Lift heavy or go home!

As I mentally prepare for front squat push presses tonight I am plagued by the image of the women at my gym who go there to lift 5lbs of weight and then they go home. It really and truly frustrates me that these women are afraid of "bulking up". 

Let's follow the horrible bulking train of thought.

Doing some heavy weight lifting sets at the gym on a regular basis transformed a seemingly average woman into a freakish half-woman half-hulk hybrid.  Then because of the huge amounts of testosterone (because she would have to have high levels of testosterone to bulk up) she began to rage rampage around the city like a crazy female body builder version of Godzilla *insert T-Rex screech here*. Eating cars, babies and sheep she became unstoppable in her "looks like a dude" body. The end result is that her disturbingly bulky muscles left her alone and undesirable. Finally she will die a sad  death alone with her Mr. Universe physique and her 100 cats will feast on her ripped body for years to come. Because let's face it who is going to miss a hulkinator woman and all lonely women have cats...

Sound crazy? 

It is.

 
The worst part of the whole endeavor is how women define bulky. It isn't the she-hulk above, it is a body like that of Hillary Swank in Million Dollar Baby or Linda Hamilton in the Terminator movies. A body like this is what a good program like Crossfit and a good diet will do to a woman with genetics to look like Hillary Swank and Linda Hamilton. Sadly while I would love to look like either of these women, I must face the fact that I am not either of these women. I do not have their genetics. The only thing I can hope for is the best version of myself.

This brings me to my last point. If by going to the gym and lifting five pounds 1000 times someone hopes to achieve a body like *insert celebrity name here* then they are going to be sadly disappointed. Not only is that  workout ineffective and boring, one simply won't achieve that body because they aren't that celebrity. Our quest for fitness should be just that, a quest for fitness. Striving to be the best I can and the strongest I can is my ultimate quest. I stopped comparing myself to the women above a long time ago. I am not them. Neither are you.

I use my lifting time as a time where I become intimately familiar with my body. Learning my limitations, not aspiring to have the limitations of others. I know that I get better every repetition I do and no magazine or person or conglomerate can make me want to be anything else. It it my moment of Zen where nothing exists but myself and the olympic bar. I sweat, I grunt, I sometimes even feel like dying, but I do it. No one can take it away from me. That is what real lifting does.

Be more, be strong.

Self Sabotage and becoming Strong

I haven't been honoring my commitment to the site lately. I haven't been honoring my commitment to myself either. Don't get me wrong. I've been hitting the weights. I mean really hitting the weights, dead lifts, squats planks and the works.

The funny thing about this is that I have not been fueling my body the right way. How can I tell my body in one breath that I want it to perform and be this excellent machine of fitness and strength and in another eat Pizza and Doritos. Really? How does this message make sense?

Dear Body.

Please perform hard, work until you ache. Exceed my expectations.

P.S. You only get processed corn and trans-fats to be able to do this. Oh yeah and I am also going to have some wine about three times a week so that you can't properly heal or process cortisol.

That is the wrong letter to send to my body. It shouldn't be the one I've been writing and yet it is. It is time to take a serious look at the diet. The diet is the only reason that I am not seeing results. I am active as hell. It is a little bit like self sabotage. Somehow we all do this. We get so close to a goal and then we feel we don't deserve it so what do we do, we make sure it explodes in our face.

It partially has to do with the messages we are sent by those around us. All around us are messages that we simply aren't good enough. No matter how hard we try we will never be good enough. Surrounded by these messages, is it any wonder that we begin to come apart at the seems when we start to prove two principles: we are good enough and we are worth it. Everything underneath the conscience level begins to scream and the no processed food commitment we made becomes a lie. When we don't really believe we deserve things we set ourselves up to fail, proving that we really weren't good enough to begin with.

Reasons like these are why we need to reach out to those who will tell us we are good enough and we are worth it. I know that people like those with Strong is the New Skinny are the ones we should be listening to. People and groups that encourage us to be all that we can, to work as hard as possible and achieve everything we need and more.

It means that it is time to write a new letter.

Dear Body, 

I love you. Work hard, become great and I will give you everything you need. I won't give you the crap you don't. You are worth the effort and time to provide you with great nutrition and I promise I'll stop filling you with things you don't need. You're worth it. No, we're worth it.

What letter do you need to rewrite in your life?

Weight, weight, weight!

I thought I would share something with you, your weight does not matter. Not losing 1lb a week won't make or break you. If you plateau it is not the end of the world. It will be ok and the lbs will eventually come off.
I have been roughly 158 since the middle of march, I have lost a whole pant size and a half, and have stayed the same weight. People who haven't seen me proclaim that I have lost so much weight. When I tell them I haven't lost any they scoff at me.
What's my secret? I lift weights, eat healthy amounts of food, go on long walks, play with my son, and enjoy every activity I do.
Here are a few tips from me to you about how to enjoy your new lifestyle (because it shouldn't be a diet).

1. Find an activity you LOVE (hiking, bike riding, roller blading, backpacking, swimming). Do this activity instead of something you hate (walking on the treadmill at a hot crowded gym).
2. Find foods you love and eat them frequently. I eat pancakes 3-4 times a week for breakfast, they are multi-grain protein pancakes that taste better than buttermilk pancakes. They fuel my body and ensure I have the energy I need to go about my morning. They are nutritious and delicious. I am in love with brazil nuts, I eat them almost every day. I HATE hate hate hate beets, I never eat them. I wouldn't eat them if you told me that they would make me lose weight faster.
3. Make it a family/social event. Take your children/husband/girlfriend/friend/roommate with you when you do your activity. Since I have found a lifting partner, I lift harder and work out more efficiently because we push each other. I hike with my son and dog, they both beg me to go. My son is only 13 months and he will go to his baby backpack and try to get into it if we have not gone in more than two days.
4. Don't set weight loss goals. Set fitness goals. A goal of losing 1lb per week is a great lofty goal and can often lead to disappointment. Set fitness goals. If you can only hike two miles without being completely exhausted set the goal to hike 4 miles by the end of the month. If you can only swim for 10 minutes set a goal to swim for 20 by the end of the month. These are goals you have complete control over(assuming you don't hurt yourself). Weight loss is sometimes out of our control, because of hormones etc.
5. Most importantly do an activity that is going to build muscle. Lifting weights is a good idea, and there are some really great programs. Don't worry about bulking up because eating at a deficit you won't be able to. Strength training will however, prevent you from losing lean body mass when you lose weight. We all want to lose fat, and not lose muscle. Doing something to preserve your strength will help you not lose as much lean body mass as you would had you avoided the strength training. 

Do those five things for a month and you will be down in inches. You may weigh the same as you do right now, but your body composition will change and you will be healthier for it.
Remember the scale is a tool, if it is depressing, demotivating and deterring you than you should throw it out and get a new tool. A tape measure and body fat calipers are just a few of the many tools out there to help you assess your body composition. You are more than a number so don't let a number define your entire outlook on healthy eating and activity levels.