Working out in Style: Ryka Revive running shoes

Not long ago, Amy Hatch of Chambanamoms.com contacted me to ask whether I would be willing to do a few reviews for a sponsor, PlanetShoes.com. The deal was this: they would choose the shoes and I would put them through their paces and write about it. Here’s the latest review in the series, for moms who run or just run around town.

A few weeks ago, my Rika Revive running shoes came in the mail from Planet Shoes. They were hot pink, so naturally I had to try them on right away. Sure, I was only planning to work in the garden with my daughter, not run a marathon. But, hey! New shoes beg to be worn, right?

As we transplanted the first seedling, my daughter asked to water. Before I knew it, she poured an entire bucket of water on my left foot instead of our tomato plants. I looked down and thought what an idiot I was for wearing brand new shoes into my garden! Without much hope, I laid the shoes on my front porch to dry and went in to have supper with my family.

By breakfast the next morning, I was dressed and ready to head out to the YMCA for my workout. My husband had brought the Rykas indoors. I eyed them disappointedly, knowing I couldn’t wear them. But as I reached for the shoes, I realized that they were both completely dry. I couldn’t even tell which shoe had gotten soaked. I wore them to my workout after all.

It was then that I first experienced the wonder of a mesh workout shoe. If the Ryka could take a 2-gallon bucket of water without batting an eye, my lil-ole-workout would be no problem. And you know what? It wasn’t.

Even a light workout in the summer can make me feel hot and uncomfortable, but having cool, dry feet made a huge difference. My feet felt great after working out. I loved the combination of outer sole support (rather than a lot of structure in the arch) and roominess, so my foot has enough space to move comfortably when I run.

Better yet, the Ryka Revive runners are good looking shoes, so I wear them to ball games, shopping, or around the house. They are a great medium activity shoe with a reasonable price – just under $50 -- and that’s why I would recommend them for most Moms. So whether you use them to work up a sweat or just for running around town, the Ryka Revive is worth a try.

Disclosure: I received the Clark’s Wave walking shoe for free from chambanamoms.com sponsor PlanetShoes.com, as part of a special promotion

2009 -- Resolutions Report Card

Oh my. I know I have that resolutions list from last January hidden around here somewhere...

Ah. Here it is.

Now it's time to see how I did... (oh, boy.)

Resolution #1: Listen to my children more – I try to appreciate how wonderful my children are, but I always feel like I could be doing more to really listen to them and know the marvelous individuals they are becoming. This is an ongoing resolution, but one that I’m looking forward to.

Grade: B
There's always room for improvement on this one, but I think I remembered this resolution at least monthly. Having listening as a goal helped me to be more open and accepting. More joy seeped in when I wasn't paying attention. (A nice side-benefit.)


Resolution #2: Make some Dough -- By the end of the year, I would really like to be able to bake bread consistently and well (with no bread machine.) I know it’s something that takes practice – I just haven’t been willing to endure the failure it will take to finally get it right. This is the year I will do it.

Grade: D+
I didn't make bread more than twice this year... and my in-laws got me a garage sale bread machine to use. Needless to say, I have taken the 'busy housewife' route of using frozen bread dough or take-n-bake bread. So, Julia Child I am not. I accept it and wipe this resolution from my list with a clear conscience.


Resolution #3: Get Moving – Everyone always starts their resolutions with diet and exercise. I am afraid I have been falling down on the job, or more accurately sitting down at the computer screen. The problem is, I really truly enjoy getting daily exercise. It makes me feel better about myself in too many ways to count. I just haven’t been real good at fitting it into my routine. I have to find a way to change that reality.

Grade: B+
This year, I made a point of staying active during the winter, and all summer long we swam at the pool. (Obviously, I felt good enough about my figure to spend that amount of time in a bathing suit, so that in itself is a mark of success -- or loss of shame?) Still, I asked for my gym membership back as a Christmas present, and Santa lovingly obliged. So, we'll kick it up a notch.


Resolution #4: Go West – We have a family goal of getting out West this year. We love camping and the mountains, but we haven’t taken our children very far west of the “Mighty Mississip”. This is the year we will change that.

Grade:C+ [Due to assignment change -- extension given until 2011]
We traveled so much this year, including a 20-day grand tour of the Eastern-Seaboard in late summer and another 10-day trip at Thanksgiving. Needless to say, we get an "A for effort", even if our year was more Amber Waves of Grain than Purple Mountain Majesty. (Plus, there's always next year.)


Resolution #5: Work on my Sisterhood – On Midwest Moms, I have talked about the amazing support network I feel whenever I turn to other Moms for help or advice. “The Sisterhood of Moms” has been such a blessing to me. But one thing I have to work on is regularly including my own sisters in my friend network. We live in different parts of the country, and it can be difficult to keep in touch. This year I don’t want distance to be an excuse.

Grade: A+
I'm happy about renewing my friendship with both of my sisters, including *actually* seeing them and visiting their homes with my family. It may not seem like a big deal to some, but sharing the same space with my sisters for a while sure was an important part of my year.

Overall: B- (On the Michigan scale -- not too shabby.)


And now I can start to think about 2010. (oh, boy.)

- Midwest Mom

Tag! You're It! Kids Games to Keep you Fit and More

One of my favorite ways to stay active is to play games with my children. I have three between the ages of 3 and 7, and they are running around constantly. The more they run, the more they seem to want company -- "Mommy, Daddy, come play with me!"

It's music to my ears, really.

For today's Fit Mommy Friday tip, I give you another no-brainer. Try to channel your inner kindergartner and play outdoor games with your children. Here are a few to try.

Tag and Freeze Tag: One of the best ways to get running with your kids is to chase them or be chased. In the game of tag, one player is "it". He chases the other players trying to touch them. As soon as he catches one, the caught person becomes "it." In freeze tag, the tagger touches people to freeze them. Tagged players must stand perfectly still. They can only be unfrozen by another player crawling through their legs or running in a circle around them. The goal is to "freeze" all the players but one. Whoever is the last person left unfrozen becomes "it."

Blast Off: This is a great game to play with a playground ball and lots of room to run. The person with the ball gets ready to throw it while the other players stand in a circle around her. Everybody counts: 5-4-3-2-1, Blast off! She throws the ball as high as she can straight up into the air and calls out a name of one of the players. Everyone but the person whose name was called runs as far away as they can get. The child whose name was called tries to catch the ball. If they do: they automatically win. If not, they get it and call out, "1-2-3 STOP!" Everybody freezes. The person with the ball then has five giant steps toward the closest person. If they can throw the ball and hit that person, they get to be in the middle and the ball gets thrown up in the air again. If they can't, they are out. The last person remaining wins.

Monkey Races: We play this game at the playground. Essentially, it is an obstacle course race on the playground equipment. We call it monkey races because it always starts with a side-by-side race on the monkey bars. What a workout for Mommy! (I don't mind telling you that I usually lose to my 7 year old.) Set up the course, ready, set, go! There's nothing like winning to make any game irresistible.

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And now, for a different sort of Tag -- one that doesn't work up quite as much of a sweat!

My bloggy friend Melissa at Green Girl in Wisconsin tagged me the other day to participate in a meme called "Love Me, Love Me Not". I have to list 5 things I love about myself and 5 things that aren't so lovable about me. (Trust me, my husband had a ball "helping" me figure out what to write! Who knew he loved it when I let my hair dry naturally? Who also knew that he notices how grumpy I am before my a.m. coffee infusion?) Then, I have to "tag" 5 bloggers to play the game next.

Because I like to end on a positive note, I'll start with the 5 things I don't love about myself.

1. I am a worrier. I worry about my children and my parents, about their health and their futures. I worry about the country because I want us to finally have our priorities right. (Lately, I worry about that a lot less.) I worry that I'm not doing enough for everyone else. I worry that I will fail. Worrying is something I try to turn into positive action, to use it rather than succumbing to it. But in my heart, I know I will never be entirely free of it.

2. On a lighter note, I am far too ticklish -- physically ticklish. It is a terrible weakness because it means that my children (or my husband) can completely immobilize me at a moments notice. It has all but dashed my dreams of ever becoming a ninja. Ninjas can't be ticklish. But I totally am -- virtually everywhere.

3. I am risk averse. There is always this voice in my head that is telling me all the ways something could hurt before I do it. I often wish I could just turn that voice off instead of always having to overcome it or act in spite of it. My risk-averse nature comes out in my parenting; I know my children will tease me later in life for the number of times the words "be careful" came out of my mouth.

4. In the mornings especially, I am hopelessly grouchy. And when I say grouchy, I mean terse and crabby. My three-year old daughter calls my hairspray "grouch spray". (That disarms me right away, for sure!) Fortunately, my grouchiness is easily overcome by the caring look on her face when she asks if I'm feeling grumpy today -- and coffee... plenty of coffee.

5. I cannot eat anything I want. Trust me. I so totally wish I could, but I have always had to watch my weight and curb my appetites. Life has had a way of throwing that little foible in my face by making me fall in love with the one man who could eat pancakes and bacon for every breakfast, fries at every lunch, and cheesecake for dessert every day and never gain an ounce. He is metabolic perfection. I, sadly, am not.

Okay. Now, for the fun part! What I truly love about myself.

1. My teeth. I have always had straight teeth -- I get them from my mother. I've never had to wear braces, and was cavity-free until I was about 17 years old. Even then, I only had a pit in one tooth. My older sister had to go through a variety of face-altering devices so that she could look more like a human and less like a shark. Growing up, I tried not to gloat over my perfectly straight teeth. But as she moaned in the night from the pain of the medieval torture devices she was forced to wear by sadists we call "orthodontists", I secretly thanked the Lord Above for giving me a mouthful of dental perfection.

2. I have an abiding, honest-to-goodness L. O. V. E. of sports. I love to play them. I love to watch them. I love to talk about them. A side-benefit of loving sports is that my husband's friends have openly labeled me as being pretty darn close to the Ideal Mate. When we were dating, we went to a party for the Michigan-Ohio State game. After a great play, I noted that the guys on SportsCenter had been talking about the player involved. Hubby's friends looked at each other as though their world had been fundamentally altered. "You watch SportsCenter?!??!" they exclaimed with incredulity. Then, to Hubby, "She's a keeper." If my love of sports put me in the "keeper" category and makes me happy, anyway, it should definitely be on this list.

3. I love my sense of humor and my willingness to poke fun at myself at least as often as I poke fun at other people. Laughing is good therapy -- so is laughing at yourself. I would not change my sense of humor. It's one of the essential parts of me.

4. I love that I have a green thumb. There is something profound and powerful about being able to help the earth bear fruit. It is a gift I am grateful for because it nourishes me as much as I nourish it.

5. Finally, I love having an open heart. There are few people on this planet that I have no use for or that I believe are beyond hope. It is a wonderful feeling not to judge my fellow human beings, but to simply appreciate them and care for them. I have often said to friends and family members who have been hurt that, for me, one of the surest ways to know God is through the act of loving again. I have always tried to let love guide my decision-making. It hasn't steered me wrong yet.

And now, (drumroll please) for the five fantastic bloggers I hope will carry forward this fun game of Tag...

1. Laurie Rodak at The Playground Observer
2. Susana at Firefly Shop - My Thoughts
3. Suzen at Erasing the Bored
4. Julie at Octamom
and
5. Abby at My Sweet Babboo


Have a great weekend, everyone!

- Midwest Mom

Fit Mommy Friday: Find time for a Walk

Walking is some of the easiest, cheapest exercise a Mommy can do. Walking whenever you can is a great way to get fit and stay fit. It is fun exercise that is easy to tailor to your schedule.

To get yourself walking:

Find businesses within walking distance for some of your regular chores. Visits to the bank, small grocery trips, or shopping at the card shop or drug store can be done by foot. Try making your next visit to the doctor's office, post office, or church and opportunity for a stroll.

Modify your children's activity schedule to accommodate walking. We walk to dance class in good weather. We also walk the kids to soccer practice when we can.

Walk to school with your child. Later in the day, walk to school and pick them up.

Take an evening walk with your spouse and children, or by yourself. We visit a local playground together or go to the baseball field to play or watch evening games.

In bad weather, join the mall patrol. I did this when my daughter was small enough for the baby carrier. All the grandmas and grandpas would ooh and aah over her. They loved seeing her grow. Now that she's bigger, she will come with me and we walk together!

On regular errands, park far from the building and double your walking distance.

Walk to work. If you must drive, try parking a few blocks from your building. Walking a few blocks each day will add up over time.

When you have an appointment on a different floor (we do this at the doctor's), take the stairs.

When you go to the mall, park at the door farthest from the store where you're planning to shop. Walk to and from your car either inside (in bad weather) or outside the building. Most malls have a nice sidewalk that runs all the way around the building.

Plan to arrive 10 minutes early to appointments, especially if they are in a neighborhood that's good to walk in. Use that ten minutes for a stroll in the sunshine.

Walk to the playground. When you arrive, walk a lap around the perimeter of the park before playing. When it's time to leave, do it again before you go.

If your spouse is home to watch the children or if they're old enough to be home by themselves,wake up early for a morning walk with other moms on your street. We have a 'dawn patrol' that goes out for 20-25 minutes every weekday.

Think about the fact that there was actually a time before cars when people walked everywhere. Walking is great for the environment and your health. It's an easy green choice to make.

You can start small, but start today. It's easy to find time for a walk!

- Midwest Mom

Fit Mommy Friday: Perspective

Having perspective means that you know when to focus on good health and when to just sit back and have a little fun. If you build good habits and follow them on a regular basis, there is no reason that you need to deprive yourself of the good things in life.

You know where this is going...

Happy Valentines Day.

Go eat some chocolate. (It's an anti-oxidant!) Fit Mommy Friday will be back next week.

- Midwest Mom

Fit Mommy Friday: Posture Check

You cradle your newborn baby.

You haul groceries and a loaded diaper bag to the car.

You pick up your four-year-old when she falls down, kissing her boo-boo as you carry her into the house.

You bend forward to load the dryer or to wash dishes.

You spend time every day typing at your computer (okay, maybe that's just me.)

Now that you're a Mommy, have you noticed that your posture has changed?

Because so many of our Mommy-jobs involve stooping, reaching forward, and holding children and things in front of us, stooped shoulders are a hallmark of motherhood.

Don't believe me? Look at the Moms in front of you next time you are in line somewhere, next time you're in church or at a movie or a sporting event. You'll see what I mean.

Poor posture can lead to achiness and injury, but it is relatively easy to correct. Here's how to begin.

First, Check your posture:

Stand with your back and the back of your head against a wall. Does it take effort to press your shoulders to the wall? Or are they naturally touching the wall, too?

Now, lift your arms beside you, even with your shoulders, palms facing outward. Does that make a difference in the way your back feels?

Next, Straighten up:

Next time you're in line waiting for something, pay attention to your posture. Stand straight, as though there were an imaginary string at the top of your head pulling upward. Or, imagine that there is a book balancing on your head.

Roll your shoulders forward, upward, and then back. Let them rest in the "back" position and let your arms rest comfortably down. You should feel like a coat on a coat-hanger.

When sitting, try to sit toward the front of your chair with your back straight. It will help you to engage the muscles in your abdomen and upper back. If you cross your legs, cross them at the ankles instead of the knees.

Now, Lengthen and Strengthen:

Stretch your back daily by reaching upward and stretching all the way forward. Return to the top stretch and reach one hand up and over your head. Repeat on the other side.

Focus on the muscles around your upper back and shoulders. Shoulder Presses, Rows and Upright Rows will all help you hold your shoulders back instead of slumped forward.

Finally, exercise your core (abdominals and lower back) with simple daily exercises like push-ups and planks. Keeping your core muscles engaged as you go about your daily life will make good posture second-nature.


Have a great weekend, everyone!

- Midwest Mom

Fit Mommy Friday Pint-Size Personal Trainers

Well, it's Fit Mommy Friday again, so I'm handing out another fun tip for Moms who want to be more active and raise a healthy family at the same time.

Today's tip: Get a Pint-Size Personal Trainer

Most moms I know take a look at their kids and wonder, where do they get all that energy? Well, what if we could channel that kid-energy and get a little workout at the same time? Well, you can when you play The Fitness Game.

Here's how you play:

1. All the players stand in a circle. In our case, there were four of us: myself and my three children.



2. Take turns being the Trainer. The trainer leads the rest of the group in any type of exercise he or she chooses for a pre-determined amount of time. Our turns were five minutes long. We played long enough for each of us to have one turn (20 minutes total) or two turns (40 minutes total) depending on how much time we had in the schedule.



3. The trainer is completely in charge, but he has to make sure that the exercise he teaches is fun for everyone. If he wants us to do something we've never done before, he has to teach the skill. (It was so fun seeing my oldest teach my three-year-old to do jumping jacks). The timer doesn't run during teaching -- only when we're exercising.

This week, my Pint-Size Personal Trainers came up with some very inventive stuff when it was their turn to be the leaders. Oddly enough, each session offered a nice balance of cardio and strength training. They even included stretches when they needed a breather toward the end of their turns.

Sit-up peek-a-boo: Players pair up. Each 2 players lay on their backs with their feet touching and their heads in opposite directions. As they do crunches, they say peek-a-boo to their partner and count to three before they lay back down. We did sets of twenty.

Jumping ABCs: My daughter wanted to jump and sing the ABCs, so we each took turns leading the song. Four ABCs worth of jumping is a lot of jumping, let me tell you!

Frog jumps: One of my sons had the idea to do frog jumps. We started in a squatting position with hands on the floor, stood up and jumped as high as we could with our hands in the air. As soon as we landed, back down to the floor went our hands and we were ready to jump again! We did thirty.

Foot fire: My oldest loved the "foot-fire" drills in his soccer camp, where the team ran in place as fast as they possibly could. He chose that drill for all of us when it was his turn to be the trainer. We all ran fast while he counted to fifty -- mighty slow.


It was fun to see what new ideas my Pint-Size Personal Trainers would come up with each time we played The Fitness Game this week. I don't think we did the same exercise twice! Have fun giving it a try with your crew, and here's to more healthy, active families!

- Midwest Mom

Fit Mommy Friday

One of my New Years goals was to be more active. More specifically, to find ways to work exercise and activity into my routine on a daily basis.

So, to help me along that path, I thought I would start Fit Mommy Fridays, where once a week I give a fitness tip or let you know about an activity we use at our house.

(Of course, that means I have to come up with something different every week... get the picture?)

I crave variety when I exercise, but I also don't have a lot of time. So, this week I figured out a way to turn a household chore into a mini-workout. In my view, if it gets my heart rate up for 15 minutes or more, it's a good thing.

We'll call it The Laundry Basket Workout.

Some people do laundry every day. Me, I wait until the hamper we have in every bedroom is overflowing full. That means once or twice a week, it's laundry day.

We also have a two-story house with a full basement. Where do you think our laundry is? The Basement, of course.

So, the workout is this.

1. Distribute the clothes evenly among several laundry baskets or hampers, making sure none of them are too full to carry. Make sure you have sneakers on and that the steps are totally clear -- no toys or books or shoes!
2. Carry each hamper all the way to the basement (down 2 flights of stairs) and run all the way back to the top floor -- full speed. Without pausing, get the next hamper and repeat until everything is downstairs. (Make sure not to go so fast that you loose your balance. Safety first.)
3. Once all the clothes are in the basement, walk slowly up the stairs again with walking lunges. (Step forward on one leg, lift the other behind you, squeezing your glutes. Then step with the rear leg to the next step.) If you want the lunges to do more work, try holding a 3-5 lb. weight in each hand.
4. Keep the laundry baskets in the basement until everything is clean and/or folded. Repeat the process up the stairs, starting with bringing each basket carefully up the steps and jogging down again and finishing with a set of walking lunges.

Altogether, it took me about 15 minutes before and 15 minutes after the laundry was clean to complete the exercise. It felt good and it was completely free of charge (no gym membership required.) Too bad laundry day only comes a couple of times a week.

(OMG, did I just say that?)

- Midwest Mom

Here comes 2009! Resolutions checklist

As we welcome 2009, I have a few goals for the new year.

Listen to my children more – I try to appreciate how wonderful my children are, but I always feel like I could be doing more to really listen to them and know the marvelous individuals they are becoming. This is an ongoing resolution, but one that I’m looking forward to.

Make some Dough -- By the end of the year, I would really like to be able to bake bread consistently and well (with no bread machine.) I know it’s something that takes practice – I just haven’t been willing to endure the failure it will take to finally get it right. This is the year I will do it.

Get Moving – Everyone always starts their resolutions with diet and exercise. I am afraid I have been falling down on the job, or more accurately sitting down at the computer screen. The problem is, I really truly enjoy getting daily exercise. It makes me feel better about myself in too many ways to count. I just haven’t been real good at fitting it into my routine. I have to find a way to change that reality.

Go West – We have a family goal of getting out West this year. We love camping and the mountains, but we haven’t taken our children very far west of the “Mighty Mississip”. This is the year we will change that.

Work on my Sisterhood – On Midwest Moms, I have talked about the amazing support network I feel whenever I turn to other Moms for help or advice. “The Sisterhood of Moms” has been such a blessing to me. But one thing I have to work on is regularly including my own sisters in my friend network. We live in different parts of the country, and it can be difficult to keep in touch. This year I don’t want distance to be an excuse.

That’s it for this year. I hope by next December, I will be able to say that I listened to my beautiful children while baking perfect rolls for Christmas after taking a three-mile walk in Utah with my sisters. (You never know… It could happen.)

I hope you and yours have a very Happy New Year!

- Midwest Mom

Realities and Realizations from 2008

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas filled with times to remember. Ours was far richer than I could have imagined. We had our moments, of course, and a few meltdowns along the way... but that is a post for another day.
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This year held some fairly important epiphanies for yours truly. It was the year I started blogging, for one, and I found that I really do love it.

But I made some other important discoveries along the way. I thought now would be the time to share.

I realized some quirky things about my family:

• Logic does not apply to three-year-old-girls. My daughter will not eat the outer crust of a slice of bread, under any circumstances. She will, however, eat the entire heel of the bread (which, of course, is all crust.) She now says it's her favorite part.
• My five year old changes his socks (three times a day) more often than he brushes his teeth (twice a day.) Apparently avoiding funky breath is less important than avoiding funky feet.
• My oldest son is incapable of letting someone else win – at anything – even rock/scissors/paper or eenie meenie miney moe. He is, however, generous to a fault. Yesterday, he saved his brother five french fries from Wendy's by stuffing them into his jacket pocket and producing them when we got home. (They were, in fact, gratefully consumed by the brother in question.)
• My husband will help someone else finish a home improvement project from start to finish but sometimes gets stuck in ‘start’ mode when it’s a project in our own home. When he does get a job done here on the homestead, it is better than anything I could have imagined.

And now for me… realizations from the year 2008 are as follows:

• When my house is dirty, I cannot function properly. Once it’s clean, my happy times are happier and my rest is more restful.
• I have far more patience with my own children than other people’s children. So, my suspicions about whether I would be unhappy as a schoolteacher have been confirmed. I absolutely would.
• Change is tough for me, especially in parenting. When my children grow into some new behavior, I am slow to adapt. It takes about two weeks of friction before I even figure out what is going on.
• I am so tired of making pie for special occasions. I’m ready for a new challenge. (Is 2009 the year of soufflé? Sounds good to me!)
• Reading is more relaxing than watching television in the evening. I’m actually happier without TV.
• I am relieved that the presidential election is over and am happy with the result, but I am now officially burnt out on politics.
• Becoming just like my mother isn’t as bad of a thing as I once thought it was. She’s really quite talented and smart, you know.
• I want to be fit, but you’re more likely to find me typing at this computer screen than in an aerobics class.
• Finally, I’ve realized that 2008 has been great, but 2009 has the potential to be even greater. I can’t wait to see what’s around the bend.

- Midwest Mom