Do you crave sweets often???

I am a sweet lover by nature.  Actually that's probably not an accurate description.  I am a chocoholic! Dark chocolate, of course, is my fav.   I also have a very strong addiction to ice cream!  Put them together and I'm in heaven!  I really love almost anything sweet so this time of year always kills me.  Halloween candy is the worse!  I have 3 children so of course there is Halloween candy here.  And it's already started.  My middle son is having a birthday party tomorrow so of course I had to get candy to fill the goodie bags because what's a goodie bag if it doesn't have some candy in it, right!?  So there has been Twix bars and M&Ms starting at me for a week. 

Here's the thing, I have had people tell me, "just eat it!"  And I've even seen people's comments about how life is short so you should enjoy that extra dessert or whatever other unhealthy food it is.  I don't completely disagree with this. Life is short and you should definitely enjoy it to the fullest.  Make no mistake, I do enjoy life, everyday!  I love my life, even when I don't always like it.  But if I ate sweets every time I craved them or any of the other foods I like to indulge in now and then, if I did this all the time, well frankly I would likely be cutting my life span down.  I mean really, you can't eat cakes and cookies everyday and expect to be healthy.  You can't eat pizza, beer and burgers everyday and expect to have the energy to get things done.  You can't live on French fries and fried chicken and expect to feel good.  As I learned from Cookie Monster, while watching Sesame street with my daughter, cookies are a sometimes food.  And I do enjoy them sometimes, and honestly probably more often than I should. 

The good news is, that there are lots of healthy alternatives to all those yummy foods that we all crave.  So today, I thought I would share one of my alternatives for when I get that sweet craving.

Here is my recipe for Greek Yogurt Parfait (what I add to changes depending on what I have in the house that day)  Today I put in:

Non fat Plain greek yogurt ( I use Fage')
1/2 Tbsp of Chocolate Shakeology
1 tsp Honey
Almond slices
Raspberries
1 tsp PB2
Sprinkled with some Chia seeds

So yummy and so much healthier than that Twix! 

What's your vision?

So, I've been thinking a lot lately about vision and goals.  And I've learned a few things about having goals and obtaining those goals.  So here is my best advice, and this can apply to your health and fitness goals and/or any other goals you have in life.

The first thing you need to do, is get a notepad (no, seriously, right now, get up and go get a notepad and a pen) and a pen.  Now, I want you to think about how you would like to see yourself, your life in one month, six months and a year from now.  Think about all aspects of your life:  health/fitness, marriage, job, finances, parenting, etc.  This exercise can be applied in any area of life. 
Now, I want you to write down your top 5 goals/visions.
And now, we are going to take that one step further.  I want you to close your eyes and envision yourself already having achieved these goals.  I mean really picture yourself 10 pounds lighter, with that promotion, walking hand in hand with your spouse. Whatever it is, I want you to actually see yourself already there.  Finally, I want you take this notepad and put it next to your bed.  Every morning this week, as soon as you wake up, before you check Facebook, I want you to grab that notepad and read those goals.  But not just read them, envision yourself already having accomplished them again.  EVERY DAY!!! 
I want you to do this every day this week and then on Saturday morning I want you to report to me if any changes were made this week.  Now, I'm not telling you that you are magically going to lose that 10 pounds this week by merely envisioning your goals.  But what I believe will happen is that you will start making a conscious effort to make some change in your life that will set you on the path to achieving your goals. 
See, what happens is that we get so involved with life that we forget the things that we really want, the changes we want to make in our lives.  We forget that we are the only ones that can change our fate.  That's why starting your morning EVERY DAY reminding yourself of what it is that YOU want will help you to get started to making those changes.  And having a positive mindset helps set you on the right path.  So stop making excuses for why you don't have the things you want and start making changes to get them.  Stop putting the blame on everyone else. or on circumstances.  There is always someone who was worse off than you that was able to overcome it and move on and be successful.  YOU CAN TOO!!

"The thing that prevents you from getting anything you want is your story of why you don't have it."
Tony Robbins

#motivationmonday

Body image

I want to share some of my personal struggles with self image/ body image.  I often get the statement/question, "why do you workout, why do you need to watch what you eat?  You're already skinny."  This question has always driven me crazy, the reasons why have changed over the years. 
It use to drive me crazy because I thought these people were crazy because I never felt "skinny" enough.  I have had issues with body image since I was in seventh grade.  That's when my body started changing and people started to take notice.  I was often called "big butt" and "flat chested,"  two things that you didn't want to be called when you were 13 years old, things that stuck with me for a very long time.  It was usually my friends and family saying these things and I know they weren't trying to hurt my feelings and they certainly had no idea the profound affect it would have on me but it did.  So as a teenager, even though I was a petite, "skinny" girl, I never felt confident.  That lack of confidence stuck with me into my twenties. 

I hit a low point in my mid twenties where I was very unhappy with my life and began trying to take control of in a very unhealthy way.  I wanted to lose weight, even though I was a healthy, 110 pounds at 5'3.  I decided to stop eating and began living on black coffee (lots of it), goldfish and cigarettes  ( Sounds healthy, right?!)  Fortunately for me, I soon met my wonderful soon to be husband, who must have been crazy for wanting to get involved with someone like me.  But God always knows what he's doing!  We quickly got married and pregnant with my first son.  At this time, I was starting to eat a little more but not making healthy choices.  I ended up anemic, during my pregnancy, passing out while driving down the expressway.  Once again, Thank you God!  It really wasn't until I got pregnant with my second son, that I started making a point to eat healthier.  It was when he was almost one, right after the sudden loss of my mother, that I began running.  So, at this point, I am starting to get healthier, exercising more regular but still not loving my body. 

Here's the thing, it has taken me 38 years and three kids, to finally start accepting and loving my body.  I think the reason is because I work hard for this body, I make healthy food choices (most of the time) and I FEEL good.  There are still days where I think, if only my booty was a little firmer, I could really do without all this extra momma skin.  lol  But I quickly block those thoughts out of my head because I am realizing that there is a lot more to me than my body.  And I earned that extra skin, I carried three babies in my womb!  More importantly, having a daughter and even 2 sons, I do NOT want my kiddos to grow up thinking the way I did.  I HAVE to set a good example!  I want my daughter to love herself for who she is on the inside!  I want my sons to realize that there is more to a woman than what she looks like on the outside. 

So, my goal as a health and fitness coach is NOT about trying to get others to get to a certain size or weight.  I do not want to promote trying to look like someone else. I don't want people to look at me and think that that's the way they need to look.  What I DO WANT is to show people how to get healthy and that healthy can look different on different people.  People who tell me I'm too skinny now, are wrong, because this is what healthy looks like on ME.  My goal is to help people FEEL better! 

My first post!

So, I will start with why I decided to start a blog, something I've never been particularly good at keeping up with. 
First of all, I am a health and fitness coach with Beachbody.  I love my job!  I get to help and inspire others to reach their health and fitness goals.  I have been into health and fitness for probably the last 10 years.  I started getting into when I randomly decided to become a "runner" about 10 years ago.  I am a competitive person by nature, mostly with myself.  So when I decided to start running and could barely run down the street without gasping for air, I knew I had to change some things in my life and study on how I could get this running thing down.  Now, I never became a super fast runner, partly because I am only 5'3 and all torso, but I was able to run several mini-marathons and even one full marathon in the past 10 years.  I also competed in a couple of small triathlons.  As a competitive person, I was always trying to beat my last time, always out to set a new PR.  So, I had to learn a little about nutrition because that definitely plays a big role in running success.

When I became pregnant with my 3rd child in 2012, I stopped running due to health reasons.  So after I had my beautiful daughter, I couldn't wait to start running again.  But, it wouldn't be so easy.  I was so discouraged every time I went out to run, because I just could never find my groove.  I was also having a hard time losing the last bit of "baby weight."  At 36 years old, it wasn't as easy to drop those pounds as it was with my first two babies.  So, that's when I decided to try something else and purchased my first Beachbody workout, the 21 day fix!  Loved it and lost the rest of my weight in those 21 days (8pounds).  Now, I've never been an overweight woman, but I've always been active and did some sort of exercise.  I certainly haven't always been healthy either.  There was definitely a time in my life where I was very unhealthy due to making very poor choses in what I ate (or didn't eat).  But Beachbody taught me how to eat the right foods and how much food to eat.  It made it so easy.  In January of 2015, I joined my first challenge group on FB.  The results I got after that challenge group kept me wanting to do more.  The group kept me motivated and held me accountable.  I stopped making excuses for why I couldn't work out or eat healthy.  I felt so good, that I decided I wanted to help others feel this same way.  So, I became a Beachbody coach. 

As a coach, I am no expert but I am always learning.  I love to learn new exercises and recipes that taste great and are good for you.  I always have health and fitness on my mind which brings me to why I decided to start a blog.  I am always having these thoughts bouncing around in my head so I figured maybe I should write them down.  Maybe, just maybe one or some of these thoughts may help or inspire someone else.  Who knows!?  At least, that is my hope!
 
"I want to inspire people....I want someone to look at me and say
Because of you I didn't give up."