Additions to the PNP Blog Site

This weekend I’m trying to make some much needed updates to the site. If you see the site look a little strange, know that your favorite online trainer is a master of the gym but not the computer. I know just enough about the technical world to be dangerous.

I would like to invite everyone to check out my latest offering: PNP Fat Blasting Training Routines. So many of you want to be a client but, as you know, I have a long waiting list. Seems that people can’t get enough of me when they sign up.  I decided in order to help even more women get the body they want and deserve that I could make routines available with tools to help you reach your goals. Click here to check it out!

Now, this is going to sound like a total sales pitch, but I could charge a lot more for these. There is a lot of information lovingly put in the programs. My biggest flaw as a business

It’s the Practice Runs That Count

One of my most beloved clients and now friend is going through one of the toughest times a person can go through. I know because I have suffered through this twice with my amazing grandparents that dedicated their lives to seeing my brother and me raised with love and security when my dad could care less. My client’s sister has cancer and at the moment, a very scary and invasive cancer. The client is also assisting her sister through the surgeries and recovery because she doesn’t have loads of family to lean on. This is stressful, emotionally draining, and time consuming.

What we’ve been discussing the importance of learning how to live a lifestyle of fitness and health when life is at it’s best. Each “normal” day of your life you have stresses and chaos. You are faced with eating and exercising choices and compromises. For every right choice you make you reinforce good habits. You learn how to be flexible and creative with squeezing in time for you. This is the practice run for the tough times…the really tough times. 

There will always be times in life when we miss workouts or we get stuck somewhere and eat off the plan. That’s just life, honey. But if you generally make the best choices and exercise without fail, those unplanned moments are easier to get through. It’s the 95% of

Snacky Snacky

One of the questions and comments I get frequently has to do with weightloss stalls. The first thing I ask people is, “tell me your daily diet and your exercise plan.” Most of the time people are exercising very hard, eating pretty good, but they will always end the daily description with…

“I do well all day. I might have a few bites of this and that, but I exercise and such so it’s not enough to make me gain weight or plateau me. Help! What do I do?”

Stop snacking. It’s as simple as that. When I say stop snacking, I don’t mean drop your planned snacks that you have built into your menu. I mean let go of the…

No More Excuses

“Eating healthy doesn’t take any more time. It’s just choosing better.”

Michael Kirkbride

For years I was under the delusion that having a healthy lifestyle was hard or it was too time consuming. Working with clients and loyal Phattie Phollowers, as one girl put it, has shown me how easy it is to make good choices. Most people make eating right and exercising hard so that they have a reason to fail. It’s never easy to admit you are choosing to be fat.

Here’s my list of common excuses for failing and then a swift kick in the you know what to send you flying back into reality. Yes, my quads are strong so that booty might be awful

Moving Out of the Funk

Yesterday I talked about Stage Two of fat loss. This is where you are unmotivated, feeling like you will never lose the weight, beating yourself up emotionally for your past mistakes, and just feeling like you should throw in the towel. How do you break free of this thinking and move yourself to a better place?

First, it’s not easy. When I am in this mode it is because I have reverted to my old fat girl thinking. It usually coincides with a day where I had a splurge meal and lots of drinks which is then followed by a day of rest. Then on Monday I have one of my heaviest workouts followed by the busiest day of the week in my business. By Tuesday the scale is up at least four pounds from stress, carbs, and a heck of a workout.

At this point my mind is in the toilet but I have to keep my spirits up because I’m Ms. Phit-N-Phat. Ya’ll don’t visit the site to hear my whining about a four pound swing on the scale. So, Stage Two, it’s just Tuesday and I have a whole week to see if I can correct it or just spiral out of control. Here’s what I do to snap out of it because I made up my mind a long time ago that spiraling out of control just ain’t for me anymore (it shouldn’t be for you either).

1. I remind myself of my goals. I keep my goals written in a journal next to my bed. Every night before I go to sleep I write out the top five things I want to accomplish this year. It might not be the same things every night, but I do it so that I know what it is I really want out of my life. The number one goal in my journal is almost always to train and eat like a figure competitor. There is nothing better than going to bed with the very last thought of the day being your dreams and aspirations.

2. Make a plan. The moment I realize I’ve hit stinking thinking mode I get out some paper and make a plan for the week. I detail out every workout and all my meals and then I build out the other stuff I have to do. No EXCUSES! I don’t care what time of day or night it is, I get in every thing on the plan because in Stage Two I can’t afford to have setbacks. I need wins!

3. Tell my husband that I am in a mood and if he catches me talking bad about myself to stop me. I really do this. You can’t be who you want to be by telling yourself the complete opposite of that. Talk and think the way you want to live and not the way you don’t want to live. If you don’t have a husband, do it yourself. Find a way to trigger a slap in the face for negative self-talk.

In a nut shell, Stage Two is just a mind game. It’s all about knowing you are there and being grown up and accountable enough to do what you gotta do to move on. Nothing fancy or gimmicky. Just good old fashioned making a plan, sticking to it, and fooling yourself until you really believe and see you are doing the right things.

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Daily Workout: Cardio only. Wow. Today was so busy! I didn’t think I would get anything in today and was prepared to call it my DOR but at 5:10 p.m. I had a 30 minute window where I could get in a higher intensity workout or none at all. I was so tired after working all day, talking fat loss with tons of clients, and getting the house cleaned up for the housekeeper. I knew, though, that I wanted to take off Sunday so I hopped on the treadmill before my son came home and banged out a Walk/Run Challenge from my Work Your Butt Off book. It was great. I normally do more than 30 minutes but I feel good to made a good choice and not sat on my tushy watching TV which is what I wanted to do after a stressful day.

Daily Food Journal:

B – Protein Bar (woke up late, had to rush out the door so I went with convenience versus skipping jump starting the metabolism)
S – Oatmeal with 1/2 serving of Fage and cantaloupe
L – SBD Pizza and grapes
S – 2 tbsp of peanut butter with 6 TLC crackers
D – Protein pancakes with egg white and asparagus omlette
S – Cantaloupe (craving fruit today) and 1 Fage

I was low on veggies today. The pizza had a smattering of veggies but not nearly enough for the day. The pancakes were last minute. Son loved them. Thanks Kathleen!

What Stage Are You In?

Back when I was a corporate trainer I had the opportunity to go through Situational Leadership II. It was a great program that I taught to managers and it dawned on me last week how applicable it is to the fat loss journey. Many of my girls are in different stages of the fitness lifestyle; beginners to advanced they all have a place in PNP.

Last week we were all discussing on our private message board how intimidating it can be for a beginner to see the menus and exercises the longterm girls are doing. I decided to convert the SLII information into terms of fat loss so that we could all understand the no matter how “advanced” you might be we all fight the same fight. Here’s what I wrote to them and then I’ll tell you my current stage and battles. 

Every Decision Counts

“You have to put in many, many, many tiny efforts that nobody sees or appreciates before you achieve anything worthwhile.” – Brian Tracy

Losing fat and changing your physique is a slow process. It takes thousands of tiny decisions that don’t seem like they amount to much and hours of dedicated exercise to sculpt a body you dream of. Even if you are simply losing some weight to get healthy, you STILL have to work hard. Losing fat is just that way.

Every day you are typically faced with a minimum of six eating decisions and one exercise decision. This is how you start the day. You make all of these choices before walking out the door as you pull together what you will eat and pack your gym bag or decide to pop in your DVD. Now comes the next twenty three and half hours! You have to face decisions of going out for a spontaneous lunch, picking at the snack table at the PTA meeting, nibbling on jr’s mac and cheese, or having drinks with the BF after work instead of exercising because her latest boyfried is another dud. 

Good gracious! We make so many decisions that define our journey. Always keep your goals in front of you and understand that every decision you make will either move you one more step towards that goal or one step away from that goal. It’s the cumalative effect of all these small efforts to work towards your goal that leads to a sexy, scultped, healthy body.

In my own journey, I was constantly faced with challenges: taking care of someone dying, having a baby, learning how to eat right because I had never done that before, dragging myself to the gym when I hated exercise. What lead to my end result of being Phit-N-Phat was all the not so glamorous decisions. Sure running 1/2 marathons and doing triathlons helped me, but it was all the times I enjoyed a protein shake and a banana after a three hour ride versus pizza and ice cream that got me here.

You have to be patient and live your life like your goal is just out of reach. If you only five pounds to lose out of 100 you would be busting tail at the gym and strong in your food choices. You would have a life setup to support that fat loss. Now, if you have 95lbs of 100 lbs to lose you have to do the same thing. You have to bust tail in your exercise, you have to make strong food choices, and you have to start setting up your life like you are at goal.

In the end, your journey to fat loss is about learning how to dream big and then make little decisions day in and day out to support that big dream. Always stop and think before you do anything and ask yourself this…

Will I be happy with this food/exercise decision thirty minutes after it’s over? Learn to live outside the moment of each food and exercise decision.

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Daily Exercise Journal: Today is a cardio only day. The only body part I have left this week is shoulders and my upper body is still pretty sore from the other workouts. Since the shoulders stimulate those muscles so much I am going to take the cardio day today for an extra night of good repair sleep. I will be doing Rump Buster from my Work Your Butt Off book (order info to the right ), and then I will do the Beginner Walk/Run Challenge from the book with semi-sprints for the run.

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Daily Food Journal: Today I will be out and about most of the day so I’m packing the cooler down for my travels.

B – oatmeal, Fage, 1/2 scoop protein powder
S – watermelon and protein shake 110 cal version
L – SBD Pizza
S – Energy Bar 170 cals
D – Mahi Mahi w/ EVOO and greek seasoning, green salad, brown rice
S – Fage and pro powder

It Ain’t Called Stumbling Block for a Reason

Stumbling blocks come in many forms when you are trying to lose fat and get fit. Do any of these people or things sounds familiar?

• Friends going out for drinks and dinner at a restaurant that has NOTHING on the menu you can eat.
• Family members who refuse to eat those “gross” foods you eat because you are on a another diet.
• Kids who never finish those delicious fries, nuggets, cookies, or mac and cheese.
• Vacations
• Holidays
• A boss or project that requires you to be in endless meetings that last half the night.
• TOM…need I say more.

Basically, if you look hard enough you can find tons and tons of stumbling blocks in your life. What do you think is the difference between someone who actually loses their fat and someone who does

Setting Up Your Lifestyle

Ahhh…you’ve been visualizing the kind of person you want to be and she happens to wear a size eight and looks fantastic in a sleeveless top. She’s sexy, motivated, positive, and in control of her life. This lady has it all going on because she knows how to prioritize her health and fitness so that she will be around for her other priorities in life: family and friends.

Yesterday we talked about journaling because it is the first step to becoming this woman. What comes after journaling, though? Setting up your lifestyle of success. Here are my keys to having an environment that is supportive of your dreams and goals.

Getting Your Food Under Control

One of the quotes I tell people often is…

“Losing weight is 80% what you put in your mouth and 20% what you do in the gym.”

Think about that for a moment. 80% of what you do in terms of reshaping your body is the food choices you make. So, what would be my #1 tip for controlling 80% of your fat loss battle? JOURNALING!

There is absolutely no excuse for not journaling. None. Nada. Zero. Zilch. We live in an age where you can do everything from jotting your food down in a tiny spiral notebook to recording every macronutrient into a fancy spreadsheet and then seeing a pretty pie chart spit out.

Journaling is one thing I bust my clients rumps on left and right. In fact, when they quit journaling I know it because they simultaneously quit emailing me and then they start