A penny a day

I started reading this book called The Slight Edge, The Secret to a Successful Life by Jeff Olsen. I honestly just started this book, but have to say there are some great tips in there for improving your everyday life. This is one tip I found so inspirational I wanted to share.

Basically we all live in this instant gratification world. We all want something immediately. Especially now a days with the internet, cell phones,... things are available at the tip of our fingers. But, not everything comes that quickly. There are things that take time to nurture and grow.

Jeff talks about starting with a penny. A penny not being nothing, but being a very insignfincant amount of money, but its something. Each day, add another penny into a jar. So, ok, 2 days you still really don't have a lot, but you have something. A week, still not much. But, if you kept adding a penny, in a year, 2, 5,.. that little penny in a jar and all those extra little pennies you keep adding will eventually add up to something big!

I like this example even more. And, if you keep looking you will find hundreds of examples in life about the penny.

Take your fitness. If you do nothing, you have nothing. You may slowly gain weight. Your health may start to get worse. Your starting with nothing, or maybe worse, moving backwards! But if you start with one penny, and make it grow, you can make a change. Take your one penny and turn it into a 20 minute workout. After that one workout today, will you get results. No, probably not. So, you add another penny the next day- another 20 minute workout. Do you see results now, no still probably not. Keep doing this for a week, each day adding another 20 minute workout. At the end of the week, what results do you see. Well, you may feel better and yeah you may see a little improvement. But, overall those 10 lbs you want to lose still are hanging around.

Now the question, are you part of the committed. The person who will stay the course and know that next week you will continue to add a penny a day? Or are you one of the many who get frustrated with the lack of results and quit?

If your one of the committed and say you continue to add the 20 minute (penny a day) to your daily schedule. After a month, what do you think you will see? I bet that scale will start to move. I also bet your clothe may start to feel just a little bit loser?

Now, you are on track to adding your penny on day 365. One year later. What results do you think you will see? Think those 10 pounds are gone now. I would say- probably? Are those muscles starting to really pop? Possibly! Have you reached your goal and made new goals- Hopefully!

What I'm saying, a penny a day is a little commitment everyday. Everyday after your done with your little workout, you may ask- do I see results yet? You know what, that question maybe no for a while. But, then one day- Bang! Your like, wow, I look great! I am changing. My little effort everyday is paying off! I decided to stay the course, stay committed and now I am getting results!

I am quickly going to tie this to my story. If you are actually on my blog homepage you will see my photos over time. I remember everyday thinking, gosh, I workout and workout and workout, yet I NEVER saw the changes. I was getting bummed, I was like why am I doing this everyday? It's just not working. Then, one day I put that little slide show together for myself. I was suddenly amazed! I instantly could see the changes between each month! I'm glad I stayed the course. I'm glad I committed to that penny a day. I'm glad I keep adding to my jar. My penny has really added up to something big!

What's your story! Are you in debt and just waiting to get started in saving? Are you ready to just do a little bit today. Just a little more tomorrow. Are you willing to get past the, I'm not seeing this pay off now and just stay the co

urse?

I think you should be saying YES! I can commit to something small each and everyday because I know the results will pay off in time!

If you need help getting started today, drop me an email. I'm a Coach here to help you! I provide support for free, so just email me and let's chat how we can get you started!

My First Penny! Day 1

After adding many pennies to my jar, the payoff is big!

Keep Pushing Play and Keep Adding to your jar!

Heather

Web: www.TheFitnessSpot.net

Email: HeatherB@Beachbody.com

What's Michi's Ladder All About?

I'm always talking to my customers how to eat right, we should be choosing foods from the top 2 tiers of Michi's Ladder. I've recently learned that Michi's Ladder has been updated!

I'm reposting this from my coach, Barbi's, blog!

My facebook friend Lori posted the above question to BeachBody's nutritionist, Steve Edwards. Here is his response:

Some people have noted how Michi's Ladder has changed over the years and wondered why. The answer is that it will continually change as we learn more about nutrition and experience more with our customers. Thoughts and science on nutrition are continually changing. We'll never rest on our laurels.

That said, Michi's reflects what has worked for us with our customers more than the latest nutritional science. Not that it's scientifically un-sound. It's just based more on our experience with you than what the latest studies may indicate. So we'll only make changes to it once they've been tested.

That stated, here are a few things to consider about Michi:

First, it's just a food substitution guide for people trying to LOSE WEIGHT. Depending upon your situation you may find it necessary to eat more on a lower tier, especially for athletics. Performance nutrition is different from weight loss nutrition. For performance, dense calories are often important. For weight loss, they almost always want to be avoided. So Michi's focuses on low-density foods from a caloric standpoint that have a high density nutrient ratio. Therefore, tier 1 is filled with many veggies, which are loaded with nutrients per calorie as well as no calorie fiber. For people trying to fill their stomachs with as many nutrients and as few calories as possible, this is the primary aim of your diet.

Secondly, it's not a diet! A diet consists of an eating plan. You still need to adhere to some sort of plan. You could eat out of nothing but tier 1 and still have a poor diet if you don't cover your basic nutritional needs, such as getting plenty of carbs, proteins, and fats. Michi's Ladder was never meant to address this. All it was designed for was to help you make substitutions of similar types of foods.

Three, sometimes we make mistakes. Some versions of Michi's have had mistakes. If something sounds wrong (like, for example, beef jerky being labeled a carb) chances are it is. We will catch these, for sure, but they happen. Please let us know if something seems wrong with the ladder and use your own common sense while using it.

The latest version of Michi’s will launch any day. This, more than any other, is organized to reflect our diet plans. We’ve eliminated many restaurant items from the list and tried to keep it to many grocery store items. Some convenience store items are still found, as well as nostalgic tier 5 favorites, like Lobster Newburg.

We’ve eliminated these because we’re working on a restaurant version of the ladder. Hopefully we’ll have this out very soon.

To view the actual post, copy and paste to your browser if you are a BeachBody community member:

http://teambeachbody.com/connect/message-boards/-/message_boards/message/32763229/connect/message-boards/-/message_boards/category/19535509

Here is the link to the "old" version of Michi's ladder:

http://www.beachbody.com/category/michis_ladder.do

updated version (you must be a community member to view). To become a FREE Community member, simply click here, complete the form and then go play and see what other great pieces of information is available to help you succeed and reach your goals!

http://teambeachbody.com/eat-smart/michis-ladder

Thank you Barbie for sharing.

-Heather

My BodyBugg

(Here is the armband. You can also get a digital display that is also a watch, or can just be clipped on your belt.)

I've been hearing a lot of talk about the BodyBugg. What is it? It's a device that helps you track the total about of calories you burned in a course of a day to within 90% accuracy. It also tracks the number of steps you take and the amount of moderate activity you do in a day. The Bodybugg comes with a free 6 month subscription to a program to also track your meals. The goal of the program is to help you track and get progress and get you the weight loss results you want.

This product is highly recommend by people like Chalean Johnson, and numerous coaches and coachees!

So, I heard about it for awhile and was like, do I really need that? I mean, I workout everyday, I eat right,... I don't need it? It's not really cheap, so I was like I use Fitday.com (a free website) to track my meals and I have a heart rate monitor to track my calories. Why get this little device?

Well, I decided I wasn't really reaching the goal I wanted. So, I decided I would take a chance and just get one. Heck, I'm a Beachbody Coach, my weekly checks can cover the cost of my new toy, so why not!

My first week of having it, I was on a boat, sailing. So, I decided not to really use it. Why, because it comes with an armband you HAVE to wear. And, honesty, I didn't want a goofy tan line around my arm. But, I did wear it for a bit and figured out how much I burned as I walked around town all day! I thought, wow, this is pretty cool!

See, I set my Bodybugg up with the following daily goals!

1. Take 10,000 steps a day.

2. Do a min. of 2 hours of moderate activity a day.

3. Burn a min. of 2200 calories a day.

I figured 10,000 steps is what I always here about, I guess the American Heart Association or someone came up with that number. I figured that would be an easy goal, and I could hit that no problem.

The moderate activity, I set for 2 hours because I know I workout hard for an hour a day, but I have a desk job during the day, so, 2 hours I thought would be easy to hit with my other daily activities. I figured, I'd have to adjust that once I "figured it out" from wearing my Bodybugg.

And finally, I picked 2200 calories. The Bodybugg program helped me choose this number based on the information it requested when I set it up. My goal is to lose about 5 lbs. If I burn 2200 cal. and I track my meals and eat 1700 calories, that is a 500 cal. deficit a day. That would be a week to lose 1 pound. I can live with that.

So, Monday was my first day of wearing the BodyBugg. I have worn it everyday this week. Yup, the band on the arm got a lot of questions. But, most people know I'm a fitness freak, so leave me be. I even think a few people are going to get one to help them reach their goals!

Here is what I learned. If you sit at a desk all day, hitting 10,000 steps is not that easy! On most days, from 6:30-5 pm, I only walk about 4000-5000 steps. And, some days, if I do a resistance workout in the morning, (at 5 am) that number may only go up to 5500!

I have also learned that the 2200 calories a day is a lot! I really need to do stuff to get that amount in.

I have also been tracking a lot of my meals on Fitday and this program to see where I'm at.

Here is what I learned! Cardio workout days and a good resistance workout in the morning, really kick start my day! My calorie burn is up, my steps are up! But, I need to make little adjustments in my routines! Like, I park further from the building to walk a little more. My dog is getting an extra 5 minutes at least on all his walks! I also look at my watch and at 9 pm, have stepped on my elliptical to help push me past my goals!

There are many days this week, where I was around 2000 calories burned and only around 8000 steps taken. There have been a few days this week where my diet was way out of whack and there were days were it was spot on!

But, once you plug your band in to the program and you have tracked your meals and it says, that your goal is a 500 calorie deficit and I see my results for the day or an increase in calories or that I may have an equal calorie in to my calorie out, so a 0 deficit for the day. I now know why my goals are not being reached.

This is a new toy, but it has definitely shown me a lot. I know if I can continue to use my Bodybugg it will help me reach my goals. If nothing else it really makes me push harder during the day to do just a little more. Meaning, the little things, like taking the stairs and not the elevator! Plus, if I see at 8 pm that I only burned 1700 calories, and I have a quite night planned, I know I sure won't be grabbing a snack!

You can get your Bodybugg (or learn more) at www.BodyBugg.com. I also found it slightly cheaper at www.24hourfitness.com.

As I keep using this system, I'll send out updates on if its working our not. But, remember, knowing the calories you burned is only half the battle! You also need to really pay attention to the calories you consume to get the best results!

Keep Pushing Play!

Heather

Email: HeatherB@BeachbodyCoach.com

Website: www.TheFitnessSpot.net

Reminder to get my weekly newsletter and to have me coach you for free, visit my website and go to "Play the Game" to sign up and join.

Breaking a Plateau

Have you hit a plateau?  Here is a quick little video to help you push through your plateau.

I bet the diet ones are my favorite tips.  From checking out how many cheats you were having in a week, or how many calories you really are eating.  

I know that when I hit a plateau and just am not getting the results I want I look first at my diet and I need to be honest with myself.  What exactly did I put in my mouth all week?  Yes, that M&M counted, yup it was only one.  But was it only 1 ten times in the day?  Or did I drink maybe a sweet tea a few times in the week?  These little things do add up, so pay attention to your diet and be honest with yourself.  If you need to, I say write down everything you eat for a week.  Then go to fitday.com and log it in to see if you are in your calorie range.  Are you really eating 1600 calories a day, or are you eating more like 1800?  You May be surprised!  Not sure how many calories you should be eating, if you are a Beachbody Club member, just go to the Eat Smart Tab then Nutritional Tools Tab to find the Caloric Needs Calculator!  (You can become a Club Member by joining here)

My other thing I do when I hit a plateau, I look at my workouts.  Have I been slacking, missing one to many workouts.  Maybe just not using the full intensity I know I have?  Or have I been more or less going through the motions?  I also look to see if I mixed it up?  I love resistance work and make sure to add that in every other day.  I also am one of those people who can get bored, so I tend to change my workouts a lot.  Meaning, this month I may do P90X and next I may do Chalean Extreme, and next I may do Turbo Jam.  But, I want to make sure that when I switch it up, I also am mixing up the intensity.  If I get in a rut and do Turbo Jam for a long period of time, my body gets a little to relaxed and use to the moves, so I know I need to add more to it.  Make sure to use heavier weights or add the hand gloves where I didn't before, or use the tube bands on the leg.  Yup, it may be harder, but the body wants a little challenge to break through the plateau.

Again, be honest with yourself first!  Now, watch this quick video for other tips!  And finally, if you need help on your fitness journey, please drop me an email at HeatherB@BeachbodyCoach.com.  Let's talk about your goals and how you will get there!

Have a FIT day!

Heather

Muscle verses Fat

Everyone keeps saying that muscle weighs more than fat.  Well, above is a picture of 1 pound of muscle (red) verses 1 pound of fat (yellow).  As you can seem, the amount of fat takes up a lot more volume then the same amount of weight as the muscle.  The fat also is lumpy and gross compared to the muscle.  

I'm showing you this comparison to help you realize that this is why our scales lie!  As we work out and tone up to build our muscles, those muscles will help eat away our fat.  (Muscles speed up metabolism which helps burn fat.)  As you can see from the picture above, the fat is denser and cleaner looking then the fat is is replacing, but it does weigh more than that you are losing.  So, as our bodies get smaller, tighter and less giggly, and our cloths get looser, our scales can tend to stay the same!  

This is a good thing though.  Overall we want a higher muscle to fat ratio.  You may not be at a plateau, your body still may be transforming- its just not showing on the scale.

So now, keep bringing it and building those muscles!  By building those muscles which are helping to eat the fat, you will get smaller and leaner!  Just pay attention to how you look, how your cloths fit, and how your measurements change!  Now, go throw away your scale!

Keeping a Journal

Today I want to talk about keeping a journal.  I believe this is so important to do.  I recommend it for beginners and also the more advanced.  I'd recommend both a food journal and a workout journal.  They can all be in the same page/book, but you could write it all day.

Your food journal should write down everything you ate for the day and when you ate it!  Include in it what you drink.  Did you drink 64 oz of water for the day.  Estimate portion sizes, total cal. intake,...  Then if you ate stuff for any particular reason, note that too.  Was it a stress thing, were you bored,....  At the end of the day, but a note in your journal how you think you did.  On a 1-5 scale, were you a 5 perfect or at a 1 terrible?  You can use Michi's Ladder as a good "go to" to determine if your food was higher on the food tiers, or at the bottom.  (You can obtain a copy of Michi's Ladder in the Beachbody Nutrition Guide Book.)

Now right down your workout.  What did you do today, how long, how many reps, how much weight.  Right it all day.  Also right down, was my energy high today, or did I just push through it,...  First writing down tells you exactly where you are at (no guessing what weight to start with), also points out where you are improving or need to make a slight push to go a little further then what you have been doing.

By seeing everything written down, you will begin to notice trends- did you not have enough energy for your workout, when when did you eat last before the workout and what did you eat?  Are you eating and adding extra calories everyday after work because it's a habit?  You can only tweak your workouts and diet if you know where your main problems are.  

Plus, writing it down makes you accountable.  You can see for yourself where you in the most need of help.  You don't need to share this with anyone but yourself.  On the same token, if you are struggling and can't figure out why- you have information to give to your coach to help you figure it out.  They may see the little things you don't!

Do the Math?

Ok, we all know that to lose weight, calories in must be less then the calories out.  Did you know that you could calculate how much eight you could lose?  Let's look at some math.  

For a trimming fat diet, it is recommended that you eat between 1200-1500 calories per day.  (Talk to your coach, they can hook you up with some information as to hoe many calories are recommended for you based on your height, weight, age and what workout you are doing!)  Just remember never to go below 1200 calories.  This typically will put the body into a starvation mode.  By doing that, you are actually forcing your body to store fat because it is afraid it will not be getting enough food to do what it needs to do (LIVE)!  If you are trying to build muscles, your diet may be closer to 2000 cal. a day.  

We have already talked in a previous post (CHOICES) about how your calorie intake should be healthy choices, not stuff like chips and cookies.  Remember, if you are only eating 1300 calories, why use them all on bad stuff at one meal.

I like to use the website FITDAY.com, to help estimate the number of calories I eat.  It's free, just plug in what you eat (you need to know the portion size) and it tells you calories, percent fat, carbs, protein.  I also like the website CALORIE-COUNT.com to help determine meals from popular restaurants.

Next step, is to determine about how many calories a day your body uses.  This is based on your weight, lifestyle,...

Here is a brief table of some of the calories burned.  If you are a current Beachbody member, you can refer to the nutrition guide for additional information on this.  

For a 150 lb person with a sedentary life, they burn 2100 cals.  If they have moderate activity = 2300 cal., and or a very active person = 2800 cal.

For a 170 lb person, these numbers are: sedentary = 2300, moderate = 2500, active - 3000 cal.

Now, the math.  Take the calories burned minus the calories eaten = the calorie deficit.  So for example, the 150 lb moderate activity level lifestyle person who ate 1400 cal. today:

2300-1500 = 800 calorie deficit

Once you accumulate a 3500 calorie deficit, you have burned off 1 pound of fat!  By controlling your deficit, you control your weight loss.

So, if you have a daily deficit of 450 calories = 1/8 a pound a day loss = 11 lbs of fat in 90 days.

at 900 cal. deficit = 1/4 lb. a day = 22 lbs of fat loss in 90 days.

1600 cal. deficit = 1/2 lb. a day = 45 lbs in 90 days!

It's that easy.  Now you know, just by watching what you eat, you can determine when you can meet your goals to the day!  This process must take focus and discipline to meet the goals, remember the more cheat meals you have, the less deficit for the day, and the longer the process.

(For additional information on this, refer to the Beachbody Nutritional Guide).