Thrilling Dirty-Tub Drama

I’m never going to win an award for world’s best housekeeper, but every so often my Type-A personality looks around my dirty house and says “I’m going to conquer this mess”. Then I spend a day not cleaning, but coming up with a battle-plan. I meticulously itemize every area in the house that needs to be clean and assign it to a schedule. The last time I did this I scheduled the bathroom cleanup on Tuesdays.

The first week it worked like a charm. The second week, not so much. I didn’t consider the fact that on Tuesdays I work a full eight-hour day, come home to eat, and then run out for three hours to work at one of my part-time jobs. By the time I get home I am tired and sweaty and the last thing I want to do is clean my bathroom. So the second Tuesday I got home and said “Eff this, I’m not cleaning my bathroom”. Not the type to give up completely, I tried half-heartedly to stick to my “perfect” schedule for another few weeks, but eventually the bathroom got repeatedly neglected and my tub built up a nice layer of grime.

My Genius Solution

If you stick with me here on the blog you’ll see that I push “rest, recovery, and stress management” like it’s the new crack. My bathtub is critical for my own personal rest, recovery, and stress management. A hot bath before bed does all kinds of great circulatory things for my muscles, gives me some quiet de-stress time, and also primes my body for a great sleep. I freaking LOVE a hot bath before bed, but I can’t enjoy one in a filthy tub.

Eventually I had to accept that I was not a domestic goddess and that Tuesdays were not good days to clean my bathroom. So here’s what I did: I stopped fussing over the big-picture, and just focused on having a clean tub. To achieve this I came up with a novel idea: take a scrub-pad into the shower with me. Seriously. When I shower I grab a little SOS scouring pad from a box under my bathroom sink. When I’m done cleaning my beautiful self I just bend down and scrub the tub, and all the grit rinses away. It’s so clever I should win an award.

How to Clean Your Tub

I bet you’re expecting a dry and informative step-by-step on cleaning your tub now, but you are going to be disappointed. This whole story, though true, was just a metaphor for your own lifestyle habits. I’m talking to all you ladies who have done the on-a-program/off-a-program dance again and again. You pick the perfect program, plan a week’s worth of perfect meals, coordinate the perfect outfit, and then you fail (perfectly). That’s because PERFECT IS THE ENEMY OF GOOD!

The 2 Keys to a Clean Tub Success

Here’s the gold at the end of the rainbow ladies. Apply this formula to your workouts, your sleep, your eating. Use this on whatever your own personal “dirty tub” is.

1. Focus on the most important thing. Instead of being obsessed with getting it all right you have to chip away all the extraneous bits and find the core of what you want to achieve. For me it was a clean tub. Not a clean house, not even a clean bathroom, just the tub. You probably don’t want to see a picture of my toilet as proof, just believe me when I tell you my tub is the most sanitary fixture in my house.

2. Make the plan work for you. The “perfect” time to work out is not first thing in the morning, the “perfect” workout is not a formulaic mix of strength and cardio at the “perfect” heart rate. The “perfect” meal doesn’t require you to calculate macronutrient ratios down to the decimal point. The PERFECT PLAN IS THE ONE THAT IS MOST CONVENIENT FOR YOU! For me that means working out at my lunch break, eating the same boring breakfast every morning, and not beating myself up for taking an extra rest day. If you aren’t sticking with it, find a new it.

What is Your Dirty Tub?

Confession is good for the soul, so cough it up. Do you have a “dirty tub” and what is it? Are you focused on the tub or the whole bathroom? Can you remember a time when your dirty tub was always shiny and clean? Can you identify the WHY and HOW it worked for you then? Share your answers in the comments.

• Reading: Be More.Do More.Live More – http://bit.ly/aV36Az WE DO NOT DO ENOUGH TO HONOR OURSELVES #
• Recipe: Paleo/Primal Lasagna – http://bit.ly/9SZ2fe ~ I'm thinking this, but with some kind of cashew cheese… #
• Reading: Work vs. Passion – http://bit.ly/dwNI24 ~ I dig the graphs and analogies! #
• I know I shouldn't feed my dog "people food", but does kale really count? Puppy just munched up a kale stalk and is back for more. #
• Hm, two recipe tweets and a recipe RT in half an hour? I think it's food time for Amy. #
• Recipe: Bacon Wrapped Tenderloin. Is there anything that isn't improved with bacon? http://bit.ly/aJZcb4 #
• I can never seem to get chicken stock right, but this recipe might get me to try again: http://bit.ly/9H5qNW #
• Recipe: The Cauliflower Chronicles Part 3 http://eatmovethrive.blogspot.com/2008/10/cauliflower-chronicles-part-3_05.html #
• Choose Your Path and Follow It…or Else! http://www.ridiculouslyextraordinary.com/choose-your-path-and-follow-it/ #
• CrossFit or Seizure? (video) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rgH_ZoMOht8&NR=1 #

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This is too hilarious!

There are just no words. I guess it’s a good workout, with or without the hello kitty thong.

I can’t count the number of women I’ve had “the talk” with. No, not birds and bees talk, the talk where I try to sell them on the awesomeness of not just lifting weights, but lifting heavy weights.

The talk is usually delivered shortly after they ask me what exercises they can do to loose weight, flatten their stomachs, tone their thighs, etc. When I tell them that adding some good heavy weight lifting is the best change they can make for their problem they either glaze over or look confused.

I don’t blame them. Any woman exposed to the “knowledge” that is floating around in the mainstream fitness world says that boys lift weights and girls do cardio and strippersize. Any information that does advise women to lift weights warns them that doing many repetitions with lighter weights is the only way for women to lift without “bulking up.” This is when I glaze over and look confused.

Most of my time in “the talk” is spent explaining what weight lifting will NOT do for women. Here I’d like to stress five very positive reasons, practical and aesthetic, why women should lift weights:

1. Weight Loss
Lifting heavy or “challenging” weights builds muscle. The more muscle on your body the more calories it burns, even when you’re not exercising. Depending on your metabolism, an extra pound of muscle can make your body burn between ten to fifty calories per day. If you had three more pounds of muscle on you right now, that could burn just as many calories as a twenty-minute walk EVERY DAY!

2. Functional strength
There is a sense of pride and security that comes with knowing how much weight you can lift from the floor, push away from your chest, or carry across a room on your back. Most women are strong enough to handle every-day strength requirements like carrying groceries but are unsure how capable they might be in an emergency situation. The question I always ask is “Would you be able to pick up your child, if hurt, and carry them to safety?” It’s a question that illustrates that lifting weight has practical reasons as well as health and aesthetic.

3. Bone Density
As we age, particularly after menopause, we become increasingly susceptible to bone fractures and osteoporosis. Weight-bearing exercise stimulates bone growth. As you put demands on your bones through weight-lifting they become stronger and denser. Resistance exercises have been shown to protect against and even reverse the loss of bone density associated with age, menopause, and other risk factors.

4. Muscle Definition
If you are primarily concerned about your looks you still have nothing to fear in the weight room. Lifting heavy weights can give you firmness where things are jiggly and lift areas that are sagging. Upper-body work can give you shapely arms and prevent the dreaded ‘bat wings.’ Lower-body work can give you definition in your calves and perk up your derriere. What lifting weights will NOT do is give you bulging she-hulk muscles. Women simply do not have the natural testosterone required to form that kind of bulk.

5. Self Esteem
Weight lifting is great for the ego. It offers many milestones, big and small, that you can celebrate and feel proud of. You should keep a written account of your “Personal Records” for each major lift you attempt. If you’re new to weight lifting then chances are good you’ll be able to hit a new personal record each week for several months. There are other milestones you can track as well, such as “lift over 100lbs” or “lift my own bodyweight.” Weightlifting allows for continual improvement, and therefore continual personal gratification.

I could list several more reasons why women should add heavy weight training to their gym routine, but this covers about 99% of the goals that most people want to achieve at the gym. Most people go to the gym to look good and/or be healthier. Weight lifting can do both, and progress can be obvious after just a short amount of time. So what are you waiting for? Get to the weight room and start lifting!