Metabolic Damage

Before you read this, please click here and read this article by Joe Donnelly.

Okay. So you're done reading it? Well, I think it is AWESOME.

I really want to get into the fitness industry. It's been one of my goals for a long time and there's no doubt that my career one day will inevitably involve fitness in some way. However, I think these days, the fitness industry is a bunch of bullshit. There, I said it. Sorry not sorry.

I think fitness competitions are more than just 'winning' or presenting the tightest body on the stage to show everybody "Hey I look freaking AMAZING!!!" Honestly, if your only motivation to compete is to look hot, I'd say reevaluate your goals because for me, personally, that's bogus. I would understand if someone lost half their body weight and wanted to show off their hard work, but that's about it.

I really can't even fathom how some women can do 2 one-hour long cardio sessions per day, on top of their weight training and then juggle their life that hasn't already been consumed by fitness. I'm not shaming them, because I think that takes a lot of dedication. But ultimately, I think it would wear not only on their physical health, but their mental health as well.

I don't think it's worth it to damage one's metabolic rate for the sake of looking shredded on stage. After a show, Joe mentions that some women's metabolic rates go from around 1,500 calories (about average) to an astounding 200-300 calories ]because the weeks of excess cardio and food deprivation has really taken its toll on the body.

Sometimes it takes years to improve the damaged metabolic rate. Seriously, is it worth it? I would argue against that. I really want to compete one day, but I plan on breaking the "norm" of endless cardio and living off of tilapia and asparagus and proving that you can get stage-shredded by not overdoing it. One thing my mom always told me while growing up is that "less is more." I believe it.

Joe mentioned that his girlfriend, famous fitness model and competitor Chady Dunmore, doesn't do two hours of cardio per day and deprive herself pre-show. I love that. I agree with Joe's assertions about how to get shredded and avoid metabolic damage: doing 1-2 sessions of all-out HIIT per week (and I'm talking all out, to the point where breathing is the only thing that is desired in that moment), keeping calories at a level where the body is not deprived of the nutrition that it needs but still enough to stimulate fat loss, and hitting the weights hard, which in the end is the most important exercise component. Screw cardio!

Chady Dunmore is a stunner. (Source)

I know there's this cycle where girls will have a "cheat meal" (oh, how I LOATHE that term) and they may go a *little* overboard, so they get this sense of overwhelming guilt and decide to deprive themselves of food for the next few days completely, so as to correct the overindulgence that had occurred because life happens. Then, they decide that they absolutely *MUST* do at least an hour or two of cardio to burn it all off. This WILL destroy your metabolic rate. You give your body a lot of excess calories, so your metabolism has to work hard to burn through it all, then BAM, all of a sudden it's getting next to nothing so it slows down significantly. Don't do this!!! When you indulge, because NO ONE CAN LIVE OFF OF VEGETABLES FOREVER, the next day, get right back on to your normal eating habits, drink a lot of water, and ***MOVE ON***. 

I know that's easier said than done because let's face it, I experience the guilt too. And I may wake up in the morning feeling like an overstuffed pig. But then I think about how I should NOT fall into that trap that so many women fall into, because it's mentally dangerous. THAT's how eating disorders develop. Some fitness competitors develop EDs post-show because they hold themselves up to this expectation of always being shredded, because they were shredded on stage for that one specific time. That is simply not okay.

It's important to know that one's body cannot look like a Greek statue 24/7. I understand this. When I compete, I know these mental barriers are going to be a lot harder to understand than trying to now, but I will know that two hours doing cardio and eating next to nothing is NOT the life for me. If you knew me in person, you would know I have a BIG appetite (I could probably not one, but TWO deep dish pizzas to myself) and I despise cardio unless I'm in the mood, which is a rare occurrence.

I hate to see some seasoned fitness competitors and models show this image of health and wellness when doing excess cardio and not eating enough is honestly far from healthy. And destroying one's metabolic rate? Definitely not healthy.

I may be the minority in this viewpoint along with Joe Donnelly and Chady Dunmore, but that's okay. I have a lot of opinions, so there's that. :)

Have a great day!

Pray For Boston

Keep your loved ones close today.

(Source)

Updated Goals

I never really set goals and I usually just go with the flow. If progress comes, then progress comes. However, I do think implementing goals is useful and fuels your fire to keep the motivation constantly burning. If you have a specific goal in mind, you push harder for it because you don’t want to disappoint yourself if you never achieve it.

After my little hiatus this winter, I’m going to start ramping up my goals. They will be more specific, because specific goals are easier to achieve rather than setting a rather broad goal which almost certainly increases the chance of failure. For example, if you’re looking to clean up your eating goals, I would say that it is better to start with a goal of “I will include a veggie in at least one meal per day” instead of setting the goal of “I will refuse to eat anything unhealthy for an entire month.” It’s easier to focus on the specific goal because the other one is far too broad and causes too much pressure on an individual.

Alright, I’ll stop blabbing now and state my goals. 

1. Drink at least a gallon of water per day.
I’m really bad at slacking off on my water intake. I drink more than the average person does, at least five water bottles per day. However, a gallon is equivalent to about 8 500mL water bottles which is my ultimate goal. I talked to a few kids at my school and many of them say that the maximum amount of water that they drink per day is three water bottles. That doesn’t seem like enough to me. Although I HATE having to pee every 30 minutes, I know drinking a lot of water is important for proper functioning of the body. It should be noted however that although drinking a lot of water is good for you, drinking TOO much can cause damage to your kidneys, so don’t go and drink four gallons per day. ;)

2. Focus on lifting heavy for upper body.
My legs used to be sticks, let’s face it. But now, my legs are huge due to the amount of squatting, lunging, leg pressing, stepping up, etc. that I’ve been doing to build my legs. I can’t even fit my old jeans around my butt anymore. And that’s a good thing! But my upper body hasn’t quite caught up yet. I want to focus on building the strength for my upper body. I’m not saying it’s not strong; it’s just not as strong as I feel like it could potentially be.

3. Implement more core work.
I don’t completely slack on the core, but I feel like I could do more to ramp it up. After every workout that I’ve been doing so far with my training partner, I have been doing one or two core exercises that focuses on a different section of the core each time. For example, after my chest day I did upper body core work, and after my back day I did lower body core work. I also want to have specific metabolic core workouts that challenge the core in unimaginable ways. I recently did one that involved a circuit of exercises including cable crunches, standing barbell twists, kettlebell oblique twists, stability ball planks, and many more pain-inducing core exercises. I see SO many people do “ab” workouts that are simply bicycle crunches, or standard crunches, or maybe a few sit-ups. Although bodyweight core work has its place in core training, it’s important to also throw in some resistance to challenge the core. Bodyweight core exercises target the shape of the abs, while resistance-based core exercises challenge the bulkiness of the abs. So a balance of both is proper for the body. I will continue to change it up and keep my core guessing, not simply because I want “abs” but because I want to strengthen my core (which includes the abs AND the lower back). It is the powerhouse of the body.

One of my favorites--but extremely difficult! (Source)

4. Get at a minimum seven hours of sleep per night.
I know for a teenager like myself that seven hours of sleep per night is not enough. For a teenager, at least nine hours is recommended. However, considering I usually get between 4-6 hours of sleep per night, I think aiming for nine is too far of a stretch, so I will settle for at least seven. Between my AP classes and their rigorous workloads and my typical inability to sleep at night (those darn thoughts that just bombard my head!), I haven’t been sleeping much lately and it has not only affected the intensity of my workouts, but also my mental energy. I need to prioritize sleep more than ever at the moment.

5. Increase the weight I use on at least three exercises.
I don’t want to fall into that trap where I am always using the same weights for each exercise. So I want to also focus on increasing the amount of pounds in the weight I use. More weight = stronger Brittany! I’m hoping that I at least raise the weight for the essential compound exercises like squats, shoulder or military presses, Olympic bar rows, deadlifts, and bench press. Particularly, I would like to increase the amount of weight I can lift on the deadlift. But I definitely will take what I can get.

So those are my goals that I hope to achieve by the end of the school year. I hope everyone has a fantastic day. :)

Some More Updates

Hi guys!

So I just returned from Florida and it was marvelous. My friend and I visited the University of Florida at Gainesville and we are basically already considering ourselves "out-of-stater gators"! 

Swag.

My friend wants to be a veterinarian, and they have a great veterinary program at UF. I am going to be majoring in physiology (it's the gymrat in me...) and they have a great physiology program there, so needless to say UF is definitely one of the best contenders!

I had a great week off in Florida where I did not lift a thing except my large, PINK, over-packed suitcase (what can I say, I'm a girl). Taking a week off lifting was glorious, and now I have been hitting my workouts HARD. My motivation is DEFINITELY back. I've been eating like a well-oiled machine, and without even trying, I've got dem abs. (It might help that I got a tan from Florida and that makes the lines more visible, but hey who's analyzing that?)

My workout partner has kicked my ass, and will continue to do so. We hit a hard chest workout yesterday and we did an ab exercise where you set up the decline bench by the cables and hold the rope attachment by your head as you do a sit-up on the decline bench. One word: KILLER. My abs are completely annihilated today and I only did three sets of fifteen of those. Sometimes less is more!

I have become more at peace with my body, and it's so freeing. I used to overanalyze EVERYTHING just like any typical female would. Ugh, could my hips have any more fat on them? Damn, I hate how oddly shaped my legs look. Uhm, I have a pooch on my lower stomach... I'm not going to lie, sometimes these thoughts bombard my head, and they hit especially hard in the winter when the weather is crappy and when I'm just not feeling all that great about myself.

However, in the past couple of days, I have not even cared. Like I said, I have found peace with my body. It's as if since the sun has finally come out and I can hear the birds chirping that my mind is cleared. I look in the mirror and I KNOW I could be more 'shredded' however it's not my top priority. My top priority is to live my life to the fullest and I can't stress enough that worrying way too much about how you look definitely holds you back from that. So you're not at 9% body fat. So what? As long as you eat healthy and work out, the rest is taken care of. The more you stress about having those shredded six pack abs, the less likely you are to get them because of all the stress circulating throughout your body. The more careless you are about having them (and I'm not talking about eating crap and not exercising), the most easily they come! Weird, right?!

The way I see it, if you focus on eating healthy foods and killing it in your workouts, then the rest will take care of itself, including those abs or ripped quads or strong arms. Don't make aesthetics your goal. Make STRENGTH and HAPPINESS your goal, as cliche and lame as that sounds. ;)

I also mentioned how I would be including cardio in my new workout plan, but guess what? My workout partner and I have decided to take out cardio completely. Yep, that's right. Now some may cringe at my future heart health, but no worries. I feel happier when I DON'T stress about doing cardio. And let's be honest, when I'm on a cardio machine, I'm DYING to get off of it ASAP and to me, that's just not fun. So, I'm going to focus on making myself happy and just hitting the weights hard. That IS my cardio. I don't mess around in the weight room; I get to work so my heart rate is always up and I don't see the need to stress myself out for cardio. Cardio is stupid. Sorry not sorry. I may do plyometrics here and there, but that's it. Now I can give all my love and attention to my passion: the iron. And I couldn't be happier. :)

I hope everyone has a fantastic day! :)

Oh and always wear sunscreen on your face. ;)

Okay bye!