Hidden Habits That Make You Gain Weight

Shit. I did it again. 

I swore this wouldn't happen again, but (sigh) it did.  I fell off my eating and workout routine yet again and (gasp) gained weight!  I have this nasty habit of working out (which I hate), sticking to a regimen and getting awesome results to end up reverting back to olds ways putting me back at square one.  I get so close to my goal and then start getting that false sense of security that I can start getting more laxed and still have killer abs.

This doesn't happen overnight, but a gradual progression of laziness starts to set back in.  A cheat meal turns into two.  A missed workout turns into a week or "rest" days.  The repeated thought in my head that tells me you can always start over again, back on track starting tomorrow.  Then tomorrow is the middle of the week and Mondays are clearly the best day to start a new routine.  Slowly, but surely, two months have passed and my routine that once was has been replaced by a new routine of laziness.

The obvious happened.  Skipping meals, eating crazy amount of portions and skipping workouts led me to lose most of my muscle tone and gain ten lbs.  Duh.  We all know that you are supposed to eat 5 small meals a day, breakfast being the largest, eaten within an hour of waking and avoid processed foods.  Perfect world right?  I wish I had someone else to blame.  Excuses are always easier than taking responsibility for you own actions.  Especially if we can blame someone else, then our conscious is cleared and it's easy to do what you know without any regret.  Sometimes the hardest thing is to examine yourself and point out what you are doing wrong.  As for me, I'm pretty perfect and clearly everyone else sees me the same way (insert laughter).  What I am is honest.  I feel like I have a great ability to take myself out of situations and see things from a biased, objective stand point.  So I decided to do that with myself and see what I was really doing that made me quit on myself and have to start all over.

1.  I had TOO much time on my hands.  

Sounds crazy right?? With all that free time, why am I not working out and prepping my meals??  I always hear the excuse that, "I don't have enough time to workout and cook healthy."  And I am saying the opposite.  Summer Semester had ended.  No classes. No schedule. No homework.  

Now I am the girl that avoids what I am suppose to be doing by keeping busy with other things that I don't normally want to do. It gives me a great excuse in my head that I am actually accomplishing something, even though the task that really needs to be done, isn't getting accomplished.  I will clean my whole house to avoid doing homework and in my mind it is justified.  When I am busy working, running errands, cleaning the house, it keeps me on a routine that when I sit down, I have to get up because I feel like there are other things that I should be doing.  My mind is stimulated and constantly going, having creatative ideas and problems to resolve that my body doesn't want to relax.  It has to keep occupied and working out and creating recipes and cooking keeps me active.  

2. I turned on the TV instead of the radio.

Well, I don't have a radio besides the one in my car but my playlist on Pandora and 8tracks are mainly upbeat Pop/Electronic or 80's workout, 90's Hip Hop and R&B that keeps me jamming out and shaking my ass around the house gettin' shit done!  When on track, my morning routine consists of waking up around 7am-ish, opening all the blinds, turning on

the Keurig, going pee, letting the dogs out and then finding something you can twerk to.  It then leads to putting the dishes away from the night before, vacuuming and other tidying up around the house.  The day continues from there.  When I don't have a routine, 9am is the wake up time and the TV gets turned on when drinking my coffee instead of the iPad.  My butt plops down on the coach and pretty much stays there for a few hours.  INACTIVITY PROMOTES INACTIVITY.  Watching crap TV becomes an addiction with no mental stimulation.  Ever find yourself watching the same program over and over again even when you have seen it multiple times and it is really, really dumb.  Why are you watching it???  Because of that reason, we cancelled our cable last year, but I went back into that same slump.  I actually (this is hard to admit) watched all 4 seasons of the Vampire Diaries in 5 days.  AND I didn't even like it until somewhere in season 3.  Let's just say I am committed.  Too bad I'm not as committed to my workouts. Ugh. 

3. I stopped posting taking pics of my meals.

Welcome to IG right?  Scrolling through the feed and all you see is food pics.  Sure it gets annoying but those people are point!  I love creating new recipes.  The majority being healthy alternatives to an unhealthy dish that you love and I like the attention of someone liking it.  Let's be real here.  Facebook and Instagram gives us all that pleasure of knowing that we are funny or attractive or creative and that we are doing something right.  A like or a double-tap is acknowledgement that we are awesome and is pretty much a virtual high-five!  Meal pictures also provide us with accountability.  You don't have to post them online, but when I take a picture of what I eat that it becomes my food diary.  Who writes anything down anymore?  Pictures are so much faster and it provides me with ideas of what I want to make when I plan my meals for the month.  I get into the routine of eating the same thing over and over and draw a blank sometimes when I meal prepping.  We pin a ton of recipes on Pinterest but I still have yet to go through them and incorporate them into my menu.  

4.  Sexual activity went on hiatus. 

So you probably guessed it by now.  I'm pretty out there, up front and honest.  My sexual prowess went from tiger to praying mantis.  As my meals got bigger so did the giggle in my backside.  Not feeling down to get down. This turned into a never-ending circle.  

The bf went out of town for work for two weeks and watching series after series on Netflix, my beauty routine took a blow.  I did the basics.  Showering, brushing with an occasional shaving.  But the hair didn't get did.  The nails didn't get did.  The tan disappeared.  The makeup was non-existent and the clothes got baggier and comfier. Honestly it was great.  But hot, I was not.  I didn't want to have sex with myself, none the less think someone else wanted to.  Orgasms are healthy.  A stress reliever, a mood lifter and a relationship booster.  There are no arguments when you are naked.  But being a little on the fluffy side of my usually toned frame, sex was the furthest thing from my mind.  

Well here I am in my former glory and now in my current fluffiness.

 There is no one to blame but myself, making it all in my control to fix. Every goal needs a plan of action.  Time to start over AGAIN and this time to make it stick!  I have figured out what works and what doesn't so I will be going to back to meal planning and meal prepping to get my food portions back under control.  I will however be going mostly plant based this time around, limiting my meat and dairy intake.  My goal is to 90% vegetarian and striving for 1/2 of that to be raw.  Time to commit to my daily nutrition shake consisting of 70+ superfoods (is that possible? nuts!) that keeps me energized, full and reduces my sweet tooth, big TIME!  In the past I haven't scheduled my workouts and just did what I felt like doing that day which consisted of just the one's that I liked-oy vey, but since I will be doing a combination of Shaun T's T25 and P90X2 a schedule is a must to stay on track.

  

Someday isn't a day of the week, but TODAY is and I'm starting on a FRIDAY.  To me, that is an accomplishment in itself!  We all struggle with motivation and I am no different than anyone else.  Yes, Jaime Eason, we wish we could all look like you but the majority of us don't want to do the work to get there. It is ALOT of dedication and that is why I fall off track.  Do you find yourself doing the same thing??  

Let's all help each other.

<3 

Lori