Today being the first day of Autumn, I finally feel like I am back! I am in my stride again of taking my kids to and from school, aka taxi mom, arranging play-dates, cleaning the house and I have finally craved regular workouts back into my schedule again and let me tell you that it feels so good to have my life organized again. The first couple of weeks of September were a little bit chaotic in my house, with my one daughter starting full-time in school the big grade one and my other daughter going to JK but for only a half day. All this running around left me feeling like I never had two seconds to breathe before I had to run some where and pick someone up. And then I would get home and it was time to make lunches and clean up again do some work with my young one and then it was time to pick her sister up at 3:00 p.m. And by the time we got home its time to make dinner. And I just felt the days and weeks slip by me, have you ever felt this way?
The point of this post is to say that all craziness does eventually pass especially if you make it a point to get everything under control. And I did, I don’t like to feel like I am spinning out of control.
What I found that has helped me is if you surround yourself with inspiring people, blogs where people have the same goals and motivators as you do when you do this you never feel like giving up, because giving up isn’t an option for you anymore!
So here are the people (aside from my family and friends) and the blogs that I follow and why I find them so inspiring:
http://www.myomytv.com/ Marianne Kane is the owner of this blog and this Irish woman is not only a wonderful person, a sense of humor that really comes across in her blogs but runs a fantastic blog and community. myomytv is jammed packed with great kettlebell and body-weight workouts and great information.
http://www.carollama.com I tend to check Mrs. Carol Lama’s facebook page practically on daily basis. This woman is so inspiring a mother of 3 and who is 41 years young changed her body shape from a Mom who didn’t feel good about herself and was out of shape to woman who made the best decision of her life to get fit and then found herself in a whole new world of opportunities. She has since been featured in Oxygen Magazine inspiring people with body transformation story and even gracing the stage in fitness competitions. I find this woman so inspiring and I know that you will too!
http://www.motherfitness.com/ Kellie Davis is a mother/writer/fitness guru who really can do it all. Her site is filled with great information for anyone who is starved for great content.
http://ohsheglows.com/ Angela Liddon’s site is my go to healthy food spot, she has fantastic recipes that range from vegetarian, vegan and just plain wonderful food. Her gorgeous pictures just make you yearn to eat healthy.
So these are just a few of my favourite spots hopefully you will enjoy them too.
Hi Everyone,
I hope that everyone’s summer is going well, I can’t believe that there are only 2 more weeks before my little girls go back to school time is moving fast. And I have to say that I am welcoming the cooler weather as of late, I found this summer to be too hot. Many of you might not agree with me on that but when I can’t get through a10k run because I finish my water before I even hit 3k you know its hot out.
Anyways I wanted to share the workout that I did yesterday so here it is:
Right arm kettlebell swing 20 reps
Left arm Kettlebell swing 20 reps
Burpees 20 reps
Right arm kettlebell swing 19 reps
Left arm Kettlebell swing 19 reps
Burpees 19 reps
Right arm kettlebell swing 18 reps
Left arm Kettlebell swing 18 reps
Burpees 18 reps
Right arm kettlebell swing 17 reps
Left arm Kettlebell swing 17 reps
Burpees 17 reps
Right arm kettlebell swing 16 reps
Left arm Kettlebell swing 16 reps
Burpees 16 reps
Right arm kettlebell swing 15 reps
Left arm Kettlebell swing 15 reps
Burpees 15 reps
Right arm kettlebell swing 14 reps
Left arm Kettlebell swing 14 reps
Burpees 14 reps
Right arm kettlebell swing 13 reps
Left arm Kettlebell swing 13 reps
Burpees 13 reps
Right arm kettlebell swing 12 reps
Left arm Kettlebell swing 12 reps
Burpees 12 reps
Right arm kettlebell swing 11 reps
Left arm Kettlebell swing 11 reps
Burpees 11 reps
Right arm kettlebell swing 10 reps
Left arm Kettlebell swing 10 reps
Burpees 10 reps
DONE! Ok when doing this workout I tried to take no breaks but I ended up having 2 10 second rests to get a sip of water and that’s it. Needless to say after this one I needed a shower right away. Enjoy!
Hello Everyone,
First I feel like I should apologize for not posting in awhile, I’m sorry, I gave myself a wee bit of a break but no worries I’m back! And I had a killer workout: here’s how it went:
So the day started off with a 60 minute run in 30°C/86F weather I know what was I thinking. I managed a distance of about 10k and I felt like I had sweated an entire person. A funny story about my run, so I was about 80% done my run and I ran out of water and I am dying in the heat so I begin desperately looking for a sprinkler to run through or someone that I could ask to refill my water bottle, do you think that anyone was watering their grass NO! I was dying of thirst… anyways the only person that I can find is a 90 year old woman watering her flowers. I actually asked this old woman if she could get me some water, needless to say she took pity on my sweaty state and gave me water. The strange thing is I think I brighten her day.
Anyways just wanted to share that. On to the second part of my workout.
60 Prisoner Squats
60 Lunges ea leg
60 hanging leg raises
60 pull-ups (My back is going to hurt like a son of bitch tomorrow. But I am really trying to build my strength doing my pull-ups took me about 15mins)
Give it a try and let me know how you do!
Good morning all, I thought that I would write about something today that has been weighing on me very heavily, no pun intended. And unfortunately I still do not have the answer for this one but I am looking to hear from all of you.
Let me begin by saying that fitness and a healthy lifestyle has been part of my life for more than 12 years. I am no rookie to the fit life, I always try to eat the right foods and I try to stay away from emotional eating. Basically I try to avoid trapping myself into falling into bad habits. I am always advocating to women to lift weights and that cardio is not the be all and end all for having a great body.
This is where the line becomes blurry for me and let me just state that I know that muscle weighs more than fat and you look far more better with muscle on you, that being said when I step on the scale I despise seeing the number that it reads. I am never happy with my weight! Now I know that most of you are saying to yourself, ‘Well Cindy, don’t step on the scale, use your clothing as tool, or a clothe tape measure’ and I do all of those things but the scale always sits there waiting for me to step on it. And it’s not that I weigh myself every now and then. No! That would be a lie. My obsession is far worse than that, I weigh myself every day from the moment that I wake up, again after I get dressed, after I eat my dinner, then again after my workout, and the last thing I do before I go to bed is weigh myself.
Let me take a breath and say that I feel so nervous about writing this my hands are incredibly sweaty as I am typing this and my heart is beating out of my chest!
But it’s the truth. The scale has power over me and I don’t know how to break it. I have pretty much hidden this from my family and friends. No one would ever think that I would be this neurotic about my weight but I am. I believe that a lot has to do with the way I grew up and my family members. I come from a very skinny family my father weighs 120lbs, my mother is 90lbs and my brother if he is lucky weighs about 130lbs and it would seem that it is all very natural for them to maintain these low body weights without much effort. This is not the case for me I have to do weight training, cardio double workouts just to maintain my body. I have to work at it every day! Now let me interject here that I do not want a pity party, I don’t want anyone to feel bad for me. And I hope that I am not coming off as whining.
The point of this post is to let people know that you can look like you have a great body or you can make people believe that you have everything figured out, but the truth is that I too suffer from a poor body image. For those of you that are new to fitness and you are finding all these inspiring men and women out there on facebook and the web just know that they might not have it all figured out either. Or they may be suffering from the same body image as you. I know that I have my arch enemy the scale and I have not found a way to dispose of it yet. But I know that I am getting stronger both physically and emotionally and maybe one day I won’t need it?
I just wanted to share with all of you that I am not perfect, I don’t want to be perfect and I hope that this post will let you know that you are not the only one suffering with the scale, you are not alone!
So this past week I trained my first male client and it was a great session. While in this session I noticed a habit that he had and I am guilty of too many of us are and that is when the weights get a little heavy we start holding our breath in and the moment that we do that our form is also sure to suffer as well.
Since we breathe without thinking all day long we don’t give it much consideration while we are working out but we should give it more attention. Breathing is very important and often an ignored function of our body. When you inhale, you take in oxygen, which gets moved around through blood cells. When you exhale, you get rid of toxins and gases such as carbon dioxide. So correct breathing during your workout is so important because it helps oxygenate your hard-working muscles and delivers them with nutrient-rich blood. Your muscles are literally screaming for you to breathe properly!
So now that you understand that breathing and proper form go hand in hand when lifting weights, you want to know, how do you this properly? You want to exhale when lifting the weight and inhale when lowering the weight. And please don’t ever hold your breath during a complete rep, you are not helping yourself trust me.
Now I know that many of you might be thinking that this is a no brainer, I breathe just fine when I work out, but maybe just maybe you will notice after this post that you too hold your breath when you shouldn’t.
Here is the work out that I did today hope you enjoy!
I did 10 sec rest and 50 sec effort
Round 1
100 Jumping Jacks
10 ea side Scorpion push-ups
25 Elevated Plank climbers
20 hanging knee raises
18 burpees
25 Sumo squats + front kick holding 25lb Olympic weight
Round 2
107 Jumping Jacks
8 ea side Scorpion push-ups
22 Elevated Plank climbers
18 hanging knee raises
20 burpees
23 Sumo squats + front kick holding 25lb Olympic weight
Round 3
98 Jumping Jacks
10 ea side Scorpion push-ups
22 Elevated Plank climbers
15 hanging knee raises
17 burpees
20 Sumo squats + front kick holding 25lb Olympic weight
If in life you have chosen to walk hand in hand with someone and share your life, dreams and hopes for the future there will be times when you are both in sync and there will be times when you are not quite on the same page with each other. This can be particularly difficult when one of you has chosen a path to get you back in shape and be fit and the other isn’t quite on board or isn’t ready to go through the change themselves.
The first few years in a marriage I have noticed are the easy years of being in love with your mate and really becoming relaxed and comfortable with each other. The two of you quickly set out to have kids and that is when the weight gain comes into the picture and not just for the women who are pregnant, my husband put on pregnancy weight too with me because there was no way I was having ice cream by myself! And let’s face it, after having children a lot of us fall into a comma of just trying to figure out how our new life works, were basically running on fumes for the first year until we can find our rhythm again. Let alone how to lead a fit life.
But the future is not so bleak there is light again at the end of this cycle.
And if you are lucky in a marriage the both of you come to the conclusion to get back on track together, this is the most optimal situation because you can both enter this new relationship like a team supporting each other. But life doesn’t always give us exactly what we want when we want it. Your husband or wife is on board for all the healthier foods coming into the house but they are not quite convinced to begin working out yet. In this situation half the battle is won. You both still can be enjoying your meals together and experiencing a healthier lifestyle but they are not going down the road completely with you. Your role as the one who is fully on board is to encourage your mate to come along all the way with you, but you don’t want to come across as the police and say, ‘You must or else’! This kind of attitude normally gets people to get their back up and become even more resistant to the whole process. Encourage but know when to back off!
The third scenario is the worst situation to be in; at least it would be for me, where your mate is completely not on board with this new lifestyle, they want nothing to do with healthier foods or a fit lifestyle. You start thinking, now what the hell do I do! But not all is lost, remember that you married this person for a reason, you love them and they love you. The best fix for this situation is communication, communication and more communication. You need to explain why this lifestyle is so important to you, how much it would mean to you if they went down this path with you and why their support is so vital to the process. Never ever assume that the other half knows, that’s the worst thing you could ever do, your husband or wife is not a mind reader, yes you are married to them but they cannot read your thoughts. Start the dialogue and just a note don’t come off more superior than they are because your just asking for a fight.
Communicate and be optimistic about the whole process when walking down the road of becoming fit it’s about the journey and maybe your wife or husband isn’t on board the first year, but maybe after they begin to see your results and your change of attitude they will want to freely join in on their own.
I am who I am and I don’t live by anyone else’s standards but my own. I am my own person a woman, a daughter, wife, mother and friend. I take care of myself in order that I may help my family and others around me. I am strong and vibrant and I love the fact that I can lift weights that even some men cannot! I will never apologize for who and what I am.
Ashamed is not in my vocabulary nor is the desire to be skinny or a super model.
I am a wakened to who I am. I can run longer than I ever dreamed, lift, sweat and train hard to be the body of my own dreams, not one that photoshop tells me to be.
I train hard so that when I slide on that bikini it doesn’t have to be because it’s summer it looks good any time of the year. I live this life so that I can play with my children at the park and run after them till they’re screaming ‘MOM stop we are tired!’ The child in me still craves recess and playtime – the child who doesn’t know anything about a mortgage, bills, car payments, and sickness but knows everything about enjoying the moment’s life has to offer.
I train the way that I do because it feels beyond empowering to put healthy food into my body knowing that it will thank me tenfold. Chips, coke, alcohol, pizza and grease fried foods are not rewards to me but foods that will cheat me out of the life that I am living right now!
I train the way that I do so that when I lay my head on my pillow every night, it’s with the knowing that I have lived another strong day, I have put more muscle on so that it will hopefully stay on as I age, I have honored my body and my life.
Live Your Life and Love It.
Cindy Beverly
Are you in sleep debt? Now I don’t mean that you had a bad night once in awhile but you are continuingly only having about 4 hours or even worse 3 hours of sleep a night for months at a time. If you are nodding your head yes than you may be noticing this effect your muscle growth. Now how do I know about this, well last year I was diagnosed with critical exhaustion.
So how did this happen you ask? Or what is critical exhaustion?
Well here is what was going on in our life at the time, we just moved cities from Cambridge to Oakville and bought a new house, it was my daughter’s first year of school and she developed nightmares. She would wake up all hours of the night screaming and then my other daughter would wake up. So I would run from bedroom to bedroom all night long consoling my girls exactly what a Mother should do. However, that left me very, very tired and also very sick. Layer on top of that, that I wouldn’t give myself a break! I was still working out twice a day five times a week. But I became frustrated with my training! Why wasn’t I seeing the gains that precious muscle that I knew I had been working so hard for.
And when I was sitting in my doctors office and explaining all of this to her she looked at me as if I had two heads and said to me, “Cindy if you’re training hard regularly and eating the right kinds of food but not getting adequate amount of rest and sleep there is now way you will get proper growth and muscle gains that you are looking for”. Do you know that in my sleep deprivation mind I never thought about my lack of sleep to not gaining my muscle mass. What a hand slapping my forehead moment that was.
Everything finally made sense!
So even if you’re willing to accept the waves of drowsiness that accompany lack of sleep, or have learned to mask the symptoms with caffeine that to this day is still a crutch that I use, your body must still carry the load. Using a metaphor here just like when someone is drunk and thinks he can drive his car home “just fine,” a sleep-deprived individual has degraded motor and intellectual skills in spite of of his or her subjective self-perception. Mood will also play its role in this story leaving the poor sleep-deprived person (Me) more easily frustrated, less happy, short tempered and feeling less than yourself.
What else did I learn about sleep is that in deep sleep, human growth hormone does its greatest work. It repairs damaged tissue, helps in muscle growth and generally promotes the “repair and rebuild” role of muscle building that we weight trainers rely on for results. In fact, a decline in deep sleep as we age has been hinted as a contributing factor to muscle wasting (sarcopenia) in the elderly. Let me say this again that the actual growth occurs after you’re lifting weights, not during your training session. Our body needs ample rest and nutrition to restore your muscle fibers.
So one year later from being diagnosed with critical exhaustion I am doing much better. I am happy to report that my eldest daughter loves school and the nightmares have stopped. I no longer owe any sleep debt. Mind there are still bad nights but nothing like before. I have also adopted the belief that if I am tired I will go have a nap with my girls or I will go to bed early. The house work will still be there tomorrow; if I don’t clean it that night the world will not end. I am also trying to lay off so much coffee, that’s hard for me to write because I do love coffee but I realized that drinking 5 to 6 coffees a day is not healthy for me and would keep me up all night as well. Another trick I learned is to sleep in complete darkness I will even turn the clock the other way so I don’t see the time. I don’t work out past 8:00pm anymore; it just doesn’t give my body enough time to wind down. Those are just some of the tips that I use and they have helped me and I hope it helps you too.
Me and my 25lb friend
A Work In Progress
Hanging Leg Raises 5 sets of 15
Hanging Leg raises are my favorite ab exercise, I absolutely love them. And doing this exercise also helps me work on my grip strength. I begin hanging from my pull-up bar and with both legs straight, exhale and slowly lift both knees towards my chest. Or if I am feeling particularly strong I don’t bend my knees and lift my legs straight until they touch the handle bars. I hold briefly at the top of the motion, and then slowly lower to the starting position. I always move in a slow and controlled manner.
Holding Plank 5 sets of 2 min holds
Now plank is like the holy grail of ab exercises it’s a great exercise to retrain your ab muscles to work more efficiently. It is an isometric exercise for the stomach. “Iso” means “same”, and “metric” means “length”. Isometric literally means same length, or isometric simply means that you hold one position without moving.
Stability Ball Piques 5 sets of 15
This one took me a long time to perform in good form but once I mastered it, boy is it a critical part of my ab routine. Begin with your feet on the ball and your hands on the floor. Lift your hips into the air, hold briefly and return to the starting point. When you perform the piques your knees stay straight.
Leg Lifts & Raises 5 sets of 15
Lie on your back, with your hands at your side keeping your knees slightly bent, lift your legs straight in the air. Keep your back flat against the floor through the movement, more than ever as you lower your legs. Keep the focus on your abs by not lowering all the way to the floor. And the lower you extend your legs the more challenging this exercise is for the ab muscles and lower back.
Standing Dumbbell Side Bends for the Obliques w/30lb in ea. hand 5 sets of 15
This is probably the easiest to explain stand with your feet slightly apart and a dumbbell in each hand. Now using your oblique muscles, lower the dumbbell on the one side towards the floor until you feel a comfortable stretch in the opposite side. Hold for 5 seconds and then slowly return to the starting position. And do the same on the opposite side. And just watch how fast you begin to sweat.
Incline Sit Ups5 sets of 15 w/25lb Olympic plate over head
Lie on the bench and place your feet under the pads to secure your legs. Hold you weight over your head. Exhale and curl your body forward to the sit up position. Hold briefly at the top and then slowly return to the starting position.
