A Month of Learning: creating habits and my "results"

This month I have worked on trying to exercise regularly and find out what I like best along with experimenting with my caloric intake with focus in a few areas of nutrition. I'd like to share my experience with you!

Exercise:
I tried a lot of things I have liked in the past and I tried to make a plan but creating the habit worked a lot better when my goal was to do SOMETHING daily. I listened to my body to find out if I was ready for some pilates muscle work or had the energy for cardio. There were some days when I had to take time off to rest my body but I still stretched out twice that day to really help my muscles heal. **STRETCHING made me feel better in general, so that is a habit I want to do daily regardless of exercise level.** Otherwise, doing what I felt like meant that the amount of calories I burned differed each day and changing up my activities was a great way to include the variety that I think so many people crave.

Exercises I did:
+Walking (1 hour to 3 hours)
+Walking up the hill I live on (10 minutes of a crazy uphill walk I have finally gotten more used to, don't feel like I'm having a heart attack at the top anymore)
+Walking up and down the stairs on a highway overpass path
+Pilates (Blogilates workouts or my own combination of what i have learned)
+Squats and Push Ups challenge if I knew I wanted a day off the next day, I would push myself to the limit, switch exercises, then repeat until I reached my personal limit for the day
+Stretching moves that I learned from Blogilates videos and Denise Austin video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WSOu0M6E79o)

How hard to push myself: I would push until I worked into a good sweat and got a fatigue-like tired, if I felt a muscle tense or hurt a little tiny bit even I would stop my workout and switch between resting and stretching out that muscle. Some walks were intentionally challenging for endurance and having the hill to climb back up at the end was really encouraging because if I was tired at the bottom and pushed myself through the top then I felt really confident about my body's ability.

Diet:
I focused on my protein, fiber, and calcium intake. Calcium because I did not want to rely on supplements and the calcium sources often included either protein or fiber anyways. I take a multivitamin daily that has 100% Vitamin A, C, D, E, B6, B12, and especially 100% Iron since i have a mild anemia. **WOMEN: I highly recommend taking an Iron supplement or eating a ton of spinach right before your menstruation if you tend to feel fatigued in general or in workouts before or during menstruation.**

ATTITUDE!!! I swear, you can choose to be happy, or just in general, YOU CAN. If you say you can't then you can't, and if you say you can then you can. This is huge in creating habits and making healthy choices. I also recommend thinking of cliche phrases you think are dumb and taking them to heart, such as "you are what you eat" or "mind over matter."

RESULTS:
I ate too little in the beginning of the month and lost a lot of weight fast, then felt like I was starving towards the end. It really makes a difference if you actually eat the minimum myfitnesspal or other sources tell you because your body NEEDS FUEL. I gained all the weight back when I was eating like I was starving and since I have been eating the correct amount I feel a lot better. I RECOMMEND eating the minimum calories suggested on this site for losing 2lbs/week and then exercising. If you can feel great eating less for more than three weeks then that's great, but I hated going backwards and I know others would too.

As for my looks, I have only lost a few pounds and it hasn't been long enough to see significant muscle increase. I was shooting more for making HABITS because long term change is better than nonexistent instant results.

I FEEL THE MUSCLE STRENGTH! This is awesome, it's so tiny but still a little noticeable and I HIGHLY SUGGEST getting excited about it. Any way that you feel stronger, skinnier, healthier, energetic, or confident in general should absolutely be celebrated in a non-material way (by that I mean it is better to get emotionally excited and happy about progress than to justify buying something new or eating a piece of cake).

TL;DR Creating habits that will make a difference in how I feel physically, mentally, and emotionally, because healthy feels good.

Questions or comments extremely encouraged! I will reply!