Admission

First, I want to say that this is NOT a baby blog, and I have no intention of posting regularly about my baby, or my mommy life, though I love blogs geared that way. This is still an outlet for me outside of that part of myself. BUT, occasionally it all overlaps, so this is a deviation from my normal posting path. Stay with me (please!).

I have an admission. I don't work out as much as I a) would like to, b) sometimes say that I do, and c) should. I am active, for sure. And I lift and approximately 20 lb. weight almost everywhere I go at home, all day long, but I don't *actually* work out enough most weeks. And by "enough" I mean "enough for my own satisfaction."

I recently realized that I could make this admission to others, but more importantly to myself, and have made a personal commitment to address this issue within the reality of my life as it currently is. This means adjusting to weird schedules, and needy little hands reaching for me, and full-time work + full-time momma, and still carving out dedicated (and reasonable) time for health and fitness.

So I've decided to cancel my gym membership temporarily and build in fitness in a way that makes more sense for me and doesn't stress me out. The reality is I just can't get to the gym in any sort of regular enough manner to make it beneficial. Some weeks I can get there 3-4 times. Other weeks it's a big fat 0. Consistency matters in fitness, so this isn't working for now. And I can put that money toward something else until regular gym visits make sense again.

To counter the lack of gym means I have to get creative and motivated at home and on the move. So I've been looking for, pinning, and doing lots of fun at-home workouts. I have light dumbells (5 lbs... I should probably buy 8 and/or 10 lb. weights, too) and a TV and a computer, so I can work out! And you can, too.

Here are my go-to workouts lately (disclaimer: I don't know and am not sponsored at all by anyone whose workouts I use. They're just good ones I've found so I'm happy to share them, but I'm not getting anything for putting these out there.):

ARMS:

(via)

This workout is great. You don't need heavy weights to feel it. You could probably use soup cans if you don't have dumbbells at home. I go through it once, wait 30 seconds to a minute, repeat, and if I'm feeling particularly motivated, do that a third time. My arms are a bit shaky by the end. And there's nothing complicated here - all easy moves that anyone can do. BTW, this workout (and many others on my Fit n Healthy Pinterest board) is from the blog Fit Fab Cities. I don't know how I found my way to this blog, but it's fantastic. Among other things she posts, my favorites are her printable workouts and her weekend challenges. They're creative routines that are manageable and have great impact. I have done at least a million of them (okay, maybe not, but a lot) and they're all solid and effective. They make it easy to change things up and still have a great overall workout and not get fitness-bored. Again, no sponsorship, just personal endorsement based on my own experience.

LEGS/BOOTY:

(via)

I'm pretty sure you want a Brazilian butt. I would LOVE  Brazilian butt. I don't know if I'll get one from doing this workout, but I do know that I'm panting by the end of it, and that my lower half is sore for 2-3 days after. I couldn't find the original post on the Tumblr this is from, but this is all you need. It's intense and twice is enough!

ABS:

(via)

This isn't exactly what I've been doing, but it's nearly identical, and it's great. This is also from Fit Fab Cities - another printable workout that you can stick in your pocket and do anywhere.

CARDIO:

Walk walk walk. Walk everywhere walk. I walk every single day and make sure I'm not just ambling, but walking hard with purpose, even with a stroller. I haven't been as motivated to run lately, but I do make sure I'm moving every single day, and I think that's good for now.

Now that I've publicly admitted my fitness lull, I feel a bit more accountable to addressing it. Do you do any easy-to-manage at-home routines? Link me!

Pinned It, Made It

I know, it's been forever. Forgive me, I had a baby and very little time for pinning and blogging since the end of June!

But I HAD to report on this one. Two of my girlfriends (R & A) and I decided to occasionally get together, pick one thing we each pinned to do (I have a "Do This" board on Pinterest that's full of these hypothetical projects), and actually do it. I've made recipes I've pinned for sure, but I keep storing away great little DIY ideas and not actually following through, so here was a self-imposed call-to-task, made easier by the allure of good company and companion craftiness.

Here's my first project:

Was a blue-glass Ball mason jar, is now a lovely hand soap dispenser in my kitchen! Woot! (my pin; original link here)

Have you made anything you've pinned yet? Or have you pinned something you're definitely going to make?

What should my next project be...?

Greatest Day of the Year News

Tuesday was the greatest day of the year!

MY BIRTHDAY!

In honor of the Greatest Day of the Year, my love did something so brilliant I just had to post about it. He notoriously gets a little anxiety at gift-giving times. Granted, I'm a really good gift giver usually, so I think that contributes to the pressure. But I have to say, he's never gotten it wrong. Still, he gets a little worked up. This year, we have a lot going on... there's some family health stuff, some family baby stuff, work, and a few other balls up in the air, so I think he was feeling a little overwhelmed. Unlike other years, though, he never asked me for hints. So I had no idea anything was going on. Then Tuesday after work when we got home, he pulled out a box wrapped simply in a pretty purple ribbon. I opened it up and inside was... another box! (haha!) Inside the second box was a totally awesome watch. I thought to myself, "that's so weird, I pinned this exact watch two weeks ago!" I looked at him with slightly bugged-out eyes and asked where it was from. "Do you like it?!" he asked. "Of course, I like it! It's awesome!" To which he replied: "I couldn't decide what to get you, so I WENT ON YOUR PINTEREST AND LOOKED FOR IDEAS." What a freaking genius that man is! I was so impressed with his cleverness to even think of that! BTW, here's the watch:

(and here's my pin; here's where you can get the watch online)

The reason I wanted to post about this was less about bragging that I have the greatest husband in the universe and more to talk about what a great resource Pinterest can be. I've already written about how much I love it and how much I use it. But I really hadn't thought about someone else using it for me in such a way. But it's so obvious. The result of my voracious pinning in this case was that I got a perfect birthday gift that was something I love and wanted but had no idea to expect. Think about it...

(but I do have the greatest husband in the universe...)