Monday Inspiration: The Battle of the Bulge

Happy new week all! So, as I have been getting deeper into blogging and trying to figure out exactly where I want my blog to go (I know, I know – wasn’t I supposed to do this BEFORE I started the blog?!), I think I have finally hit on a good pattern and feel! This is what I am going to try to have my blog look like every week:

• Monday Inspiration post: everyone needs help on Monday’s to be happy about the work week in front of them. Why not help get everyone going and thinking happy and positive. It is the type of person I try to be, so why not try to infiltrate the world with more positive energy and thoughts?
• Wednesday Home Life: I love to decorate, craft, bake, and organize. I will share my adventures on the home front!
• Friday Fashion: I have really been trying to let my creativity become more free in my fashion these days and I want to share my fashion ideas (and mistakes!). This may include good buys and finds, trends I am following, and What Not to Wear recaps.

So as it is a Monday, let the inspiration begin. This week my inspiration stemmed from one of my best friend’s from high school and fellow blogger Caitlin. Cait is one of those people who I bonded instantly with in an English class in high school. Our dumb jokes and silly behavior in high school blossomed into a life long friendship. She was also one of the people who inspired me to start a blog. She started Cait Strides this year and spurred me to go ahead and start one too.

Her incredibly honest and thoughtful blog she posted recently is worth the read. It is all about her struggles with something that we all know about: weight. I can totally relate with Cait. When I was in high school I was always crying to my mom about how unhappy I was with my weight. I was always comparing myself to all the beautiful, popular girls in high school with the perfect complexion and super skinny waists. Even as an athletic vegetarian, I couldn’t seem to drop the pounds that I wanted to.

Then start the challenge of college with the alleged “Freshman 15”, late night study breaks, and hours sitting in the library. It was a time that I gradually gained even more weight without even knowing I was.

So when I left China for summer break, I was excited for the next three months. I was living by myself for the first time and working full time at my high school job at The Forest Cleaners (a dry cleaners) which I actually loved. It was summer that was perfect. I worked hard but also got to govern my life completely for the first time. I ate what I wanted, when I wanted; took time to do things I loved (like scrap booking about China); and I exercised every day.

That summer I realized a few major things about eating. As it was the first time that I could eat without anyone else’s schedule in mind, I ate only when I was hungry. So if it was dinner time and I wasn’t hungry I didn’t feel obligated to eat because everyone else in the household was. I would just wait until I was hungry. Since I was on my own I could cook whatever I wanted. As someone who likes to eat healthy, it wasn’t a time for me to binge eat, but to try all the weird healthy meals I liked. It included a lot of salads with lots of yummy toppings, heaping veggie pizzas, and dessert every night (I can’t help it – I blame my mother the sweet tooth!). Oh yes, the other huge part of this. I was supremely happy. I loved myself and wasn’t constantly judging myself but accepting myself.

So summer ends and I go back to school and I get this huge reaction from my peers that goes something like this: “Megan! You have a waist!” I had lost about 30 pounds and was at a weight that made me happy. I didn’t really think about food obsessively anymore. I ate my correct portion sizes when I was hungry, worked out regularly, and didn’t beat myself up about everything.

So that is my success story at that point and what it took to get there. That was about 3-4ish years ago. I have been mostly able to maintain that weight, but life sometimes works against you and I still struggle with this now. It does take eating healthy and regular exercise. Life does get harder when you have a desk job. Talk about sitting all day long! I am having a slight struggle with getting balance back in my life with junk food and exercise. I have struggled to find a way to fit in exercise regularly with my desk job. I didn’t do a good job with it my first job out of college. That job stressed me out totally and completely. Working out was the last thing on my mind when I came home. I was too spent. I would try to work out on the weekends and sometimes in the morning before I came home. Unfortunately, I think I stayed thin by being unhealthily stressed and overworked/too busy to remember to eat. So when my new job rolled around this August, I had more time to think about leading a balanced life. I actually joined a gym but it unfortunately closed forever LAST WEEK! So working out has been on my mind recently, as I have struggled to let go of the holiday pounds and find a way to fit exercise into my life again. Since I had gotten into the pattern of working out after work by stopping by the gym, I shopped around at gyms last week. There wasn’t a good fit nearby. So I decided to take those gym membership dollars and funnel that toward building my home gym. Hello Craigs List! I scored this $200 elliptical machine off Craigs List the summer after college:

This past week this is the machine I have been hitting up after work. But no one is going to be able to do the same workout in the basement every day forever. So I began perusing Craigs List again. I came upon a rather sweet workout DVD listing. So I met a man in a public parking place in the light of day with my husband in the car (you can never be too safe with Craigs List) and scored these TEN DVDs for only $35 (he was originally asking $40 – it never hurts to bargain!). So here goes the workouts in the home gym after work!

So after a long and long winded post I will draw some conclusions.

• Being healthly is more about a lifestyle and making it a pattern in your life.
• Only eat when you are hungry.
• Find out what your really portion size should be and let go of those super-sized American ideals.
• Love and accept yourself as the beautiful person you are. Because you are. We all are.

I hope this helps and gives you a little inspiration on your Monday to both be happy, healthy, and LOVE YOURSELF! Please share with me any of your struggles, ups and downs, and successes. And be sure to go to www.caitstrides.comto support my awesome friend Cait in her healthy goals of 2012!