YAY! I passed!

For the past month, I’ve been studying and watching videos, doing the live Q&A with the creator dietician, and I’m super delighted that I passed the exam! I’m a certified Mindset Mentor!! Bring on the clients! I’m trained to help you lose weight happily!

Transformation Tuesday 80 Day Obsession

The rest of the workouts flew by. We did a lot of zoom calls on Saturday mornings to do our cardio flow workouts together. They are SO much better with friends.

After 80 Days, I learned to prioritize sleep and practice self-care. I fell in love with my foam roller and stretching and made it a part of my weekly schedule. Sometimes it’s not about the before and after pictures, it’s about learning how to improve yourself and be your best self.

The results were pretty awesome.

This is the first time I’ve ever seen some carving on the front of my core!

Tech Tuesday!

If you’re like me, your phone is always within reach. Why not use it to its max to help you with your health journey?

  1. Team Beachbody my challenge tracker app- check in with fit friends and share your workout selfies and tips off of Facebook! Email me if you want an invite. (coachtiffanybirkholz@gmail.com)
  2. Beachbody On Demand– $6,500 worth of workout programs of all kinds: cardio, weights, yoga, Pilates, MMA, dance, etc. I love saving workouts to the app to use when we travel so I don’t have to use hotel gyms. 
  3. Fitbit- I wear the flex at night to track sleep. It’s important to sleep if you want to build muscle and lose weight!
  4. Myfitnesspal- I love this app to track macros when eating out. It’s amazing how much sodium and carbs and fat hide in restaurant food. 
  5. Apple Watch- I don’t LOVE the heart rate monitor (HRM) but I do love the breathe reminders and how it makes me keep moving to close the rings every day. It’s also fun to share data with friends and send fun texts when they kill their workouts. 
  6. 21 Day Fix tracker- the Portion Fix container system is life changing and I love keeping track on my phone. The food lists are all there too so I can always figure out what I’m eating too. 

Motivating Metrics Monday!

I’m at 3.5 years of working out and decided I needed to review ways that I’m tracking my progress. 

  1. The scale is a daily friend. I’ve had the one pictured above for over a decade and it’s been with me through moving into my first apartment, second apartment, across the country, and into married life. I hang on to it because it’s consistent. I use the same one in the same place on the floor in our house and weigh first thing in the morning. Any increase used to bum me out but now it just tells me how I ate the day before. Too much salt? Too many bloating foods? Super clean and healthy? It also tells me fat % and even if it’s not perfect using the same scale keeps it consistent. 
  2. Sleep. I wear a Fitbit flex (more info tomorrow for Tech Tuesday!) to track my sleep. My goal is 6 hours but sometimes I’ll add a little more if the girls are sick, I’ve had hard workouts and need a little more rest, or if I just need it. 
  3. Measuring tape. I always measure before and after a new workout schedule. Sometimes the measurements change a lot, sometimes they barely move. It’s another thing I track to see how things are changing. 
  4. Labs are essential for me. I am doing this whole healthy lifestyle thing because I’m fighting full blown diabetes (right now I’m a recovered insulin-dependent gestational diabetic who is “glucose intolerant” or “prediabetic.”) I don’t test every morning but will periodically spot check my fasting levels. It helps me know how I’m doing with nutrition and also reminds me I don’t want to have to do this multiple times a day. 

Those are my top 4. Which things do you measure to track progress?

Core De Force day 4

This morning was nuts. I had a mommy meeting in the city and had to wake the kids up 2 hours early. I almost skipped my workout but opted to go sweaty and happy than grumpy and clean. 

This is the ultimate busy mom bottle. Coconut milk, cafe latte, coconut extract and focused energy. Delicious and perfect nutrition to go. 


Yay! I had played with the delivery schedule last year and ended up with 2 deliveries one month and nothing the next so I had to wait another 12 months from then for this. #swag

Down 2.8lbs this week so far. I’ll be up a bit tomorrow after a dinner out with hubby’s boss but that’s part of life. 

Core De Force day 2

Lost 1.4 overnight. The scale does not define me, but it does define my insulin resistance. I want to lose another 10. 

My fasting blood sugar was 20 points lower than it had been. That’s a huge indicator that this is working!


I was feeling anxious after the workout so I made myself a tropical Shakeology and looked at flights for the Hard Rock Punta Cana trip in April. 


Had some yummy Nom Nom Paleo burgers for dinner. Delicious. 


Ready for the election to be over so we can figure out what’s next. 

Country Heat Day 16 Recap

Tuesday’s are add on Dance Conditioning day. I’m really liking the doubles and don’t struggle to fit in both. Today was a busy errand day. Got a lot done as we get ready for vacation. 

I’ve loosened my containers a bit since the weekend and see it on the scale. A bit too much cheese and corn tortilla chips and I’m gaining instead of losing. It’s crazy how the extra salt and different foods change results. I’ve also been eating mostly tomatoes for my veggies and think I need to diversify. Still sitting at my goal weight number. I’d like to drop 5-10 more but we will see what my body says. 

Here’s my time trick. I KonMari fold my workout clothes and pair the sports bras and shorts together in the fold. Because of shorts’ waistbands I alternate them top and bottom so they fit better in my drawer. Then in the morning I don’t waste time to find sets, I just grab and go. So much easier. 

Country Heat Recap Day 12

Today was a much needed beach day with our best friends. 

It was a gorgeous day, perfect weather and so needed. 

And I got the news that my labs are in and my main diabetes test (the HbA1C) came back 0.2 lower than last time! Win!

I seriously freaked when I saw that 12 days of Country Heat has me down 7.4lbs. It’s amazing to keep seeing the scale change and feel so amazing. 

Country Heat Recap Day 7

Today was rest and cook day. Yesterday was exhausting and I’m glad today is a rest day. We walked around in Center City to get food for the week and enjoy the weather (and catch Pokemon!)

The girls got some chinese bakery treats

I love cooking big batches on Sunday so I can warm and eat all week. Busted out the Instant Pot and got it done. 

Guy Fieri’s Salsa Verde Taco Chicken
Nom Nom Paleo’s Thai Beef Curry
Organic Brown Basmati Rice

Down 5! Lbs after 7 days!