How to survive the Christmas parties

Here's a  4 step guide to how I survived 2 Christmas parties in 2 nights! 

Normally I give in, but this year has been my BEST year of health and I didn’t want to quit on month 12, so I created a plan. I knew I still wanted to have cookies and alcohol, but I didn’t need to over indulge, so I planned.

            Step #1: I planned to workout during the day of the party, extra goodies on top of no workout is a bad idea…. so make sure to get that workout in and go hard on party days
Step 2: The next plan was to eat well throughout the day of the party, I made sure to get my typical turkey bacon and eggs, fruits, veggies, etc J There’s nothing worse than eating terrible all day long then adding more bad choices on top of it…set yourself up for success and eat well that day

The trick is the next part…

Step #3: I planned to drink my shakeology about an hour before the party started. This was the WINNER! I’ve done the first 2 steps in the past and still failed at the party, so step #3 made a huge difference! Why did it make a difference? A couple reasons:

            1. It kept me full. When you’re full it’s a lot harder to over indulge and eat until your pants come unbuttoned.

            2. It curbed my cravings. I have a HUGE sweet tooth, but when I prep with shakeology, the sweet tooth melts away. I actually want to eat more healthy food instead of sweets.

Step #4: I planned to only have a small amount of alcohol. Alcohol will sabotage all of your progress if you have too much. I’m sure this is a step a lot of people would like to skip since it’s part of the season, but this step right here makes a BIG impact on your results!

I hope these 4 steps help you during your Christmas parties as much as they’ve helped me! If you want more details on Shakeology, be sure to email me (samanthamarlett@gmail.com) or leave a comment on this post. I truly believe it’s saved me from so many bad food choices this year! 

Scales SUCK!

I've always been all about ditching the scale, it's lame, it doesn't SHOW you what you're doing right or wrong, it's just a societal measurement that we can't seem to get rid of! It frustrates me just as it does most of you and recently I've been succumbing to the power of the scale and it's had me pretty down for the past month or so...that is until today :) I was scrolling through my Pinterest page and found this picture I posted almost to date 2 years ago! At the time of the first picture, I was struggling to gain weight (apparently due to stress from my wedding...I don't remember feeling stressed, but as soon as it was over I got back to my normal weight so I'm assuming that's what it was) So during this picture first picture I weighed 114 pounds, I was exercising regularly, eating a TON of healthy foods, but not packing on the pounds. I was down about it, but within about 6 months I got back to my typical weight of 118.  Back in 2012 I had been 118 pounds for almost 6 years, that length of time gets you tied to that number....Well enter December 2013, I was up to 123 and not feeling awesome, I had suffered a knee injury back in August 2013 and gave myself a LOT of excuses. So I decided to go through P90X3 at the start of 2014 and got some freaking AWESOME results, but I only lost 1 pound on the scale...for me it was still a win bc I LOVED the pictures and measurements at the end of my 90 days...

Fast forward through this summer of 2014 and I've managed to gain another 3 pounds (yep I'm at 125 pounds)...for the past few months I've been struggling with this a lot...my weight was 118 for so long, that's where I'm supposed to be, right?

I'm thinking WRONG, especially since seeing these pictures side by side! Do you see 11 pounds?! I know I sure as heck don't and I'm SO much more toned now than I was then! The point is, you've got to start taking progress pictures! They will show you the REAL story, not that dumb scale! 

How often are you going to commit yourself to taking progress pictures to see the real story?