Be Inspired

Good Morning P90Xers,

Some of you might have finished your workout already (I have not. I'm waiting for Colt's afternoon nap). If you have, good for you!  I read through the comments this morning and two very interesting things were said that I think are worth mentioning.

The first is that Christy suggested in the comments that we not only post our fitness journey but that she would be extra inspired if we also included a nutrition log and some healthy recipes because a healthy diet is as important as an effective workout plan.  I agree completely and I think that is a great idea. I can't emphasize enough the importants of a good diet in your overall health. I personally take what I eat EXTREMELY seriously.  I have adopted a sort of alternative diet over the years. I read constantly about nutrition and have used my own brain to piece together a food/health philosophy I can live with. Here are a few of my rules:
1) I NEVER go on fad diets or any sort of diet that doesn't involve a lifestyle of health and wellness.
2) I also NEVER count calories specifically but I have made myself aware of the calorie content of food in general.  For example, fried rice has more calories and fat per serving than a hamburger and large fries combined. Gross. I ALWAYS choose steamed rice, and when available, brown rice instead of white. To me that is just common sense.  The reason why I don't count calories is this: reducing food consumption to a basic mathematical equation completely negates the importants of the quality of the food we eat.  It is one thing to be thin and another to be healthy.  I like to be both thin and healthy so I choose to put quality ahead of quantity and consume as much nutrition as possible.
3) I do my best to eat whole, natural, non-GMO foods.  Prepackaged, artificial, processed foods are good for no one.  Hydrogenated oils and artificial sweeteners are the worst!
4) I also eat lots of good fat: extra virgin olive oil,  flax seed oil, cold pressed coconut oil, and raw, organic butter from grass feed cows. Some fats have gotten a bad wrap. Read a book called Nourishing Traditions if you want more info from verifiable sources.

I could go on and on about all my healthy habits but here is the bottom line: Eating to be thin and eating to be healthy are not necessarily the same thing.  I encourage you to put nutrition first and a healthy weight will follow by default. Not everyone shares my philosophy and that is OK, we all have to make these decisions for ourselves, but at least now you have an idea of how I approach food.

I won't speak for Kasey, but I promise to include what I eat in my posts.  I love to cook, I love to eat, and I love to be healthy so I have a ton of recipes worth sharing.  I'll pass them along.

Next I'd like to talk about Karol's comment regarding Kasey and I putting a lot of emphasis on our strength goals.  Kasey and I like to be strong.  It is important to us.  But those are our goals.  You can set whatever goals you like.  However, I would like to encourage you to push yourself in ways you may never have.  Our culture is consumed with vanity and losing weight is always the default goal of every fitness program.  Thin, thin, thin. But what if we stepped outside the box a little and made our fitness goals less about weight loss and more about muscle gain, improved cardiovascular endurance and increased flexibility?  What if we made the focus less about how our body looks and more about how well it works?  Don't get me wrong, I want to look good too.  I'd be lying if I said differently.  But I also want what looks fit to be fit. No one likes a poser (in my opinion).

To sum up: step outside of the box people.  That is my two cents for today.

~Rachel