Days 43-49: What I've Learned

This week we were back on track with our eating and workouts. It felt good to get back in the rhythm of things! We just completed week 7 so we are down to only 5 more weeks of the Jamie Eason LiveFit program! Jason and I have had several people say that they wish they could do something like this and my answer to them is always the same, "Of course you can!" There are a few things I have learned in the past 7 weeks that have truly been live savers so I thought I'd share them today.

1.Do your research and plan a head: It isn't smart to jump into something without having some sort of idea as to what you're getting in to. When I decided to start this program I sat down and explored everything posted on the website so that I knew which resources were available, what types of workouts I'd be doing and what foods I was expected to eat. I printed out the approved food list and the weekly the nutrition plans and even now I carry those printouts with me everywhere I go. The LiveFit pages on BodyBuilding.com are of course my main source of information, but there are a few other great sites I've come across that I've gotten a lot of good ideas from:

oThe Gracious Pantry - This blog has so many amazing clean eating recipes! The person who writes this blog likes to take every day foods that we all enjoy and figure out a way to make them clean so that those who want to eat healthy can STILL enjoy them!

oCleanEatingMag.com- Has some quick and easy recipes and even a few budget recipes. Might not even be a bad idea to subscribe to the magazine.

oGreen Plate Rule- Another great blog that has recipes, shopping lists, and they even talk about meal prep, which is extremely important for staying on track.

Meal prep will make your life 90% easier!  I usually go grocery shopping on Sunday afternoon (see my grocery list method here) and on Sunday evening we cook enough to at least get us through the middle of the week.  I bought 10 containers that I could easily portion our daily meals in to. I measure out my meats and carbs and then fill the rest of the container with veggies. Doing this saves so much time and I don’t even have to think about what to eat because it is all ready to go! This has really helped to keep us on track because when you have too much time to think about what you want to eat, you may think until you’re so hungry that you decide to give up and have a burger!

2.Find a support system: I am so lucky to have my husband going through this program with me along with another friend at work.  It really helps to have someone to talk to and bounce ideas off of.  We can learn from each other’s experiences.  Not everyone is going to decide to go through a lifestyle change like this at the same time as someone they know and I hope that won’t discourage them from doing it anyways.  I honestly can say that I have found the most encouragement on Instagram. There are so many people out there doing the same thing as you!  You can find recipes, encouraging words and so many success stories!  I love seeing people succeed in bettering themselves physically.  It is so encouraging and helps me to see that ANYTHING is possible!

3.Don’t be afraid to try something new: I don’t have a lot of past experience lifting weights.  When we started the program I will admit that I was a little uncomfortable in the gym doing things I have never done before.  I felt self-conscious when the person beside me was lifting more or when I couldn’t even do 5 girl pushups.  I had to resolve that if I wanted to move forward I was going to have to start somewhere. I just let that fear melt away and decided that no matter how uncomfortable I felt, I was going to do every workout the plan called for.

I am also not a very good cook.  I haven’t spent much time in the kitchen so trying to throw together a bunch of clean meals is completely outside of my comfort zone.  So truthfully, I still don’t do much of the cooking.  Jason is just WAY better at it! But when push comes to shove I will get my butt in the kitchen and throw something edible together. I have experimented with a few different recipes and have found that it can be kind of fun!

4.“Can’t” is a bad word: In Jason’s family the kids grew up being told that “can’t” is a bad word.  They were not allowed to say that they couldn’t do something; they had to at least try.  I love this and I think it is important to incorporate this in to your everyday life.  Think of all of the amazing things we could accomplish if we all lived by this philosophy!

There is no faster way to spiral downwards than to start telling yourself that you can’t do something.  I have had several people tell me they would like to change their eating habits, but they just can’t give up the foods they have grown so accustomed to eating; but how many of them have actually tried?  I thought I couldn’t give up all of the fatty foods I was eating every day, until I decided that I could.  That is seriously all it took.  I just decided to change my mind set and here I am!

5.Stick with the plan: If you make a to-do list, do you tend to stay on track with the tasks you hope to accomplish?  More than likely you do, and that’s because you have a plan!  If you stray from the list or never reference it, how easy is it to accomplish everything you set out to do?  Not impossible, but you’re probably doing it the hard way.  If you start a plan, my advice is to make up your mind to be extremely strict and to stick with the plan completely, and this is probably most critical when you are first starting out.  In my case, I knew that if I let myself have the occasional cheat food I would probably start a pattern of occasionally cheating all of the time.  Same with the working out; if I skipped one workout I knew I’d be more tempted to skip another.
 
Now I haven’t been perfect, but in the first 6 weeks of the program I remained strong and decided not to veer whatsoever. I had my first cheat food of frozen yogurt on Father’s Day and then I just pushed it out of my mind and re-focused on my clean eating so that I didn’t let future cravings pop up.  Had I let myself indulge in a little frozen yogurt when we first began, I am certain I would have tried to justify doing it again and again.

The last 7 weeks have been tough, but by doing the things above we have done a great job of staying on track to accomplish our goals.  Can you do it?  Of course you can!

I will leave you with a photo of an amazing meal Jason cooked last week! I am working on getting the recipe from him so I will post it this week! For now your mouth can water thinking about it! :)