Hi there, everyone! It’s that time again. I know y’all have been biting your nails in anticipation of my progress! Lol!

Well, let me tell you, January was a real struggle. The holidays did more damage than I thought.

See, here’s the deal, it’s not the fact that I had a few glasses of wine, or some snacks I wouldn’t normally have. It’s that when I DO indulge on special occasions like Christmas and New Year, it doesn’t end there. By opening up that “door”…that dangerous door with treats and wine on the other side…it becomes VERY difficult to then just snap back into my usual clean routine. Once I’m locked into clean routine? Oh, it’s all good. I’ve got strength and willpower for days. But it takes TIME to get locked into that mindset. It takes time for your body to detox the sugar and carbs from things like wine, bread, chips, etc. For me, when I eat snacks or drink alcohol, my body then decides it’s open season and starts to crave it again. Usually I’m pretty good at telling that sugar monster to buzz off, but it’s just so much harder after opening that door!  And ain’t nobody got time for that.  Life is hard enough! lol!
Also, what I need to remember is that if I have wine and snacks one night, I don’t see evidence of that as actual weight gain right away. It doesn’t just pile up immediately, it takes time. So I was paying for those indulgences weeks later. Fun, right?!!! Woooooohooooo! Ugh.
So my January was spent playing catch up. Which sucks. I started out the month up 3lbs. That increased to 6 lbs at one point.
Mid month, I was like, “WOAH! I have to do more because whatever I’m doing now isn’t working anymore”
So I did more. I pushed hard in my workouts and that’s great, but by now I knooooow the culprit…the real reason I wasn’t losing weight…FOOD. Because even healthy food can keep weight on if you’re eating too much of it. And that’s essentially what was happening. I wasn’t eating snacks and wine past the 1st week of January, so why was my weight stuck/increasing? Because I was seeing the results of Christmas and New Year in addition to being WAY too loosey goosey with my portions of healthy food.
Once I stopped moping/complaining and started DOING MORE by reigning in my portions, my body did what it’s supposed to.

And here’s the results.

You have NO IDEA how excited I was this morning to see 168!!!!! Woooooot! I’m actually finally DOWN a pound since December 6! Yay! I swear to you, I will never post another photo of my weight in the 170s. I’m SO DONE with the 170s!!!! You hear that, scale?!! DONE I TELL YOU!!!

Same red face, just less of it!

Gun show, lol

I started out with another round of Core de Force, and then decided to throw in some Country Heat because…well, I just love Country Heat. 🙂
I’m thinking it’s time to get back to P90X and I’ll likely throw in a Core de Force or Country Heat workout in here and there if I’m feeling like it.

This month I was also involved in Beachbody Health Bet! Still one week to go there, but I’m loving these stats from last week 🙂

Getting a slice of a 2 Million Dollar pie just for doing what I’d be doing anyway!

It’s run on Beachbody’s My Challenge Tracker app. There’s something kind of nice about not needing to be on Facebook to check in. So I decided that for February’s accountability group, I’ll be giving people the option to use either the app or Facebook or both!

Some of my favorite things…

• My yellow coffee in the form of Beachbody Performance ENERGIZE! The best part of wakin’ up.
• My Vegan Tropical Strawberry Shakeology which is giving me energy and healthy digestion and superfoods for DAYS.
• Putting seasoned ground turkey, cottage cheese (full fat Friendship brand only), and sunflower seeds in my salad is my new fave.
• Of course I’m still obsessed with guacamole and tomato on multigrain Wasa crispbreads.
• I made a verrrry fancy salad with endive, celery, apple and walnuts
• And I’m still obsessed with my zoodles and turkey sauce (Rao’s Marinara as a base and then just adding ground turkey and more basil.

So the REALLY big news for me this month was when I opened my email one evening and saw this…

WHAT?!!!!!!!

I had WON my age group in the Beachbody Challenge!  I’m so excited!  And honored!  And excited!  Weeeeeee!
Here’s the link to my story! 

And to think I only entered to get my free Core de Force t-shirt! Lol!

My cool CDF t-shirt for entering my before and after results to Beachbody Challenge!

Here’s the thing…ANYONE can do this. Complete a program? Just make sure you take before and after pics and you’ll get a free t-shirt. You can enter every month if you want! I think it’s amazing that this company rewards hard work on a daily basis with cash prizes.

So, NOW I’m in the running for their quarterly prize of $5000 and a trip to LA!! If you’d like to vote for me, it would sure make me happy 🙂 You can click HERE to vote (once a day if you’re feeling so inclined!)
You do need to have a Beachbody account in order to vote. If you don’t have a Beachbody account and you’d still like to show me some love, you can get a FREE account by clicking HERE. Voting ends on Monday, February 6th, so I guess we’ll see how this goes!

SPEAKING of February 6th, that’s also the day our new accountability group starts!

I’m pretty excited to start a new month with, hopefully, a bunch of new women ready to make some big changes!  We will be really focusing on mindset (the biggest player in this game of health) and making sure we get to the root issues of why we sabotage ourselves along with tools to help keep on track when emotions come into play.  I know for me, this is absolutely the HARDEST part.  And I’m pretty sure I’m not alone here.

If you’re thinking it’s time to start moving forward and actually taking ACTION to accomplish the goals you’ve only been thinking about, then I would really love to help you. Here’s the link to read more about the group. You can contact me through that event invite or just click here and we can chat about getting you on your way to healthy awesomeness!

I was going to wait until a full 30 days had passed since my last update. Buuuuut I figured I should just get back into the usual schedule no matter the results.
This month was HARD. H to the A to the RD, yo.
Man, I hate winter. Short days, too cold for playground trips with Edz, and Edz getting croup the week before Christmas meant he was off school all that week AND all this past week. Busy season at the restaurant meant Dan was working long hours which meant Edz and I were solo most of the time and that can be pretty challenging.  He’s a sweetheart, that’s not the issue…not a sassy bone in his little body.  It’s that he’s not really interested in doing activities….coloring, typical toys, tv….he likes none of those things.  So it’s difficult thinking of what to do and that leads to boredom. Or I feel like I’m not doing enough or trying enough.  And that can lead my mind to a depressing place.  This season is hard for many reasons.  And sometimes it’s a bit of a smack in the face of a reminder that our lives are different.  So then I’m constantly working against my tendency to get depressed/sad/anxious and avoid feeding those feelings with crappy food.  I told Dan that my motto for Christmas weekend was “Choose Joy”.  We will choose to be happy.  We will find the joy, we will be grateful for all the good in our lives, and mostly we will have FUN, be positive, and enjoy ourselves.  And we did.  There was one moment when I was looking at Edz with concern (pretty sure it was the end of the night and he was a little overwhelmed with all the activity of family being there).  Dan looked at me across the room and quietly said, “choose joy” with a smile.  And it helped.  It really helped.  I’m so glad I have such a cool husband to live this life with.  Seriously he’s the greatest.

On Christmas Eve we drove to Dan’s parents as usual. Edz was a perfect angel in the car and I celebrated with some wine and treats. 🙂

Cheers! (that sparkle on my nostril…)

SMILE!!!

But then after we arrived home the evening of Christmas Day, it was SUPER difficult to keep away from eating MORE treats and drinking MORE wine as the week went on.  I’m telling you, it’s a slippery slope!  Somehow I managed to not fall completely off the rails, but I teetered on the edge. Lol!

So the last time I updated, I had managed to sneak into the 160’s which was very exciting! And before Christmas I had managed to keep right around 169-171. Then Christmas happened. It got as high as 175 and I was like, “Aw, HELL no!” LOL!  But I kept on working out and eating with as much thought as I could and here’s the final result.

I feel pretty ok with my weight this morning all things considered. Mostly I feel ok about that number because I don’t feel heavier, clothes fit the same, and the tape measure reads the same.
So I feel like I’ve maintained even though the number on the scale says I gained 4 pounds.

Photos look the same too, so I’m feeling proud to have gotten through the holiday season fairly unscathed. Lol!

And now I just keep on going. I’m looking forward to the January accountability group starting on the 9th. The time between groups really is challenging, but I feel like it just reminds me how IMPORTANT that piece of Trifecta of Awesomeness is.

Beachbody introduced a kick ass (limited time) deal with the All Access Beachbody On Demand challenge pack, so that is VERY exciting. If ever there was a time to join us it’s now. I can’t stress it enough. Trust me.
If you want more details, just click that contact button at the top!

I’m not gonna lie…I can’t believe I did this.  That I lost 40 pounds so far this year.  That’s just nuts. And I’m not some special snowflake….ANYONE can do this.  I promise you.  IT IS POSSIBLE.  And I would love to help you if you’ll let me.

November was a challenging month. I guess every month is pretty challenging actually! Lol! But with Thanksgiving and doing Core De Force, it felt a bit tough.

I started Core De Force on November 7th along with a bunch of my Team ReDefine girls. We all committed to doing the entire 30 days along with sticking to the portion fix meal plan.
I figured I would wait the extra week to blog so that I could post my full results from doing this program.

When I last posted here at the end of October, I hadn’t had a perfect weight loss month. I’ve been losing 5 lbs a month since starting and so last month when I missed that mark, I was bummed. And then by the time November 7th rolled around, I was hovering between that 175 and 177, and on the 7th was actually 177 again.
I figured that by starting this new program and really nailing the nutrition, the weight would fly off me at warp speed.
I was wrong.
It dropped ever so sloooowly. To the point where I was getting pretty peeved.
Then, just this past weekend, all the hard work paid off.
Patience. I’m not so good at it. Lol! But with consistency and patience comes results.

So, here they are….

I’m using the weight from last blog post, but really since I went back up to 177, I lost 8 pounds!!! Weeeeeee! AND, I’m in a new weight decade! lol!

I also lost an inch in my hips and waist, and an inch and a half around my tummy, and my thighs!

Day 1 – Day 30

Another comparison from October 31 – December 6

I feel proud to have completed a program that turned out harder than I thought it would be. I was modifying all the time, stopping early on moves, and my push-ups were pathetic.
In the end, I gained some upper body strength for sure and my core is definitely stronger. This is fantastic. Especially with my diastasis recti. Since I teeechnically shouldn’t have been doing most of those planks and push-ups, luckily, the intensive core focus actually helped and I think it’s closing! It feels closer to two fingers wide rather than three! This is a huge win!

Am I excited to turn on Country Heat tomorrow morning? Yes. Lol! SO much. Though I’m keeping CDF in rotation in the future.

It was also a huge help going back to the portion fix cups. I’m sure that was a big factor in my success.  Here are a few examples of typical days the past month.

And Thanksgiving? It was great! I had some of everything. Cranberry bellinis and all!

That’s some pumpkin ravioli with sage and butter on the top right. Sooooo good.

It’s been almost 8 months since I decided to change. I can’t even imagine what my life would be like if I had waited until it was less stressful (never gonna happen), or till I was less tired (never gonna happen), or until I was less busy (ha!).

There’s a 43 pound difference there.  I can’t believe that girl on the top pictures was me.

So now, I’ll just keep on pushing play. And keep on eating clean. I’ll be checking in the accountability group each day as per usual.
This is my life now. Through good days and bad days, I will always strive to be healthy.
Even on Christmas. You enjoy and then you get right back at it.

Me and my girls are taking these last few weeks of 2016 and making them the best yet. Taking charge of our health and making sure we start 2017 like a rockstar badass.
As always, if you’d like me to be your cheerleader in this game of health, click that contact button right there at the top so we can get started!

Here we are…another month gone.  This month was a busy one.  Our wedding anniversary, Dan’s birthday, and my parents came for a 2 week visit.  Oh and Halloween of course!

So how was this month for me on the health and fitness front?  Meh, not so bad.  There was some celebratory wine drinking (and some potato chips), but mostly healthy meals all month long.  Still, as the weeks went by, the scale was stubbornly staying put OR moving in the opposite direction!  At one point it went back to 182 and I was pretty annoyed.  I know, I know, you’re not supposed to weigh yourself every week.

Or every day.

Or multiple times a day.

BUT I DO.  And I see no sign of my scale addiction stopping, so…
For me personally, seeing the numbers pushes me harder.  Yes, I take pictures and measurements as well and they’re WONDERFUL for when the scale is being a stubborn jerk.  YES, I know muscle weighs more blah blah blah.  But still, I’ve still got a good 30 pounds to lose just to get back to my “average” weight.  The nice, healthy, normal 145.  Nothing crazy, nothing too outrageous.  Just regular ‘ol Sharon weight.  So when I see 179 just sitting there despite working out everyday and eating clean every day…it’s frustrating.  Times like that made me SO GRATEFUL IT’S NOT EVEN FUNNY for the girls in my accountability group.  Always bringing me in from the ledge and helping me to see that it’s all good and tomorrow is another day to do awesome.

Sometimes, even when you’re doing everything “right”, you STILL HAVE TO DO MORE.  Maybe it’s my age. I need to remember I’m not 34 or 24…I’m 44.  Like everything, it doesn’t get easier as we get older.  I have to work much, much harder to lose weight now than I did 10 years ago.  MUCH HARDER.  Yay!!! weeeeee!  Fun!!! Ugh.  LOL.
So I guess that’s just what I’ll do in November.  Fight harder and do more.  I can do it.

Ok, time for October results…how’d I do?  I should have posted yesterday, but Edzie Halloween cuteness took over and so here we are.

Drumroll….

So while I didn’t lose my 5 pounds that I set out to, I DID lose some inches!  1/2 inch in my waist, 1/2 inch in my hips, and 1/2 inch in each thigh!

Here’s a comparison from July to October.  There’s a 14 pound difference.

See, THIS is why everyone is always saying to not pay attention to the scale.  And I get it.  I promise I do, but for now, I’m still gonna be checking it non stop.  lol!  I think as long as you don’t let the scale frustrate you to the point of derailment…where you end up giving up…then it’s ok.  Take your measurements, people!  And pictures!  My last month to this month pics are pretty unremarkable, (hence the choice to do another full length shot and compare to July) but still, I take them because it really helps to see the changes even if it doesn’t feel like anything is happening.

Fun non scale victories include some closet shopping!  It’s one of my favorite parts of this journey!  The feeling of fitting into old clothes (especially clothes you loved!) is SO FREAKING FUN!  This is me fitting into my size 12 jeans!

Size 12 jeans and a large sweater not worn since 2011!

My biggest pair was a 16 (I should have been in an 18 quite frankly because I was squeeeeeeezing into them).

AND this goal shirt that I had purchased in June.

Weeeee!

And while obviously I have this huge weight loss goal, another non scale victory is what’s going on in my mind.  My attitude is much less negative.  I handle pressure and stress a little easier as each month goes by.  I sleep better and I’m more patient, generally.  I feel like I need to say that it’s not perfect.  I still feel stressed and sometimes negativity creeps in.  I sometimes don’t sleep great and I’m sometimes less patient than I would like.  But if I compare myself to the person I was at the beginning of the year before I started exercising and changing my diet?  OH MY GOSH, I’m a trillion times better.  Seriously.  Don’t think for one minute that the food you eat doesn’t affect you in EVERY SINGLE WAY, because it does.  Your mood, your sleep, your energy…everything.  Add exercise to a clean diet, stick with it every day and you’ll see everything improve. Mark my words.

Not so lost anymore

Sometimes I say to people in my group or people who show interest in what I’m doing, “This is a game changer.  It could save your life”.  And I mean that.  It sounds so dramatic saying you could help save someone’s life, but think about it…  If you choose to change today.  If you choose to start exercising every day and eating a clean diet with regular size portions.  If you make that decision and you actually KEEP DOING IT EVERY DAY AS BEST AS YOU CAN.  If you do that?  You will be saving your life.  Physically and mentally.  It’s a chain reaction. If you do things that are good for you, you feel good.  When you feel good you’re a happier person.  When you’re happier, you are more pleasant to be around.  When you’re pleasant to be around, people are more likely to be pleasant in return. This chain reaction will carry over into your family, your career, every part of your life.  And you deserve to be happy.  You deserve to be healthy.  YOU DO.  Don’t let yourself fall to the bottom of the to-do list.  You may feel like you don’t have the time or strength or energy. Honestly?  You’re doing it backwards if you put everyone else first.  Because by giving yourself time to be good to YOU, you’re giving the people you love a much, MUCH better gift.  For a long time I knew that this was true. I had heard it a million times before from well meaning people, family, friends…but still I did it all backwards. Maybe you won’t take as long as I did to see how important it is. ❤️

Remember how I was talking about doing MORE?  Well, this month, I’m going to be doing a brand new program (it’s released TODAY!) called Core de Force!  I’ve always been a fan of Kenpo X which is one of the workouts in P90X.  It’s a kickboxing style workout.  I love the punching and kicking and how it works your core like crazy.  It was one of my favorite days in that program, so when I heard about this NEW program coming out, I was really interested.  There was a sneak peak on Beachbody On Demand, and I knew after doing it that this would be my next program.  I can’t wait to start!  Maybe it might be up your alley too!  You could do it with me!  Then we could cry together about how sore we are and then celebrate like crazy when we take our after pictures in 30 days looking like, DAMN! 🙂

Here are some CORE DE FORCE facts!

Disclaimer:  Those shadows make my arms look WAY more cut than they really are! lol!  I promise I’m far from Linda Hamilton in Terminator status. So, thank you bright sun and shadows for making me feel all cool!  🙂

Another month coming to an end.  How is it October tomorrow?!!! This year feels like it’s going at warp speed!
September saw Edward heading back to school for his second year of preschool and it was also the month I turned 44 years old.  There were some ups and downs, but I would say it wasn’t too bad overall.

Now to get to the main event.  The weigh in.  When I signed up to be a coach back in May, I wasn’t sure how this weight loss situation would go.  Then, the first month I lost 5 pounds.  And second month another 5 pounds.  And the 3rd and 4th month as well.  When the September accountability group started, I asked everyone to write down a goal for the month any goal, not necessarily a number but anything they felt was challenging but attainable.  I wrote down 179.  I mean I couldn’t very well lose 5 pounds every month and then NOT lose 5 pounds this month, right?  It’s become this non-negotiable thing now.  I haven’t seen the 170’s since I was pregnant with Edz, so this month felt strangely daunting.  Oh who am I kidding…EVERY month feels daunting! lol!  But whenever I’m about to break into a new weight range, it’s always a little exciting/nerve wracking.

ok….drumroll…

I freaking did it!  And it came right down to the wire, but I did it.  For about half of the month, I stayed around 184.  Halfway through September, I started noticing I was hovering between 180-182.  Then the last week it was almost always 181.  Till yesterday.  I hit 179 and I squealed out loud 🙂

Here’s the 5 month, May-September before and after shot…

Waist – 40                                                                               Waist – 35

Hips – 48                                                                                 Hips – 43

Thighs – 27.5                                                                        Thighs – 25.5

Arms – 14                                                                                Arms – 13

So, not too shabby!  I’m very proud and happy with my progress.  I’ve got my marathon mentality hat on, so while I do wish it didn’t take quite so long, I’ve come to grips with the fact that not only will this not happen overnight, but it’s going to take MONTHS.  And that’s ok.  Because even though I do have an end goal in my head, this isn’t going to end the day the scale hits the magic number.  This will be the rest of my life.  So I’m just getting used to my new normal 🙂

As far as food goes, Dan and I celebrated my birthday by having lunch at a local pizza place.  It was delicious and I enjoyed prosecco and pizza and mozzarella sticks.  Heaven.

Here’s the kicker though…because I’ve been eating so clean and healthy consistently for these past 5 months, when I DO have something that is very high in bad carbs/sugar, it actually affects me for about 2-3 days AFTER!  My cravings for more carbs went through the roof that week.  It was really nuts.  So now, when I think about having pizza, pasta, bread, or wine or chips or something, it’s not really that particular meal that is the problem.  It’s the after effect of cravings that is the tougher fight!  Since I was eating this kind of food frequently before, I never knew how tired it was making me or how much it was a vicious circle of cravings.
Now I know.  Live and learn.

I came home the other day to a big Beachbody delivery!  It was our prizes from Team Cup which is a contest held among coaches in the company.  Because our team did so well, we got 3 fun presents!  Weeeeee!

My favorite being the Country Heat sweatshirt since I’m now a huge Country Heat nerd and love it with all my heart! 🙂 Plus it says “coach” on the arm, so I feel all cool and official.  Ha!  See?  Nerd.  Don’t expect to see me getting on that skateboard anytime soon though! Omg that would be such a disaster! lol

And that’s not all!  I also got to meet MY coach, Kiera for the first time despite us living in the same neighborhood for years!  Now she’s moved about 20 min away, but we managed to see each other 3 times this month!  Making up for lost time 🙂  I’m so happy that I took a chance on Mother’s Day and wrote to her.  She’s become a great friend and partner in this biz we call Coaching. 🙂

THEN, my best friend, Angela got a last minute deal on a flight to NYC and came to visit!!!

Me and my Roomie

Country Heat Sweaty Selfie X2!

It’s been a long time since we’ve seen each other.  Every other time she’s been to visit it’s been so hectic and fast and we never had enough time.  Well, not this visit.  We spent the whole day together Tuesday and the morning on Wednesday.  She finally got to meet Edward (she had only met him once when he was still a baby) and they became fast friends!

Bonding

It made me SO happy to be able to spend time with her.  And now that we are in the accountability groups together, we are so much closer and I feel SO grateful for that.  It’s the best thing in the world climbing this mountain with her.  She looks out of this world amazing and I’m so proud of her.  Just beyond words.

So, yeah, this month was pretty darn good.  I’m even MORE excited for October if that’s possible!  Reeeeally looking forward to our next accountability group!  If you’d like to join us, I would love to help you to get healthy and happy!  Click the contact button and get in touch!

August was a verrrrry challenging month. After Edz finished summer school, we left for a 2 week vacation at Dan’s parents house on Long Island. And while the time away is lovely and I always look forward to it, it comes with difficult parts as well. The biggest one being sleep. Edward isn’t the greatest sleeper at the best of times, but while we are away it’s even worse. The sleep deprivation gets to all three of us and every year it seems we come thiiiiiisclose to just leaving. But we never do. We stay. Because when it’s not stressful and tiring, it’s fun 🙂

Windy day at the beach

This year Edward was IN LOVE with water. The ocean waves, sprinklers, showers, you name it. So taking him to the beach was a real hoot. He loved throwing rocks, being buried in the sand, sitting in the water, and mostly watching the (enormous) waves crash onto the shore and splash him.

Crashing waves…his favorite

Now as far as exercise and nutrition goes, we both (Dan and I) went in with a plan. We knew what our “luxury” meals were going to be, and we also knew we’d be cooking and grilling a lot. In years past, we let vacation be our excuse to over indulge like crazy. We would drink a lot, eat tons of snacks, go out to eat tons and those meals were always not so healthy. This year, we made a conscious effort to really reign it in and not go crazy.

Here are some of the meals I had while I was on vacation.  If you put your mouse over the pics, you should be able to see what each meal was.

Burger w/guac no bun

Taco night!

Margarita!

Grilled Steak and salad

Lobster Roll w/fries

The only beer I love

Homemade shrimp stirfry

A delightful Rose

Clams we got ourselves!

We also went out to eat at one of our favorite restaurants for a date night (I was very restrained as it was an Italian place, but I chose fish and just had a taste of Dan’s lasagna), I had frozen yogurt twice (Buddah Berry…sooooo good), and we went for our favorite, traditional summer lobster rolls at John Scott’s Surf Shack twice (I didn’t eat the bread but I DID eat the fries).  While eating at home though, I made sure to have plenty of veggies and control my portions.  I also had very little to drink which helped a lot.

Now since I was staying at my in laws, I obviously had access to a kitchen. I know not every vacation is like that. It would’ve been WAY more challenging to stay at a hotel and eat out all the time. BUT it still took a definite shift in my mindset and discipline to not let vacation be an excuse to just eat and drink whatever I felt like. So for that, I’m extremely proud. I also brought our blender so we could drink our Shakeology and that was a huge help. This blender is VERY portable and we would’ve brought it on any vacation even without kitchen access.
In addition to eating well, I worked out 13 out of 14 days.

Some sweaty selfies (top right was day one…it was kind of hard getting used to working out in a new place)

I did Country Heat and Dan did some big bike rides and also P90X. Because we have Beachbody On Demand, we didn’t need to bring all the DVDs. I just brought it up on the laptop and we streamed it online. Brilliant.
Edz loves watching us workout, so he was cool with it 🙂 Admittedly, he’s more a fan of watching Autumn and Tony on the workout than watch US doing it. Lol

Edz mid jump during Country Heat 🙂

So now for the results. Was I able to continue my 5lb loss streak?

YEEESSSSS!!! I did it! Even being on vacation, stressed out, sleep deprived, and having (earmuffs gentlemen) PMS, I managed to keep my eating relatively in check and work out. The result is another 5lbs done and dusted.

And now for the big visual before and after…. Here’s May to August.

This result for August is a huge win for me.  It proves that I CAN lose weight on vacation even when conditions made me often want to drink and eat all the things.  It’s mindset.  Once you decide you’re committed, the body does what it’s told.

I also think doing Country Heat helped shave inches off and build some muscles in my core and legs. Dancing tends to work some of the more hidden muscles you didn’t know you had.  If you look at the before and after from July to August, it’s subtle, but you can see I’m trimmer.  Man I love Country Heat.  30 minutes of dancing and boom, there you go.

Some awesome non scale victories to report as well! Today I tried on my infamous pregnancy jeans. THEY FIT! A litttttle tight in the thighs still, but they definitely qualify as fitting. I also tried on some old shorts from a couple years ago. They’re size 16/14. They fit pretty good too! They did not fit last month, so that extra 5lbs made a big difference.  I need to invest in a full length mirror so I can take better pictures.  Until then, you’ll just have to trust me 😉

Not only that, but yesterday I was able to take off my wedding rings and clean them!  I haven’t been able to take my rings off in years!

Now I just need to stop biting my nails…

I am really, really proud of my accomplishments so far.  The Trifecta of Awesomeness (workout, magic shake, accountability group) continues to work for me and I love watching my friends getting great results too!  I was showing my before and after photos to one of my closest friends, Angela, and she said something that I had been thinking as well…Look at what can happen in just 4 months!  4 months of being really committed.  4 months of being consistent.  What if I hadn’t started this 4 months ago?  How big would I be?  How much more depressed would I be?  Imagine if I had started in January instead of May?  How much closer to my goals would I be?  How much happier and healthier would I be?  I know that this time next year, I’ll be REAL glad I started back in May 🙂
The important thing, of course, is that I decided to change and I show up EVERY SINGLE DAY.  It’s the only way the magic works.  You can absolutely buy a program and a shake, but if you don’t show up it won’t work.  Ain’t no magic in dusty dvd or a shake that’s not getting drunk.

I actually am starting to see and feel a difference myself. I know that must sound weird, but it’s kind of taken this long to be able to look in the mirror and SEE myself different. It’s really cool. It’s like an old friend returning. I’m like, “Hey! I know you! How you been, stranger?!”  I’m very much looking forward to September.  Having a more regular schedule will be very helpful.  Plus, I’m excited to see all my gals in the group and the results that are to come from kicking this month in the teeth and showing it how strong we are!
As always, if you’re interested in joining me on this journey, I would LOVE to help you.  Click the contact button at the top and let me know you’re ready!

Hey, hey, heeeeeeeyyyy!  It’s that time once again.  July is drawing to a close and I’ve got some stats to share as well as a little rundown of how things are going so far!

Patented P90X Plyometrics Red Face

July has been a little hectic.  A few doctor appointments for Edward and some traveling made me have to work a bit harder to stay disciplined.  BUT, overall, it was a good month in fitness land.  Our accountability group was AMAZING and wonderful and I adore those girls.  They were so supportive of me and each other. Every month gets better and better.  I’m so excited for August!
Now the weigh in…drum roll please…

YEEHAW!

Yeeeeessssssssssss!  Another 5 pounds outta here!  So that’s a grand total of 17lbs since becoming a coach on May 9th and 23lbs since I started working out in March.  I’m really happy and proud.  Would I love it to be happening a little faster?  Sure.  I had let myself go so badly that even after losing all that weight, I STILL can’t even fit in the clothes I wore after I gave birth to Edz.  It often feels like it’ll just never happen.  Of course I know that’s not the case.  I mean my clothes are fitting much better and I’m thinking that maybe by my 44th birthday in September, I might actually feel good in a nice feminine outfit.  As of now, my “uniform” is still men’s sports team T-shirts and men’s athletic shorts.

Here’s a question…why must all women’s athletic wear be SO TIGHT and the shorts SO SHORT?!!!!  It is beyond frustrating.  I’m naturally kind of mushy.  I don’t have firm fat.  So tight yoga pant type stuff looks terrible on me.  And forget about the shorts.  And if you try and buy a women’s athletic top, they’re all so tight around the belly and hips.  It seems if you buy a large or extra large it just gets longer rather than wider.  Ugh.  Anyway, I digress.

My favorite eats this month include my precious Vegan Tropical Strawberry Shakeology (blended with half a frozen banana, 4-5 frozen strawberries, Tsp/tbsp of organic natural peanut butter or sunflower seed butter, and a tbsp of MCT oil).  I made a huge mistake of trying a different flavor this month.  Let’s just say I’m not a chocolate person.  EVERYONE else is, I am not.  I don’t know why I thought I’d be into it when I’ve never ever been, but I thought I must be nuts since everyone else loves it so much.  Just goes to show, everybody’s taste is different.  So I had to return my chocolate order and get tropical strawberry again.  It meant about a week and a half of no Shakeology.  I was like a junky! lol!  A girl in my accountability group who lives close by was like, “I can give you some of my vanilla!” and actually met me in a parking lot with 2 scoops of magic powder in a baggie to tide me over till my delivery! Crazy but true.  This is an actual picture of my reaction to the long awaited delivery of that beautiful green box.

I hugged the box.  It’s true.

My other favorite thing…one might say I’m obsessed…is tomatoes with homemade guacamole.  Fun Fact, I’ve never liked avocado and still don’t really unless it’s mashed with lemon and salt 🙂 I made tomato guac boats, tomato guac on crisp bread, and sometimes I just dip little baby san marzano tomatoes in the guac.  So, yeah, obsessed.

Fitness wise, I’m still plugging along at P90X and getting stronger every day.  I’m finally seeing some arm definition and TONS more endurance/strength.  Upping my weights and going longer without stopping moves.

I’m also seeing great progress in the belt department.  I used to use either no belt or the first notch (all while feeling like a stuffed sausage that can’t breathe while sitting) to comfortably using the FIFTH notch!  Wooo hoo!  And I was looking back through old pics from May and I think I can see a big difference in my face…less fat. 🙂

And finally, another cool thing that happened this month is that I became an Emerald Coach!  And I realize that might seem weird or silly to some, but I’m very proud and excited!

When I decided to become a coach, my thought was that as long as I was doing this for myself, I would LOVE to be able to help other people get happy and healthy too.  And this is just an affirmation that I’m on the right track.  That I’m helping people.  The obesity situation in our country is crazy out of control.  I NEVER thought I’d EVER be obese.  But then it happened.  It can sneak up on you and tap you on the shoulder one day like, “Hey there!  Welcome to the world of obesity!  Would you like to see our catalogue of specialists, diseases, and medications?”  Trust me, you don’t want to look through that catalogue.  So if you’re feeling like you might get that tap on the shoulder, please don’t wait.  I want to help you.  I promise you it’s not as hard as you think and it can actually be fun. I’m seeeeeeerious! 🙂

Our next accountability group starts on August 8th and I would be honored to help you reach your goals!  Click on the Contact button at the top if you’re ready to close out this summer with a bang!  I guarantee if you join me now, you’re going to feel WAY better about taking holiday pictures in a couple months!

For this Transformation Tuesday, I figured I might as well pull out the big guns. Here it is folks…the physical transformation so far.

This is NOT easy for me. It’s not exactly fun to show everyone how badly I let myself go. And if you had asked me a few weeks ago if I would ever DARE show my before pictures on social media, I’d be all, “HELL NO!” But I think it’s important to show the progress I’ve made.  I’m really, REALLY proud of it.  Though I wish I had done my hair and thrown on some makeup at least 😉

First, here’s my weight progress since my last update…

Another 5lbs bites the dust! Weeeeee!

And now for the big reveal….

The top pictures were taken the week I became a coach and received the 21 Day Fix. I was 206lbs.

The bottom pics were taken yesterday. 194.4lbs  

So 12lbs loss in 7 weeks!!!  And without a single crunch!  No sit ups whatsoever due to the Diastasis Recti.  So this just shows you can still workout and strengthen your abdomen without crunches.

There are a lot of people who know me well but have never met this Sharon. Mostly because I pretty much isolated myself after my son was born four years ago. And after the autism diagnosis, forget about it, no one saw me at all really. We were so up to our ears in therapy from morning to night plus just dealing with it on an emotional level…I didn’t feel like I could relate to anyone anymore.

So for those of you that haven’t seen me in 5 years or more, please meet overweight Sharon.”Hi guys! Here’s what happens when you eat your feelings!” 🙂

I’m obviously really happy with my progress so far.  And the Trifecta of Awesomeness is absolutely the key to my success.  Workout everyday, Clean diet/magic shakes, and Accountability Group.  Lose one of those three things and the results slow to a screeching halt.

I still have a LONG road ahead. Marathon mentality needed BIG TIME.  But consistency and accountability make it feel way less torturous. 🙂

Our next accountability group starts July 11th, and if you’d like to try a little Trifecta action yourself, just click on the contact button so we can get started!

Yesterday it was 21 days since my Beachbody box of fitness and nutrition in the form of 21 Day Fix and Shakeology arrived on my doorstep.

Here’s my update…

On May 10th (a couple days before the package arrived) I weighed myself and took some measurements.  Here’s the result of the past 21 days.

Weight – 7lbs lost in just 21 days!!

If you remember from my first blog post, I mentioned that I had started working out for 6 weeks previous and hadn’t changed my diet.  In those 6 weeks I lost 5 pounds.  So in half the time, I lost more weight by changing my diet in addition to working out.  Weeeeeee!

Waist – down 2 inches * Hips – down 1.5 inches * Thighs – down 1 inch

I am EXTREMELY happy with these results and here’s a little more detail about how it went down.

The portion control cups that were so hilarious to me when I first saw them (see my reaction HERE), turned out to be THE BEST THING EVER.  It was exactly what I needed to get my eating sorted and on track.  I had plenty of food, wasn’t starving, and the results I saw were, in large part, due to these pretty little cups. And honestly, once I used them for a few days, it was easy to just eyeball proper food amounts.  Once you train your brain to know what’s a proper serving, it clicks and it’s so much easier than I thought it would be.  So, YAY for that!

Here are some examples of my meals from the past 3 weeks.

Shakeology every day (sometimes twice a day), lots of scrambled eggs with green salad (made me feel like I was having brunch in a French Bistro), chicken, pork, or turkey with veggies, salad, and cottage cheese, tuna with cucumbers and tomato, yogurt with apples and cinnamon, and good quality deli ham on crispbreads with arugula are just a few of the meals I had.  In our Facebook Accountability group, we post photos of the food we eat each day.  This helps keep our own accountability, but also is great for getting ideas and recipes!  I love seeing everyone’s food posts for the day!

The second most important component, in my opinion, for getting the great result was Shakeology.  I feel like it deserves it’s own post, but that stuff is just as good as you hear.  Good for so many reasons, but first and foremost, it actually works as a great meal replacement and it’s FAST.  I look forward to it every day!  I stay full a good 3 hours which was pleasantly surprising.  I remember after day 2 thinking, “this stuff must have magic fairy dust in it or something”.  I have the vanilla and while it’s pretty ok plain with water and/or almond milk or hemp milk, I created a little recipe for myself that has me addicted.  I’ve had it for 21 days straight and haven’t tired of it yet!  I call it PB&J 🙂

PB&J Shakeology

1 scoop of vanilla Shakeology, 1/2 a frozen banana, 4-5 frozen strawberries, 4oz vanilla unsweetened almond or hemp milk, 4oz water, 1tsp (or TBSP) of organic, natural peanut butter (or other nut/seed butter).  Blend well.

So, yeah, I’m a big, BIG fan of the portion control containers and Shakeology.  It’s making this whole thing really easy.

Now about the workout itself…

After the first day I was pretty excited.  It was challenging (hard) but not complicated.  As the days went on that first week, I ended up having to modify or completely avoid so many moves because of my diastasis recti.  Diastasis recti is when your rectus abdominis separates.  This happens frequently to women who are pregnant.  It also can happen to anyone who gains weight in their belly, especially very quickly (like I did).  I had heard the term a few times and googled it.  There are tons of videos on YouTube that show you how to test to see if you have it.  Well, turns out, I have one alright.  My abdominal split is 3 fingertips wide.  AND, as a bonus, my organs are pushing through the weakness of that separation and herniating my belly button!  FUN!  I thought it was just fat, but nope!  It’s likely my intestines.  Lovely.

SOOOOOO, when you have this affliction, you are absolutely not supposed to do any crunches or planks.  Both of these moves are frequent in 21 Day Fix.  Any time you do a crunch or twisty sit up or lift your legs and head off the ground, it puts strain on the separation and can make it worse.  The thing you need to do is work the transverse abdominis which are the muscles waaaaaaay deep inside your core.  It’s tedious and takes a very long time if you can indeed improve this separation.

I tried for a week to just do different exercises whenever a “no-no” move came up, but I got really frustrated.  Frustrated because it ruined my flow and frustrated because now I’m FINALLY motivated to workout, I’ve got this stupid thing in my way.

So….I stopped doing 21 Day Fix.  Instead, I started browsing all the options on Beachbody OnDemand.  I did the sample workout from 22 Minute Hard Corps (Cardio 1) which was all cardio moves.  I absolutely loved that it was only 22 minutes of high intensity cardio.  Gave me so much energy!  Plus, it’s Tony Horton and he’s my guy.  There were burpees (which technically are a no-no), so I’d jog in place for those.

I also did the sample workout from Cize (hip hop dance).  I LOVE IT.  For an ex-musical theatre person, this was like a revelation!  Dancing to lose weight!  Of COURSE!  Yay!  I thought that the moves were very well “taught” in a way that didn’t make me feel too awkward or lost.  It was 30 minutes of joy for me.  Super fun and really felt I had gotten a great workout.

The other routine I did was the sample workout from T25 (Cardio).  This was similar in style to 22 min Hard Corps in that it was high intensity cardio for a short time (25 minutes).  Again, gave me tons of energy.  Moves very easy to follow.  And no real need to modify any moves for the ab split.

So I ended up just switching between those three workouts and I then also some old Slim in 6.

I think that if I didn’t have this ab separation disaster, I would have really liked 21 Day Fix.  It was challenging BIG TIME and I get why so many people love it and get amazing results.  I plan on coming back to it at a later time.

So now what?  I’ve decided to go back to my favorite.  The first Beachbody program I ever completed.  P90X with my main man, Tony Horton.  Dan and I did P90X to prep for our wedding and we loved it.  I have so many fun memories of us waking up early to work out and how we’d quote all the silly stuff Tony would say throughout.  It’s more of a time commitment (most of the workouts are about an hour or a bit more) and I can’t do the ab workout or most of the Yoga, but I can do nearly everything else with no modifications.  Plus it’s like an old friend…familiar.  There’s something fun about revisiting this after 6 years.  I still remember all the silly things he says. 🙂  I started yesterday.  Chest and Back.  I was amazed how much stronger I was than I thought.  That made me really happy.  Today was Plyometrics (high impact with lots of jumping).  It was just as hard as I remember, but I was happy that my endurance was pretty darn good.

So there it is.  My progress report. 🙂  Excited to share another next month!

If you’d like to be a part of our June Accountability group on Facebook, it starts on June 13th!  Click the Contact button and let me know if you’re interested!

PS:  I might be brave enough to finally post a before and after photo of myself when I post my next update 😉