This Meme rings really true for me because for most of my life I have known little about how to eat. I’ve always been active but never conscious of what I was eating or how to plan to eat better. I remember when I first moved in with Larry he was astonished at the junk I kept in our cabinets, “Why do you have all these little kid, junk food snacks?”  He never kept junk food in his place and I didn’t even realize not buying it was a good idea until I saw his eating habits first hand. Did everyone have cheezits and chocolate covered pretzels at the ready for after work de-stress?

While I have improved greatly in making good food choices during moments of stress, I know how HARD it is to make good food choices when you’re feeling overwhelmed. I’m very aware that if I have a goal I’m training for I put effort into eating better. I also have eaten crap before difficult workouts and in turn felt like I was being tortured the entire duration of the workout. Physically, I remember this feeling making it easier to pass up teacher lounge baked goods and cheese trays.

The biggest thing that has helped me avoid stress bingeing is not putting myself in situations where I get too hungry. When I get hungry it is bad news. I get full on HANGRY.  I have an inability to make rational decisions. The worst is traveling and getting too hungry. Whether I’m traveling or just going to work for the day. I roll deep with snacks in my car, gym bag and work. At work, I keep a file drawer filled with tea, almonds, cashews, dark chocolate, a few smart waters. I still plan for a healthy week but some days I’m just hungrier than others and I want to have options available to me instead of the cake in the staff lounge.

The last tip that has helped me not over do it in an unhealthy direction is to not deny myself cravings entirely. I try and pass on junk food unless it is really well made/high quality. For example, there’s one bakery in San Diego called Anything Bundt Cakes that is my absolute favorite! If anyone ever brings in cupcakes from there I have half (because they are gigantic). Eating them brings me insane amounts of happiness. However, if someone brings cake from anywhere else I can usually pass. I want to make sure it’s worth the slice, in other words.

 

Action Steps:

1) Roll with healthy snacks at work and in your purse & increase your hydration. Often when we are dehydrated we FEEL hungrier.

2) Try and lessen the junk you have in your home or think of alternatives that give you a similar satisfaction but don’t break the nutrition bank. A while back I was on a roll getting frozen yogurt 3 nights a week. I’ve since subbed it out for Noosa coconut yogurt and haven’t missed the fro yo.

3) Be discerning about desserts and cheat snacks. High quality dark chocolate. HELL YES! A  Three Muskateers bar? Um, no thank you.

4) Try and figure out why you’re lunging for junk food and if you’re really okay with going for it. If you decide to go for it, enjoy your cake without guilt or shame. Or take a pass because well, it’s not worth it to you.

 

 

Okay all you mamas and dog mamas out there! Leg Levers are here to stay and when done slowly and under control are super effective tummy flattener.

How to do it:

Laying flat on your back, place baby on hips and raise hips into bridge

Lift baby directly out in front of you elbows locked out, shoulders back and down away from your ears

Crunch upper abdominals by lifting shoulder blades completely off the floor

Raise legs straight out in front of you, squeezing legs together

In a slow and controlled fashion, raise straight legs from 6″ off ground towards baby pressed out in front

*If you need a break, bend knees and take knees into your chest every other rep

 

Workout:  4-5 sets of 10 reps

While working in education for the past seven years as my “main job,” I’ve heard from co-workers more than a time or two, “I just need you to be my personal trainer and I’ll get going again.” Or “I used to be in shape but then _______ happened.” They confess their unhealthy sins and then sit back and make a lot of excuses. I totally get why this happens: Getting back into shape is so much more than putting yourself through a regular exercise routine. It truly is a change in lifestyle. Everything has to change in order to sustain it: sleep patterns, kinds of food you eat, how much water you drink, and how you choose to spend your free time.

So when my friend and co-worker, Wanda, approached me about wanting to make a big change when she turns 40 and potentially having me help guide her, I needed to see if she would show up on that first day.

With my personal training clients, yes I am showing them how to move (squat, press, push, pull) but the hardest work I encounter is how to incrementally build the mentality of an athlete in them. This is one of the areas of life where if you think it, you become it. An athlete isn’t someone who has medaled in a sport or can beat everyone else’s time in your gym. An athlete is the person who no matter how busy life gets (marriage, kids, jobs, illness etc) stays the course and consistently shows up to do what he or she can. It’s the person who targets their weaknesses and constantly strives to improve. I get the pleasure of coaching these kinds of people in the group classes and boy do they operate with an incredible amount of self-discipline. If they’re running late they still come and warm themselves up on their own and jump into the workout. If they miss a class completely they come and put themselves through another workout that week without the encouragement from being in the group class. These are the people I’d not only want to go to war with but the people who I consider to be the true athletes.

As a trainer, I consider it my job to show individuals how much more their body can do even when their mind is telling them they can’t. Now, this isn’t to push them to the brink and take someone who’s never worked out before into total body cramping and dehydration. No, this is to allow them to take pride in their accomplishment that day. That even when they thought they couldn’t finish. They finished.

Taking pride in your performance during a workout is a feeling like no other. It is the reason I continue to strive to improve myself, as well as the reason I bawled like a baby upon recently reaching a longtime deadlift goal. No matter how small or insignificant your goal seems, if you care enough, you’ll put in the work to meet or exceed it. And when that moment comes, celebrate it! Don’t let others write it off because working out is a “hobby.” On the contrary, it is your sense of wellness, a way you’ve empowered yourself, something you’ve built that no one can take away. Wanda swore up and down she was ready to invest in herself in this way. So I said, okay just show up on Friday and we will get started.

Wanda came in early, had the right positive attitude, and trusted me to take her past where she thought she could go. Although it’s only been one session together. I’m so proud of her and want to thank her for showing me what effort and determination looks like in the very beginning.

 

Travel Exercise: Dumbbell Thrusters

 

If you have access to any hotel weight room that has dumbbells (most do). This is wonderful and efficient movement recruiting both lower and upper body strength. I love to do these in gyms with limited equipment while on vacation.

How to do it:

Bring dumbbells up to rest on your shoulders

Widen feet into squat stance –shoulder width apart

Squat by sending hips back first then bending knees out to the side (not tracking forward over toe), hips should break below the height of the knee

Coming out of the bottom of the squat, drive through the mid-foot to heel

Squeeze your glutes hard as you rise

Use the drive to do most of the work for you bumping dumbbells off shoulders

Complete the movement by pressing the weight overhead until elbows are locked out

 

Breathing:

Inhale as you descend to the bottom of your squat

Exhale as you press out the weight at the top

Yes, I’m being cheesy and naming my smoothie because when I wake up and have this one I feel like I want to burst into your bedroom singing. HAHA! Just kidding. No, truly I feel like my mind is working, my body has energy and I’m ready to go out into the world and get after my work and workout goals.

Warnings:

a) You will get hooked on this and you will find yourself irritable when you are traveling and don’t have it

b) You will want to get up earlier to make this in the morning (TOTALLY WORTH IT).

 

GET IT GIRL SMOOTHIE

½ banana (the other half I eat as I’m making the smoothie)

2 c.  Power Greens (a mix of baby kale, chard and spinach)

1 ½ c. Unsweetened Coconut Milk

1 scoop Jay Rob Vanilla Egg white protein

1 mini pack of frozen acai

½ c. frozen berries

1 tsp. chia sees

 

Notes:

1) To save cash, I get everything from Costco even the mixed frozen berries which are not pictured because I’m using up an bag I forgot I had in my freezer.

2) The only non-Costco item is the Jay Robb vanilla egg white protein powder. I order it in bulk on Amazon so it’s way cheaper than getting it at Whole Foods.

 

So I am reading this book called, Courage: The Joy of Living Dangerously. I want to understand how to quiet my fears and move forward. I’m seeking the ability to give the best parts of myself without fear of judgment. I want to love more easily and be more open. It is hard work. It sucks. I’m scared of what I’m going to find out. I am filled with fear, fear, and more fear.  Below is one of many points made by Osho that resonates with me:

In the beginning there is not much difference between the coward and the courageous person. The only difference is, the coward listens to his fears and follows them, and the courageous person puts them aside and goes ahead. The courageous person goes into the unknown in spite of all fears.

After I read this I was like, WOW, it sounds so simple. Just don’t listen to my fears, put them aside and go ahead. Okay, Hannah. You can do this. I got super pumped up that I could do this with bravery but then woke up and saw the coaches’ surveys went out to our gym members this morning. HELLO CRAZY AMOUNTS OF FEAR I JUST SWORE I COULD EASILY SET ASIDE!  I can hear my head saying, “but getting feedback helps you grow.” I also get that all feedback good or bad should be taken with a grain of salt. Internally, I have a good sense of where I think I land and what I need improvement on. Hopefully the feedback reflects that. But what if it doesn’t? What my head understands doesn’t quiet the emotion and fear of being judged (insert deep seated fear of being unlovable).

I am tired of my self-doubt often paralyzing me from doing what I love because too often I want people to love me. Sometimes I get so spiraled out crazy I feel all the good I have in me fold up into a small seashell and seal tight. Like the seashell Ursula used to keep Ariel’s voice. When this happens I feel like I go through the motions of my life but I’m not truly living. I see it in others I’m close to as well. I call it their sparkle. I love seeing others in their element being boldly unafraid to show authenticity. I literally see a light from within sparkle through their eyes. I don’t like the feeling of going through life with guards up unable to give the best parts or who I am because fears have a hold on me. In this small case, I’m sitting here asking myself, is the fear of being judged going to stop me from giving the best parts of myself to others? How can I quiet them?

The way of heart is the way of courage. It is to live in insecurity; it is to live in love, and trust; it is to move in the unknown.– Osho

 

Action Steps:

1) If you were unafraid of putting yourself out there and little feedback what would you do more of?

2) Identify the fears that dull the light within, block creative energy, close you off from connection

3) Honor your fears by writing them down or using physical objects to represent them and tuck them away in a box, under your bed, wherever.

4) When your fears are brought to the surface have the courage to recognize their presence like an unwanted house guest. Set them aside and go ahead into the unknown.

I couldn’t get enough of the squatting baby videos I received after posting. In fact I got so excited I grabbed a 20 lb medicine ball to give you mommies an abdominal challenge! Again, this can be done with a med ball, puppy, or child from anywhere. Keep the videos coming I love seeing you ladies squatting puppies and babies. There really is nothing better!  🙂

How to do it:

1) Place baby on your hips

2) With your knees bent, and feet flat on the floor and raise into a bridge by lifting hips and squeezing glutes TIGHT.

2) Lift baby straight out in front of you with elbows locked out, shoulders back and down

3) Crunch upper abdominals so head, neck and shoulders rise off the ground

4) Lift legs 6″ off the ground

5) Count each rep as an 8 count. Sounds like, “1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and 5 and 6 and 7 and 8” (that is 1 rep)

6) Complete 3 sets of 8 reps

7) When finished raise hips into bridge to receive baby and slowly lower hips to ground

 

 

 

I love a good workout buddy and am generally inspired by other women. I say generally, because I have also felt threatened by other women. However, too often I think women let insecurity get the best of them. I am no exception.  I have encountered women with great gym hair or very little body fat enter and had thoughts of shoving them to the floor. But the truth is, I have spent too much time and energy pre-judging others and all it ever leads to is a downward spiral of self-loathing (the root of feeling threatened in the first place).  So I’d like to ask you this, why can’t a woman have great gym hair and very little body fat? And what if she were helping you push yourself to improve just by working out with her versus against her? Embrace the threat, ladies. It’s totally worth it.

I’m super happy that an original female workout buddy has returned. When she first walked into our gym, she ruffled more than a few female feathers. She is very tan, very muscular, has little body fat, and had a lot of really good hair. Her hair whipped around effortlessly throughout our first workout together while mine crusted onto the back of my neck and side of my face. By the end of our first workout she still looked like fitness Barbie and I looked like swamp thing. I didn’t care because I liked that she pushed herself hard and was unapologetic about showing off her body which she openly touted that she had worked hard for. I had respect for her brazen confidence and because she wasn’t saying she woke up like that.

We worked out almost daily together and found that we had very complimentary skill sets. She was great at short anaerobic workouts and I had a consistent motor to keep chugging without burning out on the longer workouts. Where one struggled the other encouraged.  I get that there’s a fine line between having a girl gym buddy who you feel supports you versus competes with you. But I’ve learned to question why owning the fact that you and your workout buddy are competing against one another is  a bad thing?  Is it because girls aren’t raised to be competitive like boys? What I loved about my relationship with my gym buddy was in the beginning we openly voiced how we were competing with each other.  It worked for us. When she left the gym, I felt a void. That person who I was always neck and neck with wasn’t there. I had to re-evaluate what the hell my goals were other than chasing her and it wasn’t easy. In fact it was really hard because I was forced to grow.

This was when I really started to transition from beginner athlete to one who was more mentally locked in. I had to find intrinsic motivation and for the first time take a look at where I was and set goals for myself. I appreciate and like that I have motivation now no matter who I’m working out with but that doesn’t mean I don’t prefer to surround myself with positive women who push me.

I’m so excited at the thought of having a family! I see all my new mommy friends and am taking notes on what they are doing to stay fit or get back to their fighting weight postpartum. I want to start sharing exercises moms or anyone looking to workout at home can do easily without equipment. I do have a fur baby. His name is Frankie and he weighs approximately 15 lbs on a slim day and closer to 18 lbs on a chunky day. I asked his assistance in the video below to demo how to do a proper squat while holding your baby as weight.

Notes before you try:

Practice your squat first without baby as weight.

Wear flat heeled shoes like converse or a barefoot go.

* Traditional running shoes have a lift in the heel causing you to pitch your weight onto your toes (not what you want in a squat.

How to Squat:

1) Start by widening your stance to hip width (slightly wider than your shoulders). Send your hips back first keeping legs straight until you feel tension in your hamstrings

2) As you start to bend your knees send them out to the sides away from you (avoid your knees going forward over your toes)

3) Slowly lower keeping the chest up and feeling your weight in your mid foot to heel (going barefoot helps you to feel the weight distribution in your foot)

4) It’s okay to start with a squat that is more shallow if that’s what flexibility allows. Over time, work towards a squat depth where hips break below parallel with the thighs

 

Notes on adding weight to your squat:

Remember your arms are levers. The further away you hold your weight the harder it’s going to be.

Beginner– no weight

Intermediate– Hold baby close at upper chest

Advanced– Hold baby away from your body while still maintaining your chest up throughout the movement.

 

When we got to the seafood restaurant overlooking the water we sat at the bar with two flutes of celebratory champagne and watched the Wisconsin Badger basketball game on TV. By the time we sat down to dinner I was a little tipsy. After dinner Larry suggested we go take a walk out on to the pier. I clearly remember being hyper focused on not letting my heels fall in between the planks of the wooden pier as we walked arm in arm. I told him I was cold so he had to move the ring box from his jacket pocket to his jeans pocket. He then slid of his jacket to give to me and I promptly responded with, “Oh you know what? I think I’m fine actually.” When we got halfway down the pier there was a man and woman standing in the dark embracing each other. The woman was crying tears of joy. She turned to me and said, “Would you mind taking a picture of us? We just got engaged!” On the inside I was like, “(insert expletive here) I wish that were me.” On the outside I gave an enthusiastic “Of course!” and a “Congratulations!”

As we got to the end of the pier I still had no clue it was coming because I was the girl that received a very pretty pearl necklace. “It’s okay, Hannah. You have a man who loves you so much and a beautiful NECKLACE,” I kept reassuring myself. Larry started to talk and was saying some really beautiful and romantic things. I remember him saying, “When I first met you there was this beautiful light around you and I was hoping I could be around it always.” What I didn’t put together was that this was the beginning of a prepared speech. So I turned it into a back and forth (also known as a conversation).  “I also felt something really special the first time I met you,” I replied. Then he’d say something else really sweet and I’d respond, “Me too!” enthusiastically. Finally, he put his hands on my upper arms and squeezed them as if to say, “Will you please shut your mouth so I can get all of this out.” I’m not sure if I calmed down or not, but then I looked down and saw a ring box. I looked up at his face and tears were coming down his cheeks. The moment I saw his face I knew THIS was happening. I started shaking and looked down to see what the HELL I was wearing. Am I even cute right now for the BIGGEST moment of my life so far?!?!!!

He bent down on one knee and asked me to marry him and I started bawling and saying, “Is this real life?!” as he slipped the most gorgeous diamond ring ever onto my finger. Then we were that couple crying the end of the pier asking some stranger if they wouldn’t mind taking a picture of us and wanting to tell everyone it’s because we just got engaged!!!

After shaking and crying I was pumped up on adrenaline in excitement and so elated that it was our secret. I suggested we head to the local dive bar aptly named Larry’s Luau and celebrate.

He agreed, but then asked if we could stop back at the hotel room so he could grab some Tums first. If you know Larry, this is not unusual at all as his emotions often correlate to a stomach ache. When we got back to our hotel room he had me walk in first and there were lit candles and rose petals in a pathway to the bed and rose petals on the bed. There were fresh flower arrangements on the night stands, two bottles of champagne on ice and a plate of chocolate dipped strawberries. I almost passed out.

How could I take any more excitement in one evening? I started crying again and the rest as they say is history. Yes, I knew he was my forever person the first time I met him and I’m so glad I waited because his proposal exceeded my wildest expectations. I love everything about him and if the last three years are any indicator of what a lifetime together will bring I’m ready for that lifetime to start now.

Action Steps:

1) Always treat others with kindness. I’m so glad I didn’t push that happy newly engaged couple off the pier.

2) LET THE MAN BE THE MAN. In case you didn’t get this the first time. It’s sooo worth it.

3) Prepare your heart because after getting engaged you are guaranteed to fall more deeply in love.