WOWZA!! 10K Here We Come....

I can't believe how fast time keeps flying by!! Little man is 10.5 months already!!!

It's been forever since I've last posted! As much as I love sharing my life and all that jazz, I also have to take my own advice and not spend so much time on the computer.... so that's what I've been doing!

In the last month, we've been busy working on rearranging the house. Somebody decided to start walking at 9 months old. Coffee tables are just not baby friendly. Therefore, house makeover. It was time anyways. I'm trying to finish up a gallery wall in the kitchen, as well. We are also meeting with contractors to finish our 2nd/sub-basement. We need a playroom for P ... and a place to put all of the stuff from our 3rd bedroom. We are wanting to clear it out for baby #2. This mama has BABY FEVER! Geesh!

Little man and I have continued our running! We are all signed up with B and a few friends for the Corporate Cup 10k on September 25th! We are using a new app on my phone and getting up our mileage. We've had to alter our run schedule a little bit due to the crazy heat wave a few weeks ago and now that P is taking only 2 naps per day! (We tried to see if he was ready for 1 nap per day... he was not. LOL).

Our Schedule: (on my days off).
5:00am (wake up and pump)
6:30am feed
7am-7:45ish am RUN
8am breakfast (solids for P)
8:30am-10am playtime
10am-11:30am P's nap  (I pump right after I put him down)
11:30am feed
12-12:45 self play for P
12:45pm lunch (solids for P)
1:15pm -2:30 playtime
2:30-3:45/4ish Nap for P (I pump right after I put him down)
4pm feed
430-6pm play (a little bit of self play)
6pm dinner (solids for P)
630-730pm family play time
7:30-8pm bath time/story time
8-815 feed P to sleep!


I'm also really excited about all the hard work I've been putting in. I'm down 20 pounds less my pre-baby weight! Hard work pays off mamas! <3 You can do it!

phew! Well I hope I get back on track with my blogging! <3 keep on keepin' on!

We Did It! .... 5k Mastered!

Wow! What a weekend. So P and I finally completed our 5k! We chose to do the USA Swimming Foundation 5k!

To preface all of the 5k race, I must say I didn't "complete" my last week of training via the couch to 5k app. I came down with a nasty sinus infection, and then it rained a TON. So, my last week was kind of blah. However, we still made it to the 5k and although hadn't completed the training per say, we still ran!

Packet pickup downtown was a nightmare, thanks to the swim trials. I won't even touch on the hassle of getting all of that.

BUT, we managed to get up, out of the house and downtown by 7:45am for our race. P enjoyed seeing all the various people and such. He loves exploring and seeing new things. This was definitely up his alley.

At 8:15am, the shotgun rang, and we were off!

Overall it was a great race, and we did awesome despite not having finished our training. We came in at 29 minutes and 50 seconds. Our goal was under 30, so we did it!

Overall, I think going into our next race I will be better prepared in the sense that running in the neighborhood or on trails early in the AM is MUCH MUCH MUCH different than running with a LARGE body of people.

I think we could have came in at a better time, but much time during the first 2 miles was spent weaving in and out of people, trying to pass them. If this was just me running alone, it would have been no problemo. However, with the jogger. Wow. What a challenge.

Overall, I'm really excited about the run, and VERY motivated for our next goal of a 10k. We are all signed up for Corporate Cup on September 25th. This leaves me with a few more months to train for that! Worst case scenario, I might have to run sans little man and jogger. But either way, I'm going to do it!

Anyways. Hope you mama's out there find this somewhat motivating or inspiring or whatever! Keep setting goals for yourself and working at them! You can do anything you set your mind to!

Quick shout out to the husband for pushing me and helping me so that I have the time to workout and exercise!

Keep on, keepin' on, mamas!

C25K Update!

Wow - has it really been almost one month since I've posted a blog?!? That's nuts. Since summer struck, I've been a busy bee. As I am always preaching about prioritization and such, I suppose the blog took the back burner.

We've also been dealing with a teething child who has been trying to get on a 2 nap sleep schedule for the last 2 months. We've had some rough days and nights.

In regards to the couch to 5k program... we are rocking it! we are currently in week 8 of a 9 week program! We are tentatively set for a July 3rd 5k! So exciting. We've also gone a little rogue and signed up for a 10k in September. That should be interesting.

The past few weeks/months of this training have been awesome. I'm so glad I challenged myself to this. I can say that we have had great days and we've had really hard days. The great days are when P is sleeping the whole way. The not so great days... when he cries the whole way. I think the crying was in part to weather conditions (i.e. too hot or too windy). We changed up the time I run and he seems to be doing better. We've lost quite a few pacifiers on our journey.

P also has become much more mobile in the last two months. He's walking everywhere with his push toys and on the brink of walking by himself. I think him sitting in the stroller for 30+ minutes multiple times a week was getting old for him.

We also had a couple times where it rained ALL week long so I wasn't able to get a run in. Coming back from a week of cardio at the gym was a STRUGGLE. The hills are relentless.

Overall it's been a great time with P. We get to see so many exciting things and it gets him out of the house and fresh air. I think doing the couch to 5k was great because it helped build my stamina slowly, and kept me motivated!

I think if I had to change anything going back and redoing it, I would probably change my jogger stroller. I love my Graco. It is great. But I think if I am going to do this seriously in the future, something a little more aerodynamic would be great. However, the Graco is getting the job done.

Here is my progress along with a few photos from the past few weeks.... B even got to join us a few times!

Managing the Household - Part 1 Cleaning

Something that I have had to learn how to deal with when becoming a new mom is learning how to manage the household with my husband. I am a pseduo-SAHM and I work full time. My husband also works full-time. Both of us work about 30-45 minutes (depending on traffic) away from work, resulting in at least 1-1.5 hours per workday of commuting time. As a nurse, I am fortunate that I work 3 days per week (12 hour shifts). This leaves me with 4 whole days that I am at home, hence the pseudo-SAHM ;)

As any couple knows, managing all the household duties can be difficult. It's definitely made more complex once baby comes along. Before our baby, I had 4 whole days off work, so I had no problem with spending one day running errands, cleaning, organizing, balancing the checkbook, laundry, etc. I had all the free time in the world during those 4 days off. Sometimes I try to think about how I spent my free time on those days. I always felt busy - that's laughable nowadays.

Anyways. Post child. How do I fit doing all those tasks in? Is it really my responsibility now that I have a child to take care of? Should I ask my husband who works 50-60 hours minimum per week (compared to my 40) to be helping out more? AH! The headaches and conundrums.

First and foremost with managing a household, the most important thing is COMMUNICATION. My husband and I sat down and discussed all of what we NEED done during the week, what can maybe be slacked upon, and what is super low priority. Some things like the floor being vacuumed/swept/mopped is becoming more of a priority because we have a baby crawling on the ground ALL the time and we also have a pet. Other things like deep cleaning have become a much lower priority that we will just "tolerate" because we would rather have family time.

Things that we deemed high priority (1xper week) were:
- working out (both of us)
- family dinners (on nights I am not working)
- balancing the checkbook & budgeting/financial planning
- laundry
- cleaning (some items)
- grocery shopping
- yard work

Things that had medium priority but could be slacked on:
- cleaning (some items)

Low priority (1x/month) items:
- deep cleaning
 
After discussing what we thought were high priority needs we also communicated about our schedules and how much time we had for our higher priority items.

My biggest concern/complaint that I communicated was that I was taking care of P all day long, and trying to work out, and it didn't leave me a ton of time to do some other things. I had felt like all of our high priority things were on my plate. B was under the presumption that I had more time to do these because I had 4 days off work. He didn't really stop to contemplate that I was also doing all the SAHM things with P.

One concern B had was that cleaning would take too long. For someone who has only maybe 5-10 minutes of spare time here and there, would cleaning be possible? Spending 1 hour cleaning everything isn't really feasible anymore now that we have a baby. 

We devised a plan for tackling cleaning, which is what I felt I needed help with most. This way, I could tackle making dinner, working out, and other household things, while tag-teaming the cleaning. We made a checklist (my specialty) of all the cleaning chores that we felt needed to get done during the week. This checklist is posted in our "hub" so that we can see it frequently, see what needs to be done, and when the last time something was done. We initial it once it's done. We broke down the chores into easy tasks that take approximately 5-10 minutes each. Nothing is ever that urgent where if it doesn't get done, we are having a mental breakdown. We simply see that it wasn't done the week prior and put it at the top of our list for the following week.

The other benefit of doing the chores like this is that everything maintains a baseline level of cleanliness. One thing B didn't realize was that if you keep things moderately clean, then when you go to clean them the next time, you don't have to put as much effort in because you aren't deep cleaning you are just maintaining. Ding ding ding. It finally clicked with him :)

Another thing that my husband and I are constantly doing is re-evaluating everything. We check in and let each other know how things are going. So far with our checklist, we are doing great. But we both know that if we are getting overwhelmed or feeling like this isn't the best way of doing things, then we can always re-evaluate a better way.

Check out below for what our checklist looks like.

Calculating Calories Per Day

Determining Caloric Needs

On many of the mom blogs/facebook sites I follow, one question that I see arising quite frequently is “How do you maintain your milk supply while losing weight?” Another question in this topic I also see is “What method do you use to try and lose weight?”

As I have said before, I think the best method of losing weight is simply, diet and exercise. This coming from my health/exercise science and nursing degrees. Yes there are other methods out there, and they may work for you. However, I am just going to talk about what I do, which is diet and exercise.

First and foremost, DIET. UGH… that ugly, four letter, curse word. Right?! WRONG! As I have discussed before I strictly calorie count and give myself 1-2 cheat meals per week (usually on the weekend). But how many calories should you eat per day?

Many programs and apps can work great for calorie counting and logging. If you type in your age, weight, gender and height, they may also provide you with a daily calorie limit. However, be weary, those sites simply use an equation but can often times be robotic. What I mean by this is that they use a formula to calculate your daily calorie count and how much to decrease your intake by to lose weight. However, they may not take into consideration your BMR and the minimum that you need per day. There is actually a point where going too low in your daily intake becomes harmful, and if you go past that point, you might actually retain weight.

One of the better ways to determine your calorie count is to use the Mifflin St. Jeor equation. This equation helps determine your BMR (Basal Metabolic Rate). That’s fancy lingo for the minimum amount of calories your body needs for essential functions like breathing, digesting, etc. (aka to stay alive). This is a number you should never go under.   

Men
10 x weight (kg) + 6.25 x height (cm) – 5 x age (y) + 5
Women
10 x weight (kg) + 6.25 x height (cm) – 5 x age (y) – 161.

To determine your weight in kilograms take your weight in pounds and divide it by 2.2

To determine your height in centimeters take your height in inches and multiply by 2.54

Example:

A 130 pound (59kg), 5’8” (172cm), 29 year old, female

[10 x 59] + [6.25 x 172] – [5 x 29] – 161

590 + 1076 – 145 – 161

1360 calories/day.

So as you can see, per the example, that individual should not eat less than 1360 calories per day. This is the minimum number that she would need to maintain her bodily functions. This number is presuming you basically sit on a couch all day and do nothing but breathe! Hehe. This doesn’t include the amount of calories burned walking around, doing chores, exercising, or producing breast milk.

If you play around with the numbers, you can see that as you age and lose weight, your body needs less calories per day. That is because as we age our metabolic rate decreases naturally. When you lose weight, there is less of “you” (i.e. fat) that your body has to maintain, thus decreasing your basal metabolic rate.

Total Calories Per Day

To determine how many calories you need per day including exercise/physical activity, you will need to multiply your BMR by your physical activity level (see chart below). This is just an estimate based on average physical activity level. When trying to determine what category you are in, be honest with yourself. If you over estimate or under estimate, then you might not see the appropriate results. 

Lifestyle	Description	Multiplier
Sedentary	Little to no regular exercise	1.2
Mild Activity	Exercise for at least 20 minutes, 1-3x per week. (ex. Bicycling, jogging, basketball, swimming, etc). Also includes no exercise but a busy lifestyle that requires frequent walking for long periods.	1.375
Moderate Activity	Exercise for at least 30-60 minutes, 3-4x per week.	1.55
Heavy (Labor Intensive) Activity	Exercise for 60 minutes or greater 5-7x per week. Labor intensive jobs also qualify for this level (i.e. brick laying, carpentry, construction work, farming, landscaping, etc).	1.7
Extreme Activity	Exceedingly active or demanding activities such as marathon training, multiple daily training sessions, assembly line jobs. Note: this level of activity is very difficult to achieve and highly unlikely for the general population.	1.9

Let’s use the same girl from the above example. Let’s presume that she exercises for about 60 minutes 3-4 times per week and on the days she doesn’t workout, she has a fairly laborious job where she walks 3-4 miles during her workday. She would probably qualify under “moderate activity” using the chart from above.

If we used her total calories earlier (1360) and multiplied them by 1.55 (moderate activity), then we would get 2108. So this female needs about 2100 calories per day to MAINTAIN her weight. This number does not include calories from breastfeeding/milk production.

Breastfeeding Caloric Needs:
To continue this example above and presuming the individual breastfeeds, one would need to add in the additional calories burned from producing milk. This equates to about 20 calories per ounce of milk produced. For those who exclusively pump (like myself) the amount of calories is super easy to figure out. I simply multiply my daily total pumped (usually around 50 ounces) by 20. This number equates to about 1000 calories (for me) burned from breastmilk production.

For those who actually breastfeed from the boob, the way to determine caloric needs is a little more difficult. Some individuals will say “breast feeding is about 300-400 calories more per day.” This may be true, but if you have an over-supply, twins to feed, or your baby just consumes a lot more than the average baby, your production may be higher than 20 ounces per day. The best way to determine how many ounces is by weighing your baby pre and post feed using a baby scale. This type of scale can convert to ounces. By subtracting your pre from your post, you can see what your baby actually consumed. You could do this for every feed or just do it once and then multiply by how many feeds per day baby has (more of an estimate). [Note: make sure you weigh after a good feed, rather than just a snack].

Once you determine this number, you need to add it to your total activity that you previously calculated. So for the female above, let’s say she also produces 50 ounces of breastmilk per day, she would need to eat 2100 (daily total) + 1000 calories (breast milk). That’s about 2360 calories per day. That’s a lot of calories just to maintain your weight!

For those of you who are dieting and breastfeeding and wondering why your supply isn’t being maintained, check out how many calories you are eating per day. If you are trying to lose weight and cutting your calories significantly, then your body may not be getting enough food to make the milk your babe needs!

SUMMING IT UP

1.  Figure out your BMR
2. Use your BMR and multiply it with your daily activity level  
3. Add in calories from breast feeding.

The number you get is an estimate that you need to eat to maintain your weight!

Stay Tuned for more information on creating a calorie deficit, to help lose weight!

Finding Time For Fitness... My Top 10 Tips

I am constantly seeing a lot of gals posting in groups about how to find time to workout with little ones. Let me tell you, it's definitely quite a challenge. BUT it is definitely do-able. This is my list of top 10 tips to help keep you in the exercise groove.


1. COMMUNICATE YOUR GOALS: I think this the most important step/tip. Make sure that your S.O. knows your goals and plans for exercise. This will not only be another person to help hold you accountable, but it will also be another person to help you achieve your goal. Talk about ways that you need help so you can meet your goal. My husband is able to work out at work during his work day. He also has a goal of attending a weekly morning circuit class. I know that he needs to get up and going on that day, so I do what I can to make sure that happens. It's vice versa for my exercise goals as well.

2. TIME AUDIT YOURSELF: I used to find myself checking my phone for any updates, and then slowly getting on various social media sites and "browsing." Soon I would realize I had spent 30 minutes doing NOTHING. What a waste. Check out how your day is spread out. What do you do in your free time? How much time do you spend watching TV, on social media, or doing other empty things? If you can spend 30 minutes on social media, then you definitely can fit in a workout! See where your time is spent!

3. MAKE A PLAN: The hardest part about sticking with an exercise routine or fitness plan can be simply figuring out what to do and when. Figure out what you want to do and how often. The next best thing you can do is create a tentative, and reasonable, schedule. Set a workout plan for 4 weeks. See if you can stick to it. It doesn't have to be every day. Start small, 2-3 days per week, and go from there. After the 4 weeks are up, re-evaluate if the duration, frequency and effort required was too much, too little or just right. Think ATTAINABLE goals.

4. WAKE UP AND GET DRESSED: As silly as it sounds, getting up and getting dressed to workout will help motivate you to be active during the day. They say "dress for success" and I think it totally applies to fitness/exercise. When you get up and get going you are motivated, but when you are actually dressed and ready to go, then there is one less excuse for why you can't do it! Also, when you are already dressed to workout, it's easier to be able to get those random 10 minutes of exercise in because you don't have to go change.

5. LIMIT SCREEN TIME: The only time I spend watching TV is while I am pumping during the day. I use that as my reprieve. Other than that, the TV is off during the day. Because it's off, I find myself doing more stuff around the house, which is much healthier than just sitting around all day. Yes, TV can be a rewarding way to relax. BUT, the way you feel after you workout is WAY better than any deep couch sitting. If you really need to have TV time, give yourself a limit. Heck, maybe even use the TV as a reward for AFTER you exercise! On top of all of it, if you limit TV time for you, then you are also teaching your child(ren) good habits for the future.

6. WORKOUT WITH YOUR KIDS: Whether your child(ren) is/are a few months old or a few years old, it can be really hard to find that alone time to workout. Sometimes it's impossible. If you are having a hard time finding the time to workout alone because of your kids, try including them in your workout. Having them see mommy workout is the best thing for them. It helps teach them that being healthy is important, which hopefully will inspire them to want to be healthy. If your baby is super little, try using your baby as weight for your workouts. You can do various exercises such as squats and lunges while holding your baby. Baby wearing is great for getting a walk or mild cardio (i.e the elliptical). If your kids are older, try having them do a body weight circuit with you. Things like jumping jacks, high knees, pushups, planks, etc. You can even make it a competition between mommy and child! During the summer, the play gym is a great place to get your fitness on! For more ideas on fitness with kids try googling "mommy and me workouts" "jungle gym workout" or "body weight circuit"


7. LEARN TO SAY NO: Sometimes as a mom, you find yourself being pulled in EVERY direction. Play date here, laundry there, visitors tomorrow, cleaning this, etc. The hardest thing is being able to say "no." We apparently have to be super mom and do it ALL. Get that mentality out of your head! It's okay to say no. Make what is important to you a priority. After all, it is YOUR life and YOUR body. When you are 50 years old, will you look back and regret the one extra play date your child didn't get per week because you wanted to have some time to exercise? Or would you regret not ever taking time out to exercise because you were constantly putting everyone else first? Also, block time for your workouts. If you know you want to workout 3 days per week, try to set 3 specific times for workouts only. If anything else comes up, then say "no" because that's your blocked workout time! Most people understand that we moms have busy lives. People understand when we have to prioritize. Learn to tell people "no" on occasion so you can keep yourself healthy! The world won't end because you put yourself first!

8. SOME IS BETTER THAN NONE: Sometimes our days are hectic. Okay lets be honest. We are moms. They are ALWAYS hectic. Finding time can be difficult. If you wake up and take a look at your schedule and realize that the 30 minutes you intended to use to work out isn't going to happen, don't just give up! Just because you can't fit the 30 minutes of working out in, doesn't mean that 10 minutes wouldn't do SOME good. Yes 30 minutes may be more optimal, but if all you have is 10 minutes, then that's all you have. It's better to get some then none! So don't just give up when you realize it may not be a full workout. Take a 10 minute walk instead of a 30 minute workout. Even if you have to break up your workout and do 10 minutes at three different times, some is still better than none!

9. BE FORGIVING: Remember that you are human and there is no such thing as a "supermom." We are all just doing the best we can at any given time. There are just some days when life happens and fitness has to take the back seat. That's okay! Some days you just need a lazy day! That's okay too (as long as you don't make the lazy days ALL the time :) ). Give yourself a break. Don't be too hard on yourself. It's okay. If you miss a day, forgive yourself, let it go, and focus on your next day! 

10. LOVE YOURSELF: Try not to be super critical of yourself. The best advice I ever received was to be able to love others, you have to love yourself. It's so true. Don't be down on yourself because of what you look like, what you once were and no longer are, etc. You are a mom! You are a rockstar! You are AMAZING! Love who you are!

Dieting Tips & Tricks

Apparently, God was laughing at me when I was trying to make an outside running plan (and stick to it!)... he does that ya know?! All of this cold weather and rain. ARGH! Just another test of learning how to be flexible, I suppose!

This past week I was clearly unable to take our LO out in the jogger because of the weather (lots of rain and cold) and because he had his first cold. I'm pretty sure doctors frown upon taking your sick kid out on the cold weather. LOL.

However, I did get in another circuit workout followed by a 1 mile jog on Wednesday. Friday was also cold and rainy so I just walk/jogged 2.5 miles on the treadmill. My circuit did get me a bit sore. Holy moly! I haven't done a push up in about 2 years. So that was great fun. We've also been trying to transition P from three naps to two naps per day. That's a story for another day. Sigh. If only the act of parenting could qualify for physical activity or make you gain muscle :) ... my husband and I would be ripped!

Get It Started Circuit

• 50 Jumping Jacks
•  50 Crunches
•  45 Jumping Jacks
•  45 Squats
•  40 Jumping Jacks
• 40 Push Ups
•  35 Jumping Jacks
• 35 Crunches
• 30 Jumping Jacks
• 30 Squats
• 25 Jumping Jacks
• 25 Push Ups
• 20 Jumping Jacks 
• 20 Crunches
• 15 Jumping Jacks
•  15 Squats
• 10 Jumping Jacks
•  10 Push Ups
•  5 Jumping Jacks
•  5 Crunches
• 5 Squats
• 5 Push Ups

I also decided that since I met my goal weight, I needed a new fitness goal. My husbands work retains 2 personal trainers in their on campus gym. They do physical fitness assessments for free! So I had the hubby ask if I could get one done. The concept of this physical assessment is different than just weighing. They track body composition (weight, % body fat, circumference of arms, thighs, waist and hips). I'm going to go in quarterly to get this checked out and see my progress! My goal is to tone up a little more, rather than weight loss. I'd like to see some of my circumferences go down. I was quite proud of my accomplishments since January. I apparently qualify in the "athletes" body fat range. Ha! Long are the days I considered myself an athlete. Oh well, I'll take it! This momma needs it.

Now for the diet! This part of my post stemmed from a work weight loss/biggest loser competition that just got started. All my co-worker gals have been talking about the diets they are going to do, etc etc. Something that gets me every time is how people talk about how they did "this" or "that" and lost a bunch of weight, only to gain it back when they stopped the program. I've been asked a lot about how I lost all the baby weight and then some. I wouldn't say that I have done anything excessive or drastic. I don't spend hours per day at the gym slaving on various machines. I don't do anything crazy with my diet such as eliminating sugars completely. I PERSONALLY think that the best means to weight loss is something that will be sustainable for the rest of your life.

Sure various no/low carb diets, calorie restricting on alternate days (i.e. 500kcal/day), etc., will help you lose weight fast. But they are diets that don't allow you to eat the food that you actually like and want. How realistic is it that you are going to spend the rest of your life never eating pasta again? Never having beer again? Most people end up off the bandwagon because they allow themselves to eat something like pizza while on the diet, realize how much they miss it, binge, and then fall off the bandwagon for months or years. They regain weight, and then realize they need to get back on their diet again.

What if it wasn't that complicated? What if all it entailed was eating moderately, incorporating foods you like, having a cheat meal every once in a while, and moderate exercise?

The way I utilize my diet to lose weight is by calorie counting. I have determined how many calories I need to eat per day to maintain my weight and also the amount I need to lose weight. During the week (Sunday through Saturday afternoon) I keep track of every calorie I consume, not including fresh fruits and veggies. I give myself Saturday night to have a cheat meal.

I hardly deny myself something that I want. If I want a McDonalds cheeseburger, I eat a cheeseburger. I just make sure to look up the nutritional information, calculate the calories and adjust what I eat the rest of the day. Some days just looking up the nutritional information averts me from actually eating said desired food. Ha! is a 800 kcal chocolate shake really worth it? Am I going to feel full after that?

I also cook dinner for my husband and I on the nights I don't work. I never force "diet" things on him. We have things such as cavatini, spaghetti, pork tenderloins, tacos, etc. Normal dinner foods basically. I allow myself to eat those things. I just make sure to keep track of everything I put into the entire meal and then separate everything into servings so I know how many calories are in each serving.

For example, the other night I made burgers. I separated the meat out into patties and calculated the calories per patty. I added how many calories the bun and slice of cheese were and that was all! Maybe a little time consuming when you first get started, but nothing more than a few minutes.

Some may think it's tedious, which, at first it can be. But it actually becomes second nature. As human beings, we tend to eat the same few things every day. For example, my breakfast consists of either oatmeal or eggs with an english muffin. I use an app on my phone to keep track of all my calories consumed vs burned. It just becomes a matter of logging into the app and clicking the oatmeal item I have saved.

I personally use the Fitbit app to log my foods and exercise. However, you can also use other apps such as My Fitness Pal.

Also, Calorieking.com has pretty much every food you could think of and the nutritional information. Most restaurants have information for nutrition also. The fitbit app also allows you to save your foods, which makes it super fast and convenient the next time that food needs to be logged.

Little Man helping me blog! Cheat meal is in the oven!

Stay tuned for a future blog on figuring out the appropriate amount of calories you should be eating to lose weight or maintain it! There is such a thing as too little calories per day, which becomes unhealthy!

I'd love to hear your comments about what works for you in regards to dieting, exercise, and weight loss/maintenance! Lets hear it in the comment section!