Awaken The Athlete Goal Plan

Goals

Principals of Bruce Lee

Be honest with oneself, combine natural instinct with control….flow like water, don't take your eyes off the moon, find balance. If you pay attention to his words they are priceless.

Lets talk about plan outline this week. Today I will get into goals. There is an overall general goal and then detailed short term and long term goals. You want to know these goals but not overwhelm yourself so lets go in steps.

My details and yours may differ but the process is pretty much the same, do your best to treat yourself as your own client too, you know yourself best even when working with a trainer. If you have read my posts from this series starting January 4th then you are already looking at your mental prep and can start getting into some fun stuff. The goal you want, that awesome body, feeling strong and invincible - Health at its peak! You want to feel you have reached some physical potential and play with this vessel you have been given by testing it out. Its time to be doing things you always wanted to try, small or big things, and going for it with confidence and the will to try. This step forward is doing just that, isn't that just too cool?

General and Short Term Goals

Before I get into the detailed things I personally want to work on, I am going to focus on a very short term general goal, probably exactly the same as most of you.  Those of you regularly exercising and just using this to get to a new level don't really fall into the same goal idea as the restarters and beginners but your general goal is the shift which all this is prep toward. You're moving from goals you have attained toward newer ones that take you a level up. Us restarters and beginners are also kind of in the same arena except our goal is to get going, stick out this starting point and feel good through it.

For us we are more likely to have bumps that may throw us off since you regulars are already in Beastmode! So there is our general goal, the restarters and the beginners are working on the 'Get into Beastmode' general short term goal. You regulars are looking at 'Step up the Beastmode' goal, shifting into a higher gear and taking things up a notch.

Most of us have long term desires of fat loss, muscle gains, body shaping and some finer tweaks. For now, just getting in Beastmode will start the process on most of our various goals. Once we are habitual then we can pin point more detailed areas to be refined and apply those goals into the program by making the appropriate changes.

Right now the goal is Commitment which means habit, consistency, prove it, do it, get used to things, the shopping, the eating, the new schedule that fits all this comfortably. Week one into the program is about feeling it out, then the next few weeks solidify the pattern and clock some time repeating it as a lifestyle and daily schedule. That’s the practice. You work out the kinks and usually it happens within week 1, by week 2 you start to feel it flow.

The guaranteed results that you can expect, if you stay as consistent as possible at doing something each day, will be better sleep, better digestion, a body that is settled into schedule so that you don't have to force the sleep and training or eating, it just happens naturally usually the same time each day.

You will see changes in clothing fit, scale or mirror but will definitely FEEL the changes in all sorts of improvements that are personal to your weak spots. You may notice things feeling better that you did not notice were off because you just lived with it. I find my health issues all improve and quieten once I am on my 2 gallon water per day. My sleep and hunger are predictable and call to me at same times each day once I am working out daily. I get a pattern with that within work, home, life etc. You find you have more energy, get to your workouts eagerly and enjoy eating healthier. You flow.
Isn't that a great goal and isn’t even better to know you are guaranteed these results just by applying yourself comfortably and that means you, any of you! Sometimes its so obvious others notice the glow and changes within a few weeks which is a bit of a moral boost to keep you motivated toward tomorrows effort.

Simple Fitness Planning

My goal is to add some activity at least 3 times per week, every other day and if I am flowing well up to 5 days.

Figure out how many days you are going to commit for now, for the first few weeks only.

I gave myself some play so that if I only do 3 days I get my goal and don’t beat myself up about the other 2 days. If I add a day or 2 more on the fly, it fits and I feel like it, then that just gives me a boost that I am on the top end of my goals. Play with that idea. Keep in mind my history is 6-7 days exercise some days for hours so for me this is a lower end and fair way to get started. You may only be looking at a day or 2 per week to ease in, its all personal to your level and history etc, remember the posts before this one, be real while you reach for the stars, balance, its done in steps.  Overreachin can also be sabotage.

What do we like to do, what do we want to add that we know we will make the effort to do? Don't say some sport you never did and NOW want to try. That works for some and clicks, but for others that is not familiar and can backfire so know yourself. I want to say gymnastics for me but I know very well it would be entry level, short time spurts of it and if I am real, my body needs some prep and conditioning first so I am risking re injury if I push for that. What I am saying is also don't try to do what you used to do when you were fit because it many not be time to start that quite yet either. BUT these are the detailed goals and long term goals I spoke of and will be considered later on so hang on to those goals. We are going on a prepping program right now toward those!

Your failsafe

Also think about a back up, if you can't make the gym or find you won't train at home, find it hard to follow your present plan, have a simple set up that you can do anytime that you can fit in, a small fast block of exercises you know you can do with a band or body weight or whatever. Keep it simple. Just do something rather than miss.  Re adjust the plan so that it won't be missed, address the kink and find a way around it, eliminate it.  Unexpected happens all the time to any of us, being prepared is prudent.

I am going to be adding weight work for lower body as my focus, not to say I won't hit other body parts but these need it most, are big muscle groups and the knees need the conditioning. The right knee especially since its just under 2 years from a knee reconstruction then another surgery for meniscus repair. I lost muscle, strength, stability, torque, speed and agility. This will help. WE can't fit it all in at once and I am being real with my time and motivation as to what I am putting on my plate here. The Key is to periodize which in non trainer terms is to take it in steps. I have to be cautious with cardio or plyo work, keep it all slow and easy. My metabolism is high and I am trying to gain weight. I will add some yoga specific to me that I will be doing myself. I know I cannot commit to classes but not to say it can't or won't happen, just setting up to avoid missing days and workouts, eliminating any of the self sabotages that I know can get me.   Most of you will probably be opposite in that you will need cardio and need to add some that you will enjoy or at least tolerate LOL!

Ill probably add some bodyweight work like pullups, chins, one arm pushups… so that I hit those muscles with a good weight and I know these I can do but need to build up again. This is toward my fitness routine for when I next compete.

I have a spin class I teach for 45 mins 3x a week right now so that will be my cardio and good for the knee, if I find my weight dropping I will slack in the intensity or teach the class off the bike for a few classes to stop the weight loss.

You see how I catered to my life, work, time and needs and fit things in to get more bang for my buck?  Certain exercises I am adding will work toward a number of my present short and longer term later goals! Be creative, be real. Don't plan to add things you say 'I would like to'.  Add things you know you 'will do' no matter how unchallenging it may seem at first. Try the week first, sometimes we find things that sound easy or simple are actually challenge us at this point in our fitness. Its always changing.  Set yourself up to avoid the sabotage, be ready for the things you know realistically can come up or throw a kink, some of us have repetitive things that come up, don't ignore it, work with and around it. Don’t be too gungho, reach slowly and take those progressive steps to those gungho goals!

Over this week we will look at ideas to achieve those goals we have, avoiding self sabotage with consideration of mental, emotional, time and things that normally can take us off our game. We will cover some fool proof execution, scheduling, back up plans and look at how we feel at the moment, giving ourselves a bit of feedback and outlook at this point.

Lets get excited about the week, excited about being productive and starting on this fun journey!!

Awaken The Athlete Beastmode

At the fitness starting gate…or restarting gate 

This week I started from the beginning, presented the client (me), the circumstances and some of the things you want to consider when you are getting back into working out or even for the first time starters. You get the scenario, history, and idea of the goals that need to be catered to. In personalizing this I highlighted some of the points that usually are sticking points for us, helping us to set up beyond just the formula of workouts and the science of nutrition. Mental prep can really help eliminate some of the sabotage we set on ourselves by not being real with who we are or our natural habits. They can be changed slowly if you like but to be real, you have to know where you normally veer from your goals. This is not about you being right or wrong in your habits, it's not judgement, it’s a tool, its intimate info about you that will help you succeed. People who ignore that, deny their sticky points because by acknowledging them you feel negatively, usually these are the ones who end up finding themselves stumped. Many times going in without the mentality that your committed will give you the opportunity to flake out the minute things feel uncomfortable. Main thing is you need to either adjust those sticky points or work around them but considering them in your plan.

What I want is for you to be prepared to readjust if things start to feel uncomfortable or demotivating. It’s a normal part of fitness. Things are always being adjusted as you go and this is for everyone because we keep changing week to week as does are detailed needs. This is normal, not failure but sometimes clients tend to let that part of things take them down. If you are ready mentally, it won't affect you in a defeating way.

Plateau
An effective fitness plan changes at least monthly in some way, small things like sets, reps or exercises up to full 'toss it in the air and redo a new one'. Nutrition needs to change a bit each month. Our body adjusts to our demand in exercise and adjusts its response to our eating……that’s the getting fit part, it gets stronger or bigger or whatever it is you have as a goal, if you apply the correct formula and make it personalized. But it will only do so until it catches up with your demand and then it gets wise to you and you have to change it again in order to coax out more results. Each time the body gets wise, that is a point where some results are showing. These can be obvious or less so but the changes are inevitable if you are doing it right and really, doing anything. This is also been called hitting the wall or plateau. Again normal, don't let this throw you, be mentally ready and it won't shake your resolve.

Many times we go in with positive perspective but it bounces. You have your off days when you have no faith in the fact that you should even try because your goals are out of reach in your mind. You have to look at yourself as the worthy being you are, you are worth the time and effort toward your health. Your body is more than willing to work with you and please you. Yet it seems we put it off, it's easy to shuffle it to the side if you are not in the 'Beast Mode'. When you find that you just cannot miss a day training and that you put priority on making sure your nutrition is prepped and in place to fit into your day then you are in beastmode. Nothing aside a huge emergency will veer you away from getting your health practices done each day. I have been there, and yes you can lose it, I am not there now and that was the whole point of this blog. Not only to motivate me back into my beastmode but to expose some of the process we all go through within my personal example.

Thanks for following along so far ;)))

Next week I want to look at the plan outline, goal setting in more detail, time and other considerations. I'm setting up to get into the gym and start showing you some exercises and recipes, stuff we can have fun with as we get in shape.

Thanks to Legare Wear for the great skull shorts and Robert Poetker for the photography taken at BodyCo Deep Cove.

Awaken the Athlete with Integrity

Integrity 

How to commit to a program and follow through.  Getting more raw and real today.

I had touched on integrity in my last post and told you this one was a big factor in my opinion. I am biased because it’s a trait I admire in people and take pride in myself. I tend to gravitate toward people I feel are reliable in what they say and find that solid, but don’t we all? If you really look at it, do you keep those in your life you do not feel are upfront and honest or you cannot count on what they say or know what to make of their word? I am only drilling on this to make sure you are honest with you and go into your goals with the chance to succeed. Saying 'I can do that, sure I can try this' but not feeling it, not sure…..you can't go into your health goals unless it's all in! Look at the past, did you go all in or casually? Did you succeed or are you still trying to get into the flow without failure or sabotage?  Maybe you think you were all in but not considering the mental and emotional aspects nor being real with yourself about what your natural habits are, which by the way can always be improved if you can be aware of them, and honest with yourself....integrity.

What have you ever done in life casually that worked out very well and got you to your end result desired? I can bet instead you just got drama.

I have a hard time trusting people who show this lack of integrity in life in general but for fitness it's more of a red flag that tells me giving you a program and diet is not enough. You know the guy who says he will call but you know by experience he won't, he never follows through on things and its normally a pattern you will see in a person. Some call it flakey to put a label on it, but my point in all this is if a person cannot commit and stick with simple things like that, are they really going to keep their word to themselves about exercise or nutrition. Are they going to stick with a plan or fail?

If you find yourself getting pissed at me for saying this, taking it personal and feeling a bit offended then maybe you need to look at your patterns. This is not about judging you or anyone, but if you want success in things, especially health, then being solid with at least yourself will be the only way to succeed in your goals. Fine if you do not feel you would like or can be this way in life in general, this blog is not about social interaction as much as fitness but hey if you find your relationships, work and social life has a few areas you can improve try showing a bit more integrity on your part then all the power to you! I hope you can be honest enough to look at yourself and recognized this. It's not like we have not all said we would do something and failed to do it…..the call, the diet modifications, whatever it is. If you decide on something and decide you will stick with it and have integrity no matter what, you may begin to see some success in your attempts at things in life especially fitness. You can say with ego 'no, that’s not me', but denial then means more failure. If you cannot recognized what needs improvement toward achieving your success, welcome to the insanity wheel. Doing the same thing over and getting the same results you keep complaining about……

I only harp on this because I see it as one of the main sticky points with people who can't seem to nail down the results they want and then when looking at their behavior, lifestyle…..it really normally is a pattern in all areas of their lives. Of course my concern with them is the fitness area but I have seen clients I work with actually improve on their overall integrity because they started to get stronger in it with their fitness life. That is so awesome!  Its also how I go into it and succeed with my fitness goals every time, if I know I can't commit I won't but then I know I can't complain about what my body is showing me.

Now this does not mean stress yourself to stick to your word, do things you do not like and force it. It means think carefully and if you commit, make sure you mean it, you are ready for the effort and to be open toward new ideas so maybe the formulas need to be changed as you go if some don't work but that is not failure, that is integrity, you keep on and try something else. Your Fitness journey should be fun and enjoyable, not stressful and dramatic. So within this integrity you find balance. Don't say anything you don't mean or are not sure you will stick with, not in your head to yourself or anyone else if you really want to work on self-improvement overall. Once you do decide to commit and have integrity with yourself the rest seems to fall into place nicely. You will be open to receive inspiration toward what your next steps are, comfortable ways to get your goals accomplished and able to adjust them as needed if you find its not fitting well. If you put in the effort and try, and fail, that does not mean you lack integrity, THAT is integrity. If you put in some effort, try a lil and give up, get frustrated or not follow through, not seek other ideas to keep moving forward and just walk away or ignore things it usually haunts you going forward and spills into the next situations or areas of your life. You just won't feel great. If you try and fail and look for another way and try again…….that may not feel great at the fail point.   It's the ability to focus on your commitment to keep trying other things, find a way for fitness to fit then those failures were actually just steps, not only toward your fitness goals but toward improving who you are in general. You are breeding integrity within you and will notice that habit come to play in all your life interactions, and watch the blossoming of fun while everything and everyone you touch turns to gold!

Some have great integrity in general except with themselves, the caregiver. Put yourself last every time, adjust your life for others benefit. You also need to find balance there and realize you are useless to help anyone if you are not practicing the wellness priority for yourself. If you are healthy with a balanced exercise and eating habit you feel good emotionally, physically and mentally so wow are you ever a force who can lift everyone. You caregivers, show yourself a bit of that same integrity you give others. If you care about you, others will care too and your wellness will inspire others, imagine how great it is to be told by someone that they accomplished a few things because of the example you set? Can you now see how all this ties together with a fitness lifestyle? Exercise & Nutrition just becomes part who you are what you do, all playing off each other in your life, one area helps to improve the other and so on. That is the wheel you want to get on! So let's go……as we ease into tomorrow's post about mental pump, positive perspective, worthiness and faith in your ability so that you have no fear to try. Go in determined but soften any negatives that crop up.

Awaken The Athlete: Now What?

So you come from some traumatic events and the health affects are now showing.  You are ready to do something about it, feel better and move forward.  Now what?

Mental and emotional states are usually fragile and motivation can be fleeting.  Does not matter if you used to be a superstar and life was perfect, everyone has their falls and are humbled back to the beginnings again.

The first thing I had to do was not beat myself up, it does not help and the pressure you put on yourself just defeats you.  For some of us this is our worst enemy.  I had to learn the balance between my extreme drive and being militant to a fault.

Using your body and health goals or fitness goals to inspire your action as well as restore your mental and emotional state is one of the easiest things you can control and accomplish.  Most times is more of a mental block than a physical one.  Even if there are physical issues there is always a way to be active, but we let our mind have its way with us and usually self sabotage in some way.

Of course you want to minimize that but when it happens, you don't roll over and give up!  Here is the part many fall into the crack on, getting back up after you binge or take a few days off.   Many times we just say 'ah, whatever, I messed up now so who cares....." instead we should say 'ok, back at it tomorrow.'  Don't dwell on the fall, its not as big a deal as we make it out to be, that's the 'beating up on  yourself' part.

Commitment and integrity is something you will hear me talk about a lot.  These traits are inherent and if you have them you usually apply them to your interactions in life and to yourself.  If you don't then you probably find you have problems sticking with your own self set goals and promises made to yourself regarding things like exercise and nutrition.  If you want to succeed in anything, especially health, you need to groom your integrity and commit to your goals.  It also makes you reliable and strengthens your relationships with others who will see you as a person of your word.  You do what you say.  I'm sure you have met those who were difficult to interact with because you knew by past experience they are someone who is not consistent and says things but you can't count on it or they say one thing and do the opposite, so you just don't take anything they say seriously.  How often do you feel like interacting with that person?  Do you want to be that person?  

I am not saying we live for others or should act or be in any way for the sake of others, but this one, its for your own sake.  Its self improvement and so powerful.  I truly believe it makes the difference between repeated failure (insanity, doing the same thing over and over.....) and success.

These are psychological ideas I find useful and by no means am I saying these things as if I have mastered all this.  These are things I discuss because these are things I NEED to work on as well.

Going forward into my fitness goals today, like anyone, I have nutrition, exercise and aesthetic goals.  These goals can vary among us but in general its a similar pattern.  Once you determine what you want, then you start to incorporate the appealing ideas you feel may help get you there.  You get a coach or do it yourself but this is the first part of committing.  Don't overly stress on the formula or execution.  That is part of your learning as you go but just start doing something and don't make any of it stressful.  Anything that starts to be a hassle, you will eventually quit.  The accuracy of your formula is tweaked as you go.  

Many get stumped at this point and procrastinate beginning or get overwhelmed and don't bother.

I go into this recent fitness commitment with the mindset of doing things I like and not having to force anything, you can do that you know.  Took me half my career to figure that out and really feel, apply it.  There is no need to do exercises that are uncomfortable, programs that you know will work but you hate, eating foods you don't like.  I know this from experience and I am telling you this with pure confidence so look at finding a fit, not getting stuck on ideas that don't feel right for you just because you think it maybe the only or fastest way, that's a lie.

There is a ton of info out there, none right or wrong, everything out there worked for someone.  The dynamics of each individuals need and preferences is so wide, that is why there is so much fitness info.  Even so some say do this it works, other say don't do this its bad......listen and learn but remember it may or may not apply to you no matter how strong the opinion of the person or professional you are speaking with.  Always test things out for yourself within safe measures.

In the end, you will never really know until you communicate with your body, try things, see how it responds and let your body have the time to let you know, 2-14 days into things and your body will tell you alot if you listen.  Don't fight it or force it or get angry at your body because its not giving you what you want.......its telling you, you're are not giving it what it needs!  That battle can go on forever and you will never win, the body will not be battled, it needs you to work WITH it.  This is my experience over many years, took me a long time to learn this but when I did over the past 5-7 years I got the best, easiest results of my life and felt the best ever while doing it.  It was also the healthiest, most holistic route I had ever taken.  

My plan is to go ahead now and enjoy the process, have comfort through this fitness journey while getting the most amazing results ever, in a short period of time.   You can all do it this way with great success.

During Week 2 of this blog I will get into some meat and potato's of my fitness plan beyond the mental and emotional prep I had been discussing this week.  I will cover my stats on week 3 with my detailed outline, sharing my exercise and eating ideas for myself.  I am not just posting formulas in this blog series, but walking you through the whole process.  Us trainers use this when working with our clients so I am going to be my client and treat myself as such.  I will probably be gentler on myself if I see myself as a client, we would never treat our clients as poorly as we beat ourselves up so its one way for me to soften the militant approach I normally take with myself.

This blog in a sense is my accountability, so that is covered too.  I don't do workout partners, its not easy to match schedules with others right now.  It is something you can apply if it helps you and makes your fitness journey more enjoyable but for me at the moment, it would be a stress and hindrance.  Just another point made about no right or wrong, just what works.  Whatever you choose to apply to your practice you want to make sure its something you will not be doing begrudgingly, dragging your feet and forcing it.  Choose ideas that will motivate you with eagerness.

My motivation is knowing what my body can be, having been there, and wanting it back even better.  I have deteriorated especially in my legs and butt with 2 major knee surgeries over 2013 and 2014.  I healed well and fast, but I was going through some tough stress so I was not training, did not really do much physical therapy and did not eat enough.  I am so grateful for being so fit already, its the reason my knee come back great anyway and why I don't look and feel worse than I do.  I will get into more detail about specific goals, in my next few posts.  They are pretty similar to what most of you are probably looking to attain.

Over the next 12 weeks, if you join me and do what you can on your end to follow along, set a plan and execute it, we will all be sporting some big smiles and fitter healthier bodies by Spring!  Even if you are active already, lets use this to take you to the next level, achieving new goals.

Do not hesitate to share in the comments area, I would love to hear about your fitness journey and be inspired by you!  I invite you to join me while we support and lift each other in health ;)))

Awaken The Athlete Intro 2

Transformation Comeback  

A pro Athletes Journey: management of an ED (Eating Disorder)

In continuation to yesterdays blog post, after my first encounter with anorexia I journeyed through fitness for my recovery. I had seen a Fitness Pageant on ESPN and decided I wanted to do that routine round! I was ok with the physique round with look of the fitness competitor although never planned on achieving the pro level fever.  I wasn't so excited about the beauty portion, lacking confidence there, and was never a 'make up frew frew' girl.

What I wanted was to perform, dust off my gymnastics and dance which I had to quit as a kid due to my health. I was ready to take this on and find my fit in my mid 20's!

At this point I was introduced to some asthma medications that allowed me the freedom of exercise without attacks. I had the asthma under control for the first time in my life. I felt like a caged animal, freed!
I trained, competed, tried it all, every diet, every category, every federation and learned so much!
Immediately I was recruited into fitness modeling, magazine appearances and photo shoots.

My goals changed and as I achieved, I wanted more! I won trophies and Pro cards throughout the ranks, federations and different categories but Fitness was always my main drive. The rest was for fun. Sometimes If I had an injury I would try another physique category so I could keep competing and learning yet competing in something less agile as fitness, such as Figure or Bodybuilding.

I had the normal stuff like sprained fingers, toes, wrists, shoulder and groin issues, blew my knees and had them both reconstructed, but in 2009 after a few years of nagging my doctor, he finally took me seriously and discovered I had osteoarthritis in my neck and lower back. It had crippled me for a year or so and I was not sure I would ever come back. I kept working on it with acupuncture, deep tissue massage, fascia massage and different types of chiropractic. Over a couple years I had eliminated the chronic pain. A few car accidents in between all this did not help. Of course the osteo will react if I do not care for it properly and work with it but you can still be almost normal and do what you like athletically if you work with the body rather than force or fight it…….a lesson I learned from always being the force and fight type.

I went on to coach athletes, judge and host a few competitions myself.

Personal training was also born after my initial recovery and grew fast from 1993 onward, while working with medical practitioners and their patients, injuries, health issues, athletes and everyone in between. This was what I was meant to do, it came easy and naturally. I loved it and enjoy the outcome of positive results with everyone I am blessed to work with. Empowering others and watching them achieve things they did not think they could and may have never tried, that is the best part of my job. This knowledge also gave me the power over my better health.

Anorexia can come in different forms, eating disorders in general have many faces. Anorexia for me has been starvation, weight loss to extreme and then trying to put it back on after recovery, while training your system how to eat, digest and process food again. This can be painful for me with the other issues involved and I lose fast and easy with a very high metabolism, so gaining has been especially difficult this second time around. This time the starvation was over a period of 3 years up an down but mostly down. Again a death was the trigger. I had a short bought after my first dog had passed in 2003 but it was 3 months and I clued in fast and recovered fast. This time, there was a lot of factors involved which lasted during these 3 years.  It left me unable to find enough of a break in time from the stress to grasp anything but a few better days, before being blasted again with extreme stress. This gradually broke my system down to undernourishment.

Up until 2012 I would keep an avg weight of 125lb fit and lean to 135lb 18-20% body fat. I was 129lbs lean in the beginning of 2012 and came into my best comp season ever even with the beginnings of this 3 year drama, a fully blown knee and having to leave town several times for my safety.

I had found myself this past summer at 105lb, my dog Diva had cancer for over a year, needing progressively more and more hands on care until she passed on April 1st 2015.  I struggled through 2015 trying to gain, trying to eat again, now that the stresses were over and gone from around me. But mentally and emotionally I was still trapped and had a few heartaches along the way which worsened things.

So here I am. Over the past few months, with a lot of '2 lbs up, 4 more down' type of days…….I managed to get myself back up to 117lbs on avg. I tried to do some easy training though the summer of 2015 but no matter what I tried or how mild I worked out, I would drop 2 lbs the next day. I had to back off a little bit longer until I could hold my weight. 

I need to train to get the eating on track but holding weight at the same time, that’s the trick now.
This is a little bit new to me since my experiences in the past had never run this long.
First the trick was to get food down, convince my body to keep it and hope for no pain. This was my summer and most of my fall for 2015.  This is still prevalent.

I am now at the cusp to move forward and decided to share since its like starting over in a sense, something we are all familiar with.  Maybe some of you are in a same starting or restart point so why not join me?

Tomorrow I am going to talk about 'the plan'.  How I will be using my fitness goals to inspire my action, improve my health issues, heal my mental / emotional state, reversing some of the effects and damages, my plan of attack and what works for me. 

The end results and my present body atm is very common to being unfit in general with: loose skin, muscle loss, poor body composition and shape, saggy triceps and glutes, loose thighs, but I will get into this and the other things tomorrow. 

Awaken The Athlete Intro

Welcome to my newest blog series, I'm inspired to write it and hoping it inspires you in some way.

There's 2 main reasons I wanted to share this.  One is that being a trainer I get to see first hand all the various fitness blockages people go through with things in life or whatever it may be.  I know that many of you can relate, even if your story details differ.  The overall idea of finding strength is a common thread among us.  The other reason is to show you that you may be short changing yourself and capable of more than you give yourself credit for.  In pushing my clients and myself I have seen many people think those who achieve certain goals have some special magic or genetics when in fact most people who think those goals are unreachable CAN also achieve these or similar goals .  I love it when a client says, 'I did not think I could do that, wow'.  That is why I do what I do!

My history is one of a girl who always wanted to do active things but usually could not or had to quit because of some health issues. 

My environment was not healthy, lots of extreme borderline behaviors around me plus stresses that are damaging to all areas of health especially in a child.  That became a lifelong exposure as it was family related.

Age 3 I started with chronic pneumonias but since Chronic Bronchial Asthma and 'allergy related asthmas' were still highly unknown, I went misdiagnosed until age 6.   My teeth rotted from the medications, and I spent months out of school either at home or in the hospital for most of my childhood even after I was diagnosed.

From age 6 to about 23 the drugs were all either band aids or experimental.  The theophylline destroyed my stomach, and I was regularly on prednisone.  I used my rescue inhaler Ventolin on avg 26 times per day.  This drug makes your heart work twice as hard as normal.  The prednisone is a catabolic steroid which destroys bone density and can be dangerous taken long term.  Your immune system lets the drug do the job and lowers itself until you get off it and immunity slowly restores.

I wanted to dance and join in on sports day and be able to race friends running down the block, but I paid dearly if I tried, losing breath to dangerous levels.

In my mid teens I had horrible weight gains from the prednisone and constant stomach discomforts from the theophylline.  This lead me into the world of vegetarianism, eating disorders and dieting.

The vegetarianism was an excellent area to learn and experience.  I never stopped since.

The dieting started with Dr. Scarsdale vegetarian diet or ideas from weight watchers but I had no idea what I was doing.  Of course this trial and error is what taught me over my lifetime but as a teen exposed to the trend of anorexia paired with my idea of feeling fat with no success in my first few attempts dieting, it was easy to lean toward starvation type dieting.  I never got into the purging trend.  I had enough trouble keeping food down with the stomach issues from the asthma drugs so purging came on its own!  It may have helped if someone told me the drug caused weight gain, water retention and so forth.

At 17 my father died, anorexia, starvation took over.  I had no appetite, nausea at the thought of food, so I didn't eat.  I think over the first few months after his death, a friend was taking me for a small order of fries each day to get something down.  My dad was my only ally in this lifetime and he was gone.

9 months later I had gone from 140lbs to 97lbs and puking blood.

By this point my stomach would never be the same and years later I would finally be diagnosed with IBS.

I lost the weight alright but was not happy with the left over, my body looked no better skinny!  My recovery began and over the next 2 years I not only learned the fit direction I learned what I was going to do for the rest of my life!  Eating regularly was the only way.  That in itself saved my life.

Check back tomorrow and daily over the next few weeks as I post more about where I am at with each days exercise and nutrition, sharing some great information, ideas and motivation! 

I will share with you how I was again triggered through loss and death, going from fittest ever to maybe the worse shape ever, and now recovering, this time from a longer run of starvation.  Working my way back and to a better version of my previous best! 

Watch me transform over the next 3 months, transform along with me!

Fats Aren't So Scary

Check out my latest article on Fats, a guest blog. 

http://www.holdfastiron.com/new-blog-1/2015/7/8/nrqc6hzin7sos47vbx4kzfd99swoif.