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.

Work week = over! I’m sure quite a few of you have donned your dancing shoes to dance for joy at the arrival of the weekend. I know I love a good weekend. Especially when the past couple of days have been slightly hectic.

Last night, I had visions of sugarplums pumpkin stuffed french toast for breakfast. Then, M woke up early yet again and acted cranky once more. She has had a somewhat upset stomach all of a sudden today…and required my attention to say the least. So, my lovely breakfast visions got ditched for a bowl of oats. Since you don’t need to see another bowl of oats, I’ll share an image of my lunch instead.

I love when dinner leftovers taste better than the night before! A tofu veggie stir fry with baby corn, water chestnuts, zucchini, onion, mushrooms, brown rice, and tofu. I think I love the ease of leftovers even more. I needed easy today.

Despite dealing with another stressful day, I felt a lot more laid back today. Maybe talking about my hopes and dreams helped me keep my sights on the larger picture of life. Maybe my post on gratitude for the Self-Discover Series stayed on my mind today. Or maybe yoga just makes me happy.

I guess all three. Something else that makes me happy? The picture above. Fitness Magazine asked me to get a few shots of myself working out to send in over the weekend. They have something coming up on how a love for fitness “clicked” for individuals and are apparently planning to use my “when it clicked” story. I’m not saying its a definite (I don’t want to jinx it), so only time will tell!

I would love if it did, though. Even though I experienced my fair share of issues with food in the past, working out has always been a good place for me. I rarely abused my love of fitness or treated it as a punishment. I won’t say it never happened, but on the whole working out always made me feel energized and helped me appreciate my body a bit more. It all began the summer after my sophomore year of college. After my required fitness class for graduation ended, I realized I actually missed working out. I began doing workout DVDs at home with my sister and had so much fun.

I continued trying new things and now have many activities I adore – kickboxing, spinning, all weight lifting, yoga, hiking, high intensity cardio drills, step DVDs, and more. Once I realized fitness could be fun and found activities I liked, I couldn’t get enough. There’s more to my story than that, but I’ll save it for Fitness. Now, I’m off to the gym to take photos of myself in the group fitness room. Wonder how many crazy looks I get? 😉

• When did exercise become an enjoyable and regular part of your life?
• What meals make great leftovers to you?