I usually have an apple stashed in my office, car, purse… Within arm’s reach. đ Photo credit to Dr. Greg Thompson; hands down one of the best teacher-educators on the planet. He retires the end of this year.
‘What ONE piece of advice do you have for chronic ‘dieters’ who really, really want to be successful this time around?’
LEARN what HUNGER really feels like.
I was brutally honest with myself when I started this journey 3+ years ago.  I knew that I had a really big problem, a really unhealthy relationship with food. And that I was going to be trying to stabilize blood sugars, get off of insulin, lose weight AND trying to find answers to some complicated food issues. ALL at the same time.
I like to keep things interesting.
I knew that perhaps my biggest hurdle was that I fundamentally did not understand hunger.
My body had NOT BEEN HUNGRY in years. Â I didn’t know the feeling.
I was so, so used to simply eating because it was mealtime, or I passed the frig, or it was in front of me, or because it was a special occasion, or…
And I’m not alone. Â In any conversation with folks who have lots to lose, at some point our conversation will come around to hunger. Â And the ways we ignore it, abuse it, refuse to allow it to happen…
I had to figure out what it meant to be hungry if I was EVER going to get a handle on overeating.
I was pretty sure that the only way to have long-term success was going to be tied to whether I could feel, understand and respond to hunger.
So I came up with a trick that would a) teach me to understand what hunger was and b) wouldn’t mess too badly with my blood sugar.
Apples.
Honeycrisp apples to be specific.
I put a BUCKET of apples in the fridge.
And I made a deal with myself…
Anytime I thought I was hungry and it really didn’t make sense for me to be hungry (had just eaten lunch, had eaten most of my calories for the day, etc…) I could eat an apple.
And only an apple.
IF I was indeed hungry enough to eat an apple…Â Then I was probably legitimately hungry.
IF I was NOT hungry enough to eat an apple… Then I was simply cruising for food out of HABIT or bored or emotions or…. I would eat nothing.
If I was NOT hungry enough to eat an apple — I was not hungry.
I used apples to train myself to at least STOP and recognize if what I was experiencing was TRUE hunger.
The worst day I had? Â I ate 6 apples. đ
I had days where I just couldn’t tell if I was hungry or mentally craving food/comfort/company. Â So I ate apples. Â Burden/guilt free…Â I was trying to teach myself to learn something new, so I gave myself permission to eat as many apples as needed.
And BOY did I learn. And man alive did I eat a lot of apples those first few months. đ
Just this week I had to buy another big ol’ bag of apples and put it front-and-center in the fridge to REMIND me to listen to my hunger. And not just eat because I’m bored or tired or frustrated or lazy.
I don’t think we are ever done learning.Â
And as much as you do NOT want to hear this… I don’t know that we — if we have a food addiction/issues/overeat — are EVER off the hook. We have to stay vigilant about not letting the bad behaviors creep back in.Â
Which is why there is a big bag of apples in my fridge even after 3+ years on this journey.
I find it ironic and fun that while we give apples to teachers as gifts, in my case APPLES have BEEN my teachers. đ
Sunrise. Day at a time. (Photo credit; Jeff Sherman)
I was at an event for work and a woman who hadn’t seen me in a while walked up to me during the reception;
‘I’m just going to follow you aroundand watch what you eat. I need to lose some weight. Maybe I can learn from you.’
Confession?
Nothing makes me more self conscious than knowing someone is watching or judging what I eat.
I spent a lifetime trying to hide the true bulk of what I was really consuming. And I got REALLY good at making sure no single person had the whole picture.
I mean, c’mon… I KNOW I was WEARING my poor eating habits for the whole world to see. But I had pretty solidly convinced myself I was hiding things well enough to deflect major attention.
Insecurities run deep and old habits die hard. Even now, I will still find ways to skip social events that involve food if at all possible.
Throw into this particular awkward ‘party’ mix that I had just done a LONG run. What could that possibly have to do with food you wonder??!  I was eating anything and everything that was not nailed down. I had burned 1,000+ calories running that morning and I was freaking HUNGRY.
And someone wanted to watch me eat?! Â Egad…Â
So, I promised her that I would share what I used to eat compared to what I eat these days. Â She promised to stop following me around. đ
So how do you get to be almost 400 pounds and a type 2 diabetic?
Here’s how: I would consume roughly 3,500-5,000 calories on any given day of fast food, carbs and highly processed foods. I was not exercising. This was how I spent the 1990’s and early 2000’s.
A fairly typical day looked like.
Breakfast: McDonalds Sausage biscuit, hash browns, large diet coke
Snack: Chips, large diet Dr. Pepper
Lunch: Qdoba nachos loaded, large diet coke
Snack: Candy or more chips, large diet Dr. Pepper
Pre-dinner snack: 2 McDonald’s cheeseburgers, large fries, large diet coke.
Dinner: Chicken enchilada casserole, rice and beans, chips and salsa
Snack: Ben and Jerry’s Phish Food ice cream
Unbelievable that someone could eat that poorly, that much? I WISH I was making this stuff up… But I really did eat all that stuff. Daily.
I have witnesses. Hell, I have PROOF.
My weight and a type 2 (T2) diabetes diagnosis are confirmation that this was pretty typical fare for me. FOR YEARS.
You don’t just suddenly wake up fat.
You actually have to work pretty hard to get there…
Starting in the early 2000’s, with my new T2 diagnosis, I spent about 8 years settling into a diabetic diet. Portions got smaller. I worked to glean out refined and overt sugar. I focused on a low-carb diet. I lost about 85 pounds during this time period and increased my walking over the years. It was NOT perfect, but it was a HUGE improvement.
July 2011 rolled around and I decided I was going to build a new and different lifestyle. I wanted to be healthy.
And then a WHOLE lot of additional changes have happened in the past 3+ years.
So, what does a day look like NOW?!
I consume about 1,500 – 2,100 calories a day; depending on what kind of exercise I’m doing. I try to work out 6 days a week. I eat a plant based diet.
A typical day pulled from the last month’s food journal:
I got a tattoo in San Francisco this past weekend.
I mean — why not?!?
We were in San Francisco for goodness sake! I had just finished a big bucket-list event. My friends Wendie and Jeff were getting them too.
That’s about all the motivation and reason most folks would need. Right?
Well, there is a little more to the story…
This little heart tattoo marks the spot where my type 2 (T2) diabetes diagnosis became VERY real for me.
The outside of my left foot.
I was wearing cute shoes to a conference in the early 2000’s. While totally adorable, the shoes gave me a nasty blister. Three months laterthat blister had NOT healed. In fact, it was infected and the wound site was growing.
I was referred to a wound-care specialist. Â At the same time I was being told that I was no longer pre-diabetic; I was FULL BLOWN T2 diabetic.
The wound-care folks were talking about treatment options being limited because of my uncontrolled T2 diabetes. High sugar in your blood doesn’t allow you to heal normally or well. They would try their best, but they would probably wind up having to cut off part of my foot to encourage healing...
WHAT?
Shitshitshitshitshit.
I was suddenly feeling very motivated to figure out how to become a well CONTROLLED T2. I did not want my life to be one set-back after another. One complication after another. Losing my feet one chunk at a time…
At one point in that first year of T2, my sister was going to get a tattoo. I had always wanted one. I was starting to get my blood sugars under control. I mentioned offhandedly to my doc at the time that I was going to get a tattoo with my sis. I remember his response…
‘That is the single stupidest thing I have ever heard. YOU have a team of people that barely saved your foot because you CAN NOT heal and you want to purposefully inflict a NEW open wound on your body? Find a new doctor.’
Um… OK…Â So maybe I don’t need a tattoo…
I buried the idea for more than a decade.
I saw my current doc this Fall. When she told me I was no longer a diabetic, I asked her if it would be OK for me to get a tattoo.  I told her I wanted a reminder of my T2 journey and the fact that I was NEVER, EVER slipping back to my old ways….
She tilted her head to the side and said…
‘I would get that tattoo on my foot if I were you.’
Spencer and I after The North Face Endurance Challenge, CA 12/2014.
Youâve heard of couch to 5K, the running/training app?
How about heart-monitor to 50K in 18 months?
No?
You haven’t heard of it?!?
Well, then let me tell you a storyâŚ
I met Spencer when I was super focused and quite a ways into my lifestyle re-vamp. I was down to 200 pounds and off insulin. I was working to get off all other meds and wanted to lose 40 more pounds. I was falling in LOVE with being able to MOVE; running specifically had captured my heart.
I was loving the active life I was building!Â
We were introduced randomly at work. âHey you both run. You know each other right?’Â
(Me at 200 pounds and teaching myself to begin to run, being introduced to a tall, thin, fit, very obviously a runner-looking dude…)
Spencer said ‘You run!’
I stuttered back something intelligent and confident like âUH⌠Iâm NOT THAT kind of runner⌠Not like youcan obviously run. I’m really, really slow. I just wanna be able to run a mile without walking…’
Spencer said âIt’s cool you run! Letâs grab coffee and talk about running.’
So we did.
I explained how I had gotten to the point of wanting to become a runner; mega weight loss, getting off insulin. Lifestyle changes, NOT diet.
I confessed I couldn’t run more than a mile or two. But I still told him my heart’s desire; I wanted to run an ultra someday. Did he even know what the heck I was talking about? Spencer, with a grin, said âYeah. Iâve heard of them.â Â ‘Do you really think someone like me could run an ultra?’ Â ‘Absolutely.’
Heard of them? Geez. Turns out he had RUN them!
The ultra world isnât very big. With DUMB luck I had just stumbled into someone who KNEW about them. More importantly to me? He was only the second or third person to greet my âultraâ goal with a POSITIVE response and not the now-standard âYOU are crazy.’
He asked me what I was doing to train. I told him; LOTS. I was running and biking and hiking and weight lifting and doing boot camp classes.  If a little is good, a lot is better. Right?!
Spencer said ‘You’re doing a lot. Be careful and maybe look at some structure to keep from getting hurt’.
My brain shut down at his words of caution…Â
I was SO, so, so tired of everyone preaching caution AT ME on this journey. Diabetes was trying to KILL me. Caution seemed stupid. Couldnât people see I was ACTUALLY going to win this war against diabetes if everyone would just get THE HELL OUT OF MY WAY?!!!
Turns out that I was JUST about to reach a very real breaking point…
June 2013 I literally hit the ground. I passed out in Safeway. An off-duty fireman walking toward me saw the impending train wreck and broke my fall…
I wound up in the ER.
Exhaustion and potassium depletion was what they finally told me. ‘Hang up your running shoes for a few weeks and give your body a break..’
I met Spencer for coffee again a few days after my visit to the ER â wearing a portable EKG/heart monitor. I was defeated, scared to death I was going to lose my foothold on this new lifestyle.
I was ready to LISTEN.
I needed help.
I really wanted to be a runner.
Blacking-out scared the crap out of me. I clearly did NOT know what in the hell I was doing. At all. I asked Spencer about structure. And preventing this from happening again. And coaching.
Spencer was not coaching anyone at that point. He was insistent about it.
After some additional conversations; I flat-out begged him to consider working with me. Some more conversations? He agreed we could give coaching a try for a short period of time.
Fast forward 18 months.
Spencer is still my coach. đ
There has been lots of cussing and learning and sassy moments as I struggled to be OK with trusting someone else to help me on this journey.
I had to learn to accept that Spencer really was on my side.
Please understand; that statement is NOT a judgement on Spencer. THIS whole journey of changing your entire lifestyle..? Â It can be lonely and hard. You get used to doing a lot of this stuff on your own, without crowd approval or understanding or support from anyone beyond a small handful of trusted friends.
To invite Spencer into this journey and then give him some portion of involvement and control was a very BIG step for me.
I ditched the heart monitor after a TON of tests. I got a totally clean bill of health after a period of serious rest. I had permission to start back to exercising and running – slowly and cautiously.
I started back from my ‘crash’ working with Spencer as my coach. Our goal? He was going to help me re-build in a healthy, sustainable, safe way.
The trial period worked out.
He hasn’t fired me. (Yet.)
And… I ran my first 50K this past weekend.
That is my heart-monitor to 50K program in 18 months story.
2014 North Face Endurance Challenge. Spencer (my coach) and I at the finish line. 50K in the books!
I just finished an ultra.
Running an ultra is something I have been thinking about for 3 years. My friend Josh Gum planted the idea in my head. ‘You do NOT have to run fast — you just have to run far.’ I am never going to be speedy. But stubbornly refusing to give up once I set my mind on something? Yeah that’s right up my alley. đ
I have been focused on training for this event for most of this year. I picked the North Face Endurance Challenge in San Francisco. Â It was a 50K, which is a 31 mile trail run. There were some pretty good hills and a TON of mud. It was perfect.
I had the BEST day!
This was an AMAZING day!
Yes… I am a little sore. And little hungry. And totally ready to do another one!
It feel so good to have been focused on a big goal for a long time, done all the hard work, put in the time to make it happen and to finally see it come to life right before your eyes.
I ran the entire race with my friend Jeff Sherman. Â (The one I talk into anything? Â Yeah… That guy!) Â BOTH of us — this was our first ultra.
Jeff and I at mile 6.2 Jeff’s first ever 10K DURING the 50K. Yup. He’d never done a 10K – and were just starting a 50K.
My coach Spencer was there at the finish line.
Spencer helped me get here.
This is NO small feat. We have been working together for the past 18 months. He has seen the good, the bad, the ugly, the temper tantrums, the success and the progress. He has built me into a runner. Â And I got to test all of our hard work on the hills north of San Francisco this weekend.
It was FANTASTIC!
And to top it all off? I was surrounded by a group of people who have been part of this dream and adventure from the start. We were all together.
I finally GOT to run an ultra.
Now I have to figure out what I GET to do next… đ
We talked about the mental aspects of obesity and  exercise…
What about the PHYSICAL side of this battle?
I’m 5’7″ and weighed 392 pounds at my heaviest.
Does not take much imagination to fathom that I was physically not able to move well because of my size.
Physical aspects of being obese and active come up in conversations with people who know me and are facing triple-digit weight loss.
Complete strangers who hear about my journey have engaged me in blunt, instantly-intimate, humbling conversations as well. ‘I sweat more than any human on the planet and you wouldn’t believe the problems it causes…’  (I would) or ‘I can’t put on shoes that tie because I can’t reach my feet”. I feel like I have heard just about everything.
Understanding is all most people really want.
Maybe a solution or two.
With a dash of hope.
I will share with you the top 5 physical challenges I faced along with notes on how I tackled some of these barriers. I hope that by sharing this level of blunt detail, I might remove some obstacles or excuses for folks.
Being morbidly obese is not for the WEAK
1. Big boobs. They get in the way when I eat and sit still. Put them in motion and you are just asking for trouble. Do they make sports bras in my size?
Sports bras come in ALL sizes. Some are great and some are useless. You get what you pay for. I bought cheap sports bras in the beginning of my lifestyle change because I KNEW I would be losing weight and that they wouldn’t fit for very long.
BIG mistake. Chafing, sore back, one bra even tried to strangle me after freeing the girls MID-CLASS. Disaster. After that little episode; I bought a GREAT sports bra. đ
They make bonafide, athletic-quality sports bras with serious motion control and back support for G cup and larger. Invest. You won’t regret it. It will make you feel braver. đ
2. I carry the bulk of my weight in my torso. I have a huge belly. Walking or physical activity with any intensity? Â This ‘body part’ has its on inertia.
Compression clothing is your new best friend if you have a large belly or loose skin on your torso. Compression gear is supposed to be TIGHT – like swearing, sweating and struggling just to get into it. It’s worn UNDER your workout clothes and holds things in check and limits motion.
I wore tank top style compression with the strongest panels being over my belly. Bonus? Compression tanks/shirts also serve as back up for the sports bra. Compression shorts for men and women work from the bottom up. Pun intended. đ Â
3. I can’t get up and off of the ground without some serious effort and hopefully a hand rail. I barely fit hip-to-hip on the largest treadmill. Some machines or equipment have weight limits; I exceed them.
(Get your doctors permission. MAKE sure they know you are getting started with a physical activity routine and see what advice they have for you.)
Seriously… Check out weight limits on yoga balls if you doubt me. Looking for the phrase ‘burst resistant’ does NOT build confidence.
Do NOT pick the hardest thing to get started.  If getting up and off the ground is difficult right now – pick an activity that doesn’t require that. Don’t set yourself up for failure or injury.Â
START where you are, not where you WISH you were.
My doctor told me to get started by walking, which I did. Walking was relatively gentle, could be done anywhere and was not as threatening as testing the true weight limit on a machine by accident. Her other suggestions were swimming (bathing suit. HELL NO!) or using a treadmill.
I slowly added in things that required me to move differently or stretch my boundaries a bit.
4. I have not seen my toes in years. My belly is in the way and I can’t do a sit up. I have NO stamina. I can only do 10 minutes of activity, not a full 45 minute class.
You HAVEÂ to start somewhere.
Pick something that you will enjoy and that will make you sweat WITHOUT injury. You can add complexity, intensity once you get moving and gain confidence. Â
I couldn’t do sit-ups, had NO stamina, couldn’t do push-ups, couldn’t run, couldn’t bend, just getting to the gym was a freaking full-out cardio workout….
Trying exercises when you can’t fully do them felt stupid and useless. Â
BUT it is not. You have to get started. Do one. The next time do two. SERIOUSLY. Start THAT small. So what if anyone else is doing 10 minutes or 50 reps? Â Even they had to start somewhere. You just weren’t there at THEIR beginning.
Start where you are and work from there. Â
NOÂ COMPARISONS.
(Except against your old self.)
Remember that you will SEE progress at some point if you stick with it. And progress — progress is magic!
DO NOT expect INSTANT.
But keep your eyes peeled for the slightest hint of progress. And celebrate the hell out of it!!!
5. Do they even make workout clothes in larger sizes? Â And does it have to be form-fitting spandex..? Hell.
They do make sizes 5X and larger. Some of them are really cute while being functional. Cute is NOT important in a sports bra. But cute clothes? I’m a fan of cute clothes. Â (With polka dots.) Â
Get in some comfortable clothes that let you move about freely and let you sweat.
And yes, they use a lot of Spandex.
No, it’s not to be mean. It’s so you can move.
You want your clothes to fit to your body and NOT be in the way. Â I was super guilty of wearing anything that resembled a tent to cover my bulk. Â Not sure who I thought I was fooling. Large, loose fitting clothes will actually get in your way. Â Trust me.
This is about clothing your body in the right ‘tools’ so you can get moving.Â
Those were my top 5 challenges and pretty much in the order of what I feared AND then had to learn about.
Not everyone has the same challenges, but I know from multiple conversations that these are fairly common concerns.
These issues AND the solutions are largely not talked about in the circles of obese active folks because it is just freaking embarrassing stuff to have to talk about.
This post was taunting me for weeks. And honestly, I’m still kind of cringing at seeing it all written out…
BUT if sharing these details can help someone, anyone, get past their embarrassment AND into the ‘gym’… Then I will keep sharing.
‘You don’t have to be great to start, but you have to start to be great.’ — Zig Ziglar
Running with my dear friends Wendie and Hannah at night, with headlamps! Fun!
Disneyland. Circa 2004. I was close to 350 pounds. Exhausted form all the standing and walking.
I was convinced I was too fat to exercise.Â
When I talk with people facing mega-weight loss this topic always emerges as one of their core frustrations, embarrassments and concerns. It was one of my core concerns, for more than a decade.
I will tackle the physical barriers in another blog. Â But, in my opinion, the MENTAL hurdles are just as fearsome.
So how do you get your mind to quiet down enough so that you can get your butt to the gym to get started??!
It seems to be a radically different tipping point for everyone.Â
My tipping point?!  When I finally understood that food alone was not going to get me where I was trying to go. If I was going to control T2 diabetes, exercise had to be added.
I had to get moving.
From the point where I knew I HAD to add exercise to where IÂ set foot in the gym? Â Six months. I spent six months battling the demons in my head. (List below.)
When you are obese and totally out of shape and you finally take the big, brave step to join the world of the physically active you feel VULNERABLE beyond belief.
I felt ragged and mentally exhausted before I even set foot in the ‘gym’.
(Gym?! I use the word generically to mean any place where you are going to make an effort and will BE SEEN. Walking down your street, classes at a community center, hitting your city pool.)
So what kind of thoughts were zinging around in my head for 10+ years? Here are my “I am too fat to be seen trying to exercise” thoughts:
Fat people don’t belong in the world of fit and thin people. We are not welcome and do not belong.
I am desperately afraid someone is going to mock me, laugh at me or be mean.
It will be UGLY. I am not a pretty crier. I am not a pretty ‘sweat’er.
I am beyond help. Â I don’t know where to start. Â Why bother at this point?
Thin people are disgusted by fat people. I do NOT want to see the look of pity or disgust when I wind up next to them on a treadmill at the gym.
I will have to shower after working out. Which means I have to be naked. The likelihood of having the locker room all to myself is about ZERO. Which means… Kill me now.
Did I mention I was afraid people were going to laugh at me?
Having just shared my fears… I must confess that one of my fears did play out early in my gym-going career.
Humiliating story, but I share it because the experience wound up providing me with clarity and motivation.
I had been going to the gym about a month. I was probably 325+ pounds. There were two guys on the mats near me. One guy stage-whispered to his friend; “Dude, why is she even trying? It’s not like it’s going to make a difference.”
I froze. I was the only other person around. They were talking about me. I was wounded. Mortified. Humiliated. I tried hard NOT to cry… Failed. I laid on the mats and cried once they walked away. It stung deeply for at least a week.
I had been worried people were thinking that EXACT thing about me. Someone had just proven me right.
But eventually it made me mad.
It ultimately made me more determined.
Why?! Â When I stopped to really think about it, I had already seen progress in the four short weeks I had been going to the gym. Almost every other person had been nice to me. My blood sugars were better than they had ever been. My pants were fitting looser. I could walk more laps on the track.
I belonged there as much as he did.
As much as anyone did.
I may have been fat, but he was a jackass.
I’m now healthy, but I bet he’s still a mean jerk.
The rest of my experiences with going to the gym? Â Routine.
Don’t get me wrong; The work was (still is!) hard. LOTS of sweat. Learning was scary. I had some physical challenges. I still felt totally intimidated. But really… The fears I kept rattling around in my head; were all just that. In my head.
No one cared that I was there. Â Really.
No one laughed, mocked or made fun of me. OK. One guy, one incident. The rest of the time?People kindly asked me if I needed help if I stood staring at a machine.
No one cared that I was fat and in ‘their space’. Seriously NO ONE was even looking at me or anyone else for that matter.
Do you want to know what happened the very FIRST time I went to the gym?
I walked into the locker room with my gym bag, looking like I was either going to cry or bolt. I am sure it was both. A woman saw my distress, waved at me and said ‘Hey – do you need help finding your locker? I did when I started here…”
She assumed I belonged. She offered to help and was friendly.  Not a hint of judgement. She instantly smashed some of my long held fears to smithereens.
It cost her nothing to be kind. I valued it deeply.
Have I had bad moments, met mean people, had pointed comments made to me? YES. Â But the life-truth is that there are mean, ignorant people in the world, well beyond the walls of a gym. Are you going to let them stop you?!
Have I felt dumb and ill-equipped and out of my league? I have fallen off of a stationary bike.  Twice. đ  This is where having a sense of humor and being able to laugh at yourself is KEY.
Have I wanted to quit? More times than I can count. BUT I was determined to win the war against T2 diabetes. I made friends who held me accountable and expected me to show up. Â FRIENDS and staying focused on your goal are key in the ‘not quitting’ process.
I thought I was too fat to exercise, but I started anyway.
(What was your tipping point? Â I would love to hear your success story!)
Hannah and I at the gym. Yes, this breaks some rules of civility to take selfies in the gym. It TOTALLY breaks the rules Spencer (running coach) has for us. We’re rebels. đ
I can talk Jeff into almost anything. And I know it. Even when it involves handing my phone to a homeless person and convincing Jeff to jump off of a wall for the sake of a picture. đ
Meet Jeff Sherman.
Jeff is my friend, work colleague and a trusted running partner.
He started running with me simply because he didn’t like that I was running alone in the dark, early morning. Â He doesn’t consider himself a runner. (He is.) Â The first run or two (or 10) were a true testament of our friendship. Â Let’s just say that he wasn’t a big fan of running and he found ways to express his opinion using creative language. đ
We have run together a ton this past year. Jeff has patiently taken the time to teach me a few important life skills. Among the most useful skills for running? Â Snot rockets and spitting WITH the wind. (There is at least one other thing you should do WITH the wind as well…) Â đ
He’s like the brother I never had and have ALWAYS wanted. Â He tells me the truth, even when I really don’t want to hear it. He always helps me out and only sometimes does it include a lecture.
He is also one of a very small handful of people who knew me at my heaviest and who RUNS with me now. He has seen the transformation over the years. He knew me as a full-blown diabetic. He knows how hard I have worked – first to manage the disease and then finally to reverse it. He’s heard the questions I get asked, the comments that get made. He has seen me when I am struggling to learn something new. And he has been there at more than a few finish lines/special life moments where I was on top of the WORLD!
Take it away Jeff…
When Betsy said, âwould you write a blog?â My first comment was sarcasticâŚ
‘My thoughts already work like a blogâ words in disarray with pictures. PERFECT!’
The truth isâthis is harder than it looks, but I am so proud of Betsy for putting her journey out to the world. So, of course I am so excited to contribute.
And, itâs a blogâso obviously the grammar is not perfect and my ideas are not based on research! I love this.
For context, a few points about our friendship, because I hear all the time, âYou know Betsy Hartley?:
I do know Betsy! She began working in higher education when I began as a true freshman in College (2005).
She can (and will) talk me into anything. See #3.
I did not like running when I began RUNNING with Betsy. We have been running together for a year.
She is my inspiration for maintaining a healthy lifestyle and a positive outlook on life.
Betsy and I (and the friends/family around us) are genuinely happy people. We know that everyone has baggage and crap, but I am specifically going to write about the things we do to keep the positivity flowing:
Smile and laugh. A lot.
Smiling is easy (flex those cheeks… đ ) and laughter is CONTAGIOUS. Notice the picture below? We laugh all the time.
So much so that we are avoided by one particular person at the gym who canât stand happy people. (If I was typing on my iPhone I would add a shrugging emoji icon).
No matter where we have been in our life journeys, fitness, other struggles, etc. The smiles are the genuine.
Betsy is awesome for MANY reasons. But, I think the most central awesomeness component, is that she genuinely cares about people.
I will give an example: newcomers in the gym generally feel overwhelmed, especially if they are alone (see point 4), she will be the person who goes out of her way to introduce herself, smile, and learn the personâs name.
An upcoming blog from Betsy will have more about her journey in the gym.
It costs nothing to be nice to people.
Try to avoid comparing your journey with someone else’s. (Or, in Betsy language: eat your own damn elephant).
Once I realized I would never be a six foot tall Menâs Health Magazine Cover model, it made working out more fun. And, there is a whole lot less pressure.
âComparison is the thief of joyâ âBetsy Hartley
Find an activity AND PEOPLE you like – get moving!
Honestly, being active with friends is the most fun for me.
Like I said before, Betsy is my motivation to stay active, and she keeps me accountable. Find friends like that.
Also, if you are newer to fitness: I have found the buddy system makes me more relaxed in the gym, feel safer trail-running (especially in the dark-ass mornings that Betsy runs), and provide a supportive environment to ask the tough questions about life in general.
Hopefully, this short little extroverted ramble was helpful for someone.
In closing: smile more, sit less, encourage others, and find great people to be active with!
Size 28 pants. They don’t fit anymore. And I plan to keep it that way. đ
“How do you get through the holidays and not gain weight?”
I have been asked this question more than a dozen times this past week alone.
The Thanksgiving Holiday is the official start of an entire eating season. đÂ
This is my fourth Thanksgiving (roughly 1,200+ days) with my new eating habits. So what is my strategy for staying active and eating healthy during our food-obssessed Holiday season?
I create and stick to a plan.Â
My plan for this Holiday season is not very sexy/cool/fun. It’s simple and straight forward. If you have ever gone on a diet of any kind, you’ve heard most of the tips I now rely on.
The specific strategies aren’t the point. The point is that I have a plan.  And I follow the plan to the best of my ability.
So, what is my plan for Thanksgiving?
Activity. I am going for a run. I will work up a sweat. No, I am NOT exercising SO I can eat more. I am exercising to be healthy and live a balanced life. Exercise is a habit and a choice. I don’t skip it just because it’s a Holiday.
I wear snug, bordering on uncomfortably tight clothing to the meal. NOT gonna feel like over-eating if my pants are already cutting me in half.
I take along foods I know I want to eat, and that fit with my food lifestyle.
Good conversations, games, distractions. It should never be all about food.
I keep a flavored/favorite water on hand and TANK ON IT.
Eat a normal breakfast.
Load my plate with veggies and salad and fill up on that FIRST.
This is NOT the only meal of the day. NOT the only meal of the year. It’s not like I couldn’t make/get ANY of this stuff, ANY time. Don’t let perceived scarcity/specialness lure me into eating more than I intended.
Fruit for dessert.
When I am done eating, but I am tempted to graze? I chew sugar free cinnamon gum. Kills the taste buds. (I chew a LOT of cinnamon gum.)
I told you; nothing earth-shattering in my plan. Probably all things you have heard before.
HAVING a plan and sticking to it is really the point. (And having a pack of SF cinnamon gum. Don’t forget the gum.)
all bets are off... 