Falling down 6 times, time to get up a 7th!

Mother of two under the age of 3, a husband who works full time, and is in the Military which takes up more of his time, and of course husbands need their "me" time. (Without it they turn into these beautiful animals who could eat your face off) Yeah my husbands "me" time is ESSENTIAL! Along with those responsibilities, we just got our very first PUPPY! His name is Buddy, and he's a beautiful Rottweiler! Although for someone who grew up with absolutely ZERO pets, it's a tough challenge for me to keep up on. I'm in charge of the bills, the accounts, the mail, the house work, the yard work, the babysitting duties (Finding babysitters, and or Babysitting haha). I'll be returning to work in January, so lets add that to the list! We just bought our first home and I'm still trying to manage it and try to find the best functionality to everything in it. I've moved furniture around maybe every other week because I get a better idea. I'm a person who loves change, so in a month or two I'm sure my home will look completely different. I love organization, and cleaning. (Not always true haha I have my BAD days) I also love being with friends and family, basically I love ALL company. (I'd do anything for an "Adult conversation"...my 2 year old just isn't cutting it for me) Along with all this, I just had a baby, so my body...well lets just say it's a train wreck and I need to clean that mess up! Like yesterday! BUT, I keep failing! I try eating healthy, and working out for 2 weeks, then slowly move back into my awful habits of snacking on junk food, drinking a soda here or there, and not working out diligently! Now with all my responsibilities I get a sweat on just doing all my yard work/housework/childcare/etc. But that's not enough! So here's my plan! I keep failing, but I'm going to KEEP TRYING! :D 

Step one: Create a Plan! 

My plan is to workout 5X a week for 30 minutes or more every day! I have chosen Zumba, Turbo Fire, and walking Buddy (our puppy) . I have set alarms for 3 times a week to wake up early and take Buddy for a walk or do a Zumba/Turbo Fire session in the morning (Before my kids and hubby wake up)  --my hubby has a swing shift job...boo--

Step two: DO IT!

I have set alarms so I can remind myself to workout, but sometimes the snooze button or even the cancel button is too easy to dismiss and "forget" about working out. But it's there to remind me anyway. So step two is to just DO IT! I need to realize as a mother I can't focus on myself ALL DAY, I have kiddos to take care of and to watch 24/7. SO, I need to remember to TAKE some time for ME. Because in order to watch and take care of my own children I need to be taking care of ME! So that's Step two. DO IT! 

Step three: Surround yourself with POSITIVE and HELPFUL environment. 

I am implementing a "clean eating" system in my kitchen. So far...it's SO HARD! Especially when you have a husband who isn't quite all the way on board to switch out our normal junk food snacks to healthier options. Who doesn't like chips and crackers?! haha I'm also keeping my home clean ( I tend to want to do more if I'm organized and clean) I also make sure I'm thinking positively! I say 5 positive things about myself when I start getting low. (It helps!) 

Step four: Have a Bad day? WHO CARES! Start again the next day! 

If you're anything like me, I have to start things at the beginning of the week, or the beginning of the day, or the beginning of the month, and if I mess up, I "couldn't" start up again until it reached the beginning of something, so I have DESTROYED that part of me (well tried too as best I could) Now, as soon as I make a mistake and slip up by eating junk food, or snooze on the workout button, I have to start again immediately no matter! (Yeah...let's see how this goes! haha) 

Step five: BE PROUD OF SMALL SUCCESS! 

As a mom, it's all about the little things! So if you lose 5 pounds, or actually wake up in the morning to try to workout, or as small as saying, Keep going! You can do this! CELEBRATE those moments! 

Step six: FOLLOW THROUGH :) 

In order for results, or progress in general, you need to FOLLOW THROUGH. If that means getting up when you really need the rest to go workout...that's what you're going to do! You must follow through though!!! 

Okay that's all I have for now! I'm going to start tomorrow morning! It's midnight right now so I really need to hit the sack so I can get some sleep for an early morning! Goodnight world! Bring on tomorrow! 

Having a baby does "great" things to your body...NOT! During my labour I tore 4 times, and one of those was on the outside! (I gave birth to a beautiful baby girl, Marlee Talavou Ochsenbein, in Monterey CA) Not sure really how I tore 4 times, but all I know is that the healing process...SUCKS! 6 weeks on TOP of the already awaited 6 weeks! Can you imagine having to WAIT for 12 weeks!~ Not fun! 
I started my journey to lose weight back in December of 2012. I decided to join a "Biggest Loser" challenge with my friends. The accountability to send in my weight weekly was just what I needed to keep on track! Then the challenge ended. (Don't you hate it when that happens!) So I decided to try and do it on my own. 
For those of you who don't know me I played sports growing up, mainly Soccer, Basketball and my personal favorite, Volleyball! So being part of a team was what motivated me to stay active and fit. This is something I didn't grasp until this last past month.) SO, despite my efforts to try and lose weight, I kept going back to my old ways. I decided to start something new! 

1. I downloaded a "Tracking" app : "Lose It"
   -It works great for me because there are challenges on the app that hold me accountable for logging in my food intake and my weight. 
2. Find a workout buddy! 
   -My husband and I decided to go to a nearby gym together. This I love because I don't have to worry about waiting for someone to get there, I can just wake him up and we can go together. Also it's much cheaper! (This is always a plus!) 
   -Unfortunately my husband isn't always available to work out the same time as me, SO a goal of mine is to find another "workout buddy". 
3. Accountability! 
   -I contacted one of my close friends, and asked her if I could record my weight and send it to her every Monday to keep me accountable for my weekly progress. Unfortunately I'm not the best at remembering to send the weigh, or take a picture of my scale every Monday morning, so that is my second goal. 
4. GOALS! 
  -I decided to pick ONE goal every day and to try and accomplish at least that one goal for the day. Once I have I can feel that sense of accomplishment! Baby steps are always steps forward! :) 
  -As for "Long-term" goals, I try to keep them as much "short-term" as possible. I like to have easy goals to reach so that my motivation can be boosted! 
5. Allowing myself to NOT be perfect! 
  -We all have our BAD days, so why not accept it now and just make sure to know and remember to start again as soon as you fall off! Remember we are all humans and we all make mistakes! If you fall, PICK YOURSELF BACK UP!!! The only crime would to be to let yourself keep falling! 
6. Support! 
   -Nothing succeeds more then someone with a good support system behind them! I am very lucky to have a wonderful husband who supports me and a family who is behind me 110% of the way! I am blessed with this factor. Unfortunately not everyone is as blessed with those aspects as I was. Everyone has someone out there! Find them, get to know them, befriend them, love them, forgive them, do what it takes to build your support system!! 
  -One thing I KNOW for sure is, if you DON'T support those you love, they will NOT support you!  So SUPPORT THOSE YOU LOVE!!! 
7. Resources! 
   -You can't really eat healthy if you don't know how to shop for healthy food
   -You can't really workout if you don't have the right equipment/clothing!
   -You can't really drink all the water you need if you don't have clean water, or the right tools to hold the water!
   -BASICALLY, get into the habit of buying healthy foods, getting the right equipment (Even if it's just new shoes/or a simple T-shirt and shorts) Get a water bottle (These are CHEAP) and  keep track of your activity during the day!!! 
8. BE POSITIVE: 
   -Ask anyone, if you have a negative attitude towards working out, eating healthy, losing weight, YOU WON'T DO ANY OF THEM SUCCESSFULLY!!! 
   -Being positive allows your brain to open up new rooms called the "Appreciation rooms" These rooms are full of compliments, good things, accomplishments in your life!  ....
STAY IN THIS ROOM!! If you linger to the "Depreciation room" Then you'll get lost in your own negative aura! 
  -Simple...BE POSITIVE! 
9. MOST IMPORTANT!! FOLLOW THROUGH WITH YOUR GOALS!! 
- This is probably the most important because your goals cannot be achieved if you're sitting on your butt all day!!! GO GET THINGS DONE!!!  
10. Be YOURSELF!
   -Just because your friend can lose weight one way doesn't mean your a loss cause if you can't do it the same way. Everyone works DIFFERENTLY...did you hear me? DIFFERENTLY!!! So compare to YOURSELF no one else! 

Hope you enjoyed my tips!! Wish me luck on #9! :) 

Getting up after you fall, and Rising!

So as usual, I have a week or two that I usually slack on eating healthy and exercising, and it's discouraging when I hit that week that I want to do good, and be healthy, and I've gained all my weight back. It gets so frustrating! SO....I've decided to try a couple things out! There are a couple ideas I had to improve my consistency!

1. GET A WORKOUT BUDDY!
-Personally for me, I find that having someone there to push me, and to support me while I do my workouts is important. Otherwise, I find myself using excuses to get out of working out, claiming I have "better things to do" or that "I'm too tired", which brings me to my next point!
2. GET ENOUGH SLEEP! (7-8 HOURS)
- If you're like me, you like to stay up late and watch movies, and sleep in until it's full daylight outside. I've decided to pick a STRICT bedtime, and wake up at the SAME TIME every morning!
3. EAT A GOOD BREAKFAST! (Shakeology)
-If you know me, you know I sale the product "Shakeology". It's a good nutritious shake that gives you the healthiest meal you'll ever have! It comes in two flavors, Chocolate ( my personal favorite) and Greenberry, for those fruit lovers! You can add whatever you'd like to the shake! My favorite is, 2 bananas, 1 c. milk, ice, and the chocolate mix! It's SO good! But anyways, this shake not only provides me with a mouth watering breakfast, but sustenance for my stomach until lunch. It also decreases my wants for sugar, which is my weakness! Having it every morning although for me can make me sick of it haha, so I switch it up here and there from Breakfast to Lunch or dinner some days. It's a great meal if you're in a hurry, and you only have time to blend up a shake! It's so yummy too!
4. COUNT MY CALORIES!
-My mom bought this app on her itouch that lets her count her calories through out the day! It looked fabulous, so I'm going to download it and start counting! Watching my calories is important for the first few days because I will be able to see if I've been going over my suggested amount or if I'm good where I'm at. This will be a good thing to do!
5. EXERCISE 30-50 MIN. 5 DAYS A WEEK!
- I have programs that I've been doing and I absolutely love! I also sell these products, so if you're interested at all, let me know and I'll send you in the right direction! I personally do, INSANITY, and TURBO JAM. They are completely different, but that's why I love them! Insanity is filled with Insane cardio and insane moves that will get your body in the best shape ever! As for  Turbo Jams, it's a fun way to workout for beginners! There is kick boxing, and dancing, and all sorts of fun things to do with Turbo Jam! To check out more workout programs, go to my website at : www.beachbodycoach.com/teamelora and click either SHOP or search for workout programs! It will take you to ALL the different kinds we have, and trust me, there's one JUST FOR YOU in this selection, so be EXCITED!
6. BE POSITIVE!
-I don't know how many times I've looked in the mirror and just said, " I give up...it's too late to change that." Or, " Wow...I look terrible. oh well" The things I need to be focused on are my positive attributes and those will take me to success, not only with life, but with my own personal fitness, and health. Positive thinking does AMAZING things! Tell yourself: I CAN DO THIS, I CAN DO THIS, I CAN DO THIS, I CAN DO THIS, I CAN DO THIS 5 times to yourself or until you BELIEVE It! The possibilities are endless! The Sky is the limit!
7. LOVE
-I think showing other people LOVE or doing SERVICE for others really does something to your mind set. It makes you think, well if I can help someone, then I sure can help myself in being better for them. Do something for someone else!
8. SMILE!
-If you smiled all day long, I don't think you could be angry at all. Or if in a bad situation, you get angry and decide to smile, there's no way that argument could happen! Smiles avoid the angry moments, which is awesome! Also, if you were smiling while working out, then it sends endorphins into you and makes you feel SO MUCH BETTER!!!

-Well, I can't think of anymore, but if any of you have any ideas, let me know! I'd be so happy to try them out! Thanks again! And don't forget to visit my website at : www.beachbodycoach.com/teamelora

CHALLENGE YOURSELF!

Nutrition Tips/ Losing Inches!

For me, getting up onto that scale is like taking the death walk. For people like me, I hit dissappointment whenever I step on. SO, I decided to ditch the scale and stick with inches! I have lost 4 inches around my hips, and I'm STOKED! Getting great news like this has helped me every day to stay motivated ! It's been a great adventure! Now I'm still human so I eat unhealthy here and there. Especially because of the holidays. But I recently read a Nutrition tip, and it noted that the holidays are no excuse to eating unhealthy. Just because you're on vacation, doesn't mean your eating habits are too. So she gave a couple tips which I absolutely loved! 1. Keep your high calorie foods small portioned, and your vegtables to a very LARGE portion when eating a meal. 2. When you're craving that yummy chocolate cake in the kitchen, distract yourself, they say it takes around 2 minutes for your craving to disappear. (Count me in for that one, I'm a big chocolate/sugar craver.) 3. When you are craving those things, ask yourself " What do I want more?" For ex. Do I want that chocolate cake, or a body I will feel proud of?" She also states, that on some occassions it is okay to choose the chocolate cake...and I'm assuming she is assuming that we know the difference between the " I want it more" occassion, and the traditional party. 4. Nobody is perfect. We all eat unhealthy sometimes. Just don't let that one time during the day, let you beinge on food the rest of the day because you feel like you've failed. Keep up the good work, and shake it off! 5. As hard as it is to stay fit, and get into shape in the first place, it's harder and more depressing to be overweight.
Remember, those who read this, What do you want YOUR body to look like for 2011? I know I want to get into shape, and feel GOOD about myself! Build my confidence, and have a smile on my face! When I accomplish this, I know I'll find even more blessings on the way!

So far...

So far, I'm doing great! I've had my bad days, but I'm always challenging myself to push play! So far it's worked out great! I've started working out with my friends now, and I absolutely love the positive support! We get together in the mornings or in the afternoons to workout and it's so much fun just being around other people who have the same goals as you! I have recently gathered a couple more people to join us on our journey, and we start that next monday! Hopefully it will go GREAT! I'm super excited about it and can't wait to start!
I'm still drinking Shakeology, and can I just say HOLY COW IT WORKS!!! I haven't felt this energized in...well I've never really felt this energized! I cleaned the entire house today and it felt AMAZING! I wasn't tired as much and I wake up earlier...I never thought that would've happened because I absolutely adore sleep! My husband doesn't understand how I can sleep for so long! But now that I'm on a good healthy meal plan and a good routine of exercising, I've been able to do more, and be awake for more! I see that as a plus! I used to hate waking up late knowing I've missed most of the day to do something fun, or productive! Now I don't worry at all!
I hope everyone finds their own fun way of exercising and eating healthy, because I believe in making it FUN! If I'm doing something and it's not fun...then I'm quickly bored of it, and I turn to do something else. Making working out fun has been GREAT! I listen to my favorite music, and I enjoy hanging out with other people who are having fun as well! Find your "FUN" way of doing this and DO IT! DIG DEEPER!

JUST REMEMBER:  "PUSH PLAY TODAY!"

Solution to Managing time!

I am a PROCRASTINATOR! As all the rest of the Procrastinators of the world know, it's a full time job trying to push things aside, and make room for a nice relaxing movie, eating that popcorn, and topping it off with a nice fluffy blanket, maybe even cuddled up with your spouse. We thrive off our relaxation time, and make sure that the evil monsters called "responsibility" "work" "DISHES!" Yeah, I definetely have stayed away from those for a long time now, until...DUN DUN DUN!!!! One day...I looked at my daily schedule. Something just wasn't working because I found myself rushing myself to do all these things last minute, and all these things in random orders! I was even late on a couple of bills! I was pretty off with my schedule. Then, I was on a conference call which had to do with Managing my own time! So I stayed on and learned. OH MY GOODNESS! It was so simple...this whole time I imagined time as this endless stress that I would always have, but NO! It's so simple! She gave me three pieces of advice!

#1. Make a Master List: This including things that don't have a timelimit to finish. Such as Videos to watch, Books to read in the future, small tasks like that, that don't necessarily need to be done right away. So I made this list thinking it would be histerically long, but it only held a couple items. So I moved on to List #2.

#2. Make a Monthly/Task List: This including any Monthly Bills that needed to be taken care of, Christmas Presents, or even a goal! So I wrote those down. This one was a lot longer, but it made sense now organizing these into three categories! Now for List #3.

#3. Daily To-Do's/Task List: This includes everything you need to do on a daily basis, as well as the small things you need to do every other day. She gave the advice, to always before you go to sleep, write out your To Do list out before you sleep so that when you wake up you'll be set to look at it and remember what to bring to work, or what to do after work, or anything that has to do with the next day! I tried this out and it worked miracles! I use a whiteboard, where I write everything down, and erase it when I'm done! I like it on my white board because it's big, and easy to see! Unlike the small notecards I used to use, that I would lose every day anyways. It's hard to lose a huge whiteboard!

I took these three List, and I CHANGED MY LIFE! Thanks to Team Beachbody, I was able to learn this new technique and I'm here to share it with you today!! Use it wisely and HAVE FUN!

My story!

So, let's talk FITNESS!

Personally, I was NOT a big Fitness Fan. My whole life I was part of Athletic teams such as Volleyball and Softball and some church basketball here and there. I was always active,but I hated the routines we had to be put through for volleyball and softball. Running laps, and conditioning. It was awful and I hated every second of it. I would try making up excuses for me to take a break so I could lessen the pain.  Unfortunately my body wasn't losing weight or looking any better. I thought it was just how I was and that there was nothing I could do to fix it, well I was wrong. I had been missing out on the KEY components to staying fit and healthy, and that's EATING HEALTHY! I had a huge issue with that my whole life. I grew up with my parents, my dad being Tongan, and my mom caucasion and we would eat a lot of food, not all healthy. Although, my mom was a fanatic at eating healthy. She would try and try to get us to eat healthy, but I kept eating and eating. Eating became part of a daily routine, and it became a habit, and then a hobby...NO BUENO!
  I got married last March and am very happy! I found though that when you first get married, all you want to do is spend time with your spouse, like 24/7! I did, and I focused all my time and effort on him. I would make sure my "priority" was him at all times. Well, a couple months after we were married, I hit a bump and started gaining weight non-stop. The sad part was, that I wasn't even noticing my body slowly slipping away, until one day. I was walking down the hall with one of my students, and he looked at me and said to me straight, "Wow, you've kind of..." He pointed towards his mid section and his legs and then everywhere. I looked at him confused and then looked down, I couldn't see my belt. AH! When did this happen! I ran to the bathroom and looked in the mirror! Trying to get out of the way of the fat person in front of me, I realized I was chasing my own reflection. Staring at myself in the mirror was like staring at a complete stranger. I didn't recognize my own self. How did this happen? Well, I thought about the last couple of months and figured it was just stress, and not eating right. So the next day I signed up for Zumba! I took the class every Monday and Wednesday and it was so much fun, just way too much money to spend on one class. So I decided to go out to a local store and I purchased Turbo Jam! I took it home and did it a couple times, losing my motivation because of more stress in my life. After a month or two, I took a trip to Colorado where we met up with my sister n' law. She introduced INSANITY to me. It looked very intimidating and I was kind of scared because she challenged me to get it and work with it. I took the challenge. I came home and bought INSANITY and started working out with it. It was SO HARD! I didn't think I was going to last through it! The first day was a FIT TEST, and wow can I just tell you...FAIL! I would've quit after the first day because of how hard it was, but I promised myself I'd get through at least two weeks of it before I thought about quitting. So I went on to the next day and the next and it came up to my second week and I was feeling so good! I had already lost 2 inches off my side and was losing some weight, and gaining muscle. I was so impressed with this workout. The third week came about and the third week you take another Fitness Test. So I did, and wow the results were AMAZING! I was doubling and even tripling my score! It was unbelievable! I was so excited. Then tragedy hit, and I got really sick. I was out of the workout for two weeks with a rough cold, and uneasiness every now and again, and I was really dizzy making it hard to jump or even walk. So I stayed off the workout for two weeks, unfortunately gaining all my weight if not more back on. I was down on myself for a while because I knew all my hard work had gone to waste, but I took that back as I remembered the feeling I had when I finished a workout with Insanity! It motivated me later on to do Insanity. I find it accomplishing, and rewarding to finish one of Shaun T's workouts! I am now doing Turbo Jam, Insanity, and am going to purchase Hip Hop Abs. I'm super excited to keep sharing my story, and hopefully hear some of your stories about your "Success Stories" as well! Thank you for taking your time to read my blog, I hope you get to look at my website www.beachbodycoach.com/teamelora some more and see the wonderful things we can offer you!

I recently purchased SHAKEOLOGY, and am super excited to try it out. It will be my first time so I will make sure to update everyone on how it works out and which flavor I prefer (Chocolate/Greenberry). Questions? Go to my website, and click "Learn More" underneath the add for Shakeology!

CONTACT ME THROUGH MY PHONE NUMBER OR EMAIL FOR OTHER QUESTIONS!

GOOD LUCK AND REMEMBER, DIG DEEPER!