I have to say, I've learned a lot about health and fitness in the last 6 months and its not what you think....
Well, let's start from the beginning, I've learned a lot about myself in the last year but mostly in the last 6 months. In the last 6 months, what I've learned the most has to do with how I feel about fitness and exercising and diet. I've pretty much been eating whatever I want over the last 6 months, and I must say, it's been quite marvelous, indeed. And let me just clarify what "whatever I want" means...yes I have been eating pizza, chicken wings, burgers and fries, but I've also been eating pasta free zucchini lasagna (recipe coming soon!), chicken with roasted broccoli, and smoothies. The reality of it is, I love eating healthy, but I also love eating shit food sometimes and I've learned to not feel bad about it. Let me repeat, I like eating shit food and I DON'T FEEL BAD ABOUT IT! The second I realized that, it's like a little light bulb went off in my head. I mean, who am I really feeling bad for? Not me!
I feel like everyone is so consumed with trying to keep up with this "image" of being thin and fit. Who said you have to maintain a certain image? That's crazy! We have vision boards in our home and the main image on mine was a picture of a bikini fitness model. I took that down a couple months ago. I've finally realized exactly what I want to look like. Are you ready? ME! I just want to look like me. So I'm owning that shit, dammit! I also realized that previously, all the killing myself in the gym and doing my best to eat as clean as possible wasn't for me. It was because I felt like I had. Don't get me wrong, I love exercising. But I don't like feeling obligated to do it and feeling bad when I just didn't feel like it. So I stopped feeling obligated and I stopped feeling bad. Now, have I put on weight? Yup. But it's all good. I'll just buy bigger jeans ;)
Now, I haven't stopped exercising though. But I have stopped going to the gym and feeling obligated to be in the gym 4-5 days a week, which, by the way, is really hard to feel motivated to do when you're a nurse. It's an exhausting career, to say the least. But I am totally ok with doing yoga in my living room via Netflix and going for a run. Besides, yoga pants are really comfy. Also, I love me some wine. So I've stopped feeling like I need to limit the amount of alcohol I drink because of the calories.
The other major, and I mean MAJOR, thing I've come to accept is my body type. Your DNA dictates how your body looks and the results you will get from exercising. That was definitely a tough pill to swallow because you can't change your DNA. I mean I love all the junk in the trunk I've got but getting really muscular, ripped legs just isn't happening. And I've been woking out for years, some years more so than others. I've done pretty much everything I could do to get those results, with no avail, shy of living on a competition diet (which is definitely not realistic or healthy for your body for an extended period of time). And I'm a realist. So I live realistically now-a-days and I'm totally fine with it. I have cellulite. It is what it is. Nobody's perfect. Don't get me wrong, I haven't become a lazy bum that lives on the couch eating day old cold pizza and drinking wine all day, every day. Just some days :)
In the end, do whatever works for you. If you love being a gym rat and eating as clean as possible, do it and own it. If you're overweight and happy with it, own it. But whatever you choose to do, healthy or not, do it for yourself and screw societies image of what you should or shouldn't look like. Ok, that was pretty cheesy, but it's true nonetheless.
