Softball Pitching Lessons and CLINIC!

I am so excited to officially announce that I am giving my first softball pitching clinic on March 30th. Know a girl interested in softball and pitching specifically? Send her my way!

I have been working with young, beginning pitchers for about two years now and am really enjoying giving these girls their start in my all time favorite sport and position.

I started playing tee-ball when I was 5 years old and transitioned to softball at age 8. I immediately began pitching and continued through high school and even a bit in college. I miss playing and have gotten a lot of joy out of coaching over the last couple of years.

If you are interested in the clinic, you can register today!

My oldest on the mound last spring

I am still here!

Hey all! I just wanted to let everyone know that I am still here! I am still personal training and writing nutrition plans. Life has been busy and stressful over these past few years with 4 kids now and living through a pandemic. I do hope to get back to writing on here more. In the mean time, if you need a workout or nutrition plan, reach out! I would love to hear from you!

Life is CrAzY!

Remember how I said that I was going to post once a week? Yeah, that is still my goal, but life is CrAZy right now for me, as well as, I am sure, for all of you.

As you probably know, I have four children. The oldest two started out the year doing virtual school, but that didn't work out too well for them or me. So, we have now switched to homeschooling. We have been homeschooling for about 3 weeks now and it is going well, but it makes my life FULL, to say the least.

I am still making time to workout most days of the week. I usually have one day a week that something comes up and I don't get any kind of workout in, but that's ok. My workouts are my "me time", my stress reliever and my sanity keeper. I try to get up an hour and a half before the kids so that I can get my workout in and get cleaned up before the chaos of the day begins. The days I do that typically go more smoothly than the days that I hit the snooze button on the alarm and have to fit a workout in later in the day.

All that to say...keep making time for yourself. Keep making your health a priority. Whatever is going on, find a "me time", a stress reliever and be active. It's good for the body, the mind, the heart, the soul and especially for me, the attitude.

Sweet Potato Biscuits

Your kids don’t like sweet potatoes? I bet they will like these sweet potato biscuits! My family loves them! I halve the recipe or else we would eat too many at once.

I’ve had this recipes for years. I got it from “The King George Farmer’s Market Fields to Table Cookbook”.

We ate these tonight with chicken salad over a bed of fresh spinach.

I use all maple syrup (and only 1 cup), coconut oil and I form them in my hand and place them on the baking sheet.

I hope you enjoy them as much as I do!

Sweet Potato Biscuits

  • 4 Cups Flour (I use Bob’s Red Mill Gluten Free 1 to 1 Baking Flour)
  • 2 TBS Baking Powder
  • 1 1/2 tsp salt
  • 1 Cup Olive, Coconut or vegetable oil
  • 2 Cups Mashed, cooked sweet potato
  • 1-1 1/2 Cups Sweetener (Part Sugar and part maple syrup or molasses is nice.)

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Combine flour, baking powder and salt. In a separate bowl, combine oil, sweet potato and sweetener. Mix into dry ingredients. This dough can be rolled out with additional flour and cut with a biscuit cutter (about 1/2 inch thick) or just spooned onto a baking sheet. Bake for about 12 minutes until the bottoms are golden brown.

Short and Sweat...er...I mean Sweet!

It was 1:15pm as I was putting my 2 year old down for her nap and holding and bouncing the baby in hopes that he would also fall asleep. No such luck, but with plans that began in just over an hour that lasted until dinner time, I knew that it was now or not at all today to get my weight workout in. So, I stuck the baby in his bouncy chair and set up the garage for my workout. Workout began at 1:30pm in about 1,000 degree heat and 100% humidity (or at least that's what it felt like). For the first 25 minutes, between sets, I bounced and fanned the baby. I finished the last 10 minutes of my workout inside on an exercise mat on the floor and let my oldest take over bouncing the baby. Was it the best workout ever? Nope. Was it good enough? Yep! Will it at least help me maintain the muscle I already have? Yep! Did I show my kids that my health and physical activity is important to me and important in general? Yep! Will I be super sore tomorrow and have a hard time going up and down the stairs? Time will tell. In case you are wondering, here is what I did:

Barbell Squats 3 sets of 12 superset with Barbell Standing Calf Raises 3 sets of 20

Barbell Deadlifts 3 sets of 15

Barbell Stationary Lunges 3 sets of 12 on each leg

Lying Leg Raises to target the outer thigh 2 sets of 15 triset with Lying Leg Raises to target the inner thigh 3 sets of 20 and Body Weight Glute Bridges 3 sets of 20.

Make time for your health and your sanity!

I'm Back!

in

Hello friends! I have taken quite a hiatus from my website! I just wanted to drop in tonight to say, I am back! I hope that I can find a few minutes each week to check in with you and maybe bring a few workout ideas and recipes to you.

It is 10pm and I just finished a quick workout. For those who know me well, you know that is quite strange as I am a morning person and until the past few months would have been in bed by 10pm! Having baby number four and going through an epidemic has changed up my schedule a bit. Right now I am getting a workout in whenever and wherever I can. Tonight it was a quick run and core workout in my bedroom. Here is what I did:

1/4 mile run on treadmill 25 crunches, 15 oblique v-ups (each side), 20 4-count flutter-kicks 1/4 mile run on treadmill 25 crunches, 15 oblique v-ups (each side), 20 4-count flutter-kicks 1/4 mile run on treadmill 25 crunches, 15 oblique v-ups (each side), 20 4-count flutter-kicks 1/4 mile run on treadmill 25 crunches, 15 oblique v-ups (each side), 20 4-count flutter-kicks 1/4 mile walk on treadmill to cooldown.

This took me about 25 minutes and I burned about 100 calories.

I need to workout for my mental health. After a long day of cooking, cleaning up after kids, playing with kids, changing diapers, etc...I needed this quick workout for me. Make you a priority! You can't fill anyone else's bucket if yours is empty!

Chickpea Tomato Soup with Rosemary →

Today I bring you a delicious soup that I have made twice in the past three weeks. This soup may come in handy next week when the temps drop back down to freezing and below...hello winter in March! This recipes, like the last, comes from skinnytaste.com If you haven't checked out that website yet, do it! It has some delicious and very healthy recipes.

The first time I made this, I forgot to put the spinach in at the end...it wasn't missed. It was LOVED by my oldest who also licked her bowl clean when I gave it to her for lunch the next day as leftovers.

The second time I made it, it was devoured by every single person in my family. Even the little three year old who is becoming more picky by the day ate it up! And again, my oldest enjoyed it for lunch the following day. I did remember the spinach the second time and the kids balked at it at first, but ended up eating it without a problem.

My oldest even said that this is her favorite soup ever! So, thanks skinnytaste.com!

Korean Beef Rice Bowls →

Hey everybody! It's been a while again, I know. I know. Sorry about that.

Today I want to share a recipe with you that I tried out last night that took me only 30 minutes to make and tasted like something I could have gotten at a restaurant. Delicious! If you follow me on Facebook or Instagram, you have already seen the picture of it.

Every one of my family members enjoyed this recipe. I left the chili flakes out and just put them on the table to be added to everyone's liking. My three and five-year-olds ate the entire serving that I gave them without any chili flakes added. My five year old who is typically the more picky of the two actually thanked me for making this for dinner! Melt a momma's heart!

Also, I couldn't find Gochujang sauce at my grocery store, so I just omitted it. You could probably use Siracha if you really want that spice though.

Give this one a try on a busy weeknight. I doubt you will be dissapointed.

Experiment Update: Some Added Sugar

It has been almost two weeks since I started my "No added sugar" experiment. Let me just tell you that it only lasted for 3 days as absolutely no added sugar. On day 4 I decided that I wanted to put that 6 grams of sugar in my coffee...plus I had a small piece of paleo pumpkin bread at a friend's house which I am sure had some kind of sweetener in it.

I did not, however, let that completely derail me. I decided that no added sugar was a bit harsh, so I modified my plan. Now my goal is focusing less on sugar directly and more on processed food as a whole.

My goal: only one processed food item a day. So far, other than one day last week (date night), I have done it! I found that cutting back on just added sugar still allowed me to eat some breads, crackers, chips and the like as much as I wanted. The great part about focusing on consuming less processed foods in general is that not only am I cutting back on added sugars but also salt and other additives.

So you may be wondering what I mean by "only one processed food item a day". Let me give you some examples of food items I may choose: bread to make a sandwich, pancakes for breakfast, granola to mix in my plain Greek Yogurt, cornbread to go along with my chili at dinner, tortillas with my fajitas, tortilla chips and salsa for a snack, rice cakes as a vessel for my peanut butter. Again, those are just examples of the choices I have to make every day. I can choose just ONE of those. So, to further that example the following is what I ate yesterday:

Breakfast: Scrambled eggs and oats

Snack: Yogurt and granola (here is my one processed food)

Lunch: Leftover Pesto Chicken, roasted sweet potatoes and steamed broccoli

Snack: Peanut Butter and carrot sticks

Dinner: Cajun Shrimp and Rice with snow peas

Snack: Apple slices and Sun Butter

My outcomes so far: My headaches went away after I switched to the processed food focus from the added sugar focus. I am eating far more fruits and vegetables than I used to because I am replacing some of my starch/carb snack foods with them. My energy levels seem to be up as I am much less tired this week than I have been for the past several. I am not having sugar cravings like I was for a while there after coming off of my competition prep diet. My mood even seems to be a bit lifted. And my added sugar intake is still far lower than it was just a few weeks ago. Most days I am staying under 30grams of added sugar but there were a couple of days where I have had as much as 40grams (it really all depends on how many cups of coffee I drink in a day).

So, overall this seems to be working well for me. I think I am going to try to make it a perminent healthy living strategy. I would love to know if anyone else is willing to give it a try and see how it makes you feel!

Experiment in Progress: No Added Sugar

On Saturday night I decided on a whim to stop eating added sugar. So, no teaspoon of sugar in my coffee, no honey in my tea, no bread, no cereal, no Starbucks, no halloween candy, no sweets, no treats, no flavored yogurt, just oil and vinegar on my salads...

My initial goal was to go for a week without any added sugar in my diet. I have now gone for two days. I made it through a halloween party and trick-or-treating without indulging. Honestly, the hardest part so far is not having a spoon of sugar in my coffee. That is what may keep me from making it to a week!

I wanted to try it just to see how hard it would be and also because I felt like I have been eating too much processed food and too much sugar lately. I am also interested to see what I feel like without eating any added sugar.

So far this is what I have eaten:

Breakfast Sunday: scramled egg whites with spinach in cocounut oil plus oats cooked with sliced apple and cinnamon.

Lunch Sunday: Chicken cooked in salsa, rice and roasted green beans

Dinner Sunday: Homemeade Chili, popcorn popped in oil, a few plain potato chips. (Halloween party)

Snack Sunday: Carrots dipped in peanut butter, a handful of almonds

Breakfast Monday: Scrambled eggs in coconut oil, 1/2 of an apple and a clementine

Snack Monday: Plain Greek Yogurt with dry oats and strawberries

Lunch Monday: Salad with Romaine lettuce, ham slices, cheese slices, carrots, and bell pepper all topped with a mixture of mayo, mustard and cider vinegar. (This was delicious! It tasted like a ham sandwich turned into a salad.) And a side of corn tortilla chips.

Snack Monday: Banana, Rice cakes and peanut butter

Dinner Monday: Hommade Chili

Snack Monday: Sun Butter and Apple Slices

I would say that I am definitely eating more fruits than I normally would and maybe a little bit more vegetables as well.

How I feel so far: Pretty good other than a bit of a headache that comes and goes. However, that could be related to parenting 2-year-old and 4-year-old girls more than a lack of added sugar!

I will let you know how long I am able to hold out and of any other changes I see in myself. Does anyone else want to try completley cutting out added sugars? Let me know! I would love to have others try it with me!

Weight Gain from Menopause: Is it Inevitable?

In researching weight gain related to menopause, I was hoping to find some new and exciting information that would change how I instruct my clients and show amazing weight loss results. What I actually found is pretty much just the opposite.

According to the American College of Sports Medicine, If you are perimenopausal and have gained 10-15 pounds, you are a normal American woman. The research indicates that almost all American women gain weight during the perimenopausal years. Here is the interesting part: women of menopausal age gain weight regardless of wether or not they start menopause. Karvonen-Gutierrez and Kim found in their review that aging is what causes weight gain rather than menopause itself.

According to Guthrie, Dennerstein and Dudley in their 5 year prospective study of weight gain and menopause, there has not been a connection made between hormone changes during menopause and weight gain. There has however been a connection made between hormone changes during menopause and body composition and fat distribution changes. Namely, body fat percentages increase and body fat storage shifts from around the hips, butt and thighs to the abdomen. So, if you are feeling softer than usual around the middle or your tummy has a permanent bloated appearance, menopause may be to blame.

Now, just because that is what your body tends to want to do at this stage in life, doesn't mean that you have to sit idly by (please don't!) and let it. You can fight off the weight gain and fat accumulation in the abdomen. Will it be harder to do than when you were 20? Yes. Is it impossible? No! Will you have to accept a modest amount of weight gain? Maybe.

If you decide not to let nature take its toll and get up and get fighting for your waistline, you should start with looking at your nutrition. The doctors from webmd.com inform us that as we age, our muscle mass decreases and our metabolism slows down. So even if nothing else in your lifestyle has changed, and you are gaining weight, you may need to cut back on your calorie intake. Secondarily to that, focus on low glycemic foods as, according to webmd again, our body's use of blood sugar also seems to slow right alongside our metabolism.

Then look at what you are doing in the gym (or on the pavement, carpet, or wherever it is you exercise). Are you and have you been meeting the ACSM's recommended amounts of physical activity? Do you exercise for at least 30 minutes a day five days a week? If not, start slowly adding in a few minutes of exercise until you do meet those recommendations. Still gaining weight? Keep increasing until you are exercising for an hour, five days per week. This doesn't have to be an hour of extreme intensity exercise, this can be walking outside at a brisk pace, swimming laps in the pool, taking a water aerobics class or whatever else you enjoy that elevates your heart rate and keeps it there for the duration of the exercise session.

And let's not forget about strength training. Strength training at least twice a week will help combat those body composition and metabolism changes I mentioned before as well as helping combat bone density loss. Choose at least eight exercies that work the whole body and perform 8 to 12 repetitions of each exercise.

Making healthy eating choices, slowly increasing your physical activity amounts and modestly decreasing your caloric intake can make a huge impact on your perimenopausal health. Don't wait. Start making small changes today! You won't regret it.

Zucchini and Cheddar Frittata →

Recently I posted on instagram a frittata that I had made and LOVED and which my two little girls really enjoyed as well. I wanted to go ahead and share that recipe. The original calls for heavy cream. I used 2% milk instead and it turned out just fine.
This is so light and creamy. It is delicious! Bonus: 1/4 of a zucchini in each serving! I hope you and yours enjoy it as much as I did!

Yum! Cheesy, Eggy Goodness!

Yum! Cheesy, Eggy Goodness!

Roasted Ratatouille

I came across this recipe in the "King George Farmer’s Market Fields to Table Cookbook". I fell in love with it the first time that I made it. It is a great way to use up many of your summer garden harvest and to eat lots of veggies at once. This is so yummy! I didn’t expect this to taste sweet, but roasting the vegetables brings out their natural sweet flavor. I served this hot over penne pasta. DELICIOUS!

Ingredients:
1 medium eggplant, trimmed and cut into 1-inch pieces
1 large sweet onion, peeled and cut into 1-inch pieces
1 yellow bell pepper, seeded and cut into 1-inch pieces
2 medium zucchini, trimmed and cut into 1-inch pieces
12 garlic cloves, peeled and halved
2 cups cherry tomatoes
¼ cup olive oil
2 teaspoons dried thyme
Salt
Ground Black Pepper

Directions:
Combine eggplant, onion, pepper, zucchini, and garlic in a large bowl. Add olive oil, thyme, salt and pepper. Toss to coat. Transfer vegetables onto a baking sheet. Adjust oven rack to lowest position and set oven to 425 degrees. Place baking sheet into preheating oven. Roast about 20 minutes, until vegetables are golden brown on bottom. Remove pan from oven. Stir in cherry tomatoes, Continue to roast for about 15 minutes, stirring once more until tomatoes start to release their juices. Serve hot or cool to room temperature.

2016 Lebanon Valley Pro/Am Bodybuilding and Figure Competition

What a weekend! I am sitting in the passenger's seat of my van while my husband drives three tired girls home from a whirlwind trip to Lebanon, Pennsylvania.

Yesterday I competed in the Open Figure Division of the National Gym Association's Lebanon PA Pro/Am Bodybuilding and Figure Show.

It was a great show! Every female there was beautifully athletic and deserving of a trophy! The competition was fierce for sure! The only disappointing thing about the show is that though the competitors were just that; very competitive, there weren't very many of them. There were only two of us in my division and I was awarded second place. Despite my 2nd/last place finish :) I am very proud of my physique and the total package that I brought to the stage.

I am looking forward to participating in a (hopefully) larger show on August 6th in Woodbridge, Virginia. I am going to take a few days off from my rigid competition diet and then get right back to it so that I can feel just as good about stepping on the stage in three weeks as I did yesterday.

If any of you are interested in this crazy figure competition hobby I love and would like to learn more, don't hesitate to contact me! I love to help others reach their full potential in and through this sport!

Update: I wrote this a week and half ago and never got it posted. Sorry about that! I am now one and a half weeks out from my next competition, a little leaner than at this point before the last one and ready to get this thing done so I can eat normally (but still healthfuly) again!

Having a little fun with bodybuilding poses

Having a little fun with bodybuilding poses

Let's Celebrate, It's CHEAT DAY!

It's Cheat Day! That's right, when I am dieting for a competition, I have one day off every week from eating a strict, clean diet. One day a week I have pancakes for breakfast, pizza for dinner and popcorn for dessert. One day a week I don't count my calories, macros, micros, or anything else! I have one day a week to look forward to and meditate on as I down my eggs, oatmeal, tuna, chicken and vegetables early in the week.

However, I do still pay attention to the ingrediets in my food on my cheat day. I still aim for whole foods and no artificial anything. Pizza is homemade, popcorn is from kernels popped on my stove-top in coconut oil and pancakes are made from scratch (actually tried out a new recipe today and it was delicious! I will share it in an upcoming post.)

The greatest part about my cheat day is that my mind and body love me for it! My body stops thinking I'm starving it and so allows more fat to be burned in subsequent days. Likewise, my mind stops thinking so much about what I am missing and concentrates on what I can have again in just one week.

I advise all of my clients to include a cheat day in their weightloss programs. Without it, your metabolism will likely slow down, you will be moody and depressed and feel deprived.

It's cheat day! Now, I must go sit on the couch with my husband, watch a movie and eat popcorn, for tomorrow will be filled with heavy weights, eggs, oatmeal, tuna, chicken, vegetables and progress toward my goals. Goodnight!

Honey Chicken Stir-Fry →

I LOVE stir-fry! Homemade stir-fry is probably my favorite dinner meal. I have about 15 different chicken stir-fry recipes that I rotate through. I thought I would share one with you today. I made this recently for a visit with my in-laws. Everyone enjoyed it. Even my kids ate it, albeit not until the next day because they were too excited that Grandma and Grandpa were around to eat it when it was fresh.

I like that this is made from simple whole ingredients that most people have in their pantry and fridge.

I served this over long grain brown rice rather than pasta and used peanuts in place of cashews because that's what I had on hand. If you want to lighten this dish up a bit and cut back on the sugar content, you can reduce the sauce in half and probably still have plenty, especially if you serve it over rice instead of pasta.

I'm Still here!

I know, I know, it's been an eternity since I wrote anything! Sorry! Life has been busy. Good, but busy!

One of the things that has been keeping me busy is a nutrition client who was preparing to compete in her first bikini competition. She started following my nutrition plan 13 weeks out from her show and I walked along with her every step of the way answering questions and tweaking her diet. She arrived on show day close to 15 pounds lighter than when she started and very lean! She did an amazing job with her workouts, eating plan and all that goes into preparing for a physique show. And the proof was in the pudding; she came in 2nd in her novice class, 1st in her open class and in the top three overall! It was amazing! I may have been more nervous waiting for her to come out on stage than I am for myself when it's me standing behind the curtain waiting for my name to be called.

She also inspired me to decide to get back on that stage later this summer. My own nutrition plan is in the works to be undertaken in just over a week. Eek! No time like the present!

I will try to remember to post some progress articles for those interested.

Thanks for following along on my journey thus far! Stay tuned and let me know if you need a healthy eating plan to follow.

Check out my accounts on Facebook or Instagram to get quick, simple and easy healthy meal ideas.

Chia Seed Energy Bites →

I am going to share a much requested snack recipe with you today.

Each time I have made these and shared them with someone, they have requested the recipe. So it must be a good one! I will share the recipe as I make it here, and link to the original recipe that I adapted (slightly) from. With my changes and without any add-ins, there is just one teaspoon of added sugar per serving. However, we like to add chocolate chips or dried cranberries to ours. Doing this, they become more of a treat than a healthy snack due to the added sugar content.

1 cup oats
3 Tbs. honey
5 Tbs. peanut butter (or other nut butter)
2 Tbsp chia seeds
1/4 tsp vanilla
Additional add-ins, if you choose, such as nuts, chocolate chips, dried fruit, etc.

In a bowl, combine ingredients together until well mixed.
Add any additional add-ins.
Refrigerate for 20 minutes.
Shape into bites. Store in the refrigerator.

Makes 15 Bites