12 Weeks to a New You!

Become the latest Biggest Loser! I am proud to announce I am getting ready for a 12 week weight loss challenge! More details to come and get ready for a new you!

How's Your Herbalife?

So it's Monday and this day can usually be a drag for a lot of us. We're coming off the weekend, maybe too used to sleeping in now we have to face five days of being productive responsible adults right? What's the hardest part about this for you? Is it getting up early five days a week? Being productive all day? Losing the concentration later in the afternoon? All of these can be a huge challenge especially if we are not getting the nutrition we need on a daily basis. So many of us start the day with coffee and a donut, or some sugary cereal or something else that will leave us crashing early then we are addicted to coffee for the rest of the day and the week. Don't get me wrong I was right there too, whatever work was offering for breakfast I would eat it, especially those sugary gross donuts! But man I used to love those things... So changing that habit can be hard and sometimes hearing about eating better and healthier can sound really boring and make none of us want to have anything to do with it. But it can be fun and it can be something you look forward to! Look I'm not trying to pretend to be excited about something that I detest, it's all about finding your nutrition and exercise "soulmates" something that really speaks to you and that you want to do on a daily basis. You know what does it for me? I just feel better everyday, I have more energy and my mood is awesome all the time! Who wants to have up and down moods? Or no energy and you have to suffer through the day? Not me! That's what really made me get off my butt and decided that I'm going to eat better and exercise and not look back. Yes it is something you have to set your mind to but man once you make that change you will never look back!

What did it for me was discovering Herbalife and exercise. That combination is a power house for more energy! Just the better eating alone I feel awesome and I have energy to get through the day without jittery caffeinated products or something that will give me temporary energy then have me in a tail spin crash for the rest of the day. That is the WORST! But seriously getting better on your eating is HUGE! Maybe bigger than exercising (even though you should do it) because if you eat a bunch of crap the exercise just doesn't matter! I mean what's the point of burning off all those calories, working so hard just to put it back on when you decide to eat that pizza or drink all that alcohol? I tried the same thing when I was younger and partying, go to the gym after class then go have a bazillion beers on the weekends and wondering why I wasn't losing weight. It just doesn't work, SORRY! So back to what I was saying, you are what you eat and you are going to feel what you eat. If you are on top of it and concentrating on putting only good things in your body, your body will thank you and you can buy yourself a lot of extra lifetime too ;-) I've mentioned before about the core nutrition I started taking and I still use it to this day, I LOVE IT!!! Just Formula 1,2,&3 and you will feel it almost immediately! Your energy will be better, you will think better and just over all feel better because you are giving your body what it needs so it can perform at a better rate than ever. Look this Core Nutrition has been an Herbalife staple for 30 years so somebody is buying it and loving it and I'm right there with them! Once you start feeling amazing from the good eating and you incorporate the fitness you will be on FIYAH!! Nothing will stop you and then your energy will be contagious and people will want to know what you're doing ;-)

So it's been two months since I've been on the Herbalife train and I'm feeling better than ever! I'm excited that I have finally found a nutrition regimen that makes me feel better than ever and I'm happy to share it with my family and friends! Whatever you choose to get your body in better shape you will not regret it!
Yours in wellness....

Explosive biz for personal trainers!

Get on a better team!

So how would you rate the crowd you hang out with? Do you think they are supportive and lift you up? Do you do the same for them? How about you give more than they give? Well we all go through this where maybe at a certain time in our life we really have to evaluate the people we spend our time with and who can potentially influence us. This really can happen as you go through life and meet other people such as in college, jobs, the gym or any other place where it's possible to meet new friends. You have a chance to see what it's like to spend time with different people and those that you may have more in common with than the people that you had been spending time with before. This is not saying anything against your first group of friends but as you change as a person then company you keep can change as well. I have gone and still going through this and it hasn't been easy but it has been eye opening. Of course who you may have hung out with in high school may not be your same circle of friends in college and beyond and it's ok! Sometimes our old friends have a hard time with this transition and can give you a pretty hard time about it but you just have to know who you are as a person and who you want to associate with and invest your time and energy with. If the previous group you spent time with was always negative, putting down your goals, sabotaging you or anything like that then you meet people that you have more in common with, are super supportive and just all around a better team. You naturally will be drawn to people that you know will lift you up and be there when the chips are down. I have been around the people that try to sabotage me, negative all the time and just really becoming toxic and I had to make a tough decision. Do I keep putting myself through this or do I start opening myself up for new friendships and relationships? Well I finally opened myself up and I couldn't be happier! This may sound harsh or cruel but no one said that you had to be friends with your old croonies forever and there is no law stating this either. I know plenty of people that have had the same friends their whole life and they have grown and evolved together and that's great! Some have changed who they are and their friends changed with them and this is awesome too!

You are not obligated to stay in a crowd that you are not benefiting from or getting a really healthy supportive friendship from. It's not good for you mentally or physically to be around people that are negative, put you down, put down your goals, gossip all the time or any other energy draining activities. Get on a better team! Be honest with yourself and who you are and you will attract those positive folks in your life! These people will be lifelong friends that lift you up, are there when the chips are down and a great influence on your life! Remember be honest with yourself and who you are, that is all that matters!! Until Next Time...

Yours in Wellness.....

Snacking Can Be the Devil

So do you find yourself mindlessly snacking? When does it occur for you? On the phone? Watching tv? Just bored? I can get that way too and believe me it may seem harmless because it's a "snack" but what are you eating? Is it really junk food? Come on be honest :-) In order to get great results with eating healthier either for the sake of weight loss or just to make better choices, we have to be honest with ourselves. We have to be honest about how much we eat, what we eat, what time, and how often. These are huge factors that can make or break a healthy diet plan or a better eating endeavor. I used to lie to myself for years! Oh well this is just a snack, or this isn't much but before you know it you've eaten a whole bag of chips, a whole box of crackers or made a meal out of a bag of candy! This happens to all of us and let me tell you it can really blow your work at eating good and eating correct portions. For a long time I never understood why I would overeat, and for a long time I never had to think about it until I got out of my teenage years then my body really made me pay attention! I would actually put on weight and couldn't get it off! Then the puzzle began for me, I would think "well I'm trying to make better decisions" but I had no clue on how often to eat, how much and the dreaded snacking. This was and still is my biggest nemesis when it comes to eating right and avoiding temptation. The worst time for me is when I'm on the run, working outside of my house and I forget to bring something healthy to snack on. That's the trouble and it just goes down hill from there. You can let yourself get so hungry that you will kill someone to eat ANYTHING and that's where the bad decisions come in and the extra calories creep up in your diet. Believe me you may tell yourself it's just once in a while but those calories can really add up and stay with you for a long time. A huge way to combat this is BE PREPARED! If you know you are going to be on the road for a while, run a bunch of errands then bring a cooler or a bag of almonds so that when your stomach starts talking to you you can be ready. It's a huge difference eating almonds instead of that sugary gross candy bar or anything else that just won't do your body good.

Another way to combat this is with Snack Defense. Now you may be thinking "eh it's full of caffeine I bet" But it's not! It works WITH your body so you don't even want those sugary snacks because it helps already normal blood sugar levels stay even so you are more able to make smart healthy decisions when you are having your in between meal snack. How many health supplements out there do you know that can do that? Along with it helping your normal blood sugar stay normal it's also a healthy source of chromium which is a supplement that not a lot of people think that they need and don't realize that they may be deficient in this supplement. When people consume too many carbohydrates , your body can experience a sudden increase of insulin and blood sugar levels which can cause the body to store fat. Snack Defense contains Gymnema and this can help decrease the absorption of glucose in the body and Chromium helps insulin perform its function, by allowing for better cell-absorption of glucose in the body. These two ingredients really help your body handle the sugar from your meals therefore helping your body perform at its best and prevent it from turning all that sugar into fat. For adults you can take this twice a day and you are on your way to resisting those nasty snacks and taking awesome care of your body overall!

So first and foremost always be prepared, with a good healthy snack to go and Snack Defense to get you over the hump and help your body's insulin do what it is meant to do.With these two things you can resist that little snacking devil :-) Also eat enough, eat often and eat good all the time and you will enjoy good health and fitness for many years to come! Until next time...

Yours in wellness....

Why Should You Take Care of Yourself?

Recently my Aunt Inez has been diagnosed with breast cancer. It seems like she caught it in time but the fact that she got diagnosed with it is pretty frightening. Even though it was early she still has to go through chemotherapy, radiation and just had her last surgery which hopefully will take care of the last of the cancer. She never had any habits that would make you think she would get cancer one day like smoking, drinking or eating bad but there was one thing that she did that drove most of my family nuts. After she was done raising her kids she did NOTHING. Her days were watching soap operas and having her husband take her everywhere she needed to go because she never got her driver's license, she was too scared to learn how to drive. So basically twenty or more years after she was done raising kids and taking care of other people she stopped moving, did nothing all day and all night tv is/was her main activity which she does not want to give up. I'm not saying that sitting around all day and cleaning sometimes will give you cancer but the inactivity and marginal eating habits does not help. I mean a walk a day or some other activity would've done wonders for her, make her body stronger so she would be more able to fight the cancer and not be so weakened from the treatments. She's doing well thank goodness but with this last round of surgeries I kept thinking to myself "was there something she could have done when she was younger to prevent all this?" I mean there are many of us that have all these illnesses in our families and we are just genetically predisposed to getting them. But even with that that should not make us not want to take care of ourselves, be more active, eat better and make sure we have a long quality of life for as long as possible. I really hope that people close to me or that read my blog posts don't think that I'm preaching I just hope they really learn and understand the importance of taking care of their bodies because the consequences are not pretty. My father is suffering the consequences of not taking care of himself because now he struggles with diabetes, high blood pressure and all the joys with checking your blood sugar and making sure you eat on time. Believe me it's a pain and he hates it. There was a time that he tried to skip doing this and go back to his old habits of drinking and he had a seizure that showed the same symptoms of a stroke and that wasn't pretty either. Luckily his body was strong enough to come back but there could be that one fine day that he doesn't, especially if he tries to ignore the doctor and do what he wants to do when he wants to do it.

So how can this be done? What exactly can you do to better your health and quality of life? Well first off if you are stuck in a bad habit such as smoking, drinking, overeating, eating the wrong foods or anything along that path you have to ween yourself off these habits one day at a time. Especially with the smoking and drinking. When we're young and maybe going through a partying phase all we may do is smoke, drink, go to the bar, eat that fourth meal at Taco Bell and not think a thing of it. We're like "Hey I'm young and having fun" but believe me complications from eating and living like this will sneak up on you quicker than you would like. Just as a personal example I did the smoking and drinking thing for years and for years I didn't care. I never saw the physical results I might have been feeling them sometimes but of course this got ignored. After some time though the weight started piling on and I began to get those lectures from my doctor about my high blood pressure, high chloesterol risk for diabetes and I was considered obese!! I was only 26 hearing all this! I'm telling you hearing a death sentence is no walk in the park no matter what age you are or how invincible you think you are. After hearing my doctor say these words my mind did a 180 turn and I have never looked back. I mean look, when you are active with exercise, eating well and overall healthy habits you FEEL better, you have more energy and your outlook on life has a way more positive result. It has been said and proven that doing 30 minutes of cardio or any other workout will help with depression, I mean exercise and good nutrition can be a natural anti-depressant!

Knowing that people beat the crap out of their bodies with bad habits really does keep me up at night and sometimes you can say it until you're blue in the face but you have to be ready to give up habits and make a change and I totally get that it's hard but remember anything that is worth it and has a great payoff is never easy, just DON'T GIVE UP! I guess my rant today is about taking care of yourself for yourself and others. Your family and friends love you and of course want you around for a million years :-) If you find it hard getting motivated just keep this in mind: One day at a time, one pound at a time, one workout at a time and you will get there! Until next time..

Yours in Wellness...

The Power of Positive Thinking

So for years now I have been hearing about the power of your mind, change your thinking and your perception is your reality. I really had no idea what this all meant and I would always think " yeah ok weirdo" sorry I know that's harsh but I really felt that way, of course when I was younger and dumb. Well as I have gotten older and wiser and really thought about this and applied this to my life man it's so true! If you try and stop all the negative thinking and switch it to positive your days will literally seem brighter. Nothing will seem like such a chore and you can take a different, better mentality to things that seem challenging and impossible. For years I listened to people that are super negative, putting down new things I wanted to try and seemingly not wanting me to succeed or do anything good in life. I didn't realize what was happening because I was totally feeding into this and I didn't know about any other mentality that I could have. But when I started to break away from people with these kinds of habits and really started doing what I wanted to do, it was like a different world! I really made the effort to surround myself with those that are doing the same thing and tried all the time to have a positive outlook and attitude about life. These kinds of people that are putting in that kind of effort always seem happy for you and really support you no matter what you are doing or want to do. I'm telling you right now this will change your life and you will love the way this feels and how your new mentality is giving you power to achieve anything you set your mind to. I'm not trying to sound like Tony Robbins but I really get sad when I see people that are caught in that mental trap. They don't feel they can do anything different and worse yet they are surrounded by people that live in fear. With that fear they put down what you are trying to do and make you think it's too hard, you can't do it, it will never happen. Believe me it's nothing but a trap. I would hear this too, even from family members. When people you care about or care about you say this they may not be being malicious but you do have to avoid letting that thinking bring you down. Once you do that then you do start to believe that you can't do it which is total garbage! Sorry if that was harsh...

Changing your habits does not happen over night but it does happen. Like with any habit that you quit it's one day at a time, one thought at a time that you can change. When this starts to become a daily thing that you don't even have to think about you will start to see new doors opening up for you and even your confidence getting better. Especially when you make the decision to change your thinking you will literally attract people that think the same and are super positive just like you. When you see people like this they CHOSE to be positive and lead happier lives. Everything in life is a choice, no one is born this way but they can get sick of their current situation and want to change it. That's what happened with me, I just got tired of being scared all the time and listening to those who are constantly negative, not supportive and all that jazz. I'm not putting those people because honestly that may not even realize they're doing it, it's hard to listen to so decide whether you're going to keep listening to it or get away from it. You may care about these people but constant dark thoughts just isn't in the recipe for moving on with your life and being happy with it.

So the point of this rant is YOU CAN DO IT. You can do anything you set your mind to, you don't have to walk all over people that are in your way just walk around them (Thank you Chalene Johnson). What that means is you don't have to hurt people to achieve your goals just scoot around them and keep your eyes on the prize. If you want to raise chickens, do it! Learn about it and do it. Whatever your are passionate about you will succeed in it no matter what anyone says. Just change your mind set and watch your world change, for the better. Not only is this good for you mentally this is good for you emotionally and physically. Your health will be so much better if you get the poisonous thoughts and let the healthy happier thoughts in! :-) Until next time....

Yours in wellness....