#lessofus

[msbreezie95]

"Your actions, your performance, your good deeds doesn't change the fact we are sinners" - Pastor Joseph Prince #foodforthought #WeNeedMoreOfJesus #LessOfUs #JosephPrince #hillsongconf

[hangover-heartburn]

Okay, um, don’t roll your eyes too hard, but what are your favorite mason jar salad combinations?

[jackabie-blog]

Yo, anyone who knows..

I'm thinking of doing one of those scary 5 day juice detox weight loss things. Anyone of you done one? What are they like? Am I going to die?

[jackabie-blog]

Well, I appear to have cracked, and am now vigorously working out most days in preparation for the Alice's Adventures In Winter Wonderland auditions.  I refuse to be put in the Christmas mash up. I've experienced that class already.

[hangover-heartburn]

I went to Zumba for the first time in over a month. It was rough, enough said.  I had to leave early and when I was leaving this chick who's been in my huge class over a year but I've never spoken with ever ran after me and said "YOU'VE LOST SO MUCH WEIGHT. KEEP IT UP!" I'm still processing it. 

[amandamccc]

Hi! Sorry, this probably sounds really personal and such, but I was just wondering what methods (if any) you adopted to get fit and stay healthy. Recently I've sort of started running a little bit, and trying to eat more healthily, but if you have any additional tips that'd be wonderful. I really admire you as a person, and your videos are excellent. Thank you x

Y’all are so sweet! Of course I’m happy to share some tips. I have tried to make a video along these lines a few different times, but I end up feeling like a d-bag talking all high and mighty about exercise and eating healthy. Anyhow, happy to share a bit now:

Exercise is, for me, the hardest and most important part of losing weight / being healthy. It doesn’t come naturally to me. But as I discussed in my last post, there are ways to make it less awful. I build gym time into my weekly schedule, and try to do 45 minutes of cardio 3 times per week, plus weights. It’s worked for me so far, though when I find myself getting bored or my weight plateauing, I change the type of cardio and/or the intervals. The little ways to make it more fun keep me interested: going to a gym with TVs so I can zone out as I jog, slowly buying cute workout clothes when they’re on sale, tweeting about my progress with #lessofus. 

Eating well is more natural for me! You know the basics: lots of veggies and fruit, lean proteins, whole grains, minimal salt & fat. The Internet is a great resource for educating yourself about nutrition and learning healthful habits. There are some obvious ways to start, like switching from soda to water and from processed foods (chips, cookies) to fruit. It will be a process, but phasing out one less-healthy part of your diet (ice cream) to a more-healthy option (angel food cake with berries), one at a time, is a good way to begin.

Rules, for me, have been the key to eating healthily. I decided to try to eat vegan two and a half years ago on a whim, which has turned out to be a great excuse to think more about what and how I eat. Because it’s hard to find vegan food in lunch places and restaurants, I make almost all my meals at home, almost never buy food or eat on the go, and spend less per month on food than I ever have. Over time my tastes have changed; I don’t crave salty snacks, I dislike sugary candy, and I prefer simple foods like the ones I cook to complicated, many-ingredient, calorie-laden ones. This isn’t for everyone, but some kind of eating plan—cutting out meat three days a week, or making all your lunches at home, or only going out to eat once per week—will help. Promise!

Flexibility, however, makes “eating healthy” different from “dieting.” Diets do not work. They are boring, they are stressful on your body, and the stodgy suspicious part of me thinks that too many are just marketing scams. Rules like I outlined above can help, but you know what? Having two Oreos after dinner is okay. Getting sorbet with your friends is okay. Having a hamburger once in a while is okay. If your baseline is healthy and in moderation, sweets a few times a week is not going to derail your progress or make you a bad person. For me, anyway, eating well has to be a lifestyle, not something I do for six weeks to prepare for bathing suit season. You know? Denying yourself is only going to make the illicit thing you want seem even more appealing. 

Technology can help. When I got back into exercising earlier this year, I used MyFitnessPal to track my exercise and meals. It calculates a daily calorie target for you, and displays the carbs, protein, sugar, fiber, and other nutritional aspects of your meals. Having to break down all my meals into parts (parfait = yogurt, granola, berries, agave. Quinoa = quinoa, onion, mushroom, balsamic, olive oil) and figure out their quantities taught me so much about what I was eating. I used that tool for two months or so, until I understood the rough calorie contents of my meals without plugging them in. Now I can balance it out in my head, and can eyeball serving sizes much more accurately than before. Friends of mine have those calorie-counting bracelets, which measure how many calories you burn per day, and they seem to like them, though the $150 price tag is too much for me!

[amandamccc]

hi amanda! i'm a very shy person when it comes to jogging or running in public, even in the case of gyms, if people are around (which is always the case) i will be extremely demotivated. so i was wondering, what am i to do? It's related to confidence, i am well aware of this fact, so i was hoping for your words of encouragement, maybe advises on how i can take small steps to build the confidence? thanks in advance, love your vlogs :)

Hello! You are definitely not alone in those feelings. I wish I had a precise answer for you, but I can only speak to my experience (though my friend Leslie made a relevant video about this recently!).

What helped me get comfortable exercising:

Dress the part - Activewear is designed to make exercising easier, or at least to interfere with your motion as little as possible. Having dedicated gym/exercise clothes will help you get motivated to go, and help you feel like you blend in when you get there. Perhaps it’s vanity, but for me, anyway, it’s a big one. Plus, I get excited to go to the gym when I have a colorful new top or shorts or sports bra to wear! :)

Act the part - “Fake it til you make it” has never done me wrong. If you act like you belong there, nobody else will think you’re out of place. In my experience, the attitude most people have in group exercise is to do their own thing and not interfere with others. Most of us are so in our own heads, focusing on the exercise or trying to zone out and watch HGTV (hi!), that what the people around us are doing does not even register. Reminding yourself of that fact—that nobody pays more attention to you than you do—might not make you feel any different, but if you observe the folks around you and try to match that attitude, I bet the confidence will follow.

Observe the experts - I wish high school gym classes taught us how to exercise properly, rather than how to limp through a mile run and play volleyball. If nobody ever taught you how to stretch, jog, lift weights, or plan workouts, you will probably feel like a fish out of water! So watch others at the gym or in your neighborhood jogging route, search YouTube for fitness videos (I like BeFitin90), research hydration and post-workout meals and stretching and calorie goals. This is probably my nerd brain talking, but the more I research something, the more confident I feel, and the more kickass I can be. Admitting you’re a beginner is humbling, but puts you in a great position to learn from the wealth of knowledge all around you.

Support - I could not have made the progress I did over the last year without the help of my friends, who discuss fitness under the tag #lessofus on Twitter and Tumblr. If you aren’t comfortable talking to people IRL about exercise or going to the gym with someone (the idea of which makes me go nononononononono please no), come to us! Kvetch, brag, post GPOYs of your sweaty triumphant post-exercise face! Surrounding yourself with support, whether in person or online or in the form of healthful tumblr blogs on your dash, is super duper helpful.

Love - Listen, at the end of the day any exercise you go out and do is better than none. Maybe you stretch in the mornings, maybe you take the stairs up to work, maybe you take the long way to school. The more little things you do, the easier they’ll all become. For me, honestly, the best part of becoming more fit over the last year and change has been that great sense of capability. My body can do more things than it used to do, and bodies are pretty freaking incredible to begin with. If you fuel yours well and give it sleep and love it, you’re on the right path. Keep it up.

[hangover-heartburn]

What is #lessofus?

It is a small community of people with a goal of getting healthy. We are primarily on Twitter, but I think we should have a more solid place here on Tumblr. This whole #lessofus thing was started by Amanda, Eric, and myself--YouTubers who wanted to see, well, less of us. Personally, #lessofus has helped me lose 30 lbs this past year because of the support from this community. 

What do we discuss? Anything dealing with our goals to get healthy. Recipes, fitness regimes, goals, what's gettin' you down, achievements, confessions, anything! 

So if you need an extra push or someone to talk to, we are here for you. Track the #lessofus tag on Tumblr and Twitter and get the conversation going!