I am my mother’s daughter
So the other night while cleaning and doing some work, I had Spanglish on in the background.
For those of you who haven’t seen it, I won’t ruin the movie, but one of the last lines in the movie struck a note and got me to thinking…
“I am my mother’s daughter…”
My mom made sure I was a strong young woman who would stick up for myself and never let anything in life beat me down.
She encouraged my spunk and tenacity.
She encouraged me to be competitive and achieve.
But she also taught me that being successful doesn’t have to mean that you put others down to get ahead. Part of true success is making others even better and stronger than yourself!
It’s funny but this one little random memory really inspired me so much:
My mom and I were out on the tennis court and were going to play a set. It was probably the first time I was going to play a competitive game against my mom since I was actually potentially able to beat her.
Before we began she said to me, “If you beat me, you are walking home.” She had a huge grin on her face.
And I laughed.
And then….
I lost.
Should I have lost?
Probably not.
We always joke that she just managed to get inside my head. I sometimes think it was nerves from the idea that I could possibly beat my mom…Someone who had always beaten me!
And after that match, I don’t think I ever really did lose again. (Sorry Mom!)
Anyway, the point of this silly memory is actually that I think my mom, while competitive with no desire to lose, was PROUD of the fact that I may just finally be better than her.
She wanted me to succeed. She wanted me to live up to my full potential even if that meant I surpassed her.
She put her own ego aside and took PRIDE in my achievements.
She taught me what it meant to be a leader and a teacher.
So why am I telling you all of this?
Because I am proud to be my mother’s daughter.
I am strong and competitive and driven to achieve. But above all that, I want to encourage success in all those around me.
I’ve been told I’m a “pusher.”
I push others into doing things they’ve only talked about doing. I push others to work hard. I push others to grow and achieve WHAT THEY ARE CAPABLE OF even if they end up leaving me behind in their newfound success.
I push my clients every day to work harder, become better. I push them because they CAN do it. They are the reason for their success…I just help them see that THEY CAN DO IT!
So I want to encourage all of you women out there to be proud of your strength. To grow yourself and encourage others to do the same. Being strong ourselves isn’t enough.
Helping others grow stronger is what really matters.
I am my mother’s daughter.
Are you?
Friends, Family and Food
So this weekend was my final big cheat until Thanksgiving and boy did I do it up right.
I celebrated with a Halloween party last night and a big brunch with Ryan’s sisters this morning.
We are a society where food, family and friends seem to almost be inseparable.
We sit down to dinner as a family for some “family time.” We meet up with friends for a meal to “catch up.” We celebrate with parties centered around food.
At the heart of most of our socializing is FOOD.
Does that make sticking to your diet, especially around the holidays, easy?
HECK NO!
But that doesn’t mean that you can just give up!
Sure use a few get-togethers and specific holiday gatherings as cheat days, but choose them wisely. Choose ones that are meaningful and satisfying.
Don’t just eat bad food to eat bad food. Don’t just be lazy and take the easy way out.
DON’T JUST GIVE IN TO EVERY TEMPTATION!
I know it is difficult to turn down bad food. I know there are tons of articles with special tips about plate size and drinking water to supposedly help you avoid overeating.
But let’s face it…Once you eat a few bad things at a party and have a drink or two, your inhibitions will be lowered and you probably won’t end up eating only a “bit or two” of the bad food.
So instead pick and choose events to eat badly at.
PLAN AHEAD.
Even if that planning is just knowing that you are going to have a few big cheats over the next few months, but are going to eat super clean in between them.
Think about which events you will really feel deprived if you don’t indulge at and plan to cheat at those. Come up with a plan of action at the others to help you stick to your diet if you don’t want to cheat at them. (This will prevent you from losing all willpower after a drink or two at the party.)
If it is at a restaurant, check out the menu ahead of time. If it is at a friend’s house, there is no harm in asking what the menu will be like.
I always find that when I’m aware of the food choices beforehand, I can create an action plan to keep me on track while enjoying the party and not feeling like the odd man out.
Family, friends and food – You don’t have to miss out OR give up on your diet!
VICTORY!
So today I hit my first goal of 70 ft in 10 seconds on the VersaClimber.
VICTORY!
The added bonus is that I managed to be the first girl to do it! Now I just want to see other ladies up on that wall!
If you have a VersaClimber at your gym try to do 70 ft in 10 seconds! Do it and send me the picture of your completed sprint!!! 🙂
Now on to 300 ft in 1 minute and 20 minutes straight on the battling ropes! Then back to deadlifting human beings!
Wedding Dress Fittings
So last night I went with one of my friends/clients for her final dress fitting at Mon Amie.
I have to admit…I was kind of not looking forward to it.
I wanted to see her looking beautiful in her dress….
BUT I HATE WEDDING DRESS STORES!
I walk in and am overwhelmed with all of the puffy white frilliness. I feel like my head just starts spinning and I just want to leave.
I’m completely overwhelmed by the idea of looking through them for my own dress.
Anyway, I went with my friend/client for her final fitting and she looked absolutely stunning. Her dress was perfect for her and she looked wonderful in it.
She was also shocked to find out that over the last month she had dropped even more weight!
Her dress was even looser and she felt great about how she looked in it. She even decided not to wear those spanks that we ladies sometimes want to wear to make everything look even smoother!
The point is – She looked great and she felt good about how she looked.
Her happiness was infectious and she really got me to thinking on my way home.
For one, I thought about how probably some of my best friends EVER started out as clients.
Two, I thought about brides and looking beautiful on their wedding day.
I’ve said numerous times that you can’t just start working out two months before your wedding and hope to look exactly the way you want unless you are already almost at your goal.
But it isn’t about just reaching your goal on the exact day of your BIG DAY. It is about reaching your goal right before your final fitting.
If you can look perfect on the day of your final fitting, you will feel confident about how you’ll look in your dress. Also, you can make sure your dress is perfectly fitted to your dream body.
Plus, if you still have a month or so to go after your final fitting before your big day, you’ll give your body even more time to adjust to your new-found leanness, which will only make you look better! Then the last month you can just focus on maintaining instead of stressing over cutting off those last few pounds!
So after attending my friend’s fitting, I’ve decided that the main focus of the new bridal workbook I’m designing is DRESS FITTINGS. Short-term goals should be set based on wedding dress shopping and fitting dates because the best way to make us feel confident about how we will look on our wedding day, and relieve a lot of stress, is to have us be at certain targets while we are finalizing our dress.
So while you start working toward your wedding dream body, consider when you are having dress fittings. Mark them down and set short terms goals that will have you looking perfect by your last fitting so you will be stunning on your wedding day!
P.S. I’ve decided that maybe I will eventually brave a wedding dress store to look for a dress myself….Just not yet….haha
No Filler Crab Cakes
Just because most recipes use breadcrumbs or saltines or some gluten filler doesn’t mean you have to!
Below are some delicious crab cakes we made with some jumbo lump crab we got at Trader Joes.
Ingredients:
16 oz crab
1 slice nitrate free bacon cut into thick chunks
2 eggs
1 tbsp Dijon mustard
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp paprika
Salt and pepper to taste
Chop the bacon into thick chunks and cook until browned. Then remove and place in a bowl to use later.
While bacon is cooking mix together crab, eggs, mustard and spices. Don’t mix so well you completely destroy the crab chunks!
Once the crab mixture is combined, form into patties. We made 12 individual cakes.
Then place the patties in the pan that you just cooked bacon in. While patties are cooking on the first side, push a few bacon chunks into the top of each patty. When you turn the patties over, the bacon will cook into them and infuse the whole crab cake with a bacon flavor!
Top the patties with a sauce of your choice (they don’t even really need sauce though!). We did use a little chipotle blue cheese “aioli”. Sour cream can be combined with some blue cheese chunks, dill and chipotle powder to make an easy, tasty sauce!
Serve with a nice light salad! We used arugula, tomatoes, green onions, garlic, and lightly tossed it in our homemade blue cheese dressing!
These crab cakes are high in protein and pretty low calorie! The whole can of crab is just 350 calories! That with just two eggs and one slice of bacon (on top of the fact that you aren’t eating the whole can yourself!) makes the meal great if you are watching your calorie intake!
Weight Training for RUNNERS
I saw these on Zazzle. I love the message, but please don’t run with weights…even little pastel Barbie ones…or for that matter even ankle or wrist ones….
It’s funny…I’ve gotten lots of comments from runners about how they won’t give up running, but that they do recognize the importance of weight training when it comes to looking good.
Weight training isn’t just the secret to a great physique though…It is also key to becoming a stronger runner!
As much as I am not a runner myself, I would never tell a client to give up running if they enjoy it (unless of course they are injured and need a break).
I get that you ENJOY running. I ENJOY lifting. I wouldn’t give up lifting for anything, but that doesn’t mean I don’t recognize the importance of occasionally doing some longer cardio sessions.
Both cardio AND lifting are essential to a beautiful physique and a STRONG BODY.
Just think about the issues that many runner’s suffer from. Everything from foot injuries up the leg to the hips and low back.
WEIGHT TRAINING and foam rolling for that matter can help prevent these injuries from occurring. If you release the knots from muscles that are tight and strengthen muscles that are weak, you could prevent injuries from occurring.
For example, if you suffer from runner’s knee, you may need to strengthen your quads to help your patella track correctly. You will also probably need to stretch your hamstrings to help correct the imbalance that is most likely there.
Weight training isn’t just good for anyone suffering from an injury. It is a good way to prevent an injury from ever occurring and helping your endurance and speed.
Strong muscles can go for longer. They can also go faster because they can generate more power.
Who doesn’t want to be able to run longer and go faster!?!
And while most long distance runners probably won’t be lifting for maximal strength (aka 1-5 reps) they can still lift heavy weights that challenge their muscles.
Kettlebell swings alone are a great exercise for runners. They strengthen your glutes and hips as well as your hamstrings. They help you generate power and can help build your strength and endurance. They help prevent some of those common running injuries that stem from weak hips and under-active glutes.
And that right there is just ONE exercise that could make a HUGE difference. Like kettlebell swings you can do deadlifts and even one leg deadlifts if you want the added benefit of having to stabilize to strengthen your ankles and knees.
Anyway the point is, lifting heavy weights could just be what you need to take your running to the next level.
Just running more miles sometimes isn’t enough. Sometimes logging more miles can just mean injury.
But weight lifting may be just what you need.
No need to give up what you love! Let weight training help keep you doing what you love with no injury setbacks! And shoot if it makes you even better at what you love, that doesn’t hurt either!
Body Image Blues
Sometimes I am completely and utterly irrational.
There are freaking random things that can make me feel completely confident or completely depressed about how I look.
My clothes might fit well and I may look no different than I did the day before, but sometimes even just KNOWING that I ate badly the day before can make me “believe” I look bad.
There are a bazillion different things that can do it to you.
It could be a change in weight on the scale. It could be a pair of pants you haven’t worn in a while fitting differently. It could be some random little comment about one of your body parts that does it!
It could even just be your MOOD that day that determines how “fat” or “thin” you look that day.
Actually I would say mood is a huge determining factor.
Let’s face it, if you have a negative outlook or are down on yourself for something…anything…you are probably going judge yourself with that negative attitude.
If you are in a good mood, a bad meal the night before probably won’t bother you. If you are in a good mood, a little fluctuation on the scale probably will just make you think “water weight.” Tight pants….hey you haven’t worn them since you washed them!
Anyway, the point is that your attitude toward life is going to affect how you interpret things.
Try to remember that!
Try to remember all of the hard work you’ve put in to look and feel good. Don’t let one day of feeling down on how you look spiral into a “I don’t look good anyway so I’m going to binge eat and not workout” cycle.
Remember that things really aren’t going to change day-to-day – it is all about consistency over time.
And on those days when you do feel down on yourself, re-dedicate yourself to your goals.
Remind yourself of all your hard work. Remind yourself of all your progress.
Focus on the positive instead of honing in on that one body part you always seem to feel insecure about!
Anyone else ever have those days where you just have a negative body image even though you’ve been working out hard and eating well?
Two Steps Forward…
I constantly remind clients to be patient with their progress. I constantly remind them that it isn’t just a clear upward progression.I constantly remind them that there are slight setbacks and plateaus.
For every two steps forward, there may be one step backwards.
Sometimes though I need to take the time to remind myself.
Since starting my progression on VersaClimber and the Battling Ropes, I’ve seen huge gains – gains in strength, speed, explosiveness and even mental toughness.
But today, I experienced my first “plateau.”
Whether it was slight fatigue, a lack of focus or a slight lack of mental toughness, I just didn’t have it today. My progress on the VersaClimber stalled.
I can literally taste success, I’m so close to my goal.
On Wednesday, I even thought there was a good chance I would hit it today.
I think I set my expectations just a bit too high and put a little too much pressure.
I wasn’t patient enough.
I hate being patient.
But patience is really key. If you get to riled up and put too much pressure on yourself, your biggest weapon – YOUR POSITIVE MINDSET – will go out the window.
I feel like I wasted a few sprints today because I had a negative mindset. I hadn’t hit my goal and instead of getting angry and pushing back and battling as hard as I could, I got down on myself.
That is probably the single worst thing I could have done.
I let my mindset change to a negative one – I let myself listen to my fatigue and make up reasons why I wasn’t able to have reached my goal yet.
I made up excuses instead of just pushing with everything I had.
But I won’t let that happen again. I now have a couple of days of some active rest and then I’m back at it again on Monday.
No self doubts.
Just a positive mental attitude and a knowledge that I’m going to give everything I’ve got until I get there!
What women want….
To look like on their wedding day….
Toned arms and shoulders, a slim waistline with just enough curve into toned hips, butt and legs.
How do most women get there?
By doing chronic cardio, starving themselves, and lifting light little barbie weights only a month before their wedding.
But is this really the best way to have the arms, waist and butt of your dreams on your wedding day?
HECK NO!
If you really want to look lean and toned you can’t just do cardio and you most definitely can’t starve yourself.
You need to lift challenging weights, eat the RIGHT foods and start working toward the body you want early on.
I tell my clients (and plan to do the same myself) to plan to have reached their goal weight or body composition the week before their final fitting, which is only a month or so out from their wedding.
The last month or two should only really be maintenance.
The key throughout your workout progression toward you BIG DAY is to do compound movements. Don’t waste your time with the bicep curls, shoulder presses and tricep extensions that most programs recommend. While those can be good if you are a powerlifter looking to really isolate and strengthen weak muscles, those moves really aren’t giving you that much bang for your buck.
They don’t have a whole heck of a lot of calorie burn AND they are only working on one muscle group when you could be hitting 3 or 4 with a compound movement.
For instance….the deadlift…It works just about everything. Want a great backside? Want a toned upper back, butt and thighs?
DO DEADLIFTS!
Or any other powerlifting move for that matter. Or you can use kettlebells, resistance bands or the sled
There are a ton of different strength training things that you can do! Find some that are fun and that get you results efficiently AKA compound moves!
Also choose the compound moves that target your trouble areas.
While we can’t spot reduce areas, we can build up proper muscle tone to make our problem areas look better. Eating a healthy diet and later the added cardio we do during cutting will reveal that beautiful muscle we built up even more!
And while I LOVE lifting heavy and think that it is key to the body that you dream of having on your wedding day, cardio does become a more important part as you are trying to become more lean and toned.
That doesn’t mean you just stop lifting and start logging in tons of miles.
It means sprints, some long distance JOGS for some slow fat-burning cardio AND still an intense heavy lifting routine.
Of course once you up your intensity during the final few months before your last dress fitting, you will need to remember to take time to rest, foam roll and release some stress! Working out though can be a great way to make sure that you are still getting enough “me time” BUT that doesn’t mean you can just start living in a gym and not practice proper recovery!
10 Key Moves to Get the Body We All Want on our Wedding Day! (So many move I love, but these will give you a huge bang for your buck!)
- Deadlifts – Deadlifts are a full body move. They are perfect to tone your upper back, butt and hamstrings. Plus they are a real fat burner because they work so many big muscle groups! (I LOVE YOU DEADLIFTS AND MISS YOU!) One new explosive deadlift move I’ve started using is a rotational deadlift. I set up the bar in a t-bar row hold and put weight only on one end. So I deadlift up the end with weight and rotate toward the stand as I stand up. So if the weight is on the right as I stand up, I rotate to the left pushing the weight out and up until my arms are straight.
- Kettlebell Swings – Another great way to get a great toned hips, butt and thighs! This move may be just as good as the deadlift. It is, however, just a bit harder to master. Make sure that if you want the butt toning effects of the swing that you aren’t squatting down so much as doing a hip hinge! NOT A SQUAT! More of an RDL…but still not an RDL.
- Kettlebell Snatches – Another tough move, but a full body one. Develops explosive power, which means more muscle power! It is great to develop power in your legs, tone your core (lots of rotation and stabilization) and strengthen your shoulders.
- Pull ups – I LOVE PULL UPS or any variation of them! (You can even do a pull up and hang if you want some extra core work!) They tone your back, biceps and core! Get great arms while benefiting from the extra calorie burn of working a big muscle group like your back! (And a toned back looks pretty good in a strapless wedding dress!) Plus, if you strengthen your lats, they will help your waist look slimmer by creating more of an hour-glass figure!
- Push ups – Strengthen your chest, triceps and shoulders just to name a few muscles. Lifting heavy can sometimes just mean lifting yourself! If you want to make them even more challenging, make them explosive. As you push up, come up off the floor! They make the push ups that much harder.
- Medball Pass and Shuffle – Honestly, one of my favorite new moves. Cardio because of the shuffling back and forth. Plus it is a great move to develop lean POWERFUL muscles. Best when done with a partner. Perform a chest pass with a heavy medicine ball with a partner while shuffling down and back.
- Sled pull/push – So by pulling I mean pulling a sled toward you with a rope. Great leg, core, back and arm workout! And then if you push it back to its starting place, you get to work the entire posterior of your chain – everything from your shoulders down to your calves!
- Crawls and all variations – You can pull a chain, crawl on a power wheel, or crawl using sliders. How ever you do it, it is a great workout for your shoulders and legs. AND the more you keep you butt from going up in the air, the more you work your core. If you do use a chain, you can work your legs and butt even more. Or if you use a power wheel or sliders, you can focus more on your shoulders and core.
- Battling Ropes – A great way to get the lean ton muscles you want. Depending on which wave you make, you can focus on different muscle groups. You can work your back, your shoulders, your arms, your core and your legs. Shoot rotational waves kill your core!
- VersaClimber (or really any sprints) – These are a great way to maintain muscle and BURN TONS OF FAT!
Progressing toward the elusive perfect push up and pull up
I have many women and even some men tell me that they want to be able to do perfect full push ups and push ups.
And I say “OK!”
Because there is a way to get there! Consistent hard work and a well thought out progression based on what you need to work on will get you there!
So this really applies to any exercise that you want to be able to do, but honestly two of the exercises that most people can’t do, but should be able to do are the push up and pull up (also, most people recently have been telling me they want to be able to do these two moves so I figured I would focus on them).
First, consider all of the muscles used in the move.
For push ups, you use your pecs, shoulders, triceps, core and even your quads and legs. Most often though, people need to focus on core strength and either shoulder or tricep strength.
For pull ups, core and back strength are essential. The grip you use will also determine how much bicep is involved.
Once you identify the muscles used, you can work on those muscles. That doesn’t mean you have to start doing tricep extensions and bicep curls.
You can still do compound movements.
So to work on improving your push up, first assess where you are. Can you do a push up with your hands on an incline? Can you do a push up from your knees? And when I say “Do a push up.” I mean a PERFECT form push up from that position.
Same goes for pull ups. Can you do jumping pull ups? Can you do pull ups where you jump up and slowly lower yourself down? Can you do a pull up and hold? Or can you do a chin up but not a full pull up yet?
Get a clear picture of where you are starting from. If you know exactly where you are at, you can design a program that will get you to where you want to be.
If you don’t have a clear starting point, how the heck are you going to outline a clear progression!?! You won’t know how long it will take you to get somewhere if you don’t even know where you are starting from!!
So once you know what muscles are involved and where you are starting from, you must create workouts that strengthen your weak areas and progress you toward you end goal.
While you will want to do lots of push ups and pull ups during your progression they shouldn’t be the only thing that you are doing.
For push ups, do some core strengthening exercises. Do some crawling that targets your shoulders, core and quads. Do some form of dips, be they full dips or dips off a bench. I mean even get creative with it. Try some chest flies on the slider. Do some ab roller to work your arms and core. Battling ropes can be good. Medball chest passes are a good explosive way to work your upper body.
There are lots of ways to work. Pick exercises that target your weak points!
For pull ups, battling ropes again can be good. Working on different variations of pull ups can help. Try some medball slams into the ground. You can do ones straight ahead or rainbow slams where you slam it down on each side. Do some inverted rows. Some pivot prone pulldowns. Work on your grip strength. Heck even just playing on the monkey bars will definitely help!
And the good part about some of the things that you can do to work on both of these moves is that they will improve your overall posture and strength not JUST progress you toward a perfect pull up or push up.
There are even moves that can benefit both exercises in some way such as the parallel bar press. Just hold your body straight up off of parallel bars or a dip machine. Don’t be a “turtle” aka keep your shoulder blades pull back and down and your spine long. Your neck should be long and not tucked back into your shoulders like a turtle pulling its head into its shell. Just hold. Keep your abs engaged and your shoulder blades retracted. You will feel this in your back and your arms and even your core.
Anyway, there are a bazillion ways to strengthen your body to progress toward a pull up or push up. Don’t just flounder blindly and HOPE you will get there. SET UP A PROGRESSION!
If you need help or want some exercises to help you strengthen your weak points, let me know! 🙂
Man Bicep 