“If you fail to plan, you plan to fail.”

A lot of peo­ple get off track of their fit­ness and nutri­tion goals while trav­el­ing. Mainly, I think it has more to do with a lack of prepa­ra­tion rather than a lack of discipline.

For that rea­son, James and I always pack snacks for our trip to ensure we always have healthy options avail­able. Since we are cur­rently pack­ing for our perk trip to the Bahamas with Beach­body, I thought I’d share a few snacks we always pack:

Emer­ald Cocoa Roast Almonds

These are the per­fect travel treat. You get all of the health ben­e­fits of almonds with a dust­ing of dark choco­late pow­der. I love the indi­vid­ual packs when trav­el­ing sim­ply for the con­ve­nience fac­tor. Though these packs are only 100 calo­ries, they’ll keep you full for longer because almonds are a source of healthy fat and pro­tein. An added perk if you’re trav­el­ing to the beach: they won’t melt!

Larabars

The fewer the ingre­di­ents on a label, the health­ier the item. These bars all have 5 ingre­di­ents or less, and they are amaz­ingly fill­ing! My two favorite fla­vors are pic­tured here: choco­late chip cookie dough and peanut but­ter choco­late chip. SO good!

Justin’s Honey Peanut But­ter & Maple Almond But­ter indi­vid­ual packs

This is one of my favorite brands of nut but­ter, and I love that it comes in indi­vid­ual packs. Peanut but­ter and almond but­ter are sta­ples in our house, but it’s not always easy to find nat­ural ver­sions when trav­el­ing. I’ll take one of these packs and an apple to the beach with me for a great after­noon snack.

Shake­ol­ogy

My vaca­tion lunch of choice! When I’m at the beach, the last thing I want is a hot lunch. I’d much rather have ice cream. That’s where Shake­ol­ogy comes in. I get the taste of a milk­shake (choco­late, green­berry or trop­i­cal straw­berry) and the nutri­tional ben­e­fit of the salad bar! Shake­ol­ogy keeps me full for less calories…which will allow me to splurge on a few vaca­tion meals with­out any added guilt.

What are some of your go-to snacks to keep you on track while traveling?

Meet Jackie

But peo­ple who meet her to today call her Dr. Vidosh.

Jackie, who is a 1st year OBGYN res­i­dent doc­tor, not only helps other peo­ple get healthy. But over the last few years, she has trans­formed her own health using Shake­ol­ogy, healthy eat­ing habits, and exercise.

Dur­ing her third year of med­ical school, Jackie not only devel­oped a pas­sion for women’s health, but real­ized that if she didn’t actively make the time for her own health, she wouldn’t be able to ade­quately pro­vide health for oth­ers. Even with her crazy med­ical school sched­ule, she began pri­or­i­tiz­ing find­ing time to exer­cise and eat healthy food.

When Jackie asked me for a work­out that would improve her speed, with­out hes­i­ta­tion, I rec­om­mended Insan­ity.

“Insan­ity totally trans­formed my body,” Jackie says. “I went from a size 6 to a size 2, and def­i­nitely increased my lean mus­cle tone and speed.”

Insan­ity quickly led to Shake­ol­ogy.

“Shake­ol­ogy was appeal­ing because it was quick and easy to fix, and it’s also easy to carry in a sports bot­tle while I’m in the hos­pi­tal. I have since been using Shake­ol­ogy for the last 2 years. It is great because it is one of the few lower calo­rie meals or snacks that keeps me the fullest. I will have it either as a post-workout snack, or break­fast because of how long it keeps me full. I also love it because I can use it in a vari­ety of ways, includ­ing to make my own
pro­tein bars, or mixed with oat­meal as a pro­tein boost.”

More Q & A with Jackie

What is your favorite Shake­ol­ogy recipe?

A choco­late, peanut but­ter, banana smoothie. I freeze a banana overnight, then add 1 scoop choco­late Shakel­ogy, 1 TBSP PB2, 5–6 ice­cubes, 1/2 cup soy milk, and 1/2 cup water and blend it in the blender. So good!

As a doc­tor, why would you rec­om­mend some­one take Shakeology?

The nutri­ents! It has lower sug­ars con­tent than a lot of other pro­tein pow­ders, as well as lower calo­ries, and it doesn’t sac­ri­fice taste for performance.

What advice would you give to a busy per­son who needs to start work­ing out?

I am a sched­uler. I have to write down exactly what I want to accom­plish in a day for it to get done. I write my work­out down and treat it like an appoint­ment I need to keep. As far as chang­ing your eat­ing habits, I have found that the meal plans layed out in each of the work­out plans I have tried are very easy to fol­low and give a good idea of foods to choose
from. Also, when I ini­tially started out, I would shop with a copy of Mitch’s lad­der, just in case I for­got what was “good.”

Get­ting my work­out in can be a chal­lenge, as time is my biggest lux­ury. That being said, it is a pri­or­ity of mine. Cur­rently, I am work­ing nights at the hos­pi­tal. If I can’t get a full work­out in, I at least make it a point to run up the stairs every time I need to take them and don’t use the ele­va­tor. We have yoga mats, weights, and a pull-up bar, so in the very least I can find 5 min­utes to do crunches, push-ups, and pull-ups. At other times, when my sched­ule is more “nor­mal” I work out right after work. If I sit down, I’m toast, so I will often times bring my work­out clothes to change into at work after a shift so that I am moti­vated to do the work­out, even after a long day.

What work­out are you doing now?

Since doing Insan­ity, I have com­pleted Tur­boFire and now, I’m cur­rently using P90X2. I’ve enjoyed them all! I love them because most of the work­outs can be done in a hotel room (Trust me, I’ve done it!), and you get results. They give you all the nec­es­sary tools for suc­cess. You just have to push play!

Any last advice for us, Dr. Vidosh?

You are worth the invest­ment into your health. It can seem daunt­ing, expen­sive, and maybe even a lit­tle over­whelm­ing at first, but tak­ing the time and effort to take care of your­self is absolutely worth it. Your energy will be higher, your endurance longer, and your abil­i­ties to prob­lem solve will get bet­ter as your body gets into bet­ter shape.

We are a tri­une being — body, soul, and spirit. None of them func­tion as well unless they are all healthy and “worked out” on a reg­u­lar basis. What are you wait­ing for?!

Jackie, enjoy­ing her active lifestyle in God’s beau­ti­ful cre­ation, thanks to her ded­i­ca­tion to her fit­ness & proper nutrition

For info about any of the prod­ucts men­tioned in this arti­cle, con­tact me & I’ll help you find the right pro­gram for you.

Unless you’ve been hid­ing under a rock for the last few years, you’ve heard of P90X, the hottest home workout.

What you MIGHT not know is that mas­ter­mind Tony Hor­ton has recently cre­ated P90X:MC2 for a whole new level of mus­cle confusion!

I’ve been asked sev­eral times what sep­a­rates the NEW pro­gram from the old…so with­out giv­ing away too many secrets, here’s what I can tell you!

PAP Train­ing

PAP (Post-activation poten­ti­a­tion) has been gain­ing a lot of trac­tion in pro­fes­sional train­ing cir­cles because it has proven to opti­mize mus­cle force and power pro­duc­tion much bet­ter than tra­di­tional train­ing methods.

P.A.P. describes “enhanced and imme­di­ate mus­cle force out­put of explo­sive move­ments after a heavy resis­tance exer­cise is per­formed.” Think about doing squats with heavy dumb­bells and then going right into ply­o­met­ric jumps up on a box. Yikes!

The main idea behind post-activation poten­ti­a­tion is that the heavy load­ing of the weight train­ing causes high lev­els of cen­tral ner­vous sys­tem stim­u­la­tion. This results in more motor unit recruit­ment and force which allows you to get more out of the next explo­sive and more dynamic exer­cise that fol­lows. You’ll be amazed when you try it for the first time and see how well your body responds!

Shorter Work­outs

Don’t take that to mean eas­ier — just less rest time on the DVD itself! (But good news for those who are just get­ting into work­ing out…there’s always the pause but­ton in the beginning!)

Mul­ti­ple Meal Plans

Whether you’re vegan, gluten free, veg­e­tar­ian or none of the above, there’s a healthy meal plan for you included with this sys­tem. So pumped for this!

BUT HERE’S WHAT YOU MUST KNOW!

There is crazy demand for this product…so much that Beach­body did its very first pre-order period to attempt to get copies of this work­out into the hands of every­one who wants it as soon as it releases.

And that pre-order period ends TODAY!

So if you are ready to try this awe­some work­out with me, click here to pre-order your copy.

Using that link will make ME your free coach to encour­age you and moti­vate you through­out your journey!

One more thing…Ordering today not only gets you the entire P90X:MC2 sys­tem, but you are guar­an­teed deliv­ery by Christ­mas AND you get free ship­ping just as a way to say “thank you” for being one of the first to try this amaz­ing new workout.

BRING IT!

Check out what Tony has to say about it:

Be hon­est. On Thanks­giv­ing, you ate a few things you weren’t sup­posed to.

You can’t see me, but I’m sheep­ishly rais­ing my hand too.

Time to get back on track with a 10-day eat clean challenge!

Eat­ing clean means eat­ing foods that used to be alive or grew out of the ground. Sounds sim­ple enough…but through­out our day, it’s amaz­ing how many things we rou­tinely put in our bod­ies that don’t fit in these guidelines.

CLEAN EATING MEANS:

Lean Pro­teins: Chicken, turkey, fish, egg whites, whey pro­tein (specif­i­cally Shake­ol­ogy for me)

Healthy Fats: Nuts, olive oil, salmon, flax seeds

Com­plex Carbs: Fruits, veg­eta­bles, whole grains

Liq­uids: Water, green/black tea, coffee

OFF LIMITS: Refined flour or sugar, sodium, unhealthy fats, preser­v­a­tives. Basi­cally, don’t eat any­thing that comes out of a box or a container.

If you want to join us, stay con­nected with me on Face­book. I’ll be post­ing my meals & work­outs over the next 10 days, and I encour­age you to do the same. Account­abil­ity is key!

Let’s do this. Click “LIKE” on this post as your com­mit­ment to join us!

When was the last time you said some­thing pos­i­tive about your body?

Sadly, for most of us, if we’ve EVER said some­thing pos­i­tive about our body, it’s prob­a­bly been a while.

So in light of the sea­son of thank­ful­ness, enter the b #thank­ful campaign.

My sweet friend, Angela, the cre­ator of the fab­u­lous fit­book, is the mas­ter­mind behind this cam­paign, which asks one question:

What do you love about your body?

On the offi­cial b #thank­ful page, you’ll see some examples…and you just might rec­og­nize a pair of arms there!

Check out this video to learn more from Angela about why she cre­ated this cam­paign & how you can get involved:

BUT THAT’S NOT ALL…

Leave a com­ment here with what you love about your body, and you’ll be entered into a draw­ing to WIN your very own fitbook!

For exam­ple…

I love my strong arms that help me lift my grow­ing baby boy. Strong is the new skinny! b #thankful.

Get extra entries by tweet­ing your body’s praises to me or post them on my Face­book page.

I’ll announce the win­ner on Fri­day with the help of random.org, so don’t for­get to check and see if you’re the winner!

Also, there are NO LIMITS to how many times you can enter, so let’s hear it…

what do u <3 abt ur bod?

I despite the term “dieting.”

I think I auto­mat­i­cally asso­ciate diet with depri­va­tion. It prob­a­bly has a lot to do with my past strug­gles with anorexia and over exer­cise. Yet, most “diets” are not known by the foods you eat, but rather, the ones you eliminate.

No carbs.

No sugar.

No fat.

I find that most peo­ple who are on a diet are frus­trated, hun­gry, and end up giv­ing up because they are con­fi­dent in what they can’t eat…but they aren’t sure what they CAN eat.

So if you’re read­ing this, and you’re a chronic dieter, let me offer you one piece of advice:

Be done with dieting.

No, I’m not telling you to go buy a season’s sup­ply of White Fudge Oreos and plop down on your couch, never to eat healthy again.

But this time, I want you to focus on lis­ten­ing to your body and hon­or­ing what it needs.

Begin with prayer.

If you’re one who feels silly ask­ing God for help with your eat­ing, I have a few ques­tions for you:

Has God instructed us to take care of our bodies?

Or do you not know that your body is a tem­ple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glo­rify God in your body. — 1 Corinthi­ans 6:19–20

Do you find your­self anx­ious and over­whelmed when you think about food?

Do not be anx­ious about any­thing, but in every­thing by prayer and sup­pli­ca­tion with thanks­giv­ing let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which sur­passes all under­stand­ing, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. — Philip­pi­ans 4:6–7

Every prob­lem, whether big or small, should be taken to God in prayer as our first response…not our last resort. Be spe­cific in areas where you know you strug­gle, and ask God to help you to choose to honor Him with your body.

Lis­ten to your body.

Yes, this means some­times, you can trust your body’s crav­ings. God cre­ated our bod­ies so effi­ciently. When our bod­ies are miss­ing nutri­ents, it sends a hunger trig­ger to our brains so we know how to sat­isfy ourselves.

For exam­ple, if you find your­self crav­ing peanut but­ter, your body prob­a­bly needs a lit­tle pro­tein and some healthy fat.

But that’s not all.

Lis­ten­ing to your body includes lis­ten­ing to your body after you’ve eaten.

Do you feel sat­is­fied? Ener­gized? Focused? Alert? You should.

The main rea­son I eat so healthy has noth­ing to do with not lik­ing the way unhealthy food tastes. (I assure you, I’m normal!)

But I despise the way unhealthy food makes me feel afterward.

My life, just like yours, has many demands. I’m a wife. I’m a mom. I have a job. I expect my body to exer­cise regularly.

If I expect my body to meet these demands, I must fuel my body prop­erly so I can func­tion at max­i­mum capacity.

But it can’t end with lis­ten­ing. You must also respond to your body’s cues.

If you are repeat­edly slug­gish after lunch, change what you eat until you find a meal that works for you.

If you find your blood sugar reg­u­larly drops just 2 hours after you’ve eaten, try eat­ing smaller meals every 2 hours.

You can’t just try diet after diet that works for some­one else. Just as your body is unique to you, the right nutri­tion plan should be just as customized.

Edu­cate your­self on learn­ing the health ben­e­fits of food.

Learn sources of healthy fats. (Yes, your body needs fat. In fact, it takes fat to burn fat.)

What are lean sources of protein?

What’s the dif­fer­ence between a sim­ple car­bo­hy­drate and a com­plex car­bo­hy­drate? Is one bet­ter than the other?

What’s the ben­e­fit of includ­ing fiber in your meals?

Do I need to supplement?

This may need you need to enlist the help of a health pro­fes­sional, such as myself, in the begin­ning. But I assure you, you will learn quickly, and it will change your focus from what you can’t eat to what you should eat.

Who will join me and be done with dieting?

**If you are seri­ous about hon­or­ing your body and renew­ing your mind on how you think about food and exer­cise, I have chal­lenge groups begin­ning every month. These groups are inten­tional and highly focused on account­abil­ity. Because of that, each month only has 5 spots. If you are inter­ested in join­ing one of these groups, con­tact me.**

With my job, I work with peo­ple every day seek­ing to find the right exer­cise and nutri­tion plan for them. One of the first ques­tions I ask is, “What are your goals?”

Some­times, peo­ple are spot on with what they need to do to reach opti­mal health. Other times, they have com­pletely unre­al­is­tic expec­ta­tions for what their goals should be.

For exam­ple — A woman who is 5’10″ think­ing she should weigh 115 pounds? Only if she’s a car­toon named Olive Oyl.

Everyone’s healthy weight (or happy weight, as I like to call it) is as unique as the indi­vid­ual. I love the way my friend, Tiffany Harper, words it. She says, “It’s not about being a size 2. It’s about being a size YOU.”

So, how can you dis­cover your happy weight? There are two key factors:

Your happy weight is what your body will nat­u­rally reach when you are eat­ing healthy and exer­cis­ing regularly.

Notice I didn’t say eat­ing per­fectly and work­out out obses­sively. But if you are liv­ing a healthy and bal­anced lifestyle, your happy weight will be easy to main­tain. This sim­ple prin­ci­ple is the main rea­son I refer to it as your happy weight. Work­ing out and eat­ing healthy are an impor­tant part of life, but they do not make up a life on their own.

You will feel healthy and have energy.

Push­ing your­self too hard at the gym or depriv­ing your body of calo­ries it needs results in exhaus­tion. On the oppo­site side of the spec­trum, the same is true: Stuff­ing your body with junk and being inac­tive robs your body of energy.

So don’t get hung up on the scale or what num­ber you wish was writ­ten on the tag of your jeans. Con­tin­u­ously make healthy deci­sions, and results will follow.

Proper squat technique:

1. Make sure your feet are shoulder-width apart.
2. Remem­ber­ing “pub­lic potty stance,” dig in through your heels, and sit back as closely to 90 degrees as you pos­si­bly can, mak­ing sure your knees never come over your toes.
3. Move slowly through the move­ment — Remem­ber: use mus­cle, not momentum!

Plus, watch the video for some squat vari­a­tions, like snug­gle squats.

Do you think it would make a dif­fer­ence in devel­op­ing healthy habits if you had oth­ers to moti­vate you?

If you said yes, you are right!

Enter the 10 Day Eat Clean & Move More Challenge!

It’s not too late for you to join us! Come con­nect with other like-minded women to help you stay on track with eat­ing clean & mov­ing more.

Account­abil­ity may be just the thing that’s miss­ing to help you reach your goals.

How To Join:

Click here.

Cre­ate a pro­file on Her Social Net­work.

Request to join the group. You will be con­firmed within 5 hours.

Con­nect with other like-minded women to keep you moti­vated to eat clean & move more.

Post your meals & work­outs for accountability.

Read tips & get meal ideas from other group members.

And don’t for­get to add me, Michelle Myers, as a friend while you’re there!

I con­fess: I’m a sucker for a good beat.

But…often, I find myself get­ting so lost in a good beat that I com­pletely miss the lyrics…lyrics that don’t need to be run­ning through my head.

Many of you have asked me for sug­ges­tions of Chris­t­ian music you can work out to…so I finally made an offi­cial iTunes playlist!

Whether you’re look­ing for music to pump up your strength train­ing or help you pick up the pace on an out­door run, you’ll find an uplift­ing song here for you.

Click here to view & down­load my playlist.

“Do you not know that your bod­ies are tem­ples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. There­fore honor God with your bod­ies.” - 1 Corinthi­ans 6:19–20