Plank Leg Lifts

Plank alone is an excellent stabilization exercise that involves almost every muscle in the body with a focus, of course, on the core.  It helps to help build upper body strength too.  Adding a leg lift to this posture will add an extra benefit of placing additional stress on the arm bones as well as toning the glutes!

So let’s do it!  Get into a pushup position with your hands directly beneath your shoulders. Your body should form a straight line from your neck to your ankles. From that position, brace your core and lift one foot off the floor. You can hold that position for the entire set—60 to 90 seconds—and then do the second set with the other leg raised, or switch legs halfway through each set.

*Trainer Tips- If your wrists are sensitive, lower down onto your forearms.  I can’t stress this enough, maintain proper form. There is a tendency to let the hips lift up or let the stomach drop and the low back arch. Maintain a straight line from your shoulders to your heels, and keep the abdominal and gluteal muscles contracted.

Are you ready to learn some exercises to help you burn off that stress/anxiety/depression? Then you are going to LOVE our new segment coming to the blog! We will feature an exercise segment that will show you how to work the endorphins and get you feeling good and relaxed!

I try to work out at least once a day if not twice a day. It doesn't have to be lifting weights, running, or working out on the elliptical. Of course, those are definitely some great ways to help! Pilates, yoga, and walking are effective as well! My favorite is doing Pilates! I just recently started doing Pilates but have done Yoga here and there. :)

Leave a comment below stating what YOUR favorite way to exercise is :)

**As always please consult your doctor before getting into an exercise routine**

Thanksgiving is just a few days away! As we are getting ready for our small Thanksgiving. Even though we may be hours upon hours away from family we still enjoy having Thanksgiving together. We are big family people (love having all of our family around during Thanksgiving) and as much as it's hard to not be around our extended family we do enjoy just eating together. It's small things like having our spouses around for Thanksgiving that we miss so much during deployment. 

I'm also thankful that Military Spouse Magazine gives out the opportunity each year for people to nominate a deserving military spouses. As I watched "Oprah's Favorite Things 2012" the other day when she surprised 30 deserving military spouses (MSOY finalists) it made me realize we can all make a difference in our communities. Listening to some of their stories made me tear up, thinking maybe I can make a difference. All of the spouses were so inspiring and so were their stories as to why they started their organizations. This organization is how I am working towards making a difference in the lives of our military spouses. 

We are very thankful for our fans and our readers! What are YOU thankful for?

Image courtesy of Chuck Felix/ FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Today we finish off our Veteran's Day post from last week. I hope you all had a wonderful Veteran's Day. :)

So it's the day after Veteran's Day, the day you go back to work after your long 3 day weekend. That 3 day weekend of course always feels too short. But is it just a day to get off of work? Like I stated in the last post it is a day to Thank a Vet. So what did you do?

Every day at this particular theme park we regularly attend, at 5pm each day they have a flag retreat. If you are a veteran they encourage  you to be part of this ceremony. I have experienced it and it feels like Veteran's Day everyday! Now that would be why I love going there, a park where it feels like Veteran's Day everyday!  They have a parade and everything for the Veteran that's taking part in the flag retreat ceremony.

Veterans, they gave up everything to give us freedom. They deserve our utmost respect with everything that they have been through, especially being away from families. The families, they go through deployments, homecomings, and training. Most of the time they do get left out to be thanked as well, of course that's the last thing on their mind when they are trying to go grocery shopping while the little one is crying. It can be stressful but at the same time it is rewarding and makes you feel like you are a stronger person. I felt that I gained strength and pushed through my anxiety while my husband was gone. I had to be strong, I had to get through deployments.

Being a military spouse can be rough at times but at the same time it is very rewarding. Makes you beam with proud faces when you see the flag. You feel an overwhelming since of pride during holidays such as Veteran's Day, July 4th, and Memorial Day. But you also feel the same way during homecomings, deployments, and just every day to day life.

I will close with this tonight. For those of you who suffer from anxiety, find your inner strength and that will help you overcome your anxiety. Love conquers all and can conquer anxiety, you just have to find that inner strength.

Image courtesy of thephotolic/FreeDigitalPhotos.net

So now that the initial post is over here is my second blog! I know Veteran's day is next Monday but this is one of my favorite days of the year. So I had to write a two part blog on this amazing day!

What is Veteran's Day? Well, it's a day recognized by the nation to respect and honor those who have served. Of course we really shouldn't restrict ourselves to thank them one day a year or if you want to throw in Memorial Day, twice a year. We should thank a Veteran every chance we run into one. They served our country and we would not have the freedoms we do without them.

Veteran's Day... why do I care so much about this day? Because I LOVE seeing celebrations pop up all around the areas and seeing parades all geared towards our veterans. I love being able to see a group of Veterans, thank them, and just have a chat with them. I can tell that when they see I genuinely care about them and thank them sincerely their eyes are so full of joy and light. That brings me so much happiness! These veterans are the ones who are amazing (and of course the spouses too!).

I remember a little bit before Veteran's day a couple years ago, the local VFW was doing a donation/drawing for something at our local grocery store. I can't remember exactly what it was, as it didn't matter I just wanted to donate some money to the organization. I was talking with one of the ladies there and we struck up a conversation. I was telling her about how I was a military spouse. So we talked for awhile and come to find out she, herself had served! I could have stayed all day and talked but then I had to get back home.

The military spouses whose husbands were in Vietnam made me realize how incredibly lucky we are today. I couldn't imagine being able to only write letters to my husband as the ONLY form of communication. I am definitely blessed to have been access granted to video chats, online chats, phone calls, emails, care packages, and even snail mail letters.

So my challenge to you for this week and weekend is to at least thank a vet. How will you try to help a Vet this week? Stay tuned for Part 2 of this blog next week!

First blog post, I never know what to say or how to start it. I figured it would be a good idea to give some background information as to why I started this non profit organization. There is no better place to start a story than the beginning right? So here it goes....

It all started a few years ago, I was diagnosed with agoraphobia with panic disorder. For those of you who don't know, it's the same anxiety disorder as Paula Deen has. As I read her book I kept thinking (hey! I know that feeling!) and how she persevered through her disorder and now, well, I think we all know how insanely popular she is. Who doesn't know Paula Deen? I married my husband who was Army and we arrived at his duty station. A few months went on by and I started meeting some new friends and found a few other friends who suffered from panic attacks as well. I thought that was nice to have someone to relate to with my anxiety.

Fast forward a few years and a few deployments later. I had played around with the idea of starting a non profit organization for spouses who suffered from anxiety. I thought at the time that there wouldn't be enough of a need to justify having the non profit. So it went on the back burner until a few months ago.

My husband got PCS orders and we went to our new duty station, no big deal it happens when you are military. You can't stay at one post forever eventually you will have to PCS. I found a beautiful home for us to live in and it seemed like a nice area. For some reason the new duty station brought back all my anxiety and panic attacks that were very well controlled. After having multiple attacks I thought to myself, surely I can't be the ONLY person who suffers from them. I had at least two other friends at our previous location that had them as well.

I decided to research military spouses and if they suffer from any mental health disorder such as anxiety, depression, and PTSD. I found that there was a study conducted (before 2007) and there were quite a few spouses who suffered from mental health disorders. I was quite shocked that number was significantly more than 3. I thought for a minute thinking since that study I had been married and both of my friends were married after I was. So maybe there are more and so I decided to research some more. I found that new studies were showing secondary PTSD in military spouses. I was overwhelmed by the numbers as it took a few days just to have everything sink in. I decided it was time to just sit down and get this non profit organization started.

After writing up my plans for this non profit, I decided to start up a Facebook group to see if there were spouses out there right now that suffer from anxiety disorders. Sure enough we received quite a few requests to join the group. It was a little overwhelming to see this dream of helping others start to come to light. My goal is to help any spouse going through any mental health disorder and work with them and let them know we are here for them.

Hopefully you understand a little bit better now about why I started this non profit organization. Some military spouses are normally afraid to receive help (anyone can be afraid to receive help for fear of it showing that they are weak) or are unable to go to the doctor themselves because of their anxieties. The spouses are often overlooked and this issue is normally "hush, hush" between spouses. It's time to bring awareness onto the situation and help those who stand behind the ones that serve our country.