Fit Lizzio Fitness

It is days like today that I am so thankful to have this wonderful blog. I almost feel sorry for people who haven’t gotten into the whole “blogging” thing because it truly is therapeutic!

Today was one of those “i’m crawling in a hole today” days. I haven’t had one in a while, but stress got the best of me. I rolled with it, and I am feeling better now. Shopping at Sunflower Market usually puts me back in my place 🙂

Anyways, I didn’t work out at all today! I know, shocking right?! This had nothing to do with said crappy day, but it had to do with a few other things.

First of all, I have had 1 rest day in the last like 3 weeks, and have been working out for the past 10 days straight with no rest. All of them have been hard workouts, and some of them have been two-a-days. Tuesdays are the killers because its boxing, weight training, cardio and conditioning at night. Then Wednesdays are the CraZy Leg DaYs, so by Thursday when I have boxing and weight training AGAIN, I am more than beat. Anyways, along with a stupid wrist injury that I incurred last Thursday while boxing, I decided I needed a break today.

It took everything in me not to go work out and to make sure I wouldn’t, I wore flip flops all day haha!

I feel good about it though, because tomorrow is Leg Day and I know it will be a killer, always is.

I did a lot of thinking and soul-searching today and may have some news for you later this week, but I’m not saying anything until I am sure about it. GUH, I know, the suspense is going to kill you, huh?!

There was something I was really excited to blog about, and now I can’t remember for the life of me! I hate when that happens 🙁 OK I REMEMBERED! Haha, you all think I’m crazy now, but that’s okay.

It was this quote that stopped me in my tracks today. It made me laugh, but I also think it might be one of the greatest things I have heard lately.

Stolen from a friend’s Facebook status:

“When I get sad, I just stop being sad, and be awesome instead.”

Haha, totally funny and straightforward, but if you think about it, he’s totally right.

So that is my new mantra for this week. If I get sad, mad, angry, pissy, bitchy, snotty, snippy, snappy, SAMSONITE, i was way off!…..(I hope there are some D&D fans out there!) but anyways, you get my point. I am just going to remember this quote and snap out of whatever mood it is! Moods are only TEMPORARY states of mind. That is what we have to remember. Being sad or mad is TEMPORARY and that state of mind WILL change at some point. How you deal with it and face the mood is what will determine how long it is before your state of mind changes. Ironically enough, same with being happy. Happiness is also a state of mind, and CAN change. We all just need to learn to harness the good, and block out the bad. Harness. Good. Block. Bad. (Happy Gilmore?! Yes?!)

Man, I’m on a roll, I better quit while I’m ahead. 🙂 Biggest Loser tonight!

Visit Jen, A Prior Fat Girl’s Blog for some nutty goodness 🙂

Good morning!

I ran the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure this morning. I haven’t been running much lately, but wanted to do it to kick off my race season and also to honor my old neighbor, Darla Colton, who passed away just last week after a long battle with breast cancer.

I was supposed to have a few buddies for this race, but they all bailed so it was just me and the music ipod.

I felt really good this morning and once I put my headphones on and got in the zone, I was more than ready to run this race. After bustling through the crowds, I finally got into a good pace. I, stupidly, forgot my HRM, so I didn’t know my exact pace, but I had my cell phone so I kept track of time with that. I started out the race FAST and actually didn’t let up at all until probably half way through mile 2. Even then, I only let up a little bit, and picked it back up as soon as we turned the last corner. Throughout the race I kept finding people that I wanted to pass. As soon as I passed them, I would find my new victim 🙂 My final time, although I don’t know the EXACT seconds, was 25:30 (ish)!

That is the fastest 5k race I have ever done, and I felt pretty good throughout the whole thing. It made me realize that by strengthening my lower body and adding plyometrics, although I don’t run very often, I have still made significant progress in my running. I definitely pushed as hard as I could. When it was getting tough, I just kept thinking about Darla and how if she could battle CANCER, I could sure as hell battle the fatigue to push through this race quickly.

I finished happily and began the walk back to the car. Along the way I realized something.

Epiphany: I thought about the fact that (in my opinion) 80% of exercise and being in shape is mental. Of course, you get in better shape by pushing yourself , working hard, and repetition, but the hardest of all of those is pushing yourself. It made me realize that the strength to push yourself is what takes you to the next level. Sure, your muscles grow, they retain muscle memory, they function more properly through exercise, but if you don’t have the power to push yourself, it doesn’t matter HOW strong or in shape you are.

The stronger you are mentally, the better you will become whether it is running, lifting weights, swimming, etc.

I can confidently say that I pushed myself HARD in this race today. Being able to push yourself is like anything else. It takes practice, persistence, and the willingness to step out of your comfort zone. Even if for just a moment or two, those moments will add up.

Have a wonderful Sunday! 🙂

October in Arizona is literally PARADISE. The weather is a breezy 75-80 degrees and it is amazing. I love walking outside in the morning and it being a little bit chilly, and love even more walking outside in the afternoon to a cool breeze. Ahhhh, weather, PLEASE stay like this forever 🙂

Things are going f-a-b in this house 🙂 I love my new trainer, I love the new diets he has me doing, and I love working out!

I had a little bit of an epiphany the other day. Maybe it was just an epiphany to me, but I’ll share anyways haha.

I was thinking about how people work at jobs they hate, butthose jobs pay well. They are raking in the dough, but just really don’t enjoy what they are doing. Is it worth it? Would you/Do you have a job that pays well but one that you don’t like?

 I realized that this can be applied to fitness. You can work your butt off in the gym and get the results you want on your body, but if you hate it, is it worth it? Is it worth the struggle every day doing something you don’t like, even though it reaps the benefits?

Then I got to thinking about how my dad, and others have said, do what you love, and you will find a way to make decent/good money doing it. It’s true. If you are passionate about something, you are probably going to work harder at it and find a way to be successful in it. Once again, I applied this to fitness. If you find some type of exercise that you like, you will find a way to reap the benefits from it.

I just was thinking about how much I absolutely LOVE working out and how everyone around me keeps saying to “pull back”, “don’t work out as much/hard” etc. While I am very aware that sometimes I over do it, as long as I take care of my body and don’t push through injuries, and listen to my body when it wants to stop, I will continue to work out as much as I want. Ahh, feels good to get that off my chest. I know some of you are sitting here thinking I am a crazy person(I am, though, so you are correct ;-)) I really just enjoy everything about sports and training. I was ALWAYS in sports growing up, and at lunch I was always playing football or soccer with the boys. It is who I am. It would be like if I told someone who loved reading that they should read less because they read too much.

I am not ranting at all, I guess I am just making peace with myself that this is something I love, and if I feel like boxing twice in one day, well hot damn I’m gonna do it! 🙂 And I am NOT going to feel guilty about it. With that said, if my body is feeling over trained, I will pull back for a few days. If I feel an injury coming on, I will slow it down and take it easy. I know how far I can push my body safely. Okay, enough 🙂

Yesterday’s Workout

Glutes, Biceps and Triceps were trained in the morning with Ernie(new trainer). Afterwards, I did about 20 minutes on the treadmill with a 15% incline.

I then headed over to Funktional Fitness for a functional workout. It was complete with a little over a 1/4 mile lap as fast as I could (1:43), and a Tabata workout with kettle bell squats, kettle bell lunges, TRX pushups, throwing ropes(see pic below..don’t worry that’s not me 😉), and to be honest, I can’t remember what else haha. It was a great workout though!

This morning was BOOT CAMP. 🙂 It was still dark out when we started and it was honestly an amazing workout. The beautiful weather makes me love doing pretty much anything outdoors. All of the girls are in amazing shape and I love that because it makes me push myself harder. I always pick out whoever is in the best shape to pace myself with. Today there was a guy at boot camp and I was using him to keep pace when we were doing bleachers and sprints. I was REALLY pushing myself trying to keep up with him he was freaking FAST. I didn’t ever catch up but it did put me ahead of the other girls.

I’m having such a great week and I will continue to make every day as great as possible.(Notice how I said MAKE them as great as possible. Because yes, happiness is something you have to DO, not something you HAVE. (At least that is my opinion)

Have a great day everyone!!! 🙂

Hey guys, after a request from the lovely Reese,  I decided to post a typical day of my eating for all to see. This is not my competition diet, this is just every day clean eating. It keeps me satisfied and fuels my workouts.

Meal 1: 1/2 cup oats (or  1/4 cup oats, 1/4 cup wheat bran), 1/2 banana, 1 TBSP Almond or Peanut Butter, 1 TBSP Chia Seeds, Cinnamon

Meal 2: 4 oz. chicken, 1/2 cup cooked brown rice, 1/4 avocado, 2 TBSP Salsa, Veggies

Meal 3: Salad with 4 oz. chicken or fish, any veggies you like, sometimes i add 1/4 cup of black beans, 1 TBSP EV Coconut oil and salsa for dressing

Meal 4: 1 cup egg whites, 1 cup spinach, veggies on the side(or mixed in, your call :))

Meal 5: Same as Meal 2

Meal 6: Same as meal 4

Here’s the thing: I always mix it up. Sometimes I will have meal 3 for meal 2, and meal 5 for meal 1, depending on how I feel. Sometimes, I will stop at the grocery store and get some strawberries and greek yogurt to have as a snack instead of one of those meals. I also swap out the brown rice for sweet potatos and quinoa regularly. As long as my eats are CLEAN and i am pairing my foods together to make it a meal or mini-meal, it works out.

The main goal is to try to pair protein, a complex carb, and fats into most meals. I tend to eat my complex carbs earlier in the day if possible, but sometimes that doesn’t work out and that is OKAY. I eat my complex carbs in 2-3 meals per day and stick to veggies for my carb for the other meals. I have healthy fats usually at 2-4 meals per day.  I always have a protein at each meal. At the end of the day, I like to aim for about 135 g. protein, 150-250 g. carbs, and 50-60 g. fat. Some may think that is a lot of fat, but these are good, healthy fats, and you need fat to burn fat! Some might also think that is a lot of carbs, but I am highly active and I need the carbs to build muscle. Yes, you heard that right, CARBS BUILD MUSCLE. This is such a misconception with many people. They think that protein is the only thing that helps you build muscle. Yes, you need adequate protein, but too much and your body just gets rid of it or turns it into fat. Complex carbs are ESSENTIAL in building muscle and that is why i try to pair complex carbs into 2-3 meals per day. Choosing the right carbs is important as well.

Here is a list of foods that I eat regularly. They keep me full, I enjoy them, and they are clean/healthy eats.

Proteins: Chicken breast, Extra lean ground turkey, egg whites, eggs(1 whole per day), Plain greek yogurt, 100% Whey Protein Isolate

Complex Carbs(Good carbs): Brown rice, sweet potatoes, quinoa, black beans(both quinoa & black beans are also good sources of protein), rolled oats

Veggies: ANY AND ALL VEGGIES ROCK MY WORLD 🙂 Faves include: Red bell peppers, green beans, asparagus, broccoli, cauliflower, baby carrots, tomatoes, spinach, kale, cucumbers, zucchini, etc.

Fruit: FOR ME, i try to minimize fruit because of how it makes me feel during the day. Too much fruit, and I feel tired and lethargic throughout the day. I usually stick to having my 1/2 banana with my oats in the morning, and maybe an apple or something later in the day, but as I said this is just ME. Fruits are totally AWESOME and definitely my favorite food in the world. Eat them in plentiful amounts. Yes, you can eat too much fruit, but in my opinion, if eating too much fruit is your worst problem. you are doing just fine 😉

Fats: Avocado(1/4-1/2), natural almond & peanut butter(1-2TBSP), extra virgin coconut oil(make sure it isn’t refined!)(1TBSP), Extra virgin olive oil(1TBSP)(i’m not a big fan of it just because i like my foods without oils most of the time, but it is very healthy!), CHIA SEEDS(I swear these things are magical and give me the energy of a 4 year old kid in a candy store)

Note: This is just a brief list and I’m sure I left some things off of there. When in doubt, ask yourself if what you were eating is in its natural state, or if it has been altered. Stick to foods in their natural state. I can’t even begin to explain how much better I feel and how much more efficiently I function when I am eating clean. I feel like absolute CRAP when I eat CRAP food, and it takes a little getting used to , but once you do you will get to bask in all of the wonderful benefits.

If you have ANY questions, please feel free to ask. I have a lot of knowledge on nutrition for both training and everyday life and LOVE to help others in their journey.

P.S.: If you are eating clean foods, you get to eat MORE food and still lose weight(if that is your goal). The beauty of it is that you ask yourself how in the HELL you can get away with eating that much food and still lose weight. I went through it and literally felt like I was cheating the system because I was never hungry. The only time I got hungry was during my depletion for my competition. NEWSFLASH: YOU DO NOT HAVE TO BE STARVING TO LOSE WEIGHT. Just choose the right foods, and I promise you will feel satisfied. 

 Have a good day ladies (and gents?) 😀

If you’d like to e-mail me: [email protected]

Hey guys!

Tuesday Workouts:

Boxing, Shoulders & Chest, Boxing Conditioning at night.

Then, I tuned into the Biggest Loser. Love that show, but some of those contestants really annoy me. Not going to mention names coughTRACYcough. 🙂

Moving on, Leg day today…..I’ll share 🙂

This workout is extremely hard. Go at your own risk.

3 sets total-circuit style

-Step Ups(20 per side)

-Scissor Jumps(jumping lunges basically, 20 reps)

-bench jumps(20 reps… jump on the bunch, jump down)

-Jumping Hack squat machine(20 reps…keep the weight semi-light so that you can jump, but heavy enough that it burns)

-inverted leg press(15 reps, heavy)

-Smith machine squats(15 reps, heavy)

-Sled push(you probably won’t have this at your gym, but if you have some type of cart with wheels and you can put weights on it, go for it! 2 lengths of the gym)

-Leg extensions(medium weight, 30 reps..this one BURNSS)

-walking lunges(20 reps total)

-Side shuffle (find a stretch of the gym that will give you enough room)

-Squats with two plates under your heels and a barbell over head(15 reps)

-Bench jump overs (side to side…20 reps per leg)

-Run around gym dragging a pack of weights(another one that may be hard to do if you dont have the equipment)

-Toe touches(not the cheerleader kind, bring one foot up to a bench and hop from foot to foot alternating …)

-Cable squats(put the rope attachment on the cable on the lowest setting, put about half the weight stack on, and hold the rope with arms stretched out and do squats…15 reps)

-Burpees(20 reps)

-Bosu Jump Overs(Same as the side to side bench jump overs,  but with a bosu….20 reps per side)

-Stand over a short bench with legs on either side and jump up on the bench and back to the ground(20 reps)

-Frog hops the length of the gym(just find a good length in the gym to do this)

AND YES, THAT ENTIRE THING, THREE-EFFIN-TIMES.

My new trainer brings Leg day a WHOLE NEW MEANING.

On that note, I’m sure you can understand why I didn’t do cardio today 🙂

I did however finish up with some triceps. It felt like heaven after that Leg-Kill.

Eating has been superb and I am really excited about the next few weeks and the changes I will see.

Persistence beats Perfection EVERY TIME.

Hola! I don’t have very much time (do I ever?) so I’m just gonna get right to it.

Workouts have been great…yesterday was back and hamstrings. Awesome stuff 🙂 I did cardio afterwards: 15% incline, 3.3mph for 32 minutes, and then brought the speed to 1.2mph and did lunges for 15 minutes. Good stuff i tell ya 😉

Today was boxing. My quads were feeling a bit tight this morning, and the sprints we did in boxing did not help. In fact, my right quad tightened up REALLY bad afterwards, and i was continually stretching and rolling it out as much as I could before training. I got to training#1 and we did some light band work on my upper body. Afterwards, I went to trainer #2 at the other gym. Today was shoulders and chest. Tough workout!! I mentioned my quad to trainer #2, and he marched me right into his office that he shares with a physical therapist. Carl rolled my quad out for me and OH.MY.GOSH pain like no other. I know rolling out muscles hurts and I was prepared, but let me just tell you, I think the hulk was rolling my quad out. It was totally unbearable and my trainer had to hold me down from squirming haha no joke! I know with that kind of thing you just have to grin and bear, but I was far from grinning. One of the ladies joked that the only thing to compare it to was child birth. Awesome, never having kids. (totally kidding)

I took a test, worked and now I’m getting ready for conditioning tonight. I will NOT be doing any of the leg work that they do tonight, just the boxing and upper body work. Tomorrow is leg day at the gym and I want my quad to be nice and rested and ready to go.

Good night all 🙂

My perfect day would include:

Boxing

Rock Climbing

Wakeboarding

Lifting

Running/Hiking

Recording music, playing piano/guitar/drums(not very well though with the drums lol..still learning) and listening to music

Talking to like-minded fitness/nutrition individuals

Laughing

Being with the love of my life

Enjoying.every.single.moment.

I got this in me e-mail yesterday, and I think it might be one of the best things I have heard in a while:

“Lost time doesn’t return. What we fail to do today is gone forever. Harsh, I know. But it’s a great motivator if you see it in the right light.

Today, make a decision. Jump into something unknown. Take a chance. This life goes by too fast to stay stuck in being stuck”

On that note, I’m going to bed. Bleachers in the morning 🙂

Okay, more like a drive-by posting..errr..kinda. 🙂

The weather was BEAUTIFUL today 🙂 Finally getting some cooler temps here in AZ. I’m loving it.

This morning I woke up bright and early(5 am) to meet with the rest of “Ernie’s Girls” to do our Saturday Boot Camp.

It was a great workout and FUN 🙂

Started off with 15 bleachers, with various plyo exercises in between each. Then we moved down to the field where we did various things such as: sprints with parachutes tied around our waist..this was fun and i was the fastest one which is SO unlike me…i told the guys on my softball team and they laughed in my face. They have always made fun of the fact that I look like I’m running in slow motion to first base 🙂 Maybe i got faster?! haha.

We also did walking lunges while pulling a sack of weights behind us(this was HARD but holy glute action), pushed a sled full of weights up and down the field(this picture demonstrates it best….)

We also did suicides, indian runs and some ladder drills.

Result: Good, heart-pumping workout 🙂 We all went to Starbucks afterwards for some coffee(i got water..not a coffee/tea person) and headed to the gym for abs class. Great morning! All before 8:30am 🙂

Afterwards, I came home, chilled out, made some turkey burgers!!(99% fat free, no sodium added ground turkey) and ate meals, showered, etc. Then it was off to my friends baby shower! It was a good time, co-ed so it wasn’t an over powering madness of women 🙂 I have very few girlfriends, and this was actually my good friend’s wife’s baby shower. I am totally one of the guys and get sick of too many women all at once. Too much drama/chatter/blah-dee-blah…at the same time, put me in a room with a bunch of bodybuilding/figure/bikini/gym rat, etc girls and i can’t get enough because then we can all just talk about our workouts, diets, posing etc. for hours and nobody gets annoyed! haha good times.

7 weeks until the big day(actually 6 weeks and 6 days but who’s counting?) I plan on putting up pictures at 6 weeks out. Eeek.. I’m totally not where I should be, but I have faith that I can pull this off. Just gotta be strict about the diet, keep up with the FAB workouts, and most importantly BELIEVE in myself and what I am doing.

If you THINK it, you will BECOME it.

One more thing to leave you guys with. Many people say “Don’t worry about what other people think!!” This is a true statement, but only to a point. You see, if you didn’t care what other people thought, you wouldn’t push yourself to run a little faster when you were side by side with another girl at a race. You wouldn’t do that extra pushup because your instructor/trainer told you to. You wouldn’t push yourself any harder than you wanted to because you wouldn’t care what anybody else thought. I would say that the biggest reason I have gotten to the point I’m at as far as physical condition, endurance and strength is that I wanted to impress, not only myself, but others. Sure, it goes against what everyone says about only worrying about yourself, but ya know what? I’d probably be a fat blob on the couch if I didn’t worry about what anyone else thought.

Don’t get me wrong guys, I LOVE being an athlete. I am an athlete because I don’t dread working out, running, etc. When I am presented with a new physical challenge, I get butterflys. It is a mix of excitement, fear, and competition. It is the fact that I wouldn’t trade my physical fitness for ANYTHING in this world. I love being challeneged, I love workouts that leave me panting, sweating, yelling, and almost puking. YES, it is tough on the body, NO, it isn’t comfortable at times, but it gives me a chance to prove to myself that I CAN DO IT. I love my lifestyle, and if I could do this for a living I would….and oh yeah, I will do this for a living 🙂

Any other Dumb & Dumber fans out there?!

I am a total Jim Carrey fan: Dumb & Dumber, Liar Liar, Ace Ventura(both of them), and all of his other movies. His latest one, Yes Man! was really funny as well. I know he kind of got a little serious in some of his more recent movies, but this was the old Jim Carrey back in action.

ANYWAYS, done rambling about movies 🙂

Nutrition/Food is going REALLY well. I just really came to terms with my mind/body connection and I feel really great. It feels good to feel good. 🙂

On the workout front, holyyyy cow. I definitely had a “crazy Lizzy” workout week. The kind where I’m probably doing too much, but I just am loving every second of it that I don’t want to pull back at all. However, I WILL a little bit. Sunday is going to be a total rest day for me.(I may hike in the morning, but I’m not sure yet.)

Recap: (on regular sets it was 3 sets of 10,12,15; “light” work was 15,20,25 reps)

Monday- Back, light hamstrings, light biceps + 30 min. incline walking +15 min. elliptical

Tuesday- Boxing + Shoulders, Light Chest, Abs + Boxing Conditioning at night

Wednesday-Holy Leg Day(this was the one filled with plyos and heavy work) + Funktional workout

Thursday- Boxing + Triceps with Trainer 1 + Back, Light Shoulders with Trainer 2

This brings us to today. I warmed up on the elliptical and then we hit Hamstrings, Glutes, and Light Biceps today. Another awesome workout with the new trainer. I’m officially a fan 🙂 

I didn’t have ONE crappy workout this week. They were all balls to the wall, pushing as hard as I could. Love it 🙂

Tomorrow morning I have bootcamp with the new trainer and all of his girls. I saw them last weekend and it looked really cool! Can’t wait.(Except the fact that it is at 6am on a Saturday) At least it won’t be hot outside!

I also have to give myself a pat on the back for being SUPER productive today and the last few days I guess too. But today, I worked out, ran an errand, cleaned and organized my stuff(most of it was still in boxes from the move..i’m about 85% done!), got my hair done(it was necess i swear!), went grocery shopping, bought a text book, printed my study guides for a test next week, did laundry, and now I am off to clean and organize some more. i am determined to get this done tonight. Then I’m off to bed!

Ah one more thing! I was talking to Trainer Dos today, and he said that this November will probably be my last bikini show and that figure is next up! So exciting 🙂 My “bulking” really did work. I knew it did, but wasn’t sure how noticable it was to the rest of the world. He is the 2nd person to comment on it so I’m a happy girl!! (*Note: I am not trying to get big or bulky, but I was a string bean on stage in July, so I just wanted a little more!)

The little broski and I in Dana Point last year. We are total goofs. He is honestly the funniest kid alive. I will tape him doing his voice impressions sometime, they get any room bursting in tears of laughter. (He has lost about 65 pounds since this picture.)