So last week, we discovered the App “Strava” – a way for us to track our workouts. The one neat thing about it is the social aspect of it. I had heard about it from someone I follow on IG, but my husband heard about it from one of his coworkers. When he checked it out, we both signed up, and he decided that it would be cool to start a Group for Canadian Armed Forces Administrators – so those who are in the HR or finance trades. In the first weekend, we got 31 members – it’s a private club so we could control who has access to it, but hubby posted the group information on the HRA FB group.

The one thing with being in the military is that we need to maintain a certain level of fitness. Understandable because if we get called upon, we may need to deploy – and considering the state of the world at the moment, that threat is pretty darn real! We’re supposed to do annual physical fitness tests – unfortunately, mine ran out a couple of years ago, and, physically, I’ve been too broken to take it since. I’d be able to do ¾ of it, I’m certain, but it’s that last one that I just can’t – and I know I can’t – pass. However, it doesn’t mean I can’t continue working on my physical fitness, so when I am at the point of being able to do it, I’ll be fit enough to be able to do everything.

Too bad I didn’t have that mentality over the past 3 years since the last time I did it. Too bad I had to hit rock bottom mentally, emotionally, and physically.

In the Strava group, someone asked how to get started after a setback. She doesn’t have a support system, her husband is deployed, and she’s going through menopause and has put on some weight. I completely felt this! Going through perimenopause, gaining weight, losing all motivation, shitty mental health… the only benefit that I have is that my husband isn’t deployed. But I get it. Boy, do I get it! I feel like an imposter every time I post. Every time I offer advice. Every time I enter the gym, I feel I don’t belong there. I’m so deconditioned, I hate saying that I’m a Personal Trainer. I see what people say to PTs who don’t look the part. They’re cruel and everywhere. However, I know from experience, those in “peak” condition can be intimidating and even turn people away for a multitude of reasons. I personally find trainers who DON’T “look the part” more inspiring than those who do. Genetically, I am absolutely NOT predispositioned to be lean or small. When I competed in physique, I had to fight tooth and nail to get there. I was NOT healthy. But I looked good, and that was the important part! I think one of the reasons I like “Inner Soul Yoga and Cycle” here in Ottawa is because the instructors vary in age and body type!

So when the question was asked – how to start up again after such a long break with a lot of weight gain – I knew I could answer… though I knew I couldn’t answer fully on Strava, so here we are!

Here’s the thing about motivation: it sucks. If you’re relying on motivation to get started, or to keep something up, chances are, you won’t succeed. What you need to do is build the habit. Yes, motivation might get you started, but you certainly can’t rely on motivation to keep it going. You need to develop the habit and discipline to keep it going.

The one nice thing about the military is that, for the most part, we get “paid” to work out – so, we get an hour during regular work hours to go to the gym (PT). I typically add it to my lunch so I can get a really good workout in – and I eat at my desk, so it’s perfect. For me, it’s essential to get away from my desk for that hour – even when it’s busy. I try to encourage my husband to also take his PT, even when he’s “too tired/sore” or there’s a lot of work. Firstly, the work never goes away. Never. Yes, there will be periods of slower or busier times, but the work is always there – and having to wait another hour typically isn’t going to kill anyone! And, secondly, it establishes the routine – not only for yourself, but it manages expectations for supervisors. Even if you’re too tired or sore, there’s always something you can do – light cardio (recline bike) or stretching, rolling, or mobility.

When you’re starting back into fitness, what you do isn’t as important as just doing something – everything else will come. Even if it’s  going to the gym and walking on a treadmill for 30 minutes, then doing some stretching. That is fine! That is more than fine! It’s establishing the habit! And walking is very accessible for virtually everyone! But you have to establish that habit!

Here’s some other tips to help you get back into things:

• Find something you really enjoy doing – even if it doesn’t necessarily align with your goals. For instance, if you want to lose weight or gain muscle, doing yoga daily likely isn’t going to achieve that. But if you really love yoga and commit to it daily, it will likely have other benefits like flexibility, balance, muscular endurance, and mental fortitude. For me, I absolutely hate doing cardio – always have, and likely always will – but I know it’s very important for heart health and preventing and reversing some diseases. The one form of cardio I really enjoy doing, is Spin. I did it when we were in Comox, I did it when I was deployed to Kuwait, and we’ve started going now in Ottawa – and it’s SO much fun! If you’ve heard of “Soul Cycle”, yup, that’s pretty much it! We (as I go with my husband) love it so much that we’ve also considered getting certified to teach it! And if we end up getting posted to a location that doesn’t have anything like it, we’d consider starting classes to offer it ourselves! Once you find movement you really enjoy doing and establish the habit, then you can think about adding movement to get to your goal.
• Have a support network – wouldn’t life be perfect if your immediate family supports you in your desire to lose weight / get in shape? I’ve been blessed that my husband has been there the whole time – and through the last couple years, he never once brought up my weight. Well, he did, but very tactfully. Mostly. It’s been hard for him to watch me spiral with my mental health and watching me gain weight and lose who I am. But he never stopped being there for me. Now, if you don’t have that immediate support system, you might have to create one. Whether it’s with your coworkers, getting involved with a local fitness group, or creating one in your local community. With most people using FB nowadays, it would be simple enough to start a community group specific to local drop-in fitness – whether a walking group, a walking/running group, drop-in soccer, or maybe frisbee – and if you have dogs or young children, that’s a good way to meet other busy (and probably stressed!) moms! Finding someone to say “hey, let’s go for a walk!” – because, let’s face it, when someone says that, it’s hard to say no!
• Be prepared to be uncomfortable. If committing to exercise was easy, would there be an obesity epidemic? In Canada, 25% of adults age 18-34, and 34% age 50-64 were obese (2022). In 2020 in the US, they predicted that 50% of adults would be obese by 2030. So, yeah, it’s not easy, and you’re going to be uncomfortable. Be prepared. However, how do you feel… right here, right now? Use that feeling as motivation to create that habit. Remember what it’s like to be at rock bottom and let that fuel your “why”.
• Set SMART goals: Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, Time-bound. Saying “I want to lose weight” is not a SMART goal. Neither is “I want to lose 50 lbs”… “I want to lose weight” isn’t specific (how much?), it could be measurable, if it was more specific, it might be achievable – but it would also require a timeframe. “I want to lose 50 lbs” is a little better as it is more specific. It could be measurable if there was a time-component in place, which would also influence the achievability. Having a goal “I want to lose 30 lbs by my vacation in 2 months” might be okay, but the achievability might be challenging as that’s 15 lbs a month, which could be considered extreme weight-loss. However, having a goal of “I want to lose 30 lbs by my birthday in 6 months (June), and 50 lbs (total) by the end of the year to be taken off some of my medication”, this is a great goal. It’s very specific. A 30 lb weight loss in 6 months is only 1-1.5 lbs a week, which is extremely healthy and achievable, and an additional 20 lbs for the remaining part of the year is 3.3 lbs a month! It’s measurable and achievable. It’s relevant and will have a positive impact on your health, not just appearance, and there’s a timeframe! There is nothing wrong with wanting to lose weight to look and feel better about yourself – and I understand the nuances that come with the mental health aspect of gaining weight. But I guarantee that a smaller body won’t make you happy, nor fix your problems. That requires a lot of inner work to heal your relationship with yourself – and, very likely, your relationship with diet and exercise.
• Be aware of how you fuel your body. I have tried every diet under the sun, as well as GLP-1 weight-loss medication (Saxenda) and they have all failed. Now, yes, the Saxenda worked, but only because it made me so nauseous, I was literally starving myself – and STILL wasn’t losing weight beyond the initial 10 lbs! I actually took myself off the drug, as I hated being on it to begin with – as someone who HATES needles, having to inject myself every single day was torture! Not as bad as I was expecting, but after a while, it got exhausting – especially knowing that I’d feel like shit. Plus, when you feel like crap, the last thing you want to do is go exercise – especially if you’re basically starving yourself! Most recently, I have tried Intuitive Eating (IE). The one thing IE gave me was it erased my fear of food. It made me pay attention to my body, listen to how my body responded to food, and adjust accordingly. And, correction, IE is not the most recent. I am currently trying Intermitted Fasting (IF) which I will discuss in a different blog post. The important thing is to fuel your body in a way that works for you – and don’t be afraid to adjust things if they don’t work, or stop working for you. I suggest tracking your food – but, again, I will discuss it in a different blog post as nutrition is highly complex and can’t be summed up in a paragraph.
• Be aware of how you fuel your mind. Whether it’s what you watch on TV, what you read, or what you see on social media, what your mind ingests will play a part in your well-being and success in changing habits. Pay attention to where your mind goes when you’re scrolling through social media. My IG is filled with a wide variety of people; young and mature, men and women, extremely fit to obese, gay, trans and straight, friends and strangers, abled and differently abled. White and POC. I have followed some, then unfollowed shortly after as their content wasn’t clear when I initially started following them. I pay attention to how I feel when I see their posts. Do I feel motivated or disheartened? Does it make me want to hit the gym in celebration or punishment?

So, you might be thinking “okay, this is great, but how do I implement this?”

For the next month – or at least 2 weeks – nothing. Get a smart watch to start tracking your steps, sleep, heart rate, etc. Download Cronometer and start tracking your food – and track everything. Also, consider starting a gratitude journal – I like “5 minute Journal”. What these tools will do is establish habits and patterns. Now, I don’t always believe in food tracking, however, if you’ve tried and tried to lose weight, and nothing works, sometimes you have to do these things! Quite often, people eat more than they think they eat – and often, in my case, too little. It can show you areas that you may want to adjust – your sugar, or fat might be too high, you might need to drink more water, maybe you see a pattern of snacking in the evening because you’re undereating during the day. You need to be brutally honest when recording everything. And the nice thing with Cronometer is that you enter in your stats, and it calculates out your BMR (how much energy your body needs in order to keep functioning). You can also enter in your goals, and it will calculate how much you require to meet those goals. If you have a Fitbit (and other smart devices), they can be connected and the energy consumed during exercise and activity is taken into consideration. The reason I went with Cronometer is because it’s compatible with the Galveston – and if you’re going through perimenopause or menopause, the Galveston diet might be a good option and this is the tracker Dr Marie Claire Haver suggests.

So after you’ve been tracking you food and steps, etc for at least 2 weeks, start making simple adjustments. Drink less alcohol, more water, change regular pop to diet pop – or get a SodaStream. Start adding more steps. At work, I try to get up every hour and do a lap of the office – not to mention, drinking more water = needing to go to the bathroom more frequently. Park farther from the doors when you go shopping. Take the stairs instead of the escalator. Just start adding little things into your day-to-day. Then start looking into more formal exercise – maybe a group exercise class of some sort. If you’re unsure, ask a friend if they want to join you! I LOVE dancing – any type! I will dance myself into an asthma attack. I even started dance lessons a couple of years ago, but my knees didn’t want anything to do with it! So, for now, no dancing for me – but I LOVE dancing! Don’t be afraid to try new things! Like Zumba! Or pole dance! Or belly dance! Or a martial art – which is an awesome thing you can often do as a family! Maybe take swimming lessons if that’s something you’ve always wanted to do. If an injury is plaguing you, aquasize might be a good option, or cycling. With winter coming up, maybe try skiing or ice-skating. Heck! In the spring, volunteer at a local garden to do maintenance! Some public gardens rely on volunteers! That might not feel like exercise, but you’re outside, getting fresh air and sunshine. You’re doing squats, deadlifts, bicep curls, walking and carrying stuff – trust me – it’s a workout!

Don’t let someone tell you that something isn’t exercise. If you’re moving and increasing your heart rate, then it’s exercise! Exercise doesn’t have to be a certain length of time in the gym. Life isn’t measured by sets and reps. And you’re certainly not meant to be miserable.  I guarantee that your weight – your body – is the least interesting thing about you.

You got this. Now you just have to go out and get it! I believe in you!