Tag: myfitnesspal

Killer leg/butt exercise (Band required)

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If you follow my blog, you are probably aware that I am currently doing the 21 Day Fix Extreme home fitness program. Well, sometimes I like to take the toughest moves and use them as a little challenge for my health and fitness group participants. Share the love I always say, or in this case, pain! lol

During my workout yesterday, I came across this move. It had my legs and butt on FIRE.

If you watched that video, and you have access to a band, I triple dog dare you to attempt this move! Go until your legs can’t take it anymore, and then comment on this thread and let me know how long you made it.

Enjoy ;)

Never feel bad for making yourself a priority!

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If you have family and friends that aren’t into health and fitness, but you are, you will probably understand this struggle.

People just don’t seem to grasp this reality, but putting yourself first sometimes and deciding to make your health a top priority is NOT selfish. Nor does it mean that you have your priorities all wrong! It simply means that your priorities differ from theirs, and in their opinion, that is wrong. Everyone is entitled to their opinions and their points of views, and it is never okay for people to try to bully you into their way of thinking.

People shouldn’t expect you to give up something that you love and that makes you happy. Instead, they should respect your choice to lead a healthier life, and work with you to accommodate your new lifestyle. It is totally unfair for people to try and force you to change your routine to fit their life, and you should not have to feel guilty for standing your ground!!

Don’t allow others to wear you down. You DESERVE to be happy and healthy. Exercise makes me a much more happy and positive person, which allows me to be in a better mood throughout the day. It allows me to have more energy to get through my day, and it builds my confidence and self-esteem, because I know that with each workout, I am getting leaner and stronger. It truly sets the mood for your day!

You deserve to have that too.

Never let anyone tell you otherwise.

Stop waiting & just start doing!

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People tend to wait for events or after holidays or New years’ to make positive life changes. Stop waiting and JUST DO IT! If you wait, there is a much higher probability that you will either start and quit, or you won’t start at all.

Start as soon as you make the choice, because waiting only makes you lose the excitement and motivation that you had when you decided to do it in the first place. I’ve seen this happen time and time again with people I know, and I’ve also experienced it myself. The struggle is real ladies and gentlemen!

We tell ourselves “oh I’ll start Monday” or “I’ll start after the holidays”, and then that time comes and we don’t change our behaviour. All we end up doing is going on what I like to call “the pre-diet binge”, put on a few extra pounds, and end up giving up before we even begin. Sound familiar?

BREAK THE TREND. If you get motivated and encouraged somehow to switch to a healthier lifestyle, act on it NOW. Don’t wait, just DO. Honestly that is the best way to ensure that you actually follow through! Once you get going, it will be easier to stay going. Getting started can be the toughest part, at least in my opinion. Once you make it through the first three weeks, things get easier as long as you keep yourself on track and don’t stray too far from your nutrition or skimp out on workouts.

If you haven’t started your journey yet, but you’d like to, visit us in my FREE Health and Fitness group to join a group of people learning how to lead a healthier lifestyle and incorporate activity into their lives. We’re voting now for the July Challenge, so you definitely want to get in the group ASAP!

Is it worth it?

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If you allow yourself to cheat on your nutrition, you’re cheating yourself out of your results. Don’t sabotage yourself before you achieve your goals! I know that it is possible to still live your life, and enjoy the occasional cheat from time to time, but not in the beginning of your journey.

Trust me, I have been there, so I know what that feels like. One little cheat can easily turn into two, which again tends to snowball until you’re fully off the wagon. Avoid putting yourself through that! Allow yourself to become accustomed to your new and healthy lifestyle before you start adding in the occasional treat.

Once you have made clean eating and exercise a daily routine, then you can try to incorporate treats from time to time. Try not to think about it as a chore, or as though you “have” to avoid junk food. If you tell yourself that you CAN’T have something, of course you’re going to want it more. Instead, tell yourself that you won’t have it until you have reached a point in your journey where you know that it is not going to destroy everything you’ve been working towards.

If you would like to be a part of a group where you can learn more about healthy eating and nutrition overall, you are more than welcome to join us in my FREE Health and Fitness group. We’re also voting right now for the July Challenge, so you definitely want to get in the group ASAP!

P90X on TV!

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As I was watching an episode of House of Lies this afternoon, you can imagine my surprise when I hear Mr. Tony Horton shouting out moves and inspiration from P90X plyometrics! Having completed two full rounds of that program, and a bunch of extra workouts outside of that, I pretty much can recite that workout forwards and backwards lol. I knew what it was even before I saw it appear on the screen.

This is pretty freakin’ cool in my opinion. Lately we’ve been featured in magazines and on talk shows for some of our new fitness programs, and now even the TV industry is recognizing Beachbody as a valuable fitness industry! This is HUGE news for us, and I couldn’t be happier that our programs are getting such awesome exposure.

Beachbody fitness programs have changed millions of lives over the many years they’ve been in the industry, myself included. This is only the beginning!

Click Here to browse our catalog of awesome fitness programs and get started on your own health and fitness journey!

Thank you PiYo!

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After being forced to take almost 2 full weeks off from exercising due to a back injury that I sustained during one of my workouts, I decided enough was enough. This has happened to me a couple of times before, and it is primarily because of a car accident that has me a bit more susceptible to injury.

My problem is this: I have a hard time taking time off from my workouts. I like my workouts, and I NEED my workouts. I just feel better, and I’m a much happier and positive person to be around when I get to do my workouts. When I get injured, I have a tendency to brush it off and get back on the horse too soon. This is bad, and I know it lol.

This time, I decided to be proactive. While I was laid up, I decided to submit an order for PiYo. This program uses your own body weight to strengthen your muscles, and it doesn’t involve high impact activity. I thought that this would be a great way for me to compromise, by allowing me to get my workouts in while still giving my body the time that it needs to strengthen and heal.

After just ONE WEEK of doing PiYo daily, I thought I would give myself a little test of flexibility and pull out one of the old P90X yoga moves that I struggled with for the longest time: plough. The first time I tried, I struggled a little bit. I practiced with straight legs up for a bit, and then tried again. Second time was a charm! I was able to get back into plough again after just one week of PiYo, mind you it probably wasn’t as pretty as Tony’s pose lol. The hand clamp is definitely a work in progress haha!

It is amazing how much strength and flexibility that I feel I have gained in only one week on this program, and I am really excited to see my progress at the end of the 2 month program. If you enjoy yoga and/or pilates, I would highly recommend taking a deeper look at this program and considering it for your exercise regime. It is also perfect for people that have injuries that prevent them from doing some of the more hardcore weight or cardio based programs, because it allows you to still get a great workout without doing damage to your joints.

Click Here to read a bit more on the PiYo program, and try out a PiYo based workout for free.

July Health & Fitness Challenge!!

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In case you are unfamiliar with me and my coaching, I do a challenge every month in my FREE Health and Fitness group. The first three months went really well in terms of participation, and then this past month the challenge had a lot less participants. Instead of coming up with something myself, I thought that I would put it out to all of you!

What kinds of challenges would you find beneficial? It needs to be something that just about anyone could do. For example, the bootcamps I have done in the past had 4 workouts per week to complete MINIMUM and a simple meal plan to follow. The step challenge that we did simply required each participant to wear a fitbit and report back to me with all of their steps each week. Our biggest loser challenge required participants to access the Beachbody On Demand FREE Trial for the month. These are all things that pretty much anyone could do, without requiring a gym membership or expensive equipment.

The idea that I came up with for July is a YouTube Challenge. I am always pulling cool workout videos off of YouTube and sharing them in the group as a weekly challenge anyways, so I thought it might be fun to make it a theme for the month! If you vote on this challenge, I would put together a schedule of Beachbody based workouts found on YouTube to be completed throughout the month. Each week I would post the schedule for the upcoming week.

So far, the only other suggestion is to repeat the step challenge! If you have any other ideas, you need to go and request to join our group. Once approved for membership, you will be able to vote for your favorite idea, or submit a new idea for consideration!

Please let me know ASAP if you are interested in participating in this challenge.

My client Kassie and her amazing transformation!

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Normally I don’t do this, but I asked Kassie for her permission to share her results here on my blog. This woman has worked her butt off with me, figuratively AND literally, for the past three and a half months.

Much like myself when I started, Kassie had no pictures of herself at her largest size. The photo you see there on the left isn’t even a true reflection of how far she had come, because she didn’t have a recent photo to utilize. Kassie came to me after having given birth to two babies over a period of 15 months, and she really wanted to get serious about her
weight loss journey.

Kassie started with me for my March Bikini Bootcamp, stuck with me through my April 11427194_399142830271762_4385147215304082693_nBikini Bootcamp, and then went on to participate (and WIN) my May Step Challenge. She has also been participating in my June Biggest Loser challenge, and has continued to lose weight!! Since starting with me back in March, Kassie has lost a total of 48 pounds, and she shows no sign of stopping anytime soon!

As the winner of my May Step Challenge, Kassie took home the 21 Day Fix Extreme fitness and nutrition program. She is in her first week of that program, and I cannot wait to see how she makes out with this challenge. I could not be happier to have such a dedicated and positive person to work with, and I am really proud of Kassie for everything that she has accomplished.

If you could benefit from a support system and a place where you can be held accountable turn to for motivation, you are welcome to join my FREE Health and Fitness group! We do monthly challenges, and we are actually in the process of voting right now for the theme of July. Head over and request to join if you would like to kickstart your own health and fitness challenge!

How to be a winner

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So what if you’ve started and stopped you health and fitness journey many times over. Who cares if you’ve tried every diet out there, and failed to stick with it every time. Does it really matter that you’ve tried every weight loss remedy, pill, wrap, or drink on the market and still not gotten to where you want to be?

No. It does not matter what happened in the past, so long as you DO NOT allow it to impact your future in a negative way. Instead, LEARN from those errors. Use the mistakes that you’ve made in the past to fuel your fire and keep you moving forward in the present. Don’t allow your past failures to cloud your judgment and make you believe that you aren’t strong enough to do this, because you are.

You really just have to keep pushing yourself to dust yourself off and try again day in and day out. Keep trying to get through your workouts, and keep trying to stay on track with your nutrition. Each day you will get better, and it will get easier. As you build strength you’ll accomplish more, and it will build your confidence back up.

Only when you begin to believe in yourself, and to allow yourself to think positive thoughts of your success instead of negative thoughts of failure, will you be able to keep yourself on track.

If you must compete, compete against yourself

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A lot of people get down on themselves for not looking like an athlete or having the results that they want right away. They let that discourage them from continuing just because it is taking longer than they had hoped to look the way that these other people now look. The problem with that is that you don’t know their journey. You don’t know how long or how hard they had to work to get to the point that they have reached.

It is super important that you stop competing with people who have most likely been at it for years to get those results, and start competing with yourself! Make it your mission every day to do more and push harder than you did yesterday. THAT is how you get better, and that is how you will get awesome results!

It is a truly great feeling to master something that you could never do before. When I started doing P90X there were a lot of moves that I simply couldn’t do, and even more that I had to modify to get through. I had to pause the DVD quite a bit for water breaks during the cardio workouts as well. Imagine how I felt the first time that I did plyometrics (which is – in my mind – by far the toughest P90X workout) without pausing it, without skipping anything, or without modifying a SINGLE move. I don’t even have the words to describe it. You can experience that feeling too, but the key is to not give up before you do.

If you’re ready to start implementing some changes into your lifestyle, I would love for you to join my FREE Health and Fitness group. There you can learn about health and fitness in a safe and private environment with others who are struggling on a health and fitness journey as well. We do monthly fitness challenges, and I would love to see you participate!