Welcome to all of the That’s Fit article readers! I will talk about that a little bit later after I recap some of the day.
Time change actually didn’t make me get up too early this morning and I was super surprised at that. Normally I wake up when the sun does, so I was expecting to rise early, but I did not. Yay! We headed on out to Panera for our Sunday bagel:
I came home and got right to work. It actually was much busier for a Sunday than normal, but money is always good, right?
Lunch was an egg sandwich and yummy strawberries we got today. I have missed those.
See this big smile?
This was because it was just warm enough today to take a break from work, get on the bikes, and go riding! This is my snuggly warm technical turtleneck because it was 45 degrees.
It was kind of a chilly ride, though, because of wind. I also had my first clip-shoe related fall today. I haven’t ridden in about 10 days, and I was so excited to be on the bike that I wasn’t paying attention. We stopped to get some air in our tires and I forgot to unclip and just fell over. Ouch. I scraped up my knee and banged my chin on the handlebars. Hello dorkdom – population: Me.
I did take a picture of my knee, but figured you all didn’t really need to see that. 😳 Our stop was the Chocolate Mill, where I had a cup of coffee and a pumpkin cookie.
I guess this is an example of eating whatever I want, eh? Not as much as I want, cause I could easily chow down 4 of these.
I wanted to take a moment to talk a little bit about the blog and such. I have received an overwhelming amount of comments and emails regarding the That’s Fit article this weekend. I am trying to respond to all of them, so if you haven’t gotten a response to a question if you emailed me, please give me a little time to get to them (Sunday is a work day for me).
I think the number 1 question I got was “How do I start?“.
You just start one step at a time. There are so many times that we all have started a diet and jumped in with both feet with food restriction and heavy duty exercise right from day one and then tried to continue with that without an end in sight except for the magical scale number. How did you feel after day 7? Like crud and then you quit and go back to your old ways because it feels easier.
For me, the biggest part of the success I have had in keep this weight off is losing the all-or-nothing mentality. Life is not all or nothing, so why should weight loss and getting healthy be that way? I know we all want the magic pill that will remove the weight overnight and get to eat all we want (hello title of That’s Fit article? A lot misleading). It just doesn’t happen that way.
Sure, you can go totally hardcore a la The Biggest Loser and then what? Likely you will struggle to keep off the weight because you just cannot sustain that intensity for life. And who wants to repeat that cycle over and over again? Not me. It’s like you are either in reverse or overdrive. It’s exhausting.
So, my advice on how to start is just to sit and really take a look at what you are eating and how you are moving. Do you know if portions in your diet are too big? Do you know what proper portion sizes are? Do you do any activity at all? Just take notice of this stuff. You don’t have to change all of it right away, or you will rebel. Once you look – really and truly honestly look – at your diet and your activity, you probably notice there is too much of one and not enough of the other. So after noting this, then the next week change something. Maybe it will be switching your breakfast to something a little more nutritious. Get in some fiber and some fruit and protein (custard oats?). Just do that for a week or so until you are used to it. Then the next week maybe look at how much activity you do. Make a point to get in 30 minutes of exercise, even just a small walk. No time you say? Make time. You have 30 minutes. It doesn’t have to be all at once. If it means walking in place while you are on the phone, or going outside for 10 minutes and walk around your work place, then do it.
If you aren’t willing to at least do this for yourself, you really aren’t ready to make the changes you need to live a healthy lifestyle. If this sounds like tough love, it is. Ask anyone in my family and they will all tell you I am the tough love queen. Small changes add up over time to big results. You need to have the patience to wait for them. They really and truly are worth it!
Okay, I’ll put away that soapbox – for the day at any rate. 😉 Tonight’s dinner is an example of the eating in moderation. Yes, I had the pumpkin cookie today and I did get in a bike ride. Nice balance there. Pretty standard dinner for me tonight seeing as it was quite an easy activity day for me.
For new readers, this is typically how I make up dinner plates by dividing into 3’s. Protein choice, veggies, and a fruit. And by veggies I mean broccoli 90% of the time LOL!
Football tonight (and some more work… booooo)
Question: What would your advice to someone be on how to start living healthy?