Don't get fat from a bunny bearing chocolate!

It's that time of year again. Can you smell it? The fresh scent of cocoa in the air. It's on all the stacks outs and ends of the aisles in all your favorite stores. CHOCOLATE!!!

I went down the main aisle of the grocery store with my boys and I had to PEEL their attention away from the huge display that ran up the middle of the store. Easter time is here again and a new level of holiday gift-giving has arrived. I'm sure you may have noticed it over the last year, but for EVERY "holiday" or occasion they have come out with all the goodies that you can stuff baskets full of and give as gifts. Excellent marketing idea for those who spent ages trying to get people on board giving gift baskets, but NOW it involves every possible thing being tossed in. Toys, books, cards, crayons, but most of all candy! Sugary treats with their packaging changed for the season (like costumes) and to entice the eyes (at all sight levels) of those who like to buy for the occasion.

At some point, I am thinking that when people think of giving to children, that their first instinct is not always going to be laden with sugar. That the "treat" they think they are giving is a "present" left by the Easter bunny as "it" secretly hopped around all night long leaving these gifts of colourfully foil-wrapped chocolate balls and other goodies for kids to gorge on. And of course, as we think these gifts of chocolate will ONLY be eaten by the kids, then we fool ourselves as we may all be familiar with the taste of the tail of the chocolate bunny and a nibble of the tip of its ear (the easy to snap parts) as our children share with us as they have been taught to do with their toys. Those little nibbles and bites add up to a lot of sugar and a lot of unwanted and unsupportive calories. They also leave you hungry, and craving for more with your thoughts all obscured and your children running around in hyperactive circles till they drop from fatigue and exhaustion. About 25 chocolate chips (not even a handful for me) is easily 100 calories or more. That means an average-sized, well-meaning, chocolate easter bunny's appendages can amount to over 500 calories (2 ears, 1 foot, 1 tail, and the paw....flat chocolate bunny), about 1/3 of required calories for an average woman (doing average exercise). That equals almost a full lunch and snack.....2 MEALS worth of calories.

So pray that your generous, gift-basket-bearing-tonnes-of-sugary-treats friends are heavy on the chocolate giving this year (especially if you have more than one child too). And if you like to stock up a basket for your kids at this time, opt for options like coloring books, fancy parkers, pens, and pencils, fruit, carrots, flowers, seeds to plant in the garden (carrot seeds), gardening tools...the options are endless. Or celebrate this time in a way that does not shove unnecessary, and unsupportive foods into their faces and establishing an expected tradition (habit) of celebrating with sugar, gifts, and treats. Focus on the WHY of what you are celbrating this time of year and share it with your friends and family. We can also celebrate by getting together with family, doing something fun and active together, and enjoying quality time. What better time in our economy to up the standard on quality, instead of showering with quantity.

Have a great weekend and enjoyable holiday!

NYTC final pix

Final Results of the NYTC (April 2nd, 2009)
Name: Elisa Sterling-Cowan Age: 33
Weight: 145 lbs to 144 lbs (- 1 lb)
Height: 5'5" to 5'6"
Arms: 11" (same)
Chest (above breast): 33" to 35 ¾" (+ 2 ¾ “)
Chest (under breast): 31” to 33 ½” (+ 2 ½ “)
Waist: 29” to 29 ½” (+ ½ “)
Abdomen: 30.5” to 31” (+ ½ “)
Hips: 36” to 37” (+ 1 “)
Thighs: 21 1/2” to 22 ½" (+ 1 “)
Calves: 15" (same)

My Goal: To hit it with intensity and focus. I want to set the foundation of success and accomplishment to jump off in other areas of my life. I want to increase my strength using pullups and my 3 year old as a guide (how long/far I can carry him) . I want to get back to my nutritional convictions. Over the last few months I have made best scenario choices and I would prefer to just eat as I would like to nourish my body best (if that makes sense). As much as I want to plan my meals, I will have to gauge that with other priorities in my life, but I will try new recipes and set a schedule for the times that we will be eating through the day and will aim to cook dinner by lunch time and maximize when I am most energetic in the day. I want to tackle what I have been putting off and be a woman of action and get back to perseverance and discipline.

This has been a time of intensity and perseverance for me and my family. And with the many challenges we faced together, we are growing in our hope and patience to see things through and fighting the feeling of bailing out before the finish of what we have started.

I came into the challenge ready to get back at it and see what I could accomplish, in my fitness journey and in other areas of my life. And with so many things on the go, I felt as though I wasn't giving my all to this challenge and not hitting it with the intensity I did at first. In the first 4 weeks I saw how my clothes fit differently and I was losing weight and inches and I was excited. But after those 4 weeks I saw the weight and the inches going up and at first I was concerned, thinking I was slacking off and not keeping it up and just getting down on myself. I decided that since my focus was divided, I would just continue to make supportive choices and keep pushing to get in my workouts and be active and enjoy life while working on the other things I wanted to accomplish. As I look back over the last 12 weeks, I can see how I managed to maintain my health and the health of my family, and my sanity and manage to meet all the goals I started out with and more. I was able to ramp it up give that extra push at the end and find a way to get get in the intensity, but also to make the most of the efficiency of the FYM workouts.

I am definitely stronger and able to carry my son for quite a distance and time. I have muscle tone in my arms, back, and legs that I didn't before and I know it's been a while since I have. I gained new nutritional convictions, learning that I will continue to tweak each day something in my diet, trying out new recipes and foods that are high in nutritional value. I want to keep it sustainable, something I will do for a long time, not just a diet that last for 30 days. I have raised my standard and am now eating more in the 80 / 20 range and it's doable for me. I can enjoy making “treats” with my kids and still have it be healthy.

In the other areas of my life I have gone after my undone list and finished off things I had started. I got my learner's permit for driving after putting it off for 13 years and it has inspired others to go and succeed in writing their learner's test as well. I have noticed that many are inspired by the actions I take and since I want to live an inspiring life, I am truly encouraged when others around me go after what they want and succeed. That has been my motivation, is to help and motivate others. God has enriched my life with this blessing and as I take more action, others around me take more action. As I step out faithfully, others around me are encouraged to help and to step out on their own faith as well. It can be hard to trust in the unknown, but I have only been pleasantly surprised at every step forward I have taken. I am eager to RUN! I pray that I will not let fear trip me up on my journey and that as eager as I am to run, I still want to walk and enjoy this journey I am on for life (I may through in an interval here and there though).

To God be the Glory!

Psalm 66

For the director of music. A song. A psalm.

¹ Shout with joy to God, all the earth!

² Sing the glory of his name;
make his praise glorious!

³ Say to God, "How awesome are your deeds!
So great is your power
that your enemies cringe before you.

⁴ All the earth bows down to you;
they sing praise to you,
they sing praise to your name."
Selah

⁵ Come and see what God has done,
how awesome his works in man's behalf!

⁶ He turned the sea into dry land,
they passed through the waters on foot—
come, let us rejoice in him.

⁷ He rules forever by his power,
his eyes watch the nations—
let not the rebellious rise up against him.
Selah

⁸ Praise our God, O peoples,
let the sound of his praise be heard;

⁹ he has preserved our lives
and kept our feet from slipping.

¹⁰ For you, O God, tested us;
you refined us like silver.

¹¹ You brought us into prison
and laid burdens on our backs.

¹² You let men ride over our heads;
we went through fire and water,
but you brought us to a place of abundance.

¹³ I will come to your temple with burnt offerings
and fulfill my vows to you-

¹⁴ vows my lips promised and my mouth spoke
when I was in trouble.

¹⁵ I will sacrifice fat animals to you
and an offering of rams;
I will offer bulls and goats.
Selah

¹⁶ Come and listen, all you who fear God;
let me tell you what he has done for me.

¹⁷ I cried out to him with my mouth;
his praise was on my tongue.

¹⁸ If I had cherished sin in my heart,
the Lord would not have listened;

¹⁹ but God has surely listened
and heard my voice in prayer.

²⁰ Praise be to God,
who has not rejected my prayer
or withheld his love from me!

I am full of overwhelming joy, encouragement, and excitement. I am surrounded by love and faith and I know that I am truly grateful for every minute of this life I get to live.

I waited a long time for the P.I. (planned indulgence) I had last night not know that it would be a celebratory dinner spent with just me and my husband. We wore matching sweaters and went out on the town in Red Deer after receiving a call that encouraged our hearts and fulfilled our hopes.

Our offer on a house I have been LONGING and dreaming of for months now, but was WAY off our price range until the other day has been accepted. It meets every prayer and request and more. And as I reflect on the duration of my desire, I see how there was no other time, but EXACTLY as it happened that it could have come to where it is today (God's plan is perfect!).

So as we continue to work towards moving into our home, I would ask that continued positive thoughts and prayers can be submitted for the financing to go through smoothly, and that we get a renter for the condo as well. Thank you for your love and support my family. I am truly grateful you helped to encourage me and give me strength through all this time.

The finale of another FYM challenge

Here it is!! The end of another challenging 12 weeks and the excitement is building over at ClubFYM as the New Year's Transformation Challenge comes to an end. Myself and hundreds of others began this journey at the start of the year, applying the Fit Yummy Mummy workouts and setting goals to achieve amazing results from the inside out. As the fit yummy mummies shared their progress over the last 12 weeks I was astonished and overjoyed at how quickly they were seeing results! Many simply applied the workouts, the fundamentals of supportive nutrition along with focus and hard work and they were shedding pounds and inches in weeks!

As a finalist in the Summer Transformation Challenge, it made me realize that the concept of time and the expectation of getting quick results has been skewed by media, and by scams when in reality 4 weeks, 6 weeks, and even 12 weeks is not really a long time at all. The time has FLOWN by again and it leaves me wanting more. Well, there is more to come as another challenge is soon underway at the beginning of May. If you want in on the e.xcitement, and the opportunity to get fit inside and out, pick up your copy of Fit Yummy Mummy and stay posted for the sign up of the next challenge!

My one year at ClubFYM

Today is the day and it is a very emotionally charged day. Son was circ'ed yesterday and lead to part of our sleeplessness last night. We lost a bid on a house again to a full cash buyer (WHERE are these people coming from with 1/4 mill in their pockets?), but at least it was another quick sale(not even on the market 8 hours before it was purchased) with multiple offers (our 3 or 4th occurrence.....losing count HAHA and sleep). We are just going to keep putting in the offers I guess until one gets accepted, but it would be nice not to have to "settle" for the lesser option and get the property we want HAHA. We can always make the best out of what we get, so I know it's never a complete loss.

I've been eager to post some motivation for everyone and wrote a wonderful post on wisdom and mindset. I learned I won't be posting here first.....will post to blog and then to the site and copy the whole thing before I send. Always an opportunity to do better, right? As much as we can use new technology we still need to remember it's a tool that we use and to apply the basics (back up, back up) when you use it (especially for writing).

In 3 weeks I will be flying around the US to meet up with some wonderful FYMs and it should be an encouraging time. It will be good to share in the company of those I have read about for a year.

And mindset is your foundation for what you want to gain and where you want to be. Visualize, feel, OWN, plan, make a decision, focus......all are actions that you take from your mind first. Your mindset is your captain and it delegates the orders to the rest of you to follow through the action. Know that what you know in your mind is the knowledge, but APPLYING it and experiencing it is where wisdom gets to be nourished,and once the fruit of your wisdom grows, you can harvest it and share it with others.

Happy Anniversary!

A man races a pizza....NO JOKE!

My friend Craig Ballantyne of Turbulence Training has decided to race a pizza (I'm not kidding) to prove a valuable fat loss lesson.

See who wins at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UQbuzsY_34Q

Make sure to post your comments. I would love to hear what you think about the race.

Stay tuned for tips on how you can be the winner in your very own race for fat loss.

Stay healthful!

Time to kick it up a notch!

Have you ever caught yourself wishing and hoping for results and wonder why nothing was happening?

I caught myself doing just that and realized it was time to start thinking about what I was really doing and then do what it is I need to in order to get the results I want. I was just letting things happen and not taking control of the situation that I had the ability to change.

I had signed up for the Fit Yummy Mummy New Year's Transformation Challenge in January. You get 12 weeks to do your best at achieving the goals you set out to accomplish. I put down my goals and then I got to work. For the first 4 weeks I would say that I was focused on getting the results I wanted to achieve. I could see more definition and my shape was changing in a good way and I was pleased to know the work I put into it was evident. Then I got sick. And being in rest mode got to my head. I stopped focusing on my goals I set at the beginning of the challenge and put my focus somewhere else. Granted, that there are many things going on in our lives at this time, when being sick was over I didn't pick back up with the intensity that I had before. For just a total of 90 minutes a week, 30 minute workout 3 times a week or even 15 minutes a day I could have had a full workout. I was working out but not with that UMPH that makes it fun for me.

I was recently inspired by the advice of Vince Delmonte of No Nonsense Muscle Building and being that he has competed in fitness competitions I can say that he knows what he is talking about (taking the advice of a fitness model champion never hurt). I have followed his info for over a year now and I saw the before photos. What he has to offer works. And now with his advice, I can apply it to my Fit Yummy Mummy workouts and I have already noticed a difference in my tone and strength. Some tips I had already been doing from before and in the Summer Transformation challenge, but it is always good to be reminded of what works. And now I feel like I am back at where I want to be with my fitness journey. I am excited to see what the next notch will look like.