Healthy Living

It is no secret that we love working out.

I have worked out since I was in highschool.

Brent has worked out for the last 5 years and lots 50lbs when he first started. He has kept all of that off since then.

It is one of our passions.

Not obsessions... passions.

We also strive to eat healthy.

We eat most things in their natural form and the least processed way possible. I make sauces and meals from scratch.

I cook at home every night.

Eating out is a huge treat for us and something that is done approximately 2-4 times a month (this means, breakfast, lunch, dinner, snacks, ice-cream, etc. all combined). We just don't do it. It is really expensive to eat out and it is also really unhealthy.

I also enjoy cooking and providing healthy options for my family.

I love seeing them enjoy a meal I prepared from nothing.

We have had a gym membership during all 5 of these last years except for the year of Brent's unemployment.

During that year, we started buying used gym equipment to make our own home gym.

Since then, we have steadily added to it and it is quite nice now.

We only really lack some sort of cardio equipment and we are wanting a stair stepper to meet that need.

We currently have a gym membership ($25 a mnt for the family with childcare included.). We got it when there was a special going on and we use it mainly in the winter or random times and we signed a 3 year contract. Neither one of us have been in over 2 months. Probably more like 3 months. We don't mind paying $25 a month for something that we will use a few times a year-- more or less depending on the time of the year.

But, we haven't missed a workout.

I personally love not having to get me and the boys ready and rushed out the door.

When we were going to the gym, we were devoting about 2 hours a day to it. I would be rushed for a bit during the day trying to get everything done so that I could devote 2 hours to being gone. I didn't work out for 2 hours, but by the time I got us all ready, snacks and water bottles prepared, all of us loaded up, checked in, I felt like I needed to spend a least an hour there. Then, it would be getting the boys, loading us back up, driving home, and getting us inside. My gym hours were always 8am-10am. Not to mention the gas involved in doing that 5 days (maybe 6) a week. I also struggled with mommy guilt. All that hustle and bustle and then an hour + at the gym for the boys.

Our home gym has no insulation and no heating or air. Winter was just too brutal for me to handle it. Once Spring hit, I just couldn't stand the thought of being inside closed walls working out. I stopped going to the gym and started working out under our carport while the boys played out front or in the gym while they played out back.

I would spend about 25 min-40 min a day working out (if that).

I sometimes get up early and workout and I'm done before the boys get up. Other times, I workout while they pay (with their ticket system) to watch 30 minutes of cartoons or to play outside 30 minutes.

I love having a home gym. Our dream and plan is to eventually build a new gym. It will be bigger, insulated (lol), have nice flooring and mirrors surrounding. We also want a sauna. That is in the future though and for now, we are perfectly content with our little gym. This winter, we plan to get a nice heater that should work great for the time we spend out there.

View when you walk out the living room door

Shelf with extra plates and weights and then a basket holding extra equipment for our Viper. Also the workout binders I have written workouts in.

Far right corner with our plated weight

Bench where we do bench press

The squat rack is in front of the bench press. We do pull ups here  and hanging leg raises as well.

Weight rack-- we buy as we go and since Brent uses the heavier weight, we start with that. We have many handles and plate weight for me to create certain weight since I use lighter. It starts at 10lb and then there is 13, 15, 18, 23, 33, 40, 50, 60, & 70). The metal handles weigh 3lbs each.

Down at the bottom is our extra that won't fit (23lb and 33lb)

Directly behind our weight rack is an open area perfect for cardio or abs. I do all my HIIT right here.

To the right of our shelf that holds extra weight, etc. is where we keep our extra bench so it is out of the way. We also have our exercise balls, exercise mats, and extra handles for the plated weight in the orange barrel.

Our Viper. One of my favorite machines. I can do leg extensions, seated row, lat pull down, chest flies, bicep curls, etc. on this machine! LOVE it! You seen this right when you walk out the door.

Our roman chair is what is directly to the left of the door when you walk in. Brent and I both LOVE the roman chair.

What Webb pays to do almost every time I work out. He loves the John Deer.

What Dane pays for--- Tom and Jerry

Thought it was funny that the workout I did today was one I taught for bootcamp almost exactly a year ago!

Shoulder day means decent pump!

It doesn't take more than 30 minutes a day 4-5 times a week to be toned. Diet is the KEY!!!

I love that I don't have to spend hours a day working out, or even an hour for that matter. My diet is consistent with plenty of cheat meals in there. I am not obsessed with my diet any more than I am obsessed with working out. There is a balance between healthy and obsessed and I am thankful I have finally found that place. I don't starve myself and I never go hungry. I don't punish myself for eating cake and ice-cream or for missing a workout.

Can I also just add here at the end how important body image is. It is crucial that you learn to love yourself... body, personality, looks, etc. 

It is a huge process and one I have only recently began to achieve. 

Hey! News flash!!!

I LOVE ME!!!! 

Why I have always felt the need to compare myself to others is beyond me. It created so much stress in my life to look perfect and workout x amount of hours a day.

I realized one day that I am who I am for a reason. God created me this way-- to look this way and be who I am. Why was I so critical of His work? I am healthy and I am a decent size. My husband finds me attractive and I have energy to do things I enjoy. I workout and eat very healthy. No, I'm not perfect when it comes to diet and exercise, but it is too much dang pressure to be that way and creates major unhappiness. That unhappiness gets expressed in so many areas of life. I don't like being unhappy.

And you know what they say, being beautiful on the inside is more important than the outside. 

Beauty fades.

How true is that?

I have met some beautiful and in shape folks. 

But their heart isn't always beautiful. They don't use their body or looks to glorify God. They are extremely prideful. They get so wrapped up in the external and their looks that they dress immodestly, flirt with the opposite sex (despite being married), and possibly they cheat on their spouse. They treat others who are less in shape as though they aren't as worthy or as good as them. They truly become obsessed and everything comes after working out--- husbands, children, household responsibilities, etc. And not only that, they tend to ridicule themselves constantly. They are never satisfied with how they look. They are always aiming to look better and eat cleaner. They also ridicule other folks. "Oh my gosh! Did you see how much cellulite she has?" "I wonder if she has ever considered a boob job!" "She is skinny. Not in shape. Anyone can look like that if they starve themselves." "She thinks she looks so good! Does she own a mirror???"  The negativity is so unflattering. 

Working on your heart is always more important than working on your physical body.

Who is the judge for beauty anyways? 

I am healthy, I am happy, and I am learning to love myself and my body more each and every day which has freed me from obsessive behaviors (hours a day working out and fretting over "cheat" meals.) and thanks to that, I am at a place where I don't have to kill myself to be in "shape" (what I feel is in shape for me, not what a magazine tells me is in shape or even the medical world). I am truly happier with life in general. I focus on the things I love about myself and I talk to myself about the things I am not happy with. I make it ok for me to not look perfect. I mean, who really looks perfect? Only those in magazines who have been airbrushed and touched up and had many surgeries to fix things they don't like. And if they look perfect in real life, I'm learning, they probably aren't truly happy. Every day is probably a struggle to look that way. They may starve themselves, throw up, or workout for hours a day and punish themselves for eating unhealthy. That is not happy. That is not free. 

Love the body you have. Talk nicely to yourself. Work on the inside MORE than you work on the outside. Have a beautiful heart. Treat your body with respect. Don't fill it with garbage (drugs, alcohol, cigarettes, junk food, etc) and move your body in some form or fashion everyday. You only get one life with the body you have. Embrace it and love it! One day, you will look back and wish you had!