My Beliefs for a Fitness Lifestyle (and disbeliefs list too)

Here are my beliefs when it comes to achieving and maintaining fitness goals* for the long haul. I hope you enjoy, and dare I say, agree?!

I believe:

1. In exercise to lose and maintain weight
2. That eating right is always the answer
3. That you cannot deprive yourself of all your wants or else you'll go insane
4.  I believe it is only fair to complain about the struggle of weight when one is actually struggling to make a difference in their life (see justification in #5 of disbelief section)
5. That you will be misinterpreted as extreme in what you eat and how you change your lifestyle, so much to the point that people may 

• Be intimidated by you (possibly jealousy for having control over your decisions and making conscientious ones)
• Cut the friendship (although it's not a real friendship if your 'friends' can't understand why you prefer to eat homemade meals as opposed to going out)
• Judge you for doing what is right for Y-O-U. To naysayers of the positive change you want to see in your life, I say you thank them because you give us all motivation and drive to succeed. If you have felt this way about maintaining a healthy lifestyle-please comment and share your feelings...does it frustrate you? Motivate you? Make you return judgement? 

I do not believe:

1. Fad diets of any kind
2. Diets that make your pee smell (cabbage, anyone?)
3. Diets that allow you to eat whatever you want for dinner but make you eat their shakes, bars, etc. for breakfast and lunch
4. Any diet that will result in someone's or some company's profit via products sold (books, articles, dvds, tips & tricks excluded). I'm talking about "buy this shake/pill/bar and lose weight" edible products 
5. 'Should'ers-this type of person we have all encountered that ALWAYS drop the line(s)
• "I should eat better" 
• "I should start working out"
•  "I shouldn't have eaten that chocolate cake"
•  "I shouldn't have had seconds"                                                                                                

           all while stuffing more food into their mouth or sneakily returning to the scene of the crime when no one is looking and having "just one more nibble." My gut wrenching reaction has always been that this person should give a sh*t about themselves, stop b*tchin' and make a change. Furthermore, it's difficult for me to sympathize with someone overweight that talks like this when they are beyond the age of reason and aren't doing anything to change their present circumstances. In this case, misery does not need any company as I believe a camaraderie of being lazy is a very unhealthy relationship. It enables overweight acceptability among the companions even though all parties know and feel it's not okay. Basically, I believe it is only fair to complain about the struggle when one is actually battling to make a difference (see #4 in belief section).

Can you tell I don't believe in diets?! Here's the thing: diets are not the answer because the MOMENT you get off that diet, your body reverts back to what you were doing before...nothing. Inevitably, you will gain back all the weight you lost and also regain the self-depreciating attitude and insecurities about your image that you had that probably made you get on the diet in the first place. When you diet, you do not train your body for the long haul. In fact, the only things you do train is your psyche that this type of eating, and often cases starving, is okay and that you'll  be on this roller-coaster of ups and downs forever. This is not a healthy line of thought and definitely does not make one happy and fulfilled in life. If you don't get active then there's no point. Your muscles will deteriorate and everyday tasks like taking laundry up a flight of stairs will put you out of breath. Your chances of heart attack, stroke, diabetes, etc. increases exponentially. 

Don't get me wrong, I l-o-v-e food; however, I had to face the music after realizing that flights of stairs exhausted me, that I preferred to sit more than stand thanks to long hours at the office training me to stay at my desk, and eventually seeing that I could no longer take off my wedding ring for cleanings because it was too tight on my fingers. I use my hands a lot throughout the day-seeing my ring not look as spectacular as it should was a daily reminder that I needed to change.

Question: What's your reminder that you need to change? What did you or what do you still avoid to ignore that you are physically unfit? I know I mentioned before that I avoided mirrors but I am curious to see what others did to sneakily trick their mind and lie to themselves that everything was copacetic.  

Sidenote*: This is my personal opinion on the topic of weight loss for the long haul. My apologies in advance if anyone is offended. All I ask is that you reflect on whether you are offended because I personally attacked you, or that I may have made you upset because what I said may be true of your characteristics, or that you may be throwing money down the drain with diets that don't and won't work for the long run. My guess is that the offense comes from the latter reasons of the previous sentence. I am definitely not perfect and I do not believe that my method is the only and right way to lose weight and keep it off, nor am I this petite being that has made the change permanently in my life. I do, however, challenge those naysayers of my opinion to do their diets, 'should'ing, etc, and we will compare notes, waist lines and weight loss after 2 years and see where we stand. Let the games begin. Oooohraaah. 

Love w/ all my bum,

CH