EmpowerMoms

I liked the first story about Maggie and her long time crush on her friend. Its always hard to take that chance whether or not you will ruin a good friendship by telling that person your feelings. I loved how she tried to tell him and the end result. Great story!

The second story was my least favorite. It had swear words which were totally unnecessary and the whole story line didn’t really interest me. Wren’s story about completing her Grampa’s bucket list with his two friends.

I loved the third story. Full of funny and embarrassing misunderstandings between a teacher and principal notes-great love story-also about forgiveness and taking a chance on love.

The fourth story was about Shannon and Patrick in an older time period. Loved the story line and time period. The feelings of love and commitment were very real, and of course there were misunderstandings once they were finally reunited after months of writing letters.

Between the lines was fabulous!! Another story set in an older time period. Totally drawn into the characters and story line. I just loved that the two characters got to know each other thru letters-so sweet and great ending!

Blackberry Hollow was also fabulous and by one of my favorite authors. Story line had so much potential to be a longer book, but even with it being short it made sense, tied all the characters together, and was a sweet story! I loved the history of the two family houses and them getting to know each other.

I loved the last 3 stories the best and they had the potential of being longer stories. I love the timeless romance story collections!! I loved that all these stories were in various locations and time periods. Great clean romantic read! Can’t wait to read the next one this summer.

**I am a part of Heather Moore’s book review team. I received an advanced reader copy in exchange for an honest review**

You can purchase the Ebook here: 

http://www.amazon.com/Timeless-Romance-Anthology-Letter-Collection-ebook/dp/B00I20ABJU/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1392300385&sr=8-1&keywords=love+letters+timeless+romance

Started week 5 of P90x3 this week!! I have a new schedule this week!! 🙂 

The last update I had said I was hurting. Sorry I didn’t report back earlier. By last Sunday afternoon I felt alot better after a nap and taking it easy the entire weekend. I used ice and muscle rub for what I think was a muscle strain/swelling. I don’t know what caused it-I’ve been moving alot of file boxes at work and I’m under alot of stress, so it could have been anything.

I do not think it was caused  by any of my workout programs. I don’t want people to be concerned about that. I’ve been doing P90x3 for 4 whole weeks now and I have not gotten injured before so I don’t think its not related. 

WEEK 5 P90x3 Classic workout schedule: 
Monday: Eccentric Upper
Tuesday: Triometrics
Wednesday: X3 Yoga
Thursday: Eccentric Lower
Friday: Incinerator
Saturday: MMX
Sunday: Rest day or Dynamix

Nutrition: 
I should be following the Plan B 1800 calories per day BUT talked to my BB coach and I will be going back down to 1500-1600 calories per day since I’m not seeing any weight loss. 🙁 

Breakfast: 2P, 3C, 1F
Am Snack: 2C, 2F
Lunch: 1P, 3C, 1F
PM Snack: 1P, 2C
Dinner: 2P, 2C, 2F
P=Protein servings per meal
C=Carb servings per meal
F=Far servings per meal

Journal Entries for Week 5:

Monday February 3:
No P90x3 today. Didn’t want to jump right back into strength training after icing this whole weekend. 

My nutrition went well for most of the day. Logged 3/4 of my food. Had 1/2 homemade sticky bun in the afternoon-ARGH-I can not stay away from the sugar! 

Tuesday February 4:
Did Triometrics which is a good cardio workout. Burned 261 calories in 36 mins according to my HRM. 
Also went to my first Zumba class tonight. Burned 380 calories in 51 mins. Did a separate blog post about my zumba experience. 

Logged all my food and didn’t have ANY SUGAR!! whoohoo!!! Great eating day! 

Wednesday Feburary 5:
No P90x today. 

no food logging. I totally fail on wednesdays!! 🙁 

Thursday February 6:
Did eccentric lower this morning. I liked using the hand weights! Can’t wait to do this workout again! Burned 153 calories in 31 mins according to my HRM. 
Also did 20 mins of new Chris Freytag dvd-burned 183 calories with those 2 workouts. 

No food logging today. Starting to feel like I’m getting a cold. 🙁 

Friday February 7: 
Did 31 mins of Incinerator this morning. Burned 138 calories. I liked using the hand weights and pull up bar. Then did 10 mins of arm workout with Chris Freytag burning 53 calories. 

It was so fun taking pictures and watching hubby and my 3 year old do the workout later that evening. yes, my 3.5 year old did the ENTIRE 30 minute workout of P90x3!! I am not kidding you!! He used 1 pound hand weights, the pull up bars and push ups stands. it was HILARIOUS!! He loves to work out with his daddy and gets so excited to exercise. I had made him dinner but I could not get him to stop exercising to eat, so I just sat and took pictures of my boys. and then we all ate dinner together 🙂 

No food logging today. super stressed at work and not even bringing my food journal with me. 🙁 I feel awful! 

Saturday February 8:
Ran errands with the kids-felt a little better than I did on friday. Hubby convinced me to do MMX workout with him that evening. 33 min workout, no HRM for that workout. 

Then hubby and I were sick and kept each other up all night tossing and turning with coughs and blowing noses. sigh. I hate having a cold!! Been feeling bad since Thursday. 

Sunday February 9: 

Rest day! spent all day in bed with the cold/congestion/headache. 

Anyone else sick?? Do you keep working out? 

My pictures from this week: 

Started week 5 of the Baladea program this week!

The last update I had said I was hurting. Sorry I didn’t report back earlier. By last Sunday afternoon I felt alot better after a nap and taking it easy the entire weekend. I used ice and muscle rub for what I think was a muscle strain/swelling. I don’t know what caused it-I’ve been moving alot of file boxes at work and I’m under alot of stress, so it could have been anything.

I do not think it was caused  by any of my workout programs. I don’t want people to be concerned about that. I’ve been doing Baladea for 4 whole weeks now and I have not gotten injured before so I don’t think its not related.

So here’s how my week 5 looked like:

WEEK 5 Baladea LOOK workout schedule:
Monday: SLIM (cardio workout) 40 mins
Tuesday: POWER (strength workout) 50 mins
Wednesday: SLIM (cardio workout) 40 mins
Thursday: rest day
Friday: POWER (strength workout) 50 mins
Saturday: FUSION
Sunday: rest day

Week 5 Journal Entries:

Monday February 3:

Did Slim this morning! Burned 166 calories in 40 minutes according to my HRM. Bought new capris so had fun wearing them! I love getting new workout clothes. 

Tuesday Feburary 4:

no baladea Power. Wanted to take it easy with my back so decided not to do any strength training workouts this week. 

Wednesday February 5: 

Did Slim again this morning. Burned 230 calories in 40 minutes according to my HRM. Feeling alot better today!! Hooray!! I love doing this workout!! 

Thursday February 6:

Rest day for Baladea.

Friday February 7:

No Power workout today. Feeling like I’m getting a major cold…I can’t seem to catch a break this week with feeling good! 🙁 

Saturday February 8: 

No Fusion workout today. In bed most of the day sick with a cold.  

Sunday Feburary 9:

Rest day

Very disappointed in this week. 

Took it easy because of my back, had a couple good days and now have a major cold with congestion. Still determined to do my workouts as best I can. 

I really love doing this Baladea program. The nice thing is that I can modify as needed if I don’t feel well or not feeling very energetic. I’m trying to listen to my body even though I hate missing workouts!! Hoping for a better week!

How do you stay motivated to workout when you aren’t feeling well??

Pictures from this week: 

 For more info about the Baladea program:

Transform your entire body for just 3 monthly 

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You can order from my referral link here: 

http://baladea.refr.cc/DRP7395

Baladea is exercise reimagined. It combines fitness and wellness into one complete exercise system for women. It was created for women, by women, and it works for any fitness level! The vision behind baladea is to help women all around the world to live their best lives. Help spread the word and inspire your friends. You can find out more about baladea at www.baladea.com

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Did you participate in the first week of the Move Nourish Believe Blogger challenge this week?

 Week One: Move

I had alot of fun doing the challenge this week. Can’t wait to start week 2 on Monday!!

I tried something new this week!!

I went to a free Zumba class at a nearby church on Tuesday night. I got there about 5 minutes late (I HATE being late!) and got a spot in the back because the gym was pretty crowded. The lady beside me, Teresa said there was typically 40-50 people every week-YIKES!

After about 5 minutes, the instructor got off the mini stage which made her floor level to all of us, which made it REALLY hard to see her and follow her moves and instructions. I later found out the stage was starting to break… Because there were so many people, it was extremely hard to follow the instructor and see what was going on. I went there to have fun but to get a good workout/calorie burn which I didn’t feel like I got because I couldn’t see. Hope they get the stage fixed for next week.

It was interesting to look around at the very wide range of ages of women and also how we were all dressed. I saw some women who looked liked they were 70s (good for them!) and then some mid 20s girls and even 2 little girls. Some were wearing pjs, some casual clothes and others were wearing exercise clothes. Regardless, everyone all seemed to be having fun and fit right in!

I would like to point out, that if you go to an exercise class, I think its important to dress “right” for the exercise especially if you are with others (versus working out alone). The girl in front of me wore street clothes which consisted of low rise jeans and a tshirt that didn’t go past her waist. which resulted in my seeing alot of skin and top butt crack for most of class. Was she even wearing underwear?? and she wasn’t even a large girl! sigh. something I did not want to see while dancing! LOL

I was also surprised by the music. I thought it was going to be all hips and swaying and latin music. There was lot of hips and arms movement, but half of the music was modern and had fun moves.

Overall, I had fun and told the girls I would be back next week but I don’t think its something I will do every week or long term. I would still love to sign up for my Tuesday nights Jazzercise classes that start again in March.   I think I’m more of a Jazzercise or Turbo girl, than a Zumba girl.

Have you tried Zumba or Jazzercise? What did you think?