Day 2 (Sore. And Trying to Listen to My Body as Best I Can.)

6: 45 am- Woke up early again for breakfast. I like to get up and kick start my day. I found that I was noticeably hungrier than usual. To remedy that, I had a bit more milk than normal and also threw in a square of Hershey’s dark chocolate because it looked yummy.

12 oz. 2% milk

Cinnamon Toast Crunch Cereal

Large Banana

Square Hershey’s dark chocolate

9:30 am- I headed up to Anytime Fitness again to meet my second trainer, Tracy Williams. My first impression went something like this: “Ohhhh my. She looks tough..” Tracy was beautiful…and built like a brick house. To be honest, that was a very refreshing combination to see: a woman not afraid to have muscles and be strong. Tracy was training one of her clients, Courtney, who is a power-lifter. When I say power-lifter, I mean she was dead-lifting 200+ pounds. I was astounded. One of the first things Tracy said to Courtney while I was with them was “Don’t be a girl about this one, or I’ll make you do it again.” I knew I liked her right then. This lady was tough as nails and took no excuses, especially not “because I’m a woman.” After watching Courtney dead-lift and chatting with Tracy about my injury and how her workouts are so tough that she would need a doctor’s note in order to let me try most of what she does (which probably isn’t going to happen for me, at least for the next few weeks), they moved on to exercises similar to what I do when training for soccer. She showed things like variations on mountain climbers, speed skaters, and step ups. When she demonstrated, she kept her body totally compact and under control. She was super light on her feet and stepped gently, while at the same time exuding strength. One of the biggest things I took away from this first meeting is how she wanted everyone to be aware of their bodies and how they fill the space around them. She had me try one exercise with two clipboards under my feet, where I got in push-up position and had to slide myself forward 6 steps, and then slide back into starting position. Upon completion, I was pretty proud of myself, until she pointed out how spread out my entire body was—my legs were mile apart, hands uneven and too wide as well. I needed to figure out how to keep it compact and take up as little space as possible. One other unique thing I noticed about Tracy was her use of short sets of a bunch of different exercises that she would just keep firing at Courtney. She would finish one and throw her into another one without missing a beat. Not a second was wasted and it was very clear that Tracy had efficiency down to a science. The final message of the day was very simple as well: good form. Form and technique have never been my strengths—I’ve always had a kind of “anything goes as long as it’s working” mentality. Perhaps Tracy can break me of that, considering she believes in doing it right or doing it again.

12:30 pm- Lunch. By the time I got home, I was starving. And I wanted ice cream again. I would so much rather eat that than some empty junk food like chips. Yes, ice cream does have sugar in it. But it also is a food source of calcium and fat, and IT MAKES YOU FEEL FULL, unlike chips or crackers which I often eat without feeling my hunger lessen at all.

Can diet gingerale

Egg/cheese mini quesadilla

½ cup mint chocolate chip ice cream

Small pink lady apple

Edy’s Whole Fruit Bar

2:00 pm- Consultation with Nurse Gali at Hawken. Nurse Gali pretty much does it all. She is the school nurse at Hawken, owns Anytime Fitness in Chesterland, is going to school to get her doctorate degree in nursing. How is that for a busy life? On top of all of that, she is my third and final personal trainer. Today I went in and she said before we started, she wanted to see what I knew. Good thing we decided to chat first, because it turns out, I know nothing. She taught me about the exact muscle groups you work when you do different exercises. She also offered new exercises so that I don’t get stuck in a rut and bored with my old lifting routine from basketball. She stressed the importance of taking exercises slow. It doesn’t matter how many you do because if you whip through 100, it could be the same as going really slow and doing 15. Its all about time under tension—how much time you spend making each muscle actually work. She gave me a sheet of different muscle groups to take home and choose from so the next time I work out with her, she wants me to have two in mind that I want to work. It sounded fair and simple enough, and I’m excited for the future and building routines that I can use when I go to the gym at the University of Cincinnati.

6:00

Can steak/potato soup

Small slice chocolate cake/ ice cream

BUT THEN…Snack Attack

I think this was due, in part, to not eating quite enough yesterday, and also poor planning that led to me missing my afternoon snack today. He only issue I have with this is the kind of food I chose to snack on. Our house was kind of empty, so I went for the chips and candy versus a healthier option. Hopefully I’ll do better next time, but there’s not a whole lot I can do about it right now. I’m not upset with myself and it won’t be an issue. I just am making a mental note that my snacks need to be better for me.

Notes From Today

1) I was sore beyond belief from working hard all yesterday. Today, I took it a bit easier physically. Because I haven’t been very active in a while, I need to let my body catch up with my brain.

2) It’s cool to be a strong woman!

3) Be aware of your own body, know how much space you take up. Keep it compact.

4) Do it right the first time. There is no sense in blowing through something by doing it the wrong way. No one benefits.

5) I used to do things without really knowing about what or why I was doing it. In order to get optimal results, you need an understanding of the principals of fitness as well as of the human body.

6) Snacking is ok! Especially if my body is clearly making me aware that it wants more food, and its not just absent minded eating. Just when I snack, make sure that nutrition isn’t thrown out the window. Stay away from empty food like chips and candy, and opt for maybe a whole grain bun with peanut butter next time.

Reading Material

I got a new book in the mail today, and even though I’m still reading Personal Wellness for the Modern College Student, this new book was too interesting to pass up. So, I’m now reading both at the same time. This one is called, The Diet for Teenage Girls Only, by Carrie Wiatt and Barbara Schroeder.

They had me hooked with one of their initial quotes, “Daughter, I cannot give you anything so complete or perfect or pure, but I can give you something better. Your body…and the fierce love of it that no one can take away.” Linda Nemec Foster

I love that quote for so many reasons. First, it reminds me that mothers need to instill a sense of self worth and confidence and love in their little girls. When I grow up and become a mother, one of my major goals will be to teach my daughter to love her body and love herself. Also, your body is a temple. It is the most sacred, important thing about a person. It houses every emotion, every secret, every muscle, and every thought. You need to love and respect it.

The beginning of chapter one told me to grab a pencil and jot down answers to the question: “What do you think about your body and what would you change about it if you could change anything you wanted.” Because this is a weird topic in my house, this question is something that I haven’t really addressed, even in my own mind, in quite a while.

Hmm. I will say teeny bit flatter stomach that doesn’t look gross when I sit down. Also, a little less fat on my hips. In general, I like my body. Especially certain parts of it. My least favorite part of my body is definitely my stomach. Although I know in my heart there is nothing wrong with it, I still wish sometimes I could change it even a little bit.

When I flipped the page, I found that the vast majority of girls were just like me. They had things about their bodies that they wanted to change. So the book reminded all of us that we are in the biggest growth spurt of our lives and are constantly changing. In fact, before puberty, girls have about 19% body fat, and after, it’s about 22%. That may not sound like much, but it can feel like a lot sometimes.

They went on to give a list of new rules to follow. Most of these were pretty familiar for me…things like “carbs are not bad” and “don’t deprive yourself/never exclude a food group.” But there was one rule that irked me: “Avoid soda! Diet soda too! They can cause cellulite and bloating—ugh!”…Seriously, what is everybody’s beef with diet coke? This book claims to explain the diet soda debacle, so I will eagerly read on.