Friday, August 29, 2008

Practically Perfect in Every Way

No one can hear these words without thinking of Julie Andrews and Mary Poppins. Ah, if only it were that easy.

I was raised in a family where my father taught us to do it right the first time and when I say right, I mean to perfection! This is a great characteristic to have. However, it can also be a detriment to an individual, especially when learning to live in a world that isn’t perfect, especially when we are bombarded with the quick and easy fixes that the commercial world likes to drown us in on a daily basis.

Changing my eating and exercise habits for the most part has been easy. I was told by my trainer, eat X and I did. I was then told exercise like Y and I did. That’s kinda just me. I’ll paint it whatever color you want, just tell me the color. The problem with this is that when I do make a mistake I give myself a flogging behind close doors. I mean, gasp, I would make a mistake or eat a cookie, two or maybe even three? I mean what type of person would I be if I did that?

Yesterday, I had a horrible day. I don’t know why, perhaps it really just was the side of the bed I rolled out on. I ate horribly for the day. I ate Sugar Smack cereal, how’s that for a great way to start your day off? Then I ate a handful of almonds. Not so bad you say. Well, I had some running around to do at lunch and figured I would eat on my return. NOT, I stopped at a local market and ate Circus Peanuts, you know those little sugar loaded Styrofoam-like things and some of those lovely little sugar coated orange slices and to wash it down, well a Diet Pepsi, for sure.

I then needed to run 2-4 miles as I’m in training for a marathon. I’ll tell you, a person doesn’t run in 85 degree weather 70%+ humidity and eat what I did during the day and think that she will feel great. Cause, guess what I didn’t. My three mile run was worse than my 10 mile run three days earlier. Why? Because when you eat crap, you feel like crap and your get a crappy workout. It’s that plain and simple.

So, this morning I pulled myself up by the seat of my pants, ate my oatmeal with protein powder, a great little bowl of cottage cheese, tomatoes and almonds for an a.m. snack, some chicken and veggies for lunch and some tuna and an apple for my p.m. snack. I’m feeling great with the good food inside of me and know that I’ll have a killer, “Benches of Death” routine this afternoon.

I’m learning that it is okay to not be perfect. It’s okay to do the best that I can. When I fall short, I hop back on this rocking horse of life and move forward. I’ll leave the “Spoon full of Sugar” and perfectionism to Mary Poppins and her charges.

Tuesday, August 26, 2008

THE Secret to Weight Loss and Fitness

Does this get your attention? I can’t tell you how many times I have been asked, “How did you lose your weight?” or “What do you do to maintain your weight”? People are waiting with baited breath, wanting to know what magic pill I took, what I drank or what gadget I used. So, I’ll let YOU in on my secret and I promise you too can lose weight and get fit and it’s simple.

• Track what you eat and I mean track it all! The good, bad and the ugly. If you don’t know what you are doing now, how can you change it?
• Measure and weigh your food always until you are at your goal weight. No one realizes how much the extra bite, lick and taste is as far as extra calories and all of those add up. The cold fries off little Johnnie’s plate or the extra licks of little Susie’s ice cream cone.
• Move more. Every person should be getting in 30 minutes of a cardiovascular activity daily. Walking is great, but I want to hear that you were breathing hard and sweating. You should feel like you did something. That’s fat burning, baby.
• Weight train. You need a minimum of two fully body workouts per week using free weights, machines or resistance bands. Weight training increases muscle, keeps us standing upright, reshapes our bodies AND a big plus, allows us to burn more calories when we are doing nothing? How great is that? And, let’s just dispel a myth, right now, that you will not get bulky by lifting weights, it just won’t happen
• Change your thought patterns. In each of us lives a Fat Girl or Guy. You know that little voice in your head that whispers, “You aren’t worth it, you will fail because you always do, a little more won’t hurt you, that’s enough exercise for today.”

Kick that little brat to the side and start looking at all the things that you are doing right and what more you can do. Log those things down and keep them in front of you so that you see the changes that you are making.

Now, normally when I starting telling people about the fact that I ate better, tracked what I ate and worked out hard, I see the person’s eyes glass over and start staring off into the distance. People, you want and easy fix and I’m hear to tell you that the five steps above
are easy and will get you to your ultimate goal of weight loss and fitness.

Friday, August 22, 2008

Family, Friends and Food

I just had this huge rush to write. I have a friend who is working towards eating right and exercising more. She has come so far in the last eight weeks and I know that the next eight weeks can be even better.

Her dilemma this weekend is to get through two or three activities with friends and family and food. It’s like the three big “F” words (lol)

I gave her some suggestions and I’m hoping that she will follow them and end up being successful in the end, getting her one step closer to be powerful over her life and food demons.

· Activities involving friends and family do NOT and I repeat, do NOT, have to revolve around food. Seriously, are you there to visit the pie and the mash potatoes, or are you there to celebrate the person’s life or event.
· Take your food with you. As soon as you get there and people starting eating, pull it out and put it on a plate. Do you honestly think someone will question you about where you got that and if you do, tell them you brought it from home!
· Drink plenty of water. Bring your cooler and keep it full of water bottles. Have water in your hand to sip keeps you busy and keeps you full
· Lie, yep, you heard me say it. If you have to lie, this is one time I believe it is okay and really it might not be a lie. Tell them you are in training. You are right, you are “training” yourself to be a healthier you, so really maybe it isn’t a lie.

And for people that are reading this and are “food pushers”. STOP I’m begging you! If you care about the loved ones around you and want them to be with you for the rest of your life, please don’t push them into eating foods that are not healthy and they don’t want to consume. It’s hard enough to say no to these foods without you tempting us. We want to be there to watch you celebrate and to be a part of your life but we want to do it without the food being the center of the world.

Wednesday, August 20, 2008

Juggling


As we approach fall we sometimes have a sense of looking back at where the year as gone. I see this more frequently with individuals that have children in school. School sort of exemplifies the end of the year because once school is in session, it is the never ending running hear and there, homework and PTA meetings. Where does that leave us and our healthy fit lifestyle? Juggling that is for sure.

Here are a few tips that you can use to help get you back on track or at least running in the right direction.

Plan, plan and then plan some more.



Why I list planning three times, you might wonder, because, how many times do we plan something just to have a wrench thrown into it and then be stuck not knowing what to do next. Have a couple of plans so that if the first one doesn’t work we are prepared for what to do next.

Take some time to prepare things up front.

We all have to grocery shop and we all want a quick and easy fix, weather it be a choice of a snack or a meal idea. After you are done grocery shopping, take some time to cut-up and bag some raw veggies, wash your fruit or package your almonds. That way when the morning comes you can grab and go. You can even cook some of you meat products in advance and use them for a couple of meals during the week.

Schedule your “me” time.

You schedule everything else and this should be no different. If you make a date with yourself and block that time out for you then nothing else should come up to take its place. You are NO LESS important that someone else.

I would love to hear your input on what things you do, to help you get through this period of time and if you need some help, post up that as well and we will see if we can help you.

Tuesday, August 12, 2008

Looking back

Looking back into what we used to do or how we used to behave can be depressing or motivational.

Perhaps in the past we ate healthier, we were thinner, had a little less grey hair. However, if you are following my writings then you probably are on fitness and weight loss journey and looking back on where you used to be could be motivational.

Think of how many changes we need to make during this transformation. We are learning to make better food choices, eat portions that are meant for us and fuel are bodies like a fine tuned machine. None of these changes came overnight and so many times we are beating ourselves up over what we aren’t doing or what we could be doing better. Yes, we all can improve, but we should all also be proud of the small changes that we are making to bring us closer to the goals we want to achieve.

Give me a shout out of some of the changes that you have incorporated into your life and are proud of.

Wednesday, August 6, 2008

Moving towards the dream

After reading my last few posts I thought all of this sounds great, but what do we do to make those dreams come true. I mentioned believing is the first step as if you don’t really believe in the dream how on earth can you get it to come to fruition.

Then I ran across this quote and it brought to mind a few more elements that need to be addressed so that we can truly live our dream.

"Our self-image and our habits go together. Change one and you change the other."

This is so true. What we do each and everyday molds us into the type of person that we are and can help to change us into the person that we want to be. So, how do we go about it?

1. Identify the habits that are contributing to the poor behavior. Are you not choosing the healthiest foods are you making excuses to not exercise?
2. Decide on how you can make a change in that habit.
3. Execute the new habit. Plan better; ask for help from someone, read some books. Hey, just get up off the couch and move a bit more.

Now you aren’t going to make these changes overnight and some days will be easier than others. But through consistency it will become a new routine. As you embrace the new habit you will begin to see yourself as a different person, a stronger person, one who has more desire to try new things to be unconventional and standout from the crowd.

Today choose your new habit and begin to watch the new you emerge.