Merry Christmas!

I was absolutely blessed on Christmas this year. First off I was feeling pretty horrible with a cold but if I was going to get sick I'd rather be sick while I'm at home all cozy at my parent's house.
My family has clearly been listening to all my fitness talk and goals because I was showered with Lululemon and Nike clothes so I can look super stylish while I'm getting my sweat on in 2014!

Wishing you a Merry Christmas and a blessed New Year!

12 Days of Fitness Day 6

Unfortunately I caught an awful cold that left me sniffling on the couch like one of those DayQuil and NyQuil commercials with Drew Brees. You know which ones I'm talking about, where he doesn't look sick at all after taking it. Ha! Don't I wish it worked as well as those commercials but I was down and out for 3 days, so hitting the gym was out of the question. On the plus side, I did get some excellent restorative sleep! So forgive me, there is no Day 5.

I don't know about you but when I'm sick all I want to eat is carbs, and all I want to do is sleep, an awful combo for someone trying to shed fat and sculpt a ripped, lean figure. On top of that it was Christmas so I ate all the usual no good for you Holiday goodies. But my favorite saying applies here: One day of poor eating won't make you fat, just like going to church one Sunday won't make you a Saint! So True!

Anyway, I woke up feeling like myself again this morning so it's time to pick up where I left off. I really wish I was back in SD at my usual gym today but I'm not and I don't have time to go find a different gym that will let me use the facilities without paying (yes, I'm cheap). Home workout it is!
So here's the workout for today to burn off the all the holiday deliciousness curtesy of instagram user fitness_food_motivation. If you aren't following them, you should they have great motivational pics, workouts and clean eating recipes.

And if you aren't following me on Insta, well you should! IG: itonlytakesasparkSD (and if you can name that song or tell me the rest of the verse I will donate 10% of your Advocare order to Make a Wish, just comment on any picture I post)

12 Days of Fitness Days 3 & 4

So I picked up a lovely little cold, probably in the airport and this bitter cold weather is not helping, but I've felt awful the last two days. :( I'm really sad but going to the gym and exerting any extra energy was just not happening. Plus I don't want to spread these germs to anyone else. (GROSS!)

It's still early in the evening on Day 4 though and I just got some cold medicine in my system so I'm hoping to do these short stretching and abs videos from Casey Ho's Blogilates. I really like her videos if you can't get to the gym but you have about 30+ minutes to get moving at home or say if you are traveling and staying in a hotel room. She also has some really cute clothes in her shop so you should check that out. ;)

http://www.blogilates.com/stretching/

http://www.blogilates.com/abs/

Hopefully I'll be better tomorrow and I'll be trying out a gym with a steam room and sauna to help get rid of whatever this bug is.

12 Days of Fitness Day 1 and Day 2

Day 1 - Eco Gym

Today I tried out this really cool gym in Naperville (my hometown) called Eco Gym. I dragged my mom along with me today for some mommy-daughter time. ;) 

I LOVE the concept of this gym! I wish it was in California, in fact if they franchise this gym I would totally invest. I'll attach a video below that explains how this gym works because it's pretty genius. They have machines that turn the kinetic energy we create working out into kilowatts to add that energy to their grid. (I'm no engineer so I can't explain it any further than that but I know it's pretty awesome!) On top of that the more you check into to and use this gym the less your monthly dues are! 40+ workouts a month and your dues could be less than $6 a month. How much do you wish that was true of your gym? Not only that this gym has hyerbaric chambers available for their members to use, which increases the red blood cell production in your body reducing recover time. 

So after the tour and talking with the gym for a while, completely in awe of this place, Mom and I jumped on these really cool treadmills (Eco mill) that are self powered and burn about 30% more calories than a regular motorized treadmill, then did some legs and hit the road. 

Day 2 - Back to Eco Gym

Today I went back to Eco Gym, I really really like this place! AND my mom is actually the one who asked to go back today :). So Hopefully I've got Mom hooked. 

We hit those super cool treadmills for a warm up and moved on to some back and shoulders. 

12 days of Fitness

I'm heading home tomorrow for the holidays and I'm worried about staying in the fitness routine I've got going here. So I've designed a Challenge for my self and I'm calling it "The 12 Days of Fitness" running from Dec 20 - Dec 31. I'm going to workout all 12 days (not all will be super intense workouts because your body does need a few days of rest) but I'm going to try several different gyms in the Naperville, IL area.

Not only am I doing this to keep up with my fitness goals and prime myself for the incredible body transformation I have planned for 2014 but I'm also hoping to drag my family along with me and maybe get them to jump in the bandwagon too. ;)

Now I know I missed the typical 12 day of Christmas countdown but that's fine because I need this to go through New Years as well. So Stay tuned for my updates and keep me accountable! 

The 24 Day Challenge - A Quick and Dirty Explanation

So one of my very good friends sent me a Facebook message saying "ok tell me about this Advocare stuff" so I tried to give her a quick and dirty explanation of the 24 day Challenge. I figure this explanation might be helpful to others as well. Here is what I told her (yes, I copy and pasted this response from Facebook):

So the 24 Day Challenge is made up of 2 phases. The easiest way to describe the challenge is a kickstart to a healthier lifestyle and weight loss goals. 

The first phase is a 10 day cleanse that will kind of reset your body and prepare it to absorb all the nutrition that comes in the second phase. (Don't be scared by the term cleanse, it's not the type that will send you running to the potty all day long). This phase is going to get rid of the toxins in your body and restore the good bacteria in your tummy. You'll cut out processed foods (dairy, white bread, refined sugar, alcohol, etc.) and eat clean during these 10 days.  But it all pays off, the average weight loss is about 5-10 pounds! 

The second phase is the Max phase which is really going to pump your body full of nutrition. This phase is 14 days. You will continue to eat pretty clean but can enjoy alcohol, coffee and dairy in moderation now (notice the order I put those in, clearly says something about me :)).  Again, you see weight loss/inches lost here and muscle gain. (Not body builder muscle but muscle to help support a healthy metabolism).During the whole challenge you are eating real food with the exception of a meal replacement shake for breakfast in the second phase. This is one of the reasons I prefer Advocare to other programs because you need to know what foods to choose after the challenge to continue on to more weight loss and maintain a healthy lifestyle. 

So there you go, that's my quick and dirty explanation of the 24 Day Challenge. I will gladly answer any questions you may have if you leave them in the comments or email me. And keep and eye out for my group challenge competitions! 

Get Healthy and Give to Make a Wish

I've just finished my 24 Day Challenge and I feel great! It's hard to believe the results I've seen from these products. One of the reasons I decided to become an Advocare distributor is because I was looking for a way to make extra money so I could give back in the way I always hoped. Since New Years' Resolutions are upon us, I'm going to get a jump in my resolutions to give back.  I will donate a portion of the sales from the following products to Make a Wish if you order them from me in December 2013:

                Spark Box (packets) - $1.50
                Spark Canisters - $3.00
                24 Day Challenges - $10.00

              Purchase Here


*In addition if you comment below that you are losing for Make a Wish in the January Challenge I will donate 10% of the total group weight loss to Make a Wish!

The Make a Wish Foundation is the national philanthropy for the Chi Omega Women's fraternity (which I am a very proud Alumnae)

SPARK

I was the most excited about spark. Since I’ve started working in my current position I’ve become dependent on coffee. Despite what all the research and medical studies are saying about the health benefits of coffee, the coffee drinks I like are not healthy! They are loaded with milk, syrups, artificial flavoring, you name it. Even if I order my usual caramel or peppermint latte with nonfat milk I’m still looking at about 290 calories that I’m consuming in one beverage. So when I heard about spark I was stoked! Only 45 calories, no sugar, and energy without feeling jittery? I’m in!

All my advocare goodies showed up last night but my 24 day challenge isn’t starting until the 1^st. I was so excited that I figured I’d at least try the spark and see if it is as amazing as all the reviews I’ve read or watched on YouTube. I received the watermelon flavor in my distributor kit so I grabbed that one this morning since one of the reviews (Mitch's review in particular) raved about the flavor.

Flavor:

The instructions say to mix the packet with 8oz of water, I generally like stuff like this a little bit watered down so I tried mixing it with about 10-12oz. WOW! Still way too much flavor for me.  I have a grande sized Starbucks tumbler that I drink from at work so I just went ahead and filled that baby up. Now it’s more to my liking, and I’m getting in about a cup more of water that I should be drinking anyway. I don’t know if watermelon is going to be my favorite flavor though. But that is not surprising considering I don’t usually like watermelon flavored anything; with the exception of jolly ranchers and this is definitely not that jolly rancher watermelon flavor. It’s not terrible but I’ll probably prefer the orange flavor.

Energy:

Maybe you’ve seen those funny somecards or the pictures on pinterest with whatever funny looking animal who’s eyes are bugging out of his little head with a caption along the lines of “I put redbull in my coffee this morning and now I can see sounds!” Yeah I’m not all about that feeling. Which is why I steer clear of redbull or monster energy drinks. So I’m happy to tell you SPARK IS NOT LIKE THAT. I don’t feel wired. I don’t feel like I’m moving at warp speed while the rest of the world is standing still. I’m just here, awake, doing my job; exactly what I was hoping for! The last few days, right before lunch I’ve felt like I was dragging but today I’m focused and getting stuff done. I’m also not super hungry which is a plus in my book!

All in all I think this stuff is pretty great! 

Advocare

So I ordered my 24 day challenge today! Yay! I’m planning to start on November 1^st.

How did I hear about Advocare:

My story about how I found out about advocare is a little different than most. I didn’t have a friend who lost weight using it, I didn’t get talking into by some independent distributor that I thought was trying to sell me something. I had a friend who I trust very much as far as nutrition and fitness goes, tell me “hey, have you ever heard of Advocare? The 24 day Challenge? Google it, there’s a challenge starting in November. I’m starting on the first and so are you.” She might have said it a little nicer than that. In fact I know she did. But what’s important is that this was a friend who I’ve confided in, looked up to, someone who has been with me for the past year and a half in my battle with weight, and most of all someone I trusted about nutrition. This friend is a fitness instructor, an anatomy professor, she has an advanced degree in biology and most importantly an amazing figure that she works her butt off for. So if she said this was good product, it’s good, I know is safe, I’m doing it. End of story.

So ok, I didn’t just blindly jump in and agree to start this challenge thing on the 1^st of the month without doing some research. I am a lawyer after all and I do my due diligence before I put something in my body and expect it to work. I checked out the website, and then I hit up Twitter, Instagram and YouTube. Now you might be thinking “Wow. Really reliable sources, JB!” But here’s the thing, I already told you that my friend who recommended it is a science girl. I know she’s already looked at the research and the medical studies and if it didn’t pass muster she wouldn’t have brought it up.  So I wanted to see what real people like me are saying about this “Advocare stuff.” The reviews were overwhelmingly positive. People were seeing amazing results and seemed to love the products. Of course there were a few negative reviews but not nearly as many as the positive reviews. Not only that but Advocare has a lot of pro athlete endorsers which really spoke to me, I later found out that Drew Brees is the only endorser who is monetarily compensated. All the other endorsers do just because they love the products. I happen to be a Dallas Cowboys fan so below is a video of Jason Witten talking about the products.

The more research I did the more I really loved the company I was reading about. So I signed up right away as a distributor. Let's see how the next month goes. I can't wait!