Accountability

Accountability

–noun

1.

the state of being accountable,  liable, or answerable.

I have found that one of the things that keeps me working toward my weight loss goal is accountability. I have an accountability partner, my daughter, Alicia. Together we have been working out and changing our eating habits for the past year. We often workout together and when we are not working out together, we are watching to make sure the other person is getting their daily workout in. Facebook is also another great source for accountability. I started posting over a year ago that I was working out and losing weight. If one day I stopped working out and started to gain back my weight, I would feel like I had failed in front of all of my family and friends.

Another thing that I do to stay accountable is to use my Bodybugg. I first heard of Bodybugg on The Biggest Loser show. All of the contestants wear them on  their upper left arm. Bodybugg is a calorie management system that uses specialized sensors to track calories burned. It also has a built in pedometer for tracking your steps. It keeps accurate daily records of calories consumed vs. burned. At least once a day I use an USB cord to upload the data to a web based program. It shows me how many calories I have burned minute by minute. I then have to input everything that I eat. The web based program already has information about many foods including restaurant foods. If you can't find it in the program you can input the information from food labels.  The trick is to be HONEST about food consumed. To lose weight you need to have a calorie deficit. The program allows you to set up weight loss goals. My first goal was to lose 20 pounds by my wedding. I told the program my target date, starting weight and goal weight. It then told me that I needed to have a 550 calorie deficit each day to reach my goal. This helped me to figure out how many calories I could eat in a day and how much physical activity I needed each day in order to create the deficit. It was funny when I first started to use the Bodybugg, I would upload the data and input my calorie intake, if I hadn't reached my 550 calorie deficit for the day, I would do another workout or go for a walk. With the help of my Bodybugg I was able to reach my goal weight for my wedding. Now I have set a new goal for bikini season!

If you do not have an accountability buddy, I would love to be one for you. Send me an email, sally@homefitness4u.com. Start your journey to better health and fitness today.

What is Beachbody?

You will often hear me talk about this great company that I work for, Beachbody. What is Beachbody and how did I get started with this company? Maybe you have seen the infomercials for P90X, Insanity, Turbo Jam, etc.? I know I see them all the time and love to watch them because I have tried the products and know they work. I started with Team Beachbody in January 2010. A friend of mine was a Coach and always talking about Shakeology and the workout programs that she was doing. I finally decided that I needed to get serious about losing weight and saw how well she was doing, so I asked her about Beachbody. I initially signed up to save 25% on products but after several months decided that I wanted to share the opportunity with others. My daughter observed what I was doing and decided that she too would become a Beachbody Coach. We have been doing it together for over a year now and loving it.

I recently ran across a job posting for Beachbody in which they had the following description of the company. "Beachbody was founded in 1998 by Carl Daikeler and Jon Congdon.   The company is based in Santa Monica, California, and is the creator of the nation’s most popular in-home fitness and weight loss solutions including P90X®, Insanity®, Brazil Butt Lift®, Slim in 6®, Turbo Jam®, Hip Hop Abs®, and Power 90® among many others. Beachbody programs combine challenging DVD-based workouts with easy-to-follow diet guidelines, nutritional supplements (including its breakthrough health shake called Shakeology®, AKA “The Healthiest Meal of the Day”), and an unparalleled customer service and peer-support system. In fact, Beachbody has expanded this support system through Team Beachbody.com, which includes a network of thousands of independent “Coach” distributors as well as a dynamic online support and fitness community. The company’s beauty business includes brands Timeless Secret™ and DermExclusive™. The corporate mission is to help people achieve their goals and enjoy healthy, fulfilling lives."

I have been with Team Beachbody for over a year now. I love my job as a "Coach" distributor because I have the pleasure of talking to people about achieving their goals of becoming healthy and physically fit. I work from my home, no time clock to punch. I am my own boss. I am looking for others that would like to join my team. If you are interested in hearing more, send me an email: sally@homefitness4u.com. Let's talk.

Western Caribbean Cruise

A week ago I returned from a 7 day Western Caribbean Cruise on the Carnival Legend. It was the most relaxing vacation I have taken in a very long time. My husband and I married on 1-1-11 and decided to take the cruise for our honeymoon. We flew to Tampa Florida and cruised to Cozumel Mexico, Belize, Roatan Honduras and Caymen Islands. We spent one day at each of the ports and had two days at sea. If you have never been on a cruise before you really should try it. This was my sixth cruise and most certainly not my last.

Before I went on the cruise one of the things I worried about was my diet. Having been on several cruises before I knew that you spent a lot of time eating things you would normally not eat at home. When we cruise, every night we go to the formal dining room and have the appetizer, main entree and dessert.  To the left are pictures of the Maine Lobster and Prime Rib, followed by the Chocolate Melting Cake, just an example of one nights dinner. I never eat that much when at home.

I had been working so hard to lose weight for my wedding in January and had been doing a good job of keeping the weight off. What was going to happen the week of the cruise? I tried really hard to limit the amount of food I ate but I did splurge and try new things like the Chocolate Melting Cake. Oh my, is that ever the best dessert and I don't even really care for chocolate.

I had ever intention of working out while on the cruise. I took my workout clothes with me and on the first day made a point of finding out where the gym was on the boat. Well guess what? I NEVER worked out in the gym all week long. I was so busy doing other activities, and spent a lot of time walking each day that we were at a port that I just never made it to the gym. When I got home I was afraid to step on the scale for two days. When I finally got up the courage to step on the scale I had put on ONE pound! I was happy with that one pound because I knew it wouldn't take much to get rid of it.

Now that I'm back home I'm back to my normal routine. While I was gone the new BowFlex SelectTech weights arrived so I started doing the ChaLEAN Extreme 90 day program. Chalene says that because I'm getting older, it's not my metabolism that is slowing down. It's that I've lost muscle and muscle burns fat. I've been busy building muscle this past week. I'll talk more about my progress in a future blog.

I want everyone to know that there will be times when you are tempted to eat the wrong things and will not be able to follow your strict diet. Enjoy those moments and then get back on track to eating healthy and regular exercise. You can do it!