∆ Here, you will find a consistent Motivation for Fitness. Whether your choice in fitness involves weights, dance, gymnastics, pole, cycling, running, yoga, silks, swim, HIIT, contortion, cheer, crossfit or anything in between; you'll find it here. 
Where your body carries fat is genetic, just like where your body easily builds muscle vs where it’s difficult to build muscle is genetic. You can fight genetics with hard work, but it will be exactly that… hard work.
You can’t spot reduce fat. Anyone who tells you differently is trying to sell you something (life is pain, highness… anyone who tells you differently is selling something. Points if you know what I’m referencing.)
What you can do is focus on your nutritional intake. Make sure you have a proper diet and lower your added sugar consumption to as little as possible. And I promise you, fake sure isn’t really going to help you do that. Fake sugar actually triggers the tongue for sugar, but it doesn’t chemically satiate or get properly stored by insulin, so it can often cause more problems than it helps. It causes some people to lose their heads and binge on real sugar like it was going out of style, and for other people, it can cause problems with their insulin and glucagon levels. So, be wary of fake sugar. (The whole “being processed into formaldehyde” is the LEAST of your concerns. APPLES break down into more formaldehyde than fake sugar does, so focus on the actual problem instead of the panicked societal one.) Please make note I said “added sugar” up there. Don’t worry about fruits and veggies.
Cardio will help strengthen your cardio vascular system and help you burn 200-300 calories (assuming you do it for around 45 minutes.) Strength training will tighten your soft muscles making them more dense and therefore making them take up less room and make everything less jiggly.
Personally… my cardio exercise is purely for keeping my brain sane. I never consider it part of my fitness routine. I love to run and, once the weather stops hating me, I’ll be back to running 9+ miles every other day. But I don’t do it for weight loss.
If you have a large abdominal area, strengthening it MAY actually make it larger. Honestly, here are my suggestions for you:
- Make an appointment with a physician and have them do all your blood work. Check your hormone levels, cholesterol and everything else.
- If you can do any cardio, then do it. A strong heart and lungs are a great thing to have. If you struggle due to illness, consider doing less intense cardio. You’re only competitor is yourself. Do what you can,. take a break if/when you need it and then go back to where you were in your routine. If it takes you 2 hours to do a 30 minute cardio routine, so what? Seriously. I will punch a fool in the mouth if they have something to say to you about listening to your body. AND… if you practice doing cardio like that, there is a chance you will become better and better at it, meaning you’ll take less and less breaks and your heart and lungs will be stronger and better than they ever were.
- Incorporate strength training into your routine. 3-5 days a week. Start slow and learn your proper forms first. Consider doing body weight only strength at first until your comfortable doing the movements and know what the proper form feels like.
- Keep track of your intake. Make sure you’re not over indulging in sweets and other foods that are lacking in nutrition. Your daily intake should fulfill your nutritional needs from vitamins and minerals to protein and fat.
- Speaking of fat. EAT IT!!! Don’t skip out on fat, it’s one of the most detrimental things you can do to your body. Did you know your brain is 60% fat? Not to mention every single cell in your body has a semi-permeable membrane around it… made from fat. And what kind of fat is it made from, you ask? From the fat you get in your diet. Unsaturated fatty acids will create nice phospholipid bi-layers that are very fluid in nature. Saturated fats will create stiffer and less permeable ones. What is the end result… a jacked up insulin response and function. Bad joojoo. Also make sure you’re getting good cholesterol in your system. It’s another thing that helps keep your cell membranes acting fluid in nature.
Okay, now that I’m done ranting and raving about why you should eat unsaturated fat… I hope you found this helpful.
Happy holidays you too, dear! And I absolutely am following your blog. I hope to keep up with your progress, so please, write me back and let me know how everything is working out!!!
Cheers,
~Bonnie
Don’t be like that guy!
Ooooh, kind of chilly this morning. The sun will warm me up after a mile.
Damn… I forgot how much of my run is under the tree canopy. Brrrr. I’ll just run faster.
Oh holy hell: that hurts! What is that? Is that a muscle or a tendon? That’s definitely a muscle. That’s fine… muscles heal pretty quick… keep running.
… am I limping? Absolutely not. No! I’m not limping.
Why do I do this to myself? Oh my god, I want to die.
Bonnie, you fool, you’re allowed to walk.
What? Who the fuck told you that you could walk? You squishy, fluffy, stink flower… you are not walking! Pick up your feet, you pansy. If I hear your foot drag I’m beating you for an extra mile, you sparkle fruit.
Oh god, this sucks. I’m 6 miles from home. My leg is a mess and I still don’t understand why I do this to myself… ouch ouch ouch ouch ouch…
Oooooh, pick-up truck full of hay, you smell delightful. Oh look! Wow… the sheep farm is really pretty in the early AM. Oooooh, the hay truck is stopping to feed the sheep! YAY SHEEP!!! D’awwwww!!!!! They are all bleating and running to the hay man!! ::Squeeeeeeee:: OMG I love running!!!
LLAMA!!!!!!!!! I LOVE YOU, LLAMA!!!!
What kind of fool passes up an opportunity like this?
Oh wow! A whole field of tiger lilies! They are sooo gorgeous!
Ooooh, honey suckle. Hmmm… should I stop and eat some? Nah, stopping is bad, just keep running and breath really deep. Besides, taste is 80% smell, so it’s almost as good as eating it.
HORSIES!! Hi horsies!!! … did you just fart at me? You DID! WTF horse? Well… see if I say hi to you again! Pffffff.
Oh wow, look at that field! It’s all golden and gorgeous and there is a single tree off in the middle. Wow. It’s like a post card. How did I miss that tree before? Man, I need to pay attention more.
Actually… seriously. WTF? I don’t even know the name of the connecting streets here. What if I get hurt and have to call 911? I can’t even tell them where I am. That phone call would be just grand: “Oh hey, I’m somewhere on Old Miller… yeah… No I don’t freaking know where! Next to the field with the tree… What? No? Maybe? Yes? I don’t fucking know… just find me with your flashy lights and siren, okay.”
Oh my god, what if I get kidnapped? Oh, I have my tracking app running, they can find me that way. Oh wait… I don’t have the maps enabled for anyone but me so no one can know where I run. Damn you, double edged sword!!!
Ooooooh, lady slippers are in bloom. I love lady slippers.
Hmmm… what are those? Hot pink ground cover flowers, I love you even if I don’t know your name.
Ouch! F you, leg! Stop with the hurting. You suck. I can’t stop running, how the hell would I get home?
Oooooh, so many stone walls around here. I wonder how old they are? Maybe the Puritans built them. They are a protected structure around here. … Who the hell decided to protect stone walls? That’s so dumb. Kinda cool… but totally dumb. “Oh no! Don’t touch that wall! Some person built it while they tore up the land 400 years ago…” O_o
Eeeee!!! A deer! HI DEER!!!!! :D
Oooooooh, 5 mile marker. Whew, almost home. 3.5 more miles.
Seriously, leg, shut up.
::gasp:: Humming birds! HEY! Stop fighting, humming birds! There are plenty of trumpet flowers for all of you.
I love this cemetary. I wonder when the oldest stone is from? Oh wow, that one is from 1809. Hmmm… I should stop and look at that someday. Not today, though. Maybe I’ll come back with my bike and do that.
I wonder why I don’t mind stopping a bike ride to take pictures? I grant and deny myself permission slips for the dumbest shit. Hell, why should I stop to take pictures for lazy people? They’ll just have to run their sorry ass with my sorry ass if they want to see this super awesomeness. Yeah! Run with me!
No… don’t. Terrible plan. Me time. I like my me time. Maybe that’s why I run? Me and my brain, la la la. It’s like a 70’s television show theme. I’ll take my brain on a boat ride and have a parasol and a catchy yet terrible theme song…
Hmm, I wonder if those grape vines ever produce grapes? I always see them, but never any grapes. Stupid bugs eating them. Meh, I probably wouldn’t stop to eat them anyway.
Speaking of bugs, I didn’t get chased by the bitey flies this morning. Maybe I woke up before them? Ha ha, bitey flies. Neener neener neener!
Ahhhh, home stretch! .5 mile marker, I love/hate you. Why must you be uphill? I forgive you, though.
YAY!! I love you driveway! I am so happy to see you! I will RUN to you like I’ve never run to anyone else before. Maybe if I fart it will be a speed boost? Hee hee, I’m funny.
Oh god, what is wrong with my brain? I’m like a crazy person. Oh well. Time to stretch. Oh, stretching feels soooooooo good right now.
…. Zzzzzzzzzzzzzz
(via breathe-this)
(Source: trimmedandtoned)
(Source: barneymuscle)
(Source: healthandpositivity, via afitohcouple)
Nelli Tsyshkevich
(Source: strongangels)
It always has been and always will be: You vs. You.
I am not knocking it. It helps a lot of people progress with their running when they might be discouraged otherwise. Do what works FOR YOU!!!
But for me… I just can’t abide the run-walk method.
I do not have asthma. I do not have bronchitis. I do not have any physical limitation that should stop me from running and force me to walk. I feel like walking is cheating myself. I feel that even stopping to take off my jacket, or waiting for traffic, is cheating. With the exception of feeling an injury (tendon hurts = auto-stop what I’m doing) I do not stop running. My lungs are doing just fine. They may burn. They may wheeze. They may beg for leniency… but I will not yield. And for me, my lungs are really the only reason I would ever need to stop. In the half marathon I jacked up and didn’t get enough salts (I drank H2O instead of Gatorade at the aid stations) and ended up with major leg cramping. That is different.
I want to always be able to say that I push myself harder than anyone else could ever push me. That not even having Jillian Michaels standing in front of me screaming at me could possibly push one more drop of motivation from my pores. Because if I can’t motivate me to be the best I can be, then neither can anyone else.
I may not be the fastest, I may not run the farthest and I may never be the best, but I’ll be damned if I don’t push myself to (and beyond) the perceived limits of my abilities.
Put your ego aside and train with the emphasis on proper form.
This study shows that using a lighter weight with full range of motion yields more strength gains than training with a higher weight and a bigger ego.
Stop the 1/4 squats and get deep for maximum results.
Exactly! Make it count!
*This* is a squat.
Feel like you need to up the ante during your workouts? Don’t forget about ankle and wrist weights!! They will really amp up your training and once you put them on you don’t need to think about them again since they stay in place very nicely. Add them to an exercise you feel may have gotten just a little too easy. Or add them to an exercise that you’re not ready to do with a heavy sand bag yet (like jump squats or jumping lunges) but still want to make more intense.
