DON'T lose weight fast!

Or I guess what I mean is, there isn't a healthy, maintainable way to lose 10 lbs in 2 weeks.

***Disclosure, this post is longer than usual so if you stick with me all the way through, props to you. I'm a rambler. ***

We're a few weeks away from spring break and I'm starting to notice a lot of girls (and guys) are hitting the gym hard to get that "beach bod" before they go. The amount of posts on social media I've seen about going to the gym or being on a diet have sky rocketed even in the last week. Social media's role in why we feel like we NEED that beach ready body is a post for another day... but because of that looming feeling, people are going to ridiculous extremes.

I don't know if you caught it or not, but I said that we are a few weeks away from spring break. A few weeks is not enough time to change your body. You should not hate yourself because you can't. Maybe you can cut out carbs, cookies and soda in that time frame and lose 5 lbs - I'm not saying you can't - but I guarantee you will get to your spring break destination, take those few Instagram pictures you're just dying to post with your "new body", and start loading up your bedazzled cups with those delicious fruity concoctions your roommate makes so well. In turn, by the time you get back home in a week, the damage of alcohol and fast food is done, your 5 lbs is back, and maybe you got 100 likes on that one pic where you looked really tan, but you feel discouraged because you felt like you worked so hard for nothing.


I used to be like this. I thought I could eat salad for every meal and spend an hour on the treadmill a few times a week and lose weight fast. Then I would be happy! Right? I wasn't happy. After high school I gained almost 20 lbs. I was eating fast food every day, going out with my friends every weekend and then I'd feel bad about how I looked in my crop top so I'd binge diet/cardio for a few weeks. I'd see the scale go down a couple lbs and go right back into my midnight Taco Bueno habits.

It was an endless, hopeless cycle.

About a month before my 20th birthday I read an article about how if people don't change their bad habits in early adulthood, they are much more likely to continue to be bad habits for the rest of their lives. I made the decision to get a gym membership that week. This was almost 3 years ago and only the first step I took towards a healthier lifestyle. It hasn't been a quick fix, it's a slow and challenging process, but staying committed to exercising, making healthy food choices, and being conscious of how I take care of myself has changed not only my body but my mentality.

Eating Taco Bueno every day wasn't my only bad habit though. The way I thought about myself, the way I felt like I NEEDED to look for other people, was toxic. I'm not going to lie and say that I never feel that way anymore. Some days I wish I was a little slimmer here, or a little curvier there, but putting positive energy into the way I care for my body and my mind has helped me realize that a healthy lifestyle is so important. It's not about salads and fitting into bikinis. It's about finding balance with your food choices and exercise habits.  Cutting out the bad, embracing the good.

So as you're preparing for spring break, don't stop exercising, maybe quit drinking a liter of soda per day (that stuff is trash), but don't hate yourself for having a pizza night with your BFF. My motto is find balance. Balance between the good and the bad and balance in your life. Don't let toxic thoughts lead you to dangerous extremes. Love and take care of the body you have while you're working towards the body that you want. So cheesy, but so true.


That's what's in my jar.