I Wanna Be a Fit Mama - Day 7

Back again with my report!  Yesterday I ate well all day & then gave myself a diet "night off" from dinner forward to celebrate at a birthday party.  Here is what I ate today:

A fun diet dinner: Taco Bell Fresco Tacos!  3 hard tacos for 420 calories!  YUM! 

For exercise today I visited my friend's gym to go to a Body Combat class.  A Tae Bo-like cardio class.  I plan to continue with Insanity tomorrow.

Thanks for tracking with me for all of these reports.  It helps to know I'm not alone in my efforts.  Can you relate?  What fitness goals have you set for yourself lately?  I would love to hear about it!

Until tomorrow!

Day 5 FTW!!!

Hey y'all.  I must say, today was a turning point for me!  Today was the first time I actually made it all the way through the workout!  I still had to take breaks & modify here & there, but I made it to the end!  Also, I felt stronger & more flexible.  It gets better!!  Yesssssss.

Here is what I ate today.  It was pretty awesome for a diet menu.  Pizza Pasta casserole & a crescent roll for dinner.  M&Ms, popcorn, chocolate cake, 2 cups of coffee.  Not bad.  It feels like I'm cheating a little, but really I just ate less of the yummy food.  

I have an addendum to the above menu.  I ate a mini grill cheese sandwich using those extra calories & it was good.

Until tomorrow!

5 Photos from My Instagram This Week - 5 On Friday Link Up

Today, once again, I am linking up with the fabulous ladies listed above for 5 on Friday.

My 5 are photos from my Instagram (jacquelinepresley) account this week:

1)  This first photo was taken at Painting with a Twist in Fayetteville.  It's one of those places where someone stands up front & directs you through painting a picture.   This was my painting:

We have a group of girlies which we are now calling the Birthday Club because that's usually when we find the time to get together; on our b-days!  Here we are in our painting aprons:

We were there to celebrate Leah's birthday (see below).  Here we are with our finished paintings!

This is a lovely group of ladies that I am blessed to share friendship & fellowship with.


2)  This is a copy of the modified recipe I created.  Blueberry Muffins at just 103 calories each:

3)  I started Insanity this week.  Today is day 5.  My caption was, "This guy is going to kill me!"  Indeed, my muscles have never been this sore, but I will press on!!

4)  I am GOOFY.  That being said, I love getting ready to go somewhere & I love these pink rollers!  I was thinking I looked like a housewife from the 1950's, so I had to share that with everyone I know!!  That's just how I am.

5)  This last picture is from our play date today.  Shelley, one of the Birthday Club ladies lives right down the road from me & we children around the same ages.  We got together today & had a great time while our children played together.  At one point, she had each child pick a farm animal out of a bin, then she read them a farm story & awarded the kids with M&Ms if that sat quietly & listened.  Super cute.  

It's fun to look back over the week at the highlights.  What a great week!  

Hope you all have a restful, fun weekend!!

Thank GOD for Cardio Recovery Day!!

I was so incredibly sore this morning.  I did not want to put the workout DVD in today at all.  When I went to pull it out of the sleeve, this is what I saw:

It put a smile on my face.  THIS is exactly how I felt this morning!  Ha!  It was such a lighter day than the last 3; stretching, slow movements.  It was still work though, I was sweating, but it was doable.  YES.  I can be insane again tomorrow.

Here is what I ate today:

We had a date night tonight & went out to eat.  I did not go over my calorie limit!!  I had to leave some great tasting food on my plate, but I pushed it away!  Small victories.

Day 3 Check-In

Hey y'all!  Just a quick check-in to let you know that this boat's still afloat.  I did Day 3 of Insanity.  I survived!  My whole body is super sore & it really hurts to bend over, but I worked out 5 minutes longer today than yesterday!  Woo hoo!

I also stayed under my calorie goal.  It shows that I'm under 111 calories, but that is just after I added in my exercise.  

Not looking forward to tomorrow's workout at all, but I will do it anyway.  I'm looking forward to the benefits though!!

I Made it Through Day 2!

Yay!!!  I was able to get through 20 minutes of Insanity today & kept under my calorie limit: 

Woo hoo!  I always feel uneasy about using the calories I gain from exercising (note it shows I'm still under today's calories).  I worry it's not accurate because maybe I didn't keep up a consistent intensity or maybe a vigorous workout to me is moderate to someone else?  

Let me know if have any thoughts on that.  


Until tomorrow!!! xoxo

I Want to Be a Fit Mama!

I've gotten off track lately.  I have a really hard time being consistent with my fitness & health in general.  I get excited about it.  I get into it for awhile, but then I always fizzle out.  So?  New strategy!  Accountability.  I would like to share my journey with you as I attempt to become more consistent & healthy. My hope is that in knowing these details will be read, it will motivate & encourage me to press on.  Maybe it will also motivate & encourage you?  That would be extra awesome.

So, I'm going to be transparent with you.  I'm going to tell you everything I eat!  I'm going to tell you if I exercised or not.  I'm even going to tell you how much I weigh!!!  I want to improve my life & that requires change.  It requires effort & a willingness to do things that are uncomfortable to me.  I'm open to that because I get excited about what's on the other side of that:

Feeling comfortable in my own skin; my clothes
Having more energy (for me & my family)
Setting a good example for my children

With that being said, I weigh 133.6.  That puts my BMI at 24.4 (You can calculate yours here).  It's just a hair under the overweight category, but it's the most I've ever weighed outside of pregnancy/post-pregnancy.  I feel the most comfortable weighing about 110 & in a size 2.  So, that's where I'd like to be, but I also realize that being fit is about more than a number on a scale or clothing size.  It's the choices we make that lead to our health & well-being.

So, I plan to log what I eat with the Lose It! app on my iPhone.  Here's a copy of my food log for today:

I also plan to get some sort of exercise each day.  Today I started with the popular Insanity workout program.  I did the first little Fit Test.  I made it through 15 of the 25 minutes & about dropped dead!  Not really, but it was very hard.  I'm not intending to promote this program, but my husband had purchased it awhile back, so we already had it.  I also have known a few people who enjoyed good results with it, so I thought I'd give it a try.  

I'm also taking my vitamins, drinking water, getting sleep & attempting to reduce stress in my life.

I will not do this perfectly.  I will make mistakes, but I feel hopeful about the benefits of focusing on health for my life.

Does this resonate with you?  I would love to hear what you have to say about your own process.  Feel free to email me anytime.  I'd love to hear from you!

Reclaiming Our Spaces: Organizing a School Donation Closet

This week I have been doing an organizing job for a local primary school.  They have a huge closet for clothing donations & supplies for the kids there. Such a great resource, but it was crowded & messy; disorganized.  

The first thing we did was take everything out & sort it:

Here's my plan for the space:

My goal is for the teachers to be able to go in there real quick to grab what they need without having to dig around.  

So, we plan to divide the room down the middle.  Boys items on the left & girls items on the right.  

We have ordered 6 sets of heavy-duty plastic drawers to go beneath the rack.  We got rid of about 1/2 of the clothes that were there because they were either stained or had holes or weren't the right size.  We also painted the walls & cleaned the area real well.  

To be continued…

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Holly worked on her daughter's room this week.  You can check it out here.

Liebster Award!

I was Nominated for the LIEBSTER AWARD

by Kylie from Absolutely Arkansas my new bloggy friend!

If you like my blog, then you should really check out hers!!

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About the award:  Liebster is German for sweetest, kindest, nicest, dearest, beloved, kind, pleasant, valued, cute, endearing & welcome.This award is passed from Blogger to Blogger. It’s an award for bloggers with under 200 subscribers & is to encourage each other that they are doing a great job & to keep it up!  Sweet right?

Along with the award, there are 11 questions that were asked (just realized I answered the wrong ones, but I'm just going to leave it as my kiddos are going crazy for some attention now) to help your readers get to know you better. Here are my answers below:

1.    Why did you start blogging?

I started blogging in 2009 after I had my first child as a way to connect to the outside world as a stay-at-home-mom.  I had a huge passion for decorating, organizing, sewing…really anything creative & I wanted to connect with other people with the same interests.

2. What is your favorite book?

Hmm…besides the B-I-B-L-E?  Probably, 

 The Search for Significance, 

Where is God When it Hurts by Phillip Yancey, 

Boundaries by Dr. Henry Cloud & Dr John Townsend, 

ok & non self help: the Harry Potters,

The Hobbit, 

The Lord of the Rings,

…you know, all those.

3. What makes you laugh out loud?

My husband.  He's is hilarious: 

4. Who or what inspires you? This can be blog-related or not.

I'm inspired by godly women who are also humble & transparent.  Several women come to mind.  Here are two:  

Evelyn Stilwell.  Besides my own mother, no other woman has had a greater impact on my life.  She is the Proverbs 31 woman & she lives her life poured out for others.

Michelle Duggar.  I love the gentleness in her parenting, but also her non-judgmental spirit.

5. Who would play you in a movie?

          Staci Keanan probably looks the most like me?  

6. How long have you been blogging?

June 2009 - 4 Years off & on

7. What time of the day do you write?

Usually during nap time or after the kids are in bed.

8. What is the most annoying song in the universe?

Hmm…Anything by Weird Al or Barney?

9. What part of your home is your favorite?

My Master Suite.  It's the reason we bought the house.  My bedroom is large enough to have an office in without being crowded.  Our master bath is large enough to have to whole family in without being crowded.  It has a whirlpool tub and I love all of the finishes & hardware.  The closet is one of the biggest ones I have ever seen & you can hear NOTHING when you are in there with the door shut.  I don't have great pictures on them yet, but here are some little bits to give you an idea.

10. What is your favorite recipe?

This Cranberry Almond Scone Recipe is pretty good.

11. What is your favorite season?

Right now FALL sounds amazing, but what I really think lately is every season except summer!  Hate being out in the heat unless I have a pool or an ocean to jump into. 

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Here is a list of the blogs I'd like to pass this award onto!!!

Simply Organized NWA

Lorrabeth

Allow Him To Lead

Crazy 8

Nominees:  Make your own Liebster post answering the above 11 questions, & choose some other amazing bloggers that you think should get this award too!   Make sure to pick bloggers who have less than 200 subscribers!!

My Living Room Walls are Pretty Bare

I'm just going to tell you, my living room is very naked!  When we moved into this house 2 years ago, I had no idea what to do with all of the walls!!  I'm not used to having higher ceilings and everything I had on my walls in the last house just got lost on the walls in the new house; too small.  So, the walls have sat there pretty much empty.  

Now, I still haven't done very much because I have been so unsure of what I wanted to do.  It's pretty funny really.  I've invited friends over & asked them what they would do, but have still remained pretty indecisive.

I put a mirror on the mantel:

Then, I put another mirror on the mantel:

Better right?

I hung some crosses up:

Last week I found something else!  I was shopping yard sales & found 3 mirrors for $10!  

Here they are hung:

OK, here's the whole room now (or least the most bare part):

I did not clean up for this pic.  Ha!  Real life folks!

It's too plain.  What would you do?  I can't decide at all.  There is nothing on the wall with the window or the wall with the TV.  Ideas?