My angel boy went to kindergarten. Rip my heart out. What if he doesn't find a friend and sits alone at recess? Who cares if he does good in school, as long as the kids are nice to him! The hard thing is Memphis is the sweetest boy and is always helping others, but he's a giant - at least a head taller than the other kids his age - what if they think he's a bully because he's big? Okay, tell me to stop freaking out. He's got a good teacher, he's flippin' adorable, how could he not make friends?

Happy birthday Mykelle Coats! It's my sweet nieces b-day today and we're having a little family party at my house so I should be cleaning and making food, but heck my family loves me.

Didn't make it to the gym this morning. I know, I'm a lazy piece, I'll go next week. I did have a fun bike ride and lifting session with the boys. Here's tomorrow's workout.

Warm-up - 5-10 minutes
Squat - narrow - 30
Squat - wide - 30
Squat and jump - 20-30 reps
Cardio - 3-5 minutes
Walking lunge - 30 on each leg
Lunge and jump change - 12
Cardio - 3-5 minutes
Step-up - 30 reps total
Quick Lunge off stair - 20-30 seconds
Cardio - 3-5 minutes
Plie - 30 reps
Plie and jump to center for two-count - 12-14 reps
Cardio - 3-5 minutes
Hamstring curl - 20 reps on each leg
Calf raise - 24-26 reps on each leg
Cool-down

If you're short on time, skip the cardio.
If you have joint problems - skip the jumps and the lunges

www.camichecketts.com

Tomorrow's the big day - I'm going back to the gym baby. I haven't been this excited since I found Extreme Moose Tracks ice cream. We'd better make it a great workout and see if I can actually get through half of it.

Warm-up and cardio - 10-40 minutes
Seated row - 3 sets of 12
Lat pulldown with band or cable - 3 sets of 12
Lateral raise - 3 sets of 8-10
Bench press with hand weights or bar - 3 sets of 10-12
Tricep dip- 3 sets of 10
Bicep curl - 3 sets of 12
Tricep pulldown with cable - 3 sets of 10
Hammer Curl - 3 sets of 12

If you're new make sure you go to my website - www.camichecketts.com and print out the strength training guide (it's under the links page).

Tomorrow is a cardio day. Do something you love. If possible add in some intervals (go hard for a minute, then ease up for a few). Whatever you do - keep it fun. Since I don't have to post a workout today. I thought I'd give you the Cami Checketts weight lifting lecture.

Too many women are afraid of weights. I’ve heard numerous excuses, but the most frequent are: I don’t know how to lift weights and I don’t want to look muscly. Since muscly isn’t even a word we won’t worry too much about it. The fact of the matter is: Most women couldn’t bulk up even if they wanted to and if you are one of those rare women who does bulk up: watch your calorie intake and don’t do max-outs and you’ll be fine. The excuse that you don’t know how to lift weights may be a valid one, but easily fixed. I promise it’s not rocket science. You can learn various ways: buy a book on weight-lifting, look online for advice, hire a personal trainer or follow my blog and save yourself the cash!

Lifting weights increases your metabolism more than anything else you can do. If you diet you will probably lose weight, but then your metabolism will drop because there's less of you to maintain. Then you must keep decreasing food intake to maintain your new weight.

Doing cardio is a great thing, but it will also make you more efficient and decrease your metabolism slightly because all your body systems are working better when you're cardiovascularly fit. So, you can lose weight with cardio, but then you will probably plateau and have to increase the duration/intensity of your cardio to keep losing. This is why you seem women who walk or do aerobics for years and not reach their ideal weight.

We come to my favorite exercise - weight lifting. As you lift you increase your muscle size and density - voila - increase metabolism because muscle is hard to maintain. So then you're burning calories even when you're sitting. The keys are to lift regularly (at least twice a week), lift slowly (count two up-two down) and lift heavy enough weights (8-15 pound dumbbells).
One warning - you will probably gain weight as you start lifting, you're increasing the muscle mass, but it takes longer to start burning off the fat. Please give it at least three months.
Also, you have to eat small, healthy meals and do cardio. I guess I ragged on those two earlier, but the thing is they are a huge part of being fit and healthy. If you incorporate all three aspects and stick with it, you'll see results.

Hope my lecture didn't bore you. Any thoughts or questions e-mail me.

We had a great weekend. The entire Checketts' family together for the first time in five years.

I received an interesting call Saturday. A lady asked me to teach a group of young women about health and fitness. I often go to Relief Society Enrichment meetings, but this is 12-18 year olds, on a Sunday and they are dealing with some obesity in their ward. If you have any helpful insight I would love you more than I already do. I'm going to look up Elder Holland's talk from a few conferences ago. The thing is I want to motivate them to start healthy habits for life, but I don't want to offend any of them. Any help would be great.

My Memphis boy starts kindergarten this week so I'd better give him some quality attention before he leaves me.

Here's tomorrow's workout.

Warm-up - 10 minutes
Step and squat - 3 minutes
Cardio - 5-10 minutes
Walking lunges - 3-5 minutes
Cardio - 5-10 minutes
Plie and side kick - 20-22 on each leg
Cardio - 5-10 minutes
Step-ups - 3 minutes
Cardio - 5-10 minutes
Glute presses - 20 on each leg
Calf raises - 20 straight, 20 with toes out - 20 with toes in
Cool-down and stretch

If you're short on time you can skip or shorten the cardio.
If you want to do more add another interval of lunges.

www.camichecketts.com

Made it three miles this morning! I'm finally recovered from the flu, the baby's sleeping again and my fingers aren't hurting too much.

We're hosting a party with all of my husband's family today. His brother-in-law returned from Afghanistan on Thursday, so that was a blessed day.
I'm excited to see everybody, and it's good to have a reason to clean the house, since I've been slacking for six weeks.
I thought I'd better get your workout to you in case today gets insane.

Warm-up and cardio - 10-40 minutes
Do a circuit with the following exercises - go through them all, then repeat 1-4 more times - 10-14 reps each then cool-down.
Lat Pulldown
Bent-over row
Frontal raise
Upright row
Incline pushups - hands on a step
Outward curl
Incline curl
Tricep dip
Cable pulldown or tricep kickback

www.camichecketts.com