Hey dudes, so this morning I decided, I AM GETTING BACK IN SHAPE! After the past six months, I have achieved about half of my goals for the year… most notably, I got the tattoo apprenticeship I was working toward! I am officially tattooing and I am slightly better than completely sucking 🙂 Needless to say this is a really exciting thing for me and I am so excited to be moving forward in this career. It makes me SO happy.
Here’s a strongman tattoo I did this week :)))))
Today, I am starting back on the fitness front, and getting back into my powerlifting routine! 4x/week lifting and mobility. Heavy focus on form and mobility. Weights will be SIGNIFICANTLY lighter because…. well, I am significantly weaker. And honestly, a little out of shape. I have probably been exercising once or twice a week for the past few months, but not very hard, and not with any real enthusiasm. Drinking has been much, diet has been crappy. I’m going to spend July getting back into things and see how it goes.
Get ready for daily posts with lots of exciting videos, food logs, and pictures again!
Saturday 7/4/15
Breakfast:
Egg and veggie wrap
1 fried egg (fresh from my boss’s chickens!!)
1 whole wheat wrap
spouts
baby kale
cucumbers
tomatoes
1 tsp grated parmesan
1 tsp olive oil
Coffee with cream
Snack
7 triscuits
1-2 oz goat brie
Lunch
Baby kale salad with steak
3oz steak
2 cups baby kale
tomatoes
cucumbers
1 tsp grated parmesan
1 tsp olive oil
Dinner
Not sure yet. Maybe a potato and chicken or something like that
Exercise:
Kept it super light today, I am starting my new program on Monday, but wanted to make sure I moved a bit.
Moving trees around the yard 😉
Light squats 3×5@95#
Light bench 3×5 with the bar
Push-ups 3×10
3, 30 second planks
30 minutes stretching
Hey yall! So, like the rest of the internet I am pretending that new years doesn’t matter, but also coming up with new goals at the same time 😉 I’m going to be honest, I have fallen off the wagon BIG TIME over the past four months. I have been maintaining my bodyweight and lifts but I have not been improving my physical body in any way… and that’s a bit of a bummer.
The truth is, my passion for lifting has been completely and utterly replaced with a passion for drawing and for acquiring a tattoo apprenticeship. That is my number one priority right now and I need to address that openly. Making time for 2 hour lifting sessions four times a week has just not been happening — I have spent the past few months implimenting a more regular life schedule and I am starting to learn where I can fit in some healthy changes. Right now, I am trying to focus on bringing in small changes and making health and fitness a regular part of my life again. Prioritizing… doable… over training.
Super basic stuff… but. That’s what I need right now.
Anyway, a week late, here is my review of last years goals, and some thoughts on moving forward with this year.
2014 Goals Review
Before getting into 2015, I wanted to review my goals from last year and see how I did.
2014 Powerlifting Goals:
Squat: 275# — Hit 265# (NOPE)
Bench: 135# — Hit 129# (NOPE)
Deadlift: 315# — Hit 320# (HOORAY!)
Total: 725# – Obviously a result of the previous (NOPE)
Compete and get a total in that competition – I competed in TWO competitions, Including Raw Nationals! (HOORAY!)
Bodyweight & Fitness goals: (NOPE)
Literally didn’t even achieve a single one of the goals for this category because I stopped caring the second I wrote the list… so I’m not including it in this review. Lesson learned.
Montana Living Awesomeness:
Ski or Snowboard a blue route- YEP! I did a couple blacks!
Go on a 3 day backpacking trip in the Rockies. – This sadly never happened because Jeff (my husband and outdoor training buddy) injured his hip. Maybe this year (NOPE)
Complete GORUCK Missoula – This event was canceled by GORUCK (NOPE)
Climb/hike a mountain (not sure which Mountain yet) – A couple small ones… but nothing I would really consider what I had in mind (NOPE)
So yeah, while last year was TOTALLY FUCKING AWESOME and I made HUGE leaps and bounds in my life in many ways, it sure looks like I didn’t achieve much from this list!
What did I learn from this?
1.) BIG OVERARCHING GOALS ARE NOT GOALS… THEY ARE DREAMS — Most of the “goals” on my list weren’t really goals… they were like dreams. I literally achieved 3 of the things on my list because honestly, most of these things I listed were totally out of my control. There is nothing wrong with having dreams, they are what keep me motivated. But I need to remember that they are not going to happen just because I think about them a lot. I need to change my daily habits.
2.) SET SMALL QUANTIFIABLE GOALS TO HELP ACHIEVE DREAMS – The only thing I CAN control, is my daily habits… not the overall result.
3.) LISTEN TO YOUR HEART – My priorities completely shifted in May 2014 when I realized I wanted to change careers — I spent the entire second half of 2014, well, confused. I was too embarrassed to admit that I gave up on my 2014 powerlifting goals, so I just disappeared from the internet. It needed to happen. Anyway I am back, I still want to be healthy, I just want to be a good artist more. This year my blog will probably be about managing my life, finding balance, and learning to be healthy, happy, and professionally successful.
4.) ADJUST DAILY HABITS REGULARLY TO REFLECT DREAMS – If your priorities shift, that’s cool! Own it. But, adjust your daily habits to help become the best person you can be.
5.) RECORD & TRACK PROGRESS – I didn’t do this last year, probably because my dreams and goals weren’t well defined. I will work on doing better with this this year.
___
2015 Dreams
With my dreams in mind, I will be setting and adjusting my goals every 2 weeks to help me achieve what I hope to achieve in 2015. At any point, I can change my dreams (Because they are my fuckin dreams and sometimes they change!) BUT, I will make sure I am really serious about giving up on something before I do that.
Career
I am including my career goals on my blog now, because it hugely important to me right now, and I don’t think it’s appropriate to ignore it.
Get a tattoo apprenticeship
Have my artwork featured on a notable blog, instagram, or magazine
Exhibit my artwork at a gallery
Fitness & Fun
Because I know that my career is going to be taking the front seat for a while, I am setting my fitness goals accordingly. Basically, I am interested in having a fun life with my husband, and feeling confident and healthy in my body. Right now, I just want to look like a babe, feel strong and sexy, and have fun outside. I would like to compete at Raw Nationals again, but I’m not sure I will be able to swing the cost of flights and stuff, so any competition will suffice. I will still be lifting to help get my bodyweight down and to maintain my level
Get my body-weight down to 145#
Maintain some muscle mass & strength!
Compete in 1 Powerlifting competition
Be able to do the splits
Enjoy the outdoors
Jan 4-17 Goals
So lets get this party started!
Career
Draw 12 days (6x/week)
Tag drawings for features on Instagram
Edit files for 5 tarot drawings (2-3x/week) for portfolio
Fitness & Fun
Eat low carb paleo for breakfast & snacks 12 days (6x/week)
Stretch 12 days (6x/ week)
Lift 4 times (2x/week)
Get outside for hiking, snowshoeing, or skiing 6 times (3x/ week)
So, not much going on since Nationals. I have been deloading for a couple weeks, so just relaxing, enjoying the nice weather, and digging into some good ol Montana summertime fun 🙂 It’s been great! That said, I am SOOOOO excited to start lifting regularly again this week. I can’t wait to get my training block form my coach.
Training
I cleaned up my gym the other day. FELT SO GOOD! Pretty exciting to have it all clean and sparkly again 🙂
Here are some training videos from a week of fucking around with light weights in the gym… nothing really too exciting but fun to play around with weird accessory movements and stuff.
In other news, I’ve started a facebook group for Montana Powerlifting and have started organizing what will be the first USAPL Montana meet in years! I am pretty damn excited! Within 30 minutes of suggesting the idea to the group, I had offers from local CrossFit boxes for hosting the event, offers from neighboring USAPL members for equipment, and lots of personal messages from people looking to compete! I have set a tentative date for November 8th and will let you all know more when things are solidified. I AM PRETTY PSYCHED (as you might imagine)! I can’t believe how awesome the powerlifting community is… all you need to do is ask for help and dozens of people jump out of nowhere to help out 🙂
Hey All, after a VERY exciting weekend at Raw Nationals, I remembered just how absolutely in LOVE with powerlifting I am. I was also reminded of how much I truly miss coaching and being directly involved in the lifting successes of other people.
In light of this, I’ve spent all my free time over the past week designing a plan to open my own Powerlifting and Olympic Weightlifting gym here in Montana, LIFTERLY. Obviously we have a tiny population in Philipsburg, so this isn’t going to be my “real job” by any means. But, I hope to get at least a few people lifting with me, and I have a goal to grow a more connected lifting community here in Montana. I was a little sad to be the only lifter from my state at Raw Nationals 😦
I will be running some lifting workshops out of my basement (to start) and offering follow up gym memberships to people interested in continuing their training.
Additionally, I’m offering monthly online lifting and nutrition coaching for anyone interested in getting a bit more structured about their lifting/nutrition.
So yeah… I’m going to avoid blatantly filling my blog with self promotions, but since this is a new venture I thought I would write a post about it. If you know anyone from Montana, or anyone who might be interested in remote coaching, tell them to CHECK ME OUT! 🙂 🙂 🙂
I’m back! Well, I’ve been back for a couple days but I was EXHAUSTED so I haven’t felt like posting about it.
Anyway… IT WAS AWESOME!!!!
I hit my ultimate goal of going 9/9 and I could not be happier. I will admit, my strength felt a little bit off due to starting my period the day of competition (I don’t know why this keeps happening to me!) and from traveling to Italy a couple days before, so I didn’t get to attempt the weights I thought I would have. But, all said and done, I could NOT be happier with how I performed!! 9/9 – 27 white lights. Meet records on all three lifts and a personal record on the deadlift. Really doesn’t get much better than that for your first national competition 🙂 I can not say “Thank You” enough to Coach Matt Gary for the awesome programming, training, and support, and to Ross Leppala for handling me. I absolutely could not have done this well without the two of them.
Weigh In: Weighed in at 75K, putting me at the very bottom of the 84K weight class. Oops…
Squat:
First Attempt: 242# — Good, 3 white lights
Second Attempt: 253# — Good, 3 white lights Third Attempt: 259# — Good, 3 white lights, Meet PR!
Bench:
First Attempt: 110# — Good, 3 white lights
Second Attempt: 115# — Good, 3 white lights Third Attempt: 121# — Good, 3 white lights, Meet PR!
Deadlift:
First Attempt: 275# — Good, 3 white lights
Second Attempt: 297# — Good, 3 white lights Third Attempt: 308# — Good, 3 white lights, Meet PR, All time PR!
Outside of the lifting, it was SO MUCH FUN! Not only did I get to see all of my lifting friends from around the country AND meet dozens of amazing new people…. I GOT TO BE TRAPPED IN HOTEL WITH THEM FOR FIVE DAYS! It was pretty much just summer-camp for adults. I loved it. I can’t wait for next year.
I could probably bring myself to tears writing about how amazingly awesome the weekend was. I have never felt so welcomed and connected within a group of people in my life. Meeting my coach, Matt Gary, his wife Sioux-Z, and the rest of Team SSPT was absolutely wonderful and I continued to feel grateful for being on that team the entire weekend. I’m not sure how I finagled being associated with such an amazing group of lifters, but I did, and I am so so so thankful.
I could write 20 pages of “Thank You’s” and another 20 of funny stories, but I’m not going to do that. I am gonna post a couple pictures and a video of my lifting… and then…probably write another blog post about the awesome food I made for dinner tonight 😉
I am so incredibly pumped to compete though. I can’t wait to get to Denver and see all my friends and teammates. Looking forward to cheering them on for a couple days before I take the platform on Sunday.
I got my game plan from my coach today, I spent some time talking about goals and attempts with my friend/teammate Ross (who is handling me during competition), I did my last light lifting session, I packed up my lifting gear…. and I am ready to go!
It’s pretty crazy to think that when I moved to Montana in December I had no plans to compete this year. After moving, I was pretty damn confused about my training, kinda scared to be working out alone in my basement, and very nervous about if I would be seeing any gains at all without my awesome lifting partners in Brooklyn. Since then however, I feel I’ve really focused up and made some great improvements to my training style (though I obviously miss all my lifting friends from Brooklyn, a lot). Lonely or not though things have been great since moving into my basement and joining team SSPT… I’ve added 35 pounds to my total, I’ve made dozens of awesome friends across the country, and am getting ready for my second competition this year! Training by myself has actually got me soooooo much more consistent and focused in my training. I am loving it all, and more than anything I am loving working with my coach, Matt Gary. He’s an absolutely awesome guy and puts such an amazing positive vibe out about everything. There is no stress about anything and he’s always ready to see the positive in any situation, and willing to talk me through any worries or concerns I have (and trust me I have had MANY… injuries, first time competing in years, traveling alone for competitions… etc.) He is just wonderful and never makes me feel any less important than one of his rockstar lifters. Since I’ve been working with him, I’m not stressed about my lifting, I’m not worried about my programming… I’m just working hard, and having FUN! Plus, I’m seeing great progress! I really can’t speak highly enough about him, team SSPT, and everything that they do for me.
So happy to be lifting as a part of their team this weekend 🙂
Anyway, I may or may not post again before I compete but I will definitely let ya’ll know how it goes!
Heyoooo so, life got nuts again. After my mom left, I thought it was time to calm down and snuggle up with Jeff for some relaxing stress free times before nationals, but I was wrong.
My boss called me Monday and said “I need you in Italy by tomorrow night for a meeting” so…that’s what happened. I jumped on the first plane out of Missoula, and I made my way to Italy. It was a LOT of flying.
The trip was great, but it was hectic, and being surrounded by the most amazing home made pastas and charcuterie ever (in addition to lots of stress) did not help me cut weight at all.
That said…. I did get to hang out in Verona, Italy for a few days, so that was absolutely awesome and I won’t complain about being lucky enough to have that be an accidental/unexpected part of my life! So beautiful!
I returned to Missoula late Friday night and decided to re-schedule my flights to Denver so that I can compete in the 84K weight class (or whatever it is… something like 25# heavier than I am haha!). Yes, I COULD cut down to 72Kilos (it’s only 4 pounds after all) but I’m pretty sure there is no way in hell I would perform well and it just doesn’t sound fun right now. I just want to go lift and not be all stressed out about that. The thought of focusing on cutting weight after the past two months of traveling and running around like a mad woman is just too much for me. I want to just go, lift some heavy shit, and enjoy myself. And that’s what I am planning to do!
So yeah… BIG AND STRONG! HELL YES! I am actually SUPER psyched to not be cutting and even though I will likely be the weakest girl in my weight class, I am so happy to be there. I will feel GOOD on the platform! That is super important to me right now. Plus, I can eat icecream if I want before competing! Hell yes.
Diet
Oh yeah also…. when I got back from Italy, I found that my husband has turned vegan on me! #whichisfuckinginsane!!! This was a VERY big surprise to me, but a very interesting one as well. He explained his new dietary goals as “Vegan, plus organic locally farmed meats every once in a while”… which is actually an AWESOME sounding diet if you ask me. I have been eating this way with him since returning form Italy and we’ve been enjoying the HUGE amount of fruits and vegetables required to live on vegetables alone. It feels great honestly and I’m looking forward to experimenting with this for a while. Finding good proteins will be a fun game. I’ll probably be eating a bit more meat than he will since I’m training (and he’s injured so he can’t). But, I really like eating an inordinate amount of veggies every day, and I also like the idea of not eating a bunch of bullshit meat. Either way, it should be fun! Lots of smoothies, green juices, and fruity oatmeal 🙂 Nommmmm.
Training has been great! Mostly resting up for Nationals really, but I did push my bench a bit today for my final volume session and I nailed a 127# single FIVE TIMES. I feel pretty great about that as it is a 7# PR and hitting it so many times means it is not a fluke! Looking forward to hitting that at the meet, and maybe if things are going well, 60K (holy moly). I can feel myself finally closing in on the 135# benchpress after all these years. I honestly didn’t think I would ever be able to bench as much as I am lately, it has been a huge struggle. But I am SO HAPPY to be where I am (even if it’s embarrassingly light compared to other lifters my size)
Sorry for the long confusing rambling post. I’m just trying to get all these feels and thinks out of my head and into my blog as quickly as possible! I will try to post more often before the competition 🙂
After much thought over the past 3 weeks of seeing my calorie/exercise counting fail to do shit I have decided I need to adopt a new strategy. You see, I am super smart and tricky — And even thought my endless tracking on the LoseIt app was working for 3 weeks, I have since learned how to subtly manipulate everything I log juuuuust enough to have me eating at maintenance again (Even though it thinks I’m on track). Given the numbers, sure it would appear I will hit my goal by July 10th, but given my track record for the past 3-4 weeks, that’s just not true now is it?
I had an “Oh shit” moment today and realized nationals are getting close and if I want to lose this weight without doing a ridiculous water cut (which I do), I actually need to start TRYING and stop fucking around and lying to myself. I have about 7 weeks until Nationals, and about 7 pounds to lose, so it’s time to break out the old food scale and tupperware again! I can’t lie, some part of me always enjoys this, it’s just not a very sustainable way for me to live long term. But a tiny 500 calorie cut for 7 weeks, no, big deal.
Macros:
1650-1850 calories a day, 40% protein, 40% carbs, 20% fat. (or close to those percentages anyway) – 4 meals a day, that nets out to around 3oz protein, 1 cup carbs, veggies, and some accessory fats. I am not doing calorie/carb cycling anymore (as I have been the past 6 weeks, because I am going too crazy on my lifting days and not actually hitting a deficit overall… just gonna base things off my TDEE (2100 -2200) and try to keep an even daily intake.
Food Quality Bulk of my food will consist of, eggs, chicken, ground beef, fish, cottage cheese, greek yogurt, oatmeal, rice, chickpeas, potatoes, sweet-potatoes, butter, olive oil, and 3-5 servings of vegetables/fruit a day.
If you see my posting any sugary, cheesy, or alcoholic foods/drinks before nationals (other then when my mom is in town… I will have fun with her!) do me a favor and send me nasty comments 🙂
Progress picture: taken 5/26/2014 weighing 165# while bloated with PMS and Mac-n-cheese
The meet was wonderful, I am SO happy that I went out and competed! I got some solid platform experience in and learned a great deal about competing, cutting weight, and lifting under pressure. It was great. The best part is, because I got a total at this meet, I have officially qualified for 2014 Raw Nationals in Denver!! Woo!! I’ve also been invited to lift with team SSPT and of course I will be doing so 🙂 I am SUPER PSYCHED about Nationals — particularly about competing with some of the same athletes I met in Alaska. Yes I just got home, but man, I am really looking forward to the next few months of training!
Chillin with Rob (the meet director), his kids, and Jenny Nocas (Visiting lifter form Colorado)
It was a really great trip and it was so inspiring to lift with some of the strongest women in the sport. Honestly, I can’t express how amazing it was to see these girls lift! Even though I didn’t place in competition, this was one of the first meets that I had actual competition… and they just knocked me out of the park! It actually felt really good to be the weakest person in the room — it is a good inspiration for how much I can grow in this sport.
Jenny (2nd place 181), Krysten (1st place 132), and Myself
So here’s the recap:
Weight: 72.9K (75Kilo weight class)
Ooof! May I never eat a whole lemon ever again!!
I was very anxious about making weight because I had been weighting 166# normally, and knew all month that my period would start the day of the meet (which usually puts me around 168-169#). So, I was proactive to try to loose a couple pounds and watched what I ate for the past couple weeks. My goal was to get to around 162 so that I could grow into my period weight and hit 165 for the meet. While I really wasn’t that strict on myself diet wise… my plan worked a little too well and I ended up weighing around 160 every morning the week before the meet (a little light). I wasn’t too worried about being low because I was expecting to put 5 pounds on with my period. Well, I got my period as expected but it didn’t bring any water weight (probably because of the water cut (that I realize in hindsight I probably shouldn’t have done)). Anyway, live and learn. I weighed in light — 5 pounds under weight and 9 pounds lighter than my last period. It took me all day to get my weight back up and I think my lifting suffered from this.
Squat:
Team “Mountain Time” Carbs up!
105, Good – easy but harder than I was expecting
112.5, Good – (meet PR) Kind of hard and I should have taken my 3rd attempt down from my planed attempts after this, but I didn’t listen to my gut.
120, Miss. Got pinned. I just didn’t have the strength in me.
Bench:
50K, Good – (meet PR) easy
42.5K, Good – (meet PR) easy
55K, Miss – I got the weight up, but I missed the lift because my butt came off the bench. I think had a not lost so much weight this would have been a fine lift. But I was just feeling weak.
Deadlift:
125K, Miss – I made the lift fine, but I am a jackass and wasn’t wearing shoes. This was a really really really dumb mistake. I TOTALLY forgot that you need to wear shoes to deadlift and just didn’t plan for this. I guess since I switched to socks in training I just didn’t even consider that I needed to get shoes to lift in (or slippers). Either way, I guess they didn’t notice it to stop me from lifting, and I just went up and pulled it. Easy weight, but they didn’t give it to me. I am assuming because of the socks. The meet director said it could have been something else, but it seems quite obvious that it was the socks. Thankfully, I got to borrow some shoes from one of my fellow SSPT lifters.
132.5K, Good – Slower but no issues.
137.5K, Good – (Meet PR, Personal PR) Obviously, after the way things had gone at this point I was not going to try for 308 and I am SO glad I didn’t haha. This was actually quite intense! I laid it all on the floor was a screaming maniac haha. But, GOOD LIFT! I was really proud of this lift and I hope it marks the end of my injured back drama.
The best news of the day. ALMOST NO BACK PAIN! A teensy bit after benching, but that’s it.
Post-meet feast!
After the past few months of back issues I am so happy with this meet, even if I only got 6/9 lifts. While this meet may not be a great competition performance by any means I feel like it is a very accurate portrayal of where I am in my training right now… a little unsure about my body and very out of practice. I am really looking forward to moving forward with a healthy back and enjoying the benefits of more consistent training.
p.s. ALASKA IS BEAUTIFUL!!!
P.P.S. Thanks so much for all the support from my WordPress friends — You guys may not realize it but your regular comments and words of encouragement really do mean a lot to me 🙂
I have been doing a little “Paleo Challenge” with my Sister-In-Law, Becky, over the past month or so. My primary goal was to try and keep myself maintaining a higher quality of food consumption and an eye on better recovery habits. As I struggled through the past month, I thought hard about how I could make this challenge work better for me and my personal goals.
Overall, the “challenge” part of the challenge was really nice! It’s been great to keep an eye on my food quality and exercise goals in a more goal/challenge oriented mindset. The “Paleo” part of the challenge, on the other hand, was a total failure and I’ve decided to drop it as an objective altogether. I just don’t care about those goals right now. I’m married to an amazing baker and it’s just not sustainable or enjoyable for me to remove his wonderful cooking from my life. Similarly, I see no reason to restrict all of anything completely. I really enjoy cooking and eating and I don’t complete removal of food groups. Right now, I am interested in learning how to incorporate the things I love into a healthy sustainable lifestyle, not restricting everything in my life to the point of insanity.
While I was re-working my challenge goals, I thought I might add in some more lifestyle oriented goals as well.
I put together this game with the intention of building habits that I can stick to for years to come, and ones that make me not only healthy but HAPPY. My intention is to build better habits, make better choices, and find time for not only what I have to do but what I like to do. I do not want to feel like I ever want to quit because it’s too hard, or that I am depriving myself of the things that I love. I am definitely feeling inspired by Shannon’s Passion Experiment over at “Fitty vs. Fatty” and thought I should roll with it.
This is a long term challenge that encourages… Slow. Steady. Progress. I’m not trying to do it all. In fact, my goal is to do only 3/4 of the tasks every day. I can pick whatever ones fit my mood that day.
Challenge — Collect 15 points per day:
Diet Oriented Points: (10 possible points/day)
Do not consume store-bought wheat products.
Do not consume < 2 serving of dairy (as a woman who will happily eat cheese until her belly aches… this is a reasonable goal)
Do not consume startchy carbs on on non-lifting days
Do not consume sugar
Do not consume alcohol
Eat colorful fruit or veggies with all meals & snacks
Eat protein with all meals & snacks
Drink 75oz of water
Eat all meals at the kitchen table (without my phone in my hand)
Cook all meals & snacks myself
Lifestyle Oriented Points: (10 possible points/day)
Go on a walk outside
Spend some time stretching
Lift on lifting days – OR- complete 15-30 minutes of active-recovery on rest-days (can be rowing, skiing, hiking, playing fetch with the dogs, yoga, or going on an extra walk… anything that gets me moving)
Chillin with Rob (the meet director), his kids, and Jenny Nocas (Visiting lifter form Colorado)
Jenny (2nd place 181), Krysten (1st place 132), and Myself
Ooof! May I never eat a whole lemon ever again!! 
Team “Mountain Time” Carbs up!
Post-meet feast!
Lifterly 