart. So smart. She is 28 months old and can identify every letter in the alphabet, sing her ABC's, count to 18 on her own, she knows colors that {I would think} most two year olds do not {gray, gold, etc.} and all of the basic colors, she knows the difference in an airplane and a helicopter, a fire truck and ambulance, and can even tell them apart by sound alone, she has an imagination like I've never seen {she even has an imaginary pet lizard living in her bed}, she is well mannered {most of the time}, well spoken {she can pretty much carry a clear conversation now, forming full sentences!}, adventurous, and she is the sweetest child I have ever had the privilege of knowing.

That said, we may be messy, we may not be Montessori material, but we are perfect for each other. That's what counts at the end of the day, anyway. Right?



What about you? Are you raising or planning to raise your little one in a Montessori style home? What are some things that work best for you?

June Fitness Goals...with May Recap and Progress Pics

Dear May, you sure were one hell of a month!

At the beginning of the month, I wrote this post about specific fitness goals that I had for the month of May. I was determined to work hard all month and come out better and stronger and blah blah blah.

Well, I did great...for about the first 10 days. Then, we started celebrating my 30th Birthday. I turned 30 on Mother's Day this year {totally got cheated there! j/k}, so Mitch took leave from that Friday-Monday, so that we could have ample time to celebrate BOTH days. Have I mentioned that my husband is pretty fantastic?? He is. Anyway, we started the weekend off with running the Friends Never Forget 5k, which benefits the children of fallen heroes by raising money to send kids to fun summer camps and such. The run was a lot of fun. My little brother, Justin, and my nephew, Jaiden, came out to join in on the fun. Mitch, Justin, and myself all ended up taking 2nd place in our age groups! It was also the last race I would run in the 24-29 age bracket. :)


That night, we went out for my birthday and I drank a few...plenty...ok, a lot of dark German beer. Plus a shot at midnight. We had a lot of fun and stayed out until we shut the place down. I wish we had taken pics, but we were lame and didn't. Basically, we got pretty drunk, made lots of new friends, had a blast....and consumed a lot of calories!


The next day was Mother's Day. We had my mom, little brother, and nephew over for some brunch {lox, bagels, and lots of mimosas}. Then, over to my friend Kim's house for BIRTHDAY CAKE!! Since it was my actual birthday, and all. What? I turned 30! You're darn right I ate some cake! Either way, you see how this month was turning out?

In the weeks following, I had my three day women's conference at church, where I didn't work out or eat good. Plus some other stuff and plenty of excuses to NOT work out. None of them were good excuses.

Besides that, and let me get pretty deep for a minute, I don't know that working out was helping, even when I did. Mitch and I had started drinking. More than usual. What I mean by that is, we pretty much had to have a couple of drinks each at night. Enough to get a good buzz {lots of added calories}, eat a bunch of crap {even more calories}, pass out on the couch {bad}, and then not feel good enough to get up and work out the next day {real bad}. All of these things ended up in disaster. By the end of the 3rd week in May, I had hardly run and only participated in about a third of the squats and plank challenges that I had committed myself to at the beginning of the month.

So, I decided to change things. I started running every day, Mitch started going back to the gym, we went and bought more protein and supplements for ourselves, I jumped back into my squats and planks, and we decided to NOT DRINK during the week days AT ALL, and only on the weekends IF we had put in a good workout that day {and even then only have a couple of drinks max}. Those are the rules.

I ended up finishing my squats {250} and planks {3 min}, on the last day of the month. I was proud of myself, but SO FLIPPING SORE! Wow! My legs STILL hurt! I know that I slacked last month. I'm not perfect. But, I did make some progress! The scale only shows a 1.6 pound loss, but this is why I take measurements...

Screen shot of last months measurements {in inches}:


This Month -June- {in inches}:
Shoulders: 41
Chest: 34
Bicep: 10 {x2}
Forearm: 9 {x2}
Waist: 28.7
Hips: 38
Thigh: 22 {x2}
Calf: 13 {x2}

In case you didn't break out your calculator like I did, that is 6.7 inches in a month! A month that I really didn't push hard until the last week of the month! I'm totally pumped about that and can't wait to see what will happen in June!

So, here are my May 1st/June 2nd pics to compare:



It's not a huge improvement, but I can definitely tell a difference.

Anyway, here are my goals for June...

- Keep up the running. I'm throwing distance and time goals out the window. I got an awesome heart rate monitor a couple of weeks ago and I'm kind of obsessed with it. It has been a driving force for me lately. I'm in constant competition with myself over how far I can run and how many calories I've burned. I like to see what my calorie comparison is between running inside on the treadmill and outside on the street. It's always higher outside. Just in case you're thinking about getting a heart rate monitor for yourself, I highly recommend this one:

- I'm going to continue doing the plank and squat challenges from last month, since I didn't do so great on those

-I'm going to incorporate a new ab challenge from the Fit-Tabulous Facebook page, and keep working on getting my abs strong and tight! Here's what the new challenge looks like:



If you're still following me and my {slow} progress, I want to say that I appreciate you. Having people to hold me accountable really helps me.

Are you doing any specific challenges for the month of June? Did you reach your goals for May? I'd love to hear what you've got going on in your fitness calendar for this coming month!

Also, are you following me on My Fitness Pal yet??

MyFitnessPal - Free Calorie Counter