Blog
The Morrow Family Ultimate Reset – In Relentless Pursuit of Excellence with Nutrition
TOGETHER…we’re BETTER! 
Our family is doing the Ultimate Reset TOGETHER and we’d love for you to follow along and find if this is something you and your family might be interested in?
In Relentless Pursuit of Excellence…as a family!
TRACI
Mothering…In Relentless Pursuit of Excellence
What does being a “good mom” mean to you? Can you rattle off a list? Does it look like YOUR mom, or perhaps like a television mom from the 50′s? Does she look put together always, have the kitchen well stocked with snacks & menu’s planned, laundry fresh smelling and put away, beds all made, meals all home made and healthy? Does she have an endless supply of energy and patience, and is she frugal with the family budget, leaving enough after the necessities to go to the movies or to take the kids somewhere fun? 
Or does a “good mom” work all day then come home and help with homework, while she cooks dinner, keeps the house in order, gets her workout in, with the laundry done & garden tended? Is she organized? Does she buy organic? Does she sit in the evening and hear of the kids’ day, then tuck them in and then spend quality time with her husband? Or is she a hard working single mom who would LOVE to fall in love again but barely has the energy to play both roles of Mom and Dad to her kids? Does she ever have guilt? Does she ever feel like a failure? Does she second guess herself and pray God can see her heart, despite her feelings of insignificance or perhaps failure? Do you think of yourself when you think “good mom”?
I think there is such an inner struggle for modern moms. 
In 2012, we have to help bring home the bacon, AND fry it up in a pan. (for those who are too young to know, that was a commercial from the 70′s) There is a heavy load on the shoulders of a woman who desires to be a good mom, while maintaining her womanhood. We have come a long way in busting through the glass ceiling in the working world for women, but honestly – though we’ve found our place in the business world, we are also wired for nurturing our kids and taking care of our home. Instead of giving us “freedom” to be viewed as equals in a “mans world”; its tripled our responsibilities and we’re left feeling overworked and truthfully, often spread so thin we feel like our efforts are ineffective. The equality movement actually caused us to play both roles as provider and nurturer and while we may love being a mom and working, most of us are burned out. Was there ever supposed to be a line dividing the two roles, I don’t know, but I choose to look to God’s word to find who I am and even more importantly; who I am meant to be. Because in my head I’ve taken all the worlds ideals and tried to do it all and be it all. Somewhere along the line I thought being my best meant doing everything the best and I stand before you today to wave the flag and say “I cannot do it all and be it all”. Whew! That felt good to admit, though I suspect you already knew. ;o)
I WANT to be fit, and healthy, and have open loving, life changing conversations with my kids.
I want to have a romantic and close relationship with my kids’ dad; my man.
I want to serve organic, well balanced meals and snacks to myself and my kids.
I want to be active in my church and community.
I love my calling as a Beachbody Coach!
I want to have a clean house, clean laundry, and the gas tank full.
I want our family pets to be groomed and up to date on their shots.
I want to be right on time to schedule all dental and medical appts and teach the kids how important it is to be on time for them.
I want to attend all of their sporting events and banquets, volunteering to make a casserole for them all, and having it be the best tasting casserole. (do people still make casseroles?)
I want to be a good daughter to my parents, a good sister to my siblings, a super fun aunt who always has a funny joke or fun present when I see my nieces or nephews.
I want my kids to have shoes that fit, clothes without grass stains on the knees, and a wardrobe that’s in fashion.
I want to have a garden and use the fresh herbs in my organic meals.
I want to remember to water said garden.
I want to have hours to listen to my teenagers figure life out and add invaluable guidance that they will take, after hanging on my ever wise word.
I want to have a thriving business.
I want to be team mom, room mom, PTA President, mom of the year.
I want to make daily lists and mark off every thing on it.
I want to tweet, facebook, blog, yelp and youtube till my hearts content.
I want to sit patiently with my younger kids as they do their homework.
I want to play soccer or hopscotch with my kids.
I want to plan fun family vacations & romantic getaways.
I want my kids to learn to serve and love those less fortunate than they are.
I want to build humility, strength of character, and instill core values into my kids so at every step of life they implement what they’ve learned and it serves them and those around them well in this life.
I want my kids to love, honor, and respect the God who created them, and live passionate lives for Him!
Those are some of the biggies, but I have lots of little ones, as I suspect you do too – like driving for all field trips, volunteering, family game nights, and reading lots of self improvement books and then actually implementing what I read. What I’m coming to realize is that I have to continue to strive to take good care of all that’s been entrusted to me, but also cut myself some slack and BE STILL and KNOW that He is God. I will NEVER be able to do all these things – and what I’ve found is that I can do all that God calls me to do, in HIS strength! On my own, I crash and burn and wear myself out, then beat myself up for what I didn’t do.
So I’m learning – and invite you to learn as well – that love covers a multitude of error. That if we love the people who are entrusted to us, then we’ve done the best part! And in the end, it wont matter as much what we did, as much as who, and how we loved. And Who we trust in to give us all we need, as we need it.
So if you have a messy house, ratty lookin’ dogs, a mound of laundry, cereal for dinner, a quarter tank of gas in your car that needs a tune up, you missed your workout today, and you snapped at your teenager this morning – join the club. Its full of other “good moms” doing their best.
In Relentless Pursuit of Excellence~
TRACI
In Relentless Pursuit of Excellence: A Marriage To Last A Lifetime
Life is full, and in the Morrow family with 6 kids – 5 still at home, we are all seemingly always passing one another as we come and go. Its actually rare these days when all 8 of us in the same spot. 
Its weird how our family has morphed over the last 21+ years of marriage, 
and today I’m a little introspective about it. Its Saturday afternoon and KC just rode off on his bike with Joey and Bradley on theirs, Holli is in her room studying, and Bayli and Linnie are vegging out in front of the tv: thrilled to not have plans and content to get to be slugs for the afternoon. KC, our oldest, is in college, but this weekend he and some of his buddies are camping out at the Coachella weekend multi-band concert. I’m sitting here at my computer looking out the window at a little squirrel running along one of the higher branches of our big oak tree out front. Thinking. Pondering. Sometimes I do that; just sit back and zoom out the lens I view my life through and take it in as an observer, looking for things to be thankful for, and areas where I see room for personal improvement. Do you do that? Well today I’m thinking about our family and how blessed I am to be still married to this man I love and how we’ve made it work through thick and thin, richer and 
poorer, through sicknesses and healthier days, and still connected, still active in one another’s personal growth, still loving and liking each other. There were truthfully times when things were rickety as we figured life out together as two very different people, and just this morning over breakfast we were discussing how cool it is that with 21+ years of marriage behind us, we really have figured out how to come alongside the other and strengthen one another’s weaknesses as we compliment the other’s strengths. Kind of like our own personal dance. And I wonder “How have we done that, Lord? How can I pass on to our kids or anyone who’s interested in finding how to get to this point?” How can I share the secret, if you want to call it that, to a fulfilling long term marriage? Well, surely not in one blog post but hopefully by living out loud and on purpose, in relentless pursuit of excellence, while pointing out what we did in hopes that it helps someone else who desires to have a healthy marriage that lasts a lifetime.
The core relationship in a healthy, successful family is the marriage. The marriage is the nucleus of the family, and unfortunately so many couples get it reversed – and the kids become the central focus of the family. I have observed and spoken with so many wives who want more from their marriage, and yet dont even feel like a woman anymore because they’ve lost themselves in the mother role. Don’t get me wrong – I’m a HUGE fan of Motherhood! HUGE! Its why I have a gackle of kids! But the truth is, when we moms fall in love with our newborn baby; so helplessly needy, dependent on us for every thing in order to live; that can cause a shift in balance that can be so beautiful, yet potentially dangerous to the marriage relationship. We LOVE to feel needed, we are hardwired to nurture,
and find purpose and true joy in lavishing our baby with all the things that enable them to become who they were created to be. But that love comes on so fast and overpowering, and that big old man who sleeps beside you can suddenly appear less than “cute and cuddly” than that yummy smelling baby who needs you so desperately. I get it. Its something most women go through, that shift in love and focus and purpose, and without a mentor mom or two, who are a step or more ahead of you in life’s journey, a woman can begin to feel a bit distanced from her husband. We can even feel somewhat heroic and find our purpose in “doing anything” for our kids. Sadly, to the detriment to our marriage relationship; and fullness of who you are as a balanced woman. Marriage and Family Therapist John Rosemond says, “What happens is that the mother spends so much time with the child that the father’s role ends up being a parenting aid.” Not good. The baby quickly grows into a child who is in a position of power that is too much for them to handle because the family is out of balance, the dad feels undervalued, and the mom feels unfulfilled and under-appreciated as a woman. I am in such opposition to the commercials and tv shows depicting the father as a dufus or worthless tv watcher while the wife rules the family! It breaks my heart when I see shows where its assumed that worthless dad wont have anything to add, and if he does, he’s patted on the head like a child or worse, everyone is shocked that he stumbled into an answer or solution that actually added value! It SO undermines the critical role of a father; speaking as a wife who has seen the incredible value of the father in my kids lives. Maybe most marriages go through this season on some level or another, but the sooner parents can get their relationship back to being the core relationship of the family, will order be restored in the home. And what if you’re reading this and your “baby” is a teen or young adult? There’s absolutely hope! As Chuck Swindoll says: “No marriage is “too dead” for the Lord to restore!”
I want to encourage you if you are reading this right now, feeling like your marriage has come off the tracks. I have seen marriages where the husband and wife are so far apart they are pretty much roommates be radically transformed with time, attention, and intention. Truthfully, our marriage has slipped into that feeling at various times. Going through the motions,
busy in life routines, living together but not emotionally connected, not feeling particularly close and not really caring. “Dullsville”. ;o) Thankfully our communication was open enough that one or both of us would notice, and we made a conscious effort to change it up and intentionally re-build and re-connect. Marriage takes work. HARD WORK. Intentionally connecting and investing into the relationship because you made a promise to one another, and to God, when you stood in front of your spouse and made promises. Your word matters. No matter what place you are in right now, let me encourage you that feelings will come and go, but promises – a covenant – matters. And love and warm fuzzy feelings can come back, even stronger than it first was. Its that thing only God can do with our willing hearts. There is something about a love that has stood the test of time and storms, and the reward that comes from promises kept. It becomes a force all of its own. 
Because the truth is, you WILL grow apart. Everyone does. Who EVER remains the same over decades of living, observing life, and purposely growing? But the beauty and challenge of marriage that lasts a lifetime is allowing one another to grow and change while continuing to intentionally stay connected. KC and I have had “Date Night” since the year or two before our youngest two kids joined the family. Sure, we did things like take walks together in the old days when the older four were younger, but not on the weekly basis that we do now. Back then life was slower so it wasnt a necessity to have that specified time because we connected more regularly. But as life transitioned to a faster pace, we carved out a time for just us and its not an option that we bump our date. I love that. We both do.
How can YOU reconnect and stay connected? Start small. Have a conversation. Go Raw. Not “in” the raw (though if that helps the conversation, have at it ), but be transparent and take the risk of opening your heart and asking for what you’d like, what your goal is, and how much you desire for your marriage to be the most it can be. Express it from a place of love. Only you know if you need to apologize for any part of the current situation, though in any marriage I know that the good and bad take two. So beginning with your own heart, share what you’d love to see in your marriage. No accusing. This conversation may come out of left field for your spouse, especially if the bad habits are old habits, so allow him the space to hear what you’re really saying and perhaps some time to digest the authenticity. No accusations. Yes, I know I already said that, I just want to drive it home. When have you ever been motivated to change when someone accuses you? Me? 
Um…probably none. At least not in that conversation. So be kind, remembering that “a gentle word turns away wrath” and “like apples of gold in settings of silver, so is a word aptly spoken”. If you feel you need a mediator or counselor to help you, GO BROKE to save your marriage! Its worth it. Who cares if you have money in the bank and a broken family? Do all you can, as it pertains to you, to keep the peace and ferociously protect what really matters to you. You cant control another person – just keep working on you. There is no promise for the perfect ending, but love covers a multitude of error, so just keep working to love, and working on you.
I did a year study on leaders and do you know what I found? Most don’t finish well. That was disheartening, but further cemented my resolve to relentlessly pursue excellence, set up personal accountability with other like minded people, so that I finish well. I want my marriage to last the length of my life and as far as it pertains to me, I want to give my all to protect it and grow it so that God is honored, and KC
feels loved fearlessly by me. And in the end….my kids will see that it CAN be done, love CAN last a lifetime, and hopefully they’ll relentlessly pursue excellence and finishing well as well! Its my deepest prayer…..and I pray that for you too. Please feel free to comment below and ask for prayer for your marriage and list your names. I commit to pray for you, and ask you to do the same for me.
TOGETHER….we’ll live….
In Relentless Pursuit Of Excellence,
TRACI
It’s Good To Have A Friend
That’s what my favorite sweatshirt says on the back. On the front is Snoopy and Charlie Brown hugging. I LOVE Snoopy but I also love the message of that shirt. Its true, isnt it? We all need a friend, and you’re blessed indeed if you have one or two or even three that you can share life with. I mean REALLY share life with them. The deepest, perhaps not so attractive side of you – the raw human part of you that needs to sometimes share unfiltered and still be accepted. Do you have a friend like that? I’m blessed to say that I have a small few. But I had no idea how very rare it is until I started working closely with people, only to find that many people crave to find those close friends that love them like a brother or sister. But on top of that, I found that according to a Gallup Poll, friendship actually helps you perform better in your career if you have a close friend doing your work WITH you.
And that’s what I want to blog about today. This business of Team Beachbody Coaching and the ability to invite your friends to do this WITH YOU!
Check out these statistics on ‘Friends in the Workplace’ from Gallup Polls:
- People who have a “best friend” at work are seven times more likely to be engaged in their work. They also have fewer accidents, more engaged customers, and are more likely to innovate and share new ideas.
- People with at least three close friends at work were 46% more likely to be extremely satisfied with their job and 88% more likely to be satisfied with their life.
- The research overall shows that the quality of the friendships in your life are the best predictors of daily happiness and life satisfaction, and have profound implications for your physical health and longevity.
- Do friends shape your waistline? If your best friend has a very healthy diet, you are more than five times as likely to have a very healthy diet yourself.
- Successful friendships are the ones in which friends play a specific role in your life. The fatal mistake in friendships is forcing one person to fill every role.
The beauty of Beachbody Coaching is that we get to choose who we invite to work with us! Do you know what that means??? We get to work with our friends!! Is it any wonder why our business and message is spreading so quickly?! Statistics above show that we are more satisfied, more innovative, and those we serve are more engaged because we’re HAVING A BLAST! I have said since we launched the network that “TOGETHER…we’re BETTER!” That doesn’t mean we’re better than other people, it just means you make me better and I hopefully make you better by simply working TOGETHER. We get and stay fitter TOGETHER, we play a specific role in one anothers lives, and we are more satisfied in our lives….because of one anothers involvement! Those are pretty powerful statistics!
So, I ask you – why not join in the fun and share YOUR ideas? My team and I are just waiting to live and enjoy life – WITH YOU!
In Relentless Pursuit of Excellence,
TRACI
TRACI answers YOUR questions :)
I think its fun to take some time every now and again and answer questions asked of me privately, on my public blog. Especially the ones that are asked more than once, because then I know its a question many people might be wondering. Most of them are personal, but the occasional question has to do with actual coaching. So kick back and read along to see if YOUR question gets answered, and in the process learn more about me than you may ever have wanted to know. ;o)
Q. Traci, my wife is pregnant and swears you must have had surgery to remove the excess skin after having all your kids. I told her I read somewhere once that you said you’d had no surgeries. Would you mind answering this email in attention to my wife to give her some hope that you CAN get a ripped stomach after pregnancy?
Happy to answer this one because I get asked a lot. I am thankful to report that I have never had any kind of plastic surgery, whether to remove excess skin, or remove fat, or enhance commonly enhanced body parts. ;o) Funny thing though – no one ever asks if I’ve had a boob job?! lol Okay, all silliness aside, I was genetically blessed with skin that stretched without stretch marks – in fact the nurses used to call to one another when I came in that “the mom with no stretch marks” was here! I use Palmers Cocoa Butter lotion (bought at Target at the advice of my sister, a mom of four) which makes me smell like marshmallows and is great for keeping the skin soft and hydrated from the outside, and drank lots of water. Hydrating your skin helps against stretch marks, but in the end its a lot about genetics. As for shrinking the skin after weight loss, pregnancy or otherwise, hydrating your skin from the outside and inside is your best pro-active step! Time and consistency with clean eating, exercise, and hydrating (drinking lots of water) will slowly help your skin to firm up. I’m not opposed to plastic surgery but do all you can do naturally before you go under the knife! (and remember that you cant have had surgery if you want to be considered for the Team Beachbody Challenge!) The last thing I want to say on this subject is: PLEASE remember that your body was made for giving birth and while we would love to have firm skin forever, the reality is, we arent designed to stay young for life. Learn to appreciate your body for providing a safe, healthy place for your baby to grow and dont curse the marks of passage from woman to mother. Please dont strive for perfection. Be the best YOU you can be, and be thankful for your body, by taking care of it.
Q. You look more fit in P90X2 than you did in P90X+. What programs have you been doing in between filming?
First of all, THANK YOU and I LOVE YOU, and CAN WE BE BEST FRIENDS FOR LIFE!?!? It is so nice to hear as a woman nearly 42 years old (my birthday is in a few weeks) that I look more physically fit now than I did when I was 36! I feel like pausing from my computer and doing a cartwheel for that fun compliment!!! <3 This is also a hard won compliment because I have begun early pre-menopause symptoms, which includes a slowing of metabolism, hot flashes, and the common characteristic of body fat gathering on the abs that WAS NOT A PROBLEM BEFORE!!! booohoo! But taking my own advice from the answer above, I understand that this is common for women as we age, so I have spent the last year + trying to find a new norm for my eating and workouts to see if I can beat the odds of nature. Or at least go down kicking and screaming. That means making sure I take my calcium supp to ward off osteoporosis, weight train (easy!), and play with my cardio. Since the filming of P90X+ I’ve done about 5 half marathons, one marathon, P90X, Insanity, Asylum, Turbo Fire, mixed in always with Tony style of training. I helped run a test group for Body Gospel, run a weekly fit club where we are trying all Beachbody programs, and always use running as a supplemental workout to my program. I continue to eat clean, though I’m a terrible water drinker (just not really a thirsty person), try to remember to take my supps, and Shakeology every day. That’s what I’ve done since I found Power90 back in 2003, and hope to continue for the rest of my life. Thanks again for the compliment! 
Q. I didn’t know you were in P90X+?! Are you in any other programs?
Actually I have been blessed to be in three of Tony’s series. Power90 Masters Series (my hair is darker, and longer and flippy; think Carol Brady circa 1970 ;o) – I was growing it out – show some mercy! ), P90X+, and P90X2 Plyocide. I laugh and giggle on all sets, be forewarned. Its just what happens when I get around Tony Horton. He’s a dear friend, I think he is one of the funniest people I’ve met on this planet, and I love him like a flesh and blood brother. From the time I met him I’ve told him what I believe to this day: He is made for the worlds stage. He is funny, inspiring, caring, and the real deal. Created to bless many. I’m thankful to say that his life has graced and blessed mine. <3 Its an honor to lift him up and promote him in any way I can.
Q. Do you ever have a cheat meal? If so, what?
Um……my answer isnt exactly what you might think. I don’t cheat. I don’t attach gu
ilt to food or drink. If I choose to have it, I have earned it with my workouts and clean eating, and I will eat and drink what I want if I feel like it. Guilt free. And I dont and wont consider it cheating. Its freeing to view food like this, and its been a process with me. At first I was all or nothing. No cheating. I was crazy lean and hungry usually most of the time. I learned to live with it because I was learning a new way of viewing food and discipline. But my stomach was a road map of veins I got so lean and my cycle stopped several times. And my husband (thankfully) said “Your muscle looks cool, from an aesthetic standpoint, but it doesn’t look womanly anymore”. Greatest words spoken. It freed me to put on a little weight, not to live hungry, and realize that I was no longer a slave to food and I didnt have to be so anal anymore. Oh, how I need him in my life to speak the truth in love. And he doesn’t mince words. He gets straight to the point and that works for me. It was a process, and your story might not be the same as mine, but the goal is to view food as fuel, and to enjoy it and take care of your body in the process. 
Q. How tall are you and how much do you weigh?
I am just under 5’3″, but not as “short” as 5’2 3/4. ;o) hee I would guess I weigh anywhere between 112-118 but I don’t have a scale. Haven’t owned one since 2004. I have three daughters and I didn’t want them measuring themselves by a number on a scale. I use a measuring tape and go by how my pants fit. My sweet maternal grandmother, now passed away, used to say to never let yourself get more than 3 pounds up; cut back and bring it back to where you are comfortable. I love that advice. Its timeless. So I go by my inches – if my thighs get 3/4 inch up, I restrict my calories for a week and it gets back to normal. But I don’t measure often, and NEVER the week before my cycle!!!! That’s plain crazy! Mostly I try to focus on what I can do because I am fit, not what I look like.
This was so fun! Thanks for writing and asking me questions. I’m happy to answer them and hope it in some way encourages you or inspires you in your quest to Live Healthy and Live in Relentless Pursuit of Excellence!
Blessings!
TRACI
“Just work on your assignment; you don’t have to plan the lesson too”
Those are the words my husband texted me this morning. Whether he intended to or not, he spoke volumes to my heart. That one powerful, heart changing, mind freeing comment gave me a complete perspective shift.
For those of you who know me, whether through my blog, or fitness videos, or through Beachbody Coaching, you know that I have six kids; aged 6-18. Our oldest son KC is in college, and our youngest son Bradley is in kindergarten. There is a broad spectrum of parenting styles and roles that I play. The longer I’m a mom and the older I get, the more I realize there is so much to learn to be the kind of woman, wife, mother, friend, follower of Christ that I strive deep in my heart to be. The older my kids get, the more I want to really drive home all the points I’ve brought them up with, and the more I realize they need a different style of parenting. Less instructing, more mentoring, more listening. Less telling them WHAT to do, and more providing guidance as they try out their own decision making skills. HONESTLY: this is SO difficult to do!!!!
When they were little I could help solve their problems and point out to them what God desires to teach them in that situation and they TOTALLY listened. They believed because they believed in me, and I was their mommy, and I explained it in a way that made sense to them. God was real to them because I showed Him to them as we walked through our days, and by loving Him openly. Life and other kids were mean to them at times, but home was a safe haven.
And then they grew up. And their life experiences were different than my life experiences. Their struggles were struggles that I couldn’t relate to because my teenage struggles were completely different. We had been on the same life road together, holding hands, learning and growing together; and somehow as they got older, they began to take their own road – a “Private Road” and my only access to this new road is by invitation by “the owner” only. Was our road together really as short as that? As they travel this new road, I can only pray they invite God to go this leg with them, but now solely trust Him to relentlessly pursue them just as He pursued me. It’s now on my kids to take the tools they’ve been raised with and try to awkwardly use them themselves, hopefully more and more with each year. Tools that at times feel too heavy to use for their small, inexperienced hands but that only provide useful the more they practice.
As I had to let go and let God become more real to them (I still am not really great at this, truth be told), I beat myself up at times; “Did I say enough?” “Should I have said it differently?” “Did I explain it in a way that made sense to their brain?” “Was I a good example to them?” “Did I show God’s attributes properly so they too will desire to follow Him?” Inwardly I am tough on myself. Not because I think I’m going to be that one human who will be perfect (shudder at the pride of that thought) but as much as it depends on me, my hearts desire is to be a good example of what I believe, Who I believe in, and what Christ taught, with His help. But its a weird thing to realize that my kids who are as close to my own flesh as can be (even those who don’t share my genes) are going to make choices and walk paths that are foreign to me, and even paths I wouldn’t want them to take….as they find out who they are – APART FROM ME. gulp.
Maybe you read that and say “Duh” and I might have even thought that when they (and I) were younger. However, now that its here, and they are becoming their own people (whom I love dearly) I am learning that my role has changed dramatically in their lives – I need to shut my mouth much more than I ever had to when they were little, pray fervently, and allow them to fail if they must to find out who they were designed to be, always providing the safe haven of home and “Mom” no matter where their path takes them, and trusting God to be God to them right where they’re at. To provide counsel when they ask. To love them unconditionally. To go back to BEING an example in deed, and not as much instructional word as in the little kid days.
To just “work on my assignment”, and trust God to provide the lessons.
For all of us.
In Relentless Pursuit of Excellence,
TRACI
Starting P90X2 :)
Hey there!
Its hard to believe its February, but here it is February 7th! I spent much of January sick, which is surprising considering how healthy the Morrow family is, but we also have 8 people heading out into the work place, and four different schools, so not a complete shock considering the germs we track home! That being said, I started P90X2 in January, got three days in and ended up sick. I really gave my body the rest it was asking for and took the three weeks off from working out. NOT from eating clean, but from workouts. And here I am, healthy again, well rested, and started back in again on P90X2.
Its interesting to be doing this program for the first time at 41. When P90X came out I was 34 and though I’ve continued faithfully in my workouts over the years, I find myself nervous again. I dont know why….probably just the perfectionist and worry-wart in me. I felt the same way with the X when I first started. I remembering telling Tony how nervous I was to start. I wondered if I could do the moves he had created, and nearly 8 years later I find myself wondering the very same thing.
I work out live with Tony from time to time and LOVE how his fitness has progressed over the years. Just four workouts in, my nerves are settling and I’m LOVING the whole feel of this program. It just further confirms just why he truly is America’s Trainer – or according to P90X2 Balance and Power the “King of Fitness”. He pays attention to detail, he pushes himself out of his comfort zone, and consequently we go along for the ride. There is a lot of attention to recovery and working the knots and kinks out of your muscle, which is such a nice bonus, and perhaps the very core of the entire program: the body’s recovery. If you are considering purchasing this workout system, I HIGHLY recommend getting the Rumble Roller 
rather than the plain foam roller! Its a *dream* if you have aches and pains and soreness and really digs into those spots. Tony teaches you how to use it in each of the videos and I keep an additional rumble roller in our bedroom so I can rumble roll out my sore muscles in the evening. My husband KC and I are addicted to it! Our carpet looks so funny with the little marks the roller leaves – evidence of the extra attention we get to give to our aches and “hot spots”.
I recommend getting a good pair of shoes for the jumping. The older I get I find myself really paying attention to those details that I never gave much thought to in my 20′s and 30′s. The very details that will enable me to work out well into my 70′s and hopefully 80′s: protecting my joints. Tony is now 53 years old and the reason he is in such incredible shape is because he pays very close attention to the details that take care of spine, joints, tendons, etc. So again – he leads the way in the “how to’s” for those of us lucky enough to follow along in our own journeys. I like to get my shoes from Zappos.com as you can try them on at home, hop around a little to get a feel for them and send them back if its not a proper fit, free of shipping. I dont have the time or interest to drive around from store to store to find the perfect shoe, but I do have time to sit at my computer and browse quickly through cross trainers online. My favorite brands for a good cross training shoe is Adidas and Puma for my foot and pronation. But find what works for YOU.
So off I go. Follow along, and if you’d like to join me, I have a private accountability facebook group for people I’m coaching through their own program/weight loss journey. The more the merrier, and if you’d like to join me, just shoot me an email at Coach@tracimorrow.com. I hope to hear from you!
In Relentless Pursuit of Excellence!
TRACI
In Relentless Pursuit of Excellence…..TRACI MORROW Shares a Morrow Family Tradition :)
I’m a stay at home mom of 6 in relentless pursuit of excellence – as a woman, wife, & mom, my desire is to share the tips I’ve learned in more than 21 years of marriage, raising 6 kids, and owning a busy home based business as a Team Beachbody Top Coach.
Give this FUN, joyful holiday tradition in the spirit of “not letting your right hand know what the left hand is doing” a try and let me know how it goes!
Introducing the TEAM BEACHBODY CHALLENGE! :)
If you’d like to join a Challenge Group with me as your Coach, I’d be honored!!
Just hit the Contact Me Button up top and I’ll add you to my next group! <3
