Give me a boost .....

... then I'll give you a hand.
working together- that's what we do at Goals.

I'm feeling the way I always feel at the end of a 9 week session.......
I can't really tell you what "that feeling " is.
I'm happy. and excited. and so damn proud.
proud sounds like a mom word..... so maybe it's not the right word- but it's the one that keeps popping into my chest and making it hard to breath, as the emotion creeps up into my throat, making it hard to swallow until the tears finally push up, hard enough to escape.....
So, maybe proud IS the word....

A large percentage of this challenge group has remained engaged, in spite of being "resolution challengers"...they haven't let their enthusiasm fade or their discipline waiver..... some are still journaling to their coaches~ 9 weeks after they began! Others have "gotten it" enough to trust themselves..... most are hitting classes with energy and determination.
I hope that they have found their place...I hope they stay with me. Not because of obvious business reasons, but because they've become a part of me.....

No job in the world is better than mine....
what is it you do? some may ask...
Most people think I run a Boot camp.... a place for people to come sweat and talk and lift and hit things, and talk a bit about food.
But really,  I run a "BOOST" camp......I run a gym that cares....
You see people come in from all kinds of different backgrounds and experiences....some are athletes and others are active, but honestly, most of the people who come play with us haven't worked out in years. They don't like to look in my eyes when we meet and they are uncomfortable with the pictures.....
and then we push and pull and critique, but most importantly, we understand.
........... because we've all been there.

My coach/instructor team is amazing! They are a group of passionate people who were bitten by the "feel good" bug when they challenged and wanted to share!!
.......so after we push and pull and critique....we love and care and share our own stories. We lift people up... give them a hand.....
It makes things real and it makes things happen.....

Congratulations to the latest group of 9 week challengers.... you did a great job!
xoxo

unbelievable.....

so it takes an idiot (or two or 100) to break me out of my writing funk, but I needed to share that I'm not happy.....
It would seem logical that I would be upset, like so many of you, about the senseless bombings that occurred today. People lost their lives, limbs and sense of security.....
we have all been plunged back into a state of "what if..."
The thing that is sticking with me...the thing that's really pissing me off, is that someone ruined someone else's day. They took a moment that should have been spectacular and turned it grey...
I work with hundreds of people....many of them have huge goals. The Boston Marathon would be the top of several lists of dream runs.....
My members have become my family.... they work hard to reach their goals. They sacrifice day in and out to get to the place where they want to be. They eat right and run and cross-train and STILL find the time to be amazing husbands and wives and parents and friends. They go to work every day to take care of the things that need to be done. But they have dreams and they work for their dreams.
And it makes me angry beyond belief that some one could take a day full of promise and fulfillment and throw it out the window.....
God bless the runners and the supporters and the families of those who were in Boston today.
Help us to be strong and to move forward....always reaching for our goals. Always striving to be the best we can be.
Congratulations on the victory that should have been yours as you crossed the finish line.........
Own it. Be proud of it. Do it again.....

Jump....

The New Year always seems to bring new plans, new ideas and new promises....
Here we are, in week 4 and I wonder how many resolutions are still intact.
How many people have walked away from promises they made to themselves or to other accountability partners? How many are still rockin it??
Living an active life with exercise and clean eating takes some serious planning, even if you were raised that way. It's really quite unrealistic to think "Tomorrow is a new day. I'll give up ________ for the rest of my life". And yet MILLIONS of people try to do it every year. Why is January 1 so special??
Wouldn't it be nice if once a month (or once a week) we had "jump day"? A day where publicly we had a chance to say "I'm finally ready to make a change...cheer for me, support me and hold me accountable!"
A problem I see frequently, in my job, is that people feel they've failed when their
resolution changes or when they detour off the planned route. Often they "jump" before they really think about the potential outcomes of their new way of life and the impact it will have on those around them. They try to completely renovate their way of life, without fully thinking through the process.
It takes a great deal of knowledge gathering and planning to make life-altering changes and to be successful at doing it long term. Frankly, you have to be ready if you want it to stick long term.
You also have to surround yourself with a support system and be willing to walk away from people or places that pull you back in to old habits.
In an interview this morning, I was asked why group fitness seems to work well for so many people.
I explained that we offer a great exercise program with an emphasis on clean eating, but that it's the people who make a difference at Goals. It's the coaches and instructors.... the maintenance members and challengers who make it a great place to be.
Someone is watching for you...... someone who cares.
Someone's waiting.....
Pick YOUR day~ all you have to do is jump.
Spring or stumble, we'll be there.....

Magic moments.....

I resolve to not make unrealistic promises to myself this year.....
I've always been big into starting over. In fact I've made it into my life's work.
At Goals in Motion we're all about starting over. Men and women walk through the door, unhappy with their body (and sometimes their lives) and want help "fixing" it.
The problem is that we really can't be fixed. We can be helped, but only if we've reached that moment in life where we're open to change. Sometimes that means you've reached a place where the only light is at the end of a really long tunnel of hard work and sacrifice.
Please, don't get me wrong....I'm in favor of setting goals and I'm in favor of making promises to ourselves, but you often have to reach that magic moment when you're really ready.

I haven't been sleeping well for the last few weeks and I've been trying to figure out what I'm doing to aggrevate the situation. I've changed my eating and drinking patterns. I've exercised at night and during the day. I've abandoned the computer at night in favor of time with the guys and even added a little TV time. Nothing helps, except I eventually reach a point of complete sleep deprevation and my mind allows little cat naps in the chair while stupid tv shows keep my family entertained.
Around 2:25 this morning, my internal alarm went off. My brain kicked into gear and my day began, again.... But today I decided to lay there in the darkness and think about my year. People all around my are talking about changes and starting over.
"I'm going to lose weight!"
"I'm going to get a promotion!"
"I'm going to meet the person of my dreams!"
 We're even putting a new year long maintenance challenge in place at Goals for those who want to make 2013 THEIR YEAR. People love a fresh start!
So why can't I get excited? What's wrong with me (besides the fact that I'm living on less than 4 hours of sleep a night?).
After about 30 minutes of forced calm/guided thinking, it hit..... I'm not finished with this year. I didn't accomplish what I set out to do in 2012. I had big goals for myself, my family and my business in 2012 and honestly, very few of them came to fruition.
I'm a disorganized person and I need help. (There! I've said it! Those of you who spend any length of time with me already know this but you obviously know by now that YOU knowing it is not going to "fix" ME!!). I have a hundred projects in the works and a million more ideas running through my head and it has always been my intention to accomplish all of them alone. I have never allowed myself to consider that I am not Wonder Woman, but the lack of progress this year has really sort of slapped me in the face. So...... I've made the initial contacts and asked for help. I'm not going to start another project without help or at least an accountability partner!
So..... this year, I resolve to not make unrealistic promises to myself.....
One month at a time...
January is for finishing what I've started..... my house and my office will be put in order- everything in it's place. I've even established a plan with an organizational guru (you know who you are-xoxo) to get me started
February is for purging.... this is going to mean some serious tossing. If any of you are dumpster divers and can brave the cold, there might be some sweet deals to be had!
March is for establishing systems.....  if it can't be maintained without me, it's really not going to work in my life. Systems for EVERYTHING.
April is for adding in...some of those things that I've wanted but not had time for. An hour a day to read or meditate or study.... 2 yoga classes each week~ Yoga sculpt at Goals and one hot class away from the studio to focus on myself...also a lazy day one Sunday.
May is for adjustment.... a time to tweak the last 4 months. All systems go before the school year ends.
June is for family..... we haven't escaped Ames as a family for a long time and have never really established a vacation habit.  During the early years, Jeff's work consumed him and now mine seems to do the same. Zach's entering a new phase in his life with work and commitment and Sam has just two years left at home. It's time to create a family tradition of reconnecting once a year. This year we're heading to the quiet waters of Minnesota for days of fishing, reading and sun and nights of food and gin rummy.

And so, that's where I'm going to end my goal/resolution setting for today. My hope is that as my organizational life falls into place, all of the other good things I've been waiting for will find a home in my head and my heart. I'll be sharing along the way~ I hope to see you soon.

May you find joy, peace and a smidge of what you've been searching for in 2013.....
Happy New Year

Old habits....

...die hard, don't they?
Over the last 7 weeks I've struggled to establish some habits in my life.
Habits I hoped to make a permanent part of my day (in no particular order of importance)...
~ Sleep in
~ Exercise Daily
~ Drink more water
~ Organize my home and office
~ Journal Daily
~ Read
~ Establish a regular bedtime
Great goals, right? The progress report follows.....
~  I still wake up at 4:09am EVERY day.
~ If you count teaching class, then yes.
~ YES! I've learned that I can avoid my coffee cravings by drinking warm water throughout the day. I'm actually enjoying this (but I still have a daily glass of wine)
~ Fail.... I've rearranged my schedule so I have office hours and still struggle to keep up with paperwork. I find it's created time for cleaning and MORE meetings, but has had little impact on my organization.
~ Blogging was my tool initially and I thought it was going well. But then I allowed myself to worry about being "good enough" to publish it daily. I missed one day, then 2 and then another and it seemed that the late night "mind-writing" disappeared. I tried to keep a journal at home where I could get things down on paper first..... that lasted about 3 minutes until I fell asleep with a pen in my hand
~ Occasionally. I'm a power reader. If I open the book today, I'll finish by tomorrow, which doesn't lend itself to sleep or enjoyment most of the time.
~ Bedtime is better, but as with everything else, if something better comes along, my schedule doesn't matter.

So as I laid in bed, wide awake at 4:09 this morning, contemplating life, I was thinking about the habits I have successfully walked away from.....

I quit smoking in March, 2007. I started smoking when I was young. STUPID! I quit a couple dozen times over the 20 years that I smoked, twice for over 2 years (once for each baby). But, it wasn't until I was faced with a 9 hour plane ride with 20 of my son's classmates, that I decided I was done for good. Commit lozenges, a good case of jet lag and fear of discovery was all it took for me to give it up for good.

I've quit eating processed foods. My shopping cart used to be full of "just add water and a half a stick of butter" products. Creamy, tasty and easy, right? Fortified with essential vitamins and minerals, right? Good for my family, right? Even after I started down my weight loss path, I'd buy an occasional box or bag to make dinner easier. Not any more...if it gets sauced or spiced in my house, it comes from the fridge or corner spice rack. And convenient means reheating something that was cooked the day before.

I have successfully broken habits that are bad for me, so why can't I permanently create habits that are good for me? Obviously it falls into the all or nothing category. I have discovered that when it comes to permanent change I have to do more than just want it and plan it, I have to DO IT (Like the water thing).
So, instead of trying to revamp my entire life and reaching this point of re-evaluation every 9 weeks, I'm going to focus on the most important ones today and tomorrow and the next day until they become who I am again......
~ Exercise. I will move every day, in some way, starting today. 10,000 steps is the minimum but certainly not the ideal and sweat is required for it to be called exercise!!
~ Journal. When I take the time to write down my food and my thoughts, I am infinitely more successful. I will be writing here every day for a while. You'll get my food, my exercise and my thoughts all in the same place. Accountability, right?

As soon as these two fit into my life, I'll go back and get some more.....

Bitten....

I love working in the health and fitness industry.

All kinds of people walk through the doors at Goals in Motion. We have people who have never worked out, people seeking cross training, people who are overweight or underweight, and people who don’t know where to start…….

I love that anyone can benefit from exercise and healthy eating and I love it even more when people catch the bug and become health addicts! It’s our goals to help people make long lasting lifestyle changes.

Yesterday I experienced a whole new kind of health addiction. I attended the USA Super Pro Qualifier and Bluffs Classic Body Natural Bodybuilding Show to watch my friend Kylee compete in her first figure competition.

Kylee joined Goals in Motion midway through her senior year at Iowa State. She works for my good friend Anne who owns Dogtown University in Ames. Kylee was a design student who spent some time in the gym, but had really abandoned cardio since she left high school sports. Ky was unsure of her career path and was considering the fitness industry. Anne convinced her to come to Goals to get a taste of group fitness.

Kylee Initial Picture



Kylee End of 9 Week Challenge

Kylee was on my team. From day one I knew she’d do well. I’ve been teaching a long time and I know the “give-up look”…she had it more than once that day but she refused to quit. She pushed through kickboxing and resistance classes day after day until it became a way of life. She quickly became hooked on the Goals way, eating right, working hard and making friends. She is perhaps the most disciplined eater I’ve ever coached. She had some great changes during her nine weeks and shortly after joined my team of instructors.

Kylee was bitten by the body building bug a while back ~ she’s been a fan of several professionals for a long time. Shortly after her challenge, she started sending me training videos from figure competitors such as Dana Linn Bailey, Nicole Wilkins and Erin Stern. I could see the hunger in her eyes and hear the excitement in her voice…. She was ready to take the next step in her fitness journey.



I didn’t know anything about training bodybuilders and knew at one point I’d have to let her go to another coach, but I was determined to help as long as I could. If anything, I could push hard enough for her to figure out if this is what she really wanted. The next few months were crazy. We read everything we could on nutrition and workouts. She spent more time in a traditional gym, lifting to enhance her Goals workouts.  She made some great progress.

In May the unthinkable happened~ Kylee was in a horrible motorcycle accident. She was weeks from her first planned show. Her bike was destroyed and her body was bruised but her spirit as never broken. It took several strong willed men and women to hold her down long enough to let her body heal. One of the hardest days in my coaching career came at that moment when we decided she couldn’t compete in the show she had trained so hard for.



Kylee April 2012

Over time, she fought through the aches and pains and made her way back to the gym. She set her sights on a new show in November. She went back to the original workouts and meal plans for a while, but eventually it became obvious that I couldn’t help her. I know how to teach people to eat healthy and reshape their body through fat loss and muscle gains, but I have little knowledge of how to sculpt a body the way she wanted to be sculpted.



She sought out the wisdom of those who had competed before and spent less time with us at Goals and more time in the gym, lifting heavy and perfecting her craft. She teaches two classes a week and still popped in for occasional cardio. Her smile and her excitement is captivating. Each time she left the studio she had a new fan!



I’m not sure of all of the details of her transformation. I had a hard time watching her dive into a sport that scares me. I have a great appreciation for beautiful, healthy bodies and I’ll believe until the day I die that bodybuilders could create themselves without omitting nutrients, if the industry encouraged it. I don’t feel comfortable with the rapid change in weight and body fat. I couldn’t bring myself to hear about the deprivation or the countless hours in the gym. I live in a world of long term life style changes. I’ve seen too many people deprive themselves for a short time to reach a desired outcome and then realize they are miserable. And ultimately, it came down to the fact that I love her like a daughter and I worry about her long term health. But, like my own children, I had to come to terms that she has to follow the path that makes her happy. And like my own children, she set out to prove me wrong…. She can be strong and healthy and achieve a goal that is important to her. I found myself watching from the outside and admiring the work she was willing to do.

So….. that’s the history.



Kylee November 2012

Today, I’m pleased to share that she successfully completed her first show last night and I was there to watch. She competed in four events and placed in 3~ winning the novice division and taking 5th in open figure and beginning figure. I found myself analyzing the competitors’ walks and critiquing their bodies. Then she walked on stage…. She was beaming, she was beautiful. She was mistake free- working the floor like she was meant to be there. I had little to do with her reaching this goal, but I am pleased to say I was there when she caught the bug…..

1st Place Novice Figure



Tonight we will be celebrating the end of another challenge at Goals in Motion. The men and women I’ve worked with have been inspiring. Just like Kylee, many of them have been bitten…. they have decided to continue with maintenance at Goals. They have decided to keep fitness in their lives. How far they will go is yet to be seen but I’m excited to be a part of it.





 

Food trials.....

I love food.....which means I love this time of year.....
The house frequently full of delicious smells wafting from the oven or crock pot.
My mom is a good cook and taught me the basics a long time ago. The struggle for me over the last 5 years has been how to maintain the flavor of the things I love with less of the "bad stuff". In an attempt to please the troops, I've learned to sear and braise and roast differently than I was taught. I've learned which herbs replicate the flavors of the sodium-heavy seasoning packets I used to use. I make my own pasta sauces and treats are made from scratch, rather than boxes. I always cook extra to get us through the week.
Sounds great right? Right....
Apparently not to everyone in my house.
This week has been really busy and I planned for it on Sunday. I have all of the typical pre-cooked staples in the fridge, so I can whip up dinner in 10-15 minutes.
This is what I came up with on Monday. Started with fresh onion, pepper and mushrooms...added frozen broccoli and finally leftover pork loin.

Tuesday, when I walked in after being beaten up by Kate at kickboxing, the last thing I wanted to do was cook! Jeff took over. He poured me a glass of wine (oh, no. He's trying to soften me up....), looked in the fridge for a minute or two, surveyed his options and quietly closed the door. He headed out to the garage, where the chest freezer lives. Honestly, I thought he was going to come back with one of the frozen pizzas he and Sam "hide" out there for emergencies. But he walked back in with a big old sirloin. I sat at the counter working and trying not to advise..... those of you who know me, know that's no easy feat, especially in the kitchen. He cut up onions and garlic and then went for the potatoes.... Yep, this is where I screwed up.
"I'm not eating those, you know..."
"yes, I know- but I don't really care. You cook what you like, I'm going to do the same...."
I could end this entry right here, because I think we all know how it went. Dinner was finished in silence. I'm sure he cooked thinking I was ungrateful and I'm positive he knew what I was thinking....

And so.... I'll move to last night. I pulled in to the driveway and he was already home!! I opened the door and guess what??? I smell onions and garlic. My heart sunk... He's cooking again.

I know, I know..... Most of you are now thinking I'm terrible! I should be happy he wants to cook! It's just that I have these goals, you know?? I have weight to lose and a dress to wear and I can't do it the way he cooks! Jeff is a good cook, but likes eggs, and oil and butter and bacon and bread. Yes bread! Most things he cooks end up in the form of a toasted sandwich. Delicious, but soooooooo bad.

Last night he made omelets and fried potatoes. I had left over chicken and homemade mushroom soup. Sam ate everything!!

So, how does a food lover, with health and fitness goals, live peacefully in a house with those who love the "old way"? 
I've been thinking about it all night..... I'm going to add to the Sunday cooking list. I'll roast potatoes and onions and garlic for them. Maybe make a meatloaf and lasagna. They'll like it, it will be ready to reheat, so we can all eat at the same time.

I'm going to make it more about the company rather than the food we're eating.....
I'll let you know how it goes.....

I'd love to hear your ideas!