Inspiring Email!

Below is what I sent out to all my Beachbody Customers this morning...and after I wrote it, I was like wow - I can't believe I'm at this place of pushing myself to these limits. If you need some encouragement & challenge to be & do your best (in fitness) - Hope this gives just that to you! Have a great Tuesday!

"Happy Tuesday everyone,

This is Jennifer, your Beachbody coach. This morning I burned 515 calories doing the Insanity Max Interval Plyo workout. I am nearing the half way mark of my P90X/Insanity hybrid workout. However, I am changing it up a bit from the workout sheets available on the website.

For the first phase, I used the resistance training workouts of P90X & the Insanity Cardio dvds for the 3 cardio days. My husband & I started phase 2 last Monday, and moved into the second phase of P90X resistance dvds (Back & Bis - Chest, shoulders, & Tris, and Legs & Back), but changed up the cardio w/ the Insanity MAX cardio dvds. Oh my gosh, Max Plyo today kicked our butts this morning.

For phase 3, I am planning for us to use the phase 3 schedule of P90X resistance dvds...but I'm going to add a twist to this hybrid. We're going to use the Insanity Asylum (Sports Training) 30 day program cardio dvds to take our cardio up a notch! Yes, I am out of my mind. But I pre-ordered P90X2 & I want to do all that I can to be conditioned & ready to take that on. Folks who pre-order P90X2 & complete it as soon as they receive it (which is around Christmas), can enter in their results to be part of an infomercial for P90X2. So of course I would love to do that right?
Many don't quite understand my level of intensity right now. (I question myself from time to time.)

I make it to my workouts 6 days a week, and for 'getting ripped' purposes, I am actually going to really cut back on carbs. (Only for the interim. NOT a great long-term plan to lose weight overall...but it has killer effects on leaning out to get that cut look.) See, I am also entered into the Beachbody Challenge! I'm hoping to win something, if not the $100,000 next year. For me, deadlines help me reach my goals. I am always looking for something to serve as a motivational tool. So this P90X2 coming to me soon...and the Beachbody Challenge (which is taking entries from now until April), are both serving as catalysts in my fitness life!

Just thought I would give you an update & to remind you that I'm here for you. I do my best to walk the walk. If I am to encourage others to watch what they eat & eat the right things, as well as work out - I better do the same right? Hope you catch the vision for yourself...and flex to get fit!!!!"

Good 'ol Atkins....

How many of you have tried the Atkins Diet? How many of you got throught the 14-day carb depletion without 'cheating'? How many of you successfully lost weight & have KEPT IT OFF since?

Really, if you did...contact me, I'd love to know how, because to this day, I have not yet met 1 person who has kept off all the weight. This is why I call the Atkins Diet a fad diet! You can't deprive yourself of carbohydrates forever, so why even start. What happens? You go down, you go up...you lose weight...you gain the weight back, plus some.

David's weight loss attempts following high school was just this. He went on the Atkins Diet...loss a good amount of weight...and then (because it's so hard to sustain), he went off it...and gained back all the weight and then some.

I have a theory that if many people would not 'go on a diet'...they wouldn't have as much weight to lose. Isn't this true? I see people all the time DEPRIVE THEMSELVES...only to go back to the old way of eating and then have some binging, because they cut so many healthy foods out of their diet, their body is deprived & then they fill themselves up w/ junk food, fast food, dessert foods .


1 whole egg has:
70 calories, 4.5 gms of fat &
215 mg of cholesterol!

 Now tell me, how is scarfing down a ton of cheese, red meats, ranch dressing, bacon, whole fried eggs good for you?

This was taken from MayoClinic.com:

If you are healthy, it's recommended that you limit your dietary cholesterol intake to less than 300 milligrams (mg) a day.

If you have cardiovascular disease, diabetes or a high low-density lipoprotein (LDL, or "bad") blood cholesterol level, you should limit your dietary cholesterol intake to less than 200 mg a day.

Look at the 'cholesterol' content in 1 egg - that's all you need for a day. Research the amount of cholesterol by reading the labels on the sausage, meat, cheese, and milk in your fridge. No wonder everyone's on cholesterol meds...get rid of the cholesterol foods & you won't need them.

Now, I never read the Atkins books from start to finish, but I've come to my conclusion that this diet doesn't work by meeting a ton of people who have tried it & not been successful at staying at a healthy weight!

Now back to Dave: David finally got a roommate in 2004 that got him to go to the gym...but here was a 26 year old young man who had never really worked out before, let alone at the gym. Here he was trying to figure out the machines.

David did a ton of cardio and stuck to the treadmill, stair-climber, elliptical, etc. He was trying to use the weights, but never really got instruction on how to use it to lean out...just get strong.

And yes, I guess you could say he was 'fat strong'. You know these people...they don't eat healthy. They kill themselves at the gym trying to power lift, yet a 5 year-old could outrun them. Again, out of balance.

I appreciate Dave's efforts of trying. He did his best with what he had. And he totally gets an A+ for effort.

When I met Dave, he was in the midst of these efforts to lose weight. He had lost about 70 lbs. At the point he was around 290 lbs. The most he had ever weighed had been 350/360 or so, up to this point.

The day we got married, he was about 285 lbs. And me personally, I didn't mind the fluff. In fact, I am grateful that many women Dave had met along the way disqualified him based on that. Harsh? I know. How could they disqualify such a wonderful man? I don't know, but he was available to me because they had & I was veeeeeeerrrry glad they did.

When I met Dave, his honesty, integrity, love for God, service to God, commitment to the Word of God, his hardworking ethics, compassion for people, faith to pray, and those gorgeous brown eyes & dark hair were enough to win me over. I knew at 28 that it those qualities that would help a marriage last...not buffness, a lean cut body...it's character you marry a person for, right?

Now when we got married, I didn't do Atkins. To me, I felt it wasn't healthy....needless to say, I brought carbs in the house and Dave ate 'em. And within first 3 months of us being married, Dave went from a 2X to a 3X. I said, "HOLD THE PHONE".

I realized at that point that Dave would gain weight if he wasn't on this so-called diet. I called it 'set yourself up for failure' eating plan. Really? How could some gain so much in just 3 months. And he wasn't eating bad. Just some noodles, bread, and sometimes rice. I realized that I had to support him in this 'diet'.

We got married Feb. 20th '06, and by May we were doing the 14-day carb depletion TOGETHER...and on day 9 - I found out I was pregnant. So much for a ZERO-carb diet for me!

From May '06 to Feb. '07 - David gained.....140 lbs. Soon he was a 425 lb. man! I was devestated along the way of my pregnancy. Dave never weighed himself along the way. I just knew that he had gone from a 2X on our wedding day to a 4X by the time Daniel was born. I had cried over his gain, begging him to stop gaining to avoid leaving me as a widow at age 40...but my tears fell on deaf years. That summer, I knew things had to change...or Daniel would not have a DAD to raise him through his childhood.

My only solution....to go to the ONE who could change his heart. And that's just what I did!


.....more on this tomorrow....