Hot to Trot

It's 9:30 pm on my ab/cardio burn 500 night, I am BeautyFuel'd and ready to go.. Or am I? Not just yet. I get to the gym and apply my BeautyBum. Not just to my bum, but to my thighs and to my belly ( because I am jiggly there ) and I am off to get my workout in. I'm rockin out with the music in my ears and concentrated so deeply in my plank, there is NO DROPPING allowed, that when my 1 min timer goes off I notice the heat that my body is putting off. It feels good! After ab work I get my cardio in. I head over to the stair mill for 10 min of warmup before jumping on the treadmill. Let's just say that my warmup was more like a RUN FOR YOUR LIFE!! My finger slipped and I hit an extra number and I was off to the races. Literally!! Now imagine running up stairs and not being able to slow down at all while trying to press a button to change the speed and not fall off looking like you just got shot out of a cannon!! Ya HI!! That was me :) You can stop laughing now... After catching my breath, I realized if you just ride it till your feet hit the ground it stops. Who knew?!?! Did I give up and say, " oh no Mr. Scare mill you win!" ... Nope. I got back on, started over, finished my 10 min and survived.

I headed over to the Treadmill to get the rest of my Burn 500 done and I was nice and toasty. I noticed out of the corner of my eye that I was getting the "look" from a few stragglers this late at night. I ignored and kept on my way. Sure I was sweaty but then you start to wonder do I have something hanging out of my nose? Nope it was just the fact that I was truly a sweaty mess... This is what they were looking at

I would like to say that it is just the lighting or a bad angle of the camera but that would be a lie.. It is full on Tummy sweat from a kick ass BeautyBum intensified Cardio workout.

So what have I learned from all of this, other than don't press buttons with sweaty fingers? I learned that mistakes will happen and there is nothing pretty about going to gym and getting the job done. I may walk in some Saturday mornings with my makeup on and my coffee in my hand but when it is all said and done I will be a sweaty mess and hungry like a beast! Don't worry about what the girl next to you is doing on the machine or how many calories she has burned. You worry about you! Pull your hat down and put your blinders on.

So put your ear buds in, rub your BeautyBum on and spend the next hour on the best ride of your life! It's ok to scream a little while on it but please remember to keep your hands and feet inside the ride at all times or you may get injured :) ..... or fall off like some of us.

Bumps in the Road

What happens when you get a wrench thrown in to your game plan? Do you whine and complain? Throw a fit like a 2 yr old? Or do you just give up without even trying?! My choice has been to push right through it. I have learned to modify and adjust to be able to push through just about everything that could possibly be thrown at me in the last 7 months. I mean really, we don't lay there on the delivery table and get away with saying.. "I'm out! That's it .. I'm going home now." We push through and get the job done. So why do we think that it's ok to do it with our health? It's because that is what we know. What we are used to. Think about it for a second.. We have all quit on ourselves at least once without even knowing we're doing it. Excuse is just a bigger word for quit. We teach our kids to never quit, don't give up, give everything you've got and do your best! Be the Best you can be.... When is it time to take our own advice.

The new 8 week BeautyFit Bootcamp started last week. I knew going in that I was going to have a mental struggle this time around. I know my body can and will do all the things that Sandra wants it to so now it's time to test my mental will power. Use whatever words you want.. Push, Pull, Drag, Throw, Jump.... but they all need to equal up to wrapping my head around these 8 weeks and focusing on what needs to get done. I have already accomplished so much and I just need to get through this little mental block. 31 days smoke free, 5 years Doritos and sour cream free and a whole bunch of weight and inches free. Those were big hurdles for me. Now I see them as speed humps. They were just big enough to irritate me and slow me down but not big enough to stop me from getting to my destination.

I'm human and I'm working on myself daily inside and out. I will never be "finished" because there is no fat lady to sing at the end of this for me. I know what my body can do on the outside... Now it's time to push the inside and see how far THAT will go. "Strength comes from within" means more than you will ever know some days.

Through all of this, mental meltdowns will occur. So if you see me laying there in my own sweat and tears, just hand me a kleenex and move on, I'll get over it.

Not a bird .. Not a plane.. it's a Supa Cheetah!!

I'm not sure what goes through your mind before you start mowing down on a bowl of ice cream or a bag of chips but I know what goes through mine... You gotta Burn it to earn it! Oh sure we justify to ourselves all the reasons why it is ok to have it. BUT... what did we really do? Here were a few of my reasons. Do any of them sound familiar?

1. I walked to the DQ therefore I deserve it
2. We only get together once a month and I don't want her to think I don't appreciate her cooking
3. I'm just going to have one piece of Birthday cake because it only comes once a year.

All these reasons and excuses I would use got me to where I was. It got me sitting on the couch chomping down on a Super size bag of Doritos with a tub of sour cream ( don't judge. We all have our vices and that was mine ). I am a total emotional eater. Plus the fact that I grew up where we all gathered around food to every function didn't help either. I am well aware now what that "one little cheat meal" used do TO me. They all added up. Day after day, calorie after calorie. Sitting on my butt watching all the weight loss shows on tv. Where does it end?!?! Well, now I know what that cheat meal does FOR me. For me it STARTS when I tie up my laces and put my ear buds in. FYI.. I watch those same shows now on the cross trainer at the gym.

I have no fear on this side anymore

Sandbag Squats just for FUN?!?!

Never take the easy way out anymore

Not gonna lie, I literally bust my ass for a solid week to earn that meal. I double cardio (am and pm), I push extra weight with my legs and I do not falter one bit. I am totally focused and there is nothing that gets in my way. Some people may think that is a bit extreme for just one meal. Is it really?? I don't think so. Because the joy on my face knowing "I burned it to earn it" can only be described by a medium thin crust veggie pizza and a small blizzard.

Yes I ate the WHOLE damn thing!!

... and this too :)

Oh now don't think that it just ends there... It SOOOOO doesn't! After this yummy cheat it began again the next day by rolling my carb loaded icky tummy to the gym. Fittingly it was a Sunday and I had abs to focus on. And BOY did I ever.. LOL. A small little message from your coach the next day wondering if you are still in bed in a carb coma kind of gets you motivated to get up.

Food will always be there. There will always be a viscous cycle of sugary ooey gooey goodness waiting for us around every corner. But we make the final decision as to whether or not that yummy platter of deep fried battered everything in the kitchen is going to end up in our mouth. And IF it does.... What did you do to really earn that? If you have to question it in your head at all then you probably should opt for the healthier option and step away from the greasy platter.

So when you see something crazy in the sky every few weeks, it's just me wearing this awesome cape. On the back it says SUPA CHEETA!!

A Proud and Wounded Warrior!!

Where do I begin?!? Let's start Friday night around 11:30 pm or so. I send Sandra a message "Seriously aren't you even the slightest bit nervous?? Even if you aren't can ya just lie to me?" She replies, "I'm excited like a kid at Christmas".... and so the journey begins... LOL

Saturday morning, 3am my alarm goes off and I spring out of bed! I roll over kiss my husband who is snoring pretty loud, so I can only assume he was in a deep sleep. He doesn't move. I continue kissing him until he gets so annoyed he wakes up and says... "What time is it?" >> "It's 3am. Time to get up!!">> "You need an hour and a half to get ready. I need 10 minutes"  (who knew THAT statement would be so true.. LOL) Either way, up he got! He gets the cooler out adds the half frozen water, then starts loading it with all the food that I prepped for us. Since I was unsure of what kind of food would be available I made sure that we had enough for lunch and for snack through out the day.

Be Prepared. There is never an excuse good enough.

 While he gets everything ready at home I go gas up the car. Somehow I lost my wallet in that 10 min time period. So after a few choice words, frustrated tears and messages being sent that we are running behind, it is found in the driveway. Apparently I DID need that hour and a half that he so kindly suggested to me.

WE MADE IT......SO EXCITED!!!

We pay, we park, we shuttle in on first class limo service, grab our packets of gear and paperwork and go find a spot to get ready. Pictures are taken, laughs are had and shoes are put on. I would just like to say that these kicks below did not survive the trip home. I laid them to rest in a pile that are being donated to countries that can't afford shoes (with the other 10,000 pairs that I am sure made it there too). So at this point we are BeautyFuel'd (who knew how handy THAT would come in.. LOL) and I had the BeautyBum in my bag. I applied on my tushie before we left.

Our Limo Service

RIP Kicks... You served me well

Never leave home without it

It's 8am, the flames roar high in the sky and we are off to conquer the next 3.24 hellish miles of our (ok maybe just mine) LIFE! I quickly came to realize that being 16 days smoke free was going to come in pretty darn handy! I was able to keep a steady pace and not breathe through my shoulders. But to actually breathe with my diaphragm in use.

Screams come from behind the bushes and then we see it, the first muddy jump. We all giggle when we see it because it is only a little jump... and then MORE SCREAMS!! This was an abyss of knee high thick black mud at least 50 ft long. I know this because I went through it. We knew we were going to encounter mud so might as well get used to it right from the get go. Up hills and down hills MANY MANY times, over and under obstacles and then the most amazing words of the day come from the woman that I admire and who inspires ME!!.. " You have GOT to be effin kidding me!!!" as we both stare up the longest climb known to man to the top. I giggled in between my panting for air and said, " I'm sorry and I don't want this to sound mean but that was the most fantastic thing I have heard all day!" Now, I'm not sure if she just kept a slower pace to not lose me or if I kept up to her but either way Sandra kept looking back to make sure I was alive and still coming. And I was always there.

We get to the water slide of death and this is where it should be fun to slide down a slippery tarp on a ski hill right?? Well yes and no. There were a few damages to my body and others later in the day got it WAY worse than me. I looked through pictures online. We get to the bottom and we can hear music and smell fire. That means we were almost to the finish line. Are you kidding me?!?! I'm almost done?? Over the cargo net I go as Sandra waits for me on the other side... " Let's go gurl. We're gonna finish this together!" is what I hear. We jumped some fire and trudged through mud on our hands and knees and then I CROSSED THAT FINISH LINE!!! I held my hands up high and I crossed that line with pride in my heart and a smile on my face. Final time was 51min 58 sec.

That mud was GROSS! and so thick!!

FINISH LINE!!!

I wore my mud and my wound proud!

So here I sit 3 days later, still banged up and sore like you wouldn't believe. I pretty much look like I have been beaten up or I went on a drunken bender and had a fight with the pavement and lost. I also sit here knowing that I accomplished something that I never thought I could do. Who knew that a little comment of "I'm in" would be so life changing. Here are just a few things I learned during this adventure..

 

 

It's healing pretty nicely!

1.   When you think you can't go any further, you really can.
2. A ski hill is nothing more than a big pile of dirt. It can't hold you back if you want to get to the top.
3. Victory is that much sweeter when you have your husband and your friend / coach at the end to say I am so proud of you!
4. You gotta Burn it to earn it NEVER tasted so good!! ( I'll tell you all about that next time )
5. I had no idea that gravel and sand could find its way in to THAT many places on my body.. LOL

And finally.... Wounds heal and fade away but pride of accomplishment stays FOREVER!!

It's not a Secret!!

I get asked by friends, family and even total strangers, What kind of program are you doing? I correct them politely letting them know it is not a program but a lifestyle change. This is generally how a random conversation will go...

“How do you do it”?

Do what?

“Well you must be taking some sort of diet pill right”?

Nope I’m not taking diet pills.

“So what’s your secret”?.....(now what I want to say is “Ancient Chinese secret” OR “If I tell you I have to kill you” but I don’t. I simply say..)

I eat right, I exercise and I use Beautyfit Products.

“So you take diet pills then!”

NO! First of all they are not diet pills and second I dare you to slam that BeautyBum cream on your tongue and see what happens!! I have encountered first hand what putting it on and THEN putting face cream on feels like :) ( FYI... It doesn't burn you it just makes you all warm, tingly and red. It's supposed to do that.. read the label ) I don’t just use the products and then magically I lose a whole crap-ton of weight. I watch what I eat, I work out regularly and I struggle just like everyone else out there. I highly recommend for more detailed information on the products you can either read all about them online at the website or you can contact Sandra ( You will find her on my FB friends list ). 

Oh and for the record I would never just send you blindly to try something out if I didn't fully believe in it. I'm not one of those paid actors. I don't get any kind of kick back for sending you to the website. But what I do get is a phone call, text message, BBM or FB wall post that says I LOVE MY Beauty_____ (fill in the blank of what product you are using). And for that right there, I feel accomplished!

Then the questions about BootCamp start. This is my favourite part of the conversation ( can I get a woot woot ) no really it is!! I tell them all about it! How there are some nights that all you can smell in the room is BeautyBum, how I got my ass served to me on a silver platter or how I swore she was a little twisted that night or maybe she took her BeautyFuel a little later in the afternoon than normal. But I have never once told ANY of my friends... don’t do it! Just the opposite actually. I tell them when all the free drop camps are and when the pay per drop classes are. I encourage them to at least try it. There is always a bit of hesitation at first but once I reel them in, they get hooked! And then they totally understand why I do it. It’s not just about the 1 hour butt kick, the fact that I just sweat through my clothes being  pretty sure my deodorant kicked off about 6.2 minutes in or that I just threw up a little in my mouth swallowed and kept on going.... but it’s about the room of women all there to cheer you on and to sweat and swear next to you the whole time. There are laughs, and tears and sometimes a little bit of booty slappin happenin’ but we all come together as a single unit to get it done.... and then we come back for more. For me it quickly went from an “I am going to do this and last the whole 6 weeks because I would like to finish something I started”  to “Hey lady when is the next one starting?”. That doesn’t make me twisted at all, it makes me dedicated to a better healthy life.

But while we are on the topic of twisted adventures, let me tell you about what I have decided would be a great day of fun! Somehow I agreed to doing the warrior run with Sandra  (www.warriordash.com  watch the video and you’ll see where I’m going with this). It went a little like this. I will break it down it point form for you...

1.       Sandra posts warrior dash info and says bucket list!!

2.       I say hellz ya let’s do it I’m in!

3.       Sandra sends my confirmation email saying "wave time 8am....SHOW TIME?!!!"

So here we are 4 days out and we are both so excited! I am scared for the fact that this is new and also HOLY CRAP!! What a challenge eh?! And honestly who better to have by my side than her. She has believed in me enough to never let me fall without helping me back up and saying YOU GOT THIS!!!

I have a super busy week ahead of me but I KNOW you can’t wait to see the pictures and to hear all about it when we are done. Even if I don’t fully survive the hills, mud, fires and barbed wire don’t worry Sandra will blog after she’s done her GINORMUS Turkey leg.

A Side Road

In my life, things come up and I get thrown totally off track! Today was one of those days for me. We went to the lake today to ease the sweltering heat so I had lots of time to think in the almost 2 hour drive. I had my blog all planned out for what I was going to write about because I was once again on a road trip.
Road trips for me have always been an adventure, but I quit smoking 9 days ago so I find myself going a little stir crazy not knowing exactly what to do with myself now. I talk my poor husband's ear off for the first 45 min and then after that ... uhm nothing! Well not really... I grab my cell phone and I start taking silly pictures and then send them to my friends. It looks a little like this.........

This was 7 days ago. I am much better now :)

Ok, so back to where everything went in a totally different direction.. What are some of the main things we grab when heading to the beach? Lotion, towels, chairs, cooler, a camera and of course the children. We take random pictures of ourselves and of the kids or of total strangers. Whichever are more interesting at the moment. Oh, and the standard, "I was here" picture with my husband is always taken for the memory book. Who knew when the shutter clicked it would make such an impact this year?!

The first "bathing suit" pictures of the year are scary for lots of us. Mostly because we are casper white and we glow like a beacon with a flashing sign above our heads that say "LOOK AT ME". But this was much more scary than the norm for me. This was my 6 month check point. How much of a difference have I made to my body since January? "Clothes hide everything if worn correctly" is one of my favourite lines. All I was hiding behind today... was SPF4. Thank goodness where we decided to park it for the day was a quiet little cove with no crowds of onlookers.

On the way home I sent the picture to Sandra. I get a response of,  "WOW... seriously WOW!" That was an awesome response right?! She wasn't done yet. She wanted to REALLY let me know how WOW it truly was and I needed to see it. I get an email with encouraging words and an attachment.... She posted my pictures side by side. Tears of joy? Tears of WOW? How about tears of HOLY CRAP?! I had them all at that moment. I got to see what people now see, and what people saw then. It was right there in front of my face side by side. I'm human of course, and I immediately tried to pick the flaws out of some saggy skin here or some fatty spots there. That's my way of coping with an uncomfortable situation.

But isn't that what changing your life is all about? Getting our of your comfort zone? Why was I uncomfortable?? It's because I didn't recognize either of those women in that one combined photo. I was shown that I have accomplished so much and to be proud!

NONE of this came easy. NO ONE held my hand. I did it myself. I made a conscious decision to never go back. Is there pain involved? Heck ya there is. Physical, Emotional and Spiritual pain are what I deal with. Have I lost friends along the way? Yes I have. Do I have bad days? Yup! Sure do. And I also have TONS of fabulous days. What I have now, are people in my life that love me, support me and who PUSH me to be a better and healthier version of what I already am. To Be Beautiful.. and to be ME!

Thank you for opening my eyes tonight. I GET IT!!

Reality Bites Back

I didn't have these shoulda-woulda-coulda moments that brought me to where I am today. I had one life changing moment that made me wake up and realize that I was not who I wanted or needed to be. My husband and I go with our children yearly to Florida for family vacation. We do all the fun things that families do. Go to Disney, to the beach, swim at the pool and play mini golf. We also get family pictures done at that time so we can look back and see how much the kids have changed.


Lets go back to Feb 2006 as I stood there at the waters edge in Daytona Beach with the wind whipping thru us at a balmy 82F. A picture is taken with my husband and I like usual and then we go on with our day. 5 days later I uploaded all the pictures off the camera and started flipping through them. That's when it hit me like a TON-O-BRICKS!! Who is that woman standing there with my husband? Sadly enough it was me. I sat there staring at that picture for hours crying, thinking how did I ever let my weight get so out of control? I thought of every excuse in the book. I had children, I was a wife, I worked too hard to take time to eat right and I was tired all the time and my favourite was.... I was comfortable! The next day I called our benefit provider to see if the Dr. Bernstein program was covered under the plan and it was 100%. So I made the appointment and I started the program the next week. I weighed in at 250lbs and I almost passed out..

I struggled through the first few weeks until I got my bearings and then I was off to the races. 7 months later (Labour day weekend) I stepped on the scale for the last time and I was 165lbs. I thought I was done. I maintained my weight with a bit of fluctuation for 3 years and then I felt I failed because I put on 25lbs. It was that vicious cycle that we go through in our lives, so I called again. I went back on to the program and took the weight back off only this time it was harder. I felt like my body was fighting me and I didn't understand why. It took 5 months and then I gave up, stopping at 169lbs. Long story short I bounced again back and forth for 2 more years. I kept eating the way I was taught to, had my nights out with the girls for dinner, drinking and dancing ( because that made the calories stay away RIGHT??!?! ) and going to the gym a few days a week but not on a regular schedule.


So here we are Summer of 2010 and I am an active member at the gym I go to. I get a flyer saying they are opening a new one just down the street from my house and my excitement was through the roof! Little things make me happy :)  That was when I met Sandra Compton. She was an angel in workout clothes hiding behind the biggest smile I have EVER seen! We met, we talked, she did a "where are you" analysis of me. I was in a rut and I couldn't get out of it. She asked me a little bit of my background and I laid it out like the red carpet for her and I cried A LOT. Being as professional as she could be, she cried with me because she GOT IT! She knew where I was and where my struggles were and where I was right at the moment.


Months go by and I go on with my life never letting her out of my mind. I kept her business card with me all the time with my gym card (and I still do to this day). Fear of what would happen if I contacted her and fear of what would happen if I didn't is what held me back. The day finally came and I jumped for the first time and sent an email. That is where it all started.... January 2011, I started Beautyfit BootCamp and my life has NEVER been the same since then. My life didn't end....  it BEGAN!!

I left this woman behind in the parking lot at Tim Hortons December 31, 2010. Wait till you see her now!