Are you ready for MY GIFT to YOU this holiday season?

It’s the gift of #fitandstrong FITNESS!

I’ve put together a quick & effective workout challenge to keep you active and moving over the next couple weeks, even if you’re heading out of town.

It requires absolutely NO equipment (except a step or other platform) and you can do it pretty much anywhere. Plus, each workout will take less than 20 minutes.

EVEN BETTER … it’s the gift that keeps on giving. You will feel SO GOOD about completing this challenge as we enter the New Year!

You’ll have more energy, sleep better, move better, AND you won’t have to make up for any lost ground in your fitness & strength.

Here’s how it works: every day, starting with Day 1, complete 1 workout.

After you warm up with some light movement/ stretching, you’ll “ladder” the 2 exercises for that day, going back and forth between them, adding reps each round.

Here’s what it looks like: 
> Do 1 repetition of Exercise 1, 1 repetition of Exercise 2. 
> Do ...

There’s this amazing NETFLIX series that every #fitandstrong friend NEEDS to see. It’s called ‘Queer Eye: More than a Makeover’ and so far every episode has made me cry (which says a lot- I don’t cry easily at all).

The series is about five gay men making over a person who is in desperate need of change. It’s always a story about a person’s powerful transformation from complacent acceptance to inspired action.

I was thinking about why I LOVE this show so much and it’s because the gist is this… sometimes we get so stuck in our habits & patterns we don’t question why we accept something we don’t like as our normal.

Then I started thinking about the holidays and how many of us experience so much stress this time of year, especially where friend and family gatherings are involved.

We’ve forgotten that there’s a different path we can take instead of suffering through uncomfortable holiday soirees.

Or worse, we give up and bow out of social opportunities because we think we’ll just end ...

People make so many assumptions about living #fitandstrong while enjoying the plethora of holiday parties that wiggle onto our calendars this time of year.

> Everywhere I turn there’s bad food tempting me.

> It’s going to be really tough for me to stay the course because I’ve been invited to so many holiday parties.

> Have you SEEN the spread at my work’s annual holiday party? Let me tell you…

> I’m so busy over the holidays. I’m just going to pick my #fitandstrong lifestyle back up in the new year.

Well, call me crazy but as the only fitness professional here (Oops, another assumption!) I can say with certainty that none of the above is true.

I’ve had busy clients attend holiday parties every weekend from Thanksgiving to New Year’s Eve with elegance, fitness & strength.

What if I told you enjoying holiday parties was just a game of strategy and a matter of knowing what you want better than you know the words to ‘Jingle Bells’ ( or Dreidel, Dreidel, whatevs)...?

On the vlog tod...

There’s something you *might* not know about me, and to be totally real with you, it’s a little on the personal side… 

But heck, I want you to know that I’ve done my fair share of ignoring my inner #fitandstrong and skipping work outs over the busy holiday season. Maybe this tale (and the tool I created to combat it) can help you avoid the same trap.

So here it goes… 

Flashback to Athens, GA,  circa December, 1999: I went out to hear some live music (I still love going to shows) and bumped into a boy I was crushing on. He looked at me and said, “DeAnne, I almost didn’t recognize you. Packed on a few lbs, eh?” 

My ego was crushed. I tried to pull myself together, but in my embarrassment I decided to stick my head in the sand until the pain subsided.

… that might sound like a metaphor, but it’s for real. I literally left the venue- even though the band had only just started playing- and hid in my room where no one could see me. I dove into my bed and took some deep breaths before fi...