Tag Archive for fitness

Make a Workout Date!

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fun gym 3

One of my favorite ways to stay accountable for a workout is to make a date with a friend. I try to do this a few times a week for two reasons:

1) I get to catch up with my friends while getting my fitness on! We’re all pretty busy, so this is a great excuse to catch up while we sweat.

2) Another person to push you. I don’t know about you, but nobody is ever allowed to beat me. And if they do, I’ll die trying to catch up.

Today, I made two dates with two different friends. It is also Tuesday, which means it’s hip hop cardio day. Needless to say, it was quite the active day!

Workout #1: The morning workout consisted of pushups, pull ups, snatches, burpees, box jumps, leg press, and a 15 minute elliptical session. I did this in between work (I work at the gym, which makes it easy for me).

Workout #2: today was hip hop cardio. I love this class so much because I’m NOT a dancer. Yes, you heard that right. Most people get excited because they were a dancer as a child, or they love to dance and are good at it. I’m a metal head. This is so different from what I’m used to and I have an absolute blast. I’m not the best dancer, but I have fun and sweat my booty off, so I win!

Workout #3: Finally, my friend met me at the gym this evening for Date #2. Don’t hate the player, hate the game. 😉 I found the workout below on instagram and we decided to do it. We did two full rounds of it and finished off with some freestyle dancing and shenanigans as always.

kb workout

The moral of the story? Making a date with a friend will greatly improve the chances of you showing up AND will likely push you to work harder. I don’t recommend making 3 dates in the SAME DAY, however, so learn from my mistakes. Somehow I think getting out of bed tomorrow is going to hurt….

sword fight

The next time you’re feeling less than thrilled to workout, grab a friend and enjoy some friendly competition and catch-up time!

Do you make workout dates with your friends? What is your favorite thing about them?

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Survey and Goals

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I always forget how much I love writing/blogging until I start doing it again. I decided today is as good a day as any!

It’s a lazy Sunday, and I’ve put in a tough week of workouts including, but not limited to: hiking, tabata, strength training, running, plyometrics, hip hop, and kettle bells. Now that I write that out, I really hit a rainbow of workouts this week! It’s always fun to mix things up and do different things. I actually didn’t do any steady-state cardio on a machine this week, and still feel like I kicked.my.booty.

Goals of This Blog

–Healthy Eating: I’ll document some of the healthy foods I incorporate in my life. It’s taken me a long time to find my health-shui if you will and now that I’ve got it, I think it’d be nice to share it with the world. My quick outlook: Make the healthiest choices you can that still make you happy. That is, if you just want to have the fries, but don’t really care to have cheese or a bun on your burger, then by all means do it. Make the changes that you don’t notice as much, and keep the foods you enjoy in your life in moderation. And sometimes? You just go get frozen yogurt because your boyfriend wants it. 🙂

–Exercise and Fitness: I’ll document my workouts, give some workout suggestions, and share my thoughts on exercise. I am a certified personal trainer and a 6 year test dummy with fitness. I’ve tried it all from bodybuilding to power lifting, to crossfit, etc. In addition, while, yes, I work at Iron Gym in Santa Monica, I’ve also really enjoyed the new group fitness program we’ve implemented called Momentum. I’m going to start highlighting the different classes we offer there because having these classes available to me have helped me to try new things that I never would have otherwise. Maybe you will find some inspiration as well!

Since it’s been a while, and my life is constantly changing, I thought a little “about me” survey would be in order. As I type this, I’m enjoying TJ’s Spicy Ranchero Egg White Salad and baby carrots dipped in TJ’s Spinach and Kale Greek Yogurt Dip. Holy yum.

Spinach and Kale dip front tjseggwhite

Here we go….

A – Age: 25..a quarter of a century! (gulp)
B – Bed size: Queen
C – Chore you hate: i know this is weird, but dying my hair. I get gray hair because I’m 25 going on 92, and paying to get it done every 3 weeks is just insanity, so I do it myself. It sucks, but it’s cheap 🙂
D – Dog’s name: My dog in AZ is Knuckles. Here in LA, I don’t have one yet…..but I’m working on convincing the boyfriend that we NEED one now. A boxer would be just dandy 🙂
E – Essential start your day item: Workout and caffeine. In any order.
F – Favorite color: black and gray. I’m dark 🙂
G – Gold or Silver: Silver
H – Height: 5’7.5…that .5 counts ok!
I – I am: very strange, a hard worker, and somewhat frustrating. But I’m funny, so that cancels everything else out. 😀
J – Job: You mean jobS. I’m a manager at a gym, a part time office manager for a celebrity, a sound engineer, a personal assistant/office manager for an executive, and the owner of MyPartTimeManager. I work a lot 🙂
K – Kids: Just my boyfriend.
L – Living arrangements: I live in a 2 bedroom apartment with a roommate and my boyfriend.
M – Mom’s name: Caryle
N – Nicknames: Lizard, Lizzio, Gizmo, Giz, Zeedee, Lizzandra
O – Overnight hospital stay other than birth: Thankfully, never.
P – Pet Peeve: I have so many. People tend to annoy me in general. I definitely hate when people leave you waiting, rather than just giving you an answer. I also can’t stand stupid people and incompetence. Oddly enough though, I get along with pretty much everyone.
Q – Quote from a movie:? I have always said if you could have a career in quoting movies, I’d do that. But alas, I am asked this question with nothing coming to mind.
R – Right or left handed: Both!
S – Siblings: Sister (32), Brother (30), Brother (21)… although looking at that there is no way my baby brother is that old!!!!!! He is still 10 in my head. 😀
T – Time you wake up: 8 or 9ish usually.
U- Underwear: I wear it, yes.
V – Vegetable you dislike: I LOVE vegetables. But peas? No thank you.
W – Ways you run late: Left, right, center.
X – X-rays you’ve had: dental, elbow, shoulder, etc. I’m an athlete. While I’ve had no major injuries, I’ve definitely had minor ones.
Y – Yummy food you make: I make weird things. I get on a kick and that is what I eat for weeks straight. Right now an egg white sandwich with ezekiel bread (toasted), egg whites and TJ’s Spicy Jalapeno Sausage cooked together and topped with a little bit of colby jack cheese. Yummmmmm.
Z – Zoo favorite: I went to the San Diego Zoo last year for the first time since being a kid. It was the most depressing thing ever and I’ll never go back.

Your turn!

Posted in about me, nutrition, random, Workout tagged with , , , ,

Tyranna-SORE-ASS Lizzy

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Ah, the close of the weekend. For many, this is a dreaded day, as you gear up for a 40 hour week in the office. For me, it doesn’t matter what day of the week it is. Sometimes I don’t work much during the week and a ton on the weekends, sometimes I work 7 days a week (although lately that hasn’t been the case) and sometimes it evens out through the week. It works for me, since my brain is scattered anyways, but I am quite sure it would give some people an ulcer.

i-hate-mondays

Regardless, somehow I still find it tough to be motivated on the weekends. I want to workout, but I also just want to be lazy. On Friday, I did a leg workout that rocked my world. It altered my Saturday workout plans, in that, I didn’t work out. I couldn’t walk. I looked like I’d been riding a horse for a week. Not pretty. I did do 100 pushups (broken up into 10 sets of 10) but considered it mostly a rest day.

This morning, I woke up late. Last night was spent at my boyfriend’s new recording studio and it was the first time that we actually got to hook up some microphones and record! It was actually really freakin’ cool, especially considering how much work has been put into that place. That put us home at around 3am, so today started out slower than usual.

I met my friend Tedi at the gym at around 2pm after running a few errands with my manfriend. My legs were still sore and I just wasn’t sure how well this was going to work out. We started off doing about 15 minutes on the treadmill to warm up and then we hit the floor.

We did a series of exercises and then turned it into a buddy workout. It ended up being a complete BLAST and we plan on doing it every weekend. It’s extra motivation to have someone there with you when you’re feeling less than motivated. I’m not going to lie, my legs probably needed one more day, but I made sure to warm them up and stretch them out quite a bit in order to get through this without injury.  Here’s what we did:

WEEKEND WORKOUT

3 sets:

-Squat to bicep curl to shoulder press with DB’s (12-15 reps)

…………..superset with mountain climbers (50 reps total)

3 sets:

-Bosu DB Deadlifts (you can do from the floor if you’re not very stable on a bosu) (15 reps)

…………..superset with Bosu pushups (also can do from the knees if needed) (8-10 reps)

Then we did 3 sets of 2 different ab exercises with a blaster in between each set. We switched off deciding what our blaster would be. No rest. It went a little like this:

-Opposite hand to opposite foot sit ups (10 reps per side)

-50 jumping jacks (my pick)

-Opposite hand to opposite foot sit ups (10 reps per side)

-20 low box jumps (her pick)

-Opposite hand to opposite foot sit ups (10 reps per side)

-In/Out squat jumps: 10 reps legs together, 10 reps legs apart, alternating (my pick)

-Medicine ball sit ups (resting partner throws the ball to working partner, then switch) (15 reps)

-Run around the gym as fast as you can (her pick)

-Medicine ball sit ups (resting partner throws the ball to working partner, then switch) (15 reps)

-10 burpees (my pick)

-Medicine ball sit ups (resting partner throws the ball to working partner, then switch) (15 reps)

-1000 meter row (her pick)

 

This was a great workout and was super motivating to have a partner. It’s nice when you split the decisions because you have some control but are also not sure what to expect. Find a friend and try this workout! Let me know what you think. (Feel free to switch up any of the exercises, but you get the idea.)

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A Real Americano & a Workout

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Editor’s Note: I published this yesterday, but WordPress lost it. I had to re-write it. I wasn’t happy.

Oh man. Last night was one of those nights where sleep just didn’t happen. It never seems like that big of a deal at the time, but then you wake up the next morning. And it’s a bigfuckin’deal! You begin to think of what excuses you can use to stay in bed and convince yourself that getting up wouldn’t be healthy for you….

dog.in.bed

My schedule is pretty flexible, and this morning was definitely one of those days that I tried to think of excuses. Alas, I realized I better just get up and knock things off my to-do list instead. I had a lot to get done.

I work part-time at a boutique gym in Santa Monica. I started working there the day after I moved to LA. As in, I got to LA at 3pm on a Saturday and was at work at 7am the next morning. With that said, this place has grown to be somewhat of a home to me. When I started, I worked at the front desk. It began as about a 15 hour a week gig, but soon turned into 30+ hours per week. One day, I decided to quit to pursue other things. Then they re-hired me. The same day. In a different position. So now I do a bunch of administrative work for the gym and basically make my own schedule.

Today when I got to the gym, it hit me as soon as I walked in the door. I needed it. I needed ‘a real one.’ You see, I’ve been trying to cut down on caffeine (and lately failing miserably, but did give it up for a good 6 months or so) and have made decaf Americanos a staple. Sure, I will drink 3 energy drinks in a day and be okay with it, but I won’t deviate from my decaf Americanos. Shut up. Logic isn’t one of my strengths.

The rebel in me decided that today needed to be a rule-breaking kind of day. There is a cute little coffee shop across the street from the gym, and it wasn’t long before I was walking through the door looking like Lindsay Lohan everyday after a long night. The owner of the shop immediately started to say “So a deca..” but I cut him off, looked him straight in the eye and said, “I need a real one today.” He knew I wasn’t joking and was on top of it immediately. And that was that. Soon I had this staring at me. It was glorious. And real. I like caffeine, yes I do.

americano

It lit quite a fire under my ass and I was able to get a whole lot done today. It also inspired me to do this fun little workout. It’s quick, tough, and sweaty. Hope you enjoy!

Upside Down Christmas Tree Workout (Lame Name Award goes to me!)

5 ROUNDS:

Burpees w/ push-ups (10 reps, 20 sec. rest between sets)

Rest 1 minute, then…

4 ROUNDS:

Superset: DB Squats w/ BB Push Press (10 reps each, 20 sec. rest between supersets)

Rest 1 minute, then…

3 ROUNDS:

Superset: Swiss ball crunch (10 reps) w/ 30 second plank (no rest)

No rest from here on out..

2 ROUNDS: 

Superset: Lat pulldown w/ Seated row (10 reps)

1 ROUND:

400m Sprint

 Leave a comment if you try the workout, and let me know how it goes. Then riddle me this:

If you had to live on candy, what would you buy?

I’d definitely buy sour patch kids and sweet tarts.

 

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Remember me?!

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Holy crap!! I have completely neglected this blog. Life has been nuts, but that isn’t why I haven’t blogged on here. I just haven’t felt compelled to write about fitness/nutrition lately, so I started a music blog called It Just Sounds Good.

The good news, though, is that I plan on updating this blog as well! I miss blogging on here, and miss interacting with my awesome readers! I hope there are still some out there!

So what have I been up to?? EVERYTHING!!!! In keeping things simple, I still work out daily, but my workouts are somewhat different. I’ve been running a lot more, doing more plyometric/circuit/compound exercises in the gym and have shyed away from heavy lifting. My reasoning? For one, I just haven’t felt like it. I’m really liking the fast-pace movements lately. The other reason…well I have a pretty decent amount of muscle, I don’t want more, and I tend to put on muscle fairly easily! I know that many people say this, but I actually got a blood test and my testosterone levels are slightly higher than the average female (maybe i’m a man? haha justtt kidding) but this is common for weight lifters, actually. With that said, I will still throw in some conventional lifting days here and there, but for the most part I’m running 5-8 miles 3 days a week, doing 2-3 circuit/plyo workouts in the gym per week, and on then some track workouts and boot camp style workouts usually about once per week. I occasionally am boxing (when I can wake up that early!) and have also been riding my bicycle around to run my short errands!!

The Food

Well in January, I decided I needed to overhaul my view on food. I have to be honest with you guys, I’ve gained a pretty good amount of weight since I competed. I no longer have that tiny lean body, but I’m not a big tub of lard either. I am muscular, with some extra padding is the best way to put it! My weight around competition time was about 130, these days I’m about 155. A 25 pound weight gain….It’s embarassing, frustrating, and is completely my fault. I will say, however, that I’m at a healthy weight for my height and build, and besides my elevated testosterone levels(sounds so funny haha), all of my blood tests came back saying that I’m a healthy bean, so I really have to remind myself to be thankful of that!

How Competing Changed Me

Competing was an amazing experience. I decided in December 2008 to get in the best shape of my life and compete, and I DID! I will be honest, my body looked smokin’!!! (Of course at the time, I only saw my flaws.) I  guess being so naive to the sport was a blessing, because I had a great prep (no crazy carb-cutting) and did well. It was after competing that things got a little hairy. Suddenly, those who saw potential in me, started giving me advice. They told me what I should/shouldn’t do, and it was coming from many different angles. It really made me view everything differently and I got a very bad mental view on food, eating and working out. I could go on and on (and if you’d like me to, leave a comment or shoot me an e-mail and I’ll do an entire post on my thoughts/feelings on everything). I started to try to put on muscle, and also was eating more to do so. This slight weight gain looked to me like I had gained 50 pounds! Your body image gets really screwed up when you get super lean. Anything above that, and you truly believe you’re fat. From there, it was downhill and I have basically yo-yo’ed my weight for the last year and a half.

How I’ve Changed Recently

Going back to my “overhaul” this past January, I decided to STOP restricting the types of foods I was eating, and be a “normal person.” I have still been counting calories, but I haven’t been restricting WHAT I can eat. I’ve eaten gummy candy (helloooo sour gummy worms!), sandwiches (oh, how i missed those turkey sandwiches), and even the occasional sweet treat. In doing so, I haven’t really lost weight, but I haven’t gained weight either. I haven’t been “perfect” but that wasn’t my goal. My goal was to rid myself of viewing foods as good or bad and stopping myself from being so obsessive about the types of foods I was eating.

The Verdict

I finally feel good about food. I feel like I have made LEAPS in the last 3 months. Had I done this a year ago, I think things would have been much easier. As dumb as it sounds, I feel very proud of this. I know many people who absolutely fall into eating disorders from competing and seem to never free themselves, but I finally feel freed from it. I don’t think that I had an eating disorder, but did I have a skewed view on food? Heck yes I did. Very screwed up.

Body Image Now and Goals

I still suffer from some body image issues. After all, I’m not lean anymore(and hello, i’m a girl!), and it’s a hard pill to swallow. I don’t look the way that I want to, but my goals have also changed. A happy weight for me these days would be about 140. I think I was a bit too small at 130, and although I did love that look, it was hard to maintain. I think that I could maintain a 140 pound body without being “crazy” about a strict diet. So, with April 1st being tomorrow, and me being cliche, I’m going to start tightening up my diet a little bit. I know you’re probably thinking “Lizzy, you just told us you were getting away from that, what’s with this?!” But the fact of the matter, is that my mind is different now. I feel comfortable cleaning up my diet a bit (less junk, more wholesome foods, slightly less calories) without falling back into a distorted view of food and eating. While I don’t believe you have to eat squeaky clean to lose weight (you absolutely do NOT) I prefer to eat this way for the most part. It doesn’t mean I won’t have the occasional turkey sandwich or beef jerky (another recent obsession) but probably not as frequently. (Not to mention beef jerky is too damn expensive!)

GOALS

-Lose 15 pounds

-Continue viewing food in a healthy way

-Keep doing the work outs I love

-Stress out LESS

-Don’t dwell on my flaws!

Wow, that was a marathon of a post!! I also want to note, I’m VERY HAPPY with life right now. I’m following my dreams in the music business and I couldn’t be more blessed with everything going on. Hopefully I didn’t portray that I have been depressed or anything, because that definitely ISN’T the case. I’m very happy, but ready to make some changes as well.

Anyways, I’m not sure what direction to take the blog, so your input would be greatly appreciated! For now, I will be posting workouts, healthy recipes, and my thoughts/feelings toward my weight loss and fitness. Share this with your friends too! I’d like to share my experiences with others and build a network on the Fit Lizzio blog.

What are your goals for April?

Here are some recent pictures as well. My sister is getting married next weekend too, so I will be sure to post pictures from that!!

From left to right: Aunt Suzie, my sister Rachel, me, Grandpa(just turned 90 and still works out everyday!!), little brother Ben(so little right? HA), mother, Aunt Nancy

My best friend Taylor(left) myself and my sister Rachel(right) on my birthday

Most people go to Ostrich farms on their birthday..right?

My friend Maggie, myself and Morgan at my other birthday dinner. This is right before I ate a RAW QUAIL EGG. and it was good….

That’s all for now folks!

Posted in Fit Lizzio, food, motivation, pressure, Running, Workout tagged with , , , , , , ,

I’m not sick, I’m not sick………

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Ok I’m sick. 🙁

Hey friends!

Today is being spent on the couch with water, iced tea, the TV and my laptop. I’m currently fighting something(maybe the flu :-() and can’t fathom the thought of actually walking right now.

This is my view today:

 

Fitness Update

In one word: un-believable. I have been getting in such amazing workouts both by myself and with my new trainer and the fruits of my labor are coming in amazingly. My cardio is at about 45 minutes 6 days a week and lifting 4-5 days per week.

Oh, and I’m now official….

Life Update

I’m busy with school and 3 part time jobs, but still having a great time. Here are some pictures of my recent shenanigans in Los Angeles and Phoenix. Life is too short to be in a routine ALL of the time…spontaneous trips are well worth the experiences 🙂

What is the most spontaneous thing you’ve ever done?

Do you prefer making plans and schedules or just “wingin'” it?

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The Switch

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Living a healthy lifestyle is a choice. It is a wonderful way to live and those who haven’t experienced it, are truly missing out on the benefits. Although turning your life into a healthy one doesn’t happen over night, it does happen with practice and persistence. Even if you’re not quite there yet, you may still be incorporating some healthy life habits that will eventually stick.

So what is this switch I’m talking about? 

Day in and day out, most of us do one, many, or all things in the way of a healthy lifestyle. There is a difference between trying to live a healthy lifestyle, and actually living a healthy lifestyle. Both are the same on the exterior, but one of them takes effort, whereas the other is natural. Being a natural thing, doesn’t mean it was always that way, though.

I first started working out in August 2007. Prior to that, I was an athlete in high school, and then just plain lazy my freshman year of college. Since I was always in sports, I never had a gym schedule or even really knew what to do in the gym. I had an idea, but I laugh when I think about the workouts I used to do. Another story for another day. When I first began working out in 2007, I instantly LOVED it. I found myself having fun, getting stronger, seeing changes in my body, and of course, I had a new “sport”to be competitive about. I guess I can give credit to my trainer, Bret for bringing out that competitive side in the gym. It was a small studio, and there was a chart on the wall for all of the weight and rep records for various exercises. Obviously, I needed to work hard to beat those 😉

I loved ending my days with a session at Lifts(the name of the gym.) I looked forward to it everyday, not only because of the workout, but the people there as well. There were only a few trainers and I got along with them all. The other clients were really cool, too. Either way, I would workout and end up staying a few extra hours there just hanging out. I find myself doing that at any gym I go to. I become friends with people there and, since its my favorite place to be anyways, I end up spending most of my free time there. Exciting life, right? This also has a lot to do with NOT belonging to a corporate gym, and why I probably never will, but more on that in another post.

I remember about a year into my new-found love of the gym, I started to worry. If I got sick, I would force myself to go to the gym anyways. Why?? Well if I didn’t go for a few days, what if I never went back? That was something I seriously worried about. Although I knew I loved it, I have a tendency to love something and do it, over do it, and then some. Many times I get burnt out for a while and go back to it a few months later after I’ve had a break.(cough rock climbing cough) I knew if I missed more than a day or two, I might start to get that feeling of not wanting to go. I would fall out of the “routine” and find that I didn’t want that routine anymore. 

The Switch

It wasn’t until I began to prepare for my competition last year (December 2008) that I realized that the gym wasn’t going anywhere, and neither was I. In fact, I didn’t even need a gym. Exercise had become a part of my life. If I had to miss a week from working out(still hasn’t happened yet, thankfully) there is no doubt in my mind that I would be ITCHING to get in some sort of activity afterwards. Whether it was a weight session, a run, a hike, a long walk, boxing, a boot camp, ANYTHING, as long as I could get my exercise in, I’d be okay. You see, before that, I thought it was just a hobby, and it was something that was more of a chore for me to do. 

Now, going to the gym or working out in general is FAR from a chore. It is my lifestyle and it is something that I look forward to every single day. A day off is torturous to me. They are necessary at times, and sometimes taking a whole week off is necessary, depending on what your training is like, but it isn’t something that I like to particularly do. Sure, there are days where I wake up and head to the gym and want nothing more than to go home and lay in bed, but I always end up doing at least SOMETHING. I love being fit and can’t imagine my life without exercise. It is seriously the one thing that I can always rely on.

If my friends, family, teachers, bosses, etc are pissing me off, I always have exercise to turn to. It never fails and can be done ANYWHERE. I also can’t help but love that when I attend a new exercise class or work with a new trainer, they are impressed by my endurance. I almost always get a comment mentioning that I am in “great shape” and that my recovery time is so quick. I take so much pride in hearing things like that. I work my ASS off for it. It isn’t something that I was “gifted” with, it’s something that I work towards. It is achievable by anyone who has the desire to take their fitness to the next level. I’m not in the best shape of anyone, in fact, there are plenty of people in way better shape than me, but as long as I keep on working hard and taking it a step up each time, I will only get better and better.

Whether I’m show lean or not, I always have my fitness. The work in the gym is tough stuff, but getting there is effortless. Fitness has become my lifestyle. 

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Things I Love

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I thought I would post about the things that I LOVE about my lifestyle. Lifting heavy weights and eating clean are so rewarding. Competing is just as rewarding. Some don’t like the idea, but I see it as a way to show off what I have worked so hard for. When someone works on a piece of art, they display it at an expo

I love:

-seeing my muscles contracting at the gym while I work out.

-seeing my muscles grow and see progress in my physique

-the taste of freshly boiled green beans(sooo much better than the pre-packaged ones you steam in the microwave..wish I wasn’t so lazy all the time hehe)

-Getting pumped in the gym and seeing my veins flare

-Seeing new veins start to surface every few months from my training

-Feeling my body functioning optimally.

-The jitteriness I get after a tough weight sesh.

-DOMS

-The taste of a well-balanced meal after a tough workout

-Knowing that I can pick up and run 6, 7, 8 or whatever miles at (for the most part)any given moment

-Inspiring people to do more, try more, and become healthier.

-Helping others in their quest to lose weight, build strength, become healthier, etc.(i love answering questions that people have)

I could probably think of 100 other reasons, but I’ll stop there.

What are YOUR reasons why you LOVE your lifestyle?

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