Independence

Today is my Independence Day of sorts.

I have been struggling with different things in my life for so long.  My weight.  My self esteem.  Other people's happiness. My relationship with food. My relationships with people. Today I am breaking free of that!

I woke up this morning and thought to myself; why have I constantly let so much control what makes me happy?  I guess in part it's always been my nature.  I like to see people happy, and that usually has meant putting a lot of my wants and needs on the back burner.  I have always chosen to let what others think of me influence what I do, and what I think of myself.  I can see that some of that was wanting to be part of something.  I know that in a past relationship, I let myself fall into what I thought he wanted me to be.  I ate the "wrong" foods because he made it, since he wouldn't eat the healthier food I made.  I realized it had to stop.  I had my issues with  food for a long time and what I was doing to myself wasn't making the situation any better.   I realized that if he wasn't happy with the person I was, was there really any hope for us to be together?  It was time to focus on getting healthier, and I started on the first part of the weight loss/fitness journey that I am on.

I have learned through reading, and through my own trial and error that my body responds better to certain foods.  I have learned that the better I eat, meaning clean and healthy, that my body works better.

There are 30 days in a month. There are 4 months left in 2012.  I am going to take full advantage of that time  in order to use what God has put in to my life. He has put certain people and opportunities in my life for a reason.

Do You Have the Power?

Thursday:  ChaLEAN Extreme Burn Circuit 3 (oh yah-I felt it)
                 Jogging-5 MPH: 30 minutes

Friday:  Turbo Fire 30

Bet you thought I forgot.

I didn't.  Put the kid to bed last night and "POOF"-fell asleep myself, for a much needed nights sleep, on the couch.  Not the best place to lay at night...to close to the kitchen on my way to bed. And its always for the sweets! So here in lies my next question.....how much will power do you have?

Some days-I'm all about the will power.  Unfortunately, some days, I am not.  The mornings/early afternoon are the best for me.  I can power past the donuts and all the sweets that they may have sitting around the office.   Once I hit about 3:00-4:00 in the afternoon, it starts to dwindle.  Certainly don't like it....but it is something I really do need to learn to come to terms with, otherwise, all the hard work I put in to my work outs and the beginning of the day are truly for nothing.

The concept of weight loss is simple:  What you take in needs to be less than what you put out.

I hear time and time again that people who sleep more weigh less.  And while that statistic may be true, I live in the real world, where time is a precious thing.  I work 2 jobs, I am an online coach with Beachbody, (something I truly believe in by the way) and I am a full time single mom.  If I tried to get the recommended 8 hours, there is a lot that won't get done in my life and in my home.

So, back to the initial problem, how do you fight the late night cravings?

Here are things I am willing to give a try (and I need to throw thanks to my friends that have helped with these-you know who you are.)
1.  A bowl of oatmeal
2.  Lots of Water
3.  Bowl of Multigrain Cheerios (the Peanut Butter are my new fave)
4.  Greek Yogurt-with some honey or agave and cinnamon
5.  A small dish of fruit
6.  Small portion of pretzels and Nutella (oh yum!!)
7.  Hot tea (Love a good peppermint or chamomile)
8. Frozen Bananas Slices (you'd be surprised how good that can be-and you can use them in a smoothie)
9.  A smoothie (low cal of course)

I also keep telling myself that perhaps a little late night yoga would be helpful in curbing those thoughts of snacking.  It's always high on the list until I get home and finally have that quiet time to relax and do nothing for a few minutes.

So-to all of you out there with the same problem, I would love to hear what you do.  And in the mean time-thanks for keeping me accountable.   This is something I am sure that  I get back on when I can finally win that will power battle.

What's Your Excuse?

Blah Blah Blah.

We all have our excuses as to why we don't follow through.  The one I like to use the most is that "I don't have the time."  I can legitimize that one in so many ways.  I have 2 jobs.  I work long hours.  I am a single mother.  I have to much other stuff going on.

While those are all true, the things that I have chosen to let consume my life, and give me the excuses that I use, are all about other people or things.  Granted, as a single mom, my family is and should be my number one priority.  The others, however, shouldn't be what I put before myself.  When did I stop becoming so important to me.  If I fall apart, everything I work so hard to do everyday will fall apart to.  Plain and simple, right?  But most of us fail to follow through with what we want to do.  It truly is a sad thing.

When did we stop being important to ourselves?

I saw something posted on Facebook yesterday.  A one hour workout is 4% of our day.  What is so hard about taking that little bit of time in order to become a healthier person?  Puts it into perspective.  I know that I have started on a change in my life-but I still am working to hurdle over the excuses stage, primarily in the morning when I can't drag my tired butt out of bed.

So-here I put forth this afternoon-

1.  I will  get up and work out every morning.  I won't be the one to use the excuse-I was to tired.

2.  I will blog about it to keep myself accountable.

This is the start to my accountability. Now, whats yours?

Week 1 My Beachbody Challenge

Well, here we are at the end of week 1.  And it's been a hectic week.  I did start it Tuesday morning as promised.  I have chosen to incoporate the ChaLEAN Extreme with the Turbo Fire.  This body can feel it for sure.  I have also started drinking Shakeology every day.  I love it.  I love the fact that it tastes great, how can you beat chocolate.  I also love the fact that I don't have to take my daily vitamin, and with all the minerals and extra goodies in it, it really is the best thing you could put in your body all day.

I chose to be part of the company because I want to be able to help end the trend of obesity in this world.  I fought with my weight since I was a child.  It was tough growing up that.  The older I got, the more weight I would put on.  I moved out and lived on my own, and it got worse.  I remember as a child being criticized about my weight by family members.  As a kid, it doesn't help you.  I was never taught how to eat healthy.  Not that it was intentional, but I was never taught to eat more veggies, go easy on the butter, and all the other good stuff.  When I was about 15-16 my parents had me join one of those diet places where all the food is prepackaged and you go in every week for a weigh in and some one talks to you.  Their heart was in the right place, and I actually did lose some weight, but as soon as I was off of it, I gained the weight back, and then some.  A diet like that, while convenient, does not teach you how to eat.

After that, my weight kept going up and up and up.  I know I topped somewhere around 240.  Could have been more, I wasn't to fond of the scale at the time, so not really sure where I started.  That has since changed and I took control.  I have lost 100 pounds on my own, and recently just found Beachbody and fell in love with the concept.  They want to help people lose weight and keep it off.  And they want to pass it on and on and on.

I am proud to be part of that now.  If I can pass it on to someone and they can be successful like I was, and will continue to be as I lose the last 30 pounds I have been struggling with, then I have done my part.  I want to give this to everyone.  So, if you think its time and you are ready to make that change, please, check out my Beachbody site, take me up on a challenge, and take control of your life.

beachbodycoach.com/kimlesperance

Here's to being fit for the rest of ouri lives!!

Time for A Change

We are over a month and a half into the new year.  I made it through the birthdays and the holidays.  I made it through the PF Changs Half Marathon with a time of 2:50.  I was pleased considering it was my first.  I trained.  I ran.  It was great an looking forward to doing it again next year.

Once all that training was over and said and done, my weight has remained at a constant.  I'm not sure if that was a good or bad thing.  The unfortunate thing that I have been dealing with is a major lack of energy.  Not sure if its a nutritional thing, but I have been learning that most of the issues that I have usually are associated to a bit of everything.  I have been struggling to get out of bed in the morning.  At first I was anxious to get up at 5:00 in the morning and get in my workout, looked forward to them.  Now, its like a battle just to get past the snooze alarm.  Some nights I struggle to get past putting my daughter to bed.  My housework some days seems not to get done because I fall asleep before I can get to it, and waking up to just barely get the little one and myself ready to head out for the day.

  I had been doing the TurboFire workout and was really enjoying it. I still do....just not sure why I let myself fall out of that.  I think part of my problem was that I haven't been seeing the results I wanted to see.  The workouts were great-but when it came down to it, the weight didn't go down like I wanted to see.  Another part of the equation I believe was that my eating habits could have been a bit better.  You can't under eat, and think that making it up with a binge of bad foods on another day are going to garner you any loss on the scale.

Here we are at today.  I have decided to take control of my life in different ways.  I have decided to take on the strength training workout Chalene Extreme.  It will be at my door on Monday, along with Shakeology.  On that note, I have also decided to join the Beachbody team as a coach, starting with one of their challenges.  So, starting Tuesday, please ride along with me on this journey.  I would love to have all of you follow me as I start this positive change to my life.  And if you would like to do more than follow by joining along side of me with a challenge, I would love to help you along on that road too.

Here's to the new me and perhaps, maybe, a new you!!!

So far?

What was I thinking picking Thanksgiving week the one that I choose to be more accountable.Like I had said before, its always run, run, run in my life-hard to sit around and do nothing, as nice as that thought may be some days.  It definitely made things more interesting.  My body was just not into it-and I could feel it.  That being said...

Last Wednesday I was lucky enough to have off, and I was so excited to get out and run one of my old trails, and found out how much I need to hydrate before these runs.  The temperature was pushing 80 degrees, so not terribly warm, but when your body heats up as fast as it does when you are out running, you lose a lot that water while you are out there sweating. My body felt it.  So that was one thing that I learned.  I got in my  3+ miles, but it was a little rough there for a while.

So here, I sit, a little over a week after I sat here and typed away about talking about accountability.  I am watching The Biggest Loser and thinking to myself about my eating habits.  I watch these people who have taken control of that area in their lives.  They work out hard for the last few weeks and they have lost a great amount of weight.  I am not putting short all the hard work I have put into my past weight loss, but I sometimes wonder why I sabotage my current efforts to reach my goals.  I had hoped that by signing up for the half marathon that it would refocus my efforts, and in some cases, it has.  On the other hand, I catch myself in the kitchen, after Madi has gone to bed, looking for something to snack on.  I have read numerous articles.  I know that I need to keep healthy "zero" foods in my kitchen, instead of the bad go to foods that I have been using.  I am great during the day, but let my  down  time get the best of me.

So-do I lay it out again, for the whole world to see?  Guess it can't hurt, and maybe the more people that see this, namely those close to me, and I'm not talking about their location that can be my support.

1.) Lose another 30 pounds, and seriously tone my body.  I have had people in my life tell me it isn't possible to both of those due to the overweight past that I have had, that it may be something that I just need to contend with.  But again, I go back to watching  The Biggest Loser, if they can do it once they got home from the ranch, why can't I.  I have dealt with my weight issues over the years.

2.) Get myself back to the all day healthy eating that I know I can do, instead of being bad at night.  It's all something I know that I can do.  It's something that I know is possible.

I want to keep the positive people in my life instead of the toxic ones that I have allowed to have to much say regarding my choices.  They are my choices....if you can't accept that, then keep your comments to yourself.  This is something that I have chosen to better the health of myself and my daughter.

There is nothing holding me back except myself.  I have to take control because no one else can.  So here goes nothing.  See you back here tomorrow!

To A Healthier Life!!!!