I truly believe that this saying could be applied to any aspect of life that you can imagine–eating, dieting, giving into certain temptations or peer pressures, skipping a workout…you name it, I’m sure at a point you wanted to resign and throw the towel in. In this post, I’m applying it to the relationships in my life.

In reflection, I can barely comprehend how vastly different my life is today than it was a couple of years ago, and how my life today is so different than I ever imagined it would be.

Growing up, one of my greatest dreams in life was to become a wife and a mom. To some, it may sound less than ambitious. Some have even questioned why I am going to school if my end goal is to stay at home and cook, but it’s more to me than that. I have so many dreams in my life, and being a first generation college graduate is one of them, but so is being married and having a family.

Life happens though, as I am sure you are well aware of. We get thrown curve balls, the unexpected takes place, and it can often feel like you’re kind of stuck on a road somewhere. Everything around you looks the same and you’re not sure if you should turn around, go forward, or lay down and take a nap.

I experienced my first real heartbreak at age 19 and resigned from dating for a short while. I hated guys and only wanted to run, which was a blessing in disguise. Ultimately, I still wanted to find ‘the one’ eventually, and live happily ever after with this idea of a guy that I had dreamt of since I was a little girl.

When I reached my lowest body weight, I noticed that I was getting more attention. From guys in public, guys that I had classes with, and I liked it. This lead to me dating, and a lot. I received affection and these really good looking guys were pursuing me and it was fun! Emotionally, I remained detached. Deep down, I knew that these guys were not the type of guys I should have been dating, but I was having fun. I had given up my big picture for what felt good at the moment. These guys didn’t treat me like the way my parents raised me that I should be treated, they didn’t respect me, and they weren’t interested in who I was as a person. They wanted to have fun and do some things I wouldn’t agree to, which sent most of them to the curb. Or they sent me to the curb, you can look at it whichever way you want.

Among all of this, I lost a grip of who I am. I wasn’t spending time with people who brought out my good qualities, and I felt as though I was stuck, stranded in the middle of the road somewhere and all of the scenery looked the same. There was a point just a year ago where I vowed between God and myself, that I wasn’t going to date again until I found my husband. I didn’t know how I would know it was ‘him,’ but I quit the careless dating and attention-seeking. If anything, I didn’t want to be noticed by men. My plan was to finish school, get a great internship, perhaps move to a new city for a job that I loved, go to graduate school, and maybe start thinking about dating again when I hit thirty. I set my focus on what I wanted-and back on God- and was going for it.

I knew that if I wasn’t happy by myself, I would never be happy with someone else. Because you’re stuck with yourself forever.

[As you may know, my 'plans' never really go as planned]

These plans of mine were interrupted by the onset of feelings that I realized I had for my current fiance. Literally, it was a morning in June that I woke up and thought, ‘I think I like Jason.’ My faith had recently stepped up to a new level and I didn’t know what was going on. God knew that this whole thing wasn’t part of my plan, which is what makes it beautiful. This is because really, Jason was part of the plan and I didn’t realize it. It was my plan but it wasn’t my plan. I had my eyes focused on the big thing–what I wanted most. I still wanted to get married, but that wasn’t where my focus was; my focus was on becoming the best ‘me’ that I could and I knew the other things would follow. It is amazing that when we keep our focus on what seems impossible, that our dreams become our reality, thus allowing us to have greater dreams than even before.

This is for you women and girls out there, maybe you are single, dating, heartbroken, kind-of-dating, sleeping with someone, co-habitating, or you’ve sworn off men for life.

Let me warn you, doing this might mean leaving a bad relationship and admitting that you are worth so much more than you give yourself credit for. It might be really uncomfortable and awful at first, but without some pulling of weeds and pressure applied, we can’t grow into the absolute best that we are so capable of.

Don’t give up the way you know that you deserve to be treated, respected, cared for, loved on, admired, uplifted, challenged, and adored– for anything.

But first, you must treat yourself this way. You must take care of yourself, do what you know is best for you, respect yourself, challenge yourself, uplift yourself–because if you don’t do this, then no one else can.

Don’t give up what you want the very most for what looks and feels good right now.

Because nothing can compare to how incredible it is to begin to achieve what you want the most.

Hillsong United released their newest album a few months ago, and I didn’t listen to it until about a month ago. There is one song called ‘Relentless,’ that completely overwhelmed my heart.

By dictionary definition, the word relent means:

Let me be honest here, I was seriously doubtful of even participating in Rock the Parkway this year based on what training I didn’t have under my belt. I hadn’t followed a training schedule properly, I kept getting sick when I would try to run a lot, and became very unmotivated to run. Wah wah wah. Last week I envisioned what might happen if I just didn’t show up for the race yesterday morning. Would I regret not running? Would I even be able to finish? Would I collapse at mile 8 and need to be gurneyed off the course? I envisioned every single one of these scenarios except for seeing myself cross the finish line.  People were telling me that I could do it, that I would do great, and that they were excited for me but somehow I wasn’t excited myself.

Nerves finally set in Friday evening and I was questioning my intelligence to even attempt a half marathon, considering the longest distance I have ran since last July was 6 miles. Come time to wake up at 5am on Saturday morning and yep–this was real life. I was going to run again.

It had been so long since I raced that I forgot what my normal running routine is; what I needed to wear, to eat, what I should take with me to the race, etc. Things that regular racers know without even thinking about. I ate my regular breakfast, packed some fruit snacks in my bra for fuel, and my wonderful photographer/cheering/fiance drove us to the race.

My awesome friend Emmy was running the 5k and she and her mom met us at the start

Reality hadn’t set in that I was going to run, sooooo I was just going with it at this point.

My goal was specifically to ‘not die,’ and that is all

I foolishly started with the 2:25 pacers knowing that I would eventually and intentionally fall back

I have recently run 4-5 training miles so I was faithful I would be okay until that point, but after that was destined to be a glorious surprise to me!

J and my aunt were staking out and cheering between miles 4-5 so when I made it to them I was still in good shape

I was still happy and even gave hugs to thank them for coming to cheer on my attempted running, which I never would have done in the past because I would have been too focused on a PR or beating a previous time

Thankfully, I found a runner friend + a new friend on the course to hang with for a little while, chat, and justify walk breaks with. I could feel the blisters coming on the bottoms of my feet but overall was doing okay. My legs were kind of like, “We don’t like this,” but we still had ground to cover. We crossed the halfway point at 1:16 which had us on target to finish at a very respectable time.

Up to mile 8 felt okay. As a matter of fact, I specifically remember thinking at the mile 8 marker, “There is no way I have run 8 miles. No way. Ridiculous!” because I really couldn’t believe that we had covered 8 miles. Surely I was to die at this point.

My IT band began to give me some problems which put a huge damper on my run. The pain started as an annoying little twinge, but it worsened (especially running uphill) to the point where, had I kept running, my leg would have given out and I would have toppled over. Through trial and error, I discovered that running uphill was not an option. I took the flat and downhill portions of the course as an opportunity to run [trot] and uphills were walking.

Shortly after mile 9, I found my aunt and J again and I stole my aunt’s gloves because my hands were not keeping themselves warm and I regretted tossing my gloves back around mile 2

I didn’t express to them how bad my knee pain was because I didn’t want them to worry, I just wanted to make it to the finish line. The final four miles were a walk/trot combo. I met a lady around mile 11 who was from Omaha whom I had seen at the start. Apparently, she has only run 5k’s before and her sister asked her the night before to run the race with her. Of course her sis had finished in like 2:15 or something, we found out via text. She got me through the end of that race, no lie. She happily walked the hills with me and we encouraged each other at the times we would run.

This was her first half marathon and I convinced her to hold hands with me and raise them as we crossed the finish line

We crossed the finish right around 2:45, which met my goal of living and my unspoken goal of finishing in under three hours

I found J and my aunt right at the finish line and he captured this image which 110% accurately describes the way I was feeling upon finishing those 13.1 miles

I have lots of thoughts about this race–bear with me.

This race, though untrained, held a bundle of significance for me. I started getting weepy around mile 7 because I was actually participating in this race and doing okay- I had zero belief in myself. I kept telling myself, “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me…I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” Everyone around me believed in me, so why didn’t I believe in myself? At mile 7 was when I started to have some faith. I realized that even though conditions may not be perfect, I am still completely capable of doing anything I set my mind to, which was a boost that I needed.

Without running as much, life has been good, but running just adds that extra little bit of ‘oomf’ in my heart.

This was my slowest half marathon. My slowest half marathon is someone else’s fastest half marathon, and my fastest half marathon is someone else’s slowest half marathon. That doesn’t make us bad runners or bad people; everyone is experiencing different circumstances in life or in their runs, and the thing that matters is that they are out there doing it and getting it done. I truly believe that the very last finisher, or the person who struggles the most, is just as strong if not stronger than the person who is the best or comes in first.

This race reignited my love of running and put a fire in me for other aspects of my life. Though it wasn’t easy, I still had so much fun. While my racing may not be as frequent during this season in my life, it is absolutely not about to be retired to the shelf. It gives me such joy and happiness that running and racing is not something I can simply push to the side.

Finally, I must thank the ones who believed in me, the ones who absolutely knew I could do it when I was certain I couldn’t. Thank you for your unconditional support, love, and cheering. I love you all to pieces!

In this post you will find the perfect guide as to How to Not Train for a Half Marathon, because that is essentially what I have been doing. When I last left you, I had just completed my first race in 6 months and was slightly overwhelmed with the idea of wedding planning.

Here I am, two and a half weeks later, still alive, and doing MUCH better! One thing you should know is that I’m busy. I like being busy, but sometimes I get too busy. Like juggling four jobs. Plus school. Plus wedding planning. Plus volunteering. Want to know what that equals?

Yeahhh buddy. I can’t even sugar coat it; things got pretty ugly there for a couple of weeks. J (fiance) and I had no time for each other, my stress levels were through the roof, and at one point I had to debate going to the grocery store (I was about 4 days overdue of not having food) or taking a shower (I won’t mention how over due that was because it is disgraceful). Oh and running? That was just a figment of my imagination.

Last week I had to take some serious quiet time and a couple of come to Jesus meetings, and I made the decision to quit one of my jobs. I was hoping to hold out and work there until June, but the stress was honestly too much to bear. I knew that I would be much happier and my life would be a million times more enjoyable if I gave that up. While it was hard to walk away from that extra source of income, I know I am better because I gave that up. I’m having a lot of faith in the Lord right now to continue supplying all of my needs (according to HIS riches and glory), yet an abundance of peace that I didn’t have before.

Just since last week, I have felt such a sense of relief and joy…two things that you cannot put any dollar amount on. Friday night I got to enjoy spending time with the man while he cooked us dinner and we watched KU lose. Dinner was delicious but things got quite dramatic during the basketball game.

We have also decided on wedding cakes…yuuuuuum!

Aside from this fun stuff, I have also been having to spend a lot of time on school things. This semester is much more ‘hands on’ than the last one was, so it’s become pretty normal for me to wake up at 6:30am to work on something for school, because that’s about the only time I have available to be really productive.

As you can see, absolutely none of this has anything to do with running. I ran 3.25 miles outside last night and my quads are mildly sore this morning, which is a great indication of my fitness level for my pending half marathon in ten days. I have seriously had to fight off the voice inside my head that says I should just not do the race because I’m not ready and will be miserable the entire 13.1 miles.

But I’m too resilient for that. Yes, life has happened. No, I’m not trained like I should be, but I am only human. This time last year I was cranking out half marathons in my sleep and now I’m questioning my abilities (and sanity). I know I can finish a half marathon, I’m just not sure how ugly and painful it will be or how long it will take me. I guess we will all find out in ten days! I’ve set my mind to this and I’ll be darned if I don’t take that opportunity.

Last weekend was our local St. Patrick’s Day 4-mile run and it was my first ‘race’ since the Girls on the Run 5k that I did last November. I must be honest in saying that while I have been trying to ramp up my weekly running average, I started to get sick and feeling under the weather a few times, so that mileage didn’t accumulate like I had hoped. I’ve heard that mono can take a couple of years for people to fully recover from and I learned the hard way that it is better to take a rest day when you know you should versus going and pumping out 5 subpar miles because your training plan said so. 

It can get really discouraging sometimes knowing that I used to go out and run 16-18-20 miles on a Saturday and these days I’m pushing myself to get more than 4 done. Comparison is not the way to get to where you’re going though, I simply have to accept that while I miss those 18 mile runs, I was at a different place in my life this time last year. A LOT different place. I wouldn’t trade my life right now for anything, even if that means I can only get in 15 miles a week. 

Back to that race! I ran with my friend Emmy and it was her first race–she’s an amazing runner and I’m not sure she realizes that yet. She’s running her first half marathon in May and eats 8-mile runs for breakfast. 

We wanted to make this run about having FUN and we sure did. Emmy pushed me more than I normally would myself during a race even though I kept telling her to run ahead of me because I know she was capable of leaving me in the dust. That is a good friend right there, and she is now obsessed with races thanks to me!

So next month I am running a half marathon, one that I signed up for back in December or something like that. My plan was to be 110% healthy and super focused on doing a really amazing job at this race and setting a PR. As life goes, my training plan will be more of the ‘Couch to Half Marathon in 4 Weeks’ approach. I’m not going to NOT do the race, I am going to run this thing and have a lot of fun doing it. It might take me five hours and I am mentally prepared for that (I’m exaggerating, but really). 

Until then, I am going to run the best that I can and take care of myself. Part of this ‘taking care of myself’ thing also includes stress management and not spreading myself too thin. Between school, working, volunteering, Girls on the Run coaching, and wedding planning…I may need that running as my therapy time, because it’s a lot cheaper than seeing a doctor! 

I definitely didn’t see that one coming! Actually I did, but not as soon as it did–here’s how it went down.

Friday March 1st was a special day for us, and a couple of weeks ago, I asked J if he wanted to go on a date Saturday night (the 2nd) to celebrate. He said that he would plan it and that it would be a surprise. I have only let him plan a couple of dates in the past because I’m the planner and like to know what’s going on all the time, but I let him run with this one. The dates he has planned have always been awesome, so I trusted him.

On our first ‘fancy’ date that we went on last year, it started by going to the Starbucks on the Plaza, it’s one of my favorites. So on Saturday, J picked me up and we head downtown to the Bux. He told me he, “I’m pretty proud of this one,” (meaning the date), so I knew that it was going to be good, but had no clue what he was doing.

There was a limo waiting outside and in my natural joking manner I say, “Oh is that our ride,” and we walked on into Starbucks. We got our drinks, J took a long trip to the bathroom, and I was sitting in the lobby expecting we would stay and just hang out and chat a while. Wrong. J comes out and says we have to go to our next stop, and at this point I was really confused. I wasn’t sure where we could possibly go on the Plaza that would let us take our drinks in, and we surely weren’t staying outside because it was cold.

The limo driver is waiting for us outside and I’m sure the only words I muttered were “Shut. Up.” as we climbed in the limo. I’ve never been on a limo ride of my own so that was cool enough by itself. Naturally I whip out my camera to send a picture to my mom saying, “Look! We got a limo!”

I was still taking in the coolness of getting to ride in a limo when J hands me a letter he wrote, and we write to each other a lot, so it wasn’t totally out of the ordinary. Still, I was clueless. Next, J hands me a couple of magazines wrapped up with a bow on them. I couldn’t see the title of the top one very well, so I look at the one under it and it is The Knot. At this point I was really confused. I thought J was playing a mean joke on me. Because on Friday night I sent him a text joking about getting married and he specifically replied:

“Be patient my dear. Your time is coming soon, not tomorrow soon, but soon.”

So I absolutely knew he wasn’t going to propose, or so I thought. Little did I know that when we were texting, he had been at my parents’ house Friday night requesting their blessing over our marriage.

I’m confused and a little annoyed looking at these magazines, and J says, “I think you’ll need this first,” and I slowly looked over and he was holding open a box and there I was, more shocked and dumbfounded than I have ever been in my life as he gets to one knee in the limo.

I remember saying, “Oh my gosh,” and “Are you serious?!” repeatedly, alternating between laughing and crying, and I think I fit a “Yes!” in there somewhere. Both of our hands were shaking when he was putting the ring on and it was a very sweet moment. This was one of those ‘is this real life?!’ moments that I love so much.

The limo drove us around town, we enjoyed a delicious dinner at Hereford House, and the night eventually began to wind down.

Needless to say, I barely slept Saturday night and was smiling like a maniac for a good 48 hours–Saturday was the absolute best day of my life, and I know things are going to keep getting better!

Tagged: engagement, proposal, wedding ]]> http://runsweatsparkle.com/2013/03/07/the-proposal/feed/ 2 runsweatsparkle IMG_3394 IMG_3387 IMG_3403 http://runsweatsparkle.com/2013/02/22/permissible-v-beneficial/ http://runsweatsparkle.com/2013/02/22/permissible-v-beneficial/#comments Fri, 22 Feb 2013 21:28:52 +0000 Kelsey http://runsweatsparkle.com/?p=2381 Continue reading →]]> This is something I’ve been wanting to write about all week, and there is enough snow on the ground outside to keep me inside to write. This is a post from the heart (but not sappy) so here we go!

Last month I read this great book called Undressed by Jason Illian. He is a fantastic writer and the topic of the book really snagged my attention–it is about love, sex, and dating within the confines of a Christian relationship. I have realized that when I want to find something out or learn something new, I go to books. Whether it be running or dating, I can find a book to suit my needs. Before my current boyfriend, I hadn’t had a good, functional relationship in over three years (or in my adulthood), so I feel like I had to re-learn how to date, especially in this scary adult world. If you are single, dating, engaged, Christian, Atheist, I don’t care, this book is fantastic and really offers a great perspective on how to have a good relationship.

I digress. A part of this book has stuck with me, where Jason talks about physicality in the relationship, and introduces the idea that while everything is permissible, not everything is beneficial. Essentially, when it comes to being physical in a relationship, everything is biologically functionally able to happen, but that doesn’t mean it will benefit the relationship. Yes you can allow whatever you would like to happen, but what matters more is what happens afterwards.

This idea has transpired over more areas of my life than the physicality in my current relationship. I took on the mindset of “Yes, everything is permissible, but will it be beneficial?”

Let’s take eating for example–Yes, that piece of cake looks really delicious and I could eat it if I really wanted to, but how will that piece of cake benefit me? Or maybe I’m hungry for lunch and have some already prepped roasted veggies in the refrigerator, yes I can have that, and yes that will benefit me and fuel me without leaving me sluggish and regretful!

Another example, I caught myself complaining last week– [Complaint] (in my mind–how is that beneficial?!) Then I literally  said– “Nope not complaining…not complaining…no complaining here!!”  It was a slower process, but what matters is that I still applied it.

Without dragging this on and on, this whole idea of permissible/beneficial really has changed my mindset and way of thinking. I can honestly say that nearly before most actions I consciously make, I will ask myself, “How will this benefit me?” whether it be certain people I spend time with, certain places I am invited to go…and if it won’t benefit me, it makes it really easy to refrain. I really believe this process is and will continue to help me make better choices in all aspects of my life.

It’s easy to get caught up in our fast pace lives but sometimes it’s best to take a minute and actually think about what we’re doing and why we’re doing it.

Yeah that’s like the last thing anyone ever wants to do, right?

I hadn’t had my body composition or body fat tested since before I got mono, well over six months ago. I purposely avoided making an appointment to get my body comp tested at the gym for one simple fact–I didn’t want to know what it was. That would be called denial, my friends. The denial caught up with me two weeks ago when our professor announced that we would be completing our body composition analysis.

I go to the University of Kansas so you know this machine is one of the good ones…

Except no one looks that happy when they find out how much fat they have.

You stand on this fancy machine after having cleaned your feet, and you hold onto the arms while it weighs you and displays your weight, fat, lean muscle, and BMI on the little screen. It keeps moving and measuring and displays if you are in the ‘under,’ ‘normal,’ or ‘over’ range. I secretly wanted to yell at it to stop but that would have been embarrassing.  Then it printed out our results and it is our responsibility to find two things that we can improve on and develop plans to giterdun.

The Breakdown

Weight–This was no surprise to me. I weigh myself on a weekly basis and know exactly how much I weigh and I am content with it. Not superomghappy but it’s a ‘happy weight’ that I am able to comfortably maintain.

Body Fat Percentage–higher than what I want and what it was the last time I had it tested. and is something that I need to work on. I was talking with a friend about the possibility that while I lost weight having mono, I may have also lost some muscle mass since I wasn’t able to workout or train like I had been.

Lean Body Mass– One of the things I’m happy about. My lean mass is actually a little over what a ‘normal’ person my age and height should have, but it also went to prove to me that I am as muscular as I think I am and that I do in fact, have a larger body frame.

BMI– Higher than average, but BMI doesn’t take into account muscle mass. Body fat percentage is the number that I am most focused on out of all of these.

This test was able to display where my lean body mass is, how much water weight I have, my dry mass (minerals, etc.), my Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR is how many calories one burns per day with basic bodily functions). BMR serves also as a calorie base, so if you want to lose weight you would eat less than your BMR, if you are maintaining you would stay right around that calorie number, and so forth.

The Goals

Since this is a program planning class, we had to target two goals and design our own program to achieve these. My goals over the next 5 weeks are to decrease body fat by 5lbs and decrease overall body fat percentage. I understand how these could be seen as the same goal, and in a sense they are, but they are what I want and need to improve.

The Plan

In order to achieve these two goals, I have changed my approach to my workouts, running and exercising. My goals for 2013 were kind of already setting me up to achieve these two goals for class, but now knowing my numbers serves as a little extra motivation to be consistent and diligent with my working out. Instead of several, 45-60 minute runs per week, my workouts have been looking more like this:

Monday- 30 minutes of cardio (running or stairs) plus 45-60 minutes of lifting
Tuesday- either 3-4 mile run at around a 9:15-9:30 average pace (fast-ish for me), or like this Tuesday, I did 30 hard minutes on the stairs, 30 minutes of hard cycling, followed by a 2 mile run
Wednesday- Rest
Thursday- 5:45am Zumba (if I make it) or 3-4 mile run, plus 30 minutes of lifting
Friday- 15-20 minutes of hard cardio, plus 30 minutes of lifting
Saturday- Long run
Sunday- Rest

This has been a schedule that works for me and is something I am able to maintain with my lifestyle. I have really been able to see a difference in my body composition since I started lifting regularly in January and am happy with the results so far! Weight lifting has become a new passion of mine–there is just something about being able to pump iron and use my muscles that makes me feel really strong and empowered! Last year I got in a fitness run and I am happy to have made these changes to shake things up and make new progress!

I’m also trying to ‘train’ for a half marathon in April. More on that later…

What happens when you’ve been galloping down that path of a healthy lifestyle for 6 years? Let me tell you what happens.

Sometimes you get stuck, sometimes you trip on a rock and curse your way to hell and back and don’t want to take one more step down that path. Then you have a really good day, week, or month and decide to pick yourself up, dust off and keep going. Eventually those bruises and scrapes go away and you’re back on your galloping way to being Miss (or Mr.) Healthy.

The reality of life is that we’re not perfect. Stuff happens. I ate Nutella the other night. Why? Because I wanted to. Right before I went to bed! Scandalous, I know. It was delicious and I didn’t binge on the entire jar. I got a single spoonful which was perfectly amazing. This being said, here are small changes that I have made in my daily life to help maintain a healthy lifestyle while continuing down this road to be the healthiest I can be.

1. Have structured meals.

I got into a habit of eating at really odd times which wasn’t working for my body. I have found that I work best on a 3-meals and 1-2 snacks a day plan. I did not figure this out by reading a book or pulling something from a magazine, but just by listening to my body and trial and error efforts. I’ll be doing a ‘what I eat’ post soon to showcase what a typical day of eats looks like.

2. No fruits/sugar after 3pm.

Unless it’s Nutella before bed. Just kidding. A friend mentioned that cutting out sugars after 3pm with a couple of other diet changes had helped her to lose a few pounds, so I tried it out for myself…because what I was doing wasn’t working. This actually helped me get out of a little rut that I was in! I eat 2-3 servings of fruit per day and try to not have them after 3pm if I can. Something with my body and not having sugars within a certain time of going to bed has really helped a lot.

3. Taking vitamins.

I started taking a couple of extra vitamins simply because I believed it would help my quality of health, even if only a slight improvement. I take Green Phyters from Vitamin Shoppe which are a multivitamin with lots of good phytonutrients (nutrients from plants that I wouldn’t typically eat), I also take a calcium supplement because I don’t consume dairy (besides low-fat cottage cheese) and I take biotin because I want my hair to grow faster. Seriously, that’s the only reason I take it. It’s good for me too, but my motives are superficial!

4. No more dairy.

This is a sad one, but I’ve just found that dairy and I don’t go well together. I love it, but it doesn’t love me back. The last time I ate some because I thought it would be okay, I was in writhing pain and my stomach was torn to pieces. I just can’t justify that feeling for momentary food-satisfaction, because ultimately, I am left completely dissatisfied.

5. Change my workout plan.

I was dragging my feet with this one. My workout routine was comfortable and cushy, just like my muscles had become after taking months off from working out due to getting sick! I knew that I needed to start lifting weights again but I really wanted to not do it more than I wanted to. The weight room is full of guys and they’ll probably make fun of me and blah blah blah. Whatever. I was making excuses which is why I have forced myself to follow a strength training plan. Three weeks into the new year and I can already see more definition, and I am now proud to often be the only ponytail in the free weights area. I’m also not getting made fun of–I have found that I can lift heavier than a good handful of men.

Small changes…overcoming fears and what is ‘comfortable’ while also realizing and applying what is best for me and my body. What works for one person probably won’t work for another, that’s what makes us great! This is a journey…I’m sure there will be even more changes I’ll make down the road, but for now…I’m loving where I’m going!

I was talking to a friend about weight loss and making healthier choices and I expressed how important I believe that it is to make small changes in the beginning. Making a healthy lifestyle shift can look like a huge, scary monster to those who are contemplating making a change. When I first began losing weight I had no clue what I was doing–all I knew that was anything had to be better than the Taco Bell and junk food I was eating. I had a basic knowledge of what would be healthier so I swapped huge bowls of pasta for turkey sandwiches on wheat bread, sugary cereals for oatmeal and fruit, and nacho bel grande’s for Lean Cuisines and Smart Ones. My eating has evolved immensely over time, but only because I took small steps in the beginning.

It is sad to see the media push diets–organic, raw food, juicing, detoxes–to try and encourage people to lose weight. I believe that all of these things can be good for individuals that truly desire to do them, but they’re also not for everyone and they’re certainly not the only way to lose weight. A problem with these diets is that they are like going zero to 60 overnight for many people who are newly trying to lose weight or change their lifestyle. They can cause a lot of pressure and people get so discouraged that they can’t follow ‘XYZ’ and end up falling off of the bandwagon completely, right back into the arms of their old habits.

This idea can be applied to more than just weight loss–exercising, getting that promotion at work, being better at ______ (whatever it is you do). All it takes is a small step.

For some examples (because I like examples), here are some changes people could make in favor of eating healthier–

>Add a serving of fruit to your breakfast– a banana, pear, apple, strawberries, whatever you like!
> Swap out that afternoon candy bar for something else that will satisfy your sweet tooth but will sustain your energy– a small serving of trail mix would be great, a granola bar or your favorite 100-calorie pack and fruit.
>Plan meals and snacks for the week, each week. This way you are already in the mindset of what you’ll be eating and it will also decrease your likelihood of hopping through the drive through, mindless snacking, and other unhealthy eating habits because you have a structured plan.
>If you’re in a pinch, there’s no shame in a Lean Cuisine, Kashi meal, or Smart One! They actually have some really delicious sounding ones that I would like to try because they aren’t entrees I would normally cook.
>If you enjoy eating out, try to limit that and plan the days you want to eat out every month. This will help both your budget and your waistline, plus you’re making sure it’s food you’ll really enjoy since it will be a special occasion.
>Exchange one soda/sugary drink per day for a bottle of water instead. It will help you stay hydrated and do your body some good!

This is just the beginning! Changes like these are ones that helped me back when I first started losing weight. The more weight I lost and the more I learned, the more positive changes I was able to make. Part 2 of this post is going to entail little tweaks that I have made in my life to help me in just the past few months!