Weekend Motivation

Hey Guys!!

I just wanted to stop by and leave a little note of inspiration for you.

Over the last few weeks I've been talking to a handful of friends about their fitness goals.  Many of these goals have been in place for years but were never fully realized.  Why? Why is it so difficult to get to our goal? Why do we feel like we are constantly fighting a losing health or fitness battle?

Sometimes we lose sight of our motivation and our goal.  Making a change is hard!! If it were easy, we'd all be running around in size 0 pants, munching on celery and no one would have ever heard of the word "Diet".  We all wish it was so simple, but the truth is... it's not.  No big surprise, right?  We have to keep pushing and get through those bad days that will inevitably happen.  Let it go. The important thing is to start the next day fresh.

I want to give you guys a challenge this weekend.  There's no deadline or due date.

I want you to think of your main goal and write it down.  BIG and BOLD.  Get crafty or colorful if you want, add some glitter!! Then I want you to surround yourself with positive inspiration and motivation! Find pictures of HEALTHY body types you want to strive after - sorry, most fashion models are not healthy.  Hang up that bikini or little dress you want to fit back in to.  Find fitness or motivation quotes and put them up on your mirror.  Put them up where you will see them everyday and take a few seconds before walking out the door in the morning to remind yourself that you are worth it and you deserve to feel good about yourself.

When I first lost the weight, it was about feeling better in my skin.  I didn't want to feel my stomach hanging over my pants and the tummy aches I would get in the afternoons from my jean buttons digging in when I sat all day in school.   I refused to look at pictures of myself.  I made a deal with myself that I would never weight that much again. That was my goal.

When I finally hit my weight goal (lost 35lbs!), my fitness goal changed! I wanted to be stronger! I saw what I could accomplish when I put my mind to something.

This weekend is the official Disneyland Half Marathon weekend at the Disneyland Resort.  2 years ago, I saw my first RunDisney race and I was hooked.  That became my ULTIMATE goal! I wanted to RUN in a race that took me through my beloved Disney parks! (Did I mention the running costumes and sparkle skirts??)  I trained HARD for 10 months. Starting from 0 and ending at 13.1 miles.

I leave you with this.  Dream BIG. Find your ultimate goal and believe that you can achieve it!! Surround yourself with positive inspiration, motivation, and like minded people. Stacee and I are always here for you if you need a little extra encouragement.  Call us, text us, Instagram us, tweet us! Now we're even on Facebook! (https://www.facebook.com/wakeupandglisten) We've been where you are and we still struggle. And that's okay! :)

My Original Fitness Motivation: To Earn My Wings! 

news and food for thought

Hey guys!  Annie and I have LAGGED on posting, but thanks for sticking with us!  I wanted to update you all on somethings in my fitness life!

A few weeks ago, Annie posted about her becoming a Team BeachBody Coach.  At that same time, I signed up through a friend of mine to join Team Beach Body.  At the time, I just wanted to sign up for a challenge group and see what happens... Now, 3 weeks in, I've decided to also become a coach with TBB!

Here's the deal.  I'm not a professional.  I'm just a gal who is trying to make it on this fitness journey.  Here's the other thing: Annie and I are NOT in competition, but rather partnership!  She's got her sphere of influence, I have mine, and some of our circles cross, but that's ok!  We signed up for T25 at the same time, and started this new part of our journey together.  So, go ahead and contact either of us if you are interested in joining the Team Beach Body family.  We can get you hooked up with a challenge group and start seeing your transformation happen!

The 2nd thing:

I was looking through some photos from the past year, and i found a couple rounds of "before" photos... I realized that I took these photos, longing for a change, but I never committed to anything... I thought I would reach my goals by doing the same old thing... WRONG! (isn't that the definition of insanity?)  But, I compared them to my most recent "before" photo (the one I took at the start of T25) and I can see a HUGE difference.  There is only one word to describe what I was feeling as I took off my shirt to have my friend Sheryl take my before pictures...Humbled.  It was a sign to me, and a commitment to another person.  I have these photos up on my "workout wall" so as I'm doing my daily workouts, and I sometimes have thoughts of "is this really working?  I don't see a difference", I just look at those photos from 2012 and I tell myself- "I may not be where I want to YET, but I'M NOT WHERE I ONCE WAS!!"  And that is encouragement.

So let me leave you with this:
1. just because you may not see daily "results", doesn't mean your body isn't changing.  I don't recommend stepping on the scale but once a week, just to see the fact of what your body weighs...
2. take measurements weekly!  You may not be losing lbs., but i can almost guarantee that you will be losing inches!
3.  find a picture of when you were in the worst shape of your life (or when you weighed the most).  print it out and keep it somewhere that you can use it as a reminder of where you once were, and how you will NEVER go back to that!  It's not depressing, IT'S HELPFUL!!!!

I'm an Independent Beach Body Coach!

Hey guys!

I wanted to share a little news with you!

If you have been following along with my fitness "journey" you'll know that I've been involved in the Tone it Up! community for a while now and following their nutrition program.  It's been an incredible resource in knowing how to make clean meals and learning to make better decisions in my food choices.  I've also been following their workout schedules which are posted weekly on their blog toneitup.com and I've seen great results from them.  I'm definitely stronger than I've ever been in my life!

Recently I heard about a new Beachbody program that has come out called T25.  Beachbody has produced a lot of the popular High Intensity workout programs such as TurboFire, Insanity, and P90X. This one peaked my interest because it's a shorter workout time: only 25 mins.  I'm currently restarting my Half Marathon training and need to make time for my long runs - workouts sometimes overlap and I can't complete all of it.  I'm hoping this will allow me more time to get in that high impact workout and still be able to complete my distance training on the weekends.   I will still be continuing with the Tone it Up nutrition program.  It's been working for me and it's a great tool for eating clean.

While looking into the products I also discovered there was opportunity to become a representative of the company.   As I grow in this quest to become more and more fit, it made sense for me to be able to promote some of what I'm using.  I decided to join up and become a Coach!

I've got a lot of research ahead of me as I have no intention of putting my name on something I'm uneducated about.  Products like these dont come cheap and I want to make sure I'm completely knowledgable about them should anyone need more info.

If you would like to follow along with me as I start a new chapter with the T25 challenge (50 days! eep!), I'll be posting on the blog as well as on my Instagram and Twitter.  Username: Anniemcbeth  If you have any questions about anything I'm doing or maybe interested in a different program, just leave me a comment below with your email.  I'll shoot you a message and we can chat :)

Have a great week ahead!!

Music City Triathlon - June 28, 2013

I didn't expect a current.  I didn't expect to vomit.  I didn't expect a perfect weather day.  I didn't expect to make a new personal record.  I didn't expect to cry.

There were a lot of things I didn't expect to happen on this race.  I actually went into the race just hoping I would finish because I had not been able to train properly the weeks leading up to it (due to a quad injury).  I had set a goal for myself, which was a pretty lofty goad, but I quickly let that dream die after my lack of training. 

I arrived at the race site at 6AM.  As i started putting my transition station together, I kept praying and asking for the Lord's strength to come upon me because I wasn't sure how I was going to accomplish this feat.  

We lined up at the start of the swim… This was my first open water swim, so I didn't really know what to expect, but I didn't expect what I got.  the current was strong, and i had to swim against it for most of the swim.  basically I spent A LOT more energy on the swim than I was planning or anticipating.  

Because the swim was so hard, and took so much, I was already exhausted by the time I ran up to the transition area to get on my bike.  At this point, I threw up some, and while that's gross, I had a quick though of "finally, i worked out so hard, I threw up!"  And once i was finished, i got on my bike and off i went!  Cycling is my strongest sport, and so going into the tri, I wasn't worried about it.  However, once I got on my bike and my legs didn't want to move, I knew I was in trouble.  It took me a good 2 miles to get my head back in the game and refocus on what I had to do.  During those 2 miles, I actually had the thought "I'm never doing another tri… this is ridiculous".  Of course I didn't mean those words, but in the moment I did!  Thankfully as I prayed through this moment, the Lord reminded me of how much I enjoy it, and of course I will do another one!!!  How's Sept. 7, 2013 sound?  Good to me!  So the bike was a 12 mile out and back course.  They shut down many of the roads in Nashville just for us, and it was so nice to ride down Ellington Parkway because it is so smooth.  There were a few hills that weren't so fun, but it was a GREAT day for a ride.  

The run, like everything else, had unexpected results.  As i started out, I walked up the pedestrian bridge (because my legs were like jello coming off the bike)… Once I got to the top, there was a sweet man sitting among the spectators.  And what he said was another aspect of this run I didn't expect… he just simply said: "Hey 150, you're doing a great job, I'm proud of you.!"  I broke at that point.  tears started running down my face because it was as if the Lord was speaking through this man directly to me.  I needed to hear those words at that exact moment, and those words are what drove me to keep running.  My goal for the run portion of this race was to run more than I walked.  during my first tri, i walked the entire thing, so obviously I wanted to do better than that.  AND I DID!!!  I ended up walking about 3/4 of a mile total.  HUGE improvement for me.  

As I crossed the finish line, I heard cheers from my adoptive sisters who came up to watch me and cheer for me.  It was such a blessing to have them there, and it meant so much to me!  I don't do these races for anybody but myself and the Lord, but it is always nice to have someone there who is cheering specifically for YOU!!  

After the race, I went through the food line, and then over to the results area.  As I searched for my name, I finally found it.  I hesitantly looked at all my times.  I finished in 1:54:36… As soon as I saw that number, I cried again.  All day long, I felt like I hadn't performed very well, and that I would have a horrible time.  I had set up my expectation to believe that it would be impossible to attain the goals I had set in front of myself- which was to finish in under 2 hours.  I DID IT!!!  I could not believe it!  But that was just the "icing on the cake" of what the Lord had been speaking to me all day.  Way back at the beginning of the day, I prayed: " Lord, may you be glorified through this race today.  You have created my body to move and worship your through this sport, so may you be glorified today."  As I was out on the course, multiple times, when I was weak, I cried out to the Lord in my weakness, and His gentle response was this:  "my strength is made perfect in your weakness."  Honestly, there is no way I would have finished in the time that I did had I done it in my own strength… but it was apparent from the moment I jumped into the cumberland river that I wasn't going to be able to do the race in my own strength.  I must give all the glory to the Lord for this race.  today showed me how easy it is for me to slide into an attitude of pride when if comes to sports, thinking I'm better than I am, but I was humbled today.  Every stroke, stride and step I took today was an opportunity for me to grow closer to the Lord by stepping out of my own strength and depending on HIM.  As I released my expectations and hopes and desires to Him, He was then able to do exceedingly and abundantly more that I could have ever hoped or imagined.  I NEVER imagined that this would be the race where I shaved 24 minutes off my previous tri time.  NEVER!  But In christ, all thins are possible.  Phillipians 4:13 says that "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me."  I have this verse taped to my bike, and it played through my head along with 2 Cor. 12:9- "My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness."  The Word of the Lord is such a refreshing thing.  It is TRUTH.  

It was a great day overall.  I can't wait to see what the Lord does in the coming days in my life as a result of this.  I can't wait to share my story with anyone who is willing to hear because it is a story of overcoming through Christ.

Here are some photos:

Thanks for reading!

Training Thursdays

Ok all, we've decided hijack Thursdays and make them all about TRAINING!!!  For the next few weeks (at least) I will be focusing on my triathlon training.  In case you  missed my post, I'm doing a Sprint Triathlon on July 28th.  I'm a much stronger cyclist than I was when I competed in my first triathlon, so I'm not worried about that part of it.  Swimming, doesn't concern me too bad, but running might be my demise.  All that being said, most sprint training schedules are 8 weeks.  Since I only have 4 weeks to train, I've taken an 8 week schedule and modified it to what I need... I'm still going to train in all 3 events and we will see what happens.

You might notice that on my training plan, Tuesdays are strength training days, and Fridays are my "rest" days.  Let me just stop right here and point out how important it is to have both of those days in your training.

Strength Training
Strength training days help you focus on muscles and areas of your body that aren't being worked out in bike rides, runs or swims... It can help increase your speed and endurance while decreasing the risk of injury!  I know you all probably think that running, swimming and biking works all of your muscles, but the reality is, those specific sports only target the large muscles and maybe some smaller muscle groups, but strength training, you can focus on those smaller muscle groups, thus helping to have much better overall health.  Now, there is much more to strength training than just weights, but I'll cover that in another post. :)

Rest
Um... you've been working your body out really hard, it's time to REST!!!!  Your muscles (and mind) need a little time to recover!  If you work and work and work, with no rest, you will burn out mentally and physically, and you also increase your risk for injury!  I'm a huge fan of rest days... not because I don't have to work out, but because I know that if I rest, then my workouts will actually be much stronger!!

Brick workouts
Another thing you will notice about my training plan is that many days it says "Swim 45 Run 30" or something like that.  Since triathlons are multisport, we must train with that mentality.  Some days you only train in one area of endurance, but ultimately you will want to train in multiple areas so you build your endurance!  Again, I'll probably write an entire post on this as well, at a later point in time.

All that said, here is my training schedule.  I don't recommed doing this one if you aren't already somewhat fit.  If you are training for your first tri, I highly reccommend doing an 8 week training program.  My favorite is Hal Higdeon, and you can find his training schedule here.  He has a whole bunch of training schedules for different events (click here to see an entire list of training programs)

Enjoy this and happy training!  I'll "see ya on the road"

Week	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday	Sunday
1	Run 30	Strength	Bike 45, Strength	Swim 30 Run 25	Rest	Run 30 Min	Swim 30 Run 30
2	Bike 40 Run 15	Strength	Swim 15 Run 30	Run 30 Strength	Rest	Run 35	Swim 30 Bike 60
3	Run 35	Strength	Bike 40 Strength	Swim 30 Run 30	Rest	Run 40	Swim 30 Run 40
4	Bike 30 Run 30	Strength	Swim 30 Run 30	Run 30	Rest	Rest	Triathlon

Happy 1st official day of summer

Well, on this first day of summer, I did something that now I'm going to be held accountable for... I signed up for my 2nd Triathlon!!!  I did my first triathlon in 2010, i had never really ridden a road bike, I couldn't run to save my life, and I hadn't swam really since high school.  Now, 3 years later, I am a cyclist, still can't run to save my life, and I can swim so much better!  Training for my first triathlon is what got me started in cycling.  I LOVE IT!!!

So, I signed up for the Music City Triathlon on July 28th.  It's a 400 yard swim, 12 mile bike and 5K.  I'm currently dealing with a quad injury, but I know I'll be able train for this (even though it's 5 weeks away)... really, the only part that worries me is the 5K... I know that my partner in crime Annie, will give me tips and tricks for running, now that she's a half-marathon runner!

My first triathlon, I didn't have a goal for time.... I just wanted to finish!  and I finished in 2:16... This time, I do have a timeframe I'd like to finish in, and I think I can do it... of course I'll blog about it after the fact.

So, some of my posts over the next few weeks will be focused on training for this triathlon..

Never done one before?  you should TRI!!!! (see what I did there?)

Stacee

Annie's Journey, Part 3: Becoming A Beach Babe!

Hello my friends!

It's been a few months since my last full post and during that time I have gone through a huuuge transformation not only physically but mentally.

In recent posts (Part 1 & Part 2) I've shared a lot about how I have physically transformed myself into becoming a better me.  I've worked hard to lose weight and I've worked hard to gain endurance and mileage in my Half Marathon training.  BOTH of those are a huge part of who I am today, what I know about my "limits" and what can happen when I push them.  (I'll be doing a future post about my last Half Marathon and how I killed it!)

This 3rd section of my journey, which brings us to where I am today, actually started waaaaay back in November of 2012.  Like many of us, I was feeling the effects of too much holiday grub and being at Grandma's house! (treats everywhere!) I was feeling mushy and hadn't really been working out hard since the Half Marathon at the beginning of the month.  Granted, I was involved with a Christmas show, Beauty and the Beast, so I was active and working but not taking the time to build and train new muscle.

I had been following 2 girls on twitter for a while but hadn't really looked into what they did until one week right after Thanksgiving.  All of a sudden, Twitter "blew up" with tweets about a special Black Friday offer they had released.  Curiosity got the better of me and I checked it out.  It was an offer to join a team of women across the world and have life time access to a Nutrition plan that genuinely looked great! It was geared towards fueling your body to not only burn fat but also how to gain lean strong muscle.  With the deal came their own workout DVD, a water bottle (we all need more of those!), stickers, a hat, a journal, and a sample packet of a protein powder they had developed themselves.  These girls looked legit! But priced at $150, it was out of my range.  I sat on the offer for a couple days but as the deadline loomed near, I got anxious I was missing out on something incredible.  That night I went to the parents....

"Mom... Dad... there's these two girls who have this nutrition plan and they're having a special deal with extra goodies.... Can I have this be my one Christmas present?"

After showing them some videos and more information, I got my wish.  Santa came early!

I joined Karena & Katrina and the rest of the Tone it Up! family!!

I officially started the Nutrition plan on Jan 1st 2013 and there was a lot of trial and error on which recipes worked for me, exactly what things were, and when you were supposed to eat them.  Slowly but surely I started feeling better about what I was eating and my body was showing results through how it was feeling.  I had more energy and I felt better all around.

One of the things I really appreciate about the TIU program, is they are constantly bringing new things to the table.  It's just, buy the plan, here are some workouts, GO!  They have challenges throughout the year to keep you motivated.  The first challenge I was a part of was the Love Your Body Challenge gearing up towards Valentine's Day.  It was a great way to "up" my workouts and really start building muscle with a set workout schedule and help along the way.  I did have to sway away from it towards the end, as my next Half Marathon loomed closer and I needed to bring up my mileage.  But that race was a turning point in my own personal race goals because I had been doing so much strength training with the girls.

Fast forward to Spring of 2013.

Karena and Katrina announced the start of their 3rd annual Bikini Series Challenge! Who doesn't want to look amazing in a bikini??
I signed up the first day and was so excited for the next 8 weeks of workouts and challenges.  Lemme tell you..  it flew by fast!! It was tough, for sure.  There were a lot of days I could barely move my arms or pick up my legs to get me to work, but it was so worth it.  There were also days, I didn't make good choices on food and the last week of school was killer with all the parties happening in the classes and break rooms.  BUT I do know that I have made an incredible difference in my body since finding TIU.  I have muscles in my arms that have NEVER been visible before!  There are also times during a workout where I'll glance down at my legs and be utterly amazed at the muscle tone I've built up.  I've leaned my legs out with running but as far as muscle building, TIU has improved my strength by leaps and bounds.

I still have work to do as far as becoming confident in wearing a bikini but I know that I am literally a stronger person since signing up with these ladies.  The Bikini Series has officially come to an end today but I intend to continue the workouts and keep my goals in place.  I owe it to myself and to my body to treat it the best I can and I've gained confidence in knowing my good choices are affecting the rest of my life.   I'm incredibly thankful to Karena and Katrina for starting the Tone it Up program and bringing it to all of us.  Through it, I've met so many amazing women from around the world and am now lucky enough to call them friends.

If you want to know more about the Tone it Up program and the Nutrition plan check them out at Toneitup.com  They also have a community site where you can check in, blog your progress, share recipes, and meet new people. Both of these are FREE to sign up with! The $150 price I talked about was for lifetime access to the Nutrition plan which is updated and added to very often.  I think I have about 6 additional bundles plus the newest version of the entire plan.  It's worth every penny!

I hope that you guys all have an excellent rest of your week.  Get out and do something active! 

Your Beach Babe,