Self Care Sunday - Try A New Fitness Class

This week on my Facebook Page and Instagram I've been talking a lot about doing things outside of our comfort zones. Trying something new and bold and maybe even out of character. I even had a friend message me on Twitter about how she went out of her comfort zone and tried a hot yoga class and loved it. Maybe it's that fall air, but everyone seems to be ready to stir things up. I'm not much into astrology, but I'm sure there's  shift in some moons or something causing it! Ha ha.

So this, week's Self Care seemed fitting to be trying out a new fitness class. I will be trying to right about some local places here (leave me a comment here on on my media channels about where I should try!), but in the meantime I have a few great ideas. 

• You can head to your local gym. I personally may be so inclined to invite you to come to a World Health Club (ahem) and try a class. Or many. I love the variety from step classes, lifting classes, Zumba, yoga, spin, or kickboxing etc etc etc! 
• I also wrote this blog post about trying out a barre class at a local place called Xtend Barre, if you are wondering what that is all about. 
• At your local community league you might find Yoga, Zumba or Tai Chi. 
• Call up a martial arts dojo and inquire about a drop in class.
• Check out a Cycle Studio.
• Maybe try out a dance class!

Whatever you are thinking about trying, or have always wondered about, just try it this week. Jump with both feet in. Many places offer free classes for the first time or a special weekly drop in rate for first timers. 

To help maybe ease the anxiety, see if a friend or family member want to go with you. I bet you more people than you think have been wondering what pole workouts are all about. 

Also.... let's think about using wording like "I need more practice" and "this is a new way to move my body" then the usual things that come out of our mouths like "I suck at this" or "I'm out of shape". It's self love people, not a new way of finding self hate. We get enough of that, don't ya think?

Definitely come back and tell me how it went! Send me a message on my FB, Twitter or IG! I'd love to hear how you took a step outside of your comfort zone. 

Love,

Jen The Bitchin' Housewife

The Spartan Super AROO!

This past weekend I ran the Spartan Super in Red Deer with a good friend. 13.5 km and I think I read somewhere about 25 obstacles. Mud, scrapes, grunts, camaraderie and glory.

The Spartan races have a few different levels. The Sprint (5km), Super (12+ km), Beast (19+km) and the Ultra Beast (40+km). They run them all over the world. Sprints I believe you can find in each city, Supers one per Province/State and Beasts you will like have to do more travelling for, depending on where you live. 

A few years ago I did a Mud Hero with my sister. Same idea, it was 5km and a bunch of obstacles. I had a blast and found it relatively easy. This is before I even really got into weight lifting and strength training. I was mostly going off marathon training I did a year or so before that. 

So I figured since then I've become a lot more athletic, I could handle the Super. I signed up last year but had nobody to watch my kids so I pushed it to this year. Signed up with a friend who has done it before and *thought* that I would train. Ha ha.

I never did specific training for the run necessarily, but I knew I could run a distance and since I've been teaching a lot of Insanity live, I knew I had the burpees down!

The fun part of the Spartan is definitely the obstacles. When you can't do an obstacle, your penalty is 30 burpees though. And although I believe I am athletic and had help from my friend and strangers on the course, there were just some things I couldn't do, or fell from. Soooooo yeah..... burpees. Ugh.

Some of my favourite obstacles were:

• Inverted wall. After doing a few 6 foot walls (and me needing a boost), we came across this one and the station person informed us you only get one chance or you do burpees. Well.... if you know me at all, that was certainly motivation enough. Put me in a do or die and I flourish. I nearly fell but you bet your ass I had death grip on that top piece to climb over. 

• Barbwire crawl. crawling through mud under a barbwire, just like in the movies. Totally bad ass. It's challenging keeping your butt down so it doesn't get snagged and having to use your arms to pull you through.the cool mud feels good as you slide across it, but if you are wearing shorts like I was can also scratch your legs/knees. 

• Incline wall. They put this one right after the muddy barbwire those evil bastards. Everything was so slippery and hard to get a grip. I was waiting for the rope with the knots after I tried without and couldn't make it. My friend Ginel (who is a beast at Spartans) got up and we were helping the guy in front of me as I pushed and she pulled. I was starting to worry whether or not I would be able to make it. She was already up and like I said... do or die moment. I made it in one go. *insert cheers*

• Vertical Cargo Net Climb. This was the second last one, before the rope climb and then jumping over the fire at the end. Maybe I like this one because I found it super easy, but mostly because of sitting at the top. Sitting up there for a moment with my hands in the air feeling the success of everything that just happened. 

Not pictured was my other favourite part. Everyone helping each other. Approaching a wall this big guy asked if anyone needed help over the wall. He held out his hands and launched me up so I could get over the tall wall.

At one obstacle we had to drag a heavy ass cinder block around a dirt ring road by chain/rope and I was struggling the last 25 feet or so. The guys behind me were cheering me on and even helped pull it for me even though they had their own. 

Not long after we had to pull a cinder block up really high (i'm guessing 50 ft) and let it down slowly with control. I was having trouble getting mine started and a girl came along and we pulled together. Then I turned around and helped her and her friend with theirs. 

Overall the whole thing was a blast and I would certainly do it again. Next year possibly more training so I can be the one to help my friends over walls!

These race photos are not mine or me or from my race, since they are not posted yet. Watch for photos of me doing the race over on my Bitchin' Housewife Facebook Page!

Some tips I would like to share if you are thinking about doing a race:

• Less clothing the better. Wear lightweight, leave sweaters at check in etc. The more clothing (and cotton being the worst) the more it absorbs the mud and water. 
• Eat well the days leading up to it and the morning of. Avoid foods upsetting of the stomach and think about good sources of carbohydrates. 
• High knee socks are great if not wearing pants. I think they saved me some scrapes for sure.
• Don't wear your best shoes. I washed mine after but yeah they will never be the same for sure. 
• do some training! Ha ha ha. Even if it's just running so you are conditioned to run. You can find lots of training programs on the internet. 
• Have fun! Especially if you are not competitively running for best time, have fun with it. Stop when you need to. Remember to enjoy the journey a long the way and stop for a "holy shit I'm doing this" moment!

Love, 

Jen The Bitchin' Housewife

Fitness Takes A Village

We often say this when talking about raising children. And that is very true. I will not contest that in the slightest. What I don't think that gets spoken about often is that its needed in our health and fitness lifestyle too. 

In our day to to day lives, how many times are we exposed to offerings that are not in our diet or meal plans? Daily, hourly, every minute (thanks Instagram and Facebook and your damn food accounts pfft). Oh sure we can argue it takes willpower. Sure it does. That's not the whole bit of it though. 

Starting a journey into fitness can be exciting. Being honest though, like most new things, the novelty wears off a bit. You have to find that sort of love for it. Read my Love Your Fitness post talking all about that subject. But one thing that can keep you motivated is finding your "village". 

Thinking back on to the hot new fitness regimes out there all the time. A big part of it seems to be the people. Crossfit being the best example of this I think. They compete with each other but in a supportive way. They all do the same daily workout. They are a village in it together. The Zumba phenomenon years ago. A village, dressing in bright colors expressing themselves through their creative dance. Yogi's looking to each other for support and guidance and assistance. Body builders coaching and spotting and competing together. From what I've seen most successfully winning in groups. Families. Villages. 

Taking that outside of the gym, zumba room or barre class, you need your village in support of your friends and family. And that's the more difficult one. You may want to change your ways but your husband or friends don't. You want to stop the Saturday nights binge drinkfests, ball team cookout that could feed an army or just fast food picked up daily by the family. So many motivational and inspirational messages tell us we can't change others, only ourselves. It is a matter of willpower and strength. Half right. Half wrong. We can not change them, but we do not just have to grin and bear it. Seek a village. Seek those with goals like yourself. Connect with those that inspire you, lift you up and support you. 

Something I found profoundly powerful? Asking to be supportive. I tell my husband, "Hey I need to really stop with the wine and candy for a bit. I'm not feeling so hot these days." Now my husband is amazing and he says "okay, I'll be as supportive as I can". Because you know, he's one of those jerks that can eat like crazy and loose weight. *Love you babe* But even if he didn't say that, now he knows my intention. My reason for not having a beer on the deck with him, but a water, or a salad instead of ordering pizza. 

Put your intention out into the world. Really the scariest thing that can happen is you get what you ask for. And hey who knows, maybe you are the one that inspires those around you!

Take care and you are ALWAYS, ALWAYS welcome to share with me here and we can be our own village. 

Love, 

Jen

Life Isn't About A Flat Stomach

Most may know that I am preparing for a bikini competition. I am 5 days away from stepping on stage in front of a lot of people, amongst a lot of other women in some tiny pieces of cloth. I get asked a lot lately; why? Why do I want to compete. I want to write a blog post about why after my competition, but some of it is explained here.

This morning I went for my very first consult for breast augmentation. (A boob job). I’ve had two babies that I breastfed for over a year each, significant weight loss and I’m fastly approaching 30. My girls are not the same as they once were. This is for me, has nothing to do with competing, society’s view of me or so on. It is for me and how I feel in my body.

Anyways, I went for my consult. I waited 4 months for this appointment, after being waitlisted basically. While there I asked about a small amount of skin above my c section scar that I’m not even sure I wanted to have surgery on. It bothers me, maybe not enough to consider surgery. I’m very proud that my body grew and nourished two babies. And even though my births weren’t the way I wanted, proud that I was able to have them surgically and walk away from it. Take care of my babies while healing from surgery. “Scars are only reminders that something tried to hurt us and we didn’t let it.” I had my babies, even though they may have been too big for my body and I’m still here. Take that mother fucker.

The doctor was a jerk and told me I needed a tummy tuck and reconstruction of my stomach muscles. The skin was only a small part of it. The reconstruction would allow my stomach to be right flat, even after eating a full meal. What. The. Fuck. Look at these pictures.

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I think I look pretty damn good. Not to be egocentric or anything but again, self pride for my hard work. It's also not super flat. I even told the fucker I was stepping on stage in 5 days. Now don’t think this really rocked my confidence about doing this competition. I’m stronger then that to allow an external force (especially a person I don’t know) take my pride, self love and confidence away from me. Instead I was upset for two reasons. The way he treated me was atrocious.

The second, life isn’t about a flat stomach. Do we really need to have flat stomachs after eating? Aren’t our stomachs designed to expand for reasons? It’s people like this that are distorting the view of the world and creating the idea in people’s minds that we have to be this tiny tiny little thing. I knew competing, this tiny body isn’t something sustainable. I honestly don’t believe in 6 pack abs or a super flat stomach being something that’s maintainable year round. Whether it be for your physical or mental health. Mostly because a lot of people have an unhealthy relationship with food and/or exercise in order to maintain it. Or unhealthy relationship with their bodies in order to maintain it. It’s kind of disturbing.

I am very confident in my body. Of course I have days where I think I can’t do this. Or my body isn’t as good as the girl on Instagram I will compete with or I could be leaner, tighter etc. But I also know how hard I’ve worked, how good I look and I will be on that stage even if I’m a whale compared to the next girl. It’s my journey and I will do with as I please.

That said, imagine the other mother walking into that office. Not as confident. Walking in there because she doesn’t feel that way and is looking for something to make her feel better. She goes for boobs, asks about a small amount of skin and is basically told she’s a wreck and needs an overhaul of her midsection. Told if she does this she can eat a meal and not worry about her stomach showing. WHY?!?!?! Why is a flat stomach so damn important? Why are we chasing this? If the majority of us don’t look like this, why do we let the select few tell us we should? If you are a healthy weight for your body, are not sick, eat relatively well within reason, have a healthy relationship with food or our bodies why do we always need to loose 10 lbs or obtain the flat stomach?

I will get more into why I wanted to compete in another post, but it wasn’t about the abs or flat stomach. Cool side effect maybe, but I know they will go away after show time. I will bring calories back up to give me energy to sustain my busy life. To fuel my workouts properly. I will eat more carbs, enjoy the glass of wine with my friends, pie for Thanksgiving and they will fade away. If they stay for a while, then cool too. Maybe I’m talking out of my ass, but I think life isn’t about a flat stomach.