Time for New Beginnings!

New Years is right around the corner and here we are all again faced with the "New Year Resolution". If you have decided like most people what it is going to be, well..... good for you! For those of you who have not I have some words of advice.... 

Pick one that is manageable... 

A wise women just told me pick 2 simple things you can change easily in your daily life... For example I will incorporate a vegetable into 2 of my meals 3 days out of the week...

I will run for 5 minutes each day ( I hate running by the way so this would me a good one for myself)

I will only have 5 drinks each weekend.... 

Whatever it might be make it a little thing that you know you can do and that you are willing to do! People set themselves up for failure before they even begin! I will quite drinking, and then you remember your best friends birthday is in a month and there it goes out the window, I will go to the gym 6 days out of the week, when you currently don't workout at all.

It is great to have a specific GOAL, but we are talking about a resolution something that will stay with you for a lifetime, something to better you as a person, something that makes YOU happy!!

Goals are great but most have deadlines, and are forever changing.... to I want to lose 15 lbs to I want to be a triathlete, all great things!!! Like I said though they are forever changing, and you want this to forever stay, to become a habit, a way of life! I know I want more then one but for now here is mine...

Writing this Blog is going to help me in so many ways, writing is a great outlet for many, and for me it works, even if no one was reading I would still write. It calms me, makes me feel good. I just hope that I can help someone who was once in my shoes, or just help someone in general. Anyways enough about that, my point is my new years resolution to better me by challenging my knowledge, education, time management skills, and commitment is to...... drumroll please.................................

START BLOGGING 2XWEEK!!!  haha I know it's silly but as on January 1st I would like Tuesdays to be my workout of the week for anyone who would like to try it, and Thursdays are topic days whatever might come about that week like I have been doing!!! As of now this is what I have, and actually.... I just thought of another right now!!! 

I used to do this thing where when I met someone or ran into someone I would always compliment them on something I truly liked. I think I'm going to start that again, it makes someones day to smile at them, but it does one better to tell them that you like there smile, their laugh, their shirt even!!! I like making people happy, so I think that this is a great one!!! 

Remember: Keep it easy, keep it manageable, and keep it true to who you are!!! 

If you love music don't give up your Ipod that's just silly, if you like to eat cake don't give it up find a way to reduce the amount you are eating, a healthy new recipe or add a healthy activity so you can have your cake and eat it too!!! 

Their are too many people who fail, be the one to succeed, if you want to lose 30 lbs, start with 5... or start with going to the gym 2 x week and walking outside 2 x week, it doesn't have to be a number it has to be a habit to make it happen so focus on that and the rest will come!! 

Thanks for dropping by and everyone have a safe and HAPPY New year!!! See you in 2013!!! 

Pistols.....Out

xo

Keeping Your Chin Up!

Keep your chin up, stay positive, look for the light at the end of the tunnel, don't give up, keep going, when one door closes another one opens, everything happens for a reason.... 

These are all things I'm sure we have had people tell us or have even told ourselves. The thing about it is, it has no effect on us unless we truly believe it. If you are stuck on that fact that you have had a strike of bad luck or that this just isn't your day, week, or year.... well my friend I hate to be the barrier of bad news but you are WRONG!!! 

YOU make your own luck! You make your day good or bad! Yes, don't get me wrong bad things happen to the best of us, but it's how you react to the situation that make or breaks you literally! I'll give you three incidences that have happened to me and how I handled them: one personal life, one work, and one health related..... 

Personal: 

I have recently moved to San Francisco as many of you know, and of course 2 months into it... my bank account is beginning to build again (THANK GOD...haha). I drive to work I had parked my car in the marina, went to go move it because of course it's only 2 hour parking. I look around, "I must have parked it one more street down, nope not there".....umm start to panic, yep it's gone..... TOWED!!!!!! BAHHHHHH my whole bank account wiped out, thanks SF. Was I mad at the person who called, was I mad at the city, did I cry.... YES!!! It was the worst, but at the end it was my fault. It wasn't luck or a bad day, I was the idiot not paying attention everyone else was just doing what they needed. Getting there car out of the driveway, doing there job by towing my car, collecting the money, writing the lovely ticket I found on my windshield. The point is I could have sulked about it for weeks, but I look it as a lesson. I was buying extra groceries that were going bad, buying coffee when I could make my own at home, simple things like that. I took this as I need to be more careful with my expenses and just take things a little slower, pay more attention. Maybe there was no lesson, but I found a couple and learned from them. Look for the lesson, if anything it will only make you better. Ok got over that and have $$ back in the bank...... 

Work: 

This happened to me yesterday... let me explain for those who don't know.... I have to sell a certain amount of personal training every month, I am given a goal and I have to hit it. I even have a supplementation goal I have to meet. Anyways I was at $0 as of yesterday afternoon and had a meeting with my boss about it. I have to hit this ###.....HAVE to.... ugh this is the part of my job I hate. Ok so what am I going to do, now I'm stressed I know my clients will be able to see it on my face and I'm gonna be cranky, I refuse, I love all of my clients the deserve the best. I vented about it and decided I can't be a debbie downer and let if effect me. I am leaving to go home on Friday I have to do whatever I can to get that #. That's what I did, I stayed positive and did not push my clients to buy....  I simply let them know where they stand with sessions and asked them to re-sign when they come in. What happened? So far one of my clients has re-signed, I have 3 more, and I'm 1/3 of the way there. BOOM! Yes not all the way, but all I can do is stay positive and try to help my clients and do my job the best I can. It is better then nothing!!! Don't let those things effect your whole day, take it, swallow it, and keep going! 

Health: 

After moving to the city I had gained some weight, of course all due to my poor habits that I couldn't seem to shake. I was on the scale everyday, looking in the mirror, and judging myself. After my competition I have been very harsh on myself always holding myself to that standard. I was betting myself up and literally driving myself insane, doing the same thing and expecting a different result. We all know that's not going to happen. I finally came to terms with myself. When I am ready to get back into it and stop enjoying life to the fullest eating and drinking whatever I want, then it will happen. Sure enough it has, I gave myself some time to be me and enjoy all I wanted. Now I have hit that wall and I feel better then ever. I finally got my motivation back, I'm ready to commit to not drinking and eating natural, no preservatives haha. Will my trainer is setting me up with a wicked plan when I get home and I can't wait. 

We all struggle is my point! We are only here for a short time, so enjoy it! Don't let the small stuff get you, even if it seems like a big deal at the time. Stop, breath, and really think about your life as a whole. Will it matter in 15 years? If yes, then fight for it, do whatever you can to get there, but don't beat yourself up and take it out on others. Stay positive and keep calm, believe in yourself. Ask yourself what you can do to improve the situation, what can you take away from it? Then do it and move forward. What happened a second ago is already in the past, so don't move backwards always move forwards! I hope that this helps!!! Until next time....

Pistols.....Out

xo

Gettin' That Goal

Motivation is the psychological feature that arouses an organism to act toward a desired goal and elicits, controls, and sustains certain goal directed behaviors.  It is something we all are longing for whether we know it or not. 

We blame our lack of motivation on time, energy, money, feeling insecurities, etc, the list could go on. You need to awaken your inner beast, find a goal you want to attain, pick a date in which you want to achieve this goal.

Now the trick here is to start with small attainable goals!! Yes, pick a long term goal, but with out short terms goals you are more likely to fail. This is true for whatever your goal is, but for the purpose of this entry we are talking training goals!! Lose weight, tone up, run a marathon things like that! NOW.... Pick your goal!!! Got it? Ok! Now it's time to go get it!! 

Give yourself a fighting chance! 

1. Always believe in yourself (no matter what anyone tells you!!! Really!!) If you don't believe in yourself who will, you are your best friend and your own worst enemy! Keep your chin up!

2. You are going to need a great support team! Anyone who puts you down or has no faith in you needs to be cut! You don't want those people around anyways they are only holding you back from being the best you, usually because they are secretly jealous of what they know you can accomplish.... GREATNESS! Your true friends and supporters will be there every step of the way! 

3. Game Plan!!! Ok you need to figure out how you are going to do it!! Obviously right! Yes, but be as specific as you can! For example if your goal is to lose 10 pounds, you can agree to do intervals on the stair mill for 20 minutes, 6 days a week, at level 7, and increase a level every week. As well as agree to consuming 500 less calories a day to insure your loss! Why 500 you ask? 3,500 calories = 1 pound! 

4. Log!!!!!! I know it is tedious and almost every person on the planet hates to do it!! FIND A WAY!!!! Keep track of your exercise, what you are eating, and even how you are feeling! Doing this will allow you to see the little hiccups that occur that at the time you don't think matter. However, when you go back and log it in a food log or a workout log you might see a different side!!! 

5. Stay positive! 

6. Make a damn good playlist to keep yourself motivated!! 

7. Have a reward system!! Anything but food!! A great example when I lose 5 pounds I will buy myself a new pair of shoes, when I lose 10 pounds I will buy myself a new pair of jeans!!! You can also set up a demerit system so every day you do not meet the daily goal you have set you put a dollar in a jar, when that jar fills donate the money to your favorite charity!  

8. This is VERY IMPORTANT!!! HAVE FUN!!

 

Now that you have a goal and some rules to help you go out and kick some ass, like I know you can!!! If you have any questions or need some support feel free to e-mail me at ahibencrunch@gmail.com! 

Pistols....Out

xo

Hi My Name is Ashley... My Friends Call me Pistols!

Hello!!!

Hope you are having a great day!!! I thought I would start my first blog with an introduction of who I am, and why I decided to start writing a blog. Give you a sense of who I am.....

My name is Ashley Hiben and I am 24 years old, a new resident here in the great city of San Francisco. Where did I move from you ask.... Albuquerque, New Mexico home of amazing sunsets and bomb food!!! I am a personal trainer and I love every minute of it. Helping people has always been a passion of mine, so now that I am able to actually see my work help people, there is no better feeling or reward.

Now let me tell you how I ended up here as quickly as I can...

Middle school was awful,  I know for some people it was great. I am not one of those people. I was 12 years old and 145 lbs. I will never forget how that felt. I weighed as much as my mother, NOT OK!!! This really brought down my self esteem and of course as middle school kids do, they name called and teased. In turn this taught me lots of lessons (I will touch on them later, made me a great person though)... however the most important note to take from this entry is it started me on my vigorous fitness path... I was motivated to be "HOT", right? like every 12 year old... I wanted to be like "Britney". (yes it's ok to laugh, I am)...

I played soccer for 10 years starting when I was 5 years old. In between I played almost every sport there was, as well as danced and touched some gymnastics. However, soccer was my vice, sadly my freshmen year of high school I pulled my hip flexer....No fun. This lead me to every high school girls dream, I became a...... CHEERLEADER!!! Yes a cheerleader... I traded in my cleats for pom-poms!

What can I say folks I like to dance... and no matter what people think, actually competing as a cheerleader is hard work. Tossing girls in the air, putting up stunts, tumbling, and dancing can wear a person out. Moving on......

College.... I was TERRIFIED of gaining the freshmen 15!! I had worked so hard throughout high school to get in shape I wasn't about to lose all that hard work. Of course at that time you can eat whatever you want, do 5 sit-ups, and your good to go! Anyways, I became obsessed with burning calories... I'm talking 3 hours on the cardio machine, burning 1,200 calories each session, as well as not intaking calories... : /  I was 115 lbs at 5'4. Sounds good right?

WRONG..... I was what is called "skinny fat" (we'll talk about this later). To fulfill my obsession I decided it would be a good idea to take a nutrition class!

AWAKENING!!!!!!!! I was starving myself not giving myself enough nutrients and fainting all over the place thinking I was fine!!! This class saved my life I'm convinced! I was headed down a dark path filled with tons of horrible internal consequences!!! After this I decided to change my focus from elementary education to...... dun, dun, dun, dun....EXERCISE SCIENCE!!!  YAY!!!!!

Studied at UNM under wonderful, world renown exercise scientists, with an amazing laboratory that allowed me to conduct experiments and tests other students in this focus dream of. I graduated December of 2012 a year ago almost to date!! Also, I am taking my NASM certification test on Monday!!! EXCITING!!(wish me luck, please)....

I lived my life for 8 months doing what I wanted and training on the side.... I picked up a trainer, a great man, Will Duran! He lead me into the direction of fitness competitions and so, I competed. Placing 4th out of 40 overall in the model division, and 2nd in the short class division. In the midst of all this I feel madly in love with a wonderful man and moved to the great city of SF (where I had always known I belonged, I visited often throughout my life).

Now here I am writing to you... WHY?! the most important question.... because I gained almost 20 lbs after my move. From drinking and eating as every San Franciscan should be doing, and with minimal exercise to counterbalance it.

I have decided to get back into, drop the weight, and tone up!! I will be writing about anything from nutritional recipes, workouts, my daily struggles, and anything and everything that has to do with getting into shape and staying there!!! I hope you enjoy!!

Thanks for taking your time to read this, and I promise the following entrees won't be as lengthy!!!

Health and Happiness,

Pistols... Out!
xo