Posts Tagged ‘fitness

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27
May
12

Why I do What I do

By garagegym107 5 Comments
Categories: Living Fit Daily
Tags: , , , , ,

It is a hot one today!  You would think being on the lake for the long weekend would be full of fun and games. 

Today was tree removal day.   Since  starting CrossFit almost two years ago I have been the tree hauler.  Any time we need to take a tree down, the spousal unit does the cutting and I do the hauling up the steep lot to the street.

Today was a wonderful reminder of why I train.  Why I love CrossFit and why I became a trainer. 

If I can help one person become as functionally fit as I am
then I can’t really ask for more.  Today I never doubted for a moment the purpose of the farmers walk or the waiter’s carry and the 400m of walking lunges.  Going up and down the steep slope reminded me that agility and balance are taken for granted until you do a WOD like I did today.

I challenge ALL of my friends to put your CrossFit training to task and do something major, something around your home to improve it.  If you’ve been training like I have you are ready, no doubt. 

If you aren’t doing CrossFit in a box, I recommend going through a fundamentals course just to see if you like it.  If you don’t have access to a box then I highly recommend that you take a look at Cultfit.com and check out some of their workouts that can be done just about anywhere.

Get yourself started on a path to fit.  Take it one day, one workout, and one clean meal at a time. 

There is no going back for me.  I live with intention, with purpose even if at times the purpose may be a little clouded, I still focus on living today being a better person than yesterday.

25
May
12

One of Those Moments

By garagegym107 4 Comments
Categories: Living Fit Daily
Tags: , , , , , , , , , ,

Rewind to yesterday.  I was driving home from the gym after my workout and noticed a large gentlemen slowly making his way down the walking path next to the road.  He wasn’t walking, he was doing his best to jog.   He’s heavy, really heavy. 

That little voice that gets me in trouble some times started whispering “pull over, pull over and tell him don’t quit!” but the rational side said “that man will think you’ve lost your mind” so I kept going.  But I never stopped thinking about that guy.  All day yesterday I thought about his red and black clothing and I remembered my first year in the gym.  I wanted to cheer for him.  I wanted to be his biggest fan yesterday.

This morning I was working out and I turned around and thought “OMG!!  That is the dude that was running down the street!!”.  He was there in the gym in the flesh.

I waited for him to finish his time on the elliptical and went over to him and asked if he was the guy going down the road and he said yes.   

I know he thought I was pretty close to crazy because my eyes filled up with tears and I just looked at him and told him a little bit of my story and I said “just don’t quit, no matter who or what interferes with what you are doing here today or any other day, just don’t give up because if I can do it, you can”. 

I left him to his workout and went on to finish mine.  He’s probably never going to set foot in that gym in the early morning again thinking that crazy woman might be there.  But I don’t think he’ll ever forget that. 

You know I think back on the people who have encouraged me and it humbles me every time I do.  People I have met either in the gym or online.  Many of the online friendships developed in to real life friendships.  Support groups, friends, mentors all in it to help one another along.  One of my friends said to me “Each one, Reach one”.  I know she will read this and I know she will know I’m talking about her.

Living fit daily can be challenging, but those challenges can be overcome.  Every single day I get up with the intention of being more fit today than I was yesterday, mentally, physically or emotionally in some way.   I’m not always perfect, but I am always consistent.  Consistency wins the race.  I’m living proof of that.

22
May
12

The Morphing of a Fit Woman

By garagegym107 3 Comments
Categories: Living Fit Daily
Tags: , , , , , ,

People in the gym see me and most would never know that I weighed 328# at one point in my life.   Most days I don’t think about where I came from just because I don’t live in the past.  I prefer to keep my eyes peeled on what’s happening today. 

That way I see more of the good stuff.  Worrying about tomorrow before it gets here solves nothing.  Hanging on to crap that happened in the past only serves to keep me there so I tend to let yesterday go and live in today.

Ever looked up the definition of morphing? 

  • Undergo or cause to undergo a gradual transformation: “it began as an online magazine and morphed into a book”.

This suits me perfectly. Gradual transformation.  What started out as a seemingly impossible task has become a reality.   From fat to fit.  I used to bristle at the term fat for fear of hurting someone’s feelings.  

The truth is I WAS FAT and I blamed it on everyone and everything.  Bad  divorce, hated my job, not enough money, I had three kids, I was too busy to go to the gym, my knee’s hurt (ya think??  what body part doesn’t hurt when you pack 170# of excess weight on it?).   In reality, I was scared.  What if I failed.  What if I didn’t follow through.  What if I didn’t stay with it.  Notice I never said “what if I can’t”.  Subconsciously, I always knew that I could and I would.  Where I got into trouble was wanting major results all the time.  I’ve learned that the minor changes are just as important. 

It’s in the details.  We lose ourselves in where we want to be instead of what it takes to get there.   My best progressions have come when I stopped focusing on when I get “there” and started wholeheartedly focusing my attention on where I am and what I can do to be better today than I was yesterday.

It’s not easy, but I promise you when you get “there”, you’ll move the bar to somewhere else.     That’s morphing. 

Gradual transformation is difficult mainly because of our instant gratification society.   For me, gradual transformation has forced me to embrace the journey. It’s the journey that makes it possible to endure the necessary sacrifices to achieve any goal worth having.

21
May
12

Results Nutrition Cleanse Experimenting

By garagegym107 5 Comments
Categories: Nutritional Cleanse Experiment
Tags: , , , ,

Before I get to the nitty-gritty and completely lose your attention, I want to talk about aftermath. 

Most people are geared toward instant gratification and the thought of what’s next rarely crosses their mind.  Until the aftermath has come and gone.  What do I mean by aftermath? 

It’s been my personal experience in the beginning and middle of my transformation that any time there was extended strict discipline it was usually followed by a make-up date with the things I missed.  Not binging, but just over indulgence for multiple meals and snacks  for two or three days.   So my advice is to think ahead to how you are going to manage your food the days and weeks following a nutritional cleanse.  It serves no purpose if you are going to go get a burger and fries for lunch the Monday after you finish. 

Again, that’s my experience and part of being caught in the emotional cycle of deserving success but being scared to death of actually becoming successful.  It’s so much easier to fail and stay mediocre.  Seriously.  When you do that, you are just staying stagnant in the comfort of where you are.  It takes courage to move beyond your comfort zone and change those cycles when you become aware of what you are doing.

Ok, on with the good news.  On the program you measure both arms and legs which to me makes the results a bit higher than I normally qualify so I’ve done it both ways just because I don’t want anyone saying “well that’s just BS”.

Standard Measures in my norm:  Neck, Upper Arm (right), Chest, Waist 2# below rib cage, Abs at hip bones, Buttocks, Thigh Upper (right), Calf upper (right)  Total inches lost 14.5

Using the measurements included with the program the total is 21.4 which includes both arms and the extra measurement of upper knee and diaphragm.

Total pounds lost 10 on the money.  Even if 5 of those pounds are water weight, that’s still a 5 pound loss over all.

I’m an optimistic realist.  I believe in looking for the bright spots in this life.  I also know from a realistic stand point there are no miracles in weight loss.  This is no miracle.  This is strict dietary discipline for 11 days.  It’s taught me that I have work to do dialing in my whole foods and healthy fat portions and it’ s taught me that stimulants may cause me to hold on to fat that I’m trying to lose.

There are benefits no doubt.   I feel better, my skin is very clear, I’ve been sleeping like a rock, and my cravings have been for eggs and fresh veggies.  The most notable result is that even though I’ve been in caloric deficit, my workouts haven’t suffered.  

I don’t necessarily think that the “two-day” cleanse cycle is best for me because of my personal goals for building muscle.   On future cleanses I will rotate with one day a week cleanse days.  I spend on average 1.5 hours per day working out for my specific goals.   That takes balance.  I don’t eat a lot of processed foods and when I do they are usually in the form of ice cream, dark chocolate and red-wine.  With the occassional cup-cake thrown in for pleasure.  

Off to another challenge!  Have a great day.

19
May
12

Experimenting Day 10

By garagegym107 Leave a Comment
Categories: Nutritional Cleanse Experiment
Tags: , , ,

As the last day of the cleanse approaches, I find myself deep thinking about the whole process.  I have learned a lot about myself, my willingness to get uncomfortable and my willingness to learn.

True progress in making changes doesn’t just show up the day after you decide to change.  True change happens over time.  Most folks want to know “well how much time?”

I have learned that it takes as much time as you have stubbornness.  By that I mean if you are stubborn and so rigid that you won’t change things and are so comfortable in your zone, then your stubbornness will work against you.  If you are as fit and healthy as you want to be then you don’t really need to be reading this unless you are just bored to tears.

If you aren’t happy with where you are and you have been doing the same thing over and over and getting no results then your stubbornness is working against you.  This has always been a problem for me.

I’d say that 90% of my food time through this experiment has been spent totally in the positive and the other 10% more in the curiosity as opposed the negative.  Negative wasn’t an option for me.  Not because I am stronger than anyone else, but instead because I honor my self promises.

I promised myself that I wouldn’t judge any part of this process.  I would only analyze the data.

Has it been a cake walk?  Some of it yes.  Has it been a  challenge?  More so because of my poor planning on my start date by my own doing.  I have learned some lessons that will help anyone I know that wants to try it.

Tomorrow is the last day and I plan on listing the things I have learned about myself on this journey.

Monday will be results day. 

Have a great day!

13
May
12

Experiment day 4

By garagegym107 4 Comments
Categories: Nutritional Cleanse Experiment
Tags: , ,

NOTE TO SELF: Think through the calendar days before beginning your cleanse.  With three male offspring there could be major food involved.  Bwahahahahaha!

I am not going to lie, yesterday was a challenge.  Especially when grilled chicken and  pineapple jalepeno salsa are involved.  You know you are in a good place when broccoli is as appealing as ice cream in that moment.  NO! I did not cave. I am still very much on track.

I drank a ton of water and reminded myself of the mission at hand when I felt weak-willed throughout the day.   I found it quite entertaining when I realized just how many fast food hawking commercials come on at night.

Today is day two of cleansing liquid and water all day.  Yesterday I found myself mentally conjuring up all of the crutches I enjoy from time to time.  I noticed that all of them contain caffeine.  Uh huh, so if for nothing else I will consider this caffeine rehab.

In all seriousness, it has helped me again realize that I now manage food instead of allowing food to manage me.   No yo-yo dieting, no 10-20 pound weight gains and losses.  And the ability to tackle this experiment, not derail my fitness goals and to write about it.

Progress.  Better today than yesterday.  Me vs. me.

12
May
12

Experiment day 3

By garagegym107 Leave a Comment
Categories: Nutritional Cleanse Experiment
Tags: ,

Today is a rest day from training so not much to chat about there.

Technically day 1 of the cleanse.  I am not sure why they don’t just call it an 11 day cleanse because the 2 days pre-cleanse are exactly the same as the shake days to come.  Anyway.
Day 1 of cleansing is going ok. My plan is to stay busy doing things I need to do. Buying and prepping veggies for meals next week. Grilling chicken and salmon and freezing it for lunches as well. So far I have had my two 4 oz. servings of the cleanse juice.  I really anticipated that this liquid would somehow require a nose holding effort but to my surprise, it was tastey.  It’s packed with vitamins and antioxidants and I feel great.  I do however, miss my coffee.  Really though this is a cleanse and caffeine is one of my vices.   I find it interesting how the mind always thinks negatively regarding an experiment like this, but this is actually not that hard.  I am am generally very disciplined until the discipline gets too strict and then I tend to become a trainwreck.   Hold on loosely and it’s all good.  Having been a morbidly obese emotional eater, I have learned my negative behaviors very well and I openly share the fact that I believe people can change.  But only if they are willing to start accepting responsibility for their own health and positive behaviors.  Yes, it takes time and hard work and a lot of it.  But there has never been a journey more worth traveling!

Now off to wash Lucy the Jeep!

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