Have a Fit Little Christmas

With all this traveling and soul searching and falling in love that has been my 2011, I haven’t focused quite as much on fitness and diet as I have in previous years. It has been a really good thing.  But fitness is still very important to me for a few reasons. First, my career is a fitness and esthetic career I need to look better then the average girl AND I need to be fit enough to dance, do stunts, and anything else called for.  In my specific career there are a lot of hurry up and wait situations, like right now, we rushed to finish our contract and get information in for the next and now we’re waiting for the phone call telling us we got that contract. But we’re visiting while we wait.

(baking christmas cookies!)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Once we get that contract we won’t be free or able to visit family for a long time possibly in the years category.  So we need to stay in shape since that job could start any day. But also stay flexible so we can enjoy this rare time to spend with family and friends. I have made myself a mandate not to sweat the workouts that I have to miss or that just don’t happen or get cut short BECAUSE I am looking and living for the long term. In this state of transition I celebrate any workout I do get in. Fitness for someone with my schedule and my career is a lifelong pursuit not a 12 week program so I squeeze in any workout I can and this allows me to keep continuously fit with an unpredictable schedule. I do not put off for tomorrow what may never happen again for a month or two, I do the set of 25 push ups or take the 5 mile hike whenever I can and that means I am working out in some capacity almost every day. I may not be able to finish a P90X program and measure the results but I can vacation, eat cookies and be off work and yet still stay within 3 lbs of my working weight with adequate tone to my muscles and minimal loss of strength.

All that being said I did start a new program yesterday and so today marks Day 2!! And then we got the opportunity to spend 4 days after Christmas with Dan’s grandparents fishing at the lake and so my workout plan will be put on hold but that’s okay, every day you workout pushes you forward and that is what I’d like the take home message for anyone who reads this blog to be. No matter what you do or how hard you’re pushing, what you DO is more then not doing anything. Everything pushes you forward so don’t NOT do something and wait just because you think you can do more tomorrow – do what you can today and then do more tomorrow as well.

SOoooo I know that most people don’t start a new workout program…but I’m not most people 🙂

On Wednesday I started Rusty from Fitness Black Books Visual Impact for Women.  I have been reading Rusty’s site for a few years now.

The back story here is that my fitness goals have changed over time.  I’ve always been a naturally muscular woman, for better or for worse. I was an athlete from young age spreading my time between after school activities of soccer, swim team, gymnastics, dance, figure skating, tennis, diving and for a short period of time, cheerleading.  I was active and genetics helped. I then became a professional dancer after majoring in dance and entertainment business in college. There were years starting from age 9 that I struggled through anorexia and for a little while, bulimia too.  When I started training to do aerial work in a show I had a solid fitness and nutrition base.  I have worked with trainers to finish succesful programs and even gained a very exciting six pack I sported around throughout my P90X devotional days. But for some time now I’ve wanted to find a way to be smaller but still fit.  I build muscle mass and without hesitation I will tell you that my goal was to lose muscle mass but I really desire a toned athletic body. The muscle I have carried in the past weighed me down and I didn’t like it. And anything you work hard for you should be proud of, so with fear and hesitation I gave up P90X for a while and just did running, walking and the occasional ab workouts and push ups. and I did lose weight and muscle. I achieved what I wanted!  But I lost my beautiful six pack too.

I have really wanted to find a program that’s not just running that will keep me toned AND strong year round while being movie star sized. Yeah, I just said that. I want to be Courtney Cox sized with the muscles and ability of an aerialist. I want it all (and while I’m asking I’d like 2 extra cup sizes for my miniscule boobies and maybe a million dollars – Santa?). The thing is I really think I can have everything and I won’t stop looking till I find a way to get it.

Most fitness sites would have found my desires to be blasphemous. But Rusty himself writes about how he used to be so ripped and muscular that he was uncomfortable. Check out his site if you’re curious, I really like it and he has info for those who want to get big and those who want to get lean.

Long story short I’ve been eyeing his Visual Impact program for women for a while now so I just bought it for myself for Christmas! Ho Ho Ho. It’s for women who want to get lean and toned without getting ripped and without gaining muscle. And his program has tweaks for those of us who want to lose muscle too and get stronger.  I have lost so much strength with my muscle but I knew there was a way to build super strength without adding any mass.  I won’t detail his program because if you like what  you’re hearing you can check it out yourself. But his premise is opposite of what I was doing before – its mainly low reps but 4-5 sets, not too many exercises + HIIT cardio mixed with steady state cardio for fat AND muscle burning. It’s aimed at the woman who wants to look like Jessica Alba, Meghan Fox or Miranda Kerr as opposed to Jamie Eason. There’s nothing wrong with Jamie, but I did my fitness model days and I want to try being actress lean and still having the strength of an aerialist.  The workouts are a two day split so you do 4 workout days a week. and since I still have the half marathon coming up and I like working on running I will be able to run on my rest days if I want to.

Here are my jenky first day pictures (taken with photobooth) so I have a point of reference to see how my body is coming along – not so pleased with the side view but man those lulu lemon pants where a good investment! :

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I started Wednesday and Thursday and today is a rest day, so I just went for a walk this morning.  Since I’m eating for the holidays I enjoy doing a little more cardio to balance things out a little bit.  But so far I really like the plan.  You may laugh at me but I’m really looking forward to seeing what this does for my body. So much that my next workout is supposed to be tomorrow (Christmas Eve) and the next day (Christmas) and hell if I’m not going to do it. Well, tomorrow for sure. We’ll see how Christmas goes. And then we’re going away but I know a lot of band variations so I’m going to see if I can bring my band and at least keep up with the strength training part of the routine. If I can’t it’s okay, I’ll be back on NYE ready to workout again 🙂

Oh and just for fun, I told the hair stylist to do whatever she wanted today. And she got out the buzz…

   

Merry Christmas y’all. Tell me what your fitness plans are, or your holiday plans, or what you want to do with your hair 🙂