Thursday, December 11, 2008

Dawn's Raspberry Smoothie


I interviewed our family's premier smoothie maker, my 10 year old daughter, to learn her secrets to a great smoothie. Here is her favorite smoothie recipe to make, in her own words:

1 can of coconut milk
1/2 can of water
3 bananas
3 handfuls of frozen berries
honey, to taste

Put the can of coconut milk, & bananas in the blender. Blend. Then put the frozen berries in with the water on top. Then put the honey in, and you blend it up. Add more water if needed. Then you have a good smoothie.

Money saving hint: to find raw honey at the best prices, call around your area to find a beekeeper. We get raw honey this way, at a far lower cost than the processed (heated) honey at the grocery store.

Monday, December 8, 2008

Recipes are Coming...



We are pretty serious smoothie drinkers around here. We like to invent new, healthy recipes quite often. Some of us have food allergies, so we have to be creative. What types of recipes are you most interested in? Please let me know in the comment section...

Saturday, November 29, 2008

Inch Loss versus Weight Loss





Conventional wisdom says weight loss, a number on a scale, is the ultimate measure of success with a fitness program. This past year, this idea has been challenged in my mind by Teresa Tapp, the creator of the amazing T-Tapp workouts.

With my last pregnancy, I gained sixty pounds, and was very sedentary. SIXTY POUNDS! Yes, you read that right. And I didn't have twins. Just one baby. Because I had been moderately successful in losing weight after previous pregnancies, I was more careless than I should have been with my eating. Unfortunately, most of my past postpartum weight loss success came through restricting the types of foods I ate, and not primarily through exercise. After six pregnancies, and little exercise, my muscles were very weak, especially my abs and back muscles.

I had first read about T-Tapp in the Spring of 2007 on one of my favorite blogs, "Large Family Logistics." It's author, Kim Brenneman, called T-Tapp her favorite brand of workout videos. That caused me to spend some time looking up the T-Tapp website. When I saw the price of the DVDs, and learned that Teresa spoke during each entire workout, without music, I was a bit put off. I was very skeptical about whether I would like this type of workout, and had a hard time believing that it could be that much better than many of the workout videos I already owned.

But then in January, I learned that one of the new ladies at our church sold T-Tapp DVDs on ebay (her ebay user id is "mexmarr," and I highly recommend her as an excellent source for T-Tapp products). I asked her how she liked them. She gushed about the results she had with T-Tapp, and before I knew it, she showed up at church with a copy of the Basic Workout Plus for me to borrow. It took me a while to actually get around to trying it, but once I started, I realized that this short, 15 minute workout was not only providing me with the stretching I needed for my back to heal, but it also was building strength in my stomach and back, strength that was absolutely crucial for keeping up with my six young children.


I was hooked. I knew I needed to take my measurements and follow the program as directed by Teresa Tapp. So I did. She said to ignore the numbers on the scale, and instead focus on inch loss. I had hoped I could do both, lose inches and weight, but decided to listen to what she said, and relax about what the scale said. Boy, am I glad I did. Though I have lost only about 10 pounds so far this year, I have lost over 41 inches! Clothing that I could wear when I was about 20 -25 pounds lighter, fits me again!


What about you? Is this the first you've heard of T-Tapp, or have you been using it yourself? If you do use T-Tapp, how long have you used it, and which workouts are your favorite? Leave a comment and tell us your experience!