Me: “Brooke, pick up your shoes and put them in your bin.”
Brooke: “No!”
Me: “Well I’m not putting them away for you, I’m not your personal slave”.
5 yo Sierra: “No, that’s because your mine”.

Mom On The Run - My life is a marathon, not a track meet...

Mom On The Run - My life is a marathon, not a track meet...

The Rattles 'Rattle On' CD

This new song is called “Wavy Lane” click HEREto take a listen.

My kids really enjoyed this CD, and the beatles-esque sound to it means I enjoyed it too!

New York, NY – Hailing straight from the swamps of Central Jersey, an eclectic band of anthropomorphic critters known as The Rattles are preparing to roll out their debut studio album ‘RATTLE ON’. Working in the classic traditions of The Beatles, Moxy Fruvous, The Monkees, and They Might Be Giants, The Rattles apply a fresh fusion of classic rock and power pop that is sure to appeal to fans of all ages and put them on the map.

The unique animal collective consists of four stellar musicians and life-long friends – Gus, Kitty, Sal, and Hal – who describe their upcoming release as “the album we were born to make”. From start to finish, ‘RATTLE ON’ provides a solid testament to The Rattles’ undeniable musical ingenuity, jammed with catchy pop melodies and feel-good vibes that are sure to inspire lots of head swaying and booty-shaking.

With their trusty manager Benny and a devoted legion of roadies all named Elvis in tow, The Rattles intend to take their show on the road and connect directly with the people who inspire them most – the fans. With such a distinct background and a colorful collection of grooves, The Rattles are shaping up to be one of the most intriguing new music acts of the year. To learn more about this fun Cd click HERE.

Thanks to Musebox I have 1 copy of The Rattles “Rattle On” Cd’s to giveaway! This giveaway will end September 5th at 11:59 PM. The winner will be chosen via random.org and will have 48 hours to respond to my email. If no response, a new winner will be chosen.

Required entry:
Go to The Rattles website and tell me something fun you learned about the band!

Extra entries (Leave a separate comment for each entry):
1. Subscribe to Mom On The Run by email.
2. Tweet about this giveaway (click that Retweet button at the top of this post) .
3. Enter the giveaway on my Fitness Cheerleader site.

Mom On The Run - My life is a marathon, not a track meet...

“Mommy, I’m not Jesus Christ – I’m Brookie!”.

I’m just waiting for the day Sierra tells me she’s not God dammit.

Mom On The Run - My life is a marathon, not a track meet...

I’ve now decided to take Fitness Cheerleader to a new level and start selling workout mp3’s. Last week I recorded my first walk and tone workout mp3 that is set to 90’s dance music. Through voice commands, my voice leads you through an upper body strengthening program while you walk. Why? Combining strength moves with cardio allows you to burn more calories in the same amount of time, and building muscle causes you to burn more calories at rest. Win-win! (You can read more about the workout in my article: How to Shred Fat Faster By Walking). In the future I plan to add an 80’s Dance Music version, and a learn-to-run 5K program to offer to you.

I’ve now have uploaded my first mp3 (Fitness Cheerleader’s Walk and Tone mp3 Workout) to Fitness Cheerleader and have made it available for purchase. Several friends have already downloaded it, tried it, and have reviewed it publicly on their blogs. And guess what? They LOVE IT! Here’s what Scarlett had to say about it:

Today I tried this mp3 out for the first time and WOW! I feel incredible. It can be done outside or on a treadmill. For you pedometer wearers, I reset mine right before I began the workout and got almost 3,400 steps! This was just me walking around my house. I probably wasn’t covering as much ground as I would outside, so I would say I could get almost 4,000 if I were outside and not sick! The music is 90?s dance music, which brings back so many memories and gets me moving. In addition, my 4 year old son got out his 2 pound weights and walked with me. He LOVED the music – particularly the “Move it, Move it” song. I can already tell my arms are going to be a little sore tomorrow! Thanks, Fitness Cheerleader!

Chelle also liked it, and gave me some honest criticism about my voice overs, which I’m in the process of fixing and will send a replacement copy to everyone who’s downloaded it:

I did this workout on my treadmill but it could easily be done outside. You do need some weights. I used my 3lb weights and started walking. I had to smile when the music started, it is dance music from the 90?s, I felt so young and it also reminded what I was working towards! So I knew the tunes, then Janice encourages and guides you through each exercise. The MP3 is 40 minutes and I was totally burning once I got going. My arms are sore today! I also realized I need to pay more attention to my triceps, ouch!

I’ll even be doing the workout myself as I progress through the last 10-13 weeks of this pregnancy, and will continue to do it as a gentle post-natal workout (I’ll probably walk with baby asleep in an infant carrier or sling).

I really hope you’ll try my mp3 workout – it’s a great way to be healthy, build strength and tone your arms while walking. It’s safe enough to be done as a pre or post-natal workout, and is a great activity to do on off days or while recovering from injuries.

I’m having a special introductory sale on the Fitness Cheerleader Walk and Tone mp3 Workout! Right now you can get it for $3.99 – LESS than a trip to Starbucks! (use coupon code LAUNCH, for a limited time, regularly $4.99).

(If you are a subscriber to my Fitness Cheerleader newsletter you are automatically entered to win a copy – I’ll be giving away one copy every month for the next couple of months!)

Mom On The Run - My life is a marathon, not a track meet...

Mom On The Run - My life is a marathon, not a track meet...

I have to apologize – this blog post is a little different from my usual informative, motivational post…

A few weeks ago, my personal trainer approached me about fitnesscheerleader.com.  His opinion was that overall it’s great, but there’s one problem – I’m not generating any revenue for the amount of time I obviously put into it.  Now at first I was like, who cares?  I don’t really want to make money – I just want to motivate people and see them do well.  Which is a fine and admirable goal, right?  

But of course his comments nagged at me for a few weeks – he suggested I sell a product.  I thought long and hard about this, and brainstormed what I could possibly sell.  A motivational eBook?  A pre-natal fitness eBook?  Sorry – I couldn’t see myself spending money on those, so why would anyone else? I don’t want to charge people to visit my site – that’s a quick turn-off in my opinion. (Though I could use eBooks as a way to get people to sign up for my newsletter….).  Then I got to thinking about my power walks…..

You see, now that running has become tougher for this preggo mama I’ve begun doing a walk around the park on my lunch hours with hand weights.  But I don’t just carry the weights – I do an upper body strength routine while I carry the weights.  I need to keep my arms in shape for carrying my baby  I also alternate some fast and slow walking – adding intervals for additional fat burning.  It’s a fantastic workout and keeps my walks fun.  So I thought – maybe people would be interested in downloading a walk and tone mp3?  You know, an mp3 that you could download (for a small fee) from my site that will guide you through a great walking workout (set to some fabulous music of course)!  So I’ve begun the process of recording such an mp3, and building a sales section and affiliate section for my site.  As an added bonus, I will throw in a free eBook with every mp3 purchased

My product idea is great right? But now I need some help actually marketing my mp3 – oh isn’t marketing always the fun part?

And this is where you come in…

Below is a sign up form to be notified of when my walk and tone mp3 product is launched. If you sign-up, I’ll send you the download info for a free trial of it (once I’ve finished recording it) so that you can do a review of it on your site – if you like it, perhaps you’ll do a giveaway? I’ll even provide a coupon code for your readers. And because I’m a blogger and I hate doing stuff for free without getting anything in return, I will set up anyone who does a review as an affiliate so that you’ll earn 25% of any sales you generate! Pretty sweet, eh?

So what are you waiting for? Sign up below so we can BOTH start earning some money!

Thanks everyone for your support on this project

All the best,
Janice

Mom On The Run - My life is a marathon, not a track meet...

(If you would like to guest blog, then check out my guidelines here.)

iPod Treadmill Running Workouts

These cardio workouts involve interval training which means that you have a bout of higher intensity (ie. running) followed by a bout of lower intensity (ie. walking). Depending on the duration of the workout, this sequence will be repeated a number of times, which allows you to spend more time at faster speeds because we space them out with “recovery” intervals.

So let’s get to it.

Beginner Interval Running Workout #1:

1 minute jogging @ 75% max speed : 4 minutes walking x 5 = 25 minutes

In this workout, you will jog at 75% of your maximum running speed for 1 minute and then reduce the speed to a decent pace walk for 4 minutes. This is then 5 times for a total of 25 minutes. This interval program means that you’ll be spending a total of 5 minutes running and 20 minutes walking.

Beginner Interval Running Workout #2:

2 minutes jogging @ 75% max speed : 4 minutes walking x 5 = 30 minutes

Notice how this workout is almost identical to the first one, except for one little difference? In this treadmill workout, you’ll be jogging twice as long while recovering for the same amount of time (4 minutes) you did in the first workout. The fact that your work to rest ratio is now 1:2 instead of 1:4 makes this workout more challenging because you are spending more of this workout at a higher speed. This workout allows you to run for 10 minutes and walk for 20 minutes.

Beginner Interval Running Workout #3:

2 minutes jogging @ 75% max speed : 2 minutes walking x 5 = 20 minutes

This treadmill running workout is more challenging because you now have the same amount of work as you do recovery (ie. a 1:1 ratio). You won’t have as much time to recover between work bouts and therefore we have reduced the overall time of this workout to 20 minutes, during which you’ll have 10 minutes of running and 10 minutes of walking.

These are just a few running workouts for beginners out of thousands of possible interval running plans. Start with these and you’ll notice a significant improvement in your ability to run.

Mom On The Run - My life is a marathon, not a track meet...

I love having a backyard pool – just like I love my Rottweiler, but of course both are dangerous. My dog LOOKS more dangerous than my pool, but truthfully, I know my pool is a far bigger cause for concern. Afterall, it’s already claimed the life of a poor unsuspecting bird.

Unfortunately, on Sunday I had to put my lifeguarding skills to the test again – thankfully more successfully than when I tried to save the bird My neighbour’s niece (appx. 10yrs old) was visiting her, and I invited both of my neighbours kids (ages 8 & 9) over to swim, and her niece too. My neighbours SIL told her that the girl could swim. I’m not sure if there was a communication error between them ie: allowed to swim vs. is a competent swimmer. It doesn’t really matter.

So the kids all came over, and my hubby went into his speel about the buoy line, here’s where the pool gets deep, and to stay in the shallow end if you’re uncertain about the deep end. I love him to bits for doing this each and every time someone comes over ‘cause it means he totally gets how dangerous pools can be.

Diving Board

She missed the side of the pool and can’t swim.

She had seemed somewhat hesitant to get in (all of the other kids were already in by this time) so I was watching her like a hawk. She came up slowly and her arms weren’t moving in a breast stroke kind of way like you would do to get to the top of the water – instead she was moving them in a front crawl kind of way (like she was climbing a ladder), indicating to me before she even reached the surface that she was a non-swimmer. She got to the surface and I was already sitting at the edge with my leg extended for her to reach it. (I can’t lie on my belly with a reaching assist because I’m 6 mos preggo). We shouted at her to grab it, but she didn’t hear us and went under 2 more times. I got up as fast as a very pregnant lady can, and did a stride jump into the pool next to her (while wearing all of my clothes). I got behind her, and pushed her hard to the edge, where she was able to grab hold. Because I can’t even pull myself out of the pool at the edge anymore (darn swollen pregnant belly), I asked her if she could slide along the edge to the shallow end. Thankfully she could. I then slid along behind her to make sure she got there ok. After that she played happily in the shallow end.

This could have been yet another summer tragedy – but I was paying attention. I can’t wait to register my kids for the next session of swimming lessons – I never want them to be in a situation like this little girl was in.

Please folks, teach your kids to swim, enroll them in swimming lessons and be diligent about taking them – you never know when they may need to have this important life skill.

Mom On The Run - My life is a marathon, not a track meet...

Sierra claims she has allergies – her latest is she’s allergic to pasta with sauce on it. She says she can eat pasta, and she can eat the tomato sauce, but that she’s allergic to having them together. In fact she loves both the pasta and the sauce. There’s a little girl in her class who has a lot of severe allergies and I’m sure Sierra wants to be like her – imitation is the highest form of flattery. Sierra really likes this girl and has a lot of compassion towards her. I think that’s where her sudden “allergies” are coming from.

This past weekend we were up at a friend’s cottage. Our friend had surgery on her throat to relieve a constriction. One of the kids must’ve told Sierra about it, or Sierra overheard a conversation about it because for two days we had to hear about how Sierra couldn’t eat because her throat was sore. Oddly enough she had no problem swallowing ice cream, yogourt, cookies and brownies…

It’s tough being the parent of a hypochondriac. I want to believe her, I really do, but I take everything she tells me with a grain of salt and do more digging. Who at school hurt their foot? Who got stung by a bee? We took Sierra to the dentist because her teeth were hurting – Sierra was convinced they were falling out and that she had cavities. Instead her jaw is growing, making room for her adult teeth.

Is she doing this for attention? Are we not paying enough attention to her? Will this get worse when the baby comes? (I suspect it will during an adjustment period). Have your children gone through this? Do I foster her interest and teach her more about the human body? That would be attention right? And a learning opportunity?

Sigh – this parenting stuff isn’t easy. I feel a headache coming on…

Mom On The Run - My life is a marathon, not a track meet...