Written and Photo by Savannah Rake
“Yeah but that’s no way to live,” said Danielle.
Danielle is one of my best friends at SCAD and has listened to my complaints and rants and everything in between for three years now. This time she listened to me worry over eating chips, queso dip and drinking three or four glasses of wine all in one night.
Ever since I began training in the BEE Fit challenge, I’ve been on a strict meal plan, boosting my protein and vegetable intake and cutting back on carbs and unhealthy fats. I eat spinach, tofu, tempeh, Greek yogurt, eggs and broccoli nearly every day on top of the workouts. We are required to fill out a food and exercise log five out of seven days of the week, so my coaches know everything that I eat on those five days.
Though last Sunday fell on one of my “off” days, my competitive nature kept whispering in the back of my head “you’ll regret this on weigh-in day.” A more dismal part of my brain was telling me that if I cheat once, I would keep cheating again and again until I found myself on a downward spiral toward lifelong obesity and a myriad of regular doctors to visit.
Dramatic, right? I didn’t think so at the time. I was sacrificing too much for fitness (I’m already mentally apologizing to my coaches as I type out these words). In the pursuit of eating better and exercising, life began to revolve around it. So I began to question how to possibly find a middle ground.
When you take fitness too far: when you weigh yourself every day, when it physically stresses you out that you missed one of your workouts for the week, when you refuse to indulge in a couple glasses of wine at a family gathering. That is when you know you have taken your fitness too far.
In essence, Danielle was right. So how do I find that balance?
I learned that, at least for me, it is all about forging the right mindset. I am going to fail sometimes; we all do. But with the wrong mindset, that failure or mistake could tumble me toward that downward spiral. If I take that cheat and think, “I already cheated, so I might as well make it worth it and eat that large french fry,” I have lost.
With the right mindset, I will remember that cheat and when the opportunity to cheat comes along again I will say, “I already had my cheat for the day.” Then I might take one or two french fries anyway (because I do love me some french fries), and remember the times that I would have scarfed the whole pack down without a second thought. Willpower, my friends.
It’s important to remember to enjoy life in any physical or mental pursuit. Because what’s the point of living if you aren’t enjoying it?
In this way it’s easier to puzzle fitness and diet into the larger picture of what it means to be a human being. If I don’t let my schoolwork control every aspect of my life, why would I let something as menial as eating control my happiness?
Workout-wise, BEE Fit is turning into a successful, sometimes painful, and always fun challenge. At this point, my team’s progress is showing in each workout. We are all pushing harder now; the challenge is more than halfway over. The competitive atmosphere, the pairing against the other teams and each other (again, always in fun) is the right balance of physical assertion.
The rest is on me, on the individual. And thanks to BEE Fit, I’m finally starting to figure it out.
