Tag: take the challenge

Create motivation through determination

Leave a comment

I hear all the time “I don’t have the motivation to work out“, and I cringe. I know the feeling, I was in the same place a few years ago. I did not want to work out at all, and I had so many other things to do.. Including watching a bunch of television, Netflix, and surfing the internet. If I had just been willing to give up some of my TV and internet time, I could have easily found the time to do my workouts. IT WAS AN EXCUSE. I simply hadn’t made it a priority.

In the beginning of the journey, it is not about having the motivation to do it. Instead, it is about making a CHOICE to make it a priority to start eating healthier and working out. Make this choice to create a better body and a better life for yourself and the people that you care about. Once you start seeing results from that choice, and it starts positively impacting your mood and other areas of your life, that is when motivation kicks in and pushes you to continue. Don’t use a lack of motivation as another excuse to stay inactive, get moving and create your own motivation through determination!

Click Here if you’re ready to get started!

Don’t let failures hold you back

Leave a comment

This is something that everyone should live by, and it holds great meaning for those into health and fitness as well. You are bound to slip up a few times, or even a bunch of time, and make some mistakes along your journey. That is perfectly normal, and it would actually be kind of weird if you DIDN’T make any mistakes or slip ups! Everyone has bad days sometimes where they just don’t have it in them to resist temptation. The holidays can be tough, because you’re surrounded with yummy treats. Vacations can be a menace because it is easier to grab a snack on the fly than to make a healthy meal. You don’t have to be good 100% of the time, and it is okay to splurge a little bit occasionally.

The problem with these “slip up’s” is not that you had them, it is often the way in which you think about them. For example, you have a big meal over the holidays with dessert. That is okay, it is a special occasion and everyone deserves to have what they want over the holidays. However, if you start worrying about that meal and thinking that you totally destroyed your progress, you are going to run into trouble. That is where people go wrong and start thinking “well, I already screwed myself so I might as well have more treats”, or “…so I might as well skip my workouts”. Once you get into that line of thinking, it can be hard to bounce back.

You need to stop thinking of those slip-ups as failures, and start thinking of it as a reward for all of the hard work you’ve put in thus far. It is only a failure if you choose to quit because of those slip ups, instead of using them as motivation to do better!

Click Here if you’re ready to embark on a health and fitness journey of your own!

“I’m already skinny, I don’t need to work out”

1 Comment

I have heard this phrase multiple times upon inviting people to try a Beachbody program. It actually drives me crazy, because it implies that fitness and nutrition is only for people that need to lose weight. I have a little secret for anyone out there that thinks they don’t need to work out or eat healthy simply because they are “already skinny”… YOU’RE WRONG!

Fitness is NOT just about getting “skinny”. Fitness is about gaining strength, being healthy, and staying active so that you have less health risks and can be around longer for your family.You can be skinny, and still not have muscle definition. You can be skinny to the point where your bones are showing like in that first half of the image, and still not be happy with your body. I know a lot of naturally “skinny” people, and most of them have issues with their appearance just like those with extra weight. In fact, many of them go to the gym to try to CREATE the curves that they are lacking by adding muscle to their body.

In addition, just because you are “skinny” does NOT mean that you are healthy. You can be skinny, and still be putting yourself at risk for health issues by being inactive and eating junk food consistently. Being naturally small does not give you a free pass to skip out on exercising and eating healthy, because not doing those things is likely going to catch up to you at some point in your life. For example, many people have this fast metabolism when they are young and treat it as a free pass to do whatever they want. Since they passed up on the opportunity to maximize that fast metabolism and keep it working for them, they eventually lose it and their bad habits bite them in the butt when they start packing on the pounds later in their life. Do you someone that has been through this? You probably do, even if they haven’t admitted it.

It is really unfortunate that so many people seem to think that nutrition and fitness is simply for weight loss. It is so much more than that. It enhances your mood, it puts you in a better frame of mind, it gives you confidence in yourself, and that is just the tip of the iceberg.

Click Here if you are ready to give up the misconceptions about fitness and nutrition, and start your own journey to a healthier life.

Sick and tired of being sick and tired?

Leave a comment

Are you feeling tired and sluggish all of the time? Are you getting a lot of sleep, but waking up and going through your day STILL feeling exhausted? If the answer to those questions is yes, I would like you to answer these questions honestly – even if you just admit it to yourself. Are you eating a lot of junk food or unhealthy foods? Are you exercising regularly? Are you sleeping more than 8 hours a night?

I know how it feels to be tired and sluggish day in and day out, because I’ve been there. What I have learned over my own health and fitness journey is that it comes primarily from your diet and lack of exercise.  I have found that eating a lot of junk food, failing to exercise, and sleeping more than 8 hours a night actually keeps your mind a bit foggy. It is a feeling that doesn’t really go away, kind of like trying to see through cobwebs. It doesn’t completely block your view (or in this case your mental capacity), but it does keep you tired and drowsy.

I honestly didn’t even realize how bad that fog was until I started eating better, working out, and not sleeping in until noon every day. It was only then that my mind got back to running normally, without those cobwebs keeping me from being my best. Exercise depletes your energy in the short-term, but what it actually does for you long-term is way worth it. When you work out, you are actually releasing endorphins into your body that I like to think of as mood enhancers! If I am mad or upset over something, all I have to do is throw in one of my high intensity interval training or kickboxing workouts and I feel so much better by the time I’m done.

I’m only human, so I have fallen off the wagon a couple of times and gone on binges where I ate a ton of junk food – usually on holidays or vacations. What happens when I do that though is the fog starts creeping back in. I’m not a scientist or a doctor, so I can’t say with any certainty that something in the junk food is causing this to happen, but I would bet money that it is!

Another instance where I feel this fog coming back is when I sleep too much. You need to get a decent amount of rest, especially if you are exercising because that is when your body heals itself from the strain and builds muscle. However, the longer you exceed 8 hours in sleep, the higher the chances are that you’re going to wake up feeling groggy. This happens to me sometimes because I work overnight shifts here and there that really mess up my sleep schedule. I will only get 4 or 5 hours of sleep for a few nights, and I’ll let myself sleep for like 10-12 hours on a day off to make up for it. On days that I have done that I just wake up feeling worse.

My point here is that if you want to get rid of this feeling, you need to start eating healthier, exercising regularly, and only sleeping as much as you have to. Once you start losing weight and you start feeling the positive effects of the exercise, chances are you’ll come to understand what I mean.

Click Here if you’re ready to make this commitment to change your life for the better.

Post-workout treat

Leave a comment

It never ceases to amaze me, but I know that a lot of people actually think this way! Some people will workout and then they think that it earns them a meal from McDonalds afterwards. They will then come to me wondering why they don’t see results. Well, the answer is simple. You NEED to eat clean, and you need to exercise.

If you work out for an hour and then you go to a fast food joint for supper immediately after, you are negating all of that work you just put in. You cannot expect to lose weight by treating yourself to junk food after a workout. The biggest part of weight loss is actually your nutrition, so if you want to be successful in losing the weight you have got to start eating healthier.

Click Here if you would like access to some recipes for healthy meals and snacks.

There is NO elevator to success!

Leave a comment

If you want lasting success you HAVE to be willing to make changes! Sure, you can spend a ton of money on diet pills, wraps, drinks, etc. In the majority of cases, all you are doing is throwing your money away when you buy these types of things, and I know because I have been there, done that. These things may seem to work in the beginning, but chances are whatever weight you do lose, you will just gain it all back shortly after.

Like I said, I’ve been there. I used to waste a lot of money on all types of different diet and weight loss products. After a while though I realized it wasn’t working, and I needed to make a change. I started P90X, changed my eating habits, and never looked back. The funny thing about all of those weight loss products that claim to help you lose a ton of weight with little to no exercise is that they require you change your eating habits. The reps will tell you to get the best results you should eat healthy and drink a lot of water. Well, guess what? If you would just eat healthy and drink a lot of water, you would lose weight WITHOUT wasting your money on weight loss products.

Of course there will be a limit to what you can achieve without exercise, but the biggest part of the weight loss battle is actually nutrition. If you just eat the right foods and hydrate yourself frequently, you will start to lose weight with or without exercise. If you’re serious about wanting to lose the weight though, and you want it to happen as quick as possible, you need to add exercise into your routine.

Click Here if you’re ready to start taking the stairs.

What will YOU choose?

Leave a comment

You can choose to change nothing with respect to diet and exercise, and expect no positive change in your body. OR, you can choose to make good choices with respect to diet and exercise and start seeing progress in your body, strength, and overall health!

The first week is the hardest when it comes to diet. Once you find healthy meals and snacks that you like it becomes a whole lot easier! After you’ve been eating healthy for a bit and you get all of those chemicals and processed foods out of your system, your body won’t crave the junk food as much. Instead, you’ll find yourself craving your favorite healthy snacks.

Just try to always keep in mind that the time will pass regardless, so you might as well make the best of it!

Click Here if you are ready to get started!

Overcoming hurdles

Leave a comment

This quote could not be more true! Cardio and I have never been friends. It is something that I have struggled with since I was a child, and even into adulthood. I never would have thought that I would be able to do a Turbo Fire workout, and even as I started the program I still had my doubts. I remember the first time I tried Turbo Fire, and even the next couple of times, I honestly thought that I was going to keel over and die. I was sweating buckets, I had to pause the tape every few minutes to get a drink of water, and my heartrate was so high I was actually starting to worry about my safety.

I pushed through though, and I’m not going to say it got easier, but I will say that I GOT BETTER. People usually say that it gets easier, and in a way it does. By the same token though, it doesn’t necessarily get easier- because as you get better, you find yourself pushing harder, doing more, bringing it just that much more. You can jump higher, kick and punch harder, master moves you couldn’t do when you started, and even get through workouts without having to pause the disk.

Believe in yourself, because you CAN do it. It doesn’t matter if you have to pause the dvd a hundred times to calm your heart rate and get a drink of water. It doesn’t matter if you have to skip moves because you genuinely don’t have the strength to do them. It  doesn’t matter if you have to follow the modified version of moves. All that matters is that you TRY, because the next time you try the workout you could be strong enough to do it. As long as you are trying, you are still burning calories! Push through it, and over time you will be amazed at what you have overcome.

Click Here if you are ready to start overcoming hurdles!

Pre-Diet junk food binge

1 Comment

Does this sound familiar?! This used to be an annual thing in our house haha, but it is no good! All this does is cause you to gain extra weight that you will have to work off during your diet and/or new fitness routine. It does not make any sense for you to eat a bunch of junk food just to get rid of it,  because it is only going to hurt you in the end.

It is better to give it to a friend or family member than to gorge on it right before you start a new diet. It may taste good, but all it is going to do is make you feel pretty crappy and gain weight. Would you rather not “waste” the money it cost you to get the junk food in the first place and deal with the consequences, or get rid of the junk food and get off to a good start with your diet? Personally, I would go for that second option.

If you gorge on junk food before a diet, you are just setting yourself up for failure. You need to change your mentality surrounding the word “diet”, because getting fit and healthy isn’t a short-term thing – it is a lifestyle change. What you need to do is find foods like mimic the meals you typically enjoy, but that are much healthier for you. You don’t have to restrict yourself 100% of the time, but you should try to aim for 80-90%. If you want something that isn’t healthy, just work it into your calorie and macro limits for the day! It is possible to live a healthy lifestyle while still occasionally enjoying junk food, you just have to want it bad enough to keep yourself from junk food on a regular basis. Instead, use it as a treat for progress at the end of the month or something.

Click Here if you would like to take the first step toward a healthier life!

It’s never too late

Leave a comment

As a Beachbody coach, I have come across plenty of people in their 40’s and 50’s or above who are trying to lose weight and get healthy. Your age shouldn’t be a limitation. In fact, we gave my grandmother a Beachbody fitness program for Christmas this year! If you can move around, you can exercise at any age. Just modify the moves, it is as simple as that! Only do what you can, only go as low as you can, and start by using light weights in the beginning of your journey and work your way up.

Just ask the many people who start in their 40’s or 50’s or sometimes even later than that, or the many people who were obese when they started their journey. These people may have thought that they were too far gone to ever lose the weight again! In my opinion, the hardest part is the first few weeks to a month. During that initial timeframe, it is almost more of a mental challenge than a physical one. Of course your body will be challenge, but you have to get over the “I can’t do this” mentality before you can be successful.

Like I mentioned above, you just have to modify the moves and do what you are capable of doing. When I started there were certain exercises I simply had to skip because I lacked the strength to do them safely. There were many exercises that I had to complete using the modified version. Plus, I would have to pause the workout a BUNCH to get a drink and calm my heart rate down a bit. It was a struggle, but I just told myself that I could do it, and so I did. Over time I got better and better, I could do more exercises the regular way, I could finally do the moves I previously had skipped, and I found I didn’t have to pause the workout nearly as often.

I am not saying it will be easy to change your mental mindset, because it won’t. It will be a challenge, but what doesn’t challenge you, doesn’t change you! You won’t regret the changes that take place once you make these life changes, but you may regret it if you don’t.

Click Here if you are ready to make these changes now.