Fit Villains: Selfish, Shameless, Sassy, Fitness.

Vanity Pounds: The last 5-20lbs you want to lose, NOT because your body’s unhealthy, but because you want to look a certain way.

Health & Vanity are two different things. I’m not judging you for wanting to lose vanity pounds, I don’t always like mine either (though I certainly don’t hate them). But they are NOT to be confused with healthy pounds or healthy weight loss.

Fitness marketing would have you assume that they are one in the same, but no honey. They’re not. Your body might actually be healthier with a muffin top than without. Health is determined by your body’s ability to do it’s job (keep you alive), not by your jean size or minimized cellulite.

The problem with vanity pounds: everyone’s body is healthy at a certain point (mine is “healthy” within 10-20lbs+ of where I am, maybe more, and about 5lbs less, give or take). My body LIKES being there. It’s not stressed about where it’s energy is coming from. It’s getting exercise, nutrients, sleep, love and it’s happy, happy, happy.

BUT… if it feels threatened with unhealthy behaviors (eating too little, ahem, -1000 calorie eaters) or exercising too much (making too big of a deficit), it will enter starvation mode and start to release hormones, cortisol and other bio-chemical weapons to preserve the energy and SAVE itself from YOU.

It is possible to lose those vanity pounds... but you need to do it healthily. Your body needs to feel nice & taken care of so that it doesn’t MIND losing an extra 5 or 10. If it’s not FREAKED OUT that you’re trying to starve it, it doesn’t release those hormones or signal your metabolism to slow down. It knows it’s okay.

Because of this, it’s important to KNOW and EXPECT that those last 5-10lbs will take longer to lose. Much longer than when you were heavier. So relax & give yourself time to get there, okay? Worrying about losing it quickly often means dropping your calories too low and over-exercising, which eventually will cause the opposite effect. You already know how the story goes: gain, lose, gain, lose, gain, lose….

This is how body love works for weight loss: You love your body. It loves you back. You HATE your body? Well, it will fight you with everything it’s got. And guess what? In the end, your body will WIN. It’s one tough mother f*cker.

So, those of you who are having trouble with those last 5-10lbs: relax. Slow down. Eat well & amp up your exercise INTENSITY, but don’t exercise MORE. Lowering your calories too drastically, or exercising too much (more than 5-6 days/week for an hour) will break down your body, not give you enough recovery time, release those fat storing hormones and NOT get you where you wanna go. Add strength training for tone & muscle, don’t overdo your cardio and make sure your body KNOWS it doesn’t need to fight back.

We cool?

- Chichi Kix