I’d love to tell you to throw out your scales, but that would mean that I’m a hypocrite, because I weigh myself nearly every day—at least when I remember to. Having said that, you can never really be sure whether you’ve gained or lost weight with a scale, at least not exactly. This especially, and more so goes for when you work out and build muscle, because although muscle doesn’t weigh more than fat, and that’s merely a common myth, it sure appears that way when you start working out.
I’m posting this semi-embarrassing shot of me from three days ago, after forcing my friend to take a before picture, because he said that I looked “fuller” than I usually did, and trust me, I did. You can’t even tell just how “full” I looked in this shot alone, but that’s all you get folks, because the other ones were too embarrassing, and to be honest, I’m becoming somewhat of an introvert lately, and one might even call me somewhat anti-social—at least for the time being. Hey, sometimes, you have to work on yourself… and maybe even more so, when you’re trying to help others by giving them your light, love, and advice.
So let it be known… I went on a work out hiatus for quite some time. Well, except for my occasional squatting challenge attempts, which usually tended to die out after a week or two. I love having a great body, and I never fully went on a hiatus, but for the most part I did. Especially, if you consider the amount that I used to work out. I used to work out—brace yourself, because I know it’s a bit extreme, but hey, I was going through a breakup—I worked out for approximately 5-6 hours a day.
My workouts usually consisted of me riding my bike to and from the gym, at which I spent a few hours at. Then I would sometimes go on a hike, and at times, even a hiking first date—which I definitely won’t do anymore, being that for some reason we ended up getting lost for like 3 hours and I was already sore and could barely walk. Then having to hitchhike home because I couldn’t walk. I’m not really sure how a fifteen minute hiking date turned into such an awful 3 and a half hour—yes, I think it was even more than just 3 hours—hike date. I mean, how does someone start off at Reseda Blvd. in Tarzana, and end up somewhere on Topanga on the road towards Malibu. I still can’t figure out why he wanted to go out again.
Suffice it to say, I stopped going to the gym, and frankly, I got tired of going hiking or even hearing about other people hiking. It got boring after a while. Same hike, same route… it gets boring. It just starting seeming as if LA-lifestyle started to bore me. What can I say—I’m being honest. People take endless selfies on their incredible hikes and I don’t know why, but it started to annoy me. Especially, because I was one of them. And as far as why I stopped going to the gym… the attention I got, I didn’t want. I just wanted to work out, and if you’ve ever been to 24 Hour Fitness by Sepulveda and you’re a woman with two eyes, and an average looking body, people will interrupt you to chat, no matter what you wear, what you look like, and even if you’re in the middle of going at a fast pace on your elliptical while draining out the noise with headphones blasting Rocky’s theme song—the guys there are relentless. I wanted my privacy, and my preference was to either get a two week affordably-free membership at Equinox, go walking around the track near Balboa, or to basically, not work out.
Now, for the juicy stuff…
So you’re probably wondering what the big difference is in the picture, and you can complain all that you want about how I’m wearing different clothes, and you might even say that you like the before picture better—Everyone is always going to have an opinion. My point is that frankly, I don’t care about anyone’s opinion of me, because I know what makes me look and feel the best, and my ultimate aim is to please myself. Having said that, when you see the picture, just know that 3 days isn’t very long, yet the difference from my before and after picture is still pretty visible.
I started a new health regimen, and I started it about 3 days ago in the evening. Here’s what I did.
I bought two new workout machines off of Craigslist—O.K., one of them was a gift, and the other one I bought. I guess I got what I paid for, because the elliptical doesn’t work, and it’s stuck on the hardest level, which makes it so that I can’t even use it for more than 1 or 2 minutes a day—believe it or not. And I must say, it was a great disappointment because my intention was to use the elliptical for hours and throughout the day, and even in between meals and writing articles. But I guess that will have to wait. So the elliptical didn’t do much for my new sexy bod.
The second machine I bought was a hanging leg raise machine, and yes, it’s the best one, with all of the great back support and whatnot. I love this bad boy! But still, I’m working my way up from my hiatus of no work out to being active once again. What can I say, I spend most of my time sitting behind my computer now, writing up a storm. O.K., so I’m slightly embarrassed to say how often I use this new, crazy-amazing hanging leg raise machine, but I’m a work in process, and I’m building slowly—and I’ve always said, you have to do what works for you. So this works for me… 20-25 leg lifts a day to start. I think I started out with 10, but like I said, I’m building.
Next, I started doing a few push ups, and not even the girly-kind. I’m doing my pushups against a dresser on an angle. Now, I realize that one might consider this type of pushup to be even worse and less effective than a girly-push up, but I beg to differ. It works, and my chest and arms were sore the next day after doing merely 20 or so.
Before I forget to mention it, I recently became a vegetarian. O.K., so maybe not a complete vegetarian, but a definite pescatarian. I still eat fish, but not shellfish—never had it, and not planning on it. Anyway, this change happened about one month or so ago, and just after I gained maybe 10 pounds, or at least, it looked like it. Fine! I gained 15! So I’m not sure that being “somewhat” of a vegetarian had much to do with my weight change, because after all, one might generally assume that cutting out beef, chicken, and other meats from your diet would help you to lose weight.
Coming to terms with being a vegetarian has been a process, or at least remembering that I’m a vegetarian has been as you might say, somewhat challenging. I’ve caught myself being hungry and driving all the way down to In and Out for a double burger wrapped in lettuce, only to remember that I couldn’t eat it anymore, and leaving with two orders of fries. That probably didn’t help my weight gain, but I didn’t do that very often anyway. All in all, I was pretty moderate when it came to the way that I previously ate.
Now, I’m well aware that I just made you read all of the above, before telling you what made the most difference in my new sexy look—What! That wasn’t a hubris statement, I look hot. So here’s what I did…
I gave up sugar. Not fresh fruit, but more so, things like candy—which I completely over-indulged in—and other things like ice cream, cake, cookies, and all other pastry types of things. Don’t get me wrong, because I still indulge and eat chips and whatnot. And I definitely believe in indulging once in awhile. But, there comes a point when a grown-up starts to act like a little kid and eats like 5-6 candy bars a day, and that’s when you know that you have a problem. What can I say? I love Twizzlers and Red Vines. Shhhhhh! O.K., Let’s not talk about my ex-love, Twizzlers, for now—it’s still too new. But seriously, removing sugar from my diet made the biggest difference, and you can probably tell in the picture below by my arms and my stomach—where there will soon be some abs resurfacing as soon as I use my new machine a little bit more.
All in all, sugar is poison, just as much as fast food, if not more. I don’t know actually, because I recently did see a picture posted online showing a burger and fries from McDonald’s that were left out for many, many months, never having grown any mold or discoloration—scary. Hmm… the guilt is rising within me now for speaking loshon hora about Mickey D’s. But then again, is it really loshon hora when you’re warning people not to do something that will hurt them in some way. O.K., now my guilt is gone! Stay the heck away from fast food and sugar—except for fresh fruit. Fresh fruit is good to eat. I don’t care what this or that nutritionist or even Doctor will tell you—the sugar from FRESH fruit is NOT bad for you. If anything, it brings life to your skin tone, gives you great energy, and makes you feel happy. That reminds me, I need to buy more raspberries.
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