Getting started

Thankful for the day off today (though does fitness ever really sleep? Weight gain and pesky pounds sure don't thats for sure, am I right ladies?) as I was definitely feeling the effects of deadlifts yesterday. I still haven't achieved my goal of eating more vegetables, but apparently roasted broccoli is awesome so I'm going to try it next week (and if it's not the best thing I've ever tried, I will never take a suggestion from you again Steck). I also took a big step today and emailed my friend whose bachelor party I'm attending in two days to tell him about my dietary restrictions and some work arounds. I think it's important and can be a big help to your personal goals to tell others what you are trying to do. For big weekend camping events (we're going to be off in Tahoe somewhere) when people say "don't worry I'm handling the food" it naturally means lots of chips, pb and j sandwiches, maybe some meat to grill, and other snacks that I probably should stay away from. By simply telling him I was trying to avoid gluten (I didn't break down paleo in the email), it was really easy to ask him to pick up some beef jerky / almonds / and extra of whatever meat we're grilling for my snacks (but matt if he's such a good friend shouldn't he know? well he might not read the blog, shocking, I know.) so hopefully I can maintain my quest to be gluten free.

So my advice for people looking to start a fitness plan is as follows:

1) take photos of yourself - thats what got me motivated. Sometimes we don't believe what we can't see, and in my case it was my double chin forming. A couple photos really got me motivated to change it.

2) Tell people - start a blog (and share the link), or get a group of friends to do it together. Fitness shouldn't be a secret that you keep to yourself, let other's successes motivate you and push you to work harder. Sure you have to put up with some awkward "you're on a diet??" ( to which I want to explain that a diet = what you eat, and that everyone's on "a diet" and the only thing I did was change mine, but alas I digress) but I find it quite enjoyable when people come to me with questions.

3) Write it down. Tony Horton of p90x made one of the most prophetic statements of our time when he talks about not knowing what to do if you don't know what you did. At the small non profit oil company I work for, we occasionally have guest speakers come talk about fitness and getting into shape. One year the speaker gave what I think is the best advice, he said everyday you should write down "if I did today everyday for a year, I would look...(insert blank), feel.. (insert blank), etc". Writing things down and keeping food logs also adds another layer of accountability, especially if you have to show those logs to people. Thats essentially what I want this blog to be, a place where I can write down everything I did that day (and gives me a creative outlet for writing).

4) Put your money where your mouth is - I'm not gonna lie, crossfit is expensive. It's expensive enough that I will NOT miss class. Totally worth it.

5) Set tangible goals - Don't say to yourself "I want to lose some weight", thats too abstract. Start with 10lbs and then reward yourself for achieving that goal. I've found turning everything into manageable smaller goals works best.

Once again I'm no expert, and am definitely not in super duper shape and haven't been mistaken for a replica of the David statue. What I just listed are the techniques that are helping me get there though.

Finally, I made paleo meatloaf this week. I actually really like meatloaf whereas some people think its the worst thing on the planet. I used grassfed beef and it was not only delicious, but gave me 5 meals out of it (and the price per meal goes down with each batch because I don't have to buy almond meal each time, etc).