health | garagegym107

Posts Tagged ‘health

Oct

Ride I did

Categories: Morphing of a Fit Woman
Tags: #bodyforlife, #fitatfifty, Body-for-Life, Clean Eating, gaining self confidence, Garagegym107, Goal Setting, health, healthy-living, Inspiration, Long term weight loss, Motivation, nutrition, Precision Nutrition, Training, Well-Being

I got up early this morning and started that head game smack talk again. Got dressed, filled a bottle, got all reflected up and set out on my bike at just after 5:00am. It’s amazing how peaceful things are before everyone gets up. Was I nervous, heck yes. But I did it anyway. I successfully rode in the dark, fully lit by street lamps, my light on the front of my bike and the red blinker on the back. I had no problem seeing the road and somewhere along the way I realized this early morning riding is so doable.

After watching my father-in-law, a very active man, lose his battle with cancer in 9 very short weeks and the follow-up deterioration of my mother-in-law, one thing is certain. We are all going to go sooner or later.

I’m not going to sit around and get old doing nothing. I’m going to continue to lift heavy things, swim, bike, run and just about anything else I really want to do. I may not do any of those things perfectly, but who really cares? Who are the exercise police that are going to say “you’re doing it all wrong”? Who are the food police that are going to come in my house and say “You aren’t supposed to eat that”? Really?

I’m feeling a little rebellious this morning. 🙂

My you all be blessed with the courage to do what really moves your soul.

Jul

Carole 165# Dead-Lift

By garagegym107 6 Comments

I have some pretty amazing clients. I’m blessed and grateful all at the same time. I’ve been working with Carole for a year and a half now. We’ve been focused on over-all body strength. Carole just turned 65 years young a little over a week ago.

Today, she dead-lifted more than her body weight. This is one of the most inspiring progressions I have witnessed. You see, we don’t train dead-lift once a week, once every two weeks, and some times we go a full month in between dead-lifting at all. Instead we work on all over body strength. The style of training varies. Kettle-bell training, dumbbell training, barbell training, and body weight training. She never says no to anything I ask her to do. She does band assisted pull-ups, ring-rows, barbell hip thrusts, sit-ups, anything I ask. I hope this blog will encourage other women to reach out to a reputable personal trainer and get you some strong! Find someone you are comfortable with and get busy. Change doesn’t happen overnight. Change happens with practice. Consistent practice.

Congratulations Carole!!

Jul

Doing the TGU Turkish Get-Up

By garagegym107 4 Comments

Of late I’ve been adding the Turkish Get-Up (TGU) to my own workouts more than ever. About two months ago I witnessed my neighbor take a spill while working in her yard. She lives on a slope and when she fell, she was unable to catch herself, resulting in a broken right arm and broken left hand. She is my age. Since that day the TGU has been coming to mind over and over.

By adding it to my program I’ve also gone through a cycle of self-realization. One, progress comes more rapidly when I get completely uncomfortable. You know that whole “suck it up Buttercup” thing. Secondly, the brain and central nervous system play a huge role in Turkish Get-up.

I’m strong, that’s not a secret. But I lean to the rather uncoordinated side for sure. In example, some folks take to the snatch and overhead squat like they were born to do them both. Me? It took months and months of skill drills to improve on both of those movements. Same with the TGU.

The TGU shows the uncoordinated and off-center balance I have and the need for unilateral training better than anything else I’ve ever done.

I have also begun adding the TGU to clients training protocols as well. The pictures below are of one of my clients. She turns 65 years young on Friday. She is just as concerned with functional fitness and mobility as I am. She successfully completed 3 sets of TGU yesterday. We both learned a lot about where our focus needs to shift in her training. She gladly allowed me to take these photo’s to share with you. And BTW, at a few days shy of 65, she can dead-lift her own body weight.

Jan

Moving Past That Place

By garagegym107 272 Comments

Twice this week I’ve had conversations with women who find themselves at a crossroads. It’s the crossroads to long-term change. It’s a frightening place to be.

To the left is everything you know, comfort, habit, status quo, the norm, the place you’ve known for what could be your whole life, failures, the past.

To the right is belief, discomfort, truth, health, happiness, knowledge, pressure, fear of the unknown, trials, failures (yes you have failures on both roads), wisdom, desire, change, gratitude.

I know this crossroads all too well. In the spring and summer of 2010 I stood at the very same crossroads. I had just won the Body-for-Life challenge which had been a goal for 9 years. Everyone thought I had it all figured out. What people around me didn’t know, was what was happening on the inside. Even my best friends had no idea.

I was terrified. Afraid I’d back slide back to the 328# person I used to be. I was terrified I would fail again. I was terrified that I was a fake. I was afraid I didn’t believe in myself as much as others believed in me. I was afraid of the future.

Looking back on that crossroads now it seems silly. But at that time the fear was very real, very much a part of my daily life.

In order to overcome that fear, I had to put some daily habits in place. Below are the most important ones listed in the order of importance for me.

No Negative Self-Talk. EVER
Write down 3 things I’m grateful for daily
Write down 3 positive affirmations about my body daily
Get the fear out of your head

These things may look trivial to some, but to a person who doesn’t believe in themselves, I believe these things are a game changer. Let me elaborate.

No Negative Self-Talk. EVER

Negative self-talk is the single most detrimental habit a person can develop. Negative self-talk comes up when you look in the mirror, when you are handling your personal finances, when you go to work, when you parent your children, in your marriage. It’s everywhere. SHUT. IT. DOWN. You are worthy of greatness, no-one, not even yourself should tell you otherwise.

Write down 3 things you’re grateful for

Gratitude helps you realize in the big scheme of things you’ve got it really good. Be grateful you’re healthy and not fighting for your life. Be grateful you have a roof over your head. If you are reading this, be grateful for the very device allowing you to see this, even if it’s a loaner. Be grateful for the simplest things in your life. Once you remove your “woe is me” tunnel vision, you get to fully see what you have to be grateful for.

Write down 3 positive affirmations about my body daily

I don’t mean the same things every day. Each day find 3 things you love about your body. They may or may not have a thing to do with your physical appearance. I love my eyes because they allow me to see things. I love my strong and powerful legs that allow me to move heavy things. I love my ears because they allow me to hear beautiful music.

Get the fear out of your head

If you are afraid of something talk about it with a trusted friend, a person who’s walked this path before you, or if nothing else, write your fear down in a journal. What I found over time was the fear was much, much greater in my head than it ever was out in the open. I’ve written letters to people and then burned them (very healing). I have sobbed on my friend’s shoulder when faced with the realization I wasn’t going to reach a goal I set. Getting your fear of failure out of you mind clears the space so that it can be filled to the brim with positive and grateful thinking.

All of the above may seem trivial, but if you are at the crossroads of significant weight loss, throw these habits in to play and see if you don’t find some peace from the constant fear of back-sliding.

Jan

Strong Legs

By garagegym107 12 Comments

It seems like all I write about lately is the legs. Well mostly anyway. I’ve neglected to push my legs at the same level I’ve pushed my upper body, so now I’m playing catch up. I’ve used every excuse under the sun for the past four years as my excuse for not being more goal oriented on these strong legs.

As most of my readers know I’ve lost a lot of weight, with the losses, I’ve gained some unflattering skin issues on these strong legs. THAT has been my number one excuse for not being overly concerned with them. The whole “I’ll never wear shorts again” excuse.

Well as you can tell I’m sucking it up and getting busy changing these strong legs into even stronger legs. The lower body contains the largest muscles in the whole body. The more I work them, the more dense with muscle both the legs and glutes will become. I will burn more calories as well, like a big old furnace. I can’t wait.

I don’t expect them to be perfect because that would certainly be unrealistic. I’m all too familiar with unrealistic expectations, they set you up for failure. All I will say is that I have before pictures and I’m making videos along the way of this journey. I will stay the course and you guys will get sick of the updates. Until then I’ll keep sharing what I’m doing and you guys can cheer me on.

Jan

Workout #2 YOTL 2014

By garagegym107 5 Comments

After being out of town and dealing with a spousal unit with food poisoning I managed to make it to the gym on my lunch hour. It was a quick, lighter weight workout. Not bad for a quickie during lunch. No complaints here, only accountability. I also want to make clear the only workouts being posted under this title are leg workouts. I suppose I should start a separate thread for all other workouts. 🙂

Walking Lunges Wide Step

3 sets x 15 reps

Back Squat

45# x 10 reps

65# x 5 reps

85# x 5 reps

45# x 10 reps

Seated Leg Press

110# x 10 reps x 4 sets

Seated Leg Ext.

60# x 15 reps x 5 sets

Walking Lunges Wide Step

2 sets x 15 reps

Dec

A New Year 2014

By garagegym107 1 Comment

NO! This is not a blog about New Year’s Resolutions.

As I write this post another year is coming to a close. Being the eternal optimist, I tend to see only the best when I look back. When I think back on it, I realize how much I’ve accomplished. I’ve become a successful business owner. I’ve managed to work two jobs and keep my wits and humor about me. I kept up with all of my workouts, even when I didn’t have time to sit down and post a blog about what I was doing.

The one thing that wasn’t stellar the entire year was my writing. I missed it, I didn’t realize how much until I started really posting again. It seems kind of silly actually. Me, in my little world, writing things for others to read. I hardly feel qualified to write. I do it anyway. I’m sure there are some folks out there who read my blogs and cringe at my less perfect grammar. I try hard not to get so caught up in proper sentence structure and grammar but instead focus on content.

I want to continue to write in a way that keeps things real. I’m a real human being with real challenges just like everyone else. I want to share experiences and the vision of a almost 51 year old fitness junkie/body builder/CrossFit coach.

You see, I realized about a year and a half ago there are a lot of folks out there who are hungry for some success in this life. Whether it be there own or someone else’s. It took me a while to announce myself as a “Successful Transformation” because I know better than most, in order to have a successful transformation, you gotta have a few years of maintenance under your belt. This year marked the 3rd year in a row I could wear the same sized corduroy pants. For a reformed yo-yo dieter and former obese person, this in of itself is a huge victory. My focus this year has been mostly on building muscle and not gaining fat. As I move in to 2014, it’s the year of legs. My training will be full body, with extra focus on the legs. I’ve created a category for posting all things related to this topic in one place. I have before pictures and will keep them safe and sound until I’m ready to do side by side comparison photos.

A special thanks going out today to all of my readers, both new and far. I’m overjoyed to see readers in the UK, Norway, Sweden, Germany, and Canada showing up on my stats page. Thank you all so very much for taking time out of your busy worlds to visit mine!

Stay safe and Happy New Year!

Dec

Letting Go of Insecurity

By garagegym107 5 Comments

I could write a book on the topic of insecurity. My own personal insecurity would take up 2/3 of the book. At one point in my life I took myself so seriously, I was absolutely ZERO fun to be around. Little did I know at the time no one really paid that much attention, except me.

I was somewhat insecure in my earlier years before I got fat (I can say that insensitive word, I don’t have to be politically correct when I’m talking about myself in my own blog).

Once I got so fat, I was conscious of things I’d never noticed before. Looks from people, some I could tell were literally looks of disbelief. Others, looks of pity. The worst was the look a saw looking back in the mirror and that was disgust. Harsh, but truth. I thought surely when I lost all the weight, I’d lose the insecurity with it. But not so fast.

For a long time after I lost my weight I had serious fears about suddenly waking up and being back in that 328# body again. This fear spiraled out into my food consumption as well. I feared if I took a vacation or went off my overly strict food plan that I would never be able to regroup. For people who have lost a lot of weight this is a true insecurity. It’s a true fear that must be worked through. I’ve dubbed it “Fat Head Syndrome” the inability to see real, positive self-image after significant weight-loss.

As is with losing the weight, gaining trust in self is also a process that takes time. Learning to let go of mistakes, fear, and the seeking of perfection, are huge milestones in long term weight loss.

For a while I used positive affirmations to help me through. Training my brain to realize that I’m an athlete, not a dieter was one of the biggest steps to overcoming the obstacle. Then came the realization that micro-managing an overly strict food plan wasn’t necessary. I began to come to terms with the fact that if I focused on eating unprocessed and whole foods, I didn’t have to stress so much about every little detail. All that being said, I get why people do it.

The beautiful thing is watching a person literally come out of the cocoon when they realize they really are becoming more fit, both physically and mentally. I can see the relief in the eyes of a client once they come to believe it’s physically impossible to gain all of the weight back overnight. They realize they do indeed have the power to control their own outcomes. As a Coach it’s one of my favorite moments.

Coaching a client on getting out of their own way is one of the toughest parts of coaching. It takes time and patience and the occasional proverbial kick in the pants. And that’s why I love Coaching.

I’ve always loved the image below, borrowed from the internet, I truly believe there is an athlete in most everyone. But it’s the rare individual who has the courage to step out of the shadows and embrace the greatness we are each born with.

Dec

Surviving the Crash and Burn

By garagegym107 9 Comments

Today is the day after Christmas. Today is the day after a lot of folks crash and burn. Crash and burn=totally fall off track with fitness and nutrition and spend weeks trying to recover.

Here is a quick list of what to do to help you get back on track.

Throw out the crap, guilt free, ALL of it
Drink water like it’s your job, it will help you rehydrate and cleanse your system
Forgive yourself
Stop talking about how bad you feel and how bad you suck, so you crashed and burned, move on
Stop putting off today, the reckoning day, until Monday, or January 1st or whichever day you feel you need to prepare for, start today, right now
Get a clean meal in to your system
Get what you need to prepare more clean meals
Start a list of goals for 2014
Get thee to the gym and move something heavy quickly
Rinse and repeat

Remember there isn’t a final countdown of food consumption before starting some new fad diet on January 1st. Get your head right, get your house, apartment, desk, etc., cleaned out and replace any crap with clean staples and get a move on. Consistent clean meals will help boost your MOJO as much as a good solid workout will.

And remember this….

Didn’t turn into this….

Because I don’t know what the hell I’m talking about. Now get on with it.

Dec

Support Networking

By garagegym107 Leave a Comment

I started this blog a few days ago and set it aside. After having conversations with a few people, I realized this was a topic really worth writing about. Over the course of my journey, there has been one thing that stands out on the higher level of importance scale and that’s support networking.

What is support networking? Anything/anyone that helps you stay the course long term. Anything/anyone that helps you jump the next hurdle in your journey. Anything/anyone that forces you to acknowledge when you are allowing fear to impede your progress.

Along the journey of long term weightloss, there are unexpected hurdles that most people don’t even realize they are tripping over. It could be an internal fear of failure. It could be an episode or two of yo-yo dieting, just when you think you’ve figured things out you slide backwards. It could be the unrealized truth of giving power to food. Food has no power, unless you give it power.

Build a support network. Find someone who has gone before you, someone that could be a year or so ahead of you along the journey. Anyone worth their salt will be happy to help you. I know I would. Because if it were not for the people who politely but firmly pointed me in a direction, a direction that allowed me to get out of my own way, who knows where I might be?

Build yourself a network by starting with the person in the mirror. Trusted friends, who want you to be successful may tell you something you don’t want to hear. That usually means it’s exactly what you need to hear. This person/people will listen to you and not criticize you, they will believe in you when you don’t believe in yourself. Surround yourself with people who have similar goals. People who want to take it to the next level. Offer your own support to them. You never know who wants to be where you are today. Start paying it forward and you’ll realize and respect how far you’ve already come and you’ll likely realize it’s not as hard as you are making it.

Me teaching a new found friend how to KB Swing several years back. We are still close and support one another. Everyone has set backs, everyone could use a hand. A simple message of encouragement goes a very long way.

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