Tuesday, September 21, 2010

I LOVE sparkpeople.com

Okay so...last week I discovered Sparkpeople.com.  An awesome FREE website that includes nutrition tracking with menus, fitness tracking with online exercise videos & printable workout guides.  It will track the number of glasses of water you drink each day, your total calories consumed & worked off (I haven't found just general everyday activity calories burned, but deliberate calories you can enter). DID I MENTION IT'S FREE????

Reasons Why I Love Sparkpeople.com

1. It's FREE!!!!
2. Meal/menu planning....all I have to do is print the grocery list, mark off what I already have, shop & then prepare & cook. Oh yeah, I can choose different things, search recipes, never cook something I wouldn't eat etc.
3. It helps me set practical goals that will provoke a lifestyle change!
4. They also have free apps for my Droid phone!!!
5. It's easy to use.
6. It's practical.
7. It's FREE!!!

OK. So, the first week was shaky, basically my laptop cord broke & then when my battery died I couldn't use it anymore...gotta order a new cord! Anyway, all I really accomplished the first week was I gave up drinking soda.  I haven't even missed it.  Just from reading some articles on sparkpeople.com I got to thinking about what I consumed & decided that soda was the least productive calories I took in.  I am not saying I will never drink it ever again...but who knows. As for getting started, I needed to be drinking more water & this was an easy fix. 

This week however, I decided I am going to walk every night after the boys are in bed.  So, Monday = Day 1 + good friends = 2.5 miles walking at the track...oooh & we even did one set of stairs!  Then I came home, logged onto sparkpeople.com & planned our meals for the week & made my grocery list (my printer is broken). Woke up early (for me), went to the grocery store before the boys woke up. Bad side is I spent almost double my grocery budget for the week! YIKES!!! Maybe it will get better....anyway! I some breakfast & then made some muffins.  They smell & look amazing!  They are Applesauce Oatmeal Muffins.  And as much as I would love to dive into one, I will wait until breakfast for tomorrow! Then...if they taste as good as they look & smell I will share the recipe & nutrition info! 

So, I LOVE sparkpeople.com 
Check it out!!!

Friday, September 3, 2010

Just thoughts.....

I often wonder
1- who reads my blog
2- is my blog for the reader or for me

Then I got to thinking about the blogs I read....undoubtedly when there is a new post I get excited to read it...thinking it was written for me  or the reader in general.  But I know that it is also written because the writer needs to write, share thoughts, sometimes vent, praise, etc.  As I write this, I am doing it for me, but also thinking of you the reader & hoping that my words can fill a little spot, make you laugh, cry, or shout!  So it can kinda run in a circle all the way around!

But, I really started to think that it is the same way with lots of things in life.  For instance, at bedtime, Lincoln always wants to snuggle with Mama....I would rather snuggle when he comes sweetly into my room in the morning & wakes me up.  So tonight, while laying in bed snuggling Lincoln, I was thinking about the whole thing. Thinking the whole time that I wanted to go clean up (what was I thinking), come down to my computer check facebook, maybe work on pictures etc., and thinking about his sweet boy who wanted to snuggle!  After snuggling a few moments I told him "goodnight, I love you!" he wanted to "snuggle more." So, I gave in (rarely happens- at bedtime anyway) and stayed to snuggle, thinking about this sweet boy who needed his Mama & that this was all for him...I was fulfilling my mommy job & snuggling. At that moment, he reached his tiny little arms around my neck...one on each side & pulled me in tight.  So close that his chubby little cheek was pressed tightly into my eye socket, so soft & squishy cute!! Then, I felt his eyelashes (they can make any girl jealous), batting up & down on my forehead. OH MELT MY HEART!!!  Suddenly, these snuggles are not for him but for me!  I LOVE BEING HIS MOMMY!!!! I AM SO SPOILED!!

Now, I'm not saying it always happens like tonight, but all I know is that when I was willing to give him a little more of me that he needed....I was the one more immensely blessed than I could have thought!

I want to be this way more in my life.  When I think I have nothing left to give, I want to give anyway. Not because of the blessing that could come, well kinda because of the possible blessing, but more because I want to give more.  I like the blessings, but the feeling of knowing how much I enjoyed that sweet moment with my little boy, how much more it meant to him. Also, I didn't leave him crying in his room not wanting to go to bed yet!