Fast Ways to Reset and Get Back on Track with Your Fitness Journey
Dear Summer,
We’re breaking up. I’m sorry. It’s not you; it’s me. Really.
You see, I thought I could handle the freedom and fun that we’ve had together. There have been so many cocktails and so many treats over the past three months. When we started out together, I planned to restrict those things to “special occasions” and “events.” Well, I quickly learned that in summertime, everything seems like a special occasion or event. You’re tricky like that.
So I ate all the things and I drank all the things and now I’m sitting here, not feeling very good about myself and not feeling very good physically either. I’m retaining water, struggling with clothes that feel just a little too tight, experiencing periodic bouts of heartburn, dealing with breakouts on my face, feeling sluggish when I work out, and sleeping more restlessly.
For these reasons, Summer, I have to bid you farewell and get back on the wagon for fall. The kids are back in school, and it’s time for this mama to get serious and get back to the routines that work.
That means a recommitment to clean eating, mostly. I’ve been maintaining my workouts but without a healthy, balanced diet to support it, those efforts just aren’t effective. Any busy mama will understand that I have literally no time to waste.
So, Summer, it’s been a slice (of pie, incidentally. Topped with ice cream and accompanied by rosé 🤦🏻♀️). Thanks for teaching me some important insights about myself and helping identify some things I need to work on going forward. Now I know it’s all about progress, not perfection.
But please, don’t call me. I’ll call you. And take your sugar bombs and cocktails with you when you go. Ain’t nobody need those reminders lingering.
Thanks for the memories,
A fit-ish mama who wants to feel like herself again
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5 Things to Do Right Now to Reset and Restart Your Healthiest Lifestyle
How do I get back on track? Here are the things I’m doing right now to jumpstart my recommitment to the healthy lifestyle that works for me (and take off a few of those summer pounds right away):
1. Hydrate, hydrate, hydrate. When I’m successful with clean eating and consistent exercise, it’s because I start with the basics. You already know you should aim for eight 8-ounce glasses of water per day at a minimum. I recommend you aim higher and try to drink half of your body weight in ounces each day. (So, if you weigh 150 pounds, shoot for 75 ounces of water.) It sounds daunting, but drinking water is all about routine. Establish one that works for you and stick with it.
I drink 16 ounces of water in the morning before I drink anything else. (Even coffee.) Then, I fill my 24-ounce Contigo bottle and sip that all morning long, usually finishing it around 10:30 AM. At lunch, I drink 12 ounces of sparkling water and refill my water bottle. Around 3:30 PM, I refill it again. That puts me at over 100 ounces of water daily. Yes, I am running to the bathroom every hour – when I first started this, my boss actually asked me if I was pregnant again. But staying super-hydrated also keeps me full and satisfied, balances blood sugar to help prevent cravings, flushes toxins out of my system, and promotes healthy skin. Plus, all that water drinking gives me something to do that’s not snacking!
2. Eat smaller meals more frequently. There is research on all sides to support the best way to eat – snacking, intermittent fasting, portion control. For me personally, eating more frequently has been the key to my success. Whenever I start skipping my usual morning or afternoon snack because I’m too busy to fit it in, I end up overeating at lunch and/or dinner, and then worse, snacking after dinner on processed sugary treats.
This has been the pattern I keep falling into all summer long. With our on-the-go schedule, morning snack gets left behind – and it never fails that those are the days that end with my regretting eating a huge handful of animal crackers and M&Ms. But keeping my blood sugar level by eating frequently helps prevent the cravings that lead to those binges. My normal eating schedule (which is something of a joke at the office) looks like this:
7:00 AM – Breakfast
9:30 AM – Morning snack
12:00 PM – Lunch
2:30 PM – Afternoon snack
5:30 PM – Dinner
Because I eat dinner so early in order to sit at the table with my famished children, I sometimes allow myself a small healthy snack at 8:00 PM on days that I work out in the evening as well.
3. Increase your vegetable intake. This one is a struggle for me. One of the quickest ways to retrain your body toward cleaner eating habits is to eat more vegetables. With high fiber and water content, veggies, especially raw veggies, fill you up without a lot of calories. I aim to eat veggies at least 3 of my 5 meals per day. If I’m really serious about jumpstarting, I force myself to eat veggies at every single meal. I need to put this into effect after Labor Day to start to detox but I’m already dreading it. Sometimes you just don’t want another baby carrot.
In the same spirit, this summer I have switched up my breakfasts away from sweet options like overnight oats or smoothies to focus on savory options that include spinach, peppers, or tomatoes at least during the work week. Starting with vegetables Monday through Friday sets the tone for the rest of the day and also helps minimize my sugar cravings. On the weekends, I’ll indulge a bit with the healthy sweet breakfasts options as a treat.
4. Watch your sugar intake. You know that brownies and cookies aren’t what you should be eating regularly for a balanced, healthy diet. I will freely admit that I am addicted to sugar. In the same way that an alcoholic needs alcohol, for me, one sugary treat turns into 10 sugary treats. It’s a slippery slope that ends badly every time.
You might not realize that a lot of so-called “healthy” foods are still loaded with added sugars. Processed foods in particular are nasty culprits. So whenever I need to reset, the first step is cutting out all the junk.
Next, I pay attention to food labels, always looking at that number of grams of sugar per serving. It doesn’t matter if the calories are reasonable or it’s “fat free” – if it’s loaded with double-digit sugars, take a pass. In fact, I use the sugar grams as my guide for how frequently I should eat the food. Under 5 grams is an all-the-time food. Six to 9 grams passes my “acceptable” test. Ten to 13 grams is pushing it (depending on the food item) and should be limited. Anything over 14 grams should be used sparingly, or a healthier substitute should be sought. When comparing items, I nearly always choose the item with the lowest sugar; taking into account the fiber count and ingredient list for additional decision-making power.
These aren’t hard and fast rules but they do serve as a guideline when you’re feeling baffled by nutrition labels. Some companies choose to spell out how many grams of sugar are “added” (versus naturally occurring). This provides a helpful perspective when it’s available, but because it’s not mandated by law, not all companies choose to provide this information (because seeing all those Added Sugars can be extremely off-putting!).
5. Don’t underestimate the power of planning. Let me hit you with some favorite fitspiration quotes about planning: A goal without a plan is just a wish. A failure to plan is a plan to fail. I’ve learned these lessons the hard way and I’m ready to learn from my mistakes.
First, plan your meals. On a weekly basis, write down the entire week of breakfast, lunches, dinners, and snacks. Then build your grocery list off of that. This helps you avoid last-minute bad decisions like carryout food on a whim, and it might even save you money by reducing unnecessary grocery store expenditures.
Next, plan when and how you are going to exercise. Write it down or put it on your calendar or text your significant other so he/she knows where you’ll be and what you might need them for. Set up a babysitter or set your alarm to work out in the early morning. Scheduling your workouts like this also helps you balance the amount and type of cardio, strength, and flexibility exercises you’re getting.
Finally, if you’re going out (anywhere), it’s worth it to take a minute to plan for that too. I pack snacks and food for myself just like I do for the boys, and I carry it all around in my favorite PackIt lunch bag. (You can freeze this whole bag and once frozen, it keeps food cold for up to 12 hours. I have yet to take family field trip or other day outing with kids without it stuffed to the gills with various food items for all of us.)
If you’re eating at a restaurant, check the menu before you go and identify what you’re going to eat (or at least a few healthier choices you’re considering). I’m weird and LOVE to read menus to figure out exactly what I’m going to eat before I actually get to the restaurant, so this planning piece is one of my favorite activities. Sometimes reading about delicious food is almost as satisfying as eating it.
Remember that fitness is a journey, not a destination, and a journey that should be taken at your own pace. You may not be able to implement all these strategies at one time, so start small and keep adding on. Even if you only focus on drinking more water, you’ll be in a better place than where you started.
Labor Day weekend marks the official end of summer in my book, even if fall doesn’t technically start until September 22. These 5 strategies start for me on Tuesday, with 5 more strategies for success coming next week! Feel free to join me and follow along on social media with #NeverDoneWithFun. We can hold each other accountable and see where the reset takes us.
