Fit Your Life

Who doesn’t love a good granola?  That sweet crunchy goodness full of healthy ingredients and flavor.  If you’ve taken a second to read the labels on most store bought granolas, you will find they are loaded with refined sugars and ingredients. But wait! Granola is so easy to make yourself.  Once you try it you’ll never go back.  You can customize it any way you like and take comfort in knowing exactly what is in it.   I am a lover of all things pumpkin, not so much the weather that comes with pumpkin season, but definitely the foods and flavors.  I wanted to make a pumpkin granola for our breakfasts and snacks for the week but couldn’t find quite the right recipe, so I adapted an old one from Budget Bytes to create this gem.  Enjoy! Healthier Pumpkin Granola Prep Time: 30 minutes Cook Time: 1 hour Total Time: 1 hour 30 minutes Ingredients - 1 small can pumpkin puree - ½ cup maple ...

March was a very exciting time around our household. My husband and I talked about having another baby and being 34, we decided to try for another baby relatively quickly after Arlo turned 1. So when I couldn’t quite catch my breath while climbing stairs and teaching Mom & Me Fit classes at Fit Your Life in March, I figured I might be pregnant. It took 4 pregnancy tests, but my suspicious were confirmed towards the end of March – we were expecting baby number 2. Photo Credit: Roughley Originals If you read my previous blog post , you’ll know that I sustained fourth degree tears during my vaginal birth with Arlo. Recovery was long, slow, and at times, really frustrating. But I did recover well with the help of several pelvic floor physiotherapists and some patience. Would I want to or be able to deliver vaginally with a second baby? Could my pelvic floor sustain trauma during pregnancy? What was the best way to preserve the function and strength of my pelvic floor dur...

Becoming a Mom; it is one of the most beautiful, difficult, life altering experiences we can go through as women. It can be a paradoxical existence of the highest of highs and lowest of lows, often simultaneously. Sometimes the lows can become very low. Sometimes feelings of sadness and fear can become so big they begin to obscure the joy and the beauty of motherhood. This became my reality following the birth of my sweet second baby. After the birth of my first, there had been moments of anxiety and sadness, but my second was different. I began having panic attacks frequently, and feared being home alone with my kids. Around the three-month post partum mark I began having terrifying intrusive thoughts. These thoughts were like short movies playing in my head, and most often centered on harming either my children or myself. I was shocked that I could ever think such things. I fought these thoughts with every fiber of my being, but fear that I would somehow lose control began to ...

Good morning Mamas! How are you feeling today? Rested? Exhausted? Exhilarated after the weekend? Dreading something upcoming this week? However you currently feel, do you know that by moving for 30 minutes today, you will feel better?! Thank you to Annika, of Born To Be Adventurous , who has asked me to lead this month’s Real Talk Series! Each week, on Monday, I post something related to motherhood and staying fit! Make sure to check out her amazing Born To Be Adventurous Mamas Facebook group where you can read all my posts, share with other adventuring mamas what is keeping you active, and also plan meet-ups in your community! Research shows that up to half of the functional decline we experience between age 30 and 70 is due to lack of physical activity. HALF! Wild. It is also proven that children with active parents are more likely to be active themselves. By increasing our heart rates for a minimum of 2.5 hours per week, we can significantly decrease our risk (and theref...

One of the most common questions I receive from new moms (or those finishing their last Prenatal Fit class) is when they can return to class or regular exercise post-baby.It is important that you, as a new mom, take time to learn your new lifestyle. Whether this is your first or your fourth baby, your daily life will change and that itself is an important adjustment Allowing your body time to heal post-pregnancy and delivery is also important. No matter the length of one's labour and what kind of delivery they had, the body needs to recover. Starting slow and thinking about re-strengthening the core from the inside out is the perfect place to start. Newborn photos by Roughley Originals I know it can be difficult to "take it easy" physically when you're used to exercising regularly, but also so important after a major physical event, like childbirth! This is especially important if you have an assisted delivery (vacuum or forceps) or a caesarean birth. Your...

With the weather changing and the shackles of winter starting to loosen their grip…many women are itching to get outside and go for a jog! One of the hardest things to put a postpartum body through is running. Let me explain: Running is literally jumping off one foot and landing on the other potentially thousands of times in a relatively short period. This prolonged, repetitive, vertical impact on a hard surface challenges the postpartum body in several ways:    1.  It’s jarring for your pelvic organs- organs that have undergone a tremendous amount of anatomical shift during pregnancy and again in the postpartum period. Usually, there are ligaments that firmly tether your organs to their anchor spots inside your body. Under the influence of pregnancy hormones, these ligaments become lax so that your uterus can grow and everything else can get out of the way. Pregnancy hormones take months to be flushed from your body postpartum; and, breastfeeding horm...

In my little family, breakfast is by far our favorite meal.   It’s the only meal where I can make one thing and know that, 9 times out of 10, everyone will be happy.   That being said, mornings are usually the busiest time of day for us so I love to have breakfast made the night before.   Taking one less to do out of the morning helps us all start our day happier.   If I could give you one tip for prepping your breakfasts the night before, it’s prep once, eat twice or even three times.   Any time I have the chance, I double the recipes and we either eat the meal two mornings in a row or I freeze half and have a breakfast ready to eat another day.   Here are my family’s favorites: 1.      Overnight oats I love how simple and versatile overnight oats are.   You can throw together almost any combination of grains, fruit, milk, protein, seeds and sweetener and you will have a winner.   Here are a few of my favor...