Make Friday Count

Friday is one of those days we associate with fun – it’s Fri-yay, lets have that drink, eat that chocolate, in fact in our house we’ve renamed it to Treat Friday. We pop to the local news agent on the way home from school, have a chat with the ‘lovely lady’ who works there on a Friday afternoon (we really should ask her name) and leave with a chocolaty treat to have with a cuppa when we get home.

Anyway, rambling as usual. The point here is to remember to make Friday count when you’re training. Earn that glass of wine, lady.

Friday morning is the weekly ‘shed’ session with five lovely ladies and Craig. Today he decided to give it to us full barrels, and we did a Pack of Cards workout. Not heard of that? (probably a good thing). Let me tell you more…

First:

Firstly, get a pack of actual playing cards (hence the name). Assign a set of exercises to each suite, and choose an exercise to assign to it. So, for example:

• Diamonds = (Jump) Squats, Jumping Jacks, Lunges
• Hearts = Shoulder Press, Bicep Curls (with a weight), Tricep Dips
• Spades = Chest Press, Push Ups, Mountain Climbers, Burpees
• Clubs = Core (sit ups, alternate leg raises, crunches)

(You might want to write it down if your brain is as useless as mine)

Next:

Assign a number to each card – this will be your number of reps.

• 2 = 2 reps
• 3 = 3 reps
• 4 = 4 reps
• 5 = 5 reps
• 6 = 6 reps
• 7 = 7 reps
• 8 = 8 reps
• 9 = 9 reps
• 10 = 10 reps
• Jack = 11 reps
• Queen = 12 reps
• King = 13 reps
• Ace = 14 reps (yes it hurts!)
• Joker = 10 0f everything

Then shuffle up your cards and off you go! I’ll put them on an downloadable exercise card a bit later too.

Happy Friday lovely people.

Tahlia x

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Apple & Berries Oat Breakfast Smoothie

Here’s another throw back to keep us all motivated this week 👍🏻

How’s the ‘shaking it off’ going for you? Here at Mums In Real Life, we’re feeling mighty fine!

These yummy Oat and fruit breakfast smoothies have really given us a spring in our step this week.

Did You Know….?

That Oats are stacked full of vitamins, Fibre and antioxidants and are among the healthiest grains on earth.

Check out this link for all of the benefits:

https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/9-benefits-oats-oatmeal

The breakfast smoothie for Day 5 is just delicious! Give it a go, it’s super easy…

Ingredients:

150ml Soya Milk

100ml Skimmed Milk

20g Oats

4 Strawberries

1 Apple (skin on, cored)

Handful of Blueberries

Method:

Pop everything (save a couple of blueberries to use as a dressing) into your blender and blitz. Pour and enjoy!

The Mighty Mango & Perfect Pear Smoothie

Here at Mums In Real Life, our healthy living reset is going well. How can we tell? Between the two of us, we have sore legs, sore arms and the ab zone is killing!

Check out our exercise cards, which have been generously created by our friend PT Craig at Keeling Fitness:

https://keelingfitness.com/

If you’ve been following us and joining (thank you!) in, you’ll know that we’ve started each morning with a breakfast smoothie! How simple and delicious – my youngest counted to 63 and my breakfast was prepped and blitzed!

The smoothie for Day 4 is Mango and Pear. In case you didn’t already know, Mangoes are a great source of Vitamin A & B. They’re also high in fibre, a good source of antioxidants and are low in calories.

Check out more info here:

https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/howto/guide/health-benefits-mango

For this smoothie, we’ve married our Mango with Pears – a marriage made in heaven!

Pears have stacks of nutritional value and are a proven recipe aid to weight loss.

Check out more info here:

https://www.organicfacts.net/health-benefits/fruit/pears.html

So, let’s get this party started!

Ingredients:

1/2 Mango – peeled and cut into chunks

1 Pear – cut into chunks

10g Porridge Oats

100ml Soya Milk

150ml Skimmed Milk

2 Ice Cubes

Method:

Pop all of the ingredients into your blender and blitz!

Thank You!

Here at Mums In Real Life, we are so inspired by others. Thank You for all of your support so far 👍🏻

Exercise cards are coming soon!

So, I’ve been busy working with our mate Craig at Keeling Fitness to bring you some beginners workout cards, to help you get started with circuits, and help with technique (and to make sure you’re using the right muscles!).

I’ve been a bit hampered by the sick bug from school this week, but wanted to share with you the pics we’ve been taking of the workouts ready to create the cards for you. I’m excited!

Carly and I are talking about a six week challenge to kickstart our summer bodies and to reset some of the naughty habits that have set in over the Winter (goodbye 4 o’clock Mars Bars, it’s been fun.)

Keep watching for more news, and I’ll post the cards as soon as they’re ready!

Hope your Wednesday has been a good one lovely people.

Tahlia x

Monday Motivation! Here’s your beginners circuits card…

Happy Monday lovely people. The sun is shining, time to get your gear on and work out! (Actually, it’s Monday, I needed a caffeine injection to get my butt out of bed, and I have a cold.) Luckily my gorgeous running buddy is feeling more motivated and is dragging me out to get the miles in tonight (its’ 13 days until the M word). So, for the sake of putting my money where my mouth is, I’m going out in the garden to have a quick circuit.

As promised, our mate Craig from Keeling Fitness has put together a simple beginners circuit for you lovely people, so now’s the time to get the lycra out and the trainers on…

This is a beginners circuit and is designed to ease you in to circuit training/bootcamp type activities. You can do it at home, ideally with a mat and a small weight but similarly a towel and a can of beans will do for starters! Try doing 4/5 repetitions, work through the list three/four times to start with – see how you get on!

• Squats
• Lunges
• Press Ups (on your knees)
• Side Steps
• Leg Raises (try one leg at a time if both together is too much)
• Mountain Climbers (Hands on a box)
• Shoulder Press with weight (or beans!)
• Plank (on knees) for 15 seconds

For more detailed instructions, you can download the workout card here. I’ll also be creating some cards to demo the moves for you – so keep an eye out!

Who’s in? Have fun and keep fit. See you tomorrow lovely people.

Tahlia x

download the beginners circuit

It’s Bootcamp day (again!)

So, Tuesday rolls round again which can mean only one thing – Bootcamp! Today we mixed it up (actually, Craig forgot the gloves and pads) so we had a bonus circuits session instead. It was really challenging, great fun, and involved quite a lot of running so we burned more calories than usual too.

Today we did 1-10-1 which sounds simple, but is a really challenging workout. If you’re starting out, just work from 1-10 or set yourself a time limit e.g 20 mins and see how far you can get. Most of us managed to get from 1-10 an back to 8 – setting the benchmark for next time!

In other news – am running the 20 miler tomorrow with my running buddy. I’m absolutely bricking it (as my nephew might say) but have treated myself to a beautiful new water belt so I can rehydrate along the way.

download the exercise card here

I’ll keep you posted on progress tomorrow – wish me luck!

Tahlia x

PS: Thanks to those of you who’ve been following the plans with us! As promised, Craig is writing a custom plan for beginners so keep your eyes peeled, it will be ready soon!

Make Friday Count!

Friday is one of those days we associate with fun – it’s Fri-yay, lets have that drink, eat that chocolate, in fact in our house we’ve renamed it to Treat Friday. We pop to the local news agent on the way home from school, have a chat with the ‘lovely lady’ who works there on a Friday afternoon (we really should ask her name) and leave with a chocolaty treat to have with a cuppa when we get home.

Anyway, rambling as usual. The point here is to remember to make Friday count when you’re training. Earn that glass of wine, lady.

Friday morning is the weekly ‘shed’ session with five lovely ladies and Craig. Today he decided to give it to us full barrels, and we did a Pack of Cards workout. Not heard of that? (probably a good thing). Let me tell you more…

First:

Firstly, get a pack of actual playing cards (hence the name). Assign a set of exercises to each suite, and choose an exercise to assign to it. So, for example:

• Diamonds = (Jump) Squats, Jumping Jacks, Lunges
• Hearts = Shoulder Press, Bicep Curls (with a weight), Tricep Dips
• Spades = Chest Press, Push Ups, Mountain Climbers, Burpees
• Clubs = Core (sit ups, alternate leg raises, crunches)

(You might want to write it down if your brain is as useless as mine)

Next:

Assign a number to each card – this will be your number of reps.

• 2 = 2 reps
• 3 = 3 reps
• 4 = 4 reps
• 5 = 5 reps
• 6 = 6 reps
• 7 = 7 reps
• 8 = 8 reps
• 9 = 9 reps
• 10 = 10 reps
• Jack = 11 reps
• Queen = 12 reps
• King = 13 reps
• Ace = 14 reps (yes it hurts!)
• Joker = 10 0f everything

Then shuffle up your cards and off you go! I’ll put them on an downloadable exercise card a bit later too.

Happy Friday lovely people.

Tahlia x

Circuits: The Pyramid

I’m not sure whether I’ve mentioned my absolute love for Boot Camp? About two years ago, I stumbled upon an outdoor Boot Camp on the beautiful green in a village near to me. I went along fearing the worst, but immediately became hooked on the fresh air, hard work, and felt at home with the fab bunch of people there. Two years on and I’m still going strong, and that group of people have become my fitness family. We look out for each other, push each other to do more, do better, and we have a laugh (and sometimes a few drinks) along the way.

Friday morning is a favourite, with circuits in what is affectionately known as ‘The Shed’ a purpose build gym and outdoor space in Craig’s garden where we train. This morning was a really killer circuit (didn’t stop us laughing along the way) so I thought I’d start sharing them with you (with kind permission from Craig).

This circuit uses weights, so if you have a slam ball (or medicine ball) then great, if not then you can improvise or swap out #1 for something different (maybe plyometric jumps). I plan to do you some exercise cards to show you how to do these properly, but there are a million resources on YouTube to help you with technique.

This morning, we also did the Pyramid wearing weight vests for extra resistance. If you’re a beginner, then I’d suggest you start without one. If you’re more used to circuits then give it a go – you’ll amazed at the difference it makes to training!

Have fun! Tahlia x

download the pyramid exercise card here

PS: Thanks to Craig at keeling fitness.com for letting me share. Watch this space for more!!