Talk Yourself Into It

      Yesterday was a bad day. You know how some days your life feels like a country song? Not one of the adorable ones where some hot stud wants to make you feel "Wanted", but one where everyone including your dog has left you and life in general seems to be imploding on you? That was yesterday. Needless to say, at the culmination of all of such events, the last thing I felt like doing was working out. And I almost didn't.

     It's very easy to give yourself a pass when you're having a crap day. When you're choking back tears from all the various BS you're dealing with, it's not usually something you want to deal with in a public place. The thing is, I already had my workout scheduled into my day. I was wearing my workout clothes, it was next on the agenda and the gym was right down the street. I would have had to deliberately DRIVE PAST the gym to get home. And believe me, I wanted to. I almost did. I started taking a different route home telling myself that it was ok to skip today because seeing as how my life sucked, it was totally acceptable to go home and cry for a million years instead of working out. I was approaching the last turn that would have put me on the road to the gym. I was not in the turning lane. The light was red in the straight lane and green in the turning lane. The turning lane (next to me) was empty.

And I had a moment.

     Yes, today (and this month) in general are pretty horrendous for me. However, one of my goals in my bigger plan is to achieve a certain body aesthetic that I haven't yet reached. It is very possible, but I keep sabotaging myself. I workout, but haven't been as consistent as necessary. I eat pretty healthy...some of the time, but have also been a little more lax in that area than I need to be to achieve results. Yes, there are times when your workout is not the end-all-be-all to your day - but if every time my life isn't going right I use it as an excuse to skip the gym, I will never see the inside of a gym again.

     In a split second decision, I moved into the turning lane (I looked first!) and headed to the gym. I told myself that I could sit in the parking lot until I was ready to go in, and if I still wasn't feeling it - I could just drive home. I sat in the parking lot and thumbed through my ipod for what I wanted to listen to while I made the decision to stay or go. I chose one of my favorite motivational phrases that happens to be from a song. The song is from a musical from which I get my namesake: Sweet Charity. It's called "I'm The Bravest Individual". Without getting into crazy detail, the reason I like Charity is because no matter how bad things get for her and no matter how poorly she's treated by people she is a genuine sweetheart to, she believes that at any moment, things can turn around. If not today, then there's always tomorrow. And when you get to the end of your rope or when you're really scared, just tell yourself that you're the bravest individual you know. You'll calm down and be able to face whatever is coming at you.

She's the bravest individual she has ever met.

    After crying all the frustration that I had out while listening to the song in the car. I wiped my eyes, sucked it up and went into the gym and completed my workout. Because in the grand scheme of things, if I don't do all I can to accomplish my fitness goals - that will just end up something else that adds to the list of "things that suck right now." I have some degree of control over this specific situation, which is not the case for other things on the afore mentioned list. It's up to me to do all I can in this area.

   The takeaway is this: Even when it's hard, do it. Unless it's impossible, do it. If you don't feel like doing it, start doing it anyway and give yourself the option to stop or continue. Your ultimate success lies with you and whether you decided to suck it up and do it or to go home and cry.

xoxo,
 SweetC

You're Allowed To Feel Good About Yourself For No Reason At All

        It's funny that I always seem to have my "skinny days" on the days leading up to that time of the month. You know a skinny day - when for no particular reason at all, you are just feeling like "hey, maybe I'm not such a whale after all!" Well, I noticed something interesting on my most recent "skinny day." I walked past a mirror (not even a skinny mirror) and thought "Wow, I look better than I expected considering I ate oreo ice cream last night. Wonder if I'm actually losing weight or if I just dressed well today. I should get on the scale to see...."

        Seriously people? Am I the only one? I know I'm not. WTF is wrong with us? Honestly, re-read that situation and really take a moment to think about the nonsense thinking that can happen inside our heads. I looked in the mirror, I felt good about what I saw - but somehow needed to validate that I was allowed to feel that way by backing it up with proof. It wasn't enough to just feel great about myself. Nope. Only allowed to feel good if you actually lost a pound! Not to mention that I was probably heavier than normal due to my impending menstruation. Most likely bloated too. However, I clearly didn't FEEL that way at that moment. I felt great! So why was my first thought that I HAD to verify that by checking the facts?

       It is so easy to make getting fit a numbers game. Counting calories, measuring inches, pounds on the scale... these are all important aspects, but why are they the end all be all? News flash: they aren't. Having a skinny day and feeling great about yourself is an awesome accomplishment in and of itself. It doesn't need to be proven by numbers on a scale or a tape measure. I am learning now to appreciate my "skinny days" and just be happy that I'm in a place where I feel good about myself more often than I feel like a whale. And no, I don't need anything outside of myself to validate that feeling - and neither do you.

xoxo,
 Sweet C

Be Prepared

We can all learn a lesson or two from Scar.

I'm a full time student with a part time job. On weekdays, most often I'm leaving my house in the morning around 7am and not returning home until 11pm. The idea of purchasing most of my meals randomly throughout the day is unheard of for me. Buying food a la carte, whether it's fast food or healthy food adds up. It will never be as inexpensive as food shopping for the way I eat. I eat 5 to 6 times a day. Also, when I prepare my food myself - I know the ingredients, the nutrition content and the calorie count. Or at least I have a better general idea than I would if I was getting all of my food elsewhere. So - as a nutrition (I care about what I eat) student (I'm extremely poor), prepping and taking my food with me daily is necessary.

Although it may be necessary, that doesn't make it easy. I'm not a morning person at all. The fact that I have to be exiting my home at 7am is already quite a stretch for me. There is no way much of anything productive gets done before I leave in the morning. So not only do my meals for an entire day need to be prepped, they need to be prepped the night before. As you can imagine - with this kind of schedule, I don't have much time for cooking during the week. I pretty much need everything to be as "grab and go" as possible to make it work. So, for any of you in a similar situation, I though I would share with you what I do to prepare for my week.

1) I happen to eat the same basic things every day/ every other day which makes my prep slightly easier. If you have to have completely different foods daily, I don't know how to help you. That's not cost effective for me and I also don't have a problem eating the same things daily so I just stick with that. It's not the exact same every day, but it's the same general pool of food choices that I'm pulling from.

2) Cook everything. For this week's prep - I cooked chicken and turkey bacon, made egg quiche and steamed quinoa in the rice cooker. For the egg and the quinoa, I didn't even have to do much except wait for them to cook. The meat takes slightly more effort but I just cooked that while the quiche was in the oven and the quinoa was in the rice cooker. Multi-tasking.

3) Slice stuff. If you have veggies you'll be using as snacks or in a salad, slice them now if they'll make it the week. If they can't make it that long, slice what you need for the next couple of days. I sliced my tomato for my breakfast sandwich.

4) Store stuff. Tupperware is your best friend. Once you've cooked all this food, you need somewhere to put it. Buy a bunch of tupperware of appropriate sizing you can use to store your food for the week. Make snack bags for anything that comes in mass quantities like pretzels or nuts. Make several bags now so they're ready to grab and go during the week.



Oatmeal is quick, semi-convenient
and nutritious meal choice.


5) Prepare your meals for the next day the night before. I structure my meals/snacks into my day so I can plan the night before what I'll eat when for the next day. Whatever is non perishable can be packed in your lunchbag and ready to go. Place the other stuff in one location in an easy grabbable spot in the fridge.

6) Pick your battles. I know this method is not always the "freshest" or the the most palatable for everyone. Again, for my lifestyle - this works and this is the way it has to be. I try to minimize the amount of processed food I eat, but there is still some. And I don't beat myself up for it. I need to find a way that I can eat what I can afford, what fits into my schedule and what also fits my personal guidelines for health. Buying locally farmed, organic only food would be heaven - but it's not realistic for my lifestyle. The tomato that I buy may not be of the perfect quality, but it's still a tomato and not ketchup. And technically you should use the entire tomato the same day that you cut it. I sliced mine and will use it throughout the week. And I'm not gonna feel bad about that. Don't get so anal with your rules of food that you begin to think that the tomato you're eating was a bad choice. It's not.

Here's what I prepped for my week.

Cooked 6oz chicken
Cooked 1 package turkey bacon
Cooked one rice cooker of quinoa
Cooked 4 cups of egg white quiche
Bagged 5 bags of 1 serving of almonds
Bagged 5 bags of 1 serving of oatmeal

Other stuff I have:
Granola Bars
Apples
Bananas
Sparkling Water
Protein Powder
Frozen Fruit
Whole Grain Bread
Carrots and Parsnips
Frozen Vegetables
Black Beans
Peanut Butter
Yogurt
Sugar Free Gum



And here's what a typical day of meals looks like for me:
Breakfast: Egg Quiche (egg whites, spinach, mushroom, onion, pepper) on an Ezekiel 7 Grain Muffin with a tomato slice, turkey bacon and mustard

Snack: Cliff granola bar (not the meal bar, the granola bar) and a small apple

Lunch: Quinoa with broccoli and black beans

Snack: Chobani plain greek yogurt with fruit or fruit jelly, almonds

Dinner: Plain oatmeal with peanut butter and banana

Post-Workout: Vanilla protein with sparkling water and frozen fruit

I bake an egg quiche for
breakfast for the week.

Now, also important to remember is that my diet is not your diet. My choices are based on my palate, my nutrition preferences, my physiological needs and my time and budget. I eat meat, dairy and carbs. I don't have a gluten sensitivity and I'm not morally opposed to animal products, so I do what I do. There's not a right or wrong, there are choices. And we are all free to make our own. Ain't it grand! And you're not locked in to any one way of doing things. Try something out, and if it doesn't work for you CHANGE IT. How will you know unless you try it first though?

So, what are your tips for being prepared? Do you do something differently? Any other pieces of advice to help us busy but wanna be healthy people? Would love to have you share your thoughts and questions below!

xoxo,
Sweet C

I'm Only Human

I can be a bit of an emotional eater at times. For me, controlling my eating is similar to how I control my emotions. I try not to get bent out of shape over small things. I allow myself to be upset for a little bit - and then I move past it. I also try not to react with a bad attitude to most things and try to calmly think things through and look at the positive side. But after a while of doing this, I always have a breaking point. There's always a moment where I get tired of being rational and just need to let it out in the form of crying or yelling. But usually crying.

I'm in the same boat with cheating on my diet. For the most part, I can talk myself out of straying from eating the right things. But after a certain amount of times talking myself out of it and a certain number of issues arising in my life - I lose it and eat something that is not-so-diet friendly. This week, I was beyond frustrated with my computer. Technology and I already are not the best of friends. If you glance at the previous post, I have a 30 day video series to send to my subscribers. Well, both my webcam and editing software decided that they no longer wanted to be civil to me at all and stopped being cooperative. After the first 24 hours of trying to edit a video to no avail - I hit my first breaking point with the crying. After the following 24 hours (we're at 48 total now) I hit my second breaking point of carbs. Then finally, after 72 hours ~ I absolutely decided that I deserved chocolate. I mean, seriously you have no idea how many times I had to watch myself on video saying the same thing over and over and over to re-edit the same video. I like me, but c'mon.

So, what's my reaction to my carb and chocolate cheats? What would YOUR reaction be? I know a lot of people beat themselves up over this kind of thing and allow it to lead to a downward slope of eating badly for days and feeling down on themselves. That's completely pointless. Yes - I ate some things I shouldn't have. Yes - I skipped a couple of workouts to be glued to my computer and trying to fix this problem for 3 days straight. No - I am not going to make myself feel bad for it. It's called LIFE and it happens. No one is spot on with their diet and workout routine every single second of every single day. Do I wish I would have handled things differently? Absolutely, but it's something I can learn from. I can know that next time - I can't let what's  important to me suffer because of something else that's important to me. It has to be in balance. I got my chocolate and carb fix and I will try to at least balance it out with some extra workouts this week. Not the same as eating clean, but it will make me feel a little better.

I'm only human, and sometimes - I need chocolate. It's not the end of the world and I'm not going to gain 5lbs. tomorrow. I also don't have to let it be the beginning of a llloooonnnggg eating binge. It was one day and one bar of chocolate. And now it's done. I'm moving forward. Allowing yourself to make mistakes and committing yourself to learning from them is all a part of the process.

The Keys To My Weight Loss Success

So many people ask me questions about my weight loss success. What did you do? How do you get motivated? Where do I start? What do I eat?

The answers to these questions really aren't that complicated. At least not for me. My motivation? Simple. I don't want to be fat ever again. I want to look in the mirror and like what I see. That's all the motivation I need. Where to start? Just start. You know the basics - start with that. Stop eating crap. Now. Stop buying crap to eat. Workout. Do any workout -  it doesn't matter which one. Do something rather than nothing.

The bigger question is - how? Here are my essentials - the things that I know I must do for success.

1) DO THE WORK
I don't have a problem with complaining. I complain all the time. But you earn the right to complain by putting in the work. You don't get to complain about how hard it is or how inconvenient it is unless you're doing it. If you're too lazy to make an effort - then stay fat and shut up about it. Don't complain if you're not putting in effort. What's the work?

Work out 6 days a week.
Log what you eat - all of it.
Eat clean. Cheat minimally. Don't dwell on the cheat - move on.

That's really it. That's the core of it. Learn to master these things and you'll see results. You don't have to perfect right out the gate. I've done this for a decade and I'm still not perfect. Just do your best and keep making your best better. Don't wanna log your food? Don't wanna work out? Fine - don't. But stop complaining that you can't lose weight.

2) LEARN & GROW
You know what cutting carbs did for me? Nothing. Jack squat. My body was not impressed. You know what eating from the top two tiers of Michi's Ladder did for me? I lost 5 lbs. Learn what works for your body by trying it. You can't gauge your own success by someone else's. You are not them. Don't wish you were, just find out what works for you. If one diet and one workout worked for every body - there wouldn't be so many different ones to choose from. Find what works for YOU. But don't just try one thing then give up. Don't be lazy.

3) DO NOT QUIT
Losing weight isn't easy and results don't happen overnight. If this were the case - then no one would have weight problems. If I stopped trying just because I didn't see results quickly - I wouldn't be where I am. If you really want to see results - you have to keep going. Getting fit is not something you do for a while and then you're done forever. IT'S A LIFESTYLE CHANGE. You have to know what's helpful for your body and what's harmful. I'm not gonna lie - I still love me some french fries and pizza and chicken nuggets. I know the bad crap that's in fast food and I find it delicious anyway. However, I can count on one hand the number of times I'll actually get fast food in the course of a month ... a few months at that. A year's time - that's probably both hands. Point is - it's not as often as it used to be.

Bottom line is - JUST TRY. Make an effort. Don't talk about it, be about it. Get off your butt, and do what you know you need to. Once you start and see the fruits of your labor - it makes it easier to continue because you'll want to continue seeing the results! Make a plan. What can you do right now that will put you on a better path? Need help? Send me a message and we'll make a plan together!

xoxo,
Sweet Charity

Food Prep and This Week's Menu

I try to prepare most of my food for the week at the beginning of the week. Here's what my meals look like this week. For the most part, it's the same every day with minor variations for schedule changes.

First Thing: 1 scoop protein, 1 cup blueberries, 10oz water

Breakfast: 2 eggs, 2 whites scrambled with onion, pepper, spinach, mushroom and low fat mozzerella cheese, 4 veggie sausage links

Snack: Boca burger with 1/4 avocado, 1 slice tomato, mustard, lettuce, 2 slices of turkey bacon

Lunch: 3 cups lettuce, 1 cup cucumber, 1 cup strawberries, 3oz. chicken, 2 slices turkey bacon, 1 hard boiled egg, fresh squeezed lemon

Snack: 4 oz. ground turkey breast, 2 cups stir fry vegetables

Snack: Chocolate Shakeology, 10 oz. water

Post Workout: 1 scoop Results & Recovery Formula, 10 oz. water

Dinner: salmon, 1 cup broccoli, 1/8 cup low fat feta

Water all day long

To prep for this, I go food shopping on the weekend and
- cook all the meats: chicken, turkey, bacon - enough for the week
- cut up the produce and store in separate tupperware - cucumber, berries, mushroom, onion, asparagus

The night before
- prepare all meals in tupperware so I can just grab and go

The only thing I cook daily is the scrambled eggs and then dinner since I'm actually home by that time. Tupperware is my BFF.

Comment with questions :)

xoxo,
Sweet Charity

www.sweetcme.com

My Thoughts On The Scale

I am quickly realizing that diet and weight loss can make you crazy. I know this about myself, but apparently it is universally true. At least I don't feel so alone. My paranoia is not mine alone. Now that I recognize that I have the problem, I am able to work on it. I am happy to say that I am no longer a slave to my scale. Yes, I still use it and I still weigh in - but I do not freak out when it doesn't do what I want.

I have read soooo many posts by people whose focus is entirely on the scale. So much so, that they miss the ENTIRE point of what they're doing, which was to drop some pant sizes. Unfortunately, the scale is the most widely accepted unit of measurement for weight loss. And I suppose that has something to do with the fact that what we refer to as wanting to get in better shape is "weight loss" as opposed to saying that we want to "get fit" or "get in shape." The truth of the matter is - getting fit does not always equal losing weight. At a certain point, getting fit could equal gaining weight. It depends on what you're doing, how you're doing it and what your ultimate goal is.

It is absolutely bonkers to me that some people are losing inches, feeling better, looking better and their clothes are starting to fall of of them - yet ALL they care about are the numbers on the scale. Do you know how crazy that sounds?! So, let me get this straight - your body is getting smaller, your clothes are getting too big, your muscles are getting defined, but you're upset because if someone tried to physically pick you up right now - you wouldn't be as "light" as you wanted to be?

That.Is.Crazy.

What if the scale didn't exist? What if it wasn't the most widely recognized unit of measurement for weight loss progress? What if the tape measure was the only progress indicator you had aside from what you could see in the mirror and feel in your clothes? How important would your physical mass be then? I understand that we all want to be smaller in numbers on the scale, but seriously? You can't ignore all the other signs of your progress and bank it ALL on three numbers that have less to do with your progress and more to do with whether or not you're bloated that day.

If you are trying to get fit, having a scale is kind of like having chocolate around. If you can handle having chocolate around you without feeling the need to consume it all the time - then you're ok. If you do consume it a little more than you should, but you're ok with dealing with those consequences - then fine. But if having chocolate around you means you'll devour it and then feel completely horrible afterwards, then DON'T have chocolate around you!
Same with your scale.
If you can keep your scale, but use it only as one of many indicators of your progress - ok. If you use it out of curiosity but don't freak out every time you look at it - great. If you're so consumed with the number it gives you that you truly don't recognize losing inches as more quantifiable progress than losing pounds - it's time for you to put the scale away. Or be put in a crazy house.

xoxo,
Sweet Charity