I have been meaning to share my healthy journey with you, though I was sort of waiting until I had some spectacular development before I did. But I’ve learned, this process is slow and steady, not quick and extravagant. I have been working out since college, since I added on the “freshman fifteen,” so about six years now. Like most people, I go through seasons where I am very dedicated, and then seasons where I’m only at the gym a couple of times a week.
“If you’re tired of starting over, stop giving up!”
But I’m going to pick up from eight months ago. Last June I started keeping up with fitness calendars. To my dismay, however, I have not lost ANY weight. But it has taken that disappointment really began to understand the value of eating healthy. They say the majority of losing weight happens in the kitchen, or you are what you eat, ect. And I’ve learned it’s truth!
Now I love sweets, as I have shared before. But for the most part, I didn’t think I was doing that bad of a job. In my home we buy organic, 99% lean meats like chicken and turkey. We cook with whole wheat pastas, multi-grain breads, low-fat cheeses, and all organic ingredients whenever available. We don’t drink sodas, rarely eat frozen meals, and buy low-fat organic milk.
But we eat out, a lot, and we love Whataburger. So with the good, we were mixing an equal amount of bad. After Christmas I decided we were done with that. We started cooking most meals at home, pulled out our juicer (we didn’t even know how to use), and I can happily say that I haven’t eaten any fast food since the beginning of the New Year!
“What you eat in private, you wear in public.”
I have been eating better, and I can totally feel it, even if my scale refuses to lower its number. I have been training for this half marathon, and I feel empowered. I lift weights every week, and I feel much stronger. My clothes fit better, and I feel more comfortable in them, even if I am still the same size. I can tell that my body mass is harder and more defined, and I am happy. (Check out an article about this here.)
Though I will confess, every time I get on the scale and my number hasn’t moved (or has even increased!), I get frustrated. Being healthy is so much more important to me than a number. But now it has become a sort of challenge.
My dear funny friend who is on this journey with me said, “I want to be so skinny people think I’m anorexic.” What makes that so funny is number one, both of us love food so much that we could NEVER be anorexic; and number two, we are both full-figured women who could never be mistaken as such. But the point of her joke I believe was this, we want people to notice the change in us that we’ve been working so hard for!
“Get fit in the gym, lose weight in the kitchen.”
The journey to a healthy lifestyle doesn’t stop. You don’t one day reach your destination. There are no shortcuts. A healthy life is achieved by each decision and each sacrifice. Choose well.