More Than Just a Number

I'm one of those people who "sweats" everything.  I think and I over analyze, and I think some more.  I'm a quick decision maker, usually, but I worry about almost every single interaction I have with everyone in my life.  I wonder if that made him mad.  I wonder if I hurt her feelings.  Does she like me?  Does she hate me now?  This probably stems from some deep rooted insecurity or self-esteem issues I have, due to alopecia and how it's affected my emotional well being.  At least, that's was a psychologist would say.  People are people though, and they all act differently and think differently, and over think differently, or don't think at all.  I'd take over thinking over not thinking at all any day.

Over the last couple of years, I've been thinking about health and weight.  I've been over thinking it and analyzing every last bit of food I've put into my mouth.  When I have a splurge day--despite telling YOU it's OK--I usually beat myself up!  I'm really good at beating myself up and being hard on myself.  It's one of my greatest flaws: perfectionism.

I read this article on Shine yesterday, and I absolutely LOVED it, and I needed to share it with all of you who have struggled with your weight your whole life and seem to not be getting anywhere.  I'll sum it up for those of you who are too lazy to click on the link.

Basically the article is called, "Can you be Fat but Fit?"  The consensus through new studies is YES!!!  If you work out and eat relatively right, but don't lose weight then YES, you can be fit.  The key is working out and eating right.  That's always been the key to being healthy: reducing caloric intake and increasing caloric output.

My favorite party of this article was the fact that moderately obese people live 3.1 years longer than normal-weight people.  Now, I don't know how much of this is actually TRUE, because I read this on Yahoo!, and I didn't go looking for statistics to back it up, but I like this idea.  I like the idea, and I think I've always tended to agree with it, that if you are doing the right things, like eating and exercise, then you are prolonging your years and your life.  The number on the scale just doesn't mean a thing, even though we all have a psychological need to see it go down.  We've been fed bull crap about ideal weight our whole life, and we've been fed unrealistic images of men and women whose life is to EXERCISE every day.  These actors and actresses in magazines have personal trainers who basically kick their asses for a living.  Regular old people simply don't have the time or the need to want to exercise 8 hours a day.  We don't live in front of a camera.  We live our lives, and we need to make sure we're healthy to be their for our kids and to get the most out of life: to fulfill our purpose, if you will.

http://www.runwriterace.com/2013/01/scales-cant-tell-you-everything.html

Don't sweat the small stuff and hem and haw when that number on the scale doesn't go down.  Live your life in a healthy way by doing the following:

• Moderate Exercise for 30 minutes a Day.  This can include walking.
• Eat Right, but don't monitor EVERY BITE
• Stop looking at the Scale
• Know in how you feel how fit you are.  Everyone can tell when they start a new exercise plan.  Their breathing improves, they can walk up a flight of stairs without getting winded, and generally they become more active.  You can sense your body feeling and looking stronger.
• Annual Physicals: Keeping an eye on your cholesterol and blood pressure is a better indicator of total health than the weight on the scale.  If these things are in check, then most likely you're doing fine.
• Addressing Your Mental Health: Mental Health Issues can take away your drive, from exercise and eating weight.  If you're depressed then deal with it in a productive way.  Seek help from a counselor or a psychologist.  Talk to family and friends.  Figure out how to get out of your funk so you can live a healthy life. 

Keep Moving!  Never Give Up!  Live a Health Life. 

 

 

 

Weight Loss Tips 11: What to Eat and How to Keep Going

I'm exhausted this morning.  Darling Daughter crawled into bed with us some time in the middle of the night, and she thinks that her little 2 year old body should own the whole bed!  She sleeps on my head, on my pillow, on my stomach.  So much for her staying in her bed.  I really need to work on that after my upcoming road trips, because I'm pretty much out of town every weekend for the foreseeable future, and Darling Daughter will be Hubby's child.  Hopefully without me here, he can whip her into shape (not literally, because we rarely spank!). 

So this mornind I was laying in bed wondering what I was going to blog about.  I don't really have many more weight loss tips up my sleeves.  Yesterday, I randomly took photos of my breakfast and snacks to show you what healthy, clean eating looks like, so here they are:

 

For breakfast, I had a bowl of Oats with fresh cut up strawberries.  I buy the regular Old Fashioned Oats, and for sweetness I add honey.  Honey is a natural sugar, so your body processes it better than pure white sugar.  I cook my oatmeal with 2% milk for the calcium.  This is so tasty.  Then, I added a boiled egg for some protein to tide me over.  I was seriously stuffed after I ate this.  Oatmeal expands in your stomach, and it keeps you full for a longer time in the morning and less likely to snack. 

 

 

 

Snacking is not bad though if you're aware of what you're putting in your mouth.  Here are the snacks I brought to work yesterday.  If I have these, then I'm way less likely to go to that EVIL vending junk machine that is in our hallway!  My snacks consists of a bag of pistachios, an orange, a banana, and a homemade trail mix.  The trail mix will last me a few days, as that portion size is way too big to eat in one day.  It consists of mixed nuts, raisins, Chex mix, and a few chocolate and peanut butter chips.  The homemade trail mix is really my favorite snack.  I bring it to work almost every day. Nuts provide you protein and energy throughout the day, and they also make you less hungry. 

 

Now that you have some visual aids, here are a few tips for this week:

• Stay Consistent: If you've already committed to exercising and reducing your food intake, stay consistent.  This doesn't mean you can't splurge, but make the conscious decision to live your life in a healthy way every day. 
 
• Prepare, Prepare, Prepare: Planning out your meals and your snacks helps you avoid eating catastrophes.  Having pre-packaged snacks at work might help you avoid eating something that you shouldn't.  Having a plan is always a good thing!
 
• Incorporate Exercise in Your Life: Exercise can be so fun!  That's why I go to Taekwondo, because I enjoy doing it so much, and I also get the added benefit that it's good for me.  I went to a Latin Craze class earlier this week, which I loved but alas I have no more time or money in my life to join yet another exercise group!  You'll find once you incorporate exercise in your life, you'll miss it when you don't do it.  Exercise is great for your mental health too.
 
• Never Give Up: If you give up, you'll never know what you're capable of achieving! I've achieved so many things this year I never thought I could do, because I never gave up.  I can ran 3 miles now, where six months ago I couldn't even run 1!  I can do it, because I stuck to it. I trusted myself, I egged myself on, and I stopped the negative feed in my head, tuning only in to the positive. You can do it too!

 



Weight Loss Tips #7: Plan Ahead

Plan Ahead

It's that crazy time of year again: Holiday Season.  Time to go to tons of Christmas parties, drink and eat and be merry to your heart's content.  Hubby and I have about twenty Christmas parties to attend in the next few weeks...OK, not really, just 6! 

With regular life it can be hard to make good food decisions on limited time.  With Christmas thrown in, a couple of kids, gymnastics competitions...it makes it nearly impossible!  That's why it's so important to plan ahead when making your food and exercise commitments for a week.  This is also one reason I do the Goals post weekly, because it helps give me a guide to follow when life gets crazy (as it always does!).

• Plan Weekly Meals: Pick a day, and sit down and plan your meals for the week.  If you plan your meals, and you stick to this plan then you're less likely to make poor choices or just raid the fridge for fatty comfort foods when it's meal time! Also, eat sitting down with your family.  This encourages conversation, which makes you eat more slowly.  Eating slowly helps you not to overeat.

• Write a List: Before you go grocery shopping, write a list.  Stick to this list.  If you want to pick up some extra fruits and veggies, have at it, but stick to your list that has all the ingredients for your planned meals (above) and your healthy snacks.  This not only will help you in the food department, but it will help you budget too.

• Plan Your Lunches: If you're a working mother like me, then you're tempted with going out to lunch every day and getting chips and salsa and cheese dip (Mexican food is my biggest temptation!).  If you pack your lunch every day, then you're less likely to go out and make poor decisions.  Pack healthy foods and also prepare snacks too (like I wrote about here). 

• Traveling: This weekend, we went up to Pelham for Son Number One's first gymnastics' meet (a blog post will be coming soon about this!).  Hubby and I packed sandwiches and snacks, so we would not be tempted to stop and buy lunch or make poor choices when we reached the tournament. 

Plan Your Exercise for the Week: If you schedule your exercise in, then you are more likely to achieve your exercise goals, as well. Set an appointment on your smart phone to exercise, and ask it to remind you.  If you have the visual reminder, then you are more likely to put on your running shoes and go!  Every week, Hubby and I sit down on Sunday and discuss what days I'm going to Taekwondo, and what days he's going to cycle.  This way, I know on my off TKD days that I need to don my running shoes. 

Having a plan makes you feel like you have a commitment, and committing to be a healthier person for yourself and your family is one of the most important goals in life.  Living a healthy lifestyle will influence those around you to live a healthier lifestyle, including your children.  Make a change for the better today!

Weight Loss Tips #5: Snacking

Snacking

Oh snacking.  The downfall of many people.  Grabbing a cookie off a co-worker's desk mid-day and shoving it in you mouth, not even thinking about the way it taste.  Eating just to eat. 

I love snacking.  I am a huge snacker.  I crave chocolate and salty things just like everyone else.  The fat and preservatives and other junk in potato chips and candy bars and other not-so-good for you foods seems to make you crave them even more. 

In general, I allow myself to snack a little bit, but I try to give myself healthy alternatives.  Here are a few tips on how to snack healthily, so not to ruin your weight loss plan/lifestyle change.

• Prepare For Your Day: This is so important.  You may think you can get through the day without a snack, but if you go off to work and there are other goodies laying around you may be tempted to eat them.  I pre-portion snacks before I leave for work.  I put homemade trail mix in a baggie, and I bring fruit to snack on. The trail mix has a few chocolate chips, to curb my sweet-tooth craving for the day, and hopefully to help me not buy that candy bar at the machine!

• Snack When You're Hungry: Seems like a no-brainer right?  But as Americans, we stick a lot of food into our mouths mindlessly.  Don't bored eat.  Don't eat while doing something else.  If you really need a snack, stop what you're doing, SIT DOWN and concentrate on eating the healthy snack you have on hand.  This will help you to feel satisfied after you've eaten your snack and make you less likely to feel unsatisfied or in need of more.

• Don't Snack All Day: When I was first starting out, I realized I had a major problem with late-night snacking.  Sitting in front of the TV in a daze and stuffing my face.  Most of the time when people snack this way, they aren't even hungry.  They just need something to do while they're being lazy, so they put food in their mouth.  So when you first start making your lifestyle change, cut out one snack that you know you don't need.  For me, I cut out late night snacking, and then I allowed myself to have a 10 AM snack and a 3 PM snack.

• Let Yourself Splurge Sometimes: It is okay to let yourself splurge sometimes, and honestly if you don't then you won't stick with it for a lifetime. I generally let myself have a Coke or Diet Coke once a month, something that I have completely cut out.  I also let myself have a candy bar or a bag of chips or some no-no on my list about once a week.  I know that by eating it I'm not going to sabotage myself, because in general I'm going to stick with the other changes that I've made to get as far as I have.

• Snack After You Exercise: After I exercise I always want three things: water, a shower, and protein or dairy.  I almost always allow myself to have a small healthy snack after I exercise.  I generally crave a cheese stick or yogurt or pepperoni, something that sticks to my sides.  If you feel hungry after you exercise, allow yourself to have a small healthy snack.  After all, everything in moderation is really okay.  Just don't overdo it and sabotage the calories you just worked off.  For example, don't go for a double cheeseburger.  Choose a better alternative!

• Stay Away from Vending Machines: Nothing good comes out of that little hole on the bottom.  Seriously.  Almost everything in a vending machine is bad for you.  Plus, you can save your money by buying healthy alternatives at the grocery store and portioning them out to yourself during the week!

Here are a few ideas for healthy snacks for yourself and your family:

• Cheese Sticks
• Fruit
• Veggies (Raw broccoli, carrots, etc)
• Nuts, any type
• Homemade Trail Mix
• Yogurt
• Edamame
• All Natural Granola Bars
• Popcorn (without butter)
• Protein (lean meats)

Check Out Last Week's Edition: Portion Size