Tag: family

All About Mom

MPiccolo7 Comments
May 22nd, 1948 - March 10th, 2013
May 22nd, 1948 – March 10th, 2013

My Mom was my biggest fan. You can see how she commented on quite a few of my posts and was my photographer for my progress pics. She was very supportive of my endeavors and always found an opportunity to say “I’m so proud of you honey!”

Although I know she probably cringed as I became the Tupperware queen as I would leave some of my empty containers all around the kitchen, she did express to me many times how she loved that I cooked and prepared all my meals. “There’s my cooking daughter, cooking up a storm in there!” she would say.

These last few weeks of my mother’s life were especially difficult. She knew her health was deteriorating and although she said she was trying to remain positive, I think she knew something was terribly wrong. Instead of focusing on the negative feelings and the horrible things that happened, I’m trying to remind myself of all the good things that took place, especially these last three months. I can’t help but smile a little as I reflect on them today:

– I was able to make my Mom some delicious smoothies every morning, some of which she said “This is the BEST one yet!”

– When I would come home from the grocery store with food from my meal plan from my nutrition coach, she actually asked if she could eat some of it too.  It was such a joy to be able to cook for my Mom! The orange roughy I baked was her favorite by far.

– Wednesday night, just two days before she asked for hospice, she looked over at me and said “I’m tasting for something but I don’t know what…maybe some oatmeal. Do you have any oatmeal?”  DO I HAVE OATMEAL?!  I have a membership to Costco and stocked up on the stuff, I HAVE Oatmeal Mom! 🙂  She wanted butter, milk and some sugar in it.  I brought it over to her and apologized for not making it very “mushy” and instead it came out “watery.”  But she gobbled it up anyways.

-Thursday night she asked for oatmeal again.  “This time could you make it less watery?”  I whipped up the butteriest, milkiest, sugariest oatmeal anyone could ask for.  It was the last thing she ate.  I was honored to do it.

-She was able to celebrate Fat Tuesday and have a paczki with my Aunt just a couple weeks ago. She told my aunt it was “The best time I’ve ever had!”

Fat Tuesday with a Paczki!
Fat Tuesday with a Paczki!

-I drove her to my nephews basketball game a few days later which would be the last time she was out of the house.  And what a game! Triple Overtime and they won! 

– The last thing I said to her before she passed was reading to her from her own book, “A Grandma’s Book” that was given to my nephews.  It’s all about her.  I read an excerpt from her “Favorite Things.”  For those that didn’t know her, here are a few of them:

“I love my friends, I love my family, I love them more than life itself.  I love hummingbirds, I love CHOCOLATE.  Especially Lindt Truffles.  I love Tote Bags, I have about 20 of them!  …I love baking bread and giving it to my friends at holidays.  I love the smell of freshly cut grass.  I love when it’s thunderstorming outside and I’m safe and sound in my house.”

I know I’ve said it before but my Mom was simply the best that there ever was.  Her smile was the biggest, her heart was the largest, her love was the greatest.

October 17th 2012 - 42 Years of Marriage
October 17th 2012 – 42 Years of Marriage

I had toyed with the idea of throwing in the towel on this competition.  I even thought about giving up on eating healthy, on working out in general.  But after talking to my sister and a few other folks, it’s pretty obvious Mom would be PISSED if I gave up.  She’d especially feel guilty for being the REASON to give up. 

So I’m back on it today.  I started back on my meal plan a couple of days ago but today is the first full day of getting my habits back in line.  It’s rough…but it’s not nearly as rough as she had it.  I have to remind myself my Mom had quite a tumultuous 6 months.  I try to live each day for her now. I only hope I can be a reflection of what she was like.  I definitely have some big shoes to fill, I’m sure I will never fill them.  But I will try to live each day with that bright smile on my face. 

Love You Mom!

"Light The Night" Fundraiser for LLS
“Light The Night” Fundraiser for LLS

Unchartered Territory

MPiccolo1 Comment

“Those who think they have not time for bodily exercise will sooner or later have to find time for illness.” By: Edward Stanley

This quote popped up on an app I have just moments after speaking to someone who insisted that he did not have any time to devote to exercise. This person works very long hours and claims he does not have any time left in the day do get on his treadmill at home for even a quick 20 minute walk.

After hearing his complaints and then seeing this quote I thought, “There HAS to be a way to help this person.”   Because it’s so true isn’t it?  If we don’t take care of our bodies and MOVE a little more everyday during our sedentary life, (I’m standing as I type this because I refuse to sit during my desk job all day) we WILL be plagued with illness.

I’ve heard it so many times from many people that they wish they would have started getting on the path to health ages ago or “right after I had kids” or “before I turned 40” and now it’s so much harder for them to create that habit.  And maybe now they do have diabetes or an injury or something that prevents them from really working out to their full potential.

It’s one of the most frustrating parts of being a Personal Trainer; I want to help as many people as I can and even if financially, there is no problem, it’s still the BEHAVIOR that has to be implemented.  And THAT is probably the hardest part.

Dr. John Berardi from Precision Nutrition posted his blog today about this subject with regards to coaches/personal trainers.  I found one of his quotes very interesting:

“Yet “dieting” or embarking on a new fitness plan in the 21st century means purposely enduring discomfort, restricting activities and foods that soothe us (or give us a “high”), and/or adding more demands or stimulation to an already busy schedule.

If you think about it, why would any client ever eat less and go to a gym with bright lights, loud music, and unfamiliar equipment, in order to expend excess energy?”

Wow.  I mean, he’s right!  As a coach/trainer I’m telling the average person with a 9-5 job:  “I want you to get up in the morning and come to a place you aren’t too familiar with yet and wear clothes that you can sweat in so I can watch you exercise and  instruct you on what to do and then I want you to go home and make yourself a meal that’s healthy, oh and if you go to work and there are donuts at the office avoid those at all costs,…etc”

It shouldn’t be a surprise that many folks are afraid of exercising and dieting.  They have that fear of the unknown.  They’ve never done this before and asking them to completely change their daily routine is extremely unnerving.

quote-the-one-permanent-emotion-of-the-inferior-man-is-fear-fear-of-the-unknown-the-complex-the-h-l-mencken-125755

I began on this figure journey in a similar way; I’ve never done anything like this before and it was uncomfortable and I was fearful.  I continue to be fearful of what is to come!  But it’s more of an exciting, anxiousness than actual fear.  Because I gave myself such a long-term goal, there really isn’t any pressure on me.  And there shouldn’t be pressure on anyone with a desire for change.  You put that pressure on yourself but you have the ability to make it easy or hard on yourself everyday.  I think once people realize THEY are in control and the coach or personal trainer you hire is just a GUIDE, you can get much better results.  You have the guidance, you have the tools, now it’s up to you to use them.

So my challenge of the day/week/month/year for anyone out there is to not let fear stand in your way of your fitness goals – This is more than just saying “If you want something bad enough, just do it.”    That’s all well and good but I think it’s much deeper than that.  If you have always wanted to do something that challenges your body and your mind, you should do research first and figure out the best approach.  And if you’re looking for the quick fix, then unfortunately you will fail because it doesn’t exist.  And you will be back to where you started.  So make up your mind today if you’re doing to lose weight and get fit the RIGHT way or the STUPID way.

Here’s a hint:  If you’re finding things to be difficult challenging and frustrating slow-going and telling yourself  “I thought this would be easy!” “This is hard, I don’t know if I can do this!”  then you probably chose the RIGHT way. 🙂

-Michelle

Breaking through the plateau

MPiccolo2 Comments

Of course this was going to happen…Of course.  It was inevitable after losing so much weight that I would hit a standstill.  The weight loss plateau has reared it’s ugly head in my direction.

Stuck at 127 with absolutely not a budge in two weeks.

Now I know it’s the holidays.  And most people who are trying to lose weight would be happy to see themselves maintaining during such a difficult time of the year.  I shouldn’t complain.   But it’s still a disappointing.

I am becoming one of my own clients.  I’m doing all the wrong things like weighing myself after dinner (WHAT!? Duh!), stressing out about a measly little pound, freaking out and envisioning the scale frozen on 127 forever.

This won’t happen.  I will start to lose again but the first step is to figure out what the hell I’m doing wrong.

A few possibilities:

1.  I’m doing too much:  I have only allowed myself 1 day off since starting this journey.  That’s more then 3 months of non-stop exercising.  Not good.  That could lead to overtraining which can lead to all sorts of metabolic issues if I don’t address it.

2. I’m not doing enough:  Even with all this working out, it’s possible I’m not doing enough of the QUALITY workouts.  Possibly  too much steady state and not enough High Intensity?  Too many full body workouts and not enough splits?

3.  I’m doing the same thing over and over:  Don’t we all know the definition of insanity?  Although my strength training program has been different each week, it has always been full body.  So it might be time to change it to split routines.  Also the diet has been the same for 3 weeks so it’s quite possibly my coach will change that up next week.

Those are the three main reasons why I we all hit a weight loss rut.   In keeping with my previous post about looking at the positives and staying optimistic, I’m going to attempt to have some fun while trying to figure out exactly what is holding me back.

In the meantime, I’m still planning my regular meal plan for this week despite celebrating Christmas (tomorrow actually), traveling on a plane Wednesday and Thursday and working a nice long day on Christmas Eve starting at 6am and ending after I get finished with Christmas Eve dinner.  I have my work cut out for me this week.

But in the end, now is not the time to worry or care about staying perfect; it’s time to enjoy spending time with loved ones and friends.  I will be enjoying the hell out of my food and hanging with my family.  And I will not give this plateau a second thought! I might even eat a piece of (gasp!) bread.  Yes real life starch! (what’s starch? It’s been so long since I’ve had any I forgot what the hell it is.)

Merry Christmas Happy Holidays and all that jazz everyone!

-Michelle

Random song on iTunes: The Killer by The Twilight Singers (quite possibly the best song ever…ever!)

Random Tweet courtesy of some random person: When someone walks into a school w/a rope w/a spear attached throwing it & screaming “Get over here!” then let’s discuss video games.