My bed, my best friend.....

Not actually my bed... only in my dreams!

The 100% honest truth about me is that I am an absolute contradiction. I love the outdoors, but I hate to be outside. I love recycling, but don't believe in global warming. I love to exercise, but I hate to sweat. Or expend energy. Or really move.

This being said, I really did used to be a person who exercised and expended tons of energy. Softball and hide and seek growing up, hiking and hooping as an adult. I ran two miles every day for an entire year. I used to work at a gym! I have an absolute passion for hooping, obsessively watching new videos to learn new tricks. But you wouldn't know that to see me now.

Maybe it's true, the old adage I heard growing up about people stop caring about their looks when they fall in love. I've definitely seen evidence of that. I more so think that it's when you have the added responsibility of loving someone else and you start neglecting yourself. At least that's my excuse for the 43 pounds I have put on the past six years since I started exclusively dating my now husband. 

You see, probably like a great many of you, I spend most of my day running around doing things for everyone but myself. Nine hours of work, followed by taking care of our dogs (my children), his elderly disabled mother, washing clothes, washing dishes, folding clothes, taking out the trash, making dinner, etc etc etc. And this is what women thought they wanted when they were told they could have it all! Lol! (Whole different blog on that soapbox subject!) By the time that I actually get a few minutes to myself (and I, probably much like you, can never get even a moment of pooping or showering time alone. Someone is always poking their head in or pawing the door), I am so mentally exhausted that I literally just want to lie on my bed and watch reruns of "That 70's Show" on Netflix. 

However, I made myself a very solemn vow that this year I would start regaining some of my old athletic glory. Chicago in the winter is just much too cold for the early morning runs that I would prefer. (There's nothing like a nice runner's high and I can't wait to get back to that spot!) And after I'm already showered and in bed, I don't care to get super sweaty (hate that anyway) again. I just want to chill. 

I've probably already let it be known that I am a huge proponent of yoga. I was sick at the new year, so my attempts to exercise were all yoga-based. That was great. I felt better and I even lost a pound. Not a huge victory in most cases, but in this one it was. One pound. And I wasn't even trying really. No extreme diet changes. I'm sorry, I'm going to die of something one day and if I happen to have a Twinkie in my mouth when that happens, good for me! I had done absolutely no cardio. I walk up and down the stairs in my office building because I think that's enough cardio: four flights up and down at least four times a day. Just yoga.

Being as lazy as i have become, but realizing that simple "Happy Baby", "Cobra", and the inevitable Corpse Pose weren't going to help me get back down to a healthy weight, I decided to go old school and just added some good old leg lifts, scissors, and circles to my routine. And I didn't even have to get out of bed for that! Cool, I thought. I can still be lazy and still exercise. I added in a 30 second plank (well, now I'm up to 30 seconds, I started at 15). I was really coming up with the world's laziest exercise program!

A few days ago, I remembered that we have an overabundance of resistance bands at our house, thanks to my husband's mother and her many surgeries and rehab stays. I decided to add these resistance bands in to my lazy girl exercises. I went to the doctor on money and I was down another three pounds! Still no change to my diet (because if I want to eat half a bag of Doritos I by God will), still no more cardio, just all lazy girl exercises. I finally figured it out.

I'm building my excitement for exercise back up!

It's so hard to get excited about exercising when it's sleeting outside and there have been over 100 wrecks due to ice in the Chicagoland. When you have seasonal affective disorder combined with bi-polar personality disorder that leans heavily on the side of major depression, sometimes it's a struggle to even get out of bed in the morning. (That's a different blog as well!) But these tiny little victories have shown me that no matter how sick or tired I am, if I take just a few minutes to basically just stretch, I can be healthier. More so that I can care about myself and my health. It's okay to be selfish about that.

I'd love to do a video so that I could show you guys my "super lazy girl" exercise routine, but my computer is still down since it's drenching at the hands of Hurricane Nate on the night of my wedding. Hopefully it will be back up and running soon and I'll post videos of routines I come up with. In the mean time, I've posted this infographic of some lazy girl exercises. You can also check out my "Let's Get Physical!" Pinterest board and the Hardcore Healthy Facebook page for more ideas.

As lazy as you be and still exercise!

How do you motivate yourself to move when you don't feel like exercising? Post your comments and share suggestions! Happy (not) sweating!

Hardcore Healthy

I do my best thinking in the bathroom and I was thinking last night. I have a picture of myself that I call "My most confident picture". It's the picture that I personally feel is the best looking picture of myself. I was thinking about this picture as I was showering last night. In this picture, I am probably in the best shape of my life. I look pretty smoking hot.

My "confident picture"

The truth of the matter is that I was a hot mess when I took this picture. I was walking two miles each way to work, working on my feet for 8 to 16 hours a day. Three of my uncles had just died,month after month after month apart from each other. I was in a strange town with zero friends. I had just been through possibly the worst two years of my adult life, losing my daughter and having an abusive ex. The head space I was in when I took this picture was definitely not a good one.

But my boobs look amazing.

This picture is now almost seven years old. A lot has changed since I took this picture. I fell in love with a great man, we got married, I have three fur covered children now. I'm secure in a job that I do not have to walk to every day. Overall, I am 100% better than I was when I took that picture. But my body is not nearly as rocking as it was here. I've gained 50 pounds. My boobs aren't even a quarter that perky any more. But I'm happy.

So how do you measure the overall health you have? Mental or physical? Is there a way to balance out the misery that accompanied healthy body with the happiness that come from a healthy mind? 

That's my mission with Hardcore Healthy. It's not selling anything, it's not trying to make you stick to any special diets or meal plans. It's about balancing a healthy mind with a healthy body. I made it my goal in 2018 to do some sort of little work out every day to try to get back toward my healthy body. Starting the year off with the flu definitely didn't help, but I found a way to squeeze in some lazy girl exercising: leg lifts, yoga, whatnot. 

I hope to build a community of people supporting one another to live the happiest lives possible while being healthy. Do you have any health goals? If so what are they? Feel free to share your most "confident picture" as well and tell us what you think makes someone healthy and happy. Thanks for joining me on this adventure! See you next time!