Category: Healthy Diet

Why I Don’t Seek Approval From Others Regarding My Weight

Why I Don't Seek Approval From Others Regarding My Weight - 2015-03-15 13.51.25

When I was nineteen years old I went to the doctor for a routine check up and when the nurse weighed me, I discovered I was thirty pounds overweight.  After receiving the news, I decided to join a gym and started taking exercise classes.  What’s interesting is I never looked at myself negatively at the time.  I simple realized that I had gained more weight than I needed and should do something about it.

I have a background in ice skating, ballet, and cheerleading so being active was nothing new for me.  After taking a few classes, I quickly realized that the fitness industry was something I wanted to participate in and started teaching group exercise classes.

It was over the next few years that I began to fall prey to an obsession with weight and my looks. I experimented with bland diets and trained hard six days per week.  I shrunk down to a size zero and became obsessed with being skinny and having a perfectly flat abdomen.  People were impressed with my tiny yet muscular physique and I was constantly complimented for it.  Life was good!  Until I crashed.

I became depressed, my body was in pain, and my hormonal system was going haywire.  It turns out that I had been overtraining and God didn’t design me to be a size zero.   The road to recovery physically was a combination of light exercise (twenty minute walks with my dogs) combined with proper rest, and a much more balanced diet that included way more fat than I had been consuming.

Part of my recovery was to gain weight.  Here’s where the emotional healing came into the picture.  Believe it or not gaining weight can be way harder mentally than losing weight.  When you’ve placed a lot of your self worth on your looks, gaining weight for your health can be a scary proposition.  Ask anyone who has overcome an eating disorder.  I had to stop caring what the magazines and even some of the women in my own family said about how I should look and discover what my natural body weight really was.  It turns out I’m pretty curvy.

By the grace of God I was able to overcome my issues with self image and I’m very comfortable in my own skin today but it wasn’t always easy.  I no longer exercise and eat based on the approval of the diet and fitness industry.  I focus on looking my own personal best.  Eating healthy and taking care of my body to maintain an active and fun lifestyle has become the priority.  Being there for my husband and four dogs in a vibrant manner is more important to me than the number on the tag inside my jeans.

When I look back and ask myself who it was all for, I realize that I was searching for the approval of others.  It was a combination of strangers, the fitness industry, and – this one’s a kicker – people that had their own image issues they were struggling with.  Don’t ever let someone that has their own self-esteem issues coach you on how you should view your self worth.  Love them, but be careful what you take in.

I believe we have a responsibility to take care of ourselves in a healthy way and look our best.  However, I don’t believe in crazy dieting that is restrictive and leaves you hungry.  Or exercising to the point of discomfort just to fit in and be accepted by a certain percentage of our society.  Bodies really do come in all shapes and sizes and exercise and diet is extremely personal.

Whether you’ve been on a health and fitness journey for some time now or you’re just getting started, it’s important that you’re motivated by the right reasons.   It’s completely normal to want to feel good about how your clothes fit, look your best for your spouse, or get in shape so you can play with your kids.  But, if you’re torturing and/or harming yourself just to gain the approval of those around you, I encourage you to take a step back and reevaluate.  Doing whatever it takes to be camera-ready is a lot of pressure for a model or an actor and they are getting paid for it.  Why take on that stress when you aren’t even getting paid?

We all have a responsibility to look and be the best we can be.  I believe becoming strong and  lean is a healthy goal as long as reaching your ideal physique doesn’t require unhealthy diets or overtraining your body to the point of a potential injury.  I encourage you to design a healthy lifestyle you can sustain and keep it fun.

Bodies will age and our looks will change; that doesn’t mean you can’t age with grace.  I want that for you and I’m here to help you do it.  It just means we should focus on shining as brightly on the inside as we do on the outside.

I believe 2016 is going to be a phenomenal year.  I pray it’s your most successful year yet in every area of your life.

Shared with love,
Jennifer Ledford

 

Just Say No To The Diet Trap!

Woman is Hungry Dieting - Lose weight without the diet trap - by personal trainer Jennifer Ledford

Today’s article comes from deep within my heart.

It’s a brand new year and for many people a new year means fresh new goals and/or resolutions.  If your goal is to lose weight, it can be really tempting to try the latest fad diet that the fitness or diet industry is promoting.  It’s a normal human response to be intrigued by all the marketing that these industries roll out in January… especially if you’ve gained a few pounds over the holidays.

Before you jump on board and commit to a new diet, it’s important you know that temporary, restrictive diets have a 95% failure rate and can do more harm than good.

Have you ever suffered through the physical and emotional torment of the latest fad diet simply to find yourself unsuccessful and frustrated?

Or, maybe you lost a bunch of weight only to gain it back again. Even worse, you gained back more than you lost.

You are not alone. As a personal trainer I have seen and even personally experienced so much physical and psychological damage from dieting, it makes me want to scream!

Some of the reasons diets fail you are:

They slow down your metabolism
They cause you to store fat, not burn it
They’re unsustainable for most people’s lifestyle
When you stop starving yourself and go back to a normal calorie-consumption, you WILL gain weight
Lack of energy due to being hungry
Some diets ask you to eliminate entire food groups and key nutrients
They can cause binge eating
They can cause stress which is known to cause belly fat due to hormonal changes in the body

Look, I get it. You want to get thinner and you want it now. Most of us do not want to wait the amount of time it takes to lose weight that statistically stays off for life. The diet industry is counting on that and the marketing is very convincing!

Losing weight and keeping it off for good without dieting starts with a change in mindset.  The mindset that you are going to switch to healthy eating.  Eating for health and dieting to lose weight do not always look the same.  Things like portion control, cutting back the foods and or liquids that you know are excessive,  avoiding overly processed foods, and meal planning are all considered healthy eating, not starvation diets or skipping meals entirely.

HERE ARE SIX TIPS THAT WILL HELP YOU LOSE WEIGHT WITHOUT DIETING

1) You need to eat.  It absolutely amazes me that there are still diets out on the market today that recommend dangerously low calorie meal plans when the science says otherwise.  Your body will get really good at storing what it doesn’t get enough of.  For example, if you eliminate fat from your diet, your body will not want to burn fat. It will want to store fat.  Sound nutritional research tells us that you need to eat fat in order to burn fat.  I am a firm believer that the low fat and low carb craze has contributed heavily to the obesity crisis in the United States.

Instead of restricting what you eat, you’ll find more success when you focus on a balanced diet that is centered around whole foods.   A balanced diet includes carbohydrates, proteins, fruits & vegetables, healthy fats, and water.  Any diet that cuts one of these important nutrients out should be avoided.

2) Exercise almost every day.  Do your best to exercise six days per week. Try an interval workout 2-3 times per week and alternate with more moderate activity on the rest of the days.

Choose a fun activity on your off day like a moderate hike, cross country skiing, swimming, or taking your kids or your dog to the park.

If exercising six days per week seems overwhelming, start with 20 minutes per day 2-3 days per week . You’ll still get better results than doing nothing at all.

3) Eat in.  This is the biggest tip I can give you.  Cook at home for the next 30 days and bring your lunch. Use light recipes from sources like EatingWell, Cooking Light, and Health magazine.

4) Cut back on liquid calories. Try substituting alcohol, sodas, and other higher calorie drinks with water. Try adding lemon or cucumber for some variation.

If cutting out liquid calories sounds extreme, take a more moderate approach and cut down to half or even a quarter of what you usually drink. You can always go back to your normal consumption if you want to.  This is about figuring out what works for you personally.

5) Cut back on dessert.  Desserts are usually loaded with calories. If you have a sweet tooth, try substituting with fruit or one piece of dark chocolate.

6)  Be authentically you.  It’s really important that you pay close attention to what’s most important to you.  Not everyone wants to be or was designed to look like the models on the cover of fitness magazines.  If challenging yourself to reach an elite athlete status is fun for you and you can achieve it in a healthy way, then by all means go for it!  However, if you know in your heart of hearts you’d just like to live a long healthy life, fit in your jeans, and have the stamina to do the activities you enjoy without a whole lot of restrictions in your life, then general health and fitness is for you so please don’t beat yourself up because you’re not “doing whatever it takes” to look like a fitness model.

I recommend you try my suggestions above for the next 30 days and stay consistent.  However, If this all seems a bit overwhelming,  pick as many things from above that you can realistically implement right away and stay consistent.  Diet and exercise are very personal which is why a canned approach rarely works.  We all have different lives, different goals, and different needs. 🙂

To your long term health and fitness!
Jennifer