The Physical Side of Weight Loss

Part III of III

Go here for Part I

Go here for Part II

Those of us that seek to lose weight come at it from varying perspectives. Some have struggled with weight for as long as they can remember, while others have noticed their weight creep up in their middle years, or after a major life change, or even a health emergency. We also approach a new healthy lifestyle with many different experiences in activity and exercise. This makes everyone’s starting line a little different.

Let’s pretend that each and every one of us have begun at square 1, no prior physical activity experience, and hate to sweat. This is a very real position for many! This is not a judgment, this is a recognition. But our bodies were made for activity. Centurions (those who live to 100) have been studied to find their secret, and regular activity/exercise is a common thread that ties them together. We were created with the ability to tend to crops, care for children, and draw water from the stream. Today, we get our food from the grocer (in the air condition), the kids are in school and our water is pumped into our homes. Believe me, I love technology and the modern day conveniences, however, we cannot neglect the body’s need for movement.

I have to tell you something, but you need to promise that you will not stop reading once you see it.
Are you ready? Ok, here it is.

Exercise is HARD.

Especially in the beginning.

Especially if you don’t like to sweat.

Especially if you do not have much coordination

(I fall into this category, no pun intended).

It is hard mentally. It is hard emotionally. It is hard physically. The path of least resistance is not your freeway to success. It is the off-ramp to health misfortune. You have to prepare yourself for the battle that will go on in your mind and your body once you make up your mind to get healthy and lose weight. You have to remind yourself that you are making deposits in YOUR LONGEVITY ACCOUNT! Think about a year from now, 5 years, 10 years. If the Lord tarries, what sort of milestones will you pass? Will you be married? Will you start a family? Will your children be school-age? Will your nest be empty? Do you want to be an active participant in your life, or a spectator? This thought should stay with you, always. It is worth all of the “hard” that you will face. And one day, it will not be so hard. You will be thankful that you chose to kill the hill rather than go around it!

The best way to start from scratch is to lace up your athletic shoes and head out the door before your mind can talk you out of it. Set a timer on your phone for 10 minutes and walk. Every. Single. Day. For the first week.  If you have a smart phone, download an app like MapMyFitness, create a profile and track your activity. They offer challenges with a chance to win prizes as well! Each day, look at your pace and gauge how you feel after your walk. Try to do this as early as you can in the morning. This will get your happy endorphins going for the rest of the day, and you know that you have begun the day with a purposeful decision to get healthy. Not only that, but if the rest of your day gets carried away into the unknown, you have gotten it out of the way!

This is a great time to talk about the Fitness Streak that I mentioned in part II of this series. The idea of the Fitness Streak is from the free diet tracking website Sparkpeople.com. I used this site to get the mojo going in my efforts to be healthier and lose weight. The basic idea of the Fitness Streak is to commit to exercise no less than 10 minutes per day, starting at day 1. Each consecutive day that you exercise at least 10 minutes counts toward your streak. If you skip a day, you start back at day 1. You would not believe the fantastic incentive it offers once you have made it past 14 days, then a month, and then a year. Currently, I am on my 3^rd Fitness Streak. During the first two, I made it well past 100 days, and the current Streak I am teamed up with a great partner, my friend Angel. We are on day 726 1111 today. We do not see each other daily, as we live in different cities, however, we post our daily activities on a Facebook group that helps to keep us accountable to one another. There have been some days when life is crazy and I realize after I have snuggled into bed that I forgot to put my 10 minutes of exercise in, and I will peel my sleepy self out of bed to do a 10 minute exercise video or yoga. My flesh hates it, but the next morning I am glad that my Streak is still intact! Having a partner who is depending on you to keep your joint Streak going is a really good incentive!
After the first week, increase your time by at least 5-10 minutes, 3-5 times per week, (continuing at least 10 minutes on the remaining days) until you are able to walk comfortably for at least 30-45 minutes. Research shows that during the first 15-20 minutes of exercise, we use stored glycogen (fuel), but after that we begin to tap into our fat reserves. Something else begins to happen as this daily habit develops; your muscles begin to develop strength and your stature is a little more upright. You may begin feeling winded quite quickly, but with time you can easily manage to even have a conversation during exercise.

This all may sound basic and elementary, but it is so important to speak right at the intimidation that we encounter when we begin this new active lifestyle. There may be times that you experience discomfort in limbs or areas of your body due to the new movement. Listen carefully to your body to determine if it is discomfort or pain. One may be from uncharacteristic use and the other may indicate an injury.

You may always enjoy walking, and that may be your primary form of exercise; keep in mind that strength training will help to maintain bone density and build muscle to support your frame. As you become stronger, consider using small weights for arm exercises, or use your own body weight as resistance as you do wall-pushes.

If you are anything like me, you may look for exercises that will have the largest amount of impact on your weight loss for the shortest amount of time invested. This, in fact, was the reason that I started running. Before you tune me out, listen; I, Tasha Brickhouse, was the girl in school who, when asked to complete the physical fitness test and run the mile quickly became ill and asked to go to the nurse. Every. Single. Time. Running ranked right up there with dissecting frogs in Biology. They both left me breathless and ready to hurl. For some reason, while I was on the Sparkpeople.com website reading all of these middle-aged people beginning a Couch-2-5k program, I was like, “Game ON!” I had already been walking up to 3 miles regularly, so I didn’t exactly start on the couch, but, I had zero previous running experience. Somewhere in my determination to get healthy, I made up my mind that I would conquer this fear of running head on! And I did!

The first step was to download the Ease into 5K app. It started with a walking warm up, then a cycle of short run then walk intervals. The first day, I was exhilarated and exasperated. It was hard to breath, and I prayed for the prompt to walk at the end of every interval. The day that I ran 3 minutes straight, you would have thought that I completed the Boston Marathon, because to me, I was crashing down walls with every step. The app really made the transition to running my first 5K in November 2011 possible. I was not speedy, but I ran the entire race and it was such a personal milestone!

Running became an opportunity to learn more about endurance. It taught me how to breathe deeply and slowly through the tough spots (in life, as in running).  It has taught me that discipline trumps desire. It has shown me that I can be tougher than I thought I am, especially when I am strengthened with prayer. The repetitive motion of running brought order to my thoughts, established a designated quiet time when the Lord could help me work out a difficult situation. I listened to Podcasts, encouraging music, or sometimes just the breeze in the trees. I’ve seen more sunrises, watched the fog lift and seen the dew glisten on the trees. These simple things are missed so easily.

There are many other forms of exercise that are worth a try. One of my favorite is Barre. It is a combination of yoga, Pilates and ballet. The techniques are great for increasing balance, poise, and muscle tone.

I began using this YouTube video, and you can also go to the Barre3 website to sign up for an online membership that gives you access to a library of videos. Barre studios are cropping up all over the place, and some may enjoy a class setting. For my on-the-go schedule, it works better for me to do them at home.

We have a weight machine and resistance bands that I use for cross-training days. I mentioned yoga earlier, and I believe the techniques used in yoga exercise are very beneficial for the body. Personally, I do not participate in the spiritual aspects of some yoga practices, however, the act of breath control in exercise can eliminate toxins from the body, and offer needed relaxation and strengthening to our physique. Look on Google or Pinterest under Fitness Challenge to find many month long challenges.
Additionally, I ride my bike several times per month, between 10-15 miles each ride. This activity compliments running very well because it uses slightly different muscle groups that support the running activity. I highly recommend using a bicycle as a supplementary activity. In the beginning, it may be harder than you remembered as a kid! We don’t forget how to ride, but suddenly it isn’t as easy as it once was! Start small, and build up! You can track your ride on MapMyFitness as well.
Pick your pleasure. There is a great big world out there of options to begin your active lifestyle. The health benefits are vast, beginning with strengthening your heart, removing toxins from your body, improving digestion, increasing circulation to all of the limbs, and elevating mood by way of endorphins. All of these are in addition to building muscle and strengthening your bones.

Lots of love and sweat to you! xoxo
Tasha Brickhouse

*Disclaimer: Please consult your physician before beginning any exercise regimen. This information is offered as suggestions and encouragement.

The Emotional Side of Health and Weight Loss

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Part II of III

Go here for Part I
and here for Part III

The initial days and weeks of my health journey were filled with intention, motivation and even discouragement. Human nature fails at times, and it is vital to have an anchor on the goals to keep from drifting away during the first storm. Our emotions are all over the board, and the purpose will hold you firm. When your purpose is resting squarely on improving your health for longevity and vitality, you are focused on the right direction.

In an initial assessment, ask yourself an important question:

Do I have the ability to improve my health,

or do I feel like outside forces influence my ability to lose weight?

Of course, as a Christian, I believe that Jesus is in control when I ask Him to fulfill His will in my life, but we play a huge role in the success of our lives based on the choices that we make. This simple question identifies what is called your locus of control. It describes who we mentally put in the driver’s seat of our lives. Do we have excuses like, “I cannot afford to eat healthy,” “My work keeps me too busy to exercise,” or “My kids take all of my energy”? The daily excuses (though I say this with all the love in my soul) keeps us trapped in a “victim of my fat genes” mentality. Believe me, I wore them (in every size and color availableJ). I recognize that it is very inconvenient to work hard for weight loss to develop a healthy lifestyle, but so is the emotional toll that diabetes, cancer, and heart disease can take on you and your loved ones. You may hate me now for saying this, but on the other side of your success, you may love me. Even when we experience issues with our health, there are always actions that we can take that would be more positive or more negative to our condition. When we commit to take an active role in the outcome of our health and weight loss, we are positioned for a breakthrough.

When we are in pursuit of weight loss, it would be impossible to not give some attention to the scale. It is one of the ways that we benchmark our progress, however, it is not the only way. The numbers on the scale can serve as our momentary statistic to reflect the work you are investing in your health, BUT, it should not be used to discourage you on your journey.

Believe me, I fully understand the emotional trauma that the scale can bring. We can avoid mirrors, cut the tags out of our clothes, and blame the shrinking clothes on the drier, but the scale brings us face to face with the effort, or lack thereof in the area of nutrition and activity. During the years that I weighed the most, I avoided the scale like the plague. It was a reminder of all of the things that I was not doing to correct the problem and only brought about guilt and shame.

On the journey to greater health, my personal opinion of the scale is that it should be used as a method to learn more about your body. For myself, I check my weight at least 5 times per week. This has done several things for me: it allows me to recognize how my body will react to certain foods, levels of activity, and even check my monthly cycle; additionally, if I allow myself to have a cheat meal, or day, it becomes easier to jump back on the clean-eating wagon before the train leaves the station. In the beginning of weight loss, sometimes I got discouraged when I did not see the scale move as quickly as I thought it should, but I worked diligently to press out the negative emotions of discouragement and focus on the fact that I already lost ____ amount of weight since the beginning of my journey, and I was still a work in progress.

I want to talk about the emotional battle with food. From the moment that we are born, there is a deep seated pleasure that is gained surrounding our nourishment. As a baby, we were likely cuddled and cooed on as we filled our tummies. As we grew, we recognize that celebrations were surrounded with food and treats. Sometimes, well-meaning loved ones would reward us with food for getting good grades, or being good in the grocery store. Often, we become those well-meaning adults who listen to the begging of our children for the Little Debbie’s and the cycle continues. There is nothing inherently wrong with feasting for special occasions (the Bible refers to many such joyous occasions), however, the reason that they were so greatly enjoyed was because it was a special occurrence, and they were treasured as designated times to celebrate.

Today, if we are stressed, we reach for the chocolate. If we are sad, we reach for the potato chips. When we are happy, we indulge in extra desert. If we are sick, it could be hot cocoa and marshmallows. We have an indulgence for any emotion in the psyche. However, we can turn this emotional crutch into a positive experience when we begin to make choices that promote our healthy lifestyle. When we recognize that every forkful of whole foods is actually strengthening, and healing our body, an amazing thing happens in our minds. Eating beautifully colorful vegetables and fruits send a message to our brains that promote a message of wellness in our minds. If you think I am lying, ask anyone who commits to eating whole foods for more than 30 days and they will tell you, the mental feedback that they receive from their brain when they sit down to eat a healthy meal reinforces their good habits and encourages to maintain those healthy choices. After a certain point in time, when I have allowed myself to indulge in a cheat meal or dessert, I tend to be very selective. It has to really taste good, or it simply has no appeal to me. This has not always been the case. Before, I could not understand if someone said that a dessert was too sweet; I wondered if there was even such a thing! We can retrain our brains and our emotions to reflect a healthy relationship with food!

Milestones and goals are supremely important during the weight loss process. We can get bored, lose focus, and become discouraged so easily. Building new habits require daily effort and devotion. Everyone who knows me, knows that I am a huge advocate of the most positive incentive I have ever come across: the Spark Streak! In the beginning of my journey, I used the website Sparkpeople, where the Spark Streak comes from. In essence, you set a goal (like drink 8 glasses of water per day, or exercise at least 10 minutes per day) and each consecutive day that you meet your goal, you continue your streak. This physically builds a new habit, but it also develops a significant emotional boost when you are able to maintain this new habit. With every passing day that you are able to check off on your streak, you are casting off defeat, and claiming a brand new handful of triumph! There is an almost magical effect that occurs once you make it passed the first 2 weeks, and then a month, 6 months, a year. You become more willing to take on new challenges and start to understand that every journey of a thousand miles begins with one step. In fact, I will go into this more when I discuss the physical side of weight loss, but using some form of diet and fitness tracking (like myfitnesspal and mapmyfitness) will encourage you to reach monthly goals. Seeing the miles stack up and the days that you have met your calorie intake goal without splurging will prove to yourself that, yes indeed, you are capable of creating new habits.

One emotional aspect of weight loss is our personal self-image. We may look in the mirror and see one person, but the actual physical attributes we hold may be very different. As we lose weight and we begin to replace our wardrobe, we have to remind ourselves to select a different size. It may shock us as we try on new styles that we have never worn before. Becoming aware of the changes in our physique is an ongoing process, and just remember to love the skin you are in every single day. Be thankful for the working limbs, organs and tissues that house your soul and allow you to love your people daily. You may find that you have a kinder self-image, and that is a great thing!

Warning: once you begin setting and attaining new goals, expect a newfound boldness to success in other areas of life. For me, five months after I set out on my journey, I gained the courage to go back to school. At the time, I thought I was going back to finish my degree in business. Within the 2^nd semester, I feel like God directed me to pursue a degree in nutrition and dietetics. This was in complete opposition of my former path, which meant I would have to spend almost 2 full years completing the science prerequisites for the program. Always being afraid of any form of science in school, I knew that it was a God thing, and somehow, coupled with the success that I gained in improving my health, He would see me through the process. Today, I have completed the perquisites, and have been accepted in the competitive distance Coordinated Program in Dietetics through Eastern Michigan University. I am telling you right here and now, there was a direct connection between the emotional strength gained on my journey and the path that I am beginning this fall in the program. This journey that began as a personal one has now become a passion to assist others in rebuilding their health.

If this has encouraged you, leave me a comment! I would love to hear from you!
xoxo,

Tasha Brickhouse

 *Disclaimer: This information is offered as encouragement and should not be substituted from advice offered from trained medical providers.