Excuses

Have you been telling yourself that you'd love to start exercising and eating better? That you really just need to "do something!!" What holds you back from starting?  I know for me, my excuses were always far more powerful than my will to change things.

What were some of my excuses?

1. Not enough time.
2. I don't want to spend money on a gym membership.
3. I'll just waste money and will quit the workout program after a few days.
4. I don't eat that bad!
5. I'm too tired.

I'm going to go out on a limb here and say many of you might have similar excuses?

What do I say to my excuses now?

1. Not enough time. We all have 24 hours in a day and we make choices on how we want to spend it.  I understand that we have different schedules with work and kids and whatever - but there is always something you can sacrifice to find the time.  I sacrifice sleeping in the morning.  I wake up at 5am so I can get my workouts in before my kids get up.  We also cancelled cable and watch no TV.  What if you gave up just 1 show that you watch and worked out instead?

2. I don't want to spend money on a gym membership. I still don't want to!  Which is why I love Beachbody programs that I can do right at home.  I love working out by myself at home.  I don't have the travel time to and from the gym, I can do it when my girls are sleeping, and its definitely way less expensive.  If I got a gym membership I know that I wouldn't go.  So I made the choice to do something right here at home!

3. I'll just waste money and will quit the workout program after a few days. I definitely had this in the back of my head when I first took the plunge and got T25 and Shakeology.  It seemed like such a big investment at the time when I worried that I might not stick to it.  The awesome part about Beachbody is the challenge groups.  I have been held accountable and have been so inspired by so many other awesome coaches that I haven't missed ONE workout the whole time since I've started.  I often do double workouts!  I can't say enough great things about what an awesome experience being in a challenge group is.  I have learned so much about fitness and healthy/clean eating, meal planning, and SO much more.  I have definitely not wasted my money!  So many of us don't think about it when we drop $5-$10 here and there for coffee or lunch out. Did you know that Shakeology is only $4 a day (less if you sign up as a preferred member/discount coach)??  That seems pretty reasonable to me for the most healthy meal of the day!  It's all about perspective and what you're willing to give up. Can you give up your Starbucks run and make coffee at home? There's your Shakeology cost!

4. I don't eat that bad! Since learning so much about good, healthy clean eating - I can most certainly say that I DID eat THAT bad.  My body was trying to tell me my whole life that I wasn't taking care of it.  Now that I finally am  - with proper exercise, awesome nutrition and Shakeology - I can't even describe how my overall health has changed.  NO Migraines, so much more energy, more focused, and haven't been sick.  I can't even tell you how often I used to get colds and upset stomachs before.  It's amazing how things can change when you are focusing on taking care of your body properly!

5. I'm too tired. Best thing I've learned of all - I WAS too tired because I wasn't doing any of this.  My body was sluggish and weak and tired because I fed it nonsense and didn't work my body.  I'm most certainly filled with tons more energy these days.

I hope this maybe can help with some of your fears/excuses/anxieties about trying something new.  About taking the next (or first) step in your own journey.

I'd love to have you join my exclusive August Challenge group!  Contact me for details and I'd love to chat about how I can help you reach your own goals.

Recipe: Whole Wheat Mac & Cheese

What you need:

• 2 cups whole wheat pasta
• 2tbs butter
• 1/3 cup whipping cream
• 2 tbs whipping cream
• 1.5 cups freshly graded cheese (I used sharp cheddar for most of it and then added some Parmesan)
• salt
• pepper

How to get it done: 

1. cook the whole wheat pasta according to the box instructions
2. after pasta is cooked, place them in a separate bowl for a bit
3. melt the butter in the pan you cooked the pasta in on medium low heat
4. after butter is melted, add the 1/3 cup whipping cream and mix together
5. add the noodles back in and stir
6. add the cheese and stir and reduce heat to low
7. after the cheese is melted and stirred in nicely, add the final 2 tbs of whipping cream

**We always get our blocks of cheese from Costco because they are so reasonably priced.  If you've only purchased shredded cheese in a bag, I strongly urge you to try getting a block and shredding it yourself.  It tastes SO much better and you don't have the added ingredients they put in the pre-shredded bagged cheese.

All I have to say is YUM.  I can't remember the last time I ate pasta and this little dish really hit the spot tonight.  When I was planning on making it, I told myself I would make something different for myself to eat. But then when I was preparing it and saw the finished product I figured, what the heck, just eat it this once!It's super clean, just higher in calories that I usually eat - so it's not like it's bad for me.

What prompted this?  Hmm, there was this little post going around Facebook (from foodbabe) earlier this week that made me want to puke.

I mostly felt sick about it because while I never got this microwavable ones for my kids - I certainly did feed Stella the boxed kind a long time ago before I realized what all this crap in the ingredients meant.  Honestly when people would talk about "eating organic" before, I got really annoyed.  It all just seemed so fishy and gimmicky to me - everything started to be organic in stores even though it looked like it was clearly still so bad for you.  But since I've been on my health and fitness journey and have decided to learn a lot more about "clean eating" - my eyes are just so wide open to how much awful food is out there.  

I'll never be one to look down on anyone for eating what they want - I just want to share information in case people might be like me and just didn't understand much before about clean eating.  And I'm certainly not perfect and do sometimes eat things that aren't great for me.  But 95% of the time, I make the "clean" choices and my body truly thanks me for it!

Recipe adapted by 100 Days of Real Food

5 Reasons Why Strength Training Is Important To Me

I've always had it in my head that cardio is the best option and use of my time if I'm going to work out - because it burns the calories and gets your heart rate up.  But I've learned a lot of awesome things about strength training that has totally changed my perception on this.

Here are 5 reasons why I've started to lift weights (even if I'm starting small) and why I don't focus on just cardio anymore...

1. Builds muscle which burns fat.  Do you want a leaner, "toned" body?  This is the way to get it.  Building muscle and training slowly will create visible muscle tone and definition. You may not burn as many calories as you would if you went for a run (depending on the intensity of your weight training), but you'll continue to burn elevated calories long after you're done lifting weights.  Weight lifting has been scientifically proven to boost BMR (basal metabolic rate) for up to 24 hours post-workout.

2. Helps to prevent the metabolic decline that comes with aging.  Weight lifting can reverse the natural decline in your metabolism.  It's so important to keep your metabolism elevated for as long as possible and I'm surely going to do whatever I can to make that happen!

3. Strengthens your bones.  Not only are you building muscle and toning your body, but you're also building strength in your bones.  It can increase bone density and reduces the risks of fractures and osteoporosis.

4. Improves Posture. Good posture preserves the spine and reduces lower back pain.  Having strong shoulders, neck, and core help you to stand up straight.

5. Releases Endorphins and Reduces Stress.  Exercise and weight-training releases endorphins that prevent pain, improve mood, and enhance pleasure.  They are released during longer, continuous workouts where the intensity is moderate to high.  Weight training is one of the best ways to improve mood, especially if you struggle with depression and/or anxiety.

Mission SLIMPossible!

Tomorrow 4 other awesome Beachbody coaches and myself are going to be hosting a FREE 30 day health and fitness challenge group.  Here are some quick details:

What will you have to do every day?  There will be a list of different exercises you'll do every day, see the image above.  They will be the same every day - and you do two reps of what is on the list.  To throw an extra fun twist in - we are going to ask that everyone gives up a food or drink item that they love for the entire 30 days.

What you get for free:  5 Beachbody coaches to help encourage you, to give you support, to provide resources to learn more about how you can maintain a healthy lifestyle, and most importantly this group provides such an awesome level of accountability. It's so much easier to give up when you're doing everything on your own.  But with the group supporting you through your good days and bad days, it really makes the journey that much more attainable. We are also going to be showing our favorite moves from some of our Beachbody programs that we do on a daily basis as a fun little sneak peak for those who have never seen the programs before.

What do you have to do to get in the free challenge group? Accept the event invite on facebook, if you haven't already.  If we aren't friends on facebook, just add me as a friend and send me a message and I'll get you set up.  Then go to www.teambeachbody.com/krystajoelle and sign up for a FREE Team Beachbody account.  That's all!

Feel free to contact me with any questions.  The more the merrier - we would love to have you in the group!

5 Simple Ways to Eat Clean

I never used to eat clean - not even close.  To be honest, I never really gave it much thought.  I used to eat so much processed, packaged meals it wasn't even funny.  It was easy, it was cheap, and I never had a burning desire to get an apron on and spend some time in the kitchen.  I hardly ate any fruits or vegetables, I never drank water, and I drank way too much diet coke.  Sounds like an overall great diet, right?

As I've gotten into my journey, I've completely turned my eating habits around and I'm so thankful that we live in a world with the internet so I can read blogs about things like clean eating and learn so much in just a short period of time.  But unfortunately this world we live in is also full of dangerously processed foods that are no good for our bodies. 

I'm not claiming to be so strict that I won't ever eat anything that is processed - but I really try to be mindful not to.

To make this post short - I'd like to offer 5 simple ways I've changed my eating habits to try to keep it clean. I'm not perfect by any stretch of the imagination - but I'm surely trying to be conscious of what I'm putting in my body (and my kids' bodies!)

1. For the love of all things holy - READ ingredient labels.  If there is a huge list, put the box down. If there are ingredients that can't be pronounced, put the box down.  If you see a list like this, please run.

so many things wrong with this picture.

2. Only eat 100% whole wheat/grains - stay away from white flour.  And if the ingredients say "wheat flour" - that does not mean 100% whole wheat.

3. No (limit) diet soda. Drink lots of water. I could write a whole blog post on this one.  But this one was the hardest part of this whole eating clean gig for me.  I LOVE Diet Coke - I mean love. I'm convinced there is a hard drug in there to get you hooked.  I haven't been perfect and I couldn't admit that I don't drink it at all - I've just made big changes.  We never keep it in the house which has made things much easier in the transition.  I used to drink 2 cans a day and now I might have a can once every other week.  Some things you need to do in moderation.  I know I shouldn't drink it at all, but sometimes a girl just needs her diet coke.

4. Limit sugar and high fructose corn syrup.  If there are natural sugars in something, that's usually ok (in moderation like anything else), but if the ingredient list shows sugar, especially at the top of the list, this means there is added sugar.  Not good people, not good.

5. Eat veggies & fruit every day.  Even if I am boring and eat the same few - it's better than not eating any.

My Favorite Things: Polar FT4

One segment of this blog that will be recurring is "My Favorite Things" and I'll be featuring things that I am particularly fond of and let you know why they are so useful in my life.  First up is this little beauty...

Polar FT4 Heart Rate Monitor

What is this contraption and why do I love it so much?  Well, let me tell you.

When I first started running, I would input my height, weight, and age into the treadmill - and I trusted that I would at least be provided with a pretty close calculation of the calories that I was burning during my run session.  As I started running a little longer, the amount of calories I would burn was so high - I just thought I was a rock star.  Then, since I was in the serious business of counting calories and wasn't concerned with what I ate or when I ate, I would make sure to eat snacks at night if I had extra calories for the day. You can see where I'm going with this and can probably understand why this wasn't working so great for me.

I use an app to track my food and my exercise and as I would search for different exercises I would notice some just seemed so far off from what seems logical.  Then I actually started to use my head and learned that different people can burn calories at a far different rate.  So how in the world could these estimations be correct on all these machines?  Since I was such a calorie freak - my OCD brain couldn't live with the fact that my daily inputs might be incorrect and I wanted them as exact as they could be.

In comes this little gem.  I decided on the Polar FT4 because it's very simple to use, wasn't extremely expensive, it seemed to receive great reviews, and it's pretty cute!  I purchased it in September 2013 and haven't exercised without this puppy on since.  It continuously displays your real-time heart rate during any exercise.  With this information I love that I can gauge my intensity and work to stay within my target heart rate zone to maximize my workout. Doing T25 really burns the calories and I love seeing my results after my 25 minutes are done.

There are alerts you can turn on to remind you when you slow down or speed it up.  It also keeps track of your 10 last workouts so you can go back to see how you've been improving.  I know there is quite a selection of different heart rate monitors out there, but I've been very pleased with the accuracy and with the functionality of this model so I'm going to stick with it as long as it lasts!

How do you use it?  It's super simple.  There is a chest strap, the transmitter, and the watch.  Obviously the watch goes on your wrist.  You wet one side of the chest strap, snap the transmitter on quick, put it around your chest and you're ready to rock.

I wanted this to be my first item to post about because so many challengers have been asking how they should track their exercise in their fitness app.  Every time I get asked the question on how to find PiYo on the app, I immediately say "you really should get a heart rate monitor".  I just think if you're that serious about logging everything you do - you should make it as accurate as possible to maximize your results.  The FT4 removes the guesswork out of your workouts so you can focus on pushing yourself as hard as possible!

I bought mine on Amazon.com - because that's where I get mostly everything.  I have a Prime membership so I usually take full advantage of that when I need something like this.  Right now they have this pink one available for $61.82.  So not bad at all for how much you're going to use it!

If you have any questions before you purchase yours, please feel free to contact me and I'd love to help you out!

Recipe: Whole Wheat Banana Pancakes

One thing I my daughters absolutely love to eat is breakfast foods.  There are so many unhealthy options out there so we are always looking for new ideas to try to keep it clean.  We tried these a few weeks ago and they are amazing!  They taste like banana bread in the form of a pancake - yes please!

The great thing about this recipe is that you can make up the whole batch in one setting and you can freeze whatever your family doesn't it.  I put them in zip-lock freezer bags and stuck them in the freezer.  When the girls felt like a pancake another day of the week, all I had to do was grab one - heat it up for like a minute and pancakes were served.  I love a good time saver, especially when the fam is still able to eat healthy.

What You Need:

• 2 cups whole-wheat flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 tablespoon of local raw honey
• 2 large eggs, lightly beaten
• 1 3/4 cups milk
• 2 bananas, smashed
• 2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted plus some additional butter for frying
• Pure maple syrup (when served)

How to Get it Done:

1. Whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a mixing bowl.
2. In the center of the mixture, pour in the honey, milk, eggs, and 2 tbs of melted butter - whisk dry and wet ingredients together thoroughly.
3. Fold the mashed bananas into the batter (spatula works best)
4. Heat your griddle (or pan) to medium-high heat and spread some butter to prevent sticking.  Add your pancake batter and make the pancakes as big or little as you want.  The first time we made them, my girls thought it would be fun to make Mickey pancakes.  So have fun with them if you have kiddos!
5. Make sure to flip the pancakes when the bottom begins to brown.
6. Serve with the 100% maple syrup.  We added strawberries and raspberries on top to make them extra sweet.
7. Whatever pancakes you have left can be frozen for another day.

Adapted from 100 Days of Real Food

A Work in Progess: My Personal Journey

Hello and welcome to my blog!  I'm a 31 year old girl (yes don't feel old enough to say woman yet).  I'm married to my best friend Chad,  and I have 3 amazing daughters who make my life incredibly fulfilled and who keep me challenged every single day. I am a total home-body. I might seem like a bad friend because I don't do a ton of socializing, but I just really love staying home. As I get older, I'm more comfortable accepting this. I really can't handle small talk, but I love meaningful conversations. I am obsessed with fitness and with developing/maintaining a clean and healthy lifestyle.  I am a work in progress.  I think we should always be a work in progress.  Once we reach certain goals, we should make new ones and keep pushing ourselves.  I don't want to help people "diet".  I want to inspire others to work towards achieving a healthy lifestyle - something that is permanent and lasts a lifetime.

My journey towards a healthy lifestyle started a few years ago - but it was a slow start.  Let me back up a bit...

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I wouldn't say I was ever a "healthy" person for as much of my life as I can remember.  It was pretty bad during high school and I suffered from migraine headaches, depression, anxiety and definitely didn't eat great. But I never really struggled with weight because I was very active in sports. I started college and wasn't in sports anymore and still didn't take care of my body by working out or eating anything healthy. I had major sleep problems which made me more prone to sickness, still suffered from migraines, depression/anxiety, and just generally got sick all of the time.  I always just told myself that I was unlucky and prone to sickness.

After I graduated from college, I started my career as a public accountant (fun, right?).  I worked really long hours, we ate out for lunch every day - and I'm talking big lunches, ate out for dinner most nights, and went out for drinks way too much.  It was one of the most fun times in my life, but also was one of the most unhealthy times in my life. My personal life was a mess, I was really unhappy with my job, and I decided I needed to have a fresh start.  I moved to Chicago (from Grand Rapids), started a new job and left my friends and everything that was comfortable to me behind.  This was the best thing I ever could have done for myself.

My husband, Chad and I started seriously dating when I was living in Chicago and he lived in Grand Rapids. This was the most healthy relationship I had ever been in and my life started to change.  I could sleep at night, I never got migraines anymore, and my negativity was subsiding.  Things got really serious with Chad and we knew we had a future together.  He had a daughter, Jenna, from his previous marriage so moving was not an option for him. After less than two years in Chicago I moved back to Grand Rapids to be with Chad and to start my life with Chad and Jenna.

Just me, Chad, and the sandy beach in Hawaii on our perfect wedding day

We got engaged, married, and about 6 minutes later (or so it seemed) we were overjoyed to find out we were pregnant!  10 months later we had a baby girl, Stella.  This is when my journey towards a healthy lifestyle began.  Like any other new mom, I really wanted to focus on losing the baby weight at first. After most of that came off, I wanted to keep going because I finally cared about my body, about having energy, and trying to be at a weight I was comfortable with.

Stella's newborn photoshoot.

Stella at 3 Years

So I started to count calories and I worked out occasionally.  I tracked every single thing I put into my body - but I wasn't committed to any workout routine and didn't push myself at all that way.  And even though I counted calories - I never was concerned with what those calories consisted of or when I ate....the only thing I cared about was the math and the number on the scale going down. I got down to a weight that was 20 pounds lower than my pre-pregnancy weight and I was really proud of that.  Then we were surprised to find out we were pregnant again!  Knowing this was going to be my last pregnancy, I figured I had better take advantage of it and eat brownies any chance I could.  After counting calories for a while I was really excited to just eat whatever I wanted and not care.  So the weight came on pretty fast :)
10 months later, our little girl Vera was born.

Vera's newborn photoshoot

Vera at 1 Year

I knew I would get back on track and lose the weight just like I had before.  So I immediately started counting calories again and then eventually decided I was going to try to take up running.  I ran every.single.day.  I lost all the weight and got back down to the my pre-pregnancy weight.  Then I hit a plateau and felt like my body wasn't changing.  I had such a desire to change my body.  I wanted to be stronger, leaner, toned, and healthier.  I wanted to eat clean and stop putting junk into my body.  So I started to do some research, talked with several people and eventually decided that I wanted to try a Beachbody program.  After talking with my coach about what programs might fit my needs/goals the most I decided I would to start with Focus T25 with Shaun T and also started drinking Shakeology.

I joined a closed Facebook Beachbody Challenge group that was run by awesome coaches who help you on your journey. In this challenge group I was provided with so much motivation, resources, tips, accountability, and incredible inspiration. I quickly became obsessed with T25, followed the workout schedule to a T, drank my Shakeology daily, followed my meal plans, and ate extremely clean.  And what do you know - my body began to CHANGE.  Hard work, dedication, setting goals, and holding myself extremely accountable was working! Not only was my body changing - but I have more energy than I've ever had in my entire life, I haven't been sick at all, and I feel so positive and uplifted.  After being in the challenge group for a little while, I knew that I wanted to be a Beachbody coach so that I could help inspire others like my coaches helped me.

7 weeks into T25 and Shakeology!! Work in Progress!

After working ALL of my life up to this point, I recently just became a stay at home Mom and finally know that I'm following my passion and am fulfilling my calling by helping others on their journey to achieve their own healthy lifestyle - all while being able to spend this precious time with my little girls.  I've been dreaming about being able to start my own blog, be my own boss, be in charge of my own destiny, and all while helping others trying to be as healthy as they can be.  I'm so excited about this journey of mine and I hope to help many others along their journeys as well.

We only get one body and one life - why not make both the absolute best we can?

Three of the reasons I push myself so hard! Our three beautiful girls.