Throwing in the Towel

Reasons Why Some people Throw in the Towel with healthy foods in moderation or their Fitness.

1) you ate something you feel badly about

2) you went over calorie count

3) you didn't work-out or run

4) you didn't work out hard enough or run fast enough

5) you listen to criticism and hate from others

6) you feel hungry and want to eat an arm & a leg

7) frustration

8) you don't meet time goals

9) you have unrealistic expectations

10) you become your own worst critic

11) you weigh yourself and don't see progress on the scale

12) comparing yourself to others

13) you gained weight back

14) you lost some fitness

15) you feel like you can never reach goal so you stop and get comfortable

16) you gained weight even though you ate in calorie count & did your fitness

17) hitting plateaus where you do everything right and can't lose weight

18) you get distracted and you lose focus on taking care of yourself

19) taking care of others instead of you

20) you reward yourself with food

21) you emotionally eat to feel comfort or to reward yourself

How to change how you think and feel and set yourself up for Success so you NEVER throw in the towel again!

1) Have Realistic Expectations- Don't think for one minute that you can sustain 5 days of working out hard if you are going from a couch to fitness- be realistic so you don't burn-out. Start off slowly- aim for fitness just 3x weekly for 30minutes. As time goes by- gain your endurance and start pushing the pace/distance and length of time you work out

2) Create a schedule- Find a schedule and stick to it. If you however can't handle schedule- then be flexible (I am NOT a schedule person- so many people are- I am not- I just can't not have rules on my fitness- I spent my whole life planning and never following through- I needed to feel lit and then just DO IT! ) So when I say schedule- it can be as easy as saying 3x weekly and leaving it at that!

3) Find a routine that is realistic and you can do week after week- Same idea, don't overkill it. This is not a Race My RunnerGirls- this is LIFE- this is something I want you to learn to maintain FOREVER- ok, not for 6 months or a year- a routine of things you like to do week after week, month after month. You love running, you love zumba, boxing- I don't care what it is- Just find a routine by making it a habit of getting to a gym class week after week- planning on racing through out the year- etc.

***Find a routine with Your foods- don't be crazy about it- keep it simple- if you know you lost 2-3lbs last week - then HIT REPEAT - do the exact same thing this week with foods/fitness to try to get another 3lb weight loss- it really does not matter if you ate the same foods all this week as last week- soon you will be able to eat something different and you'll be lighter and that commitment will have been worth it! Trust me- this is a BIG tip! It's why I love to hear you all Journal your foods/fitness so you can see what worked for you and what didn't!

4) Avoid burning out - feeling tired- slow down! Don't Quit- Slow down- you are no less a Woman for being Human. We all don't run at 99mph - again set up realistic expectations and make fitness / foods a healthy balance

5) eat when you are hungry- You want to eat an arm and a leg? Ok- eat!!! Please EAT! Listen to your body - always! but ....it's ok to be hungry... but it's not ok to be really physically hungry and not fuel yourself- it's incredibly hurtful and counter productive to your health. What I want you to learn to do is to reach for healthy foods, packed with fiber, protein and you know I say eat endlessly if it's a veggie!!

*****Tip: it's really ok to feel hungry- you won't starve- I promise you- eat at least 1200 calories of highly nutrient dense foods and you won't starve!******* It's Ok, to go to bed a little hungry- I went to bed hungry alot- but I always knew I would lose weight that way- Yes I got hungry! but if it was night time hunger- I knew it would be ok to just go to sleep! That body will work hard while you sleep to find those fat cells and fuel itself!

6) give yourself a cushion in your calorie range- Do NOT be strict all the time- sometimes if you go what I always called "calories tight" then fine for a week or so- but realistically give yourself a range- so lets just say 1200-1400 or maybe for a long while you go 1200-1600 and if you are super struggling go 1200-1800 calories per day

7) Create and absolute threshold for calorie count- this plays off the calorie range- you allow some moderate flexibility in your calorie range (do realize the more you calorie up you work against your weight loss efforts- but it's really ok if you are feeling challenged to even eat in calorie range at all that day) so with that being said- YOU MUST , MUST, MUST TRACK ALL YOUR CALORIES- I do NOT care how dam ugly those numbers are- REALITY check- Right? You need to feel those feelings- don't hide from the numbers- they allow you to grow and learn. but I truly feel that has to be a point to which you just never get yourself over a specific calorie count- personally I think a cap of 600 over your normal calorie range is not unreasonable and should be expected upon yourself. This is CalorieCounting You are going to have to establish some rules!

8) find a partner to be accountable to- Find someone you can trust in that is NOT going to let you throw in the towel. Find an accountability partner!

9) give yourself permission to fail- WE all Fail. We fail at eating something that makes us feel badly. We ate too much- We gained weight- We Didn't work out as much as Wanted. It's Ok to get it wrong- it's normal. You are NOT Strange, different than anybody else! It's this part of getting it wrong - where we learn how to get it right next time! But you can't just spend time feeling badly about it- you actually find your lesson and learn from it- so you can stop making so mistakes and then soon - you won't be failing as much and you won't keep making the same mistakes! It's not a permission slip- it's a learning lesson !

10) don't be afraid to admit default- (fear!!) - Go ahead hit the ignore button- go ahead - hide the scale, get out the fat pants- ignoring the mistakes and not admitting you got it wrong for a little while is only going to allow you to perpetually cycle out of control- stop beating yourself up about it- Move on- let it go- Get back on track by admitting the failure and let it go! Set Yourself Free!

11) Learn from your journey- Read, Google, find support, track your fitness/foods, dive into just really figuring yourself out- why do you do what you do- what drives you- what goals do you have- learn spiritually- physically- emotionally-

12) Self Esteem - I wrote a whole blog post about the importance of self esteem- what it can do for your weight loss - how to break perpetual cycles of negative self talk- how to gain a positive attitude the whole time you journey through- how to flip your frustrations into motivations!

13) Mantras- find them, write them down- put them on your hand, put them on paper and put it in your pocket for the day to pull and read whenever you need to. Post it names on the fridge- pantry, on the scale-

14) scale watching- very sensitive subject- but no matter your choice to weight yourself daily/weekly or none at all- please take some sort of control with it. If you know you are going to only perpetually beat yourself up then put it away for a while. If you can emotionally handle the number on the scale then realize in a healthy respect that weighing your true weight (in the morning after your first urine - totally naked is going to be your truest weight for the day) then all the other numbers- well they really don't matter at all! For me- if you're curious- I weighed 2x daily- once in the morning and once at night just before bed- it's just something I would do - it taught which foods worked for me and what worked against me in regards to fluid retention :)

15) proactive- plan your fitness- set out your clothes, set the alarm, buy the good healthy foods for your fridge/pantry- make plans with friends- pay for a class it forces you to go- pay for a race ahead of time!

16) Consistency- everyday hit the restart button - if you can sincerely imagine hitting a 'restart' button everyday then you will master "letting go" of yesterday- yep 'GONE -OVER WITH' Now it's not about tmrw or yesterday- but TODAY-!!! It's all we have, ok- it's the ONLY thing we have! We don't have Yesterday to do it over- We don't have Tmrw Yet- We only have Today- the here and Now- So make the choice to make everyday a fresh start to get it all right!

17) OMG- Maybe after a bad or "off" meal/snack/temptation you can hit the restart button- I do! So you ate a bad meal- don't throw the whole day away- the day is NOT wasted- the HOUR is wasted- not the entire 24hrs! Ok- so hit the restart button and keep moving along with healthy choices!

18) Support- The Blog, The CCRG Page- The CCRG Private Closed Group- Your friends, family- there are so many groups, clubs and networks out there shelling out motivation and support for one another. I will never be in competition with another support group- I am honestly one of thousands- I am humbled to just touch the few lives that I have - So thank You for that- I have many compliments of people telling me they see/hear me chanting them to keep going while out on a run- Yes, THANK YOU - I love that I can do that for you!

Very Specific Cognitive KEYS to my Success as a Runner and with my Weight Loss:

1) FOOD IS FUEL- it's so important to breaking your connection to emotional eating and your addictions to food to start viewing food ONLY as Fuel- sure it's going to taste good - but always ask yourself if you need or just want it. I have a Whole Blog Post about Emotional Eating and how to break it-

2) NO MATTER WHAT- IF YOU EAT HEALTHY- YOUR BODY WILL BE HEALTHY! Ok - so if you eat bad foods- you not only gain weight but you actually slowly destroy your insides- your body floats with free radicals that just wait to be turn a healthy cell into an abnormal one and then CANCER - so ask yourself when you eat something "Does this make my body healthy?" I need you to remember when that scale doesn't move that consistency will get you to goal but most importantly that the focus on being your health. Focus on Healthy- focus on reducing your cholesterol, reduce your blood pressure- work on cleansing out all the toxic filled fat cells in your body. Remember you are losing fat and gaining muscle- If you have to carry around all that fat while you exercise your body needs to gain some major muscle to move it around at the rate you want it too- sometimes there are gains- and plateaus- but don't change your routine- stick to it- it does and will work if you stick a normal healthy lifestyle!

3) Even if you never plan to race or run or do your fitness to be competitive- I want you think like an Elite- Like a Champion- Live and Breathe like a True Athlete! I do- some laugh- some think I know everything (p.s. CONFESSION- I DON'T) The Grand Glory of Life is I have so much to learn and I do keep reading and learning. I experiment and dare to challenge myself and my body. My mind and spirit thoroughly challenged through the entire process. It doesn't matter _ I keep the focus. I truly think, live like an Athlete. I like that. No- I love that feeling! It's NOT for Glory - it's for the love of feeling Great, it's for the love of the challenge, it's for the Sick High I get from my Hard Core Running, it's for the connected Spiritual journey with all aspects of my life on long easy runs. I am an Athlete! I hope even when I'm 60 or 80 years old, I'll still consider myself an athlete (maybe I'll start up some old people walker races-lol) I win! ha!

I can make this subject a book! Truth be told- you just have to change your habits. That doesn't happen by just wanting it, instead it happens by truly working really hard to make new ones- take on the challenge and change your life and stop the perpetual cycling with your food/fitness!