As I was laying awake at 1:30 this morning, I had convinced myself not to workout today. It’s Fat Loss Fast Track launch week and I’m tired. Wednesday night I didn’t sleep at all due to a fire alarm malfunction & subsequent odd dramas.
Thursday, after my last live webinar, I went into Boston with a friend and we walked 9 miles around the city (in flip flops – when am I gonna learn to wear sneakers?!).
By the time I got home Thursday night, the week of workouts, launch chaos and lack of sleep was kicking my ass. At 8:30, I went to bed, dead tired.
When I woke up around 1am, feeling sore and restless, I decided to skip my Friday workout. In my head, I was planning to get in great workouts on Saturday & Sunday since it’s a rare weekend without travel.
Eventually I fell back asleep and woke to my alarm at 4:30am. I remembered my middle-of-the-night decision to skip the workout and went about my normal routine.
Around 6am I started to re-think it. I wasn’t sore. I wasn’t too tired. The workout sounded like a great one. I always workout on weekday mornings. I wasn’t motivated but I made the decision to go to the gym.
While I showered before getting ready (yes, I shower before the gym), I decided to level up my motivation.
This requires a little back story. Nearly 100% of the time, I wear long black pants and a t-shirt or tank top to the gym. Nothing fancy. Very predictable.
But today, lacking motivation, I decided to dress the part of the athlete I’m becoming.
“Dress the part” is a hack I use to boost confidence & motivation. When I give a live webinar, I dress up, wear heels and stand, as though I’m presenting on stage. It increases my energy, focus & confidence immediately. I’m certain it makes a positive difference.
I applied that hack to my workout this morning. I stepped out of my comfort zone, bearing more of my body than I normally do, intentionally dressing like the competitive athlete I’m becoming.
Wouldn’t you know, I crushed my damn workout. Like, seriously crushed it. I set the tone by how I dressed & carried myself – I dressed outside of my comfort zone and I performed outside of my comfort zone.
You should try it.
I LOVED today’s workout – no doubt in part because I worked so hard & did so well.
I left the gym feeling focused, proud & motivated.
On the food front:
Another Paleo Power Meals food day! I drank a couple cups of coffee before the workout and was fairly hungry afterwards. I opted for a cobb salad around 9:30am. I have no problem eating “non breakfast food” in the morning.
At 12:30 I had grilled chicken with beet noodles & a handful of macadamia nuts to add some fat to the meal.
I drank a lot of sparkling water throughout the day and was planning on spaghetti squash & meat sauce for dinner but got surprised with dinner plans at one of my favorite restaurants! Roll with it!
I’m not sure what I’ll eat but I do know this: I’m going to enjoy a glass of wine because I love it! I know I’ve indulged sensibly when there’s no guilt! xoxo
Take progress pictures. Take them every single week on the same day, no matter what.
I get it, you don’t want to. You only want to take the pictures when you know you’ll progress. You don’t want to take the pictures when you might not see progress.
Too bad. Do it anyway. The whole POINT of taking progress pictures is to face the moments when you aren’t making progress.
Turning away won’t work. It hasn’t worked and it never will.
You don’t like that your body shows that you didn’t do the work? Yeah well, avoiding the picture doesn’t make it any less real or true. But taking the picture and facing what is happening in your body increases the chances that you’ll do something about it.
Do not turn away from what’s happening with your body. You look the way you look, whether you take the picture or not and deciding to not stare it down makes you LESS likely to succeed.
When you have the sense that you really don’t want to take the picture, guess what? That’s when you need to take it most.
Stop making excuses. Stop turning away. Take the damn pictures.
Today’s workout was much spicier than it seemed on paper. It was tabata style, which means you’re doing 20 seconds of work & 10 seconds of rest for 4 minutes (that’s a total of 8 rounds of work/rest).
“Body Check”
Tabata (8 x :20 on/:10 off)
Air Squats
Sit-ups
Push-ups
Calorie Row
This is how it works: 20 seconds of air squats, 10 seconds rest, repeat 8x.
Immediately transition into 20 seconds of sit-ups, 10 seconds rest, repeat 8x.
You get the picture. Those push-ups got TOUGH!!
After the workout I did some single leg deadlifts, GHD sit-ups, hollow-body holds & ring rows before heading to the chiropractor.
Today is the final live webinar of launch week!! Yeah! If you missed it, you can watch it here. I hope you carve out some time to do so! I think you’ll really enjoy it.
On the food front:
I had some drama in my apartment last night which led to me not sleeping. At all. Needless to say, I was hungry before my workout after tossing & turning all night long so I had a couple of grilled chicken strips around 6am.
At 11am, before my final webinar, I had a cobb salad from Paleo Power Meals and as soon as the webinar was over I headed into Boston with a friend.
I’m scheduling this blog to post before I’ll get home so I’m not sure what I’ll have for dinner but here’s what I have decided:
No starchy carbs
No alcohol
No indulgences
I’m sure we’ll be doing a lot of walking around the city and I’ll either have seafood & veggies or a salad with meat or fish. Keeping it simple – there’s always a fat loss friendly option available!
I could have called this episode so many different things. I could have called it “Lifestyle Transformation After Baby”. I could have called it “When You Should NOT Workout”. I could have called it “Learning To Be Calm As A Fat Loss Strategy”. I should probably just keep it simple and call it awesome.
In today’s episode I’m talking with one of my Fat Loss Fast Track clients who has lost 90 pounds, 40 of which has been in the last few months of her Fat Loss Fast Track experiences.
At first, we talk a lot about what has worked well for her. We talk about how learning to be less reactive and more calm has helped her weight loss but also her happiness.
Then we start to talk about exercise, sleep and when to push yourself.
Not only is she inspiring, she’s incredibly wise and I know you’re going to get so much out of her story!
Some days are crazy. There used to be an inverse relationship between the craziness of my days and the quality of my food choices. The more crazy the day, the lower the quality of my choices.
This is something we can work to conquer. If your choices are only on point when life feels manageable and predictable, you’re in big trouble.
Here’s what I know to be true for myself: my choices need to be the highest quality on my craziest days.
The crazy days are when it matters most.
Crazy days can mean different things: high emotion, high stress, lots of pressure, tons of projects, travel, unexpected problems & challenges. You know how it goes.
For most of my life, I’d use those crazy days to justify over indulging, not working out and cutting the corners of self-care. Inevitably, I felt more stressed and more unhappy as a result of my less-than-stellar choices.
I’m certainly not going to make the crazy days go away, but I can use them as an opportunity to practice making the best possible nutrition, fitness and self-care choices.
Today is a crazy day. It’s Fat Loss Fast Track launch week (registration opened yesterday for the summer session) so my inbox is blowing up, I have live webinars 4 days out of 5, my spring groups are still going on and I have to keep up with normal Primal responsibilities like the podcast, blogs, emails, and the Daily Motivations Podcast.
Where is the time for me? Where is the time for taking great care of myself? I have to make it.
Here are some of the strategies I personally use to conquer the crazy days:
Wake up early and do the most important thing first
Have my food ready to go – I don’t want to lose time to cooking & cleaning when I’m already stretched thin
Make time to workout
Meditate, no matter what, even if my only opportunity to do so is in the shower
Dress in a way that makes me feel confident & beautiful (no lounging around without a bra in clothes that are too big)
Choose a great attitude
The other thing that has been super helpful to me is reminding me that though it’s tempting to “treat” myself with food on hard day, it will absolutely make me feel worse. Without a doubt, making awesome food choices will make me feel better than making average food choices.
On crazy days I want to feel my best, so I think hard about what makes me feel my best and I make time for those things.
I had every reason in the world to skip today’s workout, which makes it even more important to me to make time for it.
This workout felt AWESOME. I was so proud of myself and I felt empowered and happy as I left the gym. Now it’s my job to find ways to carry that joy & empowerment through the rest of this day crazy day.
I’ll do that by doing only what MUST be done today and saving everything else for a less crazy day.
I’ll do that by meditating. I’ll do that by making the very best food choices possible. I’ll do that by taking a walk and spending a few minutes in the sun.
On the food front:
I was doing some heavy lifting this morning – sets of 3 deadlifts at 245 lbs – so I was feeling really hungry after my workout. I was very happy to have my cobb salad around 10am.
I broke up my lunch into two smaller meals since tonight will be a late night – my webinar doesn’t start until 9pm. At 1pm I had a few grilled chicken strips and at 3:30pm I had spaghetti squash with meat sauce.
Dinner was around 6:30pm (a little later than normal because of my late webinar) and it was steak frites (with sweet potato fries). All the food I ate today was from Paleo Power Meals. If you give them a try, be sure to use the coupon code ebprimal20 to save 20% on your first order!
We are coming up on Primal Potential’s 3rd anniversary. It blows my mind. In hindsight, there must have been some legit divine inspiration involved in me leaving my secure corporate job to start something completely from scratch.
I like security. I loved my predictable, comfortable income. To be frank, I liked the financial comfort zone.
Though I’m super surprised that I took that gamble, I know for sure that I am doing my life’s work.
I’m not ashamed to say that I tear up when I acknowledge that – that Primal Potential is my life’s work.
Guys, my weight struggles have been HARD. They’ve consumed my life. I’ve been in some dark places and I fought so hard to find the other side.
Helping people through similar issues is what I was meant to do with my life. I will never forget one particularly hard day when I was in middle school. I was crying to my mom & aunt about how hard life was as a fat girl. As they often did, they were encouraging me and telling me I could reinvent myself at any time. Through my sad tears I told them, “I’m going to get through this and I’m going to help other people do the same.” I meant it as much then as I do now, but I’m beyond proud of myself for making it a reality. For fighting through hell and doubt to make it a reality.
I’m feeling this nostalgia because it’s Fat Loss Fast Track launch day. Today I open up registration for my 12-week summer coaching group. The Fat Loss Fast Track isn’t as much about fat loss as it is about transforming your life and stepping into your full potential.
Starting tonight, I’ll be hosting a few webinars to share more information about the fast track and I’m really hoping that you’ll see & hear the opportunity you’ve been waiting for to take your life, health & happiness to the next level.
Don’t take my word for it though, here’s what some of my current clients are saying…I want for YOU what they are creating for themselves.
“If you’re considering FLFT but are on the fence, I’d say if you’re ready to invest in yourself, then absolutely you should join FLFT. So worth it and you get so much more out of it than you can possibly imagine….if you do the work. It’s helped me live a healthier, happier life. I no longer am obsessed by or controlled by food, and that sense of freedom is priceless! Best thing I’ve ever done for myself!”
I don’t want to to leave you guys hanging without the daily stuff I include in these posts, but we won’t go into too much detail on today’s workout and food.
“Down Swinging” For Time:
50/35 Calorie Bike
800m Run
30 KB Swings (53/35)
20 Bar-Facing Burpees
Unfortunately, my knee was pretty swollen when I woke it this morning (bummer – it’s been free from pain for quite a while) so I rowed 1000m instead of running 800m. Otherwise, it was a great workout.
I added in a second short workout in the evening today. My webinar for the FLFT launch is at 8pm – a time when I’m normally brain dead and winding down. So, around 7pm I did a 15 minute EMOM on my airdyne bike with sprints for cals every minute. Feels so much better to MOVE for energy than EAT for energy!
On the food front:
It’s Fat Loss Fast Track launch day so meals are happening quickly. Post-workout I had greek yogurt with cacao powder.
Around 1pm I had grilled chicken with beet noodles & at 6pm I had a cobb salad with extra chicken.
