#2: The Physical

Happy Monday! As a review, I'm giving you a little background on my 2016 goals every Monday. The Physical. Where do I even start with this one? In January 2015, I decided to do Whole 30 with a group of my friends. It's this super strict diet where you have to eat only whole foods and you can basically only eat fruit, vegetables and meat - and seasonings. It's not actually as bad as it sounds. It just requires a lot of cooking. And I mean A LOT. I felt like the only thing I did that month was cook. Not really, but kind of. It was a great eye opening experience. I had to read all my labels. Did you know that almost EVERYTHING has sugar added to it? I shopped on the edge of the grocery store because it meant not reading labels and in many ways was just easier, not to mention the fact that that's where the bulk of your food had to be found. I felt great. I ate a ton. I was working out at the same time. I really did it for a cleanse, but I ended up losing 5 lbs total and 10 lbs of fat (according to the body fat thing at the gym that may not actually be completely accurate). And honestly, the best part was that after Whole 30, my stomach was the FLATTEST that it's ever been. Who doesn't like that!? 

My goal last year was to get down to 16%-18% body fat and you know what? I did it in January. January. 1 month. What now? I was totally motivated, hit my goal - which I thought was pretty lofty - and now? Now I was dumbfounded. So you know what I did? Slowly but surely, I started eating dark chocolate every day. I kid you not - I was buying 1 to 2 lbs of chocolate per week. PER WEEK! And if you're a chocolate lover like me, you know that isn't cheap.  Anyway, throughout the year, I moved from chocolate to ice cream.. Then back to chocolate. (which I've now celebrated by buying dark chocolate in Kansas City - yay me! LOL) I realized how much weight I was gaining from the ice cream. I've never been a diet person. In fact, I'm anti-diet. I think a change of lifestyle and balance is the only way to go. And I'm also anti-depriving yourself of anything. In addition to all my sweets last year, I also started to eat out a TON. Like almost every day. Almost every meal. Unless my roommates happened to cook something and shared it with me. Pathetic. Don't get me wrong, I'm not the person who blew up and gained 100 pounds, or even 50.. But I don't feel good. I don't know if I actually look very different, but I don't feel good. I don't feel healthy or energetic. I feel tired. My stomach seems to hurt a lot and it's probably because I'm just not eating very well anymore. So my goal for 2016: be healthy. I need sleep, I need good food and I need exercise. In other words, I need to be healthy.