Motivation Has Nothing To Do With It...

“Motion creates emotion”

As usual I came home tonight and worked out.  But it wasn’t just a regular workout.  For the first time I did the Strength workout from Insanity The Asylum, all the way through, no breaks.  I did every single rep, even when I thought I couldn’t keep going I pushed through and got it done.  I love the sense of accomplishment when I can beat my own record, when I can achieve what my body tells me is impossible.  Always in competition with myself!  

Do you think I was motivated to workout when I got home from work?  Heck no!  All I wanted to do was sit on the couch, stuff my face, and watch The Walking Dead (which rocks by the way)!  I was drained from another long day at work.  If I had let myself be led by emotions, I would not have accomplished what was one of the best workouts I’ve ever completed.  

A lot of people ask me how I stay so motivated.  They tell me that they WANT to lose weight, they WANT more energy, they WANT to feel better.  They’ve bought workout programs, joined gyms.  They’re just not motivated to do the work.

What I do has nothing to do with motivation in my opinion.  I’m rarely motivated to exercise.  It’s about commitment.  I have a full time job and I own my own business, I’m a mom and a wife.  I’m busy and tired, all the time!  I come home drained, exhausted from work thinking about all the other things I could be doing.  I don’t really WANT Shaun T to make me want to cry or Chalene Johnson to make me want to puke.  But I’ve made a commitment to myself to be as healthy as I can be.  To be a healthy mom and wife.  It makes me feel good about myself, confident and strong.  I treat my workouts like a business appointment.  As soon as I get home from work I put my workout clothes on and press play no matter how tired I might be, and I ALWAYS feel 100x better and accomplished when I’m done!

Here’s what I’ve learned about motivation...  if you sit around and wait for it to slap you upside your head, it’s never going to happen!  Motivation does not come before action, action comes before motivation.  Once I get moving I feel better, the adrenaline kicks in, and THAT’S when motivation strikes.  Not the other way around.  As my hubby Syed likes to say, “motion creates emotion.”  The only workouts I’ve ever regretted are the ones I DIDN’T do.  

So the next time you think to yourself “I just don’t feel like it”, “I’m too tired”, “too busy”...  “I’m not motivated today”... cut the excuse and just do it already.  You’ll feel better when you’re done, I promise.

5 Day Inferno Meal Plan

Syed and I loved our meals last week so much, we're doing it all over again this week.  Interested?  Here are all the meals in pictures...  Courtesy of TurboFire.  Just click on the pictures to make them bigger.

Inferno Day 4/5 & Results

Day 4 and 5 came and went and I have to admit I got a little lazy with the pictures.  But the meals were fantastic as they were with the rest of the week.  I ended the week feeling great.  I very obviously lost weight and I felt so healthy and energetic.  It makes me wonder why I torture myself with the fast food and crap that I eat sometimes.  It's so easy to eat well, it doesn't have to be complicated!  And you don't have to deprive yourself of great tasting food.  With a little preparation and planning ahead, anything is doable. 

At my post inferno weigh-in, I'd lost 3 lb. and 1% body fat.  All by eating 5 meals a day and no junk food. I feel so great I'm going to do it again next week!!!

Chalene's 10 Tips for Getting Your Kids to Eat Healthily

Courtesy of Team Beachbody Newsletter Issue: #109, March 04, 2009

http://teambeachbody.com/about/newsletters/-/nli/109#19559

Chalene's 10 Tips for Getting Your Kids to Eat Healthily

By Chalene Johnson and Denis Faye

As hard as it is to fight your junk food urges, if you have kids, you probably know that getting Junior to make smart food choices is triple the challenge. It'd be excellent if you could just yell, "Hey, you! Eat your spinach!" But you can't. As is the case when dealing with most aspects of a child's life, it takes commitment, patience, and some serious cunning to steer them down the right path.

If you've watched the "Healthy Eats" disc of the ChaLEAN Extreme® program, you know that Chalene and her husband Brett made a commitment to teach their son Brock and daughter Sierra the benefits of a solid diet. Here, in Chalene's words, is a little insight on how they did it.

1. Portion control. Digging into the entire box of goldfish crackers, or any other kid's snack, is a bad idea. So it's a good idea to empty out that box into smaller ziplock bags, for better portion control. Do this the moment the treats are pulled from the grocery store bags! This helps children understand what a healthy portion looks like. Meals and portion sizes have increased nearly 40 percent over the last decade. As parents, we have to teach our children that it's not deprivation—it's proper nutrition.
2. Sneak in the whole grains. Use whole-grain pasta and brown rice, but don't tell your kids. They'll never know the difference. No one, especially children, likes change when it comes to food. I like to use the "stealth" approach, i.e., fly low under the radar! When I switched my kids from regular pasta to whole-grain, whole wheat pasta, I did it in stages. First, I added just a 1/4 cup of the healthier noodles. Each time I added more, until eventually they were eating the whole-grain stuff and had no idea! They still have no idea! We had spaghetti at a restaurant the other night (the enriched-flour kind), and the kids said the restaurant pasta was "weird . . . kinda slimy!" How fantastic is that? The key is making the changes gradually and not making a big deal about them.
3. Lead by example. If you're giving your kids apples but you're eating Snickers, it's never going to work. Following a healthy diet needs to be part of the commitment of good parenting. Never use the "D" ["Diet"] word in front of children. When you do, and they see you eating healthily, they assume that healthy food is something you're forced to eat as a punishment. Lead by example. Say, "Mommy is eating this for more energy and to be stronger." Make negative comments about food without nutritional value. For example, when I do have the occasional "treat," I will often say, "Wow, that piece of cake gave me a sugar crash and a headache. Now I feel so sluggish!" Use positive comments about healthy food without reference to weight. Try, "I feel so much stronger when I eat fruit for a snack!"
4. Make food fun. Taste is something that changes over time. Our taste buds actually change as we age; this explains why some children will eat broccoli and green beans and others find the smell and taste worse than starvation! Continually introduce healthy food and find unique ways to introduce the food in stages. For example, your children might try a small amount of broccoli mixed in with their mac and cheese. Once you've gotten them to accept that as a regular staple, transition to broccoli with a creamy cheese soup. Eventually, your children may acquire a taste for steamed broccoli! Can you imagine the day? But starting right out of the gates with a big plate of steamed broccoli in front of a child who doesn't eat green things is asking for a battle! Baby steps!
5. Don't pressure kids to eat. Present the food, but don't force kids to eat it. Making demands will just polarize your kids, while letting them eat healthy foods on their own terms leads to healthy habits. If your first attempt doesn't work, don't take it personally or assume that this is a life-or-death situation. Take a deep breath, let it go, and try it again another day—try serving those healthy foods prepared in new ways. It often takes several times before your child will decide to try something new. Oh, and I don't know if this works for everyone, but I find that my children will often try new food with their grandparents and at their friends' houses, foods that they won't try with me! Ask what new foods they tried and then offer to prepare them, and get excited about their willingness to try new foods.
6. Be careful what you say. Everything a woman says about her body is like writing on the slate of her female child's self-esteem. I volunteer to teach exercise to children of all ages in the public school system. I have personally heard children as young as 6 say, "I'm fat!" Or, "I have a big belly like my mommy." Or, "My mommy doesn't want you to see her because she got fat." Seriously! Not only do kids hear what you're saying on the phone to your girlfriend, but they are projecting those negative images on themselves. It's unhealthy for you and your young children to be thinking anything other than positive thoughts about this amazing body that God gave you! Do your best to serve as a positive role model by speaking lovingly about your body and your journey to health!
7. Relax! Food shouldn't be a source of angst for your family. Try to get your kids to eat healthier, but be creative, consistent, and calm. The bigger you make the issue of eating healthy foods, the more resistance you may feel. Play it cool. There are many studies proving that you can place salad on the table 10 to 15 times before a child will decide to try it. Remember that "insanity is doing the same thing repeatedly and expecting a different result." If it didn't work the first time, try a different approach, a new way to prepare and disguise the food, and, again, remember the importance of doing this in slow, small steps.
8. Get kids involved. Let them help cook meals and learn to read food labels. Teach them what's too much sugar and what's an appropriate amount of fat. Teach your children what purpose carbohydrates serve in moderation and what they turn into when we eat them in excess. Pick one item and just find that on your labels. For example, this week my children have been looking at the sodium content on labels. They get a kick out of trying to find the canned soup with the lowest sodium content or shocking each other by reading a label with an off-the-chart level of sodium. Food shouldn't be a mystery. I meet adults every day who have no idea how much sodium, carbs, or protein they should be consuming, let alone how many calories. Let's create a more educated generation when it comes to food!
9. Think daily. Young children have shifts when they are hungry. A child will not starve himself or herself. We are so focused on eating huge portions three times a day, but naturally, most children will eat one full meal and graze at other meals. Avoid the bad habit of saying, "One more bite," or, "Clean your plate." These phrases teach our children that they are good if they eat more, when what we want to teach our children is to respond to their bodies when they feel full. Young children eat to provide themselves with energy. Eating to soothe sadness, eating to stuff ourselves, or eating because it's simply that time of the day are all bad habits we pass along to our children.
10. Read up on nutrition. Read books about food. Explain where it comes from. I highly recommend Eat This Not That! for Kids!: Be the Leanest, Fittest Family on the Block! It has giant pictures of common kid foods. It's fun to make a game out of learning which foods are best! Also, check out CalorieKing.com, which lists the calories for most every food you can imagine, not to mention the nutritional information for nearly every restaurant in America!

5 Day Inferno

So I’ve been in a bit of a workout and diet slump.  I spent the better part of 2010 being very disciplined.  I ate well, worked out 6 days a week.  In spite of having a full time job and being alone with Novali, I made it work.  For a whole year, I could count on one hand how many workouts I missed.  I was on fire!  And it was easy to eat well, because I’m a creature of habit.  I could eat chicken breast and veggies every night and it wouldn’t phase me.  Now that Syed and I are living together, I feel like I need to provide more variety with my meals, which means more time to plan and prepare foods.  So I’ve let myself slack a bit.  I’m still working out 5-6 times a week, but I’ve slacked on the eating part.  I wish I could say that working out was enough, but clearly it’s not.  I also think that I became comfortable in that I maintained a very steady weight all last year.  Again, because I was consistent in my efforts.  In the past few months, I’ve gained a few pounds. Not a lot, but enough where I’m feeling the effects. I’m experiencing that dreaded “none of my pants fit” feeling.  At least not the pants I’ve been wearing the past year.  And I do NOT want to go back to my pre-weight loss clothes.  So it’s time to re-evaluate and focus!!!  Hey, I’m human, I probably burned out on my efforts and it’s time to get serious and back on track so that I’m ready for the warm weather clothes!  Not to mention, so that I feel healthy and confident.  

Starting tomorrow, I am going back full force to my favorite workout program ChaLEAN Extreme. Chalene didn’t let me down the first time around, and I’m sure that if I focus on my eating, I will be back at my goal weight in no time!

In addition to that, I’ve challenged myself and friends to a week of no fast food/take out.  To help me with that, this week I will be following the 5 Day Inferno meal plan that came with my TurboFire.  It’s an eating plan that is designed to cleanse your body and change your daily eating habits.  I will be doing it with Syed Ahmed and Grisel de la Torre. Grisel will be following the actual TurboFire 5 Day Inferno workout schedule.   Syed is in the middle of P90X and will follow his regular routine.  

I’ll be blogging all this week about my meals and workouts.  I appreciate any support and motivation!  If anyone wants to join me for the next 90 days, we can help keep each other accountable!

I took my starting stats this morning on my digital scale and they were:

Body Fat: 25.3%

Body Muscle: 41.8%

I will take my before pictures and measurements tonight.  Now it’s off to the grocery store to get everything I need for the week!

Personal Development is for Losers...

I used to think this way.  I would look at the personal development/self-help section in the bookstore and laugh, thinking that the people reading those books were people that couldn't manage their own lives so they had to turn to a book for help.

Now I realize that the people reading those books are leaders, go-getters, ambitious, open-minded people who are SMART enough to recognize that life is about continuous learning (or at least it should be) and that we don't know it all.

In the past 5 months I've learned more from personal development books and audiobooks than I have in years!  So think outside of the box and nourish your mind. Find books that relate to your job, career, hobby, organization, motivation... There's something for everyone!

Some of my favorites (see I've read 7 books in 5 months that I never would have given a second thought to a year ago!):

Eat That Frog - Brian Tracy
Goals - Brian Tracy
The Art Of Closing The Sale - Brian Tracy
Art Of Influence - Chris Widener
Crush It! - Gary Vaynerchuck
The Secret - Rhonda Byrne
The Slight Edge - Jeff Olson
CarSmart (audio series) - Chalene Johnson
and currently reading Failing Forward by John C. Maxwell

Full Circle - How I Lost 20 Lb. & Will KEEP IT OFF in 2011!

One year ago today, I was pretty much in the best shape of my life, and proud of it.  I’d gone from my heaviest ever at 128, to about 115.  Now to a lot of you, 128 might not seem like a lot, but keep in mind that I am barely 5 ft. tall.  128 was a lot of weight for ME.  

My best friend Grisel and I had been doing Jillian Michael’s 30 Day Slimdown, which consisted of 30 Day Shred, No More Trouble Zones, and Banish Fat Boost Metabolism.  We’d both had amazing results and as of 1/1/10, I’d lost about 12-15 lb. We were ready to step it up.  So we did our research, well SHE did the research, and found a program called ChaLEAN Extreme.  She purchased it for me for Christmas, and that was the beginning of a total life change for BOTH of us.  I started it on 1/1, and I was hooked.  Chalene Johnson is a phenomenal trainer and I loved working out with her!  This program changed my body, I lost another 5 lb., doesn’t sound like a big deal but it was to me!  But what amazed me is how STRONG I felt!  It transformed my body.

Even better was that I could do it all at HOME!!!  I’m a busy mom, at that time I was a SINGLE mom working full time, with a 2 hour commute.  It was just me and Novali.  Which meant it was not realistic for me to go to the gym.  So what I would do was, I’d come home after work, start a quick dinner, and workout while dinner cooked.  I had a tiny place so it was easy for me to keep a eye on everything.  Novali had dinner first, and then I would eat after my workout.  It was the only way for me to be able to balance it all.  And I was determined.  

After ChaLEAN I went on to do several more at home programs, including Insanity, P90X, and now TurboFire.  They kept me in great shape.  But ChaLEAN was the program that inspired me, and still it is my favorite.  It’s my soulmate workout.  

2 months ago I started TurboFire, also by Chalene Johnson.  I LOVE it.  But I’ve realized that the best workouts for me are the ones that incorporate a lot of resistance training.  I love to lift weights and my body responds better that way.  In the past few months, I’ve gained a few lb. back, and I’m determined to get back to where I was with ChaLEAN.  

So in honor of my soulmate workout, I’m going to come full circle for 2011.  I will continue TurboFire, but I am going to do the ChaLEAN Extreme/TurboFire Hybrid.  The best of both worlds!  I know that this will get me the results that I want…  Tomorrow morning I will take my before pics and measurements so that I can compare in 3 months and see how far I’ve come!

10 Minute Meal: Honey Dijon Chicken with Parmesan Garlic Broccoli. Courtesy of Chalene Johnson and TurboFire