I love being creative and sometimes I just don't have the time or energy to do the crafty things I want to. This week has been a great week to get my creative juices going again. It was through the craftiness of others who got it going again in me. I feel so inspired watching other people create and use their gifts. So, hopefully I can continue it and maybe even inspire someone else to do something crafty as well.
It started out with a Stampin' Up card party lead by my sister on Monday. It was nice to do this again, it had been so long since I had gone cause I missed the last one. We made 4 cards that you can see here that were simply beautiful, ate food, had a lot of laughs and a lot of fun. On Tuesday, I helped paint some signs for our Church. We are going through Freedom in Christ over lent and our Pastors wife made signs to hang in the church to go with this. They are painted to look like stain glass and are looking good already. It was fun, I have not painted in a long time, but there are still lots to do, so I am looking forward to doing this again. And the rest of the week, I have been working on some crocheting that I have wanted to do for a while but haven't gotten around too. I finished one item that I put on hold for a while and starting some new crochet designs that I have been wanting to do for a long time. I still have a ways to go on them but it is fun to do something new.
Friday, February 25, 2011
Monday, February 21, 2011
Benefits of Strength Training
There are a lot of women out there who are afraid of gyms and especially strength training. All the equipment can be overwhelming and scary, especially if you have never used it before and easy to injure yourself. The other reason why many women are afraid of strength training is they don't want to bulk up or look like a body builder.
There are some great benefits to adding strength training to your workout.
1) You continue to burn calories even after your workout. In cardio workouts, you can burn lots of calories, but once you finish, your body will only burn a few more in the next half hour. With strength workouts, you body will continue to burn calories for hours, and the more muscle you build, your body will need to use more calories for these muscles on a daily basis. So strength training can help you reach your weight loss goals faster.
2) Once you lose the weight, your body will looked toned and sexy. When you do strength training with smaller weights and do higher repetitions, you are toning your muscles rather than bulking up. It is harder than most women think to bulk up and build big muscles (although some women naturally have an easy time building muscle).
When doing strength training, especially at a gym with heavy and strange equipment, it is important to get proper training on how to use it. There are usually people working there who can show you how to use it safely, as well as show you exercises that can help you reach your goals. If you are doing it at home, and don't have lots of money to buy weights, there are some easy ways to do strength training.
1) use cans or other household items as weights. Keep them small, especially to start with, between 2.5 and 5 lbs.
2) buy tubing or exercise bands. These can be used for lots of different exercises and you can make it as hard or easy as you want or need for that exercise.
3) buy 2.5 or 5 lb weights. They don't cost that much and that is all you will need especially in the beginning.
4) use your own body weight. Lots of exercises can be done just using your own weight.
There are some great benefits to adding strength training to your workout.
1) You continue to burn calories even after your workout. In cardio workouts, you can burn lots of calories, but once you finish, your body will only burn a few more in the next half hour. With strength workouts, you body will continue to burn calories for hours, and the more muscle you build, your body will need to use more calories for these muscles on a daily basis. So strength training can help you reach your weight loss goals faster.
2) Once you lose the weight, your body will looked toned and sexy. When you do strength training with smaller weights and do higher repetitions, you are toning your muscles rather than bulking up. It is harder than most women think to bulk up and build big muscles (although some women naturally have an easy time building muscle).
When doing strength training, especially at a gym with heavy and strange equipment, it is important to get proper training on how to use it. There are usually people working there who can show you how to use it safely, as well as show you exercises that can help you reach your goals. If you are doing it at home, and don't have lots of money to buy weights, there are some easy ways to do strength training.
1) use cans or other household items as weights. Keep them small, especially to start with, between 2.5 and 5 lbs.
2) buy tubing or exercise bands. These can be used for lots of different exercises and you can make it as hard or easy as you want or need for that exercise.
3) buy 2.5 or 5 lb weights. They don't cost that much and that is all you will need especially in the beginning.
4) use your own body weight. Lots of exercises can be done just using your own weight.
Tuesday, February 8, 2011
Paying to watch T.V.
When we were kids, we had to pay money to watch t.v. I can't remember exactly what we had to pay, I think it was $0.25 for half an hour or something like that. This was a way of discouraging us to spend too much time watching t.v. I think that as we got older, we had to read for half an hour to watch half an hour of t.v. to encourage us to spend more time reading. I always loved reading so I usually read more than I watched t.v. and it wasn't an issue. But for my sister, who didn't enjoy reading had a harder time with this.
I have decided to take this concept and use it to add exercise in when I am usually just sitting and watching television. For every half an hour of t.v. watched, I have decided to do a certain amount of exercise. Now this is above my regular workout and doesn't replace it. It is just extras. I got the idea one day while watching the show "Dr. Oz" and "The Biggest Loser". Both of them were giving easy exercises that you can do while watching t.v. or during the commercial breaks. Far too often I spend an evening on the couch watching my favorite shows and checking facebook or emails and hardly moving. At the end of the evening I feel lazy, especially while watching the Biggest Loser.
So, now I have to "pay" for t.v. by doing exercise. For every half an hour of watching t.v. I will do one of these exercises:
- 50 Jumping Jacks
- 20 Sit-ups
- 15 Push-ups
- 30 Squats
- 20 Plank Jumping Jacks
As these become easier, I can up them or add or change activities to make it still a challenge to do them. Another bonus is that it gives my body a boost and help work off some extra calories.
I have decided to take this concept and use it to add exercise in when I am usually just sitting and watching television. For every half an hour of t.v. watched, I have decided to do a certain amount of exercise. Now this is above my regular workout and doesn't replace it. It is just extras. I got the idea one day while watching the show "Dr. Oz" and "The Biggest Loser". Both of them were giving easy exercises that you can do while watching t.v. or during the commercial breaks. Far too often I spend an evening on the couch watching my favorite shows and checking facebook or emails and hardly moving. At the end of the evening I feel lazy, especially while watching the Biggest Loser.
So, now I have to "pay" for t.v. by doing exercise. For every half an hour of watching t.v. I will do one of these exercises:
- 50 Jumping Jacks
- 20 Sit-ups
- 15 Push-ups
- 30 Squats
- 20 Plank Jumping Jacks
As these become easier, I can up them or add or change activities to make it still a challenge to do them. Another bonus is that it gives my body a boost and help work off some extra calories.
Wednesday, February 2, 2011
Time to de-clutter
I was watching that show on TLC about hoarders and one of the psychiatrists said that most people have areas of their house that are blind spots for them. They are messy areas but we just ignore them. We can practically walk by them without even noticing the mess it is. I have a few areas like this in my house. Areas that drive me nuts, but I ignore them because I don't want to spend the time needed to get it cleaned up. My house is messy and I don't like it, but it gets messy so quickly that I get overwhelmed and stop trying. That is until someone comes over and I have to spend a whole day getting it ready. Piles gets moved from the kitchen and living room to our bedroom and now the bedroom is full of junk and some important stuff, but it is hard to know the difference. It doesn't help that I have a hard time throwing stuff away, just in case we may need it some day and I come from a family of pack-rats. Like I said, it drives me nuts and I say one day I'm going to go through it, but everything else seems way more important.
Recently I read my sisters blog about cleaning and it inspired me to get my house in order as well. So I checked out the fly lady website to see how to do this. There is a lot of info on this page and I didn't want to spend my whole day reading about it, I wanted to start doing it so I got my version of the jest of it and started at it.
What I have applied to my life is having morning and evening chores that happen daily, other chores that need to get done during the week but not daily, and the 15 minute de-clutter. My goal is to have my house ready for company to drop by and not be embarrassed by what they will find. I have been at it for about a week now and I am happy to say that my house looks pretty good.
One of my morning jobs is to empty the dishwasher, one of my least favorite jobs. I don't mind filling it but for some reason it is hard to empty. So the dishes pile up until I have to empty it and then I reload it and it starts all over again. Now, with the dishwasher emptied, I put the dishes right in the dishwasher instead of the counter. Who knew that taking 5 extra minutes to do this would be so easy. In the evening, I make sure all the dishes are in there and turn it on if it is full and wipe the counters down. A clean start for the morning. I also make sure all the clothes are put away, rather than just throwing them on the ground, before we go to sleep. The other jobs get divided between the week or are as needed. I don't even feel like I am doing chores any more. It is just part of the routine and doesn't take much effort.
I have been spending at least 15 minutes de-cluttering our bedroom and I'm almost done. A project I thought would take a month is almost done in a week. Next is the kitchen and then I have to get deeper and go through the closets and basement. Still lots to do, but it doesn't seem overwhelming when I only spend 15 minutes on it. If I can keep it up as I go, it hopefully won't get as bad as it was. I feel so much better.
To top it all off, Kellin had some youth over last thursday and I all I had to do to get ready for them to come was clean the bathroom and entrance, rather than spending all day cleaning. What a great feeling.
Recently I read my sisters blog about cleaning and it inspired me to get my house in order as well. So I checked out the fly lady website to see how to do this. There is a lot of info on this page and I didn't want to spend my whole day reading about it, I wanted to start doing it so I got my version of the jest of it and started at it.
What I have applied to my life is having morning and evening chores that happen daily, other chores that need to get done during the week but not daily, and the 15 minute de-clutter. My goal is to have my house ready for company to drop by and not be embarrassed by what they will find. I have been at it for about a week now and I am happy to say that my house looks pretty good.
One of my morning jobs is to empty the dishwasher, one of my least favorite jobs. I don't mind filling it but for some reason it is hard to empty. So the dishes pile up until I have to empty it and then I reload it and it starts all over again. Now, with the dishwasher emptied, I put the dishes right in the dishwasher instead of the counter. Who knew that taking 5 extra minutes to do this would be so easy. In the evening, I make sure all the dishes are in there and turn it on if it is full and wipe the counters down. A clean start for the morning. I also make sure all the clothes are put away, rather than just throwing them on the ground, before we go to sleep. The other jobs get divided between the week or are as needed. I don't even feel like I am doing chores any more. It is just part of the routine and doesn't take much effort.
I have been spending at least 15 minutes de-cluttering our bedroom and I'm almost done. A project I thought would take a month is almost done in a week. Next is the kitchen and then I have to get deeper and go through the closets and basement. Still lots to do, but it doesn't seem overwhelming when I only spend 15 minutes on it. If I can keep it up as I go, it hopefully won't get as bad as it was. I feel so much better.
To top it all off, Kellin had some youth over last thursday and I all I had to do to get ready for them to come was clean the bathroom and entrance, rather than spending all day cleaning. What a great feeling.
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