How I survived 2 weeks on a road

Do you love traveling? Seeing new places, experiencing new cultures and cuisines?
I do! I wish I was able to spend more time traveling to places I read and heard so much about – France, Italy and Germany, Australia - list goes on and on. Travel requires time, money and some sacrifices. Sacrifices, you ask? Yes.
My husband and I just returned 2 weeks trip in Spain. It was a great experience, driving from one great city to another, exploring architecture, art and just soaking in sights. But moving from place to place, staying in hotel rooms for a night or two left no chance for cooking my own food. I don’t speak Spanish, so ordering food in the restaurants was a hit or miss. Spanish food is amazing in texture, flavor and ….calories!!! Spaniards start their day with croissants and coffee and end it with dinner after 9 pm. The food is not for the timid – portions are generous, cooked well and surrounded by sauces and most often potatoes. All of that was going against Clean Eating rules, of course, so I tried to minimize damage as much as I could. Most often I replaced lunch with a handful of raw nuts I brought with me on a trip and an delicious local apple, tried to negotiate with waiters and exchange fries for salad (I was not always successful, nor was I happy with the state of the salad when I got it). Being a tourist is a hard work, I say!
We were walking on average 6 hours a day and I was not going to let myself starve. I ate fish as often as I could and tried to leave sauce on the plate. I ordered croissant for breakfasts rather than super-greasy sausages with eggs and fries. I did have a taste of all the deserts my husband routinely ordered, but just a teaspoon or two.
I was happy about the trip but was worried about what the scale would say when I returned home. To my relief I did not gain any weight and jumped right back into the usual routine with added enthusiasm. So my little strategies paid off. I guess after 2 years of practicing good choices refined my intuition and helped me minimize the dangers of eating out on this trip. I am looking forward to my future travels and confident that I will do even better!
I want to live my life to the fullest, but eating everything I see is no longer a part of that list! I work too hard on my health and my fitness to make bad food choices!
Decide. Commit. Succeed!

FREE Beachbody workout and Q&A

Accountability and Workout Challenge!

Dear Friends!

No one can be perfect all the time, but if you put an effort and commitment into even a few weeks of exercise and clean eating - you will see results!!!

That's why I decided to start a 10 day Eat Your Calories and Push Play challenge and invite you to join me. Let's take our bodies to the next level!


CHALLENGE DATES: Wed, Oct 7th, 2009 until and including October 17, 2009

RULES OF ENGAGEMENT:

1. You PRESS PLAY Five or Six Times a week, depending on your program. If you miss a workout, you're out of the challenge.

2. You EAT CLEAN six times a week. You have to report how many calories you must eat and how many your ate

3. You MUST report daily for the preceding day on the Challenge thread:

my thread - click here

For example, "Yesterday, I ate ### calories and pressed play."

Please REPORT IN RED LETTERING.

At the end of the challenge, we will put the WARRIORS NAMES IN A HAT TO DETERMINE THE WINNER!

THE PRIZE: Beachbody Video

Will you be the last man/woman standing?!


YOU BE THE JUDGE!!!

These 6 rules will put you on the rigth path for good nutrition to support your new exercise routine

If you are deciding to start on journey to healthier, fitter you, here is something you have to consider: a good nutrition plan.
The thing is - you may drag yourself through your life feeling tired because you don’t eat good food, enough of it and often enough, but you won’t be able to add exercise on top of it!

Here’s the conversation I find myself having over and over with someone close to me:

Her: I am starting to go to the gym.
Me: Excellent! Are you making sure you eating a balanced diet?
Her: No, not yet.

In a little while:

Me: Are you still going to the gym?
Her: I have no energy to go to the gym. I am discouraged and don’t have motivation. Exercise is not for me…
Me: Are you making sure you eating a balanced diet?
Her: No.

People who start a physical program without a sound nutrition plan fail to see results, and a lot of people make a conclusion that exercise is not for them and lose motivation! That is unfortunate, but can be prevented.
Here’s what you need to do when you plan to start an exercise routine:

- Figure out how much you are planning to exercise
For example – if you are planning to run on a treadmill for 30 minutes 3 times a week, and do a toning class 2 a week, try to establish how many calories you burn while doing each type of exercise. Heart rate monitors could be helpful in that respect, or use online to do approximate calories.

- Add 1200 to the calories you burn during the exercise– that is the minimum you need to consume.
1200 calories is how much you body burns while maintaining all normal functions, so going under 1200 is no recommended under any circumstances! The resulting calories is you starting point. This is an approximation, so if you feel that it is too low, adjust accordingly by adding more, mostly in form of protein.

- If you are just starting exercising after years of sedentary life, chances are you won’t be able to sustain high intensity workouts at first. As you get stronger and increase intensity of your workouts (and correspondingly, calories burned) you need to retest yourself and increase the calories you consume in order to sustain the new levels of physical activity. Not eating enough while you metabolism is revving up may lead to food cravings and overeating.

- Make sure you eating quality food. Eating Twinkies won’t nurture you body and won’t get you the results you want. Clean diet is the way to go: incorporate lean meats, Omega-3 rich fish, whole grain cereals, breads and pasta; fresh vegetable and fruits.

- Avoid food that contain artificial additives, preservative, refined flour, sugar and high fructose corn syrup. These slow down metabolism and prevent weight loss.

- Drink lots of water, and avoid sugary drinks. Even sports drinks can be high in sugar, so check labels carefully!

Good nutrition and good exercise go hand in hand. By consistently improving both, you will be able to achieve the best shape of your life!

10 Thoughts You Must Catch to Beat Emotional Eating

"Emotional eating" seems to have entered the vocabulary of the everyday person. We are aware of it in an anecdotal level, same way as we are of other modern over-indulgences - TV, electronic gadgets and Internet. Yesterday at the snack vending machine I heard a coworker say: " I am such an emotional eater!". To which I replied: " Who isn't?"

There is no denying it - food has comforting qualities. We crave food for reasons other than pure energy restoration. We all over-indulge from time to time, but when the degree of emotional eating is very high, it is stops being a clandestine mid-night affair between you and that pint of ice-cream; the results are evident in the plan daylight in spite of artful efforts to cover it with layers of clothes .

Emotional eating is deeply embedded in our psyche, it is not impervious to change. There are ways in which you can train your mind to tell real hunger apart from the emotional eating.
To break away from this dangerous habit we have to learn to recognize when we "eat our emotions".
Pay attention to the way you think when the thoughts of food enter our mind.
When we think like this:

- I have to eat before I tackle this pile of documents on my desk...
- I just worked though a huge pile of documents on my desk and deserve to eat...
- I am bored, I will eat now, since there is nothing better to do...
- I am in pain, if I eat I'll feel better...
- I am happy, I am going to celebrate it with my favorite meal!
- I feel shy, out of place, I better eat all this food....
- I feel dissatisfied with myself, my marriage, my job...eating makes me feel better...
- I feel guilty, eating makes me forget that...
- I really want to please my host/mother/mother-in-law and eat even thought I am not hungry...
- I feel pressure to lose weight and I will eat to show them who's boss...

It is time to stop eating and address the issues at the root of the problem!
The good new is - you can start working on changing this habit right away - all you need to do is carry this list around with you and check it every time your reach out for your refrigerator: am I really hungry or am I eating my emotions again?
I guarantee that combining this approach with other healthy choices will lead you to losing those extra pounds and improving overall outlook on life!

5 Main Reasons Why People Lose Motivation to Lose Weight

As an independent Beachbody coach, I help a lot of clients to overcome multiple obstacles in their efforts to lose weight and increase overall level of fitness. Achieving the body of your dreams is not always easy, and a lot of people give up half-way without realizing the cause, or causes, of their frustration and dissatisfaction. In this article I am trying to outline the main reasons for loss of motivation, and hope it helps you to avoid common mistakes, such as:

1) Inadequate assessment of where you are at the begin of your body make-over process.

To make a successful transition, you need to reasonably assess were you are at the start of your body make-over. If you judge yourself lighter or heavier, or more or less physically fit than you actually are, you won’t be able to set realistic goals and determine the best plan for your transformation. After you achieve your intermediate goals you need to reassess your situation and create a plan for the next stage of transformation.

2) Unrealistic goals

If you set unrealistic goals, let’s say to lose 5 pounds a week, you won’t be able to achieve it and will give up in frustration. The healthy and reasonable goal is to lose no more than 2 pounds a week, and even then weight does not come off at programmed intervals. Weeks can go by until the pounds come off, and then they come off 5-6 pounds all at once. Also, depending on how much weight you are trying to lose, the time it takes to lose weight may vary: if you need to lose 50 pounds, first 30 may come off much faster than last 10-15. The less weight you need to lose, the more time it usually takes. Not knowing this may lead to unrealistic goals, frustration and ultimately loss of motivation. You should approach weight-loss goal setting with much thought and research.

3) Unrealistic expectations.

After achieving of your weight loss goals, you may still be disappointed, because you expected to look like a picture on the program you bought or a body builder in a magazine whose advice you followed. You may be unsatisfied with the size of your biceps or your stomach not yet looking like a washboard. Don’t be discouraged by your reflection and sabotage further progress! For a lot of people who picked up fitness after years of neglect it will take some time to reawaken muscles, turn around metabolism and generally turn back the clock. It can be done, but it takes time, effort and patience.

4) Inadequate progress measurement

You may be making great progress, but due to inaccurate or inappropriate progress evaluation you don’t realize it! When trying to lose weight, the scale is not the best tool – you need to learn to use a tape measure or judge the progress on how loose the clothes are fitting you since you started the makeover process. The great gauge of your progress is body fat indicator, most accurately measured by using caliper or BMI calculators available on line.

5) Insufficient support system

Everything I describe above is hard to juggle on your own. People who achieve the best shape of their lives rarely do so without a support system: a network of fellow fitness enthusiasts and experts. A lot of our perception of our bodies is subjective, and people from your support network are there to give a second opinion when you think your progress is insufficient, dispel disappointments due to incorrect assessments and suggest new approaches when nothing seems to work.

Chalene Extreme - 30 day picture!!!!

I just completed 30 days of Chalene Extreme and I am very excited by the results!
I have 60 more days to go and I can't wait to see what else it will do to my body!
Chalene Extreme principle is to do fewer reps with heavy weights!
I think it works wonders for me - it will work for you as well!
And, last but not least - it build character!
I am just so happy I am doing this!!!!