There’s a difference between being weight conscious and health conscious. Aiming to shed off some pounds doesn’t make a person health conscious, unless she does it by following a strict diet, avoiding junk food and sweets, and becoming fully aware of calorie counts and what food must be eaten and avoided. This type of awareness combined with exercise and a healthy lifestyle would qualify someone as a health conscious person. Otherwise, she’s just weight conscious, a person who’s only concerned about her weight. The type of person who feels she has to look slimmer, but continues to eat like there’s no tomorrow. In this category, you’d also find those who don’t give an eff about their vices. They smoke or drink like there’s no tomorrow, so long as they keep their abs tight and flat.
So, how would I classify myself? Am I health conscious or weight conscious? If there’s a grey area in between these two classifications, I’d say that I’m wandering there at the moment.
Truth is, I’ve never been conscious about my health and my weight. Until out of the blue, I decided to try Nestle Fitnesse’s 14-day challenge sometime last month. And alas, that’s what started it all.
For someone who eats like a man, changing my eating habits was (or is still is) extremely challenging. However, I’m proud to say that I survived it. The challenge was to replace two (2) meals with cereals. I knew doing so wouldn’t produce significant change, so while tackling this challenge, I pushed myself further by working out. As I don’t have time to go to the gym, I downloaded Hip Hop Abs and started sweating every morning for the past weeks.
I have yet to fully commit to this new found enthusiasm to become a fitter version of myself, although I’m glad that I have started the first few steps toward this goal.
Image Source: Google.com
Everytime I skip meals and try to set aside half portion of my carbs, especially at night, I try to assure myself that it’s for the better. From eating 3 cups of rice a day. I’ve trimmed down my intake to about 1.5 cups (1 cup at lunch and 0.5 at dinner). Sometimes, I fail at this. However, whenever I feel frustrated due to failing, I make sure that I do better and try harder the next time by means of working out more persistently and eating less on the succeeding days.
Now, why do I feel stuck in the middle of being health conscious and weight conscious? Here’s the thing, I still can’t let myself be deprived of my cravings. I eat four-cheeze pizza whenever I want to. I eat fastfood meals. I buy junk food (though this rarely happens) for snacks. I eat biscuits/cookies that I know contains very much sugar. Name it, I still do it.
I guess the mindset that I have is that as long as I maintain a certain balance with my meal choices and effort to stay fit, I’m good. Say, if working out is equivalent to 5 points, and cutting down meals is 5 points as well, giving myself 5-10 percent of the total for my cravings isn’t bad, in my opinion.
Image Source: Google.com
The thing is, I don’t want to look ridiculous like some people who claim that they want to lose weight or that they’re dieting, but you see them (they show-off actually) cheating several times a week or a month. That, and I think, depriving myself of food that I do want to eat once in a while would worsen the craving.
Aside form working out and cutting down the carbs, I also try to whip some healthy recipes that I bring to work. I don’t get to do this everyday, but I’m happy that I get to cook “diet” food once in a while. I’m still thinking of posting those recipes here and of creating a new section in my blog, duly intended for fitness matters. :) I’m afraid though that I wouldn’t be able to live by it and suck at giving diet/fitness tips due to the fact that I’m no prob in this area.
Sample recipe/food experiment, Bitsuelas with Salted Egg
Going back, I haven’t checked my weight yet again, but whether or not I lost some pounds, I’m happy that I finally found it in me to be more wary of my health and my weight. Baby steps, they say.
Plus, being fit is always in style. :)
xx, A
