Team Beachbody Coach Summit 2018!

I'm feeling a massive mixture of sadness and excitement as I sit here writing this. There are a couple of tears being shed too.

Today I was supposed to be rolling into Indianapolis for the biggest event in my businesses calendar, Summit. I had my tickets ready, my hotel booked, I was booked into all of the workshop sessions and the super-trainer workouts. I was pumped to be a part of something I’d only ever dreamed about.
But recent events mean that I haven’t been able to get out there.
And I won’t lie, it’s really hard to swallow. I mean, I’ve only been planning this for about 3 years. No, really! For 3 years. And I won’t be there.

I have known that I wanted to be a coach for the longest time. Waaaaay before the company even made any murmurings about coming to the UK. I was using the products and I fell in love with them. They worked, they were different to anything out there and they fitted my busy life as a working mum perfectly. I loved the products so much so that I took it upon myself to connect into the North American coach network. What I encountered there was entirely unexpected and it completely blew me away.

I found a community of thousands of coaches who were changing people’s lives every single day. Helping them through the minefield of nutrition and exercise, giving people confidence and support to achieve things they never thought themselves capable of, helping people get healthier and lead more fulfilling lives.
Giving people HOPE.

These people were friendly, positive, supportive, uplifting, go-getting, action taking, sharing, helpful ——— and I was HOOKED.

From Day 1 I wanted to be a part of that community. I KNEW I WOULD be a part of that community. I felt the passion so deep inside me that I KNEW I would make it happen.

I kept myself in the loop, I networked and I made sure I’d be the first to know when the coaching opportunity was coming to the UK.

I spent all of my spare time researching the company. I researched and I researched. What their mission was, why they were doing it, how they were doing it. Was it legit, was it a pyramid scheme, were these weight-loss results real?
I learned about all of the products, the coaching process, how coaches were rewarded for helping people.
I learnt everything I could over the course of a couple of years. I watched the recordings of the annual Summit gathering and I got excited.
This was the real deal.

I spent my spare time following coaches on social media, deciding which individuals and teams I felt most connected to, whose mission resonated most strongly with me, who had the training and systems in place that I liked best, whose approach and personality I clicked with, who I wanted to partner with in my business when the time finally came when I could become a Coach.

I started running week-long online nutrition and exercise groups - reaching out to support people who needed help.

I was ready.

When it was finally announced in March 2017 that the coaching opportunity would be coming to the UK later that year I was more than ready.
I had chosen the team I was going to join. I’d met them in person when they came over to Birmingham that summer and had cemented the fact.
I KNEW this was what I was meant to do.

On the day the coaching opportunity went live in October 2017 I was waiting. I sat at my laptop counting down the minutes and then, as the clock ticked over and we went live, I became a Coach.
I was almost bursting with an emotional mixture of excitement and pride as one of the UK Founding Coaches for the company, after all this time waiting.

Now I could get to help people reach their weight-loss, health and fitness goals officially, using ground-breaking products, backed by a company I wholeheartedly believed in and a hand-picked team of women who set my soul alight.
Now I could make a difference. Even if it was just to one person, I would be making a difference.

Our annual Coach Summit is a humungous event. Kind of like a conference, girls trip, family reunion, personal development retreat, business and leadership training event, the Academy Awards, and the Olympics all rolled into one!
World stage speakers and best-selling authors such as Brendon Burchard, Gary Vaynerchuk, Simon Sinek, Darren Hardy sharing their insights,
Top coaches sharing how they change lives every day,
Super-trainer workouts - Shaun T, Chalene Johnson, Autumn Calabrese, Tony Horton and more,
New product announcements,
Recognition and celebration.

I was going to be there in the whirlwind of it all, where my heart and soul would be blown wide open with the energy, emotion, knowledge, and sheer joy of spending time with some of my new favourite people, immersed in learning and sharing and living what we're most passionate about - growing and learning and helping other people.

Last year I watched Summit from my laptop. The events were streamed live from New Orleans and I sat up into the night and watched the opening and closing ceremonies in real time. I heard the announcements, saw the new products, celebrated my team becoming the top team in the company for the 3rd year in a row, cried as I heard the stories of the Beachbody Challenge finalists and felt inspired by what they had achieved.

This year I will do the same.
My company are world-class at hosting these events. It's going to be immense.
My timeline is blowing up with pictures as all the coaches are arriving in Indy. The welcome banners at the airport, the stages being built for the ceremonies, the smiling, excited selfies.
I will be there in spirit and I will watch with pleasure as my new friends and teammates experience this crazy event. I will celebrate right alongside them as my team becomes the top team for the 4th year in a row and I will be full of pride for what this company achieves.
We make a difference every single day - We Save Lives.

#endthetrend of obesity

Next year, you guys, I WILL be there. Wild horses won’t be able to keep me away.
Maybe you’ll come too and we can experience it for the first time together. I can’t think of anything I would love more than to be able to share it with you.

XOXO

Smart Nutrition Tips to Help You Start Out on the Right Foot

 

These top tips will help you launch your health and fitness journey with a bang!

1) Never Skip Breakfast

Missing out on the most important meal of the day will affect your performance, not just at the gym but at work as well. Eat healthy carbs such as wholegrain cereal or porridge oats with protein from milk (or preferably a plant based-alternative such as unsweetened almond or soya milk). Add nuts or seeds for essential healthy fats, and berries for a hit of antioxidants.

2) Reshape Your Plate

Two thirds of your plate should always be plant-based - think vegetables, fruit, wholegrains, pulses, beans, nuts and seeds. The remaining third should be animal protein, such as meat or eggs.

3) Stay Hydrated

You really need to aim for 2-3 litres of water every day. Make sure you're always hydrated before you exercise to be able to perform at your best. It's best to sip slowly through the day rather than chugging at once!

4) Always Refuel

Protein encourages growth and repair of muscles, while carbs replace lost fuel so it's best to combine the two after exercise. Try all-natural peanut butter and banana on rice cakes, or hummus and wholemeal pitta bread - both are great protein/carb combos.

Staying Successful - How to Change Your New Years Resolutions into a Way of Life

Hi everyone! I hope your 2016 is going great so far!

Towards the back end of 2015 I posted on my Facebook page and Twitter how I wouldn't be making any new years resolutions. Rather, I was making a year end resolution. That year end resolution was to finish 2015 fitter and stronger than when I started. And I did! I'd been following my fitness programmes and eating clean (with a little balance thrown in on occasion) since October. I'd lost weight, toned up, and was beasting my workouts because I was fitter and stronger *round of applause!*

I've never been one for new years resolutions, I can't really see the point. Surely if you're that bothered about losing weight/giving up smoking/cutting back on alcohol/insert your vice here... then you'd just do it. Wouldn't you? I'm always surprised that people are willing to wait until January 1st to make the change.
Oh, please don't get me wrong. I'm playing devil's advocate to a degree here. Anyone that makes an effort to start a journey towards better health and fitness is frickin' awesome in my mind. It's not an easy thing to commit to and I salute anyone that goes balls out for it. It's just the January 1st bit that I don't get. Forgive me?

Anyway, so as not to run the risk of offending anyone who has made a new year resolution to get fitter, stronger and healthier in 2016 I wanted to give you some tips on how to keep that momentum going.

After the initial excitement of it all the reality hits and excuses start creeping in as to why you don't have time to work out today, or some of those unhealthy favourite treats start to creep into you shopping trolley. But you know that if you want it bad enough, if you have a strong desire and motivation to do something then you'll find a way! If you're not highly motivated then you'll find excuses instead.

So here are my TOP TIPS FOR STAYING SUCCESSFUL WHEN THE GOING GETS TOUGH:

Number One

A strong 'Why' or driving force to change your nutrition and fitness levels is absolutely essential. I made sure to ask my challengers in our recent 5 Day Introduction to Clean Eating group what their 'Why' is. It's easy to answer "to lose weight" or "to look better" but it's often deeper than that. Lack of confidence, health concerns (either current ones or potential issues in the future), worries that you won't be able to keep up with your kids/grandkids as they (and you!) get older, a desire to set a good example to your children, wanting your family to be proud of you, wanting to feel ALIVE again! The list is endless and much more involved than any superficial 'vain' reasons.

The point is that you have to really want to change. If your 'Why' is strong enough it serve as an internal motivator that keeps you going even when the novelty wears off. You have to want to change more than you want to stay the same!

Number Two

Be committed. You have to commit in order to succeed. You have to be willing to do whatever it takes to get there. You've gotta go all in!

Number Three

Stick to good nutrition. The 80/20 rule won't put you far wrong! Have a treat then get straight back into the game. Make sure you're drinking lots of water. You may find it helpful to track your daily food intake in a journal. You will make steady and healthy progress.

Number Four

Trust that you'll be successful. If you really want it you can have it! So give yourself some credit - you can do it! It may be trial and error for a while. It may take some time to find out what works best for your body, but it'll come. Go ahead and tweak things as you go along. Progress is slow, you just have to have faith that you'll get there. Give it time and don't give up too early because you've got this!

So now you’ve started, don’t let anything stop you!

How I'm Feeling Three Weeks into Sweating the Small Stuff

Hey everyone! Today marks three whole weeks since I started Sweating the Small Stuff in the form of this blog and my Facebook 'like' page. It's been an odd thing for me. Those of you who are my close family and friends will know that I'm quite a private person so putting myself out there in the public domain has been both exciting and scary for me.
I'd been working on building the blog for a while and it had been a long and difficult process. I'm not very techy and I had to google what to do every step of the way. I can't believe I was writing code!!! It was tedious and there was a lot of trial and error but it was important to me that the blog looked and felt right before I published it. It isn't perfect still, there are lots of things I want to do with it to make it more user friendly and to improve how it looks but I had certainly got it to a point where I was happy enough for it to go out to the masses. However, I became aware that I was at the stage where I was just tweaking bits and bobs here and there, and I realised it was because I was procrastinating about putting it out there for all to see.

It took me a few days to pluck up the courage to publish both the blog and my 'like' page, and I was so scared about it! I reasoned with myself that publishing them wasn't really an issue because if nobody knew they existed then nobody would see them anyway! So I went ahead and published them with a rush of blood to the head!

I'm not even really sure what it was that worried me. I was a bit concerned about what people might think, but then I'm not generally bothered about that sort of thing. People can think what they want but I know me, who I am and what I'm about and so do the people who I care about. That's good enough for me. I was certainly worried that I didn't know what I was doing! It was a massive leap of faith. I even had to teach myself how to do selfies as I'd never done them before! I was also worried that people would get irritated by the Facebook feed. But then I had to remind myself that was why I'd set it up as a separate 'like' page instead of using my personal page so that people could choose whether or not to follow me and see the posts.

It was Roger who pushed it through for me. He went and invited people to like my Facebook page and, much to my surprise, people did!

I've been overwhelmed by the support and positive comments that I've had from people. Thank you to all of you! The feedback I've had has made this so much easier for me and has spurred me to keep going when I've been wavering on my ability to do this. The children and Roger have helped and are fully participating, and I've got a new-found 'cool mum' status now that I'm a 'blogger'! It's probably only fleeting so I'll take if for as long as I can!

 

Although the main intention of all of this was for my own accountability in my health and fitness journey I truly hope to be able to inspire and motivate other people on their own health and fitness journeys. I've been surprised and humbled to hear from people who have taken action towards their own fitness as a result of what I'm doing, some of whom I'd never had imagined would be inspired in this way. I'd love to be able to help other people and am more than happy to do it. Please reach out to me if you think I can in any way. I'll do my absolute best to help you or at least to find the answers you're looking for. I'm certainly no expert but I've learnt lots and I know what has worked for me. On that note, I really would welcome any constructive criticism you feel you can give me regarding both the blog and my Facebook 'like' page. I want everything to be useful to other people so please connect with me so I can focus on things that would be beneficial to you.

Also, if you feel happy to, please invite others to join me on my blog and 'like' page. The more people that are watching me the more accountable I feel!

In summary, I'm so glad that I've done this. It's been challenging and I'm sure it will continue to be, but I'm really enjoying it and it's given me a new lease of life that I didn't know was missing. I'm making great progress in my own personal journey and I'm loving being able to share my passion.

I truly hope that you're getting something out of this too and I'd love for you to stay with me as I push further.

Planning for Success

Success doesn't just happen, you have to plan for it!

This holds especially true for my nutrition. When I need to stay on top of a healthy eating lifestyle and I'm cooking for my family I really couldn't do it without planning.

Every week without fail I sit down and set out my game plan for the entire week.
I decide on what dinners we'll be eating as a family for the week ahead and list them out. While I'm doing this I take into account anything that's going on during the week and make sure I plan suitable meals. For example, if I know we're going to be home late one evening because of football practice I make sure to plan in a quick and easy meal for that evening, or I plan in something that I can prepare up front to save time to ensure we don't end up eating too late.

Then I use this plan to write out my full shopping list. I nearly always order my food online, either for delivery, or for me to pick up. I absolutely cannot stand food shopping so this is the best way for me. It means I can manage it without it being a massive aggravation. I also get that time back to do other, more exciting stuff! Things like this...

Once I've got the shopping back home I check all of the use before dates and double check that these fit in with the meal plan. I usually have to make a few tweaks here and there so that we'll eat everything before its expiry date, and I freeze meat at this point if I need to, noting down which day I'll need to get it out of the freezer to thaw.

The key is to look out for and anticipate any potential obstacles and be sure to plan around them so they don't throw you off track.

Once the weekly meal plan is set I write it down so it's visual and available to me and I can refer to it every day. Sometimes it'll just be on a bit of paper that annoyingly hangs around on the kitchen worktop all week, other times it's a bit more formal, like this.....

Then, I STICK TO IT!!!!
Simple as that.
Healthy week of eating in the bag. Repeat for next week :)

Dishing the Dirt on Eating Clean

I'm often asked what I mean when I say I'm into clean eating. Today I'm going to go through the basics for you.
Eating clean is a very simple concept but it has big benefits. Our nutrition is massively important in how our body looks and feels. If you eat rubbish your body will show it. It's said that 80% of what our body looks like is down to what we eat, 10% is down to exercise and 10% is genetic. You've heard it before but you really are what you eat.

Clean eating is simply the practice of limiting processed and refined foods and basing your diet on whole foods. It bases itself on the concept of food as fuel to nourish your body. It's not complicated, you just need to understand the basics.
Eating clean is not a fad diet. There is no calorie counting or deprivation. It doesn't eliminate food groups. You get to eat plenty of food, just the good stuff! It is a permanent lifestyle change where you go back to basic healthy eating principles.

There are lots of online resources you can use to find out more about clean eating. The concept can be open to interpretation and some people have different thoughts on it. This is my take on it and how I practice clean eating principles in my life. This suits me and my family and has helped us become healthier. We all have our own opinions and you may feel differently than me so I strongly encourage you to do what is right for you and your family.

Eat real, whole foods that come from nature:

• A variety of fruit and vegetables. Vegetables in particular are low in calories but are packed with fibre and lots of vitamins and minerals
• Wholegrains. Replace refined grains with whole ones to ensure you're getting all the lovely nutrients and fibre that are in them. Choose steel cut oats, brown/wild/black rice, quinoa, freekeh, etc. There are loads of options. 
• Lean meats
• Fish
• Dairy
• Nuts and seeds
• Healthy fats and oils (such as avocado, extra virgin olive oil and coconut oil)

Limit processed foods:

• This is anything that has been 'tampered with' to make it into it's current state
• Avoid added sugars, salt and fats
• Avoid refined sugars. Refined sugar = empty calories. It has no nutritional benefit at all.
• Avoid refined white flours and replace them with wholemeal flour.
• Avoid anything with preservatives, additives or artificial sweeteners.
• Read ingredients lists carefully. Anything with lots of ingredients will generally mean it's not 'clean'
• A rule of thumb is if you can't pronounce one of the ingredients then you shouldn't buy it!

Clean Eating Principles:

• Eat breakfast every day to boost your metabolism
• Eat regularly. Every 2 and a half to 3 hours. This also keeps your metabolism firing on all cylinders and will reduce the chance of you needing to snack on something bad in between meals
• Cook from scratch. It's easier than you might think. I've enjoyed learning how to cook with lots of fabulous fresh ingredients. I've got some really quick and easy recipes that I'll be sharing with you
• Adhere to proper portion sizes (see below) 
• Combine lean protein with complex carbohydrates in your meals. This keeps you feeling fuller for longer and helps with your metabolism to burn fat more effectively
• Limit caffeine and alcohol. Use both in moderation
• Keep hydrated!
• Stay flexible!!!!! More about this below.....

Correct Portion Sizes:

• Protein = size of palm
• Complex carbohydrates = one cupped hand
• Fruit and veg = 2 cupped hands
• Cooking oils and healthy fats = 1 tablespoon

Benefits of Clean Eating:

• Easier to maintain a healthy weight thereby reducing the risk of health problems
• A diet full of variety ensures you're getting lots of nutrients
• Whole foods are great at keeping the digestive system regular
• A healthy diet makes you stronger so you can stay more active for longer.

The Really Important Bit!!!

It's vitally important to be flexible when you're eating clean. Clean eating 100% of the time is not very realistic. It's completely OK to enjoy a treat every now and then. It's not cheating! It's just making a conscious, informed choice to enjoy something different every once in a while. All you need to do is be comfortable with your choices. For me, I'll often have artificial sweeteners in my tea or coffee. That's fine by me - it's a choice I've made and I'm comfortable with it. We enjoy making homemade pizza, and my dough recipe uses white flour. That's OK with me! We only have it once in a while. The key is balance.

Lots to take on board? I know, I felt the same way. What's great is that you can take this slowly switching out ingredients as you go along. It's taken me a while to learn what I have so far, and I'm still learning. It's a work in progress!

Clean eating will change your body from the inside out. So eat like you love your body. I promise you you'll feel better for it!