SWEAT

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With it being the beginning of a new year, most people make some sort of resolution having to do with fitness and healthy eating.  This is not me.  (See my thoughts on New Year's Resolutions here) I try my hardest to keep up with fitness all year long.  While I do not claim to be any sort of expert on fitness or nutrition, I have definitely found, through trial and error, what works best for me. 

I've always worked out at a gym.  I'd do some sort of cardio exercise for about 45 minutes to an hour, and then head to the weights where I did  about 30 minutes of lifting.  While this was not always (who am I kidding, it was NEVER) fun, I did it more out of routine and not really for myself.

Here are some things I learned about my own personal fitness:

1.  Running 6 miles a day is a complete mind f*ck.  I'd do 6 miles on the treadmill everyday, and a month or two later, my pants wouldn't fit me right. As in, they were too small.  Annoying.  And I restate: MIND F*CK.  I'd inevitably fall back into not running 6 miles a day, because after all, even if I was developing serious muscle, I wasn't working out to be bigger. 

2.  Weights are a must.  There are countless benefits to lifting weights for womens' bodies.  But, I discovered none of these mattered to me.  The only thing that made me crave my daily lift was how strong it made me feel.  I found out I didn't like not having any muscles.  Strong is sexy.  Having to ask a man or a stronger woman to lift things for me: not sexy.  There is a direct correlation for me between feeling strong physically, and feeling strong mentally.

3.  Make cardio enjoyable.  For me, spending that time running 6 miles on a treadmill was torture.  I hated every single minute of it.   However, I do enjoy getting on the elliptical for 45 minutes and reading on my ipad or watching my favorite TV show.  It's a like a built in zen out.  So if I do hit the gym, elliptical it is.  Now that I live in LA with all of its' fabulous hiking, I take a daily 3-4 mile hike.  There is no ticker telling me how far I've gone, and no calories burned count.  And I like that.  I do my best thinking when I've got my headphones on and I'm dragging my butt up those hills.

4.  Pilates is like nothing else.  For me, my body responds best to Pilates.  While I still lift weights when I can  (I currently do not have a gym membership), I've discovered my body responds wonderfully to this ballet inspired exercise.  It's calming, and I feel like I've had a massage after I'm done. 

5.  70 percent eating / 30 percent exercise.  I have heard something to this effect before, but found it to be absolutely true for me.  Whether we like to admit it or not, most of how we look is what we're shoving into our  mouths every day.  No matter how hard I'd work out, I never looked as good as I could if I was eating too many calories every day.  And it doesn't matter if they were healthy calories or not healthy calories.  Truth is, if all I ate was a big mac every day, I'd lose weight.  It's simple math.  I have found it difficult to establish a healthful approach to eating, as I am only 5'1'' and my body doesn't require as many calories as someone bigger than me, therefore everyone is always pressuring me to eat more than my body needs.  But, my body simply doesn't need as much food as others.  We're all different. 

I urge you to read what works for me, and then think how these ideas apply to you.  What have you learned works best for you in terms of eating and exercise?