Workout Tip of the Week: Stuff the Turkey, not Yourself!

There is nothing worse on Thanksgiving night than feeling stuffed and lazy. Why not feel great and enjoy the time with family and friends? Here are a few tips to help:

1. Start the day by eating a small breakfast rather than skipping meals until turkey time. This will help you not to over-eat after being hungry all day long. Our bodies aren't meant to eat 2,000-3,000 calories at once and will store the excess calories as fat.

2. Workout! Go for a walk, jog or do a quick weights routine at home. It will feel great to burn some calories before the Thanksgiving meal.

3. Watch your portions. Eat a little bit of the foods that you really like. Sometimes if it is there, we eat it. Stop and ask yourself what you really want. Stuffing and cranberries aren't my fave so I like to save those calories for pumpkin pie, which I love!

4. Bring a healthy side dish. Sweet potatoes are full of nutrients and taste great by themselves. Bake some without adding all of the sweet and fatty stuff. A little cinnamon and sugar is all they need.

5. Do something active with your family after the meal, especially if you weren't able to workout in the morning. Play tag with the kids, start a basketball game, or go for a walk.

Eva's 1st Halloween

Have you seen a cuter tube of toothpaste? Kids make holidays so much more fun. I loved dressing Eva up for her first Halloween and taking her to the dental office. She was pretty happy until her cap would fall down over her eyes! Thanks for the help with the costume, Grandma Julia.

The next day...

And I thought I could trust the dentist.

What have the Ballou's been up to?

Oh, how time flies. I haven't updated in a while, sorry. We have been busy but life has been treating us well. We went to my first BSU game (Eric took some young men from our ward a couple months ago) last weekend and had a blast. It is great to see so many crazy fans and nothing but orange and blue. We have become quite the fans ourselves. Remind me to post a picture of Eva in her new BSU t-shirt.

Eric has been working hard, seeing lots of patients, which is great! I'm so glad that he loves what he does. I have been preparing talks and lessons for the past couple of weeks for church. Eric and I are just the opposite when we have to teach or give a talk. I get scared and sweaty just thinking about it and Eric gets excited and after jotting a few thoughts down he is prepared and does an awesome job. I had to give the dreaded dating lesson to the young women at church and prepared and prepared and probably overprepared, but it went well. I wanted to do it in a way they could remember so I used jelly-bellies and compared them to boys and I compared the selection of a favorite flavor to dating. I encouraged them to "taste all of the flavors" and date lots of boys. I don't think they will ever look at a jelly belly the same. After that lesson was over I was asked to speak on gratitude at enrichment night. I was so glad I did because it really made me aware of my many blessings and after recieving a cute little gratitude journal I have been trying to write down something every day about how the Lord has blessed my family and I.

If you look closely in the bottom picture you can see the last reason why I've been too busy to blog. Yes, I finally started Twilight. I'm probably the last of the mormon girls on earth to start reading it, but I haven't been much of a reader. After this I definitely will be. I love it! And my main reason for starting this is so that I can go to the movie with Emily, Meg and Nancy who have all read just about the whole series.