Striving For Balance

I always feel like I’m striving for balance. I like to joke and say that’s because I’m a Libra, but seriously, it’s what I always look for and still I see as a distant destination. I think that everyone would like to have balance in all aspects of his life, but still, I think that it can have a different meaning for everyone. Lately I’ve been reading a lot of posts about 2016 goals and all that jazz, and I didn’t want to write another one of those posts without finding a true purpose for it, and then I found it.

My one goal for 2016 is finding balance.

I don’t ask for everything to be perfect, I only want to find a place I’m happy at in what I feel I need to adjust at the moment. In the constant search for balance I always make the mistake of going all black or all white in everything, but that’s not how I work, be it for getting something done or stick to something long term. I need the black and the white to be the same amount.

Let’s talk about fitness and healthy eating, to start with. We all know a restricting diet without a good variety is not a great idea, as it opens the doors for a sudden fall where you go to have one biscuit and eat the whole box. I perfectly know this, but then tend to do the same mistake all over again. I begin happily eating an healthy diet thinking I’m going to be perfectly fine without a single slice of bread and not even half a plate of pasta once in a while, and then fall hard on the carb craving bandwagon again.

What to do then? Well, lately I’ve decided to follow a few guidelines to ensure my diet is healthy and balanced but without restricting myself too much. And I’m enjoying it. I look forward to cooking lunch and dinner and I haven’t felt the need to avoid the bakery area of the shops because it would hurt too much to see all that good stuff thinking “I’m never going to be able to eat that again”.

The hard part? Sticking to this. Not going overboard with it. Keeping balance in it.

And fitness wise? My problem is sticking to something. I love being active but I easily get excited about something, try it for a while, and then jump into something else too soon to see real changes. I have to find what works best for me, and maybe accept that I need variety to keep things interesting. I want to be able to say, at the end of this year, that I’ve finally found a way to stay fit, get stronger and better while having fun.

Another thing I want to find balance in is my love for beauty products. We all love the next new shiny thing and get excited for the new cult product, but I have to be realistic. I can’t physically fit all the things I like on my face, so I can’t get them all. At the same time though, I can’t tell myself “You’re not going to buy a single piece of makeup until you need it”, because who am I trying to fool? It would only make my life sad and then make me buy unnecessary things on a bad day. I want to come to a place where I do enjoy what I have and get a few new things worth having, but without having to think too much about it. I’m going to try to set a few rules to follow, to feed my beauty love whilst keeping the house free of too much stuff. Let’s see how that works!

2015 has been a year of huge changes for me, and 2016 is not looking less exciting. But to enjoy everything like it deserves I need to be satisfied and happy with myself. And what I feel I need, is balance. Those above are only examples of areas I want to improve - work and saving money whilst traveling and having fun are in too -, but the theme is the same everywhere, balance.

What are your goals for 2016 or the next few months in general? What’s going to be the word of the year for you? Let’s talk about it in the comments!

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The Diet Topic

A few weeks ago I decided to tell you a bit about my fitness experience, and I touched briefly the topic of “eating well”. I want to explore it a little bit more today, because I’ve been thinking about it a lot recently and I’m interested in hearing your thoughts too.

The first thing that springs to mind as soon as I hear the world diet it’s that “It’s not a diet, it’s a lifestyle”. I think it’s a key point when talking about our relationship with food, but it’s not as easy as it seems. The main problem that I have and I see in other people too it’s the fact that most of the time the reason we don’t eat how we should is because eating what we like without really thinking it’s more convenient. If I come home at half past eight pm I can’t really be bothered to cook something that takes time, and some pasta that cooks itself while I quickly shower is the first thing that comes to mind. The problem is that, for me, it’s the most damaging thing I can do, because such a high carb load at night simply makes me gain weight.

We also eat out of habit, and it’s a thing that’s so hard to change. When you try to explain to someone that eats a full meal of three or more courses two times a day regardless of their activity level, if it’s the way they’ve always lived it takes so, so much to even make them understand.

Then there’s the problem of all the “diets”. From magazines, to books and online pages there’s so much information that’s really hard to see what’s right for us and what’s not. If you simply rely on globally “approved” guidelines, you may only learn that you need to eat carbs (a lot), extra virgin olive oil, fruit and vegetables, meat a few times a week… But it’s not really that simple. For someone that sits at a desk all day that recommended amount of carbs is too much, but it’s only an example.

An then there’s all the “diets”. They work? They don’t? They even have the ability do cause damage? Well, some are pretty crazy. And often they’re unbalanced and pretty hard to follow. But they’re not always straight bad: for example, a month of well done Dukan Diet wouldn’t kill anyone (if your kidneys are fine, but I hope so), but maybe a lifetime of daily doughnuts would. But if you don’t even read the books and eat only meat (and maybe even only processed products, not natural chicken breasts and eggs) for two months you’re pretty much an idiot, sorry (and I know one unfortunately).

What always makes me think when I hear someone criticize “diets” is that they always compare them to “eating right”, which is a undefined concept. Are you sure that a diet that eliminates gluten (even if it’s not required by celiac disease or gluten sensivity) it’s more damaging than a totally unbalanced one made of daily pizza delivery? Are you sure that eating meat daily is worse than eating sweets or drinking alcohol on regular three-nights out weekends? I’m really not. If you need to follow that magazine diet (that at least should be reasonably balanced as long as it doesn’t claim to make you lose 10 pounds in two days by eating air, but that’s your problem to discriminate) to avoid eating crap then that’s great. Sorry, but it’s really what I think.

What we do after thinking about all of this is another story though. I know what works for myself (pretty much a paleo diet, even if not strict, with the saturday night pizza and sunday cake), but I regularly screw it up, to be honest. Since my last post, I’ve been eating pretty well (and most importantly I haven’t eaten at random times of the day without even thinking about it), but any excuse to be guilty has been welcome. A week of ice cream after a wisdom teeth removal? Oh yes! A bowl full of pasta because there’s broccoli in it? Yes! The result? I’ve not gained weight, but it’s the same and it’s not what I want… Luckily the gym’s been going well!

Whoa, it’s not even half of what I have to say but I think it’s enough for now. Let me know what you think and what you do, I can’t wait to hear your thoughts!

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Fitness and Me

Let’s talk fitness today. I want to share my experience with you, and hear about yours!

I’ve been going to the gym, on and off, for a discrete number of years now. And I’ve experienced a few different approaches to exercise too, discovering which one is my favourite so far.

After a few years of a indefinite cross between contemporary and jazz dance from 7 to 11, I stopped doing anything for a few years. I wish I didn’t stop as I always loved it, but I had started playing piano at the conservatory and fitting in all the classes was beginning to be a nightmare. It was fine for a while, but then my total lack of physical activity started to show.

I started going to the gym, taking group classes. Well, I seriously think nothing changed. There was a serious lack of details in how to perform the exercises, and if it wasn’t for me trying my best to copy the teacher I could have done it all completely wrong.

It wasn’t until I found a special class that was more bodyweight exercises mixed in with serious training (running with ankle weights, well explained and executed lunges and squats) that I started seeing a difference.

When I started to go to a different gym, after a few months of break from exercising again, I started taking classes again and another time the results were so little and the progress so slow, even though I was really putting everything into it, that I stopped again. I approached the cardio/weights room, and since it was my first time there and I was a girl… They put me on every cardio machine known to man and that was meant to be my training. I bet you are starting to see where I’m going now…

Cardio only = a couple of kg less and stop. And that’s when I stopped exercising again, this time for a bit longer. Until a year and a half ago, when looking for something to do at home I discovered FitnessBlender on YouTube. Well, it’s been a revelation for me. Every type of training, every kind of necessity in time and intensity has an answer in their huge collection of videos. I started doing something every day, choosing a different style of training in a different day of the week, and the difference was huge. I was improving at an impressive rate. And that progress gave me the motivation to eat better too: I kinda knew what was good for me and what wasn’t, I just needed something to stick to.

With the confidence that improvement gave me last summer I decided to join a gym, and to ask specifically for weight training. Well, I didn’t even need to. It was what they taught me to do the first time I went there, and it’s the best thing I’ve ever done for my body. I quick achieved the best shape of my life and I was dramatically improving every single day. I found the best thing for my, and I think everyone’s, body. A little bit of cardio once a week, and two or three sessions of weight training.

But unfortunately there’s not a happy ending yet. Because I was so used to stop after a while, exactly like I always did with eating “well”, at the beginning of this year I started going to the gym less and less. And after all the weight lost in a perfect way, I kept eating fairly well but with less… Structure. I know what’s good for me: a good diet of fruit, vegetables and protein with a little bit of daily carbs and a weekly meal or two of anything-I-want. And so without training and eating discipline all the progress I made slowly started to fade.

Luckily, at the beginning of the summer I started going to the gym again. I have to start being more consistent (I have to add at least a day of cardio a week, and I’d like to add another session on weight training too) and start to eat like I know I should again. It’s a bit hard to fit it all in, but I know I can. I want that “best shape of my life” back!

This is a little tale about my fitness journey and at the same time a little promise, like a spur for me to stick what I know it’s the best thing I can do for my body. I would like to hear your experiences too!

What’s your experience with exercise and “diet”? Have you found the perfect formula for you yet?

Parliamo di fitness oggi. Voglio condividere la mia esperienza con voi, e ascoltare la vostra!

Vado in palestra, un po’ sì e un po’ no, da un discreto numero di anni ormai. È ho sperimentato diversi approvi all’attività fisica, scoprendo qual’è il mio preferito finora.

Dopo qualche anno di un’indefinito incrocio tra danza contemporanea e jazz dai 7 agli 11 anni, smisi di fare qualunque attività per qualche anno. Mi dispiace di aver smesso perché mi é sempre piaciuto, ma avevo cominciato a studiare pianoforte al conservatorio e incastrare tutte le lezioni era diventato un incubo. Per un po’ andò tutto bene, ma ad un certo punto la mia totale mancanza di attività fisica iniziò a essere evidente.

Cominciai ad andare in palestra, facendo lezioni di gruppo. Bene, onestamente penso che non abbiano avuto nessun effetto. C’era una notevole mancanza di dettagli su come eseguire gli esercizi, e se non fosse stato per il mio tentativo di copiare al meglio l’insegnante avrei potuto fare tutto completamente sbagliato. Questo finché non trovai una lezione particolare in cui si eseguivano esercizi a corpo libero insieme a esercizi più “seri” (corsa con le cavigliere, affondi e squat ben spiegati e fatti eseguire correttamente) che mi permise di vedere una differenza.

Quando cambiai palestra, dopo qualche mese di pausa, cominciai a seguire di nuovo i corsi e di nuovo i risultati furono così piccoli e il progresso così lento, nonostante io mi impegnassi al massimo, che smisi di nuovo. Mi interessai alla sala cardio e pesi, e visto che per me era la prima volta ed ero una ragazza… Mi dissero di fare ogni attrezzo cardio conosciuto e quello sarebbe dovuto essere il mio allenamento. Scommetto che cominciate a capire dove voglio arrivare…

Solo attività cardio = un paio di chili in meno e basta. E fu lì che smisi di nuovo di fare una qualsiasi attività, questa volta per un bel po’. Fino ad un anno e mezzo fa, quando cercando qualcosa da fare a casa scoprii FitnessBlender su Youtube. Beh, per me è stata una rivelazione. Ogni tipo di allenamento, ogni tipo di necessità in tempo e intensità ha una risposta nella loro immensa selezione di video. Iniziai a fare qualcosa ogni giorno, scegliendo un diverso tipo di allenamento in un giorno diverso della settimana, e la differenza fu immensa. Miglioravo a una velocità incredibile. E quel progresso mi diede la motivazione di cui avevo bisogno anche per mangiare meglio: sapevo più o meno che cosa era giusto per me e che cosa no, avevo solo bisogno di qualcosa che mi facesse essere costante.

Con la fiducia che quel miglioramento mi diede la scorsa estate decisi di andare di nuovo in palestra e di chiedere specificatamente della sala pesi. Beh, questa volta non ebbi neanche bisogno di chiederlo. Fu la prima cosa che mi spiegarono il primo giorno, ed è la cosa migliore che io abbia mai fatto per il mo fisico. Raggiunsi velocemente la migliore forma della mia vita e il miglioramento era notevole ogni giorno. Trovai la cosa migliore per il mio corpo e credo per quello di chiunque. Un po’ di cardio una volta alla settimana, e due o tre sessioni di allenamento con pesi e macchinari.

Sfortunatamente però non c’è ancora un lieto fine. Essendo così abituata a smettere dopo un po’, esattamente come ero solita fare con il “mangiare bene”, all’inizio di quest’anno cominciai ad andare in palestra sempre di meno. E dopo il peso perso in maniera così esemplare, continuai a mangiare abbastanza bene ma con meno… Struttura. Io so che cosa è giusto per me: una buona dieta di frutta, verdura, proteine e un pochino di carboidrati tutti i giorni, con uno o due pasti alla settimana in cui mangiare quello che voglio. E senza allenamento e disciplina nell’alimentazione tutto il progresso che avevo fatto iniziò a sfumare.

Fortunatamente, all’inizio dell’estate ho cominciato ad andare di nuovo in palestra. Devo cominciare ad essere più costante (devo aggiungere una giornata di cardio alla settimana e mi piacerebbe aggiungerne anche una di allenamento con i pesi) e ricominciare a mangiare di nuovo come so che va bene per me. Voglio quella “forma migliore della mia vita” indietro!

Questo è un piccolo racconto sul mio rapporto con il fitness e allo stesso tempo una piccola promessa che metto qui, come un incentivo per me per fare quello che so essere la cosa migliore per il mio corpo. Mi piacerebbe ascoltare anche le vostre esperienze!

Qual’è la vostra esperienza con l’esercizio fisico e la “dieta”? Avete trovato la formula perfetta per voi?