“There’s a difference between interest and commitment. When you’re interested in doing something, you do it only when it’s convenient. When you’re committed to something, you accept no excuses; only results.” – Kenneth Blanchard
I’ve recently been facing some medical problems which have slowed down my progress. I started not feeling well, always tired. I also wasn’t seeing much, if any, progress which was starting to get frustrating and discouraging. It turns out my thyroid took a nose dive and I have a hypothyroid which caused other hormones to get out of balance and my system all screwed up. On top of that, I had developed endometrial polyps and a thickening of the endometrial lining in my uterus. Both fairly common in women according to my doctor. I am now on thyroid medication and I had surgery to remove the polyps and the thickened lining. I’m happy to say the surgery went well and I’m feeling much better.
Since I found out about my thyroid and the need for surgery (and even since the surgery), I’d been slacking on my fitness journey. I allowed myself to eat junk and not push myself as hard in the gym… it became too easy for me to say, “I’ll start again tomorrow.” The problem is tomorrow never comes. I wasn’t staying consistent and in turn it hurt. I know what I have to so I just need to do it.
I’ve made so much progress, I think it would kill me if I ended up back where I started. Actually, I know it would kill me.
So today I started back at the gym and eating right. I am recommitting myself to becoming the person I really want to be. I am recommitting to becoming happy, fit and healthy. I will be sharing my progress (and my stumbles) as I go and I will be holding myself accountable.
What would be really cool is if others would join me… sort of help each other, hold each other accountable so to speak. It’s hard doing things on your own. So if anyone wants to join me, just send me a message and we can kick each others asses into shape. I’d also appreciate all the encouragement and ass kicking I can get from those who have already reached their fitness goals.
I am an emotional eater, no doubt about it. It’s something I’ve always done and it’s been my number one problem throughout my teen and adult life. For emotional eaters, food is a best friend, there to make you feel good, relieve stress and boredom.
However, food really is NOT the solution to whatever is making you feel sad, angry, pressured, or anxious. In fact, unhealthy, emotional eating leads to weight gain, guilt and self-loathing. It becomes a never ending self-destructive cycle of emotional eating. To break this cycle, you have to figure out and understand what causes you to do it. Then device a game plan for ending it.
- Write it down! I’ve said it before, one way to start is to keep a journal or use an online Food Diary to record not only what you eat but how you feel when you eat it.
- Are you really hungry? A craving for sweets soon after a meal is likely an emotional hunger, not real hunger.
- Do something… keep yourself busy. Instead of eating, try exercising.
- De-stress. Many people over eat and reach for bad foods when they are stressed. Find a healthy way to deal with stress. The best way for me is to exercise while listening to music.
- Eat a balanced diet and healthy snacks. Avoid buying junk food. Instead, grab for healthy foods like fresh vegetables, lean protein foods or fresh fruit.
- Avoid mindless eating. This means become aware of what you are eating. Don’t sit and eat while watching TV or studying. Mindless eating leads to over eating, over indulging and eating junk food.
It’s not always easy at first, but like anything else, the more you do it the easier it will get.
Speaking from personal experience, it’s hard to keep track of everything but for me it’s important. It helps me know exactly where I am as far as how much I eat (calorie wise). Give it a try and you’ll be surprised at how quickly those calories can add up. On the flip side of that, it will also help you eat enough!
Keep it simple and be completely honest. The only one you would be cheating here is yourself!
Set your daily caloric intake. Your body needs a minimum of 1200 calories per day for basic functions so don’t go below that! I tried staying around 1200-1300 and I hit a plateau. I was stuck. I decided to up my target caloric intake to 1400-1500 a day. Surprisingly (to me) I started losing weight again. Some may require a little more, some can do a little less.
Write down everything. Even those little condiments have calories and they can really add up.
Use subcategories for breakfast, lunch dinner and snacks. Break down each item into more specific areas: Calories, Carbs, Fats, Proteins, Sodium, Fiber and Serving Size. Also, keep track of how much water you drink… shoot for a minimum of 8 glasses a day.
Writing down how you feel can help you identify what makes you overeat and why. Too often we eat mindlessly … when we’re bored, upset or depressed. This can help us keep a sense of perspective and hopefully give us a way of controlling it when it happens.
I’ve also decided to keep track of my workouts. This helps me stay motivated by seeing the progress I am making in my endurance and strength. As we all know motivation is key to sticking with it! Set daily, weekly and long-term goals to help you stay motivated.
Look back over your journal occasionally and see what areas you’ve done well on and what areas could use some improvement.
It may seem like a pain in the butt in the beginning, but over time you’ll see just how important it can be.
This may not seem to fit in with health and fitness but I believe it does. Our emotional and mental health is just as important than our physical health, maybe more so. It’s part of the complete package. You can’t truly be physical fit if you aren’t emotionally fit.
There are times I feel there is just no end to the problems we face. With each step forward, we get knocked back two. I think most people feel the same way. “Pain is inevitable but suffering is optional.” There comes a time when you have to decide just how much suffering you’re going to allow your pain to cause. My own life seems to have been an endless series of bad luck and adversity. There have certainly been times when I’ve wanted to just give up and say to hell with everything. There have also certainly been times when I’ve felt sorry for myself.
When this happens we need to step back and take the time to really look at our lives. We need to remind ourselves that there are things in our lives that are far more important than money and material things. I have my health, my family and my friends. I have people in my life who love me and care about me, people whom I love and care about more than anything. That far exceeds anything material and far more than a lot of people have. I believe we should learn from problems if we don’t want them to control our lives. Of course it’s not easy. God knows I’ve had my fair share of negativity, but being negative did nothing but make me miserable.
”I was complaining that I had no shoes till I met a man who had no feet,” Confucius said. Instead of letting ourselves drown in our problems and when we feel like giving up, we should remind ourselves things could be so much worse. No matter how bad we have it, there IS always someone out there who has it worse. When you open your eyes and have a look at the larger world, you may be surprised at just how well life has treated you.
When you begin a weight loss program, be careful not to cut too many calories. If a person loses weight too quickly it can cause your body’s metabolism to slow down and lose muscle mass. Just like a car, your body needs fuel. If you don’t provide enough fuel for the body’s basic functions, it will begin to cannibalize your body’s muscles. Muscle is your body’s most important tool for burning calories and body fat.
Also, by cutting your calories too drastically, you aren’t really retraining yourself to eat healthy. Once you go off the drastic diet, you go right back to those same unhealthy eating habits that caused you to become overweight in the first place. The calories go back up, but since metabolism is slower and you’ve lost muscle mass, you end up gaining weight very quickly. More often than not, you will also gain even more weight than you had before. This is one of the main reasons why so many people have a hard time with “diets.”
It’s not recommended to eat less than 1200 calories a day for women and 1500 calories a day for men. This is the very basic amount needed for your body to function.