Stephanie's food and exercise schedule

I’ve never have been a tall and slim woman, but a short happy girl with a curvaceous South-American body ;) What I sometimes struggled to love, because of my insecurities and the outbalanced life I was living. I was a busy cute couch potato,  with an all you can eat philosophy, working 24/7 and taking care of everybody but herself. My life took a turn in 2010 when I decided that I needed to take responsibly for the state of my body, mind and health. 

During my study career I was involved in anything and everything but never took the time to listen to my body and neglected my health. I wasn’t even noticing I was gaining weight until after my graduation. I decided to finally hit the fitness centre again after sponsoring them for over a year… So like most girls I wanted to know my start point and stood on the scales…wow… I became a curvaceous woman of 198lbs (90 kilograms)….

[caption id="attachment_21302" align="alignleft" width="147"] Graduation party - 2010[/caption]

… so the only wise decision I could think of back then, was to start a diet… if I had the knowledge I have now about a fit and healthy lifestyle, I would have never let myself starve, but kicked my butt into the gym and would have changed my food schedule. I guess it was al part of my journey I had to walk before I could start to develop my fit and healthy lifestyle. Because we all know that dieting is not good for you and it doesn’t provide you a fit and healthy body. Let alone a balanced mind.

So like most dieting journeys I lost weight but also gained weight and came to the realisation after 5 months that I would not be able to continue this lifestyle for the rest of my life. Also I was having inner fights with myself and became so tired of constantly forbidding myself to eat anything outside this dieting schedule.

There was no room for a treat day because than I would go flamingo crazy and eat everything and anything that crossed my path. The next day or sometimes even 5 minutes after this all-you-can-eat exercise I was feeling guilty and would be impossibly mean and harsh to myself. Putting myself down and pushing myself to do a better job next time… even writing this down makes me tear up again… that hate feeling towards yourself is unhealthy and so not necessary.

Because I was so mean towards myself and hating the process I was in, I started to develop an unhealthy relationship towards food. During this period I was not in a happy place… I became a grumpy girl, who wasn’t fun hanging around with anymore…and because of all the emotions running towards my body, dieting was even harder. Back then I just couldn’t figure out why I wasn’t feeling better… I was losing weight right? That was what I wanted… at least that’s what I thought.

Well this story has a happy ending, I promise :)

Luckily us humans are able to learn from our “bad”  decisions and expressions. In 2011 I decided enough was enough. I burned the dieting books and decided I would never let myself of anyone else inspire me to starve myself to a smaller size. No, this was not the way, not my way and finally I started to unlock my personal code for a fit and healthy lifestyle.

As a child I have always been a little bouncing ball and enjoyed exercising. I wanted my happy spirit back and since working out in a fitness centre was not motivation enough for me I needed to seek my fitspiration elsewhere.

In 2011 I found it at the Bootcampclub in Rotterdam and for two years I was running, jumping and rolling around with this outdoor club. I really enjoyed the outdoors and decided to also start a running career and joined a run club every Sunday morning at 9 am. In between my bootcampclub lessons, several running events of 5 and 10k, swimming, I also started hiking in the Netherlands, New Zealand and Africa - Kenya. Combining exercise into my holiday’s  ;)

[caption id="attachment_21303" align="alignleft" width="225"] Ladies Run - 5K - 2012[/caption]

And there I was again, this happy spirited girl who was falling in love with herself again :D  :D ! Never would I have thought I would like exercising this much again and I was starting to become fit and strong :D

The only thing I stil needed to work on was my healthy diet. Since I was exercising that much my body needed different nutrition. I was still pretty lost in this department, sometimes even falling back into my dieting schedule to prevent myself from overeating.

[caption id="attachment_21305" align="alignright" width="225"] On top of Mount Kenya - 2013[/caption]

And on top of that I injured my ankle during the descend after I had climbed Mount Kenya.  So at the end of 2013 I was literally out of the running and slowly turning into this cute couch potato again. After my ankle was fixed, I started to develop a knee injury when I started running again. I’ve always had weak knees but I managed to run and exercise without pain. During my physical therapy I found out I have hyper mobility - my joints stretch further than normal - this could cause my injuries and I needed to work on the strength of my joints and muscles.

After four months sitting around and feeling sorry for myself I knew exercising would get me out of this mood. This time I really needed to cut the crap and on March 8th 2014 I stepped on my unicorn ;) and took a trial lesson at Sixforty - dare to challenge. The best decision for my fit and healthy life.

The philosophy (link is in Dutch) of Sixforty was exactly what I needed and still motivates me to become stronger, live a healthy lifestyle and they also contribute to my happy mind :D Besides working out in the gym I  still hike and since January of this year I found a new hobby, which is road cycling. Somewhere this year I am planning to cycle up a Mountain in Austria (I don’t know how yet, but I will overcome this challenge ;) )

[caption id="attachment_21318" align="alignnone" width="640"] Sixforty - Dare 2 challenge - deadlift 80k[/caption]

This has been my fit journey in the last five year, and I still haven’t figure it all out, which is okay :)

My journey was / is not without struggle or failure. The best gift you can give yourself is trust and time. Trust the process and the signals your body are giving you (step back or step forward) and take time to find the best way you can live your fit and healthy lifestyle. That’s why it is so damn important to UNLOCK your personal fit and healthy code since you are in this for life! I know I am!

See the next page for my food and exercise schedule :D

First of all, I want to point out that my food and exercise schedule is not holy ground for every Fit Girl. So don’t read my food and exercise schedule as the ‘ perfect’ example for what you should eat and how many times you need to hit the gym. Since every girl’s body is different and will respond differently to food and workouts. Also we could have different goals in unlocking our personal code for a fit and healthy lifestyle. So don’t force your body into someone else’s lifestyle but stay true to yourself and be inspired to unlock your personal code for YOUR fit and healthy lifestyle.

Do not give up, the beginning is always the hardest! We may not be there yet but we are closer than we were yesterday ;)