Living Healthy is a Life Long Process
Ever since I started Liv Happy Liv Well I’ve talked about my health journey. I’ve seen amazing results and I’ve fallen off the wagon. That’s just how the evolution of health, and life, works. Every time I’ve jumped back into a healthy routine I’ve done it for positive reasons, and in positive ways. I would avoid the scale and pay just close enough attention to the food I was consuming. Being active has never been the issue for me. My struggle comes in food form.
I am a huge foodie. I love cooking good food as much as I love going out to restaurants. I’m a sucker for fried food and anything that involves cheese. I guess I’m turning into a cheese head after all! Never in my life have I had a restricted diet. Until recently. It’s sad to admit, but my recent health kick hasn’t been all that healthy.
Falling Into the Comparison Trap
In a world where we are addicted to social media it’s easy to get down on ourselves. I preach body positivity, but my feed is filled with teeny tiny models with sculpted abs and not a pimple in sight. Whether we want to admit it or not, we are always judging and comparing ourselves to others. It isn’t just in physical form. It could be anything from how successful to how compassionate someone is. The past few months my goal was to become one of the teeny tiny girls on my feed.
Like I said, I love working out. There are very few days in a month where I dread a workout. I know that as soon as I finish I’ll feel like a new person and feel productive. So, when I started a strength program in the winter of 2020 I was excited. I’ve never been super into strength. Again, social media says that girls shouldn’t lift more than 5 pound dumbbells so we don’t look “bulky.” The thing is, I started REALLY looking forward to my workouts. I had to buy 10 pound dumbbells, and then 15’s because the lifts were getting easy. Yes, I was getting stronger. But, I wasn’t seeing results. And, that’s because I wasn’t eating enough.
It’s not that I was afraid of calories necessarily. I ate out with my boyfriend, and still drank alcohol on weekends. It’s more I was afraid of the AMOUNT of food I would consume. Having three meals a day scared me, which is something I’ve NEVER experienced before. So, I started not eating breakfast. And then I started skipping lunch. Most days the only meal I ate was dinner. My metabolism slowed wayyyy down to the point where if I did have breakfast or lunch, I still wouldn’t be hungry for dinner. Not eating enough has many side effects, but the one that slapped me in the face and made me realize my bad habit was my lack of results.
The Epiphany
When you workout and don’t fuel properly, your body starts to break down muscle to use for fuel. By consuming food you rev your metabolism. Therefore, when you DON’T eat your metabolism slows, your body starts conserving calories, and you don’t lose weight. Definitely the opposite of “healthy.” It’s not about the amount of food you consume, it’s about the quality of food. Obviously ingesting copious amounts of unhealthy food will result in weight gain. But, when you fuel your body with the proper amount of protein, carbs, and fats your body can function properly, therefore helping you achieve your goal of muscle definition, weight loss, etc.
In hindsight, I learned a very valuable lesson. However, it kills me that I spent nearly 4 months depriving myself of food and pushing myself at the gym only for no results to be seen. Now that I’ve had this monumental epiphany, here’s what I’m doing to make sure I never make the same mistake again.
Starting a New Health Chapter
I’m going back to basics: three lean, clean, and green meals a day. I do my workouts in the morning. I love crossing it off my list, and I can be in my pajamas by noon if I want to. (Quarantine things.) Breakfast is the most important meal of the day. So, I’m filling mine with high protein and carbs. This week it’s egg muffins and roasted potatoes. But next week it might be oatmeal. My stomach is super sensitive to aches and cramps, so I’ll digest for about 2 hours before I do my workout, especially if it’s a run day.
My workouts are usually close to an hour long, which will put me right at lunch time by the time I wrap up. It’s best to refuel with protein right after a workout for muscle repair. Lunches will look like a classic PB& J or, as it gets warmer outside, a refreshing smoothie bowl packed with protein, fiber, and healthy fats. I’m going to aim to keep carbs at a minimum at dinner time and focus more on veggies and protein.
I’m am currently a couple weeks into my healthy new routine and feeling really good. I’ve noticed myself getting hungry around proper meal times which shows that my metabolism is speeding up. When I ran the other day I had oatmeal for breakfast and had so much energy to complete my run. In fact, I finished 3 miles in under 35 minutes! A huge win considering I haven’t ran long distance in months. All this goes to show that food is not the enemy. Our mindset is. You can follow more of this journey on my Instagram, @oliviajoehl.
