Attention: Deposits and debits may take up to 3 days to show on your account!

You're all familiar with that concept right? You write a check today...but it could be Thursday or Friday before you actually see it hit your account.
Well, I've discovered something profound. (more like DUH!, but profound to me nonetheless)
Our bodies are the same way!
When you spend several days eating "bad" and then say of yourself "wow, I can't believe I've been off my diet since "x" and I haven't gained a pound!"
Don't let yourself be fooled. Deep down you know better. There is no 'cheating the system' with eating. Sooner or later it WILL catch up with you. (just like that check you wrote knowing full well you didn't have the money in the bank to cover!)
The only way to 'get ahead' in your fitness account (your body) is to make more deposits than debits. Makes perfect sence!
So what are deposits? Work outs, veggies, vitamins, healthy meats and whole grains, fruit, water, more work outs!

The same is true when you're doing good. Just like a deposit might also take a few days to be available to you in your bank account; you also can't expect to eat good and work out for a day or two and BAM! see a huge credit (or difference) in your body. It just doesn't work that way.
I'm sure we've all been there where we've eaten well for a few days, worked out until we were exhausted and then the glorious day arrives when we step on the scale expecting to receive the reward for all our hard work---only to have our excitement instantly crushed when the scale still reads out the same old balance (weight) to us.
Believe me when I say I've BEEN THERE and DONE THAT!

But as my body has proven to me time and time again---just keep it up. At some point-you WILL reap the harvest of what you have sown--whether good or bad. Don't allow yourself to believe the lie that "it isn't working." Our bodies are ingenious and were created to be amazingly complex, but they aren't capable of manipulating the system and sabatoging our efforts.

I'm writing this to encourage you...if you're doing the right thing--eating good, getting in your work outs, do not let yourself get discouraged. There is only one result that comes from that kind of behavior---healthiness! Your body may respond quickly (lucky you) or it may drag it's heels so-to-speak, but it has no choice but to obey.
Likewise, if you are eating junk, missing your work-outs and are shocked every time you put on your size 4 pants and amazingly they still fit...don't let yourself be deceived. They don't call it "junk in the trunk" for nothin'!! Yo junk is on its way honey!

That being said---Now get out there and make your deposits!!!

For Better? or For Worse?

A random question, I know...but I've wondered this just about forever. I've never read anything on it...so I'm coming to you, my fellow health and fitness nuts to see what the verdict is.
Eating before you go to bed....for better or for worse?
Here's the scenario:
You eat a late lunch (say 3-4 o'clock) and have a busy evening. Don't get time to eat dinner until you're home for the night (say 9-10-11 o'clock). You're STARVING. You're exhausted.
What do you do? Do you eat and then conk out? (seems like a "waste" of calories) or do you go to bed with your stomach growling (seems cruel) and just binge in the morning?

I did this on Saturday. The kids and I ate a light lunch/early dinner at 4. Then we headed off to our town's freedom festival for the evening. I got the kids smoothies and nachos and pizza while there, but all I "allowed" myself was a pickle. By the time we got home (after the fireworks), it was about 10:30. By the time I got them all cleaned up and into bed it was 11. It was at about that time that I realized I was SOOOOO hungry. I opened up the fridge and saw that I had a left-over bowl of chopped lettuce and some cut-up celery in a baggie that I could easily and quickly eat. I shut the fridge and pondered the prospect. I thought "It would probably be better for me to just go to bed and not eat" and then my stomach said "GRRRRrrrrr" and I thought "but this is at least very healthy and low-cal so no harm." In the end I decided to eat. I sat in my bed munching on lettuce drizzled with light ranch dressing, 4 kashi whole-grain crackers and a baggie of celery with 1 TBSP. of natural peanut butter. Doesn't sound awful, right?
Well, when I got done, I set my bowl down and felt STUFFED. Then I immediately was mad at myself for eating. "WHYYYYY didn't I just go to sleep?" I mentally tallied up how many calories I had just consumed and came up with somewhere around 300. Eeek. For salad and celery?
So...what do you guys think/do in these kinds of situations. I know that at LEAST I ate healthy food instead of fast-food or junk, so that's good. But would it have just been better to have went to bed hungry?

You are my business!

I got my Beachbody business cards in the mail a couple of weeks ago. I've been handing them out but I thought I'd share them with you all as well, just in case there are some of you who didn't know I am a coach.

I am anxiously awaiting my first "victim." ha ha....no...just kidding. Honestly though, I can't wait to finally have someone to coach and encourage along their fitness journey! Beachbody offers so many great programs that take all the thinking out of it for you. That's what I loved about P90X the most, I think. There were no "I wonder this...and I wonder that...". EVERYTHING you need is included. You know exactly what workout to do every single day. You know exactly what to eat every single day. And, just to be positively sure you have ALL your questions answered, they even provide you with a FREE coach (me!!) to help and encourage you every step of the way! What could be better than that??? How about this: You can have the results you're wanting in only 90 days! That means that by September of THIS year...you can be walking around in the body that you're only dreaming about right now! I mentioned something to Matt the other day about not having time to work out. I said "If I quit working out then I would have time to take care of the house." You wanna know what he said back to me? He said, "then you wouldn't be taking care of THIS house!" and he pointed to me.

Wow! He's right! Of course I need to take care of my home...but this body that God has given me is also my "house." God requires us to be good stewards with what He has given us and I think that includes the life and the body that we were given! I love it when my work-out habits are justified!! hee hee

Anyway, I really do want to help you! Just click here!

Summer Ab Plan

So........ughhhh....I hate to say this. It's sad but it's true--I am just too busy to be totally committed to P90X right now. That does NOT mean I am abandoning it completely, it just means that I am giving myself permission to enjoy my children this summer without the DAILY pressure of an hour + work out.

However....since my abs are my biggest "problem" spot, I have decided to make a realistic committment. I will do Ab Ripper X every Mon, Wed, & Fri. for the rest of the summer.

I also plan to attend my classes at the gym on Tue, Thur & Saturday's and throw in my P90X workouts whenever I can, but only if it's convenient.

I sort of feel like this is a cop out. I'm such a hard-core work-out fanatic...but I realize that my kids need my time and that they are starting to resent the time I spend each day working out. There are lots of ways to stay active during the summer (mowing, swimming) other than just being at the gym all the time or in front of the tv doing a video. I encourage you all to definitely get your work outs in this summer and stay active and healthy---but don't forget the most important thing of all---living your life!
hey...if the ab thing works out really well for me, maybe my 6-pack will finally come out of hiding by the end of summer! :) My zumba teacher says "we all have a 6-pack--its just that most of us keep it in the back of the fridge!" ha ha

By the way, I had my meeting on Friday with the director of fitness at our gym and I am now on the payroll as a sub! All that really means is that I have filled out all the paperwork (releases and such) and have shown her that I can teach a class (which was the scary part!) Now at any time my phone could ring asking me to come in and teach whatever class they need a sub for. When I let my mind "go there" it sorta freaks me out--the whole getting up in front of a bunch of people I don't know and talking into a microphone and knowing that I am responsible for the kind of work-out they get that day as well as their saftey while doing it! EEEeeeek! I just remind myself that I am simply a vessel following the leading of my Heavenly Father. I view this as an opportunity for ministry and I believe that if I will continue to diligently seek Him and allow Him to "complete His perfect work in me" that when the day comes for me to sub my first class, HE will give me the words, the confidence and the wisdom to do a fabulous job! I am being cautious to not let this become a vain ambition or a prideful thing. I am nothing. HE is everything. I never want any of the glory. My goal: As you see less of me (literally), you will see more of Him!

Reality Check!!!

Okay, so I just endured the hardest work out of my life-to date.

A week or so ago a friend told me about a "boot camp" going on in town. She said "its supposed to be really tough." She knows I'm a P90X'er and thought it would be right up my alley. Unfortunately, it turned out that it is on the same days and time as my classes at the gym so I didn't figure I'd ever go. But then Tuesday, my instructor from the gym, Shelly, told us that she was going to be out on Thursday (today). I thought, "hmmm...maybe I will check out that boot camp class after all!" I rallied up a few of my buddies (Rene & Rachel) and we ventured out to the high school football field at 9:30 this morning for what would soon become one of the hardest hours of our LIVES!

This is all I knew: Some girl was teaching it. It was free. It was at the football field. It started at 9:30.
This is what I thought: "Oh yah---tough! HA! I'm gonna go and show these girls what TOUGH really is!!" I expected maybe 5-10 overweight, un-fit women to show up. Maybe do a few jumping jacks, maybe some running, maybe a handful of push ups.

As I pulled into the PACKED parking lot, I began to get nervous---but the real nerves kicked in when I saw the instructor! The woman is like a solid muscle from head to toe. NO FAT. She is the first woman I think I've ever seen in real life whose muscles bulge everywhere without even flexing! (Picture those women who do the fitness competitions). Then when she began to talk, I could tell she was going to resemble Jillian from BL a lot. GO GO GO! PUSH PUSH PUSH! HARDER HARDER HARDER! If you're tired--KEEP GOING!
Oh! My! Gosh! What was I in for??? Us 3 girls just kept looking at each other like WHAT have we gotten ourselves into??
So...this is what we did:
Warm Up: Run laps around the field, jumping jacks, front & side kicks.
Circut Training:
Circuit #1: With partner, flip monster truck tires top over bottom up a hill and then back down.
Circuit #2: Lift a regular truck tire into the air above your head and throw it up into the air as high as you can. (over and over and over!)
Circuit #3: Traveling lunges down field and back. Run with a 70 pound back of sand over your shoulders to the end and back. Carry a 70 pound KEG to the end and back.
Circuit #4: 3 sets of bleachers. Run up the bleachers, across the top, back down. Repeat for all 3 sets of bleachers. (over and over and over!)
Gathered all back up together and did all kinds of varietes of planks, Plyo/squat jacks, Burpees (aka prison cell push ups).
Back to bleachers. Run up to the top and back down as fast as you can for like 5 straight minutes. Then standing at the bottom, either plyo jump (both feet) up onto the first seat (not step) or do a basic step (right, left) up and down as fast as you can. We did several intervals of these.
Back to the field in a bridge position--crab walks. Backwards and forwards, over and over. Then one leg in the air--hold and switch.
We stretched just a teensy bit and then GLORY TO GOD it was OVER! My heart rate monitor was going off almost the entire time telling me I was above my target zone. Once I looked at it and I was at 190! That's a record I think. I ended up burning 519 calories. For me...for one hour...that's a lot!

Sound fun? What really made it hard to almost the point of unbearable was the HEAT! It's in the 90's here already and getting up towards 100. I have never worked out out-side before so I was NOT prepared for that! I'm used to my nice air conditioning with huge fans blowing right at me. This was awful. There was no way to get cooled off. Even now, an hour and a half later, my face is as red as a lobster. I don't think it's a sunburn either (I wore 30 spf sunscreen thank goodness!). I just got THAT hot!

Anyway, I did find out that this same lady teaches this class 4 days a week. Tue & Thur at the football field and Mon. & Wed. inside a church gym. I may try to hit the Mon. & Wed. classes next week. We'll see! It's pretty cool because it's all free, they have childcare AND the best part was that we all joined together and prayed at the end! Awesome! Another cool thing was that I wore my P90X tank top so I got to spread the word about our awesome Beachbody business a little! Hopefully I did us proud and didn't look too much like a wuss out there! I kept reminding myself that I was "on the job" wearing that shirt and that if for no other reason, I had to keep going because I couldn't let people think that a Beachbody coach whose been doing P90X for a YEAR can't keep up! ha ha ha

BTW: Tomorrow I meet with the fitness coordinator at the gym to sign all my papers and get signed up to be able to teach at the gym. I have to show her a few of my routines so I'm a teensy tiny bit nervous but I'm sure it will be fine. I just keep telling myself that I am only doing this (whole instructing thing) by the GRACE of GOD. It is HIM working in me that makes me able to do this. If this is really His will for my life, I know that tomorrow when I am "put on the spot" I will do just fine. Still, feel free to say a little prayer for me! I'll let you all know how it goes!

For now, I'm going to go eat some chicken and drink a big glass of recovery drink!

The hardest muscle to train?

Your BRAIN!
I proved this point today as I pushed Play (P90X style) for the first time in weeks (other than Cardiox). Oh. My. Gosh! I picked Chest, Shoulders & Triceps since that is (was) one of my favorite work outs and since my schedule is all messed up since I took about a month off. I cannot believe how hard it was to convince myself to keep going! Yes...my body was definitely struggling (haven't done that many push ups in a looooong time) but it was nothing like the battle going on in my head! I was literally having a FIGHT with my own self about this work out! ha ha...
The tired, exhausted me was saying "push stop. you are exhausted. you are weak. you can't do anymore. you've done enough for today."
The tougher-than-nails me was saying "no way baybee--you're in this to win this. you keep going and when you can't go anymore, drop down and give me 10 more!"
Sheeeesh!
All I can say now that I'm done is: Somebody show me the recovery drink!! My triceps are throbbing so Lord KNOWS I'm gonna need every ounce of that recovery drink today!
How about you guys? Do you agree that the brain can be the hardest muscle to train?

Sweaty Memories

I got a super-dooper special treat on Monday and got to go visit my girl Kandy. I don't even know where to begin telling you how MUCH this single girl has impacted my life. She gave me my "fresh" start and really introduced me to the world of fitness. I know I had to put in the work...but she really was my "coach" over all these years. She has held me accountable and kept me on track and I love her so much! Not only is she an amazing friend, but she is as sold out to God as I am and we have so much in common. There is no doubt God was working when He brought us together as friends over 11 years ago! Even though we only lived near each other for a very short time, we have remained friends over the years and have never lost touch. Now as we both are pursuing fitness (and P90X) even more...we are getting closer than ever before, I think!

On Monday, I got to take a trip to where she lives and do a work-out with her again (after about 11 years). We did Cardio X. It was a BLAST! I know this is a LOT of pictures...but I loved all of them and just couldn't pick only a few. As always, Kandy looked FABULOUS! She's always been my role model in fitness and exercise and just as I knew she would, she looked better than ever. Her muscle tone is beautiful and shows all the hard work she puts in! These pictures don't even do her justice! She is a total knockout! Stephen is ONE LUCKY GUY!!!

If you've ever been curious what one of the P90X work outs look like...well here's a sneak peak of CardioX!

Squat X-Press (the last 10--we were going airborne!) I like how Kandy put it: See! White girls CAN jump!!

Running Man. Okay, Kandy took the cake on this one! She was "running" so fast that you couldn't even SEE her hands! WOW!

Here I am "running" --trying to keep up with Kandy!

Oh and the Beloved Superman/Banana. Here I am in banana...

Here is Kandy during the turn! Lookin' good girlfriend!

And here I am in Superman. Oh how I love the super hero exercises! Spiderman rocks too!

I believe this was the KenpoX portion--front kick/back kick. Look at them legs!

Airborne Heisman (I always hear Tony say "stop---and then go! Stop!--and then go" on this one! ha ha)

And last but certainly NOT least--Wacky Jacks. Just when you start to think you're looking pretty good and are starting to feel confident, they throw in something like this to make you feel like a total WACKO. But, I can attest, they WORK! "ripping on the obliques" as TH would say!

Ahhh......done with another AWESOME work out!

Time for the bikini's and some sun-bathing by the pool now!!

Not too shabby for 2 momma's in their 30's huh?

But before we say goodbye...you must remember we are Girls with Guns!! :o)

Work outs--where are you?

So, I scrolled down through my past posts after I finished typing that last one and I saw that it's been a little while since I've posted about my workouts and where I am with P90X and my whole fitness instructing/coaching journey.
Here's a little update:
Started P90X (for my 3rd round) about a month ago. Put it on hold for a couple of weeks while I worked on polishing up my routines for the gym. Taught classes in my work out room at my house to my friends during the month of May twice a week and instructed a little bit during classes at the gym.
Getting CPR certified tomorrow and will sign legal papers at gym and will become an "official" sub sometime this week. (which means I can instruct classes by myself in the event that the actual teacher can't be there).
Studying for my Instructor Certification slowly but will eventually get certified so that I can start teaching my own classes at the gym.
Today, June 1st, getting back into the P90X swing of things with Matt (who has been doing it by himself during May).
Gained a few pounds over Memorial Day weekend and got back up to 132 on the scale . ACK!
As for the BeachBody coaching business, I'm just gonna be real frank with you all...I'm not having any success. I'm not sure what the problemo is. I talk about it constantly--sometimes on my own but mostly because people ask me about it all the time. Everyone I know who wants to do it can't afford it or they buy it secondhand (or someone gives it to them). That's great because really...my heart is to see people lose weight and get in shape...however...I purchased the coaching kit and signed up for this (partly) as a means of supplemental income. But so far, I have conducted ZERO business. I'm not even considered an "active" coach until I generate at least $50 in business...which I can't seem to do for the life of me. What's strange is that I still feel like it's what I should do. I am working on ordering some business cards and hopefully that will help.
I know I probably shouldn't be telling the whole world about my struggles with this coaching thing...all the rest of you coaches never mention anything but amazing success...but I have to be who I am. And who I am is a blabbermouth that tells the truth about everything and hides nothing. Maybe that's not as much of an asset as I thought...I don't know. One thing you can be sure about....with me you get the real deal.
So anyway, to sum all that up....somebody please go to my coach site and order something!! Ha ha
Surely one of you out there is ready for P90X+ right? Or maybe your recovery drink is getting low? Ever thought about tryng the P90X protien bars or maybe Shakeology?
okay...that's pretty bad...I think I'm begging.

Well, in a nutshell, that sums up what's going on with me in the fitness part of my world. :o)

The Showdown

A little friendly competition never hurts, right?
But what if your competitor is your spouse? mmmm....not so great for the pride...but still...I'm a force to be reckoned with. If he can do it, I can do it (or so my mind thinks--with the exception of pull ups!)
Anyway....the point is, Matt and I had a total impulsive "show down" doing push ups the other night. It started out with me busting out 30 push-ups (on toes). Then he jumped down and did 30. So I hopped down and did 30 more. So he hopped down and did 30 more. (we're at 60). Down I go again for another 20, which he again matched--and added another 20 to (he's at 100). Of course...I wasn't going down without a fight...so I began pushing them out---ALL on my toes...ALL the way to ONE HUNDRED!
Yes, girls and boys, in just a matter of minutes, I did 100 boy push ups right along with my hunky hubby. WHO KNEW??
The most I have ever even attempted before was 50 (and that was in the fit test).
yahhhhoooo!
Since I'm telling of fitness victories...I also want to add that when I did the fit test last time (a few months ago) I also held my wall squat for just a little under 6 minutes!
I thought it was hard holding for 1 1/2 minutes in P90X Legs & Back but let me just tell you...after about the 3-4 minute mark, your legs actually go numb and you feel like you could just hold and hold and hold...but eventually..they WILL give out on you and you will land on your tush. :o)
One lesson I learned through this...husbands don't particularly find it attractive that their wives are as tough as them. Matt is WAY WAY WAY stronger than me...but my endurance is right up there (or above) his. I don't think I did myself any favors by "showing him up" with my impressive push up skills or wall squats. hmph!....oh well. I shocked my own socks off...and that counts for something! :o)