Showing posts with label Shakeology. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Shakeology. Show all posts

Sunday, January 29, 2012

My day 28 Les Mills PUMP accountability numbers

Hi folks,

As you know, I started Beachbody's new workout program, Les Mills PUMP on 2 Jan 12 and just completed week 4 and the first phase of the program. I am loving the workouts and am satisfied with the nutrition and my changes so far. Here are my accountability numbers. :)

Body Part - Day 1 and Day 28 Measurements -

Weight - 207.4 - 199.8 = 7.6 lbs lost

Chest - 43.5 - 43.5 - No Change

R Arm - 14 - 14.25 - +1/4 inch

L Arm - 14 - 14.25 - +1/4 inch

Waist - 42 - 40 - minus 2 inches

Hips - 38 - 36 - minus 2 inches

R Thigh - 22 - 22 - No change

L Thigh - 22 - 22 - No change

Summary - 7.6 lbs lost, increase of 1/4 inch on my biceps, 2 inches lost on my waist, and 2 inches lost off my hips. 4 inches lost in 28 days. I'll take it! Pics will come on day 30!

I am about to enter into Phase 2 of the program and the intensity and workouts are going to change over the next 4 weeks. My first workout tomorrow is something called Pump and Shred! My guess is that it will be the extension of the PUMP Challenge, then PUMP and Burn, and now PUMP and Shred. I am looking forward to it.

I have been increasing my weight 5 pounds each week to keep challenging my body but I believe I may drop 10 pounds to start this phase off. That way I can get the feel of the workout without losing my form and burning out before the workout is done. Up to now, the workouts have been 20-30 minutes. This phase the work increases to 35 - 50 minutes with additional moves and workous on the schedule.

I am satisfied with the 7.6 pound weight loss and I am only 9.8 pounds from my goal weight for this round. Hopefully, this phase will help me start really reducing my body fat and get my lean.

Hope you are doing something to improve your health each and every day. I can tell you, it has literally changed my life for the better over the past 2 years and I continue to live a more fulfilling lifestyle because of my improved health and fitness. If you want information on how you can get in the best shape of your life from the privacy and comfort of your own home, feel free to contact me. I will do all I can to help you get started.

Until next time, to your health and fitness,

Jim

Tuesday, December 27, 2011

Ready for 2012 with Les Mills PUMP workout!!

Greetings and salutations!

So 2011 is coming to a close and I have been reflecting on my overall health this year and making plans for 2012. One thing I am sure of, time will keep rolling along whether I have a plan or not. For 2012 I have decided to take a little break from my primary workout program, P90X, and try a new program just introduced by Beachbody called Les Mills PUMP.

As you may know, I was in terrible shape by 2009 after suffering from the ravages of two heart attacks in my early 40s and spending years listening to doctors about how the next one could be the one that does me in. As a result of basically zero physical activity, I got a stent implant, my weight climbed, I was put on blood pressure medications and my health steadily declined for almost a decade. I had to make a change in my lifestyle so I started using Beachbody workouts to get back into shape and take control of my overall health and fitness. I don’t have time to go to the gym every day so the in home workout programs are a great way for me, and so many others, to get and stay healthy with our busy schedules. I was 234 pounds, had high blood pressure, poor eating habits, and was generally on a downhill slope headed for type 2 Diabetes when I made my change.

I stared using a workout called Power 90 (P90) and lost 18 pounds by doing that 90 day program. Then I moved to the Power 90 Master Series workouts as a continuation of the P90 program and lost another 8 pounds. I could have lost more but my diet frankly sucked and I wasn’t really paying attention to it. Then, I felt I was ready for the big leagues and decided to give P90X a try. By the time I was finished with my first round of P90X, I had lose a total of 41 pounds and was taken off my blood pressure medications and was taken off the risk for diabetes! I went from 234 pounds on 5 Jan 90 to 193 pounds in Oct 90. I also won $1,000 in the Sept 09 Beachbody transformation contest. Since then, I have maintained a weight of about 195 pounds using P90X as my primary workout program doing 4 to 6 days a week.

I made a couple of attempts to do another Beachbody program called Insanity, but I have bad knees and shoulders and have only been able to get through about 4 weeks before I have to stop the program due to pain in my knees and feet. Insanity may well be the most intense workout ever put on disc for home use. Fortunately, I can continue to keep my body in pretty good shape and I have enough programs to mix things up every month or so to keep my body guessing and stay in pretty good shape.
I was due an annual physical around Aug 11 and at the same time was assigned a new doctor in my “government ran” health care system. As a disabled veteran, I still have to see doctors in the TriCare system for military and veterans. I made the visit in Aug and had some blood work done prior to my appointment. When I showed up for my appointment, my doctor said he had found some issues with my blood and I would have to start chemotherapy IMMEDIATELY!

Needless to say, this freaked me out but being a good airman, I followed orders and started that day on a medication called Hydroxiurea. It is a chemotherapy medication you take orally twice a day and it is designed to kill cells in your body, the good ones and the bad ones. If I refused treatment, I would lose my insurance benefits so I followed the program to the letter.

To make a long story short, the drug wreaked havoc on my system. I experienced most of the side effects including nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, weight gain, and overall feeling of sickness. I was supposed to do 90 days of chemotherapy but within a couple of weeks I was crapping blood and going to the bathroom 6 or 7 times a day. Ironically, I gained 13 pounds while on the medication. My blood count got so low that I was barely able to function but had to wait an extra week for the doctor to get back from a conference he attended before he reviewed my blood work and determined I didn’t need to be on the stuff in the first place! The Lab had just made a mistake with my test and he misread the results! He took me off the medication immediately once he saw photos I emailed him of the clotting you could visibly see on my skin all over my body.

Finally off the medication in Sept 2011, it took me about 7 or 8 weeks to recover from the experience. By then I had gone from 195 to about 208 pounds. I was very weak and still feel weaker than when I started the treatment. I tried to get back to my workout by doing a round of P90X “Lean” starting in Oct and finishing in Jan 2012 but was only able to do about 4 to 6 days a week throughout the program due to no energy.
Since I am older than most people using P90X, I guess my body doesn’t recover as quickly as someone in their 20s or 30s. This is natural and since I abused my body most of my life, I am lucky to be able to recover at all in my humble opinion. I’m pretty sure I would be in much worse shape if I hadn’t been working out and eating better over the last couple of years. So, you never know what might happen to cause you to need good health to get through a tough challenge.

At least I have been drinking my Shakeology
every day and ate mostly clean through the holidays, except for Thanksgiving Day and Christmas Eve. I managed to lose about 3 or 4 pounds since Oct. Now I am ready to move forward and cut my losses, so I will be doing the new workout starting Jan 2 with a Facebook support group of about 288 people and counting!

If you have been to a gym lately, there is a very popular gym program produced Les Mills International, called Les Mills Body Pump. Well, Beachbody has partnered with Less Mills International to create an in-home version of the Body Pump called Les Mills PUMP. It looks like a great program for me to get back on track with my fitness and I am so stoked about getting started. I ordered my program on 22 Dec and hope to get it by 29 Dec.

I plan to do the program as it is designed and not add workouts or exercise not scheduled in the program, at least for this first round. I want to see how effective the program will be doing it as designed. From my past experience with Beachbody workouts, I know they are designed well and I will get great results if I just FOLLOW the program.

I also plan to blog about my experience with the program so others can see my progress and the challenges I face going through it. I will post at least once a week with my weigh-in on Sunday mornings. This will help me keep on track and stay accountable to myself and to you if you follow this blog.

Hope you had a Merry Christmas and I wish you a very happy and prosperous new year! Remember, you only get one body in this life. Do whatever you can to take care of it. Check back if you want to follow me through my program.

To your health and fitness,
Jim

Friday, August 5, 2011

My 12 Week Workout and Nutrition Plan

Hi everyone! Hope you are doing your part to help reverse and end the trend of obesity in the US! This past Monday I started a new 12-week program for my personal health and fitness and have made several changes to reduce my body fat and improve my overall health.

First, I have to admit that I slacked off my program for about 10 weeks starting with our dive vacation to the Bahamas in late May. That is where my plan and routine went awry. Just to show you a good example of how easy it is to get off your program, no matter how long you have been exercising and eating better, I want to use myself as an example of what NOT to do.

We had our vacation all set up and I took my workouts with me to stay on track. However, once we got to the resort, I quickly fell off my program. Here is why. Since I was scheduling 2 or 3 dives per day, I rationalized that I really didn’t need to do my workouts because I would be burning an average of 900-1100 calories per dive. Therefore, I would be burning about 2000-3000 extra calories per day diving so why workout? Sounds pretty good, huh? Then, since I was burning all those calories, I decided I could eat more, and add a little junk to keep my energy levels up so I could power through those dives, including diving with Sharks (I have pics on my Facebook page if you want to see them.) So this is how my week went. Throw in a few beers and drinks every day and I was completely off program.

OK, it’s just a week, right? I have been good for over a year and been sticking with my plan and getting good results and still had a few weeks before the Beachbody Summit to slim down and be at my peak when I showed up at the conference. Life has a way of changing your circumstances without warning. Once I got back from vacation, I found myself in the middle of a family emergency that resulted in a lot of travel to hospitals, lack of sleep, eating fast food, and got getting any exercise for almost 4 weeks going to the Summit. The result of those bad choices was a weight gain from 195 before leaving for vacation up to 207.4 pounds in about 8 weeks! Yikes. It was just a bunch of circumstances, and my own rationalization that ended up packing on the pounds in just a short period of time. I managed to wipe out about 10 months of effort in just a matter of weeks by not sticking to my exercise routine and nutrition plan. It is just that simple.

To make matters worse, my energy levels went down, I started feeling sluggish again, my stress levels are up, I looked terrible at Summit with all my Beachbody friends and I am just disappointed in myself for my lack of discipline. And, I only have myself to blame. I am not going to beat myself up too much over it because in the end, I know what I need to do to get myself back on track and I already have all the tools I need to get out of the mess I have gotten myself into.

I have a number of Beachbody workout programs I have successfully used to get in shape and live a better lifestyle. I’m not a Gym Rat so the at home workout programs fit my lifestyle better. I guess they are not for everyone, but millions of people around the country and world are literally changing their lives with Beachbody workout programs. My personal preference are Tony Horton’s workouts. I have several of his workouts, but I also have Insanity, Turbo Fire, Slim in 6, Turbo Jam, Hip Hop Abs and other programs I can use in the privacy of my home. With my busy schedule, they are a great way to keep myself in shape and improve my lifestyle.

I don’t have to fight traffic home, grab my gym bag and go back out into traffic to get to the gym and then fight other people to use the machines and all that is included in that environment. I get home, change my clothes, go into my spare bedroom, put in my workout disc and press play. Then it is a matter of me “doing my best and forgetting the rest” as Tony Horton would say. I just do the best I can on any given day. I may not feel like doing the workout, but I find that once I push play, I get pumped up and start kicking it into high gear and pushing myself. I don’t spend any time waiting for some machine to open up or hanging out BSing. I just follow the workout on the TV and move through it at a good pace and level of intensity. Before I know it, I am soaked with sweat and have blown through a hour workout and can get in the shower, and enjoy the rest of my evening.

Doing workouts from home don’t require any more discipline than schlepping to a gym every day. It is just more convenient to most people. I also like the idea of the Team Beachbody community where thousands of people are logging on and helping each other stay motivated and accountable. I have made friends with people all over the country who are trying to get and stay health and fit using Beachbody workouts. Celebrities, professional sports figures, and even Michelle Obama and her staff use Beachbody programs to get, and stay fit. How cool is that?

So this round I am doing a hybrid program to get myself back on track over the next 12 weeks. I will be doing the Power 90 boot camp for the first 4 weeks for phase 1, then I will do 4 weeks of the P90 Master Series videos for phase 2 and finally I will finish this round with P90X Phase 3 of the Classic version. This should have me right back on track with my functional strength, fat loss, and stamina improvement. This is where I need to be to feel better and know I am on the right path.

My goal is to lose 15 pounds this round and I know from past experience this is easily doable. I also want to reduce my body fat percentage to 12-15 percent. This is more challenging than the weight and diet becomes a important factor to achieving the fat loss.

I am going to use Michi’s Ladder and a balanced approach to lose the weight and fat over time. My macro-nutrients will be 50% Protein, 30% Carbs and 20% fat. This ratio seems to work best for me personally. The standard guideline is 30% protein, 40% carbs, and 30% fats if you are interested. This should be where you start and then tweak your ratios to find what works best for you. Remember, everyone is different but the above ratio covers about 80% of the people to get results. Next, I will try to adjust my calories up or down to find the zone that will help me keep my energy up and reduce body fat. Ironically, sometimes you have to eat more to lose weight. My starting calorie target is 2600 calories per day. I will only make minor changes in my intake about every 2 weeks or so.

Finally, my nutrition is centered on Shakeology. Why? Because in all my research, Shakeology is hands down the most nutritious meal replacement you can get. I have been drinking a glass of Shakeology every day for nearly a year now and I know how it makes me feel. Plus, there is nowhere in the world that you can get more than 70 super food ingredients in a single serving. At only 140 calories, it is literally “The Healthiest Meal of the Day”. You can click HERE to read all about Shakeology. I am completely satisfied with the Chocolate. It satisfies my chocolate cravings, gives me an instant energy boost that lasts all morning and it has helped me stay regular and keep my body cleansed of the junk I put into it from time to time (no one is perfect.)

I will be posting my accountability pictures this weekend so you can see what I look like now and I will do 30-day updates so you can see what kind of results I get this round.

Thanks for stopping by! I hope you will follow me and watch my progress over the next 11.5 weeks. Feel free to comment on any of my posts. If you want to contact me for help on your personal health and fitness journey, please email me at jimwyatt556@gmail.com and I will be happy to help you any way I can.

To your health and fitness,
jw

Monday, August 1, 2011

Re-Starting with the $100,000 Beachbody Challenge!!

Hi everyone!

I have been "resting" my body for the past few weeks trying to recover from overtraining and a number of personal issues I have been dealing with over the past two months or so. Unfortunately, I should have stayed on my health program instead of letting life get in the way and distract me from one of the most important aspects of my healthy lifestyle, that is to stay focused and keep moving forward.

The result of my lack of discipline has caused me to go from 194 pounds back up to 207.4 pounds in about 10 weeks of sporadic exercise and slacking off on my nutrition. I can see how sudden events cause high levels of stress and you can lose focus on what is important to your personal health and fitness levels. I am a perfect example of what NOT to do! Eventhough I know better and have learned how to do the right things when it comes to my health, I allowed myself to fall right off the grid and back into a very unhealthy lifestyle.

Now, I don't have the energy I had only a few weeks ago and my my sleep pattern has been disrupted due to issues I really have no control over. This is having a negative impact on my overall health and well-being. I am tired all day long and end up falling asleep on the couch when I know I should be doing my daily workout routine. Then waking up and going to bed and not being able to fall asleep, resulting in less restfull sleep and lower energy levels during the day. This is a viscious cycle once you get in the pattern. I have to break that pattern and force myself to do my workouts and get in bed at a decent time.

To make matters worse, all the events in the past couple of months have resulted in me eating less nutritious and not as clean as I know I should. Instead of sticking to my plan, I made a bad decision for convenience to eat fast food to get me through all the hospital travel, court issues, and lawyer visits. The reality is that I needed to be eating especially clean and exercising consistently to cope better but I was doing the exact opposite. One thing I did manage to stick with was drinking my Shakeology almost every day. At least I was getting some healthy nutrition in spite of my lack of overall discipline. In the end, that probably kept me from gaining even more weight.

Over the past couple of weeks, I have let my body rest as much as possible and didn't do any of my workouts. I wanted to give my body complete rest as much as possible. I also refocused on my nutrition and have come up with a plan to eat better in the future. Now, all I need to do is add my workouts back into my daily routine and I will be back on track. And lastly, I have been getting more restful sleep by going to bed on time and getting up consistently to get my biological clock back on track. I have been averaging about 7 hours per night of restful sleep, which is on target for me personally.

As you know I have been using Beachbody workout programs since January of 2009 when I first "pushed play." The great thing is that I already own the solution to my fitness. I don't have to go out and buy anything else. All I need to do is get back on track and start using the programs again. With that in mind, I have decided to do a hybrid 12 week program that includes three of the workouts I used to lose 41 pounds of fat in 10 months and sustain that for over a year. I already know what to do, and how to do it, so my plan is simple.

Beachbody developes their programs over a 12 week "round" and for the most of their programs they are devided into 3 4-week blocks or phases. So to continue to recover, but get back to my workout routines, I have decided to do the Power 90 (P90) Boot camp for the first 4 weeks, then do the P90 Master Series workouts for the second 4 weeks and then finish this round with P90X Phase III as my closeout phase.

The reason I have decided to do a hybrid is that I already know how to do the programs and how they affect my body. Since I haven't been working out for a while, it will be like starting over so I don't want to risk further injury by over-doing it. Rather, I can use the different programs to quickly ramp up my fitness and get back on track in 12 weeks instead of several 36 months if I redo the programs individually.

I am confident that if I am consistent, and push myself to my personal limit and then just a little more, I will be right back where I need to be. So today is my Day 1 of my 12 week program. I plan to post at least once a week about my progress and let you know how it is going and what challenges I am facing. This will also help me be accountable and keep me on track.

I ask that you follow my blog and watch me to make sure I am posting regularily so I will be accountable. I would appreciate your support by helping me out. Make sure you bust on me if I slack off on my posts. I will post at least once a week and hopefully more if I have time.

Also, if you are interested in trying one of the programs and entering Beachbody's $100,000 challenge, let me know. I can be reached at jimwyatt556@gmail.com I will coach you for FREE and help you help us end the trend of obesity in the US.

To your health and fitness,

jw

Wednesday, July 13, 2011

Is P90X the RIGHT program for you?

I completed my first round of P90X in Oct 09. By the end of the program I had lost a total of 41 pounds, been taken off two blood pressure medications, and lowered my overall cholesterol and was literally in the best shape of my life. The “X” in P90X stands for extreme. In other words, this is not a beginner program. It can be used by beginners but you really have to be committed to the program and modify the workouts heavily to prevent injury and get through the whole 12 weeks. Even though this program will work for anyone who can gut it out for the whole 90 days, it may not be the best program for those who have never worked out, or haven't worked out for a long period of time.

Our society has become more sedentary and we don’t get the physical activity we did only a few decades ago when we still had industry and agriculture in our country. Now, everything is outsourced to poorer countries that will do the labor for less money leaving people here without much need to be physically active outside of a few games of touch football in the summer, or an occasional swim in the community pool. Other than that, we pretty much sit in front of a computer all day or the TV at night. We are slowly turning to mush and the Centers for Disease Control has been sounding the alarm for many years, but no one is listening.

In Dec 08, I had a doctor’s appointment and my doctor told me I was pre-diabetic and I had a choice. I could either start exercising regularly and eating better, or I could be placed on diabetes medication for the rest of my life. I was already on two blood pressure medications and at the heaviest I'd ever been at 234 pounds. After 2 heart attacks in my early 40s and a stent already in my chest, I knew I had to make a change in my life if I wanted to live. I had to do something to stop and reverse the downward spiral I was in. I felt I had to take responsibility for my own health and fitness. What the doctors were doing, wasn’t working.

I had abused my body for so long, I really didn’t know where to turn.
In the past, I had tried all the gimmicks, like diet pills, fad diets, Ab crunch machines, that electric abdominal cruncher belt, and so forth. I don’t know how much money I wasted over the years trying to find an “easy” fix to my weight and health problem. Some of it worked in the short term, but nothing lasted. All the while, I was staying up late at night watching the infomercials, including P90X while I lay on the couch stuffing my face with potato chips, popcorn and ice cream. I had lost all my strength and energy and was too lazy to do anything about it. I had too many excuses. I had heart attacks, I had bad knees and feet, I was too heavy to do anything strenuous, and on and on. But when my doctor told me I was going to be put on the diabetes medication, I had to do something about it.

I knew I needed to do something drastic. Since I had seen P90X so many times, I decided to do some research on-line to find out more about it. I figured it was just another sales pitch like all the other things I had tried in the past and it cost $120 plus shipping so I didn’t want to waste even more money. As I researched the program, I found the PDF file for the Fit Test you can take to see if you are a good candidate for the program. I downloaded it and promptly failed the test. The web site I was on recommended I NOT buy P90X as my workout program!! I was so unhealthy; the company didn’t want to sell me their product. That really sucked. However, the website recommended I start with a “foundation” program to build my basic fitness level before attempting to do something as extreme ad P90X.

The programs that were recommended were Power 90 (P90) by Tony Horton; Turbo Jam by Chelene Johnson, Hip Hop Abs by Shaun Thompson, or Slim in 6 by Debbie Siebers as the basic programs to use to start my journey back to health and fitness. I had never heard of any of these programs but I am glad I didn’t waste my money starting with P90X. I don’t think I would have been able to complete that program as unhealthy as I was at the time. Since I really wanted to do P90X, I decided to give P90 a try because Tony Horton created both programs. Also, the foundation programs are about $60 instead of $120 for the advanced programs so I stood to lose less money if I didn’t like the program. As it turns out, all of Beachbody’s programs give you a 30 or 90 day money back guarantee and I have found they honor their commitment to the public with their guarantees. So the risk was reduced to nothing but my shipping costs if I decided to send it back. What did I have to lose? Nothing but a few pounds as it turned out.

So I ordered P90 and pushed play for the first time on 5 Jan 09, the day I received the program in the mail. The first workout was called Sweat 1 and 2. It was about 30 minutes long and in hind sight, was a very basic program. But by the time I finished the workout, I was laying on the floor in a puddle of sweat thinking I was going to die at any minute! LOL! Needless to say, I survived that first workout and the next day did a workout called Sculpt 1 and 2. It was hard too but I managed to get through that one also. I remember thinking about the cliché that “What doesn’t kill you only makes you stronger” and I was determined to make it through at least the first week, which was basically just repeating the Sweat routine then the Sculpt routine for 6 days and then you get to have a rest day on day 7. Then you just repeat the workouts every week until you feel you are able to keep up, then you move on to Sweat and Sculpt 3 and 4 which increased the time to about 35 or 40 minutes.

I committed myself to this workout program for the whole 90 days and ended up losing 18 pounds of body fat and increasing my lean muscle mass just using my body weight and a couple of dumbbells. I could have lost more weight, but I didn’t follow the nutrition guide, I just kept eating fast food and drinking Pepsi like I had over the years and still got good results. I was totally pleased with my results and felt better than I had since before my first heart attack ten years earlier. I figured if I lost 18 pounds in 12 weeks, I could lose 30 pounds in a year, so I set that as my personal goal for the year. I also decided to get a copy of the P90 Master Series tapes to keep challenging myself, which ultimately turned out to be a perfect transition program for me between P90 and P90X.

The master series workouts are about 40-50 minutes each and introduce new exercises to keep your body guessing and improving. By the time I finished that round, I had started cleaning up my diet and had lost a total of 28 pounds in only 24 weeks. I was also confident that I was ready for the extreme challenge of P90X, so I finally ordered it and made up my mind that I was going to do my very best for the 12 weeks and then I would know that the program either works, or is just a bunch of hype. I have to say, it is a very demanding fitness program. I was sore all over the first week and the workouts are about 60 minutes each except for Yoga X, which is 90 minutes long. Everyone of the workouts kicked my butt and I had to modify many of the exercises but the program shows you how to modify and still get results.

By the time I finished my first round of P90X in Oct of 2009, I had lost 41 pounds, come off both blood pressure medications, was low risk for type 2 diabetes, and lowered my cholesterol to an overall 82! My doctor couldn’t believe how well I had done in such a short period of time. Along the way, I also won $1,000 dollars in the Beachbody Million Dollar Body Game for my transformation story. You can check it out HERE. I hadn't even finished the round of P90X when I won. Overall, I have exceeded every goal I set for myself and have managed to keep the weight off for over 2 years now. I have tried a lot of the workout programs and each one of them work to improve your health and overall fitness level if you just follow the program as designed and do the nutrition plan. You will get great results, or your money back, it is as simple as that.

I believe Beachbody has the ultimate solution to the obesity epidemic in our country. They use a three-pronged approach that is proven by science to be the best way to regain your health and sustain it over time. Beachbody produces the best workout programs in the industry today, period. Each program has a specific nutrition guide designed for that program. Then you get a FREE coach assigned to you to help you succeed and get the maximum results from your program. These three things combined give you the best chance to achieve your goals and get into the best shape of your life. It has worked for millions of people, and it will work for you if you decide you want to live a better lifestyle, commit do one of the programs, you will succeed in getting healthy and fit. Now, it's up to you! What are you going to do about it?

If you want to find out more about our fitness programs, the Beachbody community, or the coaching opportunity, just check out my website HERE.

To your health and fitness,
jw

Tuesday, July 12, 2011

For those of you who know me, I have been doing Beachbody workouts since Jan 2009 and have got great results and have been able to maintain my Beachbody lifestyle for over 2 years now. My lifestyle has changed so much since I started that I can hardly remember the way I was living before Team Beachbody. Prior to starting, I was 234 pounds and on two blood pressure medications and was pronounced pre-diabetic by my family physician. That was the wake-up call for me to take matters in my own hands. I had to change my lifestyle or accept the fact that I was going to die relatively young. I was on that downward spiral so many in our society are caught in today.

Seven days after my 40th birthday, I had a sudden heart attack. For me, it was one of those things that knocked me down and pretty much took all my upper body strength away from me in just a week in a hospital bed. Ultimately, I had angioplasty and a stent implanted in a artery over my heart. I spent 10 years going through all the drugs to regulate my heart rate, keep my blood pressure in check, and etcetera. The doctors wouldn’t let me do any kind of real physical exercise except for walking for about 20 or 30 minutes a day. Needless to say, this didn’t help my overall health and fitness and I continued to decline until I found myself where I was in Jan 2009.

The funny thing is that after being told for years not to do strenuous exercise due to my heart condition, my family doctor warned me that either I started exercising more and eating better, or I would be put on diabetes medication for the rest of my life. I guess that’s why they call the medical profession a “practice”. All of them have their own opinion. Since opinions vary by doctor, you have to take a certain amount of responsibility for your own health and fitness if you want to live a better quality of life. I took it on myself to do just that in January 2009.

I was tired of not having any energy, not sleeping well, always feeling tired and sickly. I wanted to feel like I did as a younger man with the energy and vitality that is related to youth. I didn’t want to stay on the downward spiral to an early grave I was clearly on. I HAD to make a change. So I took a chance with Beachbody and have literally changed my life for the better, physically, emotionally, and even financially as a Team Beachbody Coach.

Before becoming a coach, I never thought of making extra money in the “business”. I decided to become a coach to get the discounts on the products and supplements I knew I was going to buy in the future. Like Shakeology, for example, it was costing me about $120 per month buying it retail. I was buying a 30-day supply every month so I knew that if I became a coach, I would get it for $89 per month with free shipping as a home direct purchaser. That alone saved me about $30 per month on the product and another $15 per month on shipping costs. So it was really a “no brainer” for me to be a coach just for the fact that I was going to continue to drink Shakeology. As a coach, I get everything I buy at the wholesale discount. That is, I save 25% on all my purchases from Beachbody. Since I use many of the programs it has saved me literally hundreds of dollars since I have been a coach.

I don’t have to sell anything. I just tell people what I am doing and they decide if they want to be involved in helping our country and Beachbody reverse and end the trend of obesity in the US. If they get involved, Beachbody pays me a commission for my activities. That is how I make money, not by selling anything. Once I qualified as a Emerald Coach on the compensation plan, Beachbody started giving me paying customers every week! Now, anytime one of those customers, buy a product from the company, I get a commission up to 25% basically for nothing! I am not allowed to harass the customer so I don’t sell them anything. As their assigned coach, the only thing I do is answer their questions when they contact me. I also send them encouraging postcards to stick to their programs and work with them individually if they want my help. That’s it. That is all there is to Coaching as an Independent Team Beachbody Coach.

If you decide to build a team of Coaches, you can make a lot more money if you want to build a large business. In only 3 years, Beachbody has produced 10 millionaires who are part of an exclusive club in the organization. Those individuals have followed the “Game Plan” to build full time businesses and retire from their day jobs. So it is possible to build financial security by helping others achieve their goals. I don’t know a better way to achieve financial freedom by helping others live healthy and fulfilling lives. That is pretty cool to me. The more people you can help, the greater the reward to you and your team. Is there a better way? If so, I haven’t found it at this point. Zig Zigler said that you can have all the things you want in life if you help enough people get the things they want in life. It is the Law of Sowing and Reaping. You reap what you sow and Team Beachbody Coaches are sowing better lifestyles for anyone who wants it. The return is that the company compensates us to help others. The more people we help, the more we are compensated.

I recently read a statistic that stated obesity in the US will cost the taxpayer $4 Trillion dollars over the next 10 years if we don’t reverse the trend. If I am not part of the solution, then I am part of the problem with obesity in the US. I am on my personal lifetime journey toward better health and fitness. My life is so much better now that I have taken steps to live healthier. I want to share my experience with others and help them live a healthy lifestyle, thus improving their overall quality of life. If a company like Beachbody is willing to compensate me for that effort, I am fine with it and thankful to be part of the solution to end the trend of obesity in our country.

If you want to find out more about our programs, learn about healthy eating and living a healthy lifestyle, want someone who will help you, or would like to find out more about the Coaching opportunity, take a look HERE.

To your health and fitness,
Jim