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.

 

Why my neighbors love Winter

With Fall officially upon us, I thought I would write an open letter to all my neighbors, but especially, the young family who just moved in to one of the houses that backs up to my backyard. This is an apology in advance for them because they won't experience my "mommy-rath" until next Summer. I would like to apologize for all the shit you hear me yell at my son and my dog. I know you can't see me through the bushes, but know that I am cringing at the ridiculous sentences I say.


Ok, a little backstory here. I live with my parents and we have a pretty sweet backyard. It's not huge, but we have a pool, a swing set, a sandbox, a little pool, a big dog, a small dog, a garden, and my four year old son. Our beautiful landscaping has grown so big that our backyard is like an escape. You can almost forget you even have neighbors. These bushes help me believe I'm hiding my crazy, but I'm clearly not. Here's pictures of the backyard:

And here's how it would look from the air. My yard is the polaroid with the "social problems" sticker. All the other ones are backyards that are affected by this. The new family just moved into the house with the star. Although, they have what appears to be a young son, so this could just be a warning of what's to come. All the other affected neighbors have been there for years, or have kids around J's age, so they don't mind and have told us they love the random comments they hear through the fence.
*I know it's not the best collage, but I had to work with what I got. *

So, that's the yard, these are the characters responsible for my crazy:

Lucy & Thor

Top ten phrases I have actually said that make my neighbors love Winter

During the Winter, we're all rarely in our backyards at the same time, but on a beautiful summer day, you can expect to hear one of the following come from my backyard. 

1. Where did your clothes go? / Why are you naked? / Can you at least put underwear on?

2. Don't pee in/on/off of that

3. Stop throwing your toys in the big pool

4. Stop throwing sand in the little pool

5. Lucy, don't eat Thor's poo

6. Lucy, don't eat Thor

7.Be careful. Going down that slide naked is going to hurt. 

8. No. I'm not kissing your butt cause the slide was hot. I told you put clothes back on 5 minutes ago.

9. Don't go near that pool. I told you we can't go swimming till your have clothes on. We don't swim naked. / Don't sit in the sandbox naked

10. Where the hell did you find that paint?! No don't paint that, or that, or the dogs. get back here!