Why I decided to become a Beachbody coach....

I always said that if I was an actress or model or *insert job that requires a hot body here* I would totally look that good too. I mean, it would be MY JOB. I am going to work hard for my job or not get paid. If the model doesn't look good, she doesn't book any jobs, she doesn't get paid. Well, it's time for me to put my money where my mouth is because I just made it my job. One of the best reasons I saw for signing up to be a Beachbody coach was that it was now my job to look good too. How am I supposed to motivate or help anyone reach their health goals while I am sitting on my ass eating popcorn all day? The answer is I'm not. So on those days where I just don't want to, please don't make me workout, it pushes me to do so. It keeps me accountable without having to go to a meeting to listen to people whine about how cake is the devil.

What I love about everything I have experienced so far is that there is no magic pill. No you aren't going to lose 60 lbs in 30 days (ok maybe someone somewhere has but the reality of that is super slim.) You aren't going to lose weight by sitting on the couch. It just doesn't work that way. You have to put the work in and you get out exactly what you put in. If I skip workouts and eat like poo, it is reflective in my performance and my results. I have literally given blood, sweat and tears to completing the Insanity program and worked my butt off for every single ounce I lost. And I didn't lose a ton of weight. I will not be the next infomercial star but I am so proud of myself for showing up and working hard.

I believe, as consumers, we are lied to every day and, as Americans (in one of the heaviest nation in the world) we are super sensitive to anything that promises to be an easy and quick fix when it comes to weight loss. Beachbody is not that. And I love that about this company. There are so many workout program options and they just ask you to push play and give everything you've got. That is something I can stand behind.

When I ordered Insanity, I had just done a month of bootcamp (with a Groupon) and was in love. I was getting up at 5 and busting my hump 5 days a week. My month with my Groupon was almost over (and I couldn't afford to stay without the discount) and I didn't want to lose the incentive or the good habits I had started. The infomercial for Insanity came on and I thought why not? I proved I could do more than I thought by taking a bootcamp class for a month, maybe this was step 2. Go big or go home.

And while my Insanity results weren't commercial worthy, they aren't anything to sneeze at either. I have tried so many programs, so many different diets, but nothing gave me results that came close to my Insanity results (even the bootcamp I loved so much.) One thing I really struggled with during Insanity (and I think I will with almost every Beachbody program going forward) was the meal plan. About a year ago, I gave up meat and dairy. Most of the eating guides are very meat (protein) heavy. I started searching the message boards and even asked in some of the Beachbody groups on Facebook. I found nothing. I really felt like there was a huge gap in the community. And when I found an "answer" it was to substitute tofu or other soy based protein product (which the jury is still out on how great these are for you too...) I don't mind tofu and I have actually grown to really enjoy it in some recipes (once I fumbled through a bunch of recipes learning how to cook it.) But I really didn't want to eat that much soy. I try to limit that to once a week not multiple times a day! Where is the help for someone looking for vegetarian or vegan nutrition? It just isn't there. I really want to be there to help people who are struggling with the meal plans, like I did.

Learning about plant based nutrition has lead me down this twisty turvy path that has me questioning
not only what is sold as food but what we are told about our food by manufacturers. We are generally given brightly colored boxes with nutritions claims and are virtually patted on the head and told we are good boys and girls for making the right decisions. The entire food industry treats us like we are children. No, honey, you don't really want to know how we put the fiber back in or how we made the fat free, healthy, death by chocolate cookie taste good or how we keep the bugs out of the corn. Those are messy, grown up things that you don't need to worry about. Now go eat your snack and stop asking silly questions.


I feel like my job as a Beachbody coach is not to get people to eat the way I do or get as fired up as I do about the food industry but to let everyone know it is ok to question what is in your food. Why do we have to add red dye to farm raised salmon? (and when I found out the answer to that I gagged and stopped eating farm raised salmon.) Why does Kraft make macaroni and cheese for European countries without artificial food dyes and will not do that same thing in America? (read more about that here. Thanks Foodbabe!) And that it is ok to decide that maybe you want to stop eating things with artificial dyes or sweeteners or even foods that are processed. As Beachbody coaches, I feel, that we need to get out there and encourage people to make their own decisions, to do their own research, to empower them to try things like clean eating and see first hand if it makes a difference in their lives. Our food is fuel for our life. I know I don't want to eat things that make me feel sluggish and tired and laying on the couch all day because I don't want to look back and see that I spent more of my days invested in the lives of fictional characters than I did invested in the lives of the people I care the most about.

And of course there was one more huge reason I bit the bullet and decided to become a Beachbody coach...

The discount! That was a huge incentive for me to become a Beachbody coach. I wanted the 25% discount. Even with the monthy website maintanance fee, it was still saving me around 15 bucks on my shakeology. That was a no brainer for me. Kind of like when I used to work retail. I loved getting the clothes on the cheap (and ended buying way more than I should have or needed.) I also get bored easily. I'm not the type who is going to keep doing the same workout over and over and over. Sure I might come back to a workout (maybe revisiting Insanity once a year or so) but I need to change it up. The discount gave me the ability to purchase more workouts (starting Turbofire next! Whoot!) and now that I am committed to exercising 6 days a week I need the variety. (And if I ever stop ordering "mom's shake" my toddler might never forgive me, as it has become her favorite snack.)