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Shawna – On My Weigh – week 3
***Shawna is a client of our ours, that’s willing to weekly share her weight loss journey. She’s a mother, wife and works a full time job. All of her comments are in her own words, unedited. Please contact us to start your journey, info@ironfit.ca, 7807184805***
Well another week is over. I wish I could say it was a good week, but it really wasn’t. Easter arrived and I promised myself that I would be good. I was, but then I went and had seconds. Now, while I didn’t choose seconds of everything that was cooked, I picked only 2 of the food items, I still ate alot more than I have been. I’m not even sure why. On my weightloss challenge that I joined, I AM allowed a free meal once per week. So I just told myself that Easter was my free meal, but I still felt like shit for doing it. I’ve been doing so good. Decided to step on the scale on Monday and that Easter dinner cost me a couple pounds. A couple extra pounds I was now going to have to work off to get myself back to where I was before Easter. Why do I do this to myself????
I wish I could say I did awesome at the gym this week, but I have been battling fatigue for a couple months now. I went to the gym twice to see my trainer. But I was very tempted to cancel on him because of the fatigue, but I didn’t. I still went. And when I WAS there…I feel like I DID rock it! Well…as much as a 278 pound woman can. But emotionally it sucked. My trainer says I’m getting stronger but some days I don’t feel like I am. Triathlons are going to be starting up soon…49 days left until our very first one!!! I’m scared to try to run outside. So far I’ve just been doing the elliptical. I was diagnosed with arthritis in my knees a year ago and the pain has been pretty minimal but I’m worried that as soon as I start running on the concrete, I’ll flare up the pain. Maybe I’ll give it another week or 2 of working out with my trainer to get a bit more stronger…
I wish I could say I love working out. I’m not quite there yet. I would love to be a gym addict! I didn’t do too much as far as extra workouts go this week. I have been battling some major fatigue the past month or so. So on days when I don’t see my trainer, I tend to nap. My job requires me to be as alert as I can be so yes, I sleep alot!
I did, however, get a compliment on Tuesday. A lady was changing and told me that she saw me working out while she was in the pool and she told me to keep it up…I shall try! I have come too far now to quit. I don’t want to ever “restart” again. It’s too hard. One of the works outs we do is stairs. They suck, but in a funny way, they’re kind of my favorite workout. The reason is because I can kind of judge my strength with this particular workout. I feel like I AM a bit faster on them! And it’s feeling good. I’m still very winded when I do them, and sometimes it makes me wonder if I AM getting stronger…I always wonder “do people who are in physical shape still get this winded when they do the stairs?” Guess I’ll find out soon enough!
I’m starting this new week off by going to the gym and trying out a spin cycle class. I figure, I should likely try to get better on the bike before triathlon season is upon us. If I don’t do spin cycle, I will likely swim laps…
Here’s to a better week this week…final week of my weightloss challenge. Last weigh in is this Friday! I can’t remember when they will post the winners but hopefully they don’t make us wait too long.
Stay healthy!
Shawna 
Lunges – Are They Bad For You?
Knees ache. You have a tough time getting up, running or just moving around. You’ve been exercising, icing, heating and stretching. But nothing seems to be helping the situation. Could it be that your exercise is what’s making them hurt?
Our knees are the largest joints in our bodies. There’s also a ton that connects in and around the knee. Your hamstrings, quads and calves are all muscles that connect or insert around the knee. There’s tendons, bones and ligaments all around there, including and not limited to the ACL, MCL, PCL & LCL. All of those combine to form the knee, and help it with it’s stability and strength. Making it one of the most complex parts of our bodies.
Complicating everything is our desire to alleviate our knee pain. We take medication and various other suggestions to try to fix the problem. However, part of the problem could be lying in the exercise you’re doing, lunges.
What are lunges? There’s many types that you are possible doing. Side lunges, forwards lunges, backwards lunges, knees forward lunges, knees back lunges, etc. Soooooooooo many variations out there.
Lunges are in many exercise programs and plans. They work all of the muscles in the lower body, and can be very effective, if used correctly. But they put a ton of pressure on the surrounding muscles and tendons. If you’re using a step as part of the exercise, most of the time your entire weight is pressing down on your stepping leg as you bend. If you haven’t strengthen the muscles and area around the knee, that’s going to create a lot of pressure on your knee. If you haven’t properly strengthened that are, you could strain something in there. And unless you’re willing to sit around and do nothing for a few weeks, it’s going to take a long time to heal.
There may be better options than lunges to work your legs. Recently we’ve moved a decent amount of our clients to using elastic bands for many of their exercises. You can incorporate a ton of different exercises with a band, and work all of the same muscles that lunges do. Sure, you need to do a few more exercises. But if your knees don’t ache, isn’t it worth it?
Always step back from your pain and look at it as a whole. The problem may not always be what you think it is. It may be worth it to invest in the professionals to help you zero in on the problem, and move towards a better way of living.
Adult Athletes Must Workout
Let’s face it, the simple fact is none of us are as young as we once were. We’ve all aged, and all of our bodies have worn down. But many still do their best to stay active while playing sports as an adult with friends.
Whether it’s golfing, bowling, hockey or softball, more and more adults are playing sports. Which is great! The overwhelming cost of healthcare is soon to cripple many economies. So the more we can do now to help ourselves, the better the situation for everyone.
However, many are doing these sports without any sort of non sport training. No weight training, stretching or cardiovascular training. This can lead to more injuries, time missed doing your sport and possible and overall distance for being active. The goal as an adult is to enjoy playing the sports, and continue to play for a long time. So set yourself up for success.
Muscle elasticity is the ability of your muscle to stretch, then contract back to its original form. To help minimize injuries and increase performance, you need to improve the elasticity. This can be done with stretch and a specific weight training program.
A proper weight training program will help greatly reduce the war and tear on your body. Whether we like to admit it or not, our muscles and bones are not the same as when we played competitive youth sports. It takes more work, time and effort to keep everything “in shape” and in proper working order. The right exercises will also help your recovery time, and increase your overall enjoyment of your activities.
In the picture with the couple, we have both a recreational figure skater and a hockey player. They are working on their core and shoulders with this exercise, in an active movement setting. An exercise that is very specific to both of their current recreational activities.
If you’re going to play adult sports, do your body a favour and start working out. You’re teammates and you body will thank you for it.
info@ironfit.ca // 7807184805
Shawna – On My Weigh – blog 2
***Shawna is a client of our ours, that’s willing to weekly share her weight loss journey. She’s a mother, wife and works a full time job. All of her comments are in her own words, unedited. Please contact us to start your journey, info@ironfit.ca, 7807184805***
Rock Bottom
Hello, my name is Shawna, and I am a food addict.
They say with any addiction, one must reach rock bottom before something in them clicks and they have their “enough is enough” moment. My addiction happens to be food. And my rock bottom happened on January 1, 2018 when I weighed in at 308.6 pounds.
I told myself I would never let myself get to 300, but there I was, OVER 300. What did I do to myself? How could I have allowed this to happen? I knew I was gaining weight, but I didn’t realize it was as bad as it was. Yes, I had been meeting with my personal trainer since November, but I still didn’t get my eating under control. I basically worked out to keep up with my food addiction.
I thought I had hit rock bottom several times over the years. My first attempt at weightloss was in September of 2003, when I joined TOPS. I weighed 247.5 pounds. I was a stay at home mom to a 2 year old and 4 year old. I didn’t go to a gym. Our budget didn’t allow it at the time. I did, however, have a daily newspaper route. I would get up at 3 AM to go pick up my papers and I would go deliver them. It was a combo of driving and walking, and took me about 90 minutes. I managed to lose about 40 pounds. My goal at the time was to get to 200 pounds. I made it to 202. And then I gained it all back, plus a bit more.
Another rock bottom hit…my sister was getting married and I was her matron-of-honor. No way in HELL was I going to wear a fancy dress as an overweight woman, so again, I get on the horse, and lost weight again. I really don’t remember what my weightloss was at that time. Alot of that time of my life is a huge blur, but damn I looked great in that dress. It was kind of bittersweet because people were not just looking at my sister, but at me too!!! They should have been looking at the bride. It did feel great! I still didn’t get to my 200 pound goal, but I still felt great, because I had done it again. I lost weight!
This yo yo routine continued. I would manage to lose weight, only to gain it back plus more. I didn’t really know why. I mean, I knew what had to be done. I knew what not to eat, and I knew that I needed to move. It’s basic science, really.
In 2016 I weighed 290 pounds. I swore to myself I would not allow myself to get to 300…but here I was 10 pounds away. Ugh. Why? So again, I did what I needed to do to lose the weight. At this point in time I did have a gym membership and so I had no excuses. I started to lose the weight (again) and I even managed to get new clothes for work…the next size down!!! I was pretty excited. But then come fall, I had done it again…gave up, quit…call it what you want…I gained. AGAIN. Great. My new work clothes didn’t fit, but I wasn’t about to bring them back and admit that I had gained…So I just kept them. And it just got worse. I would lose 4 pounds, gain 3. Lose 5 pounds, gain 3. It was a very slow process.
Everything I tried, I always gave it an honest attempt…for 3 or 4 months. Then something would just make me…stop. To this day I don’t know what it was. Was it psychological? Was I afraid to lose more than the usual 40 pounds I seemed to manage to lose? Why did I always quit after that magic number???? Well as of today I am 278…I have lost 30 pounds and I plan to keep it off this time! I have invested way too much time and way too much money this time. I have spent money and time at the gym, with my personal trainer and I have spent money and time meal planning, prepping, cooking, packing my lunches for work etc. So no, I have zero intentions on giving in to my negative self talk this time.
Next week I think I would like to tell you all about the weightloss challenge I joined in January and how I’ve been doing.
Until then…stay healthy and keep moving.
Shawna
Shawna – On My Weigh – blog 1
***Shawna is a client of our ours, that’s willing to weekly share her weight loss journey. She’s a mother, wife and works a full time job. All of her comments are in her own words, unedited. Please contact us to start your journey, info@ironfit.ca, 7807184805***
Introduction/history
Have you ever looked at yourself in the mirror? No….REALLY looked? I don’t mean the times when you are brushing your teeth and you have nothing better to do than to stare at your face in the mirror and critique every new blemish, or hair that has sprouted on your chin. I mean…naked, nude, in the suit that you were born with. Well I did that just the other day. And what I saw kind of took me by surprise.
I saw an overweight woman. But I saw more. I saw someone who was beautiful. Someone who was strong and motivated. Someone who has been through the fire. And she came out alive. I saw someone that her kids could look up to. Maybe even her friends. But…I didn’t always think about myself this way.
I have been struggling with my weight for many MANY years. My struggle was the classic one…didn’t have any issues until my first pregnancy. Before I got pregnant, I never had an issue with weight. And in fact, I was so slim that I was accused of having an eating disorder from more than one person. I was maybe 115/120 pounds (I don’t know, I didn’t own a scale) and at 5 feet 8 inches, 120 pounds is nothing! I wore a size 8/10 pants (depending on the style). I was still pretty self conscious of my body…not because I thought I was fat or anything. It’s just something I had…I had a very low self-body image. Anyway…when I got pregnant with my first daughter I weight 170 (I had been working at Mcdonald’s for a few years and on a low budget, 50% off food was pretty enticing) but again, I never felt fat. I was still in a size 12 pants, and I felt “okay” I gained over 50 pounds with that pregnancy. Of course, 10 pounds of that was JUST my baby 😛
After she was born, I didn’t really do much to lose the weight, but I also didn’t really gain anything extra. And when I got pregnant with my second daughter I decided to be better with my eating and I ended gaining just 20 pounds with her. She weight 8 pounds of it. So not bad…
So fast forward to my weight issues…I ended up with many health issues over the years. I won’t go into detail at the moment…I don’t want this to become a novel. But I suffered a miscarriage, which I allowed depression to creep in. I ate junk…stopped caring. So along with many doctor visits, blood tests, ultrasounds, blah blah blah…I ended up being diagnosed with tons of shit. Depression, hypothyroidism, polycystic ovarian syndrome (pcos), and the funny thing is, all these things were related…the pcos causes depression as an example. Pcos also causes weight gain, difficulty to lose weight, and my stupid body was also producing too much male testosterone…damn you male hormones!
I didn’t do much about the diagnosis. I had a doctor who didn’t want to treat my pcos. His comment to me was “I normally treat my patients with pcos if they are trying to get pregnant and since that’s not the case here, I don’t feel like I want to treat you” and yet here I was, a WOMAN with male hair growth EVERYWHERE…I mean, I can handle one or two hairs on my chin…but I had (have) a FULL CHIN OF HAIR! How is it that I can feel like a real woman? Also, the pcos causes the body to produce extra male hormones, hence the hair growth in places no woman should have hair. Needless to say, this just kind of caused a dominoes effect on my depression.
So through the years I tried so many things…TOPS, weight watchers, slim fast, nutri system, herbal life, herbal magic, visalus, isagenix, cabbage soup diet (I DON’T RECOMMEND THIS ONE!!!! LOLOL) I managed to lose weight, gain, lose, gain. I’m sure with all the gaining/losing cycle I must have easily lost over 500 pounds over the last 15 years. No word of a lie! I can go into detail in a future post…
Fast forward to 2013. I started competing in triathlons. Yes, overweight me did those. I wasn’t very fast. Couldn’t really run. In fact, my first triathlon I came in second last, and the person I beat was an 85 year old man doing his first one! Sheesh….But I did finish. So the next year, 2014 I did TWO triathlons. Hubby joined me this year. 2015 I was a bit bigger than the previous years and my times weren’t getting better…I was coming in dead last every year. It was starting to bring me down. Then in 2016 I couldn’t race…I had knee pain and my physio therapist suggested I not doing my races until the pain was under control grrrrrrrr 2017 the pain wasn’t getting better so I went to my doctor and I got sent for an xray and it was shown that I have arthritis in my knees. BLAH. I am only 42 for crying out loud!!!!! Well I still competed in 2 triathlons, but I didn’t do my usual sprint distances. Instead I did the “try-it” distances. More about triathlons later…
So now fast forward to November 2017. I decided enough is enough. I have said that before, many many many times, but this felt different. I contacted a personal trainer who I had used a few times before. We would work out together off and on, I would stop for this reason or another. I always used finances as the reason. I mean, yes, sometimes I really didn’t have the money, but I would somehow have money to eat out several times a week…excuses. So I contacted him. We started off with once a week. I don’t remember how long this lasted before I decided to do twice a week. But we upped it to twice a week. I was doing just my workouts with him. I wasn’t doing much in between. Maybe the occasional treadmill at home…
January 2018…I started a weightloss challenge. I’ll talk about that in a future post. I don’t want to bore you all with my first post. If you made it this far…Welcome to my weightloss journey. I will likely fill in blanks of some of my history as I blog my journey 🙂
Shawna
Protein Powder – Is It The Right Stuff?
Each of us has someone in our lives that we know uses. Maybe they use it first thing in the morning. Maybe it’s during their lunch hour, or straight after their workout. Protein powder.
Our oldest child hated any form of protein when she was little. The doctor put her on a protein powder to add to her food, just so they knew she was getting some form of protein. So the powder has a lot of uses, but is it for you?
We need protein in our bodies to help repair our muscles, to help build muscle and to function (among other things). It helps make us feel full, so we can control what we are eating. But is protein powder the way to go?
Protein powder is a quick and easy way for many people to get the protein they feel they need. Whether it’s for their weight training or weight loss, people are using the powder at a very alarming rate. However, most times people can get the protein they need from a proper nutrition program. Meat, fish, chicken and dairy products are high sources of protein. With chocolate milk recently brining itself to the forefront as an after workout drink, in many research articles.
. The issue with many protein powders is that you’re usually taking in too much. More is not better in this case, as the body will have a tough time breaking it all down. If you’re eating protein in your meals throughout the day, you likely aren’t that far off in your daily recommended protein intake. If you’re then adding more protein in the form of powder, your kidneys & liver may end up taking the brunt of the pain, not your muscles.
What does it mean? That means you may end up peeing out more of the powder than you absorb. So, your biggest benefit may be that you have more expensive bathroom breaks. As you can watch your money go down the drain.
A good balanced eating plan (not diet) will always be the best way to go. Try and get your sources from the food you eat, not powders. Unless it’s an absolute must, and doctor recommended.
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