Fitness Update | Finished 21 Day Fix EXTREME | National Sprint Duathlon Women 25-29 Champion!

 We've got a lot to catch up on! My last fitness update was on August 19th, two weeks before my qualifying race. At that time I was preparing for one last hard training week and then I was going to tapper off and do race prep one week before my race.

I worked my butt off those last two weeks leading up to my race! It wasn't easy but I had put so much time and effort in at that point, I told myself that it would all be worth it in the end. The pain you feel during training and racing is temporary but the results that you post are forever.

I wanted so badly to post some amazing results at the Edmonton ITU Duathlon race. Not only did I was to post good results for myself personally, I wanted a spot on team Canada for the 2017 World Duathlon Championships.

I finished another round of 21 Day Fix EXTREME a week before the race. I've been using this program as cross training and to help improve my leg strength for racing.

In addition I was able to stay injury free (besides my knee that I had hurt previously). My knee honestly wasn't bothering me too bad leading up to my race but I did decide to throw some tape on it for race day just for some extra support (which was recommend to me by physiotherapist).

The weekend before race day I had to opportunity to head out to Hawrelak Park and practice on the race course. It was a great training day! I got to practice on the hills, I was able to run around the park and get a good sense of what I was in for.

I was able to scope out where transition would be and I even practiced a few transitions just to make sure everything was race ready.

Then 6 days before the day I adopted an eight week old puppy....what!?!?! This was something that was not in the plan at ALL but it happened. I'm going to do a whole lifestyle post on our new puppy this Wednesday so make sure you are subscribed to my blog in order to be notified when that post goes up.

Lets just say it's a good thing that puppies sleep a lot. Even though our new puppy is a lot of work I was still able to do my race prep, get a good amount of sleep and prepare for my race.

On race day it was cold....very cold. I bundled up nice and warm and heading to the race. I was so nervous just before the start. My heart was pounding, thoughts started racing through my head (am I ready for this? Did I train enough? I wonder how fast everyone else is? Do I have everything in transition that I need for my race?)

I took a minuet after checking in the athletes village, I took a breath and calmed down. Racing is so much more than just physical, you have to be in the right mindset as well. Something I've been working very hard at is self motivation and positive talk.

I told myself that I had done everything that I could have possible done to prepare for this moment. I told myself that I had put in countless hours of training and no matter what the results were I was going to have an amazing race. I told myself not to worry about anyone else and to stick to my own race plan I had set.

Well turns out I had trained enough because I took home the GOLD medal in my age category which makes me the National Sprint Duathlon Women 25-29 Champion! 

I just want to take a minuet to thank everyone for all the support I have received here on my blog, Instagram, Facebook and email. I have had so many heart warming comments and well wishes from people cheering me on and supporting me throughout my training....it has honestly been overwhelming! From the bottom on my heart THANK YOU!!!

So what's next for me? I'll be competing in worlds August 2017.

I'll be sure to post regular updates over the next year sharing what I'm doing for training. Please be sure to subscribed if you want to be notified when those posts go up. 

I've been taking it pretty easy this past week and letting my body recover after my race....but it's time to get my butt in training mode and start planning out what I'm going to be doing for the rest of the year.

Thank you again for all the wonderful support!

Fitness Update | Blam Bombshell Fitness

 15 days to go!!! I can't believe my last fitness update was almost a month ago....where has the time gone?

As the end of July I was down in Nashville attending Beachbodys Summit Conference - it was incredible! The weather cooperated and was very hot - our hotel was about a 20min walk away from the conference so we decided to walk to and from the conference everyday. By the time we got there we were dripping in sweat - neither my husband or I were used to that kind of heat.

Regardless we got to attend some great workshops that educated us more about the business, we got to meet some amazing coaches from the team AND we got to attend some awesome workouts.

 If you follow me on any of my social media accounts (Snapchat [mspamblam], Instagram, Facebook) it might have looked like I was down there for a really fun vacation....but nope it was for expanding my business. I honestly came back with over 30 pages of notes and some great new ideas for Blam Bombshell Fitness! I am really looking forward to running some more fitness groups and see how the rest of the year plays out.

It was great because even though I was down there for business we were able to attend workouts held by Beachbody so I never missed a beat with my workouts.

However, when I got home...it was all business. I sat down and wrote out my last and final month of training before my qualification race to make team Canada for worlds in 2017. I decided to kick things off with one last final round of 21 Day Fix EXTREME. I planned it out so I would end my program one week before my race - I like to tapper off before my race and let my body recover. Today marks day 13/21 - I am so proud of myself for NEVER missing a single day....plus I've lost 5 pounds so I really can't complain.

Not going to lie it hasn't been easy. Not only am I doing 21 Day Fix EXTREME but I am have to get in my running and biking workouts. Some days I'm workouting for over 3 hours just to get all my workouts in - other days, like a rest day, just consists of a 21 Day Fix EXTREME workout and I've made sure that something easy like yoga falls onto those days.

Making my own training program has been tough to find that balance of training hard to make me faster&stronger but still allowing me active rest days to let my body recover.

Unfortunately last Saturday when doing some running/biking training and transition training I hyper extended my knee....yes again with my knee. I do have an old knee injury that keeps creeping back into my life. As I was practicing jumping on and off my bike at transition I came down a little too hard on my knee.

Transition is defiantly one of my weakest parts of the race. There are some athletes that just fly through transition...it's defiantly a good place to break away if you are caught up in a pack of people.

On race day it's going to be very important for me to get through transition quickly if I'm with a pack of people during the run because the bike is draft legal. That means if I can stay with a pack of people we can actually help draft each other on the bike so all of us don't have to work as hard as we would if we were on our own.

My transitions have defiantly been getting better but I sure am glade I still have 15 more days to practice. I honestly haven't practiced transition since my last worlds competition in 2013 - oh well they must have that saying "it's just like riding a bike" for a reason.

I have to say I've been putting in a TON of work into  my training and it's really rewarding when people actual start to see the results pay off. Yesterday I was out biking hills and running intervals....my husband has been a good sport and has kept me company on a few of my training sessions. Yesterday he gave me the biggest complement and said my hill climbing was getting so much better he couldn't keep up with me AND  my running had improved dramatically withing the past 2 weeks. Normally he can out sprint me but yesterday I was out sprinting him & my dad....and lets be honest my dad has been training and raced more triathlons than me this year- he even did another half Ironman in early July so he's in good shape.

So what's in store for me these final few days? I have another week and a half of hard training and then I will begin to tapper off. I'll be finishing my 21 Day Fix EXTREME program next Saturday and then I will probably be backing off of home workouts until after the race. I will keep Pilates and yoga from 21 Day Fix EXTREME in my training rotation as active recovery but that's about it.

The most important thing for me right now is get my knee back to 100% and stay injury free on these final few days.

Don't forget to follow me on my other social media platforms - Snapchat [mspamblam] is the best place to find me if you want to know what I'm up to on a day to day basic.

Also remember to hit that subscribe button if you want to be notified when I post my next fitness update.

Thanks so much for stopping by!

Fitness Update | Blam Bombshell Fitness

Work, family, life, working out....how do you balance it all?

Over the past few months I have been training for a qualifying duathlon race that will put me back onto team Canada and allow me to compete at the 2017 World Duathlon Championships. My training has been a constant roller coaster fill with serveral set backs. 

My training might seem very different from most duathlets. As a Beachbody coach I strongly believe and has seen amazing results with these programs when it comes to increasing my fitness and leg strength running/biking. Because of this I use a combination of Beachbody programs, interval running, long distance running and biking to train for my duathlon.

 But how do you balance it all? In spring I left my job and became a full time Beachbody coach, which has been a dream come true and blessing....but as I have found out very quickly that working from home is no piece of cake. I'm easily distracted and still somehow manager to run out of time in my day without getting a workout in.

In addition to that this is our first summer in our new house...what does that mean? So many house projects I've lost count. Because we decided to build our first home nothing is completed on the exterior of our home. That means everything from landscaping, fence building, deck painting, ect had to be completed. My husband and I have been very busy in our yard every single day trying to accomplish these tasks - it's been taking up most of our time.

With that being said I am still pushing forward and training like mad! I only have about 42 days left until qualifying! Crazy....my summer has just flown by.

My plan for the next 42 days - be as organized as possible. In order to keep myself on track I'm having to keep myself accountable. That means making a very strict schedule and making myself stick to it! My schedule includes when I'm going to workout, shower, work my at home business, clean, spend time with my family, ect. It means no more slacking off and getting down to business! This next 42 days is really going to test myself to see how bad do I really want this? 

I truly believe that if you want something bad enough you will find a way to make it happen.

I know that balancing it all is so difficult. Trust me I've been there this summer. Trying to jungle home projects, working from home, family, working out, ect....things have slipped through the cracks. I haven't been happy about it but sometimes these things happen.  

 So what's the plan for this upcoming week? Well I'm just coming back from a knee injury...nothing major I just had a fluke accident where I twisted my knee running home night. I've gave it a weekend off and now I'm back training without missing a beat!

This upcoming week I'm planning on doing a Beachbody workouts every single day....time to step it up! I'll be running three times this week - one interval run with 400m intervals, one tempo run and one long run. Plus I'll be going out twice on my bike. One time will be 1min intervals with high cadence for one hour and the second time will be a long ride that will take about one and a half hours for endurance.

The week after that will be a similar training schedule except instead of running 400m intervals I will be running 200m intervals....I have to say I love shorter intervals, it means I get to fly and running a super fast pace! I have to admit I have a soft spot for sprinting since I was a track and field sprinter from grade 6-12.

Wish me luck and make sure you hit that subscribe button if you want to be notified when I post my next fitness update!

Thanks so much for stopping by

What I've Learned Working From Home | Blam Bombshell Fitness

Time Management is Key
I figured I would start with the most important points first.  Without time management I would  be lost with my business. Working from home is both a blessing and dream come true, but it's not something that comes easy for a lot of people. I have no boss, I have no one telling me to be at work for 8 and if I don't show up there will be consequences. I have the luxury to sleep until noon and watch TV all day....but that's not going to help me with my business and it's not going to make me money to pay my bills and put food on the table. Time management is so key in business, it helps keep me on track and achieve my goals for the day.

I like to end my day by sitting down and writing out my next day's detailed schedule. This includes what time I plan on getting up, when I plan on taking breaks, working out, spending time with my family, ect. I write down everything and I assign a time line to my day. I make sure I cover everything I need to do for my business that day.

Then at the end of the day I evaluate what took longer than expected, what took less time, what still needs to be done, what are the most important things to be done and I make a new schedule for the next day. It's sort of a never ending cycle. I wont plan more than one day because you never know what's going to happen day to day. Sometimes I have emergency that will pull me away from my work and some items don't get done so I bump them to the next day.

There are so many fancy ways to plan and make schedules, I guess I'm old fashion because I use a pen and paper to make my day to day schedules. I date each page at the top and I write down my list of what needs to get done that day and I make a timeline. Throughout my day I will check things off as I go and make notes....find what works best for you.

Get Organized
Another key point! Organization is so important, when I'm making out my schedule for the day I give myself very limited time to complete tasks. For example I might only give myself 30min to respond to new customers. If I'm unorganized and I can't find my computer, loose my customer list, forget who's inquired about products it could eat away precision time from my 30min.

I need to be able to sit down and pick up where I left off to maximize my 30min to connect with my new customers and get them connected with products, signing them up for upcoming events, ect.

Moving seamlessly from one task to another will allow me to get the most out of my day.

Take breaks
I'm a workaholic...it's my best and worst skill. I will work and work and work and then realize that it's 1 in the afternoon and I haven't had a glass of water or stopped for a bathroom break all day! It's important for your health, your sanity and your concentration to stop and take breaks.

I found that when I'm at home I get distracted during my breaks so be careful with this. I might say ok between 10 - 10:15 I'm taking a 15min break....but then when I walk away from my computer I notice that the laundry isn't done and then the floor needs to be cleaned and by the time I realize it I've wasted 2hours cleaning my house.

To stop this from happening I'm very specific with my time. Instead of a 15min break I will say 15min snack break or 15min laundry break. If your like me I need to always have a clean house...so since your working from home give yourself some cleaning breaks. I think it's so therapeutic. That way I can work from a nice clean home and still stay on track. Just remember the more breaks you take the longer you have to stretch your work day. Instead of working 8-5 and taking minimal breaks you might work 8-8 but be taking several breaks throughout the day.

It will all balance out in the end, do what works best for you and your family. If you have small kids in school you might end up breaking up your day, for example work 5-7 before your kids get up, then 9-3 while they are in school and then 9-11 when they are in bed (for course you could shorten this by taking fewer breaks).

Working at home is a luxury, take advantage of the opportunity and make a schedule that works for you & your family.




I have to say that I LOVE working from home. For me and my family it is really a dream come true! It really is a gift that I have to take advantage of, these are just a few tips and advice I can give someone either starting out on their work from home journey or someone who is struggling with their current routine.

I would love to hear any advice that you have for me! If you work from home please let me know in the comments below, what have you learned working from home?