Category Archives: Inspiration

Be proud of your accomplishments

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As I look back at this competition and analyze what I could have done differently to have brought a better package I realized I’m being too hard on myself and need to tell these thoughts to shut the f*ck up. Do you have this problem? Like nothing you do is good enough? I’m my own worse critic.

This was my fifth competition and 3rd year competing. In the past if I followed the plan the weight seemed to magically fall off. Well not this time. After 4 weeks of prep (8 weeks out from my competition) I found myself discouraged and blogged about it. Instead of changing my goal we just changed our approach. We got more aggressive with my diet and lowered both my carbs and protein. I also increased the amount of cardio I did. On show day I felt pretty confident with the package I brought to the stage but would have liked to have been about 5lbs less. I was still holding on to fat in my mid-section and thighs. Today I pulled up that 8 weeks out photo from my blog and said “damn, you killed this prep!” Yeah, I complimented myself and it felt good. Go ahead, try it! Look in the mirror and see how beautiful you are. Does your hair look good today? Go ahead, tell yourself that. How about your smile? Whatever it is,remember that you are beautiful and you should be proud of your accomplishments no matter the size. Stop cutting yourself down and build yourself up. When that crazy bitch in your head starts telling you that you shouldn’t have had that cookie or that you are fat just say “shut the f*ck up bitch” and move on. Unless you violated one of the 10 commandments you didn’t sin and you can give yourself a break, just move on and smile.

Life is too Short not to Live

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This happened to me about 8 months ago. I found myself unhappy, angry, stressed and definitely not the best version of me. Someone had asked me what I would be remember for if I died tomorrow. I thought to myself, probably an angry stressed out mom that only focuses on the negative. Wow, that hurt. That was not how I wanted to be remembered. Was my job and career really worth all of that? Absolutely not. I quit my full time job and pursued my passion. I now have more time for my kids, my husband and myself. I can’t say that I am not still a little stressed out each day but that is pressure I apply to myself. I hold myself to very high standards and am always pushing to be better than I was yesterday.

Take some time this weekend and reflect on who you are, how you act and how you would be remembered.  Life is very short and we cannot change the past; however, we can start writing the next chapter.  How do you want your story to go?

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3 Weeks down, and 9 to go!

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I am officially 3 full weeks into my competition prep and finally seeing some physical changes.  My total weight loss is 4lbs and I have have lost some inches in the waist and thighs.  I  do weekly check-ins with my coach and do not weigh myself daily.  The goal is to lose body fat and not muscle so I only shoot to lose 1.5 – 3lbs per week.  So far I am on track and loving the results.  This prep is different from my last two because I switched coaches.  The main difference is the diet and amount of cardio I am doing.  I love, love, love food and prefer variety.  This plan is slowly cutting all my variety out and I will eventually be eating the same thing every day.  It also has me doing five 45 minute cardio sessions per week and I hate cardio.  Good thing Beachbody just release Country Heat and I can get my cardio in by dancing!  I am okay with the changes though because my goal is to beat the person I was before and come in leaner and stronger.  To do that you have to step it up a notch and challenge yourself.  You cannot spell CHALLENGE without CHANGE.

The past week has been a little bit challenging with the diet because we have been traveling.  I spend 3 days in Indianapolis for my son’s AAU basketball tournament and had to watch my boys eat out each night.  I packed most of my food and traveled with a huge cooler.  We booked a hotel that had a gym and continental breakfast.  I went with plain oatmeal and a scoop of protein powder each morning.  Currently I am in Nashville for the annual Beachbody Summit.  My friend that I am traveling with is also in competition prep so we packed a huge cooker of cut up veggies for the road trip and did short workouts at each rest stop along the way. (I will post links below!)  Yesterday we hit up Whole Foods and stocked up on healthy groceries.  I brought half of my meals with me and had my yummy pumpkin protein pancakes for breakfast the last two days.  The condo has an amazing gym and this trip is going pretty well.  We walked a lot, went shopping, had pool time, etc.  No alcohol or partying on Broadway for us.

Here is my 3 week transformation photos and some links to all the quick workouts we did on the road trip!

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3 weeks of prep and down 4lbs.  Camera angle was a little off but I am liking the reduction in my waist and thighs. 

Quick and Effective Workouts you can do Anywhere!

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This past Memorial day weekend we traveled to Cape Cod to watch my beautiful sister-in-law get married on the beach. For three nights we shared a seven bedroom house with family and friends and for one night we stayed at a hotel in Boston that had a gym. Although I did indulge on some delicious food and cocktails, overall I stayed on track with my workouts and healthy nutrition 60% of the time (breakfast and lunch). The house did not have a gym or any workout equipment so luckily I was able to stream my Beachbody on demand from my mobile device and listen with my wireless headphones. This allowed me to stay on track with most of my 22 hard-core program. I created  a little extra 10 minute power burn circuit workout to top off a couple days .  I got some additional cardio in by running on the beach. I’m not a huge fan of running but if you give me a beach I can run for miles.

Here are acouple video clips of some quick and effective workouts you can do from anywhere. If you want to know more about streaming hundreds of beachbody workouts from your mobile device just message me with your questions or post it in the comments.

Disclaimer: I am not a medical professional. Consult your physician before starting an exercise program.




Do you want to learn more about my monthly challenge groups I lead?  Fill out the form below or email me at seemomlift@gmail.com

Motherhood

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Being a mom is hard work. This blog is really great at putting things into perspective and adding a little humor. I found true joy recently as a mom when I stopped comparing myself to other moms and accepted who I am. I still find inspiration in others moms and try to improve on my approach (yelling less, more patients, etc.) but don’t measure my worth against them. I am a very unique individual and mom and my boys would have it no other way. Michelle is my friend and one of the many moms that inspires me to be better. Her blog is great!

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Motherhood….

  • it ain’t for the faint of heart
  • it is often thankless
  • it is beautiful (and it is a mess)
  • is not the same for everyone – it comes dressed up in different clothes, is achieved through many different methods and definitely doesn’t fit into some mold or come from a cookie cutter
  • it is the hardest and best job you’ll ever have (unless your job is giving away someone else’s money to help worthy causes and then it might be a tie)
  • it is so many things and is so simple all at once

The list could go on and no doubt, having just passed Mother’s Day, your own ideas and feelings about motherhood are fresh in your mind. Here’s what I’ve been thinking.

a) I don’t always know what I’m doing. It sucks that there is not a how-to manual or a choose-your-own-adventure style manual (e.g., “If your…

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Happy Mother’s Day

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Today I woke up happy and thankful. God has blessed me with a beautiful healthy family and I am grateful for that.  I love being a mom!  My boys make my life complete.

 I recently found myself consumed with work, my fitness competition and myself.  I was too busy to play with my kids or help them search for a college.  The idea of volunteering at school stressed me out because I just didn’t have time.  All I ever said to my boys was “no, I’m too busy” or “I don’t have time for that!” Thanks to my hardworking husband and a close friend that pushed me to explore Beachbody Coaching,  I found a career that can allow the flexibility to finally just start being a mom and wife.  I am going to cook my kids breakfast, visit colleges, go to the pool on a weekday, read at their school, drive them to sports camps all summer and just plain be there!  I have only 2 weeks left at my full-time job as an engineering group leader and I could not be more thrilled.  My passion for fitness and helping others is my new career and I plan on working only 20 hours per week from home.  I currently work 40+ hours with a 1 hour commute each way.  My current schedule has me leaving the house by 5am and returning at 5pm M-F.  ONLY 10 MORE DAYS OF THAT!!  Thank you Beachbody for this amazing career that allows my to live my life by design!  HAPPY MOTHER’S DAY!  This mamma is happy and I just wanted to share. 

I wish all the moms out there a wonderful day!  God bless you and your family.  Take time to just enjoy your kids today and do something you enjoy.  Smile more!  Live more!  Love life!

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My youngest Bryson who is 9

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My middle son Colten who is 12

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My oldest who is turning 18! Yikes, this momma is scared.

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I push myself hard to set an example for my boys. You can do or be whatever you want if you work for it.

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I love it when my kids join my workouts!

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April 2016 Competition

My Second Competition was a Success!

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Last weekend I competed in my second NPC Bikini Competition.  I went into it with much more confidence and determination.  I turned 35 since my first competition so I was excited to compete in the Master’s division (35 and up).  The goal I set for myself was to take first in Masters and top 3 in Open.  Well, I concurred that goal!  I placed 1st in Master’s and 3rd in Open.

Because I had competed before the fear of being on stage and being judged was completely gone.  At my first competition I spend a lot of time looking around and comparing myself to others.  I counted how many girls were in my height class and let their appearance bring my confidence down.  After the show I looked at the pictures and videos and realized that I had nothing to feel insecure about and that the only person on stage I should have been focused on was myself.  This show was completely different.  I didn’t even look at the line up or know how many girls I was competing against.  When my friends arrived and asked how many girls were in my class I simple said “I don’t know, I didn’t even look.  Who cares, I am going to go out there and rock the stage.”  I was competing against the girl I was last time around and no one else.

It has been a week since the competition and I kind of feel a little lost without that goal.  I didn’t go crazy with food after the competition but I can say that I have overindulged on red wine.  Tomorrow I am starting the 22 Minute Hard Corp challenge with my husband and a challenge group I am leading. The program is 8 weeks log, comes with a balanced nutrition plan and 22 minute workouts.   This will allow me to focus on my fitness and nutrition again without completely consuming my time and energy.  I will be blogging about this challenge so others can see what it is like.

Here are some photos from my competition:

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This is the top 4 in Master’s Division

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This is the Open line-up.  I placed third.

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Reflect and Refocus

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What are the most important things in your life?   Does how you spend your time and money align with your answer?  I thought about that myself today after someone posted a comment on one of my recipes pointing out that I was obsessed with the two Fs, food and fitness. If you were to ask me I would say my priorities are the following four Fs listed in order of importance; faith, family, fitness and food.  However, I realized that recently fitness and food were dominating faith and family.  I reflected on that today and turned my focus to my faith and my family.  Sometimes our life gets a bit crazy and we lose focus on what’s most important.  This post is just a little reminder to take a time-out to reflect and refocus.

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Remember why you started

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Tonight I was tired, hungry, sore,run down, hungry, mentally exhausted, and hungry.  Did I say hungry?  Yes, I am 7 weeks into my second bikini competition prep and today I realized I still have 5 weeks of this to go.  I just want a bottle of wine!  I started to question why I signed up to do this again.  Because working 40 + hours a week as an engineering group leader, teaching group fitness and being a Beachbody coach isn’t enough, why not add something else to your plate Nicole?   I was working on cleaning out our home office so I can set up a workspace for by Beachbody business while listening to training videos on my soundbar and doing laundry.  On breaks I would watch the new release of Group Power that I need to have memorized by March 7th.  I wasn’t getting very far on any of my many  tasks and then I realized I still need to practice posing this weekend.  Okay, so I got back to the office. (Yep, that is pretty much how my ADD brain works)  It was at that moment that I found a letter that my oldest son wrote in 8th grade.  The assignment was to write about your Idol.  His good friend chose Michael Jordan.  My son chose his mom.

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This letter is all I needed to stop my pity party, get my office in order, finish the laundry and practice my posing.  Just when you are ready to give up and quit, remember that somebody is watching.  What kind of example do you want to set for your kids?  My passion, motivation, focus, drive and intensity is fueled by my love for my kids.  Be strong for them. FullSizeRender.jpg