The Negative Effects of Eating Junk and Not Exercising

So I know that in my last post I said I was going to get back to exercising and eating clean Paleo, but I didn't.   :(   For whatever reason, I have been really struggling to get back on track.  I've fallen into the trap where once you have something "bad", you continue to want it.  It sucks. It's totally true that carbs/sugar is addicting.  I got used to eating junk everyday, and now it's hard to get back to eating clean.  During these past 2 weeks, I've felt terrible.  Not that bad physically, but mentally.  I've been depressed and unmotivated to do anything- schoolwork, housework/cooking, exercising, everything.  :(  The good thing is, is that I am very aware that I'm feeling this way because of the fact that I haven't been exercising, and I've been eating unhealthy foods.  It is silly for me to continue feeling this way!

So now I'm getting back on track.  No more wasting money on fast food, no more sitting alone in my room feeling sad, lonely, fat, and unmotivated.  No more being frustrated.  I feel so great when I'm consistently exercising and eating a clean Paleo diet.  I need to always remember that, and try to stay mentally focused.  Life is so much better when you feel strong, fit, and healthy.  It is absolutely true.  In my life I've experienced both sides of this.

On Friday I was feeling pretty depressed.  I was frustrated with a school assignment, hadn't been talking much with my classmates, and was overall just feeling homesick and lonely.  I took a nap in the middle of the afternoon instead of going for a run like I had wanted to, then a few hours later my roommate woke me up and made me take a walk with her to the beach.  We did 4 miles, and I came home feeling so much better!

Yesterday I went mountain biking with a couple ladies from a women's mountain biking club that I just found, thanks to going to the women's mountain bike clinic the previous weekend.  I finally found some good single track!  :)   It felt really good to get out on my mountain bike again, doing what I love to do.  We rode for about 2 hours, uphill for 6 miles, then back downhill.  When I came home, I washed my car and my bike.  Then after a shower, I grilled chicken and asparagus, made tuna salad, and made walnut red pepper dip.  I was able to get the motivation to do all of this because I was feeling so good from getting in good exercise.

I forget if I mentioned this already, but for a class this semester I have to do another "health behavior change."  This one is for 6 weeks. So I've decided I will do another Paleo challenge, with my goal of losing a total of 3 inches (taken from waist, hip, and upper thigh circumference measurements).  This should motivate me and help me stay disciplined.  It will be hard, though!  I have friends coming to visit me, and there are a couple holidays all within these 6 weeks, so it will be tough to resist drinking beer and having some "cheat meals".

So I was able to get in for my appointment with a naturopath this Wednesday!!  Yay!  I'm really looking forward to this, but also a little nervous.  I don't want to be disappointed.  It's a lot of money and I'm really hoping she can find some underlying issue as to why I've been having trouble losing weight.  Then of course, I hope it can be treated easily and fairly inexpensively!

So now that I have this Health Behavior Change project to do, I'll be blogging a lot again.  I have to write a 6-12 page paper, so I'll be using blogging to help give me good stuff to include in my paper. I'll also be tracking what I eat using Livestrong.com's food intake calculator.  I might be able to share that through my blog, so I'll try so you can see what I eat.

I've attached some pictures of mountain biking in Malibu yesterday.  See ya...