Strength and Confidence!

Good morning, SoulShiners! What a beautiful week it's been here in the Northeast. Holy exploding foliage!!! It makes me want to run into the woods...which I'm totally going to do later on this morning!!!!!

Today I'd like to go over a few things. SoulShine Slim Down was a success! From the 28 challengers, I received closing out pics from 19 of you. Of those 19, a total of 140.86 pounds were lost. That is amazing!!!!!! Have you been able to keep off the pounds? Have you been able to stick with your plan? Has the Slim Down propelled you to think about the food and drink that you put into your body? If so, that's exactly why I started doing these challenges. They are here to get you thinking about yourself. To get you moving, to get you eating better, to get you thinking about being stronger!

Who in our group is doing the Strength Challenge? I've only heard from a couple of you. The first week was designed to get your body and mind geared up for the rest of the month, teaching you sound body mechanics and breath work. Now is your time to take that info and get after it, always thinking about good form. You'll up your leg, arms, core, glutes, isometrics, and slam work this week and really get into some solid planks and side planks. Hopefully by the end of the month, you're able to do the entire Saturday SLAM!!! That's the goal.

Remember that this is not here as a replacement to your normal exercise routine. I've designed this to (once again) get you thinking about being stronger. To get your body moving at home for a short amount of time. Obviously, you can use this calendar and do whatever you want though. If it's too easy, double it up or even triple it!!! Throw legs, arms, and core together or glutes, slam, and iso...it's yours for the taking. It doesn't have to be over the top, find your comfort zone and then just go a little bit harder, just a teensy tiny bit. That's how you see results!

Okay, so I've attached the calendar again and I've made some videos that you can find on our facebook SoulShine Strength private group, on YouTube @ Jody Eaton or on my website at soulshinetraining.com. I am going to make another few videos this month to go along with our challenge, most likely on Saturday Slam day to help you JUST GET THROUGH IT!! :)

One more thing, I want to ask you a question. Does your lifestyle support your health and wellness goals? Remember that you are accountable for your own results. The goal is to keep the goal the goal. I want to help you achieve your goals, but I also want to help you not have to rely on me long-term. I want to teach you, educate you, coach you. It's my goal to make you your own best ally, asset, and advocate. I'm here and I'm not going anywhere though. If you need me, just reach out. Yes, being a Personal Trainer and a Health Coach is my job but it's really more my lifestyle that I chose to help myself and to help others.

I've struggled with a few things in my 40ish years, but I find that today I am my healthiest. My mind and my body are really lined up to work well together, but it's been a long road. Okay, I'm going deep for a sec.........when I was in 5th grade, all of my friends used to go on the Friday afternoon ski bus in the winter. For whatever reason, I didn't do it (probably because my dad used to love to take me on his own). One Monday I got to school and heard people chanting "Jody is a 90 pounder, Jody is a 90 pounder". I heard from a friend that they had been chanting it on the bus ride! If you look at pics of me in 5th grade, I looked like everyone else, well maybe not everyone. I did have a perm and glasses! Ouch! So to go along with that amazing look, I now had people saying that I was fat. I was horrified and sad and it really affected me in pretty bad ways. Thank God I was able to escape feeling so awful at home though! My home life was very, very loving and supportive!!!

Years went by, I got contacts and the perms grew out but I still felt fat. I wasn't fat but when I looked in the mirror, I always saw an overweight person looking back at me. Wow, it's crazy what our minds can do! Here I am, 30 years later and I've finally gotten to the point where I've pretty much figured out how to love my body. It has taken a lot of hard work. Being a trainer/coach has helped heal those wounds. Being a mom has made me take a good hard look at my demons and attack them, head on. I feel like it's my responsibility to teach my children to be better people than I am and they theirs and so on and so forth. I certainly don't want my children hearing me complain about my body. I want them to see a mother and woman who is strong, capable, and confident, who is empathetic and a go getter. I want them to love their bodies. Side note, fat is a four letter word in my house.....not used!!!

Here's how I do it: I move my body 6 days per week, I eat healthy and whole foods 85% of the time, I sleep 8 hours per night and drink a gallon of water per day. Most importantly, I practice talking kindly to myself. It takes LOTS of practice. I try to REALLY see myself for who I am and not let those demons creep back into my mind when I look in the mirror. We have one life, SoulShiners. It is your job to figure out how to be happy with yourself, to feel strong both mentally and physically, and to hopefully show our next generation what it looks like to be a confident and able person!!!!!

Here's our SoulShine Schedule for this week:

No HIIT on Monday - sorry but The Rec is closed

PiYo Tuesday - TPVS gym - 3:30-4:30 pm

Thursday - Cardio Dance - 12-12:45 pm

Friday - HIIT at The Rec - *******time change for just this week******* 9-10am (Kyler has an assembly where he will be presenting at 8 am)

If you'd like a private training session in my studio at The Rec this week, I have a few openings left. I'd love to work with you!!

Here's to us, to finding our confidence, and to always finding ways to be better. Cheers!!

XO,

Jode