This past August I earned a trip to a 5 star resort in Costa Rica on the ocean which even came with butler service. Yes, it was very nice. One of the activities including was a zip line over the Costa Rican Jungle. For those of you who don’t know me, adventure is my middle name.

At my weight I did not think I would be able to do it. However, I was so wanting to that my embarrassment was surpassed by my desire. Got wayyyyyyyyy out of my comfort zone and called the tour operator to ask what weight restrictions they had and this was a very hard call. It is not like people can’t see we are overweight, we just like to think they don’t notice. By placing this call, I was saying “oh by the way, in case you did not know already, I am overweight.” That is how badly I wanted to do the zip line.

Her first response was she did not think they had any and would call and make sure. That got my hopes up. I had not given any thought to how I would do this if I could since I did not know at the time I would have to lift my own body weight up into the harness. When Elizabeth called back, there was no weight limit however there was a maximum waist size and guess what is was smaller than my waist… So no zip line for me.

In the past, rather than admitting to anyone on the trip I did not fit on the zip line, I would have stayed at the resort with some flimsy excuse that I did not like heights or something. Again, I don’t think I would have fooled anyone and I would have missed the entire half day and not just the zip line. So I went! And I will be forever glad that I did.

The ride was amazing straight up the mountain often on a dirt road and the views were amazing. Our driver stopped a couple of times so we could watch monkeys in the trees. When we got there instead of a vacant bench to sit and wait, there was a whole covered picnic area (I had brought several waters and a snack) and a place next door which was totally intriguing. So I went there.

There was a huge greenhouse type of thing filled with amazing butterfly’s and there were everywhere. There was for me a very interesting snake exhibit from tiny ones to HUGE. And best of all were the monkeys. I love animals of all shapes and sizes and they allowed me to go into the monkey enclosure. There were 5 White Faced Monkeys and 4 Spider Monkeys and they were all friendly. For several hours I hung out with them.

The owner kept supplying me with sunflower seeds which they loved. I just happened to be wearing a blouse which had two breast pockets (not, there are no accidents) and the monkeys would sit on my shoulder and pick the shells out of my pocket. I was in monkey heaven. One the larger White Faced Monkeys was extra affectionate and loved being held just like a baby. When I would bring him in close to my chest he would tuck his head in and pat me on the back.

To me this magical experience was my gift for giving up my shame and fear and going on the trip even though I could not do the zip line. I would never have experienced this total joy. And I can assure you next time, I will be doing the zip line also.

What is holding you back and how can you move at least part way toward it even if you can’t go all the way yet? I am committed to eliminating my weight being in control of what I can or can not do…how about you?

Pura Vida (Pure Life in Costa Rican)

Judi

Free Beachbody Open Question and Answer Call:

Learn more about Beachbody

1. Who we are!

2. What we offer!

3. What is WOWY!

4. How can I have a chance to win money every day working out?

5. How do I get a 15 or 25% discount on products?

6. What is involved in joining the coaching team?

Tuesday, December 29th and  Tuesday, January… 5th at 6 PM PT

To enroll for this free teleseminar send email to judi@shakethefatoff.com with Q & A in the subject line.

http://www.beachbodycoach.com/judifinneran

Besides loving the workouts in Kathy Smith’s Project YOU! TYPE 2 was all the goodies which come with it.  I am a goodies kind of girl and looking support tools and tracking tools.  The Good to Go is a 12 Week Food and Fitness Journal to use while on the program.

The guide contains:

Welcome to the Program Guide

Using Your Guide

What is Diabetes and Pre-Diabetes

Good2Move at a glance

Good2Eat at a glance

Combo Food Plan

Food Exchange Lists

Guide to Getting Started

Good2Go! 12 Week Food and Fitness Journal

This guide is intended as a tool and guide for you while doing Project YOU! TYPE 2.  It also serves as a reference and answers all of your questions.   In the Good2Move! section Kathy shares some incentives to get moving and added benefits:

~Improves your mood

~Combats chronic diseases

~Strengthens your heart and lungs

~Increases quality of sleep

~Puts the spark back into your sex life

I promise you can do this program becuase I did.  Let me support you and get you on the road to Healthy Again in 2010!

Let’s get moving!!!!

Support and encouragement from others has been so important to me in coming this far on my journey.  The friends I have made and the successes I have shared have created a desire in me to bring even more people to come together in creating health in our lives.  I have created a Facebook Group called “Healthy Again in 2010? and it is all about giving our support, encouragement, motivation, helping hands, suggestions and friendship to others on the same path.  You are invited to join us as we commit to making 2010 the healthiest year ever!

We do not support one specific food plan and all are welcomed as long as they are healthy.  And I read recently that one of the most unhealthy diets of the decade was the Cabbage Soup Diet.  That is one I personally never tried however my mom has done over and over again and each time she lost ten pounds, then found it, then lost it, then found it….  This is why we support healthy eating as a lifestyle choice and not “diet mentalities.”  I have lost weight on almost every single well known diet there is and have never been able to maintain the weight loss.  This year is about getting healthy and staying healthy and losing weight and maintaining it is only one piece of the puzzle.  A very important piece, yet still only one.

I am a Team Beachbody Coach and proud of it.   I want to make it very clear,  I do not get paid to coach anyone.  If you decide to purchase Beachbody Products at any time from me I do receive a percentage of that.   And I would be thrilled if you did.  I just want to be very clear my passion and excitement for supporting others is not about the money, it is my purpose in life.  You know you are living in your passion, when you would do what you do for free and I do.  Every thing I create and offer to get us all healthy (and yes that includes me) is because I believe helping you understand you have all the power in your life if what I am here for.

The Healthy Breakfast Club Calls,  the new Healthy Again in 2010, my Shake the Fat Off weekly newsletter are all designed to hold me accountable and help support you in doing the same for your self.   I have run away,  hidden behind my fat for too long and it is time for me to step up and do what I am meant to do.

I would be honored if you joined me!

~Helping Reshape the World,

Judi

When Kevin and I did Kathy Smith, Project You!  Type 2 we committed to the entire 12 week program.  That was both exciting and scary becuase I had never done a regular workout for three months in my life..  One of the tools included in the program is a Workout Calendar which shows which work out to do each day and what your rest days are. This is so me becuase I am the type of person who gets great satisfaction from crossing things off a list.  And I inspired to see the X’ed off days add up.

And just like everything else, I began by taking it one day at a time.  Step one, get the first workout done and cross it off.  The first night we did not get to start until 9:30 becuase we had a Beachbody Briefing Meeting earlier.  I upped the ante by telling everyone at the meeting I was going to work out when we got home and for them to ask me about it.  I, like most people do better sometimes with someone else holding me accountable rather than just me.  Those first 30 minutes were rough and there were moments when I did not think I would make it through the whole thing.  So the message I kept giving myself was just one more minute.  When I completed that (and I was watching the workout timer) then I would say again, just one more minute.  And then I was done.

I was excited and I have to say very proud of myself.  I had committed to working out and I did it.  The most fun was walking right to the workout chart on my office wall and putting  a big bold X over Day 1.   My next goal was to do all the workouts till the first rest day.  Next came finishing the first week and then the next and the next.  I knew when the first 4 weeks were over, I got to turn the schedule over to the other side and then only 8 weeks remained.  Almost before I knew it there were only 4, 3, 2, 1 weeks until I done.

Above you see my actual work out calendar (both sides) and my X’s and a couple of circles.  The circles represent the days I did not get my workout in and in 12 weeks there were only 6 days.  The old perfectionist Judi would have then considered the whole thing a failure and would not even have said I completed the program.  The new and gentler Judi recognized what a huge accomplishment this was for me and am proud to show you my calendar.

The point is keeping track of what you are doing, how often, how much, setting a goal and checking it off each day created a big success for me personally.  Did I lose weight during the 12 weeks? Yes.  Did I lose inches during the 12 weeks?  Yes.  However the most important thing achieved was my confidence gained by setting an intention and following through with it.

What intention have you been wanting to set for yourself?

Decide – Choose an intention!  Commit  – When will you start?  Succeed – Track it every step of the way.

I am here to support you in fulfilling your commitments to yourself.

Helping REshape the World,

Judi

Team Beachbody Founding Diamond Coach

At this time of year, gifts are on everyone’s minds and I am asking you to think about the following gifts:

1. What gifts did you receive this year to move you closer to your ideal health? (hope, inspiration, motivation, encouragement)

2. What gifts did you give others which made a difference in your life? (Belief, yo ur presence, love)

3. What is YOUR gift to the world and is your weight standing in the way of you delivering that gift to the world?

“We are each gifted in a unique and important way. It is our privilege and our adventure to discover our own special light.

- Mary Dunbar

Happy Holidays, Judi

Team Beachbody Diamond Founding Coach

Are you done making your list and checking it twice?  All the gifts carefully choose and lovingly wrapped in beautiful paper and bows.  I am wondering if you remember to give a gift to someone very, very important and that is you?  Many of us spend so much time focusing on taking care of others, we forget to take care of ourselves.  Some of us have erroneously learned it is selfish to think about ourselves.  Ask yourself, how much good are you to others if you aren’t good to yourself first.  So to make your holiday YOU shopping easier I have put together a list of suggested gift items.  If you know of some I can add, please let me know.  In the meantime, choose at least one of these gifts and “present” to your self today.  Please….

1.  Time

2.  Understanding

3.  Tolerance

4.  Forgiveness

5.  Patience

6.  Respect

7.  Love

8.  Peace

9.  Kindness
Which of these self care gifts are you needing most today.  Take action and give it to you NOW!

Helping REshape the World,

Judi

Team Beachbody Founding Coach

Please join me in Helping REshape the World. In 2010 I will be focused on living in my purpose and fulfilling my mission of taking my lessons and experiences in being overweight and supporting others who wish to create better health in their life.

“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it’s the only thing that ever does”  ~Margaret Mead

What can you do today to improve your own health?

Judi

Team Beachbody Founding Coach

Kathy Smith’s Project You was the first Beachbody Program I completed.  Because of my weight and lack of prior exercising, I wanted to start with something I felt I could do successfully.   When I picked this program, I asked Kevin if he would do with me and he said YES so fast I could not believe it.  I have a special place in my heart for Kathy Smith from the first Beachbody Meeting more than 3 years ago when the coaching opportunity was first presented to us.  There I sat in the front row, the heaviest person in the room and feeling very self conscious about it listening to all of the celebrity trainers come in and talk to us about their programs.  When Kathy came onto the stage she asked for two chairs and said she wanted someone to come up and workout with her.  And embarrassingly enough she choose me.  I was mortified becuase instead of being able to have my back to the fit people in the room, I was facing them instead.  Yikes.

Kathy took my hand (yes, Kevin got photos) and never released it the whole time she spoke.  And for exercise we did some leg and arm things from the chair.  In the space of those 10 minutes she captured my heart forever and when I started this program, felt like I was working out with a dear friend.

If you or someone you love has been diagnosed with type 2 diabetes or pre-diabetes, you may help manage or prevent it with the revolutionary new lifestyle program, Kathy Smith’s Project:YOU! Type 2®.

Developed in conjunction with doctors, certified diabetes educators, and the American Diabetes Association, Project:YOU! Type 2 is the first all-in-one solution to help manage diabetes, reduce your risk for diabetes complications, and get you back in control of your life!

The 12 week program consists of 10 different workouts which I found I really liked as it was always changing up and not boring.  Also, they increased in length of time and intensity very gradually.   The first night I thought I was going to drop dead after about three minutes and instead kept going!  Foundation (30 minutes) is the first workout and is a solid foundation of strength and stamina to get you started.  You meet Kathy and her team and learn the basic moves and techniques you will build upon in your upcoming workouts.
My favorite part was crossing workout number one off my 12 Week Workout Calendar.  It was the most exciting “X” I have ever written in my life and next time I will talk to about Work Out 2.  What I learned this first night was that I could do it.  The key was getting the courage to begin with the intention of completing just 30 minutes of exercise once!!!

Helping

REshape the World,

Judi

Kathy and I on stage at the Founding Coaches Meeting for Team Beachbody

I realized this morning,  just over three years ago I had given up on ever losing weight again.  I don’t believe I had admitted that to myself, but looking back I must have.  I was at my all time high weight and was doing nothing to reverse that.  I seemed to have hit a plateau at the other end of the spectrum.  While not losing any weight, I was not gaining either.  My meals were totally unhealthy, did NO EXERCISE and mostly just sat at the computer all day and worked.

Losing faith in yourself is not a very good feeling.  Losing and finding weight had been my life for the past 20 years and I did not trust myself to be successful long term.  In other words, I was afraid to try again, lose weight and then gain it back.  I just could not take being a failure again.

This year (2009) I have regained my belief in my ability to succeed and am reveling in it.  Creating The Healthy Breakfast Club was such an inspired idea and I know many of my successes are directly attributable to the support, motivation and encouagementI have received.  Please join weekday mornings if you can to experience the power of having a cheering squad who truly cares about you and supports you on your journey.

As long as you are breathing, don’t give up.   You have the power right in this very minute to change the direction of your life.  In accepting the responsibility for your choices, you gain all the power. Use it!

“When I dare to be powerful, to use my strength in the service of my vision, then it becomes less and less important whether I am afraid.”

~Audre Lorde

Grasp Your Power,

Judi

Team Beachbody Founding Diamond Coach