Well, it’s been a super busy week last week. It was the end of the month push to reach a goal I had and I did it. I earned a promotion to Regional Director in my Visalus business ~ which means I’ve earned my company paid for BMW! woot.

I helped a team member reach his first promotion ~ while he was in the hospital no less.  There were so many promotions on my team it was hard to keep track.

I had a lot of great people connect with me about my soul business partner. I ended up with some new team members ~ but not sure I’ve found that “soul partner” yet. So if you’ve thought about sending me an email but worried it was too late.. nope!

The end of April brought about the end of my second 90 day challenge as well. My goal was to do the Wicked Wind 100 ~ a 100 mile bike ride that’s in the beginning of May. That just isn’t going to happen. While I took every opportunity to ride my bike, the weather was crazy and I’m just not ready to tackle a 100 mile ride! But I’m hoping to do one at the end of the Summer. I did continue to work out fairly consistently and maintained my weight loss which is awesome!

For the next 90 days I’m challenging myself to work on my abs! I am excited about the progress I’ve made so far and I’m actually looking forward to going to the pool with Hanna this summer ~ but I’d love to knock it out of the park with some gorgeous abs!

To get great abs takes more than just “ab” exercises. It takes a total body workout to get rid of that last layer of “baby fat” in my midsection. I’m pretty stoked though because I can actually FEEL muscles under there now, and I am starting to see some side definition to my ab muscles.

So to make this challenge happen I decided to get started with the 30 day challenge from Bodyrock.tv ~ you know I love that site. I’ve got some opinions about what’s going on with the people over there ~ but the workouts are awesome, and what Lisa Marie does with her body is really her own business.  So…

Today I did the fit test to set a baseline to measure progress.

I chose the intermediate workout ~ with just body weight to start. I almost chickened out and did the beginners workout option… but you gotta be IN it to WIN it! So I went with intermediate and it kicked my BUTT. I can barely move my arms to type this!!

I will be posting my workout deets ~ including my numbers for this fit test. I’d be happy if you decided to come along and post your numbers in the comments! Be gentle with me! I’m still working on it here!

Here’s the fit test video.  If you want to do the advanced or beginner options you can check them out on the site.

Here’s my numbers: (and can I just say I REALLY wanted to quit after the second set!!)

Squat jumps 1/2 burpees:

set 1: 16 set 2: 10 set 3: 8

I did regular on the knee push ups after the second set:

set 1: 13 set 2: 17 set 3: 15

Elevated Tricep Dips ~ OUCH

set 1: 12 set 2: 10 set 3: 11

Elevated knee abs (crunches with my feet on a chair?)

set 1: 29 set 2: 38 set 3: 40

So… what’s your goal for the next 90 days? If you’re ready to make a huge difference in your health, and your life ~ jump on the challenge with me! Message me and we’ll figure out the best way to get you started!

Things are getting very exciting in my business. I’m lined up to to hit another promotion this month ~ which means I’ll earn my FREE BMW.

It’s interesting… because it seemed so far away, and then I realized just how close it is. That got me REALLY excited.

Then I saw a post on my Facebook timeline from another member of our team. She’s my mentor’s “soul business partner”. She was talking about what an amazing journey they’ve taken together, and how she remembered how hard it was for her to say yes and jump on board.

It got me thinking… I wish I had a soul business partner.

I’ve got so many “friends” online.. but I would LOVE to have someone ~ one person ~ who was with me on this journey ~ who was doing it with me ~ who I could talk to ~ and celebrate with ~ commiserate with when things were hard. I would really, really like to have that.

So… I thought to myself ~ what would this “soul business partner” of yours look like? Because if you don’t know what she looks like how will you know if you meet her?

So… I started making a list. 

• She cares as much about people as she does about money ~ loves them BOTH!

• She believes in the POSSIBILITY network marketing provides

• She’s someone who’s  coachable and willing to follow a system (so we don’t get each other off track lol)

• She’s willing to take daily action toward her dreams

• She’s someone who’s sick and tired of where she’s at and is READY to move forward to something better

• She’s someone who has the means to get started and stick with the business

• She’s someone who’s willing to work on herself as much as her business (personal growth is WHERE IT’S AT!!)

• She’s someone who’s committed ~ she’ll be here with me 2 years from now ~ 5 years from now and longer

• She’s a positive person who focuses on what’s right instead of what’s wrong (in life, business, the world)

• She’s ready to embrace a new lifestyle 100% and is ready to BE the greatness I know she is

So if you’re looking for a soul business partner, I guess you have to lay it out there… what you bring to the table.

• I’m all of those things on the above list…

• I have an inextinguishable desire to make it happen for myself, and my soul business partner.

• I’m at a point in my business where I can help her achieve success QUICKLY

• I’m loyal

• I’m fun

• I’m generous

• I’ve got the ability to break complicated things into little pieces (which people say they love about me lol)

• I’m determined

• I’m focused

• I’m committed

So… soul business partner ~ I’ve put my desire out to the Universe. I have no doubt the Universe will connect us.

If she’s you… can you connect with me?

If you know her ~ can you forward her this message?!

Here’s to a magical business relationship brought about by Clarity and the Universe.

When you get started in a new business venture you look around at your team, everyone’s happy, successful, flying high. It appears no one is struggling. And yet, here you are, struggling, to get started, to get motivated, to get to the next level… struggling.

This can make you feel like you’re the only one. It can make you feel like there’s something wrong with you… like you’ll never succeed… because if everyone around you is having their time of their life ~ bringing new people on, building, building, building and you’re just trying to figure out how to find someone to talk to… it can make you feel like giving up.

Don’t.

Everyone struggles… even that super grand champion of the company has struggled. Even your upline who is nothing but sunshine and roses struggles ~ at least sometimes.

Don’t give up.

You can do it, and getting through the struggles is a huge part of making this business work. It’s getting through those struggles that grows your belief… in the company, the team, and most of all YOURSELF. When you can stick with it and overcome some struggle… the next time a little blip happens you’ll have muscle memory that YOU can overcome struggle. You’ll look at the problem differently, and instead of seeing this struggle as an excuse to give up ~ you’ll start looking for ways to make it work.

Don’t give up.

If you’re struggling… I suggest you talk to your upline. Tell them what’s going on. Tell them how you’re feeling. ASK them if they’ve struggled. Tell them they make it look so simple ~ but you wonder ~ have they struggled.

If they’re any good at all (and honest) they’ll tell you about their struggles… but they’ll also tell you the things they did to OVERCOME their struggles and get where they are today.

LISTEN to their struggles… but more than that listen to the solutions they found to those  struggles and start DOING something to overcome your own.

If by some crazy chance your upline is not willing to share with you their struggles, and say they haven’t had any… they’re lying. Go find someone else on your team… talk to them.

Don’t turn this into a bitch fest ~ or a way to dig yourself deeper into your struggles. Use it as a springboard. A way to feel heard and understood, and a way to find steps to take to start pulling yourself up.

Belief is the biggest struggle when it comes to network marketing… not in the very beginning. You’ve got excitement to carry you through then… but at the end of the first month ~ or maybe the second ~ when you don’t see a million dollar check in your mail box ~ you’ll start to doubt.

This is when you need to start pulling in resources, people, situations that will help you build your belief. THIS is the time where it’s make or break… if you want to succeed you MUST NOT let the doubt win. You must take action to create belief in YOU!

You can easily incorporate belief building in your daily life.

1. Read 10 pages of a motivational/inspirational/personal development/instructional book or magazine every day.

Input = output. If you’re putting garbage in you’re going to get garbage out. Start your day with 5 pages of something that is going to feed your belief. End the day with another 5 pages of something that feeds your belief.

It doesn’t seem like much but if you commit to doing this for a year ~ those 10 little pages a day will equal 13 whole books over the year!! 13 belief building books can be life changing.

2. Listen to 30 minutes of motivational/instructional/personal development audio each day.

This is great for when you’re in the car. Stop listening to talk radio ~ negative in = negative out. Start building your belief while your hands are busy but your mind is free.

This is also fantastic if you’ve got kids in the car ~ they’ll hear it too. You’ll be building their belief in themselves from a young age ~ those kids will be unstoppable!!

This works great any time your hands are busy but your mind is free ~ folding laundry, doing dishes, watching the kids play at the park, taking a bike ride, on the treadmill… take advantage of that time!!

3. Connect with someone else.

Call it accountability or whatever you want… find one person you can connect with regularly ~ maybe even daily. Make sure that person is on the same belief building journey you’re on. Share resources, pump each other up, encourage each other… use the person’s belief in YOU to build your belief in yourself.

These steps may seem small but success is brought about by small steps taken consistently over time. If you spend a few minutes a day building your belief  you’ll be amazed at how YOU grow ~ and when you grow –  your business grows.

Here’s 10 fantastic personal development books. Pick one, and start reading your 10 pages… if you’ve got a favorite please share it in the comments!

I also subscribe to Success magazine, and every month they have a free audio in the magazine. It’s a great place to start. If you’re in a network marketing company chances are they have audios available… don’t dismiss the power of these audios.

If you have favorite personal development audios please share them in the comments as well!

On a last note… you can do it. You must be open to BELIEVING you can do it… and if you believe it’s POSSIBLE… it is. Once you begin building your belief, almost like magic people, resources, circumstances will begin showing up that will make it easier and easier… it’s the getting started piece that’s the hardest… so pick up a book ~ read your 10 pages. It’s a start… and that’s all you need.

I’ve been having awesome results with The Challenge. I just had the best time shopping for new shorts at Old Navy ~ buying the smallest size I’ve bought in over a decade ~ and feeling great.

However, when it comes to sharing the challenge… that’s been tougher. There’s been a feeling of doubt, and concern, maybe even some fear… what will people think? What will they say? Will it work for them?

Tons of questions ~ and EXCUSES running through my head when I think about saying something out loud about it to others ~ whether it’s on Facebook, or in real life.

Until last week… I had a bit of an epiphany last week. 

I started thinking about the things I share with no hesitation. I thought about the things I share and don’t care what other people think. I thought about the things I share, and if people made negative comments about me sharing, my position would be “then unfriend me if you don’t like it”.

Those things were pretty easy to identify. 

My kiddo ~ I never think twice about blabbing on about how awesome she is, or the cool things she does, or sharing pictures of her and the things she does.

Never once have I thought twice about that.

Recipes and cooking stuff ~ don’t think twice about that either. Who doesn’t want a great new recipe!

A new workout ~ I love finding new workouts and don’t think twice about posting and telling the world about a new find.

What I realized all of these things (and more) had in common was this…

They are just PART OF WHO I AM. 

I am a mom ~ if you don’t like it, we’re probably not a great match as friends.

I am a cook ~ I love to cook and if you don’t like to hear about new recipes, and healthy cooking, again, we’re probably not a great match for friendship because being a healthy cook is part of who I am and I talk about it a lot lol.

I am getting fit ~ it’s part of who I am now… it’s part of my lifestyle. Sometimes I fall of the wagon, sometimes I get over zealous, but wherever I am in my fitness journey ~ it’s part of me and you’re going to hear about it if we’re friends.

SO…

What makes The Challenge so different than any of these things?

I’ll tell you…

It had not become “part of me”. It was still “something I was doing”. It was still  ”a business I was working on”. It had not become PART of ME.

As soon as I had that realization ~ it changed in an instant. 

I don’t just drink two shakes a day now… I’m the shake lady ~ and just like pictures of my kiddo at her first soccer game ~ if you don’t want to see them, then we probably shouldn’t be friends ~ because the Vi Life is part of me now, and you’ll be hearing about it. Which doesn’t mean you have to join the challenge ~ although you could ~ but it does mean that as part of my life, I’m going to share it.

The thing is… I don’t think I’m alone in this. 

I talked to a couple friends after I had this realization and asked them this question…

“If being the _____ lady was just part of who you are ~ like being a mom or a cook ~ would you be sharing it more? Would you care what people thought?”. (just fill in the blank for whatever business you’re involved in, whether it’s sending out cards, or selling stamps or scentsy)

It  seemed to have set off a couple A-ha moments for people.

What about you… 

Is your business, just a business to you, or is it part of who you are? If it’s not part of who you are (yet) can you see how that might make a huge difference in your ability/willingness to share it with others? I’d love to hear your thoughts.

We’ve probably all heard the phrase “If you believe it… you can achieve it”. It’s become somewhat of a modern day mantra. Everyone’s saying, I believe, and yet I’m not sure people actually GET it. I know I thought I got it… until I recently realized I wasn’t really getting it at all.

Believe.

It’s a word we throw around pretty lightly. However, when you really think about, and FEEL about something you believe in with all your heart and soul… something you have unwavering belief in… it pushes you to move mountains. It moves you to create change, to take action, to DO, and BE whatever it is you need to do and be to make something you believe in happen.

The thing I’ve noticed about belief… especially in the beginning stages ~ when you don’t have much “proof” to back up your belief is, it’s very fragile. It doesn’t take much to put a big old crack in the belief.

Once your belief is cracked the doubt seeps in. When the doubt seeps in you start seeing reasons everywhere… reasons why it won’t work, why you can’t do it, why everyone’s working against you. If you don’t see the reasons… you start making them up. FINDING reasons not to pursue this endeavor you just recently believed in.

No one wants to be wrong, or be made a fool of ~ and when your belief is cracked it’s those FEARS that start to take over.

Feed your faith and your doubt will starve to death

~ Les Brown

You’ve got to feed your faith ~ because this journey will NOT be easy. There will be set backs. Things won’t go as planned. The work will be hard. Your journey will be a journey ~ and each time something doesn’t go your way you’ll be tempted to let your belief crack.

You can’t. You’ve got to find yourself some spackle and fill those cracks. You can’t just fill them once… no way.

You’ve got to fill them daily.

Every day you pull out your belief spackle and you patch up the little cracks that formed yesterday when the hateful person slammed the door on you, the little crack that formed when someone said they were going to do something and didn’t, the little crack that formed when you see someone who appears to just glide through when it’s tough for you, the little crack that formed when someone made a negative comment, the little crack that appeared when someone told you no, the little crack that appeared when someone laughed at you and told you you were crazy, this will never work… repair the cracks daily and you’ll be able to maintain your belief.

Your unwavering belief will carry you through the toughest situations, until you have the “proof” that what you’re doing works, and your belief is not misplaced.

What about my why?

Having a why is important… however… I spent many years overweight and wanting to lose weight. I had a why ~ I wanted to show my daughter a healthier way to live, and to show her how to create a healthy relationship with food and her body by having one myself… but I didn’t.

Just having a why isn’t enough.

You’ve got to have BELIEF in a solution, in yourself, in POSSIBILITY.

If you don’t believe change is possible for you, the biggest WHY in the world will never move you to action, and without action you can NOT have change.

So yes, identify your why ~ but go past that and build your belief. If you don’t know how to start building your belief… start with this video.  If  you need to, come back every morning and watch it before you start your day… I know I will.

When you have a five year old you can get them to eat just about anything if you call it a pancake (or at least that has been my experience) Anyway… I was cruising around Pinterest and found 2 “pancake” recipes I really wanted to try. Here’s one and here’s the other.  (If you’re not on Pinterest and can’t see the recipes sorry ~ shoot me an email and I’ll send you an invite!)  I couldn’t wait so I decided to combine them and see what happened.

Absolute Deliciousness is what happened!!

Here’s how it went.

1 cup quinoa
1 zucchini shredded
3 tbsp flour
1 egg slightly scrambled
1/2 c shredded cheese (I used a mexican mix ~ it’s what I had in the fridge)
a couple tbsp diced onion (I used white, but it would have been better with green onions)
salt and pepper to taste

Let’s make it! 

Cook the Quinoa following the directions on the package.

While that’s cooking, grate the zucchini with a cheese grater. Then make sure you wring it out to get the moisture out. I used a tea towel ~ but if you have full size paper towels that will probably work too!

Once the zucchini is dried mix cheese, flour, egg, onions, salt and pepper in a bowl and combine.

When the Quinoa is done mix it in the bowl as well.

Add a little oil to the pan on medium heat. (I used a non stick pan and the oil was almost unnecessary)

Now grab a 1/4 cup measuring spoon and make 1/4 cup pancakes. I found it easiest to pour the batter on the pan and then flatten them out with a spoon while they were cooking on the pan.

Cook the pancakes for about 5 minutes on each side. They’ll get crispy and brown on both sides. YUM.

These would be great with a nice aioli or tzatziki ~ the recipes for both are on the original pins. I didn’t have the necessary ingredients to make either so we ate ours plain ~ they would have been good with a little ranch ~ but I wanted to avoid the extra calories.

All in all… delicious!!

Who doesn’t love to save money?! I know I do. The grocery store is one of the best places you can save money in your budget. One of my favorite ways to save grocery money is to be on the 90 day challenge, but the rest of the family has to eat too!

Here’s a great little ebook that will share a bunch of tips to help you save money at the grocery store.

I’d love to hear your favorite money saving tips! Share them in the comments, or stop by Facebook and share them with the community!

So I finally jumped on the bandwagon and joined Pinterest last week. If you want to follow me ~ please do! One of the things I’ve come to love more than anything else on Pinterest is RECIPES!! I love the pictures of the delicious looking food… it makes me really be able to “see” if we’ll like it or not! (for some reason I don’t know why because that doesn’t make a ton of sense, so just bear with me!)

Anyway… we missed our meal planning and shopping over the weekend so I decided to let Pinterest be my guide for meal planning this week. Here’s what I came up with… and I’m so excited I can’t even decide what we should have first!

You can find all these recipes in my food/drink board on Pinterest… so I’ll just link you directly to the pin.

Crockpot Parmesan Honey Pork Roast
with green beans
(we’ll have leftover pulled pork sandwiches for lunches as well)

Lentil Soup ~ this was left over from last week.

Monkey Bread Pizza ~ I’m so excited about this one I can’t see straight. I’ll have to dig out my bundt pan!

Curried Vegetable and Chickpea Stew (I’ll be adding chicken to this one… you know how my husband is)

Chicken and Spinach Pasta Bake
Salad

Steak Pinwheels ~ these were one of the first things I found on Pinterest and HAD to have them!!
Salad, homemade bread

Leftover Night…

So… who’s your favorite to follow on Pinterest for great recipes? Do share… I’m still new over there and need some great people to connect with.

Another great way to find meal plan ideas is to go to OrgJunkie.com for Meal Plan Mondays! We’re linked up.

Being a work at home mom who hates to exercise (and it’s too cold to ride my bike) makes it tough to lose weight. I love cooking healthy food, but still kept gaining.

Just over 90 days ago I started the Body by Vi Challenge. I decided to give it a try and see how it went.

Well it went CRAZY!!

I started drinking 2 shakes a day ~ and eating a healthy dinner with my family and low and behold the inches just started melting off (without exercise!).  Take a look at my results!! (click the picture to make it bigger)

I lost 10.75 inches over the last 90 days. Went from a size 16 to a size 10! Yeah, I couldn’t even believe that one! Thank heaven my lovely family got me gift cards for Christmas. I’ve had a blast shopping for new clothes (which is something I usually hate to do!).

I posted my pics on facebook and received such an overwhelming and wonderful response I was just moved. It made me want to share a little more of my story ~ the back story ~ where I came from and how I got where I was … but also the  ”TO BE” story… where I’m heading next and what my next challenge is all about.

So take a look… (and yes, that’s a wonderful new shirt ~ LOVE being able to wear “nice” clothes again!)

Here’s the bad news… the friend that introduced me to the Body by Vi Challenge actually introduced it to me WAAAAY back in April of May of last year. Yep, I put up a wall, and said “that’s not for me” all the while getting bigger and bigger. Heaven only knows where  I might be at this point if I’d gotten started right away… Man I might have even had FUN at the pool last Summer! Well there’s no use going down that road.

BUT… if you want to do something about your body, your health, your fitness… join me! Take the challenge. Don’t put it off for another day, month, 6 months! Today is the day!

Shoot me an email, or message me on Facebook. Let’s talk about your goals and what we can do together to help you accomplish them. WOOT.

Can’t wait to hear from you!

It’s interesting. I just finished reading an article about kids and food.The mom who wrote the article has a kiddo who won’t eat veggies. She had all these thoughts before she became a parent, no dino shaped nuggets, not being a short order cook etc, and now while in the midst of the journey finds she has had to change some of her expectations and actions…

But that’s not what this post is about…

As I’m sitting here reading this post I’m thinking to myself, just make him eat it.

Then I started to laugh at myself. I have a spirited kindergartner… who is an EXCELLENT eater (thank heaven). I don’t struggle to get her to eat veggies, in fact, I think she’d be a vegetarian if I’d let her.

So no, I don’t have that struggle. But I do have MANY other struggles with my kiddo, and I often find myself being given “advice” from people who don’t live in my house, have never had to deal with my kiddo and her temperament for more than an hour, and don’t really know what it’s like here.

And yet… I’m thinking, just make him eat it.

WTF.

It happens all over the place though, people who don’t struggle with something tend to think it’s easy for everyone and you can “just do it”, when in fact, that’s probably not the case or they WOULD have!!

It was just an interesting catch for me this morning. A reminder for when I am dealing with people, in my business, in my life, even with my kiddo… just because something’s easy for me doesn’t mean it’s easy for someone else, and the solution probably isn’t “just do it” because they most likely would have if they could have.

It begs for me to take some time to problem solve, to get creative, to try things that are unconventional to get them over the hump and around the problem.

I personally am a “just do it” kind of person. That’s how I push through problems, and things I’m scared of… but that’s my personality. It’s my temperament. It isn’t a one size fits all solution. If I’m going to help others get through their stuff ~ I’m going to have to approach it from their point of view.

So… here’s my suggestion, (to myself and maybe you too) when you see a poor Dad carrying a kicking and screaming kiddo out of the Walmart ~ be gentle. Don’t you think if he could “just make her stop” he would have? If you see someone struggling to pick up the phone to make their calls ~ be gentle. Don’t you think if they could have they would have? If you see someone trying to get their kiddo to eat their veggies ~ contain your disdain… don’t you think they’ve probably tried everything they know how to do?

Instead, let’s begin offering some compassion, and a shoulder to lean on. These people (and I know because some days  I AM one!) are probably near their wits end, and don’t need anymore judgement from us. My guess is they’ve got enough blame and judgement of their own to go around. Yours isn’t necessary.