We all want to believe calories in calories out. Basically what we’ve heard over and over again. Eat less move more. Well…that’s all well and good, but

for us ladies our hormones play a major role in our fat loss. Now I specifically use the terms fat loss as I don’t believe in the scale. The scale isn’t an accurate measure of fat loss. Let’s face it for most of you, your goal isn’t to run around with a scale showing people you hit your high school weight. We aren’t on the wrestling team. But we would LOVE to hear from folks you look good have you lose some weight. You’d LOVE to look in the mirror NAKED and see the results! So. that is why today we talk about hormones. It’s our hormones that swing us back and forth.

If you balance out your hormones you will eat less, and the calories will take care of themselves. This is the essential difference between fat loss and weight loss.

The 9 hormones responsible for fat loss include:

1. Adrenaline — tells the body to burn fuel
2. Cortisol — during periods of stress, it shuts down all the hormones the burn fat
3. Ghrelin — this is what causes your stomach to growl
4. Glucagon — helps to regulate both sugar and fat usage as fuel
5. Insulin — helps to break down carbs and sends energy to cells, but too much insulin causes our bodies to store fat
6. Leptin — controls hunger on a day to day basis
7. HGH — responsible for body composition
8. Thyroid — stabilizes metabolism
9. Estrogen — it’s a sex hormone yes, but is also it what cause us ladies store more subcutaneous fat

I want to you to know that there is SO much more to hormones than what I just described. This is just a small overview. There are so many resources out there, I’m reading all the time. I feel for many of my clients it’s the hormones that’s causing them to stay stuck. Especially when they are eating clean, working out and being consistent.

Ways to help balance out hormones:

• Get more sleep — 7-9 hours/night.
• Quality of food matters — look for more whole food sources, if you can afford purchase organic, grass feed beef and limit dairy
• Add extra fiber in your diet — include ground flax seeds and chia into diet. Another source that I like to add to my shakes is Fiber Pro.
• Eliminate added sugars artificial sweeteners and high fructose corn syrup
• Exercise — breaking a sweat helps with stress management as well as way to get your hormones working for you
• Stress management — this goes back to mediation. We’ll talk about stress in another lesson.

When I mention exercise I don’t want you to think go hard or go home. As we’ve talked in early lessons some of you are cardio queens or lifting monsters. The key is to find the balance between both. I’m big fan of doing big combination sets.  For example a workout would like like this.

Set a timer for 5 min
10 Bentover rows
10 lunges/leg with bicep curl
10 squats
Keep moving until you are tired, rest and them come back in.
You’d repeat for 5min

Then you’d set the timer again for 5 min

20 mountain climbers total
10 jumping jacks
20 high knees
rest for 30 secs  and repeat for 5 min

Alternate back and forth for 30 min total and then walk on a treadmill as fast as you can walk without breaking into a run. You can do this on an incline or flat.

Balancing out your hormones can be done by changing your lifestyle. If you find that’s not working, if you feel you have an hormonal imbalance I HIGHLY recommend you see a naturopathic doctor. I say this because they can help you to understand what hormones maybe out of balance as well as test you to see if you have certain food intolerance’s that may cause inflammation. Now your general practitioner may be able to do this as well.

Resources:
The Hormone Diet

Today’s assignment. 

1. Pick 2 items from the hormone balancing list that you will implement.
2. Give the workout a try this week. Report your results. How many rounds did you get through.

Don’t forget Leave a comment below. Write a facebook post on the Fabulous Fit Squad. If you have a personal blog, write a blog post. Make sure you link back to the site so we can cheer you on and hold you accountable.

Just joining now” Don’t worry you can catch up.
Day 1 — Intro the challenge
Day 2 — Getting your mind straight 
Day 3 — Goal setting 
Day 4 — What’s on your plate
Day 5 — Lift
Day 6 — Cardio
Day 7 — Living on your own terms
Day 8 — Rest day
Day  9 — Forming a habit
Day 10 — Just Breathe
Day 11 — Fat loss secrets revealed
Day 12 — Can you pinch an inch
Day 13 — Dedicated and Focused 
Day 14 — Doubt
Day 15 — Rewards and Consequences

Here we are 1/2 way through the challenge how are you doing’ Are you following through every day on the assignments’ I really would love some feedback. This is the first time I’ve run this time of  type challenge. Is it too much to do it daily or would it be better to do on a weekly basis.  Please shoot me an email to give me feedback. You really can’t hurt my feelings, I really want to know I have can best serve you.

Have you been struggling’ Do you know what you should doing but are unable to actually do it” Get in line that’s how most people operate. No matter how convinced we are that we want to start a healthy lifestyle, lose weight, start exercising, eating better, drinking more water, etc. it seems very challenging almost to the point of overwhelm.

Don’t stress out; life would be very boring if we all could just easily do the “right thing.” I don’t know about you, but I’m AWESOME at coming up with excuses. I can justify ANYTHING. Am I alone”  The excuses I build in my mind all seem logical and even very rational. I was really good yesterday so I deserve to have a cookie today; I’m swapped at lunch so I’ll go to the gym after work, I’ll be more effective then; it’s so and so’s birthday, going away party etc I can’t blow off drinks it would be rude. And so on. We forget that even though our reasoning has some logic to it, it’s not GOOD logic and it doesn’t lead us to our dreams. So how do we get ourselves to act on our goals’

Sadly, we respond better to consequences than we do to rewards.  Consequences actually force your brain to look for ways to solve your problems and keep your promises with the energy it would normally use to justify making excuses. Consequences need to be annoying but not physically painful. Here are examples of consequences.

• If you stay up past your bed time you need to sleep on the floor
• You miss a workout, you leave $10 somewhere for a stranger to find
• No cellphone for the day
• No social media for the day
• No watching TV

Are you picking up with I’m putting down”  We are quick to blow off a promise we make to ourselves, but if there is a consequence associated with we may less likely to do it. The best way to burn in a consequence is to share it with someone who can help hold you to your word.

Today’s assignment:

1. If you are struggling to keep up with the challenge — what consequence will you assign to yourself to ensure you start taking action from this point forward.
2. If you are keeping up with the challenge — how are you doing with your goals’ You assignment today is to assign consequences to all your goals.

Don’t forget Leave a comment below. Write a facebook post on the Fabulous Fit Squad. If you have a personal blog, write a blog post. Make sure you link back to the site so we can cheer you on and hold you accountable.

Just joining now” Don’t worry you can catch up.
Day 1 — Intro the challenge
Day 2 — Getting your mind straight 
Day 3 — Goal setting 
Day 4 — What’s on your plate
Day 5 — Lift
Day 6 — Cardio
Day 7 — Living on your own terms
Day 8 — Rest day
Day  9 — Forming a habit
Day 10 — Just Breathe
Day 11 — Fat loss secrets revealed
Day 12 — Can you pinch an inch
Day 13 — Dedicated and Focused
Day 14 — Doubt

Call it what you will. Doubt, self sabotage, fear. What have — at the end of the day it paralyzes you and keeps you from moving forward. A few months ago I read the Slight Edge and the big take away from that book was two fold — easy to do and easy not to.

Not making the changes you want to make that falls into the easy to do category. Looking at yourself with regret, anger and embarrassment, again, easy to do.

Now flip the coin, how would it you feel about yourself, when you are putting forth your best efforts to meet OR exceed your goals.  Now that’s not easy to do, you’ll need to set a plan and take action toward your goals.

Here are 2 great articles I wrote in the past the can further help you with doubt.

Are You Willing’Doubt

Doubt can only be removed by action. — Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Here we are 14 days in take what has been holding you back” Have you been following along faithfully, have you been taking action on the homework. Or are you sitting back saying I’ll get to it.

Today’s assignment

1. Write down the 1 thing that is holding you back from taking actions on your goals you set during this challenge.
2. Now write down the 2 small actions that you can take in the next 48 hours to get moving forward.

Don’t forget Leave a comment below. Write a facebook post on the Fabulous Fit Squad. If you have a personal blog, write a blog post. Make sure you link back to the site so we can cheer you on and hold you accountable.

Just joining now” Don’t worry you can catch up.
Day 1 — Intro the challenge
Day 2 — Getting your mind straight 
Day 3 — Goal setting 
Day 4 — What’s on your plate
Day 5 — Lift
Day 6 — Cardio
Day 7 — Living on your own terms
Day 8 — Rest day
Day  9 — Forming a habit
Day 10 — Just Breathe
Day 11 — Fat loss secrets revealed
Day 12 — Can you pinch an inch
Day 13 — Dedicated and Focused

I know first hand consistency is really hard. I understand it from a personal point of view.  When I was competing consistency was a major requirement. Click here to read this article. I also understand this from my clients who get ready for big events — weddings, vacations, reunions, fitness competitions, etc and then go back to being inconsistent. This yo yo effect makes losing weight that much harder.

A well thought out fitness plan will go a long way in helping you to reach your goals. To achieve consistency, you will want to think about the types of exercise that you can do on a regular basis. A consistent workout regimen reduces stress and increases your mental well being. When you work out regularly, your body releases endorphins that enhance your mood. Sticking to a regular exercise regimen will keep you to feel revived both physically and mentally. When you exercise with consistency, your muscles will develop gradually and the body that you always dreamed about will materialize.

It’s also important to design a training program that fits your lifestyle and can be followed consistently without upsetting other areas of your life. Make sure your fitness goals aren’t so aggressive that you have don’t have time to train or are constantly running short on time that you don’t finish them. Be honest with yourself regarding how much time you have to work out. Personally I hit the wall at about [1:15]min.

If you are unsure about how to put together a program hiring a coach will help with developing a customized a plan that fits your needs and lifestyle. Click here to see a list of services that I offer that may be of assistance to you.

There are three main components in any healthy lifestyle program that help you to build lean muscle, lose weight fast and lose body fat.

1. Strength training — increase your lean, tone, body mass, thus giving a better shape to the body and increasing metabolism. Review the strength training day.
2. Cardio — help you burn some extra calories that will lead to fat loss. More cardio doesn’t make up for bad behavior or if you missed a day. Just do your normal workout. Review cardio day.
3. Nutrition — this is the hardest for most people. As we talked about on nutrition day, it’s about moderation and making this a lifestyle and not a diet.  Review nutrition day.

I want to spend a little more time on nutrition as this where the rubber meets the road. If you are awesome with your workouts but a mess in the kitchen you will struggle with losing weight. The biggest factor that cause you to fall of the deep end is the lack of convenience. Convenience is a big factor that effects the consistency of eating the right foods.  We’ve discussed preparing your own meals ahead of time. This will eliminate the excuses of stopping off at a fast food place because you have nothing to eat. It will eliminate the excuse for skipping a much needed meal. You can purchase a protein powder, a meal replacement packet, protein shakes in a can already mixed, and protein bars. Again these help eliminate any excuse for not getting the proper nutrition your body needs. I would still rather you eat whole foods, but something is better than nothing at all.

Train hard, train smart and train consistently. This is the only way I know how you can win the weight loss game.

There is no secret routine, there is no magical number of reps and sets. What there is, is confidence, belief, hard work on a consistent basis, and a desire to succeed. ~ Unknown

With fitness slow and steady wins the race, don’t come out of the gate so fast that you burn yourself out. That is one of the reasons why this course is 30 days long it’s to help develop consistency.  Remember there is no short cuts to fitness, despite what you might hear.

Today’s challenge

1. Write down where you struggle with consistency — cardio, strength or nutrition. Name 2 things you can do to help improve that
2. I am a very visual person. I hope you are too. So.. find motivating picture that visualizes your goal and post it somewhere that you have to see it every day. I also like post its. I post my goals all around the house so that I’m consistently reminded of what I’m working towards.

Don’t forget Leave a comment below. Write a facebook post on the Fabulous Fit Squad. If you have a personal blog, write a blog post. Make sure you link back to the site so we can cheer you on and hold you accountable.

Just joining now” Don’t worry you can catch up.
Day 1 — Intro the challenge
Day 2 — Getting your mind straight 
Day 3 — Goal setting 
Day 4 — What’s on your plate
Day 5 — Lift
Day 6 — Cardio
Day 7 — Living on your own terms
Day 8 — Rest day
Day  9 — Forming a habit
Day 10 — Just Breathe
Day 11 — Fat loss secrets revealed
Day 12 — Can you pinch an inch

Back in the day we could eat what ever we wanted and not gain an ounce. Now it seems like you just walk by certain foods and they adhere themselves to your ass. Am I the only one” Given the stats by the CDC sadly  today, obesity is the single most important health issue facing the United States. More than one-third of adults and almost 17 percent of children and adolescents are obese.
Not surprisingly, according to a 2010 consumer survey, 55 percent of us are actively trying to lose weight. To better help you understand let’s examine body fat–what it is, what it does, and how different types of body fat are associated with health and disease.

Body fat comes directly from our diet. Body fat is divided into 2 categories.

• Subcutaneous fat is fat accumulated in the lower body, often visualized as producing a “pear shaped” appearance.
• Visceral fat is the fat within your belly (not the fat hanging over your belt) and is associated with the “apple shaped”. Visceral fat is also known as central or abdominal fat.

Visceral fat is harmful because it’s very active, causing low-grade inflammation within your body. Visceral fat consists of fat cells that stimulate and secrete a variety of potent chemicals that can activate chain reactions in the body that can cause disease. Visceral fat accumulation is also associated with insulin resistance, which is a primary factor in type 2 diabetes and other obesity-related conditions.

Main causes of visceral fat:

• Diets: High-sugar, high-processed carb, fatty, high-gluten
• Lack of sleep: Regularly not sleeping or getting less than 7 hours consistently. i can fall asleep but there are times when I cant’ stay asleep. During those those I’m a big fan of this product.
  
• Lack of exercise: Living a very sedentary lifestyle
• Over training: Moving too much can cause your body to never recover
• Stress: We’ll talk about this later, but stress your body to produce a hormone called cortisol that cause inflammation
• Mild allergies: Your body may be allergic to some foods that you are in your diet. Some common allergies include — gluten, wheat, dairy, soy, fish, nuts, eggs or shellfish. You could see a naturopath for a full food allergy panel.
• Toxins — the body is subjected to over 300 toxins daily. It’s just a fact of life these days. From the fertilizers in food, to a jet flying above your heads are bodies are over run with toxins. Click to learn more I say this not to scare but just to bring awareness. To help eliminate toxins on a daily basis I have 1/4 cup of Cleanse For Life
  Enjoy this 9 min video — that explains the importance of nutritional cleansing and whey protein.
  

Luckily, there are things that can be done to reduce visceral fat, but not without effort. First, is to lose weight. In one recent study, researchers found that aerobic exercise alone significantly reduced visceral fat by 12 percent. Next, modify any high fat or high-calorie food consumption. Add some whey protein. Whey protein helps to reduce visceral fat as well as helping you to feel satiated. My favorite whey protein is Isagenix Isa Pro. I like to mix it with 1 scoop of Want More Energy orange flavor or put in a blend 1/4 c grapes chopped and 1 TABLEspoon strawberry flavored flax oil add in some cubes, water and then blend.

Today Assignment

1. Which 2 of the causes of viseral fat you can start to remove or add to your daily life.

Don’t forget Leave a comment below. Write a facebook post on the Fabulous Fit Squad. If you have a personal blog, write a blog post. Make sure you link back to the site so we can cheer you on and hold you accountable.

Just joining now” Don’t worry you can catch up.
Day 1 — Intro the challenge
Day 2 — Getting your mind straight 
Day 3 — Goal setting 
Day 4 — What’s on your plate
Day 5 — Lift
Day 6 — Cardio
Day 7 — Living on your own terms
Day 8 — Rest day
Day  9 — Forming a habit
Day 10 — Just Breathe
Day 11 — Fat loss secrets revealed

Here are 6 ways to truly jumpstart fat loss.

1. Eat Breakfast — I know for most that’s pretty obvious, but you’d be surprised how many people don’t. Also make sure you are eating breakfast within 30 min of waking.
2. Drink Water — Water flushes out our systems. Drinking a big glass of water whenever you feel hungry and before a meal or snack fills the stomach briefly and makes you feel fuller and stop eating sooner. Hunger is often confused with thirst.
3. Eat Frequent Meals — You’ll want to keep your metabolism fueled so you’ll want to eat every 2-4 hours. Depending upon when you get up in the morning you’ll want to eat at least 5-6 meals.
4. Strength training — When you strength train, your metabolism for up to 38 hours after the workout. Strength training coupled with diet and cardio burns fat far more than cardio and diet alone.
5. Post workout nutrition — Within 30 min of strength training you will want to eat a protein and a fast acting carb. I will go into more detail later in the program as to why this is important.
6. Green tea — This must be fresh, it can’t be the pre-bottled kind. You can’t take it in a pill form. Green tea, helps to slow down digestive enzymes. It must be at the perfect temperature 140°F – 150°F. BTW — It doesn’t suppress your appetite.

Today’s challenge

1. Drink a 1/2 gallon of water — you can add lemon or other fruits to it to give it a little more flavor. Sorry coffee doesn’t count.
2. Eat 5-6 meals today.

Don’t forget Leave a comment below. Write a facebook post on the Fabulous Fit Squad. If you have a personal blog, write a blog post. Make sure you link back to the site so we can cheer you on and hold you accountable.

Just joining now” Don’t worry you can catch up.
Day 1 — Intro the challenge
Day 2 — Getting your mind straight 
Day 3 — Goal setting 
Day 4 — What’s on your plate
Day 5 — Lift
Day 6 — Cardio
Day 7 — Living on your own terms
Day 8 — Rest day
Day  9 — Forming a habit
Day 10 — Just Breathe

Most of us live very stressful lives and meditation is a wonderful way to beat stress. Plus it lowers stress, supports immune system and lowers your cortisol levels. Another bonus is it will help you sleep.

I started a mediation challenge last winter by Deepak Chopra. It was an awakening experience it was really good. It was a 5 min guided meditation. It was a great foundation.

For some of you this may get a little woo woo, but I thought I’d throw it out there to see if you guys would be interested.

Here are a few tips to help you learn how to mediate.

There are lots and lots of ways to meditate. But it’s not about finding the perfect form of meditation — it’s about forming the daily habit of meditation. Let’s try to keep it simple.

1. Commit to just 2 minutes a day. Start simply if you want the habit to stick. You can do it for 5 minutes if you feel good about it, but all you’re committing to is 2 minutes each day. I use a my phone to time it. Right now I’m at 5 minutes in the evening.

2. Pick a time. Not an exact time of day, but a general time, like morning when you wake up or during your lunch hour or in the evening before bed. I like evening I find it’s me to decompress after the day and relax prior to bed.

3. Find a quiet spot. It really doesn’t matter where — as long as you can sit without being bothered for a few minutes. I have a do not disturb sign as my husband always seems to want to talk to me when I’m mediating.

4. Sit comfortably. Don’t fuss too much about how you sit, what you wear, what you sit on, etc. I personally like to sit on a pillow on the floor, with my back leaning against a wall, because I’m very inflexible. Others who can sit cross-legged comfortably might do that instead. Still others can sit on a chair or couch if sitting on the floor is uncomfortable.

5. Start with just 2 minutes. This is really important. It’s not about how long you can go it’s about making this a habit. To do that, we want to start with just a two minutes. You’ll find it much easier to start this way, and forming a habit with a small start like this is a method much more likely to succeed. My goal is to get to 20 minutes. But it’s really hard as my mind likes to wander.

6. Find your focus. It could be on your breath or a word. For breathe meditation .. As you breathe in, follow your breath in through your nostrils, then into your throat, then into your lungs and belly. Sit straight, keep your eyes open but looking at the ground and with a soft focus. If you want to close your eyes, that’s fine. As you breathe out, follow your breath out back into the world. If it helps, count … one breath in, two breath out, three breath in, four breath out … when you get to 10, start over. If you lose track, start over. If you find your mind wandering (and you will), just pay attention to your mind wandering, then bring it gently back to your breath. Repeat this process for the few minutes you meditate. You won’t be very good at it at first, most likely, but you’ll get better with practice. The other way to is repeat a word or an affirmation when you find your mind starting to wonder.

And that’s it. It’s a very simple practice, but you want to do it for 2 minutes, every day, after the same trigger each day. Do this for a month and you’ll have a daily meditation habit.

Good luck!

Today’s Challenge

1. Pick a time that you will give mediation a try.
2. Determine if you will use your breath, mantra or affirmation

Don’t forget Leave a comment below. Write a facebook post on the Fabulous Fit Squad. If you have a personal blog, write a blog post. Make sure you link back to the site so we can cheer you on and hold you accountable.

Just joining now” Don’t worry you can catch up.
Day 1 — Intro the challenge
Day 2 — Getting your mind straight 
Day 3 — Goal setting 
Day 4 — What’s on your plate
Day 5 — Lift
Day 6 — Cardio
Day 7 — Living on your own terms
Day 8 — Rest day
Day  9 — Forming a habit

We’ve laid a good solid foundation, now let’s start burning it in to your brain and make it a habit.
Motivation is key to attaining your goals. That is why i asked about why you wanted to partake in this challenge I wanted to make sure you were motivated for the right reasons and you had your head on straight. If you are someone who cannot get excited about your goals, then achieving them can become drudgery. And that just SUCKS!!! Here are 9 tips that will help you over the hump.

1. Rewards If you’ve ever worked with children, you know that bribes work. “Eat your vegetables and you can have more mashed potatoes.” “Get an A on your homework and you get a sticker.” “Clean your room and we’ll go to the park.” As an adult, we tend to drop this habit. We just do the work because we’re supposed to, or maybe we don’t do the work at all because it’s just not fun. Why not add back in some fun! Reward yourself – notice I didn’t call it a bribe’ Reward yourself for your success. For example, if your goal is to pack your lunch 3 times during the week, then buy yourself your favorite coffee and every morning, after a successful day that you bring your lunch.
2. Friends Friends can make goal setting and achieving fun! Whenever you’re tempted to eat something off plan or not head to the gym, why not call or IM a friend! Tell them what’s going on and ask for the kick in the pants to motivate you to stay on plan or just make you laugh. That’s what friends are for. Friends can also join you in your goal. If you’re looking to add exercise to your routine, you can join a gym with friends, or just meet each morning for a brisk walk. Now you’re both getting healthy, and on the days when you’re not feeling like working out, knowing your friend is waiting for you and depending on you will get you out of bed.
3. Record your successes Journaling is a great tool to track how you’re feeling. It can be even more motivating if you journal your successes. By recording your successes, when you’re having a difficult day, you can open your journal and read your success entries. Remembering what it felt like to succeed will help to motivate you through the tough days.
4. Be positive A positive attitude is a wonderful motivator. When you’re feeling positive and have a happy outlook, it feels like anything is possible. A good way to stay positive, is planning for those tough times, and knowing how you can turn around your frame of mind, is a useful tool. So what makes you happy’  I have a stash of positive quotes, videos, songs and images that help me when I have my wall kicking moments.
5. Being grateful What do you have to be grateful for’ Remembering what is good and right in our lives tends to put everything else into perspective. When you’re dealing with a particularly difficult day and working out sounds less fun than cleaning the toilet, or you’re thinking a burger and soda at the local drive-thru will solve all of your problems, then it’s time to get out a pen and paper. Why not write down 5-10 things you’re grateful for’ This could help snap you out of your funk quickly. Once you remember what is good and right in your world, the gym will maybe not feel so bad, and that takeout food will no longer feel like a life preserver.
6. Use Triggers Lay out your clothes the night before or pack your gym bag and put it by the door so you don’t forget it.
7. Get it over with Bite the bullet and head to the gym early. This may mean setting a bed time.
8. Be prepared We talked the other day about prepping food on Sundays. Also make sure you have the right sneakers.
9. X marks the spot I love this one. Grab a calendar and mark a red x each time you are successful with one of your goals mark a red x on the your calendar. This will give you visual motivation to keep going.

Your challenge today.

1. Of the 9 tips which three will you find to be the most helpful and how you can use it.
2. Find a motivational quote and post somewhere that you can see it

Don’t forget Leave a comment below. Write a facebook post on the Fabulous Fit Squad. If you have a personal blog, write a blog post. Make sure you link back to the site so we can cheer you on and hold you accountable.

Just joining now” Don’t worry you can catch up.
Day 1 — Intro the challenge
Day 2 — Getting your mind straight 
Day 3 — Goal setting 
Day 4 — What’s on your plate
Day 5 — Lift
Day 6 — Cardio
Day 7 — Living on your own terms
Day 8 — Rest day

Today challenge assignment is to play catch up. For those of you who have been plugging along this is a day of pure rest. For those of you who have gotten a little behind. Then you get a little breather.  We are more than 1 week into the challenge and I would love to make sure I’m answering your questions, so please leave any questions you may have below.

Don’t forget Leave a comment below. Write a facebook post on the Fabulous Fit Squad. If you have a personal blog, write a blog post. Make sure you link back to the site so we can cheer you on and hold you accountable.

Just joining now” Don’t worry you can catch up.
Day 1 — Intro the challenge
Day 2 — Getting your mind straight
Day 3 — Goal setting
Day 4 — What’s on your plate
Day 5 — Lift
Day 6 — Cardio
Day 7 — Living on your own terms

Stay tuned……

So. we’ve gotten through the foundation stages of the challenge. Now here come the part we are all asking, when can I have me a little fun!! Trust me I’m not all healthy living. I have a 80/20 rule. I call it the Compliance Grid — fancy huh — What does that mean. Well what you may have gleaned from the past few days is that a terrific physique doesn’t happen over night and you will need to do some work and most especially PLANNING. Yes.. it’s a dirty word but someone has to say it.  So.. how does it work. I sit down on Sunday’s and map out my week. I look at what am I obligated to do. Then I put in when I can workout. I only workout for 1 hour — maybe 1 hour and 15 min. I don’t live in the gym, neither should you. If your workouts are taking longer you need to reevaluate your program. Once that’s done I look at if I have any thing special going on that week, will I be away from home for long periods of time and need to make sure I have plenty of healthy snacks to bring with me, will I be heading out to meet friends or attending a function I take all of this into effect to determine what day I will have my treat meal.  Now what does a treat meal look like”

• Alcohol — 1-2 drinks (sorry no bottles of wine, no judgements, just saying)
• Yummy appetizer
• Yummy dinner
• Desert
• ONE OF THE ABOVE — you are either drinking or eating your calories

When having treats you want to keep your portions in mind. Here’s an example…Say your heading to Applebee’s and you order the appetizer platter — sorry that’s NOT ONE portion it’s meant to be shared. Just saying! No judgements just bringing things to your attention.

So what’s so bad about booze’ Isn’t wine suppose to be good for you’ Well… our bodies can’t process alcohol our bodies considers it to be a toxin. When we drink alcohol it sends it to the liver to process the liver doesn’t know what to with it so it send it to our fat cells for storage. The next time we work out our bodies use alcohol, carbs, and then fat to burn. So. if you are looking to drop body fat, over indulging in alcohol brings the fat loss to a grinding halt.

Today Assignment

1. Map out your week using the compliance grid
2. Share what’s your favorite treat meal
   • right now I’m obsessed with pumpkin beer!

Don’t forget Leave a comment below. Write a facebook post on the Fabulous Fit Squad. If you have a personal blog, write a blog post. Make sure you link back to the site so we can cheer you on and hold you accountable.

Just joining now” Don’t worry you can catch up.
Day 1 — Intro the challenge
Day 2 — Getting your mind straight
Day 3 — Goal setting
Day 4 — What’s on your plate
Day 5 — Lift
Day 6 — Cardio

Stay tuned……

Yesterday was all about strength training. I’ll admit it. I LOVE LIFTING. Cardio not so much. I get bored easily. Where I know some of you would rather run your heart out, I’d rather lift. I know I need to do cardio as it’s good for my heart and sadly as I age I need to do it to help me burn off the fat in addition to the lifting.

Now some of you are cardio queens and will do cardio for a hours on end. I’m sorry to bust your bubble but if you desire to get shredded, ripped or etc. You got to limit your time on cardio. Here are some tips to follow:

1. Your cardio should be limited to 30-35 minutes. You should only be doing cardio 3-5 days/week
2. Do intervals — I mean you go hard for a certain period and then you recover and then go hard (I’ve attached an interval)
3. Make sure you are sweating
4. You should at some point feel uncomfortable
5. Reading a magazine or book should be difficult unless you are looking at the pictures
6. When you hop on cardio be sure to mix up the machines as well as the programs on said machines.

Today’s challenge

1. If you are a cardio queen yes there is a definition in the urban dictionary. Scale back your cardio to 30-35 min.
2. If you hate  I mean dislike cardio then you will hop on for 30 min at least 3 times this week. Something I’ve been doing recently that really helps me to get through cardio is I’ve been doing finisher and then hoping on the treadmill and walking on an incline. I put the incline at 10 and the speed at fast enough that I can walk but running would be easier.
3. Below is a cardio workout for you to try.
   

Don’t forget Leave a comment below. Write a facebook post on the Fabulous Fit Squad. If you have a personal blog, write a blog post. Make sure you link back to the site so we can cheer you on and hold you accountable.

Just joining now” Don’t worry you can catch up.
Day 1 — Intro the challenge
Day 2 — Getting your mind straight
Day 3 — Goal setting
Day 4 — What’s on your plate
Day 5 — Lift

Stay tuned.. tomorrow I will talk about treat meals.

The past few days I’ve thrown a lot at you. So today we are going to take it easy. Okay maybe my interpretation of easy is different than yours. We aren’t going to sit around and talk about our feelings we are going to hit the weights!!!

Now I’m going to make a sweeping statement. If this is not you AWESOME if this you consider this an intervention! If you want to get the tight, tone, buff, ripped body of your dreams you must lift!!!

Now when I say lift, I’m not talking light weight I’m talking lifting weight so that the last 2-3 reps are hard with good form. If you are a Mom consider how heavy your baby was when they were born 7-10 pounds. Now let’s add a baby carrier we up to maybe 20” So stop reaching for the 3 pound weights.

How you build muscle is to cause micro tears in your muscle fibers, when these muscle fibers repair you have muscle growth.  To cause these tears you must lift heavy to tax your muscles. Now you will feel sore some days, but I don’t want you to be so sore that you are unable to lift your arms over your head or get out of your chair. I do however want you to kick your own tushy!!

I’m myth busting right now. Lifting heavy weights will not make you bulky!!! Us ladies don’t have enough testosterone.

Read this great article in Women’s Health

Today’s challenge:

1. If you don’t lift how will you incorporate lifting into your fitness routine ( will you take a strength training class, hire a trainer for 1 session or start to lift on your own) Add in some of these. They don’t require any weights and can be done anywhere. Add strength exercises to your routine — pushups, pullups, squats, lunges. I’ve included a free workout at the bottom of this blog.
2. If you do lift how long have you been doing that workout’ If it’s been more than 4-6 weeks it’s time to change it up. For those taking this challenge for just $5.00 I’ll write you a workout based on your needs.  If you are interested just send me an email.  Be sure to put I need a workout in subject line. Try adding the following to your workout compound lifts like squats, deadlifts, bench presses, dips, chinups, overhead presses and rows.
3. Give this workout a try and let us know how you did. Click the words “thank you” to get the workout ThankYou

Don’t forget Leave a comment below. Write a facebook post on the Fabulous Fit Squad. If you have a personal blog, write a blog post. Make sure you link back to the site so we can cheer you on and hold you accountable.

Just joining now” Don’t worry you can catch up.
Day 1 — Intro the challenge
Day 2 — Getting your mind straight
Day 3 — Goal setting
Day 4 — What’s on your plate

Stay tuned.. tomorrow I will talk about cardio.