Diet

This salad was sooooo good.  Let me see if I can remember what's in it.  Arugula, baby kale, dried cherries (no sugar or additives, hard to find), broccoli slaw, avocado with salsa, organic quinoa, feta cheese and carrot.  I eat this at least once a day.  

You are working out.  You have taken the first step to getting fit and healthy.  Now, what about diet?  I use the term as the true definition, not the one that means losing weight.  Diet is simply the food that you eat.  There are many different types of diets from very good, very bad, weight loss, weight gain etc. etc.  But the term diet on its own does not mean to eat less calories or lose weight.  

So what is your diet like?  Are you expecting to lose weight by working out and still eating an unhealthy diet?  If so, you are going to become frustrated.  If you would like to lose weight you need to eat right.  I pretty much follow the primal food diet.  I try to stick with it for the most part; only indulging when I feel the need.  

Mark's Daily Apple Primal Diet  

I do not eat bread or anything else that is made from wheat flour.  That is unless I am indulging for something like fresh homemade bread.  You will not find bread in my house.  I do not eat sugar.  I eat a ton of vegetables, little meat and fish.  I eat fruit, seeds, nuts and healthy fats.  I do eat cheese but have reduced the amount by a lot.  I love cheese, it is one of my weaknesses.  But you can eat cheese, just not the whole block and expect to drop weight. 

Having done so much research on food and diet; I can no longer eat garbage and be okay with it.  If I indulge it is typically a healthy indulge.  Maybe too many sweet potato chips or fries, wine or extra bit of cheese.  No processed crap, you know, all that stuff in the regular grocery stores.  I walk down the isles on my way to purchase meat for my dogs and imagine all the preservatives and chemicals in the food that is brightly packaged to grab your attention.  

If I need to snack I grab an apple and some nuts.  The better you eat the less you have to eat, it's pretty cool.  A very small amount of great food can keep you going for a very long time.  But less food is not what it is all about.  Good food, quality over quantity.  I probably eat a giant salad every single day.  I LOVE arugula and it is the main ingredient in all salads for me. That and tons of other veggies.  I might throw turkey on top or feta.  Tons of nutrients to fuel the body.

Next time you pull up to a taco, sub or sandwich place at one of the undesirable fast food chains, think.  Is there anything in the food you are about to eat that your body can use as fuel?  If not, then why eat useless calories?  If it is a necessary indulgence then okay, but don't expect to eat crap on a regular basis and feel good.  

Got ball?

I didn't realize until well into my workout that I was very matchy.  :)

Stability balls that is.  :)  I got one and I LOVE IT!!!!  I had it out on the deck yesterday during my early morning yoga session.  I got my stability ball last week at TJMaxx because I wanted to add it into my workouts.  I knew I'd like it but I did not think that I'd like it as much as I do.  

The ball came with a small sheet of stretches, basics and strength moves, which I have done.  But I moved on far passed the beginner sheet.  Basically I'm thinking up anything that requires balance and strength.  It has amazed me that this 12.00 ball can do as much as it does.  This week in the evening as I was watching television, I hate a great butt workout.  Lying on my back I put my feet on the ball with my legs bent and did butt raises.  Holding it for as long as I could with each rep that I did.  Wow. 

This morning when I got out of bed, my calves hurt.  I thought about which exercise would have done this.  Hmmmm, get calf workout as well as core.  It was much warmer this morning so I moved my mat and ball out to the shady part in yard.  While I talked to my sister on the phone I worked my core, multi-tasking at it's finest.  The whole balancing thing alone is such a great workout.  The closer you keep your feet together, the harder it is to stay balanced.  

I got ball and I LOVE IT.    

Yoga and tranquility

Sometimes you need a little tranquility in your life.  Plus doing a few yoga moves can get you warmed up and ready to stretch.  NEVER stretch cold.  

Tranquility:  quality or state of being tranquil; calmness; peacefulness; quiet;serenity.

I remember waaaayyyy back when in school, we were taught to stretch before doing anything athletic.  Even now I see people walk into the gym and throw their leg up on a bar and stretch. I cringe thinking that their hamstring might just snap being that it is cold.  DON'T STRETCH WHEN YOUR BODY IS COLD.  The best time to stretch is after a workout.  So doing some core or yoga moves before hand is optimal.  Save the stretching for later in your workout.  

It is amazing what a good workout you can get without any weights at all, but you do have to push yourself.  If it feels too easy, then it probably is.  Getting into the above position is easy, staying there for a while is tough.  

Here I was doing the inch worm push up.  From this position I walked down with my hands into a push up and back up again.  If you can't do it with your legs straight then bend them until you achieve more flexibility.  

Balance, strength and stretch in one.  

Switch it up, yoga, cross fit, weight lifting, power walking/jogging.  Move.

I'm back in the zone

Yep, why not have fun dressing for the gym?

I've had a little break from the gym but was back at it this morning.  Several life things were thrown my way at the same time so I needed a break.  This morning I was determined to get back at it so I donned my coolest pants that my daughter gave me from Reebok and pulled on my red workout shoes.  Yes they are loud and crazy but they feel amazing and make me smile.  :)  

I decided to take it easy.  It had been almost a week since my last upper body workout so I did a few key exercises and skipped some others because of an arm injury I was recovering from.  Triceps are probably the biggest thing that needs attention on most woman so they got done.  I got up on the assisted pull up machine and did some great tricep dips.  I have to say that it is one of my favorite exercises and does far more than just triceps.  

Then on the same machine I did just a few sets of about 12 pull ups.  I have found that these two exercises; pull ups and tricep dips work out the entire upper body.  You can set the weight to really help you out or lower it so that it is more difficult.  It is probably my favorite go to right now.  

I worked on my chest doing cable presses and dumbell presses on the bench.  Laying down flat on the bench with my feet up on the end I took 2 - 20 lb dumbells and held them directly over my head.  Lowering them slowly to just how far you could if you were laying the floor doing it.  If you go past parallel to the bench you risk hyper extending and damaging tendons.  

Then sitting on the bench I moved onto shoulders.  With the same 20lb dumbells I did shoulder press.  Make sure that your back is not arched by tucking in your butt; you lift the weights from shoulder level, straight up and back down again.  Very slow with precise form.  

Of course if you are just getting into lifting a 5 or 10lb dumbell will be more than enough until you can or even want to move up in weight.  

Summer sleeveless dress and tank top season is just around the corner.  These few exercises can let you feel comfortable in a no sleeve shirt. 

A great Tuesday.

I woke up early this morning, I love that.  I've always been an early riser.  I hate getting up past 7:00 and feel that I've missed half of the day if I do.  While the sun was just starting to come up I head down stairs for my cup of Java and Perfect Bar.  One of my daughters who lives in San Diego introduced them to me some time ago and since then they have been a staple food in my refrigerator.   My favorite is by far the Peanut Butter flavor although I like them all.  Just recently I grabbed three boxes of different flavors at my local health food spot because they were on sale, YES.  

My three year old Standard Poodle has always loved the bar as well and receives her fair share every morning.  Now my old boy, my 14.5 year old Standard Poodle has taken a liking to them.  This makes me very happy because he is suffering from liver cancer and is a very picky eater so when I can get something really healthy into him, it makes me very happy.  

Post workout.  Head to toe Reebok

After my coffee and our Perfect bar, there is a little more time spent snuggling and blogging and then it's time to hit the gym.  I had a great workout this morning.  As I wrote before I've been suffering with a tweaked back but today I FELT GREAT.  Feeling great makes you feel even greater when you've had a nagging injury.  It felt good to work hard with no residual back pain.  Like always I pushed the envelope a bit as far as my back and everything seems okie dokie so far.  

I did some very light dead lifts, which I've missed doing.  (Great butt workout)
I also squeezed in some light squats and added in some bent leg raises on this machine pictured below. It has good support for your back compared to the free hanging leg lifts.  I did some heavy leg press, along with some intense leg curls and extensions.  



Back home it was walk time.  So I headed out with both dogs for a couple miles.  My old guy in his cart (doggyride) for much of it; I love the fact that he can join in the fun.  My young girl?  Well..she's a power house athlete.  She loves working out as much as I do. 

A way of life

After reading the post I put on Lifting for Life FB page yesterday, I felt like I'm on the right track.  100 year old woman who wholeheartedly believes in working out.  Making working out a way of life can take a long time; but once you get there it is a good place to be.  For many, working out is torture and as long as it remains in the "torture" category it will never become a way of life.  I think one of the biggest ways to make working out a way of life is results.  A little result can go a long way.  

These days the gym is full. as is the natural course of January and New Year's resolutions.   Over the next few weeks and months, many will fall away.  New Year's resolutions can be tough on anyone and if you don't follow through and succeed at them then you can feel horrible about yourself.  This is just a lose, lose situation.  I like the idea of starting small and letting the snowball effect happen through results.  Just dip your toe in the workout pool and see what happens.  Of course along with testing the waters must come determination and will power.  There will be times when you just want to give up.  It is human nature.

What about changing the whole idea of working out?  Have you ever considered that working out is a privilege instead of torture?  There have been many days that I've told myself those exact words.  "How lucky am I that to be able to work out?" The words ring loud and clear.  There are people with health issues who cannot work out, so when we are perfectly able to, shouldn't we?  Working out is a way that we can keep our body in shape.  The old "snooze you lose" phrase is very true.  Sit on the couch, snacking and watching t.v. long enough and you will lose muscle and gain fat.  When you lose muscle you shift movement to joints which buckle under the pressure with no muscle to support them.  Sad.  

Instead of taking the easy road to a lose, lose, how about a win, win situation?  Just take it slow, step up and say "I will take care of this body that I have been given."  But don't bite off more than you can chew; it can be fatal to your long term work out regime.  Start small and grow, baby steps to success.  

How lucky are you to be able to workout?  

Leave a comment, I love to hear from you.

Happy New Year

There will be lots of sales on this week; go get some great new workout duds, then hit the gym. 

So here we are, another New Year out before us.  No doubt the gyms will be filled with all those folks made New Years Resolutions to get fit.  In the next few months many will fall to the wayside and their resolution will be another one that didn't quite work out.  Making a monumental life change can be hard; doing it all at once may be impossible.  How about taking steps towards your goal?  Often steps in the right direction work much better than a full and complete change in a day.

Getting fit and healthy needs to be a lifestyle change.  It is not a quick fix and can take months or even years to become 'your life.'  Ask me how I know; yes, it took me a long time to get to where I am now.  That realization that I am not dieting, depriving myself or having to work out to reach a goal that will end must come before you get to the 'this is my life' part. 

So many will start Monday off on a restrict diet; that may also be accompanied with hitting the gym.  Eating well and working out needs to fit into your life if you want it to work.  If you make it a bigger goal than is realistic, it may fail.  Strict diets can only last so long.  Crazy and unrealistic workout regimes can go the same way.  Think in the "I can do this" zone.  Don't ask so much of yourself that you simply can't do it. 

"You can do it" is what I have to say.  But only if you want it and you want to change your life.  Baby steps to success.  Now, think in terms of taking care of your body, you deserve it.   Feeling great by fueling yourself with healthy food; the food that your body deserves.  Exercising your body because leaving it sit idle means becoming weak and unable to do the things that you want to do in life.  Slow and steady wins the race.  ;)  Happy New Year, let's make it a great one.

Leave me a comment, love to hear from you.