The suck

So I wanted to discuss the suck. I know for those of you who read my facebook page you have been hearing about the suck quite frequently. The suck is that moment in your work out where life sucks. Your body starts to hurt, your lungs are on fire, and to top it all off you really just want to pack it up and go home. Getting through the suck is an important part of becoming a better, stronger person. These are the moments in life that can define a person, or redefine them.

Photo from anamillerpsychic.com!

Recently I have been experiencing a whole heaping helping of the suck. It has plagued me like there is no tomorrow. I haven't wanted to even work out, but I have somehow continued to drag myself to the gym. Despite my best efforts the suck was there from the beginning to the end of the work outs. It haunted me worse than the a creepy little ghost. So this heaping suck has me down and out. I had actually started loathing my trips to the gym, a sign of a burn out soon to come.

Enter the box jump. I recently started doing box jumps. For those of you who do not know what a box jump is watch this video...

Wonderful now we all have a frame of reference for the next bit of conversation. In the video the box is about the size of the box I began to jump on. I understand that this looks like a tiny box, but in fact if you have never tried a box jump it can be tricky. That and the fact that I am a clumsy lug does not help. 

I had been struggling for going on two weeks with finding any resemblance of motivation as I set up my interval. Seated low rows with rest time filled with box jumps. The gym had moved my metal boxes that I was used to using and I had to set up some of the blue plastic boxes. I grabbed two without thinking that it was double what I had originally done. I sat down at the row without looking at the weight and began to do my rows. Little did I know I was lifting 55lbs, only on my last repetition did I notice this was 15lbs more than I usually lift. This put a tiny smile on my face, and the suck faded long enough for me to finish the rep and stand to face my box.

The box I had set up is about 12-18 inches. I think closer to 18 but I am not sure as I have never measured it. It is double what I had normally done. Standing there looking at the box the image of me crashing and busting my skull open on the row machine played on loop in my head. I took a deep breath and I jumped. To my surprise there was no crashing, no gasps from stunned gym-goers as I came tumbling down like humpty dumpty because I landed it. The smile on my face got bigger and bigger as I did my ten jumps. I had finally defeated the suck. Motivation took over and the suck was chased away like a scared little child instead of a big bad poltergeist.

What's the point? If you stick with it, even when everything in your body and brain are screaming quit, you will have the best feeling of accomplishment ever. Giving up is always an option. In fact I can usually find 100 reasons not to give myself my hour a day to strengthen my mind and body. Not giving in to the easy way out is the hard part. It can change who you are. I have always been a quitter. If something was hard I simply avoided it. If I wasn't naturally good at it I didn't do it. Now that has changed. I will take on the challenge. I know that I am capable of things I never thought possible, all because I can get through the suck.

How do you get through the suck? Knowing how to push through gives us strength for all areas of our lives.

Top tips to fight the flab

Since I have lost all these inches people have been asking me what I did and what they should or could do to lose weight. I thought it might be fun to do a series on tips for you on how to fight the flab. Over the next few weeks I will introduce some steps that you can take without altering your lifestyle too much to change how you look and feel.

At the end of the post are the names of the articles that I will be writing to help you do what I did. I am not an expert, and I am not yet at a healthy weight. So I don't have all the answers, but I am going to pretend. I am going to let you all speculate as to the nature of the articles by their titles, and am planning on getting out one a week (give or take). So now you have something to tell your friends about. Yes spread the word. See the Facebook button at the bottom of the article? Click it... No really, click the freaking button! OK well here is the first of ten... Click the button!

You gotta move-it move-it!

 

One of the most basic statements I have heard about weight loss is to eat less and move more. All the time when I discuss moving more people tell me that they don't have the time/money to go to the gym. I understand that it can be difficult to go to the gym, I KNOW that they are expensive, but you don't need a gym to move more. There are a few things you can do throughout the day to increase the level of movement without even taking extra time out of your day.

Park at the END of the parking-lot

It annoys the living crap out of me that people will circle the first five parking spaces at the local store in order to avoid movement. I park at the end of the lot. The end that seems to always have free parking. The one that doesn't have a traffic jam of overweight over lazy people vulturing the one open spot. I am sure that you have heard the joke "they should make fat people parking at the end of the lot so they walk more." Well, why not? I did, I know it's not a ton of space and it may only add four minutes of walking in a day, but if you make it a habit those minutes can add up, you can also walk faster than your mosey so that you get your heart rate up! This goes along with walking quickly wherever you walk. No more moseying.

Chores

No one likes cleaning their house. I hate dishes as much as the next person, but now when I clean my house it looks like a cross between an aerobics class and some cleaning commercial. I move a ton. I shake my booty and break a sweat. I don't just load the dishes or vacuum the floor. It becomes a little workout session. Take the chore that you are already doing and make it work for you. Yes you will look like an idiot. My husband tries really hard not to laugh at me when I squat to put a dish in the washer or when I do some Zumba mid stroke of the vacuum, but then again he hasn't complained either. 

Catalog downtime and make it movement time

 I don't believe people don't have time to exercise. There are plenty of hours in the day and unless you are working three jobs and raising kids by yourself you have no excuse. If you sit and watch TV for an hour a night that is downtime and time that you could go for a walk/run/bike ride/hike. When you are looking around the house wondering what to do, get moving. Do some jumping jacks, or eight count push ups or anything except sitting on your butt watching TV. If you don't move more you can't lose weight.  

Find a hobby that is outdoors or involves movement, change your TV time into hiking time or kayaking time or mountaineering time. Don't sit and do nothing. You have to take an active part in becoming active.

Heart Rate

Any chance you get to get your heart rate up do it. Standing at the microwave for two minutes? I do the modified push ups against the counter while I wait for my leftovers. Take the opportunities that life affords you. It will take a time to start to see these opportunities but once you start to see them, you will wonder how you ever lived without them. Any time your heart rate jumps you burn more calories. It takes a while for a max heart rate to drop to a resting heart rate. So if you do go for walks, throw some High Intensity Interval Training HIIT in there. Do jumping jacks or mountain climbers every block and then resume your normal pace. 

JUST MOVE!