I know I have been MIA these past few weeks so I thought I'd put up an update. Things have been going really well lately with recovery from surgery and I am finally feeling normal again.  It is very deceiving because I am told that between 6-8 weeks post surgery is apparently when the graft for the ACL is at its weakest.  As a result of the graft being weak at this point, this time is a common point for re-injury because people are feeling good, there is no discomfort, and are starting to return to work, etc.  So I am being cautious, but still enjoying finally having more freedom of getting around. I was surprised at how slow I was to get off crutches.  I was starting to get concerned because I was told that I needed to wait until I could walk normally before I was allowed to go without crutches, but I felt like I wasn't getting there.  By week 3, I could get around the house without them easily, but for anything out of the house, I took my crutches just in case.  At physio

The past week of my recovery has gone very smooth compared to the first week. I started to go a bit stir crazy from being in the house and have so far taken almost any opportunity to get out of the house! Physio has been going well. I'm still on crutches but I'm trying to make a conscious effort to go without when I'm at home. It seems silly, but I have to actually concentrate on walking properly. To walk, I have to stand with even weight in my legs, contract one quad muscle, then take a step with the other. While I am walking, I have to try and keep my legs as straight as possible, which means I walk VERY slowly. Normally I am a very fast walker, so it annoys me that I have to walk so slow!  I am getting closer to getting my range of motion back in my knees. However, they have split personalities right now. My left leg bends really well, but it is very resistant to straightening compared to my right knee. My right leg is the opposite; I almost have it straight, but

Last Thursday (Sept 1st) was the fateful day for my bilateral ACL reconstruction surgery. It's been an interesting week of recovery this far. My surgery went well, but I did have a bit of a long recovery in the hospital.  I spent a long time in recovery because I was apparently very sensitive to anesthetic.  Every time I would fall asleep in the recovery room, my breathing would slow down too much and my oxygen stats would fall and alarms would go off!  Then the nurses would come and wake me up and say, "Jackie, you HAVE to breathe!"  Oops, I guess I forgot.   When I finally got back to my room, my poor husband had been waiting for over two hours for me since they told him I was awake.  I wasn't sent home until the evening because I was quite nauseated, so they gave me Gravol which knocked me out for the afternoon.  When I finally was awake enough, it started getting painful.  They offered me Morphine (they couldn't give it to me earlier because of my breathing

Over the past year an a half, I've been trying to master the balance between sticking to proper eating and allowing myself a treat now and then.  I find personally that giving myself a "binge weekend" usually leads to an off week where I tend to have a harder time sticking to my diet.  That being said, if I don't give a little, then what is the point of even living.  Maybe a little bit dramatic, but you get my point. I've made it pretty clear all along that I love food.  I have a big appetite and I enjoy cooking and of course anything with bread, pasta or cheeses- I am in!  I do enjoy my veggies and eating properly does make me feel better.  I find if I have a week or weekend where I eat like crap, I start to feel like crap and I actually crave healthy foods again. I feel like I have ironed out some of the kinks when it comes to my diet, but I am far from perfect.  Some days I go from, "I don't want a cookie" to "I ate the whole box of Oreos

Since I have hurt my knees, I get asked quite a bit "are you still training and working out?"  For some people it is out of general curiosity; and for others, the question comes with a tone of voice that says, "you're an idiot!" In all honesty, in some ways my training regime has changed a lot and in others it hasn't.  For example, cardio- I can't run, but I can use the spin bike and I am cleared to do stairs for the time being.  I absolutely loathe swimming lengths in a pool, so that is not something I will willingly partake in.  I used to use grappling a lot for cardio, but that really isn't much of an option at this point.  So the form that I do cardio has changed a lot, but I still get it done! For my regular workouts, I have been able to do upper body and core stuff as usual.  Some things were difficult at first, like planks or anything requiring me to have straight legs.  Now that I have most of my leg extension back, I can do almost any exe

I thought  I'd write about what to do when you want to give up- written by someone who wanted to give up, which is me.  But first, the background story! I've had a bit of a frustrating past couple weeks  and fell a bit off the "bandwagon" purely just because of it. A few weeks ago, I got the phone call I've been waiting for 6 months.  It was the surgeon's office asking if I could possibly work out getting my knee surgery done on the 23rd of this month.  It only gave me 17 days notice, but I took it.  For the next couple days, I was on cloud nine!  I was super excited to get the surgery and to get going with physio and back on the healing train.  I've been really happy about how my knee has been feeling latel; no pain, working out has been going well and I was lifting more than ever!  The occasional time I would turn too quickly, I could feel the joint slide a bit; but that was a very minor issue. That Wednesday a couple days after the phone call, I h

It's been some time since I started going to the gym consistently and completely overhauled my entire lifestyle.  I've learned so much along the way about myself, gym life, working out, etc.  I remember when I first started I was so intimidated by the gym and I have definitely learned some great lessons along the way. I also was thinking of if I could go back and give "past me" any tips about what to expect, what would I say.  So I thought I'd write a list and put it out for everyone. Here is my list of fitness truths and tips for any woman (or person) starting at the gym. 1.  Gyms aren't really that intimidating.       I used to hate going into the weight room.  It always kind of smelled like a dude and it was daunting not really knowing how or what equipment to use.  After I forced myself into it and did more research, I found it actually isn't scary after all.  Unless you're trying to beat a big powerlifting guy to the bench press before he ge

A few weeks ago, I was talking with some co-workers about our individual fitness routines.  This prompted one of them to ask everyone, "When were you at your fitness peak?"  One of my coworkers said before her Mexico trip earlier this year, one said when they were in university playing on the hockey and soccer teams.  For myself, I answered, "Well, right now.  I am currently in the best shape I've been." She was a bit surprised at my answer, and asked if even with my knee, I am currently in the best shape I've ever been.  My answer is still yes, and I will explain why. I've been at varying degrees of fit all my life.  In high school, I was in gym class every day and on the basketball team.  I was constantly running, all the time!  Even then, I was still strong, but I've never had the muscle mass I do now.  I also never ate as healthy as I do now.  When I was in high school, I lived by I could eat whatever I wanted, because I was running it off and

I am not exactly what someone would call a beauty expert by any means.  I am not girly enough of a girl to have makeup how-to's or hair tutorials.  That being said, I do try to take care of my skin as much as possible, in hopes I can keep it as healthy and age well! I've been told many times that I have nice skin.  To me, its a big compliment, especially when I am not wearing makeup.  I have noticed since I started taking my health seriously, my skin has improved greatly! So here are my personal rules or things I do to take care of my skin. 1.  I eat lots of veggies and cut out the crap!       We all know that eating healthy is great for keeping a healthy body weight as well as upkeep of our internal organs.  Remember that your skin is also an organ, therefore it also benefits from healthy eating.  There aren't a whole lot of studies that I could find on a direct link between food and skin damage, but the general consensus is that proper eating of vitamins, minerals a

We had a busy weekend filled with Ju Jitsu and family time. Friday was our usual, teaching kids class and training; then Saturday we went to a Ju Jitsu seminar at KP that was put on by mine and Ernie's Sensei, Joseph. Joe was our Sensei who brought us up to black belt level and now we instruct what he taught us.  It was awesome this past Saturday to have so many of our martial arts family members come out to learn some of what he taught us over the years.  I felt like it was a great refresher to practice drills and moves we've forgotten about or haven't worked on lately. One of my favorite things we worked a lot on was doing lots of throws!  When I was a younger martial artist, I hated drilling throws.  They were difficult for me, I could never get the timing right or I was too small to be able to move a person around enough to knock them off balance.  I never really did realize the importance of being able to do a great take down or a throw until I got older. As much

I've heard many different excuses for people not wanting to go to the gym.  I've heard they have no time, no motivation, they hate working out, etc.  One excuse that actually surprises me is that people feel embarrassed to go to the gym because of their weight and what people will think of them.  They are afraid to go to the gym because they are insecure about what they look like and feel like they are being stared at or judged. It bothers me that people really think that other people at the gym are staring and judging them.  I know for myself, I am usually so lost in my own little world in my workout, I hardly notice there are other people even at the gym!  If I do notice an overweight or out of shape person at the gym, I think that is awesome because they are striving to better themselves and their lives, which is the same reason I am there! So, I thought I could do everyone a public service and alleviate some of the worries of making an ass out of yourself at the gym.  It

I know I've been pretty MIA lately with my blog, I am preparing for the first part of my personal training test this weekend, so I've been spending my blog writing time studying instead.  I make my promise that I will be better about writing once my test is done this weekend! Last time I wrote, I talked about the first part of my journey of confidence.  This type of journey is similar to my fitness journey in that there is no end point when it comes to confidence because always a struggle.  Some days I don't feel so hot about myself.  Either my skin breaks out or I'm bloated or I screwed up at my job and feeling low about myself.  But I tell myself that I know what my real abilities are and I am just having an off day and to keep pushing on and it will get better. The second part of my journey is about applying my hard learned lesson about confidence I talked about in part 1 of this blog ( see here ).  Last time, I talked about how I had a hard time figuring myself

I am making this blog into a two part blog.  It is the journey of my self confidence and the role my fitness journey played into it.  Part 1 is about learning to accept who I was. During this fitness journey I've started on I've learned a few things: 1) keep your back straight 2) eat yo veggies! And 3) have confidence in your abilities and be happy with your body-no matter what! The first two are no-brainers, the third is the most tricky of all!  When I was young, I had a hard time learning to appreciate myself for who I am, and it  had nothing to do with my body. I knew growing up I was smart and a pretty easy going kid. I never really had any body issues, instead I had issues with what others thought of me. I remember being six or seven and wanting to have friends so badly that I begged my mom to help me change my wardrobe so I could wear stuff that other girls did.  I'm glad she didn't give into me, it was the beginning of a big learning curve for me.  In ju

The topic of equality and feminism has been a hot topic this past year- or maybe it's just my news feed on Facebook.  Either way, its a topic I feel relates to my message with Fit Like a Girl. I created Fit Like a Girl for girls like me.  Girls who work hard, strive for independence, workout and go against the grain of what it means to be a "girl"; the tomboys, the fighters. I proudly consider myself a feminist.  Even as a young girl, I've aspired to be an independent person, who can live life on my own if needed.  My parents raised me to think for myself, and be smart so I don't have to rely on "being a girl" to get myself through life.  In other words, my sisters and I had the exact same expectations as my brothers did. In school, all the expectations were the same in our family.  We were all expected to meet the same grades and go to college- no exemptions!   It was the same thing when it came to doing chores on the farm. Once we were old enoug

When most people say they need to "get in shape" and "start working out", they think they need to slap on their running shoes and hit the treadmill.  People associate cardio training with what is needed to get in shape and transform their bodies.  There is also the age-old theory if you want to lose weight, do cardio, and if you want to bulk up with muscle, then you strength train!  These theories are not always the case. To determine what is the better choice, we must first analyze what they do for you! Weight or strength training has several benefits to the body and fitness goals. First of all, weight training obviously builds and strengthens muscles.   The more muscle a person has, the more benefits come with it! When people strength train, they actually cause microscopic tears in their muscles.  When the recovery happens, the muscles heal and grow.  As the muscles recover and grow, they require calories during the process. In short, the more muscle a pers

Since I started my fitness journey, I've made a lot of changes and sacrifices. These changes included changing my eating and sleep patterns. I've cut back on alcohol (not too much!), and started getting up early for morning workouts. Overall, these things have benefited me greatly and made me a happier, healthier person. Amongst all these changes, there have been certain things I have grown accustomed to. Changes it habits that I love, and of course everyone has an opinion about.  I've heard about how I should do this or change that.  However there are things I refuse to give up, change or compromise.   Here is a list of what I refuse to do on my fitness journey. I refuse to... 1.  Go over three days with out a workout.        This I promised to myself as a way of staying on track.  Although, certain circumstances like sickness can get in the way, I make it my mission to never go three days with out some sort of a workout.  It has worked well for keeping me accountable