Today’s Run: 7/8/2013

Distance: 2.04 miles
Pace: 9’38″/mile
Route: Indoor on the tready
HOT AS HADES IN THE GYM!

I’ve decided to commit to running at least 2 miles every day this week to make up for a semi glutinous week of 4th of July vacation (by glutinous I mean I ate probably my maintenance calories or better for a few days without watching my macros). Enter the 2 mile Monday jog. I had plans to go to spinning class, then lift (arms), then jog 2 miles. However, something was going on with the spin bikes and all of the displaced spinning folk were monopolizing the treadmills so I decided I’d lift weights first.

When I lift upper body I do arm circles and arm swings to lubricate the joints a bit. I also do a few 30 second jump rope intervals to warm up my body and let my muscles know that we’re about to get working. My arm workout was brutal since I have increased the weights and am now bicep curling and doing tricep kickbacks with the 17.5lb dumbbells for 5 sets of 15 reps. After the arm workout, I moved grabbed an open treadmill (the spinners were still at work, so I was lucky to grab one) and did the 2 mile run. I had taken most of my pre-workout drink during my lift (planned to take it towards the end of spinning to get a pump for lifting), so I was starting to feel a little bit of an adrenaline buzz. A simple 2 mile jog was not going to cut it anymore. I decided I would run the first mile at a moderate pace and run the second mile a bit faster. I ended up going 9’47″/mile for mile 1 and 9’28″/mile for mile 2.

After the run, I hopped on the stair climber for 15 minutes @ level 5: // left side sideways for 2 minutes (to target the hips, inner thighs/adductors) // right side sideways for 2 minutes // forward for 7 minutes // left side sideways for 2 minutes // right side sideways for 2 minutes //

Between the stairclimber and runnign I was a sweaty mess…but I still had 25 minutes on the elliptical to get a total of a little under 1hr of cardio.

I think that dropping almost 10lbs of fat/fluff/water weight has helped me to pick up the pace quite a bit for my runs. From lifting, my legs are definitely stronger (I lift legs 3 times/week) so that helps a bunch. Also, because of my fitness goals, I’m focusing on shorter distance runs (1-5 miles) as opposed to the longer runs because my goal is to be able to do quality speed play and efficiently torch calories vs. work on muscle endurance. I just got a notification about reduced pricing for the Cleveland Perfect 10 miler though…so maybe I’ll make an exception just to get some racing miles in this year.

We’ll have to see.

Week 4: jersey shore without funnel cake :(

My goodness this past week flew by way too fast. I was on vacation in New Jersey ( then fan lives there and I’m too poor for a vacation to a real desirable destination). My boyfriend and I drove down (7-8hr trip) and stayed them whole week.

It is beyond difficult to maintain a healthy diet if you rely on restaurants and travel centers. On the trip there I packed protein (17egg whites), meal replacement bars (cliff builders in peanut butter) and a bag of romaine lettuce (for something crunchy). Now when I say a bag of romaine lettuce please know that I mean I washed 3 large romaine hearts and stuck them in a bag. Classy.

I stuck to my macros for the first 4 days of vacation. My parents (who are the typical concerned, often overbearing parents who had modern American nutrition habits) were very concerned by my eating. The fact that I needed to eat every few hours, the fact that I wouldn’t eat rice, or chips or cakes. When we got there my mom had prepared chili, rice, corn bread and collard greens and asked me in a concerned voice ” you can’t eat chili?” We’ll, I can, but I’m sure she added 80/20 chuck instead of 93/7 turkey as the meat, and I’m sure it was high in sodium.

All in all it was great to be at home with my family. I got to see my grandmother any my cousin. My boyfriend had a good time as well. I was able to secure us a gym to workout for 20$ for the whole week so we got all of our workouts in. The highlight for me was that on chest day I hit 115 on the bench for 1 (I did this at the end of my workout so I wasn’t fresh) my boyfriend spotted me for negatives too so I actually did 1 rep +a forced rep. I love being strong…well stronger than yesterday.

My diet broke down on the 4th of July when I decided not to log calls or macros no just live a little. I avoided junk food (no cake no pop no candy etc) but I did have some BBQ (chicken and ribs) a few plain tortillas with salsa, and fruit. I kept this loose diet until Saturday so basically I had 3 days where I ate over 1300 calories and have no clue what my macros were. Typically I’d feel guilty about all of this but I was still pretty clean and that guilt only brings about negative habits for me so I’m just going to move on.

I was super proud of myself though because on Friday, my boyfriend and I visited Seaside Heights and walked the boardwalk. I have amazing childhood memories of is place. Sadly, fun town is competent destroyed (there was a gaping hold still in the boardwalk in that area…thankfully they ha e taken the roller coaster out of the ocean). The rest of the boardwalk has been rebuilt though for the most part. Shout out to Michele Obama for nailing in that crucial board (:~p ). One of the best things about the boardwalk is the junkfood. Funnel cake, salt water taffy, candy apples, gargantuan slices of pizza, Italian hot dogs. I had none of this. I watched as my boyfriend ate a slice of pizza. I brought 3 candy apples for my mom, dad and brother. I practiced self control. I felt good.

On Saturday we drove back to Cleveland and I subsisted on protein bars and chicken. On Sunday I got in my bonus leg workout and meal prepped. I decided that since the week was off a little, I’d skip progress pics but I did take measurements:

Weight: 138
Neck: 14
Waist: 27.8
Hips: 38.9
Body fat %: 27%

I plan to hit this week hard. I am going to do mostly running and spinning classes for my cardio and try and get at least 2 miles of running in everyday and 60 total minutes of cardio. I also have quite a bit of work to do for school this week. I’m in the process of wrapping up my phd research and prepping for my public dissertation defense. This means I have to finalize my dissertation document, make sure that I have everything ready for returning to the clinical portion of my training and somehow box up and archive 5 years of research notes, data, protocols and reagents in the lab. It’s a busy time, but exciting also…and it’s certainly much more pleasant to do it in a body that I’m growing to love. 🙂

Till next time, eat clean, train mean!

Week 3 – when working out means you’re aggressive

What a week. I rounded Sunday out down another pound and sore all over. Honestly, it feels like a truck hit me then backed up and ran over me again for good measure. Getting in and out of cars feels like a chore and I’m finally starting to get moody/feel fatigued from the low calories that I’m consuming. Even with that I was able to meet all of my goals for this week in terms of exercise and meals. I’m still seeing progress which, I suppose is a good thing – especially since this week had me out of town traveling for the holidays.

The most inventive food thing I did with my diet was create clean chicken and clack bean tacos that fit my macros. I didn’t make a recipe or take pics though because I still need to tweak the recipe a bit. It was a little too high in sodium which made my legs swell a bit. I suspect it was the canned beans ( I used reduced sodium and rinsed them significantly, but when you haven’t had added salt or processed & canned food for a while and then indulge…I guess sensitivity ensues). I think I might try the recipe again but in the crockpot so the chicken gets nice and shredded -like. Ok clearly I’m a fat kid because that was a lot of talk about food.

On to the workouts…

So apparently it’s not “normal” for women to mean mug in the gym. Apparently being the only girl in the free weight room AND actually working out instead of engaging in mindless banter or getting coached up by other gym patrons means that you are…well a BEAST. If you didn’t know this…no worries, I just learned it this week. I do power lifting movements (squats, deadlifts, cleans) at the campus gym and do cardio and accessory movements literally next door at the private gym that’s on campus. When I walked into the campus gym on Wednesday, a kid @ said “didn’t I just see you at @ Veale (the campus gm). Then he followed it up with an accusatory “what do you work out twice?!” …so what I do? What’s it to ya?

Then when my bf comes home he tells me that Russ, the smoothie man @ the gym said “I bet your girl beats yo ass at home don’t she?” He qualifies this statement by saying that he got the impression because I walk in the gm, I don’t talk to anyone and I lift weights. While his logic is impeccable, I must say I was a tad offended by the notion that a girl who weight lifts and doesn’t waste time trying to chat it up *must* be an abusive relationship partner…Russ gets a big fat W-T-F on that one.

I was back to week 1 workouts and even though I’m tired down to my bones, I am able to lift more and more weight or increase reps each week. Being strong and workout at the same time is a little mind blowing but that’s how it is. I’m also seeing more of a pump and sneak peaking some vascularity when I do certain moves…c’mon veins and leanness!

On to the numbers:

This week again wasn’t dramatic. I lost 1.1 pounds, an inch, and another percent of body fat. I take new progress pics next week to round out the month. I also have another session with Dave, who was pleased as punch with my last progress pics.

Weight: 138.3
Hips: 38.8
Waist:27.5
Neck: 14
BF%: 26%

Til next week.

Sweet potato and oatmeal “cake”

One thing about being on a diet is that you start to crave the crap you can’t have. My diet right now is pretty sparse on starchy carbs and fat. I can get over the lack of fat pretty easily just by adding flavor to my foods. You see a lot of fitness nuts going gaga over Mrs. Dash seasonings…and believe me, when you can’t have salt or oil a little Mrs. Dash extra spicy and garlic herb goes a long way. The starchy thing however is another story. The carbs in my diet pretty much come from veggies (asparagus, green beans, broccoli) and brown rice, sweet potato, oatmeal and grits. There’s NO white flour anywhere in my meal plan even all of the “flourless cake/cookie/pancake” recipes that you find on gluten-free websites are so full of sugar (from white sugar, agave nectar, maple syrup) that they are out for my current diet situation.

So last night I was sitting up and thinking about when I make sweet potato pie (the full monty with butter, sugar and delicious buttery flour-y crust) I usually will have made a little too much pie filling and will bake it off in a pyrex dish. Even though it lacks flour (I don’t use flour in my sweet potato pie filling) it still rises and has a soft cake or spoon bread like consistency. In a word: Delicious.

So I thought, sweet potatoes are in the meal plan, so are eggs, cinnamon, and nutmeg…that’s almost like sweet potato pie filling…(well not at all…but desperate times call for suspension of reality). So I whipped up a quick “spoon bread” or soft cake using all legal meal plan ingredients just so that I can have a little taste of comfort food. I ate a serving of this for breakfast this morning along side 2 egg whites. Felt like cheating but it wasn’t.

Again, I’m not a chef…I’m just sharing the results of a culinary experiment 🙂

What you will need:

1 orange fleshed sweet potato (pick one with pointy ends – these are usually sweeter – that’s about 300g or so)

2 packets of PureVia sweetener

1/4 cup of Bob’s Redmill gluten-free oats

1 pinch of cinnamon (or to taste)

1 pinch of ground nutmeg (or to taste)

non-stick lo-calorie baking spray or well seasoned cast iron skillet

4 egg whites

1 whole egg

Fork

2 Medium sized bowls

Small pyrex dish or well seasoned cast iron skillet

Directions:

1 – Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

2 – Microwave sweet potato for 6 minutes turning every 2 minutes until soft on all sides

3- Mash sweet potato with fork in medium sized bowl

4- Add nutmeg, cinnamon, and truvia sweetener and mix well. Taste here to make sure you have your desired level of spice and sweetness.

5- In a separate bowl, whip 4 egg whites and 1 whole egg until fluffy (like you’re scrambling eggs). You can use the same fork that you mashed your tater with, save yourself some dishes)

6- Add egg mixture to sweet potato and mix until smooth.

7- Add 1/4 cup of oatmeal and mix well (The batter should be smooth and wet like cake batter – not dough-y).

8- Lightly coat a pyrex dish with non-stick baking spray and add sweet potato mix to dish. Spread evenly

9- bake for 10 minutes at 350 degrees or until set.

Serves 3. Nutrition facts: Calories/serving: 174 :: Carbs: 29 (5g of fiber):: Fat: 3 :: Protein: 10

 

Because of the consistency of the batter, I’m thinking I might also be able to make these into pancakes for the morning time. I’ve been meaning to try out walden farms 0 calorie syrups and I think this might be just the vehicle for that…more to come on that 🙂

Week 2 on training program – unrealistic expectations and frustration

Wow what a week. Week 1 I guess I was high off the excitement of starting something new. New supplements, new training program, new nutrition program…a complete lifestyle overhaul. It was something different, was going to help me get to where I wanted to be in life and I was PUMPED.

Enter week 2. I start my period and I’m a moody emotional mess with a face full of acne that wants to sit in bed and eat pork rinds while watching repeats of The Real Housewives. Paradoxically, i also want to look like the women in my #fitspo images on Instagram. Despite the fact that last week I lost over 7 lbs, I started this week frustrated that the weight wasn’t coming off faster. Its a damn shame how hormones, emotional eating and self deprecation are so powerful in some women (like me). Resisting the urge to binge eat to calm my nerves, anxiety, anger, or sadness this week has been the HARDEST part of this fitness/healthy eating journey so far and I know it will probably only get harder as time goes on. Here, on day 14 writing this, I’m proud to say that with the exception of a tablespoon of natural peanut butter on Tuesday, I stuck to my macros and calorie limits. (Side bar, that little bit of peanut butter on Tuesday really helped with a gross little side effect of the sudden increase in protein – sluggish bowels…TMI? Sorry). I mentioned in my last update that I eat an ungodly amount of egg whites. I’m experimenting with ways to make them more appetizing and exciting and will occasionally post recipes (with macronutrient/calorie) breakdown if they end up tasting good. This week for example I made an egg white frittata which was DEVINE!

Along with the urge to voraciously eat things outside of my meal plan, I also was a little less excited about the gym this week. My body was sore and felt beat up from last week. I knew this week would be harder because I was adding in running and sprints for my cardio and laws switching to workout plan B (trainer gave me two programs which I alternate rom week to week to keep my body guessing). While I’m happy I got through all of the workouts, I have to be honest with myself and say that I didn’t always feel like I pushed myself as hard as I should have. Don’t get me wrong I still worked hard, but I feel like I could have worked harder and that feeling bites a little.

The highlight of the week was that for double cardio on Saturday, I hit the stadium stairs @ Lakewood high school w/ my boyfriend and his friend. We did a football style track/ stairs workout and I kept up with the boys!

Anyway, if I’m learning anything over this journey is that after you have put in the hard work and stuck to the diet, you have to accept yourself. I was frustrated on Monday because my weight hadn’t dropped as drastically as I would have hoped. I find myself looking in the mirror at my body more than usual – checking for ab definition, looking to see if my delts are popping, hoping that my vastus medialis is growing and ultimately being frustrated by lack of drastic results. Then I remind myself that I didn’t fluff up over night or in 14 days. Expecting to completely change my body shape in 14 days not realistic…neither is it healthy to beat myself up over slow progress when I’m working hard. So…onto this week’s data.

Weight: 139.4lbs
Hips: 39.5
Neck: 14
Waist: 27.5
Estimated BF%: 27%

Progress pictures:

All I can do is hit the weights harder and smash every cardio session like my life depends on it in the coming week. Progression is the goal and the only way I can do that is to look forward and keep moving 🙂

Stay fit!

Egg white frittata

I eat 6 egg whites for breakfast every day….every damn day!

I have never been a really big fan of eggs. The breakfast food I gravitate towards is typically sweet, and fatty (like pancakes and bacon). Anyway, on my new meal plan sweet and fatty is out and high protein is in – hey, these things are generally bad for you in high quantities anyway so I’m not complaining too much. Yea…so the breakfast scene is me in the morning after cardio scrambling up egg whites…every damn day. You can see how this could get boring…and boring is not really a sustainable thing on a diet.

Before I started my meal plan I tweeted about how I was not too thrilled about having to eat this many egg whites every morning. A twitter follower replied with the suggestion that I make meringues. While I haven’t made any meringues yet (but I am actively looking for a sugar, fat free recipe) I did take this person’s advice and look into ways to spice up the egg white sittuation.

Enter today’s frittata. It’s actually the first frittata I’ve ever made and I’m not a chef (so take that into account when following my recipe or instructions).

What you’ll need:
Small pan ( I used my one serving cast iron skillet)
Non stick low calorie cooking spray
Spatula
6 egg whites ( or equivalent amount of liquid egg white substitute)
30grams of onion
1 clove of garlic
Garlic-herb mrs dash (about 2 shakes)
4oz of cooked and drained ground turkey meat
1tsp of ground fennel seed (or more or less for taste)
1 pinch of salt (more or less for taste)
45 grams of frozen asparagus cuts (thawed – can use any other veggie)

Cooking instructions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F
1- spray your small pan with non stick cooking spray. If your cast iron pan is well seasoned you may be able too skip this step.

2- sauté onion, garlic, asparagus over medium heat until onions are translucent.

3- add ground turkey and sauté until heated through. Reduce to low heat.

4- crack eggs and isolate the whites (toss the yolks or save them for another purpose).

5- gently whisk egg whites with seasonings (salt, fennel seed, mrs dash) until it begins to froth and add whisked mixture to cast iron skillet on top of other ingredients

6- stir mix once on low heat and cook for about 2-3 minutes on stove top until sides start to set ( do not continue to stir or you will have scrambled egg whites)

7- when sides have set, place skillet in oven and bake for 5-7 minutes until top is set.

8- when the top is set (no longer liquid) remove the frittata from the oven and allow it to cool on the I stove top away from direct heat for about 5 minutes then remove it from the pan and eat!

The frittata should have a fluffy texture (similar to an omelette) and should have some crunchy crusty bits on the underside and sides.

If you follow the recipe I’ve written out recipe the macronutrient breakdown is approximately:

Carbs: 7 grams
Protein: 44 grams
Fats: 8 grams
Calories: 294 cal

The awesome thing about a frittata is that you can add whatever ingredients you want. For example frittatas often have cheese, various veggies, tomatoes, sausages, or bacon. I kept my frittata low fat and low carb by limiting the additions to a lean meat and veggies. You can do whatever you wish that fits your tastes and your nutrition goals.

I’d love to hear how you are spicing up your egg white breakfasts, or if you have a recipe for a low carb meringues.

Enjoy!

Week 1 on new training program

I started out this week still crazy sore from my first workout with Dave. Talk about a case of DOMS. It’s been pretty easy going however and I haven’t had much fatigue or any issues at all really adjusting to the consistency of activity or the meals.

6 egg whites every morning for breakfast…

In fact my biggest problem with the meal plan is that I feel like I’m always eating. The meals are small but protein packed. With my digestive system and eating every 3 hours I feel like I’m sitting down to eat again before my stomach is actually emptied. I mean, how long does it take your stomach to digest 6 egg whites at a time?

Because it’s week 1, I’ll go through my day-by-day. I probably won’t do this every week because both my diet and workout routines will be pretty repetitive for 3 months.

On Monday I did my first fasted morning cardio session which was a spin class @ the paid campus gym. I rejoined this gym in addition to working out @ titans when I train with Dave and working out at the free campus athletic center when I want to do powerlifting movements ( squats, cleans and deadlifts). I got up in time to take the 6:30 am spin class. The instructor was Rich and I’ve taken classes with him before. He likes to tell stories and take class members on a journey. Unfortunately for me the journey led us through the battle of Gettysburg and admiration for Robert E. Lee. FAIL. Anyway, I tuned him out and did my own thing and got a good sweat which is all that mattered. I did abs after. In the evening, I did an arm workout and 10 quick sprints on the treadmill.

On Tuesday, leg day!, I had a rest from the morning cardio. I hit legs hard doing a workout similar to the first one I did with Dave…bring on the DOMS!

On Wednesday I woke up and took another 6am spinning class. I opted for spinning instead of running (which is what Dave actually instructed me to do) because I was still trying to give my muscles a minute to ease into the new program. I’d never had this instructor before, but the first half of her class was horrific. Who spins to folk music…I mean I love folk music and I love spinning, but they don’t go together. I did abs after. In the evening I did shoulder and hamstrings and some stretching in the dry sauna. This right here is what I’ve been missing at the campus gym.

On Thursday I took the fay off of work to finish an upload for a paper submission (this is soemthing i need to defend my phd). It was great not having to go into work because i was able to just chill out a little bit and get some rest. I wasnt really feeling exercise at all and was to be honest a little over he whole workout thing. i forced myself to the gym and cranked out the back workout. Can I just say that right now back is my favorite part of the body to work. Maybe it’s been like that for a while actually. There’s something really powerful about rowing motions…idk. After my back workout I did 30 min on the stair climber.

On Friday I ended up oversleeping again and missed out on morning cardio. I made up for it with spin class after lifting chest, abs and calves. I really struggled through my lift. My muscles were cool, but I think I was starting to get mentally fatigued. Mike’s spin class is always pretty god lots of up tempo dance music.

Because I wasn’t really feeling the lift on Friday I opted to take Saturday off of iron and do my two-a-day cardio. I did an 8:30 spin class for my fasted am cardio…this class was taught by Kate, a teacher I’ve never had before. Music was old and it was a good variety of jumps and sprints. My only issue was that I hadn’t realized it was a 75 min class. That’s a little long for a fasted morning cardio effort, IMO. It was ok though…but next time I go to this class it’ll be after I eat something.

Sunday I did my bonus leg day and a 5 mile run in the cle metro parks.

Progress
Weight: 140.3
Waist: 28
Neck: 14
Hips: 40
Estimated BF%: 28%

Not much progress yet…but progress is often a slow process so I’m keeping at it.

New update next week.

In the meantime: Stay fit people!

That time I hired a personal trainer…

Over the past few years I’ve been frustrated with my lack of commitment to fitness and staying on top of my weight loss goals. I’ve yo-yo’ed up and down hovering around 140lbs +/- 5lbs for the last year and a half (save the Bikram yoga 60 day challenge when I lost about 10lbs and ended up @125…my lowest weight since starting medical school. I gained that back in about 2-3 months so I’m betting most of it was water and my BF% actually went up during that time, so I’m sure I lost muscle.

Well…I can’t play with my yo-yo anymore and the way I see it, you can either do something about your frustrations or sit around like a turd complaining. Turds are gross…and turds with weight and yo-yo diet issues become F-A-T. If fat is your thing, cool…it’s not mine.

I thought back to the times when I have actually seen big fitness goals through. Running th Cleveland half marathon and completing the Bikram yoga 60 day challenge. During both of those times I saw the whole thing through mostly because I was invested…financially. As a poor graduate student on a fixed income, anything that I pay money for is something I’m going to probably end up using and getting the most out of because money is a limited commodity around these parts.

So here’s the leap of faith that I took. I dropped a couple of benjamins on a personal trainer. The trainer I picked is Dave Liberman. He trains out of Titan’s Gym in Mentor, Ohio and so far he’s been awesome. He wrote up a nutrition and workout plan for me and I plan to train 1-on-1 with him every 2-3 weeks. Poor guy has already answered about a thousand questions from me and spent a good 2+ hours with me during our first training session. My quads still haven’t quite recovered.

Starting point:

After looking @ my pics, Dave says “you have some muscle there you just need to change the way you train and eat to lean out a bit” I’m taking a leap and posting these before pics as my starting point. As you can glean from the pics, I’m bottom heavy and slightly overfat (read: soft) for my 5’3 frame.

Stay lean starting point

Numbers wise, I’m 147lbs and 29% body fat. That means 104lbs of lean mass and 43lbs of butter…eeeew. My neck is 14.5in, my hips are 40in (BABY GOT BACK), and my waist is 28in.

Goals:

My I goals are the same as they were when I started the blog. I want to lose fat without losing a crap ton of muscle. I remember walking in the supplement section of whole foods ine day and seeing a woman with phenomenal arms. Visible full muscle bellies, very little fat, a little bit of vascularity. I was moved to tell her how fab her arms were…and I never talk to people in whole foods. I looked at this woman’s arms and could tell that she worked out; it wasn’t just genetics and she wasn’t just a skinny minnie. THAT’S WHAT I WANT. Not the public acknowledgement per se, but I certainly would like to go sleeveless and feel like I project an image of fitness and healthy eating. I want to look healthy.

Numbers wise: I’m looking to lose about 27lbs (goal weight =120lbs); about 4in from my waist (goal waist = 24in); about 6in from my hips (goal hips = 34in – baby will still have back). Using these numbers my body fat will be in the low teens.

Resources:

I can’t share my training and nutrition programs just out of respect for Dave. Since I pay him for his help it would be inappropriate for me to provide his product for free on the interwebs. What I will do however is point you in his direction. So far he’s been awesome and he does purely online training/coaching. Any routines that I come up with, I’ll continue to share 🙂

I use measuring tape to estimate my body fat. I use the us navy method that takes into account waist, hip and neck measurements. I also have a scale that has an electrical impedance body fat measure, but i just use that when i weigh myself daily to make sure that I’m moving in right direction on the progress scale. The link is here.

Workout to look better naked…but for yourself!

I love working out. It improves my self-esteem. It keeps me healthy. It improves my body shape, strength and flexibility. I love the way I look and feel when I workout. In-shape-me looks awesome naked and knows it. Out -of-shape-me would rather not look at herself. Improved aesthetic has always been my primary reason for getting in shape. What has evolved over the years is the source of my motivation to go to the gym or grind out HIIT circuits in my living room when no one is looking. See I used to do it for men. Assuming that whoever I was dating (or trying to date) at the time would appreciate if I didn’t have a tire around my waist and cellulite on my thighs. Throughout the years however I have come to care less about what my significant other thinks about my looks and I workout for me.

Working out for the benefit of the other people in your life might be a good enough reason to start out on a fitness journey but believe me it is not sustaining. Love comes and goes; people’s ideas of beauty change and it’s hard as hell to match the image you think someone else has in their head of yourself. I get up in the morning and do AM cardio because I feel better about myself when I do. I dig into a Tabata drill in my living room because I don’t like the way I feel about myself if I go too long without sweating a little.

Making the shift to workout for me has resulted in an even stronger commitment to working out than I ever had before. It doesn’t feel as much like a chore, but more like a lifestyle change…and when fitness becomes your lifestyle that’s sustainable. So my unsolicited advice to all of the women out there (and even the men to if it applies): make the commitment to a sculpt a better and healthier body for YOU and not for anyone else. Make it personal. That way when the love of your life moves on or doesn’t reciprocate or leaves town, or stops caring, or starts caring too much it won’t derail your efforts.

When the scale doesn’t move…Don’t give up!

If you’re into fitness and have instagram or facebook then you’ve probably seen the image above floating around the interwebs. I saw it this morning and given my present situation of really making a sound commitment to cutting my body fat percentage down, it resonated with me.

I’ve been dieting and exercising consistently for about 3 weeks (meaning doing some form of exercise 7 days a week and eating a strict diet with strict macronutrient considerations). In that 3 weeks time, I’ve been sore, I’ve battled laziness and cravings for Rolos and gummi bears…and yet I’ve lost a measly 1.5 pounds and only 1% body fat. After 3 weeks of fatigue and hard work and avoiding pizza, I admittedly expected a much bigger change in the scale.

As an emotional being, it’s easy for me to be down on myself. To start my inner monologue of berating words saying that I didn’t try hard enough…or blame myself for letting my body fat percentage get so high in the first place. As a planner and a methodical person, I have the urge to completely overhaul my program –  even after so short of a time  –  because clearly it isn’t working as fast as I would like it to. But as a rational thinking person who is well-read in the matters of fitness and body sculpting, I know that changing the shape of my body (and changing those numbers on the scale) are going to take a little bit of time if I am to do it the healthy way.

The fact that my body fat percentage didn’t go up and that I lost some weight (even if it’s a paltry 1.5 pounds) means that I am losing fat slowly but surely. I know that if I stick with it I’m sure to see more change in the right direction.

I’m getting better at some of my calisthenic workout movements, I’m increasing my weight and my reps on certain exercises which means that I am getting stronger. I am building muscle. My belly isn’t bulging out so much when I sit down. These are all good things that I’ve made the decision to focus on throughout this process – at least until I see that grand shift in the scale.

I guess the point of this post is to vent a little of my frustration and to encourage anyone out there who like me just started a new fat loss program to stick with it! Weight loss can be a hard and frustrating battle but what’s the point of quitting or of opting for quick fix methods that haven’t worked in the past? Though these little fitness memes are a little cliche, they actually are a good reminder of the goal at hand and the fact that though you might not get there right away but as long as you keep moving forward you’ll ultimately get there. Your thunder thighs weren’t built in a day…it’s going to take a little while for you to trim them down too.