Hoppy Easter!

Weekly Update:  This week was a struggle again, but as of Monday I decided to recommit.  My husband is supporting me and has promised to do a round of the 21 Day Fix, so I figured why not do 21 days again (this will be the third time I've 'fully' committed to the 21 Day Fix and I'm excited to see how I feel at the end). So far it's going great and more than any 'weight' I could lose I FEEL much better.  I was up quite a bit but as of Monday to today I'm down 3.6 for my current total of 72lbs!

On that note! I wanted to start with some fun before and afters!  My hair!   I got super fed up with it the other day (I get it cut very simply every 6 months or so) and decided to chop it all off!! I love how easy it is and it doesn't scratch my neck.    Also, I should do another 'after' because after both of these were taken I started doing some intense moisturizing (having the flu and traveling totally tried my skin out), and now my face is back to normal!

Here's one of my many 5:30am photos for a private group I run where we all get up and get our sweat on before our days start.   I am exhausted, as you can see, but I'm also happy  - happy because I know there are others doing it at the same time as me in their homes and excited to share my 'after' photo in the group.

This is just one example of the types of things my morning group does - funny challenges!   We do all sorts of silly things, but this particular one was to wear sunglasses during or after the workout - we got some funny ones.

Here I am wearing a shirt I got for free for being a coach (I love all the fun perks of coaching, in addition to obviously coaching). For some reason the workout was even better having the official Hard Corps tank on!

Another morning post for my Morning Warriors.

And here was a a challenge I did after realizing more and more of the women in my general wellness group have been struggling on water (myself included). It's amazing the 'power' of a challenge!

My mom surprised me with these this week - baby weights!  I will be teaching my summer Mommy & Me Boot Camp series coming up and these are a perfect addition to class for the little ones.  Ben has his own 'set' and immediately said 'my weights! like mommy!!' - melts my heart.

Speaking of Ben - we had some nice lazy days this week - something that's hard for me to do is just sit at home and enjoy simple things.  I'm constantly finding 'things' for us to do - forgetting how fun simple things like STICKERS can be!

Food News:   I decided to rifle through my fridge for some foods instead of going crazy at the grocery store and came up with this - pasta, peppers, garlic, tomato sauce (homemade), spinach, Italian herbs, onion and pepper flakes.  SO GOOD.

And paired with Easter Eggs it's my lunch for the week!

If you enjoy my blog, I'd love to have you in my private (women only) Facebook Group dedicated to health, fitness and nutrition: https://www.facebook.com/groups/FitandHealthyPrivateGroup/

Find me on YouTube!  https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCjzh-8_DCDzaC77CKbIAmMg 

If you'd like to work with me as your coach, create a free account:  http://www.beachbodycoach.com/chapmaki

Mommy & Me Website: http://www.fitandbalancedmom.com/

Contact: fitandbalancedmom@gmail.com

Reality Post!

Weekly Update! No weigh in this week - focusing on moving forward!

I am starting a new program - so I took new before photos!  I decided to wear the tiniest shorts I own because I intend on having them look much better in 8 weeks!   So here it is - my post cruise, post flu before shot!

And while I say it doesn't matter where I am coming from, I do like to  remember that  this mentality has gotten me so far both on a physical level but also with the ability to continue to move on. I know I had posted in the last blog, I totally enjoyed my cruise and do not regret it at all, but it's time to move on and get myself back into feeling good and energetic!

I love to use post-its on my workout programs because quite honestly I am Type A and HATE to have mark ups  on my calendars!   Plus it's fun and colorful!

I got this out of storage too after talking to someone the other night - a jump rope!  I am not very coordinated but I plan to start using it a little each day.

I had the flu for a good 4 days, so I wasn't able to really spend too much time with my little guy, but the time we did spend was fun!

This guy really is my why.  This is a photo take of the two of us during one of our Mommy & Me Pilates classes.  He is a very big part of the class and we talk a lot about how he 'helps mommy teach' - he's my reason for all of this.

My husband is awesome - I was so sick and we really had very few groceries yet he managed to pull together two GREAT meals for me for the week for dinners and lunches.   These butternut squash and

spinach stuffed shells (sooo good)...

and a butternut squash mach and cheese that I've been eating with a veggie burger for some extra protein!

If you enjoy my blog, I'd love to have you in my private (women only) Facebook Group dedicated to health, fitness and nutrition: https://www.facebook.com/groups/FitandHealthyPrivateGroup/

Find me on YouTube!  https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCjzh-8_DCDzaC77CKbIAmMg 

If you'd like to work with me as your coach, create a free account:  http://www.beachbodycoach.com/chapmaki

Mommy & Me Website: http://www.fitandbalancedmom.com/

Contact: fitandbalancedmom@gmail.com

Setting Sail!

Weekly Update: This week I am away on a cruise (company paid for!) so I can't give a weigh in, and it's safe to say I gained a hefty combination of 'real' weight as well as 'sodium' (aka temporary) weight. 

But either way, I wanted to shed some light on things I'm proud.

So here's the positives:

✨ I worked out daily

✨ I enjoyed all my splurges, if it wasn't good I didn't eat it 

✨ I didn't get so full I got sick at any point

✨ I am proud of myself for being 'ok' with enjoying my first ever cruise and not beating myself up for gaining weight 

✨ I had Shakeology daily

✨ I didn't drink (it's not worth it to me personally to drink my calories unless its shakeology or a latte 😍)

Here's what I'm going to do!!

⚓️ Check out what I have at home for food, getting like five billion 🍌🍌 on the drive back 

⚓️ Get back into eating well tomorrow, with 100% commitment Monday 

⚓️ Work out the rest of this week, rest Sunday and commit to 60 days of Hard Corps & nutrition starting Monday!

While I was sitting in the airport this weekend, I was reminded of one of the very first 'before' photos I took.  My head isn't even in the photo.  I didn't want to admit this was me.  At the time I was so discouraged and taking a photo made it real.   Taking gage photo was still important, it has gotten me to where I am today.  

It has taken time, work and patience, but it's been worth every second. 

While I wish I had a better photo, one with my face, one not in my undees, one where I'm smiling - I don't.

But that's ok, because the day I took this photo I was already in motion.

Things were already moving forward.

I had stayed up late the night before googling things about weight loss trying to get myself excited, and I saw so many before photos which is what prompted this one.

The one next to it is me now, doesn't matter where I started, just THAT I started. 

Which brings me to my next point.  A photo came up that reminded me that in the last 12 months I've 'only' lost 25 pounds.  This could give me a personal hit, but I am focused so much on all that I AM these days (a motivator, fit, active, happy, able to run with my son, able to workout at 5:30am) that I barely flinched when I realized my 'progress' has been minimal on the scale in 12 months.  Because my PROGRESS in life has been immeasurable and amazing. 

I said cruise right? Yep!! Free cruise! Not only do I get paid to love a heathy lifestyle, to make others happy while still taking care of myself, to stay home with my son and to be surrounded by amazing people - I also get to go on FREE trips! 

Only downside? They don't pay for a personal packer!

However, my husband and I did decide to get the TSA pre check recently and man was it nice at 6am not to have to worry about lines!

A little backwards in the photos, here I am the day of our flight post workout and shower ready for the day at 4:30am!

Besides the cruise, this week was phenomenal, like most of my weeks.  

I got these amazing photos taken from a local mom who takes my classes and also runs her own photography business (DEFY Photography, Meredith Pratt).

How cool is it that on the days I actually 'go' to work - this is what my office looks like?

I took this photo the second day of the cruise.  It's one of my long term goals to be on a star just like this sharing my story, I have no doubt it will happen. 

Having never been on a cruise, we made sure to check out all the fun activities.  Including rock climbing! I didn't make it up very far compared to the others, but it was a big deal for me to try at all and for that I'm so proud. 

Switching gears, this photo was a random selfie taken as I was getting ready.  This dress is VERY firm fitting, and I caught myself checking myself out.  I may be someone's 'before' and another person's 'goal' but I'm MY current and u am proud of this body. 

Food news starts with a confession:  when I fly (and only when I fly, and only in the morning) I let myself get a McDonald's hash brown and scrambled egg.  Oddly the egg is the best thing I can find as a vegetarian at fast food places - I'm not entirely sure if it's pure egg, but for travel I'm OK with it.  Unknown the hash brown isn't 'ideal' but I have it and only when I travel - so there it is - my dirty secret! 

Oh, I almost forgot! I got a new workout program!! Here is my sand to prove it! Inlaid $4 for 50 pounds of sand to fill my free sandbag that came with the program - best part is the workouts are all only 22 minutes so I have no excuse not to do them! 

I even had 'help' filling the bag from my little guy. 

Here is another set of progress photos. I love the ones that include my son because they show an element of 'time' -  they also show how much my smoke has evolved since I gained my life back!

I was super excited to wear this particular dress on the cruise. I bought it about 6 years ago after running a half marathon in California.  At the time it didn't really fit but I told myself "one day" it would.   Well little did I know I'd gain 100 pounds before it would fit again.   It was so great to put it on and have it fit better than ever before!

Can you tell I had fun on my cruise?

I even got up every morning for group workouts on the deck with the celebrity trainers.  It was so cool to be working out on a ship deck with hundreds of others as the sun rose.

This really hit me with gratitude because I got to meet the trainers who have totally transformed my life including Autumn Calabrese.  While I haven't done much with Tony Horton, I have to say after working out with him in person, I LOVE him!! I'm super excited for my next program with him. 

It was things like this that made me wish we brought our son with us, but I think all the travel would have been too much for him.

I'm not normally a 'beach' person - but man with water like this who wouldn't be?

Here I am having some fun planking on the ship.

I spent many hours this week sweating on this ship, with hundreds of others of all sizes and ages.   The only common thread between us is that we are all willing to let happiness into our lives - regardless of our starting place, we have all decided to start.

It wasn't all workouts though, we had some fun date nights too!

And of course, some amazing foods. So here it is! Food news, the down and dirty.  I totally let loose knowing it was only 5 days - and if it wasn't good I don't eat it! But if it was, I enjoyed it. 

The best part though was the free shakeology! Literally endless shakeology after our morning workouts, how cool is that?

Starbucks is a guilty pleasure of mine, so being on vacation I let myself splurge with one a day. 

I also never missed my daily banana!

And then there was this! I don't ever eat pizza, but THIS pizza was unreal.  Like the best pizza I've ever had.

If you enjoy my blog, I'd love to have you in my private (women only) Facebook Group dedicated to health, fitness and nutrition: https://www.facebook.com/groups/FitandHealthyPrivateGroup/

Find me on YouTube!  https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCjzh-8_DCDzaC77CKbIAmMg 

If you'd like to work with me as your coach, create a free account:  http://www.beachbodycoach.com/chapmaki

Mommy & Me Website: http://www.fitandbalancedmom.com/

Contact: fitandbalancedmom@gmail.com

Day 1

Weekly Update:  I am titling this "Day 1" because that's what happened on Monday. I realized I was sliding for way too long (about 6 weeks now). Workouts have been on par, but nutrition has not. And it's not just eating a little too much of the healthy stuff. It's that I have been eating terrible foods. Foods I don't even enjoy and foods that don't make me feel good.  Enough is enough, Monday was my Day 1.   My goal is not 21 days, my goal is 5.  Then I'll go from there!

Here is my Day 1 shot - I started a 21 Day Fix accountability group with those I'm coaching through it on Monday and I wanted to hold myself accountable in the same way I hold them accountable.

I'm down 1.8 this week for a total of 75.4lbs, but more than that I FEEL better.

I can't say it's been all 'bad' - I see photos like this and realize while I have put on some weight and my energy levels are down down down from the poor choices (can we say cheese, carbs and then more cheese and carbs...processed carbs too!), I look at this and realize how much I HAVE changed.   The whole shape of my body is different, and my outlook too. I KNOW I will get past this. I refuse to beat myself up - my only option is to move forward.

You may see different things here - you may see my son is bigger, you may see I am smaller.  But what I see is my smile, my eyes. I see "me" in the second one.   Weight is one element, but having my life back is what I really care about. And that's why I'm moving on from close to 2 months of terrible eating.  My WHY is to live, and I am living, I am being the Mom I wanted to be all along.  And in order to continue to be that Mom, it's time to get my nutrition back in check!

I want to be able to play and run and be totally silly with my little guy and not be exhausted from poor food choices.

This photo is another great representation of how far I have come.  I am wearing the same swimsuit in all three photos.  I remember the day the top on was taken, I was SO uncomfortable.    The day the bottom left one was taken I had lost about 40 pounds and I was SO PROUD. The bottom right, is still me - same bathing suit, with a little 'gained' weight from a couple months ago - but this bathing suit is a reminder of how far I have come and why I don't want to lose all that mental progress.

One thing I'm really proud of is that my workouts continue to go really well.  Even the days I don't want to get up, I do it - it definitely has become a habit and one that I refuse to skimp out on except for rest days.

While my food choices have been on and off, there are definitely some yummy meals I've had this last week!

Here is a fun one - eggs cooked in sauce, easy and good! I make a sauce that's literally just a bunch of veggies simmered and blended.

And this is another thing I never miss- my daily Shakeology, here is a "PB&J" shake made with my shakeology, grapes and sunbutter - so good!

And a fun food I picked up for the week for my son (and he refuses to eat it so it's been in my lunch bag every day), blood oranges! I haven't had one in years, but they are so good!!

This was another big hit this week - ricotta, spinach and butternut squash stuffed shells. SO GOOD!

If you enjoy my blog, I'd love to have you in my private (women only) Facebook Group dedicated to health, fitness and nutrition: https://www.facebook.com/groups/FitandHealthyPrivateGroup/

Find me on YouTube!  https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCjzh-8_DCDzaC77CKbIAmMg 

If you'd like to work with me as your coach, create a free account:  http://www.beachbodycoach.com/chapmaki

Mommy & Me Website: http://www.fitandbalancedmom.com/

Contact: fitandbalancedmom@gmail.com