fat loss | garagegym107

Posts Tagged ‘fat loss

Jun

Mirror Mirror

Categories: Living Fit Daily
Tags: Bright Spots, change, Clean Eating, Community, CrossFit, exercise, fat loss, fitness, food, gaining self confidence, Goal Setting, goals, health, healthy-living, Insecurity, Inspiration, Mental-Heath, Motivation, nutrition, self-image, Training, Weight Lifting, Workout

This morning I stood in front of the mirror criticizing my perceived flaws. As I realized what I was doing I stepped back and thought “hold on now, lets take a look at what we really have here”.

I have a healthy body that allows me to trash it working out 5-6 days a week. It doesn’t give up, it doesn’t quit. It just keeps responding to the physical challenges I dish out everyday.

Did I get there overnight? Absolutely not.

What’s even more important than what I see staring back at me in the mirror is what I’ve built up on the inside.

My mind, confidence, willingness to succeed, discipline and consistent dedication to living a healthy lifestyle. Being able to stop myself from comparing my physique to that of another is invaluable. I am me for a reason. Why would I change that?

You want instant gratification? Get yourself moving. There is nothing more gratifying than taking that 30 or so minutes a day to work on your goal of getting fit.

Want more instant gratification? There is a tremendous feeling of empowerment that comes from making healthy food choices every day.

Need more instant gratification? Stop comparing yourself to other people and focus on becoming the very best you that you can become.

Sooner or later your instant gratification vault will be running over with results.

Jun

Community and Support

By garagegym107 1 Comment

Community and support. I had no idea what those two words really meant outside of community = neighborhood and support = a helping hand if needed.

Since I started my fitness journey, I’ve come to see both of those words in a completely different light.

Community now means a group of people who support each other in a common goal.

That means the good, bad and the ugly too.

There are some folks out there than can simply go it alone. I’ve found that I am much better as part of a community.

Higher goals, higher level of accountability, higher levels of support, both give and take.

If you are just starting out, find a group to get involved with. Whether its classes at your gym or online forums or joining a CrossFit box.

Don’t expect everyone to coddle you, don’t expect everyone to check on you when you are down. If you need support reach out instead of having a pity party.

People cannot read your mind and know if you are having a lack of motivation, feelings of discontent or even a life crisis. Your support group will rely on you to let them in on what’s happening. And trust me, everyone eventually has a lack of motivation.

These two ladies are two of my dearest friends, they are from other states. We’ve been a part of the same fitness support group for years. We all met up in DC for the Marine Corps Marathon in 2011. Here they are coming across the finish line.

Community and support! Get some!

Jun

Truth!

By garagegym107 1 Comment

One thing is on my mind today. That is truth. Truth is what you do when no-one is watching, reading or listening.

I work myself up in to a tizzy sometimes over lack of results both with nutrition and workouts, when in truth I am not holding myself to the level of discipline needed to achieve those results.

Does that mean I’m a train wreck? No, absolutely not. It means perhaps that I’m being complacent. It means I’m not focusing with intent to a specific goal and/or it means I’m not taking things to the next level. I’m just hanging out in my current comfortable place.

Truth is that it’s time for me to get back to the task at hand with no excuses. In reading “Switch” by Chip & Dan Heath, I find that little ah-ha moments come to light. I had one of those this weekend. The average person (myself included) wants an open-ended criteria when goal setting especially where diet and exercise are concerned.

In example, “I will work on running 4 miles without stopping” = open-ended instead of saying “I will run 3 days per week until I reach my goal of 4 miles in 3 months”.

Or “I will cut back on sugar” open-ended instead of saying “I will only consume natural sugars from fruit or honey”.

Truth is TRUTH.

There is no way to know what I’m capable of until I make that goal black & white. I’ve notoriously made my goals escapable. Funny thing is that I am very successful at being an escape artist. And that my dear friends will hold you back from your morphing efforts.

I like the freedom of truth. I like the self-honesty of truth. Truth keeps me on my toes. Truth is success.

I like knowing where I am and each time I take a look at the truth I grow exponentially.

Jun

It’s Not About the Weight

By garagegym107 34 Comments

I think back on the number of times I jumped on the scale and waited with held breath for that thing to tell me something I considered good. And I remember the days I didn’t perceive the results as positive. It took me several years to figure out that the scale is simply a data gathering tool.

Have realistic expectations. In the beginning I literally thought I could lose over 150# in 3 months. Yes, I was that naive –Having or showing a lack of experience, judgement or information.

My personal experience , which I am elated to share with you is that it takes more time than most women are willing to invest in themselves but that doesn’t have to be YOU.

YOU can choose to be one of those women that resets your mind and commits to long-term success as opposed to a short-sighted solution.

Women in general give so much credit and power to the scale that they will literally throw away months of hard work and effort if that scale doesn’t tell them what they want to hear. I’ve been there. The scale does not dictate your success or perceived failure. STOP doing that to yourself!!

There are so many other things you are changing with fitness and clean eating.

– Your body is getting healthier inside.

– Your soul is happier because YOU are taking care of YOU and not waiting around for someone else to do it for you.

– You are gaining self-confidence with each workout and each clean meal you choose to eat.

– You can overcome set-backs.

– You are opening yourself up to new experiences.

– You are opening yourself to meeting new people.

– You can control your weight, your food and the outcome of both.

– You can trust and believe in YOU!

Jun

Don’t Worry Be Happy

By garagegym107 4 Comments

Categories: Living Fit Daily
Tags: Bright Spots, change, Clean Eating, exercise, fat loss, fitness, Goal Setting, health, healthy-living, Insecurity, Inspiration, mental-health, Motivation, nutrition, Well-Being, Workout, Worry

Sounds easy right? Well during the night last night I tossed and turned and churned through a list of worrisome issues. Guess what? I didn’t solve a single one of the worries and lost a good nights sleep to boot.

What is really interesting though is that I got up this morning and was teetering on the verge of moody tears. Everyone that knows me on a personal level knows that I’m not a weepy person. I’ve raised three boys, I’m known for being rather terse at times.

I’m also known for being that hard*** person that gets things done instead of whining about what else needs to be done in addition to working out, working for a living, clean eating, loads of laundry, groceries, dealing with a wrecked automobile, etc.

I realized this morning when I got up that I had allowed myself to worry in to an uncharacteristic mood. After acknowledging that I woke up in a dark place to one of my friends, I begin making a mental list of what is going on.

It is absolutely amazing to me that something as simple as a listing of what’s going on can help me see what takes priority.

– What is needed to sustain life? Got it? Yep. Asking myself that one question completely changed my mindset. YES, IT’S THAT EASY.

My goodness how quickly we can be sucked into worry and get lost. We fail to see the positive by focusing on the worrisome issues.

– I have a healthy body and can take most of the physical load I place on it day in and day out.

– I have a day job that I choose to be good at.

– I love writing this cheesy little blog because it keeps me honest and reminds me of how far I’ve come.

– I love reading other awesome blogs out there like Cultfit.com.

– I love proving to people you can overcome obesity once you stop playing the blame game.

– I love seeing the positive side as opposed to wasting perfectly good energy on worry.

Worry changes nothing outside of the wrinkles on your face. Act on what you CAN change now. Once you start acting on what you can change, you realize you are far more capable than you give yourself credit for.

Jun

Two Steps Forward, One Step Backwards

By garagegym107 Leave a Comment

Categories: Morphing of a Fit Woman
Tags: Bright Spots, Clean Eating, exercise, fat loss, fitness, Goal Setting, health, healthy-living, heavy weights, Inspiration, mental-health, Motivation, nutrition, Well-Being, Working out, Workout

Over the past few weeks I’ve been plugging along doing my thing. I’ve also noticed that I haven’t been as passionate about my thing as I normally am.

Just this morning I remembered that some times you take two steps forward and one step back.

I used to think that this was a negative, you know, to take a step back. Over time I’ve learned that in reality it’s my mental mojo getting a running start for the next round of progress getting ready to take place.

Think about it. We can’t always be on the high tide. If we were, we’d lose sight of how awesome that high tide is. Down time allows us to really think about where we are and what we want to happen next. It doesn’t have to be a huge transition to another set of big goals.

It can be something as simple as a commitment to yourself to do XYZ over the next 3 months.

For me I tend to train hard and heavy for four months and then go into this feeling of limbo like training for a couple of weeks. I believe that limbo is my mind and body taking a much deserved break from the cycle of training I put it through.

After that two week slow down, I feel a renewed surge of desire and passion to get back to the hard and heavy training. It’s funny, until I started writing this blog I didn’t really pay that much attention to the cycle. But looking back to have a clearer perspective to write from, I’ve had this cycle going strong for 4 years now.

Not too bad for a former yo-yo’er. Perhaps the true beauty in this realization is that the old, fat, tired and lazy me would have used this limbo period as a reason to quit. The commitment to what I’ve become won’t allow the limbo to be perceived as anything other than a short, less intense training phase.

Life feels too good during the high tide to do anything other than just paddle until the next big wave hits.

Jun

Making Long Term Change

By garagegym107 Leave a Comment

Categories: Morphing of a Fit Woman
Tags: Body-for-Life, change, Clean Eating, Community, CrossFit, exercise, fat loss, fitness, fitness camp, food, Goal Setting, health, healthy-living, Insecurity, Inspiration, Long term weight loss, Motivation, nutrition, Training, weight loss, Well-Being, Working out, Workout

Over the last couple of days, I seen the reports of the 600# Virgin regaining 400# that he lost. It’s been on my mind and I decided to write about when real long-term changes started happening for me and how they happened.

The mis-leading thing about all of these tv specials about weight-loss don’t really tell you about when everything is over. I know I’ve seen one of the Biggest Loser’s, the pizza guy from up North gained all of his weight back.

In a perfect world, every person could go to a fitness camp, have world-class trainers and chef’s preparing perfect food.

But in reality we have lives that aren’t put on hold because we decide we want to get healthy. It can be done but it won’t be without sacrifice.

One of the hardest realizations I had to come to was that there were people who have always known me and they just weren’t willing to accept the person I was becoming.

Whether they realize what they are doing or not, there will be the tempting lunch invitations, happy hour invites, your favorite cookies or candies showing up etc.

It took awhile for me to realize that my change was making people around me uncomfortable. Change is hard. Not just for you, but for those who know the old you. Some want to stay in the old comfortable place they’ve always been and they’d like to keep you there with them.

Change takes courage. You don’t have to be mean or rude, just say “thanks for the invite, but I can’t make it”. After the first decline it will get easier.

You may lose a friend or two over it, but remember there ARE like-minded people out there who want to socialize with other fit people.

One of my fondest memories was this past fall while watching a college championship game with a group of people who I had just met from a local gym. Every single dish was healthy and tasted great! I felt as if I were in a safety zone.

One of my clients is a young 24-year-old professional. One of her greatest obstacles is hanging with her friends. We plan her workouts and weekly nutrition goals around her social schedule so her free meals fall on the day of the event she has scheduled. It allows her to enjoy life without feeling restricted.

Being fit isn’t about giving up everything you enjoy and feeling miserable. It’s about having the courage to make the choices day in and day out to be better today than you were yesterday FOR YOURSELF not for anyone else.

Jun

Random Workout Thoughts

By garagegym107 2 Comments

Categories: Random Thoughts
Tags: Community, exercise, fat loss, fitness, goals, health, healthy-living, Insecurity, Inspiration, Motivation, nutrition, Training, Weight Lifting, weight loss, Well-Being, Working out, Workout

– You have to start somewhere. If you haven’t been working out at all start by walking. Go just one block. Every single day add another block to the previous days total until you are up to 45 minutes.

– On the day you don’t want to workout, do it anyway.

– People in the gym really aren’t really looking at you. Don’t be insecure. You deserve to be there.

– If you don’t know what to do in the gym ask someone. Don’t strike up a conversation, just ask for help.

– If you don’t want to ask someone, there are plenty of forums that have demo videos. http://www.exrx.net/ is one of my favs.

– If you’re bored do something different. There are plenty of parks and places to get in a body weight workout.

– Yes, you will get sore. In some cases more sore than you imagined. Especially after walking lunges. Lunges bring a booty back though and are well worth holding on to the bathroom stall walls.

– Someone will always be stronger, bigger or faster than you. Keep going.

– Never forget there is someone wishing they could be where you are today. Someone who is physically incapable of moving due to injury or illness, you should do it simply because you can and they don’t have that luxury.

Jun

Random Food Thoughts

By garagegym107 7 Comments

Categories: Random Thoughts
Tags: Clean Eating, exercise, fat loss, fitness, food, goals, health, healthy-living, Insecurity, Inspiration, lunch meals, Motivation, nutrition, vacation, weight loss, Well-Being, Working out, Workout

– You control food, it doesn’t control you. It has no feeling, it’s not out to get you. It doesn’t sabotage your efforts. Get over it.

– You can overcome emotional food issues. It starts with accepting the statement above.

– You can still have your cake and eat it. It is far better to go to the store and buy one cupcake every couple of months instead of home-baking a whole dozen for the same price. You don’t need a whole dozen of anything. Get over it. Well except maybe shoes.

– You can live without mac & cheese. In fact you’ll likely live a lot longer without it.

– Healthy fat won’t make you fat.

– It takes about two weeks to get over sugar cravings once you relinquish your strong hold on sugar. Try it. You’ll see.

– You can always find an excuse or justification for eating poorly, don’t kid yourself in to thinking they are legit.

– It takes minimal planning to make sure you purchase what you need to make great, simple meals all week. Failing to plan = planning to fail.

– There is not one thing that you can put in your mouth that will make your emotions feel better so H.A.L.T. first. Hurt. Angry. Lonely. Tired. Identify if you are truly hungry or just messing around with a cover-up of one of the other emotions.

– Remember, that fork doesn’t get up off of that plate and fly in your mouth. YOU put it there.

– Water. Sometimes you just think you are hungry. Hydrate instead.

Vacation Food

More Vacation Food

Jun

Square Peg in a Round Hole

By garagegym107 2 Comments

Categories: Living Fit Daily
Tags: Book Review, Clean Eating, exercise, fat loss, fitness, food, goals, grass fed, health, healthy-living, Inspiration, lunch meals, Motivation, non fiction books, nutrition, style, Well-Being, Workout

I love reading. In fact it’s not uncommon that I have more than one book going at a time. Sometime there is fiction/drama and it’s generally counter balanced with something that is non-fiction. Right now I have two non-fiction books going at once. One is Switch by Chip Heath and Dan Heath and it’s about making lasting change when change is hard. The other is a book called Paleoista by Nell Stephenson.

I bought Paleoista because I was interested to see a woman’s perspective on Paleo eating. I’m just over halfway finished and so far I find it rather idealistic.

In example…”you’ll no longer need that microwave so go ahead and donate it to the thrift store” and in the same chapter, “plan your meals so there is enough for lunch the next day”.

Ok in a perfect world of having access to a working stove and a skillet to reheat lunch meals at work would be great. Not using a microwave is fine if you eat salad every day. But realistically does this author always eat her leftovers cold? Leftovers that she discusses how wonderful the meals are fresh and hot off the stove?

Ok, so I’m nit-picking. Or am I? I eat a very clean diet. I have for several years. One of my greatest discoveries was that I was eating too many cold meals and wasn’t satisfied 50% of the time.

Instead of telling people to ditch the microwave (I’m not trying to start a debate here so hold your comments on the damages of using a microwave) why not instruct them how to properly re-heat those awesome leftovers?

I live in the great state of Alabama. North Alabama to be exact. The land of fried, smothered and covered, eat everything on your plate, and “thanks for dinner, I enjoyed it”. We don’t have a Whole Foods. Thankfully this time of year we do have a farmers market. I’ve found one source for a grass-fed cow, but I’ve yet to jump on the 6-12 month waiting list.

Another hot button? Squeezing all women in to the same one size fits all box. Ironically, I do eat a Paleo style diet mainly because I have a wheat intolerance and it takes exactly 3 days for strange things to happen in my body. I do include the occasional dairy, wine, dark chocolate, and sweet potatoes.

That being said IT TOOK ME YEARS to get here from morbid obesity. Attempting to make Paleo appear to be the fashionable thing to do rubs me a little. When you are 168# over weight, you don’t really feel very “ista” anything, instead you feel lost, lonely and perhaps even a bit broken.

I would not recommend this book to one of my clients unless I knew in advance that they had their head on straight. And that there was no yo-yoing going on.

What I mean by that? Heavily restricting the diet of a person that is extremely overweight can wreak havoc on that persons emotional eating issues not to mention their metabolism. Some folks don’t do so hot with cold turkey.

I’ve never been able to understand the statement “eat until your full”. Some people just simply do not have that “full” mechanism until they learn to become mindful. And trust me, that is a process and depending on the person they could see results quickly or as in my case of strong denial it could take much longer.

Ok, I’ll settle down now and finish reading the book this week. If nothing more than for the sheer humor of it.

When I’m further in to Switch, I’ll let you know my “opinion” on it. Remember, we all have opinions and you are free to consider it or not.

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