Making an ass of myself at the gym

At some point of our lives, most of us have been forced to prioritize something other than training, in my case it was finals. The only problem is that finals were 2-3 months ago, and I haven´t returned to the gym until today. Embarassing!

Well, at least I´m back at it now: I signed a year long membership at a gym chain, meaning that I can work out at any of their gyms in the city I live. I´m moving out officially next week, or maybe the week after that, so I think that will help me focus on my goals more in terms of diet. Believe it or not, there comes a point when my family gets bored with me for only cooking chicken and brown rice.

Either way, I was going to tell you how I embarassed myself at my new gym today. I thought telling people who might relate would help me get over it. and maybe encourage newbies who are usually really intimidated by people like me at the gym to loosen up, because everyone fucks up once in a while.

So basically, I went to squat. and I couldn´t see a free sqat rack, so I thought: "Okay, no biggie, I don´t sqat that much weight, I´ll just lift it up." So I grabbed a barbell with a reasonable weight and went to lift it up onto my shoulders... and I couldn´t. Two months ago it wouldn´t have been a prooblem, but I´d lost more strenth that I´d anticipated and completely overestimated myself. I tried laughing it off, but I died on the inside.

At least after that the amount of jealous glares I got from other women there significantly reduced. Not that I understand why beautifully muscular women would be jealous of my asparagus-shaped body composition anyways.

Hope you´re all well and haven´t forgotten about me after my months of not blogging. (I honestly don´t know who I´m directing that to, because I doubt I have any regular readers at all at this point). 

me when I'm off school

fitspo

don't stop...

Losing fat but staying the same weight

Yes, this is very possible. I've been at the same weight for about half a year now, but I can see clear changes in my body. I hardly have any fat left to grab except in the typical problem areas: lower abs, upper thighs and the back of my arms, but even there it's not much and it's clear that I've lost a lot of fat.  I'm actually in the upper range of a healthy weight. I assume that it's muscle that makes me maintain my weight, because I'm significantly more muscular now that I was a year ago, when I weighed about 3 kg more than now.
My point is that you shouldn't get too hooked on a number. If you have to be xx kg by a certain date, and you're not, its really demotivating. I recommend that you set goals in terms of effort, and don't set a specific deadline. For example: I want to be able to run 10km, I want to be able to do pushups on my feet, etc. Some people aren't motivated if they don't have a deadline, but to me, it just makes me panic a little and obsess over making it on time, which isn't the point.

Fitness nutrition: mentality

To find motivation, I read a lot of fitness tips and blogs, and I keep coming across this mentality that you need to "burn off" what you eat, especially in terms of weight loss. 

I find this idea very negative and for me it only discourages me. It makes me feel like I can just eat nothing and not train and it will equal eating and training, from a weight loss perspective. 

I like to see nutrition and training as two parallels. 

->Eating healthy to supply my body with everything it needs, keeping the intake of toxins and chemicals as low as possible and not consuming too much sugar. The sugar thing will help losing weight but to me it's more important that reducing sugar makes me feel much more energetic and less sluggish, the same goes for fats but it's hard to find a source that contains bad fat but no toxins, so as long as I stick to the no chemicals principle that sorts itself out. Alcohol counts into the toxin category. 

->Training makes me feel invincible. Weight training shapes my body and makes me look more toned and feminine: well trained glutes(bum) and pecs(chest) will actually make women look more curvy, although women with some body types need to pay attention not to do too much specific core work as this might lead to a winder waist; just activating the core during other exercises will be enough. Cardio just makes everyday life easier, walking up stairs or running to the bus becomes a breeze, and its good for the heart. Short-term, it encourages a healthy appetite and hunger, as in, you get hungry for real food and not for cupcakes and ice cream, and it also makes it easier to sleep. 

The idea that you're working out so that you can eat, or that you have to work out a lot if you eat much, will just send you running in circles and you'll tire of exercising, which should and could be the highlight of your day. 

With training comes motivation

Somehow, spending an hour at the gym makes my day. It inspires me to eat healthy and makes me feel like I can manage anything. It really is worth pushing yourself to get to the gym because it pays off once you start working out, it really improves your day! The hard part is remembering that during that moment of demotivation before you get going...