May Health & Fitness Update
If you know me personally you know that me and health/fitness have never been friends. I love food and I'm far too lazy to have ever cared anough to really get into a health or fitness routine, but I have consistantly attempted to try several things (see post 1, 2, 3, etc.)
HOW I GOT HERE
While I've always been confident in who I am, this semester I reached a point where I started to avoid mirrors and would avoid being in photos because I was so uncomfortable with where I was. I don't want to share my exact weight to avoid making anyone feel uncomfotable, but I am 5'2 and I had gained 40 lbs since my freshman year of college. For someone so short, that's and incredibly uncomfortable amount of weight to gain in only 3 years.
When I started my most recent fitness journey, it was about a month after a very emotional breakup from my almost 4 year relationship. I began setting a lot of personal goals and doing a lot of self-reflecting. The first thing I did was look back at each of the previous times I had started the same program or similar ones and looked at why I stopped, why did I not make it a lifestyle change. What I noticed was that I never began the journey for me.
Each time in the past, I had started the journeys unintentionally trying to get healthy or in shape for my ex, who was a known gym rat. And each time I failed because it wasn't something I was doing for myself. I wasn't motivated. This time was different. I was doing it to get healthy for me, not look better for someone else.
THE PROGRAM I CHOSE
When I decided to start Kayla Itsines, BBG, again I convinced a friend to do it with me (she's currently kicking my butt), and I planned to start over my spring break. I took about 2 weeks before I officially started the program to get in the habit of going to the gym, and starting to devlop my meal plan. I stayed on campus for spring break, and starting the program while I was there (alone on campus with an entire gym to myself) was super beneficial!
I decided to journal throughout the process and about two weeks in I noticed another reason that I had stopped these programs in the past: whenever I didn't do them absolutely perfect, I wanted to quit. During my second week I skipped one day of LISS so I repeated the entire week and during that week I only half did one of my resistance workouts because of a time constraint and I started to get so discouraged. I ended up skipping a bunch of days and my BBG buddy would send me snaps of her workouts and meals and I felt so annoyed with myself for giving up.
I did more self reflecting and realized, it's ok to not do it perfectly, as long as I'm still puting everything I can into it. If I have to miss and LISS for a day, or if I can only do half a resistance workout because of time, thats OK, but it's NOT ok to give up.
MAY PROGRESS
As of Monday, May 29, I am beginning my 8th week using the Sweat App, and my 2nd week on the Body and Mind program (switching after 6 weeks of BBG) and I have officially lost 19 lbs. Going into this program I am not as concerned with losing a certain amount of weight or getting to a goal weight, especially knowing muscle weighs more than fat, but since starting the program in Late March, I've gotten in the habit of weighing myself at the start of every new week on a Monday when I begin the next week on the program. I also try to take progress photos in the app when I remember on these Monday's.
What I am concerned about is feeling good in my own skin again and feeling like my body is healthy. I've had some stomach issues and struggled with chronic migraine and getting into a fitness regimine has been shown to help with chronic migrane and regulating my diet has been helping my stomach.
I haven't seen a ton of progress in my arms and chest yet (honestly I was kinda hoping my boobs were gonna shrink) but I've felt significantly less bloated and puffy! Plus my skin has never been better! I don't think I've ever felt more comfortable and confident leaving the house without makeup on.
DIET AND MEAL PLAN
As for the meal plan, Kayla provides you with an extensive meal plan for each day of the program. Unfortunately, this plan is not made for a students budget and is not the easiest to prepare on a busy schedule. So instead, I read all of the handy educational sections of the app that included food and macro and micro nutrients. Then I created a meal plan based around making sure I ate a balanced diet of protien, carbs, and healthy fats/sugars. (if you'd like to see a post of what I eat in a day or some general recipies let me know!)
Now, I'm going to be honest, there were cheat meals, and if you follow her program exactly as it's layed out the progress would probably be amazing! But I decided that I'll only be young once, and you only have one life. I want to love myself, love my body, and take care of my body, but I also want to enjoy life. I don't want to ever be that person who will say no to a slice of pizza or some wings to avoid gaining 0.02 lbs. I'm living this lifestyle with an 80/20 mindset. If you live a relatively healthy lifestyle 80% of the time, don't be afraid to let yourself enjoy things you enjoy the other 20%.
Have you used the Sweat App? Have a favorite fun and healthy recipe? I'd love to hear what you guys think or any advice you have!!
xoxo
AME
