Getting Back in Shape (and what is skinny fat?)

Hi to all…meet our guest writer today, Beth Levine.  Hi I’m Beth, and in 2 weeks I turn 45. There, I said it. Actually it’s all I have been saying for the past few weeks. Turning 30 was great. Turning 35 was even greater…Honestly I loved my 30’s. 40 was good as basically I looked the same as 39 but got to say “Hey check me out I’m 40 and the same weight I was in High School!”.

And there it was. The mistake that some of us (and I am so guilty of this) make by measuring ourselves based on our weight. Just like your age, your weight is simply a number. What it is not is a visual description of what you actually look like and equally as important, feel like. I might weigh the same as I did five years ago, but I sure don’t feel like it and to be brutally honest with myself, I don’t look it either. On the cusp of 45, I need to be really honest with myself, gravity is taking it’s toll. Sags, cellulite, discoloration, the loss of elasticity, is on the march and I feel tired like all the time. It is time to realize my lucky days of being skinny and thinking I was healthy without having to exercise, have turned me into what is commonly referred to in today’s society as “Skinny Fat”.

What exactly is “Skinny Fat”? Besides something your friends might mock you for calling yourself because hey, you’re skinny, what do you have to worry about right? Well this article in Shape Magazine does a really good job of summing it up (take a gander at it and come back here stat!). So what is a skinny fat girl to do? Realize that is never too late to start a fitness regime, even at 45, and that up until now I have relied on my thin frame to carry me throughout the years without having to really put in the body work. That ends now. Easy to say, easy to write…but easy to do? No, not so much. First I asked myself…what do I enjoy doing that is an actual physical activity (sadly texting doesn’t really work out much except for my fingers). With this in mind, I sat down (totally not a physical activity yeah I know) to compare and contrast what’s out there for me to start getting off my ass and getting out there.

Yoga seems like a logical first choice as my husband and I own a small handmade Yoga accessory company and my husband swears by it (he’s 46) as do so many of our friends. It is low impact, works on improving muscle tone and flexibility without adding bulk and is peaceful and relaxing right? Yeah well, here’s another thing about me. I am lazy (just in case you had not figured that out already) and have difficulty concentrating, so the solid hour of being unconnected and in class doesn’t seem to be capturing me the way it should.

CrossFit. Ahh CrossFit. Seems like everyone I know has gotten into this doctrine lately and it seems really intense. I haven’t even tried it yet as to be honest it scares the crap out of me.

Running. My coworker is a runner. She is in her 50’s and looks amazing and has had 3 kids. She runs at the crack of dawn. She runs at the edge of night. It’s inspiring. It is also hot out. Like really hot out. I know I can run indoors, but one of things I want to do is also get in touch with being outside more in my new regime (I am kind of a homebody) so I might try this one once our other season, “Less Summer” starts.

OK, so I am going to stop myself right here. I am supposed to be building myself a fitness regime not continuing to make excuses about why I am not doing this or that and it hit me (yeah I am a little slow sometimes)…it doesn’t matter WHAT my regime is…I can walk around the block every day, take the stairs more, even watch an old Jane Fonda DVD (if you are too young to remember those, you are missing out), that what I NEED to do is just get up, get out there and start doing physical activity on a regular basis NOW. Like right NOW. No excuses, every day, no matter what it is or how long I do it for. That the point is to change my actual mindset, that it is about the commitment to a regime not the regime itself that matters. So if you are reading this and thinking hey, I also need to start an exercise regime, TURN off your computer or your tablet or your phone, get out there and to quote Nike “Just do it”.