BeautyMarked’s BodyBlog

New years resolutions, they are so funny. It’s just another new day. 2008 or 2009, the same possibilities that lay ahead of you today, were there yesterday too and will be there tomorrow. The key is to keep your mind open to new possibilities and create new possibility. You are your own limit. So new year or not, go forth and accomplish what you want. Accomplish what is already yours. Creating the opportunity is half the battle.

I am so excited that the holidays are over.  I know that sounds awfully negative but there is something so commercial and superficial about that time of year that it makes me ache for the regular routine of life. Finally, no more gym closures! So I am back at the gym full force again. Oh how I’ve missed you. Funny though, all the new faces at the gym, I wonder how long they will last before their new years resolution dissipates. It’s that time of year. Everyone overate and overindulged over the holidays and now its time for new years resolutions. That’s the wrong way to go about it. Success with fitness will come when your resolution is to love thy self, not to lose weight. But enough about resolution renting…time for some positive energy.

The other night at work, the owner’s pregnant girlfriend came in. She looked at me and said "oh my god, what diet are you on cause I want to be on the same diet when I’ve had the baby?! You look great!" I leaned over and said "I’m on the diet that requires you to go to the gym 5 days a week and eat right" Not much of a diet. It’s a lifestyle. It’s not as simple as ‘diet’. In fact, it’s simpler. It something you adapt for the rest of your life so it becomes simple and once you live your life in a positive healthy way, your body will follow.  But anyways, it made me feel great, not just cause I was flattered but because I knew I was doing it right.

So here is to a new year, a new day, and new possibilities. My goal for January has been achieved and I could not be happier and more proud of myself. Positive thinking, positive thinking, positive thinking. Time to set new goals and new achievements. So here is to all of us who know what we want, and know how to get it. May this blog post inspire you even a tad bit to thinking positively, spread some positive energy around…
Love to all!

Food. Food.Food. Food everywhere! The worst part? the gym is closed and the weather outside is brutal - slush, snow, and minus temperature.

What to do to combat holiday guilt? My family is skipping any christmas festivies this year because we are doing major renovations to the house but regardless, there is no shortage of ice cream, chocolate and other delicious holiday treats. While I try to be good and limit how much junk I eat, I still am overcome with guilt. Aside from all the junk, I am also feeling guilty because I simply have NOTHING TO DO. The gym is not open and I am suffering from gym withdrawl. It won’t be open again until Saturday. That’s two days off, more days than I want to have off but my body can probably use it. Regardless, I don’t know what to do with myself. I know it’s unhealthy but somehow I feel like these few days off the gym and at Christmas celebrations are going to do me in and halt my progress. Tomorrow I am going to a party and I have decided to indulge in alcohol - I work at a bar every weekend and I have been off booze since I started six weeks ago. I think I deserve it however - GUILT. I am mentally beating myself up about everything. I hate that I have to be sedentary these next few days, the same days where I am most likely to indulge.

I know it’s just two days but I’m hating it already. I am not one to sit inside the house all day and so this is killing me. It’s leaving me sitting on the couch watching movies and snacking. Can someone wake me up when Christmas is over?

I am looking to add protein powder to my workout since sometimes I find it hard to get my protein in and get it in fast.

My current goals are to shed body fat and gain muscle. I don’t want to get too bulky but I definitely want to tone up and get fit. You can check out my progress photos to see how I am doing so far. My workouts consists of about 20-40 mins of cardio (depending on how much time I have and its usually broken up to 20min at the start and 20 at tne end) and strength training. One day I do lower body and the next I will do upper body. I always alternate. I prefer strength training over cardio so my strength session tends to be longer cause I like to take my time and do it properly. I do 3-4 sets of 12. I do this 4-5 times a week and I love love love it. I have been working out consistenly for about 6 weeks now and have had good results so far. So can anyone recommend me a tastey protein powder I could mix with milk (I think it tastes gross mixed with water and I’ve given up juice) after a gym session?

Since I have started university, every summer I would join the gym and attempt to lose the weight that I gained during the previous winter school months. Most of the time I had success until September came around and I started the routine all over again. Looking back, I think I had success mostly because of the drastic lifestyle change that I had undergone from being a student who slept very little, commuted long hours, was VERY stressed, did not exercise and ate fast food to survive to someone who enjoyed life, did not stress, worked out 5 days a week and eat moderately healthy, when you undergo that kind of change, your body responds.

Anyways, now I am done school and have had enough of that routine. I am very serious about not just weight loss but about being fit. Since I was a kid, I have always imagined myself to be a fit person and now I am finding that the person I am outside does not match up with who I feel to be inside.  So about 6 weeks ago I made a commitment and began the gym routine 4-5 days a week. I LOVE to work out. It makes me feel empowered and strong and nothing beats the satisfactory feeling of a great workout. HOWEVER, I realize that this a lifestyle change and in order to do it right, I need to know the right information and while I have had success in the past 6 weeks, I feel like I need to know more. I am so happy with my success but I want to feel like I know what am I doing.

What am I suppose to eat after a muscle building workout?
Do I have to drink a protein shake?
Is it bad to eat within 2-3 before bed?
Should I do cardio before or after muscle training? I keep hearing mixed responses to this.
I want to lose body fat and become fit, does that mean I need to stop doing muscle training or cardio? why can’t I do both?  What’s the best way of accomplishing my goal?
Is running bad for you?
Should I be lifting light weights for long reps (this has always sounded stupid to me and I refuse to lift light cause I feel like I am wasting my time!)

I have so many questions regarding working out and diet and I just don’t know who to ask since everyone and their mothers are "personal trainers" nowadays, so I thought what better place to ask then here?
Any type of guidance would be appreciated!

If you look at the time of this post, you will notice that I wrote this at 5am. That is because I just got home from my bar shift and I just had to make a blog entry! Reason being is, today, at work I got told by four different people that I looked like I had lost weight. Two of those people are people that I don’t see very often and the other people I see every weekend. Now, I am going through this journey for myself and for myself only, but it still feels great when other people notice your efforts. I feel like my first goal is reached and now that I have achieved something, I gotta keep going, push harder, go stronger. It’s also really rewarding because when others are starting to notice, they seem to start to treat you differently. I felt incredibly confident tonight and nothing could have upset my confidence because I knew that this was only step 1 in my journey to fitness. It is all about little goals and to feel that finally, after years of being unhappy in a overworked, tired, and stressed student body, I am getting back the body I want and the body that reflects most who I am.

So I had to come on here and write this and to make this a reminder for myself how great this first little milestone feels. So in the future, when I reach a hurdle, I will remember how great I felt today and hope that that energy carries me through to my ultimate goal.

Last week, my best friend (who is getting married in 5 months) decided to join the gym with me. He has been impressed with my weight loss so far and wanted to tone up for his wedding. My best friend is one of those laid back, totally honest guys and he told me the other day that I used to be "chubby"… that was weeks ago! Not that I enjoyed hearing that I was chubby, but I definitely enjoyed hearing that I "looked like I lost a lot of weight" and when I told him it’s only been 6lbs so far, he couldn’t believe it!  I think its been more than 6lbs as well but its hard to tell with muscle building.   Anyways, back to point, my best friend’s mother is always ahead of the curve and she is all about alternative health. Apparently, she has had her entire family give up regular sugar for healthier alternative. It has been something I have considered for a while but felt like I didn’t know enough about doing that or what to replace it with. Then, my best friend told me how he gave up sugar and is now using Agave Nectar as a substitute. So I marched my butt to the local health foods store and bought some Nectar of my own and I gotta say, it’s great. I’ve only tried putting it in my tea so far but I’m impressed. It’s a great alternative and I highly recommend it.

So to anyone interested giving up sugar - Agave Nectar, I highly recommend it!

Why do people fall for these stupid schemes?

A male friend at work, one of the bouncers in fact, came into work this weekend and announced he has lost 14 lbs. That is quite a bit of weight to lose, however I could barely notice a difference in his appearance. Since I have been busting my a$$ at the gym for the past 4 weeks and trying to watch everything I put in my mouth and have lost only about 7lbs, I couldn’t help and inquire how he did it and to my surprise, he told me that he "lost" it by paying (and paying a lot) to be on some sort of diet where they tell you what to eat and give you "vitamin" injections.  I can only assume that this is probably a very low calorie diet that does more bad than good. Why do people fall for this? He has "lost" 14 lbs but he looks just about the same, what exactly other than water did he lose?

People are so clueless! There is so much information available on safe and reliable weight loss yet people fall for these stupid schemes that cost god knows how much just so they can lose a lot of weight that is only going to return as soon as they continue with their normal lives. Everyone knows, eat smart and work out. Yet people try to do everything to get around those two. It just amazes me how simple it all really is and yet people do everyting and anything to avoid eating healthy and being active.

Anyways, I had to write this blog to vent a bit because I have been putting so much effort into working out and eating healthy and have lost 7lbs (could possibly be more but since i have been lifting weights, I am not sure how much muscle I have gained versus how much fat I have lost), and yet when I was talking about my hard efforts, it was all overshadowed with my friend’s "14 lbs weight loss."

Well thankfully I know better and can’t weight till I lose 14 lbs and show him what 14lbs off really looks like. Jeez, I wish the general population would smarten up.

Diet and exercise, stop fighting it!

Today I stepped on the scale and it said 170! woohoo! I am officially down 4 pounds. I only step on the scale in the morning when I wake up but everytime I step on the scale the number is always a bit different from the day before. I doubt that I am gaining and losing pounds like that so I am sure its just water weight. But today, I went down to 170, so says that scale. It’s great to see the changes in the scale even if its as little as 4 pounds, however I don’t relay on the scale. I am doing a lot of strength training so its possible I lost more than 4 pounds. I am noticing the changes in my body so I am sure that I am building muscle and am loving it. To see my lowest weight on the scale in a while makes me really happy because I was feeling really down these past few days from being sick and missing the gym. I was told told by 3 different people this weekend that I looked like I had lost weight and that was a great feeling!
When other people start noticing, that’s a great sign. I feel great!

Today I start yoga. Real meditative yoga. Not the fake type of yoga where people are fooled into thinking that yoga is no more than a fitness class. Not true. Yoga means union, union as in the union of the mind, body and soul. In this fitness-crazed world, I think it is also just as imporant to build your inner person too. Who you are inside, and who you are outside is one thing, really. I wish we would get rid of this notion of separatism in the world. No such thing. It has done us more harm then good. We are all part of one collective consciousness. We are not all different and we are definitely not all separate. Same with our body, mind and soul, these things are all connected and relay on each other to be complete in this world, at least. To be healthy, you must be healthy inside and out. Depression is just as real a disease as cancer yet there is a stigma that is attached to mental illnesses that deems it to be not as important as a physical illness. Not true. Have you seen how depression manifests itself physically? That is because our mind and body are in sync and in order to better one, you have to better the other. It is a balance, a natural flow. In this dimension, one cannot co-exist without the other. Thus your mental health, your mental clarity is essential in achieving physical health and fitness. It’s with this harmony that you can achieve peace and happiness.
So today I start the journey of meditative yoga and I am really excited about it.  I am excited that at my age, 23, I have come to understand things about this world and about the human body that some people never see. I hope that with my own understand and my path in life, I can teach others.

It has been three days since I have seen the inside of the gym. Damn sickness! I am just venting cause I have missed consecutive days at the gym and thus feel like a lazy bum. All I have been doing is laying in bed watching movies and inhaling Vicks. I even missed work yesterday. I don’t like wasting time so staying in bed for hours makes me feel like a bum regardless of the fact that I am sick. Tomorrow is Sunday which is new week, a new week of goals and hopefully a healthy week. I can’t see myself not feel totally better tomorrow. I feel much better today already with the exception of having a bit of a runny nose left and a really sore nose from all the kleenexes. I am going to take some vitamins, drink lots of water and tea and hopefully be back to my normal self tomorrow. As much as I resent the fact that I missed the gym and stayed in bed for the past few days, I don’t want to dwell on that. So I just wanted to write that blog and let all of that go. No more dwelling on being sick!

To tomorrow!