Tone Up Tuesday

Tone Up Tuesday.  What are you doing to tone up?









Here are a few ideas....

I think this is a good idea.  You can even make your own Bingo card with the exercises you enjoy most.  Maybe when you get a Bingo from doing the exercises you can award yourself with a treat.  A healthy treat :)

Tone up Tuesday:

Tone Up Tuesday: What are you doing to Tone Up? I am going to have to do a restart on toning up lately. I have been a major slacker lately. With birthdays, holidays and spring break I got lazy when it comes to fitness. So I have been browsing around looking for a restart to my fitness.



Here is what I came up with....

I have to laugh at this one because lately I have been feeling lazy. So I think when you don't feel like doing much give this one a try cause it is better than nothing.



And here is another one...

Tone up Tuesday:

Tone up Tuesday: So what are you doing to Tone up this week? This Tuesday I am taking the chance to show you all that I have not been just giving you ideas on Tone up Tuesday but I have been working hard to get fit.

Since the first of this year I have been trying my best to loose weight. I actually accomplished it! I have lost a total of 20 lbs! I had no clue how big of a change in my looks it made until my husband took a picture the other night. I have been getting many wonderful comments about how much weight I have lost. My husband tells me almost every day that I am wasting away. I love all the compliments because it keeps me going.

I have also been asked what is my secret? No secret at all. I have been cutting back my calorie intake to about 1100 a day. I also have tried my best to cut out sugars and breads. Those two things are my weaknesses. I also only drink flavored water and occasionally a glass of milk or juice. I also cheat! Oh yeah I will cheat and eat something not so good for me or go over my calorie count maybe once every other week. Of course there are also date nights where I won’t worry about what I eat. Don’t be afraid to cheat every now and then. Also if you feel like you have done bad one day don’t worry just start new the next day and try your best.

I also started doing Jillian Michael’s Shred but I only did it for 2 weeks because I started feeling bad. I love the work out and it makes me feel good after I do it. It is not easy though. The first 2 days you really just want to cry. I pretty much did the first day. It works every part of your body…So worth getting past the first 2 days. So there is my secret :) I hope to loose about 10 more pounds.

Tone up Tuesday:

Tone up Tuesday: So what have you been doing to Tone up lately? For me the past few weeks have been nothing because I have been feeling so bad. The past two days I started up with my Shred again and now I am sick again. Sorry for the whining but I wanted to let you all know why I have not been posting.


So that aside here are some interesting things I found on Pinterest:

If you are still getting started then here is a good work out to do that is just 15 mins...

If you are like me and want to flatten your tummy then try this. I am still working on mine. After 4 kids I have a lot of work to do. I have seen an improvement though.


And just a little poster to motivate me:

Please share any other thoughts or workouts that you like...

Tone up Tuesday

Tone up Tuesday: So what are you doing this week to Tone Up?








My husband found Jillian Michaels 30 Day Shred for me. I have now been doing this for 4 days. Let me tell you the first day I was in tears and fighting to finish this. It may be better for people who are more in shape than me but I had a hard time the first 2 days.

After I made it through the first 2 days (I skipped the weekend because I was super busy) it wasn't so bad. I am kinda glad for the break because my whole body hurt. My husband actually did 5 mins of the video and gave up. He said that I wasn't kidding when I said it was hard. He also said after me doing this work out I deserve a cupcake or something lol. I told him no that I was sticking with my good eating habits. It just made me feel good to know that he knows now all that I am doing to help my self improve. I get lots of support from him.

So have any of you done this workout before? How has it changed you?

Tone up Tuesday:

So what are you doing this week for Tone up Tuesday? Don't just exercise. Eat right.

A thought just came through my head today as I was getting ready to post this blog. One of the most important things you can do for your body is to eat breakfast. People say this all the time and it is true. You need to eat breakfast in the morning. I know so many people who skip breakfast. I have been one of those people. It was not one of the greatest things have ever done. It was actually pretty stupid. Every time I skipped breakfast I always felt really lousy throughout the day. Now that I actually eat breakfast in the mornings I notice I have more energy to get through the day. I am also less grumpy.

So here is an article I found that I thought was a good read. (taken from WebMD)

Why Breakfast Is the Most Important Meal of the Day

Kids Need Their Morning Meal
While adults need to eat breakfast each day to perform their best, kids need it even more. Their growing bodies and developing brains rely heavily on the regular intake of food. When kids skip breakfast, they can end up going for as long as eighteen hours without food, and this period of semistarvation can create a lot of physical, intellectual, and behavioral problems for them.

A Good Investment
If you and your kids regularly skip breakfast in the interest of saving time or getting a few more minutes of sleep, remember that eating a wholesome, nutritious morning meal will probably save you time in the long run. By recharging your brain and your body, you'll be more efficient in just about everything you do. Interestingly, studies show that kids who skip breakfast are tardy and absent from school more often than children who eat breakfast on a regular basis. Preparing a good breakfast can be as quick and easy as splashing some milk over cereal. Time invested in breakfast is much more valuable than the few extra minutes of sleep you might get by bypassing the morning meal. If you and your kids seem unable to make time for breakfast, consider enrolling your children in a school breakfast program, if possible, or pack a breakfast brown-bag the night before so that you and your kids can eat on the way to school and work.

Break the Fast to Shed the Pounds
Some people skip breakfast in an effort to lose weight, but the practice is more likely to cause weight gain than weight loss. Skipping breakfast is strongly linked to the development of obesity. Studies show that overweight and obese children, adolescents, and adults are less likely to break the fast each morning than their thinner counterparts.

According to research, skipping meals, especially breakfast, can actually make weight control more difficult. Breakfast skippers tend to eat more food than usual at the next meal or nibble on high-calorie snacks to stave off hunger. Several studies suggest that people tend to accumulate more body fat when they eat fewer, larger meals than when they eat the same number of calories in smaller, more frequent meals. To teens, especially teenage girls, skipping breakfast may seem like a perfectly logical way to cut down on calories and lose weight. It's important for moms to educate their kids about the importance of the morning meal and the role it plays in maintaining good health and preventing obesity.

Tone up Tuesday:

Tone up Tuesday...What are you doing this week? If you have not already read the wonderful guest post from yesterday you should check it out. It was written by Rachelle from Livin the Fit Life.





Here are some interesting finds this week...

Have you ever wondered how to measure yourself? I know I have and now I know.




Morning workouts:




And a little motivation...

Tone up Tuesday:

Tone up Tuesday: So what are you doing this week to tone up? Here are a few things I found while browsing the web and one of my new favorite apps...







First let me talk about the app that I have found and use. It is called Lose It. See the nice orange scale? That is what you have to look for when searching your app store. This is a free app that keeps track of calories, exercise, and weight. All you have to do is punch in your info or use the search to find what you are looking for.

Lets look at some screen shots of the app...


When you first open the app you will be asked to punch in your weight and your goal weight. You will also be asked to set a goal for how much you want to loose per week. I set my goal as 2lbs a week. It then calculates how many calories you are allowed a day.

Don't be put off by my screen shot of me not loosing any weight. I set up this app but did not start using it until Friday December 30th. Also the reason no weight change is recorded is because I do not have a scale! Yeah I know how am I going to keep track with out a scale? My husband is supposed to order one soon. He says if I don't have a scale then maybe I will be really happy when I do get on a scale for the first time. That may be true.



This screen shot above is what you will see when ever you first go to your app every day. You can see what you have done for the day. This was just a random day I chose to show you. You can see my calorie budget of 1,2o1, that I ate 988 calories that day and that I did not burn any calories because I did not get to exercise. It also tells you how much you are under your daily calorie count.


Here is another screen shot above of a random day that shows my breakfast and lunch. You can see how many calories I had for those.



This screen shot above is one of the cooler parts of the app. You can actually scan the bar code of the food that you are eating. So if you have a can of soup or something you can scan the bar code and then it will bring up how much of it you can eat and how many calories it will be per serving. You can see the scan right under the search. You can also search many food already in the data base and also create your own foods. I have created my own many times.


This last screen shot above shows your week. Yeah I had a few days where I forgot to add stuff because my husband had my phone and I had his. (Long story but the calories are recorded on his phone.) I will get to plugging that in soon :) Also you can see where I have been bad in red and had more calories in that one day then I should.(naughty me)

So if you are someone who likes to keep track of weight and calories then this is a great app. It is free! My husband even though he doesn't keep track of his, has actually started to look at calories in foods. He makes better choices now.

And now because I am a homeschooling mom another good thing I found for exercising from Pinterest is this:

It is a good work out to do at home when you don't go to the gym...

Tone up Tuesday

Happy 2012! I know a lot of you have made a resolution to exercise, eat better, loose weight or just get in better shape. I like to call mine more of a promise to get healthy for my children.

So that being said I plan to make Tuesdays on my blog Tone up Tuesday. It will have little ideas that I get around the web on what you can do to exercise, eat better, loose weight or just be in better shape then you are now.

I hope you all will join me and follow me on Tone it up Tuesdays. I really would love the support and would love to give you the support as well to get healthy in 2012. If you have any tips or anything you would like to share along the way please leave them in a comment.

First things first. Get moving anyway you can...

One of my favorite ways to get moving is Just Dance 3. My kids and I all dance together. We only have 2 Wii remotes and I keep mine the whole time while the kids switch off and pick their favorite dance. I try to do this 30 mins to an hour. That all depends on how cranky and clingy my 1 year old becomes while I try to dance. I must say I love getting high scores on this game and then beating my high scores as well. I try my best to beat my score from the last time I play.

And today I just found this on Pinterest. What a great way to burn 100 calories and have an extra boost of confidence while reading the end.