Ladies: 5 Reasons Why You Should Lift

There seems to be this old tale that women who lift weights are manly and will have ginormous muscles. Well, today I wanted to chat about WHY it is important for women to lift weights, and more importantly, lift heavier than they think they can lift.

There are so many benefits to weight lifting. We will get into that, and also chat about how to get started.

So, you're ready to start lifting but have no idea where to go? If you plan on attending a gym, it may be worth booking an appointment with a personal trainer to at least get familiar with the strength training area. At my gym they have it separated by cardio equipment, strength training machines/dumb bells, and another room with another rack of dumb bells and things like yoga mats, foam rollers, resistance bands/tubes, and kettle bells. Having someone show you around the gym will not only answer any questions you may have about the facility, but make you feel more comfortable. Being comfortable is HUGE in starting a strength training journey (or any health journey for that matter), as you will be more inclined to stick to it if you don't feel awkward or out of place.

That's not to say that feeling awkward won't happen, because I can guarantee that it will happen! However, getting your bearings will help make things easier in the long run.

To get started means to simply put on your work out gear and get going. If buying a new exercise outfit will motivate you to take the first steps, then by all means, do what you need to do. That being said, in order to begin a program you just have to START, so start now, whatever that may look like for you!

When it comes to strength training, having a plan will allow you to visually see what you need to do in the gym. A plan tailored to your specific needs will also alleviate that, "OMG what do I do today!?" feeling that can arise. Start small to start - say two times per week - and build up as you start to feel stronger in the gym. Soon enough, you will have a work out split (another word for plan) that can target multiple parts of your body.

For me, my workout split looks something like this:

Legs twice per week, shoulders/triceps twice per week, and one day for back and biceps. Occasionally I will mix in some back/biceps on my shoulder days, but it is completely up to you. Every 4-6 weeks I switch things up (providing I am seeing results), and I mix some cardio in there as well because I love me some running! : )

Again, your first steps into strength training may be at-home YouTube videos, and that's okay, too! Do what works for you and what makes your body feel good.

So, WHY should women strength train?

I'll tell you why I personally do it. I strength train for mental clarity, for challenging my body, so I can withstand day to day activities with ease, so I can age gracefully (or so I am hoping anyway), and so I can be a better me.

You can tell when I haven't worked out because I am grouchy, irritable, and I won't be as in tune with my body or my mood. This is important to me as I want to be present and mindful in my interactions out there in the world, so working out can set the tone for a great day.

However, some other reasons why women should strength train are listed below.

1. You will burn more fat. Strength training builds muscle, and muscle burns more calories and fat while resting. Sure, you burn calories after a run, but not nearly as many as you would after a good strength training session!

2. You will practice the art of mental strength. Yep, you can do one more rep. Yep, you can lift a little bit heavier. Yep, you can do one more squat. Strength training (and athletic training in general) helps train your mind in that whole, "mind-over-matter" sense, which can translate to so many other areas of your life.

3. You'll strengthen your bones, as strength training helps your muscles, bones, ligaments, and tendons adapt under pressure. Your bones will become stronger and more dense, which will help stave off age related degeneration.

4. You will lean out. Yes, weight lifting (combined with a clean diet, OF COURSE) will help your jeans feel looser and make your shirt less tight. This is because muscle takes up less space than fat. Sure, a pound is a pound, but a pound of fat is more voluminous than a pound of muscle. So while you may still weigh the same weight (which I don't recommend going by the number on the scale anyway), you probably look a little slimmer since your body is increasing muscle and decreasing fat.

5. Your HEART will seriously thank you. Strength training and cardiovascular exercise is a God-send for your heart. As you get into better shape, your heart actually doesn't have to work as hard to send blood throughout your body. Exercise reduces blood pressure, and we all know high blood pressure ain't cute.

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If you are a woman who has a strength training routine, what does this look like for you? Let me know in the comments! Any AMAZING moves I should try in the gym!?

Why I Will NOT Be Competing Anytime Soon

Hey party people!

The weekend is officially here, and I am kicking it off with a little posty-post about the bikini competition world.

Yep. If you don't know, in June of 2015 I competed in my first ever bikini competition, which was the IDFA BC Classic in North Vancouver. Super cool experience, I won third place, it was glitzy and glamorous and definitely something I had never dreamed of doing, but that's it.

That's it.

Nowadays, I think it is supposed to be some trendy thing to be a bikini competitor. It seems like everyone and their dog is doing it. Seriously, if they had a dog category I'm sure there would be some weird team duo entering that. Nevertheless, I wanted to chat about why I will not be competing anytime soon.

And when I say anytime soon, I mean within the next one to two years. I'm not looking further than that - although, that being said, looking further than that I don't see that in my vision - and I wanted to share my thoughts on it.

I'm all about pushing my body to the limit. This is why I run half marathons for fun, do leg day on a long run, do yoga and stretch my body in weird positions and up until recently, trained for my first bikini competition.

However, if you read my post about body image, you will know that I wasn't shy about talking about my issue with body image post-bikini competition. It is seriously a mind F and something to consider before you even sign up for the competition. This is something I kind of sort of thought about, but probably didn't take enough time to truly grasp how it would impact me. That being said, I do NOT regret for one second my choice to enter a bikini competition. I learned so much about myself in the process, and fortunately I was surrounded by SO many supportive people. Bless Ryan and my family for being all, "OMG YEAH! Sounds great! You can do it!" to all of my psycho ideas. You guys are the real MVPs.

In the next two years, there are a few things that I want to do that do not include training for another bikini competition. Competing takes so much of your time and energy. If you think preparing your mind and body for the stage is just a matter of doing cardio in the morning and strength training in the afternoon, you are wrong. If you think the diet part is all about simply cutting out processed food, you are wrong again. There is SO MUCH that goes into it. I cannot stress that enough, and I can't stress enough about the STRESS itself that competing can put on your mind, body, relationships, and people around you. Do your research ahead of time, find a coach who shares the same views as you, and find your WHY (why are you doing this) before you sign up.

Let's rewind and get back to what I was saying, though. In the next couple years, I plan on running my first marathon. Marathon running and bikini competitions do not exactly go hand in hand. On that note, though, I feel more in-tune with running at this time as opposed to devoting so much of myself to competing again. Yeah, it was fun, but what happens when it's all over? What if you don't place? What if you trip on stage or fall out of a pose? Personally, I feel like my heart is not in competing for the long haul, whereas running has been my go-to, die hard, day in and day out, even when I was training for my competition.

Don't get me wrong. I loved my body throughout my competition prep and I still love it after. While some may think dieting for the stage is a quick process, it is a strenuous month long commitment that, for me, lasted almost 8 months. My body does not want to diet for that long. My body does not want to do cardio every single day for that long. While competing is an extreme end of the physical activity scale (picture a line with "sitting on the couch" on the left side and "body building" on the most right point), it is for one day only and you shouldn't look at pictures wishing you could be bikini lean all year round. Sure, for some it is more maintainable and body building is their life, but in the grand scheme of my life, my picture of health and wellness looks different than muscles and a tan!

So, when it comes down to it, the reason why I will not be competing anytime soon is because mentally I am in a different place than I was a year and a half ago. LOVING yourself at every step along your health and fitness journey is so important. That's not to say I didn't love myself during competition prep - because I did, don't get me wrong - but I am living my life with more freedom and more comfort than ever before. Oh, my thighs jiggle? I'm sorry. I don't care. Oh, my tummy has a roll when I sit down? Oh, I'm sorry. I don't care. I have legs that will power me over 21.1km (or more) and strong muscles that allow me to hug the ones I love and get in a killer strength training work out. Plus, the thought of stepping on stage half naked and literally having my body judged by strangers who don't even know me is kind of a crazy thought! After all, it is the heart that matters, not the body : ) And at this time in my life, I am honouring what my heart wants as much as possible, and if that means a bikini competition in five years, then fine, but for now, I am happy just running along through this journey without all the glitz, glam, and spray tans : )

My First Registered Massage Therapy Experience

Good morning, friends!

In Monday's post I alluded to going to my first ever registered massage therapy appointment. Today I wanted to chat about why I decided to go the RMT route as opposed to a spa massage, what my experience was like, and whether or not it will be something I add into my athletic recovery routine.

First off, as we all know I am not the best when it comes to stretching my muscles after a work out. Yep, I am guilty of being the first one to be like, OKAY BYEEE after a workout, or totally ignore stretching once I have crossed the finish line. During the Seawheeze half I felt some tightness in my right hamstring after the run was over, and this came back during the Kelowna Wine Country half as well (the hills didn't help either), to the point where I had to take multiple walking breaks in the last 3km. After this, I decided to take that as my body's way of telling me to get in gear and take that recovery more seriously.

You may recall my post about rewarding your accomplishments where I talked about getting a massage during a sister spa date after the Seawheeze. This massage was great - I mean, who says no to a massage, and how can it really be bad? However, this is when the whole RMT idea got swirling in my head. I remember having my little debrief with the masseuse who said I held a lot of tension in my muscles, and perhaps it would be a good idea to look at massage therapy due to the tightness.

Well, then. This definitely planted the seed even further, and so I began to ask people if they had any RMT recommendations. A few years ago I did a running clinic with our local run club in town, and I remember having a session with a guest speaker who happened to own a physiotherapy and health facility called Start Line in town. This stuck with me, and I found myself booking the RMT appointment on their online portal right away. It was perfect timing, too. I had just completed the Kelowna half, and my hamstring was still sore. My shoulders were so sore, too! I tell ya. A desk job can be great, but on the other hand, the bad posture certainly does not help your body.

When I say shoulders, I really mean my trapezius muscles, rhomboids & latissimus dorsi.

So, how was it?

It was amazing. I am so happy I went! During the appointment we talked about which areas were tight and when I started to experience the tightness. I told my massage therapist that I am in the gym 4-5 times per week strength training, and that I run longer distances as well which contribute to my sore muscles. 

My appointment was 45 minutes, and in that span she covered my whole back, hamstrings, some calves, and my glutes. I also discovered during this appointment that my glutes are super tight, and didn't realize that until suddenly it felt better. It's funny how that works, hey?

Post-massage we talked about some things I can do for recovery, such as being more consistent with my foam roller (gulp, yep, I need to do this!) and even using a tennis ball and the wall to roll out my back if I ever get super tight in my shoulder blade area. This is something I have seen people do at the gym, but I never made the connection to do it for myself. I left the appointment with a few more tips and some relaxed muscles. Just what I was after!

What's the next step?

I am going to be booking my next appointment in a couple weeks to follow up before my next half marathon. Then, you can bet that I will be back again after! I figure spending the money on injury prevention will be worth it in the long run, literally. Fortunately I have coverage through my work, so I might as well take advantage while I can!

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Have you been to a RMT before? If so, how was your experience?

Long Weekend & What's Happening

Good afternoon! Long time no talk, hey?

The last couple weeks have been very, very busy. Actually, this whole month is turning out to be busy again, much like January was. We are almost half way through February, and I can say that we have something going on every weekend until March. Crazy how fast the time goes by!

Let's jump right in with this scary picture of me in a cloth face mask. Ladies (and gents), if you haven't tried a face mask like this, I urge you to as soon as possible! I picked up three types from Sephora, and they are the most ridiculous things ever but make your skin so, so soft!

Yikes, right? Ryan and I were watching a movie while I had this on and at one point he looked over at me and said, "Oh GOD! I forgot you looked like that!" So sweet, right?

I am winding down from a long weekend thanks to the Family Day holiday in British Columbia yesterday. Since Monday is a regular day off for me, I get Tuesdays off if a holiday falls on a Monday. I am certainly not complaining! I am getting to the point where I feel very uncertain about what I want to do career wise. Yes, I am still working towards my personal training certification and I know that ultimately that is what I want to be doing, but I am finding it awfully hard to wake up and be excited when I am not pursuing my passion full time. It is hard to just JUMP IN and do that, especially because right now I am earning a steady income that can help catapult me towards something bigger (my own business) in the future. Does that make any sense? Does anyone else feel that way?

This Sunday, my sister and I went to a yoga class at Fernwood Yoga Den in Victoria. While hanging out in downward dog, I was thinking about my goals and what I value in my life. I felt so at peace there in the yoga studio, and I wondered how I can bring that into my professional, working life. It is hard being in an industry that brings along a huge amount of pressure, but at the end of the day, I have to keep working hard for what I want and eventually the cards will fall into place and the hard work will pay off.

After yoga on Sunday, we did some shopping at Lululemon (how fitting, right?). I will be sure to upload those goodies in my next post! We also went to this cool crystal shop in Fantan Alley downtown Victoria. I can't remember the name off of my head, but I picked up a few little gemstone goodies. It may seem kind of woowoo, but I figured if anything they will make nice little decorations around the house as they are very pretty!

Yesterday morning with a cup of warm lemon water & the latest book I am reading.

Since it is a long weekend, I did all of my Monday things TODAY! This means I had an early morning check in with my personal trainer at 8:30am, followed by a work out. Normally I work legs on Monday, but I wanted to switch things up as I was feeling an upper body work out. I took myself through a shoulder work out where I added in 45 second cardio intervals between sets to keep my heart rate up. I only did about five minutes of cardio (my warm up), and the rest was spent actively working out and then cooling down by some gentle yoga stretches and ab work. I left the gym feeling accomplished, and it was only 9:45am! Love when that happens.

Since I was done so early (well, an hour early compared to my normal Monday schedule), I was able to get my grocery shopping done in the morning as opposed to later on when it is busier. After arriving home, I did some Brownie meeting prep and got all of my work lunches prepped for the next four days of work. Laundry is done, make up brushes are clean, life is good!

I should probably get back to this assignment (I am now on Chapter 5 of my weight training course - woohoo!), but I wanted to check in on the ol' blog and say hello.

Talk to you all soon!

Control What You Can Control

A Saturday night blog post? What is this!?

Usually I'd be in bed by now, but the past couple days I have been going to bed much later. Tonight I was perusing through some of my competition photos from my first bikini competition in June (part two found here), so I thought I'd pop onto the blog and share how the week is going.

Let's rewind to Monday, the last time I checked in. I came down with some awful cold bug that sent me home halfway through the day on Tuesday, and left me in bed slash laying on the couch all day Wednesday. Who knows where it came from, but I am so happy to be over it now!

Only, I am battling something else right now. I had all four of my wisdom teeth removed Thursday morning, so needless to say the whole week has been a write-off work wise in that I have been at home sleeping. Yesterday I took three or four naps throughout the day! This is kind of insane for me given that although I enjoy naps, I think of all the other (productive) things I could be doing instead and simply never do it on a regular basis. However, I suppose my body needed the rest. I have been on a few different medications to help reduce pain, swelling, and inflammation. Fortunately most of the swelling in my face has gone down - certainly don't have ginormous chipmunk cheeks, by any means. They're just on the smaller end of the chipmunk cheek scale. Thankfully icing right away after the surgery plus on and off throughout the day on Thursday (and a bit yesterday) has helped with the swelling. Further, my diet has now become a lot more softer and liquefied than my veggies and chicken before. Smoothies with greens and protein powder, some soft pureed vegetable soups, popsicles, unsweetened applesauce... So. Boring. I do admit, I had some ice cream last night and tonight which actually felt really nice on my mouth, but I am technically still doing the Shred program so I am trying to be mindful and not all, YAY ICE CREAM during this healing period. The "real" food will come back all in due time! As far as work outs go, I am taking a bit of a break from the gym to ensure I do not disrupt any healing in my mouth. I read that the bottom wisdom teeth tend to have a slower healing process than the top wisdom teeth, because they are being extracted from bone that is more dense in the lower jaw. The last thing I want to be doing is being in the middle of shoulder presses or something and having one of the stitches in my mouth rip (sorry for too much information, but really. That would be scary)! So, it is important to me to keep my diet in check if I can't be in the gym! Control what you can control, right?

Lots of cuddle time with Simba the past few days!

He's pretty cute. I think this was before I woke him up and he attacked my hand.

Drinking a green smoothie as I complete some personal training homework. YES, I am still doing this! I have moved onto my second course (out of three courses), which is all about being a successful weight trainer. One thing that I love about these courses is how in-depth they are. As I was completing my quiz tonight, I would go back in the book and reference back to some things. So many great examples and explanations, which will be extremely helpful when it comes to my exam. Speaking of exams, I have my first one scheduled mid-February, so lots of my time in the evenings now will be spent studying. I am looking forward to having that behind me so I can continue moving on in the program!

Well, I will leave you with that & talk to you soon! Hope you are all having a fantastic weekend!

Welcome, 2016!

Happy New Year!

Welcome to 2016 & back to my little ol' blog.

December was one of the busiest months, and I am looking forward to new routines and settling into 2016. Between my family and Ryan's family, we had some kind of event going on almost every week; some weeks we would have two or three family things going on plus work and day to day things. Needless to say, I am ready for the New Year and excited for what's to come!

So, the photo that kicked off this blog post is me and Ryan's Christmas gift. We decided to do stockings for each other still, but we were in dire need of a new table, so that was our big holiday purchase. Although it did not arrive for Christmas, we brought it home December 29th & got everything set up. The table has two leaf inserts to make it extra long, which will make life so much easier when it comes to hosting dinners or just having people over in general

On New Year's Eve my parents had a party, and it ended up being so much fun! We weren't sure who would show up since it was pretty much an open invitation, but once 9pm rolled around, the house was full of people. The party didn't stop until 5:30am too - although that was mostly my dad & his buddy in a competitive round of whiskey shooters. Yup, count me out! I ended up going to bed at 3am and, I'll admit, I was a hurting unit on Friday. Thankfully I had the day off! Saturday was back to work, yesterday was a day off full of sleeping in, taking Christmas down & then dinner at my parents' house, and here we are at today!

Today's morning view. When we left my parents' house last night it was lightly snowing. Well, I suppose it either got heavier or just accumulated during the night, because we had a couple centimetres of snow dusted on the ground when I woke up. It didn't last long, though! The little bit of rain that we had today washed it all away.

Today was spent getting organized, which includes typing up a blog post and writing in my planner for the week ahead. I am scheduling in "blog posts" in my planner to make sure I am consistent. That being said, I am aiming for blogging at least twice per week. Other 2016 goals include completing my personal training certification, going on more weekend trips (or adventures in general), reading two books per month (currently on my second one for January), running the Lululemon SeaWheeze half marathon, completing the Shred plan (offered by my competition coach), and starting the garden at my parents' house again.

Oh yeah, and then this happened today:

New hair cut, new work out plan, new goals for 2016 - ready, set, go!

What are your 2016 goals?

Back in Action: November Edition

Oh, why hello there!

Long time no talk, hey? I am back on the blogging bandwagon, so we will see how long this lasts.

I am going to skip through September & October, because why live in the past when we can SEIZE THE DAY! and talk about November activities. Also, I can't recall everything I did in September and October, so we are going to move right along.

Mondays are my days off, so today was spent both relaxing and being productive. I slept in and woke up to Ryan bringing me my usual giant cup of lemon water and a mug full of fresh coffee. Can I wake up like this every morning? Ryan, I hope you are reading this ;) After lounging in bed for a good half hour, I finally got up and made some breakfast. I am forever on an oatmeal kick, so this morning I had (you guessed it), a bowl of oatmeal with chia seeds, a scoop of Adam's natural peanut butter and a banana sliced on top. While I ate my breakfast, I watched some YouTube videos and completed my chapter 9 & 10 quiz for the Fitness Theory course I am taking. It is crazy to think that I am pretty much DONE that course! One down, two to go.

One thing that has helped me get through the course in a reasonable amount of time is planning ahead. In the last week of September I purchased an Erin Condren planner, and for those of you who have heard all about them online, they truly do live up to all the hype. I have been planning out my weeks, and recently have been writing in different goals that I want to accomplish during the week, whether it's packing my work lunches ahead of time, not purchasing coffee from the cafe across the street, or hitting the gym X amount of days that week. Having a visual reminder of what you need to do for the day definitely helps keep me on track!

Simba is an expert at helping me plan, too. I bet he wishes he had a planner of his own.

His day would look something like this:

1. Eat
2. Claw at the bedroom door so the humans know I am awake and waiting.
3. Sit on top of the scratch post and watch the neighborhood, ensuring everyone is safe

4. Claw under all the closet doors in the house because I am determined to know what is in there. Maybe I need a jacket or towel.

5. Randomly run around the house because WHY NOT

6. Eat

7. Eat more

8. Meow at the humans because I can see the bottom of my food bowl.

9. Flick water out of the dish

10. Sleep 

After my quiz, I went down to the basement and got in a treadmill run. I originally had 10km on my schedule, but I ended up completing 11.5km instead. It was one of those runs where the stars aligned physically and mentally, so I kept going. I stretched a little bit after, then came back upstairs to do a quick lower body workout using some dumbbells I have at home. This workout included squats, side lunges, deadlifts, and plie squats. Mondays are one of my favourite workout days, because I have recently joined a spin class with my mom. It is a fun way to incorporate other types of cardio in my routine. Eventually when I am up and running with personal training, I would like to be certified in group fitness so I can do things like spin classes and bootcamps.

Once my morning work out was done, I got myself ready for the day. The rest of the day included heading into town for a little bit of Christmas shopping (successfully found two gifts for some family members, so it has officially begun!) and to the grocery store for the usual apples, Greek yogurt & almond milk. Apples are forever a staple in my household! I have to admit, I caved in yesterday and bought my first holiday drink at Starbucks. How can one say no to those red cups!? All in moderation, of course. Tis the season for many indulgent snacks!

Anyway, there's a little update for you about my Monday! It is officially holiday time (in my mind), so stay tuned for some holiday themed posts, and just more regular posts in general. Now that I have my planner, I think that will keep me more accountable to devoting more time to this blog of mine!

Let me know if there is anything in particular you'd like to see here! Have a wonderful evening & I will talk to you all soon!

Road Trip Snaps & A Side Project

Good afternoon, friends!

I am back after 10 days of holidays (woohoo, vacation time) and a full week of work. During my holidays I ran the Lululemon Seawheeze half marathon and also went up to Prince George to visit some family. The picture above was snapped outside of a shopping mall in Prince George actually, where I finally retired my old denim Guess slip on shoes (if you know me, you know I wore the crap outta those babies) and bought some Converse slip ons. Hopefully those last upwards of 5 years, too!

Despite the long drive (we drove 9 hours straight, with one pit stop to the gas station on the way there), it was great to see family we haven't seen in YEARS. I think the last time I went to Prince George was seven years ago, so it was definitely well overdue.

One thing I loved about our stay at the hotel was the GYM inside. We were heading down to the lobby one morning, and I noticed that beside one of the floor buttons it has pool/gym written beside it. Luckily I had packed some gym gear (minus runners, so I lifted in some flat footed shoes which was actually more comfortable), so Thursday was an upper body day and Friday was a leg day. On Saturday we headed back to the island, and by 8:15pm that evening I was home sweet home and ready for bed. There's something about sleeping in the car that makes for less than desirable sleeping conditions!

Back seat selfies before I started to feel car sick from the windy road home. I ended up laying down on a giant pillow and fell asleep for a bit. Almost had to grab my (dirty) oatmeal bowl and upchuck for a second there. Anyway, crisis averted! 

A little bit of scenery on the way home. The drive was absolutely beautiful! On the way there we went through Hope/Williams Lake, and on the way home we went through Squamish/Whistler.

I had my usual Sunday/Monday weekend upon returning, so I got back into the routine of going to the gym and meal prepping. The week went by so quickly because I was jam packed with client meetings at work, which makes today my Sunday. This is the first weekend in a while that I have been home without any plans (aside from a party on Saturday night), so it has been nice hanging out and getting stuff done around the house - and blogging, blogging of course!

Rewind to Saturday night: plugging my phone in to charge at 2AM in the morning:

Turns out the USB cord wasn't plugged in completely to the block on the wall, so I woke up to 38% battery Sunday morning. Beyonce feels my pain. Thank you, Beyonce.

So, for a few years now I became curious about personal training. I have a trainer of my own, although I have not been seeing her as frequently as I was when I was in competition prep, but between starting my own fitness journey and reading blogs, watching YouTubers online, etc, I was dying to learn more. It took me a long time before I FINALLY bit the bullet and signed up for the personal training certification course. That's right - I am on my way to becoming a certified personal trainer!

I handed in my first assignment Saturday, so here is to a new chapter & a new fun hobby on the side. We will see what this transpires, but this will be the first step in my next adventure. Here we go!!