Train like an Athlete: Part 5 Recovery

journey, Lifestyle, mindset, Movement, nutrition

Hello!  Sumer is in full swing here with swimming and baseball.   I thought I would have more time to write once school was out but boy was I mistaken:)  I am back today to talk to  you about rest and recovery.  In my opinion this is probably the second most important piece of the puzzle.  Just behind mindset and our thoughts.

Recovery.  This is the down time your body needs to repair and heal itself.  This is the process where we become stronger.  If we are allowing and aiding our body in the recovery time we will be stronger, refreshed and focused for the next session.

Today I will be covering three major things we can focus on to expedite our recovery and bring us back to the gym and life stronger than ever!

The first is SLEEP.  Sleep is where the “magic” happens.  This is the time our body is healing and repairing our tissue/ cells.  I have found when we get a good 6-8 hours of restful sleep.  Our bodies perform much better an it helps with fat loss also!

The second would be our nutrition and supplements.  What we are fueling our bodies with makes all the difference.  A properly fueled body performs and recovers much more efficiently than a body that is being deprive.  This is where monitoring the cravings, hunger, energy, sleep and stress is helpful! YOU ARE AN ATHLETE! Quit the “dieter” mindset. It does not serve us!

The third is recovery activities.  Some of my favorite recovery activities are leisure walks, hot baths, massages, naps, playing with the kids, reading  a book, quiet time to just breath and anything else you enjoy doing.  There are a lot of options.  Pick things you enjoy, make you feel relaxed and good!

So to wrap it up get into the mindset that the recovery is just as important (if not more important IMO) than the actual training you are doing!  If I have 4 training sessions per week I am conscious to include at least 4 recovery session per week also.  Try it and give me some feed back!

Have a blessed day!

Train like an Athlete: Part 4 Mindset

journey, Lifestyle, mindset

Hello, Hello, Hello!

Please, please let me know how you have been doing! Stop over to the Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/KettlebellSynergies?ref=aymt_homepage_panel, email me at [email protected] or leave a comment here and let me know!

Today lets talk about mindset and the energy and attitude we put out into the world.  Most of you know my background with food and training and poor body image.  If you haven’t heard that story check out part 3!  I came from a scarcity, deprivation, disrespect my body, beat your ass into the gym floor mindset.  And it sucked!  Definitely not a sustainable long term life style going on there.

Now here goes another confession.  I am a deep, dark emotional hole.  I take things in and store them deep down.  I keep it all in bottled up inside.  “I’m tough” “I can handle this” “I have to be strong for my family”  type of gal.  But again NOT sustainable or healthy!!!  So two years ago when I set out on this journey for a healthy, sustainable lifestyle I discovered that our mindset and what we tell ourself everyday was way more important than any habit we have, or any habit we want to create.

One thing I need you to wrap your brain around is that our actions and habits are a direct reflection of our subconscious thoughts.  So when we change our habits or actions without changing our subconscious thoughts there will only be a temporary change.  We are using willpower and self discipline to power through.  And let me tell ya; willpower and self discipline are expendable.  Just like a battery they wear out.

I have found a much more sustainable way to change.  Work on our sub conscious thought.  Only then can our  external habits and actions become effortless and second nature.  So how do you know what your subconscious thoughts are?  Well take a few minutes each day for at least two weeks and write down what the voice in your head is telling you.  Come on!  I know I can’t be the only one who talks to herself:)  Then go back and read it and look for patterns.  What kind of stuff do you  tell yourself over and over.

I believe what we “put out” is what we “get back.”  And what we focus on becomes more abundant.  Focus and react on the negatives and that is all we see and feel.  Be AWARE of the negative but focus on the positive and be grateful and we will be so much happier, more free. When I was calling my self lazy, no good and berating myself for my “lack of willpower”  it became worse I felt worse.  Then I came across the Mindset Performance Institute and started studying and learning everything I could about our subconscious mind and it’s connection to our actions and habits.  

So I want to encourage you to become a detective and get to work on journaling/ writing down all your self talk!  Awareness is the first step to changing our thoughts about ourself.

 

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So very blessed you stop by to read!  Please let me know what questions you have! What are you struggling with the most these days?

 

Train like an athlete: 5 tips to get you started Part 3

journey, Lifestyle, mindset, nutrition

Hello  friend!  How are you doing?!?  I have been so dang busy my writing has taken a back seat the last 6 weeks.  I am excited to get back and start sharing with you.

I want to talk a bit about nutrition and diet today.

First you should know I have a long history of dieting, binge eating, and over training.   Training because I hated my body. Trying to punish it and force it to change. I did not have a healthy relationship/ mindset with food, my body, my training or the scale. This is something I have been working on for  two years.

When I quit restricting foods and over exercising and punishing my body I did gain weight. About 20 pounds to be exact. But I also gained back my health, my sanity, my strength and I am healing the relationship I have with food and myself. I have been able to keep my sleep, stress, hunger, energy and cravings in a healthy balance so I decided I was ready for the scale and a Bod Pod test. I felt I could see them for the metrics that they are and not tie the information to my self worth and value. Or compare myself to others.

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I have done a good job with my results. I have not attached them to my self worth. I do not feel guilty about them. They are just information and somewhere for me to start. A number for me to compare to my self as a way to evaluate what I am currently doing and the results it will produce. I plan to reevaluate in 12 weeks and adjust from there.

The last two years I have been cultivating the mindset of an athlete. Loving and appreciating my body for all it can do for me.  Not letting a scale or media dictate how I am supposed to look or feel. I have been fueling my body with mostly whole, healthy foods to support my sleep and my performance in life and the gym. I haven’t really paid much attention to the scale. Just eating and training in a way that makes me feel strong, helps my sleep, helps my digestion, helps me perform better and helps keep my hunger, energy and cravings balanced. I feel like I am in a really good place with my mindset and self awareness.  So I am ready to share with you what has helped me on this journey to healing and health.

Keeping my sleep, stress, hunger, energy and cravings (S2HEC)in balance and the mindset of an athlete will always be my number one priority. I will monitor and be aware of the feed back my body is telling me. I am not a die hard track your food intake but for the last 6 weeks I have started tracing my intake. More out of curiosity and not hitting a rigid caloric number. Just to be more consciously aware of what I was really put in my mouth and to see if I can track cycles in my eating and training. It is early but so far it has been interesting!

One interesting discovery is that I recover and my energy is way better on wet carbs like sweet potatoes, bananas, white potatoes, rice, oatmeal and fruit than it is with dry carbs like cereal, breads and pasta ( though these seem better if I eat them right after a training session). Another is that I can keep my sleep, stress, hunger, energy and cravings balanced a lot better if I have a combination of protein, carbs and fat in my meals. ( Carbs would have been taboo two years ago).

It has been very helpful to look at this as a science experiment. Does this make me feel better or worse? Does it help keep my hunger energy and cravings in a nice balance? Does it help me recover from my training sessions and help me sleep? Is the food I eat stressing me out physical or mentally?  Ask yourself some of those questions and be open and honest with yourself. As much as I “thought carbs were bad for me” my body had other ideas!

To recap my top priority is to eat foods that help me sleep better, decrease my stress and  hunger, keep my energy steady and consistent and craving in check.   When I do keep my S2HEC (sleep, stress, hunger, energy and cravings) balanced  I naturally eat less and feel satisfied.  I am not stressing about food.  My hunger, energy and craving are balanced and I feel amazing.  I am also loosing body fat!  I feel leaner and my closes are fitting better!  But this has taken me years to figure out and I am still on this journey.

Here is me catching some baby waves in Cabo, Mexico a couple weeks ago. It was an amazing experience and physically demanding!   I would never have tried this 2 years ago.  1.  I never would have had the strength because I was cutting calories and carbs and felt weak and tired all the time. 2.  I never would I let a picture of me be taken in a swim suite!  Talk about growth and changes:) I feel very blessed and grateful for the journey.

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P.S.  I am in the process of creating a step by step system to help others.  365 Strong: Life is my competition is a cumulation of everything I have been learning the last two years put into a precise usable system that will help you become stronger mentally, physically, and lose body fat for life. Continue to watch this space for more information!

 

Train like an athlete: 5 tips to get you started Part 2

journey, Lifestyle, mindset, Movement

Ok friend how is your journaling going?  Are you working on becoming aware of the stories you tell yourself every day?  Are you shifting your mindset out of a diet/ fat loss one and into an athlete’s?  Be patient and enjoy the journey as this will not happen over night.  Let me know what questions/ challenges you are running into!  Today we are going to move onto the second tip.  More movement please! And your exercise/ tools of choice to build some muscle.

What do I mean by more movement?  Well, most people I work with live and work pretty sedentary lives.  They sit at a desk  all day and come home and sit in front of the television in the evening.  We are going to try adding more movement into your daily routine.  And your 30 minute work out DOES NOT COUNT.

Movement is walking leisurely, playing with your kiddos, having a dance party in the kitchen while making supper, parking at the end of the parking lot and walking to the store (craziness here in the midwest right now as it is super cold), or taking a couple laps up and down the stairs.  Just move more please! Our bodies are built to move!

My intention is to make it easy.  Easy is doable and gets done.  Let’s start with 10- 20 minutes of added movement a day. You taylor it to your day/ week.  Ideally it would be every day but again taylor it to YOU.  What is easy and doable for you! Good enough is your friend here.  Ditch the all or nothing mentality.  SOMETHING IS BETTER THAN NOTHING!!!

I struggled with this a lot!  I  l grew up  with a perfectionist parent:) “I don’t know” and “good enough” were not to be uttered in our house.

Now let’s talk about the exercise part of being an athlete.  I think the number one most important thing about your exercise is that you LOVE to do it! When you look forward to your  training sessions and they leave you feeling strong, inspired and empowered it is going to be way easier to be consistent.  Again athletes are consistent! You will be much more successful if you train 2 x week for 12 weeks than 5 x week for 2 week and burn out because you are tired, sore and  your body is telling you “NO MORE!” You are in this for the long haul so again focus of easy/ doable and being consistent.

Next I would focus on compound movements.  Big movements that use lots of joints and body parts are going to give you the biggest bang for your time.  Movements like push ups, pull-ups, squats and dead lifts are preferred over bicep curls or tricep extensions.

Lastly I would make sure you are progressing and overloading the movement with every  session.  Invest in a Dollar General notebook to track your sessions. What weight you used, how many reps and sets you did and how long it took.  That will ensure you do not to the same workout over and over with the same weight, same reps or same sets, same amount of time.   Your body will adapt and come to a stand still doing the same thing over and over Do a little bit more work with each session to ensure overload and progress.

Let me know if you have any questions!  I can be reached at my Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/KettlebellSynergies or email [email protected]

P.S. For extra tips on mindset, movement and nutrition please sign up for my newsletter.

Have a great day and go out and do something for someone who can not repay you!

Rock on!

Coach T

Train like an athlete: 5 tips to get you started Part 1

Uncategorized

Fat loss doesn’t have to be as complicated as some people would have you believe.  I am challenging these “fat loss experts” that though it isn’t easy it can be a lot simpler that what they lead us to believe!

My mind/ body revolts against tracking macro, tracking points, weighting and measureing my food, cutting carbs/fats/ dairy.  I have done it all. It might work short term but was never sustainable and never fun for me.  Can you say cranky, ornery, hungry Mamma!  If it works for you keep on trucking.  Training like an athlete is way less stressful, less anxiety and way more fun! The last two years I have focused on leaving the diet/ fat loss mindset behind, moving more, doing something to  build muscle three times week ( I like to use a variety of tools including kettlebells, barbells and bodyweight) , fueling my body with nutrient dense foods most of the time and NEVER  deprive myself of the things I enjoy has been way more sustainable and enjoyable. And I am so happy the the results. I am healthy and strong and loving life!

 

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Two years ago I would not have had the strength or energy because I was cutting carbs, dairy, eggs . Basically eliminating entire food groups for my diet.  Today I can do a Turkish Get Up with a 55# barbell and a 65# kettlebell.

Athletes are not hyper focused of fat loss and  beating their ass into the ground with their training. They do not restricting food groups or label food as  good or bad.  Recovery and sleep is very important as well.  Lets dive into these tips to get you started on the road to train like an athlete where life is your competition.   You will become stronger both  mentally and physically.  AND losing fat and building muscle is a nice side effect:)

 YOU are an athlete and LIFE is your competition.  Now let’s start training like one. 

1. Your mindset.  Your external environment is a direct reflection of your internal  environment.

Translation: Your habits and actions are a direct result of what your subconscious “believes”.  You need to become aware of the mental chatter inside your own head and then you will be able to change the diet/ fat loss mentality.  You are good enough right now.  If you do not get your head wrapped around this idea you will go back to the habits and actions that your subconscious believes in.

Ever heard “I have no willpower.”  ” I am so tired”  ” I don’t have time” “Taking time for myself is selfish” “I am so fat and uncoordinated””I can’t do that!” are a few I have become aware of in myself  and I see it a lot in the people I help.   Losing 20 pounds is not going to help your subconscious beliefs. You will be 20 pounds lighter and still be fighting your subconscious beliefs with will power.  And let me tell you will power is exhaustible.  You only have so much kinda like a battery.   I know from personal experience.  Work on discovering what your internal chatter is by becoming aware of what the voice in your head is telling you.   I preach this  all the time but it is so important!

Action step:  Start journaling 10 minutes a day.  Sit quietly and just write down the chatter in your head.  Now a days when I am driving I like to use my iPhone and speak what is going thru my head and go back at the end of my day and listen and write.  This drill is how I discovered what my subconscious beliefs were .  I wasn’t even aware I believed this way until I started doing this exercise. It was only when I became aware of what my subconscious believed that I was able to start changing, reassuring and redirecting my subconscious.

Give this a go.  It is so important to become aware of your self talk so you can discover the stories that are holding you back!

Go rock this day friend!

P.S. Feel free to sign up for my e-newletter for more tips on mindset, movement, and nutrition.

 

 

“Kashton, Kashton he’s our man. If he can’t do it no one can!”

journey, Lifestyle, mindset, Uncategorized

 

 

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Do you ever struggle with motivation? Motivation to workout, eat healthy, move more, do the laundry:) I know I do. Maybe not the working out but other things for sure!  My laundry and house work have a tendency to pile up!  So keep an open mind as we head down the rabbit hole here and look at motivation verse inspiration.

I need you to understand that motivation is an external component. You use motivation on someone to energize and excite them. It is great short term but doesn’t really last for the long haul.  Hence the wrestling cheer.  A wrestling match is short and filled with intense emotion.  Not sustainable for very long. But what keeps the athlete driven and focused in the hours of practice and disciplined with  his nutrition, recovery, and sleep? I would have to say it comes from somewhere deep inside. An internal component that the athlete draws from to keep plugging away on the journey.  I call it inner inspiration.

So how do we tap into that inner inspiration?!? First being aware that it even exist is a great beginning.  Quit looking for external sources to motivate you.  Go inside and look at the internal dialog/story (aka excuses ). Now, what is stopping you from doing what you want?  Let’s take a look at a few that  I have help others as well as myself over come.

“I don’t have enough time to …”    This is something I say to myself a lot.  I recognize this story in my own head.  I know that I make time for the things that are important to me.  If your intention is to start exercising I challenge you to start with once a week. Or make it even easier by starting with 10 minutes of pushups and squats at home once a week.  If you can be successful/ consistant with once a week feel free to add another day.  Make it easy.  Easy gets done.  Especially if you are just beginning.  I see to many people start balls to the walls and burn out after the first 2 to 4 weeks.  Long term consistency is what we want.  Just like the athlete.

“It is selfish to take time for  myself.”  Here is another one of my personal stories I struggle with.  But I have come to understand that I am so much nicer to be around and way more productive when I can take some time for myself to do a workout, prepare healthier food and take time to de-stress. Again start small.  Make it easy. Easy gets done.  Like a 10 or 20 minute bath or walk or some quiet time to read a book or a quick sweat session of pushups and squats:) I <3 pushups and squats can you tell:)

“I don’t want to cook two separate meals”  Hello!!! If it isn’t good enough for you to eat your kids shouldn’t be eating it either.  If they are hungry kids will eat the food in front of them.  Experiment with recipes. I have my kids help pick out things to try and have them help cook!

Strive to be the athlete that draws on their inner inspiration.  You are an athlete training for life.  Be 365 strong.  You are in this for the long haul not the next 30 days.  It is a journey, enjoy it. Practice being present and aware in the moment and the fat loss,  body, mind, soul transformation will happen!

 

“Calgon take me away!”

journey, Lifestyle, mindset, Uncategorized

Hello and I am so thankful you are here reading!

Do you all remember that commercial growing up?!?  I get it now. With three boys and a couple businesses and just being plain busy. I get it!

One of my intentions for 2015 is to manage my stress better.  In the gym I am always trying to put mental state before physcial skill with my members and myself.  I am super good/bad at keeping things in and bottling emotions up and then having them explode when I can’t take it anymore.  Something I am really working on is communication, stress reduction, and being grateful for where I am at right now.

Here are some things to know about stress.  There are two types of stress.  Eustress is a stress that is short term, it motivates and focuses us, feels great and causes positive adaptations in our body.  Distress on the other hand is usually long term/ chronic, outside our bodies coping capabilities, drains us, feels very unpleasant and can lead to health problems ( aka negative adaptations). 

Our bodies can not tell where the stress is coming from.  Our work, our food choices, our workout, or our relationships.  We need to be very aware and mindful to keep our food choices and workouts in a eustress state and keep our distress under control to feel and perform our best!  

Strive to feel strong during your workout.  Do not over train and under eat.  Your recovery is so important. Sometimes I think even more important than the actual workout!  Eat foods that make you feel better, keep your energy up and cravings down.  Walk and move more throughout your day. Get 8 hours a restful sleep at night, take hot baths, and enjoy time with family and friends to help combat the distress in your life.

Let me know your favorite way to keep stress in check?

 

Thank God it’s Monday!

journey, mindset, Movement, nutrition, Uncategorized

I feel so incredibly blessed that I am alive,  that I am healthy enough to train today and have an abundance of food to choose from to eat.  That may sound silly to some of you but not to long ago I was very ungrateful for all I have, angry at myself and filled with shame about what I chose to eat,  how I performed in the gym, the kind of coach I was, the business person I was, the parent I was being to my three son’s,  the way my body looked and many more!  It was eating me form the inside out and affecting my health, my finances and my relationships.

What has changed you ask?  Lots!  My mindset, my movement and my nutrition.  But NOT over night. Your external world is a mirror reflection of your internal environment.  I have been working on resting my internal environment for the last 14 months.  I am still a work in progress but I am super excited to share with you what has helped me work on that internal environment.  I want to share everything that  has helped me enjoy my training again, move better, get stronger and leaner and the strategies I use that helped me with my relationship with food. Today though I want to share a bit about mindset.  I think it all stems from mindset.

What creates our internal environment? Quiet a few things.  Our family, how we were raised, where we were raised, what we read, watch  and listen to from childhood to current day.   But first a more important question is WHAT IS OUR INTERNAL ENVIRONMENT?  WHAT IS OUR INTERNAL SELF TALK?  WHAT DOES THE VOICE IN OUR HEAD TELL US CONSTANTLY THROUGH OUT THE DAY?  First, we need to be aware of what that is and a great way to start awareness is with journaling.  It isn’t a gratitude journal but a dictate journal.  We are going to writing down all the  internal dialog.  All of our self chatter that goes on in our head.  Then we are going to go back and read and become aware of what those stories are.

Try it and let me know if you have questions!

 

The next post will be about what creates or internal environment.  Stay tuned and become aware!