Category: fitness

Why so long???

I ask myself this….. why haven’t I posted in so long? I could say that I have been busy, but everyone is busy….excuses, excuses… Is it because I am afraid of getting stalked a little and my voice is self-censored because I don’t want to deal with that? Maybe. Is it because I don’t have anything to say right now? I don’t think so, I am always thinking of things to blog about at the most inopportune time.

I changed gyms and getting regular with a gym that I love; the problem has been food. Food gets in the way and we know you can’t outrun a bad diet. Not that I run….of course not, but you know what I mean. Over all, I have been better, but as I type, I am sipping on a calorie free iced tea paired with a polycaloric croissant. Why do I do this to myself? I have eaten slightly less sugary crap. Though, when that Cinnabon store opens at the mall, I will be in trouble.

What I need to do is carve out time for meal prep like I used to do. I prepared the week by making chicken on one day and a big salad and eating that during the week, This is what I need to be doing. I will blog more. And more often. That is my promise to you!

Till then….

Committed to fitness…

So I am currently working out at an inexpensive gym. I just finished work with a personal trainer and I have a good routine. My dream is to get to a more full service gym that is a lot nicer and has a leisure pool for summer enjoyment. In order to justify such an expense, I need to make sure it is going to pay off. My experiment is this: If I can work out at the gym at least 3 times a week regularly for at least 4 weeks, I will join the bougie gym. It’s actually closer to me and they may have classes that I will actually enjoy.

Fitness has been a struggle for me and it’s closely tied with my dietary lifestyle. I need to want these things more than French fries and pizza. You know what I mean? I enjoy the feeling of going to the gym AFTER I am done; it is the ‘getting there’ that is the biggest challenge for me. I think the motivation of weight loss and feeling awesome is getting stronger and as soon as it surpasses the motivation for eating a really tasty order of nachos, I’ll have a good handle on it. The really cool thing is exercise regularly makes me NOT want to eat that crappy food. This is super cool. Because I need something to get me going when the struggle is so real.

Maybe I need a vision board for this? What would help me get past the shit food and oh, alcohol!? I don’t drink a ton, but when I do, the alcohol is completely a waste of calories. I am thinking of going off alcohol for a month and seeing how that works, calorie wise. I will admit when I drank too much last weekend, it rendered me useless the next day; I didn’t even feel like I could work out. Booze just isn’t helping the cause either. I was mad at myself for letting vodka and cranberry cocktails ruin my Saturday. No more!

I must sign off now as I am headed out for a hike! Here’s to fitness and a healthy lifestyle…. If anyone has good ideas on how to motivate for healthy weight loss or hints on how to fit this in, leave a comment! Please!

The end of the writer’s block—at least I hope so!

It’s been so many months since I have posted; I know that it’s not right, but I had a big dose of life going on. I finally got my place in Denver. I’ve always lived in Denver and the surrounding area, but this is ownership in the actual city! Amidst the homelessness, the violence, the substance abuse crisis, and many others ailments of Denver, I am the proud owner of a condo in a very established neighborhood. While I moved in August, I am just now feeling more settled.

I have been writing about relationships and exercise. Separately. Two different entities. I think its time to stop that. I think that I am ready to blend those tow areas of my life, because they have truly been intermixed this whole time. I think my weight has gotten in the way of my relationships and I think seeking a relationship has taken time from my time at the gym. They are indeed fused and I can’t compartmentalize them any more.

I think its also time I write about my valuable friendships, because they are the glue that holds me together sometimes; I think it’s only right that I make a few changes to my approach…mostly because its overdue, but also it may help me break my creative block. In the next posts to come, you will read about my life and adventures in staying fit, navigating the dating scene, and travel.

More to come….

No more treadmill….

I am writing for the first time in quite some time. So much that in this time, I joined a gym, got a personal trainer, again, and got my treadmill recalled. They picked it up and now no more treadmill. I have been going to the gym fairly faithfully to meet up with my trainer and to work out on my own.

I haven’t been motivated to write in a while because while I am working out, I have been struggling with the food piece of fitness and a healthy lifestyle. I am recommitting to fix that starting June 1st; my goal is to stress veggies and protein in each of my meals and to eat every 2-3 hours. I am just being honest, but I do think once I make a firm change in the food component of healthy living, I will see weight loss and feeling better on a daily basis. It’s pretty obvious that is what it takes, so why is it so hard for me?

Seeing the world….on my treadmill

So I have had this amazing treadmill for a month now. I have been enjoying it immensely.  I have been ‘visiting’ many places all over the world….foreign lands I have never been to in my life. Today, it was Taiwan. The other day,  it was Costa Rica and Hawaii (the places in Hawaii I haven’t been to yet). Before that,  Sydney, Australia and Germany…..you get the idea. It’s been fabulous. The scenic ‘runs’ come with music that is easy to move to; the music totally motivates me to push myself.  So enough about the treadmill. It’s what I do on it that really matters!

So, in the past month I have worked on my speed and incline. I never used the incline feature in the gym unless my trainer made me…never on my own. I bought this expensive treadmill, so I figure I better use it all, every feature! So I have been pushing myself every time I am on the tread. I try to use it 3-5 days a week. I go for the highest speed at highest incline I can (currently 4.0mph and 6.0%) for as long as I can. Then I settle  down to 3.5 mph at 6% for the majority of my walk. Then when I have about 2 minutes left of my work out, I slow down and relax at 2.0 mph and 2.5%.  It’s invigorating and it feels good. The trick is that I want to push myself with out hurting myself. When I feel a burn in my shins due to speed, I will slow it down and increase the incline.

This has been a great purchase. I have been able to use my treadmill during some of our really snowy weather.  While I usually workout for 30 minutes, I will do 15-20 minute walks just to get on the treadmill rather than not at all just because I don’t have the full 30 minutes.  I just do it. It feels amazing. Tomorrow, I am pushing for 45 minutes! Who knows where I will travel to!

 

Pilates vs. The Gym

So I am actively working on fitness as a daily practice; even walking the dog counts if it keeps me moving! I was going to work on pilates five times a week, but then I was informed of the end of my promotional period which was expensive enough.  I just could not afford the new $199 a month! So I went back to my gym that I loved last year. I started that membership last week and I am so glad I am back. Once I am done with my Pilates this Saturday, I will start the gym 3-5 days a week. I am going away for work next week, but when I get back it will be all cardio and weights with some of their free classes in there!!  At $79 a month, I can handle that commitment a little easier!

The gym is full service and I think I will continue to enjoy it as much as I enjoyed it before I switched (because of a guy…yes I know) to a gym I didn’t like so much.  Today I did both pilates and the gym and it felt great!!  I will make the most of pilates, but knowing I wont have to pay for it in October makes me feel so much happier!! I have three classes scheduled till the end of month.

PS: I have lost almost 15 pounds so far!  My goal is 40 for the end of this year, so 25 more to go!!

Just do it 2

I am really struggling. What is my problem!? I want to join the ranks of healthy and fit minded people. I want to balk at burgers, pizza, and nachos. What is making me instead, whole heartedly magnetized to these foods? Is it emotional eating? I don’t think so? But how do I know? I don’t feel especially more satisfied after eating crap food, so why do I still eat it?  I have done the committed diet lifestyle before. Twice!

I think sometimes I am just not ready. Then I think, “that’s not true!”… I want to change, lose weight, lose the desire for poor choices.  Right now I just finished a low calorie snack that is part of a lifestyle change…and an unsweetened iced tea (no calories) and feel great. Every time I make good choices, I feel great. This is a no brainer, right? Right. Now I just have to shift my choices.  Protein and veggies (French fries don’t count) for me!  Once I lose the weight, all the abdominal and strength training work I am doing with my personal trainer will show through, given that I am still working out.

On a positive note, I am getting exercise in mostly every week. A nice walk, dancing at the club (don’t laugh-I burned about 500 calories Friday night!), walking around huge convention centers (another 350 calories)…. I also am wrapping up my personal training this month. I am starting Pilates and super excited about that. I will be committing to that three times a week.  For the weeks that personal training and Pilates over lap, I will be doing them both on Tuesdays and Saturdays. Yay me! I am looking forward to making a difference with my new Pilates body, but I said that with personal training. That’s where nutrition and good food choices come in.

Here I go!

If any one has ideas on how to get motivated, I will certainly invite them. Intellectually I know this comes from within, but inspiration is always invited!!

 

 

Just do it.

I have been in such a stagnant mess about my nutrition. I don’t know what it is, but I am half-assed about my diet plan and eating lifestyle. I think I want to eat well; I even try on many occasions by grabbing one of my fueling on this lifestyle plan I am on.  But it is NOT working. I end up going out and being half-assed: eating a big cheeseburger with out the bun and salad on the side instead of fries. Healthy-ish at best. It would be best to get a salad with grilled protein.  Taco salads are not real salads either when you consider the sour cream and cheese. Or Chipotle for the same reason, even when I go with out the tortilla and with black beans and brown rice. First of all, I need to lose the rice. And the cheese and sour cream. What am I talking about? I need to just not walk into Chipotle. Nothing personal Chipotle, but you are not healthy eating for me.  I am doing okay on the fitness part of weight loss, but the nutrition is so difficult right now for me. Weight loss is mostly about nutrition. Once I lose this weight, my awesome core from my good fitness practice will show through!

I need to just stick with proteins and veggies. That’s really it. I lost 32 pounds this way. I am going to use the rest of my fuelings from this diet/lifestyle plan I started again (I had lost some weight temporarily with the plan in the beginning of 2018 or end of 2017 I think). Then I will go 100% to proteins and veggies. .I think my biggest thing is I need to jump in 100% and just do it. I can’t overthink all the reasons why I am not choosing to jump in 100%. I just need to DO IT!. What is my problem? I can’t even think about it. Just do it.  What is stopping me? Not important.  Just do it.

Get the idea?

Gaining …and not in a good way

I have put myself in a carb rut. I’m giving in to my cravings of carbs. I am kind of over the sugar rut. I can take it or leave it when it comes to candy. The stronger pull for me is pizza, bread, pasta, rice, and all that “stuff” that makes the carb pile fill up. I have been so successful on veggies and protein and I am getting back to that starting with my next meal. “ Do or not do; there is no try”, said Yoda.  He was a smart dude! I used that to stop smoking. I actually did, every day. So being a strong addiction, nicotine took a hike. I can do the same for the bad carbs. The funny thing though, is that food is necessary for life. Nicotine is not. Therefore, I find it so much easier to justify. I need to stop justifying and just stop with these bad carbs.  I bet that i will start to drop the weight as soon as carbs exit my routine diet. Let’s find out. I’ll keep you all posted.

I am working out. Kind of. This week, I was sick and out of town and the combination made it hard to get my work out in; I did see my trainer on Friday. I am doing a class on Tuesday at the gym and the commitment feels good. I need to be accountable. I have a trainer session on Friday, so that just leaves one more day to work out on my own, which will be Saturday.  And no, I didn’t forget about yoga…Just time to fit it all in!!

More to come….

TRX, treadmills and yoga, oh my!

So, I’m finally getting in the rhythm of a good work out schedule. My trainer gave me a great app that holds me accountable. Or tries to at least! I am trying to work out three to four times a week. Three times a week is much more doable because of my 10 hour shifts at work. I work 4 days, so at least I can carve out time on my days off and maybe get to yoga in the morning of a noon start time at work.

I have a strength endurance day, hypertrophy day, and a stability day…then yoga. I think this week I will be able to get in two days of work out and yoga in between. I am going away Friday morning for a work conference and won’t get my  normal Friday and Saturday work outs. With each of these works outs, I have a metabolic conditioning cardio walk on the treadmill.  As for the different types of exercise, I am still getting used to the routines and sometimes feel self-conscious completing the exercises at the gym, but feel so good when I am done. I just did tomorrow’s regimen last Friday with my trainer, so I think I feel comfortable with that.  The machines come this Thursday for me and that’s my hypertrophy day. I am not quite comfortable with the machines; I think I may be intimidated on them because of all the people working on them that seem to know exactly what they are doing. I guess practice makes perfection.  Progress, not perfection….

Then I get yoga  this Wednesday! Yay! Yoga at my gym is available for free every day. There are different types of yoga and I am really enjoying Surrender and Root yoga. I am not yet ready for Flow. Flow moves very fast and I am not quite comfy with the different poses and by the time I get the poses nailed, they are moving quickly to the next pose I don’t know very well. With Surrender and Root, I get to hold the poses for a while. I get to be very acquainted with each movement and each breath.  It really works my core, my focus, my breathing. I love it. It can be really challenging – yoga almost always pushes me past my comfort  level each and every time.

Overall, things are going mostly well at the gym, as you can see. What is lacking in my health journey is my nutrition. I was doing well and then I just got lazy; there is not another good explanation that wouldn’t just sound like the excuse that it s.  SO yes, lazy. I want to return to a healthy living style and leave out the carbs and the sugar. Those are my biggest offensive areas of my diet that screw me over every time; Since the spring, I have gained back 18 pounds. I would like to lose them again. You see, I know exactly what I have to do here. It is not rocket science. Veggies and protein have always worked for me with minimal fats and carbs (not totally absent).  I need to just cut out sugar and be done with it. No more candy corns, no more gummy bears.

I have a resting metabolic assessment on November 3rd and I’d really like to get some good eating habits in before then that will show up on the assessment. Wish me luck!!

Any comments, advice or ideas? Drop me a line or leave a comment!!