Personal Training - My mission

Hello to all of my family and friends and thank you for signing up to follow my thoughts. Today I am targeting my thoughts to my Fellow Mommas out there. I don’t know about you guys, but the main three thoughts that whirled through my head constantly after having my boys were as follows (not always in this order):

1. I never thought I could love someone so much!
2. Will I ever sleep again?
3. Will I ever get my A$$ back into shape??

So, after about a year or so after my second son was born # 3 definitely became the focus in my mind. My hubbie and I had just picked up the family and moved to Yorba Linda, AKA The Land of Gracious Living. Now, even though I have lots of friends and was familiar with the area it was still a culture shock for this La Mirada gal. Already feeling a bit insecure about my weight and body.. going to Target or even the grocery store became intimidating for me because the majority of the YL ladies are Amazingly and Totally Beautiful.. ALL of the time!   Now, some of my closest buddies live in YL and please do not take this as an insult, on the contrary I am thanking you because it helped get my butt into gear and start doing something about the horrible “feelings” of insecurity I started having.

That is when I had to do some serious soul searching.. when is a full-time-working-mother-of 2-toddler-boys-wife going to find time to exercise!??! For me, it became my lunch hour because I was (and am) WAY to dog-ass-tired to do anything in the evenings after a long day of work. I started going to the LAFitness near work twice a week just to get some momentum. That is when I saw Herman for the first time. Herman changed my life...

Herman is a Personal Trainer at LAFitness and after we met and I learned his philosophies on health and fitness I quickly signed up for his twice a week program. He taught me so much about targeting certain areas of my body and more than anything.. held me accountable!! Herman was all business and very professional as well as completely supportive and encouraging. He understood that I was only there for 30 minutes twice a week, but during that time I was ALL business and he took my goals very seriously. Here is what I learned in my 15 months (16” total body mass and 5% body fat loss!!) with Herman:

1. It is the best motivation to have someone hold you accountable - when I worked out alone I would stop after I got tired.  With Herman, I did not stop until it HURT!  If you are NOT a lil bit or majorly sore then it was NOT a good workout.
2. Do NOT constantly weigh yourself.. go by how you feel and how your clothes fit (or in my case what my husband was saying!)
3. I CAN workout 3-4 times a week and actually enjoy it!
4. Doing monthly measurements is a good thing! (I will go into more details about this when I address my eating habits in a future blog..)

I know that Personal Training is not an option for everyone because of the money it costs.. but NOT because of the time it takes. I firmly believe that you can always find the time to exercise. You can employ some of these same techniques I mention above even without a trainer. Pick something you enjoy, mix it up but always find time for yourself at least 3 times a week, make sure you are occasionally sore and have your husband/friend/significant other hold you accountable and do monthly measurements to see those results! It CAN be done. : )

Inspiration..

My Personal Trainer (Herman) sent out a mass email to all of his clients and I just had to share on my blog.  I plan to dedicate a full blog entry to him and how he changed my life.  But here are his inspiring words he sent yesterday:

Once you start, just don't look back; forward forever and backwards never. This is the general concept that I promote as well as I believe in. This is the idea for once you begin your workout program, full speed ahead!!

Today I ran in a half marathon, 13.1 miles, with a client of mine, Jaime. Although we were separated and met in the end, we both MADE IT to the end. This was her very first half marathon & it was a struggle, but with tears of joy in her eyes, Jaime stepped over that finish line as proud as a lottery winner. You see Jaime NEVER used to run before we began training. But once she started & her weight just fell off, she was hooked. ;-) She started in small events and just increased, forward forever, backwards never. This is the very same philosophy you all MUST develop, in order to reach your desired goals in fitness. This is what I would like for you to do.

Go to Jaime's blog & read her inspiring story. And keep those bodies moving & be positive & driven. ;-)

The Half..

Well, the day finally came.. The Kaiser Half Marathon in Irvine and I am so pleased to say that I finished!  I even met my goal.. which was To FINISH! (time was 2:27)  Let me just say that I have not experienced anything that exciting, emotional, painful and personally satisfying since my two boys were born.  Here is the breakdown:

Marathon menu:
Dinner night before - Poke bowl with some ahi tuna for protein and rice for some carbs.  It did me RIGHT!
Breakfast - Cup of coffee, Snickers Marathon bar, banana and Ibruphrophen for my bum knee.  Word of advice.. limit the liquids before race time cuz there is nothing worse then having to wait in line for the Port-a-potty in the middle of a run.
During Race - Water bottle full of NuUn electrolyte tablets and 2 frozen mini-snickers (Thanks for the advice Jen Truba!)
After race - I was so nauseous! My body was ALL screwed up but luckily CW helped me out with some Cheez-it crackers and Banana and toast (Thanks Sarah!)

The Anticipation
Just like with my C-sections, the days leading up to this race were nerve racking!  Was I ready? Could I do this?  Am I crazy!  But all of the build up just added to the experience for sure.

Race Morning
It was F-ING COLD!  The 4 of us piled into my warm Yukon and headed to Irvine at 7am where it was a balmy 37 degrees.  We parked and walked to the starting line along with 5 thousand of our closest Kaiser friends to stretch and mentally prepare for what was in store for us.

The Race
We started off with the group and the first 3 miles were difficult because everyone was so sandwiched together.  I felt good, warming up, thanking my playlist and peptalks for motivation. NOTE - The Endomondo app we use lets your friends and family send peptalks directly to you while running via text to voice.  Here were my favs during this race that helped me out:

From my amazing supportive Husband "Good luck babe, we love you!"
From Jacksen: "Hi Mom I love you and I hope you go to the finish line first and hope you win the medal of being the first!"
From Miranda (aka The General) " U are freakin awesome! Pump it up and finish strong!"  "You are almost done, we kicked this marathons ass!"

Miles 4-6 were great and I had a good groove.  My only complaint was the hundreds of high school who ran students were annoying - 1)because of their endless supply of energy 2) they didn't understand running etiquette and keep darting across the track in front of me and looking back for their buddies!

Miles 7-10 I had to DIG DEEP!  The thing about running is it is totally a mental sport.  I had to daydream about anything and everything - Chris, the boys, my girlfriend JR (lost to breast cancer) who I dedicated this run to.. the point is, you put your mind ANYWHERE else but the race and the PAIN!

Miles 11-13 - Ate my snickers, drank my drink but man THE PAIN, oh the pain!  My knee was hurting and each one of my legs felt like they weighed 100 lbs and the finish line felt like forever away.. but I dug VERY DEEP with everything I had inside me.

The Finish
The most emotional part (holding your baby for the first time..) Knowing you finished, met your goal and did not give up.  Seeing my family on the left under the finish line, holding signs and waving.. I couldn't stop myself and the tears came flooding out.  Then after the finish line I find my 3 running buddies and we shared a group hug and moment of glory that will last a lifetime.  I am so proud of us!!

Final Thought
I am sooo glad that I did the Half Marathon.. once.  I am thinking that I am much more of a 10k girl! : )

Why I run..

I had a dear friend from High School send me a note on Facebook asking about my tips and how I started running.  She was inspired when she learned that I have been training to run in my first Half Marathon this Saturday.  I was very happy to hear that I motivated a fellow Momma to do something so challenging!   It was not the first time I have been asked about my work out habits and I decided that I would like to start a blog to share some stories about how this full time working Momma got herself into SHAPE! 

I am going to start with my running story first, even though this is definitely not where I started working out, nor ever saw myself actually.  Summer of 2012 I decided to do a stroller 5k down in HB.. thinking of course this will be easy with a stroller as my crutch!  Man was I WRONG, not only did that 3 miles feel like FOREVER.. some of these ladies out there were sooo intense with their "racing" strollers and kick ass bodies that I thought to myself.. I want to be where they are!  And with that I started running, did a few more 5Ks, an 8k trail run and a 10k.  My biggest challenge is yet to come as I prepare for my first Half Marathon this Saturday.

Now, one thing I shared with my girlfriend is that I do NOT love to run..most of the time while I am doing it I think to myself.. WHY am I doing this!?!?  But what I do LOVE is to finish, to meet that goal that I set for myself and the sense of accomplishment it gives me...it is SOOO addicting!! Here are my tips that I gave to her when first starting out with a new running career...

1- Start small.. the hardest miles are the first 3 and after that your body just gets into a groove.
2- Create the perfect running playlist - I have mine on my phone strapped to my arm that gets me pumped (Gwen is a must!)
3- This should actually be #1.. find a running buddy.. someone who will hold you accountable and keep you motivated!
4- Give yourself goals and stick to them.. go to www.runningtheusa.com/race and pick a race to sign up for. When u have a goal coming up it will keep you motivated and not let you quit! I try to do a run every 2 months.
5- Track your progress online. Me and my buddies use www.endomondo.com installed on our phones to track our miles using GPS and we can all see eachothers progress and encourage.

Anyways, this is just a start of some of my girl thoughts.. I hope there will be more to come..