Focusing on Being Healthy

It has been one of those weeks where no matter how much sleep I get, I am dragging my feet and struggling to stay awake throughout the day. Maybe it is because of the cold and snowy weather we\’ve been having all week, but I have been abnormally tired. That makes it incredibly hard to get up at 5:30 in the morning to go to the gym, or go right to swim practice when I get home from work. Every morning my alarm goes off that early, it makes me want to cry, throw the covers over myself and pretend I don\’t hear it going off. I would MUCH rather sleep for another two hours before having to force myself out of bed. Same goes for my swimming days. Tuesdays and Thursdays, I swim at 7:30 at night right after I get home from work. I am dog tired from a full day of working, and there are plenty of times where I consider just throwing on my jammies and calling it a day. But I know how important it is to get my daily exercise in and I know I have to suck it up and get it done. Getting to the gym, or getting to the pool is always the hardest part. Once I\’m there and get moving, it\’s so much better. And the feeling of getting through another good workout when I\’m finished is always an awesome feeling. 

There are a couple of reasons why I am so religious about getting a good workout in every day. First, I\’ve said it a million times, but I\’ll say it again; ever since I was little, my parents have set the tone for us kids and really encouraged us to stay active and get plenty of exercise. My dad has his 11+ years of consecutive exercise streak going, and my mom tries to make a habit of exercising every day as well. They signed us up for all kinds of activities as small kids, like soccer, gymnastics, and softball. Then once we were old enough to start doing school sports, they encouraged us to do a sport every season. I found swimming and didn\’t have any problem doing that year round throughout middle school and high school, and even college and after college. Even if it is not even necessarily a team or school sport, my parents wanted us to exercise as often as we could, and I have always taken that seriously.

Although, I didn\’t always take it quite as seriously as I do now. When I was in high school and younger, I would work out on swimming days; but if I didn\’t have practice one day, I didn\’t work out. I didn\’t think I needed to. At the same time, I have always had an issue with my eating habits. I often joke that I live to eat, not eat to live. I just LOVE food, and often I have a hard time getting myself to quit eating even when I know I am full. In my early high school days, I did what many teenage girls often do, and I was comparing my body to other girls around me. At the time, I didn\’t like what I was seeing. I was never over weight by any means, but there was a time when I was starting to get a little pudgy. And participating in a sport where I wear almost nothing made me feel even worse about myself. I started taking my exercise habits more seriously after that, and started cross training on the days where I didn’t have practice. I started to make daily exercise a priority.

HOWEVER. Being healthy is 20% exercise and 80% DIET. My new workout plan was going well and I was beginning to slim out the way I wanted to. But when I got to college, and really started going to town on eating whatever whenever I wanted to, I got a wake-up call. I gained the dreaded freshman 15. I knew that if I wanted to look and feel good about myself, that I not only needed to focus on my exercise habits, but I needed to work on my diet as well. I’ve never been one to follow a strict dieting pattern, and I don’t think I ever will. I don’t believe that I have to cut bread out of my diet, or count my calories. I’m not saying it’s bad to do those things, but I don’t think I need to take it that far. I just need to work on portion control. I already eat a pretty healthy diet with the occasional splurge on sweets and goodies, I just eat way too much of everything in general. Lately, I’ve been much better about stopping when I am full, and not going back for second and third helpings, and I have seen a real difference in how I look.

So, not only have I had the idea of exercising regularly and eating healthy drilled into me since I was born, but I work on these things as hard as I do because it makes me feel better about myself. This is one of those things I choose to be selfish about because I know it is important if I want to live a long and healthy life. I’m not saying it’s easy, because it isn’t. The exercise part I don’t struggle with as much, other than pulling myself out of bed in the morning. I know I will feel guilty if I don’t get my workout in for the day, so I make myself get out there and do it. I still struggle sometimes with my diet just because the best tasting foods are the worst foods for you, and I’m always torn between eating what’s good for me and saying “screw it” and just eating what I want. And like I said earlier, an occasional splurge on the bad foods isn’t going to kill you, but when that occasional splurge becomes daily, that’s when you have to try harder to fight the urges. For me, I’ve had to stop buying chips, and I tell Nathan not to buy chips either because I can’t stay away from them. I’ll sit down and intend to only eat a few, and the next thing I know, half the bag is gone. It’s constantly hard work, but it is worth it when you see the results you want. 

So, if you’re like me, and wake up one day and don’t like what you see in the mirror, go out and do something about it! Working out daily is hard. Eating healthy is hard. If they were easy, everyone would be doing it. It is something that takes a lot of effort and a lot of planning, but it’s not impossible. The only thing stopping you from being the best version of yourself, is you. So get out there and start working on being the best you possible. And if anyone needs a gym partner, you know where to find me!

Until next time! 🙂

Megan Reiffenberger