I can’t tell you how many times someone has posted in one of my challenge groups about how upset they are because they’re seeing amazing results, they feel great, and the people in their lives who they thought would be the most supportive aren't. In fact, not only are they not supportive, they're usually demeaning. “You’ve changed”, “You’re just stuck on yourself now”, “You’re obsessed”. A lot of people will hear “You’re too skinny”, when they are well within a healthy weight. “You looked better before”. It’s mind blowing the negative comments I’ve heard said to both myself and people in my challenge groups, and almost every time it goes back to one thing, them and how they feel about themselves. This has nothing to do with you, and everything to do with them. These people see you changing your life for the better, and it forces them to look at their own lives and the things they’re not happy about, but not yet willing to change. They make excuses for themselves “I could never do…”, “It’s easy for you”, “I don’t have the time, money, whatever to do that”, when in reality, where there’s a will there’s a way. If it’s something they want bad enough, they will find a way to do it.
This gets talked about a lot in my fitness challenges, but rarely with other areas of life, and I think it’s so important we talk about it (even though it's something you may not want to hear). I can’t tell you how many times someone has posted in one of my challenge groups about how upset they are because they’re seeing amazing results, they feel great, and the people in their lives who they thought would be the most supportive aren't. In fact, not only are they not supportive, they're usually demeaning. “You’ve changed”, “You’re just stuck on yourself now”, “You’re obsessed”. A lot of people will hear “You’re too skinny”, when they are well within a healthy weight. “You looked better before”. It’s mind blowing the negative comments I’ve heard said to both myself and people in my challenge groups, and almost every time it goes back to one thing, them and how they feel about themselves. This has nothing to do with you, and everything to do with them. These people see you changing your life for the better, and it forces them to look at their own lives and the things they’re not happy about, but not yet willing to change. They make excuses for themselves “I could never do…”, “It’s easy for you”, “I don’t have the time, money, whatever to do that”, when in reality, where there’s a will there’s a way. If it’s something they want bad enough, they will find a way to do it. I see the same thing happen in other areas of people’s lives, too. When I post about traveling I’m sure there are some people who say to themselves “It must be nice, she doesn’t have kids, I could never do that”, not realizing that the majority of the people I travel with do have kids, and have overcome some incredible obstacles, including bankruptcy and major health scares, to be able to do what they're doing now. Instead of letting their situation define them, they let it empower them. If someone is a successful coach I often hear people say “it’s because they have a good upline coach and I don’t”, completely ignoring the fact that some of the top coaches in the company have no active upline coach and have been very successful. They don’t have secrets, they have drive and determination. They don’t sit back and wait for someone to tell them what to do, or throw a pity party because they’re not getting the help they think they deserve, they’re going out and making it happen. They don’t let their excuses get in the way of the things they want to accomplish. Here’s a good test to see if you’re living to your potential and making things happen, or if you’re making yourself a victim, blaming others and making excuses. When you see someone post something positive on facebook like a vacation, losing weight, a promotion at work, a new house, what’s the very first feeling you get in your gut. Is it happiness? Jealousy? If the first thing you think is “why not me?” then it’s time to look on the inside and change the way you view the world around you. You can either let people’s successes inspire you, or shut you down with envy. Your thoughts define your life, choose wisely! It's so important that you live YOUR life according to YOUR priorities. If someone else doesn't approve, that's on them, not you. If this has helped you, or you know someone who's going through this right now, please share this with them!
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Oh my gosh this couldn't have come at a better time. My husband is a genius! I'm going to be traveling a lot these next two weeks, and staying on track with nutrition while traveling is hard enough as it is, especially when you can't get through security with a bottle of water to mix with your Shakeology. And then, these. These amazing little chocolate cakes of superfood goodness. Not only are they super easy to make, they're also super healthy, 21-Day Fix approved and only use TWO ingredients! (Ok, three if you count water.) All you need to make these is chocolate Shakeology (we use vegan chocolate) and ripe bananas. Chocolate Superfood Cake bars 4 scoops chocolate Shakeology 2 ripe bananas water (just enough to mix) Makes 4 servings (for my 21-Day Fixer's, they're one red and one purple each) Mash 2 ripe bananas with a fork. Add 4 scoops of chocolate Shakeology to the banana mixture. Mix banana mixture and chocolate Shakeology, adding just enough water to blend. Line a small Tupperware container with parchment paper. Press mixture into container to form. Flip Tupperware container over to remove mixture and cut into 4 squares. Dehydrate overnight on low temp to preserve the nutrients in Shakeology. I told you they were easy! Enjoy! :)
We all know that to get the results we want with the workout we choose, we need to follow the meal plan that came with our workout. Easier said than done, I know. But this can be especially difficult for people who follow a vegan, or 100% plant-based, diet. Sure, you can substitute tofu and protein powders for the animal proteins in the meal plan, but who wants to be living off of tofu and protein powders for the next 90 days? And is it going to be something you'd want to continue after you finish the program? (By the way, that's a good way to figure out if what you're doing is a sustainable lifestyle change. Ask yourself, "Would I eat like this AFTER day 90?") Every time I do a new program I try to follow the meal plan 100% (while still remaining vegan) because it's the best way to find out just what kind of results someone can expect from it, and it's the fastest way to get results. I just finished up the 21-Day Fix this weekend and was able to easily do it vegan, and I even did a round of Body Beast, including the competition prep week, vegan. (THAT was a challenge!) Over the years I've definitely seen a change in Beachbody's meal plans. They're now focusing more on quality of food, and less on quantity, and they're taking into consideration people's different dietary concerns and allergies, whether you are lactose intolerant, gluten sensitive, Paleo or vegan, and so far the easiest to follow meal plan for vegans is from P90X3! (Other than the 21-Day Fix, that meal plan is in a category of it's own because of it's portion control system, which I LOVE LOVE LOVE! It's seriously so simple.) The P90X3 meal plan gives you a simple calculation to figure out which level of calories you need, and each level is broken down into carbs, protein and fat. For myself, I fell under "Plan A", which is roughly 1,500 calories, and each day I was allotted 5 proteins, 10 carbs and 5 fats. One of the most notable things with the P90X3 meal plan is that you are not stuck substituting things for the protein category, so no tofu and protein powders (unless, of course, you want to!) Vegans are able to replace as many protein portions with a carb as you like, the only recommendation is to evenly distribute the grains and beans/legumes. How great is that! Here's what the P90X3 shopping guide looks like for vegans! And here is what a week of meals look like! Whether you're vegan or not, I'd love to help you reach your health and fitness goals! Feel free to connect with me on facebook and follow me on Instagram and let me know what I can do to help YOU!
It seems like it was literally yesterday that I was updating you with my week 2 results from the 21-Day Fix, and here I sit, a 21-Day Fix graduate! I honestly cannot believe how fast these past 3 weeks have gone! This week was a little different than the first two weeks. First off all, I missed my first workouts (gasp!) It started at the beginning of the week. Saturday was the date of an annual run called the Polar Bear Run which benefits a local YMCA. It's a 5k race, and for fun there's a person dressed up as a polar bear who runs the race, too. If you finish before the polar bear, your race shirt says, "I beat the bear!" and if you don't, it says, "The bear beat me". We not only beat the bear, we both placed in our age groups, Scott came in 2nd in his age group, I came in 3rd in mine! I still got in my Total Body Cardio that day, but I'm just going to count the run as my Pilates. :) The rest of the week went great. This week I made the Asian Citrus Vinaigrette from the 21-Day Fix recipes and it was really good! I also started counting quinoa, beans and lentils as a red container this week (instead of only a yellow container), so I had a little more flexibility with my meals each day. Here's where the week got interesting... the 3-Day Quick Fix. The 3-Day Quick Fix is an OPTIONAL 3-day bikini prep meal plan that you can do any time (and only once) during the 21-Day Fix, so I decided to do it for the final three days. The 3-Day Quick Fix has you eating six meals for the day, but there is MUCH more structure with the foods you can have during those three days. No blue containers, no orange containers, no purple containers, and only two yellow containers; one for oatmeal as meal #1, and one for sweet potatoes as meal #2. The remainder of the meals are red and green containers (protein and veggies) and a total of four teaspoons of coconut oil for the day. You're also instructed to drink a full gallon of water a day while on the 3-Day Quick Fix. If you fail to plan, you plan to fail.The meals for the 3-Day Quick Fix were pretty un-exciting, but knowing that it was only three days, it was totally mentally doable. And surprisingly, it was more food than I had expected! By day three, I actually skipped my final meal because I wasn't hungry. My next skipped workout came on the very last day. It was supposed to be my final day of yoga, but it was also the same day as Buffalo's Shamrock Run 8k, and Team Synergy was in full effect! Let me just tell you how insanely proud I am of everyone who came out and completed it. About 15 people total, a mix of coaches and challengers from Team Pure Synergy, all came out to brave the cold and run 4.97 miles through Buffalo's Old First Ward. What's even more amazing is that the majority of those that came out had never run an 8k, never run a 5k, and never even run one mile before, but they took that first step, signed up, and every single one of them completed the race with a HUGE smile on their face. We had such a great time, that we're even talking about signing up for one new run a month now to do as a team! So yes, it was totally worth skipping yoga for. :) And now for my results! After 21 days I lost a total of 5 lbs, putting my total weight lost since Christmas at 11.6 lbs! Just a disclaimer: your results may differ (obviously!) If you have more weight to lose, you may lose weight faster than someone like me who only had those last stubborn 5 lbs to lose. Those 5 lbs may not sound like much, but I'm pretty impressed with my pics! Not only that, I feel so much stronger and my energy has been sky high. My core is stronger now than I think it ever has been in my entire life, and the best part... I know have a whole new outlook on clean eating. I learned just how easy it really can be. I learned what foods to eat and how much of them to eat (turns out I was way off with my portions before!) And I think the one thing that stands out the most to me is that today is day 22, one day after finishing, and I still ate the same way I would have if I was on the 21-Day Fix plan. It's now a lifestyle change, not a fad diet, which is the most important takeaway that I have from this. How often have you done a "diet" or meal plan, only to eat all the foods that you "couldn't" have the next day? And usually gain all the weight you lost back right away? That's what was so great about this plan. If I wanted chocolate or wine, I could! I never felt deprived and the list of foods for me to choose from was HUGE! There honestly was never a day that I said to myself, "I wish I could have ____". My current accountability group is about to start on their third and final week of the 21-Day Fix tomorrow. You can find some of their amazing results from their journey here. My next group starts in just ONE week and will fill up fast! If you're sick of dieting, counting calories or points, stuck at a weight loss plateau, or are just ready for a change, send me a message on facebook or contact me here to learn more and reserve your spot for my next group! It takes 21 days to create a new habit! |
JulieFormer esthetician & LMT turned #GIRLBOSS, vegan food & fitness, travel, beauty, FUN!! Veg-curious friendly ☀️👙🌴✌🏻️ Archives
September 2015
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