Oh Fitbit how I love thee!

So I love my fitbit! I know what you are saying to yourself. What is a fitbit and why does Kate love it so much? Right? Well, a Fitbit is a calorie tracking device that tells you how many calories you burn, how many steps you take a day, how many levels of stairs you climb,how many miles you walked and how active you are in a day. Then to compliment the fitbit, they have a website that also has a great app for your smartphone so you can log your workouts, food and water for the day so it can help you stay on track for weight loss. I love this thing because I am seriously pushing myself to be more active because I will not miss my goal for the day which is 10k staps, 10 flights of stairs (it also counts your flights if you walk on a hill with an incline), 5 miles, and 2300 calories burned. It even has a flower that grows as you become more active but if you are sedentary, it shrinks so you have to stay active. The other thing that fitbit has is it tracks your sleep because that is an important thing to be successful because if you do not get enough rest, you will not get the best results possible. The one thing that is my ultimate favorite thing is if you enter your food on the journal, the fitbit can tell you if you are on track with what you have eaten and what you have burned for the day as well. Check out my images at the bottom of the entry. IF you are wanting to lose weight, this is the ONE thing I tell you that you MUST have to be successful. It runs around 100 bucks and you do not have to pay to use their website. ITs a win win for me. The only drawback is , it is a small device but you wear it 24hrs a day except when you need to charge it. I have friends who have washed their fitbit and stuck it in a bag of rice and it came back to life weeks later. So if you can remember not to put it in the washing machine, you are good to go. For more information about a fitbit here is their website http://fitbit.com .

I want to know what you would like to see in my next entry or what topic you would like to know more about? post below and I will do my best to cover it for you.

Change up your workout routines.

I have a lot of fitness friends and I have a lot of friends who struggle with weight loss. I myself, have struggled with weight loss and know how it feels to get frustrated with the scale not moving at all or worse, going up. Yea it sucks and yes I have experienced it happening to me a lot. Sometimes I have wanted to throw in the towel and give up. But if I did that when the scale was seriously "smoking crack or lying to me", I would not be where I am today. Our body is a machine that you have to fuel and maintain. With that being said, workouts have to be challenging when you do them and your body gets used to the routine after about 6 weeks. So, you have to change it up or you will not see the results you want. Hi my name is Kate and I am a turbo kick addict! Yes I go to a lot of Turbo kick classes and Hip Hop Hustle as well! But I do lift weights 3x a week. And I am not talking about going to the same weight training class that does the same boring routines every class. I take Lean Extreme which is based off of the product By Chalene Johnson called ChaLEAN Extreme. I am fortunate to take Chalenes Class that she teaches 2x a week and the third day of weights I either will do a piyo class where my body weight is used instead of lifting weights or I will throw in a body pump class here and there. The cool thing about Lean Extreme, is that the class changes every 6 weeks because our bodies get used to the routine and we have to shock our body to get it to see results. Yes I am sore but you know what? I love to be sore because I know I worked the muscles I was focusing on and I know I am progressing even if the scale is not moving or it goes up. I try to go more by how my clothes fit instead of what the evil scale in my bathroom that almost became a casualty of being tossed off my 2nd floor patio because I was so irritated with what it said. When I hit a plateau, I tend to get frustrated that i hit the "wall". So What do I do? I add a class or two that are formats I want to try out or that I like but I just have not gone to in awhile because it will shock my body and help kick the plateau right where it counts thus causing the scale to move down! So, when you hit that wall of a plaateau and you are taking in the right amount of calories based on what you are burning, change up the routine because your body has adjusted to what you are doing. Make sure you take in enough water as well because that is another wrench that will hinder your progress. Want to know what you burn as far as calories go? Get a fitbit or something like it like a bodybugg or a nike fuel band. I say fitbit because its 100 bucks and the website is not a fee based site like the bodybugg. I love my fitbit because I can put in my food and it exercise and it will tell me how many calories I can eat for the day based on how many lbs I want to lose per week. It is handy too because it will tell me how many calories I can eat to the minute of the day meaning if I have a little too many calories in my lunch, after I journal it on the fitbit site, it will tell me if I am in the goal zone of if i ate too much and this is based on the calories I am burning that day. What do you do when you hit the plateau wall?

Hey all I am back to this fitness blog.

OK So I have not posted on here in a long time. I had to lick my wounds for a bit after being told I am no longer a mamavation mom. I cried and was devestated. Ultimately I had to sit there and wonder why. What did I do? Why was I not losing the weight? What was wrong with me? Well between last Feb-March 2011 and July 2011 I gained a lot of my weight back and was all the way up to 220lbs. I had a pity party all the way to Camp Do More aka Camp turbo kick. When I went to camp which is the most awesome experience ever and I highly recommend it, I met some great people and we worked out three times a day and then we had some camp team competitions which was cool. But the best part of camp was not the workouts, fashion show, shopping, or team competition. No the best part of camp was the lectures from Chalene Johnson (creator or turbo kick, Piyo, and Hustle as well as the trainer in such DVDs as Turbo Jam, Turbo Fire, and Chalean Extreme and New York Times Best Selling Author of Push) At the time I was listening to the lectures and taking notes but I was seriously in denial about my attitude. The point that was made was something along the lines of how you talk about yourself will come out. Like with me for example, I worked out at the gym 6 days a week sometimes 2-3 workouts and yea the weight was not coming off at all no matter what I did. I used to look at myself in the mirror and say to myself I am going to be fat forever no matter what I do it wont come off and I keep gaining. And guess what? The weight did not come off! It just kept packing on no matter what I ate or drank and no matter how hard I worked out at the gym. When I finally realized what I was saying to myself was detrimental to what I was trying to accomplish for myself. The whole camp ordeal was so much fun but I was so uncomfortable within my own skin to enjoy it completely because of my negative attitude and self talk that had been hindering me from accomplishing my goals of losing all 70lbs of baby weight from my twins before my 35th birthday. But now after camp, I started looking at myself and saying how beautiful I was and telling myself that no matter what, the fat is going down! Two months after camp, I had lost 25lbs! Yea 25lbs! I was not going to be a prisoner in my fat suit any longer so I made a accountability statement in the 2012 Camp Do More Facebook group saying that by July 2012 when I come to Camp Do More in Anaheim California, I will be 160lbs meaning a 60lb weight loss. I had to do it so I have 700 people behind me and making sure I am going to get where I need to be. Because when you set out to do something you have to make a public declaration and what was more public than Facebook? Not only did I say this on the Camp Do More Facebook page, I also tweeted it and put it out there onto my personal Facebook page. At the time I was so scared to make the declaration that I almost did not do it but I thought about it and said you know what its time to take the plunge and do it! I was tired of being fat and unhappy. It was time to be accountable and stop blaming it all on my water retention and whatever else I was blaming at the moment. So Fast forward to now April 11 2012, guess how much weight I have lost? !0? 20? 30lbs? Nope! Today I am 50lbs lighter and I have my success because I changed my mindset and some of my diet. I read a book, I took a 30 day challenge, and I got real with myself. And I have lost 50lbs. I have changed my attitude and that is the biggest thing anyone can ever do when they are stuck. I now look at myself with 10lbs left of my goal to lose before camp and say hey fat you are going down! It's time for the fat to die! And When I go to Camp Do More at 160lbs I will have another goal to set for myself. Maybe this post will help one person realize that until you are ready in your own head, you will not lose the weight, no matter how well you eat and how hard you workout or what supplements you take, you will be a prisoner in your own body until you realize you are beautiful and give yourself the credit you deserve. It is ok to be selfish if you are fighting for your life.

Mamavation monday

This mamavation Monday post is about workout times. Since we just had to spring forward and I am still feeling the effects of that I am so super duper sleepy. Anyway, I like to workout in the mornings after I drop Aidan off at school. I usually hit up the local 24hr fitness since they have a kids club for the twins where they can play and be out of the way and I don't worry because I know there are other kiddos there and adults to make sure they are ok. So I usually workout based on who is teaching the classes I like most then I plan my week out. And just in case I forget since I am a blond with 4 kiddos to tend to so I suffer from Momnesia (yea its a real condition look it up if you don't believe me), I program my phone to set off an alarm 60 minutes before the class so there are no excuses for me missing a workout. Now if the kids are feeling under the weather and I cant make the gym, I simply have a backup class planned for when Jason can tend to the kids. Mornings are also awesome for the kids to hit up the local parks here because they are full of energy, and are in need of sunshine. But now we have daylight savings time, Jason and I can take a walk to the park after he gets home and the kids can get nice and tired by riding their trikes and scooters or bikes to the park and Jason and I can walk with them since they are not fast riders yet.

So here is my question for you: What do you do to keep your workout routines going and what is your favorite time of day to get your workout on? I also log my workouts on my beach body page because there is money to be won every day just for working out! how cool is that? head over to my page on http://beachbodycoach.com/esuite/home/katecoleman and check out my fitness journey so far and while you are there you can join the beach body community where you can use the WOWY super gym and try to win money for just logging in your workouts. I am going to tell you up front that I am a beach body coach and I do sell the products but my mail focus is making sure people get healthy and if you want my products great and if not that is ok too. It is all about helping others lead a healthy lifestyle

“This post is sponsored by SEARS FitStudio and I’m writing this to be entered into a giveaway hosted by Mamavation and sponsored by Sears.”

Before and After pics up til Feb 19th 2011

here is what i looked like in April of 2009

And this is my updated pic as of Feb 19th 2011

Mamavation monday Feb 21 2011

OK so now that i have been taken out of the campaign I feel ok about posting to the blog. Sorry I have been MIA for a couple weeks but a girl has to lick her wounds and take up a few TKB classes to get the anger out! So this week's blogging carnival question is : Question: What motivates you to get going and what keeps you going?

Well what motivates me are my kids and husband to get me going to the gym when i feel like slacking off of my workouts. What is funny is my husband will push me out of the house with keys and my gym bag and told me something like if you dont get to the gym, you have to clean the kitchen (which is thrashed because he makes a mess when he cooks) I gladly leave the house to get away from the insanity of 4 kids ranging in ages 2-12 years old plus the husband. you would think getting some ME time would be a driving force all on its own but sadly no. What keeps me motivated? knowing that my body is shrinking keeps me motivated because I have a ton of cute clothes that i have finally been able to wear and they have been in a box since my first trimester with the twins. Also knowing that i am on my way to a healthier new me is something that keeps me motivated. What is funny is my son has autism and in school they have been talking about how sugar turns to bubbly fat. So we were at fresh and easy market for the grand opening celebration and we walked down an aisle where there was a overweight person like over 300lbs and he had to open his mouth and say sugar turns to bubbly fat! Yeah i wanted to hide under a bag of rice or something because i was so embarassed! I DIE! But my son keeps me motivated too because he told me I was fat! My son has no filter due to his disability but sometimes i think its a gift in disguise because i do not want him so say that about me. I want him to be proud of his mom winning the battle of the bulge and not becoming a statistic. So I am leaving you with the same question to answer: What gets you motivated and what keeps you motivated?
Also make sure you check out this website http://www.fitstudio.com/ for some tips on workouts. I have a nice eliptical trainer from sears fitstudio that i love to hate because it works my booty off literally and i am very grateful they gave it to me thanks again to Sears fitstudio!
“This post is sponsored by SEARS FitStudio and I’m writing this to be entered into a giveaway hosted by Mamavation and sponsored by Sears.” at the bottom of your post.

Mamavation monday!

Thank you to those of you who tweeted for me and if you want to follow my journey go to http://www.bookieboo.com/profiles/blog/list and find my posts i use my twitter name @katecoleman77 for the subject lines which are my food journal for each day of this 7 weeks. And if you want to see my first post of the week go to http://www.mamavation.com/category/mamavation-moms and you can see all of the mamavation mamas for campaign 7 i am there at the bottom of the page.

So todays mamavation monday post was all about: How are you getting more fiber in your diet this New Year?

This year i am getting more fiber in my diet by eating more veggies and fruits full in fiber like Broccoli, Asparagus, and apples. i want to start trying out the fiber enriched foods like the fiber plus cereals and waffles. they look yummilicious, check it out for yourself http://www.kelloggsfiberplus.com/home.aspx?display=C.

“I’m writing this post as an entry to a blogging carnival sponsored by Fiber Plus. I will be receiving free product in return.”