Motivation Shaker, Ashley Tabb

Grocery shoppingt can be overwhelming if you have no idea what you need. Over the last four years as I've implemented a weekly meal plan into our family weekend routine, I also added some weekly chores. In order to determine what is needed, take time to throw out old food from the pantry and refrigerator each week. Make a note of foods that are expired and need to be replaced. Make a list and know exactly what you need so that grocery shopping is faster and easier. Plus with a list, you will spend less because you are only buying items you need and not just what looks good. Matt and I use an app called Anylist for our grocery list.   It stores items as you add and can be shared with others.  You can view all the items, scroll through and click what you need and then hide what you don’t need. I paid the extra fee to use the recipe feature, which makes copying, and pasting recipes online easy.  Simply copy and paste all ingredients and then the instructions and...

So far I have completed 2 of 8 weeks in the 22 minute Hard Corps program,  so I wanted to share my thoughts and progress with the program so far.  The short workouts alternate each day between cardio and resistance training. and include moves like burpees, mountain climbers and Jimmie Jumps which are farmiliar from previously doing 21 Day Fix, InsanityMax30 and CIZE. Yet after 2 weeks, I have muscles and areas of my body that ache that have never hurt before.  I'm amazed that a 22 minute workout can cause such soreness, but it can!! Especially if you incorporate the 10 minute Core workouts every other day as recommended on the workout schedule provided with the program.  And no excuses...there are also modifications, so you can get started no matter what your fitness level. And if you are sore and need to modify certain moves you can do that too...just keep moving and push play each day! I purchased the deluxe kit as soon as it was released and less than 24 ...

Total Time: 10 min. Prep Time: 10 min. Cooking Time: None Yield: 25 cookies Ingredients: 1 cup all-natural peanut butter (or almond butter) 1 cup quick cooking oats ½ cup raw honey 1/2 cup pumpkin puree 1 cup vanilla Shakeology Preparation: 1. Combine peanut butter, oats, honey, pumpkin and Shakeology in a medium bowl; mix well. 2. Roll mixture into 24 balls, each about 1-inch in size. 3. Remain in ball or flatten each slightly so that it is shaped like a traditional cookie. Try to limit yourself to 2 cookies as a serving!!

Coming Mid July...  The Fixate Cookbook Launch!  The morning I found out some VERY exciting news....In  July, Autumn Calbrese, creator of the 21 Day Fix is launching a new cook book called Fixate.  It will inclue 101 Fix friendly recipes!  Fixate  includes healthy, delicious meals that fit into a busy lifestyle. And every recipe includes container equivalents to use with 21 Day Fix, as well as nutritional information you can use with any Beachbody ®  fitness program.  Each recipe comes complete with detailed instructions, mouthwatering photos, nutritional information and container equivalents. Plus Autumn added icons fo paleo, gluten-free, vegan and vegetarian recipes.  Who this is for? "This book is for everybody," says Autumn. "You don't have to be graduates of 21 Day Fix or 21 Day Fix EXTREME ® . You also don't have to be a chef or great in the kitchen. It's for anyone who wants to make healthier versions of the foods they lo...

This summer my daughter, Courtney, is NOT going to extended school camp like usual, so we have a BIG week ahead as it's the first week of "summer vacation" for her!!  Instead she has swim team practice in the morning, dance camp in the afternoon and dance class after camp on Monday & Tuesday.  Then Wednesday is her first swim meet and Thursday and Friday nights we can catch our breath!  Caroline also has a new schedule at school with Water Play on Tuesday and Friday...and Share Day on Thursday.  But what I am looking forward to the most is daycare ordering lunch for Caroline on Wednesdays...which means no packing her lunch on Tuesday night...sounds like such a small thing but after packing lunch everyday...it's night to take a break. For the other days, I make packing lunches easier throughout the week by spending an hour in the kitchen prepping fruits and veggies for the week on Saturday afternoon or Sunday morning. Even though school is out for my oldest d...

Saturday morning we decided to take the girls to Breakfast with the Works at Keeneland which started at 7am. I got out of bed and completed Total Cardio Fix at 5:45am, then showered and got the girls ready. We left the house at 7:35am and I was worried it we wouldn't make it...as breakfast is only served until 8:30am... and it takes approximately 20-30 minutes to get there from our house.  So we got in the car and headed that way with our shades and smiles on..... Although I grew up near Keeneland and have lived in Lexington for the past 20 years, I have never made it to Keeneland early enough for breakfast.  This event is fabulous for families with kids and those without. There is a wonderful breakfast buffet, arts and crafts, silks dress ups and pictures, trackside viewing of horses training, and tours of the ground. It isn't as busy compared to afternoons when there are races, so it's a perfect time for the kids to run around and to take pictures.... I...

Do you find eating healthy is difficult and can be expensive??? I know do, so I have tried to take a few steps to make it easier and less expensive for my family.  The first step....MEAL PLAN!!! Sunday mornings, I enjoy browsing recipes in cookbooks or on Pinterest as my husband, Matt and I start to MEAL PLAN for the week.  I have several cookbooks that I reference including Men's Health's "A Man, A Can, A Plan," "A Man, A Can, and a Grill," and "A Man, A Can and a Microwave."   Matt and I have cooked from these books for over 10 years and many of them fall nicely in line with the 21 Day FIX meal guides.  We also use a few Weight Watcher cookbooks, recipes from our parents and of course, Pinterest! Recently I found a Turkey Chili on Pinterest that was fabulous and it was a crockpot meal, so it was easy too!! Here's a picture of me prepping the chili while I watched a UK basketball game! :) As I find recipes such as this one, I enter the i...