My Fitness

For the first time in my life, I am fit.  I have achieved a level of fitness I never thought was possible for me.  I'm certainly not implying I am the fittest woman around, but that I am at the highest level of fitness I've ever been in my life.

And things I've learned in the process?

First of all, being fit means you have to be careful about what you eat.  I always had this misconception that if I exercised all the time, I could eat whatever I wanted.  Cookies, cake, breads, etc... it wouldn't affect me.  But I've learned very quickly that my performance plummets when I consume those foods too often, or in too large of quantities.  And because of that, I have actually found that I want those foods less.  I don't like my performance sucking because of something I ate.

The most surprising thing to me is that being fit doesn't necessarily make you skinnier.  Yes, I have gotten leaner in the process, but don't confuse that for skinnier.  My arms and legs have gotten muscular, and let me tell you... muscles do not a skinny woman make.  These thighs, instead of getting smaller, have simply gotten muscular.  This would have bothered me a year ago, but I realized the other day... I would rather be strong than skinny!  Of course, the kind of exercise I've been doing promotes muscle gain, and yes, I have been increasing my protein and carb intake like nobody's business.

Which leads me to the next thing I've learned... eating the right amounts of the right foods.  It's been a lot of trial and error.  There was once a time when I restricted my intake.  And the more I exercised, the more I would seem to restrict.  My diet consisted of almost no meat, no dairy, and therefore was extremely low in protein.  And I wondered why my body couldn't recover between exercising.  Now I eat plenty of meats, dairy, vegetables, and fruits.  I cook with coconut oil daily, eat 2-3 eggs for breakfast, make sure I have a protein, fat, and carbohydrate source with every single meal.  Even snacks.  Bottom line is, I'm eating.  A lot!  I now weigh whether or not "treats" are worth it.  Chocolate?  Yep, always worth it... especially dark chocolate.  Ice cream?  Duh.  But beyond that, not much else, at least not very often.

And getting here... reaching this point... I always say it but it's been a lot of "little" steps in this direction.  Just a little over two years ago my diet consisted of breads, pastas, desserts, fried foods, diet sodas, and more desserts.  And that's it.  No vegetables, no fruits, nothing good.  And I did not exercise.  AT ALL.  I was the epitome of sedentary.  You think I'm exaggerating maybe, but I'm not.  And I "looked" thinner than I actually was, due to my height.  To this day, people do not believe that I was truly overweight at one time.

And when I had that "aha" moment... the realization that this can't be the best that I'm going to be, this can't be the prime of my life!  I started to change.  I did have to make some drastic changes then and there, but the rest has come slowly.  I've experienced many ups and downs in those two years.  Periods of restriction, binging, over-exercising, injuries, diets, weight gains and losses, depression, distorted body image.  And then it became about LISTENING to my body.

And I feel that sort of is what has led me up to this point in my fitness and health journey.  Because there is freedom when it becomes about listening to your body.  When you're simply enjoying the process of being active, fit, healthy... and doing all of those things according to how your body feels.  So if you can't push it that day, then don't.  If you absolutely feel too full to eat any more, then don't.  If you ate "a lot" and you're still hungry, then keep eating.  And if, although you may not necessarily "need" that dessert but you want it, and it's worth it... then eat it!!!  And so on and so forth.  It's the way I would rather live.

Anyway, lengthy post today but just some thoughts I felt I needed to write down.  As I sit here looking out the window at the brutally hot, sunny day knowing I have a long bike ride ahead of me.  And yes, I have been avoiding it today!