Inexpensive ways to keep your fitness Goals

It’s that time again, we are all making our New Year’s Resolutions. You can’t not make a resolution right? Although admittedly I have not decided on mine yet, I do plan to continue my clean eating lifestyle and getting fit from last year.

We all know the vast majority of people make a goal to get fit in some way whether that’s by losing weight and or just toning up. I wanted to give a few tips I have discovered in the past while making my fit goals that will not break the bank. These can work for anyone especially if you do not want to waste a bunch of money on a gym membership.

For me working from home part time and being a Domesticated Goddess, I don’t have the extra funds to just throw away on Gym memberships and classes. It can get really pricy and I really HATE going to the gym. I have never been successful in the past when I’ve had a membership, I feel you have the people trying to put on a beauty pageant and judging you if you’re not glammed up. Or you have the men that are there just trying to meet these girls. I’m not saying everyone or every gym is that way, but its hard to find places where it’s a support system to help you succeed.

So if you are like me and you either don’t want to go to the gym or you may not have the funds to spend on a membership or expensive trainers try these tips.

1. Utilize your smart phone: There are a lot of FREE apps out there you can use to help you meet your goals, from workout apps to meal planner apps. Just beware some are free to download but then you have in app purchases to get more workouts. One I like for the busy mom whether your a Domesticated Goddess or a Working Mom, is the 7 Minute Workout. We all get busy but 7 minutes a day is better than none! You got this!

2. Want a personal trainer?: Who doesn’t want a personal trainer, right? Then you find out the cost, and your excitement to get fit totally went out the window. Did you know there are free fitness channels on Youtube? Yes I said FREE!!! I accidently discovered this while looking for a music video or maybe you already knew this but I was ridiculously excited. One of my favorite channels is Popsugar Fitness, they have an awesome variety and they are fun in the videos. You can find anything though, from yoga to Pilates.

3. Invite a friend: Ok so you love tip #2 but don’t feel you can keep yourself going? Invite a friend over and do the fitness video together in your living room. If you both have small ones try to schedule it during nap time. Or if that doesn’t work trade of watching each others kids so you can each get you workout in that day. Your girlfriends are your biggest supporters and cheerleaders, be there for each other.

4. Workout Video Sharing: Start a video sharing program with your friends, we have all had those late nights were we let some infomercial talk us into buying the latest workout craze. Maybe there is one you wanted to try but don’t want to spend the money to buy them. See what your friends have and start a workout group where each week you trade off videos. This gives you variety plus you have a support group to keep each other going.

 

These are just a few simple inexpensive tips to keep you going for the New Year. I would love to hear your feedback and tips you have for everyone on keeping your fitness goals.

 

 

I’m back and ready to go

It’s been months since my last post, every week I would say ok next week I’ll get back on track but we all know how that goes.

Things have been crazy busy, I took on more work with job I’ve been doing but thankfully it still allows me to retain my status of a Domesticated Goddess. I work from home and it still allows me to have freedom.

So what will you be seeing from me, we’ll probably not blogging on a daily basis but you will see some fun things from a couple times a week. I have lots to share from fun parties I’ve thrown to vacations and of course challenges with raising a family and maintaining my sanity.

Hopefully I still have some followers, but it’s like starting over a bit when you take a big break and that’s ok. This blog was more for my escape than to make profit or anything to huge. I can’t wait to get back in touch with everyone and see what everyone has been up too.

Look forward to getting back to this!
Yours truly 

The Domesticated Goddess

Quote of the week 23

  
It’s the first day of Spring so what’s more appropriate than having spring quotes. I’m so excited for the warm weather, I don’t know why I still live somewhere it’s cold. I hate the cold it makes me grumpy.

  
Can’t wait we are supposed to hit 70 degrees today. However living in Utah that’s short lived in springtime as it’s supposed to snow later this week. Oh well that’s Utah weather for you. But at least I know the warm is coming soon.

Happy first day of spring!!!!

  

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Jurassic World Birthday Party

I can’t believe it’s taken me so long to get this one the blog but it happens. I always let my son choose his birthday party theme and for his 6th birthday he decided he wanted a Jurassic World party. I know your probably going what kind of parent is she letting her son watch this movie. So before you judge me, he had not seen any of the Jurassic Park movies he had only seen the previews and what boy doesn’t love dinosaurs. Yes he has since seen some of them at home in a controlled environment where we could bypass any scary or bloody parts.

Anyway back to the party, my son loves doing his birthday at the house because there are two things he consistently wants; a bounce house and a pinata! This puts a little more pressure on me when it’s at our house, because I have more to decorate. And when it comes to parties I don’t do small, go big or go home :).

I like to start early usually at least a month in advance I start buying and making things, you can see my party planing tips here.

Since my son has gotten a bit older he has actually had some really good ideas for his party, he wanted his friends to get tickets when they entered the party  and wanted a big Park entrance. So that got my creative juices going, and we came up with these really cool park passes for each kid. Then I made some official badges for the “workers” of the park.

Thanks to my husband we were able to come up with this cool entrance so when the guests arrived they felt like the were coming to the park. We ran out of time so the sign didn’t turn out like I wanted.

One the park visitors arrived, they had several options for entertainment. We had a dinosaur fossil dig (apparently I slacked off and forget to get a picture of this), a bouncy jungle, and lots of yummy food to eat.

I bought a 72 pack of little plastic dinosaurs off Amazon to put in the sand box for the dino dig and the kids could take them home as prizes.

For the party banners, treat bags etc., I purchased those from this great little shop on Etsy called TinkerFactory. She has some great stuff and I got it all right away, through a file to download.

The party turned out great and all the kids had a blast! Hopefully you enjoyed these fun ideas and if you have any questions about the party feel free to leave a comment.

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Quote of the Week #22

My motto last week was to stay positive and not let things get me down. I did really well, getting things accomplished around the house as well as getting my work outs in. I am going to try to continue the momentum this week, even with this dang sinus infection that is trying to bring me down.

So this week’s word or motto is to follow you passion, I am truly lucky that I have a few hobby’s or passions that I get to do. I do nails as I am a licensed technician and I get to do that as my passion on the side as well as I am getting back to another passion of mine, dancing. I will be going back to teaching Zumba in a couple of weeks. I am very fortunate to be able to live out my passions of being a mom, nail tech, zumba instructor all because of the amazing man I married who supports in in the things I love.

We may not all be able to do a job that we love but find something in life that you are passionate about and follow that passion. Maybe you love to paint or just going running, don’t lose your passion for it you will be happier in life keeping those passions.

So get out there this week and follow your passions.

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Getting my sexy back part 3

If you have been reading my blog you may remember my husband and I started on our weight loss and clean eating journey a while back. If not you can check out our journey here Getting my sexy back part 2.

We did really well with my husband losing 35lbs and I lost 16 1/2 lbs. Then came several vacations and holiday season, and like most people we fell prey to the temptations of food and goodies from the Holidays. For the most part we were still eating clean, but definitely snacking and drinking more than we had been in previous months. We weren’t consistently working out either.

I have gained about 5lbs back since November, which is not horrible I am not letting it bother me too much. The frustrating part of getting off track has actually been losing the muscle ton I had gained and the inches lost. Now things are getting giggly again and the dreaded lunch lady arm flab is coming back. But if you saw my quote of the week this week, I do not plan to let that get me down.

Since starting to get back in shape I have had the goal in mind to get back to teaching Zumba. I am a certified Instructor and taught for about 4 years before taking a break from teaching. It’s been something I have missed greatly. Growing up dancing my whole life there was  something missing from my adult life, it was my love for music and dance. Dance was always my outlet when I needed to clear my head or deal with stress.

After I had my son I felt lost and like I did really know who I was, I gained all this weight and had a new born. I was learning how to be a mom, but was that all I was now? I just happened to be watching a news special when they were going over the latest workout craze. It was Zumba!!! I watched thinking how fun that looked, then went to work and asked a friend if she had heard of it. She laughed and said she went to classes all the time and I should go with her. Sure enough I went and fell in love immediately, I almost passed out from the class kicking my butt.

So after a few months of taking classes, I asked about how you become and instructor and my friend and I decided to go get certified. Unfortunately right when I was about to do it, my body decided to have a break down and the whole right side of my body went numb and weak. After months of testing came to find out I had MS (multiple sclerosis). I still wanted to be an instructor and I knew I couldn’t let this stop me or feel sorry for myself. My good friend who was getting certified had actually been diagnosed with Liver Cancer ( a terminal diagnosis) and she wasn’t going to let cancer stop her so how could I let something like MS stop me. She was my inspiration to keep going.

Sure enough I was able to get certified, and began teaching classes. Not only did Zumba help me find myself again it helped me so much by keeping myself mentally healthy too.

Now you understand my love for Zumba and why I am so excited about getting back to it. So in continuing my journey to getting my sexy back, teaching Zumba is going to be a big part of it. Not only will it keep me committed in working out, it will also keep me mentally healthy. Wish me luck my first class is coming up in three weeks, I am extremely excited but also very nervous to see if I can make it through the class physically and hopefully people show up.

So if you’re like me and you have really struggled with the boring workout routines, I suggest you give this a try its an amazing workout and you do not need to be a dancer to have fun and love it. Don’t believe me check out how it changed my good friend Trista over at Domesticated Momster.

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Quote of the Week #21

Had a crazy week last week and felt like I was getting nothing I wanted to done. I was behind on blogging, working out, and my to do list around the house. Towards the end of the week I had enough of felling blah, so I decided it was time for a mood change.
I started prioritizing better and getting things crossed off my list, and even got a few work outs in (which of course always makes you feel better).
This week I am trying to start off the week right with a positive frame of mind and not let the week beat me down.

My goal this week is to get my work outs done and not let anything stop me from getting them done. I know I will thank myself later once I get back in a solid routine again.
I found these quotes and hope you enjoy them, maybe this will help you start your week off the right way too!

Spicy Chicken Rice Bowl

The other night I didn’t have much for dinner, so I started throwing together some things I did have and came up with this yummy dish. I was pleasantly surprised how good it turned out.

What you need:
Boneless Skinless chicken breasts
Brown rice
carrots
broccoli
Franks Redhot
brown sugar

Instructions:
1. Cut chicken into cubes, toss in a skillet with salt and pepper. Fully cook then remove from skillet and set aside. While chicken is cooking, start your brown rice as it can take up to 25 minutes depending on the rice you purchased. There are microwavable kinds that only take a few minutes.

2.Place chopped veggies in skillet, I just did broccoli and carrots since its all I had on hand but you could do anything. Cook veggies until tender, don’t over cook.

3. While veggies are cooking get a small sauce pan out to start the spicy sauce. Turn on medium high heat. Put 6 tablespoons of Franks Redhot sauce (you can put a few more if you like it really spicy), 4 tablespoons of water. Once you the sauce he heated not boiling but close add 1 cup brown sugar. Whisk until brown sugar is dissolved. Once sauce it smooth remove from heat.

4. Once veggies are cooked place chicken back in skillet heat through.

5. Now take a serving bowl add your finished brown rice, just a few scoops. The add the chicken and veggie mixture on top of rice, and lastly add the spicy sauce over the top and serve.

My husband and I loved it, so I would love to hear your comments on what you think or how you made it your own.

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You’ll Shoot You’re Eye Out……With A Nerf Gun

If you didn’t laugh at my title and get the reference, well shame on you. Just kidding, but seriously best movie. Anyway back to the real topic at hand. If you have kids it’s more than likely you have Nerf guns around the house or maybe your just a kid at heart.

Having boys we have always had enough Nerf Guns for a small army of children. Of course epic battles break out once and a while. It may start with just my husband and six year old then within minutes everyone is involved.

As adults we are always careful how we shoot at the kids but with each maybe not so much. I’ve taken a few to the head and they stinger like a mother f*****.

I got LASIK a few weeks ago so I have not been participating in the wars. As I am afraid of things hitting me in the eye, my eyes are still healing. My husband was having a battle with our 6 year old over the weekend. When I heard silence then my husband moaning in pain.

I called from the back asking if he was ok, no answer. So walked out to the living room to find my husband curled in a ball with his head in his hands still moaning in pain. After a few minutes he finally told me our son shot him right in the eye. He said he couldn’t see out his left eye everything was black.

I got him a cool rag to put on it and we waited for a bit to see if his vision returned. Finally after about 20 minutes he could see a little but it was very blurry. I checked his eye and there was no visible damage. About an hour went by he could see for the most part but there was a black shadow blocking some of his vision still in that eye. Of course being a man he didn’t want to go to a doctor. He wanted to wait and see.

The next morning it was the same still had the spot he couldn’t see. He went to work but still wanted to wait on being checked. I started self diagnosing on the internet (never a great idea) although what I found showed he could have a retinal tear or seperation. Not treated immediately could result in permanent vision loss.

After telling my husband this he called my eye doctor and they got him in asap. They checked him out and the doctor was shocked the damage the Nerf dart had done. He said he has only seem trauma like that from blunt force trauma. Luckily though no retinal damage. The spot he was seeing was a bruise. The doctor said it will be about 5 days before it goes away and he needs to go back in two weeks to ensure its healing properly.

So moral of the story always always make anyone playing with Nerf guns wear eye protection. I think we tend to think of our kids safety and make them and not our own. So no joke you really could lose an eye. And sorry Nerf company I will not be buying your fully automatic gun that shoots over 60mph, not only will someone probably lose an eye my entire house might get destroyed.

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Quote of the Week #20

I was having a hard time picking a quote this week, but I decided since it is my birthday week and I’m dealing with getting another year older that this was a good quote.

When I look back at being young and how I imagined my life would be when I got older, it’s amazing how different you become from that person. Even my goals from being a teen to a young adult and now a mom and wife.

You definitely become more self aware and I think more confident because you understand what’s really important in life. In growing up I’ve definitely learned how important family is and having great friends. When your young its all about having friends but as you get older you realize its not about the amount of friends its the quality of the friendship.

When I was younger I swore I didn’t want kids and I wanted a career, well that’s not at all what happened. I think the teenage me would die of shock seeing how different we’ve become. I couldn’t be more satisfied with life, being a domesticated goddess and a mom.

What are your thoughts on growing up and what you have learned? I would love to hear.

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