The End of Insanity

I have finished the Insanity program and have earned my free t-shirt!  I'm beyond thrilled with my overall results- 14.2 pounds lost, two dress sizes, eleven inches (3.5 from my waist!) down and I am one happy Insane mom!  I'll go ahead and let my pictures do the talking. I've even included the backside ones this time just because I'm so happy with how much more pleasant my badonkadonk is looking.

      BEFORE:                                                AFTER:

     BEFORE:                                                 AFTER:

      BEFORE:                                                AFTER:

      BEFORE:                                                 AFTER:

I truly hope you find these pictures as inspiring as I do! If you'd like to start writing your own success story with a Beachbody program, email me at coachpetrina@yahoo.com, visit my store at www.coachpetrina.com or friend and PM me on Facebook! Challenge Packs are a great deal and will provide you extra support and accountability when done with a small group.  E-giftcards are now available on my site and would make a wonderful gift for the loved ones in your life...and P90X2 is available for pre-order if you're looking to improve your athletic performance.  

Don't wait for the New Year to get healthy & fit. The sooner you start, the sooner you can finish your own success story.

Cheers,
Coach P

Conquering the Turkey

For the past several years, my husband and I have made it an annual Thanksgiving season tradition to compete in our town's yearly Turkey Trot.  My husband was born to sprint and usually nabs himself a Turkey  Trophy for placing in his age group each year.  Since I am built more for endurance than for speed (or so I like to tell myself as we're running fartleks in our neighborhood together), I've aspired to simply beat our town's turkey in this lively and fun 5K. 

Allow me to explain- each year, some unnamed soul bravely dons a full-on turkey costume and runs the race along with all us weekend warriors.  And he usually does pretty darned well, most would say spectacular even, given the nature of his costume.  He must be sweating up a proverbial storm in the get-up and I can't imagine it's very easy to see through the turkey mask. The turkey would also smack talk via email- that picture you see in the sidebar is one sent in an email in which he proclaimed, "think you can beat me? Think again!"   He could back up such smack talk with actual statistics.   In 2009, he finished the 5K in an impressive 24 minutes.  This year, in our second Turkey Trot update (the race director sends out funny updates leading up to the big day), it was estimated that he would finish this year's in 28:30.  Which gave me a small glimmer of hope...

My personal best in a 5K had stood at 29:08.  Despite my best efforts and consistent training schedules leading up to each 5K I've done, I hadn't been able to break the 29 minute mark.  And, although I was all wishful thinking and displaying yes, perhaps a touch of bravado after enduring nearly two months of Shaun T's torture in Insanity,  the fact that I had been only able to tackle two or three runs over the past two months certainly deflated the heights of my hope.  To beat the turkey, I'd have to literally beat myself- and do it with a bare minimum of runs under my belt.  And, did I mention I've been battling a cold over the past week? Things were not looking good.

And the good went from not so good to worse when my poor hubby came down with my cold and was most certainly not up for running his full out speed demon self on race morning.  Should I just wave the little white flag that I had conveniently placed in my pocket the night before when thinking of the turkey's projected finish time?  My hubby, my greatest cheerleader, would not be paving the path before me on race day.  Much to my surprise, I ignored that little white flag, that nagging "you can't do it so why bother trying?," that shameful part of my self that was all too eager to give up at the first sign that something was going to be difficult.  I strapped on my sneakers, my now nearly loose spandex running capris, pinned my race bib to a purple running tank and threw on a black running jacket as my husband finished showering.  He came out from the bathroom, looked me up and down, grinned and said, "you're racing?"  Heck yea I'm racing!

And off we went with Stella and my trusty IPod cued up to my "sweat mix" in tow.  As we drove, hubby encouraged me and gave me some pointers on which areas of the course I should strive to kick it into high gear.  I waited and warmed up at the starting line to the tune of Tori Amos' "Take to the Sky." Before I knew it, the horn had sounded and we were off.  I lost sight of my archenemy, the Turkey, very quickly after the starting horn but caught him out of the corner of my eye about a quarter of a mile into the race.  He had stopped to root runners on!  Ah-ha, I thought, victory is mine. 

I had a great cadence going as I made my way through the course's various hills and valleys.  I was beginning to relax my pace and get into a steady groove around the halfway point when that evil Turkey came up from my right side and passed me.  Now, normally in every 5K I race, I tend to lose a bit of  steam at that halfway point.  I start focusing far too much on how much lies ahead of me, rather than how far I have already come- the strain of this takes its toll and I ease up and come to a complete stop or I start walking for a few minutes. That negative voice comes on full-force and urges me to take it easy, catch my breath, relax.  That voice was chiming along in my head several minutes before I caught sight of the Turkey again and I was just about to succumb to its demands...

Seeing the turkey, another voice suddenly came to life. It told me to keep going, to push it, to pass that Turkey and to keep going without taking even a nanosecond to look back.  It spoke louder and more forcefully than that other voice, that negative voice,  had ever spoken to me.  And I listened.  I picked up the pace, sidled alongside the Turkey (stifling the urge to do some smack talking of my own for fear of the Turkey running even faster) and passed that bird.  I kept running and pushing- pushing up the various hills on the second half of the course and up to that finish line without once looking back.  To the tune of Pink Floyd's "Run Like Hell," I spotted my husband and my beautiful daughter on the sidelines cheering me on towards that finish.  I glanced at the race clock and saw 28:48 flash before me just before my feet slammed down on the finish line.   And in that moment, I knew I had beat two of my greatest adversaries in this annual race- that costumed Turkey and myself.

The sweet taste of victory soured a bit when the race organizer's posted preliminary race results and I discovered that had I ran a mere six seconds faster I would have nabbed one of the coveted Turkey Trophies for getting third place in my age group.   I could have kept the Hamm tradition of earning race hardware alive this year!   After sharing my disappointment over this fact with my husband, he wrapped his arm around me and said, "just use it as incentive for next year!"   And that I will - I mean, imagine how much my time can improve when I put training runs into the mix again? 

What's my point in sharing all of this with you?  The point is that I want you to identify your own personal "turkey," whether it be an actual costumed bird running against you in a race or simply the voice in  your head that tells you "no," "don't" or "can't" when it comes to testing your body's capabilities, and BEAT it.  Push past it, drown it out with that other positive, confident and loving voice and don't look back.  For when you do that, you'll likely wind up amazing yourself.  With either your own personal best in a race or a newfound physical ability (such as being able to hold plank for more than 15 seconds or discovering that you can in fact do a full-on push-up rather than one on your knees). 

Wishing all of you many more victories against your own personal turkeys,
Coach Petrina

Fight Off Holiday Weight Gain Mini-Challenge!

Did you know that the average person gains 7-10 POUNDS from Halloween to New Years? Do you want to fight off that inevitable holiday weight gain?  

 

I’m gonna level with you here.  Losing weight during the holidays just isn’t an option for some people, but no one wants to GAIN that kind of weight!   

 

The solution: join my 10-Minute Trainer Mini-Challenge!

Give yourself 10 minutes a day to be active and commit to drinking Shakeology 1x per day for four weeks (December 5 - 31).  That’s it.  Nothing outlandish.  Nothing over-the-top.  Perfect for the holidays.  EVERYONE has 10 minutes.  So use yours to help combat that holiday “gift that keeps on giving” around your midsection.

READY EVERYONE?!?!??! LET'S GET IT STARTED !

1. Go to this link Fight Off Holiday Weight Gain Challenge
2. Scroll down and click TAKE THE CHALLENGE! 
3. You will fill out the Beachbody Challenge Pledge so that you’re auto-enrolled for the $100,000 BIG BEACHBODY CHALLENGE where you can win $100,000 by submitting your results!
4. THEN you will be able to choose your Challenge Pack!!!  Select the pack that includes 10-Minute Trainer (or if you are willing to devote 30-45 minutes a day, go for one of the other challenge packs!)
5. Message me when you’re done so I can check to make sure it went through!

I’m looking forward to teaming up with you and showing the holiday weight gain who’s boss!  As always, I am here if you need me. Don't hesitate to PM me on Facebook or shoot an email my way at coachpetrina@yahoo.com.

Let's do this thang!

The Importance of R&R

Now that I'm recovering from a slight cold, I thought now was as good a time as any to have a little talk with my readers about the importance of R&R- rest and recovery days.  Most training and workout schedules will have 1 or 2 scheduled "rest" days per week.  When you first start a program, you'll likely look forward to these scheduled rest days. As you develop a habit of exercising and discover the joy of fitness-induced endorphins, you may actually find yourself begin to dread your rest days.  Whatever your attitude about the scheduled rest day, they are absolutely essential to nearly any workout program- click here to find out why and how essential it is to improve your overall performance.

My current workout program, Insanity has one rest day per week and now that I'm in the tougher Month 2 of the program we also have what's called a "recovery" workout (still a challenging workout but not nearly as demanding as the other days).  There was even an entire week devoted to "recovery" in between month 1 and 2 in which you spend six consecutive days doing the same Core Cardio & Balance workout (which I loved by the way).  What's the difference between a rest and recovery day? Sometimes not much- I find myself often itching to be active on my designated rest days so I'll either go for a jog or a walk on these so called "rest" days.  And that's okay.   Just as it would be okay if I opted not to take a jog or a walk and just go about my usual day with no set sweat it all out kind of a workout in the mix.

Does a rest day give you permission to sit on your butt all day and watch an X Files marathon?  Nope.  Unless, of course, your muscles are super sore and it hurts to move anything- in which case, I'd say you're definitely overtraining yourself and are in serious need of a rest & recovery week.  To avoid overtraining and make the most out of your workout program with the smart use of rest & recovery days is to LISTEN TO YOUR BODY.  It sounds so easy, right?  But so often times, our brains or our hearts start speaking up loudly and it makes it difficult to near impossible to hear what our body is so desperately trying to tell us.  Sometimes our stubborn gray matter starts shouting, "this is too much! I'm too tired! You need to take a break!" when our body and our heart are ready & raring to go that it starts drowning out all other voices and we give in to taking an unscheduled rest day when we don't truly need it.   Othertimes, that brave and foolish heart starts chirping in loudly, "let's do this! We can do it! No rest day, get to it!" when our body so desperately needs a reprieve. 

Sometimes you have to make a concerted effort to hush all the other parts of yourself and just listen to your body.  There's a general rule about rest days due to illness that I've read and heard dozens of times -  if you’re sick from the neck up (head cold, sore throat, etc) you can still work out, neck down (body chills) take the day off.  Yesterday, I was suffering from a sinus cold.  I could have just simply followed that general rule and had at it with my scheduled workout but I didn't- I listened to my body very carefully and when I did it spoke loud and clear to me. It told me it was too weak and fatigued from fighting off this cold to even make it through the warm-up of a high intensity workout. I listened.  I told my brain which kept trying to reiterate the general rule on illness to me to just shut up and chill.  I went for a slow 2 mile walk with my daughter in our jogging stroller instead...and my body thanked me for it. 

Rest and recovery days are essential- they prevent overtraining and allow your body the chance to recover and repair from your workouts.   Believe it or not, recovery days help make our bodies stronger.  Pencil these days into your workout program.  Add some additional ones if and when your body truly needs them.  Believe it or not, they will help make you stronger in the long run.  

Working It Out

I didn't start seriously exercising until after I had already lost ninety pounds and only after some strong encouragement from my now husband.  Getting started on a program was hard - mentally, emotionally and physically.  My body, so used to being sedentary, was not happy with the sudden burst of activity.  My mind was very much screaming, "what the heck are you doing woman?? This is crazy. You can't do this!"  At that time, I was a fast talking career gal, working a solid nine to five and also dealing with a son who exhibited behavioral  problems at school.  Emotionally, I was drained by the end of the day- and the end of the day was the only time I had to spend on working out so it was a great challenge for me to get moving. 

Even after discovering the joys of endorphins and even after being delightfully surprised at what my body could do when pushed, I still did not jump into every workout with unbridled enthusiasm.  I'd often whine, "but I'm too tired" or "I have so much to do!" or pout as we made our way to the gym.  This went on, literally, for well over a year.  It took a long time for something inside of me to click to where I would actually be looking forward to working out. I don't know if it was just my stubborn nature that prevented me from allowing myself to enjoy a workout- as a form of stress relief, meditation, therapy and as a tool to improve my body and my overall outlook.  These days, I notice I will actually become grumpy if I have to workout later in the day than I normally do.  

As I was becoming more and more gung-ho about the working out, I began slacking off on my nutrition- figuring, hey I'm working out like a fiend, it's not important that I keep tabs on what I'm eating.  Yes, I was relatively maintaining my weight at the time, but I really wasn't making much physical improvement despite often spending over two hours a day working out.  I'd do a TurboFire workout, strength training every other day and also work in 3-4 runs a week.  Anytime I was out grocery shopping, I'd merrily make my way through free samples offered in stores (including the despicably delicious, fat and sugar laden Harris Teeter sugar cookies), mindlessly snack throughout the day and not even worry about portion control when it came to meal time.  

It wasn't until I became a Beachbody Coach and started the Insanity program  that I buckled down on both aspects- nutrition and exercise.  For the past seven years, it's always been either/or for me - I've either focused completely on one of the two- nutrition or exercise.  I focused on nutrition only while losing the weight and focused instead on exercise while maintaining.   When I started Insanity, I actually read the Nutrition Plan, got back on Sparkpeople to track my calories and the breakdown of them between carbohydrates, protein and fat and planned out my meals according to the terms of the Nutrition Plan.  I vowed to not let my busy days be an excuse for me to start slacking on either the nutrition or the exercise.  When I know I'm going to be out and about for over three hours, I pack a mini-meal with me so I'm well-fed and less likely to make bad food choices.  If I'm unable to get my workout done in the morning, I make sure to get it done later in the day no excuses. 

Now that I'm focusing on both aspects, I'm noticing a vast difference in my results.  I'm not only maintaining, I've actually managed to lose additional weight (getting to my lowest weight ever since childhood), gain noticeable muscle tone, definition in my abs and yes, dare I say it, looking better naked.  And no, I'm not going to post photographic evidence of that fact so don't ask for it.  

I feel so much better too now that I'm eating "clean" with a diet consisting mainly of whole foods.  I have so much more energy.   Having both elements click for me has led to a smaller waist size and a greater confidence level.  Working it out for me has not simply been a matter of learning to love working out- it has been discovering the power of eating right and keeping active. 

Tightening Up My Belt

After over a month of Insane workouts and a nice clean eating plan, I have dropped nearly 12 pounds and lost 3 inches from my waistline.  The upside of this weight loss:  my Tanita scale is no longer flashing the plus sign after it spills all my stats (the plus sign meaning I am "overfat") AND my "biological age" per the scale is now the same as my actual age.  Yes, I must shamefully admit that I have been 50 years old according to my Tanita on several occasions over the past several years...and it may have actually been higher given that 50 is the highest biological age your Tanita will show.  Don't even get me started on how my husband has always been a biological age of 18 per that darned scale.  And yes, I must confess that I did want to throw that Tanita through a window on several occasions.  It feels great to be 38 years old according to our scale, even better to now be sporting a Size 6.  I have never in my adolescent or adult life been a Size 6. This is strange & beautiful territory for me.

The downside of all this new territory: all my size 8 or 10 jeans now practically fall off of me. I find myself continually having to hitch my pants up for fear of showing plumber's crack or the top of my  pubic bone to whomever is in eyesight range.  And alas, we have not come into a sudden and well-timed fortune to allow me to buy an entirely new size 6 wardrobe.  I have purchased a few things, including one new pair of size 6 jeans and even these slip around the waistline as the day goes by.   Enter the perfect budget-saving solution: belts!  They're not just for empty threats of abuse from well-meaning parents raising kids in the 1970s or as punchy accessories for fashion mavens!  They actually serve a very important purpose- to hold your pants up when your waistline is small.  Or as my husband so kindly put it, "welcome to the world of skinny people." 

Little did I know that the expression "tightening my belt" could hold such a double-meaning.  In order to save my wardrobe without breaking our bank, I only had to spend a mere $6.99 at Target on a plain black belt to keep my size 8s and size 10s perfectly usable despite my shrinking waistline.   Now that's a beautiful thing...though I'll still be putting new clothes on my Christmas wishlist for Santa.

Shakeology is CRAZY expensive!

If you're friends with me on Facebook, chances are you've already heard me talking about Shakeology.  Heck, you see the big banner here at my blog as well.  So maybe you've wondered about it - maybe you've even asked me about it.  Maybe you've already googled and seen reviews or discovered the price tag and immediately said "No way Jose! That stuff is CRAZY expensive."  And you're right - it is crazy expensive when you look at the cost of a bag on its own.  When I first discovered the price, I was pretty shocked myself.  I am a frugal mama.  I clip coupons. I buy clothes and food and nearly every item we buy only when it's on sale AND the sale price is indeed a good deal.  But after I researched it, tried a sample and broke the cost down per serving, I discovered it turns out to be a great deal after all...

How can a bag of something that retails for $119.85 be a great deal, you ask?  Let me break it down for you...

Shakeology is not just a shake mix. It is a meal replacement, protein shake and nutrition supplement all in one.   It is quite simply "nutrition simplified."  Each chocolate or greenberry shake contains protein, vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, phytonutrients, prebiotics, and digestive enzymes to help you achieve optimal health, increase energy, become more regular, and lose weight (if you eat sensibly otherwise- this is not a magic pill that will allow you to eat whatever you want). The price of one serving of Shakeology works out to be $4 per day. ($3 if you're a Coach). You would spend that much (or more!) going through the drive-thru for a meal, or a speciality coffee at Starbucks. In drinking one glass of Shakeology, you'd get ALL the nutrients you need for the day with 23 vitamins and minerals.

It’s like eating:

10 cups of cauliflower

4 cups of broccoli

4 cups of mushroms

4 cups of radishes

3 cups of lettuce

1 cup of peas

7 carrots

3 raw onions

Oh yes, and a shot of wheatgrass for good measure.  Pretty impressive, right?  Does it taste like you're actually drinking a shake made of these things?  Nope.  In my humble opinion, it tastes pretty darned yummy.  As someone who loooooves Chocolate, I was delighted to discover just how deliciously Chocolatey the chocolate Shakeology is- my current favorite Shakeology recipe is Chocolate Shakeology with 1 cup of unsweetened almond milk, 1/2 cup of water and 12 frozen cherries.  It tastes like a decadent bowl of chocolate covered cherries.  It is my favorite post-workout treat and one of my 5 designated mini-meals each day.  It's not only the healthiest meal of the day for me, it's typically the simplest for me to prepare too.  Just mix, blend and serve.  Now that's a good (and good for you) convenience food!

But everyone's tastes are different and maybe you won't wind up being as crazy about it as I am.  So, Beachbody offers a Bottom of the Bag Guarantee.  Which means you can try Shakeology for 30 days. If you don't like it for any reason, you can return it for your money back (less s&h)—even if the bag is empty!

I view buying a bag not as if it's I'm dropping a huge sum of money on a bag- I view it as just paying up front for thirty days of one healthy meal each day.  It's like paying what you'd spend on your daily trip to the drive-thru and yet getting so much more nutritionally.  Take a look at the difference between nutritional value & cost:

So there you have it, a true value meal! I can tell you from my own personal experience after drinking Shakeology for two months now that I am officially hooked & find it is worth every penny for me. Here's why:

1.  I am more regular now than I've been in my life (I will spare you the gory details on that)

2.  In the past, even while doing hardcore Atkins and staying on track during that magical time of the month, I would bloat and gain 3-4 pounds in that time. I have felt significantly less bloating and have not gained an ounce during my magical time of the month these past two months.

3.  My sugar/chocolate cravings had been kept down to an absolute bare minimum while eating clean.  I feel as if I'm indulging when I have my Shakeology.

Those three things alone make it worth the cost for me personally. 

If you have any other questions about Shakeology, feel free to send me a message. If you'd like to try a sample before committing to buy, there's a button on the lower right hand side of my blog where you can purchase sample packets via PayPal.