First things first, pandas, I just want to address that you’re all beautiful and wonderful just the way you are. At the start of a new year, we’re all bombarded with ads for gyms, fit-fluencers on Instagram raving about how their programs will change your life, and people promoting diet culture left and right. “You’ll never be healthy if you keep eating carbs” or “I swear, these sugar-free, gluten free, raw, paleo brownies taste JUST as good as the ones your mother bakes!”
The extreme diet culture rhetoric that seems impossible to avoid this time of year is simply harmful, so if it’s healthier for you to throw away your scale completely and continue eating the diet that you know works for you, please, by all means, keep doing you. So what if you ate more pumpkin pie and mashed potatoes than you normally would during the past month? I bet they tasted wonderful, and almost everyone else on the planet also indulged during the holiday season! Don’t let anyone make you feel guilty for enjoying a great meal with your loved ones during the most wonderful time of the year.
#2
But if you’ve been inspired by the dawn of a new year and you think your body could benefit from a few more vegetables and several trips to the gym each week, we support you too! Just remember that adopting a healthy lifestyle is a marathon, not a sprint. Having a slice or two of pizza is perfectly healthy every now and then, and you don’t need to throw away all the junk food in your apartment overnight.
Start with small, manageable changes, and don’t beat yourself up when you fall out of your fitness routine for a few days or eat a bit more cake than you would have liked to. The most important thing is your mental health, and it’s certainly not beneficial for your mental health to be starving yourself or obsessing over the foods that you’re “not allowed” to eat. Enjoy that birthday cake! (Just try not to eat the whole thing in one sitting. It’ll still taste good tomorrow.)
To gain some more motivation to develop healthier habits, we reached out to an expert on the topic, Michigan-based mom Katie Foster, who has bravely documented her journey with health and fitness on her blog, Runs for Cookies. First, we wanted to hear a bit about how Katie got where she is today, after losing 125 pounds.
“The best way to put it would be a roller coaster,” she told Bored Panda. “I have times where things go very smoothly and everything goes great; then there are times where I feel like I just fell off the track and my whole plan just falls apart. Staying disciplined is SO hard--something I have to think about every single day--and it's exhausting! In the end, though, it's been entirely worth it.”
We were also curious how Katie’s life has improved since she committed to adopting a healthier lifestyle. “I can do so much more than I did when I was obese,” she shared. “I am active now. Rather than meeting a friend for lunch, I'll meet them for a walk; when someone asks me to go for a hike or something like that, I know that I can actually do it (before, I would have made excuses because I knew I didn't have the ability to do it). I've learned that my body feels terrible when I make poor food choices, and it feels good when I eat healthy. Becoming vegan a year ago changed my life because it eliminated chronic fibromyalgia pain.”
Katie also shared some of her best tips with us for how to adopt a healthier lifestyle without becoming miserable. “I always tell people not to make any changes that they're not willing to make forever,” she told Bored Panda. “Yes, we can work out for an hour six days a week--but is that something we're willing to do forever? (I'm not!) Yes, we can eliminate carbs from our diet, but is that something we're willing to do forever? (Heck no! Me, anyway.) I decided I was willing to run three miles, three days a week--that was my commitment to exercise.”
“I also believe that we should make our new lifestyles work for us, rather than trying to manipulate our lives to fit into a particular lifestyle,” Katie noted. “We can make our own plans based on our goals and what we're willing to do. I counted calories, but there was no way that I was willing to eat just 1200 calories a day, which was the recommendation from some popular calorie counting apps. I made my own rules, and I think that was key to being able to stick with this for the last 13 years. (However, like I said, it's a roller coaster--there have been days, weeks, months that I lost focus. It's hard! But not as hard as being obese was.)”
Katie also shares healthy recipes on her blog (that look delicious!), so I asked if she could recommend a couple of her favorites that anyone would enjoy. “A recipe that always shocks people when they learn what's in it is Cookie Dough Dip– it's probably the healthiest junk food I've ever made,” she told Bored Panda. “The ingredients sound very strange (and not very appealing) but once you taste it, you'll get addicted. (The surprise ingredient is chick peas.) It's heavenly!”
“Another recipe that I love is Spicy Peanut Noodle Bowls,” Katie added. “I created this after visiting a friend in Portland and eating something very similar. I love spicy Asian-inspired dishes, and this one is a favorite! It's super easy to make at home and save on money and calories.”
If your mouth is watering as much as mine is, be sure to give Katie’s blog, Runs for Cookies, a visit right here. You can hear more about her inspiring journey and find even more fabulous, wholesome recipes!
