"Bloggers are gross. Bloggers are obese. Bloggers have halitosis. You're gonna love 'em." - Dwight Schrute (The Office) on bloggers. I thought that was an apt way to begin this post. Bloggers be crazy.
Greetings! I am currently sitting my my clean room, listening to music through the laptop speakers, dressed in my Around-The-House clothes on a lovely, cold Friday. This semester I managed to get Fridays off again and I am quite overjoyed. Although, I worry that I will never be able to get Fridays off again and forever be disappointed by my future timetables, but we'll cross those bridges when we get to them.
So, last Monday I started Semester 2 of university. So far, it has been going pretty well. My timetable is alright, I only have one early morning and only one late night (unfortunately on the same day but whatever) and I'm only doing 3 courses so it's slightly more relaxing.
So, as of earlier this year, (around the beginning of university) I realised I had quite let myself go in Year 12 and the following holidays. I mean, come on, a year of stress and emotional instability (triggers for comfort food, much?) and then three months of sitting at home with very little to do... That was bound to lead to a little extra chub, if you know what I mean. Anyway, I started on my journey to move more and eat better. It was quite slow, as my motivation and seriousness was quite lacking at first. As they increased, so did my effort and my body weight did decrease a small amount, which was extremely encouraging. I then plateaued. Being the way I am, this made me distressed but, yesterday (or Wednesday, I dunno), I made a decision.
I am no longer going to stress about being thin or losing weight or having a flat stomach or anything. I am going to be healthy. I think this will be better for me. It's not actually going to change my new eating/exercise habits; it will just change how I think about it all, which is probably more important for me.
I will walk and jog and do weights to make myself feel good on the inside and, as a result, on the outside. I will eat well to make my body feel good. I will not do these things to stress out about a number on a scale, because I've found that to be unhealthy.
I've quite enjoyed eating healthier recently, actually. I genuinely feel better about myself when I eat a good, filling, healthy breakfast and a good lunch, small & healthy snacks and a good healthy dinner. This along with drinking lots of water and regularly doing some sort of exercise has been good.
I have also inspired my family, somewhat. Well, my parents more so. My mother has gotten on board more and I've seen my dad make some small changes. My brothers, on the other hand, not so much. Well, in the next year or so, the oldest of my brothers' growth spurt period will end and he will reap the full results of not being nice to his body. Well, hopefully, or else I will get annoyed. I mean, I got my "growth spurt" around his age. I got a lot hungrier and did grow a bit. But, I got the height genes from my mum. My mum is of average height, her sister is short, their mother is average height and their father is very short. My dad is tall, as is his father, as were his grandfathers. Both of my little brothers got that tall gene and I got the short-average height gene. That's fine with me, but it means that, as my brothers eat unhealthily, they grow taller and not any wider. I never had that luck. Eating bad food quickly caught up to me and I began to grow out instead of up. Anyway...
Last semester I drew up a timetable to see if it would help get me up and exercising at a regular time everyday. It didn't work. I have tried again this semester and, so far, it is working. I think I have more motivation. Here is my exercise routine for the week:
Sunday: 7am: strength exercises, often includes an afternoon walk with the family
Monday: 7-8-ish, 30 minutes walk/jog
Tuesday: "Active rest" (basically, I don't do deliberate exercise but I don't sit on my bum all day. Basically, I have a long day of uni from 10am-6pm, not including transport, I have no time to exercise)
Wednesday: 7am: 20-30 minute walk/jog, strength exercises
Thursday: 7am: 30 minute walk/jog
Friday: 7am: 30 minute walk/jog
Saturday: 7am: 30 minute walk/jog.
I think this week may have been the first week I have stuck to this, so let's see how it goes...
Food wise- I've learnt a lot about what is filling, low or high in calories and what is easy to pack for uni. Paying attention to what fills me up and what doesn't has definitely helped...
Also, exercise is supposed to reduce both stress and anxiety while giving more energy. For a very anxious, stressed and almost constantly tired girl, I cannot argue with that.
I have figured- if I feel good on the inside, I will feel better about my outside appearance too.
"Speaking of pimples- let's release the bloggers!"
