Motivation

This past Saturday I did something I've never done in my life. Ever. Not in my wildest of dreams could I ever imagine that this feat would be possible for me to ever achieve. And yet…I did it. I ran 4 miles. Yes ladies and gentlemen...I ran 4 miles. Not a huge feat for some, but for me, it was earth moving.

I started running in 2005 and I could barely run a mile. I was always tired, didn’t know how to pace myself, and thought running for the most part shouldn’t be more than a mile. I don’t know what I was thinking or smoking back then. I guess I will chalk it up to that because I could barely do a mile, then that meant I shouldn’t do more?

Then one night I pushed myself and ran 2 miles. It was a slow 2 miles. I think my total time for the run was 30 mins (which translates to more of a power walk than a run, but hey I was excited!). Then I tried to do it again and after a mile and a half I wimped out (for lack of a better term). Then came the news I was expecting my son and well, all workouts went out the window. I didn’t run again until 2008.

In 2008 my husband passed away and the stress of being a single mom got to be too much and I went for a run just hoping that it would release the stress and anxiety I was feeling. While it didn’t completely take it away, it helped. And so I began running again. Working my way up to a mile. Then 2. Then struggling along to 3. In 2010 I ran my first 5k since college. I did it right under 40 mins and to say I was excited to do that was an understatement. It took everything in my power not to cry that day. I did something that was a feat – for me. I ran, never stopped, kept going for 3 miles. It was bliss.

As hard as I tried the next year when I ran the same 5k I didn’t beat my time. I actually extended it by 2 mins and I was ashamed of myself. I didn’t put much effort in my runs when I was doing them and becoming very discouraged that I couldn’t shorten my run times. I actually started to believe that being short in stature meant I wasn’t ever going to shorten my time. And I started to lose interest in running.

Then I discovered HIIT and started moving them into my workouts from time to time. HIIT for the most part (for me) is exhausting. You are giving most of yourself almost all of time with a few little breaks here and there. I choose to give up my long runs for a little while and just focus on HIIT runs for awhile to see if that would help me.

Two weeks ago I went for a long run and to my surprise I noticed I did over 3 miles in under 35 mins. My 5k time was actually 34mins and 30 seconds. I was completely shocked and in awe that after 3 months of HIIT training at least 3 times a week I was able to shave that much time off my run.

But I wasn’t done shocking myself yet. See not matter how hard I tried I’ve always given up around the 3.15 mile marker. From time to time I’ve made it to 3.25 or 3.33, but that’s it. Never any further. I really would look at my GPS and just give up. Done. Three miles. I’m good.

Then this weekend after running and seeing that I made it my 3 miles I was again ready to give up, but something stopped me. I convinced myself to run all the way to the stop sign about 50 yards ahead of me – THEN I could give up. Then I realized that I made it to the stop sign but the song I was running to was great and I convinced myself again to run until the song was over. Then when the song was over I realized I was almost home and chose to keep running till I got home.

Right as I turned the corner I looked at my GPS and saw that I had run 3.63 miles. I couldn’t give up. I had come too close to give up now – I told myself one lap around the small block by my house – THEN I can give up when I hit 4 miles. I ran and ran until the Nike running app turned to 4 miles.

Four miles. Done. A milestone in my life that I thought I might never do – complete. It felt amazing! My mind was flooded with so much joy I almost cried. But this is just the beginning. This is my new motivator. My new goal to set a new bar. This was hard work shown through in something that I could tangibly see. And it made me mentally, physically and emotionally stronger.

I know now that I can run more than just a 5k. I’m stronger than a 42 min 5k. I know that in life I may not always beat my run times every time this pavement princess hits the asphalt; but I know that I can and that is all that I need right now to be my motivator to get out there each and every day!

Remember. What doesn’t kill you… helps you kick a little ass. 

My Own Worst Enemy

So these last two weeks have been crazy – my son’s day care was closed for a week to which I tried to squeeze in a ton of doctor appointments into my lunch hour and my boss also went out-of-town which meant for the most part I have to make sure that everything gets done that needs to be done around the office. So needless to say my lunch time power walks went by the way side for the last two weeks and my work outs are a hair hit or miss trying to squeeze them in when I could, but also feeling drained before I ever started them. Ugh. Then came something I wasn’t expecting.

Now let me start by saying I knew going into a healthier lifestyle that the scale lies. EVERY ONE SHOULD KNOW THAT. And I don’t mean like in the way we all tell ourselves it lies. But it’s true that two people can weigh the same amount and one can have almost twice the body fat. So over all the scale is no real indicator of the amount of fat loss or how healthy you are.

Now with that said I was higher than I should have been with my body fat level (33%) when I started. So I also knew that be eating right and working out I would see the numbers drop on the scale, but I also knew that as the scale dropped and I lost fat I would also be gaining muscle and in return at some point the drop on that scale would stop and I would start gaining weight in the shape of pure muscle. Make sense?

However, with all the know how that I have, I let myself fall into a place where I started to lose my motivation. Over a weeks time I watched the scale jump up ward almost a pound a day. I know… I know… you should never weigh your self every day. But it’s been really fascinating watching how you eat effects that damn little scale! I watched as each day it went up and up and I was a hair in shock because I couldn’t see how my past work outs could gain a pound a muscle a day… I got discouraged and stopped drinking my water the way I should. I went from 3 liters a day to 1.5 litters a day. I still ate right, but was slowing loosing my motivation to go work out.

After an email conversation with my nutritionist (again – I think anyone trying to be healthier should have one) she explained a few things and gave me suggestions to change a few things in my diet like eating less cheese; which I have done. But the biggest factor that I had seem to forget about… I am a woman… and things happen to women about once a month…. hint hint… read between the lines…. and once that was over my weight shifted (dramatically) back to around where I was when the weight gain all started.

What is the lesson I learned in all this? I AM MY OWN WORST ENEMY! I almost sabotaged my own healthier lifestyle by not working out because I let some numbers on a scale dictate my success. I let something that is natural and out of my control almost get me to a point of asking, why am I doing this again? I went through one night and ready my first post as to why I AM doing this and told myself that it’s not about weight – it’s about loosing fat , being healthier and I can tell that I am loosing fat and I am being healthier. If I had to guess (and I hope I’m right) I think I might be down to 20-22% body fat. And that should be my goal to be healthy and be fit – not watch those stupid numbers on my scale!

This was a hard lesson to learn, but one I needed to document so that I try not to fall into it again. Ignore the scale – base everything off how you  feel and listen to your body, not that scale!

Up the HIIT

So I LOVE, LOVE…did I say how I love?… HIIT. High Intensity Interval Training. It took me a long time to truly embrace it. But man, now that I have and I know how to use it as part of my workouts I’m surprised how much I struggled with it. But I also learned allot of valuable lessons with my struggles. The first being a HIIT run on a treadmill is freaking hard and darn near impossible at times. Don’t get me wrong; it can be done, but I struggled trying to do it on my treadmill.

About two months ago I started a 30/30 HIIT run which in turn is a 5 minute warm up where I stretch and power walk. I power walk for 30 seconds and then do an elevated run (something between what I normally run and a sprint) for 30 seconds and do this back and forth for 20 mins. Ending with a 5 minute cool down of a power walk and stretching. Let me say the first time I got outside and did this I hit a wall 5 minutes into my intervals. It was hard. Brutal almost. I was sweating my rear off and quite honestly couldn’t wait to be done with that workout. The next morning I didn’t want to do it again. My abs hurt. My legs hurt. I was physically exhausted the next morning.

It took me almost a week before I got out there again and tried it. Again, 5 minutes into it – there was my wall and I was trying my best to push through it… and I did. I got so frustrated with myself that I was letting a workout beat me… mentally. Every time I got out there it was a mental tug of war with “I should stop” and “I’m not a weenie, just do this.” Each time the part of me that expressed not wanting to be a weenie won out. And I’m very thankful for that.

However, recently I noticed my runs, while still sweating my rear off at the end, I wasn’t feeling that same challenge that I did when I first started. I wondered if it was because I was getting faster? Or was my body just used to the pace? So last night I did something I didn’t think I would be brave enough to do. I upped the HIIT. I went from 30 seconds of high intensity to 45 seconds. An extra 15 seconds doesn’t seem like a lot right? It didn’t seem like a lot to me either. Until I actually tried to do it. Of all things holy, what in the world was I thinking?

I got out there and 3 intervals into it… BAM!! I hit the wall of wanting to give up so quick it was sickening. My mind raced with, “yeah you shouldn’t have done that, you should have waited a few more weeks” and “maybe I should just start over with my regular intervals”. I let this conversation plague my thoughts for a good 5 more minutes till the point where I realized that I was almost done. I had almost reached the half way marker without even knowing it because I got lost in my own thoughts. This pushed me to turn the music up in my little ear buds and PUSH (and man was it a push) on through the thoughts of my mind wanting to give up. I remembered something I saw on Pinterest that day… It’s not your body giving up, it’s your mind. And boy did it ever want to give in.

When I came inside I was sweating buckets, my legs felt on fire, I was out of breath, I was drained. This morning I woke up and my abs hurt, my legs are a little sore and I feel drained. BUT BOY DID IT FEEL GOOD! This was the challenge I needed. As much as I hated it while I was doing it, I needed that challenge to push me more. One thing I will always remember from the days of working out with a trainer, “If you can do it and feel like it’s a piece of cake – you need more weight – everyone needs a challenge.” This was the challenge I needed and I’m so glad I went out there and did it. I pushed my self. I conquered the mind for my body. And I personally can’t wait to get out there again!

I Can. I will. Watch #ME.

So I’ve ranted and gotten on my soap box about trainers, nutritionists, why healthy me and other assortments that while all these are great, I think I need to spend some time talking about personal struggle. Yes, in trying to have a healthier lifestyle everyone has personal struggles and these come from all places: family, work, social media, boyfriends, girlfriends, kids, parties…the list goes on. But lets get personal here for a second.

This weekend I went on one of my HIIT runs (I love them so) and for anyone that knows me and has read my other blog; running for me is very therapeutic. A way to release the stress in my life, focus on my struggles and mentally get over any hurdles that might be plaguing my thoughts. This run was no different than any other, I thought about work, Ethan, my to-do list, then my mind began to wonder. I thought about  how I NEVER expect people to accept my new life style of eating cleaner and being healthier. This is my lifestyle – not theirs. I don’t want people forcing me to eat bad and ergo I won’t force them to eat better (unless you’re my kid and then, well, sorry, you’re out of luck on that front). But you get the idea. I can make my own food choices and work towards eating better without hurting people’s feelings and being open to them when they ask what it is exactly I’m doing. But again, if you know me this is also my view on life itself as well.

I thought about how what I struggle with is the reflection in the mirror beginning to reflect the person I am on the inside. Yeah I look in a mirror and I can see where my arms are trimming down, I notice that bra straps have to be tightened because I’m “shrinking”, and yes even though you should never base anything off the scale I have managed to lose between 10-12 lbs overall. But I also look at myself in the mirror and see all the struggles I go through being a single widowed mamma. I question myself every day if what I am doing is right for Ethan and I; on all levels of our lives, especially this new healthier lifestyle.

For me, one of my struggles falls into family and I would venture to guess that this is actually true for a lot of people. So eight-ish weeks ago I started eating “clean” (that’s my definition of what I’m doing). I don’t drink soda, artificial sweeteners, refined sugars and very little to no processed foods. The goal is to eat 1200 calories a day and including at least 100g of protein. It’s not an easy task when you’re a working single mamma who barely has time to think let alone figure out how to get that much protein in a day’s time. But with allot of label reading I’ve worked it out to a fine balance. And for me it works.

Recently I went on vacation with my son, mum & dad and brother to Yellowstone National Park and the Grand Tetons. I was so excited and yet scared all that the same time. See, I had just figured out what I needed to eat and how much of certain foods I needed to eat to meet my daily goals and here I was going on vacation away from the norm and what was I going to do being that no one in my family eats the way I now do? I e-mailed my nutritionist for advice on what to do and she gave me some great suggestions and explained how she goes camping and still is able to eat right if you plan right. So that’s what I did.

When I arrived in Jackson Hole I took the rent-a-car and drove first the the nearest grocery store. I bought the basics of what I thought I might need for the week and figured the rest I would just leave up to my creativity. And to my shock my mother seemed very supportive of my eating habits and we even managed to joke around about it some. Then one morning while I was getting ready to take a shower I overheard my mother (with no shower going in a small travel trailer you can hear a church mouse take a leak in the corner) tell my brother that we were having pancakes for breakfast and my brother quickly telling her that they both knew I wasn’t going to eat a pancake. Which lead to my mother’s statement of “This diet thing is really becoming a pain in the rear!”

I was hurt and frustrated. Hurt because I never once tried to force my eating habits on her and frustrated because I never once asked her to make my food – I was happy to do all that. So how was my healthy eating becoming such a pain? But I forced myself to push all that negativity out. I know that what I am doing is right for me and my child. It might not suit the lifestyle of those around me, but it doesn’t have to. It only needs to suit me. Period. I won’t lie though. This was only day 2 or 3 into the trip and there was still 3-4 more to go. I thought about giving up for the week and just starting over when I got home where there was no one to critique me. But that wasn’t right. I worked so hard to get this far and giving up now made me feel like getting back was going to be even harder when I got back. I was determined I wasn’t going to let this stop me. At all. So I pushed through, always trying to show those around me that my lifestyle wasn’t going to interfere with their lives and it didn’t effect them either. In the end the food I put in my mouth doesn’t effect the waistline of those around me.

Family is hard. Dealing with people in general is hard because as human beings we force our own fears and misconceptions onto those around us to make ourselves feel better. We have all done it. We’ve all talked about those around us in a way where we think we know best because our life situations make us feel like we know what’s best, but we really need to stop and think about other people. And that goes beyond lifestyle, eating better and working out. But I digress.

The biggest struggle for me though comes not only from family peer pressure, but from friends and strangers. A weird place I know. I like to call this my “social struggle”. When you have a kid who is 6 you get invited to allot of birthday parties. And where there is birthday parties there is soda, sugar and cake. At one point this year I took my son to a party and after all the kids had cake the adults were offered cake. I declined. Not rudely. I simple said “no thanks.” However, you would have thought I cursed, stomped up and down and threw a temper tantrum. The conversation went something like this…

“Oh you on one of those fad diets?” replied the woman in an overly sarcastic tone.

“Nope, just trying to watch what I eat and cut out some sugar.” I stated calmly and with a smile.

“Well I would never do one of those fad edits. I just want to find a diet that lets me enjoy my diet coke and sometimes partake in a sweet. I couldn’t do what you are doing,” was stated back and yet I personally felt like it was a knife to my soul as a stab as to what I choose to eat and not eat or how in some way what I choose to eat was WRONG for anyone. I realized leaving that party that if I had explained I had a Gluten issue or was a diabetic no one would look twice at me. But actually choosing to not eat cake was some sort of blasphemy. And yes, I was hurt and thin skinned. But I also went in thinking that people would think that what I am doing is great and wonderful and that was far from it. Grown-up lesson #5,643 – you’re not as cool as you think you are.

My biggest flaw is that I let people’s negative views on what I should be doing run a good bit of my life. And it’s not right. I don’t live in a negative world where I let my thoughts run rampant with what other people shouldn’t do… No, I live in my own world of what I want to do to better my self. Yes people are going to tell me that I might be too thin or try to sway me to eat that one piece of cake so they aren’t eating alone, but it’s my choice to say no. Not theirs.

As I ran (and ran off all these frustrations) I thought of the motto on my computer that I had printed out for motivation. “I can and I will. Watch me.” And that above all else teaches me a world of facts. Only I can eat what I need to, work out when I need to and know when it’s ok to relax the diet once a week or skip a workout. Only I will be the person who gets out there and rules her kingdom of pavement princess – ruler of all these that make you a hot sweaty mess! And all those people who tear me down or put pressure on me to relax and eat what I know I don’t want to eat or do can just watch me as I become the person I know I am and working towards. They can watch as I transform into the strong person I want and dream to be. They can watch as I become a good role model for my child.

It all boils down to this and I started repeating it to myself when get up in the mornings, when I workout, when I’m sitting at work. No one said this journey would be easy, but I told myself it would be worth it. I can. I will. Watch #me.

The Choices of Children

So being that my late husband used to be a restaurant manager and I used to spend allot of my time up where he worked I’ve seen the whole gambit of lifestyles from different people. Some shocking. Some awe-inspiring. And some just all around great people watching! I will say there was a moment in my life when one night I was up eating dinner (this was before my son was born) and as I sat at the bar reading my book I watched a woman pull out a baby bottle and hand it to her waiter. My first thought as I raised one eye over my book was nothing – until I watched this server walk over the soda machine and fill the baby bottle with coke.

Yes. You heard me. Coke. You know that stuff that is an addiction? I was shocked. Disturbed. Speechless, to say the least. I called my late husband over and explained to him what I just saw; he couldn’t believe his eyes either. We made a pact that if we ever had kids we would not support the soda habit to the best of our ability. And even though he and I ate bad we never once promoted or offered soda to our child. I think there is less than 3 times that in a pinch when my son was really thirsty and there was no water fountain to be found did I let him take a very tiny sip of my soda. (yeah I could slap myself for that now, but you get the idea)

Ever since that day when Ethan did ask for a soda it plagued me that I wasn’t making the best choices for me and ergo not making the best choices for him. Yeah we have all said it, “I can’t control what happens at school. Kids eat sweets and whatever they want at lunch, blah, blah, blah…” But the thing I don’t think people get is that WE can change the way our kids think by letting them see the choices WE make.

I’ve always known that once I got my healthy eating habits down pat I was going to SLOWLY start changing Ethan’s eating habits. Nothing big. I’m sorta doing it now. For example, in my pantry is a “snack bowl”. It is filled with random stuff from left over birthday candy, Easter candy, pop corn, goodies my parents buy…you name it, it’s in there. And when Ethan asks for a snack I used to direct him to his snack bowl to pick one snack from the bowl. No more. Now when he asks he has choices to pick from. These choices consist of a fruit, one snack from the bowl or nuts. I’m not going to change everything on him, but I am indirectly going to let him know that the definition of the word snack doesn’t equal a candy treat. And yes sometimes he picks from the snack bowl, but there are also the times my heart smiles when he picks fruit or nuts.

As I’ve stated before, I gave up soda. So for the most part I drink nothing but water (and a little milk here and there). Ethan’s choices for a beverage at the house are milk, juice or water and for the most part he picks juice or milk. However, I’ve started to notice a change in my little muppet’s drinking habits. See recently we went out to eat with my neighbors and while the waitress asked what we all wanted to drink I completely expected from the choices that Ethan would pick lemonade. I was shocked when he ordered water! I had to think to myself, “did my kid just order water? Seriously? Water?!?” Even the waitress commented what a good choice. (yes I let out a little grin when she said it – I was proud of my muppet).

Shortly after that I noticed that when we were home Ethan actually drinks more water than before and sometimes after dinner, after his juice he goes to the fridge and gets a little glass of water! I can’t help but think that that this has something to do with the choices that I make for myself. That being a role model for my child is rubbing off with a little effort. He sees me making good choices and in turn he makes good choices. It makes me proud to be his mamma!

I guess what I’m trying to say is this. We don’t curse in front of our kids because we don’t want them to repeat what we say. We prompt them to say “please” and “thank you” because we want them to be well-rounded polite people. So why not use our own healthy eating habits to teach our kids years worth of good habits? I’ll be honest. I never expected my choices to rub off on Ethan so quickly, but it makes me happy that it has. And it gives me even more motivation to keep moving forward with a desire to make both of our lives ones that are filled with behaviors that lead to a healthier us.

The Trainer vs. The Nutritionist

So one of the key things I’ve learned in life is that everything is a balance in relationships. If you are dating then you understand that it takes it two people to come to a common ground to have a successful and beautifully working relationship. If you are a working parent you understand that there has to be a balance in life with work and family – you can’t give one more attention than the other without some sort of fall out. You can find anything in your life and see that everything relates to a sense of balance. A Ying and Yang to all that makes us; us – so to speak.

Now why do I bring this up? Well I’ve recently discovered (or more so, it dawned on me) that I’ve walked around the last 10+ years of my life with a HUGE misconception. Several years ago I joined a gym and with that membership I was allowed to work with a personal trainer. Great right? Well it was. He was easy on the eyes, yeah, but he also knew his stuff. In roughly a month of working out with him once a week I was able to run a mile (which at the time was a task and a half) and I felt stronger overall. However I was also really frustrated.

I went in one day and explained to him how great I felt and how I was following his directions, doing my homework workouts and yet I wasn’t seeing the scale move even in the slightest. His comment back was, “what do you eat for lunch?”

“Turkey sandwich,” I replied.

“Just don’t eat the bread,” was the comment he made right before he told me to go for a run. Don’t. Eat. The. Bread. Um. Ok. What kind of advice was that? And why was he so intent on just what I ate for lunch? I sorta felt blown off. But then again I was also living in my own misconceptions. See at this point in my life I believed that if I worked out every day then I was able to eat what I wanted. Within reason of course and still see the scale move in a downward spiral. I truly thought that working out meant I could have that “small” slice of cake because I was just burning away everything I ate with my workouts. Yeah – can we say living in my own misconceptions. BIG. TIME.

I didn’t stay at that gym very long. It was far away from my house and a chore to drive to so I gave it up thinking that what I had learned from this trainer was enough to get me through life (for the most part). Then a few years later my late husband met a personal trainer in his line work who offered to help us get back into shape. So we jumped at the chance again because my late husband had never worked out with a trainer before and he thought it would be great motivation for us to get fit! Me on the other hand, well lets just say that I was happy to have the motivation and drive, but wasn’t sure what was going to happen. This trainer was promising 5-10 lbs of weight loss in 1-2 months time and after my first round with a trainer I wasn’t too sure.

So we started training. He was very informative, knew how the human body worked with what mussels, and you could tell that this was somewhat his passion. But he did have one drawback. I wasn’t seeing the results he promised nor did my late husband. And when we asked about it his comment back was we needed to eat less and workout more. Eat less… Work out more… I was already running 2 miles every other day and lifting weights the days I wasn’t running. I didn’t get it and I didn’t understand it. Nor did he even ask us what we were eating. But, again, we were living in a world of our own misconceptions. We would work out with our trainer then go to iHop for pancakes, or Jason’s Deli for the potato soup and salad bar with salads downed in lots of dressing, or the worst fried chicken wraps from Sonic. We thought we were making “good” to “ok” choices in our food… looking back… boy were we ever wrong!

After the first of the year once I got soda off my mind and had a routine of taking my lunch to work everyday it was time for the next step in being a healthier me, seeing a nutritionist. I was giving up on the trainer route and moving towards just eating better. What I discovered by going to a nutritionist was eye opening. I learned so much in our first meeting I was floored by how little I knew about food. For starters she explained how I wasn’t eating enough.

Again, my own misconceptions about food had me thinking the less I eat the more weight I will loose. WRONG, when you only eat 1,000 calories a day (if that). I was killing my metabolism. I learned about the importance of protein and how very little I was getting. I learned how to eat out at restaurants and not feel like there were no choices for me. I learned about certain foods and how they work with my body. How certain foods I was afraid of because cancer research told us to stay away from them were actually good for you. I even learned why the scale wasn’t moving when I was working out with the trainers and how it’s OK for it not to move. She even took measurements and told me my how much body fat I was carrying around. Which I’m not afraid to say was 33%. That’s allot. One third of my body is made up of fat. This would explain why my doctor had told me I was overweight way back when… because I was. I was how you say “skinny fat”. Small for my frame, but carrying around more fat than I need to.

I remember the nutritionist sitting across from me and telling me that she was sure I would get overwhelmed by all the information, but that was far from the truth. I was in awe of all of it and how little I knew of it. This is what I had been looking for in the past and just never knew where to look for it.

But again, I live in the mind of my own misconceptions. One of the things the nutritionist told me was that I needed to work out. My first thought was, “um lets see how this diet thing works out. I may not need to.” Boy was I wrong! I did some arm excerises and ran when I found time. I fumbled with some Pinterest workouts I found, but it was really hard to get motivated to just work out, go out and become a hot sweaty mess! In fact I did everything I could to get around working out. I went for power walks at lunch, I lifted a weight or two, but never really threw myself into it. Until….

Recently my son and I went on vacation and he left a few days early with my parents. With no child to care for for 10 days I was bored out of my mind (ok maybe not bored as so much missing the hell out of that little muppet!). So I turned to workouts to fill some of my time. WOW! Ok. Seriously. I was shocked to see that with all the working out and eating right the scale in my house was dropping like hot cake. I was how you say… shocked… In complete awe of the fact that what my nutritionist was telling me was all true. If I ate right and worked out I would watch my body transform in ways that I never thought possible. See she’s not only a nutritionist but working towards getting her personal trainer certification. She is the blend of what being healthier is all about. She knew her stuff. Is passionate about teaching and motivating; she was what I needed.

So being that I have worked with both a nutritionist and a trainer this is the advice that I would give to anyone trying to be healthier. Get a trainer AND a nutritionist (or someone who is both AND passionate about it) and throw whatever you knew or thought you knew about food, workouts and your scale out the window and sit and learn from these people! They know a lot of valuable information about human body and trust me when I say when you sit down with them you will be just as in awe as I was. I thank God, the Universe or whom ever you believe in everyday for giving me the strength to accept my humility on own misconceptions and meet with Deanna at IntellIFit. I’ve learned so much and plan on learning more from her. She’s changed my life and for the better. I honestly couldn’t thank her enough for everything she has done.

Coach Calorie

One of the things I pride myself on is research. Once I want to learn something there is no stopping me from trying to find the answers to anything and everything. The brilliant thing about smartphones is that it makes it even easier to spend those few minutes here and there in waiting rooms, kid’s sport practices and any other random moments to get on the internet and search for the things you desire.

When my late husband had cancer I read allot of blogs, white papers, websites, books, pretty much anything I could wrap my mind around to give him the best chance at fighting cancer. I wanted to know what herbal treatments were out there and what super foods would help him to his fullest. Again, notorious for being on the hunt for information and just never stopping – always searching and researching for something better than what I had found. What can I say, me and Google, we became pretty tight.

So when it came to looking into being a healthier me I repeated allot of the same steps. And yet unlike past searches I became way more confused than anything. I started to realize that nutrition and fitness is like religion. Everyone has a base platform of what they believe. Then from there it’s all over the board to suit each person’s fancy and/or lifestyle. Just like most of our religion today. I would read a blog and someone would talk about a workout that I heard of, but then explained how bad it is “for them (or anyone)” and how they believe people should be “doing this, that and the other thing.”

Lets think about it for a second. How many diet programs have restaurants catered to over the course of my lifetime? Well lets see, remember Sugarbusters? Atkins? Weight Watchers Points System? South Beach? The Belly Fat Diet? The list is almost endless. And confusing as hell! Eat carbs, don’t eat carbs, eat carbs but only so much and before 2pm… what the?…. (insert head spinning)

Trying to sort through people’s views on nutrition and fitness, let alone understand them, is almost downright daunting and damn near impossible at times. It’s like you have to be a rocket scientist to understand that stretching “such-and-such” muscle while eating “such-and-such veggie” causes blah, blah, blah…. (insert crossed eyes) Or you pick a health regime only to find out months later how it’s really not that great and all you have done is spin your wheels for the past 3 to 6 months. Again. Daunting. Frustrating. UGH!

Then one day I literally stumbled onto something. While on twitter one day someone re-tweeted a tweet that made me raise an eyebrow. It was a link to an article and this article was very insightful to the science of how the body works. Then a few days later another re-tweet with a link to another interesting article. It got me wondering why this person felt so confident as to always re-tweet these little healthy gems of information. So I started following this person who calls himself “Coach Calorie” and soon began pinning the articles I found on Pinterest and bookmarking the site. The articles were amazing and down to earth. They were written on my level, not some high-minded science professor level. My level. Easy to understand and follow. Anything that I would read and felt like I didn’t understand was soon explained before the end of the article and again explained in a way that all made sense.

Here was a site that has done all the research and funneled through all the misconceptions to write articles that I not only understand, but find that with their help I am able to make better choices about fitness or understand why I needed to be healthier. In my eyes I had stumbled onto the holy grail of what I need and don’t need to know about fitness. The cliff notes to fitness and nutrition that I was totally looking for in one little website. SCORE!

This website opened my eyes to realizing that I needed to be healthier and I wasn’t really making good choices for my son and I. On top of that I find the site very motivational with people writing about their fitness goals they achieved and how they did it. It’s the basic of needs spelled out so that I can make better choices in my life when it comes to my own fitness and nutrition based on facts about how our bodies work and why they do what they do. There are no supplements to buy or monthly fees. It’s FREE. Free information that is thought provoking and interesting; if learning about this sort of stuff is interesting to you.

The best part about this site? Besides the “Coach” himself writing, he has a staff of nutritionists that also write for him and reading what they have to say is just as eye opening. I’ve never found a site that is so diverse in the idea of matrimony between working out and nutrition such as this one. And to be honest it’s hard to find and yet I have discovered that you can’t really have one without the other. You’re just spinning your wheels if you think you can do one and not the other.

I guess what I’m trying to say – is if you follow this blog for whatever reason, if being a healthier you is one of them, check out the Coach Calorie site. You just might understand why I love it so much.