Thrive Market

So if you know me at all, you know I love finding good foods at a great cost. I checked all the prices to my other favorite site Amazon - and they were all cheaper and that was before my 25% off.

Enter Thrive Market. I've been hearing about this and seeing ads for it all over the internet lately but hadn't had a chance to really check it out. I'll be honest, when I first saw it - I thought it had something to do with another company that sells patches. I was happy to see that it wasn't :) Then one of my challengers mentioned it in our challenge group this morning that she just signed up and it was great so I thought I would give it a whirl!

So anywho - not only is everything already marked down to wholesale prices, but on your first order you get 25% off and there is free shipping on orders over $49 right now. I stocked up my friends.

What did I get?

1. Once Again Organic Sesame Tahini >> I'm going to use this to make hummus and some dressings, but I'm also going to be researching other great ways to use it. There are lots of benefits to eating Tahini and I'm excited to try it!

2. Navitas Naturals Organic Trail Mix - Goji, Mulberry, Goldenberry >> this premium trail mix contains high-energy goji berries, sweet antioxidant-rich mulberries, and vitamin packed goldenberries.

3. Bob's Red Mill Organic Coconut Flour >> I'm trying to move to a more Paleo way of eating and a lot of the recipes that I've been looking at have called for Coconut Flour - so here we go!

4. Nutiva Organic Black Chia Seeds >> There are tons of benefits to chia seeds and I plan to add them to my Shakeology from time to time. I'll make a whole separate blog post on the benefits of Chia Seeds soon!

5. Paleo People Apple Crisp Gourmet Grain Free Granola Clusters >> Like I mentioned before, I'm trying to move to a Paleo way of eating for the most part and I find my biggest struggle is when I get the itch to have a snack. I wanted to have some special things to have on hand that I could have a small handful of to at least take care of the craving but still be mindful of how I want to be eating.

6. Paleonola - Grain Free Granola, Chocolate Fix >> Because same reasons mentioned in #5 and who doesn't need a little chocolate and granola in their life?

7. Braggs Organic Apple Cider Vinegar >> I drink this on the regular and it's amazing stuff. Once again, a whole separate blog post on the wonders of this stuff. But this is an amazing price and I'm almost out so it was way worth it.

8. Gaia Herbs - Adrenal Health Formula >> Working out all the time can put a lot of stress on your body and I've heard of so many people who have gone into adrenal failure and things kind of spiral after that. I want to try this out to see if it makes me feel any different and just want to be proactive about stuff like this. I like to be able to speak from experience and experiment with things!

9. Organic India - Tulsi Peppermint Tea >> I've been meaning to get some peppermint tea for a long time now and keep forgetting. There are a lof of health benefits associated with it, especially dealing wtih digestive health, bloating....all that fun stuff.

10. Coconut Secret - Organic Raw Coconut Aminos >> When I was doing the Beachbody Ultimate Reset program I was introduced to Braggs Liquid Aminos which was actually really good. It's a super good alternative to soy sauce and puts a lot of good flavoring in your food without all of the sodium and added junk. This is kind of like that but has coconut too! Can't wait to try it. Since I don't use condiments or any store bought dressing or marinades, I'm always looking for new things to try out.

On Perfection && Grace

I've been thinking a lot about the idea of perfection and how it relates to grace.

Being a health and fitness coach, I feel like I'm expected to be on my "A" game all of the time. I know I put a lot of the pressure on myself and that nobody really expects me to be perfect. But I always want to be the good example for people. If I can show people that I'm doing a great job - then maybe that will help motivate them to do the same so they can be healthy!

But I think its very important to talk about imperfections because being perfect is never attainable. And why would we want it to be? Our Pastor said some really great things in his sermon yesterday and it got my mind just racing thinking about how it relates to so many areas of our lives. When God created the world and everything in it, it was "good". The Bible never says it was perfect. Perfect is static and never changing. But "good" allows so much opportunity for things to be better. For things to keep improving. We were never designed to be perfect creatures. Rather, we were made in His image, with free will.

Doesn't that feel so much better than dealing with the guilt of never reaching that "perfect" place you feel like you're always striving for?

With health and fitness - I'm never going to eat perfect. There are delicious things in this world like chocolate and wine and I'm not going to forbid myself to enjoy those things once in a while. I think the important thing to remind ourselves is that as long as we are putting in an effort to make good choices like 80% of the time, you're doing a pretty darn good job. I always tell my challengers that they should just be proud of themselves for showing up and caring about their health. Getting down and hard on yourself because you screwed up for a few days is not going to be productive. It leads to feelings of guilt and remorse and then things just snowball.

When you look at life, and goals, and dreams as merely a journey and not a final destination - things just get so much easier. Or...maybe just more enjoyable at least.

This leads me to GRACE. We need to offer ourselves a little more grace. In this fast-paced world where we feel like we are expected to be the best and greatest and fastest at every single thing we do - it's so hard to feel like we measure up. We need to just stop for a minute and think about all the things we are doing right. And for the mistakes we make - forgive ourselves and offer ourselves grace. Guilt and worry do nothing positive in our lives except drive us down further.

So join me today. Stop trying to be perfect and forgive yourself more. Be the best you can be...and be happy with "good". Make one more good choice today than you did yesterday. And if you don't - it's ok. There is beauty in the way our world was created. 24 hours in a day. Days separated by the night. The ability to wake up every single day to start fresh. It's up to us how we want to view each day.

Yes - this IS a Real Business.

This post was not easy to make, but I think it's very important so I'm just going to push publish and share away. Yikes.

I am not one to talk about money because I do view it as something private. But I also want to be able to share this business with all of those women who are just like me who could benefit from this opportunity in the many ways that I have so far.

I am a year into my business. I have worked VERY hard at building my business through working early mornings, through nap time and all night after my kids go to bed. I have been able to be home with my kids every single day for the past year while working my business during the hours that it works for my family.

And what is my business exactly? I help other people to focus on getting healthy, fit, and comfortable in their skin. ummm...pretty sure this is the dream job/career that I was always looking for. I'm able to be my own boss, work the hours that I want, take vacation whenever I want, be with my kids all the time without having to cart them to and from daycare. And not only do I get to help other people start their own journey towards health - but I get to help my coaches on my team see success in their own business by sharing what I've learned and what works for me. I cannot tell you how many lives I've seen changed by joining this company as a coach and I just want to share it with the world.

Will you get rich quick? Nope, probably not. It's just like any other business. You start slow, you do a lot of training, and you invest TIME into yourself and your business. But the rewards are AMAZING. This week was my highest commission check yet and let me tell you, it was pretty exciting waking up to see what the number was.

What is so cool about $900 earned in one week? Well - it's more than I made per week at my professional job as a full time financial analyst. I also didn't have to pay $450 to a daycare center for the week to watch my kids. I'd say that is enough to make anyone excited. I've also earned a free 5 night all expenses paid CRUISE for both Chad and I along with extra spending money while we are there!

I share this because I want people to know that this IS REAL. If you have a passion for health and fitness, want to get into the best shape of your life, are driven, are ready and willing to learn, want to work at home  - as much or as little as works for you....JOIN me! I'm starting a NEW coach apprenticeship program soon and I'd love to have you join me on this fabulous ride. Message me or email me at krystajmeyer@gmail.com if you want to learn more.

New Coach Apprenticeship Program

I know I talk about it a lot - but it's just because this has all been such a blessing to me. I've always wanted to be my own boss and to be able to work from home...when I want. I used to look for jobs I could do online and nothing ever seemed very "real" or worthwhile. But sometimes things happen without you even planning it and when things are meant to be, they usually turn out far better than you trying to "find" something.

One day I decided I wanted to invest more in my health and I bought my first T25 Challenge pack with Shakeology and joined my first challenge group with my coach. I fell in love with the program and with the whole challenge group. I had never felt more inspired and motivated in all my life. So I decided - "why not me?". I took a leap of faith and decided that I would like to be a coach because I wanted to pay it forward and help as many other people get healthy too. I figured if I made money at it, that would just be a bonus.

I started my coaching business in July of 2014, shared my journey and my life with as many people as I could and what happened? People started trusting me as a source...as someone to turn to so they could get started on their very own journey. My heart literally wants to explode when I think about all of the people who have changed their lives because of joining my challenge groups.

And my time, energy, and very hard work has paid off for myself and my family too. My business has grown faster than I ever imagined and this "fun side thing" that I started has turned into something so real that contributes a great deal to our family financially. And the best part about it is - I can do it from anywhere.....any time that works with my family's schedule. I don't have a boss to check in with. I don't need to ask for vacation time. I don't have to worry about being able to take my kids to the doctor or going to school functions.

FREEDOM. Freedom to live life by design. Financial freedom. I'm able to take random trips to Target like I did yesterday and spend some extra money and not have to worry about it. We can take vacations and go on dates and not have to put it on credit cards.  I've earned a free 5 night cruise for Chad and I along with extra spending money. I'm able to pay for my upcoming trip to Nashville along with fun new clothes for the trip. You get the picture.

What I love about this business is that anyone can do it. If you have a passion for helping people, are interested in health and fitness (even if you just started your own fitness journey), and are willing to invest the time in your business - you can be successful too. I was never a fitness expert - I've just learned a lot as I go. But I am very good at supporting and motivating people and that's what people really need.

I'm looking for 3 new people to accept into my coach apprenticeship program. I will teach you everything you need to know and share all of my resources that have been given to me from the top coach in the company. We have such wonderful systems in place so that our new coaches can see success faster. All I need from you is to meet me halfway. Will you get rich quick? No. Just like you won't get rich quick if you started any other business. It takes a little bit of time, patience, persistence, sacrifice, and HEART. But I've been able to grow a successful business in less than a year and it has surpassed where I imagined I would be in this amount of time.

If you'd like to talk more, I'd love to chat! Message me or email me at krystajmeyer@gmail.com

My 21 Days with the Ultimate Reset

I can't believe that these 21 days have come and gone already. I'll admit - about half way through week 2 I felt like another week and a half seemed like a lot. But this last week just flew by and I got really used to eating everything in the plan (and NOT eating others things).

Most people are excited to see my results because I have talked a little bit about associated weight loss that just naturally happens with the program since it's a cleanse and detox. And I thought I would be most excited about the weight loss too since I was in a rut before this and had gained a lot of weight (for me). But I'm actually much more excited about the way I feel and for the things I've learned throughout the process.

What did I learn and what did I like about it?

1. I am pretty damn strong. Excuse my language, but I'm that serious about this one. 21 days of being insanely strict with nutrition is hard. 21 days of no coffee. I LOVE coffee. I just drink it black and I learned that I drank WAY too much of it. I know that it was contributing a little bit to my feeling of being bloated and a little more anxious. So while I'll start drinking coffee again - I'm going to limit it to a small amount every day. But besides coffee...21 days of no wine, no sugar, nothing processed whatsoever. The only thing I drank was distilled water (with added minerals). The first week I was able to have a little fish and grains - but after that it was mostly just veggies and fruit. I had to say NO to a lot of temptations throughout these 3 weeks. I feel like superwoman that I never cheated and said "just this once". It's hard watching everyone else eat yummy snacks and treats like ice cream and wine but I just reminded myself that I'm doing this for me and I invested in the program because I wanted to see it through and to feel better. I wanted to feel like ME again.

2. It really is all about nutrition. If you want to feel better and if you want to reach your goals - your nutrition really has to be in check. While I promote regular exercise to everyone and anyone, including myself - you really cannot out-exercise a bad diet. The weeks leading up to this I felt like I was spiraling out of control with hand fulls of this and that and sometimes my emotions and stress led me to binge eating snacks at night. I am not proud of that at all - but that is the reality of where I was at. I worked out more and harder to try to make up for it but that doesn't work. The most important thing you can do for your body is to feed it with clean, whole foods and limit the crap as much as possible.

3. This kind of goes along with number 2, but what I eat directly reflects on how I feel, especially emotionally. When I eat things that are bad for me, my body feels like crap - which in turns makes me more stressed out and emotional and guilty - you get the picture. Crap food makes me bloated and uncomfortable and it's really just not worth it. I will not let myself backslide after this - not after all of this hard work to get my body to it's natural state and not when I feel so amazing.

4. I miss protein. I'm looking forward to eating fish and chicken again :) I know that once I start working out again, the protein that I'm used to eating will be very important to give me the energy I need to push through.

5. I really miss working out. But I also learned like I said above - I don't need to go super hard-core all the time because as long as my nutrition is in check, following a program and just doing those workouts is more than enough to keep building muscle and staying healthy. I'm going to re-do the original 21 Day Fix program with my new Summer Challenge group that is just starting and I can't wait to do the program again! I've decided to do the original one instead of the 21 Day Fix Extreme one because I want to start a little slower after being down for 3 weeks and I know my body will need to build back up slowly. It's a great program and I know it will be the best thing for my body right now (and my knee while we are still figuring out what's wrong with it).

One thing that was tough in the program was all the time it took to prep the meals and grocery shop. I tried to follow all of the recipes which are different most days so it took a lot of prep and timing and cooking and clean up. But it was worth all of the hard work.

So - my body feels amazing. I've slept more these last 3 weeks that I have in a long time. My body has rested and healed and I'm ready for the next step.

Now for the fun part - the results!

I went back and forth thinking about if I would share my weight loss or my actual weight. I didn't want to share my before weight because I'm really embarrassed about it. It was the highest I've ever weighed in over a year. I don't even know what happened...it just slowly kept creeping up and I wasn't making the necessary changes to stop it. But I have nothing to be embarrassed about because this is REAL LIFE. We all go through highs and low - and I am no exception, even if I am a health and fitness coach. I'm also constantly on display on social media and in my challenge groups and I think it all started to play mind games with me. I felt overwhelmed with trying to be the best I could be, that I just felt tired and gave in too much. I hope that can make sense. So I am baring it all out there so I can be real with you all like I always am.

So my before weight, when I first started this program was 146.9. Wow, right. I'm 5'7" and while I don't let the scale define me, I'm usually most comfortable around 135 lbs with my body build. I have gained a lot of muscle especially after doing the 21 Dy Fix Extreme program - but a lot of that weight was definitely not just muscle. It was all in my stomach and legs. I know the pictures and the weight can be a little hard to believe since I posted pics a few months ago of me in a swim suit after I did the 3 Day Refresh and I felt and looked much different then. But that just goes to show how fast my body can react when I'm not being diligent with my nutrition. And with my knee injury bothering me - I just let my guard down. And my body bloats and reacts to any processed food VERY fast because it's just not used to it anymore. So please remember - all the little decisions you make DO add up over time. The extra glass of wine here, the handful of animal crackers there....the emotional/stress binge eating....My weight this morning after completing 21 Days on this program was 133.5. That is 13.4 pounds in 21 days. It feels like 20 lbs though - let me tell you.

And here is my before and after pic. I had to prop the phone on the couch to take it myself so please excuse the weird angle. :) All the bloat in my belly and legs has gone down and I feel so much leaner. I lost 13 inches all around my body - which was 2 in my waist, 2.5 in my hips, 4.5 total between both thighs, 2 in my chest, and 1 in each arm.

Now what?

There is a plan that you're supposed to follow after the Reset is done. You slowly re-introduce different foods so that your body doesn't freak out. I'll slowly reintroduce some grains like oats, quinoa, and brown rice - but I'm going to limit it to that. I'm still going to stay away from dairy. But I am going to slowly bring a little caffeine back in to because I miss my E&E before my workouts (pre-workout formula) and I really want a hot cup of coffee! So this next week I'll be slowly doing that and then next week I'll be following the 21 Day Fix meal plan with my challengers.

I am SO HAPPY that I decided to just go for it and complete this program. My mind, body, and spirit all feel refreshed and renewed and it has made me feel far better than I ever could have imagined. I'm ready to build these muscles back up again!!

June's HOT Specials

I always say this, but I love the start of the new month because I always love to see what programs are going to be the monthly special. I do always secretly wish that the 21 Day Fix and the 21 Day Fix Extreme challenge packs will go on sale because...well, they rock. And I love to run 21 Day Fix specific challenge groups and when people can get their programs and save money that makes me happy too!

So with that being said - I'm SO excited to announce that the June specials are all 21 Day Fix related! What exactly is on sale?

**21 Day Fix Challenge Pack with Shakeology
**21 Day Fix Kickstart Challenge Pack with Shakeology AND the 3 Day Refresh
**21 Day Fix Extreme Challenge pack with Shakeology
**21 Day Fix Extreme Kickstart Challenge pack with Shakeology AND the 3 Day Refresh.

The 21 Day Fix is one of the newest, hottest programs in the fitness world. Trainer Autumn Calabrese has designed a 21 Day fitness program that is simple to follow with rapid weight loss results. The unique nutrition plan uses specifically portioned storage food containers that eliminate the guesswork from portion control. No weighing, measuring, or counting calories, carbs, or points. If it fits in the container, you can eat it. And you'll lose weight.

The kit includes 7 color coded portion controlled containers (dishwasher safe, microwave safe, BPA and DEHP free), a workout program including 7 different workouts, a nutrition plan (including a super helpful restaurant guide), a 26 oz Shakeology shaker cup, a 30 day supply of Shakeology, and a spot in my challenge group that comes with the support and accountability from me, you FREE coach.

Seriously - summer is right around the corner (despite the temps being in the 40s yesterday)! Now is the perfect time to focus on your health and fitness so you can FEEL good this summer.

My new 21 Day Fix exclusive challenge group is starting on June 15th. It features this fool-proof, portion controlled eating plan designed to specifically mit your needs. It tells you exactly what to see, with a 30 minute/day worout program that you do in the comfort of your own home. I'll share my tips, recipes, support - all in a private group setting in Facebook.

The biggest thing people lack when they try to start a program on their own is accountability and that is exacty what my groups provide. And it works....I am proof and so are tons of my challengers.

I'll share with you what has helped me get healthy and fit along my journey. I've also helped dozens of other people get results with this program - losing inches, pounds, and gaining new healthy, life-long habits, better health and confidence in just 30 DAYS. I'm all about ending the trend of yo-yo dieting. NO MORE DIETING. It is truly a life changing experience and I just want it for everyone.

Feel free to check out my 21 Day Fix page to learn more about the program and my experience the first time I did it. I also have a 21 Day Fix Extreme page for those of you looking to step up your workouts a notch.

Email me or message me via Facebook and I'd love to answer your questions and get you started.