I haven’t written an Operation Get Fit No Excuses update post in a while. Today is the perfect day to rectify that. It’s the 2 year anniversary of the start of my personal journey to get fit and live an overall healthier lifestyle. I can’t believe how the time has flown by.

In 2017, I was having a lot of health issues, especially digestive related problems, due to being overweight, eating all the wrong stuff, and never exercising a day in my life. I was in my mid 40s and decided that I didn’t want to live the rest of my life in pain and unhealthy, especially when I could do something about it myself. I was also scared that if I continued living as I was that I wouldn’t make it past 65 or live an active life when I became a senior.

I started my journey on January 10, 2018. I started walking and worked my way up slowly from only being able to walk about 3 tenths of a mile in 45 minutes to walking 3.5 miles in under an hour. I started researching and experimenting with making better food choices that worked for me and finally settled on a modified mostly vegetarian diet. I do eat eggs and cheese so I’m not a total vegetarian. And my diet definitely evolved over time through trial and error seeing what worked for my body as well as my nutritional needs. I take a variety of daily supplements because I eat a high protein low carb diet.

In 2018, I lost 25 kilos (55 pounds) and was exercising almost daily. I went from weighing 93.89 kilos (207 pounds) in January to weighing 68 kilos (150 pounds) by August. I was always pushing my workout limits as well as my body to lose more, exercise more, get stronger and just be better. The problem with that was my body decided to rebel. In 2019, I developed knee problems and had to largely modify my workouts because of my injuries. My body was always stiff no matter how much I stretched or what types of supplements I took. But, I had lost a lot of weight and I felt much better overall.

At that point, I was happy with where I was in my journey and I switched to more of a maintenance workout routine instead of a weight loss regimen. I limited my workouts to 30 minutes on a rotating schedule every other day. I would take rest days in between every workout. I added free weights, yoga, an elliptical, as well as chair cardio to the types of workouts I was doing. I also changed up my eating habits yet again and added more carbs into my diet.

I did regain 2 kilos (4.4 pounds) and added muscle to my measurements. While I didn’t measure myself every month like I had in 2018, I did it enough to see that I was staying pretty consistent in weight and size. My weight averages around 70.5-71.5 kilos (155-157 pounds) now. While there were fluctuations up and down, the numbers all stayed within acceptable parameters to me.

On the advice of a friend, I began taking a protein shake after every workout in an effort to see if it helped with the stiffness and soreness that always plagued my muscles. While it has helped, it hasn’t completely resolved the problem. 

This year, I am adding a daily fiber supplement to help normalize my intestinal health. I am also adding yoga to my workout rotation every other day so that I can work on my muscle stretching and overall flexibility. I am hoping that this will eliminate the stiff muscles and soreness that continue to plague me after workouts. My actual workouts will stay on the 30 minute rotations of low impact/no impact cardio, strength training, and toning. I will not be doing any high impact cardio because of my knees, nor continuously pushing my body’s limits. As someone that’s in menopause as well as getting older (turning 47 in May), those types of workouts do more harm than good for me now. 

I have to say that mindset, motivation, and determination are all the things that you need to stay on the path of living a healthier lifestyle. There are so many times that you will be tempted to throw away all the hard work and take the easier path, but never do it! I eat sweets sometimes, as well as bread, pasta, and other guilty little pleasures, but I also never eat too much or go overboard. I also make sure to keep up with my workouts to offset any extra calories I intake. 

Life is about fun, experiences, and balance. The hard part is learning the balance that suits your body but keeps you happy. 

I hope my journey encourages you to start or stay on one of your own. I will be posting more updates as well as recipes throughout the year. So make sure you sign up on the blog to get notified whenever a new post is available.

If you have questions or comments, let me know below!