I am excited to announce that I have joined with a fellow personal trainer, Jonathan Martin, in starting a new company, Fitness Link. We specialize in boot camps, in-home training, and group sessions with additional free services that develop a well rounded healthy lifestyle. The exercise is the easier part of this equation. What is more difficult is learning how to manage time, stress, mental barriers, nutritional choices and more.

Each month we provide a Free Seminar in order to answer questions that influence fitness and health goals. We’re also adding “Active Duty Briefings” bi-weekly to allow clients to discuss their challenges and look for advice from each other and our experts. We look forward to developing a connection among our clients that goes beyond meeting on the field/or in the home.

Dedicated to promoting health and fitness in Nashville communities, Fitness Link launches it’s first free monthly seminar in Nashville.

Multi-billion dollar industries such as health care, fitness studios, pharmaceutical companies, food processing, as well as endless books and magazines have debated and distorted the truths about health and fitness to the point where we are all utterly confused and don’t know what to do.

If you answered YES to any of these questions, you are not alone. Come join us in untangling the truth of health and fitness. You have a right to know! You have a right to change your life!

As a mixture of interactive discussions and mini-bootcamp challenges, the attendants will come away with a better understanding of Nashville’s need for improved physical fitness and a breakdown of the overwhelming myths surrounding exercise and healthy living. Come dressed in comfortable clothes and be prepared to move and feel great.

When: Saturday, July 11, 2009 from 10 AM to Noon

Where: Radisson Hotel in Donelson, TN at 1112 Airport Center Dr, Nashville, TN 37214

If you live in the Nashville area, then please join us. For more details, visit our website, www.tnfitnesslink.com or call 615-513-0349.

I am thankful to be an American. I love this picture. We were standing in the rain while Ryan marched in a Veteran’s Day parade for the American Legion in November 2008.

We are so lucky to live in the U.S.A. I am proud to raise my children here and take part in this day of Independence. For the men and women that are serving our country, THANK YOU!

I have visted many countries around the world, and I am always happy to return home. Other places are nice to see and experience, but nothing compares to what the U.S. has to offer it’s citizens.

“What are we doing today, Mom?” Aggh, another summer day to plan. Don’t pull your hair out! I’ve got a solution for you. Scavenger hunts are an excellent opportunity to pass the days. The location can be of your choosing. The hunt can range from 30 minutes, hours, or days. The topics are unlimited. Here, at Go Workout Mom, we’re going to focus on Fitness Scavenger Hunts! The scale of the scavenger hunt will be based on the age of the children involved. If you have multiple age groups, then breaking the children up into teams might be helpful rather than having them go at it alone. Or be a part of the fun with Dad heading one team, Mom the other. The Parents can help, but not give away the answers!

Step 1: Decide on your location: home, neighborhood, town, park, etc. Your location could be a combination of all these places, but make sure you’re incorporating bikes, walking, physical movements to get from one place to another. Try to use the car sparingly! Remember our goal is to keep moving with our own motor!

Step 2: Decide on a time. Is their a time limit? or Until everyone finishes their quest?

Step 3: Design the meat of the scavenger hunt. List the questions, items that are being searched. For instance, a neighbor down the street might have a unique mailbox that the children can find and take a picture or describe on the answer sheet. If the hunt is in your yard, find a unique feature or hide a soccer ball for the children to find. Then have them complete a physical activity in that location like skip to Question 2 from the mailbox or kick the ball ten times to each other before advancing to the next clue.

Have fun with creating, watching, and participating in the Scavenger Hunt. The children will be problem solving, getting rid of some energy and staying active. Plus, Mom, that’s one less day to worry about for the summer!

I’d love to hear some of your ideas or how your scavenger hunt went. Send me some pictures and I’ll post some great Scavanger Hunt Days and Sample questions/answers to help moms make it through the summer.

Here’s a fruity workout for the long summer days ahead.

Cantaloupes are on sale! I love late spring/early summer fruits. The lovely sweet flavor of a juicy cantaloupe will be a perfect reward for your post workout snack. Test your fruity strength abilities.

Warm Up:

1. 30 Side to Side Twists with arms parallel to the floor while holding the cantaloupe at chest level.

2. 25 Squats with Cantaloupe extended in front of you.

3. 10 more Squats while lifting the cantaloupe above your head. Forearms come inline with your ears as you stand up and arms drop down toward the floor.

How are you doing: Are you ready for the Main Course???

1. Balanced Cantaloupe. Keep arms outstretched and balance the cantaloupe in one hand. Guide the cantaloupe to one side of your body, keeping your arms parallel to floor. Slowly lift your opposite leg as high as you can at your side while maintaining balance. Hold 2 seconds, return foot to floor. Bring cantaloupe forward and to the opposite side of your body, lifting opposite leg. Repeat 12 times.

2. Cardio Cantaloupe. Place cantaloupe on the ground. Jump over cantaloupe side to side for 30 seconds. If you can’t jump, don’t worry. High step by lifting your knee as high as possible toward your chest and side stepping.

3. Cantaloupe Overhead Lifts. Pick up cantaloupe, lift it overhead and drop cantaloupe behind your head. Keep elbows facing forward and arms in line with your ears. Force the Cantaloupe up toward the sky. With controlled speed, pump that cantaloupe toward the sky. Keep going for 30 seconds.

4. Cantaloupe Circles in Reverse Lunge. Stand up tall. Step back into reverse lunge. With straight back, lean slightly forward to circle the cantaloupe around your leading leg. Complete 10 circles and return to standing position. Repeat 12 times.

5. 30 Cantaloupe Jacks. Start with your feet together and the cantaloupe at your chest. Push the cantaloupe toward the sky as you jump out with your feet. Return the cantaloupe to chest when feet come together.

6. Cantaloupe Alphabet. Position yourself in a half squat. Tuck in your abs. Breathe. With the Cantaloupe outstretched trace the upper case alphabet. Keep your arms extended and make the letters large and exaggerated. This is a great one for the children!

7. Cantaloupe Crunch. Lie down and place the cantaloupe on your stomach. Watch it drop as you slowly lift your shoulders in a basic crunch. Concentrate on having the cantaloupe sink down. 20 more. You’re almost done.

8. Long Legged Cantaloupe Toe Touches. Hold the Cantaloupe in your hands. Straighten your legs. Take it overhead and lift your whole body up toward your toes. Slowly roll back to the floor vertebre by vertebre.

Congratualtions. One Cantaloupe Circuit Complete. Are you ambitious enough to go for the entire circuit again? Are the little ones begging to snatch your cantaloupe away and join in on the fun?

Pass off the cantaloupe and tell them it’s theirs until you catch the cantaloupe. Give them ten seconds and chase Play this game for as long as your little one wants (or as reality hits, when you’re just too tired to chase the little bundles of energy).

Alright! Are you heading out to the store pick up your next cheap workout piece of equipment: THE CANTALOUPE?

Have you worked out for at least 30 minutes? What a refreshing, exciting time at home. It’s time to clean up, cut the cantaloupe and enjoy your nutritious treat.

How is Sports Nutrition different from what mom’s need to know? It’s not. There are a few more details and more emphasis on performance, but the facts are relevant to anyone that is exercising. You are an athlete in the making. How else are you going to keep up with the most energetic beings on earth! Toddlers, teenagers and any age in between are on the go more than any of us. So, here we go…See what you know is best for you.

sodium counterproductive fat

twenty blood sugar level carbohydrate

two kilogram power

low ten ergonomic aids

resistance protein carbohydrate

one 500 polyunsaturated fatty acids

1. Drink at least ______ cups of fluid 2 to 3 hours before exercise or competition.

2. Replace sweat loses during training and competition every ___ to ___ minutes.

3. Drink 3 cups of fluid for every ___ lb of weight loss.

4. A 6% _______________ solution with water, as found is sports drinks, is ideal from the standpoint of gastric emptying and intestinal absorption for reducing mental and physical fatigue during both stop-and-go sports and endurance sports, for encouraging drinking during physical activity, and for improving performance.

5. Sports performance is related to the ability of the athlete to overcome _______________ and the ability to sustain _______________ output.

6. Clients wishing to increase muscle mass should perform exercises needed to enlarge muscle mass and slightly increase daily caloric intake by _______________ (the max range).

7. An athlete’s strategy to reduce fat mass and maximize muscle mass through diet by dramatically lowering total energy intake is _______________.

8. Athletes should consume between 6 and 10 grams of _______________ per kilogram of body weight.

9. The glycemic index is a measure of how different carbohydrate foods affect the _______________ level.

10. Athletes interested in lowering either weight or body fat levels should consider focusing on foods with medium to _______________ glycemic index.

11. The adult athlete requirement for _______________ is between 1.5 and 2.0 grams per kilogram of body weight.

12. _______________ have a tendency to lower blood cholesterol and contain lots of vitamin E.

13. _______________stay in the stomach longer than other energy nutrients which make us feel fuller longer.

14. The _______________ provided by sports beverages helps to maintain blood volume, a factor that is critical to maintaing sweat rates and performance.

15. Carboyhdrates and water are _______________ that have been shown to improve a person’s capacity to perform better.

As each blank is filled in, someone else can come along and finish off the answers. A comment an answer. Let’s see how you do!

First of all, I want to thank all of you that have continued to stick with me. I love the community of blogging.

For the past several months, I took on new responsibilities as Quality Control Specialist for the trainers, expanded my training hours, and present personal training packages to new members. My schedule is finally stabilizing and I’ve cut back on a couple of those 5 AM mornings. I look forward to returning and sharing my experiences.

In the meantime, I am excited to share that I completed my first article for the Spring issue of Breathe Magazine , a magazine for active women in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeast that offers fresh perspectives on women’s health, outdoor adventure and green living. The article shares tips and ideas for Moms to stay active.

Go Workout Mom is also listed as one of the Top 100 Healthy Mom Blogs!
Thank you!

My intentions have been to write out a long explanation, but I don’t have the time right now. Due to crazy circumstances, I am currently working full time and overtime. So my limited time has been spent cuddling and holding two little ones for the hour or two I have with them.

In the meantime, computer access and blogging is taking a backseat. I hope all is well for your new year and you’re continuing to progress with healthy habits and lifestyle. It’s a constant journey well worth taking and I hope to return soon to share more tips and ideas to further advance your journey.

I am temporary suspending Goal Call Monday.

My goodness! It’s December already. Where has the year gone? What have we accomplished? Is it time to wait for the New Year to start all over again?! NO, Girl! We’ve come a long way.

With Thanksgiving behind us, my family is already looking forward to Christmas and New Year’s Day. The tree’s been decorated. I’m designing our Family Christmas Card inserts, and we hope to get all the lights strung by the end of the week. It’s easy to think, ahh, what the heck, I’ll wait to the New Year to X (workout), Y (eat right), and Z(catch some ZZZs). But, there’s no need to wait.

I’ve noticed the gym isn’t nearly as full as it was a couple of months ago. I’m looking at how I can motivate and invigorate my clients over the last month of the year. Here’s what I plan to have them do:

• Share with me the best health or fitness moment of the year.
• Share your main goal for December and post it up on your mirror or refrigerator.
• How do you plan on achieving the goal.
• Write down one positive experience from each month of this past year that was personal, emotional, or professional!

We need to be proud of our achievements. We often look at our children and can rattle off an answer for each one of these points, but for ourselves? Now, that’s a bit tricky. I often forget to sit down and think about the positive things that I’ve done. In my mind, I review the failures and try to plan on how to battle my weaknesses–Not today! Let’s take a moment to reflect on all the positive things you’ve achieved. I’d love to hear your answers!

Unfortunately, the time has come for a full attack on home cleaning. There is no need to do extra exercises or throw in fun routines when time is short and the house is clamoring for our undivided attention.

First, it’s time to clear the home of the little ones! I recommend trading days with a friend for kid watch or dropping them off at a family member’s home for a few hours. It may be time to let the husband skate by and take them off your hands for Daddy time.

Second, tackle the house with intensity and speed. Housework is hard and a dedicated two to three hour cleaning will result in a full body workout. It’s not fun, but necessary. It’s best to knock it out before the week of cooking and final touches for decorations.

Calorie expenditure can range from 422 calories to 740 calories during the two to three hours of a focused scrubbing, vacuuming, mopping, dusting, decluttering marathon.

I am not looking forward to the decluttering efforts in our office/open family room area (aka. space for the guests and extra seating for Thanksgiving dinner)! Which area are you avoiding?

I have finally upgraded to the latest version of WordPress. The backend techno-mumbo jumbo has kept me from completing the Upgrade for months! Thank you to the wonderful, smart people that dedicate themselves to creating plugins like the WordPress Automatic Upgrade Plugin. Without it, I would still be looking at this screen, fussing over the directions provided by my tech guru (which I’ve brought out and put back in the folder since April!) and yelling at the computer to finally giving up and getting another cup of coffee!

So, if you see any abnormalities to the site, please let me know. I’ll try my best to resolve any quirky issues.