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Wednesday, May 28, 2014

Homemade Laundry Detergent

When people ask me how they can start eating better, I usually tell them to focus on one thing at a time. Don't throw out every nasty thing in your pantry at once; pick one thing, work on it for two weeks, master it, then move on to another thing. Maybe you switch to wheat bread instead of white. Or brown rice instead of white. Then you focus on sugar. Then processed food, and so on.

This is the process we used, and it's the process I'm slowly using to get rid of chemical cleaners in our home, too. I'm already on the vinegar and water cleaning solution band wagon, and you know how big of a fan I am of the magical shower grime killer (see it here).

A year or so ago I decided I ought to look into making my own laundry detergent. That was right after I bought the mother lode (pun intended) of laundry detergent on sale at Walmart. So about 300 loads of laundry later, last week I was finally ready to take the plunge on making my own laundry soap!

I used The Wellness Mama's recipe, as it seemed simple and straight forward.

Here are the ingredients:


Borax: found at Walmart
Super Washing Soda: found...I can't remember where. I bought it a year ago after I knew I was going to make this. It sat faithfully in my laundry room until last week. It was kinda chunky due to age.
Castile Soap: found at Walmart. We've been using this castile soap for several months now. Drew has skin issues and I wanted some natural soap. Zach likes it so much he uses it as shampoo, too. It smells nice and lathers well, even without the sulfates that most contain to make lather.

First, I had to shred the soap. I started with the cheese grater, but as I was grating two bars, I decided to get out the big guns: the food processor.


The recipe says that the soap should be finely ground, so I brought out another attachment:


Then I mixed the following: 1 part soap (I had about 3 cups grated), 2 parts washing soda, 2 parts Borax, plus 2 tsp. of baking soda. Then I mixed thoroughly.


It made quite a bit of soap, and luckily I found some spare Mason jars to store the soap securely. I nearly filled up three jars.


The recipe says to use 1/8 to 1/4 cup per load, and an old scoop from our P90X Results & Recovery Formula measured a little more than 1/8 cup. Perfect!

So making the soap was very easy. Took maybe 30 or 40 minutes. (Clean up was relatively easy and struck me a bit odd..."cleaning" soap. Whatever!) But would it wash our (incredibly stinky) clothes?

Yes!

I'm so pleased with how this soap washes. It does not get all sudsy like regular soap, but the soap companies just put that stuff in to make you think the soap is working well...it's not really necessary. This soap made my clothes come out smelling like...Nothing! They didn't really have a smell, which is a good thing. It's kind of like when we installed our reverse osmosis water filtration on our sink and the water tasted truly like "nothing."

Lately our clothes had kind of a wonky soap buildup smell. Like maybe the detergent just wasn't ever rinsing out or something. No more! That smell is gone and replaced by pure nothing-ness. I'm very impressed!

Here's the official recipe if you'd like to make your own laundry soap:

Natural Laundry Soap Recipe
1. Grate the bar soap or mix in food processor until finely ground. Use the soap of your choice.

2.In a large bowl, mix 2 parts washing soda, 2 parts Borax and 1 part grated soap. (Add a few teaspoons of baking soda if desired).

3.Store in closed container. If you are using a big enough container, you can skip step 2 and just put all ingredients in storage container or jar and shake.

Use 1/8 to 1/4 cup per load of laundry.

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Workout of the Day
P90X3 Yoga, AKA the best yoga ever put on DVD.

Here's Zach doing "Ted's Chair" this morning. I'm amazed every time I see it!


Thursday, May 22, 2014

Don't Let Restaurants Derail Your Progress!

A few weeks ago our six-year-old daughter requested to go to IHOP for her birthday breakfast. She's super cute, so we were powerless to tell her no...especially on her birthday!


We all know that IHOP has some unhealthy choices (cream cheese stuffed French toast, anyone?), but surely there are some healthy items to choose from too, right? Like an omelette?

As is our custom whenever we go out to eat, our first stop was IHOP's website to choose what we would order. Does that sound weird? Most people sit down at the table, see what looks good, and order it. Not us! A trip to a restaurant requires research.

If we hadn't done our research, we probably would have made some poor assumptions about the calorie levels of what seem to be "healthy" options. An omelette seems like a good choice, right? Some eggs, some sauteed veggies, maybe a bit of cheese.

- Country Omelette: eggs, ham, cheese, onions. 1,220 calories, 2200 mg of sodium
- Spinach and Mushroom Omelette: 1,000 calories, 82 g of fat

WHAT? How did something as simple as eggs, some meat, and some veggies get to be way more than half my day's worth of calories?

If we had not checked the nutrition information before we walked into IHOP, we would have made BAD choices.

Instead, during our research we saw that IHOP's "Simple and Fit" menu items were much more sensible.

- Simple and Fit Vegetable Omelette: 330 calories, 14 grams of fat

It was tasty, filling, and did not blow my entire day's worth of eating.

TIP OF THE DAY:
Before you eat at a restaurant (particularly a chain restaurant), visit the website and see if they post the nutritional information. Sometimes it's hiding (IHOP's is WAY down at the bottom of the web page), but it will open your eyes to the completely ridiculous calorie levels of most restaurant food.

Hopefully this knowledge will turn you so completely OFF that you will not be tempted by the fatty, salty food that wrecks your diet.

Curious about the rest of IHOP's food? Here's a link to their 25-page nutritional document. Check it out and be amazed:

http://www.ihop.com/menus/-/media/ihop/PDFs/nutritionalinformation.ashx

QUESTION OF THE DAY:
If you were to peruse a restaurant's nutritional information, do you have an idea of what might be a proper amount of calories for a meal? When you see 1,000 calories, does that seem like a lot to you, or does it not really ring any bells? 

I'm not going to throw out a hard and fast rule about how many calories per meal you should be eating, because everyone is different. But personally, I eat three meals and two snacks a day. My calorie target for the whole day is around 1400, give or take a few hundred based on my activity level for the day. Therefore I shoot for 300-400 calories per meal, and 100-200 calories for my snacks. 

I will go out on a limb and tell you that I don't know ANYONE who ought to be eating 1,220 calories for their breakfast. If you're not sure how many calories you should be eating, send me a message. I have a formula to help you figure that out. I also have a whole bunch of resources to help you with healthy eating and exercise!

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Workout of the Day
P90X3 The Challenge

Thursday, May 15, 2014

Does The 21 Day Fix Work?

Back in February, Beachbody came out with a new workout called The 21 Day Fix, billed as "THE program to help you lose up to 15 pounds in 21 days."

That's your host, trainer/bikini competitor Autumn Calabrese.
The 21 Day Fix comes with seven 30-minute workouts (eight, if you order through a coach like me! www.SmellsLikeFitness.com), and a set of containers designed to help teach you about portion control.


These colorful little containers are what really set this program apart...but more about that later.

Since I had no idea just how popular this program would turn out to be, I took my sweet time in ordering it. Turned out that sucker flew off the shelves, and I wasn't able to get my hands on it until almost April. Sheesh! My bad.

Nonetheless, it actually workout out really well, as Zach and I were just wrapping up the last month of P90X3 workouts, and we wanted to tighten up our nutrition to get some kicking "after" pics for P90X3. We planned to use the meal plan and try out the Fix workouts later.

Immediately upon opening our package, Zach had the laptop out creating a tracking spreadsheet. I mean...within minutes he had a rough spreadsheet up and running with formulas that made a "DONE" pop up in the field when we had eaten our allotted containers for the day. That dude is amazing!

So, here are some of my observations and experiences about the Fix program to help you decide whether it's something you want to do or not. (And if you don't feel like reading all this, here's the skinny: you DO want to do this! It's awesome!)

- Honestly, the Fix is a little overwhelming at first. You figure out your calorie goal through a helpful little chart. CHECK. Then you have all these little containers. CHECK. Then you're supposed to eat so many containers per day. HUH? That's where Zach's spreadsheet really drove things home for me and made it easier to understand. (And that's why I provide it to all my customers who are using the Fix.)

I was in the 1,200-1,499 calorie group. At that level I was able to have 3 greens (veggies), 2 purples (fruits), 4 reds (protein), 2 yellows (carb), 1 blue (fats), 1 orange (nuts/seeds/dressing), and 2 teaspoons (for things like nut butter, oils, etc.).

The Fix guide gives you examples of foods that would be allowed for each color container, and if it fits in the container, you can eat it. No calorie counting! (And thank goodness, because I don't think calorie counting is fun.)

- This is a flexible, doable plan. I loved it because I was eating my regular food, just in the portions the Fix suggests. (Note that this was true because I already eat a pretty healthy diet. If someone is accustomed to Big Macs several times a week, there would be some major changes here. In a good way! You'd be one who would lose the 15 pounds as advertised.)

- I was pleasantly surprised by the portions allowed. When you look at the teeny tiny carb container, you freak out a bit. But once you see it on the plate it doesn't look so bad at all!

- Here is a sample day of eating that I had while on the Fix:
     - 2 poached eggs, 1 slice Ezekiel toast, one pear, 1/4 avocado
        (1 red, 1 yellow, 1 purple, 1 blue)
     - Shakeology with 1/2 banana
        (1 red, 1 purple)
     - Green salad with mixed veggies and dressing
        (2 greens, 2 teaspoons)
     - Cottage cheese with sunflower seeds
        (1 red, 1 orange)
     - Stir fry with chicken and veggies, brown rice
        (1 green, 1 red, 1 yellow)

A perfectly filling, very clean Fix day!

Here's a pretty picture of another day's worth of Fix meals I ate while on the plan:

These are the 3 squares...snacks not shown. 
- The Fix plan is low carb, high protein. I realized that my body works very, very well on this plan! I was not bloated, not hungry, had plenty of energy, and here's the completely weird thing: my cravings for sugar went away!

That was totally unexpected, and totally unlike me. I eat a healthy diet 90% of the time, but you know what my other 10 percent usually consists of? Candy. Chocolate candy from the kids' candy basket on the fridge. During the Fix I lost my urge to eat candy! Instead I started craving fats like sunflower seeds. And it turns out this phenomenon isn't unique to me; Zach experienced the same thing, and so have several friends who have gone through the Fix. I'm planning in the next six months to get a nutrition certification to add to my personal trainer certification, and the first thing I want to know is why a diet higher in carbs causes someone to want sugar, sugar, sugar. Weird stuff! I'll let you know what I find out.

- We went out to eat several times while on the Fix, and managed not to blow the plan. It's pretty simple really: all you have to do is plan. We were going to Outback one night, so I saved myself a protein, veg, and a carb ('cause I wanted some of that yummy bread).

- I've heard people wonder how you use the containers. Here's how it looks when I do a stir fry meal: I cook the rice, then take the yellow container and fill it up, then pour it out onto my plate. Then I take the green container, fill it with the stir fried veggies, and pour it on the plate. Then I do the same with my red for the chicken or tofu I fix with the stir fry. I think it's important to serve on a plate because then your eye gets trained to what a good portion size is on a regular basis.

- Sometimes I went "over" on a category. Guess what? Wasn't the end of the world, particularly if it was in the veggie category. I have a hard time denying myself raw veggies, so I would say that my lunch salads are definitely a little bigger than they ought to be. Now if you're going over in the carb or fat category too many times, that might impact your results. Veggies? Not so much.

- Note on my caption under Autumn's picture that she is a bikini competitor. So, that's your warning that this chick's boobs are, like, ALWAYS on display. If it's not the boobs then her butt cheeks are dangerously close to falling out of her very short shorts. Consider yourself warned! Beachbody Coach and super-nice lady Traci Morrow cracked me up when she posted a picture of how she made the Fix materials "family friendly" with the use of colored Sharpies:


- So Autumn has a pretty unattainable body, which might turn some people off. However, it is awesome that the Fix cast also features Kat the modifier, who is much closer to how most women look when they are starting their fitness journey. She is working hard at the front of the screen, and she'll show you how to modify the moves to make them doable for anyone.

- Our final results? Pretty darn good, in my opinion! I lost eight pounds, plus two inches off my waist (the bloat went away!). Zach lost three pounds. Since then I've gone into "maintenance" mode on the Fix that allows 1 more carb and one more fruit. And also cake. Kidding! The Fix plan doesn't allow cake, but I do allow myself cake once in awhile.



- Once we completed P90X3 (another AWESOME program that you should try), we did a full week of the Fix workouts. These are no joke! Very solid routines with classic moves that will push you whether you're a beginner or a seasoned fitness veteran (particularly that plyo workout. Tough!). Zach and I are now into a hybrid program using P90X, X2, and X3, but we work in the Fix Pilates and yoga routines because they are very, very good.

The Fix has now hit the infomercial airways, and I expect it to be super, super popular. The results photos coming in are fantastic, and here's the thing: if you follow the plan...IT WORKS. You invest 30 minutes every day in exercise, and use the containers for your food. It just works! Thankful for another Beachbody program that hits it out of the park!

If you need help figuring out the Fix, Zach and I will be happy to help! Get your program at www.SmellsLikeFitness.com, then send us a message. We'll send you our spreadsheet to help you track and give you some tips on how to tackle the program.

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UPDATE:

My Mom has lost 33 pounds and counting with the 21 Day Fix. Read about her results here:

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Workout of the Day
P90X2 Total Body



Tuesday, May 13, 2014

If I had never done P90X...

A few mornings ago Zach and I were in our gym working out to P90X3, and my mind started to wander (as it tends to do sometimes to take my mind off the temporary discomfort of the "Kablam" move and other torture inspired fitness moves that Tony Horton has created for this program).

What if we had never started doing P90X? Where would I be right now?

It seems so trivial. I mean...it's a workout program. Some DVDs in a case.

The first answer that popped in my head was "bed." I would probably be in bed right now if I had never started doing P90X at 5 in the morning nearly six years ago.



Then I started thinking about all the deeper ways this program has impacted my life. How it jump started my interest in fitness and nutrition. How it spurred a third career as a personal trainer, allowing me to fulfill my second career of stay-at-home-mom.

It's pure speculation, but here are some of the things that would have happened if I hadn't started P90X:

- I would be 20-30 pounds heavier than I am now.
Thanks to an active childhood and a commitment to jogging, I haven't ever really had a weight problem. What I did have was a white bread and mayo problem, which meant that even before children I was hovering around 150. My guess is that if I hadn't gotten my head on straight in the nutrition department, that would be more like 160 or 170 now.

- I would still be eating this:



Yes. Hamburger Helper Beef Stroganoff used to be a regular on the menu at our house.

- Zach and I would not have the great relationship that we have now.
In August 2008 Zach and I committed to a shared goal of completing 90 days of P90X at 5 in the morning. When we finished that 90 days, we were so impressed with our results and so pleased with our energy levels (despite "waking up early") that we were afraid to stop. That shared goal has blossomed into our shared hobby, shared business, shared "thing" that we do together. The kids join us sometimes, but our time in the morning is "our time." A year ago when I started my boot camp, losing "our time" together three days a week was the thing that most bothered me. Now that we have several programs that are 30 minutes or less, we now work out at 6am as soon as I get home from training and before he has to leave for work -- that is how important it is to us.

I'm not saying that if we hadn't started working out together that we would be headed for divorce or something. The fact of the matter is that we have always worked out together. But I know that before we started the 5am thing, I was starting to feel like I never saw him because of his long hours at work. Like we never got to talk. Like we never got time together when there weren't two kids around. This P90X thing gave us an outlet that makes our relationship stronger.

- I would have had to found a "J-O-B" by now.
This stay-at-home mom thing was always supposed to be temporary. When Kate went to Kindergarten, the plan was for me to wade back into the job force. But after five years without a cubicle, I was not anxious to go back. A few years before she was headed for school, I committed to coaching with Team Beachbody, with the understanding that if I could just bring home about $1,000 a month, then it would be worth it for me to stay home. Then I decided to pursue a personal trainer certification and start a boot camp for women with Texas Fit Chicks, which allowed me to make my schedule to fit my family and help women find their fitness too.

The past six years have taught me how valuable my time at home is. I love being able to pick my kids up at school. I love planning and cooking meals for my family. Zach and I are committed to eating together as a family most nights of the week.

Could we be bringing in much more money if I got a regular job? Yes. Would it be worth it to us? No. We only have one life to live and one chance to bring up our kids. We want it to be about quality, not quantity.

- I would not have seen Zach accomplish one of the most amazing things I have ever seen.
Zach ran 100 miles in 24 hours and 30 minutes. It was terrifying and awesome at the same time.


Zach's running has sparked an interest in running in both of our kids, and we regularly enjoy family jogs down at the land. Drew is shaping up to be a pretty awesome runner in his own right.

- I would not have an opportunity to impact people's lives.
Last summer a neighbor came to me asking for help and guidance to lose weight. She had seen me post on Facebook and wondered if there was any way I could help her. I volunteered our gym and told her to use it and our workout programs whenever she wanted. I gave some suggestions on food, and helped her navigate the difficulties of starting a new program. A year later, she is nearly 50 pounds lighter and has a completely different attitude toward life. I could not be more proud of her!

Zach and I have led two different small groups for our church through a study on taking care of your body through healthy eating and exercise. Through my boot camps I have the opportunity to teach women not only how to exercise, but also how to truly live a fulfilling, healthy life with proper nutrition, rest, movement, and positive mental attitude.

A few years ago I started wondering why I continued to work so hard at our workouts. "There has to be something more to this," I thought to myself. Paying it forward and helping others find their health. That's what the "more" has turned out to be.

- I most definitely would not have abs or arms like these:


P90X3 and 21 Day Fix "After" Pictures - April 2014
36 Years Old
I'll be the first to tell you that fitness is most definitely NOT about how you look.
But I will also be the first to tell you that it sure is a nice byproduct. :)

One small decision. Big impact on my life. Thanks, P90X.

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Workout of the Day
P90X Plyometrics. 
Hard six years ago. Hard today!