You see I believe anyone can do what I did IF they believe in that possibility for themselves.  I’m not saying that I encourage anyone to suddenly start spouting affirmations like “I am lean and toned”  in the mirror – far from it.  What I’m saying is allow the change you are after to be a real possibility in your future.

A real possibility is something you can hit but not guaranteed.  A real possibility involves a significant challenge to hit.  A real possibility is hard.  But a real possibility is not impossible.

For me, I had once been fit.

Despite the fact that I had lost that fitness over a number of years while piling on fat, that memory of what I once was stayed in the back of my mind.  Despite the fact that I had been told by medical professionals that my neck injury would require surgery and pain killers for the rest of my life, that ‘future’ never was something I could accept.  My future always looked different in my mind.

So when I started out with P90X, that memory that I was once fit was there.  I believed I could be fit again even though I wasn’t sure how far I would get.  Honestly, I was not entirely convinced that P90X would work for me but I believed in the possibility that it could.

As each of you start with making change in your life, whether it’s getting fit with a great program like P90X or making a change in another area of your life, make sure you believe in the possibility of that successful change first.  Then use everything you’ve got to make that possibility your reality.

Step 1: Believe in the Possibility originally appeared on Press Play Fitness on October 30, 2010.

“Menopausal women have lost muscle so their metabolisms slowed “

I don’t know what used to tick me off more, the concept that somehow this was inevitable or the follow up comment I almost always heard:

“They just need to cut back their calories”

How dumb is that? It does not deal with the real issue – the muscle loss.  In fact it always seemed to me that we women over 50 who were going through menopause we to be condemed to a life of getting fatter while we picked at a few morsels of food a day.  Easy for them to say, they have decades to lead a fun life before they hit their 50′s.

What we women need to do is fight aging.  We need to add more muscle.  And women can add muscle no matter what their age.  Just start out with an exercise program designed at a level that makes sense for your current condition.  If you are totally out of shape, start with Slim in 6.  For those a bit better conditioned, go for ChaLEAN Extreme where the upper body workouts are a bit easier than P90x.  But if you want to do a total body reshape as I have done, go with P90X and do the Classic routine – no matter how hard it is to do those pull ups and push ups!

The harder you work your muscle, the more it will respond.  And we women in our 50′s need that.  Don’t be afraid to workout hard.  Don’t be afraid to try so hard at push ups that you yell, grunt or groan.  These sounds are not just for men, we can be strong too and yell if we want to!

Of course you can’t just eat anything you want if you want to burn fat while you build muscle.  But what might surprise you is that for many women, you won’t eat fewer calories, you’ll just shift them from simple (useless) carbs to lean protein.  And there are plenty of great tasting protein shakes (click to see which ones I like) to make getting that protein easy.

So don’t give up, come join me.  Being fit, toned and sexy is possible over 50!

Coach Nancy

P.S., Click here to find out how many calories you should be eating and in what carb/protein/fat ratio.

Menopausal Women – Getting Fat is NOT Inevitable! originally appeared on Press Play Fitness on October 20, 2010.

—- Original Post —-

OMG

That’s about all I can say about this tough workout.  This one is not for those grossly out of shape!

The workout takes about an hour.  A lot of jumping exercises that have the sweat pouring out of every pore in you body.  There are a few modifications provided but even with them, this is one hard workout.  Tony Horton implies at the beginning that this is the most challenging workout of the bunch and I’m pretty sure I’ll end up agreeing with him.

It took me most of the day to recover from this workout.  I had a moment’s weakness about going forward with the program but mentally slapped myself around and got past that.

Tomorrow is arms and shoulder day and I can’t tell you how much I’m looking forward to it.  At least that is compared to today’s workout. 

Click here to read more of my P90x transformation posts

P90X Success Story Update (Sept. 5):
Now almost finished with our first 30 days (pictures coming by the end of the week), Chris and I are amazed at how far we’ve come in less than a month. As a 50 year old woman, I was surprised to lose over 3″ off of my waist. More inches have come off of my hips, thighs and arms. P90X is hard – that’s for sure – just read the post above I made on Day 2. I thought I was going to throw up after that first round of Plyometrics and now, only a few weeks later with only 1 round of plyometrics per week, I am beginning to enjoy it. I’m certainly doing much better with the moves. But it’s worth the effort to see your body improve so rapidly. My whole family is doing P90X and we all can see and feel the difference. If you are on the fence about this, all I can say is just do it. (Click here for more info on P90X)

P90X Success Story Update (Sept 13):

Got our 30 day pictures up now – here is one:

I have to say I’m amazed I could get this far in just 1 month.  P90X is the best thing I’ve done in a long time and I know it can do wonders for you too.

Go to my coach page for my (Nancy’s) P90X transformation pictures or if you want to see Chris’ transformation go to his coach’s page.  Chris is making really great progess in finally putting on some muscle mass.

P90X Success Results Update (October 11):

Today is our 60 day anniversary with the P90X program.   YEAH!

Both Chris and I continue to make good progess.  While I encourage you to visit our coaches pages, here is a sneak peak of where I’m at today –>

Well I can’t believe it but it’s been another 30 days and my first round of P90X is over.  I am so amazed with what has happened with my body – it’s been a real makeover that I’m not sure I would have believed before trying it.  Sure, I expected to get in shape but what I really got was getting in shape and so much more!

P90X Results – Full 90 Days:

More P90X Results:
If I can do this at age 50 (soon to be 51) with only 90 days, imagine what you can do.  If you want more information or have questions on what I did specifically, just leave me a question below.

P90x Day 2 – Plyometrics Hell – a P90X Woman’s Success Story originally appeared on Press Play Fitness on September 6, 2010.

Needless to say we were pooped – dog tired!  This morning I could not believe how tired I still felt.  Chris, who had been busy on Saturday also was with us at the show and was totally beat himself.

So the prospect of doing P90X was a bit overwhelming.

Perhaps you’ve been at this point.  Tired from whatever came up in your life and thinking ‘what’s the harm in skipping this one workout?’  But my approach is that unless you are running a fever or you are injured, you do the exercise.  Good habits like exercising are delicate things.  It’s hard to get into good habits and easy to get out.  Skipping a day just because you are tired is about more than missing just one workout.  It’s an excuse which, if allowed to stand, starts permeating your mind in the future.  Then the next time you are tired it seems OK to give yourself a pass.  And after that, it’s just anytime you aren’t totally up for the workout.  Soon you’ve given up.

But I can make modifications.  Today we were supposed to do the Back & Biceps workout but we decided instead to do the P90X One on One Core Medicine Ball workout.  That’s about 30 minutes of heart pumping, sweat inducing core moves.  While we knew it would be tough, the idea of taking off 30 minutes from a workout (Back & Biceps takes an hour) was more attractive.

After we got done, we felt so much better that we went onto do our own bicep routine.  So in the end, we didn’t take a shortcut.  We actually did almost an hour of exercise.

And that’s my other point.  Once you get started you generally feel much better.  So the next time you feel too tired to exercise, pick a workout that’s shorter and perhaps easier.  Commit to doing that and you’ll feel better physically and mentally.

I guarantee it!

Too Tired for P90X? originally appeared on Press Play Fitness on August 30, 2010.

Fountain of Youth Yoga Workout

The first is the Fountain of Youth Yoga DVD from the P90X One on One collection. This is a fantastic alternative yoga workout to Yoga X because it’s shorter and has all the best Tony Horton yoga moves. The one complaint I hear about Yoga X (heck, I even have it myself) is that it’s too long at 90 minutes. Those of us with busy lives have trouble fitting in a workout that long. Now we have a much shorter alternative so we can get all the goodness from yoga in about an hour or less.

Mammoth Upper Middle Lower Workout

The second workout is the Mammoth UML (Upper, Middle, Lower) workout. A fantastic total body workout, this one you can take ‘on the road’ because you only need your own body weight to get an amazing workout in a small space. Often I hear from people traveling that they don’t know what to do when traveling since doing P90X requires a pull up bar and weights (you may use resistance bands in lieu of both those items). But with the Mammoth UML routine you can take that and Ab Ripper X and alternate those on different days and still stay in shape!

Free Bonus – 2 Extra P90X DVDs – Exclusive originally appeared on Press Play Fitness on August 18, 2010.

Visualization is a powerful tool.  I use it.  But  to take visualization to a more impactful state for you, include in your mental imagry how others are perceiving you.  You see no matter how indpendent you are, we do react to way other people react to us.  So when you visualize, place you as you want to be in some public place where friends and others are reacting to you.

Before I started my transformation journey almost a year ago.  I visualized what I wanted to look like.  I visualized the most ideal version of me I could muster up.  I didn’t really think about whether I could achieve that look.  And honestly if you had asked me I’d probably have said I’d never hit it.  But I decided to go as ‘perfect’ as I thought my body could.  And my public place was on the beach (I love white sandy beaches) and around me was a group of people and everyone is smiling and laughing – no one more so than me!

I keep this visualization with me and bring it up into my consciousness nearly every day.  And what I’ve found is that over the course of a year my real world and my visualize one are beginning to converge -  my body is nearly at that ‘perfect’ state.

So as you begin your transformation, visualize.  Make it as clear as you can and make the version of you as perfect as possible (yes, it still needs to be you but the best you ever).  Place this perfect you in a place you think of fondly and include others interacting with this perfect you.

Visualizing where you want to be is the first step in orienting your mind and body for success.  Tomorrow, I’ll be back with more mental tips for your success!

Starting with the End in Mind originally appeared on Press Play Fitness on July 27, 2010.

Eating healthy isn’t something that we can just will ourselves into. The environment we live in does not support it. Food manufacturers, including companies that serve us fast food or prepacked foods (the majority of our diets), know that combining fat, salt and sugar in foods ends up activating parts of our brain that make us want to eat more and more. We are no longer paying any attention to what our bodies are telling us about hunger, we are like addicts who just need that next bite.

When we commit to a program like P90X, TurboFire, Slim in Six or any of the great Beachbody programs, we need to change our eating as well as show up for the exercise for real transformations.  But it’s hard to radically change the way we eat.  So many people fail to eat right, see mediocre results and fall off the wagon.

So what is the solution?  Let me share with you what has worked for me.

Understanding that I might have an addict like relationship with food, I knew I needed to get my body to learn to love good food and, even more importantly, learn to dislike the fat, salt and sugar laden crap I had been eating.  Now many people would tell you that going ‘cold turkey’ is the only solution.  Clearly trying to eat some junk each day is a losing proposition because based on what I’ve shared with you about how our brains react to this junk, I’d lose control.    However, the problem with eating right 100% of the time is certainly for the first month or longer, we’ll start to resent having to eat right.  It won’t provide us the quick ‘hit’ that junk food does and given all the advertising we’ll see and the way the people around us eat, we are likely to fail.

So my solution is to eat extremely clean 6 days a week and on the 7th day, I cheat.  My cheat days are BIG cheats.  From shortly after I get up until about 8:30 PM, I eat junk.  And I eat a lot of it.  Now this has not one, but 3 unique benefits.

First, it’s actually good for your metabolism to jump your calories significantly once in a while.  If you continuously eat at a lower calorie level, your body will become more and more efficient at working with less.  That means you’ll eventually stop losing weight.  But when you have a cheat day where you eat 50% or more (I actually will eat about 2x the calories I eat on my 6 clean days), your body must figure out what to do with all the excess calories.  This pattern of occasionally jumping your calories keeps your metabolism from getting too efficient so you can continue to lose weight.

Secondly, when you know you have a cheat day once a week, it’s never that long a commit to eat clean.   At worst, you only have 6 days of eating rigtht until you can eat ‘wrong’.   When you see an advertisement that temps you, just say to yourself that you will eat it on your cheat day.  Same goes for when a family member, friend or coworker offers you what they consider a treat.  Pass it up or ask them to wrap it up for you and then put it in the fridge until your cheat day.

Third, if you really go for it during your cheat day, and you should, by the end of the day you feel fat, bloated and sluggish.  At this point don’t beat yourself up but attach the discomfort to the foods.  This is really important because as you do so, you will start your week wanting to eat clean and healthy.

The other techniques I use include buying fresh organic fruit that I like.  For me that’s berries (all kinds), cherries, pears, apples and grapefruit.  I can find at least some of these at Whole Foods (we don’t have a Trader Joe’s yet where I live).  Even the Super Target near me has a lot of organic fruit and veggies to buy.  The price is higher but buy only what you know you can eat before it will go bad and enjoy it.   Using fresh, organic fruit and organic veggies and salads will nourish your body and you’ll respond with not only increased weight loss, you’ll have more energy and start to associate good feelings towards these healthier foods.

Finally, I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention Shakeology.  The more I take this shake, the more impressed I become with it.  It’s making weight loss easier and I have more energy and my hair, skin and nails have really improved.  In fact, if my nails grow any faster and stronger, I’m going to have issue with it.  As it is now, I’m having to significantly file my nails 2x a week which I never had to do before.  My hair is growing so fast, I’m going to have to tell my stylist to cut 1 1/2 inches each month I see her.   BTW, if you are considering Shakeology, you should also consider becoming a Beachbody coach to get it at wholesale price.  If you want to know more about getting Shakeology at wholesale prices, fill out the short form below and I’ll contact you.

I Would Like to Learn More About Shakeology at Wholesale Prices:

Learning to Love Eating Healthy originally appeared on Press Play Fitness on July 18, 2010.

But even P90X as great as it is has some limitations.  I’d do some things differently (please don’t hate me Tony).  And over the last 10+ months, I started to add other Beachbody programs to my personal library.  I really like the flexibility of mixing in some other routines with P90X and create my own P90X hybrid routines all the time.   I know some of you might like some guidance on how to do this also.

I have already developed a P90X/Insanity/Kettlebell routine for hardcore athletes (you can find that at http://www.pressplayfitness.com/members/m/articles/view/test).   But some of you don’t want that intense a schedule or just have different goals.  So I’m now ready to create more hybrid routines but I want your input.

Just fill in the form below and send me what you want and I’ll try to come up with something that meets your needs and is fun!

P90X Hybrid Routines originally appeared on Press Play Fitness on July 9, 2010.

As is typical of Tony’s weight lifting pattern, he recommends 8 – 10 reps on the moves at a weight that leaves you burning at the end.  For me that means a 20lb or 15lb dumbbells for biceps, 15lb or 10lb for most of the forearms, and 15lb dumbells or a heavy resistance band for tricep action.  Chris, of course went much heavier with biceps in the 35lb and 30lb range, forearms in the 20lb or 15lb range and triceps in the 20lb range.

This was a fast paced workout which I like.  I started to sweat after about 15 – 20 minutes which normally occurs sooner for me but the arms, especially for me, are not my big muscle groups so I’m guessing that’s why it took longer.  And the pump you get in your arms is great.  Both Chris and I are still feeling this one now 5+ hours later and both our arms are still more pumped than usual.

I have no doubt that Chris will want to have this as part of our bi-weekly workout rotation schedule!

I also did the TurboFire 15 minute HIIT today but I’m going to write about that one separately.

Just Arms originally appeared on Press Play Fitness on July 7, 2010.

I’m into hybrid rotations of P90X and other programs and will be uploading what those are shortly.  I don’t feel I’ll ever really outgrow P90X though.  There is just something awesome about a program built around pull ups and push ups that can continue to challenge you.

If you are on the fence about P90X, just do it.  And better yet, let me be your coach.  Learn more about P90X(click here) and join me and thousands of others who have totally transformed their lives.

P90X Round 3 – Fine Tuning originally appeared on Press Play Fitness on July 5, 2010.