fitness – Page 21 – sassyfitnesschick

Body Recomposition

Ohhhh she’s using big words today haha 😉

In yesterdays post I mentioned seeing my doctor and that it was one of my two weigh-ins that I typically do in a year.

The cool thing ? It really only ever bounces around a couple pounds in either direction… especially depending on where I am in my training. I am less concerned today about those numbers than I’ve been in my life. Mainly ’cause I’ve learned there’s way more going on in my body besides what those numbers spit up.

Oh, at one point I was like any other woman when I was needing to lose. I consulted the scale for proof of my efforts for the week. If I’m honest ( and I know you do this too) you do everything the exact way… for me… early morning.. no clothes…hold my breathe… pray for good numbers… like you’re a prize in Vegas or something…..

As I lost weight and eventually got to a place I was comfortable with I became less concerned , not careless, I had just developed a plan that worked for me to keep me in the place I liked. If my small clothes continued to fit comfortably I knew I was where I needed to be. My exercise was strong, steady, and a sustainable habit so that helped keep me there too.

Those beginning years of my health and fitness journey I was focused on weight loss, learning better nutrition and getting my exercise where it needed to be.

** Ok, and hang with me here. I am my own guinea pig, I have no other person to use as an illustration, although I wanna hear from you guys if you have something to say on this or where you are in process. **

In time though, something interesting began to happen. As my body fat dropped, muscles began to be more obvious that had been hiding under it.

My body started to take on a different shape…leaner… more cut and defined. It wouldn’t be till many years later that I’d learn about something called “body recomposition”.

Basically, it means the way the body is composed. So… recomposition is a restructuring of the body and what’s in it.

In physical fitness it usually means the amount of fat mass and lean muscle mass. Fat mass is literally, all fat in your body. Lean muscle mass means all the other stuff 😉 after long periods of ( nutrition, exercise and fat loss) you can “recompose” your body ending up with more lean muscle mass than fat. I think it’s a pretty good trade off for hard work, right ?

You WANT more muscle than fat. First of all, for your health, it looks nicer, and finally it metabolically burns about 6 calories per pound at rest, compared to the 2 calories a pound of fat burns.

It can dramatically change your appearance… and it can also sneak up on you. At least, it’s how it felt to me. None of that was on my mind when I began my journey.

When I hear women say they want to get “toned”, they really mean, they want some muscle because the muscle is what gives shape and that taut look. This happens when body fat drops and muscles that are being built become visible.

It’s a process of intentionally eating well and lifting heavy things, building muscle, and losing body fat that leads to these changes.

.You are essentially, trading fat for more muscle. ** Please note: you can’t turn fat into muscle or muscle into fat. They are complete separate things. **

It’s a slow process that can take years. I think it’s really important when I talk to (women) but it’s the same for men too, I didn’t build this overnight, no one does. I consider it still an ongoing work in progress.

The danger today is that people want fast, instant gratification on things like weight loss and body change but the reality is, it takes time! I’ve been at it for 7 years now. Remember, in the beginning, I was out to just lose weight. When my body started looking so different from what I was doing, it became an interesting science project to press on with 😉

It’s also interesting to note that in the past couple years, my weight has stayed pretty much within a couple pounds in either direction, yet amazing changes still were taking place. Muscle made me look leaner even though the numbers didn’t drop. I’m no longer really assessed with a BMI but more on body fat percentage. In December I had gotten to about 13%.

Now you….tell me where you are on your own fitness journeys. Have you had body changes after years of persistence? Has it been worth the effort ? What have you learned ?

And finally, I’ll add some photos from the past few years so you can see the changes……

April '10 arms — Dec 2010… one of my first pics to do… I thought I was rocking some serious arms 😉

Jan '10 tummy — Jan 2010….I’m really pretty happy with myself at this point. I’ve been on my journey for 3 years. You can tell my tummy has a little definition but still more than enough body fat… hiding my deeper ab muscles.

20121001_120713-1 — Fall of 2011.. leaner… but abs still have a ways to go….

Jan '11 — Here come those arms… Jan 2011….way less fat allowing muscle cuts to show

Sept '11 — Sept 2011…. a bigger change….

_9938 2 — My other professional pic taken for Runners World… this one didn’t get used…this is Sept 2012… the belly has leaned out… some definition showing up

20141001_212847-1 — Dec 2014… the front =)

Leg pic — Dec 2014…. strong legs…lots of muscle

Moments after the finish of my second marathon Dec 7, 2014

You Are What You Eat

Hey boys and girls =)

So in view of my focus on being fit and healthy, one of the things that is important to me is making sure that I take care of myself with proper health care. I kinda refer to it as temple maintenance… just like we maintain anything else in our lives… shouldn’t managing our health be at the top of the list ?

That being said, today was my yearly check in with my family physician. One of the reasons I see him is to have labs done to make sure my thyroid levels are all still on par (which they have been for years now) I learned a lot about this tiny little thing (that we all have )several years back.

When I could barely drag myself through a day without desperately needing a nap, and I’m totally serious, my gyn inquired as to if I’d ever had it tested.

I was like… “what’s a thyroid??” haha

Anyway, a blood test revealed mine was way low on producing enough hormones which is why I was dragging so bad.

One tiny little pill and in a couple days… I felt like Wonder Woman… amazing. We will be fast friends for the rest of my life but I’m ok with that.

And by the way, the thyroid produces two hormones, T3 and T4, which control energy, regulate temperature, and assist other organs in their functions. It controls your metabolism and keeps your whole body functioning properly. It’s crucial that it’s all in balance for your overall well being.

Now that I educated you on that….. in a nutshell version 😉

Besides that it’s my bi-yearly weigh-in. Yes, seriously, I see my weight maybe twice a year.. freedom 😉 ( this will lead to another post on weight and body composition…watch for that)

Anyway, Mr. Doctor is also a friend in the “real world” so I don’t mind seeing him… walks in and promptly says…

“Got your labs. Your boring. Good boring.”

He then rapid fire goes through numbers with me….all of which look stellar. My blood sugar, which I’m careful to watch since I’ve had family members deal with diabetes issues, came in at a low level. He also promptly said “and your cholesterol looks awesome, especially your good one” which was like 82.

For most people, yours truly included, getting the good cholesterol up is harder to do….exercise and eating well can drive it up.

(Hang with me… I’m going somewhere ) after going through labs it led into my athletic adventures. Not only does he counsel me on a “normal” person level, but also who I am as an athlete and what I’m doing physically.

We discussed my goals for the year… my interest in a tri or duathlon…his concern I don’t run my legs off ( I promised him I DO listen to my body) … tried not to giggle as he once again proclaimed ” I don’t get you runners!” and talked over cross training, rest and recovery ideas.

He said “I’m always trying to get my patients to exercise and.. you… I feel like I need to keep you reined in!” haha

I love his support and encouragement… even if he might think I’m a lil crazy 😉

As he mentioned again my labs and how good and strong my heart and lungs sounded I quipped…….

” Seriously, all that exercise and eating right SHOULD have pay offs!”

Now here’s what I want you to pay attention to……

Our health and fitness levels are revealed in a lot more ways than how strong we may be or how fast we can run, or aesthetically what our bodies may look like. Yes, that all reveals levels of health, strength and fitness. When we have blood taken and tested that gives us a look at what’s going on INSIDE it also reveals an extremely important level of our health and wellness.

I know that sounds like a no brainer but so many people miss that.

Eating well and purposeful physical movement is an investment into our lives and the quality of them. I can’t run strong or lift heavy or take on the million tasks in my day if I neglect to care for myself in crucial ways.

I eat lots of veggies and fruit…rarely eat fast foods or refined/processed foods… lots of water.. minimal sugar. Overall, I make an attempt to eat well 95% of the time ( you do know I still like my occasional Peanut M&M fix 😉 and sometimes, yes, I do want to eat that burger out somewhere. I workout doing something 5-6 days a week and see my exercise as important as anything else I have to do.

It’s in the overall constant choices we make that matters.

How you eat doesn’t just fuel you for energy , but builds and strengthens all those internal things you don’t see but which are so vastly important to our overall health.

There is a huge truth then in….you are what you eat =)

How do you look at that? Have you ever given much thought to the fact, the foods we take in have a great impact on our internal health and wellness ? Have you had to make changes? How has that worked for you?

New Athletic Adventures

I won’t lie. I love adventure.

I love new challenges and putting myself out there to experiment with new things. There’s a sick kind of rush to it. Maybe it’s doing something I’ve never done or thought I couldn’t do….whatever it is…. in the athletic arena it’s a very broad spectrum of goodies to choose from. Maybe I like pain….

Since I’ve already knocked out one big thing in this year I was after ( a 50K) and since I obviously won’t be running or training those back to back, it’s pushed me to consider other athletic challenges.

Triathlons intrique me…. but honestly… I suck at swimming.

I mean, I can, it’s just that pool time has always kinda gone like this…. cute suit… sun… get to warm… swim for a bit… and repeat process haha

I’ve never swam intentionally or anything resembling competitive. I will admit though the last few summers of getting in the pool and pushing myself to do laps. It really feels amazing after a long run. And a not known fact maybe, but you can seriously sweat in the water.

So in view of a tri, the running and biking don’t intimidate me but the swimming does.

I however, won’t limit myself if I chose to do it.

A few years ago, I never thought I was a runner either.

My triathlon friends have shared their horror stories of being in the water with nothing but arms and legs flying everywhere and praying they didn’t get kicked unconscious before they hit land again… ha.. did I mention adventures?

I do think it’s kinda cool how they have these mini-tris to um… get your feet wet with 😉 to see if it’s something you’d like.

So there’s that possibility….

But imagine my delight when I stumbled across another event last year called a duathlon.

It’s like a tri but you run, bike, run. That… I can do…. no water involved 😉

I have done brick training before where I did a short run and then came back and did miles on the bike. Talk about doing interesting things to your legs… but that is soooo doable for me. Again I’ve found beginner races that do a 5K run, a 15 mile ride and ending with a 5K run.

So yeah…. a definite possibility in challenging myself to something new.

I have a bike… an ordinary bike that doesn’t cost as much as a good used car… however my body doesn’t seem to know that when I’m making it peddle up hills and stuff 😉 but you wonder if you need more for racing among the Corvettes and Camaros that are on the road… ah something else to consider…

I fear divorce if I want an overpriced bike haha 😉

In the ways of running…. trail running would be a new beast to conquer since it’s so different from road racing. However to practice I just need to take off down the huge canyon that’s my back yard….

In tamer things, I will admit to be intriqued by the idea of fencing. Yes, that involves sword play.

Or maybe it’s the thought I can wear black and have a sword makes me feel like some kinda super hero 😉

Of course, there is always so much more to do with running…. faster… longer.. new PR’s… I think I love running so much ’cause there’s that constant challenge to beat yourself. With that said, I do have a marathon plotted for December.

So share with me. Have you taken on a new adventure ? Or is there something you’re wanting to try out or experiment with ? Something you’ve done and never thought you could ?

Off Season

We’re gonna talk sports stuff…..athletic(y) things…. you are forewarned.

I never understood, or totally got the whole “off season” thing. I mean, I understood my favorite basketball games came to an end, or that football came to this great culmination in February that sometimes left grown men crying and gnashing their teeth and we entered the off season which meant the TV wasn’t blowing up with the current games.

After a season was over the athletes were off to Disneyland, right ? Easy, breezy do nothing for months? Not so fast….

Even when I got into running a few years ago, I heard about it, but never grasped it… or honestly thought much of it.

I mean… I run all year long… rain… sun…heat…cold…snow… (well maybe not snow …what’s snow ?? 😉

Enter this past year… and my running….. which has been the most intense since I started. I’ve crashed as ungracefully into off season as a fawn standing on new legs.

The term is defined by Webster’s in this way: a time of suspended or reduced activity; especially : the time during which an athlete is not training or competing.

So, my training started last August with my goal for a December marathon. You may have read in an earlier post that I turned 50 last year and decided to run a 50K sometime in my 50th year… to celebrate…… haha and I found one this past March.

I slammed out the marathon in December, took it easy through that month, and had to commit fully by January that I was going to do the 50K.

My thinking was my training was already up there, might as well keep on towards the 50K. Training ramped back up this time with Saturdays long runs getting longer, and ultimately one Saturday just a flat 5 hour run which put about 28 miles under me.

Then came March…. the culmination time for all my training…. two half marathons and a 50k to wrap the month and put the icing on the cake.

My mileage came slamming down like your speed when you see a cop.

I moved through April really letting my body just relax and focusing on other activities I enjoyed. And then this pesky heel issue that came up seemingly outta nowhere really helped me keep my mileage down to….nothing….

I did 3 miles Tuesday and 4 today… trying to keep it easy….it just felt so good to be back out there.

This is when I got it. For the first time in the 5 years I’ve been running I’ve really understood what it means to go into an off season.

My spring races are done.

I might do some shorter 5-10k during the summer but my next “real” race will be a December marathon.

Training will kick up for serious in August.

I love training.

I love planning out my runs and having them written on my running calendar. Perhaps I just love the absolute structure of it and the feeling I get writing those miles in after I do them. Not to mention, in a weird way, the feeling my body has after it’s worked really hard….

I won’t lie that it gets to be a high when I start putting some big volume miles in… which might explain the withdraw feelings I’ve had from it. I also love the lean hungry look I get from all those miles 😛

I know this time down is essential and necessary for my body to get stronger and stay healthy. It doesn’t mean I won’t be running it just means seriously reduced mileage. I do want to keep a good base long run of 12-13 miles so my mind stays in that zone. I feel that (for me ) it’s so mentally important to keep engaged with those numbers.

Here’s what I do know. Off season doesn’t mean no training. It just means training differently, smarter, with a focus to build and strengthen my body to take on the rigors of fall training again.

I’ll be spending more time on my bike, lifting weights, boxing, doing body weight work and if I can apprehend one somewhere cheap, a rowing machine ( doesn’t that sound fun ?? 😉 oh yeah, and of course a few running days thrown in.

I will learn to embrace off season in a positive way and look for new ways to add to my training… which actually in the long run…. builds a overall better, stronger and more fit body.

Ok, my fearless 1.5 readers, anyone besides me have to come to terms with this idea ? Let me hear from you and how you handle it =) Do you have an off season ? Or do you just move through the year with your workouts ?

running gift — And a most precious one…..

Running, Or Lack Thereof

race_1002_photo_15766931 — Focused and intense during a half marathon March 22,2015.

Hello boys and girls,

I’ve missed you! It’s been a bat crazy past week of life stuff going down… nod your head “yes” that you totally get life stuff..

kid birthdays back to back and trying to juggle in celebrating everyone, my anniversary ( say go me for rockin’ it with an amazing and awesome dude for 31 years… yeah I was a child bride 😉 then I’ve been cleaning out years of… stuff…. ( I have another word for it but I’ll keep it nice here 😉 at my parents house.

My mom passed away last year and it’s something I haven’t rushed but my dad’s health is declining so the idea is to make things as minimal as possible for him.. anyway… another blog topic for another time….

Oh, yeah, and my blog. I love talking to all of you, and I totally miss when I’m not here with you.

But, here’s the caveat, I don’t wanna just throw anything at you to get something “out there”. If you’re gonna take your time to read, I want to hopefully offer something that will entertain you, make you think, challenge you, or motivate and encourage you to do something. Maybe at times, if I’m successful, I’ll be thought provoking.

Now… on with the show….

You know how much I love to run.

It is hands down, one of the biggest things that makes me feel ~~rode hard and put up wet~~ alive. Not just alive, it makes me feel strong and powerful. It’s built an amazing confidence in me. There’s nothing that makes you feel more empowered than knowing you can run for miles. The beauty of running is that constant challenge against yourself, the striving and pushing to know you can always go back out and try and top what you’ve done.

You… are your biggest competitor.

If you’ve followed me, then you know I had a lot of racing activity in March, pretty much the culmination of months of training.

I logged close to 1K training miles from August thru end of February… I’ve never been leaner or more fit in my life. I love being in the peak of training…. alas… it’s not a place you can stay. Intellectually, I know my body needs down time and plenty of time to rebuild and repair after such intense work.

Mentally, it’s a different ball game… I feel somewhat stir crazy coming off all those miles.

And then… it happened… or appeared… that pain in my heel. If you’re a runner, you already know what I did. I plowed right through it and kept running. I pushed it off as nothing, rested a lil, planned another run… and that’s when it really started bothering me.

No. Just…. no.

The idea of being sidelined was something that hurt me all over. So I’ve been off it for a couple weeks. Oh, I haven’t been lazy. Being doing some cycling and hitting the weights pretty hard… it’s just not….. running.

I’ve missed it SO bad.

I feel over the top jealous seeing runners on the road. I scan over running posts on my Facebook page….and race recaps… I don’t wanna see….

is there nothing more like throwing salt in a wounded runners wound than seeing all that stuff while you’re not running ?

I have goals for this year. Some smaller races and definitely a year end marathon… I don’t have time for this….

So, I’m planning a short run ( I will have done it by the time you’re reading this… I’m writing this tonight but running tomorrow…bonus points if you sort that out 😉

My plan… slow and easy….pray things feel ok…. and totally enjoy being out there again. Not to mention, I’ve been craving a really long run like a junkie craves crack. Not yet…..

Slow baby, slow.

Do you relate? It’s so hard being at this awesome level of fitness then having to just come…..down…. I hate it… if I can be so bold. But I also know, I can get there again.

So,off I’ll go praying and hoping for the best. I’ll keep you posted.

Tell me how you’ve coped with forced down time ? Have you learned anything in it ? Do you think in some way, it made you stronger ? What tips would you share with a runner waiting to get back out there ?

The Great Diet Debate

Diets. Diets. Diets.

They abound everywhere, do they not ? There are the ones that seem to have been around forever, there are the ones that are major “companies” where you get support systems and eat their food, let’s not forget the current trendy ones all over internet, or ones that your neighbor is hawking.

All of them structured plans with the ultimate goal, to get you thinner, and more fat free.

In my past life when I participated in the diet games I’d find whatever might look promising in a magazine and give it a try…..for a week…or two… if I could grind it out that long.

You know what I finally realized ? I really HATED being told what I had to eat, when, and how much I could have. I HATED the idea that foods I loved were “off limit”. And I really HATED the whole feeling of deprivation and lack of fun that went along with it.

Why did something that was supposed to help me feel so…. life sucking ? Confining? Annoying?

I finally got it. I think it’s important to really understand yourself, how you roll, what makes you tick. Sometimes it might take awhile, but you get it.

I’m a total free spirit and a self confessed often rebel at heart…. no wonder conventional structured “diets” worked against everything in me.

I rebelled against being boxed into someone else’s food plan and ways of eating. I didn’t want to be nailed down to “a plan”.

When I decided to take control of my life and not be locked into a structured system of eating, here’s what I realized.

Taking away things I loved, or even things I randomly ate if I felt like it, made them way more powerful in my life than they needed to be ’cause it made me think of it more than I needed to… like “I can’t have these things…therefore…I want them”

Seriously, who wants to spend their mental energy thinking of food ?

That’s when I took my power back. That’s when I realized I really was a grown up and declared nothing “off limit”. If I wanted a piece of chocolate, I’d eat it and move on. I trusted myself that I really wouldn’t eat a whole bag if I wanted a piece ( disclaimer… I never ate a whole bag of anything 😉 haha

I remember about a month in to my experiment. The fam wanted to go out for a burger. My previous “diet girl” mode would’ve been to scope out a salad, eat it, and feel deprived and left out. No… I got my burger…and fries… and enjoyed myself… and kept rolling with my plan. I got up the next morning, business as usual. No beating myself up or over crazy workouts to “compensate” for it (as if).

A couple months went by and I was losing weight AND happy at the same time ( what a concept) overall I was making good food choices, eating normally, and allowing occasional treats …. those are the things that allow you to still feel normal while your in the process of becoming more fat free 😉

Then, along the way, I came across this verse from a man named Paul, who was an apostle I the Bible.

It said “All things are permissible but not all things are beneficial”

That really resonated with me and my current thoughts on eating and losing weight. All food was permissible, it just wasn’t all beneficial for me to reach my health and fitness goals.

It’s still a reminder to me. I don’t like labeling foods “good” or “bad”.

However…… I choose to examine it in the context of is it beneficial for me? For my overall health? for my fitness goals? for how I feel ?

I’m not sure where you are on your fitness and health journey. Maybe your doing just fine or may these words might be helpful to you in your process to lose weight.

All (foods) are permissible, but not all (foods) are beneficial. (mine)

Take your power back.

Daniel And The Vegetable Den

Ok… I hear you now getting ready to correct me. You’re thinking… “wait a sec Cathie, wasn’t it Daniel and the LIONS den?”

And yeah, you’re right, and I haven’t forgotten the story I learned as a child. If you’re not familiar with it, it’s a story from the Bible where Daniel was miraculously saved from being devoured as lunch after being thrown to the lions by the King… good people then….

Now don’t start twitching and worrying that I’m gonna preach or anything… I mean… I COULD… but it’s not where I’m going here. Regardless of your personal view on the Bible I think we can all agree it does contain vast amounts of historical information…. and if you dig… some interesting tidbits to make you think. Thinking… is good…..

For example… this particular passage I’m using is known to me and I’ve thought for awhile about doing a blog on it. Recently, it’s come home to me that this passage is pretty relevant for our health and wellness today… which is why I’m using it to bounce off of.

I’ll try and keep this brief…. King Nebuchadnezzar took over Jerusalem. He requested that some children of Israel be brought to him, both of nobility and royalty to be trained to serve in the Kings palace. He then assigned to them a daily portion of his rich and dainty food and of the wine he drank. They were to be educated and nourished for three years before they’d serve in the palace.

Enter Daniel…. one of the youth chosen to serve. I like Daniel… he had a mind of his own… he knew what he needed to do……. “But Daniel determined in his heart that he would not defile himself by eating the King’s rich and dainty food and drinking the wine he drank. He requested the chief of the eunuchs that he might not defile himself”

Again, on a historical level, you must understand to Daniel, eating and drinking certain foods defiled him because they didn’t follow the dietary rules given by the Lord.

Can we pause on these words…. “rich and dainty foods” Now I don’t know about you, but if I applied those words to foods today it would be those things that are high in fat, or sugars, tasty treats and would be foods that make me fat and pasty looking…not to mention leave me feeling sluggish. Oh, and then toss in the wine and you’ve got some serious feeding going on… and the potential for lots of calories….

So Daniel… gets all bold…. which I totally dig…. he makes the request not to eat it… but the poor steward is all worried and flat out tells him…. “I fear (the king) should see your faces worse looking or more sad than youths of your age….then you would endanger my head”

Check Daniels response…. ” I beg you, for ten days and let us be given a vegetable diet and water to drink. Then let our appearance and the appearance of the ones eating the kings food be observed and compared by you and deal with your servants according to what you see.”

Daniel is able to convince the steward to go along with their experiment.

So what is the result at the end of ten days ? “at the end of ten days it was seen that they were better looking and had taken on more flesh than the youths who ate the kings rich dainties. SO the steward took away their rich dainties and wine and gave them vegetables.”

Just let that breathe over you for a moment….. the other guys were living the good life getting all the royal tasty foods and wines… then thanks to David and his entourage …. they get assigned the veggie diet.

I’m wondering if there was some grumbling in the ranks…. veggies and water. Actually, I’m pretty sure Daniel did them a favor.

I guess I’ve related to this story because I know how I look and feel eating more veggies, fruit, and water vs. other foods that aren’t as nutrient dense. You feel good, you look better, you’re giving your body real nutrient rich foods that shows in your appearance.

Now Daniels choice was based on his religious convictions and from what I’ve read based on the Old Testament food guidelines he would’ve been able to eat foods, besides veggies, that fit those guidelines. This could’ve included fruits and nuts among other things. I’m not going to launch into all the possible dynamics of what he may or may not have eaten… the point is…. abstaining from rich indulgent foods and eating foods that are as close to natural has a positive effect on your body.

Get this… when I started doing a little research there are actually diets called the “Daniel Diet” or “Daniel Fast”. I don’t endorse any “diet” however, pursuing an eating plan that encourages lots of good healthy food isn’t a bad thing. (just don’t get dogmatic on it).

A couple years ago I was invited to participate in fitness challenge for 3 months. Part of it involved doing a particular eating plan for 30 days. This plan encouraged lots of veggies, fruits, nuts/berries and some meat. No grains, dairy, pastas, beans etc. I found it to be very restrictive.

On the good side, I learned to eat veggies at ALL my meals and to experiment with new ones. I leaned out pretty fast in that month. I liked how I felt eating more veggies.

And heck what other kind of foods can you eat wheelbarrow loads of for minimal calories ?? 😉 I’ve learned to cook them in all kinds of ways as well as just eating them raw in salads

Maybe you are ready for your own 10 day challenge. That’s short enough to try something new and good you, right ? To see how it makes you feel ? Or maybe an experiment just to get you used to eating more veggies… to get on the right path.. You have nothing to lose and only improved health to gain, isn’t it worth a shot ?

Building New Habits

No, I didn’t get lost. Were you worried about me? 😉

I had this idea… but it was still in scattered pieces in my head and I wasn’t sure how to develop it till this morning… in the shower… it kinda came together. I know… most people sing in the shower…. more often for me it’s a time to run things through my head uninterrupted.. it’s also a place where my weakest moments are allowed out too.

The idea was talking to you about developing healthy habits, and for ALL of us, especially in the beginning it can be such a daunting, overwhelming idea that we can’t contend with… change… leaving behind or switching up everything that’s become all comfy to us. It’s not an easy task to accomplish. Dare I say we can rebel against it, even knowing those changes are for our overall good and well being ?

Then it crossed my mind while showering, how change and developing new habits and behaviors are much like marathon training. If you’ve trained for one, then you know, you know how that training carries over into other aspects of your life. It’s become natural for me to look at taking things on in my life like I do training for a 26.2 mile race.

That training involves a huge amount of discipline and sacrifice. Purposeful planning. Repetitive workouts. A willingness to invest the time in running to allow my body time to change and adapt to the demands of high mileage. A complete understanding I cannot simply wake up one morning and just take off to run that distance with no preparation (don’t…ever…do that).

No, to properly train my body for the marathon it involves slow gradual changes moving towards my ultimate goal. Smaller short weekly runs, long weekend runs becoming longer, small steps towards the bigger prize. It takes months of training to do it successfully ( I believe).

Developing new habits and behaviors are like that too. If you wake up on Monday with the determination that “Now is the time!” and you make a drastic immediate reduction of all food, hack out everything you love, and decide to go run 5 miles even though you haven’t done more than walk from the closest parking spot at the store to inside, I can guarantee Tuesday you’ll wake up starving, frustrated and having your body threatening divorce because you physically taxed it beyond what it was capable of doing and you hurt in places you didn’t know you owned.

A smarter approach is being willing to make small, gradual, and daily, changes to what you are doing. Focus on the day at hand, not the week, or months out.

Stop looking for instant gratification because weight loss and body change take consistent and dedicated time.

For me, 7 years out, I can tell you my body is vastly different today than when I started. It takes time… but hey… what else am I doing anyway? Or you? what else are you doing?

Some suggestions:

⇒ Focus on one day at a time.

⇒ Have a longer term goal in mind too.

⇒Don’t eliminate all foods and eat lettuce. Practice eating smaller portions as a start.

⇒ Consider how and what you eat. What changes do you need to make? Keep a food log to help remind and guide you.

⇒Decide on a physical activity you can start slowly with, especially if you have not doing anything in a long time.

⇒Stay away from an “all or nothing ” approach.

⇒Schedule your exercise commitments.

Consider the definition of habit : an acquired behavior pattern regularly followed until it has become almost involuntary:

Most of all understand that developing new habits does take time and consistency….. I’ve heard up to 3 weeks on a daily basis to form a new habit. It will require a willful choice on your part each day to do these things until it begins to feel more normal to you. That’s what a habit becomes…something that feels normal and natural in your day until it gets to the point you can’t imagine not doing it.

Note: in the beginning…. it probably will feel like work. Just press on taking those smaller measureable steps.

Following this pattern day after day will allow you to shape and define new ways of eating, exercising and making positive life changing choices 🙂

The Ugly Truth About Fat

So as I pondered the blog I’m about to write it crossed my mind that it could fall into that realm of ” not politically correct” that seems to permeate our world today. You know, that place where you can’t or aren’t supposed to say anything or have an opinion on anything for fear of “offending” someone ? That if you speak out, someone might feel that you are bashing or tearing them down ?

Hear me… there’s a huge difference in speaking out in love/concern over being mean spirited and hateful.

Well! Now that I have your attention…. 😉 ( you’re pondering…where the heck is she going with this?)

I’m fixing to speak truth.

I’ll tell you…. I’m gonna talk about….. fat…. and the fact our country has an epidemic of it…. including our children… childhood obesity will have to hold for another post…

It’s not cool to mention fat. We live in this current world of not “shaming” and trying to make everyone feel ok and comfy when the reality is this…

Obesity increases the risk of many health conditions, including the following:

Coronary heart disease, stroke, and high blood pressure.
Type 2 diabetes.
Cancers, such as endometrial, breast, and colon cancer.
High total cholesterol or high levels of triglycerides.
Liver and gallbladder disease.
Sleep apnea and respiratory problems.
Degeneration of cartilage and underlying bone within a joint (osteoarthritis).
Reproductive health complications such as infertility.
The high cost of healthcare for these diseases.

Hear me on this, fat isn’t bad. Our bodies need fat to protect our organs and give us energy as well as help with proper functioning of our nerves and brain, it helps to maintain healthy skin and other tissues.

Excess fat is what becomes bad. It puts extra stress and strain on our knees, hips and other joints. Internally, our heart and lungs have to work harder to carry the extra weight. On a practical level…. daily tasks can be harder and take more energy and that can leave you tired.

I feel I have a platform to speak on this. I’ve not always been athletic, had muscles or worried overly about what food I ate. If you’ve known me for awhile, then you’ve seen me at varying sizes, however, so many of you are new to following me you might assume I’ve always been into running/fitness. Not true.

20150423_080047-1 — April 2007, Senior pics with my first born who was getting ready to graduate. This was a rather unplanned pic that the photographer took of us. I love it ’cause I’m with him. I was not “unhappy” with myself? But It was one of those moments where I once again was reminded…. “you could drop a few pounds”. 7 months later I began my journey and never looked back.

My grandmother and mom were considered morbidly obese… not a pretty term….but sadly true. I’m the age my grandmother was when she had her first heart attack. She had not only heart issues but diabetes and other health related problems. She eventually died of congestive heart failure.

My mom nearly died one Easter of undiagnosed diabetes. Her blood sugar level was something like 960. If you know your numbers then you know… that is out of the world high. Somehow though, she pulled through that. She also had high blood pressure and dealt with many other issues including loss of both kidneys, 2 transplants, and later in the past few years, life of dialysis and never ending doctor appointments. Because of diabetes complications, she eventually had toes and parts of her foot removed. All of these things directly related to her being so overweight. Oh, she did have surgery a number of years ago and lost a lot of weight and was quite small when she passed away…. but all the damage had been done.

I lost her a year ago tomorrow.

My grief is neatly packed away on some levels and there is a blog waiting to come out…. someday….. but I digress….

It’s an ugly truth we don’t want to confront in ourselves or in this world today. Fat can be deadly and take a huge toll on our health and quality of life. But we don’t want anyone to feel bad so we act like it’s all ok…. again… this isn’t about treating anyone poorly…. it’s about offering love and support.

7 years ago I started my journey after kindly being confronted by my doctor… or perhaps challenged is a better word… to consider losing some weight. Pointing out basically, I was healthy, but could stand to lose a few pounds. Well, honestly, I went on to lose more than a few, about 55 actually. Not to mention who knows how many inches, and about 6 pant sizes.

At one point, I couldn’t wear these pants. I guess I still can’t wear them 😉

I remember the first night I went out for a walk ( begrudgingly I might add) I had to deal head on and face to face with the reality. I was 43 at the time…. did I want my life potentially to be like my mom and grandmother? Was I going to let food dictate and control my life? Or was I going to make changes?

That…. was when my fitness journey began.

I will always remember taking in the December 2012 edition of Runners World to show my doctor. I had been one of 22 selected out of over 400 submissions to be shown in their “Runners Body” feature. I asked him if a few years ago when I first came in would he have thought I’d have been in such a magazine ?

20121030_223227 — My feature page from Runners World Body Edition

He was in tears…..his words….. “I tell people all the time, they usually don’t listen. I’m proud of you”

So yeah, I feel like I can speak to this topic on too many personal levels.

Yet, losing even 10lbs can lower blood pressure, help reduce knee and hip pain and help to lower blood sugars. Not to mention, it can make you feel awesome for doing it =) Oh yeah, what about increased energy as you lose weight ?

The most important thing ? Get started.

→ Set small realistic goals

→ Include daily purposeful exercise

→ Remember even when you don’t see big “losses” that things are happening inside you too.

→ Enlist help or a support team

→ Aim to eat healthy nutritious food 95% of the time.

→ Allow for an occasional treat but don’t reward yourself with food.

→ Don’t quit. Slow and steady wins the race.

→Progress pics aren’t vain…. they can remind you how far you’ve come….. take them =)

You ultimately are the only one who can take control of your health and wellness. If you are in a good place perhaps you need to be encouragement to someone on their journey…support goes a long way! Most of all, consider what you do an investment in your quality of life… you’re more than worth it!

Building A Better Running Body

20150216_090811-1 — My little kettlebell friend 😉

Hey boys and girls…. off to another day…. my thought on waking this morning… “there are parts of me that are tight and ache that I’m not used to” haha

Enter… doing new exercises or hitting others harder than you have recently. I actually, in a twisted way, kinda like that feeling. I know I’ve worked m body in a different way and that’s a good thing. We do adjust to the same/similar work over time and have to step outside our comfort zone, whether it’s adding something new, increasing our weights or our reps, or running a little farther.

As a runner I do try and find exercises that will build and strengthen me for running…. is there a more glorious form of exercise ? 😉 I have found that my strong upper body really does come into play when I’m in those last hard miles of a long run and my legs might be asking “are we there yet?”

I’ve also read a lot on how runners can rely more on their legs than the strong powerful glute muscles to drive their run and how those muscles, even though the largest on the body, can be weak or neglected leading to potential injury. I’ve been focused on doing some specific work in that area for awhile now.

Yesterday’s workout was one I enjoy ’cause for me it’s constant movement and variety. I do some boxing for like…3 songs (that will get you breathing hard) and it’s great upper body/core work. I move into doing some weights, back to some boxing, then core work on the floor, weights, and maybe end with the final song hammering on the bag. ( seriously, if you ever need to release stress, anger, frustration…. get a punching bag 😉 anyway, put all that together, it’s a good workout that I feel the next day. I like that.

So some moves I’m doing lately I think are helpful ( and hey if you’re into that aesthetic thing, they don’t hurt for that either 😉

Squats. I do those suckers wherever I can. I can knock off like… 50 brushing my teeth. Do that twice a day… that’s outside of my workouts… bonus… I use a 35lb kettlebell to do my squats with in my workouts. Yeah, you’ll feel that after awhile.

Deadlifts. Again, if I’m moving through a quick workout, that kettlebell really comes in handy.

Glute Bridges. I think one of the single best moves for runners. Do single leg also… that’s where you find out pretty quick that you’re a ~~total badass~~ wimp. Single leg really isolates the muscles on one side and you have to intentionally focus (embrace the discomfort…. I try not to make squealing noises at the end of a set haha)

Lunges. Those are always a good standby and can be modified for your needs.

My newest favorite though, has taken me a little practice working on the form, is the single leg deadlift. Oh I’ve got it now… I’ve even got it using my 35lb kettlebell through the move. The movements are slow, controlled and focused….. and yeah…. you should feel it. I love that this exercise isolates and focuses on one side without making you over-compensate. It’s best done barefoot so you can really plant your foot solidly on the floor. This move will also bring out every balance skill you have….. perfect for an old person like me to keep that sharp 😉

Even if you don’t run, these are great lower body strength moves that benefit anyone. Incorporating a variety of exercises and athletic movements into your routine will make you stronger for your overall daily living =)

Do you have any favorite “go to” strength exercises ?