Spice Up Your Life! Spice Up Your Workouts! Updated

What's up kittens? Having a good week? It's always hard to get back in focus after a long holiday weekend, isn't it? It's bad enough I already have issues knowing what day it is and what town I'm in but whoa, after a holiday weekend I'm really in a fog. No Jokes Please.

Anyway, I'm starting to dig the kettlebell feeling more and more. As you know, I recently bought the RKS Kettlebell DVD set and yesterday I did my first workout. I did DVD #1 which is essentially ONLY kettlebell swings. However, don't think this was 1) easy or 2) boring or 3) void of sweat or 4) void of cursing. I am VERY excited to move forward in this series and do the rest. I used- or wait, I started with 25lb kettlebells and had to move down to a 20lb kettlebell because my grip was failing. 

Can you tell I'm rather addicted to Tumblr and Pinterest? DANG! Anyway-- keep reminding yourself that we only "compete" with ourselves! It's about EFFORT and pushing it, not trying to be perfect. My friend Krissa can use 30lb dumbbells for overhead presses. I use 20lbs and grunt my way through it- but that is what is TOUGH for me. If it's TOUGH, I'm working my muscles. Enough said. JUST WORK IT.

Check out my sweatfest vlog below for my "review":

Also! Spice Up Your Life is not just for workouts....I've been talking about adding spicy-ness via variety in our "diets" as well (READ: "diets" for me is WAY OF EATING, not a DIET). I'm filling my cabinets and fridge with LOTS of foods that I love and guess what-- I am NOT forbidding foods anymore....that's right. I am slowly but surely getting back to the point where ANYTHING can be in my house and I can reasonably eat and reach my goal. 

Yea. You saw it here first. I have a hujazz jar of Nutella in my cupboard. I also have PEANUT BUTTER. I've also filled my fridge with vegetables, fruit, hummus, Almond Milk, Chobani Greek Yogurt, Laughing Cow Cheese wedges, organic brown eggs (for you Danielle) Brownberry 100% Whole Wheat Bread, Jell-O, Trader Joes Brown Rice Pasta (heaven!), Organic Trader Joes Marinara-- you get the idea. I'm not hosting a psycho diet kitchen, but I'm also not hosting a PIG OUT FREE FOR ALL. Balance. Every time I go to eat, I stop and think- why am I eating. Then I calm down- and if I am hungry, I eat what my body "needs" and try to keep a good balance. I am also focusing on eating AT THE TABLE. Geneen Roth talks in her books about eating in a rush, eating in the car, eating at the counter- all things I have done- and you do it because you are usually Rushing and thus you rush through a meal and don't even taste it. SIT DOWN. Eat slowly. Enjoy your food. You're allowed to do that. Go ahead. 

In the spirit of "diet" balance, I am posting this gem, shared on Tumblr from The Reality of Skinny:

Here are some of the best Healthy Snacks, via Women's Health Magazine:

1. Sliced tomato with a sprinkle of feta and olive oil
2. Vitamuffin Vita Top
3. Starbucks tall Skinny Latte
4. Banana
5. Edamame
6. Air- popped popcorn 
7. Quaker Instant Oatmeal
8. Greek yogurt
9. 8 pieces of shrimp, with 4 tbs cocktail sauce
10. Sargento Light String Cheese
11. Curves Granola Bar
12. 1 cup baby carrots with 2 tbs hummus
13. 1 1/4 ounce turkey jerky
14. 1/2 cantaloupe
15. 1 cup vegetable juice, and 2 oz roasted turkey breast 
16. 1 tbs peanuts and 2 tbs dried cranberries 
17. 1 cup strawberries and 3 tbs Cool Whip Free
18. Amy’s Cheese Pizza Snacks
19. 1 cup raspberries with 2 tbs Greek yogurt and 1 tsp honey
20. 2 egg whites with 1 slice of whole wheat toast
21. 1/2 cup frozen yogurt
22. 5 Hershey’s Special Dark Kisses
23. 2/3 cup Barbara’s Baked Cinnamon Puffins Cereal (dry)
24. 1 oz Yellowtail and 1 oz Tuna sashimi 1 packet Kikoman Instant Miso Soup
25. 18 Fat Free Rold Gold Tiny Twists
26. 2 oz Veggie Land Veg- T- Balls with 2 tbs tomato sauce
27. Chocolate milk
28. 1 Nutter Butter Granola Bar 

I'm telling y'all- Shrimp Cocktail if you like it (which I do) is a beautiful thing. Lo-Cal, Lo-Fat and scrumptious. What are your favorite healthy snacks? Do you snack? Or avoid it? 

Question of the Day: Have you ventured into Kettlebell Land yet? If so- how did you find out about it? If not, do you want to?

Happy Memorial Day!

A little late here on posting (oops!) but Happy Memorial Day to all of you. I hope that this holiday weekend makes you all think, and be grateful for the men and women that serve and protect us, year-round. We so take that for granted and it certainly should NOT only be on Memorial day that we SUPPORT OUR TROOPS. I don't care what your stance is on war, support the troops that protect us. Period.

I've been at a cookout most of this afternoon and evening -- but--- I did a killer sweatfest workout before heading out, BOOYA! I actually did the first DVD of the RKS Kettlebell system and was quite pleased. VERY SWEATY and very excited to progress with these workouts. Again- just like the GSP RushFit DVDs (I previewed one of them), these DVDs have a LOT of instruction and demos so you can see the right form and how to modify....I think this is key, especially when you get into the really tough workouts like these. 

I don't know how people do Kettlebell workouts without gloves on- my hands get so sweaty, if I didn't wear gloves I'd have Kettlebells flying through the windows and the walls. Actually, if I could CURVE BALL a kettlebell to land flat in my neighbor's condo and eliminate them, I'd be all over that.

DID I SAY THAT OUT LOUD? Shame on you Kelly. SHAME. 

So I did the 5 minute warm-up, followed by the 20 minute kettlebell workout-- which on the first DVD is swings ONLY- 30 seconds of swings followed by 45 seconds of rest. At first I was like WTH!! But then it got progressively harder and I had to go down from 25lb Kettlebells to 20lb kettlebells. Then, I figured, let's kick our glutes a bit harder. Let's do Steve Pfiester's little glutes-on-fire blast. Oh Lord. I called him some naughty names again during this 10 minute sweatfest. Overall burn of 365 calories in 35 minutes. Not bad.

If you dig that lower body blast, check out Steve's videos on YouTube, and also HELLO sign up (FREE) at FitStudio.com as a member. Steve and his wife Bonnie have made several customized boot camp workouts there and more to come! Seriously??? Killer workouts and FREE. Can't beat it. Like this:

What's up with him and that devilish "I'm gonna kill you with THIS move" look? 

Anyway, tonight at the cookout I did not pig out. I did have a Corona which I love. They had pulled pork sandwiches that everyone was ga-ga for but I don't do pork- I don't even like bacon (shocking!), so I just ate some side dishes- potato salad and cole slaw, about maybe 1/2 cup each if that. I wasn't TRYING to measure that and be like "I'm eat like a bird Kelly"-- not at all. I just put that amount on my plate, and calmy ate what I wanted. Then I had 2 pieces of this fruit pizza- delicioso!!! Have you ever tried it? YUM. When I got home, I didn't feel that I'd had enough "solid food" in my tummy so I made myself a Lean Cuisine french bread pizza- totally hit the spot. So-- I feel good. I didn't pig out, I enjoyed some good food and I had a good time. These books by Geneen Roth are really HELPING ME slow down and get a more normal DAY TO DAY- year-round mindset about food. 

Remember this scene in Gone With The Wind? WELL FIDDLE DEE DEE!!

Now, here is today's (actually this was from last night when I got home) Ramble-On-A-Thon. Enjoy at your discretion. 

QUESTION OF THE DAY: WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE FRUIT? 

Yes You CAN.

I just saw this on Pinterest today and had to post it. This is such a great summary of what I've learned and what I have to keep re-learning, in order to move forward. There is no "one fit", in fitness. There is no "One Size Fits All" way to eat or "diet" and there isn't only one way to workout to get lean. 

Believe it or not, this simple concept is something that I failed to acknowledge for the better part of my Bracket Years. I kept stopping and starting either my "diet plan" or my workout routine because:

• I would read a book or an article in a fitness magazine or a blog post by someone that contradicted what I was doing. I would immediately interpret my efforts as a failure and as "wasted time" and I'd throw it all away and start a totally new approach.
• Someone- a trainer, a blogger, a nutritionist, whoever- would tell me that the reason I hadn't lost X pounds yet was because of something like, "Oh you are eating sweet potatoes past 4pm! That's why!!" or, "Oh, I didn't know you were doing DELI meat! That has sodium fillers in it so of course you are retaining water!!"-- and then I'd throw all my offensive foods away and go to Borders and buy some NEW book make NEW lists for the grocery and go START OVER AGAIN.

Now-- I do not share this to blame those people or the books I read....not at all. It was ME in my overly-panicked state of mind the past couple of years that CRAVED finding a quick fix. As much as I "preached" here about losing weight the right way and being sensible and healthy, deep down, I wanted simply to know I could do something in X timetable and KNOW without a doubt I'd be in a size 6 again with 2 snaps. 

I just wanted to KNOW. As if I couldn't tell myself!!! WTH!!! I felt that I needed someone to tell me or show me the secret solution that was evading me on how to get back in optimal shape-- because there was no way that I could do that on my own......

I'd given up believing that I could do it. I'd given up believing that I was capable. 

Well thank GOD that my new Kelly brain WOKE UP finally and snapped out it- or started to snap out of it. I'm a perpetual work in progress, but I've come SO SO far -- mentally--- in shedding the inhibiting behaviors of my past. 

Getting fit, or more fit, is pretty simple. It's not a complex scientific solution that only the very wise and studied people can figure out. Sure, we might tweak things along the way, but we need to MOVE MORE and EAT LESS. We need to find a way to eat so that WHAT WE EAT IS NOT THE #1 FOCUS OF OUR BRAIN ALL DAY LONG. We shouldn't be dreaming about cookies all day because we've designed a diet of fish and broccoli ONLY with NOTHING ELSE. And we shouldn't be obsessively worried about not getting our protein FEEDING in by 11am instead of 11:30am. for optimal meal spacing. 

This quote is SO true. When you are ready for success, you will know it more on the inside than you can probably put into words. I certainly feel that way now. Today, I was at the Indy 500. I wore SHORTS. I haven't worn shorts in 2 summers! WTH!! Why? Because I've been caught up in how gross I felt I looked and I didn't want to wear shorts until I wore my size 6 shorts and they were baggy. For me, going out and about in my shorts NOW before I've reached my goal-- that's a big deal. It's a big deal because it means I'm finally really starting to trust myself. To take a deep breath and enjoy the ride along the way.....and to KNOW, to finally KNOW that I will get there, in my own time. 

I have some GREAT new workouts at home that I cannot wait to dive into-- the RushFit ones- OMG peeps-- I will do some detailed reviews of all 6 DVDS but the first one-I previewed and it is VERY VERY thorough on the instruction. And the actual workout looks TOUGH-- totally different moves and  mixes of moves.

I really need him to be my Thursday boyfriend. Maybe even Thursday-Friday. I like boyfriends that can kick the living crap out of anyone. Don't judge me, I like the bada** ok? It works for me. Probably also explains why I have no boyfriend at the moment. 

Another mantastic DVD set is the RKS Kettlebell program-- another VERY VERY THOROUGH instructional portion which is pretty awesome. Doesn't hurt that the manjoyment factor is high. 

ALSO PEEPS== many of you have been asking when TRX will go on sale again--- it is on sale this weekend for $30 off...!! CLICK HERE TO ORDER! 

So, clearly, with TRX, my UGIFit Ball and workouts, my RKS Kettlebell DVDs, Rush Fit, Jillian DVDs, new CATHE DVDS, the future looks pretty FUN!! I'm excited!! OMG hello and Brazil Butt Lift and Insanity Asylum!! Good Heavens!

And wow-- it has been an exciting week at FitFluential!!! DANG-- some of you, well heck, all of you are WOWING us with your FitFluential Ambassador applications and blog posts and videos!! We are still watching them and -- wow, it's just reminding me why I founded this company--to highlight amazing inspiring people with amazing motivating fitness stories. WOOT!! And-- yes, there is still time to get in your Ambassador application--- we are closing up Phase One on June 1st-- so start by CLICKING HERE.

Not sure about being an "Ambassador" but still want to be a part of FitFluential, and be IN on all the exclusive deals, discounts, giveaways, conference announcements and regional events in your area? Want to read other bloggers and LEARN about the latest and greatest in fitness plus get recipes and all kinds of ideas on how to lead a fit and fun lifestyle? Then you MUST join the FitFluential FAMILY-- VERY SIMPLE-- start by CLICKING HERE.

If you have any questions about FitFluential-- you can always email me at kelly at FitFluential.com. ;-) 

QUESTION OF THE DAY: What is your favorite cookout food? Mine is by far, potato salad!!