Featured Client of the Week!!!

I am going to feature one of my clients every week or so. I think it's inspiring and motivating (two of my favorite words) to see people who have made great progress, despite setbacks (life).

My very first one is......Melissa!
Melissa has been working with me since August 2010. She had a 6 month old baby boy at that time, along with two little girls, ages 2 and 5. In the course of the 6 months she has been working with me, her family has gone through a LOT. Her son had some crazy medical problems they discovered when he was about 8 months old. They were back and forth to Portland several times with doctors appointments and surgeries. Fortunately, she was able to stay focused, and didn't let this distract her from amazing progress! Over the past 6 months, she has worked out 1/2 hour three times a week here with me, plus the normal routine of chasing after several small children. That's it! No endless cardio, no hours in the gym, no working out every single day.
The biggest change for her was "swapping" her meal sizes. Along with following the principles outlined  in "The Eat Clean Diet," she started eating a larger breakfast and smaller dinner, instead of the other way around as most of us have the habit of doing. She still enjoys a glass of wine almost every night but she cut out all her after-dinner snacking. (whoo-hoo!!!! that's a HUGE part of the battle for most of us!!!)

before

So, in the past 6 months, Melissa has lost a total of  22.5 pounds and 19.25 inches!!!! 7.5 of those inches were from her waist! Congratulations on your amazing progress!!!!

   and after!

i apologize for my bad lighting and amature photography...i will have to work on that!!!

An assignment and a recipe

Happy Saturday to everyone! If you were lucky enough to workout with me this morning (ha ha), you got to taste one of my cookie creations! If you didn't, let me catch you up......I am sure you are aware of the dangers of white sugar and white flour. Well, any sugar and flour for that matter....but anyways, my son came home from school yesterday with a bright green Laffy Taffy he had "earned" for doing his homework. He asked if he could have it, and I cringed....I just do NOT feel ok with my child eating a bright green piece of something that could pull out, get stuck in, or rot his teeth. So, I told him that if he could wait a bit, I would make cookies, and he could have one of those instead. He agreed to that.
So, a little later, I started experimenting. I wanted to create something that didn't have sugar or flour but, of course, still tasted good. This is what I came up with:  (they are amazing...)

Banana~Coconut "Cookies"

1 banana
1/3 c. coconut butter (available at Whole Foods, or you can make your own~see below)
4 pitted dates
1 egg
1-2 t. vanilla

1 c. (maybe a little bit more) almond meal (available at Trader Joe's)
1/2-3/4 c. shredded, unsweetened coconut (see below)
1 t. baking powder
cinnamon (optional)

cream first 5 ingredients together in a food processor, dump out into a bowl and add the dry indredients.
mix well, then "roll" into balls or scoop out with a spoon onto a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper or other non-stick coating.  bake at 375 degrees for about 10-12 minutes....keep an eye on them, when they are light golden brown, they are done. makes about 12 or so, depending on how big you make them.

*A note about coconut*
Coconut was thought to be "bad" because of it's high saturated fat content. Recent findings are that it is actually a "superfood" full of good fat, essential amino acids, protein and fiber. I buy coconut bulk at Whole Foods or Fred Meyer. We go through a lot of it. And coconut butter is available at Whole Foods or you can make it by putting several cups of dried coconut in a food processor and processing for 10 minutes. If you have any questions, you can totally ask me.


And now, an assignment:
IF you are one of my clients, or are interested in health in ANY way, there is a movie I would LOVE for you to watch. It's available instantly on NETFLIX in the documentary section. Food Matters is the name of this amazing movie. I HIGHLY recommend you watch it to see how the food we eat affects our health. And how the medical community is NOT interested in our health in any ways. And how doctors are not educated in nutrition, and how they just prescribe drugs to "band-aid" the problem, not getting to the root cause. Anyways, enough of my rampage.....it's really an amazingly eye-opening movie. Let me know what you think! Have a great weekend!

Quote of the day

"Life's challenges are not supposed to paralyze you, they're supposed to help you discover who you are."
Bernice Johnson Reagon


Isn't that the truth.....hope you are having a great day!!!

Just so we're on the same page....

I know some of you reading this have heard bits and pieces of my "journey" thus far....but I am going to back up and start at the "beginning" so you know where I am coming from and also so you know that I understand struggles. Struggles with food, with body-image, with self-esteem, with depression and a bunch of other stuff.  I am going to be completely honest, because I haven't always been (mostly with myself) but I think it's really important that YOU know that I am not some fitness junkie that everything comes easy for, and I have never had a craving in my life.....oh no.....let me start back in 2004 where I would say my life completely changed.....

I had always been "lazy" as a kid, teenager, and young adult. I hated being dragged on hikes by my parents, and chose sedentary activities when I had the choice. But, in April 2004, I had my second little boy, Jaxon, and a couple weeks after he was born, I joined a gym to try to lose the baby weight. I started out slow, pretty unintentionally, just doing cardio, and lifting weights, kind of teaching myself as I went along. I had always read a lot about fitness and nutrition, just never really applied any of it.
One defining moment in my life was one day I was getting ready in the morning, and my husband commented on my muscular back. I turned around and looked in the mirror, and I was instantly "hooked" on muscle. At that particular point in time, I made a conscious decision to start lifting weights seriously. Over the next couple of years, I learned more and more, started working out more and more, loving it more and more. Then, somewhere along the way, I became pretty obsessed. I would go to the gym for 2 hours in the morning, working myself to exhaustion, then go back for an hour SUPER intense spin class later in the day, dragging my kids to the daycare every time. :(  It was at that point that I became super self centered and very "me-focused." I would go crazy if for some reason I couldn't work out, and became a maniac, up and down and up and down. Because I was exhausted.
But, I LOVED it! I got more and more experienced, started asking a lot of questions of the Personal Trainers at the gym I was at (this was in Southern California), then decided that I wanted to be one, too!
So, I found the best certification course (NASM), ordered it, did all the studying and passed the test about 3 weeks before we moved to Bend. (this was October 2007)
I started working as a trainer at a gym, here in Bend, in December. It was great, I loved it, but as the months passed, I started getting "addicted" to food. I started overeating occasionally, then it was more often, then it turned into a full fledged case of binging and purging. So, at this time, my self-esteem started to plummet. I could. not. control my eating. It got worse. I started to get really depressed. How could I, as a trainer, help others with their food and nutrition if I couldn't get a handle on it myself??? I don't think I realized how deep in I got, because I wasn't being honest with myself. I kept hoping it would just "go away" some day. It didn't though. It got worse. I was consumed with thoughts of food, always thinking about how I could control it, how I could be more strict. But, always, in the afternoons, I would "lose it" and binge. Usually on something healthy, but just too much food. This went on for about a year or so.
Spring Break of last year, I feel like was when I hit bottom.  I was SUPER burnt out on training, I was very busy at that time....sometimes working 10 hours a day. And, I was a depressed wreck. So, at that point, I made a conscious effort to try to climb out of this hideous hole I had dug for myself. I started seeking God for His help, because I had definitely tried on my own, and it sure wasn't working. I found a website (www.settingcaptivesfree.com) that helps people overcome all kinds of addictions. I did their 60 day program. Made a little progress. Stopped purging. Still a little binging. Then, I found an accountability partner, made a little more progress. Binging less and less. In the past several months, I have made a LOT of progress. But it is slow. I have been leaning on God to help me though this, but it is taking so much longer than I ever thought it would.
Over the past year, I have been working on developing self~discipline. It has been a very painful and long process, but one that has been so worth it. My life and priorities have changed a lot, too. I have a lot more patience with my boys, and a lot more love for my husband, both of these things stemming from a much more balanced perspective on life. I have scaled WAY back on my exercise, (during this whole time, I had been beating myself up, exercising so so hard to try to negate the effects of the binging) and I am now in control of my food, instead of IT controlling ME. I learned that I needed to cut all the trigger foods out of my diet. Maybe not forever, but for now, it's necessary. I have learned a whole lot about myself in this process. I have definitely not "arrived", but I sure am in a much better place than I was about a year ago.
I know I went through this for a reason. And that reason is to be able to empathize with others who may be struggling with the same, or different things. But, just know that I have FOUGHT a battle to be where I am now, and I am sooooooo willing to help you fight, too. I hope I didn't freak anyone out with this, but I just wanted to be honest about where I am coming from.
This "journey" is definitely, without a doubt a PROCESS. And if it's not a process, you won't learn anything from it. So, be patient with yourself, keep looking ahead, and PLEASE let me know if I can be of any help.

Good Morning World!

It is a beautiful morning, and i am super excited to be in blog~land now....thought i would start off with an amazing picture of the sky on fire this morning....i am so blessed to live in such an amazingly beautiful place with such a big gorgeous sky! (coming form southern california, i really really appreciate it!) I am starting this blog mainly to have communication with my clients, and to inspire, motivate, and encourage anyone who may stumble on to my little tiny corner of cyberspace. i am always reading, researching, questioning, so i thought it would be helpful to have a place to post anything interesting or helpful i might find. also, recipes, meal ideas, workout ideas, and workout challenges. i will also be featuring some of my clients who have made some great progress and have made significant positive lifestyle changes. i know changing your lifestyle is HARD. i know there are always challenges and trip-ups and things to distract you from living your best life, but life is a learning process (which i have EXPERIENCED for myself in the past couple years....more on that later) and a growing process and just a process in general. one thing that keeps coming up for me, as i grow and change and muddle through my own challenges and ups and downs is "If it's not a PROCESS, you won't learn anything from it." if changing bad habits and changing your life for the better was EASY, and the weight just fell off, and all the sudden you were perfect in every way, you wouldn't develop that character you had to develop by FIGHTING your way there! i KNOW it can be a BATTLE at times (or all the time, as it has been for me lately) but it makes us stronger to go through the tough stuff. anyways, that's all for now.....i hope you all have a wonderful day!