I’m a Before and After!

When I first posted these pictures on my Facebook page I was nervous as all get out! My before pictures are hideous!!

When I took my before pictures I had no intention of EVER, EVER posting them. EVER! Of course I never really thought I would get to where I am now either! It hit me one day, I might actually be able to use myself to motivate others. If u could do it with 4 kids, in my upper 30′s with genetics working against me- anyone and their mama can do it!!
There is no magic pill. It took me all of last year to get it done, but I did it and am still working on it! There’s a formula though, I’ll even share it with you (I’m cool like that!):
Knowledge + nutrition + fitness + support + determination = SUCCESS

KNOWLEDGE: you need to know what your body needs. How much sleep, calories, alone time (mental health!), you need. You need to do your research so you don’t haphazardly hurt your body and sabotage your efforts!
NUTRITION: you need to fuel your body with the right foods. Eat clean- no/little processed foods, very little red meat, avoid artificial ingredients and sweeteners, and get in your protein!! Protein feeds muscle and muscle is good (see below!). Results are 80% what you eat! Track what you eat. There are several apps and websites to help. My favorite right now is MyFitnessPal.com It makes tracking easy!
FITNESS: “you’ve gotta work” (Ru Paul)! I don’t mean sit on a bike talking in your cell while flipping through a magazine! High intensity cardio! MOVE! Weights!! Muscle is your friend!! Muscle burns more calories at rest than fat! That means muscle supercharges your metabolism. That’s good!! Plus it looks better, it gets rid of cellulite! If you’re a woman, done worry, you won’t bulk up!
SUPPORT: studies show you do what your friends do. If your friends go out drinking every night eating greasy appetizers, guess what, you are more likely to join along! Does that mean you should drop your friends? Yes! Just kidding! Don’t drop all your friends, but look for new ones that are healthy and enjoy the same type of fitness you do. Like to run (me, me!) join a running group! Meet friends while busting a move at hip hop cardio or Zumba! Meet other females who are brave enough to lift in the male dominated free weight area! If you surround yourself with people that have the same goals as you, not necessarily losing weight but living healthy, then you are more likely to succeed!
DETERMINATION: I can’t give it to you. I can’t make you do one more rep when you want to quit! You need to make up your mind that this is it! You are sick of avoiding the camera, sick of not liking how you feel, sick of buying new clothes because the old don’t fit! You need to realize that you CAN and you WILL do this!! You are worth it! Put yourself first for this. Getting healthy is THE #1 best thing you can do for your family!! Get up early and put in a DVD, skip that birthday cake at the office, run to the gym after work or at lunch. Start small, baby steps. Don’t try to change everything all at once. Once you decide to do it there is no stopping you!

Be your after, the BEST you that you can be!! You deserve it!! If you need any help along the way, let me know! Everyone can do this!!

My question for you:
What do you need to do to start to be healthy?
What’s holding you back?

Eat More to Lose More

If you someone told you this

what would be your first thoughts? Probably something like “whatever” “what are you selling?”, right? Too good to be true? It’s not. Society and the media has told us that in order to lose weight, we need to spend at least 30 minutes (more like an hour) every day on some type of cardio machine and only eat 1200 calories each day! Guess what, that’s false!! You might actually be doing your body more harm than good. You don’t have to starve yourself and spend endless hours a week doing cardio just to reach your goals! Don’t stop reading, I haven’t lost my mind! This past summer, while training for my first full marathon I didn’t lose as much post baby weight as I thought I should. I couldn’t figure out why. I was running at least 3 days a week and doing speed work during those runs AND I was doing one long run a week which was at least 10 miles! Why were the pounds not falling off? I wasn’t eating junk food?!

Me 5/2012 after my marathon

Now I wasn’t overweight, but I was NOT where I felt I should be, weight wise. Looking back here’s what I did wrong
1. Consumed too few calories. I wasn’t fueling my body with enough energy (food) so my body was putting itself into starvation mode and holding on to everything!
2. I wasn’t drinking enough water so my body was holding onto water from foods I was consuming (water weight).
3. I wasn’t lifting weights. Muscle burns more energy (calories/food) than fat does at rest. Hunk of muscle as a way to reeve your engine (your body).

Once I broke away from the mentality that I needed to eat only 1200 calories a day I started to lose weight. It was tough, I was terrified that I was just going to put on more weight, but I didn’t! Then I started to focus on little things at first:
– tracking my food with myfitnesspal.com it’s a great website and app to track your calories and nutrients
– I started to drink more water
– I upped my calories to 1500 per day
– I ate more protein (around 120-130g per day)
– I combined weight training (heavy) with cardio

SURPRISE, I started to lose weight and I felt better! I became more toned and fit better in my jeans!! Now when I said that I began to eat more, I don’t mean I ate more Snickers bars! I made healthy choices. I began to eat 6 small “meals” a day to keep my body fueled throughout the day.

In my last post, I shared Andrea Galbreath’s video about eating properly. After she read my post, she asked me how often and how intense my workouts were. When I let her know its intense and 6 days a week she suggested I consume more calories (200 more) each day to properly fuel my body. That’s 1700-1800 per day!! I have about 5 more pounds to my goal weight and she said this get me over my plateau. So here are a few keynotes for you:
1. I’m going to track my eating and consume 1700-1800 calories each day to show all you doubters that it works!
2. I’m going to give you a link for a great site to help you calculate your needs: calculator
3. While that range works for me, everyone is different. I’m pretty active, but someone who is fairly sedentary and doesn’t work out much won’t need as much as I do. Some of you may need to consume 1200 calories each day for your height, weight, and activity level.

I need to say that I am not a dietitian. Please consult a doctor before making drastic changes to your diet.

Now for exciting news, I am now a BeachBody Coach!! I honestly LOVED the Shakeology 3 day Cleanse so much I had to be part of that action (plus get an AWESOME discount!)! I promise this blog is not meant to push Shakeology on you! I truly believe in the product after feeling the change in my body and I’m excited to share!

Thanks for reading!

Fueling Your Lean Mean Machine

I have had some questions on what I eat to fuel my body. I am more than happy to accommodate! First, let’s go over a few VERY important things. During my journey to lose my extra weight to become healthier I never, let me say that again, NEVER went on a diet. Did I just hear a gasp? I didn’t, I do not believe in diets. Here’s why…… They don’t work! There are tons of diets out there, they all have some new gimmick that makes it better than all the rest. I have a better way, it’s called healthy eating! Stop fueling your body with crap. That’s what food is, fuel to make your body run. When you fuel your car with bad gas, what happens? It doesn’t run right. Maybe it “hiccups” when you try to accelerate. It may not run as smoothly as the good gas makes it run. The same is true with the food that you put into your body. When you feed your body foods that are not clean or healthy, your body might develop “hiccups” and not run smoothly. You might feel tired by mid morning and afternoon. You may be crabby or spacey. Please do not confuse healthy with “low fat”. Many food items out their call themselves “healthy and low fat” but are made with a bunch of artificial sweeteners and words you can not even pronounce! A good rule of thumb is the closer to a foods natural form, the healthier it is for you. The more man touches and alters it, the less healthy it becomes. A friend of mine, Andrea Galbreath over at igig wellness, is doing a series on YouTube called “Stop eating Crap”. It’s a very informative video, and really, isn’t Andrea adorable!

Here’s a little on what I eat each day. When I wake up I have a whey protein shake with skim milk. Our bodies are in starvation mode when we wake up and this stops the process of our body eating our muscle to fuel itself. Since my cleanse, I have been craving my chocolate shakeology shake, so I plan on getting some more ASAP to replace my whey shake! Then about an hour before my workout (usually mid morning) I have a Greek yogurt and a banana. After my workout I have a whey protein shake with skim milk with some PB2 (powdered peanut butter- all natural minus tons of fat)! For lunch, I usually have a wrap or salad that contains a protein and a carb. A few hours later (I try to eat every 3 hours- snack size “meals”, not full size) I’ll have an apple with PB2 or 2% cottage cheese with a little sunflower seeds sprinkled on top. Dinner is veggies and a lean protein with some type of grain type side. I usually have a “glass” of red wine after the kids go to bed. Then I have some casein protein with water to hold my body over until morning. I try to stay between 1500-1600 calories per day.

Am I saying not to have a piece of cheese cake? Heck no I’m not! But do you need a piece EVERY SINGLE DAY? No, you don’t. Don’t get into the habit of rewarding yourself with food either…..

Remember, the only person holding you back is you! If I can do this, you can do this! I am not predispositioned to be thin, it’s not my genes. Quite the opposite is true. I got from point A to point B just by living a healthy lifestyle and so can you!

What is holding you back from being the best you that you can be?

Finding a Kick Patukus Workout Buddy

Today was one of my favorite days of the week as far as workouts go! My two friends, Jen and Britney, and I did our buddy workout! These girls are so amazing and we really have a BLAST working out together(seriously even when feeling the burn we are still laughing and smiling!)! When you can find that right person or people to workout with it can make a wold of difference. It’s great to have a buddy to to chat with but if you find that you are spending more time chatting with your buddy instead of working up a sweat, then you might want to make some adjustments. I have tried to workout with friends before and found that while we were great as friends, we were not work out buddy material. Here are some key things to remember when choosing a workout buddy (or buddies):

1. FUN! They should be fun. If working out isn’t fun you aren’t going to stick with it!
2. You should enjoy the same type of workouts! Insanity your thing? Zumba, running, lifting, or Crossfit? Maybe a bit of everything! Your buddy’s should enjoy it as much as you do!
3. MOTIVATING and ENCOURAGING! Lets face it, when you are feeling that burn and about to throw in the towel, your buddy should cheer you on, and vice versa!
4. It helps to have the same or similar goals. You both might want to lose 10, 20, or even 100 pounds. You might just want to tone up. Similar goals help. Remember those pictures from yesterday? I have gotten where I am so much faster with my girls!
5. Similar fitness level. You both should be able to work out near the same intensity for about the same amount of time. You won’t be exact- Jen has INSANE shoulder strength and I always have to adjust down for weights, but I can take her in back strength! While Britney and I are pretty close.

After our workout today! Brit, Jen and I’m on the right! Look at those guns!

Our first attempt but Jen and I were looking at the phone! Brit, of course is insanely photogenic!

So what are our workouts like? Today was a little like this:
- we rotate one person on the stairmaster (since I’m recovering from my stress fracture I have to do no impact cardio) and two doing strength for 1 minute each.
- The cardio is high intensity and the strength is hard/heavy enough that or muscles fail (can’t lift again) by the end of a minute.
- we do strength exercises that work the entire body by the end of the workout.
- we use free weights, machines, body weight exercises.
We continue this for an hour to hour and a half.

On the days we don’t work out together, I work the muscles that may of not been worked out hard enough. I also do cardio- high intensity, for 20 minutes those days. The two days a week I just do cardio and I take on day off completely.

So what’s the cliff notes versions of what I just wrote? Find a workout buddy that will help you to become the best you that you can be! Not necessarily a body builder or skinny thing- whatever is your best! You need to sweat though. You can’t expect to walk around chatting with your buddy (although if you are new to this, that’s a great place to start!) and lose weight! You have to work for it and you need a buddy that will help you! Don’t want to go to the gym or out for a run/walk? Your buddy should kick you in your Patukus and help you get there and vice versa!

Later this week I’ll be more specific in what I do when I work out. Now, just so you know we can clean up and have fun…..

Have you found your perfect workout buddies or buddy?
Do they motivate you to get to the gym?

Fitness and Body Transformation

Today is a pretty busy day around here! I got my workout in, kids are fed, and I have a little guy to get down for a nap before a very important call (more about that later!). I have been talking a lot about my healthy journey. I try to stay away from terms such as diet and weight loss. I am a huge believer in living a healthy lifestyle and not “dieting”. So here are some pictures of my journey, some of which I wouldn’t mind just disappearing! My goal is to motivate!

Before- all from 2011 the first is at my first half marathon 3 months after baby! The last is October 2011.

This was in 5/2012 after my first full marathon. I ran/walked, but finished with a stress fracture I later found out (hence the pained look on my face!)

Both from TODAY! Post workout!

Rocking that dress this weekend! Sorry, I forgot to get a picture by myself so I had a friend take it in the restroom!

Now some questions…
Do pictures like this motivate or discourage you?
How is your healthy journey going?

Thanks for reading!!

Shakeology 3 day cleanse- Day 3!

I’m done, I’m done!! Sorry to my dear friend Amanda over at There Are Two Sides who is on day 2! If you missed day 1 and day 2 check them out! So here is the recap of day three and how I feel about my experience and results overall.

Day three was by far the best of the three days! I had energy (I even worked out!), no headache, the hunger wasn’t too bad, and I felt upbeat! I followed the plan, had my green tea, shake and apple for my snack then I headed to the gym for my FAVORITE workout of the week! Once or twice a week I meet my gal pals at the gym and we kick arse for 1-1 1/2 hours! I think that’s what the big clue was that I was ok, I had energy to do my workout- and my workouts are pretty tough! I found I couldn’t lift as heavy as usual, but no biggie! My friend, who was also on day 2 felt the same way. We weren’t miserable, we actually smiled through our workout (we are crazy like that!). I plan on posting next week more about my workouts but for now ill just summarize. When I workout with my gal pals,our workouts are interval. Yesterday we did one minute intervals- one minute of a strength exercise and one minute of high intensity cardio. They took turns on the stair master and running on the indoor track and I just did the stair master (darn this fracture!)! We went back and forth for an hour and then did some ab work. We lift pretty heavy and try to go to failure (when you can’t possibly lift again with PROPER FORM) by the end of the minute. After the workout I felt great and went home to have a shake. I didn’t even feel like I needed to “cheat” with broccoli! Dinner was of course AMAZING! I again, thankfully fell asleep early and was never more happy to wake up and eat!

So my overall impression of the cleanse…… Not bad! I feel good and energetic today, even after my workout today! I’m out of Shakeology so I had my regular whey protein shake when i woke up but really missed my chocolate shakeology! I’m going to order some more! I would not want to do it, nor do I feel it would be good to do it for more than a day, but 3 days isn’t bad. It’s much easier if you have a partner, in fact, if you want to try it I would recommend finding a kind friend to join you! Or at least someone you can call and or text for support that has been through it. I know I have said this before, but I never felt that I was hurting my body. I was consuming fewer calories but I was getting everything and more that my body needed. I would do it again at some point, it is recommended that a person do the cleanse every 3 months. I think once a quarter (every 4 months) might be more my speed.

Ok, now what I know you want to know, results- you want numbers. Before I get there I want to say a few things. First, I really went back and forth on posting my actual numbers versus just pounds and inches lost. I do not want anyone to ever compare themselves to me or to feel bad about themselves! I want to motivate without making anyone feel like crap! Believe me I grumbled about women who had lost the weight when I was still struggling! I did however decide to post my numbers. Here’s why, I want everyone out there to know that it’s possible! Not easy, no way,no how, but really anything that’s worth it isn’t easy! I had to work my flipping butt off (genetics are not my friend)! If a mother of 4 can do it, so can you!! Next, I hate to admit that I was actually a bit disappointed at the lower number of pounds I lost! My one friend finished a day before me and lost 7 pounds! My other friend lost 4. Here is why I am ok with my results- I was actually down 3 pounds from my Thanksgiving weekend (no clue how, but whatever!) when I started the cleanse. I also feel that I didn’t lose muscle, which is what I feared, and I think this is what my 5’5″ frame needs as far as weight goes. I lost inches though! I only measured my abdomen but here it is:

Here’s my spiel-I’m not a professional so ask your doctor before starting any cleanse! Results will vary from person to person. I did not get paid or compensated in any form for this review, this was my own honest opinion.

I’ll take it! I have learned a few things with this cleanse. First, I snack way more than I thought, with all those little handfuls of food throughout the day! Now that I’m aware, I’ll watch that! I have some willpower!! I can do it! I learned to really listen to my body and feed it what it needs! I LOVE Shakeology! I really do! You know I even saw green flecks of something healthy in my yummy chocolate shake! I feel better when I feed my body healthy and I really think I’ve turned a corner in clean eating. While I don’t think I can go 100% clean, I do notice a difference with the “good” food. I might even be setting up shop and selling the stuff, I really do believe in it!

So there it is, my experience in a nutshell! I’m taking the weekend off but come next week, I’ll be posting some before and after pics (including that dress ill be rocking tomorrow) and ill post more about my work outs!

I would LOVE some feedback- what would you like to hear more about? Workouts, what I eat, supplement, family, crazy home life. I have it all! Honestly, you will probably just read whatever I’m feeling that day, but I aim to please!

Thanks for reading!!

Shakeology 3 Day Cleanse- Day 2

If you missed day 1, here it is. Now, on to day 2! As I am writing this I am on my last day of the cleanse! WOOT! I have learned a few things about myself since beginning this cleanse:

1. I DO NOT, I repeat DO NOT share my apple that I eat as my morning snack no matter how adorable this face is…..

2. I have some pretty good willpower that I did not know I had! Seriously, I was handing my kids Spider Man Cheez-it’s (don’t judge, don’t judge) in the car and didn’t even sneak one!
3. I look forward to a salad like it was a flipping hot fudge with peanut butter sundae!
4. I have learned to listen to my body and “cheat” if need be.
5. To avoid temptation, passing out early is a blessing!!

So here is the breakdown of day 2. Day 2 is not as bad as day 1!! I found I had more energy than day one but I was still hungry for a portion of the day, but nothing this mama of 4 can’t handle! I did wake up with a wicked headache that I attribute to lack of the blessed caffeine! It got better as the day went on though! I had read that the salad can be eaten for lunch versus dinner if you need a mid day energizer, but I chose not to. In my home family dinner is a pretty big deal and I just refuse to have a shake for dinner instead of “real” food. Mostly because I don’t want my daughters to get the impression that I’m on a “diet” and I don’t eat. I stress healthy eating not deprivation and dieting! I am also a firm believer in listening to my body (ok, maybe not when it comes to running, hence the stress fracture). I felt mid day yesterday that I needed some extra calories or substance, so I had some steamed broccoli with my lunch shake (gasp!). I truly felt like a cheater, just kidding! I didn’t eat a a Reece’s peanut butter cup (can you sense my love of all that is chocolate and peanut butter) or anything. I also wouldn’t recommend “cheating” if you felt that this would cause you to throw in the towel. It’s very easy to get into the mindset of “I cheated this time so I might as well give up on the rest of the day!”. That broccoli really helped me stay on task for the rest of the day and gave me the boost I needed. I also chose not to work out on day 2. Honestly I probably could have done a bit, but to be honest I was pretty busy so I decided it would be my rest day. After my glorious salad I started to dread our nightly routine of tucking in the kids and having a glass of wine (nothing too crazy!). As luck would have it though, I fell asleep while putting my daughter to bed, temptation derailed!! Of course I had to wake up to pee!!

A few side notes before results- I was cold all day again! My partner in crime was too. After speaking to my coach, she reassured me that it’s pretty common. It might be the lack of food or quitting everything cold turkey. It’s tolerable though, I just layer up and look like the stay puff marshmallow man!

Day 2 results:
- 1.5 pounds (for a total of 2.5)
- almost 5 inches from the total of 3 measurements (above navel, at navel, and below navel)!
I feel good! More energy than I thought I would have!

* just a quick update before I blog about day 3. I’m 1/2 way through day 3 and it’s WAY better than day 2! I have more energy and even worked out!

Thanks for reading!!