Phit-N-Phat...Making Fitness and Weightloss a Lifestyle

What Running and Figure Competitions Taught Me

I'm learning a lot running again. The last three years have been so focused on figure competitions that it is showing me loudly things I have never thought about.

Figure competing is hard physically and mentally. The workouts are tough, you gotta be a little soldier with the diet, and as you get leaner you don't always appreciate how great you look. You always feel like you have to get tighter and leaner regardless if you are crazy little.

You train like an athlete every day and put your body through extremes.  There is stage day to define your finish line, but on my best day I can look like someone who gave half-assed effort. We don't get something concrete to say we are truly bringing the best we can.

In figure, I'm just not going to be a "winner" despite bringing my best. It's OK on some levels, but coming in last place on stage starts to stink. It's hard to feel like you did a great job when you still have loose skin and scar lines for days blazed out under six coats of tan!

Running is different. I have a time to beat; MY time. With running you can find a race any time of the year, get a medal, people cheer loudly no matter how ragged you look doing it, and a t-shirt to wear letting everyone know you are a runner.

Since doing races again I've felt better and better about me. I see improvements in myself, I feel pride, I feel more athletic, and my training has such purpose. It's a sport I can do with my husband and child. I even told Chris the other day, "Do you notice the pride in me after we do a race?" Honestly after a race I feel a high and want to do more. He notices and says he likes this athlete more than the figure athlete.

With figure I was always glad it was over, ready to take a break, scared I couldn't keep lean, and then in a few short weeks feeling blue. It's just strange. It's like you mourn the process, the body you had, and not sure what to do with yourself.

I love that I did compete, though. The stage is an awesome place. YOU know how hard you worked and all the hours of preparing, cooking, planning, and sweating it took to get there. If it wasn't for figure I wouldn't know as much as I do about prepping, love veggies, understand how to lift heavy, and know what pushing yourself in the gym is all about. I also made some special friends along the way!!!

But, I also know anything that leaves me feeling anything less than proud of my accomplishments may have to be retired.

Who knows if I will ever do it again. I know this: in the past month I've run faster and hit goals I dreamed of when I weighed 250lbs. It feels awesome to own a 2:30:40 Half and a 30:30 5K time. Both have been goals and now I can keep training to be better than that. I can also look around and feel like I fit in. I don't feel like the fat girl at a race like I do in figure. Races welcome all sizes and shapes and maybe my psyche needs that more everyday look. 

Sigh...I still love the look, the passion, and the dedication of the sport but it definitely takes a strong woman mentally and physically to compete. I know several women who fit that bill and will gladly cheer them from the seats. 

 

 

What I Learned Figure Competing in 2011

I am closing out the dieting process for my competitions and, like I have each year, I will wrap up what I learned. Each year it’s different and this time is no exception.

I always knew this but I really APPRECIATED it this year: My life is good. My husband is amazing and I when I say amazing I truly mean it. We have our moments, but there is no other person in the world I want to spend my time with more than that man. He is a great father, my best friend, and people who really know him understand how special he is.

Our son is our best blessing. Not to always bring things back to Chris, but our son is what made us the couple we are. He’s taught us how to come together as a team, how to appreciate each other more than other couples take the time to do, and without him I know Chris and I never would have learned how to balance life and work.

When I compete I am out of balance. As much as I love the process it does take me away from what I love most: my family.

The first year I needed my figure competing to keep me sane. Logan was diagnosed with autism the same day I started dieting for my first show. It was the only thing I had that was MINE and the process kept me from losing my mind about Logan. I needed something so demanding to keep me from drowning in depression and worry.

 

The second year I had something to prove. It was after my big surgery to fix that loose skin being 110lbs overweight most of your life does to you. When I treated myself to that surgery FINALLY I wanted to see my new body! I got to see myself a way I never had before!

This last year has been completely different. I went into the 2010/2011 season starting in September of 10. Let me tell you, when you’ve lost 110lbs the last thing you EVER want to do is gain weight. The scariest thing I’ve ever done is purposely gain 25lbs in hopes to build a better body. But, I did it. I went from a size 4/6 to a size 10, weighed 170lbs at the end, and did it exercising and eating clean. Wasn’t a ho-ho party girls! I did it clean and I had loads of self-doubt.

Thoughts crept in like would I be able to diet all this weight off? I’m normal and paranoid just like you girls.

The season started, the dieting started in February 11, I’ve worked hard (check my journal), and now I’m 21 days away from the last show. Turning on the competition diet was EASY and my fear went away. I already eat that food; I just got a little less of it. I never re-introduced my bad habits so turning on the “diet” was no big deal.

What I learned this time is so strange. I don’t need competing to be fit and healthy. This really is just my lifestyle. It’s easy to go out and make good choices, I love my vegetables, fast food is not a trigger at all, and I love exercise. It’s not going away just because there isn’t a deadline, show, or finish line. Don’t get me wrong, I’ll be doing races and fitness camps. I love the life and I love doing events with friends! I just don’t know about competing anymore. It’s the hardest thing I ever do and I’ve had a baby, ran a marathon, taught myself how to do triathlons, and run or walked 20 half marathons. I definitely have an idea of what hard work looks and feels like.

I also learned that part of having a healthy lifestyle also means your mental health and fun health. My husband and I love date nights. We don’t do date night at the movies. We go dancing, we go to Vegas, we go OUT! I don’t want to watch him eat because I already had a treat meal or don’t get one this week, I don’t want to be the designated driver, and I don’t want to always skip ice cream with Logan because I’m getting ready for a show.

I’m not saying the food is what drives me and that I can’t just go out without drinking; I’m just saying for me it’s more fun when I get to participate to some degree. I’m one of the few competitors you’ll see who doesn’t have a bag of treats backstage anxiously awaiting tearing them open. I’m the girl who is so happy to be going out for a glass of wine and relaxing with good friends.

I am ready to embrace my self-acceptance; I haven’t always been ready. I never appreciated until lately what I was after this year. My first meeting with Tony for this year I said my goal was to look my best after the shows were over. I will never be a “competitive athlete” because I just don’t have the “it” factor like the winners do. Those girls have amazing bodies and they work so damn hard for them.

I wanted this whole process of gaining weight and then taking it off to help me get the body I dreamed about…not read about or seen pictures of. I had a “feeling” in my head about how I wanted to feel. You know, I have hit that already and losing more makes me a bit scared I will forget how much right now means to me. I feel strong, confident, sexy around my man, proud to be Logan’s mom, and content that I am in the place I can LIVE the life I want. But, I am sure I’ve got what it takes to handle this. A lesson learned.

I’ve won. It’s taken me six years of maintaining and working hard to find my happy place. The whole process I had to learn how to change; not just physical changes but mental changes. Over the years I’ve had to do several things to finally feel like I own my body.

• I had to quit being negative about me when I didn’t believe it. Fake it til you make it.
• I had to quit weighing daily and start really looking at ME. Until I quit letting the number define me I was never going to see myself. There would always be a number on my body.
• I had to binge, cry, fall off the wagon, and make mistakes so that I could learn I could get back up the next day.
• I had to get comfortable with being uncomfortable. Often I had to eat things I didn’t want, show up to classes or group training the least experienced, alone, and most out of shape, exercise harder than I my body felt like doing, or say things to myself I didn’t believe. If I didn’t start having new experiences I could never replace my old ones.
• Sometimes I had to let go of people in my life who I loved dearly but weren’t ready to support me. It was hard; some people came back and others did not.
• I had to be OK with losing people, things, or habits that always brought me comfort but didn’t bring me happiness.

And, most importantly, I had to be willing to find the messages my journey was sending me. What I thought was so important, I couldn’t live without, or just had to have changed as I pushed myself. I wouldn’t trade the person I am today for any trophy, pant size, number on the scale, or even dimple free thigh.

I spent years and years taking my failures as disappointments searching for the “why me?” The new Corinne goes into everything with eyes open for the lessons and I always find one even if it is not what I expect. Funny thing is this: what I learn about me is always much better than what I thought I wanted.

My Number Doesn’t Define Me

Man, I remember most of my life either wishing to be a size 14 so I could get out of Lane Bryant, pining for size 10 because I had never been that small, then wanting to at least just be an 8 so I could be in the single digits.

If it wasn’t pants sizes I yearned to be under 200 pounds, wanted to break 175lbs since I always got stuck there, or NEEDED to weigh 145lbs because in my head that’s what weight is my “happy place.”

This past year if you have followed my journals on PNP you know I ended the last figure competition season with one goal in mind: build a better body. For once I had to let go of all those numbers that defined me. I had to:

• Quit weighing so the scale wouldn’t be in my head
• Pack up my small pants from 4-8’s because I didn’t want to get discouraged with growth due to tight jeans
• Realize I was going to eat more than 2200 calories a day if I wanted to add some muscle and, of course, fat that comes with it.

Now, I ate healthy but it was a lot of healthy. I got big but in a good way. I even stumbled upon some lessons I needed to learn. Honestly, I just wanted some shoulders out of this but I got a lot more; I got rid of some Fat Girl Thinking that I didn’t even realize I had.

After I finished all the building and it was time to start dieting again I looked at my numbers. Amazingly I didn’t let a previously shocking number change how I was going to live. I suppose it’s because I know that my habits never changed: I got up almost daily and exercised, I prepared my healthy eats on Sunday, I drank all of my water, I kept away from things that I still can have an OOPS moment with the quickness.

So, in the end of build I went from my precious 145lbs to 170lbs in about five to six months. My size fours were now size tens. It was hard to put on that weight. It took a lot of eating Ezekiel bread, oats, fruit, protein, vegetables, rice, sweet potatoes, nuts, and your basic clean eats. I did have a few treats but I can tell you honestly, when you have to eat 2600 CLEAN calories a day you don’t really crave a damn thing most days. It’s a lot of food when it’s healthy.

I also worked out harder than ever. My workouts weren’t cardio infernos but my lifting was hard and heavy. I had to mentally overcome what I “thought” heavy was. It took working with my coach who pushed me to weights I never dreamed I could lift. Through all of that I found that I am stronger than I ever gave myself credit. I saw what really lifting hard was all about and my body ached more with soreness than ever.

Now here comes the rub of building muscle. All those precious numbers I’ve placed my self-worth and value in for so many years HAVE TO CHANGE. It would take a miracle from God to get these legs in a four ever again. I mean, I will diet down for these competitions and I think even at my lowest weight a size six is going to be the bottom end.

My legs grew this year. But I am not upset. Last year I was a four and still teary eyed when I looked at my legs. The loose skin that I still had left over broke my heart even at my bottom end weight.

Now I’m starting to see a lot of improvement in the SHAPE of my legs. Stuff I’ve never seen in my life. They won’t be perfect but I’ll take size eight or six pretty legs over size four teary eyed legs any day of the week.

Shirts are the same. My shoulders and back grew. I’d rather wear a bigger shirt to fit big shoulders than a smaller shirt with less defined arms. BTW…I cannot wait to see the final product on my arms.

The most humbling thing for me is the weight. I have no clue where I’ll end up but I know one thing…it will be more than 145lbs and I’m OK WITH THAT! I want different things these days. It’s not how much I weigh…it’s…

• the way my family eats and lives.
• trying new things, sports, exercises, etc.
• making friends who love a healthy lifestyle.
• being involved in changing others lives.
• looking in the mirror and seeing what I like and then WALKING AWAY.
• understanding the numbers are a guide ONCE I have SEEN with my own EYES the image I LIKE.

Once I find that spot where I know I like what I see and I can eat and be active to support that without it controlling my life, I’ll let everyone know. I don’t think it’s far off! At the time of this blog I weigh 159lbs around 19% BF and I really like what I see. Who would've thunk it?

If you want to read more about what I think daily, my workouts, my food logs, weigh-ins, progress pics, etc., you can follow my journal and get the whole scoop.

Tell Me About Shakeology

I had three people ask me just yesterday about Shakeology in my journal. I’ve been drinking this shake for a good month as my post-workout protein shake and Chris has it for breakfast DAILY. No joke, we love it. I can say I can recommend it to you and feel confident you will enjoy the product from Beachbody. This blog will break it all down for you and feel free to comment here or email me for more information. And, we are taking it to Vegas for all of you who ask me what can I take that is easy…THIS. LOL

What We Love…

1. It’s thick and creamy. I use the Magic Bullet, ice, water, and 2-3 ounces of Unsweetened Almond Milk and I get a “Wendy’s” type frosty.

2. Super healthy! When dieting for a competition I really get concerned that overall nutrition takes a dip. Shakeology fills a lot of nutrient gaps for me and keeps me REGULAR! This link takes you to the nutritional information, ingredients, and more.

3. FILLING. I use it as a post-workout shake and it’s very filling. You can blend it with banana for extra punch but on it’s own it does the trick.

4. It just tastes good. Plain enough there! A lot of shakes don’t but the Chocolate is reallllyyy good.

 

What We Don’t Love…

1. The cost. It’s expensive so don’t think it’s like buying your usual protein powder. But, because it has more than just whey in it you are going to pay for it.

2. The Greenberry – blech. Just being honest here. The first shipment I ordered the wrong flavor. It tasted like greens to me. Chris liked it with OJ, a banana, and berries. I know my girls and most of you wouldn’t drink the Greenberry. If the Queen can’t do it then 90% of you can’t either. LOL.

 

So far we’ve covered it tastes good, I gave you a link to the nutritional PDF, and now I have me talking about it. I shot this post-workout, so excuse the “look.”

Why Shakeology

 

How Can You Get It?

There are two ways.

1. You can order from my Beachbody site. Be sure to create a free account listing me as your coach and that way I can notify you of any specials that might happen throughout the year on any Beachbody product like the new Asylum coming out from Shaun T. It’s $119.00 plus shipping.

2. You can become a coach for $39.99 and then you pay a monthly fee of $14.95 for your two free websites (Shakeology and Beachbody). You get the websites in case you want to share the products with others. BUT, you do get 25% off your products so that makes your Shakeology $89.96 plus 9.90 for shipping and then your state’s tax rate. If you go on auto-ship each month for your 30-day bag your shipping is waived.

 

Video Information

And, for those who want more information on Shakeology, Beachbody has some great videos about the product. Use the links below to watch on anything that interests you.

Is It Worth the Money?

Where do the ingredients come from?

How Many Veggies Are In It?

 

Now…post any questions you have!

Rejoice In What You Have

He is a man of sense who does not grieve for what he has not, but rejoices in what he has. Epictetus

Often on my PNP site, members fall into two camps: those focused on what they do right and those focused on what they do wrong.

I have clients with 10 to 5lbs to lose miserable with their life. They are always chasing the elusive “when I reach this weight THEN I will be happy”. Each day they focus on what they won’t do, the mistakes they make, and the reasons why they can’t do something different.

I have clients with 50lbs to lose excited because they are learning new ways to workout, trying new foods, and focused on behaving like a person who is happy with their weight.

 

My MESSAGE to all of you…

Start celebrating all you can do. Be excited you can try new things, that you can learn a new lifestyle, and that you have ME as proof it can be done.

Stop looking for misery, sadness, reasons you can’t, and being the person you are trying to escape.

I know exactly when my clients are going to make it. They stop making excuses and start doing…even when they don’t feel like it. I have several right now that went from always telling me the reasons they can’t do something or need a change in plan and just started working out, eating what I tell them, and letting go of the excuse making.

I start dieting for 16-20 weeks on Monday to compete in figure once again. Not once have I dreaded it and I have more to lose than ever. If I took the time to focus on the times it will be tough, I’ll be too tired to exercise, things will hurt, etc., I would bomb after a few days.

Instead I’ve spent weeks building up excitement for myself. I get a chance to challenge myself with new workouts, life will show me opportunities to eat on plan through tough times, my body will enjoy the activity, and each week I get to see my body reveal strength and athleticism I’ve spent the last five months developing under my “bulking coat”.

You can have the best plan in the world but fail to be grateful for the challenges that will always present themselves. If you want to lose weight, figure out the changes you can make TODAY that leave you rejoicing tomorrow.

Stop thinking about all you have done wrong, the obstacles you face, and coming up with reasons you won’t be able to lose weight.

Start making new habits, reading books and sites that foster health, and discovering all you DO HAVE to be successful.

New Year, New Goals

As many of you know, I wrapped up 2010 doing something I never thought I would in this lifetime: gain weight on purpose! It's been real, it's been fun, but it ain't been real fun.

What a struggle mentally for me. I spent all my life fat, worked hard to get that weight off, spent a few years adding and taking away weight to reshape the body I abused for so long, and then this year decided to really put forth some major effort and basically bulk up.

My poor husband has had to watch me enshroud myself in fleece, go from feeling OK to crying about how I look, listen to HOURS and HOURS of discussions on am I doing the right thing, do you still love me, are you sure I look OK? It's been a real test of love for sure!

What I learned in this process is for the first time in my life I am not afraid to diet. I will take the weight off without it feeling like a big life change. Guess somewhere in life it has clicked for me that I really do control my food and that the food doesn't control me.

The build has been tough on my body. Cardio sucks with an extra 20lbs on your feet and knees, I sweat all the time, and I look older. This has been a lesson of what it must have felt like back six years ago plus about 80lbs.

As much as I have disliked feeling so out of shape, I reflected today on what I needed to get out of this other than bigger shoulders.

First, it has taught me I have truly conquered my food demons. Trust me when I say this, I gained this weight eating food most of you still won't eat to lose weight. I did it eating a healthy diet. I can count on one hand how many real desserts I ate in the past six months. My goal was to keep up good eating habits and I did. I'm proud to say my food lifestyle is here to stay. If gaining weight doesn't open the door for doodie nothing will!

As I preach to you I practiced myself, work on the habits of the lifestyle and everything will fall right into place: the scale, clothes, inches, etc.

Second, I learned a ton about strength training. This time I worked with my trainer once a week and he showed me that I still had a lot to learn on lifting heavy. The weight I gained helped me gain a lot of strength and it showed me that I am always a bit stronger than I think I am.

Third, I will have acceptance of this body. When I get to see the changes this time I'm going to be grateful for what I've worked hard to achieve. I will also put emphasis on pushing myself athletically versus aesthetically.

Figure is a tough sport and it messes with you. It makes you feel like accomplishments are in the mirror and I want to get back to enjoying sports. Looking pretty while doing it is a plus, but next year I want my goals to be things like running faster, setting deadlifting and squatting records for me, and conquering pull ups. I'm not saying I'm hanging up my heels but I'm probably going to wear my maintenance body!

So, today I started the next meal plan that will carry me through the next four weeks. We're slowing things down and tightening up in preparation for the big cut. I'm glad to not be getting bigger but I'm glad I made it without totally losing my sanity. :) Once I start the official cut I will link you to my PNP journal. You can read about my build with this link.

Habits or Thinking?

I subscribe to several newsletters and one of them touched on the topic of habit and how you think today. My PNP girls know I'm a big believer in my girls with lots of weight to lose like I had to lose might have to work on breaking habits waaaayyy before they will ever change their mindset.

I look back on things and I can definitely see to this day that my mind is BETTER but has NEVER caught up to my weightloss. If I waited for the day for things to click, come into the light, or whatever, I'd still weigh 250lbs or more since my habits back then were on a track to 300lbs.

Changing habits is much easier than changing how you think. Fat Girl Thinking is real and it gets so engrained in us that the messages become automatic.

How do you shut off your mind? You can't.

How do you suddenly get confident enough to tell people NO when you really don't want to eat the food they are pushing on you? You might not be able to.

I'm a believer in doing what works before doing what is the optimum way. Sure, it's nice to figure out why you do things and what your past says about who you are now. That's great and there's nothing wrong with it. But don't keep sitting on your butt every night using what happened to you in sixth grade as an excuse. Surely you can start walking or exercising TODAY without it derailing deep emotional progress.

I found that as I worked on my habits like going from doing nothing to exercising, working on how I was eating, and then learning how to start a new lifestyle I was able to be confident enough to...

- bring my own food to some family functions.

- turn down lunches, dinners, and parties I never wanted to go to in the first place.

- wake up and notice a positive change before I "picked myself apart."

- ask my husband to help with Logan so I could exercise on the weekend.

- order things at a restaurant that DREW attention to what I was eating because it was different and healthy.

Did my mind change? Not really for a long time. I needed good, NEW habits to open my mind to NEW thinking.

This same idea applies to my current situation. Many of you follow my personal journal on PNP and know that I am adding weight in an effort to gain muscle. It's a process that a former fatty never thought she would do. Although I eat super healthy in MASS quantities, I'm having loads of "old thinking" creep in.

What is making this TOLERABLE for me (because gaining weight is just not easy on the brain), is the fact that the HABITS that got me to my ideal weight don't change to grow my body.

- still bringing my own clean eats to family functions.

- still not going to dinners, lunches, and such that I never wanted to go to in the first place.

- each morning I make a point to find one thing I love about my growing body versus picking it apart because it's getting big.

- Chris still has to watch Logan in the mornings while I knock out workouts.

- still ordering things special because I want quality calories to build muscle...not just crap.

The lesson for me is that this really is a lifestyle in the up and down journey of the scale. It's about habits and those often define what you think.

NEAT: Non-Essential Activity Thermogenesis

http://www.kcby.com/news/health/13565082.html

This article explains what NEAT is and ways to do it.

In any given day most of us are very sedentary. I have a good client (and friend) using a BodyBugg right now and one of her first comments was...

"I can't believe how few calories I burned during the day until I exercised. Starting tomorrow I am going to walk a few places in the office and try to take the stairs some."

Excellent. I am not a big believer in the BB and basing how much you eat on it because it doesn't understand the type of calories you burned and how. For example, when I lift chest each week I don't burn many calories. I do my cardio and I'm happy if I get to 400 calories for that hour.

Why? I spent 35 min. laying on my back and stretching. You just aren't going to burn tons of calories that way BUT you do a great workout that needs lots of fuel to build muscle and keep fat levels low.

What I DO LOVE about the BB is that it shows you how active you are and ENCOURAGES more movement. There is just something highly motivating about seeing the numbers go up.

It's like HRM's, pedometers, and all other gadgets; they can motivate you to simply be more active each day.

Doing a little extra housework each night, parking further from the store, not letting the bag person "help" you with your groceries, and doing a little walking around during your workday, you slowly burn more calories thus getting fitter.

For me it's been tough, lately. I work at home, on a laptop, in chair most of the day. Sure I do a great workout then blah. The last few weeks I've been trying to get more activity in my own day. Some days I walk and work on my homemade trek desk.  Other days I try to do some extra cleaning.

But, I am actively trying to gain some weight and build muscle. It's such a mental grind and honestly it makes me feel lazy. Regardless of the goal...who in the hell likes the scale going up? Even my pregnant clients who are building babies, not muscles, don't love seeing that scale move.

NEAT is a good way to help your body stay in a state of burning calories, keeping fat off, while eating healthy, getting in some exercise, etc.

It also just makes you feel better. Don't you just seem to have a better mood when you are more physically involved in life? There is a reason they call it couch potato and not couch athlete. I don't want to look or feel like a root vegetable!

So, I'm going to set some NEAT goals for myself over the next month.

1. Clean up the "dungeon" every day I workout. Put my weights back! Treat it like I would treat the gym.

2. Cut the maid back to every other week. We'll save money and I'll bank some extra calories.

3. Make the bed and wash a load of clothes every morning while the coffee brews.

4. Walk and work 30-60 min. Monday through Friday.

I would just bet these small goals will make me feel better, look better, and keep me encouraged to continue the long, hard process of adding weight.

Goal Setting

Set your goals high because what a person accomplishes is in proportion to what they attempt.

Mitchell Naufell

I love this quote because it embodies what I try to live by. I just finished my last competition this past weekend and it was a great season. My goals are always the same: be better than I was last time and look back with a smile. That is exactly what I did in 2010.

Never in a million years, even when I lost my weight, did I ever dream that I would be able to compete in figure. Stepping on that stage is a huge challenge for sure, BUT it takes a mental stamina you must be willing to apply. My first time girls had this realization at the show. One girl said, "I thought dieting and the workouts were hard. I was wrong. Putting my foot on the stage was the hardest part of the whole journey."

Think about it. For a group of girls who all come from a background of being overweight, eating disorders, etc., it ain't the prep that's hard part. It's the mental game and FGT you have to overcome. ANYONE can diet and exercise. Not everyone can stop cold turkey on emotional eating, turn down the noise in their head that they aren't good enough, or be willing to tell friends and family you won't be having "just a little" because YES it will keep you from reaching your goals.

To top it off, at the end of 20+ weeks you allow an auditorium full of people judge your body having no idea what your personal story is. People don't know you are a mommy, a recovering bulimic, a single mom, or a girl who travels extensively. You are just judged on your appearance and isn't that most of our greatest fears?

So as I reflect on this I ask you...are you really any different than a competitor? Not really. You have to overcome the same mental drama, social situations, and peer pressure we do. The only difference is we have tight deadline to do it in which means a tighter/tougher diet. All of us have to sacrifice and work at it, though. It's not easy but not impossible for any of us.

Today think about the goals you have. The REAL goals you have for your body. I would bet that each person that reads my blog has some pretty big goals tucked away in their head. You might think it's just to be healthy or just to be a little tighter but when you DREAM you have another pictures in your head. Don't be afraid of the dream. Don't stuff it down for fear of failure. Think about that dream and then make a REAL plan to get there. Like a plan that is full of foods you WILL eat, you WILL prep this weekend, and foods you KNOW will keep you full enough to stay out of crap next week. It can be as simple as that to start on a path to your dream.

Look at this picture. I promise you every girl in this picture had a big goal, a big dream, and stayed consistent with weekly planning to look this beautiful. And, each of them has a unique story that would make you question how come you aren't pulling it together to reach your own goals.

Fun Times At PNP

We've been having a blast in May and June at PNP and I got pictures to prove it!

For May we did a virtual race month. Girls were challenged to either find a local race or create their own and then take a picture in pink and black. We had several takers from 5K to Marathoners! Here's a little collage of just some of girls who took the challenge.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This past weekend we had several of our girls take part in a virtual 5K to support stroke. Our own Arlett was the leader and we will post some pics on my Facebook page of that event. It's so wonderful to be in a community of women who are willing to walk and run all over the country on the same day to feel "the team effort."

 

We also had our first ever PNP Figure and Bikini Team show up in Chattanooga. We've got lots of pictures coming on Facebook for that but here's a few of my own favorites. I hope this link works - it is Mammy's photo album.

I learned a lot through this latest figure journey and I will blog more about it tomorrow. I have some good life lessons and will also be kicking off my effort to start teaching you MORE about making this lifestyle FAMILY FRIENDLY!

Look at the PNP Bikini Team!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My friend Cara who has followed me and Lisa off of Sparkpeople and the blog!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

All the girls who make PNP the BEST little forum on the internet! Woot!