I love new beginnings and not because I am a poor finisher of things, although I am sure that has some kind of bearing because it typically means whatever it is that I am starting requires a new notebook or journal and possibly a new set of pens.  You have no idea how deep this love goes of journals and pens but I am sure you are getting a sense.  Regardless, new starts represent a new chance to finish well and when it comes to dieting for 12 weeks, that is something we want to do.

To ensure we finish well, I will split this into 2 separate cities pieces where the mechanics such as “the guidelines” and the things to think about are on top and the emotional piece that plagues us throughout the diet is on the bottom.  The former will have very little dialogue during this series.  I will be doing something like this again and when I do, I may say then why I do what I do and why this works so well (because it does work so well).  The latter is all about me yapping away so get ready for me to dig up in our egos and not-so-good thoughts while dieting.

GUIDELINES FOR WEEKS 12 TO 9:

• Open up your diet so that your choices are pretty much ANY food that is whole and natural.  ANYTHING.
• Tightly monitor caloric intake by measuring  and weighing everything.  This is for the first 3 weeks only.  Even veteran dieters!
• Cals are on point if there is hunger at bed time.  Not starvation.  Hunger.  You cannot measure this accurately until the second week.
• Shut down all nibbles.  Create a menu first.  Not a food diary…a menu.  If it’s not on the menu, don’t eat it.
• Make sure you have Starch in your diet at this point.  STarchless too soon KILLS your results.
• No cheat meal until end of second week.

PITFALLS

• Expectations are out of whack.  We covered this last series.
• Pollyanna view of either ‘this super fun thing to do b/c we have a cooler and Lulu’s that match it’ or ‘it’s unbelievably dreadful and why-can’t-you-understand-what-I’m-going-through, for-Heaven’s-sake-I’m-dieting.’   Yeah…we’re avoiding both of those mindsets.
• We start where we left off.  WRONG!!  Everything needs to be new.  Do not “re-package” what you ate last week and call it a diet this week.

“Being a sex symbol was rather like being a convict.”  Raquel Welch

Adoration is a double edged sword that is sharp in both directions of cut.  When dieting, it comes in the form of endless attention and questions about what we are doing and how we are doing it.

“How did you get your arms that way?”

“How many days a week do you workout?”

“So tell me what you eat on this so-called diet.”

The onslaught doesn’t start right away but about 6 to 7 weeks into your program you can tell you are doing more than just a regular diet.  I think when this occurs we all have mixed feelings about it.  On the one hand, it feels good to garner so much attention.  We may not be able to see the changes, but someone does and it motivates us to keep on suffering through the chicken, turkey and tuna.  Furthermore, they see the changes enough to react so strongly and we think ‘wow’.  Suddenly we have a pep in our step and the world is an ok place to be.  Our confidence is boosted, our mortgage is paid, we just found $10 in a coat from the winter—heck…life is good.

On the other hand, it is toxic.  First of all, it is more intense and powerful in nature from those that are amazed than if you were just “regular dieting”.  You are not just getting smaller, you are getting ripped.  Your body is changing in ways you didn’t even know it could change.  Muscles in the shoulder, veins in the forearms and little lines in the belly are all signs that your work is paying off and to them, this is just as new as it is for you so they want in.  As far as they’re concerned, you’re holding out. You have some secret they need to know about and regardless of whether you are busy or not, it has now become your responsibility to ‘fess up.  I have been at barbecues, weddings and other social events that I attended to enjoy myself and mingle and have been pinned in a corner by someone who wanted to know everything about what I was doing to look that way. Intrusive is not a strong enough word.  Obnoxious rolls on the tongue a little…

Second, you don’t just receive their compliments and overt adulation as the outside of you looking good.  You receive them as if the inside of you is looking good, too.  You are being validated.  Whatever quirk you may not like about yourself has just flown out the window because you don’t just look good; you. look. good.   Depression, sadness, loneliness, rejection, financial worries, jacked up relationships, family tension, boredom and a going nowhere job have just been eradicated in one weekend of over-the-top compliments.  None of that matters right now.   All that matters is that they keep noticing because you are on a high right now—a very dangerous one, but a high nonetheless.

Your workouts are stronger and your dieting seems easier.  Turning down the treats is not very hard because of your iron clad will that suddenly showed up via UPS.  At the beginning you couldn’t even walk by a Panera bread without licking the window, now you’re baking treats for your kid’s school party because you have that much confidence in yourself and your abilities to shut down the cravings.  And it is at this time that we make the mistake of believing that we are doing this.  That we are in control and have somehow mastered the carb demon that seems to live in so many of us women.  It is here we move from confident to cocky even if we don’t show it.  We may never show it but we make this conclusion in our mind that we have arrived.   That we’re special.  Disciplined.  Admired.  Strong.  And because of those things, somehow…better.

I look forward to hearing how this series is for you.  If you have any questions about the diet portion, hit me up below.  And you know I’d love to know if you ever experienced any of the adoration portion, as well.  Til we meet again.  Woop woop!!

Previous Series Post Next Post in Series

I feel less than truthful.  Well, maybe that’s a little over the top but I feel obligated to let you know what I am all about.  Not Jodiojo or MP4, etc, although ultimately they end up being one in the same, but me.  Jodi.  The psycho woman with the big afro and personality to match.

Many of you have been allowing me into your minds/homes/lives for years and the trust level you have with me is astonishing, and at times unnerving, but that trust is what has allowed me to be as open with you as I have been.  Whether I am sharing about my personal experiences or my work in general, they are directly tied to me.   Every day I put them out to be read, inspected, surveyed and basically judged by those I do know and those I don’t.  Essentially it is the same thing you do with me when you first work me so I am not saying any of this to garner self pity.  I, instead, pray that you read on and see where I am going with this.

I would be lying to you if I tried to say that teaching/coaching/blogging is easy.  At times, this can be paralyzing because as a group fitness instructor turned personal trainer turned mommy turned coach I have lived my life publicly, although I am one of the most private people you will ever meet.  My body, my thoughts, my creativity and my work are all subject to immediate judgment and unlike your average employee who is brought in for a yearly review, I receive mine in real time from many different “bosses”–not always in the kindest ways.  Imagine the emotion of a 5 year old who works diligently on a craft so that he/she could hand it over to whomever for them to say, “Good job”.  That’s a crucial moment that can really crush a kid’s spirit if given the chance.  I lived that way.  I am a super softy who used to wear their heart on their sleeve.  It took nothing to rattle my cage even though you would never ever know or ever think that I had that kind of emotional capacity.  But as I continue to understand myself and women as a whole, more and more I realize how silly this has been all these years.  We cannot, and should not be governed by what others think of us.  We’ll go crazy if we do.

I serve the lean community; those of us who aspire to have a body that is worthy of nakedness.  I have been doing so for 15 years now.  On paper it is a great goal to have but in reality, it can be very caustic.  A goal is never bad in and of itself (assuming it’s legal and not socially awkward), it’s what we become to get the goal that’s the bad part and being fit can have that affect on us.   Debilitating control, daunting rituals and endless comparing can suck all the life out of a great endeavor and make it like a millstone grinding us down to a nub.  We’re not happy until we get there and then when we do get there, we’re still not happy.  So when I think about what I am being party to, I constantly have to remind myself that yes I am here to get you from A to B.   I am here to make you laugh, because we all need to laugh these days.  I am here to keep you safe while dieting because it’s a jungle out there.  And while all of these are well and good, they’re not my absolute, true goal for you which is why I feel less than truthful today.

When I realized how silly it was for me to allow others to decide how my day was going to go, I also remembered how *real* the pain was.  Even though I didn’t want to feel that way, I couldn’t ignore how real it was.  Rejection is reality.  It’s how the world operates.  Feeling exposed is definitely not fun and most of us have grown up with some adult making us feel less than special at some point in our lives.   Thus we walk around proving ourselves constantly through our jobs, our personal belongings, our relationships and without a doubt…our bodies.  Our actions scream “I am important.  Look at what I have done.”  The crazy thing is one day we realize that no one is listening to us shout because they themselves are shouting and life has become one big shout fest.

I cringe at the thought of coming off “preachy” but I need to let you know that that’s not what I want here.  I do not want us to shout in any capacity.  Do I want us to have healthy bodies?  Heck yeah!  Do I want us to be happy with the work that we have done in the kitchen and in the gym?  You betcha!  But when I sit down to write that’s not what I’m thinking about.  I’m thinking, “How can I relay this information in a way that’s fun to read and educational but drives the point home that leanness is just a lifestyle—not an answer.”  It is not going to solve world peace or change the economy and it certainly isn’t going to make people like or accept you more.  If they do, run from them because they are not the ones you want in your life long term anyways.  I know you are thinking, “I read all this to get to that point? Really?”  and I am going to tell you yes.  Because I know firsthand that we can think we know things in our minds and yet, be thoroughly betrayed by our hearts.  We need to live this lifestyle because we feel good doing so and because it makes sense to us, but not because we are proving to whomever that we are somebody now that we have a ‘hot body’.

There is no doubt that this is going to affect how I write and what I write about.  All of us here at Jodiojo think like this on a personal level, not just on a company level so I know they are all nodding their heads as they read along.  This is important for me to point out because when I go into my series on goals or on body types, if you don’t understand where I am coming from you’ll have a hard time picking up what I’m putting down.  I also want you to understand my mindset when I write a post because I can be blunt, funny and loving all at the same time and I never want you to forget the loving part. Reading the truth is not always comfortable.  We need to understand our motives for things since that’s what drives us during a 45 min. cardio session whether we realize it or not.

It is rare for me to pose for a picture so this was a huge gem of a find on my hubby’s computer.  I had dubious motives back then, let me tell you.  Sad thing is I still own those shoes.  I very low maintenance.

Ok, I have blathered on long enough.  I’m not sure what series I am going through next but it will be a deep one because clearly I’m in that sort of mood.  Keep your hands in the ride until we come to a complete stop ladies.  This could get ugly.  Woop woop!

What?

Where are we going, you ask?

IT’S SUMMER TIME!!

Unlike last summer, this summer we are taking it off.  Why?  Because we are all about quality and not quantity. 

Every single one of us is up to our whazoo in projects and traveling and posting for us is becoming harder and harder.  Knowing this, it’s easier to cut this off before we get two weeks into the summer and there isn’t a post to be found with no explanation why.   So what does this mean for you?

Just like our last hiatus, if you are signed up on the blog, you will receive emails from me all summer long.  I have not sent any out for a while so you don’t have to sign up again.  You haven’t missed anything.  What’s sitting in my laptop now and going out in the next week or so is “Lean Going Leaner”.  It’s all about the pitfalls, what you need to know, how hard it is and answers to your questions.  That will take a week or two.  I will also cover a few other hot topics like Staying on Track–For Real.  If you have been eating clean for a while, you know that you can fall off the wagon for weeks at a time and not be able to get back on track and it can incredibly frustrating.  We’ll talk about what you can do to get around that and why it happens. 

We want to thank everyone who reads this blog all the time.  When we jumped into the blogging world we had no idea what to expect nor did we know what we were doing (ummm…and we still don’t!).  Almost two years later, our readership is up over 300% (WOW!) and our email list is up about 400%! We are blown away by your response to us.  Why?  Because we’re not your typical bloggers nor are we your typical company:

• We do not really advertise.  Yes, every so often we’ll tell you what’s coming, but we’re not all ‘in your face’ about it.
• You have no idea what we do.  And we’re kind of ok with that for now.  What you do know is that we love what we do.  We’re real.  And we know what we’re talking about.
• We are consistent.  We’re not a blog that showed up for 10 min and then disappeared.  We’ve been in this location and at Model Per4mance for 2 full years and I pray we have a few more left in us.
• We are low key.  What most of you do not realize (and why should you–read bullet #1) is that Jodiojo & Co. is a thriving company behind the scenes.  While all the world is shouting at you for your attention, we are quietly doing our thing one body at a time.  We will be a bit more flashy when we come back, but not by much.  I am so not the flashy type and I am deeply committed to our clients.  This means I am not trying to pull in a billion clients we cannot service just to say my numbers are up.  (I am SURE there is an internet marketer reading my blog right now CRINGEING over what I am saying.  I am supposed to tell you all kinds of things to make you *think* otherwise. *sigh*)  

So while we will miss you for the next 8 weeks or so, we are happy to take time off to renew our minds, relax and think about the next series or topic we’re going to talk about.  I will be honest with you and tell you that I do not know the format of Jodiojo when we return.  We have a bunch of ideas on the table and we are exploring them all.  If you have anything you would like to see, let us know!  We always want to know what you would like to have us chat about.

In the mean time, I have been doing a ton of consulting lately (funny how this happens) and I thought I would let you know what I do, what it entails and how much it costs.  If it is of interest to you, our contact info will be at the bottom of the post and you can get us at that email address.

I am always asked: “What am I doing wrong?”  “How could I do this better?”  “I want to be healthier, what do I change?”  “How do I take this to the next level” and so on.  Sometimes you just want to know that without having to invest in a full program.  You like what you’re doing and are not ready to change OR you cannot afford the commitment right now because it’s summer and that’s not in the budget OR you’re deciding whether I am serial killer masquerading as an internet guru who is going to run off with all your money so this is the safest way to check me out.  I understand the last one more than you can imagine.  But regardless your reason, what you are searching for is answers.  Things like:

• How much protein should I be getting?
• Am I doing enough?
• Am I doing too much?
• How many calories should I be eating?
• How do I go from lean to leaner?
• What supplements should I be taking?
• How do I incorporate running into my schedule?
• The weight is not coming off like it did before…why?  And how do I change that?
• How do I put my schedule for the week together?

I will answer these questions for you and more in two phone calls:

Phone Call #1:  30 minutes in length

Initially I will send you a questionnaire for you to fill out.  Tell me as much about you and what you’re doing as possible.  Email it back to me and I will call you at the time we agree upon.  During that call I will drill you like a bolt to a beam and get the real truth.  Ok, not really–but it sounded compelling.  I will actually get the details that I need to help you out and I will also get to know what your true goals are–there’s always more than what’s written;).  Then, I need about a week depending on what you have going on because I am going to be VERY detailed in my answer to you.  This is not a general plan or canned phone call.

Phone Call #2: 60 to 90 minutes in length

This phone call will be your life spoken back to you in an orderly and optimized format.  You will have all your questions answered and then some, a detailed schedule that you may change and solid, implementable recommendations.  Typically the call is 60 min in length, but I pad the time by 30 minutes because I am a yapper so I allot for that and I don’t want you to feel like the clock is ticking.  If you have questions–this call is the time to ask them.

What I will not and cannot do in the phone calls is give you custom programming.  I can, however, give you a sample program of some type if you want one or feel that it will help you in any way.  I also cannot give medical advice, I am not a doctor.  But I can tell you what questions to ask your doctor or tell you what specialist can help you more than another based on past experience. 

I am offering this special for the summer only while we disappear off the blogging radar.  Quantity is limited and this will fill up fast because it already has and I have not even advertised it!  Hop on it while you can.

SUMMER SUMMIT CONSULTATION PACKAGE:  $100

If you are interested or have any questions, hit me at jodi@trans4mationstation.com and I will get right back to you with either the questionnaire or answer to your question about this service.  If you would like this with Heather, let me know when you email.  She has a different set of pricing but I will put you in touch with her and you can go from there. 

Thank you again for making this blog awesome!  We had no idea that it would go this far and it has…  Thank you!!  Have an awesome summer and we will see in you September!

It was well over a year ago when I wrote a blog post called “Pumping Up with a Purpose.”  I asked the question “Do you workout or do you train with a purpose?”  And followed with:

 Is there a distinction you ask?  Is it just semantics?  I say there is a difference.  Someone taking spinning twice/week is not necessarily a cyclist while a cyclist might take spin twice/week.  Running for cardio does not make you a runner while a runner does run for cardio.  Playing basketball with your buddies does not mean your training is geared for a basketball player trying to get better.  However, a dedicated basketball player might play with his buddies. 

 I then went on about training for a goal and how I trained for a rock climbing trip in Mexico.  Well, a little over a year later and I currently have no tangible training goal.  I am training to stay in excellent shape, keep my physique the way I like it, and for my own mental sanity.  However, that about covers my goals.  Actually, if you cut right down to it, my goal is to get in a great workout.  But I really don’t consider that the type of goal I wrote about last year. 

 There are times when we find ourselves without training goals and I do not necessarily think there is anything wrong with that.  Now, before you come at me with a response like “well, if we don’t need goals, why did Jodi do an entire series on goal setting?” go back and re-read what I wrote – sometimes we find ourselves without TRAINING goals.  That does not mean we do not have goals.  It merely means our goals are not training related. 

 Right now I am barely trudging through tax season.  I know, I’m sure you are tired of hearing me talk about tax season week in and week out, but it really is brutal this year.  I used to LOVE to write crazy workout programs for myself; programs that were designed for a specific goal.  However now, the thought of writing my own program is more than I can bear.  I know that if I was training for something right now, I would be one crazy lady and all of my friends would disown me (if they haven’t already).

 However, that does not mean my life is goalless.  To the contrary, I have plenty of goals.  Two that come to mind are (1) to make it through tax season without losing my mind, and (2) to make it through tax season without losing my fitness level.   But I also have work-related goals and personal-growth specific goals.  So for the time being, I am sticking with those. 

 In that article a year ago, I wrote about my climbing specific training, lifting, cardio and mobility.  Well, except for the climbing specific training, I still incorporate all of those components into my training and add in additional functional training. 

 I do not currently have the luxury of twice-daily training sessions and so I have to incorporate everything I can into a morning workout.  However, this does not mean that I half-arse anything, but it means I train smarter. 

 Mobility and Flexibility

 Every session starts with some form of mobility.  If I am not doing a functional-plyo-agility workout in the aerobics room I start out with shoulder mobility, thoracic spine mobility and hip mobility in the stretching area in my gym.  If I am in the aerobics room, I perform a dynamic warm-up with things like butt kickers, high knees, 180s, lunge and rotate and so on.  Regardless of what I do, I keep in the mobility. 

 Just like mobility always opens up my training, flexibility always closes the session.  I always try to get in between 10-30 minutes of stretching/yoga type work.  Because I am so busy right now, I have not gotten to a yoga class in a few weeks (leaving work before 7pm to 8pm is just not an option).  Instead, on days when I have the time, I head into the yoga studio at my gym and do my own practice.  And in the alternative, I do something for at least 10 minutes. 

 Lifting and Functional Work

 My lifts have been full-body lifts.  This is helpful for the lack of time and also for the type of training and am currently doing.  There are two distinct ways in which I set up these sessions.  The first type is pure lifting.  However, I use the big movers – all complex movements with minimal rest in between and lots of giant sets.  BUT, I am lifting HEAVY.  This is not a circuit you would find at your grandma’s gym.  Additionally, depending on the specific workout, I add in plyometrics/functional moves.  Think of Jodi’s recent post about adding a crank after finishing up on set of exercises, before moving onto the next; or simply changing a pair of lifts into a giant set by adding on a weighted burpee.  When I am doing this type of lift, I’ll lift 3x/week and spend 1-2 days in the aerobics room doing a straight up plyo/functional workout.  Ok, honestly, it is usually 1 day of plyo/functional, which is why I add in the plyos to the lifts.   

 The second type of workout I call a hybrid.  I will head into the aerobics room and do 2-3 plyo/agility combos and then head out onto the weight floor to finish up with a lift.  These lifts will be more combo/complex/giant sets.  With this set up, I will not do a separate functional/plyo workout that week. 

 This training is not for everyone.  But it is PERFECT for my life at this moment and I absolutely love it.  It also helps with the fact that, at the moment, I am unable to get in a large amount of cardio.

 Cardio

 This one is barely happening right now and I openly admit it.  I shoot for 3-4 days/week but realistically am only getting in 2-3.  There are mornings when I plan to get in a lift and cardio, but by the time I am finished with the lift, I’ve got nothing else to give.  Or, there are weeks where my schedule just does not conform to what I had planned and one of my cardio sessions is out the window.  This is the second reason I set my lifting/functional workouts the way I do, I get a full metabolic workout in those sessions.

 A year ago, doing so little cardio would have sent me straight into a panic attack; but not today.  First, I don’t have time to stop and panic, but second, my world has not ended doing so little cardio (what a concept to finally grasp).  I know once the weather is nicer and 4/15 passes, I’ll be ramping up that cardio.  But for now, of all the things to fall by the wayside, cardio takes the hit.

In sum, while I am not training for a goal, I can still discuss my training and the purpose behind it in a similar manner to the way I did when I was training for a goal.  It took me writing this post to see it, but there is a purpose to what I am doing.  I have accepted that right now, I cannot have a training goal and thus set up my program accordingly.  In the past I would have fought this, tried to convince myself that I could train for something despite working crazy hours, put together a program I had no way of ever completing, and the gotten depressed and discourage because I couldn’t get it all done.  Well, not this year.  I am not sure how it happened, but I’ve evolved.  And with that, so has my training.  And when it really boils down to it, I am getting in some awesome, killer, workouts to boot.  So I leave you with the challenge to evolve as well and not be a slave to having a training goal.  There are times when it just won’t happen.  But that does not mean the world will end, nor does it mean you have to lose all that you have achieved.

I am telling you, I saw these guys this morning at the end of my street.

Today is another fabulous snowy day in New England.  And truth be told, I love it.  I really do…seriously.  You cannot deny how gorgeous it is the first day of snow fall.  Now, if it would only be 75 degrees tomorrow to melt it all right after it would be perfect.  *Sigh*  But alas, that’s not what happens so nothing is uglier than snow a week after the storm that is all black, yellow (use your imagination here) and sand filled. 

This is our second week in our new location and we already have a bunch of new readers…welcome!  Be sure to read all the way through to the end today because I have some things to explain to you about the ins and outs of this blog.

Having too much time on your hands can be dangerous.  Many a kitchen cabinet was emptied off of ‘too much time on your hands’.  Negative thoughts, unnecessary worries, wasteful activities and restlessness tend to mark your time when you have way too much time on your hands.  We all can think about the times in our life when felt really productive and we seemed to have the most amazing schedules and we somehow got everything done in one day: 8 loads of laundry, 2 workouts, solved the Mideast peace crisis, cured the common cold and so on.  Our schedule was jam packed but our diet was on point like a ballerina on stage, we never missed a workout, we didn’t have time to complain, it was just awesome.  Then we can think about times when we had a ton of time on our hands and we were late for every appointment, behind in reading our magazines and mail, disorganized, missing workouts and list goes on and on.  What happened?  When it was super busy we were wishing we had “time to get more done” or “time to catch our breath” and we were filled with visions of sugar plum fairies and clean garages with organized storage rooms.  Oh the beauty of it all!  Now we have extra time and we cannot even get up on time anymore.  This is the third day in a row we have slept through our alarm and it’s because we went to bed late but we’re not sure why because we didn’t get a thing accomplished! What the heck is going on?

Chaos Creates Order

Psycho schedules force us into discipline.  When nothing else will, having to be in New York at 10 am and Massachusetts at 5 pm will somehow make us hustle like a subway rider at rush hour.  We hunker down and get it done.  Suddenly we pack our food for the day, lay our clothes out the night before, map out our gym route, plan dinner ahead of time, make lists for lists, etc.  There is order within the madness and we have this wonderful sense of security that is hard to describe.  We realize that if we let one thing go our lives will be a stack of dominoes and the whole thing will be set off and no one wants that!  But we can only keep this going so long because it’s not just chaos that creates this order.  It’s chaos with a purpose.  A real purpose.  As many of you have found, you cannot create your own chaos and have it work for you.  Fake purpose (or goals) is as effective as a healthy snack replacing your favorite ice cream.  Really?  Come on now…carrots and hummus vs. mint chocolate chip ice cream?  Please.  I mean, you do it.  You have to.  But effective?  That’s a stretch.   So what happens?  Your purpose comes to pass:  the wedding date arrives, you graduate, you have the baby, you run the race and so on and your reason for organized chaos falls apart.  Now the chaos doesn’t make sense anymore.  You have no reason to do what you’re doing and furthermore, you have no *energy* to keep it going.  It’s exhausting trying to create your own chaos.  Suddenly you feel like you feel like you’re being asked to pretend you have someone with you at a fancy restaurant while you sit across from an empty chair at 7pm on a Friday night.  Silly.

We will do all that we can NOT to become this in our later years… 

Not Just Any Goal

Let me save you some time and frustration.   Do not think, “What I need is a goal;  I’ll just set that, fix my schedule accordingly and be back to normal” because that’s not going to work.  If you have done this already you know what I am about to say which is because it’s not real enough to you.  It’s a fake purpose.  You thought it up off the cuff and there’s no heart in it.  No emotion.  You may have asked someone to help you pick a sport for you to try, you may have asked for info on races in your area and half heartedly picked one or you may have even booked a vacation and want to be in a bikini for it.  None of those are good enough to evoke chaos in your life that forces the type of discipline you desire.  On the surface they seem great but deep down in your marrow, they are not enough.  So what does it?  Conviction and/or shame.  No, I’m not about to get biblical on you but I am about school you in the art of psychology.

Conviction

You want it because you truly believe in it.  It’s what wakes you up in the morning.  It’s why you suffer with a grin on your face.  This describes the ladies on this blog.  If you tried to get any of them to abandon their drive for ‘looking good naked’ or working out in a week you would have an easier time going door to door in a nudist colony selling clothes.  These women are convicted.  They set goals to keep them motivated and slack off just like everyone else, but their idea of ‘letting it go’ and getting back on track is much more rigid than the majority of folk.  Most of you would want to slap them if you heard them say they need to get back in line.  How can they be like that?  Conviction.

Shame

This works but most of you have found it is not a way to stay motivated.  How does shame work?  ‘I need to lose weight to fit in my wedding dress’.  ‘I need to get ready to get on stage or I’ll make a fool of myself’.  ‘I need to fit into this dress for my high school reunion’.  So you can drum up enough conviction for a few months to avoid the shame of what would go down if you didn’t, but it’s not long lasting.  Once that goal is gone, so is the chaos in your life and you are left with a chasm that begins to create resentment, feelings of being lost and empty, a sense of failure.  Now your amazing goal smells; it’s like a wet towel left in the washer for a few days and there’s nothing you can do to get rid of the smell.   Now you’re in a scramble to get a new goal because that must be the reason for what you’re going through only it’s hard to manufacture your own shame.  What to do?  Learn how to set goals based on conviction instead of shame by tapping into what you truly believe in, not just what you think you believe in.

More to Come

Moving from our blog at ModelPer4mance to jodiojo meant that I had to give up my own personal space to yap so that my sisters had a place to share their knowledge, as well.  It made total sense because it opened us up to a wider audience and I love having my sisters with me.  They are so flipping AWESOME!  But now I need a place to yap because let’s face it, I’m a yapper.  So I have begun a series called Run for Your Buns that is going to walk you through goal setting, conviction vs. shame and how to avoid the pitfall, what your schedule would look like if a 5K was what you chose to make this happen and so on.  How can you get in on it?  Sign up at the right of this post in the pink box that says Go For It.  My next post is tomorrow and we are going head first into goal setting for the clean eating, workout loving, chaos needing women that we are.  This is not the same as the “healthy” sites that give you goal tips like keep moving and drink lots of water.  This is about making a hot body when you really just want to stop eating the left side of the cabinet or the only way you know how to do it is by beating yourself up or working out incessantly.  There has to be more to life than that.  And there is.  There’s healthy goals, healthy mind sets and balance.  Can I get an amen?

There really is more to life than hours and hours of cardio…

See you tomorrow via email!

Maybe it’s me, but as I age I want to keep everything where it is started: high. I’m just sayin’. I have no desire to get up in the morning and locate my backside, unravel my middle and fold up my arms to bring them with me wherever I go. And let us all be so honest and say this happens! Gravity is more powerful than we like to admit and it’s constant; it never gives up. Knowing this, we need to be prepared for the battle and for those of you who have already succumbed to the grips of gravity, there is help.
I am going to spare you a long, drawn out story that I am good for telling. I am not going to tell you anything about someone’s childhood when their butt was high or anything like that and now it’s their my basement and they visit it every-so-often. Nor am I going to describe what happens as you age and have babies or age and don’t have babies but how you may have an accordion for a belly now, a flour sack for a bum or mud flaps for arms. I refuse to give in to the strong desire to provide visuals of examples or horrifying details of how it can happen and scary stories from high school reunions. I had to talk myself out of giving you a two paragraph anatomy and physiology lesson about brown fat, insulin resistance and cavemen (insert whatever else is a popular topic right now…I’m drawing a blank) because it seems the industry demands this. Basically, I was having massive drama when I sat down to write this post and I decided to keep it simple. Here it is in a nutbag—shell, shell…sorry…here it is in a nutshell. Whoopsie.

• You care about how you look in AND out of clothes.
• You work hard in the gym and you watch what you eat. But it’s not enough. There’s something missing.
• You have had a few babies or were/are once heavier than you like and it left you with loose, sagging skin that does not seem to ever go away.
• You workout like a madman but you are not interested in competing in any sport so you really would not consider yourself an athlete per se. But you love a good workout and you diet like a pro.
• You want to lose the weight once and for all and you want someone to walk you through it every step of the way because you do great the first (X) amount of weeks and then it’s in the crapper from there.
• You have a wedding/shower/vacation/maternity leave coming and want to look great for it. I mean not just in your clothes, but the body parts that are not covered, too (arms, legs, abs, etc.).
• You like living on the wild side and think there’s something about this wack ball chic writing that’s appealing to you…like picking a scab or chewing on a hang nail. Hey…I’m being honest here. I will say, though, the other girls are much more sane than I.

Whatever the case may be, here it is: Trans4mation Station.

We set your goal together, we agree upon it and then we put it into action. We ask for at least 3 months full dedication and will tell you if we need more time than that, how long it may take and how it plays out. We are more concerned with your health than we are your results and we will tell you that. If what you desire is extreme, we’ll shut you down from the beginning. This is why we agree upon the goal together. Again, we’re women. We get it. We’ve either been there or are fighting like mad not to be and know what you fear. Happy, well adjusted women are our passion and hope to get you there by the end of your journey with us.
This site will be launching in the next few weeks although the business has been in existence for over a year now. This is what you can expect from a plan:
A customized nutrition plan
Weight training program
Functional Training program
Cardio schedule
Supplementation recommendations (all natural)
Snack list and recipes
Glossary of exercises
A bi-weekly phone call

The training changes monthly, the nutrition changes when necessary (sooner or later than a month, your results decide). I am sure at this point you are thinking, “Sounds great…how much? A million bucks?” Nope.

$199 down (programming fee), $67/month and you may cancel at any time.

I am sure you are tired of counting points, avoiding food groups and endlessly googling only to end up with the same body you started with but maybe a bit smaller. Let’s really transform that body together and get back to who you were before life hit you with a sack of potatoes . Hit me up as soon as possible: Jodi@trans4mationstation.com.

Because of the phone call and the level of detail we provide, we limit the amount of clients we take on. We only have a few spots open now but because enrollment is ongoing, check in with us whenever you are ready to see if we have new openings. In the mean time, I am going to go lift my derriere with a great metabolic lift this morning. Have a great day!

“No one has ever made it to their goal and thought to themselves, now how did I do that?”
T.D. Jakes

If you are keeping up with the BetterU program like I am, you know they are now talking about tracking what you are eating and what you are doing exercise-wise so you know how you are doing and what to change if you are not getting the results that you want. This is like music to my ears.

Tracking for many seems cumbersome in the beginning and so many don’t want to do it but I wish I had a dollar for every smile that I receive when I tell a client that they are X% stronger, faster, lighter, healthier and so on. Tracking shows you progress. Your progress. As you embark on an endeavor as big as this, you need all the extra encouragement you can get because the road seems long and unending. The biggest mistake is to make the scale your only form of tracking. Seeing how your diet has evolved over the length of this program and how your workouts become easier and more frequent is rewarding. It’s cool to see things like that.

If you are helping someone else through this program, you know how important it is to give a word of encouragement to your mom, aunt, cousin, friend and so on. When you help them to track, you give yourself something to be able to use to keep them going through the weeks. However, they may not and you may not know things that you can track that show progress other than the scale. Here is a list for you:

Food choices. Let them know that they have been eating:

more good than bad
more fruits and veggies than refined carbs
more good fats
better timing with meals
more meals
drinking water
not drinking soda
drinking less soda

Exercise

more days working out than not
lifting once per week
lifting twice per week
lifting three times per week
going up in the weight
learning more advanced moves
can do “this” now when they couldn’t before
can workout longer
can walk faster
can walk longer
can walk longer AND faster

When you see it written out this way you realize there are a myriad of ways for you to keep track of your progress without having to step on the scale. What are you going to use as your litmus?

Have fun and don’t forget to track it all in your fitbook!

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Honestly, I do not remember how old I was at the time, but I will never forget the night my father came into my room with a very “calm but panicked” look on his face. It takes a lot to rattle my cage—and I was rattled.

Let me back up first by saying I come from a very interesting household. We were not fitness buffs or health nuts but we never ate processed food, my mother cooked every day, she also played tennis every day—without fail—Monday through Friday with her friends, I was involved in every sport possible and NEVER sat still, my other siblings not so much but for all intents and purposes we were a very healthy household. There were a few treats here and there in the cabinets but you would be more apt to run into a piece of fruit before you would find something really naughty/yummy in the kitchen. All in all we were in great health, none of us ever getting sick and we were pretty well balanced. Then there was Dad…

My dad was a work-a-holic. Back then, he held a high position at M.I.T.’s Clinical Research Center and I am sure the politics and demands of the job were rough. He had four little mouths to feed with the help of my mother but never seemed to let it phase him. Sweets were a must in his life since his mom grew up in the deep south and was a psycho baker. She could do things with butter that were criminal (if you don’t know about my love for butter all I can say is, OH BOY) and my dad had grown accustomed to that taste. Pound cake was his favorite as was not eating for long periods of time. Bad mix for a sedentary man who spent much of his time in a computer lab. So it’s no surprise it finally caught up to him…

Flash back to my room. My dad is standing in front of me in a full sweat, holding his chest and telling me he had really bad heartburn and could I get him something stronger than Tums. I don’t know about y’alls, but about this time something clicked in my head and it sounded like this:

{Starts off low murmer} Man…dad doesn’t look good. He’s kind of grey.
{Getting a bit louder in my head} Why is he sweating so much?
{Loud enough that I think it could be someone talking to me} Jo—he told you earlier this afternoon he didn’t feel so well and wanted to lie down.
{Full out screaming in head} Holy Toledo! He’s having a heart attack!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

What happened after this is text book of what NOT to do {yes, it’s a pattern in my life}:

I did not call 911—mistake #1

I put him in my car and drove him to the hospital—mistake #2

Halfway there (in my lame defense, it’s literally 5 min. from my house) my father told me to slow down, I was going to give him a heart attack. BWahahaha! We still laugh about this one!—mistake #3 {we could have been stopped—wasting more time—or worse, got in an accident}

Lastly, I did not park in front of the door to let him out.—mistake #4 {this would have alerted medical staff of the emergency}

You never know when this is going to strike. It is the silent killer that most of just do not acknowledge enough. We act as if it cannot happen to us and we are infallible. We fool ourselves into thinking we are healthy because we may eat right and exercise occasionally or we may not be overweight so we’re not at risk.

My dad was fine even though he had a major heart attack. He was lucky. He had a quadruple (yep, 4) bypass performed and made it through with flying colors. That was about 15 years or so ago. Most are not that lucky. What’s worse, if you are a woman and reading this, you are even more at risk because you almost NEVER think it can happen to you. We seem to think this is a man’s disease. On the contrary!

• heart disease kills about 1 woman every minute, or approximately 450,000 women each year
• more women die of heart disease than the next five causes of death combined, including all forms of cancer
• 90% of women have one or more risk factors for developing heart disease
• 80% of cardiac events in women may be prevented by making the right choices involving diet, exercise and abstinence from smoking

Some of my dearest friends from high school smoke and are sedentary. I’m specifically talking to you ladies here. Pay attention to your health. Love yourselves and your children enough to reduce your risk factors (i.e. smoking) and get moving. If you are a blogger reading this, spread the word, too. On February 12th it’s blog your heart out day. Let’s get the word out that this is real.

This is week 1 of a Better U: Goal setting. Get in, confess and become accountable. If you check it out, it’s great for getting started so you have no excuse. Let me know how you do on this…I am anxious to know. For me, my goal at week 1 is to challenge myself above my normal workouts. I’m using my Fitbook to track my workouts again and I’m kicking my own arse.{interpret that as ‘sore, cranky, hungry all the time’} Time to shoot for a higher level again. This is a big deal for me because I have sooooooooooo much going on {who doesn’t? clearly time to get over myself}. But alas, what’s life without a challenge?

WOOP WOOP!

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Do you really know how to set goals or do you just write a bunch of ‘wants’ on a piece of paper and hope for the best?  Goals are great things to have because they keep us focused and wanting more of ourselves, but do you write them risk free?  Do you stop short of really demanding something of yourself that might possibly illicit a change out of you?  What I really want to know is…

How High Would You Climb If You Could Not Fall?

I want to know.  If you knew there is was no chance of you falling, how high would you go?  What would you write on that piece of paper as a goal?  Why would knowing you would not fall change anything? 

GOAL SETTING

Here is one task that I truly feel is misinterpreted.  There are many theories about goal setting and I do not want to go into any of them in this post but Mindtools and MyGoals.com both have great theories on how to set goals and put them into action so you can check them out if you want to be super technical about it.  But I want you to think before you even go there to learn how to put any goal you have in action, “Am I already limiting myself when I set my goal?”  When you go to write that goal down and put it into action, is it already clipped at the edges to make it pretty and doable lest you stick your neck out a little and take a risk?

ENDLESS GUARANTEES

(This is for the ladies, guys.  Sorry.  I have one coming for you soon, hang tight.)

We women need to Believe.  We have an insatiable desire to believe in something and invest in it.  It is hard wired into our system.  When we were younger, it was the hot band/singer at the time.  As we aged, it was a college professor.  Getting into the work field had us looking up to our mentors/leaders ahead of us.  No matter what stage of life we are in, we are looking to believe…so that we know we can do it, too.  We need reassurance.  We need a guarantee.  We need to know that we are not just making something up and that it can be done.  And then when we have that, we need it some more.  And then we look in more places for more reassurance.  And finally, we look again!  In other words, we very rarely come to a place where we believe that we too can achieve the task at hand and we are in a never ending search for a guarantee that we can do what we are setting out to do. 

REVERSE THE PROCESS

Instead of having you write down a lofty goal and then filling you with endless quotes as to why you are good enough to do what you want to do, I want to just ask again:

What is going to happen if you do not achieve that goal?  OR

How High Would You Climb If You Could Not Fall?

If there is no risk of harm, why stop climbing?  Can you write that out for yourself?  What is the worst thing that can happen if you set a lofty goal, take a risk and then fall short of it?  Will you lose your house?  Will it end your marriage?  Can you still pay for your kids to go to school?  What’s the worst thing that can happen?  Why can’t we just Trust and Believe that if we do what we are supposed to, that everything else will fall in place?  Where are we failing ourselves?

We buy into products (Mary Kay, Pampered Chef), people (Tony Robbins, Deepak Chopra), methods (The Secret) and etc. and we become motivated enough to sit down and write goals for someone we do not believe in!!  Is anybody hearing me here??  Invest in yourself!  Believe in yourself because I ask one more time, “What’s the worst thing that can happen if you fall short of that goal?”  You would either try again or analyze what went wrong and fix it.  But no matter what, you would be a better person in the end.  You will have learned, grown, expanded, become more confident just knowing the world didn’t explode—you will have done something more than just the usual, “I want to lose 5 pounds.” 

Sticking your neck out is rewarding.  Standing up to your fears is tremendous.  Yes, you did not get the part in the Broadway show that you wanted (totally made up scenario here), but you went to 10 auditions and met 2 influential producers and got some great experience in the mean time.  You would have never done that the year before so yes, you fell short of your goal and you may feel dejected because you did not get the part, but guess what, you are still alive and you can still perform.  What was the risk?

FACING FACTS

I feel like Mondays are a time when everyone sits down and writes up new goals for the week, month or whatever.  Go ahead, write your normal goals down on paper…and then write one helluva whopper of a goal that makes you shake in your boots.  Go ahead, I dare you.  What’s the worst that could happen?

Make this a good week, folks! 

p.s. My little one is much better.  Thank you everyone!:o)

You know I ended my last post with me telling you to enjoy life and if you are like most people I am sure you did not think too much about that statement.  I really want you to think about that statement.

You know I am an engineer (oh wait, you might not because my About page isn’t finished yet…GRRRR;) and I cannot help but think like an engineer all the time.  One of the most beautiful, yet simple, concepts of engineering is inertia:.  A body in motion will continue in motion until acted upon by an external force.  This could mean many things like: 1) You are on your way to the freezer with the ice cream in it until the phone rings. (Yes! Saved by the bell!)  2)  You were about to head to your co-worker’s cubicle to tell her to mind her own business and pull her weight in the project and if she just got off the phone maybe she could get—and then your boss calls your name or 3) You start on a little project that you complete, which makes you feel good, so you continue on to bigger and better projects.  Let’s focus on the last one since you ran out of ice cream and your co-worker was laid off…cool?

There are some things in life that just feel good.  And with that good feeling, they bring joy to your life.  Simple things like:

A good workout.

The shower after a good workout.

A good workout, a hot shower and a great lunch with a friend.

A good workout, a hot shower, a great lunch with a friend ending with mani/pedi’s for the day.

Wait, all that and a COUPON or TWOFOR special with the mani/pedi’s AND free parking.

Oh the endless permutations!!!!!!!!!!!

And completing a task.

Checking off the to-do’s for the day feels good but take that one step further: completing a full task/project feels even better.  So this isn’t dropping off the dry cleaning or cleaning the bathroom, this is making it to 5 push ups, doing 3 pull ups, organizing a whole closet or clearing out the draw (you know, everyone has the draw with all the stuff in it).  This is a task that you set out to achieve and when you complete it you not only feel good about it, you feel accomplished.

Now I know what you are going to say, “Jodi, I set goals all the time.  I am organized and driven and accomplish more in one day than you do in a week you once-every-few-days-blog-poster.” (Oh the hostility!)  Really?  How many of them are complete?  And how many of them span more than a day?  (again, the go-to-the-gym/complete-all-workouts-for-the-week type checklist is not what I am referring to).  When is the last time you set a lofty (or even mambi pambi) performance/physique goal and achieved it?  Do you know how good that feels? 

We like to start things, but we do not like to finish them.

Am I speaking to you with this one?  (Oh sing it sistah!  Oh Lord, break me down and…focus—sorry.)  Do you have 9 projects going at one time thinking you are “movin’ and a shakin’” when really you are just “wigglin’ and a strugglin’”?  When is the last time you really completed something?  I mean really completed it?  THERE IS JOY IN THE COMPLETION!  Honestly. Finish it.  Take it all the way to the end and then celebrate it. 

I know, I get it…starting something new is energizing.   The beginning of the week is always better than Thursday afternoon when you are just praying for Friday.  Diets are better on Monday than Saturday.  A new weight program is fun but 2 weeks later you need to be threatened within an inch of your life just to go to the gym.  Your start is always amazing; but what about the finish?  What’s up with that?   Do you blur your finish by morphing it into a new goal and calling it by a new name so you never have to admit that you didn’t finish it?  Talk to me about the finish! 

Why?  Because there is JOY in the completion and if you do not have glimpses of JOY in your life you stop caring, fighting, wanting, driving, being.

Every time you do not accomplish something it takes a tiny piece from you.  So that half done quilt in your bedroom that is under the half read book you started 3 months ago is reminding you day in and day out that you are not successful.  And feeling successful is just as important as BEING successful.  You must complete something soon!

Now I am not looking down my nose at you.  In fact, I have a nerve!  I am sitting in my office next to my brand new bookcase that is only half filled with books because I have not finished putting them in the case in the order that I want. (Read b/w the lines there and you see glimpses of “Sleeping with the Enemy” with the cans in the cabinet!lol)   And if you knew how many books I had, you would understand!  So now it is taking away from my joy!  I need to complete this.  In fact, I need to complete a few things in here or I am heading down an ugly path of joylessness. 

So what am I asking you to do?  I want you to complete something this week.  Do not start something new.  Complete something old.  Have you been meaning to “fill in the blank here” for a while and just haven’t?  Do you have a book you can finish?  Or a goal that you keep tabling?  Finish it!  But don’t just mindlessly pick up the project and chip away at it.  Set out on a path of completion.  Mark check points on your calendar so you can stay on task.  Tell your friend so they can keep you accountable.  This can be gym related or just house related—who cares!  Finish a project that’s big enough to create a tsunami of successful feelings but small enough to fit within a 2 week time frame. 

I, myself, am giddy with anticipation over a project I have looming in the background.  It is honestly about 6 months away from being done and if you are a personal trainer looking to bring your clients to the next level—you’ll want to follow this project.  But in the mean time, I need to create some serious inertia for that to happen because that’s a long way away.  So I am setting smaller, more achievable goals to give me that successful feeling I crave…   

We need a rhythm, a flow, an accomplished feeling…

…because once we have it, we are on such a high for at least a week (most likely more than that) that we can conquer just about anything! 

…then we’ll capitalize on our inertia and set our sights higher!

Are you ready?