Leg workout

What an emotional week!  Even though I didn't realize it until it was over, the election really got to me! But it's just a reminder to put all of my faith in God.    He is in control like always and I don't have to worry and shouldn't worry about anything!  I'm so thankful for my family who loves the Lord and the few Christian friends that I have.  I will continue to seek Him, Love Him, abide in His will and rely on His grace and mercy and let Him take care of the rest!  I'm SO very thankful to be able to truly cast my burdens on Him and know that He DOES  care about me!!!

 On Wednesday, the day following the election, I woke up not feeling well.  Headache, a little nauseous and decided not to go into work.  I RARELY do that!  But I felt kind of mopey and unsettled.  I took some time and prayed and poured out my heart to God and I felt better.  What also helped me feel better was walking into my youngest son's room and finding the above!!  He had set his dinosaur in the middle of his room, with some pillows around it.  Put sunglasses and a Michigan State necklace on it, put a bone and a bag of chips in it's mouth!  That is so typical of Luke. He loves his stuffed animals and always has.  When he makes his bed, he sets them up differently every time.  Sometimes they are playing a baseball game (according to him) or they are at school (according to him)!    But this brought a smile to my face for sure.  Man, I love that kid!


Fitness goal, well, I just don't feel like I'm making a whole lot of progress!  I was down 2 pounds last Monday, so we will see what happens this week.  My pull ups are the same.  I lifted back and biceps today and I could still only do 2 pull ups.  But I will keep plugging away.  Today I ran for the first time since the Detroit half.  I did 3 miles with some of the girls I run with.  It's supposed to be beautiful weather this weekend :)  I also lifted legs yesterday and I am SO sore today!!  I will post my leg workout at the bottom.  So I just think it's going to take some time.  Honestly, I'm not used to that.  Usually if I gain a little weight, I can diet for a week and at least get to 140 and feel comfortable.  I guess I just really over did it this summer and gained more than just water weight and really put on some pounds!  If I give up though, I will just regret it later.

Below is something I put together for a post workout meal this last week and it was really good!  It's 8 Ounces of Plain Greek Yogurt, 1 scoop of chocolate protein powder, 2 TBS of PB2 (powdered peanut butter if you are not familiar) and 2 packets of stevia.  Then because it was for post workout, I ate it with 2 chocolate graham cracker!  It tasted so much like chocolate peanut butter cheesecake!  And cheesecake is my all time favorite dessert!  It had 38 grams of protein!!!  Next time I think I will cut it in half!

Now below is what I had for lunch today!  I was super hungry when I got home, I had lifted back and biceps, then ran 3 miles and then taught a yoga for runners class.  So i ate an apple and starting preparing this.   I used the fold it flat outs, green peppers, onions, tomatoes, black olives, pizza sauce and super thin cheese.  I should have cooked up a chicken breast to add, but didn't want to take the time.  I LOVE veggie pizzas!  The green peppers and onions make it oh so good!  And this was only about 200 calories!!  (and very filling)

Here's the leg workout I did yesterday:

Superset #1:  Smith machine reverse lunges - 20 reps

                      Dumbell forward lunges onto step - 20 reps

Superset #2:  Step downs off of step (these work the glutes so well) - 15 each leg

                      Glute kickbacks with tubing - 15 each leg

Superset #3:  Leg extensions - 15

                      Single leg walking Deadlifts - 10 each leg

Superset #4:  Adduction - inner thigh machine - 15 reps

                      Side steps with tubing around ankles - 20 each way

Have a great weekend!

Girls of Grace

The Girls of Grace conference was awesome!  I felt so blessed and renewed after this great day of being ministered to by some great speakers and singers!  Below is Naomi and I ready for a fun day ahead!

 Here I am with the other "moms" :)  

 Naomi and her friends we came with.  Yes she is the same age as them, she's just little :)  She takes after my husband's side of the family.

 Here we are with the Sidewalk Prophets.  They were the best part of the day for me.  I love all of their songs.  The first time I ever heard, The Words I Would Say, I cried and told my kids I was dedicating that song to them.  It still makes me cry every time I hear it, and they opened up with that song.  You could see how much they love the Lord when they sing and it was amazing to be able to sing along with them in worship.  They have a powerful testimony and I felt so blessed to be able to hear them sing live.

 Below is Meredith Andrews.  I fell in love with her.  SO genuine, such a passion for serving Christ!  She lead the worship music throughout the day and lead most of the prayers.  I would LOVE to meet her in person.  She is someone who I just wish I could be real life friends with!  She inspired me in a lot of ways, but I guess the biggest thing was to also be genuine!  You could tell she was just being herself and that she loved what she does and does it for the glory of God and not men!

 Below is Annie Downs.  She was one of the speakers.  She is funny!!  She talked about using our words to glorify God.  She has a blog, it is annieblogs.com, check her out, I think you will like her!

 And here is Britt Nicole!  She's kind of like my Naomi, tiny, lol!!  She's just a little thing but sure has a big voice!  She wasn't my favorite only because it was almost like a rock star concert.  All the younger girls went to the front and were trying to touch her and stuff.  The music was LOUD and you couldn't really hear the words.  I know most of her songs, so I knew the words, but it was hard to worship along with her.  But that was just MY opinion!   She was definitely a hit for the younger girls, and that was really what this day was for!

 And below are all of the speakers and artists from the day.  The first 3 from the left are Point of Grace! They are the MC's and they did sing a few of their songs too.  I couldn't help but think of everything they must sacrifice to fulfill this ministry.  They all have kids, and they must have to leave them on weekends that they do their conferences.  They did say that their kids sometimes come with them, but mostly not.  I think about how busy our weekends are and how much stuff my kids are involved in and wonder like I very often do, if it's too much!  Are my priorities out of balance?   Am I putting God first?Am I teaching my kids that God comes first?  

Lastly I want to share for myself mostly, what I took home from this conference!  I got two things out of this.  The first one is that I really need and want to keep praying for my kids!  I want to relax and pray and let God work in their lives.  I very often think and stress about their future.  My kids are smart and very athletic!  I feel pressure for them to be very successful as adults, either in athletics or in career choice!  I feel like they have to be on the best sports team, the best classes, can't miss an important sports camp for fear they may get behind, or if they don't do well on one assignment they may lower their grade!!  I KNOW that is wrong!  I realized this weekend after listening to some of the struggles that some of these speakers have had and God's seen them through, that GOD is IN CONTROL!  I KNOW that, but I'm so guilty of still worrying and trying to control things myself!  I found some peace, that God has a plan for them, and it may not be anything that I ever could have dreamed up.  My job as the parent is to PRAY, discipline, disciple, encourage and LOVE them!  I need God's help to do all of that, but HE will take care of the rest!

Secondly, it's probably not surprising after what I just said about my kids, that I put all of those same expectations on MYSELF!  I always blamed it on being a first born!  I don't like to do things that I'm not good at.  I stick to things I am good at, but even those things, I often get burnt out on because the newness or the feeling of being good at it wears off.  For example, being a personal trainer!  God's given me a passion for it.  But, there has been several times over the years, and I have to admit, just recently, that I have wanted to quit.  I feel like I'm not as good at it as I should be, or there are other trainers just starting at our gym who are better, look better, or they are male and many women want a male trainer.  But it has hit me recently that it DOESN'T MATTER IF I'M NOT GOOD AT IT!  God has given me a passion for it and has CALLED me to do it!  Therefore if I do it for his Glory and do it the best I can for HIM, then I'm PERFECT at it and I'm the best personal trainer out there!!  You know what I mean?  Satan wants me to believe I'm not good at it.  He wants me to ONLY see the negative!  But, there is a lot more positive then negative.  If I open my eyes, I see that over the years I have had so many clients that have stuck with me, I've had several write ups in the local papers about me and what I'm doing with my teams and clients, and I hear people say all the time, oh, I've heard about you!  And it's all positive.  SO, I'm NOT saying this to toot my own horn, but I'm realizing that I need to wake up everyday and say, ok God, what are we going to do today?  How are you going to use me today as I get the opportunity to engage one on one, or in groups, or in front of a whole group of people?  HE gave me this passion!  I went into the gym today with some new found confidence!  Not in me, but in Christ who lives through me!  I felt a little bolder, a little kinder, a little more patient, gentle, compassionate, a little more humble!  Thank you God!

Back in Action

It's Friday, yea!!  I'm super excited because Naomi and I are going to the Girls of Grace conference tomorrow.  If you are not familiar, it is a christian conference for teenage girls.  There will be speakers and Christian song artists there.  One of my favorite bands are Sidewalk Prophets and they will be there.  They sing the song Live Like That.  I have it as my ring tone on my phone.  I posted it below with the words if you've never heard it.  

As far as my fitness goals go..........  I did really well sticking to my goals the week after my 1/2 marathon.  BUT, then the weekend came and I blew it!  That completely ruined all my work from the week and I weighed in .2 pounds heavier than I had the week before!  UGH!  So I cleaned it up again Monday and so far this week I've been doing good.  My goal is to follow through THIS WEEKEND!!!    I also lifted FOUR days this week!!  That was a huge accomplishment!  I have not been lifting consistently for about a year.  I went through a phase where I thought it was making me bulky, lol!  (it couldn't have been all the calories I was consuming).  I also am just recovering from a strained transverse ligament in my shoulder caused from my poor swimming form this summer, so I was trying to rest that.  

Pull ups!!!!  I'm recording them on a separate page and eventually I will add videos of them.  I did 2 on Monday and I did them again today.  I could only do 2 again today, but the 2 that I did seemed a little easier, I just couldn't squeeze out that 3rd one though.  So my goal is to add one a week until I get back to 6-7, and then hopefully I will be able to add 1 every other week.  

Below was my dinner tonight!  YUM!  I love the thin frozen chicken breast from Sam's club.  I keep some thawed in the fridge and then it's so easy to throw one in a pan with some salt, pepper and garlic and it's done in 5 minutes and so tasty.  My broccoli is left over from my guiltless chicken platter from lunch at Chili's today with a friend.  And the grapefruit I picked up today because Naomi and I love them!  

 I also threw some raw almonds in the oven and roasted them.  They have such a good flavor roasted and I love the extra crunch!  One of my favorite evening snacks is almonds (sometimes dipped in peanut butter, weird I know!) and scrambled egg whites!

So hopefully on Monday I will be able to post a lower weight in my weigh in pages!

What are your fitness goals?

Got any fun plans for the weekend?