Mon. Jan. 24, 2011

This past weekend was busy and excellent!  Friday we started to slowly move some boxes into our new house and cleaned a lot.  Saturday I was at the studio all day and night - teaching, rehearsing, working out with my students, starting my 12-week body transformation program off (always exciting and inspiring to me!), plus we had a vision board-making get-together at the end of the day which is a great idea for everyone!  Get a big board and a bunch of magazines and cut out inspiring pics or sayings, and images of things you want more of in your life, paste them all on the board and post it somewhere you see everyday!  I made one in 2009 and almost all my visions came true that year!  I have not totally finished mine, but have a goal of finishing it up this week!  There is a lot of info on vision boards and what they do for you online if you google it!  Watched the Fighter Saturday night and that was super inspiring too! Sunday we painted our new living room and moved more, then at night I had my past 12-weekers pro photo shoot at the studio - those are always fun! 
We plan to keep moving boxes, painting, and cleaning this week, then do the big furniture/final move Sunday.  People told me it would be such a challenge to start my own personal 12-week transformation in time for my fitness competitions in April through the move, but this weekend I did great through it all and I think it's because I made my mind up to do good.  It's easy to fall off the wagon at any point in time if you don't thoroughly commit to eating clean and working out.  If you are in it to win it 100%, you won't let yourself.  I made sure I packed lots of clean meals and snacks for not only me, but my whole family while we were working on the house and moving and we all stayed healthy and content.  I actually find eating clean easier when you're busy and your mind doesn't have time to daydream about bad foods you wish you could eat - you just eat what you've packed and get back onto your work!  I lost my usual 4 pounds of bloat over the weekend and now plan to start losing 3 pounds a week until April when I will be at my goal weight!



my hubby starting to paint our new place!

 

vision board making!



Friday, Jan. 21, 2011

I've come up with a great new (very personal) challenge for myself!  As most of you know I am training to compete at a fitness competition in April, but now I've decided to challenge myself further with this on my way to the competition!

At my studio, FIERCE Fitness, I teach fun, but totally gruelling and sweaty workout classes made up of plyometrics, agility training, HITT intervals, weights, and more as well as bellydance classes which can be a workout of their own.  I teach 11 group classes/week.  I also tend to workout on my own in the early morning just because I love gyms (I know, I'm weird) and I like to start my day that way to set the tone for the rest of it.  I also run a 12-week body transformation program at my studio.  Students and 12-weekers often tell me they enjoy my honesty about how much work it can take to look a certain way and whenever I have a really bad cheat I'll always come clean with it (my students know all to well about my weakness for butter tarts - lol) - I'm definitely not one of those people who say they eat anything they want and hardly workout and they magically look like a fitness model.  When I eat too many butter tarts (or holidays treats recently), you can tell!  Often people will say " you look fit, but you workout sooooo much - I don't have time for that"... True, I do workout a lot - but it's not usually so much to lose weight or gain more muscle - it's mainly becasue I LOVE WORKING OUT!!!  It's a hobby to me as well as my job, it is my life passion!  You really only need to do so much with working out to burn fat, get muscle tone, and rev your metabolism.  I know all too well that once you go past a point it can actually become detrimental to your progress! 

I am going to be super-busy (aren't we all?) over the next few months with moving, the student showcase, my 12-weekers who I always put my whole heart and soul into, the last issue of MID-BITS Magazine, and many other exciting goals I have set for myself, plus with moving to a house I won't have my super-convenient condo-gym for the morning workouts anymore. 

SOOOOOO... My new challenge is to really do the 12-week program with my 12-weekers this time - eat what they eat, do all the same workouts, before/mid-point/after pics and measurements, the whole nine yards!  I won't be working out all the time in the morning on my own anymore, I will just be teaching my classes and doing the super-efficient workouts that all my awesome students do, and that's it!  When you see me getting super-fit this winter and spring, you'll know it is do-able and if you put your mind to it you can do the same thing!  What great promo for my studio, my classes, and my 12-week program!  Of course I will keep you posted on the whole exciting process here.  Can't wait to get started tomorrow - woo-hoo!

Jan. 6, 2011

OK, I hadn't posted in the new year yet because I was still ironing out all my many new year's resolutions!  I believe in setting new goals all the time throughout the year and working towards them, but there's nothing like a new year to encourage all that good stuff! I try to look at things in a positive way no matter what, but looking back at 2010 - I did go through a few sets of difficulties (ie: it wasn't a banner year for me!)... I think I have learned many lessons and am ready to tackle 2011 with all my might and make it my best year yet!

So, here are a few of my resolutions/goals for 2011:

FITNESS:
- Workout hardcore (weights, cardio, intervals, craziness) on my own 5 days/week!
- Compete competitively at UFE Competition April 9, as well as a competition in the fall
- Once I reach my goal weight of 138 lbs (by April 9), maintain it year-round by eating clean consistently with just one or two cheat meals/week
- Be featured in a fitness magazine as a model by 2012
- Write more fitness articles & get published again

DANCE
- Practise my own bellydance technique/choreographies at least 3 hours/week
- Learn new styles of dance that I've been interested in forever
- Develop my dance troupes further and put on a big show in the spring
- Compete in a bellydance competiiton

STUDIO:
- Build more of a hardcore gym area at the studio with more equipment and stuff
- Pick up the phone/Call people back
- Work more on actually advertising and marketing my studio
- Teach at least one workshop/month at my studio or elsewhere


FINANCE:
- Act more like a responsible adult with money, rather than a ruthless teenager (ugh!)
- Stop eating out so much (addicted to Starbucks!)
- Start using my savings bank account again (need to determine how much I will promise myself to save every month)
- Plan the week's meals & do groceries once weekly (not every second day!)

APPEARANCE:
- Do my hair & make-up every morning after workout & shower
- Think more about what I wear (cuter workout wear since that's what I live in!)
- Wear only Victoria's Secret major push-up bras at all times! (ha ha)
- Wash, scrub, tone, moisturize, use all the anti-aging/purifying/rejuvenating skin products I have sitting in my cabinet that I never use every night before bed (I can be soooo lazy about this!)
- no more chipped nail polish!


HOME:
- Clean all dishes before going to sleep
- Pre-make all meals for the day for everyone the night before or in the early a.m
- Aim for minimalistic home (LESS CLUTTER!)

RELATIONSHIPS/ETC:
- Go to the library with Zak weekly
- Read a book/week (I have have fallen off the wagon with reading ever since having ZAk and feel disgusted about that.  There are so many books I wanna read...  mostly personal growth, fitness, and business related!)
- Take Zak to a fun outing at least once during the week (as well as weekend family fun)

- Date night with hubby twice/month
- Be nicer to people close to me (you know how we can often fall into too-comfortable-mode and treat strangers nicer than our closest of close? That sucks!)
- Be more organized with everything I do!
- LISTEN!


Oh boy, I think there are even more, but I won't bore you all here with them.  I'm glad they're out there now and I feel accountable!  I will be having a vision board-making get-together at the studio on Jan. 22 - everyone is invited to come make vision boards with all our dreams and goals for 2011 on them - they are great visual reminders of what you're striving towards.  Check out the event calendar on http://www.fiercefit.ca for deets!  Until then, share your goals and dreams for 2011 with me here!  Here we go!