24 Day Challenge Round 3. Bring it.

So I know I was going to post this yesterday.  I was thinking how nice the 4th would be for a start date. Finish up on the last day of the month and all.  So we can either pretend that we did or we can start today.  Either way in 24 days, if you really commit, its gonna rock.  

If this is your first time to do the challenge or need a little refresher I'll break it down for you a little bit.  You are going to eat clean, drink water, sleep 8 hours and exercise every day for 24 hours***.  On the first day take your measurements.  If you fully commit I promise you will see a difference.  I'll give it to you straight though its gotta be 100%.

  No matter how healthy you are eating, there is probably something you could do better.  Get on pinterest, search clean recipes and go to town.  Your taste will change and your gut will thank you.  The best tip I've learned is you have to be prepared.  Always have an idea of what you are going to eat and don't leave home without a snack in your bag!  Also eat enough food!! I think I might karate chop the next person that tells me they are eating 1200 calories.  That is how much your body needs just to function.  If you are exercising you need to eat more.  Or your body will eat your muscles.  Seriously.  The best calculator I have found is this one.  Get the worksheet, fill in your numbers and it will tell you how much you should be eating every day. I'm going to warn you that if you are eating as clean as you can it can be hard to eat enough.  Healthy food is pretty low in calories but way more filling.  My go to if I need to eat more is a peanut butter sandwich- one slice of bread, natural peanut butter and honey.  Also protein is your best friend now.  Yay.  

I drink 100 ounces of water a day.  No you won't float away.  Yes you might go to the bathroom more at first but your body adjusts really quickly.  Just try to finish an hour or more before bed so you don't have to get up in the night!  If you are drinking 64 ounces, try 72.  Up your intake by 8 ounces and see what happens.

I'm not going to lie.  The eating clean is the most important part.  But if you want to get muscles you have to move them.  Here is where the only *** is.  You need to have rest days.  Mine is Sunday, and I think for most of you that works best too.  So you are off the hook from exercising one day a week.  You earned it!

Count backwards from the time you have to get up and go to bed.  Give yourself an extra half hour to wind down and actually go to sleep.  You can't give it your all if you are tired!

Here is a link to download your measurement sheet.  If you have any questions please ask!  Let me know here or on facebook and we'll rock it together!  Round three is on!  

Five Things For Friday: Clean Recipes

If you don't have a foam roller can I just tell you... GO GET ONE!  It will be the best frenemy you have ever had!!

Ok guys.  You know my goal is to get in to some booty shorts at some point this year.  I've been trying really hard to keep my diet super clean.  I am on MyFitnessPal {my username is Jennwarnick} every day putting in my stuff and trying to eat a lot of veggies and protein.  I've made my diary public so you can check out what I've been eating for ideas.  I've had a couple people ask me for the recipe links of stuff they have seen me eating on there.  So here are a few of my faves I thought I'd share...

No bake energy balls from Gimme Some Oven.  

I work out first thing in the morning and since I try to stay in bed as long as possible I don't have time to eat any breakfast.  Not that I really want to either.  I'm still waking up and jumping around on a full stomach is no bueno.    So I started keeping these in the fridge.  I just grab a couple every morning on my way out the door and they give me just enough pep to make it through my workout.  She has a couple different varations on her site you should try them all out. 

Ginger Cilantro Baked Tilapia from The Kitchn

This is probably my favorite dinner right now.  It is so easy and we all love it.  Well, Ivy just likes her tilapia baked plain but loves it when I make this dinner.  I just use the frozen tilapias from Costco.  The longest part is cooking the brown rice to go with it.  

Source: biggest-loser-recipes.com via Jennifer on Pinterest

Biggest Loser Pancakes

This is our new go to pancakes.  I add about a half teaspoon of baking powder to the mix.  They are really yummy and super filling.  Even Ivy who could probably win the world championship pancake eating contest only eats three.

Sweet Potato Pancakes from The Gracious Pantry

These are on my list to try.  I am loving sweet potatoes right now and these just sound way yummy to me.  If you are looking for a good source of clean eating recipes check out The Gracious Pantry.  Tons and tons of good information on there.

  
Crockpot Tortilla Soup by Chef in Training

Umm this is our favorite soup.  To keep it clean you need to nix the all the cheese and sour cream and tortilla chips.  Try making your own by just cutting up some corn tortillas and tossing with a little bit of olive oil and salt.  Bake at 400 until crispy.  We also add avocado.  I cut out the chile powder so Ivy will eat it.  I also have just used diced tomatoes and some onions instead of Rotel.  Might be awesome for the Super Bowl eh?  

Have a fun weekend!  And I'd love any other recipes that you have been loving so go ahead and share em! Also I'm thinking Monday is a good day to start Round Three of the Ruffled Sunshine 24 Day Challenge.  See ya then!

2013 Spiritual Goals

About a month ago in Relief Society we had a lesson about being good moms.  And the teacher referenced a talk that said "be brilliant at the basics".  Just that one little quote struck something in me and it has helped me decide what my spiritual goal is for this year.  

So I got out my notebook and I started making a list of the basic things in my life.   I kind of got overwhelmed.  Because under each basic thing is a million things to do to be brilliant at that one simple thing!  And next thing I knew, my list wasn't basic anymore. It was something like this.  

Be a brilliant mom

 -dont do that

 - do more of this

- teach her this

- a

-b

-c

-d

all the way to z.

And it was that way with each thing I thought I wanted to be brilliant at!  So I had to take a step back and decide what were the most important things to be brilliant at.  I want to be a brilliant mom, wife and friend/sister/daughter.  The tricky part seemed to be figuring out how to be brilliant at those things without having 1000 things on my to do list every day.  

Then I was reading in the Book of Mormon when Alma is talking to his sons.  And a scripture leaped out at me.  Its Alma 37:44 and it says...

O my son, do not let us be slothful because of the easiness of the way; for so was it was with our fathers; for so was it prepared for them, that if they would look they might live; even so is it with us.  The way is prepared and if we will look we might live forever.

I've thought a lot about this and it is how I came up with what I need to be brilliant at.  Every week at church there are those Sunday School answers to just about every question -- read your scriptures and say your prayers. It sure sounds easy but I'll be honest I've gotten pretty lazy about those things.   I was counting reading those picture scriptures with Ivy before bed as scripture study.  And family prayer, plus little prayers here or there in my head counts as personal prayer right?   Uh, not so much.  

SO, long story short.  My spiritual goal this year is to become brilliant at personal scripture study and personal prayer. I really feel that doing these to things will help me be the kind of mom, wife, and friend that I want to be.  It will help me make better decisions every day to bring me and those around me closer to Heavenly Father.   I've pulled out my actual scriptures and I read and I ponder.  I try and take notes.  It is keeping me so much more focused.  I'm trying to say my prayers before I get in to bed, actually saying them out loud so my mind doesn't wander.  I'm not perfect at it every day thats for sure, but hopefully by the end of the year I can be kind of brilliant at it.  

2013 Fitness Goals

Is it too late to tell you my New Years Resolutions?  I hope not.   I really wanted to get them written down.  They have been sitting in my head and I'm kind of visual so this will help solidify them for me.  First up are my fitness goals for this year.  

Nothing too crazy.  The booty shorts one is going to be the hardest for me.  I don't want to run around in them or anything.  I just want to know that I could wear them and feel ok about it.  And you know the whole swimsuit thing...  Its going to be hard because of the whole pear shape thing.  But hopefully all of these other goals will help me get that one done.  

How about you?  Did you make any fitness goals this year?

The deets yo!

Wow.  This year took off like a shot didn't it?!  Is it really the end of January already? Has it really been a whole month since Christmas!  I didn't mean to leave you hanging after our exciting news {which you should check out by the way.}  Oh what you missed it the first time?  Here you go...  its only three minutes.  

I know its just so fun to watch isn't it?  I don't blame you for watching it again.  Ivy is a natural.  

Well with all that going on we are just waiting. Busy, but waiting.   SO I thought I'd fill you in with all the fun details.  

But first lets clear the air.   No I 'm not pregnant.  Haha.  That was a common misconception and in hindsight I suppose we should have not used ultrasound pictures.  But he is too cute not to share!  Ok now that thats out of the way here's the story of our best Christmas present ever.  

On the second monday in December I got a text from Darin to call him.  So I did.  Uhhh let me just tell you that the words out of his mouth were not what I was expecting at all.  He told me a birth mom had picked us and our profile had been taken down.  Hubba Whaaa??!! Well I instantly started crying and Darin's voice was all shaky which is boy for crying.  He only knew a little bit of information like the fact that our birthmom was having a boy, she was due in April and we would get to talk to her on Wednesday.  I was shaking.  My whole body was shaking.  And when I told Ivy.  Oh I wish I had it on video but it was the best every.  She started jumping up and down on the bed.  And since I was on the phone she started screaming, I'm getting a baby brother!!!! I'm getting a baby brother!!!!  Into the pillow.  I died.  We quickly decided to only let our parents know until we talked to her, cuz really how can you not tell someone that kind of news!?

I made this on my phone that night.  The very first feeling that washed over me when Darin told me the news was just this immense love.  I swear it was pouring right down from heaven and in to my heart.    You know how a little kid stands at the edge of the moving walkway, stuck and scared to get on?  That was me.  For way too long.  And in that moment it all changed and I was moving forward again.  

I posted this picture that we took at 12:12 on 12.12.12.  Did you know that was the last repetitive date we will ever have? And it was a moment I can't ever forget.   What were we doing?  Oh, just talking to our birthmom.  Nervously making small talk at first, and hanging up the the phone an hour later, knowing that she was meant for us and we were meant for her.  She thinks we are cool. We think she is amazing.    Do you know what she said?  That she was just so glad she could give us such an awesome Christmas present.  I love her.  Forever.  She also said some fun things like how she liked that Darin looked like Keith Urban.  That might have been my favorite part.  

After that we decided since it was so close to Christmas that we would make it our Christmas present to let everyone know the news.  The following Sunday we made our little video.  Then we packaged up the discs and mailed them out.  And waited.  It was SO hard for some of us to keep a secret.  I was fine.  The other two not so much.  But we made it and we had the best Christmas!  

And new year.  

And now we wait for April.  Ivy has a countdown chain in her room.  Darin signed up for those babycenter emails that tell you your baby is the size of an english cucumber or other various vegetables.  

Baby brother is always on her mind.  Multiple times during the day she will say things like I can't wait to teach baby brother....

and we are going to have to do this with baby brother...

and can we play birthmom?  Can we watch birthing videos?  

Always on her mind.  Always on our minds.  

+++

So thats the deets.  I can't tell you how much we appreciated all of your kind comments and emails.  THANK YOU!! 

How has your January been?!