This isn't a Race: Lessons Learned from Les Mills Pump

Fitness is not a race.  Let me repeat that, because I so often hear people stress about not losing weight fast enough: Fitness is NOT a race.

 

Our society glorifies people who can lose 30 pounds in 30 days (or even 90 days).  That's great for that individual, but it is far from realistic.  Success stories in particular frustrate me.  I think it's amazing that these people have transformed their bodies and are living happier, healthier, and more energetic lives.  That's completely awesome.  However, the stories that are chosen by fitness companies (and while I love Beachbody, they are no exception) are the exception and not the rule when it comes to speed.  I fully believe that I can lose 77 pounds (now only 63 left after my 90 days of Pump!) using Beachbody workouts, eating clean, and drinking Shakeology.  However, I'm not going to do it in 180 days.  Heck, it might even take more than 365 days!  I've seen success stories where people lose all their excess weight (even when they have 60-70 pounds to lose) in just two rounds of a 90 day program (180 days or 6 months).  I'm hear to tell you that losing that much weight in that short of time, while clearly possible, is not realistic.

 

I'll admit that I've been discouraged many times by success stories who lost a ton of weight in 90 days.  I have to remind myself that fast weight loss like that is not realistic, that it's not the norm.  This past weekend I completed my 90 days of Les Mills Pump.  It was a fantastic program and I loved it.  I'll admit that the last three weeks were not great nutritionally, but the first 10 were awesome and the whole time I pushed really hard in my workouts.  Overall, I lost 13.8 pounds.  Let me rephrase (or I guess, re-punctuate) that: I lost 13.8 pounds!!!  That's something to celebrate!  Who cares that it wasn't the 30 pounds some success story lost.  That is 13 pounds of fat that is no longer weighing me down.  I am celebrating my success instead of stressing over what I *might* have lost if I ate perfectly the whole time.  I can't change that, so there's no point in worrying (plus, even if I did it would not have been a "success story" high number).  And, not only did I lose 13 pounds, I gained muscles!  I feel so much stronger, and my biceps are starting to show.

 

This morning I started my next program, ChaLean Extreme.  I've eaten well all day and have healthy things packed to eat during class.  While I loved Pump, mentally I was ready to do something different, and I'm sure my muscles will appreciate the change as well.  Would it be awesome to lose 30 pounds in this next 90 days?  Well, yeah, it'd be cool.  But that's not realistic.  My goal is to lose 15 pounds (just slightly more than I lost the past 90).  But beyond the weight loss goal, my more important goal make eating clean a habit again.  I want to nourish my body with healthy nutrients and build strong muscles by working hard during my strength training sessions.  And if I only lose 10 pounds instead of my goal of 15, that's ok!!  So long as I am moving my health forward, I am happy.

 

If you are just getting started on your journey to fitness, do me a favor, ok?  Don't stress about how fast or slow things are moving.  Just focus on making healthy choices and you'll be just fine.  Ease in slowly.  Take it easy on your body.  If you can only do 10 minutes of activity at a time, that's ok!  Do what you can, and always remember that nutrition accounts for 80% of your results.  If you're not ready to workout, start eating healthy.  If you're not sure what that should look like, pick up a copy of Tosca Reno's Eat Clean Diet and that will teach you what eating clean looks like.  And if you fall back into old habits (like I did the last few weeks), don't worry!  Just dust yourself off and keep moving forward.  I'm here for you if you need a gentle push.

 

Stay healthy!

Learning to Take My Own Advice

Last night I had a wonderful date night with my boyfriend.  We met up for dinner, where we raced to see who could finish the word find first (he won), then we played tick-tack-toe (I cheated and he still won), and just overall were immature and ridiculous and it was so much fun.  After dinner we stopped at Walmart to buy the Avengers and spent the rest of our evening snuggled up watching a movie.  We even had a "no phones" rule so it was a really very nice night.  So much so that we've decided to make it a monthly occurrence.  Yay for date night!

After the movie was over, I intended to write a post before I went to bed (the movie finished up around 11:30, which is way past my normal bedtime anyway).  The post was to be titled "losing focus" and I was going to share my struggles the past two weeks with staying focused on my health and fitness.  Every day the past two weeks I woke up thinking "ok, today I'm going to eat clean" and every night going to bed knowing that I was far from that goal.  I even started having trouble waking up in the morning and missed a couple days of workouts (that I'll be able to make up this weekend and next to finish off the Pump/TF hybrid by next Saturday).  It had been a bad couple of weeks and I felt as though I had lost my health and fitness "mojo."

Instead of writing that post (and let's be honest, at that time of night it probably would have been full of typos anyway) I read through some of my past posts, and stopped on my post reminding people that giving up is not the answer.  As I read the post, I thought to myself "she's right!"and that I corrected myself..."I was right!"  I can't give up.  I may have had two unhealthy weeks (including drinking soda, eating candy, and all sorts of unhealthy things) but before that I had ten weeks of super healthy habits that made such a huge difference in my health.  I can't go back to all those unhealthy habits.  I'll just regain all 16 pounds (I probably already gained back a couple; I haven't checked) and then some!  I was so close to getting under 200 pounds, which would have been a huge victory for my health.

So, I'm taking my own advice.  I am NOT giving up!

Luckily, even though I missed a few workouts, I'll be able to catch up this weekend and finish off my final week of the Pump/TF hybrid strong.  I will likely not be under 200 when I finish the program like I had hoped, but I do believe that I'll be able to lose anything that I gained the past two weeks and weigh-in the same or slightly lower than I did before these two weeks of silliness.  If I can do that, it will be victory enough for me.  And even if I am up a little from that last weigh-in, if I'm back to my healthy habits, who cares?  Once those habits are back, I know the weight will start melting off again and I'll be under 200 before Thanksgiving for sure!

Well, it's time for me to change and get my workout done.  I have plenty of homework to do today, too, so I really need to get moving.  Have a wonderful weekend everyone!  I'll be sure to report back tomorrow to let you know that I was able to get my "eat clean mojo" back!

Stay healthy!

Not Every Week is Perfect

I'll admit it.  I'm human.  And as much as I would like for my nutritional intake to be 100% clean 100% of the time, I know that isn't reasonable.  I do strive to make good food choices 90% of the time, limiting bad choices to only once or twice a week, occasionally I fall short of my own expectations.  I'm not really sure what has made this week different than the past 10, but I have not eaten very clean this week.

 

Sunday was mostly clean, with just some boxed rice (high in sodium) and a handful of pretzel M&Ms while visiting my grandparents.  In and of itself, really not going to impact my week much.  But then Monday came around and while I packed enough meals for the day, I had left my bf in charge of the Crockpot on Sunday and I ended up with severely overcooked chicken for lunch on Monday.  So I got a calzone.  Now, that really was not a healthy choice, but I was able to share some happy news with my friend who owns the place (a mutual friend got engaged the day before!) so at least it was semi-productive (even if not for my health).  Tuesday was great up until about 6 PM when I came down with a cold and made myself some Lipton soup (again super high in sodium) and had a few pieces of candy (chew sprees that I snagged from my bf's stash).  And finally, yesterday, we had a meeting with a few students and our office supplied bagels and muffins.  I splurged on a plain bagel with cream cheese, and if that had been it, it would have still been a pretty good day.  However, I later had a coffee cake muffin (or whatever it was called) and ordered a chicken wing sub for dinner.  What was I thinking?!

 

In reality, if any one of those days had been the *only* day I splurged, it really would not have been a big deal.  The problem arises when those little (or not so little) "treats" start to become a daily occurrence.  I will be lucky if I lose anything this week.  In fact, I'll be happy if I don't gain!  My weigh-in this week is on Saturday (usually Sunday) because I have an engagement party to attend Saturday night and I don't want a "false high" on Sunday.  So, what am I going to do between now and then to mitigate some of the indulgences this week?  Well, I am not going to "punish" myself by eating very little or over exercising.  That is never a good thing.  What I am going to do is jump right back on track by eating clean today and tomorrow and drinking plenty of water.  I will do my workouts as scheduled, and enjoy them because they make me feel good.  I did miss my workout yesterday because of my cold (I took a rest day because I felt awful when I woke up) so I may make up that workout on Saturday morning, or I may not.  It was a cardio workout so I'm not terribly concerned if I miss one day of cardio in 3 months.

 

My plan now is just to get right back on track.  There's no sense in feeling guilty or upset because I have a few not-so-great days.  Truthfully, I feel that guilt is a useless emotion when it comes to getting healthy.  You never truly fail until you give up, and I am FAR from giving up.  As I've said many times, this is a lifestyle, not some quick fix.  I want to be healthy for the rest of my days.  If you had a bad week this week, too, don't stress!  Just get back on track today.  This minute in fact.  Go get a drink of water and have a healthy meal next time you eat (which should be 2-3 hours after the last time you ate...but you knew that already, right?).  You can do it!

 

Stay healthy.