I Don't Sail With Pirates

Good afternoon, my friends!!

Today I'm going to set down an important rule for myself, as it's really important to set some boundaries when one embarks on setting up a business, or are just plain tired of getting stepped on. I have come to find in the last few days how saddening it is to be taken advantage of. It truly puts an ache in my heart to discover this when I'm on the verge of some serious mental breakthroughs with turning my life upside down (in a good way!) and wholeheartedly reaching out to helping other people who can relate to my journey. Today, my friends, I am going to lay down my rule for what I expect from people if/when they want my professional help. Now, I am MORE than happy to give advice, offer a helping hand, and be a good friend. As a matter of a fact, I aspire to improve in these areas of my life every day. However, after having started my business as a Beachbody coach, and taking on this new road in improving my lifestyle, I've also come to find that my free time is shortened by the new responsibilities I have at hand, and the time that I have left, is being wasted on few people that are placing their investments in the wrong places.

When I have clients coming to me for business advice or expecting my coaching strategies for free, this presents a problem for me. For one, they are getting some valuable information and some valuable strategies, and I am getting nothing in return. In caring for my body through healthy eating and exercise, I also need to care for my heart and soul. In order for me to do this, I need to set a ground rule that people need to understand. And here it is...

If you received your Beachbody program in any illegal manner (it's a burned disc, it's a copy, etc), I can not allow myself to coach you, and you will be hard pressed to find another coach who will.

1. First of all, this is incredibly illegal, and you could get into serious trouble for acquiring/producing an illegal copy of these products. It's immoral, and I can not be associated with any part of it. To me, this is no different that walking into any retail store and shoplifting, because that is what it is. Stealing.

2. Secondly, this squashes my efforts, and the hard efforts of other coaches like me, who strive to provide our clients with the best training, the best service, the best products, and the best health they can possibly recieve from us. By purchasing a workout program through the Beachbody website or through my Beachbody coaching website, depending on the workout you choose, you are receiving good quality discs, workout gear, a nutrition guide and the most important item in the box, the program guide, that walks you through the program from day 1 to your finishing date. It is WORTH the investment....that is, if you're in it for the right reasons.

3. Finally, what using an illegal copy tells me about your character is that you are just looking for a cheap, illegal way to invest in yourself, and that the program will probably inevitably start collecting dust on your bookshelf after you attempt it and give up. If you put your hard earned money into an investment like this the RIGHT way, you are MORE likely to invest 100% of your time and efforts into it too. Otherwise, it's just something you got for free, and who cares if you don't finish it, right? If you don't invest in your health nobally, please don't expect my assistance. I need to protect MY investments, too. When clients come to me for help, I am investing 100% of MY time, MY knowledge, and MY compassion into them.

Please don't view this as offensive. I did not write it up to be portrayed in that manner. However, people who expect my help must also respect the fact that I am running a business here, and that I can not be giving out free handouts or else I will be taken advantage of, time and time again.

I DO coach for free. That is something I offer to anyone and everyone. But if you start asking me for professional advice about a Beachbody program that you've acquired unethically, I can not produce a beneficial response. It is against what I believe in, and I'm sorry that you feel you've been inconvenienced.

I Will Succeed. Will You?

Today is my rest day, and thank God for it! My sides are screaming, my legs are burning, and I am just in overall recovery from the beating I've been putting myself through. Despite my woes, however, this is not as difficult as my brain panned it out to be prior to jumping in to this decision. "What decision?" you may ask. Well, the decision to change my life.

I was pushing 200 lbs, which is not acceptable for my 5'3" frame. I have the notorious back rolls that women dread. My thunder thighs rub together when I walk. I went to get my driver's license renewed, and when I got it, I thought to myself, "OMG! When did I get an extra chin!?!??" My arms are fatter than they've ever been. Even my feet have grown in size! My butt....well, I love my butt, even if it is a lot bigger than it used to be. It has a good shape. ;-) I have cellulite on my CALVES, people! Ok, so you get the picture. I was NOT a happy camper. I needed to step up. I needed to GROW up! I was so stuck in, "Ugh, I'm fat. Someone reach out to me and help me change." Well, welcome to the real world, Nick! NO ONE CAN HELP YOU BUT YOU! It wasn't hard to flick the switch. It really wasn't. I just made it out to be hard prior to jumping in. I was convincing myself that I was too weak, too fat, too down-in-the-dumps, too undeserving, too broke, too SORRY for myself, to change. All not true. All tremendously stupid lies. ALL of them!

I don't have a lot of money. As a matter of a fact, my family is in a great deal of debt. When I made the decision to change, we'd just completed rehoming 10 puppies. We'd used a bit of that money to play "catch up" and to help prepare for hubby's (then) pending deployment. And I'd decided, "You know what? If I keep sitting here waiting for inspiration, it will NEVER come. I will just keep gaining weight, keep doing the same old crap, and die a lot sooner than I'm willing to let this life go." I wasn't ready to admit defeat. I wasn't ready to say to myself, "Ok, well, I guess I'm okay with my lifestyle that will kill me." Because I was NOT okay with that.

A lot of my battle was not knowing the way. I knew what was mentally needed of me to keep the workouts going, but I didn't exactly know HOW to eat right, nor was I willing to adhere to some of the foods I knew I should be eating. It was just easier to say yes to cookies, yes to cakes, yes to donuts, yes to white rice, fried foods, sugar laden foods, and the like. I thought by not eating out so much and just making everything from scratch, we'd lose weight. Nope. I thought if I just cut out soda, we'd lose weight. Nope. For some people, yeah sure, little changes may work. But for me, I needed to make the change whole-heartedly, 100%, or else I'd just fall back into old habits. So what did I do?

I signed up for a Challenge Group. I signed on as a coach. Initially, the coaching network was just to save an extra 25% on my future orders. I didn't even really THINK about the possibility of reaching out to others and helping others because I was so consumed with the ME I needed to fix first. And that's okay, people. There is NOTHING wrong with realizing that you need to fix YOU before you are fully capable of helping others. For many, it takes some serious time before they can really be of any true service to another human being.

I'll tell you one thing though. This decision has been the best I've made.....ever. I'm making more friends than I ever knew I could have. And we aren't talking just acquaintances. I'm talking real FRIENDS. Being in this business has taught me how to REALLY open up to people and be emotionally vulnerable to letting others in. Over the years, I'd developed a wall to guard unwanted hurt and the possibility of pain. That's no way to live! And you know what? By emanating the will to succeed, and living a life that I can be proud of, I am attracting people LIKE ME who want the same things and perceive the same goals that I do. The people who are Debby Downers and Negative Nancys aren't attracted to successful people. They want to be around people LIKE THEM who will feel sorry for them and help them wallow in their sorrows. Decide right now which person you want to be, and then ask yourself want kind of people surround you. Remember: who you attract is who you are. If you want to change who you attract, you must first change yourself.

Success can be anything you set your heart to. YOU CAN HAVE ANYTHING you want. Are you already coming up with arguments as to why not? Well, then you're digging your own hole. Stop arguing, and start listening. It IS possible. It IS attainable.

I recommend the book "First Steps to Wealth" by Dani Johnson. Better yet, go to one of her seminars. You will come out a new person, and will shake the hand of success shortly after.

In the meantime, I need to go build my business, meet a lot of new faces, become the best me I can be, and spread the wealth of happiness that has been bestowed upon me. :)

God Bless You Guys, and thanks for reading. :)

Aloha,

Nicky

Safety Tip of the Day: Clean Your House

So let's talk cleanliness today.

I think I told you guys about the last time I cleaned my house. Well, considering my husband left for deployment last week, I haven't exactly been feeling up to being "Suzie Homemaker". However, today circumstances arose that made me realize I needed to stop putting it off. It'd become a safety issue.

Now I know you must be thinking, "Oh my goodness, woman. How dirty does your house need to be to be a safety issue???" No, it's nothing like that.

As you're all well aware (or at least you should be by now), I've been knee deep in my Challenge Group where I've taken on TurboFire as my workout of choice for 90 days. Today marked day 8 of my challenge, and I'm still going strong (if not STRONGER!). To prepare for my daily workouts, I have to move my couches and coffee table off the area rug, and roll up the rug so I can workout on the hardwood floor. Trust me, I've tried to do it a million other ways, and this is the only way that WORKS for this workout, in this house. Otherwise, I've got the rug slipping and sliding underneath my shoes. So I've been doing this now for about a whole week. And every day for the last couple of days, I've come to realize that my shoes aren't gripping the ground properly, which is dangerous. I've been in some positions where if I hadn't mindfully been aware that my shoes would slip a bit, I could have twisted my ankle up pretty bad, or worse. Today, I just about stopped the tape and busted out my mop. I pushed through the rest of the workout because I don't like to just stop and get sidetracked. It's an old habit I'd like to drop. So I finished up the workout, and then instead of jumping right into work (yes, I have designated HOURS for my work!), I alloted some time to clean today. And my goodness, was it needed!

My dog, Daisy, just had a litter of pups a few weeks ago, and on top of THAT coat shedding, her winter coat is coming off in handfuls. So needless to say, my house was in dire need of vacuuming and mopping. I took care of everything I needed to do to ensure that tomorrow's workout is optimal. It's important! If you don't have a clean and safe workout area, you can NOT give your workout the attention it deserves. What does this mean to you? If you don't have a clean & safe space to bring it, you aren't going to burn as many calories!!! So yes, it is worth the effort, worth the time, and worth the energy to clean up before/after your workout so that tomorrow is another great workout day. :)

This message was brought to you by the lady who didn't clean her house for a week and thought it would be okay to workout on microscopic dirt. Don't make my mistakes. :) Take care and be safe people!

For The Ladies (And The Men Who Can Handle It)

So today was a very off-day for me. I've been tremendously diligent in my efforts to eat better than I EVER have been in my life, and in keeping up with my TurboFire workouts for my 90-day challenge duration. I have no more excuses in my mind that keeps me from my goals. That Nicky is long gone. HOWEVER, like I said, today was an OFF day. Where to begin....

Last night I was lucky enough to indulge in a glass of red wine. I asked my coach if wine was against the rules at all, and while it wasn't, I was limited to 1 glass (not a big deal, I wasn't looking to get trashed anyway), for the week. It was my "treat for the week". Ok, can do. I didn't expect that one glass to make me feel a little silly, and I think it had a lot to do with my clean eating lately. Anyway....

I had friends over, and I'd excused myself to use the bathroom. I got there, and lo and behold, THAT time of the month decided to spring itself on me at that moment. All of a sudden. And in full force. Super bummer. I wasn't all that surprised or anything. By this point in my life, it's more like, "Oh ok. Whatever. Let's get a tampon." However, this morning was the pits.

I woke up feeling groggy, exhausted, and was in quite a bit of discomfort with my lower back. These are my personal normal symptoms of my monthly visit from "Aunt Flow", as my good friend Jen calls it (haha), but for whatever reason, this month it feels much more intensified somehow. I woke up 2 1/2 hours later than I normally do. I fed myself as soon as I got up, because I was starving upon waking. I waited a couple of hours because it was kind of a hefty calorie breakfast, and then attempted my workout. Talk about DRAGGIN'! I pushed myself. I REALLY did. I probably had to push myself harder today than I have in the first few days I did my workouts. I was getting the movements much easier, as they get easier with every day, but the strength, the energy, the momentum I needed to get through it, was virtually gone. My body was NOT cooperating at all.

Listen to me when I say that this is not "Nicky making excuses". This is me explaining a very important difference between making excuses and listening to your body.

Right away, after several failed attempts at being able to keep up with my workout, I checked in with my group. I explained my symptoms, and right away, everyone jumped in to tell me I needed to rest today. I was ACTUALLY pushing myself too hard! Yeah, I know. This is ME we're talking about here. I have NEVER been told I was pushing myself too hard before. Not until today. And you know what? I immediately thought to myself, "No....no, this can't be. I'm going to try again." I turned away from my computer and un-paused my workout, again, and tried again. I pushed myself HARD for another 10 or so minutes, and then came to the conclusion that yes....today was just not my day to be superwoman. Lol. And I accepted that, made my daily shake, drank it down, and laid myself up on the couch. I wrote a few of my daily dreams down in my "dream book", and then quickly realized that I needed to share my revelation with all of you today.

It is IMPORTANT to know when your body needs a break, and it is important to listen to your body. It's much more difficult to "hear" your body's pleas when you eat so much junk and don't keep up with exercise. I'm quickly realizing that my body responds to everything I'm doing to it. I've always had a kind of "vision" as to what clean eating would entail, and ever since I've completely made the transition, my body responds very well to it. My energy has magnified tenfold. But so have my menstrual side effects. I'm not going to sit around and feel sorry for myself today. I'm going to sit around and read inspirational books, write down inspirational thoughts, and stay inspired about how much I'm going to ROCK IT tomorrow, and the day after that, and the day after that, etc.

Do NOT hold on to your setbacks. Let them roll right off your back. Move forward into your day, and into the next, and continue the good habits you incorporate into your life. Be PROUD of your efforts! Be proud of yourself! You are making a change. For some people, it's more effective to do it a little at a time. For others, they need a drastic change, cold turkey, all at once. Whatever works for you, just do it, and be proud that you did. :)

Are You Worth The Investment?

What do you hear when someone tells you that they can't "afford" to invest in their health?

 "If organic/natural food wasn't so expensive, I'd eat better."

"Gym memberships are too expensive."

"I live too far away from a gym to work out. It would increase my cost of gas."

Or one of my favorites, because I hear it all the time...

"I'd order that shake you sell, but it's just too expensive."

Want to know what I hear when I hear all these excuses? I hear...

"I'm not WORTH investing in my health."

Be open minded and just listen to me for a second. I'm not JUST trying to promote my business, although it's a great business to be a part of. It's got fool-proof (yes, I said fool-proof....a caveman could do it) sales trainings for it's coaches, amazing daily/weekly/monthly/annual incentives, a wide plethora of opportunities for advancement, hefty discounts, tremendous military benefits (this perked MY ears up!), and above all, the means to improving one's LIFE.

I'm trying to express the importance of eating healthy and exercising. Yes, I sell Shakeology for my business, and I'm a firm believer in some of the seriously awesome benefits it produces for people. If I ate a good 11 plates of vegetables per day, could produce enough energy to really get me through my days without feeling the need for a nap, curb my own cravings, curb my appetite, CRAP ON A REGULAR BASIS, boost my immune system, cleanse my body of toxins, help build and repair my own muscles after a workout, figure out a way to get my brain to function better to keep me more alert, decrease my risk of degenerative diseases, lower my cholesterol, etc, I'd forego the shake for sure. Fantastically for me, I can take care of ALL of these in one shake I use to replace ONE of my FIVE meals for the day.

Just because I eat five meals a day, it doesn't mean that I have to buy more food that I did before. As a matter of a fact, counting the cost of my monthly Shakeology, I spend the same amount of money for food monthly as I did before. After INVESTING in my health, I spend the same amount of money per month on food, but made the necessary cut backs of everything I USED to spend our grocery budget on to completely transition over to healthy foods. Wholesome foods. Foods that I KNOW are good for me. I don't go to McDonald's, Jack In The Box, Taco Bell, or Little Caesar's anymore (and trust me.....I had some reservations about these cutbacks, especially given the fact that all of these are about a mile walking distance from my house!). Do you know how much money people would save if they completely cut out fast/junk food all together?

Do you even completely realize how much being healthy and fit improves the overall quality of a person's life? And I'm not talking about being skinny or being "hot". I'm talking about being HEALTHY. Think about it. How many hours a day do you sit in front of a computer? How many hours a day do you actually spend with your family (not just sitting in the same room with them...I mean INTERACTING with them)? How many hours a day is the tv on? How many hours a day do you sleep at night? What kinds of foods do you eat? Do you eat out? Do you make healthy choices when you do? And think about THIS for a moment...how "healthy" are those healthy choices REALLY? I don't know about you, but I like knowing where my food came from. And I like knowing what's in it, too.

When someone tells me that my "shake" is too expensive, it means one of two things to me.

1) They are actually having financial issues, and

2) They have other excuses they don't feel comfortable sharing with me....things that maybe run along the lines of...

"I don't know what it tastes like."

"I'm not ready to get serious about my health."

"I don't have a good support system to maintain a healthy lifestyle."

"You're just trying to take my money for the commissions. You don't really care about my well-being."

"If I just ate better, I could cover all of those things that that shake claims to do."

Let's start with number 1.

"I have financial issues, and I can't afford to foot $100 a month on a shake."

Join the club. 98% of the population is struggling with their finances in some form or another. The difference between those who have taken on their health battle and you is that they've decided to allocate their money in the RIGHT places nutritionally. It's not rocket science. Quit eating crap and use your money right. If you have money problems, read this book. https://www.cfivip.com/checkout/order_now=Y

Best book EVER, next to the Bible, of course. ;-)

And now all the #2's.

"I don't know what it tastes like."

So what? It offers a 30-day money back, bottom of the bag guarantee. In other words, you can drink ALL of it, and return it within the 30 day window, EMPTY, and STILL get your money back. Or get it, try it once, and send it back for your money back. Whatever. Point being, this excuse is pretty lame.

"I'm not ready to get serious about my health."

Then I can't help you until you are, because the only person who can MAKE you ready is you. Talk to me when your "why I should" is big enough.

"I don't have a good support system to maintain a healthy lifetsyle."

So get a new support system! Beachbody coaches offer monthly (and sometimes bi-monthly) Challenge Groups that help keep each other accountable by doing posts every day for the duration of their challenge, which has been proven to help people accomplish their goals. If you go to the gym with a partner, doesn't that help you maintain your motivation? It's the same concept. You're working out on your own time, but you're posting your food intake and daily exercises/struggles/successes to each other in a private setting and your group encourages you to continue and succeed. You don't need EVERYONE in your life to agree with what you're doing. First and foremost, you need YOU to be on board. Once you have that, you're 90% there. The rest is hard work, and however you make yourself "git 'er done" is up to you.

"You're just trying to take my money for the commissions. You don't really care about my well-being."

Not true. I WANT to build relationships. I despise the thought of appearing like one of those desperate car sales people that approach you the very minute you walk on a lot, and hound you for sales. I didn't take on the coaching responsibility thinking it was going to be a cake walk. I did it knowing I was going to build relationships and make lifelong alliances. I'll let you in on a little secret. I'll be your coach for FREE! I don't charge people anything to listen to their woes and worries or to give them pointers on improving their fitness/nutrition. I coach because I wanted to do this. Products get purchased because my customers want to improve their health. No forceful selling necessary.

"If I just ate better, I could cover all of those things that that shake claims to do."

You sure could. That is, if you could find half of them at the market, and eat them everyday.

Acerola cherry, Acai, Amaranth, Ashwaganda leaf, Astragalus root, Barley grass, Bilberry fruit, Blueberry fruit, Brown rice, Camu camu fruit, Cacao, Chia seed, Chlorella, Coconut flower nectar, Cordyceps, Flax seed (sprouted), Gingko leaf, Goji berry, Green tea, Himalayan pink salt, Kamut grass, Konjac root, Luo han guo, Maca root, Maitake mushroom, MSM, Oat grass, Pomegranate fruit, Quinoa, Reishi mushroom, Rosehip fruit, Sacha inchi, Schisandra, Spinach, Spirulina, Stevia Peas, Tulsi (holy basil leaf), Wheatgrass, Whey protein isolate, Yacon root.

If you've ever heard the expression, "You get what you pay for", it certainly applies here. These superfoods aren't "just fillers", as I've been told before by people thinking they knew what they were talking about. Yes, nothing comes close to eating fruits and vegetables RAW and in their natural form. There is no argument against this. The POINT is that most people don't eat that way, nor can they afford to do so. $100 a month seems like a lot of money, but break it down for a moment. That's roughly $3.50 a day. Count shipping costs (if you decide to "just try it") and it raises your amount to $4 a day. What daily habits do you have that costs this much? Morning cup of coffee? God forbid, cigarettes? It's not impossible. It's completely and totally do-able.

This shake is serious business, and I'm in the business of getting people aware of it, because TOO many people know NOTHING about it and are choosing to ignore the Beachbody coach's pleas for people to listen! We want to HELP! We joined this business to reach out and change lives, and the monetary benefit is simply a perk. Haven't you ever heard that money doesn't buy happiness? Do you know what does? Changing lives. And my dreams consist of doing just that.

Contact me for questions, concerns, or even just a friendly chat. :)

nickyhynson@beachbodycoach.com

http://www.myshakeology.com/nickyhynson

http://www.beachbodycoach.com/nickyhynson

The Lowdown on Proper Nutrition

I've never been a real fanatic for healthy food. I like certain foods, and I dislike a lot of others. "Picky" could be a good word to describe my relationship with food. However, I have noticed an increase in my susceptibility to trying new foods over the course of the last 10 years or so, which is great. That susceptibility has grown tremendously over the course of maybe the last 2 to 3 years. I've learned how to cook a wide array of meals and staples from scratch, and while this is a wonderful WONDERFUL trait to learn, I've been doing a lot of this the WRONG way. For example, let's say I whip up a batch of my favorite blueberry muffins (here's the recipe, fyi: http://allrecipes.com/recipe/to-die-for-blueberry-muffins/). If I were to follow the recipe as written, we're looking at 383 calories PER MUFFIN! That's way too many calories on a muffin. I don't know about you, but I'd like to squeeze in a LOT more food that will carry me over much longer than a stinkin' close-to-400 calorie muffin. If I MUST HAVE the muffin, I try to negotiate with the recipe. Instead of white flour, use whole wheat. If I want to try to avoid wheat all together, I've learned that I really enjoy pulverizing dry oatmeal into flour, and using that (FANTASTIC in pancakes!). There's also spelt or teff flour, which is great for extra protein. Also, I'm a very big fan of ground flax seed, and by replacing maybe a 1/4 of the flour in your recipe with flax, will greatly improve the nutritional value of your food. Instead of granulated sugar, I like to use turbinado (raw) or organic, or even a sugar substitute like Stevia with my baking, but for things where texture isn't really an issue, my go to is honey or agave nectar. Here's a fantastic little article on healthier cooking that I found to be especially helpful. http://www.nomeatathlete.com/healthy-baking/

Doctoring recipes shouldn't feel like a chore, although at first I'm sure it will be. The important thing is getting into the habit of it, learning what you like, and going with it. One of my large downfalls with nurtition was feeling like I needed to try something new ALL the time. It got so overwhelming that I was getting too frustrated over meal planning. It's actually better for your body to sort of rotate through some of the same meals. It's less guessing for your digestive system, which in turn will yield better, easier digestion. If you aren't pooping at least once every day, you've got yourself a digestion problem!

Just in the last week alone, I feel like my body has gotten a bit of a cleansing, and is trying to reset itself. Today has been deemed my healthy shopping day. I spent a considerable part of my afternoon making a menu for myself yesterday. I took into account my 5-meals-a-day plan. Breakfast, Snack, Lunch, Snack, and Dinner. My goal is to be putting food in my mouth every 2-3 hours. I've already quickly discovered that coupled with my daily workouts, my body doesn't let me forget when it's time to eat. My meals are much smaller, because I guesstimate the measurements (I cook a lot, so I'm pretty familiar with eyeballing a 1/2 cup versus 1/3 cup, etc) and then calculate my caloric intake. I'm not a total Calorie-Nazi, but I have started inputting whatever touches my lips into my "myfitness pal" App on my iPhone. I used to HATE the idea of a food diary, or making sure my meals were recorded because I was making excuses to myself like, "Well, what if I'm not around my phone, or I don't have a pen? And who REALLY measures their food like that anyway? If they do, they're way too involved with their food." Bingo. I wasn't involved enough. I was choosing to ignore my food intake, and it was NOT helping me. I chose a day last week to just eat as I normally would, and I came to find that not only were my meals much larger (3 large meals a day), but after I ate the larger meals, I was immediately craving a nap afterwards. I was tired because I was overeating all at once. And to make matters even worse, I wasn't paying attention to the calories! Foods that I THOUGHT were okay in calories, turned out to be a disgrace to my daily caloric maximum. Things I was cooking were loaded in calories from all the additions. Sugar, butter, oil, eggs, flour, cornstarch, whatever. I made flippin' blurberry waffles one morning, and just about blew my entire daily allowance on breakfast! Definitely an eye opener for me.

So what does a daily HEALTHY day look like for me? Here's an example.

0630 - Wake up, get socks and shoes on, chug 8 oz of water, and 8 oz of skim milk (90 calories).

0645/0700 - Workout (sip on water throughout, 1 cup water consumed)

0800 - Drink as much water as I can (I aim for at least another cup, if not more). Make my morning Shakeology beverage with 1 cup skim milk and crushed ice, blended (230 calories)

1030 - 1 cup Fat free plain yogurt (110 calories), 1 Tbsp organic honey (60 calories), 1/3 cup KIND cinnamon oat clusters with flax seed granola (130 calories), and 1/2 cup frozen (and thawed) blueberries (40 calories).

1230 - 1/2 whole grain English muffin (65 calories), 1/2 oz shredded mozzarella cheese (36 calories calories), 1 Tbsp. pizza sauce (10 calories), 1 oz. red, yellow and orange bell peppers, diced (6 calories).

1500 - brown rice cake (60 calories), 1/2 sliced banana on rice cake (45 calories), 1 Tbsp almond butter (80 calories)

1730 - Broiled Tilapia filet with lemon juice, minced garlic, salt and pepper (120 calories), 1/4 cup brown rice and 1/4 cup quinoa (120 calories) mixed together, 2 cups romaine lettuce (15 calories), 1/2 cup cherry/grape tomatoes (20 calories), 1/4 cup croutons (35 calories), 2 Tbsp Ken's fat free caesar dressing (20 calories) -> Keep your dressing on the side, and dip your fork in the dressing before grabbing lettuce.

Water with all meals, water between meals, water every hour, if possible. Sometimes I like to add crushed cucumbers to my water, or lemon slices. Lemon slices in your water curbs your appetite!

Total calories for the day: 1,292. Goal: 1,300.

Personally, I think I can live without the muffin. Don't you?

Just remember, keep your meals simple. If you start adding in a bunch of stuff, it's easy to lose track of how many calories these additions hold. Clean eating is about simplicity. It's not a difficult science to learn. And once you've mastered that concept, your body WILL thank you.

The Courage to Change

Hey everybody. I want to apologize for not writing my Daily Documents for the last few days. It was very hard for me to come up with any inspirational thoughts to share with my husband's deployment coming up so fast, and I couldn't figure out a way to talk about it without breaching Operation Security (OPSEC) protocols (we aren't supposed to say exactly what date the soldier deploys until he's already gone), and I felt it was really making a damper on anything I wanted to write about. To make a long story short, I'm back!

So anyway, my babe left for Afghanistan today. Total down morning over all. My almost 5-year old understood the concept of daddy leaving for a "long time" and was very sad about it, but the tears for her didn't come until we got home after our farewell. Which obviously brought all my tears to the surface...again. My 3-year old still could care less. I give her a day, or at least until tonight, when the "Where's Daddy?" questions start breaking out.

So I was TOTALLY bumming about his deployment initially after he boarded his bus, but I wiped away my tears, loaded up the kiddos in the car, took care of a couple of errands, and then came home. What did I do when I got there? I popped in my first TurboFire dvd set, because TODAY not only marked the day my husband would be deploying to Afghanistan, but it also marked DAY ONE of my 90-day Challenge for my Challenge Group. I chose to workout to TurboFire for 90 days, and trust me...I am already kicking myself in the butt for it! Literally.

Today's workout entailed 40 minutes of serious butt whooping cardio, and then was followed by about 10 minutes of really fantastic stretches. Overall, it was DIFFICULT! But I never was a very big cardio fan (hence, my tubby tummy, but I digress). As a matter of a fact, I've spent just about my entire life skirting anything seriously cardio related under the table. And guess what? That got me absolutely NO WHERE! If I want results, I'm going to have to start liking what I didn't like before, and doing what I wasn't doing before. Today, I must have reached a point where I wanted to turn off the dvd about a hundred times. That's how much I'm out of shape, people. Not to mention this felt like Insanity geared towards women! Except it's a lot more fun. Lol. If I'd caved and turned off the dvd, that would have been EXACTLY what I would have done being the person I was before. But you see, I'm on this new kick now where I'm trying to reinvent myself. I don't WANT to be a quitter. Well, ya know, with the exception of cigarettes. Best decision EVER! As far as everything else, I've quit just about everything I've ever started. All because it got too hard, or it wasn't fun anymore, or whatever. I quit karate after about a month when I was 7. I quit hula when I was 12. I basically quit caring about high school when I was a sophomore, even though I still graduated with Cum Laude. Had I given a rip, I could have graduated with a 3.8 GPA easily...maybe more! I quit just about every job I've ever had. I quit college after 4 years of attempting a degree (after changing my mind about my area of study about 20 times), and then I felt like it wasn't worth it anymore. I'd lost every hobby I'd ever felt truly passionate about because I gave up on it. The thing is, I'm not stupid. I was just lazy. TOTALLY lazy. I am good at SO MANY THINGS, but I never gave myself half a chance to succeed at any of them!

I'm not going to be lazy anymore. Nope, nuh uh, not going to do it. I'm so sick of being lazy and unmotivated and unchanging. I choose to stare change in the face and embrace it. I'm not afraid anymore. The only reason for my fears before were because I was afraid of failing myself AGAIN! What kind of life is that? Always being afraid of failure. It's a sad one, that's what it is. And it's pathetic. I refuse to be THAT girl, THAT woman, anymore. Period.

“Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing himself.” ― Leo Tolstoy

“We are taught you must blame your father, your sisters, your brothers, the school, the teachers - but never blame yourself. It's never your fault. But it's always your fault, because if you wanted to change you're the one who has got to change.” ― Katharine Hepburn, Me: Stories of My Life

“Stepping onto a brand-new path is difficult, but not more difficult than remaining in a situation, which is not nurturing to the whole woman.” ― Maya Angelou

“For what it’s worth: it’s never too late or, in my case, too early to be whoever you want to be. There’s no time limit, stop whenever you want. You can change or stay the same, there are no rules to this thing. We can make the best or the worst of it. I hope you make the best of it. And I hope you see things that startle you. I hope you feel things you never felt before. I hope you meet people with a different point of view. I hope you live a life you’re proud of. If you find that you’re not, I hope you have the strength to start all over again.” ― F. Scott Fitzgerald

It's Okay to Rest....DON'T BEAT YOURSELF UP!

May 11, 2012

One of my biggest exercise "fall-off-the-wagon" triggers was taking a day off from a workout. Today was one of those days. Just a CRAZY day with a million and one things to do (I literally had to make a To Do list last night so I didn't forget anything!), and then some. I woke up thinking I was going to have time to squeeze a workout in, but it just didn't pan out that way.

Today was the day my husband and I decided to celebrate our eldest daughter's birthday, even though it isn't her actual birthday. Daddy's gearing up to leave for his deployment, and so not only were we cramming a mock birthday in, but tomorrow is our Farewell BBQ where local friends can come and spend a few hours with the man of the hour before his 9-months in the sandbox. Whenever something comes up where I've got people coming over, in my mind, it means one thing: Power Clean. EVERYWHERE. Maybe I inherited the tendency from my mom (sorry Mom, didn't mean to rat you out! Haha), but whenever guests were coming over, even if the house was decent to everyone else, my mom went NUTS cleaning the house to make it more presentable. And if everyone didn't get up to help? WHOA! Watch out. :-/

I'm not saying I don't clean regularly anyway when I don't have frequent guests coming over, but I certainly don't let the cleaning consume all of my time. I keep meaning to write out an annual cleaning schedule so that I don't feel like the world is crumbling down on me when I decide to actually take on tasks that I've forgotten about for a few weeks or months (clean out and sanitize the refrigerator; pull the fridge and stove out and cleaning behind and underneath; re-organize my small appliances, kitchen drawers and cabinets, and pantry; dusting; scrubbing the tubs; etc etc etc). However, when people are coming over, I certainly make a better effort to at least throw the clean, unfolded clothes into my bedroom (shut the door), scrub the toilets, vacuum and mop the floors, make sure all dishes are done and put away, everything is off the floor and put away, dog poop is picked up in the yard, etc. Basically making sure the main living spaces (and anywhere else they may frequent) are cleaned, pretty, sanitized, and smell nice (Thank God for Scentsy!).

Anyway, point of the story is, I had way too much crap to do today. Once I got started doing the things on my list, I got in the clean-zone. I didn't want to break it. I KNEW that if I stopped cleaning and started working out, my cleaning for the day would be over. And so I deemed today my rest day. It was the logical, and sane, thing to do with my situation for today, and guess what? I CHOSE not to let my choice upset me, or make me feel weak, or view it as a downfall in my progress. I was genuinely too busy to get it in today. AND IT'S OKAY! I just won't make it a habit. :)