Getting Through the Holidays… Just Barely

Hip-hip-hooray for the holiday season. It’s full of good friends, celebrations, parties, family and of course ridiculous temptation in the form of excessive food and drink. I’d like to say I’m immune to the charms of spinach dip, chips, pigs in a blanket, breakfast casseroles, champagne, margaritas and wine, but I’m not. Really, I don’t think anyone can say they don’t partake a little bit more in their “no-no foods” this time of year. I sure did.

Yes, I know, I’m on a diet. For the most part, I’ve stuck to it. I’ve religiously brought my lunch to work, haven’t missed a training session with Rob and have been going to the gym whenever possible. However, I’m a gal with a lot of friends and social obligations over the holidays. I had parties to attend every weekend. I had dinners with friends. I had family get-togethers. It felt like hardly a day went by where I didn’t have something I had to do. And of course with the parties come the food and booze. And I don’t care if you have Herculean willpower; you’re going to have a few glasses of champagne and some nibbles off the cheese platter. Again, I did.

But the good news is that despite all of my holiday cheer, I still managed to lose weight in December. Sure, I didn’t lose the numbers I’d lost in October and November, but I still lost and didn’t gain. It’s reassuring to know I can get through this holiday season, and therefore future holiday seasons without doing any serious damage. I know I have to get to the gym whenever possible, stick to the diet whenever possible and just sample the goodies. I’ll be fine next year, I know it.

Now that the holidays are wrapping up, I’m fully committed to dropping big numbers in the next few months. This means getting the gym at least 5, if not 6 days a week, cutting the booze out again and keeping my meal plan on point. It shouldn’t be too hard because when the weather is crummy there’s nothing going on socially so I’ll have tons of time to focus on myself. I had my fun in December. Now is the time to refocus and get down to weight loss business.

Turkish What?

Turkish Get Ups. My new favorite exercise.

Yesterday Mandi was not able to make it to training so I had Rob all to myself. In his eyes, it was the perfect time to introduce a new move into our training program – The Turkish Get Up. Rob says that basic kettlebell swings and the Turkish Get Ups are the foundation for our kettlebell training program. Once we master the Turkish Get Up, we’ll be well on our way to hardcore kettlebell stuff. I like it!

Learning the Turkish Get Up? Not so easy for my uncoordinated ass, so it’s a good thing I had Rob alone yesterday to work with me on it. For the uninitiated, the Turkish Get Up combines pretty much every exercise we’ve been working on into one, fluid motion. I start with lying on my back. Next I do kind of a sit up. Then I swing a leg behind me to get into a lunge position. Finally, I lunge up to a standing position. Once you’re up, you do the whole thing in reverse. Oh yes, all while keeping a kettlebell above your head.

I’m super into the Turkish Get Up. It works my arms, abs, butt, back and legs. Really, it’s a pretty compete body workout. And its fun! Never, in a million years would I ever say working out is fun. I’m quite possibly the laziest person on the face of the planet, so for ME to say working out is fun, well… It’s kind of like the apocalypse. Or maybe now that I’m down some poundage, I like working up a sweat? Or maybe I just really vibe on the kettlebells. Who knows? At this point, who cares??

Rob was all kinds of happy about teaching me the Turkish Get Up. In previous training sessions, he’d been making me do all kinds of lunges, squats, bridges, etc… all to get my body to understand how to move the right way so when he teaches me things like the Turkish Get Up, my muscles will instinctively know what they’re supposed to do. It all clicks! You have to do the boring, not so fun leg work to work up to the cool kettlebell moves.

I can’t wait to learn more and more kettlebell activities. Bring.It.On.

Just About Halfway There

To date I’ve lost 45 lbs. FORTY FIVE FREAKING POUNDS! That’s almost halfway to my goal of losing 100 lbs. I can’t believe it. That’s crazy, especially since I only started working out with Rob at the end of September. So what… 45 lbs in about 3 months??? That’s like, Biggest Loser-esque weight loss.

While my success has been awesome, there are still some things that bug me. I’m nowhere near close to looking the way I want to look. I still feel really fat. I’m not at the pants size I want to be wearing. I’m not jogging. And if I’m being honest? I still hate my body. It sucks to have all of that success and still not be happy with your looks.

But I’m going to get there. I just need to keep plugging away, sticking to the diet and working out. Rob told me that he’s going to do his job as a trainer to keep upping the intensity at the gym, so its my responsibility to keep upping the intensity on the diet.

I wonder what I’ll look like when I do lose 100 lbs. Will I look “not fat?” Will I be happy? Only time will tell…

Thumbs Up for My Trainer

My trainer Rob is a crazy man. Crazy in the best way possible.

There are so many reasons why I love training with Rob. I think it’s time to sing his praises, because while yes, I’m the one that’s sweating it out and dieting, he’s the one who’s given me the tools to make it happen.

1. Rob is prepared. The man comes to each and every session with a full workout planned out and written down for Mandi and me. Granted, he’s the only trainer I’ve ever worked with, but friends have told me their trainers have a tendency to be disorganized, unprepared and just kind of go with the flow every time they meet. Not the case with Rob. I like the idea that he puts thought into my workout sessions to maximize my weight loss.

2. Rob isn’t annoying. Sounds weird, but there is nothing more distracting than when someone is acting like an overgrown cheerleader telling me, “Yeah! You can do it!” Rob doesn’t do any of that crap. He’ll talk me through some particularly tough circuits, but for the most part he lets me just focus on the workout. I suppose if I was the type of gal that needed a long-haired male cheerleader to get me through a workout, he would gladly act the part, but I’m sure he’s happy that I’m pretty low-key and he can just coach me.

3. Rob keeps up the intensity. He really pays attention to when the workouts are getting too easy for Mandi and me and increases the durations, intensity and difficulty accordingly. I’m pretty sure he knows that when Mandi and I have the extra energy to crack jokes and laugh that we’re ready to be pushed to the next level and he makes sure to crank it up a notch. I usually hate myself when he increases our workouts, which happens a lot, but we can’t get complacent and comfortable when weight loss is the goal.

4. Rob is fun. Honestly, I would work out with an evil troll if I was getting results, but its icing on the cake when you have a trainer who’s actually a cool, nice guy. He has a great sense of humor, lets me make “your mom” jokes at his expense and doesn’t mind when we tease him about his long hair. And he dishes it right back.

5. Rob cares. At least I think he does. When I came into the gym in an emotional meltdown state, he listened to me cry. He came to our Halloween party. He tells us all the time that we’re doing great. When I hurt my shoulder, he texted me the next day to make sure I was okay. I just get the feeling that he’s invested in our weight loss almost as much as Mandi and me. He wants to see us succeed and live happy and healthy lives.

So yeah. Rob is pretty fantastic. I’m so grateful I have him around to train me, motivate me and be along for the ride on this weight loss journey.