As the weather becomes colder many of us would prefer to do our workouts inside….check out The Indoor Minimalist Workout for some fantastic indoor options.

For you coffee drinkers (me included), grab a cup and read Our Love Hate Relationship with coffee.

Heidi shares 10 Easy To Follow Rules For Weight Loss.

Sara in The Simple Guide to Staying Out of Office Politics.

Finally a favorite blogger of mine gives us..Giving Thanks at Thanksgiving and Beyond, thanks Stacey!

I will be out of town for the next week and will remain silent here. Thank you for visiting and remember to do something for yourself….YOU deserve it!

There are many paths but only one journey.

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Squat for Pans and Pots-When it’s time to pull out the pans and pots under the kitchen counter, squat down next to the pot instead of bending over. This is exercise is great for strengthening the arms and legs. Grab the pot with two hands and hold it close to the body. Before standing, take a deep inhale. On the exhale, pull in the belly and straighten the legs. Try not to use the hands to assist on the way up. Repeat this exercise while waiting for something to heat up.

Counter Push Ups-A common kitchen move of stirring is good one for the arms, but there’s another exercise that can bring on some results for the arms. Put the hands on the kitchen counter feet away from the counter, like a “push-up.” Keeping the body in one line from toes to the head, keep the chin down, head back, and pull in the belly button. Begin the push up, bend the arms and touch the chest to the counter. Do 10 reps, rest, and then do 10 more.

With so much time spent in the kitchen, maybe spice it up a bit with an exercise or two?

Please share if you have any exercises to add! HAPPY HOLIDAYS!

A good balance between exercise and food intake is important, as this helps to maintain a healthy body weight.

Our guest Rosabel Yip shares her thoughts on video games, how they affect our children, and some healthy alternatives:

In today’s world, most children are exposed to video games, play station, internet online games, mobile phone games etc. In fact, video games are dominating our childs lives today. It is a trend. Older children are now talking about latest games in the market or internet. They compete with each other on the scores that they get from the games. Children beg their parents to buy them play station or computer so that they can keep up the trend. Even younger children, who do not understand “trend”, will just follow what their older brothers or peers do. Some parents even use them as a reward if their child behaves or achieve the parents’ academic expectations.

I’m not against video games, but I do agree that adults should control the video gaming. We should set some rules and limitations. Some of the games are very violent – killing, beating, hitting, bombing, slashing and so on. There are researchers claims that the violent video games do not have any effect on our children. People are still debating the issue.

I discourage young children’s exposure to violent video games. They do not grasp what is violent, what is right and what is wrong. They might not know how to differentiate appropriate and inappropriate behaviors.

Children love to imitate other people. If a child snatches a toy from another child and the adult involved just lets it be without taking any action, the other child who sees this might imitate the action without understanding appropriate and inappropriate behavior. Imagine if he is exposed to violent video games where the characters in the game can just keep beating one another, what does he captured in his subconscious mind? Beating can be one of the solutions to get what he wants? Moreover, children get addicted to video games easily if we do not control the gaming. Do you want your child to sit in front of the TV or computer just playing video games?

There are many games that we can get our child to be involved in. Games such as running, jogging, basketball, football, climbing and so on are very healthy for our child. These games enable them to stretch and move their body. Your child gets to reinforce his large and fine motor skills as well as better body coordination. He gets to sweat to promote detoxification. The whole body movements also improve blood circulation of his body. More oxygen is carried in the blood to the brain which helps in his intellectual development.

Take the child to the park, water fall, lake, beach, jungle tracking etc. enjoy and learn to appreciate nature. Do gardening together with the child. Cultivate the love of nature among our young children. Take the child to the library or book shop. Cultivate the good reading habits. Reading provides information and knowledge. The child who reads more tends to be more flexible in their thinking and more open to new ideas. He also develops the ability to understand how other people feel and think.

Start by selecting video games that are educational and appropriate for their age. Read the rating symbols on the cover before buying any game – EC (Early Childhood), AO (for adults only 18+), E (for everyone), E10 (for Everyone 10+), T (for Teen) and M (for Mature 17+). Restrict the time and day of the video game activity, encourage your child to participate in the outdoor activities that can bring physical, mental and emotional benefits.

With our world becoming so addicted to technology, we tend to become less active, leading to an unhealthier society. Maybe we want to include some old school activities into our childs lives?  Rosabel has so much to share, visit her at Nurture Our Child with Love and Patience!

Get us started Tom…Understanding Arthritis.

Jolene in Healthy Discoveries.

Paulina has a fun post….DreamJobs, what is your dream job?

Of course some fantastic journey’s with Keylaus, Cammy, Katschi and MdMommy2Two.

Have a Wonderful weekend..YOU deserve it!

1) Set a consistent time for your work out. Make it habit!

2) Prior to the workout visualize yourself having a fabulous workout! Mental preparation….GO STRONG!

3) Set up a punishment list for missing workouts. Skip the workout, you owe your spouse, good friend, child, somebody! Make sure you have this pre-arranged so they can hold you accountable!

4) Remember the hardest part of the workout is often getting your butt started! Once you get a few minutes into your routine, you will be on your way. So remind yourself, “I’ll just go in and do 1 set of the first 2 exercises, then I can go”. Before you know it… you’ll have finished the entire workout.

5) Find a workout partner…If you have a workout partner you don’t want to let them down (more accountability). Or create a blog that you can share your fitness journey with, check out 360 degrees of DC, Annette’s Awakening and DaDiva’s Street for some incredible examples!

6) Crank the tunes! I can’t think of anything that motivates me like music.

7) Reward yourself. Finish your workout and treat yourself to a TV show, some extra time with your family, some new songs for your IPOD, or even a little extra time for yourself.

8)Review your goals everyday. Keeping your goals fresh in your mind will help you stay on track.  Journal it use online resources like Fitday.

Think about it? Who is in control? YOU are! Time to get the butt moving!

“Life is NOT a journey in which you tip-toe to the grave, but rather you slide in loudly proclaiming! WOW, what a ride!!!

First let’s warm up for 3 minutes…march or jog in place. Mix it up with some jumping jacks.

Ready to go? This is a tough one! Take a sip of water and let’s roll!

Do the following 10 exercises in a row, no break in between:

1. 25 squats
2. Jog up/down a flight of stairs 10 times.
3. 15 push ups
4. 30 second wall sit
5. 25 jumping jacks
6. 30 second plank
7. 25 Burpees
8. 30 second wall sit
9. 15 push ups
10. Finish off with 50 crunches

Take a 1 minute break and repeat it 1-2 times!

*modify if necessary!*

What do you think? Are you up for the challenge? This will definitely get the BURN on!
“You’ve got to say, I think that if I keep working at this and want it badly enough I can have it. It’s called perseverance.” -Lee Iacocca

Our guest this week is a mother of three kids, a graduate of Health Education,  president and developer of the Super Healthy Kids, Healthy Habits Plate. A very busy individual indeed, please welcome Amy Roskelley!

Many parents are concerned about their kids eating behaviors.  Kids can be picky, stubborn, and can go for long periods of time surviving on mac and cheese. It can get even more frustrating when you find something healthy they like, only for them to reject it the next day.  So how do you make sure they are getting what they need without turning into the Grinch?  Here are a few ideas.

•           First, chill out.  If they are growing and have energy to sustain them for the demands of their little lives, than you probably are overly concerned.

•           Stop buying what you don’t want them to eat.  If you truly think your kid will starve if you stop buying hot dogs altogether, I promise you are wrong. I cut my 5 year old off cold turkey from hot dogs, and 1 year later, he is still asking for hot dogs.  But we don’t have any, so he eats something else.

•           Let them get hungry.  Food always tastes better, and they are more likely to try something if they are hungry.

•           For preschoolers, use the red light/ green light method.  Foods are all assigned red, yellow, or green.  Green light foods can be eaten anytime; yellow light foods, sometimes; and red light foods should be avoided.

•           Do not regulate the amount your child is eating.  You should be the one to decide WHAT they eat; they can decide HOW MUCH they eat.  Leave the “clean plate club” in the past where it belongs.

•           Be a role model.  If you eat good, healthy food, your child will more likely adopt similar habits. It’s been proven example is more effective than bribing when it comes to eating something.

•           Place a poster of the food guide pyramid into your pantry. Kids as little as 2, will look at our poster to decide what food they want to eat. Educating them about variety and good food choices gives them information rather than battling the “because I said so” model.

Fantastic tips! Amy has such a creative way to get the positive message out at her blog. The kids in her blog are Cereal Boy, 9 years old. Then The Flip-flopper, She’s 7 years old. Also there is ketchup boy….he is 4. Visit Super Healthy Kids for fun, healthy reading!

The Adventures of Rosy Blue in Living Your Dreams.

DR. J put’s it together with Language and brain fitness.

Go Blake! Get Faster. Go Longer.

DC shows us What’s Underneath??

Natural asks “would you rather be blind or deaf and why? Oh, Sense Less One.

Mark Hayward does it again in Six Life Lessons Learned from Triathlon Training!

Thanks again everybody for stopping by, enjoy your weekend…..

“It is only when we truly know and understand that we have a limited time on earth and that we have no way of knowing when our time is up that we will begin to live each day to the fullest, as if it were the only one we had.” -Elizabeth Kubler-Ross

Dog Food/Cat Food Squats- Grab a bag of dog/cat food. Hold it close to you. Keeping your back as straight as possible, chest up, bend the knees to about 90 degrees and stand back up. You are working quads, hamstrings, and glutes, as well as abdominals! *Beware of dog! (3 sets, 15 times each)

Kid Press- If you have a young child, lie on your back while you are holding them on your chest. Press them up until your arms are straight and still over chest. They will LOVE this! If you don’t have access to a child, push-ups will do fine! Great for triceps and chest. *You may want to do it over a couch or a soft area just in case! (3 sets, 15 times each)

Stair Calf Raise- Stand on the edge of a step so that your heels are hanging off (on the balls of your feet). Let your heels drop below the step and raise up as high as you can onto your toes. Great calf work! (3 sets, 15 times each)

Now do some stretches with the little one if you have one!

In our journey in life, we encounter so many roadways in our travels. Some overly populated roads, some just perfect and scenic, some plain crazy, some are fun and then there’s the road less traveled… It is the road, where if we have a choice, we will not have to. Yet once or twice in our lives, destiny makes us to. And this is where I’m traveling now…this is my story…this is my life right now…Not too long ago,my husband lost his job due to the bad economy. I could have cursed the economy, bitched and whined about how life has treated us poorly but I chose not to partake in that. I’d rather spend my time and energy focusing on the positive and bright things in life. No matter how glum and bleak the day ahead of us looked. I know that as human beings, it is easy for us to dwell on the negative things rather than the positive which only aggravates us physically, driving us into depression and making us prisoners of our own self-destructive ways! It is such a vicious cycle! I am no superhero. I did cry. I was sad but I did not let misery take control of me. Instead my family and I took control of our situation! We sacrificed a few things here and there to make us capable of braving the storm that came our way and try to survive it in one piece. I told my husband that we may not have all the little luxuries we use to enjoy in life but at least, “we still have each other”… It was a powerful summation of assurance that nothing else in this world matters for as long as we have each other. That whatever comes our way, we’ll brave it together and we’ll survive it together…

Our lives went on partly unfazed from that fateful day, I focused on my jewelry-making and crafty side to help make ends meet, and just when we thought we we’re getting along fine surviving this treacherous road, we hit another roadblock. Last week, my employer scaled my work down from full-time to part-time! It was a major blow to us especially since my husband is still unemployed and we’re barely making ends meet and now this! It drove us deeper into the danger zone of this hazardous road. You’re probably imagining I’m definitely cursing and swearing at the world now but alas no! I refuse to give up! For as long as I’m standing on my own two feet, I will keep on fighting (imagine me with tears now - I do get emotional, I’m human afterall) until I find that light at the end of this dark road.This tumultuous journey in our lives has brought us blessings in return. We found out who our friends were, and found out that people do care. Generous people who were good Samaritans and bestowed help anonymously at that. This is a life changing experience and humbling too. Tough times will be amidst us but I have faith that it will get better…we’ll reach the end of this road no matter how long it takes…To some this may be a sad story but to me I can only think of it as a story of perseverance and lots of faith…For as long as what my husband affirmed to me in return still holds true ( when I told him the sad news) :  ”you still got us and we still have each other” …we’ll get through this. We”ll be scarred, we’ll suffer a bit, but we’ll survive it…

On a happier note, one of the roads I travel to in life is about to end. Today, November 6th, my final league with the Immigration has finally commenced. Today, I am Alien no more.For more updates on my journeys, follow my blog at Zen Ventures And to check my creative & crafty creations, visit: Golden Flower Creations and remember, if you ever end up in that road less traveled, fear not, you’re not alone! Who knows you might see us there!

Thank you Mark for this opportunity to share my journey. And to those who read it, Thank you. Remember us in prayer during the Holidays…Maricris

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Thank you Maricris for sharing so much of your story with us! What a fantastic journey, without a doubt your challenges are only making you stronger!