"how did you do it?"
"What are you eating?"
"Did you stop eating?"
"What are you doing differently?"
"Are you on that paleo diet?"
And the list goes on.
My response, "Regular exercise and a eating healthy".
Their response,"Really?? That's it?"
They couldn't believe how simple my answer was. And really, it is very simple. In the past 5 years, fitness and health has made itself a big fab in mainstream society. Crossfit, paleo diets, a million different protein powders, super foods, teas, "Strong is the new skinny", etc. Don't get me wrong, I'm not bashing any of these fabs, heck, I'm into some of them and they have worked wonders for me. My point is that it has become the biggest "in thing" now that it has started to cloud over the basics of living a healthy life.
When I first started trying to lose the baby weight, I've tried I guess what you would call "diets". I would eat less, cut out certain things completely, and worked out like mad. Even tried different smoothies and protein powders. I was determined to lose weight so I went all gung-ho and tried everything in the book. Big mistake. I gave up after a month, I lost my motivation and started giving into bad habits again.
It was not a sustainable change.
START SMALL
I started with 1 diet change. My worst habit is not eating a sufficient breakfast. I would get home late at night from work, pass out, then wake up just before I had to leave to he tetra sleep. To me, a complete breakfast meant having to wake up earlier, so I was like "pffft, screw that! haha". So I would rush out, grab a coffee and a small pastry and off tomwork I go. Hubby started making me smoothies every morning. It was very simple, fruit, yogurt, and protein powder. I invested in a $3 plastic tumbler with a lid and straw so I can have it while I drove to work. It was a good start to my day. It gave me energy and I didn't have a caffeine crash by 11am. I didn't do anything else, just that. I kept my normal routine, the only change was the morning smoothie. I did that for a month, 2 months, 3 months. To this day I still have my smoothie in the morning. I am drinking one as I type right now. It became a habit. As the months rolled by, I slowly started building on that 1 change. I added a short 3km jog/walk with the little one in two and I went during my days off. That too became a habit and it was such an awesome way to put a 4 month old to nap!! Killed 2 birds with 1 stone, mama for the win!! If you're a mom, you understand how excited I got. I did that for a month or so then I added another change. Hopefully you see where I'm going here :)
As a busy working mom, this system worked for me. It may work differently for someone else. Point being, if you bombard yourself with too much all at once (starting a diet, workout regime, all in one day), you will eventually feel overwhelmed and end up giving up too soon.
So start small and slowly build on it. The little things make a huge difference, it will eventually become a habit and therefore sustainable.
"Rome wasn't built in a day"
Happy Tuesday!!!
Don't forget to follow me on Twitter: @wifey604vancity and Instagram: @wifey604
<3 Maria
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