It’s time for another installment of “One Fit Mommy”. This is when we get to learn more about other moms who inspire me to fitness. Hopefully they will inspire you too!
This week’s featured mommy is Tami, she is mom to four young children and as you can see from her pictures, she is definitely “One Fit Mommy”! (abs anyone?)
She might look familiar because she is also the mom featured in Monday’s video of wall squats with a toddler. I found her on the blogosphere and got to find out how she maintains her “One Fit Mommy” status.
One Fit Mommy: Abs Are Built In the Kitchen
Tami credits her fit and lean physique to the Power 90X program, which I admittedly do not know much about. After seeing these results though, I plan on looking into the program for myself!
Here are some things that I learned from Tami:
- “Abs are built in the kitchen”. I love this quote! It doesn’t matter if you do 8000 crunches and planks everyday, if you are still eating junk food you will not have well defined abs.
- Make fitness a priority in your life.
- I can get strong enough to do 116 pull-ups? Sign me up for this program!
- and my favorite quote from Tami was not part of our interview, but said in a different email. She said: “I love my active lifestyle but one of the things that I’m most proud of is the example that Mike and I are setting for our four kids! They are growing up in a house where fitness and good eating habits are everyday life and they will carry that into their adulthood.”
Please read on for more great tips from Tami….
Q: With 4 kids, how DO you find the time?
I make it a priority, My fitness and healthy life style is as important to me as brushing my teeth or showering. I have to do it everyday. I find time to workout everyday because I time manage. I set 1 hour everyday to workout. That time of day may change from day to day, but I give myself that hour. TV is not a huge priority to me so if I miss watching TV on some days then I don’t cry, but if I miss a workout now that is a different story! Most days my husband and I plan a block of time everyday to exercise. The kids know that when that 1 hour is here, they need to let mommy and daddy do our thing. It’s one hour out of the day that is our time and the kids know that. Sometimes they even join in.
Q. What is your favorite workout/exercise and why?
My favorite workout/exercise program is P90X and the X+. I love to bike ride for distance and I just started to run last summer and I enjoy doing that as well. I love the P90X program for a number of reason. One is that I can do it right at home, in the living room with the kids running around. I don’t need to take time to go to a gym and I don’t need to have all kinds of equipment to do it either. Second, the X has completely changed my body inside and out. I am in the absolute best shape of my life. It’s not just strength for lifting weights, but it’s functional strength. My body is conditioned to do everything that everyday life throws at it and more. That is what I love about the X program the most.
Q: Have you always been fit? What has inspired you to live a fit lifestyle?
I would say that I have always tried to be fit, but there are periods of my life where I lost focus of fitness. I was a teenage bodybuilder in the 90’s but after I graduated school, bodybuilding and working out took a back seat to work and bills. It wasn’t until I was pregnant for my first child that I refocused on being healthy again. I wanted to stay in shape through out my pregnancy and not gain a lot of weight also. Plus, it was my chance to give my baby the best possible start in life as I could. I started to make working out and eating healthy a priority again. I would say that my husband and my kids are my main motivating factors for having a fit and healthy lifestyle! Plus the fact that I feel so darn great when I exercise and eat right. My energy is through the roof and that is important with four kids all under the age of 11!
Q: I am a stress eater, so my diet is my downfall. What advice do you have for those of us who have trouble eating clean?
The best advice I can give to anyone about eating clean is this, it’s all about a choice. You can choice to workout hard and push yourself in your workouts to push your fitness forward. You can choice to eat clean to aid in your healthy lifestyle or you can choose to cheat. I thinks of it like this, I workout so hard to get myself in the best possible shape why do I want to hamstring my whole day with poor eating habits. You can’t have one without the other so why workout hard if your nutrition is not where it should be. I think about how something is going to effect my body every time I eat a meal or snack. Picture your goals in your head or write them down and place them on the fridge. Then think about them every time you are about to eat something that is poor in nutritional value. Is that “cheat” worth more to you then your health? See, it is all about a choice.
Q: What is your favorite cheat meal?
I really don’t have a favorite cheat meal because I can make most of my favorite things in a healthy way now so I don’t crave any of them. However, I have a favorite cheat dessert! That would be a waffle bowl ice cream with caramel and heath bar candy on top from Dairy Queen! Yummy!
Q: For those of us who aspire to do full body pull ups, where should we start?
The best way to do a full body pull-up is to start with a foot on a chair for assistance. I started my pull-ups with one foot on a chair to help push my body up as I pulled with my back and arms. As I got stronger I used less chair assistance and more back strength. When I started doing pull-ups in my workouts I could only do 8 unassisted in one workout. The rest were assisted with a chair. Less than three months later on one back workout I was able to do 116 unassisted pull-ups! That is a huge jump and that is how strong my back got from starting them with a chair for assistance! Now I have to add weight to my waist to make it more of a challenge.
Q: The abs! How do you get and maintain those abs!?
Abs, everybody wants them! You get abs like any other muscle group, you work them with a great abs routine. I do 10 different ab exercises for 25 reps apiece 3x a week. I don’t do my ab routine more than three times a week because abs are easily over trained. You don’t work other muscle groups more than three times a week and abs are no different. Plus, many other exercises incorporate your core muscles so that is working your abs and lower back indirectly. Now, to maintain your abs is simple- You need to reduce your overall level of body fat through proper nutrition and intensity workouts. One of my husbands and my favorite sayings is, “Abs Are Built In the Kitchen”!
Q: Does your family exercise together and if so, what types of activities do you enjoy doing?
My husband Mike and I workout together on a regular basis. Our kids are still young, but the two oldest like to join in with Mike and I on cardio and yoga days. We don’t allow them to workout in the weight days because they are to young still. As a family we all like to take bike rides and walks together. We also have a big backyard and playing catch is one of the things we enjoy doing as a family!
Thank you Tami for being such an inspiration to other moms!