3 Steps to Achieving Your Goals in 2014

Almost everyone that I have talked to since the first of January has made some type of resolution or set a specific goal. Many of them have multiple. I am not exception. I take goal setting very seriously. But setting a goal isn't the end of the process. Setting the goal is only the beginning.

There is a quote floating around the internet that says something like "A goal is only a dream if you don't put action behind it"... In other words. If you are not willing to figure out the processes you need to have in place to reach the goal, all you have is an empty dream.

Setting a goal is important, you won't achieve anything if you don't know where you are heading. But in order to make progress towards that goal you have to start by brainstorming all of the little steps you need to complete before reaching success. If you commit to doing 2-3 small things each day that will help propel you forward you can not help but to reach your goal. 2-3 things may not sound like a lot... but they add up over time. Remember, Rome was not built in a single day.

3 Steps that will help you achieve your goals
1. Focus your attention on your goal -- Figure out what you want to achieve and write it down.
2. Brainstorm the steps you need to achieve your goal -- Break your goal down into small daily tasks.
3. Commit to consistency -- Complete 2-3 small actions each and every day.

I look forward to hearing about the goals you have set for this year. Please share your goals in the comments section along with your plan to reach them.

When Opportunity Knocks, Open the Door

Last month I was contacted by someone I had briefly met at the Healthy & Fit Expo last year. Asking if I would be interested in being on the cover of his magazine.

To be honest, when I received that message from him I thought, "Is this guy a creeper?" But after checking out his profile and realizing this was for real and remembering how I had first met him, I jumped at the opportunity.

I was so nervous. I felt completely out of my league and unworthy of such an honor.
I am NOT a fitness model.
I do NOT have a perfect body.
I have stretch marks and loose skin and still some areas I would like to firm up...
and lift....
and suck in.

But what I realized (with the help of some amazing and supportive friends and family) is that I have worked really hard to get to where I am.

I am a work in progress just like everyone else.

But this opportunity might allow for another opportunity to inspire even more people to seek a healthier and more fit version of themselves.

So while I didn't feel the most confident doing it, I pushed passed that self imposed barrier, stepped outside my comfort zone and did it anyway... Because more than anything I want to help other people achieve their goals.

And if I can do it, YOU can do it.

Whatever your goals may be, whatever opportunity you find yourself presented with, if you want it and are willing to work for it, you CAN achieve it!

Who's Dream are YOU Building?

Create Change

There are no shortcuts in life. No matter what your goal or aspiration, it won't just happen. You have to do the work.

Monday Motivation!

If you want to change your lifestyle... YOU HAVE TO CHANGE YOUR LIFE!!!

~Bob Harper

Spend less time with people that whine, complain, and spend their lives wishing and hoping for success but do nothing to achieve it.  You are a GOAL-GETTER!!

~ Chalene Johnson

How to Create Balance in Your Life

I am a mom, a wife, a substitute school teacher, a part-time office assistant, recently finished my elementary teaching certification, and I have a growing online fitness business.  I have had to learn a few things about balancing it all.  Fortunately for me there are experts on the subject of balancing my family life with my work life and my fitness life, and my personal life.   Just saying it like that makes me think I should be tired, but the truth is I have lots of energy and I am not tired, most of the time.  I think that is in large part because I have found a way to make it all work for me and I enjoy everything I do.  No, that does not mean that I enjoy cleaning the toilets or grocery shopping, but I do enjoy having a home that is clean and neat and a pantry and refrigerator stocked with healthy foods.  So while I may not enjoy each and every task, I do enjoy the rewards of those tasks.  My goal today is to share the things I have learned about balancing all these facets of my life with you so that you can better balance yours, regardless of your pursuits.

1.  Define what your priorities are.  This step is critical and without it you are setting yourself up to feel like you are spinning your wheels without making progress.  Take the time to list what your top 5 priorities are.  And when you do this, don't make the mistake of being vague.  If your family is priority number 1 then be specific.  Is it spending time with your family?  Is it providing financially for your family?  Is it making sure you sit down every night at the dinner table with your family?  Make sure you define it specifically, that will help you later on.

2.  Set some goals.  What is it that you want to achieve?  Whatever they are, list your goals.  Keep your list of priorities handy so you can make sure the goals you are setting are in line with your priorities.  If the goals you have written on your list don't match, you will always feel out of balance.  You will feel like your life is pulling you in one direction and your passions another and balance will seem like a distant dream.  This is not to say that your goals and dreams need to change completely.  There may be a way to tweak them to be more in line with your priorities.

3.  Create a Daily To-Do List.  Chalene Johnson calls this a CCDMTDL, otherwise known as a Carefully Crafted, Diligently Maintained To-Do List.  And to be honest her way of explaining this is what propelled me into a life filled with glee.  Once you have brainstormed your ideas on paper and broken down your goals into action items you can begin your To-Do List.  I have items on my To-Do List that are there each and every week, items that are there daily and items that come and go as soon as they are completed.  The point is you need to have your list so you know each and every day what must be done.  That also allows you to know when you can stop and enjoy some down time.  I use Task App on my DROID called "Check It Off" but there are others that may work better for you.  You will need to find one that suits your needs.  I like having it on my phone because my phone is always with me.  I definitely recommend Chalene's Car Smart CD on Creating a To-Do List as well as her FREE 30 Day Challenge that walks you through the process.

4.  Schedule, Schedule, SCHEDULE. Now that you have your To-Do List you have to the tasks into your daily schedule.  I like using Google Calendar because I can update it either from my phone or my computer and have it at all times.  I do not have the sort of schedule that says I am at work from 8-5 every day.  My schedule fluctuates, sometimes I don't know what I am doing or where I am going until 6am.  But, I have my To-Do List handy all the time and I can schedule my day first thing in the morning. That way I know when I have to pack lunches, clean toilets, call customers, write blog posts, socialize on Facebook, etc.  Yes... I even schedule my Facebook time, otherwise I would get lost there for hours!  Whether you create your daily schedule every morning or every Sunday night for the week to come, make sure you do it.  This is critical to your success.  Also, don't forget to give yourself a little extra time.  You never know when your sister will call with a crisis, you will get stuck behind a slow driver, or the 3 page email you just typed will get itself lost in cyberspace because your computer freezes.

5.  Recharge your batteries.  With a task list a mile long and only 24 hours in a day you may be thinking that you will have to work from sun up to sun down with no time to relax.  That is not true.  The point of your list and schedule is to allow you to get your work done, make forward progress each and every day, and STOP when you have checked off the items on your list for that day.

If you find that no matter that you have a To-Do List and a schedule you find yourself procrastinating, check out Eat That Frog! By Brian Tracy.  It has made a huge impact on me and it is one of those books I have committed to re-reading every January!

I hope that these steps that have helped me find balance also help you.  Let me know if you have any questions.  I appreciate each and every comment left here on my blog.

Why I Became a Beachbody Coach

I would like to share with you why I became a Beachbody Coach, some added benefits I hadn't counted on, as well as what it means to be a Beachbody Coach.

I became a coach while I was in the process of achieving a 50lb. weight loss success story.  I want to be very clear here.  I did not achieve the 50lb weight loss first.

My story begins with a late night, a heavy heart and a spunky blonde.

My heart was heavy because I was heavy.  My weight was something that I constantly thought about.

Every morning when I would get dressed,

every time I went to buy clothes,

every time I had an event to dress up for,

every time I walked out of my house,

and every time I passed a mirror.

Now don't get me wrong, I know that beauty can be only skin deep.  We have all met people who are stunning on the outside but after talking with them for only a few minutes you can see they don't have a light shining through their heart.

It wasn't just my appearance that gave me a heavy heart, it was the insecurity I felt.  It was the frustration I felt when nothing in my closet fit.  It was the sadness I would feel when I looked in the mirror and couldn't believe that I had let myself get to that point. My weight, the discontentment with myself and the constant feeling of failure affected my confidence and self esteem.  I felt horrible about myself and I hid that from everyone.

One night I was watching TV and an infomercial for Turbo Jam came on.  I was instantly captivated by a cute, spunky blonde that was punching, kicking and jabbing and telling me how much fun it all was going to be....

Exercise for me was hard.  I was heavy, who am I kidding... everything was hard.  But what she was doing looked fun and I thought even if its hard, if I am having fun I can try it.  So I sneaked out to where I kept my purse, grabbed my credit card, and ordered when my husband wasn't looking.   

I instantly fell in love with Turbo Jam.

Oh yes, from the very first time I did the Learn & Burn DVD, I was hooked.

It totally helped that that spunky blonde was always telling me what a great job I was doing and encouraging me every step of the way... It was hard for sure but I kept at it and it started to get easier.

About 3 months after I started Turbo Jam I saw someone on Facebook post about a new work out by Chalene Johnson, that spunky little blonde I had grown to adore, called Chalean Extreme.  I did a little research on the program and placed my order.  Again, I did it on the sly... I didn't want to tell anyone what I was up to because I didn't want them to see me fail.

ChaLean Extreme is a muscle building workout program that uses heavy weights (or bands).  It was unlike anything I had ever done before.  Research has proven that the more muscle you have in your body, the higher your metabolism.  Well, I knew that I wanted a higher metabolism.  I already trusted Chalene because of what the Turbo Jam program did for me, but I still didn't believe in me.

I went to Target and bought some adjustable dumbbells and started the program as soon as it arrived in the mail.  Up to this point, my husband didn't know I had been working out.  I was still staying home with my youngest child and would workout during the day when he was napping.  It only took a few weeks before I was able to see noticeable changes when I looked in the mirror.  I had been at it for about 6 weeks when my husband (who isn't the most observant person in the world) asked me what I had been doing to lose weight.  It was then that I very shyly took him to the basement and showed him the weights I had bought and the workout programs I was doing.

I stayed consistent and after my first 90 days with ChaLean Extreme I lost around 30lbs.  I was ecstatic!  Yes, I had lost weight but even more importantly I learned a few things about myself.

1.  I am a fighter.  I am not a fighter in the sense that if I don't get my way I am going to kick, scream and yell myself into what I want, but I am a fighter in the sense that if I don't achieve something that I want I am not going to give up.  I am going to keep trying and failing isn't the end, its a stepping stone.

2.  I have goals.  This might sound a little funny, but after being a stay-at-home mom for 8 years I forgot what I wanted to do with my life.  I was in a perpetual state of laundry, cooking, cleaning, laundry, cooking, cleaning, with a wipe-a-hiney thrown in here and there that I forgot I could do more.  I forgot that I could dream.  I forgot I could set goals.  Even more, I could achieve them.  Please, do not get me wrong.  I love being a mom more than anything.  But, that's not all I am.  I have more to offer.

3.  I am strong.  Its funny that after falling on my face after 3 pushups done on my knees and then progressing to 12 pushups on my toes has taught me that I am strong in heart.  Most of the time when I am struggling with a workout its because my head is telling me I can't... its those times that I have to dig deeper, push harder and prove that nasty voice wrong.  This does not just apply to my workouts.  It applies to every single obstacle I face.  It applies every single day.

It was after that initial weight loss success that I wanted more.  I was feeling better, I was more confident and I knew that I could achieve whatever goal I set for myself and I wanted to lose another 20lbs.  I knew without a doubt that what was holding me back was my diet.  I had made many changes to my once over processed, mostly fast food way of eating, but I was still a long way from eating the way I knew I had to in order to reach my goal.  Beachbody, being the cutting edge company that they are, was just introducing a new product that was and still is absolutely revolutionary in the health supplement industry.  The product they had just launched was Shakeology and I knew it would help get me on track with my nutrition.

It is not a miracle product and it will not cure cancer or any other disease, but if you are like me and need something that you can count on every day to give you great nutrition, increase your energy, and aid in your weight loss then I recommend it to you.  This is why I signed up as a coach.  As wonderful as Shakeology is, it is also expensive.  And, it is worth every. single. penny.  But, as a coach I was able to save money and that is always a good thing.

After talking to my coach Jenelle Summers, who also happens to be Chalene's much taller sister, I signed up to be a coach in August of 2009 and had absolutely no idea how that one little decision would impact my life.  But I will save that story for another day.

Being a Beachbody Coach means I have the opportunity to share my passion for fitness with others.  It means that when someone is struggling with motivation to workout I can encourage them.  It means when they are struggling with changes to their diet or even where to start I can share what I have learned.  I am not a fitness professional, I am not a nutritionist.  I am a coach and I love what I do.  And I am fortunate to earn an income from sharing my passion.

Be a Coach -- Join Team Addicted!!

What was YOUR Excuse?

Thought for the Day!

This is your life. If you are not who you want to be, change it! It won’t be easy and it may take some time, but surround yourself with people who love and support you and go for it! No regrets! Only you dwell on your failures. Good luck and remember the inner strength you’ll achieve from adopting a healthy lifestyle far supersedes anything physical.  – Jamie Eason

Monday Motivation

Show MORE, Be MORE, Do MORE
LOVE with all your HEART and LIVE with all your SOUL
NEVER let others hinder you or hold you back
BE YOU, LOVE YOU, EMBRACE YOU!!!!!

~My dear friend, Jaime Kallay

Monday Motivation!

If you bend with the wind, go with the flow, have faith and be true... Life will never break YOU!

~Author Unknown

Motivation Monday!!

"We may run, walk, stumble, drive, or fly, but let us never lose sight of the reason for the journey, or miss a chance to see a rainbow on the way."

~Gloria Gaither

Motivation Monday!!

When the world says, "Give up,"
Hope whispers, "Try it one more time."

~Author Unknown

Make an Impact on Your Life With Chalene Johnson's 30 Day Challenge

I believe that there is more to being fit than just fitting into a pair of skinny jeans or eating a salad every day. To be truly fit you must have a fit life... the whole thing... if one part is not fit, it will affect the other parts of your life, even those you share your life with. Here is a FREE 30 day program put together by Chalene Johnson, that if you follow, will change your life in just 30 days...


What do you have to lose??

30 Days to a new you. Go into May with focus and determination, come out of it with a game plan for life. You only have until April 30th to get in on the next 30day challenge. NOW is your time. http://30daypush.com/