This right here, is one of the ladies I worked with, her name is Xhiomara, we call her “Xhio” for short (pronounced See-O). It’s so interesting but we never realize how much of a progress we’ve made until we look at our old pictures… in the same way that we don’t know how far from our goal we are, until we see our pictures.

If I ask you to compare your pictures from today, to the pictures from last year’s holidays, where are you as far as your goals? How close are you to reaching them? Would you like to be closer to your goal and feeling much better about yourself around this time next year? If the answer is yes, I have GREAT news for you. I have 10 spaces for a brand new challenge opening November 26, right after Thanksgiving. That way you’ll be able to enjoy your family holiday and be ready to take charge of your health and fitness starting Monday. Are you ready?

The challenge will include a Beachbody workout of your choice, Shakeology the delicious meal replacement that will help you reduce cravings and lose weight and me as your personal one on one coach and look… here are MY personal weight loss results and guess what? If I could do it… I can certainly show you how to do it as well!

There is fun to be had and prizes to be won Seriously, you can win up to $100,000 just for entering your results, just like Kathy M. and Richard N. who won $100,000 each in this year’s Beachbody Challenge, plus we also have the daily, monthly and quarterly prizes as well. Seriously, you have nothing to lose except weight!

There are hundreds of weight loss success stories that Beachbody has made possible.. yes, I’m one of them as well. Join me and become one more success story! Message me below and I’ll get in touch with you and get you started! Let’s greet 2013 with a boom!  and a VA-VA-BOOM!

Asylum prepares you for playing sports, ALL sports, from basketball, football, soccer, swimming, sprinting, if it’s a sport… well this workout will prepare you for it.  Today the workout was “Speed and Agility.” The first time I did this workout it was not really Speed and Agility it was really my own version which should be called “Slow and Clumsy.” I struggled through it and when I was done, I was really bitching about how much I had hated it.

The lesson here is once again, to not give up and continue. You have NO idea how many times I lost my balance, questioned my ability and just really wanted to give up… but I didn’t, I kept at it, and slowly my body has started to respond. In today’s Speed and Agility workout I was able to do some of these exercises without stepping on the ladder (yaay me!) I was able to keep my balance, do all the moving pushups and about 95% of the workout. YES! and now that I have gotten my breath back, i can safely do a Snoopy dance without passing out. YEAH!

This is what i love about these programs, there is no guessing involved, yeah, I feel a bit lost at times but that’s just an effect of my clumsiness and not the programs themselves. So if what you’re doing is not working for you and you’re not getting the results you want, why, oh why are you continuing to do the SAME thing? That’s why most people quit, because they don’t get the results they want. If you want results, you have to do something different. Most people spend thousands of dollars in gym memberships every year only to quit a few weeks into their membership and waste their money.

If you want to save money in gym memberships AND get results, Beachbody is the answer and I can coach you through your journey so you can get my results, in the same way that I was coached to get mine. The people that I am now coaching are getting GREAT results, if you want to join them, contact me at ha***********@***il.com.

When I started my weight loss journey, you wouldn’t imagine the times I wanted to quit because I wasn’t getting “quick” results according to me… you know seriously! I had started a program and expected to be 30 Lbs. lighter in a week and I also expected to go from an extremely boa constrictor tight pair of jeans size 10 (of which I popped the button out three times until I finally gave up and realized I was a size 14) to a size 2 in two weeks. The truth though was that I had patiently put on that weight, one pound at a time with every single bad choice of food I had made for a very long, long time. So why would I expect to get results that fast?

We go through life making bad choices and expecting to get better results than anyone else when we decide to do something about it. We somehow think that the weight loss fairy will magically appear during our sleep and by morning we will be swimming in a pair of very large PJ’s only to discover a new, skinnier me in the mirror when we wake up (well that’s what I imagined anyway). I mean seriously  after pushing ourselves to exhaustion and sweating our butts off once… dont we somehow deserve to be 20 or 30 Lbs thinner? I mean I worked my freaking butt off for goodness sake! (ONCE) Shouldn’t I get some kind of reward? I know, you might be laughing but this is how I viewed my weight loss at the beginning.

I have seen so many of my girlfriends going on some crazy diet where they lose weight but never keep it off. The only way you will get results is not with crazy stuff, popping diet pills or wrapping yourself in a cast (yes, that exists). The only way you will see permanent results is by being consistent with your diet and exercise. Remember that when doing a program you must do it the way it was laid out and don’t quit.

Like Tony Horton says “do your best, and forget the rest.” If you need help with your nutrition or would like to find out more about Beachbody workout programs sned me a message

I am eating close to 2000 calories and burning lots of calories per day. I eat 8 meals a day. my lunch consists of 2 cups of spinach with olive oil and apple cider vinegar, 1/2 cup brown rice and 6 sometimes 8 ounces of chicken depending on how hungry I am. My foods are delicious, made at home and well prepared. I am eating better than I ever have and I’m seeing the results of my diet and my workouts.

I am thankful to Beachbody for starting me on this amazing journey. My birthday is coming up next week and I am in the best shape of my life. Had someone told me a year ago that I would be competing I would have laughed and thought they were nuts! I can only imagine where I would be healthwise had I waited any longer to get in shape. Yes looking good in a bikini is a huge benefit, but that’s not what this is about, this is my story, this is me transforming my health… I was borderline obese a year ago, I was borderline diabetic and on my way to be another statistic… one more number to be counted among the many that have diabetes. Diabetes may not sound serious, but trust me the problems caused by diabetes are many: it causes liver failure, it’s the leading cause of blindness, it causes kidney failure and the list goes on.

I transformed my health, I transformed my fitness, I did it and so can you and I can coach you and provide the support you need for FREE. Let’s end the trend of obesity and start a new trend to living healthier and fuller lives. Join me in this journey, send me a message if you’d like to find out more.

So now what?

Well, I came back home missing my family tremendously. I have the most amazing little girl and the most committed man in the world as a husband. Have I shared how great he is? He has done everything to see me succeed, from nutrition to workouts to business. He’s my partner in fitness and my partner in living an exceptional life because truly, that’s what my life is about… it’s about having an exceptional life.

I have to be honest, I was sort of getting back into the routine of going crazy with my schedule again… but something happened, my body did not like it. I started to get a bit sick. Today while in the bus (I have WiFi in the bus J ) I sent my husband a message saying “I’m feeling sick again” it’s Wednesday and this is the third day I had felt this way. He replied “FOCUS” Ha! That’s one of the many things that the Beachbody meeting last week was about… FOCUS!  It’s so easy to lose that focus. As soon as he said that, I closed my eyes and focused and I felt better instantly.

I have 4 more weeks of training… FOUR! Exactly 30 days before July 23^rd. Reality is setting in and this is not the time to be mediocre in any of the areas that are important to me. My little girl needs me more than ever, my husband needs me  and I am clear that this is the time to roll up my sleeves and go out, meet people in the community and do something that gets people moving and on track with their fitness.  As far as the competition, yes, I’m still doing that but now with a renewed focus.

I have new goals and a really big WHY I’m doing this. It is no longer about me. It’s about ensuring that families have a better chance to live healthy lives. My big why moves me to tears… I want every single child in my community to have a healthy, fit life and I want to partner with every single parent in my community to be healthy for the sake of every child in my town. That’s WHY I’m doing this. I don’t ever want to see another child with type 2 diabetes or on heart medication due to weight issues and you bet I’m going to do something about it one family at a time. If you’re interested in partnering with me, send me an email to ha***********@***il.com.

Yesterday, I found myself telegraphing my intent to quit the competition. I took my pictures and measurements and unfortunately, after working really hard last week there were not many changes in my physique. I found myself wanting to push the competition date further and caught myself thinking “why am I doing this if it’s not working?” I wrote in the wall of my group “I’m having an off day and I’m ready to quit, I don’t like my pictures today.” However, when comparing my pictures from yesterday to the ones I took in February when I started the training, the changes are huge and I have come a long way. Thankfully, I have a husband who won’t let me get away with quitting, nor will he allow me to push my competition date any further and on top of that, I have a great accountability group that has offered me their support. I would have quitted a long time ago if it weren’t for them!

This morning I woke up feeling better and I realized what’s missing from my training is getting adequate rest. After sitting down with Joseph and discussing this, we figured something that will work for me… I will be going to the gym straight from work, instead of having dinner first, waiting two or many times three and a half hours to go to the gym because all I want to do is stay home and not have to workout again at night. I end up coming home from the gym way too late, going to bed past 11:00 and then up by 4:00 to do Insanity and the rest  all over again. By doing this, I’m only sabotaging my training, my rest and giving myself even more reasons to quit. Last night when I had that conversation with Joseph, all I could hear were my mother’s words on one of our many mother-daughter conversations: “none of my kids are quitters!”

So, enough of this self-sabotage on my part! At the same time, I invite you to take a look at your promises to start taking care of yourself… consider that every time you have stopped working out and eating healthy, you are doing something that is a self-sabotage. What is it? Dig deep into your intentions, look for your reasons of “why are you doing this?” Trust me when I say this, I have been really struggling these past couple of weeks and have to constantly talk myself out of quitting and when I can’t talk myself out of it, I look for support from the girls or my husband. It works to have support, more importantly, if you do quit, take responsibility for quitting and don’t blame anyone else. No one can really “make you” do something you don’t want to do… (unless your life is being threatened.)

It’s so important to find the right type of support you need as well. I don’t always like to hear “you need to rest more” because I know it’s true. I don’t always like to hear “you shouldn’t eat that right now” because I now it’s true and I especially don’t like to hear “you CAN’T quit right now” because I know that this is 100% true. Surround yourself by people who will support you in your intentions to get healthy. It’s so easy to find people who are resigned about their weight and health issues, it’s easy to feel resigned but it’s courageous to step out of the box and fight that tendency to do nothing about it. Be courageous, reach out and ask for help and support… heck I hate asking for it, but I am reminded that I’m not perfect and I need ALL the support possible when I’m ready to throw in the towel. The truth is that I would have never, ever started this journey to better health and fitness had I not had an awesome Beachbody coach who saw in me what was possible and not the proof that I was seeing in the mirror and in my pictures. Every now and then, he’d give me a gentle kick in the butt to get me to push harder. There is no way I’d be able to workout the way I’m doing today, had I quit P90X, RevAbs or Insanity.

The only secret to success is getting the support you need to ensure that you don’t quit when you start to feel discouraged. When you notice yourself telegraphing your intentions to quit… notice that, stop and know that the only way to succeeding is by not quitting. So don’t quit!

I found out through my cousin about her passing. I casually told him when he contacted me after my daughter was born “send my love to your mom.” He replied “she died in May, but she had a good life.” I was shocked, sad and angry at my family for not telling me. It was obvious that they had not planned the secret too well. No one had thought that I may actually be in communication with one of my cousins and find out that way. When I gained weight after giving birth, my biggest fear was that I’d get diabetes too. I was at a higher risk because I had been diagnosed with gestational diabetes. Had I continued on the path I was going, I am 100% certain I’d have diabetes today.

 “Nothing fits, I’m fat… I hate this” I’d repeat those phrases constantly to my husband, everyday for a whole year. He was so tired of hearing me complain about the same thing over and over again, that one day he told me “stop complaining and DO something about it.” So with that, I decided it was time to get off my lazy butt. By then, something had shifted in me, I was grateful that I was still healthy and in time to reverse whatever damage I had caused in my body.

I remember how at this particular time, my husband and I had been able to move to a nicer property when a friend talked about P90X. I contacted him asking if it “really” worked and after I purchased P90X, he became my coach. The best thing about it, was that he never charged me a dime for coaching because his services were free to me through Beachbody… boy was I thankful that I now had a “free” coach who would support me because I needed ALL the support possible and trust me… I called him more than several times during the first 30 days. “This P90X thing isn’t working!” he’d say, “be patient and stop using the scale every day.” When my first 30 days rolled around, I had lost 8 inches around my waist. That’s when I knew… “This stuff really works!”

Being grateful about our circumstances really helps shift things and even transform them. This is not magical thinking, seriously.  The way I see it is that when we value or treasure something, we take care of it, right? We take care of our homes, our children because they are our treasure… if we were thankful about our health, wouldn’t we do the same? I know I am and I know I do. To be honest with you, this journey has made me a better person, more compassionate towards people who are on the same journey that I am because I KNOW how hard it is and I KNOW how much our mind wants to get in the way of our fitness. That’s why I chose to be a coach, because I’ve been there and I know how it is and to date, I STILL have that mental struggle.

As I end this blog entry, I leave you with the following thought: The secret to success is not a lack of failure, the secret to success is simply the act of not quitting regardless of how many times we fail. Instead of being hard on yourself for every time you fail… be thankful for those failures, because each failure will teach you something new if you let it; and each failure brings you closer to success.

If you like what you are reading and need a coach, contact me. My coaching is free with the purchase of any Beachbody product featured on this website. If you need more information, send me a message.

I was reading an interesting article a few weeks ago, that whenever an important chain store opens up in a town, the obesity rate in that town increases. The reason the experts say, is  the amount of processed pre-prepared foods that this particular super-store sells. We have one here where we live, and I can tell you first hand how when I had to go there so that my daughter could use their restroom the other day, out of 10 people walking into the store, 8 of them were obese. I could say that I don’t care, but I do. I really, really do… as someone who was close to being obese and as a mom, I know how challenging it is to lose weight, I know how preoccupying it is to not know what to do about our weight and I know the many diet fads out there cause people to yo-yo into heavier and heavier weights. Yep, I’ve been there, I’ve done that and I’m glad that I was finally able to beat this tendency and actually do something to transform my fitness and health.

I worry about children falling into their parent’s footsteps. I hear about kids being bullied in school all the time because of their weight. It’s difficult enough to try to fit in, let alone, try to fit in with a weight problem. It hurts their self esteem. I’m sure that no parent in the world would want their child to grow up with low self esteem, I know that none of us wants to have low self-esteem. The problem is that many of us just don’t know what and how to transform this trend of eating to death. If we did, it wouldn’t be happening. Right?

The answer is TCP, time, consistency and perseverance. Those three little words which have been forgotten in our fast society. Think about it, we no longer have to wait til harvest time to pick up our produce, we now have grocery stores with a large supply of them,  hence the tendency to look for a fast and easy solution to lose weight. If we could push a button to fitness, trust me there would be a line for it, but then there is! Right in the comfort of your home, push a button, play one of the many fitness DVD’s and you have a trainer right there in your home to help you with fitness. Seriously! You don’t even have to drive to the gym. This is one of the things I love about the Beachbody products. They really did hire some of the best trainers in the U.S. to help you get fit. So now you have the time thing taken care of, you just have to work on your consistency and perseverance. That’s where I come in as your free coach. Beachbody pays me to coach you so you don’t have to pay me.

If you are interested to hear more, contact me.

Click here for the link to the report on the super store.

Then I decided to do something, after one of my Facebook friends mentioned that he was doing P90X. (I had heard of the product from my husband and had recently seen an infomercial for it.) I asked if it worked and then ordered the program. I remember the first month of doing P90X, my eating habits were horrible and I desperately needed something to help me with my nutrition on top of the exercise. And so it was that Shakeology came into my life, another Beachbody product. By the end of my 90 days of using P90X and using Shakeology, I had successfully lost weight to the point that I was able to fit into a size 6 again.

This month, O Magazine featured a 10 page article on Shakeology (see page 215).

I love this product and use it on a daily basis. It gives me energy, it has over 70 super foods and it’s yummy. The nice thing about it is that you can order it risk free for 30 days and not pay for shipping and handling when you sign up for Home Direct. by clicking here

If you’d like to hear how to get a 25% discount on Shakeology as well as any other workout programs and nutritional products, ask me how. It’s easy

As a mom, I have to say that my biggest reward for getting in shape has been having the additional energy to play with my daughter and feeling attractive once again.

I think about my trip to Tikal every now and then and I was thinking today about my adventure climbing up El Gran Jaguar (dad, if you ever read this, I made it up and down the pyramid alive so please don’t freak out). I really wanted to visit this famous pyramid that I had seen in pictures since I was a little girl and as I approached the pyramid, I found a sign that said “climb at your own risk.’ The pyramid’s steps were falling apart and it wasn’t safe to climb. It has a big chain that you hold on to while you’re climbing it so you don’t fall off. I cautiously climbed it, heck, I had already made the trip and didn’t want to miss out on the opportunity of a lifetime. What I noticed is how small the steps were… I have pretty small feet myself (I’m a size 5 in the US) and these steps were smaller than my feet… a lot smaller, it was a challenge to climb because of how small the steps were and because of how dangerous it was, but the chain helped me not lose my balance and continue until I was at the top. The view was amazing from up there.

Our guide then took us to “El Tigre” which by the way, has never been uncovered because the rain forest has enveloped the pyramid in such a way, that any attempt to uncover it would result in the pyramid collapsing. According to our guide, the roots have buried themselves in the structure of the pyramid, as long as it remains covered, it will be there for many years to come. I also climbed this pyramid and the view from the top is amazing. You can see the whole rain forest from up there, it is breathtaking.

I was thinking about the pyramids today because I was talking to my husband and I was also having a discussion with my training group. I thought of my experience with El Gran Jaguar and what a challenge it was to climb it. I was thinking how sometimes we need a friend (or group of friends), a mentor or a coach to hold onto like the chain. When we have that, it doesn’t matter how challenging our goal seems, or how small the steps are, or how unsteady we feel, or how insecure of whether or not we can reach our goal we are… we grab onto that chain and it grounds us, provides us with the security and balance we need to be able to reach that goal. That’s the beauty of having your own coach or fitness buddy. With Beachbody, the chain is there… all you have to do is reach out and grab it! That’s the beauty of it.

I also think about El Tigre. Sometimes it is difficult to see beauty when we are at the bottom of the pyramid, we look up, and nothing we see looks like a pyramid, not even a structure, it just looks like a bunch of trees and roots all tangled with each other. Little do we know that those challenges, those roadblocks are precisely the ones that will help us reach the top and when we do… the view is breathtaking. So don’t let obstacles stop you, use them to your advantage. It all works out in the end and what you are left with, is a sense of satisfaction that you reached your goal.

As I am writing this, I am facing several challenges of my own. The first one and most important challenge is that my little girl got sick over the weekend and has stayed home Friday, yesterday and today. It’s a challenge for several reasons, the first one of course is that it’s not easy to have a sick child at home, the second one is that I have had to stay home twice this week and my contract at work is about to expire… so I am definitely  not accumulating any points in my favor here in regards to getting my contract renewed with the company, considering that I put my daughter’s health first (and I have no regrets). The third challenge is of course my fitness… I am starting to realize how I too use food as an emotional escape and how easy it is for me to slip, especially when my daughter offers me a bite of whatever she’s eating that is not part of my nutrition plan. Yes, it’s a challenge and I admit it, but I can do this and everything will get resolved.  My daughter will get better, work (whatever the outcome is) will resolve itself and I can definitely deal with whatever food issues I’m dealing with by hanging on to the chain of mentors and friends that are part of my training group. I have everything I need, I have all the tools, the knowledge and the support from Beachbody so I know I won’t fail. I know that, and that’s a GREAT place to be in.