Slo-mo diving

https://youtu.be/0hi-nbSUXXE

No gym? No problem!

My best piece of fitness advice ever has been to

"find something you love, and DO IT!!"

If you love running, then run.  If you love lifting weights, go lift.  If you love team sports, join a team or club that plays for fun and fitness.  Whether it's swimming, dancing, bowling, golf, roller hockey, cycling, boxing, figure skating, lacrosse, yoga, water aerobics or walking, just get out there and do it.  And keep doing it.



Today I'd like to share with you how I've managed to work around my excuses and find ways to get fit while being frugal, and having fun, too!

Up until recently, my favorite activity had been taking kickboxing classes at my local gym.  I loved my teacher, I loved the intensity of the exercise and the camaraderie of the group class.   (For posts about Body Combat classes at my former gym, go here:)

But then we moved out of the city to a more rural area where the nearest gym with my favorite class is 30 minutes away.  No more kickboxing class for me,  I thought.  No gym workouts period.

Without a lot of money to spend, I decided to use what I've got. And what's the one amazing thing that almost everybody has these days?  The internet, of course!  So I went online and found a few of my favorite Body Combat videos,  on YouTube!  

Here is a short clip of Yours Truly following along in the messy comfort of home:

(Want to give this Body Combat video a try?  Go here: )

Ok, so that's great!  But something else I also miss a lot...my "real" boxing class.  The class where we're taught everything we need to  get in shape through boxing, from how to wrap our hands to throwing  punches and kicks with proper technique and posture for an efficient and safe workout.  That fun gym that's one  big room of heavy punching bags, lined up side by side like a gigantic maze, ready for the pounding to begin.  I miss that place.

Again, I improvised.  Having been a yard sale queen, dumpster diver and keen eye for thriftiness for years, I am always on the prowl for good deals.  A stroll through a thrift store every now and then, keeping an open mind, is always sure to bring home unexpected treasures.  Call it luck, call it serendipity, call it being in the right place at the right time,  here's what I found one day at Goodwill:

 A perfectly good heavy punching bag!

This lovely bag of sand cost me a mere $40, and because it was local, not ebay, there was no shipping charge! 

My only problem was my laziness.  Sure, I love to raise my heartbeat with a couple rounds of hits now and then, but it's the tedious chore of wrapping my hands each time that I loathe.  My poor punching bag often sat for days, motionless.   Crying out for some of my hard superman punches to send it swinging again.  It was that silly issue of wrapping my hands up that kept me from going at it.

 

(For those of you new to boxing, the handwraps are key to protecting your hands, obviously.  Big puffy boxing gloves may absorb much of the impact, but you still need a tight wrap around the fingers, hand and wrist to hold the bones together during those rounds of smashing bags or skulls.  Just like a ballet dancer stuffs lambswool or even paper towels into the box of her pointe shoes to protect her toes from the agony of dancing on pointe.)

My solution: 

These great pink Everlast gel hand wraps!  Just slide your hands in, adjust the velcro strap, slip your hands into your boxing gloves, and start jabbing!

Now don't get me wrong, there's nothing wrong with the traditional hand wraps; ask any seasoned boxer and I'm sure they will prefer the long manually-wrapped wraps to these new thangs.  If I go to a boxing gym again, where I'll be punching for a longer time, why, yes, I would definitely prefer the traditional wraps.  You can customize them more to fit every nook and cranny of your sweet little hands.

But these are cool. 

I love these for my short rounds of boxing at home.  I don't usually spend a long time at the punching bag, maybe only a round or two before moving on to other forms of exercise.  These are much easier to slip on, pull on the velcro strap, slide them inside my standard boxing gloves and I'm good to go!

Get them here. 

Next issue:  Sometimes I don't want to have to think about my workout, I just want to do some cardio where I can get it done while my mind can float elsewhere.  Like taking a run while listening to music on headphones.  Maybe even reading a magazine or watching tv while letting the cardio machine track the miles.  

Walking or running is the  cheapest, and it's great when the weather conditions are favorable.  But until I get myself a dog, I have a hard time getting myself out there, most days.  So I decided to invest in some cardio equipment.  Whoa!  These things can be expensive!

Good thing there are sites like https://www.craigslist.com or https://www.offerup.com.   Buying locally means no shipping fees, you can look at it before you buy, it usually comes pre-assembled (a big yay! for me)  AND you get to meet some pretty interesting folks (and their pets!) while you're at it!  (Trust me, I could write a book about some of the characters I've met..)

Here's the sweet baby I found on Offer Up!

This is a more high-end elliptical machine, very sturdy, like the ones you see in the gym.

My price?  Only $85!!  Ok, actually I paid a total of $100 to get the guy to deliver it in his truck.  I went over to his house in just a standard SUV,  thinking we could fit it in, not realizing what a monster this thing is to carry.

(Did I mention that this guy's house smelled like a zoo and looked like one too?  Dogs, cats, gerbils, and rats the size of cats were the main occupants.)

Anyway, now I'm reaping the benefits of this monster!    

It tracks miles, calories, heart rate, even has a 3-speed fan on it to keep me cool. 

Building up a small home gym just takes a little time, patience and resourcefulness. So far I've got a punching bag, gloves and wraps, an elliptical, and all the internet's workout videos at my fingertips!   What else could I possibly need?

Another class that I really miss at my old gym was Body Pump, the weightlifting class by Les Mills that uses a bar and light weights to target all muscle groups of the body.  I really miss those group classes of choreographed lifts, presses, squats and curls set to rockin' music that made us sweat, grunt and groan together. 

Who says I can't do the same at home? Well, I'll miss the social aspect, but here's what I'm looking at to add to my home gym collection.. Check out this deal on ebay for a whole barbell set !

What I love about this set is that it includes a variety of smaller plates, so you can do the large rep, small weight routines like they do in Body Pump, assuring that you get a great lean look; strong, but not bulked up, a good thing for us ladies!     The "W" shape of the bar also keeps your hands from slipping.  52 pounds of weights plus the bar and the locks for just $45.99!

My other wish list item...these kettle bells :

I can't believe you get this whole set of kettle bells, from 10 pounds to 50 pounds, for just $14.99!   Usually weights are sold for about a dollar per pound, so hopefully this offer isn't too good to be true!

Check out the deal here:

Whatever it is you love to do, JUST DO IT.  And if you find yourself making excuses, just be creative.  I love hearing how people make a way, where there seems to be no way, just by using their ingenuity. Have you tried a new form of exercise lately?  Let me know in the comments below!

Thanks for reading!

Week One, Day 2

This week has been the start of my renewed fitness journey.  After slacking off of my work-outs and gaining between 10-15 pounds in the process, I have decided to do my best to get myself in decent shape again.  Since joining a health club isn't an option for me right now, I have resorted to using the large bonus room in our new home as my gym.  Got the boxing heavy bag installed, gathered up my dumbells and other gym stuff, and I'm ready to go.

I'm making up my routine as i go.  Every other day, I come up here and do either a workout video, or box a few rounds, or both.  Today was both.

To keep myself motivated, I open my Pandora app on my Chromebook, synced to my bluetooth speaker so i can crank the music as needed.  Water bottle, hand wraps, let's go!

                                                       

oh, one more thing:  I also use a boxing app, Precision Boxing, on my phone to call out my punches.  It's on a timer, and it times my 3-minute rounds and 1-minute rest breaks.  There's a lot of helpful apps out there, but this one's good for keeping me focused.  It's pretty basic, so I usually end up getting creative and mixing up the moves and adding some kicks for variety, just keeping it fresh and fun.

                                                                              
                                         So far, so good.  REady to fight?

Pow!!!

(or like my ol' Body Combat instruct would yell, "Boom, Boom, Pow!  How d'ya like me now?!!!"

After the boxing sequences, I unwind my sweaty handwraps, take it down to a yoga mat, and do some core conditioning with a short video.  Again, an app is here to save the day!  The app on my Chromebook is called "hoolio".   It basically manages a whole slew of workout videos, and it gives you points, or "moves", for how many videos you complete.  

Today's video was all about abs.  All kinds of crunches and planks.  Other days, I might focus on other body parts or use dumbells or ankle weights, all of which are kept nearby.

                                      

So that's it for today!  The thing is, I'm not in this to lose "x" amount of pounds or anything numerical or precise as that.  I don't consider myself morbidly obese (yet), and I'm not a professional, competitive athlete that needs to get down to a certain lean mean weight for an event.
 I just want to:
 1. lose the belly fat.  2. firm up all over.  3.  fit in my clothes comfortably again.  4.  feel good about the way i look.
Hopefully that will result in losing a bunch of pounds, but I'm not focusing on that.  It's all about being healthy, having more energy and mental alertness, and feeling better emotionally as well.  Establishing a fitness routine that is do-able over the long run.  Making lifestyle changes in both activity and diet that I can maintain for life.

Let's keep this going, shall we?  See you next time!!

Fitness Journey

It is with great sorrow and dragging feet that I bring to you the following announcement: I am FAT and DESPERATELY in need of a successful diet and fitness regime to get rid of all my pudge.

Yes, it is true.  I have gained a considerable amount of weight over the past many months, and I even documented it with some extremely embarrassing, horribly humiliating and degrading, "BEFORE" shots:

Roll the cam.  Photo #1:  Numbers don't lie.

This is absolutely unacceptable.  

ONE HUNDRED AND FORTY POUNDS!!!!

I haven't weighed this much since I was a beer-guzzling, pizza and ice cream-gorging college sophomore!!

yuck yuck yuck!!!

Altogether now:
"Fatty, Fatty, Two by Four,

Can't get through the kitchen door!!!"

I have gained, get this, TWENTY POUNDS since the days of breastfeeding my last child!!!

(sure, i may have been a bit scrawny then, due to my boy literally sucking all the calories out of me, but still!!!)

And it's not just the numbers that disgust me.

It's this scary thing in Photo #2:

my GUT!!

oh please oh please move quickly past this horrendous image, it's so embarrassing!!

Yet I feel I must be truthful, and reveal this shameful part of me,

so that I will be all the more motivated to get RID of it FAST 

so I can hurry up and post a beautiful "AFTER" shot of the new improved me!

Now I have to insert a small disclaimer here...

See, it's not TOTALLY all my fault for having this freak of nature inflated abdomen that i do so heartily possess..NAW...you gotta believe me, I can honestly, truthfully attribute much of the damage to my second pregnancy, when my ab muscles did this awful thing, the dreaded "split" that often happens when the baby gets bigger and forces the mom's ab muscles to split apart.  I had a prenatal aerobics teacher during my first pregnancy, and she not only gave us specific exercises to prevent this split, but she even had us lie down on our backs so she could come around and "lay hands on us" (ha) to determine if our ab muscles were still intact. Thankfully, mine did stay together the first time around, but with the second kid...I didn't even try.   Ate all the junk food i wanted, laid around like a big fat whale.

Resulting in, of course, the saggy middle.

oh well. i love my son. it was worth it.

But moving on... (though I'd love to delay revealing any more horrors..)

I will now present my feeble attempt 

(and grand failure) 

to try to suck in that gross gut:

here i go, one two three HOLD YOUR BREATH!!!!!

                               And sadly, I admit my defeat.  oh the agony of it.  It simply cannot be done.

And so, I am beginning to change my ways.  Not all at once, nothing extreme, but I'm trying.  First, my excuses:

1. I can no longer attend my old gym and its Body Combat classes I loved so much, since moving out here in Nowhere Land.  WAAAAHHH!!!!  The gyms around here don't offer what I want, and if they do, they're too far away.  Plus, I have no money.  Need to earn some money, since I'm the one responsible  for my phone and my gym fees.  I have no job.  Need to figure something out.

2.  I REFUSE to diet!!!! Yes, I know that it will take longer to drop the pounds, but I just cannot do it.  I HATE to deprive myself.  I HATE counting calories and fat grams and all that junk.  Instead, I will make a more conscious effort to avoid the "bad" foods, and to break some habits of mindless snacking or drinking sweet tea when my body just needs water.  That kind of stuff.

3.  Meds.  yup. The meds i switched to awhile back make me lethargic, slow me down. While I do hope to change things up with that, when I get my doctor visit rescheduled (last one got cancelled), I still have to work a bit harder at getting myself in motion.  I'm like a rock gathering moss.  But once in motion, this rock will more easily stay in motion.

Enough excuses.  I CAN do this.  

I've already got the punching bag hanging from the ceiling in the bonus room, ready to take some hits and kicks.  I'm looking forward to getting in there, cranking up some ANGRY music and killing some fat while demolishing some pent-up angst and frustration.    I've got some ideas of routines I want to create for myself,  fun ways of combining kickboxing with dance in combinations that will raise my heart rate, burn fat, tighten muscles, reinforce technique, and most of all, be something FUN that I'll want to do as often as possible! 

That's it for embarrassing myself, for now.

I really hope and pray this works.  

Signing off,

the Fat Mother Whale.

Goals

Goal setting.  Not just for New Year's resolutions.  I hate those things anyway.   I can't just make up a grandiose resolution or goal just because of the date on the calendar.  Nope.  When I feel a goal coming, something that needs to happen or change, it's a real thing, a distant thunder that prompts me to take action.

I have a couple goals I want to talk about today.  One is sort of typical, superficial, frivolous, and the other is a building block goal, towards another much bigger, life-changing goal.  I'll start frivolously.

It's something very common, something millions of people are trying to do every day, all over the world. A billion dollar industry. An obsession.

Weight loss.



Yes, I have become a victim of a merciless bakery catastrophe around my middle:
The dreaded muffin top.
More than just the pudge over the belt that bugs me, though, it's the fact that I have gained 10 pounds in the past year or so, and am now a whopping 20 pounds heavier than when I had my last child!!!!  Sure I was a little too skinny back then, having all my nourishment being constantly sucked away (literally) for the first couple years or so of breastfeeding after each child was  born..and all that work of carrying babies around, running up and down the stairs to change diapers, etc.  Yeah, they kept me skinny back then.

But that was then, and this is NOW:



yup, that's me, eating popcorn at the movies... (that is, if i ever went to movies these days...)



and me, getting prodded by the doctor...



and me, catching a sip after the rain.

It all comes down to the numbers.  And the numbers scream...


   "HELP!!!!"



And don't even THINK about suggesting I post a "before" picture like those above, no way! (I'm even going on a beach trip soon, but I don't think there will be many bikini pictures taken this year..)
oh the shame.  I can't even fit into a lot of my old clothes anymore.  It's depressing.  It's been a reality check for me, since I had literally sworn off dieting years and years ago.  It's just not fun.  I hate depriving myself of food, that's torturous!

Not that I've never tried.  Far from it.  As teenagers, my sister and I were borderline bulimics or anorexics. We made a game of our obsession with food versus our desire to be thin.  We had eating contests. (Can you top 11-1/2 pieces of french toast plus bacon? I didn't think so.) We talked about food, describing it in drippy details that surpass the most mouth-watering sounding commercial you've ever heard.  We cut out pictures of skinny models in bikinis and taped them to the refrigerator as motivation to diet, yet we'd still find ourselves in the kitchen after a meal when the rest of the family had left, and we'd be topping off our exorbitant appetites by finishing off a pan of brownies or banana bread, then moving on to bowls of raisin bran and maybe some good ol' Wisconsin cheese. ugh, I feel nauseous just thinking about how much we used to eat!!  And then, after the waves of nausea and self-disgust would wake us up to the reality of our depravity, we'd go on extreme diets and exercise binges, trying to rid ourselves of all the excess calories we'd consumed.  gross, gross, gross.

Nowadays, I've found that exercising regularly is a much better way of losing weight and keeping it off.  Much more fun, too.  But..time goes on, and pounds can creep on you by the smallest, seemingly innocent little changes in your habits and even in your physical body.  As you age, your metabolism may slow down.
Work demands may require being sedentary longer, or the emotional drain of raising kids may zap you of the energy needed for exercise.

 As for me, I blame my weight gain on a bunch of things, but here's a few reasonable excuses:

1. Hypothyroidism.  i was diagnosed several years ago of this thyroid issue, and have since been taking meds to help my sluggish metabolism get itself balanced out.   But it's still sluggish.

2. Antidepressant medications.  I'm on two of them right now, and the antianxiety meds are truly numbing, sedating.  I could take a nap and fall asleep at any time of the day, and my hazy state of mind keeps me glued down to my seat sometimes, when I should be up and doing stuff, burning calories.

3. ummmmm...my brain is thinking really really hard right now, but i have to admit i can't think of any more reasonable excuses for being a fat warthog except i need to just spit out that donut, get off my fat a$# and get moving!

So you know the rest, it's pretty basic:

If I want to look like this...



Then I need to do more of this:
 

Training mean

and eating clean!!!
 

Instead of burgers and fries...instead of frappucinos...



Healthy smoothies, super foods, lots of water, and lots of exercise.

Shower and repeat.





and don't give up.

 

Whatever it takes.  Build muscles, burn the calories, kill the fat,
strengthen the core...



tighten the booty,

   

stretch....focus...


and I'll get results.

Goal #2.

My second goal is actually a series of goals that build upon each other.  And they all build upon that one important ingredient key to the said goal of weight loss: that holy grail of...

Discipline.



Now my series of goals...I won't get into all the specifics at the end of this rainbow I'm following, I have my secret dreams and ambitions.   But to get there, I have chosen the route of becoming a sort of freelancing entrepreneur.  At the same time as being a stay-at-home, homeschooling mom.  

My new role requires balance.  Balancing work and family demands, all at the same time.  Putting the family's needs first, of course, but then carving out that time at home when you say you are officially "working" and cannot be bothered except for emergencies.

It requires developing a work ethic.  A very individual, intrinsically motivated work ethic, in order to do it on my own, be my own boss, from the distracting, chaotic mess of my home.   It's one thing to be motivated to get up when the alarm goes off..



stumble out of bed, get dressed in workplace appropriate clothes, get in the car and arrive at this place called "Work" where you earn your points, your salary, just for showing up on time.  An extrinsic motivation, mostly.

It's a different story working from home.

   

Besides those obvious challenges in working from home, with kids around, this is also requiring me to change up my lazy habits from the past several years of being "just a mom".  Shorter breaks to check email.

All these demands for Focus points to a need for mental clarity.

Huh?  Mental what??



yeah, that's about it.  Sometimes my brain just doesn't function as quickly and clearly as it did when I was younger.  My excuses:

1. Age. (obviously)  We grow old, our brains get fuzzy.  Time to do the old people things, like do more crossword puzzles, learn more foreign languages, take ginseng or whatever herbs are good for your brain..whatever it takes to avoid being the next subject of a "Silver Alert".    oh, and also to help reach my goals of working hard, working smart, working focused.

2. Meds.  ah yes, again my thyroid and antidepressant meds are to blame for this life in a mental fog.  Perhaps my next trip to the shrink should include a request to switch up my meds to help my mental clarity and to help me get out of the "nap trap"; this horribly decadent habit of needing a nap every day around siesta time.  yup, just lay back in the hammock under the coconut trees and catch a few winks, let those beans and rice digest...oh wait, this is the USA.  Need to wake up, make money. (that should be a song, huh?)



So that's about it.  Get disciplined, get focused, get to work.  Make money. Achieve financial independence in order to reach my goals, my dreams.  And then go by faith.  Just like an astronaut can't fly into space without preparation, neither can I just "go for it" and fly into oblivion, hoping to reach my goals by faith, by believing it will happen. What if an astronaut forgot to pack enough oxygen?  What if his navigation instruments weren't fine-tuned and checked for absolute accuracy so he wouldn't get lost in space?  What if he didn't pack enough freeze-dried food?  What if he didn't understand the proper restroom procedures in space and ending up in a nightmare-ish capsule of flying poop?

Neither can I soar off without preparation.  And the place to start is by developing discipline.  Even the discipline to say NO to that chocolate donut.  Again and again and again.

We can do this, Houston.

over and out.