Gymboss GIVEAWAY

First I would like to announce our winner of the Oh so cute shirt from Nutrition Snob!

CONGRATULATIONS TO Shannon Gacke! 

Today I am very excited to share with you about the Gymboss Interval Training Timer!
Not only because it is a great fitness accessory, but because my husband is going to be sharing with you the things he has loved and found handy about our Gymboss.  I was so excited to get my pink Gymboss Timer in the mail, then when I began using it, I realized I didn't have a ton of use for it, since most of my workouts were runs at the time because I was training for my half marathon.

So I let my husband use it for his strength training workouts, and he has really found it handy.  Here are a few of his comments about the Gymboss.  Um and yes my husband did carry this pink timer around the weight room :-)

"It is incredible how much time you can waste in the gym. When I started working out many years ago, I spent up to 2 hours in the gym. With moving weights around, rehydrating, and stretching between lifts, and occasionally getting sidetracked watching the Top 10 play on ESPN…haha, it seemed like half my time was spent NOT working out. The GYMBOSS cut my workout in half and gave me better results. With the multi-function timer, I am able to move through my workout without distraction and wasting time. I enjoyed the continuing rounds that it gave me and the ability to choose the vibrate or bell notification for the next set. The hardest part in workout accessories is the instruction- there is not much to the instructions of the GYMBOSS- it took me 2 or 3 workout to really figure out how to use it. After that, I believe it essential to anyone's workout especially if you spend half your time catching up on your ESPN at the gym… the GYMBOSS is your own personal trainer -  yelling at you to keep on pushing through. 

The Auto function works great - the GYMBOSS tells you when to stop and start at every point of the workout. With a 30 sec. activity and 1 minute rest programmed you can do 20 sets in 30 minutes thats 4-6 different exercises in 30 minutes. High Intensity and High Impact = High Results"

I am so thankful that my husband wanted to share with us, and I am so excited that Gymboss is sharing with one of our readers!! Enter in the rafflecopter below for a chance to win your own Gymboss Interval Timer!! 

  a Rafflecopter giveaway

Guest Post: Bar Pick Ups

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ProjectGirlGetFit.com

Hey guys! I'm so excited to be guest posting for the sisters while they get to spend some girl bonding time together with their mom! Before we get to that, how about a little introduction though....

My name is Casey and I blog over at Project Girl Get Fit. I'm a 26 year old Chicago native and am working on my masters degree in social work. I have two younger sisters that I absolutely adore (which is one of the reasons that I love Naturally Fit Sisters' blog so much!) and I love spending time with my massive family.

Part of the family at a birthday party weekend earlier this summer...

I am a total gym addict. It’s pretty much a given that you can find me at the club almost anytime day or night if I’m not at work or in class, whether I am running on one of the treadmills, sweating it out in a class, or trying to pick up heavy things and put them back down again. Some of my good friends are the trainers at my club and I catch hell all the time from them for being there for hours on end. Let me clarify and say that I do not work out the ENTIRE time I’m there (that would be crazy since at times I’m there for 4-5 hours at a time), I also socialize with the people I know, help out with events, etc etc etc. It drives my trainer, Dan, totally crazy, but since he is just as bad as I am about leaving after he’s done working for the day, we try not to judge each other. Haha.

Now anyone that knows me will tell you that I am madly in love with CrossFit and pretty much anything that involved weightlifting. I’m going to say that it’s largely because it was never something that I thought I would be able to do and the fact that I can (even if I have to modify something) makes me feel like a total bad ass. Strength and Power cycles in training make me swoon. And since I like to change things up, I am constantly putting together new workouts and combinations to try! So here is my latest baby. I have to say that I am kind of in love with this barbell workout (okay, and with my barbell!)

I did this workout with 65# total weight and was able to complete it in 14:27. Granted, I thought my arms might fall off, but it still felt awesome to push through it and finish!

In case anyone needs a review of what each exercise looks like (I’ll admit that sometimes I do, especially if I haven’t performed it in a while! Oops!), here are some pictures courtesy of Google Image Search demonstrating each move. Good luck and go get it!

Guest Post: RnR Philly Half

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We all went to bed early after our big day on Saturday, but as tired as I was I just could not sleep! I tossed and turned and woke up every hour to check the time. I had set my cell phone alarm, but was afraid it wouldn't go off! I woke up at 5 a.m., a full hour early than I needed to be up. I got dressed, tried to eat some BelVita cookies, and paced until 6:45 when I finally decided to start the 2 mile walk to the Start. Hubby came with me, but the kids stayed in bed. 

 My friend, Heather, was in the corral behind me, so we met up before the race for some hugs and encouragement. I LOVE seeing friends before races! 

Time to line up! I was in corall 21. Out of 23. Really. They moved us pretty fast though, we started about 30 minutes after the Kenyans, who finished less than 30 minutes after that! It was crazy! There was a great shirt that I saw, and couldn't resist taking a picture!

I passed her at mile 8. ::giggle:: Running a race in Philly has one advantage. The scenery! The buildings there are amazing! We ran past the Liberty Bell, the Capitol Building, the Museums. The streets were lined with people cheering and ringing cow bells. There were jazz bands, DJs, rock bands. You could almost always hear music. At mile 3, I saw my first wipe out when a man slipped on some paper cups and went down hard. I felt so bad for him. I went towards him to help but he was waving people away. I hope he finished! At mile 3.75 we came up to our hotel, and I was so excited to see my kids there holding a sign and ringing the cow bell and clapping. It was my favorite part! 

Soon after the course went past the starting line where I saw my favorite sign of the day: "Hey Stranger! I am proud of you too!" She was also at the finish line! LOVED her! At mile 5.5 my music quit. I was using my MOTOACTV, which I LOVE, but I think I started part way through the playlist and it ran out. I now know that it will not start over. I need to load in more songs! You could hear music most of the time, but I know it slowed me down. I have to say, though, that I no longer clomp my feet when I run. Pure silence from my feet. Not so much for others, lol, but I was so happy! At around mile 7, I saw another great sign held up by a little boy: "Run faster, or my Grammy and PopPop will catch up to you!" LOVED it! After that we entered Fairmount Park. Lots of trees and rocks, bridges (Mr Incredible was playing music under one. He had a nice costume with real muscles!), you could see the Zoo balloon! You could also see the other runners across the lake! Around mile 8 I noticed the team of 2 with matching tanks that said "I can't believe it doesn't move" or something along those lines. One had a camera on her hat and was filming the other. The other one was LOUD. She had one of those grating voices, and I really missed my music at this point! She ran in front of me, actually crossed in front of me, to go see Mr Incredible, screaming at the camera the whole way, and my ear actually rung! Crazy!! Mile 9 was the bridge. It was not a huge bridge, it was very beautiful actually, but something about it started to wear me out. The downhill afterwards was nice, and we were still in the trees and shade, which was *so* nice. At this point I was still ahead of my last Half's time, by about 4 minutes. This is the last time I will be ahead though! At mile 10 I started to really feel it. My legs were *so* tired. After the water table it was harder to start running again. I was definitely slowing down now. Around mile 12 I started to get very sad. I knew now that I was not going to PR and we were running alongside the highway which was making it hard for me to breathe. I had to use my inhaler, and I was starting to get weepy. At one point I just stopped running and walked a bit. I hated that I gave up for a few minutes, but I really just lost it. I refused to walk past all of the people though, and started running again. A LOT of runners were no longer running, I noticed, and when my gps watch said 13.1 I stopped it at 2:39:47, almost 5 minutes slower than my best time. The race wasn't over, though, because I still had 1/4 mile to go. The last little bit was uphill, but I was determined to run the last bit. I didn't want my kids to see my walk in! My official time was 2:45, and the mileage would have been 13.35. 

 See me in the back, lol? Poor hubby kept getting photo bombed! He and the kids were there at the finish line, ringing that cow bell and banging those clapping hands. At this point, I was crying pretty hard, from being tired, sad, happy, relieved. That finish line is pretty emotional. I am tearing up now just thinking about it! I got my medal, and waited to compose myself before getting my finish line photo. After the photo you walk through all of the food and drink vendors: Hershey chocolate milk, water, Gatorade, bagels, fruit cups, Snickers Marathon bars, chips. SO much food! I grabbed a little of everything, lol, because you never know what you will want after a race! I met up with family, and after a quick photo we headed back to the hotel...another 2 mile walk! 

What a crazy day! I am very proud of my time, proud of finishing with a cold, and finishing well. I had wanted to PR, but I am no longer sad that I didn't! There is always next time!

Blog: http://barkingmadaboutrunning.blogspot.com/
Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/kimberly.prytherch?ref=tn_tnmn

5K Training Program

Many of us have that DESIRE to start running but we do not know where to start. We are so pumped to have Julie here today sharing with us her 5K Training Program. It seems like such a program and I hope if you are on the fence about running- you will give this a try! 

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Hi!  I am Julie from A Beautiful Day.  I am so excited to be here today guest posting for the Naturally Fit Sisters.  I am going to share a little about my journey through the Couch Potato to 5K training program, where apparently the third time is the charm.

 

I started the Couch Potato to 5K training program a little over eight weeks ago.  I guess that I should also mention that this is my third try at completing the program.  Prior to attempting this program, I was a true Couch Potato in every sense of the word.  I had gotten to the point that I knew that I had to do something.  Some may say that I could have taken a little easier approach, started out a little slower, but I have wanted to RUN a 5K for years and I decided that it was time for no more excuses.

Source: Uploaded by user via Julie on Pinterest

   

I am now two workouts away from completeing the program, and am just now running about 2 miles, so yes, I still have a ways to go.  But considering two months ago I could barely run a quarter of a mile, progress has definitely been made.  You can either work the program timed or by distance and I chose to do the timed version as it was the easiest for me with the app.  Now that I am nearing the end I am questioning my decision because my first 5K is a month from yesterday and I am going to have to work myself up to an additional mile in that time without the benefit of the training program.

Running is not  easy or particularly fun for me, but at this point I refuse to give up.  And although I don't love it, there is quite a sense of accomplishment after I complete each workout.

It is a really good feeling and I can only imagine what I am going to feel in just under a month, when I cross the finish line of my first 5K.  I have dear friends that will be there supporting me  and I couldn't be more grateful for that!  On a final note just last week, I started getting tingly feet about 1 to 1.5 miles into my run.  The only way I can acurately describe it, is to say it feels like my feet are asleep.  It is not a good feeling  to have, especially when you are out running - if anyone has any ideas or advice to help me get past this, I would greatly appreciate it.  It would make my last month of training so much better.

Thank you so much to Brittany and Cassey for having me today!  If you enjoyed my post and would like to keep up with my training you can visit me at A Beautiful Day or follow me on Instagram.  I love visitors and enjoy meeting fellow bloggers.

GIVEAWAY-Nutrition Snob

So.....

We are back with our Wednesday GIVEAWAYS!

We have a bunch of awesome/fun things lined up for the rest of the year to Giveaway to YOU! and we are SO EXCITED to share today's GIVEAWAY from Nutrition Snob!!

First off, you have got to go visit her Etsy shop! She sells a bunch of cute fitness apparel.  From tanks to cute sweatshirts, and they have some great sayings on them!

Here we are in our Nutrition Snob sweatshirts! How cute huh!!

These sweatshirts are so amazing. They are so soft and such a comfortable fit. We bought them in our size and they fit perfectly. If you are wanting big, soft, comfort we recommend going one size up and to have that. We, personally, are happy with the sizes we got because they can be used for comfort or cuteness. Now that Big Sis has a belly starting to poke out with Baby #2, it clings a little more than it did when we first got them! 

These sweaters have already been washed and dried several times. I, Big Sis, was a little worried about washing mine because I don't have that perfect body like Lil Sis :) But these sweatshirts bounced back to the same fit from when we first got them! They have not shrunk or changed color. You will love how the shirts are after you wash them. 

Sometimes when you wash sweatshirts they seem to "beat up"... these do not do that. The inside of the sweatshirts are a very soft material. This did not change at all with washing either! :) 

The other thing we were totally amazed by was the print. When we got them in the mail the print shocked us. The print is imprinted in the shirt. You can't feel it on top of the shirt. It is thin and comfortable. Many times we have seen that the shirts that we have gotten similar to this the printing quality isn't something we are extremely happy about. However, Nutrition Snob has her print shop set up where she has the best quality. 

We support Nutrition Snob and her business adventures because we love her product AND she is a fellow USAF sister. (Well we aren't in the military, but Big Sis' husband is)... 

Oh and how exciting.. today we just saw one of her newer shirts that Big Sis plans to purchase.. and it is so adorable. It says "Pregnant IS the NEW Skinny!"

And do you notice something different about these photos...?

Can you guess??

That's right, Big Sis & Little Sis are in the same photo!

Big Sis is here this week visiting with our family in Texas, and Little Sis took off work to come to their home town too! We are so happy to be together, and so excited because this Sunday we are doing a half marathon together...Little Sister's first, Big Sister's third!

We look forward to showing you more exciting posts with us together after our vacation.  As for now though we are off in our cute sweatshirts to go see some friends and family!

So....how would you like to Win a Free Nutrition Snob Shirt of your choice!?!? Here are a few more with cute sayings!

All you have to do is enter the rafflecopter to win! 

Good Luck! 

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Healthy Body Image

We are so excited to have Lynn Guest Posting for us today! She runs a fantastic blog over at Illegally Blonde  and today she is here to share about Healthy Body Image! Thanks for writing for us today, Lynn! 

Hello All! My name is Lynn and I blog over at Illegally Blonde. I began my blog to document my first year of marriage and practicing law. It has grown to much more! No I'm in my second year of practice I blog about the struggles of working full time, maintaining a healthy lifestyle and marriage.


Yes, I am a former beauty queen. I competed in pageant to help fund my college and law school education. I loved it! I met great new friends and have wonderful opportunities to touch the lives of women fighting domestic violence. So, when the crown was off and I resumed normal life I had a hard time well, umm, getting back into the groove.

Non finalist talent award

I was never fat to begin with, and I had always has a healthy body image until post pageant. I binged my first couple weeks post pageant. Ate carbs, ice cream, cereal, sodas... I gained some weight. I then noticed the change in other people's perception of me. They noticed that my clothes fit a little more snug and I did not get as much attention my boyfriend. Let's be honest people I was still very slim and practically no body fat! But somehow, 25 year old, 120 pound me became obsessed.

I know now it was a contol issue. I had no control over so many other aspects of my life from beginning law school, to my love life. I could control my weight. It started with monotonous dieting. I ate the same thing everyday because I knew exaclty how many calories it was. I was weigh myself everyday to make sure I kept it off. I looked at my body in mirrors from every angle every day. Then law school happened. It got worse. I uped my workouts and lowered my calorie intake. I was obssessed with being skinny. If I couldn't be the smartest, I wanted to at least be pretty. Pretty in my mind was being thin. Sure I was healthy for the most part. I learned how to make my favorite foods better for me using substitutes. I worked out which kept me alert and ready in class. But I know that it was all about control. I would freak out if I gained even one pound. At one point I was down to 110 pounds on my 5'6 frame. My friends from home laughed and said eat a cheeseburger! But I know they were worried about me.

Now, I'm almost 30 and work full time. I'm at work most days for 9-10 hours or more. I cannot workout frantically and I get hungry and let's face it, my hormones have caused my once thin hips to become "baby ready." I cannot be 110 pounds. It was very hard for me at firt. I flirted with diet pills, cleanses and other things.

Happy, healthy me!

Then I realized I was hurting myself. I was unhappy, unhealthy, and most of all, hungry! Today I know that healthy is better than skinny. I am still thin, but its because I maintain a healthy diet and good exercise habits. I get to the gym at 5am before work and make delicious meals (when I have time) for my husband and I. I could blame TV, magazines or even the boyfriend who said mean things when I gained a little, but its me to blame. I let something other than my own brain control me. I do know that we need to stress to girls and women the importance of a healthy body image. It's not about a size on the dress or a number on the scale, its about health.

Come vist me sometime and read more about me and my life!

10/13 WINNERS!! Birthday Celebration

We are so excited to share the winners of these Giveaways with you! All winners were selected randomly from Rafflecopter! 

Day 1: Ruffle with Love Shirt- Jennifer Kennedy Davis

Day 2: Personalized Tumbler of Choice from Runner Decal- Leah 'Bates' Bosworth

Day 3: Two Giveaways: 

Bracelet from Peace Babi Boutique-Carrie Shirley Randolph 

2 Headbands- Kim Prytherch

Day 4: $20 Gift Card to Magic by Marcy- Brenda Ruiz

Day 5: Two Giveaways:

Classy Cord-Gabby Sida

RooSport- Becky Jordan-Tracey

Day 6: Hustle and Flow Top from Impass Clothing- Lydia White

Day 7: Two Giveaways:

Personalized Keychain- Stacy Hicks

Personalized Mommy Necklace- Constance Harris

Day 8: Lacy Boot Socks from Butteifulgirls- Trish Farrow Ott

Day 9: Brighter Fire SHIRT! -Jen Clement Schomaker

Day 10: Custom Bracelet from Team Neville- Sarah Alexandra

Day 11: $25 Gift Certificate to Clean Mama Printables- Kim DeMoss

Day 12: $25 Gift Card to Strong Confident YOU! -Megan Tenney

Day 13: Pair of Sox Box-Kelly Rolfe Smith

Day 14: ROOSPORT! -Julie Brown Kelleher

Day 15: Brighter Fire SHIRT! -Paula K. Varble

Day 16: -Rina Teel

Sweat Pink Bag 

Collapsible Water Bottle

$15 Starbucks Gift Card

Sweat Pink Laces

Chia Seeds

iRun elastic Laces

Wire Head Wrap

Pearl Nest Ring

Thank you ALL so much for participating... What a great time we had. 

Look for more Giveaways coming up soon!