It’s Goal Call Monday.   Each week brings a new focus and a little recognition! Enter your goal for the week in the comments for a chance to win a small gift card.

Last week my goal was to drink more than eight glasses of water everyday. I succeed in at least 6 days.  There was one day at work that I completely blanked on refilling my bottle!

This week, my goal is to use the juicer at least 4 times and create wholesome, natural, fresh vegetable and fruit juices.  The kids and I tried Apple today.  I’ll have to experiment with the different varieties.  Today’s was a bit tart, but tasty.  I think the gala or golden delicious will be more up the kids alley!

Are you ready to commit to a goal this week?  It’s really easy.  Here’s how it works.  Share your Goal in the comments section and all entries will be entered for a drawing.  Through a random drawing , a lucky winner will receive a small prize.

What is your goal this week?

It’s Goal Call Monday.  There were no comments, hence no winner to announce!  So I hope you jump in on the action this week because I’d love to give away a $5.00 gift card for iTunes, Amazon or Subway for your goals.  Each week brings a new focus and a little recognition!

I’m super excited to say that I completed my vision board yesterday all because of Goal Call Monday.  I was exploring options outside of traditional paper and magazines, but was amazed to find that so many “Vision Board” sites require purchases or monthly payments.

So, I changed tactics and moved to creating my own computer version by using Power Point.  It worked beautifully.  The actual making of the vision board will come in another post.  I still need to find a way to tranfer the music from iTunes to the presentation, but for now, I can play it on my iPhone while watching the vision!  I’ve selected Carrie Underwood’s Crazy Dreams and JoJo’s Exceptional to play while watching.

Here’s what I put together with the help of a google images search, affirmation list, and past affirmations:

This week my goal is drink more than eight glasses of water everyday.  At work, I’ve not been drinking water regularly throughout the day, so this is an opportunity to get back to the basics.

Are you ready to commit to a goal this week?  It’s really easy.  Here’s how it works.  Share your Goal in the comments section and all entries will be entered for a drawing.  Through a random drawing , a lucky winner will receive a small prize.

What is your goal this week?

Do you have a list of home projects to tackle, but keep avoiding?  My list of home improvement projects keep piling up.  As I’ve been redesigning how to balance work, family, health, and home, one of my goals has been to incorporate them into one as often as possible.   This week, with the wonderful promise of spring and warm weather, the kids, Grams and I ventured out to the yard to clean up, start a new shade garden, and roller skate/blade (well, the kids anyway).

What did we do for this workout?

1.  The night before I involved the children in picking a shade garden plan that would fit the space and we dug out their roller skates and roller blades.  I love Better Homes and Garden’s online plans.  When it comes to putting plants together and knowing which ones work in what conditions, I’m pretty hopeless.

2.  In the morning, we went to Home Depot and picked out everything we could find:  lawn seed, plant fertilizer, compost, mulch and plants that were part of the plan (we could only find 1).  Grabbing and lifting the bags are  a great functional training exercise, too!

3.  The Garden Preparation.  Here’s where the bulk of the workout resides.  The kids helped rack and bag up leaves.  My focus was on breaking the ground and mixing the fertilizer/compost.  After twenty minutes of solid garden preparation, I was working  up a great sweat.  The kids, in the meantime, were skating up and down our sidewalks (I love all the sidewalks in our back yard).

4.  The First Planting.  We planted our 3 little plants, washed down the side walk, watered, and ordered the rest of our plants online.  In a couple of weeks, we’ll get to complete this little corner with our arrivals, add a few outdoor pieces of furniture and be ready to enjoy the colors of spring!

Next week,  the plan is to tackle the garage which will be quite the project.

 What home improvement projects have you been putting off that can also serve as a great workout?

Good Morning,

When I was blogging regularly, my favorite activity was Goal Call Monday.  Everyone would share their goal for the week in the comments and we’d cheer each other to success.  It is definitely the post I want to resume on a regular basis.

Here’s how it works.  Share your Goal for the Week and all entries will be entered for a drawing.  Through a random drawing , a lucky winner will receive a small prize.

My goal this week is to create my personal vision board and share it by next week.  For over a year, I’ve been in need of replacing my old vision.  I had every intention of getting one done since moving, but never got to it.  I feel rather directionless with out very specific goals, especially as a firm believer in the Law of Attraction!

What is your goal this week?

In the last week, I’ve been trying out the Insanity Workouts.  It’s always disheartening to start a full blown workout when all exercises up to this point had been sporadic and light.

I finished up the 4th workout today with a lot of stops and resting, but the victory is in making it through the whole workout.  I look forward to seeing progress over the next few week and not feeling as exhausted after each workout.

The nice thing about the Insanity workouts is that they don’t require any gear.  The intensity is dependent on your level of fitness, so it is a useful when out of shape or in prime condition.

Have you been stuck in a rut and not sure what to do to get out of it?  With the coming spring weather, what are your plans for trying something new for your body?

Have you ever found yourself in a situation in which you just had to check out?  Remove yourself from everything that you knew and face a completely different world?

I had no idea that I had set aside Go Workout Mom for two years!  I had every intention of starting back up and getting right into the great discussions about Wellness Coaching and healthy living with children.

Today, I am starting small.  I have found that I miss the community of blogging and my body has as well.  When I’m not sharing tips, ideas and ways to be healthy, move and live, I have found myself moving less, eating less mindfully, and less in touch with the support base that keeps us all going.

Here’s the short version as to why I checked out of maintaining Go Workout Mom.

• We moved from Nashville where I restarted a career.  I had a lot to learn and still do.  The days are long (10-13 hours) five days a week.
• We’ve placed the children in school.
• Ryan got a new job.  He’s away from home for 5 to 6 months except for the weekends.

We shifted from a one-parent working, homeschooling, close to many family and friends environment to Now.  It’s a natural shift in living, but one that required that I check out.

I finally feel settled enough to reconnect through Go Workout Mom–these decisions were not easy and filled with frustration for some time.  I’m excited to rekindle this hobbie and develop Go Workout Mom through a working mother’s eyes.  It’s amazing and a blessing to have experienced being Stay-At-Home Mom, Entrepreneur Mom, and now, Working Mom.  All of the experiences have come with their own challenges and great moments.

Of course, I see that I have lots of cleaning up to do on the blog both behind the scenes and on the screen.  Please be patient as I rediscover the newest plugins and refresh the site!

Thank you for all of you that have revisited and stayed with Go Workout Mom.  Your support is wonderful.

Sincerely,

Cindy

How time flies. I wrote this article for Fitness Link back in April and wanted to share it with you…

I was asked a simple question, “Are organic eggs better for you than conventional eggs? My husband isn’t on board with making the switch. He doesn’t see the difference.” I thought, oh, this will be an easy question to answer. I’ll gather facts about organic and conventional eggs and the answer will be obvious.

When sifting through the politics, economics and mass production processes of our food chain, validating claims proved to be nearly impossible. I recognized the challenges of being a truly informed consumer. Click here to continue reading…

Fitness Link is my personal training business in which we can tailor your dream goals and needs to your lifestyle. We focus on workout plans, personal training, wellness coaching, and metabolic typing services. We come to you or provide online, email and phone support if you don’t live in the Nashville area!

Visit our website for details!

First of all, I want to say that I am very grateful that our family and friends are safe and dry. However, there are thousands of families currently without a home and having to cope with the devastation of flood waters. With two small children at home, it is very difficult for me to provide physical assistance. Where I can help is to reach out to you, my fellow bloggers, and anyone who happens to stumble upon my post to help raise donations, awareness and prayers for the families here in Nashville.

Through donations, in-kind offerings, gift cards to grocery stores, restaurants and more, we can help displaced families cope as they are sifting through their homes, assessing damage and rebuilding lives. Anything that comes through Go Workout Mom will be directed to helping these families.

Please Help:

1. Donation button to collect money for families. With the money, I will coordinate supplies which will help families in the months ahead as they recollect their lives. Children will be needing clothing, school supplies, books, toys and more.
   
2. Send gift cards from major chain stores–Walmart, Kmart, Target, Kroger, Home Depot, Lowes, etc. If you’re not sure a store is located near us, please send me an email and I will confirm it’s availability. My GoWorkoutMom address is a P.O. Box number. If you’re uncomfortable sending to a PO Box, please send me an email and I will give you my home address.
3. Gift Cards to Restaurants–Families are without kitchens, staying at shelters and bouncing around friends and family locations. Once water recedes, homes will need to go into repair and kitchens will be out of service for some time. A warm meal can help families cope with the craziness.
4. Purchase through my Amazon Associates account with deliveries made to my location. I will ensure all Amazon products will be sent to needy families as they recover. Again, contact me for my home address.
5. Company Sponsors/Donations: I will be happy to coordinate with any companies that visit GWM regularly or that I have worked with in reviews and programs. Please let me know how I can make it easier for you.

National Media has touched on the Nashville flood briefly, but with pressing large issues in NYC and the oil spill, I feel it is my obligation to do my best to reach out to those not in the Nashville area. We have been witnessing the damage for four days straight with our local news.

Here is a small YouTube Clip that shows only a handful of the many pictures circulating:

I am still working out the details, but will keep you updated with how the donations are serving local families. If you have another idea that will help better serve our Nashville families, please contact me.

My Go Workout Mom Address is:

Please stumble and share to help spread the word. Thank you!!!

Cindy

Before I check my yahoo email account, I quickly check out their latest headline news. “New Breast Cancer Advice–Experts make bold breast cancer claim” caught my attention. The piece is actually titled “Up to a third of breast cancers could be avoided.“

As an old saying goes, “I consider myself to be a reasonable person.” This article really angered me and I’m not one to anger easily. I’m really more frustrated and sad. What is this new advice?

Up to a third of breast cancer cases in Western countries could be avoided if women ate less and exercised more, researchers at a conference said Thursday, renewing a sensitive debate about how lifestyle factors affect the disease.

What?!!! Eat better and exercise more is a surprising find? Why is it a sensitive debate??? The facts are clear. People may not like to hear them, but come on, what we eat three to six times a day is completely relevant to how our bodies are responding? How we move (or don’t move) to expend energy and help our bodies function is clear.

Why am I annoyed?

1. The ‘It’s okay to be fat’ movement. As our society continues to GROW, there are more and more efforts to say it’s Okay. I see examples in a variety of ways and it’s becoming more accepted to not confront the reality that adding extra weight to our bodies and not moving is causing an increase in many diseases. Heart disease is the number one killer in women. Why? Mostly due to poor lifestyle choices.
2. No one is blaming a person for all the factors that may contribute to breast cancer. It may not have been preventable, however, most people ignore the doctor’s advice to lose weight. Everyone (and I am making this generalized statement because I believe it is true!) knows that being overweight is not good for the body. A positive point stated in the article shows that genetics are not the main culprit in cancer. However the article follows that paragraph with this, “Yet any discussion of weight and breast cancer is considered sensitive because some may misconstrue that as the medical establishment blaming women for their disease.” Unfortunately, people CHOOSE not to change poor habits. This hard line stance needs to be taken and the article does address this point ‘sensitively’. We can greatly reduce (not guarantee) the development of cancer in our bodies by making healthy lifestyle choices. Move, eat moderately whole foods, limit alcohol intake, and more.
3. Not taking personal responsibility for how we treat our bodies. The reality is that there is an overabundance of yummy, not good for us foods. There’s an abundance of vegetables, fruits, and healthy alternatives that people choose not to eat because of time, convenience, laziness, money, (insert any excuse here).
4. The professional communities (medical, health, media, government, professors, scientists, etc) constantly adding confusing and misleading information. This is NOT NEW ADVICE!!! Why is it surprising?

Okay, the rant is over. I am a truth seeker. Even as I try to become more and more knowledgeable about what is healthy and how to better serve clients, I find myself facing a deluge of poor leadership, bad information, and sensationalized reporting at the detriment of our health.

Books are overwhelmingly contradicting themselves. Finding the “experts” that are not misconstruing the information for their purpose has been extremely challenging. Finding the “primary resources” are difficult and then trying to determine the backers of the “study” just as important.

To capture the reader, these sensationalized headlines, quick spouting of a ‘reliable’ source are more confusing than ever and people soak this stuff up looking for the quick answers. Ladies, I’m the first to say, that healthy eating is one of my biggest challenges. I love food! I like fast food. I’m a sucker for shakes. The more I learn about what’s in the products the more I cringe, but I still find myself running through a drive thru once a week or so for a quick meal, tasty treat or to quiet a backseat passenger.

Is it healthy? No. Am I setting in motion poor habits? Yes. Do I feel guilty? Yes. How do I change? Slowly. We used to eat fast food every day. We’ve made progress. It’s been slow. I say no to candies, ice creams, and more on a daily basis.

EATING RIGHT IS HARD. CONSISTENCY IS HARD. WORKING OUT REGULARLY IS HARD.

It is up to us to find ways to make healthy choices. We must make our bodies a priority to be here for our children as role models and to love life.

I am happy to announce that my partner and I, Fitness Link, are now providing Fitness, Metabolic and Wellness Coaching services beyond the local Nashville area!

With our Valentine’s Day Partner Package (a 3 month Lifestyle Journey) we are able to provide you with personal services via phone and email. What you receive:

• 12 weeks personalized exercise programs
• Metabolic Typing Food Plan/list Program
• Individual Wellness Coaching w/ bi-weekly check-ins

For details, visit our Fitness Link Blog:

Valentine’s Day Partner Package