April 10, 2013

Just so you don’t think this fitness journey of mine is all talk and no action, I thought I would post some of my goals and strategies.

My first goal is not weight loss. As strange as that may sound, I am focusing on increasing my activity levels, creating a healthier relationship with food, and building strength, muscle and aerobic capacity. These things have been proven to lead to weight loss, yes, and so it will most likely be a welcome by-product.

I’ll tell you why I don’t focus on loosing the weight. It stresses me out. I have always felt helpless to loose weight, and the only times I have been successful at it have been when, you guessed it, I don’t focus on it. I have had troubles both with being addicted to food, and to denying myself food. Therefore, when I let myself focus on losing the weight, I usually end up trying to deny myself food, failing, pigging out, feeling really guilty, and going through the cycle over and over again.

Three books that I use a lot right now are French Women Don’t Get Fat and French Women for All Seasons both by Mirelle Guiliano and Fitness is Religion by Ray Kybartas. These books both emphasize exercise and a healthy relationship with food. Know what you are putting into your body, and enjoy it fully. Guiliano offers helpful ways to slowly decrease your sense of portion size without feeling deprived, while Kybartas has many good ideas for increasing the movement in your life without feeling like you are going to burn out. Between daily walks to and from work (25-30 minutes each) and daily resistance training (squats, lunges, pushups, and other pilates, yoga, and other inspired moves) my daily time of being active is over an hour. However, I am not active for an hour consecutively, a bit here, and bit there. My walks take me to and from work, the other stuff I do while my husband does weightlifting. And I drink A LOT of water. I’m trying to work down to drinking only water, with the occasional weekend cup of coffee.

I keep a log of what exercises I do, how many reps and sets and will review and tweak them on a weekly basis (a French Women thing).

This is my first week, and while I really feel all my muscles, I actually am needing less sleep already, and feeling more productive and energetic!