Exercise of the Week: Flower picking lunge with row

Are you feeling a little extra bulge after the holidays? Target your glutes and work off some of those Christmas cookies with this move.

Luna Mom's Club Tip of the Week

12 Weekly Educational Tips- Quarter 4 Mission- Taking time to give during the holiday season.


These weekly tips will hopefully inspire you to give back during these few months. Whether you’re giving to a non profit organization, your friends and neighbors, or to the environment, even the smallest actions make a big difference.

Need to find homes for some of those holiday gifts you may get that aren’t quite your style or duplicates of things you already have? Organize a neighborhood pick-up from a local charity just after the holidays. Rally your neighbors to pitch in too so all those unwanted gifts can go to good homes. Happy holidays!

Luna Mom's Club Tip of the Week

12 Weekly Educational Tips- Quarter 4 Mission- Taking time to give during the holiday season.
These weekly tips will hopefully inspire you to give back during these few months. Whether you’re giving to a non profit organization, your friends and neighbors, or to the environment, even the smallest actions make a big difference.

Great ideas for last minute holiday gifts, or for those people on your list who already have everything. Give a unique gift that really makes a difference.


Here’s a list of organizations to inspire you:
• Healthy Child Healthy World
• The Breast Cancer Fund
• Habitat for Humanity
• Big Brothers Big Sisters
• Heifer International
• The Nature Conservancy
• Make-A-Wish Foundation
• Sustainable Harvest International
• UNICEF
• Donors Choose

Luna Mom's Club Tip of the Week

12 Weekly Educational Tips- Quarter 4 Mission- Taking time to give during the holiday season.
These weekly tips will hopefully inspire you to give back during these few months. Whether you’re giving to a non profit organization, your friends and neighbors, or to the environment, even the smallest actions make a big difference.

The average consumer wraps 20 gifts during the holidays. If just three of those gifts were wrapped in reused paper or a paper alternative, the paper saved could cover 45,000 football fields!


• Use decorative newspaper ads, colorful pages from magazines, old book pages, music sheets, old maps, calendars, or Sunday comics to wrap with.
• Chances are that if you have a child, you have heaps of drawings and paintings that you are constitutionally unable to throw away. Use that old art for wrapping paper.
• Cut wrapping paper or children’s art to fit the top and bottom of a gift box and permanently attach it—that way the box can be reused without having the paper ripped to open it.
• Reuse old ribbons and wrapping paper (if wrinkled, press with a warm iron).
• Use flowers, evergreen sprigs, rosemary sprigs (yum!), pinecones, yarn, or reusable hair ribbons instead of plastic bows.
• Use the fronts of old holiday cards as name tags for this year’s gifts.
• Create a scavenger hunt in your home by hiding unwrapped gifts and giving each of your family members clues to find them.

A Season of Giving

The focus of our Mom's With A Mission this quarter is about taking the time to give during the holiday season. Our Luna Mom's Club weekly tips will hopefully inspire you to give back this month.  At Stroller Strides we have organized two different ways for you to give back to our local community.


Our 4th Annual Toy Drive for Children's Memorial Hospital is off to a great start! We hosted a Discovery Toy party in November where we earned almost $200 in free toys for the hospital- thank you for everyone who was a part of that night! If you missed the get together, we are still collecting toys for the hospital. New, unwrapped toys are being collected in class until Wednesday, December 22nd. According to Children's website: "Many of the donations we receive are for school-age children, but as many as half of the patients at Children's Memorial are infants or toddlers, and 10 percent are teenagers. Both groups are often overlooked and would benefit from toys, books and games appropriate for their age level."

And secondly, we have put together a Luna Mom's Club and Stroller Strides Chicago Cookbook to benefit the Bundle of Joy Diaper Bank. Bundle of Joy is a not-for-profit Diaper Bank serving families in Chicago’s most economically depressed neighborhoods. Their mission is to ensure that every parent in Chicago has access to a supply of clean diapers for his or her child. More details about the Cookbook are below, as well as a sample recipe. $10 from the sale of each book goes directly to Bundle of Joy.

No matter how you choose to give this holiday season, whether you’re giving to a non profit organization, your friends and neighbors, or to the environment, even the smallest actions make a big difference.

Luna Mom's Club Tip of the Week

12 Weekly Educational Tips- Quarter 4 Mission- Taking time to give during the holiday season.

These weekly tips will hopefully inspire you to give back during these few months. Whether you’re giving to a non profit organization, your friends and neighbors, or to the environment, even the smallest actions make a big difference.

Tip- If you’re doing any holiday baking this season, double the batch and take an extra loaf of homemade bread or a dozen holiday cookies to a neighbor or friend who may be ill or just overwhelmed this holiday season.

10 Ways to Go Green This Holiday Season

10 ways to go GREEN for the holiday shopping season- courtesy of Lotions and Potions.  Whatever your agenda is for this holiday season, you can use these ideas to reduce your carbon footprint while you grab gifts for your loved ones. Have a safe & wonderful holiday and happy shopping!

1. Grab the Reusable Shopping Bags
Instead of taking your newly bought items home in a paper or plastic bag, bring your own reusable shopping bags to cut down on waste. You can purchase these bags from almost any grocery store, or you can check out the web for 100% Recycled Enviro-Tote Bags and order them online. You can even make your own Crochet Plastic Bag Tote.

2. Dress the Part
For people in the Midwest or on the East Coast, weather is usually pretty cold, so it's wise to dress warmly to endure the chilly shopping conditions. Layering your clothes will help you reduce the amount of heat you use in your car. Plus, you can always take your jacket or sweater off when you get inside the store. Once you dress the part you can shop the part by purchasing green clothes like T-Shirts Made from 100% Recycled Bottles, Recycled London Bus Seat Shoes or Clothing Made from Coffee.

3. Idle Cars Create CO2 Emissions
Let's say that you've pulled up to the store parking lot and the line wraps around the building. You can either brave the chilly weather and face the sleep-deprived shoppers by standing in line, or you can wait inside your car until the line shortens. If you decide to wait in your car don't let it run idle with the heat blasting and radio turned up loud. That uses a lot of extra gas, and thus creates more CO2 emissions. Instead, bring an extra blanket or jacket if it's cold, and then talk about how many people have crazy looks in their eyes. The time will definitely fly by!

4. Pay in a Green Way
You know that you're probably going to be spending a pretty penny this season, so if you have one you should definitely use a green credit card. Some green credit cards are made from recycled plastic, and others donate portions of your purchases to great non-profit and environmental organizations, so when you spend your money you won't feel completely horrible about the bill that you'll be getting. Also, if you like to write checks, think about carrying them in a recycled checkbook cover.

5. Buy Energy-Efficient Electronics
There's no doubt that many holiday shoppers will be looking for deals on electronics. If your goal is to buy a new TV, try to purchase one that is energy efficient and has an Energy Star Label on it. You'll save 40% more energy and have a great looking TV! The same goes for purchasing computers with an Energy Star label on them. They'll save you about 30% more energy.

6. Get Cookin' with Eco-Friendly Cookware
Along with deals on electronics, the holidays offer deals on home goods and cookware. These are the crock pots, coffeemakers, dish sets and pans that always make perfect Christmas gifts. Try to stray off the traditional gift-giving track by buying eco-friendly cookware. These products will not only help you to make great food, but they'll also protect the planet. Some examples are a solar cooker or a non-stick cooking cast iron skillet.

7. Have a Seat with Recycled Furniture
You can be green and extra hip if you purchase furniture that's made from recycled materials. Instead of buying that brand new Lazy Boy recliner or Broyhill sofa, how about recycled wood furniture, 100% recycled plastic furniture, FAS Concepts recycle furniture, or recycled skateboard furniture.

8. Get Recycled Jewelry
The holidays is a great time to pick up that perfect piece of jewelry. Instead of spending thousands of dollars you can be sincere and sustainable with recycled jewelry pieces. Some great ideas are recycled glass bottle earrings, recycled comic book bracelets, recycled aluminum can necklaces and discarded ocean plastic jewelry.

9. Recycle Waste
One of the most important green things to remember during this time of year is to recycle waste before, during and after your shopping extravaganzas. Lend a helping hand to the store cleaners by picking up trash while you sift through sweaters or DVD players. When you buy any food during the day make sure to recycle drink bottles or soda cans. If you bring the food home try to compost any leftovers. Go through your paper receipts and recycle the ones that you don't need. In other words, recycle what you can.

10. Eat Organic!!!
It's best to eat organically grown food, whether or not you're a vegan/vegetarian, and it's worth going to some trouble to get it. Organic food tastes better, is generally more nutritious, & protects the environment.

Winter Weather Reminders

It's official!  We've had our first snow fall of the season.  Here are some reminders to help get us through the winter at Stroller Strides!

• In an effort to keep the floor as dry as possible, if snow is on the ground, please bring a large towel to park your stroller on while the snow melts.
• We highly recommend wearing snow boots and changing in to your gym shoes once you are inside
• Don't leave your tubes in the car! Extreme temperature changes can cause your tubes to become brittle and snap. Toss your tubes in your diaper bag instead of your stroller. And remember, tubes aren't toys! Keep them safely away from your little ones when they are in your house.
• ALLOW EXTRA TIME! It takes extra time to get settled with all of the layers. Be sure to allow yourself at least 5 extra minutes of "settle" time when you get to class- in colder temperatures in particular, the warmup is a crucial part of your workout and we'd hate for you to be running behind and miss it.
• Class Cancellations- we will only cancel class in the event of EXTREME weather conditions- if in question, call the weather hotline 800.337.0826 an hour before class time for an update, or check our Facebook page.

Exercise of the Week- Wall Sit with Rear Fly

The Body Back mamas loved/hated this one on Wednesday night!