It’s Black Friday, y’all and you know what that means! BOGO TIME! Buy 1, Get 1 Blog for free! Even though you aren’t buying this and probably didn’t even ask for it, you get 2 blogs about my #onelessthing challenge for the price of just one hour of your time! (One of these days, I’ll be succinct but it won’t be today.)
Why am I doing this? Look, November is hard. Everyone talks about December being stressful but November is a challenge of its own. There are three holidays: Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas. And while only one of them technically falls in November, I still deal with candy and decorations from Halloween through the first week, get stressed out about Thanksgiving plans immediately after, and somehow convince myself that the following day is Christmas. It’s a lot. So, I had every intention of writing my blog about my October challenge early this month and all of a sudden, I’m hours away from going home for Turkey Day.
Challenge: No Working Out!
Rules: It’s as easy as that, y’all. No gym time. No running outside. Not conscious exercising whatsoever. That doesn’t, however, mean that I couldn’t make healthy choices like taking the stairs instead of the elevator, stretching in the morning, and doing a few planks for continued back support. Other than that, I planned on not breaking a sweat.
Why I cut it out: If you didn’t read my last post, I just completed an Olympic Length triathlon. This is my longest distance but my third Tri event. Prior to this, I have done multiple 5Ks, one half-marathon, and one full marathon. Now, this rap sheet might sound like I am in peak physical condition, but these accomplishments have done nearly nothing for my figure other than being what my doctor describes as “completely average”. While I feel in shape, I am not industry-standard skinny. I work out more than my peers and I have the largest dress size. Must be my diet, right? Have you read what I have given up this year? Someone asked me once what my favorite fast food place is and I didn’t have an answer. I don’t eat fast food. I have a clean diet 87% of the time. Yet, in spite of all of this, I look more like Kelsey Wells before picture than someone who completed 4 triathlons.
I didn’t always work out. My legs are in shape but my belly is a big ole mess. One in high school, a boy passed a note around the classroom that accidentally got to me and it said, “Is it just me, or is Debbie a little chunky?” COOL, GUYS. Don’t get me started on my weight in college or post-grad. In terms of being attractive, I got by on my glutes and mediocre personality for years. Instead, I became one of those rare women who somehow became skinner post-baby making. No clue how it happened. It probably has something to do with my kids consuming my breast milk at all hours of the day and that I didn’t sleep more than 5 hours a night for 4 years. Also, the crippling, high-functioning anxiety helped. But, why split hairs. I was fitting into my skinny jeans and that’s all that mattered!
After my 2nd child, I decided that I didn’t really care about being skinny because I would rather be strong. I started pushing myself into new workouts like HIIT exercises and tabata workouts. Then, at the beginning of the year, I started strength training. I loved the results I was getting and seeing my body change. “Triathlon training is really going to make me look shredded,” I thought, foolishly.
False.
All of my strength training went down the drain. My metabolism changed and I was losing muscle and gaining weight. In addition to that, I was really putting my body through the wringer. My joints would be inflamed after every run. My lower back hurt after bike rides. My shoulders ached the first few months after swimming.
I cannot WAIT for this to be over, I thought. After the triathlon, I just had 15 days before I could officially step away from the gym.
The Results: The short version is that I’m fat and happy now. Well, I am not fat. No one IS fat. You HAVE fat. It’s not the defining trait of your existence. I just have more of it now than I did at the beginning of October. I also have more time with my kids and spend less time looking at myself in the mirror. Though it took a few weeks, I no longer equate not making it to the gym with being an inferior person, which is a huge development. Working out definitely gave me an outlet for my anxiety but it also became another area to judge myself and allow really destructive thoughts about my self-worth. Eventually, I was able to find it really freeing to stop caring about what I looked like.
I was sure that I would use this month to eat healthy because “a good body is made in the kitchen” but I stopped being so hard on myself. “Eat the cookie. You’re going to be ok if you have some fries,” I’d tell myself. “Being in shape should be the least interesting thing about you.”
So, I hit snooze on the alarm, spent more quality time with my kids, went to that happy hour that I would have missed for a cycling class, and stop counting calories. And people still like me. And I still like me. Everything’s gonna be ok.
Also, in November, I gave up dairy but that story is horribly uninteresting and I’ve already taken enough of your time. After all, it’s black Friday and you have some corporate overlords to appease with your shopping!! No judgment! I do too. In fact, I need to get in all done before December because next month, my challenge is…
NOT BUYING ANYTHING!
Stay Tuned
NOTE: Featured image is from my amazing trip to Ireland which I could honestly write a novel about. Maybe that will be my 2020 challenge…
DailyDebs 