Overcoming Stress and Anxiety Support Group

While most think of the spring as an exciting time of year. While I would agree that it is, it can also be a time of year that causes stress and extra anxiety for some. We tend to be more busy in the spring as we begin to engage in extra activities and experience the wrap up of the school year. If you have children or if you are a teacher yourself, it tends to be very chaotic. Fun, but chaotic.  The spring actually reminds me of the fall when I think of my schedule. I know working in a school district these two times of year are always the most stressful for me.

When I am under stress or have anxiety about something, I find myself not taking care of my own health needs like I should be. I put off working out. I stall when it comes to meal planning and meal prep. I binge on junk foods late at night, my sleep suffers and just overall I feel like I am in a slump during these times of year. I have been planning and thinking a lot about this spring and how I am going to get thru these next few months WITHOUT this extra anxiety and stress I often feel each year.

I remember in the fall there were mornings where I would wake up feeling like I couldn't face all of the things I had to accomplish in one day knowing that I had so much going on. It was not a good feeling. It paralyzed me some mornings and the stress of knowing about the daily stress caused more stress if that makes any sense. My daily to-do list became overwhelming and I had so much to-do I didn't know where to begin. I spent some time figuring out how to cope with all of it and found out very quickly that taking things one day at a time, one task at a time made all of it more manageable. I focused on taking care of me and getting enough rest and soon I started to feel much less stressed out, much happier and began to take care of myself in a much healthier way.

I began to think about others and realized that surely I am not the only one who struggles to balance it all during this time of year. I thought it would be great to offer a challenge group for those looking for help not just with nutrition and motivation to workout, but also offer coping skills to handle the spring season of chaos with more grace than they typically do.

I am planning to do the PiYo program and will be following that meal plan that comes along with it. In addition, I will continue to drink my daily dose of Shakeology to help me ward off cravings of junk food. It's a time of year for me that I often fall back into bad ways of take out and not so healthy foods. This will help to prevent me from doing that.

I had been doing the Hard Corps program for the last few weeks. While I love it, I think my focus needs to be on mindfulness and peace. I need to slow things down a bit and rebalance. I have noticed that I have been doing a lot of high intensity programs for several months now and my body needs a bit of a break. While I have gained a lot of muscle strength and "leaned out" quite a bit. I have noticed the my balance and flexibility have suffered because of it. It has been months since I have done any form of pilates or yoga. Quite honestly, I am looking forward to this a lot. PiYo is not often my program of choice because I always like to "go go go" but it will be nice slow things down a bit. I think it will help me deal with the stress that I know will be coming my way shortly.

I am really excited to share some of my best tips that I have learned along the way with anyone who would like to be a part.

Some of our weekly topics will include:

*Stress eating
*Mindfullness
*Learning how to stop overcommitting
*Getting enough rest
* Healthy ways to overcome daily stress and anxiety
* Plus much more!

If you would be interested in joining, I would need for you to sign up for a free team Beachbody account so that I can be your coach. You can do this by clicking here and clicking JOIN. Once you sign up for your free account you will need to reach out to me letting me know you would like to be a part of this. I will get you added into the group shortly after that. We will begin on Monday April 18, 2016. While many of the group members will be doing the PiYo program, you would still be welcome to join us in the event that you wanted to use a different Beachbody program instead.

If you would like to learn more about the PiYo program, take some time to watch this quick video explaining what it is all about.

Fill out my online form.

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Transformation Tuesday- Jennifer

When Your Why Is Big Enough, You Will Find Your How.... 

Meet Jenn

This Tuesday I am excited and proud to share with you one of my co-workers transformation stories.  She also was one of my first challengers. Initially, I posted to my Facebook friends about trying my challenge group that I had planned to start up in April. She reached out to me with an interest and jumped on right away. She started with the 21-day fix on April 16^th.  If I were going to describe Jenn in one word I would say determined. She had her eye on the prize from day one. She set a goal weight for herself and has refused to stop until she gets there.

I should first tell you that not only does she teach health professions at my school she is also a physical therapist and a personal trainer. This woman is an expert in the field and knew exactly what it would take to get to her goal weight. She is my calculator on all things 21 day fix related and always has wonderful insight and advice for the challengers in my group. She has posted every single day since we started and has truly held herself and many other challengers accountable. The only time we did not hear from her was on her trip to Mexico when she didn’t have any wifi. We missed her while she was away. The group felt much quieter and a little less fun.

In the beginning I remember her being frustrated with the workouts and the change that she had to make in her lifestyle. The first few weeks were rough for her and hard on her body.  I remember her questioning if she could even do the fix. I was worried that she might quit in the beginning but something clicked and she did what many struggle to do. She didn’t quit when it was hard she pushed harder and reminded herself WHY she was here. She also had an accountability partner, which helped tremendously.

To date, Jenn did 3 rounds of the 21-day fix and has now begun to transition into phase 2 of Les Mills Body Pump. At the end of the day I don’t think she will ever “leave” Autumns 10 minute ab fix. It is her favorite ab workout and she still swears by it daily. Since Jenn is a schoolteacher she now has had the summer to dedicate to losing the last bit of weight she has been working to get rid of. I tease her because it has become her part time job. She is working out LIKE a crazy woman!! In addition to doing Body Pump and usually does 10 minute abs, sometimes Piyo and also usually a walk each day that tends to near around 5 miles per day give or take. As you can see she is DETERMINED!! Jenn now practices strict clean eating and like my other challengers is a Shakeology addict. She was able to really get rid of her sweets cravings and was able to replace that with the daily shakes. At the beginning of the summer she signed up to be a discount coach to get her shakes for a 25% discount. She is not currently “coaching” anyone other than the challengers in our group. She said maybe when she gets to her goal weight she would consider it. If she does decide to do this, her challengers will have one heck of a coach!!

Her beginning weight was 168 pounds. She now weights 140 pounds. That is almost 30 pounds in 90 days!! She has also lost a total of 21.7 inches. Her transformation is amazing. She truly looks so much more happy and healthier. Jenn you are beautiful inside and outside. Thanks for inspiring others!!

Call To Action Time

Call To Action Time - July Challenge Groups Forming 

Once every month I give my call to action shout out and this is the time for anyone who has been thinking about giving a challenge group a try a chance to step up to the plate and join in on the fun. I take applicants at the beginning of the month and will put them into the following challenge groups based on their goals and plans for the future.

July 7th - Piyo Test Group - These challengers are going to be lucky enough to be doing PiYo with me as I give the program a try for the first time. These challengers are going to follow the 60 day program in its entirety and follow the nutrition guide as well as the workout schedule. These challengers will be my poster children for PiYo! I am especially interested in having some pregnant women in the group as well as those who have been restricted to exercise in the past because of injury. If you want to be one of the first I have coached with PiYo this is your call to action. Check out the page on PiYo to learn more about the program. 

July 21st - This challenge group will be for anyone looking to learn more about clean eating and exercise. Many challengers will be doing the 21 day fix but I will also take those interested in other programs. This group will last for 30 days - it will be quick, simple and guaranteed to work as long as you do your part! 

July 28th - This will be my first 30 day clean eating group that I will have hosted. This is for those who are looking to learn about clean eating but do not have the time or are not ready for the exercise piece. Research shows that weight loss is 80/20 - 80% nutrition and 20% exercise so why not focus on your nutrition first if this is where you want to start. I will teach you how to meal plan, we will discuss clean eating and teach you how to become better at it as well as share many clean recipes and meal plans. This group will kick off with you doing the 3 day refresh to jump start your system then we will eat clean and drink Shakeology for 30 days. After those 30 days are up we will talk about a plan for how you want to approach your weight loss goals moving forward. 

 In the group I will teach you about clean eating, motivate you daily, post recipes, and support you as you change your lifestyle. This accountability piece is what many of you are missing. Many of us need someone to check in on us daily and see how things are going and to support you when you veer off the path. It happens - we are human but if you have someone to help you will meet your goals much faster.

If you have been watching my posts and considering giving this a try or maybe even have told me no in the past. Now is your time to say yes to this. Say yes to getting your life back on track and feeling good about yourself. This time is now not tomorrow or a month from now it's today because tomorrow is not promised. Join me, you will not regret it! 

Email me to reserve your spot and let me know what challenge group you are interested in: S.Griffith27@gmail.com 

PiYo Meal Planning

Meal Planning - PiYo Style 

This week I decied to start PiYo but had not done the meal plannign with it. I know how important meal planning is in order to be successful with a program so I spent some time working on it Friday night. Grocery shopped today and now I feel ready to conquer week 2. I am a bit nervous about Friday because it is the 4th of July, but I am going to try my best to stick to the plan. 

I was surprised how similar the meal planning was for the 21 day fix. In fact, it is basically the same. I am planning on using the containers that I used for the fix. The only thing that is different for me is that I have one additional serving of veggies while doing PiYo. For those of you who have done the 21 day fix I would suggest continuing the container use. As you can see below you will be eating many times during the day. If you can try to space the foods out about 2 - 3 hours and be sure to be drinking half of your body weight in ounces. 

PiYo Week 1 Meal Plan

www.sarahgriffith27.blogspot.com

Plan A

4 Primary Veggies

2 Secondary Vegetables and Grains

2 Fresh Fruit

4 Lean Proteins

3 Healthy Fats

	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday
Breakfast	Vanilla Shakeology  Whole Wheat English Muffin w/ natural pb	Vanilla Shakeology Whole Wheat English Muffin w/ natural pb	Vanilla Shakeology Eggs with peppers & onions	Chocolate Shakeology	Chocolate Shakeology
Snack	Eggs with peppers and onions Blueberries/straw	Apple	10 pistachios Strawberries	Apple Natural PB	Egg omelet Peppers/ Onions
Lunch	Grilled Chicken Salad- cucumbers/pepper 10 pistachios	Steak salad Cucumber/peppers Plain yogurt Mixed berries	Grilled Chicken Wraps Avocado Lettuce Mozzarella Cheese Steamed Broccoli	Ham Lettuce Wrap Mixed Fruit Peanuts (1 tbsp)	Pulled Pork Fruit Salad Peppers Hummus Salad
Snack	Apple- Peanuts(1tbsp)	Peppers	Mixed Berries	Hummus Peppers	Almonds Fruit Salad
Dinner	Filet Minion Broccoli, Baked Potato	Grilled Chicken Wraps Avocado Lettuce Mozzarella Cheese	Pork Chops Brown Rice String Beans	Grilled Chicken Black Beans Brown Rice Diced Tomatoes Onions	Lean Burger Wheat Bun Cheese Fresh Salsa Corn Tortilla Chips