As much as I enjoy the religious aspects of Easter, I have to admit that we fully participate in the more secular observations of the holiday — including Easter egg hunt, the Easter Bunny, and CHOCOLATE.

We had a great time decorating eggs, hunting for easter baskets, and just having some crazy bunny related fun.

 

As much fun as all of that was, I’m a bit glad that it’s all over, and I can just back on the healthy eating wagon. Even though I am in the middle of my 10 day Clean Eating Challenge, I have to admit I made some pretty unhealthy choices this weekend. Of course, it’s only one weekend, and I’m not going to beat myself up over a single Cadbury cream egg on Easter (and possibly some Reese’s Pieces) — I’m just going to start fresh today and make it a great week! My first weigh-in since starting the Bikini Body Mommy Challenge is this Wednesday, and I want to make sure I’m heading in the right direction!

I heard about something very interesting last week that I’ve been meaning to share with you, but I haven’t had the time to research it enough to talk about it intelligently. Thankfully, it is a slow work day (that sort of happens when your position is eliminated and most of your duties are taken away), so I’ve had some time to look into it. I’m not sure if I buy into it, and I certainly haven’t started trying it, but it’s interesting enough to share. Most of you know that I was in a three car accident in January which has caused me some major neck and back pain. I have been seeing an amazing chiropractor (Pivonka Chiropractic) who is actually trying to heal my spine (rather than just adjust me a couple of times a week and not really worry about the way my spine is working — most chiropractor just crack your back so it feels better and don’t correct the shape of your spine!) and get it back into the proper shape, and I’ve been improving a lot. For the first few weeks, they didn’t want me to workout at all, because I had some swelling in my neck and some pretty bad headaches. I was super frustrated because I had just started to get back to working out after having Baby Boy, and I was excited to start moving towards my pre-pregnancy weight. After a few weeks, I was feeling much better and I started working out again, even without the doc’s approval. I really trust him, but I know my body and it was ready to move again. He (of course) began to notice a lot more tightness in my shoulders and back as I started lifting weights again, and asked how often I work out. The answer of 4-6 times per week completely freaked him out. He swears that working out that often will completely destroy my spine and my joints, and wear down my body completely. Obviously this is completely against everything NASM ever taught me, and I pretty much completely ignored him — but at the same time I was intrigued. He cited a type of workout that was intense enough to do for only 20 minutes per WEEK, and it would keep you in shape and keep your body much healthier than the usual workout regimen. He cites the book “Body by Science” by Doug McGuff, M.D. and John Little, which describes high intensity but VERY slow movements which are meant to cause muscle failure. The exercises are performed on machines, because they feel that free weights and barbells have a higher risk of injury (which is true, but I have always believed that the benefits outweigh the risks, especially if you are careful). Being a dedicated gym rat, this idea is very foreign to me, but I can’t help but be tempted by the relatively tiny time investment and the relatively big physical benefit. At the same time, when it comes to fitness, tiny time investment NEVER equals a big physical benefit, no matter what weight loss drug manufacturers tell you — so I’m skeptical as well. They SWEAR that this is fully backed up by science, but I can’t help but wonder why I’ve never heard of this before. I promise to do some more research into this, because as much as I love to workout, as a busy mom I have zero extra time. If this is true, it would be life changing for so many parents out there who are trying to work, take care of their kids, and manage to stay in shape too.

Have any of you ever heard of a workout program like this? If so, what was your experience with it?

How did you celebrate Easter this year?