Last Day of Pre School

Where has the time gone?  After that crazy winter we had it seemed like summer would never come!  Today is the kids' last day of pre-shool. 

 

It seems like not that long ago we were switching day cares and they were starting their first day of preschool for the 2012-2013 school year. 

 

My how they have grown! 

 

Lauren is quite the little lady and Colton certainly is losing some of that babyness in his face. 

This is Lauren's last year ever for pre-school.  She will start summer school for kindergarten in June and then will officially start kindergarten in August.  I can't believe my baby is starting school! 

When pre-school starts back up in the fall Colton will have graduated and will be with the "big kids" since he will turn 3 over the summer. 

I am so glad I took that first day picture.  I am definitely going to do this every year to compare how much they change in really a short amount of time.

Blueberry Pineapple Smoothie

Smoothies are often my go to breakfast.  It is so easy for me to throw all my ingredients into the blender, have the kids help me push the buttons and viola...breakfast is served!  Since I have a smoothie pretty much every single day I am always looking for new combinations.  Pineapple is pretty high in sugar and calories but It gives the smoothies such sweetness and refreshing flavor!  My other favorite smoothie with pineapple in it is the Green Tropical Smoothie. 

 

 

Blueberry Pineapple Smoothie

Ingredients

1 cup almond milk {unsweetened vanilla}

6 oz {3/4 cup} vanilla Light N Fit Yogurt or 1 serving of your favorite protein powder

1 cup pineapple

1/2 cup frozen blueberries

1 cup baby spinach leaves

Directions

Place all ingredients in the blender.  Pulse until smooth and delicious.  Pour into your favorite cup, sip with a straw and enjoy!



With smoothies the options are endless. I often add chia seeds or ground flax meal. I have also tried them with cottage cheese instead of yogurt.  

 

What is your favorite smoothie concoction? 

Stay FOCUSED!

It is time to recap my goals from last week and set new ones!  I really feel like this is helping hold me accountable. 

Last week I had three goals and I would just like to say that I kicked butt! 

My first goal was to do the 30 Day Shred plus an additional workout.  CHECK MATE! I did level one of the 30 Day Shred Monday through Friday and then Saturday, Sunday and this morning I did level two.  My plan is to do each level for 5 days and then alternate them for the remainder of the 30 days.  In addition to the 30 Day shred I ran on Monday, Wednesday and Friday and on Tuesday and Saturday I did the elliptical and then Thursday, Friday and Sunday I did Zumba Core. I just got this and I love it.  It seriously works your core which is something I struggle with.  I can tell a difference in the shape of my belly in just one week. 

My second goal was to stay under my calorie goal and I did just that.  Friday I worked out extra extra hard so I was over what I normally eat but considering I burned 1188 calories from exercise alone it was merrited.  Plus I ate really well and didn't indulge on anything I shoudln't have. 

My third goal from last week was to run 3+ miles in under 45 minutes and better my time from last week.  Brian joined me this week and we did 3.19 miled in 45 minutes which is slightly better than the 3.12 miles previously.  I was hoping for a bigger difference but my goal was to better my time and I did do just that. 

 

Alright, time to set goals for this week. 

 

1. Stay Focused.  I did so well last week, I do not want to get off track.  Not weighing myself has been both a challenge and a blessing.  I really want to know if I have lost weight so it is hard keeping myself from weighing but I have been focusing on other things.  I have taken a hard look at my body and areas I would like to change and then areas that ARE changing.  My pants are fitting more losely and that my dears is super motivating!  I have had several Non Scale Victories this week and if I had been focused on what the scale said it is quite possible I would have missed those!

 

2. Continue with the 30 Day Shred.

 

3. Walk/run at least 10,000 steps each day.  Since I have gotten my fitbit I have been tracking all kinds of things and challenging myself to get up and move more while I am at work.  I am pretty stationary for most of the day but for the last several weeks I have been making myself stand up for the majority of the day whenever possible.  If I must be at my desk then I am taking a walk around the store about every hour and today I started taking the long way to and from the bathroom.  I know these are little changes but I am confident they will add up. 

Laurenisms

Look our balloons are having a party!

 

 

♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥

Look Mom, I licked my finger and put it on the black stuff on my other hand and it just came off. Just like that.

♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥

“Mommy does your work have bathrooms?”

“Well yeah”

“Then why do you go to the bathroom everyday as soon as you get home?”

♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥

Fitbit Flex

I am not sure of how many women would actually ask for a fitness related gadget for Mother's Day or how many husbands would actually buy them for fear their wife may take it the wrong way!  HA!  I hinted to Brian that I wanted a few very specific items to aid me in my weight loss journey.  One of them was some sort of fitness tracker.  I originally told him I wanted the BodyMedia arm band.  I had seen it on the Biggest Loser and thought it looked cool but after researching it a bit I decided on the fitbit flex wrist bracelet. 

 

 

 

I liked the look of it. It is less conspicuous than the arm band would have been. I have been wearing it for a few days and everyone thinks it is just a bracelet. They also have extra bands with fun colors you can buy if you want to change it up a bit.   

I also liked the fact it is waterproof.

 

With the fitbit the tracking and website use is free! And if you have a compatible cell phone that will work with the fitbit app, that is free as well. 

 

I am hoping the fitbit will make my life easier.  I can sync it to myfitnesspal.com which I have been using for a long time now to calculate my calories and log my daily intake of water and exercise.  I synced my fitbit account to my myfitnesspal account and all I have to do it continue to log my food and exercise on myfitnesspal.com and it automatically transfers over to fitbit!

 

The first couple of days have been all about figuring it out.  Does it work?  Is it tracking correctly? Etc.  Those are all the questions I have been working on learning about!

 

Here is a screenshot of my dashboard on fitbit.com.  You can customize this so you view only the things you want to.  I like to keep tabs on pretty much everything!

 

 

When you click on one of the squres it will expand to show you where you are at for the day.  This one is a shot of my calorie burn vs how much I have ate.  Since I just started using the fitbit this week I only have a few days of data so the rest is just estimated. 

 

Throughout the day when I am wearing my flex band at work I can keep tabs on my process by just tapping on the top of it. It will light up and depending on how many lights it has on it is how close to my goal I am.  The default setting for that was set to show how close I am to my step goal.  I just left it at that but you can change it to distance, calories or very active minutes.  You can set your own goals too!

Another thing that the fitbit flex tracks is sleep.  I am amazed at the accuracy of it!  You see below, the red line?  that is where I got up to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night.  It was spot on too!  The first night I wore it I slept horribly.  The dog has been sick so Brian and I were up with her.  Colton woke up several times and was awake for close to an hour and the fitbit tracked all of that!  When I looked at my log the next day I could tell exactly what happened and when and the times were all correct.   You can also set an alarm on it to wake you up.  The band will vibrate several times, stop and then start up again until you turn it off.  This has been amazing!  I don't have to worry about my alarm clock waking up Brian or the kids. 

So far I am loving wearing it and I don't even notice the  bracelet.  I do wish that my cell phone was one of the compatible devices so it would synce my progress throughout the day but it is fun to see my dashboard light up when I get home and see how much I moved around during the day.  My job doesn't allow me to be super active so I am trying to be concious about getting up and moving around more and making sure I am getting all my steps in! 

 

*****This is not a sponsored post.  As I mentioned above this was a gift to me from my husband.  These opinions are all my own!