Turbo Fire's The 5-Day Inferno Plan

Can you get hot for the weekend? With this plan, it is possible!

Chalene Johnson is generous enough to insert the 5 Day Inferno Plan to give us a headstart on the fitness program or to help us get back on track if we fell off the bandwagon for a few days. Or a week. In my case, a couple weeks....

Life and Christmas got in the way of things and I overspent on my Christmas budget! That did not leave much room for buying healthy, nutritious foods. I had to buy the Banquet brand pot pies and eat that for a couple weeks. Not exactly healthy for me and it doesn't give me all the nutrition I need for an intense workout like TurboFire.

Point is, if you don't get the proper nutrition for the workout, you're not going to see results. No matter how hard you try at your workouts, your performance will not be your best due to lack of nutrition. Underperformed effforts will lead to undesired results. Your body needs carbs, protein, fiber, potassium, so on.

Anyway, this 5 Day Inferno Plan not only gives you the tools for success, such as which classes from the TurboFire program to take and a meal plan, it's described in detail what your calorie level should be and how you can tell if you need more calories. Oh yeah, you definitely need enough calories to avoid burning out early- but you need the healthy kind! She also gave you tips on what not to consume as they contain empty calories and have no nutritional benefits for you whatsoever.

If you're a little out of shape, I do suggest you begin your nutrition-conscious diet a couple days before the plan. Get those essential nutrients in your body! Do a couple jogging sessions to get your body ready and drink plenty of water. If you don't hydrate well, you will not perform well.

I'll end this post with praise to Chalene Johnson. This fitness program has been a lot of fun and may be my soulmate workout-even though some of the classes really kick my butt! TurboFire has been my best investment ever on my fitness journey!

Recipe Post! Brown Rice and Vegetables

I have a great recipe I wanted to share with everyone! It's cheap so people like me who overspent at Christmas can buy something cheap and it still be healthy, nutritious, and filling!

This is called Brown Rice and Vegetables.

What you'll need is vegetable broth, the Minute Rice Instant Whole Grain Brown Rice and the Green Giants Weight Watchers Sliced Carrots Sugar Snap Peas, Black Beans and Edamame Lightly Tossed with Butter Sauce.
You should also have some seasonings available to taste. I used about 1 tablespoon lemon juice and a dash of garlic powder.

Heat half a cup vegetable stock, plus half a cup of water. When liquid is boiling, then follow package directions for cooking brown rice. Meanwhile, microwave Green Giant Healthy Weight with carrots, sugar snap peas, black beans and edamame. Mix heated vegetables with cooked rice and add garlic and lemon juice. Mix then serve. Great as a side dish or serves two as a whole meal. Quick and easy! :)

Vegetable broth nutrition information varies, so I didn't add it into the nutrition information and it's ok to cook the rice without the broth, just be sure to follow package directions.

Nutritional Information:
For the whole bowl it'd be: 480 calories,8 g fat (2 g saturated fat) 480 mg sodium, 96 g carbs, 14 g fiber, 6 g sugar, 16 g protein
Not bad, right? :)

An Afternoon with Abbey

Totally took advantage of the nice weather outside! Warm, sunny, cool breeze.... who couldn't ask for a better day than this today? I took Abbey out for a nice run in the free lot across the street and tried to train a new command, but she just couldn't focus. Too busy just wanting to run and play. Oh well... it's not often we get to spend the afternoon outside. She was a very happy dog!

We went for a walk afterwards and boy, did that walk wear me out! Maybe I spent too much energy throwing the ball for that energetic dog.... but she is now napping on the floor by the door enjoying the sun's ray on her fur. It was energy well spent.... until she wakes up from her nap. She'll be needing another run soon before we settle for the night. :) I'm so amazed with myself. I've grown up thinking German Shepherds are aggressively unpredictable and by giving my husband the chance to have his dream dog, i gave myself the chance to open my eyes to what a true, loyal German Shepherd is like. We got ourselves a wonderful girl!

Fitness: A Priority

For a long time, I’ve always come up with excuses for not making fitness an integral part of my lifestyle. I was too busy, I work 10 hours a day, my work schedule changes. Other excuses I’ve had were everyday chores, I was too tired, I don’t have the energy, I wasn’t motivated. At the time, living a healthy lifestyle wasn’t my primary concern. All I cared about was making enough money to pay the bills and put a little in savings. I wanted to finish my house chores. I cared about keeping my German Shepherd under control. Spending time with my husband was also important to me.

So the last three years, fitness wasn’t my primary concern, and wasn’t even on the top of my priorities list. Sure, my health is important to me, but aren’t health important to everyone without all the hassles of exercising, eating right, and taking the right kind of supplements? No one wants to be sick, have a vitamin or mineral deficiency, or a weak immunity system. So the last three years, as other things became my primary focus, my health was at the bottom of my priority list. I gained weight, ate junk food, and did the occasional “I should start working out” pep talk to myself. Fitness was even on my resolutions list for the New Year. However, I never really succeeded. Fitness just never clicked for me, and it never made its way into my top priority list.

So what changed? How is fitness now a priority? I chose to make fitness a priority. A few months ago, I was considering a temporary part time job to make some extra money. A friend of mine asked me to come on board with Team Beachbody. I am familiar with the group from the Shakeology, P90X, and other fitness products that she uses and sells. I thought, why not? It could help me be in better shape of my health and body. And, boy did it help! Along with becoming a member of a wonderful team of coaches and learning about fitness and health, I could sell products, make a little money for myself, and get discounts on the products I want to use. Not to mention, I could really help people with their fitness goals! For this to be successful, however, I had to work on my priorities. I had to choose to make fitness high up on the list with my family and faith. Self-accountability for my goals helped put things to focus. I learned that fitness goes hand-in-hand with health. A strong, lean, happy body is a healthy body.

Holding myself accountable for my goals and having a team of other coaches helping me keep up with my accountability, helped me become more aware of the foods I consume and what I am doing for my health. I have learned so much and am happier with my body and health since I joined Beachbody. Fitness was finally a top priority with my family and faith, and now I have no excuses for not working out! I’m motivated everyday, I found a workout program that works for me, and I’m happy! Fitting a workout into my busy schedule is non-negotiable. It has to be done. I found a way to make it work and I love the results I am seeing from my body changes.

The key to successful fitness is making your exercises a non-negotiable schedule. You get the workout programs on your schedule and you tell yourself that this schedule cannot be changed, just like your work schedule cannot be changed. I cannot stress this enough. If being in shape and having a healthy body is important to you, you must make fitness a priority.

One change in particular that I noticed since I became fitness-conscious was the food I consume. Sure, I was eating healthier food so what I consume doesn’t undo my workout purposes. However, it didn’t always matter how low the fat is or what the calorie count is, or if it’s got enough proteins and fiber to be considered a meal. What really mattered is the nutrition and the ingredients behind the foods I consumed. All the additives and preservatives… they’re not good for the body. I had to learn to look beyond the nutritional information and consider the ingredients. The more natural foods consumed are healthier for my body. It’s a learning lesson every day I choose to make conscious, informed choices for myself.

For people to be successfully fit, they made the choice to have fitness be a priority in their lives. It’s a priority in my life now… and I couldn’t be happier with my choices!

Hey!! LOOK At What You Are Consuming!!!

Let's face it: We are now living in the times where what we consume are going to have a lot of stuff added to the foods and drinks that just might make our stomach slightly upset, make our digestion a little out of balance, and have gunk build up in our bodies (arteries, intestines, etc). When we eat a lot of these processed foods on a daily basis, we're slowly becoming even more unbalanced, slowly getting that build up of gunk in our bodies.

Maybe it's time to start paying attention what we're consuming, yeah? For example: Lean Crusine. This brand does offer healthier alternatives to frozen food, fast food, and pizza. However, nutritional information is not the only thing we need to be looking at. We also need to look at the ingredients list. When looking at the ingredients list, you can see there's a bunch of stuff listed in there. An average individual like myself, who is not a registered dietitian or nutritional expert, am not going to recognize a lot of these words such as "gum arabic, autolyzed yeast extract" and so on. However, we can tell they are additives. To keep the food fresh, to add flavor, etc. Oh yeah, and a lot of them are going to have a high sodium content. I've stopped eating Lean Cruisine when I started to realize there are a lot of additives that doesn't sound healthy but is fine to eat on occasion. Our bodies are not made to easily process additives and anything chemically processed just to make the food taste good. It's not natural and I'm willing to bet that long-term use of these foods can eventually catch up to us and we will have problems later in life from the processed foods we eat.

MorningStar Farms frozen food. I've heard some healthy stuff, but the long list of ingredients is a little alarming. Just a little for a reason. A lot of their products got half of the natural ingredients. The other half are ingredients I can't pronounce and the only time I usually see these words are in chemistry class. What's worse is, why does the brand feel the need to add what kind of vitamin a chemical is? If it's naturally added... it wouldn't be on the ingredients list. The vitamin would be in the nutrition information list. This getting you to think?

I'd like to add something about natural flavors. Just why do they feel the need to say "natural flavors", hmm? Maybe they're also added stuff that's just under the federally regulated guidelines for what is artificial flavoring and natural flavoring. Just my opinion here. It could be "natural flavors" because that's the natural flavors of that flavor. One of these days I will be taking classes on nutrition and learn more about the foods we are eating and whether or not I was right to be concerned with these things.

On a lighter note, I got good news for the coffee drinkers. We've all looked at our ingredients list from time to time to see what's in the coffee creamer we consume, right? And we all see just how many stuff is in one tablespoon's worth! I'm happy to announce that I have tried CoffeeMate's Natural Bliss. Instead of the 20-somethings (might be more, might be less) ingredients found in most processed coffee creamers, the two flavors of CoffeeMate's Natural Bliss only have four ingredients. That's right, just four! Nonfat milk, sugar, heavy cream, and natural flavors. Again, not sure why they added that last part but it's still much better than the regularly processed coffee creamers, yeah? Maybe the Sweet Cream Natural Bliss's "natural flavors" would be just that: the natural flavor of Sweet Cream.

Hopefully this post have gotten my readers to start thinking about the foods we eat. My hope is that my readers will start looking at the ingredients list and weigh in whether or not the product is worth the lower calories and fats for all the additives in that food. No more just looking at the nutritional information. Sure, it's nice that the food tastes great. Are they worth the trouble our digestive bodies will have to go through to reject the processed chemicals that we don't need to be consuming? That's the question you all need to ask yourselves. Think about it: They lowered the bad stuff in nutrition, but what did they add to keep the food tasting great?

Update!

Let's face it. I'm destined to have random accidental self-inflicted injuries. Several weeks ago, I fell onto the gate in my driveway and had a huge hematoma in my thigh. I've had no updated pictures of my body due to the biggest, ugly bruise I've ever had. It's mostly gone now, and will be doing an updated picture in a couple days. That's not all that happened, however. I also managed to fall down the stairs and mess up my shoulders, so that put me off the exercising job for another week. During this down time, l had some time to think about the fitness program P90X. I noticed my body responds more to cardio-style workouts and not so much on weights. Not to mention, I do have bad wrists and am not really looking forward to being back on joint supplements again. P90X is a little too extreme for me to deal with. So after some research, I decided to go with TurboFire! This 90-days program is mostly cardio, designed by Chalene Johnson. I'm so excited to try this program! I should be getting it tomorrow and I will be starting this program this weekend. Sooo excited! I'm also worried, since the cold is here, the cold virus is everywhere, and I am really, really hoping that God will grant me the grace and the sense of balance I will need to make it through the next three months without hurting myself. Please pray for me! :)

2 More Shakeology Recipes

I have found my personal cup of liquid to add to my shakeology. I prefer a cup of water with a splash of milk when it comes to adding an extract. To avoid any confusion, when I type that I add a personal cup plus a tsp of something, you'll know that I am saying it's a cup of water plus a splash of milk.

Almond Shakeology: Personal cup + a tbsp almound extract. This has a chocolate nuttiness taste to it and is therefore very good. It goes well with a cup of straight black coffee instead of personal cup and you can always add a splash of milk.

Caramel Shakeology: Are you a caramel lover? I sure am! I love those Caramellos you find at the store, the rich, thick caramel drizzling out of those chocolate squares... yum! Sadly, I did not find a recipe for Chocolate Shakeology that would contain caramel in it. Not sure why, but I decided to wing it with Caramel. I added a tablespoon of imitation caramel extract (couldn't find the real one, maybe that doesn't exist?) and my personal cup. The result is a bit suprising. It's still mostly chocolate, but once you swallow, you can detect the caramel taste. I added a bit more of the extract to my drink but still could only get a hint of that caramel taste. Don't fret, caramel lovers. I shall achieve this drink! The recipe just might need a little tweaking so we can enjoy the taste some more!

More of the Flavors of Shakeology journey coming soon!

The Flavors of Shakeology

The Flavors of Shakeology Update. I thought I would add to my blog my experiments with the Shakeology recipes.

I find that I perfer most of the recipes to have just a little bit of milk. It brings out the rich flavor better.
Shakeology + one cup milk:This gave the shake a delicious touch of rich tasting texture. It definitely tastes like a chocolately dessert!
Shakeology + one cup Water: It still tasted decent althought it seemed a bit thin on the texture part. To bring out the flavor a bit more, just maybe one tablespoon milk should do the trick. After all, it'll be less in calories and fat to go with mostly water than a cup of milk, right?
Shakeology + one cup Water + Vanilla extract: I'll put this in one word: YUMMMY!! This has a comfort shake kind of feeling.... like an oreos and a glass of milk kind of comfort feeling. This is my #1 flavor so far!
Shakeology + one cup Coffee: Yep, I didn't believe that recipe would work, but it did! So if you want your caffine intake for the morning, then use this recipe. If you still like that creamy taste, use a little less than a cup of coffee and a little bit of milk. That'll bring the rich creamy taste, and to just throw in a twist of flavor, a tsp of vanilla extract. My husband didn't care for the straight-black coffee approach but he definitely enjoyed the addition of milk and vanilla! We don't want to add too much liquid that the nutrients gets so thinned out it won't benefit the body the way it should be. There's a reason every recipe usually has one cup of some form of liquid.
Shakeology + one tsp Mint exctract: Mint chocolate for breakfast? Don't mind if I do! It is true about Mint and chocolate: The taste can never go wrong when these two flavors are combined. Very satisfying to the taste buds! 

So far, the flavors of Shakeology in this journey has been very appealing. I look forward to enjoying a nutritional shake every morning as a meal replacement, and constantly trying out new flavors. There are still so many other flavors to try, and with so many options, I know I won't get bored. I have noticed that I am getting more energy in the mornings now, and even my moods seemed to be toward positivity. I am even only drinking one cup of coffee in the mornings instead of 2 or 3 cups. I am already starting to have less cravings. I have just started to completely cut soda out from my life, only to have it once in awhile and I do NOT miss it!! I never thought I'd see this day!!! Heres to many more days of Shakeology, the most nutritious shake in the world. Cheers!

The beginning of P90X

Ok so the first workout of P90X Cardio X completely kicked my butt. The Dreya Roll did NOT work out for me as I could barely jump on my feet after laying down and pushing my toes to the highest point in the air. How do these people do it?!? Never mind actually gracefully rolling along their backs to suddenly land on their feet... how the heck can they even use their feet from a laying position to standing up? Well... Someday I shall achieve that! Maybe that'll be my workout for tomorrow: working to become flexible enough to complete the Dreya Roll.

The next day I have considered doing a mild run on the treadmill but I noticed how sore I was from my calves to my shoulders. Not too bad! =)

Tonight didn't work out well. My muscles felt tired. I had no energy to begin with, but did not excuse myself from completing the 2nd round of P90X. I knew I needed protein and I should've done better to build that with the food I ate... like maybe eat half a cup of cottage cheese an hour before the exercise. However, that could not be helped considering I was in the last hour before my shift ends and I was busy! Ah well... just a few more days before Shakeology comes!!! I cannot wait to get into this! I am considering ordering the P90X Recovery formula, but I want to wait and really experience the transformation with Shakeology. I am very excited to share this product with my family and friends.

And now I shall research this Dreya Roll and try to figure out what forms I can exercise with that will help!

Team Beach Body and Update

Ok, so it's been awhile since I posted. A lot has happened. Spring began, outdoor projects started, including my lovely flower garden which got destroyed by the April 27 hailstorm. My house had significant damage, thus repairs began, summer heat came, lots of bonde moments including dropping a hammer that landed on my ankle made me unable to walk for several weeks, a lovely two weeks long visit to our families in North Dakota, a naval piercing and the Golden Birthday later, I am here, in September. A lot had happened. However, the most important thing that had happened was a challenge and determination that I felt I needed to take on. A challenge to improve my health and fitness. The determination to do whatever it takes to be that healthier, leaner, 30 pounds lighter me. The change I took on to be a Team Beachbody coach.

Why am I doing this? Aside from the benefits I would receive to help me look better and feel better, there are really three main reasons I am doing this.

First, this is for my husband. He doesn't really work out that much, and would only do so if the exercise convenients him. In other words, he's busy all the time, and tired all the time, so very rarely does he have the time and the energy to work out. This is a little concerning to me, because his physical fitness affects his safety on the line. I have to be realistic with this fact: if my husband were to lose access to his weapons and he is by himself in a fight with a very strong, muscular individual, physical power and some intellect would win the fight... even if it was the bad guy who wins. He works a very dangerous job and I want him to come home. I want to be the inspiration to change him. I cannot change him myself, but I can still inspire him to, right? He's the love of my life, and I believe you really only have one love, that one soul mate. If I were to lose my soul mate, I know I can never really live again. I want him to see my determination to better myself in fitness and health. I hope this inspires him to be in the best shape he can be so he can keep the streets safe, catch the bad guys, and come home to me. I have always tried to get into shape but something always comes up and it takes me awhile to regain the drive to workout again. Being a Team Beachbody Coach would hold me accountable for my actions and would give me the drive. Team Beachbody has a wonderful support team of coaches and members that all works together to drive each other to be the best they can be.

The second reason for doing this is for my parents. Someday, they will need the support of their children. I don't know where I will be twenty years from now, but I want to be able to be there at least financially. Being a Team Beachbody Coach can help me earn some extra income. When I become a successful coach and have money saved up to pay off debt, have cash for emergencies, and have things we wanted, I can still be there for my parents without them feeling like they're imposing on our finances. I owe it to them to be there for them when they can no longer care for themselves on their own. They made the life altering decision to give me the best opportunity in life posssible. They deserve the same treatment; and to have the best golden years of their lives.

The third reason is the possible income I could make as a Coach on behalf of Team Beachbody. When we have a baby, I want to be a stay at home mom. I want to be around to raise the children. My husband wants me to continue to work so we would have the extra income, but I don't see how I could even work part time while the kids are not in school. If I can work from home and raise the children together, this is where Team Beachbody comes in. Earning money from my hard work can make a difference. I can continue to contribute to church (a promise to God I made, that I will always donate at least $20 of my earned money from Team Beachbody a month), buy the things we would like to have, and to afford to travel to places we'd like to see.

So there you have it. A small, quick update and my new drive. I'm doing this for my family and for my future. I am lucky to have a friend who introduced me to this group of wonderful supporters and praise God for that. My website for Beachbody is http://www.beachbodycoach.com/starrydarkeyes


 There is a product called Shakeology that I am very excited to introduce to people. I've heard so many good things about this product that truly made a difference in everyone's well being. I cannot wait to try Shakeology and to share it with everyone. For information on this wonderful product, go to my website: http://www.myshakeology.com/starrydarkeyes 

Have a beautiful time!

Gas Prices Inturruptions

So for the first time in a very long time, the cost of filling my car's tank up with gas was over $30.  It looks like I'd have to change my budget from $40 gas money to $60 gas money per paycheck. Rising cost of gas has interfered with me driving to my gym and working on that 3.1 miles practicing sessions. So I've been trying to make it up with strength and endurance training, and making my dogs happy by jogging twice a day every day- making it an hour long session with exercising the dogs. I think they make me work harder with their prancing along while I am running as fast as I can. At least the days are warmer and longer.

Joined the Runners!

Yeah yeah I've been lazy with my blogs. Sorry about that. Was in hibernation mode for awhile. I am back!!!

So I found out that my company will be reimbursing employees who participates in the 5k race/walks/runs events. Since there are a lot of the charity events that are 5k runs, I thought, "Why not?". So here I started training to make it to 3.1 miles. At least I can do that... I did a test run last night to see how fast I can get to 3.1 miles... and the time was 47 minutes to be exact. I don't think that's bad for a beginnner, considering I've not had any reason to run since high school.  I've decided that in 6 weeks I want to make it to half of that time... get 3.1 mles in under 25 minutes before my first 5k. I'll be running with my husband at the 5k Run Like M.A.D.D.

I plan to train every other day so I don't exactly wear myself out. I hope to at least get to 3.1 miles in a minute less than the previous time each session. And I'll be eating plenty of foods high in carbs and proteins.

Wish me luck!!