Wow...Another Year Already

It's almost that time again...to take a look at the closing year before I set my sites on things to come.  I figure the way things have been going lately, I better go ahead and write this post now instead of waiting until the end of next week.


Once again, it's so hard to believe how much I've changed in one year, how different my life looks today than it did just 365 days ago. 

In my 2012 "Looking Ahead" post I said in the coming year I wanted to:

• consistently work toward my goals, even if that means allowing the iron to get red-hot in the fire.  The difficulty with this will be knowing what pieces to work (goals to work toward) and which ones to stick back into the fire.  (See my last post if this doesn't make sense.)
• add P90X to my training plan for strength workouts.  I wanted to do this last year and tried for a while, but it became too hard to manage.  The difficulties with this will be scheduling (there are only so many hours in a day), and making sure I get enough (quality) calories to support all the work.
• follow the training plan I have outlined from now til my first half iron race (April 22), maintain my fitness level (coast) until after my daughter graduates from high school in May and THEN make decisions about the rest of the year/what comes next.
• come up with a nutrition plan so I don't end up drinking a venti soy latte for breakfast and eating potato chips for lunch (as I have done today).

Let's see...I changed my mind about P90X after just a few days and I scrapped my own training plan and started getting coached by Eric (best decision!!).  But, I did somewhat come up with a nutrition plan (for the most part) and I did consistently work toward my goals.

Here were the races I planned:

• McKay Hollow Madness -- March 24th.  With that in mind, I hope to run most of my longer runs on trails. ((I wasn't as prepared for this race as I would have liked because my bigger focus was on IM70.3, but I did complete this race and felt GREAT ...I just realized I didn't even finish writing my race recap!!))
• IM70.3 NOLA -- April 22nd.  With that in mind, I have a detailed training plan on my Training Peaks calendar that starts Sunday (January 8th) and runs through race day.  ((I traded in my plan for Eric's and that was the best thing that could have possibly happened...although this race turned into a 67.1 duathlon, I felt very prepared and had a great day out there.))
• Frank Maples -- ??.  I'm not sure when this one is, but I know I want to race it this year.  ((Ironically, this race was on the same weekend as NOLA.  Ironic because it was my very first ever tri, and just one year later I was about to complete a half iron!))
• Cotton Row -- May 28th.  Time goal: under an hour.  ((I learned a lot about "Managing Expectations" and didn't quite make my goal.))
• Wet Dog -- July 14th.  Time goal:  better than last year! :D  ((CHECK!!!  I had a pretty darn good race, although I'm certain I will do better in 2013.  I cut 10 minutes off my 2011 time!!))
• Hood to Coast -- August 25th.  Time goal:  every leg with an average pace under 9:30.  ((I did this event, had an unbelievable experience but I didn't keep every leg under 9:30, but that's a whole other story...  Our team ended up placing so we got an automatic entry into next year's race so I'll have another chance!))
• Frantic Frog -- September 8th.  Time goal:  better than last year.  ((I ended up not being able to do this race either...I was in Providence, Rhode Island getting my USAT Level One Coaching Certificate!!!))
• MAYBE Beach to Battleship -- October 20th.  I'm going to wait to pull the trigger on this until after IM NOLA.  ((I did the smart thing and decided to wait on doing a full until I had some more time on my legs and in my lungs...so glad I decided to wait!!))
• Turkey Chase -- November 22.  I'm a streaker on this one (I've done it every year it's existed) so this one will certainly be on the list.  Time goal:  Sub 23:30 and beat my husband who has said he will run it this year!! :D  ((Another race I didn't get to do...we didn't travel to see my husband's family this year...I'm super sad about missing this race.))

Some other things that happened this year that I didn't even consider a year ago...I became a life guard as well as a preschool swim instructor!!!  I also became a certified TRX Group Suspension Trainer.  Two things I did expect-finishing my Personal Trainer Certification (that was one of the hardest tests I've ever taken!) and earned my Spinning cert from Mad Dogg.  I think the biggest thing that happened to me this year (on a personal level) is becoming a USAT Level One Coach.  I was able to run a triathlon training group at the YMCA and now coach eight athletes! 

I seriously hardly recognize my life.

Thanks for stopping in, come again soon for the year in pictures and to find out my plans for the coming year!! :D

I'm Not That Great

Boy howdy....it's been too long!  You can tell how hectic my life has been lately, I only posted one time last month.  So much to say, so little time to get it all out.

I haven't even told you about all the cool things that have happened the last couple of months.  I mentioned how I got my USAT Level One Coaching Certificate (hands in the air--whoop whoop!).  I also just went Friday and got certified as a TRX Group Trainer (fist pump!).  Have I mentioned I'm currently coaching, count them: NINE athletes??  Yes--NINE.  One more and I'll have TEN.  Oh...and I'm training for IRONMAN LAKE TAHOE!!  How I wish I had the time to go search for a super cool sound effect to insert right here...but I can't because in a little while I'm going to be taking the written part of the test to finish up my AFAA Personal Trainer Certification!!!  OH YEAH BABY!!!

AND...I now have my very own FaceBook Page:  Dana Trains.  Go LIKE me now!   (Yes, anyone can have a page, but I feel like mine is legit since I really do have a business....that's still such a foreign thought!)  ...Wait, did you go LIKE me yet??  No?  Click the link, it opens a new page so you can come back to finish the post...  :D)

Now that you're back...


The other day I went to check out a new fitness studio (doesn't that sound cool? "fitness studio") called SWEAT (even cooler name, huh?).  I had already signed up for my TRX training so decided I might want to go take a class since I had never been to one!  LOVE that place, love the workout, love the instructor!!  Afterwards I came home, was looking at their website and found the blog.  At the end was a little "challenge":

...I have 5 copies of Dr. Daniel Crosby’s new motivational book, “I’m Not That Great” and I want to give them away to 5 people bold enough to reveal how being regular has made them do things they never thought possible.  Be bold!  Share your story on our Facebook Page to let us hear the story of your journey!  The contest will run from today through Friday, November 23rd.

I had missed the deadline but made a comment on FaceBook about it anyway...and, wouldn't you know it, Jeidi told me they still have a book and I was welcome to make a post.  ((As if I could tell how NOT great I am in one comment!))

...how being regular has made (me) do things (I) never thought possible....

Seriously, this makes me cry.  Yes, literally.   I know better than anyone how inconsequential I really am.  I don't "rock".  I'm not "awesome".  (And, I'm REALLY NOT fishing for compliments here! :D)  I have NEVER been an athlete.  I don't have "muscle memory"...my muscles didn't ever learn how to work in the first place.  I've talked before about how I only passed ONE of my PT tests in the army over the course of 4 years.  (I was usually SECONDS late so I was allowed to squeak by.)  Three years ago I didn't KNOW how to swim.  I didn't own a bike.  I didn't own running shoes!  (GASP!!)  In the last 36 months I've learned it's not where you start from that matters...and, more importantly, it's not where you think you'll end up.  "It" is about the process.

As you begin to think about New Year's Resolutions, I want to challenge you to consider what it is you want out of life.  What experience do you want to have.  Do you want to be striving to get to a finish point (lose X number of pounds, run a (fill-in-the-blank) K race in XX:XX time, be able to run X miles or swim X number of laps...).  Or do you want to be intentional about living life every day, getting the most out of each moment but with the bigger picture of life in mind?

When I think about what I'm going to eat for lunch, I'm not going to think, "oh, I need to eat as little as possible because I'm trying to drop some weight"...I'm also not going to think, "I can eat what ever I want because I'm getting the most out of this moment in life" ...I'm going to have the bigger picture in mind (dropping some pounds) and couple that with the fact I've worked out hard today, and still have some left to do, and then I'll make some deliberate choices about what food will best fuel my body.

Until the day I die I'll be in the "process" of living.  The fact I know I'm not that great means I need to work hard to get the most out of the days I have left, however many that may be.  Go pay attention to your intention...unless you really are just that great you don't have to!! :D

Thanks for stopping in, come again soon.  I'm committed to updating more often...I really am!
:D

Nutrition-Part Two

Diets.  I really hate the popular sense of that word.  "I'm going to go on a diet."  Yuck.  How about just changing daily habits to healthy ones and allow your body to change naturally?  Rather than eating grapefruits and rice cakes for a few weeks to drop some pounds, try eating a balanced array of foods and be healthy?  Don't get me wrong, I've been there more times than I can count.  That's why I feel qualified to say I hate them.  It's honestly a lot easier to just drink Slim Fast for a while than it is to change the foundation of your daily habits FOR LIFE.   It's a heck of a lot simpler to print off 14 days of a meal plan to follow than to walk the aisles of the grocery store trying to figure out what are the best items to put in the basket and how to combine it all into nutritious meals for yourself and the picky-eaters you have banging forks on the table every night!

yes, this is a picture of my real cart one time!

I have to be honest, I do not do this well.  It's one of those things I "know" and don't always "do".  I ate popcorn for lunch and dinner yesterday.  I don't believe there is any redeeming nutritious value to popcorn, and on top of that, it generally makes me sick.   However, I sure do like the way good popcorn tastes while watching a movie.  It's a habit and I know that, but not one I can easily seem to break.  So, yesterday I gave myself permission to indulge and today I'm paying the price.  And THAT is one thing I want to try to address in this post.

There is a cost to everything and our food choices are no exception.  Eating "healthy" means different things to different people.  I do not believe there is a set diet that works for everyone out there.  But if you are eating well for your body the "cost" may be not eating some things that your tongue wishes you would.  You may not get to have the birthday cake someone brought into the office, or the "hot" donuts that look and smell oh so good....or you may not get to "enjoy" popcorn at the movies.  But the pay off comes later when you feel good for your workout, or you are able to wear those jeans you haven't been able to fit in since high school!  The opposite is true as well...eat the cake, those donuts, or that popcorn and your taste buds are happy, for a time, but there will be fall out from that taste explosion in your mouth.  It may not happen immediately (most of the time it doesn't), but just like small doses of radiation may not show up right away, repeated exposure will certainly be devastating.

Most people would never consider just writing check after check without knowing if they have the money in the bank to cover the spending spree, but they will eat morsel after morsel without having any idea what they are putting into their digestive system.  Are you a label reader?  Do you know the ingredients of what you ate for your last meal?  You don't need to have a bio-chem degree to figure out some things aren't as useful to your body as others.  Why did you eat what you did for lunch yesterday?  Sometimes that answer is, "because it TASTED good" and I'm not saying that's not okay--ONCE IN A WHILE--just like it's fine to splurge every now and then when spending money.  However, the bill always comes due.  Some people who would never consider writing hot checks are effectively doing that every day with what they are eating.  Those people are the ones gaining pounds year after year.

Now, before you start talking to me about "but my metabolism has slowed down over the years" or "I watch what I eat, I don't know what's happening"...stop.  If I were to go to the grocery store week after week and purchase the exact same items in the exact same quantity...the bill would not be the same each time.  The same is true for how our bodies metabolize food.  What fuel I need will depend on not only what exercises I'm doing (and everything else tied into that -the intensity, duration, time of day, season), but it will also be impacted by the time of month and the amount of other life stress I'm under, not to mention the natural aging process among numerous other factors.

Also...most people have NO IDEA what foods are best for their particular bodies.  It took me a very long time to figure out I had a list of foods which were causing me problems.  I just have never been very observant when it comes to consequences (which is also how I ended up in some serious debt in my youth!).  But, if you are interested in being healthy (or let's face it, some people just want to look good in their jeans), you have to be a student of what's going to work unless you enjoy the "diet" cycle...go on a diet, pull out the skinny jeans, end the diet, pull out the "comfortable" jeans..."suddenly" realize you've gained weight, go on a diet and start the process all over again.

Here are three principles I think are key:

1)  Make CONSCIOUS choices about what you are putting into your body.  Don't allow your taste buds to make the decisions.  Allow the rest of the parts that make up your whole being to weigh in on your food choices (pun completely intended).  I do think it's important to allow the taste buds to win every now and then, but they can't be the dictator.

2)  Have a plan.  Know what you are going to eat and stick to it.  There have been times when I would have eaten anything but because I had a plan about what was best for me, and I had some resolve to stick to the plan, I ate the food I knew was good and then found myself not wanting the other things quite so much.  (That usually works all but one week out of the month...but again, having a plan is the key!)  Keep in mind, it's just the same as having a spending budget.

3)  Get back on track sooner rather than later.  We will all find ourselves "off track" every now and then (some more than others).  When you realize you've fallen off the healthy food wagon, don't wallow in the muck, get back on as quickly as possible.  When I'm at the store after a workout it's very hard for me to keep my wits about me.  I usually want to load up on every unhealthy carb I can get my hands on (because that is what my body thinks it "needs" because accessing stored fat is harder than taking in sugars to replace glycogen I just burned).  I've been doing pretty good at telling myself "step away from the Oreos; step away from the multi-grain tortilla chips".  However, when I come home with something like a container of vanilla frosting (with the best intentions of "I'll just allow myself one teaspoon a day") sometimes I have to throw away "good food" because it becomes painfully obvious I just don't have the self control I'd like to think I have.  Instead of going ahead and sucking down the whole container to get it out of the house, remind yourself, the only difference in it being in the trash or in your mouth are the inches on your hips (or thighs, or stomach).

The overriding key factor is to be kind to yourself.  This healthy eating thing is a process.  You have to eat to live; it's not like you can just give it up.  And, there's no single "right answer".  Be proud of yourself for caring enough to try to do the right thing.  ((Make no mistake, if you read this whole post, you are certainly trying to do the right thing!!))

Thanks for stopping in, come again soon!
:D