Where the Rubber Meets the Road: Knuckling Down and Getting it Done

I have made a personal choice for fitness to be a big part of my life. Part of that has to do with where I live now - Colorado - where I'm surrounded by athletes, both amateur and professional, on a daily basis. Part of that also has to do with vanity -- I like the comments I get from my current level of fitness. Another part has to do with the example I want to set for my kids.

When we first moved here, I was intimidated. I come from the Midwest, Ohio specifically, where all of our family events revolved around food. I look back at pictures of my heavier self and I see "soft." I would go through times of better and worse fitness, better and worse eating, weighing more or maybe a little less. It was a back and forth I was constantly battling, and I wasn't at all sure how to break the cycle. I just knew I didn't like feeling soft. I didn't like being out of breath by just dashing up the stairs for something (an effect that was magnified a zillion times when we moved to high altitude!). That was not acceptable to me.

So I started by not wanting to huff and puff going up the stairs. Now I'm doing things for fitness I swore I'd never do (yes, I do remember that I said -- probably somewhere on this blog -- that I'd NEVER run, and now I am).

The bottom line is deciding what's acceptable to you. If you're OK with how you look and feel, that's great! I wasn't.

If you're not happy with it, what sacrifices are you willing to make? Because it will require sacrifice.

Have I gone to an event and not eaten what they had there? Yes. Have I gone to someone's house for dinner and taken my own food? Yes. Have I eaten nothing when everyone else around me is eating cake and ice cream? Yes.

How did I feel when I did these things? Did I feel deprived or sad or sorry or embarrassed? I really didn't. I thought about my long-term goals and where I'm trying to get to. People had/have a lot of questions and comments: why are you doing that; that seems extreme; do you have an eating disorder; oh, you can relax and eat this just once; come on, just try it. But in the end, many ended up being intrigued by what I was trying to do.

Does everyone need to behave like this? No, but you do need to understand that if you have goals, especially weightloss, it's going to take longer to reach your goals every time you make the conscious decision to eat more calories than you burn. I was bummed when I found that out -- haha!

I want to empahsize that it's OK to have a cheat meal, even when you're trying to lose weight. In fact, you SHOULD have a cheat meal once a week. If you try to be so restrictive, you'll rebel eventually. Trust me on that one.

But have the cheat meal in a controlled manner. Prepare for it earlier in the day, or week even. If you're headed out to a party or event, eat very, very clean earlier in the day -- veggies, fruit, lots of water -- so you have calories to spare when the time comes. And don't make it a no-holds barred cheat. Put some parameters on it: take small portions of everything you want to try ONCE. Don't keep going back. Step away from the table. And definitely make a point of burning some calories through exercise when you know a cheat is coming!

I try to eat super clean six days a week and leave myself room for "cheats" on Friday. When I first adopted this system, I literally binged on Friday. In the end, that didn't work for weight loss, and I felt like crap on Saturday.

Ultimately, I had to decide how I would spend my calories. These days the things that I save for Friday cheats are chips and guac (measured out, not eaten in a binge like I used to do) and popcorn. Again, an enjoyable amount, not enough to make me feel horrible.

Now, I will tell you, as I got further along towards my goal weight and I was trying to drop the last few, tenacious pounds, it got harder. And to get to the bitter end, I had to drop all cheating completely for a few weeks to get to my goal. For me, it was worth it.

You'll need to answer for yourself what you're willing to do to get there.

And yes, we can work out like maniacs, but if we're undoing our good intentions with poor eating, it's not going to happen. Weight loss is at least 80% of what goes in your mouth. I know. That sucks. But it's a fact. Once I got that dialed in, the weight started to come off.

Other basic tips:
-Learn to listen to your body. Stop when you're satisfied and before you're full. Portion control will always be a big problem for me so I weighed and measured my food for a LONG time into correct portions to teach myself what it felt like to eat the right amount. I still do it on occasion because I'm just that bad at it. I've accepted that this is part of my makeup and I've moved on.

-Log your food. I say it so often and it's so true. If you aren't losing weight, write it down and look at your food in black and white. It's usually staring you in the face.


It always sounds like so much when I'm telling people, "Exercise! Eat clean! Log your food! Count your calories! Come to the Facebook page and report in for accountability!" The goal is to get you in the habit of these things so it's no longer work -- it's just something ingrained that you do without thinking or adding extra complexity to your day. Automatic is the goal. You exercise, you eat clean, you log your food and workouts. I don't even give it a second thought anymore.

Ultimately, you need to decide when and if you're ready to dig in and go for the results you want. I had to have my own personal wake up call, which was really about seeing others who were emulating what I wanted and then taking the steps to get there. I'm not getting any younger! Are you? I believe you can be in the be shape of your life at any age, and I believe it because I have felt it for myself and I have seen it in countless others who I connect with through my own Beachbody coach. Yes, even I need support and motivation so I have a whole group of people I rely on in addition to you guys!

OK, so what are you going to do now?

Fall Back Into Fitness Challenge: It's On!

Yes, today is Day One of our Fall Back Into Fitness Challenge. There are nine of us who are communicating via Facebook to keep ourselves accountable and movitated to get back into fitness over the next 30 days.

Research shows that there are three components to a successful health/weightloss program: a workout program, an eating plan, and support. We're getting all three through this challenge!

For me, having other people along for the ride is key. I love knowing that there are other people out there suffering with me!

Personally, I'm doing a Beachbody program called ChaLEAN Extreme. It has been ages since I've worked out with free weights versus resistance bands. My rear end is KILLING me, people. I bumped up my weights on Saturday and I'm still feeling it.

I have hit some personal milestones. First and foremost, I'm happy to announce that for the first time in my life I can do a pushup. A real, honest-to-goodness man pushup. Can I touch my nose to the floor? No. But can I be on my toes and dip down more than a millimeter and actually a truly respectable amount? Yes! Nevermind that I can't use my arms later in the same day. Not important.

The other milestone is that I am in my eighth week of running. I'm following the Couch to 5K plan (the app I use is 5k101). Technically, I should be at the end of the program in this, the eighth week, but suffice it to say that I'm not the world's most natural runner. I repeated one week and then did an interim week because I was sure that if I went from 4 minute intervals to 8 minute intervals, I would expire on the spot.

Happily, I did not and am now up to 12 minute intervals. Yes, you heard that right: I can run for 12 minutes straight. That means I don't stop! Then I walk for the required 3 minutes. AND THEN I DO IT AGAIN! Crazy, I know.

I'll tell you what is crazy: how loud I huff and puff and how loud my feet are when they hit the ground. I'm certainly not going to run quietly up behind any wildlife. No, indeed, the quiet stillness of the early morning in my neighborhood is shattered on my running mornings. I hope no one is planning to bird watch.

But I am running. RUNNING. OK, jogging is probably more accurate, but I've always wanted to say I'm a runner.

And now I'm running off to bed.