Tuesday, July 26, 2011

No Sweets Week

So, today is day 2 of my no sweets week. My no sweets week is pretty self-explanatory, but in case you were wondering, it's just a week where I try to eat no sweets. I'm doing this because sweets are by far my biggest weakness when it comes to food. I absolutely love sweets, but they aren't healthy. Sweets are ok in moderation, but I was not eating them in moderation, I was eating as much as I pleased. So, I decided that I was going to do a week without sweets. I did well yesterday. A whole lot better than I thought I was going to be able to do, actually. We actually just bought cookies on Sunday, and my friend was over and had a cookie and I wasn't even that tempted. I was kind of proud of myself. However, I went to Culver's with my mom today and ended up forgetting about my no sweets week. I had ice cream. But, instead of calling off the whole thing and starting over next week, I think I'm just going to tack on an extra day next Monday. I'm doing this because if I can go for a whole week without eating sweets, I know I can resist later when temptation is there. So, to apply this to you, take whatever bad food that you can't resist and vow to not eat it for a week. If your thing is sweets like mine is, do a no sweets week. If you are a potato chips person or a regular soda person, swear those things off for a week. Or if its an eating habit that isn't good, such as snacking between meals or eating really late at night, try going without those habits for a week. Chances are you are stronger than you think and you will be surprised at how easy it is to not eat the bad stuff. One thing that has helped me was blabbing about it. I told my mom and she knows that I'm trying to loose weight and she is too. So she is supporting me in my no sweets week. I also talked to my friend about it (while she was eating a cookie. lol) because she was wondering why I wasn't eating a cookie too. Anyway, this is helpful because it makes you accountable. For me, when other people know what I'm trying to do and I go against my vow and do it anyway, I kind of feel like I'm letting people down in a way. Another tip that I have is to replace that thing that you aren't going to eat with something else healthy. At night, when I would normally turn to something sweet and delicious, but bad for me, I decide instead to turn to a piece fresh fruit or a vegetable. This satisfies my craving for something sweet, but it's still good for me, so I don't feel bad. I also find that chewing gum helps. Whenever I want something just because I wan't to eat something and I'm not actually hungry, I chew a piece of sugar-free gum, and that tends to help eliminate the craving.

Now for a more general update. I haven't really been loosing weight lately, but I haven't been gaining it either. So I suppose that is neither here nor there. But I would like to continue loosing weight so I could reach my goal. I have been feeling incredibly motivated lately, and I'm not sure why. I think the thought of a new school year coming up is exciting. I would love to go back and have people say, "Wow! You look amazing!". Is that conceited? lol. But it would be nice. I have decided that I need to up the ante when it comes to my exercise routine. I have found a route for a significantly longer walk that I really like. I did the same sort of thing with a friends, but instead of just stealing hers, I thought I would shake it up a bit. My new route has some kinks in it yet, but I'm sure I'll work them out. One thing about it is that it takes me just over an hour to do the whole thing, and I don't have an hour of sunlight everyday in order to walk in, but whenever I have the time and motivation, I think I'm going to do my new route. So that's all I have for you lovely ladies today, but hopefully I will start to blog a bit more regularly in the near future.

Becoming a Babe

Saturday, July 9, 2011

So I have been a terrible blogger, and I'm sorry. But I'm going to start this blog back up again, partly because I'm hoping it will inspire me and anyone else who reads it, and partly because I don't like it when people start something, then leave alone forever. So as a recap, I haven't been doing that great, but I haven't been doing terribly either. I've kind of been trying to get back on track with everything. My diet is starting to get back to normal, and I have been getting back into exercising daily. I did an ab workout the other night, and let me tell you my abs still hurt a little bit, but its so worth it. Doing abs is one of my favorite things to do. Today I'm going to stress the importance of choosing exercises that you enjoy. Exercise is something that some people dread, and I was totally right there with all those people about a year ago. But then I joined the track team. And I was a thrower, so I wasn't hardcore running everyday or anything, but I still had to work. This was great for me because during the season, whenever I felt like being lazy and eating junk food, I had to go to practice and work out for a few hours. I had no choice in the matter. And you know what? It worked. I started to loose weight. Another great thing that came from this was friends. Not that I didn't have friends before, but I made some new ones. The people on my track team weren't necessarily the people I saw throughout the day in school, so it was fun to go to track and talk to new people. They were also great at motivating. I sometimes felt that I couldn't do what we were told to do, but they helped me through. For example, (and this is a little embarrassing) one day we were told to run a mile for conditioning, and I was really slow, and most of my team started before me, so they were all done a lap ahead of me. When I had another lap to do and I was dying because I was kind of out of shape, part of my team ran my last lap with me even though they didn't have to and motivated me along the way. This sounds cheesy as I'm writing it, but it was touching to me and it really helped me power though that last lap. Ok, cheesy story time over. Anyway, this weight loss totally motivated me into the summer. I wanted to get outside and do some sort of exercise. One thing that I personally loved to do was take walks. I have a route picked out that is a circle that is just over a mile by my house. I walk it almost everyday. Days that I don't want to walk, I take a bike ride. I don't have a set path or anything for this, but I kind of just go around my city and neighboring cities and explore places I have never been. I make sure I'm out there for a least 25 minutes, but typically they take longer than that because I'm having fun. Swimming is great exercise if you're moving around and splashing. It's good for you and it's really fun, so its a win win if you ask me. I also love to do yoga. It's super relaxing and feels so good to stretch out your muscles. And I have never found any shame in putting on some upbeat dance music and going nuts in my room dancing and jumping. Its fun, and its great cardio as long as you keep moving for at least 10 minutes at a time. Along with these cardio activities, I don't disregard strength training. Like I said before, I love doing abs. I don't know why, but they feel good to me and they are super easy to do at home. For arms, I do push-ups (or in my case mock push-ups, because -shhh- I can't do a real push-up ha ha) and like the one where you like bend your elbows while you're supporting yourself on a chair. I don't know what they are called, but if you really want to know what they are, I'll look it up for you, just leave a comment.  When I don't want to do either of those things, I grab a 2-liter bottle of soda, or (this is another totally embarrassing thing, but I do it sometimes) a mostly full jug of laundry detergent and use it do do arm curls or behind the head lifts that work the triceps.  I don't own a set of dumbbells, and I'm too cheap to go buy one, so I make do with whatever I have to. For legs, I like to do squats and lunges. I probably do more, but that is all I can think of off the top of my head. If I'm completely out of ideas, I grab an old (or new, whatever works) Seventeen magazine and go to the exercise portion and do that exercise. These are things I like to do. Which is totally a key. If you don't like to do it, you aren't going to. It's really that simple. So experiment, find something that you love doing. Whether its taking your dog for a walk (or by yourself if you don't have a dog, and don't be ashamed or embarrassed, I don't have a dog and I walk all the time), joining a sports team, or doing something completely different, just do something that you enjoy. And you don't have to spend any money. I used a bottle of laundry detergent (ha ha, I'm a little weird) as a weight. So use your creativity and find something that you love. Good luck!

Becoming a Babe