Not giving up (or maybe a little stubborn)

The one thing I hate shopping for is pants. It actually freaks me out. The other day because T insisted I went looking for new pants and as usual the whole experience was not very pleasant. I still have work to do on my hips they need to be toned down for sure by the end of the day I was really very upset.  My entire journey back home I was thinking about where I was going wrong? Was I putting in less effort? Was I cheating on my food without realizing? then I started getting frustrated, I know I put in the effort why am I not seeing the results?? for a brief moment I even thought I should just give up and then I asked myself  ‘Do I really want to give up? Do I really believe I can never have toned legs?’ the answer was ‘NO...no way will I ever give up, I am going to keep trying to get better every single day’

When I got home I went through my workout plan, I went through my food and workout journal just to confirm if I was going of track. The next day I spoke to my trainer and figured out some new exercises to try and I am back with a new hope :). Surprisingly it takes me very little time to start over with fresh hope.

There was a time when I really couldn’t run, as a kid I didn’t even participate in games that involved running. When I started weight loss I could barely run for a few seconds that’s when a friend told me I don’t need to struggle so much I could find other ways of losing weight but I still carried on because my dream was to be able to be comfortable with myself when I ran. Some days I hated it, sometimes I would find excuses not to go for my run, sometimes I could not finish my planned run but in all this one thing that stayed with me was my dream to be confident enough to go out for a run on my own. I can now proudly say I have reached that goal. I am still not a great runner but I definitely have crossed my initial goal of running that’s where being stubborn helped me.

My fitness/weight-loss journey has had it’s ups and downs. I have had days when I am not happy, days when the scale is not my friend or when I have made the wrong choices. At time I have failed miserably and I have made many mistakes in this journey but the one thing that kept me going is not giving up. I still have a lot of fitness goals that need to be reached. Just because I fail once, twice or even a hundred times doesn’t mean I am not going to be able to achieve my goal just means I have to get up and try again.

T says I am stubborn but somehow in my mind I am not willing to accept that I can’t reach my goals (however impossible they might seem to others).

Failing is not a good enough excuse to give up on my dreams

I hope all of you also don’t give up on your dreams too, maybe you have eaten more than you wanted to..maybe you have missed a lot of your workouts maybe you have put on weight...doesn’t mean you can’t reach you fitness goal it just means you have to get back up and be a little stubborn.

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Tanvee

Believing in yourself

There are days when I doubt myself, these are the worst. I am more irritated I look at everything and everyone negatively and I can only see my flaws. I know it’s not easy to start believing in yourself or to believe you can achieve your fitness goals especially if you have let go of living healthy or maybe never really given it a try. Initially it does feel like an impossible task but it's manageable with the right attitude..

I remember there used to be days when I would miss my workout or when I was not able to control my food intake I would feel miserable, I would hate myself...I would feel I just didn’t have it in me. I know people who will give up the minute they feel they can’t handle it. Some don’t start because in their mind they will never be able to run or fit in a certain dress/pant size. I belonged to the second category I just did not believe I could ever do it for a long time.

Even now when I am a lot healthier than what I used to be there are days when I doubt myself, some days I feel I am doing it all wrong and I will never reach my fitness goals and this single thought is capable of making my journey so much harder that's when I remind myself it's all in my hands, if I put in the effort I will get there and I start again...

Weightloss/Fitness is about giving yourself the time to improve

It is about forgiving yourself if you go off track

It is about getting up after failures and being ready to start again

It is about not giving up and moving forward

It is about believing in yourself, believing that you can do it.

These are few things I keep reminding myself on bad days....what do you do? How do you move through days when you think you can’t make it? How to stop yourself from giving up?

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Tanvee

Running club taught me a lot more than running

I started running with the running club sometime around September last year and one thing I had promised myself was I would be consistent. I had promised myself that being the last one in the group wouldn’t stop me from going and I would focus on just getting my stamina up. I remember the first time we ran I was the last one to finish and I also remember one of my goals was to be able to talk while running because I used to be the only one who couldn’t join in the conversation.

Over time I improved just by being consistent my stamina improved so did my speed. At some point my running club runs had become comfortable Michelle noticed I could even talk while running (I completely missed that till she pointed it out)

Anyways now (a few months in) the running club members changed. The trainers are the same but other runners who join in have changed. These runners are much faster and a lot more fitter suddenly I found myself struggling again. Again I am the last one finishing, again my talking reduced and again I have started to worry about getting a stitch while running!!! I was so disappointed and upset with myself, I felt like I was moving in the wrong direction.

After a few days of beating myself up I knew I had to stop and look at this logically…first things first I was running with people are way more fit so without realizing I had increased my speed just to keep up that’s why I was struggling and that’s why I felt like I was not improving but the truth was my speed had improved even though I was struggling I was actually running at a speed more than my usual speed (I had moved ahead from my comfortable speed). 

Finally now I am back to enjoying my running club instead of beating myself up about it, I still haven’t reached a point where I can say my runs are comfortable, I am still struggling to talk while running but I love listening to everybody else talk, they talk about their workouts they tell me how I can improve it’s fun…

Being a part of the running club made me reminded me again that I should stop comparing, I should only focus on my improvement and improvements can be measured in different ways. Another important thing is there will always be people better than you, people from whom you can learn and there will always be people whom you can help improve…

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Tanvee

Who says it's Easy?

• There will always be tough choices to make : It does get easier as you keep going at healthy living but there will always be those days when you really want to skip a workout. There will be days when you want to eat something not in your plan. The other day I had gone for a party and I was the only one sipping on water when everybody else was enjoying their dessert that was not easy but I managed, then there was a day when I missed my workout because I had to finish my work. All choices are my own, sometimes they are right and sometimes I mess up.
• Plans can get messed up : I wish I could control everything but that’s not how life works, so there are days when my plans get messed up for no fault of mine. Sometimes my plan itself is a mess because without even realising I have too many things that need to be done in a day. All this affects my workouts and my eating habits also. If I am too tired I can’t put in the same effort in my workouts. There are times when I forget about planning my snacks and I find myself either sipping on more coffee or nibbling on stuff that’s no good (this is usually more than reasonable amount of nuts)
• It’s easy to go back to old bad habits : This is one thing I am scared of, I really believe it is very easy for just one day to become one week and then one year.In no time I would be back to the square one...

So that was a list of how things can go wrong. I have personally been in all of the situations mentioned above but that does not stop me from working towards my fitness. A few things that help me:

• Tough Choices : When I have a tough choice to make I ask myself what is important, even after that if I find myself making a not so healthy choice I promise myself to make it up through my workouts or eating cleaner than usual starting asap and most importantly I keep my promise. So if I miss a workout I will either fit in an extra workout in the remaining week, if my days are already busy I increase all my workouts by a 10 - 15 minutes as long as I cover up my workout...if I eat more than I planned to I will switch up my food the next day to balance out my calories or I will work out extra. Next time you find yourself making an unhealthy choice find a way...I have always been able to find a way I am sure all of you can too.
• Messed up Plans :When plans get messed up my first instinct used to be disappointment, I would get frustrated, irritated and very upset with myself and all this naturally makes it easier to give up but now when a plan gets messed up I scrap it and make a new better plan. It’s not fair to blame myself if something unexpected comes up instead I have started to have confidence in myself to always come up with a better plan . As long as I reach my goal the plan can keep changing...
• Old Habits: I keep from going back to old habits by reminding myself what could happen if I start slacking that’s the best way for me to keep moving forward the other thing I do is I try to fit in a workout whereever I am by workouts I don’t mean I have to always follow my usual routine but I will make it a point to go for a jog or long walks or just climb stairs anything that I can do to stay active...it might not burn as many calories as my usual workout but as long as I sweat it out a little I know I am  not going back to being a couch potato

How do you handle such situations?How do you make the right choice and how do you stop yourself from going back to old habits?

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Tanvee

Hill Sprints

The first time I did hill sprints was as a part of my running club and it was tough, very tough...regular sprinting was nothing compared to hill sprints. I wanted to move my legs but it felt like something kept dragging me back. The first time I did it I think my sprint was not really a sprint as compared to others I was really struggling to move my legs so the stubborn me decided to start including hill sprints in my weekly workouts. Now I have started doing them twice a week. I sprint up and walk back...I am aiming at being able to jog back and while maintaining my hill sprint speed.

On Saturday’s T also joins me for my hill sprints and that is when I have the most fun because we always race and I don’t know how but every Saturday I sprint up that hill much faster than when I am on my own. That feeling of keeping up with T and sometimes even going ahead by an inch makes me push myself so much more.

My heart rate monitor shows hill sprints as the most effective of my workouts in terms of calories burned and my legs do feel great after my hill sprint session so how can I not love Hill sprints :)

Any one of you include hill sprints in your workouts? How do you like it?

Keep Reading I will Keep Writing   

Tanvee