Dream Big!

Some time ago I was on a Beachbody coach call that had a profound effect on me. Two of our most successful coaches were talking about how they achieved things that they never thought possible as Beachbody coaches.  It just so happened that they are a husband/wife team just like Chad and I…they were also prior military so it really hit home for both of us. 

What stuck with me most was the idea of a “Dream Board”.  Creating a “Dream Board” is much like putting your goals on paper but, the vision created with the pictures invokes more emotion that proves to be a very powerful motivational and inspirational tool.

Chad and I took this idea and ran with it!  We put together a board that reminds us why we get up at 5am every single morning to workout, to remind us why we work on our Beachbody Business during nap time instead of taking a nap ourselves, to remind us why we keep our cupboard clean of all the processed junk that fills the grocery stores these days. 

Some things are very materialistic, like the Tahoe I would like to have to lug the kids around in, the vacation house we would love to have in the mountains for unforgettable vacations with our family, the pontoon we would like to have to enjoy on the weekends, a newly remodeled bathroom,or my very own cleaning lady.  Some things are very personal, like the number 18% represents my goal to get back down to my “before Riley” body fat percentage or$2000 is the amount of income I want to contribute to our monthly family income with Beachbody (half way there!). 

And some are our BIG WHY…more important than all that materialistic stuff, more important than the number on the scale or the size of my jeans.  Why I am so dedicated to my workout, why I stick to my work schedule the way I do, why I’m not affraid to tell everyone that I believe in Beachbody and all it has to offer with all my heart.

My WHY is my family.  With a deployment staring me right in the face and the feeling of our family being ripped apart right before my eyes I have never been so sure of my WHY. I do what I do so that one day we can be “financially independent” of the military…if we want to be done at the end of our commitment we can.  I dream of one day watching Chad walk both of our kids to school every day like the picture on my “Dream Board”.  I dream of family vacations without having to ask for “leave” or working around “work-ups” and “deployments”.  I dream of tailgating at the OSU football games with  my favorite football fan.  I dream of waking up next to him every day and kissing him goodnight every night.  I dream of day when our family can come first….that’s why a picture of our family is positioned front and center.

As you can tell, there is a lot of emotion involved with my “Dream Board”.  That emotion is what gets me out of bed to workout when I don’t want to.  It’s what gives me the courage to talk to people about  my business and promote the products that I believe in so much.  It’s what had me working straight through my favorite show last night, Grey’s Anatomy.  It is my WHY!

Here is my challenge for you.  Make a “Dream Board” that stirs up that same kind of emotion for you and hang it somewhere you will see it every single day.  We hung it next to our bed…the first thing we see every single morning and the last thing we see every night. Remember, “It costs nothing to dream and everything not to”!   Now, DREAM BIG!

Eat Your Words…their lives depend on it!

Usually I have a well thought out plan for my blog posts.  However, this one just came to me tonight as I was sitting in Bible study class. It is a parenting class.  Our class leader was talking about how we, as parents, are the most influential people in our kid’s lives. The way we live is what our kids learn. Now, she was talking about faith but that pertains to everything…even health and fitness. 

Did you know that for the first time in history our kids have a shorter life expectancy than we do?  Type 2 diabetes can no longer be called adult onset because children are getting it. And 1/5 of all children are struggling with weight.  That is amazing…and scary!  Even scarier, 2/3 of all adults are struggling with weight and if we are the most influential people in our kids lives then the number of kids struggling is only going to go up.

Do you see where I’m going with this? I hear all too often that there just isn’t enough time to work out. Or, that it is just too late after the kids go to bed. Who says the kids need to be in bed when you workout.  They need to see that it is a priority in your life…their lives depend on it and so does yours!

Okay, I’m going to toot my horn this month for the success story.  There are a lot of things that I fall short of when it comes to parenting, but leading a healthy lifestyle is not one of them.  Since birth, Griffin has watched me workout in the garage.  We have run hundreds of miles together and he has run many 5k races with me. We used to do lunges and squats together with him in the Baby Bjorn.  He used to go with me to watch me train clients at their house. We talk about how protein is suppose to be in every meal and snack…and I live by that…he sees it, we live it! Now, he tells me he wants to go ride his bike because he needs his exercise.  He begs to come out into the gym and do P90X with me.  He has even been known to turn down cookies because “they aren’t for a healthy body”. Let me tell you, I was one proud mama when he said that!

You might not have kids yet but someday you might and I hope you remember this post. Until then, I read just the other day that you become the average of the five people you hang out with the most. That pertains to anything….from fitness, to parenting, to being a student, to being a wife, to being successful in the work place. When it comes to fitness, think about that next time you’re hanging out with all your friends. Now I’m not saying to get rid of your friends. But I am saying to think about how your lives impact each other and how a healthy lifestyle could change their lives!

Our Journey with P90X…Round 2

Our journey with P90X started way back when good friends of ours introduced it to us when we lived on base in Meridian, Mississippi in 2007 . Already a personal trainer and very fitness minded, never did I think in a million years it would impact us the way it did.  It was with this program that not only did my body change and my personal training philosophy, but so did my career path.

Fast forward a few years. I have tried most, if not all of Beachbody’s best selling home based workout programs. I have achieved fitness levels I never thought possible. I have used these programs as a supplement for many of my personal training clients to achieve incredible results. I found Shakeology, a health shake and absolute God send when it comes to my stomach challenges. I have seen amazing success stories because of these products. For this reason, I became a coach for Beachbody as these are products I would put my name out there for in a heart beat. Now, I am making a living doing something I believe in with all my heart.  All this thanks to Sadie and Jason, the couple that introduced P90X to us way back in Meridian!

So, things are coming full circle.  I am about to celebrate my one year anniversary as a Beachbody Coach.  What better way to celebrate than with a second round of P90X, the program that set this all in motion. We just started week 3 and finished up with the fat shredder phase.  We definitely have had our slip ups with nutrition but we are staying pretty dedicated. We even added the recovery formula this go round…I so look forward to it after each workout. Not only am I enjoying the change of pace from INSANITY, but without a doubt, we both have dropped inches. I have lost 1.5% body fat and I feel incredible!  While that is all awesome, what I love even more is that one hour I get every morning, just me and Chad dripping sweat, sharing in the same goal and motivating each other.