I was thinking recently, as everyone is perusing their New Year\’s Resolutions, about how fitness needs to be more than just what we do in the gym.

According to Oxford\’s definition, fitness encompasses the word health. I do not believe fitness is just summed up in our gym performance.

I do believe physical exercise is extremely important, of course. Our bodies are meant to be moving. I think walking, just moderate paced, medium length walks are so beneficial. I always feel better somehow if I can sneak in a few miles for a walk during the day.

But there are other important factors – equally or more important – to our fitness than just what we do in the gym. Call it health, wellness, fitness or self-care, when we approach a healthy lifestyle we need to consider the following as well:

Nutrition
Eating a healthy diet is probably more impactful than anything in regards to our health, especially in terms of achieving and maintaining health weight and body composition. Weight loss can be achieved strictly through nutrition – without exercise at all. And I hesitate to use the word diet because of the negative connotations. Diet only means the food one habitually eats. You can have a vegan diet, a keto diet, a whole foods diet, a candy bar diet – whatever you eat habitually is your diet. The important thing is having a healthful, sustainable diet that include healthy foods and fun foods – to balance the needs of the body with the great snacky desires of our hearts. Once you find this balance, your relationship with food improves dramatically!

Sleep
No one sleeps enough. Studies more and more are showing that people are chronically sleep deprived. Whether this is demands of life or a lack of making sleep a priority I do not know. Sleep helps our bodies heal and regulate. Proper sleep has shown to reduce depression and anxiety. Sleep helps repair our muscles after a hard workout. It helps our brains, our hearts, all our organs function optimally. People who say, \”I only need six hours of sleep\” are misunderstanding. Maybe you can function on 6 hours – I can also function on six hours – but all health indicators improve when you consistently get between 7 and 9 hours of sleep. Including a decrease in my resting heart rate, a more manageable appetite and more focus during the day.

Sunshine and Fresh Air
I personally have always found that I am happier and feel more robust if I get a little sunshine and fresh air each day. Even just 10 or 15 minutes seems to do a lot for brightening my mood. This is why sometimes even when I am on a rest day, I will take an easy breezy walk for a while, it brightens my mood and just makes me feel refreshed.

Water
If you are not drinking at least 2 liters of water a day, you are not being kind to your body. Period.

Consistency, Balance and Routine
Once you find a health balance of exercise, nutrition, proper sleep, lots of water and fresh air, and can find a way to sustain that long term, your body will thank you. Not only that, you soon notice patterns that pop up when something is off. For example, my resting heart rate always spikes when I am starting to come down with something. This helps me to begin taking care of myself to fight it off. Also, if you know your general patterns, you know when something is off. I am rarely tired mid-afternoon. If I begin to feel chronically fatigued during the day, I know to speak to my doctor because I know for me that is not normal.

When I build my fitness plan, I take all of these factors into consideration, a holistic approach to fitness and wellness. A well rested, fed and hydrated body is going to surely help me meet my fitness goals better than a strung out, anxious, poorly rested and ill fed one is!

One of my favorite movies is The Imitation Game – a  somewhat fictionalized drama based on the true story of mathematician Alan Turing during WWII. It is a fascinating story, very intense and very sad, and for a movie about a group of nerdy mathematicians, it was very exciting. It delves into the earlier days of modern computing – and demonstrates how amazing math is!

Many of you know already about my high school math struggles and about the amazing teacher who changed my life in the most incredible way. If you don\’t, please give this woman her credit by reading this story because her commitment to me is worth sharing.

Needless to say, that woman changed me possibly in one of the most meaningful ways I have ever been changed. If I can make that impact on one person in my life, I will be so pleased.

So I know better than most what it is to look at math in two ways. First, to see it as a mystery, a nuisance, a waste of time, a personal Waterloo. But then to realize it\’s beauty and significance.

I was just chatting with a friend of mine – and I will say I am blessed with very few friends who love math as I do, but I am grateful for each of them! – about a problem, and my philosophical response was, \”well, what would we do in math? Simplify.\” In math, we always simplify.

We live in a world dominated by political drama, division, uncertainty and injustice. No matter how right we think we are in our opinions, someone else will argue that it is subjective. No matter the system, perfect justice can never be meted out. Humans get involved in just about any situation and we bring chaos and inspire fear.

Math is the opposite of this. Math brings order, explanation, assurance. Math is a revelation. Mathematics always brings justice, objectivity, surety. Math levels the playing field. Math provides the answers. It is beautiful when understood.

Math is completely free of prejudice. It is the ideal.

Perhaps it is best explained like this: \”You do not study mathematics because it helps you build a bridge. You study mathematics because it is the poetry of the universe. Its beauty transcends mere things.\” – Johnathan David Farley

It is the poetry of life. As a poet myself, I can absolutely connect these two seemingly opposite positions. When I read a beautiful poem I am elevated to this certain level of feeling. And I can assure you that feeling is similar to the way I feel in using math to solve problems.

Math lets us see patterns. It takes facts and gives us explanation. It empowers us to higher thinking.

I was almost 18 years old before I had my eyes opened to this, and it is a miracle that so near the end of my high school journey that I decided to take on this challenge. I can\’t imagine where I\’d be in my life now without that revelation. So much of what I enjoy doing is rooted in logic, strategy, analysis. So much of who I am relies on how I changed through that journey.

There are jokes aplenty about what a waste math is (eg: they taught us about parabolas but not how to do our taxes), but the fact remains we should always encourage people, especially children who are still going through school and have so many great opportunities ahead, to embrace math, to digest it and conquer the difficulties because it teaches you not just algebra and parabola, but how to think. How to reason. How to logically assess. And especially our young girls and women, teaching them to embrace math while they are young puts them at an advantage to develop careers on par with men when they are older.

I read something on social media the other day of an inspirational speaker saying, \”you can do it, or not. It\’s up to you.\”

It sounds flippant, or possibly even rude. But it is far from either of those. Reading those words struck me as extremely empowering.

He was offering suggestions to someone for hitting their goals. Practical tips. But in the end, it\’s not up to himself or anyone else…it\’s up to each of us as individuals. Scary. Exciting. Empowering.

I thought back to a recent post I made about how my spiritual gift is to encourage others. How when I get involved in helping someone achieve their goals it becomes so deeply important to me that it hurts me when they don\’t have the same level of passion to achieve them that I seem to feel on their behalf. But it is true, I can want it so bad for someone, but I can\’t do it for them.

I thought back to both of my degrees. What now seems like a distant memory to me, I was in school from 2012 all the way through 2018 with only short breaks throughout. People who say, \”oh wow, you\’re so lucky you have a master\’s degree\” totally misunderstand the pain in the ass of being a working adult trying to go to school for the better part of seven years. Sunday mornings for me used to be waking up early and sitting for hours in front of my computer getting my assignments done. Doesn\’t seem lucky to me!

There were times when it was hard. Times I even had to seek help from tutors or instructors because I hit a roadblock. There were sacrifices that I had to make with my time. There was the seemingly endless stretch ahead of me where I felt like, \”I will grow old and die trying to finish these degrees!\”

But I wanted it bad enough. I wanted it more, apparently, than I wanted to have Sundays free to do whatever I wanted. I wanted it more than the time and energy I had to sacrifice to get through 120 endless credits. I wanted it bad enough to deal with the frustrations when I didn\’t know what to do.

I had people encouraging me. I had leaders and professors giving advice and pushing me on. But at the end of the day…I could put in the work, or not. It was up to me.

And so it has been for everything I\’ve achieved, and anything worthwhile anyone achieves. And if you\’re not willing to put in the work to get it, then you simply do not want it bad enough.

My husband often jokes that, despite being born in the early 1980s, that I was actually hatched from a petri dish when I was about 25 years old. He says my absolute ignorance of most pop culture from the 80s and 90s is astonishing, given that in 1999 I was 16 years old.

I thought I would share some of the biggest fitness mistakes I have made over the years. I know no one would probably look at me and think I was the epitome of fitness, but the fact is I have indeed come a long way, made a lot of mistakes, and also a lot of progress! If I can save one person the wasted time by not repeating my mistakes that will be worth something!

Trying to Out Exercise a Poor Diet
When I was twenty years old, I took a basic physical education class in college as a pre-requisite. I remember my instructor, his name was Buzz. Buzz was in probably his late 50s and was strong and fit looking. I remember what he most seemed to want was to inspire a love of physical activity in us. During one of his lectures, he made a comment that unfortunately I took a little too seriously. He said, \”I workout so I can eat whatever I want.\”

Well, that worked for me. I love food. All food. There are like literally five foods I won\’t eat. And I love being active! This seemed a perfect deal to me. I will be active and not worry about what I eat.

However, it doesn\’t quite work that way. While it is true that being active permits us to either eat more without losing weight or potentially help us drop some weight, the measure of it is quite unbalanced. For example, let\’s say I eat 800 calories over my caloric maintenance (easily done if you give me some nachos!), but I say \”Oh, well I am going to do an hour on the treadmill.\” It is extremely unlikely I am going to burn off the excess calories (and it\’s also an unhealthy mindset that exercise should be used to punish ourselves for eating). On a regular basis, this is going to lead to a lot of cardio and still being in a caloric excess – which will lead to fat gain. It is very easy to slide yourself into a tiny 100-200 calorie surplus everyday, which over the year leads to a lot of weight gain – and leads this country right into an obesity epidemic.

It literally took me over a decade to let go of this sweet fallacy. How I still wish it were true!

Miscalculating Caloric Maintenance
People talk a lot about metabolism – fast, slow, damaged, improved. And most of it it nonsense. The fact is, we all have a caloric maintenance (that is, a certain number of calories we need each day to maintain our current weight) and it is determined by numerous factors including age, weight, body composition, health factors, activity level, etc. As any of these factors change, so will your caloric needs to maintain that weight. That only makes sense, right? The word metabolism literally refers to the chemical and biological processes of our bodies to live – it is not set in stone, it changes as factors change.

Taking my factors into account, one might surmise I have a caloric maintenance of about 2200-2300 a day. However, at this time I believe this to be incorrect. Despite my level of activity, and weighing in my changing body composition and my health factors, I believe my caloric maintenance is around 2100. This doesn\’t make me broken. It doesn\’t mean my metabolism is slow. And it isn\’t an excuse. It is simply a fact I need to be aware of so far as weight management is concerned.

And here is where I made a mistake, even when I was starting to figure out the baloney of the first mistake I mentioned. We all know I love my Fitbit. I have been wearing a Fitbit everyday, without fail, for 6 years (I just recently got the Versa 2 and love it, by the way). However, for a long time, years to be honest, I relied on my Fitbit to tell me my daily calorie burn (taking into account my time at rest, asleep, during physical exercise and daily tasks). This despite it being no secret that trackers and exercise equipment are notorious for over estimating calorie burn during exercise. So, let\’s say I tell my Fitbit I want to lose 1 pound a week, which is going to mean it will calculate for me to be in a 500 calorie deficit each day – this is accurate. But let\’s say it tells me that I burned 2600 calories one day, and so I therefore eat at 2100. If that 2600 is too high, I am no longer in a 500 calorie deficit.

When I was heavier, this was less of a problem. At my higher weight, I burned more calories just breathing everyday than I do at my current weight. And therefore, it was much easier to be in a 500 calorie deficit. At my current weight and activity level, I struggle to even be in a 250 calorie deficit some days, so a miscalculation could not only put me out of a deficit but into a surplus!

To correct this I did some research about how to calculate my caloric maintenance on my own, and I adjusted over time to determine accuracy by tracking and weighing myself. I still love my Fitbit, but I don\’t get lured in when it tells me I still have 400 calories left. I eat the amount of calories I believe I need to reach my goals. And I don\’t eat back my exercise calories. This has been a HUGE breakthrough. My current caloric intake is a slight deficit – enough to fuel my workouts when I am lifting, and yet just slight so I continue to lose body fat slowly.  In the coming weeks I will actually be adjusting this to eat at a strict maintenance, so I can build muscle for a while and not worry about losing body fat for a few months.

Over-Prioritizing Cardio
I love cardio, and I know that makes me a weirdo. I own a treadmill and an elliptical and I love them both. In the past, I have also leaned heavily toward putting boatloads of cardio before anything else. And cardio is good for you, but my fitness goals won\’t be achieved by doing 12 hours of cardio a week (which no lie, is what I was doing last summer and quite happily so!).

The fact is, nutrition needs to be priority one – for all of us, regardless of our goals. As I always say, you cannot eat like a shitbird and expect to get results. Even if you are one of those naturally lean people, eating crap is not good for you, period. And I say this knowing full well I organize my diet each day to include some chocolate. But it fits well within my macros, which are set up to hit my goals.

Secondly, I should have been prioritizing strength training. For most people, strength should be priority over cardio. I have always enjoyed weights, and I have always enjoyed feeling strong, but truthfully, strength training came after cardio – or as Austin Powers says – if it came at all! (Couldn\’t resist the joke!)

My dad had a stroke and a heart attack in his 40s and for that reason also I have always felt like cardio training should be my priority to avoid this, but I am starting to realize this isn\’t true. Yes, cardio is important and I do make time each week for it, but nothing like I used to.

Nowadays, I prioritize strength over cardio. I pre-plan a strength workout for 5 or 6 days a week and often end the session with 20 minutes of cardio (whereas before I would do it first and wear myself out). Whereas just last year I was easily logging 12 hours a week of physical activity, I am doing much less now, but much more effectively and strategically. I eat well, I lift, I do much less cardio – and my weight has come down and my body composition is changing. I am more muscular, less body fat. And spending far fewer hours working out than I ever have!

I hate admitting that I have made so many big mistakes over the years, and I so wish I had known better even a few years ago so I could be further ahead than I am today. But the good news is, I have learned, I no longer feel like I am getting lucky when I see results, and I am on the right track (my physical results, my blood work, how I feel – they all point to it). However, if I can help one person overcome one of these, then at least that will be worth something!

There\’s a streak that runs through some people – and it does seem a bit prevalent in my family – that if you tell someone they can\’t do something or won\’t be capable of it, they become hellbent to do so. I can think of nothing more annoying – or personally motivating – than when someone tells me smugly, \”I just don\’t think you\’re cut out for that.\”

I always want to reply, \”Watch me.\”

I remember when I was about 20 years old, a good friend of mine commented to me that she didn\’t think I was cut out for a business degree or the business world. That it was too harsh for me. I don\’t recall my response at this time, but I don\’t think I bothered to argue with words.

Instead, I went on to get a master\’s degree in business, and a job that I love. I love doing the hard things people are scared to do. I like being responsible, even when things end up going a little wrong. Not only am I good at the things I do, I enjoy it. If we must do paid work to make a living, I cannot complain about mine.

Through my life, people have constantly underestimated me, and at times that has given me a bit of an attitude. But if nothing else, I wake up each day fired up to prove those people wrong.

I look young. I have a fairly free spirited demeanor. I laugh all the time. People look at these things and make a judgement and that often starts with \”You can\’t…\” and that is just the ignition I need to start my natural fire and motivation.

When I was in college I had a statistics teacher who literally said out-loud in front of the class, \”I cannot believe a silly girl like you is this good at this.\” She accused me of cheating. I let her take my calculator and stand over my shoulder during the final exam, and when I turned in my paper I said, \”you\’re welcome for raising your class average.\”

Perhaps I should be offended. Perhaps it should even make me a little insecure knowing that everyone underestimates my competence. But I feel a little bit of devious glee when underestimation turns into disappointed surprise when I prove people wrong.

Be careful before you tell me I can\’t!

I\’d like to start the new year (and new decade!) with a very positive update on my fitness progress due to some changes I made exactly three months ago today.

Those who know me know that I have been active most of my adult life and very health and fitness conscious for a long time. Back in 2016, having gained some weight in my first half of a year in grad school, I committed to losing it and lost 30 pounds in 4 months and kept it off.

Or at least most of it. During 2019 I gained back about 7 or 8 pounds, and though working out more was seeing fewer results. Unsure what the disconnect was, I did some research and had some conversations on Instagram with some effective people and made some changes.

As of today, I am down 15 pounds. Almost all of that is body fat, as my body fat percentage has dropped in accordance with what one would expect. I have done this by doing the following things:

• a stricter adherence to calorie tracking and maintaining a moderate caloric deficit (no discounting bites or eyeballing measurements, as I\’m sure now that the culprit for those 7 or 8 pounds!)
• prioritizing protein in my diet (I do a macro split of about 35% protein, 35% fat and 30% carbs, as opposed to where I was at before which was about 55 or 60% carbs and less than 20% protein)
• prioritizing strength training in my fitness plan (I lift before cardio, and I lift heavy, and I am also back in BODYPUMP)
• prioritizing sleep (eating in a caloric deficit can cause the body to lose muscle, but high protein and good sleep help prevent this)

\”Stop taking baby steps through life.\” – Niles Crane, Frasier

It is fitting that I am ending the year with a Frasier quote (which, by the way, is being pulled from Netflix tomorrow!). But as we close not only this year but this decade, I am reflecting on this very theme of not taking baby steps through life.

I have had friends over the years who hesitantly took baby steps in their journey, and while I would agree that baby steps are better than a total stand still, at some point we have to reach a level of emotional and intellectual maturity where we can take brisk strides.

Babies take baby steps. They are uncertain and unstable on their feet. They wobble. They lack the confidence to take normal strides. So they stumble and fall and sometimes they walk with their hands on the furniture (I am thinking of my baby nephew and wonder when he will grace us with this new delight!). But before long, they are taking solid steps and then even running. I have seen some toddlers take dance classes or gymnastics and they are more competent on their feet than I am!

So it should be through life. We go through the struggles of our young lives, finding who we are, and occasionally we encounter a setback that causes us to stumble. But hopefully we are moving forward with brisk strides, confident and emotionally secure.

Life is full of risk. Life guarantees us heartache. But we cannot linger hesitantly all the time afraid to take a step forward. The lack of progress is a loss in and of itself. We are losing out when we choose not to, as Tennyson said, \”to strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.\”

We are embarking on a new decade, a new time of change, adventure and possibility. And yes, bad days will come to each of us. We will face disappointment and loss. But we must be confident that we are moving in the direction of our purpose and our dreams.

I hope sincerely that someone reading this will feel empowered to step into this new year with confidence toward a new dream, a new love, a new opportunity.

And if this is not inspiring enough then let me leave you with this quote that is much more eloquent than I am: \”A ship in harbor is safe – but that is not what ships are build for.\” – John A. Shedd

To all my readers, have a wonderful and happy New Year. Thank you for the feedback and support this year, and I hope you will all subscribe to my blog and interact with me even more in 2020!

To all of my subscribers and followers – today I wish you the merriest of Christmases. I hope your day is spent in the warmth of family and festivities, with good food as you make good memories!

But if it is not a cheerful day for you, if you are hurting or alone, I share with you this verse from John 16:33, \”I have told you these things, so that in Me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.\”

I pray that those who are hurting will find comfort in these words.

And to all of you, merry Christmas! I share the lyrics of my favorite Christmas hymn!

We probably all remember our first Christmas away from home. I never went away for Christmas before, never a Christmas trip with a friend or sibling. I was always with my family for Christmas no matter what. It wasn\’t until the first Christmas that I was married that I was away from home.

I married at the end of September in 2006, so by the time Christmas rolled around that year I hadn\’t really gotten used to being alone. I not only have a fairly big immediate family, but they are a loud group, so it took me a while to get used to so much silence (now I love it!).

Not only had I gotten married, we had moved out west a bit, about 350 miles from my parents and family. We were also a solid 100 miles away from his family, so we were pretty much in total isolation. My husband\’s job at the time required a lot of holiday work hours so we couldn\’t typically get away before or on Christmas.

I remember our first Christmas alone together. It was exciting, but also isolating. It was festive, with our little Christmas tree and decorations, but also a little bare. I am no great cook anyway and didn\’t plan ahead, so our Christmas dinner was a DiGornio pizza!

I wasn\’t working at the time due to my immigration situation, but I remember being absolutely adamant that I not use my husband\’s own money to buy his Christmas gifts. I had some savings and took a little out to get him a few things, and I think one of them was the box set of the MASH series if I remember correctly. In every way it was a small, quiet Christmas with hilarious food and small gifts, but we were twenty-three years old and it still had that feeling to me like we were \”playing house.\”

Here we are thirteen years later and our house is still pretty quiet (though the beagles do liven things up quite a bit). We are much closer to my now to my split up family as they all have their own households, but on Christmas Eve, before we all get together for gifts and food, my husband and I still celebrate privately, exchanging gifts and taking a few pictures. The feeling of playing house together is gone, but in it\’s place is the peaceful, comforting life that we have built together that is warm and festive all on its own, not just at Christmas but everyday of the year.