THE LONG ROAD THE LONG ROAD TO LOVING TO LOVING MYSELF MYSELF

I was eleven years old the first time an adult pointed out a dimple on my leg. I could feel the heat of embarrassment flush my cheeks as I tried to melt into the floor. Something was wrong with me. Up until that point, I had never given my body much thought. I loved my body; it served a purpose.

I grew up with four brothers. I was an athlete and a tomboy who could keep up with any boy in the neighborhood in a pickup game of basketball or baseball, and I had always felt strong. I ate what I wanted with little thought.

That one thoughtless comment by an adult led me down a long journey of battling eating disorders, body dysmorphia, and low self-esteem.

My belief that there was something wrong with me was solidified a few months later while at a slumber party with friends. The girls decided to weigh themselves. I had never given much thought about what I weighed, with my only time on a scale being at a doctor's office.

When my turn came, I stepped on the scale – outweighed every girl at the slumber party by almost thirty pounds. Never mind that I was also a foot taller than them. None of the girls were mean about it, but they were just as surprised as I was.

At age eleven, I weighed 132 pounds and stood 5’7”. I went home from that slumber party and started my first crash diet.

I spent hours in front of the mirror staring at every “flaw” I found on my body. There was no internet, so I couldn’t look things up. Instead, I bought every Glamour and Cosmopolitan magazine and scoured them to find a woman who had a dimple on her leg. Studies at Stanford University and the University of Massachusetts found that 70% of women say they feel worse about their own looks after reading women’s magazines. I never found a single dimple on any Cosmo model.

This led me to the feeling that I was somehow damaged. I started working out and dieting obsessively. I was a threesport athlete in high school, and after practice, I would hit the weight room or go running. I used my own money to buy a scale, weighed myself twice a day, and journaled everything that I ate.

YOUR BMR + THERMIC EFFECT FROM FOOD + EXERCISE = 1,530.

YOUR BMR + THERMIC EFFECT FROM FOOD + EXERCISE = 1,530. YOU’VE ACTUALLY LOST A BIT OF WEIGHT. YOU’VE ACTUALLY LOST A BIT OF WEIGHT.

You burn calories right after exercise, when your muscle feeds itself. But you burn far MORE just walking around and having a highly active daily lifestyle … and the more muscle you have, the more calories you burn off.

And when we say “active daily lifestyle” we mean you are on your feet moving and working all day. If you spend most of your day at a desk, you do not have an “active daily lifestyle” even if you go to the gym 7 days a week. Nutrition is going to be even more critical for you.

Creating a caloric deficit is the first step to losing fat. It’s not the only step. But if I were going to tell a person the first step to weight loss, I’d tell them to incorporate lifting weights into your fitness routine. The second step: cut out sugar.

If you want help with your fitness and nutrition, www.NaughtyGym.com is your answer. Each day we have 3 versions of our primary workout (depending on your equipment) and we can even work with you 1 on 1 to offer nutritional counseling, motivation and accountability, or even get you ready for your next Lifestyle vacation.