Congrats to all of those who ran in the Dicks marathon today! We had two FitHouse Relay teams and several FitHouse members who raced! Way to go runners!!!
Our Slimmer by Summer Challenge Starts Tomorrow and we have lots on board! I LOVE challenges! Most of us know how important our health and fitness is and how much it impacts all areas of our life. However even knowing that doesn’t always make it easy to make it a priority.

Health Challenges give us an opportunity to prioritize ourselves and our health and fitness so that we can work on building healthier habits in our lives. They help us to work on our growth mindset, build mental strength and they push us to learn and grow. It’s normal to fall off the healthy wagon..unfortunately stress can be a catalyst for this. Science tells us that surrounding ourselves with like minded people as well as a set structure can make getting back on track easier and help to create a higher level of success.

Science also tells us that starting something new can sometimes be a little bit overwhelming. Our brains operate easiest on autopilot and now they have to create a new autopilot! If we pile too much on at once it can feel overwhelming and cause us to want to shut down. If this is you then try focusing on the power of ONE! What is the ONE thing that you can focus on that can make a difference? ! Try to get specific! Instead of saying I am going to focus on better nutrition say I will eat 5 servings of veggies a day or I will cut refined sugar or I will not snack at night. Instead of I will exercise more, make a specific weekly plan with the days and times that you will exercise and stick to it. It requires less energy from our brains to put all of our focus on one thing and we are a lot more likely to succeed! Once you master that one thing you can move on to the next! Boom That is the power of one! What is the ONE thing you need to focus on with your health and fitness that can impact you in a great way?!?!?!
Join Us this Week at FitHouse!!!

You know when you have those weekends when you blink and Monday is already here! Well this was one of those weekends. It was a great weekend filled with 3 days of nonstop dance with my girls. I was so proud of them and their hard work. But man it would be great if I could rewind Sunday to get a few extra hours.
We all have those weekends sometimes and sometimes you just have to take a deep breath, put on those big girl pants and say
Bring on the Week!!!

Here we go!!! It’s a New Week!

Join us in the HOUSE this week so we can Bring on a Great Week of Fitness and Fun!

Happy Easter to Our FitHouse Family!!

A special part of all holidays are the traditions that they carry with them. Easter is no different. I have such great memories of dying Easter Eggs, Weaving Paper baskets, planting jellybeans for a lollipop garden, Stations of the cross and of course Chocolate! Chocolate isn’t one of my favorite indulgences BUT at Easter and there is ONE type of candy that makes my basket complete! The Cadbury Cream Egg! Hopefully some of you got one of those yesterday in the Drenched class! DO you have a favorite candy that puts an extra smile on your face and in your Tummy on Easter morning?!?!

I posted a short video called The Perfect Moment on our FitHouse Facebook page. If you get a few minutes go and check it out! Easter is a celebration of life!! Our lives are made up of many little moments. It’s so easy to look right past those “perfect moments” in our lives that happen every day. This video is a reminder that life is really about all of those Perfect moments and we need to make sure that we don’t miss them!!

Our FitHouse Family wishes you a wonderful day celebrating the gift of life, all of the special things and people around you and many “perfect moments”!!!

Happy Easter from all of us!!!!!

Join us in the HOUSE this week so we can help YOU Body and Mind!!!!

Hello FitHouse Family!!

I am writing from the West Coast. I spent the past 4 days in San Diego with my daughter Makenna at Todd Durkin’s Mastermind Retreat. For those of you that don’t know what a Mastermind group is let me take a few minutes to define. A Mastermind group is a group who is on one common mission and it is often led by someone who is a top leader in some area. The group comes together through coaching calls, emails, texts and live events like this to collaborate and dive extremely deep on how to make growth happen in our lives personally, professionally and spiritually. When we do our live events they are usually a few days of non stop learning, sharing, addressing challenges and masterminding with one another. This group gives the opportunity to truly step outside of your life to work on it! This year Todd invited us to bring our children who were 12 and above to share in the experience and I brought Makenna. The kids sat in on all of the talks and then one day had their own time to break away with Jesse Dietrich who is a young coach at Todds facility and also a native Pittsburgher. It was so cool to see how diverse this group of kids was but how they were able to connect with one another and at the end 3 days for some tight friendships. They were exposed to a lot in three days some of which went above their heads I’m sure but I also know that some seeds were planted that may not bloom right away but will hopefully at some point.
The first day in San Diego there was a big industry event going on here called IHRSA which is an expo filled with all of the latest equipment and future tools of the fitness industry. I had a chance to pop in there and we may have a few new gadget arriving at FitHouse in the near future!
Todd brought in some tremendous speakers for our Mastermind event, four top leaders in fitness and or business to speak, share and connect with. Dan McDonough is one of the industry’s top Group Fitness Leaders. He has led the revolution with Spin, TRX, Les Mills and now travels the world with Under Armour working on their next project. Lisa Sasevich and Shanda Sumpter are at the top in Leadership ad Natalie Jill is one of the biggest Social Media presences in fitness. Being surrounded by such an amazing group is electric but sometimes after three days of diving deep personally and professionally seeing how far you have come and also realizing how much you still don’t know it can also be a little overwhelming.
With everything that was thrown out there this weekend some of my biggest takeaways were ones that pertain to each and every one of us no matter who we are, what we do and what our status is in life.
Everyone had a story and almost everyones story included a large amount of adversity. Adversity in life is inevitably but those are the times that provide opportunity to sink or to fly. It is in the moments of adversity that we can often grow the most if we take the opportunity.
There is no doubt that some of you out there are going through adversity right now, maybe you have family members or friends that are. Always remember the power that hold to use that adversity to either sink or fly!
Don’t allow your mind to tell your heart what to do…You mind often gives up easily!

Join us in the HOUSE this week so we can help YOU Body and Mind!!!!

Hey everyone!

I hope you had a great weekend and didn’t get tricked too much by any Leprechauns! The Leprechaun visited our house but I’m pretty sure the joke was on us! First of all I’m not sure what goes on at preschool but I think Brooklynn was more excited about setting Leprechaun traps around the house than she was for Santa Claus coming. We had traps in every room and hallway. She lined the upstairs hallway with a trail of pillows that ended with a pair of boots and a paper bag with some almonds in it…lol! Well Leprechaun Parker decided it would be a great idea to pile all of the pillows outside of Brooklynn’s bedroom door topped off with the sequin leprechaun hat….it looked pretty funny and also looked like it would create a bit of an obstacle when trying to open the door. The toilets were green and a trail of chocolate coins were left throughout the house as well. The Leprechaun struck again!

Well at about 4 AM the joke was on us when a blood curdling scream came from behind the pile of pillows “I can’t get out, I can’t get out” After everyone in the house finally managed to calm Brooklynn down a second round of despair came when she realized that her traps all failed and she didn’t catch the Leprechaun. Three guesses as to whose bed Brooklynn ended up in and if she ever went back to sleep or just lay awake listening for the Leprechaun. I think the Leprechaun will have a new plan next year!

It can be disappointing when you work really hard at something and things don’t turn out as you want them to. When you take risks, step outside of your comfort zone and push yourself at a higher levels often the greater the chance at losing or failing. The idea of failing at something or losing can be disappointing and scary. The fact is that most of the time it’s just our own ego that gets squashed. I just had a conversation with my 10 year old about something she was afraid to do because people might make fun of her. I said yes you are right they might and that is something that you can’t control. You may not be great the first or second or third time that you try, but the ones who get great are the ones who don’t quit. If you learn something every time you try even if you don’t feel great or you aren’t the best then you have won something!

We just finished the second week of our March Madness Challenge. There were some people this week who expressed that they were disappointed with their performances. It’s crazy how we can beat ourselves up. These challenges were HARD! Several people made two or three attempts at the challenges and got better with each….that’s the power of practice! We can’t always be great or as great as we want…but we CAN work to learn from our losses and get better as we go! Anyone who participated and finished this week should be very proud of your efforts! Congrats on week 2 and remember You never LOSE….you either win or learn. With that attitude you can never fail!

See You in the HOUSE this week!!!