I am the real deal

I am the real deal. I don't mean that in a conceited, cocky way though.

Here's what I mean, I'm a real person, a real woman, real wife, real mother. I don't have help around the house except for my husband when he's home from work. I have 4 kids and I run my own business.

I am not the perfect mother. I often say the wrong things to my kids, and I do raise my voice - a lot.

I have struggles with food and weight, just like a lot of people do.  Mine might not be as noticeable as others, but I go through my times when I want to raid the pantry. I go through my days when I feel frustrated because the numbers on the scale went up instead down.  Although I love to cook healthy, I don't buy everything organic. I drink cow's milk sometimes. I don't eat grass-fed beef. I'm trying to get better, I'm working on it.

I don't like the way my face is changing as I age, and I don't like what the skin right above my navel has become after having 4 kids.

I don't like waking up at 5 am to exercise. I'd rather not exercise on some days.

I didn't have an athletic childhood, and I wasn't a very popular or outgoing kid.  As a matter of fact I was very timid, shy and maybe even mopey.  I didn't come from a rich family, or even middle class. It was lower middle class.

I bounced form job to job. I couldn't find my niche. I'm not organized and I have some clutter hot spots in my home.

Too many people think its easy for me to stay in shape, to eat right, to run a successful business from home, to stay positive. But I'm real, just like you all are.

However, I am always working on turning my negatives into positives. One good and bad quality of mine is the fact that I'm rebellious in a way. I refuse to let a negative situation get the best of me. My rebellious nature has gotten me in a lot of tight spots and trouble. But thankfully its also helped push me to do better. When someone tells me it can't be done, I will try like hell to do it.

I look back at my life and I'm sometimes tempted to fantasize about; if I only did this, or if my parents had paid for braces for my teeth, or if I didn't use that credit card, if I didn't date that guy... But if my circumstances had been perfect, if I was Ms. Popular in high school, if my parents had money, if I had been more athletic, I might not be where I am today.  Where I am now is being a real person for you.

I'm a real person who coaches real people. Its not pretty and its not perfect, but its me. And I get where you're coming from, and I don't think I'm better than you.  I just want to help you be a better you.

I'd love to hear from you. Please leave a comment below.

Is it hard or is it easy? Only we can determine that

Why does it seem like its easier for some people to stick with an exercise or nutrition program? Why is it that some people can find the time to workout and make the most of it? Why do some people struggle with all of this? 

I know many of you who do struggle with this will quickly come up with defensive answers like "I'm too old" or "I don't have enough time." "I'm just meant to be this weight." "I can't control myself." "Its genetic." "I hate exercise." "Diets are too restrictive." "It will take too long." "Its too hard!" Trust me, I've heard them all and may have used one or two myself.  Nobody is perfect. If I don't watch what I eat and how much I exercise I can easily put on 15 lbs.  I know, I've been there.

But getting in shape or back in shape doesn't have to be hard at all.  Its really quite an easy formula. If you need to lose weight, you need to burn more calories than you eat. Its that simple and easy.  No weird science behind it.  The deficit in calories can be from adding exercise into your day or reducing calories, or a combo of both.

Its really scary because the US government estimates that over 2/3 of the adult US population is overweight or obese.  That means a lot of people out there either find it way too hard to do the right thing, or they've just totally given up hope.  What would make someone give up hope to jeopardize their health that way? Don't you think you're worth more than settling for high blood pressure, diabetes, heart disease, joint problems? If you are one of the majority of people who believes that there is a God or Creator, do you really think this is what he had in mind when He created you?  I don't think so. I think you definitely deserve better than to settle on the new "average" in the US. 

So let's quickly take a look on how easy it can be to lose 1 pound per week. If you lost 1 pound per week, that would be 52 lbs in one year! That's amazing!! And its easy to do. You just need to train your brain to 1) appreciate you and love yourself enough to take better care of yourself, 2) be positive about this, don't worry if you mess up, its not a race 3) realize that even the smallest changes you make will result in huge long term health gains.

By cutting your calories by approximately 500 calories per day you can lose 1lb per week.  The cool part is, if you exercise, you don't have to cut 500, it can be less than 500 (or even 0) depending on how much exercise you do!

But let's just tackle eating for now.  Here are some ideas on how to cut out those 500 calories.  I don't want you to cut the good stuff out like veggies, or high quality lean protein, we're talking the stuff your body really doesn't need:

3 homemade choc. chip cookies = 500 cals (approx)
2 beers, + 2 oz of chips = 500 cals (approx)
1-1/2 cups of ice cream = 500 cals (approx)
2 12 oz glasses of soda, + 1 cup of pretzles + 500 cals (approx)
1 tall mocha Frappucino + 1 plain bagel 500 cals (approx)

Now I don't want you skipping meals to cut out those calories. Skipping breakfast and lunch is probably the worst thing you can do because you'll be famished before dinner and on a rampage in the kitchen.  The above is just some of the extras we may include in our day that could be cut out if you really wanted to cut some pounds.

Hard or easy? Its really depends on how you look at it and how badly you want to improve your health before a doctor orders you too.

I would love to help you with healthy meal ideas and custom meal plans.  Having a meal plan will make losing weight and your life so much easier.  I love using my meal planner,it helps save me time and guessing what to make.  Click here if you'd like to take a 30-day trial of the meal plan I have to offer.  If you don't like it within the 30-days you get a full refund. 

Please feel free to leave a comment here or email me at fitwithjessica@live.com

My favorite shake and the results I'm seeing

You've heard me talk about Shakeology and why I love it. I'm a very frugal and skeptical person by nature.  I didn't want to spend the money on it.  Plus I've been around long enough to see products come out filled with empty promises.  But because I get so many people asking me, "what should I do to lose weight?" or "what supplements do you recommend?" I had to give it a try to form an honest opinion about it. I figured if I didn't like it or it turned out to be bogus, I'd send it back for a full refund.  Nothing to lose at all.

Well that was back in March, and I have been using it daily since then.  Not only am I using it and loving it, but my husband who is even more skeptical than me is using it too.

I think most of you who know me, know that I am honest about what I believe works and what doesn't.  If I try something and don't like it, I tell you.  And for my husband to tell people at work about it speaks volumes.

I've gotten so many people who I coach emailing me telling me how much they love using it too.  Its really that good.

I have it everyday for lunch.  My schedule is busy with being a stay at home mom of 4 kids.  I also run my own online fitness business and have a house to take care of.  Besides doing all of this, I work out everyday and eat about 5 meals per day.  I need to eat every 2-3 hours or I get cranky, jittery and ready to pig out on anything. So its very important for me to fuel my body with good, healthy nutrition in order to keep going.

Here is a picture that compares the cost and nutrition of Shakeology vs. a fast food lunch (which would be just as easy):

Seeing a comparison like that really helped to justify the cost for me.  I could even buy frozen dinners to keep on hand and its still going to be around $4 per serving and really high in sodium and artificial ingredients. I get it for less than $3 per serving with my discount and free shipping (you can ask me how you can do that).

What made Shakeology even more attractive to me was the fact that I'm doing something healthy for my body beside stuffing food in my mouth.  Since using Shakeology, I've noticed:

• My nails seem stronger and look better (even on my toes LOL). 
• I don't crave sweets anymore (I used to indulge in a bowl of ice cream every night). 
• I don't feel as sore after hard workouts
• I manage to keep my weight right on target even if I miss a few days of working out
• I don't get monthly cramps anymore (sorry had to throw that in because this was something that really bothered me every month and left me unable to workout)
• I'm able to feel satisfied and not too full during my afternoon workouts

Below is a video to show you what doctors are also saying about Shakeology.




Listen, I'd love to hear from you and get your feedback.  Feel free to leave a comment here or email me at fitwithjessica@live.com

If you have any questions or need help with working out and eating right, please feel free to contact me.

My vacation and staying fit

Vacations, we all love them,cherish them and eagerly await them. We even diet and exercise right before our vacation in order to look good, maybe even hot, and to perhaps feel great while on our retreat.  But most of the time we will throw all of that hard work out the window when we go away, only to feel bloated, guilty and maybe 5 pounds heavier when we return.

I don't know about you, but I can still have a great time on my vacation if I take the time out to squeeze in exercise and plan some healthy meals and snacks.  I know this isn't a very popular idea, but trust me, if you give it a try you won't be disappointed.

Recently, my family and I had the opportunity to take some time off and travel to Florida to visit with my mom and also my dad. We stayed at Disney's Animal Kingdom Lodge, Kidani Village.  First off, we were blessed to stay at this amazing resort.  It made it very easy to keep up with eating right and sticking to my P90X routine (at the time of my vacation I was in week 11 now in week 12).  We stayed in a room with a fully equipped kitchen. I know there are a lot of people who don't find cooking on their vacation fun, but with 4 kids it really saves us from a lot of headaches and spending too much money on food.  Knowing we would have the kitchen, I packed my vanilla whey protein and Shakeology, along with things like plain oatmeal, whole grain bread, beans, brown rice and other healthy goodies.  Once we got down there I hit up Wal-Mart for the rest of our pantry. 

You can save a ton of money, time and calories by just eating breakfast in your room. With a dishwasher right there all we had to do was prepare, eat and stack dishes. Then we were ready to hit the pool.

We did indulge a few times and ordered private poolside dining, but we tried to stay healthy with that too.  The resort made it easy to pick healthy choices such as Tandoori chicken with chickpeas.  But for most of the days, I just ran up to the room to blend up (well my husband did that) a chocolate and peanut butter Shakeology.

Exercise wasn't a problem and I really looked forward to that part of the day. I woke up around 6:30 am (I know, I'm crazy), every morning to stretch and then take a walk to the fitness center.  I know this doesn't sound like something to look forward to, but the walk to the fitness center was so beautiful, relaxing and peaceful. The sun would just be coming up, there were flowers everywhere and cool little lamps to guide your way.  I really enjoyed this sacred time to myself every morning and felt this was truly one of the best parts of my vacation.

I stuck to my P90X schedule as closely as possible. Since I was on vacation, I didn't want to spend too much time in the gym, so I adjusted my routine to include 25 minutes on the treadmill or stepper and then 25 minutes of a strength routine.  Then on my scheduled cardio days I did 35-40 minutes on the treadmill or stepper and then 10 minutes of abs.  I feel like even though it was a quick routine, I worked really hard.

Again, I know most of you might find this not fun at all, or maybe even slightly crazy, but I didn't gain any weight while away and no feelings of "why did I eat that much?" type guilt.

I've got lots more to blog about, but will wait until later on.

I'd love to hear from you! Please feel free to comment or send me an email to fitwithjessica@live.com.

Featured Coach - Bill Storno, Hiker, Biker, Skier, P90Xer

If you're looking for advice on how proper exercise can improve you hiking, biking and skiing, Bill Storno is your Coach.  Bill is currently doing P90X and he's also incorporating hiking and biking right now.  As soon as ski season starts, you'll be sure to find Bill on the mountains.

Bill has been active for most of his life.  He knows the importance of exercise and nutrition to stay active and healthy. Bill is working on a blog http://billstorno.com/bestlifeblog/ and you can also connect with him at http://teambeachbody.com/bestlife4u. 

He can help you get into better shape to improve your hikes, your bike rides or your skiing.