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fitness, health

Staying on the Workout Wagon

March 10, 2016
Thumbs up Working out

Beat Yourself at your Own Game

I‘ve admittedly had a rough time keeping up workout consistency over the last two years. At the end of 2013/beginning of 2014, I was doing really great getting back into exercising after being so ill for 12 years. Then preparations for moving abroad kicked into high gear and I just wasn’t able to keep it up. Then I moved. Then I started school. Started learning a language. Started recreating my life. I’m not one for excuses, so I won’t make them… I’ll just simply state that life was crazy and it often just didn’t happen. After a while, I was feeling sluggish and bloated and yuck.

So, starting in February, I said NO MORE. It isn’t the first time I’ve recommitted to getting back to pushing play, but each time since I’ve been in Paris, it only lasted a few weeks and then I fell back off the wagon. Granted, committing in February was TERRIBLE timing. I was struggling with my intensive French classes and even my teacher was telling me to take a medical leave. Most of the weekends were spent looking at flats/houses in search of a new home. Preparing for a trip to the states for two weeks and then a return to France (next week) with my mom. Nothing about that was conducive to a timely restart. I had to figure out how to SUCCEED with “bad timing.”

And I DID IT! I made it through the month pushing play almost every single day. I had a few forced rest days from traveling, but all in all I can finally say I made it a whole month. While this is honestly my biggest victory, the whole point is to be healthier and I can certainly say I’m feeling lighter, leaner, stronger and overall better.

February 2016 Before-After

1 month of progress with a 70/30 combination of Beachbody’s PiYo/Cize and Shakeology every day!

 

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I’ve “failed” enough to know what causes me to fall off the wagon, so here is the system I set up to promote success.

Cheers to being better together!✌️

Cheers to being better together!✌️

❌ FAILURE PITFALL: Going it alone. 
✅ SUCCESS STRATEGY: I joined a challenge group.

It certainly wasn’t happening without accountability and daily support. Challenge groups are held on Facebook and are a group of people working toward the same goals and being better together. They are so key and a great place to not only share victories and struggles but also get great tips and success strategies.

 

I'm kinda obsessed. CIZE got me all like "I feel like a super-dancer AND it's giving me abs!" Boom.

I’m kinda obsessed. CIZE got me all like “I feel like a super-dancer AND it’s giving me abs!” Boom.

❌ FAILURE PITFALL: Workouts are a chore.

✅ SUCCESS STRATEGY: I picked workout programs I was EXCITED about.

I used to be a gymnast, but also have a history of chronic illness. I am also currently a dancer. I picked PiYo and Cize as they seemed to fit where I was currently with my body, and are also my “spirit workouts.” I had lost a lot of flexibility and strength, needed to avoid impact, but also wanted to have fun and look forward to it each day. I frequently video pieces of my workouts, especially when I’m least coordinated and struggling the most! I love having before/afters to both laugh at and document my progress.

 

After 3 days of cize, my body was telling me it needed a "rest day," but I refuse to lose momentum on building my workout consistency and habits. So, today was 21 Day Fix Yoga. Good practice and feeling the good vibes!

After 3 days of cize, my body was telling me it needed a “rest day,” but I refuse to lose momentum on building my workout consistency and habits. So, today was 21 Day Fix Yoga. Good practice and feeling the good vibes!

❌ FAILURE PITFALL: Losing momentum.

✅ SUCCESS STRATEGY: I pushed play (almost) every single day.
Even building the consistency on my rest days by doing a stretch or yoga workout. Rest days are important, and I also know I need every bit of habit-building I could get until it was truly second-nature. I know that even going 1 day without can break my habit-forming behaviour, so I choose to still actually push play even on rest days. Sometimes it was for a 10-min ab workout. Sometimes it was for a recovery workout.

That one time I cized at a secret garden in a Palace in Seoul. We drifted to another area because the group was too big to hear the tour guide, so that was a perfect opportunity to break out and dance! Changdeokgung, Seoul, South Korea

That one time I cized at a secret garden in a Palace in Seoul. We drifted to another area because the group was too big to hear the tour guide, so that was a perfect opportunity to break out and dance! Changdeokgung, Seoul, South Korea

❌ FAILURE PITFALL: Busy schedule and location dependence.

✅ SUCCESS STRATEGY: I use Beachbody On Demand
I never have to worry about having my workouts with me wherever I am in the world… or even shipping them to France! I can keep them up on vacation and don’t have to pack anything extra. I can even do Cize routines wherever I find myself in the world without an internet connection as I have learned some of the routines by heart!

 

HOW TO BE A MORNING PERSON: 1⃣ Get out of bed. I know. It's hard. 2⃣ Push play on Cize. 3⃣ Dance! // these photos were about 10 mins apart and a true expression of how I felt!

HOW TO BE A MORNING PERSON: 1⃣ Get out of bed. I know. It’s hard. 2⃣ Push play on Cize. 3⃣ Dance! // these photos were about 10 mins apart and a true expression of how I felt!

❌ FAILURE PITFALL: Too tired or busy at the end of the day. 

✅ SUCCESS STRATEGY: I workout in the mornings.
This may not work for everyone, but it is CLUTCH for me! If I wait til the day gets started, there is only about 10% chance I’ll get it in. As soon as I get out of bed, I put on my workout clothes. Get it done and then it not only frees me for the whole day, but also sets the tone for the day. Even though I’m not a morning person, I am DEFINITELY a morning workout person! Give it a try before you say it isn’t for you! 

 

They say you can't have your cake and eat it too. But if you make a cake-inspired shake, YOU CAN HAVE IT ALL! Tastes like dessert (sometimes I have one for dessert), packs the nutrition of 5 salads, and can be inspired by the most amazing orange blossom crème brûlée you ever had on vacation in Provence. Vanilla Grapefruit ShakeO with Eau de Fleur d'Oranger.

They say you can’t have your cake and eat it too. But if you make a cake-inspired shake, YOU CAN HAVE IT ALL! Tastes like dessert (sometimes I have one for dessert), packs the nutrition of 5 salads, and can be inspired by the most amazing orange blossom crème brûlée you ever had on vacation in Provence. Vanilla Grapefruit ShakeO with Eau de Fleur d’Oranger.

❌ FAILURE PITFALL: Nutrition getting off track. 

✅ SUCCESS STRATEGY: SHAKEOLOGY.
Where do I start?! This stuff has been a LIFESAVER for me in France where it is perfectly normal for a meal to be nothing but bread, cheese and butter. While I had been off the workout wagon, I have successfully stayed on the Shakeology wagon for over 2 years and also been able, as of January, to finish weening off my VERY LAST medication (I used to take 30 pills a day). 

 

So, now a good week into March, I’m finally able to see momentum and consistency start to pay off. I had pretty decent BODY transformation results in February, but honestly my biggest transformation was in the consistency I’m able to carry forward into March.

What do you do to beat yourself at your own game and make it happen?

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Wanna join me? You can even try it for free for a month! Hit me up if you want to join my next challenge group or get started here and click on “Beachbody on Demand” on the top left.

growth, health, life

The DO SOMETHING Project

July 25, 2015

Life is full of change. Sometimes its big changes, sometimes its small. But it all amounts to something really important: YOUR LIFE. This month, in the midst of summer vacations and whatever else may be going on, we are committing to DO SOMETHING every day to make our lives more like we want them to be. More healthy. More authentic. More what you imagine when you dream. What will you do today to change your life?

This is something I need in my life. But I know I am not alone. And I want, more than anything, to help others out of the ruts in which they may find themselves. So, I’m asking if I can join with you on your journey, and you on mine?

Starting August 1, The DO SOMETHING Project is going LIVE! We already have a group forming over on Facebook, so all you have to do is hit me up below in the comments or on FB and I will add you! We are committing, together, to DO SOMETHING every day that gets us closer to our goals. It can be small steps. In fact, I encourage you to make them small steps. Lots of small steps = one giant leap toward the life you desire.

“What’s simple to do is also simple not to do. The magic is not in the complexity of the task; the magic is in the doing of simple things repeatedly and long enough to ignite the miracle of the Compound Effect. So, beware of neglecting the simple things that make the big things in your life possible. The biggest difference between successful people and unsuccessful people is that successful people are willing to do what unsuccessful people are not.”
– DARREN HARDY, The Compound Effect

So here is a little of my story. This is WAY scarier than posting about some of the hard stuff I’ve been through. Because I’m on the other side of that stuff. But this journey is still very much in it’s infancy, and I’ve taken more steps backwards than forward. That hardly seems fair to say when I look at all of the steps forward I’ve taken in the last two years… heck, the last 13 years. But, I was SPRINTING forward, and then… I got de-railed. By myself.

I discovered Shakeology and Beachbody right before the holidays in 2013. I had been following my friend Becka on her journey and I couldn’t not join along. We had both had some tough health issues and I could SO RELATE to her story. Our bodies were different in a lot of ways, but our stories were so similar. I was watching her come alive again and I knew how desperately I was seeking to find life. So, I did it. And, HOLY CRAP everything changed. I was able to drop several more medicines out of my regimen, and ALL of the other supplements I was taking (at one point I was on 30 pills a day between medications and supplements). I got in the best shape of my life, and FAST. It was almost enough to make me upset because I trained so hard for so many years as a competitive gymnast and I struggled SO much with me weight and my ability to build muscle (sidenote: I was eating all the wrong things back then.) That experience gave me the confidence I needed to know that I could do what I was doing: move overseas. I was leaving behind my team of docs that had supported me and treated me since I was 15 years old. I was going into so many unknowns, but the biggest thing I wanted to do, other than find myself and be true to my being, was to prove to myself I could still do hard things.

And I’m doing hard things. I’m learning a new language at the age of 33 (try it. I dare you.). I got a visa and then renewed it (you have no idea how hard that is!). I have been over a year with only a couple of doctor’s appointments when I’ve visited home, aside from my newly-found acupuncturist here in Paris. I’m designing again, working with French clients, and have built more websites in the last few months than ever. Hardest of it all: I was finally willing to do what I needed to do to get rid of the toxicity that had been literally keeping me ill for 7 years. Change is hard. Really hard. And really scary.

But through all of that, I totally let myself get de-railed, for much longer than I would have liked, with my fitness journey. As a competitive gymnast turned chonically-ill patient, getting “back in my body” and feeling strong was so redeeming. So encouraging. So invigorating. It gave me confidence in every other area of my life. This isn’t about being skinny. It’s about being and feeling healthy in your own skin. Being in the kind of shape that allows you to do amazing things like climb monuments or hike trails. To be able to ADVENTURE.

I’m getting back on the wagon. And this time, I’m doing everything in my power to set myself up for SUCCESS. I am reading my personal development books (in English and French). I reconnected with my success partner. I am exercising as much as I can when I’m in the city. Now it’s time to get back to my favorite kind of exercise: the 30-minutes a day in my undies in the comfort of my own home! 😉 You guys, it doesn’t get any easier than that and it WORKS! (kicks self in the butt for stopping)

But more than working out, I want my life to matter. I want to breathe my own significance and spread it as far as I can. I have been searching for the way I could make my life count for so many years. I’m passionate about so many things. If I was a kid preparing to go to college, maybe I’d become a lawyer so I could fight human trafficking alongside the likes of IJM. But, I have lived through a lot. I have learned a lot. And I’ve always been convinced it was for a reason. To prepare me for the next phase. That it would be redeemed in some amazing way. So here is my chance to use my story, my journey, to make a difference.