from Wikipedia: Physical fitness comprises two related concepts: general fitness (a state of health and well-being) and specific fitness (a task-oriented definition based on the ability to perform specific aspects of sports or occupations). Physical fitness is generally achieved through exercise, correct nutrition and enough rest. It is an important part of life.

from Wikipedia: A spiritual warrior is a person who bravely battles with the universal enemy, self-ignorance (avidya), the ultimate source of suffering according to dharmic philosophies. [2] The term is applied in religious and metaphysical writing. There are self-described spiritual warriors. [3] The spiritual warrior can be described as an archetype character on a journey for self discovery to benefit others.

More than anything, this journey of mine is a spiritual one.

I am a WARRIOR at heart. I’ve battled many storms and lots of adversity in my life.

By far, the biggest and toughest struggle I’ve faced is this thing they call OBESITY. IT is a problem. A problem for me, a problem for vast numbers of Americans.

I struggle with it just about every day.

I’m talking about everything that envelopes what OBESITY is, has manifested it, and what caused it for me. The unhealthy foods; the wanting to sit on my ass and give up; the frustration of clothing not fitting right; the horror of seeing myself in a photo that is true to life.

The one constant in my battle against OBESITY has been exercise, or FITNESS. It has become my go to. My one true friend. It’s always there for me when I need a pick me up. It has replaced Little Debbie Cosmic Brownies as my crack of choice.

I’m on a never ending quest for MY perfect fitness. It may take me a long time to get there, but I will get there. I will persevere. I will see this through. Fitness is my friend for life. Read this related post on Building a Goal from the Outside In from Roy Cohen’s Contemplative Fitness.

Many months ago I was looking for a good slogan to put on some t-shirts. Lord knows I’ve struggled to find the right fitting t-shirts for this girl. Too short, too tight around the neck, etc. I wanted to have something I could look at in the gym mirror to keep me motivated and remind me of who I am and who I strive to be and a t-shirt that had the right fit where I didn’t have to worry about how it looked while I was focusing on my exercises.

By throwing out a t-shirt slogan challenge to my fellow bloggers and followers many months ago, I got some wonderful suggestions. But there could only be one true slogan for me and for all of you fighting the good fight.

FITNESS WARRIOR

BEFORE my gym time… You know this girl sweats her ass off so you can only imagine how I looked after!

I LOVE how long the sleeves are. Long sleeves are my favorite to run in.

Tara from 263 and Counting and Meegan from Redstar 5 helped coin the term. True to my word, they are both getting a free FITNESS WARRIOR t-shirt for their creative minds.

Today I went to the gym and wore my new FITNESS WARRIOR zip up hoodie. It may be corny, but it made me realize I am my own FITNESS WARRIOR. I hit it very hard today – and wiped yesterday off the books today in the gym.

I’ve got more t-shirts on order and even gym towels that I will put up on the blog for giveaways and for sale if you are interested in promoting your spiritual self – a FITNESS WARRIOR.

Are you a FITNESS WARRIOR or do you have another term that describes you better?

I’m going out of town in less than a week and would like to open my blog up to some guest bloggers. If you are interested, please email me at afg@anonymousfatgirl.com as soon as possible with your post. Post topics are up to you as long as the topic is health, fitness or weight related. :)

Last night my husband and I were invited to dinner at our local casino buffet. The buffet contained some wonderful choices as always. As I hustled over to the salad bar, I was excited to see some homemade salsa and other fresh and healthy options. Fortunately for me (but unfortunately for the others) the line to the salad bar was pretty non-existent. Most of the buffet recipients were stacked up in lines around the highest caloric items possible.

As I sat there, I started noticing how the majority of the people at the buffet were overweight or obese. (Me included!) Every so often, a thin person would be among the masses. A year ago I would have never noticed all of the unhealthy choices at the buffet or all of the overweight patrons.

Is this our new culture? Or was this only a cross section of the overweight, chain smoking casino patrons? I’m not sure.

On a very basic level there has to be some personal responsibility. For most of my life, I’ve never had that. I was personally irresponsible. I would eat whatever food I wanted, no matter how bad I knew the food was for me. There was nothing that was “off limits”. Everything was “on” all the time.  A quick road to instant gratification – that created a long road of unhappiness.

When our very culture or environment promotes obesity, weight will most definitely rise.

• Buffets and predominantly unhealthy choices in our society promote obesity.
• A lack of personal responsibility promotes obesity.
• Lack of awareness and knowledge promotes obesity.

Question: Do you think personal responsibility play a role in our culture’s issues with obesity?

You’re sitting there at the computer looking, JUST LOOKING, for some sort of motivation.

Maybe you’re in search of some success stories where people dropped their weight super fast. Maybe you don’t know what you’re looking for, but you know you need something to get you up off of your ass. Just a morsel – a glimmer of hope – that someone else has BEEN WHERE YOU ARE and MADE IT OUT ON THE OTHER SIDE.

Let me tell you a story. A story about a girl that has never, ever in her life been skinny.

There’s been some wonderfully bright moments in my life so far. I’ve been lucky in love. My husband loves me for me. Even through all of the fat times – and fat pregnancies… Through the absurdness that makes me, ME.

I’ve never had the notion of losing weight for a man or anyone in my life. Why in the hell would I want to do that for someone else? On the other hand, I got fatter and fatter just for me. Kind of special, huh?

I’ve tried diet pills, quick fixes, just about every diet known to man (and woman). None of them worked long term for me.

I’ve been lucky enough to have access to a great personal trainer for three months. He taught me a lot and I’m very thankful for the experience.

I am a human. I plateaued for three months. I didn’t gain any weight, but stayed within a pound or two of my lowest weight at that time. It was a revelation to me. It meant I COULD maintain a weight – for the first time in my life.

I did find what worked after lots and lots of trial and error. It was so simple it was difficult. It started with being ME. Owning up to what was going on in my life. Not using excuses to eat. Not suffocating my feelings with food. And, here’s the big one… GETTING UP OFF OF MY ASS.

I‘m still a work in progress, but I am doing this. I have lost 32 lbs and over 23 inches off of my body and sustained a healthy lifestyle for over eight months.

You will not find quick fixes or magic pills on this blog. You will not find me blogging positively about prepackaged meals or shakes. You will find me discussing eating REAL FOOD. Living in the real world. Getting strong in the gym and at home. Most importantly, it’s about getting this fucking weight off. Slowly, perhaps, but I’m okay with that.

You’ll not find excuses on this blog. You will not find me apologizing about being a terrible blogger, a slow weight loser, or for using the “f” word.

We all have our own problems and you have to OWN them. I’ve struggled with enormous stress and adversity in my life. Who hasn’t though? I have a dysfunctional family including a deadbeat alcoholic father who ran out on me as a young child. I also have three children of my own – one with autism and other health needs. I own a business that has suffocated in this craptastic economy. I’ve come close to losing EVERYTHING during the last year. I’m still not in the clear. The worse is yet to come, I am sure.

If you are still sitting there reading this and you don’t know where to start – look deep inside YOURSELF.

• You’ll need to really want to do this.
• Don’t settle for mediocrity.
• Realize the road may be long and trying for you.
• Be ready to commit to a new life.
• Drop the fucking excuses.
• You’ll need HARD WORK, PERSISTENCE, PATIENCE & KNOWLEDGE.
  

I’m not one of those girls looking to be skinny. I’m one of those girls looking to be fit, strong and to kick some ass.

ARE YOU READY? Ready to make the decision to own everything and make a change? Today’s your day.

I’m a very mental person. I reside in my head much of the time, thinking, over-thinking and analyzing a lot of the environment around me. Many times, I over-analyze and get myself into trouble. Other times my sensitivity to my surroundings can be helpful to my situation. Then there are the times that I can be straight up ridiculous.

Let me give you an example.

For the last three months I have been stuck at the same weight (plus or minus a few ounces): 241 lbs. Why 241 lbs?

I know NOW exactly why.

In my head, I felt that I wouldn’t be able to get below 241 lbs. I started to believe that maybe I was destined to weigh 241 lbs or maybe, JUST MAYBE, that was my weight threshold. You know, a weight that your body has been tricked to believing it is right for your body’s makeup. I know it sounds insane. It is insane.

Some history…

The last time I lost a substantial amount of weight – after the birth of my second son – I got down to 241 lbs on the low-carb diet from a personal high of 300 lbs. I “struggled” to get below 241. I just couldn’t. In reality, I think I wasn’t very patient with the process. But at the time, it seemed impossible. Mental note to self created: 241 lbs will be tough (if not impossible) to get under.

Back then, I ended up going to a wacky weight loss doctor who prescribed phentermine and a LCD (low calorie diet) of 600 calories per day. Since I was hopping on the pills like a drug addict, I hardly wanted any food. I easily slid right past 241 after struggling at that weight for some time. Mental note to self created: you can only get past 241 lbs with the help of drugs or the wacky diet doctor.

This time around, the mental notes created resided somewhere in the cobwebs of my brain. They consumed me for three months. I kept telling myself, I HAVE to get past 241. I CAN get past 241. But then I’d tell myself, it’s going to be HARD to get past 241 and it will be damn near impossible. That’s how the mental thoughts started to corrupt my progress. Self sabotage.

I’ve posted this quote before in the past, but it’s such a great quote I’m going to post it again:

While I refused to entirely give up, as THERE IS NO CHOICE BUT TO MOVE FORWARD FOR ME, I would sabotage myself without really THINKING about it. Self sabotage on auto-pilot. I was still exercising hard core, and generally watching what I ate. I did start to get a bit lazy with food preparation. I would also hit the local Chinese Buffet during the work week. Hey, it’s better than fast food right? They do have vegetables… In reality I knew it was wrong. I was fulfilling the destiny I had created for myself: life at 241 lbs.

I also wasn’t tracking my calories at all. I was drinking beer way, way too much. And, every couple of weeks or month I’d hop on the scale and see the same number. It was a form of insanity that I wasn’t sure how to cure. Until I realized it was a self-imposed insanity. I created this for myself, through thoughts.

I ended up asking for help. I re-evaluated what I was doing. Chinese Buffet? Dude, what the fuck? I started journaling my foods again and being more careful. I got some great advice from a few fellow bloggers that I admire. Dr. J reminded me that it’s all about the math. Jody emailed me some much needed sweet motivation. Roy sent me detailed weight loss and exercise worksheets that he creates for his clients. Not too long after taking their advice and implementing some changes, I saw the two pound loss.

If you learn anything from this post, please let it be that there is such a thing as self-imposed obstacles or walls and that your thought process CAN affect how well you perform at anything – including losing weight.

Some tips to break a weight loss plateau:

• No matter what, don’t ever give up and go back to your old way of eating.
• Re-evaluate why you are stuck.
• Create a plan for change.
• Journal the foods you are consuming.
• Ask for help and get advice from people that know what they are doing.
• Most importantly, change your thought process and stop the insanity.

Have you ever experienced a self-induced weight loss plateau? What was the reason?

After three months maintaining the same weight, AND deciding I will not settle for mediocrity, I’ve lost some weight. This included taking stock and making some modifications.

I’ve got a LONG way to go, but the road has been shortened by two pounds.

I am a shark.