Peggie Larsen

Can alcohol fit into your fitness lifestyle?

For some people it can.

For some people it can’t.

For me, it didn’t.

What do I mean by that?

If you are on a fat loss plan and you are drinking every weekend, you might not be seeing much in the way of progress. You might constantly be beating yourself up wondering why you don’t see the progress you have been waiting for. I mean, you are consistent throughout the week and a few drinks every weekend shouldn’t hurt. But, what else are you doing during the weekend?

A lot of times when a person drinks, it’s the things that come after. You know, the midnight run to Qdoba. All the cheese sauce with the nachos. Or the double cheeseburger and large fries that come at 2 a.m. Or even all the nibbling and snacking that comes along while you are drinking–that bowl of salted peanuts sitting on the bar or the popcorn. Or if you are at your house, the cheese and meat platter. Sometimes, some vegetables get added, but most of the time it’s going to be those sweet, salty, easy to consume snacks. And the ones that go great with alcohol. The salty stuff to make your more thirsty stuff.

We don’t think we are really snacking that much, but if you aren’t seeing progress, maybe it’s time to take a deeper look at your actions and really drill down and see what’s happening.

So can alcohol fit into your fitness lifestyle?

If you are serious about your fat loss plan, pencil out some values that are important to you. Not drinking because you want to see the person you can be when you don’t drink, could be a strong value for you. You want to keep exploring that option and see how far you can go. Awesome. Drinking does not fit for you right now. It may later, but for your goals right now, it doesn’t.

Sometimes just becoming aware of what is happening when you are drinking may be enough to help you change some of those behaviors when you do drink. You may be able to come up with some strategies to help alleviate all the overeating when you drink. You might give yourself some boundaries for when you go out or when you are having alcohol.

Finding those strategies and setting those boundaries can make it possible for alcohol to fit in your plan. Some people make sure to fit in one or two glasses of wine every day and do just fine. Some can’t. And that’s okay.

I’m not here to try to scare you straight or to try to sway you or bully you into not drinking. I want you to make your own choices about your alcohol consumption. I want you to make your own decisions. If your actions don’t support your values and your beliefs, you won’t more forward. Are those weekend activities supporting the person you want to be? That’s what you need to ask yourself. Only you know.

Alcohol can cause a host of health problems and those problems seem to be more prevalent for women. It can impact women’s health with increased risk for damage to the heart and can increase the risk of certain cancers, including breast cancer. People also drink alcohol to cope and that’s a whole other issue.

So, can it fit into your fitness lifestyle. That is for you to think about. It’s for you to decide. As stated above a lot of things happen when we drink and we definitely have the “fu*k it” attitude when we’ve had a few drinks. Trying to stick out nutrition plan kind of goes right out the window. I’m not saying it can’t be done, because it definitely can. Again, that is for your to work through.

We all have the choices.

My choice was to change how I saw myself. My choice was to make sure my values matched by actions. I changed. It’s been 3 years since I last had a drink.

1096 days

I’m doing life sober. October 21 – 3 years. I’ll take it.
That power of alcohol has nothing on me. I released it.
I told myself that’s not how I wanted to go through life. I let it go.

I didn’t want to rely on it to help me relax or to help me have fun.
Frankly I got sick of seeing how it is marketed to everyone, especially women.

This is a known carcinogen. Yet, people keep drinking it. You can if you want. It’s your choice. I decided not to and that’s my choice.

People think ones who don’t drink are shamers of those who do. I’m not at all. Drink if you want.

I’ll be over here doing life sober.

Line up your values with what you want to be. I want to be as healthy as I can. Healthy doesn’t have to mean losing weight. Not at all. Healthy to me is doing the things I can control in order to take care of me. To help me feel great physically and mentally. The whole me.

I used to see myself as athletic and physically fit. I was always that way. Until I wasn’t.

Somewhere along the way I lost those values. I started  overeating and over drinking. I felt stress. I was running a business and I was tired. I started drinking wine to take that edge off. I told myself I just needed that warmth in my belly to relax. It made me feel good. I could turn off that stress with a glass of wine. I found a friend in it. The problem with that, was I would go in spurts of all of a sudden drinking every single night to then telling myself I could only drink on weekends. That would last for a while, but soon I would be right back drinking every night. I didn’t want to be that person. I didn’t want it to control my life. I wanted to control my life.

When you start wondering if you drink too much, you probably drink too much. When you try to justify your drinking, it may be becoming a problem.

I decided to get back to my values and how I saw myself as a person. I saw myself as a fitness person and someone who helps people change. I wanted to be healthy and I needed to change. I wanted to practice what I was preaching. Alcohol, for me, was not helping my health at all. It was time for a change. A big one.

The weight gain for me was getting unhealthy. The drinking was getting unhealthy.

I tried to blame everything else. I tried to blame age and hormones and whatever else I could think of because it couldn’t be my own actions.

It’s hard to own those things. As a successful businesswoman I was kind of just going through the motions. I needed to step up and I needed to stick up for myself and my health. For me, alcohol did not factor into that equation.

I needed to get that fire and that passion back.

So one day, three years ago, I decided I was done. At that point I didn’t know how long I would go. I just knew for my health and my well being, I needed to. The longer I went without drinking, the more I didn’t want to.

The longer I went the better I started to feel. The longer I went the more my body changed. My body was thanking me for taking care of it and showing up. I showed up. I showed up for my life and right now I plan to continue doing my life sober.

Here’s to another year of sober life.

Fat Loss Expectations

Is this what your expectations are for fat loss? 

You think you will lose at least 3 pounds a week. 

You think you need to hamster wheel your cardio.

You think you need to give up your favorite foods.

You think you need to eat 1200 calories. 

None of these are true. They are just more expectations of fat loss. 

Reality of fat loss:

If you lose half a pound a week, that is a good rate of fat loss. Up to two pounds is great. I like half to 1 myself.

If you walk every day, you will be fine.

You can still eat your favorite foods while in a fat loss phase. You do not have to deprive yourself. 

Eat as much as you can while still being in a deficit, instead of as little as possible and being hungry and annoyed all the time. 

Expectations need to be managed. Here are more fat loss expectations. 

You want it to happen fast. You think it will be easy. Those are the expectations. The easy. Why can’t it be? We start a fat loss program and get mad when our new body hasn’t shown up in two weeks. I mean, WTF, I’m doing everything right and nothing is happening. 

So why are those the typical expectations when it comes to dieting? I’m really asking. Why?

The definition of expectation is a strong belief that something will happen or be the case in the future. A belief that someone will or should achieve something. 

To manage expectations is to seek to prevent disappointment by establishing in advance what can realistically be achieved or delivered by a course of actions. 

How fast did you gain weight? It took a while, didn’t it? It’s usually gradual. But, we think the weight loss should be quick. It doesn’t work that way. Even if, as stated above, you are doing everything right, it is still going to take time to see results. 

Manage your expectations when it comes to fat loss. It’s going to take way longer than you think or what you want. It just is. You are going to have to be patient. Way easier said than done. I know. 

It’s a process and you are going to have to take actions every single day that are going to push you towards that goal. Nobody is perfect and I would never expect any of my clients to think they need to be. Life always happens. But when we can manage the expectations of how it’s going to go, it’s much easier to push through the process. It helps to know that it is going to take time. 

Start focusing on daily actions. Pick one. Do it for a while. Get used to it. Then pick another one to add to it and then keep going. Pretty soon you have this great foundation of habits stacked up, which is going to help you in the long run. 

So what should your daily actions be? It’s up to you where you want to start. It’s up to you to gauge where you feel the action is doable for you. It might not be. If that happens, keep that one for later. Instead start really small. More water. More protein at every meal. Manage your stress. Manage your sleep. Those are the kinds of things to work on. 

Those habits compound over time and will come back to you in spades. Most people give up way too soon when it comes to their fat loss program. Again, when you know what to expect and how long it could take, it makes those expectations and your program way more manageable. You become more positive. You become more motivated. You become a cheerleader. A cheerleader for yourself. You become more confident! 

If you get honest with yourself and get consistent, quit quitting and you will see results. By consistent, I mean consistently in a calorie deficit. Not Monday through Thursday and then a free for all on the weekends. 

Stop selling yourself short. Stick up for yourself. Nutrition is a choice. You are a choice. Choose yourself every time. 

Why smaller?

Why thinner?

Why skinnier?

Why not stronger?

Why not healthier?

Why not overall bad ass?

Why are we always wanting to get smaller and lose more weight. What is it that we think is going to make our life better if we are smaller. Do we think our spouses or partners or whomever are going to love us more or better if we are smaller? Do you think that?

Getting smaller (lighter) usually comes with some irritating side effects that are kind of a pain in the ass. You might not even really notice what is going on. 

You may start to notice you are hungry all the time. Tired all the time. Thinking about what you can’t eat all the time. Your strength days get harder. You are just fucking tired. All.The.Time. You get hangry and you snap at people. You don’t even really notice it until you come out of that smaller mindset and get into the maintenance mindset and body. 

All these things were me and not too long ago. The fat loss phases were where I thought I needed to be. I had all of the above side effects. I just didn’t realize it until I started eating more food. Things came back pretty quickly. Sleep was the first thing I noticed. Energy was the second thing I noticed. I was tired all the time and hungry all the time. That is no way to live. I want to enjoy life and love life. I wasn’t loving anything at that point.

What if you didn’t need to get smaller. Who are you getting smaller for? Ask yourself what you want. Do you want to feel tired and shitty all the time? Or would you rather eat enough food so that you aren’t tired all the time. So you aren’t hungry all the time. So you can bust your our ass on your strength workouts. So you can sleep well. So you can have a sex drive again. So you can feel alive again. 

Diets are not meant to last forever, but it’s become a norm. I bet if you ask 10 people if they are on a diet, you will probably get 8 of them who are.

Instead of focusing on smallness, focus on other things. Take that pressure off the number on the scale. Start focusing on how much stronger you can get. Focus on feeding your body and working on what it can do, instead of what it can’t.

Work on the inside. What does your mental landscape look like? It doesn’t matter what the outside looks like. Let’s say you lost 100 pounds and if you didn’t work on the inside, you will probably gain back most of that weight. Until you work on the inner you, the outer you is just, well, a shell. If you need help to sort through trauma, or childhood issues, or anxiety or any other number of mental health points, find someone to talk to. Work on you. Then when you come back around and are trying to change your health, I bet you will find it will be much easier. And, I bet the loss will stick. Make the mental landscape conducive to change.

But, back to the main point here. You don’t need to be small. Healthy and strong are great things to strive for. When you stop under eating and start feeding your body, amazing things begin to happen. Fat loss can be smart loss. You do not need to be on a diet forever. Our bodies weren’t meant to do that.

How much time have you wasted chasing small? And for what? Can you dig deep down into your soul and find out why? What made you want to be small? There is no hurry. Time passes regardless. There is no finish line until we are in the ground, so why keep chasing small? Chase what’s best for you at the moment.

If you stop over exercising, because you think that is the fat loss answer, and start working out smarter, amazing things begin to happen. Stop focusing on the number on the scale. Get those gym gains. Strength training is longevity training. Get in it for life.

When you stop with the no carb/super low carb drama and eat the fucking fruit and potatoes and rice, amazing things begin to happen. Stop eliminating food groups. It’s not sustainable.

When you quit burning the candle at both ends and reduce stress in your life, amazing things begin to happen. Get some damn sleep. Make a bedtime routine and a stress less routine and stick to it.

We get one body. Make it work for you, instead of against you. Feed it the food it wants in order to be healthy and happy. You have to find the root of what is inside that stops you from keeping any weight off. And even maintaining any kind of weight loss. Maintenance is a beautiful place to be. It’s progress. Especially, if you have never been able to stay there. Especially, if you have done the lose and gain the same 10 pounds 100 times. Keep going. Keep trying. Keep digging. Keep exploring yourself.

Being healthy is more than your body. Being healthy is how you see yourself. It’s how you take care of yourself. It takes a lot to get to I love me. But, don’t stop working on your mental and physical health. Inner work is required. Until you get busy on that, it doesn’t matter what you do to the outside. Look inward. Find peace. Find your best self.

To recap –

Being skinny is not required to live a fulfilling and healthy life.

Working on your mental landscape is just as important as your physical health.

It’s okay to hang out in maintenance as long as you want.

Fat loss is okay too. Just don’t stay here forever.

Love yourself no matter what size you are.

Know that it’s okay to change. Nobody gets to tell us it’s not.

It’s okay not to change. Nobody gets to tell us that either.

Work on why you want to change. Make sure it’s for the right reasons. And those reasons are your reasons, so own them. Be there for yourself. Choose you!