Treating Sugar Like It's An Addiction...

I know it sounds a bit extreme but sometimes it takes extreme measures to fight your weakness. There is no easy way to cut sugar out of one's diet, but for the sake of your health and overall well-being, you must! It won't be fun at first, that part I can promise but your body will thank you in the long run. Cut out the instant gratification and your body will reap the rewards of delayed gratification. Just take it a day at a time, a meal at a time. Every time you eat, purpose in your mind that the only sugar that you will get will come from the natural sugars in food. It's a healthier way of eating and your body will thank you.

What that means as a consumer is that you must read labels and start recognizing the terms used for the word sugar. Most people know very well, high fructose corn syrup but what people many times replace that with is even worse for you. Two of the dirtiest words in nutrition are: artificial sweetener. Yes, even worse than raw sugar (my personal favorite vice in my coffee) or even white sugar is the artificial sweetener. The reason why is that it does not satisfy the body's craving but creates more cravings.

CrossFit Endurance

Summer is right around the corner (though here in Oregon the weather is anything but warm) and while most people are thinking about how much time they are going to be spending outside and in the sun (and how cute their outfits are going to be). I'm trying to find the best possible way to get fit enough to participate in Tough Mudder in mid-September. Not to mention, the police departments physical agility tests I want to ace-not just pass but ace.

I follow some great fitness sites on Facebook and Competitor Running had a posting for a 12 week CrossFit Endurance workout routine and it got me thinking why not. Why not put all my workout efforts for the next 12 weeks into seeing what it can do for me. I don't really have anything to lose, well except weight maybe so for the next 12 weeks I am going to give it my best shot. I am also using the website CrossFit Endurance and I really think it is going to make a drastic change for me. I really like their lifestyle and what they stand for, it's realistic and well rounded fitness but it is not easy. I'm not looking for a quick fix, an easy answer or the easy way out. I want to work hard and prove that I still have what it takes and that when the dust settles I can be in the best shape of my life even better than I was before. My goal is fitness and health for life.

Crossfit in general has become the workout mantra for me. I recommend it to everyone I talk to about fitness because it is about overall strength and endurance not just one thing. Most training programs are sport specific or a certain exercise specific like running or biking but CrossFit is overall fitness to create a well rounded athlete that can kick ass. I challenge anyone who reads my blog to give it a try for 12 weeks, that's it, just 12 weeks of your life and see where it takes you. You just might be surprised...

This is the specific 12 week CrossFit Endurance training program I saw: Brain MacKenzie's 12 Week CrossFit Endurance Advanced Training Program

Fat Girl With a Pretty Face...

Everyone has heard the saying about the fat girl with a pretty face... well, that has been me for the past 7 years or most my adult life really (I did struggle with my weight here and there in my teen years and into my early 20's). It's like the go to statement to say well, if she wasn't fat then she'd really be pretty. It's like some ass backwards version of a compliment. Not that I'm going after anyone who says it because I've been guilty of that statement, about myself and even of others. I'm just not going to be that girl anymore. Never again...

One of the things that has changed as I lose weight is my face. You start to see the weight loss there. I notice it in pictures but also in the mirror. I've always hated how fat my face looked when I gained the weight but then again it's hard to find any part of myself to like. It's tragic that the biggest critic is always going to be yourself. I'm the first to preach to others about how they have to love who they are and accept themselves the way they are (not necessarily accept the circumstances) in order to ever be fulfilled no matter how much weight they lose but I find it hard advice to swallow. For the first 30 or so odd pounds that I lost I felt no real difference in my perception of how I looked. The one thing I did notice and was grateful for was my knees stopped hurting. That was one of the best things that happened to me by far especially since I'm on my feet all day at work. But when it came to seeing myself any differently, I still felt as fat as I had been. If my clothes had not been so freaking big on me I would have sworn I had lost nothing at all. I remember the first picture that actually made me think that maybe I really had lost some weight was of me with my reflective vest on. Other than that I had days where I was sure I'd climb on that scale and weigh in at what I'd weighed in the beginning.

All of this tells me that sometimes the hardest battle is not the weight itself but your own perception and my view of myself. Harsh but true. Here I was succeeding at something that has been such a struggle for me and I could not even allow myself that victory. What a sad state of affairs...

Suck it up Buttercup!!!

So here it is. My fitness blog which will chronicle my efforts to lose weight, get fit and create a healthy lifestyle. The ups, the downs, the struggles, the obstacles, the goals, the achievements. It's all going to happen right here. Someone the other day said I should keep a blog of my weight loss and fitness. I thought why not, it's not like my struggle is any secret.

If you've known me in the past 7 years then it's not exactly something I can hide. I've been an athlete most my life, I've played just about every sport out there or at least tried to. But I have also struggled with my weight to some extend since I was 12. It wasn't till my early 20's that I hit an all time high (and by high I mean the scale so really an all time low). All the sudden I was more than 50 pounds overweight and wearing a size 22. I had never been anywhere near that big in my entire life. It happened so fast too, it was one of the worst and hardest experiences of my life. Now for the past 7 years I have struggled (in what seems like vain) to lose the weight and get back into fighting shape. I do want to be able to wear a bikini (really what girl doesn't?!) but my true goal is to be healthy and fit. Numbers on a scale don't matter, what matters is creating a healthy lifestyle that will last a lifetime.

Since February I have lost almost 40 pounds so I am already on my way. In my next post I will explain what I have done to get to where I am now and what I plan to do to further reach my fitness goals. But for the first time in 7 years, I am no longer in the plus sizes. It is an amazing feeling but I also know I still have a long ways to go. I sign off from my first post with the quote that has inspired me along the way and inspired the title of this blog:

"Suck it up buttercup and get out there and run with a tire dragging from your waist until you can’t take another step then drop and give me fifty and then run some hills with your buddy on your back—it ain’t brain science or rocket surgery—it is breaking yourself to build yourself."--Lt. Commander Thomas Rancich, US Navy SEAL (Ret.)