Move more, eat less —
PLEASE DON’T REALLY DO THAT.
For as long as I can remember, I was told to increase my movement and decrease my calories. In college, I wanted to wear a particular pair of dress pants to student teach. January 1, 2011, I got to work. I spent an entire month eating 1,100 calories, using the elliptical for 90 minutes a day, and weight lifting 3x per week. Yes, I was overdoing it and eating WAY TOO LITTLE to support that habit.
Now, I did end up fitting into the dress pants at the end of January 2011. However, I caused myself to lose my period for three months and messed up by jumping back to 1,800-2,000 calories a day RIGHT AWAY. I didn’t know about reverse dieting and that my insane cardio was not at all helpful. I wasn’t competing for a show, so why the hell did I do this?
Because everyone in magazines said to eat like a bird and to move like I was a marathon runner, basically.
What I have learned as I have aged
Since I am a little older and a little wiser, I have done a lot of reading and learning and networking to find the best ways I was able to lose weight were —
Focus on sleep
Lift 3-4 days per week and take daily walks with my dog
Focus on a 80/20 diet, where 80 percent of my meals are focused and 20 percent are what I REALLY LOVE outside the foods I eat, and
Find ways to lower and manage my stress in a healthy way.
Truthfully, this summer, I have done the following and lost two inches in my waist in just a month —
Sleep 7-8 hours at night
Full body workouts 3 days of the week, with one ‘extra’ day that consists of 20 minutes of what I want to work on, which are my shoulders and arms and hamstrings; two days of running or sprinting
Enjoying lots of ground beef and chicken with my favorite carbs and veggies; rice cakes with cashew butter as a preworkout,
5-minute meditations each day, writing down my goals each day, telling myself one great thing about myself each day; remembering I can only control myself to manage my stress
I know it seems like A LOT, but I have spent YEARS perfecting my own personal habits. It is always one habit at a time for 30-90 days (depending on the habit and if I hit bumps along the way). Once I mastered a habit, I moved on to a new habit I needed to add for myself. If you need to read about habits, visit my second blog post.
While some need to move more and eat less (ex. a person who doesn’t workout and eats 3,000+ calories a day), there needs to be a HEALTHY balance so we can maintain our overall health (inside, outside, mentally, emotionally). Please make sure to fuel your body properly and to move in ways that feel good to you. And if you need help or guidance, I have spots open for my online one-on-one programming and nutrition consulting.
7/21/24
