Fitness Pet Peeves: Number 1 on my list!

I'm not going to beat around the bush.... I have a pet peeve and I'm betting I'm not the only one!

First off, I for one am very big into fitness, weight loss, getting healthy and feeling great about your body.  In fact I encourage it and try to motivate as much as I can.  I realize that when you work hard you want to show off your body.  I first want to explain that I get that, and I too have experienced the feeling of wanting to show off especially when you've worked hard. It is hard work and it's nice to be recognized for your accomplishments.  I get it! 

But as I read article after article, find motivational quotes, and research the snot out of this I am finding there are two types of women on these covers.  Model looking women who I swear never have to work out (in fact it's probably in their contract that they don't) but they have these thin little bodies.  Then there are the fitness women with six packs that I drool over (yes, muscle makes me drool... haha!).  You can clearly tell they have worked their butts off.  There's no denying it.  You can not just wake up one day and look like that. 

Now I don't want to diminish the hard work that either of these groups have put in to looking like that, but honestly, not every women can look like that.

This picture is exactly what I'm talking about. 

It's NOT just about losing weight.  It's about Gaining Strength and confidence.

I agree with that statement.  But this picture does not represent that well.  I'm looking at the flattest stomach a person can have.  Don't tell me that it's not just about losing weight and then show me this picture. 

Here's the deal... I am a mom.  Of three girls.  Wait, let me pull my mom card out and show you my beautiful daughters (sorry, I just can't help myself!)

My belly has been stretched far beyond what I even thought humanly possible... 3 different times!  I have extra skin on my belly that will never go away. Granted, it's not a lot but it's there.  I have a few stretch marks unfortunately that will also never go away.  Now I am not complaining.  I actually know that I don't have it as bad as some women.  I will still wear a bikini to the beach gosh darn it!  But if we are being realistic here, then saying everyone can look like those two types of people is not gonna happen. 

You see we all should have different fitness goals, and they will probably change over time.  For that mom who just had a baby her goal might be to just fit into her jeans again.  That's it.  For some of you it's just a goal of working out 3 times a week, eating right and maintaining the body you have.  And for others it's a little more extreme because you want to drop your body fat percentage and increase your performance.  I firmly believe you should set your goals to be achievable.  Once you achieve them, set new achievable goals.  If you can't achieve them, then you are probably going to just give up!

So my question for you is, when you see the super ripped fitness pictures does it make you not even want to try?  I want honest opinions here.  For example, I've been asking my friends to bootcamp for the last year.  Now I realize I'm somewhat of an extreme person when it comes to fitness.  Like I said, everyone has goals and my goals are pretty high.  But I noticed time after time people turning me down.  Almost like they can't keep up with me so why would they even want to try?  Do you fall under this category?  I'm really not offended by the fact that my friends tell me no.  I'm going to keep asking, and one way or another I WILL get them there (muahhahahahaha, insert evil laugh here)!

Alright, my rant is over.  I just really don't want all you people out there giving up because you look at those pictures and think, "there's no way I could look like that."  You are NOT that person in the picture.  You do not have the same body as them.  Your fitness walk is going to look different than theirs.  Your goals may be completely different as well.  Don't get discouraged by how far you might have to go.  Be encouraged by your opportunity to change the way you look and feel about yourself.  You have the opportunity to show your kids what healthy living looks like!  You are setting the stage for them.  Remember, they will learn from you.  The good and the bad.   And remember, it's not always going to be an easy road.  But we were never promised that it would be easy.  We were just promised that it would be worth it!

Ignorance is Bliss... Or is it!?!

Ever wonder, when you are hammering down a piece of pizza (and you all know no one can stop at just 1 piece!), how many burpees you will have to do to make up those calories!?!   Alright, let's be real.  Ignorance is bliss right?  Sometimes it's easier to not know the amount of calories in your food or the amount of burpees you will need to do to make those up.  But the problem with our society is too many people live in that ignorance is bliss state of mind.  I know I sure did for a long time!  

No more ignorance okay!?! 

So we are talking about pizza here.  How many burpees do you think it takes to burn off 1 piece of pizza?   

 I found this website with Burpee Equivalents for the everyday food we eat (By Spartan).  Yay, go burpees! 

For 1 slice of pizza it's 260 calories.  For someone who weighs 130lbs they would have to do 272 burpees to burn those calories off.  If you weigh 180lbs that 182 burpees.  Yes, that's a whole lot of burpees. 

Read the full article Here to understand the logic behind that.

So remember this...

 You can have your cake and eat it too, but be ready to pay in Burpees!

You know... You have to start somewhere!

I've been blogging now for a few years on my Simply Happy blog, but I felt like it was time to create a Simply Healthy blog. I just envision people opening my Simply Happy blog, seeing that it was a fitness post and quickly closing it!  So it's time to separate the two....

It should not come as any surprise to you that I'm a little a lot into fitness.  Even if you are reading my blog for the first time and know nothing about me you have to assume I am, just based on the fact that I started this blog.  But more than that I'm pretty passionate about encouraging others to get fit and healthy.  It's almost like I've experienced this life that is so incredibly amazing (when you put together a healthy body, mind and spirit!) and I can't stop until I share that with everyone I know! 

But it hasn't always been like this.  A little background for you new readers (for those who have been following me for a while I apologize for the redundancy!).  I didn't start working out till my 3rd daughter was born.  I mean yeah, I worked out here and there but never like I do now.  I mean when you are having kids it's not exactly the ideal time to start working out.  I've been very lucky that my body bounced back to "normal" after each kid.  But after my third daughter was born I was pretty motivated to lose the weight.  So I'm 5 foot tall  short, and have always been around 120 lbs.  When I had my third daughter I believe I weighed 155lbs.  On this 5 foot short girl that's a lot!  Well motivation goes a long way and I lost all the weight and here we are today!

Did I mention that my husband lost 100 lbs!  Look at what a hottie he is (it's okay, you can agree with me)  :)

So here I am, 4 years later, feeling better than I've ever felt and I've got this passion inside of me that is screaming at me to motivate people to do the same.  Hense the Simply Healthy facebook page and now this blog.  I pray that it develops into so much more, but I'm just taking it one day at a time!

So where are you right now?  Maybe you are the heaviest you've been in your entire life.  And if you are I get that.  Life is tough... There are a whole lot of reasons that we are in the places that we are at.  Maybe you are just doing okay.  You eat okay most of the time, you exercise when you have time (which isn't very often!) but your probably more over weight than you think, it's just easier not to think about it.  Or maybe you are that person that really doesn't have much weight to lose at all, but you know you aren't eating the healthiest and you want to change that.  So think about that for a minute...

I want to show you another before and after of a friend of mine.  This is real life people.  This is Melanie.  I've know Melanie for a few years now.  She had just had a baby when I met her.  Well just this winter she decided to take her life back and get healthy.  She was motivated by a competition at her husbands work (I love when competition motivates people because I too am motivated by competition!).  Well Melanie worked hard, ate right and lost 42lbs and over 30 inches!  In the first picture she is a size 14 and now she is a size 7/8.  I am soooooo proud of her and all her hard work!  Doesn't she look stunning!?!

Melanie's a stay at home mom of 2 little girls.  But she made the choice to get healthy.  She did what it took, sacrificed what she needed to, and look at her end results.  I guarantee you she is saying that she feels the best she's ever felt!  And while she may still want to lose more weight, and get more tone she's committed for life.  The journey never stops, it just starts to look different.

Well...  With all that said, I am really here to say whatever place you are at in life, whatever your story is, there is no better time than now to get healthy.  And I'm not talking about fitness model healthy.  I am talking about the kind of healthy that allows you to do all the extra curricular activities that you want to do.  The kind of healthy that starts from the inside and starts shining on the outside... 

The kind of healthy that inspires others around you to do the same thing.  We aren't trying to all get to a size 2 here.  Now if that's the end result of hard work, awesome!  But you have to ask yourself why am I doing this?  Is it to be able to stand in your bikini in front of judges and show off your muscle (which yes, that is some people's goals and I say go for it!) or is it to be the best you that you can be?  To look in that mirror and say, for once in your life, I am beautiful and I am worth it.  To be a role model for your kids so that in 10 years they too are living a healthy lifestyle.  We are only given ths one life... this one body.  My choice has been to live it to the fullest!  But I don't want to stop there.  I have chosen to take this God given passion and share it with the world.  Because I want you to experience what I've experienced!

So, the choice is yours... what will you choose?