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Excuses Or Progress

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I was in the cycling shop buying my shoes before I went to purchase my bike. Evidently finding cycling shoes for women in shops is …slim… and the odds get even slimmer when you you’re 6’0 tall and don’t have a small foot. What’s a girl to do ??? The visions of the hot pink and black ones I had seen online were rapidly vanishing from my mind… he presented me with a white pair that honestly, reminded me of nursing shoes.

The guy assisting me was super helpful patiently answering my questions and made a suggestion to try some neutral looking guy shoes all the while explaining it was just really hard to carry lots of styles in all sizes, especially larger ones where they might not sell them…. sigh.. ok…

He brought a few pair out and had me try them on. I did love one pair but the colors were neon yellow and black… and the fashion part girl of me… tells him.. “but my bike is red and black.. I really see it all clashing! haha”

He informed me that “I’d be highly visible on the road…” ok, well he had that right… I’d look like I worked for the road crew 😉

I finally settled on the red and black ones that I purchased. Yeah, ok, it looks all sharp with my bike, but I loved the style and fit too… so… that was a win.

While we were doing all this he asked me what I was training for and what my goals were. I told him about my running history, my slow venture into the cycling world, my injury that forced me off running for awhile, and how that kept me on the road doing more cycling.

I told him I had a duathlon in my sights as something I really wanted to tackle ( A duathlon is a run, bike, run race if you don’t know)

He looked me over and said… “don’t discount doing a triathlon.”

I laughed and then I heard the same response come out of my mouth that I typically give when that topic comes up… “Yeah, well, I’ve thought of that, but I really kinda suck at swimming. I know I can train and be strong with the “run/cycle” thing. Not so sure about swimming part”

He looked at me again and said, “with your long arms and legs, you’d be strong and able to cover a lot of space in a single stroke. Don’t sell yourself short. Keep the tri idea in your mind. I think you’d be good at it.”

There it was. Again. I was making an excuse.

I’m a woman who has, for quite awhile now, not settled for excuses. Especially when it comes to pursuing fitness.

I’ve stomped down excuses that would keep me from working out, from pushing myself harder, from taking on new things, big things, that I would’ve never thought I’d do.

I’ve not let excuses stand in my way of doing something.

Yet…. I find myself offering up the excuse that I’m not that great at swimming so I probably won’t be doing a tri.

Excuse: attempt to lessen the blame attaching to (a fault or offense); seek to defend or justify

It made me think again. Made me think about where I had come from.

8 years ago, I wasn’t a runner. Heck, I didn’t even want to do my 2 mile walk.

The idea of running a race was a far fetched and laughable idea to me. In fact, even after I had started running and a friend suggested I do a half marathon, I laughed and said “that’s what other people do!”

Yet, two months later, I quit making excuses, acknowledged I could do it and signed up.

I’ve made it my personal mission to slowly, steadily, remove excuses from taking on new things.

Half marathons, full marathons, a 50K… those things didn’t happen with me making excuses.

So… therein is my perplexity at allowing myself to hold on to an excuse that would keep me from something new, and holds me back from new hitting new goals.

“I suck at swimming”.

Ok, so I was always more about looking cute poolside, tanning, and swimming around a few casual laps to cool off over doing power laps.

That is definitely not the kind of swimming needed in a competitive sport like a triathlon.

May I be honest? I hate my face being totally in the water. I feel like a whale attempting to not beach itself. I feel awkward and out of my element.

Ah… is there a better breeding ground to stomp down excuses, learn something new, and prove to myself (again) that yes, I can do it ?

So that’s where I’m at. I don’t want an excuse to hold me back from a new experience. Oh, it will be baby steps. I’m not looking to accomplish this in the next few months. I’m going to be more purposeful in my swimming. I’m going to treat it as a new skill I’m wanting to improve on. Maybe I’ll get a few lessons in to build my confidence.

I’m going to set it on the horizon as something I want to shoot for.

Then… when the time is right.. I’ll be ready to get my feet wet. Maybe a sprint tri to get the feel and rhythm of the whole entire event.

I will be competing against no one but myself, and the excuse I shot down.

I’ve realized I’ve worked to hard these past few years pushing through excuses to allow this one to stand in my way.

If there’s one thing that troubles me either talking with people or maybe working with them one on one or even a group, is when they use excuses to stand in their way of accomplishing what they need to do. Maybe because I’ve seen them before in my life it’s easier for me to call them out, to see and hear them clearly. Excuses can hinder us from living into our full potential or growing ourselves in exhilarating ways we never thought possible.

Don’t let excuses stand in the way of what you’re pursuing. Excuses hinder our dreams and success. You can do anything you set your mind to.

Have you been hindered before by excuses from doing something? How did you overcome them? Do you feel you are making an excuse now for not doing something?

Cycling Adventures

If you missed my post a week or two back… I got a new bike. A cool red and black Cannondale that weighs almost nothing. My first venture into professional bikes.

I feel like one of the big kids out on the road

In the few weeks since I got it, the two of us have been on some adventures together. In the first week it was really about getting to know one another… somewhat like a new relationship.

I kept my rides shorter… 7-9 miles… as I got used to shifting (ugh this is still something I’m learning) and letting my body get used to the new positioning on this bike ( you seem to use muscles in a different way, and something TOTALLY new for me, being clipped in to my pedals.

I now understand, and know why cyclists walk they way they walk haha… those shoes with the clips…

There is, I believe, a skillful art to getting on your bike, clipping a foot, beginning to pedal, and clipping in the other.

I wanna ace that move seamlessly… I’m so… close.

So… I do know this.. when you fall over… you come unclipped haha

It really was silly on my part… I was getting on my bike in our side yard which is horribly uneven…my new bike is also taller than my cheapy old one so I have to stretch a bit more… I had one side clipped.. somehow over corrected.. and BOOM… I was down… and unclipped.

Yes I was fine and so was my bike… but I was annoyed with myself. You have to understand I have a high expectation level for myself. I want to nail things pretty close in the first couple attempts, especially when I’m doing something new.

Let’s just say now I’m hitting the road, and clipping while I’m pedaling.. I’m getting there 😛

The second week in I was itching to just do some long miles and see how it all felt. I made my first 23 mile ride on it, which was kind of amazing.

Those miles are always involve hills and lots on constant inclines… not a bad thing.. but definitely work for the body.

Yes, those are hills behind me. Yes, I ran off without my gloves, watch and water on this ride. At least my head was covered.

I’m still learning the fine art of shifting and hills and getting the right gear for when I hit it .. you know .. just the right amount to pedal.. but not be so hard it shuts me down.

I feel like Dory from Finding Nemo…

Just keep swimming,
Just keep swimming,
Just keep swimming swimming swimming,
What do we do we swim swim swim

Only for me… just put pedaling in there haha

I did my second long ride this past week. I guess it’s a good thing to be finished and still wanting to do more?

Ok as mentioned, the bike is super light, and I’m really learning to move my legs faster to get that speed going.

That speed, is a head rush, a cheap adrenaline thrill.

And then, when you’re flying off big hills, yeah I pretty much lay low and enjoy the blurry ride down.

Admit it. If you’re a cyclist you do too. It’s the reward for torturing yourself going up hills 😉

I’ve learned to skillfully pull my water bottle out of the cage, drink, drop it in all the while pedaling and not crashing.

I call that a win.

I think as I start getting out farther and need to eat, it will be way easier than doing it while running.

Of course being on a bike also means having eyes all over my head to dodge cars and wild life.

Today a deer and I had a close encounter when I went flying onto a side road. I had moments to ponder… ” are you gonna move deer?”

That keeps things interesting.

Clothing. Other than wanting to get set up with the right shoes for the job, I’ve kinda been winging it in my running attire. And since it’s like… crazy warm and summer time… it’s a sports bra and boy shorts for the adventures.

I can’t help it. I just love feeling the sun and wind on my skin…. and the sweat. Let’s not forget all the sweat haha

I did actually purchase my first pair of cycling shorts, I’m thinking if I’m gonna be on that bike for a lot longer mileage, they will come in handy 😛

So for now, in the upcoming weeks, my goal is to keep moving my miles up, pushing myself on speed, heading into more hills to get super skillful on shifting with them, and looking for my first race to actually ride in.

Oh… other goals? To be so good I can be flying down the road, snap a super cool road selfie, and not crash in the process. I’m kinda jealous of some amazing road picks I’ve seen…skill level… high.

Cycling has been a good fix for me to get miles in while I’m curbed with running. I’m excited to see where I can go with it, how I can improve and ways I can challenge myself.

Tell me… have you began any new adventures in your life?

The Step Parent

Heads up. This is a “life” post. Don’t worry… we’ll return to healthy eating, fitness, my current cycling adventures, food, and other interesting topics soon….

This past Sunday we celebrated Fathers Day in the U.S. It’s a day celebrated each year on the third Sunday in June to honor the men in our lives.

I’m blessed to be surrounded by some pretty awesome men in my life, from my inner circle, to those I interact with out in the world.

The man in the picture is my dad. It’s obviously, not, a current photo of me. My mom dated it ’98 on the back. I found it digging through some old photos that she had. Honestly, I have no memory of that picture being taken.

I was a young mom and according to the year my boys would’ve been between 4-10 years old.

No laughing at my mom jeans and bangs.

Christmas has always been a fun, celebratory event in our family. My parents delighted in it and loved giving way more than anything they’d receive. Not only did they always bless us with a fun Christmas, they’d also find a needy family or two to help out. My mom always wanted those families to experience Christmas like she gave to her family.

My dad was the handwriting for “Santa” for way longer than my kids probably bought into it. He loved doing that, it was his job he knew he was expected to do each year. He’d get the name tags ( ask again how to spell everyone’s name haha) and get to work on his project.

Maybe I should pause here to mention… he’s technically… my “step” dad.

I never use that term unless, for some reason I have to clarify something in my life and using the “step” part helps to do that.

My feelings…on referring to anyone as “step” something? I don’t like it.

To me it says… keep your distance, I don’t want you to close, you aren’t worthy enough to not have the “step” attached to it, you aren’t as good as the original etc etc

Now don’t crucify me if you don’t agree. I know all situations are different for people but for the sake of (me) in my family, I have always tried to just include everyone as a part without making them feel separated out.

So, he’s technically my “step” dad. He came into my life when I was 19, almost 20, and about to be married.

I had passed the point of needing a dad. I had two men in my life who had that job and both had walked out on me and my family.

My birth dad left my family when I was 8 for another woman.

My mom later remarried and this man “adopted” us. When I was 17 he walked out.

When this new guy ( step dad #2 ) came around, I was a bit jaded to male figures in my life at that point as “dad”.

Hear me out on this… I’ve made my peace a long time ago with it all. I’ve not allowed it to define me or make me bitter or angry. I’ve not carried it along with me as baggage. I’ve not held onto hurts that I can take out and pet when I’m feeling sorry for myself. Like all things in life, I believe it has strengthened and defined me as a woman. It is what it is, I can be bitter or I can deal with it and move on and that’s what I’ve done.

Oh of course, years ago, I did ask all the questions. I did ponder the “whys” of it. I did wonder why two men didn’t wanna stick around in my life.

I asked all the hard questions. I got answers for some things, some I didn’t.

And I let it go. Nothing would change what was.

My “step” dad.

He married my mom the year after I was married.

He never tried to set himself up as my dad. As an adult, I called him by his first name from day one.

His personality was a bit gruff, rough and stoic. He didn’t often reveal a lot about himself. He had his own quirky things that we all came to jokingly love and tease about.

Rough and not sometimes “polished”, he would give you the shirt off his back if you needed it. He would help you if you had any need.

As the years went by and he was still around, he just did those things dads would do.

If I had car problems, I called and he’d come rescue me. If I needed help with anything, he was willing to do what he could.

When my husband was in school and things were tight I can remember him and my mom dragging bags of groceries in telling us “they had been at the store and just thought we might need a couple things”

When we started having babies, he always wanted us to have what we needed. He loved picking things out for them.

He bragged on me to anyone who would listen. Even now, with his memory slipping away, one of his caretakers told me one day when I stopped…. “Oh, you’re the runner. I’ve heard all about you”

Life just settled into routine and the years went by…

He was eventually diagnosed with Alzheimers a few years before my mom passed away.

They celebrated 30 years of marriage shortly before her death ( 2 years ago) then the mantle of “Caretaker” fell on my shoulders.

It has not been easy watching this disease take a horrible toll on him. It is heartbreaking when he asks if it’s ok to use things in his house… or if it’s REALLY his house.

I have to remind him to eat, tell him he needs to take off his shirt before he puts on another one otherwise he will have “layers”, and try and convince him it’s not winter, but summer and he doesn’t need to wear heavy coats.

Looking at photos this passed weekend, he saw some of my mom, and when asked who she was he said… “your mother”…. yet… was unable to come up with her name.

He has days when he’s almost like himself and those are nice. I’ve just gone through “hell week” as this past week was awful with him being angry, temperamental and very uncooperative.

Those days are draining. They make me feel helpless. Tired. Overwhelmed.

I sometimes don’t know which way to go and what to do. I feel a heavy level of responsibility to make sure his needs are met in the best way possible.

He doesn’t always know it, but I’m what he’s got. I’m his advocate.. standing in the gap and fighting for him….Some days I feel so inadequate.

That’s often what you feel like as a parent isn’t it?

Somehow, our roles have been reversed. I try and give him the freedom and dignity as the grown man he is, while remembering mentally, I’m dealing with someone more childlike and have to guide and protect for his best interests.

So, we celebrated Fathers Day yesterday.

He may or may not have totally gotten what the entire day was about.

He may or may not have read and understood the cards or the writing on them. He may not be able to retrieve the memories in the photos that were shared with him or the names of people. They could be lurking in his mind like ghosts of yesterday or play out like stories from another life in his mind.

32 years have gone by since he entered my life. Those years have contained all the things that make up our lives…. from the normal mundane, to the fun and exciting, the sorrows, and joys, laughter and tears… he’s been there.

So yeah, I dropped the “step” thing a very long time ago. At the end of the day, at the end of our lives, it’s simply about being family, isn’t it?

And family is anyone, I believe, who we bring into our lives to embrace and accept as such.

Food Isn’t A Reward

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I heard it again the other day… it makes me twitch… it makes me feel sorry for people… it makes me wanna shake them… I refrain.

What is it you ask that evokes such emotion in me? I shall tell you.

Hearing someone say…. “well, I ate to much yesterday so I really need to put in some extra work out time”

Maybe around the holidays you start seeing these cheesy meme’s pop up with various treats on them and if you ate whatever treat you have to do so many specific exercises to work it off. Often there’s the slogan “Negate what you ate!” over it.

Nonsense.

These thoughts make me nuts.

First of all, you cannot work off what you did the day before. You can get up and start over and keep moving forward.

OR do you flip it with thoughts like this… ” I worked out really hard today I deserve this!” or “it’s been a hard day, it’s my reward”

We have to stop looking at food as a punishment and reward system. We need to stop treating exercise as a punishment for our bad eating behavior, like it’s a necessary chore to be done so we can eat or so we can reward ourselves with food.

Do you see how twisted it all is?

Food shouldn’t be used as a reward and we shouldn’t have a view that exercise is punishment for us.

Yet, it is a common thought for way to many people today.

Food should be used to nurture and fuel our bodies. It should be enjoyed and savored in a reasonable way.

When we over eat or binge there can be a tendency to maybe think we can alter or change what we’ve taken in. We feel bad about what we’ve done so we do things like extra hard or extra long workouts to balance it out. Or we excessively cut our food intake.

Or we THINK we are balancing it out.

We have a distorted view of exercise that it’s a punishment we must endure ( ok, in all fairness, in the beginning you might feel that way 😉

But it shouldn’t be something you churn out to feel ok about having food.

You don’t have to make apologies for having food to nourish your body.

You don’t need to punish your body if you’ve eaten more than you think you should have.

You don’t have to resort to extreme restrictions of food if you over did it at a meal.

Do you see how binging/over indulging/ followed by “must do” exercise to feel better about our choices can become a vicious cycle?

Let’s face it. Food emotionally comforts us. For some of you it’s wine/alcohol or soda. Regardless, we have to stop using it as a reason to comfort ourselves.. or as a reward system.

Whatever the thing is we medicate ourselves with.

You may have never thought of it like that, did you? That “thing” we reach for when we’re stressed, overwhelmed, feeling lost or having a bad day. It medicates our hurts, anxieties and emotions. It calms our stress. It feeds whatever is in us that hurts, is angry, tired etc

Becoming aware of the pattern in your life is the first step to successfully altering your behaviors around it.

Abusing yourself with to much food or drink and then seeking to “atone” for what you’ve done by killing yourself with exercise is disjointed thinking at best.

Nor, is it nurturing to your body.

Practicing a moderate approach in our lives brings health and wellness, but it’s not without some work and discipline.

Learn to develop the practice of viewing exercise as movement for your body that brings health, wellness, and mental clarity. If you have goals beyond that, you will obviously need to increase your game.

Learn to approach all foods in balance and moderation . If you feel the need to over indulge or you are heading to the pantry for a feeding frenzy, try and remove yourself from the situation, that often can break the plans you have. It let’s you regroup and refocus. Or try calling a friend, going for a walk, or any activity to distract you.

Perhaps have some goals written out that are easily accessible will make you stop and ask yourself if it’s really going to be worth it… because after the rewards or indulgence… we will always mentally feel bad for allowing ourselves to go there.

With practice, mental awareness and a bit of stubborn determination, you can break the cycle of over eating/rewarding with foods and abusing exercise.

Have you ever found yourself in this cycle? What tips or ideas helped you break away from it?

The All Or Nothing Approach

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So as I eagerly shared with you in my last post, I have jumped more into the world of cycling with the purchase of my first professional cycling bike ( I wanted to sleep with it after I brought it home. Put it outside?? haha)

In the week that I’ve had it we’ve been getting acquainted with one another. I have to take a little time to do that.

Being on a new bike is like buying a new car.

You simply have to spend some time with it to see how it responds, and how it handles under you. You learn how much you can push it and how fast you can stop when you do push it. You learn how fast you can go on curves 😉

Actually, I’m being good and haven’t really pushed the speed a lot yet.

There is also time for your body to adjust to the differences as well. Being on a bike that is sized and adjusted to my body, obviously positions me very differently from my other bike that I had adjusted as much as possible for my arms and legs.

Therefore, I’m feeling it in different ways after a ride. As much as I’ve wanted to take off and go ….for miles…. in this week I’ve kept the rides short… usually between 8-10 miles. It gives me enough time to settle in and adjust but not so much that I’m uncomfortable later.

It’s hard mentally knowing what I can do, but keeping it in check to allow myself time to adapt to the changes with the new bike. If I jumped in and took off on my usual route which hits somewhere between 20-25 miles…. I might not be feeling so great the next day and left feeling like I wanted to do nothing because I hurt.

I cannot take an all or nothing approach to conditioning myself for new athletic adventures.

To continue strong in my training means being practical to my approach in training if I want to make consistent progress.

Yet… so often when I’m talking with people about health and weight loss there is an “all or nothing” approach to it.

I must give up everything to be successful. No fun. Nothing good. Lots of exercise. Rice cakes and celery sticks, here I come.

I will just eat whatever. Exercise doesn’t matter so much. I’m ok the way I am. I’ll get to it…someday… maybe… I don’t think I’ll ever be able to do it.

An all or nothing approach to weight loss and fitness never works either.

In fact, it’s designed to fail.

For instance, things that make me cringe. You’ve seen those “30 Day Challenges”? You know, something like get up to 3,000 squats by the end of the month or a zillion pushups?

Ok, I might be slightly exaggerating but the effects would be the same. If you crawled off the sofa and just started pushing your body hard with activities it wasn’t used to, well, most likely by day 2 you’re gonna be so sore you’ll be using that challenge chart to start a fire.

Maybe you just decide you’re going to go start running and try a few miles.. and you haven’t even done walking miles yet. It could be anything.

When you just throw yourself into it with no preparation, your body will let you know it’s not happy about it.

You had that crazy moment of going after it “all” approach… and now you are paying for it… which is when you decide the “nothing” approach is probably better.

What a vicious cycle! No wonder so many give up frustrated and discouraged with the process and quit.

What if, you built a plan, that was gradual, consistent and sustainable? A plan that allowed your body to adapt to the changes you were putting it through?

Much like I cannot just get up and run a marathon without months of training or do a really long ride on a brand new bike without some adjustment, you cannot just jump in to extremes and expect long term success.

Beginning with a few days a week, alternating days with low intensity exercise will allow your body to adapt and prevent extreme soreness with will sideline you. Each week you can add a little more to what you do.

Learning to slowly make daily dietary changes will keep you from feeling deprived and then later binging because you’ve restricted yourself so much. A slow steady approach adding in new healthier choices, cutting back on not so healthy choices, learning to eat enough to satisfy your appetite, but not to much, as well as learning to eat when you’re truly hungry are all positive habits to building nutritional success.

Implementing these things gradually and consistently will take away the “all or nothing” approach, which will lead you to permanent and long term success.

Tell me… have you done that in your quest to lose weight or develop an exercise regime? Have you taken on an all or nothing approach? Did that work?

As Easy As Riding A Bike

So I took my bike out for a few miles yesterday.. first sunny day in quite a while… I soaked it up. I also went out for some miles this morning.

Big deal you are probably thinking, slurping your morning drink, you’re always on your bike or doing something crazy.

What’s new?

True. The difference is I just bought my first, real, professional road bike. Or as one of my friends put it, “oh, you’re getting one that’s the price of a new Kia!”

Haha…. well not that much I assured him…. maybe just a good used Kia 😉

I’m excited to be getting more serious about this sport. I know I’ve written about some of my cycling adventures, but this far consider myself to have been dabbling in it. ( although some of you would laugh at my 20ish mile rides as “dabbling”)

I’ve had an inexpensive road bike I’ve ridden the wheels off of, I’ve literally used all my running gear to ride in, and other than having a helmet and something on my bike to track distance, those have been my nods at anything “cycle” related.

I just got on my bike… and started riding.

Fast forward… through a series of events… I was a local bike shop… fell in love with a sporty, fast, red and black Cannondale and knew I was going to get it and take my athletic skills with a bike to a whole new level.

And I picked my baby up on Friday.

But not before they put me on the bike and tweaked, adjusted and made me ride it to make sure everything was in alignment for me.

I’ve never, ever had a bike that fit my 6’0 body like this one. Nor, have I ever been able to fully extend my legs on one. I can actually lean in and over the handlebars flying down the road and not feel like I’m gonna go over the front. There’s a lot more bike under me now. Of course, it’s a whole new adventure because my body… is now positioned very differently… so I’m learning to adjust to how that feels from how I’ve been riding.

And light. Can I mention it barely weighs anything? I’m learning to make adjustments in certain ways for that.

Oh yeah. And all the shifting…let’s not forget that part. I’ve determined it’s a skill to really get it perfect.

I got some schooling on clipping my shoes into the pedals ( if you can call those tiny little things pedals haha) and I have to admit to feeling a little weirded out like… “I’m locked onto a pedal… how the heck do I get my feet disengaged? What if I crash?? And how do I start and stop and all that stuff??” I didn’t know, and you probably don’t either, but clipping in gives you a lot more power on the bike. I’m all about utilizing my power as much as possible, so as long as I was going all out, got the pedals to clip into over the cages that came with it.

Eek! So much to learn.

That old adage, as easy as riding a bike ? I think that is really only applicable when you’re 8, riding a bike with a banana seat, your feet are what stops you and the only gears are how fast your legs pedal.

That’s easy.

And cycling is more complex than buying a good pair of running shoes and hitting the road haha

New challenge now accepted.

If there’s one thing I preach to people when they start looking at some type of exercise activity is to 1) make it something you want to do and will look forward to doing 2) be an excellent student of it.

That’s how I’m approaching moving deeper into the world of cycling. I’m learning from people who know, I shamelessly pick their brains, and I intend to apply the knowledge and be the best I can at it.

I have goals.

A duathlon is definitely in my sights and now I have a team at the cycle shop who can help me become the best cyclist I can. ( A duathlon, if you don’t know, is a run, cycle, run event)

For now… I’m doing some short rides (7-10 miles) just playing with the bike, getting to know it, getting used to having my body stretched out on it, learning how it handles, LOVING how fast it moves even without pushing hard right now before I head into longer rides.

The speed is a complete head rush 😛

I can’t hardly wait to get out on some long rides… to get so comfy with the bike I can push the speed… and to really log the miles.

For now… just a few baby steps before I head that direction….soon…very soon…

That’s my new adventure for the week boys and girls 🙂

tell me.. are you starting any new athletic adventure? or expanding on one you’ve been pursuing ?

20160606_082633 — Wrapping a morning ride 🙂

Snacks, Treats, And Weight Loss

snacks[1]

Peanut M&M’s. French fries. Homemade chocolate cake. BBQ potato chips. Homemade sugar cookies with powdered sugar frosting. Apple pie. Sweettarts.

Kinda sounds like a menu for PMS, doesn’t it ?

Actually, those are some of my most favorite treats.

I remember sharing in a Facebook post one time about my craving and subsequent consumption of some Peanut M&M’s and someone commented they were so happy I was “normal” and that I had shared that. Meaning I didn’t live off of a steady diet of nothing but veggies and nuts 😉

Yes, I’m a fit woman, and yes, I still enjoy treats.

I think that’s one of the things that’s really important when you start working on losing weight and getting into a healthier lifestyle… that you don’t set yourself up for deprivation and serious restriction from all things you love.

Now hold on… I’m not saying freely indulge in treats whenever…it’s about learning balance.

I think that’s what allowed me to be successful in my weight loss journey. Well, there’s a few things but this specific one we’re talking about today is treats.. things we love… and things by darn, we wanna have when the mood hits us.

As I developed my own plan to successfully lose weight one thing I mentally determined was that nothing was “forbidden”, “bad” or “off limits”.

Now you might be thinking… “whoa… like then you’d go off the deep end and eat everything!”

No. ‘Cause I’m not dumb.

But it did remove ( for me) all power of food. If nothing was forbidden, it had no tempting power. It knew all food was available (IF) I wanted something.

It was important to me that I could still enjoy celebrations and those things that make life…enjoyable. I wasn’t going to be one of those poor people at a family gathering looking miserable in a corner not having what everyone else was because I was “dieting”.

No way.

So I began my slow journey. Some nights, I desperately wanted something chocolate. I found a few Hershey Kisses, savored, met that need but didn’t sink the work of my day.

If there was a birthday party I allowed myself a small piece of cake. If I didn’t want the cake, I took some ice cream. Sometimes, a little of both.

If I wanted a burger and fries, I had them.

Mind you, this wasn’t often, but when I did want it I had it.

My mental mantra looking at foods, especially treats, was “does this support my health and fitness goals?”

I learned to find balance on my journey to get leaner.

I also learned to be super selective about what I would put in my mouth. As in… “Do I REALLY love this? Or is something that doesn’t do so much for me?”

Learning to really assess what’s important to you is a huge step to controlling the random “treats” you might consume.

For me it works like this…

Things I can pass up and/or don’t tempt me:

Store bought sheet cakes with that greasy frosting.

Pretty much any store bought cookie.

Cakes made with a mix.

Cokes.

Almost anything sold in a gas station.

Things that are totally worthy of eating:

My homemade three layer chocolate cake

Ice cream with nuts.

Amazing sugar cookies I make during the holidays that have butter and cream cheese in the dough.

Homemade cinnamon rolls.

French fries.

Obviously, there are other things on both lists. What I want you to begin to do is really think about your own list of “things not worth eating” and “things worth eating”. When you begin to get really selective about what matters to you, and what doesn’t, you are making forward progress.

Not everything out there needs consumption. And really, if you totally don’t love it, why eat it ? Don’t mindless shove whatever is around in your mouth… especially if it’s something not so important.

Those treats, whether they are things we eat or drink can wreak havoc on our attempts to lose weight. Being aware is crucial to your success. It’s entirely easy to go through a day and think you really don’t have that many “extras”. But if you’re having trouble making the scale move, a serious assessment of those other foods will help see where the weak places are in your day and week.

Writing down all extra snacks and food will give a look at your snacking habits. This isn’t to beat you up or make you feel bad, but to help you gain awareness of where extra calories come in that are hindering your weight loss progress.

Have a handful of chips? Write it down. Glass of wine? Yep, write it down. A couple Reeses Peanut Butter cups? Creamer in your coffee? Sugar?

Write everything.

You’ve got it. No matter how big or small, write it down. Do it for 2 weeks. Be honest. This is all about awareness.

At the end you might be able to see habits or patterns you need to work on. Then, you can begin to also have your list of “worthy to eat snacks” and ” not so worthy to eat snacks”

Doing this, and getting real with yourself in this area will have positive long term benefits for your health and fitness journey.

And you’ll find you really can have your cake and eat it too 😉

Have you made intentional choices on being picky with your favorite snacks or treats? How has that effected your weight loss?

Runner Or Jogger

running or jogging

I heard the term again… and I felt my skin just crawl a little and my eye started to twitch.

“How’s your jogging going?”

I tried not to groan out loud. The intentions of the one asking were pure and genuine and I smiled and answered their question.

It’s a term a lot of people don’t think about. And they don’t mean a thing by it.

I think the only ones who DO think about it are runners.

But in my head it conjures up visions of middle school gym, wearing horrible ill fitting gym suits that smell of sweat, and lazy, unmotivated kids who don’t want to run while the coach is yelling at them to do so… therefore they break into this lazy shuffling… jog. Long ago, back in the day, I was one of those kids.

Jog.. the ” I can’t muster much more than a fast walk or shuffle.”

Jog… that awful thing “joggers” do at stoplights 😛

What is it that makes those of us who view it as “running” twitch a little?

running-v-jogging

Maybe I should explain how I told it to a friend once…

A jogger doesn’t go out before daybreak, and before breakfast, to knock off a 10 miler.

Nor does a jogger sign up to run long races, like marathons.

When I’m pounding out a fast 5K, I don’t call it jogging.

I’ve never finished a long run and felt like I went jogging.

Running has very specific goals and events to train for. For me these things become very concrete.

Jogging doesn’t enter that equation for me.

jogger_rw

I looked up the etymology of ‘Jogging’. As a word it is a gift of the British from the mid-seventeenth century that had none of the emotional overtones. It simply meant to perambulate in some form or other. Saying “I went for my morning jog” was just a tad more whimsical way of saying ‘walk’ or ‘brisk walk’.

It would seem that during the first running boom of the 1970’s ‘jogging’ was just a way to describe running for your health with no particular competitive inclination.

It seems “Jogging” was originally intended to be a subset of running; a less strenuous, less serious form of running. It was running for the non-competitive masses.

I think for me personally, although I don’t view myself as “fast”, a 9-10 minute per mile pace is moving along fairly well and I most definitely don’t consider doing that pace for …lots of miles… jogging.

Maybe, running meshes more with my competitive spirit than jogging. For me, jogging is what I might do in a warm up. A kinda loose, loping, easy trot.

For me running is strong and powerful and challenges me in deep and real ways. It requires much from me on any given run.

As a runner with specific goals I’ve made some serious sacrifices to get there. I’ve left a lot out on the road. I’ve met new challenges head on. Hard work has been invested and when “jogging” is applied it seems to diminish the sacrifices in some way.

Jogging just seems casual, pull on sweat pants that say you aren’t going far, maybe a loop around the block.

Personally, when I slip into my running gear, it’s all business. I don’t wear my athletic clothes around during the day and I never wear them just “for fun.” They are work clothes. When I put them on it’s all business for me.

Running is definitely about the passion I ( or we collectively) feel in our hearts. Not that it defines us, but perhaps, in some way it does.

It defines passions, vision, and personal goals that at some point have seemed daunting to us.

But no matter what you might call yourself, being out there, and getting it done is all that matters at the end of the day.

However, for me, you’ll find me out for my daily run 😉

What about you? If you run, does the term “jogger” ever bother you ?

runner not jogger

Cardio Fitness And Running Mountains

I talk a lot about the importance of building your body to make it strong so you are capable of handling all the tasks that come with daily living… and so hopefully when you get old you’ll have strength to continue to do things for yourself.

You must work and use your body now. If you don’t, you will lose your strength and abilities to lift, carry and work hard.

I love seeing women getting into weights not just for what it can do for them physically, but how it also empowers and builds confidence in them.

Ok, guys too. I like when people start to “get it”.

I’m just down for anyone getting stronger and able to handle whatever things they have come at them in life. Let’s face it, we’ve got a lot to deal with in our days long after we’ve finished off our workout, right ?

But now I want to put this at you. Do you ever consider the muscles inside your body and how you strengthen them each time you work out? These aren’t visible, but oh so important.

I’m talking about our heart and lungs. Our entire cardiovascular system.

Even if you aren’t crazy about exercise, do you ever consider the importance it has on those oh so vital organs ? Or how good, consistent exercise can lower blood pressure? Lower your resting heart rate?

None of these things are visible like outward muscles but they are trained and strengthened right along with your glutes and arms.

How do you know? You’ll see it in daily activities. Physical work is just easier for you.

Can you quickly take a flight of stairs without being out of breath?

Can you easily run across the yard with your kids and not have your heart pounding out of your chest?

Could you hop on a bike a pedal like crazy around the block and not be huffing and puffing?

There are ways your body tells you your cardio system is out of shape, just like you can tell your “outer” body is out of shape.

This is the reason why so many people hate cardio activities… it’s when they really know and declare they are “out of shape”. They don’t like the winded, gasping for air, heart beating out of their chest, hot sweaty flushed feelings that go along with it.

I really got to thinking about that this weekend when I was with my husband and finally got to hike up and down this mountain I’d been eyeing for awhile. It’s on my list to do some trail running so needless to say, this has frequently been calling to me 😉 I wanted to see what it felt like scaling something beyond a usual “hill”.

And really, I wanted to see what I had in me too. I wanted to see how it felt in a cardio type of way to do it ( have I ever mentioned I like challenges? 😉

Below is a photo I took at the bottom before I headed back up… I left my husband watching guard over my trek back and forth 😛

20160522_102512 (1).jpg — Can you spot my husband on top? You can see part of the path winding up the mountain…

I took off down the path not moving super fast since there was a lot of loose rocks and gravel, not to mention cactus and other prickly things. The trek down wasn’t hard and my legs which are used to hill running responded to what they’ve been trained to do. Once I was at the bottom I took a few minutes to check out the view from below, and of course, take necessary photos 😉

Going up it was easy to move at a good pace but I had to really watch my foot placement with all the loose rock. It didn’t take to long to scale back up and my husband even commented as such.

What I loved? besides feeling good about having done it… was the fact that after finishing that climb, although I was breathing deeply, it didn’t take long for my heart rate and breathing to drop back to completely normal.

This (for me) is a good indicator of my cardio fitness and those things inside I don’t see.

Although those activities I put myself through ( running, cycling, rowing, boxing) all add up to cardio fitness that carries over to powering up a mountain and hardly being out of breath.

So I’ll challenge you… remind you… maybe you view exercise in the light that you should do it to “look good” or “to lose weight”… and exercise does help with those things… but don’t forget exercise has huge and important benefits to those unseen, yet most important parts of you 🙂

As a final reminder… cardio work benefits your heart, lungs, blood pressure, as well as helping to drop your resting and normal heart rate. A lower heart rate means your heart doesn’t have to work as hard =)

And a few other benefits…

Increase in exercise tolerance,

Reduction in body weight

Reduction in blood pressure

Reduction in bad (LDL and total) cholesterol

Increase in good (HDL) cholesterol

Increase in insulin sensitivity

Yes, in the beginning it can be hard and uncomfortable. But in time, your internal muscles get stronger and more fit and you’ll see results when you do activities and aren’t left out of breath with a heart pounding out of your chest.

Now what are you waiting for? Find your favorite cardio activity and get after it!

What is your favorite exercise to get your heart rate up and make you breathe hard?

Sacrifice And Success

success and sacrifice

If there are things in life that I find enjoyable ( besides athletic adventures) is coffee and good conversation.

Topics and ideas can abound. I love creative convos as much as I love the deep intellectual or just plain fun ones.

I love the opportunity to be challenged and encouraged by others. Because it’s others who often see things that I don’t, or see my capabilities when I feel weak or inadequate.

Thus went one conversation the other day with a friend. I have been following her new job interests and was asking her some questions about it. We talked about the timing and time frame of schooling and actually beginning to work the “real” job in a full time manner.

Her take was…. if you’re on the path to where you’re going…. you’ll get there. Basically, just keep doing things that are moving you to your goals/job/dream.

Interesting thought. She knows how much I enjoy being able to help, encourage, motivate and challenge people in the ways of health and fitness.

I shared with her some of my struggles in the process and how in wanting to help people there was one thing I couldn’t deliver, which was to do to the work for them.

Which led to an interesting discussion of the work that’s involved to get anywhere or accomplish anything, whether it’s getting a new job, a degree, losing weight or wanting to train for something.

There is a level of determination that has to be there to make changes, to accomplish new things, to be unwilling to stay where you are. No one can place that determination in you, it has to be driven from the depths of who you are.

That determination will drive and lead us to success. It’s almost a birth process we have to go through to achieve what we’re after. If someone did it for us we’d miss out on so much of the journey that would shape us for where we are going.

The journey could be hard. It could make us want to quit, throw in the towel, not push on, but it’s so rewarding when we reach our goals or dreams.

I mentioned that the reason I share and take progress photos is because people who are new to me, or don’t know me, often think I’ve lived in the fitness world and always look like I’ve looked.

When I pull out photos that show me soft and “fluffy” with no muscles that are visible compared to where I am now they can see a journey of progress. Of determination. Of an unwillingness to quit. Of constant, small, daily changes, building new habits and disciplines to get to where I am today.

She assured me this was important for people to see and understand… that they understood it had been a work for me to get where I was at… that it wasn’t something I had always done or simply been “blessed” with.

8 years.

I’ve set goals, hit them, redefined them, crushed them again and kept moving forward. As I’ve gotten stronger on my journey I’ve been able to do more which has led to bigger visions of what I’m capable of.

I think that’s pretty applicable to whatever you have your sights set on. There has to be a constant assessing and redirecting to get to where you’re going.

But do you want it bad enough to really push for it ? Are you willing to invest the time and energy?

The word we both used almost at the same time was this: sacrifice.

Anything worth having involves sacrifice. If you’re on a journey to lose weight or get more fit, it will involve a sacrifice of learning to adjust your eating, learning to train yourself to get up and exercise, learning how to make better choices in your lifestyle.

It isn’t easy. It can often feel hard and be daunting.

The road to success in life, whatever, it is, won’t be easy. And maybe in some ways it shouldn’t be.

We often learn so much about ourselves on the journey, through the struggles, through the disapointments and up’s and down’s of what we are pursuing.

We find our strength, we learn our weaknesses. If we’re stubborn and determined we persevere through it and keep our eyes on the prize.

No matter where you are, or what you seek, don’t give up or quit. Small steps towards your goal will ultimately get you to where you are going.

As our conversation wrapped up I was left with these thoughts in my head about achieving success and nailing goals.

Steps to Success….

A path. This is the “thing” you want to do.
The process. What does it take to get to your “thing”?
Determination. ( no excuses)
Focus. (single minded)
Sacrifice. (This is the biggest. It won’t be easy. You will have to be uncomfortable. Give up things. Make different choices)
Achieve goals. ( the sweetness of victory!)

What steps or process have you used to reach your goals ? When you reached your goal did you feel what you invested to get there was worth it?