Category: Fitness

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10K Challenge Complete

As some of you know, I completed my 1 year long 10K challenge at FXB this month.  As a perfect way to end 2018, I decided to share with you my one page essay that I wrote on how FXB has changed my life, which was something required for the 10K challenge. So here goes it…

When I first started FXB (October 2017)
At the end of my 10 week session (December 2017)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

“There are so many ways that Farrell’s has changed my life.  Where do I even begin…at the beginning I suppose. I have never had a lot of stability in my life.  When I was younger, I was always moving to a new house or school.  I have also been overweight my whole life.  When I got married in 2011, I had joined a gym near my house, and had some success.  Then I got pregnant. After having Killian, I wasn’t able to fit the gym in my schedule without taking time out of spending time with my baby, so I quit.  I gained some more weight, and then lost a bit on my own.  I then got pregnant with my second child, Porter. During the pregnancy with Porter, I tried to keep my eating more in check, which helped a little. After having Porter in May of 2017, I felt very depressed about how I looked and had a very poor self-image.

I knew that I needed something to get me out of this rut, because it wasn’t good for me or my family.  In October 2017, I realized that there was a FXB right by my house, so I emailed Cindi and she had me come in for a free trial class — it was LEG DAY!! I loved it.  The people there were so welcoming and I knew that this would be a right fit for me and my journey… I wasn’t too sure how my husband would handle the price of it though.  I went home after that workout, and told him how amazing it was at FXB, and then I told him the price — he was, as he always is, very supportive.  If I want or need to do something to better my health and wellbeing, then he is always on board. That was an amazing feeling.  The next day, I was officially a 10 weeker.

Now that you kind of know my story, let me tell you a few ways that Farrell’s has changed my life.  For starters, I have stability.  I have a gym family that inspires, and pushes me to do my best every day.  I have come out of my shell, A LOT!  I have told some of my FXB friends that I’m a shy person and they don’t believe me — because what they see is this happy, dancing, and laughing girl every morning. I have gained so much self-confidence, which has not only shown itself in the gym, but also at home and at work.  I’m a new person, and I love it.  During the summer I went on a two-week vacation to Branson, Missouri with my family, and I truly missed FXB.  I couldn’t wait to get back to my stability and routine that I had going on.

Another way that FXB has changed my life is the fact that my kids know about working out and eating healthy thanks to the good example that I am showing them.  Killian knows where my gym is, and points it out every time we drive by, and says he wants to go there someday.  I feel like I’m showing my kids, and my husband that if you put your mind to do something then you absolutely can.  I love having goals and crushing them.

A couple goals for myself throughout this 10k yearlong challenge was to become an instructor of either strength or kickboxing, and I became an instructor of both. Another goal I had set for myself personally was to be 160lbs and be 25% or less BF.  I accomplished both of those goals at my final weigh in.  I’m so proud of myself, it brings tears to my eyes.  FXB is so amazing.  The relationships that I have made, the changes I have made in my life, and body, the example that I setting for my family, just everything.

What a year, I’m so happy that I challenged myself to complete this whole year of changes to myself. I can’t wait to see what the next year will bring. I know that one of my 5 year goals is to own my own FXB! ”

The end of my year long commitment to myself (December 2018)

I will continue my fitness journey, because it doesn’t end here. I haven’t figured out how I want to word my goals out yet, but I will think about that over night, and hope to post a new post about 2019 goals later this week.

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Personal FIT challenge results — and learning moments

I have so many thoughts and emotions going through my head so I figured I would just write it all down.  Those that know me, know that I don’t have a lot of love for myself, and I never really feel proud of myself.   I am working on that. It is really hard for me to take compliments.  Also, when I make goals and then don’t reach them by the time I have set out to reach them — I get disappointed in myself, and kinda beat myself up.

The most recent FIT challenge has just come to a close.  The goals that I set for myself were the following:  Lose 10 lbs of weight, and down 2% body fat.  Well — what actually happened was I ended up down 9.1 lbs of weight, and down 1.9% body fat.  I should have immediately been really proud of what I accomplished, but I wasn’t.  Why??

We are all our own worst critic.   I feel so lucky to have so many close friends and immediate family that tell me all the time how great I’m doing, and that I’m amazing. When they tell me these things, I usually just brush it off, probably roll my eyes, and say thanks.  To all of you — I’m sorry that it is so hard for me to take compliments.  In my heart, I really love having others notice my progress, because it feels really good.  However, in my head — I don’t BELIEVE in myself, so therefore not in agreement with the compliments. I am working on this, because it really does all start and end in your mind.  Believing that you can do it, believing that you deserve it, and believing that you will get it.

The next FIT challenge starts in approximately 5 weeks —  a lot of changes have already started in my mindset.  I will be proud of myself through all of my accomplishments — small or large.  I can do this!! I’m half way through the 10K challenge through FXB.  I want to win this!  I need to buckle down my nutrition and have very minimal cheats.  I know that I need to tweak a couple things with my nutrition, but I also know that I have the support to help me kill these last 6 months of the 10K challenge!!!

More to come soon about other new happenings in my gym life. Stay tuned 🙂

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This is just the beginning

Long post ALERT. 🙂 I decided to start out talking about my fitness journey so far — where I started and how far I have come.

I have always been a bigger girl, even when I was a kid I wore “husky” pants, and then growing up I was always in a 10-14 size pants.   I was interested in soccer, but I only played rec soccer through North Metro Soccer Association during the summer.  Through high school, I had a couple instances where I joined Lifetime and would go there a few times a week and get some cardio in on the elliptical, and I would lose some weight, but once I stopped I would gain it all back and then some.

Before my husband and I got married in 2011, I was doing a TON of cardio and sometimes lifting light weights — my dress was a size 14  — I didn’t fit in it when I bought.  I wasn’t too concentrated on what I was eating — I was trying to work out enough that I could eat whatever I wanted. (This is not what you should do, but I didn’t know.)  When I think about it after the fact, I think I probably shouldn’t have added that much extra stress on myself before my wedding, but I did it!! I was able to fit in my dress for our wedding.  After the wedding, we went on our small honeymoon and ate and drank whatever we wanted.  I then gained the weight back and then some.

These two instances above were not very balanced as you can see. My husband and I lived in Ramsey, MN at the time and were just enjoying life by eating and drinking whatever we wanted.

In 2013, I wanted to start trying to get pregnant.  We got pregnant nearly right away, but I ended up miscarrying at about 8 weeks.  I was devastated.  All I kept doing was thinking it was all my fault because I was unhealthy.  I was a size 16-18, and almost 250 lbs.  I knew I needed to do something,  it was then that I joined Koru Fitness in Ramsey.

I loved working out at Koru.  I loved the people, the atmosphere, and the workouts.  It was then that I fell in love with group fitness.  Since Dan and I didn’t have any kids yet, I ended up going to Koru nearly every day.  Some days I would do up to 3 classes.  I was starting to see changes in my body, but I still knew that I needed to get my nutrition more balanced and under control.  Fall of 2013 is when I decided to join Weight Watchers.

I really enjoyed weight watchers, because it held me accountable to have to weigh in every week with someone and also it helped me start learning to track all of the food that I ate.  When I started weight watchers, I was still working out a lot at Koru.  The pounds started to fall off.  I ended up making it under 200 lbs, I was so proud of myself and I felt so good.  That was all made possible with learning how to balance my diet with my workouts.

Summer of 2014, I got pregnant with Killian. I worked out a little bit, but was generally too tired to work out. I also had to stop weight watchers.  I started eating whatever I wanted — whatever my cravings were — ice cream, cereal, and crackers.  After having Killian in March of 2015, I tried to start working out at Koru again and tracking my food myself using MyFitnessPal, but I couldn’t get fully back into either of them.  I felt like I was missing out on something with Killian if I went to workout in the evenings before he went to bed, and the morning classes weren’t early enough for me to do before going to work.  It was with sadness that I had to cancel my Koru membership.

We moved in to our current house in Coon Rapids, MN in May of 2015.  I re-joined Lifetime Fitness and would work out there sometimes late at night and sometimes early in the morning, but I couldn’t get into the groove of things.  I was never certain what workouts I should do, I knew I needed some type of group fitness.  That is when I fell in love with yoga.

In January of 2016, I decided to pursue the 200hr yoga teacher certification.  I’m so glad I did.  I learned so much more about myself, I met amazing people that I probably would not have met otherwise, and I learned more about how to balance my life.  Yoga has taught me so much more which I will have to share in another blog post. 🙂  I planned to start auditioning to teach yoga at a gym in the Fall of 2016, however in late summer I found out that I was pregnant with Porter.

Being pregnant with Porter, I was able to keep my pregnancy weight gain a little more under control. I was smarter with my food choices, because I didn’t want to gain the 65+ lbs that I had gained with Killian.  Also during my pregnancy with Porter I was having to chase Killian around which was my exercise.

After having Porter in May of 2017, I was starting to feel more and more like I was just going to be fat the rest of my life. I was feeling very down on my self, and new I needed to be able to find a way to balance fitness, food, and my family.  I looked close to home for a gym and came across Farrell’s eXtreme Bodyshaping in Andover, MN.

In October of 2017, I started the 10 week challenge at FXB.  My starting weight was 231 lbs.  I love the instructors, the wide range of class times, and especially the workouts.  Through the 10 weeks, I learned more about nutrition and was able to get my eating back on point.  I had a cheat meal once a week and didn’t have to feel bad about it because it was on my plan the rest of the week.  I ended the 10 week challenge in December at 213 lbs.  In my 5am class time, I made so many friends with current people going through the challenge, and also FIT members.  I felt very accomplished for how far I had come, but I knew I had more to lose so I decided to join the year long 10K challenge.

I will be posting more posts regarding each challenge along the way of the 10K challenge, so be sure to sign up for email notifications for when I make a new blog post.

I am so happy with how much I have learned about fitness and nutrition on my journey so far, but it is just the beginning. I have so many goals that I am currently working towards. 🙂 Thanks for reading!!! 🙂