Thursday, January 27, 2011

Back on Track Again!

Thank you so much for the support!
Yes, I'm finally back on track. We went through the rounds of sicknesses in our house, and of course my procrastination afterwards, and now I'm back on track. 4 days into my hard core regiment and I know I have a long way to go. But I also know that I feel really good right now, and I'm focused. Day to day I will have my ups and downs, just like the last competition, but it's just the discipline to stay with it despite the lack of instant gratification. I remember how the minute by minute, hour by hour, and day by day distractions would occur but I just kept going.

Last night I ran on the treadmill and I still counted the minutes until the end. I'm down to 1 pull up now. At my best last year I did 5 pull ups. It's okay though. It's disappointing, but it doesn't eat at me too much. I'm just excited to get back on track and deal with the obstacles ahead.

Right now, I'm training 3 days a week with the kettlebell, and 3 days at home with the treadmill and weights.
I'm still in the slow part of getting back into the groove. Last night I warmed up, ran, and cooled down on the treadmill for a total of 35 minutes. I did 4 sets 25  sit ups and 4 sets of 1 pull up. The workout was just under 1 hour.

It's a vigilant job to stay focused. Refocusing as needed is key.
I hope to post some pictures next week.
RsmKettleGirl@gmail.com

Wednesday, January 12, 2011

A Step Backwards

Today is the first day I have felt good enough to get back on the computer. I thought I was in for a little set back not feeling well. I totally underestimated where my body was heading. I had the full on flu with chills, no energy, no appetite, and zero functioning. I feel much better now, but I wasn't well enough to do a leg workout downstairs. I'm hoping that I feel good enough to go to Kettlebell tomorrow evening. I'll have to wait and see.

Anyway, it feels like a complete set back after being right on track for the past week. A few days is not a complete loss, but mentally it's a little more challenging.

Unfortunately days like these happen and I just have to understand that it's a part of a "process' not the "end of the road".


On a Friendly Note:
On a good note...I have a friend who is just doing so well with her workouts. She's still learning to track her food and get her nutrition where she wants to have it, in order to lose some more significant weight, but she's conquering a huge part of the goal.....CONSISTENCY! It will trickle over given enough time and focus.

RsmKettleGirl@gmail.com

Sunday, January 9, 2011

Weekend Update

Friday night I had worked out at home. Saturday was a tough workout day, because took Paul Daniel's Kettlebell Class in the park from 730am-9am. I had a very bad night of sleep coupled with less than 12 between the nighttime and morning workouts. It was brutal, but I knew that Sunday would be a magnificent day off!!!!! Working out Saturday morning meant that I would have 1 1/2 days to recover before the next workout Monday evening (tomorrow night).

I was not as disciplined as I hoped with logging my food and exercise in my journal this weekend. The only good thing is that my eating and exercise was right on track for what I want it to be. I got so busy with sick children, cleaning, birthday parties, a funeral, and getting ready for homeschooling tomorrow that I just didn't make the time to write. It's not a good thing, but fortunately I pretty much eat the same thing all the time with few exceptions, and my exercise is pretty much the same. I will write down everything tonight.

On the downside, I don't feel well now either. I have the chills, have sniffles, and I am tired. I share this information with you because I think it's still important to continue working out even if with less intensity if needed. Tomorrow night I plan on working out, but getting plenty of rest and my favorite "airborne". I love that stuff and swear by it's healing properties. In the past I've been right on the edge with a massive flu and it went away after following the package directions, getting plenty of rest/sleep, and fluids.

I'm off to write in my food and exercise journal...then sleep.
RsmKettleGirl@gmail.com

Friday, January 7, 2011

Staying on track day by day

The momentum of what I need to do is getting easier day by day. Sunday I'll take a rest from working out. Tonight I ran 30 minutes. Tomorrow morning I will do kettlebell in the park at the RSM Lake. Paul Daniels teaches an awesome kettlebell class for FREE periodically. It's fun to be outdoors. He has a few other Kettlebell trainers there and lots of kettlebells if somebody doesn't have their own. It's an early morning for me due to the fact that it's so late right now. I just finished making a huge batch of salsa fresca to add to meals throughout the week. Prepare, Prepare, Prepare......

RsmKettleGirl@gmail.com

Thursday, January 6, 2011

100% is mental

While food and exercise are critical to reaching one's goal, the mental challenge is always ANOTHER 100% of the battle. Right now I'm in a very good place mentally. I am focused and excited, but that doesn't mean that during any given moment in a day that I don't feel challenged by obstacles on my mind. For instance, knowing that I have a family birthday party to attend or knowing that I'll be traveling for a few days next month, or will go out with friends makes the 4 month consistency plan more complicated.

Unfortunately relaxing the food or exercise is not an option and staying focused requires me to always keep the goal in the front of my thoughts. Just thinking about "well how about a one time or one meal cheat" is just not something that I will let enter my mind. When I think about it this way it's a little depressing. I know the sacrifices and there's kind of a loss or a sadness that happens knowing that I will not relax just a little. But the rewards are great! To achieve something that I thought was not possible with my body or in my mind benefits me more than just having a nice body. It's well worth the sacrifice and the mental pain I have been through once before.

Just look at it this way, if you have never tried something, but really want it, and are willing to make just a tiny step in a direction that is terribly uncomfortable and unbearable each week, you will have strengthened the best muscle in your body "your mind"

RsmKettleGirl@gmail.com
One step forward is one step forward...

Keeping the kitchen well stocked

It's so important to keep the kitchen cabinets and refrigerator well stocked with the foods I need to eat. Right now, I don't have my favorite pepperocinis or red bell peppers, but I have salsa. I was okay for today and will be okay for tomorrow, but tomorrow I will need to go the grocery store to buy these two items. Also, It always seems necessary to have cooked protein on hand to just grab and go. Right now I have steel head trout and ground turkey burger patties in the refrigerator for my 1pm meals. However, tonight when I needed to eat dinner before a Kettlebell class, I microwaved a veggie patty (150 calories, 5 grams fat) and 1 (4 oz) turkey patty. That was dinner tonight.

This morning I boiled 7 eggs to keep on hand for my 1030am meal and also for the children if they need something fast and simple. So in my refrigerator I have approximately 72 eggs (from Costco!). I also always keep egg white substitute in the refrigerator for making turkey meatloaf, meatballs for my meatball soup, and any baked item I make that requires egg. It helps to cut down on the fat and cholesterol by choosing the egg white substitute, but I don't like it scrambled, so I will use 4 egg whites and 1 egg yolk when making scrambled eggs.

Being prepared is sometimes 1/2 the battle when I'm running around all day long and need the right foods on hand.

RsmKettleGirl@gmail.com

Tuesday, January 4, 2011

Workout and Stressors

The stress ebbs and flows, and now it has been flowing fast and furious for the past few days. Between sick kids, staying up late tending to their needs, overseeing some work being done in the house, painting, and modifying some of my home schooling options, and a few volcanoes on my face ready to explode I am a little on overload.

So I ran tonight. The good news is that I was able to start my workout early, because the children were tired and needed an early bedtime. I stayed on the treadmill 45 minutes. 20 minutes I ran. I did 4 sets x 25 reps afterwards. Working out is a great drug if you can stay consistent and remind yourself how you feel afterwards and sometimes during. With the day being at a close I feel happy again all because of a simple workout and eating well all day long.  I didn't have any cravings today, because I hit the mark with all my meals being on time. I had a few large cup of tea and tried a new one. It was a nice change.

Tonight I will log my food and exercise today. Don't forget to do the same!
Don't cheat, log it all. It's so important to know not what you didn't do right, but which areas you have become more consistent with and need to pay less attention to and which areas are not doing well that you might be able to make one small change to make it just a little better for 1 full week. Changing too much can throw me off..so I would suggest changing a little something to see if you are successful.

Good luck and let me know how it works out.
RsmKettleGirl@gmail.com

Monday, January 3, 2011

Kettlebell Class Tonight

I had a great Kettlebell workout led by Paul Daniels ( www.bodywarehouse.com ) tonight. The class was more difficult tonight because I hadn't been to class since Christmas week. It felt really good to be back both in the class as well as my routine.

I won't kid you, this week and next week will be brutally hard to be consistent with the nutrition and the exercise. Tonight I'll log my food and exercise to stay accountable to myself. I ate my typical meals, and for dinner I had 1 1/2 cup cooked carrots and approx 4 oz. of steel head trout with garlic salt. It was very tasty.  Even though I don't track how much water I drink I am going to have to increase my intake. I'm really good at drinking plenty of water, but when I've been off my program my water consumption also diminishes.  So I'll have to bring it back up to where it was. My skin always looks healthier when I do this, too.

You know what I love so much about Paul's kettlebell class is that it's incredibly personalized. He is very conscientious of tailoring a program to one's needs even though it's a group class. As I will be working toward another competition he will add or vary my workout to my needs as he does with all students. It's like having a personal trainer, but in a group class.

While I'm not in my happiest place right now in body and mind, I have to start somewhere. It's just a slow process to get back to where I want to be. As each day goes by I will have progressively increased my mental, physical, and emotional strength, and the body will change accordingly. For me, it's not worth letting my emotions and desires distract me from my goal. So even though I am not my most content self, it's really okay to be in that undesirable place.

RsmKettleGirl@gmail.com

Sunday, January 2, 2011

I have a lot to learn

The holidays ended up being really difficult for me to stay on track with the exercise and the nutrition. Tonight while I was running on the treadmill it occurred to me that I really have a lot to learn when it comes to the holiday festivities.

What made the holiday festivities difficult was that being at a lighter weight I had to be more consciencious. When my weight was at a heavier set point then I didn't really care either way. I ate as I pleased. At a lighter weight, I had to be much more careful about how much and what I ate. Unfortunately, dealing with these circumstances was much more difficult than I thought.

Getting back on track AGAIN:
...is difficult. Tonight I realized that I need to start logging my food and exercise. So I pulled out a notebook tonight and will log everything I ate and what I exercised as well as how many sets and reps. I need to keep myself accountable and on track. I'll tell you why. Tonight when I was thinking about what I ate today, I totally forgot that I ate a homemade blueberry muffin. I did it after dinner and didn't really think about what I was doing...until I thought twice about what I ate tonight. THAT IS THE PROBLEM WITH NOT KEEPING A FOOD JOURNAL. Last year when I was training for my competition I kept a journal. It helped so much.

It's really a must!
RsmKettleGirl@gmail.com