Royally Waiting (Link-up #7)

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Welcome to Royally Waiting, a linkup where you can share what’s been going on in your life!  Holly, Katy and I are so happy you are here.

This week I’m mixing it up a bit and share about something I’ve been waiting on but finally had to decide to tackle myself. For the past, oh, nine months or so I’ve been waiting for my body to miraculously decide to mutate into a firm and fit shape before summer.  While I was waiting I was eating healthy (mostly) and working out (occasionally) and “cheating” (myself mostly) and convincing myself, once again that eventually everything would settle down.  Well, things have not settled down, friends, and it is now spring and not one single pair of shorts in my closet will fit me.

While I was waiting, I also felt sorry for myself. I really didn’t want to put away the chips and hot sauce! Hot sauce y’all, I mean I’m not even a queso girl.  Some mornings it has been so stinking dark and cold so it was easy to sleep in instead of hitting the gym.  I’m positive I may have even started feeling angry at my mom for over feeding me when I was young (just joking) ( kind of ). Finally, I realized I recognized this place and remembered I do not like it very much!

Here’s the deal.  Being a size 6 is not in my future, like ever.  I have been as low as 135 pounds in my adult life (for maybe 2 days) and let’s just say I felt amazing but was starving and those days are over.  I do however pride myself on being healthy and I’ve let things go to a point I do not feel healthy.

A few weeks back I took advantage of a new wellness center in our area, Core Performance & Wellness, and made an appointment to have my resting metabolic rate (RMR) tested as well as a full body scan measuring bone density, lean mass and my favorite (sarcasm) body fat.  I knew it was not going to be pretty but it was definitely the wake up call I needed.  Two years ago I was so proud to have a body fat percentage of 22.8% and it is now 34%!  Thankfully all my other numbers (blood pressure, cholesterol, blood sugar) are great but this number bugged the tar out of me.  What I also learned is my RMR is, not surprisingly, very low which means eating less, working out more to lose the body fat.  What’s the point?  Having a baseline to me is a great way to evaluate myself without just looking at the scale or my naked body in the mirror.  For me it gets my head straight to see all those numbers. I may have even put them into a spreadsheet!

I fully believe we should all want to feel good in the body we are in and be happy with ourselves regardless of what our “feel good” size may be.  For me, this was not acceptable and I have not felt myself for months.  So what did I do?  Back to meal planning and much less cheating!  Meal planning and packing my breakfast and lunch each week is something I always do but for the past 9 months or so I’ve also opened the jar of peanut butter, snuck the chocolate and enjoyed the glass (or two) of wine often.  Focusing on why I was really grabbing for food, hunger or something else,  and upping my water intake was a big start.

What changed the most in the past year was changing my workouts to be much less often and less weight lifting.  Weigh lifting is not my favorite but the fact is muscle burns fat!  Looking at my weekly schedule and plugging in workouts that work for me and sticking to the plan has to happen if I want to prevent dying of heat exhaustion in my jeans this summer at the beach!  Ha!

So here’s the prescription for me that I’m going to follow until those darn shorts fit again darn it!

  • no excuses
  • eat for fuel not fun
  • work my muscles (gym or 10K steps every day)
  • cut out sugar as much as possible
  • reduce carbs and increase protein without sacrificing tasty food
  • pay attention to how I feel; mentally and physically

Are you waiting to start thinking about a healthy lifestyle?  Are you making excuses for putting it off?  Are you living a healthy lifestyle 50% of the time and then falling off the wagon?  Do you give up on yourself when it gets tough?  Whatever is holding you back, you can do this!  We owe it to ourselves, to our significant others, to our families to be the healthiest, mentally and physically, that we can be!

I love the saying, it’s not that some people have willpower and some people don’t.  It’s that some people are ready to change and others are not.  I’m done waiting to change and I hope you guys will hold me accountable!

Your turn to share what you are waiting for this week!

Get Social with Holly!
    
Get Social with Katy!
    
Get Social with Shelly!