Loving yourself

First off, I have been loving my new Gymboss timer! My fiancé got it for me for christmas and it makes working out SO much easier (and more fun, I'm a dork that way!). The gymboss timer (www.gymboss.com) allows you to easily time interval workouts (and build workouts around interval training) and also has a stopwatch function. One of my favorite parts of the timer is how its really small and you can clip it onto your workout gear (or use the provided armband to clip it onto) making it convenient to take just about anywhere.

My workouts are much more fun and challenging with that little device clipped onto my sports bra. :)

IN OTHER NEWS...

I've been doing a lot of yoga and health reading - specifically focusing on women and stages of their lives. Yoga has always been an interest of mine - my mom used to teach me poses when I was a small child and I just ate it up! It just goes to prove that yoga is good for all ages, and its definitely good for all people - male, female, old, or young, no matter the stage in life or physical issues. With a good teacher you can not only deal with weird body issues (like the plate in my arm or old injuries, pregnancy, bad backs, etc) but gain strength, flexibility, and lots and lots of self esteem. Every time you finish a yoga session you gain something, and I've never left a class feeling worse emotionally, physically, or spiritually than I did before I went in. The best way to experience yoga (as a beginner) is to go to classes. From there the possibilities are endless. I love to do my own practice at home, sometimes guided by my body's needs, sometimes by a prescribed 'routine' I find in a book. one of my favorite books for home 'routines' is "moving towards balance: 8 weeks of yoga with Rodney Yee" which covers 8 weeks, explains each pose in detail and provides 8 weeks of daily yoga routines that will help you grow in your yoga program - all while providing helpful modifications for those of us who are less able to do the poses for various reasons (like lacking flexibility, having hurt joints, or other pain). The book I've just been reading avidly is "The Woman's Book of Yoga & Health" by Linda Sparrowe and Patricia Walden. This book is SO great for talking about needs specific to women that yoga (the practice and the lifestyle) can help. One of the most important subjects that they talk about is loving your body how it is.

How many of you don't love your body as a whole? I'd guess most of you dislike some aspect of your body or the other. I always let myself dislike my thighs and rear, which is counter productive in SO many ways. One of the things we should always remember to do is love our body for the good things and refuse to think about the bad. Instead of thinking about how huge I envision my thighs to be, I should think about what they allow me to do and that I'm blessed to have them.

I challenge you to love your body. Love the way your feet allow you to walk, the way your thighs allow you to do squats, the way your upper arms balance you out, and the way that your stomach allows you to digest foods. And remember. your body is yours, it serves you and protects you. Its yours for better or for worse, so take care of it too!

Also if you need snack ideas on the go check out maggiebasiaga.wordpress.com

Vacation Burpees and some of the story with my arm

Last post for today, I swear! :)

On my holiday to Colorado I made Ethan (my fiancé) take videos of me doing burpees in some of the places we went. By that time my arm was feeling a lot better - just painful to the touch in one spot.

For those of you who read and haven't known me forever - I had an ulna shortening procedure in 2002 to even out the radius and ulna. The unevenness was caused by a break in 2000 that healed over the growth plate in the radius and allowed my ulna to get longer than the radius. Very painful. The procedure looks kind of like this: (graphic pictures, so be warned) http://handclinic.i2in.co.uk/ulna-shortening/

anyway. my arm now looks like this:

About a week before Christmas I started experiencing incredible pain that seem to start from that screw closest to my elbow. The general consensus is that the hardware needs to come out, so now I am waiting to see when that will happen.

Anyway.

Zuzana and Freddy at Bodyrock.tv have a habit of doing burpees in some of the cool places they travel to, so I decided to take their lead and get videos in the garden of the gods and UC Boulder!

Workouts for the last couple of weeks :)

I guess I should post my last several workouts! :)

some of these are from when I was experiencing painful inflamation around the hardware in my arm:

12/16/2010

12/20/2010

12/21/2010

12/23/2010

(still taking it easy on the arm)

12/29/2010

12/31/2010 - Last workout of 2010!

1/3/2011 (first actual workout of the new year!)

1/4/2011

1/5/2011

So that's the workouts I did over the holidays (that I actually wrote down - there were some unrecorded, improvised workouts in there - Like on christmas day :))

hopefully someday soon I'll get workout videos up! :)

Motivating day to day

This is a common question. You've made the resolution to workout regularly, but when it comes to that day, you can't seem to get around to your workout. Everyone struggles with finding the motivation to workout, even those of us who look forward to it every day! So what gets you to workout? Are you a social person who will do it if a friend is depending on you? Then get a workout buddy. I personally use working out as a chance to think through my day and plan out what I want to do and once I have started my workout the trick is getting me to stop! The trick to finding your motivation is to find your own. Find the time that works for you to workout and a place to workout that doesn't cow you or make you uncomfortable. Another part to making working out a motivation in itself is to find a workout that inspires you to do it every day. There are so many choices out there of workouts to do that there is bound to be one that inspires you. you have choices including, but not limited to, lifting weights at the gym, running or walking on a treadmill, bodyweight exercises, pilates, yoga, dance, martial arts, sports (like soccer, football, basketball, squash, you name it!) and workout videos that you do from home. There are so many resources available to people who want to get in shape, and many of them are free or inexpensive, so take advantage!

Some places to look for your motivation (that have helped me find mine):

bodyrock.tv (you all know how much I talk about this website!)

exercisetv.tv (a great source for streaming workout videos with lots of great trainers to pick from)

womenshealthmag.com (the magazine - great workouts and lots of other fun things to look at)

yogajournal.com

rodney yee yoga products (videos, books, classes, and website)

the fitness video section of your favorite bookstore

Library books and videos

i know i'm missing some, so let me know what inspires (inspired) you!

and for your diet questions, check out my friend Maggie's Blog: Food Moment

http://maggiebasiaga.wordpress.com/author/maggiebasiaga/

New Years and resolutions

My future 'step-sister-in-law' wrote a beautiful note about the new year on facebook. The viewpoint is perfect for one of the problems in making your new years resolutions stick... Especially for working out and maintaining a healthy diet.

HAPPY NEW DAY. (my take on New Years) by Ashley George

"IT'S A NEW YEAR.

You know, I think we give each year a lot more credit than they're worth. What about all the days in between?
So many people decide once a year that they'll make resolutions. Stop smoking, lose weight, clean out the closet, journal, etc.
What happens after a few months? Well, a lot of times, the dedicated few can stick with it. I admire that. BUT, so many people end up not being able to keep their commitment, often times leading to disappointment in themselves. Am I wrong?
Why is it that ONCE A YEAR, we decide to set our bigger goals? Then we get sidetracked, lose focus, and then feel like we need to wait again until December the 31st to start over? It's like the person who says "I'll start that project on Sunday". Why not start the project on a Wednesday? What's wrong with all the Tuesdays or Fridays?
Why not celebrate the coming of a new month? What about a new week? What about a new DAY?!
What if we all started off each day saying "Okay, TODAY I'm going to really work on complimenting other people." or "TODAY I'm going to keep every promise I make.", "TODAY I will take 20 minutes to relax".
For a couple years, i have refused to say happy new year. I try my very best to acknowledge new days. Yeah I fail at that pretty often, but I don't have to wait any longer than 24 hours for the next one.
Waiting 24 hours for a fresh start instead of 12 months? Sounds good to meeeeee.

--Just some food for thought =]


"THIS is the day the Lord has made. Let us rejoice and be glad in it!!"
-Psalm 118:24

[Oh look, I just noticed the verse is 24. hahaha that made me happy.]



HAPPY NEW DAYYYYY!!!!

:D"

So what's my point with this? She's right, and it applies to every area of your life. You can't make changes if you don't make a dedication to those changes DAILY. Saying you are going to get fit in the new year; lose those 20 extra pounds and go for a run at least once a week at the new year doesn't help you with the daily grind. As she points out, lots of people struggle to stick to their resolutions then decide it can wait until the new year. I beg you - don't let that person be you! Make your resolutions a daily goal-setting practice. Before you go to bed tell yourself that tomorrow you will do your first workout. Remember, you don't need a gym membership! There are lots of ways to get in a workout without ever going to a gym and it's easy to start small. I have several websites I use to help me stay on course with my workouts because I really dislike going to the gym and working out with all sorts of strangers around. If you aren't ready for some of my workouts start with something simple - do 20 jumping jacks, 20 crunches, 20 squats, 20 lunges, and 20 modified pushups 2-5 times through. It's easy to do that and it's a start towards your goals. Go for a long walk or a short jog. Go outside and play a sport with your children (or, if they're younger, go chase them around for a little while, trust me, that's an excellent workout!). So start your working out today - it's a new day. Then do it again tomorrow. If your resolutions are small and manageable and you can start over every 24 hours, you'll build healthy habits and it's not so hard to keep up!

I wish you all a happy new year, and a happy new day. Lets make 2011 a year of daily resolutions to be healthier and fitter. I know you can make that happen for yourself.

-Katie

bodyrock.tv

For those who haven't checked out this site, I highly recommend it! Zuzana has creative, fun, and short-but-effective workouts. She also has a great section for food and life and her body is totally inspirational. I got today's workout from her site, it's an older one (June 8, 2010) that she called "Sexy Pain Train Workout"

http://www.bodyrock.tv/2010/06/08/sexy-pain-train-workout/

The exercises:

18 rounds of 30s:10s

1) Sumo High Knees

2) Reptile-on-the-run

3) one-leg switching squat

4) push-up and knee-tuck

5) forward/backward jump and touch down (like frog hops forward and back)

6) oblique burpees

my scores:

1) 53, 38, 42

2) 21, 17, 22

3) 11, 11, 13

4) 10, 11, 10

5) 26, 23, 25

6) 6, 6, 6

zuzana's score from June:

1. 77, 36, 27

2. 22, 19, 17

3. 6, 6, 5

4. 12, 9, 8

5. 23, 23, 21

6. 7, 7, 6

whoops!

I've been really bad about putting up my workout every day, so now i have another HUGE catch up to do. My next post will try to explain each of the moves in the workouts - you'll notice I do a lot of the same moves over and over again (because they work!). My very shot term goal is to get a picture (possibly even a video) of each exercise. at some point I may be able to do full videos of my workouts (but I'll probably need some help). In the meantime, I HAVE been working out, sleeping plenty (I now have the luxury to be able to do that), and trying to eat better - the hardest part for me.

I have also been planning on becoming a licensed personal trainer, I just have to get through money spending for Christmas and my wedding before I can forsee a budget with which to pay for the schooling :).

So - here are the workouts from the past couple of weeks:

(you'll notice in that one ^ that I changed the workout halfway through - I do that sometimes if an exercise is bothering one of my old injuries...)

(this one was another i took from bodyrock.tv - it was awesome and a great choice because i didn't need a tabata, just a stopwatch. I'm still working on getting a gymboss timer...)

(and here you can see me supplementing after the workout because it felt so good I didn't want to stop!)

one of my own - this one focused a lot of core strength to maintain balance - so i called it the 'ab killer'!

finally we are to yesterday's workout. I changed some of the moves (high knees and ninja jump tucks) because my ankle started 'shouting' at me about the high impact of landing.

this one is from womenshealthmag.com and I usually barely make it through and then am incredibly sore (muscles) for several days. I decided it was time to give it another try, so I did it after yesterday's workout when I felt I could keep on working. :)

I'm a little sore now, but not nearly as much as I have been in the past... touch wood! :)

Hopefully, I will be back with more blogs, more frequently, in the future!

Let me know if there are any topics you're interested in, but don't have time to research... I will happily research and report to you!