Think the 21-Day Fix is just for women? 

Think again! Today I wanted to share Scott's 21-Day Fix transformation which is pretty amazing for a couple reasons. 

1. He started it the day after Christmas, which meant he was following the plan during New Year's and also a weekend trip to see friends from out of town, and he never fell off track
2. He was already super fit and eating clean to begin with

I couldn't be more proud of him for sticking with it... but the entire experience also cracked me up. I saw him go through the EXACT same emotions that so many of you go though. 

• He totally didn't think 30 minute workouts would get him results... and then I got to quietly smile as he limped around the house the first week talking about how sore he was ;) 
• He wasn't hungry.... so he thought I had calculated his containers wrong because he had expected to be starving
• On Day 19 he told me it wasn't working and he wasn't getting results.... I laughed and told him to be patient and wait until he saw his before and after pics side by side
• On Day 20 he weighed himself (even though I told him to wait until Day 22) and then he was upset because he had lost 10 lbs, and thought he lost all his muscle

BUT... he stuck with it and followed it to a T and was super impressed with his results. In fact, the first thing he did was hop up on his pull-up bar to see if his strength was still there. He got a big surprise when he found out that not only was his strength still there, he was actually able to do MORE pull-ups than usual. And it only took me a year to convince him to try it. :)

If you're feeling stuck, you've plateaued, or you just don't even know where to begin, fill out THIS FORM and I'll get in touch with you shortly to begin your 3 week transformation! You deserve to feel this good!! And as always, feel free to share this with anyone you think would be interested! 

Did you know that you can win cash prizes just for submitting your results using Beachbody workouts and Shakeology? Seriously! Once a month, you can send in your before and after photos to be entered into the Beachbody Challenge contest. Every day (Yes! Every day!) one winner is chosen to win $500! From those $500 daily winners, winners are chosen monthly to win $1,000, then quarterly to win $2,500... and then once a year at the annual Beachbody Coach Summit, two winners (one male and one female) are chosen to win $100,000 each, and the runner ups go home with $25,000 each! We've already had a couple winners on our team, too. Both Herb and Melanie won $500 each for sending in their winning transformations! 

We even have a teammate who went on to be one of the finalists at Beachbody Coach Summit and ended up coming home with $25,000 after losing over 90 lbs with P90X!! 

So how do YOU enter?? It's easy! 

1. Log in to your Team Beachbody account
2. Scroll aaaalllllllll the way down to the bottom
3. Look for the Success Stories on the bottom right and click on Submit your Story
4. Fill out the questions and upload your photos (Note: if you get an error uploading your photos, try making them smaller and trying again)
5. Beachbody will send you a free shirt for the workout you completed and you'll be automatically entered into the Beachbody Challenge to win cash prizes!

You can submit your results once a month. Super easy! And another great way to help keep you on track with your goals!

If you need extra help staying accountable with your goals, be sure to reach out! I'm always running monthly challenge groups on facebook to help people stay on track and I'm only a facebook message or email away! 

#100happydays

I'm not sure if you've seen this campaign floating around facebook, Instagram or other social media sites, but there's a group out to see if people can be happy for 100 straight days. When I saw this I just loved the idea and couldn't wait to sign up, and I'm on day 4 now! I think people are so quick to focus on and post everything they're unhappy about, all the negative, so it's been refreshing these past few days to go to facebook and see people posting about the little things they're happy for. So far some of my days have been being able to hire someone to take care of my lawn this year which will free up my time and also helping out a local business, and getting to work from home doing something I love (bring your cats to work day is every day!) :) 

If you'd like to take the 100 happy days challenge with me, it's free to sign up here! And if you do, be sure to tag me on Instagram (@Pure_Synergy) or on facebook so I can see your posts! 

I'd like to share with all of you what my #100happydays post was yesterday!

I was seriously so excited to wake up to see these pics of Amanda!!! I want to tell you a little bit about her journey, and I'm probably going to say a bit more than she'd like, but she knows I love her and I think a lot of people will be able to relate to her story. (Don't worry! I will ONLY share pics that I have full permission to use.) :) 

Amanda is a friend of mine that has been struggling trying to lose weight for a while now, and as soon as she'd find herself in a groove she'd end up sick or injured and feel defeated. She was just getting back in the swing of things and doing great, and then she received the worst blow yet, she broke her foot. 

For a couple weeks she let it really bring her down. She was so frustrated because for the first time it had felt like she was breaking that cycle, and now she was going to lose all that momentum. That's when she decided to quit feeling sorry for herself and decided to take control. 

Even though she couldn't workout with her broken foot, she decided on the21-Day Fix and committed to ONLY the meal plan portion of it 100% for the next 21 days, no workouts. (And don't think it's a "quick fix" starvation diet. She was eating bread, chocolate and peanut bitter in the plan, and we even went to Spot Coffee one day and she ordered a breakfast wrap off the menu.)

After 21 days Amanda is now down 13 lbs and and lost a total of 8.5" all over. What's even better is how she FEELS! She took something that could have left her feeling helpless and down and used it to empower herself and didn't give up. And she's not wasting any time, she just started Round 2 today with my newest 21-Day Fix group! 

My next 21-Day Fix group will be starting soon. It's pretty crazy to think of just what you can accomplish in that short of time. If you're ready to take that next step and COMMIT 100% for 21 days, message me on facebook or respond to this email and I can guide you every step of the way! 

PS Memorial Day is less than FOUR weeks away!

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. 

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! 

We have ANOTHER $500 daily winner on Team Synergy!!! I can't say enough how proud of Melanie I am. She is a busy flight attendant, coach and newlywed, who despite being away from home for stretches of time still manages to get her workouts in and take control of her nutrition. No excuses! These are Melanie's winning results from doing the Ultimate Reset 21-day cleanse 2 months ago! 

"Before I did the Ultimate Reset, I felt sluggish, bloated, and just very uncomfortable. I felt weighed down. Totally bloated like a blob. I'm a coach, so I was active enough, and I eat relatively healthy enough, but I just kept losing—and gaining—the same 7 pounds. My weight loss hit a plateau, and I was tired of putting in the workout effort without seeing results. 

Plus, I just couldn’t catch up on my rest. I would fall asleep pretty fast, but I could never seem to get a good night’s sleep. Luckily, a bunch of the other coaches had mentioned that they did the Beachbody Ultimate Reset and got awesome results. When they told me that they tried it because they were experiencing the same problems I had—low energy, irregular digestion, poor sleeping patterns—I started thinking about giving the Ultimate Reset a try.

Luckily, a Reset Challenge Group was just getting started, so I said, ‘why not’ and joined. I knew a Challenge Group would help me stay accountable and give me the chance to work with other people going through the Reset at the same time. (I can’t tell you how much it helped to have 5 friends for the 21 days.)

Over the course of the Reset, I started to feel a lot more energized—almost from the beginning—with natural energy that seemed to be constant, with no ups or downs. I was feeling a lot less sluggish and noticed that I was sleeping more solid through the entire night. And yes, my “regularity” improved, too. I started to feel much lighter and a whole lot less bloated.

That was a relief, but I also started to see the definition in my body that the bloating had hidden. That was definitely a turning point for me. I finally lost those pounds I kept losing and gaining, and I was able to lose an additional 6 inches, as well.

Since completing the Reset, I feel totally revitalized. I’m ready to add a new workout program and I’m ready to keep losing more weight now that I know a better way to eat clean. I’m excited. Before doing the Reset, I ate what tasted good. Now I know what my body needs as fuel, and I have now found new foods to fuel me properly that taste great too. 

In fact, I feel so much better that I plan to do an annual Reset every year to make sure my body—and my metabolism—are running optimally."

If you're interested in taking control of your health and joining our next challenge group, sign up here! 

How to do Body Beast on a 100% plant-based, vegan diet. Say what? YES! It is possible to build muscle AND follow a traditional bodybuilding diet while still remaining vegan, it just requires a little creativity! Since the bulk of most traditional bodybuilding diets are based around meat, eggs and dairy, most people would think it's not possible to make them vegan. But I'm about to show you how easy it can be! 

When Scott and I did Body Beast last fall, we wanted to follow the meal plan as close as possible, while still remaining 100% plant-based. While it did require a little tweaking and some calculations, we were able to follow the plan and had AMAZING results! See for yourself! 

The Body Beast meal plan is broken down into three phases; Build, Bulk and Beast. For all three of the phases, there are calculations to figure out your daily caloric needs, each phase's meal plan is broken down into different portions (ie. 5 starches, 2 legumes, 4 veggies, etc. per day) and (most importantly!) it also breaks down the your day's nutrition into the macro nutrient counts (protein, carb and fat %'s). While you could follow the Portion Charts, it would be extremely difficult to make proper substitutions for each category, and especially difficult to maintain it for a full 90 days. So we're going to focus on the macro nutrient counts. 

Following the macro nutrient counts is much easier than it sounds. There are so many nutrition tracking apps out there. All you do is enter or scan your food, and it tells you everything you need to know. We used the myfitnesspal app. (My user name is JulieJeep. Feel free to add me!) You can adjust your daily calorie goals on myfitnesspal from the app, but to adjust the macro %'s you need to log in from a computer. Just go to www.myfitnesspal.com and once you're logged in go to Goals then Change Goals and select Custom. From there you can adjust your daily % goals for protein, carbs and fat, as well as your calories. You can also adjust your daily sodium goals, which will come in handy if you decide to do Body Beast's one week Competition Plan once you finish the Beast phase. (Which we did!) 

So now that you know how to track your nutrition, here's how to veganize the supplements! There are a few different Body Beast supplements; Hardcore Base Shake, Fuel Shot, MAX Creatine and Super Suma. Only the MAX Creatine supplement is vegan, so this is what we used to create the others. I should also add that we continued to use vegan Shakeology daily while doing Body Beast. 

I hope that helped break down each individual supplement and how to make a vegan version. Here's how we put it all together to make the Body Beast Post Workout Drink!

If you've been thinking of doing a muscle building program like Body Beast, but aren't sure where to start as a vegan, or would just like to connect with other like minded people, sign up for our free coaching here and we'll get you added to our facebook accountability group! Trust us, we know what it's like to be a vegan surrounded by a bunch of non-vegans in the fitness world. We'll help you get through it! 

It's been a great summer of parties, vacations, concerts... and probably not the best food choices and I'm sure a missed workout here and there. We're all human! It's now time to put your health and fitness first again and regain your confidence! SO... we're going to be putting together a NEW 30-day intense focus fitness and nutrition group. 

This group is going to be VERY limited in size so we can give you our ultimate attention, support and guidance. We'll be doing this TOGETHER! We will be focusing on fitness and nutrition, and giving you the tools to make this a LIFESTYLE change, and not just a quick fix. It's easier than you think! This group will be open to both men and women... but only if you're SERIOUS about changing and looking for RESULTS! 

Starts Monday, September 9th. Spots are limited so contact us telling us why you're ready to make the change, and to reserve your spot asap and start living the life you want!!!

This is also the last week for the AMAZING August deals... TurboFire, Body Beast and T25 challenge packs are all on sale until August 31st! Challenge Packs come with everything you need to get the RESULTS you want! They include:

• The complete workout program
• Fitness guide
• Meal plan designed specifically for each workout
• One month of Shakeology (and entire month of meals!)
• One month of club membership which gives you 10% off future purchases and access to Eat Smart, the online meal planner
• Lifetime free coaching and support
• Support, accountability and motivation from our private facebook group
• Free shipping
• All at a HUGE discount!

The Challenge Group that will be starting Monday, September 9th will be using the workouts TurboFire and Body Beast. You can do either workout, depending on your goals, or if you're really up for a challenge, you can do a hybrid of both with me. :) Contact us asap to reserve your spot! 

Curious about Challenge Groups? A lot of you have probably seen either Scott or myself posting on facebook or Instagram about our Challenge groups, but you might not be sure what exactly they are. So, I'm here to explain them to you... and just in time for January.. our HUGE month of Challenge Groups!

People who participate in Challenge Groups have 20% better results and are more likely to stick with their workout program than those who don't. Why??? Support, Motivation and Accountability! 

Challenge Groups are small, private facebook accountability groups made up of people who are all doing the same workout or nutrition program. Their privacy is set to "secret" which not only means that no one outside of the group can see what goes on inside the group, it means that the groups won't even show up in searches and none of your facebook friends will even know they exist.

They are made up of about 5-10 people who all have one goal in mind, to get healthy! 

Challenge Groups are free to join, you only pay for your workout program and Shakeology!

Participants are asked to check in daily by posting their workouts, questions, struggles, highs and lows, and Scott and I and the other Team Legacy coaches will be there to help you every step of the way. Great friendships have been formed in these groups as the groups almost become a second family!

If you're thinking of joining one of our Challenge Groups don't wait any longer! Spots are filling up fast. 

90 days from now you will be glad you did!

I'm so excited to share this! Yesterday, I log on to teambeachbody.com to log my workout and what do I see??? This!!!

See that guy on the right? The one right next to the Shakeology fudge bars... the one who now has energy for his kids??? Well..... he just won $500 for his transformation! So you're thinking, "OK, good for him, what does that have to do with me and why am I so excited?" Here's why.... Herb was in my very first challenge group ever! (Proud Mamma!) The funny thing is, Herb had never planned on being in my challenge group. You see, his wife came home one day and said, "I'm going to do Power 90 and I want you to do it with me", so they ordered a Challenge Pack and got to work!

Herb pushed play every day and made NO excuses. He has 3 young boys (including a set of twins), he works full time, he's in a band... he even travels to China for work and brought his DVD's and resistance bands with him when he traveled! Another key factor in his transformation was his diet. He started drinking Shakeology every day and quit his night time ice cream binges, which also helped lower his cholesterol. 

He also credits his transformation with the support and motivation he got from being in my private facebook Challenge Group, saying he felt "naughty" if he didn't post his daily workout in the group. 

You can check out the entire Beachbody article on Herb's transformation here.

If you're ready to take control of your health and would like to be in one of my facebook Challenge Groups please let me know! I have one ongoing group that you can be added to at any time, and I also run program-specific groups, too (where everyone in the group starts the same program on the same day). I can even start challenge groups for groups of friends, family or coworkers for those interested. 

So, who's going to be the next $500 Beachbody Challenge winner???

Tomorrow is Day 1 of Body Beast for Scott & I and I can't wait!!! Body Beast is a new program that just came out this spring and is like no other Beachbody program on the market. It's main goal is to put ON weight in the form of muscle. It is completely geared towards men, but the more people I talk to I am finding more and more women doing it. 

Scott is going to do the Huge Beast schedule and I'm going to do the Lean Beast schedule. From what I can tell so far our schedules should be about the same with the exception of about 1 workout each week. 

Scott's looking forward to putting on some size. He has been running a lot this summer, and while he is still very muscular, he's leaned out a bit more than he'd like. 

I have a few goals...

• put on muscle
• get abs :)
• prove to women that lifting heavy won't make you "bulky"
• do unassisted pullups
• prove that a vegan can put on muscle
• be in the Body Beast infomercials 

We're planning on following the meal plan perfectly... which, as you can imagine, can be tough for two vegans. A majority of the meal plan is made up of meat and eggs, and it discourages the use of soy because of it's effects on estrogen, testosterone and metabolism, so tofu is out. We're also planning on taking the Body Beast supplements... with a few tweaks and replacements to the non-vegan ones (I'll post the supplements in a future blog once I see how they work). So far it looks like it's going to be doable with some prep work and planning ahead, but if we get into it and find we're living off of protein powders then we may rethink things as we go. According to the meal plan, I'm supposed to have 9 proteins a day and Scott is supposed to have 13. Thankfully, each serving of Shakeology counts as 2 proteins and a fruit, so we'll each be having 2 servings of Shakeology a day to count as 4 proteins each.

I can't wait to get this started and share my results with everyone! Beast up!