Juggling is a difficult skill to master. I never was very good at multi-tasking; my strength is in the details and commitment to one task (or person) at a time. Why is it, then, that all I seem to do is fill my time with more and more AND MORE little tasks that seem to rob me of the love for this work that brings out the best in me!
Am I worried I’ll fail? Am I scared to say “no”? Don’t I remember why I gave up nursing? Don’t I remember the post I wrote a few months ago on what busyness does to your business?
This post will mark my last workout (or article) for this year.
In less than a month, I am marrying the love of my life, Jonathan, and beginning a very exciting new chapter for myomytv 🙂 My website will finally relaunch with a new look and you are being invited to consider why *you* come here?
At the end of the day, I want myomytv to be an honest account of fitness for life – training, mind-set and faith. It’s who I am. I can’t separate them because each step of progress I ever made was when all THREE were right within me. And I truly believe that if you allow your gifts and passion to grow then you *can* make a difference to others’ lives. Whether you are searching for home (or gym) workouts, exercise tutorials, motivation or something a little deeper, I can assure you that you will find it here. This site is a place of zero judgement and I want it to be clear that nothing I write is ever intended to “preach”. I simply share what I love and hope you will appreciate my openness and honesty about life: body, mind and soul.
With such a huge vision/mountain to climb (in the best possible way), I am taking the next few weeks to organise materials, tutorials … oh, and MY WEDDING 😀
If you want to stay up to date with things, I will continue to post on Myomytv’sFacebookandTwitterPages.
Myomytv’s Last Workout of 2013
Superset:
1a. Single Leg Box Squat (with counter-balance): 4×6-10 reps (each side)
1b. Renegade Row (2x16kg): 4×12 reps (total)
1c. KB Snatch (14kg then 16kg): 4×6-10 reps (each side)
1d. Plank Climber: 4×30 seconds (ish)
Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year 🙂
Wondering how to set up your own home studio? Once you find *your* space, put your stamp on it with some equipment. Here are my top picks:
Hello Everyone! I am Raylene and here is my little blog entry about my weight loss journey and a little video I put together last weekend (finally had some nice weather).
I am not going to tell you a story about how I was an athlete that fell from glory or how I was obese once upon a time; I am just an average Jane trying to get stronger, sexier, and to stop making excuses. I have spent most of my adult life “chunky” and content with it. I figured I would take chunky over obese, right. Well, starting the end of last year I had decided enough was enough. I had began to have some digestive problems and I literally felt like shite all the time. At first I was quick to assume it was because I was getting older. I started taking Probiotics and they helped some, but not completely. As 2011 came to a close I was pretty miserable with the digestive issues and all the weight I had put back on, so I went online to try to help pull me up out of my lazy ass slump. See I have been “working out” on and off for quite
a few years, some years more than others, but I had fallen into a severe funk. I wasn’t finding any enjoyment in running, mainly because I sucked at it, and I had no real direction in the gym. I had picked up some kettlebells awhile back, played around for a bit, but again no direction equaling little to no progress. Meaning they sat in my basement and collected dust.
Anyhow, at the end of 2011 I found Marianne on Youtube. I had been searching for someone to show me some kettlebell workouts that weren’t all Jane Fonda like and MK fit the bill perfectly. I started doing her routines (at my ability level) and motivation slowly started creeping back into my fitness soul. Through MK, I found Nia Shanks and Girls Gone Strong.
Well all of them have assisted in changing my life.
Finding Nia helped me gain direction at the gym (in the weight room) and also helped me get my diet in order. Yes, I was one of those, “I can out exercise a bad diet” types. Nia wrote up a blog post about the different types of Intermittent Fasting programs that were around the fitness world and gave a little insight to each. I started simple (just like Nia suggested) and decided to fast at least 14 hours a day. It was a bitch at first, but slowly I started to grow accustomed to it. Now, I do a combination of 14-16 hours a day with 2 longer fasting each week and when I do eat I try to eat better choices. I digress… Fast forward to now and guess what I am down at least 20 lbs, I can do at least one unassisted chin-up, I can squat my bodyweight, I do MK’s workout 2-3 times a week, and I am loving every damn minute of it. Oh and by the way no digestive issues, my body was just sick and tired of all the shite I was eating.
Anywho, thanks MK for being there and also for the guest blog post thingy. GGS Rocks!!! Cheers!
Hi everyone, I’d like to introduce you to Brian (aka Coach Anglim). His story is just too awesome to even begin to describe. What a turn-around! Brian’s story perfectly illustrates how, at any time in our life, we have the POWER to change ourselves and become the person we want. It’s about attitude!
My Fitness Journey
What a special moment that was for me. I had just become a new dad. Having that moment immortalized in a picture is such a blessing, but what I saw was a new dad who was not taking care of himself. I was a high school basketball coach who was a role model to over 20 boys. I once was a college athlete and now I was a dad. This was not the man that I wanted to be.
At the time of this picture, I was working out 2 to 3 times a week but I really was just going through the motions. I might ride a bike for 45 minutes while watching a TV program or casually lift some weights. At no point was I training with a purpose. It was kind of like I was checking a box to say I got it done. I am not sure if it was the pressure of soon becoming a parent or just the sympathy for my wife’s pregnancy weight, but my diet fell apart into a world of soda and fried foods. I knew I was putting on weight but just didn’t seem to register. I guess when that birthday came I could no longer ignore my physical condition. I decided to make a change.
Now that I had a goal I needed to gain leverage. To do that I entered a “biggest loser contest” with my neighbors. My wife, myself, and two other couples decided to do a family challenge on who could lose the most weight over 2 months. I knew we could win this and this simple contest reminded something about me that I lost along the way. I love competition. I also love being on a team and working on this goal with my wife made it all the easier.
I also had a more personal motivation that drove me. I recognized that I was an older parent and I needed to stay healthy so that I can be there for him later in life. I did not to be a passive dad that sat on the sidelines. I was going to be the dad that plays hard with his son and coaches his sports teams. During my wife’s pregnancy I gained about 12 pounds of pure fat, maybe it was the pressure that pushed me to medicate myself with unhealthy foods. I had new pressures now but I decided to use it to my advantage. That pressure would drive me eat right and train with an intensity of transforming my body.
That was the start of my weight loss journey. I now thoughtfully considered what I ate. I went to the gym not to just do it but to push myself a new ways. I was no longer working out, I was training. I started keeping a weight training journal and wanted to see those lifts move up. I was recording my runs and looking to extend them. In those three months I lost eighteen pounds (8 kgs.) and with my wife’s weight loss we won the contest.
All three couples had lost weight and we celebrated with a wonderful dinner and gained a couple of those pounds back. It was a great time and the next day I had to think what my next step was? I was getting positive comments from my coworkers and family members and I felt like I needed to stay this way. Then I realized something that made this change permanent, I wasn’t in this for the compliments, I was in it for the way it made me feel! I love fitness. I enjoy pushing myself, I love to compete and challenging my body to grow stronger. Although I love fried foods I feel so much better with a more controlled diet. Living a fit lifestyle isn’t a chore but rather a gift that we can give to ourselves.
Some 5 years after that contest I have lost a total of 40 pounds and replaced a ton of fat with hard earned muscle. Each time I get to the gym, it feels like the playtime we once enjoyed as a child. I started reading anything I could about training and studied a wide variety of topics like Olympic lifting, speed training, kettle bell training, (how I discovered MYOMYTV.COM), cross fit, and of course diet (I have experimented with tons of them)! I was learning so much that I realized that I needed to teach it to others. I was a coach by trade and I need to start people about my new love in life. I became a NASM Certified Personal Trainer and Performance Enhancement Specialist. I currently train neighbors and friends for the joy of sharing my experiences. This is me now, father of two fast approaching 40. Most people see this age as the beginning of the end, but as I enter my forth decade I feel (and physically am) stronger that I have ever been.
Today, I have simply been too sore from training to do a workout. Yesterday, I teamed up with Stephen Bell from Ironfit for a Training session, and he made me do hypertrophy training for a change (an evil ploy I think). Anyway, I willingly followed his lead and, as a result, today I am in a world of PAIN! I did exercises I haven’t done in years and in multiple high rep sets. My triceps are so sore I can hard move my arms – eek! I WILL have a workout up this week, but I need to get rid of THESE DOMS, plus the residual DOMS in my calves from Sunday’s killer session! 😐
Now onto today’s topic.
You know how I like to keep training uber simple? Well, fat loss should be no different. The problem is, in order for “the industry” to keep making money, it has to make you believe there is some secret, complicated formula to fat loss. While there is a formula, it is neither secret or complicated; it is actually very simple. The problems arise when we start thinking it’s complicated, perceiving difficulties, or we are sucked in by the mountains of BS out there. The amount of contradicting information does nothing but make people chase their tails and constantly feel like a failure – therefore ensuring they keep searching for “new” solutions etc etc. This whole process makes me angry because many people now hold all these false or exaggerated beliefs about fat loss that quite simply make the whole thing worse. For example, you know things are bad when someone comes to you for fat loss and exercise advice (assuming they have done so because they know you have the knowledge and experience to advise them), yet they start arguing with you when you try telling them how simple the formula is:
Eat Less, Do More (in a nutshell).
The issue is not the formula, the issue is your belief system, inner thoughts and feelings that ultimately govern your success at anything – including fat loss.
While I can’t prevent the reams of BS out there, I can show you a better way…
You know when you tell yourself “I can’t have” or ” I shouldn’t do” something (usually in relation to edible treats), and you end up wanting it all the more … usually leading to an epic fail in that day’s diet regime or what ever it is you are trying to give up … well, the answer is STOP telling yourself what you don’t want and START focusing on what you DO want and how you SHOULD behave. This also applies to you telling yourself you “hate exercise”, or that something is “not working”!
This is a huge factor in reaching your fat loss goal (or any goal). Something as simple as changing your vision from thinking about FAT (whether it be fat loss or fat gain) to visualising yourself being successful at eating healthy, feeling satisfied and getting leaner, will soon have you adopting the correct behaviours to match your thoughts. If you are always telling yourself “I’m getting fatter” or ” I really need to lose weight”, this is the mindset you will get stuck in. You are less likely to ever feel successful at losing fat if your focus, thoughts and feelings are centred around FAT!
Just STOP thinking about fat at all! Imagine yourself being the body composition or weight that you want and reinforce those feelings each day with growing confidence, feelings of success and love for yourself.
A couple of months ago I began feeling “fat” (not actually fat, but you know … thicker) and I was not happy about it. I felt puffy and I began to focus on FAT LOSS again. Trying to cut down on my calorie intake, increasing my cardio and being overly aware of how I looked. All this did was make me more and more obsessive about it and no matter what the efforts were, I seemed to sabotage my own efforts to reach goal (because I started gaining weight). However, in the last few weeks I did an experiment; I started telling myself “I am 58kg” (when I was actually 61kg). I started feeling how I wanted to feel (tighter, a little leaner and super confident in my own skin). Guess what happened … I ended up 58kg and feeling exactly how I wanted.
It works!
This is not about living in denial of your current reality, but it is a healthy (both mentally and physically) method to feeling less stressed and more confident about your efforts. What benefit is there from focusing on what you don’t like?? NONE! Let thoughts and feelings towards FAT go! Exchange them for more positive, loving thoughts and feelings towards yourself and good things will manifest. Quit letting yourself be limited by your past behaviours and start new ones today!
Hi everyone, This is a long one so sit back and get comfy! Don’t worry there are plenty of pictures to keep you entertained 🙂
Today I am going to Reflect on my Reflection.
My reflection is not just the one I see in the mirror, but how I see myself in my own eyes and in the eyes of others!
Honestly, I don’t believe that my body image story is more special or deserves more attention than anyone else’s; I actually believe that everyone’s experience is worth the same as we each have inner feelings about how we look which are relative to us. However I also think there are many stories that share common threads. It is a well known fact that many of us (especially women) struggle with accepting our “imperfections” (I mean who decides what is imperfect anyway!) and a large proportion of these people end up taking extreme measures to achieve a look that will make them happy or make them more confident. Actually “Up to 8 out of 10 women will be dissatisfied with their reflection, and more than half may see a distorted image”, The Social Issues Research Centre. It is for this reason that I feel sharing my story will at the very least help someone realise they are not alone.
Given the path my life has taken me and the decisions I made, I can say that NOTHING I have ever done to “improve” the aesthetics of my body (while hoping that change will make me happy), has actually made me happier! In fact a lot of the efforts I have made, with that single goal in mind, have actually caused me more unhappiness and a slight hatred of myself for doing it in the first place. It’s possibly one of the most difficult things to explain as you feel a little insane by voicing such feelings about your own God-given body – but this is my truth and it is unfortunately a common occurance in the world we live in today. A world where more value is placed on someone if they look the part. After all, the good fairy/princess is always beautiful; the wicked stepmother is always ugly.
I am not referring to every day vanity; the type that makes you get washed every day, to stay neat and tidy, or look good for yourself and your spouse etc. I am talking about when you become so self-conscious and so self-critical that you fear even stepping out of your front door! This post is going to reveal the TRUE feelings I have had for myself over the course of my short 29 years. Note I am calling it a journey because I am quite sure I have a lot of ground yet to cover. I even wonder, will I ever be 100% happy with how I look?
As a women, my body and mind go through many ups and downs through each month at the hand of hormonal changes and I now believe this is where the majority of my issues began!
As a child, I rarely gave my appearance much thought. My mum had to chase me with a hair brush most days and choose something “decent” for me to wear as I was apparently hell bent on wearing whatever was most suitable for climbing trees or playing war games with my older brother and his friends. I could have gone weeks wearing my raggy play-clothes, or without a thought to the mats in my hair – I actually remember not brushing my hair once over a 3 week period when I was 9 LOL. As a child, although everything was “about me”, I didn’t care at all what others thought of me – as you can see in the 1980’s I didn’t give a crap that I was cycling around in a jumper and my knickers!! And don’t get me started on the massive fringe – eek!
Only when I began hitting puberty at around 12 years old that everything started to change. Not so much my body at this point, but my mind-set. I would look at other girls and start comparing myself to them. I remember having a crush on this guy (I was around 14 years at this point), but he liked this other girl; for the life of me I didn’t know what he saw in her because I actually thought I was prettier LOL, so I thought it must be something else! Looking back, I’d say she had more confidence in herself as a person plus she was the same age as him, but at the time it HAD to be something about how she looked. What I decided, was that she was THINNER! Now, at the age of 14 I was a stick-figure so why I thought that I needed to be thinner is beyond me but I distinctly remember looking at myself in the mirror and beginning to wish I could change the way I looked! I would try and hold my stomach in and try to wear clothes that flattered my already tiny waist! I wanted to look more like that girl because I believed it would bring me what I wanted. Of all the things, why did I fixate on her being thinner?? To this day I still do not know that answer. What worries me more looking back at that is how I needed to change my appearance to fit in with what I believed the boy wanted, not what made me happy.
Throughout my years in high school I would set my alarm extra early to allow myself time to apply my make-up and fix my hair. Many days I had significant stress over the fact that my hair was frizzy or didn’t fit in with how the girls in the “pretty crowd” looked. I went through high school feeling totally invisible to the opposite sex yet highly self-conscious of how I might look to them. Never mind the obsession that I had about my “fat” knees. I will confess that even to this day, I am not fond of my knees, but boy did I hate them while I was a teenager! I remember dreading summer time, when we had to wear socks again and I could no long hide my “humongous” knees under 100,000 denier tights! Joking aside, this was clearly one of the danger signs that becoming fixating on an “imperfection” causes your mind to magnify it ten fold!
As I got through my mid teens I became obsessed with more body “flaws”. One was CELLULITE!! Why oh why do magazines draw so much attention to this? I probably would never have noticed my own cellulite had I never been exposed to the negativity and “stigma” around having it. Even though I am very toned now, I still have some cellulite. I’m not thrilled about this but what can I do – nothing – so I may as well just accept it! I’m certainly not the only female on earth to have cellulite.
The next flaw brought my body image issues to a whole new level and this is the one thing that has shown me that tampering with your body to try and “fix” something, will not bring you the results or effect you wish for. Genetically I was blessed with a nice arse, however the boob department always caused me great anxiety; especially when all my friends seemed to be bigger than me. I thought of course I was a freak and that no man would ever want me if I didn’t have bigger breasts, because I would never look feminine enough or ever fit into all the nice clothes and NATURALLY my arms looked disproportionately big because of my flat chest etc etc bla bla (the list was endless). All I ever noticed about other girls was how good they looked BECAUSE of their bigger boobs. I saw all the clothes I could not wear, because you would have to go bra-less. God forbid I took off my padded 32A bra!! I think I even slept in it 🙁 So instead of learning how to accept the way I was, I would research all the fad methods and even exercises to try and increase my breast size. Why did no one tell me that they would never work?? Why was I so obsessed with being perfect?
At 17 years old, I had tried everything but nothing was working, so then all I wanted was a boob-job! Thinking it would solve all my confidence issues I went to my Doctor and was placed on a waiting list for a bigger “better” pair of breasts. Now here’s the irony – I was on that waiting list for about three and a half years and, by the time I was called for my appointment, I had actually started to accept my body shape. I was even in a steady relationship with a guy who, despite being a self-confessed “boob-man”, loved me the way I was. But I went ahead with it anyway thinking it would only make my body, relationship and life better. Guess what, it actually made me extremely unhappy for the first couple of years and I have honestly regretted it since. Although I have now accepted the mistake – I wish I had never tampered with what I was given!
In the midst of all this manipulation, I was also struggling with my body weight. Up to my mid teens I had been very sporty but then was forced to give it up partly due to hip and knee pain and partly because I was getting plain lazy. After this, I began to notice a change in my body shape and size as I started to gain weight. This was very difficult because I had always been the “athletic” or “sporty” one in the family. As you can see from the picture below, the sack race was my greatest achievement in my early years:
The next picture is me at aged 19 (also, this is pre boob op). Later, after gaining a total of about 35lbs, I often dreamed of returning to this tiny weight of 119lbs (ish). This became my ultimate goal – regardless of, and ignorant to, body composition. I think a total ignorance or disregard for body composition is one of the biggest errors anyone can make during a weight loss attempt. For one, it should be called FAT LOSS!
Only two years later, I had probably gained about 14lbs and I started hating myself even more. For some reason, I always seemed to believe that I was a giant beside my friends. In any photos in University while we were out I always cringed at myself because they all looked so pretty and petite in comparison to me. CRAZY I know!! The three pictures below were taken about one year apart. I was 21 in the first one (pre boob op), 22 in the second (about 6 months post op) and 22 in the bottom one (at my fattest). To this day I hate these bottom two pictures! How did I let myself get like that? I never did myself any favours that’s for sure; eating junk food, drinking sugary alchopops, and doing zero exercise. Okay I was never obese but, at about 11 stone 3 lbs (157lbs), I was overweight for my height and age. Besides, what matters is that at that time I was extremely unhappy with how I looked.
My weight loss journey began shortly after this as I increased my activity levels by walking everywhere and trying to make better diet choices. Along the way I made many mistakes like doing crazy diets such as: only eating salad, only eating soup, taking appetite suppressants, starving myself. Each new method would last about 5 days and I would give up after I saw no effect. This sort of silly behaviour was bad enough but it was when I fell off the wagon that I was at my most vulnerable to even more dangerous behaviours. For example, if I ate a large meal or had a treat I went through a phase of making myself sick. This is shameful I know, but I was so desperate and I would have done anything just to be THIN! I used to look at all my friends and want to look like them! Thin = happy 🙁 Not so! Not only did I just want to be thin, I wanted to be thin YESTERDAY, so I had zero patience and zero concept at how to actually lose body fat and stay healthy.
Unrealistic expectations can be so dangerous!
The picture below was taken about 6 months after the last and I had lost a bit of weight just from being more active. I was feeling a lot happier with myself, but ONLY because I had lost weight! After another few months, the weight started to creep back on! It is hard to notice yourself putting on weight, especially when it happens slowly. Either that or I was living in denial hoping that it wasn’t true and wishing it would go away. My unhealthy behaviours started to come back too. I would feel SO guilty after a large meal that I hated myself. That feeling of self-hatred and regret that you have eaten this fattening meal was the catalyst for more extreme diets and lots of tears. I was always comparing myself to my sister or my friends thinking that I was the ugly fat one and no man would ever really like me. Despite having the boobs my feelings towards myself had not changed.
By my final year in University, I had started to feel better about my body and had lost weight again. It was around this time that my back pain got really bad. I didn’t know I had arthritis at the time and I think it was the inflammation and stress that caused most of my weight loss in the last few months of university. Would you believe that the next two photos were taken just months apart?? I must have lost about 10 – 14lbs in that time and was nearing my lightest weight, which was back to my goal of 119lbs! Although I was in pain, I was VERY happy to be thin. I was also very happy about everyone noticing that I had lost weight and saying how thin I looked etc etc!
What happened next was that I got into fitness and a whole new world of body image issues cropped up.
As some of you know from reading my older posts, my main fitness goal was to have a six-pack. So although I was happy to be thin, I had fallen into the belief system that in order to be considered fit, I needed to have low bodyfat levels and highly defined muscles, oh and maintain my tiny weight of 119lbs!! It was at this time that I became obsessed with eating healthy, trying to cut out all the junk and have strict meal times and set portions *yawn*! This was never going to work for me, but I went through the motions anyway, with the hope that it would make me happy – And you guessed it – I was NOT happy! I actually did a blog post on this a while ago; it’s called “Orthorexia and Extreme Leanness – Healthy Becomes Unhealthy“.
As you can all see, I have not reached my shallow goal of 15% bodyfat and a full six-pack. In actual fact I have finally begun to be happy in my body even with its so-called flaws. I now realise that there is more to me than my outer shell. There is a person inside who is dying to shine through and show others what she can achieve ! It’s not just how you look that attracts people to you, it’s what you radiate; inner strength verses inner hatred??
This is how my strength training has helped me the most. I have realised that training is about so much more than making you look a certain way. Yes, it has helped me achieve a look I am happy with, but this is not the body of my goal 2 years ago! Looks can only get you so far in life, and believe me I am grateful for my appearance, but I am now very aware that you need to break past that mind-set if you ever want to reach your full potential. Whether it is in training goals or life goals, having an inner strength and confidence is key. You cannot get this confidence from the outside, it has be be found within!
So am happy with how I look now?
About 80% of the time I am happy with how my body looks. During these times I can look at myself in the mirror and think I look stronger and better than I ever have. Inside I feel more confident and have been told many times lately that I seem much happier or more at peace with myself. I put a lot of this peacefulness down to my mind-set changing from “you could look better” to “you do look better and you have overcome so much”. The remaining 20% of the time, I waiver between mild Time of the Month “fat” days to feeling a little guilty when I pig out at the weekend, or I go on holiday to the USA and everything you eat has 6g of salt in it, blowing me up like a balloon which freaks me out a bit! In comparison to how I used to think and feel, I know I am no longer dangerously vain or dangerously body dysmorphic. There are things I am still not thrilled about (like my fat Irish knees LOL) but all in all I think I have done alright.
My appearance no longer rules my life 😀
Thanks for taking the time to read my story. Feel free to share your feedback or indeed your own story below or in the forum. Do you love the skin you are in?
Cheers
Marianne
Final picture (I love this one) of me aged 5 years – I had no idea that one day I would indeed end up a nurse!
Anyhow, at the end of 2011 I found Marianne on Youtube. I had been searching for someone to show me some kettlebell workouts that weren’t all Jane Fonda like and MK fit the bill perfectly. I started doing her routines (at my ability level) and motivation slowly started creeping back into my fitness soul. Through MK, I found 
