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New Year’s Resolutions – 2018
Some time ago I changed my New Year’s Resolutions turned into goals I want to accomplish during the year. Last year I nailed my fitness goals and then some, but they were pretty vague. I wanted to become healthier and more fit and I did that.
I lost weight, lost inches, and got stronger. I’ve pushed through arthritis and tendinitis and come out the other side healthy and strong. I can even run again! I have to keep it “slow” and the time “short” but I can once more get lost in the running world. Not only that but I got certified in 4 more formats of group x classes, renewed my cert as a general group x instructor, and became a personal trainer!
I’d call that a successful year, wouldn’t you?
My fitness goals for 2018 are similar to 2017.
2018 Goals:
- Run longer/faster
- Increase overall strength
- Get to a green belt in tkd
- Complete 2 running races
Why not more races? Because they cost money and I don’t have an unlimited supply. I figure I’ll limit myself to 2 paid-for races this year. This won’t include events like the Couch Potato Triathlon that starts at my local YMCA Jan 8th. I’m doing the employee version so I don’t actually pay for it. Of course, this also means I don’t get the shirt that paid-for members get upon completion. But I will have the knowledge and the pride that I put in the miles and was able to do it. That’s enough for me.
Click the picture for a link to a registration form
I want to lose weight along with getting stronger but it’s not really a goal for me. I’m not going to actively attempt to “lose weight.” Losing weight happens differently with everyone and I find the best way for me to lose weight is to focus on my other fitness/health goals. When I do that, the weight drops on its own. When I focus on my weight, all I do is stress about the number on the scale. Stressing about it makes me want to eat more and my willpower with food can get pretty bad. If I focus on getting stronger etc, then I don’t worry and I don’t overeat and I lose weight. It doesn’t work for everyone but it does for me.
It’s important to find what works best for you and stick with it. There will always be people who will try to convince you another way is better or that your way is wrong. Unless your habits are unhealthy/unsafe, don’t listen to them. If you’re enjoying your method of strength gain and weight loss and it’s working for you, don’t listen to the naysayers.
ie: People telling you that running is the best way to lose weight but you hate running…DON’T DO IT. People pushing fad diets on you that you don’t like or feel hesitant about…DON’T DO IT.
As for my taekwondo belt…I’ve spent months trying to get through the orange belt stages to green belt. You’d think it’d be simple…I thought it’d be simple to get my green belt by January or February, but I’m not even halfway through. I still have 3 tests to go. An injury back in August/September prevented me from testing and then life got super busy so I wasn’t able to attend enough classes to get through more than 1 testing. So, while it theoretically should be easy to get to green belt before the summer, who knows if I actually will. In any case, I’ll be able happy if I reach it within the year.
I feel confident I can meet these goals. An ultimate goal is to be able to run a 35-min 5k again but I wouldn’t put any money on that one and I’m not aiming for that in just this year. My knees come first and I’m still working on getting under 40 minutes. I’ll be running and cycling a lot more with this Couch Potato Triathlon though so I have reasonable hopes of noticeably increasing my pace.
We’ll see!
What are your resolutions or goals for 2018?
Handstand Success!
When I was a kid, I was terrified of doing handstands. Whenever I tried to get my feet over my head, I freaked out because it felt like my stomach was plummeting and that I was going to fall. I don’t like falling. At all. In fact, I hate it.
In the Fall of 2014, Cassey Ho came out with her How to do a Headstand video. She made it seem so doable, so easy. Just balance on your head and forearms and flip your legs up. You have a wall right there to lean against so you won’t fall backwards. I thought, okay, I’ll try it. Try to overcome that fear of being upside down and falling backward.
I did it! I did the headstand against the wall and every time I did it, it got easier. Then I tried a tripod headstand, freaked at one point while I was lifting my legs (I was doing so well too, totally using my core and thigh muscles to lift them rather than just kicking them up), and toppled over. My neck bent wrong, I heard a crack and there was a lot of pain. No numbness though, I stayed still and waited while I calmed my breathing and checked everything. Nothing was broken, nothing was numb. Just my neck hurt and was really stiff and achy for over a week later.
My husband was so scared so I promised him I would never try that pose again. Honestly, I wasn’t too fond of it either. I loved that I was getting my legs up all by strength but all that pressure on the top of my head really hurt. I stopped doing inversions after that, first to allow my neck to heal, then because I had no desire to be upside down and have all that pressure on my head.
Lately, however, I’ve gotten back into it due to a yoga challenge. It called for a hollow back inversion and I knew I could do the headstand so I bucked up and did it. It took awhile because I was out of practice and because the tree was farther behind me than I thought so my legs couldn’t seem to find it and I was, again, terrified of falling backwards. I wanted to try an actual handstand but when the time came to, I was too scared to even try.
My back isn’t that hollow but it was my first time doing this against a tree. I actually surprised myself by keeping my head off the ground. My shoulders and arms took all the weight. After more practice, I managed a better one at home the other day.
I needed the added stability of having my head on the floor for that one. But since I managed to actually get that hollow back positioning, I decided to step up my game and go for the big fear that I couldn’t manage before – the actual handstand. I started with small kicks and worked my way up to big kicks. In the end, I got it! My toe strength is nothing to laugh at either because there were times when I’d catch the ceiling with my toes to keep myself from falling.
When I felt comfortable enough with that, I went the extra mile and added a hollow back.
By this time my wrists and back wanted to kill me so I stopped. I am SO proud of what I accomplished! True, it’s all against a wall so I didn’t use my core, like, at all except for those times when I’d latch onto the ceiling with my toes. I did try to get my legs into positions that required some heavy duty core power to keep from falling, but mostly I just practiced getting up against the wall and staying there. My core’s not strong enough yet for much else.
Yay for facing my fears, overcoming them, and achieving success! It’s all about the baby steps. And never tell yourself you can’t do something. Rather say, “Why not?” and go for it!
February Goals
February is a bit different from last month. Have you noticed the change? I’m working out on Saturday and Sunday and resting on Friday! Very different from my normal routine and it’s super difficult for me to exercise over the weekend. Mainly because my son’s at home and in my space.
Because I skipped all work last Saturday, I’m going to write out actual goals for this month. Hopefully having them written down and on my mind will help me keep them and succeed this month.
February Goals:
- to exercise over the weekend when other people are in my space
- to exercise 5-6 days a week
- to do at least 3 Blogilates’ videos from the Feb Calendar every day (minus the rest the day)
- to do my February challenge poses on time every day
That first one is NOT a small goal. I find it extremely difficult to exercise when there are a bunch of people in the house, one of whom is always in my space when he’s at home. I didn’t even think about it before but that first weekend brought it to my mind when I gave in to my laziness and didn’t exercise.
Good luck to me! Good luck to you!
Confession and Blog Hiatus
(Be forewarned: This is long.)
I’m really not getting into the rhythm of anything again. Not anything!
It’s very odd for me after 3 years of having the same schedule to not be able to fall into a routine again. What happened?? I can trace it back to when it all started to fall apart and I know the underlying cause, but it’s been over half a year. Time enough to have gotten over it, yeah?
Yet I can’t seem to. At least, I haven’t yet.
I never mentioned it before because I didn’t want to point fingers or spread blame or anything, but it can hardly matter now so long down the road.
It began with my friend at my local Y resigning her position of group fitness instructor and personal trainer/nutrionist there. I think she may still do one or two appointments a month but I doubt it. Her new job keeps her busy 26 out of 24 hours every day.
I missed her but it wasn’t that big a deal in the beginning because it allowed me to really focus on my training instead of taking out 30 minutes or whatever talking to her. At the time I was training to be a group fitness instructor and I wanted to be much more fit than I was. I had made a lot of progress and passed classes and everything.
Management (no names) kept me waiting on those classes for about a year. I talked to her around December. She had just finished a round of those same classes the month before and predicted January for the next batch of classes. So I waited. Then it was February. March. May. August.
Oh! Did she mention I had to be certified in CPR and First Aid before I could register for the class? No? Well, get that done please. So I did. Very useful refresher course for me since I hadn’t been certified since high school.
September. FINALLY! They scheduled the first class. I passed.
October for the 2nd class. Nope.
November. FINALLY! I passed again. Very good score.
I was certified to be a group fitness instructor! But I still needed to do the demo class. I told Management I was ready at any time. Nothing. I trained harder.
My friend’s last month was December. She had been hoping I could take over for her and lead her class because I had been there from the start, she had trained me to duplicate her style, and lots of people in the class knew me and liked me.
December. Management got a push (from someone other than me) and my demo class was scheduled. She said I did well but should do another demo to make sure I understood her suggestions and could incorporate them. Also, I had to mind my words because I made a joke about feeling like an “old fart” because my joints creak and I’m usually sore. I was with friends with no one else around; I would never say something like that around other people. Sure, no problem.
January. So-n-so (who was great and I’ll not speak ill of him) finished his demo and immediately jumped into the role of instructor despite not being as familiar with the class as I was. It took him a few weeks but he found his rhythm and the class was fun, though some people told me they preferred the original instructor for the most part.
I also had my 2nd demo class in January. I did well. I felt great. So-n-so later told my friend that he thought I did a great job and that I was ready. He was now leaving for another job as well. We thought I’d finally be able to take over. It was his and my understanding that he’d be incorporating me into his classes so I’d be teaching a section of the class at least once a week. This was supposed to happen by the end of January.
February. Nothing. A complaint is issued against me for saying the wrong thing when I thought I was in safe company. Had I not considered myself to be in a safe environment, I would never have said it. Lesson learned. I apologized to the person, felt absolutely horrible that I had hurt their feelings (very nearly cried in front of them in fact), and all was settled.
End of February. So-n-so resigned. A brand new instructor (newly hired and everything) is brought in to teach the class. She knows next to nothing about how the class is structured and does things her own way. I guess it was good but I found it pretty boring. Turns out I wasn’t the only one – the group of people (regulars who had been there from the beginning) kept asking me when I’d take over. They didn’t like this new teacher – her teaching style or her personality.
March. Nothing. No word. Just nothing. Best shape and weight of my life. And nothing.
My husband was furious. It’s not often I see him so mad. I was hurt. My friend was angry but not surprised. After 15 months I gave in to the fact that Management had no intention of letting me teach.
I had spent about 2 years training my body and mind in the hopes of becoming a group fitness instructor and perhaps a personal trainer after that. Over a year of that was spent waiting to become certified and hoping each month that it would happen.
It hurt so much to know that it was never going to happen. I canceled my membership. I had been a daily visitor for about 3 years. Why was I canceling now, they asked? I cited “personal reasons” and left it at that because I saw what Management had done to be a personal issue, not a Y issue. And I still believe that. The Y was a great place. I miss the Zumba class a lot. I loved that class. But I don’t miss it enough to pay monthly dues for one class. The whole place was tainted for me because of how Management treated me.
It still makes me want to cry. I’m still hurting.
If I wanted it enough, I could try elsewhere. I know. Screw them. I’ll go to another place. But I can’t right now. At first it just hurt. It hurt too much whenever I would consider trying it again elsewhere. I was comfortable at the Y and felt at home there. Everywhere else seemed like a terrifying prospect. Then I just got out of the habit. My routine fell apart and I haven’t been able to find it yet.
It was never my dream to become a group fitness instructor but I enjoyed exercising so much for those 3 years and I wanted to help others turn their lives around as I had.
Now I’ve lost the feeling and I don’t know how to get it back.
Great. Now I am crying. Obviously I’m still hurting a great deal. It’s not that I couldn’t complete my goal but that it was stepped on and taken lightly. It was very important to me so it’s like I was stepped on and taken lightly.
Given that I can’t seem to live the lifestyle that I preach these days, I no longer feel that I am qualified to continue this blog. I’m no longer a Fitness Freak and until I find my way back to it, I can’t say that I am.
I hope that I can turn my life around again soon, but I don’t know how long that might take. I’m doing a craptacular job of it now.
I’m going to leave this blog up in the hopes that I can get going again soon. If/When that happens, I’ll resume posting here. In the meantime, you can consider this a hiatus instead of an end.
It’s been fun and I’ve enjoyed jotting down my experiences and helping to encourage and motivate others. I don’t want to say goodbye, but I think I should for the time being. I think that’s best.
My writing blog – Writing World – is still up and running so I won’t be completely disappearing in case anyone needs/wants to contact me about anything.
Wish me luck! And I wish everyone else good luck in their endeavors whatever those might be (unless they’re illegal in which case shame on you).
Healthy Smoothies and Outside Fitness
I did a very bad thing during my vacation with my parents – I stuffed my body full of so much dairy and gluten that I felt sick to my stomach (even on Omeprazole!) last night. This has happened before when I was first changing my diet over a year ago.
Oops.
It was a wake-up call that I have seriously let myself go. I shouldn’t need a wake-up call but obviously I did. Sometimes I wonder about myself.
I’m a bit bored with my single smoothie recipe. I modify it by changing up my fruit but other than that it’s always the same. I don’t have a whole bunch of money to be buying a lot of different ingredients but it would be nice if I could switch it up at least a little. I’m more worried that I’d buy the ingredients and then not use them. I hate wasted money especially with food.
I won’t be able to use, like, any of these recipes without modification because of all the dairy in them but with a bit of thought I’m sure I can modify them to my dietary restrictions. Some of these modifications would be expensive though. Like if I still wanted to use yogurt I could use coconut yogurt but that stuff is expensive. Those smoothies would be special treats I think. Hopefully they’d taste good enough to be treats instead of a punishment for something I can’t help.
When I get back home, I have a plan for getting back into shape and getting my diet back under control. Since my son is on summer break, I get to take care of him 24/7. So how do I exercise the way I like while also getting him outside and giving him attention?
Cardio:
- jogging/walking while he rides his bike (always on trails)
- Blogilates
- Tone It Up
- spurts of various cardio ie: jumping jacks, quick feet, burpees, etc (that he can join in on between bouts of sitting)
Strength Training:
- Blogilates
- Weights
- Playground Equipment
- Bands
- Own Body
- Tone It Up
I’m looking forward to using the playground as a means of strength training. Found this on Blogilates:
Can’t wait to try it!
What’s your favorite smoothie recipe?
“Stacked” Cardio
Oh. My. Holy. Cow!
I just got my butt handed to me on a platter!
Today’s Challenge: Angela Leigh’s 13-Minute Fat Melt – cardio portion.
Cardio Moves:
- Tap That (30 sec)
- On Thin Ice (alt sides 30 sec)
- Bottoms Up (30 sec)
- Sprinter (15 sec each side)
- Superstar (30 sec)
- Bring It In (30 sec)
Quick reminder of how to do this kind of stacking workout: do move #1 then rest 30sec; move #1, #2 then rest 30sec; #1, #2, #3 then rest; etc till you reach the end. Move #6 should only be done once because it’s the last move of the last set.
At first I thought Tap That was too easy. 30sec of butt kicking and then I rest for 30sec? pfft! Whatever. But then the 2nd set where I add in On Thin Ice had my heartrate racing. I think I should’ve done a better warm-up because it felt like going from walking to running. By the end of the 3rd set I felt like I had been sprinting. 4th set my heart/lungs felt like they were going to pop! I haven’t been in pain like that since I was really fat and trying to jog for the first time in college.
If people listen to their bodies, they can tell when pain is good and should be accepted and when pain is bad and they should be backing off. This was the bad kind of pain. So I quit after that 4th set (ending with Sprinter) and walked around to cool down. There’s still a shadow of pain there now but it’s as if I had been sprinting and pushing myself really hard. My legs are super tired and my butt is so sore!
My new goal should be to practice, practice, practice and get stronger so that I can finish those cards! I don’t usually give up on something. If I think I can’t do it, I modify the moves or I take a bit of a longer rest so that I can but I didn’t think I had it in me this time to finish.
This will be one of those workouts where I’ll need to go at it a little at a time, bit by bit until I can finish. So I’ll try to do these cardio moves twice a week and try to get a little farther each time. Maybe I’ll have made it by the New Year.
*DISCLAIMER: I will not be held responsible for any injuries incured while trying these workouts. Always consult your doctor before starting any new exercise. If you’d like personalized help reaching your fitness/health goals or are merely looking for new ideas, consider making an appt with a personal trainer or trying out a group exercise class at your local gym. Always listen to your body and be careful not to push yourself beyond your limits. Injuries suck!*
Fitness Freak 