Maintaining Healthy Behaviors

For those who have recently started their weight loss journey, don’t be disheartened if you aren’t able to jump right into a Whole30 goal (or something similar). I’ve been on my journey for 7 years, and I’ve just reached the point I needed to be in to be successful. Now, that’s not to say it will take you 7 years, but there are steps that need to be taken to prepare your mind for such a goal. 

Rid Your Life of Negative Self-Talk & Mindless Eating

Over the course of this seven years, I have battled negative self-talk (which took a long time to make part of my regular behavior) and worked on ridding my home of processed foods. When I started my journey, my time was invested in research. I have learned A LOT about the body, nutrition, exercise, and how hormones can make or break a goal. Of course, this seven years hasn’t been a non-stop journey. I had a major problem with mindless eating. I read the book French Women Don’t Get Fat, and it really helped me look at my mindless eating. I also started looking at food as “is this worth it,” which helped me just completely cut some things out.

Research and Implement

I have read a number of books on eating plans, and have identified that low carb eating is most effective since the body burns carbs before fat (I want it burning fat!). When I started this journey, I had a major carb dependency. Heller/Heller helped me a lot. I read two of their books, the one I remember the title to is The Carbohydrate Addict’s Diet – The Lifelong Solution to Yo-Yo Dieting. I read Rick Gallop’s book on The Low G. I. Diet. This helped me lose enough weight the right way to get my hormones working correctly, and I was able to get pregnant. My journey got REALLY serious after that. I realized my eating DID have a lot to do with how my body worked or didn’t work. I had always blamed PCOS on my weight gain (and it does contribute but only as part of a cycle), instead of blaming my weight for my PCOS diagnosis. My ability to have a baby totally showed me that what I put in my body was what was MOST important! It could change the diagnosis in a lot of cases.

I have consumed almost everything Lyle McDonald has written on the subject of Training the Obese Beginner. He is totally incredible! I learned more through his blog posts than throughout my entire journey! My most recent change of course was the Whole30 (which totally changed my life) and then continuing with mostly a Paleo way of eating (with some deviation, but not sizable nor consistent). I am reading It Starts With Food by Melissa and Dallas Hartwig (creators of Whole30), which has caused repeated outbursts of “ohhhhhhhhhhhh” and “wooooow I didn’t know that.” Totally awesome book! 

Fitness & Accountability

I started keeping a video blog on YouTube (which has been deleted in the midst of a relapse, but I’m going to start another one) of short videos on how I felt after working out with Tony Horton’s Power90 (I really like him) and Chalene Johnson’s Turbo Jam, what I was and wasn’t able to do, which was helpful in keeping me accountable and was encouraging to others. Now, my fitness program is all conclusive. I am a member at Curves where I get cardio, strength training and the accountability of an awesome coach–along with an awesome support group of other ladies pursuing the same goal of great health.

Turning Meltdowns into Behavior Modification Plans

This is just an abbreviated version of my journey. There’s been a lot of crying, screaming, cussing, throwing brushes at mirrors in self-hate (I’m just being honest), binging because of clothes not fitting (as if that was going to help at all), did I say crying??? Yeah, it’s not been a fun road, but with each of these meltdowns, I have been able to use my psychology and behavior analysis education/background to talk myself through it. Cool down. Realize that I made choices to get here, which means that I can make choices to get back to where I want to be, and develop a plan for getting there. I realize not everyone has this education and background, which is one reason I’m writing this blog. I’d be happy to help you with a plan if you find you need help. Just comment, and we’ll exchange email addresses.

Plans are just plans, though. They aren’t to be rigid. They should be living, which means that they should change with you as your life changes. As my behavior modification plans for myself began to change to meet the new challenges in my life and as I implemented the new knowledge I had acquired, I started seeing success. I’ve reached goals and blown right past them. I have started making what I have learned a part of my everyday living instead of doing it for only a time and going back to the way I once lived. 

Make a Permanent Place for Success

Making a home for success in my life is what I have done. I have always treated it like a visitor in the past. It came and then it would go. I don’t want success to be a visitor. I want to maintain the healthy behaviors that I have learned and implemented. They are here to stay, and now, are also a part of the way I run my home kitchen for my family.  Success is a permanent part of my family now!

Have you been able to maintain the healthy behaviors you’ve been trying to add to your life? What has worked for you?

Whole30 Day 5 – Feeling My Past Bad Choices

Today is my Whole30 Day 5, and I am feeling my past bad choices today! Big Time! Because I didn’t read the book before starting (and didn’t know what to look for online for the what to expect information), I thought I had a virus. I woke up nauseous and all of the stuff that typically comes along with a stomach virus. YUCK! I missed work over this.

My cousin is reading the book It Starts With Food (while getting the link, I decided to go ahead and buy it for my iPad Kindle app–it was only $9.99, how silly that I didn’t do that before), and she had posted yesterday that she had the “carb flu,” and I honestly thought that she was just feeling the effects of being carbless, but I didn’t realize she was feeling some of this. She didn’t experience the severity of mine, but the website explains that the worse you were with your decisions before the program, the worse your (basically) detox experience will be. Ok, that makes sense. You don’t get a body like this without eating a whole-lotta-junk!

Now, I have completely read what to expect, and I can feel reassured by this feeling. It is an indication that I have made a GOOD decision for my body. It is showing me what a car running on junk gas is really like. A friend shared that analogy with me years ago, but it never really made sense until today. Well, that junk that the car had gotten so use to is running out, and my “car” is spitting, choking and running rough.

On a positive note, I can be reassured that once this is burned out of my system, the good fuel I am giving my body now should really be appreciated and run really well. Oh, I do hope that means a positive impact on my metabolism. I have already started my “cycle,” something I haven’t had in a long time–another impact of my bad eating that has led to infertility in the past. After just 4 days, I noticed the beginning, and by today, I was in full swing. Another “inconvenience” that I can actually feel is a good thing because it means my body is actually working right.

I feel like I can actually carry this feeling around with me (at least while I’m feeling bad, which will pass in a day or so), and wear it as a badge to prove to myself that I can endure discomfort for the betterment of my health and my body. I have always stayed away from anything that made me “uncomfortable” when trying to do something about my weight and health. Rereading that statement, I realize just how STUPID that was for me to do because I am COMPLETELY uncomfortable. That is like the BIGGEST case of self-fulfilling prophesy that I’ve ever seen. Well, it is what it is–THE PAST.

Here we go toward the future. JOIN ME? If you want to start your own Whole30 program, let me know. Buy that Kindle book. It’s totally worth it, but if you don’t, at least read the Whole30 Timeline. It will tell you what to expect now, AND if you scroll down to the bottom of page when you finish reading it, there will be a link to the next step. You can read ahead to see what you will do when this Whole30 is over.

Thanks for following my journey. I’m glad to be back. The house is shaping up, and I am working through some things in my mind that tend to keep me from taking some time for myself to do things like enjoy my blog and post for you. I am worth it, and I am taking the time for me. I encourage you to do the same for you!