The Cook & The Coach Blog

Life As We Know It, Right Now

2/25/2016

I have to apologize that you've been missing out on recipe posts and nutritional posts lately. We are in a stage of life right now where things are just a little crazy in our home and work world. If you follow us, you know that we just bought an RV...if you don't know what that is all about, check out this post. That entire process was SO time consuming!! Being a first time RV buyer there is SO much to take into account. Length... Slideouts... Diesel or Gas... How old are the tires? BTW if tires are 12 years old they need to be replaced and RV tires aren't cheap. Goodbye $2,800! Those are just a few of the things that you have to think about when looking into buying one. AND THEN you have to learn how to drive the thing!

Now that we have all of that behind us. Our focus has shifted to renovating our new home. We want to make it feel like OUR home...so we're going to be attempting to take the "factory production line feel" away.

Just a heads up that there are Facebook groups of 15,000+ solely dedicated renovating RV interiors. Who knew???

We are also working on selling our vehicles and buying a new one that has the ability to be towed behind our RV. We are selling off, donating or trashing pretty much everything in our 1,200 square foot townhome in order to get things to fit into our new 250 square foot home. Let's just say I am turning into a Craigslist ninja. Did you know that there is a national craigslist search option? Yeah someone figured out how to do that.

First family trip in the RV. Taking it out to my parent's house.

Other things on the horizon of our life...

Laura's last day of work is TOMORROW!!! So that is pretty crazy.
We are moving most of our furniture and belongings out next and taking them down to Des Moines to Laura's parents house.
We are also leaving Eli down in Des Moines since Laura and I are heading out to Los Angeles next weekend to go to Chalene Johnson's Smart Success LIVE seminar. SO EXCITED about this one.
After we return from LA we will be heading out to Redwood Falls (my hometown, and doing our RV renovations. We anticipate that taking 1-2 weeks.
After that we will come back up to the cities with our finished RV and load it up for the long haul.
We will likely have a get together somewhere in the cities and let people see our RV and say our "See you laters!" We hate goodbye's! Name that movie?
Our plan is then to head to Kansas City to spend a little time with a good friend and fellow coach. We will also attend a quarterly Beachbody event when we are there.
Then we are off to the Augusta, Georgia area so that I can attend the Masters Golf Tournament.

Last time I was at Augusta National back in 2004.

So yeah that is what our last month and the next month look like for us. It's been a pretty wild experience so far. With all of this craziness right now we are just trying to keep our heads above water.

Laura is still running accountability groups and mentoring coaches on our team.
We are still working out pretty much daily, drinking our Shakeology daily, eating healthy 80-90% of the time.

To us that stuff has become a habit or a non-negotiable which is great at this point. That wouldn't have always been the case. Five years ago I would have been too tired to workout and eating frozen pizza for the convenience.

So yeah we have to apologize for not having as much content on the blog but that will all change soon. Plus we will be sharing some of our crazy adventures from the road. Thanks for reading!

Do What You Love...

2/11/2016

I've been thinking about this saying quite a bit as of late. It comes up in conversations that we have with friends. We hear things like, "That's so great that you get to do something that you love." This isn't new to me, having been a golf professional as a previous profession. For some reason, people just thought I played golf all day. That was definitely not the the case! The same goes for our current jobs as fitness and nutrition coaches. Yeah, we love our job... but it is still work!

That brings me to this saying that floats all over social media or at least the people that I follow. It sounds great but the reality is, it's pretty much a lie!

I don't say that to be a Debbie Downer so let me explain. First off, I'm kind of a literal guy so right off the bat the statement disqualifies itself from being remotely true, unless you "literally" don't work. Secondly, I don't care how much you love your job, it's not always going to be rainbows, unicorns and butterflies. There are going to be times that suck the life out of you. I know I'm not supposed to say that, but it's the truth.

Now that I've deflated your sense of hope you had in thinking that there's a dream career path out there for you let me add the "but", because there is always a but.

Hopefully you agree that you will have to work, we all need to work. It's hard to exist in this world without financial resources. It's even harder to have an impact and serve others without resources; time, money, or talents to name a few. So there is this balance where we need to work to afford ourselves those things while still maintaining our sanity and our relationships.

For us figuring out this balance started when we did an online seminar called Smart Success that was hosted by Chalene Johnson. It was all about working smarter so that you can enjoy some other things in your life. One of the big things she talked about was establishing a list of goals in different areas of your life. She also has you establish a key priority statement which governs all of your decisions. For us that revolved around spending time with our family. We looked at every decision through the lens of, "Does this honor our key priority?"

Man, your world changes when you start thinking like that. Everything from what groceries you buy, to vacations you take, to the work you do are analyzed through that lens. You start cutting out a lot of waste and focusing on things that really help you grow in a direction that you want. You don't let every invitation or opportunity to pull you off your course and onto someone else's.

This is where both Laura and saw the potential in our Beachbody business. Through smart concentrated efforts sustained over a period of time we would be able to have more freedom. We could spend more time together as a family. We could travel more. We wouldn't have to conform to other people's schedules. Along with that we've cut out a lot of the fluff in our life and kept those things that honor our key priority. This frees up resources so that we don't have to make a lot of money and we can live simply.

We are right in a transition point in our life right now where we are leaving the corporate world behind and about to set out on our cross country RV travels. Laura just put in her resignation letter yesterday and we now get to work on OUR business and explore what we are passionate about. Yeah we will still be working from the road.

We love that we found something that we enjoy showing up to do daily. We love that we can do this from wherever. We love that it provides us the resources to live the kind of life we want. We love that that we can still give financially to people and organizations that we want to support. We love that we get to help people get healthy. We love that we get to help others build a business of their own. It's because we love all of that, that we work!

If you would like to know more about what we do as Beachbody coaches feel free to head over to our FAQ page. We are also hosting a live 1 hour event next week in a private event page setup on Facebook. Click on the button below to learn more about this event.

TEAM FULLYFIT COACH HAPPY HOUR

Give Up on Giving Up!

2/3/2016

This post is for those of you that are some sort of health journey.

You've maybe just started or maybe you've been trying different things for awhile now.

I want to offer up a piece of advice that made all the difference in my health journey and I believe the reason I haven't been a yo-yo dieter like so many. I didn't connect the dots on WHY I hadn't reverted back to my old ways until I heard a fellow nutrition expert mention something on a podcast I was listening to the other day.

The concept or question you need to ask yourself if you are striving to be healthier or lose weight is... Are you somebody who is doing healthy things? Or... Are you a healthy person?

Let me break that down a bit. If you are somebody that is doing healthy things, you might be eating more veggies, exercising regularly, avoiding processed foods, or drinking more water. Sounds great, right? A person doing all of those things should become healthier, but will they stay healthier? This is where I was at 10 years ago. I was exercising regularly and doing some of those other things. The problem was...I'd get tripped up easily. If friends wanted to go out for pizza and beer, I was there. If I was invited to a happy hour, I would accept and pass on the gym. I did everything to fit a status quo that wouldn't rock the boat among my friends and family. My healthy habits flew under the radar and because of that I was easily able to justify not doing them.

Fast forward to 2 1/2 years ago. I had just completed an online accountabilty group and seen some great results. My eating had changed, I now had more confidence in "rocking the boat" and not succumb to all the unhealthy distractions that surrounded me daily. The difference: I was now a healthy person. My identity was now tied to healthy habits. This is the thing that just clicked for me this past week. I guess I never thought of it this way, but it is so true. Once I made that commitment, once I identified myself as a healthy person, everything changed. I was no longer easily knocked off of my healthy lifestyle. Or if I did get knocked off, I got right back!

People began to see me as a healthy person. They started noticing the changes in me, both physically and the choices I made. With this also came some ridicule and light-hearted teasing. Friends would make comments about my food choices or about exercising. Those comments usually led to inquiries and them wanting to know more. Had I just been "doing healthy things" these comments would have stopped me in my tracks. It would have never progressed to the point of them asking questions and then some of them making their own healthy changes.

It's good to remember that the people around you will also "test" your commitments. Think of a time when you went to a party and chose ahead of time to not have an alcoholic drink. A friend would likely offer a drink when you arrive, and when you say no thanks, they will press and ask why or pressure you a little bit. This might last for a minute or two but if you hold your ground, most people will respect that and move on.

Same goes for being a healthy person! People will test your commitment. They will try to get you to eat the cheesecake, the cookies, the pizza. If you hold your ground, you will earn their respect or you will find out that they really aren't a friend at all. This will also help solidify your commitment, making future challenges that much easier to handle!

One of the coolest things that happens when you make the shift from doing healthy things to becoming a healthy person, you begin to impact your circle of influence. You shift the status quo just a little bit. You help that coworker that was hesitant about ordering a salad at lunch because she didn't want her other coworkers to think she on some sort of diet. She now sees your lead and has that confidence to not be judged. At family holiday dinners, people begin to ask if dishes are ok for you to eat. They are open to possible substitutions. There is a trickle down effect that is noticeable.

If you have just been dipping your toes in this healthy lifestyle pool, I would encourage you to commit and jump right in the deep end. Let healthy become part of your identity and the game will change for you too!!

Thanks for reading, to stay up to date on all of our blog posts along with get amazing content delivered right to your inbox just fill out the quick form below. Make it a Great Day!!!

Life As We Know It, Right Now

Do What You Love...

Give Up on Giving Up!