Well hello there friends. How was your weekend? I hope you moms had a great mothers day! I sure did. It’s always a good day when I get to spend it with this cutie
I actually got to sleep in, then we laid in bed cuddling for a bit. The hubs made breakfast while I took a long shower and took my time getting ready. After doing some housework I took Little P shopping for some new shoes. Girlfriend is quite the shopper. She found some shoes she loved right away and wouldn’t change her mind, no matter how hard I tried. Love her. We looked at clothes too. She walked around the girls section exclaiming “This is SO cute. Mom, can I buy this?” And holding things up asking me if it looked good. Hilarious. We went to lunch with the hubs family at Cheesecake Factory. This would be our fourth night in a row eating out. Whoops.
Can we talk about food for second? Because lately I’ve just been really confused by it. You see – I did the Whole30 last month and I had great results. But I struggled. The idea of being SO restrictive made me miserable. I wanted stuff I haven’t had in so long, and normally wouldn’t want, just because I “couldn’t” have it. And if we’re being honest here… The last 2 weeks have been a continuous “cheat” because I wanted to relish in the fact that I “could” have whatever I wanted. We traveled to Pittsburgh and I ran a half marathon, which I used as an excuse to eat an ungodly amount of processed carbs. I’ve tried to find the balance in the last week or so but I just don’t know what to do.
My problem is I want/need to lose more weight. But I also want/need to get stronger. So how do I balance that? For the past year I have been eating mostly grain-free. I still have some dairy and legumes, so not totally paleo. And I often indulge in desserts and meals that are less than healthy. The reason I did the Whole30 was because I had hit a plateau and was tired of gaining and losing the same 5 pounds. I made great progress, but it really did mess with me mentally. Now I’m afraid of “restricting” myself too much because I don’t want to end up coming off something and eating everything in sight….
So I guess what I’m saying is I just don’t know how to balance it all. I need to do more research on what to eat to gain muscle while losing fat, but mostly I want to find something that clicks with me mentally as well.
All that to say I’m just confused.
Any advice?
How was your mothers day?
imperfectly courtney 
I know EXACTLY what you mean, Courtney. Whole30 kind of sent my head for a loop too. I DO think it’s possible to lose weight and get stronger at the same time but the strength gains aren’t huge or crazy. If you’re at a point where you are REALLY having to work hard (and I mean really damn hard) to get PRs in your slow lifts (press, squat, bench, deadlift, etc.) then you may have to take a hit on those numbers in order to lose weight. You can build back up again, if that’s the route you want to go.
I’d say, do whatever makes you the happiest!
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I agree with Gabby– do what makes you happiest 😉 But I can completely understand the mentality from the Whole30. While I’m not on the side of trying to lose weight, I know if I am not what feels like stuffing my face all day, I have no energy to lift (Whole30 killed my strength gains).
Have you looked into Eat to Perform? Their foundation is that you eat to perform (obviously), but then the aesthetic part will just happen naturally.
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I did a paleo challenge at the gym a while back and I only made it 4 of the 8 weeks. I felt tired all the time and just completely opposite of what everyone said eating paleo feels like. Have you thought about Zone or just eating clean? Then you can still have some of the things that make you “feel” like you are having a cheat without it being an all or nothing. You can makeup for bad days. Or shoot to eat well a certain percentage of the time.
I really struggle with my eating. It’s pretty terrible and I just don’t know what to do since I hate veggies. Makes it hard to lose.
Glad you had a nice Mother’s Day!
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I know how you feel. That is part of the reason why I haven’t tried the Whole30 challenge. When I restricted my diet before, all I did was crave foods I “couldn’t” have. This may sound silly but I just finished reading a book called, “Foodist”, and it made a lot of sense. It is great resource on tips and tricks to avoid the issues of restrictive diets.
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I was afraid to stop my Whole30 at first too. And eventually I added back a few things but found myself overindulging on them.
I think for me it’s better to eat as clean as I can. I think you should be able to lose fat and build muscle while eating good wholesome food.
I think you mentioned that you are eating some junk and unhealthy meals and too much processed carbs. Those things are not helping you to get to your goals… this is what I have to keep telling myself too.
One of the lines from a paleo book I read was ‘Food either makes your more healthy or it makes you less healthy. I make more of an effort to choose what to eat based on that.
The other thing you might try is getting in touch with a paleo/primal nutrtional coach.
Good luck to you. There is a minefield of information and hard to wade through it all, I agree!
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Have you checked out Clean Eating Magazine (http://cleaneatingmag.com). The food is real food and not restrictive like so many other options out there.
I think it’s a balance and finding what works for you!
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Girl, I am in the SAME boat. I use to have a “goal weight” I wanted, but now it’s more that I have fat I want to lose (and some numbers on the scale) but I want to get STRONGER and FASTER at the box. It’s a hard balance. I eat better now then I have in YEARS yet – and for a while I made steady progress climbing down the ladder, but now I’m just stuck. Trying to figure it all out myself. Let me know what you do, and I’ll keep you posted on what I do 🙂
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I feel your pain sister. I go through the same thing every day. I get down to business really hard and then I think YOLO…and go nuts. Wonder why it is so hard to find a good, healthy medium and not stress about it.
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Now I have never done this whole 30 challenge but I know myself. I can’t deny myself from things I want to eat which is why I k now I would fail miserably at that sort of thing. When I was younger I could do it but now that my life has changed I now know that (yes cliche) but I need to allow myself things in moderation. My only advice isn’t to stress over it. Its done and in the past and time to move forward.
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