Category Archives for "Mindset"

What would your perfect day be like? Maybe you’d sleep in, have your coffee and breakfast brought to you in bed. You’d then be able to stay in your PJ’s the whole day and watch the movies of your choice. Or maybe your perfect day would be to wake up with a view overlooking the ocean where a slight breeze was blowing and you’d be able to read a book lounging in a chair during the day. Some might find their perfect day as a hike in the woods with their best friend having lunch at the summit of the mountain overlooking a vast valley below.

Are perfect days only about the events of that day? Could a perfect day be more about the feelings you derive from certain events? If feelings really control your perfect day, can a perfect day happen when the events don’t line up? Can you choose to have a perfect day without perfect circumstances?

I’m a positive person. At least that is how I view myself. I am positive the day is going to happen no matter what I do or feel. Time marches on. In fact time is the one thing we can’t control. Only God is able to stop the sun or the clocks from ticking away at time.

Here’s my conclusion. Since I can’t alter time, and circumstances rarely line up in such a way to call an entire day perfect; I need to rely on my feelings to make a day perfect. There is a sign in the gym that reads, “Best Day Ever”. That is my goal to make each day the best I can with that day’s events in that day’s timeframe. It’s not always easy, it is always worth the effort. It is a matter of stirring up feelings that will support a perfect day.

Coach Dean often says; “if you get healthier you get happier and the world needs a whole lot more happy.”

If I had the power to make your day the Best Ever, I would. I promise you I will do all I can as your coach to make your healthier so that you are happier.

To the Best Day Ever,

Coach Nancy

Planning meals ahead of time will save you time and money. It will ease your stress levels each day as your dinner plans are already made. It will also help you to eat healthier. Below are some advantages of planning each meal.

• Your kitchen cupboards and refrigerator will be stocked with healthy food.
• The stress level in your life will be less as you don’t have to do ‘The 5 Minutes until Dinner – Now What?’ Dance.
• You’ll save time and money because you will make fewer trips to the grocery store
• Your family’s stress level will go down as they don’t get caught up in the nightly family strife over eating the same ole thing
• Since each dinner is planned you will not indulged in so many fast food, high calorie meals because you won’t have to go through the hassle of ‘what do I fix tonight?’
• Did I mention the stress level will go down in your life and in those around you? As your kids get shuffled off to practice they are actually going to miss not being around you
• You will find that you have increased the variety of foods you eat each week creating a well balanced diet.
• Dinner time will become a relaxed enjoyable time for the family to spend together.

There’s no doubt that planning your meals is not only crucial to achieving your best body, but also extremely challenging! Today’s hectic lifestyles make “grab and go” a lot more likely than “sit and relax”.

Who’s got the time to make it all happen?

You can achieve your best health and enjoy great food- the key lies in your ability to plan.

Planning your first week of meals is easier than you think.

• Write down your family’s favorite meals. To help you out, list the dinner meals you ate last week. You might need to ask your kids for help. Shoot to write down five to seven meals.
• Tweak these meals if they need to be healthier versions. You’re looking to fill your plate with lots of Protein, Produce and Water.
• List out 2 or 3 PPW (Protein Produce and Water) breakfast meals you enjoy eating.
• Alternate these meals on your menu plan the first week. Remember breakfast doesn’t have to be traditional. Eating leftovers at breakfast makes things quick to reheat.
• Lunch is next. Do you have time to make a meal each day for lunch or is leftovers a better choice. Remember “Simple is easiest, Simple is best”
• If you choose to make your meals, prep as much as you can the night before.
• Lunch can be easy. Baked chicken from the night before takes on a whole new appearance on top of a salad. Don’t have leftover chicken? Open a can/bag of tuna to place on top of the salad. Another option is to grab a few hard boiled eggs and make egg salad using an avocado as the mayonnaise. Add in a variety of raw veggies and your lunch is complete.

Knowing is only half the battle. Even if you know what’s good and expect to eat supportively, if the foods aren’t around when it’s time to eat, it’s hard to succeed.

Planning is half of the battle. Speaking of planning, make a grocery list. Using your meal plan as a guide to what you need to pick up list out the foods to buy.

You can make this happen! It takes a little planning and dedication once a week to get your plan on track.

To Your best health,

Coach Nancy

Georgie Fear allowed me to use her Meal Plan flowchart. Sums up when we eat, now make a plan for what to eat. 

Did you ever wish there was a “magic pill” that could help you get the body of your dreams? To take out the wiggle and jiggle, and replace it with lean and tight?

If that “magic pill” existed, it would come in the form of a food journal. Research shows there is no better predictor of weight loss and maintenance of that loss than keeping a record of what you eat – really cool!

But also a little scary, right? I mean we don’t really expect you to write everything down, do you? 

Let’s start here: There is no morality to fat loss. I like what fellow nutrition coach Josh Hillis had to say “…nothing you eat is bad or wrong. Nothing you eat is good or right. You are not a bad person if you eat junk food. You aren’t a good person if you eat organic veggies with grass fed beef” – Josh Hillis Fat Loss Starts on Monday

Some food choices will get you closer to your goals, and some won’t. I’ll make you a deal; I won’t judge you for what you write down in here if you don’t. Because if you are like me, you are your own worst critic. 

So instead of judging, beating yourself up, and just plain feeling crummy (negative emotions) let’s do the helpful thing, which looks like this.

• Evaluate my food journal
• See where I can improve
• Plan a strategy for what you can do differently
• Go to the store, buy good food, bring it home, cook it (positive actions)

Easy? I am afraid not. Eating healthy is a skill, and just like any other skill, it takes practice and persistence to get good. 

And that’s what this food journal is all about. Developing the eating skills of a lean person so we can be lean too. 

So embrace the journey, be consistent with your journal, and practice doing what it takes to Get Lean. Lose Fat. Look and Feel Great.

Make It Happen!

Coach Nancy

Shopping List Week of: ____________________

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Notes for next week: ________________________________________________

Want a printable version? Click here.

Cr8 Fitness just finished the YOU 2.0 in 21 Challenge. If you didn't catch the end results check them out here. YOU amazed your coach once again with your consistent work to be healthier. Let's keep that momentum rolling forward. Summer will be here before you know it. Summer always finds us wanting to be outside and active. It just feels good to be in the fresh air. It's so much easier to keep excuses at bay if our bodies are feeling and looking good. 

We need to keep on Making It Happen. Stepping on the InBody once a month will give you feedback on how you are doing. Of course every other week while staying focused on nutrition will help us make tweaks in our eating plan. 

In April you'll step on the InBody at least once. To help keep you accountable I've created a calendar on one of the large white boards in the gym. 

What should you do if you train on Zoom and still want to scan? Just let me know, I'll make sure you can scan when it works for you. I'll add your name to the calendar and keep you accountable. How cool is that? 

Next step for you? Next time you are into Cr8 Fitness place your name on the date you'll scan. Then scan on that date. That seems pretty easy. Your peeps and I will keep you accountable to your scan day. Then use that information to help you move even farther into a healthy routine. 

There are some tools we've created to help you along your journey.  

• The Ultimate Guide to Meal Planning
• The Ultimate Guide to Proactive Aging
• All our blogs including recipes
• Cr8 Your Plate - a menu planning service

Click on a few or click on them all. They are here for you to take advantage of. 

To your best health,

Coach Nancy

Week two is in the books for March Madness. We celebrated week one with a party. My kind of party that is. Each person picked an exercise for the whole group to do. Of course someone in the group picked Get Ups. While looking at the end goal of 1,000 Get Ups can be daunting, taking them in daily chunks of 38 Get Ups makes it much more doable. Our party ended by sampling a Chocolate Raspberry Protein Shake. It was super yummy and a nice treat after a hard training. 

Today ends week 2 of March Madness. We celebrated by allowing all those in the challenge to pick a prize out of the bucket. There were Gifts of Get Ups, Bonus Get Ups ranging from 10 - 20 that you could add right onto your score card. We also had one prize that was top notch. So far one person from 5am has won this special prize. It was "Do 1, Get 1,000!". Yes, that lucky person had to do one Get Up in order to claim 1,000 Get Ups. They've completed their requirement for the challenge already. Other lucky people gave away Get Ups to others, earned double Get Ups, and even earned Get Ups from others in training that hour. 

Who knows what week 3 will hold. I do know that at the end of the month when you tally all your Get Ups, you'll be amazed. Even if you don't hit the 1,000 it will be awesome to see your final number. There are not a whole lot of people that can say they've done 345 Get Ups in a month, or 517, or 838. That final number represents hard work no matter what it is. 

Keep Making It Happen,

Coach Nancy

I am not sure what triggers it but there are days when all I want to do it eat. What's up with that? Has that ever happened to you? I've figured out a few things that have helped me over the years to get rid of the munchies, so I thought I would share them with you.

Here's how I Kick the Munchies Back to Where they Came From:

1. Distract myself with work. Making that work as far away from food as possible. 
2. Grab a hot cup of coffee or tea or water. I can give my stomach something to fill itself but making myself drink it slow because it is so hot often satisfies my need to eat.
3. Reward myself. I actually will give in to the munchies but I set a timer first. If I can make it 30 minutes or whatever time I set, then I will allow myself to eat something. Often I forget what the timer is for.
4. Take a walk. The outside air and the sun do magical things for our inner self.
5. Put your mind on someone else. Write an email expressing gratitude, give a friend a call, or sit down to write a note on real paper. There is something about putting your attention on others that takes the focus off my 'want to have it now attitude'. 

What do you do? If you have a tip that could help me next time the munchies hit please leave me a comment below. Who knows it might just be what I need to save myself from overeating. 

To your best health,

Coach Nancy

Did you know that  "Everything's NOT Awesome" is a name of a song? Yep, from the Lego Movie 2. There are actually quite a few movies featuring animated lego characters. I'm off track already. Here is what I want to say. The year 2020 wasn't awesome. I don't think anyone is going to argue with that. Here are some of the highlights from my year. 

• My aunt died
• My Dad died
• My sister died
• Covid Pandemic took over
• vacations were cancelled
• Cr8 Fitness wasn't able to be together for more than 2 months.
• My son's best friend died
• They tried cancelling Thanksgiving and Christmas

I could scream 2020 was the worst but it wasn't. Here is what I see when I look back over 2020.

• I spent more time with my family in Indiana than I have since I was married. I was there almost a month in the first 5 months of the year.
• I was able to spend a week caring for my sister - super special memories
• I've talked with my mom twice a day since March
• I was with my sister during hospice
• The Cr8 Family trained together on Zoom. We figured it out together and found it really can work.
• My Cr8 Family is a real family in the fun times and when life is hard
• Christmas was one of the best I can remember, Thanksgiving too
• And life is precious so don't dismiss it by trying to skip a full year. 

So what does that have to do with "Everything is NOT Awesome" a song from a Lego Movie? My kids got me started on this song because it's catchy and gets stuck inside your head. I often am accused that I always treat life as wonderful and fantastic, kind of like I never have any bad days. That just isn't true. I miss my Dad and Sister more than words express. Having Cr8 Fitness threatened by a virus was stress I didn't know how to tackle. Seeing my son hurt with a hurt I can't fix is miserable. There are two ways to respond: Everything is Hopeless and Bleak or they aren't. I just choose to look at the good and let it define my life. How about you? 

2020 was tough on everyone. Where do you see the good in 2020? Focus on that. And then repeat.  Be known and know others for the good. 

I'm here to see your best,

Coach Nancy

And just in case you want to hear or see all the words to the song, "Everything's NOT Awesome" you can check it out here.

I'm in the gym 6 days a week to train, meet clients, clean, or stock inventory. A few weeks ago I rearranged all the Dumbbells and Kettlebells. You might recall the contest to guess how much I moved that day? 7,454 pounds of metal so that the traffic could flow a bit easier. It was hard work. 

Since March we have all faced different challenges because of Covid. One theme keeps coming back to mind as I see you struggle to create your new normal. You're Working Hard! As an observer it is thrilling to see the determination and guts, the flexibility and creativity, the energy and positiveness you've displayed while training. 

2021 is right around the corner. Many of us are rushing to get there in hopes that it is going to be like a beautiful rose instead of all the thorns so many of us had in 2020. There is a famous saying: “Where ever you go, there you are.” What if 2021 is not a bowl of sunshine and roses? What if it starts where 2020 left off?

Sawubona means ‘I see you’. Not just I see you have a mask on and I see that you are shopping in the same store as I am. It means I see you intimately. Sawubona is that deep seeing where you get that person. You understand where they have been and where they are going.

I see Sawubona happening at Cr8 all the time. The chatter happening as you catch up on the weekend details or hear how an elderly parent is doing. You not only know that person exist but you see into their lives and want to participate in it with them.

Sawubona is seeing beyond the mask we are wearing.

2021 will have its roses.  As you ‘see’ others this year, see them deeper. Take the word Sawubona to heart and really see them. You’ll find by getting into each other’s lives,

• Challenges become easier because you have others to help with the burden.
• Tension eases as you see their perspective and not just your own
• Goals are attained with the accountability and help of those who ‘see’ you
• Sunny days are even brighter because you’re sharing them

I’m sure you’ll find more benefits from Sawubona – I see you.

Happy New Year Everyone. We have the ability to make 2021 the Best Year Ever.

Coach Nancy

There's not much more to say than what this video proclaims. The government labeled gyms as being a non essential business when Covid hit. Cr8 Fitness shut it doors and went remote for almost two months. That label is not going to define me and it shouldn't define you.