The Reality of Health and Weight Loss

Over the past 10 months, I’ve lost 2% of my body fat and dropped ten pounds. For some, that may seem like the real accomplishment.

But the real accomplishment is in what I’ve gained.

I’ve gained two new passions — yoga, which has dissolved that growing ball of stress that had been ruling my life and ruining my health up until I set foot into my first yoga class — and ballroom dancing, which is pure joy and happiness in the form of motion.

I used to count calories and focus on what was on the scale. That helped to an extent — I brought my weight back into a healthy range through changing my eating and exercise habits, but it still wasn’t the right perspective.

But losing weight was not what made me happy. What made me happy was gaining a love of fitness and eating healthy.

This is a health and weight loss blog because part of being healthy is keeping your weight within a healthy range. But that’s only part of embarking on a health journey. 

Being healthy means treating your body right. It means loving yourself, and loving doing things for your well being: sleeping well, eating well, exercising, and taking time to slow down and relieve stress.

So don’t just make everything about weight loss. You’ll find that by focusing on doing things for your health instead of agonizing over every calorie, you’ll be healthier and happier, and you’ll see a positive change in your body as a side effect of treating yourself right. 

It’s all about perspective.

-Amy

This is one of my rare personal posts because Tumblr has a quota for the number of quirky anecdotes I’m allowed to tell about my life before the internet explodes.

But if you ever find yourself wondering, ‘whatever is that silly health blogger doing with her life?’ You can always check out my personal website, where I document my forays into crocodile-infested waters whilst talking about creativity.

I’m going to answer two recent questions I’ve been asked:

“Do you have a set fitness routine?”

Sort of. I like to make sure I’m doing all sorts of different activities! One day I’ll do Zumba, the next I’ll go swimming or longboarding. The only three things that are constant are:

• Strength training. Minimum two days per week.
• Interval cardio workout. Minimum twice per week, and I often do running intervals, but sometimes I’ll do stairmaster intervals for ten minutes. (Those are tough!)
• Flexibility training. I do yoga every day!

I like to mix things up. It helps keep me looking forward to working out!

“Do you consider yourself a health role model?”

That’s a difficult question! I think, if anything, I should be considered a role model for my choice of footwear:

Aren’t these the snazziest shoes on the face of the planet?

But I’m not perfect. I still struggle with motivations sometimes, and occasionally I give into my cravings for the deliciousness that is cookie dough batter. But I manage to get back on the wagon pretty quickly when I do fall off, and as I sit here typing this I’m eating a bowel of cherries and chugging a glass of water.

So no, I’m not a role model in the sense that ‘everybody do what I do because I’m flawless’— there are plenty of other Fitblrs and bloggers who genuinely deserve that title.

I’m just this chick on the internet who went from eating fast food, not exercising, and drinking soda, to somebody who runs half marathons, is a smoothie-drinking vegetarian, and seeks to help others when she’s not brainstorming lame jokes about the Periodic Table of Elements.

Specifically, I’m here to wage a war against two things:

• Body negativity
• Self-hate

Actually, make that three. Because seriously?! What is this nefarious evil known as CAPTCHA?

‘First things first. We need to verify your ability to read incoherent wavy lines.’

Thanks for reading :)

-Amy

Dear God. 175 messages in my inbox.

Am I a bad person if I usually answer the ones at the top and work my way downward? It would be a more efficient system if I answered the older ones first.

Anyways, I love all of you, and I am going to sit down and put some serious effort into my inbox during the next few days, I promise! I’m two scenes away from finishing this screenplay I started writing a few days ago. It will be done!

Here’s a plate of fresh, home-made cookies for your patience.

What’s that? Nobody’s homemade cookies ever look like that? Those are obviously store-bought?

I hate you and your mind games.

WHEN I BAKE PEOPLE GET HURT, OKAY?

Oh. Wait. This is a health blog.

There we go! An Arugula salad! Much better. And much more delicious. No baking required.

Anyways. Have a wonderful New Years’ Eve, people!