Beach Babes Inspiration

Yesterday was officially the first day of summer and boy did it feel like it here in Belleville, ON. It was the perfect way to start off what is going to be a wonderful summer. Who is excited?? I know I am! So many fun and exciting plans to look forward to!

To start off the summer, I made a trip to Cobourg yesterday and visited a friend. We ended up going to the beach to check it out and took a walk along the water. This is my first time going to the beach this year and wow did i feel uncomfortable. Its been a long time since I have been to a beach and was this ever a kick in the butt for me. I thought I was already pretty motivated in my weight loss, I most definitely am at a high motivation now! Everyone there looked so hot. And no I don't mean just from the sun. There was so many fit men and women that if I had been there to lounge on the beach I probably wouldn't have been confident enough to lay there in just my bathing suit. :s However, I am glad that I had gotten that feeling. Because now it is stuck in mind and I am full on geared to reaching my goal weight. I cant stop seeing how great everyone looked and have a strong WANT to look that great as well.

My update to how Ive been doing up until now has not been too bad. I can honestly say I am the healthiest now that I have been in a long time. I started this blog in May, just a couple weeks after I made the decision to start eating healthy and getting more active. Clean eating is seriously a great way to go! I barely eat anything that is processed and try to eat as much whole real food as I can. I cannot even remember the last time I felt sick to my stomach from something I ate. It was quite often I would get a stomach ache before when I was eating so much junk and badly processed foods.

Drinking tons of water is helping a ton as well. The trick to actually drinking a lot of water a day is to keep a water bottle with you at all times. While I was at Wal Mart one day I bought a water bottle that I could take everywhere with me. Since then, I made it a habit to keep it on me at all times. I swear I fill it up at least 5 times a day. Its a good habit that I am happy I started. Even though it is quite annoying how often I have to go to the washroom. Haha.

A lot of my credit goes to Visalus. I cannot tell people enough how much I love them. The energy and boost they give me is simply amazing. Even if I didn't have weight to lose I would still drink the shakes and I plan on keeping with them after I am at my goal weight. I recently just went two weeks without them because I had run out and needed to get some more and wow, it was a long two weeks. I could feel the difference in energy and I could NOT wait to get more. I just love them so much! I`ve lost 6 lbs in total so far and have 10 more lbs to go.


Having people you know tell you that you look like you have lost weight is the best feeling and the ultimate motivator. Once you hear that, you know that your hard work is paying off and you keep you butt moving. I have had several people compliment me in the last week and it felt awesome. If you feel you still need more to motivate you then I strongly urge you to go to the beach. That was more than enough motivation to get me going strong. :)

A healthy diet and exercise is very important for your body all the time, even more so when wanting to lose some weight. However sometimes that isn't enough for weight loss, for some people its harder to lose weight then others. If you would like some help, check out my website for Visalus or my Fan page on Facebook. There is some very helpful and interesting information, as well as lots of great healthy recipes you might enjoy!

mardellryckman.bodybyvi.com

facebook.com/visalusmardellryckman - "LIKE" this page to see updates and posts daily with great information and weight loss tips

Have a great weekend everyone and keep motivated!

Mardell

Summer is here! Get your caboose in gear!

Good morning everyone and happy Friday. Our favorite day of the week is here and now we get to enjoy a great weekend. I figured I would get in here and get the motivation all revved up so your all set and behave yourself. ;) I hope you are all doing well in getting ready for summer and achieving your health and weight loss goals. If not then I hope this post helps because its going to help with whatever you may be doing wrong.

First off, the first thing you need to know, which I know you already do but im going to tell you anyways because I think we all forget this somewhere along the line. You need to eat right and exercise! Its really that simple. All you need to do is watch what you eat and expend more energy then you consume. It looks as if a lot of people forget this these days and expect to lose weight without exercising and want to rely on a pill or live completely off on meal replacement shakes. Bad bad bad idea. Its doing more harm to your body and will screw up your metabolism and insides.

Next thing, stop calling it a diet. If you are changing the way you eat to be healthier and get in shape then consider it a lifestyle.You are changing your dietary habits and putting yourself on long term continued success and weight maintenence. Plus diets dont last, they are temporary and no one sticks to them and you just gain all the weight back. Make eating healthy a lifestyle, not a diet.

When commiting yourself to a weight loss goal, you are not going to want to go through it alone. And you shouldnt. Support is how we reach our goals and remember to stay committed so we achieve them. Its tough to do it alone, you need motivation and inspiration. So join a support group online, or read this blog, or tell all your close friends and family. Make sure to be serious with your friends and family and let them know how important this goal is to you and that you need their full support. Some will tell you that "you dont need to lose any weight" and that "you are great the way you are", ignore that. Some will just not want to see you succeed if they have failed. Fact of the matter is, if YOU don’t like the way that YOU are – then YOU are going to have to do something about it, no matter what anybody says. They still love you, though (in theory).     

Always remind yourself about your goal and believe in it. You will succeed and reach it at the end. Hard work and determination get you far and YOU can do it. Its all about positivity and keeping yourself in a good state of mind. Stear clear of negativity, you dont want it and you dont need it.

Also if you need a weight loss plan to follow or need some guidance then I highly recommend checking out the ebook, The Plan, that is on the top right side of this blog. It was written by a good friend of mine, Jody Zarn, and its amazing. Very inspirational and it will help you with achieving your weight loss goals. She speaks from the heart and has gone through the same weight loss struggles we all have.

The Challenge by Body By Vi is another great tool for achieving your weight loss goal and boosting your nutrition. I am loving the Vi Life and doing great on my Challenge. Its going to feel so great once I reach my goal. Eating healthier and exercising daily has been making me feel the best I ever have. And I owe it all to the shakes, they give me so much energy and keep me full and from craving all the bad foods I did before. If you want to learn more about Visalus and The Challenge and what it can do for you then visit my website:

mardellryckman.bodybyvi.com

Or check out my FB page:

facebook.com/VisalusMardellRyckman

Thats all for today, I hope this gears up your motivation to get you through the weekend and help you to behave yourself. Of course you can still misbehave a little bit. What fun would the weekend be then. Just hold onto the wagon and dont fall off! :) Have a great weekend!

Mardell

Hold on tight! Dont fall off the wagon!

Hello everyone!

Well the weekend is here and I hope you all had a great week. I know mine was pretty wonderful, but its still nice when the weekend gets here. You get to see your friends and family and relax and have some fun. Its all great except for that feeling of guilt you feel when you go totally overboard with the food and drinks. By the time Sunday rolls around you feel as if your whole week of eating well and working out has gone to waste and now you have to start over to make up for the weekend of pigging out. Have you ever stopped to think about how much you consume in calories in your drinks alone? After I started my Challenge with Visalus, I started to watch my daily calorie intake. If you have a smart phone and would like an easy way to keep track of your calories daily, I highly recommend the myfitnesspal app. It is so easy and doesn't feel like work at all to keep track. It even scans bar codes so you don't have to look up what you want to add to your diary. I absolutely love it! Anyways, back to what I was getting at with the amount of calories in your drinks. I was sitting outside one afternoon, it was hot and sunny and one of those days where you just feel like having an ice cold beer and enjoying the weather. Well I was updating my diary of what I had to eat that day and what I did for exercise and then I thought I better add my beer to it. I never knew how many calories were in a beer, I just knew it wouldn't be a good number. Lol. Well I was right, I scanned the bar code on my can of Stella and it was about 187 or somewhere around there. I was like "What?!". Ya that is a lot of calories when you have about 3 or 4 when you are socializing with friends and end up drinking all evening. So I thought to myself I better start drinking smarter if I want to lose weight to get to my goal. And yes it is possible to drink smarter, not all alcoholic drinks are bad when it comes to calories. I have actually switched to either vodka and water with a wedge of lime or vodka and water with a splash of cranberry juice. You would think it would be gross with the water but you know what? It really isn't bad. Of course I still have an occasional beer but just when I know I am only going to have one. You have to still live a little right? Do you have any of your own suggestions to drinking smarter?

This past week I have been helping out a friend of mine. She is quite over weight and has been struggling to lose weight for quite a long time. Since I have been learning a ton about healthy eating and weight loss since I have joined Visalus as a promoter, she asked if I could help her by giving her advice about what foods to eat and exercise and is even interested in joining the Challenge as well. Its been a great feeling to help her out and I want to see her succeed. She shared with me a few of her struggles and its something that is so common, it happens to us all. I know its happened to me many times. Starting a diet and then crashing hard and falling off the wagon. So bad that you pig out and stuff your face as if you haven't eaten in a wk. She was telling me she was doing so well with her eating and exercise that she had lost some weight, and then out of nowhere had crashed and ate almost an entire bag of oreo cookies. Perfect example of falling off the wagon. I know that its happened to me, you have one bad meal or a bad weekend and feel so bad for it that you give up because you feel like a failure. And instead of getting right back up and continuing where you left off, you don't. You give up for awhile and then sometime down the line you try again. After doing this so many times myself, I finally thought to myself, why do I just give up after I've fallen off the wagon? I should just get back up and continue. So this is what I talked to my friend about. I told her if she has a bad day and feels like she failed and wants to give up on her diet, not too. To just start fresh the next day and keep at it. Otherwise she will never get where she wants and lose the weight and feel good about herself. I'm pretty sure I got through to her and that was a good feeling. It always helps when you have someone there to motivate you. :)

 So if you find yourself struggling with your diet and have fallen off the wagon, don't let the feeling of failure get you down and cause you to give up. That will just end up leaving you down and disappointed in yourself and obviously no closer to your goal. Just forget about it and act like it never happened and go on with your day. Trust me it feels much better then pigging out for a week after because you feel angry with yourself and then even more angry with yourself because you gained a few more lbs as a result of how you reacted to it.

That's all I have for you this evening, time for me to go make myself a yummy shake. Hope you all have a great evening and a wonderful weekend. If you would like receive news about Visalus or would like to check out my Visalus Facebook page check it out and "Like" my page. :) And if you are having any thoughts about joining me in the Challenge then check out my website at mardellryckman.bodybyvi.com. Its so much better not having to do it alone!

Mardell