Bowling (Rome wasn’t built in a day)

I went bowling last night. What does that have to do with being healthy you may ask? No I’m not counting that as a workout but I do think I learned something from the experience. I went bowling last night with a couple of friends who are on a league and they were giving me pointers on how to bowl properly, like what foot is suppose to be forward when you throw the ball and when the ball should leave your hand, stuff like that. And when all was said and done I had bowled the two worst games I had ever played in my entire life and got more gutter balls than I even care to remember.

I mean I’ve never been good at bowling, but I’ve always gotten a few strikes just out of luck and I usually knock down some pins ever turn or so and manage to do okay when I’m not trying too hard, needless to say I was feeling a bit upset with my performance, I mean doing it the right way should have made me better right? But it’s not possible to learn how to bowl in one night or so I was told.

For starters I found out that I’ve always thrown the ball with the wrong foot forward. The first time I tried to do I correctly I looked like…well I don’t even know what I looked like but it wasn’t pretty and I was convinced that I was too uncoordinated to ever get it right, so in the midst of my awkwardness my friend tells me in the most sincere way possible that, one of the hardest things about learning to bowl is breaking bad habits, so I kept trying and failing and awkwardly throwing the ball directly into the gutter, which is kinda the moral of this story.

The old phrase Rome wasn’t built in a day come to mind, because at the end of the two worst games I’ve ever bowled my friend told me when she first stared she did basically the same thing I was doing and just threw ball after ball straight into the gutter, eventually she learned and then got a heavier ball and bowls an average 140 to 150 which is way better that I have ever done, but I don’t think I will be picking up bowling anytime soon so back to my point.

Rome wasn’t built in a day and whether its bowling or making time to workout and eat better food, it takes time to learn and failing is part of the process, so today my story is a reminder to myself not to give up, as you can probably gather from my lack of updates I haven’t been doing very well with this whole workout and eat right thing. I’ve been a bit overwhelmed by life lately and even though its in the front of my mind, making time to workout and choosing to eat good food is still trying to find its place in my life, schedule and priorities. So I just want you to know I am still trying, but I have a lot of bad habits to break and it may be some time before I find the consistency I’m aiming for with this whole blog thing, so thank you for bearing with me and I will try harder to keep more updated.                            

Trying Something Different

If at first you don’t succeed try, try again. That is what they say right, so here is my trying story, no I have not been on and off of diets my whole life, in fact I’ve never really dieted, and I never really worked out either well until this year anyway. And that’s just it this year I started working out, I found a 90 day routine I wanted to try and went for it. the first time I tried I got to somewhere around the 50 or 60 day mark and then started skipping days and eventually stopped altogether, a month or so after that I started up again, did two or three week, got frustrated and gave up, and then there was my third try, this time I made it into the 70s before I started to crash once again.

 

But that brings me pretty close to today, because it was the end of last month when my derailing began this time. I had a couple of weeks where I was just insanely busy and working out was at the bottom of my priority list, no excuse right, truth be told I was struggling long before I stopped doing my exercising. You see I had done these same videos to the point that I was so board I started coming up with excuses to justify my skipping a day here and there until I eventually gave in to the excuses enough times to break my routine completely and just watch the train crash so to speak.

 

But the problem didn’t start with the train crash, the excuses or even the repetition in my videos, the problem was in me. You see for a long time I was really committed to getting my workout done, but I had no interest in eating any different than I had always eaten, in my head the workout should have been enough but when you’re on day 50 and your clothes aren’t and smaller and that silly number on the scale remains the same you begin to lose hope and the commitment level goes out the window.

 

So I gave in, took some time to rest and thought about it. As I was watching my routine fall apart a few weeks ago I felt like a failure, thinking to myself come on girl are you ever going to make it through one of these 90 day things, and even though you’re suppose to try, try again, I’ve also heard that the definition of insanity is trying the same thing over and over and expecting different results.

 

Which leads me here, and trying something different, I’m not giving up, I’m still working out obviously and now I’m baby stepping my way to better food choices as well. I’m one week into this new experiment and just writing down what I’m eating is helping me in that department. My goal for the workout though, is to find something that fits my life, so I’ve actually taken a step back from what I was doing a month ago in order to stay interested and not get overwhelmed by the have to of a routine. So far it still need a lot of work but I have my hope back and now I have all of you to keep entertained as well, so thank you once again for taking interest in my story and I hope it turns out to be a good one.           

More Than Just Food and Working Out

A few days ago I got my first comment, a suggestion from my wonderful sister, and an idea I loved and plan to use. To her it was an obvious oversight in my goals, to anyone else who may be reading my story I thought this was a great opportunity to share a bit more of it, my story that is. The addition I plan to make to my pages is to include what scripture I read each day along with my food, workout, and sleep and water intake.

I do this because more than anything else that makes me, me, I am a child of God, and I know that may sound super corny, but this blog is about my baby steps to a healthier life, on the surface that means finding ways to fit the food, workout and possibly a bit more sleep into each day in a way that fits me, but if all I ever focus on is the surface matters, what does that change?

You see, my story includes my faith and relationship with Jesus Christ, my Lord and Savior and so much more. Which is why I am so very thankful for my sisters suggestion because I am not in general a super disciplined person and even though my faith is more to me an than anything else in my life I still struggle to read the Bible consistently, which has actually been on my mind quite a bit over the past month. So goal number four would be to include more time with God in my life because being healthy is about more than just food and working out.               

Not a Skinny Girl

My story, my health and fitness, self image story so far anyway, goes something like this. I’ve never been a skinny girl, I’ve been smaller than I am now and I’ve been larger than I am now, and that has never been small, but self image has never really been a big problem for me. I’ve always known I wasn’t skinny and I’ve always told myself I want to lose weight but I was lucky enough not to be teased about my weight and so I never really considered myself to be fat, and if someone were to tell me I was beautiful I would have no problem accepting that to be true. So where does that leave me?

It leaves me here, today, a not skinny (overweight) girl, without major self image issues, who just wants to be healthy. I can’t guarantee this story will be interesting to read or that I’ll finally have a breakthrough on this whole workout eat better lifestyle and become some sort of inspiration to you in whatever you’re going through. This story is not about some crazy diet I can stick to or a 90 day workout plan I dread coming home to when I get out of work everyday.

What this story comes down to is me, for the first time ever actually trying to change my lifestyle. It’s about me finding ways to be active that will fit into my routine for more than just two months at a time, it’s about me learning how to make better choices in what I eat and still like food. I guarantee you I will cave, I will fail, but my goal is to keep myself accountable with what I want to do here, and take the times I fail as an opportunity to do better next time and really change my habits one baby step at time.

So here is what I’m gonna do, goal one I’m going to keep a food journal on this blog for anyone to see, at first just writing down what I’m eating and then eventually making goals to follow on how to eat healthier. Goal two I’m going to write down how I was active everyday, what workout I did or didn’t do. Goal three will simply be keeping track of how much water I drink and how much sleep I get everyday, I know that water and sleep are super important in being healthy and that I don’t get enough of either one of them so I want to keep track and hopefully I will eventually figure out how to get more of both. And lastly not really a goal, will be the blog itself sharing my victories and defeats with the world and keeping you up to date on my story, thanks in advance for the support.