Surviving Fall

I have to say that the fall is my favorite time of the year and October is my bittersweet month (most of the good things and bad things in my life happen in October). There is just something about the month of October that I love in more ways than one.

October is the month when people start putting out pumpkin flavored everything and I am such a pumpkin freak that it’s sometimes hard for me to keep my cravings in check. But I do the best I can. And yes, I do have my cheat meals where I will imbibe in some over indulgent pumpkin treats. MMMMM….. pumppppkin…. (insert wiping drool from chin) But I do continually tell myself over and over that I need to stay on track and not give in everyday to my cravings just because this only comes around once a year.

This is also the month of Halloween and the gateway to holiday candy treats that get most of us in trouble. I have neighbors and friends that use the idea of a “Switch Witch” for Halloween on their kids. The idea is that the “Switch Witch” needs the kiddos’ candy to help build her castle in a far off fairy type land (or something to that effect) and if you leave your candy out for her, she will take it and leave you a non-candy-type gift out of thanks. Perfect for families that don’t want their kids to eat all the candy they get that spooktacular night.

However, I don’t do that. See, I have a little boy who’s 6 years old and I just love the idea of what Halloween is too much to take away his candy in one fell swoop (I know I know – it’s just not for me). Don’t get me wrong – I think it’s great that other people do this for their kids (it’s quite honestly a brilliant idea). Again, it’s just not for me. Now, while I say that, I also don’t think that my son should consume all the candy he gets on Halloween in one night either. So what we do after I’ve checked all his candy is we go through and he picks out all the things he doesn’t like. Which for me is great because it’s all the stuff I LOVE. We take that portion and throw it away that night. If it’s in the trash – I won’t eat it and it doesn’t bother my son because he doesn’t like it. Perfect-o! (as my muppet would say)

We take the rest and it goes in a candy bowl where each day he’s allowed one piece of candy a day and I must say he does really well with the idea that that’s all he can have. Then after he goes to bed I throw one piece out that he doesn’t know about. So in the end and after about a month, he really only consumes about a fourth of his Halloween booty (ok – some nights I throw out 2). Sneaky, yes. But the way I see it, it’s less sugar for him to eat and ergo better for him. His chances of cancer are higher than many children and I will do what ever it takes to give him a healthier lifestyle. He never knows his candy is being thrown out and I always stop when there are about 5-7 pieces left because lets face it – he can count.

The thing to remember about fall besides all the wonderful times we have with our kids on Halloween and overindulging in pumpkin goodness is that our cravings will be a whole lot stronger this time of year. I remember a personal trainer, way back when, telling me that around this time of year our body craves fatty foods because it’s trying to keep you warm by adding on more fat. It’s something locked inside our minds from way-way-way-way-back when. And it does make sense – think about it for a second… when do you crave a light and airy salad – not during the fall or winter! You crave heavy dishes like chili and pastas. During the warmer months you might find you crave a salad because your body knows it’s warming up and needs to shed the winter fat. Here is a link to an article I found where someone has done research on it. 

So just something to keep in mind as we roll into our months of non-triple-digit temperatures and enjoy a whole new season. I know for me it will be a struggle and the first time I am approaching the holidays with my new #healthierME outlook. So I hope to stay on track and will let everyone know how it goes.

Give Power To You Walk

Think a power walk is for old people. This was the workout I got from going 60 mins at 4mph!

So besides HIIT training I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE, (did I say how much I love) Power Walking. I love it so much that I do it 3-4 days out of my work week. Yes. I know what you are thinking. I can see the mental imagery above your head right now.

“So you really swing your arms and scoot your rear around like those old people in the mall?”

In a word. Yeah. I do. What’s it to you?!? But seriously, it’s really an under rated form of exercise in my opinion. When done right, it can be a great add in to your light workout days or even active rest days. The best way to explain how to do it is to read this article by Coach Calorie. It was eye-opening to read this, because I had been power walking for 3 months and realized that I had been doing it wrong the whole time and once I changed my form I actually increased my speed.

Now I know you must be asking yourself how I got into power walking? Well it all started with a stressful day at work and I needed to get away from my desk before I personally imploded on someone. I took my lunch break and went for a nice stroll around the office park where I work. It helped relieve a lot of the stress I was carrying and I thought what a great way to unwind. So the next day I went on my little walk again only this time I used the  RunKeeper app on my phone to track my distance just to appease my own curiosity.

That day I went 1.5miles. Not too bad for 30 mins and half of my lunch hour. As time went on I got curious how fast I was going, so I keep tract of that and found that I hovered around 3.25-3.5 mph (and this was with a skirt and flip-flops on). So again my curiosity got the best of me and one day I brought my running shoes to work and come lunch time I was switching out shoes and seeing how fast and far I could go. That day I did 3.8mph and went 2.25miles in a little over 30 mins. Not bad. Not bad at all if I do say so myself.

My power walk from this week!

Before I knew it the ball was rolling and there I was, power walking almost every work day when I could and trying to always beat my mph. So between power walking, HIIT runs, strength training I found my body getting stronger, my arms leaner and over all I felt faster when I’m out there in my pavement princess mode. In three months time I managed to go from that 3.8mph the first time I dawned my running shoes at work to 4.39mph as my fastest to date mph (I average right now around 4.28-4.30mph).

Power walking can be very helpful for those people who don’t like to run or feel like they aren’t built for running. For me it’s a great extra stress-releasing boost in my day! And sometimes I find myself just hoping on the treadmill to get one in for the love of it. 🙂 Yeah – I’m sick that way aren’t I. (insert evil grin)

But in all seriousness – if you are looking for a workout that could be your gateway exercise I say give power to your walks and push yourself to go your fastest. I promise you will be hooked from the get go!

My Nutritionist

So one day I ran across this little statement that is so true in more ways than one.

“First they will ask you why you are doing it. Then they will ask you how you did it.” And I have to say that I have been asked both of these. When I gave up soda I got allot of “oh…. (insert blank stare)” or “…is it a catholic lent thing?”  (insert disgruntled grunt and the best pouty face I can muster)

And yes, there were times I wanted to beat my head on the nearest wall listening to other people’s thoughts on food and fitness. Let’s face it, it’s my body, I choose what goes it in and what doesn’t. So what does it matter to people? Then a few weeks later I got the “Did you loose weight? You look good!” Which I always had to laugh. It reminded me of when I grew up – boys always teased me for having “bug eyes” and yet in high school those same boys found my eyes “entrancing”. Funny how that plays out (insert evil grin).

But in all seriousness I do get a lot of questions asking who my nutritionist is. And let’s face it, I wouldn’t be here a few dress sizes down and feeling great about myself if it wasn’t for her. Now, if you talk to her, she will tell you it was all me and yes, my motivation for change was great. I won’t lie that when I came to her I did have the “I want to look amazing in a two-piece swimsuit” on my list, but what was at the top of my list was “being a good role model for my child, living life with as much energy and zeal that I can, and reaching my life long goal of living to 100!” For me, my first set of reasons for motivational change were stronger than anything else. All those reasons helped me stay focused on my goals.

But folks, this woman helped me in more ways than I can ever really put in words. You see, reading everything that I did about cancer, I walked around with a lot of misconceptions on nutrition. A LOT. You might ask how that could happen. Well, I was reading nutrition articles through the eyes of someone who had cancer in their life and I was trying to find foods that help with the side effects of chemo and cancer. And this can differ from basic nutrition.

For example, red meat is suggested as a “stay-away” or “once a month” food item for someone with colon cancer. Why? Well, in a nutshell, becasue of all the fat content in it. However, for someone who doesn’t have cancer, lean red meat is good for you. I remember vividly sitting across from a nutritionist at Cancer Treatment Centers of America and her explaining how we needed to cut pork out of our diets for just this reason. So we did – all read meat – gone.

Or take a friend of mine. She has a disorder and when she eats cauliflower (which is a good food) it reacts badly with her. In a way, nutrition is (and can be at times) somewhat confusing. Depending on your issues, certain foods just aren’t right for you. A lifestyle that is right for me, may not be for someone else.

This is why it’s important to get a nutritionist. Again I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE, LOVE mine. The important part about picking a nutritionist is finding someone who isn’t going to force you to change, but someone who wants to help you reach your goals and gives you all the information to do it and do it well.

What I loved when I first met with her is she sat down with me and we went over my motivational goals, my obstacles that would keep me from them (she asked me to write these out before I met with her) and together we worked a plan all the way around it that encompassed all my goals.

She took into account my “already set in place lifestyle” of work, kiddo (being a single mom – which she herself used to be), dating and suggested ways that I could work my “new” nutritional habits around it. She suggested workouts to help with the little time I have in my already busy day for workouts (and I have never worked out more than 30 mins at a time – unless it was the weekend and I really wanted too).

She also took the time to talk about cancer and the foods I need to keep in my and my kiddo’s diet because they help fight cancer. She took the time to understand my day, my stresses, my goals in life, where I find faults with my own habits. She truly wanted to understand my life so that she could help me better it.

As part of the plan I’m on, we even went out to eat and she taught me how to order from a menu without feeling limited to a salad or worse, just giving in. She taught me how to read food labels and what to stay away from. She even made suggestions for foods I wasn’t ready to give up on just quite yet that would either be better to eat or when in the day was good to eat them. She gave me goals and had me challenge myself to fears that I honestly thought I might not overcome.

For the longest time she tried, over and over, to get me to try a smoothie with spinach in it. Ok, say what? Spinach. I seriously detest spinach. I mean really. It grosses me out completely. There was no way I was going to drink something that had a cup of spinach in it. Yet each week she would suggest that I do it and how to do it so I wouldn’t taste the spinach at all. She sent me a recipe and I had to laugh because in at least two places she states that I would only taste peanut butter and not the spinach. So. I gave it a try. AND. OH. MY. GOODNESS!!! She was right – never once did I taste the spinach and honestly if it wasn’t for her gentle pushes each week I don’t think I would have ever tried it. (I even had one of her smoothies this morning …and …yes …it had spinach!)

That’s the key to a great nutritionist. You aren’t hiring someone to force you to change your lifestyle, you are hiring someone who will show you HOW to change and for the better. They will show you a way that works into the lifestyle you can’t change – like work and kids. You need someone who will take into account that you don’t have an hour a day to go work out and helps you figure out how to get that calorie burn in with the 20 or 30 minutes you do have. AND here is the real key, you have to (HAVE TO) find someone who wants to see you reach your goals as much as you do. And for me. It’s this woman.

So if you are looking for a nutritionist, please take everything I just said into consideration. Or just use mine since I’ve done all the work of looking for you! You can follow her on Facebook too!

Never Give Up

( Image source: http://rosiemolinary.com/2012/03/01/guest-post-body-love-and-learning-to-connect-the-pieces/ )

This was a tough weekend for me. Yes, I was still on my high from hearing the great news on my fat loss, but it was one of those weekends where you just can’t keep up no matter how hard you try. Saturday morning it was raining when I got up, so my morning outdoor run was off. I could have run on the treadmill, but I was really hoping if I waited then the rain would go away in enough time to squeeze one in. But it never did.

I ran to the grocery store and stocked up on the weekly essentials that we needed then rushed home in the hopes that I could at least get everything put away for the next task on the to-do list.

Before I knew it I was getting emails from clients requesting things that were just out of the scope of reality and yet no matter how many times I emailed back with an answer – I was greeted with another email asking the same question. All the while I’m still tackling my to do list. Needless to say my stress level started to rise.

My son had a soccer game a little later in the day where it incidentally started to drizzle at the beginning of the game and then poured on us the last three quarters. I was left to the sidelines with a small umbrella and a blanket trying to keep 4 six year old boys dry and warm while the rest of them were out on the field getting soaked and covered in mud. This wasn’t an easy task and we were all soaked by the end of the game.

Then it was a mad rush to get back to the house and get out of the wet clothes and into dry ones so I could rush to my grief therapy session. However, I never made it to being dry – just dry enough for public viewing. And with all the rushing I skipped lunch and ended up eating a Cliff Bar and a handful of turkey-ronis. Not really a meal and in no way Paleo. I completely missed my snacks throughout my day.

Then I rushed home to throw together a salad to bring over to my neighbor’s for dinner. I knew that they were having pasta and I made this day my cheat day for just that reason. I told myself over and over – it’s my cheat day – everything will even out. Sometimes you just have crazy days and it’s hard to stay on track. And this was one of them.

When we got home from the neighbors and my muppet was snuggled tightly in his bed I had to make the choice to either A: go run, B: workout to Nike Train club or some other DVD, or C: skip it all together. To be honest, I wanted to skip it. Boy did I want to skip it. The stress from the day was wearing on my body, but I knew I couldn’t. I didn’t work out Friday night because I was out and about looking for new dress pants since none of mine fit me anymore.

So here I was. Not wanting to work out. Tummy full of good food. And all my motivation out the freaking window. *Sigh*. Then I looked at the new dress pants I had bought. Size 4S. I had to smile to myself. I’m a size 4 (insert evil grin). I worked my rear off (somewhat literally!) and I lost all this fat, made my life better and it shows. My body is showing me how rewarding it is to live a #healthierME. And yes, all I wanted to do is to curl up in my bed and go to sleep and rest from all the running around, but somewhere between the closet and hanging up my new dress pants I knew I couldn’t give in on this night. I needed to push through my own laziness and do this.

I changed clothes and hopped on the treadmill. A 30 minute power walk was all I was going to do, but I ended up doing an hour. I was determined to get 4 miles in and I did it. I took control of my mind and pushed myself through it. And incidentally, whoever said you couldn’t get a good workout from a power walk – never did it the right way!

When I was done I felt like the day was complete. I did everything I wanted to do that day. I forced my mind to look past all the stress from the day, all the hustle and bustle, and pushed myself to stay on track. I won’t lie – it’s hard to keep up motivation and it’s even harder at the end of the day when you are tired and just want to curl up in bed.

My suggestion to those who struggle with motivation…focus. Put up a board on Pinterest that you can look at with great motivational #healthyME sayings that you can look to. Print out “before” photos to help you remember where you don’t want to go back to. Ask a friend to be your drill sergeant and keep you on track if you can. In the end – it’s your mind that is giving up – not your body. Now get out there and do it!

Half The Woman

When I started being a #healthierME I started off for all the good reasons (for me) and started off the right way. Slow. For that my body rewarded me with losing a few pounds here and there. However, I struggled to drop below a certain weight which, seemed to me, to be the magic number that would make me happy and content in achieving my goal.

When I went to see my nutritionist for the first time I knew that she would tell me that I was a hair overweight. I wasn’t stupid – that conversation from years back with my doctor would from time-to-time sneak into my thoughts when I looked at myself in the mirror. I knew that I carried too much extra weight in the form of fat around my mid section. So when she took my measurements I wasn’t shocked at the number, but it was, in a way, eye-opening. You don’t think of weighing 135 lbs as being very overweight, But if 33% of you is body fat, that works out to around 43lbs of fat, which changes the perspective on your weight. That’s right. Out of the 135 that I weighed – 43lbs of that was fat. Which incidentally is roughly how much my son weighs. Yeah. Now. If that wasn’t motivation to change…I don’t know what else is.

With the help of my nutritionist I started slowly into the Paleo lifestyle at the most basic level. I wasn’t ready to make banana bread out of Almond Meal or pizzas out of califlowers – all that seemed too drastic and I was afraid that I would hate those foods and go back on my destructive path of binge eating due to my own misconceptions that I wouldn’t be able to truly embrace this lifestyle. And moving slowly into it was the best thing I could have done for my self.

I figured out what foods were high in protein, unprocessed, clean, tasty, low in carbs, low in refined sugars (if none at all), what fats were good for me, bad for me and how to read a food label the right way. I learned how to move slowly into this lifestyle and learned how it all works together with my body. With the help of the MusicMan I was pushed to work out more often and more efficiently. Instead of randomly saying – “I think I’ll do this” or “I’m sore, but I’m still going to do this work out.” He was there to suggest that if my shins hurt then I should work on my upper arms. If I’m getting stiff then maybe I need a run to burn it all off and loosen up.

With the help of these to people I was able to tackle the one major obstacle in my way. My mind. So many times I would be out on a run and tell myself, “I’m done. I just can’t run anymore.” Or the first time I tried to do my Nike Training Club work out for 30 mins and got a whole 4 mins into it before I quit. My mind hated the idea of sweating and pushing my body to its limits. It hated the idea that I had to physically work out. My mind didn’t understand why I just couldn’t control everything with diet alone. It was the wall that needed to come down. And. It. Did…Hard. With a giant thud!

With each task I gave myself, I pushed harder and harder. I told myself that each time I thought of giving up I would just keep going for 5 mins and then decide if I was really going to quit. Which I never did. I. Just. Kept. Pushing. And. Pushing. Looking for new and great ways to squeeze in workouts, mentally fighting food cravings, working towards a #healthierME all paid off.

The other day I went to see my nutritionist to get measured again after 3 months. I told myself going in as long as I was close to my goal of being 20% body fat I would be ok and I can always keep working towards my goal. Remember, this is a never ending journey. Three months wasn’t the end of the road – just a pitstop to see where I was.

I was shocked, I mean completely shocked, after she did my measurements. I kept waiting to wake up from a dream. I went from 33.28% body fat to 14.98%. Half of where I was. I went from carrying around 43 lbs of fat to only 17lbs. I also gained 13lbs of muscle! Well that certainly explains how I could shave off 12 mins from my 5k time! I wasn’t carrying around all the extra weight and had more muscle to push me through it. All along, my misconceptions about being short and having a short stride had nothing to do with my inability to shorten my time. Again, we all live in our own world of misconceptions. It’s when we can step out from those misconceptions that we can see our own potential.

So am I done? Well, in a word…No. I’m going to try and get my body fat down just a hair more if I can; between 11-12%. My new goal is to run the same 5k I did this September again next year but do it in 24-27 mins. I completely think it’s doable too! I also want to be able to do 5 pull-ups (I did my fist ever unassisted pull-up the other night and was in shock that I could do it). I want to shave off a few little extra “fluffy” areas if I can (I might not be able to due to having a short frame and carrying my son very much in front of me – people always asked if I was having twins if that tells you anything.)

I have other personal goals too that rotate around nutrition: making more Paleo recipes that I haven’t tried, looking into more workouts that are more friendly to share with my son (bike riding, hiking, etc). The important thing to remember in all of this – the journey is never over. I just made it over the first hill with a smile on the other side!

(Want to see before and after photos? Well just wait – they are coming!)