Trendy Mindy Knows...: February 2015

Saturday, February 28, 2015

Gaining muscle over 40

It is super hard for women to gain muscle....

Women are so scared to lift heavy weights they are afraid they are going to "bulk up" or look like a professional body builder.

Im here to tell you it is impossible!

I spoke about being skinny fat....Here.

I have been lifting heavier weights for 11 years now.

I started out with only 97 pounds of lean body mass...my actually scale weight was around 118.

After 11 years I have only gained 6.5 pounds of muscle!

And it took me 11 years to do so!!

11 years!

Last summer my lean muscle mass was 102 pounds.

I just had my fat rechecked this week and it was 103.6! So as a 41 and a half year old woman I have gained 1.6 pounds of muscle in less than a year! That is huge! And I am so proud of it!

Since last May I have changed my workouts completely. I wanted to see how much muscle I could gain at almost 41 years old. I was so tired of doing so much cardio. Tired of my hip hurting. Tired of feeling beat up.

I used to do cardio 3-4x a week...50 minutes to an hour each session...and mainly I ran as my cardio...I since have almost completely stopped running. Maybe 1x a month. It took awhile to get over the runners high..mentally I just wasn't sure how I would feel after 16 years of being a runner.

Now I do it 2-3 cardio session...at the very most. And it is never more than 50 minutes.

I have been lifting 5-6x a week. Focusing on 3 body parts at a time...while I used to do a full body routine 2-3x a week.

For example..

Mondays legs

Tuesdays chest back abs

Wednesday cardio/plyo metrics

Thursday shoulders bis tris

Fridays legs/glutes

Saturday day off

Sunday long 6 m walk

I know to some these photos don't really show a huge change like some on the internet. But to me it is huge.

1.6 pounds of muscle gained is a ton for a woman! Especially a woman over the age of 40!

I feel like I look better now...I'm not as skinny looking and I feel like I look more fit.

Saturday, February 21, 2015

We don't wear shoes in our home...

Here is another one of the ways I keep my home clean.

I don't allow shoes in my home.

When I wrote my last post (read more about that Here) about keeping the groady germs out of our home it made me realize that this was another habit that developed after moving into our new home with our little NICU baby.

It all started when my husband and I were house hunting. One of the homes we looked at didn't allow shoes in their home. When we went for the house showing there were shoe booties sitting by the door for all "viewers" to put on. After we slipped them over our shoes we noticed how immaculate their carpeting was. It was white carpet but it was in prestine condition!

So after we came home with Pipiri we decided to start doing this in our home.

The way that works for us is that 99% of the time we come thru the garage so it's very simple. We leave our shoes in the garage by the door.

When guests come to our home...typically they come thru the front door. There is a small chalkboard sign on the door.

It says "Please leave shoes outside TKS!

Buy Chalkboard with Rope Hanger like I have.

So any visitor that we have simple removes their shoes and leaves them outside the door. Easy breezy.

Not only does this cut wayyy down on my cleaning. It also keeps our floors so much cleaner. I also have to vacuum way less.

I use this mop... Shark Professional Steam Pocket Mop And I have owned this less expensive one in the past also...Shark Steam Pocket Mop I use this vacuum...Shark Navigator Lift-Away Professional Upright. I have owned every brand of vacuum and I like the Shark by far the best! Easy to empty and picks up everything!

Plus think how gross the bottoms of your shoes are.

They have been in public restrooms.

The have walked on asphalt which has known carcinogenics

The have walked in parks and other grassy areas where pesticides have been used.

The list goes on and on!

I don't want pesticides, cancer causing chemicals, or poop on my floors. Do you?

I love that we started this when Pipiri was a newborn. She now knows exactly what to do. She takes her shoes off before coming in...I never ever have to remind her.

It also has made me very mindful of other peoples homes. I now remove my shoes before going in. I believe it shows a sign of respect for other peoples houses ....they may have just spent the last few hours cleaning...so why would I want to put my dirty shoes on their floors.

Happy cleanliness!

Friday, February 20, 2015

The importance of teaching children to wash their hands

When I came home with my precious little girl straight out of the NICU I was terrified of germs.

Terrified of her getting sick.

Terrified of someone passing a cold or the flu to my new perfect little angel.

My husband and I started that very day with our "Clean Hands Mission"!!!

We decided one thing that day...

As soon as someone comes into our home they are to wash their hands!

So for about an entire year we had every single person that came into our house wash their hands before they did anything else...

Now jump ahead 5 years...while we aren't quite as nutty about forcing our guests with a hand washing...we (Brad , me, and Pipiri) still every single time we come in our house from being out and about we wash our hands. So any germs that we may have come in contact with are not brought into our home.

I truly think that this habit has helped us as a family to hardly ever become sick. While yes we get colds on occasion we very rarely get anything worse than that.

It truly is a very easy habit to make.

And I am so glad we have instilled the importance of this to Pipiri.

Here are a few hand soaps that our family uses...

We do not use triclosan, lavender, soy, phylates or BPA!

Seventh Generation Hand Wash
Kiss My Face Coconut Hand Soap
Mrs. Meyer's Clean Day Liquid Hand Soap

Here are some of the hand sanitizers that have less scary ingredients...

Babyganics

Babyganics (smaller container ...great for car usage)

Burt's Bees

Tuesday, February 17, 2015

Birthday and Holiday gifts when your a minimalist

I am a wacko when it comes to toys and things that Pipiri plays with. I am sure I drive my friends and family nuts!

When I discovered Waldorf several years ago one of the main aspects that drew me to it was the amazing play things! Read more about that Here and Here.

Wooden, natural, high quality, wool, and very few!!

That's right minimal!

Very few high quality toys!

No plastic, no polyester, nothing that blinks or makes noise, nothing techy, no video games, no movie or cartoon paraphernalia...so once I cleared out all of the junk there was no going back.

Sooo when it comes to birthdays, holidays, and any other times gifts are involved I try to my best to keep what comes into our home as simple and natural as possible.

Thank you to our friends and family Pipiri's birthday gifts were amazing! So thoughtful and beautiful!