PHEW!
Lots of thoughts rolling around in this head tonight. Let's see how well I can sum it up.
A while ago I had a thought about dieting and eating. I wanted to skip working out that evening and thought, "Eah, why not treat myself to a little break? I've been doing good!". Another thought followed that.
"How is not working out really 'treating' my body well?"
How is eating that extra helping, having those sweets, loading up on butter & salt, and all the other things I do really a 'treat' for me? Because it's the easy way out.
For those who oppose smoking, let me put it in another perspective. I am a smoker, but I oppose smoking, so I think a lot of people will agree with me here.
We know smoking can kill. We know it's usually an ugly death. This is one of the many reasons so many people oppose it. They don't wish to die this way. The side effects won't appear right away, but it will eventually catch up with the smoker. That's why the smoker quits. That's why the non-smokers don't pick it up.
Now, let's apply this train of thought to eating. You will not see the results right away, and it is certainly not as ugly as smoking, but being overweight, not being physically in shape is another danger in our life. As severe? Believe it or not, it could be. It won't be as slow or painful often, but it can lead to death. So why am I allowing 2 ugly habits into my life? I know I have great motivation to quit 1 (once I get pregnant it's game over, I have 0 tolerance with myself for my child's health), so right now I'm going to focus on re-training myself on the other.
Each time I pick up that oreo, or grab salt for the mashed potatoes, I stop myself now and think. How will this effect me? Can I do without it? Yeah, I can. Alright, I'll be good.
We didn't learn to walk overnight. These huge steps in our childhood took weeks or months to learn, and even now we find ourselves tripping over sidewalks. (I like analogies, can you tell? It allows my mind to connect concepts) I'm taking my baby steps in my re-thinking. Some day it will be come as natural as getting up out of bed each morning. Until then, I must give myself time, hesitate and think about each eating decision I make, and make sure what I'm feeding isn't the current me, but the me that wants to be around to see grandchildren some day. I'm going to stumble, but I'm going to forgive myself for it and not throw in the towel for one weak step.
What's helping this progress is a blog I read shorty after this train of thought. The blogger wrote 100% fitness. Most of the stuff didn't interest me, but her method is great. She doesn't count calories, she doesn't pressure herself, she simply sticks to a rule: 80% - 20%. She eats healthy 80% of the time, and allows pig-out sessions the other 20%. This is a great theory! We as humans are weak to things we crave. This system acknowledges that yes, we're going to give in, so let's incorporate it into our diet! We can still eat food we love while we take those baby steps toward re-training our bad habits into good ones.
Prime example is this week: I pigged out twice this week on ordered out food. Bad Megan. But I made good choices this weekend, so all is well. 80-20. I was craving McDonalds - the worst of worst in my book; all those preservatives. I took a deep breath, made myself a caesar salad from safeway, and chugged a bunch of water. I caved 2 days, but the other 5 I behaved myself. I believed in myself I also added 2 long workouts to my weekend to help make things better. 1 day at a time. I do feel good about it when I look back at the days I made good choices. Ok, let's keep that going!
Which brings me to my next topic: variety is what keeps me going! My co-worker gave me the Mat Workout DVD of Tracy Anderson, the exercise guru to many celebrities. To give you an idea of how her workouts go the first 20 times (or so) that you do it, check out This Blog (which is quite amusing). Her mat workout is easier to follow, but Ms. Anderson really SUCKS at explaining WTF you're supposed to be doing. Her attitude is "Just watch, you'll pick it up eventually!" Riiiggghhhttt...
I will admit that it is worth attempting, though. She really does isolate on specific areas I wasn't aware I could strengthen! These are very precise movements and I do think they work. Otherwise how could she be so popular with celebs? I've found some of her cardio workouts on YouTube, and agree that basically you're just jumping and dancing around, but watching her somehow motivates you to keep going. Maybe she's a secret hypnotist and knows how to translate it into her DVD's?
Regardless, I feel results, and grudgingly admit I will do it again, as well as purchase another DVD of hers if given opportunity to. If I can ever get the hang of her moves, I do believe they could work.
But you couldn't pay me money to do that 2 days in a row!! So after yesterday's college try, I switched it up to Jillian Michaels "Banish Fat Boost Motabolism". (Thank you Amazon Prime membership for giving me this for free!) Here's another motivating woman.
Warmup & Circuit 1 completed and I was feeling super confident. I got this, let's keep going Jillian!
Circuit 2 felt the ground shake a bit. Oh, that's some of the muscles Tracy Anderson worked on yesterday. I'm feeling this a little too well for so early into this workout.
Circuit 3 had me ready to tap out. Skipping out before the rep set ends, taking lots of water breaks, sweating, huffing and puffing. But just then Jillian tells me not to give up, that I'll be glad I got through it, to stick with it. Damn it. She's right.
The rest of the workout was a blur of me stumbling along and trying to catch my breath, but I did as many reps of each remaining circuit as I could force out of my massively weakened body. Double damn it. She was right. I may have half-assed it, but I completed it. I pushed myself, and I'm glad I did.
Now I feel like I can go without working the next 2 days guilt free. Doesn't mean I can eat whatever I want in the process, but at least I can take it easy after work instead of pushing myself to keep going. A very productive and satisfying weekend, and I'm hoping to see very good health results from this in the future.
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