This is the second year in a row where I put "loose weight" on my goals…

As you can tell, I didn’t progress much last year. The last time I blogged was the end of November.

So here I am 3 months later. The ten pounds I lost… well I gained 5lbs back after the Holidays. I guess I’m still 5lbs ahead.

I put together 6 weeks of meal plans so I wouldn’t need to think about what to eat. Even put together shopping list. There is one downfall with all that… I hate cooking… I can’t stand being in the kitchen. After two weeks of spending about 2 hours a day in the kitchen prepping and cooking meals… I loose it.

Then it’s take out time. No way am I going back into that kitchen to cook. Given my circumstances, 2 hours a day for 14 days in a row is a breakthrough.

Then I realized maybe I’m focusing on the wrong thing here.

While organizing and cleaning up my office in Dec, I came across the notes from a mentor of mine many years ago. One of those note pages talked about habits. We are all disciplined to our current set of habits. You can’t get any more disciplined then you already are because your current set of habits feel comfortable and natural.

It also takes about 21 days to form a new habit. If you pick a pivotal habit, you’ll change a lot of other habits.

I wasn’t always overweight, so what happened. Illness caused me to gain weight. I’ll go into that story later.

I lost the habit of working out. Didn’t loose the habit of cooking.

I’m overweight and out of shape. It’s cold and snowy outside so the idea of walking didn’t appeal to me right now. Need something I could do that wouldn’t get interrupted by weather. The idea is to form the habit. What is the easiest way to do it.

Reading through The Fit Chic and Success Tip #10 caught my attention: Ease into Your Workout Program.

That’s when the light bulb came on. Don’t worry about food right now. Focus on regaining the habit of working out.

3 weeks ago I began working out.

First week.

Focus on doing something. Don’t worry about the length of time. First thing in the morning I did 50 stomach crunches. That’s all and at the end of the week I did 75. Taking Sunday off

Second week.

Work out for 5 minutes. I do the 75 stomach exercises and add a series of stretching exercises. Oh man, no more flexibility. WOW… Ouch… At one time I could sit spread eagle and touch my head to the floor. Keep stretching until the timer goes off. By the end of the week, I developed a set of series of stretching exercises that fill up the 5 minutes. I also gained more flexibility. Take Sunday off

Third week

This is were I am right now. I repeat the above and add 5 minutes of marching in place. Monday I could barely get through it. Huffing and puffing when the timer goes off. Today I’m not huffing and puffing as much. Still wiping me out. I notice feeling more energized in the morning.

Every Other Day Diet - Detox Day 5

Very excited yesterday to discover a loss of 6 lbs weight loss over a two week period.

My coach is hosted an awesome Turkey dinner. He does this every year for his clients. The food and company is fantastic.

I guess this wasn’t great idea to start the detox this week. Since I added the protein earlier to stave off hunger, I wasn’t going to worry about it.

Day 5 does puts protein back in for the evening meal.

Knowing that I’d need to report back to you… kept me in check.

I ate turkey, a small helping of mash potatoes. Normally I don’t like mash potatoes but Trish makes these fabulous double baked ones. Plus a 1/3 cup of stuffing and not quite a 1/4 cup of gravy over the over everything.

Thank goodness all the deserts were chocolate… not a big chocolate fan. Easy to resist.

The dinner was a blast and I won a harmonica that includes a book and CD on how to play it.

Ann Rusnak is the creator of Thinking Outside the Clock Success System ~ busy entrepreneurs gain control over their lives and experience the luxury of time. Ann authored the book "Flip Your Time" ~ a step-by-step system that shows you how to take control of the clock so you can increase your profits and spend more time with your family and friends.

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Whoo Hoo — 6lbs Went Bye Bye

Two weeks into doing this…

It was my intention with this blog to document the day by day process. I wasn’t sure where to start or how to begin and Scott Tousignant answered that prayer with his programs… Unstoppable Fat Loss and The Fit Chic.

Years ago, I often just jump right into doing things and made a new years resolution to stop doing that… it wasted more time in the long run because than I needed backtrack. I like putting a plan into place before jumping.

But also didn’t want to wait for everything to be perfect before beginning… like the blog up and running.

Scott recommended a weight loss program called the Every Other Day Diet.

I scanned through it and liked what I saw. Very inline with the way I eat. Totally related the way they arrange the"eat"days. Similiar to how we arrange activities into 4 distinct days in Flip Your Time.

Also no calorie counting and the meals are very simple… not a lot of kitchen time.

The Every Other Day Diet comes with three eating plans. I decided to start with the Premier Plan. This one is recommended for beginners and people who tried dieting in the past without success.

First week I lost 1 lb. That’s not going to keep me motivated but now I finished reading the book and it recommends doing a 7 day detox.

The detox would speed up your weight loss plus help with intuitive eating.

This week I began the detox and today start my 5th day.

The first day…

I needed to go out and by more fruit. Glad I started this… I pointed out an eating habit I developed and didn’t know it. When ever I sit down to write, I grab a snack and keep snacking while eating.

Boy did it interfer with my writing and creativity. Like going through withdrawal. But I stuck with it. I kept getting up to go the kitchen but turned around and went back to writing. Little hard to stay focused.

The detox left me very hungary… and I mean hungry… also very tired. I ended up going to bed at 9:30 pm. Something rarely done by a night owl.

Day Two

I woke up in the middle night from hunger. I decided not to eat and drank the water next to me. Finally went to sleep even though my stumble growled and rumbled.

Obviously I woke up ravished. But my body felt lighter. I ate more fruit and salads. I’m a big protien eater in the morning. In the past when I eat nothing but carbs, it does leave me hungry with a lot of craving. Since the carbs come from fruit, I didn’t get cravings.

Also notice my earge to snack while writing diminished. Wasn’t jumping up as much as the day before to grab something. This is a good thing.

One of things I did do before beginning the detox, was to get rid of any temptation. I wouldn’t let my husband buy cookies for his lunch.

The detox is leaving me very hungry and I’m fighting the temptation to get in the car and get junk food. This is nuts. I made a decision to add some protein to my evening meal. This is something you do on day four.

Felt so much better. I still adhered to the rest of the plan.

Day Three

Slept throught the night and didn’t wake up hungry. Once again I follow the plan of fruit, salads and water for the day. But I added protein again to the evening meal.

Day Four

Once again slept great. Today you’re suppose to cut back on the fruit and begin to add protein. Since I added protein a couple days ago, I decided to go ahead and repeat the guidlines for days 1 -3… give myself a little extra cleansing. Hunger pangs weren’t any where near like the first day.

Day Five

It’s just starting. I’m amazed at the energy and how I feel. My brain isn’t feel quite as fuzzy either… I felt lighter this morning and decided to step on the scale…. 5lbs. Total of 6lbs.

That will keep me motivated to keep going… I’ll report tomorrow how the day went.

Ann Rusnak is the creator of Thinking Outside the Clock Success System ~ busy entrepreneurs gain control over their lives and experience the luxury of time. Ann authored the book "Flip Your Time" ~ a step-by-step system that shows you how to take control of the clock so you can increase your profits and spend more time with your family and friends.

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Hoping for Fat Loss vs Expecting It

By Scott Tousignant, BHK, CFC

Creator of Unstoppable Fat Loss:

Author of "The Fit Chic" and "The Fit Bastard":

Co-Author of "101 Great Ways To Improve Your Health"

There is a huge difference between hoping to reach your fat loss goals and expecting that you will achieve them. The major difference is that those who expect to be living in their dream body have programmed themselves to succeed and those who are simply hoping are holding doubts about their chances for success. So how can you avoid falling into the ‘hoping’ category?

Eliminate doubt by seeking role models

If you have any doubt in your mind that achieving your fat loss goal is possible, if you think that you’ve got to many obstacles and challenges in your way, if you’ve failed before and are worried that it’s going to happen again… find proof that it won’t!

I guarantee there are many people in this world who have faced greater challenges than you have and still they accomplished their fat loss goals. I guarantee that these people failed many times before achieving their dream bodies, but they refused to give up. I guarantee that they ‘expected’ to succeed.

Map out a plan – Now that you have role models who have achieved fat loss success, apply the blueprint that they’ve laid out for you. Model their behaviors, attitudes, and actions.

When you have a plan, you know what it’s going to take in order to develop your dream body; What workout programs you are going to follow, what foods you are going to eat, how much sleep you should get, how often you write out your goals and visualize your dream body, what you should record in your journal, how to overcome obstacles and challenges, and everything else that is required to achieve fat loss success.

Now that you have your plan all mapped out, you’ve got to know why you want to achieve this goal. It’s time to get fired up and passionate about how your life is going to change once you are living in your dream body.

When you reach your fat loss goal, it’s not just going to be your waist line that’s going to change. Your self-confidence will blow through the roof, you may land your dream job or gain a promotion, you may attract the love of your life, you will have the energy to play with your children, or even try new activities that you never thought of trying when you were overweight. The possibilities are endless.

Starting the Body Transformation Process - Step I Indentify

To get started, I decided to apply the same 3 step process that I use in gaining control over the clock…

• Identify
• Organize
• Execute

While I was waiting for this site to get up, I started the identification process…

First~ The Outcome

Second~ What could sabatoge my progress

Third ~ What will keep me motivated

Fourth ~ What would I need to ensure my success

Fifth ~ Game Plan

1. The Outcome

My weight loss aspiration is to reach my ideal weight by my birthday next year… slim my body down by 120 lbs.

My birthday is in September.

2. The Sabatoge

I wrote about that already… read it here

3. Motivation

Scott’s Unstoppable Fat Loss Motivational Audio
A secret motivation I’ll reveal later

4. Insurance for Success

Form a support team
Using this blog journal for accountability
Any equipment and/or tools needed

5. Game Plan

Listen to an audio each day
Determine the nutrition plan
Determine the workout plan

Scott’s material gave me a great headstart with the game plan. I scanned through the Fit Chick and notice I already began apply many of the tips.

The first assignment in The Fit Chick was to figure out what was holding you back. I did that prior to Scott’s generousity… I think the Law of Attraction was at work

I also reveiwed the weight loss program Scott recommend. The Every Other Day Diet… I decided to follow it.

For my work, I’m going to start walking again. After I walk for two weeks, I’ll add weights to my program.

Ann Rusnak is the creator of Thinking Outside the Clock Success System ~ busy entrepreneurs gain control over their lives and experience the luxury of time. Ann authored the book "Flip Your Time" ~ a step-by-step system that shows you how to take control of the clock so you can increase your profits and spend more time with your family and friends.

Going from Fit to Ill - Part 1

Ever since high school, I engaged in some type of exercise routine. Started out with yoga and joined Elaine Powers shortly after graduation. (that dated myself didn’t it) I avidly worked out 3-4x a week for eons.

Actually until Elaine Powers closed it doors. Where upon I bought a work bench for strength training and began walking. Soon worked my way to power walking 3-4x a week, doing 5 miles in an hour.

Even the demands from my new business couldn’t keep me from those walks.

But something happened, while my business success climbed, my health declined.

By the third year of my business, all my energy disappeared. I could barely get out of bed. All my joints ached, barely walk, sit or move. Chronically getting ill and gained weight very fast, even when I could still work out.

One morning while getting ready to take my daughter to school, I experienced an extreme shooting pain through my back and down my legs. I collapsed on the floor unable to move. A very frighten Allyce called her dad at work.

He came home immediately and couldn’t get me off the floor. Soon an ambulance whisked me away to the hospital.

Thus began a battery of test to figure out what happened.

Enough Stalling… Time to Get Fit

Ann Rusnak ~ The Time Diva here…

I set an aspiration to get healthy… part of that included getting this weight of my body. The weight gain resulted from illness. This extra poundage really bugs me…

I"ll go into my story later… Right now I want to get something up here and get going or this weight will "never" come off. Start taking action.

This past year, I resolved to get fit.

The first step begins with identifying what will hold me back. I come up with three culprits that could sabotage my success.

The #1 thing…

I Hate to Cook… I Hate the Kitchen

I plan every area of my life except anything to with meals and the kitchen. I’d rather get in the car and drive to Chipotle’s, get soft tacos to go and head back home before going into the kitchen to cook.

Without working out, running to Chipotle’s isn’t a good idea.

Okay… I whipped up a batch of Margarita’s and took a day to put together 4 weeks of menus along with the shopping list together. I just rotate the menus and print the shopping list.

That helped… lost 10 lbs but weight loss stalled… which brings me to the other…

Two culprits… Inconsistency and No Accountability.

I figured if I would journal about my fitness journey, it would make me accountable and eliminate inconsistency in my quest.

I’ll be sharing my ups and downs, what’s working, what’s not and resources that delivered results.

First, I want to thank

Scott Tousignant, The Fit Bastard, for the kick in the butt to get going.

Scott and I belong to Business Owners Coaching Club. When I shared in our mastermind group that I planned on blogging my weight off, he generously shared his programs with me.

I reviewed all his stuff… great stuff… and I’m going with The Fit Chick and will listen to the motivational stories from Unstoppable Fat Loss.

He shared another resource with me that he and wife started doing with good success. I just ordered and downloaded it.