Yep, everyone is thinking about summer….oh those tight shirts and short shorts!

This is when I get bombarded with questions about what to eat, how to train, how to get in shape in the least amount of time….!

I have the perfect solution. And it’s FREE. It’s called the 8-Week BLISS Body Makeover Program and it is my gift to women everywhere. Both in-gym and at home program, and yes, take it on holidays with you! Please!

It’s for sale on my web site for $69.00 but it’s FREE with purchase of my popular training and lifestyle book One Rep at a Time! You get a link to the videos, workout cards, eating plans and lifestyle plan to get you there in 8 weeks.

So what are you waiting for? Really. And I’m there to answer any questions you may have…as part of the program purchase.

So please, accept my gift to you. What have you got to lose, except some excess fat and out-dated perceptions of what is possible for an older woman…yep, you CAN turn back the clock! Promise!

karen

PS One Rep at a Time – which includes the 8-Week BLISS Body Makeover Program – is available at Tanners Bookstore in Sidney, and Russell Bookstore in Victoria, BC. It’s also available at amazon.com and amazon.ca!

It’s not uncommon for women to feel confused with all this clean eating and fitness stuff. Heck, I always said that if I was just coming to this lifestyle now, I’d be confused too!

Everywhere you read, there are conflicting reports about what to eat, how to train, whether to do cardio or not (and what type).

Then there are all the latest and greatest diet aids, exercise moves, tips and theories about losing weight. There are lotions, potions, web sites, promises and guarantees for a lean, mean body. Oh boy!

So when a client of mine emailed me to say she was soooo confused and just wanted to know what to read / do, I told her to just stick to the program she’s on (my Healthy Living Program) and do the work. Simple. Everything you need is in there.

In fact, whether you’re on one of my on-line programs or someone else’s program, or even if you’ve crafted your own program, just stick with it. Because as I tell my gals, it’s less about the program or the peripherals and it’s all about the person – YOU! You simply must remain consistent, work hard, eat clean, and keep your eyes focused on your goals. Every day when you wake up, you simply assert to yourself how you want to look, feel, and live, and stick to a game plan to get you there. And love what you’re accomplishing.

We’ve got more info, and more peripherals in the gym, like Bosu’s, balls, bands and bars, but in my view, we’re not getting any fitter. In fact, we’re sliding back.

There are no magic pills, and I know you know that, but don’t just say it and move on to the next Internet or Facebook search where you might find it, this missing piece of the weight loss puzzle, that one exercise / program / food / supplement that will finally get you to where you want to go. That part is already there, laying deep within you, waiting for you to discover it and bring it forth.

I call it your inner grrr. Can you feel it? It’s there. Promise. It’s in all of us, no matter how overweight, sick, tired or fed up we are.

Reach down, peel back the layers and start that conversation with it. It’s you in the making. And it knows exactly what you need!

Like I always say, love yourself into health. Start today.

Karen

Photo L-R: Lori, Lesa, me, Eileen, Colleen and Joan….I’m pleased to announce that they all found and are using their inner grrr in the gym!

Today I was at the gym, chatting with some 10-Week Challengers about how others sometimes try to sabotage our new healthy lifestyle….. 

I’ve seen it for years: a woman starts exercising, cleans up her eating, loses weight and starts looking and feeling great, and pretty soon, others (usually women, sad, really), start uncercutting her efforts, ever-so-subtly, with little comments: ‘aren’t you finished with that program by now….you’re getting to skinny….you’re spending so much time away from your family’…or (this one is my favourite), ‘come on now, live a little, have some dessert, or a drink.’

In fact, I build this lesson into my programs, as I warn women about what could potentially happen when they get healthy. “Others may undercut you, and that’s ok. It’s part of the process.”

Why does this happen? Because when you get healthy, you act like a mirror for others to see just how unhealthy they are. You reflect back to them parts of themselves they don’t want to see or face.

This is where we need to respond with love: ‘Why don’t you come with me to the gym next time?’

Or we can let it go. For me, I learned to let it go. After so many years, no one tries to derail me anymore, because they know better. But more importantly, my ‘clan’ or tribe has changed…having worked the bar scene for a lot of years in Banff, I slowly moved away from that crowd because I was changing my lifestyle, and we simply drifted away. Now I live amongst people who take their health seriously, who enjoy exercise and good food, and whom I don’t have to explain my lifestyle to because we’re all on that same path.

So if you’re feeling resistance from loved ones, know that it’s because you are making inroads in your life, and others are starting to notice. The wise person would appreciate your efforts, and support you in your transformation. As for the others, well, pay it no mind. But remember it works both ways: we don’t appreciate them tryin gto undercut our healthy lifestyle choices, but us health-gals needn’t preach to them either. It’s their life, and we all deserve free choice. No one likes to be preached to.

Don’t stay small for anyone. It’s crazy to go back to an unhealthy lifestyle to appease others, to stay accepted by a tribe that you may no longer fit into. And that’s ok.

Live your live with energy, vitality, and pride. Know your worth. Work your bodies and your souls. Dare to expand yourselves.  You are sooo worth it!

karen

(Right: Challenger Graduate Joan Tocher works it at PAK Fitness in Sidney. She’s showing obvious signs of her new, healthy lifestyle! Lookin great Joan!

It’s always sad when I finish a class.

This past week, I completed my 6-week Women on Weights class at PAK Fitness in Sidney. Five amazing women met 3 times a week to lift, laugh and trade stories.

Each class is so different in who shows up, but what they all have in common is women wanting to better themselves physically, mentally and nutritionally. 

These women all put themselves first, if only for an hour a day, to strengthen their bodies and minds, despite their busy days. Because our ‘stuff’ never goes away, and we must move through it as best we can. And at times, moving through it as best we can is all we can do.

I know there were days when I certainly showed up to class tired and frustrated as I struggled to balance my own on-season training and dieting commitments with a busy business, family obligations and a special needs son whose special needs suddenly increased even moreso when he was faced with an ugly lung infection that had him bed-ridden and requiring round-the-clock care.

We all have a story, and as we trained and talked, we were reminded of this fact over and over again. We are all on a journey, and we simply must do the best we can. These women, like all women before them, have learned to go with the ebb and flow of it all, and they fit themselves in between the cracks somehow.

You ladies never missed a beat, and I thank you for your commitment, your focus, and in lifting ME up. I truly looked  forward to our morning classes that was like a breath of fresh air in a crazy world.

I will miss you all….my mornings just haven’t been the same without you! So Lesa, Colleen, Sherry, Patricia and Lori…keep on keepin’ on! You are soooo worth it!

See you at the gym!

karen

PS: Check out PAK Fitness’ Web site for FREE Gym training and Tanning coupons!

So many times I’m asked, “what kind of training should  I do?”

“Should I lift heavy weights? How many sets? Do cardio first or after a workout, and how much? How much protein should I eat? How many days should I train? How often should I change it up? Order of exercises, sets, reps? What about functional fitness? Cross fit? Zumba…..?”

And it’s truly the same with food (ah yes, that one area where we fall down the most!). You can’t look fantastic if you indulge in designer coffees and muffins. You MUST change your relationship (and how you see it) to food.

I always say that us lean people simply think differently…ask the 100+ women on my on-line programs….it is constant support and a slow move to the other side of eating, one where food builds your body, and it’s incredibly tasty, filling and life-affirming! And you truly don’t even desire or want for the ‘old’ way of eating. In time, you will look around at how the majority eats and think, “that’s weird. I wouldn’t think to eat like that…anymore.” Yep, then you know you’ve ‘arrived’. 🙂

See, it’s really simple…

What are your goals? What do you want?

How do you want to look and live? ( I leave out how do you want to feel because everyone wants to feel great).

For me, every day is crystal clear: as a woman over 50, I want tone, shape, strength. I want to do a fitness regime that challenges me, that allows me to change it up just enough, but not so much that I risk no progress. I want to see my body’s shape change with time. I want to be able to mold it accordingly, and to see it improve with age. And I DO NOT want to live the story that most over-50 women live…”I have middle-age spread because of my age / hormones / stress.” “My metabolism has changed since I’ve gotten older.” “It’s harder now to keep the weight off.” “I had to go on medication because of….(fill in the blanks….almost always due to a slow decrease in training, eating, living well).”

So define what you want, really. Leave the excuses at home, at the doctor’s office, at the shrink’s office, at work, and just decide today that you will live your life with YOU in mind. And affirm that you will open up to it, and do the work required. You will accept full responsibility for where you are now and move forward. No need to beat yourself up.

Step into your life. It’s waiting for you…!

karen

PS We start the 10-Week Best Shape of YOUR Life on Friday….I am so excited! Thanks to all the brave women who are choosing to step back into their lives! I will be with you every step of the way!

I’m often asked what the single most important aspect of my success. Is it education? Training? Tenacity? Motivation?

For me, the single most important personal aspect is my rebelliousness.

Funny, most of my life I conformed to what was expected. I did 9-5 jobs that were ‘secure’ and consistent. I bought into traditional health care and education, I got married, had a child, got that mortgage.

But deep down inside I’ve always been a rebel. I sucked at conforming….don’t get me wrong, on the surface it all looked good. I was doing what I was supposed to do, what kept me in line, safe, towing the party line. But deep inside, my spirit was drying up.

Then came weights….ahhh, I was liberated. Thirty years ago there simply were no women weight training (perfect!), so it was the perfect opportunity for me to create a lifestyle that bucked the very system I was slowly being swallowed up by.

I see this same rebelliousness in all the women I weight train today. They are all out there in their own little worlds, in various countries, all on my on-line programs, all bucking expectations, women who dare to better their bodies and take the heat for it (like the best friend that tells you you’re getting too skinny, and to stop all this ‘dieting and training stuff’…yep, the worst undercutters are still female friends and family).  

These past 2 weeks I’ve had the pleasure of talking with over 30 women from my 10 and 12-Week Best Shape Challenges with their free 30-minute coaching call with me, and I am always so impressed with their tenacity, commitment, honesty and focus.

It’s not to say they are always staying the course…there are times when we all get knocked off our training and best intentions at healthy eating, but they have that inner ‘grrr’, that conviction that says, “I’m worth it,” and they get back up and carry on. They buck a system that says women are supposed to take care of others first (martyrdom), who are not supposed to ask questions of their doctor (my doctor would love if I learned that one!), that the 9-5 grind in a lifeless job brings us security and a healthy retirement (yawn). They rebel against stereotypes (stay soft, small, non-confrontational) and they defer to authority, bosses, husbands, doctors…those in supposed positions of power (I won’t even get into that one!).

All my women are learning (and I’m learning from them) that owning and growing our precious power is not about a certain position, a job, or an income. It’s a thought process, a choice that starts in our heads. And the ability to see life as choice, and to rebel against the powers-that-be that keep us small is our god-given right as people, as women, mothers, sisters and wives. 

So when you feel small or marginialized by a system that isn’t quite set up to set you free, go to the gym. Lift that weight. Connect to that power. Make it grow. And take that out into the world. It’s your gift, your right, your privelege.

karen

PS: Sign up for my popular 10-Week Best Shape of YOUR Life Challenge has begun. Grab your seat today! ONLY 20 SPOTS!

At Real Women, Real Success Wednesday night, the crowd asked me what my definition of success was. Easy. For me, it was finding and living my life’s purpose.

After the show, women came up to chat with me and we continued the conversation. And I am receiving many emails regarding this very thing every day….

It took me until the tender age of 48 to find my purpose. Prior to that I floundered for many, many years. I didn’t want a ‘job’, I wanted to wake up every day excited about my contribution to the world, and be able to make a living at it, to live and work my passion. What a great combination! I simply did not want to live the ‘traditional’ way that has us watching the clock till quitting time, waiting for paid holidays, working to earn a pension and retire (play it safe, girlie!), and then what? I wanted to live for each and every day, with health, energy, certainty, passion and purpose! I simply hated to conform…it was sucking my spirit dry. 

When I created McCoy Fitness & Health, my health improved dramatically and my spirit soared. And it’s still up there, circling the stratosphere! And every day I feel eternally grateful and certain about why I’m here and my role in the big picture. I’m here to share my knowledge and inspire women to live healthy, full, rich lives in body, mind and spirit, and they know that I walk among them as their equal, as we all struggle with overcoming challenges, self doubt, fear, confusion and loss. 

So how do you know your life’s purpose? In my paid Monthly Healthy Living Program we have Tele-coaching calls, and several months ago, our theme was this very thing. I want to share this with all of you, in hopes that it may ‘spark’ something in you, to help move you out of your rut and into your life’s purpose.

But here’s a glimpse for you…start writing down on a piece of paper what you think it may be……keep writing….what you love to do? What would your perfect day be? (It must include being of service, that’s purpose). It doesn’t matter if it doesn’t come right away…it may take minutes or days.

When you finally come to a sentence that makes you cry….you know you’ve found your life’s purpose!

Please enjoy Finding Your Life’s Purpose. (Click on the link to listen!)

karen

PS: Many thanks for your queries about my book, One Rep at a Time. It is available at Munro’s, Russel Books and Bolen Books in Victoria, Tanners in Sidney, and Amazon.com and Amazon.ca. And it includes the 8-Week Bliss Body Makeover Program for free! Enjoy!

Last night I had the pleasure of joining about 250 women at the Raymond James’ Real Women, Real Success symposium in Victoria.

As I drove to the lecture, I was trying to gather my thoughts and prepare myself for what the audience would likely ask me and the other panelists.

What is your defnition of success? What advice can you offer other women on the path to success? What traits do you need to be a truly successful women?

Here’s the thing: I had a hard time thinking I was a successful women.

Really? Me? Someone who still struggles with building her company, who has long days and nights away from her family, who is still trying to find ‘balance’ in a world who says success is defined by those who attain it!

I started thinking, I’m a sham. A fake. What the heck could I offer these women about success when I was still working on it myself? (Yep, even supposedly ‘successful women’ have self-doubts!)

I called my husband. “I really can’t believe that I’m doing this…I feel so scattered, tired, we haven’t gone on holidays in 5 years…”

I hung up, pulled over on the side of the road, took a few deep breaths, and then it all came to me….

So when I was asked (it was inevitable) at the symposium what my definition of success was, I had my answer:

“Many people think of success as financial freedom, lots of holidays, a great career. And all that stuff is great. But success for me, and for all the women I teach and mentor in my training programs, is just the simple act of acting on it every day. We falter, and get up again. And that’s a successful woman: the one who always gets up, despite the odds.

We don’t strive for perfection, or a single goal necessarily, we strive for excellence, and when we falter, when we’re tired, dragged out, feelign lifeless and lost, we know other women feel the same, and we know we are in a community of like women, and in that community are story after story of women all struggling to do the same.

To me, that’s what a successful woman is: not someone who lives the perfect life, but one who strives to live a bettr life, and who gets knocked down but grows in strength every time she pulls herself up. It’s about reclaiming our power, and knowing it’s there, even when we doubt it.”

Many thanks to all the amazing women at Raymond James, Victoria who put on this great event to support and inspire women in our community. And many thanks to all the women who showed up (and a few token men!), and who are all a piece of this wonderful female community fabric called Victoria!

And many thanks to all the women I spoke with after the show: know your worth, know your power is within, and know that even if you feel powerless (at this time), it is sitting there, waiting for you to reach down and access it. It never leaves you. Promise. You will shine again….!

karen

On Feb 1st I opened up my Healthy Living Program for $1, not knowing who would show up and what the response would be.

Boy, was I nicely surprised! Eighteen amazingly brave and supportive women showed up, and they have been a sheer pleasure to work with. Really. And I just love hearing all the feedback. Here’s what Trish Flanders of Victoria had to say. 

“It’s been 3 weeks since joining (the HLP) and this is the best I’ve felt in a very long time! Yep, I’ve been sore after each workout but that’s okay – and I realize that I do have muscles!! I feel energized and happy that I’m on my way to a healthy lifestyle.  There’s so much to learn from you…

I feel very positive about the new direction and changes I’m making.  I want to take charge of my health, body, mind and spirit – and through your program I know I can do it.  In the two short weeks of lifting weights, coupled with the cleanest eating I have ever done in my life, I love how I feel!”

Many thanks to all who took a leap of faith and joined us on our healthy living bandwagon journey!

Now, onward, ladies….

Karen

Only 24 hours left to grab your spot in my $1 for one month of the Healthy Living Program! Spring has sprung!! Are you spring-ready??

I remember when I decided I didn’t like my shape…

It happened about 3 or 4 years ago. I was walking my dog along our country road and it was a sunny, warm day. I love the sun, always have, and this day was particularly inviting.

Then I looked down at the ground and saw my shadow….and it caught me off guard.

My hips were wider than my shoulders, and my waist was thick, thicker than I had ever known before. But it was the narrow shoulders that really got me…forget the pair shape…I looked like an apple with a pear bottom.

Hmmm…seems the last 5 years of not doing anything had taken hold of my shape and left me with, well, no real shape. I was 48 and not liking my shadow shape.

That was when I decided to get back to the gym, after a long hiatus due to anxiety and depression, (my son’s diagnosis which knocked the steam out of me) and I just lost sight, really. I lost my spirit, my gumption, my ‘inner grrr’ as I call it.

It was time. I knew what to do. I went into action.

Fast-forward a few years and I’m happy to say that my shadow has rearranged itself! My shoulders are now wider than my hips and my waist has a taper to it. All that time and effort paid off, and continues to every day. That’s what I love about weight training…you are the sculptor and you can rearrange your body in whatever way you want! You can’t do that with walking, running, cycling, hiking and all the cardio in the world.

So if you don’t like your shadow, make the choice to change it! It just takes consistency and energy.

And weight training, of course! 🙂

karen

PS – I’ll be closing out my special $1 for one month of the Healthy Living Program! If you want to check it out, please do so now! It ends in 6 days! Come join us! Your shadow will love you for it!