Tag Archive for lifestyle

New Year’s Resolutions 2018

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marinadelrey

It me!!!

It’s been quite a while since I’ve blogged. It started to feel like a job for me, and I felt pressure to write, even when I didn’t feel like it. In addition, I always want to put out worthwhile content, so half-assing it didn’t seem like the right choice either. This is an outlet for me and when it wasn’t fun anymore, I needed to curb it temporarily.

Anyways, I’m back and I’m here. I’ve stop-ed-black blogging. I needed to miss it to come back to it with authenticity. So here I am.

It’s the start of a New Year and I’d like to blog 1-2x/month. It may be more, it may be less. I hope you’ll take a read at the topics that interest you.

The focus of this blog will remain health and fitness, but with the addition of mindset and wellbeing. I’ve posted on these topics before, but I’ve truly had an incredible year and a half of learning, growing, self-reflection, and soul-searching. It won’t be easy to put into words, but it is my goal to share some of what I’ve done, as I have never been happier in my life and I truly believe that I’ve figured out the “formula” to happiness. I hope to share as much of that as possible to help you find that place of being/living.

2018

While last year was full of ups and downs (both personally and for our country/society), it was a fantastic year for me. I grew as a person, I made new friends, I traveled all over the place, I went to see a LOT of live music, and I said YES a lot. <—I’ll do an entire post on this.

My resolutions this year are quite different than in years past. I am constantly working to better myself: learning more, becoming more proficient at various skills, finding what makes me happiest, being a better person, getting stronger (physically and mentally), and so on. While I have several goals in the works (that’s a year-round thing for me), there are a few things I’d like to focus on in 2018 and they all revolve around self-care and giving.

My 2018 New Year’s Resolutions

–Less time on social media, texting, emailing, etc. This means not bringing my phone with me everywhere I go. It also means not replying right away or jumping at the sound of a notification. It means not aimlessly browsing through Instagram, Facebook, Twitter when I’m bored. There are so many other things I could be doing with my time. While most of my work revolves around social media, emails, and the like, this isn’t going to be easy, but setting some boundaries for when I’m working vs. just passing time is going to be the big difference for me.

–Steam Room Life. I am pretty sure when I announced this goal on Instagram, everyone thought I was joking, but I’m not. And the reasons for it are actually pretty impactful in my life (blog post on the little things is forthcoming as well…). There is a steam room in my apartment complex and occasionally I’d go there in the evenings or after a workout. I noticed that when I went in the steam room for 10-15 minutes, showered, got ready for bed, and laid down, I felt really relaxed. I noticed that I slept better as well. A deep, refreshing sleep that is hard to come by for me. So yes, one of my new year’s resolutions is to sit in the steam room and/or sauna every night before bed (unless I’m going out or out of town of course).

–More writing. I love writing. While I haven’t been blogging, there are probably 100+ Notes in my phone and in Google Docs that are just my thoughts that needed to get out. Some are intellectual, some are stories, some are nonsense. They all helped me release something though. I truly believe that our creative thoughts must be released from us in some way: through playing music, writing, singing, talking, etc. If we don’t express those creative thoughts, they sit in us like rotten nails. One nail isn’t felt much, but several rotten nails is dead weight that we end up carrying around.

–Relax more & flip my stress upside down. I take on a LOT at once. If you know me, you know I’m always working and adding more to my plate. I get stressed out, anxious, and sometimes it’s enough to paralyze me. I’m really focusing on taking care of myself this year. When I’m stressed and anxious, just taking 5. I try to be really efficient and not waste time, but if time is spent recharging my brain, it’s well-spent and worth it. More beach walks (with NO phone), more staring at the boats on the water. More deep breaths. More looking at whatever is stressing me out and flipping it over into the positive aspects. Is it a learning experience? Is it making me stronger? Is it forcing me to think outside the box? Is it actually a good thing for me? And lastly, if it’s toxic, what can I do to remove it?

-Travel. This is always a goal of mine. I went on 18 trips in 2017 and I plan to increase that this year. Learning how to travel and get your work done, workouts in, eat well is a skill I feel I’ve mastered. I learned by doing (that’s how I’ve learned most things, actually), and will also write a post (or posts) on this. Either way, I plan to go to: Chicago, NYC, Oregon, Alaska, Switzerland, Germany, Czech and/or Poland, Hawaii, Banff and more this year. I’ve already booked Chicago, NYC, and Maui. It’ll be a wild ride, but THIS is something that fills my cup, so I make it a priority <—-more on that in another post

–Add. Add positive people, positive experiences, and positive environments into my life. The negative shit will fall by the wayside out of default.

–Give back. I’m going to be doing a few different things this year to give back to the community. Some will involve dog shelters, some will involve helping people through the power of dogs. I’ll share more on this later on, but I’m excited for a few different things I’ve got in the works. I have way too much good in my life to not be spreading it around. I’ve given to charities in the past, but I want to do more.

-Continue saying Yes. I’ll likely keep repeating this phrase on all platforms for as long as I live, as it was life-changing for me when I truly started adopting the phrase. “If you’re going to regret something, regret doing it.” I can’t stress enough how much this mentality will improve your time on this Earth. Saying YES, going for it, doing it, experiencing it. Regretting only that you DID something, and not that you DIDN’T DO something. The power of this style of living isn’t shown until you actually start living it. Reading it and envisioning it don’t work. It’s like a sports car with a dead battery. You know it can go fast and do a lot, but until you’re driving 110 mph down the freeway and feeling the adrenaline pumping through your body, you didn’t actually understand what it felt like. When you DO start living it, it’s power is so huge that you can’t believe you’ve lived any other way for your entire life.

I’ll leave you with this video that I’ve shared several times on my Facebook page. It encapsulates the essence of this phrase and if it doesn’t bring a tear to your eye (a happy tear, a regretful tear, an anything tear), then you might be dead inside.

 

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3 Things You Must Do to Reach Your Fitness Goals

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I sat down here to write, knowing I felt like writing, and found myself with nothing to write about. Cool story, right?

But I also know that once I get going, sometimes the words just start flowing.

And as I started writing that, I instantly saw the relationship of that statement as it relates to exercise.

The fact that sometimes you are a little unsure, not in the mood, or flat out dreading a workout. But if you just start, maybe you’ll get into the zone and end up with a kick ass swole session under your belt.

it reminded me of why it is so important to push yourself to do something, even when you’re feeling unmotivated (and boy is this something I needed to remind myself of, but that’s another story for another day).

The #1 question I’m asked (and it’s almost on a daily basis) is how I find the motivation to workout consistently. Friends, family, co-workers, acquaintances, random people at the grocery store, even fellow gym-goers are curious as to what I have that they don’t.

The answer is going to surprise you, I think. But first, let me fill you in on a few things about myself (and many other fitness “freaks”) that you may not know.

3 Misconceptions about the “Fitness Freak”

  • Working out consistently does not come from motivation. Yes, you read that right. I haven’t worked out consistently for 9.5 years because I was motivated. I’ve worked out for 9.5 years consistently because I made that choice. Don’t get me wrong, I find a lot of joy and fulfillment from working out. I have always been a bit competitive and have always been an athlete. One of my biggest fears is losing my athletic abilities. It’s the reason I not only lift weights, but find other ways to stay active as well. I also see how well working out translates into how I carry my personal and professional life. I see what getting stronger physically does to my mental wellbeing (it’s life-changing, btw). HOWEVER, if I only worked out when I was motivated, I guarantee that my workouts would be all over the place and extremely INCONSISTENT. Motivation is wavering. Sometimes it’s high, sometimes it’s low, and it usually doesn’t stay for very long. It’s unreliable and while you can take advantage of it while it’s visiting, you shouldn’t let it be your crutch or your reason.

 

  • You don’t have to love everything you do. As I stated above, I do love working out. But that doesn’t mean that I love everything I do to stay fit. There are plenty of exercises that I’d happily trade in permanently, but often times it is the exercises that you wish to do least, that you probably should be doing more. It’s fun to do things we’re good at. It’s not as fun to do things that we struggle with, so it makes sense that we all have exercises we hate. While exercise should generally be enjoyable and you should like what you do, be aware that there will be pieces of what you do that you may not always enjoy.

 

  • Piggy backing on the above statement, sometimes you will start to love the things you previously disliked. I used to despise chin ups and bench press. Not surprisingly, I wasn’t very good at either of them. But I also knew that I wanted to get better at both exercises, so I just did them. Low and behold, I now LOVE both of them A LOT. You don’t have to start out loving something to potentially start loving it. So hang in there, keep practicing the things you’re weak at, and maybe, just maybe, you’ll learn to love them.

3 Things You Must Do to Reach Your Fitness Goals

The 3 previous statements bring me to the answer you were looking for earlier in this post. The question of “what do I (and other fitness “freaks”) have that you don’t?”…

The answer is: NOTHING. 

Mentally, I don’t have any magic tools that you don’t have. As much as we all like to think we are “unique”, we’re also kind of the fucking same guys. Sure, we have unique qualities, but at the end of the day, we’re the same damn breed. (And before you tell me I have more time, I have the same 24 hours that you do. We choose the way we spend them.)

Now that we know we have the same tools to work with, it’s important to look at what will make us successful in our endeavors, whether fitness and health related or not.

  1. The goal has to be stronger than your excuses. If it’s not very important to you to be fit, it will probably be hard for you to choose hitting the gym over crushing an entire season of New Girl on a Tuesday night. Finding the reason WHY you want to be fit is crucial. Maybe it’s because you just want to look better naked (totally valid goal). Maybe you know that your family has a history of obesity-related health issues. The fact that you don’t want to be put onto 4 different medications in your mid-30’s. The bottom line is, if you don’t have a WHY, you will likely not be able to push yourself to make the time and effort to consistently exercise.
  2. Just like your muscles, mental strength must be exercised. Just as the current habits we have were learned, we can retrain ourselves to forge new habits. This doesn’t come easily, and requires us to practice. For example, if you’re used to getting home from work each day and sitting on the couch for the rest of the night, it won’t be easy to just start going to the gym after work instead. You may be able to get by with some motivation for a few days, but once that wears off (and it almost always does, hence my advice to NOT rely on motivation), you’ll want to go right back to sitting on the couch after work. These are the times that you have to exercise your brain. These are the times you have to fight the urge to sit on the couch, and just go to the gym anyways. Over time, your habits will change and it will get easier and easier.
  3. You have to be ok with NOT BEING PERFECT. This one is really difficult, but likely the most important. We love to beat ourselves up when we fuck up. We love to throw in the towel when things don’t go perfectly. We love to sabotage ourselves further when we’ve gotten off track even in the slightest bit. And what we REALLY need to understand is that we will never be perfect. We will fuck up, fail, derail, and make the wrong choice. It is not an if, it is a when. Being OKAY with that fact, is what will actually keep you ON TRACK with your goals. It sounds a bit ass backwards, but it’s actually the truth. It doesn’t give you a pass to skip the gym and eat like crap and then just throw your hands up and say “eh, i’m not perfect”, but it DOES give you permission to pep talk yourself and say “i fucked up, but i am not a fuck up. I got off track, but I will not stay off track. I fell down, but I will get back up”.

At the end of the day, consistency wins the race. It’s funny, because we like to think that the extremes are what get us from point A to point B. It couldn’t be further from the truth. It’s the small steps that actually move us forward. It’s the acceptance that not everything will be perfect. It’s the fact that some days we won’t have time for our hour long weight lifting workout and instead, we’ll have 15 minutes in our living room to move. It’s the days you end up at a pizza joint with friends and decide to just eat 1 slice of pizza instead of eating 7 slices and writing off the day as an entire failure. THAT is how we reach our goals. THAT is how we get the things we’ve always wanted. We accept what is, and we do the best we can with it. 

Questions

1. Tell me, what is your goal and what stands in your way the most?

2. Do you push yourself to workout/eat well even when you don’t want to? Or do you give in to what you want to do at that moment?

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Fit Lizzio Life Update

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As I sit here sipping my coffee, I figured I owe you all an update!

Life has been going pretty well over the past few weeks!

I’ve recently added a job as the personal trainer at a production company to my schedule. As a perk to the employees, they not only have access to a gym, but access to a personal trainer (me) now! It’s an early morning position, so I’m up with the birds, but I’m done before the rest of my work day starts.

I’m still running around with Oscar in tow..

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I’m still working out 4-5 days per week..

My training has been excellent over the last few weeks. While I haven’t been upping the weights as much lately, I’ve been maintaining my strength, which is a win considering I’m dropping body fat. I’ve been putting a lot more focus into the tempo of my lifts and focusing on my form, so I haven’t been trying to hit any PR’s over the last few weeks. It’s hard at times to not just load up the weights as heavy as possible and muscle through, but this is also extremely helpful and essential in my training, so I’m embracing it with open arms.

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I’m still working towards my goal of leaning out/dropping body fat

I didn’t know I had it in me (yes, even I doubt myself sometimes), but I’ve been executing my diet really well and shoving any and all excuses away. I’m down about 7 pounds and several inches (will have a check-in post later this week when I check in with my coach). This was about a week and a half ago. I’m super happy with the results I’m seeing and I feel great!

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I’m still working hard at my many jobs each day!

Since adding another job to the mix, I’m definitely keeping busy! I have to be super efficient in everything I do in order to make time for it all. I know it’s not sustainable in the long run, but for now it’s working for me. I have some plans up my sleeve, but need to do a few things before I execute them fully.

The Blog

I’ll be posting more articles (all related to fitness, motivation, eating/diet, etc.) and how-to videos on the blog moving forward. I’ll still be giving a glimpse into my daily life (about once per week), but it will be peppered in with more informative posts/videos. I really want to make this a resource for people out there and as always, I will be 100% real and honest. I’d like for Fit Lizzio Fitness to be a catalyst for change. To show the world that no matter where you are, what your resources are, or how much time you have in your day, you can still achieve a healthy lifestyle that includes fitness and good food.

Question of the Day

1. What are you kicking ass at lately? (eating more vegetables? being super productive at work?) Leave your answer in the comments!

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The Breakfast Club

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Heyyy!

This morning started out with a torturous boot camp. I say this because they keep getting harder and harder! To give you an idea, today’s boot camp went like this:

-10 bleachers with plyometrics in between the first 5 and jump squats down for the second 5.

We then were broken up into groups by fitness level and were thrown into a crazy course that included: parachute sprints, water pipe lunges across the football field, sled sprints, lots of different types of jumps and other plyometrics, suicides, and more bleachers.

It’s really motivating to be with a group of super competitive people. When you want to quit, you don’t.

After bootcamp, we all hit up Starbucks and then a smaller group of us headed to a local breakfast place to chat and chow. It’s really easy to order really clean when you’re with 6 other people who are doing the same thing 😀

I got the egg white and asparagus omelet and it was SO good. Good times for sure.

I’m now sitting at work. I got homework for the week done, finished up two classes yesterday, and am just finishing up writing one more workout plan and then I’m OFFFFFFFFFFFF tomorrow. No work, no appointments, no school, no workout(maybe ;-)). Absolutely NOTHING. Just me, the sun and a pool. Ahhh, I’m so excited to sleep in (oh dear God please let me sleep past 6am :)) and just laze around.

See you Monday with a lobster face 😛

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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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