FITNESS: DOES EXERCISE MATTER?

Throughout my life I have always maintained some type of physical activity until I became an adult. Life got in the way and my time for exercise diminished. I would go on health kicks where I would eat healthy and work out. This usually resulted in going to the gym hard core for several months and feeling great. However, one day off turned into one week and then weeks into months with no return trip to the gym.

Most people that I encounter have gone through this same experience. They go to the gym for a few months and then just fall off. This type of behavior often goes on for a lifetime and people get frustrated. What is the point? Why am I not seeing results? I have no time for this. In our culture there is such a strong emphasis on working out as the first means of losing weight and I began to wonder is this really true?

My answer is NO. In my experience, exercise alone will not get most people who have significant weight to lose (20lbs or more) to their goal. I will even venture to say that exercise to people just starting out with no fitness background often hinders weight loss. Now let me explain. Weight has to do solely with what you eat, so if you eat less you lose. Its really simple math. Reducing your calorie intake and eating nutrient rich foods (foods closer to their natural state) will yield weight loss results. Point. Blank. Period.

Its purely psychological why exercise hinders people just starting out with no fitness background. What happens is we go to the gym and have no clue what to do so we either don't do enough or do too much. The “not doing enough” crowd will usually reward themselves by eating and cancel out the the workout they just did. The “doing too much” crowd will be exhausted after a few weeks and give up all together. Do you see the dilemma? I have been on both sides.

So does exercise really matter? Yes, but not for the reasons that you may think. If your sole reason for exercising is to lose weight then you are going to be disappointed. Last year I when I first became a triathlete (and still had 30lbs to drop) I though I would be super thin and trim when it was over and I wasn't. Mind you, I was biking almost 200 miles a week and running close to 30 and I only lost 3 lbs. This is not to say “don't exercise” because the benefits of exercise are manifold. Working out helps you stay fit, boost your metabolism, makes your heart stronger, increases self esteem, sculpts your body, helps with digestion and just overall good health. I love to stay active and it is one of the reasons I have maintained my weight and when I do eat poorly my body doesn't pack on the pounds. However, the benefits of exercise were not made clear till after I changed my diet and lost the weight.

So before you make that call to order p90x or zumba THINK. What are your goals? If you have 20lbs or more to lose maybe you should rethink your plan of attack and concentrate on your diet. If your ONLY strategy for losing weight is exercise then you will be disappointed.

What do you think? Do you think exercise is overrated? Why do you exercise?  Share your thoughts. 

IS YOUR RELATIONSHIP MAKING YOU FAT?

Yes, we are going there! We always try to keep it real on Paparoxi and in an effort to discuss the reality of staying healthy or losing weight our romantic relationship status often weighs heavy on how in shape or over weight we remain. Studies show that married couples between the ages of 20 to 35 gain 6 to 9 pounds more then their single counterparts. I can speak from both sides of the fence. I have been in a happy relationship and overweight. I have also been the slender single girl (and still am ;). Is there a link between staying fit and your love life?

Many will say it is security. Once you are in a happy relationship you don’t feel the need to go to the gym and stay fit because you have already landed your mate. Additionally, I believe most couple time revolves around food. Either you are going out to dinner, staying in and making dinner, or ordering out the focus is food. Before you know it, being in love has taken its toll on the scale. I also believe another culprit is time. The time you used to spend in your single life working out or being active is now spent snuggled up with your love, so it is hard to remain fit.

In relationships its either the unhealthy partner influencing the healthy one or the other way around. In my case it was the unhealthy influencing the healthy. I couldn’t hang with the late night meals, trips to Wendy’s and the plethora of chips and cookies always at my finger tips my body took a hit gaining more then 60 pounds. On a much deeper level, as much as I loved my boyfriend I am not quite sure how much I truly loved myself. Hind sight is 20/20 and I now know that when you really love yourself you take care of yourself which includes taking care of your body for life. Sometimes we put so much love into the partnership that we don’t take the time to love ourselves.

I am a very solutions oriented person so I am not going to leave you with just that. It is important to find balance with everything in life. So if you are in a loving relationship or plan on being one in future here are some things that you can do to beat the battle of the bulge:

Action packed quality time. Dates don’t only have to be dinner and a movie. Get moving! Find a cool flea market and walk around for the day, bike ride along the river and if your really brave take a romantic hike through the woods. There are so many things out there that don’t revolve around food. Finding other things to do besides eating together will only strengthen the relationship.

Be the influence. Chances are if you are reading this then you are the healthy one in the relationship. Do not let the dark side take you down, it will be hard but STAND FIRM. Most of the time when it comes to food and relationships usually there is no compromise someone wins out. If you are in love with someone who eats poorly you have to lead by example and bring them into the healthy light. I look at my sister’s relationship as a good example of this. At one point she was eating just like her fiancé lots of sweets and snacks. It wasn’t long before this took a toll on her body. Well she decided to clean up her diet and took her fiancé along with her (she almost made him vegan lol). Now they both look fantastic and are much healthier!

Claim your “me” time. In relationships we often become so consumed in the love and emotion of it all we forget about ourselves. We are constantly planning time together “we time” when we need to take time and plan “me time”. Take time to work on you and more importantly workout. Keep taking your yoga , zumba or spin class. Yea you might miss out on an hour with your sweetheart but you will be better for it. I always say to myself “I must be a better ME before I can be the best WE”.

Don’t get too comfortable. I hate to quote Lil Wayne on here but he said it best “It's all good when we making love, All I ask is don't take our love, For granted, it's granted My love for you, is real Baby if you don't love me Somebody else will So don't you ever get too comfortable”…he is right. We get comfortable and relaxed and take the love for granted but we should always want to be at our best for our significant other. I think of my parents who have been married for 27 years and my mother sometimes will just dress up for my dad for no reason, and as I child I would ask “ Mommy why are you so dressed up?“ now I understand. The same is true of staying fit. Take pride in looking your best for the one you love. Its shows more then love it shows appreciation and respect. It shows that you don’t take the relationship for granted and you will always try to look your best.

So what do you think? Is your relationship making you gain weight? How do you stay in shape while being in love? Share your thoughts. 

FITNESS: "THICK VS. FAT"

So this hotly contended topic is something that throughout my life I have often thought about. I mean really how do you define Fat vs. Thick?

From my own personal experience throughout my life I have always thought of myself as a “Thick Chick” meaning to me that I was never a size 0 and I was very muscular. I have always been athletic growing up (minus the brief period in adult hood) people would always tell me I had great muscular legs. When it came to dating men seemed to appreciate my Thickness and I had no reason to feel insecure I always thought I was fine in all my glory and thickness that is until….I became fat.

Now this was definitely a turning point for me. I was certifiably fat for roughly 2 years. And during this time I do believe that I took calling myself thick to another level. Whereas before when my Thickness was something I passively thought about now it was at the for front of my mind. When a few friends and family members would approach me about my ballooning size I would say: “what are you talking about I am sexy and THICK“. I stayed in my thick comfort zone. Wearing the tightest dresses I could find that would accentuate my “Thickness” and curves. Thinking about how I felt then, I thought nothing was wrong at all. The fact that even my big jeans were giving me muffin top was fine, the fact that I had to go buy new clothes two sizes bigger was fine, and the fact that I never really recognized myself in pictures anymore was fine. I mean there were no shortage of plus size “Freak-um” dresses and close up pictures and head shots worked just fine for me…..damn-it I was THICK and SEXY.

It was not until reality gave me a hardcore knockout punch in other areas of my life that I noticed that my health was failing and I was not as happy with me as I thought I was. This did not happen overnight by any means it was a gradual process but slowly and surely I started to make my way back to the truly Thick, sexy and athletic woman I once was. I then began to realize that I used the word Thick as a coping mechanism. Because in our society today and especially in urban culture being Thick is a great thing and it encompasses and celebrates women’s curves instead of making us feel bad about ourselves as mainstream culture would have us believe. This is awesome! However we sometimes take this too far. At that point in my life where I was unhealthy and Fat I had taken it too far.

I believe that truly being Thick is having a degree of athleticism and muscular attributes. I believe that the definition of a Thick woman is someone who takes pride in her body and is healthy meaning eating right and partaking in some level of physical activity. Now on the contrary there is “Fat” (and though I really hate that word, it is what it is) and I think someone who has gotten to a level of fatness takes no interest in their health whatsoever. They maintain no level of physical activity and don’t even try to make habitual changes in the right direction. The difference-- Thick women are marked by some level of muscular definition or solidness and Fat women are marked by none. In my life I am a Thick woman who can go run 10 miles and then go home dress up and go dancing all night long, my former Fat self could barely make it a mile without passing out.

And that my friends is my definition of the difference between Thick and Fat. What are your Thoughts?