Motivation Monday and the Beachbody Holiday Sale!

Happy Monday everyone!  I feel like Mondays have kind of a bad reputation.  Even now that I am a stay at home mom, Mondays are the hardest day of the week.  For me, I think this is because I fall out of my routine on the weekend.  I get up later, I don't workout in the morning, we might go out to eat one meal, and I stay up way too late on Sunday night trying to get things done that I had put off all weekend.  If I had to point to one behavior that has the most significant impact on my Mondays, it would be staying up too late on Sundays.  By staying up late Sunday night, you are potentially putting your whole week in jeopardy.  I say this because I firmly believe that what you do on Monday sets the tone for the rest of the week.  Regarding your workouts, never miss a Monday.  If you do, you are more likely to miss other workouts during the week. It's easy to say "well I already messed up once this week, I can try again next week".  Don't say that!  Don't let your one missed workout be the start of a trend. Tuesday is a new day, treat it like one.  

After staying up way too late last night (Sunday night) and not getting up early enough to get my workout in right away, I have decided that last night was the last time I will do that to myself.  It will be the last time I self-sabotage my Monday morning.  I will give a progress update next week and let you all know if it makes a difference in my Monday.

Now on to something exciting....

The Beachbody Holiday Sale!

Coaches were given a preview of the holiday sale that goes live tomorrow night, and let me tell you, there are some crazy good deals on programs, equipment, and apparel.  Check out the graphic below:

I've got my eye on Les Mills Pump and Combat.  Will probably also get a Jump Mat and some clothes.  These deals will go live tomorrow night (Tuesday Nov 25th) at 8pm EST.  Based on past year's holiday sales, there is a good chance that most of these items will sell out in the first couple hours of the sale, so if you see something you want, make sure to log on as close to 8pm as you can.  

Here is the link to the sale:

https://www.TeamBeachbody.com/Shop/HolidaySpecials?referringRepId=499028

Happy shopping!

   

Days 14-15 of the 21 Day Fix and Week 2 Results

Enjoyed a lazy weekend this past weekend.  Our agility training class was moved to a later time for the winter, so we can now sleep in both days of the weekend.  I'm kind of torn about this.  I get into a routine during the week where I get up early and workout before my daughter wakes up, and I know it would be easier to keep that routine if I didn't sleep in on the weekends, but I'm a girl who really enjoys her sleep.  My husband does too, and he is who makes sure I get up in the mornings on the weekdays. You could call him my accountabili-buddy when it comes to dragging my butt out of bed.  On weekends though, he likes to sleep in even later than I ever would, which makes it really hard to get myself up early enough to get a workout in. I know that consistency is key, and its just a matter of finding the motivation to get myself up, no excuses. 

My eating plan was on point all weekend.  We didn't eat out for the first weekend in I can't even remember how long.  I only got one workout in on Sunday, PiYo Sculpt.  Today, I did get both workouts in, PiYo Drench and 21 Day Fix Cardio Fix.  I am officially done with this round of PiYo!  I will share a review of this program as well as my results from the 8 weeks in my next blog post.  It feels great to see myself through a program from start to finish.  Now my focus is just on 21 Day fix. I will have to do some double days to get caught up on my 21 Day Fix workouts, but I should be able to do that no problem now that I do not have to split my focus on two different programs. 

Yesterday marked the end of week 2 on the 21 Day Fix.  Today I weighed in and took measurements.  I am happy to report that I am another 2.8 pounds down and I have lost an additional 3 inches, bring my 2 week total to 5.6 pounds and 8 inches.  One more week to go!

On Mondays, we have out weekly Bombshell Dynasty Team Call with my fellow Beachbody coaches.  Today the topic was how not to lead with your emotions.  It was a great call, and I left it inspired to put even more of myself into helping others through my coaching business. Beachbody is such a great company to work for, and my team has some of the most successful, supportive, helpful, and kind coaches in the business.  It is from this call that I got the Motivation Monday gem I'm going to share today. Here it is:

How would you approach your life differently if there was no chance of failure?

  

Becoming a Morning Person

Let me start by saying I am not a morning person by nature, and that is putting it mildly. Thankfully, my toddler is also not a morning person, so for the past year of my stay-at-home mom adventure, we have happily started our days after 9am.  I recently made to decision to become an Independent Beachbody Coach, primarily to help others in their fitness journeys, but to also contribute to our family finances.  If you read my first blog post, you know that I am one of those people who goes all out when I commit to something.  I have made pretty lofty goals for myself regarding this new endeavor and have been studying the elite coaches in our business to figure out what behaviors have made them successful.  One of the behaviors that all of these successful coaches have in common, much to my dismay, is that they are early risers.  To clarify, when I say early, I mean very early, like 5am early.  Yuck.

The more I researched behaviors that lead to success, the clearer it became. Successful people make it a point to get up early. This lead me to research how to become a morning person and come up with a plan to help me learn this behavior. Here is what I have found:

1. Baby Steps -- Start by turning back your alarm by 15 minutes a day or every couple days. Some people can go cold turkey and turn their alarm back to 5 am in one day, but if you want a better chance at forming a lasting behavior, small increments are the way to go.
2. Create a Routine -- Humans are creatures of habit.  Most of us thrive on routines.  Making a morning routine and sticking to it will help you pop out of bed with your first alarm instead of hitting snooze.  Consistency is key.  You may have heard that it takes 21 days to form a habit.  It can actually take a bit longer than that.  One study I read recently determined it took members of their test group an average of 66 days to form a new habit.  Be patient!
3. Get Moving -- Getting your body moving soon after you wake up will energize you just as much, if not more than, your morning cup of coffee.  Even just a set of jumping jacks will do the trick.  Make a morning workout part of your routine.
4. Accountability -- Tell someone a friend or family member what time you want to wake up.  This helps your mind commit to behavior.  If you need it, ask whoever you tell to send a wake-up text or call.  It won't take long before you are waking up before your accountabili-buddy sends their message.  Don't want to rope someone else into helping you get up?  I found a free app for iphone called BetterMe you can download that Publicly shames you by posting to your Facebook that you snoozed your alarm.
5. Get Enough Sleep -- Your body needs at least 7-8 hours of sleep depending on the length of your sleep cycle.  If you are not getting enough quality sleep, you won't be able to sustain early wake-ups and still be productive and efficient in your daily task.  That kind of defeats the purpose of getting up early, doesn't it?  I really struggle to fall asleep at night.  It takes me an hour or two of laying in bed, in the dark, to fall asleep.  A couple of tips I have found and begun to implement are unplugging 45 minutes to an hour before bed.  Electronics stimulate our brains, which is not what we want before bed.  Also, I read an article that stated the blue light emitted by our cell phones can change our biological clocks by making our bodies think it is still daytime when its not. This prevents us from falling asleep quickly after we have put our phones away for the night.  I have also found that for myself, I cannot exercise late at night.  The reason it is good to exercise soon after you wake up is the same reason it is not ideal to exercise late at night.  Try to relax the hour before you go to bed. Read a book, take a warm shower or bath, or do whatever helps you feel calm and content.

Today is day two in my path to becoming a morning person.  So far, so good.  I am still struggling to get out bed with my alarm, but once I get through the morning routine I created, I feel great. Are you a morning person? What tips and trick have helped you get up and going?  Feel free to share in the comment section for this post. I'd love to hear what works for you!