Healthy Tip: Go Shopping!

Now I'm not giving you carte blanche to bust out the credit card and ignore your budget here, because I'm not suggesting you BUY things, but here's something I learned in my weight loss journey:

MUSCLE WEIGHS MORE THAN FAT. And takes up less space. I know you probably hear that a lot, and probably disregard it a lot, so this post is about giving you the opportunity to test this theory.  

When I was about 4 or 5 weeks into my program (which included resistance/strength training as well as cardio, as any decent program should IMHO), I was extremely frustrated because I was putting in the work, day in and day out. I was eating clean. I was logging everything. I was checking in daily with my coach and my accountability group. But that &/$-@/! scale wasn't budging an inch!  I wanted to give up. 

Does this sound familiar to you? If this is happening, it could be because you're building muscle (and likely losing inches). Now you COULD test this theory by measuring yourself, but if you're like me and didn't trust where EXACTLY on your body you put the measuring tape and whether you even looked at the right number, that's not gonna help you feel better. What I did that changed EVERYTHING was go shopping.  (Now I love shopping so that would probably make me feel better on any given day, but hear me out here because this is for a special reason!)

Go to your favorite store, where you know the sizing, and pull what size you think you are, as well as the next size down.  When I did this, I found I was TWO sizes less than I thought I was - which doesn't exactly make the scale a liar, but does prove there's more to getting fit and healthy (and looking good in your own skin) than what number that miserable scale says. 

Now if you're in the middle of your journey, try to resist the temptation to buy the size that fits you now - I learned the hard way and now have a whole bunch of "only worn once or twice" items that look baggy and silly on me now. 

See? Good for your self-image AND your wallet ;) 

Have a great day everyone!