Can you believe it is MARCH!! As spring is about to be sprung, the weather will slowly start to warm and that means more folks are going to be outside to enjoy the fresh weather! This also means that moms will be thinking of summer, bathing suites, being outside with nice dresses & tank tops……do you see where this is going? So that means wanting to lose weight. Sounds great and all but…….
We live in a diet culture.
But what does that mean? That means that we are programmed to think that our bodies should look a certain way, be “skinny”, have a bangin butt, perky boobs etc. or to not look like we have had kids. Especially since we have had a baby, (or babies) we are eager to get our “pre-baby” bodies back. Before kids, we had our identity. Now we are mentally just wrecked, our hips are not the same size, our feet somehow grew, our boobs are either gigantic or in my case, flat as droopy pancakes and we just feel awful about ourselves. But why?? Why do we feel compelled to look a certain way, ESPECIALLY after delivery. It is the diet culture!
What exactly is “diet culture”? By definition,“It is the belief that worships or idealizes thinness and equates it to health and more virtue, promotes weight loss and maintaining a low weight as a way to elevate social status and demonizes certain foods and eating styles while elevating others.” Basically it puts our value as a human being on how thin and pretty we look.
HOLY SHIT……
There are a dozen reasons that I got into this business and as I have grown as an adult, the more I realize that this needs to change. As soon as I was cleared to workout, I hit the gym. I hit it hard. I was trying to do a personal record at 6 months postpartum in my deadlift. And what was sad is that no one stopped me to say are you sure this is healthy for your body? I was so focused on loosing that baby weight, getting back into shape, and was totally immersed in the diet culture(of course I had no idea that was what was happening). At some point I had to stop and ask myself “is this what is best for me?". I started questioning everything. Even though I was questioning myself, it did not stop me from going further. I was determined to be skinny even if it meant physically hurting myself because I had a bad relationship with friends after my delivery. I thought that maybe if I was skinny and went to the gym more often they would accept me. I was also suffering from PPD at the time. So 18 months postpartum I did a weight loss challenge at my gym. It was a 6 week challenge that included the diets, the special workouts, all of it. And I won. I lost 6% of my body fat in 6 weeks. That was incredibly UNHEALTHY, but hey I had the body I always wanted right? Wrong. I was still unhappy with the way I looked, kept wanting to go further, starving my body in ways that were not healthy for not only my mind but it started to rub off on my kid.
After all of this, you say, “well aren’t you doing a nutrition course this month, aren’t you being a little bit of that diet culture?” Yes and no. The still need to take our health into consideration. There are healthier ways of enjoying food and what it has to offer! Sometimes we avoid hard things because we think it will be hard. We SHOULD be able to enjoy that candy bar, going out for drinks, eating those amazing Haaks Cakes cupcakes in Hamburg. But everything has to be in moderation! Why go through lift not enjoying the things that make us happy! Too much of anything is bad for us. Too much alcohol, too much sugar, too much water, not enough fats, not enough carbs, not enough protein. It is a balancing act and you have to find what works best for you and sometimes we just need a little education on what that is.
It is more than loosing weight which yes that is a byproduct of eating what nature intended. It is knowing how to eat that works best for you! My eating habits have drastically changed since Quilla was born. I stopped drinking alcohol not just because it makes me feel like utter shit, but I didn’t like the way it made me feel around my kid or even the next morning! My body has switched to fasting, which needs to be changed because its having a negative effect on my body. But what works for me, may not work for you and vice versa. So arming ourselves with the baseline knowledge of “how”, “what”, “when” and “why” we eat will give you the confidence to choose what works best for you and accomplish whatever goal you have set for yourself. Believe me, it’s not always about loosing the weight, although will help resolve a few issues that you might be experiencing. I did not realize how tired I was by not eating enough food or at the right times during the day. I did not realize how gross and sluggish I was by drinking alcohol and not drinking enough water. If you think you feel “ok” now, just imagine how different you might feel with just a tweak here or there in your diet to maximize your energy!
So let’s try to ditch the diet culture and start thinking about the health aspects of changing our ways in eating. We will be going over all this information during our Nutrition 101 event on March 11th. There will be food and lots to take home!!
TIP OF THE DAY:
How to program a workout.
So you are at the gym, staring at all of the equipment and wondering what the hell to do. You feel overwhelmed, a little lost, and a little intimidated. So you just hop on the treadmill and hope for the best. Then you go home feeling defeated because you might be thinking you could have done more at the gym. So here are a few tips in programming a workout. A free workout is after the tips you can try at home!
Focus on either legs or arms/core
You will want to exercise every major muscle set in either. So pretend that its “leg day”. You will want to pick out an exercise that focuses on your quads, calves, buttocks, hips, shins, all the way to your feet and ankles. So this will be about 3-4 movements.
Do 10-15 reps per exercise
Complete 3-4 rounds or sets of these movements.
The higher the reps, the lower the weight. The higher the weight, lower the reps.
Do not be afraid to go up in weight! The point is to challenge yourself. It is not about just doing what is easy, it is about challenging yourself but not to the point where you fail.
Don’t forget the cardio!!
Lifting weights will burn more calories in a 24 hour period than only doing walking/running any day.
FREE WORKOUT!
4 Rounds of
15 Goblet Squats
20 Banded side steps
24 Box step ups (12 each side)
12 Slam Balls (get angry at that ball!! The harder you slam the better you will feel)
Finish off the 4 rounds with 15 minutes of walking/rowing/running/elliptical at a higher speed. This is also a great opportunity to try out intervals of running & walking if you are training for a couch to 5k run, or you can try a new piece of cardio equipment at the gym. It does not always have to all on one machine. Switch it up!
RECIPE OF THE MONTH
Kale salad with sweet lemon vinaigrette dressing
Salads, salads and more salads. I love them. I love growing them too. So if you ever stop by the gym, we always have some kind of salad green ready for picking. That includes usually three different kinds of kale, mescaline mix, romaine lettuce, and spinach….all of it. But here is my favorite!
Kale salad with sweet lemon vinaigrette dressing
4oz grill steak
1/3c chickpeas
2c of kale
Sliced cucumber
1oz of walnuts or pecans (optional)
A sprinkle of fresh raw corn
1oz plain crumbled goat cheese or gorgonzola (optional)
Dressing:
1/4c fresh lemon juice
3 tbsp apple cider vinegar
2 tbsp nut or olive oil (i personally like roasted walnut oil)
Dash of S & P
A good squeeze of honey
Dash of oregano
**Make dressing, coating the kale in the dressing. Let the kale sit in the dressing while you measure/prep your toppings. The vinegar and lemon juice in the dressing actually cooks the kale a little and makes it not as bitter (isn’t science cool!!). You will see that there is nuts, oil, and cheese, which is a lot of fat. So pick either to walnuts or the cheese as part of your fat. This is a topic that we will review during our Nutrition 101 course.
Be sure to check out the website to purchase the last couple of spots for our Nutrition 101 Seminar being held at the gym from 11am-1pm. Tickets can be purchased through the link on the front page along with details of what we will be covering. Only $55 per person! The website is updated regularly with news, new seminars, and upcoming events!
Go and lift all heavy things
Xoxo
Coach Lindsay
The Wellness Barn and Fitness
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