It is seriously cold out today so I decided to take my running indoors. I run about 30 miles a week and more often than not all of that is outside. I loathe the treadmill, we do not get along at all.  I got to the gym today and whipped out a really quick mile on the treadmill (8:22!) and then went to an Absolutely Abs class that wasn’t very impressive, the teacher wasn’t very clear and gave no explanations to what we were doing.  But 15 mins of abs is 15 mins of abs, I just did my own thing for most of the class.  Afterwards I was faced with getting back on the treadmill and I just couldn’t bring myself to do it. I looked upstairs, UA has a track that runs around the second floor and decided to see if I could play hamster for a few laps.  10 laps equals a mile and I managed to do 30!  I made a game out of it. The 1st and 5th lap of every 10 I ran balls to the walls, all out, every 10th lap I did something special, the first mile I ran the 10th lap backwards, I did the 20th lap skipping and the 30th lap I did walking lunges.  All of a sudden I had completed 3 miles in 28 mins, which considering I lunged one of those laps and ran another backwards is pretty stellar.  I felt totally whipped when I was done and think I will make Tuesday Track workouts a weekly staple. 

I picked up Harper from daycare and the lady told me she thought Harper was wet. I didn’t have any diapers on me so I headed out to the car and changed her in the seat.  Well once I got her down and the diaper off I realized too late that she wasn’t wet, she had an ass explosion.  There was orange oatmeal poop everywhere and of course I hadn’t put a blanket down, and of course it had come out of her diaper and was up her back.  I got my dipe wipes out and only had like 3 left.  Ack. So by the time I was done I had used all the wipes and the outfit she had on was covered in poop and there were poopy oatmeal flakes getting on my car seats.  Good times.  I finally got her into her reserve outfit (which was a size too small!) and was on my way home. I looked down only to realize that I had poop all over my hand.  I had no napkins so I just drove home with it hanging out on my fingers.  Good times.  Note to self: restock diaper bag.  When we got home Harper went straight into the bath!

Speaking of poop, lets talk fiber shall we! The nice people over at GNU foods sent me over some complimentary GNU bars to try out.  I was able to try each flavor. I think most people who are conscious of their diets are always looking for ways to sneak in more fiber and these bars totally fit the bill.

I had actually had the Cranberry Orange flavor before and really liked it. Out of the various flavors they sent me I think that I can easily say the Lemon Ginger is my favorite. It is the perfect combo of ginger and lemon, two of my favorite tastes. I really liked the banana walnut one too. The chocolate flavors were okay, but not my favorite.  I will definately be stocking up on the orange, lemon and banana ones.  You can order a 5 flavor sampler on their site for only $9.95. Not bad.   According to their site, one of their bars is equivalent to 4 glasses of metamucil, gee whiz!  Here are some more facts from their website:

Would you like to try one?  I have some left to giveaway to you guys.  Leave me a comment of what flavor you want and I’ll use random.org to pick 2 winners on Friday morning. 

Today while snowed in and when Harper was sleeping I chose this workout from my wonderul UVerse Cable on demand menu. I decided to workout like a star….ladeefrickindaaa.


I love Jackie’s reality show – Workout on the Oxygen network.  I had never done one of her workouts before, but this DVD rocks. I give it 5/5 dumbells.  She breaks the workout into segments, detailed below.  Each segment is them made up of 3 excercises that you do one longer set of and then do them all smashed together at the end for the POWER BURN.  And yes it does burn.  I imagine if you did this 3 times a wek you would be ripped.  Her abs scare me a little though. It looks like she is wearing an ectoskeleton.  I’ll take her arms any day though.

Quads: Sissy squat, UFC, alternating front lunges
Hamstrings: Dead lift, bridge extension, reverse plank
Glutes: Squat w/weights, ski lunge, alternating squat kick
Chest:  Chest press, reverse fly, alternate press
Back: Wide row, renegades, dumbell pull over
Arms: Close grip hammer curl, straight arm kick back, arnold press
Upper abs: Straight leg crunch, legs up crunch, tall it up
Lower abs: Reverse crunch, tummy tuck, single leg jack
Obliques:  Sumo side to side, windshield wipers, side plank dips

What I liked best is that all the moves were simple and was impressed that there were a lot of moves I’ve never done before like the renegades and UFC.  I am no workout dvd virgin, I’ve done millions over the years, so its nice to see something new.  The only complaint I had was that she moved a little quick through some of the moves like the deadlifts, so I had a hard time using good form and I would have liked more arms.. I know I am going to be sore tomorrow. The ab workout especially was killer. I wanted to go to an ab class at the gym tomorrow, but am not sure I will be able to. I am going to be using some of her ab moves like the sumo side to side and tall sit up more often in my home ab workouts. 


Prior to the workout I managed to clean my entire first floor!  Even mopped the floors. Having a clean house may be one of the things that makes me happiest.  Too bad with 2 dogs, a cat, a kid and a husband who puts clothes anywhere but the hamper, cleanliness is short lived.  Cleaning a house with an 8 month old is no easy task. People ask me all the time how I ever get anything done, I find it works best if you let your kid do things that would make your mother in law very mad, like watch tv:

chew on inappropriate things

And torment her brothers



Since its so cold out today I figured Mushi needs a hat to go potty, looks good, non? 
I’ll be back tonight with my Monday Quick N Easy meal. I am thinking black beans and rice.  Yum!

I can’t believe another year is coming to a close.  I love calendars. I love lists. I love clean slates.  A new year really gets me excited and all set to plan. I was born for new years resolutions.  This is a BIG new year, the end of a decade.  So much happened for me from 2000-2009. I grew up, I became this person that I am. I turned 30 in 2009. I will admit, it scared me a little. 30 still seemed “old” to me. If I was 20 something, I was still able to grasp onto my college strings, I was still a kid, I still partied, I was still “cool”.  But reflecting back, I can say whole heartedly that I am happy to be done with my 20s.  I was not very kind to myself in my 20s.  I did a lot of stupid things. I drank way too much and wasted way too much of my hard earned waitressing dollars.  I exhausted a lot of time worrying about what others thought of me and way too much time thinking that if I could just lose 5 more lbs everything would fall into place, everything would just be perfect.  I guess that is what your 20s are about when you are a woman though. I don’t have one gal in my life who hasn’t wasted precious time worrying about those last 5 lbs.  I think that in your 30s you are more confident in who you are and I look forward to that.  I know that in this last year, becoming Harper’s mom, I really found who I was meant to be.  I cannot express how life changing having a baby is. Friends that had kids always talked about their babies and how amazing it is and I would sort of roll my eyes in my head. I loved my dogs, I understood   But no I didn’t. There is nothing more life altering than becoming someone’s mom and I welcome this new decade with open arms.  I have a great husband, a beautiful daughter, a body that does everything I demand of it, a roof over my head and food in my fridge. What more could I ever ever hope for? 

I have a few goals for 2009:
1. Run 1500 miles
2. Run a 5K in less than 24:00
3. Run a half marathon in less that 1:58
4. Practice yoga and/or pilates at least 2 time a week
5. Really make a go at getting monicaonthego.com out there and my readership up, if I can make a living off of this website, then I can stay home with Harper longer and nothing would make me happier. 

What about you bloggy friends.  Are you ready for a new decade?  Any stand out goals for 2010?

Woohooo boy have I been running around for the past week. Xmas takes us a long time in our family.  We go to the husband’s dads house on Xmas eve, then to his uncle on his dads side that night. On Xmas we go to his moms, then to his aunt on his moms side that night. Then we have to get down to KY to do Xmas with my family.  That’s a 7 hour drive.  This year we left on Sat b/c my sister Melanie and her kids were in town and I wanted to make sure I saw them b/c they hadn’t met the baby yet.  We stayed until Monday and drove back last night.  What a whirlwind, but fun was had by all. I think I probably gained 5 lbs!  Oh well, tis the season.  Fonzie and I are going out for a snowy run here pretty soon.  I love running in the snow, it’s such a great Quad burner.  I hope all of you had a great Xmas. I am really looking forward to the new year. I am trying to work out in my head a daily schedule for the blog.  For instance, maybe I will do product reviews on Monday, Somethin’ pretty on Tuesday, Crockpot recipes on Wed, etc.  I am going to make some veggie lasagna later today and will put up the recipe and come back for my Prana bar giveaway.  Hugs to all.

Harper’s First Xmas. Fun with Peanuts.

I am so excited for our first family Xmas!  Having a little one brings back the holiday newness and excitement for me.  I hope all of you have a wonderful holiday!  I have a 6 miler planned with the Fonz as soon as the sun comes up.  Right now Harper and I are sharing a banana and Boomi bar as pre run fuel.  After Xmas I will be doing a Prana/Boomi bar giveaway, these bars are goood.  Don’t forget to enter my Heart Thrive giveaway below so you can get a little present after the holidays! 

Oh and before I forget, the coffee grind exfoliant worked great!  I think it would be too harsh for your face, but was the perfect combination of sandpaper and gravel for my taste   And I learned online that the caffeine in coffee is really good for circulation and cellulite!  Go figure.  The olive oil left a great moisturizing feel to my skin and I didn’t stink like coffee all day.  Although it was super messy in the shower!

Yesterday I took Harper out in the snow in her giant snowsuit and below are some pics from her Xmas card photo shoot that my neighbor did for us.


She looked like Ralphie’s little brother from the Xmas story in this getup. It’s supposed to be for 6/9 month olds, I got it for a $1 at a thrift store, I think its mislabeled. But it works.  All those sticks are because we have a willow tree that plagues are yard with impossible to pick up branches all year.  It’s pretty though.

 
She found the bear to be hillarriouss.

This is the pic we ended up using. Isn’t my neighbor Dave talented?  He doesn’t do this for a living, just a hobby and he did such an awesome job! 

This is pretty much what goes on in my house all day long. I can’t keep Fonzie or Harper away from the ball. 

I was at Whole Food the other day…which is an indulgence, I rarely allow myself to go in there b/c it’s so expensive and I want everything.  I was perusing the yogurt.  Whole Foods has the most amazing yogurt section and I love to try new yogurts, some of my favorites are Liberte siz grain yogurts. Have you tried there?  They literally have 6 different kinds of grains in the yogurt, which sounds weird I know, but it gives it a great texture.  My favorite is the pear.

The other yogurt I always pick up at Whole paycheck is Wallaby.   The regular yogurt is great b/c it comes in yummy flavors like maple and orange passionfruit.  Lately I am digging a newer product they have called Down Under which has pulpy fruit in the bottom to stir in.  They also have a delectable dark chocolate one that is enough to kill my sweet tooth. The grapefruit is my other go to flavor.


Anyway as I was perusing the yogurt I came across Yobaby 3 in 1 meals.  It is literally yogurt with vegetables and fruit on the bottom!  I thought it sounded really gross, but got the green bean/pear flavor.  Harper isn’t very good about eating her green veggies, so I thought I’d give it a try. It was a huge success, she scarfed up the whole container and I tried it and it was really good. I might even have it on hand for myself!  It can never hurt to get another veggie serving in.  At $1.29 it’s a little pricey, but now that I have tried it I can copy it and you better believe I will be hiding Harper’s green beans in yogurt a few times a week!  
 
What are your favorite yogurts??  Check back soon, I will have an exciting giveaway from Raw Revolution in the next few days!

I have a new daughter, her name is Harper, she was born in April.  When I found out I was pregnant it was August of 2008.  At the time we decided to try for a baby, the hubby and I discussed it and decided I would stay home for a year with the little one. Then as my pregnancy progressed the economy got worse and worse and the thought of giving up a perfectly good paying job got scarier and scarier.  I had to do a lot of soul searching and since I didn’t really enjoy the work that I did (due to under staffing and over work, not the work itself, I was a project manager and loved that) I decided to go ahead and quit anyway after my 12 weeks of maternity leave were up  Well, first I put together a kick ass part time proposal, but the company I worked for had a strict no PT stance and weren’t going to bend it for me.  But I left on good terms and feel I could go back at anytime.  However, I would have to work until 5:30 and since Harper goes to be at 7:pm most nights, I just can’t fathom it. I love staying home.  I had friends with kids who claimed there was no way they could stay home, that they would go crazy.  But I love every minute of it.  Some days I get stir crazy and watching money is a new thing to me, but I feel like I was made to be Harper’s mom.  Unfortunately I do have to go back to work whe she’s about a year old. I am dreading it!   But I am afraid to stay out of the workforce for too long.

It helps that I have the worlds best kid. Okay maybe I am partial, but even her poopy diapers smell like roses to me.  She is generally happy all the time and has slept like a champ since she was like 11 weeks old.   I have had to change a lot about myself in order to stay home.  Most importantly I now have to think about money.  I’ll admit it, the hubby was always had the purse strings and I never thought much about it.  But now every purchase is thought out.  No more going to Target and wandering around and coming out with lip gloss and a sports bra.  If I go to buy garbage bags, that’s what I get.  All in all staying home has not been as hard money wise as I thought it would be. If I could find a good part time job (or get some cash flowing from this website -anyone have any tips?), I would be set!  Here are a few things that have helped:

Breastfeeding:
Before I got pregnant and even when I was pregnant I found breastfeeding to be pretty gross.  I was super excited about my teeny perky A cups (Bs on a good day!) becoming orangutan titties.  Once I wean Harper I know these things will fizzle out like 3 day old party balloons.  Such is life.  Formula is expensive, booby juice is free! And now that I am over the ick factor, it really is something I have grown to love.  But mark my word we will start weaning as soon as she is a year old, I’m not having a kid who can actually ask me for some boob.  Plus after breastfeeding, you are usually left with this!


Make your own baby food:
I was resistant to this at first, but its not so hard.  For fruit I just throw whole, washed fruits like pears and apples into the crock pot and let them cook for a few hours, then core them and throw them into the food processor with a little water, and voila baby food.  For veggies, I just buy bags at the grocery and over boil them a little and then go through the same process. I store them in gerber baby good containers I have saved up inside the freezer.  I have been buying puffs and melts though.  She loves those, so its worth a few more bucks.



Cut some coupons:
First I actually take that redplum thing out of the mail and cut the coupons!  Imagine, I never ever did that before baby.  I also frequent some coupon websites, a few of my favorites are:

http://print.coupons.com/Couponweb/Offers.aspx?pid=13903&nid=10&zid=xh20
http://www.couponmommie.com/
http://ccherrypicker.blogspot.com/

I cut a coupon for anything that comes up we use and buy it, whether we need it or not.  We also hit up Costco at least once a month.  I have found diapers to be cheapest there.

So, anyway, that’s how I roll as a stay at home mom.  Any other SAHM’s out there with some tips?