I have a busy few weeks ahead of me so I may be hit or miss on posting. I am hoping to be more regular with this!

Anyway .. lately I’ve been celebrating the fact that I am hitting so many new milestones that I have never hit before in my life! How AMAZING is that that! Let’s take a look.. ..

I have been on the Body by Vi 90 Day Challenge for over a month now .. 5 weeks I believe but I immediately started seeing the results! Here are a few photos for you..

  Oh yes .. I am seeing abs .. much, much better than I saw them before! I have noticed quite a few things. One, I have a second ‘cut line’ below the typical one and two, I am much more aware of my muscles than before .. which is pretty cool! I see my goal in the near future!

I keep thinking to myself, WOW, this has happened in 30 days .. from drinking berry smoothies! What is crazy is that for years I’ve been working out and fighting the nutritional battle, never in a position to give it 100%. I switch to these in an attempt to improve my nutrition and the results just come screaming at me!

Sure, the abs are a product of hard work at the gym but seeing them is a result of the shakes and stripping off the excess that I could never seem to shake on my own!

Ok .. here is another, which I LOVE! I have been trying my darndest to break out of the ‘chic’ arms cliche .. for years .. with no success. I knew that I was strong but so tired of not seeing it. Guess what? I am starting to love what I am seeing .. finally!

There is that nice ‘line’ from my shoulders that I can see now. This is definitely giving me a nudge that I need to start doing pull ups a bit more often than I am now. It’s a teaser of what is still to come!

Anyway, I am proud of what I have been doing over the years and thrilled that I am finally seeing the results! I am a huge advocate of these shakes from a health perspective, weight loss perspective, and overall fitness nutritional supplement. The results speak for themselves!

Whether it’s me losing a few vanity pounds or the next person losing 50 pounds and getting their life back these shakes are helping people start to love the person in the mirror again. Everyone is worth 90 days .. I highly, highly recommend this challenge. You will never know what you can accomplish if you don’t try!

I cannot wait to see what happens for me next! Have a great weekend!

Yea .. that’s definitely reason enough to get me up and moving a few minutes during the work day.

But I mean, we’re at work .. what can we actually do, you ask .. Quite a few things actually.

Have stairs? Once an hour get up and walk them, one full round. At the end of the day you’ve probably walked them 8 times. Not bad .. and your legs will love you for them!

Skip steps while you’re walking them .. add a bit of challenge to those stairs!

Stand up and just stretch .. get the blood flowing again and make it count!

Find something heavy around your desk area and do bicep curls.

When you’re taking a phone call, stand up and march in place, do calf raises, stretch, or just stand there.

If nothing else, get up from your desk once an hour and walk for a minute or two. Step away from the stress, catch your breath, and clear your head!

Walk during lunch! If you like to read learn to multi-task. If I can do it so can you!

These are simple, easy things to do but you can always step it up a notch by picking an exercise and just doing it for a minute. Push ups, jumping jacks, cardio lunges, or anything to get the blood flowing!

Yes, some days I being clothes to work and during my lunch I’ll go into the library and knock out a 20 minute high intensity workout circuit. I just make sure to leave enough time in order to clean up afterwards. But, I will say it’s fun and gives me so much energy that carries into the afternoon!

I have also been known to walk the steps for 40 minutes during lunch .. and that .. is WORK!

Don’t be shy .. people will only look at you weird the first time ..

First of all I am down a few more pounds .. YAY and hello to the 120s! This makes me so happy! The bonus is that I’m loving that I’m getting the excess weight off while I’m drinking berry shakes and peanut butter chocolate shakes .. who knew?

Yes, still TOTALLY sold on the fact that this shakes are fantastic, fantastic for you, and will help you reach your goal. Seriously I recommend everyone giving these a try .. then you can thank me later .. ;0)

Here’s the link .. go look! http://joschmoblo.bodybyvi.com/

Secondly, as if seeing 127 on the scale wasn’t good enough, I had my appointment with the rheumatologist, which I was of course fearing.

A few weeks ago the pain in my wrists was driving me crazy. Lately however it’s kind of vanished. But .. I wanted to go anyway to see what he’d say and get the whole ‘new patient’ visit out of the way.

Well, long story short is that even though I royally (royally) failed the anti-CCP test he doesn’t think that I have RA. He said that I am way too active to have it.

So .. YAY!!

But …

I hope it was a fluke test that I failed (again) because if that is the case that means that if I end up with RA then it’s going to bump into my excessive physical activity ..

For now .. glass half full is that I don’t have to worry about it!

Life goes on!

Now … I can stop stressing about whether or not I have RA and get back to getting into better shape and losing the rest of the weight that I want to rid myself of!

So .. full speed ahead for now!

Lately I have be reading a lot of ‘healthy’ articles, books etc. and have picked up on sleeping and how it affects fitness and overall health. I’ve been trying to do better so I make an effort to go to bed before 10 whenever I can. Regardless I no longer stay up until 12 or 1 like I used to.

… I think my iPad is a glorified digital jigsaw puzzle for me .. I play them ALL THE TIME on it! This one app I have plays birds chirping in the background and I noticed the other day that it was so relaxing. I busted out my phone and started looking at different apps that could maybe do the same thing on their own.

I ultimately found one where you can mix and match different sounds, at different volumes. You can even set it to ‘time out’ after so long so it doesn’t just play indefinitely.

I grabbed one and figured why not … maybe I’ll turn it on when I go to bed and see what happens.

Oh my …

… … did I sleep like a BABY that night!

.. … .. … and the next … and the next.

I woke up feeling more refreshed than I have in a long time and it wasn’t just a night or two. It’s been every night since. I’ve gotten to the point where I’m excited to go to bed.

Wow .. really? Can sound really help me with my insomnia?

I have a sound machine .. somewhere .. but you have limited control over the different elements. I always found there was one noise in each sound mix that was too distracting or overbearing. These apps are fantastic… you can make mixes of different sounds while controlling the volume of each. I am just amazed!

As an added bonus I have actually been using the app at work and it has really given me a nice, pleasant, peacefulness while I’m at my desk

I can’t explain it except that I think I just bought myself sleep and a peaceful ‘rainforest’ at my desk for the bargain price of a few dollars!

Do you have problems with insomnia as well? If so, what have you found that works for you?

During my ‘running season’ last year I developed a cyst on my toe. It started out small and annoying so I did the typical ‘ignore it and keep going’ method. Months later (like oh .. 6 months) it got worse, I went to the doctor, and had it drained .. yuck! Thanks to me sitting on it for so long I managed to damage the toe just enough that it starts to hurt after prolonged amount of higher impact exercise. Well, that is just so nice … :-/

Needless to say I made the decision about a month ago to give up running because I’d rather not run than to have surgery on my foot to fix it. Saturday morning I participated in the first leg of the Triple Crown, which is a 3 race event, a 5k, 10k, and 10 miler. I signed up before I started training, and before I started realizing that my foot was not going to run anymore.

Since I could no longer run, I initially contacted my friend Pam, who is on her own personal journey of weightloss, to see if she’d be interested in walking them with me. As luck turned out both her and another friend, Jamie, agreed to sign up for the events.

Even though I wasn’t able to run it, and probably won’t be able to run it again, I still had a great time on Saturday morning. Heck, I possibly enjoyed myself even more because I actually had the breath to speak and wasn’t on my own for the 3 miles.. .. and we even lightly jogged a few times which made me happy (don’t tell my foot that though!).

I didn’t break any personal records and, I won’t lie, I had a twinge of jealously while reading how other people finished the race. But that runner is not me anymore. It may never be me. However, it’s doesn’t take away from me either.

I am still strong. I am still a force. I am still determined. I need to keep my glass half full, if not fuller.

Things don’t always go our way but they still need to go on. It’s how we deal with them that defines us.

Whether it’s something like this, something tragic in our lives, work related woes, or anything else, we need to find a way to keep a positive outlook on things.

It won’t always be easy. It won’t always be fun. But regardless of what happens in our lives we just have to keep moving forward. We all know from experience that we have survived many adversities over the years.

So you have a bad day .. don’t wait until tomorrow to start over .. start now. Take a breath, regroup, get things back into perspective and keep moving forward.

No matter what kinks life hands you, whether large or small, find your way to process it, move past it, and keep your head up.

So I couldn’t run Saturday .. but instead I could enjoy great company while spending time with friends that were able to participate in their first 5k ever. I think that makes the race a success to me

]]> http://joschmoblo.wordpress.com/2012/03/05/theme-of-the-week-keep-your-glass-half-full-if-not-fuller/feed/ 1 joschmoblo http://joschmoblo.wordpress.com/2012/03/02/are-we-addicted-to-music/ http://joschmoblo.wordpress.com/2012/03/02/are-we-addicted-to-music/#comments Fri, 02 Mar 2012 20:00:00 +0000 joschmoblo http://joschmoblo.wordpress.com/?p=613 ]]> A little background about myself.

I’m a work commuting cyclist, which means that I am on a bike 5 days a week, at least, all year round. I typically listen to music on a very low volume (so I can still hear everything else) while I’m riding. In addition I teach a few classes at the gym so I’m always “trolling” for music I can add into my playlists. I have a full time desk job and I kind of listen to music hit or miss at work, depending on how ‘thought intensive’ my work is at the time. When I’m at the gym, or at home, just working out I typically have my iPod playing.

I may have a slight addiction to music ..

(Anyone who knows me know that I have a slight obsession with Pitbull and David Guetta .. I have to try and NOT play them in my classes!!)

When I create my spinning class profiles I typically set the music to match different motions and intensities throughout the class. That way people can use the music as an additional driver to push themselves .. and to keep going.

You can find playlists on the internet where people have found songs that work best for running and other sports.

You walk through the gym and the overhead speakers are playing upbeat and energetic tunes.

My point is that we kinda set ourselves up to where music is more than just a ‘nice accessory.’ When I used to run I had to run to music or I just couldn’t make it a mile.

So .. what happens when the headphones break .. or we leave them at home?

I’m thinking that I may start biking a few days without the headphones and get myself back to a level where music is just a nice addition. I’d hate to see it become a deal breaker when I don’t have it at my disposal!

But .. since I’m not on my bike right now, here is one I am currently loving

]]> http://joschmoblo.wordpress.com/2012/03/02/are-we-addicted-to-music/feed/ 1 joschmoblo http://joschmoblo.wordpress.com/2012/03/01/where-do-we-look-for-inspiration/ http://joschmoblo.wordpress.com/2012/03/01/where-do-we-look-for-inspiration/#comments Thu, 01 Mar 2012 22:30:56 +0000 joschmoblo http://joschmoblo.wordpress.com/?p=609 ]]> So I am always curious what different things people turn to for inspiration… as far as the inspiration that keeps us moving forward day to day.

I remember a friend of mine used to keep a photo of her from her younger days on her fridge (maybe it’s still there actually). Some people put fun post it notes on their bathrooms walls. Some people watch or read inspiring things.

Personally I’d like to add a few more pieces of inspiration to my daily ‘portions’ ..

I watch the Biggest Loser for motivation on working towards my fitness goals .. aside from the drama of this season (that has tempted me to stop watching it TBH) I find the show amazing inspirational. I love seeing the light come on in their eyes .. I love seeing them reach within for the strength to overcome and be better. I enjoy that show .. most of the time .. lol

When I am at home at night sometimes I get bored and google for quotes based on my mood or what I’m thinking about .. whether it’s working out, my job, life, happiness, … anything and everything. I love reading quotes that are so simple yet so perfect for the moment!

I teach at the gym which is fantastic for motivation. I feed off my classes energy while they in turn feed off myself and the others. Your not alone in a class .. you are all fighting together. You are all trying to get stronger. I love it!

I like to read blogs about different people’s life journeys .. it is amazing that we are all different and are all going through different things .. yet sometimes our experiences, feelings, emotions, etc are so similar.

I love to look at random photos for a breath of fresh air .. I’ll just pick a topic and google it (yes, I google everything!). One days it’s tall trees, the next it’s pennies and clouds (although not together of course!)!

Does everyone need to add inspiration in to their day or do you add it in as you think you need it? Maybe I’m in a habit .. maybe I’m addicted .. maybe it’s both! I guess there are worse habits to have!

The week is almost over with .. smile

Sometimes I get into a rut where I find something I love and that’s all I want to do when I am working out (and not teaching). Then, I have to banish myself from doing that again for the next few weeks!

It is easy to do something that we find fun or something our body can handle better.

For instance, I could sit on a spinning bike 6 days a week if you let me. In fact, I used to spin about 5 days a week more than a year ago. Did I lose weight? Sure, to a point … and then guess what? My body learned that song and dance and I hit a plateau. Shocked, aren’t you?

What is easy or fun is not necessarily the key to improving our physical strength. 

I have made huge strides in my personal goals lately by just being random with my workouts and my lifestyle.

I have walked the steps at lunch .. up and down the stairs until it was seriously NOT fun.
I’ve added in short, mean high impact workouts.
I take random rest days so my body has no clue when it is getting a real break.
Some days I just walk, slowly.
Occasionally I will walk into the gym and hop on those rotating steps from … ahem .. down under!
Other nights I load in Beachbody’s Insanity Asylum workouts for some evening fun!

My point is this .. we like to do the stuff that is easier for us, funner for us, but sometimes you have to add in a bunch of curve balls to make sure your muscles keep responding and don’t get too used to life. So have a little of both .. the fun stuff and then shuffle in random other workouts.

Throw the cards in the air and make it different each week. Keep it fun and keep it challenging. See if that helps your journey!

I write this because I am about to start doing them again

I noticed the other day that my biceps are not as strong as they were last month, which means I have been slacking off on them lately. So I’m starting my work out rules for home again.

Here’s how it works …

I have a pull up bar over the door frame in my bathroom. Every time I walk into the bathroom I have to do 5 pull ups.

Every time I walk downstairs I have to do 10 pushups or more and 5 one legged squats (on each side).

Here’s what happens …

You only have to do 5 or 10 so you knock them out in less than a minute each (except maybe the squats). Pull ups .. are hard .. but if you do them a few at a time and stick to it you will be AMAZED at how strong you get from them. They work wonders for my biceps too!

One legged squats are hard but fantastic for your booty and I recall recently gripping on my twitter page about my read end needing some work.

Work out ‘rules’ are great. Make a rule that every time you walk into a certain room you have to do certain exercises. Not many, but a few. Then, stick to it. Every day, every time. You will be surprised that a few times a day and a few minutes a day will give you an added bonus to your workout regimen!

I love it ..

We are so hard on ourselves, which is something that I am definitely guilty of. We are our own biggest competition, which is good at times but other times it almost sets us up for failure.

We are not always going to be perfect. Heck, we may never be perfect. Instead let’s shoot to be better, make progress over who we were yesterday.

We get smarter every day. We get stronger. We change habits for the better (hopefully). We don’t go from 0 – 10, nor do we go from 7 – 10. My point is that we may never reach 10 but as long as we are going in the right direction that is all that matters.

Remember ..

“Strive for progress, not perfection.” -Unknown

Have a great week!