Iron Sharpens Iron

IRON sharpens IRON, so a FRIEND sharpens a FRIEND. Proverbs 27:17

I mentioned this Bible verse back on my introduction to this blog as one of my favorites and I stick with that today. I have been thinking about it a lot lately though and running it over and over in my head. What does this verse truly mean and how does it apply to my every day crazy life?

Well, because God knows how this world works MUCH better than I do, THIS picture came across my Facebook newsfeed this morning:

www.klove.com

Crazy right? All because He knew what I needed to see this morning!

I went to my Bible Study group and met with some of my amazing friends and got to see this verse in action.  If one were to use iron to sharpen something else that is iron, both would get sharper.  If you were to sharpen 2 iron knives with each other, one does not dull the other, but in fact makes for 2 sharper knives. So it is in friendship. As one friend sharpens another, the first does not diminish, but grows sharper as well.  Our group sharpens each other. Each woman contributes something to the group to help the other women of the group, either experience, joy, pain, laughter, or tears. With each bit of laughter or every single tear, each woman walks away stronger than when she walks in the door.

Tonight I was blessed to spend time with 4 of my dear friends in a very much needed Moms' Night Out. These women and I have been friends since our children met in Kindergarten 4 years ago. Our children are close, but we moms are closer. We lean on each other as we are going through life. Tonight we celebrated the blessing that one of ours got a clean bill of health after undergoing skin cancer treatment (Praise GOD!!). As I sat there listening to my friends and hearing things about these women, these FRIENDS that I did not know, I truly realized why God put each one of them in my life. I won't go into all the details, just rest assured that it was a true awakening for me.  Each one of them sharpens me in a different way. Each one of them helps make me iron strong. I pray that I sharpen them as well.

If you are reading this, my prayer for you is that you have at least one friend that sharpens you and that you sharpen in return. I am blessed to have many in different areas of my life. My best friend lives 14 hours away from me, but our friendship is just as close as it has ever been. I truly and firmly believe that is because we make each other better. She will straighten me out when I am going off of the deep end and I will do the same for her. We are women, it happens. Sometimes we go nuts.  However, having those friends that sharpen us and make us better, those that we help sharpen and make them better, it all just really goes to make our families better. May you be blessed with friends like this.

Blessings.
The Iron Stiletto

The Iron Stiletto's Kryptonite

I firmly believe in full disclosure ANY time I am talking about my journey and that will apply to what I write here on the Blog. So, you are going to get an honest look into a struggle that is very real in my life.

For a year, I watched every single bite of food that I put into my mouth and counted every annoying tiny calorie that passed my lips. I RARELY cheated and other than holidays pretty well stuck to the plan. It totally worked.  I lost over 90 pounds watching what I eat, counting calories and working my tail off in the gym.

DECEMBER 31, 2013

DECEMBER 24, 2014

Most of you know this about my journey so far and I have been really proud of the work I have done. It has not been easy and I have to make the decision EACH and every day to do it. I pray a lot and often times just have to ask the good Lord to see me through.

Why am I telling you this? Because this Superhero most definitely has her kryptonite. My kryptonite is the same as almost EVERYONE else that has been on a journey like mine.

Food.

Oh yeah.  Food.  Food is the most difficult thing for me to handle. I can lift and ride and do whatever else in the gym all day long.  But, in all honesty, the food is the worst. I have a total love hate relationship with it.

I have tried so many diets in my life.  Obviously, I know I am not alone here.  So many people have this issue.  Weight Watchers, South Beach Diet, Atkins, the list goes on and on.  Most of us have at least tried at least one of these at some point.  The majority have done more than one.  Some may have even had success, which is awesome!  But, for the main population of dieters, the results only last so long.  We fall back into old habits, or think that a week long binge on crap foods won't do anything to hurt our "diets". Not that I have EVER done anything like that, nope never!  Of course we do, then the weight comes back on and we start again on what is that vicious circle of Yo-Yo-ing, not only on our body, but also on our minds!

When I started this journey last January, I tried VERY hard to make sure this was NOT a diet. This was a lifestyle change.  I used the Calorie counting app from Lose It and creating that calorie deficit helped me. I could still eat some of the things that I enjoy, but it also helped me make better choices on the whole.

Fast-forward 17 months to today.

Today, I am struggling.  I really do feel that I made a lifestyle change. For the most part, my relationship with food is better.  It is not my immediate emotional fixer. I have turned to exercise for that which is obviously way better for me.  However, I am still finding myself eating a lot more than I should, and the choices I am making are not the best.  Although I am not emotionally eating like I used to, I still am finding much more enjoyment in the calorie intake than what the fit person inside of me wants to find.  Thank goodness for the amount that I exercise!  I would probably be in some trouble if it wasn't for the exercise!

Because I consider myself a Bodybuilder (even though I do not have the ripped muscles, although hopefully one day), I know that if someone is looking to build muscle, they need more calories and protein or the muscles do not build. Well, my muscles are growing, I know that much. The problem lies in the fact that I still have quite a bit of fat on top of these muscles.  So, I started doing some research.  I have been reading this book:

It has been very interesting.  It is written by a champion bodybuilder who used to be a "fat" guy with strong muscles.  Even though I hate that "f" word, I get his description. I usually refuse to use that word to describe myself, but in this case, I will.  I am a "fat" girl with strong muscles.  I do not want that anymore.

According to the book, it is almost impossible to both build muscle AND burn fat! What?!?!?!  Mind blown! So, to lose fat, one must create a calorie deficit. To build muscle, you must have a calorie surplus.  In other words, I have been trying to do both and driving myself crazy!! I am mad at myself because I am not losing fat, but am not building muscle either.  I am at a stand-still. Feeling a little dumb right now. I will have to lose the fat first. Then I can build the muscle!!  Light bulb!!

I am still working my way through the book and have a bit to go, but I am going to be implementing these changes starting Monday. That will be week 5 in my training program (Hard Body Training from T-Nation). I will have 6 weeks of HARD training in the weight room to go with this to see what happens. I am very excited about it. It doesn't really change my way of eating TOO much from the norm, but I will be increasing my protein intake and lowering my fat intake. The biggest change from my "watching my calorie count" norm is that I will be eating 40-50% of my calories in healthy (or as healthy as I can) carbs.  I have thought I needed to severely limit my carbs for so long that I feel guilty any time I eat pasta or potatoes.  Well Tom Venuto is telling me that carbs are necessary for my goals. OK, Tom, I am going to get past it because I am on board!

I made myself a good list of groceries with NATURAL carbs, lean proteins, and HEALTHY fats. I have a cabinet full of sweet potatoes, lentils (which I have never had before, so that should be interesting), and whole grain pastas. I have a freezer full of chicken breasts, fish, and lean meats. I really want to make this change, I want to be lean and ripped. I will take the fat off of me, and then build the muscles so I am a lean, mean, machine!

Blessings!
The Iron Stiletto

Just an addition here, I know that some people reading this might be coaches or consultants for different weight loss companies and I think that is great if that works for you. I really would prefer to not go in that direction, so please do not try and sell me something! Thanks!!

Crawl Out Stronger

This weekend was truly a ROUGH one on the ol' muscles!  On Friday, I did the equivalent of 4 workouts. I taught an hour of cycling, then taught 30 minutes of CoreFIT. Followed that with my catch up lift from Thursday and finished with the normal Friday Farmer's Walk and sprints. On Saturday, I just did the regular Saturday Hard Body lift from T-Nation that I have been doing for 3 weeks. Following that, we had a celebration for the One year anniversary of Parkwest Fitness (the gym I teach at!) and we taught an hour of CoreFIT outside in the beautiful sun. Oof! I was seriously worn out, but each bit of soreness was totally worth it!

I saw a shirt online that pretty much sums up my gym work the past 2 days..."Walk In Strong, Crawl Out Stronger." Yep, that is what happened! I feel super strong, juat super tired.  This was yesterday after workout #4 and I could barely stand up straight for this pic!

It has been a truly wonderful weekend! It has been filled with soccer games, time spent with my wonderful family, and time with friends! Friday night we got to watch J play a great soccer game and then we all watched M play on Saturday morning (he scored a goal!). Now, it got a little complicated Saturday afternoon though! Both girls had games at 4:30 pm in totally different locations. Captain E coaches both of the girls' teams; he is the head coach for J's team and the assistant for L's team. To top everything off, I had the Anniversary party at 4:30 as well! So, we played divide and conquer and thanks to helpful friends, we made it all work! J's team lost, but E said that she played really hard! I am truly bummed though that I had to miss L's game. They won 1-0 and she scored the winning goal!!! She had not scored a goal in about 3 years, so I felt really guilty I missed it.  She was very kind and understanding though.  That is just the kind of girl she is.  She knew that neither of us could be there and totally let us off of the hook. She came and celebrated at the Parkwest Party and really enjoyed being around everyone as all these adults congratulated her on a job well done!

After the party, we had some wonderful friends, Kandi, Brian, and their 6 kiddos, come over for a bonfire. We hung out and ate yummy food, and had a great time until midnight!!  It was such a blast! We all got to bed really late and were pretty tired this morning, but I got up and went to church.  Afterwards, we went and watched M play his second game of the weekend and it just happened to be against 2 of the Wessel family's girls.  So, we hung out with them again.  THEN, my sweet friend Kandi watched all of our kids so E and I could go and watch the new Avengers movie (yay Superheroes!!). E and I had such a wonderful unplanned date.  It was truly fantastic to just spend time with my wonderful husband!  The girls kept calling it a Wessel/Crowell weekend and they were totally right! What a fantastic weekend!!! Special big thanks to my sweet friend Kandi and her amazing family for letting us be a part of it!

M and his friends that are girls!

So, the Avengers Movie!  Woo! I am not going to post any spoilers here, I promise!  I will say though, if you like these type of movies, GO SEE IT!  I really enjoyed it! Of course I am a geek and probably would have enjoyed it if it had sucked, but it SO did not!  I totally admit, I laughed, I cried, and may have shouted, "Holy Crap" at least a couple of times! Not sure it was better than Captain America: The Winter Soldier, but it was fantastic!

Looking forward to a busy, but wonderful week.  We are getting close to the end of school and we have a lot going on before then.  But, what do Superheroes do when things get tough? They get up, put on their capes and fly off looking for a challenge.  So, that is what the Iron Stiletto will do.  I will do what needs done. I hope your week is fantastic and SUPER!!

Blessings!