Tuesday marks the start of a new lifestyle

They say it takes 21 days of something to make it a habit - to adjust to a lifestyle change. That's what this is for me, a lifestyle change. I don't want working out and being in shape to a temporary aspect of my life that comes and goes. I don't want to say that I was in the best shape of my life when I was in high school balancing three varsity sports, or in college playing Division 1 softball. I want to be thirty years old and feel like I'm twenty. I want to feel invincible, like I could run for days; I want to feel strong, refreshed, healthy. I decided to take this last semester of my sophomore year off from working out to let my body recuperate from the stress that athletics has put on it, and now it is time move towards the next step. I've always had a reason to be in shape, because I've always been involved in a sport in some way; but, I won't be playing sports for the rest of my life, particularly not on a team like I am used to, and don't want to lose that aspect of my life when I move on to the next chapters. I want to amaze people with my commitment, and be the one that my friends and peers look at and say "wow, I wish I had the motivation to be in shape like that."

So Tuesday marks the start of a better lifestyle. I am not looking to deconstruct how I have been living and eating and rebuild myself, because there is a difference between a "change in lifestyle" and completely altering how I have been living. Let's get this straight: I am not trying to lose weight, I am not out of shape, and I do not need, for health reasons, to change my diet; I simply want to feel better. This is much more about how I feel vs. how I look. So, I won't be saying goodbye eternally to bacon, or coffee, or Coca-cola, or chicken tenders; but, I will try to drink more water than I do Coke (I have an addiction, it's fine), and if I'm choosing between fried chicken tenders and a pasta dish I will try to go with the not-fried option... and pasta, I will buy whole wheat pasta and bread instead, and maybe grab a banana instead of that grilled cheese in my school's cafeteria when I need just a little more to eat. And all of those things that I love to eat and drink - popcorn, bacon, Coke, curly fries, pizza, mac & cheese, chicken tenders, coffee, etc. - I will still eat, just a little less often.

So June 12th should mark the end of the "21 days" it is supposed to take to make these new changes a lifestyle. I can't wait to check back in and see how I feel.

Working Out

I've never watched what I ate, counted calories, or forced myself into the gym to work out - I never had a reason to. I never needed to lose weight, I am always involved in athletics, and have no health problems that restrict my diet. The past month, though, I just didn't feel as healthy as I want to be. When I look in the mirror I don't dislike what I see, but I dislike how I feel. I am thin, but I don't feel fit, I am strong, but I don't feel powerful, I am at a healthy weight, but my body feels weighed down by foods I eat every day. I am a Coca Cola® addict - there, I said it.

I don't eat horrifically, but I drink a lot of Coke (sometimes I legitimately crave it), eat a lot of pastas, breads, carbs, and meat. I barely like any vegetables, I like fruit but don't eat a lot of it, have always consumed incredibly inadequate amounts of water given I am an athlete, and generally take in a lot of sugar. Most of the foods I eat have simple healthy alternatives - whole wheat pasta, whole wheat bread on my sandwich instead of white, grilled chicken instead of fried, etc.

So, with the new year I have begun a new workout routine and a healthier way of eating and living. I cannot stress enough, I am not trying to lose weight. I am not irrationally telling myself that I need to be thinner because I don't, and am happy with what I look like when I look in the mirror. I simply want to feel healthier and have a healthier body for the long run. I am trying to incorporate more fruits in my diet and venture out from the usual mac n' cheese dinner. The added bonus is that I LOVE to cook, so finding new recipes and trying them out is fun for me too. It's actually very difficult to find recipes that are healthy but not low calorie, because I need the calories. So far I have found a few favorites, and will add a page of my favorite recipes on this blog later today.

I have also set somewhat rigorous but undoubtedly achievable goals for myself in terms of my workout:

1. Run 6 days a week. This is the most important one, and one that I cannot "slip up" on because even professionals say that once you let yourself miss a few days of a routine it completely alters your motivation and drive to pick it back up again.
2. Weight lifting 3 of the days I run, and do an ab workout 3 of the days that I run.
3. I would love to incorporate swimming on the days that I do ab workouts (because they are less taxing than lifting) because it is an incredible, low-impact workout; however, I don't know what the pool situation will be once I get back to school... and I have a feeling that one might have to wait until this summer.

I am currently on day 4 of my new way of living, and the motivation/drive to workout is kicking in. The first 3 days I had to push myself to run, but right now I am sitting at work wishing I could go home and workout instead of sitting at this desk. I am not missing the Coke too much, and am forcing myself to drink more water because yesterday's run felt substantially worse and more sluggish than Saturday's and Sunday's, and I'm pretty sure I can attribute that to treating myself to a coffee in the morning and Coke at lunch since all I had to drink was water since Saturday. I know it sounds silly, but caffeine addictions are completely legitimate.

I use the Nike+ sensor, which a family friend gave me for Chanukah this year because I already had the Nike+ compatible shoes, and the Nike+ GPS app on my iPhone to track my runs, set goals, and see my progress. I love it and it definitely adds huge motivation and sense of accomplishment to set how far you want to run and then see that you achieved it.

The one thing I have to say about working out, and this is what made me an athlete from the moment I was born, is that when I run I feel unspeakably alive. The pounding of my heart in my chest, the ache in my legs telling me to stop, the hot sweat trickling down my back, and the burning of my lungs - sounds like something you would never want to submit yourself to, right? No, because feeling everything reminds me that I have a purpose, and I am doing something to make me better; and when I look behind me at the end of my workout and see how far I have come, how I didn't stop when everything in my body told me it would be easier to, I am alive.