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Oh wow! Week 6 of Get Fit, Get Healthy, Get Confident Challenge! That’s a month and a half!
Most of you who started with us on Day 1 should be down by at least 3-4 pounds. If you aren’t, then you need to go over your fitness and food goals and make sure they are ambitious enough and you’re not eating more calories than you can burn off.

RULES:

1. If you haven’t yet, join the challenge here: GET FIT and GET HEALTHY
2. Every Saturday come back to The Art of Making a Baby and ShutterMama to read the tips on how to be fitter, healthier and more confident.
3. Weekly write a post about your progress, following the questionnaire below, take a self-portrait (optional) and link up with us.
4. Don’t forget to grab the GET FIT challenge button on the sidebar and display it proudly on your blog or GET FIT post.
5.  Link your post with Selfie Saturdays if you took your week’s self-portrait.

I will keep it very short today. It is 2:30 am and I am trying to get this post out before Saturday.

One thing I’d like to touch on very quickly is the importance of support when it comes to weight loss and fitness. If you don’t have a fitness buddy who is just a excited about the project as you are, make sure your family is on board with you. Your significant other might be in a decent enough shape, but he could definitely benefit from improved eating habits.

 Did you know that people that regularly consume fewer calories live a few years longer than those whose calorie intake is higher?

Explain to your family why it is important for you and for them to lead a healthier lifestyle. It might not sink in right away for them, but it’s important that they support you.

For this very reason I would like to start keeping a list of every participant currently using LoseIt.com (read last week’s post about counting calories) and twitter to log their progress and calories. It is  great support and motivation to see your fellow get fit members log their exercise and food intake daily, lose weight, comment to keep each other going during the work week, in between the check ins here.
Also, twittering when you’re about to commit a food crime or skip your exercise for the day will keep you on track and possibly save you from that piece of cake.

You can’t underestimate SUPPORT!

So if you have a LoseIt.com account and/or Twitter and would like to share and help others as well as get support from bloggers, email me (contact {at} prebabyblog {dot} com) or comment to this post with your Loseit email address and /or twitter name.

I will compile a list of participants and post it next week to make sure we all add each other as friends.  I would really love to have all of us there supporting each other.

I will start:
Loseit.com email address:contact {at} prebabyblog {dot} com
Twitter: girl_on_e

Comment below or email me @ (contact {at} prebabyblog {dot} com) 

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Now, my entry for week 6

1.  Height: 5’11?, weight: 131.6 lb  {-3lb, not good, need to get back to 133-135lbs}

2. Your  fitness challenge(s) for this week:  30 minutes of pilates every other day + 30 minutes of cardio ( rollerblading, running, swimming or treadmill) every other day. Special exercises designed for pregnancy to increase flexibility (daily) + Kegels (twice daily). A total of about an hour of physical activity a day.

3. Your health challenge(s) for this week: My eating habits are close to perfect,  however I could improve on my water intake. My goal will be 8 glasses of water daily + continue eating the way I do now.

• Fitness: Ok, I have to admit! This is the first week that I have really disappointed myself. During the previous two weeks, I was recovering from the wisdom teeth surgery and really didn’t had a choice but to take it easy. However this week, I felt good enough to exercise, but I do not feel I lived up to my goals.
• Water: Thanks to my new Clean Kanteen bottle, I have been getting plenty of water. It makes it so easy to drink.
• Food: I did really good with food this week. Being back on LoseIt.com is giving me the motivation to be really strict with my intake as far as nutrition goes. I have been trying to gain weight since the surgery and that meant eating over 200o calories a day which is tough for me since I eat mostly low calorie foods like veggies and fruits. However I did really good, got plenty of protein despite being a vegetarian and balanced my meals greatly.

5. Failures and slip-ups: I realized I let myself be weak. I got too used to being sick and not having to put in the effort. I did pilates only once and did 30 to an hour of cardio 3 times during the week. Which means I missed 3 days of work out for no real reason. I feel I really failed myself this week. But that is also  giving me motivation to be better, to be perfect next week. There are no more excuses! The pain from the surgery is almost non-existent and I can do my weekly pilates and cardio exercises no problem. It’s hard to make yourself work out when there isn’t a real tangible reason, like weight loss, to support it. But I need to keep reminding myself that it is about a healthy lifestyle.

I think the water intake also took a hit 1 or 2 days out of this week- again something to improve on.

6. Weekly challenge wisdom:  Self-control! It’s easier to have it when you’re 100% aware of what you’re doing. Keeping track of what you eat and how much you exercise is a great tool to use when you need to further motivate or restrict yourself.

 
7. Advice to fellow GET FIT members:  Make failures a reason for successes! Nothing happens in an instant. You will stumble and forget why you’re doing this. But the week will go by and there will be another week to make it better, to make it perfect. That’s how you develop habits, good healthy habits. You keep at it for as long as it takes… As long as it takes to start enjoying exercise. As long as it takes to stop cravings sweets. As long as it takes to acquire a taste for seemingly bland vegetables. Because you know what? Eventually…. You WILL!

8. Self Potrait: Clones

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RULES:

1. If you haven’t yet, join the challenge here: GET FIT and GET HEALTHY
2. Every Saturday come back to The Art of Making a Baby and ShutterMama to read the tips on how to be fitter, healthier and more confident.
3. Weekly write a post about your progress, following the questionnaire below, take a self-portrait (optional) and link up with us.
4. Don’t forget to grab the GET FIT challenge button on the sidebar and display it proudly on your blog or GET FIT post.
5.  Link your post with Selfie Saturdays if you took your week’s self-portrait.

Weight Loss = Diet+ Exercise

Today I would like to encourage you to completely rehab your eating habits!

Too often do I see a person desperately trying to lose weight only to find out that they’re doing it all wrong.

Weight Loss = Diet + Exercise

One can’t go without another! You CANNOT lose weight on exercise alone, unless you’re eating reasonably. And believe me, reasonable diet is not what most Americans eat. It’s not even close.

Exercise is great for toning and looking great, it’s important for our health as well as our mood, it’s great at speeding up our metabolism, it is amazing for maintaining weight loss and burning off a few extra calories. But when it comes to outright full out 10 or more pounds weight loss, it’s only a part of the equation.

Let me explain this! Remember from last week that 1 pound of weight gained or lost equals to 3500 extra or fewer calories than your body needs.
Now count this: it takes 2 minutes to suck an average large sized milkshake but 4 hours of treadmill time to burn it. At that point is it worth even drinking it?
Yet I see too many women, including some in this challenge, who literally SLAVE in the gym, or run miles after miles without making any changes to their eating habits.
Let me be blunt: You don’t eat as well as you think you do. No one does, I didn’t, my husband didn’t.

If you’re not seeing pounds coming off of you week after week, then you need to make changes. Exercising can be difficult and hard to fit it , yet  right nutrition choices can supplement your routine and help you by reducing the need to make your work outs so vigorous.

Too many people have a LOVE/LOVE relationship with food. Food is NOT your friend. You should NOT take too much pleasure in eating. We eat to survive, that’s it. And if you find that you’re enjoying food too much, craving things, thinking about food, looking forward to eating, AND you feel you’re overweight, then your relationship with food needs to change. I will be discussing this part in more details in the upcoming weeks, but what I want to stress right now is that YOU CANNOT LOSE WEIGHT WITHOUT MAKING DIETARY CHANGES.

One of the hardest working people in this challenge, in my opinion, is Sonya from Shuttermama . She exercises like a soldier and she has lost an amazing amount of weight, BUT she made changes in how she eats along with her exercise routine: no coke, mostly veggies.

So if your food challenge section says “increase water intake” and you’re looking to lose weight, you need to change that.
If it says “reduce portion size“, you need to make it more specific: To what size? 1 serving? Two? Fist size? Set a goal.
Is eating half a restaurant plate of Fettuccine Alfredo that much better than a full plate? Half of 2500 calories is still 1250 calories for dinner?

The reason why I am saying this right now is because everyone needs to be motivated, reminded what it is they are supposed to be doing here.

What I would like to suggest is very simple a easy to do. Starting this week, let’s start counting calories. For real!
Counting calories is probably the best exercise in weight loss you can ever attempt to do. My previous weight loss to model weight, as well as my husband’s weight loss of 30 pounds, all started from counting calories.

First of all, it teaches you to pay attention to what, when and how much you eat. If you eat consciously, writing down every bite, you’re less likely to splurge on something you know is a lot of calories. Calorie counting teaches you to pick and eat foods that are more filling but less calorie intensive instead of those that pack lots of calories in one small size.

You’re starving: would you rather have a massive bowl of cucumber and tomato salad or 1 piece of cheese? Calorie counting  gets you used to picking the right foods and eat less of them, because you’re suddenly aware where those pounds are coming from.

It doesn’t have to be hard. If you have an iPhone or Droid, there are a ton of apps that will do the counting for you, my favorite being LoseIt. You can start a food journal. You can use one of the countless websites that offer calorie counts. Again, I’d recommend using the web version of LoseIt Just make sure you write down exactly what you eat.

In order to start, you need to figure out your caloric needs. Use this daily calorie calculator to determine how many calories you’re supposed to ingest to lose weight. Use the number for weight loss or extreme weight loss ( I’d pick somewhere in the middle, if you’ve got quite  a few pounds to shed). Yes, you’ll be hungry at first, but overtime your body will get used to living off your fat ( sorry for being so literal) rather than all that extra food you eat. You don’t have to starve yourself though. Choose more vegetables, preferably fresh, they have almost no calories whatsoever. Give up calorie intensive meats and cheese for the time being as well as pasta and bread in large quantities (  you can have small servings of whole grain pasta instead).  Don’t do anything drastic. It has to be sustainable. You have to eat foods that you can see yourself eating while maintaining the amount of calories needed for weight loss. Make salads with nutritious Romaine lettuce, throw cucumbers and tomatoes ( virtually no calories) into everything you eat.

Count every calorie.

I dare you to try this out for a week. A week of calorie counting and not going over your “weight loss daily calorie limit”. A week of eating fresh veggies instead of mashed potatoes and cutting down on servings. A week of being responsible about what you eat, how you eat and how much you eat.

If you spend a week counting every calorie ( healthy, please!) you put in your mouth and not going over your limit, and you don’t lose at least a pound by the end of the week, then you can come back here and tell me I am full of shit!

Calorie counting is a powerful lesson in nutrition. You need to do it for a few months to really learn the lessons it can teach you, to learn how to eat right . The key is to NOT starve yourself! Eat every time you feel strong hunger or at least 3 meals a day, however those meals cannot exceed  400 calories per meal or the total of your daily allowance if you want to do it in a healthy way.

Try this out
you have nothing to lose but what you want to lose:
YOUR WEIGHT!

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Now, my entry for week 4

1.  Height: 5’11″, weight: 131 lb  {-3lb, not good, need to get back to 133-135lbs}

2. Your  fitness challenge(s) for this week:  30 minutes of pilates every other day + 30 minutes of cardio ( rollerblading, running, swimming or treadmill) every other day. Special exercises designed for pregnancy to increase flexibility (daily) + Kegels (twice daily). A total of about an hour of physical activity a day.

3. Your health challenge(s) for this week: My eating habits are close to perfect,  however I could improve on my water intake. My goal will be 8 glasses of water daily + continue eating the way I do now.

• Fitness: I am still in a great amount of pain from my surgery , however I felt strong enough to rollerblade every day this week for about an hour. I didn’t do any strength training, I didn’t feel I couldn’t pull it off yet, however I am pretty happy about having done cardio.
• Water: Thanks to my new Clean Kanteen bottle, I have been getting plenty of water. It makes it so easy to drink.
• Food: I was able to eat more solid foods this week, but not my usual stuff. I have also been focusing on gaining the 4 pounds I lost right back, so the food intake was a bit different this week with a lot of whole grain bread along with my soups and quite a few high calorie soft cookies.

5. Failures and slip-ups: I did slip up this Friday and somehow missed my hour of cardio and didn’t do strength training all week which I feel bad about, but hopefully next week I’ll feel strong enough to pick it right back up. Again, I don’t feel right about eating cookies to gain weight, but it’s that or soups, and you can’t really gain weight with homemade vegetable soups :)

6. Weekly challenge wisdom:  Be a little bit harder on yourself than you think you should. If you don’t push yourself to be better, no one will care enough to go through the trouble of doing it for you.

7. Advice to fellow GET FIT members:  Proper diet is a crucial part in losing weight. Do not get so concentrating on exercise and lose sight of how much you really eat during the day.

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Another week of being a better person has gone by and some of you had successes, some of you had setbacks. It’s expected. It’s understandable.

We fall down, we brush ourselves off and we keep on going.

For those who had the strength to join Sonya and I today, you’re awesome!

If you’re new, WELCOME! Feel free to put your name down on our virtual list of participants here.

RULES:

1. If you haven’t yet, join the challenge here: GET FIT and GET HEALTHY
2. Every Saturday come back to The Art of Making a Baby and ShutterMama to read the tips on how to be fitter, healthier and more confident.
3. Weekly write a post about your progress, following the questionnaire below, take a self-portrait (optional) and link up with us.
4. Don’t forget to grab the GET FIT challenge button on the sidebar and display it proudly on your blog or GET FIT post.
5.  Link your post with Selfie Saturdays if you took your week’s self-portrait.  

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So today I’d like to discuss something very important to me that changed the way I eat: Breakfast habits

I was never a big breakfast eater. None of that eggs, bacon, sausage patties + a stack of pancakes for me. I went through years of not eating breakfast at all ( not good), and then eating whatever I felt like (not good), until I finally stumbled onto a concept that made a lot of sense to me and changed my mornings completely.

That concept was introduced to me by an old book that my booker from the modeling agency gave me to read and follow before I could go to New York. A lot of things in that book shaped my current eating habits, but the idea behind the whole concept is what blew my mind.

Basically, as many of you might know, we eat for one reason and one reason alone: FOR ENERGY. Food shouldn’t be for pleasure or indulging. We were meant to eat food for survival. That’s why we have taste buds, and that’s why we find food so good tasting, because year after year of evolution  allowed only those to survive who were motivated enough to find their own food ( and honestly, would we want to hunt days and nights on end for food that doesn’t even taste good? I don’t think so). Actually sexual pleasure has the same reason. If sex didn’t feel good, how would we ever procreate in the stone age and continue our line?

So we eat food for ENERGY. Calories = Energy.

via Lisa Clark

However, 3500 unused calories equal 1 pound of fat. So next time you look at that scale and see that you’ve gained 1 pound, please know that it’s exactly 3500 calories that you ate that your body didn’t need and didn’t burn.

What many of you didn’t know is that there’s one process in our body that requires more energy (calories) to accomplish than anything else. It’s digestion. It’s a very complex and very important process, therefore our body puts a lot of priority on digesting your meal and extracting every possible nutrient and calorie it can. Have you noticed that how after a big meal ( Thanksgiving dinner, anyone?), every single person unbuttons their pants and goes into a coma. That’s your body at work prioritizing and taking the energy away from your body and giving it to your GI.

So that means we need food to have energy and we need energy to “have” food.

Now what happens in the morning is that we wake up from 8-10 hours of sleep without any expendable energy, because , well, we didn’t eat all night. Then most of us go ahead stuffing ourselves with eggs and bacon, and refined carbohydrates and syrup, mixing all that mess of protein and carbs and sugars in our tummy and expect it to digest. Except our body has no energy to digest it yet. The worst thing is meat has the toughest time digesting, especially when mixed with grains. We keep taxing our system like this day after day without even realising how much damage we’re doing to our colon.

Some people don’t eat breakfast at all, robbing their body of that needed energy to function first thing in the morning.

The solution is FRUIT. Fruit is the only thing that is partially digested in your mouth by saliva. So by the time it hits your stomach, it needs very little to finish digesting giving you a little burst of energy to continue functioning. Then in about an hour or less after the first breakfast, you can allow yourself to eat some of the heavier foods, being assured that your body can handle it.

Either way, it’s never a good idea to mix meats and starches and grains, they don’t digest well together, because they need different digestive juices. Meat and veggies, and grains and veggies is your best option. And I’d leave meat till later in the day anyways. So get up and before you even had your morning cup of coffee, have a fruit or two.

There’s a school of thought that believes that it’s important to have protein in the morning. That’s not a problem. Have the 1st breakfast of fruits (fruits alone, no sauces, no dipping, no sugar), and then continue in about an hour with your choice of protein.

I’ve been eating like this for 2 years now, and I gotta tell you, I’d never go back to no breakfast or heavy breakfast.

Cutting back on coffee is a good idea too, since most of you don’t realize how addicted your body is to the caffeine ( and anything that hinders your functions is never good). Apples has similar effects on a human brains as caffeine does, making you feel more awake in the morning.  My husband followed suit and quit coffee cold turkey after being a 2-3 cup drinker, and he had withdrawals for 5(!!!) days. He, as well declared that he’ll never go back to drinking caffeine after experiencing the kind of effect it has on your body. Coffee in itself isn’t that bad, but it’s the addiction and, how disabled it makes us feel if we don’t have it every morning, that is troubling.

Give me your thoughts on this!

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Now, my entry for week 4

1.  Height: 5’11″, weight: 132 lb  {-1lb, not good, need to get back to 133-135lbs}

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NOW LINK UP!

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Rules:

1. If you haven’t yet, join the challenge here: GET FIT and GET HEALTHY
2. Every Saturday come back to The Art of Making a Baby and ShutterMama to read the tips on how to be fitter, healthier and more confident.
3. Weekly write a post about your progress, following the questionnaire below, take a self-portrait (optional) and link up with us.
4. Don’t forget to grab the GET FIT challenge button on the sidebar and display it proudly on your blog or GET FIT post.
5.  Link your post with Selfie Saturdays if you took your week’s self-portrait.  

My week 3 entry 

1.  Height: 5’11″, weight: 133 lb  

2. Your  fitness challenge(s) for this week:  30 minutes of pilates every other day + 30 minutes of cardio ( rollerblading, running, swimming or treadmill) every other day. Special exercises designed for pregnancy to increase flexibility (daily) + Kegels (twice daily). A total of about an hour of physical activity a day.

3. Your health challenge(s) for this week: My eating habits are close to perfect,  however I could improve on my water intake. My goal will be 8 glasses of water daily + continue eating the way I do now.

4. How well did it go: Since I bought this Clean Kanteen bottle, I’ve been doing a lot better with my water intake. It houses 27 ounces of water, so it only take about 2 and a half bottles to fullfill my requirement. What I love about it, besides the look and colors, is that it’s free of anything harmful is stainless steel AND doesn’t taste like metal at all. I had used quite a few drinking bottles in the past and you could always taste the metal, especially if it sat out overnight. This one- NOTHING! Just the taste of water. Love it!

5. Failures and slip-ups: I was out of town for 3 days and wasn’t able to exercise. I did walk for 10 hours non-stop one day, so I guess that does count as a work out.
Foodwise, I did as good as one can do while eating outside of home, by buying from Whole Foods, but still not as good as i would have ate at home. 

6. Weekly challenge wisdom:  Don’t make excuses. Even if you’re not in a position to work out, don’t use it as a way of getting out of your work out. I could have done some exercises at my hotel room during those 3 days, but I didn’t. I regret that now.

7. Advice to fellow GET FIT members: Don’t lose sight of what’s important, which is your health, your fitness level and your lifestyle. Such things don’t only impact us, but our kids and families as well. It’s easy to get discouraged, or get tired, or lose sight of things, but you need to dig deep on keep on keeping on.

 8. Self Portrait, Couple’s Valentine Day Photo:

LINK UP

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I can’t believe it’s already the 2nd week of our New Fitness and Health challenge: GET FIT and GET HEALTHY.  

Rules:

1. If you haven’t yet, join the challenge here: GET FIT and GET HEALTHY
2. Every Saturday come back to The Art of Making a Baby and ShutterMama to read the tips on how to be fitter, healthier and more confident.
3. Weekly write a post about your progress, following the questionnaire below, take a self-portrait (optional) and link up with us.
4. Don’t forget to grab the GET FIT challenge button on the sidebar and display it proudly on your blog or GET FIT post.
5.  Link your post with Selfie Saturdays if you took your week’s self-portrait.  

{Shutter}Mama and I are so excited about the turnout last week. We knew that it would take a few weeks to pick up, due to the fact that it’s a pretty ambitious challenge.
However, what we didn’t expect was that a good number of people would join in immediately. That’s very encouraging and uplifting, because what this challenge needs is as many supporters as possible. Great results and motivation  are not possible to sustain without some kind of support, and we were hoping that the virtual support of other bloggers participating in our challenge will serve as just that. I’m expecting that this week we will do even better with new members checking in and reporting on their progress. I cannot wait to hear how you all did and what challenges you had during the week.
Be sure to stop by the other members of the GET FIT challenge for support and motivation. There’s nothing that motivates me better than seeing other people work hard and reach their goals. 

This week I’d like to talk about gym-less exercising.

I have noticed a lot of members and bloggers mentioning that they don’t like going to gyms or have  no time to make the trip. I totally understand that. I’ve never been a “class” person, I like learning things on my own and I tend to be lazy about getting out of the house, so those two things made me a perfect  candidate for working out at home. Believe it or not, there are a lot of choices for that, and they don’t have to be boring push-ups, sit-ups or squats. Two of my all-time favorite exercises for home use are PILATES and STEP-AEROBICS. Those were my buddies when I needed to get into terrific shape for modeling and they still support me to this day. I went through many different pilates DVDs until I found the perfect one that’s good for beginners, yet really tones you and gets your heart rate up and is still challenging 2 years down the road.   

It’s called 10 Minute Solutions: Rapid Results Pilates(with Lara Hudson). First of all, she’s the most pleasant pilates instructor. Secondly, the workouts that she picked really fit together well, make sense and are a true pleasure to do while still being very challenging. 
The DVD is  broken into 5 categories: Buns and Thighs, Abs, Arms and Shoulders, Body Blast ( cardio pilates) and Stretch. For busy moms and working girls ( not that type), it’s perfect. Every exercise takes 10 minutes and you are truly surprised to see how fast they go. Do 3 sections and you’ve already achieved your mandatory 30 minutes a day of moderate exercise.
This work out routine is so good, my husband does it with me ( and follows it up with additional weight lifting). That’s right – he converted to pilates after he felt how much they do to your whole body. No gym targets the kinds of muscles pilates seem to work out. So 30 minutes a day every other day paired with a cardio work out on alternate days will slowly get you to a nice tone without you even noticing that you’re working out.
That’s all it takes. You don’t need to go hardcore if you don’t want to or can’t. All you have to do is 30 minutes a day of something that really works all your muscles.   

I will post a video for you to follow right here. It’s the first section: Buns and Thighs. Do 10 minutes of it and tell me if it’s not easy, yet challenging.   

You can buy the full DVD from Amazon for only $10. Make sure it’s the right DVD ( link below), because there’re quite a few similar titles. What I love about this DVD compared to others, no props required. You could use dumbells, but who doesn’t own them already. Otherwise, no bands, no balls, nothing- just you and Lara Hudson :)  

NEED MOTIVATION?

So those of you out there who are still on the sidelines watching this challenge with a sigh and a “I want to do it, but I’m not sure I am ready”, Join us NOW! I challenge you to add 3 ten  minute a day sessions of pilates. That’s all I am asking for. Type up that blog announcing that you’ll be joining and getting in shape and in your fitness challenge put: “3 ten minute sessions of pilates daily” or “3 ten minutes pilates sessions every other day alternating with a 30 minutes  run/walk/roller blade/bike session”. DO IT!   

Don’t like exercises and need more cardio? Try step-aerobics. It’s one of the best way to get your legs toned and burn calories without leaving your home. All you need is an Aerobic Stepwhich you can buy at the nearest Target or Walmart next time you go food shopping or order on Amazon. It’s a lot of fun because it’s like a dance routine, but it doesn’t require any type of balance or coordination ( at least in the beginning). Any fun step-aerobics DVD will do: Netflix it, buy it, borrow it, rent it- I don’t care! Just try it!  

Next week I will try to post some tips about how to fit work outs into a busy day schedule.   

My week 2 entry 

1.  Height: 5’11″, weight: 133 lb

2. Your  fitness challenge(s) for this week:  30 minutes of pilates every other day + 30 minutes of cardio ( rollerblading, running, swimming or treadmill) every other day. Special exercises designed for pregnancy to increase flexibility (daily) + Kegels (twice daily). A total of about an hour of physical activity a day.

3. Your health challenge(s) for this week: My eating habits are close to perfect,  however I could improve on my water intake. My goal will be 8 glasses of water daily + continue eating the way I do now.

4. How well did it go: I couldn’t do much Saturday since I was gone all day (8 am to 3am) on a yacht trip, however I did eat like I usually do and definitely got my 8 glasses of water, since it was all I was drinking.
The rest of the week went well fitness wise. I almost skipped my rollerblading run on Tuesday because it was cold (-er), but the thought of having to disclose  on my blog that I chicken out because of some cold Florida night made me get on the stepper at home while watching an Argentinian soap opera in Spanish and do my mandatory 30 minutes. Pilates days were good because I had recruited my neighbor to come and do them with me. This challenge is Definitely making me approach the work outs more seriously. As far as Kegels and pre-pregnancy exercises, I did them every time I remembered, since they haven’t not been a part of my routine. I think I might have forgotten to do those once or so.  Will do better next week.
Food challenge went without a hitch. I did have 3 little cookies after dinner once instead of 1, but considering how well I eat otherwise, i’m not too worried about it. Plus I’m out of cookies.  lol.
8 glasses of water has been a lot more difficult than I thought. It’s a LOT OF water! I got up to 6 glasses daily , but never to actualy 8. Will keep working on it.

5. Failures and slip-ups: Sweets after dinner: once. Forgot kegels: once, 6 glasses of water instead of 8.

6. Weekly challenge wisdom:  It’s really a lot easier to be motivated if you do it with a buddy. When you don’t feel like it, they’re there to pump you up and when they try to skip the work out, you have the will power to make them do it. Schedule a work out with someone and it’ll be harder to cancel on it. Blog buddies work the same way. Pair up with someone and give each other support and motivation. Check in with each other daily to make sure the goals are fulfilled. 

7. Advice to fellow GET FIT members: Make a reminder! It’s easier to feel motivated if we have something to remind us constantly of the goal and the challenge. I had failures only when I simply forgot about the challenges. Print the 2 challenges on a piece of paper ( make it pretty if you want) and tape it to the place you frequent most: refrigerator, vanity mirror, baby’s room. This constant reminder will propel you to get it over with  

  8. Your self-portrait ( optional but strongly encouraged) : Ok, so I feel very very weird about the self-portrait I am about to post. The purpose of it for me was to have a record of what I looked like going into that challenge. I am hoping to tone a few parts of my body more and post a similar selfie in a few months to see the difference. I have to say I feel a bit self conscious about this image. Not because I think I look bad, but because …well.. I’m in my undies :) I picked out the least sexy underwear set I had, because the point of this is not to look sexy, but to look real. I don’t expect many of you to post a similar portrait, however that IS the point of our first full body shot.

I know this is going to be a tough one for most women, but it’s important to have a full body shot of where you started in order to see ( and show) progress when we do another full body shot in a few months. Again, there’s no motivation unless you see results, right? And the scale doesn’t always show results, because muscle weighs more than fat, therefore your scale won’t show the progress if you’re working out and building muscle. The only way to see progress is to compare the before and after. And since we see ourselves every day, our naked eye can’t pick up on changes that well. A full body photo will be the best way of judging your progress. Now it’s up to you how “honest” you want to be. If you’re not “there” yet, then take one fully clothed full body photo following my tips at last week’s Selfie Magic and post it with your blog post, but also one that will show your true shape and keep it for you records.   

Now, don’t forget to head over to ShutterMama and check out this week’s tips on exercise and nutrition from her, and link up with your self portrait at Selfie Saturdays. 

It’s also important to visit our participants. They need your support and isn’t it fun to see how other people did on their challenge, read about the lessons they learned and take in their advice to fellow members. Keeping up with other GET FIT participants and encouraging each other is a big part of the GET FIT challenge.   Can’t wait to see how you all did this week!

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Please don’t forget to VOTE daily!

 

 

 

 

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I am super duper excited! I am absolutely STOKED! And I think you, guys, are going to LOVE IT!

The beautiful {shutter}mama and I, The Art of Making a Baby, would love to present to you a NEW CHALLENGE that will change your life! It will teach you to LOVE yourself and your body, to be strong mentally and physically, to be confident and to learn how to shoot self-portraits at the same time :) And all you have to do is join the PARTY!

I have not been in the blogging word for long, but one thing I have noticed almost right away is lack of self-confidence in women here. We all take photos, beautiful inspiring photos, and yet most of us complain that they can barely find one or two good pictures of themselves or their families. Virtually every single blogger, to some extent, struggles with weight and EVERYONE wants to eat healthier, be healthier, be FIT and love themselves. A lot of women here are in their postpartum period and need motivation and help in getting over the  hump that “extra 5 pregnancy pounds/diapers/feedings” is.

It’s time to stop complaining and feeling guilty and take matters into our own hands! Let’s be FIT! Let’s be HEALTHY! Let’s be CONFIDENT!

The idea of a GET FIT challenge was pioneered by Sonya from {shutter}mama. When I found out about it, I had to partner up with her. I am way to passionate about health and helping people be a better version of themselves, not to take this on with Sonya.

The goal is to get you to move, to give up bad eating habits and to take more pictures of yourself!

If you want some “girlfriend” help in getting fit, getting healthy and feeling good about your body, then YOU ARE IN THE RIGHT PLACE.

So here is how it’s going to work:

1. Go ahead and join in the linky below. Even if you’re hesitant about it, still try it out. I know we’re all busy and we all barely have time to exercise and eat well. But we’re talking about our health! AND our kids’ health, because our kids learn from us. The pace of the challenge will be determined by you and you only! So take the plunge to your new BETTER self!

2. Every Saturday {shutter}mama and I will be hosting this challenge on both our blogs, with tips on how to exercise, eat better and  help you stay motivated. In addition to that, we’ll be hosting a SELFIE SATURDAY photo challenge on my new photography blog, Selfie Magic, as a part of this effort to help women with their body image. We will go over methods of doing self portraiture and flattering angles while shooting yourself, weekly themes, as well link up with our weekly Self Portrait and a Get Fit posts.

3. Your job is to check in every Saturday with a post about your current weight (if you choose to measure and share it), your progress with food and exercise and a self portrait. They key is to be completely honest about your achivements and failures. We’re all in the same boat here, some better off than other, but we all need support. You are free to modify any part of the challenge to fit your life. Everyone is different and we don’t expect things to work the same for everyone. That is why we’ll be posting a list of fitness and food habits challenges for the first week, that you can pick from or create your own. It’ll be your first step to being a healthier you!

Be sure to check with The Art of Making a Baby and {Shutter}Mama each week since we’ll be doing separate posts every Saturday about both food and exercise,and then head on over to Selfie Magic for a Self Portrait lesson and link up.

Now onto the goals. We realize that everyone is in a different situation and has different strengths and weaknesses and  amounts of time to devote to their own well-being. Therefore you’re encouraged to set your own goals. But to get you started, here are some sample health challenges/goals that you could use.  Afterward you’ve picked a health goal  head over to {Shutter}Mama to view the fitness part of this challenge.

What you could do to improve your eating habits (suggestions):

1.  Eliminate  soft drinks/sodas.
{I am sure I do not need to list the reasons for why soft drinks are bad, but in any case, here we go: empty sugar, extra caffeine dependence, tooth decay, bone weakening ( from an ingredient in sodas) and tons and tons of chemicals.}
2.  Drink 8 glasses of water a day.
{Hydration is one of the most important things that can keep us young and healthy. Helps skin elasticity too, so drop those wrinkle creams and drink up. There’s an iPhone app for that, too.}
3. Eat at least 1 salad a day
{There’s only 8 calories in a cup of romaine lettuce, yet it contains 80% of DV for Vitamin A , 19% Vitamin C, 60% Vitamin K and 16% of Folate.}
4. Cut down fatty and/or processed meat consumption to at most once a week
{How meat is killing you}
5. DROP THAT POTATO CHIPS BAG!
6. Make only whole grain meals instead of refined grains
7. Use less salt.
8.  Start writing down every calorie you eat {recording everything you eat and counting calories helps you realize the nutritional mistakes you make throughout the day and keeps you from pigging out those cookies at 10 pm}
9. Eat no more than 1 sweet treat a day
10. Eat at least 5 servings of fruits and vegetables daily
11. Make a home cooked meal using the healthiest ingredients and no oil at least 3 times a week ( mac and cheese or potatoes and steak do not count as a healthy meal)

You can pick just one challenge, or as many as you’d like. If you feel you’re disciplined enough to handle a few challenges, go for it! You can come up with your own challenge that fits your life better and share it with everyone.

Below is the format you can use to track your progress and share with our GET FIT participants in your weekly posts.

So for this week, publish a post with your “Fitness and Health Goals, a picture of your “DREAM SELF” and our Challenge buttons below, join up in our linkies {GET FIT Challenge(below) and Selfie Saturday} using the post’s URL, and get ready to GET FIT.
Your initial post and first check-in is due this Saturday, Feb 5th!

Don’t forget to display the GET FIT GET HEALTHY buttons ( code on the sidebar)!

1. All is Bright 2. Branson 3. Darlin' Mommy & Wife 4. young and restless 5. GET FIT 6. Kristin's Notes 7. Kristin's Notes 8. LipstickLoveLetters 9. Hot Coffee Mama 10. Getting Fit