Ever since I can remember I have been on a diet; I have been unhappy with my weight or unhappy with my body. I recently finished a book and decided to follow their diet. I went out and bought everything on the grocery list, and two weeks into this diet I realized I was bored and frustrated that I could not eat anything, except chicken and green beans, mainly because I am a picky eater and do not really eat red meat or pork. This “diet” was strict. I could not have dairy, gluten, carbs, certain veggies and even certain fruits. Once boredom sets in when dieting I believe we start to detour from the plan and start making dieting mistakes. There are tons of diets out there, we find them online, in magazines, or our friends share their fail proof diets with us and we follow them to the T to make sure we get the same results.
We follow those Instagram accounts where some hot babes tell us how they did it and how if we buy their plan, we can do it too. We try them we do well for a few weeks or even months, but then something happens we get comfortable and go back to eating the way we were eating before. We may also get discouraged because we then hit a plateau, so we stop the diet because it’s not working fast enough. We then find another “better diet” that someone else told us about and about how they lost 10 pounds and we are excited, because we know this one is the one, and we try that diet and we repeat the vicious cycle once again. Well I am here to tell you how this yo-yo dieting is not going to work. The only thing that will work is changing your lifestyle, eating healthier, and incorporating exercise into your daily life. Unless you do those things no amount of dieting is going to help. I have lived it and have tested it more than a couple of times.
In 2015 I was determined to do a bikini body competition. I trained hard to mold my body into what I needed it to be when I got on stage. I did great! Amazing! However, I did not place, but that wasn’t the goal. The goal was to wear a two-piece suit that I had never in my life been able to do before. I met that goal I was in the best shape of my life even better than before I had kids. Then life happened. I got off Active duty ready for the next chapter in my life. I started my master’s program, I kept working out and stayed fit, until homework and work got in the way. Well if I am being completely honest and open, which is what this blog is all about. then I can be honest and say that that was not the only thing that happened. I lost my way; I felt a little lost and, on some days, I felt really lost. I wanted so much to just go back to Active duty where I felt safe. They tell you that it is hard to go from active duty to a civilian capacity there is even a weeklong class to help with your transition, but I knew that I was ready and that nothing could go wrong. However, I was wrong. I became depressed and withdrawn and not as into my workouts as I had been in the past. I lost interest in it all. I developed anxiety and I couldn’t figure out how to dig myself out of the depression and anxiety I felt. To make matters worse I had a wrist injury, which required surgery to repair. Now the only thing I enjoyed doing, that brought me some sense of joy, I would not be able to do. I would not be able to work out for quite some time my world came tumbling down, or at least that was the story in my head.
I had my surgery around the same time that I was planning on moving away from California, the place I called home for the last 9 years. On top of that I was leaving my daughters and for the first time in our lives we would all have separate lives. If that stress doesn’t affect you nothing will. Well it did affect me. I couldn’t workout, I didn’t have a job, I didn’t have my family. I swear I would have lost my mind if it wasn’t for the amazing man in my life. He was patient and helped me in every way he could and is still supportive to this day. I am blessed to have him in my life.
Now that you are all caught up on why I am writing this blog, let me welcome you. I want to tell you that no I have not found the magic pill to help me lose the weight I have gained over the last couple of years. Instead, I want to invite you to join me on my journey and try the things that I am trying. I honestly believe that not only does diet (healthy eating) and exercise have a lot to do in this journey but so does being mindful. The one thing that I have done over the last year that has really helped me has been meditating, journaling and giving myself that time, even if it is just 10-15 minutes a day, where I can sit down and be grateful for all the wonderful things in my life. I can tell you that I lost 20 pounds in 6 months not only because of healthy eating and exercise but also, because I was being mindful. I would go on walks and hikes, breathing fresh air is really good for the soul. I am by no means perfect and I do fall off the wagon. I am currently dusting myself off and getting back on track once again. I want to share with you the why of this blog, the why for me to getting fit again and making it permanent this time, no more yo-yo diets no more quick fixes, no more BS!
Do me a favor and grab a piece of paper and write down the reason why you want to get rid of those pounds you have been carrying around. My reason is I want to be healthy, yes, I would love to be in a two piece again, but that’s not as important as being healthy. I want to live to see my 100th birthday it’s possible right? I want to meet my grandkids and great grandkids. I want to run and lift and still be doing it when I’m in my eighties and nineties. Impossible you say? NO, no way! Anything is possible if we set our minds to it. I mean I set my mind to do a bikini competition and I accomplished it. Never in a million years would I have believed it. I set my mind in November of last year to lose 20 pounds and I did it. I have a new goal now and I know I can do it. And I know you can do it.
I have been planning to write a blog for, well ever since I can remember. You know why *I didn’t? Because I didn’t set my mind to it. Because I kept telling myself that I couldn’t. I kept telling myself “I am a terrible writer” I made that story up in my head. When I was young, I enjoyed creative writing, I loved to read and write, and I mean LOVED IT! But my grades showed me that I wasn’t good at it. I even had teachers tell me that I was not a good writer. You know what? I believed them and most importantly I believed myself. Sadly, I believed myself. Well fast forward to now, I still love to write. In January I started journaling again, something I did when I was young and believed in my writing. My passion has grown. It had been growing throughout the last couple of years while I was working on my master’s degree, but I still had that nagging voice in my head telling me I wasn’t a good writer. However, my grades were now telling me different, and my teachers were now telling me “this was a great paper, I can see you put in a lot of work in your research and writing” “this is a very organized research paper” I was taking it all in. But it wasn’t until about a month ago when I really knew that I wanted to write, more than anything else right now, and well here I am.
Do you want to know why now? Well I watched a YouTube video with Brene Brown called The Call to Courage, it is also on Netflix. It changed my life and now I am here writing my heart out, being vulnerable and open to the world, to readers like you that need to know that someone else feels the way you feel. That someone else has that struggle, but also the will and the want to move forward, someone willing to share the load. Let me help you through my journey and my struggles. Let’s take the journey together. All you have to do is come to my blog, read and follow along. I will post my workouts, books I read, I’ll even try to post some recipes. I like to cook my own food, though I am just a little picky so I don’t eat certain things so my recipes may be boring for some people, but I can share other peoples’ recipes. I am looking forward to having you alongside me on this wellness journey. And with that I will let you go so that I can head on over to the gym to get my workout for the day done. Until next time, have a great week!