Day 12 -- A little time to reflect

Those of you who know me know that I have been working out hard over the past few years. I have gone from aqua aerobics to riding on the elliptical to swimming to zumba, body pump and other group classes at the gym to working with a personal trainer to boxing to running to kettlebells. No matter what workouts I may be doing at the time, I do them consistently and generally with all my energy. I love to work out. I do. But I never really felt like I was getting any results from just working out. I knew that diet had to be part of it but as far I understood, I was following what conventional wisdom was telling me to...whole grains, low fat dairy, lots of veggies, etc....and the whole "anything in moderation" concept.

I know that the conventional wisdom and the legacy diet programs like Weight Watchers and others work for lots of people. I just didn't see it working for me. It was a blow to my self esteem in many ways. Hearing over and over, the program works if you work it just hit me in the gut every time I heard it. It didn't work for me. For those of you that do get results from following conventional wisdom, good for you. I am happy that you are getting the results you are seeking. It is awesome.

Then last year I went to a spa in Utah and started hearing some new things, like about food causing inflammation in your body, that eating too little may be just as bad as eating too much, that you can work out too much, that each of us is unique and our journey to health will be unique, that you need to listen to your body. A lot of this was a revelation to me and it made sense. We all have a unique body composition regarding muscle mass and fat percentage. We all have different joint and flexibility issues. We are all unique individuals.

This all led me to realize that grains negatively impacted not only my weight loss journey but my general health. I would feel very lethargic even the day after a pasta dinner for instance. I started to research it all and found the primal/paleo lifestyle. After a lot of research and such, I decided to change my diet (as in a lifestyle not a temporary thing) to more of a primal/paleo diet. At first it was hard but the positives since starting this well outweigh any negatives. I have such a great amount of energy and am enjoying such a wide variety of foods. I won't lie and say that there is never a time I wanted to eat something else. There have been and sometimes I do indulge but then I get back on track.

This whole post was to lead me to one item about reviewing how far I have come. Last Friday, I decided to try on my "measuring stick" jeans. They had not fit a month or so ago but my hubby was laughing at how big my other jeans were. As I was trying them on, I did not hold much hope for them actually fitting but guess what? They did. In fact, they were even a bit loose in the waist line. I can tell you that there was an extra spring in my step that day. Now I need to find another pair of jeans to use as a measuring stick.

Here I am on my journey. I am following a primal/paleo lifestyle but am now working with a nutritionist to do any healing that may be necessary as well as working to find out what foods may be inflammatory to me. I am on day 12 of this current quest. Phase one (the healing phase) ends after 15 days and then it is on to phase two to get a handle on inflammation. I look forward to what I will learn as the phases progress.  I know that weight loss is mostly diet so I am glad I am starting to find MY answers (note I am not saying that this is the only way as what works for you may be different).

I am doing kettlebell classes three to five times a week. I love kettlebells and think they are the perfect exercise for me. I love how it combines cardio and strength. I am running. I am actually up to running three miles at a time. That continues to amaze me. I look forward to continuing my running in the coming months. I really do enjoy it.

Again, I am not at all saying this is the right journey for any of you. Maybe it is, maybe it isn't. But I would like encourage you to listen to your body more than to what the "experts" say. Find a physical activity that you enjoy and makes you feel like you worked. Mostly, do not give up. Feeling healthy and being healthy are so worth it.