Fab Fit Squad

Over the past 3 years I have shared a nutrition, workout and motivational tips, but this past week I was speaking with some of the readers of my blog and they asked for me to share more about me.

So.. here it is. I’m not perfect I too struggle with this time of the year! Last week I attended a conference that was serving lunch. I started out the day with my oatmeal, egg whites and berries for breakfast I packed 2 snacks (AM and PM). They were serving lunch so I didn’t bring my lunch. Well.. let’s say that was a mistake while it was an EXCELLENT chopped salad, it lacked PROTEIN! 20 minutes after I ate I was STARVING!!!! We were in a part of the convention center where they didn’t have store to purchase water and my 1/2 gallon water bottle only made it to lunch.  Let’s say by the time I got home that night I was ready to eat my leg off!!! Because I didn’t eat enough all day I came home and started GRAZING until I finished preparing dinner. Lesson learned — bring more protein and carry more water. The next day I went back to the event and was much more prepared and didn’t come home to eat 1/2 of my kitchen cupboards.

As for workouts — the past few weeks I have been flat out finishing up some projects before the end of the year. Typically I like to workout 4-5 days/week. Let’s just say it’s been difficult! Just this past Monday I had a plan to hit the gym at 5:30am — I like to workout in the AM because I less likely to get interrupted or have the day get away from me. Unfortunately my body had a different plan. I woke up at 1:30 AM and didn’t fall back to sleep until 4am, let’s say when the alarm went off at 5:15am I wasn’t feeling it. I gave myself the out. That doesn’t make the whole week is ruined it means I missed ONE workout and I need to brainstorm to see if there were other ways to make it up. Before I got out of bed I went through my mental calendar and decided that I could make up this workout on Thursday because that is typically my rest day.

How do I stay motivated? I started competing in 2004 because I needed a goal! I lost 30 pounds and I was like now what! Competing gives me a goal to strive for. When I first started competing I did about 5 shows/year now I do 1. That’s really hard for me to stay on track and last year I went 14 months without competing! I packed on the weight for me. I had put on 12 pounds during that time. Why do you ask, because I didn’t have a motivating goal and for the most part sleepwalked through my workouts. NOT THIS YEAR!!! I vowed that would not happen taking off those 12 pounds SUCKED OUT LOUD. My next show is May 2012 and will stay within 5-7 pounds of my show weight.

What’s a good goal? I’m always asked what is a good goal. My response is typically what will motivate you  to get out of bed on a 3 degree snowy morning. That’s a motivating goal. Goals are very personal. Your goal could be something really simple such as fitting into your pants or training for a marathon. Finding your motivation is truly personal and if you want to do some brainstorming, shoot me an email.

I hope this gives you a little insight to me. I will be offering 15 min goal setting appointments the week between Christmas and New Year’s. Please send me an email with some days and times that will work for me.

After October 2011

This past weekend I competed in my third Women’s Tri Fitness. This was a long term goal of mine and when I did it for the first time I got hooked! This weekend I went to Tampa and competed with my husband. It was so my fun to complete a goal with him, plus he is all fired up to do it again! I really get excited when I turn people on to fitness and they achieve their goals.

I tell you this, not to brag, but inspire you to take action. It’s been about 1 year since I had something that I had a goal that I was really jazzed about. When my husband asked if we could do it together, it was just the kick in the pants I needed.

Back in August I put on my game face and signed up.  For me one of the most challenging parts is the bench press. You need to bench press 60% of your bodyweight for 50 reps. So.. you must decide what you want to lift and how much weight you can reasonably lose.  I wanted to weigh 15 pounds lighter.

Before -- July 2011

So.. I had 8 weeks to drop 15 pounds! I had to work cut out for me and LITERALLY had to work my butt off!  No matter what happened at the show if I dropped those 15 pounds I WON! Guess what — on October 20th it happened I stepped on the scale and saw that I dropped 15 pounds I was so PSYCHED!! Plus I only had to lift 75 pounds!

I’m telling you my story because I want you know that I practice what I preach! I typically give myself 5-7 pounds over my goal weight, but this year I got a little off track and used this goal to bring me back.

If you are ready to serious about your weight loss, let me know!

I have 2 programs that I will be running to help you to Hold The Stuffing through the holidays.

•  Hold The Stuffing Fat Blaster
• 6 weeks
• 2 strength training programs
• 6 weekly emails
• (3) 15 min private phone calls
• 30 day Athlete’s pack
• Meal plan
• Grocery List
• For more information, shoot me an email.  This program is for the committed! If you are ready to end 2011 with a little less weight the time is now!

So here were are 6 months into 2011 and I’m revisiting what I’m doing for me this year. This is the longest that I have gone without a fitness goal.  I got to tell you I’m a feeling a little out of sorts.

This past week I sat down and got clear about what I want to accomplish between now and the end of 2011.

1. Finish the Falmouth Road Race

• I’d like to run this in under 1 hour
• I’d like to properly train for this race, the past few years I’ve done a half ass job training for it. (more…)

I just returned from my 2nd Women’s Tri Fitness and it was just as exhilarating as it was last year. I didn’t win any hardware, but I did beat my times from last year, which is all that matters to me.  Well — that and after all the events my husband who is the most supportive person to me throughout my training turned to me and said he was so proud of me. That made it well worth all missed activities and times spent at the gym vs spending quality time with him.

This time instead of rushing off to the next thing, I did take time to celebrate my accomplishments while I was in Las Vegas, we lounged by the pool at the Monte Carlo hotel which was a balmy 102 (there was humidity and the natives were freaking out) UMMM you don’t know what humidity is and hung out at our very favorite restaurant Mon Ami Gabi in the Paris Hotel. Now I’m back to reality and its time to set some new goals.

This year I’m planning to:

1. work on my legs — would love to have a nice quad sweep
2. increase my speed and agility
3. increase my bench press — I’m getting 50 reps in next year’s Tri Fitness

I just landed in Vegas, the temperature is a balmy 101. I know that say its a dry heat, but it still hotter than Hades out there, I’m not complaining because I do love the heat. Actually as I sit here and type I’m wearing a long sleeve shirt and a jacket as the hotel likes to keep it like Antarctica. But I digress… So the actual competition doesn’t start until tomorrow, but today was weigh in for the bench press.. Which in my mind is the scariest part of this whole competition, you need to bench press 60% of your body weight for 50 reps, my goal weight to lift is 75 pds.  I got on the scale in my house and my unofficial weight had me 4 pounds below the top end of my weight class SWEET!!!. This morning at 8am — after flying 5 hours I get on the scale I’m 5 POUNDS heavier than I was at home, are you SHITTING ME!!! I retained that much water from flying or someone had their foot on the scale! (more…)

Guess what, I don’t. This past weekend I competed in the NE Classic it was my first show since July 2009. I worked hard to get to this show after a few false starts this season. My goal was to debut my new fitness routine at this show, but it just wasn’t coming together so I decided to just do the bikini round and get my stage legs back. No sooner than 5 minutes after the show I was already critiquing how I did and what changes could I make before the next show in July.

SERIOUSLY!!! Kim you placed in the top 5 and you couldn’t take 5 minutes to give yourself a pat on the back before you were moving onto the next thing.  OK, here is my moment to savor and relish my accomplishments.  I placed top 5 and it feels great. I did work hard to get to this show and it was also nice share my hobby with 2 women we are new to the sport, Stacey S. and Jenn F. they both had great attitudes and hope they enjoy competing as much as I do. I also got to see 2 great people that I haven’t seen in years and they just made me smile so much and it was so nice to be around them for most of the day. Dottie you are awesome and are such a inspiration so glad that we got back in touch.  Melissa loved the crazy hair!!! You rocked the stage.

But the best thing that I should savor is that after 5 years of doing shows and having to put up with all the pre-show, show and post-show madness, my husband turns to me and says that he is proud of me. Now that is something to savor!

Do me a favor whatever your accomplishments are stop and enjoy them because guess what for each goal you achieved someone else has given up. Keep reaching for the stars because the only person who can hold you back is YOU!!!!

Not it…. I am roughly 5 weeks out from a NE Classic. Here is where the dollar values double. Eat clean, lift heavy, do your cardio or GO HOME. Everything counts! My cardio has gone from 45 min to 60 minutes 6x/week. I have a confession. I HATE CARDIO. Yes, I hate it. I know that their are many pros and cons to cardio, but its the best way I know to lean out of a show. I can strength train all day long, but ask me to do cardio longer than 30 minutes the excuse monster comes up with some real doozies.  Being on a piece of a equipment for 60 minutes makes me kooky. But it has to be done.  Here’s my plan. I play a ton of mind games.

• The first game I play is splitting it up.
  • 30 minutes in the AM and 30 minutes at night.
• I machine hop, if I’m at the gym at all off peak time
  • 20 min of running intervals
  • 20 min step mill (love this machine)
  • 20 min elliptical
• I watch TV, give me a MTV marathon or VH1 decade count down and I’m hooked (see why I stink)
• I will do metabolic circuits where I swing a kettlebell for 1 minute and then jump rope for 1 min and rest for 1 minute (more…)

These 5 letters that crept into my brain this week. I am roughly 7 weeks away from my next fitness competition and DOUBT crept into my mind. Can I do this? Should I do this? What the hell? Is this my life? Imagine this all going through my head within 30 seconds. Here’s a little background. I have been competing since 2005. I started competing after I lost 30 pounds because I needed a goal. I lost the weight, but now what. What was my next fitness endeavor. My trainer at the time was a former bodybuilder and suggested I give fitness competitions a try.

Now I’m not a glamour girl by any stretch of the imagination and walking in a bikini with clear heels didn’t seem like my cup of tea, but in April 2005 I took the stage at the Fitness America, show in New Haven, CT and I’ve been competing ever since. I typically compete in 4-5 shows/year like a machine. I wind up every January and wind down each June and the process begins again. Except this time!  (more…)

So, I’ve been on the sidelines for a while. I ‘ve been training for a half marathon, studying for my wellness coach certification and just working my butt to build my business. Okay those were just excuses, if I really wanted to stay on track I could have. Okay pity party over. Here are 6 ways I am going to get back on track for my next fitness competition. I will be competing in the NPC Jay Cutler Classic in Boston on May 2nd.  Time to get my game face on.

1. Schedule, schedule and schedule it. Every Sunday I sit down and mark out in my calendar when I will workout. I get specific like (Wed 7am cardio 40 min) I put it in my calendar and it is an appt that I cannot break. I move stuff around, but my workout does get done.
2. Pre-cook my meals. I go to the grocery store on Saturday afternoon and load up on veggies, lean proteins, chicken broth and lean diary products. Then on Sunday at 6pm I start cooking. Yes exactly at 6pm. (If you can’t tell I like schedules) I cook enough protein and veggies to get me through the week.
3. Get good music. My ipod doesn’t ever leave my gym bag! At least once a month I buy new music and mix up my playlist to keep it fresh. If you have any suggestions, please leave me comments and let me know.
4. Maximize my workout time. If I need to do a cardio and a strength workout, I do a metabolic circuit (a combination of strength and cardio) or just do a crazy interval cardio blast (every 2 minutes you change machine and increase the resistance)
5. Seize the moment. There are days when my schedule don’t allow a full workout, so I’ll need to break it up. So, somedays I will do cardio in the morning and then lift later in the day. That way there are no excuses and its in my schedule.
6. Involve your family. Training for a fitness show can be really intense and takes a large amount of your time! I make sure that I include my husband. We go to the gym together and plan (yeah I know, I can’t help it I have to schedule) to have lunch each Saturday at our favorite place The Parish Cafe.

So, at least 3 times a week I do a high intensity cardio workout.  I run intervals  either straight sprints  or hills on treadmill at my gym.  I love working out, but interval training is not something that I like to do, but since I am getting ready for a show (I’ll talk about that later), interval training is the only way I am going to lean out.

I’m pumped up, got my favorite songs loaded on my pod, I’m 15 minutes into my run on a 10% incline I’m about to do a fast sprint decline and my treadmill gets STUCK!! I couldn’t get it off a 9 /12% incline.

Have you ever got stuck?  What did you do, did you just stop?
So instead of getting a boo boo lip, I just hopped on the treadmill next to me.

It’s 40 days and 12 hours until I compete in the Fitness America Show in Las Vegas; it’s time to put the pedal to the medal, if I plan to come home with some hardware!