So by now you’ve probably heard that Olympic champion Michael Phelps has gotten himself into a little bit of hot (bong) water. I felt I couldn’t let this opportunity slip by without sharing some lessons from his mishap. First, we all have to remember that we’re role models. Somebody somewhere is looking up to us for guidance. It’s a shame Michael Phelps screwed up, but he did. What’s done is done. I know it reminded me that as a fitness pro, I MUST lead by example. Second, again, he screwed up. He’s young and there will be many more mistakes and misjudgments in his future.  And while I’m not one to give people a million chances, I do believe in second chances. And forgiveness. Which, when it comes to melting fat and getting fit, is VERY important. I can tell you from experience working with hundreds of people with similar goals to yours, you WILL screw up somewhere along the way. The key to success is to forgive yourself and move forward. The people who truly fail are the ones that just give up the first time they make a mistake. Third, this has nothing to do with what Michael Phelps has recently done, but it’s another great reminder. If you want a lean, hard body and 6 pack abs, or just to be fitter and healthier, you’re going to need to WORK. Regardless of his recent actions Michael Phelps is an Olympic Champ because he worked his rear end off. Don’t fool yourself into thinking achieving your fitness goals is going to be a piece of cake. Fourth, much was made during the Olympics of Michael Phelps and the massive amounts of calories he was consuming. If YOU want to get into peak condition you need the proper nutrition. Period. Look, if you’re not eating enough fruits and vegetables you need a Whole Foods based multi like Prograde Nutrition’s VGF 25+ http://InspirationFitness.getprograde.com/vgf If you aren’t optimizing your workouts by refueling with the correct blend of carbs to protein (based on the research) then you need to start using Prograde Workout   http://InspirationFitness.getprograde.com/workout) like I do. Anyway, when you see a news story like this one involving Michael Phelps, always remember to look for the positive lessons you can learn. PS - If you’re serious about your training and want the best nutritional products, then use what I use - Prograde Nutrition http://InspirationFitness.getprograde.com) Post from: Homeschool Fitness Coach

Some of you have begun working out. Awesome job! Getting started is the hardest part. Once you get into a routine, it gets easier. I promise! So, I wanted to help you get started right. Here is a workout that utilizes full body, multi-joint (compound) exercises and has your cardio all taken care of.  No need to spend another 60 minutes of the treadmill with this one. Set your timer for 20 minutes. Grab some dumbbells (10+ lbs.). Do as many rounds of this as you can in 20 minutes. Members of FitHomeschoolMoms.ning.com can view videos of each exercise. Burpees x 15 DB Push Press x 15 DB Alternating Rows x 15 ea side Mountain Climbers x 15 ea side Push Ups x 15 Only take a rest after the push ups and no more than 60 seconds before starting back at the top. 5 rounds is really awesome. Hugs~~ Coach Angela Post from: Homeschool Fitness Coach

I am so thankful this week is over. I spent a lot of time in the hospital this week. My husband has a goiter on his thyroid that we had to have scanned on Wed. and Thurs. because thyroid cancer runs in his family. While we were at the hospital for his testing, we visited the director of Camp LRCA, a dear friend, because he went in for excruciating back pain. After all the testing, he found out he had broke a vertebra due to cancer in his blood. We were so shocked! He had surgery on Wednesday, so I stayed with the family most of the day. Thursday we were able to see him. The pain is now tolerable, but he has several more surgeries and radiation treatments ahead of him. I am rather exhausted today and I’m sure it’s emotional. I did get my workout in and am right now enjoying my post workout shake while checking up on you guys. Tropical Pina Colada Post Workout Shake 1/2 cup chilled green tea 1/2 cup coconut milk 1 cup ice 1 scoop vanilla protein powder 1/4 cup frozen pineapple 1/2 medium banana Blend it up and enjoy! I signed us up for the Indiana Homeschool Convention in Indy. Anyone going? It would be really fun to meet some of you there. We decided to put our 11 year old in the childrens conference for the first time. I think she will enjoy it a lot and since it’s with other Christian homeschoolers, I feel pretty good about it. My teenager will be attending the conference with us and boning up on college information. The babies will be staying with my husband’s best friend who lives in Indy. I haven’t been to a homeschool conference in two years and I feel like my cup is empty. I need to be filled back up again. I did attend Cindy Rushton’s Ultimate Homeschool Expo which really helped me this school year, but I think getting away from home and physically being around other homeschoolers will really get me excited and re-energized. My husband is going to a training conference for 3 weeks so life will be rather hectic around here for awhile. I feel no matter how many times he has gone on long trips, I will never get used to it. I don’t feel complete when he’s gone. I hope everyone has an awesome weekend. I plan on savoring every moment with hubby before he flies out for 3 weeks. Keep sending me your questions. I love it! Hugs~~ Post from: Homeschool Fitness Coach

Guest Post By Liz Donnelly of www.FamilyFitnessGuru.com 1. Put on that fitness-minded personality Wether you desire a flat belly or just the time to workout, you have to start it all with your attitude. If you are determined to improve your fitness “no matter what,” the you will most likely be successful. Usually this takes the manifestation of anger with your appearance or lack of energy or poor health. Once you’ve made up your mind to be fit, then it’s time to don that “fit-minded personality.” This is where you tell yourself multiple times daily that you have a tight mid-section, that you deserve a flat belly, if that’s your goal, for instance. Promise yourself that you’ll do something every day to work to that end. Your subconscious will listen to you. It doesn’t decipher between good and bad affirmations, it will simply apply what you always tell it. Are you saying or letting others say that you’re “fat” or “overweight” or “thick-waisted”? Time to change those words into “slender” or “sleek” or “tight”. This is also part of changing yourself from the top down, so to speak. What you think about yourself has great impact on your esteem, performance and outcomes. For example, becoming more aware of your body will get you to focus on changes to make like sitting or standing tall to prevent your belly from popping outward. You can apply fixing yourself from the top down in all aspects of your life not just fitness. (For example, telling yourself to have patience will help you be more inclined to notice those times when you are losing your temper.) The big lesson here, especially if you’re the kind of mom or dad who puts him or herself last on the priority list, is that you do need your self-improvement time and that you do need the increased energy, self confidence, strength, etc. to help you meet your many demands, especially keeping up with your kids, right? So the next step is just as important: 2. Get educated on fitness So many people lose their desire to workout and eat well because they either tune out the important messages that tell them why they must do so, or they possibly are not aware of the reasons. So the more you educate yourself on exercise and nutrition, the better off you’ll be to be inspired to keep yourself and your family health and active. This website is a good place to start. In particular, you can get FREE downloadable booklets on exercises for children and for yourself by subscribing to FamilyFitnessGuru updates. Look at the upper right side of the page above the side margin. There are also a host of books on the topic of fitness and articles in the paper on almost a daily level. Scour what you can and be informed. After all, you know yourself and your family best and you will remain motivated to stay fit the more you keep in touch with good information. 3. Now, it’s time to make time for fitness Getting a better working body does take time. If your particularly out of shape, then you must realize that it probably took some time for you to degenerate to this level. Even if you relatively fit, you still need to build in time for your workouts. Talk it over with your spouse, partner or own brain (if you’re a single parent like me) and literally write down and schedule your workouts. For me, I have to do some of my workouts during the week before I teach my 5:45 a.m. Fitcamp class. At other times, I have to schedule evenings after the kids go to bed. If you are with a partner, then you can alternate times to best suit your schedules, especially if the kids are awake and need supervision. If you’re a single parent and you are the residential parent, meaning the kids are with you the majority of the time, then you will have to do a little creative planning and think outside the box as to how you’ll get child care and get the freedom to work out. Many gyms have daycare-style facilities at which you can leave your kids for the duration of your exercising. Of course, if you don’t belong to a gym, then your next course of action is enlisting babysitting help with neighbors, friends or relatives. The next step is to join a local civic group that has a lot of parents as members (like a Junior Women’s Club (for moms) or Early Childhood PTA or regular PTA (for moms and dads). Some times making inquiries within groups like these will give you leads of fellow parents who are in a babysitting network. There is typically no charge for something like this. Your only payment is being available to watch someone else’s kids. There are options for just about any situation in terms of finding time (really its making the time) for your workouts. If you really want it, then you will make it work for you. (I hope you really want it!) 4. Do it! Nike has it right, if they still use that old tagline, that is. You really just have to start exercising. Your body was made to move. So, if your parts seem the Tin Man’s after a rain storm, then it’s all the more reason to continue to do your workouts consistently and stay “oiled up.” “What’s ample?” you might ask. Building an hour and a half weekly is a good place for beginners (30 minutes 3x/week). From there, you can add an additional 30 minutes. Ideally, you want to put in 5-6 days of movement. And it doesn’t have to be in the form of a formal workout. Schlepping things around in the garden or shoveling snow are excellent ways (depending on how intense) to move and burn calories. “What exercises do I do?” Well, start by signing up for FamilyFitnessGuru updates (look at the upper right area of the side margin) so you can download the “Top 5 Exercises for Moms & Dads.” You’ll get tons of details on how to perform those basic exercises to help you get on the road to fitness. My hope is that you’ll be consistent with your plan and notice results to help you stay motivated. Good luck and keep forging ahead! Post from: Homeschool Fitness Coach

I have agreed to become a guinea pig in Jon Le Tocq’s newest 12 week fitness program. Jon is the founder of www.StormForceFitness.com. Although I cannot divulge the specifics of the program, I will be giving updates on my progress or pain, whichever is most appropriate for the day. As part of a cardio test, today included a 5K which was absolutely awful for me. I am hardly an endurance athlete as most of my training has been sprinting over the last two years. I’m embarrased to say it took me 35:20 minutes to complete the endurance portion of the workout. Ugh! I am looking forward to a program being already written for me, rather than writing one myself. This is a perfect time to start a new 12 week program. Do you realize it’s only 12 weeks until the official revealing, Memorial Day? That is usually the first time the shorts and tank tops come out. Will you be ready? My 12 week nutrition course started today and there are some women on board. They will learn so much during the next 12 weeks. They will never again fall victim to the commercial hype and weight loss scams. If you missed this session, don’t despair, I will host another one soon. My husband has been gone for a week and we still have two more weeks remaining before he returns from his special training for work. It has been rough, but we are pretty busy everyday and it helps the time go quickly. I will be happy when he returns. The day he gets back, we are driving over to South Bend to attend a homeschool convention. This year we are attending two after not attending any for the past 2 years. I really need a pick me up. I am fast approaching the last year of high school for my oldest and college is suddenly looming ahead. I don’t know where the time went, but it sure snuck up on me fast. Any tips and suggestions for preparing for that is appreciated. We are attending a seminar at one of the conventions that details getting a B.A. in less than two years for $5,000. I’m looking forward to that one! Post from: Homeschool Fitness Coach

Most women believe that in order to lose weight the first thing they need to do is eat less and move more. In a way this is true, but there really is more science behind that. What typically happens is women eat maybe 1 or 2 meals a day, drastically reducing their caloric intake and then adding a walk in for exercise. They may see the scale move but what are they really losing? I bet you’ll be surprised. Read on… Your body’s metabolism is the key to losing unwanted body fat. When working with women, I am not concerned about their weight as much as the level of body fat they are carrying around. A healthy bodyfat level to be at is between 19-25%. Most women who have dieted for years will find themselves at 30% or more. Those are dangerous levels that invite disease into their bodies. Although they may have lost 50 lbs. of body weight, they may still be at 30% body fat and at risk for heart disease, Type II diabetes and other ailments. How can they be at risk when they wear a size 8 dress pant? Because they never lost bodyfat while dieting. They lost body water and precious lean muscle mass. Lean muscle mass is the main manipulator of your metabolism. The more lean muscle mass you have the more calories you burn at rest. When your metabolism is humming along at a strong rate, it does not need to use bodyfat for energy. It’s alive and functioning at optimum levels. Fat that is stored on your body for energy is not needed and your body lets it go. You continue to build strong, lean muscles and your metabolism gets stronger and faster, you indeed get leaner, stronger, toned and full of energy. This is the picture of health and vitality. Now take the woman who is dieting. She is eating 3 meals a day and not focused on the right type of exercises. She’ll go for a walk around the block. It works for about 1 month. She’s dropped 5 pounds. She’s excited! Month 2 rolls around and the scale has stopped moving, she cuts her 3 meals into smaller portions and adds another block to her walk. The scale finally drops again. She’s excited! Month 3 rolls around and the scale has not moved or has gone up. Yikes! She drops to 2 meals a day, adds another block to her walk and an exercise video. Month 4 comes too quickly. She sees the scale move again so she cuts calories even more and increases her walk for a full 2 hours every day. She’s tired, frustrated and wondering why this is not working? I could go on, but I think you get the picture. The only way for her to keep the scale moving is to continue to decrease calories and increase the amount of time spent on low, steady state exercise. Is she really losing fat? No, she is losing water and precious metabolic boosting muscle that is why she has to continue decreasing calories to see change. If she continues on this path, she will lower her metabolic rate to such a level that her body will go into panic mode and begin conserving every morsel of food that enters as bodyfat so it will have the energy just to function. The result is a cranky, tired, moody, flabby, and frustrated woman. I know, I’ve been there. Ladies, I want you to know the truth. The scale is not your friend. You have been lied to for years. There’s even a tv show dedicated to keeping these lies alive (Biggest Loser Challenge) where your worth is determined by a number on the scale! How have we as a society allowed this to happen? Satan has been at work! God made you in His image. You are a beautiful, strong, and vibrant woman. Don’t allow Satan to get a foothold in your mind. Oh how I wish I could give you all hugs right now! Here is the picture of a woman on the right path: She determines why she wants to accomplish this goal of being healthy and full of energy. She enlists the help of her husband and children. She puts together a plan of action including how to deal with obstacles that will be thrown her way. Her plan does include strength and interval training as the core of the program. She also determines her caloric intake and creates meal plans for the week. She cleans out her cupboard of all manmade, adulterated foods and buys food in their original God created package. She gets connected with other women who are doing the same steps (this site of course!) and stays accountable no matter what happens to try and bump her off course. All her workouts are scheduled in for each week just like math and english class. She sticks to her workouts because she is full of determination. Each week she discovers how much better she feels. Her clothes are getting loser, she is getting more flexible and full of energy. She finds herself hungry more often because her metabolism is on fire. She has more lean mass so she can eat more food, quite the opposite of the dieting woman. She does not suffer from mood swings, turbulent hormone levels or bloating due to eating whole foods. Does she know how much she weighs? Does it really matter if she is feeling this strong and vibrant? This is what I want for you. I will elaborate more on how to stop dieting for life in another post. This one ended up way longer than I intended. Hugs~~ Post from: Homeschool Fitness Coach

Ladies, ready for some more action? Here’s the new workout for the month: Grab a timer and some dumbbells: You will perform each exercise back to back without any rest until your timer goes off. Rest 1 minute between each superset. Superset A: Go for 5 minutes DB Squats x 10 V-ups x 10 Rest 1 Minute Superset B: Set timer for 5 minutes DB Russian Deadlifts x 10 Military Presses x 10 Rest 1 Minute Superset C: Set timer for 5 minutes Push Ups x 10 DB Swings x 10 Enjoy! Post your progress on your personal pages. I love to hear how you’re doing. Post from: Homeschool Fitness Coach

My husband and I decided to start following Dave Ramsey’s, Total Money Makeover.  We’re already on a roll by getting our emergency fund saved and actually bit off a bit of our credit card debt.  It’s pretty exciting.  My biggest obstacle has been the grocery bill.  I used to be rather good at spending only $60 every two weeks for groceries, but I just haven’t paid much attention to what I’m spending lately with my busy-ness and I was shocked to discover that one month our bill totalled over $700!  So, I was on a mission today to see if I could stay within a $150 budget.  Now, I know there are women out there who spend a lot less on their weekly grocery bill, but you got to start somewhere.  I have found a few blogs that are very helpful with letting you know what the weekly deals are and coupons to use, etc.  So, I headed out today with my list for 4 different stores.  It took me about 1 1/2 hours to shop and I only spent $118.  Wow!  So, now the competitive streak in me has been awakened and I want to beat my PR next week!  Ha!  I will be studying the Walgreens and CVS tips on different blogs and figuring out how to make my coupons work hard for me.  I see a new addiction coming on.  My 12 week Storm Force Fitness challenge has been coming along wonderfully.  I have dropped 2% bodyfat in the last 3 weeks even though I only got 2 of the 4 workouts done last week due to business getting in the way.  I am making up for them this week while everyone else is enjoying a more relaxed week.  Ugh!  I am getting ready to launch my first book this week.  I have a few technical problems to fix with my webhost and my covers for the book and CD’s are being created right now.  Hope to have it all done soon.  I feel like it has already taken an eternity. Here is my workout plan today: Storm Force Pulse Pyramid II - 30 minute workout Meal Plan: Meal 1:  1 egg, 3 egg whites, spinach, red peppers, .5 oz colby jack cheese Meal 2:  Cottage cheese and blueberries, almonds Meal 3:  Cantaloupe and 4 cheese cubes (while shopping) Meal 4:  Post workout shake, apple, almonds Meal 5:  Homemade chicken soup in the crockpot Meal 6:  1/2 cup cottage cheese, 1/2 scoop vanilla protein powder, 1/4 cup frozen blueberries, 12 almonds Post from: Homeschool Fitness Coach

I didn’t manage to get my workout in yesterday. I ran out of disk space on my webhost site and didn’t know how to increase it. I fiddled around with it too long before sending an SOS to support. I ended up doing the Pyramid Pulse II workout today. Everyone else on this challenge is enjoying a week of easier workouts while I am playing catch up. School has been on schedule this week. I spent the last two weeks drilling the days of the week into my little girls’ heads using the Adams Family theme song. So, we took this week off and just let them play. They are still singing the song and moving the hungry caterpillar along the wall where I put large labels for each day. I really enjoyed this unit study. My husband was really surprised at my grocery shopping savings yesterday. It was fun to see the look on his face. So, now I will attempt to do even better next week. I have a lot to learn about coupon stacking and such, but my competitive spirit will get me through the learning curve. Here were the meals today: #1: 1/2 cup cottage cheese, frozen blueberries, 12 almonds and a cup of coffee #2: Post workout shake of 1 scoop protein powder, frozen blueberries, 1/4 cup coconut milk and 1 cup water. #3: Leftover chicken soup from last night’s dinner. #4: apple and almonds #5: Teriyaki pork butt roast, steamed broccoli drizzled with olive oil, balsamic vinegar and walnuts #6: Protein pudding Post from: Homeschool Fitness Coach

I can’t wait until Friday! We will be headed to Indianapolis at 6am to attend the IAHE Convention! I need to sit down and plan my curriculum agenda so I can navigate the vendor hall confidently. If I’ve learned anything over the last 12 years about conventions, is to have a plan before you get there. You can so easily become overwhelmed with all the books, videos and curriculum choices. I thought I would share with you our meal plans while we are there so you can see that eating whole foods is still possible even though you are away from home. I am using protein bars from Precision Nutrition’s original cookbook Precision Nutrition and their newest cookbook, Gourmet Nutrition Since we are leaving really early in the morning on Friday (not early for me, but for everyone else), I will be making boiled eggs the night before. After peeling them I will store them in the fridge for the next morning’s breakfast. All the protein bars will be made Wednesday since I have no boot camps that day and can get a lot of cooking done. We also have a cooler that can be plugged into the car adapter or a regular outlet. So we will be taking this with us for some of the things that need to stay cold. Our hotel may or may not have a fridge so I am planning ahead. We also plan on eating out for dinner after we pick up the babies on Friday and Saturday. Here’s the plan for both days: 6 am: Boiled Eggs and Fruit (on the road food) 9 am: Banana Nut Squares (Gourmet Nutrition) for snacks until lunch time. Noon: In Hotel Room - Grilled Chicken Salads/Nuts/Fruit OR All Natural turkey breast deli meat wrapped up in cheese slices/Nuts/Fruit 3 pm: Granola Bars (Gourmet Nutrition) for snacks until dinner 6 pm: Pick up little ones and head out to a restaurant for dinner Our hotel has a workout room, but as usual, it is all cardio equipment (gag me!). So, I will bring along a trusty kettlebell and do a workout in the hotel room. I’ll try and get one of the kids to video tape it so you can see what can be done even though your away from home. That’s the plan. I’m excited! Can you tell? Post from: Homeschool Fitness Coach

Okay ladies! Here’s a really fun one to burn the fat and build the muscle. I call it “Pharaoh’s Revenge”! Campers LOVE to hate this one. I’m challenging you now. There are 5 rounds of this workout. Do each exercise consecutively without rest until the end of the circuit. Rest 1 minute before starting the next round. Round 1: 30 sec. each exercise Round 2: 45 sec. Round 3: 60 sec Round 4: 45 sec Round 5: 30 sec. The Pyramid Squat and Press Rows Swings Push Ups (no knees allowed) Alternating Reverse Lunges High Pulls Planks Have fun! Post from: Homeschool Fitness Coach

It is a beautiful day in NW Indiana! The girls are all outside enjoying the sunshine while I attempt to get some work done. I just finished running around town looking for some businesses to do some cross promotions with my boot camps. Met a lot of interesting individuals. I was disappointed to find out that I am unable to put little yard signs up anywhere as it is a zone violation. Phooey! I am currently advertising on the local Christian radio station but it hasn’t been very fruitful. I worked out with my 9 am boot camp class. The last day of camp in March we did a Meltdown 300 Challenge and I recorded everyone’s scores on our blog. So, today, being the last day of camp in April, we did the challenge again to see if they could beat their original time. It has been fun watching everyone push themselves and beat their scores. I took the challenge with them and really pushed them hard. We all had great finishing times. Here was the workout: 25 V-ups 50 1 arm swings (25 each arm) 25 Push Ups (manly style - no knees allowed!) 50 swings 50 Burpees 50 Clean and Presses (25 each arm) 50 Mountain Climbers Finish for time My time was 10:31 Can you beat that? I was really excited that this week my grocery bill was only $82.54. I get frustrated that a lot of the coupons and deals that I see posted on different blogs are for processed foods that I would never buy; however, I have found great deals on health and beauty products. I always believed that eating healthier cost more, but in reality, I am able to feed my family healthy meals without all the processed frankenfoods and do it cheaper. I am looking forward to the local Farmer’s Market and food stands that will be opening up soon. Fruit and veggies galore out here in the Midwest. I still need to get into my garden and plant my Spring crops. We’ve had so much rain lately that the soil is soggy. Ugh! I want to plant my sugar snap peas, spinach and lettuce soon. I love getting my hands dirty. LOL Post from: Homeschool Fitness Coach