FRUSTRATION

I thought I would write a quick post about a frustrating experience I had this week. At the beginning of the week, I was feeling really good about myself. I'd worked out every day except for Sundays for the past few weeks and I was pretty proud of that. I kept thinking about being able to post about working out 6 times per week for a month... and then two months... and then three months. 

Feeling good after a workout earlier this week

Then Tuesday night came. I had to wake up to feed Eve at 5:00 am and started to feel really sick. Pretty soon I was throwing up (sorry, TMI). Maybe I had a stomach bug or some wood stain fumes affected me strangely. Anyway, I felt pretty awful all of Wednesday so I couldn't work out. I wanted to so badly but I knew that I couldn't and shouldn't. It was so frustrating though. The month achievement I'd been working toward went out the window. 

In the past when this sort of thing has happened to me, it's led me to quit working toward my goal. This is pretty much the story for every new years resolution I've ever set. I do really well for a couple of weeks and then miss a day so I feel discouraged and give up. I didn't want to let that happen this time though. I've been working so hard and I'm starting to see some serious results. Yes, I've been losing weight but the more important difference is in my fitness. When I decided to start running I couldn't even run a lap of the park near our house. Now I can do that and more and it's only been about 3 weeks. My weight hasn't really dropped so far this week which would be discouraging but I still feel motivated because of the improvements in my cardio. 

I saw this image on Pinterest and thought it applied perfectly to this sort of situation. This is a great thing to keep in mind whenever you slip up, whether it's exercising, dieting, or working on any other goal.

Source here

I always want to be perfect but I need to come to terms with the fact that this isn't always possible. It wasn't my fault that I was sick and it's no reason to give up. So even though I feel frustrated and a little disappointed, I'm going to keep working hard. Health and fitness is too important to give up on easily.

UPDATE- WEEK 3

I did all six of my planned workouts this week! Yay! I even made sure to workout on the day we went Sea-Dooing instead of using it as an excuse like last week. 

Had to check out my huge guns in the mirror...
At least I'm starting to see a little bit of definition!

Here's what I did last week:

Monday: Chest + back workout (P90x)
Wednesday: Shoulders + arms workout (P90x)
Friday: Legs + back workout (P90x)
Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday : Jogging- 5 minutes of walking, then alternating 60 seconds of jogging with 90 seconds of walking for 15 minutes

I'm happy to say that I'm not hating the running I've been doing. I finish each run feeling like I could do a little bit more which is great! I've always been a terrible runner so it's great to see some progress in this area!

My goal: 1800-2000 calories per day

Monday: 2173... oops... that's what happens when you eat fast food
Tuesday: 1867
Wednesday: 1570- how does this keep happening? I always feel like I'm eating too much food but apparently that's not always the case
Thursday: 1900
Friday: 1900
Saturday: 1953
Sunday: 1558

Overall I did pretty well. Like last week, I had a couple of days where I probably didn't eat as much as I should... and then another couple of days where I ate more than I should have. I guess that's just how things go. It should balance out, right?

I'm really liking the MyFitnessPal app for tracking my calories. I love at the end of each day it tells me my projected weight loss. This is what I saw today:

Yes, please! Let's see if this is true in 5 weeks

Here are my stats from last week:
Weight: 123.5 lb
Hip measurement: 36.25"
Waist measurement: 26"

Here are my stats from today:
Weight: 122.5 lb
Hip measurement: 36"
Waist measurement: 26"

I'm pretty pleased with these results! I still have some work to do though!

HOW TO START RUNNING

I have never liked running. In fact, I've always hated it. With a passion. I couldn't understand the appeal of getting all out of breath and feeling like I was going to die. I also lack any natural running talent whatsoever.

So why did I start running? Mainly because I wanted to see if I could like running.

I know that there are many people who love running. They experience the "runner's high" and it is almost like an addiction to them. I want to be one of these people. I want to want to run.

Running has so many great health benefits (strong bones, healthy heart, reduced risk of arthritis, increased life expectancy, etc.) plus it is so easy to do. All you really need is some running shoes and you're good to go.

I've been wondering if I've never liked running because I've never given it much of a chance. I've only ever really run when I've been forced to do it or during competitive sports. Maybe if I increase my cardiovascular fitness and run for a few weeks, I'll start to like it.

I made the decision to give running a try but then realized I wasn't really sure how to go about it. If I was going to do this, I wanted to do it the right way. I wanted to give it everything I had. So I did a little research and I'm going to share what I learned with you.

If you have been completely sedentary up to this point, you'll probably need to start a walking program before starting a running program. You can download a free walking plan here.

If you're ready to move up from your walking program, you can start by adding small amounts of running to your walks. For example, you could start with 5 minutes of walking (to warm up) and then alternating 60 sec of running with 90 seconds of walking for 15 minutes.

Don't start out too fast or too hard. You'll be more likely to injure yourself because your body won't be prepared for the exercise. Hello, shin splints. You want to finish your run feeling like you could go a little farther.

Don't run every day. Running is high impact and repetitive so it's easy to get injured if you do it too much. For new runners, aim to run 3 times per week.

Don't increase the time that you run during the week by more than 10%  per week. This way you'll be more handle the increase and won't put yourself in greater risk of injury (We meet again shin splints)

Get some good running shoes. Worn out shoes are the leading cause of injury and they can also cause you develop a bad running technique if they aren't giving you support in the places that you need it.

This could be you...

Focus on distance rather than time when you start running. If it's your first time out, don't try to beat the 100 m world record... cause you just won't. You'll just end up drop dead tired and will have only covered a tiny distance. If you focus on distance, you can take it as slow as you need to and can finish your running without feeling like you're going to pass out.

Keep motivated. Here are some ideas:

- Write a running plan and stick it somewhere that you will see every day

- Listen to fun music while you run

- Reward yourself. You could use daily rewards, like a yummy smoothie after your run, weekly rewards or one big reward when you finish your running prep for a 5K

- Make running a habit so you don't have to rely on willpower. Go out for a run every time that you've planned one, even if it's only for a few minutes.

- Work toward a goal. Aim to reach a certain distance or time or train for a 5K

- Keep a training log

UPDATE- WEEK 2

Okay, it's time to report on how my week went!

For the most part exercising went really well last week. I managed to do 5 of my 6 scheduled workouts. Some of these didn't get done until about 11:30 pm, though! That's just the way things go sometimes with an 8 month old who will only take naps when she's being held and doesn't go to bed until 10 pm (on a good day).

Here's what I had planned to do:
Monday: Jogging
Tuesday: Legs + back workout
Wednesday: Jogging
Thursday: Chest + back workout
Friday: Jogging
Saturday: Shoulders + arms workout

Here's what I actually did:
Monday: Jogging - I went to the park and walked/ran 2 miles. There was a lot more walking than jogging though...
Tuesday: Legs + back workout- I did the p90x legs + back workout. I didn't actually watch the p90x video though, I just did the exercises that they do on it. I can't stand watching workout videos over and over again. Tony Horton's jokes just aren't funny the tenth time you watch the video... or the first time.
Wednesday: I was supposed to jog but that didn't happen. We went Sea-Dooing and tubing instead. My chest was sore the next day so I did get a workout of some kind at least
Thursday: Jogging- since I got a chest workout the day before, I skipped the p90x chest + back workout and jogged instead. I decided to start following a couch-to-5K schedule. I walked for 5 minutes and then alternated 60 sec of running with 90 sec of walking for 15 minutes.
Friday: Shoulders + arms workout- I did the p90x shoulders + arms workout (without the video)
Saturday: Jogging- same workout as on Thursday

Now onto the food. I had some really good days and one really bad day a.k.a date night.  It's pretty rare for John and I to go on a date (we've only had three dates in the past 8 months ) so I always like to make the most of it when we do go out. This usually means that I go waaaaay over my calories for the day.

Keep in mind that my goal for calories is 1800-2000. On the days where I don't exercise, I want closer to 1800. On the days I do exercise, I can have closer to 2000.

Monday: 1996
Tuesday: 1598
Wednesday: 1950
Thursday: 1542
Friday: 1802
Saturday: 2485. Can you tell that this was date night?
Sunday: 1858

Umm I have no idea what happened on Tuesday and Thursday! I usually take advantage of all the calories I have but apparently I just went a little crazy and decided that I didn't like food or something...

Now to see how all of this work paid off...

Here were my stats from last week:
Weight: 125 lb
Hip measurement: 36.5"
Waist measurement: 26.5"

Here are my stats from today:
Weight: 123.5 lb
Hip measurement: 36.25"
Waist measurement: 26"

I'm glad to see that my date night splurging didn't ruin all my hard work! I'm definitely feeling motivated to keep on track this week!

MY FITNESS JOURNEY

I wanted to share a little bit about myself and my fitness journey today. I'm going to share things about myself that I don't particularly love but I feel are necessary to share in order to help myself make changes and to encourage others to make changes too.

I'm not one of those people who has been fit for their entire lives. I played a few team sports but I was never a spectacular athlete. It wasn't until I went to college that I decided to lose a little bit of weight and tone up.

Me during high school (looking super happy)

I still don't work out nearly as much as I should. Since I started college I have had an off and on again relationship with exercise. I do really well for a few weeks and then I stop exercising altogether. I'm sure I'm not the only one that has this problem. Things always spring up in life that make me feel like I don't have the time or the energy to work out. It's especially difficult with a little baby. I have work around her schedule which isn't always very predictable. I generally work out when she is napping but there are some days when she will only nap while I'm holding her.

Since I have a degree in Exercise Science I feel like I really need to step up my game. I feel like I need to be the fittest of the fit. The importance of exercise has been drilled into my brain for four years, so I really have no excuse to be such a slacker.

I was 119 lb on my wedding day in December 2010. When I became pregnant with Eve I was up to 130 lb. The last time I weighed myself before I gave birth I was 172 lb. I am now down to 125lb.

Me and my husband on our wedding day

Me and Eve when she was 2 days old

I have passed below my pre-pregnancy weight but I would still like to lose a little more. I would also like to become more toned and fitter. My goal is to exercise regularly and be the fittest I've ever been before I become pregnant again. That's not going to be anytime soon so I should be able to accomplish this. I wasn't able to exercise as much as I would have liked to while I was pregnant with Eve because I hadn't been working out very often before I became pregnant. I want things to be different the next time around.

I'm going to be sharing my fitness journey here on the blog. Each week I'll let you know how often I work out, what I did for my work out, and my weight. I'll also occasionally share some other stats, such as my body fat percentage and other measurements.

Date: 7/29/2013

Weight: 125 lb.

Body fat percentage (according to skinfolds): 17.1%

Body fat percentage (according to BIA): 17.3%

Hip measurement: 36.5"

Waist measurement: 26.5"

Right leg measurement: 21.5"

Left leg measurement: 21.25"

Right arm measurement: 11"

Left leg measurement: 11.25"

My plan right now is to work out 6 times a week. I'm going to do strength workouts three days a week and jogging for the other three days. My jogs are more like walks right now because I'm just starting out (and I'm terribly unfit).

Here's my schedule for this week. I successfully kept to this schedule last week. Let's see how well I can stick with it this week

Monday: Jogging

Tuesday: Legs + back workout

Wednesday: Jogging

Thursday: Chest + back workout

Friday: Jogging

Saturday: Shoulders + arms workout

Calorie-wise, I'm aiming for 1800-2000 calories a day. That's about 500 more calories than I would usually eat when trying to lose weight because I am nursing . I'm going to be keeping track of my calories using the app, MyFitnessPal.

Lastly, I'm going to share some rather unflattering pictures of me from after my jog today. I'll plan on posting progress pics about once a month.

Thanks for reading! If you are also working on losing weight or improving your fitness, I'd love to hear about it! Feel free to comment or send me an email at thefitnessfoxblog@gmail.com

A NEW START

Welcome to the Fitness Fox! If you are visiting from Life as a Waterleaf then you are probably familiar with the content that will be featured on this blog. I am on a journey to become as healthy as I can be. I want to lose weight, gain muscle, and develop healthy habits that I can maintain throughout my life. 

If you're interested in joining me on this journey, please subscribe using the buttons on the right of the page

I have recently added jogging to my workout regimen and I'll be sharing a few tips that I've learned about jogging/running this week. Stay tuned!

3 KEYS TO SUCCESSFUL DIETING

I've never been a fan of fad diets. Cutting out an essential part of the diet, such as carbs or fat, never seemed like a good idea to me. If you try a diet in which you have to drastically alter what you eat, you're probably not going to stick to it. You can't keep not eating carbs forever. 

So what happens when you start eating carbs again? You gain back the weight.

Why? Because you have not made a maintainable, long-term change to your eating behavior. 

Fad diets make things complicated. The best approach to dieting is a simple one: keep a food journal and count your calories.

Your main focus should be setting a calorie goal and sticking to it. For more information about working out how many calories you should be eating, see here.

Let's get a little scientific for a minute. I promise it won't  be too horrible :)

Last year a study was conducted on the impact of a wide range of diet-related behaviors and meal patterns and their effect on weight change. These were the main conclusions of the study:

In the study, women who kept food journals lost about 6 lb more than those who did not.

It's pretty dang hard to change your eating behavior if you don't pay attention to what you're eating.

I know that there have been days in the past where I have assumed that I wasn't eating a lot of calories when I was actually eating a ridiculous amount.

Example: 

I love Chili's. When we go there John and I usually share a half order of Texas Cheese Fries and then I get a Classic Bacon Burger with a side order of fries. Yep, that's a lot of fries for one night.

I never really thought about how many calories I was eating. I guessed it was a lot but I wasn't sure exactly how much.

I decided to look it up one day. Guess how many calories that meal was.

2350

I could not believe this. I had been eating way more calories than I thought I was

Using a diet journal is easy. It doesn't take a lot of time. You don't have to use it every day for the rest of your life if you don't want to. It's good to track your calories for a few weeks every day. Then you will gain a sense for how many calories different foods contain. Then you can just use a diet journal every now and then to stay on track or you can continue to use it every day. 

Tips for using a diet journal:

Measure your servings. When you're counting calories it is important to pay attention to serving size. Don't just assume that you are just having one serving. Read labels and measure it out. For example, one serving of milk isn't a large glass of milk. It is one cup of milk.

Be honest. Record everything that you eat. Those fries that you stole off your boyfriend/husband's plate do count. Make sure you include toppings and condiments in your calorie count.

Be conscientious. Take your diet journal with you everywhere so you don't have to try to remember what you ate later. Use it every day for at least a couple of weeks.

Here a few printable food journal pages that I made that you are welcome to download.

 Blue Food Journal

 Green Food Journal

Pink Food Journal

There are also some good apps for counting calories. My favorite is MyFitnessPal.

In the study, women who skipped meals lost almost 8 fewer pounds than women who didn't. 

Skipping meals is a bad idea. We all know it's not very fun to be really hungry. Often when you skip a meal you end up binging later on in the day and making up the calories from the skipped meal. 

There's also the issue with your metabolism. You burn calories most efficiently when you eat at regular intervals throughout the day. The best thing to do is to eat five or six small meals a day. 

Skipping meals is also thought to cause you to respond more favorably to high-calorie foods. This means that  you will probably end up eating more calories than you would have if you hadn't skipped the meal.

In the study, women who ate out for lunch at least weekly lost an average of 5 fewer pounds than women who ate out less frequently.

I don't mean never eat out. It's fun to eat out every once and a while. Just make sure to limit how often you eat out. Also, when you do eat out, pay attention to the number of calories you are eating. Maybe only eat half of your meal that day. 

Kong A., Beresford S.A.A., Alfano C.M., Foster-Schubert K.E., Neuhouser M.L., Johnson D.B., Duggan C., (...), McTiernan A. Self-Monitoring and Eating-Related Behaviors Are Associated with 12-Month Weight Loss in Postmenopausal Overweight-to-Obese Women (2012)  Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics,  112  (9) , pp. 1428-1435.