The measuring tape is my friend.
Two weeks after setting my goal of getting fit again, I come face to face with my measuring tape. The number just across my belly button:
29 1/2
Pretty good considering I haven’t been going full blast yet with my fitness routine.
The first few days had me going on and off: one meal I’d be eating so healthy and so controlled, then the next I’d binge. As for exercise, I think I was only able to do one 15 minute yoga workout within the first week. I was totally sedentary for the rest.
To quit or not to quit?
I was thinking of quitting and accepting things just the way they are.
I’m a mom, I’ve had two kids. This is just the way mom’s bodies are. Better accept it.
That’s bull, my better self would say. There are a whole lot of moms who get even better bodies after they give birth, it can be done.
But they’ve got personal trainers to help them workout and personal chefs to cook them healthy meals. And they’ve got plenty of time to exercise.
Double bull! If you want it really bad, you won’t have excuses. Just actions. And more importantly, results!
Can you imagine the turmoil going on in my head? And so I did the next best thing I could think of at that moment. I downloaded a calorie counter app on my Android.
Calorie counter anyone?
Sample diary from My Fitness Pal Android app.
MyFitnessPal helped me to set my goal weight and to determine how many calories a day I need to consume to achieve that. The magic number: 1,200 calories.
I know for most, calorie counting can be limiting. But for me, it was an eye-opening lesson into just how much I eat in a day.
A cup of white rice, for example, can amount up to 205 calories. So if I eat rice three times a day, that’s 615 calories — already more than half of my calorie requirement.
Just the act of logging meals into the app made me more aware of what and how much I eat. Not to mention, I was more wary of eating chips and chocolates because that would surely make my calorie intake for the day to skyrocket.
Thats not to say I didn’t eat some though. I still did but I was more controlled.
If you want to eat more, run more
For the past two days, I finally mustered the discipline to run again. Kernan was home for two straight mornings and we were able to go to UP early.
I only ran four kilometers each time but it was enough to make me want to go running regularly again. As an added incentive, when I logged my run into MyFitnessPal, it showed that I can eat around 400 more calories worth of food.
Lesson is: If you want to eat more, exercise more.
Seriously though, of course the goal is to exercise and to stick to the calorie requirement. Even better if I can consume less than the calorie requirement and still feel full.
A new plan for Week 3
Now that I’m moving into the third week, I’m planning to kick it up a notch. Time to commit and to be more serious about getting fit.
I like things to be spontaneous but if I want to get better results, I realize I need a more organized plan.
So I dug up my copy of Fit Yummy Mummy which I bought two years ago. It features a workout plan consisting of 15 – minute routines you can do everyday in the comfort of your own home. It also teaches some tweaks and tricks for eating food that nourishes your body.
I’ll try to do the workouts everyday. But even if I don’t do it perfectly, I’ll just keep doing it. I’ve read the success stories of moms who got even better bodies after doing the workouts. Hey, that could be me too.
One of the things that FYM recommends is to keep a journal of your progress. That would help you be more accountable and more motivated especially when you’re already tracking results.
I missed out on this one for the first two weeks. I can’t really tell you I ate two bags of chips in one day, can’t I?
But this time, I’ll try to blog more regularly. Hopefully, that would help me become more disciplined too.
Week 3 begins tomorrow, here we go!
I’m Jayme, a runner’s wife and a running mom to two girls aged three and two.
Cool! My next run is this weekend… Miles for Smiles at the Fort....