Category Archives: General Fitness

Mindset is Everything

General Fitness, Living the Fit Lifestyle, Makeup, Random Thoughts, and Other Things, , , , , , ,

Hello everyone!  Hope you all are having an awesome week.  Tonight I thought I’d talk a bit about a topic that is near and dear to my heart, and one that goes beyond just working out, or being fit, or what happens in the gym.

Motivation 2

For as long as I can remember, I’ve believed that attitude can make or break you.  Your mindset, emotions, and attitude, will either propel you through life or drag you down.  Sure we all have rough patches and bad days, myself included, but it’s how you CHOOSE to learn and grow from those experiences that transforms you and carries you through that situation.  Choosing to see the good side, staying optimistic, and focusing on the positives of any situation will ALWAYS make it more bearable, and easier, regardless of how difficult it is.

We all know “those” people.  The ones who constantly complain and have a shitty attitude.  They’re nice, but something is always bad, or could be better.  The negative Nancys.  No offense to any Nancys out there.  They tend to just be a drag!  Seriously, whenever I talk to these people I just want to give them a hug.  Or a cookie.  Or maybe a tequila shot!

Motivation 3

Mindset and attitude are paramount when it comes to fitness, nutrition, and weight loss.  Before every work out, and every meal, you make the DECISION about choosing to do something positive for your body, be it through your activity or the foods you are choosing to eat.  The journey starts in your head with the decision to make yourself better.  I’d be lying if I told you that I didn’t struggle to get to the gym sometimes, or to eat as I know I should eat to be in line with my goals.  But, at the end of the day, I will usually make the decision to do it anyway.  The best part?  Those workouts that I have to drag my ass in to the gym for are usually the best ones.  As far as eating goes, I’m really not that tempted anymore by cheat meals, and I know those delicious eats and sweets will always be there when I want them.  In fact, I’m finding it’s more fun to come up with creative ways to eat clean and feel like I’m “breaking all the rules” even though I’m right on plan.

Motivation 4

Results will come when you make the decision day after day to be consistent with your actions and nutrition.  Focusing on the positive will help you do this!  Think of what a blessing it is to getup each day and be healthy and have the opportunity to go put your health to work in the gym, and how fortunate you are to have nutritious, healthy meal options.  Don’t think about what else you could be doing, or eating.  Focus on feeling stronger when you workout, taking it one rep a time.  I have yet to see someone regret a workout.  Those endorphins just won’t let you!

To give you an example, I was doing Tabatas in my living room last weekend to get my cardio in while watching the Derby.  I didn’t want to be doing 80 bazillion jumping jacks and mountain climbers.  What I really wanted was to be watching the Derby on a patio with a cocktail!  But, I got through it and knew I’d be having dinner with friends later that night to watch the Mayweather/Pacquiao fight.  Compromise, right?

Motivation 1

Everyone’s fitness journey (mine included) is long, and winding, and full of ups and downs.  It’s not easy.  Even if you have no plans to compete, this still takes dedication, time, resources, and we ALL struggle.  The important part is that you keep going.  Like I always tell you guys—you have to take it one workout, one meal, one day at a time.  Be proud of every step you take, because it’s taking you one step closer to your goal.  Remember, attitude is everything.  Keep up the great work guys!

Till next time,

-Mere

What am I Supposed to do With Supplements?

General Fitness, Living the Fit Lifestyle, Nutrition/ Diet, , , , , , , , , ,

Hey gang!  Sorry it’s been a while since I’ve posted—I’ve been busy having awesome workouts and eating LOTS of healthy food!  I LOVE offseason!!!  We’re still on track for another show in the Fall.  Bring on the gainz!!!

Tonight I thought I’d talk briefly about supplements.  This is a subject area that most people don’t know a lot about. When taken correctly, supplements can really help you get the most benefit out of your training, help your muscles recover, and keep your energy levels up to keep pushing hard in the gym.  The point of supplements are to “supplement” your nutrition to provide your body with the right nutrients, vitamins, and minerals.  Supplements can include pre and post workouts, BCAAs, proteins, and vitamins, just to name a few.  There are a million different types of supplements, from a million different brands, and it can all be really overwhelming!  I know I was overwhelmed when I first started looking into them.  Where’s a girl to start?!  In true Lipglossandlifting form, I thought I’d break them down for beginners, and what I would suggest you incorporate as basics.  Be forewarned, however, this stuff is expensive.  Be sure to do your research with brands and go with QUALITY.  Supplements are usually cheaper when you buy bigger quantities as well.  We usually buy ours on www.Amazon.com, www.lockoutsupplements.com, or www.bodybuildlng.com.

I buy a lot of supplements!
I buy a lot of supplements!

Multi-Vitamins

I highly suggest a good quality multivitamin to take everyday.  WE don’t get all of the vitamins we need from the food we eat, and a good multi will help keep your immune system up and help with your skin, nails, etc.  I personally use Optiwomen by Optimum Nutrition.  Two a day—easy!  Recently I also incorporated a calcium supplement and Vitamin D supplement as well, since they’re beneficial for women in particular.  Fish Oil or EFA (essential fatty acids) pills are good to take too since they help your body repair, particularly in regard to reducing inflammation and promoting heart health.

Pre-Workouts

Every true gym lover needs a pre-workout!  They are designed to give you an energy boost, improve muscle strength and stamina, therefore helping you get the most benefit out of your weightlifting.  They help you power through like a beast!  Some have caffeine, or stimulants, others don’t.  Creatine is a muscle-building ingredient that many preworkouts have as well, but I would research it before deciding whether or not taking a “pre” with creatine in it is for you.  If you’ve never tried one or are sensitive to caffeine, I would start with BSN’s N.O. explode.  It’s pretty mild, but will definitely help you focus and give you more of a pump after your training.  Some of my favorite pre-workouts are Formulation 1’s, N.O. Explode, and Optimum Nutrition’s Pre-Workout.   These typically run you between $20 and $30.

Post-Workout

Every workout you have is taxing on your body.  It’s super important to give your body the nutrients and protein it needs right after you workout so that your muscles can begin to recover and grow.  The “anabolic window” that you may have heard of is really the 30 minute timeframe after you workout in which is the ideal time to do this.  Branch Chain Amino Acids or BCAAS and protein are the two biggest things your body needs after working out.  BSN has a great product called AminoX that I love!  Optimum Nutrition and Formulation 1 also make great BCAA products.  AminoX Fruit Punch flavor is the absolute best—Shane and I use it EVERY SINGLE workout!  I use it as an intra-workout supplement, and then follow with a protein shake afterwards.  Ideally you need to consume an equal ratio of grams of protein to grams of carbohydrates within your anabolic window too, but I would suggest starting with BCAAs.  There’s another product called Aftershock I used for a long time as a post workout that was pretty good.

Whey Protein

Whey protein is a really easy way to incorporate more protein into your diet.  Most people don’t know this, but to build muscle you really need to be consuming 1- 1 ½ grams of protein per pound of bodyweight a day.  To give you an idea of how much that is, 4oz of chicken has about 25 grams of protein.  See what I meant by eating 5-6 times a day and incorporating protein into each meal??  Protein is the main building block of muscle.  Remember that muscle burns fat, so if you’re really wanting to lose body fat, start eating more protein, lift heavy, and build that muscle!  Whey protein comes in a powder form most often, and you can mix it with either water or almond milk to make it into a shake.  It can be blended or baked too, and you can really get creative with how you incorporate it into your diet.  I usually use Whey protein as a snack, and as my post workout shake with a carbohydrate supplement as well.  Keep in mind that protein also keeps you feeling fuller longer.  Most whey proteins have about 120 calories and 25 grams of protein per serving, and are sugar free with low carbs as well.  My favorites would be Cellucor’s Red Velvet Cake Batter (it tastes like a Sprinkles cupcake!), Optimum Nutrition’s Caramel Toffee Fudge and Birthday Cake, and Dymatize’s Mint Chocolate.  They are all DELICIOUS!  I would never steer you wrong with flavors!!  Whey protein is expensive, so it pays to buy larger quantities.  It stays good a long time, and 5lb container will run you $50-$60, but will have 75 servings or so.

Here's my haul from a recent supplement shopping trip!
Here’s my haul from a recent supplement shopping trip!

Here’s my current “stack” of supplements.  Most people don’t need all of these, but this I thought I’d share mine in case you were curious.

  • Optimum Nutrition Optiwomen Multi
  • Calcium supplement
  • Vitamin D3 supplement
  • MRM Smartblend EFA capsules
  • Hydroxycut Hardcore Elite Fatburner
  • Optimum Nutrition Pre-Workout (Green Apple tastes like a jolly rancher!)
  • BSN AminoX taken while I workout (the Fruit Punch flavor is just fabulous)
  • Post-workout shake with Whey Protein and Glycoject carbohydrate supplement
  • Creatine 2x a day
  • L-Glutamine mixed with pre and post workout supplements
  • I also use whey protein as a snack from time to time
This is part of my daily supplement stack. Lots to take!
This is part of my daily supplement stack. Lots to take!

If any of you have questions or other product recommendations you love I’d love to hear about them!  Feel free to email me at lipglossandlifting@gmail.com.  Happy lifting!

Till next time,

-Mere

Are you going to look like the Hulk??

Contest Prep, General Fitness, Living the Fit Lifestyle, Weightloss, Workouts, , , , , , , , , , , ,

When I “went public” in October with my decision to compete and become a figure competitor, you can imagine that I got some mixed feedback.  Unless you really know the sport, you have no idea what the NPC is, what “Figure” really means, or what the different categories are for women.  Most people, quite frankly, just assume that bodybuilders (especially female ones) must take steroids and that they are all super jacked with mega-muscles.  For women, there are 5 categories in the NPC or “National Physique Committee”, and they increase in muscularity beginning with Bikini which has the least muscle, then Figure, Fitness (which has the same judging criteria as Figure, but with a gymnastics routine), Women’s Physique, and finally Women’s Bodybuilding.  They all, however, fall into the sport of “competitive bodybuilding”.  There are a lot of misconceptions about women who compete, but I definitely got some raised eyebrows from friends and colleagues who thought that I was going to essentially end up looking like, well, a cute hulk.  My really good friends and family, however, were very supportive and were thrilled with my decision.  I’m so thankful that I’ve had their support and encouragement, and I can’t wait to make them proud when I strut across that stage in just a couple of weeks!

In my last post, I mentioned that after attending that first show, I knew that I wanted to compete, but I also knew the next step would be to find someone who could coach me, teach me, and train me to bring my best possible physique to the stage.  I did some research, asked around at that show, and pretty much all roads led to the coach who I ended up working with.  He’s extremely knowledgeable in the sport, an  award-winning bodybuilder, and has also judged many shows, so he’s a guru.  Many of his clients have placed very well at shows, and several have gone on to compete at a national level and won IFBB Pro cards as well.  After our first meeting with him, Shane and I knew we had found the right fit for me, and were pumped (haha!  Arnold joke there!) to get the process going.

October 2014 - Just Getting Started
October 2014 – Just Getting Started

Most of you may not know that I am pretty petite.  I’m all of 5’4, and weighed about 120 pounds when I started training with my coach in October of 2014.  At my highest recorded weight in 2012, I was in the low 140s and about 26% bodyfat.  That being said, I was never fat or obese, and I had a good foundation of weight training from the 10 months or so that I had been training on my own before I started working with my coach.  I still had a long way to go before I would be ready to get up on that stage.  Especially in a figure competition suit—have you SEEN how small they are?!?

November 2014 - Growing the Guns
November 2014 – Growing the Guns

After I started working with my coach, I spent October, November, and December of 2014 “bulking”, which means that I was eating more calories, carbs, protein and fat than I had before to help my body put on muscle.  My coach designed all of my workouts, so I just followed the plan, trained HARD six days a week (5 lifting, 1 free day to do yoga, or whatever) and did moderate cardio.  My diet was very structured—I carefully weighed and measured all of my food, and was extremely cognizant to eat my six meals a day.  Alcohol became limited, and I was a lot more aware of what I was eating for “cheat” meals.  I was doing more than just eating clean; I was eating with the purpose of FUELING my body.  If there is one thing I could tell girls who want to lose weight or tone up, it would be that proper nutrition is key to reaching your goals You can’t out train a bad diet, but you also need the RIGHT combination and ENOUGH protein, carbs, and fat to really reap the full benefits of the training you do in the gym.  Nutrition is where I had fallen short, and  poor nutrition (I wasn’t eating “bad” food, I just wasn’t eating the right combination of macro nutrients to fuel my body) is why I wasn’t seeing the best results that I could have for so many months.  I was eating a TON under my “plan”—hooray for bulking and “offseason”!  Needless to say, I could tell a huge difference in my progress within a matter of weeks, and others started taking notice too.  My clothes were fitting better, and I kept getting stronger and stronger in the gym. I’ll admit, the compliments that I was getting certainly helped motivate me to keep going!  I’m so glad that I have progress pictures and workout and food logs to look back to and see the path that helped shape me into where I am today.  With my coach’s guidance, I became even more hooked on what we competitors and gymrats call “the lifestyle”!

In November, my coach and I picked a show—the Phil Heath Classic.  Phil Heath won Mr. Olympia every year from 2011 – 2014.  When my coach first suggested that show, I probably had that deer in the headlights look.  I didn’t know a lot about the sport, but I knew that show is HUGE!  It’s one of the biggest in the entire NPC.  Held in Houston, it’s the first major show of the Season in Texas (which runs March through September or so), and draws a ton of spectators and people in the industry.  I had a trip planned for my 30th birthday on April 1st, so we had to be careful to keep that in mind when figuring out a contest prep plan, but ultimately the decision came down to my coach believing that I had the foundation, genetics, and motivation to do well at the Phil Heath Classic.  We were set—March, 28th, 2015!

December 2014 - Headed Into Prep
December 2014 – Headed Into Prep

That was just over 5 months ago.  I’m about two weeks out from the show, and yes, I have put on quite a bit of muscle, but I’m not green, and I’m not going around smashing things like the Hulk.  It would be pretty cool to be She Hulk for Halloween though, so that’s an option.

Till next time!

-Mere

From Clueless to Confident

Contest Prep, General Fitness, Living the Fit Lifestyle, Nutrition/ Diet, Weightloss, Workouts, , , , , , , , , , , ,

We left off on the last post about what ultimately led me to compete.  To be honest, once I started learning how to build muscle by lifting weights and doing resistance training in the gym, and more importantly once I started seeing the changes in my body, I was hooked!  To me, lifting as a woman is empowering.  It builds more than just muscles.  It brings confidence, and relieves stress.  When I’m in the gym, everything else good and bad in my life or day fades away.  It’s just me and my tunes, and my rep, and the mind / muscle connection.  I discovered quickly what “failing out on a rep” meant and fell in love.  The feeling of pushing myself to get through a tough set challenged me like nothing else had before.  I could feel myself getting stronger, and since I was recording and logging my workouts (I just used a journal, but Shane has a cool app called Fitocracy), I could see my improvements week by week too.

A lot of people ask me how I started, how I figured out how to work out, how I went from being clueless to being able to confidently walk into a gym (we joined LA Fitness Memorial Day weekend 2014, which was really my FIRST gym membership ever) and know what I was doing.  I’m kind of a nerd at heart, and to be honest, I started researching online and just kept Googling, reading, Youtubing, and Pinteresting.  There is a TON of great information and numerous articles  available to you online.  As I mentioned in my last post, Bodybuilding.com is a great place to start.  The sources are credible, and there are awesome videos for form, training plans, etc. all right there at the click of a mouse.  I credit Jamie Eason’s Live Fit program on the site for really laying my foundation of weight training.

Baby biceps. Before we joined LA Fitness.
Baby biceps. Before we joined LA Fitness. Spring 2014.

The more I trained (that’s what we gymrats call working out), the more I absolutely grew to crave it.  I wanted to know more and learn more about this whole new world.  Beginning around January of 2014, and continuing through the spring and summer, I was eating clean 90% of the time and training 5-6 days a week.  I dropped my bootcamp membership in May, and dropped 10 pounds in 10 weeks when I began lifting 5 days a week instead of 3.  The bootcamp was fantastic, but I built more muscle by lifting heavy and often.  I now know that the muscle was burning fat, hence the weight loss.  I really wasn’t doing a lot of cardio at that point.  As far as nutrition goes, I was eating 6 meals a day, but wasn’t sure that I was getting the right macros, etc.  I was aiming for a lot of protein, and clean, “whole” foods, but I also now know I wasn’t really eating the right combination of macros to really build muscle.  Don’t worry, I’ll do several posts later on what I eat and what “clean eating” really means.

Now, back to the question of what made me decide to compete…  As of late summer of 2014, I had been reading Oxygen and Muscle & Fitness Hers magazines for about a year (I started reading them before I got serious about lifting), and I had seen girls in those magazines that just looked amazing.  They had the toned, muscular yet feminine look I was after!  I started seeing a trend that most of them were “competitors”, and I began to research things like the NPC (National Physique Committee—the largest and “grand daddy” of all Bodybuilding Federations), Figure, Bikini, Competition Prep, and I got very curious about the process and the whole competition experience.  I loved clean eating and working out, and had made it a lifestyle at this point, and competing would be the pinnacle of putting those two pieces together into a pretty extreme form, getting in peak physical condition, while competing against myself and fellow women to ultimately do something few others can say that they have done.  I was excited and nervous as hell at the mere THOUGHT of doing this.  Me, a BODYBUILDER?!?!?  I had only been lifting for six months!

Just after we joined LA Fitness. I still love hanging leg raises for abs! Early Summer 2014.
Just after we joined LA Fitness. I still love hanging leg raises for abs! Early Summer 2014.

I did more research, read more articles, talked to an acquaintance of mine (now a good friend, teammate, and mentor, Tonya!) who was also getting ready to compete and decided that I needed to see this in action.  Because I would be turning 30 soon, I wanted a goal to work towards, a challenge, something that could push me out of my comfort zone.  I loved this lifestyle and wanted to take it to the next level.  And to look AMAZING after a 12-week process, well, that would just be the icing on the cake!  Shane was totally on board, too.  We went to our first Bodybuilding competition in September of 2014, and I knew the second that I walked in and saw the tables of Quest Bars, friendly people with protein shakers in hand, supplement reps, meal preppers, sparkles, tans, and smiles, that I had found a crowd who “got” my obsession with this lifestyle.  I was surrounded by girly-girls who loved to lift too. Before I went to the show, I knew that one of two things was going to happen—either I would run towards the hills, or I would think to myself, dammit give me some stripper heels, some more muscle, and put me on that stage! As you all know, I obviously chose to get up on that stage and to rock it!

Till next time!

-Mere

How It All Started

Contest Prep, General Fitness, Living the Fit Lifestyle, , , , , , , , , , , ,

Hello and welcome to Lipgloss and Lifting! I’m not sure how you found me. Maybe we know each other in real life, maybe you saw me on Instagram, or maybe you just stumbled upon this page by happenstance, but, however you found me, I’d like to start off by saying thank you for stopping by and checking us out! I hope that my words and thoughts as I ramble on this blog will inspire you to live a healthier, happier life. As you may have gathered from my “About ” page, I’m just a girl who absolutely loves her life, a big part of which includes working out and eating healthy. I’m not a trainer (yet) or a nutritionist, but I’m more than happy to share a little about what has worked for me on my journey.

I thought a good place to start in my first post would be to give you all a little history on my journey with fitness and what ultimately led me to decide to compete. I will be the first to tell you that pretty much for the first 26 years of my life (that’s up to about 4 years ago for me) I’m pretty sure that I didn’t have an athletic bone in my body and I absolutely DESPISED working out. I never really played sports growing up (sorry Dad!), hated getting sweaty (now I love it!), and never really felt confident enough to explore working out or being fit. I was chubby around my awkward years when I was about 11-13 or so, but for the most part spent high school, college, and the couple of years post TCU (go Frogs!) as a skinny girl at a healthy weight. After working my first corporate job, however, the pounds started to creep up and I didn’t really like where I was headed. I tried bikram yoga for a little bit, and liked it, but I was still afraid to set foot into a gym because I felt like gyms were intimidating and I didn’t have a clue where to start. I’ve pretty much always been a healthy eater, but somewhere between a stressful job, an active social life, and dealing with the passing of my father in 2011, I had gone from always being around the 120-125 pound range, to 142 in 2012. Something had to change.

When I saw this picture I cried and wondered what the hell happened to me...
Me – Before – February of 2012     When I saw this picture I cried and wondered what the hell happened to me…

So, in April 2012 I joined an all female bootcamp (I got suckered into a Groupon!) and was working out in a parking lot with like-minded women with a yoga mat and 5lb weights at 5am (!!!! Yes, 5am!!!) three mornings a week. I can still remember my first burpee!   Soon enough, I started seeing baby muscles pop up and inches disappearing. I started researching clean eating and what a healthy diet consisted of. I grew stronger and more confident in my ability to finish workouts and I actually started to enjoy them! I stuck with my bootcamp for almost two years and learned so much from my trainer. I’m still thankful for all of our laughs and sweaty morning workouts, and I know that they helped pave the road to where I am now.

I changed jobs in 2013, which gave me more time to focus on me. I had come to a point where I LOVED working out, but felt like I wasn’t getting the results I wanted. Fast forward to January 2014—maybe I was being introspective, or maybe it was because it was my last year in my twenties, but I wanted a goal to work towards that would really push me with my fitness journey. I thought about a marathon, but I’m not a distance runner (I get bored) and I really didn’t want to lose any toenails! It was clear. I knew (after reading many an issue of Oxygen and Muscle & Fitness Hers— now my FAVORITE magazines!) that if I really wanted to get the results and the body I wanted, that I needed to start LIFTING heavier weights, which meant conquering my fear of the gym! I also needed to start giving my body the fuel it needed to grow muscles through proper nutrition and diet. I was still doing the bootcamp thing, but was now up to using 15 pound weights for our sessions, and I still felt like I wasn’t pushing myself hard enough or getting enough out of my workouts. I decided on a flight back from DC that I really wanted to make 2014 my year to get in shape and take my love of fitness and clean eating to the next level. My amazing husband (who was also unhappy with how he was looking thanks to a few too many happy hours and weigh (pun intended) too many dinners of pizza, wings, or fajitas) was right there on the bandwagon with me. We decided to research some weight training routines on www.bodybuilding.com (a GREAT place to start by the way!) and started training in our condo building’s gym that week. That was a little over 13 months and twenty pounds ago for me, and over fifty pounds ago for him. It’s hard to believe I’ll be stepping on the stage in just 3 weeks as a figure competitor! More on what happened between that American Airlines flight and the 9 month period to when I started working with my coach In October 2014 on my next post.

I have been lifting for about a year now and this picture shows a strong, confident beast! That wears lipgloss!
Me – After – February of 2015        I have been lifting for about a year now and this picture shows a strong, confident beast! That wears lipgloss when she lifts! 😉