Showing posts with label Craig Ballentyne. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Craig Ballentyne. Show all posts

Thursday, July 15, 2010

Living in the moment!

Happy Thursday beautiful people!


I'm doing one of my 24hour fasts (started at 8AM) and so I'm feeling super productive and reflective. Yes, that's what no food does to me:)....not bad, hey? I have around a week left of my 12 week transformation challenge with Craig's Turbulance Training. And I'm giving it all I've got!!! Then you get to see a picture of me in a bikini again...lol..oh the suspense!!!

Craig is so fantastic, he posts encouraging quotes every day on his facebook fanpage and on his members forum. They are oozing with inspiration, tough love, and reality checks! Seriously, they have kept me going when I doubted myself, was bathing is self pity, wanted to quit, diverted from my goals, felt like I wasn't enough etc etc.

Here is one that he posted recently that I think is so profound and something that I don't do enough of...living in the moment.


"The Secret of Health in both body and mind is not to mourn for the past, worry about the future, or anticipate troubles, but to live in the present moment wisely and earnestly." Buddha

I'm a worrier, plain and simple. But I have gotten 100 times better being with Ryan because he takes on this philosophy without even knowing it, and it has finally rubbed off on me!

Still I find that if I don't nip it in the bud, my mind and emotions wander and I start thinking about the future (and the past) - work, babies (not preggers), school, money, my body, what's for dinner on Friday nigh and on and on it could go! Yet, I have this precious day of which I do not cherish enough and am either trying to hurry time along or to reverse it. I'm not saying I won't set goals or have ambitions, I'm just going to focus more on what I can TODAY to get me there, versus worrying about tomorrow or a week from now (or what I could have done a week ago).

It's not going to be easy for me but I think this will greatly change my perspective and make me see how grand life really is:)

I recently started watching (haven't finished yet) The Age Of Stupid (watch the trailer here) and they featured a girl in Africa who had been devastatingly affected by the work of Shell. She so badly wanted to get out of Africa and move to America to wear "nice clothes" and get an education. Then she said something like If I lived in America I would never want to die. She was referring to the bounty of EVERYTHING we have here in the Americas. And she's right.

So then why do I worry? Because I'm not living in the moment and grateful for this amazing life.

So...RIGHT NOW I'm grateful for:

Coffee - I have access to amazing organic coffee (helping me get through my fast)

Craig Ballentyne - for being so dedicated to helping people succeed in fat loss and to just becoming a better person

Internet - I can literally get a degree from all the amazing information out there and it has benefited my life in extraordinary ways

My body - For being able to carry me through life so effortlessly - even when I torment it or don't love it unconditionally.


***I'm always grateful for my love, my family, my health..I'm just living in the moment and those are what came to me right then and there.


PS I have this spare room that is probably going to be vacant for awhile so I was thinking of loading the walls with inspirational quotes and pictures. It's going to be my vision WALL! What do you think?
PPS I thought I would finish this post with some beautiful sweet pea blossoms that I picked from my work garden. They are so vibrant and fragrant. The area around my desk smells so yummy:)






Have a wonderful day...and let's try to live in the moment:)

Thursday, December 31, 2009

Working out the fun way!

Hello all,

I think its safe to say that Craig Ballantyne's fitness philosophy has changed my world. He opened up my eyes to the scientific ways of fatloss. It was not only fascinating, it was the real deal. There are too many gimmicks out there stating you can lose weight with minimal exercise, no exercise, or even with a pill. These are a CROCK, please do not fall for them. Fat loss takes work and discipline but the benefits to your health really are endless. And I'm not talking about going on the elliptical for an hour. This is similar to what I used to do at the gym, pumping my arms to the beat on my ipod, watching the calorie counter go up thinking the fat cells were being incinerated around my body. Then I read Craig's free ebook The dark side of cardio , and, boy, did that open my eyes. I had been doing it wrong all these years, and was mad at myself for not realizing this sooner. I didn't have too much to lose, 10 pounds maybe, but they weren't budging. And now I knew why. I was doing too much slow cardio and not enough resistance training paired with HIIT (high intensity interval training). Did you know that reisitance training with HIIT at the end of you workouts will allow you to burn fat throughout the day? Now that is cool. So, I changed my workouts overnight and have not looked back since. I signed up to be on Craig's email list and I'm telling you, they are so awesome and fun (and full of cute pics of his dog). He puts sample workouts in them too and that's what I have been basing my routines on. At first it was strange to think a 30 minute workout or a body weight workout could be effective but, oh by golly, they are. The first workout really humbled me, to say the least. I had on my cool shoes and my super cool yoga pants, I was ready. Things were going well and I was having a great time until I had to go on my knees. I was still quite cocky at this point thinking 15 girlie push-ups would be a breeze. It was only after I was breathless from doing only 8 of them that my ego was brought back down to earth. I forgot one of Craig's recommendations is to drop your ego at the gym door. Lesson learned.

Since moving to the Kootenays, having gym passes wasn't in the budget so I have been doing all my workouts at home. Yes, people, it can be done. I have been wanting to buy his program for awhile and then I received an email that he was having a half price sale at Turbulance Training. I bought the program and completed Workout A from the intermediate program. It was awesome, challenging, and fun, all the things I hoped it would be. So, if have some fitness goals you want to reach , give Turbulance training a try!