Philadelphia Loves Beachbody

Apr 16, 2012

Where do I even begin to blog about everything that’s been happening the past few days?!  All I can say is that exciting things are happening!!!  On Saturday I headed up to Philadelphia with my mom to go see Carl Daikeler, CEO of Beachbody for Beachbody’s quarterly Super Saturday event.  Super Saturdays took place all across the country and I was fortunate enough to go see our CEO somewhere that wasn’t too far from where I live.

I met up with some of the other amazing coaches on my team and we had a great time being inspired and learning more about the direction in which the company’s headed.

The picture above is courtesy of Carl Daikeler.  🙂

What could be a better purpose than that?  I really feel so proud and honored to be a part of such an amazing company.  Together with what I’m learning at Institute for Integrative Nutrition, I’m so excited that I’m helping to make such powerful changes in people’s lives, including my own.

Carl was nothing short of inspiring and helped us all to see that each and every one of us can achieve the goals that we set for ourselves.  Yes he might be the CEO of the overall Beachbody company, but he re-inforced that we are no different from him.  As Beachbody coaches, we are the CEOs of our own companies and can do whatever we want to in this business, if we just set our hearts and minds to it.  We are leaders and here to inspire others to make healthy changes in their lives so that they too, can inspire others in much the same way.  And we can make as much money as we want doing it (he said the top coach in the company makes somewhere around $18,000 a week).  Who doesn’t want that so that they can enjoy their lives and live it with full freedom?!  I know I definitely want it!

I was so thankful to have the opportunity to meet him.  Literally the whole room was standing in line waiting to have their picture taken with him and as we were, I thought to myself “who else stands in line waiting to get their picture taken with their CEO?!  Most people probably hate their CEOs!  Only Beachbody coaches would do something like this because we’re proud and honored to have such an amazing man leading us forward towards success!”

Afterwards my mom and I decided to go walk around Philadelphia and grab some lunch. Did I stay raw the entire time?  No, although my mom did bring lots of fruit and the place where we headed for lunch was a raw juice bar.  Could I have stayed raw?  Yes, but I was listening to my body and what it really wanted was some great cooked food!

I have to share the amazing dinner that the hotel bar made for me when it was 10:30 pm and my mom and I were tired from driving all afternoon (gotta love DC traffic).  When the waitress heard that I was vegan, she told me that the chef could prepare a vegan plate.  So I was thinking that I’d get a plate of asparagus or something.  I was so surprised when this came out for me!

That’s eggplant on top with some delicious tomato sauce and basil on the side.  And on the inside there was asparagus, carrots, broccoli, basil, sun dried tomatoes, squash, and onions!

So back to the juice bar, named Jar Bar Philly. One of the other amazing coaches gave me a coupon for it so of course I had to go there.

And what did I notice as I was taking the picture below?

Carl Daikeler sitting right there in the window!  Definitely was not expecting that.  He didn’t stay for very long though.

Anyway, even though they had amazing things on the menu, I wasn’t in the mood for anything but a salad, and I also got an amazing raw chocolate maca smoothie.

Afterwards, my mom and I decided to walk around for a little bit, but since we’re not super history buffs and the line for the Liberty Bell was too long, we decided to head home early and just relax.  I did get a few pictures of some pretty flowers outside the Liberty Bell and the flag of Chile waving outside some building, but we couldn’t figure out why it was there along with the American flag and the Italian flag.

I have so much more to blog about, but I’ll save it for a post tomorrow, especially since this is getting super long.  Goodnight!

Going Raw – Day 2

Apr 10, 2012

I’m not going to lie – today’s been rough.  I woke up from a restless sleep feeling jet lagged, a feeling that’s lasted throughout the day, and a strong tension headache.  I know that I was definitely grinding my teeth last night.  I was super hungry too.  I threw together a green smoothie for breakfast, but decided to have a banana afterwards too, to keep me satisfied.

I was starving again a few hours later, so I had an orange.

And then a few hours after that, I had my raw Spanish rice and an apple.

And then a few hours after that, I had a plum (noticing a pattern here?)

I’m sure that I’m having way too much fruit, especially for someone like me who has insulin resistance issues.  Oh and did I mention that the butternut squash made me super bloated & looking about 4 months pregnant?  I noticed it last night when I ate, but chose to ignore it, especially since I didn’t feel like making anything else for lunch at that point.

Since I had to mail off some Shakeology samples but was too hungry to wait for dinner, I had a banana.  And then when I got home, nothing appealed to me, except for maybe a Chipotle veggie burrito bowl or some homemade pancakes thanks to Chef Chloe Coscarelli’s amazing recipe from her book Chloe’s Kitchen.  So I kind of broke my raw food rules & had Shakeology!  Ok I know that Shakeology isn’t technically raw, but it’s pretty darn close.  I blended it up with some coconut milk, strawberries, raspberries, and what else, but a banana, my chosen fruit of the day.

Unfortunately, I’m still starving, & need to go figure out what’s on tomorrow’s menu.  I’m feeling very much like I did when I did my juice fast back in September.  Miserable, constantly hungry, & with no relief for my headaches.  I’m not sure I’ll last the 10 days eating raw foods, but I’m definitely going to try my best.  I might do 90% raw with 1 cooked meal, but we’ll see.  For now, I need to rest!

Going Raw – Day 1

Apr 9, 2012

Yikes, I can’t believe it’s been 6 days since I blogged, and I was on Spring Break too, so it’s not like I didn’t have time.  Nothing too exciting went on during that time though, although I will say that it made me fully appreciate that I’m on the right path towards achieving my dreams. I spent the majority of the week focusing on my Beachbody business & studying the second module through Institute for Integrative Nutrition.  I wish that I could spend this next week doing the same thing, but I’ll be doing this full-time before I know it!  🙂

Today I began the 10 day raw food diet that I’m doing thanks to Cleanse America.

Breakfast was a green smoothie with lettuce, spinach, basil, kale, mango, banana, strawberries, & coconut water.  The basil definitely brought out a nice sweetness in the smoothie!

Although Cleanse America gave us lots of amazing recipes to try, I was feeling lazy at lunchtime so threw together a salad of lettuce, spinach, avocado, radishes, carrots, cucumber, tomato, and hemp seeds, dressed with a little olive oil & balsamic vinegar.

I really wasn’t super hungry during the day & did just fine until later in the afternoon around 5, when it was too early for dinner, so I had a banana & then decided I wanted a plum too!

Although I have access to so many amazing recipes & had even written out a list of all the ones I wanted to try, I couldn’t decide what to make for dinner.  I happened to see the following recipe for Raw Spanish Rice through an article that the amazing Kris Carr posted on her Facebook page.  It took less than 5 minutes to prepare & I even decided to take some for lunch tomorrow.

Now I need to figure out what to make for breakfast, then it’s off to bed!  Goodnight!