Tamara, Author at The Workout Mama

The Biggest Lies I Tell Myself

July 14, 2013 by Tamara 13 Comments

Recently I have been convicted to really start evaluating my life, relationships, and my heart. You know, like the bigger picture of of life and if I am fulfilling the purpose that I was created for. The the sort of stuff that keeps a person up at night.

One area specifically that I have felt called to make some improvements in is my ability to be truthful. I have never considered myself to be a liar but I recently realized that I lie to myself all the time. A few days ago I came upon this verse, “The heart is more deceitful than all else and is desperately sick” Jeremiah 17:9 , and it literally jumped off the page at me. Do you ever have those moments? I felt like this verse was shouting out at me to wake up and take a deeper look into my heart.

So without any further ado, welcome to my heart. It is not always pretty, but everyday I am working on areas that I know I need to grow in. Here are just a few of the biggest lies I tell myself.

If I told the truth all the time people would think I was rude.

White lies. We have all told them. In the big picture of life I like to think that these “little” lies are no big deal. I mean does it really matter if I told my husband I was going to do something he asked only to know in my heart that I was not 100% committed to doing it when I said I would. If I answered him with a no or just flat out ignored him that would be rude. Or what about when a friend asks for my opinion but instead of telling them what they need to hear I tell them what they want to hear.

Instead of owning up to the truth that white lies are significant I opt to be selfish and look out for myself caring more about my time or how others perceive me. If my actions do not speak louder than my words I am breeding distrust in these relationships and not being a shining light for Jesus.

God does not want us to be deceptive and God himself will not lie, Titus 1:2. Satan, who is referred to by Jesus as “a liar and the father of lies” John 8:44, loves to tell us that these white lies are not harmful or significant. As much as we would love this form of lying to be ok we need to stop making excuses for our lying and find creative ways to speak the truth in love.

Living out my beliefs is enough, I don’t need to be actively telling people about Jesus.

Paul called us Christ’s ambassadors in 2 Corinthians 5:20 and in 1 Corinthians 12, Paul talks about how every member of the body of faith is to play a role and every role is important. I don’t know about anyone else but often times my conversations with friends and even strangers lead into the perfect opportunity to share about what God has done in my life. More times than I care to admit I make up an excuse of why it is not the right time to bring Jesus into the conversation.

“Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me. For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will save it. What good is it for someone to gain the whole world, and yet lose or forfeit their very self?”
Luke 9:24-25

From now on I need to:

Stop being concerned about what others think, and focus on what Jesus thinks.

Stop saying I don’t have time to share the gospel, and remember who has given me this time.

I can love people at my convenience.

The bible says that I need to love people, even difficult people, even people who hate me, and in addition to loving them I need to pray for them, Luke 6:27-36. You know the verse. “Do unto others what you would have done unto you“. Probably one of the best known verses out of the entire bible even to non-believers. I can even remember The Golden Rule being in my lifeguarding manual as a reminder of how to treat patrons when they came to the pool. It is easy to be polite and friendly to people who you don’t know. The challenge is when you make a choice to love those who have caused hurt and heartache.

Loving people needs to be an all the time occurrence. As nice as it would be to love people at my own convenience it is not what God wants from me. This heart shifting change needs to start in my own heart. Jesus said it best to his disciples in John 16:33 “In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.” As believers we have the assurances of knowing that the troubles in this life precede our victory in Christ.

Thank you for letting me share my heart with you. I would love to hear from you. Do you find yourself in similar internal struggles?

xoxo, Tamara

PS…The chalkboard image was a quick creation that I made this morning. I love this quote by Adrienne Rich and couldn’t find it in a pre-made image that I liked and used picmonkey to make my own. Feel free to use it on your own blog or website, I just ask that you link back to me and this post.

Filed Under: Faith, Personal Tagged With: Beliefs, Bible, Jesus, Lying, Truth

Beta Breakthrough Juice Fast Day 1

July 12, 2013 by Tamara 11 Comments

Well today is the day! My husband and I are starting our cleanse. For the most part Josh and I live a pretty healthy lifestyle. The last two years especially we have become more aware of what types of food we are putting into our bodies. Regardless of how healthy a person eats it is always nice to give your digestive system a break. By taking a few days and infusing the body with juice made from nutrient rich dense leafy greens the digestive systems gets a rest and the body can more readily absorb the nutrients allowing more energy to be expended in removing toxins. These types of cleanses have been proven to clear up the skin, give the body more energy, reset the taste buds, assist in weight loss, and improve the function of the immune system.

I am looking at this cleanse as a total body reset now that I have finished nursing. Women typically need one full year after having a baby until their body is completely recovered and hormone levels return to pre-preganacy levels. Now that Caden is a year old and I have finished nursing this is the perfect time to give my system a boost, assist in balancing out any nutrients that were depleted, and aid in cell repair.

This will be my first juice cleanse I have done. I want to make it clear that when I say “juice” and “cleanse” I am not talking about a store bought product or drinking lemonade all day. I am not a fan of these cleanse methods. Anytime you do something drastic to your body or detox in a manner that is unhealthy you risk toxins being released all at once leaving you feeling horrible. These types of cleanses can actually leave your body more unbalanced. There are many other ways you can safely cleanse and detox your body. Now to share more about what we are doing…

We will be juicing vegetables in our juicer for the next 14 days. Umm…wait a minute? Did you say 14 days of juicing? Are you crazy? That sounds drastic?

Did I read your mind? Did anyone just think this while they read the last paragraph. Before you start to wonder if I will whittle away let me share the major details of our cleanse. If you would like even more information so you can do this protocol at home you can purchase the Beta Breakthrough guide for $27 HERE.

DAYS 1-4 & 8-14: We will be juicing nutrient rich greens every 2-4 hours during the day depending on how hungry we are for the first 4 days. Our produce that we will juice includes kale, chard, celery, cucumber, cabbage, parsley, lemon, and ginger. No fruits will be juiced during these 14 days or any vegetable that is high in sugar like carrots or beets. In addition to the green juice we will drink lots of water and/or green tea. Each of these days we are going to be doing cardio intervals for 30-45 at a moderate intensity.
DAYS 5-7 & 12-14: At this point in the cleanse we can begin to reintroduce protein, moderate carbs, and healthy fats into our diet. Our first meal on these days will always be a green juice. We have a list of approved proteins, carbs, and fats that we can use to create our remaining meals for each day. Each of these days we are going to be doing timed body weight circuits for 25 minutes.

DAY 1 MEASUREMENTS

WEIGHT 127 lb | WAIST 29″

I will measure again at day 7 and 14 and share my results with you all. I am off to drink my green juice! These next few days I will need to remember not to eat any of Caden’s food while I am feeding him. I have a habit of eating any of his leftovers or licking food that is dripping from his spoon. Do any other parents do this?

If you want to know more about the benefits of juicing click HERE. Have a fantastic weekend!

xoxo, Tamara

Filed Under: Juicing, Nutrition Tagged With: Before and After, BetaBreakThrough, FitLife.Tv, Green Juice, Juice Cleanse, Stats

Losing The Baby Weight: Exercise

July 10, 2013 by Tamara 14 Comments

Happy Wednesday friends! If you are just joining the Losing The Baby Weight series welcome!

Here are the topics that have previously been covered:

Wednesday, June 12: Pregnancy & Exercise

Wednesday, June 19: What To Expect After You Deliver

Wednesday, June 26: The First Six Weeks

Wednesday, July 3: Nutrition

I am proof that it is possible to be in even better shape after you have a baby. Carrying around my 20 pound little man is the best exercise there is. Handwork, good nutrition, and lots of motivation do make a difference. It just takes time and effort. Being a mom is a full time job and I have learned to make the most of the time I have to workout. I train at a higher intensity to make sure I am getting every minute I can out of my workouts. It is really neat to look back over the last few months and see my progress.

If you would like to read more about my monthly progress check out my 8 MONTH, 9 MONTH, and 10 MONTH after baby stats. I am sharing a photo of me 9 months after Caden was born and a comparison photo of my tummy before pregnancy and 8 Months after baby.

Hopefully these photo’s give you encouragement that it is totally possible to reclaim your body after having a baby. Every mama’s return to her post baby body is going to look different depending on how she took care of herself before, during, and after pregnancy. Be sure to read about The First Six Weeks HERE if you haven’t already. The first step before you start those heavy sweat sessions is to make sure you have been cleared by your doctor. Today I am going to share a few general tips and what worked for me in my recovery.

Intensity, Duration, and Frequency of Exercise

For the majority of people that hardest part of exercising is getting started. There are so many excuses that all of us can use in our daily lives for reason why we didn’t exercise during the day. I am going to break down a simple way for you to plan your next workout.

Intensity: How hard are you working during your workout? Can you hold a conversation? This would indicate that it is a lower intensity and should be done for a longer duration. Walking would be an example of a lower intensity exercise. High intensity workouts include HITT and CrossFit.

Duration: How long do you want your session to last? This will depend on how much intensity you are training at for the day and what type of workout you are performing. If you are short on time a workout at a higher intensity would be most beneficial because you can more calories in a shorter time span. These workouts can last between 15-30 minutes. But they are hard. If you can get up off the floor and hold a conversation after this type of workout you are not working hard enough.

Frequency: How often are you exercising? How many days a week are you going to workout? If you are only going to workout 3 days a week these workouts will need to be at a higher intensity level and for a longer duration to see the results you are hoping for.

Diastasis Recti

I feel like I would be doing new mama’s a disservice by not including information on abdominal separation in this post. This is what happens when the Rectus Abdominis becomes overly stretched and separates into right and left halves. This muscle is usually joined in the middle but if it becomes separated during pregnancy the core is weakened and results in a pooched tummy that doesn’t seem to go away even with a proper diet and exercise. If you would like more information on Diastasis Recti and how to determine if you have it and what you can do to treat it click HERE to read a great article by Bikini Body Mommy.

Walk

As soon as you can move, do it. Two days after Caden was born we went on our first family walk. I didn’t move very fast or walk very far but each day I gradually increased my speed and distance. By the time he was 2 weeks old we were averaging 2 miles a day walking around our neighborhood.

Build Your At Home Gym

Weights, DVD’s, a mat, jump rope, and water bottle are awesome items that can be added to your baby registry. The key to success is to plan ahead. Even if you have a gym membership somedays it is just easier to stay at home. I really had great results with Jillian Michels 30 Day Shred.

Buddy Up

This is so important! The accountability of a friend is huge. Staying committed to exercising for the day becomes a lot easier when you know another person is meeting you. I have several friends who I can swim, run, cycle, yoga, or lift weights with. Lots of workout buddies are awesome!

Lift Weights

Don’t be afraid of strength training. Resistance training speeds up your metabolism. If you want to loose weight lift weights. Use dumbbells or hold on to your baby while you do a few rounds of squats and lunges. Target big muscles groups because they will burn more calories. Or better yet do compound exercises like squats with an overhead press and lunges with biceps curls for an even greater calorie burn.

Schedule Yourself On The Calendar

Mommy’s, we need to make ourselves a priority. Grab your calendars and plan out your workouts for the week ahead of time. You will be more likely to stick to your workouts and also make sure that you are getting in the right amount of strength, cardio, and flexibility training each week. If you like to workout early in the morning layout the clothes you are going to wear and have your gym bag packed the night before. Many times I would have not made it out of bed when my alarm would go off at 4:30am (before Caden was born) if I had not had everything ready to go for my morning workouts. Find a time that works best for you and your family and stick with it or better yet bring them along for a family walk/jog/run/yoga class/workout.

Get Creative

Once Caden was born I worked out while he napped or kept him next to me on his blanket while I exercised. Now that he is moving more he enjoys going for runs with me in the stroller or I use him as a weight for squats, lunges, deadlifts, and curls. It is like playtime for him and I am getting a great workout!

Dress For Success When You Exercise

Throw away your sweat pants and oversized t-shirts. They will get in the way of your workout and also make you look bigger. Dress modest and cute while getting your sweat on without causing others to be distracted by skimpy outfits.

Write Down Your Goals

Make sure you know what you are working towards. Don’t limit yourself to only health and wellness goals. What other area’s of your life are you wanting to grow in? Setting goals for each area of your life will create balance and create a happier you. You can read my goals HERE.

Be The Example

We all want our children to grow up to be happy and healthy individuals. The best place they can learn this is at home. Include your kids in your workouts. Love yourself and love your body. We are all works in progress and each day is an opportunity to move forward towards your goals and dreams.

Remember exercise is just one part of the equation. I hope this series was helpful for you. Be on the lookout for workouts on this blog to keep you motivated in your healthy lifestyle journey.

Thanks for reading and for leaving comments! They really do make my day!

xoxo, Tamara

Filed Under: Fitness, Postpartum, Pregnancy Tagged With: Before and After, Diastasis Recti, Exercise, Losing The Baby Weight, Motivation