From Fat to Fit

It’s so easy to recognize you’re Fat.

No, not PHAT, which is what the positive body image folks and their ilk would rather you say. Just Fat.

I’m a recovering Fat Chick. And I’ll forewarn you right now, I’m currently in a very  strange headspace. I’m no longer Dangerously Fat, and my bodyfat percentage is around 27% right now, which is still considered- well, fat- but I’m also not identifying with Plus Size, BBW and that ilk any more. So the posts I get on my Facebook newsfeed for Additionelle (unliked that one already) and some of the really awesome indie plus size clothing stores out there give me mixed feelings. They really do need to exist, and I love that they continue to grow every day.

Is there a place for them? Yes. Should plus size women be made to feel bad about themselves? No. And yet, sometimes I feel like every post I see on my feed about “Be proud of your curves” and “be happy with who you are” is like a personal attack telling me that I am not cool for abandoning my formerly plus sized physique, and joining the Fitness bandwagon. I know that’s silly, and that its not the intent whatsoever. Before I started getting fit, I knew I was Fat, and I had gotten to a place of acceptance for me as me, and looking at my positives (pretty, smart, funny, etc).

However, I reached a point of “Whoa. I am unfit, and its starting to impact my daily life”. Climbing stairs was a chore, my job was physical enough where I was feeling really drained at the end of the day. And then I tried snowboarding. That spectacular failure (I didn’t get down the bunny hill, never mind a proper hill. Though, to be fair, I also didn’t give up!) planted the seed of change in my psyche.

It took another few months, and a friend (Katie!) who said she was doing the 30 Day Shred, for me to finally take the reins of my own life and decide to commit to change. That whole adage “When you set your mind to something, you can accomplish ANYthing”?

It’s true.

I knew I was Fat for years. I didn’t see it as a problem and hindrance in my life until last year. Since then, I’ve learned exactly HOW much of a hindrance and health hazard that fat I was carrying was. How much the fat I still carry, IS. And how much healthier & happier I’m going to be when I reach my goals, which have turned less from a number on a scale, and more to a specific physique (Google Jamie Eason. That.)

So yeah, its easy as hell to recognize you’re Fat.

Its hard as hell to realize how much it keeps you from truly Living.

Keep up the hard work and stick with your dedication.

BeFit. BeHappy. BeHealthy.

TurboBeFit.

*Disclaimer: If you are plus size, and are happy with your quality of life, all the power to you! 

Dear Me,

Dear Me in 2013,


Well, 2012 was one heckuva year! We accomplished so very much.  Lost 65 lbs. Gained 5 back over the holidays, but don't you worry, Me. We'll lose those 5 again, and honestly after all the snowboarding you did, I'm pretty sure at least half of that is muscle.  Or will be anyways. (*note to self: find out how long it takes for muscle mass to accumulate and affect weight*)

We made it down that damned bunny hill and THEN some.  Next time we'll work on technique, but I'm very proud of us for conquering the fear of going down a mountain on little more than a slip of wood and fibreglass. And don't forget that sweet toe side turn down that part of Mont Tremblant where you were touching the ground in anticipation of a wipeout, but instead totally trusted our stronger, more balanced body and recovered.  That was pretty freakin awesome.  Wish we had gotten a video of that. Good job on getting back up every time you fell down and for knowing your limits (hello fog and snow! Nice to walk right through you, don't much feel like colliding with someone down the hill because I can't see!) Don't worry, we'll just keep getting better.

Work is much better now, we have time again! Time to start doing some hobbies and getting out with friends again.  They miss us, and we miss them.  Let's start by going out on Fridays when Dave has his boys over for gaming.  We don't really need to be there and let's face it.  They get rather ridiculous and why should we be stuck in the bedroom or computer room when we could be out doing something fun!  I mean unless we really want to play Skyrim or Dragon Age or somethin.  Cuz, Y'know.  We do that sometimes.

Plan this year. Plan to get further in life, in career and in fitness.  Worry less about the scale and more about improving our body so we can continue to do crazy awesome things like snowboarding.  We're doing that challenge group with our friend Steph in January doing that Les Mills Combat program.  That's a lot of martial arts style training and should be fun! With those two days off of DVDs each week, why don't we work on our strength training?  Upper body needs to be a bit more strong and we can always work on our butt and thighs.  Clearly, snowboarding requires rock awesome thighs.  We want to be able to do REAL pushups this year. Let's throw in a 30 day Squat and Pushup challenge?  Sound good?  We'll start on the knees, but by the end of the month, we want military pushups baby!  We gots this!

We're gonna do that 30 Day Push thing with Chalene Johnson.  We have the book, might as well add some online accountability.  We can do anything for 30 days, and who knows? Might be a great thing for us!

Speaking of hobbies, I think a weekly date with Dave is a GRAND idea. But let's make it something active and fun.  Like going to that rock climbing gym near us.  It's open late, and since one of our weak points is upper body strength, I think that'll really help us achieve the goal of getting stronger!  It'll be good for both of us!

Above all though, Me, we really need to worry less about that dratted number on the scale.  I've thought about it, and what I'd like to propose is this:

Weigh in once a  month.  Replace weekly weigh ins with bi- weekly body measurements.  It'll keep us motivated, but worried less about what number it says on the scale.  Since we're still at a point where we need to be making that number go down on the scale though, we'll weigh in once a month and post our monthly progress online.  The aim is to be in maintenance mode for 2014, when we'll continue with monthly weigh ins but it will be more about maintaining our weight loss.  We might gain weight in muscle then, but we both know we want to find our body's natural, happy weight.

Alright then, I think that's enough for now.  I know we'll do fine this year because we've really laid some great ground work and developed some pretty bad ass habits.  Remember the triumphs over the tribulations, the tiny victories that help keep us going.  Don't expect, but be prepared for potential injuries related to pushing our body forward and redefining its boundaries, and know and be confident in our ability to work out around an injury.  Trust me, we'll be fine.  Set backs happen, but it's just a way for us to find new and interesting ways to keep moving ahead, sometimes a bit slower than we'd like.  Above all, progress is progress. We've come a long way baby....Life is just starting to get good!

Love,

Yourself
xoxo

Remember remember something something November....

Well Guy Fawkes day has come and gone, Remembrance Day likewise has come and gone, and now once again, things will change.

I finish my work on the pilot of King & Maxwell tomorrow.  Saturday, I get the hair colour I've been lusting after for a long long time:

 Damn straight I"m a redhead at heart, and damn straight its going to be vibrant, because *I* am vibrant! And on Monday, I start the first day at my new job: A Post Production PA at Take 5 Productions.

Take 5 are the masters behind the amazing series The Tudors and The Borgias and are currently working on a new series called Vikings.  I'm uber excited to start here because it will be my first foray into the realm of post production in a "professional" (i.e. paid!) way. I'm excited, I'm nervous, but most of all I'm happy.  Working in a production office like this one will hopefully mean less ridiculous hours (of course there will still be long nights on occasion) and more importantly: biking to work!

This blog is supposed to be about my journey to health and happiness.  I've been mainly dealing with the issues I encounter on my way to health, though admittedly that has gone hand in hand with my happiness. Now, as it happens, an opportunity has come to me for increased happiness that will add to my aspects of health.  Less time at work means more time at home during the week so I can *gasp* perhaps cook a meal at night instead of having to precook it on the weekend. Maybe then I'll have more time to get up in the morning so I can work out again in the AM (though I'd probably stick that to the shorter workouts and keep my long Fire45/55/30 classes to the PM).  But that will also mean more time with my man, meaning a healthier, happier relationship and being able to use the weekends for more than just catching up on housework, sleep, food prep and the like. Quality of life goes up, happiness goes up, health goes up.

It's all just a big ecosystem of life eh?

In other news, I'm down to 201.6 lbs, making me so darned close to being under 200 that its driving me insane!!!  My goal is to lose 2.5 lbs by Dave and I's anniversary which is on the 25th of November.  3 years together, and my oh my what a ride it's been!  I'm working on eating cleaner and healthier, and I gotta say its making me feel way more awake and energized during the day.  In the afternoon, I know that if I make my snack a couple of sugary cookies and a handful of Reese's Pieces, I'm going to be falling asleep at my desk by 3pm.  If I make it a small apple with almond butter or a banana and yogurt, I'll be good and if not super bright eyed, I'll be awake and functional and better able to do my job.

Its a long process, but I'm learnin!

The Lovely Bones...errr Muscles?

I've found my hip bone.

I'm sore.

What could these two facts possibly have to do with each other?  Well, technically, they have my obliques in common.  Which are currently sore.  Since I've started TurboFire, I've noticed that my core has been rather sore, and when I go to massage the soreness, I'm finding less and less fat, and more and more lean muscle.  And of course, bone!  My hip bone has started to make its presence VERY clear lately.  My cat can no longer perch on my hip whilst I am sleeping without it becoming uncomfortable!  While you can see the number slowly crawl its way down, down down, and you can also see your pant size go down down down, being able to FEEL the difference in your physique makes this journey so much more REAL.

I've felt triumph, I've felt pain, I've felt fear, worry, angst, frustration, loss, gain, any number of emotions on this journey but the past few days a new feeling has been growing within me and its really new for me.

Awe.

I'm in awe of myself and my body.  I'm achieving things I never thought I'd be close to being able to do 6 months ago.  I feel more alive, excited and yes, sore than I've ever felt in my life.  It's different from being in rowing where weight training and running were mandatory, but I never clicked with it.  I never really was conscious of what working out would do for and to my body.

I think its really important for people to be conscious of what their working out does for them.  When teaching kids about nutrition in school, I think it'd be extremely valuable for them to be taught WHY certain foods are good other than just "eat this and you'll get fat".  That's negative instruction.  Rather, why not tell them that in order for their bodies to build muscle, they need to eat x amount of this and x amount of that.  Explain to them why muscle is important, why being physical is important, why doing things like yoga, is important.  Why is flexibility important? Tell them!  And I know there will be folks out there who will say "kids won't understand or won't care".  You're underestimating them.  They're frakking smart.  And if for every 4 kids you only impact 1, that's 1 in 4 kids who will go on to influence their friends.  That's 1 in 4 kids who will avoid the epidemic of childhood obesity.

Placing blame on the food industry is easy.  Educating your children to make smart choices is not.  Sure, I believe that if its not in the house, you won't go out to get it, but everybody at some point has to go grocery shopping and it can be TOUGH to avoid those highly processed crap foods.  Willpower is a myth, really. What actually motivates your choices (and your kids choices) is knowledge.  If your kids KNOW what Mc Donalds will do to them, they'll think twice before scarfing down on a Big Mac.  Placing emphasis on health and fitness over being waif-model thin is also important.  We want to foster positivity, not negativity and self hatred and eating disorders.  Show them docs like "Food, Inc" or "Supersize Me".  Give them incontrovertible proof about how terrible fast food is.  Then teach them invaluable skills like how to cook for themselves.

Let's face it, this is not an easy problem to solve because of how much we've let the food industry get away with feeding the masses sh*t.  All for the bottom line, in the name of capitalism, profit and industry.  What the hell good is all of that (aka $$$$) when you haven't got your health?  Those top 1%, keep stepping on the downtrodden masses....who's going to be the respective cogs in your machines when they're all diseased and can't work?

Okay okay, rant over.  Back to work.

Battle of the Bathroom Scale!

So I've been plateaued for about 4 weeks at 209.
I thought I had been down to 206, because my bathroom scale and my wiiFit did not agree with each other, as my wiifit had me at 206lbs and the bathroom scale at 209.

 Eventually I just realized that I'm ridiculous and can't do simple math (the wii is in kg) but figured out that they do jive and that I hadn't lost as much weight as I had thought I did.  Follow this with about 4 weeks of 209 staring at me in the face each week and its enough to drive anyone crazy!  Well this past week I have started TurboFire AND upped my daily intake of calories and guess what was waiting for me on the scale this morning?

 205 baby!

Lesson be learned: When you're dropping weight and building muscle, eventually those muscles need more calories in order to keep themselves happy and healthy.  And when you have happy healthy muscles, they thank you by burning tons of calories!  Keep in mind though: you need to make sure you're eating the RIGHT calories.  Not junk food!  Keep the blood sugar as even as possible!

Operation Clean Eating is underway as well.

PS: I know many out there will do the "but you shouldn't worry about the # on the scale.  Quite frankly, at my weight, that's bollocks.  The number *IS* important because at my height and age, being over 200lbs is NOT healthy....I mean unless its all pure muscle, but that's kinda not the look I"m going for!  Once I get closer to my goal weight, I'll be able to care less and less about the number on the scale (though will be checking in to make sure I"m maintaining appropriately once my body weight levels off).  I'm already getting to a place where I can appreciate more how I feel in comparison to 6 months ago, but again that number is still very important.

TurboFired UP!!!!

So I'm about a week into my new TurboFire system and phewf! I never worked this hard on Jillian Michaels Body Rev.  My heart rate monitor shows me working out well into my anaerobic zone (@ 80-90% of your max heart rate...I'd be lying if I said I never went above 90%) and man oh man its crazy!  I can't work out that high intensity forever, its just impossible for the body to be able to do that, so I do have to take quick breaks, but I always jump back in when I've caught my breath and managed my heart rate a bit (10seconds max).  Chalene KILLS your abs while just jacking up your cardio intensity.  Even if I did everything low low impact, I'd still get a killer workout!  Tomorrow's a Core class, which I haven't done yet so I'm looking forward to and yet slightly dreading the pain....
....wait wait, what's that?

"Pain is just fear leaving the body!"


...Thanks Jillian, you'll always have a place in my workout schedule ;-)

TURBO's ON FIRE!!!!

For those of you who know me well, and maybe even not so well, know that my nickname is Turbo.  Fitting then, that I should try TurboFire as my next exercise system.  Distributed by Beachbody, the same folks who bring you P90x and TurboJam, its headed up by Chalene Johnson, trainer to the stars.  She's energetic, she's supportive, she's blonde.

She's kind of the complete opposite to Jillian in that she's motivating with a chipper attitude and "feels the endorphins" and loves feeling the burn, etc.  Jillians Body Revolution was fantastic to start out with.  It's half an hour a day, which is totally awesome, and you are always able to mod up and down (as you are, admittedly with Chalene's system too) to your fitness level.  Jillians strength lies in being able to motivate someone (me) to keep going and push themselves after an extended amount of time of relative inactivity (i.e. years! Although I had been biking quite a bit, actual "working out" hadn't been done since highschool).

Her little phrases

"It's only 30 minutes a day, you can do ANYthing for 30 minutes"
"When you have a WHY, you can tolerate ANY HOW"
"Nobody likes working out, the only good thing about working out is the skinny jeans at the end!"

It was the "I totally hate to work out, I feel ya, but let's just bang this out real quick I swear you'll see changes, I'm only asking for half an hour a day, you can TOTALLY do this and change your life!" attitude that kept me going with her.  After doing the Body Revolution for the full 90 days and then another half way through, I was feeling a bit bored.  It wasn't that the system was no longer challenging, as I said you can always mod up, I just felt like doing something different.  I had been following someone's fitness page on Facebook (Hard Work & Dedication) and she had started doing a system called TurboFire.  I checked it out, and liked what I saw....a bunch of really sweaty folks having FUN while pushing their bodies to their cardio limits!

I dug a little deeper and was pleased to find out that TurboFire is based on an incredibly effective mode of exercise called HIIT, or High Intensity Interval Training.  By boosting your cardio and mixing it with strength training, your body creates something called an AfterBurn effect (both Jillian and Chalene swear by it) whereby it burns 9x more calories for HOURS afterwards.  Usually using plyometrics (can be a bit painful if you're a plantar fasciitis sufferer like me, but if you take care of your feet by stretching throughout the day, and icing, the results are so worth it!) and bursts of high intensity followed by a lighter recovery period.  Its hardcore, and the results speak for themselves.

So TurboFire it is, and my first experience with the class was challenging, mainly because of the choreography.  I'm not very coordinated so it was a huge challenge for me, and I look forward to getting better.  I'll go through my impressions on TurboFire and how it measures up to Body Revolution after my first week on the program!

Also, to come, skinny jean pics!!!