Day 118 - stop waiting for things to happen, go out and MAKE them happen!

I have been working so very hard over the past few months. The changes are starting to show (slowly).   I know that I have a long way to go.     POSITIVE thoughts ONLY!

.... and I say ppfffeww to the naysayers and those who try to get me to eat.... (really...are you kidding me...I know what to eat and what not to eat....bugger off)!   oh that feels good....wish I could say that out loud to....oh wait... I DO!   

I am a newbeeeee in the bodybuilding world.  (I can't imagine it being that much different than the dance world...ya know...the same but different)  so I read blogs and websites trying to learn  what other figure competitors do so I can be prepared for my competition.     I read about the sacrifices  ups and downs, the training styles, tips of the trade.   I LOVE IT!!! 

I like this:  Focus on the Positive

Staying focused on the positive and having a positive attitude is a key to growth and change.    - competitor Ava Cowan

Here I am with my new tank shirt:

I TRAIN LIKE A GIRL - TRY TO KEEP UP!

I'm staying close to home today; rest day from the gym.  I'll walk the dog but that is it for exercise today!  It is also cooking day.   I am going to cook up CLEAN curried chicken; turkey chilli,  guacamole and hummous.

Clean eating guacamole

Ingredients

Ingredients:
Avocados, California (Haas), 3 fruit without skin and seeds
Lime Juice, 0.5 lime yields
Cilantro, raw, 1 tbsp
Onions, raw, 0.5 cup, finely chopped
Garlic, 1 clove, minced
Pepper, black, 0.5 tsp
Salt, 1 dash

Directions

Scoop flesh from avocados, Place all ingredients in a bowl and mix until just combined. Don't overmix.

Nutritional Info

• Servings Per Recipe: 6
• Amount Per Serving
• Calories: 159.1

• Total Fat: 14.0 g
• Cholesterol: 0.0 mg
• Sodium: 35.1 mg
• Total Carbs: 9.6 g
• Dietary Fiber: 6.5 g
• Protein: 2.0 g

Super Healthy Hummous

Introduction

My best, non fat, super tasty, versatile, good for you recipe. Dip things into it, put it on bread, eat with a spoon....

Ingredients

3 cloves garlic
.25 cup nonfat yogurt, maybe more for consistency
1TBL lemon juice
1 tsp olive oil
.25 tsp salt
.25 tsp paprika
.48 tsp pepper
1 19 oz can chick peas, drained and rinsed
1 TBL fresh parsley

Directions

Makes enough for 6 good sized servings
Put everything in a blender or food processor. Blender makes it smoother, food processor, less smooth.
Blend until well incorporated, adding more yogurt if necessary to get the consistency you want, sometimes I add some water instead.
Good as a dip or spread.
Number of Servings: 6

Nutritional Info

• Servings Per Recipe: 6
• Amount Per Serving
• Calories: 111.5

• Total Fat: 1.8 g
• Cholesterol: 0.6 mg
• Sodium: 343.2 mg
• Total Carbs: 19.6 g
• Dietary Fiber: 3.7 g
• Protein: 4.6 g

REST AND RECOVERY!

You really can have too much of a good thing, even with exercise. The importance of incorporating rest days into your workout regime cannot be stressed enough. When first starting to exercise, or even if you’re an exercise veteran, we tend to error on the side of too much. We often mistakenly believe that unless we exercise every day we’ve somehow failed. That belief couldn’t be more wrong. We’re not suggesting months or even weeks of inactivity, but including a regular rest day can make all the difference in your fitness and motivation level. 

To understand the importance of rest days, you first have to understand how our bodies work. In the simplest terms, to build muscle you must break it down first. When exercising, whether it is running, lifting weights or biking you cause small tears in your muscle fibers. Rest days give your muscles the opportunity to repair the tears that occur during training. It gives your bones the opportunity to rebuild and become stronger. This post-workout recovery period initiates the cellular changes that ultimately increase your fitness level. If you follow up a hard workout too soon with another hard workout, chances are your body will not have time to recover, adapt and benefit from the first workout. Rest allows your body to truly take advantage of your exercise efforts. 

Rest days are also crucial to building and sustaining your motivational levels. Think about it, if you never allowed yourself a break from something, even something you love, you’d start to get bored and burn out. I mean really, you can only go shopping so often before the thrill begins to wane. It’s the same with exercise, not only do we need variety to keep it interesting and effective, but we need breaks. While absence can make the heart grow fonder, rest makes the motivation grow stronger. 

But, what exact is a “rest” day? Am I suggesting lying around with your feet up eating cookies all day? Not quite. Rest is relative. A rest day for an elite runner in marathon training probably isn’t the same as a rest day for an average runner gutting out a 10K training plan. For the elite marathoner, who may normally run twice a day and 100 plus miles a week, a rest day could be a 45-minute run at a very easy pace. But for the rest of us, a rest day is more likely to be a day without any exercise or perhaps just some low-impact work such as a 30-minute walk. The point of a rest day is to subject your body to much less training stress than usual so that it has a chance to recover from and adapt to a prior harder workout. The amount of activity or inactivity that is required to meet this objective depends entirely on how much you normally train on non-rest days. And as you get more fit, the definition of rest will change. 

The all or nothing philosophy has got to go especially when it comes to fitness. While your regular workouts should be strenuous and challenging, enough to stress your body to make it stronger, it doesn’t have to be all out every time. And after you do go “all out” it is critical to your long-term fitness success to take a rest day. To truly improve your health and fitness don’t ignore the importance of incorporating rest days into your workout. Your body will thank you. 

 Michael Staddon 

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