Red Light Green Light

I have two daughters. As parents of girls my husband and I have a goal to raise them to be as confident as possible. We want them to feel good about who they are. We want them to focus more on how they feel not on how they look. As someone who grew up with some serious body image issues I am aware of all the pressure and misconceptions of what a healthy person looks like to young girls. My husband is 6'5 I am 5'2 so the chance that my girls will be shaped and built differently then each other is very likely. We want each of them to know that no matter what their heighth, shape or build as long as they are healthy they are perfect.

The first thing we did was to eliminate the words fat and diet from our house. I do not believe a person can be fat. Fat is something that we can have on our bodies and in our food but it is not something that defines us. I believe we are healthy or unhealthy. I do not believe in "a diet" I believe in a life style. You can be living a healthy life style or an unhealthy lifestyle. When it comes to eating being healthy and having a healthy lifestyle comes in two parts. First having balance and second having moderation. It was our goal to find a way to teach our daughters to have balance in their eating and to be able to recongnize what moderation means. In doing so we started to use the Red Light, Green Light Method and have been amazed at how well it has worked not just for our daughters but for my husband and I as well.

The Red Light Green Light Method is simple and easy to use! I will explain what the colors mean-
Green Light Foods are our healthy, non processed, clean, whole foods. They are fruits,veggies, whole grains and lean meats and healthy dairy products and of course water.

Yellow Light Foods are those in between foods. Pastas, breads, cereals, crackers foods that are not the best but by far not the worst.

Red Light Foods are the treats, resturant foods, sodas you get the idea.

The key to having a balanced lifestyle is to not cut out items or deprive yourself from things you enjoy. This only leaves you starving and eating the whole cake (yep been there done that because I love cake)

Each day your menu needs to be made up of all three lights. When planning your meals make sure 75% are green lights, 15% yellow lights and 10% Red lights. This helps you eat what you need and what you enjoy.

We started teaching our daughters how to use this method at dinner. Every night as we sat at the table we would discuss what on our plates were the green, red and yellow lights and why. They picked up on it suprising fast and were soon telling us on their own what color different food items were.

This has also helped with treats at our house. When the girls ask for a treat or dessert or a free cookie from Publixs all I have to do is ask "Have you had a lot of Red lights today?"
They always take a second to think and will answer yes or no. Once I asked my 8 year old if she wanted dessert after dinner, she replied with " No thanks there was a party at school today and I had a lot of yummy red lights." Happy Mom moment!

Now I must let you know that when it comes to vacations and holidays we have Red Light Days! Halloween is a total Red Light Day ,as it should be, as well as Christmas and Easter. That is just the way it is supposed to be. We also know that before and after visits with Grandparents we eat extra green lights. A Grandparent's house is and should be a total red light zone :)

This is what we have found to work in our home. This may not be what works for you and your family as we are all different. There are a lot of fun and creative ways to teach your children to be healthy. The important thing is to teach them! Give them the tools they need to be healthy, happy and confident!

Mommy Time

This is what a mom who has been cleaning up vommit all day looks like. My poor six year old daughter has the flu. So not a fun way to spend the last week of summer vacation. My two daughters are now in bed and my husband is still at work. I have an hour to myself to relax. What am I going to do? For me the most relaxing thing to do is pop in an Insanity DVD and work out. I had a great run earlier today but I need some of the feel good endorphins a good work out can give me right about now:) Plus this will help me unwind and relax so that I am able to sleep better. The next time you are stressed or anxious try a quick workout. A work out will help you feel relaxed, happy and like you have accomplished something. If you are a mom like me and the kids are in bed you need something that can be done in the living room. Try a jump rope for 5 minutes. Rotating Jumping jacks, squat jumps and push ups in 30 second intervals for 5 minutes is another thing you can do. If you love pinterest search workouts and you will find a whole bunch of quick at home workouts. There are so many options out there for you to use! Now go turn on your favorite music and get your night time sweat on :)   

Time to get things going again! I am so excited that I get to start back up in the fitness world. I will be training at Time Efficient Fitness in Ponta Vedrea, Florida(Google Ponta Vedra it's beautiful and on the beach). I have missed my fitness studio and work out buddies in Eagle Mtn,Utah and am so excited to jump back into things. I am going to start using this blog as a place to post work outs, clean eating recipes, running tips and more! My goal is to update this blog atleast once a week. So stay tuned there will be lots of fun things to come!!!

New Month

I can not believe that tomorrow is Febuary 1st!!! Time is flying by. Today is the last day of our competition!! You have all done an amazing job and worked out extremly hard. I am very proud of all you!! I will start collecting the point totals today and post the winner by Friday.

We have just a couple of announcements....
1- Tuition for the month of Febuary is due tomorrow. Again the prices are $25.00 for an unlimited monthly pass or $3.00 per class.

2- There will be NO CLASSES on Monday Febuary 7th!!

3- YES! We will have class on Valentines Day. So grab your Sweetheart and come workout together before you share that box of chocolates :)

Thank you again to all of you that have given my studio so much support. We are starting in to our 4th month of workouts and the class sizes are still growing!! Thank you!!!!

Competition announcements

Congrats to all of you that completed the first week of our January Fitness Competition!! You are all doing great and worked out very hard this week!!!! We have a few announcements to make. #1 If you achieved your weekly goal you can give your self 5 points instead of 1. and #2 The competition will end on Monday, January 31st at our 5:15 a.m. class.
Congrats to our give away winners this week..Sandy,Sheena and Catey!!!

As a side note,yesterday ended the Holiday Bootie Buster Challenge that I entered. I ended up with 673 points total. It was a lot of fun to have a little friendly competition to help get me through first part of winter workouts and runs in 7 degree weather.

Tagged

Catey tagged me and since I can never say no to Catey here it is.....
1- What are you most fond of accomplishing in 2010?
I am most proud of finishing in the top 5 in all the races I raced this year!!!

2-What are your running goals for 2011?
My goal this year is to run an Ultra Marathon. I am shooting for the Sapper Joe a
50k the last week in May.

3-What is you favorite Race?
My favorite race this year was the Ragnar Relay!! It was a blast to run with a team and spend so much time with a group of people as crazy about running as I am. It left me refreshed and energized. I can't wait to run it again this year with my family as my team.

4-What is your favorite Holiday guilty pleasure?
I love to eat a Reese's peanut butter cup shaped like a Christmas Tree and chocolate Carmel dipped pretzels!!! But let's be honest this year if it had Even an ounce of sugar in it I ate it and felt good about it :)

5-What is your most embarrassing running moment?
It takes a lot to embarrass me but I must admit that having to tell people that I had to drop out of the Utah Valley Marathon at mile 20 because I had a massive case of "the runs" was pretty embarrassing.

I am now tagging a few of my running buddies to Ari,Ashley and Heidi you are it!!!

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year everyone!!! I am excited to start a new year working out with all of you!! We have a few announcements for the new year.
First- there will be NO CLASS FRIDAY JANUARY 7Th!!!

Second- Class fees are DUE MONDAY JANUARY 3RD!!! $25.00 for an unlimited month pass or $3.00 per class.

Third- Monday, January 3rd, is the first day of our Fitness Competition!!! There is a $5.00 entry fee which will go into a pot (the winner takes home the pot!!!) We have sheets in the studio to help you keep track of your points and progress. Please remember to take a new sheet home each Monday. The contest will run
January 3rd- Jan 31st. This is a great way to start the New Year on a healthy foot and to rid yourself of any pounds picked up over the Holidays. The contest in based on a points system. The person with the most points on January 31st takes home the pot of money!!!!
1 point for every mile ran or walked
1 point for every 10 minutes of intense cardio
1 point for every 15 minutes of cardio
1 point for eating 9 servings of fruits and veggies
1 point for 20 minutes of stretching
3 points for a treat free day
1 point for achieving a weekly goal
We will be having weekly giveaways during the contest. You must come to class to be entered in the drawings.

Thank you again for all your support with the fitness studio!! We are starting into our third month and the class sizes continue to grow. Thank you again and have a wonderful NEW YEAR!!!!