Let me get this straight...

The last few days/weeks have kind of given me some insight on why I am so irate. I think I just need to exercise. Years ago, when I took dance classes 6 days a week and practiced another 2-5 hours for a dance team 3 times a week on top of that, I was less irritable, and was better at managing my temper. Now that I’ve gone a few years without any form of regular exercise, I’ve noticed that my mood and temper are noticeably more volatile. I need a physical outlet so I don’t have to fight the urge to punch things when I’m livid, like I was on Monday.

The thing is, I hate boring, repetitive, non-expressive forms of exercise. I’ve tried muy-thai, aerobics, zumba, all that shit. None of it does it for me the way taking dance class used to. But, and this might sound silly, I’m hesitant to re-enter the dance community in SD because it’s so close knit, and many of the people I used to dance with are now teaching classes. Honestly, I’m kind of shy. I’d probably have to start off at an intermediate class rather than advanced because even though I’m positive I could follow the routines in my head, I’m pretty sure that my body is no longer capable of keeping up physically. Which makes me feel like a sad, old lady. lol. I don’t know, I guess I’ll continue my search for the right form of working out. I guess I didn’t hate kick-boxing, yoga or pilates. But those kinds of classes are extremely expensive around my area.

Anyone have any suggestions? Are there good youtube video series that walk you through a decent routine?

nutritionista:

1. Stop being all or nothing about working out. Just give yourself 20 minutes to kick some booty and you’re done! If you need to, set a timer and just MOVE for 15-20 solid minutes. It can be enough.
2. Banish sweetened drinks from your vocabulary. I don’t care if it’s “100%” juice or a “healthy” smoothie. Not. Worth. It.
3. Crave sugar? Eat (unprocessed) fat. Something higher in fat and lower in sugar, like 70%+ dark chocolate or berries and cream can hit the spot without a sugar overload.
4. Go for a walk! Walking is probably the most underrated form of exercise there is, and you can do it almost any time, anywhere, with anyone.
5. Make a recipe file. Next time you have 10 minutes and a printer, find at least 5-8 recipes that look good. Print them out and keep them so when you don’t know what to cook, you’ll have a go-to file.
6. Make a workout file. Do the same thing for workouts: print out fun-looking workouts you find online, and cut out good ones from magazines. Next time you don’t know what to do at the gym, pick one at random.
7. Vow to ignore health claims on food packages. They’re totally pointless and can lead you to eat some pretty disgusting food. Remember the “Smart Choices” program?
8. Don’t let cooking intimidate you. Believe it or not, I just started cooking 4 or 5 years ago. I used to be super intimidated by it. Guess what? Food is a lot harder to screw up than you think! And don’t be afraid to fail once or twice.
9. Stop relying on the scale as your only metric of health. Imagine if we only relied on one data point for ANYTHING else in our lives!
10. Don’t let food become guilt-inducing or “guilt-free.” In the words of the immortal ieatbutter: “Food itself does not have guilt—we assign it guilt because of something we feel about ourselves.”

Sound advice… I did a lot of these in the last year or two unknowingly and it’s helped a lot. Worth a try for any of you looking to get a bit more healthy.

(Source: yourhealthista)