Cherishing Moments & Creating Long Lasting Memories

I've found myself cherishing my loved ones more so lately. I don't know if it's cause I'm getting older, but I hold those dear to me very close to my heart. At the top of that list are definitely my children. And it might just be due to the fact that I have always chosen to take a more active role in their lives. Their success has always been very important to Hoko & I. We try to stay as involved in their lives as possible without smothering them or doing things for them.

These past couple of weeks I've taken the initiative in incorporating healthier options in not just our eating, but in giving my kids the option to be more involved. They're always cooking with Hoko in the kitchen cause I was always too impatient with them, but I've loosened up a little & am slowly letting them into my domain. Lol. Baby steps, right? I've also created a 'jogging crew' that's totally volunteer based. 👍It consists of Lote Si'i, Polu Marie, Jordan & I. It doesn't get any better than this.

They used to ask to exercise with me all the time, but we would always get in each others way & I'd always end up so frustrated. Now that I've been doing it for a while & the sheer fact that their interest in it hasn't lessened, I've come up with win/win solutions for all of us to succeed. And not just in the physical sense. I'm finding that we're bonding on a whole different level now. They confide their current emotions & their everyday insecurities with me. I think it's so easy to forget how it feels to be a little girl at their age going thru all these different things. The physical changes as well as the emotional ones that are tied so closely together.

Well, this little 'jogging crew' of mine has blossomed into such long lasting memories with my girls. Lote Si'i was telling me that she's decided to come running with me every night cause she's not happy with herself. She said that she knows she shouldn't be as big as she is & she wants to do something about it. *tears* This is our child that has been our 'fatso' since birth. In that moment I felt so proud of her for taking the initiative to do something about whatever it was that's making her unhappy. And at the same time I couldn't help, but reflect on this decision that I made back in 2008 to become the BEST me both spiritually & temporally (physically) as I can be & the absolute tangible effect it's having on not just me, but also on those that I cherish most. My kids. My lil Lote continued to share with me her hopes of joining a track team this next school year & I was amazed with this lil blessing in my life & her courage to face her fears right dead in the eye & do something about it. I love & admire her so much. I feel this way about all of my kids. It never ceases to amaze me how much they continue to teach me without their even knowing. I'm so grateful that Heavenly Father's blessed me with such amazing kids. And even more so...with ones that know that I'm here for them no matter what. I hope & pray that my relationship with my kids grows continually in alliance with that of the gospel & all the wonderful blessings that come from living an honest, true & chaste life. I plan on creating countless memories with my beautiful blessings. #mykidsROCK

Shhhh. . . .It's A Secret

I just got done watching Beyonce's interview from last night's MET Gala event.  I love her honesty in it.  She's asked by the interviewer how she got her amazing body back which she doesn't skip a beat in answering:  HARD WORK.  She continues to say that there's no secret.  It's just discipline.  I'm always asked what my secret is to being my size.  And I say it like that cause I'm not at my goal weight/size so I'm not comfortable to say 'in shape.'  Plus, I don't have abs yet, either.  Lol.  So I CAN'T say that anyway.  Hahahaha!!  But I love the pure HONESTY on Bey's face when she answers: 'Hard work.  There's no secret.  Discipline.'  She's now been given the chance to experience motherhood.  All the joys that come with it as well as the sleepless nights, weight gain, first time mom over protections, fatigue & so forth.  Cause in all this, she's also still working.  


There's no secret to having a great body.  The key to it has always been exercising & eating right.  It's absolutely discipline that sets you apart from the rest.  I just recently turned 29 and I don't take for granted the fact that my time is ticking so I'm taking the necessary steps to give my body what it deserves:  Great Health.  As you age, your metabolism slows down.  Eating right & exercising daily gives you that increase in metabolism your body needs in order to burn unwanted fat.  I'm getting myself used to eating every 2-3 hours.  It's been a little bit of a challenge for me cause I'm so used to just doing 3 meals/day, but with the intense workout regime Insanity entails, I've succumb to giving my body what it needs so that it will give me back the results that I deserve.  I've added a gallon of water a day cause I read in a magazine that that's how much Bey drinks.  Lol.  And I know it's only benefiting me.  Staying hydrated is great for your skin, too.  Anyways, this was something that inspired me & I want to post about it.  :D


And P.S.:  Pay attention to food labels.  Read the ingredients label so as to know exactly what's going into your body.  This is something I do all the time.  No hydrogenated anything.  Even if it's just partial.  That kinda fat is deadly.  It's banned in some countries around the world including Denmark.  It should be banned here, but we love our fast foods too much.  Terrible. 

Grateful

I know it's a new month and all, but I have to document this since it means so much to me. I'm extremely blessed to have the people that I have in my life. There are only a handful of you that I honestly consider true friends/girlfriends. And even more so, the fact that you guys are my sister inlaws makes it that much more special. Fine & Sheena....I love you guys. Thank you for being there when I really just needed to talk or vent or laugh or cry or sing or be mad or chill or whatever.....thanks for making time for me in your lives. Thanks for knowing me well enough to be able to get me gifts that I would absolutely love n use!! I love you two so much & cherish the bond we share. We're pretty much girlfriends that act a fool no matter what the occasion when we're together. I appreciate you both. I'm grateful for the both of you. :) I don't take for granted the relationship that has developed between the three of us & I appreciate the good times, the bad times, the fun times & more so...the personal times. Here's to it only getting better. I love you two!! :)

Getting. In. Shape

I've been laser eye focusing on my health & fitness since giving birth to baby #7. It's something that's always been important to me. I want to be the number ONE example in my children's eyes of living a healthy lifestyle.


I remember growing up in Tonga, my dad would take us running with him & I swore nobody was as fast as him. I would stand in awe of how fast he could run. He woke up early every morning & ran 5 miles without breaking a sweat. My mom & I would sit at the wharf & watch him swim out so far & then turn around & swim back like it was something anyone could do. He was AMAZING!! I love my dad for being my prime example of healthy living. He still actively workouts every morning & night at home.


When I gave birth to Jordan back in October of last year, I felt so grateful to have such an amazing & sacred blessing in my life. I was also in the middle of fall semester so my life was a bit overwhelming, to say the least. I gained a total of 52 lbs & I was not looking forward to losing it. Lol. Who would?? But I've never been one to wallow in my sorrows for too long so I sucked it up & got to work. Back in December, I saw a post on pinterest of a mother with before & after pics over the course of a year and her body looked like mine. It's what caught my attention. She'd been doing Jillian Michael's 30 Day Shred. Her 'after' pics didn't look like some total transformation of an unrecognizable body, but it still looked great. Her stomach was flat with small stretch marks along her lower abdomen and she had definitely lost weight & it looked REAL. It totally inspired me & I found myself at Walmart buying this at home workout DVD. I'm so glad I did. Jillian Michaels started slowly transforming my body and my eating habits. What I loved most about this particular DVD is the fact that the workouts were only 20 min. It's what got me thru days & nights of no motivation at all & bad eating. Knowing that it was only gonna be 20 min kept me religiously faithful to this workout regimen. There's three different level. Easiest to hardest. I'd recently been doing level III (hardest) & was feeling great. I figured once I'd mastered it, I would move onto her latest dvd's that have just recently been released. But to my surprise, my sister inlaw, Sheena, bought me Shaun T's Insanity dvd's. So I started doing those this past week.


It's a 60-day program that I plan to stick to. I measured myself before I started & then again at the end of the week & I'm psyched to be down a couple of inches overall. I love the Insanity series. It pushes me to my limit, but I'm able to take the needed breaks. I also love that it's all about speed & endurance. We do intervals & then stretching which can I just say that I sweat a ton more during the stretching than from the workouts. It's intense!! But I love it & I'm absolutely sticking to the WHOLE 60 days. I'm already seeing results, but I want more. I feel so great about GETTING. IN. SHAPE. I plan to be around for a very long time so I can enjoy watching & being involved with my kids as they grow up.