Coaching

Ever since a fellow fit sister planted the seed in my mind, I have been rolling this idea in and out of shape. How could I manifest health and fitness into a career? How could I bring my gifts to fruition?

 

One of the ways I am working towards this is by hopefully getting trained to instruct spinning class. I am now taking lots of classes from as many instructors as I can and waiting for a certification program to be close enough to travel to. (So. Exciting. And scary.)

 

Another idea that I had was possibly ‘coaching’ – being a cheerleader, mentor, friend, and I guess you would call it ‘coach’. I would share what my upcoming meal plan for the week would be, calories, etc. so if you wanted to use anything you could. I could also help determine how many calories you should be taking in for weight loss or gain. I would possibly work towards writing my own workouts to use myself / share those with you. I would be available for questions, concerns, moments of weakness etc. I would have a questionnaire so I would be caught up on your medical history, nutritional needs or wants, goals, etc. I would also eventually incorporate Skype meetings per week so we could talk about your goals and progress. this is something you would be interested in, having me as a ‘coach’, please email me JamminRhodes@gmail.com and also please let me know a roundabout price you would be willing to pay per month. A price that you would think is truly fair and one that would also be sustainable. $25-40 / $40-60 monthly or packaged together in 6-8 week increments 6-8 weeks $60, 12-16 weeks $120 that would be paid to me through PayPal.

 

Thanks for your input as I continue to grow, learn and act on my passions

XO

Why BBG Just Isn't For Me

Thousands and thousands of women LOVE the Bikini Body Guides aka BBG created by Kayla Itsines. It just wasn’t for me.

 

I started BBG 1 almost 12 weeks ago. I used the app called ‘Sweat with Kayla’ which I think is BRILLIANT and I really, really love it. The features are seamless, you have your timer, your food, ability to take selfies, your workouts everything is just right there in one place. It can sync to your phone’s calendar, set alarms, and checks off what you have completed while showing what you have left to do for the week. I think it is worth EVERY penny and I wish I could create this same app for every aspect of my life. You can adjust your meal plan to accommodate your dietary needs and they are all great ideas, although I never actually made anything from the app.

 

The workouts themselves are also great. 28 minutes is truly all you need to tone your body. For the first few weeks I absolutely loved BBG and the challenge it gave me… but then it got boring. REALLY boring. I need variety, I need continual changes within my workout or I just will stop doing them altogether. That’s what happened in Week 11. . I just got BORED of doing the same rotation of the same 5 exercises. If you LOVE structure and you love stability and repetition (which some people THRIVE on that, it’s not a bad thing at all) then you need to go out and get BBG right now because you will freaking slay the game. It just isn’t for me. I also came off of BBG after doing the Fit Girl’s Guide Bootcamp which is their version of a 12 week program very similar in structure to BBG. The Bootcamp has 3 different workout structures per week and within those there is a lot of variation of movements, I found myself missing that aspect A LOT.

 

Kayla herself is amazing, obviously. She works HARD for her body and for the empire she is creating for herself – and to be so young! Seriously AMAZING. If I had those accomplishments and those abs I would show them off – I do wish she would show more of her outtakes but when you become that public, I’m sure it’s different. Especially when your reputation and company rely on your physical fitness.

 

RESULTS:

To be fair while I was doing BBG I also was going to spin and yoga once a week and started doing Z Body Fitness for strength training of the booty, legs and arms. I also incorporated HIIT on some days that just called for LISS.

With that said, I did drop a liiiittle bit of weight over the past 12 weeks. I haven’t taken my progress photos for BBG yet but I plan to do that this weekend and I am excited to see if I notice changes! I feel strong, I know I definitely feel amazing from working out and adopting a plant based and whole foods diet. I absolutely think that BBG was awesome for me physically, the disconnect came after weeks of repetition and the mentality part of it. I will be posting photos soon

 

Hope this helps

XO

The Power of Now 'Review'

I could give a synopsis of the book and summarize it that way but, you could just google that. So I am just going to touch on the points that were and have become relevant to my life. You should read the book if you are an active mind that worries/becomes anxious or even find yourself obsessing over the details of things that have happened in the past and you now feel disappointed about. If you wish to strengthen your meditation practice or quiet your mind, read the book! You will undoubtedly learn something from this book and most likely, something different than what I learned.

 

*Disclaimer: it is definitely a “deep” book – he says things like “time is an illusion”... so unless you can go into it with an open mind and heart, don’t bother picking it up. I found myself inwardly rolling my eyes a couple of times but I reminded myself to have an open mind and heart, and I am glad that I did!

 

The biggest takeaway for me personally is the understanding of where my anxiety stems from. He talks about how when you obsess over a time that is not here yet (the future) you become anxious because you tear yourself in half. You let your mind be THERE (the future) while your body is obviously still HERE (the present). Once I let that realization truly wash over me, I have felt so much more free. ALL the time we have is right here, this very second, so to obsess over the details of the future is only causing me pain. I now actively seek to remain mindful of the present moment and only the future as it is necessary.

 

The other is deepening my conviction that positivity is THE MOST important quality I can work on; by positivity I mean gratitude, love, joy, and happiness. I had already started the process before reading this book but if you find yourself struggling with complaining or just feeling negativity in general, this book will definitely give you tools to kick start your own light.

“See if you can catch yourself complaining, in either speech or thought, about a situation you find yourself in, what other people do or say, your surroundings, your life situation, even the weather. To complain is always nonacceptance of what is. It invariably carries an unconscious negative charge. When you complain, you make yourself into a victim. When you speak out, you are in your power. So change the situation by taking action or by speaking out if necessary or possible; leave the situation or accept it. All else is madness.”

 

I started practicing yoga at the beginning of May and this helped build on those fundamentals as well. It had allowed me to become more spiritual and really helped me focus on my meditation. It has become a lot easier to clear my mind of noise and focus on the Now. I realized that I was creating a lot of my own problems. My mind was wanting problems because it gave my ego something to fix, something to feel good about. I was causing myself so much stress and for what? For nothing. I was allowing my mind to control me by creating problems aka creating pain. I am now actively working on listening to the mechanisms of my mind and shutting it down when it tries to create imaginary problems. EXAMPLE: when I start to have anxiety over my fitness progress, am I doing this right or that wrong etc… that is not a real problem. I know what I need to do every day to reach my goals and I am working on focusing on the day to day rather than allowing my ego to take over and make it a stressful situation. Imagine if EVERYONE took the time to focus on these issues – on finding true inner peace.

“The pollution of the planet is only an outward reflection of an inner psychic pollution: millions of unconscious individuals not taking responsibility for their inner space.”

 

And lastly, the biggest place in my life where this book helped was in my romantic relationship. I found myself judging him where I didn’t used to. (Again, my mind creating problems out of nothing) I found myself trying to pick at things that do not matter. “You cannot love your partner one moment and attack him or her the next.” It really opened my eyes to behaviors I had developed and it allowed for a discussion between Jeff and I which really did bring us closer and brought a lot of new respect to the relationship.

Hope you will be picking up a copy soon so we can chat about it!

XO

 

Patience is Love

I suck at yoga.

I don’t want to HAVE to practice.

I am a perfectionist, inherently prone to over criticizing myself.

I suck at yoga, which is exactly why I need to stick with yoga.

 

I found myself feeling so frustrated and embarrassed with my body at my last yoga class. I was thinking, why have I kidded myself into believing I am fit and I can’t even do a proper Warrior I? I almost felt tears well up in my eyes because I hate feeling singled out or critiqued. THAT right there says more about the root of the issue. It isn’t that I do or don’t suck at yoga, it’s that I still haven’t fully allowed myself to just BE. To learn. To grow. To be challenged. To appreciate. To be present.

 

Everyone has to start somewhere. Every professional was a beginner. Every yogi flowing right into a one legged crow or crazy headstand definitely didn’t just show up being able to do those things properly. Whatever your “yoga” is, know it’s okay to feel discouraged for a moment because it is human nature. But let’s pause long enough to appreciate our bodies for where they are, let’s pause and allow ourselves to be beginners. It does not undermine who you are, your worthiness, your strength.  Have patience with yourself – it’s part of the journey. Our bodies do SO much for us and if you are reading this you have chosen to honor your body. We can’t truly honor our bodies if we are getting frustrated and considering giving up. We (i) have to show patience.

 

I suck at yoga.

I don’t want to HAVE to practice.

But I will anyway, because I am allowing myself to learn, to be challenged, to grow, to prosper.

I am a perfectionist, but I am done criticizing myself.

I suck at yoga, which is exactly why I will honor my body with patience and do the yoga.

XO

Vegan Say What?

I have actually been getting a few questions about how I made the switch and I realized I never really gave a reason or back story as to why I was switching my diet. Doing a blog post let’s be longer winded and hopefully this will help some of you lovelies out on your own journey!

 

My earliest memories are of my deep love of things that cannot speak. I seriously remember having so many imaginary friends, having entire conversations with inanimate objects, and fiercely loving all plant and animal life. I was just born with this yearning to make everything feel loved, especially the things that aren’t getting love from other places. I would try to repair severed worms, I would scoop dead birds off the pavement and bury them (needless to say my mom never knew about those instances).

Vegetarian

When I was 13 I made the decision that I wasn’t going to eat meat and because I did most of my cooking for myself, my mom agreed she would buy vegetarian substitutions for me. I immediately cut out beef, pork and turkey. I took a bit longer with fish and chicken. Fish was the last thing to go. I ate a lot of imitation products back then and obviously wasn’t really concerned with ‘clean eating’ because I was a teenager and that wasn’t the kind of household I was brought up in. I still ate eggs and dairy but never drank or used milk.

I was VERY passionate about animal rights. I signed every petition. I saw every question about my diet as the start of a debate. I felt very deeply that I needed to spread the message about what was happening to the Earth and to these animals because of Big Agra and cattle farming.

 

As I got older, I let my passion for animal rights fizzle. I just stopped caring and educating myself on the issues. When I was around 20 or 21 years old I reincorporated fish into my diet because I thought I needed fish oil. Little did I know that the reason eating fish made me feel better was because I was not getting any proper nutrition (and fish really wasn’t helping as I would go on to gain more than 50 pounds).

 

Vegan

Fast forward a bit and I am 25, I have fallen in love with health, nutrition and fitness. I started finding plant based accounts on Instagram and my interest was piqued. I started reading books on vegan nutrition and lifestyle (Main Street Vegan, The Kind Diet, The Idiot’s Guide to Plant Based Nutrition, Forks Over Knives, The Starch Solution) and watching a few documentaries on Netflix (Forks Over Knives, Cowspiracy) and I felt that old flame blaze again. I felt really disappointed in myself, why didn’t I make the switch sooner? Why did I stop loving? The answer was that when I stopped loving myself, my ability to love and help others stopped, too. I let that disappointment go and decided on May 1^st that I was officially vegan.

 

 

Things I have noticed so far:

Pros

My nails are a lot stronger, and are growing faster, as is my hair (crazy right? Big Agra would like for you to think the opposite!)

My bowel movements are again very regular and pain free, bloating and gas are now to a normal minimum!

I am developing a MUCH healthier relationship with food (should I do a blog post on this?? Would anyone find it helpful to hear about my struggle with undereating?)

Trying lots of new and yummy foods and recipes!

I don’t actually miss the things I thought I would (ice cream, sour cream, cheese)

 

Cons

It is true that it is more difficult to go out to eat if you live in a rural area, but even in West Virginia we have a hand full of awesome restaurants that provide vegan options. AND there is an app for that! Which is great for people that travel a lot.

I can’t have Siggi’s anymore

 

Tips

Read as much as you can. Books, articles, blogs. If you aren’t a reader, totally hit up the documentaries! And YouTube is also a great resource for fast facts.

Determine based on your personality type how to go about it, baby steps or diving right in. (Main Street Vegan is a great read for how to approach both of these)

Don’t worry about “messing up” – there will be growing pains as there are with anything. If you accidentally eat something with an egg in it, it’s ok. Lessons have to be learned! I was reading an article from the Cleveland Clinic on pros and cons of switching to a plant based whole foods diet for health reasons, it gave a list of 5-6 pros and the ONE con was that it is easier said than done. This is true, you have to really be mindful and it does take more effort. But aren’t you worth that effort? Isn’t Mother Earth?

April Goals

At the start of this blog, I made sure to mention I am terrible at blogging! Life always gets in the way or I run out of inspiration on things to write about.


Focusing on a word per month was feeling daunting and I was feeling like I needed more time to reflect and work on particularly important characteristics to me.


I have been trying to focus on posting more quality than quantity images to my account but in turn, I have missed sharing so much. It's therapeutic for me to get things off my mind or off my chest. I also feel the same about this blog! I have been writing things in the notepad on my iPhone, instead!






April Goals:


Work on overanalyzing. I over analyze situations because I am truthfully afraid of what will happen if I am not prepared for it. Overplanning is killing the magic in big and small moments because I feel like I have to prepare myself mentally and emotionally for each and every given outcome. It's mentally exhausting. I want to take time to let go of this unnecessary anxiety I have developed.


I want to work on stepping into growth and stop staying put in safety.


I will continue to downsize material possessions.


I will manifest compassion and patience with others, especially at work.


I want to focus on further educating myself on nutrition. I have lots of ideas swirling around in my head about this. I am starting by checking books out from the library.


I want to continue focusing my vibrations into positivity.


I also want to get better at food photography! Maybe get a book from the library or look into a class possibly online or in person.


I want to continue my 0 workouts missed into the BBG 1 program!

Humility Cont.

More and more I have come to realize that humility is so closely entangled with religion, it is hard to break them apart.


I also found some writings of Nietzsche. He views humility as a strategy used by the weak to avoid being destroyed by the strong.


I think it is safe to say that humility is multifaceted and can be interpreted in many ways. For me, I just want to make sure I am keeping my pride in check while having a strong sense of self.


XO