Exercise keeps me on top of my game. Keeps my mind sharp, helps me to stay in good health and good spirits. In fact, I think I might just crawl up into a ball and cry myself to sleep if it wasn’t for my regular endorphin rush. Sound a little extreme? Well, this is my personal blog – and I can give you my personal experience, right?

This healthy addiction to exercise began at around age 16 with a desire to be fit and beautiful ~ as most young women strive to be. Thankfully I really liked food, so starving myself was never part of my regimen. Instead I studied healthy eating and began to exercise regularly. At 18 I would drive over to Philadelphia to go into the dance clubs and dance from the time they played the first song to close. I’d dance for 4 or 5 hours straight ~ drinking nothing but ice water and riding the endorphin rush.
Sound wacky? Don’t care ~ this is MY reality.

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I’m still dancing…

Throughout college I kept sane by hitting the gym a few times a week, and hitting the trails behind the campus. I know these workouts helped to keep me from gaining a ridiculous amount of weight – cause remember… I like to eat!

There is a good correlation between those who regularly exercise and a healthy diet as well. If you are hitting the gym and running, you KNOW you must fuel your body properly. You feel absolutely horrid otherwise.

So fast forward to Mom of two and gonna be 35 in just a few hours… and I can tell you that if it wasn’t for my workouts I would not be where I am today! I’m home, self employed, living life by design.

Today, I head to the gym 4 or 5 mornings a week to do some sort of fun exercise like Zumba, kickboxing, and even the not so fun womens strength training. I often head in there with racing mind and a body that is holding onto the stress of the day before. By the time I am halfway through I feel the endorphins flood in, and the happy thoughts begin to flow. The creative problem solving part of my mind kicks in and divine inspiration begins to download into an open, happy mind. Some of my most profitable ideas were conceived while in the middle of a Zumba class … who woulda thought?

If I sit in front of my computer, my mind and creativity begins to stagnate. If I workout, I return to work enthusiastic about the task at hand.

My point of this long, personal post about why I simply must workout, or my life falls apart???
To inspire you ~
If you feel that the words ‘stagnate, blue, depressed, bored, or unhealthy’ resonate with you and your current lifestyle ~ try incorporating some exercise into your life.

The human body is not at all designed to sit ~ to be lazy. It is meant to move and do physical work. Our entire physiology was created in such a way that if we do gentle exercise and eat healthily, we can live an optimum life.

If you know you are on the other extreme, start with moving some – on a regular basis. If you are eating junk ~ its because your mind really craves the endorphin rush and you are getting it from the foods you are eating. If you give it the endorphins in a regular workout – you can begin to SHIFT your diet to one that will actually add years to your life, instead of killing you slowly.

Why do I care? Because I truly do want to see all people fit, healthy and happy – as we were designed. Your potential really is squashed if you aren’t exercising – and you were designed for greatness.

Hey, its almost my birthday. Give me a present and tell me you have committed to getting in shape. You don’t have to be like I was at 18… dancing hours on end. But commit to something. Cause You Love You

Have you ever had your Body fat percentage measured with the ‘pinch test’ ?  Essentially they take a special ‘caliper’ and pull the skin up on your arm, belly and thigh and pinch it. This supposedly gives a measurement of your body fat percentage, but I’m not so sure.
If I take a measure of my BMI using an online calculator, I get a nice 21.7%.  The mean ‘pinch test’ to get my body fat percentage using the digital caliper gave me a 23.3%.
However, the purpose of the test was to get a baseline on record that I could work with to set goals for the rest of the challenge.  I still have 68 days to watch my diet and increase my muscle mass- and now I have some numbers to work with.

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Without shame, my starting numbers (oh, how I hope to see significant change in these stats!):

In inches (don’t ask me why they didn’t use metrics…)

Bicep : 10.5
Chest : 33.5
Waist : 30
Hips : 36.5
Thigh : 18.5
Calf : 13

and Body fat percentage, 23.3%

That’s what I’m working with.  I was on just a “Shape Kit“, which provides the high protein and nutrient meal replacement shake for 2 meals a day… but honestly most days just have a morning shake.  I have now ordered a “Transformation Kit” and the minute it arrives, I will start on the 2 shakes per day, appetite suppressant and metabolism booster.  I expect the 4 lbs I want to lose will fall off within the first week, then I can go back on maintenance mode.  I’ll use the metabolism booster and appetite suppressant left over at some point, I am certain!

I ran out of my Vi-Pack over the weekend and could really feel a difference in soreness this week.  In other words, I HURT! The Omegas (essential oils) that come with the Transformation Kit are excellent for helping with recovery…. and so I await my shipment!

After I had my Body fat percentage calculated I pushed through a kickboxing class.  Intense calorie burning and a great muscle building workout as well.  I work muscles in my kickboxing class that I don’t get to in any other workout – and I’m certain it is the class that blasts the most calories!

If you are bored with your exercise routine, mix it up! You won’t stick to it if its boring, and worse, your body will adjust to your workout and burn fewer calories!   So you have a boring, less effective workout… no good!
Spice it up instead. I do womens strength training, zumba, kickboxing, swimming and occasionally take a spinning class.  Keeping this variety in my routine is crucial – cause I am one woman who hates getting bored!

All of these classes are held at the local YMCA, for just $71 a month for the entire family.  You don’t have to join an expensive gym, or hire a personal trainer to get fit.  But I do suggest you join a fitness facility with a variety of classes so you don’t get bored!  I find that I workout much harder in a group setting than if I were to just hop on the elliptical trainer, or pop in a workout video at home.  The live instructor and music definitely motivate me to up the intensity of my workout.

I’m working harder on increasing the lean muscle mass of my body.  And it feels GOOD!

Join the Challenge! Whether your goals are weight loss, lowering your blood pressure or your cholesterol – you can make fast health gains with the ViSalus Body By Vi!

Its Thursday night, Day 17 of the Body By Vi Challenge, and I’m contemplating the challenge that the weekend poses. You see, Monday -Thursday there are great classes at the YMCA.  Monday is Zumba, Tuesday Kickboxing, Wednesday Strength Training and Thursday is Zumba again.  But then Friday morning comes and I really wanna slack. I mean, I worked out 4 times this week already… and Friday is strength training again and if there was one class I’d love to sleep through… that is IT!

So, will I sleep through it and promise myself that I’ll do a water workout later???
I mean, its Friday after all.

Then, of course thee is the question of sticking to healthy low calorie intake over the weekend.  Whats with Saturday and Sunday that just invite overindulgence?  All across the world people are packing more calories into those 2 days than they should be eating all WEEK!  It true, and you know it!

I’m a home based entrepreneur.  Friday, Saturday and Sunday are really just 3 more days that I choose to do as I like.
And this weekend, I resolve to stick to the Challenge!
I still have muscle to gain, and fat to lose.
I have a strength training class tomorrow to wake up for, and a healthy diet to stick to on Saturday and Sunday.
I can and will still eat yummy ‘weekend’ foods, just smaller portions!

When you have a plan, you will not deviate from your goals!
Make your plan to start the challenge, map out your action steps to reach your goals.  Plug into the community forum for support-
and totally get FIT!

Click on the banner below to learn more about the Visalus Body by Vi Challenge now!

Its Tuesday, and I could easily have taken a break. Could have rolled back over and gotten an extra 30 minutes of sleep – which would have ensured that I missed my kickboxing class.  I could even have convinced myself that I’d workout in the pool later – and I might have – if it wasn’t for the ViSalus Body By Vi Challenge! You see, I set GOALS for this challenge. They are

1. Lose 4 lbs
2. Decrease my Body Mass index (BMI)
3. Increase muscle mass – get strong!
4. Get FIT!

And in order to get myself up out of bed this morning, I recommitted myself to those goals.  Otherwise I might have gotten a little lazy and slept in, and done a bit of exercise in the pool… but that wouldn’t have been nearly as good a workout as kickboxing was!
Instead I got myself up and out, knowing that I’d get an excellent workout out of the way early, and would feel far more accomplished for having done so.

So, up at 8:50, showered, dressed, Vi-Shape Shake with Banana Energy Charge mix-in in hand… I headed to my kickboxing class!

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And accomplished my mini-goal for the day, which ultimately will help me through the 90 Day Body By Vi Challenge by ViSalus!

I use the same strategy to achieve success in my home based business.  Each day I recommit to my goals and examine the tasks at hand that will help me to get closer to accomplishing those goals.  When I’m feeling less than motivated, I re-up! I think of WHY I do what I do… and I put my head down and go to work – in my home office.

Man, I don’t wanna go back to job outside the home! I’ll keep at the task at hand and recommit and accomplish my my tasks for the day! I work hard on my work days, so I can play hard when I like

I’m undertaking the 90 Day Body by Vi Challenge to reach the fitness goals that have been just out of reach ever since I had my second child!

I’m a 34 year old mother of 2 young children, and I thought for sure I’d always be stuck at 136 lbs. No matter how much I worked out or thought I was watching what I ate, I just couldn’t get below that 136lbs! I blamed it on my metabolism changing after the second baby, or my age.

~ But just 45 days ago I started on ViSalus’ 1 shake a day program and plugged into their health tracking tools and have dropped down to 124lbs!

I have just 4 more pounds to lose to reach my weight loss goal and I absolutely will do that easily over the next 90 days. More importantly, I intend to increase my lean body mass – that is, increase muscle mass and lose inches! I’ll do that with the Transformation Kit and a workout regimen of 2 days of cardio and 2 days weight training, with a liberal dose of swimming for good measure.

Support me on my challenge! Better yet, join me and reach your own goals!

Day 1 of the challenge, and I almost didn’t make it to my Kickboxing class! I could easily have rolled right back over in bed when I realized I had less than 20 minutes to get ready and make my shake… but, well, watch for yourself!

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Now, I have an amazing advantage in that I have an incredible YMCA. Over the coming weeks, I’ll share with you the variety of classes I’ll take to reach my goals.

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Meet my Kickboxing instructor and find out how she keeps her class crankin, even as she is kicking our butts!

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