Fab Fit Squad

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.

This week, I had an opportunity to see Suzy Welch speak. She opened her speech by saying that she can’t do it all. I repeat she said she can’t do it all and she doesn’t even try. Instead she picks what’s important and moves on. What a freeing way to live.  So, if you can’t get to it, you don’t dwell on what you didn’t do? AMAZING. That statement felt like the glowing box in Pulp Fiction.  Since that day I’ve been really thinking about what she said and then yesterday I read a great post from Lululemon about what are you going to stop doing.  It stopped me in my tracks, because as women we are always trying to figure our how we can do more!! You know we have 24 hours in 1 day and how I am ongoing to do a million and one things to make everyone happy as well as achieving my own goals.

So now I thinking, I don’t have to it all, so what am I going to stop doing!!!

1. Stop being afraid. Yes, I know I me, afraid, but I am! I have been procrastinating on taking this test because I am afraid I will fail. Guess what if I fail I can take it again. So stop talking take ACTION!
2. Stop spending more than 30 minutes on Twitter and Facebook. I love you all, but I need to get focused on taking my test and growing my business
3. Stop purchasing things and not using them. Now this is going to be tough! I have purchased so many things that still have the tags on them or books that I haven’t even cracked the spine.
4. Stop wanting everything to be perfect. If I doing something just okay. That ’s fine. At least I’m taking steps.
5. Stop feeling like I always have to do something. Say what…It’s a rare day that I can just sit and relax, so take more time to sit and relax. I think about my grandmother, she is 88 years old and I don’t think I’ve seen her sit down for more than 10 minutes at a time. So I don’t want to look back in 48 years and say that I haven’t sat down!
6. Stop multitasking!! That’s right I’m a professional multitasker, if I’m not doing 5 things with my hair on fire I feel like I’m standing still. Moving forward I will set an old fashion kitchen timer and work on 1 thing at for 30 minutes before I move on to the next activity.

So tell me what are you going to stop doing?

On Wednesday, the TV show Cougar Town premieres on ABC. When I first heard about this show and let me take a step back, when I heard the word COUGAR I would get pissed off. I thought because a women is strong and goes for what she wants, why does she have to be a called a cougar. When a man goes for what he wants, he is called DRIVEN, DETERMINED or SUCCESSFUL.

I found a site the helped me change my mind about the term cougar.  A Real Cougar is a woman who is strong, confident, independent, sexy and proud to be past 35.

When I read I said this definition, I embraced and finally came to terms with the word cougar. Taking a look back at myself in my 20s, I remember discovering who I was in terms of my career and the woman I wanted to be living on my own for the first time. Many women work DAMN hard to discover themselves in their own terms. So I ask you ~ why does the term COUGAR have be a bad thing. Go ahead and call me a cougar. I am in the best shape of my life and living my best life with no regrets.

If you know who you are and you are not afraid to show it, embrace your cougar pride!  The Fabulous Fit Squad is all about empowerment and going for it.  So embrace your inner cougar and GO FOR IT!

Let me clarify for a minute, when I say go for it, I’m not saying put on your best push up bra and head to your nearest bar. What I am saying is look in the mirror and ask yourself are you living your best life? Are you:

• taking a stand and making things happen
• thinking age is nothing but a number
• done listening to other people and finally tuned your inner voice ~ positive talk only please
• working out and staying healthy and active
• financially independent or working towards that goal

Don’t be afraid start living your life to its full potential.  In the comments right below tell me how your embracing your inner cougar.

I was reading the blogs that I keep up with regularly and read the Orlando Sentinel’s posting about fitness bucket list and it got me thinking.  I love being active and challenging myself so, that article got me thinking.

These are not written in any particular order.

1. Consistently run the Falmouth Road race in August with Philip, my husband. It’s a 7.2 mile race on the Cape, that allows 10,000 people to run in it and its a lottery to get a number. So fingers crossed we get a number consistently.
2. Run a half marathon, I would like to find one that is fun and interesting through the entire way so if someone knows of one, Holla.
3. Beat my times in next July’s Women’s Tri Fit competition. Fingers crossed my husband decides to compete in it as well.
4. Learn to kayak — this is interesting as I never go in the water past my waist.
   
5. Learn to swim — yes, I’ve gone all this time without learning how to formally swim! Basically if I want to kayak, I think I should learn to swim first, just saying.
6. Organize/promote a fitness competition — I’ve been is so many that, don’t focus on the details. I would love to do one that focuses on the details.
7. Practice yoga consistently — I love yoga, but its always the first thing I dump when I get busy prepping for a fitness competition.
8. Relearn to squat – I lost it and I want it back!
9. Do a handstand — ever since I watch Nadia Comaneci score a perfect 10. I have been obsessed with gymnastics.

Here are a few other sites that listed their fitness bucket lists.

Oh She Glows
Healthy Tipping Point

What’s your fitness bucket list? comment below

I have been avoiding finishing up my wellness coach certification. I took the 13 week class last November and have exactly 1 year to:

• take a written exam
• complete a oral exam
• chronicle 3 clients

Well here we are at almost August and I am no closer to the certification than I was last November. I continually ask myself, why haven’t taken any steps to complete this exam? Am I afraid of succeeding, is it because their really isn’t hard goal.  I know that I am not a good test taker so am I psyching myself out by thinking that I stink at test so why rush to take the test. So I am setting a hard goal for myself.

I will take my written exam on or before 11/1.

I will take my oral exam on or before 12/1.

I will have completed 3 practice clients on or before 2/1.

My husband and I have been talking about running the Falmouth Road race for years and we DID IT!!! It was 7.2 miles of FUN.  The entire course was lined with cheering fans which was AWESOME, especially when this woman at mile 5 told us all that it would get better if we smiled. Which made everyone around us smile. Along the course there were numerous musicians playing motivational songs. Best of all was following a gentlemen who was dressed like David Lee Roth circa 1984.

The race was so well organized, while you did wait in line it was only because you were waiting with 10,000 people to get on the bus to the finish line and to use the portapotty prior to the race. Typically a race thins out once you get to the 1 mile mark, but no so much with this one because the course is so tight.

Best of all is that I enjoyed training with my husband, this was the first time we have ever trained for an event together and it was so much fun to spend quality time training together and yes we crossed the finish lines together. This year we finished the race in 01:16:09. Now I have a number to try to beat next year. Fingers crossed I get lucky in the lottery. In the meantime I’m looking for a new goal. Any suggestions?

My husband and I met 15 years ago at a Falmouth Road Race race party. A mutual friend invited us and who knew 15 years later I would be sitting here married to Philip and planning to run the Falmouth road race.  Philip and I are not sentimental l people at all, but every year we have talked about running this race when we hit a milestone in our relationship. On August 9th it will be 15 years that we have been together. Needless to say I am a little SHOCKED at how fast time goes by and he is still the first person that I want to talk to when I get up in the morning and the last person I want to talk to when I go to bed. Enough sentimental stuff… So, we have been training for the road race since mid June, slowly building up our mileage.  We have 2 weeks to go and today is a milestone run, 5.5 miles.  In 2000 I ran the Tufts 10K and that was the last time I ran for more than 20 minutes on a treadmill. So today is our first LONG run. (more…)

A good friend of ours rented a house for the week on Block Island and he invited us to come down for the day.  We couldn’t have asked for a more beautiful day to hang out on Block Island.  We hit the beach!! The beach was beautiful and the weather was GORGEOUS and I even got in the water!! Which is rare for me.  So after a great day on the beach we head back to the house which was beautiful, it has 2 great spacious decks and huge yard. As we are relaxing and recapping our days, I over hear 2 of the 20sometings whisper, that girl has one of the best bodies I’ve ever seen! HOLLA a 40something is being envied by 20things. That made my week, okay who am I kidding almost my made year!!! Got to go I’m off to call E! to make sure I’m ranked in the next episode of best beach bodies.

Review of Last Weeks Goals:

* I will update my Falmouth Road Race training schedule
* I will review my Tri Fitness training and see how to improve
* I will read 1 chapter in my wellness coach manual
* I will make an appt with my training buddy to practice coaching
* I will update the Fab Fit Squad blog 3x/week
* I will take 1 yoga class/week

This mean completed
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Throughout this year, I have been periodically posting about training for the Trifitness competition. Well — I DID IT!!! I just got home off the red eye and had to tell you all about it. 1st let’s recap what the event is all about.

1. Grace and Physique — you are judged on your body conditioning and grace walking in 5 in heels
2. Obstacle Course-- only 24 women can do this course in less than 1 minute. My 1st time through, I did it in 88 seconds. The back half of the course is pure SPRINTING, OMG I thought I was going to die. But was so proud of myself of fighting through!!! Can you say mental stamina. Let me paint the picture. It was 106 in Nevada!!! You are hydrating like crazy, so that you don’t have a heat stroke or cramp up due to dehydration.
   • 10 foot Wall
   • Running Grid
   • Incline/Decline Monkey Bars
   • Balance Beam
   • 15 foot Cargo Net
   • Shuttle Run
   • 3 Low Hurdles
   • Steeple chase jump
   • Under and Over Bar

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