A Healthy Living “Facade”

Posted: August 1, 2011 at 7:00 am

Monday morning is upon us yet again. Although I won’t lie. I have welcomed this Monday morning with open arms. In recent posts, I alluded to the fact I haven’t really been on top of my “healthy living game” so to speak. The 80/20 balance of eating I strive for has tipped the scales a little more in the indulgent side’s favor over the past week.

I felt overwhelmed, fatigued, and burnt out a good portion of last week. Those feelings led to a body zapped of energy and killer headache after killer headache. That equated to dinners such as a bowl of cereal with a glass of wine or a plate of french toast.

I have eaten a fair share of meals out of the house. Tuesday, when my first migraine hit, Peter picked us up Atlanta Bread Company for dinner. Friday, when Peter received a special reward at work, we headed out to one of our favorite BBQ spots to celebrate. Last night, when both of us got struck with a sudden super craving for pizza, we found ourselves using one of our save deals for a pizza night out.

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Last week, between Monday and Friday, I only worked out once. I picked myself up by the boot straps running shoes and got myself moving both days this weekend, but it hasn’t been a walk in the park. It took everything I had in me to get straight to the gym for my workout instead of straight to the couch for a nap after church yesterday.  

Do I feel bad about this? No. Like I mentioned in my Body Love Song post, I understand my body (and mind) simply needed a break. I try really hard to stay positive and on top of everything for everyone else, which can leave me crashing very suddenly. I crashed and didn’t want to feel any pressure related to anything last week – including fitting in workouts and preparing healthy meals. Maybe not the healthiest approach out there, but it’s what happened. I felt much, much, much better by Friday after giving myself some time to recoup and relax. But that break didn’t make it easy to jump right back into my standard, healthy, balanced lifestyle. It’s been work picking back up my healthier habits.

Why am I sharing this with all of you? It’s not to throw a pity party. I truly don’t fret missing a lifting session, skipping a run, or scooping yet another bowl of ice-cream. I feel fine and oddly enough, found myself fitting even better in a pair of my “happy weight jeans” than even just a few weeks ago. I know I could have gone way further off the deep end and found myself in binges instead of simply choosing some pizza over salad at dinner. So, I ask again – why am I sharing this with all of you?

Last week’s Fitblog Chat, hosted by Anda of Leaving Fatville, focused on the topic of  honesty in our healthy habits and do we ever “cheat” on our healthy lifestyles and fail to divulge it in our blogs. I mentioned my rough week more in passing, without giving details of extra BBQ meals out or photos of my bowls of ice-cream. It didn’t come out of a place of avoidance or trying to hide behind my “healthy persona”. I did, however, still find myself naturally steering away from those tidbits and towards other post topics, including a new post in my exercises by body part series. I’m not 100% sure why – whether because I had other things to talk about I found more interesting or if I did have some sort of subconscious insecurity of my meals/workouts.

Regardless of all that, I want to say now that I do sometimes struggle with keeping balance. I sometimes want to say I don’t give a toot over how many vegetable servings I have had in a day. I sometimes want to mock my gym clothes as I wear them to laze on the couch with my kids instead. But then I remember, as the fabulous Julie put it so well, sometimes healthy living means saying NO. To the ice-cream. To the call of the couch. To the Groupon deals. This morning I am saying NO and fighting the fight to find myself back in that balance I love so much. It may be hard. But it will be worth it. Oh, it will be worth it. See you at the gym!

  • Do you ever feel like you want to just not worry about healthy choices?
  • What are your thoughts on the material bloggers choose to share? Do you think we may unintentionally (or perhaps intentionally) leave out details because of a pressure to depict a “healthy living persona”?

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78 Comments to “A Healthy Living “Facade””
  1. Missy says:

    This entire post – what you have written here – is the EPITOME of healthy living.
    About accepting yourself the way you are, listening to your body, and having no shame about it or pressure to be any other way.

    This is the gold standard.

  2. You rock lady! I ate a portillo’s burger the size of my head with a large fries yesterday…and the day before had taco bell and beer…and the day before a bagel with extra cream cheese and cookies. I didn’t document this garbage (except for today on the burger) but didn’t really have a reason to! I was enjoying my weekend, not caring about my blog, and just remembering that life is worth enjoying!

    Oh yea…and I am fitting better into my skinny pair of pants too…fancy that! 🙂

    Great post!

  3. teresa says:

    I’m so happy you shared more details and photos. It makes me feel like living a healthy lifestyle is achievable. There will and I think should be times when we rest our bodies and indulge our cravings. That’s all part of living healthy too.
    I didn’t know you had migraines… big hugs to you. All bets are off during a week of headaches. You took care of your children and survived the pain. You’re amazing!!

  4. Yes, yes! I relate – wishing that it just didn’t matter whether we eat healthily or not, and wishing we could eat whatever and our bodies would just work! But, that’s just not the way it is…

    However, a small part of us enjoys it too, I think. We like having creativity and learning about what we eat and how it helps us. That’s why a lot of bloggers write! But I love your honesty about the ups and downs… always a good way to go 🙂

  5. Katie says:

    I LOVE food and there are definitely days when I ask myself, gosh I wish I could just let go and eat whatever I want, whenever I want, and never worry about it. But life isn’t like that, so I try to do it in small doses, so that I satisfy my cravings. Besides training hard, because I love the way it makes me feel and look, I love that I can have those days and basically eat a whole pizza.

    I have no problem talking about my slip-ups, binge days or weekends, because we aren’t perfect and we all make mistakes. I like sharing them, because it makes me realize that this happens to everyone and I shouldn’t beat myself up over it.

    Gosh I could go on and on…Sorry for blabbing! Great post and have a nice Monday evening!

  6. I like to think that bloggers are honest in what they post…I know they may not post everything…but if they have an off day I like to see that because we’re all human and can’t be perfect all the time with our eats. I don’t mind posting the indulging aspects of my meals…but I admit I feel like an “unhealthy” blogger for posting one too many pics of my wine or champagne indulgences that I may have over the weekend!

    And yes, sometimes I just want to let go of healthy eating and to say to hell with it, like yesterday when I ate half the bread basket at lunch with tomato pesto spread (mmm it was good!), but I remind myself it’s all about balance and that darn doughy bread was all worth it in the end 😉

    • Tina says:

      That darn doughy bread certainly sounds worth it to me too. 🙂

      And I agree on bloggers being honest. I don’t think people share everything all the time, but I think most bloggers (at least that I’m willing to read) happily share indulgences or if they’re struggling with somethign too. Love that.

  7. Heather says:

    I make a ton of not so “healthy living” choices, but since I don’t document everything I do or don’t do, that’s not always transparent.

  8. Work Out says:

    […] my upper body. I even managed heavier weights than I thought I could for most exercises. Guess that week of rest did me […]

  9. I am totally in sync with you on this whole “ugh to the “80” on the healthy eating. My food choices haven’t been “bad” but the quantities have been on the higher side. Monday, thank you for being here and the idea of “back on track.” But I’ll always remind myself that each meal/snack is an oppotunity for a great healthy choice.

  10. Becca says:

    I have to say sometimes it’s hard to be fully honest, especially post show, but when it came ot writing my blog today I knew I had to say I was struggling. I hate reading blogs that make it seem like everything is roses and sunshine all the time, especally after competing. It’s not. It’s tough, no matter how much you love the lifestyle, everyone wants to induldge sometimes

  11. Melissa says:

    There are definitely days that I want to just eat whatever I want to and not worry about the nutrition of what I’m eating. However, after a day like that I’m usually ready to get back into a healthy eating pattern the next day.

    I’ve actually really been thinking about the pressures of depicting a “healthy living persona” lately. I’ve decided that I would like to become a personal trainer and nutrition coach, and I am just beginning to take the steps to make that happen. However, I also run a food blog and I make a lot of quite unhealthy foods (typically I have a small portion and then give the rest away). I’ve struggled with how to make a good balance between both parts of my life, specifically how people are going to view a foodie personal trainer!

  12. Stephanie says:

    French toast for supper? There’s nothing wrong with that! In fact…I think that I might have that for supper tonight.

  13. Sarah says:

    Thanks for your honesty! I think this is a huge part of healthy living. You’re not going to be on your A game every week. The more you push and punish, the more you will rebel. I think the healthiest option is to recognize that you might not have had the healthiest week but you can always be healthier now. And you’re not going to gain 10000lbs from a few “unhealthy”meals and not working out for a few days 🙂 Plus you look totally wonderful anyways and I hope you feel better this week.

  14. […] of days. Luckily, all of my cravings have come in the form of healthier choices in lieu of the incessant pizza and ice cream cravings of last week. How nice to have a place to share them with you for another What I Ate Wednesday […]

  15. I often feel like I don’t want to worry about what I eat and I don’t want to write down my food. But just coming off of months of not eating enough, I need to. Which sucks, but I have to do it so I know I’m fueling my body properly.

    &Tina- I just love your blog! You’re so open and honest! 🙂

  16. […] Featured Post of the Week: A Healthy Living “Facade” […]

  17. […] of days. Luckily, all of my cravings have come in the form of healthier choices in lieu of the incessant pizza and ice cream cravings of last week. How nice to have a place to share them with you for another What I Ate Wednesday […]

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