Lyndsi's Corner

Whoa! I haven’t blogged in nearly two weeks!!! Sorry guys! Life got super busy!!  As I said in my last post I became a Beachbody coach and as of this week I am now an Emerald Beachbody Coach! YAY!

Join my team today! www.beachbodycoach.com/fitnessfourlife  click JOIN or better yet coach w/ me!

I am truly enjoying helping others reach their fitness goals and working with the other coaches.

Gabe has agreed to give me some time in the gym to do Fit Club!! Yay!! Look forward to free workouts with me there in the near future!!

That being said I think I hit a bit of higher level in training in the past week. We’ll see what the boss thinks about that. I feel stronger though.

I’m going to Arizona for the next week for my spring break! I am SO excited to get outside and hike the mountains and really enjoy the HOT weather!  I hope all of you have the chance to get outside, get some nice weather, and get some exercise in!!

Summer is right around the corner get your bodies ready!!!  Remember abs are made in the kitchen!!! Eat clean, workout, and enjoy yourself!!

Have a great Easter all!

xoxo- L

Lately the boys, yes that’s right boys at the gym-there is a new boy in town! Andrew is his name, Gabe recruited him out of his hometown. He comes with a personal training background ready to kick everyons ass, so lookout.

 They both have been making me do push ups every single time I’m there. Not just a couple… try 50 + every single time.. on my feet, push ups till I fail. I fight them a little bit about why do I have to keep doing these push ups, can’t we do something else? And they say ‘NO!’ 

I’ve been around long enough to know that push ups are great for you and you can never get enough of them! After all who doesn’t want awesome looking ripped arms? That being said, I found a great article about push ups you should read, its important!  http://ezinearticles.com/?Doing-Pushups-to-Failure-Will-Always-Improve-Strength&id=6142571

Maybe I will learn to love push ups one of these days.

PS: I became a Beachbody Coach this week   Oh happy day. Finally I can help others with their fitness goals! I am so excited about this fun hobby. Check my page out, join my team for free www.beachbodycoach.com/fitnessfourlife  I look forward to my future as a coach, and some good collaboration with the gym!

xoxo,

L

About time I say that. I’m over this tight IT band injury thing.  Have you ever researched how dangerous a kettlebell can be if you don’t use it properly? Well just from me, it is not pleasant. It is by far the worst pain on earth. Ok maybe labor is worse, maybe kidney stones, maybe even a heart attack is worse, but this was god awful!

I started a little bit of high impact work again this week. Good old burpees came back to my workout. Still not sure how much I actually missed them. We’ll see what comes with tomorrows workout. I have not gone back to bikram yoga as of yet. It’s a far drive and they make you keep quiet for the whole 90minutes so I’m trying to wrap my mind around going back. I still have 6 classes left on my groupon.  Not sure I’ll go back after that…just because it’s SO far away  

Today I went to the grocery store and decided to get lots of new/healthy things.  For example- coconut milk AND almond milk. Really? Yes Really. I do not know how Hal will handle this, but we’ll see. I’ve been drinking soymilk all week, again dont really have an answer as to why other than I read 90 calories per serving, and for chocolate milk that sounded great to me.  I got home and took a closer look at that label to see 14g of sugar per serving too- OOPS!  So I moved forward with almond milk and coconut milk. I haven’t tried it yet- but I also have been hearing about this Walden Farms products and have read mixed reviews so this was a hard one to bite. But I did it, at least the best reviewed product anyway. I’ve heard awesome things about their chocolate and caramel sauce.  The bonus to these Walden Farms products is they have nothing in them- no carbs, no calories, no sugar, and no fat. I have no clue what makes them taste great other than a calorie free sweetner.  But why not take the almond milk, or coconut..based on what I like most- add some chocolate syrup, and have a nice chocolate milk for lets say maybe 60 calories and no sugar? OR how about drizzling some chocolate on top of your favorite oatmeal..again calorie, sugar, fat, and carb free. I say this was a great buy. We’ll update on how it turns out in my mouth  

I also bought Almond Butter- Not a clue where to begin with that one. It was on sale, and I’m a sucker. It looks to be a replacement for regular butter. I’m a big smart balance fan. But I’m open to trying this almond butter.  This looks like it’s good for baking and covering your broccoli. Wow I haven’t had butter on broccoli in many many years!!

I also got Kale. I’m all about Kale Chips. Their super yummy as long as they are baked right with good ingredients. I once baked them with balsamic vinegar on top- BAD IDEA!!  Remember to bake them first, then use the vinegar as a dip or drizzle over -again- AFTER they are baked

That being said- happy friday/april fools day to all.   And look out- coming up next- Beachbody!!!!

xoxo,

L

I am proud to update that my old jeans fit and my injury is so very close to being fully healed  :)   YAY!!!   Only took me about 4-6 weeks.  All you have to do is workout and eat good. The weight falls right off, and it helps to weight lift. 

I’m working my way back to 10 rounds on the stairs, and hopefully I’ll get to run again soon. Today I did 7 rounds on the stairs and my legs are like jello.  Last year because I was getting married, I did not make time for the stairs until late July.

I’ve found some new recipes to make eating healthy more fun which we all really need. Clean eating is not always fun. It can get boring.

I’m hoping to be completely healed next week so I can focus on training and not stressing over re-injuring myself.  The famous kettlebell which I injured myself with came back yesterday. I’ve been fearful of it since I trained with a distraction and poor form- note to everyone- be careful when you are training on your own with heavy weight.

In the meantime, countdown to my goals, 90 days!!!

I have not updated on my journey in a while!  Sadly my injury has slowed me down. This week it’s finally feeling better. I have not been to Bikram Yoga in about a month, nor have I done any intense training. It’s been lots of elliptical, walking, prowler pushing, push ups, and planks which suprisingly are what help me get through this injury.

I definitely need to be watching my nutrition big time since I can’t do high impact training right now. And especially because in 3 months I have to wear a dress. I’m not too pleased with how it looks on me right now.  It’s basically my only real goal coming up.  Too bad I love to bake and cook. I’m a newlywed so I’m learning how to cook and experimenting a lot in the kitchen while trying to eat super healthy. It’s rather challenging, but I think I’ve done well so far.   Did I mention I lost 10lbs in the past six weeks?

I have decided to participate in a 5K, helping raise money for my little cousin who has Cystic Fibrosis. There’s another goal coming up!

Really the bottom line goal in my life is to keep healthy. I want to be a healthy active person.  My final goals are simple, low bodyfat, lots of lean muscle, good nutritional knowledge for the future, and exercising. 

I figure if I can do this for the rest of my life and enjoy a cheat meal once or twice a week then I will be set for life.  One thing that has helped me is a food & exercise journal. My favorite right now is www.myfitnesspal.com ,it’s great. It keeps me on track. I have the app on my iPAD and my cell phone so I can always be tracking wherever I’m at.

There is nothing more frusterating than getting an injury that slows your exercise down. It’s not a good feeling. It really angers me. I really want to get back to normal.  I have not worked out on the elliptical in about two years maybe three, and since I’ve been injured I have become buddies with the elliptical. Thank God I own one!  I barely break a sweat and my heart rate starts to climb at the end of my workout. I do burn a lot of calories on it though. I put the resistance level up high to challenge myself.  It never feels like enough though.  On the plus side the weather has warmed up a bit, giving me the opportunity to get back to the stairs already. Only one of the BEST workouts ever!!! Awesome cardio, gets my heart pumping like crazy- just walking up the stairs!! I just love and hate the stairs!

For now- Happy 1st Day of Spring and St Patty’s Day !

xoxo,

L

Sunday I was in quite a rush. Bailey was graduating from puppy education school and while he’s only a dog, we had company heading to the event.  He is the only ‘grandchild’ if you will, right now in my family.  My parents clearly are dying for babies. But one thing at a time.  That being said, I was in a rush. The party began around 1:00PM.

I got up, ate some breakfast, digested, and wanted to get in a simple/quick workout.  We’re talking so quick that I got my brand new 50lb kettlebell out, and in my pj’s I started swinging it, followed by burpees, and repeat!  I did rows, followed by more burpees, push ups etc      I finished up after about an hour and jumped into the shower with just enough time to get ready for Bailey’s graduation.  Corny as it is, my parents and grandparents came out and then took us to lunch.

I was sitting at the table at lunch with a slight pain in my rear, not thinking much of it, until Monday morning when I arrived at the gym and was to the point of limping.  Bottom line is I have to take a breather from training. Not all training but a lot of training     Hear is to hoping this heals asap!

I’ll leave you with a super recipe I created yesterday with my protein powder. I get bored of protein powders and shakes pretty easily, and would rather find different kinds of protein bars than the shakes.  BUT shakes are healthier overall. So while I was in the baking isle at the store yesterday something made me decide to get some sugar free instant jello pudding, and out came an awesome tasting protein shake! YUM!

I used Peanut Butter Chocolate BSN protein powder, water, ice and cheesecake flavored instant pudding (sugar free of course!)  YUM YUM YUM is all I have to say.  I am heading back to the store to get more pudding flavors to spice up my protein shakes! Will report back with more recipes

xoxo,

L

Rumor has it dark chocolate is actually good for you… wait don’t get excited just yet!

We’re talking the dark of dark chocolate now.  Where the wrapper says 90% Cocoa or 85% Cocoa, generally found in Lindt chocolate products. Don’t let Hershey’s or Dove fool you, they do claim their dark chocolate, but notice the label and how it says SUGAR first on the list of ingredients. That is a big red flag to you.

The first ingredient should be Cocoa.  So the question is what percent of Cocoa do you prefer in your dark chocolate? 90%? (kind of like eating cardboard) 85%? (cardboard with a tad bit of flavor) or maybe 70%? 

I’ve tried all 3 kinds and prefer 70% over them all. It’s crazy to think how we’ve taken the cocoa that is great for you and morphed it into milk chocolate, swiss chocolate, white chocolate etc   All the added sugar to make it taste so great. We’re tainted by it. Believe me I’d choose milk chocolate in a heartbeat over this 90% Cocoa shit.

Bottom line if you’re craving some chocolate during your clean eating process aim for that 70-90% Cocoa and get your fix.  Or there is always your cheat meal for the good stuff

xoxo,

L

When you are on this weight loss journey, make sure to give yourself goals.  Big goals for long term, and small goals for the short term.

Goals are so important.  I am so hard on myself, that when I don’t reach goals I am not a happy camper. I get very frustrated and tell myself off, not literally, but you know what I mean- tell me myself in my head. I beat myself up for about a day or two. Walk around pretty crabby, and go through a big deal of guilt for not accomplishing my goals.

I should probably be a better friend to myself, and treat myself how I treat my real friends. I spent the majority of time with myself after all.

Rewards are great for when you reach goals.  Rewards are great to keep you going- somedays I do not allow myself to watch any TV, or go anywhere until my exercise is done for the day. It’s hard to motivate yourself to exercise. You can talk to yourself all day long, ‘exercise’, ‘exercise’ , ‘make sure you get it done’  but to actually get up and do it is a whole other story.  An idea would be to reward yourself for your exercise. ‘Once I am done exercising I will watch my fav TV show, for now I will have to record it’

Reward yourself for reaching your goals, even the small ones.  Of course- do not reward yourself with food. That is 2 steps forward and 1 step back!  Trust me! I’ve also been there and done that numerous times! Maybe a mani/pedi? Maybe your new favorite outfit. Maybe a reward as big as a vacation, or as small as  finally getting that pair of shoes you’ve wanted so bad. 

Make sure you take care of yourself, make goals, reach goals, reward yourself for your goals.

baby steps is the key!

Truth be told, where does your bad eating habits come from? When did they form? How did they come about? What is the honest answer you have?  Do you even know where it comes from?

What do I suggest the answer is? Honestly?  It comes from your influences, friends, family and no time.

Sadly, if you were raised on super rich fatty foods that is what your taste buds crave. NOT what your body craves- take note people- this is ONLY what your taste buds are craving. Your body is craving the nutrition it actually needs.        IE: Fiber, Protein, Whole Grains, Good Fats etc, These foods with nutritional value that help take care of your body.  Your taste buds will constantly tell you to eat sugary, fatty, processed  ‘GREAT’ tasting food. 

This came from an influence in your life. I would guess 90% of that influence comes from your family and whether it was take out or fast food for dinner the majority of the time. The fact is that its our parents job to feed us for the first 15-18  years of our life. If your parents are grabbing take out or fast food, or cooking super rich foods of course you are going to eat that, if they eat it, you will eat it! If you are a parent, and you are allow your child to sit on a couch and eat how much of whatever they want, you truly are abusing them. You are allowing them to tear up their body right before your eyes. Do not let the idea of eating sugary, processed, and fatty foods equal doing a good deed for your child.  Eating those foods on the couch can add up to how many calories one should consume in more than one day!  You might as well feed your body rat poison!

I’ve also heard the complete opposite of bad eating habits-when parents would not allow their children to have fast food, it would be an occasional treat. The child would get their drivers license and ‘run for the border!’  You know, good old Taco Bell, Mcdonalds, Burger King- you name it! Whenever they could, they would run out for fast food just because now they can do it on their own.  That influence came from somewhere.

One thing I suggest is spending time with your children in the kitchen- get them started young, teach them about foods being good for you and that they really do taste great.  You are that influence, that mentor, the person they are looking up to everyday for the first 12 years of their lives at least! You have that responsibility to teach your children and help them grow. 

I’m not suggesting NEVER allowing a treat. I do believe in a treat every once in a while, maybe once a week maybe once every two weeks. Treats are always great at special events, like birthday parties or holidays. That excites them for those events and helps them to learn how special those events can be.

Trust me if this gets away from you, and you know it can- influences can come from family friends, neighbors- a great baker down the street who continues to bring you their amazing baked goods. If your child gets their hands on those foods ALL the time, you better believe you will see the obesity kick in.  Do your best to give them one and then give the rest away!

I realize there can be extremely traumatizing events in a person’s life that leads them to turn to food for their comfort and that is out of anyone’s control but their own. That being said, the bottom line is even if your upbringing was healthy or unhealthy and your eating habits get out of control, do your best to climb out of that rut and eat right. I’ve fallen into the hole before. I was unable to wrap my head around eating well balanced meals and taking care of my body.

I would say if new parents can be pro-active about their kids eating habits, it might just make their life SO MUCH EASIER in the end. Get them into great activities, help boost their confidence, support them from birth on, promote them, and teach them how great healthy food can be, taste & for your body. They will be the best they can be and not have a big weight problem holding them back from anything in their life

Throughout my journey every day I count each calorie that I eat to the best of my ability. A girl can only get so specific with her calories before she goes crazy.  On a typical day eating 1300 is as far as I go. I’m suppose to have 1100 on days when I don’t workout, and that happens every once in a while. But then there are days when I eat 1100 and I worked out. It varies based on what food I’m eating.  The famous food for me was always chicken and veggies, chicken and veggies, chicken and veggies! Everyone in my office would be like ‘what’s for lunch?’ and sure enough they’d be like figures-’Chicken and veggies’  While I make them super yummy, the veggies that is- just by adding Olive Oil, Garlic Powder, Pepper, and some salt throwing them on the grill- it saves me from boring, steamed veggies, and still I lose weight!

Chicken gets old QUICK! My poor, poor husband is like ‘Chicken AGAIN?!’  And I’m like ahhh I dont know any other good meals to make.  Now I do make a mean turkey chili.  I’ve learned about bison being a super lean meat, so we make bison burgers (but um, hello bison is $8 per lb!)   Alright so I eat a bit more than just chicken and veggies. But the overall go to healthy meal is chicken and veggies. So when it came to the cheat meal night- you better believe I went ALL OUT!  Appetizer, Meal, and Dessert!  I think I had a cheat meal every 1-2 weeks depending on my situation and plans at the time.

The average person has a cheap meal 1-3X per week not all in a row.  But I was sure to go all out, anything I was craving I ate up! I thought about my cheal meal, after so many days I would crave that meal and ENJOY it when the night came to eat it. 99% of the time cheat meals are on the weekends.

After I got married, I was over chicken and veggies, although still going through the motions of grilling everything, planning out the meals, and trying to eat them, but failing and cheaing nearly everyday. I was burnt out from all the intense training and high nutrition I had put in for my wedding. 

I knew I needed change, but needed to keep my nutrition in line. I just did not know where to turn. Rather I turned to take out, and lots of baking!  I did cook a lot and overall it was healthy, but not enough to maintain myself or keep a good balance. Therefor I failed miserably and found an extra 15-20lbs on my body by the holidays. UGHHHHHHHHH how frusterating! 

It got me so upset that I was motivated and determined to get back to where I was, as well as lose more weight! Fast forward to today.

Gabe kept mentioning the abs diet and how he supports the recipes that come out of the abs diet cookbook. Going online you have to pay for the abs diet recipes, and you can go to the bookstore to get the cookbook, but why do that? Well by the end of December I was completely OK with paying for this cookbook. All I wanted was my tone body back plus more and to try to do this without 85% of my meals being chicken and veggies.

I have pulled some GREAT recipes out of this cookbook that we make every so often, and has helped make eating healthy seem like eating normal everyday food. It’s a godsend! Even my husband enjoys the meals.  This cookbook has also helped me to create more recipes of my own that are super healthy.  AHHHHHHHHHH, finally! I feel SO much better. I have begun to shrink. Not paying attention to numbers right now, letting Gabe worry about that. One of these days I’ll look.   But I tell you, I do crave my cheat meals at times, nothing like before though.

Sometimes I will eat my cheat meal and think, really? This was not even worth the cheat! I’m sure there are times when your body needs you to switch it up and eat healthy to shock it. But I would guess maybe 2X a month if you really want to push it. When the body thinks it’s being starved it will hold onto all the fat anyway- so the key is to trick it. 

This weekend I bought a big cookie baked and decorated for the SuperBowl. That is my cheat dessert. We also went out to Fogo De Chao for dinner last night, and for those who dont know what that is. It’s a Brazilian Steakhouse- which basically means you have a large salad/veggie bar you grab a ton of veggies at. Then at your table, the servers will come by with a type of meat and ask if you are interested in it, that is if your go card is green. They give you a card, one side is green and the other is red. You turn the card to green if you want meat, and red when you need a break.  I decided even though it’s mainly meat and veggies, it’s A LOT of meat, which means tons of fat/calories so I decided it was my cheat meal.  I came home and chowed down on the cookie for dessert, and as I ate it, I thought to myself..really Lyndsi? This isn’t THAT great. It looks good, its a chocolate chip cookie- who does not like a chocolate chip cookie? But I dont know maybe the Abs Diet is making cheating going out of style for me. 

I still have my cheat meals around my planned event and activities every weekend, but then I think blah- why bother anymore?

Who’s to say what’s going to happen in the future, maybe I’ll be like Tosca Reno and while 1 cheat meal a week is ok to have, maybe I’ll end up eating clean at all times.  HA!  You never know.

xoxo,
L