Posts Tagged ‘goals

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19
Jun
12

The Thing

By garagegym107 3 Comments
Categories: Morphing of a Fit Woman
Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

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.

 

18
Jun
12

Truth!

By garagegym107 1 Comment
Categories: Morphing of a Fit Woman
Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

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.

14
Jun
12

It’s Not About the Weight

By garagegym107 34 Comments
Categories: Living Fit Daily
Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Only DataI 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!

07
Jun
12

Random Workout Thoughts

By garagegym107 2 Comments
Categories: Random Thoughts
Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

– 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.

06
Jun
12

Random Food Thoughts

By garagegym107 7 Comments
Categories: Random Thoughts
Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

–  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

04
Jun
12

Square Peg in a Round Hole

By garagegym107 2 Comments
Categories: Living Fit Daily
Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

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.

01
Jun
12

Speed Bumps in The Road

By garagegym107 Leave a Comment
Categories: Living Fit Daily
Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Thank goodness for auto insurance!  Needless to say, the boy has learned a whole lot about responsibility from his decision to not notify the police of the accident. 

Note to all of my friends and anyone that I don’t know who is reading this blog:  I assumed my child understood that no matter what, when there is an accident he must report it to the police.  Don’t make the assumption that your kids know this. 

Explain to them that no matter what, it matters when it comes down to who pays the bill for repairs.  I’ve raised my kids with the understanding that in every situation they have choices and no matter what choice they make, they must be prepared to handle the consequences   The boy is better for the experience although his summer will be spent paying off the deductible debt he owes me.

I have been sitting here thinking about the rather crazy week I’ve had.  I’ve managed to get all but one of my workouts in.  I do intend to make up that workout at some point this weekend.  I usually take both days as active rest days.  I’m going to have some pull-up skill work and 10 x 100m sprints.   That ought to work me over pretty good and then I intend to stand-up paddle board if the mound of laundry will allow for it. 

My eats have been pretty close to 90% clean which I’m ok with.   I’ve run the gamut of the eat bad, feel bad, eat bad cycle and then transitioned over to the perfectionist cycle of 100% clean 100% of the time and plenty more phases smashed between the two extremes. 

These phases I now see very clearly and understand how they came about.  It has only been since I realized the difference between 90% and 100% is minimal in terms of my results that I’ve become more comfortable.  Now my body, mind and soul are a lot happier when I selectively choose my 10% meals.  

I do believe that 80% clean eats is a good solid goal for everyone.  I’m personally not as comfortable with that being my choice.  I prefer to keep a slightly tighter reign because I am more comfortable with that structure. 

For those struggling to find balance out there, it’s doable.  Just be patient with yourself and don’t be afraid to fall down from time to time.  Just don’t stay down because no-one will come along and pick you up.  You have to do that for yourself. 

Have a great weekend!

 

 

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.

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.

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