What I do.

I wanted to do a pretty in depth blog post about what I do as a coach...and how it literally gets done. And how I've been able to make a small side income and take care of my health and wellness - while working a full time job, being a wife, and doing 8,000 other things because I just can't say no. :)

I feel like the judgement of others tends to get clouded and for this reason most people just think I post sweaty selfies and try to sell products all the time. NEGATIVE.

I workout FOR ME. And I post a sweaty selfie because that's my accountability to the people I'm helping.

I run challenge groups on Facebook - to help other women maintain motivation and encouragement while they are working out. Most of the time, I'm not making any money at all because people borrow programs from friends or already have a program, so essentially I'm a free coach probably 80% of the time.

So this is a run down of my day as a coach, you'll end up seeing it's so much more about my journey than it is about making money. I just so happen to have the chance to work with wonderful women and make a little money on the side at the same time!

My DAY:

5:30 AM - wake up, put in a load of laundry, take the dog and cat outside, unload the dishwasher, and clean up the kitchen, make Jared a coffee

Workout! (never more than 30 minutes!)

Post a sweaty selfie, check in to all challenge groups and post a sweaty selfie there too!

6:45 - 7:00 AM Shower

7:00-7:30 AM Get ready and drink Shakeology
(and then go to school! But since it's now summer...clean the house, go get groceries, run errands, etc..)

7:30 AM -3:30 PM Live life - whether I'm in school or I'm at home during the summer, I'm normal. I spend time making meals, hanging with friends, going shopping, watching TV. Summer is pretty busy so I'll be mapping out a large calendar plan and trying to get organized today.

3:30-4:30 PM Write a blog post, check in with a few interested people, answer messages and emails, post a status

4:30-6:00 PM - Dinner and time with the Family!

6:00-7:00 PM - Clean up dinner and red up the house from the day!

7:00- 9:30 PM - Watch TV and multitask while responding to questions. Hootsuite more challenge groups for the following month! (Hootsuite is a social media site where I can schedule my posts to happen in specific facebook groups - a huge time saver when done ahead of time!)

9:30-10:15 PM - Read a great, new, amazing and fulfilling book before hitting the hay.

Then, the alarm goes off and I'm back at it all over again! This isn't about the money for me. This is about bettering myself - this is about trusting my journey! This is about knowing I have something that can help so many people that I HAVE to spread the word about it. That being said, don't EVER be afraid to message me, to ask me a question, to look for recipes. I'll coach you no matter if you buy a product or not. It's what I do. :)

Hi, I'm Alyssa and I'm an emotional eater

Taking a moment to be completely vulnerable, honest, and open with you all again. Because the support from you is overwhelming as I am in the midst of this get healthy journey!

This week was a huge slap in the face. Hah! I was supposed to start the 21 day fix again - and I did - kinda. I ate clean Monday and Tuesday. But I had a cold and had no energy and was exhausted so I didn't work out. On Wednesday, I totally broke my clean eating streak and this continued all the way into Friday evening...

I'm so lame.

But I realized one important thing throughout this week and it's that I'm an emotional eater. Not just any emotion - all emotions!

Something good happened? Let's go out to eat to celebrate!
I'm extremely tired? Let's get McDonalds
Stressed out a bit? Enjoy a snickers candy bar!
Worried about the future? take 2 servings of everything
Period not arriving yet again? You deserve two cans of soda
Frustrated with my students? Grab a cookie from the faculty room
Really excited about a potential job interview? Eat half a pizza by yourself

All of these things happened this week! Thankfully my eating was clean 80% of the day, so I haven't gained any weight (Thanks Shakeology!) But I realized something so important...I let me emotions dictate how and what and when I eat instead of listening to my body. As women, our emotions are consistently on a roller coaster (not to stereotype, but that's honestly just how we work.) Jared and I have discovered how emotions affects men and women differently simply by being married.

When something goes wrong at work, Jared leaves it at work, comes home, and doesn't worry about it. If I couldn't find the right outfit in the morning before school, I bring that to school, share it with every faculty member and some students, come over, aggravated, and take it out on dinner where I probably make a feast because, "I've had a bad day." Men tend to compartmentalize their emotions into sections of their day, where we tend to smear our emotions into our entire day (which can be both good and bad!)

I feel like a huge weight has been lifted off of my chest because I realized how much of an emotional eater I am! It's like, finally...a reason...that makes so much sense for why it's so easy for me to cheat on a meal plan. MY EMOTIONS!

So, my 21 day fix challenge group is starting on Monday and I have some amazing women in it and I plan on starting OVER with them again.

 Is it fun to say that I failed this week? No, but I'm failing forward! Is it reassuring to say I'll try again? Kinda, not really. But I have goals and did this 21 day fix before, so I know I can do it again! Jared will be on board with me and we'll kick some major couple booty! And I'm going to continue to pick myself up, dust myself off, and start again.

In the mean time...I'm kinda depressed because it's cold out, so I'm going to go eat pancakes covered in syrup.

kidding... ;)

(not kidding, it's the maple festival! But I'm going to eat pancakes because it's the Maple Festival, not because I'm sad that it's snowing at the end of March) But..on track tomorrow!

7 Day Clean Eating Challenge

Holy Cow! I haven't written a blog in almost a week...not cool, Alyssa, not cool.
I've had the wonderful privilege of leading a 7 day clean eating challenge for my Beachbody Team! Because of the interest, I opened it up to the other coaches on my team and we ended up having over 60 women join in our clean eating challenge! It was definitely a rough 7 days, but we made it! WE DID IT! And I am more than excited to share results with you :) But before I do that, I want to explain a little bit about the 7 day clean eating group and how it worked.

What is clean eating?
Clean eating is avoiding processed foods and using mostly organic, natural, and fresh ingredients to make recipes! It's about being more conscious of your food's journey from origin to your plate. These ladies really buckled down, focused, and stepped away from the frozen foods, the canned goods, the boxed meals, and started eating healthier! This was just the beginning, because let's be real, we can't just go cold turkey ;)

How does the group work?
Once the ladies signed up on my website (or their coaches), I'd add them to the facebook group that I created. Remember - this is FREE! All they had to do was make a free account and commit to the meal plan/participating in the group. On the Saturday before our group started, I posted the grocery list and everyone went shopping. People were posting their groceries everywhere and it was so fun to see everyone participating! Sunday, I posted the meal calendar for the week just so everyone could have an idea of how it was going to work. From then on, each day I posted twice. In the morning, it was usually something inspirational, and in the evening, it was the recipes and directions for the meal plan the next day. The participation by everyone in the group is what made it special! We had mama's, grandma's, college students, it was such a variety of women working so hard to eat clean and healthy - in the midst of crazy busy and different lifestyles.

What did we eat?
Delicious yummy awesomeness! That's what! I'm kidding..but seriously :)
Here is a break down of what our week looked like!
Monday:
Breakfast: Turkey Bacon Breakfast Sandwich
AM Snack: 1/2 Banana, 7 walnuts
Lunch: Tuna Salad
PM Snack: Shakeology/Cottage Cheese
Supper: Honey Dijon Chicken with Steamed Garlic Parm Broccoli
Night Snack: Veggies/Fruit
Tuesday:
Breakfast: Berries and Yogurt
AM Snack: Shakeology/2 Eggs
Lunch: Turkey Avocado Wrap
PM Snack: Celery and Peanut Butter
Supper: Grilled Teriyaki Salmon
Night Snack: Veggies/Fruit
Wednesday:
Breakfast: Pineapple and Cottage Cheese
AM Snack: Veggies and Hummus
Lunch: Loaded Baked Potato
PM Snack: Yogurt/Shakeology
Supper:Chicken Tacos with Beans and Quinoa
Night Snack: Veggies/Fruit
Thursday:
Breakfast: 2 eggs/Shakeology
AM Snack: Nutty Apple
Lunch: Egg Salad Wrap
PM Snack: 10 almonds and a medium orange
Supper: Steak with Spinach and Baked Potato
Night Snack: Veggies/Fruit
Friday:
Breakfast: Strawberry Waffle and Sausage
AM Snack: Yogurt/Shakeology
Lunch: Chicken and Hummus Pita
PM Snack: Veggie and Cheese
Supper: Rosemary Pork Chops with Peas and Wild Rice
Night Snack: Veggies/Fruit
Saturday:
Breakfast: Turkey Bacon Breakfast Sandwich
AM Snack: 1/2 Banana, 7 walnuts
Lunch: Tuna Salad
PM Snack: Shakeology/Cottage Cheese
Supper: Honey Dijon Chicken with Steamed Garlic Parm Broccoli
Night Snack: Veggies/Fruit
Sunday:
Breakfast: Berries and Yogurt
AM Snack: Shakeology/2 Eggs
Lunch: Turkey Avocado Wrap
PM Snack: Celery and Peanut Butter
Supper: Grilled Teriyaki Salmon
Night Snack: Veggies/Fruit

See?! I told you, it was yummy deliciousness and it was ALOT of food. We were allowed coffee, but just one cup with only one teaspoon of milk/sugar. But other than that, mainly water!

Results
  I will share results for the people that reported back to me! I'll use code names instead of real names, just to keep some privacy. Did all 60 women participate? No. Life gets in the way. Did the people that did participate commit 100%? No. Did everyone share their results with me? No. But for the people that did, I'll display here!
I am so proud of each and every person in our group. They are taking the first steps towards a clean eating journey and that is the most important part.
Participants:
A: "4 lbs. and a dress size! I only exercised once and that was on Saturday so it's all the food!!!"
B: down 7 pounds and 13.25 inches
C: 7 pounds and 5.5 inches
D: 2 pounds and 9.5 inches
E: 6 pounds!
F: "4 lbs and 5 inches gone!"
G: 3.8 pounds lost!
H: down 5.6 pounds
I: 3.2 pounds
J: 3.8 pounds
K: 4.6 pounds
L: 6 pounds!

There are so many more ladies (like I said 60++++) that are in my group and just haven't reported results yet! YOU CAN SEE HOW AMAZING IT IS!

THIS WAS ONLY IN 7 DAYS OF EATING! 7!! that's it?!! Imagine if we kept this up until you met your goal! :) It's possible...believe me!

In the end, this was a really really really hard week for me! Although I had been sticking to my nutrition pretty decently since the 21 day fix, I definitely wasn't staying 100% committed to it! This week makes the 21 day fix look easy. During this week, I didn't have a choice what to eat, but with the 21 day fix, I could swap things in and out as I craved them. :) I'm so excited for the next step, because so many ladies have already committed to completing the 21 day fix with me now! Jared and I are starting today with Round 2! WHOOHOO and the ladies will all start next week! I'm so super excited and pumped! It had been a fantastic, tiring, inspiring, and rewarding week!

Fitness Fiesta

So...my team and I are trying a whole new thing! You know how people have Jamberry parties, jewelry parties, Mary Kay parties, all on facebook?? We are doing the same thing! We have fitness launch parties, fitness fiestas, or simply just an event that we hold on facebook where the host or hostess can earn free stuff! It's honestly the coolest thing ever.

I wanted to write a blog to let you know how it works. Hey, who knows, maybe you'll want to host a party too?? After all, what do you have to lose?!

So, here's what goes down, I do all the work and you (as the host/hostess) only have 1 job.

I'll create the event and you pick the time that works for you. Each event only lasts 2 days, 1 hour each day. During that hour, we'll play games with different questions and different scavenger hunts. Each participant has the opportunity to earn points simply by liking posts, commenting, sharing, posting on the event page themselves, and so much more! Obviously, participants will also get points for playing the games too! The person with the most points at the end of the two days wins the prize!

If you are a host/hostess...the more money your party makes the more free stuff you get from Beachbody!
Here's a sample of your rewards :)

$175 in purchases from party - $25 in apparel purchases from Team Beachbody

$225 in purchases from party - $35 dollar apparel purchase

$275 in purchases from party - $45 dollar apparel purchase

$325 in purchases from party - $55 dollar apparel purchase

$375 in purchases from party -$65 dollar apparel purchase or 21 day fix or 21 day fix extreme or PIYO program

Pretty sweet, huh? They are amazing...and I'm jealous because I probably would've hosted like 12 parties if I would've known this! haha!

The games are a blast, it's fun to just sit in a couch with your jams on, eating some popcorn, and then sit back and chat with girlfriends. It's also a great way to dip your toes into the pool of Beachbody. It's a great way to get your questions answered, to find out a little more, and to see what program works for you!

I'm really excited for what this means..for people everywhere! FITNESS PARTIES ACROSS THE NATION (I dream kinda big....but seriously!) This is a way to make people aware, people aware of their health and their fitness. which is my biggest goal and EXACTLY why I became a Beachbody coach.

Tonight was my first ever Fitness Fiesta and I had such a blast posting testimonials, showing my progress, talking about the programs that I LOVE with my whole heart! It was great...if you want to host a party, please don't hesitate to ask!