Why women should lift

Today I am blogging about this because it seems to be a major problem in todays society. I have gotten lots of comments about it and I believe it is the perfect topic to discuss.

Weight lifting Ladies
I have been lifting weights for the last 3 years almost four years now and I love it. In the beginning I thought that lifting weights will cause me to look like a man. Drinking creatine will cause me to bulk up like a man. But what I have learned is that it is so not very difficult to fall into the manner in which society thinks. I did not want to lift weights because society had it implanted in my head that women are not suppose to lift weights because they will look like a man and I had no intentions of trading my womanly body to look like a man. Plus I have seen women who have a mans body so muscular and big and I just thought that is wrong. I never took time to think for myself and decide for myself. I let people tell me it was wrong and that it would cause me to look like a man.

In 2014 or it might have been 2013... my memory does not seem to be working right at this point. But anyway I started lifting weights in 2014. I am sure it was 2014. As a beachbody coach we are always informed of the new workout programs coming out before the public is informed. They had announced that body beast was coming out and the preview basically shows men and how huge they are. So basically I assumed that this is program for men and never bothered with it. I thought if I had to lift weights then P90x is the way to go but again everyone was complaining about how long the program was so I decided that I did not want to bother with it. If you know me then you know I love short high intense workout programs. If it is not intense then do not throw it my way. So P90x being and hour long was not for me.

Anyway time went on and I continued with my fitness program, until one day I decided you know what I am going to give body beast a chance and I did and I ended up falling in love with the program. My biceps, chest, butt, legs, quads everything was starting to look real good. Now I did not lose any weight with it but I did build muscles. The reason why I did not lose any weight with it was because my eating was all wrong. All I ever did was eat healthy. I never did anything different and eating healthy is great but to obtain specific goals and get certain results you have to steer your eating towards that... I hope that makes sense. It is like the saying if you want abs then you need to eat clean and workout your entire body not just your abs. Abs are built in the kitchen, but you also need to work your entire body and not just your abs to get abs. Anyway back to the topic. Let me just make it clear right now that lifting weights does not make us women bulking. All it does is create shape to our bodies. The day I decided to start body beast was the best decision I have ever made. I know we say stuff like that all the time, but it is true. I love looking at myself in the mirror and see my muscles grow. I have shape to my body and I am so much stronger than I have ever been. I do not have to always ask for help to lift heavy things because I have the strength to do so myself . Now I feel like no woman has nothing on me. I have struggled so long with low self esteem and looking good, not to mention society made it look like skinny was the thing. You had to be skinny to be the IT girl so I exercised everyday just to be skinny. Looking back at my body images and looking at my body now, I can't help but fall in love with my body. I can't help but stare at myself in the mirror every minute in the day. I look so much better than I did. It may sound tacky or ridiculous but lifting has in fact built my confidence, not just because I look good, but it has enabled me to just be me. To make my own decisions, to do what makes me happy, to step out my comfort zone and just do the things that I want to do. I am living life. Living my life. And yes it sounds ridiculous but its amazing how much confidence does for a person. I use to live my life for people but now I live it for myself and my kids. I do what is best for us.

Today majority of my workout is weight lifting. I no longer do as much cardio. I do 30 minutes tops of cardio. no more than 30 minutes and i spend and hour and a half doing weight lifting. I am so obsessed with it. I thought I was obsessed with exercising, but my obsession is to a whole new different level.

I lift because it makes me stronger, it builds my confidence, it adds shape to my body, it makes me feel powerful.

Don't let people tell you what is best but instead take time to find out what is best for you. Lifting weights does not make you ladies bulky but instead it makes you beautiful and strong.

I never thought i would ever shave one side of my hair and I did with no regrets. I love it more now than when I had hair.

Workout clothes

although this topic is not the most famous topic when it comes to fitness but it is one that I love for many reasons.
Let me just say that anything fitness I love especially workout clothes. I get on this new level of high When I buy new workout clothes. Everyday I am on the look up for when the mail man will arrive. No I don't usually go to the stores and try workout clothes on and purchase it. I like shopping online. It is so much easier and beats the hassle of going from store to store to store which can become very exhausting. Every now and then I may make a purchase from walmart or ross or marshalls but not very often.

But I have learned that good workout clothes/ pretty workout clothes is extra motivational. You know me I love taking pictures. It was not always so. I never use to take workout pictures or anything. I absolutely hated it but now everytime you see me I am taking a picture.. That also comes with loving yourself. I just do not care anymore what anyones opinion is about me , so I will keep snapping away. Snap, snap snap ha.

But let's get serious and back to business. If you need extra motivation to workout buy some cute workout clothes and shoes, buy some sexy tight yoga pants that makes your butt look great. Some shirts that will add to your beauty. colours that will go with you.

I love my butt so I am always buying pants that make my babies look good. My butt is still a work in progress but it is getting there. Looks a whole lot better than it did before. It is so easy to look in the mirror and get discouraged when you are working out. There were times I would just throw on a tee shirt and some sweat pants and go workout, then I would look in the mirror and get discouraged because i look so unflattering . But from the moment I decided to empty out my closet and buy some cute clothes I was more pumped to workout. I looked damn good and I felt good. Now do not get me wrong there are times I look at myself and focus on one area on my body and wish i could change it and I end up spending several minutes trying to figure out what can I do to start seeing faster results. I am only human. But clothes does make a difference.

This blog post is a short one I know but try it out. I know I am most motivated when I look cute. My motivational goals alone and knowing where I want my body to be is huge in keeping me motivated but clothes contributes to that as well.

Learning to love yourself

One of the greatest struggles I have always dealt with is learning how to love myself. Yes I love the woman I have become and I love everything about my body but it has not always been so. For many years I have struggled with my self image and struggled to accept the person I was, the person I am. It is not always easy to look in the mirror and see the beauty in you. To stare at yourself and say I love me, I love that girl I am staring at. Truth is when you have been put down so many times it becomes very difficult to see any good in you or see the beauty in you.

It then becomes very easy for you to compare yourself to others. I wish I was her. I wish my body looked like hers. I wish I had nice hair like hers, or lips like hers, eyes like hers, skin like hers and the list goes on. Why is it that as women we tend to compare ourself so often to other women. I have had the lowest self esteem for so long that it took me a long time to build up my self confidence and see the beauty in myself. I still do sometimes compare myself to other women, but when I catch myself doing it, I take that thought and remove it from my head. I know I am beautiful and though I do not have the perfect body and I never will I am beautiful . Although I have stretch marks all over my tummy from having two children I have beautiful skin. Those stretch marks are a reminder of the long hard nine months I carried each of my babies and all the pain and suffering I went through to bring them to this earth and made sure I did everything in my power to have two healthy children. I know we can't predict our children will be healthy but you bet your butt I did all I could to make sure they were healthy. It is so important to accept our scars and faults and accept that we are beautiful. To accept that there will be others that are better looking than us. And you know what I say to that if someone is prettier than me, she has nothing on me.

So what is the point of this blog and how does it relate to fitness you ask.
I dedicated this blog strictly towards health and fitness not really putting myself into it. So I am switching it up a little. My best writing comes in when I put myself into it and I wanted to start it fresh with this blog.
Before I started my fitness journey I truly had to learn to love myself no matter how big I was. I was 180 pounds and I struggled with that and struggled to love myself. It was when I started to love myself I decided to do something about my weight. It was then I developed a passion for health and fitness. I loved myself enough to do something about my weight and my eating. And although there are times like yesterday I over binge I never let that be an excuse to not get out of bed the next day and exercise, or use that as an excuse to eat an entire bag of chips. Might I also add that I don't usually eat chips yesterday I had to make a point to my family that I choose what I eat and what I don't and eating unhealthy really just screws you up the next day because there is just a lack of energy.

The key to truely be successful and to stick to your fitness goals is to first learn how to love yourself and your body. That is key number one. There are many other factors to consider but the number one factor is learning to love yourself. I love myself enough to sacrifice some sleep to wake up everyday early enough to make sure i get my workout in and why I choose to eat healthy.
Embracing me and loving me.

 

Why I became a fitness coach

It has never been my life long dream to became a fitness coach. I was never really big into fitness either. It all started one day when I looked into the mirror and saw how big I was. I looked like I was 9 months pregnant and I had given birth to my daughter like 5 months ago. I was 5 feet so pretty short 180 pounds and a huge belly infront of me.. Chubby cheeks, just so unhealthy for my height. It was at that very moment, that very hour that I decided I needed to make a lifestyle and so my journey began. I first started going to the gym and had no results. I did not know what to do half the times and I could not figure out how to use most of the machines. They were all so complicated. It would be so much easier if there was someone there to guide you but in order to be guided you have to pay for a trainer and i could not afford to do so. So as you can guess I ended up quitting the gym.

Not to long after that I saw an informercial and it was about the fitness program insanity.. When I saw the program nothing at all mattered to me.. All I heard was lose 30 pounds in 2 months and it captured my attention. I remembering thinking 30 pounds 2 months yes I will take it. The sad part is I could not afford the program. I was so excited and wanted this program so desperately and could not purchase it. But let us get to the point and make a long story a short one. I ended up downloading insanity off the internet and doing my two months and had a huge transformation with the program. I ended up going from 180 pounds to 134 pounds in two months.. I was so thrilled and so excited. From doing insanity I also completed a series of beachbody programs and was never disappointed with my results. The only way the programs fail you is if you do not eat right and don't put any effort into the workouts. Today I am at 127 pounds and I am bulking up.

This is the reason why I chose to become a coach. I have discovered the value of living a healthy lifestyle especially with having kids. You are their example, You are your friends examples, your followers example, your families example. It is so important for others to understand why you choose to live a certain way. I have truly developed a love for fitness and can't do without it. Each day I train harder and careful with what I eat and strive to live a healthy lifestyle and teach my children the importance of living a healthy lifestyle . It is a choice that we each have to choose. There are much benefits of living a healthy lifestyle. More energy, more focus, strength on top of the health benefits.

It is important for me to pay it forward and to help those who desire help in accomplishing their fitness goals and wanting to live a healthier lifestyle. I love helping people and the opportunity to help people achieve their goals doing what i love, there is no words to express it. I am on my high when I am helping others. My fitness journey not only transformed me but along the way I developed a passion for fitness and now I want to pay it forward.

180 pounds and 134 pounds

154 pounds after baby number two

Current 127 pounds

Goal Setting

 It has been a while since I have blogged. Maybe about a year or more. That is truly sad to say. I ended up getting pregnant and sick and after giving birth I just could not get back to it until now.

But I want to start blogging again especially since I was reminded why I first started exercising and why I started blogging as well.

During my nine months of pregnancy I kept thinking how excited I was to just hold my baby boy and not only that, but to start exercising again and for my daughter to become a big sister and just grow with her brother.  I tried to exercise as much as I could during my pregnancy. Some days were easier than others, but I just kept going. I did not want to gain to much weight because I did not want to have all this excess weight to lose. I watched what I ate and did my best to stay on the healthy track, but that was not always easy especially when you are pregnant and cravings hit.

During my labour and delivery my son ended up pinching one of my nerves. Therefore my left leg was of barely any use to me. I could not use my left leg hardly. I struggled greatly for several weeks. However i was ready to get back on track with my fitness and lose the baby weight. I think it was especially hard for me because I had worked so hard to get to where I was before I was pregnant and I gained it all back so I struggled a bit but my son was worth it all.

When I was 5 weeks postpatrum I got back on my fitness journey. When I first got into fitness i started with insanity and got amazing results. I had gone from 180 to 134 pounds so this time around I thought why not. So I did do insanity 2 months and ate clean and lost several pounds. I started at 154 pounds and ended 145 pounds. Yes as you can imagine I was a bit disappointed but I kept going and went on to body beast and turbo fire and did lose some more weight. Currently I am doing insanity max:30 and a second round of body beast. I am on month two of both of these programs and I am currently at 127.4 pounds. I don't know when last I weighed a hundred and twenty something pounds.

The difference is this time around I set a goal for myself. Actually I have set goals for myself. 3 months ago I told myself that I was going to hit 120 pounds before the year ends and I am going to be leaner and more cut..I am still several pounds away from my goal but I am working towards it each day. Setting goals have helped me to stay focus and keeps me motivated. I wake up each day with a purpose. I know what I want and i am working towards each. I am actually excited to wake up each day to get my exercise done. I get excited when I am working out. w hen we just work out with no reason or goal often times we tend to quit before we get any real results. We like to see results quickly and if we don't then we quit. This is another reason why I started setting goals and putting a deadline to it. You also want to make your goals realistic. Don't set crazy goals like lose 60 pounds in two months. Be realistic with your goals. When I set goals I make sure it is realistic. I hope to reach 125 pounds in four weeks. The only way I can achieve this is if I make sure I exercise 6 days a week and I watch what I eat. I need to make sure my diet is clean and i GIVE my exercise program 100%. Even if I do not reach 125 and say I reach 126 at least I know I gave it my best and I was close. This makes you set more goals and then before you know it you have become this goal oriented person.

Goals keep us on track. They give us a reason to continue to do what we desire to do. I am looking to bulk and gain some abs.. I have set a goal for myself that will keep me motivated to accomplish this goal. 10 weeks.. I may not get abs in 10 weeks, is it possible yes.. HOW?? You put in the work and effort and do what you need to do. You train and eat clean and stay focus..

Ok now I feel like I have been rambling to much. My point to all this is.. Goal setting is very important for us to achieve any kind of success we want to achieve. If you want to be successful, if you want to lose a certain amount of weight, If you want to get lean, build muscle, buy a home, have a certain amount of money in savings... all of it cannot be reached until we start setting goals. Success cannot be achieved until we start setting goals. Goals keep us on track and help stay focus and give us a reason to work towards something. Goals keep us on track.