Month: March 2016

Brain Breaks Are Mandatory!

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I think I have discovered the most important part to my health and fitness journey…

BRAIN BREAKS!

What?

Yeah…BRAIN breaks – an unspecified amount of time to FORGET all the things you’re constantly stressing over; specifically diet and exercise. I don’t ever plan them, and they are for no specific amount of time and have no rules.

This last “brain break” has lasted for a month now! My longest one yet – however, I’ve learned so much about my body and my nutrition! This morning I woke up and was done with it. How do I know? It’s just a feeling…a new found feeling of motivation and drive. A mood I have dubbed “world conquery”.  The first brain break only lasted about 4 days, the second a week, third almost 2 weeks, and like I said…this one has been going on for a month. They seem to space themselves farther and farther apart, though.

When I lose motivation and drive I take that as a sign to just sit back and live, enjoy life, LEARN and listen to my body and what it has to say. Learning your body and learning to ACTUALLY listen to it is really hard. We are born to listen and know what it needs and are later taught to do things in a specific way …which eventually wrecks this fitness and nutrition intuition.

Whoa…right?

During this brain break I discovered that I have completely unearthed my fit-nutrition intuition! In the past 4 weeks I have eaten better than I EVER have, consistently. I haven’t had a single binge, or even the urge to do so. I have discovered that my body really likes to eat paleo style…I learned that because I ate what “sounded good” every single day. 90% of the time “what sounds good” was meat and veggies. I also learned that my body prefers to fast until about 11 every day. I learned that sometimes a gallon of water a day isn’t enough. I learned that my body reacts insanely to functional exercise (in my case this past month, WORKING).

I learned that through the past couple  of years of trying this and that and whatever…that just LISTENING and learning my body is the trick to creating a lifestyle that I’m going to be able to maintain forever.

Discovering all this has lit a new fire within me, flipping my “best mode “switch on again; driving me to chase a dream I actually never thought was attainable until after this brain break.

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I know, especially being from a small rural town, that a LOT of people aren’t going to understand my goals and aspirations…and that’s okay. I know I’m going to constantly catch hell because I’m eating a certain way and spending time creating a physique that I can be proud of. I’m sure people will continue to give me flack about being in bed early, spending money on protein shakes and drinking copious amounts of h2o… but I don’t care, because I want to smash these goals!

Don’t worry about what anyone says, set your own pace and just DO the damn thing – whatever it may be. Your destiny is simply that, YOURS!

Never be afraid to become who you were born to be.

Xoxo

OkieGirl

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Just Start.

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How To Start Your Health Journey

  1. MORE WATER – At least 3 liters a day, aim for a gallon
  2. CUT OUT THE POP – no soda, no sugary drinks, no Gatorade, no liquid CRAP.
  3. FORGET THE DIET – Get the idea of “going on a diet” out of your head and focus on creating a sustainable way of eating for life – not just for now.
  4. NO MORE “FAST & PROCESSED” – Skip the fast food and anything in a box. Keep to the outside aisles of your grocery store and as close to whole, real and natural foods as possible. 5 ingredients or less is a good rule of thumb.
  5. DON’T OVER COMPLICATE – Seriously, it’s not that hard. Food is fuel, use it as such. Eat when you’re hungry and stop when you’re full.
  6. LEARN WHEN YOU’RE FULL – Don’t drink with your meal. Before is fine, but stop when you start eating. When you get thirsty (more thirsty than hungry, that is) get a drink and STOP eating. This will retrain your brain to understand the difference in thirst and hunger.
  7. FORGET WHAT YOU “KNOW” – If you wake up in the morning, every single morning, and are NEVER hungry…don’t feel like you have to eat because “breakfast is the most important meal of the day” …breakfast has no time – it’s simply when you “break your fast”. If you’re not hungry until 10am or even 1pm …eat then. Your body is efficient and it’s telling you what it needs – LISTEN!
  8. LISTEN TO YOUR BODY – If you get tired after eating bread, stop. If you feel amazing after eating bacon, eat more. We all use fat and carbohydrates differently as fuel – some burn carbs better and some burn fat. Get in tune and figure out what your body likes.
  9. CARBS AREN’T THE DEVIL – Believe it or not, you need carbs to function. Choose them wisely and stop stressing, they aren’t going to kill you.
  10. REMOVE THE EMOTION – There should be no emotion attached to eating. It is not for celebrating, it is not a reward, it is simply fuel for your body. FOOD IS FUEL. Repeat that until you understand it. FOOD.IS.FUEL…nothing else.
  11. NO GUILT – NEVER feel guilty about eating something. If you want it, eat it! Enjoy it and move on. Don’t beat yourself up or even refer to those special goody meals as cheats – remember, food is just fuel…as long as you’re using race fuel about 80% of the time, that 20% of the time you use 87 octane pump gas isn’t going to hurt you. ENJOY your life.

The first step is simply trying. You will have hiccups, you will get confused and overwhelmed and begin to overthink…and when you do, go back to step 1 and KEEP trying until you find that sweet spot.

xoxo

OkieGirl

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Hunt The Switch.

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Of all the struggles that come with self discovery and the journey to health and self love the hardest for me has been SEEING the changes on the outside.

I can feel the internal changes, point out the lifestyle changes, SHOW you the physical changes…but until just recently when I would look in the mirror I would see the same girl that I was a year ago; and I’m just not her anymore.

I know that I have lost 5 jean sizes, I KNOW that my measurements are consistently decreasing, I know that I am adding muscle in all the places that I want it to be…but I couldn’t see it.

No matter HOW hard I tried, no matter how many progress photos I compared…looking in the mirror would disappoint me EVERY single time.

There was a defining moment shortly after I had hit my 35″ waist goal that I remember very vividly…and I went home that night and just saw myself differently.

I don’t know what flipped the switch, and I wish I could figure it out…because finally seeing yourself the way the world sees you is really liberating. Being able to be proud and KNOW how you look – its incredible. Finally seeing on the outside what I feel on the inside is so new, and so exciting…and a little bit scary too.

Why scary? Because I know I will go through this struggle time and time again…I will have to hunt for that vision over and over with every step of the journey. BUT – that’s okay, because now that my mind is in the place it needs to be, I think I can overcome any obstacle that steps in my way.

Once you change your mindset things begin to come easier. Once you learn to LOVE yourself no matter what and don’t let anything define you…it all beings to make sense.

Until then, embrace the chaos and imperfections and hunt for the thing that flips your switch. Don’t base your vision of yourself off of that of another…find the true you and ROCK that shit.

xoxo

OkieGirl