This Christmas, I only asked for one thing…that was the iPad2 and I am so thankful! Thank you, husband!! Anyway, I positively LOVE it and I’ve only had it like 3 days…so, this post will be a series of posts as I learn to use it more.

Number 1, iBooks. I can download as many sample books as I want. So, if you’re a nerd like me, then you know I’ve already downloaded 10 books–all related to my previous books for 2012 post and am working my way through the list. Very cool. The full price of the books seems to be a few dollars less than a paperback depending on what you want to read.  You can also download books via Amazon using a free Kindle app for iPads.

Number 2, You can manage your fitness progress by downloading a health and fitness app.  I like “TotalWOD CrossFit” and “One Rep Max Calculator”.

Number 3,  Emails are all in one place!  This is the best thing ever for me as with just one click I have all my email accounts open.

There are so many other cool aspects of this gadget I have yet to learn about!  Please share your favorite thing you use your iPad for??

FTC-the book was free and the opinion in mine.

Hot, Sweaty Mamas Five Secrets to Life As a Fit Mom has been a very enjoyable read! Every quote, I am nodding my head, each chapter offers something for both the rookie athlete to the seasoned veteran. Read, qive away and buy one for your non-athletic friend!

Lou Schuler writes the book and Alwyn Cosgrove designs the workouts…also authors of The New Rules of Lifting and the New Rules of Lifting for Women. Before this weekend, I had never read any of these books but, now, I may check the other ones out. I found Lou Schuler’s style of writing to be engaging, interesting, informative but not boring. A lot of fitness books, I am snoring by chapter 2! This one kept me reading all the way to the end and I’m still re-reading it as I write this.

Apparently, there are LOTS of rules of lifting for abs! Before reading this book I believed, that if you want your abs to show, you need to change your diet, FIRST {I still do think this is true}. These guys can give you all kinds of inventive ways to make you have strong abs and core, but, if you don’t change your eating, those abs aren’t going to show. This was my favorite rule #15: “Processed food makes you stupid and depressed.” These guys seem to take a moderate approach to a healthy diet. They don’t advocate the Zone diet or the Atkins diet or any other particular diet, they just say you need to keep your food clean without a lot of processed stuff, eliminate all calorie containing beverages and avoid fast food. As for the workouts and plans- Weights are two days, Metabolic work are two days, and there are two days of light exercise with one day off. Fairly reasonable in my humble opinion!

Readers, I am recommending this book for everyone to read and check out. It gives lots of exercises (new ones) that are inventive and strength building. It seems to be solid in it’s research but doesn’t repeat everything you’ve heard in many other weight training books.

P.S. This book was provided to me for purposes of review and the above opinion is my own.

Eat carrots for your night vision?
Eat salad to grow strong muscles?
Eat fruits for improved hearing?!

These things were helpful in motivating my kids to eat more fruits and veggies. My youngest, who, normally won’t touch spinach, “said, I won’t taste the salad in the smoothie?” Nope, son, you won’t. “Ok” It’s because of Mitch Spinach, that he will now drink green smoothies! And, yes, I’m still expected to make the smoothie in the back of the book—however, Mitch’s smoothie would require a super blender as well!!

The Secret Life of Mitch Spinach can be purchased on Amazon for $16.85. How do you motivate your kids to eat spinach, broccoli or kale?

Body by Design is based on real life stories of people who have changed their lives using this 12 week fitness formula. Personally, I did not really find any new information in here. It offers the standard weight training {dumbbell flyes, bench press, incline flyes, dips of 3 sets of 10-15} and low-fat diet nutrition plan {NO FAT at all offered in the diet.} It suggests you do light to moderate intensity cardio every single day….

If you are a person who can be motivated about reading others successes, then, check it out! It’s a 12 week program that could get a novice started on a weight training/nutrition program, however, knowing what I know from Crossfit/Zone and Paleo diets, this is not a program I would follow. We eat a lot of fat around here in the name of avocados, almonds, and coconut oil and I wouldn’t give that up. Also, the fact that 80% of my workouts are completed in 30 minutes or less and they are a combination of strength training and cardio so there’s no need to do extra cardio. Finally, I love that I am always challenged to learn new things, practice old things and it is never boring. 30 minutes on a machine everyday would have me hitting the snooze button way more often!

P.S. Body by Design was provided to me for purposes of review and this is my honest opinion.

Everyday Paleo



Body by Design


The 4 -Hour Body


You are your own gym

What’s on YOUR reading list?!

I have been an educator for more than 10 years, yikes! In all my years of teaching physical education, there have been few books that I’ve wanted to run out and read to all my classes! Jump Rope Magic, Wilma, Jesse Owens, The Sneetches, and Anna Banana are all books I’ve turned to year after year. Books help liven things up- particularly when teaching skills that are challenging (jump rope, sprinting and social skills).

And, today, as luck would have it, Wallie Exercises arrived at my door! From the word go, my kids were hooked. They loved every picture, they could relate to the lazy dog, the loved the Big Elephant and just generally loved the book.

Immediately finishing the book, they each jumped up to show their stuff to Mommy and Daddy. “Look at my triangle pose”, “No, Daddy, do it this way”, even better is that they took the yoga poses that they knew and turned them into their own yoga by design. (theme of the book)

Wallie Exercises comes with a little section at the end that you can do with your kids (or students if you happen to be a physical education teacher like me)! Teaching the squat tomorrow- with the help of the lazy dog!

I highly recommend that any of you with children go check it out! One hitch: it’s not released yet, however, you can pre-order it on Amazon now.

What do you do with your family for exercise?

P.S. This book was provided to me for purposes of review and the opinions expresses here are my own.

Written by Mark Lauren and Joshua Clark, You Are Your Own Gym, offers fantastic ways to get in shape for FREE using only your body weight to do it. As I read this book, I was nodding my head the whole time, agreeing with everything he says -from cardio is a waste of time to the body weight exercises. I got a few giggles at some of the names of exercises like “pillow humpers”, “little piggies” or “sissy squats”.   Some of the exercises you’ll recognize from yoga like Half Moon Pose (Arhda Chandrasana) is now called One-Legged Romanian Dead Lifts or Downward Facing Dog pose is now called Military Press (from down dog put your head on the floor).   Movements I know from Cross Fit are here as well such as Burpees, Mountain Climbers, Pistols, One Legged Squats, Squats, and Overhead Squats. All of those aside from the Overhead Squats can be done with no weight and can completely get your heart rate up!

The nutrition information is basic. The more muscle you have on your body, the more you can eat. Keep your food in the paleo zone (although he doesn’t use that word) { nuts, seeds, lean proteins, fruits, veggies, eggs and fish}.   Eat 3-5 meals per day and keep the meals small- you aren’t going to starve.

What do I think?

I think this program closely resembles Cross Fit. Each workout can be done in Ladders, Supersets, Stappers (Rounds), Tabatas, and Intervel Sets. He’s got set standards for each program and it’s reasonable to work your way up to Chief Class. There is some ridiculousness in some of the exercises that I just wouldn’t do like “Bam Bams” lying over a table opening and closing your legs or working on fingertip pull-ups on a door frame, but on the whole this is a good program. Those people who say there is no cardio component have never done 50 Buprees in 4 minutes!  It’s worth a read and if you are one of those highly motivated people who don’t require a trainer of any sort watching you, this is the book for you.  For the rest of us,  you might just add a few exercises to your fitness library of what you can do at home!

P.S. I received this book for purposes of review and nobody is paying me to to right my opinion!