Holidays Balancing Our Lifestyle with Life

So the holidays are here. this seems to be the time many people get thrown off their plan. Co-workers bringing in yummy treats, family time and holiday parties.

I live the bodybuilder/ physique athlete lifestyle 24/7/365 but believe balance is very important. We all need to live and enjoy life while not falling off the edge into a spiral off eating from Thanksgiving til New Years.

Unless you are prepping for a show and don't have cheat meals or refeeds it is possible to enjoy the foods of the holidays without gaining fat. It's comes down to decisions and commitment.

During the holidays I still eat my plan 6 days and allow the 7th for a treate meal/fun food. Thanksgiving and Christmas are larger cheats. I don't believe there are any bad foods or that one has to be "hardcore" when living the lifestyle and never enjoy the food "regular" people eat.

When Chase receives food gifts at work we just save them for the cheats meal days. If food it out at work he just ignores it.   Whenever we have treat/cheat meals we remember we are living this lifestyle by choice and want to look a certain way so when we eat we make the choice to eat without going crazy and eating like it is our last meal.

We have a club that meets monthly "The House of Fitness Fit Club" and we are having a Holiday party with clean food and cheat food. Some people will still be on a plan where they can't just have whatever they want. also the clean is there to show there are ways to make clean food flavorful. Also if you eat some clean food you will not go overboard on the fun food.

This year Chase and I are alone. Christine will be staying at her school since it is so expensive to bring her home for just one week. Originally we decided to just do Thanksgiving on Saturday since we were considering eating out and that way everything would be open but we got a surprise email from our trainer Dusty:

"Enjoy your Thanksgiving as you always would be sure to be back on program Friday. Saturday have your treat meal as always. do not take pictures or weigh this week. Enjoy"

We were shocked we thought for sure Thanksgiving would replace the Sat cheat meal. We will be having variety of things but eating reasonable amounts of each to enjoy the many flavors without feeling like we are going to burst.

So our plan for Thanksgiving is:
Banana Oat pancakes with caramelized bananas on top (Banana Oat mix is from World Market)
Take the dogs somewhere fun for a walk maybe some trails
Put up Christmas Lights
Pizza from Oreganos
Happy Feet 2 with all red Mike n Ike's
Pasta from Carrabas
Banana Cream Pie

There will be temptations all around but just remember why you are living this lifestyle and you have the power to make smart, balanced choices.

Happy Holidays!!

Affirmations & Visualization: Creating Your Reality

I am realizing once again just how important the mind is when it comes to achieving ours goals. Visualizing the outcome and saying affirmations lets you mind believe and therefore achieve your goals.

Back in 1995 when I first began my weight loss journey I used affirmations. I am now just realizing how important that was.  At the time I knew nothing about training and nutrition. I didn’t use a trainer or nutritionist. I bought a few books like Getting Stronger by Bill Pearl and then just started to gradually make better choices with my diet. How was it I succeeded in something that so many others fail at? How was it I never gained the weight back? Could it have been my mind? I am beginning to really think so.

I wrote my affirmations on 3x5 cards and read them whenever I had a spare minute. I read them on the bus, on breaks at work and before bed. I carried them in my pocket or backpack at all times.

Important keys for Affirmations

1.    Affirmation should be said as if it has already happened

2.    Affirmations should be short

3.    Repeat the affirmations and just let it into your mind

Examples of my affirmations during my weight loss

“I am lean and strong”

“My body burns fat efficiently”

“I am successful”

“My body craves healthy foods and responds to exercise”

Once I had lost the weight I somehow stopped doing affirmations. I am not sure why. Maybe I was so consume with things that were going on I forgot the best way to solve them.

I did do some visualization and affirmations while I was prepping for 2009 jr Nationals. I even had some affirmations set in m phone for little reminders. I also visualized winning first place. I say myself receiving the trophy. I also visualized winning overall. I had never even placed first in bodybuilding but I did not think of that I just saw myself in the pose down and the presentation of the overall trophy to me.  As it turns out I did win the overall at the 2009 Jr Nationals and brought a physique head and shoulders better than any previous show.

I found this video to be extremely motivating during my prep for North Americans. Coach Flowers' "I Am a Champion" speech

Now I am in the off season working toward 2012 USAs and it is time to really focus on just how much our mind influences the outcome. I need to STOP saying I have a wide waist. I will now say “My waist is small and tight” I will be visualizing dry, full, shredded muscle. I will see myself posing with confidence as if I am already an IFBB Pro. I will extend the affirmations to help heal “My joints, tendons and ligaments are strong and healthy” “I am flexible” This year everything will be 100% my training, my nutrition and most important my mind. I will be my best at USAs!!

Some quotes on visualization and how important the mindset is.

“When I was very young, I visualized myself being and having what it was I wanted. Mentally I never had any doubts about it. The mind is really so incredible. Before I won my first Mr. Universe, I walked around the tournament like I owned it. The title was already mine. I had won it so many times in my mind that there was no doubt I would win it. Then, when I moved on to the movies, the same thing. I visualized myself being a successful actor and earning big money. I could feel and taste success. I just knew it would all happen.” Arnold Schwarzenegger

"I have been visualizing this show since the first time I hit the stage. My love for the sport never wavered and I know this is my destiny. I am here to show people that they can have anything they want if they put their minds to it and are relentless in their pursuit. This is not about being big, shredded, or ego. This is about the unlimited potential of the human will. I am doing everything in my power to achieve my goals and in the process am living life on my terms…are you?

The Time is NOW…"

Dusty Hanshaw

 “Thought allied fearlessly to purpose becomes creative force: he who knows this is ready to become something higher and stronger than a mere bundle of wavering thoughts and fluctuating sensations; he who does this has become the conscious and intelligent wielder of his mental powers.” James Allen, author of As a Man Thinketh

"The mind is everything. The mind creates the reality that you will see manifested in your life" (Greene, FLEX, May 2011).

"The muscle and the mind must become one. One without the other is zero"
- Lee Haney

 "I believe there is an inner power that makes winners or losers. And the winners are the ones who really listen to the truth of their hearts."
- Sylvester Stallone

Mindset Makeover: Fat Girl to Athlete

The transformation from being extremely overweight to fit or to the level of national level athlete involves so much more than just the scale changing.  The mind must change to see oneself as a new person. To lose the insecurities and negative emotions one feels when they are overweight is an even more important and often more difficult than dropping the pounds.

When I first began my journey to lose weight, my goals were simple. I just wanted to fit in smaller clothes and not cry when I saw myself in the mirror in the dressing room. I did not have a final vision of how I wanted to look. In the beginning, I did not know it was even possible to go from my condition to looking extremely fit, athletic or sexy. I did not know anyone who had lost weight so I had no idea what was possible. Initially, I just wanted to be able to buy clothes for an interview without being disgusted at how I looked.

As time went by and the pounds came off, I wore smaller and smaller sized clothing.  I even shopped for some things in the children’s department. I eventually reached a look I was extremely happy with and shocked I was able to achieve. I received complements all the time on how fit I looked and was often asked what I ate or how I trained to look like this. Coming from such an insecure background, I thrived on these complements and felt how others viewed me was what was important. I was finally able to wear “cute” clothes and go to the beach in a bikini and look great.

It was at this point that many people asked if I competed and I decided to do my first bodybuilding show. My mind was still all about just how do I look. Do people see me as fat? I was not competing because I had any long-term goals in bodybuilding.  I really enjoyed competing but was still thinking like a fat girl. In this warped mindset, I thought being a bodybuilder meant being big and that meant fat. My mind could not separate big & lean vs. fat, I just thought I don’t want to be fat again so I can’t do bodybuilding. So my fat girl brain thought figure would be the solution.  I thought I could stay small but still compete and have photos in great shape.  But figure did not fit my personality because I loved to train super heavy, wanted to pose and I wanted to have my legs big and lean but I stayed in figure again just to stay small.  My mind could still not get over being fat in the past and my biggest fear was that I would be fat again or people thinking I was fat.

In 2007 I decided to do my first national level show in figure. I was only doing it for fun and to look good for pictures. I knew 100% I did not have the genetics or looks to place well in figure at the national level. I was still not thinking of myself as an athlete.  Because of that everything revolved around how I looked day-to-day not trying to achieve new goals and improving my physique.  I feared missing any day in the gym - if I was maintaining with what level of activity I was doing I was afraid if I did any less I would gain fat. About 5 weeks out, we decided I should try bodybuilding instead of figure. I really enjoyed being on stage as a bodybuilder and this show was a small step in my mind switching to that of an athlete. I felt a passion for competing I had never felt before!!

Now that I switched back to bodybuilding, I did have the goal of adding muscle and improving my physique for my next show but still the fat girl thoughts overpowered. Do people think I am fat? I still thought of my training and diet as much a path to not gaining my fat back as it was to competing. I still focused to much on can I wear cute clothes and what are people thinking. I know just how differently people treated me when I was fat compared to when I had gotten down to the 120lbs.   I also felt I did not have the right genetic structure to really do well as a bodybuilder so I still just competed for fun and to have the photo memories. I never viewed myself as an athlete or someone who could do well in the sport. As much as I loved the training and gave 100% every time I prepped for a show, I never believed deep down I could do well. I hated the off-season because I felt I was fat and I constantly felt I would get fatter and fatter back to my starting point. I still had the negative feelings of the fat girl even though I had kept the weight off for 7-8 years already.  I had not spent enough time working on my mind.

The real beginning of my mindset change was in 2009. I won the overall at the 2009 Jr. Nationals and looked like I had never looked before. For the very first time I actually saw myself as a bodybuilder.  It was not the win that convinced me but the look I had finally achieved. I had people telling me I had what it took to win and get a pro card yet I still carried insecurities and thought really? Me? A pro card?  Even though I set the goal to improve and go for the pro card deep down I still did not believe I was good enough. I still did not look at myself as an athlete or someone good enough to do well.   As the months passed and I trained and I started working more on my mindset, gradually I began to push the negative feelings out and they slowly became less and less.

I have tried to fight the insecure fat girl in the back of my head and gradually she gets shoved deeper and deeper and the thoughts creep in less and less.  I have gotten back to saying daily affirmations. This was something I had done regularly first few years of my weight loss but somehow had gotten away from doing.  One of the books I read back in 2004 is You’ll See It when You Believe It by Wayne Dyer. I often refer back to what that book said. I have surrounded myself with very positive people who believe in themselves and support each other goals.  I am learning so much from their words and actions.  Now when negative thoughts start to show up I realize those are just old fears and let them go. The person that helped me grow the most is my soul-mate and best friend Chase. He recommended the Wayne Dyer books and always helps to remind me what is important in life and what I have achieved. To look at the positive and the future and not dwell on the past. Whenever I would slip into old thoughts he was there to pull me back out and get me back into the proper mindset.

Here I am 9 weeks into my off-season after my 15th competition and for the first time I can really look at myself as an athlete and I know I have the drive, commitment and abilities to achieve my goals.  I can now look at the off-season from the mind of an athlete instead of a fat girl. When Dusty told me I needed a week off for my body to rest I did it without question and I did not fear I would get fat. I can look at each day as a step in my journey to make the improvements I need. Each decision I make on my nutrition and training is with the goal of improving each time I step on stage and my pro card in mind.  I don’t eat clean and go to gym to avoid getting fat.  I do this to improve my physique and reach my goal. 

I am a top level athlete and am finally thinking like one.  I am so excited for the next part of my journey both emotional and physical.  By far the very best me will be standing on stage in 2012 - I have no doubt!