Healthy Tipping Point

Did you have a great Halloween?  We sure did!

Halloween is shaping up to be one of my favorite kiddo holidays.  I absolutely love going trick or treating with everyone!  Claire enjoyed sitting in the stroller and waving “hi!” to everyone.  And Henry LOVED going door to door with his friends.  A bunch of our neighbors get really into it with spooky décor, and Hen ate it up.

Other than the Halloween festivities, we had a pretty low-key weekend.  I scooted out of the house for a bit on Saturday to go on a peaceful solo trail run.  It was blissful.   And very challenging – my quads are super sore from this. 

This run also made me realize that I need new running shoes – my old New Balances 880s are shot.

And actually, BFF Nicole and I did a little shoe shopping on Sunday.  She needs new shoes, too, but neither of us could pull the trigger – so we got pedicures instead!  Ahhh.  Now, THAT is really blissful.

Dark red for the holidays!

So – as the title of this blog post suggests, I am thinking about getting a treadmill.  The Husband and I have been rolling this idea around for a few weeks, and we even went to look at a Craigslist treadmill on Sunday.  We probably would’ve bought it, but then I realized that we needed a moving truck to get it home…  That seemed too much to manage with two kids in tow.

But the idea isn’t entirely dead.  Here’s my YES and NO list for bringing home a treadmill…

YES

It’s hard to find time for the adults to exercise with two littles in the house.  Just the timing of C and H’s wakeups/naps/bedtime and the Husband’s work schedule means that I can’t go when I used to go.

And it’s challenging to exercise at the gym because Henry no longer wants to go into childcare.  I don’t want to force him to go.

We feel like we’re throwing away $100 a month at the gym because we rarely go right now.

You can get a $2000 treadmill for about $350 – $450 used.

We have the space for it (spare bedroom).

NO

It’s really big, and even though we have the space for it, it’s not like it’s a pretty design element for my guest bedroom.

It’s going to be a bitch to get home.

If I buy a used one, I won’t have a warranty.

It may just become a really expensive place to hang clothes…

Thoughts?  Do you have a treadmill? Do you use it?

Oh, and one more thing!

The Operation Beautiful team would like to extend a warm welcome to our new helper, Natalie!  She is helping us revitalize our social media channels. If you love the movement, please follow us!

#operationbeautiful

Facebook

Instagram

Twitter

Pinterest

Snapchat: op.beautiful

This recipe is a HUGE hit in my house. I kept meaning to share but forgot over and over – probably because I’m too busy licking a spoon.

It turns out that, if you mix peanut butter and Greek yogurt, this wonderfully fluffy “mousse” is created! Add in a little cocoa powder, a splash of cinnamon, and (optional) some honey and… TADA!  It’s totally delicious and an excellent source of protein and healthy fats.  This is one food that I can always count of the kids to eat… Unless I eat it all first.  Seriously.  This stuff goes QUICKLY in my house!

Peanut Butter Cup Mousse

Ingredients (for a serving):

• 1/3 cup full fat plain Greek Yogurt
• 2 heaping tablespoons salted peanut butter
• 1.5 tablespoons cocoa powder
• Sprinkle of cinnamon
• Dollop of honey (optional)

Directions:

• Mix and serve!

Good morning!  It was an early one in the Boyle household (but, then again, it usually is!).

It’s so weird to see Claire standing all the time now… Or zombie-style walking towards me (know what I mean? That early baby walk always reminds me of a zombie).

Speaking of Claire, do you like our pumpkin?  We carved it to look like her – two top teeth, two bottom.  LOL.

In other news, I’ve been sick for 4 days.  I’m over it.  I’m just super congested and have a constant headache.  So I haven’t been doing much, just trying to get through the basics each day so I can collapse on the couch.  I have, however, been sticking to Vegetarian Whole 30 (I’m on Day 11 of my second round) and feeling great.  The second round is definitely not as hard as the first.  And I really love eating this way!

Other fun things…

I love this poster.

I want to get a big print of it to hang in my house!

Here’s an interesting article about how pain tolerance impacts athletic performance.  I think this is SO true.  I don’t think I’m the strongest athlete but I have a really high pain tolerance.  So my finishing times are usually better than my training would’ve predicted.  Actually, one of my favorite things about racing is pushing through when it really hurts.  Is that weird?!

And check out this interesting article on what it was like to do the first Ironman ever.  Transition included a shower and a shoulder massage… sounds pretty good to me.

Also, that outfit is amazing.

Last, but not least, I really want to read the new Brene Brown book but I have a stack of 6 unread books on my side table and can’t continue to add to the pile.  Has anyone read Rising Strong and really loved it?

My goal today is to rearrange our toy rotation boxes – sounds pretty lame but seriously, just getting off the couch is a major accomplishment with this dang head cold.  Hope it goes away by tomorrow!

Question of the Day: Would you say you have a high pain tolerance?   I guess I do, except when it comes to the sniffles…

Three fun things about this weekend:

#1 – I got through half of this week’s Book a Week.  I am reading about The Five Love Languages for Children.

If you’re never heard of the love languages, check out their website. The love languages (how you express and receive love) are: physical touch, quality time, acts of service, gifts, and words of affirmation. Love languages were originally for adult relationships, but they can apply to parent-child relationships, too.  You can’t tell your child’s love language until age 5, and love languages change over time, but I think this is really interesting. The most insightful thing I read so far that love expressed in your child’s love language is most well-received, and parental disappointment/anger expressed in their love language is the worst thing of all.  So if your kid’s love language is quality  time, and you punish them by withdrawing that, it wounds them very deeply.  Made me think a lot about discipline in our household.  That is a really powerful concept, huh?

#2 – We dressed up for Halloween!  The Husband and I went out to a costume party and had so much fun.

My Catwoman costume was pretty simple and inexpensive.  All I had to buy were ears and a mask!

#3 – I tried a new-to-Charlotte service called Shipt.   Shipt is a grocery delivery service that works with Publix.  It’s available in a few select metro areas, like Phoenix, Dallas, Nashville, Birmingham, Atlanta, Jacksonville, Orlando, Tampa, Sarasota, and throughout South Florida.  If you sign up with my affiliate link, you get $10 towards your order!

I saw an ad for Shipt on Facebook and knew that I immediately wanted to give it a go!  For $14 a month (or $99 a year), you can get UNLIMITED grocery deliveries right to your door.  There is a mark-up on groceries (about $5 extra for every $35), but you can seriously order anything you want from your phone.  The clincher for me was when I saw that there was an entire section for organic produce.

You can also make special requests – like I asked for a box of fun kid Band-Aids to be added to our order.  I’ve found that may things are in the drop-down menus, but you have to also add in special requests for many things.  Each time, I got groceries at my door in just 2 hours!  It was totally cool.

3 Questions for You!

What’s your love language?   

What’s your Halloween costume?

If you could have any service automated, what about it be?