Although I technically moved back home to Framingham, MA in December 2013, I still consider it part of this "year in review". I left New Jersey after 6 months to come back home and started a part-time job as a Fitness Specialist for LifeStart Wellness Network, a corporate health and wellness company. I had been trying to get a job like this since I graduated college, so I was pretty excited about it. 2014 started out a little rough, I was still getting used to a new schedule and big changes. Once I got in my groove, everything turned around. I was eating well and following my training plan. I felt great and looked great! I trained for a competition in April, in Ithaca, NY. Although I didn't do as well as I hoped to, I hit a squat and deadlift PR and placed first in my division. After that competition, I started online training with John Gaglione and had a huge improvement overall in all my lifts. I joined the 1st Phorm Athlete Search and "met" (on social media) so many inspiring people through that that have helped motivate me and have supported me. I moved out of my parent's house to Somerville in September and, a week later, started my current job as a full-time Fitness Specialist for FitCorp. This is where I was met with a lot of challenges. Again, I had to adjust to a new schedule and to living in the city. The biggest adjustment was giving up the freedom of having a car and learning to depend on trains and buses. My training and my health suffered. But, I continued to train and never missed a workout through this time which is something I'm very proud of. My next competition was just a few weeks ago at the beginning of December in Long Island. I hit squat and bench PRs, but again was not happy with my performance. I know I have to make a lot of changes in 2015, and I've never been more motivated to do so.
So, what's the plan for 2015?
First things first, I need to get healthy. This means going to a doctor and assessing my hernia situation. In the meantime, I'm going to continue training and working on my weak spots. I obviously can't lift heavy (UGH), so I'm going to be focusing on lighter weights, higher reps. I've actually already been doing this since the competition, and so far it's going well! I'm not going to let this medical issue prevent me from training-instead I'm going to find ways to work around it and make sure I don't lose too much. As far as my training goals and competitive future, I'm not making any plans to compete again until I feel ready. I don't want to leave a meet anymore feeling like I could have done better. I've set goals for myself and once I hit them I'll feel ready to compete again. I'm hoping that will be sometime in the summer or fall. There's no reason for me to rush into JUST to compete. I'd rather prepare long and well than feel shitty about my performance.
Since I'm not going to be stressing about training for a competition, I'm going to focus almost entirely on my diet. Since I moved to the city, I have REALLY been slacking in this area. It's just straight-up laziness-no point in sugarcoating it. It's hard to go grocery shopping without a car, and most nights I just don't feel like cooking anything (plus its hard when you go from having mom and dad cooking your dinner to having to cook it yourself). I'm going to work on making a real lifestyle change in the new year. I can do extreme dieting for when I need to cut down, but none of those actually stick. Last year I did IIFYM and it worked really well for me. I fell off the IIFYM wagon after my competition in April and never really got back on. For Christmas, I received a Nutribullet and a spiralizer and I can't wait to start using them! I'm hoping this makes it easier to prepare healthy food ahead of time and make me more inclined to eat it! I'm also planning on using the slow-cooker more. My roommate has one but I've never used it. I've already started looking up recipes and have a bunch lined up for the new year.
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Speaking of nutrition, a few months ago I signed up for the pre-sale of the Precision Nutrition course for March. I've officially decided that I am going to do it, so starting in March I'll be studying nutrition and actually learning about it! This is going to be great not only for my career, but also for my personal health and wellness. I can't wait. PN is the best nutrition certification out there. I did a ton of research when trying to pick a nutrition certification to do. I've heard so many great things about PN and heard one of the founders speak at the Cressey seminar in September. I also know a few people who have it and they agree that PN is the, bar none, the best one to get. I'm very excited to start it!!
My other big goal for the new year is to do better with this blog! I've been slacking on updating it and I think it's because I've just been bored of it. There's only so much I can say about my training each week before it becomes repetitive! So I'm going to start adding other things to this. I'll probably post about food and share the recipes I'm trying out. Since I am TRX certified, I think I'm also going to start a weekly feature "TRX Exercise of the Week". Would people be interested in that?? If anyone has any other ideas of things you would like to see on here, please let me know! I'm very open to suggestions :) I'll still be writing about my workouts and such, but with other things thrown in there to mix it up!
So that's my plan. I'm looking forward to this year and I think it will be one of my best years yet. I've never been in a better place personally, socially, and mentally. I'm so happy and things can only go up from here. I can't wait until I start feeling better and (hopefully) looking better! I'm kicking off 2015 down on Cape Cod with my family, my aunt, uncle, and cousins, and my amazing boyfriend. I can't wait! I hope you all have a safe and happy New Year. Here's to the future!!
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