#step blast

As a vow to discover more of Bethenny Frankel's infinite wisdom on health and fitness, I was perusing her website, found her "Realistic Exercise" post, and was so happy to read this part:

"Somehow, find a healthy relationship with exercise so you are happy to have it in your life. For me, yoga is my salvation. I used to spend hours on the treadmill or spinning class which made me manic, anything but relaxed, and I ate much more than usual because of the intense workout. Many people gain weight when they are working out like this because the increase in calories consumed exceed those burned."

I experienced this when I first discovered Cathe Friedrich on FitTV. Her workouts were both super fun and super challenging. I tried them all, DVR'd my favorites (Step Blast, Legs and Glutes, Kick, Punch and Crunch...just to name a few) and put them on rotation each week.

When I look back at pictures of myself from those days, I love the body I see, the muscle definition (especially in my upper back). But, it's the stretch marks from the love handles I also developed during that time that I still carry with me today.

The grueling schedule I set for myself of her intense workouts, coupled with poor eating habits, led to indulging in way too much fat and calories. Because I had worked so hard, I felt I was deserving of all those chicken grilled stuffed burritos from Taco Bell, when in reality, I was just canceling out my hard work. 

As a result, I ended up living workout to workout, needing to exercise just to burn the calories I had consumed the day before. And because I ruined myself with bad food choices each and every time, the workouts never got any easier, which was torturing. So while I may have looked fit on the outside, I was never truly fit from within. 

All along, I have looked back on that time and believed I had failed. Now I can see my pitfalls for what they were and know that 4 or 5 intense workouts a week simply isn't my workout style of choice.