Yea YOU KNOW it's on.

Happy New Year!

What? Why, yes, I was up at 6:30am today! And not because I was hungover oh NO. I headed my a** to Life Time Fitness and GOT ALL OVER IT. 

I am not playing. And well, when I share a picture of my new BFF that I train with at the gym, you'll see what I mean when I say I DO WHAT HE SAYS. There is something to be said about working out WITH SOMEONE -- whether it's a trainer or at least a friend that knows good form and how to spot. Remember I got really frustrated at first trying to do my legs workout alone-- learning how to front squat and trying to go heavy but worrying about bad form and injury.....that sucks. But now, I've got that all handled. 

And today by the time 9am rolled around I was spent. My entire body has some form of DOMS at this point-- some left over from late last week and some are just starting to creep in now from this morning.

And I love it.

I have made serious progress on so many things this past week or so. I dove in and started cleaning out my office. It's time to get ORGANIZED and then some. Because I'm all about efficiency in 2013 and not getting burned out-- making time for me and then when I am in the office, being productive.

It's that TREADMILL analogy I shared before. I won't do what I've done for over a year--- the same concept of just STAYING ON THE TREADMILL because I'm scared to get off. When I do that, I might still be moving but I'm moving SLOWER and losing momentum. When I get on and sprint/interval train I kick butt, then I leave and REST.

This is my approach for fitness and for business. 

Work will be there. I will handle it. I can LEAVE MY OFFICE and take care of myself!

That means my SLEEP will be a priority. Y'all know I don't do well with no sleep. The new Technogel mattress has made sleeping um so much more heavenly. I can't describe it but I have been MORE than wowed by the difference and the mattress is more FIRM than my last one, which I didn't think I'd like. But I just never want to leave.

I'm also going to bed EARLIER so I can get up earlier. And not WORKING BEFORE BED so I can shut this brain down. 

Now. My new office is equipped with some new badass goodness.

My new desktop:

It's not even here yet and I want to marry it. And I just upgraded my iPhone finally. Very upset that Mophie apparently doesn't make a charger for iPhone 5. 

Sigh.

I also have a Hujazz bulletin board to take up a wall in my office for my larger than life Vision Board. 

I also spent a little bit of cashola on some chic office organizational stuff for my office. Pictures later. I bought myself 2 new saucepans since I'm COOKING MORE in advance.....

Fishy Fishy Fishy.

Roasted Veggies. MMMM. 

Based on the input of my BFFs I'm ordering some Nutritional Yeast to put on the veggies-- have any of you tried that?

Making lots of Turkey Meatloaf, still loving my coffee with coconut oil/cinnamon and one TBS heavy cream. MMMMMM. 

There is absolutely no purpose in this photo other than to share that I LOVE the neon orange in these Reebok Real Flex shoes. #thatisall Also I should make sure not to use this Instagram filter as it looks like someone poured a ton of dirt on me, my shoes and my carpet. I am not that character from Charlie Brown with dirt all around him.

OH SNAP! DID I ALSO ORDER THIS LES MILLS BODY COMBAT FOR MY CARDIO? Yes. I did. I'm standing by the door waiting for this to show up.

Um. For some reason, today's post is NOT taking the embed code from YouTube correctly. So CLICK HERE to watch the dang preview.

Now.....here is my ramble-on-a-thon from last week. I have one more and then we are CAUGHT UP. ;-) 

So. How is YOUR first day of the year?? Are you kicking butt already?? Day isn't over yet. ;-)

Disclosure: Please note that Reebok, GNC, Life Time Fitness and Technogel are all clients of my company, FitFluential. All opinions are my own. 

Yes. I'd Like a 48 Hour Day, 10 Assistants and a Vacation.

It is horrifying to me when I finally sit down for 10 minutes to blog and see that the last time I blogged was TWO WEEKS AGO! Perhaps that can tell you how insane my life has become. LOL

In all seriousness, when I last posted, I had just arrived in Boston-- I was there that ENTIRE WEEK and it was JAM-PACKED full of meetings and BAD TRAFFIC. But-- I'll say this, I am so proud of myself for GETTING IT DONE while out of town! BOOYA! I don't have a ton of time right now but I will give you some fast and furious updates.....

This is the hill I ran several times while in Boston. BUT....IN ADDITION TO RUNNING I GOT MY WEIGHT TRAINING IN! WOOT! THAT'S RIGHT KITTENS! Remember I've been saying I've been bad, and I so enjoy going for a run, but I realized in my frazzled state of mind and being distracted and blah blah blah blah blah blah blah -- I was primarily running and no weight training getting done. 

DUMB. 

NEW FOCUS IS ON HEAVY WEIGHTS. HEAVY. WEIGHTS. BIG TIME. WAIT TIL YOU SEE WHAT'S COMING.

But my immediate goals are, and they are IN PROGRESS!!!!

• Wake up earlier. I'm not gonna go from waking up at 8:30-9am (because I've been going to bed at 1am, yes. I cannot lie!) to 6am immediately. I'm transitioning to earlier each week. Last week I did 8am, this week I'm at 7:30am/7am and next week or so hope to hit 6:30am with an ultimate bed-time of 10pm. 
• Workouts in the morning. Optional extras at night.
• MUST HAVE 4-5 DAYS OF WEIGHTS.
• Not limiting my running but no LONG LONG runs (LOL not that I've ever really done more than 4 miles ever!) and always incorporating sprints or intervals etc. 
• DOWN TIME. 
• EAT!!! FREAKING EAT LIKE A NORMAL PERSON FUELING THEIR WORKOUTS KELLY. Dang. People I hate that I'm THAT PERSON-- that work person that is like forgetting to plan. This will stop. I'm getting better. 
• TAKE VITAMINS/SUPPLEMENTS RELIGIOUSLY

I packed my Vitapaks from GNC, My protein powder, my BCAAs, my Pro-Sculpt and my shaker bottle. ;-)

These are the new Zig Kicks from Reebok. I talk about them-- for weight training and running in the babble-on-a-thons below:

Part TWO:

And that top that I'm wearing in the vlogs is SERIOUSLY THE BOMB. MY FAVORITE TOP SO FAR EVER FROM REEBOK. Loud love for that. CLICK HERE if you want to get yourself one and OH SNAP TODAY THEY ARE 40% OFF!! BOOYA. I seriously didn't even plan that.

Lastly, here's a little snapshot of my crew and THE AMAZING CREW AT REEBOK CROSSFIT ONE-- they hosted us (FitFluential) and took our Ambassadors through a cool Crossfit WOD:

Photo Courtesy of REEBOK. 

Here are some peeks at the WOD:

And MORE:

And more:

One last one:

Yes, that sassy little lady is 76 years old and Crossfitting like a boss. What's your excuse? Right? I think of her every time I want to be lame. 

I'm off for tonight. Working on balance peeps and having time to blog again. My goodness.

DISCLOSURE: Reebok and GNC are both clients of my company, FitFluential. All opinions are my own but many of the products I mention here were provided for me by these organizations at no cost. 

What's Missing.

I've been bad. I've been a slacker. At blogging and at my own workout consistency. There is no one to blame but me and there really aren't excuses. 

What has become clear is what's been missing in my life that I used to have in place before I became this workaholic creature that puts everything but me first. 

What HAS been in place-- my work schedule. My work hours. My dedication to building a startup and to putting in the TIME. I've been putting in the time. 

But what I realize is that in anything QUALITY is better than QUANTITY. If I slave away for 16 hours a day but am so burned out and fried from being hunched over my desk/laptop and my eyes are burning from staring at the screen, I'm NOT DOING QUALITY WORK. So it takes me 7x longer to do what I could do in an hour-- WHEN I'M ALERT AND MOTIVATED AND READY TO WORK.

Sometimes, breaking away is what you need to make you MORE EFFECTIVE. 

Welcome to Balance. Or How Much Balance Is Needed, Not Just a Fun Concept.

What's been MISSING? My commitment. I've had all the interest in the world this year but I havent put the things in place, haven't put pen to paper to write out my plan, haven't hired my trainer, haven't DONE THE WORK that in my head is there. My interest is at an all time high kids. My commitment-- gets pushed to the side, BY ME, because I am loyal to my lover - WORK- first. 

I need to get some space in my relationships and restore order. ;-) I sound very Oprah.

Work, I need some space from you. I'm not GOOD FOR YOU when I'm fried and so tired that I cannot focus. Breaking away from you will do my mind and body good so that when I DO work, I can kick A**. 

Workouts, let's get back together. I've been seeing RUNNING for a while. I like RUNNING. But all RUNNING and no WEIGHTS and NO YOGA makes Kelly feel mushy and sad. I need to be with ALL OF YOU. So we are going to have an open and inclusive relationship. We are dating. SERIOUSLY. I'm giving you my COMMITMENT. 

What's been missing? 

Consistency. HABITS. A way of life. I had FORGOTTEN WHAT IT FEELS LIKE when you always make the time for what's important. When things are important YOU FIND A WAY TO DO IT. I am so done being burned out, tired, drained and overextended. I'm making time for me. That means instead of just talking about the elusive "I have mornings for my workouts", I now have SPECIFIC WEEKLY OBJECTIVES and a trainer to help me. I shared my goals with Carla who LOVES TO KEEP ME ACCOUNTABLE. I no longer give creedence to this idea that "I don't have 2 hours for myself!!!!" Guess what?? when I give myself two hours, I am 10x more productive the other hours that I do work. I'm happier, I'm balanced. 

I'm stopping making such a big deal out of everything-- it's so true. We always UNDERESTIMATE what we eat and OVERESTIMATE how much we worked out. Think about it. You aren't where you wanna be? Look at yourself HARD-- are you REALLY working out as much as you should be?? are you REALLY EATING LESS OR EATING BETTER??

Sometimes we can make our obstacles BIGGER than they are. I've assumed way too many things about getting back to the gym or about taking time for my workouts-- that everything will suffer. It doesn't. 

I plan to walk this not just talk this. I hope to lead by example. Are you in? 

part two:

Every little bit COUNTS.

I started putting together my Nexersys system yesterday. If you could have been in my garage to see some of that you would have died laughing. Suffice it to say, I hope to have it all put together by this week so I can start kicking and punching it a LOT. 

It's Sunday. And I had to blog- because, yes, I want to get back into my daily blogging habit for accountability. It matters. But also because I had to tell you, EVERY LITTLE BIT COUNTS. If you've been reading my blog for a while, especially the 2010-2011 years, you'll know I've been (not now but then) in this panicked state of freaking out about my body changing, my metabolism, my hormones-- whatever you want to call it-- but all that STUFF that happened when I was gifted with early perimenopause at age 40. I became hot all the time, I got this ridiculous skin condition that continued to worsen each week and nothing would eradicate it, I gained weight- and in places I'd never gained it before. Suddenly sleep was not my BFF. And I spent the better part of 2 years trying everything but sticking to nothing in an attempt to overnight- reverse all of this "damage". 

Now, instead of paddling upstream with no focus, I have CALMED down. I've stopped beating myself up every day and cursing myself in the mirror. I've finally begun to embrace the journey- to enjoy everything I love about getting fit and healthy, without needing it to create immediate results. 

And guess what-- without trying -- I suddenly have changed into someone that goes for a run and doesn't worry the whole time if my sports bra is too tight and someone behind me might be laughing at me thinking "Why is SHE running? What a moron! Her sports bra is so tight, she must be kidding herself." (Yes this is absolutely RIDICULOUS thinking but I'd be lying if I told you I didn't have these absurdly paranoid, insecure thoughts a LOT in the past) I never understood people who said that they worked out and then noticed later that they'd lost weight or inches-- because I thought, "how can you not observe yourself every day and pick yourself apart to see if that hour in the gym made a difference?" THIS IS NOT A HEALTHY MINDSET BUT IT WAS MINE. Now, I'm finally that person that suddenly looks in the mirror as I walk by and says, "holy crap! I can't believe how much fat I've lost and wow, my hamstrings are starting to pop!". 

Now when I run, I'm paying more attention to what I can do-- how far I can go or how much I can just OWN IT with sprint/hill intervals. And I feel amazing afterwords and I am not thinking "I hope I lost a pound today". I'm proud of my WORK. 

Now when I eat, I'm satisfied with LESS, and I'm not trying to convince myself to do so - it just is. When I "indulge" or "cheat" - whatever you want to call it, if I took my mom to lunch after the hospital visit this week and we ordered Reuban sandwiches and I had some with the pumpernickel bread and some steak fries-- I'm not bingeing. I'm not eating in secret. I'm not forking in the entire plate because "Oh crap this is BAD food and I need to be really strict tomorrow to make up for this so I better enjoy this all now....." NO. I have what I want. I enjoy it. And I let my mom take my 1/2 sandwich home to my dad. So I had some french fries. Big deal. So I had some bread. Big deal. 

I'm still losing weight.

In fact, QUITE OFTEN now, I'm sitting at my desk and I can FEEL my tummy pudge~ that annoying tummy fat that I never had my whole life until age 40-- it's getting smaller every dang day. I keep looking at my legs, and -- I have great calves. Seriously, I've always loved my calves and ankles-- my calf muscles are so developed I often can't wear knee-high boots because they don't zip over my calves. I have small ankles. But I have very muscular thighs and I have always carried fat on my thighs. Although I will never have skinny upper legs, I know I can lose that fat and build up my quads and hamstrings. And every week I find myself looking at my legs for the first time in years going "Oh my GOSH I am losing FAT here...." 

Another thing. I'm working out for ME. I run, but hey- I don't really want to do 1/2 marathons and marathons. I love to run and do all kinds of hills and sprints and intervals. This is what I LIKE. I love weights and having killer workouts at the gym with my trainer. Haven't done that in a LONG time. I'm going back to it because this is my goal- a strong back like THIS:

I'm not trying to fit into my old XS Ann Taylor tops anymore. I'm fine with the fact that my arms don't fit in clothes designed for Gwenyth Paltrow. I agree that STRONG is the new SEXY. I'm not trying to get rid of my bootie either. And thank you Valerie Waters for making Valslides because incorporating that into my training, I gotta tell you, I have never been more wowed by my butt than after incorporating Val's moves for the bootie. And people don't fear the squats and lunges. I read somewhere that the people that have problems running or with their hips (I could be wrong in paraphrasing here) are those that have weak glutes. Strong legs and glutes-- it's GOOD FOR YOU. And it looks good. Come on. Embrace it. Stop trying to fit into a Size 2 pair of jeans if your butt and legs mean you look better in a 6 or 8. 

This is the kind of picture now that makes me SAD:

When I remember how this is what she used to look like:

It feels so much better mentally and physically where I am now and where I'm going. I hope if any of you have had the kind of rampant self-doubt, insecurity, fear and self-loathing invade your life-- you will take steps to snap out of it and move into a healthier mind and body approach. Your whole world will change. ;-)

Part Two:

Gotta go get my outdoor run in today. It's a beautiful day outside so I'll hit Life Time Fitness tomorrow. But for now- OUTSIDE!

Friday. It's #FitFluential at REEBOK. #RBKFITBLOG

Talk about FUN..!!! OMG. Today was epic at Reebok World Headquarters. I'm still catching my breath. Here are just a few photo highlights and the video highlights will follow on Sunday. ;-)

Yes. There was Crossfit action. And it was fantastic how much time they spent TEACHING correct form for everyone. So important. 

It was difficult to watch these men demonstrating proper form. So difficult. 

*ahem*

This was AFTER the killer Crossfit workout they did. Amazing. 

Is that not an AD waiting to happen? #badass

They had all these great stories up in the lobby-- this mantra caught my eye. 

Let me just tell you. I cannot lie. I am loving all the COLOR and such in Reebok's new lines. I used to be boring "all black" girl. Now I'm all about bring on the SASS!!

How cute did they have the first part of the class set up....LOVE.

We got to spend time in the Engineering lab where all the cool science happens. And how sexy are these glasses? You know you want some.

In the lobby they had the history of the brand and its products. OH how I remember my first VHS TAPE Step Reebok with Gin Miller. I kid you not-- even if you did these today, you'd break a killer sweat.  Well OMG I just found the whole thing on YouTube:

You have to get over the thongs outside of the lycra in this video. But the workout is fun. So 1990 MTV look. UM that's back when MTV actually played VIDEOS. 

Enough recap for me today. Time for bed. And HOME tomorrow. Amen.

Bummer.

This is what I wish I was doing this morning. Instead, I am in a horizontal position on my couch whining and moaning loudly because I am SICK. Woke up at 3am with a horrid sore throat and then a hujazz migraine. OUCH. So I am stepping away from the computer to veg out and get better.

Don't cry for me Argentina. Cuz I'll be back. In the mean time, take a look-see at my 2-part Ramble-on-a-Thon. I talk about several fun products that all y'all will want. 

Um. Wow. Disclosure, the kind folks at Motorola sent me the MOTOACTV to test out. And it took  me forever to take it out of the box (overbooked Kelly) but I am EXCITED about this product. As I share in the vlog, I thought for some reason because it's an MP3 player that it would NOT take my iPod tunes. I was wrong. SCORE. No need to buy tunes from another platform--- that's a win. Secondly the headphones FIT MY EARS!!!! Y'all know that hardly ANY headphones or even Bluetooth headsets FIT MY EARS!! These fit, and fit snugly like a tight tank-top from Victoria's Secret with a secret built in push-up bra. The only downside I can share is that while I imported my tunes, the space is not as VAST as I'd hoped. I could only import 2 playlists from iTunes but hey that's my Running and Workout playlist so I am fine with it. It comes with an arm-band, a wrist-band and a bike attachment. VERY VERY COOL. 

Part TWO:

I'm also wearing a new tank-top from Reebok in this vlog. I was sent this to learn more about some pretty uber-cool Celliant Technology. I have yet to know what that means, but I will let you know more shortly. For the moment, peek at their site by CLICKING HERE. And I will say that I do dig the tank-top, the fit and the length etc. And underneath the tank top I'm wearing that "bra" from DA Active. I dig these people, I really do. Lastly, you'll probably like the sparkly headbands I'm wearing from Sparkly Soul-- why? Sparkles are cool but THEY DON'T RIDE UP OR MOVE! SCORE!! Kelly likes. And they really don't move. Seriously- even when you run.

Now I'm going back to bed. 

And today it finally snowed in Chicago for the first time. What's up with that?

*Disclosure: Motorola sent me the MOTOACTV to review, but I was not compensated to write my review, and the opinions expressed here are my own. Reebok sent me the Workout top to try out- I was not compensated and the opinions expressed here are my own. Sparkly Soul sent me the headbands to test out, I was not compensated and the opinions expressed here are my own. Today I am a walking billboard!! LOL**