What Works For Me

This is not advice for you.

I repeat, this is not advice. In every possible situation, people benefit from different ways of doing things. I totally get this and I'm not telling anyone what they should do, I'm just sharing what has worked FOR ME.  Yes, I use the pronoun "YOU" and this has everything to do with the style of writing and nothing to do with...you guessed it...you.

Weight Watchers

I actually first started Weight Watchers way back when I was in high school and I did lose about 15 pounds initially. But then I couldn't afford to keep up with the food because, well, I was in fucking high school and making like 400 dollars a month. Now, I like it because the point system is really simple, you can do it on your computer, and most fruits and vegetables are actually worth zero points. I think the downside is that you really need to understand a bit about nutrition before you begin, otherwise you're just gonna eat a fucking slice of pizza and then be finished for the entire day. But of course, after the first slice, you're just gonna feel hungry 15 seconds later, so that never works out.

You mean, I can eat whatever I want??!!

You don't have to be a nutrition expert, but knowing that you shouldn't eat mostly refined sugars and carbs is a start. Actually, the best bit of advice I've ever seen about nutrition went like this:

 

Eat food.

Not too much.

Mostly plants.

 

Trying my best to follow that has at least put me in the right mind set. I would say the only thing now that disappoints me about Weight Watchers is that you can't enter "Fist Fight" into the Activity points calculator. If you could, I'd probably express myself more. Whatever, your loss Weight Watchers.

Getting organized

I could feel you rolling your eyes as you read that. Yes, I know it sounds fucking stupid and obvious and a few months ago, I probably would have scoffed if someone told me this was some magical potion to getting your shit together. BUT UGHHHH! Being organized in your day to day life...I'm talking work, social life, exercise routines, etc, actually does help a lot. Have a damn schedule. Plan ahead. If you do, I feel like you are ten times less likely to flake out on diet and exercise. Even

cleaning up my apartment and making sure there aren't any dirty dishes left over has helped me. Dieting is fucking difficult, and when it sucks that bad, you will find ANY reason not to go through with it or to sidetrack a bit. Imagine this...you go to work and realize you forgot to file paperwork, make copies, whatever and then spend the rest of the day playing catch up. Then, you realize you forgot about that meeting you had AFTER work. You come home exhausted, and see the dishes you left in the sink. Do you really think you're gonna wash the damn dishes and then cook a meal, and then exercise? I don't fucking think so. You'll probably tell yourself that you deserve to relax, order in and promise to get back into it the next day. I know from experience that this can turn into a very viscous cycle.

Realizing that I'm still going to fuck up sometimes, even when I'm organized

In the past, I've had a very all-or-nothing approach to diet and exercise. "I'm going to eat 1200 calories everyday NO MATTER WHAT, and I'm gonna jog three miles, five times a week!" I would do okay for about a week and then, of course, I would get fucking exhausted, mess up, and basically feel like I'd fallen into a black hole and everything was hopeless. I would say "You know what! FUCK THIS! I'm working SO HARD and what am I getting?!!!" Well, I wasn't getting anything because I only had the stamina to keep it up for a week. Also, I was putting way too much pressure on myself. OF COURSE I'm going to fuck up. We all do, and not just at diet and exercise. It's weird, because I feel like I can accept making mistakes in almost any other area of my life except for this. That's a breathtakingly stupid standard to hold oneself up to. I've changed my mentality on this. The other week, I majorly fucked up when I ate a steak not realizing just how high in calories they are. I was thinking, "Oh yeah, this is probably like 500 calories, I'm good with that little treat." WRONG! That motherfucker had 1500 calories in it! A day's worth of calories!!! But you know what? This time, I simply said to myself, "Well, that was a delicious mistake."

And that was the end of it. 

 

I didn't fret and pout. I just told myself that it was okay that I fucked up and that I was just gonna try not to fuck up the next day. 

Getting a slow cooker

Slow cookers shall henceforth be named the patron saint of dieting, because they are seriously fucking life savers. I honestly don't even know what I would do without a slow cooker to make my weekly meals in. They are amazing and they come highly recommended...by me. You can make a ton of food at once and save it for your work week, and it's so easy. In fact, I will ONLY look at recipes in which all I have to do is chop some shit up and throw it in there and I have yet to run out of recipes. That's my kind of cooking.  

Telling people about my diet and exercise plans

Typing this even now makes me sigh and roll my eyes. But mostly because I don't like to admit that I'm wrong. (Who does?) I have always HATED talking to people about trying to lose weight. I think this is mainly related to some stupid fear that there are gonna be people who are assholes to me about it, but I have seen the exact opposite in just creating this blog and posting my workouts on Facebook. People have been super supportive! They support me by reading this blog, or just liking my status, and it ALL HELPS! I've started to realize that I wasn't giving my friends enough credit. Honestly, if anyone were to make shitty comments, they probably would do it behind my back and I'm cool with that. Telling people helps you to realize that people aren't judging you nearly as much as you think they are. 

Also, on this note, my husband and I signed up for the 5K Color Run! I am very excited because this is something I've always wanted to do. There will be a blog post about this later. 

Not worrying what people think when they see me jogging

I've actually heard of this many times from articles I've read online. Big people (especially women) are very afraid of being stared at or made fun of for jogging. And for good reason. Take this, for example:

This is a plus sized model on the cover of Running magazine. Yes, you read that correctly. This woman runs regularly and yet she still had trolls telling her they were disgusted that someone big would be on this cover and that she looks really unhealthy. (Ah, yes, the concern trolls, aren't they great). Big people don't like to go out because assholes do exist.

I used to be horrible about this. To the point where I hated even going to the gym because I felt like everyone was just making snide remarks. And yes, I've actually been in situations where bitches were making fun of me at the gym. But you know what?

Those people can suck my dick.

Their insecurity, their problem. I'm not letting anybody fuck up my routine. Especially not some fucking loser who's so stupid that the only thing they can think of to insult you about is your weight, when you're clearly trying to do something about it. Seriously, idiots come up with something a little more creative.

Don't feel insecure about working out in front of others. EVER. Those who are decent will either try to help you or leave you alone. Those who aren't are a blackened pit of insecurity. I've learned that when people say bad things about you, it very rarely has anything to actually do with you.