Hope your week is off to a good start! I wanted to thank you again for joining my inner circle of Strong Women. Did you find the Freemium "How to lose fat the healthy way” a useful a tool? The content inside the PDF doesn't have to be just for fat loss. If you're currently maintaining your weight it can be used for that as well.
I wanted to share a personal story
and some insights that I have learned along the way on my own fitness and nutrition journey. This past week I posted about carbs not being the enemy, and that they don't make you fat.
I gave a lil reference in my FB blog post last week about my experience with no to little carbs during a period of “dieting” in my life. It was miserable at times, but I white knuckled my way through it because I thought this was the way to lose weight. You see I was
working with a trainer that was of the old school mindset when it came to physique transformation. He came from the background of no carbs, high protein, and hours upon hours of exercise. With him, I would do at least 2 hours of strength training Monday through Friday and 1 hour of cardio immediately following my strength training session. Later on in the day, I had to do another hour of cardio. Crazy, right? Can we say please shoot me now! If you know me by now, I am hard ass (excuse my French)
“A type” of personality kind of person in some areas of my life, and at that time it was fitness. I was the No Pain No Gain kind of mindset and No Excuses chick. You may ask “Why I would put myself through this type of regime?) For one, I didn’t know any better or that that there was a better way. Also, when I start something, I finish it, and I felt like If I backed out I would be a failure. It would have been best for my mindset and health to have backed out, but some things are best learned
the hard way.
I’m sure you have heard of the diet dogma about milk and bread making you fat. These were all things that I believed was the culprit of my weight gain or the reason why I couldn’t lose weight. My trainer made me cut all dairy and eat no bread. I know, I know, crazy right! It was very much so. I was crazy for believing, but that’s what’s supposed to work and I didn’t know any better. To top the cake, I trained on ½ a grapefruit, or on an empty stomach. Meals
for the day were mostly just protein and veggies. My carbs sources only came from veggies. Sometimes- not all the time, maybe twice a week; I would get a so called carb up meal that consisted of 1-cup oatmeal, 6 oz sweet potato, 4 oz banana, 1 cup vegetables, and 1 tbsp butter or almond butter.
Want to talk about crying and being hungry all the time? As soon as I ate I was hungry again. My husband says I was a basket case and dumber than a box of rocks. Sitting back and
reflecting on this brings backs so many memories from that time. Like I said in my post this past week, I would go to bed super early because I was hungry and had ate all my meals for the day. Not the way you should approach fat loss. Nor is it a way to live a healthy sustainable lifestyle.
The
Take Away
- Dieting and over exercising is the not way to fat loss. It’s a diet if it restricts or bans certain food groups and if it has a name. I don’t classify flexible eating in the category of diets either (also know as IIFIYM- If It Fits In Your Macros)- I touched a bit on this in my blog post here: http://bit.ly/eatthedangcookie
- If you’re looking to lose some fat- start with a moderate approach to fat loss by changing one to two nutritional components such as getting more protein into your meals or eating more fruits and veggies. It should be effortless and simple.
- Make exercise fit in where you can. Start with walking if that’s
what will work best for you.
- If you are working with a trainer that does not have your well being at heart, fire them. They may be a great person, but your health must come first.
- For performance in and out of the gym. Make sure you are eating enough calories, carbs to sustain for your everyday living as well as your exercise. Like I said before, a small decrease in your calories
can move you into fat loss phase. It doesn’t have to be a huge deficit. Please never drop your calories below body weight x10 or below your BMR. This is a good rule of thumb if you’re counting calories.
- I am a big proponent of Moderation! Well, how do you eat moderately, you might ask? First it starts with getting off the good food, bad food bandwagon and looking at food as just food. It also means, to me, eating all the foods you love,
and leaving the ones that you don’t like. Stop eating something because someone said it was healthy, or that it has some magic ju-ju properties for fat loss! Learning to eat moderately takes practice. You’re going to screw it up, and that’s okay. Just try it again and learn from it, then do it again.
- Lastly, pay attention to biofeedback. You know your body more than anyone else. If you don’t like how something feels or how it tastes,
don’t eat it or do it. It’s as simple as that. No, you’re not a failure if you can’t get to the gym 5 days a week, or get in 5 days of workouts, or if you just can’t eat another salad. Celebrate your small wins, do things that work for you, and things that enhance your life, not hinder it!
Here are some my favorite fitness reads over the last week. I think they hold valuable tools, content and
insights! Enjoy!
Lastly nourish and move your body because you love it not because you hate it!
Do me a
favor and hit me back letting me know the number 1 thing you struggle with it comes to working out.
Yours in Health and Happiness,
xoxo
Candace