Weekend Quote: Being Happy

“Being happy doesn’t mean that everything is perfect. It means that you’ve decided to look beyond the imperfections.” -Unknown

Yes! LOVE this.

I’d rather me happy than perfect anyway. Wouldn’t you?

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I Was Being Greedy, But Still Lost 2-lbs Over The Holiday. What! How’d That Happen?

In the last 10 days I’ve lost 2 pounds. That’s quite remarkable for this greedy time of year, especially when I confess to you the eating I engaged in leading up to and over the Thanksgiving holiday: There was carbohydrate fanfare (I love me some hot buttery rolls and stuffing), sweet potato pie delirium (I basically ate damn near an entire pie), and excess coffee shop snacking.

It was all very glorious.

My eating was obviously NOT as moderate as planned in these past 10 days, so how the hellz did I manage to drop poundage anyway?

I was actually a little confused at first myself. But then I did a brain re-wind to review not just my greedy eating, but ALL of my eating and ALL of my other actions. Sure, I’ve been a little very greedy lately, but here’s what I was doing the rest of the time:

I Haven’t Missed Any Workouts: I didn’t miss them because I planned them beforehand, even picking out my workout clothes the night before so I’d be ready. I workout 5 times per week for about 45 minutes, including warm-up and cool-down.

I Increased My Fitness-Funk Ratio: I love a good challenge. And a good challenge makes you sweat, causing extra fitness funk to be released (can you smell it?). I’ve been going hard on my workouts. I like it that way. The combination of NOT skipping workouts, plus going hard proved to be effective for continued body transformation over the holiday. Plyometrics and bodyweight exercises are still my workout-beasts of choices, but now I’ve added 10-minutes of speed rope onto the end of EVERY workout. It’s been a real game-changer. Have you been game-changing lately?

I Barely Stopped Moving: My couch-azzing has been very limited lately. Sitting around less, moving around more. You know how that goes. I’ve been so busy lately, but instead of bitching about my busy-ness, I just been busting it out and getting sh!t done. I could have sat around lazy, whining about how it’s not fair I have to do so much, but instead I just buckled down and did what I had to do, which equated to more movement in general, and we all know what more movement leads to: a sexy bod. (uh huh)

I Made Fantastic Choices In-Between the Pie Slices: Salads, healthy homemade soups, lots of water, consistency with the Shakeology, sensible food portions in general… all of this matters. So if you’ve been guilty-greedy, don’t say to “hell with it”, because every food choice you make in-between the greediness is still a step in the right direction.

So there you have it. And this totally supports my motto: Find Balance Between Fitness and Your Greedy Side. Especially around the holidays. What’s your own ninja plan to deal with random splats greediness?

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Weekend Quote: Being Proud

I think we live in a culture of shame. Everything from what we eat to how we look, even the manner in which we raise our kids, is under constant scrutiny.

Maybe it’s just a part of being human but I for one am tired of not feeling good enough.

As a lower income child attending a catholic grammar school I wasn’t rich enough. In High School I wasn’t skinny or pretty enough. In college, I wasn’t smart enough. Early in my career, I wasn’t experienced enough. As a new parent, I wasn’t worried enough–note: I’m pretty laid back in comparison to other parents today.

Now that I’m aging I don’t feel young enough. How ridiculous is that? "Young enough" But honestly, I see my laugh lines and crows feet in the mirror and cringe. My short hair that was considered cool and hip in my teens and 20's is now a lazy-I-don’t-have-time-for-myself mom’s cut.

I realize some of this is in my head but I think you will agree, a lot comes from societal pressures.

When will we be enough? When are we enough?

I caught this tweet the other day by @JulieGallaher and it made me smile.

I think your whole life shows in your face and you should be proud of that. -Lauren Bacall

We SHOULD be PROUD! And not just about the lines on our faces but our bodies and families and individual situations. We need to own it. OWN IT ALL and be–in the words of a very good friend of mine–Unapologetically Ourselves.

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Ask Roni_v47 – Your "OK" Weight, Mentality of Being Fat, From FAD diet to Weight Watchers, Weight Training Advice, External Solutions

I feel all over the place in this weeks video. Not sure if I made ANY sense but here it is all the same. :)

Topics this week include…

Getting past your "OK" weight. Should you?Do you still struggle with the mentality of being fat?Getting out of the FAD diet cycle. Weight training exercises that have helped you?Stop looking for an external solution. I’m not selling anything.

Links Mentioned in this video…

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Being the Best Version of Me.

Howdy there Mizfit’ers! I’m Brandon from A Healthy Dad, and I’m very happy and humbled to be writing in this space today.

I think my history and struggles with weight are very similar to many others out there. I was overweight pretty much my entire life, for as long as I can remember. I went through those awkward high school years as an overweight teen. Around the time I started college, I really began my love/hate relationship with food, going on a seemingly endless stream of on-again, off-again diets. Throughout college, my weight regularly fluctuated between 250 and 280 pounds.

My wife and I had our wedding planned for shortly after college graduation. For about 6 months leading up to the wedding, we went on Atkins together to “look good” for the wedding. And at least in the short term, it worked fairly well – I got down to 220 pounds for wedding day, the lowest I had weighed in years. But we had both treated it as just a temporary diet, and so the day after the wedding, we went right back to our bad habits and the weight gradually came back.

Fast-forward 5 years to December 2009 when our daughter was born, and I was at my heaviest weight ever, 290 pounds. I had turned camera-dodging into an art form, because I hated seeing photos of myself. But looking at the photos from the hospital (which I couldn’t easily dodge out of), I was faced with the harsh reality of what I had let myself become. Something finally clicked deep inside me, and I decided then and there that something had to be done.

I had no idea where to start. I knew that I needed to make fundamental changes to my lifestyle, so that the weight wouldn’t just end up coming back like it had so many times in the past. After a bit of searching around online, I came across Tyler’s weight loss blog, and was instantly inspired by what he had accomplished. I immediately decided that I was going to get started turning my life around, and created my blog to help keep me accountable.

In the early weeks and months, my main focus was dropping weight. In fact, I became obsessed with the scale – probably a bit too much. I was weighing myself sometimes 2 or 3 times a day, and if I had a bad weigh-in, it would put me in a bad mood all day.

Gradually, I’ve been learning to not put so much emphasis on that number staring back at me on the scale. I’ve lost 90 pounds so far, and even though I’ve got probably 10-15 pounds more that I’d like to lose, my focus lately has been much less on my weight, instead shifting to becoming the best version of me that I can be.

These days, I’m only weighing myself once a week. I’m focused on eating whole, clean, real foods that make me feel good, instead of the over-processed garbage I used to eat, usually resulting in me feeling blah. Whether I’m running my first 1/2 Marathon, or training for my first full Marathon in December, my focus is on being healthy and fit, not any particular number on the scale.

Instead of striving for a specific weight, I want to be healthy and fit for my kids, so I can run and play with them for many years to come.

I want to set a good example for my kids, so that eating healthy and being active is just the norm for them.

I want to eat clean, healthy foods that enable me to perform as well as possible.

I want to be the best version of me that I can be.

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Is Being Ready Enough? Someone Needs Your Advice

I love getting email from Lynn’s Weigh readers. I really do. And I try to answer it as best I can and in a timely manner. But this week I have so much on my plate – out of the ordinary things that are consuming my thoughts – and I wouldn’t be able to answer the following email in a thoughtful way.

So I need your help. Can you, particularly the veteran weight-loss folks, answer this email I received today from Stacey? When I get a chance I’ll refer her to what I’ve written in the past, but I know we each have our individual answer to the questions she poses.

Variety being the spice of life, your answer may be just what Stacey needs to hear to get her on the path of permanent weight loss.

Here’s her email:

“I am looking for advice. How did you stick with it at first? I have a very hard time getting motivated to do it. I know it is pure laziness on my part. I loved WW in the past when I have tried it. When seeing results I get excited and all that but as soon as I fall off the wagon or have a bad day it is all over and I'm back to square one.

I am 36 and at 290. I am so ready for a life change. Any help you can give would be wonderful.”

Leave a comment or send me an email to lynnbering@verizon.net and I’ll be sure to forward it to Stacey. Thanks a ton, you guys.

A quick update on Mathilda. She’s not doing well. Her back legs just aren’t working. We may need to put her down this week. The only saving grace is that we got that second chance, that extra time to spend with her. And we’ve been savoring every moment.

Thank you again for all your kind comments and well wishes. I know so many of you have been down this road before. It’s never easy.

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Is Being Ready Enough? Someone Needs Your Advice

I love getting email from Lynn’s Weigh readers. I really do. And I try to answer it as best I can and in a timely manner. But this week I have so much on my plate – out of the ordinary things that are consuming my thoughts – and I wouldn’t be able to answer the following email in a thoughtful way.

So I need your help. Can you, particularly the veteran weight-loss folks, answer this email I received today from Stacey? When I get a chance I’ll refer her to what I’ve written in the past, but I know we each have our individual answer to the questions she poses.

Variety being the spice of life, your answer may be just what Stacey needs to hear to get her on the path of permanent weight loss.

Here’s her email:

“I am looking for advice. How did you stick with it at first? I have a very hard time getting motivated to do it. I know it is pure laziness on my part. I loved WW in the past when I have tried it. When seeing results I get excited and all that but as soon as I fall off the wagon or have a bad day it is all over and I'm back to square one.

I am 36 and at 290. I am so ready for a life change. Any help you can give would be wonderful.”

Leave a comment or send me an email to lynnbering@verizon.net and I’ll be sure to forward it to Stacey. Thanks a ton, you guys.

A quick update on Mathilda. She’s not doing well. Her back legs just aren’t working. We may need to put her down this week. The only saving grace is that we got that second chance, that extra time to spend with her. And we’ve been savoring every moment.

Thank you again for all your kind comments and well wishes. I know so many of you have been down this road before. It’s never easy.

View the original article here