Precision Nutrition | garagegym107

Posts Tagged ‘Precision Nutrition

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.

Oct

Stop Thinking You’re Not Ready

By garagegym107 Leave a Comment

Categories: Morphing of a Fit Woman
Tags: #bodyforlife, #fitatfifty, #garagegym, Community, exercise, fat loss, fitness, gaining self confidence, Garagegym107, Goal Setting, Insecurity, Motivation, Precision Nutrition, Training, Triathlete

The biggest thing that keeps us from moving forward is the simple thought of thinking we are not ready. No-one ever feels 100% ready when an opportunity presents itself. Especially when the opportunity forces you to step out of your comfort zone and face your own insecurities.

The greatest opportunities in our lives usually require us to get out of the comfort zone. As a really good friend said early one morning “comfort is for couches” there is really something to that. When you have doubt, sitting idle allows that doubt to grow larger and loom in front of you.

Change takes courage. I’m not going to tell you it’s easy, but I will say it’s doable. It’s doable if you take that first step and commit to yourself you are willing to do whatever it takes to accomplish the goal.

Take for example my most recent goal of becoming a Triathlete by summer of next year. The first obstacle in my head wasn’t whether I could swim, bike, run. It was putting on a swimsuit and going to the local pool. You see, having freed myself of the excess burden of carrying an additional 168# See Me Here there are things about my body that I’m overly sensitive about. My legs are two of those things.

Initially my thinking was “how can I cover up my legs?” so I bought a tri-suit to swim in. If you’ve never seen one, they come halfway or more down the thighs. After wearing that a couple of times I realized I was being stupid for two reasons 1) A tri-suit is entirely too expensive to be swimming in on a regular basis because the chlorine will eat it up over a very short period of time and 2) No-one really gives a crap about my legs except me.

Yeah, that’s right. Not the swim coach, not the lifeguards, not the others in the pool. Everyone is too busy to give a flip about the appearance of my legs. So moving along.

My next paralyzing fear is riding my bike in the dark. I have a bike light for both the front and back, I have a bright reflective vest, the only thing missing is my nerve. With the fall time change coming at the end of this week, it will be dark morning and evening.

I was talking to one of my friends from work and explained my nervousness. He quickly and very directly said “How have you accomplished your CrossFit?”, you don’t talk yourself out of doing that. Stop thinking. You just have to get out there and do it.

So much truth. So I’m pulling up my big girl pants and will make sure my batteries are charged on my big 1200 lumens Bright Eye light and get to riding tomorrow morning before the crack of dawn. Yes like 4:30am. 🙂

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!!

Dec

Meal Planning 101

By garagegym107 4 Comments

I have people ask me often how I handle meal planning. I’ve learned over the course of my journey that I tend to gravitate towards the same foods for days at a time. I know it sounds boring but really it’s not. It actually makes things quite easy for me.

I can’t tell you what foods are right for you, but you can pretty quickly figure that out for yourself. I go out of my way to eat fresh whole foods when I can. But two of my packaged staples are brown rice and a variety of dried beans, usually pinto or black beans. I bring the beans to a boil with a teaspoon of baking soda and them allow them to soak for an hour or two, then drain, rinse and cook with fresh water seasoned with onion, salt, and black pepper. For those who don’t know this little tip, the baking soda soak prevents the beans from making you gassy. Talk about a cheap date? I can eat for days based on my serving size.

Anyway, I chose to eat a small portion of both rice and beans in order to create a complete protein and this also allows me to have hot food meals. I eat plenty of refrigerated foods so having the hot filling meal are wonderful. In most cases I’ll also include a portion of chicken with my beans and rice. But not always since it’s a complete protein. Love the fiber that comes from both as well. Some folks can’t tolerate beans or rice, so perhaps sweet potato and a veggie would suffice with your protein. I’ll eat those on occasion as well.

I have a rice cooker that doubles as a slow cooker. Sunday is spent with a pot of beans on the stove, chicken in the slow cooker and the rice being steamed after the chicken has cooked.

Then out come my containers, my scale and my measuring cup. I do not measure my food all the time. You learn over time to eyeball it, but my eyeballing grows so I like to measure to be a bit more accurate.

Most people don’t WANT to take the time to meal prep. But then again, most people don’t want to be fit and healthy. I chose to be both.

Step One:

Make a grocery list of the following weeks meal plan requirements.

Step Two:

Cook it all.

Step Three:

Measure into containers and put in the fridge.

Step Four:

Be confident in your ability to get the proper amount of fuel in your body.

It’s so easy to allow the rush of the holiday season to get you off track. Bad weather convinces you to sleep in. Before you know it the New Year comes and you’ve gained 10 pounds over the holiday season. Don’t let it happen to you. Meal planning is even MORE important during the holiday season because of all of the tempting treats sitting around.

Dec

A Mental Flush

By garagegym107 14 Comments

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

It’s Been So Long

By garagegym107 3 Comments

As I came to my blog to write a bit, I noticed my last blog post was July 1st. Where did the months go?

I took a mini-hiatus from both blogging and social media to the greater degree. I needed to get some things together on a personal level. It’s been a very long and challenge work year, the company I work for during the day is in what I’d call a transition stage which means 100% of the focus must be on making things happen or you might be thrown out with the mop water.

I’ve missed the motivational part of blogging. I had forgotten how much positive energy I’ve received from sharing the good, the bad, and the funny of a fitness lifestyle.

Don’t mistake the quiet for quitter or slacker or fallen of the wagon or one of 100 other descriptions other folks use to describe when they’ve totally imploded. I’ve been far from all of that. Working out is as much a part of my day as brushing my teeth, as is clean eating. Did that happen overnight? Heck no. It took a very long time, but that doesn’t matter, if it hadn’t I wouldn’t be chatting with you all right now.

I’ve had all sorts of stuff pop up in an effort to derail my fitness progress and I’ve prevailed. Has it always been the way I’d planned to get my workout in or where I’d planned to get my workout in? Negative Ghost Rider, sometimes that planned pattern is full so you need to buzz the tower instead.

I feel like I’m rambling a little bit, partly because I didn’t sit down with a specific topic to share. The biggest message I have to deliver today is simply hold on to your goals, even when times are tough. The only thing certain in this life is change. Roll with it, adapt to it, stay calm and carry on!

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.

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.

Feb

Be Beautiful

By garagegym107 1 Comment

For ALL of the beautiful ladies in my life, I write this blog. You know who you are, you are near and far. The ones who, at the drop of a hat send a kind word or do a kind deed. You are the ones that simply place a heart on my FB page. You are the ones who send a card for no other reason than you want to make someone smile.

With all of the noise surrounding the perfection of women, be it in the fitness industry, the beauty industry, the clothing industry, remember that we are each in our own way simply beautiful.

Imagine a world with no commercials or billboards bombarding you with thoughts of what you should be, how you should look, or telling you what material thing you should have before you consider yourself beautiful.

Get up tomorrow and let it all fade to black. Find the beauty you were born with, IT IS IN YOU, I know, I’ve seen it with my own eyes and felt it with my own heart. Be the beautiful women that you are!

Please take 3 minutes and 20 seconds and watch this video. A huge shout out to Karen Walrond for posting this on You Tube. And a huge thanks to my Precision Nutrition coach Jennifer Koslo for sharing this.

Please, please, share this with every beautiful woman that you know!

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Posts Tagged ‘Precision Nutrition

Ride I did

Stop Thinking You’re Not Ready

Carole 165# Dead-Lift

Meal Planning 101

A Mental Flush

It’s Been So Long

Show Me Your Brave

More Evolving

Have I Been A Slacker?

Be Beautiful

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