I think I am grown up...

A lot of things happening. The biggest of them all - I scored myself an internship that I really love. I have been out of University for a year now and have been itching to get into the field of event planning (which is what I really want to do!). So I've been hired on as an unpaid intern from now until December and while it really sucks not to be making money, it is great experience and it is possible I might get hired when the internship is up. So while that is all exciting and all, I really don't want to lose sight of what I am trying to accomplish here in regards to my fitness. So while I have missed a couple of days at the gym (mostly because I have gone on a small vacation and had to work all of last weekend) I am starting to settle into this new routine. It's a lot to get used to! The job is downtown and I live in the suburbs so its a long commute, about an hour and a half. Yuck. I wake up around 6am and leave the house around 7:30am and get home a bit after 6:30pm, so its a long day! However, its really worth it. I just on Tuesday and I made it to the gym every night! I think NROLFW is very doable for someone who is out of the house as much as I am since it requires only about 40 mins at the gym 3 days a week. I am going to try to do HIIT on my days off and just make sure the gym is part of my weekly and daily routines. It's going to be hard though, because this is an internship, I'm still going to be working at the bar Friday and Saturdays till about 3-4am. It will be a lot but its only for 3 months and I desperately need the experience, and hopefully the job this might potentially lead to.

Another challenge of this grown up life of mine, is going to be eating proper breakfasts and bringing my own lunches. I was never good at this. However, since I started NROLFW in the beginning of August, I have gotten used to it and protein shakes and so I've been making those for breakfast, they are great on the run. I also put some of Kashi's protein and Fibre cereal in a ziplock and snack on it. I also brought some cashews and some veggies and dip for a snack. Oh, and let's not forgot my 1L bottle of water! So so far, I think I am doing pretty well. This weekend is the long weekend so I am going to take some time to figure out what kind of things I can eat for breakfast to vary it up, what shakes and what kind of lunches I can bring. When I went to university, I did the same commute and lived a similar lifestyle and gained a ton of weight so I am now scared of the same happening even though I wont have the same stresses (I used to work multiple jobs, while going to school far away and worrying about homework!). Plus I am a lot more educated on proper eating now.

If anyone has any advice/recipes on how to maintain healthy habits let me know!!

Oh yea, and I cheated. I told myself I wasn't going to look at the scale for a month and I cracked. I stepped on it yesterday and to my pleasant surprise, I was a my lowest weight yet. I don't do well when I don't allow myself something, I crack. So I think I might just step on the scale once a week or two, it seems easier for me and keeps me motivated.

Wish me well!

Soccer?

I have decided that I need to take on a new physical challenge.
I work out and spend a lot of time outside and that's all great, but I feel like I need to do something new and something I've never done before, like soccer. Or tennis.
Ever since my younger sister started playing soccer a couple of years, in the back of my mind, I always thought "hm, I can do that." I've never actually played soccer before or played on any type of team, but I get the feeling that I can be good at it, and even if I'm not, I really want to try. I used to think that I was too old to join a team or start something new and wished I had done it when I was younger but for goodness sakes, I'm 23. I shouldn't be saying "I'm too old" for anything. In fact, I found a non-competitive adult soccer team that plays indoor through the winter (yay!) and now I am just trying to collect the guts to sign up!
I wouldn't mind giving tennis a try too....

Are you good with all your fish oils?

WHAT!?
The other day I was buying some protein powder at GNC and upon check out, the salesperson asked me if I was "all good for my vitamins and all my fish oils?" To which I responded with a simple 'yes' however I really had no idea what he was talking about. Looking around GNC, a health store, you see nothing but powders and pills, and packs of pills, bottles of pills, and pill storage containers, and more pill-type paraphernalia. I understand it's all 'good' stuff, but when did eating clean and simple become so complicated? When did a healthy diet go from eating your fruits and veggies to taking 1001 vitamins and pills every morning? Aside from the fact that it's incredibly confusing and overwhelming, but it just seems so unnatural to me. I admit, I take a multivitamin every morning but I figure that's making up for all the nutrients that are lost in the packaging/harvesting/altering and other poking and prodding they do to food nowadays. I do not want to start my day by taking 6 different pills that include things like 'codliver oil', even though I realize I probably should. The point of this rant is that it bothers me that there is a whole industry out there (stores like GNC) which profit of selling vitamins and nutrients that SHOULD be in natural foods, and not the additive and preservative filled crap we call food.
Okay, rant over.

NROLFW and HIIT = awesome combo

I feel great! Yesterday I did the 5th workout (Stage 1, Workout A #3) from NROLFW, it was the first workout where I had to increase the weights and do 12 reps instead of 15. The first time I did the workout, I was struggling with the step-ups which came at the end (after those deadly squats), and I found it really hard to complete it just holding 15lbs worth of weights. Yesterday, I increased the height of my step and moved on to 25lbs worth of weights and although it was challenging, I wasn't struggling to complete it like I did the first time. Little things like this make me really excited. On top of that, I have also noticed I have been progressively losing weight. I know I shouldn't weigh myself more than once a week (though I don't really take it to heart cause I know all the things that effects daily weight fluctuations), my weight these days has been at its lowest in a long time. I really love this program. I love going to the gym with a plan and an outline, I feel like I know what I am doing as opposed to figuring out what to work out next (as I used to do). I still do bits of cardio here and there but I have come to the conclusion that cardio is overrated, greatly. I have been doing a lot of cardio since November, and while I have lost some weight, I plateaued around spring but continued doing cardio. So, I have been running, biking, stepping and whatever you call the motion done on an elliptical, with no big results = overated. Cardio just doesn't present my body with the challenge that it used to be and so I've decided from now on, it's going to be about quality not quantity, so HIIT only from now on. Whenever I used to do HIIT on the treadmill, I would sweat and be exhausted a lot more a lot quicker and felt a lot more satisfied with my workout. The body is just too effiecient for steady-state.

Lesson of the day: Yay for Lifting, yay for HIIT.

What? this is only the third workout?!

So today was only the third workout of the NROLFW plan. ONLY THE THIRD!! I am so used to working out 5 days a week that this feels so completely foreign to me, but hey, it was time for a change right? I wasn't going anywhere with my previous plan, or should I say, lack of plan? I would just go and sweat it out at the gym for almost two hours at a time doing cardio and split training. However, I feel so much more enlightened and inspired since reading NROLFW and completely trust the program. Doing these workouts have quickly made me realize that it's about quality and not so much quantity, so while I am only spending about 30-45mins at the gym, I am feeling muscle soreness that I haven't in years. Which doesn't necessarily mean that I am out of shape, but definitely means that those muscles haven't been worked like that in a long time, if ever, which makes me feel good. Am I the only one that slightly enjoys the pain of post-workout muscle soreness? It makes me feel like I really pushed myself. I can't wait to see how my body reacts to this plan, but I am excited!!

What I am not quite as excited about is the diet aspect. I don't even like the word diet, for goodness sakes, the word can't even be spelled without the word 'die'! That's never a good sign. I don't even believe in the concept of dieting. The word 'diet' implies (to me at least) that you are about to make temporary changes and I am not in this for just the time being, it's a way of life, so I'd rather call it a lifestyle change. Another thing that really bothers me about dieting is it makes it seem like things are off-limits and to me, that's never good. The minute something is off limit, it becomes a temptation. So I am not off limits to anything (well, except red meat but that's hardly a temptation or new news anyway). So having said that, I generally understand what foods I should stay away from but I am still trying to navigate through the whole Eat Clean thing. I would love to be able to cook most of my meals and know exactly what ingredients go into what, so I have been looking through some cookbooks but nothing looks appetizing. If anyone can recommend some, that would be great. Until then, I try to take it one meal at a time and make the best choices I can.

Speaking of which, I made the yummiest protein smoothie today! I made one yesterday but it tasted terrible. Today however, I blended a frozen banana with a scoop of chocolate protein (ISO femme), some milk, ice and a few drops of Nesquick Choclate Syrup (the chocolate taste needed to be enhanced a bit - I know I am going to have to find a way around this...) Never thought I'd say it but it was delicious!! I was looking for reasons to make myself some more, but thought I'd save it as a post-workout treat.

Yummm!!

Holy Moly!

I started Workout A of Phase 1 on Thursday and yesterday, I have felt pain in my thighs that I've never felt before. I could barely walk at work last night.... I probably shouldn't have been walking! I can still feel it but it's been long enough... I'm going back for more today!

I used to work out 5 days a week for over an hour and a half and not feel the amount of pain I inflicted on my muscles in just a 30-40 min workout. I love it!!

Today, I started Workout B! I assume tomorrow hold's a lot of pain in store for me?

YEY.

the beginning of the rest of my life

So I don't really know who is going to read this or follow it, or even find it, but the purpose of this blog is to serve as an online journal for me as I try to take on a new approach to life. I say a new approach to LIFE, and not just fitness and health because I believe that being fit and eating clean is a way of life and not something you just do for a few weeks/months and expect results.

This is all started about 9 months ago when I saw a picture of myself and reality hit me, I felt like I had let myself go. It wasn't so much about my appearance, but it was about the way it made me feel. I felt like I wasn't in control of myself or of my life. It made me feel sad, depressed, but most importantly motivated to change. Since then I started working out and eating better and aside from the physical changes, I've never felt better about myself. My body isn't perfect, it's far from perfect, however for the first time I feel like I am in complete control of what happens to it. You won't catch me saying that I don't love my body, I do.... it allows me to walk, run, dance, jump, swim and do countless of other activities that some humans unfortunately can't. I am very grateful for my body and its abilities. I refuse to cast any negative thoughts and feelings about it like I used to. I admit that I don't love the current SHAPE my body is in but luckily, I am in control of that.

So starting this week, I am embarking on a new plan I discovered in a book titled The New Rules of Lifting for Women. The main view point of this book is - "Lift Like a Man, Look Like a Goddess." I really like the idea of lifting like a man, it only seems logical that the only way to build muscle is through lifting heavy, hence the 'lift' part of the blog name. Today I am going to start Workout 1 of Phase 1 - wish me luck!! Looks challenging!