Lessons Learned

The greatest lesson that I learned in 2012 is that everything is a process. Everything. Nothing happens overnight and there is no such thing as “instant success”. There are no short cuts. I suppose on some level I have always known this but it’s taken me this long to accept it and go with the flow.

It’s taken me about two years to grow my hair out. It’ll take me about two more years to finish my degree. And only God knows how long it’ll take for me to get the body I want – years, no doubt. I have a subscription to Shape magazine and I get really annoyed when I read the headlines on the cover that shout, “Slim Down Fast!” “10 moves in 10 minutes a day!” “A slimmer waistline in 10 days!” What a bunch of crap. I have been working my butt off for six weeks and I’m here to tell you that nothing about this process is fast and I would not accomplish anything in only 10 minutes a day. All these headlines do is sell magazines.

I’ll tell you what else annoys me, the infomercials for fitness DVDs. Why is everyone in the infomercial smiling? I never smile while I’m working out. What in the world is there to smile about?

I’ll also never understand the women that wear makeup to the gym. I always scrub my face of all traces before I work out. I remember once, I didn’t get all the mascara off and when I left the gym I looked like a raccoon.

Anyway, I’m still working on properly balancing my nutrition and exercise in order to get the best results. I figured out that on days that I lift, my caloric intake must be higher. My body needs more fuel when lifting heavy weights … duh. I will not make that mistake again.

Instead of having the same egg whites and oatmeal every morning I found a recipe for an oatmeal protein pancake that was actually pretty good with sugar free syrup. The recipe came from the New Rules for Lifting for Women and I made a few substitutions:

OATMEAL PROTEIN PANCAKES

This pancake recipe comes from Cassandra Forsythe, a nutrition educator and weight-loss coach.

Mix together:
4 large egg whites
1/4 cup of old-fashioned oats (I used organic instant oats)
2 tbsp. whole-wheat pancake mix (I used organic whole grain buckwheat pancake mix)
2 tbsp. vanilla whey-protein powder (I used chocolate)
half a banana
dash of cinnamon

Recipe Stats: 355 calories, 39 g protein, 43 g carbs (5 g fiber), 3 g fat (1 g sat)

Pour the mixture onto a hot skillet and cook as you do regular pancakes.

This makes 3 good sized pancakes and I really like them. I probably couldn’t get anyone else in my house to eat them though -- especially if they saw the recipe.