Becoming Super Woman

I love doing what most people don't do and the idea of being a woman with a LOT of upper body strength, is ridiculously appealing to me.  Especially, given my interest, in things like, gymnastics, pole dance and circus aerials, where you have to climb ropes and silks, repeatedly. and support your body weight in a number of positions and tricks including the occasional one handed trick... It teaches you very early on how little strength you actually have. To improve that, we typically end aerials classes with conditioning, that almost always includes 10 pull ups.  I'm still at a consecutive unassisted 3 pull ups, but...

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Gyms and Boxes

I know, I know its been a while.  In fairness, I wrote a few posts, and thought I set them to auto post but apparently did not.  The others will pop up at random in the coming months, but I'm not really sure what to do about one in particular from my Cinco de Mayo weekend.  Its a great post and I'd hate to deprive you of it. So try not to side eye me too much when it pops up in mid August.  :) Meanwhile let me catch you up on what you've been missing.  I've retired my gym rat card.  I realized, that one of the main reasons I lose motivation, especially in the new gym is because its small which limits my choices...

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What motivates your workouts?

Initially, I started l this process to get skinny but lost motivation once I started liking how I looked again.  It wasn't until I discovered aerials that my workouts, especially my lifting, became important me because it made me prioritize being strong over being thinner.  So I could have the strength to do things like climb the silks, or flip myself upside down. All the way to the top! I would still love to be thinner but I know that my efforts to get stronger will also burn fat and help me get thinner.  Now that I'm approximately 12 days from resuming my Aerials classes, I'm far more motivated in the...

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Are shrimp dumplings healthy if you make them yourself?

This probably shouldn't be on my list of recipes to try, but how freaking yummy does that look?!?!?  I might sub in ground chicken or turkey for the pork and give this a whirl!  Shrimp Dumplings (adapted from Taste and Tell): Recipe from: http://damndelicious.tumblr.com/post/43551512932/shrimp-dumplings Yields 36 dumplings INGREDIENTS: 1 pound shrimp, peeled, deveined and diced 8 ounces ground pork 1 cup shredded green cabbage 2 green onions, thinly sliced 1 tablespoon freshly grated ginger 1 teaspoon sesame oil 1 teaspoon mirin Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste 36 gyoza/pot sticker wrappers 2...

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Food For thought: Two Sketches

 In this video, women described themselves to a sketch artist that couldn't see them. He then drew them based on their descriptions and on OTHER people's descriptions.  This video below reminded me to be more cognizant of the fact that I like most people, especially women, are our biggest critics.  We often see flaws where there are none. Remember its easy to look at how far you have left to go in your fitness journey, when you should really be looking at how far you've come. Moral of the story: You are more beautiful than you think.  What would your two sketches look like? Candyd...

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Love and Prayers for Boston

Surely by now you all have heard about the tragedy that happened at the Boston Marathon.  My heart and prayers go out to all the victims of this tragedy, especially those who previously endured the massacre at Sandy Hook elementary school.  I encourage you all to follow up your prayers donations to Red Cross. http://www.redcross.org/charitable-donations and for any of you out there who are still unable to find or reach loved ones. The following link provides some great websites to aid you in your search. http://mashable.com/2013/04/15/boston-marathon-person-finder/ Praying for a brighter tomorrow, Candy...

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A Review: Ellie

Not too long ago, I discovered Ellie and wrote a really excited blog post about it (here!) So you can imagine how excited I was to be offered the opportunity to try two free items from their March Little Black collection! Can I just say how much I am loving the fact that their whole line is black!?!?!? And lord knows my fat needs a funeral!! I'm also loving that the April collection which debuts soon will be mostly coral colored. My new Ellie gear!  After much debating, I finally settled on the Black to the Future sports bra and Dark Matter Leggings, I also now own the "Just Like Heaven" tee (shown) and the "My New Obsession"...

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Lesson learned: Don't be a gym snob

As a female who lifts, I'm a bit of an oddity at the gym.  The guys initially don't know what to make of me, and the girls assume I'm a gym snob who's going to look down on them. (and I guess I do sometimes)  Having just switched gyms, I'm more conscious of this perception and generally try to be nice and speak to everyone at the gym.   So I walked into the locker room and chatted up a woman who was there.  I've seen her around the gym, she's not in great shape but she's there on a regular basis giving it her all, which I respect, immensely.  We make the standard gym chit chat about how we'd rather be outside enjoying...

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Good Eats!!

I've been lying to you all.  I've been saying I'm getting my life/diet together but I was not!  In the past 2 weeks I've had both the Cool Ranch and regular taco bell Doritos locos taco. Peanut butter chocolate chip bars, and muffins from the cafeteria at work, Chocolate chip and sugar cookies, Pizza, Ham, Mac and Cheese, french fries, ice cream sandwiches, and lots of alcohol.  Its been bad, and it took a friend asking why I hadn't been posting recently to really make me take a look at what I was doing and correct my behavior. Thankfully that conversation led to me officially getting firmly back on the wagon! I know,...

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My "ultimate" challenge

Last week, I mentioned a few of my personal challenges but neglected to mention that the pull up part of my challenge its a part of a larger challenge of mine to be able to a muscle up.  Just because the former gymnast in me (Don't be impressed, I wasn't Gabby Douglas or anything, I think I took gymnastics for about a year or 2 when I was about 5) but nevertheless I feel like I should be able to do one.  Yep, I am aware thats kind of an illogical assessment, but it doesn't change my thoughts on the matter.  I'm positive that I can and will be able to do one, chalk it up to positive thinking. :)  So I've been perusing you tube and stumbled across a lot of great videos but I like the exercises and advice he suggests to practice.  I'm also fascinated by the fact he...

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Healthy cooking ideas

So what you may or may not know about me is that I love to cook, but typcially I like recipes with lots of fat, butter, sugar, etc.  Recently, I've come to terms with my new healthy lifestyle and the fact that I need to start finding healthier ways to cook my favorite foods. On Thursday RR had a bunch of teeth pulled which means he's due for a long few days of apple sauce, jello, and soup.  So on wednesday night I decide to make him a last meal that's a little more memorable than our standard baked chicken and broccoli.   So I perused a website my Sister in law recommended and decided the Cajun Chicken recipe would be an appropriately...

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Whats your Somatype?

Until about a year ago, I had always thought the different body types were apple, hourglass and pear shapes.  Fortunately, I was enlightened by a gym friend and former body builder that there are different body types that deal more with our muscle mass and less with where we happen to carry our fat. Ectomorph            Mesomorph             Endomorph I think the above picture is a pretty fair representation of the three somatypes, but its not etched in stone. Its important to remember that everyone is different and there is middle ground. I'd say I'm more on the endomorph end...

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Upperbody Strength: My Circus Obession

Hola fit friends, I think I've said it before but I am obsessed with all things Circus related. I had planned to re-enroll in circus aerials by now, however I'm waiting until April for my friend, Mary, to catch up to my level. So I'm in a little bit of circus withdrawal.  Fortunately, April is JUST around the corner and I'm gearing up to get in shape for Aerials.  Which means, that I need to stop slacking on upper body days.  Last time I talked about upper body strength, I focused primarily on biceps.  But obviously, you need more than strong arms to balance yourself on someone's forehead. You know... if you're...

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My Crossfit Experience

The crossfit gym, or the sanctuary as they call it Thanks to groupon, I have 10 crossfit classes at the "local" crossfit gym. I use the word local, very loosely because its about 30 min from my house, assuming there's no traffic on 95.  But I live in Delaware, so that's actually relatively close. (sigh!)  Anywho, I did my first class on Saturday morning, it was a Crossfit bootcamp they call RivFit. My initial impression is that I love it, and will probably be sad when my 10 classes are up!!  As a gym rat, one of my weaknesses is my lack of stamina.  I do maybe 20 min of cardio every time I'm in the gym and...

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Confessions

I have a confession, "My name is Candydiva04 and I'm a French Fry-aholic!" According to every TV show I've watched this is where you all say "Hi Candydiva" ;) As a french fry addict I just had to share this photo when I saw it on Google +, because its something I would have done (in my fatter days), but only dream of doing now, lol. So imagine my surprise when a friend explained that  McDonald's is offering a deal in Japan where you can order any size fry for ¥150.  That's approximately $1.60 US dollars.  So kids are buying lots large and extra large fries and taking pictures with them.  Which is whats going on in this...

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