Fitness at Home

Which is heavier… a seven pound newborn or a fifteen pound infant? It’s a trick question, and it depends on the Mama. For many mothers, carrying a new baby 24/7 can be a huge strain. To help prepare for baby, it’s a good idea to do pregnancy-safe exercises with weights in the second and third trimesters. Lindsay Brin has a great series of fitness videos for mothers in every stage. If your physician clears you for exercise, I highly recommend walking as much as possible and following the Moms Into Fitness prenatal DVD series at least three times per week.

Lindsay is an enthusiastic fitness expert with three kids of her own. She’ll coax you through the workouts with inspiration about your baby. There is a cardio and toning segment or a yoga routine for each trimester. You will need two sets of weights in the 2-8 pound range depending on your pre-pregnancy fitness level. Post-pregnancy, Lindsay kicks up the challenge with the Moms Into Fitness Bootcamp. This DVD is awesome because it allows you to customize different mini-clips so your workout can always change. You’ll tone in different ways each week so you won’t get bored with your workout.

Working out at home has many benefits. It’s much cheaper and more convenient than the gym, plus you don’t need to worry about child care. When you’re pregnant, your baby needs you to exercise, particularly in the second and third trimesters. After you’ve recovered from the birth, you need strong muscles to carry around the baby and all her gear! By the time she’s a toddler, you’ll want to run around with her. There are a million reasons why working out will improve your life, but the most important reason to work out is for your children. Set a positive example and be the energetic and strong Mom kids will choose to look up to!

You can buy these DVDs and your weights on Amazon or at some Target stores.

Jeannette is a budget-conscious mama with a degree in Design and Merchandising from Drexel University. She’s transitioning to stay-at-home Mommyhood and loving it! Her blog, www.ecoincognito.com, is full of eco friendly household tips that are perfect for the suburban lifestyle.

More Cleaning, Less Blogging

My husband called me out on the whole cleaning thing… I’m not doing a bad job, but he thinks the house should be kept to a military standard of clean. The thing is, I really only blog when my daughter is napping because she’s not a very sound sleeper. It gives me something to do that doesn’t make a lot of noise. The issue has never been that I’ve blogged away all my time, it’s that LO wakes up to the sound of a pin and my cleaning time goes out the window! Fear not, dear readers, I’m still going to blog.

Now, I’ve got a new plan. Baby is cleaning with me! She hangs out in my K’tan carrier and gets to look around while I spruce up. Here’s a scenario where this whole “going green” thing is working out better than I could have planned. My cleaning supplies have no toxic fumes, so they are perfectly safe for her to be around. Not only that, I can clean surfaces like her high chair without worrying about her ingesting chemicals.

How do my new Get Clean supplies stack up? Healthy for family: Check! Saving money: Check, Check! Environmentally responsible: Check, Check, Check!! They’re even saving me time because I don’t have to shop or cut coupons for cleaning supplies. Honestly, it seemed like I had stumbled upon the greatest secret of all time when I met Lynn Reynolds, our local rep at the Helicopter Museum during RotorFest (of all places.) Then, I found out I won the prize pack and I felt like I won the lottery!

If you’re still stashing bottles of Windex and 409 under your sink, check this stuff out. One 16 Oz bottle of super-concentrated cleaning solution can last for years. You add a 1/4 teaspoon to a whole bottle of water to make your 409 and ONE DROP to make your Windex. You’ll even waste less paper towels because you use microfiber cloths instead. Oprah has given the basket away as one of her favorite things for good reason. It comes with a poster-sized list of all the stuff it can clean!

Shaklee Get Clean Starter Kits

BIO: Jeannette is a budget-conscious mama with a degree in Design and Merchandising from Drexel University. She is transitioning to stay-at-home Mommyhood and loving it! Her current project, EcoIncognito, is an online informational website about sustainable living in the suburbs, launching in 2012. Catch her @EcoIncognito on Twitter or at www.ecoincognito.com.

It Pays to Stay at Home

I’ve set an ambitious goal for this year; to save more money than I would have made working full time. I left my job as a photo studio producer to become a Full Time Mom because I absolutely wanted to devote myself to my daughter for her first year. Since this is the first “job” I’ve had that I truly enjoy, I’d like to stay in it for as long as possible. So, I’m going to save as much money as I can for my family. It’s my way of ensuring my happiness and respecting my husband’s hard work at bringing home the bacon.

At first I wanted to start couponing, but there is so much waste to that nonsense that it can’t become my life plan. Granted, I’m going to use coupons, but I’m not going to devote more than 2 hours at the store at a given time and I’m certainly not going to bring home items that we won’t ever use. I’m also peeved by the notion that you’ll save more by buying smaller items. Smaller items = more packaging and more waste. You’re talking to someone who’s cloth diapering here, so I’m not about to fill up the landfill space that I’m saving! Basically, couponing wasn’t going to become my overall life mantra so I checked out the other side of the spectrum.

Initially I avoided going green because I thought everything cost more. When I think about what I’ve learned in the last four months, I realize how naive I was. Yes, some of the products cost more but many of them are reusable or concentrated so the value is greater. I’ve gone from being skeptical of anything green to an eco-devotee. My husband is keeping tabs on me to make sure I don’t take things too far and he’s a great sounding board for some of the hairbrained ideas I find online.

If I’m not an extreme couponer or a barefoot treehugger, but I dabble in a few of both practices, where does that leave me? I call it a Conscientious Consumer. I’ve set my priorities to help guide me through the decisions I’m making about everything from the food we eat to the cleaning products I use:

1. Health of my family
2. Cost
3. Environmental impact
4. Time/Effort involved

With all this in mind, how are the finances stacking up? Pretty well so far! Since we would have spent 3/4 of my income on daycare, fuel, tolls, and taxes I’m left with a small amount to cut from our regular monthly expenses. I will keep you posted about how I’m pinching each penny over the coming months but I’ll give you a hint, I’m using the age-old mantra “Reduce, Reuse, Recycle” to help figure everything out.

BIO: Jeannette is a budget-conscious mama with a degree in Design and Merchandising from Drexel University. She is transitioning to stay-at-home Mommyhood and loving it! Her current project, EcoIncognito, is an online informational website about sustainable living in the suburbs, launching in 2012. Catch her @EcoIncognito on Twitter or at www.ecoincognito.com.