So I have talked a lot about diet, but I know I also need to get to working out. Yes I admit I have lost 38 lbs without working out. Of course I highly recommend working out, but I have been battling hypersomnia and lack of energy. Funny is that working out will help cure that! Right now I am relying on Adderal to get me up and out of bed and moving. (not recommended unless medically necessary) I have made huge strides with my hypersomnia over the past 3-6 months. First I had to realize I had a problem. I was sleeping from 3 am to 8 pm. I had a hard time getting out of bed. I could barely go grocery shopping - it was that exhausting. But slowly I have become more and more active. I don't sleep more than 10 hours a night. I get outside. I garden. I go shopping. I clean the house. I do things. My goal is to start working out to gain natural energy so I can get off of the prescription meds. So my big goal before I start my new job August 19th is to get moving!
I also want to look good for my wedding. I really want to work on toning my arms and my back, since this is a strapless dress. I much prefer a little muscle on a girl, much more than I find skinny girls attractive. 20 weeks, I should be able to get some body sculpting done. I was a competitive power-lifter in high school and college. I know how to work out. I just need to do it! I actually have a home gym. We call it "the room no one ever goes in". To start I am doing DDP Yoga and Zumba. I also plan on doing free weights to work on toning my arms and back. I got lucky, at my old job, they would give us $500 a year to buy exercise equipment, so I bought an elliptical and a treadmill, a boxing bag, and tons of free weights and benches - plus there is a TV in there with a DVD player to do videos. It is an awesome home gym, if only it got used more.
I used to be such an athlete. In high school I would wake up every morning at 5 am and do Tae Bo. (my all time favorite work out). Then I would have gymnastics 2-3 times a week. Cheer practice 3-4 times per week. Then for a year I did powerlifting 5 days a week. I even got into running, and would run 2 miles in my hilly neighborhood a few time a week. When I didn't run, I loved to go for long walks and just listen to music and zone out. I weighed 125 lbs. I could bench my weight. I was proud of that. As a girl that is quite the accomplishment. We just don't have the upper body strength that men do.
After high school, working out became less about being athletic and more about looking good. I became a gym rat. When I wasn't working out at home, or going for long walks, you would find me at the gym. I love to lift weights. Absolutely love it.
It was when I started my last job that I stopped working out. I was always a waitress. That meant long shifts on your feet carrying heavy ass trays. It was a work out in and of itself. Somehow I had more energy. I could work all day and go out and stay up all night. When I got my cubicle job, I was sitting for 8 hours a day. At first it was awesome, but I slowly starting gaining more and more weight. I had less and less energy. I didn't even have the energy to work out. If a physical labor job didn't hurt my neck and back the way waiting tables did, and it paid what a desk job pays, I would do it in a heart beat.
When you think about it, cave men were constantly on the go. Hunting, gathering, whatever. (only took one anthropology course in college so don't beat me if my facts aren't perfect) Humans aren't meant to sit at a desk for 8 hours a day and then drive through pick up their dinner and park their pre-diebetic butts on the couch for four hours watching TV - only to repeat the same pattern over and over. This combined with our love affair with processed carbs is why I think we have an obesity epidemic in America. But hey, we aren't the fattest country in the world anymore. Now that honor goes to Mexico. Sorry Mexico. I looooooove your food, I just can't eat it.
Not that America isn't much better.....
So one of the best quotes I ever heard about exercise came from, of all places, Richard Simmons. Yes that Richard Simmons.....
You are welcome for that photo. Just try and get that out of your head. But, for all his glitter and flash, he really helps a lot of people. He said "IF YOU LOSE WEIGHT WITHOUT EXERCISE, YOU WILL JUST BE A SMALLER VERSION OF YOUR FLABBY SELF".
I have heard that diet is probably 70-90% of losing weight, but exercise is they key to truly changing your body. And for those of us with PCOS we know that exercise is key in regulating blood sugar and insulin levels - which is the key to unlocking freedom from the PCOS nightmare.
Here are some interesting articles and videos about exercise:
Now go work out !!!
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