60 days

Today I completed day 60 of the workitout100 challenge. Going back and looking at my day one photo compared to day sixty, I don't see a ton of difference, but there are changes.  Just because I can't immediately see them when I look in the mirror, doesn't mean that there aren't positive changes.  There is some slight definition in my arms compared to the first picture, as well as some in my legs.  There is also that when I started I had a hard time with some of the TRX moves, whereas now they are getting easier.  

I am happy with where I am now, but I also know I can't stay here.  I have more changes to make. I have made a lot of positive changes in my level of fitness, but also my commitment level.  It hasn't been perfect, not by a long shot, but I keep getting back up and keep pushing forward.  I have begun to make positive changes in my diet.  I haven't fully commited to that yet though.  I am drinking more water and less soda, and am trying to make healthy choices when we are out to eat.  The next step for our family will be cutting back on carbs from bread and refined sugar.  A friend of mine shared an article this week about why we are fat.  Our bodies are trapped in this vicious cycle because the fatter we are the more food our bodies tell us it wants.  When we cut back on the bread carbs and sugar, our bodies start to reset.  They quit craving things that will put us into a talespin.  That is my goal now, to reset my body.  We only get one body, so why not take care of it.

Adjust the Sails

I know that I just posted a few days ago, but I ran across a quote that I really like and it seemed appropriate, as I seem to keep applying it in my life.

"You can't direct the wind, but you can adjust the sails" - President Thomas S. Monson

Even when I have small hurdles, I don't just keep doing the same thing over and over again, I adjust and try something different.  I don't want to get into a rut and just stay there because it's comfortable.  I want to challenge myself and my body.  TRX is doing that for me right now.  It's a tough workout and there are times that I want to quit because it's that hard.  Quitting is not an option though, so you adjust and you make it work for you.  I will eventually be able to do spiderman push-ups and burpees, just not at this moment.  My job right now is to do what I can to make myself stronger so I can do them.  It's not going to just magically happen one day.  I have to do my part.

My goal once I have my CFT certification and can start training people, is to instill in them a desire to keep pushing everyday, even if they're not where they want to be right now, and even when some of the tasks are still out of their reach physically.  There are going to be some things that might be too difficult right off the bat.  That doesn't make them weak or inadequate, it just means that we need to take a step back, adjust the sails and work on a plan to get of where we want to be.  Life is full of ups and downs and challenges, we just need to work on getting through or over them, even if it means asking for help.  We can't expect a neglected body to perform at a high level.  We need to nurture it and feed it and then reward it for the work it has done for us.

My challenges have been with injury as well as my diet.  In the past I have asked a lot of my body and my muscles and I didn't properly feed/fuel it or reward it.  Thankfully I have learned from my mistakes and have actively made changes to both fuel and reward my body.  I have a supplement strategy to make sure that my muscles are getting what they need to be strong as well as to help them repair.  I'm taking a detox supplement because years of poor eating have caught up with my digestive system and I am finally setting the reset button.  I am strengthing more muscle groups so when I do ask a lot of my body during runs I won't have any imbalances that will overtax other muscle groups.  And the reward process for me is to stretch and foam roll sore muscles.  We only get one body, so we had best take care of it now.

Hopefully someone outthere is getting something positve out of my ramblings.  Happy running or lifting or TRXing!

Fall down 6 times get up 7

It doesn't matter how many times we fall down.  It only matters how many times we pick ourselves back up and keep pushing forward.  I won't ever say my fitness journey has been easy or even that consistent.  There are days that I don't want to workout or run or even eat healthy.  The trick is that you can't beat yourself up too much when you fall down, even if it's completely your fault.  You need to say "I made a mistake, but I will keep pushing forward".  I have had one of those weeks.  I was supposed to start week 3 of the TRX force workout, and I was really excited about it.  I underestimated how hard it was going to be. I tried week 3 day 1 and was quickly discouraged about 1) how much more difficult it was than I thought it would be and 2) that I just did not have the upper body strength to get through it, even with modifications.  Previously I would have scrapped the whole deal and not really gone back to TRX, but the new and more determined me said lets take this week to regroup and we will start weeks 1 and 2 over again, and do them again and again until I can safely move on to week 3.  This week was going to be difficult anyway since on Wednesday and Thursday when I would normally be in the gym, I had a Mother's Day breakfast at the school with my daughter and then Jury Duty. 

Fitness is not easy. Being healthy is not easy, especially not in the beginning. There are going to be days that we are thrown a curve and might not get our workouts in.  All we can do is try to make smart decisions the rest of the day and maybe sneak in some short workouts, even if it's only a few squats or calf raises.  This week, my healthy decisions were to try and get my diet and macros under better control.  For some time now I have had issues with my body not wanting to get rid of food, specifically bread/carbs.  I made a pit stop into Total Nutrition to see what I could do about it, short of cutting out carbs altogether.  Even though I know better, it was good to hear feedback and reaffirm that I need to take care of my insides as well as my exterior.  I have never done a cleanse before, but that is the direction I decided to go, to try and give myself a jump start.  I also am making sure that I give my muscles what it needs before and after my workouts.  I have never been good about taking vitamins or tracking what I eat, but this is me, getting back up and recommitting to track what I put into my body and make sure I'm giving it what it needs.  I know that it won't be easy, and I know that there is still a possibility of my falling down, but I will continue to get back up.

The Arena

I watched a motivational speech today by Greg Plitt and it really inspired me.  He said "I failed is better than what if, because what if never entered the arena".  Each of us has our own arena, our own battles and struggles that we go through.  Failure in life is inevitable.  We all have small set backs.  It really doesn't matter how many times we fail as long as we keep stepping into the arena.

Every one of us walks a different path.  Our struggles are different, our bodies are different and our muscle structure is different.  There is no one-size-fits-all plan for weight loss or fitness.  The way we lose weight is as individual as we are.  What works for my neighbor may or may not work for me.  

Making healthy decisions for weight loss and fitness is not an easy journey.  The sooner we all realize and embrace that the less we will be ourselves up over not reaching results as fast as the celebrities or models in magazines.  Fitness is not a race or competition.  The only person we should be in competition with is the person we were yesterday.  If we ask ourselves each day what we can do to take care of our minds and/or bodies the happier we'll all be.

I know that this seems a little jumbled today, but I just have so much bubbling up inside.  I'm so excited about my fitness journey, including all of it's ups and downs.  My path has been anything but straight, but I've learned a lot about myself, the process and what I'm capable of.  I haven't even begun to tap into my full potential, and I know that with the support of my Husband and my family I can achieve that.

Numbers are misleading

Over the course of my fitness journey, I have had to remind myself that my level of fitness is not defined by the number on the scale.  I received a compliment this morning from a neighbor that I see in the gym frequently about my looking thinner and that my face has slimmed down.  My immediate thoughts went to the number on the scale.  Pictures though as well as the way my clothes fit tell a different story than the number on the scale does.

Eating healthier and increasing my number of workouts is starting to pay off.  I don't run as many miles as I did before I strained my achilles, but I'm doing pilates and weights which seem to be changing the way my body looks and feels.  I've increased the weight on my upper body work from 10 pounds to 15 pounds and increased my leg press from 60 pounds to 72 pounds and plan on upping that to the next plate next week.  All of those things are progress, even if the scale doesn't show it the way I would like it to.

The point is, keep going.  Just because we don't see the expected changes reflected in the scale, chances are we will see those changes in the way our clothes fit, the way we feel and our levels of energy.

It's the little things

It's been a pretty busy month, and while I can't say I've been super consistent, I did find some motivation last week when I saw a link for the #workitout100.  Thankfully my sister had already started the challenge so I could see it. I officially started the challenge on Monday, but really began on Saturday.

So here are my current stats:

3/26/14

Weight: 142.4

Body Fat: 26.6%

BMI: 24.8

Obviously those aren't huge changes, and that's okay.  My goal is to make this a complete lifestyle thing and not just a "let's get down to 125 as quickly as possible" kind of thing.  Those types of goals have a higher failure rate, and I want this to be a permanent change.

Because of the achilles injury I've had to mix things up a little, which is good.  I'm taking it slower getting back into running and increasing my mileage so that means I can supplement with other types of workouts.  I'm getting consistent with my weight training workouts and I started the Blogilates Beginner fitness calendar.  Doing all of those things allows me to be flexible and work muscles that tend to be neglected with just running.

Over the last few weeks, I am starting to see small changes in my body.  I will be taking more progress photos on Monday so hopefully those changes are more noticeable.  The best part about this journey is that I'm feeling muscles that I haven't felt in a while and I like that sore feeling.  I'll of course keep updating, but I wanted to post today because progress is progress, even if it's small. And, even if you fall off the wagon a little, it's okay.  In the long run, it's not how many times you fell down that matters, it only matters how many times you picked yourself up, dusted yourself off and kept moving.

Spring

It seems like spring is a time for new beginnings. I don't really think that it was coincidence that I was discharged from physical therapy on the first day of spring as well.  This is a chance for me to begin with essentially a clean slate.  My running future can be whatever I want it to be. I have the tools to make it successful.  

It took injury for the need for strength training to really sink in. I need to make time to take care of and strengthen my muscles as well as stretch them.  I still identify myself as a runner, not a weight trainer, but it won't be neglecting the weights anymore. I've been doing a pretty good job over the last few weeks, I just need to set up a system that will work with a normal training schedule and set time aside for stretching/yoga and strength training. I know that it will be a challenge, but I know that it will be really important if I want to run without injury.

So, here is an update on my progress. I have not been that good about tracking my macros, but just it being in the back of my mind has helped me to make better food choices than I was before. I probably weigh myself too much, but part of me is still checking for how my body responds to certain foods. I weighed myself again this week and while I was a little disappointed that I had gained a half a pound, I had lost another .3% of body fat. Basically I'm adding muscle. This just goes to show that the number on the scale is not always a good indicator of progress.

I will of course continue to update on how things are going. I really want to work on my consistency in my strength training workouts, which will mean finding something that I can do with the limited equipment I have.  Happy running!