The class was a blast – Vicky (the training specialist) has been involved in Zumba since the beginning and she was amazing, and I had some great conversations with people in the class, as well as dancing (and sweating) my butt off!

That’s pretty much Zumba in a nutshell.

Before you get confused, let me clarify: No, I don’t want to become a fitness instructor full-time, and really not even enough to consider it a part-time job (I do have a pretty heinous / wonderful travel schedule which will complicate things, and I have a job I love), but I also didn’t want to regret *not* doing this. Not exploring it, and not giving myself a chance to move from “I could do that” (wishing / improbable) to “I can do that” (possible / attainable / able).

The comment I left on the class evaluation was very true: “Prima ero interessata, adesso sono convinta.” Before, I was interested. Now, I’m convinced.

I think exercise is really important to staying healthy, and the more fun you can have doing it, the more likely you are to return. For many people, that’s Zumba. Or CrossFit. Or running. I really enjoy Zumba (a perfect & pretty regular week for me is both my weight classes + Zumba) and I liked having the opportunity to lead others and teach what I think is a lot of fun. It’s a way for me to help spread the joy I feel when I hear those Latin rhythms without having to get up in da club (remember my Latin workout playlist? Even more to come).

Where will you teach? is the first question I hear.

The answer? I don’t know.

And that’s ok.

I’d rather learn how to drive by turning the key in the ignition, sitting in the driver’s seat, instead of looking at the car from the outside with my hand twitching by my side, yearning to open the door.

This goes back to a lot of my personal philosophy about life which I wrote quite a bit about on my tech-biz blog, “Stop Sabotaging Your Own Success: A Manifesto” – basically, we self-sabotage so much, and often it’s because we feel like we need to know the answers to everything before we start. Plotting out a beginning, middle, and end helps when writing a book (something I’ve come to learn), but it’s not always necessary when striving for something. A big secret you’ll probably learn is most of the people who are actually doing stuff are making it up as they go along: tweaking, refining, and reacting to the information and experiences they encounter along the ride.

What I do know is as of yesterday, my gym’s director knows I’m looking for substitution classes. I’m on their radar. My goal is to figure out a way to teach once a week or maybe just a few times a month, but enough so that I can actually have the whole classroom experience and go from “I’m certified to teach Zumba” to “I teach Zumba.”

And for now, that’s ok. I’m making it up as I go along.

At the very least, I know I can probably fill a room of my colleagues at our all-company meetup. Last year we did CrossFit, yoga, dance classes, and a run. I’m sure there will be room for this as well

Do you have a Health Bucket List? Here’s mine. Do you reach for a goal even without a plan?

Here’s a pic with me and Vicky – a celebrity moment I don’t usually take part in but I was proud and she was great! Note the photo blurriness – everyone was dead tired after the all-day class and hands were shaking

Me being silly waiting to pose with Vicky

Then I noticed my local Reebok Crossfit box was offering a full day’s course of CrossFit basics on a Saturday. I signed up. My reasoning is so wherever I go in the world, I should be able to walk into any box and try that day’s lesson. Ideally. I know each box has its own requirements, but me having completed this course raises those chances. I think I’ll even be able to join my colleagues at our all-company meetup when they go to a box (I couldn’t go last year).

Stay behind the yellow line. #metro #milan #italy Headed to #Crossfit all-day. I will survive! instagr.am/p/WWTdTGHrk6/—
Sara Rosso (@rosso) March 02, 2013

The course was really good, and a good next step to understanding CrossFit. This box has a rule that if anyone’s late, the entire class does burpees (I hate burpees). Spoiler alert: Italians are not the most punctual people. So that’s how class started out.

The class was broken up into two macro areas – squats and lifts – and further broken down into the 9 fundamental movements in CrossFit:

• the squat
• front squat
• overhead squat
• shoulder press
• push press
• push jerk
• deadlift
• sumo deadlift high pull
• medicine ball clean

I need to work more on my squats and breaking the horizontal.

At the very end of the course, we broke into 3 teams and did a pretty cool WOD – 1 minute at each station, and station 6 was 1 minute rest. 3 Rounds, AMRAP (as many reps as possible).

• Wall balls
• Kettlebell sumo lifts
• Box jumps
• Push Press
• Row machine
• (rest)

It was great and really hard, but I loved the variety and the pace (and no burpeeeeeeees!). Marco and Stefano were the instructors again and they kept things interesting and provided good feedback.

#Crossfit Basics: completed. Great course at @RCFBicocca in #Milan #italy instagr.am/p/WXn7gnnrv6/—
Sara Rosso (@rosso) March 02, 2013

The only suggestion I have for them next time (they asked us to provide feedback, but I’ll just link here) is when we break into (two) groups, to have similar exercises & practices happening in each group. Otherwise, you naturally get distracted and also interested in what the other group’s doing, and wondering “are they learning more than I am?”

The box posted a bazillion pictures of the course and in every one, I don’t look like a princess. I look like someone working their ass off. So they’re not my favorite pics, but at least I know I was working hard.

This picture was one of the ones I liked – me jumping onto a box and caught in mid-air. Box jumps are super intimidating for me, but when I actually do one, I feel such satisfaction (vs. burpees or wall throws which I don’t really enjoy that much even after doing them)

It was a good time, and it made me even more interested in Olympic lifting and lifting some serious weight. As I was remarking to a colleague about CrossFit, I think it appeals to women who are interested in weight lifting because it’s actually pretty regimented. It changes often and always, but when you show up for the day, your workout is planned, and I think this takes a lot of the pressure off of the weight room for a lot of women. Just show up…and work your ass off.

After this, I still wish this box was close enough for me to consider doing it more often. Maybe that will change. We’ll see. For now I’ll plan to see how I can visit other boxes on my many trips coming up.

Then I placated myself by signing up to cross something else off my Health Bucket List. I’ll let you know what that is as it gets closer  I added the CrossFit Open for next year as something to accomplish, too!

I can first assure them that I do eat delicious food, and sometimes it’s not good for me (sweet potato fries? chocolate? pizza? gelato? yes, please), but it’s the consistency in which I’m approaching this which makes a difference. I can’t assure them they’ll have the same results as I did, especially when their approach and everyone’s journey is completely different, but I think hearing it from someone who has done it helps!

Here are 5 tips I would like to say to anyone who’s ready to make a lifestyle change towards the healthier:

1. Track what you’re eating for a week, before you make any changes to what you’re eating. You may find out some really interesting things about yourself: when you get hungry, what your trigger/overeating foods are, what foods you seem to be eating because they’re around the house or in the bread basket at the restaurant, and when. Track your exercise for the week and generally how you’re feeling throughout the day, too. Did you overeat on something or perhaps ate when you really weren’t hungry? Make a note. Feeling stressed or overwhelmed, and ate something? Be honest with your tracking (no one will see it but you!) You may or may not continue to track throughout your lifestyle change, but understanding what the status quo is from the start is a powerful tool. Read more in How I Food Journal.
2. Examine what you really love to eat.  Make some choices about what you really love and what you’d miss in your life when you’re looking at designing your eats moving forward. You’ll miss some things more than others, you’ll crave some things more than others, but it probably won’t be every thing you’re eating now. Find a way to allow yourself some indulgences while on plan so you don’t feel like you’re getting off track when you do eat them. I don’t have a “No list” myself, but there are some things I don’t enjoy as much as others, no matter their calorie count. Read more in Eating what you Love, Loving what you Eat. 
   
3. Figure out what kind of exercise you like to do, and do it. But not to lose weight – you probably will in the end, but that shouldn’t be the reason you show up at the gym. Exercise because your body will be in a better state because of it, not so you can justify eating calories (Read more in Breaking the cycle of “deserving” or “earning” food). Do you think you don’t like any kind of exercise? I call bull. Try them all. Group classes, dance classes, running, weight lifting, walking, bicycling, yoga, badminton, tai chi, CrossFit, hiking, swimming; anything and everything! Give them all a good try until you find something you like. Schedule your exercise time out for the upcoming week (I put mine on my Google calendar).
4. Practice stateless “dieting.” Don’t beat yourself up for a slip-up and treat every day and every meal as “on-plan.” Every day, every meal, you’re given the chance to move forward in your progress. One meal, one day, one treat, one overeat, one vacation won’t kill that progress, but the overall momentum has to be in the right direction. Don’t take a bad meal or even week as a reason to go back to bad habits. Make sure your good eating habits are the driving habit.
5. Start today. Seriously. Start immediately. There is always time to make excuses for why it’s not a good time, or why you can’t do it. But you’re wrong. Stop making excuses and get started!

What do you think of my tips? Any resonate with you? 

See other Motivational Saying Posters I made . 

We stopped by a Sicilian pastry place I like; they have a delicious cassatina, a ricotta, sugar and almond paste cake from Sicily. I like them a lot (see exhibit A to the right).

A friend, probably trying to encourage me despite my weight loss progress to order one, said, “Get one. You’ve earned it!”

While she meant well, inside I was saying, No. No. I haven’t earned anything, and that’s not why I’ll get one. (spoiler: I did order one, and it was delicious).

I’m not immune to the feeling of “being good” and wanting to reward myself. But as I talked about in other posts about non-food rewards, it’s really important that we break the cycle of thinking that exercising is being “good” -> reward self with food -> exercising the calories “off” because you were “bad.”

Muscles also require more calories to be maintained rather than just eating a deprivation diet. But that’s not why I work out. I work out because I want to keep my mobility and strength.

Muscles help me do practical things like climb stairs instead of standing still on the escalator, walk around for hours without getting tired, and lift that suitcase over my head easily which I’ve stuffed with gifts and treats. Eating less will help you lose weight but it won’t make you strong.

So I’m working hard on breaking that cycle in myself and in friends, too. When I’m hungry or craving something, I don’t think about if I’ve just worked out that day, or if I will tomorrow. I think first about how I’m going to eat differently to balance things out. I’m working hard on keeping eating and exercising on two different mental tracks.

Exercising !=(is not) burning what I eat. Exercising == strength and health.

and Eating != a reward because of my workouts (though this is an important thing to make sure I get enough fuel pre-and-post-workout), but rather Eating == pleasure and fuel, and a continual and conscious balancing of the two.

What do you think about earning or deserving food?

There are a TON of healthy living blogs. A serious ton. There are a few who are pretty running-focused (which I’ll highlight in another post), but there aren’t a lot who are focused on weight lifting! I found a few, and I’ve been following a few sites for a while, so I was excited when I saw an interview with Suzanne from Workout Nirvana…as a Lady Lifter! I thought this was a great idea, by Jenn from Wine to Weight Lifting: a series of interviews with women who lift weights.

I was happy she decided to feature me as well! I had fun answering the questions, and I also had to sneak in a few pictures of me in workout clothes in my gym which was challenging as the locker room is always full and people don’t really bring their phones into the weight room (as they shouldn’t). So I finally share a picture of my little “guns” and revel in being a woman with muscles thanks to weight lifting. Check out my Lady Lifter Spotlight on Wine to Weightlifting.

Check out other Lady Lifter Spotlights and either share them with or recommend a Lady Lifter who should be profiled!

Have any weight lifting (male or female-focused) blogs to recommend? What do you ready consistently for weight lifting information? 

• Mobility stretching
• Warm-up: Jumping Jacks, High Knees, Air Squats (don’t remember how many)
• WOD: 5 rounds for time: 5 Burpees, 7 Box Jumps, 9 Air Squats

Here’s what I liked:

• Instructors – Stefano and Marco were professional and welcoming, and they traded off during the workout explaining what CrossFit is, what some of the basic moves are, and how the lesson would proceed. Stefano won the Reebok CrossFit fitness Championship 2012 in Italy, which is cool.
• Box – The “box,” what all CrossFit gyms are called, was pretty spartan (as is normal), and new. The locker rooms were still being finished. It’s always great to find something new in Italy.
• Box Jumps – Can you remember the last time you jumped with both feet onto a box? Me neither, until last Friday. I was pretty intimidated at first but towards the end I was really enjoying them. Yes. I’d like to jump more boxes, please.
• Mobility – I think this gets overlooked (by me, and by weight lifters in general) so it’s a good reminder to keep flexible and not to ignore parts of my body which aren’t muscles.

Here’s what wasn’t so great:

• CrossFit is in BFE. As I mentioned in the last post, this place is far from my house. I budgeted an hour to get there and it took about 50 minutes. On the way home it took me about 40 minutes, which means for an hour workout, I’m spending 150 minutes, 2.5 hours. For someone who works from home, and literally walks 4 minutes to her gym (case in point: Wednesday’s workout at my normal gym: 2.6 hours for 2.5 hours of workout), I’m not interested in this kind of trek for any sort of regularity. There are other boxes in Milan, which I still have to check out, but I did like that this was backed by Reebok as it ensures some consistency with what I’m seeing elsewhere.
• The Intro workout. I know an intro lesson means exactly that, but it was pretty light on working out (though I was working hard and got sweaty during the WOD) and I didn’t get a full hour or even 30 minutes of exercise. Given that my normal workouts are from 60-90 minutes, I left feeling unfinished. This really isn’t their fault, but rather my own expectations. I was ready to jump into a normal class which probably isn’t a great idea for beginners…but I was ready to get my butt kicked!
• Burpees. The intro WOD included burpees, which are recognized by the Geneva Conventions in some countries as cruel and unusual punishment. There are a lot of ways to get a workout without flinging yourself to the floor continuously. I joke. Kinda. In any case, I would recommend not doing it for an intro workout. Save it for the more experienced CrossFitters who grow to love torture. Also, instructors, just FYI, you say burr-pees, not bear-pees.

But here’s what I think I could grow to love:

• CrossFit every day – One of the great things about CF is a wide range of workouts that means you’re doing something different every day. When you chance upon a WOD you’ve already done, you can measure your progress comparing metrics from last time. I sometimes do WODs at home, but I think I’d really want…(see next point)
• The Community – That’s pretty much what everyone talks about when I read about why people love CrossFit. In Italy, it will probably take some time to catch on. So the community isn’t really there yet. But it will be. It would be great to be a part of that community from the beginning, and I’d like to meet more women into weight lifting here in Italy (there are very few in my current gym). Related, I’m also looking into Nike Women Italia in Milan for this reason.
• The Basics – one thing I didn’t realize is everyone new to CrossFit needs to do an entry-level class where you go over all the basic moves so you know the correct form and also you can experiment with weights so you know what weight you should start with when finally jumping into the regular CrossFit sessions. Since a lot of the Olympic lifting moves are new to me, I welcome the opportunity to get some personal attention and also set a foundation for weights and moving forward on improving.

So I didn’t become a convert from Day 1…but I think I could. I just need to figure out how to fit CrossFit into my life here.

Moving forward, I’ll most likely do The Basics course so I can drop in on any CrossFit box in the world and not have to do an intro lesson, and look at getting a few visits so I can do a weekend workout there.

The box only opened a week ago, so I’m going to take advantage of their “open week” when they offer free lessons for those interested.

It will take me close to an hour to get there with public transportation, and another hour back, so it’s not really a viable option for regular workouts as my current gym is only 200m from my house.

But I’m excited. And nervous. And a little scared, as even though I think I’m in pretty good shape, I think I’ll get my a** handed to me.

I’ll report back after.

Have no idea what I’m talking about with this Crossfit thing? Check out this Beginner’s Guide to Crossfit from NerdFitness – it has a lot of great info.

Here’s a playlist of music to squat by – a mix of rap & electronic, and lots of lows and downs to motivate you to really get into those squats! Note: some of the lyrics are NSFW. 

Check out my past playlists for more workout music inspiration.

1. How Low – Ludacris [explicit]
2. Low – Flo Rida feat T-Pain
3. Get Low – Lil Jon
4. Down on Me – Jeremih feat 50 Cent
5. Drop it Low – Ester Dean (and for some viewing pleasure, I dropped the video (be)low)
6. Dip It Low - Christina Milian feat. Fabolous
7. Love Lockdown – Kanye West (this is a bit of a stretch but it has a great beat)
8. Up ‘n Down – Britney Spears
9. Up and Down – Vengaboys
10. Go Down – The House Keepers

More workout music on my Amazon affiliate Workout Music page! 

Fact: I am more muscular and my body is a little different than the last time I was at this weight and clothing size.

Fact: I saw a bunch of pictures of me recently and hated them. Hated them to the point I didn’t see any of the loss or improvements over the past 18 months. Poof. Gone. In a few pictures. (Let me be clear: it was definitely *not* the photographer’s fault, but wholly mine).

It’s funny how the wrong clothes and the wrong hair can do that to you. I’ve already made an appointment for Thursday’s haircut but the clothes will take a bit longer to fix.

Photo by Calliope

I have fit myself into a few pieces of clothing which I used to wear “before” – some may call them “skinny clothes,” even. I can fit into them again, but the look isn’t right – my body’s changed, they’ve changed, and it’s just not working anymore. I had kept a pair of jeans at the bottom of my closet which I bought when I first moved to Italy in 2003. I loved those pants, I felt they had some magical powers, and when I couldn’t fit into them anymore, I was sad and I kept them around for a hopeful “after” day. That came pretty quick – first I was able to zip them up again, later I didn’t have any “muffin top” issues, and finally I looked at myself in the mirror and said, ‘You can fit into them – great! But they look terrible. Throw them away.’ I took a picture to remember and donated them the next day.

As I’ve lost weight, I’ve accepted a lot of great free clothes from friends who also are losing weight and rightfully so want to give away clothes which they paid a lot of money for. I tried to get good use out of them “on my way down” and haven’t been buying much new clothing. I’ve been patchwork putting my current wardrobe together, and the majority of my closet is still full of clothing I fit into 10 or 20 pounds ago (I threw most of the stuff which was bigger away already).

So I have a full closet. But very little to wear.

Perhaps part of this is psychological and me thinking it’s a smart idea to keep around some larger clothing and try to fit into older clothing I kept around, but those pictures are reminding me it’s a bad idea. Last summer I bought a pair of jeans, and inherited a pair from a friend. I made those last the winter with some other ill-fitting, but not falling down, pairs of pants. Now last year’s pair doesn’t fit at all and have slid into “terrible.”

I hit a wall two weeks ago when I conveniently found myself in London. I had just gotten a coffee to start my morning and passed a store I wanted to go in later that day after my work day was over. To my surprise, it was already open. At 8:03am. I love London. I ended up buying 4 pairs of jeans from them in about 20 minutes, and the price was so good, I could have bought more.

So now, I have jeans which fit.

It’s up to me to fix the rest of my closet.

It’s too bad Style for Hire is only in the US – I could use a personal shopper here in Milan

Pin them on Pinterest (click the Pinterest button below the post), use them on your own site (I’d love a link/credit back to foodbloggeronadiet.com, please!) and let me know if you’d like to see a saying of your own in the next batch of motivation posters, and I’ll include! Requests accepted. 

When you need to knuckle down and make sure you’re getting your work done – so simple, so effective: ”Get to work.”

Finding the noise of everything else keeping you from focusing on your story? “Shut out the noise. Tell your story.”

This saying I first saw on Carrots ‘N’ Cake, who got it from CrossFit 781, but I had to make my own version: “If it’s important, you’ll find a way. If it’s not, you’ll find an excuse.” 

A favorite saying and one from my stepfather: “90% of life is showing up and doing your best.”

Filed under: Food for Thought Tagged: focus, inspiration, motivation, pinterest ]]> http://foodbloggeronadiet.com/2012/09/28/need-some-motivation-my-motivational-saying-posters/feed/ 0 Sara Get to Work. Image from http://foodbloggeronadiet.com Shut out the noise. Tell your story. Image from http://foodbloggeronadiet.com If it's important, you'll find a way. If it's not, you'll find an excuse. Image from http://foodbloggeronadiet.com 90% of life is showing up and doing your best. Image from http://foodbloggeronadiet.com