Funny Girl Fitness: The Strength to Start

Today is a good day. I did my first dead hang pull up....eva! I did three more times just to make sure it wasn't a fluke! It got me all pumped and wanted to share with you how I taught myself to use my strengths.

There has to come a time where you have to be honest with yourself. What works and what doesn't work for you. I'm extremely stubborn, don't like to be told how to do things, counting calories might as well have chemistry formulas mixed him because I'm not going to remember either of them and finally, I realized my personality doesn't mesh well with any diet guidelines. You can't force me to do anything because I want to do the exact opposite. **side note** Once, someone said I "owed" them to eat chilli cheese fries with them in 2005, I was so agitated at that person trying to guilt trip me into something that I vowed to NEVER eat them again! ever. I haven't had them since...a shamed too.

See what I mean? I first thought they were weaknesses but decided to use them as strengths. I thought about how I hate restrictions and shoved into something..pretty much anything to do with diets right? Well, here's what I came up with:

1) Cut everything in half. If I was used to eating a whole bowl of spaghetti, I would leave half. A burger with fries became just a burger. Four slices of pizza...you get it. This technique served a few purposes. I was working on portion control because I was the type that was either starving or extremely full, there was no happy medium. It also helped with my self control which is probably the MOST important factor to any diet. Then, unexpectedly, it taught me how to say "no, thank you" to anyone who would offer any more than I had allowed myself...more on that later.

2) Cut one thing out! In my office, a boss of mine likes to keep a candy jar right at the front desk that everyone passes. It's not just butterscotch candy or peppermints, she packs it to the brim with fun size snickers, twix, kit kats, starbursts (!), and anything you've ever wanted from the Willy Wonka factory. Also, the local Walgreens like to donate FULL SIZE and even king size candy items...on a weekly basis.

Yep...all free for the taking! ALL THE TIME!

I decided that I was going to cut out candy. I could have cut out chocolate but I wanted the "thing" to be more broad so I couldn't make excuses. First week was tough. Second week came and went. Third week I didn't even realize I wasn't thinking about candy. I figured out that I was not only competing with myself but I wasn't going to break this habit. Wasn't worth it. That's the point of this technique.

So if you're starting out and you want to try something new, try those 2 goals. When I started, I looked like this....