A couple of days ago I was texting back and forth with one of my challengers from my fitness accountability group.  She was telling me that she was doing just “so-so” in the challenge and that this is a busy time of the year for her, and that maybe January would be better for her to start.

The first thing I thought was “Are You Kidding Me????”

RED FLAG!!!! Self-Destruction Ahead!!!

Someone’s About To Give Up and Jump Ship!

First of all, this is a busy time of year for all of us isn’t it? I mean, really, do you know anyone who is NOT extraordinarily busy right now?  Personally, I attended 4 Christmas parties last week.  We have The Nutcracker Ballet rehearsal and performances all this week.  Next week we’ll have our own Christmas charity cookie swap party, plus I have only bought one gift! Not to mention all of the concerts and church services I’m sure we will be attending. Oh yeah, and that’s just after school and work.

What’s the difference between someone who is reaching their goals right now in the midst of the craziness of the holiday season, and someone who wants to wait until January?  I think the person who is going for their goals by any means necessary has finally just gotten over themselves. What do I mean by this? Well the person who gets over themselves realizes that they are no different than anyone else.  They are not more important, and certainly not any more special. But, they realize and they embrace the fact that if Sue can do it (because I’m no different than her) then certainly I can do it too.

She realizes that she has the same amount of hours in the day as the next person. This person admits that she has a zillion things to do, but her “Why” is driving her to continue reaching for her health and fitness goals.  She laughs when someone tells her she can’t do it because it’s the holidays. And, she thinks the naysayers are foolish because they aren’t working out, and most likely will  gain the normal 7-10lbs that people gain between Halloween and New Years day. This woman embraces the fact that hard doesn’t mean impossible, and it definitely doesn’t mean to quit.

A woman who really wants to reach her health and fitness goals believes that hard doesn’t equal bad.  But instead she believes that “hard” can reap beautiful results if she stays the course.  Hard, can lead to beauty, and it can bring new life.

So, what’s it going to be??? Are you going to GIVE UP????

Or, are you going to GET OVER YOURSELF this holiday season, and Reach YOUR Goals?

Let’s Do This!!!

Annett Davis, Olympian & Founder of Fit Moms Fit Kids

P.S. Remember if you ever need help or want accountability I have private fitness accountability groups online. Message me at Get Fit With Annett for details.

I can’t believe that Christmas is less than 30 days away! My lights are up on the outside of my home, the decorations are up on the inside. All that’s left is the tree.

So far we have 4 holiday parties to attend, and 3 to host! (One of our parties is a cookie swap, can you say hello Santa!) I’m sure more invites will arrive as we get closer to Christmas.

I’m a baker. I love to make cake, pies, cookies, candy, all things sweet.  As we get closer to Christmas I start making (and tasting) the treats I make for my neighbors and friends as gifts.  Oh, what a slippery slope I ride on every year.

Last year was the first time that I didn’t gain weight over the holidays! I actually stayed at my professional beach volleyball in season weight through the New Year.  I usually gain about 10 pounds during my off season, only to lose it all again for the next season.  This year I have had an extremely long off season due to the fact that I only played in one event. I’m proud to announce that I weigh less now than I have probably since the 9^th grade!  I’m feeling lean and amazing!

So, how did I Eat Like Santa, and Look like a movie star over the holidays? Well obviously if I ate like Santa I wasn’t eating perfectly.  I LOVE to eat, and I love appetizers and treats, and I still ended up making it through the holidays without gaining a pound.

My secret:

1. Get Moving!!!

Just because it’s the holidays doesn’t mean you have to be a couch potato.  Workout 4-6 days a week. Yep, 4-6 days a week, you’ll feel so much better!  You will be moving your body, working it, so that you have room for a treat here and there. Notice I said here and there! Don’t go crazy because it’s the holidays. Enjoy them but don’t overindulge. When we workout we naturally desire to eat better too.

2.  Mini Buffet.

At a party you will have tons of food to choose from.  Make your choices wisely.  Walk around and see what’s available BEFORE you start piling food on your plate.  Then pick a few items that are the healthiest for you out of the lot. I know you’ll have your eye on a couple of sweet treats. If that’s the case grab a small sliver of one or two of the treats you are dying to taste. Not a whole piece. Many times when we get a large piece we feel we must eat the whole thing, when our tummy would be just as satisfied with a small taste of it.

3.  Toss It!

If something you taste isn’t up to par, don’t feel like you have to finish it. Just toss it. Why eat it, wasting valuable calories that you can save on something else.  I think this tip alone has saved me hundreds of calories at parties and events!

What are your secrets to keeping the weight off during the holidays?

Annett Davis, Olympian & Founder of Fit Moms Fit Kids

WHAT TO DO WITH ALL OF MY HALLOWEEN CANDY?!?!?

These tips were given last year in our “keepin it real” post where I ask questions via facebook and twitter and real moms give their best tips.  It was so good I thought I’d share the tips again.  Below you’ll find the top 5 answers, for more click here.

Victoria’s Halloween Stash 2011

5.  “We keep all of it in a bin in the pantry and let them pick out one piece as a treat each day. They forget about it after a week or so, then we give it away.”  Matt S.

4.  “I buy it off my granddaughters and they get the money to spend on something they really like. I keep it and let them have a treat once in awhile. Like others mention they soon forget about it and when I offer up a treat they remember and smile over it. The rest gets dumped at the end.” Linda H

3.  “We should start a collection in our neighborhood and mail it to the troops! ”  Tamar V.

2.  The kids chose 5 pieces each, then we took the rest to a homeless shelter. Eye-opening for sure and they really appreciated what they had! Sarah S.

The number one Thing to Do with all of your Halloween Candy!!

1. “Sarah S. has the best idea I’ve ever heard. “The Switch Witch”. The kids get to pick out a certain number of candies to keep. Then, they hang their bags on their bedroom door, and the “Switch Witch” comes along and takes the candy and leaves them a toy (probably a toy they’ve wanted). She even took it a step further and the “Switch Witch” leaves them a note telling them she needs help with her job because she’s so busy and asks them to take it to a homeless shelter to share.”  Katie J.

Mya’s 2011 Halloween Stash

Here are some of my ideas, I hope you like them…

We’ll be using some of our candy to make our Gingerbread house for Christmas!!

Moms like me who homeschool, or who are just into “out of the box” education will appreciate this.  CANDY EXPERIMENTS!!!  Yes, you read that right!  Use your left over candy to teach your kids some cool stuff about science!  Acid tests, sink or float, making life saver lights, oil tests and more!  Click here to try your own candy experiments!

If you LOVE to bake like me, you can use some of the leftover candy to make special treats.  Notice I said “special” treats.  Not all of the time.  Use your leftover candy to make “Better for you Candy Bar Cookies“! (the recipe is for 10 dozen, so make sure you click to reduce the # needed!)

Finally, if you don’t care about “wasting the candy”, by that I mean throwing it away.  You can ask your kids if you can “buy” their candy from them.  But, here’s the catch, the money won’t go to your kids, instead they get to donate the money to the charity of their choice!  Of course, you may need to guide them a little (if they are young).  You can first find out where their heart is.  Maybe they have a heart for kids with cancer, or people who don’t have food, or clean water and then go online together and  maybe give them an option of 2-3 charities that meet the need they chose.  I use Charity Navigator to find out how the charities are using their money, so I know they aren’t wasting the funds we give them.

I hope this list helped you out! If you liked these ideas, please share on fb and twitter.  If you have more cool ideas we didn’t mention, comment below!  Hope you had a Happy Halloween!!!

Annett Davis, Olympian & Founder of Fit Moms Fit Kids

P.S.  For a healthy eating plan to detox from Halloween, click here.

I posted this on my site last year… I know a lot of you are new so I wanted to re-post it again.

Today I pause to remember a great man, my father, Cleveland Buckner.  Six years ago today, he died of a heart attack.  It was the third he’d had in his lifetime.  I remember when I was younger and he had his first heart attack how nervous and scared I was.  Visiting him in the hospital with tubes coming out of here and there.  My dad was 6’9″  he hardly fit into a California King sized bed, let alone a hospital bed.  To be a young girl, seeing her big strong daddy, in a tiny bed, in a small room, hearing beeps, and nurses being buzzed was let’s just say, a lot for me to handle.  Unfortunately, I’d visit him another time in my lifetime in the same position before the 3rd one would finally take his life.

I pause to remember my dad today for several reasons.  If you don’t know, he was the reason I started Fit Moms Fit Kids Club in the first place.  He too was a professional athlete.  He was an all star player at Jackson State University (he was inducted into their hall of fame before he died), and he also played in the NBA.  Though he had been a pro athlete in his younger years, like so many of us, he began to neglect his health as he got older.  Years of coaching after teaching math all day, and having to make a long commute home afterwards took it’s toll.  As they say, you are what you eat, and he ate pastrami sandwiches and burgers from some of the greasiest places in town.  Stress and neglect of his body took its toll and high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and in his later years type 2 diabetes took residence.

As many of you know I am a professional athlete as well.  After my fathers death I was so bitter, and angry at him for not sticking to a healthy lifestyle.  All of the things that plagued him from heart disease, to gout in his knees were all preventable.  He had a choice, like we all do, to eat right and exercise.  I was upset because now he would not get to see his grandchildren grow up, and I wouldn’t have my daddy.

Well, as God often does he put a mirror in front of my face and told me to look into it.  What I saw was not pretty.  He showed me that I was living my life just like my father was in my off season.  I’d stop exercising and I’d eat whatever I wanted.  Every off season I’d gain 10 pounds.  The reality was, if I lived this way after I retired, that I would end up exactly like my dad.  I’d gain a ton of weight, end up with heart disease, possibly type 2 diabetes, and maybe I wouldn’t be there for my children either.  This was a hard pill to swallow.  I was living the life of the obese, and I was teaching my kids how to do it too!

Something had to change.  I had to change. I realized that I wasn’t going to be a pro athlete forever.  I wouldn’t just lose all the weight every year once I started working out and playing at my events during the season.  I realized that I had to make some serious changes and I did.  Fit Moms Fit Kids Club was created because I realized that I’m not perfect, and I know other moms aren’t either.  We need each other, we need support, we need encouragement, we need information, we need accountability, and we need to feel a part of something bigger than ourselves.  That’s why we started this revolution to try to get 1 million moms to sign the pledge to commit to raising healthy families.

If you’d like to join me on my journey and gain support you can become a twitter follower, and you can subscribe to the blog to get helpful tips to help you on your journey.  You can also join our facebook page.   When you download the pledge on the right side bar you’ll get a free meal plan and workout plan to help you get started with your desired outcomes.

Today, I’m not angry at my father anymore.  I realize that he was just human.  A great man, but just like you and I, he made some poor health choices over the course of his life.  I thank him for teaching me so much in my life.  Some of you ladies may feel like you or your child’s weight issue is beyond changing.  Maybe you feel like you’ve eaten this way all your life, and you cannot possibly change now.  Let me tell you what my dad would have said.  He would have said, ‘NOW IT’S TIME TO GO TO WORK!” It doesn’t matter what you used to do, or what you did 5 minutes ago, NOW is the time.  You can change your choices.  And, as my husband always says “Change your Choices, change your life”.  You can do it.

Here's a hug and a kiss on the cheek, you can do it!

In the final years of my dad’s life he started to make positive changes in his heath and fitness.  He began walking to exercise, he started eating much better.  In fact, he was getting his diabetes under control.  He was on less medication than he had been on in years.  He was changing his choices.  His body started to slim down, he looked younger, more confident, and was feeling good too.  Unfortunately, it was too late for him, his body had taken a toll.  Don’t let that happen to you, don’t let your choices as a mom affect the health of your children in a negative way.  We have a responsibility moms to take care of ourselves so that we can be there for our kids.  And, to take care of our kids so that they can outlive us.  It is predicted that this current generation will not outlive ours.  It will be the first generation to not outlive their parents.  This prediction does not have to become a fact in our history books.  Let’s make better choices, let’s change our lives together.  Let’s start today.

Now, it’s time to go to work!

Annett Davis, Olympian & Founder of Fit Moms Fit Kids

P.S  I forgot to mention that my dad taught me a ton of other wonderful things.  He encouraged me to get my college degree before I got married (so that I’d finish school).    He taught me that an education was a gift and that I should not waste it!  He taught me that life is short, so make sure I ENJOY what I am doing.  He taught me that if I really love something I’d naturally spend a lot of time doing it without having to be paid.  My dad would spend hours on the couch doing math problems because he LOVED math!  We’d also see him making out basketball plays, even when he wasn’t coaching anymore.  I too do this blog because I love it.  I’m not being paid, but it brings me joy to learn things myself, and to help others. My dad taught me that my relationships and family are important, and that we need to nourish them.  He taught me that traveling is a MUST, and that we must take time out to see the world.  He taught me that I must take time out to just have fun doing the things that I love.  Most importantly I got to see his eyes beam brightly with love when he’d hold my son Mya as a baby and my daughter Victoria, and how he looked at them with love and amazement.  It taught me how special my kids are, and that each moment with them is a gift from God.

Thank you dad for teaching me all this… and so much more!

I love you forever… see you in heaven.