Inspiration from Health Fitness Coach Jodi

There are so many inspiring people around me each day. I want to share their stories with you this year! Check in each week for a new dose of inspiration. Last week was Operation Beautiful and this week is a mom with many titles, including "Health Food Nut!"

Hi, my name is Jodi. I'm pretty much known around by 'the good mother', 'the homeschool mom', or the 'health food nut'. I have tried really hard to live up to these titles for the past 21 years. I have 6 children ranging in ages from 3 to 21 and enjoy each of them immensely. 

Jodi - Eat, Sweat, Live- For Fitness

About 10 months ago, I also added the title, 'health and fitness coach' to my name. I'm not a perfect fitness model, but fell in love with the Beachbody fitness programs and HOW they made me look and feel. When I found out that I could start my own business helping other people achieve the same success that I had, I was very intrigued. 

For my business, all I do is find friends who want to join a 60 or 90 Day Beachbody Challenge. They pick out a Beachbody workout program that bests suits their goals, and then I set up a private facebook group. We cheer each other on, have contests, share recipes, and most importantly, we help each other reach our goals. It's really a lot of fun seeing so many people change their lives. Everyone is allowed to join my fitness challenge-no matter what your fitness level. I even met someone who does the program from her wheelchair! You can contact me at www.jodibirkmann.com for more information or to get started.

From Susie: Back in early April 2012 Jodi sent me a Facebook message, "... inviting you to join my April 16 60 Days to Summer Slim Down Challenge group. If you want to get fit and healthy this is a proven way to do it. If you are interested in hearing more, I'd love to share this with you." 

This was my response, "I really appreciate your invite and the follow up. It is something that I"m sure that I need to make a priority but I do not have the time. I'm swamped with work and adding in another thing to do or check online will not help me but stress me out more. lol 
Good luck with it. If I have time in the future I will check it out!"

Jodi's message was an inspiration to me. Her message and a few other events at this same time led me, inspired me, carried me to sign up at my local gym. I decided mid April that I was going to walk off my weight! So from April-Dec 2012 I lost 62 pounds!  Stay tuned for what I am doing in 2013.

(BACK to Jodi) Okay, so fitness is only part of the equation to losing weight and living a healthy lifestyle. Diet is VERY important as well. One rule that I live by is to eat a salad as a meal and with a meal everyday. That usually means a salad for lunch and a small salad with my supper. I'd like to share my favorite salad topping with you. It's called Parma topping because it is meant to resemble parmesan cheese. This is a dairy free, very healthy topping that you can use on salad, baked potatoes, pasta, pizza, grilled veggies, and more. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do!

PARMA TOPPING

1 1/2 cups raw almonds, partially ground in food processor
1/4 cup nutritional yeast
1/4 cup dried basil
2 tablespoons onion powder
1 tablespoon garlic powder
1 tablespoon oregano
1 tablespoon dried lemon peel
1 teaspoon sea salt
1/2 teaspoon paprika
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg

Mix together!

This is a delicious salad with cucumber spears, olives, carrot shreds, and my very favorite Parma Topping!

Who is giving you inspiration? I'd love to know! If you want health information from Jodi, click over to site at www.jodibirkmann.com for health tips, recipes, heath coaching, exercise tips & programs and more! She has free samples of her Shakeology drinks, too! 

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New Orleans Mardi Gras fun & Pinterest favorites

Ready for some New Orleans Mardi Gras fun? Here are some of our favorite recipes and fun ideas from when we lived in New Orleans!

1- New Orleans Mardi Gras Favorites

2- New Orleans Beignets

3-New Orleans Fun & Food

For this weekly Pinterest Party I am featured my favorite New Orleans recipes & fun memories! I'd love for you to check out my New Orleans Fun & Food Pinterest board. 

Please follow my boards on Pinterest- SusieQTpies Scraps of Life 

Chicken Crockpot Sliders Recipe

Pinterest is the best place to find new recipes to test. I found this Slow Cooker Three Envelope Pot Roast Sliders Recipe on Pinterest and when I clicked through I found it on one of my favorite blogs, Six Sisters' Stuff. 

(Chicken Sliders with melted cheese)

Chicken Crockpot Sliders 

(Adapted from Slow Cooker Three Envelope Pot Roast Sliders Recipe from Six Sisters' Stuff. If you want the Pot Roast Recipe I also tried it on my blog. It is great! )

*My adapted recipe makes this with chicken or roast beef. The below spice mixture works with either meat and differs from Six Sisters' Stuff. 

Ingredients

1 3-4 lb 3 lbs chicken
1 cup water
1 cup chili sauce

1 cup salsa
1 container dry onions (seasoning aisle)
1 envelope Au Jus mix

Add all the above ingredients, except meat, into the crock pot and mix together. Add in meat. Use a spoon to add some sauce on top of meat. Cook 3 hours on high in the crock pot (or until meat is tender enough to slice or shred.) Once the meat is finished, I pull it out and shred or cut it in thin slices. I then add it back into the crockpot on warm for up to 3 or more hours. This seems to really get the meat tender and tasty and keeps it from drying out until ready to eat.

Kitchen Note: If you can't find the dry onions in the seasoning aisle near the onion powder (I buy them all the time at Walmart) you can use 1 container of onion soup mix. I do not use the prepackaged onion mix because of it high sodium content and I don't think it alters the taste of the recipe to use just the dry onions.

(Pot Roast sliders without melted cheese)

To make the sliders you need:
King's Hawaiian Rolls (love these for all our sliders) or other small roll
sliced Swiss cheese
Creamy Chipotle Sauce (a must!)

Creamy Chipotle Sauce: (Adapted from Six Sisters' Stuff)

1/2 cup sour cream
1/4 cup chili sauce
2 tablespoons creamy horseradish sauce

Just give it a quick mix.

To make sliders-

Add meat to bottom of bun and top with 1/2 slice of cheese. You can add this to the oven or microwave to lightly melt the cheese or skip the melting. Top with sauce, add bun top and eat! They are a tad messy!

Need another slider recipe? Check back next week for my turkey burger or beef burger sliders (similar to White Castle) and our Chicken Breast Sliders (aka knock off similar to Chick-fil-A)

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Monday Menu Plan National Soup Month

January is National Soup Month! Just in time for this frigid cold weather. Try some of these soups into your family weekly menu plan.

This doesn't have anything to do with the menu but if you have someone who suffers from self esteem issues, especially tweens & teens, check out my post on "Cut out the negative "fat talk"!

Monday-Chicken Orzo Soup from Crystal & Co's (featuring from those linked up last week's menu linky)

Tuesday-Cajun Chicken Stuffed with Pepperjack Cheese from Vintage Pretties (featuring this menu and yummy chicken from last week's menu linky)

Wednesday- Bean & Sausage Soup (crock pot and my kids love this)

Thursday- Middle Eastern Spicy Lentil Soup (not too spicy!)

Friday- Crock Pot Pizza Soup (crowd favorite)

Saturday- leftovers. I do freeze leftover soup to serve later. I do love to freeze in one serving sizes for lunch

Link up any of your recipes or menu plans below! I will pick a few of my favorites to feature next week! I do appreciate you linking up and I can't wait to try some of your recipes!

I've linked up at OrgJunkie's Menu Plan Monday link up and always check out 3 Boys and a Dog menus. I will pin some of the post on Pinterest as I have time! If you do pin my post, please leave a comment and I will be sure to get yours pinned. Thanks!

Sweet Valentine Treats and Pinterest Social Hop

Are you thinking about Valentine's Day? Do you have special traditions? Here are two of my favorite Sweet Valentines Day Treats for you to make your sweetie this year!

DIY No Bake Valentine Sundae

Mini Chocolate Chip Pies

For this weekly Pinterest Party I am featured my favorite Valentine treats! I'd love for you to check out my Valentines Day I Love You Pinterest board. 

Want to join in the FUN?

HOW TO JOIN THE LINKY Party (all optional)

1) Pin this Party Post to Pinterest- Please! 

2) Link up your most clicked on post, most followed Pinterest board, favorite pinterest pin, etc...anything goes.

3) Add your Pinterest name to the linky.

4) In turn pin a few things on the linky.

Please follow my boards on Pinterest- SusieQTpies Scraps of Life and cohost  Crystal and Company and  3 Boys and a Dog. We do follow back.

Febreze Holiday Contest Winner

Have you been following the Frebreze Holiday Contest on their Facebook page and the info that I shared about Febreze here on my blog? Well good news! They did announce the Holiday Contest winner!

On December 24th, Febreze announced the winner of their holiday contest, making one family's dream come true! Watch Febreze Deliver The Holiday to a dad getting a surprise he’ll never forget! Watch the video on their You Tube and visit the Facebook page to join the conversation!

I've included the video for you, too!
 


I participated in a campaign on behalf of Mom Central Consulting for Febreze. I received a promotional item to thank me for participating.

Mamavation Monday on Wednesday

Have you ever heard of Mamavation? If you are a blog follower then you might have read my Mamavation Two Week Challenge with Bob Harper post. This is a post about healthier lifestyle choices, pledging into the Sistahood and why I've been doing it since April 2012.

If you are sharp this morning, you will see that this is a Mamavation Monday post but it is being posted on a Wednesday. That is because I'm pledging to be in the Mamavation Sistahood and the post is suppose to be a Mamavation Monday post and I didn't want to wait another week to get this posted. With me? lol

 I've been a silent sista in hood for at least 4 years now. I've participated on and off in twitter events, read blog post on Mamavation and search for #mamavation on Twitter just to read what they are saying about a healthier lifestyle. Am I a creeper? No, not really. I just didn't have anything to say or share but I wanted to get inspired and do my own research. By doing this, I came upon the 2 week Bob Harper Challenge at the end of October. I took the leap and signed up to do the challenge.

 Why did I finally sign up for something and participate in Mamavation? I did this because I was finally at a point to where I needed a little help. You'll have to go read the post for the full deets but it boils down to the fact that I had lost over 40 pounds (started April 2012) but my weigh loss was at a standstill. So I joined the challenge to mix up my routine and it helped me tremendously. Why? It helped to have a group to go to where I could get some mamavation aka motivation and where I could share what I have learned.

Once the challenge was over, I kept up with BobHarper.com as well as what I had already been doing prior to the challenge to bring my weight loss of 2012 to 61 pounds. That is amazing and I'm always blown away by the number of pounds that I have lost. I have more to go and I am determined to loose at least 60 more pounds in 2013.

Throughout this healthier lifestyle journey, I have learned a lot about my body and what works and doesn't work. Do you want to know my secret diet? Everyone always ask like there is that one diet that helped me loose 60 pounds. I get weird looks, weird comments and even blank faces when I do share my secret diet. My secret diet is called The Exercise Diet. OMG! Yes I said the word EXERCISE!

That is my diet. People ask, "But what diet do you follow...you know what do you eat." I tell them, and you here that I eat whatever I want. I have learned since April that I do not want or no longer want Coke Zero, anything with no fat replacements or no sugar replacements, very little white flour, white sugar or white pasta. I no longer crave or want a bag or box of this or a box of that, etc. My diet is protein, vegetables, fruit and anything else that gives me the strength to make it to the gym once a day.

So by following my own "The Exercise Diet" my body has naturally helped me determine what to eat and what not to eat. This really only makes sense once you get doing it.  Does this mean I never eat any of the things I mentioned above? No it doesn't mean that. I have no restrictions because I have learned that restrictions mean I will find a way to eat everything all the time and feel crappy all the time. I focus on exercising and everything else falls into place.

 So now it is 2013, I have new exercises that I want to do, races to be ran and will do, I want to keep learning about how to have the best healthier lifestyle for me and I want to keep sharing my experiences with anyone who ask.

 Check back weekly as I'm going to try and have a Mamavation Monday post EVERY Monday! lol If you have any thoughts, tips, comments, questions please leave them below so that I can help you! I decided to join another one of their challenges.

Check out http://www.mamavation.com/2012/12/omron-strapless-heart-rate-monitor-fitness-challenge.html for the #iheartomron challenge. If I get accepted into that you will be hearing a lot more from me and I will gladly share all that I am learning with you!