A Word About our Sponsor: StrollerFit

One of the wonderful sponsors of our Hot for the Holidays challenge is StrollerFit and if you have some mommy areas you want to target, this program is your answer. Literally. I told you that I only contacted sponsors whose product or philosophy I believe in, and StrollerFit is right at the top of that list.

What is StrollerFit? The television station I used to work at did a story on StrollerFit once a couple years ago and I printed out the script and information to save it for when I had a baby one day. Yes, I thought it was so cool wayyyy before I had a baby. And once I had a baby, I did it myself.

And StrollerFit rocks! I took classes at two different locations. The leader of the groups are themselves mommies with babies, and she leads us all, mommies with babies in tow, through a combination of cardio and strength workouts that target muscles specific to mommies. You know that part of the belly that gets all flabby after the baby comes out and leaves you with that deflated tire look? They can fix that. It's like going to a body mechanic.

So what we would do is some jogging outside with our babies in the jogging strollers, stop and do some lifting with resistance bands, some step-ups, some pushups and tricep pushups, lunges, squats, and situps. You work at your own pace and if your baby needs tending to, you just stop and tend to baby, no worries at all. We even got our babies involved in the process by singing to them during the workouts and even holding them during certain exercises. The kids love it and it's also a great chance to meet mommies of babies the same age as yours. You're with a group of mommies who are motivated to be healthy and to be an example for their children! When my son sees me exercising, he loves to be a part of it! At the end of the workout, we'd all just sit under a tree and chitchat and some mommies would nurse and it was really the whole package, exercising, chatting and bonding with other moms in the same boat as you.

There are StrollerFit classes pretty much everywhere. You can click right here to see if there is one in your area, and they'll even let you try the first class for free! If there isn't a class in your area, they have a few great DVDs out on their site that you can try. Like the fitness program called "mommymuscle" designed by StrollerFit that combines cardio and strength training to specifically target the areas moms use most during and after pregnancy. Or the Restore the Core workout, which incorporates Pilates to get that core back into shape.

How stinkin' cute is that????!!

Like they say, it doesn't matter if your kid is 3 months old or 30 years old, it'll work for everyone. You can even do the exercises with the baby in the Bjorn!

After I got pregnant and had the baby, my body was literally unrecognizable. As in, things shifted and moved and landed in the most ungodly places, I have no idea what happened or how, but it was no longer about the weight I gained alone, it was about the shifting. (Curse you, shifting!!) The programs that StrollerFit follows know all about the shifting. It's not a generic workout. It's a workout for women. Not to mention, StrollerFit totally solves that babysitting problem, so really, you have no excuse not to workout if you have a class in your area or you have one of their DVDs. Win-win all around!

So even if you didn't win the prize, that's ok!!! Head on over to their website and read about what they're doing to changes mommybodies everywhere and how you can get in on some of this action too. Especially if you need to switch things up come the end of HFH!

A Word About our Sponsor: StrollerFit

https://babytealeaves.blogspot.com/2008/12/word-about-our-sponsor-strollerfit.html?m=0

Motivation Monday

Good morning!! It's Thankgsiving week!! And I am thankful that whatever hex has befallen our home in the form of germflubronchialitisness has been lifted. (Almost. There's a lingering cough but mostly we're getting there.)

Bad news is, I missed a few of my final week before 10k runs, but since whatever it was was all in my chest, I think I had to in the name of getting better so I can run the 10k at all. Whatever exercise I had attempted had landed me in a coughing fit, so I think I will have to rely on the consistency of the runs of the past couple months and try to get in a 2 or 3 miler tomorrow just to get moving, then VOILA! The Turkey Trot! I can't believe it's upon me already!! And I'm not even nervous!! Can you believe that???

I will purchase my ceremonious new-outfit-before-the-run this week and hope for the best. Meantime, I have plans in the works for the next version of HFH...just saying..

This week's prize comes to us from Angie of Losing it and Loving it! Thank you Angie!! She has a wonderful blog about her weightloss journey that includes tips and recipes along with her progress. And she's come a long way, losing more than 70 pounds!! That's amazing!!! Angie is offering a surprise goodybox chock full of weightloss and fitness goodies. So if you want to win the prize package this week, ya gotta remember to weigh in! It's like Christmas only earlier!

This week it's about being thankful. Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday of the whole year. This week you can do one of two things. Take a picture of what you are most thankful for, or something during your thanksgiving celebration. OR talk about what you are most thankful for. And link it up and share. That's pretty simple.

The final week of the challenge is fast approaching, so let's not lose momentum ok??? If you must throw caution to the wind this Thanksgiving, work in a plan to offset it. Build an extra workout in. Choose to enjoy or indulge without overindulging. Be aware of your every bite and enjoy it. The average American gains SEVEN pounds from Thanksgiving to New Years. If we all did that this season, we would completely UNDO everything we have worked for over the last three months and have to start over, like everyone else does, at the New Year!!!! We're doing this challenge so that we don't have to do that!!!! Seriously, let's not do that to ourselves.

Don't worry, I too will have to recite all of that myself on Thursday, when our traditional meal comes out to visit. (But I am working in the exercise that day -- I will have run 6 miles that morning -- which means burning at least 600 calories!)

Good luck this week!

Motivation Monday

https://babytealeaves.blogspot.com/2008/11/motivation-monday_24.html?m=0

Saturday Results Show

Good morning!! We're having Halloween hangovers this morning. Well not from drinking, no. From candy, and not really me, but my two-year-old who's obsessed with his candy basket and trying to getcandygetcandygetcandygetcandy until we've distracted him with Fireman Sam, hid the candy, and instilled a "no candy before noon" rule, and only then, one piece and then not again until after dinner. My husband, though, is secretly wrapping up most of the candy including the leftovers from the trick-or-treaters, putting it in a bag and taking it to work so he can make all his co-workers fat instead of his wife.

Anyhoo, hope everyone had a fun Halloween! We did! The kids went trick-or-treating as a firefighter and a dalmatian.

The dalmatian, whose only 11 months, also had a candy bucket but just out of fairness and decoration, really, and he kept leaning over into the other one's bucket and stealing his candy which would ignite, so to speak, some grabbing and hitting.

Now, I thought he just wanted to play with the bucket (silly me!) so I emptied the little one's bucket which was Elmo and handed it back to him but NOOOOOOOOO! He wanted what was inside, just like the older one. How does a not-yet-one-year-old know these things!!

Anyway, fun was had by all in the end.

On to our grand total this week, which was:

25.3 POUNDS!!!

Great job this week!! I know it was a particularly hard one being a holiday week and all and candy all up in everyone's grill. So here's to a week of cleansing!

And get this -- there was a FOUR-way tie for Biggest Loser this week so give yourselves a big hand! (Or a big foam finger, anyway...)

Beckyjomama, Roxymommy, Clara, and Berry Patch, were responsible for almost half of this week's weightloss!!! How's that for some Saturday morning math!

And Berry Patch is having a particularly good week, wanna know why??? Because she's the winner of the blog redo sponsored by Summer at Designs by Summer! Congratulations!!! An e-mail is on its way!!!

Good luck next week as we enter the final stretch! Last few weeks! Time to motor!

Saturday Results Show

https://babytealeaves.blogspot.com/2008/11/saturday-results-show.html?m=0

A word about our sponsor, Blog Designs by Summer

In our fun little shindig going on here we've had a couple really talented blog designers offer up their services generously to one happy loser (and I mean loser in a good way). This week, it's Summer of Summer's Nook, also owner of Blog Designs by Summer. Summer also happens to be one of our HFH participants!! So if you're up for a new blog design these days, you're gonna wanna weigh in Friday for a shot at Summer's work, because I went over there and it's pretty amazing. She's done a lot of blogs that I've heard of throughout the blogosphere, like Flip Flop Mama, Dad of Divas, and Drama Mama. Beautiful work!!!

She also does headers, signatures, Etsy banners, buttons, awards, the list seems to go on and on! And she's very reasonably priced. For the amount of time you spend trying to do these things yourself, and believe me, before I had mine designed for me I had gone through hours upon hours upon hours of trying to figure out HTML and pixels and image sizing and fonts and for such a small price I could have had it done eons ago! Well, we're all a little wiser now...

But take a look at her work and if you don't win this week, her prices are super-affordable. Thanks Summer for your generous donation!!!

A word about our sponsor, Blog Designs by Summer

https://babytealeaves.blogspot.com/2008/10/word-about-our-sponsor-blog-designs-by.html?m=0

Motivation Monday

Good morning! Stay with me here because today's post is chock full of something or other. Like some bragging, some prize action, and a really fun HFH Halloweenieness.

First with the bragging (sorry!)

So I had a minor miscalculation. My runs on Sunday have started getting long. Like 5 miles long. These scare the crap out of me. So I and my wonderful math skills mapped out a 5 mile run for Sunday afternoon, a leisurely stroll at my somewhere-between-10-to-11-minute mile pace. And it's math because there are two trails that I run but one of them has no milemarkers, and the other one picks up about a quarter way through my route and does have milemarkers, so I have to add up and times by two if I go down and back and it all seems easy enough.

And the run takes me a while. Much longer than I had anticipated. And husband had the kids and was walking with them while I ran and he had to abort and drive around in the car with one restless and one screaming kid.

I see him drive by me twice and wave, which my mombrain and I know as I'm running means things are not going according to plan. But I truck along because I am almost done, I'm in the homestretch, my feet are starting to kill but I'm in the last half-mile and I pick up the pace and I finish. Woohoo! 5 miles!

So when I get home I do the math because I think I took a little longer than I should've, I find out of course that I did do the math wrong. I didn't run 5 miles. I ran almost 5 and a half MILES!! ME! 5 1/2 MILES! And I didn't want to die afterward! Of course it took me like an hour, but I ran for an hour straight, no stopping, hills and everything (yes, in flat Florida I found the one trail with hills) and made it the whole way! How proud of myself am I?! Me who could barely run one. Me who ran 4 miles once long long ago and almost passed out and never did it again. Me who wanted to die after that whole run-for-30-minutes-thing on the Couch to 5k program.

I'm on cloud 9! That means, that when the 10k Turkey Trot comes along, I'm actually going to be able to run and finish. Because it's only a 1/2 mile longer than what I did Sunday! All that running, day in and day out, actually starting to pay off. Of course, the true test is the final run, but I am falling over with giddy-girlie-excitability.

Sorry. I just had to share.

So now that I started with the boring stuff, I'll get to the fun stuff. This week we have another fun prize. If you didn't get to win a blog makeover the first time around, guess what? We have another bloggy artist among us who wants to give another lucky blogger a new look! Summer at Summer's Nook is also a blog designer, and you can check out her pretty works at Designs by Summer. The prize is one full blog redesign, the package of the winner's choosing! How cool is that!? Thanks Summer!!! Just make sure to leave a comment with your weigh-in results on Friday to be entered into the drawing.

Finally, Halloween is Friday! How much fun! So this week, we're gonna break from all the self-scrutiny and introspection and goal-making, and have a costume party! Everyone's invited!! This week's project is to take a picture of someone or something dressed up, kids, pets, pumpkins, whatever! And link it up so we can all come by! Happy Halloween this week! And good luck! Remember, if you must eat some candy -- go for it, but not the whole bag!!!!!

Motivation Monday

https://babytealeaves.blogspot.com/2008/10/motivation-monday_27.html?m=0

Final Tally Week 7

HI!

First off, did you know we're approaching WEEK 8 of this challenge?

Congratulations to everyone to sticking with it! To staying the course! You've all done amazing work! And how much fun is this doing this together instead of being all lonely and having to rely solely on self-motivation? That's no fun! Well it is sometimes, but why be a sole soul? A lone reed? (You've Got Mail).

But what does week 8 really mean? It means just over 4 more weeks left to goal! (Holy moley it's coming up quickly!)

So now would be a great time to either re-evaluate to see if your end goal needs adjusting and your plans for that goal need a-changing. Are you on your way to meeting that goal and surpassing it? Set a higher goal! Does it look like you might not meet your goal? That's ok! Set a new one and meet that one! Right on track?? Awesome! Either way, take a look at where you are now. You should have a good idea of what works and what doesn't. If you haven't quite dug your heels in yet and you know you can push just a little harder, think about this: there are only a few weeks left. In the grand scheme of things, a few weeks of saying "no" to things so you can lose weight is not that long. And it could mean being able to say "yes" to some things because you'll be in a place for "maintenance" instead of "weight loss". Think about it in terms of mini-goals. Reaching lots of mini-goals means eventually reaching that big goal! So it's the home-stretch, strong women, let's make the most of it!!

Thanks for bearing with me today, we got a late start for the pumpkin patch and you know how quickly windows can disappear with two children who need lunch, snacks, naps, etc. etc. etc.

Plus, can I go off topic again and show off this little beauty?

No! Not me, silly! Our new Nikon!!! OHMIGODISTHISTHEMOSTFANTASTICTHINGEVER.

I can't keep my eyes/hands/paws off it. It makes a cup of cheerios look pretty.

But really we had a great time taking pictures today of things like this:
OK, ok, I'll save my random pictures for another day (i.e. the apple, wine bottle, etc..) And give you this week's final tally:

27.1 POUNDS!!!

We had a lot of people in a lull this week and that's ok, that happens! (I'm one of them, but it's because I ate well and didn't do more to burn more calories, simple math for me!) So that means, this week I'm going to step it up. Maybe even venture outside my comfort zone.

Which segues me into our biggest loser! This week's biggest loser is Laura at Adventures in Juggling with 4 whole pounds! You wanna know what makes this girl steel? She had surgery last week, and with her crazy-bruisy-leg actually walked a mile anyway. I'm going to venture out there and say that maybe she went just a bit outside her comfort zone. Just a hunch. And that's inspiring. She gets a lovely badge for her superhumanness. Congrats!

Now for the winner of this week's prize, sponsored by Sweet Mummy at It's OK to be Weird!

Natalie at Bye Bye Fat Mom!

Congrats to you!! An e-mail is on its way!

Way to go, everyone for a great week! We got some more fun prizes coming up over the next couple weeks so don't forget to stop back by to see what they are and don't forget to weigh in, even if the news ain't so good! Have a wonderful weekend!!!!

Final Tally Week 7

https://babytealeaves.blogspot.com/2008/10/final-tally-week-7.html?m=0

Motivation Monday

Sorry bout the late start! I flew in from D.C. last night after crying half the day in anticipation of leaving precious little Maddiejust in time to catch the very end of the American League playoffs, re: the Rays GOING TO THE WORLD SERIES!!!!!


WOOHOOOOOOO!


ahem.


Sorry, Sox fans.


But that was a close one, wasn't it? That 7-nothing comeback that the Red Sox made over the weekend was one of the biggest comebacks EVER! And the single reason why I will never ever leave a baseball game early, by the way. All those people you saw walkin' up the steps and leaving the stadium when the score was 7-zip, missed their beloved Red Sox coming back and beating the Rays. Two words: A-Mazing. I'm a Rays fan and even I know that was something. The moral? It ain't over till it's over. And isn't that what it's about here? Digging your heels in until it's finished. Because every time you think it's over and you're in a deficit and you give up, you're missing your own happy ending. Your own big comeback. Your own big finish.


It's about choices. You can choose to quit. You can choose to give up. You can choose not doing the work. Or, you can choose to put in the time. Choose dedication. Choose finding the time. Choose making the time. Choose to plan. Choose to pick something healthy on the menu or avoid that restaurant altogether. Choose to surround yourself with heathy influences, including people. Choose to get outside and turn off the tv.

And by the way, your choices don't just impact you. They influence other people. Ever notice how when you've been working at getting healthy all of a sudden you see people around you getting a little healthier? When you take care of yourself, it makes other people want to do the same. That's a pretty big deal. This week, it's about taking care of yourself and influencing others. This Friday, we're going to do a little Show and Tell!


Show us something fun or helpful: tips, dvds, recipes, all of the above, one of the above, whatever, and tell us about it. What is your favorite healthy dish? What is your favorite workout in the whole world, or workout dvd (and why!) and/or favorite tips to motivate, or workout tools that you can't live without (sneakers, store, clothes, trinkets), absolutely anything goes for this, anything that any of us readers of your blogs can use to keep going or switch it up or anything! We need some variety in our lives and you can help us with that! So share! Share! Share! Share! And link it up so we can all read about it.


Now, for prize time!


This week's prize is a beautiful work of art, handmade by one of our wonderful participants, Sweet Mummy from It's OK to be Weird! She worked on this little project, and it's done for giveaway! It's a cross-stitch of a white orchid, matted, glassed, and all ready to hang up.
Isn't she pretty? I love orchids. One random winner will be the proud owner of this piece this Friday, so make sure you weigh in! Good luck this week!!

Motivation Monday

https://babytealeaves.blogspot.com/2008/10/motivation-monday_20.html?m=0

Grand total = Wow!

Hi!! Good day! Happy weekend everyone!! By the way, I weighed in and there's been no change whatsoever which is a good thing. I wasn't near a computer for most of the day Friday, as I was getting my sister's house ready for her happy homecoming. We cooked and baked up a storm! But I will be by as soon as I can, I promise!

Well, fellow Strong A&& Women, WE HAVE HAD A GOOD WEEK.

How good, you ask?

56.9 POUNDS GOOD!

Folks, we doubled last week's number. Apparently some bodies are kicking it into gear. Some metabolisms are revving. Kicking it up a notch. BAM! Congratulations to everyone -- you should pat yourself on the back! Congrats to all of you not just for losing this week, but for being consistent. You all rock!!



Can you tell I'm a little on the sleepless side? I have a lot of enthusiasm. By the way, my ear still has not popped. It's been three days now. I've been half deaf this whole trip so far.


So who won the prize this week???? Beckyjomama at Sweet Abundance! Congratulations! I didn't see an e-mail on your blog so please e-mail me asap! (Christieo_7 at msn dot com.) And if you get a chance, head on over to say hi to her, because she rocked her workouts this week and reported a loss of .2 and is all discouraged -- so she needs some old-fashioned-HFH-support! She's doing great!

Beckyjomama wins a $20 giftcard from Running Free, a great athletic store! You must go check it out if you haven't already! Congrats again!

Finally, this week's Biggest Loser is Rachelle from The Sparks Family! With 6 pounds! Holy Cow! Great job, girl! You get one of these!

What a great week everyone had! Wow!! Here's to another one! Work it, girls!!

Grand total = Wow!

https://babytealeaves.blogspot.com/2008/10/grand-total-wow.html?m=0

A Word About our Sponsor

Runner's Lounge is being pretty generous to our challenge -- they're donating not one, or two, but three prizes! Two of them we're giving away this week, a Runner's Lounge tee and an autographed running book.

I like them.

I found them when I was bloghopping one day when I just started getting into running and I have been a member ever since. There are a million things you can do on there-- like store your runs, chat with other runners --or with other people who are losing weight and not just running. You can find information about anything from running to buying a treadmill to finding good running songs. There are stories of inspiration and motivation which I can always use, and tips on nutrition.

It's pretty much the Mecca of running/slash/weight loss. Personally, I like the "Map My Run" feature, because I can go on there and plug in my start and finish points and know how far I'm running without driving it and zeroing out my odometer which is my usual way. And tedious.

If you get a chance, head on over and take a look around. They have giveaways too, which I always enter because I love free stuff. :) Also I set up a forum for us to chitchat if you wanna head there too for that, just click on "Connect with Runners" and plug in "HFH" as the forum you're looking for! Good luck on the drawing!!

A Word About our Sponsor

https://babytealeaves.blogspot.com/2008/10/word-about-our-sponsor.html?m=0

A Word About Our Sponsor...Plus LAST CHANCE WORKOUTS!!

Judi rocks. I hope you like what my blog is wearing (if you don't, that's ok too!) because I do! Because I love flowers and I love pink. And I love pink and orange. And I love tea, and when it comes to writing things or designing things, I am a pain in the butt. Total control freak, actually, because I like what I like and I get an idea in my head about something and I have to run with it and if anyone is standing in my way I get frustrated. And if I have to rely on someone other than myself to help me carry out my vision, then I can only hope and pray that they share my vision. I know. See what Judi from Doodlebug Designs had to put up with?

On top of being a great blog designer, she is patient. Verrrrry patient.

And miraculously, she did share my vision. Because it came out just like I pictured, and actually better. She's done a lot of pretty blogs, and I like to venture over there sometimes just to look at all the pretty pictures...

I'm a dork.

But among the blogs you may recognize, she's also done Maggie's blog, at Maggie's Mind, and I think she captured Maggie's personality perfectly on that one. Spot on.

And during the last challenge here (the "Summer of Me" weightloss challenge), ET at Titus 2:3-5 won a blog makeover from Doodlebug Designs and hers turned out just so darned cute! So take a look over there, she has something for everyone! There is a blog makeover up for grabs this week so don't forget to weigh-in! If you don't have a blog, maybe this is a good time to start one! :) Good luck this week!

So, guess what today is?

It's THURSDAY! Which means the weigh-in is tomorrow morning. Which means last chance workouts all around! I have a three mile run today and I got brand new sneakers (pink! well, gray and pink) for my birthday and they are so cute and awesome, they are like strapping on air onto my feet they are so light. I usually buy Asics but this time it was the Nikes that caught my eye. And by the way, I found myself trying on a blue pair of Asics but only because they had the word "Nimbus" in the name and I thought, how cool would it be to have Nimbus 3000 sneakers, I'd be like the Harry Potter of running, whatever that would mean. I guess he really never needed to run anyway, he had a broom. Maybe it means I could be as fast as Harry Potter on a broom. I'm delirious. It's late. I just got back from visiting my mom in the hospital and I am hopped up on coffee. She is doing very well, thank you for all your kind thoughts and words. :)

Anyway, back to shoes, I didn't like the blue Nimbuses as much as the pink and they weren't as light as my pink featherlight Nikes which I love. (Have I mentioned I love them?)

I also got a great belt that holds two tiny water bottles for me to wear while I run and beat that still ridicu-florida-heat. I really got it for the crazy 4 and 5 mile runs that are going to be occurring on Sundays that have me scared to death.

So good luck today everyone! Let's post some serious losses this week! What does your last minuteness consist of?

A Word About Our Sponsor...Plus LAST CHANCE WORKOUTS!!

https://babytealeaves.blogspot.com/2008/09/word-about-our-sponsorplus-last-chance.html?m=0

Motivation Monday + Prize + Question O' Week

Good morning!

I hope everyone stayed strong this weekend!

We had a couple a birthday parties and I partook (is that a word) in some cake but only a bite or a sliver. I did miss my long run today because I stayed out wayyy past my bedtime Saturday night and I woke up a little too late to go on the run in the Florida sun so I will have to do it today. Scratch that. I must do it today.

So I'm wondering. Are you in a plateau? Are you stuck in a rut? Are you working out but not seeing results? I am not in any way certified, but I can tell you what worked for me when I was stuck.

A few years ago I lived in Salt Lake City and I had put on a few pounds. I was actually right where I am now. I decided to train for a 5k which I had never done before and the plan called for running 4 days a week. So I was running 4 days a week and logging at least 10 miles a week (which is not a lot for some people but it was for me!), sometimes more depending on the length of my runs. I was doing this for WEEKS and nothing was coming off. NOTHING! And I was miffed because I was running 2 and 3 miles at a time and for me, that was a lot!

And so I got to talking to a trainer at my gym one day and he tweaked my workout schedule by adding weights to the mix on the days I wasn't running. Boy did that help! I was running Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday and weight training on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. I would do two days of legs and one of arms, then the next week I'd do two days of arms and one of legs.

My body changed within weeks. No joke. He looked at me a couple weeks later and said, "See?"

I moved back to Florida and after my first baby, I got back into the gym working out three days a week and eating well. Months later, I hadn't lost a thing. Nada. Again. I added another day and still, nada. Finally what worked was 5 and 6 days alternating weights with cardio. Again. So what I learned was that three days of working out a week was good for me to maintain, but to actually lose weight? Yep. It required more work.

Of course, different things work for different people, but I, my uncertified self, highly recommend adding weights to the mix if you haven't already. Read here for more insight on the topic and enjoy!

That being said, let's stay strong this week! Make the healthy choices. The ones that will further you to your goal, not deter you. Because we are "strong ass women" and we are empowered to do it. You and you alone are in charge. Not food. Not time. Not other people. You.

So, here's the question(s) of the week and you can write a post about it (or not) but if you do, let us know on Friday, either in the comments or the linky so we can all visit each other!

We've been doing a lot of thinking about where we are in life and what we want to do in our life, so this week we're going to do a photo essay of sorts. Take pictures of the following things and you can have any interpretation you want:

1. Someone or something that inspires you.

2. Something that you love to do.

3. Something that makes you crazy.

4. Something healthy in your life.

Now: onward to the prizes! This week's prize comes to us from Doodlebug Designs. Wonderful, wonderful Judi, who designed my blog and I love her. She's offering a free blog makeover to the lucky winner of Friday's drawing!! Woohoo! Head on over there and take a look at her work, she really is awesome and she will make sure you are 150% happy with your new blog and work tirelessly to make sure of it. So don't forget to weigh-in Friday to be eligible for the drawing!

Oh and here's some new stuff this week: You know how I have daily chatter entries on the blog here? Well I have created a forum for us on one of our sponsor's sites, Runners Lounge. You don't have to be a runner to do this, either. Here's what you do. 1) head over to the site. 2) create a login and all of this is free by the way 3) click on the tab at the top of the Runners Lounge homepage that says "Connect With Runners". 4) Then click on the 2nd option, "Find or Start a Lounge Group". 5)Under "Group Name" type in "HFH" (without the quotes--that's our private discussion name). 6)Click on the forum. And voila! We've got a forum.

On the final and somewhat unrelated note, I'd just like to say goodbye to you, dear Yankee Stadium! I've loved watching you and stepping onto your field where legends have played with passion and blood and sweat and tears. Where millions of people who have loved and hated this team and yet have loved this wonderful game have come together and roared and screamed and cheered. I am so sad you are going. I will miss you!

Motivation Monday + Prize + Question O' Week

https://babytealeaves.blogspot.com/2008/09/motivation-monday-prize-question-o-week.html?m=0

FTF Results and Winner!

Wow!!!

What an interesting week this has been!

I've made it to the flip-side by the way and am sitting at home on my cushy little couch blogging from the comfort of my own home. What a long drive! There were crying babies and a little ruckus in the Cracker Barrel, but we made it. That's neither here nor there.

Back to Fat Ticker Friday!

So, week two and we're having our ups and downs! Here are the numbers:

The overall loss was 78.3 pounds! Woohoo!

But....(and there's always a but, isn't there?)

The overall gain was 22.4 pounds...

So, that makes the grand total for this week, for the big ticker:

55.9 POUNDS

Ok, so there were a few gains. So what. I was actually pretty surprised to post a loss for myself during birthday week and post TOM week, if we're being honest here. But let's stay the course everyone! Whatever you do, stay in the game! We can do this, we really can!!!

Now, to the winner.

The winner of the "Body Art Cookbook" is Lori at Finding Radiance! Congrats to you!

And...this week's "biggest loser" is Holly at Mihomipa Family Blog with an amazing 7 pound loss! Wow! Here is your badge!!

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I have some fun stuff lined up for Monday (Monday's Motivation) so make sure you check back! And feel free to grab badges for your weightlosses here! Have a great weekend! WWBD!

FTF Results and Winner!

https://babytealeaves.blogspot.com/2008/09/ftf-results-and-winner.html?m=0

About this week's prize...

This week's prize is an autographed copy of the BodyArt Cookbook by Tanya Lee. The more I read about it, the more I realize it's yet another prize that I want instead I am giving away. :)

I've found that eating can be an art or a science. Sometimes both. An artFORM, even. But this book has recipes that make meals all of the above.

I'm personally not following any plan, really, except for eating a balance of carbohydrates with proteins, eating whole grains, lean proteins, fruits and vegetables, while minimizing the fat. I pay attention to what I eat after a workout because I want my body to continue to burn calories afterward. I pay attention to what I eat beforehand. I drink lots of water. This all seems to work for me. And I believe that different things work for different people. Look at Michael Phelps who eats something like 12,000 calories a day while training.

Anyway, I also believe that healthy food doesn't have to taste like crap. In fact, everything I eat, I actually like. It's really not unheard of to actually like the healthy stuff. And in fact, crap food (besides birthday cake on someone's birthday who's turning 33 but got carded last night I'm not mentioning any names...) feels yucky after I've been eating healthy for a while.

But sometimes you just gotta mix things up a bit because there are only so many combinations of the healthy stuff that you can come up with on your own. Which is where this lovely cookbook comes in. The BodyArt Cookbook has about 300 recipes. And the recipes are a balance of healthy carbs and proteins that maximize your body's calorie burning potential. It's very helpful if you're already an athlete, but also very helpful if you're just plain old eating healthier.

The recipes were created not only to be yummy, which helps, but to work with your body in whatever state it is in. For instance, the "PMS Yogurt" which helps lessen those lovely PMS symptoms like water retention and *ahem* irritability. Could've used this recipe last week.

Or a quickie breakfast, called "Instant French Toast in a Bowl." There are yummy "Romaine Wraps" and veggie burgers, vegetarian, vegan and meat-eater recipes.

And they're detailed, from the nutritional information down to how well the prepared dish will travel. Seriously.

So, thank you, Tanya Lee, for sponsoring this lovely giveaway! And don't forget to weigh in Friday to be eligible for this prize! No matter what size, shape, athletic ability you are, you're going to find something fun in here!

About this week's prize...

https://babytealeaves.blogspot.com/2008/09/about-this-weeks-prize.html?m=0