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Posts Tagged ‘fitness

Dec

A Mental Flush

It has been way too long since I’ve written, which has been the trend of 2013. Enough of that.

Since we last talked, I’ve had some progress photos made. There are three things I’d like to discuss, if you would hang with me that would be great.

The BIG “50”
Body Image
Take the pictures

First the big fifty. No, not reps, but years. I turned 50 this year. It’s nothing more than a number right? Yes, right. That being said, I wanted to celebrate the year in a couple of ways. I wanted a birthday cake. A big fat chocolate birthday cake. Did I have it? Yes, you bet I did. I have had a small slice from the freezer each month since my birthday back in the spring. Ironically, after seeing the progress pictures I’m posting in the blog, the remainder of that divine, sinfully rich, chocolate heaven went in the trash.

Our lives are so filled with other people’s idea of how we should be living. I decided long ago no-one knows me better than me so I would start living like me. Authentically ME. Some people don’t like it, but really I’m not so bad once you get past this gruff exterior.

Twenty. Thirty. Forty. Fifty. Celebrate. It.

On to body image. When I first saw these pictures, the old me reared up and said “see, still not there yet”. The bells went off in my brain as if I were standing in a cathedral. What do I mean? I mean I am reminded albeit none too gently either, that my body image insecurity still has a small headspace in my brain. That being said, the strong headspace took over less than 24 hours after the insecurity showed itself. And even better, I acknowledged it, felt it, embraced it, and moved on.

My greatest wish for all women is that we stop comparing ourselves to magazine covers, billboard ads, and lastly, EACH OTHER. Be who we are, individuals with uniqueness of body, mind, soul. Learn to live in your own personal greatness.

Now we can talk about the pictures. Pictures, for me, mark the seasons in my life. I have photos of when I was younger and skinny as a rail. I have photos of when I was a young mom that didn’t have a clue what I was doing. I have photos that mark traumatic events in my life, my climb to obesity being the biggest one of those. I have A LOT of fitness progress photos that tell a story of change. Every now and then those pictures remind me I need to get them put in to chronological order. And now, I have photos marking my 50th year of my life.

Only a few people knew I was going to have these photos taken. Ironically, my beautiful sister-in-law randomly posted on Facebook the very weekend I was having these photos made that she wished she had taken pictures 10 years ago. She had no idea I was taking these photos. I simply replied to her post “take the pictures now”. So many women shy away from marking significant moments because of aforementioned body image issues.

We sit around and think we’ve got to wait until we get it all together.

Guess what? We never get it all together. We can improve, we can get healthy, we can have careers, we can do anything we set our minds to, but there is absolutely no such thing as “getting it all together” so let that idea flush from your minds. BE who you want to be now! Mark it, celebrate it.

Embrace each day and love it with all of your being. We live, we breath, it’s up to US make this life our own.

With that… I’m doing all that I can to embrace what I am doing to live!

Oct

Swift Kick In The Pants

By garagegym107 1 Comment

My last blog was about the seasonal transition and hibernation of habits. Today, it’s all about the swift kick in the pants.

I see it already, the slack in attendance during classes. The “I overslept” excuse for skipping a workout. The even bigger excuse people tell themselves “no-one will notice that I’ve gained 10 pounds under this sweater”. News flash, the only person you are disappointing is yourself.

Sure, summer is over and fall is on its way through, but your goals haven’t changed have they? Don’t allow the dark mornings keep you from being around your peers and making smack talk and workout challenges. Get your arse out of that bed!!

First the workouts go and then the clean eating follows right afterwards. The seasonal treats will be there for the next 2 plus months. Don’t get caught with the winter blues of “I screwed up my whole plan, and don’t know how I got so far off track”.

Keep your mindset positive, sure it’s colder than usual, but get up and go anyway. You’ll warm-up once you start moving. For those who workout in the mornings, it’s always dark anyway so that’s not your excuse.

Don’t allow winter to steal away your momentum. Hold yourself accountable by setting mini-goals over the next two months. Challenge yourself to maintain your current level of fitness and not fatness. You know there will be times when clean food is hard to come by so do some pre-planning and keep some jerky, almonds, almond butter, etc. on hand to get you through the feeding frenzies you’ll encounter. No sense getting caught up in the frenzy when you already know it can and will set you back a few months if you allow it to.

Own your fitness. Keep your goals in sight and stay the course!

Oct

Letter To My Younger Self

By garagegym107 2 Comments

Categories: Morphing of a Fit Woman
Tags: Body-for-Life, BodyBuilding, change, Community, exercise, fitness, Goal Setting, goals, Insecurity, Inspiration, Long term weight loss, nutrition, Weight Lifting, Working out, Workout

If only I could have known then what I know now.

I’d start by telling myself at a very early age, it’s ok to be a Tom boy. It’s ok to prefer pants over dresses. No everyone seeks to be a girly girl. Mud pies and Hot Wheels with my little brother were some of the best childhood memories. So was jumping the ramp even after my dad told me not to. And yes, it hurts just as bad when a little girl hits the bar as it does a boy.

As a gangly teenager, I’d tell myself that being popular isn’t really better, it’s just different and maybe even a little harder than blending in.

As a young mother, I’d tell myself it doesn’t matter how young or old you are, being a mom is the best and hardest job you’ll ever have so do the best you can and forgive yourself the rest.

As a young woman, I’d tell myself to love everything about yourself, cherish who you are and what you are becoming. Don’t allow another human being to bring you down or steal your self-worth or self-confidence because they are on some type of power trip. Your instincts are right.

I’d tell myself to go ahead and make some mistakes, take a risk, jump head first. Be who you are. Your quirks are yours and there is no one else like you.

I’d tell myself to love my body for all it’s capable of, care for it, nurture it, feed it good, clean, nutritious foods, and it’s ok to have a cupcake from time to time.

I’d tell myself it’s a whole lot easier to take care of yourself than to let yourself go and then regroup and get fit later on.

I’d tell myself to be happy, embrace change for in change is growth.

I’d tell myself to nurture true friendships, because no matter who the love of your life is, you will need your girlfriends to nurture and to nurture you. When the lines of time appear on your faces, laughter is indeed the best medicine.

Oct

Serious Self-Defense

By garagegym107 Leave a Comment

I’ve been sitting on this topic for the last couple of weeks. Not really sure how to actually write about the topic without freaking my readers out. I decided to focus on the message at hand and not allow the tools to distract from the message.

I’ve recently attended a series of classes on basic firearms safety and self-defense. When I have broached the subject to friends or acquaintances I’ve received feedback that covers both ends of the spectrum.

This blog isn’t being written to start a firestorm about what you think is right or wrong about firearms instead it’s about the topic of self-defense.

This is being written in the hopes that someone who is on the fence can make a better judgment call about attending a course themselves. If you are considering owning a firearm, I highly recommend you take a course BEFORE you legally purchase a firearm. Notify the instructors beforehand, they will make arrangements for you to use a firearm if need be. Then you can make a much better informed decision as to whether you even want to own one.

Am I suggesting you go out and purchase a firearm? No, I am not. That is a very personal decision and no one can make that decision but you. Be responsible and educate yourself on every possible aspect from owning a firearm, getting the proper legal permits and please, get some training.

First let me start by saying I am a proactive person. I believe in taking care of myself, for myself, by myself. I don’t leave the responsibly of my health, my fitness, and my nutrition up to other people. I take full responsibility for myself and my own actions. I also take responsibility for the consequences of my actions. I.E. If I eat cake, I get fat.

Being the proactive person means I will do what I feel like I need to do to protect myself. This is usually where someone says “are you paranoid or what?” and my answer is no, not at all.

I’m also not naïve either, bad things happen to good people and I’d rather have training and never use it than to find myself in a situation where I really needed it but didn’t take the time to get it.

So here we are. I spent three separate days going through approximately 4.5 hours of training. Two of the sessions were in the classroom, one was at an outdoor range.

This was one of the best decisions I’ve made as an adult female. I learned what predators look for when targeting a victim (yes, don’t kid yourself, they look in the day time as well as the dark), and even more importantly I learned how not to look/act like a victim. Some is common sense, some is totally not.

I listened to actual 911 recordings and played through scenarios in my mind, ironically, even in a very safe environment just listening to the sounds of the caller increased my heart rate and made me put myself in the callers shoes.

For those who live in my area, the company I chose to work with is called Self Defense Solutions and I paid for my courses and he did not ask me to write this review. In fact I asked his permission to mention his company here.

There were only 2 people in the classes I attended and all instruction was given in a fashion that made me feel completely at ease and comfortable. In the firearms world women tend to get brushed off, this is sad but true. This company and it’s instructors never at any point made me feel less capable, less welcome or less valued than the man in the class with me. The instructors were thorough and attentive and made sure that I was comfortable and confident by the time my course ended.

There are non-firearms related self-defense courses and I will be taking some of those as well, sooner rather than later.

Again, to stress my point, I’d rather have training and never need it than to need it and not have it.

Jul

Reach Just One

By garagegym107 3 Comments

A little over a year ago I started working out with a woman at work, outside on the parking deck. She started coming out and working out, never questioning anything she was asked to do, only trusting in the training and the trainer. Over time another person would ask to join, then another, then another.

My friend has since left the company and her family has moved back to her home state. Today I am so vividly reminded of her joy and zest for life, her laughter ringing through the air as she pushed through the sometimes very difficult workouts. People often breeze through our lives, not to stay indefinitely, but to make an impact in a very short period of time.

I continue to teach these classes on the parking deck and each week we seem to have another person join. It’s so inspiring to me to have a new person slip up the stairs and out in the the open sunshine. Some days are much harder than others, some days they question why they do what they do but then they always come back for more.

Each one reaches one. I live by that statement. I thank my friend Michelle Treichel for sharing that with me, it was a real sticker.

I love working out, love having changed my own life. I love continuing to change it through fitness and proper nutrition. All that being said, there is one thing that takes the cake and that is helping others. It doesn’t matter the shape or size or age or whateva… they are welcome in my little world.

They inspire me. They bring me joy. They remind me of being better. They make me better.

Here’s to the parking deck crew…many, many thanks to you all! We miss you Daphne!!

Jul

Lazy Arse

By garagegym107 2 Comments

Categories: Morphing of a Fit Woman
Tags: Body-for-Life, BodyBuilding, Bright Spots, change, Clean Eating, Community, exercise, fat loss, fitness, Garagegym107, Goal Setting, Motivation, Training, Weight Lifting, weight loss, Workout

This evening my spousal unit and I were driving down the road. We were talking about health and well-being as we age. I made a comment about getting my lazy behind up each morning. He laughed and said “you are far from lazy”.

I haven’t thought about being lazy in a very long time. Lazy created havoc in my world years ago and I refuse to go back there. But enough of that.

I have often wondered what drives my desire to get up and keep moving day in and day out. Maybe it’s simply my joie de vivre that keeps me moving. Maybe it’s the people I get to see along my path. The guy in the gym that sometimes beats me there, yet always nods. The body pump instructor that teaches 5:30am classes and is always smiling even though I don’t take her class.

When it gets down to it, it’s the feeling of the iron in my hands, the strength it brings, the frustration on the days it breaks me. Iron doesn’t talk back, it just keeps giving more challenge. Iron doesn’t care if I am weak, it will wait for my strength. Iron doesn’t care if I’m scared, it will wait for me to overcome my fear.

Lazy doesn’t live here anymore.

Jun

Don’t Forget

By garagegym107 23 Comments

As I make the decision to take my training and nutrition to the next level I often forget where I started. It usually takes a conversation with someone I’m meeting for the first time to gently remind me of how far I’ve come.

I’ve got “battle scars” both mentally and physically related to all the weight gain. There will always be the potential that I will be disappointed when I get to the next level but I’ll deal with that down the road IF need be.

There is no sense setting myself up for failure before I even start. You see, I see that all the time.

Some women see photo’s like:

Mine

My friend Michelle

Lifting My Spirits

And they instantly start saying “that’s impossible”, “that’s photo-shop”, “that’s not the same person as the before” and those are nice comments.

After Lifting My Spirits recently competed in her second Body Building show placing 3rd (Congrats again), one of the FaceBook threads I subscribe to showed her before and after photo’s. Sometimes I just read through comments to get a feel for the support she is receiving and it never fails that there are some comments made about the transformation not being real. Some nasty comments are made by women that can only come from a place of misery and disbelief in themselves. So strongly disbelieving they never even take the first step to try to make a change.

I’ve seen videos of LMS and had private conversations with her and I’ve spent weekends with my friend Michelle. These women are just as real as I am. We chose not to hide our transformations, we chose to share them openly with the masses in hopes that we can inspire and reach another person who “thinks they can” but just haven’t committed to following through just yet.

The irony is that pictures do speak a thousand words of success.

What you will never see is the sweat, the tears, and the fear that we all had in the very beginning of our journeys.

You will never see the early mornings or late nights in the gym.

You won’t see the turning down of birthday cake or cupcakes so we stayed on task with our goals.

You won’t see the days where decisions were made to stay the course instead of having instant gratification in the form of food.

Thanks to the internet you can however now get a glimpse of food prep being done.

For those of you beginning and for those of you setting goals, not a single one of us will ever tell you this is easy. But it is certainly worth every last bit of it. If it weren’t? We wouldn’t so willingly keep doing what we do.

Jun

More Morphing of a Fit Woman

By garagegym107 7 Comments

As I read through a few friends blogs this weekend I realized that I could be doing some things a tad bit or even a whole LOT better.

In example over at 43 Fitness she whips out her workout log and shows all of her readers the key points and highlights that she relies on that notebook to remind her of. I love it.

I have several workout books/logs, but over the past 6 months or so I’ve gotten out of the habit of doing it daily and that has got to change. It doesn’t matter what the reason is behind not keeping up with it, all that matters is that needs to change. Today.

Keeping a journal of both food and workouts is the ONLY way a coach or trainer or faithful friends can help you figure out why you’ve hit a plateau or whether you are making excuses. Accountability.

I am weak. I need accountability. I admit it.

Underneath it all I am as normal as they come. I want to cheat on my food and so long as no one saw me eat that extra handful of nuts, it doesn’t matter right? Uh huh.

Oh last week I cleaned 95# 15 times but this week I’m just too tired to clean 85# 10 times. Uh huh.

As long as it is not written down, it doesn’t matter, right? Uh huh.

See the pattern?

While watching the video 43 Fitness did, I remembered a time way back when. Yes, a long time ago. I was keeping my very first food journal. I remember making it through the first week with everything nice and tidy. During the second week things started to change. One day I ate 4 chocolate covered Oreo cookies. In my mind they are a whole lot better than they are in my mouth these days. Now they just taste overly processed. I digress…

The day I sat with that food journal getting ready to write down those cookies, all sorts of feelings cascaded through my mind. Shame and guilt were in the front row. Followed by honesty. Honesty said “write it down and be uncomfortable with it”. Shame and guilt applauded the uncomfortable part.

That was the turning point for me with keeping a food journal. Most of the time I no longer need it. Seriously, most of the time I’m spot on with both meal planning and portions. When it is time to set a new goal, it is time to journal.

In reality, I do believe that is just what my fitness goals need to come to fruition.

A journal should be filled with all of the important details of your workouts and your nutrition. If you lift you want to keep up with the lifting progressions. Try new things that challenge your body. Sometimes they don’t work out for you. If you journal it, you won’t likely make the same mistake twice.

When keeping a food journal, you must have integrity. I promise you, strong character is built when no one else is watching. Because the only person you are cheating is yourself.

WRITE IT DOWN. You may be surprised at patterns that develop. Patterns that can help you understand whether you sabotage yourself. Patterns that help you understand if you are a stress eater. WRITE IT DOWN. Over time you’ll get stronger because you won’t eat it because you don’t want to WRITE IT DOWN.

I talked to the spousal unit last night and told him it was time for more serious goal setting and record keeping. He is the best “are you SURE you want to eat that” person on the planet. Especially when he knows I have a goal set.

As with most everything, I intend to share the new journal process with you all. Hopefully I can start making a few videos along the way.

Jun

Be A Fighter

By garagegym107 1 Comment

I read a lot of blogs, a lot of FaceBook posts, and a lot of email asking questions and for help in making lasting change. I’m honored and humbled by every email I receive because I’m just an ordinary person who has become a fighter.

What does that mean exactly? It means I have committed to myself everyday to fight for the fitness I want. It means I refuse to settle for status quo. It means even when I’m not spot on, I press on consistently. Getting knocked down and getting back up again to go at it another day. Preventing the decline, slowly creating a fit body and mind for myself.

I don’t have all of the answers, even for myself, but I work hard to educate myself on topics that will assist in my efforts to take things on to the next chapter in my journey.

Often we encounter set-backs, at times it is even possible to be indirectly set-back by another person’s decision. What do you do? Become a fighter. Stay the course, keep training, keep doing what you can with what you have. Stay true to you.

A little music motivation courtesy of Gym Class Hero’s.

Jun

My Thoughts On Being Strong

By garagegym107 6 Comments

My last blog was letting all my blogging friends know I was competing in a strongman competition as a way to honor my father-in-law who is currently battling cancer.

It’s taken me a full week to get my thoughts together and to make a picture video of the event.

Things I learned while competing. First, I’m stronger than I think I am. Second, I have some of the best people on this planet in my cheering section. Third, fear is much bigger in my head than after taking the first step in a competition.

This event has been the highlight over the past month. I watched friends PR (get a personal record) all day long. We all got dirty together, we sweat together, encouraged each other and we encouraged total strangers through tough workouts.

If I’m not mistaken, the next closest competitor in my age group was 14 years younger than me, and on average most were 20-25 years younger. Yes, I questioned my own sanity a time or two for coming out and competing with kids, but it’s not about beating them, it’s about being a better me than I was yesterday. As you will see by the pictures, I carried heavy things, flipped tires, pulled a sled 50 meters and got a personal record of 240# on my dead-lift.

The best thing I did that day was set an example for a group of young women who now see that aging doesn’t mean you have to stop doing things that challenge you. Being smart about my fitness, keeping myself healthy and injury free allows me to compete in this environment.

What a great day.

On the mornings I head out to Garagegym107 to row, I see the before pictures hanging on the wall and remember where I was and that I am unwilling to go back there. It can be done, it is being done. Day in and day out, me vs. me. I live by the mindset, there is no finish line.

Pictures courtesy of CrossFit Madison

Video: A special thanks to Jason Thompson

Song: The Script-Hall of Fame

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