Ahhh, it’s the New Year. Life is back to normal. Time to get back to reality. My two week break of fun, drinking too much soda and eating too much crap are behind me. Moving forward. I ate it so now I have to deal with it. Which brings us to our New Year’s Resolutions. Chances are if you made any resolutions at least one of them may be to eat healthier or lose weight or be more physically fit. Those are all my hopes and goals as well.

The more specific you are with your goals the better.

Well, it is finally here. My web site is up and I am now taking subscriptions to my monthly coaching newsletter. My site is www.askcoachb.com.

This newsletter will guide you through to living a healthier lifestyle. it is not another diet or exercise program. I do not believe in diets and do not train anyone to diet. I teach people how to change thier lives a little at a time so there is very little effort. It becomes second nature after awhile.

The exercises are set up to be completed in 10 to 20 minutes.

I have shared with you my favorite things all fitness oriented for the last 3 weeks. It has been fun to try to post something every day. I truly love everything I posted. I hope I helped in some way if you were looking for a gift for you or someone else. I love my fitness blog. I love feeling healthy. I hope to have some great things for the new year. If anyone has anything they want me to post about leave me a comment. I would love to help out.

There are so many reasons that people go on diets or start an exercise program. They may want to look good for a vacation, family pictures, class reunion or any other event where they don’t want to look “bad”. Other reasons are because someone says something to them. It could be someone being mean or someone who means good. It could be a friend, a spouse or even your doctor.

Most, and I mean close to all, fail to accomplish their goal or stay at the proper weight. It is because they are not doing it for the most important reason.

I caught something on the news earlier about a tax in New York that is taxing obesity by levying a tax of 15 - 18% on sodas. WTF? I knew that they would get around to it. Me and my mom talked years ago about when the ciggarettes were no longer bringing in the bucks for them they would go after junk food and lo and behold here we are! The New York “sugar sweetened beverage tax” that is aimed at keeping people from getting fat. The guy on the TV said something about justifying this with “If people just drink one less soda….” And while they said something about taxing people for going to the gym (talk about taxing you twice!), they said that children don’t go to the gym, so they need to tax soda so the kids won’t drink so much soda, which is bad for them.

Wait…

Biggest Loser fan here. I faithfully watched the Biggest Loser this year. Even though I was completely disgusted and frustrated with some of the people. Well last night was the finale. And can we say Wow!. So many of the contestants made such huge changes. I think the girls stole the show though. Stacey, Amy C., Shellay, Amy P., Heba, and Michelle had just amazing transformations. Heba won the prize for the at home contestants. It bugs me that they never showed her percentage lost. It was over Amy P. which was 45%.

Last, but not least. Today is #12 and the end of my favorite things list. I am glad I got to share some fitness things with you. Hope everyone is ready for the holidays and relaxing. I know I am not done yet. I still have a ton to do, no relaxing yet. So today’s favorite thing is a Gym Membership and/or a Personal Trainer. These are two things I would love to have. Going to a gym would be so nice.

Just a couple more favorite things from me. Hopefully some of my favorites are your favorites too, or will be in the future. One of my favorite magazines is Shape. I used to have a subscription, but budgets have changed, babies came with exercise on the back burner, and I had to let my subscription expire. Magazines are such an awesome gift. The gift that gives all year round. Shape magazine shares info on all things fitness. There is exercises to try, yummy recipes, tools and things they love, and one of my favorite parts are the success stories.

It is no secret how I feel about weight lifting. I think it is so important to many aspects in our lives. I have these weights to the right. I love that you can take plates off and put weights on. In fact we have two sets of weights like this. One for me and one for my husband. That way we don’t have to change as many weights when we workout. And we can workout together. Doesn’t happen very often, but it is nice to have that option. There is so much you can do with free weights.

Two things I covet from this photo. The skinny stomach with no stretch marks, which I will never have. And the Gel Padded Bike Shorts, which I hope to have in the future. Padded bike shorts are a must if you are a long distance bike rider. I am not an avid bike rider, but I do enjoy it. I do hope to do a couple of long rides once the summer comes around again. I own a pair of padded bike shorts. They are not gelled, I think the gelled ones would feel so nice on my behind.