12 Days of Fitmas day 6: Healthy Families

Healthy Mom = Healthy Families

My life motto

My Saturday / Sunday routines

The weekend is for family.

It doesn't always go as planned, but we always try to get in one workout and go on an adventure. When I say "we", I mean me and my four year old son. Instead of watching cartoons, he loves to workout with me in the morning. Instead of asking him to leave me alone, we I let him lead the workout. It usually looks something like this. 

Depending on weather, and our schedule, we ALWAYS go on an adventure on the weekend. Sometimes it's saturday, sometimes SUnday, but it always gets done. This is usually just a hike in the woods, but the moments we have together in the woods are truly amazing. Why do I like hiking in the forest so much? This is why I benefit from it, but read on below to find out how it benefits the whole family. 

Why encouraging your kids to be active with you is important

Our kids watch everything we do. They learn from everything we do. Why wouldn't you want them to see you having a healthy relationship with exercise, your body, and nutrition. These observances are what form the foundation for becoming healthy adults. 

Active Kids 

All moms want the best for their children. This, of course, applies to health too. Families can be active together anywhere; indoors or out. I prefer outdoors, but we've made memories indoors too. Being active together only enhances and strengthens our family bonds. 

Some ideas for being an active family indoors: inflatable house, trampoline park, indoor swimming, indoor playground, and more. The key to these activities though is THAT YOU DO THEM AS WELL. GET UP, GET MOVING, AND HAVE FUN.

One of my biggest pet peeves is the mom at the park who tells me she wished she had a body like mine after having kids, then sits at the park while her kid plays and sits on her phone. I'm not saying I NEVER do this, but a playground is really just workout equipment designed to look like fun. Here's a link to a blog post I wrote about getting a full body workout whilt at the park. Get kiddy with it

Why do I love taking my son on hikes?

Besides the great workout I get when we walk three miles together, it is truly magical to see him explore.  This photo below pretty much sums up what I see when I watch him go off the trail and climb a tree or whatever. I see it all, everyday. There is nothing more magical than that. 

Raising healthy eaters

This is the hard part. I'm not always successful, but I've got a few tricks up my sleeve that I think are my secret weapons.

1. Hiding veggies in EVERYTHING! 

1. Spinach hidden in smoothies. J thinks it's his special "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle shake" cause it's green. I told him it probably will turn him into a ninja
2. Hidden veggie noodles. Enough said. Barilla has two good kinds. 
3. This is my favorite trick. I call it the Cauliflower Cheese Switcheroo. I have an old parmeseasn cheese shaker I save. Once a week, I steam cualiflower then run it through the food processor, and put it in the shaker. My son thinks it's his special cheese. He adds it to everything. He has no idea. 

2. Family Dinner

These are so important. You can call me old fashioned, but I don't care. Having a time when we all prepare a meal, then sit down to eat and talk together was huge for me growing up and I love that I can do that for my son. It doesn't happen every night, and he doesn't always like what we have, but we all sit and talk about our day. I believe that this encourages even healthier habits in our children.

 

The 12 Days of Fitmas day 4!

 The 12 Days of Fitmas day 4!

Yoga, Yoga, Yoga. 

Why should you be doing yoga?

How Yoga Saved My Life

Yoga is what started me on my health and fitness journey. 

I will never forget the night I decided I should try yoga. 

I was living with my bf and his brother and going to college. It was the Sunday before midterms. It was also our neighbor's birthday. I couldn't find the book, or the materials, or whatever that I needed to finish a take home test that was due the next morning. The boys were watching a movie for the neighbor's birthday. I think it was Green Lantern. I don't remember. All I know is that it was a superhero movie and there lots of guns and fighting. This is when I had my first, and only true, panic attack. Heart racing, felt like I was being held under water, couldn't breath, crying. It was horrible. The next day I signed up for a yoga class and fell in love. I did it on and off for the next year until I got pregnant. 

After I had my son, I developed restless leg syndrome. It was horrible. I was surviving on three hours of sleep a night. It wasn't healthy. I cried to my doctors. The only way to give me the real medicine for restless leg syndrome, I had to do a 3 day sleep study. Meaning, I had to go to the hospital and sit in a room for three days. I was a working mother and student. Nobody has time for that shit! They gave me sleeping pills, which worked sometimes, but I hated them. I wouldn't wake up if my son cried, I was a monster in the mornings, it didn't work for me. I was at my wits end when I found Tara Stiles on youtube. Her night time yoga was absolutely amazing. Three years later, I have no trouble sleeping. 

My yoga schedule

I do yoga at least 14 times a week; a morning routine to wake me up & a bed time routine so I fall asleep quickly, every day. I will never give those up. I also do one cardio yoga workout a week, as well as a half hour stretch session weekly. Here are some links to the Tara Stiles workouts that I can not live without. There are also a lot of other ideas for a good yoga workout on there. 

Click here for all sorts of ideas on how you can get your sweat on today with a good stretch session. 

Yoga that I love

Why I became a personal trainer

So, a few weeks ago I officially became an ACE certified personal trainer. I took classes at my local jr. college and studied my butt off for a year. Besides with people who know me personally, I have never gotten into why I wanted to become a personal trainer, and there is a lot behind my three main reasons, so I thought I'd delve into that today.

Reason #1: Everyone deserves to feel happy about their body and I would love to assist people to getting healthier.

I fell in love with exercise, and it became habit, when I stopped looking at it as something I HAD to do for weight loss. I had exercised on and off since I had my son, but finally, after two years it stuck. I wanted to lose weight, but I gained so much. It was a huge stress reliever, mood balancer, and gave me confidence. That was before I even saw any results in the mirror. My mother had repeatedly told me I would never get my pre-baby body back and that only crazy people tried to get back into shape. When I did start to see results, I realized she was crazy, but right at the same time. But how, you ask.
1. I had changed. I no longer wanted my pre-baby body back. I wanted to be healthy, happy, and active. I never lost all the weight, but I'm in better shape than I was when I was 18.
2. I realized that I spend so much time making sure my son is healthy, happy, and active, that I DESERVE to do the same for my self.
3. She was crazy! Being in good health wards off all kinds of disease as you get older. Good for the women who do lose all the weight. If they are happy, who am I too judge?! Same for the mommas who don't try to lost any of the baby weight. The crazy ones are the ones who try to tell people they can't accomplish their goals.

Reason #2: I witnessed people missing out on opportunities to have fun and be active. It's the culmination of these missed chances that keeps it from becoming a lifestyle change for people.  

My son and I love to be outside, or just active. We hike, walk to the park, he helps me garden, we swim, we go to nature centers, etc. I've written numerous blog posts about exercising in nature and kids in nature, so I won't talk about that more than necessary. This reason is the result of a few observations I made while with my son, so to make it easy, I'm just going to list them out.

1. Parents who drive to the park and then sit on their phones while their kids play.
My son is young enough that he still wants me to play with him, so I use the playground equipment as my gym. He doesn't realize it, and we have fun. If your kids are older, body weight exercises with the benches are great.

Also, WALK TO THE PARK! Walking is so good for you. Bonus points if you push a stroller or carry a bike home cause "they're too tired". haha

2. I live next to O'hare Airport in Chicago. You would be amazed how many forests you can get lost in, right by the airport. The trees are surrounded by busy streets, but there are nature centers, trails, museums, lakes, boat rentals, picnic shelters, and you never feel like you're in Chicago. That amazed me. THERE ARE OPPORTUNITIES LIKE THIS IN COMMUNITIES EVERYWHERE! PLUS, MOST OF THEM ARE FREE! Walking is one of the best things you can do for yourself. Take advantage of any cool opportunities near you. Get out and explore your area, your outdoors, or your region.

I believe doing fun things like this are what make it easier to adopt an active and healthy lifestyle, and stick to it. This also transfers to all the people around you. My son loves going on adventures! He doesn't realize mom's happy cause she got a three mile walk in and cause he'll sleep like a baby that night.

Reason #3: Prevent people from dieing. 

While studying personal training, both of my paternal grandparents fell ill and died. They hadn't been well for quite a few years. Both had trouble with falls, grandpa had Parkinson, they were older, etc. Not being physically fit is not why they died, but I think a little more activity earlier in life would have benefited them. I read a research article that stated, "to prevent falls in old age, people should stay healthy enough to get out of a sunken chair without using the arm rests." 
If I can help ONE person go into old age knowing they are of decent health and can live a better quality of life than my grandparents did the past few years, I will be happy.

So, that is why I became a personal trainer. I would love to help you reach whatever goals you have. Email me and we can talk about how we could work together to get your health where you want it to be! 

jschwent.fit@gmail.com

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