We are finally there! How did you do for our extended week 2? Are you learning more about yourself and what makes you tick? That's what we're aiming for!
Another two chapters to read this week, but it will be well worth it! We've discovered our dreams, we've fine tuned them, now we need to learn what's getting in our way to making them a reality! Chapter Four begins Step Two: Believe. We are going to learn how to be honest with ourselves in our current situation and lives as we now know it. We are going to continue to learn about ourselves, how we see ourselves, and how the choices we make affect everything else around us and in our lives. Chapter Five will help us understand how our decisions contribute to the outcome of circumstances, how to forgive ourselves and others, and how to take responsibility for where we are.
There are THREE workbooks to do this week pertaining to all that we'll read about. This is where it starts to get deep. This is where you start to begin to understand what you've been doing to stop yourself from achieving all that you want in YOUR life. Answer the questions honestly. The only one who will benefit from this is you. If you feel the need to be dishonest in your answers, or insist that everything is perfect, then put the book down, you don't need to keep reading. If you think your life is perfect, just as it is and you are not unhappy with ANY aspect of your life at all whatsoever, then you don't need this book in the first place. And if you're going to be dishonest in answering all the questions, then you're not ready to change.
Go out and be great! When you're ready to do the workbooks, head on over to the fan page on Facebook, or click HERE, and look under the "Notes" section on the left side of the page.
By the way....How did your vision board turn out? I've been having some difficulty finding images that I want to use and struggling with the design of my board. I know we were supposed to have these done by the end of Week Two, but really, your dreams are ever changing. So let's just try to have them done as soon as possible. And when you're ready to share yours, take a picture and post it on our Facebook page!
Good luck this week! Go learn what makes you tick!! :)
Tuesday, August 23, 2011
Count Calories?! Pssshhh!
I know what you're thinking, why in the world would you want to add more work to losing weight?! I was there once, too. When I thought that I knew better, and knew that what I was eating was healthy enough for it to all count, and in a good way. I was sorely mistaken.
I've tried many diets. You name it, I've done it. Atkins, yep! South Beach, yep! Lean Cuisine, yep! Protein shakes, yep! Cabbage soup, yep! Now aside from those big money output diets like Weight Watchers and Nutrisystem, I've put forth a good effort to losing weight. But there are two things that I fall back to now, that I KNOW will always work......Diet and exercise.
I know, that's that last thing you want to here. Honestly, it's the last thing I want to SAY!! But here is the bottom line to all those other fad diets. You may lose the weight right away, but once you are done losing the weight and you jump off that bandwagon, unless you have taught yourself the correct way to eat, you WILL gain it all back. No ifs, ands, or buts! Well, bigger butts, yes. :)
See, that's the thing. Those diets don't teach you HOW to eat, they merely tell you, or pre-portion for you, WHAT to eat. They don't explain to you the help that fiber is to a diet, or how to accurately count calories. Instead, they give you lists of foods to eat and not eat, and you are counting that company's system of points instead of calories. When all is said and done, and you regain some of that lost weight, you will either return to that diet or try a new one. Ever wonder why some diet plans have "Lifetime" memberships? That would be why. :)
In order to EFFICIENTLY lose the weight you want, it will take time, planning, patience, experiment, and EFFORT! It takes time to plan your meals and exercise, patience to stick with the program, experimentation for when you plateau or when your body doesn't react to a diet like it used to, and EFFORT at ALL STAGES of your routine.
That's where calorie counting comes in to play. We all know the basics of calories in, calories out. Basically, you need to burn more calories than you take in in order to lose weight. 3500 calories is equivalent to 1 lb. So if you want to lose 2 lbs a week, your exercise needs to burn at least 7000 calories a week, or 1,000 a day. Plain and simple, right? But that won't work if your body only needs 2,000 to run on a day to day basis, and you're taking in 3,000 calories a day. See? Because then, if you're taking in 3,000 a day, and you're burning off 1,000 a day, you are right back down to that 2,000 that your body needs to stay at the weight you are. Yes, it takes some math to figure out all the numbers, but it's not that hard anymore!
Some of my friends have been using this site for a while. I decided to check it out for myself. The site is My Fitness Pal (www.MyFitnessPal.com). It does the math for you when you set up your profile, so it tells you, based off the information you put in, how many calories a day you need to eat and burn to lose weight at the rate that you would like to. By the way, the recommended rate is 2 lbs. per week. Keep that in mind! ;)
You then input everything you eat throughout the day and what kind of exercise you've done and for how long. Now, I have tried MANY calorie counting sites. And trust me when I say, NONE compare to this site! Their index of foods was simply amazing in and of itself! There was not one food that I typed into the search box that didn't come up with a result. And being a Military wife, sometimes the brands we get are not the popular ones. But even this site had those things in there. Rest assured, though, should something you type in NOT be in their database, you can input the item in, and it then becomes a part of their database for all their users to find. Amazing, right? That's just the half of it!
Most sites will have some sort of exercise tracker that lists certain exercises, and tells you how many calories you've burned for however long you did that exercise. But most sites don't take your weight into account for calories burned. This site does!! AND their list of activities is so long! I found things from Table Tennis (Ping Pong!), to Yoga, to Cleaning, to Cooking, to Walking your dog! It was a fabulous array of activity, and the best I've seen yet!
Oh! This is my FAVORITE part! As a person who prefers to make her meals from scratch, and with as organic ingredients as possible, I end up having to do the math for all the ingredients to figure out how many calories, fat, carbs, etc. are in my meals. NO MORE!!! This site has a "My Recipe" section, where you list how many people that recipe serves, and then you add your ingredients to the list for the recipe using things from their database, and VOILA!! Your recipe is complete! All the ingredients are added together to tell you all the nutritional information for your homemade meal! HOW COOL IS THAT?!?!!!
I am sure that is just the tip of the iceberg, and I'm sure that I will discover many more wonderful things about this site along the way! But let me encourage you to go over, sign up for their free account, and get yourself started. This site literally makes it easy to count your calories, and keep your log. And I assure you, after tracking your calories for ONE day, you will see how much you really know about the foods you are putting in your body. Oh, did I mention that they have a FREE App that you can download to your mobile devices making it that much easier to stick with it? Yeah, check that out, too! :)
Diet and exercise is the slowest way to lose weight. That's because it's the healthiest way. Losing weight too quickly is unsafe for your body, and yo-yo dieting is just as bad. Deprivation diets only work for as long as you're willing to deprive yourself of the things your body needs to run every day. Learn to eat right, get out and be active, and you will find that the payoff is much better.
Head on over to My Fitness Pal to sign up for your FREE account and get started on your fabulous journey!
I've tried many diets. You name it, I've done it. Atkins, yep! South Beach, yep! Lean Cuisine, yep! Protein shakes, yep! Cabbage soup, yep! Now aside from those big money output diets like Weight Watchers and Nutrisystem, I've put forth a good effort to losing weight. But there are two things that I fall back to now, that I KNOW will always work......Diet and exercise.
I know, that's that last thing you want to here. Honestly, it's the last thing I want to SAY!! But here is the bottom line to all those other fad diets. You may lose the weight right away, but once you are done losing the weight and you jump off that bandwagon, unless you have taught yourself the correct way to eat, you WILL gain it all back. No ifs, ands, or buts! Well, bigger butts, yes. :)
See, that's the thing. Those diets don't teach you HOW to eat, they merely tell you, or pre-portion for you, WHAT to eat. They don't explain to you the help that fiber is to a diet, or how to accurately count calories. Instead, they give you lists of foods to eat and not eat, and you are counting that company's system of points instead of calories. When all is said and done, and you regain some of that lost weight, you will either return to that diet or try a new one. Ever wonder why some diet plans have "Lifetime" memberships? That would be why. :)
In order to EFFICIENTLY lose the weight you want, it will take time, planning, patience, experiment, and EFFORT! It takes time to plan your meals and exercise, patience to stick with the program, experimentation for when you plateau or when your body doesn't react to a diet like it used to, and EFFORT at ALL STAGES of your routine.
That's where calorie counting comes in to play. We all know the basics of calories in, calories out. Basically, you need to burn more calories than you take in in order to lose weight. 3500 calories is equivalent to 1 lb. So if you want to lose 2 lbs a week, your exercise needs to burn at least 7000 calories a week, or 1,000 a day. Plain and simple, right? But that won't work if your body only needs 2,000 to run on a day to day basis, and you're taking in 3,000 calories a day. See? Because then, if you're taking in 3,000 a day, and you're burning off 1,000 a day, you are right back down to that 2,000 that your body needs to stay at the weight you are. Yes, it takes some math to figure out all the numbers, but it's not that hard anymore!
Some of my friends have been using this site for a while. I decided to check it out for myself. The site is My Fitness Pal (www.MyFitnessPal.com). It does the math for you when you set up your profile, so it tells you, based off the information you put in, how many calories a day you need to eat and burn to lose weight at the rate that you would like to. By the way, the recommended rate is 2 lbs. per week. Keep that in mind! ;)
You then input everything you eat throughout the day and what kind of exercise you've done and for how long. Now, I have tried MANY calorie counting sites. And trust me when I say, NONE compare to this site! Their index of foods was simply amazing in and of itself! There was not one food that I typed into the search box that didn't come up with a result. And being a Military wife, sometimes the brands we get are not the popular ones. But even this site had those things in there. Rest assured, though, should something you type in NOT be in their database, you can input the item in, and it then becomes a part of their database for all their users to find. Amazing, right? That's just the half of it!
Most sites will have some sort of exercise tracker that lists certain exercises, and tells you how many calories you've burned for however long you did that exercise. But most sites don't take your weight into account for calories burned. This site does!! AND their list of activities is so long! I found things from Table Tennis (Ping Pong!), to Yoga, to Cleaning, to Cooking, to Walking your dog! It was a fabulous array of activity, and the best I've seen yet!
Oh! This is my FAVORITE part! As a person who prefers to make her meals from scratch, and with as organic ingredients as possible, I end up having to do the math for all the ingredients to figure out how many calories, fat, carbs, etc. are in my meals. NO MORE!!! This site has a "My Recipe" section, where you list how many people that recipe serves, and then you add your ingredients to the list for the recipe using things from their database, and VOILA!! Your recipe is complete! All the ingredients are added together to tell you all the nutritional information for your homemade meal! HOW COOL IS THAT?!?!!!
I am sure that is just the tip of the iceberg, and I'm sure that I will discover many more wonderful things about this site along the way! But let me encourage you to go over, sign up for their free account, and get yourself started. This site literally makes it easy to count your calories, and keep your log. And I assure you, after tracking your calories for ONE day, you will see how much you really know about the foods you are putting in your body. Oh, did I mention that they have a FREE App that you can download to your mobile devices making it that much easier to stick with it? Yeah, check that out, too! :)
Diet and exercise is the slowest way to lose weight. That's because it's the healthiest way. Losing weight too quickly is unsafe for your body, and yo-yo dieting is just as bad. Deprivation diets only work for as long as you're willing to deprive yourself of the things your body needs to run every day. Learn to eat right, get out and be active, and you will find that the payoff is much better.
Head on over to My Fitness Pal to sign up for your FREE account and get started on your fabulous journey!
Wednesday, August 17, 2011
Unlimited Challenge
Some friends of mine only recently got their book in the mail. So to afford everyone an opportunity to catch up and fully participate in the workbooks and activities from Week 2, we are going to delay the start of Week 3 until Monday, August 22, 2011. Hopefully this extra week allows everyone to catch up and be on the same page starting next week. :)
Monday, August 8, 2011
Unlimited Challenge - Week 2
So how did you do with week one? Did you find out more about what you truly want from YOUR life? Do you have your list of goals and dreams written down somewhere? GOOD!!
Week One was just meant to be an eye opener. Something to help you realize that your dreams that you keep bottled inside are dreams worth pursuing if they are truly a dream of yours. The questions you answered in the workbook should have led you to some self discovery about who you are, and what you want from your life. It should have sparked interests that maybe you haven't touched on in a while, or perhaps you found some new found passion for something you would love to try. Whatever got your juices flowing in Week One, let's keep them going!
Week Two is going to push you just a little further into presenting your dreams as concepts for your life, a blueprint if you will. You are going to learn that with every dream, in order to make it a reality, you need to have a deep seeded passion for that dream, and you need to have faith. Faith in yourself, and faith in your dream. Without the two together, your dreams will never be. But luckily, you are here, and we will discover this week how to build off your passions, and how to plant faith in all you do. So let's get started!
For Week Two, you need to read through chapters 2 AND 3. When you're ready to get started on this week's workbook, head on over to the fan page on Facebook and complete the workbook. You can do this by clicking HERE.
Good luck with Week Two! I hope you continue your path to self discovery, and that you unleash your dreams this week!!
Week One was just meant to be an eye opener. Something to help you realize that your dreams that you keep bottled inside are dreams worth pursuing if they are truly a dream of yours. The questions you answered in the workbook should have led you to some self discovery about who you are, and what you want from your life. It should have sparked interests that maybe you haven't touched on in a while, or perhaps you found some new found passion for something you would love to try. Whatever got your juices flowing in Week One, let's keep them going!
Week Two is going to push you just a little further into presenting your dreams as concepts for your life, a blueprint if you will. You are going to learn that with every dream, in order to make it a reality, you need to have a deep seeded passion for that dream, and you need to have faith. Faith in yourself, and faith in your dream. Without the two together, your dreams will never be. But luckily, you are here, and we will discover this week how to build off your passions, and how to plant faith in all you do. So let's get started!
For Week Two, you need to read through chapters 2 AND 3. When you're ready to get started on this week's workbook, head on over to the fan page on Facebook and complete the workbook. You can do this by clicking HERE.
Good luck with Week Two! I hope you continue your path to self discovery, and that you unleash your dreams this week!!
Monday, August 1, 2011
Unlimited Challenge - Week 1
So you've bought your book (and if you haven't, you can go HERE to get it!), and you're ready to make some changes to your life. For once, I'm not talking about losing weight or eating healthy. Although it is more than okay to have those as the things you would like to focus on for this challenge, it isn't necessary.
For this 6 week challenge, we will be looking inward at your deepest, darkest desires of the heart. What do you really want from life? Many of us focus so much on having that ideal body, that we forget about other aspects of living. So that is our focus for this week. Here is an excerpt from Jillian about this week's challenge:
For this 6 week challenge, we will be looking inward at your deepest, darkest desires of the heart. What do you really want from life? Many of us focus so much on having that ideal body, that we forget about other aspects of living. So that is our focus for this week. Here is an excerpt from Jillian about this week's challenge:
"Welcome to the Unlimited "Write Your New Story" Challenge! Like all big journeys in life, it all starts with a single step. congrats on taking that step by getting Unlimites, joining this bookclub, and participating in this challenge. The first step of the book is "Imagine" and that's your first assignment. I want you to start deciding what you want out of life. We all have dreams for a reason. Have you tuned some of those so-called "impractical" dreams out? It's time to start listening in. So grab some paper and some colorful markers (Hey, why not make this fun?) and open the book up to Chapter One: Identify Your Passion. If you've already gotten a head start on the book, --GREAT! Since we never stop learning and growing, you can always revisit chapters to see if you've shifted focus or taken on some new passions. Take notes as you go through the different sections, highlight, dog-ear pages--whatever you need to do--and when you reach the end of the chapter, check out the Working It Out Workbook: Discover Who You Are. In short, I want you to focus on dreaming this week. And not just daydreaming (although that's a lot of fun and VERY helpful)...real, honest-to-goodness, if-money-wasn't-an-issue dreaming about what you want to be when you grow up."
Now if that didn't gear you up, I'm just not sure what will! When you're ready for the workbook, head on over to the Healthy, Fit, and Fabulous page on Facebook, and check out the Notes.
This is going to be a FANTABULOUS 6 weeks! I cannot wait to get started! I am glad you are along for the ride, and I hope you get a lot out of this challenge. I look forward to reading about your progress, and what you learn about yourself! And should you need any more encouragement leading in to this week, here's a song to help you along....
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