Finding Your Fitness Bliss

Many of us avoid working out because we don't enjoy it.  However I truly believe there is a "fitness bliss" out there for everyone, and it may change as you change or get older or modify your goals.
I use to love only lifting weights, I hated cardio with a passion.  Now I can't say that I enjoy doing cardio MORE than lifting weights these days but I found my cardio bliss finally!
I personally love at home dvds, sometimes I just don't feel like going to the gym, or like now when I am injured don't think its a good idea.  My at home workout bliss is my own personal gym and workout dvds that are fast paced and fun.  Some of my favorites are P90x, this is a hardcore workout and if you aren't in ok shape to begin with, don't start here, but work up to it.  Zumba dvds, now I am not the most coordinated person when it comes to dancing, but I'm not bad either, I catch on pretty quickly, but zumba at home, I can just make stuff up without feeling like I am messing up, its all about moving and having fun.
Then there are my fitness bliss's at the gym, my current love is the Precor AMT, its an elliptical type of machine, but allows you to change your stride in an instant.  So I can go from doing a long running stride to walking to stairstepping without hesitation, it even goes backwards.  My mother actually pointed these out to me when I was going to the gym with her in VA for a while.  Now I specifically found a gym that had them and use it 30 minutes each time at least and burn at least 300 calories.  My big gripe about cardio equipment was the monotony of it all and this helped a lot with that!
So what is your fitness bliss? Do you like classes? Gym? Weight lifting? Walking? Running? Water Aerobics? Try everything and you will find your fitness bliss and when you get bored with that one try everything again and you fill find a new one! Good Luck!

Injuries

We all end up with an injury that just seems to be a complete kink in our plans for weight loss, getting healthy or getting in shape.  Recently this has happen to me.  Last Wednesday at volleyball I re-injured my index finger on my right hand and then on top of that hurt my wrist (probably because I kept playing with the first injury).  I have tenderness, lack of strength and overall pain and swelling.  As you can imagine this puts in a kink in my 3 to 4 times a week on an elliptical machine followed by a fast pace all over circuit training workout.  Not only can I not grip things but any of those motions just sound painful.  I did end taking a break for a few days, ok the week, due to the pain and swelling and by the time I did anything else that day my arm was throbbing and my fingers aching.  But it doesn't help me reach my goal to just sit around and ice my hand and wrist all day, so I have been trying to figure out other ways to work towards my goals while not putting any pressure on my wrist.
So here is what I have come up with for now, I will walk, without the dogs (yep tried that too hurts when they pull on the leash) 2-3 days a week.  I will also try and go 3-4 days a week to the gym and ride the recumbent bike for 20-30 min, that or the treadmill if I get too bored.  None of these things will put a really bad strain on my hand or wrist and will allow me to move forward, albeit after my week long pity party.
The good news is I did actually book a doctors appointment with an orthopedic hand specialist for Friday, so hopefully I can get some answers, and maybe even the past injuries resolved.
So the point is, just because you can't do what your plan was, doesn't mean you can't meet your goal.  So take a few days to give yourself a pity party or just to make the excruciating pain go down.  Then reformulate and rethink your plan with your new constraints so that you aren't back at square one when your injury free, because its likely that then you will just hurt something else!

Whats your motivation?

What is your motivation to achieve your goal of losing weight or getting in better shape?  Mine personally is liking what I see in the mirror.  Right now I don't feel like I see me.  Instead its this faint idea of who I am, now that can be taken both figuratively and literally, and I would probably agree with that statement in both respects.  However for now we will concentrate on the literal.
Before I look in the mirror I expect to see someone who is thin, fit and has their head together.  Instead I end up seeing someone who has lost their way with their goals to stay in shape and be fit.
I can't say I spend every moment of every day believing I will achieve those goals or even working towards them.  A lot of that is my attitude and sabotaging myself with negative thinking.  So my goal for the week is to work on my negative thinking and self sabotaging.
Starting with today, I am going to put in to place an eating plan since I can't seem to make the right choices when I need to.  I tend to do well with structure and lists but not going quite to the point of planning every morsel I am going to put in my mouth for the week.  But just limiting my choices seems to help.  I personally really like the Body for Life for Women book and have always done well with their eating plan, so I am going to be using that for myself.  It also helps me eat smaller meals more often, remember to measure my food and eat all my fruits and veggies!  
The second thing I am going to do is try and check off many of my "to do" list items that I can come up with for the week so that I am not as distracted so that I can achieve my weight loss and fitness goals as well as my others with my classes.
Lastly I am going to have some fun, I am a rather serious person on the best of days and I am realizing more and more I am not having FUN, so with my new outdoor furniture put together (yep no thanks to me- B did it all) and a stack of magazines that just came in, I am going to enjoy the beautiful weather with my hubby and pups and drink a few glasses of wine and have a great evening!

Treadmills, hands and what to do

I have noticed this the past few times I have been at the gym, several people get on a treadmill or elliptical and hold on for dear life, the ENTIRE time.  Now if you have balance issues thats probably a good idea, but these are not people who appear to have that problem.  A few days ago, two guys were working out and ended it on the ellipticals and while they had moving hand holds, they decided to hang on to the heart rate sensor and bar the entire time.  I was baffled, mainly because it decreases your heart rate and burns less calories and it truly doesn't take all that much more to put your hands on the already moving arms. Then just yesterday I was on a cardio machine thats in the line behind the treadmills and this lady comes in and gets her tv (all treadmills have their own tv) set up, starts the treadmill and brings it up to an incline, she then holds on for dear life so just doesn't go flying off the back.  She was probably at a speed of 4 or 5, so a good pace.  I desperately wanted to inform her if she decreased the speed or incline ever so slightly she would actually get a better workout.  You should never NEED to hold on to the arms besides at the start and stop.  Pumping her arms burns far more calories than the death grip.  Not to mention she also looked ridiculous trying to attempt this.  I did spy a bit (for the purpose of this blog), she had put in to do 45 min and 25 min later her grip was failing so she had to quit.
So the reason I bring this up to you today is this, DO NOT use the death grip while walking or running on a treadmill or elliptical, if you can't do that speed or incline without holding on, decrease either and pump your arms, its more effective in the end and burns more calories.  Not to mention you don't get blogs made about your silliness afterwards!
What are your pet peeves of things people do at the gym that are definitely not correct form or function?

Day 1 of the New Blog!

Now that my blog has found an identity, you can see I updated the look to match! I am going to be deleting the old posts as well just to have a seamless blog overall. For all of you who become "followers" of the blog, starting next week I am going to do giveaways for those who make comments on my postings, so please join, comment and enjoy!

On to the good stuff....

Getting healthy, losing weight are all things many of us say but don't necessarily act on, to make happen. Yes we have good intentions, but when it comes down to it many of us simply let it slide. I am a big culprit of letting this happen to me, and that's probably why I keep saying this will be the year, this is the right time and then 6 months later I am at the same place, or worse, I am heavier or less healthy for one reason or another.

Needless to say I am the conductor of the train of excuses, when it comes to this! My famous line is, I couldn't because ____. Now I don't have kids, but I have been shuffled about during my married life and well ours schedules weren't exactly what one would call normal, so I used it as an excuse. I tend to get injured a lot and while that never held me back in high school or college, for some reason in the 'real' world they became my excuses. So I am getting off the excuse train, how can the conductor leave you ask, well the train stops here!

I can't say I won't ever give another excuse why I wasn't at the gym that day, but I am going to commit to myself and to you all, that I am going to try and put excuses on hold as much as possible and reach my goals. Positive thinking people!

No it won't be easy, yes I will likely fight this in an hour when its time to actually go to the gym, but if we could all stop making excuses why we aren't reaching our health and fitness goals, we might realize we can actually make them!

Are you full of excuses or do you tend to be a more positive thinker? Also what are your goals in the health and fitness world?

Identity Crisis

My blog seems to have an identity crisis and since I would like to change it in to something for more than just my family and friends, I have decided to give it an identity.

Over the next few months my posts are going to be about getting healthy, both mentally and physically and my journey with weight loss. I will be testing out different ideas, commenting on new things in the fitness world, and expressing my great disdain that fat does not just melt away without the workout. I hope it inspires you to get healthy, try out some new things and maybe get on the treadmill (or whatever piece of dreaded cardio you like)!

Motivation.. or lack there of...

This week has been a struggle in the motivation department. I had a stressful start to the week and then got a little sick with being congested and to top it off on Wednesday I got a bruised face by getting hit in the face with a volleyball at volleyball. Thats a long story of bad blocking, someone else calling the ball and obviously not getting it and me not paying enough attention to get my hands up fast enough, oh and a crazy asian hitting. To me the only really bad part was how much a jerk he was afterwards about it, but with that team not surprised.

My problem for this week has been motivating myself to overcome these and get going. I have been great at avoiding what needs to be done by coming up with other things to do or simply not getting anything done. Neither of which exactly improves my life, mood or motivation and often detracts from all of those.

So I have come up with this concept, I am going to reward myself. For instance, I really don't feel like going to the gym today because I still have a bit of a headache and to be honest it just sounds like way more work than I feel like putting in, but if I go I will have reached my goal of workouts for the week and therefore should reward myself, I think that will be going to the movies! As far as my daily "chores" for stuff around the house, that is going to take a bit more motivation and a bit more of a reward. I need to go to the laundromat, because I have several things that don't fit in my normal washer/dryer that need to be cleaned, needless to say I truly hate the laundromat, it goes against well everything in my being to go. So I am going to have to come up with a good reward for this one, any suggestions?

Also what do you do to overcome your lack of motivation? I could definitely use some pointers for future days when the rewards just don't do it!