CHOICE = CHANGE - Part 2

LEAN EATING CLIENT:

Ok so what I m getting out of your email is that I have to make the choice to change. Easier said than done.

So the question to answer is DO I WANT TO CHANGE.
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COACH KRISTA:

Yes, so many solutions to our current issues are "simple" but simple and easy are not the same. But this is the whole concept of DD (Difficult Difficult). This IS a DD for you... making the "right" choice. There IS no right or wrong remember. What feels right is in line with your true or authentic SELF - what you want, what you need, what is going to take you in the right direction and towards who you are intended to be, fully.

The other choice takes you AWAY from the person you are wanting and are intended to be.

Make sense?

SO anything that is pretty major (difficult) is going to make a MASSIVE difference. "From challenge comes growth". The greater the challenge, the more rewarding the outcome when you take it on and successfully over come it.

Back to the question to answer: "Do I want to change?"

Let's look at your goals in Lean Eating.

1) Lose weight / fat
2) Get stronger / more powerful

Looking at these metaphysically will help. Your TRUE SELF wants to change. You may just need more strength to do that.

I will refer to the Two Wolves Legend to help you gain clarity here.

You WILL accomplish Goal #1 by tackling Goal #2 but not physically stronger - making your TRUE SELF stronger and feeding the White Wolf (I CAN do this.. I WILL do this.. I AM worthy) and weakening the Black Wolf (I can't refuse this food... It's just a bit of this... it's so hard when I am working...).

When you strengthen your SELF, everything else gets "easier" as you strengthen yourself from the INSIDE / OUT. Just like building a stronger core improves performance with other exercises and activity.

Step 1 to getting stronger is to face one of your "Difficult Difficults" - posting in the forum. I don't have to set the task as you already suggested it in your email:

I m thinking maybe it's time to join the forums and have some support and some accountability. I find the forums a little scary.



K

CHOICE = CHANGE - Part 1

LEAN EATING CLIENT:

With some of my food choices at work I can say that that are not horrific but are obviously not doing me any favours.

Some examples of food I may eat - whomeal egg sandwich, a small coconut panacotta (this is really naughty but I just cant help it sometimes) I also have a beef fillet for dinner with cauliflour mash and beans (I also take extra servings of beans which I can heat up) I sometimes have cereal/ oats in the morning without milk if cant stomach the eggs sometimes, otherwise its an omlette for breakfast, I might also have a piece of vintage cheese or handful of nuts.

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COACH KRISTA:

Here is something that is just one sentence but it says alot... multiple layers and stories here:

(this is really naughty but I just cant help it sometimes)

- It is not naughty - there is not good or bad in life, just our choice and whether it is in line with our goals and our "true self". You are expressing shame or guilt in your word "naughty"

- You can help it - it comes down to the lesson on "discipline" - there is no such thing. There is only love. You love that food choice more or you love ______ (feeling leaner, making healthy choices, your goal, your transforming body... you fill in the blank).

- You are saying you feel bad, shame, guilt, remorse, but you ARE NOT IN CONTROL or have no choice.

- The great news is BOTH are not true. YOU are not lying you are believing self ingrained lies that have been there a long time.

- You have CHOICE.

- Your choices that are not in line with the real you and your goals and what you want for yourself are not "bad" they are just not getting you to your SELF :-)

As soon as you accept and start behaving as though you DO have choice, you will no longer feel this shame and guilt. Is that not REFRESHING and AMAZING!

These obstacles are NOT at all about work, but simply about choice.

YOU HAVE CHOICE. This is huge. This is the KEY thing you can grasp and make a big difference.

"Accept or change". You either accept and embrace your choices and all that accompanies them or you change them.

Everything in life is a choice.

However, celebrate and commend yourself for the awesome progress you have made but that is no reason not to keep working hard on your SELF to keep making progress. If you can come THIS far in the past year let's say imagine what you will look and feel like next year... and the next.. and the next. :-)

My Current Read: The Four Agreements

The following is a summary of the four agreements as detailed by Don Miguel Ruiz in The Four Argreements. Read them yes. Learn them absolutely. Apply them - a MUST!

Be Impeccable with Your Word

Speak with integrity. Say only what you mean. Avoid using the word to speak against yourself or to gossip about others. Use the power of your word in the direction of truth and love.

Impeccable means “without sin” and a sin is something you do or believe that goes against yourself. It means not speaking against yourself, to yourself or to others. It means not rejecting yourself. To be impeccable means to take responsibility for yourself, to not participate in “the blame game.”

Regarding the word, the rules of “action-reaction” apply. What you put out energetically will return to you. Proper use of the word creates proper use of energy, putting out love and gratitude perpetuates the same in the universe. The converse is also true.

Impeccability starts at home. Be impeccable with yourself and that will reflect in your life and your relationships with others. This agreement can help change thousands of other agreements, especially ones that create fear instead of love.


Don't Take Anything Personally

Nothing others do is because of you. What others say and do is a projection of their own dream. When you are immune to the opinions and actions of others, you won't be the victim of needless suffering.

We take things personally when we agree with what others have said. If we didn't agree, the things that others say would not affect us emotionally. If we did not care about what others think about us, their words or behavior could not affect us.

Even if someone yells at you, gossips about you, harms you or yours, it still is not about you! Their actions and words are based on what they believe in their personal dream.

Our personal “Book of Law” and belief system makes us feel safe. When people have beliefs that are different from our own, we get scared, defend ourselves, and impose our point of view on others. If someone gets angry with us it is because our belief system is challenging their belief system and they get scared. They need to defend their point of view. Why become angry, create conflict, and expend energy arguing when you are aware of this?


Don't Make Assumptions

Find the courage to ask questions and to express what you really want. Communicate with others as clearly as you can to avoid misunderstandings, sadness, and drama. With just this one agreement, you can completely transform your life.

When we make assumptions it is because we believe we know what others are thinking and feeling. We believe we know their point of view, their dream. We forget that our beliefs are just our point of view based on our belief system and personal experiences and have nothing to do with what others think and feel.

We make the assumption that everybody judges us, abuses us, victimizes us, and blames us the way we do ourselves. As a result we reject ourselves before others have the chance to reject us. When we think this way, it becomes difficult to be ourselves in the world.

Take action and be clear to others about what you want or do not want; do not gossip and make assumptions about things others tell you. Respect other points of view and avoid arguing just to be right. Respect yourself and be honest with yourself. Stop expecting the people around you to know what is in your head.


Always Do Your Best

Your best is going to change from moment to moment; it will be different when you are healthy as opposed to sick. Under any circumstance, simply do your best, and you will avoid self-judgment, self-abuse, and regret.

Doing your best means enjoying the action without expecting a reward. The pleasure comes from doing what you like in life and having fun, not from how much you get paid. Enjoy the path traveled and the destination will take care of itself.

Living in the moment and releasing the past helps us to do the best we can in the moment. It allows us to be fully alive right now, enjoying what is present, not worrying about the past or the future.

Have patience with yourself. Take action. Practice forgiveness. If you do your best always, transformation will happen as a matter of course.

What A Difference a Year Makes

Exactly ONE year to the day almost.

OPA Provincials 2010 compared to OPA Provincials 2011.

Perhaps at first glance, one would not see a big difference. But look longer, harder... there is.

Allowing my body a full year to:

- rest & recover
- get back into powerlifting which resulted in new PR's in all the 3 main lifts
- play around with some different types of training such as my phase of a return to the odd lifts of the early days of Physical Culture and the Iron Game
- get sick with a rare bacterial infection (cat scratch fever) which resulted in NO training for many weeks
- just have FUN with no competition date on the calendar, numbers to shoot for or protocols to follow

resulted in a significantly improved package on stage.

I also took the time to review my strengths and weaknesses in all areas of the sport and reflect on feedback from others.

This lead to:

- modifications in posing & stage presence
- time well spent with new specialists such as Kinesiologist Adam Lloyd of Human Dynamix
- a return to my favorite and most gifted suit designer, Lisa of SXEFX, who knew just what would look best on my body

Plus, some of the KEYS to bodybuilding, as the root words point to - BODY and BUILDING

Weight-in Weight:

2010 weigh in: 124.5 lbs
2011 weigh in: 131.8 lbs

Almost all my tape measures were up (except waist and hip were about the same) by a quarter to a full inch. Body fat was virtually the same which you can see by pictures. The actual % does not matter much on stage - it's what you look like but with a 11 point skinfold using the BioSignature method and Harpenden calipers, I came out at 44 mm sum of skinfolds with my highest reading being my quad and hamstring (such a girl!).

That's a GAIN of about 7 quality pounds of physique in 1 year. You can see that the gains came (and needed to!) mostly my lower body - quad sweep, adductors, calves, hams and also clear improvements in pecs and forearms. The overall quality of physique and muscle density is evident. Simply stated, I got bigger all over and improved the symmetry of my lower body.

For this I must thank Carter Schoeffer of Body Transformation - truly an architect as his title eludes to: Chief Body Transformation Architect, Body Transformation Inc.

Having seen the evidence of the benefits of taking a full year off to work, rest and play - I will be doing the same. I am going to table CBBF Nationals for next year and if I am still game for it, you will hopefully see the evidence of my growth on stage at that time.

KAIZEN! Cheers to continued growth.

A special thanks to Scott Walker (Sun to Earth Photography) which is not only a very important part of my growth and my journey, but who does such a great job of capturing it.

How Krista Avoids the YO-YO Effect

Krista 2 weeks POST CONTEST - 5 lbs up from contest weight

QU: "Krista, Everyone talks about the YO YO thing, but it seems like you don't have to lose much weight to get into contest shape compared to the average bodybuilder."

AN: Well it's true and not true.

Here's why. I don't change my weight (BF% yes, weight no) much when preparing for a contest. I typically lose about 5-10 lbs depending on the weight class I am aiming for.


"Normal" Krista - 142 lbs


"Contest" Krista - 138 lbs

This contest we went heavyweight (over 125) so the goal was to retain as much muscle as possible while getting lean (very lean). And we did.

HOWEVER... the final days I drop ALOT of weight from drying out. It's water and some carbs (from depleting glycogen or going very low carb for a few days).

I drop about 8-10 lbs the final 5 days before I hit the stage. About 8 lbs is water and the other few pounds are glycogen.

Knowlege is power. KNOWING that the weight you are on contest day is not "real" helps you manage the gain that will come the days after the contest when you drink and eat a healthy LE diet again.


Dry & shredded on stage at 132 lbs

Example:

10 days out - 142
5 days out - 138
Contest day - 131.8
2 days post contest - 135
1 week post contest - 139

What I weight 1 week out, I am to weigh again 1 week after.

The bigger someone is (say a 225 lb male bodybuilder), he can expect to gain MORE absolute weight but it's about the same relative. He may gain 25 lbs after contest (which is about the same as my 10 lbs). But it's all the OTHER ways one can gain / lose weight other than body fat.

For example, I was about 5% body fat on stage (July 19th) and today, 1 month later, I am about 8% body fat and 142 lbs.

So I have only gained a bit of body fat back.

And trust me I DO NOT want to be 5% all the time. Even 8% is a bit too lean for my liking.

So there's some "Insider's Secrets" for you.

I have also learned that I an not the typical bodybuilder, if there even is such a thing ;-)

5 Weight Loss Mistakes to Avoid

5 WEIGHT LOSS MISTAKES TO AVOID
Women's Running Magazine

by Krista Schaus (me) and Dr. John Berardi

Dr. John Berardi and Krista Schaus are part of the Precision Nutrition team, a group of nutrition, exercise and lifestyle professionals helping people lose fat, build lean bodies and improve their performance. To gather more weight-loss tips, check out their free online, five-day video course for women at precisionnutrition.com/fat-loss-for-women.



LIFT TO LOSE

The Soul of a Lifter is born - 8 years old

I was so proud of my son picking up 5 lb DB's yesterday and asking me if he could lift them. HELL YES!!

I taught him to do DB Curls and Shoulder Presses and also taught him to slow down the movement, control the form (create tension) and take rest between sets.

He is hooked. His Soul of a Lifter is very happy and it's just the beginning.

"Keep lifting" Zanden!

I Saw A Miracle...

I Saw A Miracle This Week
Gino Arcaro
Author, Soul of A Lifter

One of my mentors, coaches, colleagues & friends

Actually, two. I saw two miracles this week. My granddaughter Violet is 11 months old. Yesterday, she walked up to my 5 lb. barrel of protein powder. She grabbed the handle and deadlifted it. The barrel was empty but heavy is relative. On her second rep, she broke out in the biggest smile I have ever witnessed in my life. And she kept smiling during her 3rd rep and 4th rep and 5th rep.

For her second set, she pushed it like a blocking sled, driving it across the floor for 10 yards, cheering herself on. Her third set was the toughest – upright rows. Four reps. Strict form, no cheating. Under control, she put it back on floor. She didn’t slam it, drop it, or smash it to the ground. No, she put it down under control. Even an infant knows the positives of the negative rep – lower the weight under control, don’t slam it to the ground endangering yourself and everyone around you.

Then, the adrenaline rush. Clapping her hands, waving her arms…the baby pump, that magical feeling when the switch goes on and all is well in the world.
Thirty minutes later, we went to the park. I witnessed another miracle. Violet sprinted the equivalent of two football fields. Smiling, cheering, waving wildly…poor arm form, questionable stride length but here’s the miracle part – she never quit. Never made excuses. Never whined, never complained. Never mouthed off, no intolerable attitude. No sense of entitlement, not a hint of laziness. She finished her wind sprints happier than when she started them.

I have been blessed to have coached thousands of student-athletes, blessed to have taught thousands of wannabe cops, blessed to have seen some amazing performances but I have never seen anything like Violet’s workout. Less than one year on planet Earth and already passionate above lifting and running. I thank God Almighty for the miracle of cell phone cameras so I can replay it over and over and over. Reps of pure joy.

I have devoted my entire adult life urging other peoples’ children to lift and run and play hard. I have pleaded with them to not waste their gifts…to unleash everything they have, to not bury their talents. And I have pleaded with them to love it…pleaded with them to embrace their blessings of great health and to love lifting and love running and love playing hard together. Some listened, some didn’t.
I’m still dedicating my life to those things but now I’m adding one more – I’m devoting every ounce of energy I’ve got to make sure that Violet never loses her passion for lifting hard and running hard, never stops smiling, laughing, and waving her arms wildly, never buries her gifts and talents, never falls under the influence of gloom, doom, and negativity, and most of all…never loses her soul of a lifter.

Keep lifting Violet…lift as many souls as you can, every minute, every day. Never stop lifting, Violet.

I am reading Soul of a Lifter right now... I can't put it down. I now know myself better and my conflicts through much of my lift... not a conflict at all... just the Soul of a Lifter.

Gino will be speaking at the next LE Gathering the weekend of November 19th in Huntington Beach California. He is an impactful speaker... forever changed by his words and his influence.

The Vanity Thread

Inspired by Christina Aguilera's song VANITY, some of my Lean Eating ladies are getting VAIN themselves!

Show off your stuff ladies! Thanks Jen for kicking it off!

The 10 Minute Photo Shoot

Photo Shoots can be stressful, especially to the "rookie" model. The secret to having a great experience sometimes is to not know what you are in for and just GO WITH IT!







Recently at the Lean Eating Gathering in Niagara-on-the-Lake, two of my Lean Eating clients, Sheri and Catherine, did just that - they embrace an opportunity, they felt the fear and did it anyways, they seized the moment and they had an amazinhttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifg outcome and experience.http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif

In 10 minutes, Sun to Earth Photography, (Scott and I) transformed them with a little make-up, hair, accessories and ask them to simply live in the moment.

Sometimes the fear of something is greater than that which we fear.

Amazing job ladies! You look amazing and you will inspire other Lean Eaters to simply GO FOR IT!