Still In It Challenge

Hey there!

Anyone up for an 8 week Sexy to Summer challenge!!  While I was on vacation I received an email from bodybuilding.com about an upcoming challenge that fit right in between two of my vacations!

I’ve been wanting to get seriously strict lately with my eating and fitness and this is the perfect time for me.  I’ve always toyed with the idea of competing in a body competition and I’m taking this as a trial run to see if I have what it takes to stick with it!  The challenge starts on Monday, April 25 and runs through June 19!  I’ve invited many of my friends and family to join me!

Here are the details and my official “rules” that I will be following:

1. 100 oz. water a day
2. 7 hours of sleep each night
3. At least 30 minute workout 7 days a week
4. Keep a daily food diary
5. No eating past 8 p.m.
6. No white sugar or white flour

I’m also asking everyone to ONLY weigh themselves at the beginning and at the end. I am honestly going to tell my husband to take the scale out of the house.  I think it’s great to take before photos and progress photos along the way as well as measurements.  Seeing a dumb number on the scale can be a downfall to progress.

Also, many times I let myself have treat meals or days and with this one, I will be having ZERO cheat days or meals.  I am a sugar addict and to get where I really want to be I need to cut out SUGAR and WHITE FLOUR completely.  I’m also suggesting that everyone choose 1 0r 2 other personal goals that they’d like to work on as well during the 8 weeks!

I’ll be checking in LOTS more often over the next 8 weeks!!  Let’s do this!

 

Tips to stay motivated through the holidays!

November 10th and winter has arrived at our house!  Today I was thinking about what motivates me to exercise.  I know the way I think is not the norm so I was trying to think about the average person and what would help motivate them.  Two things came to mind.

The first was feeling good about your body.  You don’t have to be in the perfectly fittest shape to love your body right here and now.  When I feel good about myself I want to workout more.  Get rid of the negative thoughts about ANY body part.  Focus on what improvements you are working on and forget the rest.  For example, I thought the dumbest thing the other day.  Someone gave me a compliment on my arms and I instantly thought, “Well, what about my legs?”  They must not look good since they didn’t mention them.  OH!  Never do that!  I LOVE Demi Lovato’s new song, Confident!  Check it out:

Second motivator and almost more important than the first is to have a good support group or just ONE friend!  Today my friend and I taught our HIGH FITNESS class and we had our best turn out yet.  I looked around the room and almost every person had a friend there.  When it’s cold and 6 am, you need that!!

Crazy Fitness Friends!

This one is from 3 years ago!  My besties on a cold winter run.  Why oh why would I want to run in the dark and cold if I didn’t have my friends pushing me along.

Here are a few other ideas to keep you from gaining the dreaded holiday weight!

• Keep up with your workouts!  No matter how busy you get, don’t miss your workout.  When you stop exercising you start eating more and more of all the tempting food that’s everywhere this time of year.
• Eat healthy food often!  Don’t let yourself get too hungry and whatever you do, never go to a holiday party on an empty stomach.  Drink a big glass of water and eat something small before you go.  A little bit of protein and veggies is your best option.

Lastly, I have an amazing lower body/glute and ab workout for you to try brought to you by my favorite fitness gals, Amber Dodzweit and Jamie Eason.  I’ll be doing this tomorrow with my friends!

Have a wonderful day and stay warm.  I’m off to make lunch for my son and his friend now (:  Work Hard Forever!

Kickstart 4 week plan

Happy Monday!  Time to restart my goals (:  I’m excited to announce that I signed up for the dietbet challenge!  Yee-haw!  I’d never even heard of it, but since Jamie Eason was hosting, I signed up!  I did pretty crappy on my Oxygen Challenge so I’m redeeming myself.  I like it because it’s only 4 weeks.  It started today and will finish on Nov. 22.  She’s already posted workouts and meal plans.  Check it out HERE!

I really wasn’t doing it for the money, I just like to win!  You pay $30 bucks and then if you lose 4% of your body weight you win your money back by splitting the pot with everyone else who won.  I actually already got my money back because they gave me an MVP shoutout for inviting so many people to join (:  I got an email from Jamie and she told me to pick out whatever I wanted from her supplement line, so I’ll be getting some protein powder in the mail!  Yippee!

Then, to add extra lbs. to my weight loss, I decided to sweeten up the weekend!  Yes, I gained 6 lbs.  Ha ha!  That should be gone by the end of the week though and then I’ll still have 3 weeks to lean out.  Eating treats is fun, and I did it on purpose, but I am NOT a happy camper after too much indulgence.  I’m actually pretty mad at myself.  This will be a pay back week, which I love anyway!!  I like to be on top of my game and sometimes I get a little caught up in perfectionism, not so good really!

Today started out great with a 6 mile run with my friends which I can’t keep up with anymore!!  I would be putting in many CRYING emojis here if I knew how!!  My goal for running will be to run 3 times a week.  One will be with my friends (they push me) and one will be with myself staring at my Garmin so I run faster, and the third will be whatever, treadmill work or another solo run.  I got a new tank today that made me feel pretty cool from one of my favorite fitness gals!  I think she’s detoxing right now too because she just gave a schpill on being perfect and a cool green detox drink!  Her body is my goal and I love her motivational words.

And here I am in her way cute tank!  It’s a symbol of a track in the shape of an A.  I just finished my weight workout with my friends and I’m eating one of my favorite post workout snacks.  A vanilla or coconut yogurt with a spoonful of cocoa powder in it!  When I got my tank in the mail she even wrote a cute little personalized thank you on the receipt!  Excuse the dirty mirrors.  Right after this I will be turning on Maroon 5 Pandora and cleaning the bathrooms.  I need to get to the yard too.  I better get moving!

This will be a great week!  Keep it simple.  This is what I’ll be focusing on in my diet right now!

I’m also going to try Amber’s detox drink (:  The ingredients are: spinach, kale, celery, parsley, cucumber, romaine, and lemon.  My mouth is watering!  (: I did feel a cold coming on this morning so I’ll be doing this for sure!

My backyard sounds like it has dinosaurs walking around!  We have some excavating and placements of HUGE rocks goin’ on!  YAY!!  I’ll have to post pictures of that too!  I’ll be back towards the end of the week with an update on my weight loss and more hard core stick to it no matter what words of wisdom!  Thanks for listening to the rambling!  Work Hard Forever.  Always…(:

Running, Amazing Shoes, and a 12 week keep the holiday weight off fitness plan

Hello!  Happy October!!  Love this month.  O.K.  it has almost been a week now since my latest 1/2 marathon!  Sorry for the delayed report.  I was slightly nervous for this run because of my injury and I felt like I wasn’t in the best running shape.  The  weekend turned out perfect except for I could have been about 18 minutes faster (:  I finished in 2:00!  The course was beautiful, weather was perfect, and I loved finishing!  I was a little sore for a couple days, but I jumped right back into my normal workout routine on Monday and I feel great!

This week I started running with my 14 year old daughter!!  I’m so happy about this.  We ran 3.2 miles.  We want (or I should say I want us) to run two days a week!  I also ran my favorite trail with my friends!  One thing that’s good about me is I’m stubborn and ultra committed.  I’m going to take one of my runs every week to be my improvement run.  I’ll do the same distance faster each week (:  I also want to work on hills more.  Here are the photos from my latest runs!

Next up!!  My favorite shoe to report on!  I stubbled across this shoe from someone else who bought it.  I did a little research and noticed people were raving about it.  The best part is you can buy it on Amazon for as low as $28.00 right now.  Click HERE to see all the color selections!! It’s called the PUMA Women’s Pulse XT Geo Cross-training shoe.  I do a lot of high intensity jumping and moving laterally and these are the comfiest shoes with the perfect amount of stability and cushioning.  I’ve already bought two pair!  Here I am looking rather sporty in them (:

Well!  My 12 week Oxygen Challenge is coming to an end so normally I say to myself, What’s next!  Well, major improvements is what’s next!  I was good with the workouts, but the eating was another story!  I follow and read about so many different workouts and fitness that it can get overwhelming in my brain at times.  As with everything, I need to simplify!  Here is the official 12 week plan!!

Start Date: Monday, October 12.  I’m not off the wagon right now, I’m just starting it on the 12th because that is 12 weeks till the end of the year!

Diet: Healthy, clean eating.  Small portions.  Fruits/Vegetables.  Protein.  Supplements.  Tons of water.  No white flour or white sugar.  Once in awhile I’ll eat a little white flour.  I’m reading labels and nothing over 6-7 grams of sugar per serving.  No eating after 8:00 p.m.  I’ve done all this before (: nothing new.  Here is the NEW twist!!  I’ll eat this way 9 out of 10 days.  I’ll pick 1 day in 10 where I can eat treats!!  Only on this day will I eat whatever I want guilt free and then the next day, I’m back on 100%.  The rewards are definitely worth it!!

Exercise: Throughout the Oxy Challenge I kept looking at Jamie Eason’s 12 week Show Me The Weigh program.  It’s on bodybuilding.com HERE.  The best thing is she posts every exercise in video on Instagram!!  Like this:

So, I’ll start with week 1 and not miss a day (:  I’m going to keep track of weight and measurements once a week too.  The biggest thing I want to stay true to is the 9 on 1 off eating approach.  100%  I’ll keep you updated!

Well, I gotta get going!  Time to run with my daughter and her motivation is waning!  To end, I follow this girl on Instagram.  Her bod will be my goal (:  She leaves motivational quotes all the time too.  This one is good, but my favorite one she said recently was, “A lot of people wake up on Mondays with a sense of I have GOT to get myself together.  By Wednesday, they can’t wait for the weekend to engage in the things that made them hate Monday!  Don’t let this week own the rights to your motivation!  You dictate the terms!!  Have a GREAT one!!  WORK HARD FOREVER!

How to get even fitter

HELLO!!  This has been the never ending day!  My goal was to post Monday and Wednesday, but I’m now changing that to twice a week!  Ya never know how a day is going to go sometimes.

Alrighty!  Oxygen Challenge update!  I have 1 month left and I’m seriously getting serious now (:  I talked about having a treat day once in a 10 ten period.  I’m going to do that, but only after October 9!  For 1 month I’ll be sticking to my diet plan 100%.  This month I’ll be carb cycling.  I think I kind of do that already, mostly because I feel guilty after a pig out day and then I go low carb for several days!

First off, I saw this awesome awesome quote from Jennifer Lawrence.  She’s the Hunger Games star.  I love love what she says here:

So, let’s get right to the topic of the day.  How to get even fitter.  Most people I see at the gym don’t seem to change.  I guess everyone is about maintaining.  I am NOT however.  I’m about always improving (:  And I’m not talking about looking sickly thin with no muscle.  Wherever you are on your fitness journey, here are a few ways to push it to the next level.

• Mix it up!!  Stop doing the same workouts day after day.  How boring is that anyway.  I constantly change things up.  I also do a lot of the same stuff too, but I keep my body guessing.
• LIFT LIFT LIFT!  If you want to see your body change, lift weights.  If you’re already lifting, ADD weight and or ADD another set.
• Never miss a workout!  Stay consistent.  I schedule my workouts several days in advance around whatever I have and I never miss them, unless I have an emergency.
• CUT OUT WHITE FLOUR and WHITE SUGAR.  This is even bigger than lifting.  One way to help track your diet and calories is My Fitness Pal.  I LOVE this thing.  It gets tiring to enter in your food every single day, but it helps me eat better and less.  I’ll be doing this for the next month 100%.

So, my goal for the next month is to lower my body fat.  I’m shooting for 13% by October 5.  In order to do this, I’ll track everything I eat in My Fitness Pal.  I’ll cut out sugar and simple carbs and INCREASE protein.  The other day I found a page I’d saved from a magazine from 3 years ago.  It had a low sugar meal plan and a recipe for Chocolate Energy Truffles.  Here are a few examples of what you should be eating to stay low sugar.

• oatmeal, blueberries, hard boiled eggs, protein shakes, strawberries, turkey, whole wheat bread, veggies, hummus, plain greek yogurt, salmon, brown rice, salad greens.  SIMPLE, right?

And if you’re craving some sweet SUGAR, here is the truffle recipe:

1/3 c vanilla protein powder

3/4 c natural chunky peanut butter

1/4 c instant nonfat dry milk

1/4 c agave nectar or honey

1/4 t cinnamon

1/2 t coconut extract

1 T ground flaxseed

2 T cocoa

Combine all ingredients and roll into balls.  Store in airtight container in the fridge.  I think I’ll be making these tomorrow!

Well, I’ll end with two fun photos.  The first one is an ad for the Big Cottonwood Marathon that I ran two years ago.  I came across this picture on Facebook and as I looked closely, I realized the girl in the green was ME!  Ha Ha!  I’m famous (:

And here is a more recent pic from last night!  We did a HIGH fitness class at the park and all the instructors wore these cute matching $5.00 shorts!  It was such a fun night!

I’m a crazy exercise fanatic, but that’s me and I’m glad I am ME (:  Have a wonderful wonderful weekend!!!  Work Hard Always!

JANUARY-STILL KEEPING MY RESOLUTIONS

Happy Groundhog Day!  We’ve had such a mild winter that I don’t even mind having more winter!!  I’m finally back from nothing (: just been busy and working through January!  Today’s post will be a report on my New Year Goals.  Yes, I still remember them.  I’m giving myself a B.  My goal for January was to only have treats on ONE day.  My other two goals that I’ve made for myself have some conflicting difficulties with them!  I made a financial goal to only go out to movies twice a month, but then I told myself that ONLY at the movies could I have candy and an ice cream (:  Not a good combo right?  Cuz if I wanted a treat, I said, “Let’s go to a movie”  I think 5 was the number for January!  Yikes.  Oh well, new month!  I’m back to only two movies for the month.  I have to say however, that my little movie treats did nothing to derail me.  I didn’t gain weight and I got right back on after the movie.  My successes for the month are 5 lbs. down (that’s just because of a little holiday indulgences) and better muscle tone.  I’d like to push it a little more for February.  My one week goal for this week is NO GRAINS and NO EATING AFTER 8:00 p.m.

O.K.  here is my speech on weight loss for the day, not that you haven’t heard it already.  It is almost everything WHAT YOU EAT!!!  I have worked out like a maniac for many years and ONLY when I combine my workouts with clean eating do I see changes in my body!  Lately, I’ve been addicted to this super intense cardio workout called HIGH, which I just got certified to teach!!!  Yay me!!!  It’s the best cardio for me and I love it.  I also lift weights 4-5 days a week and run.  Yes, I workout a lot!  1 1/2 -2 hours a day.  That is normal for me and I like it.  Eating well gives me more energy and I feel better, but even with this intense schedule, I’d be doing it in vain if I wasn’t eating well.  In other words, WASTING MY TIME!!  Don’t stray too far from the CLEAN and HEALTHY eating path!

When I first started personal training, one of my clients asked me to train her and she said, “I need to lose X amount of weight and get in shape, but I can’t do what you do!”  I’ve been thinking about that a little.  Already she is giving herself an out.  I thought, well I should give her half of what I do and then of course she’ll get half the results.  If you want to do it, DO IT!!  No excuses AND it is WORK!!  A work that you will come to LOVE!!!

Enough of the soap box.  I’ve found a new hobby that I can’t get enough of.  SKIING!!!  I need a bumper sticker (not really, I have too many already) that says, I’d rather be skiing (:  It gives me such a RUNNER’s high I call it.  I went with my friend last week and I told her one of the  reasons I love skiing is the feel of the environment and the positive happy energy of the other skiers.  It reminded me of the feeling of race day when you’re surrounded with a crazy bunch or endorphin seeking runners!  Love it!!  It has made the winter months so much happier for me.  Here I am with my cute daughter.  I need to take a few action shots next time!  I’m not really good either (:

I’ll end with a few more pics. from the last couple weeks.  This one is me and my bestie teaching HIGH for the first time (:  We love to match!!

And a colorful church outfit!!  Skirt is Boden and top is Ann Taylor.  Boots are Express.  I have many workout outfits I need to share too.

One of these days I’ll get it together and be more consistent again with my fun blog.  Right now I’m just getting through the days.  Never a dull moment around our house!!  Something is always keeping us on our toes such as my 16 yr. old slamming his car into our house last night (: Oh the lessons we learn…Have a wonderful day!!  Keep at it!!!  It’s worth it!!  GO FOR GREATNESS!!  This is for my football kids!  My son was a little sad his team didn’t win last night!

 

Family time and NEW weight loss plan begins

It’s been awhile!  I need to work on being more consistent with my writing!  Hopefully, August 1st I’ll be back in the swing of things and my life will be more organized.  July has been a roller coaster of events!  I can’t believe it’s almost over.  I consolidated a few family photos that we’ve taken over the past couple weeks.  I have 3 siblings that live out of state and all three of them have been in town overlapping each other.  My last brother will go home this Saturday and then we’ll be business as usual!  We’re kind of in a frazzled state right now!  However, it has been heaven to have them here.  I LOVE seeing my Mom so happy and to see my brother that lives in Georgia.  He stayed with us for 3 days and he is a ray of sunshine!  I should have commented on each photo.  This will have to do!  First picture is some of us hiking Ensign Peak that overlooks the Salt Lake Valley.  Second is a serious card playing game!  And third, is the family up the canyon roasting hot dogs and smores over the fire.

 

The next set up pictures is girl night at Gardner Village and a Mom and Daughter shot!  I love them!  Then, a picture of us at the Conference Center for the Mormon Tabernacle Choir concert that I always love and look forward to!  And the bottom shot is a family picture minus one brother that we’ll photo shop in!  We’re a picture taking and memory remembering family!  Wonderful times together!

 

 

Recently, we spent 4 days in Lake Powell with our friends!  We had a great time.  It was a lot of work and a lot of play.  We are all sun tanned to a crisp.  I love Lake Powell.  It is so beautiful!!  We didn’t take too many pictures due to lack of anything high tech and phones dying.  We were hard core campers.  The first night a terrible wind storm broke out and blew for several hours.  Sand everywhere.  My little ones were scared and not too happy but the rest of the trip was very pleasant and HOT!  Lots of time in the sun and water.  It was nice to come home and step on my comfy carpet!

I’m starting serious fitness business on August 1st.  My 3 month plan will begin.  I’ll give the full details on August 1st.  It’s gonna be GOOD!!  Think WHOLE 30 for August!  Well, I need to get going.  Museum today and family dinner tonight!  Party On!!!  Till next time…Work Hard!

NYC and recommitment to WEIGHTS

Hello there!  Today was bless-ed!  It’s been a LONG time since I haven’t woke up early on a Friday or Saturday for a LONG run!!  I slept in, read a little, made bacon and eggs for the kids, and hit the gym for ZUMBA!!  I can still feel a run down feeling in my legs!  Another thing that makes me happy is cleaning my house!!!  It is all perfect right now and that feeling is right up there with my exercise high!  I love my house!  Everything is turning green outside and I have lots of windows.  Beautiful!

Anyway!!  I got an email from a friend of mine that I don’t see too often.  She invited me to join a fitness challenge for 8 weeks.  The timing couldn’t have been better.  I’m so excited!  It starts May 3rd through June 27th.  I’ll fill you in on the details ASAP.  I do much better with these challenges when someone else is in charge.  I’m looking forward to Monday and a re-start on my weights.  I’m going to start Phase 2 of Jamie Eason’s Live Fit program.  Here are my workouts this week, HOPEFULLY!!

Monday-Jamie Eason 9:15 a.m. (Back and cardio)
Tuesday-Attack 7:00 p.m. Jamie Eason 8:00 p.m. (Chest, Abs, cardio)
Wednesday-Jamie Eason 9:15 a.m. (Legs) Zumba 10:30 a.m. Possible Grit at 6:00 a.m.
Thursday-Jamie Eason 6:30 a.m. (Arms, abs, cardio)
Friday-Jamie Eason 9:15 a.m. (Shoulders, cardio)
Saturday-Body Combat at Gold’s 8:00 a.m. Jamie Eason 9:00 (Legs) Skills

I’ll share my diet tips later!  Nothing new, just cuttin’ out the crap!  O.K.  I’ll add a few photos here from the rest of my trip!  Such a great time with my lil’ sis!  We took her to Lululemon and helped her pick out her first lululelmon outfit.

She already sent me a pic. of her in her new favorite outfit and has received tons of compliments.  I really need Lululemon to pay me (:  We spent some time in Connecticut.  We shopped, went to the beach, and ate a lot of yummy food.  We spent the day in NYC too!!  I was singing “Start spreading the news…I’m leaving today…” as we drove in.  We parked at a super cheap lot near Central Park (I LOVE Central Park)  It was a little windy and chilly, but not too bad.  We walked to my sister’s favorite restaurant, Serendipity and visited the ultimate candy store!  The only candy I allow myself is dark chocolate and I tried a sea salt carmel dark chocolate!  Oh my!  Sea salt anything is my favorite lately.

Then, we spent some time at the MET (Metropolitan Museum of Art).  A tad bit overwhelming.  So giant, but it was great!  We thought about going to Canal street to find purses, but we spent too much money at Lulu, so we hopped on the subway to Times Square instead.

I LOVE Times Square too.  Crazy busy place!  I saw Hard Rock, so he headed there for dinner.  I’m a Hard Rock fan!  Not that I’ve been to a million, but I love the music and the fun environment.  Here we are!

We went through the Hershey’s store, M & M store, and Disney!  It started to get dark and cold so we returned to our car and headed back to CT.  The GPS system on cell phones is amazing.  Wherever we wanted to go, we plugged in the address and up popped the directions instantly!  On our last day we spent some time in Hartford.  We went to the Mark Twain house.  Super cool!  I love history and real people stories.  That was about it.  Sadness to say goodbye.  I hope some day my sister moves back.  I told her she could live in our house!!  I definitely love to travel, but I’m looking forward to relaxing.  No big trips in the near future!  Only SUMMER just around the corner.  That’s all for now!  Have a HAPPY day!

Hee hee! I think that’s me!