gaining self confidence | garagegym107

Posts Tagged ‘gaining self confidence

Jul

Discipline

Categories: Morphing of a Fit Woman
Tags: Body-for-Life, Clean Eating, Community, CrossFit, exercise, fat loss, food, gaining self confidence, healthy-living, Inspiration, Long term weight loss, Motivation, nutrition, The Zone Diet, Training, Working out, Workout, Zone Diet

It sounds like we are in school today but we’re not, bummer.

Occasionally I have people seek me out for advice on how I successfully transitioned from obesity to being fit. I’ll help anyone out there. That’s probably one of my biggest blessings and at the same time one of my biggest flaws.

The old adage “You can lead a horse to water but you can’t make him drink” applies here. I’ve found that people want me to tell them exactly what to eat and when (key word is exactly), what to drink, and when to breathe, etc.

I’ll help up to a point, I’ll give you menu’s, workouts, etc. I’ll point you to every resource I’ve ever used.

One thing I won’t do is feed you and do your workouts day in and day out. You’ve got to have some self-motivation, self-discipline and learn to do that stuff yourself.

I know all about the insecurity of being left to your own devices and eating healthy. I used to get paralyzed with over thinking about food. Some days I’d freak out and not eat much at all for fear of eating too much of the wrong thing. Wrong to who? I still laugh over my naiveté.

If you keep it simple and LEARN the difference between a complex carb, a lean protein, heathly fat and healthy veggies you can then make great choices.

In today’s world things get so confusing so that’s the first thing I try to teach any client or friend. You’d be amazed at how many people use almonds and bacon as their sources of protein, when in actuality they are fats.

There are a ton of resources and some of my favorites are Body-for-Life Library. You’ll have to register and then visit the library tab. Secondly The Zone Diet both of these programs are relatively easy to follow with cut and dried food lists. If you are starting out, they are great resources. Lastly, I’m a fan of Primal eating Mark’s Daily Apple for folks who are more advanced in their nutritional journey. Meaning you don’t eat fast food EVER. If you are still eating fast food, stick with the first two choices.

You can mix and match! YES. YOU. CAN. I promise at least up to this point, there are no food police that will come to your house and tell you that you are eating improperly. Learn how to fuel your body to feel better. Listen to your body NOT YOUR EMOTIONS when deciding what to eat.

In a perfect household everyone is on board and all the junk goes in the trash. In my house that’s not the case.

So I keep my food in a seperate veggie bin in the fridge and the other stuff in a separate pantry with all the small appliances I don’t want sitting out.

No one goes in that pantry except for me, they don’t like appliances. 🙂

I don’t have to look at bread, crackers and chips when I’m selecting my food.

I’m optimistic as time goes on that things will get better in my house. But until they do, I don’t use that as an excuse.

Everyone has their own favorite complex carbs. These are two of my favorite carbs.

Jul

Getting Fit! Tami Rose

By garagegym107 42 Comments

Categories: Living Fit Daily
Tags: change, Clean Eating, Community, CrossFit, exercise, fat loss, food, gaining self confidence, Goal Setting, goals, healthy-living, Inspiration, Motivation, nutrition, Success, Training, Weight Lifting, weight loss, Weightloss, Working out, Workout

I’d like to take a moment to introduce you to a woman I know. I met Tami a year ago when she joined the CrossFit Box I attend.

With her permission, this blog is for her. To celebrate the victory of consistency with both her nutrition and her workouts. Tami has made changes that have now become visible results. No super secret code or plan.

Clean conscious eating and working out. I do not train Tami. She works out at CrossFit Impulse. She does this on her own with the support of other CrossFit community members, friends and trainers at the box.

For all of you out there struggling, use this as motivation.

Instead of me saying a thousand words, I’ll let the photo’s do the talking. Congratulations Tami!

March vs July 2012 Congratulations Tami!!

Jul

What’s Age Got To Do With It

By garagegym107 7 Comments

Categories: Morphing of a Fit Woman
Tags: Clean Eating, gaining self confidence, Goal Setting, Inspiration, Kettlebell, Long term weight loss, Motivation, nutrition, Weight Lifting, Working out, Workout

Picture this: One of my male coworkers who’s about five years older than I am wagging his finger at me all the while saying “you need to quit lifting all those heavy weights”. I looked him straight in the eye and said give me one good scientific reason why I should. He couldn’t.

Just because he doesn’t do it perhaps? You’ve got me.

You all have no idea how close I came to throwing up all sort of stinging retorts, but I bit my tongue because I know better than to buy into someone elses thoughts on aging. This is my life, my mind, my body and most of all my DETERMINATION.

In my humble opinion if you are listening to your body, feeding it the proper amounts of clean healthy foods, staying injury free, and have determination there is not a reason in the world you should stop or even fear starting to work with weights.

Perhaps it was that very statement that spurred me to swing a 2.5 pood (90 lbs) Kettlebell this morning just to see if I could do it. YES. I. CAN.

1 pood

Jul

Trust The Process

By garagegym107 Leave a Comment

I was having lunch with some friends today. I love our lunches. We are all fitness junkies and we all care about what we eat. Most of the time that is. I say that because as a collective group we are at different points in our fitness and nutritional journey.

Interestingly enough there is never, ever a case of “you know you should be doing better”. There is talk.

Inquisitive questions that help each person think through why they are willing to give up weeks and weeks of good clean eating or consistent training for food culprits, ie. sugars, or processed food.

Ironically most of the time it usually comes back to not progressing as quickly as one would like.

I used to get so jammed up that I wasn’t progressing fast enough, getting stronger fast enough, getting faster fast enough. All of these thoughts started hindering my ability to progress at all.

I finally came to the realization that trusting in the process is just as important as eating clean, working out and getting enough rest.

A friend asked just yesterday: “On a scale of 1-10 where are you in your fitness?” I can soundly say I’m sitting at 7, I’m above average in both my clean eating and nutritional disciplines. The interesting thing was the acknowledgement that I have no idea was levels 8, 9 and 10 are for me. Not what someone else thinks my levels should be or are, but instead how do I define them.

Love that thought-provoking question and I’m working on identifying those levels. Identifying them results in action. Leaving them blank and unanswered leaves me right smack dab where I am today.

Jul

Be Weird. Be Random. Be Who YOU Are.

By garagegym107 23 Comments

Categories: Morphing of a Fit Woman
Tags: Body-for-Life, Bright Spots, change, Clean Eating, Community, CrossFit, exercise, fat loss, fitness, food, gaining self confidence, Goal Setting, goals, Gym, health, healthy-living, Inspiration, Motivation, nutrition, Training, Weight Lifting, weight loss, Well-Being, Working out

Love this saying. I wish I had made this one up myself. I see people, especially women hiding behind what they think everyone else wants to see. The lucky few may get a glimpse in to who that person really is.

This morning I was the woman laying in the gym floor rolling on a foam roller shortly after doing five sets of heavy dead-lifts. I got stared at while doing the lifts. I don’t care. That is who I am. By today’s standards seeing a woman dead-lift isn’t common place. It’s weird. AND. I. LOVE. IT.

Want big biceps? Secretly behind closed doors flexing your guns to see if they’ve grown? Show ’em. Be proud of ’em. You bet I want nice bulky biceps and shapely shoulders. Side effect? I can paddle a mean kayak when I want to. I can also whip up a good omelet with those same guns.

I have a paddle board and a kayak to haul up a steep lot when I’m finished playing on the water. Every single weekend when I’m doing that hauling I thank my lucky stars that I made the decision to shed 168# and get fit.

Some say I’m getting too old for all that. Pfffhhhttt, I’ll never be too old. The day I get too old will be the day I stop having fun. Living this life today is the only choice we have, I’m taking full advantage of it by keeping myself in great shape.

If you’ve got pounds to lose, don’t waste another day trying. Get busy DOING. Hold yourself accountable. You are the ultimate keeper of your success! DO. IT.

Jun

Mirror Mirror

By garagegym107 1 Comment

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

Amazing

By garagegym107 Leave a Comment

Categories: Living Fit Daily
Tags: Age, Body-for-Life, CrossFit, exercise, fitness, gaining self confidence, Goal Setting, goals, Gym, health, healthy-living, Insecurity, Inspiration, Motivation, Training, Weight Lifting, weight loss, Well-Being, Wisdom, Working out, Workout

For those of you who don’t know me, I’m an early riser. Up with the chickens as they say down here in the south. I’m up and getting ready to go workout at 4:30am every morning during the week. That’s my “me” time. The no excuses time that works out best for my life.

As I was running out the door of the gym this morning another lady looked over her shoulder and said “I am 48 and you’ll pass me in a minute”. I jogged up beside her and I said “you are never to old to reach for amazing” besides I’ve got you beat by a year.

I gently reminded her instead of comparing ourselves to the ladies in the class who are 20-25 years younger we needed to remember to focus on how we stack up against our peers and more so than our peers, compare ourselves to who we were yesterday. Better today than yesterday.

On the next lap which was in between dead-lifts/push-ups and air squats/sit-ups we continued our conversation about wisdom, discipline and consistency being the keys to staying at least within sight range of the younger crowd. As we finished up the last run she looked over at me and said “now what was that you said earlier?”. I said the amazing quote again. I suspect she’ll be holding on to that one just like I have.

Wisdom comes with age. And to this day I still greatly appreciate my friend you said “you are never too old to reach for amazing” to me.

Jun

The Thing

By garagegym107 3 Comments

Categories: Morphing of a Fit Woman
Tags: Bright Spots, change, Community, CrossFit, exercise, fitness, gaining self confidence, goals, health, healthy-living, Insecurity, Inspiration, Long term weight loss, Motivation, Training, Working out, Workout, Worry

I read this today:

“Talking a lot about something that bothers you is a clear sign you’ve got something huge to learn, unrelated to “the thing.” ~Mike Dooley

Seriously, over the past month my blog posts and conversations have been all over the board.

After writing my post from yesterday the word truth stuck with me while I worked through my not so obvious thing.

As of this morning I decided to re-label myself. Up to now I’ve been a number of things. An average mom with 3 little boys, morphed in to a morbidly obese single mom with 3 big boys, morphed into a before and after weight-loss success story, morphed into a masters level CrossFitter.

As of today, I am re-labeling myself a general bad-a$$. How did I come to that conclusion? Up to now I’ve blocked and tackled myself just before I reach that next step in getting better. Notice I said blocked and tackled myself? You see when you realize that you keep getting in your own way to success it’s now time for change. Today, I’m throwing down the gauntlet for change. The first thing that must change is how I see myself. If I don’t see myself as a bad-a$$ then I will never be one.

Raising the bar again, simply because I’m happier when I have to jump to touch a new goal.

So what if I have to step up on a box to reach the bar from time to time? So what if one of my friends has to say “here let me help you up”, so what if my son and his girlfriend have to count the last reps so I don’t have to think, I can just do.

It’s all about getting better inside and out. It’s about learning that it’s you that has to make the right decision for yourself. No-one else can change you. They can support you, train you, and listen to you, but you are the only person that can follow through.

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!

Follow Blog via Email

Join 1,261 other subscribers

garagegym107