Health Evolution

When I started this little blog last December, this was meant to be my place to be accountable for meeting my health and wellness goals.  I wanted to lose the weight I'd gained, get back to healthy eating, and start working out regularly again.

Since December, a lot has changed in my life  I went back to school.  I decided that I needed to blog about more than just health and fitness to stay sane.  I started working out regularly again.  Ammon and I invested in a farm, and started receiving weekly boxes full of amazing organic produce.

Overall, I am in a much better position now than I was back in December.  But despite all of that, my weight hasn't budged.  I work out regularly, and I eat healthfully 75% of the time.

The problem is still with my food, and the way that I spend my downtime.  This girl spent all of her downtime DOING things, like rock climbing, hiking, walking, going on bike rides, etc...

This girl also ate a primarily plant-based diet, and never once worried about the quantity of food she ate, because it was almost all fiber anyway.

However, this girl fell in love, got a desk job, and started cooking meat, because her prince charming is a Texas-boy who can't live without animal protein in his life.

Suddenly, that girl found herself staying in more and more, because that's what her prince preferred.  Instead of going for a 4 mile walk after work, she had to get home to make dinner, clean the house, and hang out with the guy she loved so much.  And she loved every minute of it.  She still does.  But the weight crept on, slowly but surely.  It was no longer a matter of adding in a few extra workouts, or cutting dessert out once a week in order to stay trim.

Back to present day Kristen...

I feel an intense sense of frustration regarding my weight and my body image.  I work out 5 days a week.  Like I mentioned before, I eat really well 75% of the time.  I sleep.  I avoid alcohol.  But it isn't helping, and to be honest, I understand why.  I am taking a step-by-step approach to my health, which gives fewer results than a full-health overhaul.  In order for me to hit my goals, I'm going to have to work out every day, plus live a more active lifestyle, PLUS shift my eating so that I'm eating healthfully 90% of the time, rather than 75%.  So while I'm getting there, I'm not there yet.  That's hard to come to terms with in our instant gratification society.  We want success now, not when we earn it.

I'm coming towards the end of ChaLEAN Extreme.  I will officially be done with the program in 3 weeks and 2 days.  It's gone by quickly, and I know that while I've put on muscle and lost inches, the scale is still reading the same number.  It's time to start thinking about what the next step is.  I have a lot of ideas, but I think I need to focus on one thing to add to my current plan once I reach the "Lean for Life" stage of  the program.  I'm going to do the 4th month of the program, and I want to add a 30 minute walking to my day, 6 days a week.  This sounds so easy now, but I know that when it comes time to do it, I will struggle with it.  All of the jobs I had prior to my current job involved a lot of walking, a lot of lifting and moving.  Ultimately, I think that was the secret of being thin for me.  Constant movement.  So hopefully, adding 30 minutes of walking almost every day will move me to the next stage of my health evolution.  I know it won't be what gets me to my goal, but it will get me one step closer to earning that goal.