This week has had many high and lows;

I LOVE my job. Even on the days when I am sick and tired I look forward to going to work. As with any job and life I have really high points and some times a low one. 

Highs;

This week started with my healthy trip to Costco where a long time Healthy Club peeps introduced herself to me and told me she finds my page inspiring. What a honor! 

At the gas station a guy told me he recognized me from running and told me to keep up the great work. He said that he could never do that so then i took 20 minutes telling him he sure could. lol. He likely regretted his compliment.

I won a free T-shirt #butchgunner this week and I am contemplating a spartan race. Maybe 3, trifecta is cool. Just concerned about the jumping but thinking I may be able to pull it off with my knee. 

My clients have all been doing fantastic work and my tire is inside for the winter. All positives...

Lows;

Not being able to hammer home the message clearly that nutrition is 80% of the magic equation for weight loss. You want to add exercise AND proper nutrition to achieve optimal results. If you are KILLING it with exercise, seeing crazy strength gains but no scale movement (assuming you have a larger amount of fat to lose) then it is time to look at your nutrition and get down to brass tacks. Not even mentioning of course the health benefits for all of proper nutrition.

I know the struggle is real I live the life too. Own your choices. Do your best. Be strong!

XO,

Di

Keep going!

Keep going!

People always ask me how I stay so dedicated. The truth is I actually am kinda addicted to the feeling after a workout. When it comes to exercise it doesn't take me long to talk myself up to the task.

My real struggle is food.

I love food. All types. The great, the good, the bad and the ugly.

How have I been able to keep gradually losing and maintaining over 200lbs of weight loss? By mostly making the right choices. I do go to the movies and eat fatty popcorn sometimes, I had two milkshakes over this summer and in one week in Mexico this summer I lost count of frosty bevies. I am human. I have had binge eating moments. It happens approximately once every three months, sometimes I go much longer. I used to eat like that two or three times weekly before learning better behaviour. I try to plan ahead to have a treat to stay in control.

Why am I sharing this with you? Because I know how it feels to feel out of control and I know how it feels to be in control {almost always} and I want that for everyone. You don't have to be in this downward spiral forever, you can climb out.

Eating healthy isn't a bad thing. Its not only good for your body but your mind and soul also. I am a better human being when I eat the way that makes me feel healthy and strong. Don't start a new "diet" just eat a diet of whole healthy foods. Lean meats, veggies and fruit. Some whole grains and starches. Once a week have a treat. Think about your risk of virtually every disease being lowered. A longer life. A fit life. One where you aren't hiding yourself and waiting for Monday to start a new plan.

I hear people say every single day that they want to change but you have to want it bad enough to choose the apple more than the chocolate. You have to want it more than anything else. You have to exercise when you want to skip. Go after your health! Stop waiting for a wrap or shake to let you down again. You have all the tools you need deep inside of you. If you are already on your path to health, don't stop! You can do this. There will be hiccups but nothing you cant overcome. Don't let the excuses win. #noexcuses

YOU CAN DO IT!

XO,
Di

Get outside comfortable

Taking it to the next level

Good. Better. Best.

Nobody starts out a pro. We start from where we are, learn and improve. I started living healthier at a very unhealthy end of the spectrum. I had to start slow. Walking was a hard core workout for me. My back ached. My shins hurt. My breathing sucked (I was pushing 400lbs and I was a smoker). When walking got easy I power walked. Then I added in a gym membership at snap fitness (I love love loved it there). I had no idea what to be doing so I hired a personal trainer to teach me a few routines. I was a stay at home mom with a limited budget so I cut out Starbucks and stuck to my shopping list getting only needs to make it happen. My body felt like it had been ran over those first few weeks of workouts lol. You know where you almost cry walking stairs and you feel bad for the railing that has to work so hard haha. When those routines got easy I signed myself up for Bosu ball classes 3x a week. Later I took TRX classes..Then kettlebells..Then kickboxing and a then a boot camp. I kept learning and pushing my body somewhere new. Eventually I found a great gym with fitness classes and I stayed there until it closed down and then I started my own fitness studio.

When I started exercise I could not plank from my knees! I had to plank and push up from a wall for a few months until I gained strength. Then I started doing them from my knees and finally I now do them from my toes. I started with walking, then powerwalking and now I am running long distances.

This is NOT a blog just about me, its about you and your journey. Are you pushing yourself hard enough to your next level? Have you been doing push ups from your knees for a long time? Try one from your toes! In order to keep continuously improving we have to keep pushing past our comfort zone.

If you have not been getting optimal results its probably a combination of needing to kick it up a notch and getting right with your food. Are you eating packaged foods? Those are laden with chemicals, additives, sodium, fat, sugar..crap! Again, Good. Better. Best. Start by eliminating all processed and prepackaged foods. Basically junk food. If you have been eating a diet with processed food just taking those out is a great first step and will likely get you on a good start towards your goal. When you have been eating generally healthy now but hit a plateau, you will want to look into your portions. Are you eating too many grains and not enough protein? Are you measuring? Getting real with eating mostly vegetables, a moderate amount of protein, healthy fats and smaller portions of carbs and fruit. The veggie to fruit ratio for fat loss is 5:1.

And let me tell you I have learned from experience, YOU CANNOT OUT TRAIN A BAD DIET!!!

It is estimated that weight loss is approximately 80% diet and 20% exercise. So you can lose weight by just eating healthy but you wont get optimal results and its almost impossible to eat crappy and just rely on exercise. Unless you are excessive with exercise but you still wouldn't achieve optimal health.

Believe you are worth the effort and step up your game!

Di

Beautiful is not a size

Beauty;

I am overwhelmed lately with the amount of negativity towards thin, fat, old, young, tall, short. Geez, I understand well how it feels to stand out for being larger than everyone else...

My "Before"

One of my best lessons through my health journey has been meeting fit peeps from all different backgrounds. One thing we ALL have in common is we all struggle with something.

I stuck out because I was xxxxl! I knew I was fat, nobody was helping me by telling me. Nobody needed to scream it from their window when I was walking and trying to better myself either...

I have quite a few friends who are thin. I was shocked one night when we went out that someone made the comment to one friend "go eat a hamburger".... Like how did that person think that was a nice thing or acceptable thing to say??? The person saying it did struggle on the opposite end of the spectrum... Why must we pin fat against thin? That is a STUPID thing to do!

A girlfriend of mine is trying to gain lean mass and is working very hard at it. She has been told she is getting too manly by "friends". Geepers its pissing me off that we cant all just support one another. Can we not just see the people for who they are? She is working very hard, is the healthiest I have seen her, why do we need to be mean?

real women have meat on her bones
you need to lose weight
you need to gain weight
you need to stop exercising so much
you are obsessed

STOP THE INSANITY, THIS IS MADNESS!

I know its easier to relate to what we know. Don't judge people on their looks alone... Can we not see one another for our genuine character? 

Gals race weekend

My weekend away;

As many of you know this weekend I was at the Rocky Mountain Soap 10k race in Canmore. (the race was in Canmore, we stayed in Banff)
I have a massive fear of bears which makes me apprehensive to sign up for anything near the mountains. Mandie was doing it and the race was sold out but one of her peeps was selling a bib. "ITS A SIGN", I said. And just like that a weekend in Banff was arranged!

Ready for a weekend filled with F>U>N!

I found a really cool pepper spray that's small enough to carry in my hands. I know, I know, I am crazy! I also wore a whistle. I hooked Mandie up with spray and a whistle too. Cause, you know, you can never be too careful ;) Whatever makes you feel more secure right? FYI- it was so busy on the course that my bear fear was immediately eased. Any seasoned bear phobia chick knows there has never been a case of a bear attack in a group of 4 or more.

We left Friday after work and arrived in Banff late. Our room was cozy and clean and when I woke the next morning I had a gorgeous view while drinking my coffee. I really doubt you could find a room in Banff with a ugly view. I love it there! 

The run was GORGEOUS! It was a lot warmer then I am used to running as the warm season is just getting here and it was 26 degrees Celsius. It was a beautiful day with beautiful people in a beautiful place. The hills were wicked for a fun challenge!

run selfies of course. Mandie, Jacki and I :)

A perk to this run is at the end you get a swag bag with product from the Rocky Mountain Soap Co, If you know me at all you know I am all about the bath products!!! 

After the run we went back to the hotel and freshened up for shopping and dinner. We went to Saltlic. I think that's how it is spelled. It was very pricey but I highly recommend the steak cobb salad. It was to die for. I also had sweet potato fries because I was told they were amazing. They were. They were definitely not done in an actifry tho. Oops lol. 
This morning we went for brunch at the hotel and then went back to Canmore to shop at Tin Box. It was a really cute store. I found a journal for my teen with positive quotes written throughout. From there we took the scenic route home. A few hours later and real life kicked back in haha. I mopped and tidied and grocery shopped for the upcoming week. I went to my dads to get the kiddos and have a family dinner. Now I am home with the kiddos tucked in bed chatting with you :) I don't usually go many places for girls weekends etc but I had so much fun that I know I will want to sign up again next year! :) I love being a mom and a wife but just being Di is fun every now and again too!

Side notes;
Thank you Mandie and Jacki for being such great roomies.
Thank you to my aunt Karen and my dad for keeping the kids entertained while I was away.
Thank you to the bears for staying far from me.

You will get there!

You can do it!

That seems a lil bit cliché, I know! Its the truth though.

I was talking with a client about starting to walk earlier today. I cannot believe where I have come from. I remember thinking, "Oh my God, am I in over my head here? Maybe I have just let myself go too far and this is my destiny. Is this even possible?"

Maybe that's where you are today. Wondering if its even a possibility for you to be fit and healthy. I will tell you it absolutely is. It isn't going to be fast or easy (there are shortcuts but you don't want to take those because they are traps that usually lead to you being further away from healthy) but you can totally do this.

When I started walking I was already down about 35lbs or so. I tried walking alone but I got heckled on a fairly regular basis (every damn time- pardon the passion). My friend Kathy walked regularly and invited me to go with her. When we started my lower back and calf muscles were BRUTAL> we probably walked maybe 30 mins and I would go home completely exhausted. I kept walking and even though it hurt at first persistence paid. It always does. We eventually stopped walking together because I joined a gym. I started jogging. It was brutal at first but I also quit smoking around this time so that helped me too. When I say I was unhealthy I totally mean unhealthy.

Jogging was a huge feat. I pretty much had to fight to do it. My breathing sucked. My calves hurt. I got shin splints. Nothing felt easy.

I have worked through injuries too, that slow process of two steps forward one step back. I kept at it!

Fast forward two years...

I am running my first half marathon. 21.1km. I did it. Didn't set any records but I did it and I felt good about myself. After my run that day my old walking partner and I were gabbing and it turned to tears when we talked about where I started from. At the beginning of my walking days I would go home completely exhausted but Kathy would then go for her regular hard-core walk. We laughed and then we cried. I was blessed to have her at that fragile first stage. She never told me I was her warm up friend haha, and to be honest I am not sure I was strong enough to know it at the time.

 That was a few years ago now, I have ran many runs, I am still running. I am a runner. I am not a competitive runner whatsoever but I love it. I love that my body is able to run. I also lift weights, flip tires, ride bike, seek stairs instead of avoiding them like the plague, etc etc etc. If I can do it, so can you. Just don't expect it to be easy. Peeps are always disappointed by my reality check lol. You can do anything but you will have to work for it!

If you feel alone in your fitness journey, don't! I assure you that you already have at least one fit peep, ME!

XO,
Di

Dear Diary

Journaling or keeping a Diary

Do you journal? This is a link to 100 reasons its healthy to journal.
http://www.appleseeds.org/100_journaling.htm

Emotional eating is definitely a problem for me. Not past tense. It is. Some people think that because I have lost weight I am cured of whatever problem got me morbidly obese in the first place. I am not cured. I have learned tricks to work around my weaknesses. One huge trick has been journaling. I don't only track food but also moods and exercise and whatever else is on my mind. One of my diaries is my healthy club. In a way. I share a lot of personal information and every time I am hesitant to post something that I may think is TOO personal, I immediately get my inbox full of comments from people who relate or was glad I shared because they were wondering the same info for their own situations.

Growing up we were pretty poor. Well for Canadians. In my recent trip to Cuba I learned I have never really been poor. But lets just say I didn't have the brand name clothes, shoes, $, or a nice school lunch. I used food for comfort. That habit isn't healthy. Its a comfort that I started using at a early age.

My biological father was a deadbeat. It was probably for the best as he has serious drug and alcohol issues. I met him on my 14th birthday for the first time and he was a real let down. He promised me the world but never followed through on anything. ANYTHING. I heard from him very sporadically. The last time I talked with him I was playing with toddler aged Amber (my daughter who is now a teen) and I was pregnant with my son, Josh, who will be 11 next month. He told me he would call me tomorrow. He never did.

Of my struggles this is the one that has taken the most effort from myself to get over. I used to wonder what is wrong with me? I know now that I am awesome. I actually feel really bad for him. He missed out on an AWESOME daughter and beautiful grandchildren.

My point is everyone has something they are going through. I used to handle stress by eating. copious amounts. I have learned that the answers to life's problems are never at the bottom of an Oreos bag. Ever.

I started journaling when I was at the beginning of my health journey. It has helped me immensely. I am able to reread my starting point and see how I have grown. I can likewise read recent pages and see areas I am still working on. Ex. I can still be pretty obsessive compulsive with my parenting. Meaning I give myself a daily review in which I am usually falling short in some area. I have a fear of messing with my kids emotionally, the way my father did with me. Even though that's irrational because I am a very present mother. Those are still thoughts and feelings that journaling helps with. Its a win when you can use a diary instead of food (or drugs or alcohol if that's your struggle).

Part of my job is reading others journals. A lot of people are keeping strictly food journals but a lot keep track of their emotions also. It helps, especially for the emotional eater. The pen and paper take a beating instead of the stomach. You would be very comforted to know that your crazy emotions are pretty darn normal. We all have our crap. Its okay. Put down the bag of chips and pick up a pen and paper!

xo,
Di