Thank you!!!

 I have gotten some really amazing and encouraging emails this week. It just makes me so proud that I am encouraging and inspiring others. It is always on the days that I am needing motivation that the Lord lays it on someone's heart to reach out to me...so thank you!

 When I started this blog it was really just to hold myself accountable and to give me an outlet to write. I wanted somewhere that I could be completely honest and open about what it is REALLY like to lose weight, and struggle with food addiction and exercise.

I started coaching because I wanted to help people achieve their health goals and to again share my story. People need to see and hear that it can and has been done. And they don't need to just see and hear it in magazines that promise 30 lbs of weight loss in 20 days and on the biggest loser. (Which by the way is one of my favorite shows, but as I have said before it is not feasible in real life...nobody has the ability to workout 6 hours a day....and if they do they shouldn't need the biggest loser)

I just wanted to take a post to say thank you to everyone who reads this blog or follows me on facebook. It is amazing that I have the ability to affect change in peoples' lives. It is amazing that people turn to me when they have questions about diet and exercise. I am still learning, still growing, and still figuring out where I fit in the fitness business. Thank you to all of you who have given me feedback over the last year, and who have helped me along the way!

I sincerely hope that this business takes off and I am able to help people all over the country achieve their goals....because we all know how to lose weight but sometimes we need someone to hold our hand and kick out butt. IF you do not have a health coach let me be that person for you!!! If you are not following the facebook page please do! I post daily (usually more than once a day) about my workouts and what's going on personally in my fitness journey! https://www.facebook.com/pages/Majors-Motivation/167362933372655

This has only just begun!!! Stay tuned for the launch of www.majorsmotivation.com very soon!!!!

 

Sorry Jim Gaffigan....we are NEVER done becoming the best versions of ourselves!! We will never stop learning and working to be better stewards of our bodies! The Lord has sent each of us to earth with a purpose and I am set on fulfilling mine!

New side by side!

I finally took a few miniutes to make a new before and after side by side! I will post another post soon, but just wanted to get it on here!

Also if you are not currently following our Facebook page please come visit!
https://www.facebook.com/?ref=tn_tnmn#!/pages/Majors-Motivation/167362933372655

Better Than Vegan Dinner Party

Justin and I are constantly getting asked how we have achieved and maintained successful weight loss.  The actual equation for weight loss is simple, eat less and exercise more. However there are literally thousands of diet plans, eating guidelines, diet programs that come with a diet, book stores have aisles dedicated to only weight loss and weight loss cookbooks. You can't turn on the tv, open a magazine, get on Facebook or twitter or even fox news with out hearing about the latest trend in weight loss.

Justin and I chose an approach that many would see as extreme, but it has really worked very well for us. I could talk about plant based eating for hours, I love to educate friends and family about our lifestyle because not only have we had great successes with watching the number on the scale drop, we just feel better!

Justin and I are blessed with amazing friends who are willing to try new things, so we hosted our first dinner party since moving to VA, and we served all Better Than Vegan food.

What is BTV, you ask? Oh I am glad you did! Justin and I coined the term when we first began the Daniel Fast in January 2012. The Daniel Fast is a 21 day partial fast where you eliminate all meat, dairy, added sugar, white flour, yeast, and any chemical from your diet. You essentially eat only fruits, veggies, whole grains, beans, nuts, and water to drink. This is meant to take your focus off of food and place that focus on the Lord and using your body in service to Him. It is meant to take that idol of food out of your life, and allow you to worship only Him.

In the first few days of the fast it isn't all smiles and happy feelings, in fact it is terrible. As you go cold turkey eliminating all of the processed junk and chemicals from your diet your body literally goes through a detox, and you are like a drug addict during detox...it isn't pretty. Justin coined the term Worse Than Vegan, because at least vegans can eat bread.

But just as alcoholics come out of the detox feeling better than ever and loving their new addiction free life, so did we. We began to feel lighter, in control, closer to each other, and most importantly closer to the Lord. We were able to take the control back from the food that had reigned over us for so many years. After the 21 day Daniel Fast was over, we decided to keep going. So Worse Than Vegan became Better Than Vegan. And not only does BTV encompass the diet we choose, it also gives us the freedom to eat other things in small quantities every once in a while. So you're thinking oh, they never eat meat I couldn't do that I love steak too much...so do we! So every once in a while, about 3 times a year, Justin and I will go out to dinner and eat a steak. But it is no ordinary steak, oh no.....it is only the best of the steaks because we are not going to waste our night out and our time of abstinence from red meat on any old steak. It teaches you to really appreciate it when you splurge. We also have added back in a few things like shakeologey (which is very close to being BTV), honey, coffee, red wine, beer, and the occasional margarita! The difference between the way we treated the things we have added back in now is that it is in small quantities.

 So onto the story of the party! Justin's friend at work, Dani, has been wanting to add in more plant based foods into her diet, but she didn't know where to begin in preparing them. We had been talking with her for months about trying to come down and hang out on a weekend and we would cook for her. Well life in VA is insane and everyone is always very busy so it had taken us forever to get that day planned. Finally we both had a Saturday that would work, and we decided to have everyone over that we had wanted to have come over for months! So the BTV dinner party was born.

I absolutely love being a hostess! It was so much fun to watch everyone mingle and meet and new friendships being made right in my family room! We had several friends from church with their kids, my friends Ashley and Jeff from the gym and their 3 handsome sons, and Dani and her boyfriend! It was a blast!

We had red and white wine, some beers from the local brewery, and here is the menu:

Major's homemade salsa, guacamole, corn cilantro salsa, cowboy caviar, and a hummus I buy at Costco with tortilla chips, cracklesnacks (veggie crackers that rock), and pop chips to dip for appatizers.

Then we had oven roasted asparagus, grilled veggie kabobs, amazing grilled portabello caps, and quinoa with tomatoes and green chilies.

I made a fruit salad, and Justin was going to grill pineapple for dessert but we were all so full from the main course we forgot to put it out!

We also had about 10 kids at the house so we served them hot dogs (yes all beef) and they had an ice cream bar for dessert where they got to choose the toppings.

All and all everyone liked the food, and had a great time! I am already excited to plan the next dinner party. Justin says it needs to be a bring your own meat party to off set this one....we shall see!

Thank you to all of our friends for coming and having an open mind about the food!

Oh and check out my fun outfit I wore to the party....My mom got me this outfit for Christmas! I love it!

 

 

Happy New Year!!!

I cannot believe it is January 2nd! It never ceases to amaze me how quickly time passes by as an adult. Maybe it's after you have kids, not sure, but I do know that it was just January 2012 and now here we are a year later! I would like to celebrate a year of blogging as Major's Motivation!! While I haven't blogged as much as I would have liked this year, I am setting one of my goals for 2013 to work on the blog at least a couple times a month!

I started off 2012 with a hangover and tight jeans, and I am happy to say that 2013 did not begin that way! I started off 2013 with a clear mind, a bowl of oatmeal, and cardio & weight lifting with my husband!

This entry I would like to discuss goal setting with you. It seems that everyone and their dog, mother, aunt, and pet hamster are setting new years resolutions and posting them on Facebook and twitter! Don't get me wrong I am all for putting those goals out there for the world to see...that's what started this blog! But I have an issue with the new years resolution.

I understand that a new year starts and symbolizes new beginnings for people. But why do we have to wait until Jan 1? And why the resolution... I will resolve to make an entire 180 in every aspect of my life on January 1st and by January 7th you're over it! Believe me I have made this mistake year after year. I would vow to get on a budget, eat right, exercise, read my bible, spend time really talking to my husband, and then I would wake up a week later over drawn in my checking account with a bad diet, right back where I started....so in the Major house we do not make new years resolutions.

 Justin and I set weekly and monthly goals. Most of the time they are the same, a family goal, a goal for our marriage, a goal for Major's Motivation, and a fitness goal. Sometimes they repeat and a lot of the time the have to do with prayer, reading my bible, amount of workouts, and they ALWAYS have a deadline.

That is the problem with the resolution....it is too broad! We will find a way to cheat ourselves out of achieving the life change we desire on January first because there is no timeframe to hold us accountable! To set good goals you need to be SMART!  Setting SMART goals is something I learned years ago and started applying, this is also something I teach my clients to do, and encourage them to continue with weekly. Paul J Meyer talks about SMART goals in his book, Attitude is Everything.

photo from http://dreamchoosers.com/s-m-a-r-t-goals


So I encourage you all to take a few days to reflect on your 2012 resolutions...what happened? Maybe they really stuck, maybe you achieved that complete 180...but if you're like the majority of those people who take up all the elliptical machines and parking spots at the gym the first 2 weeks of January and then disappear never to be seen again (until next January), you need a little help setting those goals.

Then spend some time in prayer, find out what God is leading you to, his plans may be way better than your plans!

And finally find someone to really hold you accountable. My husband is that person for me. I am that person for my health coaching clients. Find someone who is knowledgeable and that you can trust. And it usually helps if that person has walked through your struggle....if you need help with weight loss find someone who has been there and done that. If it is financial accountability find someone who has achieved financial freedom (I recommend the Dave Ramsey program, we are no where near finished with it but it has done wonders for our bank account and marriage!). If it is reconnecting with your spouse, talk to a family counselor or trusted friend who will positively encourage you.

No matter what your struggle may be, there is someone out there who has walked through it. When I was obese I used to wonder why I couldn't just be skinny like the other girls. I would ask God to give me a different metabolism, a different body type. But now as I look back on those years as the chubby kid, the obese teen, and morbidly obese young adult I know that I had to walk through that so I could come out victorious and teach others that there is a better way!



Check out www.beachbodycoach.com/ryanmajor for more info on workouts and shakeology!

I have a confession...

Ladies and Gentlemen it is time to come clean. I have a very serious confession to make. I suffer from a rare but serious condition....A fear of the TREADMILL!!!

I know what yall are thinking, seriously Ryan....a fear. And while it isn't one of those things where I can't see them or anything crazy, I literally find it almost impossible to workout on one.

I think it mostly goes back to being self conscious. When I was extremely obese I wouldn't run on one because it sounded crazy loud and shook with each strike of my foot on the belt. I also have a history of being shot off of the end of the treadmill. And although that memory still makes my friend Ashley who happened to be on the machine next to me at the time laugh hysterically...it has haunted me for almost 10 years.

So in this time of the dreaded plateau that I find myself in, I have finally had to give in to the fact that I am also in a fitness rut and need to switch it up to continue on my journey. In my quest to set new fitness goals it all kept coming back to running. Run a 5k people would say, train for a tough mudder, or what about a half marathon. I would shoot those suggestions down in a heart beat because the 300 pound girl inside me was thinking are you NUTS?! I CANNOT RUN, and it's winter, training for a run means the treadmill....so I was out on that deal!

In the past my excuses for skipping the dreaded running machine included my boobs, "They're just too big and flop around when I run", my knee "It can't handle the impact", and well "It's Hard!"

My husband spends about 5 hours a week on the treadmill, and he loves the way he feels after a great run. After weeks of not so gentle encouragement from him, I finally decided it was time to try it out. I made it my goal to run 1 mile on the treadmill with out stopping. I thought that was an easily attainable goal because I usually run 2 miles or more on the elliptical each day when I am not in a high intensity cardio class. So about 2 weeks ago I took my first jog on the treadmill. Keeping my incline on a 2.0 and my speed around 5mph off I went. The first 5 min were easy...fun even. My boobs are no longer an issue, in fact they pretty much don't move at all in a sports bra. My knee, still hurts a little but after being checked out by a doc I found out it is a ligament issue...not a cartilage issue. Plus my iPhone was blaring one of my favorite Pandora stations and I got in a good rhythm. Before I knew it my mile was up, and I had done it!!

The rest of that week I ran every day, getting faster and stronger. This week I have even experimented with intervals on the treadmill, different inclines, and even got up to 7.5 mph sprints. And you know what, the Husband was right!!!! It has made insane improvements already. Yesterday I decided to get back on the elliptical to see how different it felt after my 2 weeks of treadmill running. It was a breeze! I ended up going about twice as fast on it and ran 4.39 mi in 35 min.!!! And still felt good enough to take a yoga class and do abs!

The moral of my story is that sometimes we need to take risks even if they seem small. Getting out of our comfort zone can make you feel empowered and successful. I no longer feel like I can't do something that it seems so many enjoy. I no longer feel restricted to the elliptical and stair machines. I still don't know if I will be signing up for any long runs any time soon, I will keep y'all posted!

I Hate Self Hatred!

What is up with our society and the way we are taught to view our bodies? Why is it that only 1% of women love their body, according to Self Magazine? Also found in Self, 75% of women admit to being competitve about weight with their friends! Why is it that no matter how much weight I lose, how many times a week I hit the gym, or how many calories I count there is a part of my brain that tells me I am not good enough? Why do I look in the mirror and still see a girl who weighs over 300 lbs? We have these images of women who are air brushed about a zillion times over shoved in our faces 24-7. We put these insane expectations out there in the universe for ourselves, and we are just as guilty of putting them on our friends, mothers, sisters, and worse...our daughters!

Well I am here to tell you that you are good enough. You should value yourself enough to take care of your body. I have mentioned before that my faith is an intrical part of my journey to being healthy. As a Christian I am a daughter of the Lord, a co-heir with Christ. I deserve to roll out the red carpet for myself. The Lord loves me enough to bless me abundantly with all of the things that I need to achieve my goals, who am I to tell him that I am too busy, the diet is too hard, or that I just flat don't want to do it?

As I struggle with my own self image daily, I know all of these things listed above. It is still a struggle. I still have to ask the Lord to let me see myself as his precious child. That my worth is not wrapped up in the number on the scale or the size in my waistband. As I look in the mirror at my body I see all of my battle scars, the saggy skin from my years of being morbidly obese, the stretch marks from carrying a miracle inside my womb, the scars from my laparoscopic gastric bypass, and my ever shrinking breasts that are finding their new home after nursing the baby for 9 months. I know that these things are beautiful in their imperfections...but I have to ask the Lord to remind me all the time of this!

So what can you do?

Let me ask you a question, do you value food more than your body? Do you value watching television more than your life? Do you think that facebook is more important than being able to run with your kids?

Of course you would rather not look at these things in this light. It is convicting to think that by saying that you could 'never give up coffee, chocolate, pizza, (insert your own food vice here) you are actually saying that you value these foods, tv shows, or websites more than your own well being.

I totally get it, because I used to think exactly like you! I would diet and try to get around limitations. While on weight watchers I would save up points so I could eat pizza. I would justify my time spent on facebook or watching tv while my 6 year old played outside alone.

I am here to tell you that you owe it to yourself, your kids, and most of all the Lord to take care of the body you are living in. The Lord has given us 1 body to live in, and as a Christian it is our duty to take care of that body so that we are healthy enough to share His message with everyone we meet.

Think about this as you go through out your day. When you have a chance to work out and don't, what are you spending your time doing? Is that more valuable to you than your life? When you pick up that doughnut, is that Krispy Cream more valuable than lowering your risk for heart disease?

I have adapted this idea into my daily life. Each time I consider 'cheating' or eating something that isn't allowed I ask myself if it is more valuable to me than myself, and it works!! Remind yourself each day of your successes, and most of all Pray about it. You are not strong enough on your own, accept it and ask the one person who can help you, the Lord!