July Foodie Penpal Reveal #foodiepenpals

July 31, 2012 / Anna @ Piper's Run / 1 Comment

Wow, it’s that time of the month again – FOODIE PENPAL’s Reveal!

Lindsay at the Lean Green Bean is the super women behind “Foodie Penpals”.

Nicole from Nicole Israel Photography sent me this awesome package of British Columbia’s (Canada) finest foods! (PS – check out her website – she takes beautiful photographs).

I only got to taste the Santa Cruz Organic Raspberry Lemonade before going on vacation so the rest awaits us when we get home. (Guest posts coming tomorrow)

I sent a package to Ashley @ Nutrition Diaries.

I am taking a little break from being a Foodie Penpal – but I hope to join this again. It’s been a fun 6 months being a foodie penpal.

Foodie Penpal Post:

Wanna Be A Foodie Penpal ?

CLICK HERE, if you want to sign up to be a FOODIE PENPAL – you don’t have to be a blogger to sign up.

Here’s a detailed explanation of the program:

-On the 5th of the month, you will receive your penpal pairing via email. It will be your responsibility to contact your penpal and get their mailing address and any other information you might need like allergies or dietary restrictions.
-You will have until the 15th of the month to put your box of goodies in the mail. On the last day of the month, you will post about the goodies you received from your penpal!
-The boxes are to be filled with fun foodie things, local food items or even homemade treats! The spending limit is $15. The box must also include something written. This can be anything from a note explaining what’s in the box, to a fun recipe…use your imagination!
-You are responsible for figuring out the best way to ship your items depending on their size and how fragile they are. (Don’t forget about flat rate boxes!)
-Foodie Penpals is open to blog readers as well as bloggers. If you’re a reader and you get paired with a blogger, you can choose to write a short guest post for your penpal to post on their blog about what you received. If two readers are paired together, neither needs to worry about writing a post for that month.
– Foodie Penpals is open to US, Canadian residents & UK residents. Please note, Canadian Residents will be paired with other Canadians only. We’ve determined things might get too slow and backed up if we’re trying to send foods through customs across the border from US to Canada and vice versa. So, I’m going to keep two separate lists and match US w/ US and Canada w/ Canada!

***If you’re in the UK, please contact Carol Anne from This Is Rock Salt at rocksalt@thisisrocksalt.com to get involved!

Cheers!

Motivation Monday – Olympics

July 30, 2012 / Anna @ Piper's Run / Leave a comment

Motivation Monday #29

A little motivation from the Canadian Women’s Synchronized Diving Team

Jennifer Abel & Emilie Heymans

Bronze Medal, London Olympics 2012

Side note: I am on vacation this week – heading to Prince Edward Island, which I’ve blogged about before – here.

I have a few guest post lined up for later in the week!

Hope you enjoy!

Olympics, TV and Working Out

July 27, 2012 / Anna @ Piper's Run / Leave a comment

Oh man the Olympics are here! It’s July 27th and we’ve been counting down the days at work until the Olympics. (And it just so happens to be our last day of work before vacation starts!!!!)

With the Olympics starting today, I guarantee TV/Computer consumption will be on the rise. Don’t get me wrong, I’m going to be glued to the TV/Computer watching as many events as I can. BUT, we all need to remember during this amazing event, that WE still need to be active.

During the Olympics, don’t forget to set your own goals:

weekly workouts
maybe working out during your lunch break so you can watch a certain event at night
Use light weights (3 lbs, 5 lbs etc.) and get in an arm workout while watching swimming
challenge yourself to a plank – a – day while watching an event
do a workout for each event (squats for the 100m race, run on your treadmill during the marathon)
pretend to be a boxer
eat healthy snacks and hydrate well
during a break (half time etc) get up and go for a quick walk, do jumping jacks – get your heart pumping
have an olympic party to watch an event – but also add in a little fitness challenge for your guests!
don’t become a couch potatoe – it’s just going to be that much harder to start working out again after the Olympics

And don’t forget about the Paralympics August 29th – Sept 9th. Have you seen these athletes in action? They simply amaze me.

For those pregnant mama’s to be – don’t forget about my For Two Fitness Coupon – 20% off until July 31st. To find out more – go to my post on Athletic clothing: what to wear when pregnant

Enjoy the Olympics – but don’t forget to be active.

Do you watch the Olympics?

Who are you cheering for?

How are you going to maintion your fitness level during the Olympics?

GO CANADA GO!

Fitness Pregnancy Resources (I use)

July 24, 2012 / Anna @ Piper's Run / 7 Comments

[Please note, I am not a medical professional or certified fitness trainer. I am simple sharing the resources I have used during my second pregnancy. Please consult your doctor or a certified fitness trainer for fitness advice]

Before I got pregnant with our second baby, I was pretty focused on running and working out at home. My husband was away at school and I was a single parent who worked full-time. I made time to workout, it was one of the first things I scheduled each week. You can read more about it here: the need to run, goal setting, and how exercise kept me from loosing it. Even though there where some days that I hated working out – I still did it because I valued the health benefits I got from working out.

So, when I got pregnant, I simply thought I could keep this up! Ha, who was I kidding? At 6 weeks pregnant, I became extremely nauseous. Now, I’m not talking “I don’t feel well” …. I’m talking nauseous from 9 in the morning until about 8 at night. I couldn’t eat, couldn’t workout and barely managed to function at work (without them knowing I was expecting again). I slept. I slept A LOT! When my husband was home I could fall asleep at 5:30pm and stay in bed (with a few washroom breaks) until 6:30 am! Trying to focus on working out was basically impossible.

I ran, when I could. I walked even more, and my favourite Jillian Michael’s DVD’s seem to become a thing of the past (and something to focus on – in the future).

Then, I started to get more focused on pregnancy fitness and came across some great resources that I want to share with my readers.

Books:

1. How to Exercise When You’re Expecting: for the 9 months of Pregnancy and the 5 months it takes to get your best body back. By Lindsay Brin. ($20 roughly).

I found this on the NYC Running Mama’s Blog, on her recent post here. Great resources, food recipes, goal setting, workouts for each trimester and after baby. US info.

2. Today’s Parent – Healthy Pregnancy Magazine ($9.95 Can)

I bought mine from a magazine store. Month by month resources, workouts with pictures. Canadian info.

3. What to Expect When You’re Expecting (though I am rarely reading it for this pregnancy)

4. The Mother of all Pregnancy Books (All Canadian Guide). Nice to have Canadian data and info. I got if from the library.

DVD’s:

FitMom DVD. I bought this at Walmart, when I was pregnant with Lilly and believe it was around $10. Great workout, get’s your heart rate up, lots of squats, small weights, a little stretching/yoga poses. A great workout during any stage of your pregnancy – they provide modified moves also.

Prenatal Yoga – I have no recommendations here, as I have only attended classes. However, I am debating on purchasing Jennifer Wolfe’s Prenatal Vinyasa Yoga DVD.

Don’t forget about the For Two Fitness coupon code for Piper’s Run readers – learn more here – good until July 31st.

Blogs:

Blogggers who have blog about being pregnant and active that I follow:

* note: some are currently expecting, some have little one’s running around

The Happy Runner

The Hungry Runner Girl

Fit Pregnancy & Parenting

At 20 weeks pregnant, I am still nauseous but am managing more workouts and help me get that “buzz” back. Running has been put on the back burner (which is rather depressing to think about) but I haven’t ruled it out. I’d just rather not have any pelvic pain after I run and not sure that’s going to happen until I have this baby.

Benefits of being active during pregnancy:

Gives you more energy
Helps prepare you for birth
Reduces pregnancy discomfort
Fend off pregnancy blues
Help you sleep better
Reduces stress
Improves your self image
Helps your body get back faster postnatal

Source: BabyCentre Canada

Don’t forget to eat and hydrate well before and after you work out.

For those of you who are pregnant, I hope these resources are of benefit to you.

For those of you who are planning a family (now or in a few years) – get active before you get pregnant, do your research, and don’t forget to talk to your doctor about being active during pregnancy.

For everyone else – go get active – it will look good on you.

Cheers!

Note: I was not paid by any of the resources I have written about, these opinions are simply my own. Again, I am not a medical professional or certified fitness trainer. I am simple sharing the resources I have used during my second pregnancy. Please consult your doctor or a certified fitness trainer for fitness advice.