2012 New Year Goals

As the year comes to a close and the new one fast approaching, everyone is starting to think about resolutions. Did you realize that 80% of people never achieve their resolutions?! Astonishing. Mainly it's because people make resolutions without a MAP (massive action plan). So in an effort to make sure my GOALS (I use goals rather than resolutions), as well as yours, for the new year come to fruition I am going to lay out some steps to help in the success of achieving them.

Step 1 - Write down your top 10 goals for 2012. When you write them, write them as if it's the end of 2012 and they have already happened. For example, I lost 30 pounds and cut my body fat percentage to 12%.

Step 2 - Be specific with your goals. Simply saying, "I'm going to lose weight" isn't specific enough and you won't have anything to "measure". See the above example? I set 30 pounds as my goal and also had a goal of getting to 12% body fat.

Step 3 - Set a specific deadline for each goal. Be realistic when setting your goal. Don't say I will lose 30 pounds by Feb. 15, when you are starting January 1st. Also, don't be too lax on a deadline either. Saying you will lose 30 pounds by the end of the year is too broad and you are more likely to keep putting it off.

Step 4 - Stay Accountable. Tell several close friends your goals, or better yet, get an accountability partner. This way you'll both hold each other accountable for your goals and you're more likely to stick to them.

Step 5 - Break it down. Break down your goals into smaller short term tasks that will help achieve your goal. If one of your major goals is losing weight then working out, healthy eating, daily food tracking etc. should be on your list of daily to-do's.

Step 6 - Celebrate. Don't forget to celebrate achievements. Especially in the process of reaching your goal. It will keep you motivated. My best example of this is that I get to buy a new outfit after losing 10 pounds. Don't reward yourself with things that are going to sabotage your ultimate goal. Like gorging on an ice cream bender to DQ. Use things that will keep you motivated to sticking to your plan.

Finally when you have set your goals, only tackle those that you know you can handle. Trying to take on 6 goals at once is going to lead to stress, derailment and failure. Focus is KEY! I cannot stress enough. It's once we lose our focus that we start to fail.

So get cracking! Write down those goals, tell your friends, and find the tools to make sure you will succeed this year. You can do it, I know you can!!

If you need an accountability partner, look me up on Facebook. I run Challenges regularly and I am here to help you!

Cheers, love and prosperity to all in the New Year!

Skinny Phoenix

Shakeology Day 2 & 3 Final Results!!

I'm sorry I didn't post my results right away! I had it in draft form and didn't publish it! Grr! Silly me. Anyway, I ended up losing a whopping 5.2 pounds during my 3 day cleanse. It was an easy cleanse to do, because for the most part I didn't feel "starved". The first day was by far the hardest day, mostly mentally getting over any cravings I may have been exposed to. Other than that, pretty darn easy, compared to other cleanses I've done before. I did another cleanse about 1 month prior to the Shakeology one but on that one I felt so starved, completely famished and couldn't stick to it. With Shakeology it was different, way more satisfying and tasted way better!

So there are my results, sorry it took me so long to get them posted. My life in and of itself has been a bit hectic and crazy. I just may post about that stuff later, we'll see.

Hope to see you soon!

~Skinny Phoenix

Hitting a Rut in Weight Loss

Okay, so we've all been there, right?  We do really well, then we hit a rough patch.  We stop losing weight, start to fall off track of eating healthy, get lazy, start to gain a bit back.  It's frustrating when we fall off the "healthy lifestyle" wagon.  But it happens and we just need to dust ourselves off, kick ourselves in the butt and get right back on the right track!! So this is exactly what has happened to me and I've finally narrowed down my problem or breaking point.  As you may already know, I've been doing Chalean Extreme.  However, I've never been able to consistently get through the full program.  It's a 90 day program that consists of three levels of weight training; Burn Circuit, Push Circuit and Lean Circuit.  I can get through the first circuit pretty well, but I start to waver the last week or two of the Push Circuit and it takes me two weeks to do one week's worth of workouts.  It's frustrating because I get more and more hungry the heavier the weights I lift.  Which proves that I'm achieving exactly what I am suppose to in building a higher metabolism.  The downfall to that higher metabolism is how ravenously hungry I get and that's when I start to lose it.  I get so hungry that I have to eat constantly and then I end up eating some really crappy foods which in turn, drains my energy and my motivation to keep working out.

So, I've decided to start the program over from scratch.  And to help keep me on track, I've decided to blog about my workouts to not only be accountable but to show you guys my progress, my triumphs and my struggles.  So Monday was Day 1, and I did Burn Circuit 1.  Felt amazing doing it and feeling that way again helps motivate me to keep doing it and eat healthy so to not ruin my results.  Tuesday was rest day.  Today will be Burn Circuit 2, Thursday is cardio, Friday is Burn Circuit 3, Saturday is Cardio and stretching and Sunday is rest day.  I will update as to how each workout goes, and how I feel I did.

Also, on Monday weighed in at 138.  Haven't done measurements lately, but I will starting next week.  Please feel free to leave comments of encouragement as I may need them along the way.

Til next time!

Skinny Phoenix