Happy New Year's Eve

I know everyone is getting ready to welcome 2014 in (or already have in some parts of the world). I hope everyone is doing it in a safe and fun way.

I've been enjoying the day with the kiddies as I await the Hubby's arrival home for work. Looking forward to a lazy New Year's day tomorrow chilling at home with my 5 favorite people. I've also made a final decision on what my 2014 resolution would be.

Will after much thought, I've decided on my New Year's Resolution for 2014. I'm keeping it simple and kind of vague, but it applies to nearly every aspect of my life.

For 2014 I resolve to simply Do More.

Just think about it, every goal I have just requires those two words. If I want to be healthier I need to DO MORE clean eating and exercise and DO MORE when it comes to consistency. If I want better grades I need to DO MORE studying. I want a cleaner more organized house, I just need to DO MORE. I want to save money, I need to DO MORE of what it takes. I want to finish projects...well, you get the hint.

I know to truly be successful I may need to be more specific. However I like the vagueness of this, it eases my mind and release potential guilt. So if I screw up and say don't work out 30  minutes everyday one week. However, maybe I did workout 3 times for at least 45 minutes and that's really probably 45 minutes longer than I did in a week on average in 2013. Well I'm still working my resolution. It's not a fail as long as I did more than before.

Well, I'm off to run to the store and get a few things for tonight. Be merry and safe dear readers.

Twas the Day After Christmas

and all through the house....

Okay so that's all I've got. I'm not much for writing quirky pose, though once and a while I can get a line or two that seem kind of funny.

I'm sitting here contemplating plans and goals for 2014 and praying that I can finance my last semester for my undergrad. It'll work out, I'm just hoping I don't have to push my graduation date back again.

Improving my health and fitness is always a goal for me. I've been working on it on my own and I'm going to try using Beachbody's Supergym more often to log my workouts. They have both a pay version and a free version. I'm currently doing the pay version, but I have previously used the free version and they're both great. If you want to try it go ahead and click HERE  and sign up. List me as your coach and I can encourage you on your journey, my coach name is JackieLee78.  I love the time tracker while your doing workouts. IF you do sign up for the pay version you get discounts should you decide to order Beachbody products. However, neither owning a Beachbody workout video nor signing up for the pay version is necessary to use the Supergym.

Another goal of mine is looking for ways to cut costs and save money. I'm quitting my part-time job in January so that I'll have time for all that's going on during my last semester (Senior internship, project, bioorganic chemistry) and the kiddies. So I need to figure out a budget just using the hubby's income. It's doable, just going to be tight for a while.

Thirdly and finally, I plan on trying to study my bible more during 2014. I've got several devotionals downloaded on my kindle and a couple versions of the bible on there as well. As well as having a couple hard copies. Though I am ashamed to say I rarely open any of them up more then a couple times a month. I'm going to change that and grow my faith this coming year.

The main way to keep resolutions/goals is to keep them SMART. Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, and Timely. So what I just did in writing out what I'm contemplating doesn't quite meet that criteria. So for the next week I'll try and write a post on each goal separately and correctly.

Have a great day dear readers.

Creamy Chicken Potato Soup

Broth - Chicken Homemade 1 cup
1 medium onion -diced
Water, tap, 2 cup
Margarine, soft, 6 tsp
Potato white -5 medium-diced
Chicken Leg, 5 leg, bone and skin removed
Salt, 1/2 tsp
Pepper, black, 1/2 tsp
Milk, 1%, 1 cup
Garlic powder, 1 tsp
Cream of Chicken Soup, 1 can (10.75 oz)
Flour, white, 1/4 cup

melt butter and saute onion in medium to lg pot
add diced potatoes, broth and water.  Bring to boil and cook till potatoes are soft. about 15 minutes
Add flour to milk and stir. Add milk/flour, salt and pepper and can of cream of chicken soup to potatoes.
Stir and heat through...2-5 minutes.

Nutrition Data
 6 Servings
Amount Per Serving
  Calories 341.1
  Total Fat 11.3 g
     Saturated Fat 2.6 g
     Polyunsaturated Fat 3.7 g
     Monounsaturated Fat 3.5 g
  Cholesterol 92.7 mg
  Sodium 690.3 mg
  Potassium 859.8 mg
  Total Carbohydrate 32.3 g
     Dietary Fiber 1.9 g
     Sugars 3.2 g
  Protein 27.8 g
  Vitamin A 8.1 %
  Vitamin C 37.8 %
  Calcium 8.9 %
  Iron 15.9 %

Yay for Friday the 13th

I don't know why everyone gets so superstitious about Friday the 13th. It's usually been pretty good for me, just like every other day of the week. Though it  is about the only date I will go and buy myself a lottery ticket, just hoping for an added bit of luck.

I'm still working out to my Advent exercise calendar. Today is 13 bicycle crunches, love them. I love doing these short exercises this time of year. I've been studying for finals, and so sitting more then I care to do. So these short exercises gets me off my rump and moving. I usually do more then what I wrote to do, I see that as a minimum amount. I believe we should get up and do random exercises at regular intervals. Pop out a few squats or something every 30-45 minutes. Gets blood flowing and keeps your behind from getting sore.

It being cookie season, I think 5 minutes of  medium intense activity for every sweet should help keep those calories burned down a bit. Well, in theory anyway.

Not too much else to post at the moment so I'll leave you with a "lovely" picture of me doing my bodyweight triceps extensions yesterday. 2014 will be the year those flabby arms disappear. I want to wear cute tanks this summer.

Okay before I get back to hitting the books, I'm going to make a quick post on something amazing that became available yesterday. If you haven't already heard, Beachbody has made a new P90x. This one is P90X3, all the intensity and work from P90X in only 30 minute workouts. Perfect for busy people like me who cannot always find time for a 90 minute workout. However, I can almost always squeeze 30 minutes in my day.

Through the rest of December, P90X3 will be discounted. If your a Beachbody club member you get further discounts. Plus there is free shipping right now. Looking for a Christmas gift for the health/fitness nut on your list? Order by December 15th to get P90X3 by Christmas.

Exercise Through Advent ~still in there and correcting an oops

Have made it to day 10 of my exercise through Advent calendar and went to see what today's exercise was and, well, oops.  It seems I either neglected to add days 10, 11, 12, and 20 or somehow those were deleted.

So here is the corrected calendar:

So today's exercise is 10 bear crawls. Here is a video in case you're not sure what a bear crawl is:

I missed posting yesterday, though I did do the exercise I designated for day 3 and this morning I did day 4. Yesterday was easy, this morning was thigh burning, leg shaking fun.

High knees, so easy.

4 minute wall sit and a sorry attempt at a smile. I should of taken the picture before starting.

2 minutes of jumping jacks...not as easy as I  had thought. After a minute and a half I needed to catch my breathe.

Here is my photographic proof, it's blurry because my phone doesn't do action shots.

Day 3 is 3 minutes of high knees, WOOT.

I finished day one of my fitness Advent calendar. It was easy peasy like I knew it would be. I'm going to try and take a quick picture of me doing each activity as photographic proof. I don't want it to seem as I'm all talk on here. So here is my poorly done picture of me doing a plank

It may of been better, but I had to keep redoing my plank as one of my doggies kept thinking I was on the floor for kisses. So it took me a minute to reach over and hit the button on my laptop to take the darn thing.

Tomorrow is jumping jacks for two minutes. Starting off nice and easy.

December Goals and an Advent Workout

Hello Dear Readers!
I hope everyone of you had an amazing Thanksgiving weekend and made good decisions and made time to be active. I tried my best, the active part was pretty slim due to cold temps and me being a chicken when the thermometer reads below 30 degrees Fahrenheit. Brrr. However I did OK on everything, proof being the scale actually read less today than it did on Wednesday. If I had splurged too much it would of been higher due to water weight gain. I did have soda, and that was probably the worse I did.

December goals:
My main goal for December is to have fun and not stress too much. If I lived in the Southern hemisphere December would be my most favorite month. I love Christmas and everything it stands for. 
So for December lets not worry too much about the food we eat as long as we keep 80/20 in our mind. Eat great 80% of the time so that 20% of the time we can enjoy those Holiday sweets and treats.  No guilt is allowed this month. We will keep active enough to keep those bad, negative thoughts at bay.

For some fitness fun I'm thinking up a fitness Advent calendar. There will be a different exercise each day. So here is the list: