60 Day Checkin (Beachbody)

Well, it's been 60 days since I started to seriously focus and track on my fitness with Beachbody on Demand. Here's what happened:

I am beyond excited about these results and completely committed to continuing on. I signed up to be a Beachbody Coach (www.beachbodycoach.com/septemberradecki )so that I can focus on helping other people achieve their goals too! As I have matured (read reached an age over 55) I find that there are less resources for us. Less resources that tell you it's okay to modify, it's okay to take a rest day if you need it, and it's okay to listen to your body! It's NOT okay to make a goal of eating clean and throw it out the window. It's NOT okay to make a goal of working out six days a week and chuck it out the window every time your friends want to do something. Just like everything else in life, I feel like we need to commit to ourselves. My workouts are sacred. They are as important as getting up in the morning and being to work on time, and getting to bed on time at night. They are what I do.

I am getting lots of questions at work about the "shakes" I make every day for either my morning or afternoon snack, so I'm going to address that here. I drink a Shakeology every single day. Some days it replaces my breakfast and other days it's a snack, but I do drink one every day. I do it because I love shakeology! SInce I started drinking it in July, I have had stronger workouts, more energy, fewer cravings, better sleep, and my hair, skin and nails are growing like crazy! Why? Because Shakeology isn't your standard "protein shake". It is actually a dense nutrition shake, chock full of superfoods. If you eat clean, this is the shake you want. Below is a sheet that tells about one of my favorites, Chocolate Vegan.

If you read those ingredients, you will see so so so many super beneficial superfoods, from maca to goji to spirulina to maitako mushrooms to reishi mushrooms to moringa and more. There is NO added sugar. None. 9 grams of sugar in a serving, which naturally occurs in the ingredients, making this a great choice. It does have Stevia, but that's also a plant, and a healthy one at that.

At first, I just went along with the shakeology drinking, but after a week or so, I noticed that I felt different. I don't feel sluggish anymore as the day goes by and as I said before, my hair, skin, and nails are all acting like I have superpowers.

If you know me, you know I'm a clean eater. I don't eat a lot of junk. I'm dairy free and gluten free and I am fiercely protective of that because when I don't eat that way, I suffer from ill side effects that I'm not sharing, but it's not pretty! I have continued this while doing Beachbody workouts, and it has served me well.

I'm working out 6 days a week, most of the time. Occasionally, on Sunday mornings, I will do a yoga run through for a 7th day, because it feels good, but for the most part, Sundays are my rest day. On the other days, I usually pick a 30 minute workout. For me, working out in the afternoon is better. It keeps my stress level down in the morning and it is actually when I have almost always worked out. I was driving home the other day thinking about it. When I was in high school, I swam on the wim team. We practiced in the afternoon. Later, I would go to Jazzercise in the evenings. For the past 4 years, I have done DDPYoga, mostly in the afternoons. So it makes sense that I do my Beachbody workouts in the afternoon/early evening. Once in a while, on the weekend, I'll knock out my workout in the morning, but not always, and it does always feel weird!

I guess that's it for now. I just wanted to do my 60 day checkin and follow up on what exactly I'm doing. Right now, Beachbody is running a special where for $160 you get a whole year of Beachbody on Demand Access, a month of Shakeology in any of the amazing flavors (I use the vegan because of my gliten and dairy issue), and the 21 day fix portion containers (which are epic!). For $99, you can forgo the containers and the Shakeology and only get the year of access to Beachbody on Demand.

Make sure you choose me as your coach, because I'd be thrilled to help you work toward your health goals!!! www.beachbodycoach.com/septemberradecki

Kombucha and Muscle Soreness

A year or so ago, my friend Helen made me some Kombucha. She told me it was a fermented beverage and was really really good for me. Because I trust her, I drank it. It didn't taste the best, very tart and tangy, like vinegar only different, but it was an interesting experiment so I drank it all. (she gave me a 1 liter bottle.) On and off, I've gotten more from her. Sometimes I run out and don't have time to get bottles to her or go see her, so I buy storebought, but I'm kind of good about getting my kombucha in a few times a week.
Fast forward to this summer, when I've added Beachbody on Demand workouts to my lifestyle. The first day, I thought I was going to die. Literally. I was in SO much pain. Holy wow, I was sore. I was ready to try anything. I ended up having some kombucha, just because it was handy. When I woke up the next morning, I was not sore. Wait, what? No, seriously, I was not sore!
I figured it was a happy coincidence, but kept drinking it, and although I would get mildly sore, I was able to function! Hmmmm. Was this all in my head?
I did some research online and, sure enough, Kombucha reduces lactic acid. Lactic acid is what makes us sore! Aha!
Moral of the story? Drink some Kombucha!!! Find a friend that makes it or buy some at the store. Be prepared, it won't be your favorite beverage, but you can dilute it and it's a bit easier to drink. My very favorite of all time is during the winter, Helen makes cranberry Kombucha. When I get it home, I sneak about 10 grains of raw sugar (don't tell Helen) into my bottle and let it sit in the fridge. I don't know, it's probably all in my head, but it makes it taste even better!
And hey, don't forget, if you have questions about Beachbody or want to know more or even become a coach, let me know!! I'm here to help!
-Have an awesome day!

Push Through and Shine

Have you done something where, at the start, you were completely overwhelmed and totally unsure if you could really do it?
What was it? Climbing Half Dome? Painting a room? Cleaning a closet? Driving 1000 miles? Ice skating backwards? Meeting someone new? Arriving late at a party? Doing your first 5k? Running your first marathon?
So what happened? Did you do it? I bet you did. I bet you totally overcame your uncertainties and totally did whatever it was. I bet you did. You know why? Human spirit. We WANT to set goals and kick them in the teeth. We want to better ourselves. We want to have rooms that have pretty walls. We want to learn new things. While we might not want to GO to the party, there is usually some reward in going, such as being there for the host or hostess, seeing an old friend you haven't seen in a while, meeting someone who you have wanted to meet, or even watching the glee on your child's face because they wanted to come so much.
What makes working out different? How is starting a fitness journey any scarier than any of the other things I mentioned? You know what? It's not!! It's time to own it and believe in yourself.
I hear people tell me all the time , "I'm too out of shape to do that" or the worst of all "I'm too old to do that..." Nope. You aren't. I'm not saying that your comments are not valid. I'm not saying that at all. Your comments are valid to you and that's your truth. What I AM saying, is that you can change the stories you tell yourself and change your life. You CAN do almost anything you set your mind to do.
Let me tell you a funny story. When I was 25, I bought my first home, an upstairs condo. It was really a sweet condo, with a large living room that had 6 foot vaulted ceilings. I loved it. My first husband moved in with me, about 9 months before we got married. He was a strong guy, a welder, and firmly believed that he should do the heavy lifting and the hard stuff, because it was too much for me. We were always at odds over this, because I'm actually a pretty competent human being at solving problems and figuring out how to do what I want or need to do! One day, he was off helping his Dad with something across town. We had talked about rearranging the furniture in the living room for weeks, but not done anything. We had this one piece of furniture that was super heavy. Seriously. It weighed a metric ton. I don't even remember what it was, but I DO remember it was very heavy. By the time he came home, I had moved everything. He walked in the door and just stood there. Then he looked at me and asked who came to help. I told him that I had done it myself. He didn't believe me. I literally ended up having to demonstrate my method for moving furniture. Looking back now, I'm sure he had to fight back laughter, but I did what I wanted to do and got it done. (If you know me and have worked out with me at all, you know I'm what they call a quad centric athlete. My legs are super strong. my upper body, not as much. I had seated myself on the floor and moved furniture using my legs to push it. It was incredibly hard, and would not have been a good idea with anything tall, but I don't think I moved anything tall! LOL)  This is a great example of "you can do anything!"
When I started doing Beachbody workouts, I couldn't hardly keep up with the workouts. They were hard! I actually started with a Shaun T. weeklong challenge. I didn't realize until later that it probably wasn't at my level. By the time I realized, I was halfway through the week and in love with it. I was modifying things and marching in place when I was overwhelmed, and just kept going like the Energizer Bunny.

This quote, by Arthur Boorman is a guiding light for me. It says it all. If you don't know who Arthur is, do a google search. Arthur is probably the most determined guy ever. He was injured as a paratrooper, used walking canes, started doing DDPYoga, and now can run! Really. I encourage you to read his story, print this quote out, and paste it in places where you see it all the time, as a reminder. YOU CAN DO IT! Keep pressing forward, keep trying. You will get there.
On 7/10, I officially started my Beachbody journey. That was 49 days ago.  I joined a challenge group and signed up for Beachbody on Demand and started drinking Shakeology every single day. In that time, I've worked out on 43 of those days. Pretty amazing if you ask me! I'm NOT a girl who likes to get sweaty, honest. But, I AM a girl who is focused and determined. I've set a goal to get rid of all of my extra weight and live the rest of my life in a healthy, happy way, that doesn't include being overweight and out of shape. I've also lost over 10 inches and 8 pounds. I've dropped from a 2X to an XL in tops and I've dropped a size in bottoms. However, the biggest change is that I look forward to my workout time, and I MAKE time to do it. It is important to me. I matter. Taking care of me, taking care of my physical needs is something that I tend to put aside as soon as something goes wrong, but you know what? There will always be something. Always. If I am not the best version of me I can be, how can I help anyone else? That's the key. Instead of looking at this as only for me, I'm looking outward at the impact of my changes. Living my life to it's fullest is SO important to me. We are going to Hawaii in November. For the last couple of years, when I've flown anywhere, I was on the verge of asking for a seatbelt extender. This year, I've flown twice and each time, I've been able to tighten the seatbelt a little more. I have wanted to learn to paddleboard since I started seeing people doing it in Hawaii. I have decided I'm going to learn while we are there.
If any of this resonates with you, or makes you feel like you want to talk more, please reach out. Call me, text me, send me a message on Facebook. Whatever it takes. If you are in need of a new way of working out because of an injury or because of age or anything else, please reach out. I'm here, I'm more than willing to help, and I will either have answers or know where to get them!!!  Let's do this thing together!!!!
- Have a beautiful day!

P.S. I'm still doing Weight Watchers and still loving it! :)

New Venture, Explained

I know that my blog talks a lot about DDPYoga and my journey. I know there are probably a lot of readers who are totally confused at my abrupt change. Let me try to explain a bit, if I can.
First of all, DDPYoga literally saved my life. When I joined the DDPYoga lifestyle, I weighed over 300 lbs. I could not tie my shoes, I got tired after walking less than 100 yards, my feet constantly hurt from plantar fasciitis, and I figured I was "too old" to do anything about my weight, and felt like I couldn't, because of the pain. Fast forward 2 1/2 years, and I attended the DDPYoga Retreat in Cancun, Mexico! I did all but 1 workout. I loved every minute of it. I got feedback from Dallas on my form, and set a personal goal with him at the going away party, (which everyone does!), to lose 30 lbs. in 6 months. He told me it was a pretty aggressive goal but I said yes.  I went home, with newfound energy and commitment, and lost 20 lbs of the 30. Then I was stuck. I was stuck because of something that I choose not to share publicly, but something that I  DID share with my accountability partners, and did my best to work through. Having said that, I lost those 10, about a week before the 6 month mark and proudly emailed Dallas and shared.
 I figured I would continue on and continue to lose, but life and the universe had different plans. My personal life continued to flouder and it floundered in ways that made it really hard to hit my mat, really hard to even find a place to workout with the quiet that I personally need to do DDPYoga. I stopped working out. During this time frame, I also was reminded by a  specialist that not giving my left achilles, which was inflamed, time to heal, meant it would always be an issue. So I rested it. And I ate. 2016 is a banner year in my life, and will never be forgotten. There was good, there was bad, there was "wait, are you kidding me, this isn't my life." But it happened, and it is what it is. It's over.
Fast forward to January of 2017. Every year, I pick a word to live by. I set an intention of living by that word and what it means. This year, I picked PEACE. I wanted to reclaim the peace that I had built in my life, and I meant business. On January 3rd, I joined Weight Watchers. I was so close to 300 at this point that it scared me. I was, however, done playing around, and intent on losing the 30 lbs I had lost with the goal with Dallas, and more. This was it. I decided to do WW and remain gluten and dairy free, as that's how I feel healthiest. At first, I didn't add any exercise in. I just didn't really have time. Our granddaughter lives with us part of the time and is much more fun than Dallas and DDPYoga. :)  I went to the gym sporadically and rode the bike. I even dropped the too-far-from-home-gym and joined 24 hour fitness around the corner from home and biked. A lot. I did that for several months. I lost about 18-20 lbs. Slowly.
In mid-June, a friend posted on Facebook that she was looking for people who wanted to participate in a test exercise group. I answered immediately. "Sure, why not." She folded me into a group of women, who, come to find out, would be active participants in me reclaiming my life even further and realizing how many lies I had told myself about my age and abilities. This was a Beachbody group. I didn't know it at the time, but many of the ladies in the group are my age. Experienced in life, and all with "stories", all different, but all important in who each of us is.
I started to lose inches and pounds. I started working out at home, but I changed it up. I do as many of my workouts as I can in the backyard on the patio. Once the weather cools, I'll move inside, as I do when it's over 90, but for most of the summer, I've worked out on the patio. It's been amazing. Lots of light, sun, soft breezes, and, lately, dragonflies that come back again and again to accompany me on my journey.
It's now the end of August. I'm now down a total of 28 lbs and at least 11.5 inches. I'm due to measure this weekend so I'll have to update once I do that, but suffice it to say, I've had to donate clothes, buy clothes, and tighten my belt a bunch since starting Beachbody.
So what does this have to do with DDPYoga? I'm still a member of the community, and occasionally, I hit my mat and do a workout. I have the app and once in a blue moon I use it. For daily use, I've found that right now, at the health level I'm at, I push myself too hard in DDPYoga for what my body can tolerate, so I've backed off some and am building tone and muscle with Beachbody workouts, but I have NO intention of giving up DDPYoga. None. I just want to build some core strength, ankle strength, and shoulder strength to make my DDPYoga journey more fun and comfortable. For right now? I'm loving Beachbody on Demand as well! I'm a coach, and willing to share if you are interested in what I'm doing, just send me a message and we can chat!
I think that we all have our own fitness journeys. I also firmly believe that fitness journeys are multi-faceted. There is room for so much variety. Biking, hiking, lifting weights, DDPyoga, Pilates, whatever you choose. The most important thing is to keep moving. Don't stop. Keep fighting. Age IS just a number, but if you stop moving, it will be harder and harder to GET moving again. Never give up.
One last thing. You definitely want to keep an eye out here on my blog, because I'm working on a Soul Restoration retreat that will incorporate a few workouts as "tension relievers"!!! It's going to be a blast!!! (there might even be the opportunity to work with an Energy Coach!)
- Have a beautiful day!

Do You Really Understand What Modifying Means in a Workout?

Seriously. What do you think when someone says "Oh I did that workout and I modified it!" Do you think "Wimp! Why modify? Just push through?" or do you think "Wow, smart, know your limits." I will openly admit that ever since I can remember, I've done my best not to modify. I went at my workouts like I go at everything in life, with everything I have, and I expect Virgo perfectionism. I'm dead serious!!
So, 4 years ago, when I started DDPYoga, I didn't really understand that any form of yoga is a "practice". I approached it as if it was something to conquer. Beat each move into submission and move on to the next one. I watched others do this, why not me? Well, I hurt myself pretty good a couple of times. Once was a shoulder that healed up pretty quick, but the other was Achilles tendinitis caused by me pressing down way too hard for my body's limits, in down dog. It was a painful lesson and took forever to recover from!! Even now, I have days where the KT tape comes out and the ankle gets taped before I workout!
These Beachbody workouts that I'm doing? They are no joke. Man, these are HARDCORE, results oriented, kick your a$$ workouts! I'm LOVING them, but I will admit, they are not simple. But you know what? They are only as difficult as *I* make them! I go into a workout with the agreement with myself that I will try everything, and then modify. There are times that I modify the modifiers. There are also times when I do not do what's being done, I do my own thing. I wear a heart rate monitor too! (and I listen to it!!)
I guess I just want to see people be successful and enjoy their workouts. Workouts are so much more fun when you are successful, and you stay motivated when you are successful much more easily than you do if you don't enjoy what you're doing!!
I'm starting a challenge group on Monday (8/28). If you want to know more about it, or want to join us, please, just drop me a message and I'll get back to you and help you get started. It's going to be fun! How can it not be fun to lose weight, inches, and meet new people? (It's online, you can do the workouts whenever you want, streamed from Beachbody! and yes, you do need to buy a subscription to Beachbody to participate!)
Please remember, above all else, in whatever you do, there is NO shame in modifying. No shame at all. We aren't all 20-something, and eventually, with PRACTICE (see what I did there?) you will reach a point where you can suddenly unmodify that move that you were having to modify!
I look forward to hearing from you!
- Have a beautiful day!

September’s Stuffed Bell Peppers

Ingredients:

6 bell peppers (I buy the 6 in a bag at Costco)

1 lb. ground turkey (Costco)

1 onion, finely diced

1 zucchini, finely chopped or shredded

1 cup cauliflower rice
about 2/3 can diced tomatoes, drained

1 tsp salt

½ tsp pepper

1/3 cup shredded cheese (I use sheep Manchego, because I can’t eat cow dairy)

Italian seasoning or Greek seasoning (your choice, to taste, optional)

Directions:

1. Slice about 1 inch off the top of all of the peppers. Dice up the top part you removed and set aside. Discard stems.
2. Clear out the seeds and insides of the peppers. Line them up in a baking dish.
3. Combine the turkey, onion, zucchini, cauliflower rice, pepper bits, diced tomatoes, salt, pepper, and seasoning in a pan and lightly cook for about 5 minutes, over medium heat, stirring constantly.
4. Distribute evenly among the 6 peppers. You might have to squish it in there pretty good.
5. Bake for 1 hour. Cover for the first 45 minutes, then uncover for the last 15 minutes.

Note: I do not cook the turkey mixture ahead, I bake for longer, until cooked, but this is not the “recommended” way. J You get to choose how you want to make yours!

These are roughly 4 smart points each, and amazingly yummy!

Shift Shop Results!!! What's Next?

Some of you might know that I've been doing Beachbody on Demand workouts for about 45 days now. In fact, I just finished a 21 day Shift Shop group. It was insane, intense, and amazing all rolled into one! I am SO excited about it, in fact, that I signed up to be a BeachBody Coach AND I'm doing Round 2 starting today!!!

Here are my results:


In THREE weeks, I lost 6.5 inches and 5.9 lbs!!!  I'm SO stoked. I feel fantastic too! I'm eating clean (still Weight Watchers as well as gluten and dairy free), and drinking soooo much water! I've had to fold in Hydrate (Beachbody makes a reasonably priced one that I love too! WIN!) because my electrolyte levels were getting messed up from the heat and workouts, but that's been my only glitch.

For me, the biggest trick is MODIFY. Do not be afraid to do what YOU can. Make it work for you. There are times where the instructor will do something and I think "Yea, that's just a suggestion." and I totally do something else. I STILL got ALL that weight gone!!

Onward to stage 2 of Shift Shop tomorrow!!! 

If you want to join in, CLICK HERE, and send me a message so we can get you into our challenge group!

Have a fantastic Monday!