Fitness must haves for 2015

I am sure by now everyone has stated intentions for the new year.  Mine included taking better care of myself.  I already do a decent job but there were certainly areas of improvement that I am taking under advisement!

With that a majority of the New Years resolutions revolve around fitness and since I love a gadget just as much as the next person I am rounding up my must have fitness items for 2015.

Core Ball

This is a must!  You can take this thing anywhere!  I travel with it along with my Barre3 App and I can do a workout where ever I am.  This really cuts down on excuses now doesn't it!

VSX Leggings and Capris

Workout bottoms that fit are a must when you are working on your fitness but ones with attitude are even better.  I love all the colors and patterns that VSX has been coming out with.  I know a cool pair of leggings will always be noticed over plain old black.

Spiritual Gangster Muscle Tees

I love all my workout tops equally but when I discovered the muscle tees by Spiritual Gangster I was extra smitten.  They are soft and have the best cut to them.  I own the Namaste in white and the one pictured above.  I can't say enough about them.

BKR Bottle

Everyone needs to stay hydrated so why not do so in style.  I have been carrying mine around with me and to class since it appeared on Christmas morning.  I love that it is a glass bottle so I am not drinking plastic chemicals and 500ml size I received (pictured above) is perfect to throw in your purse!

Getaway Bag by Stella and Dot

If you are looking for the roomiest bag known to man with a whole lotta style this bag is for you.  I hosted a trunk show for Stella and Dot in December and used my winnings to get this bag because I thought it would be great for travel since you can zip around the bottom to make it larger.  Well upon careful inspection I can also use it as a gym bag that I take with me to work.  I change before I leave the office to save time and I can fit everything I wore that day to work in it with room to spare.  Unzipped I bet you could fit a yoga mat standing on end.  You must check it out!

Sugar Paper Planner

Last but certainly not lease you have to have a good planner to fit in your workout.  I think pre-scheduling your workouts is the key to success and that is my mantra this year.  Make it a can't miss appointment.  I still like to carry a small planner in my purse to quickly write down a date but my true family planner is the app Cozi.  If you have not heard of this app it may be life changing.  

Cozi App

It has both a mobile and desktop version so you can login to it wherever you wish.  You can create a family login so the calendar can be accessed from different devices throughout your family.  If an event is added to the calendar everyone in the family knows that.  You can tag events for just specific family members and set reminders.  You can store recipes and create shopping lists with it.  My favorite part is the To Do lists that I create.  I may have 5 different ones going at the same time depending on what I am keeping track of.  It is a free app with option to upgrade for a fee but I have found the free version has everything I need and more.  Check it out I am sure you will not be disappointed!

What are some of your fitness must haves?  I would love to hear about them, remember I love a good gadget!

~Jennifer~

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Merry Christmas

I hope your day is filled with love and magic! 

~Jennifer~

Christmas time is here

It is Christmas Eve and I can safely say I finally wrapped all my presents last night.  Wow what a task!  It is gift bags for everyone/everything from now on!  I am kidding, sort of.

We will be heading up to good old Ashland for the afternoon/evening to celebrate Christmas with my family and then back to Dublin we go to await the arrival of Santa Claus!  The boys are so excited and I love listening to them talk about Santa and what he will bring them.  Though Santa is a great guy, even if I did wrap all his presents, I have to say my favorite part of the season is getting to spend time with my family.  I love that on Christmas morning we can lounge around and not be rushed.  It seems that all too often we are rushing through life and never really get to stop and enjoy each other.  I am really looking forward doing that over this long weekend!

I hope everyone has a wonderful and relaxing Christmas Eve and Christmas Day!

~Jennifer~

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Who doesn't love a challenge!

I don't know about you guys but if there is a challenge I will most likely enter it and hope to win.  At work I am always one of the first to sign up for whatever the challenge of the moment is.  It makes me happy to win or at the least beat a lot of other people.  I kid I kid (well sort of kid).

Since the new year is only weeks away and I need a salt and sugar detox like it is my job, my favorite workout/blog/everything company Barre3 is to the rescue.  Beginning January 5th and running for 4 weeks they will be hosting a challenge to help everyone get back on track with their mind, body and health.  I did the spring challenge not long after I started going to Barre3 and the support you get from it is unprecedented.

Each week of the challenge participants will:

• Do four 60-minute workouts either at one of their local studios or online 
• Do one 10-minute online workout
• Try one healthy barre3 recipe

If you follow me on instagram you know I have experimented with making the Barre3 recipes and they have all been big winners in my house!

So here are the deets on the kit which is $33 buck-a-roos (not bad for all the swag).  

Each challenge kit includes:

• Access to the Challenge and weekly emails loaded with tips, tools, and educational podcasts 
• Live Q+A with Sadie Lincoln 
• One weekly 10-minute challenge online workout 
• One new seasonal recipe to try every week
• A personal tracking system to help you stay accountable
• A glass barre3 signature water bottle
• barre3 signature tote
• barre3 wristband

challenge kit

Um hello I am signing up just for the super cute bag! 

All joking aside this is a great time of year to recommit to yourself.  I have found that since starting Barre3 last April, I have never felt better about myself.  I have made so many new friends at the studio and my Barre3 Columbus family helps me more then they know!

So why not do something for yourself this year and join me in the challenge!  Even if there is no prize for a top winner, the actual prize is feeling better about yourself and your body.  I don't think there is any prize greater then that!

You can buy your kit at your local studio or online.  I know I will be picking mine up tonight!

Join me in kicking 2015 off right!

~Jennifer~

You can find me on...

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Mornings

HELLLOOOO!  Long time.  Sorry about that.  Trying to get some semblance of normalcy and routine in the house.  If anyone knows how please let me know!

Per the title I am going to talk about mornings.  Mornings are not my thing.  You know when someone says they are a morning person, I just sort of look at them and think "Yeah right, LIAR, I bet you got here today by unicorn too!".  That is what I am thinking if you have ever told me you are a morning person.

There are allegedly 2 types of people in this world, morning people and night owls.  I think there has to be a 3rd type because I am neither of the previous two.  I don't like to get up and I REALLY like to go to sleep though I do tend to get a second wind.  I am able to stay up later when I push myself to stay up so I think I have some night owl tendencies but I turn into a pumpkin no matter what around 11 pm!

I think about how much more I could get done if I was either a morning person or night owl.  Wouldn't it be nice to get up so early (and like it) that you can workout, shower, make a breakfast, and then get your kids up and ready.  What a glorious scenario.  Though I dream of one day having the will power to do that in the morning, it has evaded me.

For the night owls, my own mother included, how do you do it and still get up in the morning?  I have tried staying up after the kids to get stuff done but I am just too spent be productive.  It also puts me in need of multiple cups of coffee the next day to feel alert.

My question for the masses is:

  What type of person are you and how do you use your type to get the most done in one day?

I would love to hear of any tips/tricks people use to balance life along with getting enough sleep!

Happy 4th of July

Popping in to wish every a safe and happy 4th of July!

Jennifer

My Week in Review

Hey everyone! How has your past week been? Mine has been so busy that I have barely been able to do anything let alone a post so I'm glad I'm finally getting around to it. If you follow me on Instagram you probably saw a lot of activity last week.  

We'll start off with last Tuesday.  I went to the OAR concert at the LC pavilion and it was great!  This concert I was very excited for because I had not heard an OAR concert since college and they were a pretty big band when I was in college probably because they were from Ohio State and everyone knew who they were. The concert started out with Phillip Phillips who surprisingly enough coming from American Idol was nothing like I thought he would be!   He actually had a Dave Matthews Band esk sound which was very refreshing so I would definitely see him again in concert. When OAR hit the stage the place went nuts!  Of course they waited until their last song of the night to play their most famous song "Crazy game of poker" that everybody knows so in general it was nice to hear them again.  A trip down memory lane!

So on Wednesday to my surprise my husband had tickets to the box for the Clippers game so we got a babysitter again and headed down to Clipper Stadium.  It was a beautiful night until a storm rolled in! It rained so they covered the field. It stopped raining so they uncovered the field, fixed it all up and sent the teams back on the field and it started raining again! So needless to say I didn't see much baseball on Wednesday but nonetheless it was still fun to get out!

Thursday brought my monthly book club which I always go to no matter what! I've been going for 10 years now and I rarely ever miss a bookclub. This month's book was The Orphan Train by Christina Baker Kline which I had already read.  It was an excellent book and swingle worth a read because this really happened in the US!  Not going to lie usually at the club we have wine, we eat cheese, and we gossip and we don't talk about the book. That is pretty much what happened last Thursday and I don't mind that at all!

On Sunday I got up really early to drive my youngest son to Connersville Indiana to a train station where they were doing A Day Out With Thomas.  Oh my goodness the look on his little face when Thomas came chugging down the track was priceless!  He is my little one that coughs out his funnel when he does couch so he has a full on obsession with trains to say the least. We spent about 4 hours riding on Thomas, playing with Thomas toys, watching Thomas on TV, and of course shopping for Thomas memorabilia.  Needless to say my son was exhausted after his big day and has not stopped talking about it ever since!  I would say this was the best day of his almost 4 years of life (his birthday is this Friday).  If you or someone you know has a child who lives and breaths Thomas like mine does this is definitely something you need to do with them!  You can find all the info about this at the link below.

http://events.hitentertainment.com/en-us/dayoutwiththomas

I hope everyone else had a wonderful week and weekend!  Did anyone else do anything fun?  I would love to hear about it!

Jennifer