Les Mills COMBAT Challenge Pack Sale!

This is too good not to share, plus I'd love for you to be doing this program with me. It is a butt-kicking good time. For June only, the Les Mills COMBAT Challenge Pack is on sale - marked down from $160 to $140. That is a $70 savings from what you would spend if you bought all of this content separately.

It comes with the full Les Mills COMBAT program, which includes all the DVDs, the program guide, the nutrition plan, accessories, your first month of Shakeology, and 30 days free VIP membership to the Team Beachbody Club, where you'll find additional resources for fitness and nutrition. Coaching and mentoring from me is always free! Why not join us on the fitness journey, or take your fitness to the next level?

I love lifting and interval training - and I also love to punch, kick and condition martial arts style. I've also been drinking Shakeology daily for almost 3 years now. I highly recommend these programs and products, and that's why, as a personal trainer and nutrition coach now, I decided to add Beachbody Coaching to my toolbox. It allows me to help people find the right solutions for them when they want to work out from home. It's what I love to do!! If you have questions, please feel free to contact me any time - I would love to be of help!

Les Mills COMBAT Kick Start 30

BOOM! Encouragement!!
Whew!! I LOVE Les Mills COMBAT Kick Start 30. Honestly, I think 30 minutes is a perfect length. It's long enough to get in there and kick tail without completely wearing yourself out. I feel like I can push hard, and I'm not watching the little count down clock on the video.

I was so excited for LMC to come out because I discovered my love for punching and kicking and other martial arts moves when Kenpo X turned out to be my very favorite P90X workout. Since I don't have a martial arts background whatsoever, I really worked on my form during Kenpo X. The COMBAT program comes with a Basics DVD which is a MUST. It reviews in detail the technical components of the moves and gives you a brief explanation of their disciplines of origin. It helps the whole thing come together in your mind. We did the Basics DVD with our fit club prior to doing the first LMC workout and it really helps. In fact, I learned even more the second time around, so it will serve as my form review for sure.

So I've done Les Mills COMBAT Kick Start 30 a few times now before progressing into the rest of the program. I not only wanted to practice them from a form standpoint but I think to be able to really put speed and intensity into it without injury I need to have some practice. At almost 48 years old I'm very protective of my knees!

In Kick Start 30 you spend time on jabs, crosses, uppercuts, hooks, front kicks, front knees, back kicks and sequences of those. There's also some shuffling and other foot work and a jump kick. The time goes by really fast and I was drenched. I burned about 350 calories during the 30 minute workout - not bad! This time my form, balance, coordination and speed were better.

Do you like martial arts-style training? How have you incorporated it into your fitness regime? Tell me about it! If you haven't and you'd like to try Les Mills COMBAT, you can pick up your copy here and join me in the trenches!
Les Mills COMBAT Program
Les Mills COMBAT Challenge Pack

Oatmeal and Avocado

I confess, I love butter. We eventually changed from margarine (what is that, really?!) to real, organic butter. I usually only use a little bit in my oatmeal.

Today I had an avocado that was getting really soft, and so I mashed it up and put it in my oatmeal! It was weirdly good! I guess technically avocado is a fatty fruit. It's only been in the last 2 years that I have discovered I love them. They are full of so many nutrients and healthy fat that honestly they are one of my favorite super foods.

I was so hungry I didn't even think about taking a picture until after I'd finished it. I'm not sure it would have looked too appetizing anyway.

So the next time you are thinking about using butter in your oatmeal, or on your toast, etc. use a mashed avocado instead. For sure if you still have margarine in the house, get rid of that stuff! I don't care if it does say "no trans fat" or that is has olive oil in it.

Do you love avocado? What are some ways that you eat it?

Oil Pulling and Bike Riding

This morning I had a dilemma. I've been trying to get my morning routine down and running smoothly for a while now, but I haven't quite hit the right order yet. I've been determined to single task more things and not be a crazy multi-tasker any more.

First, I've been Oil Pulling each morning (you can read more specifics about that on our j&kFITNESS blog). Basically, you use as pure of an oil as you can find, and you spend about 15-20 pulling, pushing and swishing it around in your mouth. I've been using organic, virgin coconut oil. I don't even like coconut, but this oil is very refreshing! So you're supposed to do it first thing in the morning on an empty stomach and before all your morning oral hygiene routine. That kind of grosses me out, but I'm all about trying new stuff and if I get a benefit from it, I work it in (with the goal of new, positive habits replacing bad ones).

You can get a nice size jar of this at Whole Foods

Secondly, I wanted to wake myself up a bit first thing by riding the stationary bike in our home gym. It's not new, but we just got a new bicycle seat. It's a really nice Schwinn Airdyne upright bike, but the seat has always been awful. It was nice and big and looked like it should be comfortable, but it nearly killed me everytime I tried to ride it. This past weekend we took the seat and post to All About Bikes in Memphis. Literally it took about 5 minutes to find a new seat and solve the problem. If you have bike wants or needs, go see Victor and team, they can help you out.

My new bike seat! Yay! I can ride and still sit the rest of the day without pain!

So... what to do? Well, I did them at the same time. While in my PJs and running shoes. And blaring loud music. I'm pretty sure I completely defiled the mental healing properties of my oil pulling, but it was what I had to do this morning. Not to mention that spitting the oil in a cup at the 20 minute mark so I could keep riding 10 more minutes made me feel like my Dad spitting tobacco. Yuck.

Jimmy's manly-man jam box that is usually in his wood-working shop

While I have impressed myself that I can swish oil around in my mouth, ride my bike and listen to music at the same time, without accidentally swallowing, choking or singing my favorite song in an outburst, I probably won't do that again. I think I'll go back to oil pulling first!

Do you do any crazy multi-tasking things in the mornings to fit it all in? Tell me what works for you!