Tag: workout

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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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Believe …

….Deep Breath….

The past few weeks have been very empowering and emotional for me.  The first week of this month, I started running.  For those of you that know me, I am definitely NOT a runner by any means.  I ran a mile outdoors and only stopped to walk once.  I was so proud of myself. I couldn’t believe that I did it. My close friends and family members were really proud of me too.

The next morning I got a text from my husband saying that he ran a mile — I inspired him to get out there and do it. I was very happy for him and kind of excited to see what new aspect this could bring to our lives. When I got home that day, we decided that we would start running together 2-3 times a week.

On the 4th, there was a 4K run/walk supporting Hope4Youth, which I had known about for about a month.  I was too afraid to sign up to do the run/walk — even though I totally could have just walked the whole thing.  There was a group of friends from FXB doing the 4K, and one in particular, Marilee, thought I had signed up.  She called me wondering if she needed to pick up my registration packet…I told her that I hadn’t signed up for the run, because “I can’t run a 4K” and “No one will go as slow as me” and “I’m scared”.   Marilee has always been a huge supporter and told me that there was nothing to be afraid of, and that I didn’t have to run any of it if I didn’t want to.  She also told me that she believes in me and that if I couldn’t do this 4K that she would get me out of my comfort zone and do a 5K with me.  We hung up the phone with each other, and I thought about it for about 5 minutes or less — I called my mom to see if she would be able to be home to watch the kiddos, and called my husband, Dan, to see if he wanted to run the 4K.  Everyone said yes…with that I called Marilee back and she signed me and Dan up for the race.  She was so excited for us to do the race.

When I got home from work, after talking to Marilee, Dan and I decided to go running.  My thoughts were that we would run a mile and be done — his thoughts not so much. We ran the mile (I ran the whole thing without stopping!! FIRST TIME EVER!) and then started walking and talking.  As we were walking, I decided that wasn’t as bad as I thought it was going to be and we decided to do another mile.  I ran that mile without stopping too.  I was so proud of myself, I’m still tearing up a little typing this.  I made a goal in my head that I was going to run the whole mile and then I did, even though I didn’t think I could. That was proof to me that if I get out of my own way, I can do anything that I put my mind to.  All I have to do is believe in myself!

When it got to race day, I was nervous.  All of my FXB friends just kept saying you will be fine. You got this.  We went to the starting line up and started the run.  I ended up running by myself, but that was OK with me because then I could just run and focus on my breathing.  When I got to the 1 mile marker I hadn’t stopped — I said to myself, “I can keep going”.  I kept going — I definitely thought about stopping, but told myself that I didn’t need to.  I was still breathing and pacing myself just right — I got to the 2 mile marker.  I nearly started crying — this was the first time EVER that I had run without stopping for that long. “I have gone this far — there is only .5 miles left — I got this”.  The finish line was just in reach — I heard Marilee, Dan and some of the others cheering me on — I pushed harder.  I ended up passing the finish line at 29.02.  I felt amazing, I cried. I couldn’t believe that I did it!!

I ran a 4K without stopping, what else could I do that I had previously been holding myself back from…only time will tell.

I really enjoyed running — I decided to make some running goals for myself:

Run a 5K by mid July.  Do the Rugged Maniac with Marilee in September.  Run a 10K by October… and the biggest goal… Run Grandma’s 1/2 Marathon in 2019.

“Yes I can!”  All I need to do is believe in myself.  If you have any running tips, tricks, or must haves let me know in the comments below!!

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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!!! 🙂