Weightloss | garagegym107

Posts Tagged ‘Weightloss

Jan

Strong Legs

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

Whew Those Glutes

By garagegym107 5 Comments

Categories: 2014 Year of Legs
Tags: #bodyforlife, #fitatfifty, #garagegym, Body-for-Life, BodyBuilding, Bright Spots, Clean Eating, Community, Garagegym107, Goal Setting, Inspiration, Motivation, Training, Weight Lifting, weight loss, Weightloss, Working out, Workout

My focus this year is legs and glutes. Much more focus than last year. Not just heavy lifting but attention to detail with hamstrings and hip flexors as well. I like reading a lot. Anything to do with muscle activation and building I’ll read it. One thing I used to assume was that if I squat enough I didn’t need to work glutes separately. After two years of little change in my butt and the back of my legs it’s past time to step-up my backside. I began doing 3 sets of 25 body weight Glute Bridges every day since Friday. Wow. Talk about muscle awareness. I find it interesting how muscle can somehow become inactive, perhaps disengaged because other muscles start overcompensating.

My glutes are tender today, that’s a good thing. That tells me the work I’m doing is needed and it is working.

As most of my readers know I’ve started doing random videos of my workouts. I’ve learned a lot about my form and things I need to correct. In example I did 65# front rack position barbell walking lunges. Watching the video below I realized I turn my toes in terribly during these sets, I don’t normally turn my toes in doing walking lunges. Correcting it should be as simple as reducing the weight and doing higher reps.

Today’s Workout:

3 Sets x 25 reps Glute Raises Body Weight

3 Sets x 20 reps 65# Hip Thrust

3 Sets x 8 reps 65# Walking Lunges

5 Sets x 10 35# Back Extensions

5 Sets x 10 reps Reverse Hypers

Lunges, Back Ext, Reverse Hypers

Jan

Torn Between Two Loves

By garagegym107 232 Comments

Here lately I’ve been struggling. No not with food, that’s dialed in quite nicely actually. I’m torn. Torn between my love of bodybuilding and my love of barbell building. When I do one with serious focus, I feel like I’m cheating on the other. It sounds so silly but really it’s not.

Every morning I get up at 4am. Spend about 15 minutes getting ready to head out to the gym. If I do not have an iron clad plan of what I’m going to do in a given workout, I will falter. Monday and Friday are hard-core bodybuilding lifting days because I have much more time. Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, I teach at 5:30am class so that only gives me about 30 solid working minutes after I’ve warmed up. Saturday or Sunday when I’m afforded the time, I’ll sneak in another good workout and it rotates between barbell and body building. Here lately, I’ve decided to use those 3 shorter training times for barbell work. Man I love it.

I’m reminded every time I pick up the bar that I’m strong, but the bar can be stronger. I’m also reminded that my training over these past few years has really changed my functional fitness and ability level. At almost 51 years old I can do things I wouldn’t have dreamed of doing in my 30’s.

I read an article the other day that really struck home for me. It talked about the fact there are no studies showing eating healthy and exercising will prolong your years. Then it went on to talk about the quality of your life with strength training versus quality of life with out it. I already knew this, but it was quite gratifying to read it in black and white. I don’t care how long I have left, I just want that time to be spent as fit as I can possibly be.

So more motivation to lift! And more motivation to stop trying to choose between the two disciplines. I fully believe they compliment each other. The video below in particular reminds me of my functional ability. My form isn’t perfect, but my technique is improving with practice. If you have any doubts about whether weight training is for you, at minimum look into it. It will make you sore some days, those days will simply remind you that you are growing in your fitness. I look forward to being the little old lady in the corner lifting. Absolutely.

Jan

Inspired By Others

By garagegym107 15 Comments

Yesterday while reading Lifting My Spirits FB page I was greatly inspired by her recent workout video posts. She has allowed folks access into her workouts via video and I just thought that was the greatest thing. When you are doing this fitness thing for good, as in like brushing your teeth, there are always times you can use a little motivation. I’m nowhere near as good as she is with this whole video thing, but today, I thought I’d try it. I have a lot to learn about camera placement etc., and practice will remedy that. And again a shout out to Lifting My Spirits for being such a great mentor and example for all of us.

When I looked at this video I thought to myself “man you’re getting old” and then the lifter in me said “but you’re still going and will continue to do so”.

Before you get all stirred up about my form, please keep in mind this was a short workout that began at 4:45am. I didn’t have a lot of time to warm up and it shows. There are also flaws in my technique and there is nothing better than a video to show you exactly what you need to work on to improve technique. So there it is. For the sake of time, I’ve edited out the rest periods for the most part.

A shout out to my friend Roxanne Perkins for helping tutor me on the art of video editing.

Location: CrossFit Madison

Music by Lenny Kravitz

Grunts and groans by yours truly! 🙂

Squat Cleans 2 reps every minute on the minute 85#

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

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.

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

Swift Kick In The Pants

By garagegym107 1 Comment

My last blog was about the seasonal transition and hibernation of habits. Today, it’s all about the swift kick in the pants.

I see it already, the slack in attendance during classes. The “I overslept” excuse for skipping a workout. The even bigger excuse people tell themselves “no-one will notice that I’ve gained 10 pounds under this sweater”. News flash, the only person you are disappointing is yourself.

Sure, summer is over and fall is on its way through, but your goals haven’t changed have they? Don’t allow the dark mornings keep you from being around your peers and making smack talk and workout challenges. Get your arse out of that bed!!

First the workouts go and then the clean eating follows right afterwards. The seasonal treats will be there for the next 2 plus months. Don’t get caught with the winter blues of “I screwed up my whole plan, and don’t know how I got so far off track”.

Keep your mindset positive, sure it’s colder than usual, but get up and go anyway. You’ll warm-up once you start moving. For those who workout in the mornings, it’s always dark anyway so that’s not your excuse.

Don’t allow winter to steal away your momentum. Hold yourself accountable by setting mini-goals over the next two months. Challenge yourself to maintain your current level of fitness and not fatness. You know there will be times when clean food is hard to come by so do some pre-planning and keep some jerky, almonds, almond butter, etc. on hand to get you through the feeding frenzies you’ll encounter. No sense getting caught up in the frenzy when you already know it can and will set you back a few months if you allow it to.

Own your fitness. Keep your goals in sight and stay the course!

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