Squat Like a Lady

Five Cheap Products That WILL Improve Your Workout

2012-02-23T05:00:00.000-08:00

The fitness industry is always selling something. Supplements, workout gear, equipment, magazines, books -- fitness is literally a multi-million dollar industry.

And really? You can get away with less than 0.000001% of what's being sold.

Here, though, are five items that I use and would recommend for anyone who strength trains on a regular basis. As a bonus, because I am a spendthrift by nature, they are all also super cheap.

1. Tennis balls.

Yes, I'm serious. These are a great alternative to foam rollers. A decent foam roller will run you around $20, but tennis balls are usually $1 per ball (or less). This article describes why and how (with pictures!!) you should perform soft tissue work ("foam rolling"). Those of you who aren't already foam rolling? Are an injury waiting to happen. Seriously.

2. Chalk or straps.

If you've been lifting for more than 6 months, I am willing to bet that your grip strength is hindering your progress on deadlifts, chin-ups, and maybe even rows. You have two alternatives, both for less than $10: chalk or straps. If you're planning to participate in a powerlifting meet, don't use straps for your deadlifts: you can't use those on the platform! Chalk is allowed, though.

I personally use both. I use chalk for max-effort deadlifts (I lift barehanded with a reverse grip for heavy sets leading up to max efforts: I want a strong grip!) and very occasionally use straps for my assistance work if my pre-exhausted grip is hurting my lifts too much.

3. Fish Oil.

Your body needs Omega-3 fatty acids. They may reduce the risk of heart disease, play an important role in growth and development, and may reduce inflammation (source). Since the human body cannot synthesize Omega-3s, you have to get them through your diet. Fish oil is an important supplement to take if you do not eat at least two servings of fatty fish (like salmon) a week!

4. Weightlifting Shoes.

I love Chucks. They feel like slippers :D

You don't have to get Chucks, but I prefer them -- mostly for their price! Other good options are Nike Frees, Otomix Wrestling Shoes, or the New Balance Minimus. If you are into Olympic Weightlifting, Adidas has a great Oly lifting shoe.

5. Caffeine!

Caffeine (almost exclusively in the form of tea and coffee) and fish oil are the only two supplements I take right now. I drink a cup of black tea or coffee or take a caffeine pill about 20 minutes before I lift. I find this gives me increased focus as well as better blood flow and muscle pumps. Plus, a study conducted in 2009 found that athletes who consumed theaflavin-enriched black tea experienced less Delayed-Onset Muscle Soreness than those who did not (source). I rarely experience DOMS these days, but when I do, drinking black tea seems to help.

What cheap products do you swear by (fitness-related or not)?

Please note: All product links in this post take you to products listed on Amazon.com. If you place an order on a product I linked to here, I will earn 4% commission. :)

PPS: TOTALLY off-topic and unrelated but I just found out my mom lost her job last night at a really, really bad time. Please send her some good vibes or prayers!

Give it Time

2012-02-22T04:42:00.000-08:00

I hear (and read!) a lot of trainees who seem to get discouraged by their results.

"I've been lifting for a year and can only bench 95lb!"

"I've been training and dieting for six months and I don't have sliced abs!"

And believe me, I understand this frustration. I do. I've been there! After one year of lifting, I could only bench 95# twice. After six months of following a contest prep diet, doing cardio, and lifting 5x a week, I didn't have ripped abs and crazy muscular definition. And I know how incredibly disappointing that can be. If you have put in a serious amount of time, effort, and dedication to a goal, slow results suck.

It took me almost two years of lifting to have 13.5" arms!

Unfortunately, when it comes to looking and being strong, you have got to give it time.

Unless you have crazy genetics, you aren't going to bench your body weight within your first year or so of lifting, ladies. It doesn't matter how hard you work. It's just not physiologically reasonable.

And for most of us, six months of heavy lifting and careful dieting is not enough time to build and reveal awesome abs.

It's nothing you're doing wrong. It's not that you're not working hard enough.

It sucks, but it's completely out of your control: it's going to take a lot of time (we're talkin' years, ladies) to get where you want in terms of physique and strength.

Does that mean it's not worth it?

Absolutely not. Not in my book, anyway.

Being able to bench 95# is much better than not even being able to bench the bar, right? And nothing in the world feels better than putting your hand on your own leg, or chest, or arm, and feeling the explosive power there when that muscle contracts.

Besides, you will achieve your goals; you will get to wherever it is you're trying to go. And it will feel amazing when you do because of all of the effort, sweat, and, yes, frustrated tears, you poured into getting there.

The Unofficial Guide to Doing More Chin-Ups

2012-02-21T04:46:00.000-08:00

Chin-ups and pull-ups are, in my opinion, two of the best exercises for demonstrating raw strength. If you see a female doing chin-ups, you know she's strong. There's no question about it.

So how can you do more chin-ups (or maybe get your first unassisted one)?

1. Do very slow negatives.

These will vastly increase your strength for all phases of the exercise. If you can't pull yourself up to the bar for your first rep yet, either climb up or have someone lift you up. However you get there, get yourself to the top of the chin-up position, where your chin is above the bar and your back and arms are fully contracted. Then reverse the motion either as slowly as you can, or for 8 counts. Repeat for as many repetitions as recommended by your program / trainer.

2. Strengthen your grip.

If you are wasting a lot of energy and focus just to keep your hold on the bar, your end results are going to suffer. So bring that grip strength up! Do farmer's carries (described at the end of this post), stop using straps for your deadlifts and rows, and try dusting your hands with chalk before you grab the pull-up bar.

3. Maintain a strong mind-muscle connection.

When you are performing a pull-up or chin-up, you should be actively thinking about the processes occurring in your body. The best visualization techniques I have found are: (1) focus on squeezing your shoulder blades together (this helps activate the lats and keep your scapulae in correct anatomic position, which is down & back), and (2) remember that you are pulling your chest to the bar (this will help you maintain a good arch in your back).

It's also important to note that you will be able to do chin-ups (during chins, your palms face each other or you) before you will be able to do pull-ups (during which your palms face away from you). I can do 6-7 chins from a dead hang, but only 2-3 pull-ups.

What exercises scream "strength" to you? What tips & tricks do you have for performing more chins and pull-ups?

PS! I just joined Formspring. Feel free to ask me anything over there -- you can ask questions anonymously! :)

Progress Pictures, Measurements and Recent Eats

2012-02-20T04:45:00.000-08:00

I changed my diet a little more than two weeks ago and in the interest of common knowledge, I'm going to give you all my first progress report today.

On February 6, I measured my hips, arms (flexed), legs (flexed), shoulders (relaxed), and waist (relaxed). Those measurements were:

Calves (flexed): 14.5"
Right leg (flexed): 20.25"
Hips: 35"
Bellybutton: 34"
Waist (bottom of rib cage): 32"
Shoulders (relaxed): 43"
Left arm (flexed): 13.25"

On February 18, those measurements were:

Calves (flexed): 14.25" (-.25")
Right leg (flexed): 20.25"
Hips: 34" (-1.0")
Bellybutton: 33" (-1.0")
Waist (bottom of rib cage): 29" (-3.0")
Shoulders: 43"
Left arm (flexed): 13.25"

I have lost 4lb since February 6 and I am assuming at least 2lb of that is water weight. But I'll take it! :)

Here are front and side views of what my tummy looks like right now:

Annnd here are a whole bunch of pictures of the kinds of food I've been eating! These don't all come from the same day and are obviously not an indication of everything I eat in one day. They're just the more interesting things I've eaten lately!

Butternut squash oats! In a small pot, saute cubes of butternut squash in butter until they are soft, then add oats and cook until they reach the desired consistency. Top with sweetener of choice and cinnamon!

Shrimp sauteed in olive oil with mushrooms, salt, pepper, lemon juice, garlic and onion powder

Over-hard eggs over savory oats (oats cooked in marinara sauce)

Chocolate chip pancakes made with all-purpose pastry flour :D These are a great post-workout carb!

Yeah, that's all the 'interesting' meals I have from the past two weeks. HAHA! I am seeeeriously a boring eater. Sorry guys, this will never be a food blog! :)

Happy Monday! Who else is working today? :(

Why Being an Intermediate Lifter Sucks

2012-02-17T04:38:00.000-08:00

Per the weightlifting performance standards tables at exrx.net, my one-rep maxes (90lb military press, 140lb bench press, 225lb squat, and 235lb deadlift) put me in the intermediate to advanced categories.

And trust me, I can feel it.

The funny (ironic-funny, not ha-ha-funny) thing that happens when you become an intermediate lifter is that your progress slows way down.

Beginners and novices can make gains weekly or, at the very least (like for beginners who are cutting), monthly. But once you're an intermediate? It's not uncommon to go 6 to 12 weeks without a gain.

My deadlift and bench have both been stalled out for a while

The big thing to remember as you enter this stage of plateaus is that it's normal and you will not plateau forever. It's easy to get frustrated but just like when you're a beginner or a novice, you have to stick with the same program. You can't spend one month on Madcows, then hop to 5/3/1 for two cycles, then mess around with some techniques you find in Westside Barbell for a while.

Pick a program, commit to it for at least 12 weeks, and be consistent in your workouts and nutrition.

Staying motivated in the face of stalled progress can be a challenge. There are several ways to ward off de-motivation:

1. Choose an event to compete in, whether it's a powerlifting meet or a figure show.

2. Expand and enhance your knowledge about lifting and your body. One of the best books for this is Practical Programming for Strength Training by Mark Rippetoe.

3. Take an extra deload week. I know I always say not to mess with your program -- deload when it tells you to deload, take a week off when it tells you to take a week off -- but the exception to that rule is that short of taking off 2+ weeks entirely for no reason, extra rest is never going to hurt you.

And of course, you can always complain and commiserate! So tell me -- what is/was the most frustrating plateau you've hit? How did you deal?

Build a Better Bench Part Two

2012-02-16T05:17:00.000-08:00

Last week I wrote a bit about how to improve your bench press.

That post went over well and I received several more questions by e-mail, so I decided to expand upon it today.

Something that a lot of trainees don't realize is that the first phase of the bench movement is actually a row.

Source

Disregard the fact that you're laying on a bench for just a second. When you're benching, you start off with your arms, holding the bar, fully extended, and then you pull the bar to your torso.

That is a barbell row!

If you're trying to bench big, you should not be "lowering" the weight to your chest, using your pecs to control it: you should literally be rowing the bar, with your back, down to your chest.

So, even if your pec, shoulder, and tricep strength is stalling out, you can improve your bench by targeting your upper back. My favorite exercise to accomplish this is the bent-over dumbbell row.

As a bonus, this exercise is great for adding muscle to your upper back, which gives you the appearance of an even smaller waist!

I like using dumbbells because they allow for a greater range of motion. If you do use a barbell, you can use more weight, which is fun, but you'll always hit your stomach or your sternum (if you're rowing high) before you can get your scapulae (shoulder blades) fully retracted.

To perform this exercise, put your right knee and hand on a bench, keeping your torso parallel to the ground with your chest proud. Your left foot should be on the ground. With your left hand, grasp a dumbbell and extend your arm perpendicular to the floor with your elbow relaxed. This is the starting position.

Pull the dumbbell to your chest, keeping your elbow tucked close to your torso. Focus on pulling your shoulder blade back. Once your hand reaches your torso, reverse the motion and slowly return to the starting position. Repeat for the number of reps and sets recommended by your program or trainer.

As always, honor your body and your injuries. You should consult a doctor before beginning or changing an exercise program, and a professional should always observe your form.

What are YOUR trouble exercises, or lifts/body parts that you're having trouble improving? I know I've been talking about benching a lot lately but not everyone benches or is having issues with their bench! :)

Cheesy Tuna Burgers and a Deadlift Workout

2012-02-15T04:35:00.000-08:00

Max is not a seafood person.

He will happily eat beef and chicken all day long, but lately we have both been looking for ways to trim our grocery bill.

And guess what is cheap, high in protein and easy to prepare?

Tuna!

Cheesy BBQ Tuna Burgers

I found this recipe for cheesy tuna burgers and made some changes to suit Max's tastebuds and macros.

2 cans tuna in water, drained well
1 heaping tablespoon BBQ seasoning
2 ounces / 56 grams shredded cheese or nondairy cheese substitute (cheddar and American are best!)
1/4 cup breadcrumbs
1/4 cup finely chopped mushrooms
1/4 cup diced onions
1 large egg yolk or 1/2 tablespoon olive oil

Place all the tuna in a medium bowl; put a nonstick or greased skillet on medium heat. Add the dry ingredients (all except the egg yolk or olive oil) and incorporate well. Stir in the yolk or olive oil: it should be similar in thickness to cake batter. If it's too thick or dry, add olive oil a teaspoon at a time. Form the mixture into small balls and cook approximately 4 minutes per side, or until firm. The outside should be just a bit crunchy :)

Remove from heat and serve with BBQ sauce and ketchup -- or whatever condiments you fancy! :)

Nutrition stats for the whole recipe using egg yolk (10-12 slider-size burgers): 630 calories / 22g carbs / 20.5 g fat / 89.5g protein.

And if you want to need that much protein (and then some), I have an awesome deadlift workout for you :D Weights are my own; calculate your one-rep max here!

Warm-up: 5 minutes self-myofascial release ("foam rolling"); ~3 minutes mobility work (check out mobilitywod.com for some good ideas); Conventional Deadlifts: just the bar x 5, 115 (50% of one-rep max) x 5, 135 (60% of one-rep max) x 3.

Conventional Deadlifts:
No straps, only use chalk for your last set! :) Bring up that grip strength! It's important for real life! :)

65% of one-rep max (150) x 5
70% of one-rep max (160) x 5
80% of one-rep max (185) x max reps -- 8 for me!

Romanian Deadlifts:
Since this is an assistance lift, you should choose a challenging weight but stop at least 4 reps prior to failure

135 x 8 -> no straps, no chalk
165 x 9 -> decided to add straps since my grip was SHOT from conventional deadlifts
165 x 10
165 x 11
165 x 11

Hyperextensions:
Again, this is an assistance lift, so don't kill yourself! Be careful not to lock out your knees.

25# plate x 10 x 5 sets

Conditioning: Farmer's walk (strengthens grip, core, back)

Choose a heavy set of dumbbells. I picked 40s. Pick them up and carry them (carefully, and stopping if you're too tired!) for either a certain distance - the length of your gym and back, maybe - or for a certain period of time, like a minute and a half. Record your speed or how far/long you can carry them, rest until you can breathe again, and repeat. I did this a total of 5 times, walking for 90 seconds and resting for 30.

When you're performing a farmer's carry, your arms should be completely extended: like in a deadlift, your arms are just holding the weight. You should be upright with good posture -- don't jut your head forward, hunch over or lean forward or back. It may be difficult to maintain good posture if you let yourself get too tired.

If you have any doubts, reservations, or confusion about how to perform this exercise, play it safe and do 12 minutes of HIIT!

As always, honor your body and your injuries and don't begin a fitness program or regimen without consulting a doctor. A professional should observe your form.

What Is A Deload Week, Anyway?

2012-02-14T04:16:00.000-08:00

I've mentioned deload weeks and deloading a few times over the past several months, namely because I've been taking one a month lately.

Yes, you read that correctly: I train hard for 3-4 weeks, and then deload for a week. And despite (or perhaps because of) the fact that this is the lowest training volume I've used since I started lifting two years ago, I feel stronger, am getting leaner, and my main lifts are feeling easier off the ground/from the starting position, which I know means that PRs are in my future.

So let's back up. What is a deload week? Simply put, it's a week during which you reduce your volume and give your mind, body, and central nervous system a break.

Weightlifting is tough on the CNS. And if you want to avoid overtraining and recover adequately, you need to give your CNS a break. Regularly.

You also need to give your body a break. Your joints, tendons, ligaments, and muscles need more than one or two days a week to fully recover from the beating you give them.

Ladies, please keep in mind that even if you are following a great program, most lifting programs are designed for men. Due to their higher testosterone levels (amongst many other factors), men can handle a higher training volume for much longer than women.

Additionally, you may not realize that you're not pushing as hard as you can, but when you know that you will be expecting your body to perform at a high level next week, and the week after, and for the next twelve weeks in a row, you will subconsciously hold back a little bit -- you'll keep a little something in the reserve tank, so to speak. However, when you know that you only have to push hard for three or four weeks and then you get an easy or off week, you will naturally work harder for your "working" block.

I realize that many of you have had success while not utilizing deload or off weeks, and truthfully, yes, you can get away without using them, especially for the first couple of years that you lift. But the question to ask yourself is, Do I want to "get away with" something... or do I want to take all the precautions I can to protect myself and my body?

Now that you want to deload (... right?), here's how to do it.

1. Do not exceed 60% of your one-rep max on your main lifts (squat, bench, deadlift, and military press/row depending on the program you're following).

2. Perform an absolute maximum of 5 reps of your main lifts for half as many sets as you normally perform.

3. Reduce the volume of your assistance work by at least 25%, and reduce the weight you use by at least 25%. So, for example, if you normally do 5 sets/10 reps of Romanian Deadlifts with 200 pounds, do an absolute maximum of 4 sets of 7 reps with 150 pounds. I typically am much more conservative than this: as an example, I'll go from doing DB lunges with 45s to doing bodyweight lunges.

Alternately, you can just take a full week off from the gym, but I know that can be a difficult sacrifice to make for iron addicts. ;)

Do you take planned deload or off weeks? What has your experience been?

Where Will I Be in Two Years?

2012-02-13T04:41:00.000-08:00

Well, if I continue working my $12/hour job (which unfortunately carries the requirement that I stay every day until the patients stop coming in, whether that's 5pm or 8pm), I'll be.... exactly where I am now.

That's not to say that my current financial situation is unacceptable.

I mean, it kind of sucks. I don't have cable, 401ks or any debt and I'm still just making ends meet from week-to-week. I do realize that I am incredibly lucky to be breaking even in this economic climate but the thing is that one day I'd like to own a home. And maybe go on vacations. Oh, and retire.

So despite the fact that I am terrified of debt and will definitely have to take out student loans because, well, I'll have to buy groceries and pay rent somehow while both Max and I go to school full-time, I filled out the FAFSA this weekend. (Shout out to the IRS & Department of Education: it's been like five years since I've filled out the FAFSA and I *love* that it's super simple now because you can auto-transfer the info the IRS has directly to the FAFSA! So convenient!)

And now I'm really excited.

In two years, I want to be graduating with a Bachelor's degree. Maybe in Nursing. Probably in Nursing.

I will continue working while I'm in school. Not full-time. That shit was crazy and would not be compatible with clinical rotations.

I am strongly considering buying the NASM Essentials of Personal Fitness Training, taking the exam, and working as a personal trainer. It seems like a natural fit for me: I love learning about working out. I seek out any information I can find about lifting, conditioning and cardiovascular fitness and devour it. Exhibit A:

That is an excellent strength-focused book/training program on top of a gigantic stack of articles I've printed off of eliteFTS.com.

Anyway. I'm excited. I'm hopeful. I'm a little scared. I'm going to be the first person in my immediate family to graduate college. (My baby sister will be starting her freshman year this fall -- can't let her beat me! She's 5 years younger than I am!)

And since this is a lifting blog after all, here's a video of a pretty decent set of conventional deadlifts from this week:

In two years I'd like to be deadlifting 285x8 (one rep max = 350). I think that's reasonable. :)

PS! If you're on Pinterest, let's follow each other! I'm finally getting into it. ;)

Why is Everyone PREGNANT?

2012-02-11T08:40:00.000-08:00

I am just not at the stage in my life yet where I want to talk or think about babies, pregnancy, childbirth (the mere word fills me with dread), etc. Not even close.

And while I'm happy for all of the healthy living bloggers who are pregnant or who have just had babies, it kind of feels like the healthy living niche is becoming more of a mommy blogger niche!

So if you want to read less about pregnancy and more about healthy living and fitness, here are some of my favorite small-ish blogs.

This is DEFINITELY not a comprehensive list!! I could go on and on and on about all the blogs I read and love but I limited myself to just a couple from each category.

If you want thoughtful, well-written posts about weight loss, check out Munchberry. She's a great writer and discusses her challenges (and successes) very candidly.

Jenn at Cooking Aweigh the Pounds is a very down-to-earth blogger who has lost a significant amount of weight, AND she posts awesome recipes!

Mary at A Merry Life writes about life as a newlywed and is very open about her struggles with weight loss. She also lifts!

Are you in the maintenance stage? Ellen of Fat Girl Wearing Thin writes about the unique challenges of weight loss maintenance.

If you're looking for bloggers who are into lifting, you can't go wrong with Meg at Sunshine N' Spice. Bonus: She's super sweet! I recently had a chance to meet her and you guys -- she is just as wonderful in person as she is on her blog. :)

Two lady lifters who consistently produce awesome healthy recipes are April at Foods of April and Christina of Make Yourself Comfortable.

And if you're looking for bloggers who really know their stuff about exercise physiology, Erika and Kels are a perfect match for you!

Kristen at Following Fit is super strong and writes about all aspects of fitness. She is very passionate and knowledgeable about nutrition and is one of the first blogs I ever read!

Becca is an experienced figure competitor who is very real about that lifestyle and, really, all aspects of her life. Tara may compete in the future and is a great writer as well as a great source of information about all aspects of bodybuilding and lifting!

And for you runners, I suggest Rose. She is hilarious and training for a tri, and definitely is not one of those "I went for a fifteen mile run and then ate a bagel thin sandwich" bloggers!

No list of great fitness bloggers would be complete without mention of Charlotte at The Great Fitness Experiment. She is an excellent writer and discusses all aspects of fitness and health.

Finally, two brand new bloggers I already love are I Train, Therefore I Eat (what more is there to say?!) and StrengthSwag.

(Note: This is NOT everyone! I could go on for days. For more awesome blogs, check out my blogroll and the comments section!)

Have you discovered any awesome new blogs lately? Leave me a link! :D

How Do I Get My (BF, Grampa, Mom) To Work Out?

2012-02-10T04:39:00.000-08:00

This question pops up in my inbox from time to time. "I love my husband so much, and I just want him to be healthy!" or, "I know my Mom would have a higher quality of life if she got active!"

Believe me -- I hear you. I wish everyone in my family and life would get bitten by the fitness bug, whether they took up running or lifting or yoga or, possibly the best alternative of all, healthy eating.

But here's the thing. You can't motivate anyone else to get fit or healthy. Max tried to convince me to lift for two years before I touched my first dumbbell. I have been trying to convince several of my loved ones to get active for at least five or six years now with almost no success. If someone is going to make a lifestyle change and make it last, the motivation has to come from within them.

Would you believe that I used to laugh at Max's invitations to accompany him to the gym?! I wish I'd started when he first asked four years ago! I could be benching 175 for singles by now.

And yes -- you can be a role model for an active lifestyle; you can be a part of their support system; you can help nudge them along the way. But the final push is going to come from somewhere inside of that person whenever they are good and ready.

Have you ever wanted to convince a loved one to get in shape or get healthy? Did anyone try to convince YOU to get healthy before you were ready?

The Two Exercises You Should NEVER Do

2012-02-09T05:39:00.000-08:00

Almost all exercises have their place.

Regular one-rep max testing, vilified by most bodybuilders, is a staple in many powerlifting programs.

Floor crunches may be bad news bears for many athletes' lower backs, but as long as they are part of a properly balanced program and performed correctly, they can be a decent core-strengthening exercise.

Even the much-maligned bicep curl is important: many lifters include these (on a limited basis) to improve their bench press or to be able to complete more chin-ups or pull-ups.

With that in mind, there are two exercises you should never do.

1. Any exercise you can't perform correctly, and

2. Any exercise with a purpose you cannot identify.

Are deadlifts, in all their variations, the king(s) of all strength training exercises?

This isn't a PR by any means (I'd just done deficit deadlifts!) but I just cannot get enough videos of deadlifts! Love 'em!

If you're reading this in an e-mail, click through to see the video!

Oh come on. My answer to that question is so predictable it's kind of gross.

BUT... if you are performing ANY variation of deadlifts (conventional, sumo, romanian, stiff-legged, deficit, etc) and you cannot maintain good form or explain why you are deadlifting, stop.

I believe that we should all be conscious and careful of everything we do with our bodies. We should have an answer when asked, "Why are you deadlifting in the 1-3 rep range?" or "What muscle are you trying to strengthen with these deadlifts?" or "Why are you doing a conventional deadlift versus a stiff-legged deadlift?"

You think about the food you're going to use to fuel your body, right? Why wouldn't you put even more thought into the demands you put on your body?

And yes, this means that in my book, if you can actually justify doing this:

Source -- and a great article!

AND do it with anatomically correct, safe form (....is that even possible???), you can go ahead and knock yourself out.

Quick Tips to Improve Your Bench

2012-02-08T04:30:00.000-08:00

Fact: The bench press is an incredibly frustrating exercise for most women because we improve in it pretty slowly.

I can only add about 5lb to my bench per week...but it's my favorite exercise right now!

It took me almost two years to be able to bench 135 for reps, but once I crossed that threshold, I fell in love with benching and started gathering as much information about it as I could.

Today I'm going to share the most useful tips with you all! :)

1. Keep your upper back tight. You probably already know to do this when you squat (....right?!) but you should keep a tight back when you bench, too. Why? Your upper back is the 'platform' from which you drive your bench. For maximum power, you should squeeze your shoulder blades back and down when you're setting up. Keep them there throughout the movement. This WILL take practice, so don't get discouraged!

Source -- and a great explanation of how to squeeze your shoulder blades

2. Train your assistance muscles (but not too much). Your triceps, biceps, shoulders, lats, delts and even your glutes are involved in a properly executed bench press. Make sure that you're not neglecting these muscle groups... but don't overdo it, either. This is a very fine line that you don't want to cross and one of the primary reasons you should follow an established program!

Close grip benching is great for your triceps! (I could and probably should have gone with a bit of a closer grip here.)

3. Think about the process differently. Instead of visualizing yourself pushing the bar away from your body, envision yourself pushing yourself away from the bar. Trust me, if you just think about it in these terms long enough, it will eventually just click.

4. Bench! I see a lot of women who complain about their low bench numbers, but who almost never bench. Dumbbell chest presses are great but you can bench more than you can DB chest press, assuming you are using a correct range of motion. (For reference, the last time I DB chest pressed several months ago I used 45s for 10, and that's around the time I benched 135x3.) The more weight you use, the more your muscles will grow and the stronger they will get. Plus, most gyms have dumbbells in 5lb increments, which means that if you want to go from pressing 40s to pressing 45s, you're jumping from 80# to 90#. If you use a barbell, you can add a 2.5lb plate to each side and go up 5lb at a time, which is an easier jump to make.

If you are afraid to bench without a spotter, then ask for one. No one is going to laugh at you or think you're silly for asking for a spot no matter how little -- or how much! -- weight is on the bar. Trust me. Everyone in the gym started somewhere. And if you don't feel like asking a fellow lifter, just ask a staff member!

I hope these tips help. I can go far more in-depth but I'd rather keep the post simple and not scare everyone off. ;-) If you have additional questions - or tips of your own! - please feel free to leave them in the comments or e-mail me!

Why Didn't You Hit Last Week's PR This Week?

2012-02-07T04:34:00.000-08:00

A week ago, you had a great squat, deadlift, or bench session. You hit a new PR, and while it didn't feel easy, it went off without a hitch.

Not a PR. I just like pictures.

This week, you step back into the gym, confidently load up the bar with last week's PR weight, and proceed to fail the crap out of the lift.

If you are emotionally attached to your results (and let's face it, who isn't?!), there's a good chance that you'll wind up feeling defeated and frustrated.

But let's just take a step back.

There literally tens of factors that you probably don't even think about (and who could blame you?!) that affect your workout. I'm just going to list a few.

1. Hydration. If you're tracking everything you eat, you're probably not taking the extra time to track everything you drink. And if you just follow your body's cues for water intake (which is fine!), you may wind up more hydrated some days, and less hydrated others. You may sweat more or less on a daily basis. And even dehydration levels lower than 2% have been found to have a negative effect on performance (source: NIH).

2. Sleep. I know -- you've heard this before! But wait. You may be a goody-two-shoes, clocking your 7-8 hours of shuteye a night and still miss a PR. Why? A study conducted by the National Institutes of Health found that athletic performance increases with extended sleep time. So if you happened to get 10 hours of sleep the night before you hit the PR, but "only" got 8 the night before your next attempt... well, that may at least partially explain your missed attempt!

3. Attitude. You may be confident that you're going to hit the lift, but how focused are you? If even a small part of your brain is ruminating on your bad day or everything you need to get done tomorrow, the likelihood that you will miss jumps. Your central nervous system is incredibly involved in exercise, especially heavy weightlifting, and you need it to be completely engaged.

4. Micronutrients. Quick! How much Vitamin D did you get yesterday? That's what I thought. ;) There is some evidence that Vitamin D deficiency, which is especially common during the winter months in the northern hemisphere, may cause muscle weakness. Many electrolytes, including but certainly not limited to calcium, sodium and potassium, are very much involved in muscle contraction. If you are deficient in one of these electrolytes, your lifts may suffer until the imbalance is rectified.

Please bear in mind that this list is by no means exhaustive. There are a mind-boggling number of factors that come into play when it comes to weightlifting (and all other athletic endeavors) and it is virtually impossible to control them all. So don't worry too much about your occasional missed lifts; there's always another training session!

Progress Picture and Changing My Diet

2012-02-06T05:05:00.000-08:00

One of my goals is to have visible abs this year.

I have been dieting down very slowly since early December and have not made a whole lot of progress, so I've altered my method.

First and foremost is nutrient timing. On lifting days, I am eating all of my carbs post-workout. Rather than eating a small meal with some carbs and protein pre-workout, I drink a serving of amino acids, and consume most of my calories and 100% of my carbs (other than the trace carbs in fibrous veggies) in a gigantic, 1200-calorie post-workout meal.

I know I'll get questions, so: why all the carbs post-workout? It's just my preference. Carbs don't satiate me as much as protein or fats, so I'd rather load up on protein, fat, and fiber before bed. It helps me feel fuller throughout the next day.

As far as the calorie and macronutrient breakdown, well, it looks like this:

On my three lifting days per week, I'll be eating at maintenance (as illustrated by the graph on the right). On my four rest days per week (which are not "active rest days" with 60 minutes of cardio or anything crazy -- they are genuine rest days), I will be eating at (what I believe is) my basal metabolic rate.

I should be losing about half a pound a week. I'm going to monitor my progress, of course: if I lose more than that, I'll know my BMR is higher than I think it is and I will adjust my caloric intake to match, and if I lose less, I'll be having a couple of blood tests.

This should be a twenty-week cut yielding a loss of ten pounds.

And at the end, hopefully I will remember that I hate cutting and do a better job of maintaining. I've always been awful at maintaining my weight. Obviously I'm much smaller and 100x fitter now than I was a couple of years ago and for most of my life, but it seems like any time I come off of a diet I gain at least five pounds. Not the end of the world, but when I'm done losing weight, I just want to be done, ya know?

About That Powerlifting Meet

2012-02-03T04:30:00.000-08:00

I really want to do it.

Really, really, really, really.

In the past couple of weeks, I've realized that I am actually strong. I squatted 225x1. I benched 135x1 with a 3-second pause at the bottom (trust me, this makes the bench press like....five times harder). I deadlifted 235 a couple of times. I am confident that I have a reasonable chance at putting up some decent numbers at a meet.

But.

Due to unforeseen financial circumstances (read: because I make $12 an hour and live paycheck-to-paycheck), I can't afford to participate in the meet this month.

The registration and membership fees combine for $130, plus I'd have to spend about $50 in gas driving there and back.

Is it pathetic that I am in my 20s, married, financially independent and have been out of the proverbial nest for 3 years, yet can't find a spare $180 in my budget? Well, I guess that's one way of looking at it.

But I'm going to choose to see this setback in a positive light: it's buying me extra time to get even stronger.

There's another meet in April that I will find a way to budget for somehow (my birthday's in May! Early gift anyone?!) and I think it would be bad-freaking-ass if I could be benching 140x1 for a 3-second pause at the bottom by then. And if I could deadlift 250x1? And squat 230x1? Oh, my God. Words cannot express how happy and proud I would be.

So, ten more weeks of training it is. Ten more weeks of preparing mentally and physically. Ten more weeks of learning and researching and exploring my own body and limits.

Sometimes I Hate My Husband

2012-02-02T05:29:00.000-08:00

Oh come on you know I don't mean that.

Well.

I might kind of hate him just a little bit because he can eat these

Max would like you all to know that if you consume dairy, you need to own this. He calls it life-changing. ;-)

every day, and make them fit into his macros and calories.

And he can eat three burgers from Five Guys (in ONE SITTING)

and, occasionally, go crazy on approximately eighteen ounces of fries

and look like this:

I mean...I don't even want Five Guys. (He didn't eat all the fries, so I chopped some up and put them in a plastic baggie to offer to the ducks who live behind our apartment. I sprinkled them in front of the ducks, who usually follow me around because I give them bread once a week, and they RAN AWAY. I'm sorry, guys -- I just cannot trust any food that a wild animal refuses.)

I just want the METABOLISM! And the HORMONES that would allow me to build that much muscle so I could torch through that many calories!

....Well...On second thought, scratch that. Just give me the metabolism. Please.

Close Call: Why 2010 Sucked

2012-02-01T04:36:00.000-08:00

A few days ago I wrote about my life as an overweight child and anorexic teen.

I recovered from anorexia in 2007.

WHOA long hair! If you're wondering why it looks kind of red, I used to use henna :)

I was obese in 2008.

This is one of the only pictures I can find of myself from 2008. You can't really see much of me but I think you can see a big difference even in my cheeks. I was over 160lbs. (A month after beginning to lose weight I weighed in at 166, so I am fairly sure I hit 170 or so.)

I was overweight in 2009.

In hindsight this was not the most flattering outfit ever

And in 2010 I fell in love with lifting.

And that's supposed to be the fairytale ending, right? All my worries were miles behind me and I felt empowered and strong. Right?

Well -- I did feel strong, but whenever a person with a tendency towards a disordered relationship with food makes a lifestyle change, the potential for abuse and relapse is present.

In May 2010 I started lifting five days a week, eating about 1400 calories a day. (Annnd the pattern repeats itself: I was trying to lose weight.)

In June 2010 I added 45 minutes of cardio per day.

In August I was doing two sessions of cardio some days.

By October I was eating 1200 calories per day, lifting five days a week, and doing fourteen hours of cardio a week.

And then one day I wanted to go do extra cardio with Max at the gym. But I was already hungry. His simple suggestion: "Why don't you eat a salad with some fat-free [45 calorie!] dressing?"

I (silently) freaked the heck out about that extra 45 calories for the next two days.

And that should have been a warning sign, but unfortunately I did not recognize it as such. Instead I kept plugging away, wondering why I couldn't progress on any of my lifts and why my cardiovascular health seemed to be decreasing. I was also tired all the time. And moody. And cold. And I would spend hours looking at pictures of figure and fitness athletes online, comparing my bodies to theirs and, at times, literally crying. And God forbid anything get between me and my perfectly-portioned meals.

This period was also marked by a significant amount of self-loathing and completely crazy body dysmorphia. I looked like this:

But I honestly thought I looked just like I did in 2009.

At some point, Max realized I was completely nuts and started telling me I should increase my calories. When that didn't work, he told me that he thought I was drifting back into anorexic tendencies.

Miraculously, around this time (late December 2010), I found the women's section of the forums at bodybuilding.com and April's blog and began to realize that the amount of food I was taking in, coupled with the amount of exercise I was performing, was not normal or healthy.

I graduated into maintenance fairly quickly: my life got busier in January and severely restricted my cardio time, and I realized that the more I ate, the stronger I got. It was (and is!) addictive, and motivated me to keep eating and even complete a bulking phase in the spring.

If you've looked at my progress pictures, you have seen that I did have some muscle in late 2010. How did I manage to gain it, if I was over-exercising and under-eating for half a year?

Honestly, I have ballin' genetics. My sister has bigger calves than a lot of athletes and she never works out. She also benched 60lbs at age 16 with only about a month of prior training. My family is good at building muscle. Period.

Of course, I do not believe that I was suffering from anorexia in 2010. I think I could certainly have slipped back into those dark waters and was likely in the process of so doing, but I did not meet the diagnostic criteria for anorexia nervosa. It was still a serious slip and could have permanently damaged my health.

I sincerely hope I have learned my lesson once and for all - that I am not ever out of the grasp of disordered eating and that I do have a clear, established pattern when I do begin to slip.

I am a Toyota

2012-01-31T04:53:00.000-08:00

Everyone, meet my car.

Her name is Ellie (I'm serious), and she may look a little rough around the edges but trust me: she rocks.

I have had this car for almost five years. I've driven her cross-country twice, and towed her cross-country once.

I've put 70,000 miles on her and we've been involved in one accident together.

Well. Assuming you don't count the 54,896,757 times she got stuck in a ditch off of an icy Montana road, or got stuck in the middle of a snowy parking lot, or couldn't start because it was -22 degrees outside.

I was thinking about how great this average, raggedy-looking car is, and I got to thinking about how if I were a car, I would probably be a Toyota.

I mean for one, I am super fuel-efficient. I'm small, so I don't require the same amount of food as, say, 200-pound-Max (who I'm convinced would be a truck).

This is what Max's calves are lookin' like lately, by the way. Yep. DEFINITELY a truck. ;-)

I'm also not very expensive in terms of upkeep and maintenance. Just like my good ol' Camry rarely has issues (knock on wood!), I almost never need to be "fixed." I have no health issues (knock on wood... again), only get my hair cut once or twice a year and verrry rarely buy new clothes. I am both predictable and reliable. I'm always on time for appointments and work, and I always get to the gym for my planned training sessions.

I may not be super flashy, but I get the job done. :)

What car would you be? Have you ever driven a car that looks as embarrassing as mine? Stories!

PS: Thank you guys so much for all the support on yesterday's post. You have no idea how much it means to me! I have another segment coming about a slip-up in 2010. It just takes me a while to write these things because they are very emotionally draining!

How a Fat Kid Becomes an Anorexic Teen

2012-01-30T04:32:00.000-08:00

For most of my life after age 12, I looked like this:

Some people are overweight due to genetics or disorders.

I was overweight because I ate my feelings. And I had a lot of feelings.

A typical day of eating for my 14-year-old (or 20-year-old) self looked a lot like this:

Breakfast: Large bowl of cereal, 2% milk

Lunch: Pasta with marinara sauce, small roll, cookie (or 2, sometimes 3) and fruit juice or chocolate milk

Then... I'd get home from school. I am an anxious person by nature, and I learned as a very young child that mindless eating was a very effective way to quiet my anxious mind.

So I would eat.

I distinctly remember eating half a (family-size) bag of Snickers on more than one occasion. I could easily polish off half a family-size bag of Lays chips or Doritos, and sometimes I'd have two or three bowls of ice cream.

And then I would have dinner, typically more pasta and some meatballs.

Before bed, I comforted myself with food again -- otherwise, I wouldn't be able to sleep. I would eat a big bowl of ice cream or a couple of strawberry shortcake ice cream bars.

It's obvious to me now that I had a very unhealthy relationship with food as a child and teen. And as I approached age 16, that relationship transformed.

I always knew I was fat. It always bothered me and made me feel inadequate, less-than, unwanted, different, disliked, but apparently not enough for me to actually do anything about it.

The summer I turned 15, that changed.

I didn't decide to have an eating disorder. I just wanted to lose weight. A couple of my friends had lost weight and gained popularity and respect, so I decided that losing weight was a great idea.

It began as a simple diet. I ate the same foods, just smaller servings. And I lost weight. And I got compliments and attention from everyone: Teachers, peers, and total strangers. For the first time, I wasn't invisible!

This is what I looked like about 6 months into my diet, before my restriction took a nasty turn

So I made my portion sizes even smaller. And lost more weight. And got more attention.

And then I cut out 'bad' foods altogether: I subsisted on small servings of pasta and cereal. And I lost more weight and gained even more attention and positive reinforcement.

And then I decided that was too much food; I needed to lose more weight. I decided I would eat one cup of fat-free Dannon yogurt and half of a mini bagel for breakfast, a small bagel for lunch, and approximately a cup of pasta for dinner.

It does not escape me, by the way, that the comfort I had derived from pigging out was now replaced by comfort from having total control over my caloric intake.

I did in fact need to have total control over my eating habits. I could not deviate from this sad little menu.

My Nana died that year and I barely saw her. When we did visit her I was horribly, unbelievably selfish. I wanted to go home sooner so I would have access to my safe foods. I was anxious while I was with her because I was afraid my hunger would get the best of me and I'd eat something off my "plan." I honestly barely remember her last days because all I could think about during that time was food.

As my weight slowly descended into the 80s, my parents, friends, cousins, and aunts and uncles expressed concern to me. I reacted horribly. I called them jealous. I called them fat. I was cold and brutal. I damaged several friendships beyond repair.

I literally still have nightmares about the way I acted and how callous my anorexia made me.

I would have continued along this destructive path if my health had not begun to fail.

I blacked out in Spanish class on the first day of my senior year in high school, and woke up in the nurse's office. My blood pressure was 80/55; my heart rate was 42 beats per minute. The school nurse (God bless her) scared the living daylights out of me, telling me story after story about girls my age who had died of complications from their "diets." She called in one of my teachers, who told me all about her eating disorder. She showed me every single symptom for anorexia on my own body: the lanugo all over my face and lower back (it's still there, nearly six years later), my ashy skin, the small clumps of hair falling out of my head, my intolerance to cold or even normal temperatures.

Luckily I woke up, had a rare moment of clarity, and began the recovery process.

That's not to say I didn't struggle or fall back into extremely questionable habits. But I'll write about that another day. This post is a novel, and it's been a draining novel to write.

Did anything I wrote here surprise you? Do you see yourself or your habits in any of it?

Mind-Muscle Connection: What is it, and WHY is it Important?

2012-01-27T04:45:00.000-08:00

The lifting world is full of acronyms: IIFYM, BF, BCAAs, 1RM, ROM, PWO... And just when you thought you'd heard them all (or not...really, the only two from that list that I even think about on a daily basis are 1RM and ROM), here I am giving you another one.

Well, sorry I'm not sorry. MMC (mind-muscle connection) is SUPER important.

First, let's define it. Imagine you're doing a bicep curl. Better yet, do one. Go grab a book or a bottle of water or something and hold it in one hand. Put your other hand on your bicep. Now, focus on the actual process of pulling the water bottle or book up to your sternum -- focus on your bicep. Feel it working, both physically (with your hand) and mentally.

That mental connection -- that focus on and awareness of what is actually happening within your arm -- is mind-muscle connection.

So why is it important?

By making the maintenance of a strong mind-muscle connection a habit, you will be able to feel when you are performing an exercise correctly and utilizing the right muscle groups. For example, when I start a set of pull-ups, I can immediately tell whether my form is correct (sternum first, pulling with the lats and using the arms as 'hooks') without looking or filming myself because I can feel how hard my lats are working. Obviously, this makes injury prevention easier (knock on wood). It also ensures that I get the most out of my workouts by consistently targeting the right muscles, which is of special consideration now because I'm doing very little volume.

Plus (and here's where I go all New-Agey on you), I feel like being super connected with my body while I'm lifting is almost a form of meditation. I personally don't listen to music when I lift, either, so during my sets, it's just me, my body, and the iron. It's very zen. ;-)

Do you make it a habit to focus on your mind-muscle connection (regardless of your sport/fitness activity)? Anyone else crazy and think of lifting as a form of meditation?!

Soreness is NOT an Indicator of Growth

2012-01-26T05:47:00.000-08:00

I follow a lot of fitness fiends on Twitter. Most of these people are highly intelligent, well-versed, and knowledgeable in their fields. Unfortunately, sometimes I accidentally follow people who don't know what they're talking about, yet purport that they are experts and give bad advice to the masses.

Case in point: Last week not one but two of these alleged experts were tweeting about how important it is that you feel sore the day after a workout and that if you're not experiencing DOMS, your muscles are not growing or getting stronger.

This is patently not true.

According to the Almighty Wikipedia, DOMS is caused by performing exercises to which you are unaccustomed (source). DOMS illustrates a "repeated-bout" effect, which means that if you perform heavy squats for three weeks, you may be extremely sore the first week. However, you will experience a little less DOMS the following week, and the third week, you will feel even less soreness (source).

Additionally, the longer and more intensely you exercise, the less sensitive you are to pain (source). So, as you become an increasingly advanced lifter (or runner, yogi, etc) you could have low-grade DOMS without even feeling it.

Because we are all human and inherently different, some people are more or less sensitive to pain than others to begin with. When I first started lifting, I had a very low tolerance to pain and was in DOMS-induced agony for the first month or two that I lifted. But now? Typically I only notice my soreness after a deload week or a week off. That doesn't mean I've stopped building muscle!

As a rule, almost everyone is more sensitive to pain in certain areas than in others. For example, I can usually detect some DOMS in my butt even if it doesn't actively bother me, but I've only rarely felt DOMS in my quads.

Sorry for all the shadow. :( Left leg is relaxed; right leg is flexed.

I think it's pretty obvious that they have some muscle in spite of all that. ;-)

In my book, worrying over how sore your muscles may or may not feel is not a worthwhile pursuit. Just follow a program, make sure you're progressing in a linear manner most of the time (you will stall out and you will miss PRs that you hit two weeks before), and eat enough.

Your turn! Do you experience DOMS? Did you / have you ever used it as a measuring stick for your workouts?

Fitness Bucket List

2012-01-25T04:28:00.000-08:00

I'm sure by now you all know what a bucket list is. I personally have several of them: one for my personal life, one for my professional life, one for travel.... and one for fitness. Why not? I spent the first two decades of my life wishing I was an athlete and I want to spend the rest of my life reveling in my body's amazing abilities.

Here is my ever-growing fitness bucket list!

1. Participate in a powerlifting meet. Finances permitting (stay in school kids!!), I'll be crossing this off my list in February. If finances prove to be an obstacle, I'll be nailing it in April. My goal? I'll be happy with ONE qualifying lift each in the bench, deadlift and squat. For those who are unfamiliar, it can be difficult for a newbie to follow all the commands and if, say, you get all excited that you just PR'd and rack your weight before the rack command is given, your otherwise awesome lift doesn't count. (There are other obstacles, but this is the one with which I think I'll have the most difficulty.)

2. Complete a (modified) Inman Mile. The "official" Inman Mile consists of walking a mile with a bar loaded up with 1.5x the competitor's body weight. This feat has never actually been accomplished according to the USAWA, and that's really no surprise: at my current weight, I would have to walk a mile with 210lb on my back! However, I think if I continue to train hard, get strong and work on my conditioning, maybe someday I could walk a mile holding 1.0 x my bodyweight in dumbbells.

3. Have visible abs. I had them for a hot minute back in late 2010, but I really didn't have enough muscle at that point for them to be at all impressive. I'm on my way back though!

At this rate I think I'll maybe have a four-pack in approximately 30 weeks. ;)

4. Bench 1.5x my bodyweight. I never liked working chest until I started benching. I LOVE benching. And I think one day it would be incredible to bench 1.5x my own bodyweight. (Right now, that would be 210lb. When I get back down to 132lb, that will be 198lb. Either way -- A FREAKING TON for a female!)

5. Do 12 pull-ups from a dead hang. My record is 7 (at a weight of 132lb); lately, the best I've done is 6 (at a weight of 140lb).

6. Spend an entire day kayaking. I love the water! I grew up very close to the ocean and a lot of freshwater ponds, but I've only been kayaking once. At marine biology summer camp (yep) I had an opportunity to go on an all-day kayak trip, but we all had to be weighed and assigned to a similar-sized kayak partner. This actually occurred the summer before I began to develop my eating disorder, when I was extremely sensitive to and aware of my weight... so I played sick and missed out on an amazing experience. I want to get it back.

What's on your fitness bucket list?

So My Boss Thinks My Name is Staple

2012-01-24T04:28:00.000-08:00

I have a unique name.

This can be a good thing. For example, I have never been the fifth Sable in a classroom, and typically once people hear my name, they remember it forever. Plus, if I hear my name I always know whoever is speaking is referring to me.

Source
Yep, a Sable is a vicious-looking weasel-type-thing

It can also be a bad thing. I spend half my day saying, "No, no, it's S as in 'Sam,' A as in 'apple,' B as in 'boy'..." (On boring days I say: S as in 'snake,' A as in 'aardvark,' B as in 'bison,' L as in 'llama,' E as in 'elephant.' I only get a laugh out of about 50% of the population. But it's funny to me so I keep doing it.)

Source
A Sable antelope

I mean, I've gotten used to people mispronouncing and misspelling my name. Most of the fax coversheets I get say "April," "Able" (??) or "Stable."

Source
The Sablefish

But until I started at my current position in October, I had never been called Staple. I thought it was odd that some of our patients were calling me "Staple," but I figured I just needed to emphasize the B in my name a little more.

Source
Sablé biscuits! Random trivia: Sablé is Max's nickname for me.

So for the past almost-five-months, I've been saying my name pretty forcefully: "Good morning, the Dr. _____s' office, this is SAY-BBBBUH-LL, how can I help you?"

Source
No, I am not named after this car. Yes, 349587456 people have asked me that.

And sure I was surprised that people were still pronouncing it wrong but hey, c'est la vie.

Source
This German Shepherd has sable coloring

Well.

Now I know why.

The other day, I heard the doctor with a thicker accent, who (in hindsight) almost never addresses me by name, say, "I'll put you on hold for just a moment and Staple will pick up the line."

Aha.

So pretty much...that's the final straw. No unique names for my future children. Their names will be Anne and Tom and Michael and God help me if I have more than one girl since every name has 89776 spellings these days.

Let's Get Political

2012-01-23T04:38:00.000-08:00

I normally keep politics off the blog. After all, this blog is about fitness, lifting, and strength.

I feel very strongly about women's strength. Naturally, I am also interested in protecting every American woman's freedom to strengthen her career, family, education, and physical health.

Yesterday was the 39th anniversary of Roe v. Wade, a Supreme Court ruling that, in my opinion, protects women's rights.

There is no question in my mind that if I were not able to have an abortion almost three years ago, my position in this world would be significantly less stable than it is now. I would not have been able to move out of my parents' home just after turning 20. I would not have been able to go back to school. Max would not be in school right now.

Almost half of all pregnancies in the U.S. are unplanned (source). Three-fourths of all women obtaining abortions state that they cannot afford a child (source). Fifty-four percent of women who have an abortion used birth control in the month during which they fell pregnant (source). 61.8% of abortions occur within the first 9 weeks of pregnancy while only 1.5% occur after 21 weeks (source).

No one ever expects to have to have an abortion.

No one thinks it will happen to them -- or to their sister, their aunt, their best friend, their coworker, their boss, their teacher....

But one in three American woman has had an abortion.

In my opinion, this is a right we absolutely must protect.

If this cause is meaningful to you, please check out NARAL Pro-Choice America's election guide, get involved with the National Abortion Federation, or donate to Planned Parenthood.

I'm Not Working my Dream Job

2012-01-20T04:26:00.000-08:00

Surprise! I'm a non-college-grad in a horrible economy and my current job is not my dream job.

Wait a minute.

That actually sounds pretty normal to me.

There seems to be a movement amongst people in their 20s towards "following your dreams" and not settling. And, to a certain extent, that's great! Dreams are awesome. One day I want to be a nurse providing high-quality hands-on patient care, and I'd also like an awesome schedule, great pay, and benefits.

Obviously I'm not there yet. And that's fine.

But if you spend a lot of time reading blogs, especially the bigger bloggers, there seems to be this movement towards "Follow your passions! No one should have to work a crappy entry-level job! Do what you LOVE! Write a book! Be a professional blogger!" (I am giving that last one some major side-eye, by the way. I think I would gouge my own eyes out.)

And as a byproduct of all of that "passion" talk, you can start to get the idea that working an entry-level job is a waste of time.

It's not.

Look, I've been working various entry-level jobs for seven years. (Oh my God.) And in my time as an office manager, mini-golf attendant, telemarketer (done it twice, but I mean it this time: never again), waitress and nanny, I may not have brought home great paychecks, but I've certainly brought home quite a few hard-earned lessons. Here are just a few.

1. I know the value of a college education. Trust me. At times I have worked more than fifty hours a week for less than $2,000 a month. I know my health and youth lets me get away with that kind of craziness now -- but I am also painfully aware that I cannot do that forever and expect not to burn out.

2. No matter how insignificant you think an employee is, you should always be respectful. A lot of managers seem to think that a master's degree and a title make them gods among men. And they act like it. But look: if you create a positive environment for your employees, they'll be happier. And that will make your customers happier. And that will grow your business almost effortlessly.

3. I've learned discipline. Sure, there are other ways to learn to be disciplined: following a fitness regimen comes to mind! But showing up and slogging away at a job about which you aren't passionate for 40+ hours a week is kind of like extreme endurance discipline.

What has working a non-dream job taught you? Does anyone have funny/crazy employment stories?! Share! :)

Why Do I Blog?

2012-01-19T05:53:00.000-08:00

I've been blogging for almost a year.

I knew the one-year mark was coming up, but when I dug up the link to my second-ever post (it's an oldie but a goodie!) I realized that it's actually like two weeks away. Wow.

So why do I blog?

From the very beginning, it's been all about community for me. Long before I started blogging, I read quite a few blogs. (Foods of April, Make Yourself Comfortable, Following Fit, The Great Fitness Experiment, and Fitnessista are the few that I still read from those early days.) I really wanted to be part of the community, and I did comment, but I felt like I wasn't really making a connection. So I decided to start writing a blog of my own.

I've forged quite a few friendships with fellow bloggers and blog-readers, and even met one (I want to meet more! I know there are quite a few of you in South Florida - hit me up). I've learned a lot about the blogging process, about fitness, about nutrition, and about myself. Reading over my posts from early 2011, I can definitely see how much I've grown and changed in the past twelve months. It's kind of crazy. Plus, I get to have my very own progress picture page, so I can track my physical progress too.

June 2011

January 2012

I really appreciate every single reader who drops by. I know the vast majority of you never even comment but I am so flattered that you take a moment each (week)day to visit my little corner of the internet. :) I would also like to point out that my contact me page is not for advertisers or people trying to get their products reviewed on my blog -- it's for any of you to contact me about anything any time.

I don't think I'm an expert, but one day I hope to be. For now, I'm excited just to continue sharing what I learn, showing you my experiences and being part of this awesome community.

In Which I Whine About My White Person Problems

2012-01-18T04:44:00.000-08:00

I realize that in the grand scheme of things, this isn't a big deal. At all.

But it's my blog and I can cry if I want to! (Is that how it goes??)

Anyway, here's the thing: I hate my gym.

Max and I have the most basic membership available -- so basic, in fact, that we can't even go to a different branch of our gym's chain (Lifestyle Family Fitness). There is a location close to my office, but I have to go to the one by our apartment because....well, because LFF says so.

Despite this, we pay a rather high monthly membership fee and a fee every six months for "account maintenance" or some crap.

If I may be (even more) petty for just a minute, I would also like to note that given the amount of dough LFF must be raking in, they have a rather shitty magazine selection:

Oh look! Eight copies of ESPN magazine and some business magazine that I don't think anyone subscribes to!!! Gosh that'll really help cardio fly by.

And, really, I can deal with all of that. I have come to have rather low expectations of commercial gyms.

But the other day I showed up to lift (at peak hour) and saw all of the old equipment strewn all over the parking lot.

They were in the process of replacing everything. For no reason. Which would be fine, except.......

Yep. They replaced two perfectly good, adjustable squat racks with non-adjustable squat racks.

This is not a problem for most men, but I'm five-foot-diddly-squat, which means that now I can't squat more than about 3" below parallel without stepping outside the squat rack. I guess it's a good thing I'm squatting for power and not aesthetics, but I'll bet some of the fitness, figure and bodybuilding girls who go to my gym are hugely inconvenienced by this.

However, I do have to concede one point to LFF: these racks are the perfect height for squat rack barbell curls.

Source

That felt good! :) Your turn. What are your petty gripes today? What does your gym do that drives you nuts?

"What is Your Life's Ambition?"

2012-01-17T04:45:00.000-08:00

Someone asked me that at work the other day.

And I had no answer.

This is rather out-of-character for me. My elementary school let fourth graders design their own yearbook pages: mine was full of goals, most notably my determination to be a Massachusetts State Senator. (I was going to get my start as an environmental policy lawyer/marine biologist.)

Of course, at some point after high school real life got in the way. After all, as inconvenient as it may be, bills and rent have to be paid and groceries must be bought.

Don't get me wrong: there are things I want to accomplish. I want to go back to school this year. I want a Bachelor's degree within the next three years at most. I want to become a NASM-certified Personal Trainer this year. At some point in my 20s I would like to begin my career: a career in which I can help people and be challenged every day while earning a comfortable salary. I'd like to have time to volunteer for causes that are important to me (animal rights and women's issues).

But my whole life's ambition? I don't know. Not yet. Maybe not ever. I've changed far too much over the course of the first quarter of my life to ever pretend that I know exactly where I'm headed and who I'm going to be when I get there.

PS: Please check out the comments from yesterday's post!! There's such a great discussion & so many interesting perspectives!

Life is Not a Jump to Conclusions Mat

2012-01-16T04:36:00.000-08:00

Several days ago, controversy broke out on one of the forums I browse regularly. Some forum-goers admitted to judging others in the grocery store based on the contents of their cart, while others chastised them for doing so.

I didn't contribute to the thread, but the conversation certainly did give me pause.

After all, if you were to peruse through my kitchen and fridge right now, here is some of what you would see:

So if you saw me (or, more realistically, Max, since he is in charge of the household these days) checking out at a grocery store with a cart full of lettuce (and a rather disproportionate amount of tomatoes), cereal, shrimp, chocolate, Greek yogurt, ice cream sandwiches, and eggs -- what would you think? What assumptions would you make?

This is a sore spot for me for two reasons.

First of all, as a child and teen, I did eat absolute CRAP for a long time. My former eating habits could and probably should be chronicled in a post all their own, but trust me, I know people judged me for what I ate early in high school. Because they wrote about it on the Internet. And now that I'm well out of my teen years, I realize that all of that drama and angst and loneliness only worsened my food and eating issues. I can also see that all the uproar about my eating habits wasn't really about me: it allowed those who got all offended by the fact that I ate three cookies a day to feel superior to me. Whether or not their salads made them superior to me and my cookies remains unclear.

Additionally, in my brief time working at a low-income clinic, I have learned that you can never make assumptions. You simply cannot know the full story behind what someone puts into their shopping cart at the grocery store. Maybe the reason one family doesn't stock up on produce is because they don't have a car, so they're taking the bus home and have to carry everything they buy. Maybe there are a lot of frozen dinners in one cart because the person pushing it is a single mom working odd hours. Sure, those frozen dinners might be highly processed and full of sodium, but at least they're a fairly complete meal. Another cart may be full of chips and candy and other treats because a family is getting ready for a party and has already purchased all of their staple food for the week.

My final point and bottom line is this, though: Why does it matter what other people choose to put in their carts? They are the ones consuming that food. It's their body and their choice. I honestly have no interest in how many servings of fruits, vegetables and whole grains a complete stranger consumes. What about you?

A Word on Unsolicited Advice

2012-01-12T05:53:00.000-08:00

Fitness and healthy living bloggers (and enthusiasts!) are generally a passionate and knowledgeable bunch. Most of us love learning about different workouts, nutrition, form, styles of training, and so on.

And I'm sure everyone here has seen someone doing something silly at a gym, whether it's a lifting newbie who has a dedicated "arm" day, someone who takes up an almost unbelievable amount of equipment (you know, the stereotypical gym-bro who amasses six sets of dumbbells at peak hour to do something like eleventy-bajillion drop sets), or someone performing an exercise with poor or incomplete form.

The urge to share your knowledge can be incredibly strong. After all, you're not coming from a judgmental or preachy place! You're just excited and trying to be helpful, right?

Maybe you are, but nonetheless: Just don't.

No one likes unsolicited advice.

Plus, no matter how much experience and knowledge you have, you don't know the whole story behind why someone is doing something.

Here's a perfect example. I see a lot of bloggers (I used to be one of them!) and blog-readers poking fun at Barbie weights -- you know, the festively-colored dumbbells set aside for women in most commercial gyms. And, yes, a relatively fit person with no injuries should be able to progress from the 5-pounders pretty quickly. But not every person in a gym is fit or injury-free. Plus, everyone has to start somewhere and everyone here -- every elite female powerlifter and bodybuilder in the world -- started with light weights. A 5lb dumbbell may feel like absolutely nothing to you, but to the woman just starting out or the woman with an injury, that IS heavy!

So, sure, you could walk up to this hypothetical woman and tell her she should be lifting heavier. But maybe she can't, or maybe that is heavy for her, or maybe for whatever reason (freedom of choice and all that) she doesn't want to.

And if she doesn't, why is that your problem? If you love lifting heavy, do it. If others enjoy it or suspect they do and are in good enough physical condition to lift heavy, they will come around to it eventually. You did, didn't you?

Of course, there are exceptions. If you see someone deadlifting with their back like this...

Bodybuilding.com

...you should probably discreetly alert one of the trainers or gym employees so they can offer some safety tips. I personally still would not approach anyone directly: it can seem condescending! Plus, when I was a newcomer to the gym I didn't trust what random people told me; I only listened to Max and gym staff.

But other than that? I say live and let live. What about you?

PS! Be sure to check out the comments on yesterday's post! There are some great perspectives there!

That Six-Pack Has a Price Tag

2012-01-11T05:02:00.000-08:00

A lot of people look at Max and feel frustrated because they don't / can't / don't think they can look like him. (It's true -- men look at each other and find insecurities in their own bodies, just like we do!)

Okay let's get real. I'm jealous of how obviously muscular and lean he is sometimes. Obviously I don't want to be masculine but seriously. Dude is ripped.

Here's the thing, though.

He's also very unhealthy.

Someone admiring his aesthetic and wishing they looked similar may not realize that he has sleep apnea and sky-high blood pressure because of all the extra weight (muscle) he carries around. Having a ton of extra muscle can eventually affect your heart the same way having a ton of extra fat can: it takes him forever to catch his breath at the end of a set. His cardiovascular health is virtually nonexistent.

And let's talk for one quick minute about diet.

He is hungry constantly. To maintain the level of leanness he exhibits in the picture above, he has to plan out and weigh every single thing he puts into his mouth. Because of the amount of muscle he has, he can still fit in treat foods, sure -- but he burns through those calories very quickly.

And he gets stereotyped.

(Sidebar: Screw Planet Fitness.)

Okay, okay, I don't think he's actually been called a "lunk" before. To his face at least. But his appearance does encourages two responses in the general populace: complete strangers either ask for advice about working out or getting fit, or are intimidated by him and assume he's mean.

It all comes down to how far you're willing to go to achieve a certain physique. While I am trying to lean out and stay/get strong right now, my primary focus is always on health. And yeah, looking as amazing as Max does has its benefits. However, it also has its drawbacks, and those negative side effects are not discussed frequently or openly in the world of fitness modeling or bodybuilding -- or within the general population.

Don't Think So Much

2012-01-10T04:48:00.000-08:00

There is a principle that can be applied to almost anything in life known as the 80/20 rule.

The premise is that 20% of what you know generates 80% of your results.

I think this is extremely important in fitness/lifting.

When you first start lifting, or start following a new program, you're excited. That's normal. You want to gain as much information as you can. So you start freaking out about supplementation, whether you should be eating 3 meals a day or 5 or 10, how soon after a workout you should get protein ("Am I going to go catabolic if I don't eat for 45 minutes?!?!?!"), and on and on and on.

I wanted to upload a new deadlift video. Obviously I F'ed up the frame. So this is what you get. You're welcome.

Stop!

80% of the results you see are a direct result of 20% of the knowledge you have.

So what does that mean??

80% of your strength and muscle gain (or loss) is based on:

1. Following a tried and true program to the letter (no alterations. You are not smarter than Madcows);

2. Performing each exercise with proper form and ROM;

3. Getting enough sleep (7-8+ hours per night) and taking enough rest days (see point one);

4. Eating enough protein (approximately 1g per pound of body weight per day);

5. Eating enough calories (just for perspective, I am 140lb, have an active FT job, lift 3x/week and do less than an hour of cardio a week, and if I were maintaining I'd be eating around 2200 calories a day).

That's it. That is where almost all of your results come from. All of the extra information and knowledge is great (as long as it doesn't start to overwhelm you), but the above five points are what I would consider the foundation; the 20% that everyone should focus on.

Do you tend to get caught up in details, or are you more of a big-picture person? How does the 80/20 rule apply to your life?

Day in the Life: Workday Edition

2012-01-09T04:51:00.000-08:00

A reader recently e-mailed to ask what a day in my life looks like. You ask, I oblige! I'm sorry I never do anything exciting.

Most workdays I get up at about 7:30. I get to sleep in because I work out and shower at night and prep my food the night before -- I am not a morning person!

2-minute egg salad and 3 slices of cinnamon raisin bread

At about 8:30 I grab my pre-gym meal (gotta love IF) and hit the road.

My snazzy desk decor always cheers me up when I first get to the office.

My co-worker's daughter is obviously a future artist and/or interior designer.

At work, I do a little bit of everything. I answer phones, greet patients, check patients in, move them from the waiting room into the exam room, enter charts and charges, and handle all of the billing. I also call and e-mail in prescriptions, call for authorization for things like MRIs and CT scans, and write excuses for children who have been absent or had to leave school early.

I write the time and date approximately two hundred thousand times a day, so this watch has come in QUITE handy:

It's a Baby G by Casio, and was a gift from my mother-in-law. My favorite feature is that whenever I have to take a pulse -- either a child's or my own (because I monitor my HR the old-fashioned way when I lift!), a cat, dog, "G," or fish will appear every fifteen seconds. (I usually count a heart rate for fifteen seconds, then multiply by four to get the beats per minute.) It's a great way to effortlessly remember when to stop counting!

Other workday staples include:

Plenty of WATER...

I reuse the same plastic bottle over and over. I know, I know: BPA. Gosh. I'm not even a good healthy living blogger. ;-)

Lysol wipes....

I keep at least one container by my desk at work at all times and wipe down my entire work area at least 4x a day!

And last but certainly not least:

Moisturizer! I wash my hands at least twenty times a day and use alcohol to sanitize them quite often as well, so without some heavy-duty Eucerin (cream, not lotion!), I'm sure my hands would be cracked and bleeding.

Once I'm done with work, I eat my pre-workout meal, drive to the gym, and lift! My workouts have been pretty low-volume lately, and I'm only lifting 3x a week, but I definitely feel like I'm working harder than I ever have. And I am definitely getting stronger.

I bring everything -- workout clothes, food, workout plan, chalk, etc -- to work with me in this bag...Regardless of whether or not it matches what I'm wearing, as Ashlei could tell ya. ;-)

After lifting, I eat my post-workout meal (about 1,000 calories), shower, hang out with Max, eat my final meal (about 300 calories), and sleep! :)

Please note that I'm only eating 1,700 calories a day right now because I'm cutting! If I were maintaining, I'd be eating 2,000+ -- probably closer to 2,200.

Flashback Friday: Living Situations

2012-01-06T04:51:00.000-08:00

The other day, a friend and I were discussing strange places we've lived.

She should probably have the upper hand on me in this -- and every -- category. I mean, she's eight years older than me.

Well. It turns out that Crazy with a capital C makes up for time spent on this earth, friends.

And Crazy is what I am.

Let's just recap this experience reeeaaalll quick.

When I was 20, I moved to Texas with Max.

I did a pretty good job of finding a place to live; I was subletting a room in this house:

And it was in a nice neighborhood, with roommates close to my age! Built-in friends! Perfect!

Well.

Two of the roommates got scammed out of several thousands of dollars, and thus were rendered unable to pay their portion of rent. The gracious landlady gave us three days to come up with the money. Long story short, I wound up having nowhere to live with ten days' notice and only two months left in Texas.

At the time that this drama was unfolding, Max was getting a tattoo.

See right arm.

So one day he was having some line work done and I was 18 kinds of stressed out about the living sitch, so we were talking about it.

And lo and behold the tattoo artist goes, "I have a room I could rent out! For $300 a month!"

And we were like, OH COOL! Oh and it's like two feet from the base? Even better! Let's go see it!

And I mean yeah. It was in the ghetto. And dude was living there with his wife, his wife's sister, his wife's sister's boyfriend, some random guy, and four children and one infant. And three dogs.

Oh and it was a seven-room house.

So I was like, Well, it's $300. So we went on the grand tour.

And we opened the door to the room for rent.

And what did we see?

Source

Because who DOESN'T have a life-size moving Yoda statue with light-up eyes in their spare bedroom?

So we hopped on board that crazy train. (I mean, $300! It almost could have been a shoebox.) I moved in that weekend.

All in all it really wasn't as bad as you would expect. I mean yeah, the baby kept me awake some nights. The kids using a butter knife to unlock my door and stare at me while I was sleeping was a little weird but hey, they were just resourceful and curious, right? Their pittie running at me full-force the first time I unknowingly opened the garage door to do my laundry definitely got me over my fear of big dogs pretty effectively. And the fact that they kept the temperature set to eighty degrees in the hottest part of the country? Well, that helped me build character.

I still can't believe I actually lived like that for two months. I think I was subconsciously trying to accumulate funny stories / unbelievable anecdotes to tell my grandchildren one day.

What is the craziest place you've lived or craziest thing you've done?

Relieve and Avoid Low Back Pain and Injury

2012-01-05T05:13:00.000-08:00

It seems like every time I walk into the gym, there's an advertisement for a new "core-strengthening" class. And every time I observe the participants in this class, all I see them doing are exercises that target the abdominus rectus (abs) and obliques.

Yes, these two muscle groups are important, but they are only two of the three muscle groups commonly considered to make up the core.

Source

Your erector spinae run along your spine. As such, they play a vital role in stabilizing the torso -- that is, keeping you upright.

Original image from BodyBuilding.com

The erector spinae also protect your intervertebral discs and spinal cord, and as anyone who has experienced a low back injury can attest, this is an absolutely crucial function.

So why do these muscles tend to get ignored in most commercial gyms?

For one thing, you can't see them easily. Many lifters are primarily concerned with the muscle groups they see most clearly in the mirror. (See also: the chest-biceps-abs-calves dudes in every gym.) For another, the most commonly recommended exercise to strengthen them (the deadlift) can be intimidating to a new lifter.

But while there are certainly no exercises that can replace the deadlift, there are ways to target your erectors without deadlifting if that's your jive. The two best, simple exercises are the hyperextension and the bird-dog pose.

To perform hyperextensions, first find a bench that looks like this:

Source

Adjust the height so that the heels of your feet are securely against the upper part of the foot rest. Your knees should not be locked out and you should be able to bend completely over the pads without impediment. Bend at the hips so that your upper body is hanging down, then squeeze your glutes and lower back so that your body is straight.

This next part sounds stupid, but bear with me: even though the exercise is called a hyperextension, do not hyperextend at the end of the movement. (I know.) Basically, do not arch your back beyond a straight line.

Repeat for as many repetitions and sets as recommended by your program and/or goals. To make it more difficult, you can hold a dumbbell, weight plate, or medicine ball to your chest, or move more slowly, especially in the negative portion of the movement.

The bird-dog pose is a bodyweight exercise with the added benefit of increasing balance.

To perform this exercise, kneel on the floor with your hands and knees shoulder width apart. Raise your right arm and point it forward while simultaneously extending your left leg. Hold for ten or fifteen seconds -- just until it becomes difficult -- then return to the starting position and repeat with your left arm and right leg. Repeat for the number of repetitions and sets recommended by your program.

Lower back pain is a pervasive problem across the U.S. According to spine-health.com, eighty percent of Americans will experience low back pain at some point. But by taking action to protect your spine and strengthen the muscles that make up your lower back, you may be able to avoid some of the causes of low back pain.

Plus, I can't help but think of the saying "Don't ask for a light load, but for a strong back" every time I think about training my back. But that's just me. ;-)

PS: Please check out my guest post at Time of her Lives! :) It's about the toughest choice I ever had to make.

Be Careful What You Blog

2012-01-04T04:33:00.000-08:00

Who are fitness blog readers? Who are the people who want to read about what other people eat and what kinds of workouts others complete on a daily basis?

Sure, lots of people with a healthy interest in and passion for fitness read healthy living blogs.

But the fact is that many fitness bloggers and blog readers alike have struggled with an eating disorder at some point in their lives.

And in light of that fact, we all need to be careful what we blog.

If you are going to eat 1400 calories a day to maintain your weight and work out intensely five to seven times a week, that's your business. I'm not your doctor or your mom.

But if you're going to eat 1400 calories a day to "maintain" your weight, work out five to seven times a week, and then proclaim yourself a healthy living blogger, I've got an issue.

Likewise, if you blog that you just went for a ten mile run and decided to "refuel" with a 170-calorie bowl of oatmeal and you feel great, and gosh that oatmeal was so heavy it's definitely going to last you until lunch, I'm not impressed.

No, I don't think reading healthy living / fitness blogs will single-handedly cause someone to become anoretic or bulimic. Absolutely not. But I do think that blogs demonstrating negative food habits/relationships can reinforce unhealthy behaviors in recovering (or full-fledged!) anoretics, bulimics, and sufferers of EDNOS.

We collectively (myself included!) really need to think about the examples we're setting for other girls and women.

(This post is not directed at any one person and certainly no one I follow - if I had a concern with anyone in particular, believe me, I would discuss it with you! I am not a mincer of words.)

Weekend Recap: New Years Edition

2012-01-03T04:41:00.000-08:00

I am officially NOT READY to go back to work today. Oh em gee you guys. The worst part is that because I work at a pediatrician's office, we don't take advantage of most of those wonderful Monday holidays -- you know, MLK Jr Day, President's Day, etc. Our next day off is for the Fourth of July.

ICK.

Oh well. At least I got to fully enjoy this holiday weekend!

I had a half-day on Friday and spent the afternoon shopping with Max, then training.

Saturday morning I headed to the Farmer's Market with Ashlei! She is one of the sweetest people I've ever met :)

I got:

Three gigantic sweet potatoes, about a quarter of a pound of mini heirloom tomatoes, and three cards drawn by a local artist for Max's grandmother's birthday.

Sorry for the blurry picture!

I also made coconut apple bread again since Grammie and Grampa both love it so much, and finally got to measure out the ingredients!

This recipe is not healthy at all. Haha! But let me tell you guys -- it tastes amazing. It's like a cross between cinnamon rolls and cake -- but it's also kind of reminiscent of monkeybread. If you want an indulgent homemade treat for yourself or someone else, give this a try!

Coconut Apple Bread

Makes one medium "cake" serving four to six

Hot baking assistant optional but highly recommended

You'll need:

Two medium apples
1/4 cup whole wheat flour
3/4 cup white or whole wheat pastry flour
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
3.5 tablespoons coconut oil
3 tablespoons maple syrup
1/4 cup butter or butter substitute
1 room temperature egg

Directions:

Peel and chop your apples. They really don't need to look nice or be uniform in size or anything. Here's how I chopped mine:

Next, grab a big microwave-safe mixing bowl and add 1 tablespoon of coconut oil and 3 tablespoons of maple syrup. Microwave for 40 seconds, or until the coconut oil is clear, stir, and mix in about 3/4 of the apple pieces, coating them well.

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees, grease a baking pan (I used glass), and do any dishes you've created to this point.

Add 1/4 cup softened butter or butter substitute and the 1 room-temperature egg to the apples, syrup and coconut oil. Stir well.

Add all your flour and baking powder, and mix well. A thick dough should form.

Add 1/4 cup brown sugar and stir until it is incorporated.

Pour the dough onto your greased pan and top with the remaining apple slices. You may also crumble brown sugar over the top if desired. It should look something like this:

Bake at 375 for 20 minutes, then turn your oven up to 400 for the final 15 minutes. (This makes it a little crispy on the bottom/edges!)

Remove from oven when a toothpick inserted into the middle of the cake comes out clean. Melt 2.5 tablespoons of coconut oil and drizzle over the cake. Cut into squares or slices and serve or store! It does well in an airtight Tupperware or Zip-loc baggie for two or three days at room temperature; after that, you can store it in the fridge or even freeze it.

What did you do to take advantage of this long weekend?

Let's Not Hate on the Resolutionaries

2012-01-02T06:07:00.000-08:00

It's official: Resolutionaries are taking over every gym near you.

Source

Yeah, having to wait for one of the two squat racks or three benches with racks in your lame commercial gym (for which you pay $100 a month...but it's fine...really) is annoying. The hour-long wait for a treadmill or stationary bike is a little bit inconvenient, sure.

But let's face it: everyone is a beginner at some point.

Most of these beginners will be gone by February, but that's not something to eagerly look forward to or celebrate.

According to the CDC, the economic impact of America's obesity rate is huge: in 2008, the cost of obesity was estimated at $147 billion (Centers for Disease Control, March 2011. Obesity and Overweight for Professionals). There is absolutely no doubt in my mind: that figure would be lower if more people stuck with their fitness plans. Maybe it wouldn't be a dramatic decrease; after all, exercise alone will never make you thin, and many people do have medical problems that complicate weight loss. But even if this figure dropped just five percent, that would yield a savings of over 7 billion dollars a year.

So be encouraging. Be welcoming. Or if nothing else, don't be an ill-wisher. Resolutionaries are people too. And we're all on the same team.

Don't Use Self-Tanner if You're a Germophobe

2011-12-30T05:04:00.000-08:00

Otherwise, this happens:

Super classy.

In other news, I quietly began a slow cut about four weeks ago.

I don't have a before picture but I'm also only down three pounds so this could probably be considered a "before." :) I'm not planning on losing a ton of weight; I don't think I'm fat or anything like that!! I just want a little more definition. I work pretty darn hard on my muscles -- I want to be able to see them!

I won't bore you all with a list of my goals for 2012 since I know everyone in the world -- all the other blogs you read, the magazines you read, everyone on TV, all of your friends and family -- is talking about goals right now.

Suffice it to say that I hope my 2012 will be filled with positive steps in the right direction -- and health.

Happy early New Year! :)

Four Things You Didn't Know About Overtraining

2011-12-29T05:50:00.000-08:00

Overtraining syndrome gets an awful lot of talk-time on blogs, fitness forums, and fitness-oriented magazines, but as with most topics in fitness and in health, a lot of that information is simply regurgitated from one form of media to the next. The result is that you don't get comprehensive information: there is just a large amount of rather basic information available.

I personally feel that all athletes and exercisers should know more about overtraining syndrome because it can cause loss of strength over time, an increased susceptibility to illness, and increased incidence of injury.

If you want to keep building muscle and gaining strength, you've got to avoid overtraining!

So, without further ado, here are four things you didn't know (but should) about overtraining syndrome!

1. There are two forms of overtraining: sympathetic and parasympathetic. Yup, we're talking about your Nervous System! The sympathetic variety of overtraining syndrome predominantly affects participants in sprint-type sports. Powerlifters, bodybuilders, strongmen, and sprinters typically comprise this category. The parasympathetic variety, on the other hand, affects endurance athletes like marathon runners, triathletes -- heck, even people who overdo BodyPump!

One of the common methods for detecting overtraining is checking one's morning heart rate. Take your heart rate before you get out of bed every morning or at least a couple of times a week and record it. If you are affected by sympathetic overtraining syndrome, your heart rate may be elevated. If you are affected by parasympathetic overtraining syndrome, however, your morning heart rate may be depressed.

(Source - Mark Jenkins, M.D., for Rice University.)

2. Your personality is typically the first sign of overtraining syndrome. Weird, right? But according to Cycling Performance Tips, a decrease in your general sense of well-being with a simultaneous increase in negative emotions like anger and depression is typically the first indicator that you need to slow down or cut back. This can, of course, be difficult to quantify because there are so many factors that affect one's mood.

3. Body temperature is an indicator of overtraining. It can be hard to quantify feelings of fatigue, muscle soreness and personality, especially since most people today are balancing work, training, social activities, and their family life at a minimum. Luckily there is an additional, if lesser-known, alternative to taking one's morning heart-rate to monitor training responsiveness: body temperature (Source: NIH, 1992). Take your temp every morning before you get out of bed and record your results. If you begin to stray out of your normal range, you're headed for trouble.

4. All of your stressors (training, work, school, family, holiday, etc) combine and overtraining syndrome is the cumulative result. So even if you are following a well-designed program and getting plenty of rest, you could be overtraining (Source: Tammy Thomas, R.D., M.Sc., CSCS, 2004).

I have been pretty lucky to avoid overtraining syndrome thus far, but that's partially because I am able to feel when I am overreaching (a short period that immediately precedes overtraining syndrome unless action is taken) and respond. And, of course, well-timed deload and off weeks also help.

Have you ever experienced overtraining (or overreaching) syndrome?

Christmas Loot: New Lifting Clothes

2011-12-28T04:41:00.000-08:00

If you have been reading this blog for any amount of time at all, I think it's pretty clear that I am trying to save money.

(I did just get a fifty-cent raise though! Every little bit...)

The up side of this is, well, learning to be financially responsible and act like a grown-up, I guess. And, ya know, maybe I'll be able to finish college sometime this decade. (Kidding!! The goal is to finish within the next 2 years.)

The down side? Well, I've been rotating the same three workout outfits for months.

Until now.

These pants HAVE A POCKET. With a ZIPPER. It's a beautiful new day in my life...
Bottom: Kyodan
Top: Nike

Thank God I have an awesome mother-in-law. She always finds the perfect gifts; it never ceases to amaze me. It's insane. It's like she intuitively knows where the best items are and everything she buys is always perfect for the recipient, fits super well, etc.

Strange facial expression, half-dry, half-wet hair. Did you miss the part about me being a responsible adult? No?

I swear this outfit was the reason I rocked out my squat workout on Monday. The Kyodan pants were THAT comfortable. Plus I could really see my quads, hamstrings and calves working, which always helps me maintain a better mind-muscle connection.

I wanted to link you guys to this brand's store so that you could experience this quality and comfort too but after scouring Google, I have concluded that they don't have a website and you pretty much have to luck out at TJ Maxx or Marshall's. (I told you guys my MIL is an amazing shopper!) There are a few pairs on eBay, too.

What are your fave brands for workout gear? Any other super shoppers out there?! Share your secrets!!!! :)

You Don't HAVE To Touch Your Butt to the Ground

2011-12-27T04:43:00.000-08:00

If you read lifting blogs or websites (like BodyBuilding.com or EliteFTS.com), you know that "ass to the ground" (alternately "ass to the grass") squats are usually considered to be superior to parallel or just-below-parallel squats.

Source
This guy is squatting a few inches below parallel

And yes: the lower you go, the more you activate your glutes and hamstrings. And it is very important to build strong glutes and hamstrings. But there are four considerations for anyone considering squatting exclusively ATG:

1) You can target glutes and hamstrings with exercises other than squats. Some good ones include Romanian Deadlifts, Lunges, and Good Mornings.

2) You may not have the hip flexibility (or long enough femurs!) to get that low, but that doesn't mean you shouldn't squat. Squatting is one of the best exercises for your entire body: among many other things, it recruits over 200 muscles, which makes it a very anabolic (muscle-building) exercise.

3) If you are a powerlifter, you probably only need to go 3 inches (sometimes only 1 inch!) below parallel at most at a meet.

4) And this is the controversial one: It's not always safer than going just below parallel.

From Mark Rippetoe (author of Starting Strength) himself:

Squat depth is critically important, but so is correct form. ATG-level depth most usually requires that the lumbar muscles relax the lordosis and that the hamstrings relax before extreme depth can be reached. It doesn't sound like a good idea to me that anything be relaxed in a deep squat, since doing this kills your good controlled rebound out of the bottom and risks your intervertebral discs. Those rare individuals that can obtain ass-to-ankles depth without relaxing anything might be able to get away with it, but as a general rule you should squat as deep as you can with a hard-arched lower back and tight hamstrings and adductors. This depth will be below parallel, but it will not usually be "ATG" (Source).

As he says here, it's very important that your hamstrings, glutes, and lower back remain tight throughout the entire ROM of the squat. A lot of times, lifters will relax these muscles to get deeper. This sets you up for injury for two reasons:

1) Squatting deeper than you naturally can while maintaining tight glutes and hams causes you to not "sit back" but simply "drop down," which puts a lot of undue strain on your knees.

2) In the squat, your hamstrings and glutes act as the brakes. If your "brakes" are loose, they will not be able to kick in and stop you from continuing to descend, but it's too late: the message has been sent by your brain and your body is going to respond the only way it knows how, which is by allowing your knee ligaments to act as the brakes. This is a really good way to seriously injure your knees.

So, to sum up:

Squat.

Squat below parallel.

Squat below parallel as deeply as you can / want to as long as your hamstrings, glutes, and lower back remain tight.

Wanna learn more? You can always contact me any time and I'll either answer your question or point you to an expert/website that can. (Or both!) And you should always check with a personal trainer and your doc before changing anything about your training routine, including squat form! :)

I Clean Up Okay :)

2011-12-26T04:37:00.000-08:00

So I don't get dressed up often. Or, you know, at all, really. I think I wore a skirt once this year.

I guess I shouldn't have been surprised that everyone's reaction when they saw me yesterday was "ARE YOU WEARING MAKE-UP?!" (This was uttered in approximately the same tone as, "Is she walking around naked?!")

But hey. I'm trying to act like a functioning, civilized adult over here. You know. Just to throw everyone for a loop.

All in all, though, Christmas 2011 was a wonderful success. This was the first year I got to be with more than two family members (Max and his mother -- who are by far my favorites anyway, but still) for Christmas since 2008. It was awesome.

Max's Mom made her famous homemade veggie pizza...

I'm pretty sure I've had about 8 slices of this in the past two days.

I made coconut-apple-bread (think: cross between coffee cake, cinnamon roll, and apple crisp with some coconut mixed in)....

It was a HUGE hit! Recipe coming soon. :) I've got to measure everything and make it again to make sure I've got it right! ;-) I tend to be a throw-everything-together-and-eyeball kind of 'chef.'

We DIYed almost all of our gifts this year, and it was so much fun to give them out.

We'll just pretend that a 4th-grader couldn't have made these in, oh, thirty minutes, since it took me about four days and 59 revisions.

Of course, while I've grown very close to Max's family and love them just the same as my own, I'd be lying if I didn't say I miss my family! It's been two and a half years since I've been home and I am definitely homesick.

I'm hoping to be able to save up to see them very soon, but the $200 price tag plus the lack of income from a couple of days of work is a bit difficult to squeeze from a budget when you're living paycheck-to-paycheck!

In the meantime, thank God for Facebook, cell phones and the good ol' US Postal Service!

How was your Christmas? Any great gifts?! =)

The Special Snowflake Generation

2011-12-22T05:40:00.000-08:00

I know all of my fellow late '80s and early '90s babies are sick of the criticism about our generation. I for one can't seem to get away from it and normally tune it out because I do feel that a lot of the criticisms of our generation are ones that have been aimed at most other generations as well.

But.

I think there is at least one fair generalization. (And please note that it is just that: a generalization. I realize this does not apply to everyone and that some people have overcome it!)

I think many of us were raised believing that we are awesome and special and unique and above average; that every last one of us has some special talent.

And to a certain extent, this is true. No two people are alike and in my experience most people are great.

But every kid in my high school seemed to believe there was something truly great about them; some incredible talent they had. Some of us thought we were exceptional students and were convinced we would go on to become doctors or lawyers or politicians. Others were certain they were fantastic athletes and would go on to play at a high level in college sports, and who knew what would happen after that? Still others were sure that their art really was as amazing as teachers and parents told them and that they would go on to be painters, actresses, or singers.

Yes, our parents and teachers always told us to have a back-up plan if our goal was to become a professional athlete or Broadway star. But this admonition was always followed or preceded by something like, "You can do whatever you set your mind to!"

And that statement was backed up by the endless praise and awards lavished upon my generation. I remember over half my class got awards for Presidential Achievement in fourth grade. (The rest got some Presidential award for effort and/or an award for reading the most books / scoring the best in gym class / etc.) I mean, really. What fourth grader can accomplish something that merits a Presidential award?

That pattern was only repeated throughout junior high and high school. Every year there were awards for achievement in science, math, English, foreign language, writing, gym, history, drama, keyboarding, home economics, cooking class, woodshop, "self-improvement," effort, attendance...

I can't think of a single person I went to school with who didn't get an 'award' at least once a year. I am absolutely certain that my school hired someone specifically to make sure that everyone felt like they had a special talent or special, socially-revered character trait.

And yes, I'm sure that this practice helped many people in my generation feel more confident during our pre-teens and teens, and maybe that helped us explore our personalities and interests more.

I was a pretty good-lookin' high schooler! Wish I could have seen it at the time.

But it also set us up for disappointment -- and an existential crisis when we realize we can fail; that we are average.

It almost makes average a dirty word.

When I was not accepted to Nursing School this summer, I basically fell apart. I remember sitting on the floor (I'm not dramatic at all you guys) crying hysterically into Max's lap (but remember, I am NOT DRAMATIC! I swear) and choking out, "But what's special about me? I can't even get into Nursing School!"

And you know what?

I am an average person. (It almost feels like I'm talking down about myself by saying this! CRAZY!) Yeah, there are unique aspects to my personality. I do some unusual things. But there's nothing wrong with being average. And I really wish more people could see that. Heck, I wish I could see it all the time. I bet it would make my life feel just a little bit less like a competition.

Exercise of the Week: Tate Press

2011-12-21T05:05:00.000-08:00

I've spent probably at least 300 hours in a gym this year, and I have never seen anyone do this exercise until 4 weeks ago.

And then, it was...myself. In the mirror.

But seriously: if you want to improve and increase your bench and strengthen your triceps, shoulders, forearms, and upper pecs all in one move, the Tate Press is for you.

I'm doing them one arm at a time here for demonstration purposes. You can do this exercise with both arms simultaneously or one arm at a time -- it is easier to focus on form when you're starting out if you go the uni-lateral route!

Choose a dumbbell (to give you a guideline, I can do French Presses with 60# for 10-12 reps and I use 20# dumbbells for 12 reps) and lay back on a flat bench or a bench on a low incline. Place the dumbbell on your chest (close to the center of your chest) with your hand facing your feet.

While focusing on the feeling the contraction in your tricep, extend your arm without moving your upper arm until it is straight. Hold for a moment, then lower your arm slowly until the dumbbell is hovering just above your chest. Repeat for the recommended number of repetitions and sets.

Of course as always you should check with a doctor before beginning or changing any exercise regimen, and you should always have a personal trainer watch your form!

What's your favorite triceps exercise? Mine used to be French Presses (I feel like they isolate the triceps better than Skull Crushers) but now I prefer Tate Presses!

What to Look For in a Coach

2011-12-20T04:46:00.000-08:00

I wrote that "Couch" four times in a row you guys. I am straight-up exhausted. Or brain-dead!

Actually, I didn't recognize my own (by my own, I mean Max's) cousin at the gym the other day. I was all, "Why is that dude looking at me? SO RUDE." And then I was like... Oh.

So I think I might take a day off work soon. Or who knows? Maybe this week's de-load will help.

Yep. That's right! I earned myself a de-load week. And what's more -- I have a coach who programs them into my schedule!

Max and I discussed the difference between the coach he used last year and my current coach, and I thought it might be a good idea to write up a guide for those of you who may be interested in getting a coach. I personally think a coach is a great investment for any intermediate lifter with specific goals.

So, why use a coach?

A good coach will be able to help you fix or avoid strength imbalances, optimize your workouts to hit your goal(s), and program you correctly to prevent injury. S/he will be able to provide insight into specific reasons that certain lifts are stalling or that weight loss / muscle gain is plateauing. A good coach will also be able to circumvent those things. A good coach will also help you avoid overtraining.

Now that you know you want one, how do you find a good one?

Ask around. If you're a member of a fitness community or forum like the one found at bodybuilding.com, ask some of the members who are getting great results who they use or
have used.

Find someone who has been in the game for a while. There's nothing wrong with a newbie coach -- after all, everyone has to start somewhere and they are typically cheaper. But for best results, you want someone who has been lifting for at least five years and coaching for at least two.

Find someone who is not overwhelmed and overextended with clients. Last year, Max used a coach who came highly recommended on several forums, who trained a lot of very successful bodybuilders, and who had quite a bit of experience. The diet and training split this coach gave Max were great -- but the coach was clearly overextended and was not easily accessible by e-mail. He also gave Max one training split and one set of rep ranges and did not adjust them for 3 months. Sometimes this is warranted, but only in very rare cases. You should not be doing the exact same workout for the exact same number of reps & sets for 12 straight weeks, and I personally believe that only a basic program was given because this gentleman had way too many clients on his hands.

Despite some complaints, I've gotta hand it to him: Max's first coach (plus a little help from Max himself) got me from stumpy legs to this!

Find out what you get for your money up-front. On average, a good coach laying out either your training OR your diet will cost $75 to $125/month. A good coach managing both will range from $100 to $200. Some of the more "famous" coaches (think Layne Norton, Martin Berkhan) may cost significantly more than that or have a waiting list. If you are going to be spending around $1,200 a year, though, you'd better make sure your coach is just as accessible & hands-on as you want him/her to be. You have the right to be picky! There are plenty of coaches available.

And to get you started on your search (you've gotta spend your Christmas money on something, right?), here is a very brief list of good coaches:

Jason Ashman -- my current coach! Very happy with him. Five stars from me.
Martin Berkhan -- the IF guru! I believe he currently has a waiting list.
Kim LaChance -- she's been competing for ten years!
Emma-Leigh -- a doctor with an established pattern of phenomenal results.

Those of you who have used a coach, do you have anything to add to this list? Have I convinced any of the rest of you to invest in a coach? ;-)

PS: If you missed yesterday's post, or didn't get to go through the comments -- check it out! There are SO many thoughtful insights over there.

Why Does Body Criticism Feel So Personal?

2011-12-19T04:42:00.000-08:00

The other day, in a public environment, a man said to me: "Why do you have your hair pulled up like that? It looks horrible."

Yeah, that was a harsh comment. Yeah, I looked at him pretty darn funny. No, I didn't quite know what to make of it and no, I wasn't a big fan.

But that comment also didn't hurt me. I didn't feel bad about it. I didn't feel uncomfortable about myself and my appearance for the rest of the day. (I did feel some second-hand embarrassment and discomfort for the younger guy he was with, who looked like he wanted to evaporate.) I experienced the moment, gave him a funny look, and re-told it as a funny story to my coworker and Max.

Try having curly hair in Florida. I dare you! It gets a liiiittle out of hand sometimes.

In short, I didn't take it personally.

But I have to think, if that man had said something about my body, I am fairly certain I would have felt embarrassed and ashamed and it would probably have bothered me for at least a couple of hours.

I would know. All through elementary school, junior high and high school (well, ya know, until I decided I'd solve all my problems by weighing less than 85 pounds -- I was a genius you guys), I heard comments about my weight all the time. "You'd be so pretty if you just lost a couple of pounds!" and "There's no way you're actually a size six" and "Did you gain weight over the summer?" to my face; "Why is X/Y/Z going out with SABLE?!" and "Sable must weigh 200 pounds" and "If Sable didn't eat like such a cow maybe she'd be pretty" behind my back.

And those comments hurt. I'm cringing just remembering them.

So why the disconnect? Why can I see that it's a flaw in someone else that makes him mock my hair, but not that there's something wrong with someone who thinks it's okay to make horrible comments about my weight?

Is it because it's just so normal to criticize a woman's weight? We see the media commenting on various female celebrities' weights all the time, after all. Maybe because we get media messages that we're not skinny enough, not fit enough, all day long, when someone says it to our face, we accept that they (the critic and the media) must be right and our bodies are wrong.

Is it because we believe our weight to be an indicator of our personalities and abilities? So many people subscribe to the concept that to be fat is to be a failure; that it means you can't control your cravings and aren't disciplined enough to exercise. If this is what you believe, I guess it makes sense that an attack on your body is basically an attack on your very self.

Or is it something else? Chime in. What do you think? Why can I brush off a comment about my hair -- but not a comment about my body?

Progress Pictures and the Vacation that Wasn't

2011-12-15T06:09:00.000-08:00

Happy Thursday friends! :)

I was looking at my progress picture page the other day and realized it's been a while since I've posted any muscle pics ;-) I guess I can chalk it up to the fact that my focus has shifted to the strength of my muscles rather than their shape or size.

Just to measure my progress, though, I decided to snap a couple earlier this week. Bear in mind: since September, I have been following a powerlifting rather than a bodybuilding split which means virtually no isolation work for arms (except shoulders but I tend to associate those with back for some reason).

Please ignore the fact that I'm wearing a tee-shirt with scrub bottoms. I wanted to walk to the mailbox (which is pretty far away) when I got home from work but I didn't want to wear my scrub top because I'd been wearing it for like....10 hours by that point. Don't judge me.

Biceps:

Triceps:

So as you can see, powerlifting has allowed me to hang onto my vanity muscles ;)

Speaking of muscles and lifting, I know we've discussed the connection between bone strength and lifting (and avoiding the doctor's office / ER) before, and now I present to you a case study: Max's grandmother.

Yes folks, she just got out of the hospital Sunday night.

And now she's back.

She tripped, fell, and broke her pelvis.

Are you guys sick of praying for my family yet? I'm sick of asking for prayers and positive thoughts, that's for sure. I'm just hoping all this bad health stays in 2011 and doesn't follow us into 2012. I think we could use a break.

We were actually all supposed to be taking a trip together this weekend and I had tomorrow off, but I think I'll be trading that day for a different one given that we are obviously not going anywhere now. I just hope she's out by Christmas! I don't know how realistic that is, though.

Have a great day-before-Friday!

Being Fit Doesn't Make You Better Than Other People

2011-12-14T04:50:00.000-08:00

This is a public service announcement brought to you by rude-ass people in gyms, grocery stores, restaurants, and on Twitter and Facebook.

Being healthy or fit does not actually make you any better than anyone else. It makes you healthier or fitter than some of them, as healthy or fit as some others, and LESS healthy/fit than still others.

Here's the thing, guys. {And I get that you all are awesome and already know this. But it's ticking me off. So... I'm gonna rant.}

Being a gym rat, or a runner, or really strong, or having ripped abs, does not actually make you a better person than anyone else. It makes you more of a gym rat, faster, stronger, or more ripped than other people, yeah. But...that's it.

I am sick to death of holier-than-thou attitudes. I am tired of seeing people acting like they're better than other people just because they're slimmer or more athletic or stronger or generally healthier.

There is more than one yardstick by which you can measure a person's accomplishments. In fact, there are millions of proverbial yardsticks, and folks, you are never going to max out all of them. Ever. No matter what.

So be nice to people, even if they are slower, less athletic, weaker, less healthy, or heavier than you. Because they are way better than you at other stuff that is just as important to them.

Oh. And they're humans too, you know.

How To: Not Be A Sad Sack

2011-12-13T05:03:00.000-08:00

Okay, admittedly, I haven't been the very best at this.

What can I say? I'm used to having my favorite person around.

But hey: Max and I were in a long-distance relationship the entire time we were dating so I've had some practice keeping myself busy.

I put that practice to good use all of last week!

I spent lots of time visiting Grammie in the hospital. {She's out now! Yaaay! Thanks for all the prayers!}

Check out what $7 will get you at the hospital food court, by the way:

Iced tea, sweet potato chips, banana, tuna wrap and apple! AND a pickle!

Not a bad deal!

I also worked on DIY-ing some gifts....

WHOO blurry pic! Must've been the caffeine.

And, ya know, did the work thing:

Finished up my last classes at Montana State University....

Good-bye, cheap tuition!

AND I volunteered to show a dog at PetSmart for four hours over the weekend. I wouldn't say I made any friends, exactly, but it was really nice to get out and socialize!

Source

Unfortunately the pup I was showing (pictured above) didn't get adopted. :( It's rough being part pit bull!

Throw in a couple killer workouts and I guess it's no surprise I'm a little sleepy this week!!

What did you do last week/weekend? Fill me in! :) What's new and exciting?