Life, Fitness, and General Sillyness

I see many people gearing up for their 2013 Resolutions right now by making changes in their diet. Many people are trying to lose weight (I'm sure it's the #1 resolution in America aside from getting out of debt). Don't start yourself out in a hole for your goals before you even BEGIN your journey by eating foods that aren't actually good for you! Food #1: Pretzels Pretzels are just flour (gluten) and salt, essentially. They'll cause you water retention (which shows up in the scale AND how your clothes fit due to bloat). They're not particularly satisfying either, so why bother? A better alternative to crave salt cravings? Terra's Sweets and Beets or Popchips. Just watch your serving size! Food #2: Yogurt The vast majority of yogurts out there (with the exception of plain Greek yogurts) are sugar bombs. In particular: Fruit on the bottom yogurt! STAY AWAY! These babies are often loaded up with high fructose corn syrup (aka, sugar on crack) or...

Everyone has a different fitness journey. We have different starting pints when we set out, varying goals, and differing plans of getting from point A and point B. In addition to this, we all have different support system around us. Some people will take your goals seriously and others will force a smile and openly meet you with skepticism when they find out what you're trying to accomplish. The reality is simple: People either will support you or they won't. It's really that black and white. After completing my triathlon in 2008, I sat my family down one night and told them my plans of competing. I showed them photographs of figure competitors and explained I was planning on getting on stage that fall. My sister was excited (she'd known about competitiors before I did) and her support was loud and immediate. My Dad. however, tore me apart. "I can't believe you're going to do this. This is the STUPIDEST thing you've ever done, Abby. You should k...

World history has always been particularly interesting to me. It's not something I spent a ton of time engrossing myself in since that I'm not in school anymore, but I have always found it fascinating in terms of tracing the themes in writing and literature and how it correlated to everyday life at the time. The ancient Greeks had two major sayings in their society and they are still extremely, extremely useful to people now just as they were then. Know thyself Nothing in excess Think about those sayings and how applicable they are not only to life in general, but especially to your fitness goals. One of the very first things I tell people when they commit to a healthy lifestyle change is that they have to accept and embrace their own crap and bad habits in order to circumnavigate them. In other words, you need to acknowledge your own beautifully hand-crafted bad habits and hangups so that you don't start out in a hole from the get-go. Example #1: One of ...

A few years ago, my ex and I ran to Petsmart to grab stuff for our kitties. You know, the normal stuff: food, toys, etc. This was a pretty standard errand in our lives. We are both hardcore lovers of all things cute and we always hated going past the adoption area of pet stores because we wanted to bring all of them home. We are total animal people and want one of everything. Against our better judgement and our normal rule, we entered the adoption area and promptly fell in love with every cat in every cage. Some of them were friendlier than others but they were all sweet in their own way. There were four cats in the top row and three on the bottom. Some were more engaged and personable than others (but that's cats for you, right?) As I passed each kitty to give them an individual, awkward scratch through the bars of the kennels, one of them reached out with a meow and hooked onto my sweater with her little claws. She was a gorgeous, sleek 2-year-old black cat. She had vivi...

I've gotten many requests for an official blog in the last years or so, so I'm finally biting the bullet. Hey, gals and bros, thanks for tagging along. *salute* 2012 is rapidly drawing to a close and many people in my life are starting their New Years Resolutions early. Some are going to the gym for the first time in a year, a few months, or many years. Some are excited, some are hesitant, but all of them are nervous if they can stick to them or not. This is one of my favorite times of the year but it's always frustrating to watch people's excitement and belief in themselves evaporate. Why is it that people can start out with such zeal to make positive changes, but the motivation seemingly has a two week expiration date? It's pretty simple: change is scary. It's an unfortunate fact of life: Change requires going out of your comfort zone. Worse, big changes requires going a mile outside of your comfort zone.  Son of a!!!!   I know, I k...