Yoga- soft served!

Yes, I know, I’m behind on these. I will be doing 2 a day to try and keep up. Day 3 of 10 minute trainer was Yoga. Can I tell you how happy I am about this yoga? Day 3 I was only supposed to do this program instead of 30 min. So it was 10 min of stretching and relaxing. Me? Relax with yoga when I’m the stiffest person I know? Yep! It’s like 30 seconds of holding things instead of “Now turn into a pretzel and hold until you pass out.” I never did good in hour long yoga classes and I’ve had some of the best yoga instructors I’ve ever known of. I just don’t do well with it. But this yoga program still has to cover the same amout of body in half the time so I was moving again before I thought my leg was going to rip out of socket. I love it. I’m all loose and happy and relaxed afterwards. Of course Tony instructs while a dancer/gymnast does the exact moves. But while he’s instructing he talks about how he used to be stiff and forget to breathe and you realize he’s just as human as the rest of us. If I really wanted to I could turn up the temp in the house and do hot yoga, but ummmm, I moved out of Texas because of the heat, I’m not going to make something hot for no reason other than to burn off a few extra calories. I can sit in a sauna for 10 min, relaxing, and sweat out toxins while not bending like a pretzel.

As for food, I really sucked that whole week. I was doing good the first few days but then we were bringing home ice cream and I was eating the kids leftovers. It was a bad week on food. So I’m going to remind you all that as for food- this day was my downfall… and I still managed to lose weight that week.

I like to do yoga at my house instead of at the gym because I have bay windows and they let in light and bird noises and I know my kids aren’t running around an unsupervised apartment ripping things apart. So HERE HERE for a change of scenery.

I am a warrior! And yes I know I have saggy elbows. That’s what happens when you lose 100 lbs and it takes up to a year for your skin to go back to normal.

And proof to how NOT flexible I am. And most of my non-flexibility is in my lower back and inner thighs. But I WILL get there. MMhmmm I will.

Daily Challenge July 4- Invest in success, not a heart attack

First off, Happy Independance day to all of you American’s out there and a big old “It’s not you, it’s me… no it was you” to my English friends.

Because I woke up too late to get the kids into the 4th parade this morning, I’m taking them to a Lake Somethingwaga park where they have rides and fun stuffs until fireworks tonight. Mmmm carni food. J/k I’m packing sammiches and snacks.

Back to the task at hand… Success sometimes requires investments. Yes, I’m a beachbody coach and would love for you to buy my programs, but I’m here to talk about other stuff mostly.

Do you know how much being overweight is costing you? It may not cost you as much now as it will in the future, but in some ways, it’s costing you now. Your immune system may be low, you may be emotionally eating out of insecurity, it may keep you from getting out and being active outside, even the emotional side of it has a cost. Now fast foreward into your future. How much does a heart attack cost? According to this article, anywhere from 760,000 to a million. The worst cost all together would, of course, be your life. How do they get that cost? Doctors, surgery, prescriptions, checkups, lab costs, ect. ect. I’ve seen it happen in my family. My dad has been hospitalized with 2 heart attacks. One required angioplasty, the other required an open heart quadruple bipass. Add on top of that complications with the bipass. What they don’t factor in is the damage that it costs your family. Constant fear for a parent’s health doesn’t sit well.

So now that I put all that out there, 120$ for the right pair of running shoes doesn’t really sound all that bad, does it? And maybe shopping organic once a week each month? How about an in home ice cream maker where you can put in your own ingredients?

Yes, I know it all adds up, but this is an investment into yourself and a cheaper future. How many 120$ running shoes can you get for 760,000$? 6333 and a few pairs of socks. Do you really think you’re going to go through 6333 pairs of shoes? Lets say you buy 1000$ worth of exercise equipment each year and spend an extra 1000$ on top of your regular food prices for organic food each year. It would take 380 years for you to come up with the cost of a minor heart attack.

When I tell people a bag of shakeology cost 120$ a month or that a fitness program is 120$ and it’s only a 3 month program (that you can repeat as much as you want and keep by the way) I get really funny looks. it doesn’t matter that I tell people shakeology is praised by my doctor for raising my HDL as much as it has and boosting my immune system and helping to re-adjust my thyroid from years of post pardom and diet ideas as a teen. I’m sure I’m going to get the same looks when I become a fitness instructor and tell people what it would cost for me to train them. But lets face it, nothing I ask for is going to add up to that 760,000$. I’m sure some trainers or programs in Hollywood might add up to that much, but you’re not going to spend that. If you were that rich, you wouldn’t think twice into investing in your success.

Now lets add in that

• Organic food keeps you satisfied longer so you eat less meaning you lose weight faster and the grocery bill isn’t as high as you’d expect
• Having an in home ice cream maker would cost about 40$ for the machine (I paid 15$ for mine), you can use truvia instead of regular sugar, add in the fruit that YOU like, and have a low calorie sorbet without having to drive anywhere to get it. The average sorbet costs me less than 5$ per quart to make and that’s with strawberries and the costly cherries.

• The right running shoes will keep you from injuring yourself, make running less painful and more entertaining, and you can use them as regular shoes also. You need shoes anyways. BTW, trust me, get the right shoes. Plantar Facciitis sucks!

So now I’m going to ask you. Are you worth an investment into yourself and a healthy future or are you going to kep giving lame excuses?

Your challenge for the day is to change your mind on what’s worth money in your house. You can’t afford to not understand this. BTW a heart attack is not the only thing that can kill you from not being fit. Just remember that.

Are they really that expensive now?

Yes, you have an eating disorder

When you think of eating disorder, do you think thin?

People who go without food or eat then throw up are put into this horrific category of having an eating disorder. Wouldn’t you think the opposite would be true also?

“But we don’t have a disorder… we just have an addiction.”

WRONG!

If you binge (compulsive overeating) how is that any better than anorexia? You’re still killing your organs with potential permanent damage.

If you binge purge (eat until you throw up) how is that any better than bulemia? Throat destruction, organ damage, even higher on the mental damage.

I pulled that from here.

Just like bulemia and anorexia, this is a mental disorder. That doesn’t mean you’re crazy. It means your brain triggers are set to food. Their’s is set to skinny. An alcoholics is set to alcohol. Drug addicts go for the high. We all have one thing in common- ease the pain.

It doesn’t matter what the pain is, we think we can fix it by actually harming our body.

That thought is what helps me with my eating disorder. I finally realized the extra pain was making things worse.

Before I go on, I would like to note that now that we realize this, our first order of business is mentally apologize to any people with disorders that we’ve looked down on.

And on the same note, if you share this with someone and they treat it like it’s nothing, remind them this can kill you if you don’t start to fix it. High cholesterol, depression, organ failure, heart failure, diabetes, and sleep apnea aren’t things to just blow off.

Let me take you back to over a year ago.

I have Wednesday night and Thurs night off of work. To let my husband sleep in I take the kids to school Weds, Thurs, Friday.

Wednesday morning I figure I’m up, I have the whole day, I should enjoy some breakfast. I get a breakfast burrito from OC Burger (its a two person burrito), head home with it. When I finish it, I go to bed for a few hours. Wake up, have cereal. Find a few snacks. Get the kids from school. Sit down and play WoW. Eat while playing. Take the kids out for our “date night”. Go to Ted-E’s and get their burger combo (double patty huge burger, fries, large soda) and a family size fire bites (deep fried jalapenos, chips, and queso). Play WoW till my husband says its time to go to bed.

Thurs. get the kids to school, come home and eat and play WoW, wait for Josh to leave for work, head to McDonalds or some place with a dollar menu, spend 10-20$ on the dollar menu, eat the food until I throw up, wait a while, eat the rest of the food before I pick the kids up from school. Go to my room and cry. Take a nap. Take the kids out for dinner.

Friday, same thing as Thurs except we go to the grocery store for groceries we never use because we always eat fast food, have a donut while shopping, grab a candy bar on the way out.

In that whole thing do you ever see me write “feel better about myself”? No! Why? Because what I was doing made me feel like crap. I felt like a freak. It was embarrassing to have no control over my food because for some reason my brain always rationalized it for me. I could literally feel the problems with my body. Everything took more effort than it should have, I was having daily headaches and migraines, I was always angry, I had frequent chest pains. Life just sucked.

I sound pretty gross too right? Like I should be all greasy and rolly and horrible, using a scooter at the grocery store because I’m lazy…?

Ask my family what I looked like. I looked like everyone else… I didn’t even look like I weighed the 305 lbs that I did. I didn’t look sad. I didn’t look like someone who had no control over her health. It was hard to, but I kept up with the work around me.

I decided to go to OA (overeaters anonymous). I ended up going to the worst run OA ever. You know what I found? A group of women sitting around a table rationalizing their own eating habits and acting like a victim. It wasn’t their fault they were overeaters. It wasn’t their fault they pulled food from the trash (most compulsive eaters have been known to do it), it wasn’t their fault they had to hide it. They were victims.

You know what “victims” don’t do? They don’t fix things. They let everyone else try to fix it for them.

You know what a victim is in the middle of trying to fix it? A “warrior”

You know what a victim is called when they fix things? A “survivor”.

I’m really not trying to make anyone feel like crap here. I’m putting this out here because I want to help you fix it. I can’t do it for you but I can at least walk with you.

I’m a warrior. I haven’t fully fixed it but believe me I’m showing the gym I’m the Chuck Norris of fixing my own body. I’m letting McDonalds know I can get full off of bananas and they can put their dollar menu up their — and light it on fire. Do I have a set back every now and then? Yup. A lot recently to be honest (injuries have really gotten to my head and a lot is going on in our lives right now  I’ve gone back to excuses temporarily). Remember, this is mental. I’m basically fighting myself. But I can do this. And so can you. You can teach yourself how to rethink.

You can start by reminding yourself that hurting yourself is not going to make anything better. It’s not going to fix your financial or health crisis. It’s not going to make someone love you or notice you. It’s not going to make your job better. Life happens. Why not let health happen to? I promise you that you will be so much happier with a clean diet than a binge diet. I promise you will enjoy the high of getting your heart rate up past 140 and staying there for at least 40 minutes. You will enjoy people walking up to you and saying you look amazing.

You will enjoy owning your own body again.

Admit that you’re a binger. It’s ok. You’re not a freak. And now you know you at least have one person on your team. I bet if you admit the problem to your family and friends, they will do their best to help you also.

Drinking saved my life

You thought I was going to talk about alcohol, didn’t you!

I don’t really drink alcohol, true story. It’s maybe a 4-5 times a year thing for me. Why? Because I’m a nerd like that. Other than just really needing to relax or wanting to know what a certain margarita tastes like, I don’t see the point of it.

What I am talking about is a shake I take. People who know me knew this post was coming. I talk about this stuff all the time. It’s a meal replacement called shakeology.

Before you blow this blog off and think I’m just here to sell you something, I’m just going to ask that you take the next 5 minutes to let me explain this.

I talk about shakeology because the drink literally saved my life.

Jan 1st 2011, I was a completely different person.

I was a binge eater, had daily headaches or migraines, extremely depressed, 305 lbs, not bonding with my family or friends, wanting to to disappear, and having frequent thoughts of either running away or killing myself. That last part is something that I’ve really had to come to terms with.  I was honestly just ready to die. I didn’t realize how bad off I was.I just knew I was a disappointment and a failure.

Through a series of events, I knew I had to change my weight.

After a few months of taking a daily vitamin, better eating habits, and going back to my love of dance, I was able to lose 40 lbs. It was about this time that I hit my first plateau. Fighting binges was getting harder and harder. I was tired of spending hours at the gym each day and wanting to come home and just crash but having to go to work instead of sleeping.

I got lab results back from my doctor. When I was 305 lbs my HDL (good cholesterol) was a 31. That was about the same number my dad had when he had his first heart attack. I was thinking that after losing 40 lbs and eating better and exercising that my HDL would be at least in the lower 40s. It was a 36. I was still at major risk for a heart attack. I felt defeated.

About 2 weeks into the plateau I met a friend named Elisabeth. It was actually my first Hustle class that day. She stopped to tell me how good of a job I did and we ended up talking for at least an hour. In the middle of the conversation she started telling me about Shakeology. I blew it off. I figured she was just trying to sell me something. A few weeks later she called me to ask me how I was doing and if we could work out together again. We met up for another dance class. Then she asked if I could go with her to meet some of her friends. It turned out to be a Beachbody/Shakeology party.

To be honest, I was kind of hurt. I thought she was just being nice to me to try and sell me something.

But then I started listening to the people at the party talk about how shakeology had helped them.

People that were diabetic were able to reduce their medications, people were able to get off depression meds, heart patients were getting better results at their follow ups, people with stomach issues were able to eat foods they hadn’t been able to eat in years, and the inevitable “I lost a ton of weight.”

At the middle of the party we were handed a cup of shakeology and a sample pack to take home.

At this time I had been “backed up” for a little over a week. Within 20 minutes of drinking the shake my stomach was talking like it had never talked before. It was embarrassing. I ended up leaving the party to find a bathroom somewhere else because I didn’t want to embarrass myself any further there.

What was the first thought to come to my mind on my drive home? “Holy crap, I can eat beef again.” I love cow. It’s the only thing keeping me from going vegetarian.

I met up with Elisabeth a few more times. She explained that beachbody has warranty on everything. If it doesn’t work for you, you have a month to ask for a refund. Then she explained that becoming a coach is fully refundable also and I would get 25% off shakeology and anything else I bought through beachbody (p90X, turbofire, insanity, supplements, gear). I had wanted to try p90x for a while so I went ahead and signed up to be a coach to try the shakeology for a month and get the discount on the fitness program.

I ended up not buying p90x (a friend bought it for me) but I can happily say I have stayed with shakeology for over a year now.

Why? (Here’s how it saved my life)

• My migraines stopped. After years of them, they just stopped.
• I was able to eat foods that I had been avoiding because of acid stomach or not being able to digest them well.
• I was feeling more social, my anxiety had lessened.
• I didn’t want to fall asleep after every workout.
• I was yelling at my kids less and less.
• I’m eating a ton less and not feeling like I need to binge once or twice a week.
• I rarely get sick anymore and my allergies don’t act up all the time.

• HERE’S THE BIG ONE- Over the next 60 lbs my HDL jumped from a 36 to a 47…. 40 lbs without the shakes it jumps 5 pts. 60 lbs with the shakes it jumps 11. Even my doctor is praising the shakes now. The proof is in the blood work sometimes.

How does Shakeology do this? First off here’s the website that explains it better.

Shakeology is over 70 vitamins and minerals. I’ve never had a daily vitamin that has that much in it.

It’s fully organic which means you actually absorb it all, not just 25-50% like you would a non-organic daily vitamin (they’re harder for the body to break down and absorb).

The vitamins work together like a daily vitamin, an energy drink, prebiotic (gets your digestive tract ready for food), probiotic (helps break down the food once it’s in you and helps absorb vitamins and minerals from foods you eat after the shake), anti-depressant, helps with your immune system, and works with heart health.

Because you have most of your daily requirements of vitamins and minerals from this one drink (140 cal)  you eat less during the day because your body has what it needs to perform the way it should and doesn’t feel it needs more.

I love these shakes. It feels like a full meal. I have it every day when I wake up, first thing. I feel like a better person. I no longer fear having a heart attack. I feel like I’m living again. I feel younger than I ever have. And if I run out before I get a new bag (if I’ve had too many cleanse days or shared with a friend) I can feel the difference. If it was a placebo, it wouldn’t be like this. It’s a product that actually works. That’s why I stand by it and support it.

I’m happy to say my name is Laura, and I’m a chocolate shakeology addict.

“HI LAURA!”

Now ask me questions or make fun of me. I’m ready for it.