Inspiration | garagegym107

Posts Tagged ‘Inspiration

Jun

Don’t Forget

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.

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.

Apr

In Pursuit of Dreams

By garagegym107 41 Comments

Categories: Nutritional Cleanse Experiment
Tags: Community, CrossFit, exercise, fitness, gaining self confidence, Garagegym107, Goal Setting, goals, Gym, health, healthy-living, heavy weights, Insecurity, Inspiration, Motivation, Training, Well-Being, Working out, Workout

As I mentioned in my previous blog I am in the middle of the CrossFit Open Sectionals competition. It’s a very exciting time for me and the athletes of our CrossFit box. I’ve watched people evolve over the course of this past month, achieving things one month ago, they had no idea they could really accomplish. Both strong and beautiful inside out, I am honored to have their permission to present them to you.

These three women have inspired me beyond measure, right along with their own friends and family members.

Thanks to CrossFit Madison for the photos.

Anna Lombard: Anna decided her first go around at the WOD wasn’t her best. She came back in on Saturday and showed everyone, including herself exactly what she is capable of.

Artesha Bishop: Artesha also decide her first go around at the WOD wasn’t her best. She came back in on Saturday and found she was capable of more. Not settling for less than her absolute best, she gave is one final go and exceeded her own expectations.

Sydney Blackmon: I have watched this young lady absolutely blossom through her CrossFit experiences. On Saturday she successfully cleaned & jerked the prescribed load of 95# multiple times. Big deal right? Well that 95# is 5# less than her own body weight. The most exciting part is that she is 17 years old.

Mar

More Evolving

By garagegym107 2 Comments

The month of March has been absolutely crazy in terms of how many balls can be juggled. New boss for the day job, medical age related test (clean results), full on family vacation, and the CrossFit Open sectional with two weeks remaining. All of these things combined haven’t left much time for writing.

Finally today I have a bit of a breather.

The title of this blog is most fitting for my thoughts this week.

When I stop long enough to think back to the early months of my journey I recognize the pattern of losses as more linear. Here lately and over the past couple of years progress looks more like the lines on an EKG. Progress for me isn’t in terms of weight losses as much as it is about gains, strength gains, confidence gains, and awareness gains.

There are months that I see no gains at all in strength, but a conversation with someone else will result in confidence gains, that person may have seen something I accomplished that I took for granted and the reminder is priceless. Gains come in every form and fashion. Often times I will fail on a strength lift. What I forget to acknowledge was that I overcame a certain level of fear to attempt the action in the first place.

Awareness gains usually come when I’ve been in a social setting of some kind or when I’ve made some poor nutritional choices that impact an outcome. Awareness gains are not necessarily good or bad, they just are what they are. That always means I’m more in tune with an action or reaction.

Sounds like a bunch of babble when I go back and read it but the bottom line message is that progress comes through consistent action. Both positive and negative. Keep and open mind, keep moving your body, keep nourishing your body with good clean food, and allow your soul some time to reflect on what you’ve accomplished and what you fear.

Feb

Have I Been A Slacker?

By garagegym107 6 Comments

I realized when I sat down to write this blog I’ve begun to allow too much time to pass between blogs. I’ve got way too much to talk about to not sit down and make it happen.

Anyway, one might wonder if I’ve been slacking. Fat chance on that. I work a full-time professional day job and then I step out with my favorite evening job, personal training.

I long to find a way to support myself with my first love. Eventually I’ll get there, just not while I have a kid in college.

So, enough of my ramblings. Have I mentioned lately how much I adore working out? I really do. Most people cringe at getting up at 4:30am to be at the gym around 5. Not me. I started my days off like that long before I ever allowed the fat chick to rule my world.

Back in those days I wasn’t over weight, really not even pleasantly plump. After the birth of my 3rd son, I decided that working out at 5:00am allowed me to work out guilt free. Everyone was still sleeping and I didn’t feel like I was taking away from the older boys baseball, etc.

Fast forward through the trauma of divorce and massive unhealthy weight gain, through the amazing and a times heartbreaking journey of weight loss and the release of emotional baggage I find myself now older, wiser and still loving the 5:00am workouts.

The key in all of that chatter is find what works for you and your family. It may not be the ideal time, but if this is really important to you, you’ll do it whenever you can make it happen.

I’ve discovered lately that having a fit mind is just as important, perhaps even more important than a fit body.

Someone in your life causing drama? That doesn’t make it your drama. Someone having a bad day? That doesn’t make it your bad day. Your friend decided to make an excuse not to go to the gym this morning? That’s not your excuse.

My message and one of my own personal favorite lessons has always been “Just because someone else is having an issue, that doesn’t make it my issue”. I’ve learned over the last 20 years that if you take it, someone will keep giving it to you to carry for them.

Put on mental rubber suit and let the excuses of others roll off like rain on a freshly waxed car. Take care of yourself and six months from now your drama filled, excuse making friend will be asking YOU how you did it!

You’ve got enough to handle keeping yourself fit and fabulous.

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