when in a rut....dig yourself out

Ruts..... what I've been in for almost a week. I've been trying to get out of it for the past few days and yesterday had a revelation....CHANGE!

I joined a class at the gym! It starts in a week and a half and its 8 weeks long but it did renew my drive to succeed. It got me excited again, I'm actually excited to start this class and see what challenges it has for me....and pretty sure thats what I needed. For the past couple months I've been doing the same routine, this has stirred things up. 

Thank goodness! Because I was almost worried that I would be spiraling back to the dark side. My motivation is back and lets just hope the excitement lasts the entire 8 weeks of this class!

Me against myself

100% mental

That's what weight loss is. 30% exercise 70% diet but 100% mental

Meaning you have to give 200% each and every day.

This is not what I did today, that 3 day hiatus did not just kill my body, it killed my drive. I half got back into it Tuesday, let myself take yesterday to do housework(excuse) and today I didn't get to workout at my usual time, so when I went to the gym it was too crowded, I got cranky an talked myself put if working out as hard as I could have...lame

And I'm disappointed in myself, I know it's mental at this point, just need to get back into the swing of things.

Tomorrow is a new day, and no excuses

caved...but

As sad as it is to admit....I fell off the bandwagon. Yeah it happened.....for 3 days! 3 days!

Day one started alright, I woke up early, went for a jog and things started out great.

Then the beer happened, and lots of it. We went to what is simliar to a small town mardi gras festival complete with chili and beer....did I mention lots of beer? The rest is a blur of shots and beer and some bar foods to top it off....and that was day one.

Day two I could barely get out of bed, my body is not use to that kind of drinking anymore. But to help with the hangover I went to a family bbq that I fully enjoyed myself at. Then work, ate healthy there at least.

Day three, bad food at a new restaurant with my family....and regret right after. blah

So...today, I HAD to get back on the bandwagon. Oh I didn't want to....trust me I was talking myself out of it, and as convincing as I was, there was something that I had to keep remembering....this was a set back. Set backs will happen, not something I'm proud of. But it happened and instead of spiraling back to how things were I need to keep looking at the bigger picture and go back to the healthier changes I had made. So I drug my lazy butt to the gym, did some cardio and strength training and felt better.

3 days of bad decisions does not mean I go back to being miserable and gaining back all the good I've done. I might gain something....I'm prepared for it, my weigh day is tomorrow. But it doesn't mean this is over...not even close. 3 days out of a couple months is definitely better that how I lived before.

This is a life change...not a temporary fix! Learn and move on

eat, and eat, and eat

wth! Pretty sure my stomach shrank! Last night at work I ordered a pizza(thin crust ham, not terribly unhealthy) with a co-worker....and after 2 slices of a medium I was stuffed! That never happened before, but I have changed what I need at one time, small portions do help. I eat ALL the time, I've been working out a lot, but am always eating!

The difference is that when I eat, I eat small portions and TRY to make healthy decisions. Noticing a change is great! I'm excited to get to my goals.

I've found a renewed love of running and have been kicking the idea around of a half marathon.....but we'll see, that's a long term goal!

put down the chips and no one gets hurt...

Journal of Consumer Research reports, people who ate an apple instead of chocolate for dietary reasons were more likely to choose violent movies over milder ones....this must be why no one wants to be around a dieter!!!

I'll be the first to admit, when I'm hungry, I'm cranky! No one wants to be around me, or should for that matter. And I've noticed that since my fitness level has increased, I seem to want to eat ALL the time. This is something I'm finding hard to do when in my mind, I want to eat less to loose weight.

Last week I tested this, ate when I was hungry, watched portions, made good choices....and even with a Saturday night out drinking with friends last week(more beer than I want to admit) I managed to loose weight!!!

Trying to get into the mindset that food is not the enemy(many modern diets seem to have tried to convince us otherwise) an instead something I use to fuel my body and continue on the loosing cycle is harder than I thought.

I am still indulging every now and then but just trying to be more conscious about it...for instance I ate one yummy chocolate peanut butter heart instead of the entire package of ten!

If it was easy, everyone would do it....

Mind over matter is one of the hardest things to try and overcome, so many times we talk ourselves out of doing something we know we can or should be doing.

On the treadmill today, I found myself trying to talk myself out of doing the workout I had planned. I was jogging coming up with all sorts of reasons why I should quit early....I was tired, I was out late drinking last night, I should be doing something else....man was I convincing! It took everything I had to get myself to shut up and just suck it up. And the thoughts that made me do it were the reasons why I was doing this in the first place. I kept trying to convince myself otherwise and telling myself I wasn't ready for this long(well long for me) jog then I realized, if it were easy....everyone would do it. That right there is what got me through it.

If it were easy, I wouldn't have quit over and over and over again. If it were easy, the weight loss market wouldn't be a multi-billion dollar market.

And to be quite honest, I'm damn fed up with easy, I'm ready and can't wait for people to look at me and go...."damn!" yep, that's my motivation.

Keep yours in mind next time you think you want to cut that workout short, or cut it out altogether.

Pants on the ground!!!!!

You would think that me increasing my endurance on the treadmill or increasing the amount I lifted would make me happy at the gym but no....it was the moment my lazy fat sweat pants were falling off my hips while I was running!!!

Yes, the annoying hike of the pants every now and then while running made my day! And even though the scale is moving, it's doing it at a pace that would normally make me give up at this time, but instead I'm celebrating!

My slow success I'm attributing to.....planning. When I know I have a day coming up that may be bad for my diet I know that I need to work out a little before in order to counteract anything I do.

For instance this weekend, I know I will be going out for drinks and in order to allow myself to do that I'm going to go do some extra cardio earlier in the day. One thing I'm not going to do is starve myself! Starving myself in order to counteract drinking is a counterproductive approach, and will actually slow my metabolism down even more.

Saturday morning(by morning I mean 3pm) I plan in going an putting in an hour of cardio in, and still continue to eat how I normally would. This way I keep my metabolism going all while counteracting my indulgences.

Well see how it works. One thing I learned from last week is definitely not to go overboard with the eating, I felt so sick Monday after Super Bowl that it was not worth it. I'll still eat right and just indulge in a few drinks, I'm not depriving myself of anything but I'm still doing better than the old me.

And hopefully I won't wake up Sunday regretting everything.....

Super Bowl of barf!!!

The only other day of the year Americans over eat besides Thanksgiving is Super Bowl Sunday....

The chips and dip, wings galore, stuffed jalapeños and enough beer to fill a small pool....temptations hit us every year. This year, because I decided to make a life change I decided I'd take a proactive approach to Super Bowl and work out prior to eating, and since I have been doing real well for a month now I could indulge some....well some turned into a little more than I probably should have....

The result was me sick the whole next day, I really think that my body was not use to me eating foods like that and overindulging worked against me. All day I was miserable and swearing against the devil wings I ate.

But I deserved it, I learned to do things in moderation and then I go overboard and pay. Lesson learned! Moderation is key!!!

Since my slip I've gone back to my healthier habits and feel so much better! Back into the working out routine and today I felt amazing!

This really is a permanent change, and if I had any doubts about that before those doubts are out the window!!!

Never forget....moderation is key!