WHY I am excited about Insanity Max 30!

Check out my sister Rachel!  She is currently expecting Baby #3 and is due in February.  The photo of her on the right was taken around this time last year.  The photo on the left was taken when she decided to begin her health transformation.  Many of you know that Rachel has been my own coach.  If not for my sister, I would not have had the courage to begin changing my own health last September.  Once I began to make some progress myself, part of the reason that I went on to become a coach is because I know that there are people in my own circle who would find the courage to begin their own "Day 1" through working with me as their coach.  There is just something about teaming up with a "real person" who you is in it with you as you make all of this work in everyday life.  The past 9 months of coaching have been so rewarding for me as I have been able to lead others while continuing with my own progress! 

Now, on to the soon-to-be-released Insanity Max 30!  To see my first blog entry on this program, check out "Feeling Brave: Insanity Max 30".   

Rachel had posted the above image on her FB page last night, along with this text:

How many can relate to the unwanted weight settling at your core?

Hands down the program that gave me definition was Insanity last fall.

Anyone that has ever done Insanity can relate to 60 minute workouts hard to commit to.

Introducing Insanity Max 30 to be released in 7 days.
30 minutes
5 days a week
8 weeks

Now taking a small number of those committed to "fixing their core" and overall fluff into "momma is back".

TEST GROUP starting December 8th!!

To learn more about the program and if it's right for you ask to join- https://www.facebook.com/groups/560411114105452/

Rachel and I are teaming up on the "Countdown" group that is linked above.  We will also be working together to lead the December 8th test group.  You are invited to join us!!

So, what is it that is making me so excited about getting started with Insanity Max 30 myself?  Well, I have been intrigued with the details that have been shared on Max 30 over this past week.  More on that below!  I am also really looking forward to continuing to work with my own core!  PiYo has been very helpful for this area.  Clean eating and balanced nutrition are of course where it is at, no matter what workout program you are doing.  I truly believe the saying that "abs are made in the kitchen"!  Anyways, here is where I am now at with my own core and I can't wait to see where I will be after 60 days of Insanity Max 30! 

So of course I'm thrilled to learn more about this program based on just the fact that the workouts are 30 minutes long 5 days a week and the program is 8 weeks long and is broken into Month 1 and Month 2.  

Unlike Insanity, the ENTIRE Max 30 will have a camera on a modifier.  There will be an option to keep this modifier visible on your screen at all times! 

What type of training is Max 30?

Tabata training- meaning you start very intense in a move and go less strong to complete.

During the first month you go hard for 20 seconds rest for 10 seconds. Each "set" of moves lasts 4.5 minutes.  During Month Two, the sets go from 4 minutes 30 seconds to 5 minutes 30 seconds.

Unlike Insanity you don't have a fit test every two weeks rather each day you try and max out your time.  However when you max out the program is not over!!  You take a break and jump back in.

What does the challenge pack include?

12 workouts

10 DVD's

nutritional guide

(no equipment needed)

30 days of dense nutrition (Shakeology)

Month One Workouts

- Cardio Challenge- It's like a fit test and you are maxing out in cardio

- Sweat Intervals- all cardio as well and you sweat the entire time

- Tabata Power- designed to focus on your core

- Tabata Strength- total body building strength

- Friday Fight - Round One... Since this is a 5 day program Friday is an all-out insane workout for 30 minutes!

Optional for Saturday mornings in Month One - a workout called Pulse designed on improving balance, core, and form.

Here is the thing this is not meant to scare you out of doing the program but rather to stretch your mind in what you are capable of doing. More then likely your mind is the first thing to talk you out of trying something new. Keep in mind you have a modifier. And if your workouts don't give you challenge everyday your body will plateau.

Shaun T is all about working the core and Max 30 will not let you down in that area. If your core is an area you struggle with and you hate doing "traditional" sit-ups this will be a win.

Month Two Workouts
- Max Out Cardio
- Max Out Sweat
- Max Out Power
- Max Out Strength
- Friday Fight - Round Two

Nutritional Guide -
This one is focused around portion control with flexibility. How many of you know about the 21 Day Fix portion control containers? You have the option to use those with this nutritional guide. Portion control is a good thing!  This involves managing our eating so that we are eating more often and we keep our metabolism burning. 

Program Schedule and Preview Clip - 
Shaun T really recommends doing the program 5 days straight and taking 2 rest days, your body is going to need it. Unlike Insanity you won't have a recovery week. This will allow your body to fully recover and become stronger for the following week.  Check out this clip to preview Max 30!

Thanksgiving Survival Guide!

Hello! Here we are!  Just two days from Thanksgiving 2014.  Prior to beginning my health transformation in September 2013, this was where I would continue on the slippery slope that had begun with the Halloween candy.  I would coast along on into Christmas and then New Years and before I knew it I was feeling VERY limited to the "upper end" of my wardrobe selections!  You know... the clothes that you can always fall back on.  Except when even they begin to feel snug and then you know that you really did overdo it the past few weeks.  Or the past two months!  

So, how can we cut that path RIGHT NOW and make some plans to re-route before we reach the point of feeling sluggish and painfully snug within our own skin?  Here is a bit of perspective on how I am approaching this week.   

My own upline coach Melanie Mitro shared these words on her blog and I can not say this any better!  So I am just going to quote her here:

"It's not a punishment to eat healthy.  It's not a punishment to exercise portion control, its living a balanced life.  I have found that through my experience with eating healthy that I actually feel awful when I over eat, and I am lethargic after a meal that I eat too many carbs and sugars.  I find that I am actually grouchy bc sugar now has an adverse affect on me.  The next day I am craving more sugar and it is this crazy vicious cycle.  Now that doesn't mean that I don't once in a while have a sweet treat it just means that I am very mindful of when I have sweets and I really pay attention to the portion size.  When I eat I think about my food as fuel not as comfort. Even during the holidays I'm still eating every 2 1/2 to 3 hours.  I'm always looking at my plate and asking if I have a lean protein and a veggie or fruit at each meal."

This week I am taking the same approach that I use any week!  Meal planning, shopping accordingly and making time for my workouts is key.  I know that there will be some extra treats on Thanksgiving Day.  That is fine!  I will be exercising self-control and will enjoy things in moderation.  But does this mean that the entire week is a wash and that I just hit "pause" on the idea of my daily workouts?  NO WAY!!!  I am still working out each day.  It is a habit.  Even when the motivation may be lacking, I remind myself that this is 30 minutes (like 2%!!!) of my day.  I am going to see ongoing benefits of just getting it done.  The idea is to set your intentions and them commit to them!  You may have to get a bit creative to make it happen this week if you are going to be traveling or hosting extra guests at your own place.  The main thing is to get moving and make it happen!

 

Some of our Thanksgiving Day success is going to require a bit of tactical planning!  This is a time of the year where we are surrounded by temptation!  All of the things that I do NOT keep in my own home (knowing myself!) are now surrounding me and these superfluous treats are being casually consumed while friends and family spend time together.  So, what can we do about this??  First, ask yourself if you are actually hungry?  Has it been 2.5 hours since you last had something to eat?  If so, is the item that you are currently contemplating going to be "good fuel" for your body?  Or is is just empty calories?  I do enjoy a taste of empty calories every now and then.  But they are just not designed to be a cornerstone of our daily intake!  So if you are finding yourself surrounded by tricky snacks, see what you can do to get up and moving and take your conversation elsewhere.  :)  Something that helps me is to put a fresh piece of chewing gum in my mouth.  It literally does the trick in cutting down on temptation!

Speaking of cutting down on temptation, I will still be enjoying my Shakeology for breakfast each day!  This is the perfect start to my nutrition each day.  I love that it curbs cravings, keeps me full and give me the perfect balance of super-foods and dense nutrition.  Plus it is quick and delicious! 

You can still enjoy your favorites - just choose them well and remind yourself to watch portion sizes!  Check out this video where I share more on clean eating in general and how to weigh our daily choices... see "Skipping the Cool Whip"!

One of my own biggest keys for holiday/travel survival is to snack well!  Otherwise I am going to end up just not feeling so well.  I can not rely on the food choices that are available at the truck stops along I-80.  And with two little kids in the car, everyone is going to be hungry at some point!  If I am eating my regular sort of snacks, I am not going to be as tempted to overdo it at meal time.  Plus I will remember to not become overly full, as I will be eating my veggies and hummus in a couple of hours.  :) 

 

And last but not least, I have GOT TO STAY HYDRATED!  This is the area where I sometimes just do not do as well whenever I am outside of my usual routine.  A general baseline is to drink 1/2 of your body weight in ounces of water each day.  Some time ago, I began going above and beyond that and I aim for a gallon each day.  When I am not getting enough water, things go downhill quickly.  This is one sure way to set myself up for the precursor of a migraine.  And for some reason, whenever I fall behind on my water intake, it seems to take a little while to feel back to myself, even though I have technically "caught up".  So this is all the more motivation to NOT fall behind on my daily water.  So this holiday I will drink up... with plenty of H2o!

As we celebrate this Thanksgiving holiday, I will be looking at the faces around me as I thank the Lord for another year together.  We just do not know what life holds and I am not going to take for granted the days that we have here on this earth.  I am thankful that although this has been year of impending change within my family and quite a few twists and turns, we serve a faithful and loving God.  I look forward to continuing on with Him as we mark the events of 2014 and ponder the future.  Part of life is what we can see around us and the rest of it goes much deeper... here is a favorite song that reminds me of just that.  Happy Thanksgiving to you!    

Holiday Specials!!

Hello!  My name is Jeanette Paradis and I am a Diamond Coach through Team Beachbody.  Welcome to my blog!  Something exciting happened today... "Black Friday" is coming early!!!  Several days early, so it is not like that irritating, right-in-the-middle-of-family-dinner-early" where everyone is inconvenienced and we lose the meaning of the Thanksgiving holiday!  :)

So, how early are we talking??  The Team Beachbody sales are set to go live by 8 PM EST on Tuesday, November 24th!  UPDATE: Sale is LIVE as of 1:30 this afternoon! They will run through Tuesday, December 2nd.  BUT, MANY OF THESE ITEMS WILL SELL OUT QUICKLY!!!!  So we are going to want to be on top of this if something from the list below appeals to you!  Let me know that you want to be in the loop and we will take a couple of steps right now to make sure that you get the breaking news and are positioned to snag your favorites the moment they become available!  Please contact me and I am glad to help you with getting started.  This is about so much more than "selling you some program".  I have seen tremendous life changes myself these past 14 months as I continue to move forward in my own health transformation.  We reach the point where it is just time to make a change. It was when my fear of staying the same (or worse!) became stronger than my fear of the potential discomfort of lifestyle change that IT HAPPENED.  I resolved to learn what I could and put in the effort and now here I am a year later, 50+ pounds less, nearly as many cholesterol points less and SO much stronger, more energetic and feeling good about life.  You could do this yourself!  I will show you the way to take!

Back to the sales... I am going to share two images below!  The first is everything listed from Beachbody corporate.  The second is my own personal promotion!  Check out the timing of each type of sale.  We have lots happening this week!

I had thought about listing the details of the above items here within the blog.  But it would have become a very lengthy entry!  You can go to my web page to learn more about these programs.  OR you can also contact me and I am more than happy to send you everything that I have on the programs that are of interest to you!

Once we figure out which program would be best for you, we can take a look at getting you connected with one of my challenge groups!  For more details on challenge groups, check out this blog entry of mine. 

I know that not everyone is looking to lose lots of weight. EVERYONE that I talk with wants to have more ENERGY. We want to be happy with our choices and know that we are making proper investments by being proactive with our own health. I am so thankful with how I have been able to turn my own life around and I love that I am able to now help others as we tackle these things together!

Here is what you can expect with me as your coach:

- Convenience of Home Workouts that are Cutting Edge and Deliver RESULTS!

- Accountability and Camaraderie of a Challenge Group (secret "FB" group where you check in daily at your own convenience)

- Personalized Support from your Coach!!

- Easy to Follow Meal Plans 

- Unmatched Nutrition of Shakeology (14 months later and I still look forward to mine every day!)

Change in Plans: Prepping for Insanity Max 30!

 

Good morning!  Today is Saturday and that means some meal planning and setting my focus on my workout plan for the upcoming week.  It is time to change things up this week!  For the past two months I have been LOVING a hybrid of ChaLEAN Extreme and PiYo.  I lift weights three days per week and get the strength and flexibility training of PiYo on the other three or four days of the week.  Tomorrow will be my final workout of the 30 day "Push" phase of Chalean Extreme.  It has been a month of lifting heavy and doing just 8 slow reps before reaching "failure", resting 10 seconds and then adding in 3 more reps.  I can see and feel some exciting changes to my level of strength and my physique.

 

 

When I wake up feeling so tight from lifting the day before, PiYo is the PERFECT remedy!  I have been doing PiYo regularly for the past 5 months now and it is still a great challenge.  You can do this seemingly simple program long-term and will continue to plumb the depths of your own flexibility and strength!  This PiYo/ChaLEAN Extreme combo is one that I will certainly return to at some point in the future.

 

We are 10 days from the launch of Insanity Max 30 and I am ready to switch things up and go all-in with this intense program.  It is going to be more cardio than what I have been doing lately.  No doubt, lifting heavy and working through the challenging PiYo flows involve a cardio aspect!  My heart rate is up and I am sweating.  But in my mind it does not "feel" like cardio.  I know that a big part of my success with Max 30 is going to involve getting my thoughts in place so that I will have the stamina to push my body to "max out" as the program has been designed.  Traditional cardio is just not my go-to thing!

As I continue on in my own health transformation and fitness journey, making this switch is a logical next step.  It is time!  As I think about beginning Max 30 on December 8th, I decided to put together my own workout schedule as I prepare these next two weeks.  Time to bring out the 21 Day Fix!  The Fix includes three focused cardio workouts and they are going to be in my weekly rotation.  I will continue with some PiYo as well.  :)  Side note: I am very thankful to own a variety of programs so that I can switch things up and pull from my collection along the way!  Insanity Max 30 will be a great complement to my ChaLEAN Extreme, 21 Day Fix and PiYo.  We have to continue to change things up and challenge ourselves in order to not plateau physically and mentally with our current workout program. 

I have been following the PiYo meal plan for the past 5 months.  Max 30 is designed in a way that you can incorporate the color-coded containers and categories that were created for the 21 Day Fix.  I had done 21 Day Fix meal planning March - June.  So as I sat down to put together a plan for the upcoming week, I decided to pull out a 21 Day Fix plan that I had used back in April.  I plug in my weekly workout plan at the top.  I just tweaked a few things and this one was ready to go for the week.  See that photo at the top of this blog entry.  I am also going to give myself a little "reality check" this week and will pull out my 21 Day Fix color-coded portion containers.  Time to make sure that I am still on track with how I have been eye-balling my portions.  I am going to pick up a few types of nuts and will pre-portion them into snack bags as part of my meal prep. Nuts are my weakness!  If I do not plan carefully with them, I will easily eat way too many of them!  70-80% of our results come from our nutrition rather than our exercise.  So the bottom line is that we have to "do our best" with our food choices if we really want to see progress!  The 21 Day Fix offers a fool-proof plan to help us figure out this entire area.  :)  I am thankful to have it is a part of my tool set.  Just let me know if anything that I have mentioned in this blog entry is of interest to you!  I would be glad to help you with reaching your own goals!

Honey Pecan Granola

Hello!  Welcome to my blog!  This entry is all about the homemade granola!  This stuff is sooooo good.  You seriously have to try it!  I had been curious about homemade granola but had never attempted it.  One of my favorite snacks is plain Greek yogurt with some granola on top.  At the end of October, my friend Tara brought me a sample of some granola that she had made.  She knows me well and figured that I would love it!  I did.  And it came at perfect timing.  Sometimes life just goes like that... I had been at the grocery store two days prior and decided to wait on picking up more of our favorite honey granola.  We had a little bit left at home and I just didn't feel like shelling out the extra $ for more granola during that particular Wegmans trip!  We began eating clean in September 2013.  There are some things that we just do not buy anymore.  Many varieties of granola contain a substantial amount of sugar.  My family enjoys granola and we go through a fair amount of it!  Here is a blog entry that I put together on the big difference that we have seen in our made-over yogurt berry trifle.  

So my friend brought me this sample of granola and sent me the link to the recipe.  I made it for the first time a couple of days later.  I remember that it was on Halloween!  I was determined to not eat any of the kids' candy and knew that I would be successful if I could grab a handful of granola here and there.  We pulled up the recipe and my 5 year old son set to work on the project.  We have now made quite a few batches of this stuff!  We typically make a double batch twice per week.  I now have the recipe memorized and can put it together quickly.  My little guy deeply enjoys making granola with me and he oftentimes assembles the ingredients himself!  I have had SO MANY requests for the recipe and I am not always able to quickly locate that original link.  So I decided to go ahead and blog it myself this evening!

This recipe uses nearly all of my favorite kitchen tools, which I had featured in a blog entry earlier this week.   

I am asked about coconut oil on a regular basis and so I wanted to include it in the granola photo collage!  I buy this at Sam's Club.  The cost of coconut oil is SIGNIFICANTLY less at Sam's Club.  No matter where you shop, look for the coconut oil to be cold-pressed.  

We have been using raw honey for the past year and I find this favorite of ours at Wegmans.  It is located in the organic Nature's Marketplace section.  The stuff that comes in the little squeezy bear bottle just does not hold a candle to this type of honey! 

Our version of the granola recipe very closely resembles the original which my friend had discovered and sent to me - you can check it out here.

Honey Pecan Granola

• 2 cups old fashioned oats (not instant)
• 3/4 cup chopped pecans
• 1 1/2 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 1 1/2 tablespoons coconut oil
• 3 tablespoons raw honey
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• Pinch of salt

Directions

1. Heat oven to 350.
2. Use a glass bowl to combine butter, coconut oil and raw honey with vanilla extract, cinnamon and the pinch of salt.  Melt in the microwave. (You may also use a pan on the stove-top for this step.)  
3. Add in the chopped pecans and oats.  Stir until the oats and pecans are well coated and glistening.
4. Transfer granola to a stoneware large bar pan and spread evenly.
5. Bake for 8 minutes and then STIR granola thoroughly.  Place back in the oven for 6-7 minutes and keep a close eye on your granola.  You want it to barely, hardly-at-all begin to brown.  DO NOT BURN your granola!!!  You do NOT want to it become a golden brown in your oven! 16 minutes seems to be my usual total cooking time here.
6. Transfer pan to a cooling rack and let granola cool completely. Stir it a couple of times and you will "hear" it begin to "sound" like granola.  When it first comes out of the oven the oats are not yet crisp.  They will still just look like regular oats.  They become much more granola-like as they cool!  
7. Store cooled granola in an airtight container.  It is not likely that you will have this sitting around for very long.  It is that good!  I usually make a double batch and use two of my Bar Pans to bake it all at the same time. A double batch can be mixed up in the Large Batter Bowl.   

Feeling Brave: Insanity Max 30

Hello!  Welcome to my blog!  Today I am here to share some details on Beachbody's NEWEST program!!  Insanity Max 30 will be released on Tuesday, December 2nd!  The infamous Shaun T is the trainer behind this program.  He is the creator of Insanity and T25.  This will be my first workout with him!  I began my own health transformation with ChaLEAN Extreme, then moved on to the 21 Day Fix and PiYo.  For the past two months I have been truly enjoying a hybrid schedule that involves ChaLEAN Extreme and PiYo.  

TIME to change things up around here!!!  I will be the first to say that it was in a moment of courage that I decided I would absolutely go ahead and commit myself to DOING Max 30 myself.  It is waaaayyyyy out of my comfort zone to be doing this much extreme cardio.  But I know that I need it!  I have plateaued with my own progress and it is time to pick up the pace in that area.  I do not have any physical limitations and it is time to dig deep and see what I am capable of in this area!  So here we go!!!

Oh this is bound to be helpful!  An option to see the modifier all of the time.  Nice!!!  Although I do not have any old injuries or troubles that are reason to not push myself in my workouts, I do have very FLAT feet.  Extremely flat.  They can not take endless jumping.  So there may be times that I follow the modifier who does everything low impact.  I will be using my fantastic Beachbody Jump Mat along with a pair of supportive sneakers.

 

Yesterday I had the opportunity to sit down and chat with our lead coach Melanie Mitro who is currently in the Max 30 test group with Shaun T!!  They are currently two weeks into this and she said that the results that she is seeing posted even after just two weeks are pretty incredible!!   Melanie shared that this workout is really hard but awesome.  Plenty of it is physical (of course!!) but it is also mental as well!  I have heard that our body will only go where our mind will allow it.  So I am honestly gearing myself up now to begin this program in a couple of weeks!  The workout are each 30 minutes in length and the idea is not to just "get through" the workout but to push yourself to where you "max out" and have to take a break and then come back to it a few seconds  later!  Check out the Max 30 official preview via this YouTube video.

My Top 5 Kitchen Tools!!

Good evening!  Welcome to my blog!  My name is Jeanette Paradis.  I am writing this entry to share my own top 5 favorite kitchen tools.  Plus a couple of bonus items!  :)

As I gathered my favorite items to photograph this evening, I realized something... they are ALL Pampered Chef items!  I was a consultant from early 2008 through 2011.  My daughter stopped napping somewhere in there and I was about to take over leading our local MOPS (Mothers of Preschoolers) group and something had to give!  So I wrapped up my consultant years and came away with some great friendships and a kitchen stocked FULL of excellent tools that I have used on a daily basis ever since!

I began cooking MUCH differently in September of 2013.  During my Pampered Chef era, many of my recipes were based on crescent rolls that came out of a tube!  You sure can do a lost of tasty things with that item.  However, the crescent rolls tube is no longer to be found in my kitchen!  We are much more into "whole foods" and clean eating these days!  I became a Team Beachbody coach in March of 2014.  I do appreciate my favorite tools just as much as ever as I now spend plenty of quality time in my kitchen.  

Here we go!  My Top 5 favorite Kitchen Tools:

   

Oh how I love my stoneware!!!  I use this 15.5x10 Large Bar Pan ALL THE TIME!  I also use my 9x13 baker and Deep Dish 9" pie plate on a regular basis.  I so appreciate that stoneware bakes so evenly, is easy to clean and requires no surface prep for the majority of what I bake on it.  Everything from roasting veggies to baking an apple pie, stoneware is the best!  

My Batter Bowls!!!  Three cheers for these two!  They also have lids.  :)  But what I appreciate the most about them is the fact that I can hold on to the handle while mixing.  I also LOVE the pour spout!  It is so easy to scrape the contoured sides of these bowls.  My five year old son cooks with me on a regular basis and my Batter Bowls are so helpful for him!  See this bowl in action from an evening where we were making Pumpkin Pecan Chocolate Chip Cookies.

I use this pot so very often!  It is SO convenient to begin a recipe on the stove-top and then have the ability to transition the entire pot right to the oven!  I make soup on a regular basis and this pot is perfect for that endeavor!  Here is a day where we made more soup than ever!  This blog entry also links to a favorite soup recipe of ours, which is actually found on my sister's blog!  Check out Soup times 16!! 

 

The Food Chopper!!  This may be one of the first Pampered Chef classics!!  This thing is fantastic!  We use it most often for nuts when making our favorite granola recipe.  I also use my Food Chopper for onions and other veggies.  See the entire product description here.

 

Do you have one of these spatula scrapers in your own kitchen?  I use the large and medium scrapers to mix and then scrape the Batter Bowl soooooo easily!  These things are super-durable!  They can also be used when cooking on the stove-top.  Mine have withstood some heavy-duty usage and I would be lost without them!

Okay... so we did already have my Top 5 items listed above!  So this is your bonus!  I am such a fan of these Stackable Cooling Racks and my Stainless Scoops!  The medium scoop is 2 tablespoons and I use it EVERY time I make cookies.  The cooling racks have legs that collapse and you can also stack them!  I so appreciate the grid design and how that offers much better support of warm cookies as opposed to a standard rack that just has skinny little rows.  Now the holiday baking can begin!! 

 

 

 

Day 45 of 90 ChaLEAN Extreme/PiYo Hybrid - Day 420 Total

Hello!  Welcome to my blog!  My name is Jeanette Paradis.  I am a Diamond Coach with Team Beachbody.  I am writing this entry to recap my progress as I am now halfway into my 90 Days of a ChaLEAN Extreme/PiYo hybrid schedule.  I was looking at the calendar this morning and did some math... Today is my own DAY 420 since having begun my health transformation back on September 16, 2013.  I began with ChaLEAN Extreme, Clean Eating, Shakeology while getting a solid start in a "Challenge Group" where my youngest sister Rachel was the coach.  I have been active in a challenge group EVERY day since and I believe that this has been a huge key to my own success.  A challenge group is a secret Facebook group where we encourage and equip one another while providing inspiration and accountability.  I became a coach myself in March 2014 and I so enjoy helping others as they make their own changes to become more healthy!

I did ChaLEAN Extreme my first five months and then moved on to the 21 Day Fix for four months.  Up next was PiYo for three months and then I started my current 90 Day Hybrid of ChaLEAN Extreme and PiYo.  So, what will be next for me?  Ummm.... I am going to be BRAVE and totally shift gears to Insanity Max 30 when it is released in December.  AAAHHHH!!!!  That is going to be a good challenge for me!  I will continue to push myself in my current workouts this coming month as I prepare to take the plunge with an extreme program!

ChaLEAN Extreme is split into three phases that are each 30 days in length.  The phases are Burn, Push and Lean.  I am currently in the middle of Push.  Each phase involves three different days each week of lifting weights during workouts that average 32-35 minutes in length.  The Lean phase does have a longer day somewhere in there.  The tracker sheet pictured below is what I use to record the size of weight that I am using each time.  The + or = indicates whether I should keep that weight the same next week or if I am ready to bump up to the next size?  This morning I did a bit of digging and I pulled out my tracker sheet from when I began the Burn phase for the very first time back in September of 2013.  It was interesting to compare that to where I am this time around as I recently completed the Burn phase of September/October 2014.   

On the days that are not my "lifting" days with ChaLEAN Extreme, I do one of the PiYo workouts.  This means three days of lifting each week and three or four days of flexibility and strength with PiYo.  I was SO hooked on how PiYo felt and the amazing results that I had while doing it over the summer that I was not ready to move beyond it just yet!  As an intrinsically klutzy person, I am blown away with how much my balance has improved through PiYo.  As a mom of two young kids, I am constantly up and down and put into all sorts of positions all day long.  I can now glide through so many things that used to feel awkward.  It is hard to describe but I love it!  See "Finding Balance through PiYo".

So, what am I doing for my health when I am not working out?  My workouts only take 30 or so minutes of my day!  You may have heard that results are made up of 80% nutrition and 20% fitness.  Meaning that if we work out well but eat junk, we are not really going to go anywhere.  The converse is also true.  Even if you have something that keeps you from working out in a traditional manner, you can still become quite healthy and make big changes through eating clean!  I have a free 5 Day "Make the Most of Today" clean eating group beginning on Monday, November 10th.  You are invited to join me!  

Looking back to this most recent phase in my health transformation, I find quite a range that makes up my past 45 days!  Late September and the first half of October were tricky in my world.  More on that here.  As the past three weeks, I have been very aware and right back on track with my nutrition and am satisfied with my own efforts.  I have printed out my nutrition tracker sheets and have completed them each day of the past three weeks.  My jeans are no longer feeling snug and I am no longer feeling as though I had lost some ground for the first time since having begun nearly 14 months ago.  So today was interesting... I stepped on the scale for the first time in a while.  I am up a few pounds from where I had last measured progress on Day 370.  That was 50 days ago.  Remembering how first there were my three rough weeks of the year but the past three weeks have been spot-on, it could have been easy to become discouraged by the scale.  But let's take a look at a few other areas. My clothes are fitting the same as they did in mid-September.  We did my measurements this morning and it was interesting to compare with 50 days ago... everything was the SAME.  Except my thighs have actually lost an inch and my calves have lost a 1/2 inch.  So I am not going to let the scale discourage me!  I had three weeks where life was crazy.  Then three weeks where I have been right back on my game.  I am building more and more muscle and we know there is a discrepancy between the space/weight of muscle and fat.  Plus this also serves as a great reminder of how it takes time to get back to where you once were.  Sometime in the next few weeks I will be doing our 3-Day Refresh program for a great cleanse and boost as we move forward into this holiday season.  And there is something that I remind myself of often...       

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Health, Hormones and Pregnancy??

First, I am NOT pregnant.  Let's just get that out there and settled right now!  My children are ages 5 and 7.  Both arrived via c-section.  The 2nd time around was a planned c-section and I had my tubes tied that day.  Okay, now that we have hopefully cut off any rumors, let's get into this topic!

I have been thinking about this for months but wasn't sure where to go with it?  This is kind of an odd topic for a blog entry.  I realize this!  :)  But I think that it could be helpful to some people and so I wanted to share.  First I am going to tell a bit of my own story and then expand from there!

I began my health transformation in September of 2013.  I was about 75 pounds overweight at that point in time.  I had not always been that overweight, but after having both of the kids and no longer working a more physical job with horses as I had for years...  well, one thing just led to another and before I knew it, there I was wearing the biggest size that I had ever been!  Yikes!  I still have about 20 pounds to go, but have made some strong progress this past year.  The adventure continues!!  You are invited to join me! 

And now we are going to get personal and hopefully not TMI for you!  For ALL of my life (since age 12!), my cycle was NOT regular.  At all.  I was usually at least 34-40 days and would range right up to 65+ days.  I did not have any recognizable issues and just chalked it up as my regular/irregular.  Annual exams were fine and this all just seemed to be my own "normal".  My periods were dreadful at times, in regards to flow and great discomfort.  Thankfully, it was not difficult for me to conceive, as I had learned to track my ovulation patterns and was self-aware in this area after having done some homework on the topic!

Fast forward to October 2013.  September 16, 2013 had been my own "Day 1" in transforming my health by changing my fitness and nutrition.  I began drinking Shakeology  daily, eating clean, doing 30 minute at home workouts and checking in with my secret FB group challenge group.  Here is more info on how it all works.  I was SHOCKED in October to have a 28 day cycle for the first time in my life.  And guess what???  I have now been at a regular 27-29 days for the past 12 months!!!!!!  What!?!?  After 23 years of irregular cycles, I was suddenly regulated??  I mean, I realize that I was going into this 75 pounds overweight.  But it didn't all come off that first month or anything!  My cycles had been irregular back when I was "only" 30 pounds overweight in my early-mid 20's.  These days my periods have become so much more manageable than they had ever been in the past. This whole area is just another reminder to me that when we are good to our bodies, we are going to see some changes, experience others and who even knows how much good we are doing internally?  Pretty amazing that this is all possible!

Okay, now for the pregnancy part.  I know of FIVE women on my team who have been in challenge groups with me and are now expecting!  Not all of them were "planning/trying" for this by any means.  And a challenger in one of my groups who just completed her first round of the 21 Day Fix with some fantastic results jokingly commented yesterday that she knows of five friends who have become pregnant after doing the Fix.  Here is a description of the 21 Day Fix.  Only one of her friends overlap with my own list of five.  So, that is 9 women who are now expecting after making some changes to their nutrition and fitness??  Many of these girls began their own Day 1 looking to lose 5-30 pounds on their own journey.  These are not a bunch of women who were all in the "needing to drop 75 pounds" category along with me!  This illustrates to me the power we have available by making a few adjustments to what we are putting into our bodies while really boosting our nutrition and adding some daily exercise.  

I am NOT a medical professional and I know that there are a myriad of complex issues that affect our hormones and fertility.  You could be the most healthy, proactive, self-aware woman in the world and still be dealing with heartbreaking challenges in this area.  This is one of life's big, hard mysteries.  I know that "getting healthy" can go a long way but it is just the tip of the iceberg in some situations!  So I am not trying to simplify all of this and make a blanket statement of judgment call for anyone.  Please understand that!  What I did want to share is my own experience and what I am seeing in the lives of those in my challenge groups!  :)  If any of this piques your interest, let's talk!