And The Bad Blogger Award Goes To…..

ME!! 

Ahh!!  I’ve been shamefully neglecting my blog.  I’ve gotten so busy lately that it’s hard to keep up with everything, but I promise to try.  Today is a perfect day.  We’ve been snowed in by a HUGE snowstorm and there’s no where to go, so I might as well get busy writing.

So much has happened in the past few weeks.  The biggest new is that I got Zumba certified!  And I already have my own class every Wednesday evenings at Bally’s Total Fitness.  My first class starts on February 17th and I will be teaching an introductory class on President’s Day.  I am so excited, but scared!!!  I absolutely love Zumba.  I LOVE my music and get really into the dancing, so I don’t think I’ll have a problem remembering choregraphy and things like that, but you never know what’s going to happen.  I just hope they don’t hate me and walk out!  Or even worse, no one shows up!  I’ve  been working on promoting the event.  I’ve got these flyers ready to go.  Now, I just need to make sure I’ve got the choregraphy and music ready to go.  And, I’ve got to order special shoes and my Zumba cargo pants.  So much to do and so little time!  But I am SO excited!!!

I am still keeping up with my workouts as always.  I am staying strong with the pushups and am working to incorporate pullups.  I am using the assisted pullup machine, but am jumping on the machine and doing the pullups very fast to build up the initial muscle strength.  Once I am able to pull myself up, I’ll work on slowing them down to get deep down into the muscles.

Diet is not perfect, but for the most part very healthy. I have not gained any weight and I’m really happy about that.  A little bit of muscle loss but it’s quickly coming back as long as I’m consistent with the weight training, training intensely and taking my supps.

I am starting to plan for my next shows.  I will definitely do the show on May 15th in Richmond, VA.  Depending on how my body looks, I may do another show in April.  I really want to buy a new suit, but it is so expensive to do so. Those tiny little bikinis don’t look like they should cost much, but it takes a lot of time to add the crystals to the suit and thus the price goes up.  I think the average price for a suit is around $300.   Plus, the fees for competing – $100, tanning another $100, hotel room another $100.  The price adds up quickly.  But I love to do this, so the GAME IS ON!

I can’t think of what else to write about now.   Oh well…

Fitness vs. Nutrition – The Great Debate!

It’s happening! The New Year Resolutionists are starting to drop like flies from the gym. Every day, I see less and less people packing into the gym and I know the struggles have begun. Now what???

Calm down.  I know you are hungry but there’s no need to eat the computer.  LOL….

This post by Cranky Fitness inspired my blog topic for today. I think a lot of people are confused about diet and exercise and what to eat to lose fat and why exercising every day and eating healthier is not working as expected. My disclaimer comes first – I am not a licensed dietician, trainer or medical professional. I just do a butt-load of reading and studying on fitness and nutrition and I have experimented with my own diet and fitness plans to find out what really works.  I also observe and talk to many others about fitness and nutrition. I could talk about and debate this topic all day and all night. But I digress…

Most people say they want to lose weight. What they really mean is they want to lose FAT. The most efficient way to lose fat is through a combination of exercise and diet changes. Duh!  You knew that!  But which is most important?

They are both important, but for most people, a drastic change to their diets will produce the most fat loss. Again, that is my opinion. Consider this – Why do you think so many patients are successful when they have gastric bypass surgery? Those people drop tons of weight because they eat less and because their bodies can no longer tolerate certain processed food. Most of these people don’t exercise, although it is highly recommended that they do. But, they lose the weight anyway. This is because their diet and portion sizes have changed dramatically. Dramatic diet change = dramatic fat loss. Now, it’s not as simple as this. The type of food you eat also plays a huge factor in fat loss. There are certain foods you can eat in large quantities that will allow you to continue to lose large amounts of weight. That, however, is another topic which I won’t get into at the moment.

So what about exercise? I am a HUGE fan of exercise. I love it. I can’t live without it. My day is not complete unless I’m sweating it out somewhere in the gym at least once a day. As I said before, you can lose a lot of weight through diet alone, but what are you left with? Most people are left with a body that is soft, without muscle tone and shape. Unless you are genetically gifted, there will not be much muscle tone, shape, and your physical fitness will still be the same as when you started. Deplorable. There are countless number of reasons why you should work out, not just for vanity purposes. That said, you CAN absolutely lose weight and fat by working out alone and not changing your diet. HOWEVER, you WILL reach a plateau and the fat loss will stop. That is a guarantee. Unless you are an elite athlete, most people cannot maintain weight loss without a diet change.

So now what? What to do? What to do?

I highly recommend the approach that Bob Greene recommends in his Best Life books. Start first with incorporating exercise in your life. Forget the diet. Yes, forget it!  But….Didn’t you just say….???  Yes, I did just say that diet is probably the most important factor to the weight loss equation, but there is much method to my madness.  Step Numba One – Make Exercise Your Priority!   This does not mean that you go on huge eating binges because you started working out and can eat more. No, no, no! Yes, exercise will make you feel hungrier – and this is mostly because your body requires more water. So drink more water! Don’t eat more food than you normally would. Just continue with your normal diet until you’ve got the exercise thing figured out. Honestly, if you don’t work out regularly, I would say work on incorporating exercise daily into your schedule for about 12 weeks until you can make regular exercise a daily habit. Then start working on your diet. Otherwise, it’s going to be too much too incorporate in your daily life. Finding time to workout every day is hard. There are a million reasons that creep up during the day to throw a wrench in your fitness plans. You need to figure this out first before you do anything else. Kay?  Make sure this is not your To Do List.

Then, comes the diet. This will be the biggest hurdle for most people to overcome and it will take months to wean yourself off the process foods unless you go cold turkey – Pun intended. There will be slip ups. There will be the occasional mess ups and binges and you will need to deal with those situations when they arise. But one thing at a time. We are only human.

So again, this is just my recommendation. This is what worked for me. I still struggle sometimes with diet, but I do not struggle at all with getting to the gym because I learned to love it. I tackled that situation first and it’s a habit that I am glad I incorporated into my daily life and it’s made a huge difference. I’ve also managed to drastically improve my daily diet and I’ve learned what works for me. But this process has taken time. It’s taken more than a year to figure out how to incorporate exercise and good nutrition habits into my hectic life.

That’s all for now. Good luck!

Twenty – Ten or Two Thousand Ten?

 

It’s brand new decade, so let’s do this!!

I don’t know about you, but I don’t really mind seeing all the New Year Resolutionists in the gym.  I am a firm believer that everyone should be serious about their health, should workout every day and should be mindful of the food we put in our bodies.  Plus, I am an instructor, so I always like having a full spin class.  So, I am happy to see people making the effort to do that.  Yes, the gym is crowded, the annoying people are still there and there may be a wait on the machines, but I still love seeing the effort.  Do you also notice that EVERYONE says how much they hate seeing all the new year resolution people in the gym, including the new year resolution people themselves?  LOL!  It cracks me up. 

Last year, I did an experiment to see how long I could go without missing a single day at the gym.  The rule was that I had to get a minimum of 20 minutes of exercise in.  It was not required that I go to the gym; I could workout at home if need be.  But, I think I did manage to get to a gym every single day.  My best record – I went 259 days without missing a single day!  And on a good number of those days, I worked out twice and for much, much longer than 20 minutes.  The only reason I took a few days off was to compete in my first figure competition and if you’ve ever competed, you know that posing on stage in 5 inch heels for about 20 minutes is an entire workout in itself!  During those 259 days, I could have had plenty of excuses.  I had travel days where I traveled back and forth across the country to California, snow days, sick days, insanely busy days, but you know what?  I could ALWAYS find 20 minutes to sneak in a workout.  Yes, sometimes that required that I get up at 3:30AM or working out close to midnight, but who cares?  I really could not come up with an excuse to why I could not find 20 minutes in a day to take care of ME.

You know what I also learned, you can workout for 259 days consecutively and still not lose weight!  Yes, it’s very true.  You’ve heard it said, and I’ll say it again, DIET IS 80-90% OF THE WEIGHT LOSS/FITNESS/HEALTH EQUATION.  You’ve also heard the saying “Abs are made in the kitchen.”  Yes?  It’s all true. If you see a guy or a girl with 6 pack abs and a lean body, you better believe that their diet is spot on.  That is someone who’s mastered their diet.  Even people who are “genetically gifted” and have a lean body, can’t always have 6 pack abs without a clean diet.  It doesn’t happen.  Yes, for some it is easier to get 6 pack abs.  I actually don’t need to work my abs very hard to get my 6 pack to show.  I can work my abs once every 1-2 weeks and they’ll still show.  That is genetics.  But getting my body lean enough to show my 6 pack abs – that is 100% pure sweat, blood and tears (a LOT of tears – I’m a wimp… with muscles.. ).   If there was an easier way, believe me, I’d know.

So, I’m back to work this week.  Slowly getting back into the groove of things.  I’m back to my 4am workouts, meal plan, and crazy hectic schedule.  I’m still doing Zumba 3-4 times a week.  I also teach my spin classes 3-4 times a week along with fitting in my weight workouts and normal cardio.  Yes, it’s a lot, but I’ve been doing it for awhile and I’m used to it.  Plus, I like being busy.  If I’m at home, my exercise consists of walking from my couch to the fridge.  Repeat. Repeat. Repeat.  Yes, better to get out of the house and to the gym in the evening instead.

Hmmm… Looking at the fridge reminds me that I need to clean mine out so it looks as neat…..  Anyway!  Have a great day!

Very Nice Compliment!

As usual, I spent the last hours of 2009 and the first of 2010, snoozing away. I think I fell asleep at 11:00 P.M. on the dot.  Who cares?  I woke up rested and refreshed.  I got to the gym at 7AM – lifted for an hour and then one hour of Zumba.  I went back to the gym in the evening for another hour of zumba.  Fun, fun, fun!

A lady at the gym in my evening Zumba class asked me if I worked with a trainer.  She said she wanted to have arms like me.  Like who?  Me?  I forgot that I have some decent looking arms.  Check out these guns!!!

Back on track and feeling great!

I am so glad to be back home!  I love my family dearly, but I have zipo! control when surrounded by my family’s delicous foods.  Our house was fully stocked with chips, a huge party container with cheetos, pretzals, doritos and fritos mixed together, apple pie, stuffing, turkey, Portugues sweet bread (yum!), and lots of cookies.  I learned that I have absolutely no self control when it comes to having junk food around.  I am perfectly fine at home in my apartment because I don’t keep ANY junk food in my house.  No junk food – no temptation.  But that changes when goodies are around.   I  seem to lose all control and start exhibiting binge-like tendencies.  I got a glimpse of my reflection in the kitchen window one evening as I was shoving cheetos in my mouth like I was starving.  I looked deranged.  I guess I still need to work on that one…

My friend laughed at me when we watched Kung Fu Panda because he said the panda reminded him of me in this scene when Po was caught scarfing down cookies while hanging from the shelves…  No, not funny.

So, after a few days of eating my mom’s food, I was on salt overload.  I was terribly bloated, my thighs, stomach, arms, even my face were holding onto a ridiculous amount of water. Last time this happened, I weighed myself and I had an extra 20 pounds of water weight! 20 pounds!  That’s insane!  I didn’t weigh myself this time, but I am guestimating that it was probably 10 pounds or so.  I can’t believe how terribly salt-sensitive my body is.  And there is such a thing as salt-sensitivity.  Read about it here.

It’s no accident that my mom has very high blood pressure.  So does my dad.  I watched both of them put a healthy salad on their plates, reach for the salt shaker and poured the salt on.  Who does that?  Gross!  Even our cat, who passed away 3 months ago, had high blood pressure.  Have you ever heard of a cat having high blood pressure?  Neither did I.  My mom constantly fed him little bits of deli turkey meat, pieces of chicken or turkey that she cooked for us, and other little food scraps.  No wonder the cat had high blood pressure.  The cat was even on blood pressure medication, just like my parents.  The cat passed away from old age, though.  He was 20 years old and clearly near the end of his life span.  I still miss him. 

So, when I came home, I was in full salt detox mode.  I eliminated all salty foods, I went to the gym for some intense cardio sessions to sweat off some of the salt and I sat in the sauna again to sweat it out.  It worked!  The 10 pounds came off and my measurements all returned to normal.  Weird, huh?

I think I went overboard because my foot cramps came back and I had the worst leg cramp in my life last night.  I was literally shrieking out loud and twisting and writhing in pain until my muscles relaxed.  I could actually feel the muscle fibers slowly relaxing, bit by bit, and releasing the tension.  I had to pop an extra potassium pill to help with the cramping.  I did drink 2 containers of coconut water which contains more than 600 mg of potassium per serving, but it wasn’t enough.   My body needs the exact right balance.

Last night, I taught two back-to-back spinning classes and I was very pleasantly surprised that both classes were completely full.  I had an awesome new playlist and couldn’t wait to try it out.  I should have tried it out before class because I didn’t realize it was so tough.  But thankfully, I stacked the best songs at the end of the class and everyone made it through.   A girl came up to me after class and said she was ready to leave about 30 minutes into class, but that I started playing some awesome music and she stayed to the end.  I was happy to hear that.

Afterwords, I went to Zumba. I think I was too tired and didn’t enjoy the class as much as I usually do.  There is this annoying woman who insists on standing right in front of me near my “spot” and she has no concept of the space around her.  Multiple times she swung her arms at me and walked right into me because she wasn’t looking where she was going.  She had a huge amount of space in front of her because she was in the front of the class.  I was in my little spot surrounded by a lot of people and I couldn’t move anywhere, but that didn’t stop her from standing 2 inches away from me.  I don’t get it.  She could look straight ahead in the mirror and see that she was practically on top of me.  Next time, I am going to swing my arms and hit her so she gets the point.  On top of that, she absolutely cannot get any of the steps.  She does every step wrong, has no rhythm at all and just throws us all off when we are moving right and she’s moving left which inevitably means she’s crashing into people.  She doesn’t seem to care, though.  We’ll see about that next time when I “accidentally” give her a black eye when she steps on my feet or swings her arms towards me.  No, not really, but I will make it a point to push her back into her place.

In the middle of class, I was dancing along, minding my own business when I heard a loud “Thud!”  Oh my God, I fell on the floor!!!  No, I didn’t.  I’m still standing.  Did I fart?  Nope, I felt nothing.  I looked to my left expecting crazy dancing lady to be on the floor, but instead it was our instructor.  She slipped on the floor and was sprawled out.  She kept yelling into her microphone, ”Keep going!  Keep going!”  But I could tell that she probably hurt her ankle.  She had a hard time getting up when she tried to put weight on it.  But true to form, she continued the class, smiling her gorgeous smile and without missing more than a beat.  She reminds me of Salma Hayek. 

Last week, my Wednesday Zumba instructor nearly fell off the stage.  He was dancing with his back to us and didn’t realize that he was about to step off the stage until his foot slipped off the edge.  He recovered quickly though, but not without me shooting a look to my sister and holding back the giggles.  I don’t know why it’s funny to me when people fall.  Probably because I am the type of person that tends to falls or “hypothetically” walks into a wall while reading a text message, and that’s why it’s funny.  But – it really isn’t.  **giggle**

Tonight – I have Sports Conditioning and Zumba.  Tomorrow, I teach a 60 minute spin class and another 90 minute class Saturday morning.  That class will probably be very full.  A bunch of people after my 2 classes told me they were coming.  I hope there’s no drama.  People get mad when they can’t get in.

Friday is Zumba day!  I’ve got a class in the morning and 2 in the evening.  No, I never get sick of it.  I hope to get certified by the end of January!

The resolutions we all break…

How was your holiday?  Mine was fabulous!  I spent it relaxing with my family and finally taking a break from my hectic schedule.  I seem to go from one extreme to another.  Keeping myself super busy 24 hours a day or laying around like a slug and eating 24 hours a day.  Oh well…. I think I’ve worked hard enough this year to earn a bit of relaxation.  I have not been on a strict eating schedule but I make sure to eat my clean foods in addition to any goodies I eat.  Especially, my fiber rich foods to help cleanse my body each day. 

I actually love this time of year.  Christmas is over and it’s time to start thinking about making resolutions for the New Year.  I believe it’s the one time of the year that a lot of us finally stop and tak some time to figure out what we want in life and what things we can do to better ourselves.  Unfortunately, after we’ve set all these lofty goals and the mile long resolution list, the end result is usually that we get into a habit of breaking our resolutions, year after year, after year.

Honestly, revisting resolutions and making new ones should happen much more frequently.  I think if we did it monthly or weekly, we could assess which of our plans are working and which are not and adjust our goals accordingly.  It’s easy for us to do this in our professional lives, but for some reason we slack on making a plan for a better future for our own lives. 

I am no exception, although I am proud of myself for really making some healthy changes over the past year and maintaining my weight loss.  I can probably count on one hand the number of days that I did not work out this entire year.  Working out has become such a habit for me and I love that.  I also created a system that would force me to workout.  There is no way that I can so “Oh, I haven’t worked out for weeks.”  Nope.  I teach spinning at the gym 4-5 times a week, so there are certain built in protocols that cannot be changed…unless I quit which I will not do because I love my free memberships at the gyms and I love being paid to workout.  It’s not much, but how many of you get paid to work out?  Exactly.

I have all of next week off from work and this is my time of reflection.  I really want to get a good plan in place for 2010.  I want to create a sort of business plan for each of my goals with a time table, list of resources and to list the specific reasons for why I want to achieve each goals.

Try this:

For each new year resolution you put on your list, discuss specifically why you want to reach this goal.  State in specific detail what you hope to achieve with this goal, how it will make you feel, how it will make others feel and what you plan to do after you achieve this goal.  You may find that perhaps some of your goals are a little too lofty and you need to readjust or you may find that your goal is not something you want to spend too much time on this year.  Your time is precious, so devote it to the things you REALLY want to accomplish.  This is about the quality of the things you want to accomplish, not the quantity. 

Next step – is to create a plan of action.  Without a plan of action, your resolutions are just “wishful thinking”. 

Ready?   Get a pen & paper, or create a new document on your computer and GO!

Here’s my book recommendation to help you start of 2010.  The book is called, This Year I Will . . .  How to finally change a habit, keep a resolution, or make a dream come true, by M.J. Ryan.

Monday, Monday!

I am not usually a fan of Mondays, but I love Mondays when I have the day off! Woo-Hoo!  I slept in until 6:30 A.M. (Gasp!) and got up to see if we had to go to work.  Nope!  So, I packed up my stuff and headed to the gym to workout.  I wanted to get it done and I feel weird eating breakfast before I work out.  I always work out on an empty stomach so it feels uncomfortable to workout with a full tummy. 

I got to the gym and did 64 minutes on the stepmill.  At the end, I was really flying.  Running up the steps at 150 steps a minute at my maximum speed and slowing down to about 60 steps a minute for my cool down.  I then jumped on the fancy treadmills and walked for 15 minutes on a 20% incline.  After, I jumped on the spin bike for another 15 minutes.  Great workout!  I was sweating so hard that I could have taken my shirt off and wrung out the sweat.  Completely drenched and I felt great!  That’s the intensity I dream about!  110%!

I headed home and had my egg whites and oatmeal/wheatbran porridge for breakfast. I cooked up a big pan of chicken breasts and made a HUGE salad for lunch.  More salad for dinner, with chicken, miracle noodles and 64 ounces of water.  My belly is GINORMOUS!  

I got a bunch of laundry done, vaccumed and washed my floors, ironed and then finally settled in to watch Hitch.  I love this movie!  I’ve seen it a million times, but it makes me laugh every time.  Especially this scene:

Ha Ha!  I love the dance move, “Q-Tip, Q-Tip, throw it away!” 

Tomorrow, I get up at my usual 3:45Am workout time and go to work.  Then, it’s vay-cat-ion!  I can’t wait! 

Have a great night!

Snowy Saturday!

I love snowy Saturdays!  Especially when I’ve stocked up on my foods!  The snow started late last night and it has been snowing ever since.  But that didn’t stop me from going to the gym!  I actually like driving in the snow when it isn’t too bad. 

When I pulled into the gym parking lot this morning, it was nearly empty.  I ended up having a great session on the stepmill.  60 minutes of run/walk intervals plus a 2 minute cooldown.  I then moved to the stretching area and knocked out 5 sets of 25 pushups (on my toes of course) and some heavy duty stretching.  I then headed home and stopped by my other gym to see if they were holding any classes.  They weren’t because of the bad weather and I figured since I was there, I might as well do a little more cardio.  So, I donned my headphones, set up a spin bike and listened to Alicia Keys’s new CD.  It was fantastic!  I love her version of Empire State of Mind Part II and the song she does with Beyonce . 

So, I did go to Whole Foods earlier in the week and I stocked up on the essentials:

And I stocked up on my favorite Larabars.  I’ve never tried these flavors and they were so good!  I loved the chocolate coffee the best, but they were all fantastic!

I also saw these bottles of chocolate mint water and was curious, so I bought one.   It just tasted minty.  No chocolate flavor…   At least I had my coconut water.  I love coconut water and it really helps with my leg and foot cramps because of all the potassium it contains.   Delicious!

And then… A couple of presents.  The black Coach sneakers that I ordered arrived!  You’ve got to love Nordstrom’s return policy.  I had a pair of Coach sandals that I bought in February and returned in November without any problem.  Lucky for me, there was a sale on these sneakers which were on sale for 1/2 price and so I bought a pair of black and brown sneakers and still had 8 dollars left over!  Yay me!

And another present- My Miracle Noodles!  This is my shipment of 20 bags which will only last me a week if I’m lucky.  I go through these suckers like crazy.

And I got my gift from my lovely Diva friend, Cori, and her husband, Bill.  It is a miniature picture viewer and a Diva shoe Christmas Tree ornament.  I love the picture viewer because I can upload my competition pictures and show people any time. I’ve actually done that twice already!  Thanks Cori and Bill!

And I’m going to try this new product. Click! The Espresso Protein Drink called Click! http://www.drinkclick.com/ 

Nutritional content:

That picture is kind of blurry, so click on the link for nutritional information.

That’s all for now!  Have a great weekend!

Tis’ the season for motivation!

Is this how you are feeling?

If so, you are not alone.  We are smack in the middle of the holiday season and it feels like everyone’s motivation to eat healthy and exercise is slowly waning and disappearing.   Too many parties, too many goodies, too many reasons to stay home and skip the gym, right?

It does not have to be this way.  It’s all about striking a balance and finding what works for you.  Too many people have an all or nothing approach.  Is that you?  If so, how’s that working for ya?

If you are waiting for January 1st or waiting for the motivation to kick in, you are going to be waiting for a very long time.  Maybe forever.    Here’s a little secret.  Motivation does not come from waiting.  It comes from DOING.  If I waited for motivation to take me to the gym or to make me eat healthy, I just wouldn’t do it.  Plain and simple. 

So, I’ve devised several ways to make me stay on plan through the holiday season and these are the things that worked for me. 

1. Exercise is non-negotiable.  Period.  I don’t care if you’re tired, cranky, too bloated, whatever.  It gets done and that’s it.  Is that clear enough for you?  Think of it this way – Is going to your job every day negotiable?  Sure it is if you want to be broke and unemployed, but for most of us, that is not an option.  Just like your job, you must show up at the gym every day.  And I do recommend going every day if you can, even if you don’t do a full workout and just stretch or sit in the sauna – make it a habit, just like brushing your teeth.  Just get it done.  I’ve forced myself over the past couple of years to make exercise non-negotiable. I teach 3-4 spin classes a week and I MUST show up.  There are people waiting for me, counting on me to show up, and so I have to.   And I do.
2. Continue eating your clean foods.  Yes, you may be overindulging on sweets, carbs, or whatever else floats your boat, but continue eating your good, clean foods.  You still need to get in nutrients to keep your body healthy.  And by eating these foods, you also take up space in your stomach so you won’t overeat the junk food.
3. Chug that water.  Chug it!  This is such an overlooked step that it warrants being repeated over and over.  And I must confess, I sometimes forget as well.  I find myself craving bread or other sugars sweets and I look over at my water bottle and realize that I haven’t gotten my water in — hence the cravings.
4. Be a glutton for punishment.  You heard me right.  Don’t make it easy for youself to have access to junk food.  Do not keep it in your house.  Do not keep it in your car.  Do not have a secret stash in your purse or at your desk.    If you are going to eat it, you are going to have to make the effort to leave your house and get it.  Do not order in.  Do not pass go.  None.  Zero. Zip.  Nothing! Got it?

Those are just a couple of steps to start you off.  Remember, that the more you indulge in the junk food, the harder it’s going to be to wean yourself off it.  Processed food has so many chemicals, fat, sugar and salt that were specifically created to make your food cravings spiral out of control.  The more you eat it, the more you will crave it.  There’s a fantastic book on this topic.  I highly recommend reading it.  It’s called The End of Overating, by the former head of the FDA, David Kessler.

I know that doing all of this seems difficult.  In fact, you may not even really want to do it.  But I cannot stress enough how good it feels when you are in control of your eating, when you are in shape, when you are loving your workouts, feeling strong and feeling healthy.   It feels like the world has changed and you have so much more energy for life.  You feel so great in fact that you try to convince your friends, your family, and complete strangers to ditch the junk food and go clean!  And of course, everyone looks at you like you have two heads.   Not only that, there are people that try to convince you that what you are doing is not healthy, that you are overtraining, that you should relax a little and not be so strict with your eating.  

But!  Remember what it feels like to lose control.  Remember how hard it is to pull yourself out of a rut when you feel fat, out of shape and just unmotivated to do anything because you feel like nothing works or will work for you.  You feel completely hopeless and you don’t want anyone to try convincing you otherwise.  But, there is hope.  

Find a reason, other than losing weight, to make the changes in your life.  Instead of using the scale as a barometer, try using your feelings as a scale.  Ask yourself, “Do I feel better today now that I’ve worked out?”  “Do I feel better today because I’ve eaten healthy and I know I am treating my body well?”

The cravings, the self doubt, the lack of motivation will go away.  I promise you that.  In fact, I guarantee it!  Yes, of course there will be bad days, but those bad days start to get outnumbered by the good days.  As the days go by, you will find that sticking to your diet plan and exercising daily become easier and easier.   You can’t imagine the feeling you get when you walk by a tray of your favorite goodies and are not tempted AT ALL.  And there does come a day, when you get a fleeting feel that this is……dare I say…. easy?  No! It couldn’t be!  But, yes, there will be a point where the habits feel so ingrained that it becomes effortless.  THAT is a great feeling. 

It’s a great feeling to crave the clean taste of your veggies and to gulp your water down and feel clean inside.  And then you realize that your body is changing.  The fat starts to melt off your body and your muscles begin to show.  And that’s just the icing on the cake – pun totally intended. 

Okay – Enough lecturing from me!  I’m teaching spinning tonight, doing a little bit of extra cardio on the elliptical and then 60 minutes of power yoga.  I must get some more flexibility in my legs.  My muscles are just way too tight and I need some good ole fashion stretching.

Yesterday, I got my secret santa gift from my wonderful fitness Diva and Dude pals!  Thanks again

I also got my shipment of miracle noodles.  It’s a miracle!!!  I go through these suckers so quickly.  I think eat about 5 bags a day, more if I could.  It’s off to the gym I go!

Wait, it’s Saturday? Where did the time go?

This day has literally flown by!  I didn’t even eat my “breakfast’ until 3PM today!   After going to a party last night sponsored by one of the gyms I work for, I went to Whole Foods and bought an oatmeal and blueberry scone.  I was mad because I  missed yoga and zumba.  I knew I should have listened to my antisocial self!

This morning I woke up and had my marathon session at the gym.  I taught my spin class at 8:30 A.M. for 45 minutes, then I took 60 minutes of Bodypump, and then 35 minutes of Advanced Step.  Then I drove to another gym and met my sister for 60 minutes of Zumba.  It was so much fun!  She loved the class too.

Then, God help me, I went to Target.  It was a mad house but I was happy because chicken breast and eggs were on sale and I got a ton of groceries for a great deal!  Then I came home, showered, ate breakfast, am still doing laundry, and cleaning the house.  I also made some butternut squash macaroni and cheese, black been brownies, cauliflower mashed potatoes, grilled turkey breast, and a huge salad.  I still have more laundry to do and I need to take some time to organize my paperwork and vacuum the floors.  My work is never done!

Okay – A little break to read blogs and type my own.  Back to work !