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Yeah, sleep is kind of a boring subject but a super important one when it comes to your health. It doesn't boost your ego when you rock out a solid 8 hours of sleep compared to bench pressing a new personal best. Although... after being a new parent I do get pretty excited after a good nights sleep. Photos that you post to Instagram of you sleeping just aren't as attractive as a picture of the pretty salad you ate at the local cafe. You take your pick...
Let's be honest there is nothing fun, glamorous or sexy about sleep. I'm talking about sleep, not what happens before you sleep. ;) Sleep is crucial to your health. Here are just a few facts about sleep.
*Information from studies conducted by Canadian Medical Association Journal. I'm really looking forward to a book that I just ordered Shawn Stevenson's, Sleep Smarter: 21 Proven Tips to Sleep Your Way To a Better Body, Better Health, and Bigger Success. Once I get done with that one I'll write up another post about some of the tips. Until then do your best to get some rest. Take Care Friends!!!
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 I love that I'm able to open up a book and learn from some of the best teachers and inspirational speakers. I've always been a reader (Laura)...ever since I was 5 years old my nose was stuck in a book. I think it was my way of escaping a life of 3 brothers,1 sister, 2 dogs, 1 cat and a bird...and the chaos that was just a natural byproduct of having a big family. Don't get me wrong...I LOVE having a big family and I wouldn't trade it for the world...it was just loud!
I have always been interested in reading things that would help change my mind, my thoughts, my worldview, my view of myself etc. I had focused mainly on Christian authors like Max Lucado, Donald Miller, Jen Hatmaker, Erwin Raphael Mcmanus, John Eldredge, Francis Chan etc...who are all amazing and have helped mold me into the person I am today! BUT THEN...after becoming a Beachbody coach an entire new world was opened! Books on leadership, goal setting, productivity, how to grow as a person, overcoming difficulties, personalities, nutrition etc...are definitely on our shelves now as well. Making sure that I feed my mind so that I can better help those around me is SO important. It also helps with the disappointments and rejections that life tends to hand me. I see so much more clearly now, how the things that happen to me - my circumstances and the way people treat me - don't have to dictate my attitude or my actions. Safe to say I've even converted Dan into a reader. Well, I'm not sure it was me...but I'll take credit. His goal this year is to read 1 personal development book and 1 nutrition related book every month!! My goal is to read 1 personal development book. Here are a few of our favorites (stars by highly recommended books): The Slight Edge by Jeff Olson** The Magic of Thinking Big by David Schwartz** The Compound Effect by Darren Hardy** Go for NO by Richard Fenton & Andrew Waltz** GO Pro by Eric Worre** Eat that Frog by Brian Tracy** PUSH by Chalene Johnson** Start by Jon Acuff Quitter by Jon Acuff** Make Today Count by John C. Maxwell Developing the Leader Within You by John C. Maxwell The 15 Invaluable Laws of Growth by John C. Maxwell The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership by John C. Maxwell How to Win Friends & Influence People by Dale Carnegie The Fire Starter Sessions by Danielle Laporte The 4 Hour Work-Week by Timothy Ferriss The Four Year Career by Richard Bliss Brooke The Charge by Brendon Burchard EntreLeadership by Dave Ramsey** What are some of YOUR favorites? What would you add to this list?? I, Dan, signed up for a nutrition course back in September through Precision Nutrition. The goal on the back end of it would be to become a Certified Nutritional Coach. The coursework has taken me through everything from the biology of the human digestive system, the absorption of nutrients, the process of converting food into energy and the particular needs of our body to finally developing nutrition plans and working with clients to implement those plans. I wanted to put some of this nutritional training into action, and who better to be my first test subjects than Laura and I! So last week both of us did a little nutritional experiment. We have never been calorie counters. We believe and try to teach people that it is more about quality than quantity. If you get the quality right the quantity will take care of itself. One of the common faults that we see with a lot of people we work with is that they don’t eat ENOUGH food/calories. Modern culture as perpetuated a myth that the way to lose weight is to exercise more and eat less. The focus is not on what you eat but more so, how much you eat. We wanted to bust this myth, especially using Laura as a female example. I calculated the calorie needs for Laura and myself based on our current weight, body type, activity level, whether we wanted to lose or maintain, and also took into account the fact that Laura is nursing so she required some additional calories. This is what we came up with based on Laura wanting to lose weight and I wanted to maintain;
Laura's Experience As a woman, eating 2800 calories a day is CRAZY....heck, even if you're a man it's really tough. There were a few reasons why I wanted to try it: 1) I wanted to see if I could ACTUALLY do it 2) I wanted to prove to women that they shouldn't be afraid of food or calories and 3) I had heard of people actually losing weight and I wanted to see if that would happen! Honestly we sort of decided at the last minute to do this...so we really didn't give ourselves a chance to back out. Kinda smart, huh?? To keep it simple and to the point, I'll break it down by day: Day 1: I felt like I was eating CONSTANTLY but I felt good! I didn't feel like I was going to explode or anything but by about 5:30 pm I did feel a bit gassy ;) Hey! Just being honest! I had quite a few carbs left over that night so I was forced to have a glass of wine...darnit. I actually went over on my fat and protein but not by much. Day 2: Pretty much every day we both had 1 egg and 8 egg whites scrambled with ham and spinach...and 2 or 3 slices of Ezekiel toast. Really good but we missed having the entire egg! Felt pretty good all day...and by the end of the day I had come SOCLOSE to hitting all of my macros Day 3: Decided to add some steel cut oats to the menu for breakfast, on top of the scrambled eggs to try to make sure I got my carbs in. Having to track everything is getting a bit old...but weirdly addicting at the same time. Day 4: Was a bit short on carbs but ran out of calories at the end of the day. It's a constant balancing act...trying to find the perfect blend of foods that will meet all your macros as well as your calories! I can imagine if you're going to do this long term you find that balance and just stick with those same foods over and over and over....Ugh. Doesn't sound like fun to me! Day 5: FRIDAY!!! We drove to Des Moines on this day and packed snacks. We even tried to stick with the plan for dinner when we were at my parents house...Dan went and bought some smoked salmon and baby red potatoes. And then we even had some pizza from Costco :) Hey! If it fits your macros...go for it! That's a hashtag on Instagram, go check it out! All in all, I'm actually really glad we did this. I felt great all week except for being a bit gassy at first. It was kinda fun getting to eat so many carbs because we normally don't eat that much but like I said, tracking everything got a bit monotonous. I will say that by the end of the week I felt leaner and not as bloated as crazy as that sounds!! I went from weighing 154 lbs on Monday morning to weighing 151.3 lbs on Saturday morning. I seriously couldn't believe it! Honestly, I'd be tempted to keep going with this plan to see what the long term effects would be, BUT I love a variety of food and I don't like to have to worry about where I'm at with my macros before I eat every meal. I will definitely do this again though in the future!! Dan's Experience The quantity of food wasn't a big issue for me. I guess I had previously been trying to get around 2,500 calories without thinking about it too much. The one thing that was tough for me was eating the quantity of carbs that I was supposed to eat. I'm used to a little higher fat diet. I would say I used to get about 40-50% of my calories from fat, 25% protein and 25% carbs. I won't go quite as detailed as Laura but my experience was very similar to hers. The first couple of days I was a little gassy from the added protein. The constant tracking of calories was a little annoying. It made eating multi-ingredient homemade dishes pretty difficult so we tended to eat a lot of the same stuff; chicken, brown rice, turkey, pork tenderloin, salads for lunch, and lots of egg whites for breakfast.  Just looking in the mirror I would say that I leaned out a little bit. I could see a little more definition in my abs. Even though I was trying to maintain weight I actually ended up losing 1.1 lbs in the 5 days. I went from 164.6 to 163.5. So some weight came off somewhere... My takeaways, are that I'm eating a little too much fat, especially if I want to build muscle and lean out. I was also a little short on my protein. So I've kept up with greek yogurt as a snack and I try to make one or two snacks a day something protein dense: tuna salad, turkey breast, or Shakeology. If you have questions about what your calorie needs are or what your recommended macronutrient breakdown would be, I would love to help you figure that out. Feel free to shoot me an email and we can chat.  I'm not sure if there is anything better than the combination of maple and bacon. If you disagree, you are wrong!!! Laura spotted someone else post about making a meat ball with these flavors so when she wants food I feed her. I have to say these turned out pretty fantastic and even though they are loaded with bacon and maple syrup they are still a pretty healthy meatball. Hope you guys enjoy!
 There are moments that define your life...and then sometimes you look back and you don't notice just one individual moment, but rather a combination of MANY different things that end up changing who you are. I (Laura) feel like that's how my life has been. Anyone else feel that way? Growing up I was extremely shy and had to fight the thoughts that told me I wasn't good enough. You know those thoughts...the ones that sit in the back of your mind and no matter what you do or how many times you succeed, they just won't go away. Defeating those voices has made me who I am today. The journey hasn't been easy. It's been bumpy and curvy but I can honestly say that I love the person I've become and who I'm becoming! Here are a few things I've done over the last few years that have pushed me and helped me out: 1) I stopped looking at magazines and watching TV shows that made me feel like I needed to be "more" or have more. The media sucks. It causes you to compare and comparison kills ALL joy and self love you might have. Don't get me wrong...I love a good smutty magazine like People or Fitness Magazine ;) but I flip through them very, very rarely. 2) I hung around people that lifted me up and didn't make me feel like I needed to be something I wasn't...and they didn't make me feel like I needed to HAVE more. They loved me for who I was. They made me feel safe so I was able to open up and be myself. It's true when they say you become like the 5 people you spend the most time with. If you're feeling drained and unhappy, look around...do you need to be more intentional about your relationships? 3) Reading books and listening to audio/podcasts that pushed my brain into different directions. If you're not intentional about learning and changing yourself and your thinking, it won't happen. Period. It's an easy thing to do, but it's also really really easy to skip it when life gets busy. 4) Prayer and spending time with Jesus. Finding my identity in CHRIST and nothing else was the NUMBER ONE thing I did. I kept a journal, read my bible to find the truths that give life, hope and peace, and did a daily devotional every day. I've been going through this devotional every day for the last 8 years I think...it's amazing. I would HIGHLY recommend it if you're looking for one!! And don't be afraid to underline and mark up your books. That's one of the best ways I learn.  Bottom line: if you want to change the way you view yourself, you have to DO something about it. Figure out where you struggle the most and where those voices are attacking you and attack back!!
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