From time to time, I feel the urge to write long, rambling posts about my eating habits and exercise habits, chronicling my attempts to stay fit and get fitter on this journey called life. It isn't always easy to write about these rather personal issues but it clarifies my thinking on the matter and also seems to resonate with many readers, so here we go.
When I say "journey", it really is one, with many twists and turns as life circumstances seem to change on a regular basis. Almost four years ago, at the tail end of 2014, I wrote an honest and heartfelt post about my experience with gestational diabetes and how it spurred me to make some changes in the way I eat. It was a lighting bolt sort of experience and my biggest takeaway (apart from a bouncing baby girl) was an increased awareness of my personal risk and a determination to be proactive and prevent the old diabeetus to the extent possible. Sometime after that I was stumbling into an exercise habit after literally a lifetime of inertia. Then I had my second baby and most established habits of the years before were thrown to the wind for a good year or two; I felt like I was back at square one. Earlier this year, I wrote again about my struggles to put a regular exercise habit in place.
The story since February: Over Spring, I participated in a nutrition research study. The incentive for participants was that we got 3 DEXA scans done over the course of several months. DEXA scans are non-invasive scans that are the gold standard for determining a person's body composition in terms of muscle, bone and fat. When I got my scan results back, I was pretty stunned. It showed that I was at a normal BMI (albeit at the high end of normal) but with a level of body fat that is high enough to be categorized as "risky". A "skinny fat" sort of situation which has the makings of metabolic syndrome and many chronic diseases including diabetes. This was another wake-up call right there and it called for some lifestyle changes.
Things I have learned or thought about since then...
Exercise is for fitness, eating habits are for weight control. "Eat less, move more" is a slightly misleading mantra. Diet and exercise don't have equal influences on a person's weight. Exercise accounts for only a small fraction of our daily energy expenditure and increasing exercise alone is unlikely to result in weight loss. Over Spring of this year, I was exercising regularly and quite intensely but was startled to see my weight creep up by a few pounds during that time. The reason was pretty simple- I was simply eating more than I needed to, and it wasn't being offset by the exercise. If a person is looking to lose fat (weight) and can change only one thing about their life, then diet would be overwhelmingly the right choice. You cannot out-exercise a poor diet.
Keep exercising anyway. Regular exercise has incredible benefits and is one of the best things you can do for your quality of life. It may not have proven results for weight loss but it helps in countless other ways, like building muscle, and improving sleep and mental health.
My current schedule: This August when the school routine started again, I pulled up our family's calendar and penciled in my exercise schedule. In my experience it is the only way to "make time" for something, otherwise it remains wishful thinking. In Spring, I took a strength training class called BodyPump and although the high-repetition nature of that class was not right for me, it turned me on to the idea of continuing strength training in a different format. Now I'm doing a small group women's weightlifting class twice a week and absolutely loving it. It is a serious, challenging workout but there is lots of support and camaraderie to go around. This class is my best shot at building some much-needed muscle.
Other than that, I swim twice a week and do a short run on the weekend. If you include my beloved weekly ballet class, I'm exercising 6 days a week most weeks. To my amazement, I enjoy and look forward to all of these workout sessions, even though I lack stamina and all forms of exercise are very hard for me.
Small humans don't need a lot of food. I barely scrape 5 feet in height, with a small frame. When they say that "the average person needs 2000 kilo-calories a day", well, I'm way smaller than the average person. It is easy to forget this fact. The small person problem is that you don't have to binge on whole pizzas and pints of ice cream to gain excess weight. A few unneeded second helpings and some extra snacks here and there are all that are needed to make the pounds creep on.
The extra pounds have absolutely nowhere to go when you are petite. For the first time in my life, I experienced joint pain and a couple of episodes of lower back pain. That itself was enough to convince me that I need to (a) lose fat and gain muscle and (b) stay at a healthy weight.
Don'd do anything to lose weight that you wouldn't be happy to do for the rest of your life. "Eat everything in moderation" is a terrific concept but when you find yourself gaining unwanted pounds, that is a clear sign that the moderation ain't as moderate as it needs to be. But I stay far away from temporary fixes and special diets, because I'm only going to gain the weight back once I go back to "normal". I am only interested in building some good habits and letting go of some others that aren't serving me.
Eating habits are a mental thing. For people who are well-fed and carrying around copious amounts of stored fat, we have never known true hunger. We are surrounded by tempting food in all directions and it is easy to get used to feeling full, and use food as a self-soothing tactic when we're stressed or bored. I'm trying to catch myself when I do that. I did a sugar free month nearly a year and a half ago and it has had lasting effects in weaning me from automatically reaching for sweets whenever I see them in front of me.
Use your foodie tendencies for a good cause. You can use your foodie tendencies to your advantage, making foods that are very satisfying and tasty but also wholesome and satiating.
Overeating is a form of food waste, and if there is anything I abhor, it is food waste. Even as I enjoy cooking and eating, I am trying to remind myself that food is fuel and primarily for nourishment.
Tastes change. This is something I have learned in the last few years. Salads were never my first choice for something I'd want to eat. Now I make hearty salads in a dozen different ways and thrive on them. Tastes can change and change is good.
Learn from others. This summer, our family went on vacation to the Georgia golden isles with my BFF from St. Louis days, Neighbor Girl. She is, and always has been, a fitness enthusiast. I learned so much from watching her eat all week- the snacks she chooses, the quantities and types of foods she eats. Incidentally, I am a $$ saver by nature and she is a spender who struggles to keep a healthy bank account balance. So I have a little something to teach her too. We pick up tips just by being around each other.
There are plenty of resources out there. You need to be discerning and pick and choose what advice to take, but there is a lot of inspiration out there. Other than books, recently I have been lurking on some Reddit forums like LoseIt and xxfitness. As an example, here is a weight loss compendium from Reddit. All the resources provide fodder for experimenting on myself and trying to find my own way.
My personal habits have ripple effects. I'm the primary grocery shopper and cook for my little family. I also regularly make meals for friends and visiting family, and bring dishes to potlucks and such on a weekly basis. Whatever positive changes I make in my eating habits also benefit my family and that in itself is a huge source of motivation.
I am only a few months away from a big milestone birthday- the big Four-Oh. I'm working on a fabulous birthday gift for myself- a chance to start this decade off in the best shape of my life, at a weight that is healthy for me and with an exercise habit firmly in place. Who knows what curve balls life will throw (as life does) but I want to be able to honestly say that I am grateful for my body and never take my good health for granted.
Note that I am not a nutritionist (or physician/ fitness coach etc.) and nor do I play one on TV. This is an essay of my personal experience and not to be taken as personal advice to anyone.
Tell me your thoughts- what works for you, what are you struggling with? Inspire me with your stories!
When I say "journey", it really is one, with many twists and turns as life circumstances seem to change on a regular basis. Almost four years ago, at the tail end of 2014, I wrote an honest and heartfelt post about my experience with gestational diabetes and how it spurred me to make some changes in the way I eat. It was a lighting bolt sort of experience and my biggest takeaway (apart from a bouncing baby girl) was an increased awareness of my personal risk and a determination to be proactive and prevent the old diabeetus to the extent possible. Sometime after that I was stumbling into an exercise habit after literally a lifetime of inertia. Then I had my second baby and most established habits of the years before were thrown to the wind for a good year or two; I felt like I was back at square one. Earlier this year, I wrote again about my struggles to put a regular exercise habit in place.
The story since February: Over Spring, I participated in a nutrition research study. The incentive for participants was that we got 3 DEXA scans done over the course of several months. DEXA scans are non-invasive scans that are the gold standard for determining a person's body composition in terms of muscle, bone and fat. When I got my scan results back, I was pretty stunned. It showed that I was at a normal BMI (albeit at the high end of normal) but with a level of body fat that is high enough to be categorized as "risky". A "skinny fat" sort of situation which has the makings of metabolic syndrome and many chronic diseases including diabetes. This was another wake-up call right there and it called for some lifestyle changes.
Things I have learned or thought about since then...
Exercise is for fitness, eating habits are for weight control. "Eat less, move more" is a slightly misleading mantra. Diet and exercise don't have equal influences on a person's weight. Exercise accounts for only a small fraction of our daily energy expenditure and increasing exercise alone is unlikely to result in weight loss. Over Spring of this year, I was exercising regularly and quite intensely but was startled to see my weight creep up by a few pounds during that time. The reason was pretty simple- I was simply eating more than I needed to, and it wasn't being offset by the exercise. If a person is looking to lose fat (weight) and can change only one thing about their life, then diet would be overwhelmingly the right choice. You cannot out-exercise a poor diet.
Keep exercising anyway. Regular exercise has incredible benefits and is one of the best things you can do for your quality of life. It may not have proven results for weight loss but it helps in countless other ways, like building muscle, and improving sleep and mental health.
My current schedule: This August when the school routine started again, I pulled up our family's calendar and penciled in my exercise schedule. In my experience it is the only way to "make time" for something, otherwise it remains wishful thinking. In Spring, I took a strength training class called BodyPump and although the high-repetition nature of that class was not right for me, it turned me on to the idea of continuing strength training in a different format. Now I'm doing a small group women's weightlifting class twice a week and absolutely loving it. It is a serious, challenging workout but there is lots of support and camaraderie to go around. This class is my best shot at building some much-needed muscle.
Other than that, I swim twice a week and do a short run on the weekend. If you include my beloved weekly ballet class, I'm exercising 6 days a week most weeks. To my amazement, I enjoy and look forward to all of these workout sessions, even though I lack stamina and all forms of exercise are very hard for me.
Small humans don't need a lot of food. I barely scrape 5 feet in height, with a small frame. When they say that "the average person needs 2000 kilo-calories a day", well, I'm way smaller than the average person. It is easy to forget this fact. The small person problem is that you don't have to binge on whole pizzas and pints of ice cream to gain excess weight. A few unneeded second helpings and some extra snacks here and there are all that are needed to make the pounds creep on.
The extra pounds have absolutely nowhere to go when you are petite. For the first time in my life, I experienced joint pain and a couple of episodes of lower back pain. That itself was enough to convince me that I need to (a) lose fat and gain muscle and (b) stay at a healthy weight.
Don'd do anything to lose weight that you wouldn't be happy to do for the rest of your life. "Eat everything in moderation" is a terrific concept but when you find yourself gaining unwanted pounds, that is a clear sign that the moderation ain't as moderate as it needs to be. But I stay far away from temporary fixes and special diets, because I'm only going to gain the weight back once I go back to "normal". I am only interested in building some good habits and letting go of some others that aren't serving me.
Eating habits are a mental thing. For people who are well-fed and carrying around copious amounts of stored fat, we have never known true hunger. We are surrounded by tempting food in all directions and it is easy to get used to feeling full, and use food as a self-soothing tactic when we're stressed or bored. I'm trying to catch myself when I do that. I did a sugar free month nearly a year and a half ago and it has had lasting effects in weaning me from automatically reaching for sweets whenever I see them in front of me.
Use your foodie tendencies for a good cause. You can use your foodie tendencies to your advantage, making foods that are very satisfying and tasty but also wholesome and satiating.
Overeating is a form of food waste, and if there is anything I abhor, it is food waste. Even as I enjoy cooking and eating, I am trying to remind myself that food is fuel and primarily for nourishment.
Tastes change. This is something I have learned in the last few years. Salads were never my first choice for something I'd want to eat. Now I make hearty salads in a dozen different ways and thrive on them. Tastes can change and change is good.
Learn from others. This summer, our family went on vacation to the Georgia golden isles with my BFF from St. Louis days, Neighbor Girl. She is, and always has been, a fitness enthusiast. I learned so much from watching her eat all week- the snacks she chooses, the quantities and types of foods she eats. Incidentally, I am a $$ saver by nature and she is a spender who struggles to keep a healthy bank account balance. So I have a little something to teach her too. We pick up tips just by being around each other.
There are plenty of resources out there. You need to be discerning and pick and choose what advice to take, but there is a lot of inspiration out there. Other than books, recently I have been lurking on some Reddit forums like LoseIt and xxfitness. As an example, here is a weight loss compendium from Reddit. All the resources provide fodder for experimenting on myself and trying to find my own way.
My personal habits have ripple effects. I'm the primary grocery shopper and cook for my little family. I also regularly make meals for friends and visiting family, and bring dishes to potlucks and such on a weekly basis. Whatever positive changes I make in my eating habits also benefit my family and that in itself is a huge source of motivation.
I am only a few months away from a big milestone birthday- the big Four-Oh. I'm working on a fabulous birthday gift for myself- a chance to start this decade off in the best shape of my life, at a weight that is healthy for me and with an exercise habit firmly in place. Who knows what curve balls life will throw (as life does) but I want to be able to honestly say that I am grateful for my body and never take my good health for granted.
Note that I am not a nutritionist (or physician/ fitness coach etc.) and nor do I play one on TV. This is an essay of my personal experience and not to be taken as personal advice to anyone.
Tell me your thoughts- what works for you, what are you struggling with? Inspire me with your stories!
