Climbing, Daily, FitFluential, Fitness, Health, Photos, Soccer, Videos

How to stay motivated

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My co-workers, friends and even people I know online always ask me how I stay motivated. For me, it’s easy. I love being active. But I know everyone doesn’t.

Have you ever tried indoor rock climbing? It’s super fun, and a huge work out in itself. Don’t know what indoor rock climbing is like? Check out the video of me, doing a boulder problem back home in Newfoundland. Please note the video is quite old — it was in 2003 (!!!) so my digital camera wasn’t the best at shooting film back in the day.


It may take a while, but I say you need to find something you absolutely enjoy doing, and keep at it. If you hate running — don’t do it. Simple as that. Get creative, and find an activity that gets your body moving. Just watching those climbing videos just makes my finger tips sweaty, and want to chalk up and get back on the wall.


And another, for good measure ;)

Set small goals. Tell yourself you’ll work out “X” many times this week/this month. Once you achieve that goal, give yourself a treat — a movie date with your bestie or significant other, a new work out top, or maybe just a new mascara you’ve been eyeing. Be your own #MyBetter.

Speaking of mascara. Have you ever tried Make Up For Ever’s Smoky Lash? Look at those lashes it gives me. No, I’m not wearing falsies.

You’ll shortly find out that working out makes you feel good and will definitely boost your own self esteem and confidence. I think it’s easy to keep up something you’re truly passionate about, and have fun doing it, of course it’s hard work but that’s the fun part – creating these new goals to strive for. Or as Nike says…

Working out can improve the quality and even length of your life, just by taking care of your body. It doesn’t have to cost anything, just put the effort and time into it. Everyone goes through tough times, so being there to support and encourage your friends is essential.

As I post on my blog, you know I like to share my own stories, both failures as well as successes. I want you guys to be able to relate to me, to know that you’re not the only one with challenges. I started running again 3 weeks ago, but this time I have a Coach (Hi Steve!). I’ve never been so excited (and still somewhat anxious, but I’m trying to overcome that) to go our for a run once a week. I won’t lie, it’s still very difficult for me, especially with my breathing. but I’m learning to overcome the breathing issues — it’s mostly anxiousness and punch out some longer (such a relative term… 6km is long for me) distances.

I’m leaving everything open in the comments today. I want you to ask me any kind of questions, fitness related or not. Let it be an FAQ sort of thing, for anything you’ve ever wanted to ask me. Use the hash tag #FAQspiffykerms on twitter for your questions, please!

A great quote I found, then prettied up. I pinn’ed this a few months ago (and I guess no one found it interesting enough to re-pin, lol).

Go ahead and leave me a comment. Ask away. FAQ’s will finally be answered!

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CrossFit, Daily, FitFluential, Fitness, Health, Photos

CrossFit isn’t for everyone…but it IS for me.

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People love to hate on CrossFit since it’s such a “hardcore workout” and people are “prone to injury”. I love to argue the fact that it’s whatever you make it.

Feeling like poop? Don’t go. Or, if you do want to go workout, you don’t have to go full tilt on every damn workout. I sure as heck don’t. You don’t have to get better each time you do a deadlift, or a pushpress. There are plenty of times where I’m feeling sluggish when I head into CrossFit and I’m just not feeling it, so I don’t lift as heavy, I don’t go as hard, or as fast.

It drives me nuts when people comment (not here) saying that so many people get injured because of it.

Well let me tell you something. CrossFit isn’t for everyone.

Neither is hockey.

Neither is running.

Neither is cooking in the kitchen, for fear of chopping a finger off!

Do you get what I’m saying? There’s a reason CrossFit classes are small. There’s only one coach who is with you the entire class, walking around looking at people’s form. Making sure everyone is doing the correct movements, and if they’re not — you’ll get fixed and shown how to do the workout properly without getting injured.

I took TWELVE days off CrossFit, because I tweaked my shoulder. Due to me doing improper pushups. On November 1st, I went back to CrossFit and told my coach what was going on. He took me aside while everyone was doing the warm up before the WOD and showed me how to keep my shoulders pinched, my abs in, and do them off my knees instead. Now, 35 days later my shoulder feels fine and I’m still going strong on the 50 day pushup challenge.

There’s passion here, can’t you tell?  ;)

So yeah. CrossFit may not be for everyone. My former running buddy-turned friend (who just had a baby by the way!)  was the one who introduced me to CrossFit in February 2011, she actually decided to stop going to CrossFit altogether. It’s just not her thing any more.

 

Please. Don’t bash it til you try it. Then, hate on it all you want and go do the sports you love.

 

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50 day pushup challenge, CrossFit, Fitness, Health, Photos, Workout Schedule

My CrossFit Journal (1 Year, Week 37)

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I am on Day 26 of the 50 day pushup challenge. Finally hit the halfway mark yesterday. I still do the pushups in the morning when I first remember because I don’t want it leaning over my all day to do them, and get lazy after work/working out and push them aside. Ha ha. Get it…

Anyway, they’re pretty tough now, I won’t lie. Some days are better than others where I can pump out 13 in a row and then rest for a few seconds and do the rest. But yesterday for instance I was only doing three at a time and needed a break! Funny how that works.

What I did this week, the short version:

M – CrossFit (+ 19 pushups) T – Rest Day (+ 20 pushups) W – Soccer (+ 21 pushups) Th – CrossFit (+ 22 pushups) F – Rest Day (+ 23 pushups) S – Rest Day (+ 24 pushups) S – 6.6km run (+25 pushups)

lol Looks like a lot of rest days. I swear it felt as though I worked out more than that…maybe I won’t continue the short version of my workouts ;)

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year 1, week 37, day 1.

AMRAP 20

1 Clean & Jerk; 155/115lbs 5 Pull Ups 10 Push Ups 5 Back Squats; 155/115lbsics

I used 65lbs for this WOD. I completed 4 full rounds and I did 5 pushups for the 5th round. Either that or it was 5 rounds, and I was on my 6th. I should really write this down again…

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year 1, week 37, day 2  Soccer Game!

 Yay soccer! Can’t really say much about this. We won? 1-0.

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year 1, week 37, day 3

6 Rounds of Ring Dips

30 seconds of Ring Dips 30 seconds of rest

REST 3 minutes

AMRAP 7 Burpees (6″ jump)

I completed 52 ring dips (like I was sitting in a chair. The easiest way to do them. I really suck at tricep strength). Then it was time for the burpees. I did much better than I was expecting. I didn’t rest too much, and completed 56 burpees. I’m not entirely sure the coach believed me, because he said “Oh cool” when he asked my number. :(

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year 1, week 37, day 4

Running yesterday morning in -1°c. Snowy, windy and chilly! But it was great!

I dressed in layers, and borrowed a wind breaker, mittens and wind-breaker mittens. I really need to go shopping for some winter apparel for running. I do have this great pair of wind-breaker pants I bought from Lululemon a few years ago, and they kept me warm throughout the run.

I didn’t have anything to eat before I went, and I could definitely tell I wasn’t in as great of shape as I was last week. So, note to self — must eat something before each run.

One thing I do have to say about running is that I’m on a completely different level than my Ironman Triathlete of a boyfriend. I mentioned that we ran 6.6km and told him that at one point we were running 5:45 minute/kilometers but the rest were 7 minutes. Sure, it’s slower than what I’m used to — but I used to exert myself much more. This time, I’m in control of my breathing and I’m running a further distance because of it. The boyfriend mentioned that it was slow, which was like taking a dig at me, But of course he didn’t mean it that way. I dwelled on it a bit, then told him to never tell me that I’m slow again — it bothered me. Because I know I can run fast. It just takes time. I really haven’t been running since 2010. Sure, I did 2 or so runs a week this summer, but I wasn’t being trained on HOW to run. I just went for long (5-6km), flat runs.

Running with Jenn and Steve is different. I take two puffs of my asthma inhaler, and off I go. It’s difficult at times, but Steve tells me to slow down and the breathing returns to normal again. It’s an anxious thing I have with running, but I’m figuring out how to get it back to a normal rate … with practice.

Look at the state of my bright pink shoes!  They are starting to wear out I think :( I’ve been on the eBay hunt for them now for a few weeks, since they’re a year and a hald olf.

As Steve said, There are only two kinds of runs. Good runs, and great runs. Yesterdays was just … good ;)

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