HUGE Holiday Sale!!!! Get Healthy for Christmas!!!

If you have been looking for some outrageous fitness deals for the holidays to jump start your New Years resolution - I have just what you need!  Our annual holiday sale kicks off TONIGHT 11/25 at 7 PM CST and runs through December 2nd!!!!  But don't wait - things will SELL OUT FAST!!!!

Holiday Promotion Link (Will NOT be a live link until the sale starts at 7 PM CST!!!):

https://www.TeamBeachbody.com/Shop/HolidaySpecials?referringRepId=282006 

Attached are images of our sale & as always I will be offering a free accountability group to coach you through the items of your choice!  Please contact me at anniereidfitness@gmail.com OR Facebook.com/AnnieMarieReid for details!!

Healthy Living With Kids & A Spouse

One of the most common questions I get as a Mom on a health journey and now teaching others about health and fitness one of the most common questions I run into is, but what do I feed my kids?  I don't want to cook two meals.  What about my husband he isn't on board?

And here is my response, and it may sound harsh, but don't cook two meals.  They eat what you eat - period.

My take on this has always been, if you don't like what I'm cooking - cook your own dinner - totally applies to my husband as well and trust me once he was offered that option he stopped complaining because at least there was dinner on the table right?

Right.

So what have we changed?  Clean eating doesn't mean the end of the world, it doesn't mean you need to find 30 new recipes to make dinner totally new and exciting every single night.  Chances are most of you are eating the same foods week to week anyways and there are ways to clean them up and make them healthy.

  

We still eat pizza - gasp - oh the horror!  We totally do.  I often make our own dough with whole wheat flour or sometimes I buy pre-made crusts that are whole grain.  I use tomato sauce as my sauce with some italian spices and top it with chicken and veggies and low fat mozzarella cheese.  We love it - I eat my portion size & I'm happy and done.  The old me would have ordered pizza out and stuffed myself until I had to unbutton my pants then I'd eat more in the night or the next morning for breakfast - true story.

We still have burgers - gasp again!  But now instead of ground beef (my Dad will hate me for this since we raise cattle) - we use ground turkey and I mash up black beans, corn, and organic corn tortilla chips into the ground turkey with some cumin & chili powder and then I make patties.  Top it with some avocado - hot diggity it's good guys - seriously real good!  Also fast!

So that's just a few examples of how we eat now versus how we used to eat.  Eating clean can be fast, it can be flavorful, it can be EASY if you don't over complicate it.  Look at what you like to eat and ask yourself can I remove or replace ingredients that aren't the best options?  Most of the time the answer is yes and by taking those small baby steps over the course of 6 months to a year you will overhaul the eating habits of your entire family, shed some weight, and definitely feel better because you have eliminated a majority of processed foods if not all processed foods from your diet.

And as far as exercise goes do it.  If you have to pause because your kids are coming in and out of the room - so what!  At least you are doing it right?  If your baby wakes up - do squats or lunges while holding your kid.  Do chest presses with your kid - they will love it and it keeps you active.  Be an example to your kids - let them workout with you even if it's a bit cray!  Show them how fun fitness can be!

When a hubby won't work out, won't get on board - don't push him.  Let it happen at his pace.  Don't argue over it because it just makes him not want to join you.  Be the example to him, change yourself and he will come around.  It took Jade two years to join me and now he's a different man & we workout together.  I was worried about his health & high cholesterol, but it had to take him wanting to change for himself before he was ready to join me.  Just imagine if your hubby harped on you to get healthy it would make you mad - same goes the other way.  Be supportive, be encouraging, love your husband, and the day will arrive :)

If you want some meal ideas of what we do as a family check out my eating clean guide.

A Journey To A New Me

Many of you have followed me for several years.  You knew me when I just had Aubrie and Everett and decorating was my passion.  You saw that shift big time in 2010 and you prayed for my pregnancy and you really prayed for me as I handed Ollie over for open heart surgery.  You have loved on my family immensely and I'm ever grateful for you!

You have also watched me dive into fitness after Ollie was completely healed from her surgery.

Things you may not  have known were some of our larger struggles that I was far to embarrassed to write about at the time, but perhaps you suspected anyway.  I had a pride issue and was far to proud to admit we needed help at the time.  I was completely unpaid on my maternity leave and our income was cut in half - we live in a new home we had built & I had a relatively new car - it was bad.  I had a very very gracious employer who kept me on health insurance through Ollie's surgery and never allowed me to reimburse them for my premiums - my company and bosses were amazing!  But aside from that we really struggled.  My best friend put together a baby shower where we were given gas & visa gift cards.  With our hospital 2 hours away we drove a lot and Ollie saw doctors weekly if not more than once a week.  We had hotel stays, food on the road, and co pays of roughly $400 or more a month by the time we would see all Ollie's doctors.  

On top of a baby in heart failure, fear of bills is a lot to handle.  It was kind of to the point where you really don't care about money too.  You say eff it right?  Or I did.

We were forced onto public aid, social security disability to be exact.  Jade & I felt almost as if we were pimping out Ollie's diagnosis to get a check to help us survive.  I know that isn't true, but when you have worked so hard for everything you have and it crumbles so quickly and you are forced to do the necessary it's just a kick in the gut - I don't know how to compare it to anything else unless you have been there yourself.

Ollie got better.  We started seeing less doctors.  I started sewing & making jewelry - anything to help us make $20 at a time so we could get more groceries.  We just couldn't get ahead and didn't know how.  I knew I needed to be a stay at home Mom.  Ollie needed home therapy and I didn't want to hear about her progress or delays second hand.  I knew I needed to be home.  So I officially quit my job, my good job, gave up our insurance, and we went on medicaid.  Yep it was worse than before.

But an opportunity opened up for me August 2010.  Through my personal fitness journey I became a coach.  I was hoping to find my way out of the body I had created through stress and anxiety.  I was trying to find something each day to do that was mine, that would make me confident in my own skin again.  And I did find it.  But I never expected to find an opportunity to make more than $20 at a time.  However, I found it.  My coach led me into growing a business.  A business that in 3 months time helped us get off of social security disability.  A business that planted the seed of a dream in my heart again that I COULD have more.  That would could take care of our family without state aid.  That dream made me dive all in with a passion of helping other people because you see, by helping other people that is where my personal success was found.  You can't be successful if you don't make a positive imprint on the lives of others.

My first full year of coaching in 2012 I earned $20,000 - half of my old income - but I had generated it in a few hours a week working from home - helping people and helping myself.  I was confident.  I had friends that supported me and loved me and understood my trials because they had been there themselves.  

This past year has been a whirlwind.  I really committed to helping a lot more people and helping my friends, that became coaches alongside me to find success.  I had the ability to share my story on stage in Vegas in front of 7,500 people.  And it was more than my story it was an opportunity to tell the world my child has Down Syndrome and is a rock star.  The crowd cheered!  It was a huge shift from two years ago when I'd say my daughter has Down Syndrome & people responded I'm so sorry.  To advocate for her on that grand of a scale was truly God given.  I have ended up ending 2013 as a 5 star diamond, Elite coach which I know means nothing to you but it's a big accomplishment for me.  I also ended ranked 85 out of a company of 150,000 coaches in less than 2 1/2 years.  I have done it by sharing my families story, changing our health, and helping others.

It's truly all given to me by God but it blows me away every day that I'm on my way to a 6 figure income, at home, at a desk in my living room, with 3 kids around me on a snow day, all by changing lives and loving on others!

Thank you all for your prayers and support - I know I don't blog enough and I'm working on changing that in 2014 but I wanted to share with you what our last 3 years b/c girlfriend is almost 3 - what's been going on!!

Annie's Diet Bet

Hey friends - want to put some skin in the game & add extra incentive to your weight loss goals?????   

Check out the link below & join in a DIET BET with ME- if you lose 4% of your weight in 28 days you split the pot of CASH with anyone else that hits that goal - you invest $35 to join but may get much much more in the cash pot!  I know many of us wouldn't mind to drop some weight & to win some cash in the end sounds like a pretty sweet deal too!  

Now here is my warning I want you to do it the good old fashioned way - hard work - exercise + nutrition! It's about getting healthy & getting rewarded - NO starvation tactics or you will gain it all back and possibly then some!  Go check it out - it's all online & we can do this as a team!!  We start September 23 - October 20th!

If you want my help & guidance email me anniereidfitness@gmail.com & we can design a plan that WILL WORK for you!  

Click HERE to join!!

Mini Fitness Challenges

I had shared these on my Facebook like page but not here - and go add me as a Facebook friend if you haven't yet!  So I thought I'd share them with you all too!  These are some mini challenges to challenge your strength - do them 2-3 times :)  Feel free to share!  Enjoy!

Disney Recap - 4 months delayed

I can't believe I didn't ever blog about this BUT probably because I may never recover from our trip!

In March I earned a free vacation to Disney from Beachbody.  It was a partial week at the Yacht Club so we extended the week at a resort of my parents.

On the way down Ollie started puking & puked the remainder of the drive.  She sat on a towel cut to fit her seat and after blowing through clothes and a roll of paper towels she rode in a diaper with another towel for a blanket.  It was hellacious - yep that's a word!

Baby girl finally recovered by the time we got to Florida on the second day, but the van smelled like death.  She had a couple major diaper blow outs of course on the streets of Hollywood Studios but we survived!

It wasn't long after that and they started dropping like flies.  

One night it was Jade in the middle of the night swearing it wasn't the stomach flu.  I refused to kiss him the entire trip - I'm hateful like that but I NEVER caught the bug!

We planned a full and I mean til you drop day at Magic Kingdom my most favorite place ever.  By the end of the day Everett didn't look great.  I just thought he was tired.  He slept through the fireworks, parades, all the fun, and when we got back to our condo he puked in the parking lot.

Fairly certain I did not win Mom of the year award for demanding we see the night show that day!

The next morning we were off to the Disney resort and we stopped for donuts then food supplies for the hotel.  

As I was in Walmart oblivious to what was taking place outside Aubrie puked all over the car - literally all over milk & donuts - too graphic?  Sorry!  Try to clean it up with wet wipes!  We threw her carseat cover away right then and there.  It was just a mess.

We pulled into the hotel parking lot only for Everett to proclaim he crapped his pants.  Jade (the one who cleaned up the puke as I shopped) lost his cool and shouted, "Why can't you guys warn me before you puke or shit yourselves!"  I was DYING - some adults can't even control themselves let alone a 5 and 7 year old.  Everett was promptly stripped nude in the Disney parking lot.

I did a full load of laundry in the hotel bath tub & hung the clothes on the balcony - did it help - absolutely not.  They were awful until we got home to do laundry and everything smelled.

Everyone missed the first party - which was amazing - Disney characters, a DJ, food, my family would have loved it but I had to go solo - boo!

The next day Aubrie and Ollie were the only two ready to rock so we hit Epcot pretty much on our own until Jade & Everett could meet us later in the day.  Epcot is right next to the hotel it was amazing!

Finally near the end of the trip EVERYONE was healthy!  

Not to make it sound like the worst vacation ever but seriously it was pretty touch and go but we had an amazing time!

We saw every park without puking!  And even hit the water park two days of the trip!

The last Beachbody party was out of this world - it was a Pixar party with all the characters in this huge building no one knew even existed followed by fireworks and dessert by the Epcot lagoon - is it called a lagoon?  It was just the perfect ending to our trip!

I had some time without the kids & worked out a couple mornings to Shaun T in front of the Epcot ball - it was opened to just us coaches early each morning & it was amazing!!  This is my coach Bec on the left & Veronica on the right - I love them!

All in all we had the best time despite circumstances!

And the van after several days in the Florida sun - oh my - Jade joked we'd trade it when we got home it was that bad!  And then in May we did trade it!  hahahaha!

Apologies in advance to the hundreds and hundreds of people we infected while we were there!  And these pictures were in no specific order :)

A Natural High

Well I did it!  I was asked to speak on the MGM grand garden arena stage in Vegas in June!  They wanted me to share my success story with Beachbody.

I did it!  I loved it!  They cheered for my sweet girl!  Hearing that many peole roar for Down Syndrome is something I will NEVER forget!

Here is my video!  Enjoy and feel free to share it!  I know God put me on that stage for a distinct reason and it must be shared over and over again before Ill ever know why I was one of three to speak out of 100,000+ coaches!  When God puts his hand into your life and delivers you to your passion and your purpose big things happen & I'm certain more are the come!  

 

 

Woah! Simply Woah.

I'm terrible at updating you all, but I had the most mind blowing call recently. 

Beachbody has asked me to step on the big stage at the MGM in Vegas on June 20th to share my success story!  This means getting real and vulnerable in front of roughly 8,000 fellow coaches!

If you know my story - then you know it comes with a lot of shed tears but now a ton of joy!

I'm ecstatic & scared!  Public speaking isn't my strong point & well I know without a doubt I will cry.  But I know I'm getting on this stage for a reason.  It's a total God thing & he has a message for me to share.  So pray me up for confidence, strength, and to share his message with my story!!

#summitstage

(the hashtag I have used since October hoping to get on this stage with my weight loss transformation - God has a funny sense of humor!!)

Annie's Summer Skinnies

Hey blog friends!  This Tuesday I was a guest blogger on over at Skinny Meg - go check her out - her story is inspirational, her style is super cute, and her house is to die for.  She's probably my long lost twin - I'm fairly certain of it!

Since that blog posted, I have been contacted by roughly 300 women wanting help getting fit...and as you know this is my passion!  Helping others transform their lives (because let's face it when you get fit  your exterior may be a rockin' but it changes your insides too) is the most rewarding "job" I have found!  Self confidence is a precious commodity & when you earn that sucker - ahhh it's pretty priceless!

So onto my point - I have a ton of questions & emails I'm working through so if you are reading this & have a basic question check out my FAQ page because an answer may be there for you :)  Otherwise an email is coming from me soon!

And for a BIG announcement.  I prayed over this, then brainstormed with my hubby and my coach Lauren (love that girl) about how I could possibly help these women!  I don't want to miss a single person that wants my help!  Here is the solution...

I have decided to open up a new challenge on facebook called Annie's Summer Skinnies.  If you are looking for support & want to join please do - click here -----> https://www.facebook.com/groups/377256015726810/

I will approve you and all the details of the group are posted for you to read & decide if you want to join us too!

Fitness Photo Shoot

It's amazing what you can accomplish when you are consistent and committed.  

I recently had a fitness photo shoot.  Since my transformation made me a monthly winner for Beachbody in September, I am qualified to win the annual prize of $100,000.  The requirement to apply is a new after photo.  So I set up an appointment with my good friend & I posed all over their farm flexing- which trust me is something I NEVER EVER expected to do this as an adult!  

I have never been a fitness person.  I had a french fry & popcorn addiction matched to diet coke.  I thought workouts were a waste of time & that I could make anything look cute with the right jewelry...and I could but I wasn't giving my best to my husband or my kids.  I used to come home from work & collapse on the couch exhausted.  I didn't have any more to give in me.

So I changed.  I can honestly say I surprised myself.  I still see my body at a size 8/10 my "normal" size as an adult.  When I first started as a size 14 my goal was to get back to those 8/10s.  Now I wear a 2/4.  I have energy, I feel great, I rarely get sick, and I feel confidant again.  My kids have the best part of me & so does my husband!  I'm proud of what I accomplished & have truly shocked myself.  

If you are watching me, and wondering what in the heck I'm doing, email me or find me on Facebook & I'll help you get started!  Helping others do what I have done is my new passion & I've been able to pay it forward & help a lot of people have transformation stories too!  

April 2013  Size 2/4 - 119 lbs.

July 2011 - Size 14 - 157 lbs.

areid54@yahoo.com or facebook.com/areid1982