The dreaded moment!

This has to be the hardest challenge thus far. And I'm hating it, hating it, HATING IT!!!..... sorry being honest. My husband came home last night to a wife in tears. He said "what's wrong?" I turned the computer and showed him my blog...... he actually started laughing, which made me cry harder. He's laughing because he say's "you hired him"  Yep, I did. And I'm going to PROVE that with the right tools, the right trainer, the right mindset I CAN and WILL achive the ultimate goal! So today I am going to rise up and bare the nasty belly!  But not only am I going to bare MY belly I have 2 amazingly wonderful friends that are also going to do it as well! AND I have two more amazing friends sending me pictures tomorrow!
Anyone else can feel free to join in on the fun at anytime!

What am I afraid of?  Hmmm, to show the world what imperfection looks like! You can hide a lot of things; a messy lifestyle, messy marriage, bad relationships, negative thoughts, you can even hide physical imperfections! We ladies love SPANKS! Spanks suck in all that fat and loose skin , lift the booty, round out the curves, lift the girls and make you feel 20 again! But.... the reality is, you have to bare some of those things sometime. I thankfully have spent the last year cleaning up a messy lifestyle, negative thoughts, and 2 years ago mended a broken marriage. I guess now is the time to come clean and bare this nasty saggy fat belly with hopes and pure determination that by March 18th I will be at my final goal and look better!

Thank you to those of you that have joined me on this journey..... your willingness to participate is beyond, beyond an act of kindness! Nauseated.....Okay BREATH.......here we go!

I will say..... this is ME!

weight 176

Weight 194

weight 169

Challenge

I learned a really important life lesson today..... Don't ask for something unless you are 100% sure you want it. I told my trainer JAY ALTMAN monday that I needed a challenge. You would think after a year with this person I would know well enough not to ask HIM for a challenge. You see normally I ask my friends or fellow bootcampers. No..... stupid me asks my trainer, the one who has pushed me to the limit for the last year.  WHAT WAS I THINKING!!!!
So today he says he has my challenge. First I will tell you my penalty, If I don't make my goal of being 159lbs or under by March 18th I can't have a lunch date or eat out anywhere, with anyone for 30 days. I can handle that! I was just glad he didn't say give up my phone :)
But here come the challenge.... the hard one. He wants me to blog every day...... yes, I said every day: about my day:  how it went, my struggles, what went well, what I ate...... you get the idea. Okay, I can handle this right? Yes I can! but wait there is more....... I have to post a picture.. DAILY.......
biggest loser style......
hang on while I pick myself up off the floor ........ Let me repeat myself, I have to take a picture everyday in shorts and a sports bra! Okay I'm feeling nauseous.......now I am hyperventilating and my anxiety is coming back.... BREATH, good........ b r e a t h......got it...... okay.
Blood is coming back into my head. I think I can make sense of things now. 

Most of you would say "why don't you just say NO" or "who cares, do your own challenge" And one person hmmmm..... AMY said "not in a million!" The problem with this whole thing, Jay Altman knows I can not and will not back down from a challenge. My family, my friends know I cannot back down....... am I right?    It's like it's this thing in my head that I have to do it.  I know it's for my good, I know when I get this last 24 pounds off I will be ecstatic that I met my goal :)
But for now...... I HATE THIS!

So I am calling ALL FELLOW CHALLENGERS...... for the next 30days participate with me, send me your picture (it can be with your head cropped off) of you in your biggest loser attire and I will post it along with mine. If I can do this...... trust me you can do this! Because really...... Jay has picked one of my top 3 fears and I have to post it for  everyone to see. okay nausea coming back.....

I WILL NOT mention names of people in my blog that chose to participate, unless you want me to.  I will promise to keep my blogs short and sweet and I need you to promise to keep reading even if you don't participate. DEAL? I will write and post my first picture tomorrow, so get those pictures to me ASAP!  EMAIL ME HERE with your pictures!
Thanks for listening..... I'm off to find a 20 year old duplicate body to use as a stand in that has no  sagging! LOL

Jen

Protein

I have had a lot of requests to talk about protein, what are good protein's? Were to buy?
So I will tell you what I know! How much protein should you eat per meal? According to studies our bodies can digest and absorb about .91 g per pound of body weight. So if you weigh 125 lbs you can absorb up to 113g of protein per day. Divide by 3 if you eat 3 meals per day that's 37 g per meal! That's about 6 whole eggs...... are YOU getting enough protein each meal????
Sources of Protein: Red meat such as Beef. Other great sources: Chicken, Turkey, Fish, Seafood, Eggs. These are complete proteins and best source of protein.
There are other sources of protein such as: Beans sorry not baked beans! Black beans, Lima beans, Mung and red beans, Lentils, chickpeas and Quinoa. But these are not Complete protein's
Many people believe Soy and tofu is a good protein for you, Soy is NOT a good alternative and here is why:  The truth about soy.
If you choose to be vegetarian or Vegan and you feel GREAT eating the proteins you do and feel your mood, energy level, thyroid function, metabolism are all functioning properly.... then I say; stay with your current source of protein! If not..... I would say look at some alternatives and see if it helps you feel better in anyway. Like most things a 2 week trial is not going to give you any insight as to how your body feels. If your going to change, change for 30-90 days and see how you feel.
Where do I buy my meat? For us it varies, I buy meat at Cedar summit farms in New Prague it is grass fed meat, at certain times of the year you can purchase a portion of a cow or a whole cow at a reduced rate, I recommend getting multiple families together and splitting it up. I also buy red meat at kowalski, and  Lakewinds and I use to buy hamburger at Costco but recently found out that the Organic hamburger is NOT grass fed, even though it shows a cow eating grass on the label. Huh they got me! So if grass fed is a big deal to you do not buy it at Costco. I still occasionally buy it there if that is my only stop. I do buy Salmon at Costco, Make sure whatever fish you buy it says WILD CAUGHT!
Chicken and Turkey I buy at Valley natural foods in burnsville, I don't buy the organic I buy the Amish Chicken breasts, It comes in a big bag for about 45.00. It is by far the best tasting, I bring it home we season it with Costco's no salt seasoning and my husband grills the entire bag. I then cut each chicken breast into strips and put them in baggies to freeze. This will last us, a family of 4 the whole month! I grab the baggies out in the morning and by noon they are thawed for my salad or whatever I want it for. I do the same thing with Flank steak, we marinate it and grill it and slice it. Grab a baggie out in the morning and add it to eggs for breakfast or lunch for a salad or for dinner if we are in a hurry.
By far that has been the biggest time saver is to pre-cook our meat and freeze it. I have no excused not to get my protein in! We also pre-cook our rice and quiona and freeze it or just keep in the fridge.

My favorite breakfast: 1 cup of egg whites, mushrooms, some of that steak or chicken in the freezer :) put on some no salt seasoning from costco, toss in spinach at the last second and top with some feta cheese. Oh my gosh I'm getting hungry!
My favorite Lunch: leftover vegetable beef soup. I pre-cook a beef steak cut into bite size pieces in a skillet. I throw that in a big pot with 2 containers of low sodium beef broth, add in all the veggies I have like; carrots, celery, zucchini, sweet potato, yellow squash, onion, garlic, corn. Then I let it sit on a low stove for 3 hours and done! Super good leftovers! When I have it for lunch I usually also have a small apple with it.
My favorite complete Dinner: has to be a Chipolte style dinner. We make a big batch of quiona or brown rice, then we have all the fixings. Grab the pre-grilled chicken and steak, some black beans, lettuce, salsa, avocado, onion, a little cheese, I use Fage greek yogurt instead of sour cream but you could use sour cream and Yummo! You have a super fast easy meal with all the great proteins!

I love that people are asking me to blog on certain things! Facebook me or email: mendedbygrace@ymail.com me if you want me to write about something specific!!!

Jen

One step you can take to better health!

Do you ever wonder why one fad diet works for one person and not for another? Take the Mediterranean diet or Atkins diet, the grapefruit diet, the Dukan diet, and so on. Why can someone go on it and do really well and then why can another person go on the SAME diet and do really poorly? I actually tried the Mediterranean diet before I followed the current path I am on. I lost a little bit of weight but mostly it left me feeling hungry and frustrated.
About 5 months into my weight loss journey my trainer encouraged me to take the Metabolic test. I know what your thinking.... ANOTHER fad diet, but hear me out.
This is NOT a diet. This is a way for YOU to learn how YOUR body responds to food. This is how it was explained to me: If you had a giraffe (who eats leafy greens)  in one room and a lion (who eats meat) in another room and you switched their food, what would happen???? Over time they would start to get sick and eventually die right? The metabolic typing is based on that same principle, we are all here in the great USA because our great great great somebody came from somewhere and adopted a new life. But with that came a new environment, new types of food and new food sources.
For me I discovered that I have a lot of Norwegian heritage..... I know I know, don't gif me a hard time bout it! But that means for me that MY body does really well on healthy fats! Lucky me huh? I can eat a moderate amount of healthy fats and protein and feel really good and maintain a healthy weight. The down side is, I do really poorly on carbohydrates! Huh? Go figure.... I was living on carbohydrates..... mostly processed carbohydrates and look what happened I had a LONG list of health problems and was heading down a path of an early death.
When I took the metabolic test, found my metabolic type and then watched the videos that were designed for MY metabolic type it started to all make sense! I followed the videos, listened to what my adviser Jay Altman recommended and started to discover what works for ME.
It took a while and it took a lot of time listening to my body and fine tuning my meals but now I have them down and when I eat that way I FEEL GREAT!!!  When I vary from it, add too many carbs or if I over do on the fats, I feel it. And when I say I feel it, I feel it in the form of: headache, feel really tired,  I notice anxiety, or just a general not well feeling.
For me I will NEVER go on another DIET. I will NEVER try another fad diet because I know how MY body responds to which foods and why. I know exactly how to loose weight, I just have to be willing to put in the effort.
I encourage you to follow this link LINK, watch these videos for FREE and see what it's about. Then if you are ready and want to find out how YOUR body responds to food keep going and take the metabolic test. I have asked Jay Altman for a special favor for my blog readers. For two days Jay has offered to give a 20% discount to my blog readers!
Here is your chance to learn more about YOUR body and how it functions on what YOU eat........ I hope your excited!
Follow the this Link to purchase one of 3 options and enter this discount code: JFLYNN
And remember this discount code only lasts for 2 days, so after midnight Saturday the code will not work.
Oh and just in case you were wondering you CAN do the 1-1 counseling even if you live in another state, Jay will do it through webex!

Metabolic Test

Jen

Lessons from a former fat girl

Okay so I thought why not blog on the things that people really want to ask me but don't! So I am going to fill you ALL in on some privy information!
Lesson ONE get a good Bra and cute workout wear!  What do you do when you can't fit or find workout wear or bra?? Well there is hope!  First lets take care of the girls..... when I started bootcamp I wore 3 bra's....yes 3. Why? because it's important to keep the girls secure! My favorite bra is the Champion Powerback underwire. Ahhh yes it's nice because it keeps them supported and apart so you don't look like you have that uni-boob. Can I say boob? I'm gonna say boob cuz it's my blog, sorry if I offend you :) Then I would add a Champion sports bra over that, Target sells them up to XXL and they come in lots of fun colors... bonus! Then often I would have a tank top with a shelf bra built in which would serve as the final support. Add all that together and your girls are safe and secure! Next workout wear: Sorry not a lot of choices here, but Walmart does carry plus size workout pants and shirts at a good price, otherwise Lane Bryant carries a good line but it's expensive. I say go with black pants, gray ones show your butt sweat. Can I say butt? LOL and stay with the pants ladies, sorry shorts just do NOT look good..... Not yet... but they will!
Now when working out it IS important to look good, or at least coordinate:) Not to impress others, but if YOU think you look good which you do, then you will walk a bit more confident and feel like you look good! Who cares what others think... although I have been known to get a few comments that my outfit matches my shoes.... yes I have a problem!
LESSON TWO : buy good shoes!  If you need WIDE go buy wide, your feet need to feel happy :) trust me when you loose the weight your feet shrink too!!!!
LESSON THREE:  be able to breath! Breathing.... it's important, although my trainer doesn't think so..... I'm kind of partial to breathing! I am a former smoker. YEP, smoked a pack a day for 10 years. I spent a year working out and still felt like I could NOT breath. See your physician it may be as simple as getting a good inhaler. That is what has worked for me to get through the workouts. And if you have a good trainer like I do, tell them you want to work on your cardio. WARNING!!! you may not like what they are going to do next!   For me it has been the dreaded beep test, but it does help and I have defiantly improved. I now feel like I have close to normal lungs and not the lungs of a 90 year old chain smoker. Oh and if you still smoke.... Quit! simple as that, (or get pregnant like I did and force yourself to quit)
LESSON FOUR: eat non processed food! I must say I am glad I am at where I am at now. I was a pop addict, sugar addict, carb, fat and you name it addict. I went into this with the idea that WILL POWER could get me through.  Wrong! In Friday's class Jay Altman spent a bulk of his time talking about changing the way you think.  He's right. even thought I thought he was wrong for about 6 months, he was right.... ugh I hate when he is right. LESSON 5 listen to your trainer (maybe that should be lesson one) If you don't change how you think..... YOU WILL FAIL. You can't try and loose weight or change who you are without changing how you think. It's just NOT possible for the long term. Let me tell you some examples: When I eliminated Gluten, Sugar, Dairy for 3 months all I could think about was "I can't wait to get off this so I can have this and that again" What do you think would happen if after 3 months of REALLY hard work if I sat down and had all those things again?  I would die... no just kidding! That 3 months of hard work would have been for nothing! I would have put back in what I just spent 3 months trying to rid myself of. And working out, I hated working out. I loved the socializing, I still love the socializing but I would think in my head.. "I can't wait until I don't have to workout so hard" Not gonna happen! Strong, healthy, thin people..... WORKOUT! You have to if you want to have a body like that in your 40's..... sorry no way around it!  Now I LOVE to workout and I even love... okay love is a little strong I like to get sore. So you see you HAVE to change how you think! I wish I would have learned that in the beginning I would have saved myself a whole lot of frustration to begin with!!
THE ULTIMATE LESSON: Change your brain and you WILL change your body!
That's all I have, have a great week!

Jen

One Year

Wow, I can't believe it has been one year since I started this journey!  I am officially down 74lbs, and 22 inches :)  When I started out on this journey I set out to loose 90lbs. In my eyes I have lost more than that. I have lost 76 pounds of fat, I have lost 90 pounds of guilt, frustration, anger, poor self esteem, insecurity, doubt, fear. I have lost a lifetime of health problems that I know how to control and will never return to.
I have changed how I view and value life, I have strengthened my ability to handle stress, and lead a healthy lifestyle.  I have learned how to deal with grief, pain, loss and my emotions.  I can feel Joy, and gratitude, I can feel humble that I have made the change that generations of my family will experience years from now.
I want to stress that I did not manage this success from any ONE program. I did find 75% of my success from Jay Altman with Altman Fitness. But  I did more than his boot camp class, I followed his nutrition plan, exercise program, vitamin regimen and his life coaching skills. In addition I did seek out additional counseling, chiropractic care, and my Faith. I say this because I truly believe you cannot completely  "mend"  yourself if you only focus on ONE area.
So what do I do now? Well..... I'm not at my goal weight so I plan to continue with a primary focus on that.  I also have found that my previous life goals and dreams have changed drastically. I have found that I LOVE to inspire people, I have found that what I wanted MORE of ( a bigger house, a better job, more vacation time) I actually want LESS of.

So to be honest....... I'm not sure where 2013 is going to lead me? But I am excited to continue this journey to see where I end up! Thank you for joining me and reading this blog. Here's to another year of "mending"
Jen

Lastly a big shout out to my husband Gene who has been so incredibly supportive. I would not have done this without all your support. Love you Babe!

Unstoppable

What is more important than your health?
Seriously think about it for a minute ....... you might say "my kids, my spouse, my family" But is that true?  How can  you put other's first if you yourself are not well. I know I can't, can you?  I can't strengthen myself spiritually if I am not well, I can't care for my kids or my husband if I am not well. I can't devote time to a friend or put in a productive day at work if I am not well.   I can say this because I have been there. I have been the one who tried and failed miserably only to end up even unhealthier.  I am saying this because I am in a place now where I feel GOOD, I feel STRONG, I feel like I can HANDLE lifes stresses. I have put myself in a place where I am unstoppable, I have learned that when I think it's not possible, it IS possible.   I know what it is like to be pulled at from all sides.  I know what it feels like to wish you could wake up and life would be different. What it's like to struggle in a marriage. What it feels like to not feel well and continue to run a household and a job. It's not the way life should be and you put your body and mind at serious health risk. Most people will continue down a path feeling like someday it will get better, my headaches will get better, my stomach issues will improve, my fatigue level will change........... life will just get better.   But for how many of you that day has not come?  And I'm sorry to tell you this, but that day will not come unless you take action and change before you are forced to change. With the new year approaching I want to ask you again "what is more important than your health?" if your answer is nothing is more important than my health....... then I invite you to come to the class I am hosting. A nutrition and fitness class given by my trainer and mentor Jay Altman.  I have spent the last year of my life learning all that I can from him and he has graciously offered to come and speak to some of my good friends and family. I want YOU to come. I want YOU to have the same opportunity I have. I want YOU to get the same information I have. Why? Because I truly care, because I have been there and it's an awful place to be.  I am passionate about helping and inspiring people to change.  I want to help any person that is willing  to put forth the effort and change.  Because when you think there isn't a way....... there is always a way.
Sign up HERE, come hear my journey, come hear about nutrition and fitness from one of the best in the industry. Set your goal for 2013 and start your own journey......a journey to a better YOU!

When:  Friday January 4th at 6:30 pm (approx 2 hours)
Cost is $20.00
Located in Burnsville ( once you sign up a confirmation email will be sent with address and additional information)
What do you get?  2 hours full of information on nutrition, fat loss, exercise, grocery menu, recipes to get you started, workouts that don't require a gym or equipment. And an amazing opportunity to speak with one of the best.
I promise you will not be disappointed and I promise you will leave feeling inspired and ready to start your own journey to become.......... UNSTOPPABLE!

Sign up HERE for the Class
I will be closing the class soon, so don't hesitate sign up now!  Forward this blog to a friend and tell them you have signed up and encourage them to come with you.
See you soon!
Jen

Email me at: menededbygrace@ymail.com