#FrontSplitsFriday & delicious mousse!

Today is #FrontSplitsFriday! And it’s week 4 which means it’s comparison week to the very first week and I have to say I’m pretty pleased with the results.

Here’s my splits for this week.

As you’ll notice it is morning, I needed a break last night because my arm started to hurt a little so I didn’t work out last night. I did some stretches beforehand to try and warm up my muscles but I feel like I could have gone even further if it was after I had done some cardio and really warmed up my body. You can see I’m wearing my sweater because my house was really cold this morning.

And here’s the comparison.

My calf is definitely touching the group more which means my stretch is lower. As well as you can see less of the pole than the first time. So I’m relatively pleased with the results. It really helps to have a comparison I must admit, it’s such a small difference that if I wasn’t photographing it I probably wouldn’t realize it, and I would have slowed down on my stretches because I would have felt that I wasn’t making any progress. But now I feel like trying harder than ever, I am so hell bent on getting these splits down, I know my right side is going to be before my left side that is for sure. I’m going to try and stay in my splits for a couple minutes now and watch a tv show or something to distract me from the time.

All I have to say is TGIF! Not because I work but because my love works and weekends are the time we get to spend together that’s not just eating then bed a couple hours later. I go to bed relatively early because my daughter is exhausting. She’s a little bundle of energy that is like non-stop. So by the end of the day if I have enough energy to work out it’s a miracle.

So something fun today! PDBloggers have teamed up with bodybinds to have a contest and the winner gets $200 towards a purchase on their site. Let me tell you, you need the $200! There’s so much lovely wear and it’s so expensive. I guess not bad for some people but when you have a house and bills and a child to pay for $200 is a lot! But I have to say it looks like it’s worth it, they’re absolutely lovely and work so well with pole because you’ll still get side stick and every other stick while looking sexy as hell!

Just click on the image below to go and enter the contest!

Click to go and enter yourself!

I think once I have more of an audience I may try to run a contest as well. That could be fun, maybe have some art as a prize or something from Poleitical Clothing! It could be fun!

Alright now to leave you off with something delicious because I forgot to yesterday!

Since my other mousse was so successful, here is another one I happened to stumble on. It’s a bit easier to make as well, easier than getting prunes and pitting them because this is made with delicious avocado, and if you’re like “ewww Avacado and chocolate?!” don’t be ridiculous, that sounds delicious, and avocado doesn’t have a taste when mixed with other things…. In fact I’m going to make this today it looks so delicious… IN FACT I’m going to have this after I have my avocado grilled cheese for lunch! Now I’m just hungry…

Well that’s all for this week mes amours! Let’s hope next week is a better one, I know I’m expecting some cold weather here, but it’s kind of like jack frosts middle finger couple of days as we start to head into warmer weather because he can’t go quietly!

New Stretch Wednesday!

Sorry for being MIA yesterday! My daughter is sick again and I spent the whole day in bed with her, which I can’t say my hips enjoyed. Every time I sleep my hips are sore when I wake up, so laying bed all day really didn’t do them any good. At least today I’ve managed to get her out of bed!

So I got spoiled on Monday, since my boyfriend worked on Valentine’s Day and doesn’t get home until about 7, he decided to bring me out on the Monday instead because it was family day and he had it off. So he brought me to a super swanky sushi place that was ridiculously expensive but honestly worth every penny.

I ordered this combination knowing it was big, but not anticipating just how big it really was. In the picture I’ve already eaten a couple of things. I was stuffed by the end of dinner but wished my stomach was bigger so I could have eaten it again. Some of the best sushi I’ve ever tasted!

Still not much to report on the pole frontier, I still haven’t tried to pole since taking a break due to my wrist, this break really blows. But today is the real test because tonight I have pole at the studio. What makes it even better is that my best friend is finally back from Florida and will be coming to pole! I’m so happy she’s back! I missed her so much in class, it’s honestly not the same without her.

Tonight is also spinning pole night, aka Elise’s exorcist night! Makes me so ill, but I’m still looking forward to it, I want to see what moves I can do while spinning. Next week is even more exciting though, it’s dress up night, and our theme is rockstar, obviously since the song our routine is to is Rihanna’s Rockstar 101. I have my outfit picked out already because I love to dress up so I do it way in advance!

Today is also stretchy Wednesday! So here’s your new stretch for the week, again by Julia Wahl because I just didn’t have the opportunity between a sick little girl, dinner and pilates to take a picture. All my pictures are done at night because I’m a stay at home mom, so my days are filled with kids activities and once my daughter is in bed is when I work out. Which let me tell you is exhausting because honestly by 7 I just want to go to bed, she is an energizer bunny and a half!

Anyways back to the stretch, another simple stretch that stretches out your hamstrings. While she pretty much touches her face to her knee, don’t be worried if you can’t do that, I can’t even do that!

Julia Wahl of YouTube

It’s a good stretch to do right after you do your hip flexor stretch since you’re already down on your knee. Hopefully next week I’ll have the time to take the picture myself. I’m also hoping that this break for my wrist hasn’t affected my flexibility too much.

Tomorrow will most likely be a short post because my daughter has gymnastics in the morning but I’ll give you a delicious recipe to make up for it! Until tomorrow!

Be My Valentine?

Happy Valentines day lovers! Or happy hallmark day, or even happy Friday. Whatever it may be I just hope you have a wonderful day.

I’ve decided to give up on the video blogs for now, or maybe just do them when I feel like it. At least until I have to cut down on the amount of times I write a week. This will most likely happen during the summer or around September when I head back to school. I feel like right now I have nothing to talk about during the videos without repeating myself since I write this blog 5 days a week right now.

Not to mention it’s super boring around her right now because it’s winter and I am not a winter person. I may be Canadian but dear god I hate the cold. I’m out a lot more during the spring and summer, and even fall, but during the winter I hibernate.

Now I’m not going to lie, I really don’t like Valentines day, not since it pretty much got ruined for me by an ex-boyfriend who broke up with me the day after, and it was a long-time boyfriend which I didn’t have many of, so it was painful. It made me really sour towards this day, but that doesn’t mean I want to ruin it for others, so I try to make it special for my boyfriend as well as my daughter.

I’m not going to be a hipster like half the people I know though and be like “oh you should love whomever every day of the year blah blah blah I’m so hipster blah blah blah” While I think that’s true, at the same time I think it’s very short sited. It’s not that you just love a person the one day of the year, it’s just the one day of the year where you celebrate love. Just like I’m a mother every day of the year, it’s nice to have a day where you celebrate the fact that you are a mother. Amongst all the shit wrong with our world, we need days to celebrate so we’re not always depressed. Although funny enough this is probably one of the most depressing holidays for some people.

Anyways, before we get to the Valentines day stuff, lets talk #FrontSplitsFriday!

I’ve really seen progression since starting this challenge and I hope you have too! Don’t for get to hastag #FrontSplitsFriday on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, what ever, I want to see your progression!

Next week I’ll have a side by side comparison of Week 1 and Week 4. So makes sure to watch out for that. I’m excited to see the difference.

Alright now that we’ve got that out of the way lets’ talk Valentines day!

I have some wonderful recipes for an EASY romantic dinner for two. First off I’d like to start by saying this is not what I’ll be making for my dinner tonight just because my boyfriend reads my blog because he’s a good boyfriend and I want dinner to be a surprise tonight.

But with that being said, I know my boyfriend will also love this meal so sweetie I will make this at some point for us to eat as well. Love you!

So I know a lot of you are busy, weither you be a mom or work, or are even a working mom. So lets’ do something that can be done in advance so it’s ready to go and the biggest part of your meal is out of the way.

Slow Cooker Baby Back Ribs

Ingredients

3 pounds of baby back ribs, trimmed

Salt and ground black pepper, to taste

½ cup water

½ onion, sliced

1 clove garlic, minced

1 (18 oz) bottle barbeque sauce

Directions

1. Season ribs with salt and pepper.
2. Pour water into slow cooker. Layer the ribs into the slow cooker. Top the ribs with onion and garlic.
3. Cook on High for 4 hours (or Low for 8 hours).
4.  Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C).
5.  Transfer ribs to a baking sheet. Discard onion and garlic. Coat ribs with barbeque sauce.
6.   Bake in preheated oven until the sauce caramelizes and sticks to the meat, 10 to 15 minutes.

Easy right?

Next we need a side dish, preferably done at the same temperature as the oven needs to be for the ribs.

What better to go with meat than potatoes?

Roasted Rosemary Red Potatoes

Ingredients

6 red potatoes, scrubbed and cut into wedges

3 TBS butter, melted

3 TBS vegetable oil (or coconut oil like I like to use for everything!)

1 TBS chopped rosemary (Fresh is preferred but doesn’t have to be)

Salt and pepper to taste

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C).
2. Mix together melted butter and oil, then pour into a 9×13 inch baking dish. Place the potatoes into the dish, and stir until coated. Sprinkle with rosemary, salt, and pepper. Cover with aluminum foil.
3. Bake in the preheated oven for 30 minutes, or until the potatoes are tender. Stir the potatoes occasionally to ensure even cooking.

Don’t forget to include a veggie with your dishes, simple enough something like steamed broccoli and carrots with a little bit of melted butter is perfect for a dinner like this!

And last but most definitely not least, a delicious Valentines day dessert!

Cheesecake Stuffed Strawberries

Ingredients

1 lb. big, ripe, fresh strawberries

8 oz. softened Philadelphia Cream Cheese

1/4 cup powdered sugar

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1/3 cup graham cracker crumbs

Directions

1.Wash berries and cut just the top off of each one. Remove centers of strawberries using a paring knife. Gently blot each berry dry and stand them upside down on a paper towel while you prepare the cheesecake filling.

2. Place the softened cream cheese, powdered sugar and vanilla in a medium size mixing bowl. Using a hand-held electric mixer, whip the ingredients together until completely blended and smooth.

3. Fill the strawberries using a small spoon, butter knife or cake decorating tube. Once filled, dip each berry (cream cheese end) into the graham cracker crumbs.

4. Place berries in a container with a lid and refrigerate until ready to serve. (These are best made and served the same day.)

Another super easy dessert is also to just do chocolate strawberries. A classic but a good one!

So there you go mes amours! A wonderful dinner for you and your love. I hope you all have a wonderful day, love everyone every day but celebrate love today because without it our lives would be empty.

Pole Goals for this Year & New Stretch!

Good morning ladies and gentlemen! Hope you’re all having a lovely Wednesday, my favorite day of the week. I have pole tonight at the studio, still a little afraid that my wrist isn’t going to be up to par to do the routine, but I’ll be icing it right before class as well as periodically throughout the day.

Today is new stretch day! And today I found a good stretch from Julia Wahl of YouTube.

Julia Wahl of YouTube

Now for this stretch you want to keep your back and leg flat on the ground. If you aren’t flexible enough to grab your leg to pull it back without your leg coming off the ground then grab a belt or a towel and put it around your ankle, and begin to pull back on your leg until you can feel your other leg starting to lift.

Don’t forget to switch and repeat the same with the other leg. Hold each leg for about 30 seconds each.

I think my splits are coming along nicely. Obviously nowhere near where I want them to be, ever since trying jade I’ve wanted to get it properly down.

Darko Photography http://www.darkophotography.co.uk

My other goal move for the year is the Ayesha. I just think it looks so impressive.

aerialamy.com

I think one other move I’d like to get down is the allegra. I feel like this is another move that you need good flexibility for.

http://www.electrickpolestudio.com

What are your goal moves for the year? Let me know in the comments below!

New Stretch and 31 Grilled Cheeses You Need to Try in your Lifetime!

It’s Wednesday! My favorite day of the week! Why? Well if you didn’t know by now, I’ll tell you, it’s Pole Day! And having missed last week because of the car accident, I’m majorly looking forward to tonight. Minus the fact I have to drive because my best friend is gone to Florida for 10 days, which is the worst! I miss her!

So super excited to go to pole, also haven’t seen my other pole lady in 2 weeks! Which is ridiculous! We have decided to make shirts for Friday, which is Sexapalooza, where we’ll be working the 3Sixty Dance & Fitness (Which is my home studio) booth. So today I’m going on a hunt for some black tank tops that I can put a design on the front with those iron on pages that you print off. I’ll show you guys on Friday during my weekly Video Blog!

Today is also new stretch day! And todays’ stretch is THIS ONE!

Okay so I don’t know the name of this stretch, what I do know is that it’s pretty close to the One-Legged King Pigeon Pose variation in yoga, so we could go with that.

This stretch lengthens your quadriceps and hip flexors!

So try adding this stretch to your daily stretching routine, today it’s going into mine.

Before I leave I want to share something that a friend posted on Facebook because it is amazing. Amazing for a foodie like myself!

CLICK THE PICTURE! DO IT NOW!

31 Grilled Cheese that are better than a boyfriend! Just click the picture to be taken to the page. The sandwich pictures is the chicken parm grilled cheese and my mouth is just salivating looking at it! I am definitely going to make this one, I’m not big on bread but I will make an exception for half these sandwiches!

Until tomorrow mes amours!

Front Splits Friday & Video – Week 1! Hooray!

It’s Friday! Rejoice! Today is Front Splits Friday, week 1! Here’s what my splits are at for week 1, both sides, right and left!

I meant to take this picture after my work out last night but completely forgot because I was doing the video as well. We all know how much better your muscles stretch after a workout, but I had no choice but to take it this morning (after a quick cardio warm up, because you never want to stretch cold muscles.) So my splits can go a little bit more than this, but I needed a picture for my blog this morning. I may stick an update tonight after my work out, compare the difference between properly warmed up muscles and quickly warmed up muscles.

Don’t forget to share your front splits with me!

@PoleFitMommy

 

@PoleFitMommy

 

Now here is the end of the week video blog! It’s my first video blog ever so be nice! I don’t normally talk to a camera so it’s going to take some getting used to.

Sorry for all the “uh’s” and “um’s”, I’ll try and work on that next week, I just kind of winged this one.

But it was really funny when I saw PDBloggers Facebook post, I started reading it and I was like that sounds so familiar, I kept reading and I was like “ohhhhh that’s me!”

So how cool is that! Anyways, I hope you all have a wonderful weekend! Until Monday mes amours!

Are you up for the Challenge?

Good morning beautiful people! I don’t know about you but dear god I’m tired. I wish I could take some pictures in Pilates to show you guys how hard it gets but the teacher is such a hard ass (with a hard ass, seriously you should see this woman’s butt) that there wouldn’t be time to take pictures. It’s only an hour class but I’m telling you it’s the fastest hour ever because you’re working so hard and consistently doing something.

Pole goes by fast because it is fun for me, I wish it was longer, I love it. But Pilates goes by fast just because it is non-stop, and I’m not hurting now, but I have to give it until like 3 to see just how sore I really am since it’s a night time class. We worked our abs really hard but I’d like to think my abs are already pretty strong, but covered in a layer of fat, they’re pretty much hiding!

Alright people a new thing I’m trying out starting this Friday, not only will Friday be video day but it’ll also be stretch day. I am challenging all of you to get your front splits with me! Front Split Friday, yup, I know, I’m a genius, you don’t have to tell me! It’ll keep going until I get my front splits down, posting updates every Friday, and I would love to see all your progress as well!

Every Friday tweet me or instagram me your progress photos!

@PoleFitMommy

 

@PoleFitMommy

 

Easy right? WRONG! This is going to take some dedication, do you have it in you to keep at this for weeks? But I believe in you, and I believe in me too! This is something I really want and need to get down if I want to get some more advanced moves. This is something that I will work at every day, because in reality it only takes like 15 minutes a day, and I think I can give up 15 minutes to my flexibility. But remember, never stretch cold muscles! So try jogging in place to your favorite song and when it hits the chorus you hike up those knees and do some high knees until the chorus ends.

Every Wednesday I’ll give you the stretch of the week. But first lets start you off with some basic stretches. Click HERE to go to my blog post about increasing your lower flexibility.

And the new stretch of the week is…. The Hip Flexor Stretch

I love this stretch, it feels great on my legs, especially after flipping upside down so much and relying on my legs to keep me there.

So I’ve been going on a sushi making spree lately, well… attempt, lets just call it an attempt. I didn’t have the proper “equipment” to make actual maki, and by that I mean my bamboo mat snapped, and I had no knifes sharp enough to slice through seaweed, yea you heard me right! My knives can cut through chicken, through steak, but god forbid they cut through a tiny thin piece of seaweed!

I wound up giving up on the maki and making some hand rolls.

But I also invested in a new bamboo mat, as well as a new sushi knife meant for slicing sashimi so I figure it has to be able to slice through the seaweed! I will be trying it out tonight! I’ll let you know, sushi so darn delicious.

Well, until Friday mes amours! Get started on those stretches! Say it with me…