A few months ago, I worked with a holistic health counselor from Artful Balance. Chelsea Conard is a long-time friend, and is based in New York, NY. I learned a lot from her (including how to love kale!). The main thing that stuck with me, though, was regarding exercise. She had a great progressive weekly exercise program that combined strength training with cardio, and it took less than an hour to do. I was great about it the first week, and got 3 days worth of exercise in. The second week, I was supposed to do 4 days of the exercise routine...I didn't. I couldn't find the time. My kids wouldn't nap when I needed to be working out, and it was impossible to work out while they were awake. Unless I wanted to get sweaty right before bed, I had no chance of working out. I got very frustrated with the whole situation, feeling like I was doomed to be a "frumpy mom" all my life.
I told Chelsea that between remodeling my bathroom, preparing my gardens for planting, and building a chicken coop (not to mention running around after my kids all day, every day!), I had no time in my life for a regimented exercise routine. I don't have a gym membership, and even if I did, I wouldn't find time to use it. I didn't feel like there was any way I could work out in the "conventional" sense of going to a gym multiple times a week.
Always encouraging, Chelsea told me that MY way of exercise was really the "conventional" way. She said that our bodies were designed to do things like remodel, yard work, tend the kids, etc. She said that people go to the gym generally because they either 1) don't have a yard/house to work on, or 2) don't enjoy doing the work so they pay someone else to do it. That really resonated with me; I got my mind back on track when she told me that, and I haven't felt guilty about not "working out" since then. Lord knows I have enough yard work, remodeling, and chasing kids to keep me busy!
So for now, my cardio is playing tag and red-light-green-light with my boys. My strength training comes in the form of picking baby boy up and down and lugging him everywhere and doing yard work. It doesn't cost me a thing. It makes my children happy. I don't have to worry about putting them in a sub-par gym childcare. And you know what? There's no better gym in the world than my own back yard!
Moving on...
Breakfast was eggs and sausage. Lunch was leftover burgers from last night's dinner. Tonight for dinner we had steak stir-fry. I used the ever tasty grass-fed sirloin tip steak from my freezer, sliced peppers and onions, and then because it was beginning to look exactly like the chicken fajita salad we had a few nights ago, I dumped in a big portion of Thai style stir-fry veggies from the freezer - red and yellow peppers, edamame, carrots, celery, onions, baby corn cobs, and I'm sure I'm leaving something out. The recipe said to add some Tamari soy sauce (gluten free), but I had Bragg's Liquid Amino on hand (also gluten free), so that's what I used. I also added some grated ginger, because well, I love the combo of ginger and beef. I put it atop a bed of romaine lettuce, and called it done. It was delicious; and even though it was quite similar to the chicken from the other night, the seasonings made all the difference!
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