I have been slowly working on a weight-loss journey. Yes, again. 
The Tracy Anderson program didn’t really seem to work for me last summer. I haven’t given up on the Tracy Anderson, but I think she’s far more advanced than what I’m ready for. So I’ve been working on starting smaller. Sure, I would love to work out an hour a day, 6 days a week, high-intensity interval training, etc etc. But I’m starting at zero. The exercise I have gotten over the past several years has been negligible at best. I am weak. (Physically, not mentally?) I need to build up my strength and endurance if my workouts aren’t going to just make me wish I was dead the whole time. I want everything to be more effective. I want that “metabolism” thing I hear people talk about but have never experienced myself!
I’ve been starting with 20 minute workouts. An hour seems like foreverrrrr, but 20 minutes? That’s nothing at all. I can totally do that. I did walking on the treadmill for the first month or so. I have since moved on to the elliptical. I try to go 6 days a week, but I think that only actually happened 1 week, lol. So the goal is “more days of the week than not.” So, at least 4. After the first several weeks, I decided to add weight training. Since I am so weak from years of inactivity, it was a smart step. Can’t expect my workouts to be much good if I’m not very strong. So the goal is 4 days of cardio and 3 days of weights (with Saturday being the day I do both, Sunday no workouts). MWFSa cardio, TThSa weights. Again, doesn’t often happen that way, so if I can even do MWF cardio and TTh weights, I still consider it a win.
Any progress is a win. I try to remember that.
I do my workouts in the mornings before work. Yes, getting up earlier than I “have to” suxxxxxxxx. But when I tried to do evening workouts, they never happened. I’d find excuses. I’m too tired from being at work all day. I’ll do it tomorrow. I have plans. It’s much easier to find excuses when you have a whole day to think them up! And dreading a workout all day is also no fun. But when I get up and do it right away in the morning, I don’t have time to think up excuses. I don’t have time to dread it. Allegedly, I have kickstarted my energy and metabolism for the day. I do feel more “awake” if I’ve worked out in the morning than when I haven’t.
Been working on my eating too. If there’s any truth to “80% nutrition, 20% exercise” rule of losing weight, I can’t forget food. I’m watching calories with myfitnesspal. My goal right now is to stay under 1600 calories a day. Seems like a lot, even to me, but when I had lower calorie goals I never stayed within them. And it is disheartening. It is demotivating to feel like you’re constantly failing. So I upped the calories to a more reasonable goal, with the intention of lowering that number as I make progress. (If I make progress?)
Added a lot more fruit into my diet. Before, I’d have almost none. Now I’m trying to have my snacks and desserts be almost exclusively fruits. Strawberries, apples, grapes, and clementines are my favorites. I try to alternate them week by week. As I get sick of eating one kind, I swap it out for another. Lots of Kashi GoLean bars for snacks as well. I’ve been having Greek yogurt as breakfast for years, but I’ve added granola with lots of fiber now. I’ve been eating a lot of Lean Cuisines for lunch and dinner. Which feels like cheating the whole “eating clean” if I’m consuming frozen dinners, but they still feel like a step in the right direction. They make counting the calories significantly easier. They make portion control easier. Right now, I need easy. If I get discouraged, I could derail this whole thing. Which is what always happens.
Also been using Tumblr for “fitspiration”. I started my own “fitblr”, Reluctant Fitness. Mostly I just repost things I find motivating (I love before-and-afters), and some mocking of the bullshit motivational stuff (sweat is not your fat crying, you idiot). And other things that I find motivating on a realistic level. Getting fit fucking sucks, yo. Let’s not paint it up like it doesn’t.
Published
Wednesday, January 30, 2013
This entry was posted in
Food,
Health.
Bookmark the
permalink. Follow any comments here with the
RSS feed for this post.
Trackbacks are closed, but you can .