New Found Motivation

Christian and I have definitely not been getting our money’s worth from our gym membership…however, we have no one to blame but ourselves. We have not been as consistent as we would like when it comes to actually going and working out. I’d say that since we joined the gym, our average has been 0-3 times per week...with the scale tipping towards 0 and 1 times rather than the higher numbers. I think there are several reasons for which this happened, but instead of going into those, I want to talk about our new-found motivation.

Both of us are sick of the “extra insulation” on our bodies and since we can’t really see any changes in our bodies, we have decided to really dedicate ourselves to getting in shape. It is not necessarily about losing weight (although I’d like to), but it’s about losing body fat, gaining muscle, getting in better physical condition and eating healthier. Think about it—we live in one of the most polluted cities in the world, so I think the very least we can do is try to keep our bodies in top condition to help counteract all of the pollution’s damage. Of course, I am down with getting a bikini-ready body since summer is a month away, as well as making sure I look bomb in my wedding dress next June—but those are just the frosting and sprinkles on the cake. Getting my body fit, like it was (and hopefully better) in 2005 when I was working out twice a day, is one of my goals. Not that I have time to be working out twice a day here in Chile, but that doesn’t mean that it can’t be done.

I know I’ve told myself these things a million times and obviously I didn’t stick with the plan. But now I’m tell you, which holds me much more accountable than if it were my own little secret. Don’t worry, I don’t plan on converting my blog into a fitness guru site, I just feel that if I publish my results, I will be more likely to stick with the plan. That is why you see those numbers to the right of your screen. Although I won’t be actually posting my *actual* measurements and weight, I will be posting the changes that I see in each.

Now, we all know that it is important to make sure that our goals (fitness or otherwise) are challenging but attainable, measureable, and that they have a time frame. I had wanted to make a fitness inspiration board, similar to the wedding inspiration boards, but I had a hard time finding pictures of abs, legs, butts and arms that I liked without actually getting porn to come up on google! I might be able to come up with an inspiration board from some old Self magazines that I have lying around the house, but as for the internet search...that was a no-go. Anywho, here is a brief overview of my goals, in order of most important to least:

Lose 3-5% body fat

• This is somewhat hard to measure since I don’t have a caliper, but I found an online calculator that allows you to use body measurements.

• I would like to lose at least 0.5% percent per month.

Have a defined upper-body that really shows off my strapless wedding dress.

• This I plan to measure with pictures. I will take pictures monthly and compare them for progress along with taking measurements.

Lose 5-10 kilos

• (I know I said this isn’t about losing weight, but for my body frame, I don’t think I need those extra kilos)
• Since it is only healthy to lose 0.5-1 kilo per week, ideally I would like to lose 0.5 kilos per week. I do know, however, that this will be extremely hard to measure considering that body weight can fluctuate like up to 2 kilos per day depending on what you eat, drink, etc. So, at the end of each month, I would like to see a change of -2 kilos.

Get my calves back to the bad-asses that they previously were, like when I was dancing 20+ hours per week

• This will be similar to the upper-body goal, except that I don’t plan on taking pictures of my calves. I will simply know how my progress is coming along in comparison with how they used to look..

How do I plan on achieving this all? Not with some miracle diet I can tell you that. I plan on achieving my goals by eating healthy (ie. consuming hardly any sugar, white bread, saturated and trans fat, etc. and trying to eat mostly healthy vitamin-packed veggies, lean meat and healthy fats), and working out (doing both cardio and lifting weights). In order to lose 0.5 kilos per week, I must consume 3500 calories less than what I actually expend, or 500 calories per day—of which half I plan to take out of my diet, and the other half I plan to burn in the gym.

Wish me luck and any words of inspiration and motivation are welcome!!!