Healthy Living in Connecticut Blog

Allow me to introduce myself to all of you fabulous fitness friends on here! My name is Jackie & I am a busy mom of 2 AMAZING girls. I am passionate about health, fitness & overall well being. My fanatical routine that I currently possess has not been that way for long, though. It will be 2 years, next month, from when my journey began. Allow me to share.

My youngest daughter was turning 5 & for her birthday, she wanted to go to Build a Bear! My in laws made the drive over to our place & we all headed out. Before heading into the store, someone was nice enough to take a family picture of all of us. The day was GREAT! As soon as we got home, I rushed to the computer to upload the pictures from the day. THERE IT WAS. The picture that changed my life. It is my now famous "before" picture.

Today, I learned some new strength exercises using the Cybex Smith machine. I've seen this equipment before but never knew the name of it.

Wow, what a workout! I am sore so I know it's working! This machine is a good way to get the technique down before moving on to free weights.

Who doesn’t love bright, shiny bling things?  Whether its diamonds, an expensive watch or highly polished sports car, most of us are attracted to and want beautiful things.

I'm so tired of winter, especially the snow storms we've been getting lately. But one thing is for sure, you can get a good workout in just cleaning up the snow!

I was stupid… I thought I would be able to make the YMCA yesterday to work out. I received an email from the YMCA saying they would remain closed for the rest of the day. At first I thought, why can't they be open? Then I looked outside. OK, I'm going to be shoveling the rest of the day, who needs to workout after all the shoveling!

Just a quick post on a topic so often confused by many people. I often hear....I have gained some weight since I started weight training but muscle weighs more than fat. Okay..let's get a handle on that. A pound of muscle weighs exactly the same as a pound of fat. A pound is a pound no matter what. Keep in mind that a pound of muscle is much smaller in size than a pound of fat which is very voluminous. So get out there and lift some weights and tighten up the flab. You can do it.