Tag: fit moms

Stop thinking – Start doing!

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It’s one thing to KNOW the steps that need to be taken to reach your fitness goals, to think about it, to want it, and to set a date.. It’s another thing to actually DO what you set out to do. Get out of your head about it, and JUST DO IT!

You can learn all you want about nutrition, exercising, what to do and what not to do, etc. If you don’t put what you learn to use and actually practice that which you have learned, you will never see results.

Let me ask you this: Less than 90 days from now when I post my new results photos, are you going to wish you had started sooner? Message me, and let’s talk!

Click Here if you are ready to take action now!

Magic Weight Loss

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Have you wasted HUNDREDS of dollars on pills, drinks, supplements, wraps, fad diets, and more and simply not lost the weight? I have. Before Beachbody I had tried so many different weight loss remedies and fad diets, wasting money that I didn’t really have in a desperate attempt to lose the weight.

Let me let you in on a secret.. there is no magical weight loss remedy. What will ALWAYS work is eating nutritious foods, working out, and sticking to it! If you commit yourself to a workout program and eating healthy, not dieting, just eating healthy, you will lose the weight!

Let me help you reach your goals the healthy way, and send me a message detailing where you are at currently as well as your goals (whether it be losing 10 pounds, or losing over 100 pounds!) so that I can help figure out what program would work best for you.

Click Here if you would like to take me on as your coach!

Core/Ab exercises you can do from home!

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This is a list of some simple core/ab moves, as well as some moves straight out of various Beachbody workouts. Keep checking back for a bigger list, because I will add more over time.

-Hold weights in each hand straight down beside your thighs, and then shift your body from left and right bringing the weight down toward the floor. This works your obliques.

-Leg lifts; lie down flat on the mat with your hands on the mat for balance, and then raise your legs up into the air at a 90 degree angle. Then you’ll lift your butt off the floor and push your legs into the air as high as you can, come back down slowly, and then repeat as many times as you want.

-Crunchy frog (P90X): Sit on the mat and lean back at an angle. Lift your legs up off the floor and bend your knees up to your chest as you wrap your arms around your knees, then your legs go straight outand arms go out to the sides. Repeat.

-Sit at an angle with your legs off the floor and knees bent, then reach from side to side and touch the floor. This move can be done just by linking your hands to tap, or you can use a light weight.

-Leg extensions: Start this move on your knees and put your hands down on the floor for balance. Then you will just lift one leg up so that it is parallel to the floor, let it come down but not hit the floor, and repeat. If you want to make the move harder you can extend the leg and raise one arm out also parallel to the floor, then bring the knee up to your chest and pull the arm in at the same time.

-Leg extensions standing up: This time you balance on one leg with your hands on your hips, and then just raise the leg out to the side as high as you can. Starting out you can tap the floor between reps, but over time try to do them without touching your toe to the floor.

-Scissors: Lie down and start with both legs up straight in the air at a 90 degree angle and your arms down on the mat for balance. Then you will bring one leg down parallel to the floor, but not touching. As you bring that leg back up, the other one comes down.

-Cross crawl (Les Mills): Lie down on the mat with your hands behind your head and start by just bringing one knee up but bend it so that only the bottom half of your leg is parallel to the floor. Then switch back and forth a couple of times to get used to the movement. Once you’ve got it, (let’s say you are doing the right leg) you’ll add the crunch and then turn your body to the right, bringing your left elbow close to your right knee. Do this again several times on each side.

-Bridge: Start in a sitting position and put your hands on the ground behind you, then bend your knees and plant your feet on the ground. You will then lift yourself up until your body is parallel to the floor. Hold as long as you can.

-Plank: Start by lying face down and then resting your toes on the mat. Plant your hands in a pushup position, and then lift yourself up parallel to the floor. Hold as long as you can. This can be done on your hands or on your elbows if holding on your hands is too difficult starting out.

-Modified plank (Les Mills): Start the same way as plank, hands and feet planted body parallel to the floor. Then come down off of your right hand and onto your elbow, then the other hand, and then lift back up onto your right hand, then the other hand. Repeat. This one buuuurns when you do it enough times.

-Banana rolls (P90X): This sounds silly, but you will look just like the shape of a banana. It is probably easiest to start lying face down. You’ll want to do this at the end of your mat because then you will have more range of movement, and the mat should be positioned under your hips and butt. You’ll want to have your legs lifted off the floor as high as you can get them, and the arms straight out in front of you also lifted as high as you can get them. Hold for 10 seconds, then turn onto your side and position your arms and legs in the same manner just to the side. Hold for 10 seconds and repeat on your back, and this one will be tough so you can bring your legs a little higher if you have to. Then do the other side.

-Superman (P90X): This is exactly the same as the first part of banana roll. Keep your arms straight out, legs straight out, both as high as you can get them. Hold for as long as you can, give yourself a break, repeat as many times as you want.

-Cobra: Lie down on the mat with your hands straight out in front of you, then lift your chest as high off the ground as you can manage while bringing your arms out to the sides and pushing them as far back as you can. Repeat this as many times as you want.

-Lunge and reach (P90X): With this one you’ll want to be standing with wide legs, and then you lunge down to one side and reach for the ground. Then you will start to stand up and as you get halfway up you’ll start turning your body to the opposite side and reaching your arms up into the air. It will feel like you are picking something up off the ground, and putting it up on a high shelf on the other side. Repeat on the same side, then do the other side separately. You can do this with or without weights. If you want to add weight but you don’t have dumbbells you can even use something as simple as a can of soup.

-Stand up crunches: Can be done with a light weight or without. Just stand in a wide leg position for better balance. Then you’ll hold the weight or grip your hands together and crunch down from side to side. Do not lean forward, make sure that you have good posture and your back is straight. It should be like your back is up against a wall and all you’re doing is moving side to side.

Figure eights (Turbo Fire): Can be done with a light weight or without. Again you’ll stand in a wide leg position for balance, and then reach your arms straight out and bring it down to one side, then up, back down as you cross in front of your body to the other side, back up, etc. This literally is a figure eight, and the wider you make them and the further out your hands are the harder the move will be.

-(Les Mills) Start this move by lying down with your legs straight out but not touching the floor, and then bend your knees up toward your chest as you crunch up and reach your arms toward your toes. Then you’ll lie back and bring your legs out straight in a hover again, then lift the legs up straight in the air at a 90 degree angle while crunching up and again reaching your arms toward your toes. This counts as one full rep.

-Mountain climber: With this one you plant your hands on the floor, and then bring one knee up close to your chest. Once you put that leg back down you just switch to the other leg, and repeat. The faster you go, the harder this gets.

-Spider: Here you will start in a plank position, and then lift one leg up and bring the knee up to the side and crunch it toward your upper body. Do this on both sides repeatedly.

-Burpees: With this one you start standing up, plant your hands down on the floor quickly, jump your feet back to a plank position, jump them back forward, stand up. That is one rep. If you get good at these and you want to get a little crazy and make it harder you can add a knee tuck jump in between reps, you can jump your feet out wide after the plank before jumping them back in and standing up, or you can do both.

-X press (P90X): This one is done standing up, and you’ll want a wide stance with your toes pointing out toward the sides of the room. This one is best done with light weight, so if you don’t have those just grab a couple cans of soup. You start by squatting down and your arms just hang in between your legs, then as you come up out of the squat you reach your hands up overhead into an X. Repeat.

-Lying toe-touch: Start this move lying down with your legs straight out and your arms up behind your head. Crunch up and reach your arm across your body and touch it to the floor on the opposite side, then come back down slowly before doing the other side. Repeat as many times as you want. You can also do this with your legs crossed if you want a bigger challenge.

-Steam engine (P90X): Start standing up with your hands behind your head. Then you will bring one knee up as high as you can, and turn your body toward the knee so the opposite elbow almost touches. Then you’ll switch back and forth repeatedly.

-Another one to do standing up is to hold weight on one leg and lunge back with the other, your arms and upper body turns in the opposite direction of the lunge. Then you bring your knee up as high as you can, and your arms and upper body turns to the other side toward the knee. Repeat on this side as many times as you want before doing the other leg. You can also do this move by reaching your arms into the air straight up as you lunge, and then crunching your arms and upper body down as you bring the knee up.

-Running man (P90X): This one is done with most of your weight on the front leg, and the other leg in a bit of a lunge backward. Then you just move your arms back and forth as though you are running. The faster you go, the harder the move gets. You can also do this with light weights to make it harder.

Click Here if you would like to take me on as your coach!

Motivation Myth

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A lot of people that I have talked to have said that their main problem with weight loss and fitness is that they lack the motivation. The truth of the matter is, motivation is just a myth – you have to CREATE the motivation. First what you need to do is sit down and really think about your current body and weight, and how it affects your life and the lives of those around you. If you have children in your life, think about how your weight and current fitness level effects them and think about the kind of example that you want to set for them. Think about any bad experiences you may have had in the past related to your weight, any negative feelings it has caused, stuff like that. Think about WHY you want to lose weight, get in shape, tone, add muscle, etc. In order to keep you going your reason has to be more powerful than just “Because I want to look good”. Take some time to really think about this, and then write ALL of your reasons down. As you progress through your fitness program you will need to use these reasons as fuel to keep you going. Any time that you feel your motivation slipping, return to those notes that you took in the very beginning and think about why you started in the first place.

Sometimes thinking about your why isn’t enough, for example, it is also important to have goals. If you have long term goals, that is great, but the short term goals are the most important. If you just say I want to lose 30 pounds and then a month later you still aren’t close to hitting that goal, you will probably get frustrated and slip up. Instead, focus on setting smaller goals and reward yourself as you reach them. Keep a record of your goals, both long term and short term, and cross them off as you reach them. Writing them down helps to solidify it in your mind as something that you CAN and WILL achieve. In addition, it helps to voice your goals to others because it gives you a sense of accountability. If other people know about your goals, you won’t want to give up and admit defeat as easily. Keep sticky notes somewhere you can see them daily, like a mirror in your room or something, and write some of your favorite motivational quotes on them alongside your most recent short term goal. This is kind of the “eye on the prize” philosophy, it keeps your goal on your mind at all times and helps to keep you focused.

Here is my example: When I started P90X last May (2013), I honestly didn’t think I would make it all the way through the program. I’ve since completed two rounds of P90X and a round each of Turbo Fire and Les Mills PUMP, and lost a total of 55 pounds. Before that I had tried P90X and the gym MANY times before, and I always failed to make it to the second month. I would start and stop, binge on junk food for a bit, then start and stop again. It got to a point where I realized that I was over 200 pounds and I didn’t think that I could work out, so I started trying all of those crazy weight loss money grabs out there like Visalus shakes, Body wraps, weight loss pills, fad diets, juice cleanses, etc. I wasted hundreds of dollars on all of these crazy products that would either not work at all, or work in the first week as I lost the water weight and then the weight would come right back on. I decided last April that I did not want to spend my University grad year the same way I spent my high school grad year; stuck on the sidelines hiding because of my weight. I decided that I needed to take CHARGE of my life, and that in order to get the body that I wanted that I would have to WORK for it. So that is exactly what I started doing. Last May I found myself a coach, and a great group of like-minded individuals going through Beachbody programs as well. Having a support group is definitely important, and was instrumental to my success. In addition to that were all of my reasons for REALLY wanting it. I thought back to any kid who ever called me fat in school, to all of those parties and school events that I skipped because I was ashamed of how I looked, to all of the summers I spent hiding in my house avoiding the heat and the beaches or pools because I was too embarassed about my weight to show up in those places in summer clothes or bathing suits, and most of all, I thought about my grad year of high school and first three years of university where I completely isolated myself and lived with depression and self loathing for how far I had let myself go. THOSE were my reasons for continuing, and I used all of the negative feelings and experiences to act as fuel and motivation to keep going whenever I wanted to give up. I won’t lie to you, it isn’t easy at first, but once you start noticing the benefits of regular exercise and your mood starts to improve you won’t WANT to stop.

I hope these tips help! If you are ready to start your own fitness journey, shoot me a message and we can talk about your goals and figure out the best program for you. You’ll have my support along the way, as well as a whole team of like-minded individuals in a private Facebook group with over a thousand members.

Click Here if you’re ready to join my team and take a challenge!

How/Why I became a Beachbody Coac

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I am often asked about my story, and I finally took the time to write it all out to share it with all of you!

My name is Jessica, and I am now a Beachbody Coach. I was never a really thin girl, but I was happy and confident in size 5 jeans until about grade 10. I then got the birth control needle (DEPO) and had major complications, including weight gain. That was just the tip of the iceberg, because as I continued to gain weight I dropped further and further in confidence and self-esteem. I then began comforting myself with foods. The bad foods caused me to continue to gain weight through to grade 12, which made me isolate myself from others in school. Grade 12 was a very lonely year, so I just focused on doing the best that I could in my classes.

I went to university thinking that would be my big break and I would make new friends and have a fresh start, but I soon realized that I isolated myself there as well. I didn’t know anyone, so I skipped all of the frosh week activities because I lacked the confidence to go alone. I skipped out on events and parties because I didn’t feel pretty or skinny enough. I avoided dating because I couldn’t stand to see myself without clothes, let alone let anyone else see me. And worst of all, I avoided the beach and going swimming in pools all of those years because I hated the way I looked in a bikini. It wasn’t until the end of my third year in university, at over 200lbs, that I decided that I needed to make a change.

For about six years I had been through a never ending cycle of feeling down about myself, comforting myself with food, and then gaining more weight and feeling even worse. I had gone through pretty much every diet out there, a few juice cleanses, a bunch of different diet pills or drinks, even body wraps; nothing worked. I was finally fed up with wasting money on the next magic diet or weight loss item that was supposed to make you skinny with zero effort. I decided to take charge of my own life, and to work for what I wanted: Enter Beachbody.

I dug out P90X, which my mom had bought me back in high school, and decided to give that a go. It was hard at first, but I got better day by day. I kept a food journal on MyFitnessPal to track my food intake and make sure my macros lined up, and I started getting shakeology and drinking that daily. I also found a great coach, and he and his wife/teammate helped me along the three months and put me in an amazing challenge group full of likeminded people struggling to achieve their own goals. I realized that it isn’t about having the motivation to work out, it is about WANTING the results and forcing yourself to do what is required to get them. At least in the beginning anyway! Once I started seeing a difference in my body it was very exciting, and it made me WANT to go down to the basement gym and do my workouts.

Three months passed and I had come a long way, but I had a long way to go. I decided to become a coach for two primary reasons. First, I knew at this point that there were so many more people out there who were feeling the exact same way about themselves that I had been feeling about myself all of those years, and I wanted to be able to provide them with the gift that I had received and help them achieve their goals. Second, I knew if I was a coach and I had other people relying on me, it would help me stay accountable and keep up with my own workouts!

I started coaching, but I continued doing my workouts. I did two rounds of P90X, a round of Turbo Fire, a round of LES Mills Pump, and a round of ChaLEAN Extreme with some LES Mills Combat thrown in. I gained muscle definition, and went from plus sizes down to a size 10 jeans and size medium in dresses. For me, that was HUGE! I started to gain my confidence back throughout this process, and I took more and more pictures (which was something I had avoided for years). I started going out with friends and having fun at parties. I was in a relationship for a while, and a few months after that ended I started dating a bit. I even went backpacking through Europe this past summer, and yes, I went to the beach in a BIKINI! I am very happy to say that I did not end my university career the same way that I ended my high school years. I lost 55lbs, I made some friends in that last year, and I actually had fun.

Beachbody truly changed my life, because I could never have done it on my own. There are so many programs to pick from, so I honestly believe that there is something for everyone! I am still working toward MY ideal body, and I may not know exactly what that is until I achieve it, but I do know that I will be achieving it with Beachbody.

I am so excited to be a part of a community of individuals working toward a healthier and stronger life, while having the opportunity to share that lifestyle with those who desperately need some positive changes in their own lives. It is such a great feeling to watch someone reach their goals as you coach them through this wonderful journey. We are all blessed as coaches to be able to call this our job!

Click Here if you are ready to embark on your own health and fitness journey! I would love to coach you through this amazing process :)

Rant: Prejudice toward fitness enthusiasts

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I apologize in advance for the rant that is about to take place, but this has me so FIRED UP. I first saw this picture and I was like “Wow, that’s awesome!”, then I saw all the comments that were shown underneath the post I was looking at.

1) A lot of people are judging her and claiming that she must be a bad mother, not spend any time with her kids, has a dirty house, etc. I would LOVE to know how anyone could possibly know that from looking at a picture. As a Beachbody coach I have had the privilege of coming into contact with a LOT of fitness enthusiasts, and many of them have children. My coaches, Chet and Natalie Nichols (Team Get Fit), for example: They have three kids and they now have ROCKING bodies, and they are awesome parents. So many other coaches and regular people just trying to get fit have children and yet they make time for workouts. Just because you choose to make working out a priority does not mean that you do not care about your kids, in fact, I would argue the opposite. If you are unhappy with your weight and you don’t do anything to change it, your insecurities and your health issues have the potential to negatively impact your children’s lives. Working out does not necessarily mean that you can’t watch your kids either, you can just wait for them to go to bed and do it then! People keep saying it isn’t realistic for single mothers: WRONG. If you make it a priority, just like you make your kids a priority, you CAN get the body you want. You just have to be willing to do whatever it takes, even if it means staying up a little later after the kids are in bed or getting up before they do and working out. You can even do what this woman did and take the kids to the park and workout while you are there, or even just go for long walks with your kids. You can say I don’t have kids so I don’t understand, sure, but I do know tons of people who DO have kids and who have done whatever it takes and gotten results.

2) People are saying she is not a REAL woman, because she has been in fitness competitions and pageants and whatnot. My question to the people saying this is: Who are you to say who is and isn’t real? Yeah so this woman was in fitness comps, pageants, etc. So what? She didn’t always have that body, she had to start somewhere, we all do. I have countless friends from my home town who have done fitness competitions, one of which actually won her last comp (Julie Carson)! They don’t start out competition ready, they work their ASSES off to get the results that they get. Julie did it while working a full time job and going to university with me full time. A friend of mine did it with a young child, a husband away a lot with the military, and going to university. It seriously makes my blood boil to see these comments about fitness enthusiasts, making them out to be “fake” or “unrealistic”. They put in the hard work, they stayed dedicated, and they did this consistently over a long period of time to get the bodies that they now have. You can look at a photo of a woman with a completely fit body, but until you know her story, you should not judge her. Unless you’ve read their story, and you’ve seen their before and after pictures, you have NO way of knowing where they were when they started and what/how long it took for them to get that body.

3) People are judging her because she has a website, and because she is a personal trainer so she must she be in it for the money. Guess what, most people these days have Facebook pages or websites for their businesses!! I have a website, every Beachbody coach I know has a website. I didn’t become a Beachbody coach just because of the money, I became a coach because I was seeing the results from the business and I wanted to help reach out to others and show them that the products work and that they can get great results too. It’s not always about the money, sometimes it is just about finding something that you are passionate about and deciding to make that your career.

4) People are criticizing the message. “What’s your excuse” is meant to be a motivator, it is meant to tell everyone out there all over the world “Look, I have 3 kids AND I have a great body, and you can too”. Myself, and tons of other fitness enthusiasts, all post pictures of stuff like that, or older people with great bodies, or people with missing limbs and great bodies, etc. with the caption of “What’s your excuse”. It’s not meant to call out all mothers, I don’t even think it was directed solely at mothers, I think it was just meant to show people that despite your circumstances you can make it happen. I was always one of the worst out there for making excuses, up until 5 months ago. I decided at the beginning of the summer that I was not going to let this grad year in University be like my high school grad year. I want to be able to ENJOY my grad year, and not be too self-conscious and uncomfortable in my own skin to even participate in the events. I made it a priority, and despite working full time over night shifts AND doing a pilot study for my thesis, this summer I managed to complete P90X. I then started my second round of P90X in September, and I have been balancing my workouts with going to class, doing assignments, studying, working on my thesis, and working on weekends! I don’t have a lot of time, and I am often exhausted, but this is something that is important to me so I MAKE time.

5) People are saying it would take a lot of money to pay a maid to clean her house for her, babysitters to watch her kids for her, a personal trainer, and a chef. WRONG. If you really don’t have the money for a Beachbody fitness program, a gym membership, etc., you can still see results from doing home workouts. Do crunches, sit ups, push ups, burpees, lunges, squats, jumping jacks, etc. There are TONS of things that you can do, it might take you a little longer to get that type of body, but if you do that consistently every day or most days of the week you will see results. So you see, fifteen minutes a day is doable! Do what you can, give up some Facebook time, give up one of your shows, or even do the exercises WHILE you watch your show! You don’t have to spend hours a day to get the results you want if you don’t have the time, but to say that you would need to hire a maid, a babysitter, AND a personal trainer is just ridiculous. You can find countless little 15 minute workout routines on Pinterest. Hell you can even ask me, and I can GIVE you some moves to do! Also, fitness is not just about exercise! Fitness has a LOT to do with nutrition, and the majority of your results are going to come from what you are putting into your body. Many fitness enthusiasts dedicate ONE day of the week to cooking, like Sunday for example. They will then cook a bunch of food that they will eat for the week. Here at my house we’ll make soups for the week, lean turkey chili, cook up a bunch of chicken, etc. Then it is all ready and you just have to heat it up and then chop up some veggies to throw on your plate as well.

Why is it that we judge first and ask questions later? Many of the people who made comments like the ones I addressed above clearly hadn’t read the woman’s story. And yes, she was never overweight to begin with, but that doesn’t make her results any less inspiring. She still had to put in a lot of work to get the muscle definition and toned body that she now has. As excited as I am to get results like she has gotten and make fitness my career, I am now nervous about all of the criticism that I am going to get along the way. I am a real person working my butt off for success, but once I achieve success, I worry that people are going to only see that and judge me in the same manner. It’s such a shame, because if people could get over their negativity and prejudice they may actually be able to get great results themselves!