So today we will discuss fitness. What does it mean to you? To me it means: feeling confident in my clothes, looking slender and feeling good about myself. For others it means being able to run a half marathon, to enter the bikini fitness contest, or to be able to bench press 200 pounds.

Fitness has been a struggle because I have PCOS and no thyroid, so metabolism for me doesn’t exist basically. I have to create it. You may ask- how? Well, by eating every 3 hours (small meals), cutting gluten and by moving around. I just am not the type who can keep weight at bay if I am not working on all areas of fitness. Are you like that? Or are you one of the few who can eat whatever you want and not gain an ounce. If you are the latter, I love/hate you.:)

The one area that many of us do not focus enough on though, is the mental part. For ex., beating myself up for gaining 22 pounds since last year, has not helped the weight drop off. It has done the opposite. I have not been keeping strong on eating the best carbs, I mean I do eat Ezekiel bread and brown rice. But I have also been eating sandwiches on sour dough and having fries on occasion. I get so fed up with what I can’t eat, that for months at a time after eating clean for 6 months, I eat foods that I had to step away from totally previously. Another problem many of us have, is restlessness/not enough sleep. I worry so much as a single mom about: finances, the future, my child’s happiness at school and where she will go to college. It literally keeps me up at night and gets me up early in the mornings. I know how important proper rest is in regards to fitness. It is hard to find an article on wellness without sleep being mentioned. https://www.everydayhealth.com/fitness/intimate-relationship-between-fitness-sleep/

The basics of what stress and lack of rest does: your body doesn’t have time to heal and repair, more cortisol is produced which makes more belly fat a problem, it starts a vicious cycle of being too tired to work out (which is key for a healthy body and mind), clothes begin to fit more snug, mood begins to be less happy (exercise creates endorphins). These are just a few of the negative side effects.

So how do get out of the fitness funk you wonder? Well first off, don’t compare yourself to others! And find out what plan or combo of plans works for you! For me, structure helped me to be successful for a long time. But I cut out so many types of food for so long (soy, dairy, wheat), that between my ankle injury and being fed up with cutting out so much, that is when I put weight back on.

Trying a few things to see what works best for your personality and honestly your mood is the best place to begin. If you are not looking to follow a certain type of plan or philosophy right now because of the craziness of life, try eating small meals per day and making sure that you keep the carbs on the low and good end (sweet potatoes, quinoa, berries). It has always worked for me and it is what I am doing now.

Once my ankle is fully healed, I will do more carbs again because I will be doing squats and lifting again and my body will be able to burn the carbs more efficiently. It is all about balance. And though about 90 percent of fitness is nutrition, moving your body every day in some way is key. In 2014, I lost so much weight doing little things. I would take the stairs, park far away. Walk to the store or even the dentist. I didn’t put a time limit on it or schedule workouts, I just made them a part of my daily routine no matter what I was doing. The plie`s during toothbrushing and leg lifts at the gas pump added up. I would even jog 20 minutes in place while watching Netflix when I was able to.

Fitness for you can only be truly defined by you. Taking advice from me, or friends, or fitness gurus is not wrong. But find out through trial and error what works for YOU!

I would love to hear from those of you who are intrested in fitness or have found the key to living a healthy lifestyle, what things that you do to keep the balance. Please share. I am ALWAYS glad to add to my repertoire.

~simply

Dee