This last week I made a few mental notes to share. Nothing new, just notes to share with you and to keep in my mental mindset. Here are the things this week that helped me push through.
It’s ok to have an off eating day and not worry about it. Easter was last Sunday and with Easter comes chocolate and food. I don’t like dieting so I won’t say I do that but I do watch what I’m eating and mind my macros. Holidays are just one of those days that I feel that it’s ok to eat what you want in moderation and not worry about it. One day of not sacrificing is ok. YOu’re not going to gain 20 lbs from one treat day so don’t punish yourself. Your diet is to help you reach goals and it is GOOD to have days where you consume more than usual. It confuses your body which keeps it and you on your toes.
Working out with a friend is so much better. I think I’ve said it before but I’ll say it again and again because when I have company working out with me, I am very motivated to try harder and finish the entire workout. I also feel like I’m helping someone else stay on track and motivated. It feels good to get it done and keep someone going at the same time, most of all ME!
I don’t believe in working out when you feel like crap. I have never subscribed to “pushing through” a workout when you feel like crap. If it’s a little sniffle, fine but cold, flu, pneumonia, and other such illnesses, count me out! I never feel better working out when I’m sick or even when I am at the very beginning of an illness. I can’t give my workout my best and I never feel good during or after so my personal policy is to eat well, get rest and when I’m sick to take the day off. No exceptions including when I have my period. Day 1 is almost always a rest day. That’s just how I roll.
Turns out we think it’s musculoskeletal which means there’s nothing I can do about it except take muscle relaxers but by the time they kick in, the episode is over and then I’d be drowsy. No thank you, won’t work. So I have to deal with this. As I thought about it, the episodes have increased in frequency and intensity only in the last year or two. I have figured out that I started lifting weights regularly about a year and a half to two years ago which would explain the exacerbation of this problem. I’m positive that’s why it’s happening which means, I need to scale my workouts with weights back down from 5 weight days a week to maybe 2 and keep it lighter like 5 & 10 pounds.
designed to be done for time. I was not prepared to expend that amount of energy all at once. It was eye opening for sure and gave me a few personal goals to strive for. I was sweating, out of breath and cursing more about the fact that I wasn’t handling it as well as I thought than it was because it was as hard as I felt it was. Sometimes motivation isn’t about a new size or cute leggings. Sometimes it’s about being better than today and yesterday and striving to raise your bar. I will be better than I was today because I desire to be so I will be no matter how long it takes to get there.
Divorce the Scale- STOP enabling the scale to dictate your days! I now weigh 3.5 lbs more than I did over the course of many weeks gone by. I’m heavier but I shed my size larges for mediums so how is that possible? It’s possible because I am muscle heavier and have changed the shape of my body. Don’t empower the scale!
Have I really shrunk to a medium?? I have not been a medium in a really long time, like High School long time. As my larges were falling down as I ran, I just thought they were stretched out not that I was a different shape. As I ordered mediums I really prayed that they would fit because I did not believe I was the difference. Work hard and you’ll make changes you never thought you could.
I’m afraid of food but learning to relax. I’m eating about 1,000 calories more every day which is is freaking me out I’ve been brought up in the McDonalds fatty society where people eat gross food and are fat. My mother loved junk food and I have spent my entire life fighting the pudge. I only learned recently HOW to eat well and what clean eating is. I was always taught that more calories is a bad thing and less are the way to get “skinny”. Listen, I don’t want to be skinny, I want to be a powerhouse muscle toned bitch in a bikini. You know, the one that makes everyone say “wow she looks great”. I’m getting there but only through more calories to feed my machine and make it work harder for me, not fewer calories because then my machine goes into starvation mode and I can’t win against that. Feed your machine!
You have to find the small successes along the way to your goals. As I get heavier I am noticing things that I really like. Like my butt is lifting up and looking better. My hips and love handles are melting away. Working with heavier weights and a mixed up weight program are toning my abs without having to do stupid sit-ups and side sit-ups for days. Thank goodness because I don’t like them anyway. I’m noticing improvements and those improvements are driving me hard to keep going. Find your small success’ and grab on to them and keep working hard. You’ll get there.
nridge Casino which wasn’t far away, to see a comedian who I had not heard of. So as I am not a crazy foodie meaning I actually eat real food and a lot of it, I planned for a poor day in terms of calories. Carbs are always hard for me so I knew they would be over and all in all I was prepared to be over. I skipped lunch to save calories which was a good thing because we ended up eating at Smashburger. Oh My God! It was like being in Burger King and actually I should have just had pizza but didn’t. I ate it with two thoughts. 1) I was going to be over in calories and 2) I would probably have a crappy run in the morning. It was worth it and I was going to face the jury this morning for my indiscretions.
Mr. Smashburger had other plans for mile 2. I kept waiting in the first mile to feel sick or heavy or needing to stop. That feeling never showed up. Mile 2 was about the same minus stopping to correct my music issue but we finished in EXACTLY the same time which amused and pleased me at the same time and mile 3 was no big deal either. I was so sure I would be paying for last night but it was ok. I didn’t get up looking like a cow or feeling like one. I took Friday off because I thought I was getting sick so add on a second rest day and it all added up to an illusion of bad things that never happened.
and I was actually UNDER calories for the day! Wow, didn’t see that coming. Carbs well you can’t have everything, those were way over but OK I can live with that. Cheat days and rest days are ok. You won’t die, blow up or collapse because of them and in fact, they probably make you stronger. I guess it’s good to have them once in a while as part of positive therapy! That’s my story and I’m sticking to it!
I bought it because although I have my workouts laid out a week ahead of time and I’m very routine about doing so and getting those workouts done, I needed my “next step” because I get stuck on the dot a lot. I have two problems with my fitness routines that I have to actively work hard to avoid. I do too many leg days these days and I seem to fall back on the same set of say 10 exercises every time. That makes my pool really small but my predictability level high. I’m the person whose body won’t change because I have allowed it to “figure me out”. You have to switch it up all the time which is what the ebook will help me do. It also will help me hold myself accountable for increasing weights as I can and on a regular basis to trying new things outside of my comfort zone. I like it because it’s flexible if you’re not quite there in terms of an exercise, it shows you how to modify it. There are how-to videos for every single exercise and in fact, they pretty much tell you not to do anything before reading part 1 and watching all the videos first so you can safely do them.
Wrestling with Carbs is a pain- Yes yes yes! Counting stupid carbs is a pain in the butt and I hate it but I will keep doing it loosely as the focus is now calories. I want to see what happens by feeding the machine more. I’m seriously fearing the pudge but holding out praying it’s muscle if so. I am going to figure this feeding the machine thing out one way or other!
You have to step outside your comfort zone. Working out is a job in and of itself. You have to plan it, do it, revise it and do new things too. You can’t stay on machines all the time and you can’t do the same exercises all the time. You have to switch it up and even do the same exercises differently to work other little stabilizer muscles to get that well-rounded fitness level going on. For example, I now have incorporated groups of movements as a set and one or two of those three need to be a new movement. I also, when on the adduction machine, lean forward and grab the tower sides with both hands and do 10 reps then I sit back and do another 15 reps. It works your body in slightly different ways. so much work but we’re getting to the “it’s worth it” stage.
If you’re not tired when you leave you didn’t work hard enough. I was the queen of working but not really putting in the dripping effort. I figured that I would keep working and eventually I’d get there. I’m not convinced any longer about that so I’m switching it up and working hard enough to be out of breath at each set of exercises that I am feeling drained when I leave. Today I walked 10 minutes on the stupid stairs at almost “get me the eff off this machine” level. I was huffing and puffing and tired. I went rather briskly and only brought it down once to catch my breath. It was the hardest I’ve worked on the stairs ever. It felt good!
Will power is a must have but not for food. Will power for leggings. There I typed it OK! I have a CVG problem! Yup, Constantly Varied Gear makes squat proof leggins (truth!) in the best patterns and I want them all. Today I bought 2 pairs. It was only$67 bucks because I got 15% off but I already own 4 pair. Do I really need two more no but YES! I don’t have many vices but workout gear is just awesome and these leggings are hugely compressive so they feel good on my legs after I work my legs. I love them but I need to dial it down. Hey, at least it’s not a food addiction.
Outside of super support, podcasts that are wonderful and encouraging and a bunch of ladies just like me, struggling to be their best, they offer a bunch of free stuff too! If you don’t follow @constantlyvariedgear on Facebook, just do it today! They sell great stuff which I have purchased. Best leggings I’ve ever purchased and less expensive. They have a movement library which shows you HOW to really do all these exercises so you don’t A) miss out on workouts because you feel like a dork because you don’t know how to do stuff and don’t want to ask. B) Don’t hurt yourself C) Can’t afford a trainer or D) don’t switch up what you are doing to get a better workout.
hate them and I just don’t want to do them. That all ended today because today I did a bunch of CVG movements grouped together in packs of three for a very different workout. I really liked it but it was harder than usual. I was out of breath and slightly slicker than a heavy workout from my past. I was tired when I finished and even though I didn’t finish the whole workout (chatty girls just sitting on the adduction and abduction machines doing nothing) I felt good when I left. I was definitely out of my comfort zone feeling like a dork doing my little movement stuff but honestly, it was great and I feel like I worked harder than usual. I can’t wait to plan out next weeks strength training.
I hate Carbs! What a pain in the butt it is to count them because I always reach my max before I finish my calories! I don’t know about you, but seeing calories left on the table for the day and really struggling not to stuff my face with something to get rid of them makes me crazy! It’s bad enough to have to count them but to see them and not eat them is sort of a tease. I don’t want to just eat anything, really I can’t anyway because I’m trying to eat better. I’ve upped my caloric intake to see if that forces my body to burn fuel (preferably fat) more like I want it to. I’m really watching because more calories is scary to me. I’m at 2300+ on high carb days (5 out of 7) and at 2100+ on the other two days which is about 1200 and 1000 increase from where I was before where my weight was not budging. I better work hard these next two test weeks! stay tuned for the results of this experiment.
You have to pay attention to your body and other people’s concerns. The older you get the more you need to watch what your body is telling you or you are going to get hurt! Don’t ignore it. If it hurts, rest it. If you pull it, stop doing it. if you don’t know how to do it, look it up or for the love of God ASK someone. Plenty of people will help you.
Switching it up can also mean having a light week. I believe in keeping your body confused. Meaning not doing the exact same body part on the same day every week and not sticking to the same exercises for those body parts. I was doing that and It not only got boring and mundane but sometimes the equipment I wanted was taken. Now that could happen anyway, however, I feel like switching it up with what your doing also lowers your chances of having to wait for a machine. Space is always limited in my gym so that’s always an issue and a reason I workout at home but at home, I don’t have all the great equipment that I want. This weeks switch up came in the form of a light week. Less hard exercising and more laid back routines like running, short workouts with higher weights and working out at home with less temptation to work quite as hard.
Finally, the try try again lesson. I have spent three months working on my eating habits. I’ve changed my macro count plan I think 5 times now. I tried it the first time for a month. when my weight didn’t go anywhere south, I switched it up to high carbs on workout days. No change so I changed it so I had high carbs the day before a workout. Nothing. Now I know muscle – fat trading doesn’t always equal less weight and in fact, it probably means more weight but I’m not lifting enough or long enough at a time to bulk up. I just want to dump 10 pounds. Next, I did a “ramp up” on carbs to then dump them the day of harder workouts and yet no change. This time I’m going to focus on calories, not carbs (I will count carbs but it won’t be my focus) and my plan is to see if more food works. There are many writings that insinuate that if your body isn’t getting enough food, then it goes into “starvation mode” keeping what it needs to survive. If you feed it more it works better for you so this time that is what I’m doing. I’ve hovered between 1300 – 1900 calories during any day in the weeks. According to several websites and experts, my ‘maintenance’ calories are between 1865 (what!) and a holy shit 2650 for my current weight! What the hell! That seems like a LOT of calories to consume to lose BUT, I’m going to try this and work very hard to stick to a high fitness plan Sun – Fri and taking Sat as rest days as always for the next two weeks. If in two weeks my clothes are tight then I’ll know to rework what I’m doing. If they aren’t and I’m seeing any changes or the scale (which I don’t allow to rule my choices) follows suit in its reflections then I’ll stay the course. stay tuned
Fifty. Now What? 