My Fitness and Eating Habits

Over the last few months I've had a few people ask me what my eating and fitness routine is, and what my big secret to losing all the baby weight is, and how much I weigh, and all the questions. I get it a lot and I usually laugh and brush it off, but then there are the people who say, "no seriously, tell me." So today I'm putting it all out on the table as far as my eating and excercise goes. Hopefully this is helpful for you, but honestly, there really isn't anything spectacular about what I do. 

Tank: Old Navy

Sports Bra: Old Navy

Pants: Old Navy

Shoes: Kohl's (old)

Food: I don't diet. I don't count calories, carbs, sugar, fat, any of it. The only thing I measure for my intake is how much water I'm drinking, and try to get to 100 ounces per day. 

I've learned to eat very intuitively. I eat what I want until I'm full, and then I stop. This means I eat on and off a lot throughout the day based on how my body is feeling. If I'm tired in the afternoon I'll make sure to drink a lot of water and some nuts, raisins, fruit etc...

We eat full fat foods. This is something that we've been doing for 4 years now and I personally think that it's helped out so much. Based on personal research that we've done we feel that eating full fat dairy is best because it goes through very minimal processing, and we've read that drinking lower fat milk doesn't make you satisfied as easy, therefore you drink more milk, and more calories, and in a lot of cases you wind up drinking more than you would if it was whole. So we personally decide to drink whole milk and eat full fat dairy. I used to eat all low fat and skim products and I was about 10-15 pounds heavier when I did. I don't know if it's all completely related but I do think I held onto a lot more weight when I did. 

I also make sure to eat five servings of fruit and veggies a day. Whether that's all in one green smoothie in the morning, or a rainbow lunch plate in the afternoon, I try to get it all in. After that though, I really don't care about what I eat that much as long as I get my water and produce in, I find it completely acceptable to wash it down with a burger and fries later. 

How I lost the baby weight: After I had Em, one of my friends from high school that I ran track with got certified to be a yoga instructor and I became fascinated by yoga! You can check out her instagram here. I thought that it was something that I really wanted to get into, and then found a hot yoga studio in Durham, NC that I loved and that is really how I lost all the baby weight. I mean I lost 15 pounds from popping her out, and then naturally lost 20 in water weight over the first 6 weeks, but to shed that last 10 pounds I did yoga for 60-90 minutes per day, everyday in a 90-100° room, and it helped me shed that last 10 pounds. Not only did I love it for that, but I feel so much better mentally after doing yoga. When I get grumpy my husband summons me to the basement on occasion to do some yoga and calm down. He's a great guy. 

How I workout now: Right now I'm currently in the process of doing a 40 week marathon training program. I'm currently on week 2, but have been conditioning myself for running again over the last few months which I've talked a lot about over here. I really want to run a marathon, but doing the traditional 10-20 week programs are too grueling for me, and it's something I really want to build up and ease into, so I'm taking it slow. Right now I'm running a mile to a mile and a half each day, and will slowly build my way up from there. I also still do yoga in my basement, just not in 100 degree rooms anymore. I can go out in my front yard for that. 

Those are all my biggest tips for what I personally do to stay healthy and active. I'd love to hear what you're doing to stay active and healthy, and any tips that you might have for me! Are you training to run a marathon? Have you ran a marathon? Do tell me how to get over the mental hurdle of having to run 8+ miles because it's freaking me out.