Great Balls of Fire. Give me the ABSENTEE award!

Kittens. Hello my name is Kelly and I have been absent for a week. NAUGHTY IN AN EPIC WAY. Suffice it to say that EACH DAY OF THE PAST week I have heaved a big sigh and said, "OH Lord. I just cannot sit down and take 30 minutes to post my blog. DANG."

We were in NYC from Thursday-Monday. I got home late Monday night. I've spent all day Tuesday and Wednesday on STUFF. Biznass stuff. Contracts and hoo-ha. Yum Yum. Ho Ho Ho. 

Here are some highlights from NYC:

This is Miss Bonnie Foo Foo, I mean Bonnie Pfiester heading into the NYC GNC, where we stocked up on all kinds of goodness like the Street King we are digging. Um, zero calories, the energy/caffeine of one cup of coffee and every purchase feeds a child in need. Hello.

My boyfriend. Not Deepok. ;-)

This is us gals working hard on the benefits of resvatrol by drinking wine. ;-) That's me, Jill Hanner, Cassandra and Carla. All fabulous. 

Me and Bonnie. Who has more knowledge about fitness and health in her pinky finger than I do all year in my mind. Seriously. 

Alfonso, Bonnie and hubby Steve, who you have seen on my blog in the past. (Click Here.)

Incredibly talented and knowledgeable peeps that I am blessed to have in my FitFluential Family as Ambassadors.

Indeed Carla and I had a lot of Diet Coke. NOM NOM

Carla striking gold in GNC with Ostrim Jerky and Street King. Y'all, I was living on the Ostrim Turkey Jerky while on this trip. It was Carla that got me started on it, and I tell you this. It is addicting, great for travel/office and protein! HELLO!!

Also. I Love Carla. #thatisall

Here is my ramble-on-a-thon from Tuesday. Sorry. I'm behind. Clearly. But I was SO inspired by my fitness peeps and those that you see in these pictures are keeping me accountable for kicking consistent a** in my diet and workouts- STARTING NOW. ;-) I also do a demo review of the GNC Blender. You guys- kick butt blender. So awesome. Seriously. And I might add- on sale now at GNC for 1/2 off. Every office worker should have one to eat well!! Just sayin.

Don't you want one? Seriously I was more excited about that blender than I was about the latest new episode of Fringe. Well maybe not. But close. ;-)

Now- I'm off to do my "morning" workout. And by "morning" I mean, it was supposed to be 3 hours ago but I blogged!! hahah!!

QUESTION OF THE DAY: If you work in an office do you eat out regularly or pack your lunch?

**Disclosure: GNC is a client of my company, FitFluential. We produce campaigns for them that are paid by GNC but all the opinions on this blog are expressly my own. **

Monday Manjoyment!

Happy Monday Everyone. Thought I'd do a little twist on Monday Manjoyment and give you a wee little taste of some of the newest FitFluential Men on the block. 

Above is Stefan Pinto who just joined FitFluential as an Ambassador- he has a great story too. Check him out by CLICKING HERE.

Here I am posting at 10pm again but it's been ONE OF THOSE DAYS!! But I got my workout in this morning! WOOT! Full sweatfest followed by physical therapy where I am progressing a bit more each week and TRYING TO BE PATIENT WITH THE PROCESS. ;-)

Here's my ramble-on-a-thon:

Did I make a point there? ;-) Yea. Maybe. 

Who is this? Michael Skogg of Skogg System Kettlebells.

You can also find him at Badass.com. 

I've featured Steve Pfiester here before and he too is down with the badassness. If you recall, I've shared his sample sweatfest slaughterhouse workouts: 

He is a machine. I curse at him a lot during these workouts. 

Alfonso Moretti can be found at Angry Trainer Fitness and he also can throw down the Whoop Ass. You don't want to NOT listen to him when he says, DO ANOTHER SET YOU LIGHTWEIGHT. 

This is just the first sampling of Manolicious Monday sponsored by FitFluential. I hope you enjoy it as a little twist, and I will share more of our fine gentlemen FitFluentials in the future. 

How to Feed Your Fire.

I am so loving kettlebells right now-- and the potential of what I'm going to be able to do in the future with them....! Wow. I'm kinda just bummed out that I can't pack them with me on a business trip! ;-0 But come on Kelly- you got your TRX, your Bodylastics Bands, your Valslides and a ton of great workout DVDs to use. Unlimited choices. Unlimited possibilities. Unlimited Potential.

How do you "feed your fire"? (and by fire, in this case, I'm talking about your momentum, your feeling of motivation, the desire to press on and keep kicking butt in this fitness journey)

You may have seen me slowly becoming obsessed with referencing Pinterest and Tumblr lately. They are both platforms with amazing content on the subject of getting fit. This is where I've been snagging such great and motivational visual pics like the one above. You have to give yourself an ongoing visual reminder of your goals. And it certainly helps to include POSITIVE MESSAGES like the above. This is particularly useful for some folks that tend to be a little negative with ourselves LIKE ME. Combine positive self-talk with positive and inspiring visual reminders of what you want to achieve-- DAILY. 

What you think about, you bring about. Focus on the goal. 

Buddy Up. Working out with a buddy or a trainer will usually make you push harder. But you can Buddy Up online too-- that's what us bloggers are!! HELLO!! If you aren't blogging your journey yet, I encourage you to get started. That's what I did! 

Take advantage of some amazing-- and quite often FREE--- tools out there to help you. DO NOT ALLOW YOURSELF TO WHINE ABOUT NO GYM, NOT A LOT OF $$ OR NO BOOKS/DVDS TO FOLLOW. There are so many FREE options for you. YouTube has a boatload of videos out there and hello some of my BFFs have videos on there (many that I've shared) that will really help you get your sweat on!! I've shared some kick butt videos from Steve Pfiester (who is also one of our FitFluential Ambassadors!) like this:

Yea. I do this one REGULARLY and I curse at Steve more each time. And--- because Steve and Bonnie are also members of the Sears FitStudio team-- you'll find some of their KICK BUTT "BCX BOOTCAMP" workouts- designed for you by day- FUUUHHRREEE that's FREE on FitStudio.com. What's the catch? Oh yea, there isn't one. Wanna see a sample of the BCX style you'll experience, this ain't no joke people:

See what I mean? You have sooooo many resources and great people out there to FEED YOUR FIRE and keep it going. This is what I do and it helps me! It helps me to know I'm part of a big family out there that's in this journey with me. 

NOW-- QUESTION OF THE DAY: I'm looking at a late late late workout tonight. What is the latest workout time you have ever scored? Tonight might be my latest workout but I'm determined to get one in before I hit the pillow. Does dreaming count as a workout? ;-)

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?