NEVER Give Up!

Ok. It's been a week and a day since I pretty much started over...AGAIN! I guess it's okay to start over. It's better than giving up and staying put on a bad path!!

I have been eating clean and really pushing the workouts. I always expect the results to be immediate, and I'm always a little disappointed when I look in the mirror on DAY TWO and don't see any startling changes in my physique...

The best advice I can offer to you (and myself) is to keep going with what you KNOW is the right thing to do to get you to your goals. I used to always give up when I wasn't seeing the results right away. "ARGH! Nothing! I guess I should just eat the cheeseburger!"

I think your body is just waiting to see if you're actually serious--holding out til the last minute to start shedding the fat and start leaning out. For me, I will feel like nothing is happening--the scale is stuck, I can't notice any changes when I look in the mirror, etc...Then...All of a sudden, the weight starts coming off and I start noticing cuts and definition. It seems to start slow, and then progress starts snow-balling.

The scale is a lier, and I know that. I still use it. I might try to go to once a week instead of every day!! The scale is good for keeping you on track--so the weight doesn't "sneak up on you."

The best way to see how you're doing is to take some before pics, measurements, and body fat, AND just by looking in the mirror.

Don't give up when you aren't seeing IMMEDIATE results. They aren't going to be immediate, but they will come if you just keep going. Don't give up. Don't quit. This is a marathon, not a sprint, so brace yourself, and KEEP GOING!!

Training! 5Ks and Other Crazy Notions...

After a week of being pretty UNmotivated...I just finished a great week of clean nutrition and good workouts. I am trying to do some different things with my workouts because sometimes...I get a little tired of following a workout that someone else planned out for me...

Right now, I'm doing every other day--upper body, every other day--lower. I am trying to work harder and make more progress. When I was doing the TT contest, I really did not see the cuts and definition I want in my legs. I think I just wasn't cranking it enough.

In addition to the weight workouts, I am *training* for a 5K race that is THIS WEEKEND!!! My friend really wants me to run this with her...so...I'm trying! I haven't run a 5K in 5 years--since the Carlsbad 500 in 2004. I looked up my time, and I guess I used to be WAY faster. I finished in 22:01.

As hard as I was pushing all week, the fastest I could get down to (on the treadmill) was 27:27--over FIVE minutes slower. I think that when you're actually in a race, you run faster...the adrenaline, competition, etc...I hope!! It probably helps to train for these things a little longer than 2 weeks, too...

I think the 5K is a tough race. Rick makes fun of me and says, "It's so short!" It is short enough that you have to SPRINT the thing!!! I could run 2 marathons back to back at a jog!! (Well, maybe not back-to-back) The hard part is running that distance FAST!!!

The running makes my knees sore. Before you say, "Oh, try new shoes!" I have new shoes...So I think that running is just evil. Haha. I used to love running! Now I'm not loving spending so much time on it. I like to get in and out of my little workout room. Plus, I don't love having sore knees!!

We'll see how this thing goes. My other problem is that I am competitive, so I can't stand the thought of just going out there and *running* the race to do it!! There has to be some sort of challenge--something to go after. Now I realize that I have no real chance of being a top finisher, but I am going to go all out!!

For today's workout, I'm going to do upper body. Did the lower yesterday. Here are some of the workouts I've been doing:

Monday:
Clean and Press
DB Row
Bulgarian Split Squat
DB Forward Lunge
Elevated Pushups (one hand on dumbbell)
Squat and Press
Split Squat with elevated front foot

5K on treadmill
mile 1 9:25
mile 2 18:48
mile 3 28:08
5K 28:30
Finish run to 35 minutes/ 3.40 miles/ 323 cal.

Tuesday:
Shoulder Multi (supersets)
Tricep Dips
Bicep Curl
Decline Abs

Treadmill:
mile 1 8:29
mile 2 17:30
mile 3 26:46
5K 27:38
Finish run to 45 minutes/ 4.32 miles/ 411 cal.

Wednesday:
Step ups (to chair)
Clean and Press
DB Swings
Deadlift
Bulgarian Split Squat

Treadmill:
mile 1 8:13
mile 2 17:32
5K 27:50
Finish run to 46 minutes/ 4.21 miles/ 400 cal.

Thursday:
Stability Ball Jackknife
Arm Curl
Stability ball Ab Curl
Hammer Curl
Obliques
Triceps
Squats

Treadmill:
mile 1 9:10
mile 2 18:24
mile 3 28:08
5K 29:00
Finish run to 45 minutes/ 4.29 miles/ 431 cal.

Friday:
NO WORKOUT
Played Baseball in Front Yard With Tanner!!

Saturday:
Shoulder Multi (superset w/ 3 exercises)
Bicep Curl
Hammer Curl
Stability Ball Triceps
Tricep Kickbacks
Tricep Dips
Oblique bends (10 lb ball)

NO TREADMILL

Sunday:
Siff Lunge (Lunge on Tip Toes)
Leg Curl
Leg Extension
Pistol with Chair
Squat and Press

Treadmill:
mile 1 8:38
mile 2 17:35
5K 27:27
Finish run to 45 minutes/ 4.20 miles/ 436 cal.

The nutrition went great all week. I'm hoping to keep it up this week! I am getting 5 meals in each day--sometimes 6. Trying to get in one huge salad each day, and being sure to get protein and a carb in each meal.

This week I need to get better about drinking water. I don't drink enough!!

Ok! I'm off to workout!

Have a great workout and see you next time!

Ready, Set, Get MOTIVATED!

One of the hardest things with any training or fat loss program...is the STARTING of the program!! I have such a hard time getting motivated!! That's why the TT Body Transformation Contest appealed to me... I am competitive, and contests make me want to win! Now the contest is over...so I'm going to have to look for other ways to get motivated. If you have a hard time, too, here are some start-up tips:

Set some goals! Go buy a brand new, spiral notebook. You don't want a ratty old one that has your old grocery shopping lists scribbled in it... Sit down and write all your goals. There is something about WRITING them down!! What do you want to accomplish? What are some "baby steps" that you can get started with? Some of my goals were:

Lose weight (I wrote down a specific weight that I wanted to be)
Get six-pack abs
Log all of my food and workouts in my notebook
No snacking on junk
Post updates on Twitter for accountability
No skipping workouts
Win the CONTEST

When you write down your goals on the first couple pages of your notebook, you can keep going back and looking at them to remind yourself and see how you're doing. I also wrote down my starting weight and measurements. Write some short-term goals--what are you going to do differently today? By next week? In 6 weeks, 12 weeks, etc. Write some long-term goals. Mark your calendar with start dates and end dates.

Maybe one of your goals would be to stop drinking soda. Maybe no more fast food. Maybe trying to get at least 2 workouts in each week... Maybe not adding cream and sugar to your coffee or tea, eat more veggies and fruits, etc.

You then have to LOCK onto those goals like a guided missile! If you don't set any goals, you are not giving yourself a chance to achieve them! Every day, the choices you make will either move you closer to your goals or farther away. Remember the goals and keep them on your mind all the time.

Take some "before" pictures. That sure motivated me!! When you see yourself in living color in a photograph...you can see everything. It is very MOTIVATING! You can take some to start out, and then take some more a couple of weeks later! See how you are progressing.

Take your measurements and write them down.

Get some accountibility. I did the Twitter updates (www.twitter.com), and it was so helpful! I don't really like to put myself out there and try to "talk" to people online about what I'm doing...so it was hard! But I'm also not the kind of person who sticks with a workout/ nutrition program for more than a week and a half...so I forced myself to try. It was a great thing! (and still is!)

Ask a friend to check up on you and see if you are staying on track.

Tell your kids to help you and hold you accountable. They will!! My kids were always saying, "Should you be eating that?" I had to really hide if I was going to eat cookies...Haha. My 5 yr. old daughter is still saying, "Mom! What about the contest!" if she catches me eating chips or other "unauthorized" foods...

Join an online forum for accountability and encouragement. Lots of different fitness websites have them, and they are really kind of fun to get involved in. You meet people who are trying to accomplish the same things as you. They will help you keep on track with your program by offering encouragement, advice and answering to your questions about workouts and nutrition.

Enter a contest. There is nothing like a competition to get the adrenaline going to make some changes! The contest is what really motivated me to go for my goals completely.

Plan out some healthy menus--breakfast, snacks, lunches, dinners, and go shop for some healthy stuff! Write down the foods you will be eating each day, and try to stick to the plan. It always motivates me when I have a bunch of healthy food in the house...and when I have a plan!

Stop with the negative thought patterns. You can make amazing changes in yourself! Go for it! Decide what you're going to do and go after it. Even if you don't feel like it some days...go after it anyway! And don't give up! If you do mess up, start RIGHT back up.

Find some pictures of a few people who have made the transformation you are hoping to make. Online, I found a couple of fitness competitors who I thought had amazing physiques. I printed their pictures out and taped them up on my mirror and in my workout room. It reminded me of my goals--I was looking at these pictures several times each day.

Remember, once you set these systems in place...and follow them for a couple of weeks and more, they start to become HABITS. Little by little, you will be able to do all of these things without thinking that much about it. You will switch into autopilot mode.

Just get started! Make tiny changes--little baby steps, one at a time. You will get there. Don't give up!! You will feel so good about yourself with each positive step you take!! Any progress is progress.

Tell me how you're doing! I will cheer for you! Good luck, going after your goals! Get motivated!

Be a fit chick!

What A Body Transformation Would Mean to Me

This is a copy of the essay I entered in a contest for Turbulence Training. (Separate from the 12-week contest I'm doing right now) Craig Ballantyne, creater of TT, held this contest in which he asked members to describe what a body transformation would mean to them. This was written on day one of my 12-week body transformation contest for TT--December 29, 2008. I thought it was cool to run accross this, since tomorrow is my last day of the contest--Day 84! Here's what I wrote:


The transformation process has given me (among other things) a very practical way to show my kids by example, the character traits my husband and I want for them—commitment, hard work, dedication and positive choices. I want them to see that they can achieve any goal they set out to achieve. The process has also really helped me be an inspiration to my friends—that they can do it too! The transformed body is just the prize at the end of the hard work.

I have been an athlete all my life—ran track in high school and college and played field hockey in high school. I have always been a “fit” person and have never been over weight, but I was approaching the whole thing wrong. I have always enjoyed the competition of sports, and winning, but I never really understood how to get lean and cut and truly healthy. My goal (aside from winning events) was to be skinny. I thought I should just run and run in order to lose weight, and try not to eat very much. That had always worked for me until recently.

I am 39 years old--a stay-at-home mom to our four kids, ages 5-11. I home school them, so…I don’t have a lot of time to work out!! I found myself putting on extra weight and just feeling “thick.” So, I started doing my endless cardio combined with trying to eat almost nothing. I couldn’t make the scale budge, no matter how many miles a day I ran, and how little I ate, and I really thought…This is a miracle! How can I run mile upon mile and eat almost nothing and not lose any weight?!!

I got on the internet and did tons of research, trying to figure out how it could be that I wasn’t losing weight. I found the TT program and started doing it. In a short time, I started becoming cut and lean—like I had never been able to do all my life! I started seeing cuts in my arms and my abs were showing. People I didn’t know would come up to me and ask what I was doing to get so lean!

An injury forced me to take 2 months off from working out, but now I am back in the game, and I am starting the transformation contest #4 today. I now believe that I have to feed my body properly—6 small meals a day, and do short, but hard workouts. It works!!! With Turbulence Training, I am finally transforming my body in a way that has never happened for me my whole life. I feel like I finally “get it!” I am working out less and am getting such better results! With my life-style, I really don’t have time to waste on hours and hours of cardio and single-joint gym exercises.

I think the transformation is a mindset. It’s being determined to see your goal reached, and believing that if you apply yourself and don’t give up, you’re going to make it! It is so fun to have a lean body, be able to wear a bathing suit and look good in all of your clothes! I really want to help all my friends get there, too! It’s great to show your kids that goals can be achieved. I am so far off from my goal right now, but I know the TT works, and I’m excited to see my transformation at the end of the contest.

It's a Mindset

Welcome! I am starting this blog to help people who are struggling, like I was, to get rid of unwanted body fat and weight! I tried EVERYTHING and finally found what works, so...I thought I would save you all a little time by sharing what I learned!

I am finishing up the last week of a body transformation contest with Turbulence Training. Whew! It's been such an experience! I can't believe the changes in my body, but also in my mindset. It takes an incredible amount of discipline and determination to see 12 weeks of hard training and good nutrition through, but boy, am I glad I stuck it out!!

One of the big things I learned is that the whole process of transforming your body is a mindset. Once I decided I was going to lose fat and get lean and ripped, I had to make up my mind to do the things it was going to take to get there! I sat down, wrote down my goals, did a lot of research and reading to find out how to go about achieving those goals, and then I had to make up my mind that I was going to accomplish my goals!

To help me accomplish my goal of getting lean and ripped I decided to enter the TT Body Transformation Contest, and while I was at it...I decided I was going to win it! I really set my mind on winning the thing! As I write this right now, I don't know how the judging is going to go. The contest ends a week from today. But, I have done everything these 12 weeks as if I am going to win. I'm rather competitive, and why torture myself if I'm not going to win, right? Haha.

You behave differently when you make up your mind like that. The mind is a powerful thing. If you set it on a certain thing, you are not going to give in as easily to every whim or mood of the day.

There were many days when I did not feel like doing my workout, and there have been lots of times when I didn't want to finish my interval training strong. I was tempted to quit early or slow down, but I kept telling myself, "Just a little more...If you can make it to the next interval, you will have made it farther than you ever have before! Keep going!"

There were more days when I didn't feel like eating healthy, nutritious foods! I wanted to snack and eat junk. I had to really visualize what I wanted to look like at the end of the 12 week contest. Always, my mind was on that goal. I know you don't make an amazing transformation with poor nutrition.

I keep a food log and training journal and write down everything. Every meal goes in the book...Every workout...Everything! My mind is always on the goal.

I found some pictures on the internet of a couple of girls who have the physique I am going for. I put them in my notebook, and up on my bathroom mirror, and up on the wall in my workout room right above the treadmill. My mind is on the goal!

I told everyone I know that I am doing the contest--locking myself in. It's a mindset. I'm not going to quit!

Every day I monitor what I'm doing. I look over my notebook, see what I'm doing great at, see what things need to be improved upon in order to stay on track with my goals. Can I improve my workouts? Do more sets? More reps? Can I eat better today? No granola on my yogurt...no cookies...

I made up my mind that it's more fun to be lean and healthy and look good in clothes than it is to drink beer and eat chocolate cake!

I found a great Bible passage that goes along with all of this.

1 Corinthians 9: 24-27
Do you not know that those who run in a race all run, but only one receives the prize? Run in such a way that you may win. Everyone who competes in the games exercises self-control in all things. They then do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable. Therefore I run in such a way, as not beating the air; but I discipline my body and make it my slave, so that, after I have preached to others, I myself wil not be disqualified.

Set your mind on the prize! And then...lock on and do what it takes. Train in such a way that you may win!