Stop sweating the small stuff in your fitness journey

Do you know what spot reduction means? It’s an assertion by most diets and workout routines that you can knock off inches in particular problematic areas of the body.

For instance, by eating X and doing workout routine Y, you can attain a flat tummy without dropping an inch of your hips and butt.

In the past, I swallowed these claims, hook line and sinker.

Three years down the line, I’m still dealing with belly issues, thick thighs, fat upper arms et cetera. Did spot reduction work for me? No.

I lost weight uniformly, including my face.  Therefore, if you were looking for a testimony on successful spot reduction, I’m sorry to burst your bubble.

The reason I tried out the spot reduction exercises was that in as much as I wanted to lose weight, I didn’t want it lost everywhere.

I still wanted to keep the chubby cheeks which gave me a baby face and made me look adorable at the very least.

I did not want my butt to reduce in size as the enhancement options I found online totally put me off.

For instance, eating chicken feed seemed gross, padded underwear cost a fortune and let us not even get started on the inefficient enhancement creams

which have been known to yield horrendous results like one butt getting bigger than the other. I wanted to keep my bum, chubby cheeks and thick legs.

LOOKED OLDER

To my utter disappointment, I realised I couldn’t have my cake and eat it. Despite clean eating and working out regularly, I knocked off inches from head to toe.

However, problem areas reduced significantly much to my pleasure whereas “stronghold areas” were grazed slightly, to my relief.

At some point in my pursuit to hit my target weight, I noticed that my face narrowed significantly and I started looking older.

I immediately stopped and shifted my target weight up by 8kg.

Remember when I shared the story about  how am aiming to hit that target soon after slipping during the festivities? Well, it is not far off now.

In my journey, I’ve learnt to quit sweating the small stuff and instead enjoy the progress. This is why I dress in front of a full-length mirror. Before putting on clothes, I take to time to oil every single inch of my skin.

Apart from the health and beauty benefits such as checking out for anything unusual as I massage the oil and keeping the skin moisturised and supple, this routine allows me to spend some much-needed time with myself.

I check out the stretch marks to see if cocoa-butter is fulfilling its promise of fading them away,  it is living up to this promise. I check out the cellulite on my thighs to see if I need to do more legwork, I absolutely do.

And sometimes if am not in a rush, I suck in my tummy for a good ten minutes or so just to see how that flat belly will look like in the near future. It is how I keep the dream alive, but most importantly it is how I acknowledge the progress made in my fitness journey.

I have watched with utmost pride as some of my problem areas toe the line. Less jiggle in my upper arms, no sprawling tummy, disappearance of clogged veins, well-defined waistline and I recently bid farewell to the last traces of love handles.

These were small areas I was not comfortable with. As I checked my eating habits and took powerwalks while swinging dumbbells, these areas responded to my effort.

LOVED WHAT I SAW

They worked together with me to ensure when I look into the mirror, I absolutely love what I saw.

It is not vanity but simply loving and taking pleasure in your own body way before anyone else does.

It is the beginning of how I define the term “comfortable in my own skin”.

Secondly, these hang-out sessions with my body in front of a mirror have been nourishing my esteem and confidence in the most amazing ways.

If someone was to cross my path and say something nasty like, “You are fat and ugly.” I would probably reply and with great conviction, “No am not. I saw me this morning. Sorry, nothing ugly there.”

It is just like when you meet someone for the first time and you are shy to engage them. You get to meet them a couple of more times, know them and even like them. In future, you may even vouch for them because you feel that you know them.

When you have known them long enough, you not only trust them but also accept them. They may have their flaws and mistakes, but you accept and like because you know them.

They are familiar. When you are familiar with your body, you accept it. You like it. You enjoy it, that right there is 'fabulousity'.

You will probably come across a spot reduction solution in your fitness feeds. I encourage you to do more than take that “before” picture they ask us to take in front of a mirror.

Start a journey of being familiar with your body. Look into the mirror and see that naked person who has made great strides in life. Envision the future, celebrate the past achievements and enjoy the present.

Set goals and watch the magical manner in which your body will work with you, one cellulite dimple at a time. This week let us make one more purchase for our fit and fab journey; a full-length dressing mirror.

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Fit&Fab is a blog series by Marion Maina who lost 30kg during her weight loss journey that started two years ago and is now in pursuit of a healthy lifestyle. Do you have feedback on this story? E-mail: [email protected]