So I was
sitting on my unemployed butt about a month and a half ago, after coming back
from Seattle, and taking, what I wanted to be the picture of my life, but which
turned out to be a picture of my triple chins. Something happened during my
summer in Spain. I ate a LOT of their national food- bread, with their other
national food- sugar filled sangria. I gained weight.
I’ve been
generally neutral about my body since then, accepting that I would not always
weight 120 lbs. I love food. Like, almost all foods. And for the past 5 years, I
allowed that to be a priority. Cool. Until I took this picture, that I
mentioned above. As I searched for jobs, I realized that while I might not get
a job in the next month, I could at least improve myself. I thought that it
might be hard, and it might not be anything special. I thought that my budget
might force me to have to figure out how to start running on my own (misery),
but then I saw a version of this:
And I thought,
oh shit. I gotta do this. A year from now, I don’t want to be in the exact same
place. So I called the local cross fit
place, and found Californian Carmen. And guess what. Today, five and a half
weeks later, I put jeans on without doing the “wiggle into my pants” dance.
WHAT. UP. WORLD. And guess what? Living like this isn’t always easy. There were
two pieces.
The first
was physically being able to do things- like the first time I did 38 push-ups
in a row, I WAS SO EXCITED. The physical part was exponentially easier with
World’s Best Boot Camp. Being around people who are as motivated as I am is
actually really fun. This 6 weeks, with mini-goals and people encouraging me
twice a week, with people who can speak to the results and the commanders
laughing and encouraging, has been unbelievable. (Okay, it also totally helps
that they laugh at my jokes.) The great part about these classes is that once I
walk in the door, I don’t have a choice. I just do it. The classes keep it new
and refreshing and we always do a little something different. Six weeks later
and I’m happily surprised that WBBC is still new and shiny. I love it! Find a
class of people who want to feel good again. *I can’t be sure, but I think
there’s a difference between people who want to lose weight, and people who
want to simply feel better about themselves. Find people who want to feel good,
not people who just want to look like models- we will never look like models.
The second
part is my eating choices. I know that overhauling your diet isn’t always the
most effective way to change life-style, so I’ve been trying to do it slowly.
First, I started eating breakfast. Along with this wonderful cross fit World’s
Best Bootcamp, I’ve been expected to record every single thing I eat every
single day. This, more than anything else, has kept me true to my eating goals.
I also used a calorie counter app for the first two weeks, to give me an idea
of what I was putting into my body, and how. (I stopped doing this when I
started weighing out delicious breakfast sausages by doing a few extra
push-ups, because that’s not how you’re supposed to motivate yourself to work
out…according to my dad and the internet.) Okay, then (and partially also
because I have no money), we stopped eating out as much. We also stopped eating
rice, potatoes, and noodles, and replaced them with larger pieces of fish,
meat, and bigger servings of veggies. I’ve moved to coking a few different
soups and sauces. Things to distract me from the fact that I’m not eating
mashed potatoes on a weekly basis.
And guess
what!? One day I hate a bag of potato chips. One day we ordered (delicious)
pizza. I even had a bagel. And I’m allowed to. I’m allowed to eat whatever I
want. It feels good seeing results (for the first time in five years), and it
feels good to not feel guilty about eating whatever I want ONCE in a while.
Just, not every day is a cheat day. And I’m taking it seriously. I’m working
hard enough that I don’t want to discredit the hard work I’ve been doing with
wings three nights in a row.
So here’s my
charge to you: find someone who will judge your eating habits a little and make
a deal to start reporting your meals to each other! (Hint: S.O.s usually love
you too much to be this person). Find a person, group, or mantra to motivate you
to get off your butt, so you have some hard work to WANT to eat more balanced
for. If I can do it, YOU can do it. Our generation might not trust a single
news article we read. We might be addicted to our phones. We might need hugs
and kisses and pats on the back for the simple act of getting out of bed in the
morning, but we are NOT a generation that simply sits there and lets life
happen to them. A year, six months, six weeks from now, you’ll wish you had
started today.
Char
Here’s our menu from this
week:
Sunday: BBQ chicken Pizza on
Naan Bread (mozz cheese, chicken, red onion, roasted garlic, naan, red wine)
Monday: Chicken noodle soup (chicken, chicken broth, celery, carrots, onions, a sprinkling of noodles)
Tuesday: Chicken Noodle Soup
Wednesday: Salmon, rice, and asparagus
Thursday: Chicken and pesto
and broccoli
Friday: (we might go out)
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