Prior to me failing at life and losing six months plus of content having issues with WordPress, one of my most popular posts was about my struggle with body image. Maybe body image isn’t the right term since I’ve always been happy with my body, I’m just happier when I’m actively engaging in health and fitness. Not that long ago I had been at where I felt the most healthy and comfortable that I’d ever felt in my body. When I strayed away from that and realized last year that I was 40lbs heavier and not happy… it hit home hard.
The nice thing about jumping on the wellness bandwagon again is that I already knew the steps that worked for my body and lifestyle – it was just getting back in the habit of implementing them daily and not getting too overwhelmed, too quickly.
Where I see the most impact whether I’m cutting, maintaining, or bulking is diet. Specifically, calorie counting and paying attention to my macros. It’s how I manage mindful eating. While daily calorie counting will not be the answer for everyone (or even most people), it really appeals to my data driven mentality. It’s something quantifiable, and trackable. Like a gold star that I get every day I stay on course. I attribute most of my weight gain to when I stopped tracking. A few hundred calories over my maintenance every so often had really added up. I don’t punish myself if I go over, I simply start again the next day. But it does keep me in check: is that cookie really worth it compared to something that is more filling and nutritionally substantial? Sometimes it’s yes, sometimes no. Just depends on the day. To track, I use the app MyFitnessPal (feel free to add me as a friend if you use it: mcnerdish).
While I haven’t been using it for as long as the others I’ll mention in the post, I used some of my Christmas money to purchase something I’d been eyeing for a long time: the FitBit Aria smart scale. I have it set up so that it automatically syncs not only with my FitBit app but with MyFitnessPal too. I’ve noticed it and my previous scale read a few ounces off – but if you’re comparing it to the same scale every day, it’s pretty moot. Overall, the fact that it saves me from having to manually log everything is a well worth it convenience.
Exercise wise I really like doing a mix of classes, cardio on the elliptical, and weight lifting. Regardless of activity, I have really enjoyed my FitBit Charge HR. While it’s a little bulky and I often forget to charge it, I love having the heart rate data to see when I need to start stepping up my routines or change for something different. It’s also really amusing when you get in a fender bender and look back at the data to see a jump in heart rate to 120+ and then immediately go back down to resting ~72. Recently, I saw that FitBit released the Alta HR, which I’m really tempted to switch out for (Husband, I know you read these, this is a not so subtle hint for the rose gold one).
Additionally, subreddits like r/loseit and r/xxfitness have also really helped this past year. They are full of amazing information and an incredibly encouraging community. Between podcast recommendations, books, articles and anecdotal knowledge, they’re an incredibly rich resource no matter what your fitness goals are.
On a much more surface level encouragement, there’s also something to be said about cute and practical fitness apparel. I’m on a huge Girlfriend Collective leggings kick right now, I have like three pair and they are everything. Apparently, now that they are transitioning out of their awareness stage, they have plans to introduce more styles and fit options. So I definitely recommend keeping an eye out over the next few months. If you don’t feel like waiting around for their upcoming collection, Forever21 has a bunch of great reasonably priced options too.
If you had told me that a pair of Sketchers would dethrone my Nikes as my favorite gym shoes I wouldn’t have believed it and yet, here we are. The Skechers GoRun 400 are no joke, it’s like walking on clouds.
While you don’t see the change day to day, or even week to week at times, the progress is still there. This past year I have come so far. I’ve lost 30 of those 40 pounds, feel more energetic, sleep better, and am in such a better mindset. I’m not fixating on those last ten but rather on maintaining this mindset and staying healthy. I’m so excited for the new challenges and goals for this next year to come.
♡Em
