Fit Takes Sense, Not Dollars

I'm as obsessive about my workouts as I am about just about everything else in my life so that means I am almost always looking to challenge myself in new ways. Now, I have to admit, I'm all about being frugal these days so if I can't do it in the comfort of my own home, I'm not likely to do it at all.
(True story: massive debts built in college lead to massive accumulated debt once you become a married couple with kids to raise. I freely admit that I have a lot of work to do to get as financially fit as I am physically. That said, I have always been a sucker for being creative and using this rather expensively built brain my mama paid for to get the job done minus a gym membership).

So, back to my obsessiveness.

For those of you who might not know it, I am a football fan....wait, let me rewind that statement, I am more than a football fan, I am a GEORGIA BULLDOG fan! I love the Bulldogs and I love talking Bulldog football on college football Saturdays in the fall. And, one of my favorite all-time players is former Georgia Bulldog running back Herschel Walker.

Walker grew up in the rural south, and he didn't have access to great equipment or fitness programs. However, he never let that stand in the way of his success. And though many have questioned the truthfulness of his claims over the years, I believe it when he says he never used a weight or supplement to look like the physically chiseled specimen he did whilst playing running back for the University of Georgia because my personal experience planning and executing my own fitness plan has proven to many around me that much is possible if you're truly motivated.

That said, if you don't have a structured environment to walk into everyday, you have to be diligent in finding new techniques and avenues by which you can better assist your body in reaching it's potential.

At present, my home gym consists of several sets of dumbbells, a 20-lb barbell, a pilates ball, and an exercise bike. Those are my staples. However, using just those items, I am able to create a diverse workout routine that helps me build muscle, increase physical stamina, and tone and lift the parts that I most wish to emphasize when the weather is warm.

For example:

(using 20 lb dumbbells)

shrugs: 1 set/15 reps 
100 jumping jacks
shrugs: 1 set/15 reps
rest :20
curls: 1 set/12 reps
100 high knee runs in place
curls: 1 set/12 reps
rest :20
overhead tricep extension: 1 set/12 reps
Mountain Climbers for 30 seconds
overhead tricep extension: 1 set/12 reps
rest 1:00

The above is the upper body portion of my workout from last week.

I always do full body workouts because that works well for me and each workout typically includes 6-8 exercises per muscle group. So on that particular day I also did arms, legs, glutes, back, and abs. It was a 70 minute workout with a total rest time of 5:00 minutes.

Some days I increase the sets and decrease the repetitions just so I'm not overtaxing my muscles—leaving them susceptible to injury.

This is an approach that has worked well for me and I'm fairly satisfied with the results I've attained over the last year or so.

My point in sharing this with you is only to say that if you're honest about your fitness goals and you truly want to make a positive change to your body, you have to be willing to think outside the box.

My dedication to getting my family financially fit and debt free means that I am less inclined to spend money on luxuries like going to the gym. That's the plain and simple of it.  But by no means am I willing to let that be an excuse for me to not feel or look how I want.

Source: healthy-is-the-way-to-go.tumblr.com via Kimberley on Pinterest

Nuff' said.

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Truth in Individualty

I can be a tough woman to please. My mood shifts on a dime, I'm constantly obsessing over something that to most people would seem petty, and I'm never altogether certain if I'm where I want to be–emotionally–on any given day of the week.

Exercise, for me, offers a way to remain connected to my body (and hence myself) long enough to figure out what my goals are and where I need to refocus my attention in order to meet them.

However, if I make the mistake of going astray from my food diet or not getting the sleep I need the night before–often leading to a lackluster workout—then I'm prone to regress into bad habits as willingly as any other.

Simplicity comes easily only if you're life isn't complicated or cluttered. And if the only person you have to worry about is yourself, chances are it'll be easy to step away and not be as accountable for your misgivings because there won't be anyone there to call you on it.

That said, if you're presenting your life to the same people on a daily basis, any mistakes or missteps you make will undoubtedly be on display. You can try to run from their critiques for a while but, eventually, you will be forced to endure the opinion of that person who feels the need to "keep it real" with you.

The thing I've tried to learn from my numerous trips down the road of imperfection is that I'm likely always going to be my own worst critic. As such, the bar I've set for myself is one that has to be flexible, realistic, and open to success and my failure.

Truth in individuality is the key to becoming better as a person and more focused as a woman/man of good health (both physical and mental).

Take the three steps forward as a sign of progress and any regressions as your personal message that no improvement can be complete without first revisiting where you began.

There's More Than One Way to Approach a Healthy Lifestyle

I recently had a conversation with a friend about how she can adjust her eating habits now that she's a retiree, and no longer required to start her day at the crack of dawn.

Her dilemma was a simple one, with a not-so-simple solution: to continue her routine of eating five-to-six meals a day, but doing so outside of the structured day that she once led as a full-time employee.

Sounds easy, right?

Well, you'd be surprised the difference a few hours can make in your day when you're attempting to squeeze in the same number of meals–particularly if you aren't, as in the case of my friend, enthusiastic about eating in the first place.

My suggestion to her was to refocus her attention on the calories as opposed to the all too well known industry recommendation of "six-meals-a-day".

Many of us buy into the aforementioned approach, and have a reasonable amount of success following it, but what if your situation is similar to that of my friend, who now has no alarm to rule her day?

Her biggest problem is cramming more food into a shorter period of time. How do you do that without jeopardizing your desire to eat? Or, worse than that, skipping multiple meals altogether?

I'm not a doctor or a nutritionist, but I can tell you the one thing I've learned over the years where following a strict regimen is concerned, it doesn't matter when you eat so long as you're managing to eat right regularly.

What has always–and continues to–work for me is to shoot for a set amount of calories per day and spread the amount out over the course of my productive hours.

It doesn't matter if that means I'm eating three, four, or six meals in a day, so long as each meal is as balanced–caloric and nutritional wise–as possible.

By doing this, at least in my case, I'm able to adjust my food intake to the length of my day as opposed to depending on food intervals (breakfast, mid-morning snack, lunch, etc.) to dictate where my day begins and ends food wise.

The primary reason–in my humble opinion–most nutritionists offer the six meal a day suggestion plan is to get people who don't exercise good eating habits into the mode of eating regular meals. Regular meals are a necessary part of any successful fitness plan.

However, your plan has to work for you and what works for you may not be what works for everybody.

The key, in any case, is to keep your metabolism moving in the right direction and that can be done in any number of ways–even if that way appears chaotic and unstructured in nature.

Find what works for you and do that because there is certainly more than one way to approach a healthy lifestyle.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

My Contentious Relationship With Food

My love affair with food is a contentious one. Some days I wake up craving something sinful—like a bleu cheese burger with bacon and grilled mushrooms—while others I find that I am quite happy shying away from all things high fat, high cholesterol, and high trouble in favor of no meat at all.

The thing about feeding the body is it's always sending you messages about what you want, not necessarily what you need, and how you respond to those cues is paramount to how well your lifestyle of healthy living will be tolerated by it and you.

On a daily basis I'm trying to make choices as to how I can not only continue to stay on track, but how I can find more foods that will stimulate my palate and excite me when I'm at the dinner table. It's something that I've found to be a struggle at times—particularly as a mommy-on-a-budget.

Every two weeks I sit down and plan all of my meals individually, deciding my menu based on what's both cost efficient and convenient and, despite my desire to be creative, I still end up with the same basic items from the grocery store—tofo, soy, and beans. And while I've been able to be creative with those ingredients, it's still a grind because I've gone from offering myself a world of options (options that included as much meat, dairy, and sugar as I liked) to a much more limited one.

That said, I don't regret the decision to make those changes one bit. I feel and look better than I ever have and the increases in energy, stamina, and confidence are a definite plus. But, even with all of those positives, I have to continually find ways to be well-disciplined so that bad habits don't overwhelm my good senses.

For instance, there are days where I don't have time to prepare breakfast or lunch prior to the start of the day. That often leads to incessant snacking, at least in my case, because I am, literally, hungry all the time. That hunger, I know, is as a result of the calories I'm burning even while sitting completely still. So, to appease that hunger, I might take a bite of a muffin here, a piece of chocolate there, or pile on the carbs in hopes that I will find satiation in a hurry—and I often don't.

Sugar and carbs simply doesn't cut it for me and eventually, at least in my case, I cave to doing what I should have done at the start—prepare a wholesome meal to eat.

Being healthy has a lot to do with being disciplined and the one isn't truly possible without the other.

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