Your health and fitness EVOLUTIONS?

L Sass

L Sass

Cathlete
Hey all. Yes, yes, yes, January brings our resolutions, but as you look back over the years to see how you have evolved in your own personal health and fitness journey, what are some of your fave evolutions? Things that you NEVER thought you'd do - EVER - that now are simply matter of course. Who you are and what you do. Here are some of mine:
  • Green smoothies. Daily.
  • I drink apple cider vinegar, ~ 3-4 times a day.
  • HEAVY lifts. Like much heavier than Cathe for most things.
  • Fish from a pouch. I once thought tuna or salmon from a foil bag - EWWWWW! But oh so yum! (As a matter of fact, my new "go-to" lunch involves cabbage, mustard, and pink salmon from a pouch. HA! Who knew?)
 
Lifting heavy as I can lol
Stoped smoking
Also salmon n a pouch!
Spinach salad everyday!
By the way, what goes in ur smoothie?
 
ReneePruitt said:
Lifting heavy as I can lol
Stoped smoking
Also salmon n a pouch!
Spinach salad everyday!
By the way, what goes in ur smoothie?
Click to expand...

Hi Renee.
CONGRATULATIONS on the smoking cessation!


My smoothie: 8 oz cold water, a scoop of Pauline Nordin's Fighter Diet greens, a BIG ole handful+ of both spinach and kale, and 3-4 strawberries or blackberries.
 
What a great motivational and positive thread :)

Some of mine are:

-Putting sleep up front and center.
-Embracing heavy lifting.
-Veggies/fruits at every meal. No exception!
-Limited white flour carbs.
-Confidence in myself and my abilities.
-Learning to accept/love my body for what it is, NOT what it isn't.
-Everything in moderation suits my personality and lifestyle.

Natasha
 
* Moderation with everything!
* Sleep trumps exercise!
* I made low to moderate cardio (mostly walking) my mainstay in aerobics. I used to be gung-ho on vogerous cardio and it did not agree with my body and caused a lot of issues including hormonal.
* I ditched the perfection-factor as well as trying to keep up with or exceed what others do. This is my life, my body, and my journey. I couldn't care less about what others do, what they think of my lifestyle, my body, my weight, and my exercise habits or lack there of, and/or what I choose to eat.
* I ditched labeling food as "good" and "bad".

I think the above scream letting go of perfection and living up to societal standards and living my life for me and how it makes me most happy. I let go of the judgement I lived my life around and I couldn't be happier and actually am the healthiest I have ever been in my life. I am how I want to be and my fitness and other lifestyle choices espouse that. An unhealthy, weak woman could not have delivered her first baby med-free in less than 30 minutes with only 8.5 hours of labor; most of which I did at home. That's how I look at things now- what can my lifestyle allow me to do that i want. I stopped listening to what others said I could and could not do and what I can and cannot expect. Instead I make my own path.
 
I am also a green smoothie convert. I like berries, kefir, spinach, parsley, cucumber, celery, and 1/4 of a lime (with the skin.) Its so refreshing and so filling.

I didn't think that the things I look forward to would be workout release dates.

I drink warm water with 1/4 of a lemon, 1/4 tsp black pepper, and 1 tsp. of honey. Its very filling and helps with digestion.

I don't eat bread hardly ever anymore.

I do eat quinoa.

I don't think twice about doing a workout before breakfast and a yoga session or strength training before bed. When I started working out, all I could do was 15 minutes 3x/week (I had shattered bones at the time.)
 
Wow, great question! I find that with each year I learn more and more about myself, especially when it comes to health and fitness. I used to be the type of person who would work out so I can eat and not worry about weight gain and I did this by running ALL THE TIME (and for hours)!!!

Flash forward to now and I know the best thing for me is finding balance...balance with everything! Sleeping , fueling my body right, and movement/exercise are what I need everyday. I have 4 children and long runs don't work for my schedule nor my body. I like to mix things up, change up the rotations and focus on new goals each time. Do more in less time!

A little bit of everything makes my body happy and me happy as well. I love lifting heavy, but I love a good quick high intensity cardio workout.

I have learned that I can't tolerate gluten, and my body responds better to a gluten free diet.

I also do a green smoothie...I am addicted to kale and spinach. I always loved to cook , but now I make almost everything that goes into my mouth. I like to know exactly what I am eating...which mean I rarely go out to eat too.
 
I agree with the others. What a great thread! And, Renee, CONGRATS on quitting smoking! That is the single BEST thing any smoker can do for their health. (And their budget, and the way they smell, etc. etc...) Over the last few years, I too quit smoking, which I am most proud of since cigarettes were my everything. (God how pathetic addiction is). But an even bigger challenge was a little thing called menopause. It came early and unexpected and totally threw me off course. I was someone who got up early and worked out EVERY day for years. Even Christmas. But I was suddenly too tired. I gained weight and bought bigger clothes and figured I was officially an old lady. But inside I knew it wasn't me. I somehow managed to push through and take the weight off and get some energy back. I think the main factors were smoothies with whey protein/spinach/fruit every morning and higher intensity exercise. I've generally cleaned up my diet allowing one cheat (and I DO mean cheat) day per week. I am not back to daily exercise but I hope to get there some day. The fatigue is just phenomenal sometimes. Like none I've ever known. But I make accommodations for it and let myself be tired. For me, it was a long road back but I'm so happy I didn't give up. And having Cathe's workouts helps SO much. CF, TTM, and XTrain are PHENOMENAL and just what the doctor ordered. ☺
 
Awesome thread. Loved reading all the posts!

For me it was:
1. Eating healthier
2. 5am workouts. Never thought I could consistently do this but I have been so committed the last year it is now habit for me
3. Adding more weight routines
4. Learning not to be so hard on myself
 
This year:

Lift Heavy!
Less cardio, more weight training.
Workout smart, not more.
Fuel my body for health and strength- view every meal as an opportunity to feed my body nutrient dense food.
Collect healthy recipes.

Life goal....not have to take 20 different prescription drugs to survive when I'm 60 and beyond.
I want to be fit so when I do have grandchildren, I can take them places and keep up with them.
 
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Faboo thread idea!!!

Green smoothies!! Got a new blender for Christmas, and I've been having a green smoothie every week day for breakfast. On the weekends I've been allowing myself my previous "normal" breakfast. Although I will say that when I had peanut butter this past weekend, it didn't taste quite right and I wanted my smoothie. I keep green leafy things, celery, fruit, etc in the fridge and just toss in whatever looks good at the moment. I use unsweetened almond milk, skim milk, or lowfat kefir for the liquid. It's not been that long, but I already feel better, my skin on my face looks better, and overall my skin is less dry. I get wicked bad dry skin in the winter. Last weekend I bought a container of flax seeds, so started in adding a tablespoon of those every day, too.

Lift heavy. Heavier than Cathe, for the most part, but not as heavy as some of you. Although I still enjoy a nice lighter weight, endurance weight workout for the variety.

I think I finally like running!! Started in 2009 with my first 5k, and training for marathons 3 and 4 now. I think I finally am starting to like it!

Overall eating waaaaay healthier than I used too, but still fighting the junk urges and binge urges. Thinking of seeing a psychologist or psychiatrist for that. Not sure. I know what the problem is.

Meatless Mondays. Probably for over a year now. Other days will also end up meatless just because that's the way they work out, but Monday is always meatless. We eat way less red meat than we used too. We probably eat less chicken, too, if I think about it. This is good, meat is expensive, too!!! Ha! Although a good steak or burger still hits the spot on occasion.

Nan
 
Later this month I'll be 5 years smoke-free :)

Instead of working at my desk I stand or walk slowly on the treadmill.

I avoid trans fats. To this end, I read all labels and put back anything with the words hydrogenated or fractionated. I found I need to re-read labels because companies change ingredient lists.

I scratch cook a lot more so I can control ingredients.

I give myself permission to be imperfect.

Great thread LSass!
 
This year:

1. Increase mental stamina. Remember that my mind will give out long before my body does, so I need to 'train' my brain for exercise as much as my body. I think the 100 rep challenges will really help with this.

2. More eating with whole foods and less processed junk. And green smoothies at least three times a week to start.

3. Increase functional fitness. I do not want to feel weak while doing day to day activities.
 
This is such an awesome thread. It's so motivating to read everyone's evolutions! I really like reading about all the green smoothies. I got a brand new blender for Xmas this year and tried to make 1 green smoothie, but it didn't work out too well. I put the spinach first in, and I think that caused problems. Oh well.

My evolutions include:

* quitting smoking (omg...I can't believe I ever did that).
* giving up alcohol (I save money, calories, I do better at work, my relationships have improved, I lost about 6 lbs immediately, I don't have my eating goals interrupted by eating "hangover foods")
* I've started to learn intuitive eating...paying attention to my body. What foods do I want? What do I really love to eat? This has been more of "did I eat this because I liked it, or did I eat it because it reminded me of something or someone or a good time? - I have given up SO MANY foods thanks to this - Wendys (I used to be an addict), goldfish crackers, Panera bread, pasta, etc.

This is a journey, and I am definitely at the beginning. Quitting the nicotine habit and alcohol habit have brought such major changes to my life, it's amazing. I now look back at the "old me" and wonder where my brain was? I am just glad to have found a cleaner lifestyle while I'm young (I'm 24) than having to wait until I was older.
 
Pauline nordine -buttbible DVD

Have any of you used a Pauline Nordine workout DVD? If so how were the workouts ( I have a lot of Cathe's) and how does it compare to Cathe's?
 
I have her butt bible dvd, and I just wanted her to STFU! She talks too much. I use this dvd only as a warm-up when I do "fluff" leg work (I lift heavy on legs only 1x week, the other leg day is fluff legs.) It's ok, certainly not great IMO.
 
Thanks for the great thread L Sass.

I just added green smoothie to my list. I believe Dr. Oz has a good recipe on his website.

Here is my list:

Start Green Drink
Continue to lift heavy and create the body that I want
Eat lean protein with every meal and cut back on sugar
Sit less, stand more
Stop being hard on myself

I actually want to put on the list but baby steps. :D

Justina
 
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