100 calorie snack idea

I'm always looking for new ideas for snacks that run in the 100 calorie range.  I don't want to pay high prices for inferior snacks.  I've also found by keeping the little snack size bags at home, I can divide up a box of crackers, or through some fruit, seeds or crackers to grab on the way out the door, or just to make it easy to have at home.
Anything in a single serving bag makes life easier.  So here are a few ideas that might make your life easier prepared ahead of time. These are approximate value of 100 calories give or take depending on size and brand.
1 small orange peeled
13 animal crackers
3/4 oz of cheddar or jack cheese
2 TBSP mixed nuts
3/4 cup bran cereal
28 grapes
5 Dates-dried pitted whole
1 cup of blueberries
25 jelly beans
3 TBSP of raisins
1 peeled hard boiled egg or 2 without the yolks
These are just a few ideas.
Because my husband does his own lunches I prepare lots of little bags each week so he can pull things  together in 2 minutes or less. (this is what he allows for creating lunch)
In addition to things like the list above, I also buy individual servings of hummus, cottage cheese, Greek yogurt,individual guacamole by wholly guacamole individual cheese like the bon belle, for variety from cheddar or jack.  I make bags of pita chips, whole grain crackers, pop chips, pita breads, we rarely have regular sandwich bread at home. I boil 1/2 dozen eggs-peel and bag them.  I make bags of veggies as well with carrots, celery, jicama, red or yellow peppers, sometimes radishes or cherry tomatoes. These are easy to eat and use with the hummus or guacamole. We both draw from these pre-made(at home) bags of healthy choices.  Ok Jelly beans may not be the healthiest but into each life a little sugar should fall.

OH MY its almost Fall!

Well my blog followers, my summer was absolutely CRAZY!..  We sold our home and had to leave the 18th of July.  However we weren't going to close on our new home until a month later in August.  Plus our daughter was coming home from London for the summer months vacation. Enter pure Mayhem.  We moved about every 2 weeks staying with friends and house sitting, until our final move into the new house.

  My daughter is used to being in constant motion, so she was constantly after me to go to another Zumba or exercise class. She was always wanting to do or go. I was worn out, and starting to have and iron drop but couldn't find time to do anything about it. Needless to say she kept me in a semi exhausted state.

 I quit wearing my arm monitor several months ago, but I'm about ready to get back into the habit again.  I miss knowing where I am on the numbers.

I just came home from a weekend workshop of  Healthy Lifestyles Behavior Changes.  Its about making small changes to achieve your goal over a long period of time 10 months  in fact.  I'm so enthused to start this, but I want to apply it to myself as well.  I have some more learning to to do with it, becoming efficient at learning to ask open ended questions and not trying to fix other's problems but help them to come to their own answers.  As a mom that is kind of tough.  You do for your little ones, and as they get older, you have to step back and let them do for themselves.  Well, this is the same philosophy, only we never do for the people in class, they must learn to do for themselves. The next few months will be a time to hone my skills before engaging a class.
 I know this is short, but I just returned a few hours ago, and have much catching up to do. Have a good week!

Memorial Day Weekend How will you spend it?

Memorial Day Weekend is here!  Do you have plans?  Will this be a physically acitve weekend for you, or one of drinking and eating while hanging out with friends? I plan on golfing at least one of the 3 days.  I'll be cleaning the garage another day, and working on choreo for enhance and Zumba.  I will also be taking a bit of time to think about the people in my family who currently serve or served in the military.  My grandfather was in the Navy during WWII, my daddy was a marine, my step father was in the army both during the Korean War, My husband and an Uncle served in the Airforce, My Great Uncle, brothers and one of my nephews served in the army, and another nephew served in National Guards, he went to Turkey, Afghanastan and Iran. The military teaches honor and respect for others, and selflessness. My Great Uncle was injured during WWII and lost a leg as well as his ability to have children.  If you've lost  someone or had someone injured, who's fought to protect others, they are hero's in their own right. 

Enhance has been working going well.  My class is growing a little at a time.  We do about 40 minutes of cardio and warm up, and then follow with some hand and leg weight exercises, and some flexibility.  I have some stability ball exercises thrown in as well.  I have a ten minute break between my gold zumba and Enhance Fitness. My endurance has worked up nicely, and I'm getting some weight lifting in as well.  Next week I'm going to be adding some personal training clients into the mix. 
I saw this little pic above on face book and thought I would share it with you.  I know she's crying about not going to the gym, but not all of your exercise has to be there. Some people never go to a gym but have excellent exercise routines.  So take heart if its five days or five years do whats best and FUN for you.  Fitness should be about fun and healthy living, not about drudgery and misery
Have a great weekend and doing something active .

I'm currently working on increasing my endurance despite low iron levels.  This past week I've attended at least 2 classes a day either 2 Zumba's, or Zumba and power yoga. I was doing well until I hit Thursday.  I was so burned out, that I spent a couple hours working on new choreography for my Zumba gold class and thinking about what I was going to do for the Active older adult (AOA) class I was subbing on Saturday morning. But I wasn't able to handle and actual class outside of home. I did find on average that the Zumba classes I've been attending are about 6000 steps on average for a 50 -60 minute class. My own is usually about this much as well.

In May I will be teaching a Zumba Gold class back to back with an Enhance fitness class (fitness for seniors) and I want to make sure I have the energy for it.  The first part of the Enhance class is 30 minutes of warm up, and cardio, so its quite important to be able to handle those parts together.  That is followed with weightlifting exercises and stretching to end the class. I'm looking forward to teaching this new class at the Y. It will be 3 times a week and I will be sharing with another instructor. 

Subbing this past Saturday went quite well. You never know in that situation whether students will be OK with a sub, so it can be a bit nerve wracking going in.  Instead of trying to duplicate the class of another instructor, I went in with my own format, including my favorite piece of workout gear the stability ball. I love this piece of equipment for all levels of fitness.  When I'm working with clients who are rehabbing I feel they may relate and feel comfortable from experience in physical therapy exercises.

The teens and dance students I work with feel the playfulness of it, and for seniors its a great way to work the core and balance along with offering them a  less traditional equipment which can often seem overwhelming. I actually had a couple students ask if I teach any other classes there on Saturdays. Unfortunately for them I don't. 2 glorious days of sunshine have occurred this weekend. After days and days of grey and rain its so lovely. 

reflection and hydration

I picked up a book my daughter won as part of a fitness night during the summer.  Its kind of a mind body book, and has many quotes & sayings with reflections from the author.  Today this one has really hit me as I came home from my 90 minute hot yoga class. When the room is 108 F and the teacher doesn't open the door at all hydration is soooo important. 
The thought here was : They hydration principle - When you're thirsty it's too late.  When you exercise you should be drinking a 1/2cup of water every 15 minutes to replace the sweat loss. This is especially important in activities where there's lots of sweating .  To go on the author discuss some healthy habits for .both life and physical fitness(these may not be the list of your choosing but you can always make your own).

• A glass of water every morning
• regular exercise
• daily vitamins ( I think its subjective to the individual)
• daily action items (you know all those things you have to do today)
•  balancing budget (life is easier if you know what you have to work with)
• phone call to mom or family member
• support group meetings (these can help you through all kinds of things)
• sex with spouse (OK this can get lost in a marriage as you have kids etc)
• Church attendance ( i know this isn't for everyone, but it offers a support system that you may not get anywhere else- not just spiritual, but also as way to find your own place)
• regular prayer- I believe that at some point we all turn to prayer, it may be the loss of a loved one, the desire for a different kind of life, the birth of a child, prayer is found in all types of spiritual thought. 

Find a way to replenish your body everyday.  Where do you go to find encouragement for yourself?

• podcast
• uplifting movies or TV shows
• books
• conferences
• inspiring friends or individuals

Do you have people who you find encouraging and uplift your spirit?
Just something to reflect on today.

certification craziness

The last month has been crazy doing education for fitness.  I work for the YMCA and needed to get a couple classes  done.  So I've been studying and taking some general fitness about healthy living followed by group fitness training, choreography and music. Last week I was certified as and instructor for a senior fitness program called Enhance Fitness. We will start this program at our Y as a pilot program instead of offering silver sneaker programs.  Today I took a 3 hour exam for the ACE national Group fitness trainer exam.  I passed, and I can't tell you what a relief that was.  Five years ago I went to school to study fitness and nutrition.  It was my intent to transfer to another program on graduation, but expenses at the time, and our family weren't permitting. Even now the opportunity isn't presenting itself to go back to the nutrition program at this time, however the opportunity to expand on my education and utilize it offers some satisfaction.
So now that the current exam and class schedule is completed, I can start to concentrate a bit back on my own fitness as well as the my current classes. I'm ready for the weekend, my friday zumba gold class and some Hot yoga.  With all the rain going on in our area its totally acceptable to take Hot yoga for warmth.  Happy days ahead.

Group Exercise.

So as part of my journey to be healthy, I work as a trainer for dance students.  I also  teach Zumba, and recently was offered an opportunity to get involved with a project called "Enhance Fitness" which was started by Group health, and is oriented towards senior health.
Working for the Y has opened some exciting doors for me.  With these opportunities looming in the near future, I have to take some national certification test, despite having a college degree in fitness specialist and personal training.   Two weeks ago, I took a class through the Y called, Healthy lifestyle principles.  This is the Y's requirement to take any other class in health and wellness programming.
This weekend I'm taking the Group X training instructor through the Y and will follow up before the end of the month with a national certification for Group X Instructor. Since the Y offers the workshop with a comparable exam, it will make sense to follow up with the national exam for the same. All the information is fresh!  So what is group X?  its basically the Exercise instructor knowledge for group trainings.  Whether small or large.  It doesn't necessarily pertain to any one type of group exercise, but goes over all the things you need to know, including refreshing anatomy, kinesiology, physiology, nutrition, health screenings, programming, teaching principles.injury prevention and emergency/first aid procedures, among other things. Its alot to go over in one day. I'm looking forward to it, and trying to run through the manual over the next few days ahead of time to go over things that we don't think much about like the Krebs cycle, and ATP- oh the early days of college.

Aren't these lovely?

I've been a bit remiss in posting but then I found this lovely photo on Heather Bullards sight and wanted to share it with you all. The sunshine, and happy colors and all the multi tone flowers make my heart joyful.  Have a most happy day.

Happy 2012!

Alrighty, can you believe its 2012?  I'm amazed how fast 2011 went, I guess I was having fun and didn't realize it was slipping by.  Some years you wonder if it will come fast enough, but this year so many things happened that it just seems like it disappeared. New things to come this year, that I'm really looking forward too, and sharing as they come about.

So everyone focuses on health and fitness as part of their resolutions it seems.  I'm not a resolution maker and my business is all about health and fitness, January is just a normal month in that respect, but I always see a flux of clients during this time.  As some great pointers for the new year here are a couple ideas to perhaps get you on the right tract. If you are a dieter and find its hard to prepare your healthy lunches without preparing the same thing everyday or you don't have time I would follow the idea from this blog: http://5dinners1hour.blogspot.com/2011/04/make-ahead-lunches.html
The author did a wonderful job of how she prepared lunches for her kids ahead of time, including a variety of sandwiches and snacks.  She measured and prepared everything and bagged them in baggies, and small containers and her children can pick what to put in their lunches. Some examples that would easily carry over to weight watchers- and if you write the points plus value on the bag, you can easily track the points as well- would be pb&j, ham & cheese sandwich, or roll ups on tortillas, nuts and fruit, measured salad, with dressing of choice  in separate container.  Other ideas were apple slices with caramel sauce, or banana slices with chocolate sauce, orange slices, jicama slices, pre-cut broccoli and carrots with or without dip.  Hummus & crackers, cheese cubes & pre-cooked ham, granola and yogurt,  the choices are really limitless.  You may have to think about moisture content, or a little extra packaging. Soups are my favorite for lunch, so opening a can and dividing it ahead into microwave containers, can make lunch time a little easier.  The gal who writes this blog did it for both time efficiency and frugality. She has young school age children and after school activities as well.
But I always look at the comments and find it interesting that a large portion of her readers who are working, or are trying to work out schedule differences with significant others.  I wish I had thought of this when my daughter was younger. I tried frozen made ahead dinners but it took to long for them to cook when we got home, and now she is away in college. I'm thinking with some of the challenges I have scheduled this month, it could be helpful to throw a few lunches together for the week to easily pick on the those days I'm running around.