Putting up a Fight

In my recent posts, comments from both Marion at Affection for Fitness and Marc at Fat of Fit? got me thinking -- what are my fitness goals.

I'm doing a lot of different things at the moment, and while it may seem a bit chaotic, I'm actually really enjoying everything I'm doing. In fact there are several other things I'd be doing right now if I had more time (and I'd probably need more energy) - namely CrossFit, Zumba, and RPM.

Since I can't do it all (hrrumph) I'm focusing on MMA at the moment. I'm doing a combination of boxing, kickboxing, taekwondo, and Jiujitsu. What I'd really like to do is get to the point where I have developed very good technique and some bad ass power behind my punches (I'm very, very close). I still have a LOT of work to do on my kicks and knees. The ultimate goal is to train at Fight Club Kuwait. They're really intense and very, very good. I want to be sure I have a good foundation and feel up to it before I join so that I'm totally committed --- and then I can really kick some ass!

Right now I'm doing my MMA training 5-6 nights a week.

In the mornings I'm working on my cardio, resistance training, and flexibility.

Again, it may seem like a lot, but I believe all the workouts compliment each other ... and as long as I make sure to eat right and get proper rest, I think I'll be fine.

--------------

This morning I headed to Body Balance class. I cannot emphasize how much I absolutely adore that class. Many people come in and assume that it's going to be easy stretching and just some basic yoga. Let me tell you, we work up a sweat!

This evening I had cardio kickboxing. I was happy to be rockin' my new t-shirt from Fight Club Kuwait - co-sponsored with Fighting Against Rape, a foundation in Sweden that promotes self-denfense for women (and men).

I tried a spinning back fist today for the first time -- loved it, though of course I need more practice. :)

Today's Workout
Stretching: Body Balance (1 hour)
MMA: Cardio Kickboxing @ ClubFit (1 hour)
Burpees 40 {challenge total: 650/20,130

Today's Food
Breakfast: Egg muffins with quarter an avocado
Lunch: Grilled shrimp with sundried tomato
Dinner: White fish cooked with sweet potato, sugar snap peas, bell peppers, and mushrooms

Remembering the Adrenaline

After my first full day back at work, followed by a leisurely lunch with a friend, I headed home to rest for a bit  and do a few things in the house before this evening's taekwondo class ... and I have to admit, as it got closer to the time to leave the house, I started to get lazy.

I started to think of so many excuses - I was tired, my cramps were acting up, it's been a long day, etc. etc.

I knew I was just being lazy, and I also knew that I'd kick myself in the ass later for not working out, especially since I didn't go to the gym in the morning.

So I packed up my gym bag and headed out. In taekwondo class did lots of drills, mainly focusing on legs/lower body - tons of squats and kicks. We did some pad work and then it was time for Brazilian Jiujitsu. I'm loving both classes, particularly BJJ. It's a short class, and we only learn one move per session, but still - it's a lot to take in and it takes time to get it right.

On the drive home, the adrenaline kicked in. I felt so good.

I think I'm quite disciplined when it comes to getting my workouts in. It's just on days like these when that inner chubby chick resurfaces and tries to tempt me to stay on the couch and find something (anything) in the house to munch on.

It's ok that the chubby chick is still there because it reminds me of how far I've come and how strong I've become ... and it keeps motivating me to keep on going.

Today's Workout
MMA: Taekwondo & BJJ @ Sidekick Academy (1 1/2 hours)
Stretching: 15 minutes
Burpees: 20 {challenge total: 610/20.130}

Today's Food
Breakfast: Egg muffins
Lunch: Shrimp avocado salad
Dinner: Salmon baked with sun dried tomato and half a baked sweet potato (it was SO good!)
Snack: Banana, 2 dates, 2 teaspoons of natural peanut butter, green tea

If it doesn't challenge you ...

To lose weight and get healthy takes consistent effort. About 8 or 9 years ago, I wasn't making any effort. Then I finally started going to the gym, but I didn't change anything about my eating habits. I barely lost any weight.

Then I started to change my eating habits (quantity not quality) plus exercise, and the weight started coming off a bit more.

Finally I got the combination right -- exercise & eat clean. That's when the real progress happened.

That's where I'm at right now ... but where to go from here? I obviously still have a long way to go, but if I'm already following that winning combination, what do I do next?


I feel like each step has involved a reevaluation of my goals and a recommitment to fitness. I had to accept that I needed to step up my game in some way in order to see the change I wanted to see. Exercise was good, but it wasn't enough. Watching my portions was good, but it was not enough. I needed to do more.

There were many times when I thought - Wow, how much more can I do?

The truth is, the little slip ups here and there (the 'one doesn't matter' mentality) were adding up. I wasn't ready for that. It wasn't working for me.

When I was talking to one of the trainers at my gym about the soreness I was feeling after doing the burpees he said to me -- That's when you need to push harder and do a few more. That's when your body will change. 

So that's where I'm at right now. I'm still working on cleaning up my diet more and in terms of exercise, I need to make sure that even if I'm doing a few exercises (new rules of lifting only involves 4-5 exercises per session), I need to make sure I focus on form and technique and push myself. It's good if it's tough. That means my body is working harder towards achieving the changes I want to see.

It was after talking to him that I decided to push through with the burpees. I knew that the soreness in my thighs wasn't an injury - it was just my muscle reacting to the exercise. The thing about resting for a day or two is that I had to go through that initial soreness again.

For the past 4 days I've been banging them out and I'm really happy to say I don't have any soreness. I can definitely feel their impact, but I'm not wincing in pain with every step. It feels good to know that I'm getting stronger.

------

Ironically, even though we signed in at work to start our semester yesterday, we didn't have work today ... and aside from our first day of class tomorrow, the rest of the week is off as well - gotta love Kuwait University! :)

I took advantage of the day by getting in an early workout and then heading to another acupuncture session. The acupuncturist wanted to see me twice this week to kind of kickstart the process, and then I'll continue once a week for the next month to see if the treatment helps at all with my pain reduction.

Did you know there were that many pressure points on our head? 

I've gotten used to the feeling of the needles, but the dizziness and light-headedness after the session is really annoying. I had some dates with me for a bit of sugar/energy after the session. I needed them!

I really wanted to go home and sleep after the session, but I forced myself to go to the supermarket. My fridge and pantry are in desperate need for some sweet potatoes, bell peppers, and salad stuff.

Having lunch pre-prepared was a blessing! I definitely need to make sure I stay on top of that because once the semester really gets into full swing, it'll get easy to start slacking.

A quick lunch, a nap on the couch, a few tasks around the house plus a few blog comments throughout the afternoon.

I had a killer kickboxing class this evening. Marc has really upped the intensity of our combinations and I'm happy to say that I'm keeping up! It felt brilliant leaving the club drenched in sweat.

Tonight's dinner was out at a buffet -- luckily they had several options of delicious fish. I really enjoyed my meal. I ate a bit more than usual, but nothing terrible at all.


Today's Workout
Weights: NROL - Workout 2B (about 30 minutes)
Burpees: 60 {challenge total: 590/20,130}
MMA: cardio kickboxing 45 minutes @ ClubFit
Stretching: 15 minutes

Today's Food
Breakfast: Banana & 3 dates (one after my workout, 2 after acupuncture)
Lunch: baked white fish with 1/3 sweet potato (leftovers from yesterday)
Dinner: variety of seafood along with salad, some lentil soup, and baklava

Trying Out the New Plan

One of the best things I learned to do (practiced doing) since last year was not getting so freaked out and uptight when things didn't go according to plan. Something always seemed to come up. I didn't want those incidents to throw me off course. Rather, I wanted to learn how to roll with the punches and still make the most of my day.

Trying out the workout
Yesterday I put together my morning weights workout plan. My intention is to do this three times a week. The whole workout should take about 1 1/2 hours though I've put aside 2 hours just in case.

Of course this morning I realized that since it was the first day of the semester, I needed to go to work an hour earlier than I will have to starting next week. That totally threw off my timing.

Still, I shortened my warm-up, went straight for the weights workout, did my burpees, and then cooled down & stretched. I wanted to include a short HIIT session after the weights, but I skipped that for today. Hopefully I'll get it in next time.

Trying out the food
I made my egg muffins (basically following this recipe) first thing in the morning but then decided that I didn't want to eat them just before my morning workout. I thought they'd make a better post-workout meal - but would they taste ok cold? There are no food heating facilities at my gym & I definitely wanted to eat something after my workout. It turns out they were ok cold. I think I'm going to chop them up and add half an avocado for a more complete meal. I ate them at 8:30 a.m. -- I was hungry by 10:30. The last thing I want is for my stomach to be growling in the middle of one of my lectures!

I've also decided to make an extra portion of dinner so that I can eat it for lunch the next day. I'm just way too hungry by the time I get home - and being hungry & impatient often leads to unhealthy choices. I'm going to try the leftovers for lunch thing out and see how it goes.

Trying out acupuncture
Yes - this is something new. I finally got an appointment with an acupuncturist who is supposed to be really good. I decided to go because the cramps from my fibroids have just gotten too painful. I'm getting them daily. Although they only occur 3-4 times a day for a short time, it's still enough to make me feel really uncomfortable and of course in pain. I definitely don't want to go through another surgery, and I do believe that's where I'm headed, without trying out other options. So acupuncture it was.

The acupuncturist was optimistic that she could help. I also told her about a few little niggling pains I had in my knee, hip, and shoulder (all on the left side) as well as my migraines and she said she could help with those as well. I'll write more about my experience in another post. For now I'll just say that it wasn't too bad and I'm hopeful.

I will be seeing her regularly for at least a month. This is not something that I planned for, so I'll have to see how I can incorporate this change into my schedule.


Today's Workout
Cardio: 20 minutes on the cross-trainer
Weights: NROL - Workout 2A (about 30 minutes)
Burpees: 90 {challenge total: 530/20,130}
MMA: taekwondo & jiu jitsu @ Sidekick Academy (75 min)
Stretching: 15 minutes

Today's Food
Breakfast pre-workout: Banana
Breakfast post-workout: Egg muffins (3 = 180 calories total)
Lunch: grilled lamb, hummus, muhamara, and 2 pita breads {leftovers from last night}
Dinner: baked white fish with 1/3 sweet potato and some peas
Snack: 2 chocolate digestive biscuits

Exercise was great; food wasn't perfect, but am definitely much more on track.

I'm satisfyingly sore and really sleepy.

Phase 2 of 2013

Week in Review (Jan. 13 - 19)

As part of the 13 in 13 challenge, I wrote out goals for both the year and the month. In order to help me focus on what needed to be done, I typed up and printed out a very simple, basic checklist. I've spent many hours planning, organizing, making lists, and doing it over and over again until it looked right/looked appealing ... it got to the point where I spent too much bloody time planning and not nearly enough time doing! So this time I kept it simple:

I'm definitely behind which is really annoying, but it is what it is. I just gotta try and fill up as many more blanks as I can. At the end of the month I'll reevaluate the plan and modify as necessary.

I started off the year by writing down my workouts and what I ate at the end of my blog post. I need to get back to doing that. It'll help me keep track of what I'm doing and also how it is having an impact on my progress. Plus I know that tracking my food always helps me stick to my plan.

My week in review: 

Workout sessions: 3 cardio; 2 weight training; 5 martial arts; 1 body balance

Daily stretching: 7 days

Burpee count: 300 {challenge total: 440/20,130}

Plan for the upcoming week

I had such big plans for my 3 week vacation but it didn't go as well as I had hoped. I did get a few things done and I think I did the best I could in terms of exercise given my bronchitis. I'm actually kind of relieved that I'll be getting back into a more structured routine. I definitely think having the time off and being home for so much time (coz' of the illness) led to me eating more than I should have.

I start my new semester tomorrow. I spent about four hours today getting organized for the week.
What I got done:

• this week's menu [breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snacks] + grocery list
• filled in my planner with the week's errands and appointments
• organized my lessons
• tried on and selected my work outfits for the week
• wrote out my workouts

In addition to this I got some general house prep done - laundry, organizing, etc. This upcoming week will still be a bit off plan since D's parents are still here. However, I've worked that into my schedule as well. I'm hoping that I'll be able to stick to it, but I've got a few contingency plans set aside as well. Saturday mornings will definitely be put aside as my organization day. I feel much calmer and in control now that the plan has been written out. I'll be really happy if I'm able to implement it. We'll see how it goes.

Something new in my schedule that I started today was going to a Saturday session of kickboxing at ClubFit. We had a great class today. It totally got me revved up for the upcoming week.

Let's get Phase 2 of 2013 started!

No Equipment, No Excuse!

Since I've worked out each day this week, even twice on some days, I've given myself Fridays as a kind of rest/workout as needed day. I want to push myself, but I don't want to overdo it. I certainly don't want to feel guilty for taking some time to recover if needed.

I wasn't really going to do anything today, but I felt rested enough (and definitely well fed) so I put together a home workout for myself.

I was going to use some of the exercises that Norma wrote about in her blog recently (read this and this). Those workouts called for nothing but some water bottles and a couch. Seriously, no excuse to not doing at least a few of those exercises each day. However, I decided to take it one step further and not use any equipment at all. All you need is your body, a bit of space, and the desire to get it done.

Today's at home workout (total 50 minutes):

Warm-up (5 min)
dynamic stretches (arm circles, leg swings, hip circles, etc. (here's a link for some ideas)

Workout

60 jumping jacks

10 burpees
20 lunges per leg
10 burpees
20 ab crunches
10 burpees
20 deep squats
20 sets of 2 left jabs + 2 right crosses
10 burpees
20 butt raises
20 push ups (regular, on knees or toes)
10 burpees
20 side leg ups per leg
10 burpees
20 kneeling leg kicks per leg
10 burpees
20 reverse curls
10 burpees

20 sets of 2 hooks/side & 2 jabs/side

10 burpees

20 bicycle crunches

10 burpees

60-sec plank hold

Cool down (15 minutes)

I combined basic cool down stretches (examples here) with some of my usual yoga moves. 

[At the end of this workout I realized I only had 20 burpees left to make it 120 (I'm trying to do 60 a day and I'm really behind) so I went ahead and did them. 

An hour and I'm done. 

Take some time, put together your favorite playlist with some heart-pumping tunes and get to it!

Mental Scolding vs. Negative Self-Talk

This morning I read Diane's post: Stumbles Can Really Trip You Up, and in my comment I wrote something that I wanted to pursue a bit further.

I've had a bit of trouble finding my footing since I came down with bronchitis earlier this month. For 3-4 days I hardly ate anything. As I started to get better, my appetite started to return. I wasn't eating junk food, but I wasn't eating nearly as clean as I should have been eating. Bread has been my biggest issue. Although having 2 slices of bread may not seem like much, I knew that it wasn't what I wanted to eat or should be eating - especially given that I know how NOT eating bread feels so much better.

The main problem was that I had the food in the house. I know that I've written many times before - both in my blogs and in comments - about not buying unhealthy foods (unhealthy to any degree and at any level) in the first place. As I said in a previous post, the foods were in the house for other people. It's the reality, and it's also the excuse I used to let go and lose my focus.

I wish I had exercised more self-control and discipline. However, I didn't. I ate. I wasn't mindful. I wasn't vigilant.

Out here in the blogging world there are many people who write about setbacks and binges. There are many words and phrases - accountability, honesty, guilt, being forgiving of myself - that are expressed when describing these setbacks.

We all look at these occurrences from our own perspective. Some people are really tough on themselves - so tough that they eat even more to cope. Others are lenient with themselves and convince themselves that 'one doesn't matter.' A few are mean towards themselves and really criticize their 'failings.' I could go on.

Whenever I'd binge in the past, this is the commentary that would happen in my head:

'You're disgusting. Have you no self-control? You're such a loser. You're useless. You're so fat and ugly. You should be ashamed of yourself. You're pathetic.'

I knew I had done something silly, something that was not helping me work towards reaching my goals at all ... but my negative self-talk didn't help either. It just made me feel worse. It made me feel like there was no way I was going to come out of this abyss. Not only was I useless, but the situation that I was in was hopeless as well. That's when the 'might as well ...' statements started going through my head - just to make things worse!


I'm still irritated at myself for the Doritos incident from Tuesday. I'm annoyed that I'm feeling so hungry and that all I want to do is eat. I'm worried and fearful about losing complete control.

I am aware of all these thoughts and feelings ... and now the dialogue in my head goes like this:

'You need to stop. You need to be careful. It's ok to be hungry, just don't eat crap. Think about all the progress you have made. Do you really want that hard work to go to waste? Eat to fuel your body. Eat to enjoy the flavors of foods that are good for you. You are strong. You are in control. Do not let an inanimate object have power over you. You talk about discipline and focus - now practice it. Be smart. As yourself - are you really hungry? If you are - EAT. Do not be afraid of food, but watch yourself. Do not be stupid. Do not hurt yourself because you deserve better.'


I've noticed a really big change in my tone. While my previous self was really, really harsh and didn't help at all, my current self is still angry, but not in a way that shoves me deeper into a hole. I think it's important to be careful, aware, and strict with yourself. For me, mindless eating is not okay. I don't need to make myself suicidal over it (which used to be the case sometimes), but I do need to be stern with myself.

Some people may see this as a bit extreme. Again, this is just my reaction to the choices that I have made.

Yesterday when I was sitting outside, having some green tea, and waiting for a friend, all I could think was 'I really want a chocolate chip cookie.' That's when I stopped myself and said - eat if you're hungry, but don't eat crap.

I think this is the best advice that I've given to myself. I've gone through so many periods in my life where my fear of eating has led me to starve myself -- which of course only ended up in a binge of junk food ... not smart at all.

Again, to some people having a cheese sandwich may not seem like a big deal. A bag of Doritos (the first time I've eaten chips in who knows how many months - maybe even a year) in the scheme of things may not be a big deal at all. Perhaps it's not. The main thing is that I didn't need it and I really should be more careful.


I do not hate myself for how I've been eating for the past few days, but I do feel disappointed. I know that I can work hard and get back on track RIGHT NOW (not tomorrow or after the next meal or next week) and get over that disappointment. It's so much more uplifting to work with that type of attitude versus one where you just want to continue to hurt yourself in order to somehow escape the self-loathing.

This new perspective - that the reason I should eat well and exercise is because I deserve better - is a huge change for me. I am confident that this rough patch is over (mainly because all that other food is out of the house!!) and that I will continue with the healthy lifestyle that I have been working so hard to cultivate.