CELESTE GIVES UP

The fitness tumblr community is motvational, inspiring, encouraging. I, and many others, owe a lot to it—incredible weight loss, even better friends, finding my fitness niche, etc.

Lately though, I’ve noticed a lot of negativity and condescension.

I just need to put this out there: there is a difference between a joke and arrogance. You are not better than someone because you compete/don’t compete, race/don’t race, etc. You are not better than someone because you can deadlift 1,302 pounds, juice the whole farmers market, run 51 miles, eat an entire cow or hold a headstand for a day. Yes, that’s awesome, but don’t turn your success into a vehicle for guilt.

Ours is (usually) an uplifting community. We’re here to find motivation to reach our goals. We’re here to share our journey—including both ups and downs—with people we care about.

Let’s start acting like it.

• Run really fast
• Lift heavy weights
• Eat a lot of meat (and veggie hot dogs)
• Be hella buff

Please and thank you.

I have been eating horribly. So many baked goods. So many bars. So much ice cream.

I love baking. There have been many times in my life where I’ve thought about pursuing a culinary career. But I have not yet learned how to bake without completely stuffing myself. So, I just didn’t bake for the past six months.

Does anyone have the secret to bakings sensibly?

In the meantime, I think I’m going to take the “if it fits into your macros” approach.

I know I’m going hog wild because I have deprived myself of most sweets for the past 8 months. I need to let myself live a little at a time, and hopefully that’ll prevent major blowouts. Plus, it’ll make me happier on the eating whole.

I’ve belonged to Gold’s Gym for 15 months, but have never taken a class.

9 a.m. Body Pump, get ready.

But first, 60-minute spin.

I was all ready to go out on my bike ride this morning. Even if I was dreading it a little.

Big breakfast in my stomach, frozen water bottle in the cage, phone and cards in a Ziploc.

Check my tires … back one is 100 percent flat. Don’t want to deal with that this morning, or in 25 miles.

Looks like I’m going to the gym instead. Not totally disappointed.

By the way — this is this bike’s first flat. Pretty good for two years, huh?

Today I ran to/from the gym, went into school to get some curriculum work done, organized the hell out of my life, crossed 7 things off of my to-do list, wrote two Best Of entries, made a delicious dinner and ate froyo.

Have I mentioned that I’m excited for August?

Tuesday, August 2 exercise:

• Run: 4 miles + 1 mile cool down walk
• CGU Challenge: 125 push ups, 125 triceps dips, 500 reps of abs—leg lifts (50), suicide push ups (50), dead bug + reach up (50), Ab Solo machine (50), side bends with 35 pounds (100), bicycle crunches (50), vertical toe-to-heel scissors (50), horizontal scissors (50) bicycle crunches (50)

Each month, I tell myself to have fewer goals so I can actually attain them all. When I start writing them, I just get a little too optimistic. This month though, I think most of them are within reach. 

August will be a crazy 30 days. I’ll go from having very few responsibilities to a ton.

• School starts on August 22.
• Juggling eight different tutoring clients, three of them meeting at least twice a week.
• Completing my 46 Best Of writing assignments by September 1.

This is the month to get organized and be productive. I thrive on scheduled busyness, so everything should go as planned if I stayed focused.

Fitness:

1. Complete legitimate strength sessions at least 3 times/week
2. Follow first four weeks of half-marathon training
3. Foam roll/stick daily

Health:

1. Eat more fruits and vegetables
2. Eat less packaged foods and diet soda
3. Be in bed by 10 the night before a run
4. Sustain healthy eating habits once school begins for myself and Josiah

Life:

1. Religiously use Google calendar to stay organized
2. Spend less time on Internet
3. Continue working on decorating the house

Work:

1. Prepare curriculum (and myself) for school
2. Develop a reasonable tutoring schedule (read: don’t spread myself too thin)
3. Block off time daily for writing
4. Write 7 Best Of entries/week
5. Finish uploading content to Fit For My Family
6. Transcribe remaining documents for grandfather’s memoirs in preparation for business meeting mid-August

Remind me to not leave all of my push ups, dips and some of my core exercises until 9 p.m. 

Sunday, July 31 exercise:

• Run: 6.5 easy miles, foam rolling

Monday, August 1 log:

• Gym: 19 miles spin bike, foam rolling
• CGU Challenge: 125 push ups, 125 triceps dips, 505 core reps—3 min plank, 2 min one-footed side plank, Bosu leg extensions (50), Bosu Russian twists w/15-pound weight (50), Swiss ball rollouts (60), ball jackknives (45), ball crunches (75), bicycle crunches (75), leg lifts (40), oblique leg lifts (60)

P.S. - For exercises like Russian twists, I count one rep for going both left and right. I figured this would keep me from cheating with high-count exercises haha.

Lately I’ve felt squishier than normal. I can tell that I’ve lost some definition … and strength.

On Tuesday, training included an upper body circuit. It killed me. What happened to pumping out 100+ push ups?

For about 6 weeks, I’ve really scaled back on my weight training. Part of this is because I introduced endurance cardio twice a week (2+ hour bike rides, 8+ mile runs), and I don’t go to the gym on those days. The other reason I’ve slacked on the strength is because I’m lazy. My nightly routine used to include push ups and a bevy of core exercises, but it’s been ages.

Then, I confirmed another suspicion: I weighed myself a few times and realized I’ve gained a couple pounds. Not a huge deal, but I went from consistently weighing about 119 to hovering at 121.

It doesn’t seem like a lot — and I know it’s not — but it’s enough that I noticed a change in my midsection. Before, I would gain 10 pounds and not even notice. I was already flabby, so it didn’t faze me. Now though, I’m thin enough to make minor changes not so subtle.

This isn’t a complaint about gaining weight. At this point, I could care less what the scale says.

This is a reminder that I need strength training to feel and look my best.

I can burn all the calories I want, but it won’t matter if I avoid the weights.

Next week’s challenge will definitely be a strength-centric one. Any suggestions or words of wisdom?

I just looked for my sports bra in the refrigerator.

First — I joined Fitocracy! 

Anyway … sometimes I do leg machines at the gym for shits and giggles. Today was one of those days.

(Usually my leg workouts are reserved for training, where Brandon kills me with tons of weighted lunges, squats, resistance band walks, etc.)

Because this only happens about once every two months, my workout usually involves a lot of guessing. I never know what weight is appropriate, hence the progression on most of the exercises.

• Running: 3 miles, 30 minutes
• Dumbbell Side Bend:
  • 25 lbs x 15, 20, 20 
• Hanging Leg Raise:
  • 40 x 2 straight
  • 30 x 2 oblique twist
• Russian Twist:
  • 15 lbs x 50, 50
• Leg Press:
• • 210 lbs x 12 
  • 230 lbs x 12
  • 250 lbs x 12 
• Adductor Machine:
  • 150 lbs x 25 
  • 170 lbs x 25 
  • 190 lbs x 25 
• Abductor Machine:
  • 190 lbs x 12 
  • 210 lbs x 12 
  • 230 lbs x 12 
• Leg Extensions:
  • 130 lbs x 12 
  • 150 lbs x 12 
• Spinning: 17 miles, 58 minutes