Usually the word contagious makes us crawl in our skin a little. When we hear contagious we often think of being infected by something that we don’t want. But being contagious isn’t always a bad thing..as a matter of fact sometimes it is exactly the opposite. Each and every one of us has a tremendous opportunity to be contagious and I mean in a great way! Our attitude can be contagious, our energy can be contagious, our ideas can be contagious. When someone is contagious it is hard not to be infected by what they are spreading. You know that person who can put a smile on your face even when you are in a bad mood, who makes you feel inspired or who motivates you with their energy to do something great. Well I want you to look in the mirror because YOU are that person!!! We all have the ability to be contagious. Sometimes we forget just what that means and what a difference that we can make. I want to share a little story of contagiousness that started right here at FitHouse. A little over a month ago I received this email from one of our dear members. It meant so much to me that I asked her if I could share it.

“You have inspired me in many different ways to make changes to my life and you continue to do so.

This past semester, I taught a course called FIT4LIFE. Throughout the course, we studied about nutrition, fitness, and body image. During every class, we tried various types of exercise. The students loved it! As a final project, the students had to create a webpage, as if they were an owner of a fitness or nutrition business, putting together some of the things they learned. I wanted to share them with you because you inspired me to think outside the box and use my course to get kids moving and thinking about nutrition”.

Below are what they created

FIT 4 ALL

GET RIPPED

HEALTHY LIVING

WOW!!! The power of ONE person!!! I believe that one of the biggest injustices that we can do to our future generations is not educate them on the control that they have on their health with nutrition, exercise and lifestyle. Building healthy thoughts, habits and lifestyles at a young age makes maintaining health so much easier.
A great health and fitness educator Peter Twist said “What you keep inside today stays inside forever” This is a reminder to share our ideas, our thoughts and our attitudes with those around us. Don’t keep what can make a difference inside. BE CONTAGIOUS!!!

I thank you from the bottom of my heart for sharing this because to me THIS is what it is about. What we do inside FitHouse is awesome but when we can take that outside of those four walls and use it to change lives beyond our own and set a spark in future generations that is making a difference!!!

Have a contagious week!!!!

See You in the HOUSE this week!!!

I’m BACK and it feels great!! Traveling can be fun but it can also be stressful! I want to give a BIG shout out to all of those who travel for work on a regular basis but especially all of the working traveling mamas out there. Traveling can be physically hard but even more so emotionally and mentally hard when you know you are needed but can’t be there.

The night I left Brooklynn was up all night crying with an ear infection, the girls had a dance convention all weekend and I wasn’t there to help with hair and makeup and Makenna ended up with Strep throat. Needless to say all survived, all and all it was a great week and I have a deeper appreciation for those of you who travel regularly!

While in the airport with a few extra minutes to spare I was checking out the book store. I came across a book called “The Love Dare”. It is a Forty Day Journey to Better your marriage or relationships. I flipped through it and there was a different act of love to focus on daily for 40 Days. It started me thinking isn’t consistency in our actions often one of the hardest things to maintain, consistency in our workouts, consistency in our diets, consistency in our habits, consistency in our thinking etc. Imagine if you could be consistent with something for 40 Days…where would that take you?

Two years ago at the start of Lent I took part in the 40 Bags for 40 Days Challenge. The goal was to eliminate clutter (1 Bag a Day) around you and clear space for new energy. I was amazed at how much clutter we were able to clear out in 40 days and when the task was broken down daily it wasn’t that difficult.

When I got home I looked up The Love Dare online and they also have The Love Dare for Parents. I ordered it on audible so I will let you know how it is! Our conversation around the dinner table was what we could do for 40 days that would make us better, those around us better or just help spread some love.

Here are some of the things that the family came up with:

Brooklynn ..Make a card every day and give it to someone
Kaylie…Acts of kindness, do something nice for someone daily
Makenna…Save extra change every day and at the end of 40 days donate somewhere
Ashlynn…Journal every day

Here are some other ideas we came up with
Say something kind to someone daily
Reach out to people that you haven’t talked to in awhile
Make an effort to listen daily when you might usually speak
Work out and be active together
Eat healthier by making a conscious effort together

If you have any other ideas we would love to hear it! Putting a little focus in one area can go along way! Where can you make a difference in the next 40 Days?!?!?!

See You in the HOUSE!!!

It’s the week of LOVE!!! 

It’s Valentine’s Week and hopefully that means a little extra love in the air. Let’s talk about love!

What do you love?? Who do you love??? Why do you love?

Love is NOT always easy. Think about your families, your spouses, your children, your friends. Love means accepting the good and bad, the highs and lows the pretty and the ugly. Our kids are not always cute and sweet, sometimes our significant others annoy us, our friends may disappoint us at times but when the good things far outweigh the bad we overlook these things and we love anyway!!

What about our bodies??

Do you love your body?!!?

Why is it that when it comes to our bodies we often change the rules. Sometimes our bodies aren’t always pretty to us, sometimes we get annoyed by our performance or our bodies disappoint us. Do we love them anyway??

Don’t get me wrong I think it is very important to feel good in your skin but it’s also equally important to love our bodies through the process and understand that although we can strive to do our best that doesn’t mean we can always be at our best. The feat of loving our bodies through their imperfections is definitely not always easy.

How do we love our bodies?

Think about your other relationships. How do you love your children, your family, your friends? Love grows in our relationships when we have patience, we work at

Here are some things that we need to STOP doing

Stop thinking your looks are more important than how you feel.

Stop waiting to reach your goal to enjoy your body.

Stop judging yourself by what you can’t do and instead celebrate what you can.

Stop letting the number on the scale or your pant size define you.

Stop letting a look or comment from someone else determine how you feel about yourself.

Stop giving up because you make a mistake, learn, grow and get better!

Enjoy the miracle that is you.

Our bodies are quite amazing! They give us life, they bare our children, they heal, they perform tremendous feats, they are quite possibly the most fascinating things on earth!

When you love your body these things will matter a lot more and you will begin to make them a priority

Nutrition

Food is fuel and can be healing or toxic

Exercise

It keeps us healthy and strong, gives us energy and makes us smarter

Sleep

You deserve it! It keeps our bodies and minds healthy, helps us recover and our cells stay alive

Recovery

Our bodies and minds need to recover to feel good and be healthy. Rest, massage, meditation, recovery modalities are all ways to love our bodies better.

Life

A healthy strong body and mind allow us to live our lives to the fullest.

I remember once hearing the statement,

“You can tell what’s important to a person by looking at their calendar and their checkbook”.

Where do you spend your time and your money?  That was eyeopening to me! It is a good question to ask ourselves and look at periodically. Make sure it is in alignment with what is really important to you. There is no better investment than the investment that you make in yourself and your health. LOVE your body…you have only got one!!

Happy Valentine's Week!

Let’s make 2018 the STRONGEST year of our lives

See You in the HOUSE!!!

It’s Superbowl Sunday!!! I hope you enjoy the game and the commercials and don’t be a part of the statistic of making this one of the largest food and beverage consumptin days of the year!

I’m away in Orlando right now for what is kind of like the “Superbowl” of Dance for High School Dance Teams. Peters Township Jazz Team headed by our very own FitHouse Trainer Jalyn Williams has made it in to the finals and will perform later on today.

Congrats to all of them up to this point we are super excited for them. They are now standing in the top 22 out of about 80 Teams around the country and will compete for their final spots. The competition is strong and they should be proud to have made it to this point.

I have spent the past two weeks with a lot of travel all centered around dance and team competitions. I have had to rely on a lot of teams to be able to make these trips.

One of my biggest take aways over the past two weeks has been the importance of a solid, focused TEAM when it comes to success. This includes everyone from the leader to each individual on the team. We are all on a Team and some of us are on many teams. We have work teams, family teams, sports teams, church teams, friendship teams etc.! Being a part of a team means that everyone has an important role and is focused on one common vision or goal.

Together those roles make the team. Often on the greatest teams the strengths are not all the same but rather different and that is what makes a team so great. It is not always easy to accept that someone does something better than you, or to give up your own power because it is best for the team. It is not always easy to see that your attitude, lack of focus or lack of teamwork may be having a negative impact on the entire team.

It is not easy to let go of your ego and allow someone else to shine because it is best for the team. It’s not easy to accept that your strength is not always the one that is needed.

Being part of a Team is an amazing thing. When you are part of a team you become responsible for a lot more than just yourself. Your responsibility includes showing up, being on time and being prepared. It means that you share one common vision, one desire and one passion to make your team the BEST! To be responsible to the team also means that you share new information that you discover that may influence the team’s direction and/or impact the team’s decisions.

There is no such thing as free lunch.

If an individual wants to benefit from the team they must give to the team. To be a part of a Team is a privilege.

I am grateful for the many outstanding teams that I am a part of and that surround me some which I lead and some which I am a member, my FitHouse Team, my family, my friends, my childrens dance families and my fitness families! Together we learn, we live, we fail, we grow and we succeed! I could not be who and what I am without these teams and when you get the opportunity to be surrounded by those who support you and make you better…life is good!

I want to share one last story about Teamwork…Who’s Packing Your Parachute?!?!?!

In the daily grind of life we sometimes fail in being grateful and recognizing all of the good that is done on our behalf. Here is an inspirational story I heard the other day that demonstrates that there are many working on a team that we often times fail to recognize for their good work.

This teamwork story is about a US Naval Academy graduate and jet fighter pilot in Vietnam by the name of Charles Plumb. He had completed 75 combat missions when he was shot down. Plumb was ejected and parachuted into enemy hands afterwards spending six years in a Vietnamese prison. Fortunately he survived and today lectures on the many lessons he learned.

One day while eating at a restaurant with his wife a man came up and said, “Your Plumb! You flew jet fighters in Vietnam from the aircraft carrier Kitty Hawk. You were shot down!”

“How in the world did you know that?” asked Plumb. “I packed your parachute,” the man replied. Charles Plumb in surprise and gratitude had to catch his breath.

The man then shook his hand and said, “I guess it worked!” Plumb assured him it had and said, “if your chute hadn’t worked, I wouldn’t be here today.”

That night Plumb could not sleep. He said, “I kept pondering what he might have looked like in a Navy uniform – a Dixie cup hat, a bib in the back, and bell bottom trousers. I wonder how many times I might have seen him and not even said good morning, how are you or anything because, you see, I was a fighter pilot and he was just a sailor.”

Plumb thought a lot about that man who had packed his parachute and the hours he spent at a wooden table at the bottom of the ship carefully packing his and others chutes. He held in his hands the chute; the fate of someone he did not even know.

Charles Plumb is now a motivational speaker telling this story to hundreds. He always ask his audiences after telling it, “Who’s packing your parachute?”

In our life many people have a hand in our parachutes. Are we taking the time to acknowledge them, thank them, reward them? It is very easy to overlook the work of many. When an athletic team has won a championship do you ever hear them thank the trainer, the cook, the bus driver? Do they take the time to reward them too? It takes a lot of people to create a championship team.

Who on your team works on your parachute?

Let’s make 2018 the STRONGEST year of our lives

See You in the HOUSE!!!

A new year means new goals, new motivation, new ways to make it happen! We are always happy to see new faces in the house, bring back old ones, and help those of you who want a little extra push! A lot of our members have been participating in one of the 6 week challenges and have made amazing progress so far! It’s great to see what our bodies are capable of when we set our minds to it. Now that the end of the month is approaching, don’t lose sight of those new goals and motivation you’ve been working so hard for! We’ve got one body, one mind, one life…we got to make it great!!!! Never forget who’s watching… those kiddos! We asked our challenge groups a little bit about their WHY? The responses were… amazing, to say the least. What is your WHY? What is it that’s going to push you through the rest of the year?! I wanted to share a few of the ‘Whys’ we received below, check them out and feel free to email us yours!

“I need to break my habit and start new healthier eating habits that my children will learn and hopefully continue to use throughout their lives. I want my example to be a good one!”

“I have been working on this for the past 6months and it is hard work but I like how I’m feeling and I’m definitely making better choices!”

“To lead by example for my family. To be able to keep up with my kids and live the most active and healthy life I can live.”

“I appreciate that I have my health and 2018 is my year of transformation. This challenge is a great way for me to start by fueling my body with good food accompanied by some good hard work at Fithouse. It has and will show me what my effort can do. I Believe those efforts will transfer to other efforts in meaningful areas of my life: family, relationships, career, and home to create my best life.”

As you can see, all of these WHY’s have something in common… You are a role model! You owe it to your kids, your families, and to yourself to keep doing great, to show them that they can do it too. All it takes is the right mindset!

Let’s make 2018 the STRONGEST year of our lives

See You in the HOUSE!!!