Don’t gain weight over the holidays

I had all sorts of amazing thoughts to write about and then I got hit with the sick stick. My mind is a blur right now! I get a pretty good cold about once a year. It’s usually when the temperature drops 20 degrees overnight. I don’t know why! I’m getting about a 1/4 done of what I usually do. That being said, this will be short and sweet!! Monday started out great. In fact I was going to do the LESS IS MORE approach with my workouts. I cleaned the house all morning and then did a ONE hour workout for the whole day! (: Tuesday was super funny. I went to teach my workout class at 9:00 a.m. when my energy level suddenly dropped. My 12 lb. weights felt like 40 lbs. I didn’t even do the workout! So!! A little forced R&R for me (: I’ll be back at ’em in no time especially since I’m now hosting Thanksgiving dinner to 60+ people or so! That got me busy with the finishing touches on some decor items for my house! I’ll take some pics. when my deliveries arrive.

My words of advice today are about how to stay in control of your weight during the holiday season! This is the perfect time to set some goals! I’ve decided to schedule a photo shoot for the last week of December to keep me on target! Is that crazy!? My last project for my 40th year is to take some photos and send them into Oxygen mag! One of my client’s is an amazing photographer so it will be easy!

Here are a few tips to keep you in check!

Keep working out-Don’t let the busyness of the season make you miss your workouts! You’ll feel better and have less stress too!

Have healthy food on hand-Sometimes we forget to make dinner and go shopping for healthy produce. Keep up your dinner menus and have some cut up veggies in the fridge at all times!

Eat every 3 hours-This will help you with overeating. When we’re busy we forget to eat and then we eat way too much because we’re starving.

Drink more water-Drink a cup of water before you eat. This will fill you up so you don’t eat as much.

Well, that’s all I got today. Listen to your body and take a break when needed. Smile and Sleep!

Here’s a workout for those of you that have energy to do this! I’ve been wanting to try this one!!  Also, check out One D’s new album. Me and my daughter will soon be singing all the new tunes!

New Year and New Goals! Get after it!

Happy Happy New Year!!  My house is in order and I’m excited to get serious about my health and fitness goals once again.  The last 2 weeks of December were a major crazy blur of an extremely over abundance of food and an almost non existent consistent workout schedule!  As for my fitness and health goals, the big one this year will be NO CANDY and NO BINGING!  I want to lose a few pounds right away and keep them off for the whole year.

I sat down and contemplated my personal training life and I’m looking forward to starting another 6 week program!!  I’m also 15 weeks out from the Boston Marathon and I need to start training for that too.  It will be an adventure!  Here is the summarized scoop on my training.  Many people tell me I’m not charging enough.  I think I will start charging more when I improve my gym and when I’ve had more experience!  Right now, I’m happy to share and I love what I do!!

Hello and Happy New Year!!!

     Real quick I want to let everyone know I am starting another 6 week weight loss and get fit program!  Yippee!  This is my favorite time of year to get serious about my fitness goals.  I’ve learned a few things from the first go around and I want to make this one more simple and more STRICT (:  

Prices are as follows:  $100.00 for the full 6 week program.  This includes a detailed 6 week meal plan and grocery list, 6 one hour weight workouts and weekly weigh ins. 

Another option is a one time training session with me.  This is $50.00.  We’ll go over your goals.  You’ll get the 6 week mean plan and 3 weight workouts that cover the whole body.  

I’m going to do my training a little differently this time.  I have 5 times a week I can train and you can choose whichever one you’d like to come to.  Some weeks you could be the only one there and other days we’ll have a small group.  Personally I think training with friends is more motivating and fun!!!  I’ll teach you how to lift correctly and efficiently.  If you are doing the workouts and following my nutrition plan YOU will see your body change!!

Depending on how many sign up and your preferences, I’m willing to adjust the times if needed.  I’m always improving my home gym.  One day it will be amazing and have absolutely everything!!  A wall of mirrors is next on the list and will be installed this week.  

Please let me know if you have any questions!!  It will be super duper FUN and REWARDING!!  Once again, I’ll have a drawing for a $50.00 Athleta card for added motivation!!  

P.S.  One tiny detail, we start Monday, January 6th!!!  Please get back with me ASAP!  

I need to get going now!  2013 was a wonderful year.  I’m looking forward to making 2014 even better!  Next time I want to post a KETTLE BELL workout that I’ve been needing to get out there.  I love kettle bells and this will be a GOOD one!!  Until next time…

 

 

Don’t lose it over the holidays!

OK!  I always love this time of year when I flip the calendar over and see DECEMBER!  Every time I wonder where the year went!  I am very goal driven and I start thinking about New Year Resolutions.  I’m going to be very careful what I choose this year so I can actually achieve them!  (: That leads me to a new 3 week goal or countdown to birthday goal.  I’ve mentioned this more than once over the last few months, but this year marks my 40th!  I don’t know why that’s a big deal other than the fact that 40 sounds so much older than 30!  I looked around at the kids the other day at breakfast and told them how much I love this stage in our lives.  I would NOT want to go back to 30 and relive the baby years as much as I LOVED caring for my little ones round the clock!

  This is what I’ll be doing over the next 3 weeks!  I know I’m NOT normal!

• 6 days a week of Jamie Eason weight workouts.  I’ll probably add a few runs and Zumba too!
• Weigh myself everyday.  I know that’s lame but I’m back to wanting a number by my birthday.  I’m thinking between 128-130!
• South Beach Phase 1 for 2 weeks (no grains or fruit).  Maybe I’ll have 1 apple a day (:

That should be all that I hold myself accountable to!  I KNOW I can do this.  I have to remind myself how great I feel when I’m working out hard and eating clean.  I felt so healthy Thanksgiving morning and I slowly declined feeling that way for the duration of the weekend due to crappy eating!  I have lots of projects to keep me busy!  Our carpet is finally in and now I want to go through each room and storage room and clean and dejunk.  I also should do a little Christmas shopping since I have a bit of procrastination tendencies (: For Monday Menu, here are a few things I ate last week!

Breakfast: Egg white omelet, 1/2 sweet potato, 1/2 apple

Lunch- SALAD

Dinner- 2 turkey burgers, broccoli, sweet potato fries

Over the weekend my daughter showed me a new song I love!  This is One Direction.  Very cute video!

Happy happy Monday!!  Work Hard and Smile (:

Day 5

Yes, I survived the weekend with no sugar!  It all comes down to habit.  I had plenty of opportunities to partake of many delectable desserts, treats, and candy!  We had parties with friends and family, a fun shopping outing with the girls where I even tried to order sugar free cheesecake and they were out!  Sunday night we played games and I still had loads of my favorite candy left over from 5 days ago when I started this 100 day challenge of NO SUGAR.  I’m keeping at it!  It’s always fun and motivating too when several people around me want to join in!

 With weight loss and healthy living I think every individual needs to find out what keeps them from optimal health.  For me, it’s sugar.  For others it could be portion size, high fat foods, fast food, or soda pop.  Whatever it is, figure it out and find a way to control and conquer it.  Make your goal second nature.  I’m hoping my desire to stay off sugar becomes as easy as sticking to my exercise routine.  I never wake up and wonder if I’ll work out.  I work out 6 days a week pretty much ALWAYS.  The question is usually WHEN will I work out and WHAT exercise is on the schedule.  Today was a 9 mile run.  I’ll hit the weights later today too.  I need to run 18 miles this weekend, so I wanted to start the week off strong.

My life as always is very scheduled and busy.  It’s VERY important to have healthy food on hand at all times.  I like to make a BIG batch of something and eat it over 3 or 4 days.  I made a pasta salad that I ate plenty of all weekend and today I’m going to make a pot of SOUP!  It’s from a favorite website of mine called vedgedout.com.  I want to try the Moroccan Lentil Soup!

photos in this post courtesy of An Unrefined Vegan

Make Monday rock.  Song of the day FAR AWAY (:

June color and ramp it up!

I have decided that I like to eat extra treaty food when I want to celebrate!!!  My problemo is that I like to celebrate ALL THE TIME!!!  I’m glad I’m not a closet eater, stressed out eater, or a bored eater.  I only like to party and eat!  That’s why weekends and summer are hard for me!!  July is not going to be easy!!!  I’m in for a BIG challenge!  With the 4th of July festivities, 3 camping trips, 2 weeks of family in town…I just might break!!!  Here is my plan!!  I looked back at Jan. 1 and reevaluated my New Years Goals.  I might have slacked off on them, but I don’t give up…EVER!!  Half of the year of keeping goals is better than forgetting the whole thing.  Here they are:

• Follow Jamie Eason program for 8 weeks.  Do not miss a day.  I restarted this last week and I’m on a roll.  I’ll only miss a few days when I’m out of town.

• Run 3-4 days a week.  Marathon is in sight.

• EAT CLEAN!  No white flour, white sugar, or processed foods.  Hmmm…working on that is a constant battle.

• 3 treat days a month.  I have not done this yet and I will do it this month!

• Finish my personal trainer course by March.  Yes siree, I did that even if it was in May, the day before the expiration date.  YAY ME!!

Food is all I have a problem with.  My focus will be on eating clean.  I’m going to pull out my Tosca Reno books and make recipes from that this month.  I’ll eat every 2-3 hours and invent a few healthy treats to get me by.  I’m still aiming for 125 by July 29th.

Today was a great exercise day!!  My RAMP it up phrase has to do with giving it a little or a lot a bit more!  I ran to the gym today, lifted, trained, and ran home.  The 2-3 mile run home was in 80+ degrees and pretty much ALL UP HILL!!  On one especially LONG hill I made a goal to SPRINT from light post to light post.  I’d sprint one, walk one, sprint one, walk one.  If all you do is run your usual 3-5 miles along a straight boring road, CHANGE IT UP!!!  Add sprints, hills, trails.  Think faster!  You’ll pleasantly be surprised that it makes you feel better and if you want to get fitter and leaner, you’ll get that too!!!

O.K.  on to SUMMERY OUTFITS!!!  I have 3 today!  I’m starting to run a little low on outfits ):  We’ll see if I can keep them different all year!

Target sweater, Boden skirt, Dillard’s shoes

Down East sweater, Closet Revival skirt, Boden shoes

Talbots outfit, Boden shoes

Life is busy!  I don’t know how my brain stays organized lately.  We’ll get through it!  Have a beautiful summer day!

Breathe and Keep Moving Up

Happy Summer Morning!!  Today we were at the track.  It’s always nice to see so many people out exercising in the summer months.  I wish I could run more with my friends!  We run all winter and through the school year just waiting for shorts weather and then everyone is out of town and running kids around.  It’s hard for all of us to get together.  I’m glad we have the track each week and the trail!  Here they are this morning.  AWESOME!  I love this picture!!!  I had them sprinting a lot this morning.  Usually I do the workout, but today I held the watch and then went and did legs at the gym (:

HERE is the WORKOUT!!!  I hope I can explain it well.  It would be a fun one for the kids.  Gotta get all that energy out!!

MINUTE TO WIN IT DRILLS

Warm Up

One set of easy bleachers.  100 m high knees, 30 jumping jacks, 30 reverse lunges

PART ONE

  Start a minute timer.  From the goal post, run to the 30 yard line and back.  Do as many KETTLE BELL SWINGS as you can in 1 minute.

Every minute on the minute you have to run to the 30 yd. line and back and continue doing KETTLE BELLS until you reach 150.

Continue in the same pattern with the following exercises:

100 THRUSTERS

125 SIT UPS

75 PUSH UPS

100 STIFF LEG DEAD LIFTS

PART TWO

AMRAP (As Many Rounds As Possible) in 10 Minutes

20 Tricep Kickbacks

20 Bicep Curls

20 Overhead Presses

20 Mountain Climbers

I know people don’t believe me, but I feel like a slacker lately in my diet and exercise.  Not so much with exercise.  My weakness is EATING HEALTHY ALL THE TIME!!!  I stayed up last night and wrote a few goals down for the next month.  I want to get to 125.  Here is the plan:

Eat ALL healthy ALL the time (:  No white flour or white sugar.  1 gallon of water a day.  No eating past 8:00 p.m.  Eat every 2-3 hours.  Keep a Food Journal.  Weigh once or twice a week.

I think what’s hard for me is planning.  I need to know what I’m eating every day AND get my butt to the store a little more often so I’m well stocked.  One thing I want to ALWAYS remember in my strict dieting is to NOT cut out any food groups.  Even dairy is getting a bad rap these days.  I think string cheese, cottage cheese, ricotta cheese, plain or greek yogurt are probably GOOD for me!  I’m o.k. with drinking almond milk instead of regular milk because it’s WAY lower in sugar.

I have a (: reward for me at 129 and when I hit 125 I’ll be running in my booty shorts!  I forget sometimes that I have a goal and I rationalize in my brain that I can take a break and I’m not going to do that for JULY!!

KEEP MOVING.  CREATE YOUR LIFE.  SMILE.  Hit it Hard.

Motivation to BEAT yourself!

Alright!  I told my husband this morning that from now on I am being “seriously strict eating girl”.  What does that mean?  That means I am going to weigh 127 by March 1st.  Let’s see…that is 18 VERY short days.  Can I do it?  Yes of course.  Today I am starting my 8 week Jamie Eason training again!  I will not miss a day.  I will also be doing super fast interval work on the treadmill.  I miss being HOTTTTTT!!!!!  The thermostat in our house is out of wack and has a mind of it’s own.  I guess I could do lunges and jumping jacks all over my house while I clean and do laundry to stay warm?  I’ll be patient and in the mean time envision a HOT trail run with the sun beating on me as I fly up the mountain and do the ROCKY cheer at the top.  Ohhhhh, one blessed day PLEASE get here SOON!!!!!!  BTW, 40 degrees C is 104 degrees F.

O.K.  back to my weight.  I still LOVE my scale goals.  I don’t care if the “healthy weight police” say it’s bad to set goals on the scale.  I’ll be FINE!  I’ve said what to eat a billion times, but to remind myself again, this is what I will eat:

Smoothies!!!!!  I found 3 great examples at this awesome website HERE.  BLEND together in an amazing blender like Blendtec!

Pre-Workout Fruit Smoothies

• 3/4 c apple juice, 3/4 c almond milk, 1 banana, 1/2 c frozen peaches, 1 c frozen strawberries, 1 scoop protein powder, handfuls of spinach or kale

• 1 orange, 1/2 banana, 6 strawberries, handfuls of spinach, greek yogurt, ice, water

Recovery Shake

• 1 c almond milk, 1 frozen or fresh banana, 1 T. peanut butter, 1 T unsweetened coconut flakes, 1 T agave, 1 T wheat germ, 1/2 T cocoa, ice

I will also eat lots of salad and veges, veges, veges!  For protein, I’ll eat chicken, cottage cheese, and egg whites.  Here is another YUMMY looking recipe from the same website.  It’s called discoveryourhappy.com.  I have to make this!

Spaghetti Squash Alfredo

Ingredients:

1/2 spaghetti squash

1 wedge of laughing cow cheese

1 T parmesan cheese

Salt and Pepper

optional: sautéed onions, peppers, tomatoes, mushrooms 

You can cook spaghetti squash a few different ways but I prefer to nuke it microwave.  Cut squash in half and take seeds out.  Turn upside down and put in microwave safe dish with 1 inch of water.  Cover with plastic wrap and cook for 7-10 minutes.  While cooking saute your veggies in a pan with 1 t. or olive oil for 5 minutes. Once squash is cool remove with fork.  Add laughing cow cheese and heat in microwave for 30 seconds.  I usually break the wedge up a bit so it is distributed evenly.  Add parmesan and salt and pepper and and other ingredients.  Enjoy!

Wish me luck!!!  I’ll keep you updated on the progress, along with my workouts and healthy eats!  Here is one of my most favorite motivational quotes!  I’ve posted this before and it’s the most popular post on my blog.  Someone looks it up every day.  Carpe Diem!  

What’s on my ipod?

Mondays are good days for me!!  I’m ready to start a new week with new ambition!  I have finally completed most of my crazy busy summer tasks and I can relax and breathe for a minute.  I thought about my goals and how awful I’ve been at keeping them.  So, NEW goal for today will be to have WEEKLY goals, instead of MONTHLY goals.  I’m not as die hard as I come across 🙂  

So, this week I will:

• weigh myself everyday

• eat every 3 hours

• WATER WATER WATER

• no eating after 8:00 p.m.

I’ll let you know on Saturday how I do!

I just got back from a wonderful weekend filled with running and friends!  We ran a 200 mile RELAY RACE!  I will post my thoughts and pictures about that on THURSDAY!!  It was truly EPIC!!!    

For my MUSIC today I did something FUN!  I put all my songs on shuffle and wrote down the first 10 songs that I was in the mood to listen too!

MY FAVORITE 10 SONGS TODAY!!  Click HERE.

• Right Round by Flo Rida
• Lights (Bassnectar Remix) by Ellie Goulding
• How Far We’ve Come by Matchbox Twenty
• Don’t Stop Believin’ by Glee Cast
• Haunted by Taylor Swift
• Just a Kiss by Lady A
• Set Fire to the Rain by Adele
• What Makes You Beautiful by One Direction
• Talk Dirty to Me by Poison
• Zombie by The Cranberries

Make it a GREAT day!  Go for a RUN and ENJOY some NEW songs!!

Kill the Hill this week!!