I Am Losing It

 

THE CONFESSION

It is NOT easy for me to talk about this. I’ve put on weight. Most of you would never notice because I am a firm believer in dressing for the body you have. I can rock the booty if I have to but I have to admit that I fell into a horrible pattern. Recent stress and my guess is a little bit of depression caused me to turn off my sense and focus on a clean, healthy lifestyle and turned on my appetite for lazy days of inactivity and processed foods like chips and ice-cream and too much chocolate!

So. Not. Me.

Every time I went to the pantry for a handful of chips I would say to myself, “I’m fit enough to have a cheat.” and “I can totally get away with this.”

And every time I decided NOT to go for a run I would reason it with, “I just don’t have time for this right now.” and “I’ll do it tomorrow.”

This comfort and coping continued for several months and right on thru the holidays filled with more indulgences. When spring started to emerge I had a moment of self awareness or rather a moment in my closet with my favourite shorts and a bit too much junk in ma trunk. I was hit with reality right in the ass 😉

BOOM! Wake up call.

WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING?

I immediately went to the kitchen and threw away all the junk that had crept in and I laced up my shoes and went out for a run.

Ouch. It hurt.

It may have only been a few extra pounds…ok maybe it was 10 but after being at a stable weight for more than 3 years, the added padding made for an uncomfortable feeling.

And I guess I should back up a second and say that while I have been very health conscious for most of my life, weight has never been an “issue” for me. I have had 3 pregnancies and 4 children and worked very hard to regain my strength and reclaim my body. This is the first time, other than pregnancy, that I have gained weight since having babies. Now, I know that those of you who struggle daily with weight are probably rolling your eyes right now but I want you to know that I have realized, even just a tiny bit, that what the majority of the population goes thru in struggling with weight is an internal battle waged every single day. I can now see how stress and depression can lead to self sabotage and a spiral of empty calories with the inner mantra of, “I just don’t care right now”.

I get it.

 

THE PLAN

Get back on track. Eat clean. Run, run, run. Build muscle. Try new workouts to keep things interesting. Get better sleep. De-stress. De-clutter. Simplify.

 

THE TOOLS

I hit the pavement for daily running and when the weather sucks I hit the treadmill.

 

 

I dusted off my Vitamix and loaded my fridge with spinach, carrots, kale, hemp hearts and chia. Even the kids are totally digging my Shrek green smoothies.

 

 

I bought the hubs and me UP Bands to track movement and sleep (oh I love my UP Band). This chic bracelet by Jawbone is in it’s second release and by my account is doing great. Coupled with the UP app my band will tell me how many steps I do each day, how long and deep I sleep each night and as an added bonus you can input and track every bite of food you eat on the app. UP even has a social network side that allows me to add friends to my “team”. It’s good to know when a particular friend doesn’t get enough sleep so I can steer clear of her bad side.

 

 

After asking for help from fitness blogger, Tamara at FitKnitChick about workout log books (I know, I know the UP app does that too but I wanted to track my strength training specifically) and she recommended that I get the same book she herself uses…the FITBOOK. This little book has pages to record everything on your fit track from food to strength to cardio. It even comes in Teen and Prego versions.

 

UPDATE

Usually summer means BBQ’s, ice-cream, chips n dip and lazy days at the beach. This year was totally different. I packed the Vitamix in the trailer and made shakes just like at home. I spent the first 2 weeks of my summer vacay doing some sort of daily activity which included squats, sit-ups, running and biking. Yes, there was ice-cream and yes there were chips but all within reason and not over indulgent. I am losing it! Yay me!

 

 

QUESTION

Have you ever slipped off the fitness track? Did you recover? What did you do?

 

The Dirty Girl was not compensated in any way, shape or form for any mention of specific brands in this post. All opinions are her own and are for realz yo!