Working Weekend

It was a weekend of 12 hour days at work. 12 hour days and 26 miles of walking. Holy moly. Makes me not feel so guilty about eating that ice cream sundae.

Two of my residents passed on Friday. One in the early AM hours and one on Friday afternoon when I wasn't there. They were both suffering, so it was a blessing that they were called home, but so, so hard for the families. Isn't that the way it always is?

So, youngest son came with me to work for 2 hours on Saturday morning for some bonding time. The good thing about the place where I work is that they love kids and you're able to bring your kids in anytime you need or want to. Saturday was the first time I'd ever brought one of them in while I was working, but he loved it and, of course, he was fawned over by everyone. Who can resist a cute faced, red haired 5 year old?

Little did I know when I arrived on Saturday morning though that they'd started construction on replacing the remainder of the sewer pipe. Directly under the front desk where I was supposed to be sitting. For two days my chair was perched precariously on a huge sheet of plywood that was covering a gaping 2' hole. And did I mention that they had something going on with the ceiling, so 50% of the ceiling tiles directly above my head were tilting down? I kept waiting for them to fall on me so I could leave early. hehehehe No such luck.

Oh well. =)

Be Active, Laugh Often, Cherish Every Moment

You get a whole new perspective when working with people in a nursing home. You suddenly realize that life is short. Really short. At 20, ninety seems ancient. At 90, twenty seems like yesterday. "I can't believe I'm this old," is a common thing to hear.

There's a lot to be learned from the people I care for everyday. Cherish every moment with family. Live in the present. Feed your body healthy things. Work hard at whatever gift you've been given. Pray. Forgive. Stay active - both physically and mentally. Laugh often. Don't compromise yourself for anyone or anything. Give what you can.

There's more, but last night those were the suggestions given. I ask. Every night, while I'm caring for someone I ask them what lessons they want to pass on, what they've learned about life. It's powerfully validating for them and invaluable to me.

So, today, be active, laugh often and cherish every moment. Life truly is too short.

Don't forget...

Don't forget to enter the Weekly Giveaway at GymMama.net! It's a 3 month membership to NextFitness.com....an awesome giveaway, I must say! =)

Name That Soap to Get Some Soap

I am loving the handmade soap I bought on ArtFire a couple of weeks ago. My skin gets really dry in the winter, especially my arms, and with all of the washing I do at work, well, let's say, my skin and I have not been having a very good relationship. For those of you who don't know, I am, in addition to many other things, a licensed esthetician. You know, someone who can give facials, body treatments, waxing, etc. Not much call for that in this economy, eh?

Anyway, the soap. It smells like lilacs and is highly, highly moisturizing. My arms are on the verge of being silky smooth. That is amazing to me. Why? Well, because I was a staunch believer in the old "soap" is bad philosophy. Of course, now that I think about it, products laden with chemicals don't sound all that appealing either. I think it's the word "soap" that does it. And really, for awhile I knew nothing about handmade soaps except the ones that were shaped like bears or butterflies and they really did nothing to endear me to them.

So, what's in this soap I'm using? Olive Oil, Coconut Oil, Palm Oil, Goat's Milk, Shea Butter, Sodium Hydroxide and Lilac Oil. That's it. I can pronounce it all and I know what each component does. I understand the moisturizing and restorative properties of the ingredients. And I know how wonderful my skin feels after using it.

It's got me (and my hubby) thinking about making soap. So, I made myself chuckle when I was thinking of names for it. If I was going to make soap, what would be a good "Gym Mama" type name for it?

Here are a few I was (not) thinking of using...

1. Soap So You Don't Stink

2. Sweat Eradicator

3. For the Pits


What are YOUR suggestions? Leave a post and the one that I think is the funniest will receive a bar of the very soap I am so lovingly describing. Trust me. You want it. =)

30 Day FREE Bally's Pass

I wonder if Discovery Health & Bally's read my blog about them being cheap on the 30 day free membership, because today I received this...



"Join the National Body Challenge with Bally Total Fitness®.

When you register for Discovery Health's National Body Challenge you are entitled to a FREE 30-day Bally Total Fitness® membership.* Use your FREE 30-day BallySM membership to discover all the support and tools Bally offers to help you to get to a healthier you, at a pace that's right for you.

Start Strong, Stay Strong!

Register for Discovery Health's National Body Challenge today and download your FREE 30-day guest membership. We don't want you to miss out on a great opportunity to use our facility for free and get the results you deserve!

Bally wants to help turn your participation in this program into a way of life by offering an exclusive membership only for National Body Challenge participants:

In addition to your FREE 30-day membership, if you join Bally now for the price of a local-access membership, you'll get a FREE UPGRADE TO OUR NATIONWIDE ACCESS! That's access to over 300 Bally clubs across the country.

What's more is that you will also receive up to 1 year free of membership if you join now. Certain restrictions apply.** Don't wait – this special offer is only available January 15th - 18th!

If you've already printed your FREE 30-day pass, simply activate it by calling or visiting your selected club to make an orientation appointment. Or, book an appointment online today. And, for added motivation, have a friend register and download a pass so they can come in with you!

At Bally's recently updated and upgraded clubs there are even more ways to help you reach your National Body Challenge goals, including:

* High-energy Group Exercise classes
* Resistance, Cardio and Strength Training equipment
* Nutrition advice
* And much, much more!

Congratulations on taking your first step! Bally Total Fitness is very excited to wish you a warm welcome and hope to see you soon!"


SOOOO, if you'd like a free 30 day pass to the spandex-zone register by Sunday for Discovery Health's National Body Challenge. Hey, free place to workout and I just bet they'll have someone give you some basic tips for getting started. Even if you don't join afterwards you may come away with some handy dandy workouts.

Let me know how it goes!

Want Ads, Mileage and Giveaways

6 miles. Last night at work. Really, I think someone should start touting the benefits of being a CNA and we'd get a lot more qualified and highly motivated people to come work at the nursing home. Heck with this "hire anyone" philosophy. We need an ad that says, "Come workout while at work! This position guarantees a minimum of 5 miles of walking each and every shift. Lose weight, make a difference and get paid!"

Maybe I should suggest it to the HR guy.

I was sort of excited when I actually calculated the mileage I get each week at work. It's between 25-30 miles every week. When I work on the weekends it goes up to about 35 miles. Not too shabby.

And now that I'm focusing on it, it's fun and a challenge!

And, can I just say that I am loving the NextFitness workouts?! Holy moly, why didn't I discover them sooner?!

Don't forget to enter the giveaway on GymMama.net for a 3 month subscription. It's a great giveaway and if no one enters I'm keeping it all to myself. =)

Weekly Giveaway: 3 Months of NextFitness.com's Personal Training!

This week's giveaway on GymMama.net is a three month subscription to NextFitness.com.


If you've never heard of it, it's definitely worth checking out. You input your goal and a personal training session is created for you. You then download it to your iPod or MP3 and it's got music & personal trainers guiding you through your workout. It's ingenious and normally about $55 for a 3-month subscription.

So, scoot on over and enter to win - click here!

Good luck! The drawing will be the morning of Jan. 19th.

18 Miles to Nowhere

I walked 18 miles this weekend. While I was working. My mom said at this rate I could start my own 3-Day fitness walk just at work. I tend to agree.

18 miles. Sheesh. That's a lot of walking. It doesn't even count the lifting, twisting, turning and what-not that happened too. No wonder I was exhausted when I got home each day.

I have to do some serious work on updating the walk databases on GymMama.net today. It's time consuming, but worth it. And, well, the focus of the site. Minor details, eh?

Oh, I got some amazing cards this weekend from A Moment A Memory. Plantable seed cards to use as thank you cards for Gym Mama Studio orders. So, scoot on over to ArtFire, pick up a lil' somethin' and I'll send you some flowers-to-be in addition to your order in the form of a seed card. Besides, you'll get 10 extra entries into the weekly giveaway drawing! Bonus!

And before I scoot, a BIG HELLO to faithful blog reader Amy! So happy to see you back and to know that Gilad still has a special place in your heart too! (But, seriously, I think maybe his back muscles have been slightly airbrushed.)

Have a great day everyone!

Laughing Is Exercise

If you haven't read Cake Wrecks today you have to read this post. Right. Now.

(Please note that if you have weak bladder control you may want to take some precautions before reading the post, because you are going to wet yourself. Seriously. Wet. Yourself.)

A public apology. Not really.

No, honey, I'm not going to apologize. I didn't say you were out of shape. I said you couldn't get up off the floor.

[Please note there were quite a few versions of sentences that were written at this point, but I'd like to remain married for at least another 30-40 years, so it was best that I, er, we chuckle over them privately and then delete them.]

And no, faithful blog readers, we are apparently not done with this.

This One's For My Husband

Okay, so this post is specifically for my darling husband who is sitting here venting about yesterday's post.

Yes, honey, today I did bring my laundry down to the laundry room. By myself. And while your daughter was napping in her playpen. Call me hypocritical if you want, but I'm not the one with no clean undies.

And no, I didn't say you were out of shape. I said you couldn't get up off the floor. Imply what you will.

There. I blogged about it. Are we done now?

Walking at Work

I bought myself a new pedometer yesterday, because the one I had kept resetting my steps every time I bumped it with my arm. Talk about frustrating.

So, yesterday I picked one up and decided to see just how many steps I actually take while working. Want to guess?

10,788 steps or 5.02 miles. From 5pm-8pm 5 nights a week. That explains a lot, huh?

I used to have a hard time even getting to 10,000 and now, wahoo! Almost 11K in 3 hours. I can't wait to wear it tonight and see if I can get to 12,000 steps.

How many steps to do you take in a day?

Let us know!

OMG, it's GILAD! and some other stuff

Like a beacon in the night, there he was. Popping up on my computer screen like some fit hunk of exercising goodness. His gaze piercing, his hair plugs darkened. Yes! It was GILAD! (Amy, I thought of you. Hey, where ARE you anyway?!)

I got an email from Discovery Health about their 2009 Body Challenge and I checked it out, because I'm not above wanting a free 90 gym membership to Bailey's. Yeah, only this year they were cheap-o and no free membership. Darn it. I was disappointed and slightly annoyed when I happened to glance down at the bottom of the screen and SAW HIM! WHO KNEW that all roads (or clicks) lead back to GILAD?!

I'm having high school nightmare flashbacks right. this. very. minute.

I'm seriously considering having a Gilad DVD as a Gym Mama Giveaway one week. Amy, I hope you win. (And I repeat...where ARE you anyway?!)



*******************************************************************************

So, I got so carried away seeing that Gilad DVD that I forgot to mention that I worked out this weekend on the treadmill. And yes. It WAS turned on. 3 miles in 30 minutes, thank you very much. I feel lighter and slightly less winded because of it.

It also gave me a chance to think about why I like working out in my very own laundry room/treadmill room/food storage area. Here's my Top Ten:

1. I can sing as loud as I want and no one will kick me out.

2. I can sweat and not worry about looking...sweaty.

3. I can do laundry (if my husband would ever bring it TO the laundry room, and btw, honey, I'm sorry you're out of boxers, but really, I can't carry the baby and the laundry down 2 flights of stairs without maxing out our health insurance coverage) and exercise at the same time.

4. I can walk at 2.0 mph without feeling guilty, because there's some lunatic going 8.0 mph next to me. (Seriously, you're on a treadmill. No matter how fast you run you're not going to get any further than right here.)

5. Did I mention I can sing as loud as I want and no one will kick me out?

6. I can finish exercising, walk upstairs and be in the kitchen. Hello, carbohydrates!

7. There is no one skinnier in the room than me.

8. I don't have to pay dues.

9. It takes me 10 seconds to get there.

10. I can sing as loud as I want and no one will kick me out. Did I say that already?

So, there's the top 10. Exciting as always. =)


By the way, I am still trying to find 10 walks that fit into my schedule. I haven't given up. =)

Oh! And go enter the Gym Mama Weekly Giveaway! You could win. =)

10

Seriously. Do you know how hard it is to find 10 events I can attend? Sheesh. I need a website like GymMama.net. Oh, wait. I have one. ;)

I'll post my events later tonight or tomorrow. Watch out! =)

OH! Don't forget to enter the weekly giveaway! The drawing will be held tomorrow morning, bright and early! Get your entry in!

Team Gym Mama & Covert Fitness

Okydoky, my mission today is to sign up for 10, yes, I said TEN charity walks/runs (haha!) for this year. Then I'll list them on here and on GymMama.net. I was thinking about a Gym Mama Team In Training. Of course, that would mean that people other than my husband would be walking/running too. Of course, that also means I need to let my husband know I'm signing him up. hehehehe

Covert fitness, I tell you.

However, I think I may have his ear on this. Last night he was trying to look under the sofa for more baby wipes (we keep them under there....storage is at a premium in this house) and he couldn't get up. Yeah. Maybe working out would be a good thing for us to enforce in this household. The treadmill is ready to go, the fitness ball is...well, it's down there, but seriously, I'm not sure I should be on that thing unsupervised. We'll figure it out.

In the meantime, charities here I come. I hope you have your registration information ready to go!

The youngest members of the Gym Mama Team in Training...

Oh boy, oh boy! I have my first 5!

Okay, all of you wonderful first five followers, you're all getting goodies! Please send me your mailing address at GymMama {at} GymMama.net and I'll get them out in the mail to you. Thank you, thank you, thank you! =)

GymMama.net Updates

Have you looked yet? At GymMama.net? I was doing some mad editing last night until 11:45 and I'm pooped. But excited. REALLY excited!

It's coming together quicker than I had imagined when I wrote my post yesterday. I'm excited to have Erica on board writing a weekly article about her weight loss adventure with Weight Watchers Online. Jim and Marion from Your Greatest Protection will also be writing articles about personal safety. I'm still looking for some more article contributors, so if you have a specialty that you'd like to share please let me know at GymMama {at} GymMama.net.

I'll be working like mad in the upcoming weeks updating all of the 2009 event databases and signing up for some charity events for the Gym Mama Team. If you're not in southeastern Pennsylvania, but would like to start a Gym Mama Team please let me know. I'll be happy to get you some great promotional items to help build your team.

Have a wonderful first day of the year!