Through this little journey of mine I’ve learned a LOT of things so far about different facets that I have added into my life and I thought I would share a few:
Eating Healthier:
- Planning is key. Failure to plan is a plan for failure
- Tracking is the absolute most important part of me losing weight.
- Plan cheat days, or meals or whatever. When I have a cheat day it helps me to plan what I am going to eat ahead of time. It helps me to not go too crazy, but eat the things that I know I crave regularly.
- Cravings start to go away after not eating processed, or sugary foods in about 2 days, for me. The more fruits and veggies I consume the quicker the cravings cease.
- Always put the “good for you food” in your eye-line. Put the “bad for you” food in a deep dark hole where you forget it exists. I had a bag of Starbursts for over a month because of this strategy, and for anyone who knows me, they know that this a BIG DEAL.
- Don’t be too extreme. If you want to cut out certain foods try one food at a time. Don’t become a vegan when your diet consisted of mostly dairy and meat. You are just setting yourself up for failure.
- Treat yourself. Even Weight Watchers says that you should give yourself things like you like every now and then.
- Stay away from “trigger” foods. I love oatmeal, but if I start my day out with it, I want to eat all day long. Same with bread. I just have to stay away.
- Know which foods affect you which ways. Don’t eat vegetable soup full of cabbage when you know you have to be in public in a couple of hours. Also goat cheese is possibly the only food that affects my stomach in a MAJOR BAD WAY.
The Gym
- Make a schedule and keep to it. The only time the gym works for me is before 9 AM. If I wait any longer, it won’t happen. Sometimes I have to ditch plans if I know it will interrupt my gym time. The gym is a priority to me and some things have to come second.
- Keep the schedule up for at least 3 weeks. I am a big believer in 21 days makes a habit, and when I have gone to the gym consistently for 3 weeks it gets easier.
- Follow an exercise routine. You can find all sorts of great workouts on the internet, or in exercise magazines. Keeping your workout interesting, keeps you wanting to do it. When you have a plan you are following you will be less likely into cutting your workout short.
- No matter who I do cardio by, whether they are old, young, fat, or skinny, they all want to race. Seriously. I keep tempo with the music that I am listening to, and I can tell a difference when I am working out to the fast songs. The people next to me suddenly start looking over at my machine to see what level I am and start going faster. I liken it to having your car on cruise control. If your car isn’t on cruise control, but mine is, there is going to be some playing of leap-frog.
- Most meatheads don’t care if you are in the free weights section. I was extremely self-conscious when I started doing NROLFW because it mostly uses free weights, or what I formerly referred to as the “Men’s Area”, but now I realize that my insecurities were all in my own head (as most usually are).
- Be friendly. We’re all in this together people! If I see an over weight person that I’ve never seen, I try to give them a smile and a friendly look. You never know how hard it was for them to take the step to come to the gym. I am no better than anybody in that gym.
Blogging
- No matter how many times I type it I will never be able to properly spell the words definitly, or myslef. I am leaving the misspellings so that you know how I spell them EVERY TIME I type them.
- People love to hear about periods and poop. If they didn’t, those posts wouldn’t be some of my top read posts.
- Keep your heart in your posts. If you are trying to type a canned blog post, your readers will know. Inspiration does not strike everyday, and if you need a day off then take it.
- Connect with other bloggers. I had no idea the blogging world was even out there until a few months ago, and since then I have made some solid friendships with people who are supportive and relate to what you’re going through.
- Comment on other bloggers post. One of the biggest compliments you can give a blogger is a comment. You don’t have to go crazy and comment on every post, just something that says I enjoyed your post today! I think we put a lot of thought into the content of our blogs and it is nice to have people recognize that.
Is there anything you have learned from Blogging, The Gym, or Eating Healthier?
Tim
/ October 18, 2011I totally agree about the poop posts! The posts which have the most views on my blog aren’t even weight loss related, I think they are: ‘Am I Gay?’, ‘Tickling fat boys’, ‘I was standing there naked….’ and ‘This is England’. I might as well not bother writing about weight loss! People just want juicy gossip! LOL
Shrinking Carrie
/ October 18, 2011that’s funny! I read “Am I Gay?” yesterday! I’m must be gossipy, deep down!!!
Lisa
/ October 24, 2011LOL, I just read that one tonight! With a title like that, how can you NOT read it?/
Healthy Strides
/ October 18, 2011Great list!
One of the most important things for me to learn was to try new things, food-wise and exercise-wise. I would have never tried turnips, rutabaga, brown rice, almond milk, banana “soft serve” had I not embarked on this journey. I think it allows you to not only keep the diet interesting and thus preventing a binge but allows you to re-create favorite flavors.
Shrinking Carrie
/ October 18, 2011So true! You never know what you like until you try it!
Marion
/ October 18, 2011Hi Carrie! What an excellent post–so true! My dumbest posts are most popular and my super intelligent posts–nobody’s ever read them. I could have explained the entire universe in them–but nobody’s ever going to know!
I adore your baby poopy and tthrow up posts, btw.
Marion
Shrinking Carrie
/ October 18, 2011Ugh! It’s so true! People seem to like funny or serious posts, but the informative ones always get the shaft. And those are usually the ones that you’ve done the most research on! Oh well!
Marion
/ October 18, 2011Oh, and did you notice how I spelled “tthrow?” I like–”myslef.” Haha.
Carolyn Johnson
/ October 18, 2011I loved this post and agree whole-heartedly! I haven’t been checking the blog what with Jen’s new baby and all, so I read them all at once–BLOG OVERLOAD!! They were all fabulous, but I’ve got to heck each night instead of week–duh! You tell Dustin, it’s great to have him home and all that but don’t let him drag you from the straight and narrow!! ;o)
Shrinking Carrie
/ October 18, 2011Ya, today’s was kind of long too. I try to keep them to 550 words or less, but this one was almost 1000! Apparently I had a LOT to say on today’s topic! I don’ t think Dustin necessarily will TRY to drag me down, but I definitely am weaker when he is not working. I am a good manipulator and I think Dustin hasn’t picked up on my scheming most bad days. He wants what’s best for me and us, but we are 2 weak willed people, which is a hard thing to turn around, but consistently working on. Some days are better than others!
Carolyn Johnson
/ October 18, 2011That would be “check” instead of “heck”–does your spelling come from me or are we just typing too fast? That’s an interesting quesiton!
christa
/ October 19, 2011This was a really good list. I’m intending to start some kind of diet/exercise training plan very soon, and I will definitely keep this list nearby.