Most people know the regular glute bridge, where you lie on your, back plant your heels with knees at 90 degrees, and thrust your hips up. While working out at home, I wanted something a little more difficult without having to find and put barbell plates on my hips. A more advanced version is the “Single Leg Glute Bridge”, where you keep one leg straight out and elevated and then use the other leg to perform the glute bridge alone. It’s harder because that one leg is doing all the work and is also carrying all the weight as you thrust your hips up. Try to hold each thrust for a couple of seconds. When you come back down on each rep, try to maintain muscle tension by not fully 100% coming down to the mat. Do 10 for each leg before taking a short 1-2 minute rest. That’s one set. Try to do 4 sets. See the video where I do a couple on each side for a quick demonstration of the movement. Also, it takes a little getting used to because isolating each leg does requires coordination and focus to make that mind-muscle connection. Before long you will be doing it perfectly and you’ll have stronger and more-toned glutes!
I’ve killed a lot of plants in my day. Not on purpose. I just never seemed to have a green thumb. I think I tend to over water them. After moving into a new home not too long ago. I bought a fake fiddle leaf fig tree. I’m not a big lover of fake plants/trees/flowers but I had just moved, was low on cash and didn’t trust myself to keep it alive. I found a nice fake tree at HomeGoods and It was really cute but I knew one day I wanted to replace it with a real live tree. After a while I started going to a few shops to price fiddle leaf fig trees and oh my gosh…. have you priced them lately?? For a five foot tree they were about $200! At that price if I killed it I would be pretty upset that I wasted so much money for being careless. Cut to one day while I was at work and my coworker mentioned that she found some cute stuff on Facebook Marketplace. I have been on Facebook for many years but literally never checked out Facebook Marketplace. Have you looked???? You need to! It’s awesome. It is similar to craigslist but there is something about it that seems less murdery haha. Anyway, I went on there and happened to stumble on the garden section and wouldn’t you know it…. someone listed a real 5’ fiddle leaf fig tree for $60!! Not cheap but not three times the price that you would find in a store! I wrote the girl selling it and we arranged a pick up time and then I adopted my new tree! It proudly sits in my dining room and I bought a cute wicker basket for it to sit in from HomeGoods… I read directions on how to take care of it and so far it has been thriving! It makes me so happy! On a side note…I have been hearing a lot in the news about how plants can boost your mood, calm your stress levels and blood pressure and increase your creativity among other things. I was going to say I haven’t noticed a change in myself but I did just start this blog with my husband so maybe it is boosting our creativity!! Time will tell! In the mean time I gotta go and see what else I can find on the marketplace! Maybe our teens could use some plants in their rooms! Check it out and then tell me your favorite Facebook Marketplace purchase!
I went up into my attic where I am temporarily storing my many scrapbooks from my mother to find a good quote for this week. She always finds the best ones and is much more poetic than I…than me? Hmmm… see what I mean!! In any event after pouring through my albums and losing track of time I found a good one! It’s hard to find just one quote that resonates with the mood of the week. Let alone pairing it with just the right photo takes some time. Add on top of that a lazy, rainy, Sunday afternoon and one can lose all track of time!! I got caught up in the beautiful artwork and arrangements that she came up with and it was fun looking back at when my girls were little. Most people store their photos on a phone or the cloud or a thumb drive and rarely have printed photos laying around so I feel pretty lucky to be able to open an album and look through them with my kids. Sorry! I’m getting off track! I wanted to say that I look forward to some normal days as I am sure most of you do too! When we can go about our day to day lives hanging out with friends and family, giving someone a hug, talking closer than six feet apart, eating in a restaurant, taking in a movie, walking down the street or through a park without a care or worry in the world and just be in the moment.
Please enjoy this quote from Mary Jean Iron…
NORMAL DAY, LET ME BE AWARE OF THE TREASURE YOU ARE. LET ME LEARN FROM YOU, LOVE YOU, BLESS YOU BEFORE YOU DEPART. LET ME NOT PASS YOU BY IN QUEST OF SOME RARE AND PERFECT TOMORROW.
**attached is a picture I took of my youngest at our local beach when she was 6.
The NuGo Perfect Cookie is a product made by NuGo that I haven’t seen before, so I picked up a couple to see how they are. I bought the Dark Chocolate Chip Cookie and the Double Dark Chocolate Chip Cookie.
NuGo’s main selling points appears to be that they are packed with plant-based protein and are low in sugar and have low net carbs (7 grams and 5 grams net carbs respectively). The packaging also says they are non-GMO, vegan, gluten-free and keto friendly. They each have 190 calories. I usually expect protein cookies to be more dry and more dense than regular cookie. That was the case here. The chocolate chips are the tiny variety and I didn’t feel that they were lacking. Each tasted just sufficiently like a regular cookie so that if I wanted a cookie as a treat, but I still didn’t want to blow my nutritional goals, then I could have one of these to satisfy my sweet tooth. Other protein cookies often still have a lot of sugar or total carbs, but the NuGo Protein cookies keep the net carbs low by using fiber and sugar alcohol (erythritol, specifically). They are also sweetened with Stevia. I would get these again should the need for a cookie arise.
You know what’s one thing that I love about little kids? They are more open to trying new things. No fear! When my girls were little I tried to expose them to lots of new things. I wish I had realized this sooner but I did my best when it finally hit me! I thought if my girls tried something new they would see if they had any interest in pursuing it further.
For about 7 years I worked at a local ice rink. I worked in the office and often brought my girls there when they had a day off from school or it was a school break/vacation day. It was helpful for me and they had fun figure skating and running around the arcade, café and chatting it up with my coworkers. One day it dawned on me that it would be great for the girls to try ice hockey! They were open to it and soon we were borrowing gear from friends and the rink! The girls got all laced up and went on the ice! Quickly they discovered figure skates and hockey skates were very different! After about an hour on the ice with one of my coworkers they got in the rhythm and then they tried hitting the puck around. In the end it wasn’t a sport that they ended up loving but they did try out a few clinics and I loved how they were open to the idea. The older they get the harder it is to try to get them to try new things. Teenagers get so concerned about what their peers think that they tend to shy away from something new for fear of embarrassing themselves. If you have little ones get them used to trying new things and explain to them that nobody is the best at anything right off the bat! It takes time and this is just for fun! Hopefully, they’ll find something they love to do and maybe you’ll discover you like it too!
This move is called a switch jump lunge. It is like a lunge, but with the added intensity of a jump. It’s a great lower body exercise that requires strength and coordination The starting position is a basic lunge, so place one leg back and place the other leg out front forming a 90 degree angle with your knee directly over your foot to get the form right. Now explosively jump and switch legs, landing again in a lunge and when you land. Don’t let your back knee touch the ground, because you want to sustain the tension and you don’t want to bang your knee on the ground either. Do 10 for each side, so 20 total per set. Rest for 30 seconds (or however long you need). Repeat. Try do do at least 4 sets. For a HIIT session try to do this for 15 minutes.
Our dog Daisy isn’t exactly a puppy even though she acts like one! She is 7 years young! We adopted her when she was about a year old from a couple that traveled a lot for work, had young kids and felt like they didn’t have enough time to devote to a puppy. It was perfect timing for us! We had never had a dog before so it was super helpful when the couple gave us their dog crate, bed and everything we would need to care for her when we picked her up. It wasn’t until recently, when my daughter happened to have some friends over that we brought down a bean bag chair from the attic and ever since then Daisy has decided that it was her new favorite chair! She clocks some serious nap time in that bean bag and you can even hear her snoring! It’s pretty funny! I’ve read that dogs like bean bag chairs because they bring on a sense of warmth, security, they are easy on the joints and they are cozy. I never see bean bags in the dog section. Sometimes they look similar but in the end it’s just foam padding with a bolster of some sort around the edge. Our dog loves to cocoon herself into the bean bag. If you happen to have a bean bag chair try introducing your dog to it and see what happens!
“Sometimes a break from your routine is the very thing you need” Anonymous
I pulled this quote out of one of my mom’s scrapbooks. I thought it paired nicely with this photo I took. I totally understand how easy it is to get preoccupied with your day to day activities…getting the kids off to school, getting to work on time, picking the kids back up from school, shuffling them off to activities, making dinner, cleaning the house and on and on and on and it doesn’t end! I hate to complain because I know how fast these days fly by and one day they will be all grown up and on their own! But, today I went on a walk with my daughter and as we were walking and talking I decided to look up at the sky, I watched the birds flying around and I listened to the sounds around me. I feel like I am always looking down or forward but rarely do I just look up. Try it out! Listen to the birds chirping. Look at the clouds moving swiftly in the sky. Take a deep breath and slowly exhale. If you have a moment this week…take a break from your routine and look up!
We moved into our new home two years ago. Time really flies! My youngest daughter was so excited to decorate her new room. We really worked hard on it and it turned out great! The theme was black, gold, grey and white. Two years later she tells me that she wishes it looked different and then she showed me her ideas. The theme was turquoise, royal and white. Very different than before! I was less than thrilled because I thought her room looked great and it had only been a couple of years! But, I understood that she felt the room wasn’t exactly her and so I obliged. But, we had to do it inexpensively. So, we bought some spray paint and changed up some of her furniture and we painted the walls white and we bought these super fun wall decals! There were so many to choose from but we landed on these turquoise palm trees online and they really are perfect! And the best part is that they are inexpensive and peel off very easily! The next time she wants to redo her room the decals can be changed out for the next new theme and you know what? I don’t think I’ll be as bothered. Sometimes small changes can make a big impact and changing up your room is part of growing up and finding yourself!
I like to recall when I originally discovered how I went from overweight to fit. Knowing, what worked, as well as what didn’t helps me to change and drive my improvement.
Me. Back then.
At my peak, just before losing weight, I was around 175 pounds. Not wildly large by any measure, but my feet hurt daily and joint pains were starting to develop.
Me. More recently.
After losing nearly 50 pounds in a year, my foot and joint pains disappeared. The asthma that I had for the past 20 years was gone as well.
I discovered weight loss by accident because one day I decided to not eat anything that resembled “sweets or snacks” for a year. Out of the blue. For no reason. Not even for weight loss or fitness. It was just to see if I could. For fun. — A little background might help. I had gone for an entire year with water as my only beverage. Just for kicks. But that’s another story. — So Cookies and donuts = nope. Chips and cheese puffs = no. Those were the easy ones. If I had to even think about it (e.g. pretzels), it was out. About a month later I felt my pants fit more loosely. I jumped on a scale to see what was up and it was 169. Periodically I would get on a scale because we had one and I hadn’t seen a sub-170 reading in a while. “Interesting,” I thought. By the second month it was 164. A second similar drop in weight was no coincidence. This hit me like a ton of bricks. Immediately I felt that I had discovered a leprechaun pot of gold. I knew instantly that I was on to something and that if I was careful, I could mine it for all it was worth. Perhaps for the first time in my life I understood what people meant when they said, “if you can believe it in your mind, you can make it happen.” Sayings like this always sounded hopeful, at best.. and glib, at worst. On that day, in my mind, the loss of all excess body fat had already happened. I was merely waiting for time to pass and catch up to this fact. Truly, this was my experience that day. The very next thought was, without hesitation, “fight club.” This, I decided, would be my final form. Actually.
So, the reality is that it took me about 8 months to lose a ton of body fat, and my prescience was accurate to that point. Also the reality: merely losing body fat will not automatically give you the physique of an underground street fighter. That pursuit is another story.
everydaygoodstuff.com 