Get comfortable being uncomfortable

Last week my manager at work told me: 'Get comfortable being uncomfortable'. I shared with here I was having some difficulties bringing a project to the next level, while other projects went very smooth and easy. It is funny how closely this is related to working out. While working out there are always these exercises when doing them, you want to call all bad names to everybody and everything around you. This is where you have to be mentally strong and push yourself. Only than you will improve. 

By getting out of your comfort zone your are developing yourself in areas that you have not explored yet. You can improve yourself in these areas and you will grow. When you will not challenge yourself you will stop learning and growing. 

Never stop learning and growing! 

Get comfortable being uncomfortable. 

Update and more pictures photoshoot

Hi Guys!

Meanwhile I am 3 weeks out of my first competition. So my body has changes quite a bit already. Still working to get my fat% lower by keeping a strict food-schedule. Somehow, this seems more challenging lately ;). Also, I am very excited to start my new job this week! Meeting new people and finding more opportunities! I am ready to rock the stage (almost :))!

As promised, here are several more pictures from my photoshoot a couple of weeks ago. 

Have a great week and enjoy the pictures!

A weekend away: Preparation is key!

Delicious meals during my weekend away! Chicken salad and asparagus.

This weekend a great time in a bungalow park! Of course I tried to stick to my training scheme and clean and healthy food. Again, it showed preparation is key!

I made sure I had enough healthy food packed with me in order to survive the weekend. I took ingredients for my breakfast and to make a nice tuna salad. I packed enough protein powder, almond milk and eggs.

It’s all about healthy choices.

During the weekend I had plenty of fun swimming, shopping, and relaxing. When I was on the way I always carried a banana and a protein bar in case we didn’t stop for something to eat. We also went out for lunch and diner. For lunch I ordered a ‘Farmers Omelette, eggs, mushrooms, ham, bacon, tomato’s, bell peppers and cheese served with a side salad. Although the dish was high in fats, it was low in carbs and high in protein.

For diner I ordered the local dish asparagus with ham, which was delicious. This dish is pretty clean from itself existing of just the cooked vegetables, ham and herbs from the oven. Also, the next day I enjoyed a delicious chicken salad!

Be creative

Saturday was cardio day, so I took my running gear with park. In the morning that I went running I came across a kids’ playing area. There I did some more exercises like burpees, Bulgarian lunches, squats, and upside down abs workout on the climbing rack. Its fun working out outside and be creative! You can workout with almost anything. Try it!

Creative abs workout at the Playground

Fist things first; The magic 4: training

Get it done B*tch!

Go to the gym, work out, and see results!

When you want to become fit, you have to work for it! The fist step is: find a gym that suits you! I used to train at one of the large commercial trainings centres. Training there was fine, although during peak times is was vey busy and it was like doing the chair dance with others! The equipment was sufficient for me to train every body part and there were plenty of cardio machines. During my search for a coach I came across a local fitness centre, about 10 minutes biking from my house. This training enter has a no-nonsense attitude and had way more unique equipment than at the commercial gym. It felt good to work out there.  That’s where you can find me now, almost every day!

The second step is: go to the gym! When you find the gym that suits you and where you feel good at, you should go there! I personally go to the gym almost 6 days a week. I do weight training 3 times a week and cardio 3 times a week as well. When it is good wheatear I love to do my cardio sessions outside though. Find your own motivation to go to the gym, get inspiration and get it done! It might also help to go to the gym with a training partner. This person should be as motivated as you though, so you could go to the gym together and support each other.

Here you see the typical difference between a marathon
athletes and a sprinter. The sprinter has visible more
muscle development. Training type matters!

The third step is: match your training schedule with your goals! I love the classic example of sprinters and marathon runners. Both sports are amazing and require dedication and commitment. However, the looks of both athletes differ greatly. Marathon runners are very slim and showing few muscles, while sprinters are shredded with muscle development. This example shows how different trainings affect your body differently. Important is to balance weights training and cardio.

Weight training

Like I mentioned I do weight training 3 times a week. I do a full body workout; this means I work all muscle groups during my workout. Another option is to do different body parts on different days. For example, 1 day leg day, 1 day back and triceps, 1 day chest and shoulders. When working out, choose to do the larger muscles (quads, chest, back, shoulders, hamstrings) first, and that one or more smaller muscles (triceps, bicep, calves, forearms, traps). This is recommended because it is mostly the exhausted smaller muscles holding you back doing exercises.

Cardio

I try to keep my cardio and weight trainings separate. If you don’t have the time or opportunity to do that, you can also choose to do your cardio workout after you weight training. It is better to do this afterwards, so you can use your power at the start of the workout for your weight training. For cardio, you could do anything, like running, biking, cross trainer etc.  I perform a short and steady high intensity cardio workout 2 times a week. I prefer the bicycle because it is less destructive for the joints. The other time I like to do sprints outside. Near my house there is a 100 meter training track where I like to go run with friends. This is an interval training (high intensity for 10-60seconds and moderate intensity 30-60seconds). I usually try to keep my cardio sessions short and intense for about 20-30 min (excluding warming up and cooling down). 

Set your goals, plan your trainings, and get it done B*tch! 

First things first; the magic 4: Mental

Mental health and motivation is priority

If something is very important to keep you going, it is mental health! In this case, with mental health I mean general well-being, feeling good, and being motivated to reach your goals. It sound very obvious, but we are not always standing still by the fact that your well-being effects everything you do in life. For one moment, try to stand still what drives you in life. What makes you who you are, and what do you want to become in the future? What is your goal? When defining your goal, try to make your goal SMART: make it specific, make sure you can measure your progression, and specifically: make it realistic. Nothing is more demotivating that setting goals you will never be able to reach. In my case my goal is to participate in a body-fitness competition. Then the question remains how to complete the journey and reach the goal?

Start diggin'

This is my challenge. What is yours?

The first step is to find out what really motivates you to achieve your goals. Try to dig deep and reason solid, so that the reasons are very clear for you and you can fall back on these reasons during moments when you are less motivated. For example, if you goal is to loose weight there could be several reasons for this. The reason: 'because it is pretty', probably won't help to motivate you during hard times. Therefore you should try to find more deep motivators. For example, my reasons to participate in a fitness competition are to find out what my body is capable of and how disciplined I can work on myself. I am eager to find out the maximum results I can get with training and clean eating. My aim is to get as fit as possible in a natural way. I like to challenge myself. Find out what really motivates you. 

Motivators

Next to find internal motivation, there is so much motivation to find elsewhere. My main motivator is the mirror. I love te see changes in my body and the pay-off for all the hard work. Also, several persons around me can give me motivation to achieve my goal. Start sharing your goals with people around you and share updates about achievements helps a lot. Next to that, I personally get a lot of motivation from being in the gym and surround myself with people with similar goals. When looking around me and seeing how others are working and making process, I always try to learn and grow from them. Besides these motivators, I am always looking for new sources of information, motivation and inspiration on the Internet. I usually hit the 'follow' button for any FB sites or blogs that are interesting to follow for fitness of food related information. I try to get involved in online discussion about topics that interest me. Several of my fav's websites are FitnessRx for Women and Muscle and fitness. Also Youtube you can be overwhelmed with motivational video clips. This is one of my favourites: 

To sum up:

1. Set your goals
2. Start digging and find out your drivers of the goals
3. Find motivation inside yourself, and external motivators
4. Get it done, B*tch!