Tooting My Own Horn, an Announcement and an Award

TOOT TOOT!

I have lost five pounds-YAY! However, I feel like I have lost more because I have been circuit training and have really firmed and toned a lot. I have a new diet secret that I am not going to unveil until I know for sure that it is actually contributing to my weight loss. And because it's really weird. But stay tuned, because I may just let you in on it. If you are good little readers...and leave me lots of comments and sentiments of adoration.

Next, I would like to announce that I will be doing another See Kai Run giveaway for their new spring line! Yee-ha! It was a big hit last time so I contacted the lovely Julie over at their marketing department, who told me I could go on with my bad self and do another one. She is awesome and gets the "Cool Booty" award. So now I have to pick out a pair for my daughter to review and I will let you all know what she thinks of them and give you the opportunity to win some for your own munchkin. Keep your eye out for the official announcement, coming soon.

And finally, I got a really cool award from the even cooler and obviously misguided Moonspun over at Moonspun Spins, because this is what the award means:

This award shows the values that every blogger shows in his or her effort to transmit cultural, literal, ethical and personal values every day.

I am not exactly sure that I transmit all that much cultural, ethical or personal values through this blog in all my discussions of dildos, boobs and girl crushes, but I will humbly accept this award anyway, because # 1. Who turns down an award? and #2. Moonspun is awesome so anything from her is cool in my book.

Oh yeah, and it's pretty.The rules:

1) Accept the award and post it on your blog along with the name of the person who gave you the award.

2) Pass it on to (15) bloggers that you know who deserve it.

Since I have two children and three jobs, I am only passing this to five. I hope you forgive me.

1. Carolyn from Carolyn...Online

2. Kaui from How to Party With an Infant

3. Ron from Clark Kent's Lunchbox

4. Ed from FitDad

5. Matt from DC Urban Dad

These bloggers, in my opinion, share a lot of cultural, ethical and/or personal values with their blog, so I think it is only fitting to make sure they receive this award. They all are also uber-cool and have tons to offer the bloggging world, so check them out. They also all happen to be hot. That is just a coincidence.

Everybody have an awesome weekend!

Toddler Jam

First of all, a big patronizing pat on the back for ME! You wanna know why? Because I did Turbo Sculpt and got through the whole sweaty, agonizing 50 minutes WHILE my daughter was awake and in the same room. It was Toddler Jam time in my house, and she lifted 2 pound weights, did squats and got down on the floor with me and did ab work. Intermittently she would sigh, wipe her brow and say "whew, this is too hard," and switch to tending to her baby dolls, but that was fine with me. And I didn't even mind that I had to pause the DVD a few times to help her put a shirt on her dolly, change a doll's diaper and wipe up spilled orange juice from the cup she found in the kitchen. I may be on to something here. If I can get her to work out "with" me, maybe I can actually make time every day to do it. Wouldn't that be a miracle? What I would give to see my waistline again and to be able to wave without worrying about my jiggling arms hitting someone in the head.

And I have been pondering something...how much do you think I would have to exercise in order to be able to eat anything I wanted and still lose weight? I know you've all wondered. So many times I have heard those skinny bitches, I mean atheletic moms, say that they eat whatever they want because they run seventeen kazillion miles a day or attend hot sauna yoga-lates five times a week. If they can do it, so can I right?

It's just a thought. And it's not like I want to eat 3,000 calories a day and be a skinny bitch. You know, a carton of Ben and Jerry's here and there and some Oreos or chocolate chip cookies on a daily basis would work for me. Oh yeah, and don't forget the one or two glasses of red wine at night. I want to be able to indulge myself in the foods that I love (MMM..pasta, bread, FRENCH FRIES!) without wanting to kill myself after ingesting them. Is that so much to ask? How much of my day would I be willing to sacrifice to working out in order to have this ability? I'm not sure, but I am willing to look into it.

Changing gears. I just realized that most of my posts have to do with weight loss and self-image. I suppose this says a lot about me, eh? (That was my Canadian accent for my friends up north. I like to mix it up and make everyone feel at home.) I hope that my obsession with these issues isn't boring to my audience, but they always say "write what you know," so I guess that's what I know. I hope I don't have to change the blog's name to The Wise (Fat) Mommy or The Wise (Neurotic and Obsessed) Mommy. But the day will come when I am no longer young, so the name will have to be changed eventually. I am hoping at that point I will still be smokin' hot and will have reached all my weight loss goals and I can name it The Wise Cougar Mommy (makes sexy purring sound--(even though I can't even do that in real life)).

Well, I have digressed. The point of the post is that my 2-year-old is now a fitness junkie in training and I'm pretty pumped. I will look at this as mother/daughter bonding, not that I am passing on my neurotic obsessions to the next generation. That will make me feel better about it, I think. God forbid I send my baby to therapy where she tells her therapist that her mother forced her to tone and sculpt at such a young age that she can't even look at a barbell without needing a Xanax.

*Sigh. Keeping your kids out of therapy is tough man!

SHRED it Up Baby!

My good friend recommended a work-out DVD to me yesterday that she has been using, and she loves it. It is called "30 Day Shred" by Jillian Michaels, the trainer from The Biggest Loser. What I like about this is that each exercise session is only 30 minutes (can I squeeze in 30 minutes, God, I hope so!) and she said that it KICKS YOUR ASS! That is what I am looking for--a work-out that makes me sweat but goes by quickly so I don't get to the point where I am too tired and start thinking about all the other things I need to do. It also uses circuit training, which I know from my experience as a certified personal trainer is actually the most effective and quickest way to work out to lose weight. It alternates between weight training, cardio and ab work--3 minutes of each one, with very little recovery time. I figure if I can get myself to do this, maybe, just maybe, I can start to shake off this lazy ass feeling I have from the lack of exercise in my life.

Here's one review from Amazon.com:

Excellent :-), March 13, 2008

By	Little Miss Cutey (Melbourne, Australia) - See all my reviews

This is a really good workout. It's geared a little more to advanced exercisers, but the choreography is fairly basic and you will definitely feel this the next day. There are three workouts that combine toning and aerobics together which are about a half an hour each. This way, you're burning fat and toning muscles at the same time. It's a little challenging, but fun and effective. The first workout is the easiest of the three and from there it gets more challenging. The most challenging workout is tough like she shows on The Biggest Loser (i.e., traveling push-ups and tough jumps, etc.). It's a good idea if you're intermediate to begin either at the start or middle and stick to that for a while and then move on. Each workout uses toning, kickboxing and ab work.

I found this really good to do. It's absolutely a good idea to not go too quickly with it and begin at the lower of the three levels even if you do it only a couple of times - you can always advance as soon as you're ready for your next workout. She may not be the best cuer, but she is certainly encouraging and motivating. This is fun and I highly recommend it. I've only done it twice so far since it's so new, but I can still feel my muscles thanking me. This is great.

So I ordered it today from Amazon, it was only $10.99, which I thought was a pretty good deal so I am all amped up to get started. Hopefully I will receive it by the end of the week and I will have something to report to you guys soon on how I feel about it. I am ALWAYS looking for new things to keep me interested in working out, and I personally love to hear from others on how they feel about products, so I am going to pass my experience along to you.

Check it out, and if you decide to try it, let me know and we can share our experiences together!