It’s hard not to think of my journey to get healthy and wonder, “Did I do it all wrong?”<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n I don’t think so. Before, I didn’t know about portion control or serving sizes or calories. It was a good thing that I became aware. I was losing weight “the right way” i.e. it wasn’t a crash diet. I just modified my habits and tracked my calories and started an exercise program. It was slow going, it took me like 16 months to lose 110 pounds. <\/p>\n\n\n\n There was one time during my weight loss journey where it DID become unhealthy. After losing about 65\/70 pounds, I hit a plateau that was lasting FOREVER. Nothing I was doing was nudging the scale. This is when I started to exercise in an unhealthy way. “Punishing” myself by doing an hour or more on the elliptical until I was drenched in sweat. I was exercising every single day. This was when I realized I need to have rest days and I made it a “rule” to take 2 days off a week. <\/p>\n\n\n\n That became my routine for the next 10+ years. <\/p>\n\n\n\n So when did things become not healthy?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n It’s hard to tell. At the time, I thought I was doing it “right” and healthy. I worked out 5 days a week, I counted every calorie. I told myself it was in moderation, but it took a REALLY long time to realize what I was doing was the beginning of disordered eating.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This was me. This was one of the big disordered things I did. I would PANIC if I couldn’t do my 5 days a week. I remember MANY times being injured (from overuse, from over-exercising) and I’d find ways to work around it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n *I injured my achilles tendon so I kept swimming I just used the wedge for my legs so I was exercising my upper body only. <\/p>\n\n\n\n *There was a huge snowstorm (when Michael and I were newly dating) and I was stranded at his house for a week. I was so upset about not being able to get to the gym I trudged down the street in my boots to the nearby school and ran up and down the stadium stairs. <\/p>\n\n\n\n *We went on a weekend getaway to this adorable boutique beach hotel that didn’t have a pool or gym and it was kinda rainy–I did exercises in our small room because I couldn’t skip a workout (crunches, squats, pushups, jumping jacks).<\/p>\n\n\n\n *We ALWAYS exercise on vacation. While I have great memories of this–like running along the beach in Maui, running with my dad in Tucson, snowshoeing in Bend–I never told myself it WAS OK TO REST ON VACATION.<\/p>\n\n\n\n *I injured my knee or ankle (I can’t remember now) and was in a huge boot for 2 weeks. I still went to the gym, I just took the elevator instead of the stairs and compulsively worked out by doing upper body weights.<\/p>\n\n\n\n *We visited Michael’s family in Dallas and I went for a run when it was 100+ degrees out. I really didn’t need to! It definitely wasn’t the safest thing!<\/p>\n\n\n\n *Every time I went to Vegas I’d still run or pay extra to use the casino gym. Even though I did SO MUCH WALKING I really did not need to work out at all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n *At my family reunion camping, I’d get up early and go for a run to “earn” my food later.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The thing is, I didn’t see it at the time. Now, looking back, it’s like a neon sign and I keep thinking HOW DID I NOT KNOW. And, I have a million other examples like the ones above. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The year before I got pregnant with Zoey, I was really doing the work<\/a> to find a balance and heal my relationship with exercise. I was realizing (slowly) that working out should feel good<\/a> and do my body good, and not leave me depleted and sore and cranky and unhappy. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Exercise doesn’t have to be PUNISHING.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n I still have a long way to go but having such a hard pregnancy with Zoey, not being able to walk for 6 weeks postpartum, having reoccurring injuries, I am realizing I need to LISTEN to my body. Rest when it needs it. Maybe it’s ok to just go for a walk because it’s a nice day and not to burn calories. Maybe it’s ok to take a week off because my body feels sore or I feel like I’m getting sick. Maybe it’s ok to just do 30 minutes of yoga and 20 minutes of weight lifting because that’s when I can fit it in throughout the day with a new baby. \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n\n\n\n What about you? How has your relationship with exercise evolved? Or maybe it hasn’t? <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I started seeing a therapist who specializes in eating disorders and postpartum stuff. It’s a good combo because I have things to address with both issues. I gave her a brief rundown of my history and then we started talking about my weight loss journey and keeping the weight off for over 10 years and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_s2mail":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[10297,3452,8843,8662,10325,10324,9146],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.110pounds.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61194"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.110pounds.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.110pounds.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.110pounds.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.110pounds.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=61194"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/www.110pounds.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61194\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":61211,"href":"https:\/\/www.110pounds.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61194\/revisions\/61211"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.110pounds.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=61194"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.110pounds.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=61194"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.110pounds.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=61194"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.110pounds.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/IMG_6674.jpg\")
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