2013 and into 2014

Wow let me say that 2013 has been a very very fast year! It seriously just FLEW by. I wonder sometimes why that didn't happen while I was stationed in Alaska. Ha ha. It has been a wonderful year for me and I must say that I am very excited for 2014.

I am sitting here in my room with a glass of water and my candle burning and bringing me calm and I can't help but think of the possibilities that there can be in a persons life in a year but even so much as a day. People go into the New Year thinking about these monumental things that they want to do with their weight, person, and life in general and we start with this HUGE flame to succeed to be better people with a fresh slate that often times by Spring we have forgotten all of those resolutions and we start fresh every month. I hope that makes sense to you.

I hope for you that 2014 will bring a year of JUST doing it. Just go out there and get your dreams. While some of the things well most of the things that happened to me I didn't necessarily have to work for I stayed positive this year and had the most fantastic fun year! Make this year great and be A POSITIVE LIGHT!!!

This year was amazing for me.

I ran the Disney Princess Half Marathon something that I just looked at the Running Times magazine and thought was impossible.

I went on my photography retreat and met some of the most wonderful talented women in photography.

I watched my oldest son give his life to God.

I watched my youngest start his school years :(

I also saw my oldest start his middle school years :(

I was a bridesmaid at a wedding.

I helped 10 people lose weight (goal board goal that was met)

I paid off MOST of my credit card debt. (1 more to go!)

I photographed my first wedding by myself.

I am pregnant with my third child.

I have a better relationship with God.

I saw my first Broadway musical.

Among many other things.

So what now for 2014..........I do want to make this year an adventure year but I will be pregnant for half of it LOL SO I don't know HOW well that is going to work out for me so I have a few things that I want to accomplish and I want to work more on myself. SO I will save me "Resolutions" Post for tomorrow. Until then, enjoy the last day of 2013 and don't drink and drive. Stay safe!!!

Bumpdate: Into the second trimester

I find myself consistently looking for bloggers that talk about having a healthy pregnancy and I kind of have a hard time finding them. Most of them are bumpdates which is cool but I wanna know what you are eating and what you are doing to workout ha ha. I have not been able to find an inbetween with some bloggers some are HARD core and just look like they have a budda belly and others are lacking anyway I figured I would share bumpdates a long the way for anyone searching for someone that is a "normal" person who is trying to keep healthy.

My 14 week bump

I am 16 weeks pregnant now and I am SO happy to be out of the first trimester. For weeks 1-6 I was doing really well working out, running and eating really healthy pretty much my normal diet of meat vegetables mostly. Then week 7 came and week 7-13 were the PITS I was nauseous all day and eating french fries, crackers, rice, and pretzels were the only thing to keep me fed. As with most vegetables were NON-EXSISTENT in my diet so I started back on my Shakeology so I would know that I was getting some good nutrition in my body. Sometimes that made me nauseous but it wasn't vegetables so it worked. I was also car sick queasy (?) I know strange. I started gaining my energy back at week 14.5 and now I am good. Week 7-13 I worked out maybe 3-4 days a week most of them being 3 days and I didn't feel guilty at all. I knew I didn't feel well and I wasn't going to push myself past the limit my body was willing to go. This isn't about me anymore I am now living to keep my baby safe. Now that I am good I am working out 5-6 days a week. I DO find that the more that I do the more tired I am at the end of the day and it feels like the first trimester again.

WEIGHT GAIN: I know that is what some of you are here for LOL I know I looked at the weight gain to when I was reading the blogs. It's cool to see how every woman is different. This time around I am up 7-8 pounds in my 16th week. I think I am pretty good for wanting to gain no more than 40.

Eating: Overall it has been OK. I try to eat as healthy as I can but I always slip in a treat here or there. Lately my obsession has been candy canes and I have been eating about 2 a day. Yesterday was the first day I didn't have candy at all but it was really hard to ignore it ha ha. Right now my daily meals look kind of like this:

Breakfast: Cup of coffee, 2 scrambled eggs, 2-3 thin and crispy turkey bacon slices, and sometimes a whole grain waffle with natural jelly.

Lunch: A salad or chicken tenders with vegetables or tuna with potatoes and green beans. I even had a PB&J one time. It depends really on how I feel. When I am at work it is probably the most unhealthy of my day.

Dinner: Usually a lean meat choice with some veggies and potato I really like the feeling of being full so the potato really helps. Sometimes on really lazy days I will have pancakes but that is pretty rare. It was def a first trimester favorite.

WORKOUTS: I try to log my workout everyday. I am not sticking to any kind of plan right now as I don't always feel like doing the "same" thing. I wish beachbody had a maternity program other than their yoga DVD it would be really nice.

As a Beachbody traitor I did purchase Tracy Andersons Pregnancy Project (I love that it is aimed at a pregnant woman) and I plan on walking on the treadmill during my work week starting in Jan to get my steps in. So far I have done the following.... PS MY DOC GAVE ME THE OK TO DO THESE WORKOUTS I STOPPED CHALEAN EXTREME BECAUSE I WAS STARTING TO LIFT TO HEAVY BUT I WILL GO TO THE RESISTANCE BANDS. CHECK WITH YOUR DOCTOR BEFORE STARTING AN  EXERCISE PROGRAM ESPECIALLY WHEN PREGNANT!

December:
10: Chalean Extreme Push Circuit 3 and Turbofire HIIT20
11: Burn Intervals
12: Push Circuit 1
13: Fire 45 EZ Turbofire
14: Push Circuit 2 and HIIT 25
15: Burn it off and recharge (Chalean Extreme)
16: Rest
17: Push 3 and HIIT 15
18:Tracy Anderson Month 4 and Fire 45
19: Tracy Anderson month 3
20: Rest
21: Tracy Anderson Month 3 and Fire 45
22: Buti Tone 50 and Tracy Anderson Month 4
23: TAM Month 4 and Fire 45 EZ
24: Rest
25: Tracy Anderson Month 4 and Fire 45 EZ
26: Fire 55 EZ
27: Tracy Anderson Month 4

Today I am feeling a bit under the weather my son transferred his head cold to me and I feel like complete crap. I am super tired my head is pounding and my appetite is weird. Oh the joys of having children LOL. I must say that this pregnancy with a child already is a lot harder than just having it be my husband and I. It sure is a challenge that is for sure but totally worth it. Sorry for the super long post. I hope this helps!!!!

This was me then........pt 2

This was me at 146 pounds (I am 5'3). I was a sz 13. This was me on Jan 2 2011. This was the year that my husband would be gone for 8 months of the year and this was the FINAL year that I said that I had enough. I was tired of being a double digit size and I knew that I had it in me to be the ME that I always wanted to be after I had my kids. This was no longer my pregnancy weight this was me just being damn FAT and INDULGENT. SO THIS TIME I entered the Eat Clean Diet Challenge and again submitting my pictures to the website. This contest I think (?) was 6 months long so I had A LOT of time to accomplish this goal.

This was also a time where I had totally and 100% concentrated on myself with my husband being gone and my little guy being so small it was pretty easy to have lots of reflection time on myself. That is exactly what I did and when my husband came back I kept shrinking and kept growing as an individual.

I had gone to the gym 5 days a week during my lunch break and I took the weekends off and followed the Eat Clean Diet model about 80% of the time. I had one cheat day and fared really well. I went down to 125-127 and got into running and ran my first 5K and 10K that summer. It was such an amazing accomplishment I was in love with my new body but yet.....I wanted more. I was the same person that you see up there I was just a smaller version. I had no muscle tone and I wanted that so enter P90X.

I had that silly workout in my closet because like most I was afraid of it. This time I committed I went cray cray woke up at 5 AM and completed my workouts daily, I was sore as hell but I was consistently losing 1-2 pounds a week and I was getting the body that I wanted. By the time I was done I lost 10 pounds and fit into a sz 6.

Because of the Eat Clean diet and P90X and the discipline that I had I was able to gain the body of MY dreams and I was able to heal the wounds from my past. I put everything out there when I was working out. ALL of it my divorce, the distance from my big guy, the fact that I was alone with my son, taking care of my son. All that stress I gave to the pavement, the gym, and Tony Horton LOL.

To have a transformation you have to be OVER IT. READY FOR A CHANGE. It can't (in my opinion) be just a thing that you are going to do because it is the New Year or because your jeans are too tight........it has to be something that you are SICK of and READY to CHANGE. You have to have that clear vision of exactly what you want. It has to come from your heart not from a pages of a magazine. Envy my dears isn't going to do it for you, a light within you has to be ready to shine and you have to be ready to face all the bullshit and get down and freaking dirty to get what you want. FED UP with you and YOUR HABITS ready to change.

I didn't get here because I wanted Jennifer Lopez's body (she has a killer one though) I got here because I wanted to be the BEST ME THAT I COULD PUT FORWARD FOR MYSELF, MY SONS, AND MY HUSBAND BUT MOSTLY FOR ME! I wanted Jeannette back. I had to heal my heart and my health and now I am me. I had the love I had the family but I needed to be me to be the best for them and to appreciate everything that I had.

This is why today I am trying to be the healthiest that I can. To be healthy for me and my baby because without me being healthy my baby isn't either. I workout and I don't want to go to that picture or enter contests for motivation. The motivation is from me myself and I now. I know healthy, I preach health, and I love being healthy and the way it makes me feel. I am a better person all around. I am still scared as hell to gain more than 30 pounds but as long as I know that I am doing everything that I can to be healthy than I can smile knowing that this time I did something right for me and my child.

This was me..............

This was me.........165 pounds.........what I had left over after my pregnancy with my son. This is approximately 8-10 weeks postpartum. I remember being in the car on the way back from Florida telling my husband that Body for Life was the program that I was going to do and I was going to submit for the challenge whether I won or not. I needed some bait to get to the finish line and get back to my pre pregnancy weight because I had to do it to stay within the weight standards of the Coast Guard. In this picture I was about a sz 14 and was still wearing maternity clothes because I was ashamed that I had gained 70 pounds and only lost 30 after the baby.

THIS is the body that I am deathly afraid of going back to after I have my third child. NOT because of how it looks I do OBVIOUSLY understand that the body takes time to get back into shape and it took 9 months to get to where I was at the time. The fear comes from looking at this body knowing that I wasn't healthy at all, I was uncomfortable, my confidence was ZERO, and I did this all to myself. My baby didn't do this to me, I did. I gave into every indulgence and for the second time in my life I acted like pregnancy was a license to eat. That is exactly what I did.

Before this, I never really ate healthy. I was once a size 3 and 105 pounds (I am 5'3) by pure luck. I was the one that ate what she wanted and didn't gain a darn pounds......that is until after I had kids. I didn't eat vegetable (what are those?) and I didn't eat chicken breasts unless they were fried and dipped in ranch or hot sauce. I took my metabolism for granted and didn't learn a lick about health. SO I went to the gym bought the Body for Life cookbook and lost 25 pounds, made weight for the USCG and went on my merry way. I stopped exercising and maintained my weight some how but I was still a sz 10 and uncomfortable in my body.

Then I went to Alaska and was faced with being a single parent because my husband was underway for months at a time. I ate easy foods, snacked on cheeze-its and indulged in sour cream and cheddar chips (I can no longer keep them in my home) and white wine on the weekends. I went back to being sedentary (I also work at a desk) and went from 145-135 several times while I was there. THIS is the body that I earned myself while I was in Alaska..........

It doesn't look much different than my postpartum one huh? At least above I had the "I just had a baby excuse." I landed at 146 and I couldn't fit into my biggest size 13 "period" jeans. That was a deal breaker for me. I was disappointed in myself but once again I got myself right there AGAIN! You'd think that busting my ass for 6 months after the birth of my son would have given me the shock that I needed but nope that didn't work either. SO what did work???? I'll tell you tomorrow to spare you from reading a novel. :)

I have been waiting to tell you.

I don't know who reads my blog but I know there are many of you that read it. I have been waiting to spill the beans for WEEKS now! I just couldn't because of the obvious. I have been anxious to tell yu all so without further waiting from me!!

Say Hello to my little "nugget!!!!" I am 13 weeks along and I couldn't be MORE excited to have this little blessing in my belly. Let me tell you that this little one has been wreaking havoc in there lol. I was sick for about a month (just queasy) and tired as tired can be.

Being pregnant this time around I have made the conscious decision to keep it healthy at least 75-80% of the time. I say that because a craving is a craving and I will indulge. I was thinking about a macaroni salad for a week before I actually made it SO I do have some restraint.

I am not going to do the whole pregnancy bump posts. I thought that I would do them but the more I read about them the more redundant they seem so I will post a few maybe monthly posts? about the whole pregnancy so that I can go back and read about how I felt and so that I can share with all of my readers.

FIRST TRIMESTER RECAP:

Overall: My first trimester was somewhat of a blur but October/November was the WORST months for me. I was totally nauseous I was bloated like crazy and I was tired but also had to keep up with my 5 year old. Thank God for my husband lol. My earliest bed time was 7 and the latest during this trimester was 10:30 and I paid for that dearly LOL

Food: I was NOT healthy during this trimester ha ha. I ate french fries for dinner, bred, BLT's, pizza and a lot of homemade and store bought chipolte bowls, Maria cookies, pretzels, and more pretzels and ginger ale, did I mention pretzels? LOL. To date I gained 8 pounds in the first trimester which I think is absolutely terrible but I ate out a lot and I also went carb crazy like most pregnant women along with eating a lot of sodium.

Aversions: Right now vegetables are getting easier but they were no exsistent in my diet for weeks and I mean WEEKS I bought the stuff with good intentions and NOPE didn't work out for me LOL> Money down the drain. I recently started juicing and that is helping me with some of my aversions because it tastes like fruit. I tried a smoothie in my first trimester and I was nauseous for 2 hours after :(

Sleep: Fantastic there are some nights where I toss and turn but so far so good no big complaints.

Maternity wear: None yet I am still rocking my Size 4 jeans just unbuttoned thank God LOL

Gender guesses: Actually none I am pretty ok with whatever God blesses me with, but I mean I have 2 boys so there is a part of me that is secretly hoping for a girl but I won't be upset if it is not. I just can't wait to have a cute cuddle smell yummy adorable baby in my arms!!!!

Cravings: It changes every day. Like I said, macaroni salad for a week before I ate it. Pizza then got nauseous, and that's it really.

Workouts: The first trimester was good but there were three weeks there where I worked out for 1-3 times a week. I am now working out 4-5 times a week. I am doing a mix of different things as staying on a schedule is a bit much since I don't really know what or how much energy I have for that day. Right now I am doing Chalean Extreme and for 2 weeks I did Turbofire. I took half of last week off but I am still getting some work done :) These are probably the best workouts that I have done for a pregnant self but we'll see what happens this trimester. I have had some round ligament pain so it hinders yoga because the moves are a bit fast :( or the moves twist me in a weird way and getting out of it, I tried yesterday LOL and it didnt workout that great for me ha ha.


Well I don't want to ramble on and on but that's that!!!!!! I hope you follow to read about how I try to have the healthiest pregnancy possible. :)

Beachbody Balck Friday Sale!!!!

I am so excited that today Beachbody has announced their Black Friday Deals that go all the way through the weekend. There are some exciting and DEEP discounts that are being offered today and I can say that if you are looking for a deal with Beachbody THIS is the ONLY time of year that you are going to get it.


https://www.TeamBeachbody.com/Shop/HolidaySpecials?referringRepId=112419

I am MOST excited that my soulmate workout Turbofire is going to be on sale and for the deepest discount that I have ever seen it which is AMAZING to me and makes me regret buying mine at full price! Kidding! You would seriously be a fool not to take part in this sale and even use this offer to give the gift of health to your loved ones this year.

Another awesome AWESOME deal is that 38% off that you can receive from DERM Exclusive! I hear amazing things about the product and the freeze and fill is coming out in a 5 pack at 35% off the regular price. I don't know about you but if you have been on the fence about buying it NOW is the time and the ONLY time it will be on sale.

Um and HELLO P90X is ON SALE TOO! HOLY cow THIS is the program that got me the results and this is the product that MANY MANY people want but say they can't afford. Let me tell you NOW is the time PLUS you get a free chin up bar! How freaking insane is that!!!?? I am seriously mad that I paid full price for this one too lmao just kidding but seriously if you were ever thinking about this NOW is the time.

I totally missed out on these sales last year and sat too long on them and missed out on the greatest deals and was disappointed that I didn't. This year for me it is ON! You'll have to wait until next year for another great sale and these items won't be on it guaranteed!

CLICK HERE TO get these great deals!!!!!

Being in a challenge group

This week marks the end of my first week with Turbofire. I have found my soul mate workout and it has been for some time now I just put it to the side to pursue other things. Anyhow, I am back to my workout and I LOVE that I am having fun while working out again. This time though I am in a challenge group.

I know right how crazy is it that a Beachbody Coach is in a challenge group? Well to be honest I am human and although I am an example and role model to some people I'm still me just a person like you. I go through struggles and there are times where I need support and motivation too. In order to be successful sometimes you have to admit defeat. This summer was that for me, I did not live with integrity and I followed the crowd which is turn made me neglect my body and my faith. I just walked away from it all and my body internally suffered from it. I even put on about 6 pounds, which to some is like whatever but to someone that is tiny like me it is a lot and it is noticeable. The number isn't the issue it's more the effect of all the negative things that I did to myself.

I stopped working out, I stopped eating as healthy and I reverted back to the ways that got me to the weight that I was after I had children. I was slowly climbing the ladder to being the "lazy" unhappy me that I once despised. SO I recently joined a challenge group.

It has probably been one of the best things that I have done for myself. I have eaten healthier this week than I have in months, in just one week I have more energy and my little fitness fire is back on which helped light the other fires in me that were dimming out. I was losing balance of who I was because I was paying attention to something that was getting me off track if you can understand what I mean.

I completed all of my workouts for the week and I am looking forward to week two. It is nice to be on the other side of the fence and see what it is like for some of you go through and how accountable the challenge makes you.

I am going to make a commitment here and now and say that I WILL participate IN EVERY challenge group that I sponsor from now on so that we can go through our things together and I will hopefully never fall off the wagon and sabotage and live a life without my integrity again.

My meal plan and workouts for the week

Starting today I thought that I would start posting a weekly meal plan and my workout plan for the week to 1 let you all know what it is that I do in my life and 2 to be accountable to myself.

I usually meal plan because it helps me save money when I grocery shop as I always buy garbage that I don't need or think that I want to eat and then never do...speaking of which I kind of need to clean out my pantry. That darn thing is so small I can never truly see what's in it but I digress. It saves me money, I buy only the things that I need and I have a HEALTHY plan of what I am going to eat rather than eating pancakes for dinner like I shamelessly did last week! Yes! 2 times to be exact.

So here is my meal plan for the next week :) Of course thanksgiving is in there and we will have not healthy foods on Thanksgiving but I have already added that in as my cheat meal.

Workouts :

Monday      Tuesday        Wednesday      Thursday      Friday        Saturday        Sunday

Fire 45         Fire 30               Rest        Fire 30         Fire 55 EZ      Fire 45         Core 20
                    Sculpt 30                           Tone 30                                                   Stretch 40

Meal plan will be :)

So there it is. I am on week 2 of Turbofire and I am really enjoying it. I obviously don't see any changes but I am having fun with it and I am feeling the burn of doing the workouts.

I am running a challenge group for 5 days on the day after Thanksgiving, if you are interested please email me at jeannettealverio(at)yahoo(dot)com.

5 Day Inferno Bombshell Challenge

Ok so I am picturing it now. It is the day after Thanksgiving and you wake up feeling groggy and bloated and you say to yourself. Oh man I need to get up and workout because I am sure I gained a whole other person after all the festivities yesterday. Look, I am a coach and health and fitness is what I breath but I am human and I do over indulge and lately it has been more often than not so I can totally understand.

So you want to get all healthy and get ready because we all know that Christmas is like uh hello TOMORROW. I have to fit into that cute Christmas party dress or HOLY COW we have pictures to take this weekend and I feel not so great about myself.

This is where I come in! I am going to host My First Annual 5 Day Inferno Challenge to help you get rid of that bloat!!! So what is it exactly?

It comes from the Turbofire workout and it is a 5 day meal plan and exercise plan that will help you shed some of your weight and cleanse yourself before getting ready to get on with your workout program. It can also be used to fit into that little black dress :) or to be "red carpet ready"

I am not promising you a weight loss of 10 or even 20 pounds but what I am promising is that you will feel leaner you will be less bloated and you can lose up to 5 pounds if you do everything as described.

It's a 5 day plan, you will be provided a grocery list, meal plan and workout schedule you will workout 30-50 minutes doing whatever you please just make sure that you are moving your body for those 5 days pretty intensely. So what do you have to lose except for a few pounds?? If you are interested please email me at jeannettealverio(at)yahoo.com

What is the #1 reason people fail?

People don't see weight loss results for many reason but it all boils down to just a few things really when they are all lumped together.

The number one reason that people don't see weight loss results is EXCUSES. Excuses come in all forms but they are still just what they are excuses.

There are internal excuses - those kinds of excuses are the ones that you tell yourself such as
"You aren't going to see results."
"Why are you even doing this anyway nothing is going to change."
"Girl, you have been this big for so long you aren't going to quit AGAIN so you might as well save yourself the trouble"

These types of excuses are toxic and can hinder your progress and even stop it if you let your mind take control over your actions. You should always know why you are doing the things that you are doing. Weight loss in my opinion should be a GOAL. When you set out to make goals you HAVE to know why you are wanting to attain or achieve that goal. If you do things blindly without focus you are going to lose the motivation and drive to complete the things that you want or you think that you wanted. Weight loss is a journey whether it is a 5 or 150 pound journey that you are taking. It is isn't easy but it will sure be worth it in the end.

Then there are external excuses which include:
I am too busy with work.
I don't have time for my family already as it is.
My family doesn't support what I am doing.
I don't have the money to eat healthy or the time to make all my meals.
I work so late there is no way I am going to fit in a workout.
I work the late shift how the heck am I going to cook and prepare all these healthy meals?

These types of excuses can be masked as REASONS why you aren't ready or willing to make the change that you think you want. At the end of the day if you can't reach your goals because of one of the excuses that you are making you have no one to blame but yourself. We are all responsible for our actions and choices that we make in this life. I am a firm believer that if you want the change in your life you should be ready and willing to give whatever change it is that you want 100% of your time and attention and not forget why it is that you are doing whatever it is to begin with.

Tips to get what you want:

Leave the excuses at the door. If weight loss is what you want than weight loss is what you will get if you leave the excuses alone.

Write down your goals for weight loss and what you are going to do to achieve those goals.

Write down solutions to the obstacles that you see in your way.

Write down WHY you are doing this.

Write down a plan to get to your goals and take it one step at a time one commitment at a time.

Consistency is the key to success

So I have been M. I. A. soul searching a bit, but I think that everyone deserves a break in life right? I was talking to an officer at work and he was asking me what my plans were for work now that I have changed my mind with some things with my career. I told him that I didn't really know.....I am at a point in my career where I kind of have to sit and wait for a little while before I can move ahead which is ok I guess there is a season to just sit and relax and enjoy the destination that you worked so hard to get to. 

This post is mostly about consistency, doing those small things daily that lead to a GRAND result! Sadly, this was not the case for me and I want to be transparent as to hopefully inspire you to have some consistency in your life too.

This year was tough for me.....I got out of debt and got back into debt, I traveled beyond my means because I couldn't say no to people, I stopped making goals because I was afraid to fail and not achieve them and was too embarrassed of what other people would think of me if I achieved them, I gained 6 pounds because I went haywire and was on a consistent vacation (a weight I maintained for 2 years). I wanted to start my own photography business and let that fall to the way side because I doubted myself and my ability. 

Lately I started thinking to myself where the heck did all this come from? I was once so driven and so goal oriented and I have seriously finished everything that I dreamed of doing for YEARS now. I have 2 degrees, I am making amazing money at work, I have a great respectful smart child, I have a wonderful family. I am truly finally happy but still so unfulfilled.......because I stopped making goals and I didn't dare to dream big. Then I started thinking about my goals and what the heck I was going to do to achieve them.

I totalluy digressed but I realized that I am not really fulfilled with what I thought that I wanted and I wasn't being consistent in ANYTHING in every aspect of my life.

 I wasn't consistent in starting my business, or my healthy lifestyle and in turn I do not have a business to call my own and I certainly did gain some weight, I feel like I failed myself and I got myself back into the debt that I got myself out of. I am seriously at square one again and this certainly is not the first time that I have done this to myself. 

It is seriously time for some change!!!! Changes will be made that's for sure I need to grow up and get outta my rut! 

You may want to live that healthy lifestyle but don't know where to start. 

1. Make changes weekly for example stop drinking soda, next week add 1 green veggies over time these things will compound into the person that you want to see reflecting in the mirror.
2. Do these things daily. Temptation is going to be in the way EVERY DAY and it is going to be there more so in the beginning when you are trying to start following the straight line.
3. Food is going to be your frienemy lol. You will want all the things you can't have because you can't have them but think about all of the things that you can have and remember WHY you are doing what you are doing.
4. Exercise daily. Walk, run, Zumba, dance. I may be a beachbody coach and I love their products but as long as you are moving and being healthy DO IT. You have to do what makes you happy so that you keep doing it and when that doesn't work anymore find something else that will keep you going! 
5. Be disciplined! Make a dream board, watch YouTube videos to keep that fire burning when it is just a little ember!

This is just the beginning but this should help you get started and the same goes with debt or anything in your life that you need to be consistent with. Just change the words around to make them fit for you :) 

Until next time!!!!!

 
 

Life lately

I have seriously been MIA from this blog which kind of leads me to this blog post.

I think that lately I have been dealing with some personal things and I have been traveling a lot lately so family time and all that has been a priority. In that time I have been able to sit down and gather my thoughts as I have always been an on the go kind of person. I am always thinking about what is next and how I can accomplish the next task.

I have kind of let this fitness forum go a bit because I feel like no one is listening or someone was waiting for me to give them the magic trick so to speak. I found out the problem is that I am not really consistent in a lot of the things that I do because I haven't set out goals for myself and what I want with my fitness business or what I want personally.

I have let a lot more than that change because I have gained weight and have fallen off of the fitness train myself and kind of let myself go. There are reasons for that but ones that I would rather not talk about now.

I have found that I have been successful when I am consistent in the things that I am doing but I want things to happen like yesterday. I am a very impatient person and I never follow through with a lot of things because I am not seeing the immediate results that I think I should be getting. I have not been committed to things because of fear and I have been selling myself short. So much so that I am now sitting here asking myself what the heck happened to me? What happened to my drive and why the hell am I so scared to do anything that is against the grain? Well I know exactly what happened!

I used to be motivated by people who doubted me or made me mad but now I don't have anyone like that anymore. I used to be motivated by anger and I don't carry that with me anymore so what really is my motivation? I. Don't. Know.

That's crazy right you want things but you don't know why or you are doing things and have no rhyme or reason why you are doing them. Isn't that the craziest thing ever? My goals for now are to figure out what I want to do, get back on a consistent "diet" and exercise program and follow a hybrid program.

So for fitness I am going to do T25 and Les Mills Pump
For nutrition I am going to go back to basics and leave the Paleo alone. It just didn't work for me, what did was eating 6 meals a day and keeping it clean. On Paleo I gained 5 pounds and I didn't like it at all. I felt out of control and out of whack. I still eat grain free meals at times but I am not nor will I ever be 100% Paleo. I loved it but then again I didn't......if that makes sense.

I need to do some soul searching and spending time with My God and figure out who I am and where I want to be in my life. Things are becoming clearer but I am putting ME on the back burner and I am losing myself again if you can understand that. I need to have a road map of where I want to go and what I want to do :) Until next time!!!!!

Well Fed Book Review

I had been obsessing over this book for weeks before I bought it and I downloaded the sample copy of the book and NEEEEDED to get it. SO I got my husband to order it for me LOL.

When I got the book it was smaller than I thought but it is packed full of content. I was NOT disappointed. The book was beautifully laid out it contained her story with the paleo diet, her background story and a cliffnotes version of the paleo diet. There are pictures of every recipe that is in the book and gives suggestions on different ways to make each recipe different or substitute different things which is really awesome! I love that there is multiple recipes in one ha ha more bang for my buck!

To be honest the biggest reason I bought the book is that she actually will teach you how to batch cook! I did it for a week and it was the easiest best week of my life but it was a little bit boring for me as I like to make different things and I got stuck in a rut but that was my fault. I made a few of her sauces but the Moroccan sauce was my favorite one, it had parsley, cilantro, olive oil and a few spices. It was delish on a salad and on some chicken.


The book has awesome recipe and I really want to try her brined chicken and even bought all of the ingredients to make it but I keep forgetting that I need to marinate it for a long time so I totally need to have it all ready for work and then add the liquid in the morning and cook it after work ha ha.

I really enjoyed the book and go to it and try to add one recipe every few weeks into my meal plan so that I can try new things and spice up my regular meals. If you want to get it you can snatch it up on Amazon and I don't think that you will be disappointed, if anything try out the sample that is linked up here and see for yourself :)

My favorite foods

So since I have been on the Paleo train I have found my few favorite foods that I have clung to and eat regularly.

Sauteed with some sesame oil and coconut aminos

Just baked or in soup

I use it as my starch when I get tired of sweet taters and regular ones

YUMMMM Aminos and sesame oil works just fine or olive oil and garlic powder is awesome too

daily salads that I eat for lunch it fast easy and healthy

I have eaten some other vegetables but these are the ones that I lean to more often. I have bought a few meal plans and I love this baked and brined chicken from the BUTI meal plans. It is some apple cider vinegar and coconut aminos mixed together in even parts and you marinate it for at least an hour bake on 350 until it is no longer pink and eat it up. I usually eat it with my salads it makes a good combo. I am in love with it and it has become the only way that I marinate my chicken now when I am making it with a salad.

I have a few ideas for posts so that this blog doesn't die. I feel like since I am on maintenance mode it's harder for me to come up with ideas on content especially since I have been more focused on my photography and expanding my family.

I am going to do some book reviews and provide some helpful tips that helped me lose weight and maintain the weight that I have now as well as some of the struggles that I am currently going through with weight to continue to hopefully still be an inspiration and a voice on healthy nutritional tips.

Until next time!

Paleo adventures!

Well I have been at this Paleo "thing" for awhile now and I have had some serious mis-steps like eating gluten yesterday because I did not prepare any food at a meeting that I went to. I now know that I am gluten sensitive for SURE. I was bloated, I got a super mega headache from hell, I was very very lethargic, and I just didn't want to do anything but sleep. I went to my bible study yawning and it is not really normal for the person that I have been. What did I eat? Oh ya know pasta and one hella good chocolate chip cookie and 3 mini eclairs. I am totally the kind of person that is like well if I already messed up might as well top it off ha ha. That is NOT the mentality to have trust me because I felt like garbage afterwards and SO guilty it wasn't even worth it!

It takes 2 weeks to get gluten out of your body so basically I have to start over......super fail right? To a degree yes, but I learned something that I am intolerant to gluten and I was able to FEEL what food actually did to me.  I know salt from processed food is killer on my weight and makes me gain at least 3 pounds in one sitting. That's terrible if you asked me! I am coming to a point where if my clothes fit I am fine though I don't really weigh myself until things start fitting me "not right" and I am typically right about my being heavier. Anyway back to the Paleo

I have found that through this process I have been more creative in the kitchen but I still make a lot of mistakes in regards to this new lifestyle and the choices that I make outside of my home. I think the grace period of trying it out is over and I have to decide if this is what I am going to do or not. Mostly for my sanity and I know that the answer is yes I am going to stick with it. I felt (before yesterday) that I was at my optimal health. I have made a few recipes on my own which I am super stoked about and I feel that I have dipped my toes in the water long enough to say that this is the way that I want to go and what solidified that for me the way BLOAT that I am carrying today and how I ballooned so bad that I had to unbutton my pants which is something I have not done in a very long time. 

Next week I am going to start the Whole 30. 

It is a "program" that helps you get your nutrition on track and help heal you from the inside out. I was going to start on October 1 and that makes a lot of sense to me but the sooner I do this and go through with it the better it will be for my sanity. Just be determined and get it done right? If you are interested in doing it let me know in the comments and I can hook you up with everything that you need to do it! I would be so excited to have some buddies around.

Lessons on living a healthy lifestyle

I am back from the wedding that I was at and I am all settled in to the routine of that thing called daily life. The wedding was fun, there were lots of laughs dancing and drama but would it be a wedding without any of that? Probably, but not in my circle of friends! HA HA!

So now that I am back all the weight that I have lost has crept right back up but I knew that was going to happen. I went out yesterday afternoon with my family and I put on jeans that normally give me a little bit of breathing room and they fit. Not a bad thing to say the last but DAMN I know that I have to start all over again.......which is DOOKIE! I did learn a few things from that trip that I am taking back with me and embracing as a learning process.

Getting ready for the wedding :)

As I go through my journey with my weight I am constantly learning new things about health and nutrition and I love it. Sometimes it is at the cost of me gaining some weight but seriously I gained a few pounds but I had fun doing it and life isn't all about weight its about the memories and the relationships that you make in this world. Weight and health IS important but it is not the only facet of life.

Before I went to the wedding I went on a pretty strict paleo diet and I felt the best that I had ever felt in my life. I guess I had some serious inflammation and that went down and my stomach was flatter that I had ever seen it. I felt confident and I loved it! When I went to Cali all the paleo went out the window because we were just simply too busy to do anything (It was too new for me to make a serious lifestyle change) and when we went out to eat I indulged BIG time........I went to a luau and ate three plates of food where one of them was desert! ha ha ha! Jesus help me! But you know what we hadn't eaten all day and that was the first real meal we had.

Lesson 1: Fuel your body through out the day so that you are not binging! 

Local food from the Farmers Market I went to last week!

I seriously ate 1-2 meals a day while I was there, which was booty and I should have made time for my health and I didn't. It almost cost me getting into the dress on the wedding day.....2 people had to zip me up! What a  mess it was! I seriously freaked out for 5 minutes that damned thing was WAY too tight the whole night and was uber uncomfortable! It fit my boobies or lack thereof didn't show and it was GREAT!

I drank A LOT!!!!!! I was on vacation, I didn't have to be a Mom or have to get up for work so I totally indulged on that as well. I don't know of many people that would have done anything differently but!

Lesson 2: Drinking will make you fat! You will eat things that you normally wouldn't and alcohol has sugars in it and it will turn to fat because you aren't burning it. 

Yes I totally ate all those plates in front of me!

We slept about 5 hours a night. 4 AM was a normal thing and waking up at 9-9:30 became a serious thing. We had so many wedding projects left to do and family was in town and we went sight seeing which put the wedding on the back burner so when my friend and I got home we were kind of punished with wedding projects which was cool I had gone early to help her out but DAMN I was tired. Guess what happened? When I got home I caught the nastiest cold and I can only assume that  it was because of my lack of rest, the lack of nutrition that I was putting into my body, and the drinking that happened almost nightly. My body was not running like the machine that I had made it previously going to Cali.

Lesson 3: Get your REST! It is essential in keeping your body regulated and boosting all of your bodies natural ay of keeping you healthy. 

Bachelorette Partay!!

My sicky soupies!

When I came back home it was really hard for me to fall back into my eating and sleeping schedule. I got a really bad cold as I had said before and I ate a lot of salty soup and barley eating because I didn't have an appetite. I was making up for all the lost sleep that I had and then battling this cold. It took me about a week. Tuesday was the first day I had worked out since the beginning of August.........I was sore as heck and I still get sore. I had to take an additional rest day for T25 to add in some Yoga because everything was so stiff. Crazy right! I was at what I thought ultimate performance......not so much! I lost it all and I am back at ground zero. I am still having problems on the grain free Paleo front as I am resorting to eating them again.

This week begins my Paleo journey again with T25 and maybe some Crossfit here and there. We shall see but I kind of want to start running again so it may be a mixture of everything that I like with T25 as the base workout.


I know that all of these things happened to me because I am a person of routine and I don't ever steer away from it. I don't take vacations by myself, and when I do take vacations it is to go and see my son at my parents house and I have control over what I eat. I am sad to report that I gained weight back but I am happy because I am have a learning experience to go back to and I didn't let myself get too carried away. I went there weighing 121 and I am 125.6 now and already everything is tighter.....not so good but it is going back to my "happy weight" very soon!

I have added some pictures of my time in Cali for your enjoyment :)

Weight and Paleo....again

A few weeks ago I was desperately seeking some weight loss because I could not fit into my bridesmaid dress. I had no idea that those damned things ran small so I was essentially wearing a smaller size than my normal?? Anyway It wouldn't fit and I seriously took it to the seamstress and she said that I needed 2 inches taken out but she could only give me one! I had three weeks until the wedding and losing 5 pounds was more of a mind &*&%^ than anything else. I couldn't do it because I kept sabotaging myself with the foods the kids were eating candy, popcorn, eating out ect.

Needless to say I got "desperate" and bought this meal plan and it was a grain free meal plan. I was like eh WHATEVER I need to lose these few pounds or inches so I can get into this dress. I knew that this way of thinking wasn't healthy but what was I going to do? I HAD to fit into this dress. I am in the military supporting 2 kids and a house and I just can't throw $150 out the window because a dress doesn't fit.

SIDENOTE! I DO NOT CARE THIS BAD EVER ABOUT WEIGHING OR LOOKING A CERTAIN WAY THIS DRESS WAS GOING TO POTENTIALLY COST ME $150 + THAT I DON'T HAVE TO SPEND!

I made it through the first week on the meal plan and it wasn't that hard but I did eat some popcorn (that and chicken wings are my vice) I wanted sugar one day and sugar was in this popcorn so I ate it LOL. Not so great of a first week but I managed. I ate grain free the rest of the week. You know the story because I posted pictures on my last blog post. So fast forward. I am still doing the meal plan the dress fits and I feel better than ever! I have no complaints what so ever and that makes me happy because I thought that it was going to be terrible lol I have lost minimal inches and lost a pound from it BUT I lost the inflammation that I was having due to maybe I assume grains?

On that same weekend my husband told me the best news that I have heard in years! Other than the fact that we were leaving Kodiak, AK. LOL He was ready to have baby #3 with me! AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

I have never planned a baby the way my husband and I are planning it now and we are going to start trying here very soon. Which makes me ecstatic but also scares the living crap out of me. My last 2 pregnancies I had a handful of these "amazing" pregnancy ailments and I don't really want to experience them again :( I did not have enjoyable pregnancies because of these ailments and I want a healthier lifestyle for me and my new baby.

I didn't really know that grain-free was a part of being paleo, so when I started doing some research on grain free diets google hooked me up with Paleo diets lol. Paleo seems to fit what I am doing with my diet though because I am not eating legumes, dairy, or grains. I cannot really digest lactose so I try to stay away from it unless it comes to pizza lol. Anyway I have been doing a lot of research on how eating less carbohydrates and keeping a good diet for myself would help the baby and the primal way seems to make sense to me. I know I have gone vegan and vegetarian and I may seem a bit faddish but I don't blog about every single facet of my healthy lifestyle. Giving up grains has reduced my flatulence, I am not so tired all the time, and I can eat with no bounds but I don't over eat. I don't get bloated after I eat and I don't get the FULL feeling anymore like I did when I would eat breads and pastas. I would ALWAYS go to the cupboard for something sweet after having a starch like that other than oatmeal. So for right now I am just going with the flow.

If/when I get pregnant I will totally blog my whole experience because I think that people should know about it. I know there aren't many blogs out there now and the ones that are have very little information as to what the person ate and how it helped them and what not and they stuck to the general pregnancy aspect of it. I guess over the next few days I will talk about my past pregnancies and how I felt about them and the symptoms that I had with each of them to keep you posted.

What is Paleo? The Cliffnotes version

I know that in another post awhile ago I talked about eating Paleo for a week and I never really did lol. 

I recently stumbled upon more information and I have become seriously intrigued and I wanted to post an overview of what it is. Paleo is first and foremost a lifestyle, it is usually taken on by people who do Crossfit and that is why I believe it has become so popular but also because of the increase in autoimmune diseases in the United States. I of course stumbled upon it the second time by accident because I was eating grain free and lactose free which is essentially Paleo. 

I don't really like to label myself as anything but I eat like everyone else. Vegetarianism didn't work for me because I had a family that ate meat and it was too hard to see all the meat there and I WANTED to eat it. It was just something that was not for me and I don't necessarily have the budget to buy groceries for three different diets. My husband wasn't on board at all and that was fine with me but I held on as long as I could and it seriously did turn out to also be WAY too expensive. SO, I went back to my normal eating habits and I ended up eating a lot of processed foods such as Cliff Bars and that led to drinking and eating lots and lots of popcorn, late night snacking and it led to my weight gain. Ok so you know the rest of the story and here I am today. Please be reminded that I just started this over a week ago and I am still new to this whole idea. SO what is Paleo. 

Paleo is a lifestyle that;

Tries to mimic the hunters and gatherers from the stone ages and such. 
They eat full fat GRASS FED beef and pork without antibiotics or hormones. 
Shell fish and fish
Poultry and eggs that are cage free. 
Organ meats 
Homemade bone broth
Starches such as sweet potato, plaintains root vegetables, squash ect. 

 

They DO NOT EAT

Grains of any kind
Dairy unless it is raw and not pasteurized
Legumes of any kind
Soy  

It is all natural clean eating just like Tosca Reno's Eat Clean diet with some restrictions. The whole premise of the Paleo diet is that it is to heal the gut and decrease inflammation, bloating, gas, indigestion, lose unwanted body fat through eating foods that were similar to those of our ancestors. It is a lifestyle that is geared through healing people by eating the foods that are available to us in the least processed way possible. 

MY THOUGHTS:

I think that this is a lifestyle that is tough on those that eat too much processed food. I do think that it is totally doable for someone that suffers from gluten intolerance (bloating, gas, fullness, uncomfort after eating a meal containing a food that has gluten). I think that it will heal inflammation as I saw it in my own body. I do think that it requires some research and I don't think that you should give up anything at once. One thing at a time should do and then eliminate little by little and re-introduce things later if you feel that you can handle them and if they iritate you than you probably shouldn't be eating it anyway. 

After a week of eating Paleo and eating Chipolte I had chicken, beans, rice and avocado. It did not sit well with my stomach and even though I did not isolate the foods to distinguish if it was the beans or the rice the way I felt today was enough to know that I don't want to eat either again. I gained 3 pounds overnight and I have bee VERY bloated all day. I believe that this lifestyle works and I am very eager to get back from San Diego, get pregnant and live this lifestyle to the fullest. I feel that I am onto something here and if I am right OH boy it is going to be life changing for me :)

 

Feeling like a hippie.

Whew it has been a wild month for me! My son is here and I have barely had time to sit down a breathe. I mean I have but not the time to dedicate to a blog post. 

I know this may sound a bit faddish but the longer I am on my healthy journey the more I research things and try them out to see if they are for me or not. I mean you can read all the information in the world but if you don't put it to use how do you know if it works right? 

Well about 2 years ago I knew that I was full blown lactose intolerant. I never really drank milk with the exception of in my cereal or ice cream and of course cheese! I stopped all the dairy when I was doing P90X because I wanted that banging body and the things that I was eating wasn't helping me maintain my weight it was just making me feel like dookie about myself. I now can not digest whey protein or anything with lactose in it. Lactose pills work but I am not a pill popper and it doesn't work for ice cream and I found Almond Dream for that so it all works right? 

Anyway, I have bee frequenting the health food store in my town and everything in there is SO foreign to me because it is not at Wal-Mart or Target, I get lost looking at the labels. Since I have made changes to my diet because of lactose and the way certain foods make me feel It makes me happy to know that there are alternatives to the way that I want to eat. 

I have been eating grain free for almost a week now and I have had to make some adjustments to how I was going to make certain foods and came across some ideas on Pinterest which is amazing!!! Gotta love that website it is a power house when you are looking for something specific. Doing the grain free thing hasn't done much in the weight department but it has helped the bloating go down and has certainly helped me out with decreasing the inflammation that I guess I carry in my body. Here is what grain free has done for me in 3 days......I took these pictures first thing in the morning no food in my belly right before my workout. For comparison, I hate doing things differently when I am doing a side by side. I wasn't going to share these but just so that you can see the difference. 

Work it out! T25 Info

I just finished week 2 of Insanity and I can say that I am hella happy that I am slowly getting through this thing. It's weeks 6-9 that are going to be the killer lol.

My eating is getting better and my abdomen is looking better than ever. I have lost 7 inches all over since starting the program and THAT makes me excited. My weight is still fluctuating from 122-124 which I am okay with because salt and I have issues.....I am not too big on the scale thing I just want to stay in my sz 4s and not have anything floating over when I am standing up or having my upper thighs be stuffed like sausages in my jeans.

I am a pear shape and I primarily carry all of my weight in my upper thighs and abdomen when I do gain it so, me keeping at a certain size keeps those bad boys in check. 

I recently buckled and bought Shaun T's new workout T25, I really want to try it but I desperately want to be an Insanity graduate because I have done the darn thing 3 times with bailing on the 2 weeks to first month. I realized that Body Beast is not for me and bulking is not where I want to go in my fitness adventures so I will leave that to my husband to have ;) it's all good it is not for everybody and that is a ok with me :) I love the fact that I don't have to use any weights because I seriously am so cheap I don't want to go and buy 20 lb dumbbells ha ha ha! I know.....issues! 

So what is T25 all about?? I don't really know what the workout involves because I don't have it in hands I just bought it and it will be in the mail shortly BUT what I do know is this....

It's selling out!
It's a 25 minute workout
5 days a week Hello weekends off for REST DAYS!!!!!
3 phases 4 weeks long Alpha, Beta, and Gamma (GAMMA is sold separately)
It includes HIIT training and core training

The price???
$119.95 regular price
$89.95 coach price ;) (THAT right there is WHY I am a coach!) and
$180 for the T25 and Shakeology which is the best deal and I can't get that deal (insert tantrum) because I am a coach already and you can only get it when you are a new customer hint hint if you want the benefits of being a coach a challenge pack is the way to go because you get the $40 membership fee waived and you get the 25% discount! Basically you are getting T25 and the shakes and save $60!!!!!! BLAHHH where was this when I signed up!?!??! Here is a video in case you are wondering what it is about :)

I was thinking about putting a challenge group together for this because I want to do it with my challengers.....we'll have to see though.

How to make it through Insanity

It isn't a joke when they say that Insanity is one of the hardest workouts to ever be put on DVD, but I know that if you have seen the infomercials and the results you don't really care about that right? I mean hello GREAT results in 60 days? I have done Insanity once before and I am in week 2 of it and I am already seeing the results of my hard work! 

The first time I did it I remember having to hold back my cookies because I seriously thought that I was going to get sick. I pushed through and made it about a month before my husband came back from deployment and it was then all about him :) In the beginning when you first start you are going to think this Shaun T is on the crazy train, you are going to be out of breath, you will pause it I am sure and every inch of your body will be in absolute pain especially your calves in the first week. If none of those things happen well honey you didn't push hard enough. 

SO how do you get through it.........

There are 3 levels in each circuit I like to think of them as light, medium, and bust your tail. 

Light level: This is where you would "jog." Take it slow and get to know each exercise. Go through the movement and do it nice and easy.

Medium Level: This is where you would "run" you are going to go faster on YOUR pace not the pace of the people on the TV push a bit harder than you did the last level but don't exert all of your energy. Think of it as your run you are breathing heavier but you can still maybe say a few words to someone if they were to talk to you. 

Bust your tail Level: This is where you are going to sprint. Find something to get mad at or something that is frustrating you and just GOOOOOOO this is where your all out effort is going to be. You just PUSH PUSH PUSH you will be out of breath and all of your focus is going to be right there and your goal is to go as fast as those on the TV but if you can't get there yet that is ok it is YOUR journey not theirs on the TV. 

Rest: Take your 30 second break and repeat the madness this is where I will pause it for a minute even because drinking water so fast give me the burps lol and I have to relax a bit before I drink water so that way I don't stop to burp in the middle of the next segment. 

Pure Cardio is probably the hardest workout on the damned thing just because you don't stop but what I do is pause it when I need a break and then just keep going. 

The moral of the story is that you DON'T quit. If you can't finsh the DVD pause it and catch your breath or make a goal to finish the damned thing. That's all take your time and understand that each level is like a build up and not an all out sprint for the three levels. It's pretty easy to get caught up in what is happening on the screen but you know your own ability so push yourself but not to the point where you are going to do any harm to yourself. 

If you want me to help you with your journey please email me at jeannettealverio(at)yahoo(dot)com