just a little venting

(This is not a weight loss/fitness post - so you can skip it if you want)

I have always been on the quieter side, somebody who preferred to remain not seen, I hated conflicts and not once did I ever stand up for myself. I have smile and laughed about comments that hurt me. I have no idea why but I was always used to thinking from other people’s point of view. Though I have a loving family (no strict parents, very loving grandparents, actually all my relationships are very open – if any of them read this they will be surprised) but I still rarely voiced my opinion.  95% of the times I agreed with people because I put myself in their position in the process I have had very few arguments and conflicts in my life. To everybody I was always a happy child and I think I never gave myself the time to think about what I really wanted to do.I always assumed I was not good enough to have my own ideas, everybody else made more sense, everybody else was smarter...

Now suddenly things are changing, I am not sure if it is my weight loss journey or the fact that I have started to live on my own or maybe I am just getting older ;). I am still not as confident as I would like to be but I voice my opinion more often. I have changed from always thinking only about other people’s perspective to paying attention to what I feel and daring to say it aloud.
You would think I am happier but I feel I am in a lot more stress now, when I agreed with everybody there were no arguments it was only fun and I was kind of happy because everybody loved me. There was a time when you could come an hour late to meet me and I would be ok, but now I don't like it,I am very clear about it. I have had people talk crap about my choice of clothes but now if I like it I will wear it.  (though I am feeling guilty most of the times after speaking up)
When I speak up most people are surprised and tell me how much I have changed, some say I have become selfish. I argue a lot more and I still feel the need to give an explanation for everything I do,I still look for approval and try to make everybody happy (never works, if you have different opinions)

I feel like I am hanging in between trying to voice my opinion, being myself without wanting to risk the side effects of having to listen to people’s opinion too. It’s difficult for me because the same people who told me to become independent and strong now tell me I am becoming too strong and selfish without considering them.

I have to choose to either believe in myself and stay strong or just go back to nodding my head to what everybody has to say and make them happy...
what do you think?

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Tanvee

Comparisons and Competitive Edge

Comparing with others is one of the don’ts of fitness, the main reason being everybody starts at different fitness levels, everybody has different fitness goals. Focusing on your own personal goals always makes more sense than focusing on how somebody else is doing.My brain just doesn’t seem to understand this simple logic. I keep comparing and usually I compare with people who are a lot better than me and who have been working hard for a lot longer, so I am usually nowhere close to their fitness level.

Initially comparing with people would make me depressed because I would constantly be looking at my shortcomings, If I increased my base speed I would always find somebody else whose base speed was much more than mine in the process I would forget my growth. I have a little bit of fighters streak in me so I changed from being depressed to pushing myself more, again this also was not completely correct because I was usually pushing myself more than I should have and then I would be in more pain.

For the past few months I have been thinking of how to make the most of this attitude of mine, here's my conclusion: 

Use your role models as a bench mark and compare with yourself on daily basis.

So now I compare with how I did the last time while moving towards my bench mark which is usually based on somebody I look up to (I have so many different people I admire for different reasons, some have great weight lifting abilities, some run well, some are very flexible). Usually because everybody is working hard on their fitness levels my bench mark constantly moves ahead helping me improve.

Use persistance as your competitive edge

My fitness journey has made me a little competitive. I realised the one thing I can completely control is my persistance for living healthy. I can be as persistant as my role model. It does not depend on my physical capability it depends on how much I want to improve and how much effort I am willing to put. The one thing I can always rely on is my ability to get my workouts done. I know I might not be the fastest, I might not be able to do enough push ups but the one thing I can guarantee myself is that I will be there when my muscles are sore, I will be there when the weather is bad, I will be there when I am in a bad mood, I will be the one you will know as the ‘persistent one’

What do you think?

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Tanvee

Protein Pancake

It's been a while since I posted a recipe, I actually got a request for healthy recipes so here goes..
(this is one of  my all time favourite weekend breakfast!!)

Ingredients
1 egg
1/2 scoop whey protein (I use chocolate)
1 scoop ground flax seed
water (decide depending on the consistency you like)

Method
1. Mix all ingredients
2. Use a non-stick pan or a pan spray
3. Put the batter on the pan

your pancakes are ready..I also love the banana pancake.

Keep Reading I will Keep Writing 

Tanvee
(I found this recipe here http://www.blogilates.com/recipe-index/)

First race - points to remember for the second race

By now all of you know I ran my first ever race a week back and now I plan on running a lot more. I am listing a few things to remember for my next race. I am sure after every race I will have to keep adding to this list

Training - make sure your training is relevant

 If you plan to run a race you need to train there is no way around it and most of us know this. The important thing about training is to decide your training based on your event. If you have a race outside it's always good to include outdoor runs in your training. 

I was always on the treadmill, I had built a decent stamina for 5-6 k on the treadmill but running outside was different, the first time I did run outside I had to stop a number of times whereas on the treadmill I usually managed the same distance comfortably. I personally think all training should be done outside but if you can't manage that at least 50% training should be outdoors

Choose a Training plan based on your fitness level: 

Before narrowing down my training plan I went out for a run just to see my fitness level, don't make assumptions. There are lots of training plans available freely on the Internet when you are selecting one make sure you select something that you can relate to. So first check your fitness level then decide a plan that you can stick to. Usually you can decide this either based on the distance or speed. Look at the starting week, look at how many runs are included in a week and if you can comfortably manage the shortest run.

Check your diet: 

Along with the actual running the next most important thing is your diet, I started including a few more good carbohydrates, I had more oats, more sweet potato it helped especially for my long runs. Over time I realised what helped me in my runs and what caused stitch, water is also very important, during my training I realised I drink very little water during the day and that resulted in getting tired faster. This was one thing that definitely improved in my training. 

Check the race course before the race: 

One mistake I made was I trained along the same course the entire time, my surface was mostly flat and the race had lots of hills, next time I will make sure I know the course and train accordingly.

Make sure to include at least one or two runs at the same time as your race :

I trained either early in the morning or later on the evening but my race was at 10 am so I was a little confused about eating, because I was used to waking up eating a banana and going for my run but on the race day I had to wait till 10 so I knew I could not survive on 1 banana. I woke up really early had a good breakfast and then ate 1 banana about an 1hr before the race, that was good but I was really worried about either getting tired or feeling uncomfortable.

On the race day:

First race is always scary, especially if you are running alone, the best thing I did that day was reach a little early and talk to people who would be running the race. First things first, go register then look around smile at people, ask them if they have done a race before if they have tell them it's your first time and most of the times people will encourage you and give you very good advice...if it is their  first time, you have a company

If you have trained you know your speed, you know how long it takes for you finish 1 mile so stick to that, if you want to finish faster try increasing your speed towards the end, so most of your run is comfortable

Don't look back during the race: this is something that helped me a lot, I was really worried about coming in last I knew if I looked behind and saw nobody behind me I would either give up or increase my pace and get tired soon instead I just continued without looking behind till I finished I finished comfortably and in a decent time for me

Use time or miles as your markers, during my training I used land marks as my milestones and because I knew the path I always knew how much I had left to finish my run but for my race I did not know any landmarks, instead I used my Nike plus app to make sure I was maintaining my pace and tim, it's always nice to know how much distance you have covered

Hope you find these useful, I am sure I will have another list after the next one

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Tanvee

September update

Goal: My plan for September was to face a few fears and i am proud to say i did face a few fears :)

1. Long run outside alone in the rain ( this was another scary and empowering experience I will share a post on this)
2. Finishing my first 10k charity run (post coming up)

3. Joining the running club 

4. Sharing my blogposts on fb ( I have slowly started sharing my blog with my non-virtual friends and family, I was and I still am scared of being judged but I was also keen on sharing it with them, maybe some of them find my experiences useful)

5. Sharing my running club blogpost in the gym 

6. Making new friends in the gym (I am painfully shy and I am usually full of self doubt so I am great at going unnoticed, 1 have been going to the same gym for over 1 year now usually see the same faces but never really made friends..in the last one month I went ahead spoke to a few regulars and now I have gym friends)

Exercise: I exercised as planned for all the weeks except the week before the race when I reduced everything because i wanted to not have any soreness on the race day

Food: I stuck to most of it, I would say 90% good choices

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Tanvee 

Hate - Love relationship with running

I ran my first 10k charity run on 29^th September that’s what got me thinking about my relationship with running...

I remember when I was a kid about 7 yrs old I wanted to be a part of the athletic team in school but I was too slow to even qualify. I was the last to finish a 100m race from that day running was not in my vocabulary, I did not even participate in games that involved running, I preferred reading, talking to friends rather than playing games

Fast forward 15 years I decided I needed to lose weight for the 100^th time and thought jogging made sense, so I jumped right into it and failed miserably again, I went to the tracks and was so embarrassed because I could barely manage a few seconds before I felt like I was going to have a heart attack. So for the second time  I gave up on running

Another year passed with me trying to lose weight by exercising and walking a little. I went back to the tracks and this time I could manage around 30 seconds. For every run I made a deal with myself  to run only till the next lamp post. I started with alternating jog-walk between lamp posts and then slowly increasing my distance, that’s when I joined the gym and started using the treadmill unfortunately I completely stopped running outside

Almost an year later I went back out for a run and it was a little disappointing because I was not as good as I  was on the treadmill, I knew it takes more effort outside than on the treadmill but secretly I hoped I was lucky (***there is no luck in getting fit only hard work). By this time I was much better than my 30 seconds though I felt a little disappointed about not being able to keep up with my treadmill stats. I did not want to give up on running outside but I also knew I needed a slight push so I went and signed up for a race (actually I was in nervous about this so I mentioned it to Michelle, who announced it on face book and I had no choice :), I always knew telling her my plans would leave me with no choice )

It was during my 6 weeks of training for the race that I fell in love with running outside and now I find it boring to use the treadmill. Though I trained alone most days every run was interesting, I smile at people, sometimes strangers encourage me... I even feel like I am a part of an unspoken group (all the runners I come across) . I even went ahead and joined the running club finally I can say I am in a lifelong commitment with running

What about you? how did you fall in love with your favourite activity?

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Tanvee

Love these videos..

love it...

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Tanvee