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

Quit Debbie Downing Yourself

So, I had a crazy busy summer and have entered the fall in territory that I have not been in for a loooong time. I am a full time student again. I graduated from college with a bachelor's degree in 2004 and have just started classes this fall for my second degree. I am a bonified, college freshman. Again.

I am also poor like a college student. Actually, poorer since at least in college-first-time I had 3 campus jobs and didn't have grown up bills like car payments and car insurance. They actually want you to pay that ish every freaking month. Did you know that they are still touting that crap that you're supposed to spend two hours outside of class for every hour in class? Do these people understand the real world and that most students are working their way through school? Ridiculous.

With a brand new schedule, adjusting to studying and adjusting to a much, much, MUCH tighter budget - clean eating and working out have been super tough to work on. And guess what - believe it or not, they are not at the top of my priority list. *Oh shock and disbelief!* Hey, we all have lives to lead. And these things can't be number one all of the time for everyone. You know what? THAT'S OK!

Broke-ity-broke-broke

Perhaps you're one of those people that gets really upset with yourself for not getting in your workout 5 days a week. Maybe you get really angry at yourself for straying from your diet for one meal. You might even consider diversions from your plan as failure. I'm here to tell you, just stop it. Fitness is not a perfection that you're striving for. It's something you incorporate into your life. There was a time when eating clean and daily workouts fit themselves perfectly into my daily schedule. Right now, I'm still trying to figure out how to make these things happen. So no - I don't ALWAYS get a workout in. Yes, I occasionally grab something on the go that is not all whole foods and might even have some added sugar. But I AM actively working on it. I'm trying to figure out when I'll have time to workout and study and find a job before I become homeless. I still track my calories and try to make the best food decisions possible in the situation. And eventually I'll figure it out and get into a groove and figure out how to achieve my goals on a budget. But I don't consider myself failing in the meantime.

It's ok to not get it right straight out of the gate. It's ok to take weeks or months to figure out how to make a healthy lifestyle work for you. You can't come down on yourself for not being the model fitness citizen in 24 hours. That's ridiculous. If you give up because you can't be perfect, you're much worse off than if you keep pushing through and figure it out. As long as you're actively making an effort and not just sitting around and complaining without actually DOING anything, you're headed in the right direction. All you have to do is just keep going.

xoxo,
Sweet C

Pushing the Re-set Button

So for those of you who like to stay up-dated on my fitness progress, trials and tribulations - I wanted to let you know what I was up to.

I did finish the full 60 (actually 63) days of Insanity. Unfortunately - I didn't get the results that I was hoping for. Imagine working your ass off for two months straight and not losing any weight. How is that even possible? If you eat right, and workout - you should lose weight, right? And if you eat less and workout harder, you should lose even more weight, right?

Wrong, wrong, so incredibly, unbelievably wrong.

In our society, we're taught that eating less = losing weight. And in a lot of cases, that's true. When it comes to consistent working out however, this is not always the case. At some point, your calorie intake will need to be increased to accommodate fueling your body's muscles and energy level. Most people who are trying to lose weight are extremely resistant to the idea of increasing calories to lose weight. But even they soon find that fighting this principle will result in slowed results.

What happens when you're not eating enough calories is something called starvation mode. Because your intake is too low, your old-school caveman instincts kick in and your body thinks you're starving. To keep you alive longer, it holds on to all that mushy fat that insulates your organs and keeps you alive. This doesn't happen after one day of eating too little and conversely can't be fixed by overeating for one day. A lot of people mistakingly think "I'm not hungry, so I can't be starving". Starvation mode isn't about your hunger, it's about what your body needs to function.

The hardest part about figuring out calorie intake is that all of your numbers will be based on estimates. I eventually figured out that my estimates were WAY off and that I deprived my body of the proper calorie intake for a few months. Which is really bad. So - I had to hit the re-set button. I had to lay off of hard exercise for a while and make sure I was taking in enough calories for my body. Technically, I should have done it while still eating clean foods - but let's face it - it's much easier to get in more calories with pizza than with broccoli. So I gave myself a break from striving for perfection for a few weeks and ate some junk food. Even then - I still had to make sure I was eating several times a day and taking in enough calories.

So now I'm ready to re-set again and get back to the clean eating - just eating much more of it. Let me tell you - it is really hard taking in a lot of calories of clean food! A cup of broccoli is like 40 calories. Not that helpful in contributing to a 2,300 calorie daily intake. At least I get to include peanut butter daily now. I loves me some Peanut Butter. I will also be doing my newest workout: Turbo Fire! It definitely looks like it's right up my alley with heart pumping cardio and hotness music. Looks to be a little more fun than Insanity, but still a great workout. I also purchased a Bodybugg which is a little armband that will tell me how many calories I burn a day (which is WAY higher than I was estimating) and hopefully that will help me know better how much to eat.

Remember, success comes to those who persevere.

“Success seems to be connected with action. Successful people keep moving. They make mistakes, but they don't quit.” - Conrad Hilton