Preparing for a Healthy Holiday

Preparing for a Healthy Holiday

Thanksgiving is upon us. For most American households, that means turkey, stuffing, gray, mashed potatos, and pumpkin pie...all in copious amounts. 

And leftovers. Lots and lots of leftovers.

And napping on the couch. 

And more leftovers.

Add to that the tendency to stay inside during colder weather and it's not surprise that our jeans start to fit a little tighter this time of year.

Let's make a #YearEndResolution to avoid that weight gain this year.

Can you commit to these 3 things?

1. Drink more water, fewer sugary drinks and alcohol. According to WebMD, you should drink about an ounce of water for every pound you weigh (WebMD, 2015).
2. Load up on the veggies. Daily serving recommendations vary, but your body will benefit from more fruits and veggies (not the processed kind). And the more veggies on your plate, the less of the high-calorie/low-nutrition foods you'll eat.
3. Take a brisk 30 minute walk each day. Do it first thing in the morning, over lunch, or after dinner. Whatever fits your schedule, but just get it in. Can't spare 30 minutes? Then just do 20, 10, even 5. Just move!
4. Do a Turkey Trot! Sign up for an organized race that you and your family can run/walk together or just do three miles in your own neighborhood. 
5. Practice gratitude. I know. It doesn't seem to have much to do with health and fitness. But really, it does. The more we practice gratitude, the less we stress about the small stuff and the happier we are. Lower stress and increased happiness are as key to health and fitness as nutrition and exercise. So, go ahead and count your blessings each morning and each night.

References

WebMD. (2015). Water and your diet: Staying slim and regular with H2O. Retrieved from http://www.webmd.com/diet/water-for-weight-loss-diet?page=2.

Weekly Meal Prep to Save Time, Money, and Health

My Sunday Meal Prep.

For just $55 a week, you can eat healthy, have more energy, and lose weight. Here's how it works for me:

$30 worth of ingredients (plus my lemon water to enjoy while I cook)

Olive oil + chicken seasoning (I like a LOT of seasoning)

Green beans with olive oil, salt, pepper, and garlic.

Two cups of Jasmine rice

I bake 2 sweet potatoes with my chicken

Brussels Sprouts with olive oil, salt and pepper
I have to cook them after the green beans because I don't have enough pots to cook in.

Pork chops in crock pot with some Sofrito, Adobo, and Sazon

Lemon slices for my daily morning lemon water - kick start your metabolism and detox a bit

Shakeology for my daily breakfast - I've got frozen dark cherries, peaches, and blueberries to add for flavor variety. This is what I call my healthiest meal of the day. It's packed with superfoods and nutrients without artificial ingredients.

13 meal varieties prepped for the week - the last 5 just waiting on some pork chops

Took me just over an hour to cook, package, and clean up (except the pork chops that will cook throughout the day)

Do you have one hour and $55 a week? 

That's what this week's worth of breakfasts, lunches, and dinners cost me. $55. Less than $8 a day.

Here's how it breaks down.

Shakeology. This is my breakfast each day. Plus I get way more than 30 days out of it, so once or twice a week I will have a second shake for lunch. One 30-day bag of Shakeology costs me $104.74 (with my coach discount, includes shipping). That breaks down to about $24.50 a week or $3.50 a day. 

The ingredients I used for my lunches and dinners (chicken, pork chops, green beans, brussels sprouts, sweet potatoes, frozen veggies, lemon, and jasmine rice) cost less than $30 which breaks down to about $4.24 a day. 

So, in one month, I'll spend around $220 for my meals. The average American  I'm eating healthier than ever and spending less than I used to on prepacked, processed foods and eating out. Just $7.75 a day for 3 healthy, delicious meals. 

$7.75 a day. Seriously, I would spend that on one fast food meal filled with fat, grease, and questionable ingredients. 

21 Day Fitness Transformation Group Starting Soon!

I'M LOOKING FOR 10 LADIES that want to completely TRANSFORM and tone their bodies. And you don't even need to leave your house!! Sounds AMAZING...right?
Commit to just 30 minutes a day for 21 days. We'll eat clean and tone our bodies. NO counting calories! NO counting points! NO starving yourself! We'll focus on EATING CLEAN for maximum results!
All workouts are done in the comfort of your own home on your own time. You'll have ME as your personal coach...walking you through every step of the program on a daily basis!
If you can commit to changing your life...and making this holiday season your healthiest yet.. I WANT TO HEAR FROM YOU!! I'm looking for 10 Ladies who are SERIOUS about changing their life… who want to get stronger...healthier...and feeling better than ever!

This program is NOT free...but includes:
-A complete 21 Day home workout kit with DVDs
-Custom clean eating meal plan designed for your challenge
-Portion control containers and shaker cup
-30 healthy meals! ~ A 30 day supply of Shakeology!
-Measuring tape to track all those inches lost
-ME as your personal coach
-Access to my private, lifetime support group
-A free 21 Day Fix T-shirt when you finish and send in your results!
-30 day trial to *Beachbody on Demand* - Stream $3000 worth of workout programs right from your phone, tablet, laptop, etc!

Please email at sunshinestrongbb@gmail.com if you would like to hear more details and I'll connect with you.  ... these groups fill fast and space is very limited!!

***Ask Me About The November Promotion!!***

One Simple Free Step Towards Health

Losing weight is hard. Getting healthy is hard. Staying motivated is hard.

It's harder when you try to do it alone.

In the United States today, more than 68% of adults are overweight. More than 35% are obese. Aside from the pain, shame, discomfort, and feelings of judgement that come with being overweight, there are very real life-threatening health concerns to consider. Heart disease. Stroke. Type 2 Diabetes. Certain types of cancer. These are among the preventable diseases associated with obesity. These diseases are among the leading causes of preventable death in the United States today (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2014).

Preventable. That's the word I want you to focus on. Death from these diseases is preventable. 

I want to help you prevent these diseases in your life. If you already have one or more of them, I want to help you reduce your risk. 

All you have to do right now is take one simple step. Sign up for a free Team Beachbody account with me. That's it. You don't have to commit to purchasing a program. You don't have to join one of my challenge groups. You don't have to do anything else right now except take that one simple, free step towards health. Just sign up here: http://bit.ly/1ujBM3S.

That's all it takes to get on the road to health. 

We'll worry about the rest later. For now, make a commitment to yourself and sign up. I'm looking forward to working with you.

References:

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2014). Adult obesity facts. Retrieved from http://www.cdc.gov/obesity/data/adult.html.

Lose Weight on Your List of New Years Resolutions?

Lose weight and improve fitness on your list of New Years Resolutions?

You could pay $50 a month plus a sign up fee for that gym membership you'll only use once or twice. I mean, we've all done it, right? 

OR, you could invest that money in a challenge pack that includes a fun and effective workout program you can do from the privacy of your own home, daily nutrition to help you beat cravings, support from a community of coaches invested in your success, a free t-shirt, AND a chance to win cash prizes. You won't get all of that from a gym membership.

Check out January's Challenge Pack promotions and message me for more information!
http://bit.ly/1xzYfds

Everything You Need To Lose Weight

What you get:

PiYo at-home fitness program
3-Day Refresh
1-Month Supply Shakeology (flavor of your choice)
Personalized Support
Access to Free Online Challenge Groups
Chance to Win Cash Prizes

Everything you need to lose weight and improve your health. 

Remember, summer bodies are made in winter. So let's kick this winter off right!

Click Here To Order Today!

The Perfect Program. Period.

The perfect program for runners. The perfect program for those seeking strength and flexibility. The perfect program for those needing low-impact (NO-impact) exercise. (It's like yoga, only better.)

The perfect program. Period.

Our online accountability and support group starts tomorrow. There's still time to join us!

Comment below or join on my Facebook page today: https://www.facebook.com/events/1510517262528210/

Fitness Tricks & Nutrition Treats!

Free Online Fit Challenge

Do you have an old Beachbody workout program collecting dust? Or maybe you saw an infomercial for Shaun T's new Max 30 program and want to challenge yourself. 

What better time to make your DVD player work for you and get back to fitness than the New Year?

Join our online Fit Challenge using any Beachbody program and we'll get fit together.

Get stronger. Get fitter. Get healthier. And have fun doing it.

By committing to our online Fit Challenge, you get...

Daily Fitness Schedule
Daily Nutrition
Support & Motivation
A Chance to Win Up to $100,000 in the Beachbody Challenge

Join the group by clicking here or email SunShineStrongBB@gmail.com for more information.

Need to order your program? Click here!

Finding Time For Fitness

90

That's how many hours a week I've been working over the last two months.

Add to that the cooking, cleaning, laundry, and grocery shopping I have to do. All of the animals, both mine and fosters, to care for. Plus football games every Friday and soccer games every Saturday and Sunday. Bills. Research. Friendships to be maintained.

It's all a bit overwhelming. Exhausting. Draining. 

At the end of the day, I just want to sleep. And it would be so easy to do. Just crawl into bed every night without giving a second thought to my health and fitness. Allow myself to fall out of shape and into poor health. So easy.

But the unhealthier you get, the harder it is to keep up with such an overwhelming schedule. So, I make the time. Just 10 minutes at the start of every day (really, 4am burpees suck more than 4pm burpees for some reason). And another 10 minutes at the end of every day. 

But how? HOW do I motivate myself to do this? Because I have to. No, not just for the sake of my health, but for the sake of my business. I have found that the single most amazing benefit from signing up to be a Beachbody Coach is that I HAVE to stay healthy and fit. My business relies on it. 

Interested yet? Find out more by clicking here.

Focusing on Body AND Mind

If you follow me regularly, you know I hold free online challenge groups each month. We focus on basic fitness moves or full fitness programs. Sometimes we just focus on defining and reaching our goals. I love running all of these groups, but I am particularly excited about the two groups I'm running this July.

Mind

I am a book junkie. And since becoming a Beachbody Coach, I have become a Personal Development book junkie. I can't even begin to explain all of the powerful ways that reading these books has changed my life. And often the information contained in their pages is not revolutionary. Most of it is really just common sense. But they are lessons and concepts that most of us, despite the very basic common sense behind them, do not apply in our daily lives. These books have a great power to change.

In July, we'll get started on Stephen Covey's The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. Click on the picture below to get started.

Body

I am also a yoga junkie. I LOVE yoga. So, I simply cannot wait for the release of Chalene Johnson's new program, PiYo. PiYo combines Pilates and Yoga and so much more for a phenomenal workout that will help you not only increase your strength, but also your flexibility. With it's low-impact design and modifications built in, it is perfect for all fitness levels. This is also HUGE for someone like me who loves to run and strength train. Even better? This program is low-cost. You can get this 60-day program for less than 2 months at the gym.

Interested? Click on the picture below to get started.

Finding Financial AND Physical Fitness

Are financial and physical fitness on your list of goals? With the launch of PiYO this month, I am looking for 4 people to work with to take on the massive surge in business that will happen starting in a few weeks. Fill out the application below and see if being a coach on our team is right for you.

Summer Vacation. Summer Chaos. Summer Workouts.

With summer here and all of my sons' friends fully mobile with their beat up cars and driver's licenses, my house is never empty.

I love this. I love having a constant flow of kids moving through my house. I love that they want to be here. I do.

BUT, this constant flow also means that I do not get the house to myself...ever. And the very open floor plan means that my workouts are on full display. 

It has taken me some time to get fully comfortable with this concept. I mean, the kids that come and go from my home are athletes. They are in what may be the best shape of their lives. I anticipated ridicule. Laughter. Pointing. Mean tweets. A few smirks, at the very least.

Here's what happens instead. They join me. Maybe not for the whole workout, but they join in. And they see how challenging these programs can be. And, more and more, I hear them doing the workouts even when I'm not. Seriously. There are times when I have a basement filled with teenage football or soccer players doing some Les Mills Combat. 

These are kids that whine and complain about summer two-a-days and suicides and Saturday soccer practices. And here they are spending their down time doing High Intensity Interval Training. By choice. 

It is, in a word, awesome.

So, all you moms and dads out there, don't let the chaos of summer vacation throw you off your game. Keep getting those workouts in, kids or no kids. 

You Want Results? Go Get Them!

You want results? You've got to go get them. True.

And if you want help getting those results, you've got to get signed up with me. (Seriously, it's free and I'm all about commitment, accountability, and motivation, so sign up here.)

Even better than getting me as your coach...for free? Getting Les Mills Combat for next to nothing.

No, really. For less than you would spend on a month's gym membership, you get a 60-day program that you can do from the privacy of your own home, complete with an online support group and ME as your free coach.

This is one of my all-time favorite programs that I go back to over and over to help me continue to build:

strength

stamina

confidence

power

and a lean, toned body (which is really kinda nice this time of year...)

But you have to hurry! This sale ends June 9th and other programs are already selling out. Order here!

Power 90 In-Home Boot Camp Challenge Group

New Power 90 In-Home Boot Camp starting soon. This is a perfect program for those getting started with fitness. You can achieve great results in this 90 program, but it is also perfect for beginners.

If you'd like to join us in our upcoming fitness support group or just want to know more, complete the form below and I will follow up with you!

Spring Clean Inside & Out

Whether you're hoping to lose some extra weight or simply reset your body, consider joining me for an Ultimate Reset.

It's the time of year when I begin to get that itch to throw open the doors and clean my house inside and out. That itch generally lasts through the first room or two and then I just get tired and want to take a nap. Seriously, why does my family turn into a bunch of hoarders every winter???

So this year I'm taking a different approach. I'm going to start by cleansing my body of all the toxins, chemicals, and processed foods I've built up over the winter. (And believe me, I've built up quite a bit of them...because I'm pretty sure I'm part bear and I will eat whatever is put in front of me when the weather is cold.) 

I did the Ultimate Reset last summer and had phenomenal results. I didn't have a lot of weight to lose, but I did manage to drop those last few extra pounds anyway. More than that, I FELT amazing. I LOOKED amazing. I WAS amazing.

So, it's time I felt amazing again. Maybe then I can get through spring cleaning my house without the urge to just nap. 

It takes 21 days. That's it. It's not easy, I ain't gonna lie. The first week was ok, mostly because I was doing this cool new program. Week two was an issue, though. I was missing my Doritos and really wanting to take up MMA just so I could have an excuse to hit someone without catching a felony. But by the third week, I was feeling amazing enough that I no longer craved all the processed foods I'd become addicted to. I figure, if I can surround myself with other people going through the same thing, I may be less likely to want to throat punch random strangers during that second week of sugar withdrawal. (Am I making it sound fun yet?)

If you'd like to join me (because I've made it sound so inviting) or just learn more about this gradual and gentle approach to cleansing your system, check out my website:
 http://www.MyUltimateReset.com/SunShineStrong. 

And if you order now, you can still take advantage of the discount promotion (until April 9th). 

These are some of the benefits reported by those completing the 21 days of Ultimate Reset:

• Remove Harmful Toxins
• Lose Weight Safely
• Increase Energy
• Lower "Bad" Cholesterol
• Boost Mood and Mental Clarity
• Reduce Inflammation
• Improve Regularity

So, withdrawal symptoms or not, it is TOTALLY worth it. You should probably join me. 

It's My Coachaversary!

Summer bodies are made in Spring.

Today is the first day of Spring.
Today is also my Beachbody Coachaversay.

Coincidence? I think not.

To celebrate my coaching anniversary and the first day of Spring, I am kicking off a Bikini Ready Booty Anniversary Challenge starting, you guess it, today.

The program? Brazil Butt Lift. The goal? Bikini-ready butts.

Click on the photo to order your Brazil Butt Lift Challenge Pack today...

or complete the contact form on the right side of this page for more ordering options.

This program works. It's why I became a Beachbody Coach (that and the Shakeology discount).

Don't worry, it's never too late to join us!

This Week is All About the Glutes

What a week!

Today's the day I get my email. Today's the day I find out if I made it into the Marine Corps Marathon. I haven't opened my email yet. I'm too nervous. What if I didn't get in?!? ... What if I did? Gah! Am I really ready to commit to this training? 

Yes. Yes, I am because committing to training is what my life is all about now.

Tomorrow our Bikini Ready Booty Challenge starts and I will commit to training my glutes and legs. (There's still time to join us by clicking here.) We're doing the Brazil Butt Lift program and I'm super excited about it. Love how much fun that program is. The perfect mix of dance and strength training. And it is so effective for lifting that butt and toning those legs just in time for bikini weather. It's that special triangle training Leandro does.

And Saturday is the Montvale 10 Miler. I FEEL ready for it, but who knows if I'll meet my goal pace until I'm out there on the trails.

So, really, this week is all about the glutes. I'm going to need them to power me up the hills on Saturday. 

Falling Off The Fitness Wagon...Again

Let me get real for a minute. (Nah, for real, I'm always real. But that sounded like a good opening line.)

Recently my workload doubled. Literally. It literally doubled. This is mostly a good thing. I mean, more income is always a good thing, right?

But time wise, my life went a little out of control. I was unprepared for the chaos that ensued with such a sudden and drastic increase in my work. My once focused and intense workout schedule became random, sporadic. I began eating whatever fully processed crap I could find sitting in the back of my pantry. I spent 90% of my day sitting at my desk staring at a computer mindlessly cramming food into my mouth.

It doesn't take long for those types of habits to catch up with you.

I ran a 10k trail run on Saturday. That was my wake up call. Carrying an extra 12 pounds up and down the slippery trails was difficult. Add to that the fact that my body was not fueled properly and I had lost some muscle tone, well, it was a poor and painful performance. I finished through sheer will and stubbornness (largely thanks to my good friend cheering me on at the finish), but I was miserable. I did not enjoy it. Not even a little bit. 

It happens. We fall off the fitness wagon. What do we do when that happens? (This is where you pump your fist in the air and yell, "GET BACK ON!") Yep. I'm recommitted.

So, my work schedule may not always allow me to get out for a long run or fit in a 30 minute fitness program, unless I become that chick that forces herself out of bed at 3am to fit it in. And that's probably never going to happen. I need my sleep to keep from hurting all the people.

Still, I CAN use my monthly fitness challenges to squeeze in some basic exercises between classes or even while on a conference call (yes boss, I'm grunting because of the squats not because of the new class schedule). And I CAN refocus my eating habits. It's all up to me. 

And it's all up to you, too. Though, if you need a little support, I can help with that. Just check out the Free Fitness Group Schedule.

Push Up Variations by a Small Chick

I host a free monthly fitness group through Facebook. We focus on a different area each month.

February was arms. We followed a 30-day calendar that told us how many push ups to do each day. How long to hold our planks each day. How many tricep kick backs to do each day. So simple.

The results? Phenomenal. Many participants have shared their successes through loss of inches and pounds. Some are showing off their guns by posting pics. They are all rock stars. 

I am sharing my successes visually with the moves I am able to do that I have never been able to do before.

These are the hardest push up variation that I've tried.

So, it may be time for a new medicine ball, but the move was still quite challenging.

These are my favorites. Workings arms, core, and glutes all at once!

I'm not sure I can technically call this one a Superman Push Up since I stayed on my knee, but I'm calling it that anyway. It's my blog. I can do that. Besides, I tried it the real way...I fell on my face. 

March's focus will be the legs. Oh yes. Bring on the tank tops. Bring on the shorts. We're ready!

Wanna join us? Complete the Contact Form on the right and I will get you signed up!