December Vision

2016 has been a rough year to say the least, in struggling with infertility and utilizing multiple hormone treatments I've gained about 10 pounds and dealt with more loss than I could have imagined a year ago, but God has placed it in my heart to turn my attention to coaching and helping others. So I'm focusing on ending 2016 strong and with a new vision to figure out the best way to help other's reach their fitness & health goals!

Top 5 December Tips:

1. Do a workout program you ENJOY (yes it's possible, reply back to me if you haven't found one you like doing yet. 

2. Eat BEFORE you go to any parties. 

3. Make a mental choice to set and achieve a goal. (ie. I am losing 5 pounds this month and I will do the 3 Day Refresh and then Core de Force to achieve this goal. I will not let parties or peer pressure stand in my way. When asked to indulge I will reply with something like "No thanks, I'm doing really great on my program and I really don't want to mess it up" <-- I've used that multiple times in the past and people typically respect it) 

4. Plan, Prep, Eat! Follow the 12 hour eating plan to help you plan out your meals about a week at a time. Take 10-15 minutes to plan and create your shopping list, then prep your food. Then ENJOY the delicious meals with your family!

5. Reflect don't regret. If this year has not gone as you've planned, reflect on what obstacles you've faced and look ahead at how you can overcome obstacles in your future. Use pitfalls as learning experiences and grow from them. 

Book of Transformations

I just created this binder. My goal is to fill it with YOUR transformations: physical, emotional, spiritual. I want to make sure I'm helping YOU reach your personal goal and documenting your journey along the way. 

Want to be one of the first ones in? Just fill out this short form to send me your December goals and I'll help you work towards them! 

30 Day Spring Slimdown Challenge

Want results by Memorial Day Weekend? Ready to look and feel amazing THIS summer? If you said yes to either of those questions I want you to be a part of my Spring Slimdown Challenge! :) 

I only have 5 spots for 5 women who are ready to get started on May 2nd through June 1st!

-30 minute at home workouts

-delicious meals

-super food shake

-daily check ins via the "My Challenge Tracker App"

-personalized coaching to help you overcome your obstacles

Interested? Just fill in the short application and I'll contact you :) 

Can't wait to get you started!

-Samantha

21 Day Spring Break Bootcamp

The new "My Challenge Tracker" app is out and my challengers and I are LOVING it! 

I'm looking for 5 women who are ready to get started on March 7th through the 27th! 

-30 minute at home workouts

-delicious meals

-super food shake

-daily check ins via the app 

-personalized coaching to help you overcome your obstacles

Interested? Just fill in the short application and I'll contact you :) 

Can't wait to get you started!

-Samantha

Mid-week Motivation 2.24.2016

As I listened to Dr. Brene Brown while getting ready this morning, 2 of her thoughts stuck with me...

"At the end of the day, at the end of the month, at the end of my life I want to know that I contributed more than I criticized." 

"You're either making the world a better place or a worse place, there's no room for neutrality."

....what if we ALL went through each day focused on these 2 concepts??

How would each day change? How would your life change?

We all struggle with criticizing and judging others, it's in our culture, but start focusing on becoming MINDFUL of such thoughts and you can start CHANGING how you're making your contribution to the world. YOU have the ability to make it a better place :)

Mid-Week Motivation 1.27.2016

My goal is to provide you with mid-week motivation to help you reach your goals! Every Wednesday I'll be sharing quotes, ideas and inspiration to keep you pushing forward :)

This week's helpful tip from:

Eat well, move often and get plenty of sleep!

The book was written by Tom Rath and each chapter includes information that will help you make better food choices, move more often and get the proper amount of sleep.

He shares his personal story of having cancer grow rapidly throughout his entire body due to a genetic defect and how he's applied research findings to slow his cancer growth rates.

Top tips I learned:

1. Think of food in terms of positive and negative. Is what I'm putting in my mouth going to positively impact my health? If not, it's going to negatively impact my health and I should choose something else. 

2. Exercising for 30 minutes/day is great, but we need to be sure our bodies are staying active and getting in 10,000 steps <-- this one is hard to do if you're in a desk job, but Tom gives tons of statistics as to why 10,000 steps is so important

3. I've seen this in a million places, but this book reiterated it. Stop looking at blue light that is emitted from electronics at least 1 hour before bed. Take up reading (you could try out this book) or try an adult coloring book, anything to stop looking at the blue light that will keep you from a restful night's sleep. 

I hope the tips from this week's book will help you live a healthier and happier life! Feel free to learn more about the book at http://www.eatmovesleep.org/

How Progress Pics Helped Self-Confidence

For the past 16 years I've struggled with self-confidence and body image. By age 14 I was anorexic and suicidal and while it was only for a short time, the impact of those feelings has stayed with me over the years.

Always seen as "the skinny girl" and struggling with massive hormonal changes, I could never really figure out who I was or see myself as a woman God created in His image and likeness, and to this day there are still brief moments when I struggle with these feelings, but overall, especially over the past 13 months, my mindset has shifted in a far more positive direction.

I started my fitness journey 6.5 years ago to get rid of stress in my life. At that time I started, I'd managed to maintain my weight of 118 pounds for about 3 years and while I dreamed of having a toned body like the girls in movies and magazines (at the time I had no idea how airbrushing affected the industry) I didn't think I could ever come close to achieving those results without hours upon hours at the gym and limiting what I was eating.

So I worked out for 30 minutes/day, 4 days per week, pretty much ALL on the elliptical and I felt great! My energy was up, had almost 0 physical results, but I didn't have stress and that was why I had started in the first place so all was good :)

About a year after making fitness (aka the elliptical) a part of my lifestyle I started to get a little frustrated, I'd been in the gym for a year and saw tons of girls with toned abs and great thighs, why didn't I have that?? I was working out, I ate fruits and vegetables (and a lot of other things I didn't realize were total crap at the time) why didn't I have that body?

After 3 years of my elliptical journey, my friend introduced me to proper nutrition and balanced fitness with weight training! Within about 6 months I could see a huge change in my body, I was toned, I was lean, I was feeling AWESOME!

Fast forward 3 more years to January 1, 2014. I had ignored proper eating habits while overcoming a knee injury from August 2013 and I felt like I was in the worst shape I'd been in since before the elliptical days. I felt soft and did NOT enjoy looking in the mirror.  My clothes didn't fit the right way and I was 123 pounds, the most I'd ever weighed (something that was really bothering me at the time). While it's not heavy for most people's standards (including my own), what I FELT was not good. I was starting to hate my body...

 

   

About 13 months later, it's February 16th, 2015 and I am the happiest I've ever been in my entire life and I owe so much of it to progress pictures and tracking the little things for putting it all into perspective! I'm now between 125-126 pounds and I've never felt healthier! I have a balanced diet, read God's word daily, exercise 5-6 days/week, have quality conversations with my husband every day, listen to at least 15 minutes (usually more like 45) of personal development every day and work at least 50 hours/week. I don't say this to brag, I say this to SHOW you that SO much of your struggle is in your own head. It's you vs you! Stop looking at the scale to show you your accomplishments, look at yourself, look inside, look to your relationships with God and those you love! THOSE are the areas of life that help you measure and see if you're on the right track. Yes it takes work, it doesn't come naturally, but the small seemingly insignificant tasks are the ones that make the biggest impact on your life in the long run! 

Here are a couple areas where I made changes that helped me and I hope they can help you too:

1. Reading/listening to Personal Development (I'm going to be creating a tab of books I've listened to so you can get started)

2. Committing to follow the schedule of the exercise program I'm doing at the time 

3. Reading God's word/intentionally praying every day

4. Taking progress pictures in the same bikini at least every 60 days (I shoot for every 30)

5. Repeating to myself "Don't compare yourself to others, God made you exactly how He wants you to be" 

Like I said, I still struggle, but these 5 things have drastically changed my life for the better over these past 13 months, I hope they can help you too! And if they do or if you need help, would you please email me and let me know? I'd love to hear your story! 

samanthamarlett@gmail.com

52 weeks ago

52 weeks ago I posted this on Instagram...

I had a dream and a vision to help 100 people transform their lives and in the process transform my own life as well. 

52 weeks later I haven't quite changed 100 lives, but I've transformed my own life exactly how I had envisioned.

52 weeks ago I was a full time ER nurse working night shift and just trying to survive. 

52 weeks ago I started to see a change in my business and my team

52 weeks ago my self-confidence was low

52 weeks ago we had $17,000 worth of more debt

52 weeks ago I was struggling with my fitness

52 weeks ago I believed in my dream

I took the whole "new year" opportunity to an extreme last year, I wanted a FRESH start and that's exactly what I gave myself. Put the past behind you and know that YOU design your future. 

In the past 52 weeks I've helped over 50 people transform their life with their health and fitness, I've gotten off of night shift and cut my hours back to part time, I've continued to build an amazing team of people committed to helping end the trend of obesity, my husband and I have paid off over $17,000 of debt and accumulated $0 of debt, I'm now in the BEST shape I've ever been and have had a FULL year of ZERO injuries....

I say this NOT to brag, but to show you that when you TRULY believe in your dream, create your vision, map it out and WORK hard for what you want, you WILL achieve it!

Make this year your fresh start. You have nothing to lose and your dream life to gain! Get after it! :) 

What's your #1 goal for 2015? Hold yourself to it and post it in the comments :) 

Happy 2015!

How you can feel better in 11 months

The past 11 months have been some of the absolute best in my life for so many reasons, but I truly believe one of the main reasons is because I've tracked my fitness progress with pictures. This is something I've always told my clients to do "focus on your pictures, how your clothes fit and how you FEEL, not on the scale!"

This year I finally decided to take my own advice and I've never been happier! In the last 11 months I've gained 3 pounds and MANY of my pants were getting super tight. Most women would FREAK out over this, and I'll be honest there were times when I thought to myself "What the heck? I feel like I'm in the best shape ever and my nutrition in on point moreso than it's ever been, what is going on?" 

Whenever I would think those thoughts it was time to take a progress picture, I wasn't great at doing them every 30 days, but I did them this year more than any other and I am AMAZED by my progress! The scale was moving up because I was finally gaining muscle and my pants weren't fitting because my butt has MOVED, seriously, it's higher than ever before in my 25 years on this planet...blows my mind!

So how did I get this way this year? What changed? How can you make sure you feel amazing in the next 11 months?

TRACK your progress with pictures, exercise, and eat well

Those 3 things will transform your life. The first picture was my start of P90X3, my second was at the end of P90X3 and the last one was after doing a hybrid of P90X3 and Piyo along with the 21 day fix meal plan (and shakeology of course)! These 3 programs have changed my life this year, they've helped me realize my pants size and what the scale says are NOT important, it's how I treat my body and the choices I make that truly matter. 

This is a journey, you have to embrace the process, it does NOT happen over night, it doesn't happen over 3 months, a year, etc...it's a LIFETIME process so you need to make sure you're creating LIFESTYLE habits to help you through. 

There are going to be SO many times when you feel like failing and giving up, make yourself a promise that you won't. Make yourself a promise that you will see it through!

If you need help with what direction to go in I can help you, just send me an email at samanthamarlett@gmail.com 

Don't hold yourself back, your time is now!

How to visualize your life and achieve your dreams...

This is a super passionate topic for me because I've been able to LIVE my visualization this year and it's the first time I've gone all in (visualized, created a plan, sacrificed to achieve the plan, and am living my visualized life!) 

Will you take the time this week to sit down and visualize where you want to be in a year?

Will you think ahead about the sacrifices you and your family will need to make?

Will you create a plan of action steps that you need to take in order to make your vision your reality?

Will you envision how it FEELS to have achieved your goals?

Will you try it?

You aren't alone, I struggle too

I don't know why this is, but from talking with friends, family and so many people on social media, I've found us women, just don't feel comfortable in our own skin! It's a daily struggle for so many people and while I've learned to overcome it most days, I still have days when I struggle too! When you think "How does this make me look,?" "Why does this shirt lay that way?" "That totally makes me look like a whale" and on and on and on... Wonder why you feel so bad about yourself all the time? It's because you're being so MEAN to yourself! Stop beating yourself up and stop focusing on a look and start to go for a feeling and behaviors....what in the world do I mean by that? Here are some guidelines to help you ditch the negative self-talk and start living a more positive life:

1. When you catch yourself saying something bad about yourself, STOP and think about the things you're DOING daily that are positive :) Taking the stairs instead of the elevator, eating a nutritious lunch, exercising for 30 minutes, focus on the positive :) 

2. Focus on others. This is hard because we are naturally selfish people, but start focusing on others and how you can HELP others: lend a helping hand to someone in need, give out a random compliment to a stranger, pray for a friend in need, etc :) 

3. PRAY. The power of prayer is like no other power I know. This key component is what has helped me the most over the past few years. Be thankful for this body that God has given you and remember you have been made in HIS image. Don't talk down about what God made! (that's YOU)

What tip are you going to try out today? Any other tips that have helped you feel better about yourself?