Bloggers of the Day (chosen randomly from yesterday’s comments)

• Eat Spin Run Repeat – Angela has a great blog that discusses lots of topics, plus a fun feature where she tries new things every week
• Ulterior Harmony – Ela will get you thinking with every post and also discusses life eating lots of homegrown food
• Living Well – Kati is in the same boat as me: going through a healthy pregnancy and anticipating a new baby + the return of old workouts

G’day lovelies! I can barely believe its already Wednesday. I guess when you are up half the night, thanks to a particular someone who suddenly won’t sleep through the night anymore, the days kind of blur. I knew I needed to start the day off on the right foot. So after some prayer to help keep me in the perspective of peace and remind me of all God’s glory, I headed downstairs to make us some glorious breakfast.

Oats to me are like a good cup of coffee in the morning. They never get old and always help me warm up on the inside, literally and figuratively. Plus, you can never run out of fun ways to spice it up. This morning I chose to spice it up with some spiced “baked” apples. Remember that “baked” is a relative term in this household in the mornings.

I used the same method as I did this past Saturday morning and added lots of cinnamon and nutmeg to really flavor these up. Topped the oatmeal with them, then added a drizzle of peanut butter. They reminded me of a fancier apple + pb childhood snack. Or adult favorite snack, if you’re me. Perfect breakfast – cofee + oats. I even got to eat by 8 am, which set me up perfectly to digest well before heading to Group Power class.

Even though group classes aren’t my preferred method of weight training, I still love lifting and make sure to fit it in each week. I usually do one class per week right now to suit my sensitive lower back, but its always a priority. I recently even read something from SELF magazine that claimed not lifting weights as one of the 4 most common fitness mistakes women make. I concur!

I have known too many women who shy away from weights because they either don’t know how to get started, fear “bulking up”, or just don’t like them. I always believe we should choose exercises we enjoy, but we still need balance and weight training is part of that necessary balance. I personally feel my fittest and believe I look my best when I weight train. That’s not everybody, but weight training still provides benefits that pure cardio won’t, so I encourage other women to give it a solid effort. After this baby comes, I will have to treat my body as a beginner with exercise again for the first couple months, which I find pretty cool. I look forward to going through that experience from beginner style workouts to more advanced with all of you.  🙂

Here are the other “common mistakes” listed by SELF magazine.

1. Being cardio-obsessed. (not enough weight training)
2. Only focusing on one or two muscle groups (like only doing crunches and lunges to spot reduce your abs/butt…not happening, sorry!)
3. Not fueling your workouts properly (limiting calories too much)
4. An all-or-nothing attitude. (working out 30 minutes 3x/week is still great and eating a donut does not mean you fail at a healthy life)

Which of those “mistakes” do you struggle with most? The all or nothing attitude has been my biggest pitfall of those. I luckily have more control over it now, but still have those times I face guilt or frustration for not doing “enough”.

Are there any others you would add to that list? I think I would add not including enough variety. Our bodies adapt very easily and if you do the same thing day in and day out, eventually it won’t provide the same benefits as when you began. Switching it up also adds more motivation for me to keep up with exercise.

Bloggers of the Day (chosen randomly from your comments)

• All Kinds of Hungry shares good food and fun events of life.
• A Side of Simple focuses on the simple joys we can find from food to travel to apple picking. 🙂
• Live For The Run documents her trainings for races and triathalons, as well as a lot of fun, including UGA football!

Also, check out my guest post over at Lisa’s blog. If you have never read I’m An Okie, you are seriously missing out. And one last thing before I move on to today’s daily happenings. Thanks for the comments on this morning’s post and whether or not you find more inspiration in “real women” and how that applies to blogging. I never get sick of hearing your thoughts. 🙂

I know a lot of you out there dislike Tuesdays. The weekend still looms far in the distance and you feel exhausted from Monday. Makes perfect sense. However, I usually dance on the rooftops for Tuesday because that means the madness of Monday has ended. I had a great day today…despite nothing spectacular happening. Normal always makes me smile. And yes, normal includes reading one million children books together.

I started the day like any other with a bowl of oats. I’m all about adding in dried fruit these days. I love the chew from things like raisins and dried apple. Something about it screams fall to me as well.

I accidentally lost track of time this morning while getting us dressed and ready for the gym and ate a little later than normal. My big bowl ended up having only 30 minutes to digest before heading to spin class. Not a good combination. It felt like a brick in my stomach the entire workout and like my food was up in my throat. It doesn’t help that I already feel like that quite often with my stomach being pushed up to make friends and hug my lungs and heart either.

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You see that #1 with the arrow pointing to the flattened pancake? Yea, that’s what is happening to my stomach right now. Fun, huh? I don’t think its quite as fun as some of the things people have said to me recently. I have a list of some from just the past three days.

• Oh, when are you due? … In THREE months? Wow! You look so far along already!!! haha (grocery store clerk)
• You’re about to pop any day now, huh? (spin instructor)
• You get noticeably bigger every time I see you! haha (church member)
• Awww, look at that huge belly. (my mom)
• Are you sure you don’t have twins in there? Or triplets! haha (store clerk)
• You must get terrible stretch marks from going from so small to so big. haha (gym daycare worker)

Hahahahahahahahaha. Excuse me while I bust a gut from your hilarity. Or more aptly, break my water and drop the baby right here right now for you since that seems feasible for my size. For the record, in no universe does telling someone they look huge, keep getting bigger, or that they must be carrying triplets constitute a compliment. Glad we’re clear on that.

Glad we’re also clear on the fact that I take these comments with a grain of salt and don’t truly take offense to them. I feel great and that’s all I concern myself with. Although it would be nice if such a thing as a verbal filter existed for me to pass out as Christmas gifts. Just saying.

And now, would you mind rolling me into the kitchen so I can share a delicious taco dinner with my family?

Then I will appropriately finish the night out watching The Biggest Loser with my sister. With some ice cream and pickles on the side, but of course. 😉

• What’s the strangest “compliment” you have ever received?
• How long do you have to eat before a workout?