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I wanted to be in bed at 9. Blah! I’ll make it quick.
1- new photos attached of 10 week progress
2- if I can squeeze in a strength workout tomorrow I will have all of my workouts done for the week and I can take Friday and Saturday off. But someone is coming to quote us on a new hvac system when I normally workout (supposedly ours could go out at any moment, or could last for awhile longer…….).
3- really noticing some cardio improvement lately. I recover quickly and am able to go further (using Sean O’Malley’s Cardio Coach volume 1 with walking and jogging).
-Audrey
Faith moves mountains, but you have to keep pushing while you are praying.
I feel sorry for naturally skinny girls. They never have an excuse for a dateless Friday night. They can’t blame their lack of friends on their clothing size. They don’t even get to use their weight as the cause of their tiredness or depression. How horrible it must be to go through life without a reason or an excuse for all the unpleasant things.
Their lives are already perfect. Right? I mean they are skinny. Thinness is by far the key to a happy life. How can you possibly be happy if you aren’t a size 2?
Right?
Right?!?
Of course not! How ridiculous does that sound? Yet how many times have you uttered the phrase, "When I lose the weight I’ll {{insert what you aren’t doing now}}"
For me that was a daily thought. I really believed the world would just fall into place once the weight was gone. If I looked perfect then life would be perfect. It made perfect sense!
Well as a former fat girl and a current skinny minny, let me tell ya, it just ain’t true. I’ve been everything from a 16 to a 4. My closet had more sizes then your local goodwill. I used my weight as an excuse and food as a pacifier. What a cycle!
It’s not a fun place to be and it’s not an easy cycle to break. If you really want to lose weight you first need to accept a few things.
- You will never look like a supermodel. Supermodels don’t look like supermodels. Between airbrushing, lighting, professional hair and makeup… come on! Let’s put the photoshopped photographs in perspective please.
- Your life will NOT drastically change if you succeed at weight loss. You will still have the same job. The same home. The same friends. Nothing will just automatically happen because you lost a few pounds.
- Your body is your body and that’s OOOOKAAAAAAY! Loving yourself is hard for some of us at any size and let me tell you from experience, if you have issues, being a size 4 will not cure them. It took me a long time to figure that out.
So in short what I’m trying to say is… make friends with your body. It’s the only one you got. Treating it and yourself with respect is one of the most important things you can do. Someone once told me “don’t put yourself down….there are plenty of other people in this world that will do it for you.”
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As an import to LA, I often wonder if anyone really feels at home here. I know people who really like LA; who feel connected with the entertainment industry–and thereby the city–but frankly, it’s more common to complain about it. I do it all the time.
Item: Today I had occasion–it’s rare, but it happens–to go to Beverly Hills. The seriously swanky area, near Wilshire and Rodeo, those famous street names that, improbably, have actually come to mean something to me since I moved here nine years ago. I’ve never been a New Yorker, but it’s a little like saying, “Take the A Train to Canal Street; go two stops up towards 195th street…” and on and on. That weird “I know this city” pride thing that New Yorkers get…well, Wilshire and Rodeo: that’s the LA version.
Actually, it was Wilshire and Cañon, which is right next to Rodeo. I’m over in that neck of the woods, driving my dinged-up Ford Escort, feeling like a real human being amongst people who still own Hummers and Escalades. They drive them a little less aggressively these days. It’s like they’re trying to blend into the scenery while driving a 100,000-dollar, seventeen-ton behemoth. They wash them less. They look sheepish in them, letting old ladies cross the street in front of them.
Anyway, I’m driving around in Beverly Hills and wondering, what’s going on here? Does anyone still want to buy a 200-dollar t-shirt?
I actually saw a “SALE” sign outside of one of those swank shops. Astounding! A Beverly Hills shop that acknowledged the recession! I almost walked in and applauded the managers.
So, yes, LA is a weird place.
LA is a place where you can feel a fashion trend literally groundswelling underneath your feet. It’s like someone clicked the “Paint Bucket” icon all over LA and suddenly everyone–seriously, everyone– is wearing Ugg Boots. The one that I noticed lately–because I’m at that phase in my life–is the baby-stroller one. Now, I’m not going to mention the name of this particular stroller, because heaven knows they don’t need my endorsement, but these days, if you drop in on the average Angelino with a baby, chances are they’ll be pushing one of these strollers. Let’s call them the “Evolution Mob” stroller. They run about five hundred bucks.
Now–we don’t have an Evolution Mob–though Iet me tell you, I wanted one just before they became ubiquitous, and then, suddenly, I strenuously resisted getting one. I’m contrary that way. I’m also contrary when it comes to paying five hundred bucks for something that should cost–at most!–half that.
Anyway. All this has been a huge digression. The other day I took our perfectly-serviceable-but-not-overly-trendy stroller out for a run. I put our six-year old in it, who weighs somewhere in the neighborhood of 55 pounds. Then I found the biggest hill I could and sprinted up it, pushing her in the stroller with all my might, for about a minute. Then I stumbled down to the foot of the hill and repeated this senseless, but exhilarating, exercise five more times. If I slowed down, my six-year-old let me know about it.
Much fun, and a great workout in less than 20 minutes. I almost barfed numerous times. Such fun. Essentially an uphill sled-pushing exercise, which I highly recommend to people with kids. You can get your workout in and bond with your kids at the same time.
Along those lines–here’s an article on the benefits and pitfalls of shoving a stroller around while you run. Upshot: it’s all good.
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Okay, is Nick Tumminello the most prolific web trainer out there? He produces as much free content as some of the bigger sites, and he’s a one-man band! Here’s a great new piece of his on working the lower body when your knees are giving you trouble, or if, for whatever reason, horror of horrors, you can’t squat and deadlift. Do a few of the movements that Nick demos in this article (on multiple videos!), and you’ll be begging to get back under that squat bar. Nick’s article answers the hotly-debated question of whether conventional squats and deads are essential to complete lower-body strength and development–resoundingly, I’d say, the answer is NO.
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