Adina’s Cute & Perky Blog!

One of the people dearest to my heart sent me a picture message last weekend. He was showing me how his contest prep was going, and it’s going great! He’s right on schedule.

But it was something that he said that caught my attention.

He thanked me for the positive energy I was sending him.

Now, I’ve never told him that I send good thoughts to him, but I do.

I’ve never said, “I’m in your corner.”

But I am. And he knows it.

I’ve never said, “I will be there for you.”

But I am. And he knows it.

Sometimes you just know it, whether it’s said or not.

I talk to people each and every day who say, “No one is there for me. I can’t do this, because I am alone.”

When I was struggling so hard to lose weight, I thought I was alone. That was before I learned to recognize the team I had created without knowing.

No one ever said, “Adina, I will be here for you” with their words, but certainly they said it with their actions. And don’t actions speak louder than words anyway?

I had one who would stop his own workout the moment I walked in the gym to make sure I was on track with mine.

One who stood next to me while I was doing cardio any time people wanted to visit with me. He literally stood between me and any person who would try to visit while I ran, because, “visiting slows down your progress.”

One who told me what to eat when I went out to restaurants and parties and fretted about it.
One who said, “You go girl!” every single time she saw me and noted new loss.

And one who went over my diet with a fine-toothed comb, and changed it for me every few months.

Not one of these people said, “I’m here for you,” but clearly they were; through every pound I lost and struggle I encountered. There was no problem so big, no plateau so long, that my team could not conquer it.

While I began the journey thinking I was alone, I made it to goal with the help of many. And the rest of this journey will be better because I am aware of the people I have on my team.

My beloved friend is just more in touch with who is in his corner than most of us. It is, after all, a gift to reach out without fear.

When it comes right down to it, most of us have as much support as we choose to see and allow ourselves to accept. And if you cannot see that, it’s probably because you are looking down.

Look up, reach out, and celebrate the fact that you have people all around you. Choose to be a victor and embrace what is all around you.

I was making my last shake of the day last night and was a little distracted.

It’s really not hard to distract me. I mean, I sat down to write this hours ago and let messages and comments distract me…Oh…and Adina-isms…I like that!

And…what was I saying?

Oh yeah, I was making my shake last night…

I put the little powder in the little container and gave it a little shake and…it went all over my wall because I forgot to push down the little stopper! (I laughed so hard!)

Any way…

I was so busy thinking about what I was going to do next that I didn’t pay attention to the task at hand.

And how many times do I see this, or worse yet act this, at the gym?

How many times did I lose track of reps or sets because I was texting?

How many times was my cardio not as efficient because I slowed down to take a call?

Or did I really have to stop and visit thirty minutes during the middle of my workout?

But it starts before then.

For me it starts when I pack my bag. I set the tone there.

Just this week I lifted without my shoes. I forgot them. How do you forget shoes? I don’t know. I just know that I did! (Sadly, it wasn’t the first time.) And this one guy at the gym said, “If you’re going to forget an article of close next time, we’d prefer…”

Sorry, I’m distracted again. We’ll talk about him next week. You can bet on it!

So any way…

I’m fanatical about taking my ISS Whey and BCAA’s RIGHT after I lift, but I can’t do that when I forget them.

And every time something like this happens, it comes back to the same reason.

I was distracted, or in other words…I just didn’t take the time.

So every once in a while I remind myself, “Adina, leave the phone in the car for this 45 minutes.”

Or sometimes, “Slow down and pack the things you need. This is worth it.”

Because it is…and because it totally sucks to scrape dried protein powder off the wall from where you missed a spot.

So, as the title tells you, it’s a double blog morning! I told you I had some projects in the works, and here is one of them.

I won the writing contest in MD a few months ago, and my piece is in the newest issue of Muscular Development! I am very excited, because I am the only femal who has ever won it.

Here is the piece that won:

Proud to be Misunderstood
By FitAdina

I remember being scared to walk in my gym the first time. Actually, I felt physically ill just stepping through those doors.

After years of judging people with visible muscle, I now aspired to be one. But bodybuilders are frequently misunderstood.

I had lost fifty pounds before I got brave enough to head to the gym. I just knew the minute I walked through the doors, I would be judged.

I thought all heads would turn and stare at the short, fat woman entering the room. Because it was their turn to judge me, the way I had judged them for years.

I remember picking up magazines like MD and putting them quickly back down, mumbling, “That is freaky and gross. Who would choose to do that to themselves?”

But in my journey to lose weight, I began weekly trips to the bookstore for inspiration. I started with Shape, slowly progressing through all the publications before graduating to MD.

One Friday night I was feeling particularly sorry for myself. “No one has to work as hard as I do to look the way I want to look.”

Thumbing through MD brought me to a picture of Marcus Ruhl squatting under a weight heavier than I will ever know. Veins bulging. Eyes straining. Sweat pouring.

He was certainly working harder than I was to look the way he wanted to look.

Then came the realization, “Everyone in here is working harder than me. Every single person.”

When I had turned up my nose all those times, I was jealous. Jealous of the hard work and dedication those people possessed. While I was struggling to move from morbidly obese to just obese, they were taking it to a level that only existed in my dreams.

In that instant I knew it. “I must join a gym.”

But after years of judging others, I was afraid of setting foot in a gym. Hadn’t they earned the right to say, “What are YOU doing here?”

Hadn’t I turned up my nose long enough to take what was coming to me?
But that never happened.

Not once did anyone say to me, “What are YOU doing here?”

They all KNEW why I was there! I weighed over 200 pounds. Where else would I be but in a gym working it off?

Time passed. I got the weight off. And sometimes I think those guys were happier for me than I was for myself.

In any good gym there is a community that becomes like a second family. If anyone were to hurt me, fifteen guys from my gym would descend on them in an instant. But they would have done that when I was still overweight. They embraced me right away for working so hard to make goal.

A coworker stopped me not long ago to say, “You’ve worked out too long. Your shoulders are too broad.” She didn’t understand why I smiled.
I am one of the misunderstood, and I am proud of it.

I intended to have an all out cardio fest yesterday. I was going for another marathon session, but as often happens being a mom derailed my plan.

So between picking the boys up from two separate places and dropping them back off for church, I had one hour before I had to pick them up again. Exactly one hour.

One hour for extreme cardio.

Hmm.

I was going for marathon cardio, which for me means 1,000 calories burned.

No, I don’t do it often. I just felt the urge to do it again even though I did the other day.

So I start on the Arc and stay there for thirty minutes.

Then I move to the Elliptical.

With only twenty minutes left, I was going to have to push it.

So I get off and I head to the treadmill, and I crank the speed to seven.

And Adina wasn’t built for speed seven!

I laughed when I looked in the mirror. By the end of those twenty minutes, I was huffing, I was puffing, I was red! It took every bit of the last breath I had to answer the guy next to me as to why I working so hard.

And I drug my sweaty body to the car.

I am still looking pretty pitiful when I got to the church to pick up the boys (even though I’m sure I was still sexy. Y’all can tell me that if you want).

As the doors pop open, I see a teenager burst through the like he is on fire!

And the next person out is my oldest son! He is chasing that kid like his very life depended on it!

They leap hedges and dodge parked cars. Laughing and running.

And for a split second I’m taken back. Micah is running with the carefree ease he did when he was a boy.
And he is laughing.

And it all culminates in a little mini-wrestling match.

A few minutes later he realizes I am there.

He comes to the car.

He was huffing. He was puffing. He was red. It took every breath he had to say, “Did you see that?”

“Yea son, I did.”

And I was reminded that what I do in that gym is as pleasant as I allow it to be. I’m going to remember that when I go to the gym tonight.

I made a man uncomfortable at the gym last night, and I don’t mean in the good kind of way.

I mean in the I-lifted-heavier-than-he-did kind of way.

He had seen me working my lats on the machine he was ready to use and politely asked if I was through.

“No. I have two more sets, but you can work in with me if you’d like.”

I was doing a round robin kind of thing between upper, middle, and lower back, so I didn’t pay attention to what he was doing. Besides, he wasn’t hot.

I wouldn’t have paid attention anyway. I was in my zone.

I’ve got two exercises I’ve really been focusing on the last few weeks. I’ve been pushing it with the pec dec to be able to control 100 pounds. With my lats, I’ve been using 105. These are big numbers for me, and I’ve been working really hard to achieve the reps I want.

The nice man had removed the close grip and was putting it back. He was actually going above and beyond when he says, “What weight can I put up there for ya?”

“I blurt out 105 without thinking.”

He blushes and moves the pin from 90 to 105…and I felt bad.

But I really don’t think he does the things I do, and one look told me this. He was working out in jeans and a Polo.

I had a goal in mind when I woke up yesterday morning, and that was to get six lat pulls at 105 with the close grip pulley.

And I planned my whole day accordingly.

Cardio at 4:00AM so as to not tax my lifting stamina by doing it too close to lift off!

 BCAA’s before taken at bed time the night before and before cardio that morning.

ISS vitamin packs with my breakfast of egg whites and Ezekiel bread that morning.

A shake as one of my meals in the hour prior to lifting.

No refined carbs throughout the day, or any day for that matter.

Promino Plus in the morning to start my day off right.

And for heaven’s sakes I took the time to put some sweats on.

I don’t think he did these things.

And I don’t think he broke a PR with making 7 at 105 either.

I don’t haphazardly show up at the gym after work without thought or plan.

I know what I’m after, and I keep my eye on the prize all day long.

Today is a cardio only day, but you can bet your bottom dollar I’ve got that all planned out too.

Every few weeks you’re supposed to change up your routine at the gym. We all know this.

But sometimes, it’s just so easy to stick with what you’ve always done. I create a routine I like and memorize it. I become one with the workout. I don’t even have to think about what I’m doing.

And while weight lifting is always challenging if you do it right, it’s not as challenging as the shock of change to your muscles.

But eventually I wake up. I look in the mirror and realize nothing’s changed. Not in a long time.
And so I spend a few days perusing websites and magazines to find new exercise, different splits, or perhaps a way to tweak my diet.

And for the next few weeks I am uncomfortable.

I work the muscles in a way I haven’t before, and I feel it.

I’m not as confident walking in the gym, because it’s not rote. I have to actually think before I go.

I experience moments of hunger I hadn’t before because I’m trying new foods in different combinations at different times.

But a few weeks pass and I see, know, and feel the differences. New muscle growth. More fat loss. Increase confidence from taking a new routine by storm.

And what seemed chaotic and painful at first became the catalyst for new growth, and given time fits like a glove. A lifting glove.

Change is almost always scary, but without it I have no doubt I would still weigh 256 pounds.

Change is what you allow it to be.

I did massive amounts of cardio over the weekend. I did the kind I used to do when I was still so heavy.

I had a ritual I followed every Saturday morning. I would use the calorie counters on the machines and stay on them till I hit 1,000 calories burned.

And you bet it was hard for an obese woman to do that much cardio.

It hurt.

It was hard.

But it got me to goal.

And I stopped doing that when I got to goal. I just eased on into normal-sized people cardio.

Only, I was dead-set on doing this kind of cardio once more this weekend.

You see, I was on the treadmill the other day after getting off the Arc. Our gym has not had the Arc Trainer very long, so no one is used to them.

I had spent 20 minutes on the Arc, before getting off to jog on the treadmill next to it. It was hard, but it wasn’t THAT hard.

The person who followed me on that machine wasn’t there to see I had already done my time on it. She looks at me and says, “This machine is tough.”

“Yeah. I just got off it.”

“I can only make two minutes.”

And true to her word, she did two minutes and left.

Now, she didn’t do two minutes and hop to the next machine. She did two minutes and left, saying that machine hurt her.  And this is coming from an individual who appears to be fit.

And often I am asked by people how I was able to jog when I was so heavy, because “When I start to run, it hurts.”

My answer?

I ran through the pain. When I first started jogging, it felt like my shins were going to fall right off the front of my legs. It hurt that much. And my lungs felt like they would explode as I took a dramatic intake of air with every single step.

But that was then, and this is now. It took a good, solid two months for those feelings to go away.
But the good news? It never felt like that ever again.

And I was wondering after watching the two minute cardio wonder I witnessed, can I still push though my pain?

And 1,000 calories later, I know I still can. I was even wearing a twenty pound weighted vest.

And so, I woke up today remembering, I can do anything I set my mind and my pain threshold to.