Fat & Healthy ( How I Survived Shaming and Learned To Love My Body Again)

How To Sparkle And Yummy Foods

I would like to take this time to share with you some of my favorite foods and exercise programs I have found throughout the years ... these are not endorsements, the people whom inspired me to get my body moving don't even know I exist yet so its not for my personal gain other than the thrill of getting to share what I love with you and these are just the tops of my lists, I am always finding new things to try and fall in love with new stuff everyday. Also if you read this and have any suggestions of your own I would absolutely love to hear it and you can count on me to try it out as soon as I possibly can :) 

EXERCISES

Walk At Home Workouts - The first cardio workouts I ever fell head over heels in love with is by a lady from Pennsylvania whom has been holding "Walk Classes" for over 30 years now. Her name is Leslie Sansone and she has DVD's you can find in stores and online. Also she puts up a few of her workouts on You Tube at Leslie Sansone's Walk At Home You Tube Channel, Leslie Is on Facebook where you can find some short videos and links to her stuff and she has a twitter so go check her out. The first video I got was a 5 mile one which is the largest she does to this date. I started off by doing a mile at a time, then in no time I was doing 3 miles and when I made it through to the five miles well the feeling of accomplishment made me burst into tears. There I was sweating and sparkling with sweat in the floor thanking the creator and Leslie and just the day itself for giving me that feeling. Many years later I still remember this moment and tears still fill my eyes. Her encouraging words played a big role in my keeping going, she tells you "you can't do it wrong" and you really believe it. I really can go on forever on how much the Walk At Home Videos helped me not only move but feel better about myself. I have never did one of her videos where I did not end it with a smile, sometimes there were just tears amid the smiles.

Exercise TV- My cable provider offers free videos On Demand and has new ones come up every month. Two of my favorite cardio exercise people I found on there is Kendall Hogan and Kendra Kemerley. Kendall Hogan has some exercises on you tube if you search cardio and his name and he is a very energetic guy but I have to have a lot of energy to do his workouts, those are my kick my buns workouts I like to call them but I adore him and do at least one a week...usually. Kendra Kemerley is more of a dance aerobics instructor but with easy follow moves.  When I want to feel pretty or curvaceous I do her workouts. both of these are great people to check out if Walk At Home is not your thing, which I don't understand ( just kidding, everyone has different tastes and styles of what they like)

Strength Training/Floor Exercises- This is really not my favorite exercise choice, I avoid it most days but when I do decide to do floor exercises or strength training I use stretchie bands and weighted balls. Stretchie bands I use standing up and you can look up how to do these but I do squats, lunges, or you can get in the floor and do stretching laying down exercises with a yoga mat. Pinterest or Google are good places to look up how to do those. My floor exercises consist of the Pilates move called The Hundred, Scissors, The Plank and Swimming (okay I admit Swimming on the floor without any water seems bonkers but it is so so so much fun) and leg curls then a full body stretch. Google or look on You Tube and you will find out how to do all of that if you are interested. Or go looking and searching for new stuff, there is always new stuff. Heck if you are a creative soul, Make up some new stuff, just have fun but please do be careful ...as I have found out its easy to hurt your own body and it will let you know when that happens so gently does it. That is the golden rule for me now, Gently does it. Harder is not always better and Gentle does not mean its not powerful enough to work for you. Do the level of comfort you and YOUR BODY agrees upon. 

Yoga/Meditation- I use Yoga and Meditation to relieve stress. The concentration is takes for both of these activities took me a long time to achieve.  You have to learn to block it all out. The chatter in the next room, the smell of food cooking, the phone ringing, you get it all the distractions. I make time for it at least 30 minutes once or twice a day depending on how much time I have. Sometimes I have to only do 15 minutes at night and yeah I admit sometimes I have fallen asleep meditating. It happens sometimes what can I say. A good Yoga Channel to try is YogaWithAdrienne on her YouTube Channel of the same name. Meditation for me is to sit crossed legged or laying down while putting on some musics and focusing on my breathing. Then It is like you are taken on a journey of your own mind. It is really amazing and in little amounts of time you see that you start to handle stress situations much better.