My (new) Healthy Lifestyle: Weeks One and Two

the WHYs and the HOWs

My health story is the same as thousands of other people. Body positivity has been an issue of mine since junior high, and it’s never really gone away. I've always felt uncomfortable in my skin, I've just never done anything to improve it. My end goal of this adventure isn’t to look like a model. It’s to feel better about myself, and hopefully be able to complete some fitness goals, like running for more than 5 minutes at a time. (For outrunning the zombies, obviously.) I’ve started and stopped a bunch of times before, but all of my attempts have seemed half-baked. I do the workout part, but eat taco bell every night. Or I do the eating right part, but I’m not any more active than normal.  (Have you been through this, too?) I know in my gut that it isn’t right, but my self control is lacking, and that Volcano Burrito looks AMAZING. 

I’ve been following Bri’s fitness journey on DESIGNLOVEFEST, and her method of making a weekly post of what she’s done seems like something I would like to try. It feels weird because its so far out of my blogging comfort range, but I think checking in will be a good thing. It gives me motivation to think about what kind of workouts I can find and share, or how good that pretty picture I took on my walk would look on my blog. Plus it gives me a place where I have to own up to my mistakes, and hopefully that will help me think twice before breaking my rules.

The How’s: Rules (they’re more of guidelines, really…)

-Cook a healthy meal at home at least once a week. - I’m horrible at this. I’ve lived in this house for  two years now, and I think I’ve cook like… 5 full on healthy meals.

-Workout for 30 minutes every day. -This includes dancing, walking, running, yoga, or whatever else I feel like. But it has to be intentional. And sometimes (most of the time) it will mean waking up early. (blah…)

-Count calories. - I don’t mean it like I’m going to count my calories, and if I go over a certain number I’ll freak out and stop eating. I’ve just found that when I’m counting calories I’m more aware of what I’m putting into my stomach.

-Tea and Water are my best friends. - That’s pretty much self explanatory, but it goes hand in hand with my next rule which is…

-I can only have soda on special occasions. - If you know me personally, you know that energy drinks are my vice. (sometimes I feel like a very cliche gamer, haha) I know they’re bad for you, but it helps me focus, and it tastes really good (excuses, yeah?). I’m not going to cut them out completely, because I would be very grumpy about that, but I’m going to try to pick occasions a couple of weeks apart where I’m allowed to have them. Until then I’m going to be sucking down tea like it’ll save my life.

So that’s it. Five rules. Let's get started with week one!

You know... running is the worst. And the best. At the same time. Like, while it's happening you're pretty sure your legs are going to find a way to kill you in your sleep (if your lungs don't get there first), but you're also thinking about how you should do this every day because how great it would be to be able to run 15 minutes straight (one day...). I'd been trying to walk/run (lets be honest, at this point there is way more walking) every other day for pretty much all of August. It's nice, because around here we are surrounded by parks and preserves, so there's a whole bunch of nature and fun trails to enjoy. I alternate runalking (sweet word, right? no?) with yoga. Yoga is perfect for stretching out my calves of steel (well that's how they feel at least) and it has the add bonus of a little bit of strength training.
Then last Friday I came down with the flu. I had been pushing through some other stuff to get my workouts done (like minor wrist pain), but I took this as my body sayin "Dude... you need to let me repair a little bit." So I did. I took a break from workouts til I was sure I could at least breathe, then I eased back in with some awesome 10 minute yoga workouts. I'm still coughing and snotty as all get out, but at least I can do a downward dog pose!

Dang is eating healthy hard. Week one was a crap shoot. I'd eat well for lunch, have a great salad, then eat way too much at dinner. One day I drank a gallon of water. The next I drank none. And the soda rule? Out the window. I had soda every. Single. Day.

Week two I got better about the soda thing, but I also got sick, so I just tried to keep my body as nourished as possible.



I considered not posting this week, after the sickness and such, but I realized that I was waiting for a "perfect" set of weeks to start posting it was never going to happen. So here I am, showing of my first two imperfect weeks on my healthy journey. And you know what? I'm proud of myself. For getting out of my seat, for trying at all. It's 100% more than I was trying before, haha.

My challenge to myself is to keep updating for 6 weeks starting now (that's 3 more posts), and then we'll see where we go from there. Would you like to join me? How would you challenge yourself? Let me know, or share some links! I'd love to hear how your journey is going!