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Balancing Blogging and Mothering

I squinted to make sense of scattered letters through the glare on my screen.  Focused attempts at deciphering HTML became distracted by bursts of giggling from the other side of my window.  Rejoicing from finally making a text box that scrolled, I missed a small excited voice asking me to “look at me”.  Dripping hair and sopping wet footsteps ran inside to beckon me to join their mini water park complete with a blow up monkey pool.  Promising just five more minutes I shooed away wet fingers from my computer.  Next I looked up and the time for sprinklers, popsicles, and water slides … Continue reading →

Have You Ever Kept A Scripture Journal?

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These days it seems like we are living in a digital world. I have the scriptures on my IPod that I can easily pull out and read. In church, I frequently see people using their smart devices to read their scriptures in class. My primary chorister even uses her IPad to lead the music each week. While technology is a beautiful tool, I wonder about its effects on my own scripture study. No longer do we use red pencils to read our scriptures. And, are the days gone where your children might catch you reading your scriptures and be inspired … Continue reading →

Six Months Post Partum

One year ago I was only fourteen weeks pregnant with my daughter (although I did not know I was pregnant with a girl). I was still wearing all of my pre pregnancy clothes and still in throngs of morning sickness. In a lot of ways I am in the same clothes wearing place now at six months post partum as I was a year ago. At six months post partum, I feel completely back to my pre pregnancy state. All of my clothes fit almost the same as they did before. A few more stretch marks make my clothes fit … Continue reading →

Fifteen Weeks Post Partum

At twelve weeks post partum I wrote about being stuck in a rut of sorts. While my muscles were getting toned and my clothes were starting to fit again, I was not losing any weight. I made some changes by watching what I was eating more closely and keeping track of my food intake with my food journal. The biggest change has been cutting back on sweets. What I discovered was that I was going way over my breastfeeding caloric needs. I was eating when I was not hungry because whatever it was that I was eating tasted good e.g. … Continue reading →

Keeping Track of Your Progress

In my last blog I wrote about ways to stay motivated when it comes to fitness. I mentioned one of them being to keep track of your progress. Every step forward, no matter how small, is important. When you can really see the accomplishments, it encourages you to keep it up. Because nothing is more discouraging than to feel like you aren’t making any kind of progress. There are a variety of ways that you can keep track of your progress. One is through a pedometer. This is a great way to learn how many steps you take a day, … Continue reading →

Three Months Post Partum

I am almost in disbelief that it has already been three months since my daughter’s birth. I was thinking, hoping, and mostly dreaming (apparently) that I would be completely back to my normal non pregnant state by now, but I still have a long way to go. My perceptions and expectations are being forced into change, e.g. there is not a lot I can do to make my ribs and hips go back into their narrower place (it takes more time than I anticipated). I am caught in kind of a weird transitional place right now. Most of my clothes … Continue reading →

Twelve Weeks Post Partum

I have reached another one of the post partum milestones. At twelve weeks post partum I have mixed feeling about my progress in the last six weeks. While change has definitely taken place, other aspects of my post pregnancy fitness seem stuck. Compared to my first post partum experience, I am leaps and bounds ahead the second time around, but in terms of my own self imposed goals, I am way behind. I am continuing to exercise at least five times a week. If I am especially motivated, I will get in a workout or two over the weekend as … Continue reading →

Fitness Journal – Your Mood – Part 5

Continuing on with my series on creating a fitness journal, we are now going to look at the importance of tracking your mood and improving it. If you are keeping a fitness journal, you should have a section where you note how you are feeling. Your mood can change the course of your day. But there are ways to improve it. However before we get to that, let’s think about why we would want to keep track of it. Understanding your overall health includes how you feel on a daily basis. Are there certain days of the week where your … Continue reading →

Fitness Journal – Sleep – Part 4

So far we have talked about creating a fitness journal which keeps track of your eating and exercise. Some may leave it at that. You may look as those two areas as being the only important ones when it comes to fitness. But fitness extends beyond that. Overall good fitness can only be had when we take a good look at every area, including our sleep. Sleep is vital. I really don’t get impressed when people tell me how little sleep they get because they are so busy or they have this and that to do. I value my sleep. … Continue reading →

Creating a Fitness Journal – Part 1

Sometimes we need to see things in black and white. This way we can’t deny the truth, whether it is the amount of exercise we are getting or the types of foods that we are eating. If you really want to be successful in developing and maintaining a fit lifestyle, I strongly suggest putting together a fitness journal. You can make this as simple or as fancy as you like. You can use a spiral notebook, your computer, a binder, whatever works best for you. Before you put together a fitness journal however, we need to think about the key … Continue reading →