So I recently got married (about three weeks ago), and I have gained quite a bit of weight. Between stress, family dinners, and so much more, I have gained back about 10 pounds. After the wedding, I also got sick and couldn't breathe just sitting on the couch, so I wasn't able to jump back into exercising. After all of this, I continued to eat unhealthy after the wedding. One 'cheat meal' turning into two, into three, and then just a full week of eating unhealthy. There were a lot of leftovers from the wedding, and in my brain I thought that it was better to eat them than to let them go bad. Was it really better? Definitely not for my waistline.
Luckily, I had the foresight to pawn off the rest of the wedding cake onto someone else because I cannot control myself around sweets. At all. That didn't mean there weren't other foods to ruin my diet. There was leftover 'corn surprise' (which is essentially corn bread with more butter than I care to think about), leftover potato salad, and more... With me being sick as well, that meant that I really didn't feel like cooking and my husband definitely isn't much into cooking. He'll do it if I ask, but isn't it just easier to eat out? Again, not really. But I really didn't feel like cooking.
Being tired all the time, made it super difficult to really do anything. I don't think I got more than 5,000 steps for maybe two weeks. I've been in serious denial and haven't actually checked my fitbit app in a while. Which is another mistake. When you don't keep track of what you are (or aren't) doing, it's easy to be in denial of what you are actually doing. Not keeping track of food and activity will let you keep those rose colored glasses on and not realize how bad it really is.
I didn't really realize that I was walking so little and eating so much. (Corn bread alone has 150 calories in one serving). I haven't been drinking nearly enough water and my sleep is extremely restless at night.
So how on earth do I fix this?
First, get rid of all of the bad food in your fridge and pantry. If you're anything like me then if it's there you're going to eat it. So just getting it out of the house is the easiest way. Now, if you have a spouse or children, like I have a husband, it's not always that simple because they do enjoy those foods and get upset not having them. My solution to this was to have a completely separate shelf for his food that I'm not allowed to touch. I put it at the very top of the pantry because if I don't readily see it than it's not really there.
I also meal prep. It can be difficult to find the time or energy to make food for an entire week, but I do it in little bursts. Also, having a crockpot and rice maker do really make it easier. You can dump meals in either and just forget about them. My crockpot has a timer, so I'm able to leave the house even while it's still on. My rice maker (as most will) doubles as a steamer, so I can steam veggies quickly too without having to turn on the stove and worry about my cat around an open flame.
I usually make 4 servings at a time and just store them in the fridge or freezer until I am ready to eat them.
Good meal prep ideas: pasta salad (with chicken for protein), baked chicken breasts, chili, protein waffles (I use Kodiak Protein Pancake mix and a couple scoops of protein powder), and turkey tacos (for low carb, I use romaine lettuce instead of tortillas.)
Second thing I do, is keep better track of what I am actually eating and my general activity. Seeing how unproductive you are, can really be a motivator to get moving again. When I was sick, I couldn't really lift weights or run on the treadmill, but I could have gone for more walks. Even just little activity is better than nothing.
After the wedding, I found it more important to edit all of the photos that were taken (about 600) and print them out. This took about three days. But couldn't I have split it up into shorter periods and had it last a longer time. Instead of working on the photos for three hours a day, I could have cut it down to one, so that I could've found more time to exercise. Then after printing, it was figuring out what photos were going to go where and hanging them up on the wall or putting them in albums. Which they still haven't made it up onto the wall... I'll get to that eventually though, right?
Even right now, I'm writing this blog post instead of working out. I'm in my exercise clothes, all ready, but I just keep putting it off.
The best advice I can give is to just jump right back into things.
You don't feel like working out. Tell yourself that you'll just work out for five or ten minutes and if you still don't feel like it then you can stop. Chances are though, you'll continue to work out for the rest of what you have planned.
Just keep reminding yourself why you started this in the first place. Whether that's hanging up pictures of woman in bikinis or plastering motivational sayings on your wall, you need to figure out why you're doing this before you can really move forward. Write down a list of why you want this.
My list would be something like this:
1. Health
2. No more migraines
3. I can actually run without feeling embarrassed
4. I want to be strong
5. I don't want to be insecure about my body
I still haven't fully gotten into the swing of things again, but I know that I will. My health is too important to me to go back where I was a year ago.
I just need to keep looking forward and take one day at a time.
And so do you.
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