This is a bit of a confession and a rant! I mentioned a couple of posts ago that I feel like I am coming up on a plateau.  I think I was right!  For the last week or two I have not been as motivated or excited about my workouts.  Looking at myself, I am not really seeing any progress over the last couple weeks.  Could it be my hormones playing mind games with me? Possibly, but I feel like there is just an overall slowdown.  It seems that it's not just my fitness that is affected, I feel like I'm hitting a wall when fighting. When fighting, I'm not quite moving as fast as I feel like I should be.  Last night I was grappling Ernie and he went to pass my guard, I tried to move out of the way but I got my leg caught and my knee twisted a bit which hurt a lot.  I know that if I had just been that split second faster, I wouldn't have a bum knee today which is a disappointment.  Its not a big deal, just a little sore and I feel frustrated. I've mentio...

Deciding to begin changing your lifestyle to reach your health and fitness goals is a challenging decision, and keeping it is even harder.   You've probably said to yourself, "I wish I had the time and motivation to workout healthily healthy". I wish I "had" the time and motivation too ; instead, I have to "make" time and dedicate myself to be motivated to go to the gym and eat healthily. Many people will find a reason to sit on the couch and not eat properly. Not many people try to find a reason to workout healthily healthy.  We all know that obesity is a rampant problem here in North America but we all seem to not be willing to do anything about it.  Here are the most common excuses and some "fixes" for them.  1. "I don't have the time"      This is the most common excuse and it is true, people are busy!  However, it's all about making your health a priority.  You have to look at your schedule and see where you ...

I know speaking for myself and A LOT of women out there, the tummy area is a troublesome one.  For a lot of women it is the area where excess weight and fat seem to want to congregate.  I've found from my personal experience that the lower abdomen area is also the hardest to change. I used to believe that if I did copious amounts of sit ups, I would develop the abs I dreamed of.  However that couldn't be farther from reality.  I've had to learn the hard way that the only way to get the fat layer off my stomach is to lose body fat all over.  You see, your body can't pick and choose where the fat loss comes from; all it knows is how to lose it all over.  I know a lot of women are concerned about losing fat all over because that means "the girls" usually get a little lost in the mix. However, it is a necessary evil that we need to lose body fat all over to accomplish what we want in certain areas. I've heard the phrase a lot "abs are made in the kitche...

Getting fit requires a lot.  It takes a lot of food, time and energy along with blood, sweat and tears.  With all the different information out there on weight loss and health, it can be a confusing and frustrating feat.  However, there are certain things that you REALLY need.  This has nothing to do with workout clothes, running shoes, weights, or trainers. First of all, you need to make up your mind that this is what you really want.  You need to decide to do it for YOU.  To make yourself happy and healthy.  Make your decision that this time is different then all the times before where you tried and didn't succeed; or maybe you did succeed for a while then fell off track.   Make time for yourself and put yourself as a priority.  I know this is especially hard for parents with kids.  It's difficult to not think of your children as number one priority, however I think that kids can appreciate that mom or dad are doing some...

Before I started this fitness journey, I was the master of yo-yo working out.  What I mean by that is I would workout semi-consistently 2-3 times a week for about a month, then find some sort of an excuse and stop for a month or so and then start back up again.  I never dedicated myself or pushed myself beyond that. During my yo-yo times, I would watch what I eat more carefully and then not so much. I've been wondering lately why I could never seem to stick with eating right and working out consistently, and I think I've figured out a few reasons for my past failures.   One of the reasons that I never thought to start and stick with working out continually is that I always had a good metabolism.  I was that kid who was always pretty lean and could eat whatever I wanted.  I was decently active for most of my life so I figured that my metabolism would always carry me over.  It wasn't until I moved out on my own and didn't change my eating habits, that I...

This past weekend Ernie and I were able to hit the gym and workout together. I've talked about before how we are always each others partners for Ju Jitsu ( see Blog ), but it's become very rare now that we actually go to the gym to run and lift weights together. We used to go together all the time, but since our schedules have been so hectic, we only workout at Ju Jitsu. However, this weekend we were able to hit the gym together twice. We did our cardio together on Saturday, then split up to conquer our own weight training. On Sunday, we did cardio again then did abs together. I had forgotten how much I enjoy working out together. I've found that working out with your spouse or even a friend has its advantages. For example, when it comes to running, with Ernie I go a lot harder than I normally do. Ernie is a very good runner, he is fast and can go for forever.  I admit I am jealous because I am not a fast or long distance runner.  Because of my competitive nature, I push ...

So this weekend I told Ernie he was taking me out on a date. We've been so busy lately with basement renos, Ju Jitsu, etc that we haven't had a lot of time spent together. So I said to him last week I wanted to go on a date just the two of us. Now I knew with this date would include a cheat, or rather a treat, meal.  Treat meals as we all know are my weakness. I tend to get carried away and before I know it, my "meal" has turned into "weekend".  See my post on my 24 Hours of Gluttony as an example. So I figured that I better work on that.  Over the weekend I researched through multiple sources the best way to handle a cheat meal.  I found some good information that I applied to myself this weekend to see what the difference would be. First of all, I found some good, beneficial information on cheat meals.  I read that they are good for you for multiple reasons.  One reason is that it satisfies your cravings so you're less likely to go on an all out bi...