Let me take you back to the beginning of this year…I was in the car with Dana and we were driving somewhere and I said to him for the BILLIONTH time that I needed to loose weight. You see, I don’t remember where we were headed, but I do remember the feeling of frustration I felt getting ready to head out somewhere. No clothes fit me well and anything I DID wear wasn’t clothes I liked at all, didn’t fit my style or anything, just something to cover up my body. I was frustrated and I didn’t feel comfortable in my own skin. January came and went and I still hadn’t even made a plan for change. February 1st came and went and still no plan….frustrated with my lack of planning and motivation I got pissed off with myself and decided to make a plan and this time stick with it, no matter how I felt. I stepped on the scale and was horrified. I HAD to loose weight. This time, nothing was stopping me.
First, I committed to a workout program. To be honest, I was SO annoyed by how many people were beach body coaches that I wanted nothing to do with the company even though I already owned like 5 programs (that I would start and never finish). I decided to pick up a program I already had sitting around (T-25) and do the dang 25 minutes a day no matter how I felt. I also decided to cut out all processed foods (for the most part) and see what happened. I was determined.
Days, turned into weeks, weeks turned into months. I steadily lost weight on the T-25 program and it was SO encouraging. I LIVED to be able to check off that workout for the day….by the end of the whole t-25 program I had lost 21 pounds.
Enter in my friend and beach body coach Tara Meadows. She’s an awesome, super-fit lady who does beach body, is a coach, but doesn’t do it for the money, but for the discounts. We got chatting and asked me if I wanted to do 21 day fix extreme with her and do the meal plans. It was the perfect timing as I was just finishing Gamma.
The fix meal plans were so intimating to me! I had actually donated my color containers the previous months because I never used them! LOL….but with some measuring cups she helped me out and explained the measurements, calorie intake and all that. Just like that I had meal plans….for extreme eating days AND countdown to competition meal plans!
For the first time ever I felt like I had a solid foundation to start a new relationship with food. As dramatic as that sounds, its true! Ive been all over the map with my relationship with food in my life. My biggest problem is not eating enough! My meal plans have me eating a lot and a lot more! I could feel my metabolism firing again….Its been a great, refreshing restart to this new, healthy, fit, lifestyle change.
Ive decided that a healthy relationship with food is what I need to focus on. “Cheat days” are a vital key to my success living this new, fit life. If there is no balance then the whole program will crumble. Its really true if you think about it! If I eat clean forever, and Im SUPER strict on myself forever, there is no way Im living a balanced, happy life. Tara and I both love food, and she’s encouraged me over and over again saying YOU DESERVE some frozen yogurt! You’ve earned it!
So, here are the top 4 lessons Ive learned on my weight loss journey
- Get mad at yourself. What started my weight loss journey was getting sick of myself and my excuses. At the end of the day, not making the right eating choices and not working out is just laziness. Just being honest with myself, getting sick of how I felt was all the motivation I needed to start a plan and muster up the discipline every day to stay consistent with eating right and pressing that play button. Don’t make excuses. Enough talk. Go into action mode. Getting into shape is a mental game more than a physical game, trust me.
- Consistency is key. Consistency starts with discipline and discipline turns into consistency. If you want to transform anything well, you need to be consistent in plugging away at that goal. The example of the tortoise and the hare comes to mind. The tortoise constantly plugged away and ended up winning and accomplishing his goal. You see this was my problem for 5 years….I was always gung-ho about loosing weight in the beginning, but I never consistently worked out, so I ended up gaining weight, hitting rock bottom. My advice is to choose a program that you know you can realistically do every day. I started with a 25 minute workout because I knew, no matter how busy my day was or how tired I was that 25 minutes was something I could do daily. And you get weekends off. Fridays are double workouts so I would bust my butt Friday and then feel good to have a little break Saturday with a stretch day Sunday. Don’t pick the toughest, longest workout when you’re really out of shape. Odds are you will get discouraged and the long workout time will turn into something you absolutely dread and end up skipping. Do not skip workouts. Consistency is key and will get you far. A little every day will make huge changes.
- Eat clean. I heard somewhere that 80% of getting in shape and living a fit lifestyle was eating clean. By clean I mean eating things that once had a life (unprocessed foods). I lost most of my weight without a meal plan–although I was already, naturally eating clean…proteins and veggies mostly. The benefit of buckling down, doing the math and creating a meal plan was that it taught me I was eating too little, and too infrequent. It also gave me a competition meal plan thats a bit more strict to help me safely really cut weight in a healthy way. Now, when I do have a day or two where I’ve loosened the reigns a bit in the eating, I have a place to go back to to get back on track. The saying is true, you can’t out work bad eating so eat healthy.
- Cheat days are important. Say what?! Like I said before, its all about balance. In the beginning when I had a lot of weight to loose I was strict. I didn’t have cheat days. I was determined to loose that fat. I didn’t WANT to cheat. I was on a mission. Now that I’ve lost almost all the weight I wanted to loose (although I’ve still got much work to do) and Im ready for some frozen yogurt, I let myself! I don’t beat myself up, I enjoy it and move on and get back to eating clean! Balance is letting the reigns loose, enjoy life and yummy food with family and get back to your healthy eating. I had a problem with letting myself cheat at first… I’d text Tara photos of my sweet frog and say AHHHH and she’d remind me ITS OK!!!! Let yourself cheat, don’t feel bad (that’s not healthy either), enjoy the food and the moment, and get back on track.
When is the last time you surprised yourself? Ive had SUCH a boost in confidence in myself not because of how I look or feel but because I finally was able to commit to something, do it when I didn’t want to, when it was mentally a HUGE STRUGGLE, push through and get it done. Loosing weight is SO mental and my confidence has come because I have achieved my goal. You CAN accomplish anything if you are determined and consistent. If I can do it, so you can you. Trust me!
Are you on a weight loss journey? Struggling with your relationship with food? Can you relate? Let me hear from you!
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My Meal Plans
My Workout Programs So Far
