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Posts Tagged ‘food

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!

Jul

Using A Journal Part 2

By garagegym107 Leave a Comment

Categories: Morphing of a Fit Woman
Tags: Body-for-Life, Clean Eating, Community, exercise, food, gaining self confidence, Goal Setting, goals, Gym, health, healthy-living, Inspiration, Long term weight loss, Motivation, Weight Lifting, Well-Being, Working out, Workout

As I discussed in my previous post I began using a journal to record everything again after six months off from my workout journal and I really can’t say how long it’s been with the food journal.

I’ve been on again, off again with the LOSE IT app. I like Lose It. Another thing that requires integrity, but at least you can scan bar codes and access that app from your phone and your computer. I’m still a WRITE IT DOWN girl. Something about writing it down is acknowledgement for me. It’s personal accountability and I know that when I have a trainer get involved, that will be the first thing they ask for.

So after 9 days of keeping a daily journal, as per my expectations I see things that need to be tapped back in to place. I do very well when my meals are planned and prepared in advance.

It’s easy to sit and type about greatness. It’s easy to sit and type about rah-rah cheering people on. When you have to get down and dirty and spill the truth about things you could be doing better, it’s really hard.

A friend said once… “I’m not going to tell you this is easy because when you are screwing up you’ll think there is something wrong with you, there isn’t. It’s just hard.”

No truer words were ever spoken.

I’m sitting here typing this blog thinking of all of the not on plan foods I’ve had over the last four days. It’s not horrible. But it’s not great either. I’m not trying to be perfect. I’m trying to be better than the day before.

I’ve noticed that when I eat something off plan, I tend to scribble it down almost illegibly so. Ha! Like I think “someone” can’t figure it out. Uh…someone is ME.

I live with a junk food junkie. That’s not an excuse, that is a fact. I love Precision Nutrition. They clearly say “If there is junk food in the house you will eat it…eventually”. I’m good about steering clear of it. In fact 98% of the time I do.

The only drawback to any plan saying “get rid of all the bad stuff in your house”, well that is just not possible in every house. My spousal unit ate the same way he eats now when we married. I changed, that isn’t his fault. He’s not overweight or unhealthy. I’m jealous because I have the metabolism of a person who gained 168# in two years and proceeded to lose 125# of it in a year. I don’t care what anyone says, that jacks up your system. No excuse.

So is the 2% margin of error enough to screw up my goals?

Perhaps.

The question is not that, the question is whether the journal is helping me to stay the course.

Without a doubt.

It helps me to recognize and realize that I’m much more comfortable and relaxed when I do food prep. THAT makes me feel more successful in and of itself.

WRITE IT DOWN. You’ll learn a lot in the process.

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

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

May

Show Me Your Brave

By garagegym107 6 Comments

Today’s blog is a bit deep, but hear me out.

My last blog was about stepping up in the face of challenge and adversity. I blogged about an overwhelming workload etc., however, what I didn’t share with my blogging friends is that my father-in-law over the last 4 weeks has begun a full on war with stage IV cancer.

I don’t share an overwhelming amount of personal information because I don’t want to distract my readers with personal noise.

About 3 months ago, I registered for Beast of the Valley Strongman competition. Over the past 3 weeks I’ve come up with about 20 excuses to bail out.

Yesterday, while watching my father-in-law struggle to consume an 8 oz nutritional drink I had a complete mindset change.

Tomorrow I will do this competition for him, in honor of his battle, my internal battle will be fought for him. No excuses, just results. To all of my super supportive friends, thank you from the bottom of my heart for all of your love and support. To the athletes of CrossFit Madison THANK YOU for bringing me joy each morning that I am allowed to coach you through your workouts.

Tomorrow it will be about having the courage to fight this fight along with him.

You see 6 weeks ago, my father-in-law was an avid tennis player at 79 years young and today, 6 short weeks later he has mentally decided to show us his brave. This could happen to ANY of us. Don’t take a single day for granted. Get up and do everything YOU can do to take care of your body and soul because you can.

Thank you to Lifting My Spirits for introducing me to this song.

To all of the strong and beautiful women I know who are competing from all over town tomorrow, I’m so proud to be a part of this community no matter where our home bases are, we are a family built on strong values of supporting one another.

May

Look Around You

By garagegym107 14 Comments

I have been on my fitness journey for 11 years and 5 months, but who’s counting. I’d have to say the one thing that still amazes me is how often I continue to choose to “raise the bar” both in mindset and in physical training.

It is as if the few moments after I become comfortable with a skill I’ve finally mastered, it is suddenly time to move on to the next task at hand. I’m sure some of my friends think I should slow down and try to break this sense of driven I have, but for me, it is not that simple.

For me it is life. My life. I’ve fought my way back from a place where hundreds of thousands of people resign themselves to live in for the rest of their days. More than likely not because they WANT to stay there, but instead, they decide it is too hard a battle to fight to leave that place. Trust me, I know all too well how tough that battle is.

Here lately I’ve found myself noticing more and more how unhealthy folks are getting. Perhaps that feeds my drive.

I’m not getting any younger. But through my fitness bar raising I’m able to prevent the decline for another day or two.

Seems rather like a hamster in a wheel doesn’t it?

Truth of the matter is, I wouldn’t have it any other way. Look around you. Really look. I’m in the minority, the doer’s. The get up and give the aging process a swift kick in the arse people.

Also known at work as the woman with the muscles. The hardass. The one who consistently trains day in and day out. Those who know me, absolutely know that I’m harmless, yet one of the best trainers they’ll find. I care. I want others to feel the success that I’ve had and continue to strive for. Nothing brings me more joy than watching someone else achieve a goal they set for themselves.

I thank God everyday that I am a healthy, fit person. In that thanks, I also remind myself that it is truly a blessing to be physically able to pursue the goals that I have set for myself. There are just too many others out there who are not able too. So if you are able to and chose not to…shame on you. Use what you have and make a better life for yourself. Don’t be status-quo.

Just look around you.

May

Steel Your Resolve

By garagegym107 5 Comments

Categories: Living Fit Daily
Tags: Body-for-Life, BodyBuilding, Bright Spots, change, Clean Eating, Community, exercise, fat loss, fitness, food, gaining self confidence, Garagegym107, Goal Setting, goals, Gym, health, healthy-living, Inspiration, Long term weight loss, Motivation

My last post was all about making things work when the going gets tough and things get complicated.

This is a short post, a list of things that are working for me, keeping me on task and on plan.

Meal prep. Spend 2-3 hours preparing, weighing and packaging individual meals for Monday through Friday. Keeping it very simple, I tend to eat either the same thing, or very close to the same thing each day. My proteins are priority one. Take half to work, leave half at home. This leaves no room for “hmmm….I don’t have anything, so I’ll pick something up”. Saves money, time, and totally keeps me focused.
Cut out my early am net-surfing 30 minutes and started getting right on the rower. The same could be accomplished with a run, fast walk, met-con, whatever blows your skirt up. Just do it. No one interrupts me that early, they are sleeping. Prime ME time.
Don’t hit snooze. Just don’t. Get up and get moving, in the 9-10 minutes you snooze, you can floss, brush, and flush and be out the door.
Stay focused. Find motivation. Share motivation

Get busy doing.

Apr

Things Are a Little Dusty

By garagegym107 2 Comments

Yes indeed things got a little dusty here in the land of blogging. High stress day jobs and long hours tend to want to wreak havoc on my whole life, but I won’t let it.

Needless to say, when things blow up all around me, all I can do is focus on what I can do in the moment. Staying in the moment these past several weeks has literally saved my MOJO and my sanity.

What I mean by staying in the moment is literally to stop worrying about what will be happening 2-3 hours or even 6-8 hours from now, much less, weeks and months. I cannot change a single thing in the future as I have no crystal ball or time machine.

My day job hours have significantly increased upwards to 11-12 hour days. When you add the coaching I do at our CrossFit Box, that leaves a shortness in my own training time. Which leads to grouchy butt syndrome on my part.

I caught myself whining a little about it. Then I reminded myself that I needed to put my big girl panties on and deal with things just as they are. What if I get to continue to come in to work at 7:15 indefinitely…? Well get up a little earlier. So be it.

That one thought triggered several more reminders of what I can do to help myself remain consistent in all things I love when things get harried.

Meal prep and planning. I spent three hours on Sunday taking away all excuses for not eating enough and well enough this week. Everything is nicely packed in throw away Ziploc Freezer Bags so no dishes to whine about washing.

Workouts are shifted from AM five days a week to 2 AM workouts and 3 lunch time workouts one rest day and a new weekend workout. No excuses.

Did these decisions come about easily? Well no, of course not. I spent three weeks trying to squeeze things in until I wanted to explode from being in a rushed frenzy before realizing that it was time to settle down and see things for what they are.

Changing.

Yes, the one constant will always be change. Why on earth I fight it so much is beyond me. My family would say stubbornness and I would agree.

Change is inevitable, but how we deal with it makes or breaks us. When my poor spousal unit started getting tewky with me, I realized I have been riding around on my pretty little broom just a bit too often.

When you find change coming in a very fast and unexpected fashion, find a quiet place to reflect, even if it’s only for 15 minutes. Write down what is really important to you and figure out how you will make change work instead of using change as an excuse to fail.

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