We all know about stress and the terrible things it can do to us. But do you really? Do you really think about how stress not only affects your mood but also your food choices? I know it affects mine, but I have the power to not let it and so do you.
There are so many different kinds of stress and so many things that affect our stress levels. We all have a breaking point and what we do when we reach that breaking point is what matters. Do you turn to food? Do you stop working out? Do you get so consumed in whatever is causing your stress that you forget to take time to plan how you are going to get through it? Trust me, I know about stress, and I know that right now, at this very moment and over the last couple of days I have TONS of excuses as to why I could just eat terribly and not workout. But I am not going to let that happen, I have the power to make that decision. We can't control a lot of things in our lives, things are going to happen to us, it is how we choose to respond to them that either makes you successful and happy or just makes you more miserable. I know that if I had been making bad food choices over the past few days my body would be handling the stress even worse. I choose what I put in my mouth, that is entirely up to me, so at least I can control something right now!
I spent 25 hours in the car and I could have just eaten drive through food and gas station packaged snack foods, but instead I chose to spend 30 minutes before leaving to pack healthy snacks and healthy foods for myself and my kids. I did allow us to go through one drive-thru fast food restaurant, but I did not order anything for me, and I was so proud of myself! I packed lots of fresh veggies, hummus, grilled chicken wraps (whole wheat tortilla, laughing cow herb cheese and spring greens), ham and cheese wraps for the kiddos, apples, bananas, strawberries, rice crackers and pretzels. We all survived on these foods for the entire 25 hour car ride, and that one stop through a drive-thru. I chose to teach my kids that despite what life throws at us, we still control our choices for food and what we put in our body. We feel better when we eat well, and our body is better able to cope with stress when it has good, pure, healthy fuel.
I love stress eating, I do it well, and that is why I have always struggled with my weight. But I am not going to let it control me any longer. I am making good choices, despite the circumstances, and even when at restaurants and at other's homes, I am making good choices. I have decided that once and for all I am going to remember at all times to stay in control of what goes in my mouth. Even around the holidays! Don't get me wrong I am going to have dessert one of these next couple of days, but I am going to have dessert once, not every day and not more than once a day. We do not NEED treats every day, we don't need them more than once in awhile, and that is simply not more than once a week. Remember the idea of eating in moderation. Moderation does not mean daily, it does not even usually mean 4 times a week. Obviously it depends on what food we are talking about, but in regards to desserts or unhealthy foods, once in awhile is 2-4 times a month!
Christmas time is a stressful time of year, and that is not what it is supposed to be about. So remember to sit back and enjoy it. Remember that no matter what stresses are thrown at you that you cannot control, you surely can control how you respond to it. If you are someone that typically turns to food for your comfort or stress relief, then find something else! Read, take a bath, read to your kids, do something creative, play a game, find some other way to take your mind off of those things you cannot control and divert your attention away from the pantry and the refrigerator. Remember that while we cannot control what life throws at us, no matter how awful and stressful it is, YOU DO CONTROL WHAT YOU PUT IN YOUR MOUTH! Make good choices, keep your body fueled with healthy and whole foods and your body will respond to all of life's stresses so much better.
This post was more of a lecture for myself right now, but I hope that you found something applicable to your life. I also hope that each and every one of you has a blessed Christmas.
Tuesday, December 24, 2013
Wednesday, December 18, 2013
What do you do with your 168?
There are 168 hours in a week, what do you do with them? Ok, so take sleep out of the equation and you are left with around 112 waking hours. That is a lot of time! Your body only asks you for 6 of those hours to pay attention to it, to strengthen it, to challenge it, to use it and to relax it. SIX hours out of 112, that's less than 6% of the total waking time that you have in a week. So why does everyone keep saying they don't have the time, they are too busy, they can't this and they can't that... it is RIDICULOUS!
6 hours in a week, and actually you don't even need to dedicate that much. If you dedicate 30-40 minutes a day, 5 times a week that would be FABULOUS. Out of 112 hours if you really can't give yourself 4-6 hours of time then you need to evaluate your goals and your lifestyle. It's not a can't... it's a WON'T. There is a big difference. When you put it into perspective like this and look at how much time you really have and then portion that time into the things that you do, you will find that you have more time available than you think. This is where planning comes in. Plan your day, plan your week, plan your workout into that week. Out of 112 hours, take 50 out for those of you that have full times jobs and commute time. That still leaves 62 hours.... that's A LOT!
It all comes back to making excuses. Especially around the holidays. Everyone can find an excuse as to why they "can't" get a workout in, why they don't prioritize it, why they are too busy. But I will tell you that it is those people that continually make excuses that will NEVER reach their goals, NEVER. Do you really want to be one of those people? Take a good hard look at yourself, are you one of those people? If you are, then YOU are the only one that can make the decision to stop that cycle. Stop making excuses, start planning your 168 hours that you have every week and stick to it. Use a calendar, put your workout on there with a reminder alarm and treat that appointment as important as you would an appointment with your boss or your dream job interview. Your body, your health and your sanity should be way more important than those things.
So it comes down to what are you going to do with your 168 this week?
6 hours in a week, and actually you don't even need to dedicate that much. If you dedicate 30-40 minutes a day, 5 times a week that would be FABULOUS. Out of 112 hours if you really can't give yourself 4-6 hours of time then you need to evaluate your goals and your lifestyle. It's not a can't... it's a WON'T. There is a big difference. When you put it into perspective like this and look at how much time you really have and then portion that time into the things that you do, you will find that you have more time available than you think. This is where planning comes in. Plan your day, plan your week, plan your workout into that week. Out of 112 hours, take 50 out for those of you that have full times jobs and commute time. That still leaves 62 hours.... that's A LOT!
It all comes back to making excuses. Especially around the holidays. Everyone can find an excuse as to why they "can't" get a workout in, why they don't prioritize it, why they are too busy. But I will tell you that it is those people that continually make excuses that will NEVER reach their goals, NEVER. Do you really want to be one of those people? Take a good hard look at yourself, are you one of those people? If you are, then YOU are the only one that can make the decision to stop that cycle. Stop making excuses, start planning your 168 hours that you have every week and stick to it. Use a calendar, put your workout on there with a reminder alarm and treat that appointment as important as you would an appointment with your boss or your dream job interview. Your body, your health and your sanity should be way more important than those things.
So it comes down to what are you going to do with your 168 this week?
Monday, November 25, 2013
Simplify! Less really is more!
I cannot stand picking up a magazine that advertises on the front "Easy Healthy Dinners in 20 minutes" and you go to the recipes and all of the meals are extremely weird and have about 20 ingredients in them. Stuff I would NEVER make and don't even know where to buy most of the ingredients! That isn't "EASY" to me. I want easy, simple, few ingredients meals that are quick to make. It really is simple if you just go back to the basics.
Meals should be simple and easy to make, especially for those of us with families and busy schedules. I like to start with my protein, whether that is chicken, fish, pork or beef and just add a few things to it. Here is my favorite Chicken recipe... Put chicken breasts in a pan (no oil needed) on medium heat and let them cook about 8 minutes, covered. They will release from the pan when they are cooked on that side. Turn them over and cook another 5-8 minutes depending on how thick they are. Add 1 T. Butter, 1 T Olive Oil, 2 T. Honey, 1/4 cup Fresh Squeezed Lemon Juice, 2 T capers. That's it! You have a tangy wonderful healthy chicken picatta! I usually serve this with brown rice or quinoa and green beans. It is a family favorite around here.
Did you notice the ingredients? Simple and not a lot of stuff. It seems to me that the less ingredients that are in something, the better it tastes. REAL food tastes better than packaged and preservative loaded foods. You can make so many easy dinners with just a few things, even just adding seasoning to your fish is a great healthy meal. So back up, stop trying to make things complicated and do more with LESS!!
The same is true for foods you buy. In an ideal world we wouldn't eat any packaged food, but that isn't realistic for most families. So start to look at the packaged foods you buy and look at the ingredients. You will notice that foods that have less ingredients are not only better for you, but they really do taste better. Cereal is a big one. I buy all of our cereal in the organic/natural foods section. Look at the ingredients some time! It will shock you that most cereals you probably buy your kids you can't even understand 75% of what is in there. Why are you feeding them that junk? There are so many brands of great cereals that have wonderful ingredients. This is true for almost all packaged foods. So if you are going to each something packaged, look at what is in it and make a better choice. Look at the ingredients and if you can't understand or don't know what something is on the list then you shouldn't eat it.
Simplify. Eat basic and healthy foods from the outside of the grocery store. Don't make meals or dinner complicated: steam some veggies, season some fish or meat and make a salad. Less ingredients, easier to make, and better tasting too. Start to really look at what you eat, look at the ingredients and remember that LESS INGREDIENTS IS BETTER!
Meals should be simple and easy to make, especially for those of us with families and busy schedules. I like to start with my protein, whether that is chicken, fish, pork or beef and just add a few things to it. Here is my favorite Chicken recipe... Put chicken breasts in a pan (no oil needed) on medium heat and let them cook about 8 minutes, covered. They will release from the pan when they are cooked on that side. Turn them over and cook another 5-8 minutes depending on how thick they are. Add 1 T. Butter, 1 T Olive Oil, 2 T. Honey, 1/4 cup Fresh Squeezed Lemon Juice, 2 T capers. That's it! You have a tangy wonderful healthy chicken picatta! I usually serve this with brown rice or quinoa and green beans. It is a family favorite around here.
Did you notice the ingredients? Simple and not a lot of stuff. It seems to me that the less ingredients that are in something, the better it tastes. REAL food tastes better than packaged and preservative loaded foods. You can make so many easy dinners with just a few things, even just adding seasoning to your fish is a great healthy meal. So back up, stop trying to make things complicated and do more with LESS!!
The same is true for foods you buy. In an ideal world we wouldn't eat any packaged food, but that isn't realistic for most families. So start to look at the packaged foods you buy and look at the ingredients. You will notice that foods that have less ingredients are not only better for you, but they really do taste better. Cereal is a big one. I buy all of our cereal in the organic/natural foods section. Look at the ingredients some time! It will shock you that most cereals you probably buy your kids you can't even understand 75% of what is in there. Why are you feeding them that junk? There are so many brands of great cereals that have wonderful ingredients. This is true for almost all packaged foods. So if you are going to each something packaged, look at what is in it and make a better choice. Look at the ingredients and if you can't understand or don't know what something is on the list then you shouldn't eat it.
Simplify. Eat basic and healthy foods from the outside of the grocery store. Don't make meals or dinner complicated: steam some veggies, season some fish or meat and make a salad. Less ingredients, easier to make, and better tasting too. Start to really look at what you eat, look at the ingredients and remember that LESS INGREDIENTS IS BETTER!
Wednesday, November 13, 2013
Eat when you are NOT hungry!
I know that sounds crazy, but I truly mean it. Eat when you are NOT hungry! It is contrary to what most diet programs tell you, and think about that, most diets FAIL! So are you going to listen to that advice? You shouldn't. If you wait to eat until your body tells you it is hungry, guess what? You are too late. Your blood sugar has already dropped, your body has needed food for a long time because the signal has already gotten from your stomach through your nervous system and into your brain. Now your brain has processed it and now you realize you have been hungry for awhile. So what happens then? Typically when we already have hunger pains we are past the point of making good choices. It also takes a long time for your body to signal that you have eaten and to turn off the signal in your brain telling you it is hungry, typically 15-20 minutes after you eat your body finally tells the brain to stop thinking it is hungry. By then you have probably over eaten or eaten something that isn't healthy because it was convenient and you start feeling guilty. Make sense? I hope so! So believe me if you start eating when you are NOT hungry you will increase your metabolism and burn through those fat reserves. So how do you do this?
Set a timer if you have to. Eat within 30 minutes of waking up. If you don't typically eat breakfast, start. Coffee is not breakfast either! Studies have proven that people who eat a healthy small breakfast either lose weight faster or are more successful at keeping weight off. This first meal of the day revs up your metabolism and jump starts your body to start burning energy. Every meal you eat should be smaller than you would typically think, smaller than we are trained to think we need. So every 2 hours set a timer and eat something small, even if you are not hungry. Here is a sample of what I eat:
7:30am Egg white omelet with veggies (I cut the veggies on the weekend so this only takes about 3 minutes to make)
9:30am Banana or other fruit
11:30am Apple and Light Baby Bell Cheese round
1:30pm Salad with turkey and light dressing
3:30pm Orange or other fruit
5:00pm Raw veggies or small salad while I am preparing dinner
6:30pm Grilled chicken, steamed veggies, small sweet potato
8:30pm Rice crackers and garlic herb laughing cow cheese
This entire day of all of that food is around 1100 calories. This is typically what I eat if I am trying to lose weight. If I am in maintenance mode then I add in about 400 more calories of good fat foods, like nuts, avocados, etc.
When your body knows it is going to be fed frequently, it doesn't go into starvation mode, it does the opposite. It truly become a fat burning machine. You will find that your portions are automatically smaller, you make better choices and your body learns how to metabolize your food and burn through your fat stores much more efficiently.
Remember that you are not on a diet, you are creating a lifestyle. You need to train your body to learn how to burn through the food you eat to trigger it to get hungry every 2-3 hours so that you increase your metabolism. Start to eat every 2-3 hours even when you are not hungry. Eat less, drink more water, and you won't get STARVING. Your body will start to tell you when it has been about 2.5 hours, you will feel that tiny little first twinge of hunger and that is what you want! That means you have trained your body to increase it's metabolism and burn more calories. You will learn to recognize those first signs of hunger before the blood sugar really drops and before they get worse. You will learn to eat then and your body will be telling you it is time. Train your body and listen to it! This may take 2-3 weeks... so start now. Eat every 2-3 hours when you are not hungry and train your body to be a fat burning machine!!!
Try it and let me know how it goes for you. I promise that if you give this a try for 3-4 weeks it will become a habit and you will be thrilled with how satisfied you feel. It is so great to never feel those hunger pains and know that my body is burning through fat because I taught it how to do that. YOU CAN TOO!!!
Set a timer if you have to. Eat within 30 minutes of waking up. If you don't typically eat breakfast, start. Coffee is not breakfast either! Studies have proven that people who eat a healthy small breakfast either lose weight faster or are more successful at keeping weight off. This first meal of the day revs up your metabolism and jump starts your body to start burning energy. Every meal you eat should be smaller than you would typically think, smaller than we are trained to think we need. So every 2 hours set a timer and eat something small, even if you are not hungry. Here is a sample of what I eat:
7:30am Egg white omelet with veggies (I cut the veggies on the weekend so this only takes about 3 minutes to make)
9:30am Banana or other fruit
11:30am Apple and Light Baby Bell Cheese round
1:30pm Salad with turkey and light dressing
3:30pm Orange or other fruit
5:00pm Raw veggies or small salad while I am preparing dinner
6:30pm Grilled chicken, steamed veggies, small sweet potato
8:30pm Rice crackers and garlic herb laughing cow cheese
This entire day of all of that food is around 1100 calories. This is typically what I eat if I am trying to lose weight. If I am in maintenance mode then I add in about 400 more calories of good fat foods, like nuts, avocados, etc.
When your body knows it is going to be fed frequently, it doesn't go into starvation mode, it does the opposite. It truly become a fat burning machine. You will find that your portions are automatically smaller, you make better choices and your body learns how to metabolize your food and burn through your fat stores much more efficiently.
Remember that you are not on a diet, you are creating a lifestyle. You need to train your body to learn how to burn through the food you eat to trigger it to get hungry every 2-3 hours so that you increase your metabolism. Start to eat every 2-3 hours even when you are not hungry. Eat less, drink more water, and you won't get STARVING. Your body will start to tell you when it has been about 2.5 hours, you will feel that tiny little first twinge of hunger and that is what you want! That means you have trained your body to increase it's metabolism and burn more calories. You will learn to recognize those first signs of hunger before the blood sugar really drops and before they get worse. You will learn to eat then and your body will be telling you it is time. Train your body and listen to it! This may take 2-3 weeks... so start now. Eat every 2-3 hours when you are not hungry and train your body to be a fat burning machine!!!
Try it and let me know how it goes for you. I promise that if you give this a try for 3-4 weeks it will become a habit and you will be thrilled with how satisfied you feel. It is so great to never feel those hunger pains and know that my body is burning through fat because I taught it how to do that. YOU CAN TOO!!!
Tuesday, October 29, 2013
Excuses, Excuses, Excuses....
Life is so busy. There is so much to do and so little time. We let so many things crowd our day and all of a sudden the day is over and we wonder where the time went. If you don't know what I am talking about then you are blessed with time to sit and read or watch TV, I envy that. Whichever your lifestyle is, whether it is busy and time is flying by, or it is relaxed and you already have all the time in the world, we all make excuses as to why we don't take care of ourselves. So many excuses as to why you can't eat healthy or why you can't take time to exercise... it's the "can't" that is getting in the way. So get that word out of your vocabulary. Start a "can't" jar and put a dollar in whenever you make an excuse or say "can't" regarding health, fitness and wellness. Then use that money on something good for you, something healthy like fitness classes, massage or whatever you need to do to get yourself motivated to start new!
No more will you say: "I don't have one more minute in the day." "I am too tired to fit in exercise." "I don't know how to cook healthy." "It is too expensive to eat healthy." "I don't have time to cook." "I can't workout because it is too hard." "I can't afford to workout." And so on and so on.
We can make all the excuses we want, but that isn't going to change anything. Nothing is going to change unless you make a commitment to make the change yourself. There are always going to be things that get in your way, is is HOW YOU CHOOSE TO HANDLE THOSE OBSTACLES that either make you successful or not. I cannot make you eat healthy, I cannot make you workout, but I can help give you motivation to do it. I can be your ally, your coach, your biggest fan, if you let me. But you have the do the work. IF YOU DON'T DO THE WORK, HOW CAN YOU GET THE RESULTS? Making excuses will never get you results, it just keeps you where you are or even drags you down a more unhealthy path. Stop making excuses, stop blaming genetics, or time, or money, or whatever your excuse is and get up and make a change in your life. Only you have the power to do that, only YOU. But you have to change your thinking from "I think I can..." and "I hope I will lose weight..." and "I wish I was..." You have to get rid of that kind of thinking! People who are successful at things don't think like that. You need to start telling yourself and BELIEVING that YOU CAN! YOU WILL! You can lose weight, you can get in shape, you can have a healthy lifestyle, you can even enjoy all of that if you let yourself. YOU are the only thing getting in the way, nothing else, YOU. Stop being your own obstacle and start believing in yourself. Believe that you can and DO IT. Stop making excuses, stop blaming things in your life, you have the beautiful gift of FREE WILL, the free will to make your own choices for yourself, for you body, for your healthy, for your life. Make the choice, do the work and you will get the results, you will LOVE the results!
Start thinking, "I will go to that exercise class." and then actually do it! Start thinking, "I will make healthier food choices." and then do it! If you need to learn about how to eat right, start seeking out information, there is so much information out there and tons of it is online and free. You can exercise at home for free, there are great exercise videos on youtube. Being healthy and fit does not have to be expensive at all. Make the choice to change your lifestyle and to learn and empower yourself to be healthy, YOU CAN DO IT. But you have to believe you can, and you have to make the time. Time never just falls in your lap saying, "Here I am now use me!" You have to set your priorities and MAKE THE TIME to exercise, MAKE THE TIME to prepare healthy meals ahead of time, MAKE THE TIME to learn about how to be healthier. Set your mind to it and get it done!
Do not accept excuses from yourself, empower yourself and believe you can do it and guess what? YOU WILL SUCCEED. If you DO THE WORK, you will GET THE RESULTS. NO EXCUSES ALLOWED!
No more will you say: "I don't have one more minute in the day." "I am too tired to fit in exercise." "I don't know how to cook healthy." "It is too expensive to eat healthy." "I don't have time to cook." "I can't workout because it is too hard." "I can't afford to workout." And so on and so on.
We can make all the excuses we want, but that isn't going to change anything. Nothing is going to change unless you make a commitment to make the change yourself. There are always going to be things that get in your way, is is HOW YOU CHOOSE TO HANDLE THOSE OBSTACLES that either make you successful or not. I cannot make you eat healthy, I cannot make you workout, but I can help give you motivation to do it. I can be your ally, your coach, your biggest fan, if you let me. But you have the do the work. IF YOU DON'T DO THE WORK, HOW CAN YOU GET THE RESULTS? Making excuses will never get you results, it just keeps you where you are or even drags you down a more unhealthy path. Stop making excuses, stop blaming genetics, or time, or money, or whatever your excuse is and get up and make a change in your life. Only you have the power to do that, only YOU. But you have to change your thinking from "I think I can..." and "I hope I will lose weight..." and "I wish I was..." You have to get rid of that kind of thinking! People who are successful at things don't think like that. You need to start telling yourself and BELIEVING that YOU CAN! YOU WILL! You can lose weight, you can get in shape, you can have a healthy lifestyle, you can even enjoy all of that if you let yourself. YOU are the only thing getting in the way, nothing else, YOU. Stop being your own obstacle and start believing in yourself. Believe that you can and DO IT. Stop making excuses, stop blaming things in your life, you have the beautiful gift of FREE WILL, the free will to make your own choices for yourself, for you body, for your healthy, for your life. Make the choice, do the work and you will get the results, you will LOVE the results!
Start thinking, "I will go to that exercise class." and then actually do it! Start thinking, "I will make healthier food choices." and then do it! If you need to learn about how to eat right, start seeking out information, there is so much information out there and tons of it is online and free. You can exercise at home for free, there are great exercise videos on youtube. Being healthy and fit does not have to be expensive at all. Make the choice to change your lifestyle and to learn and empower yourself to be healthy, YOU CAN DO IT. But you have to believe you can, and you have to make the time. Time never just falls in your lap saying, "Here I am now use me!" You have to set your priorities and MAKE THE TIME to exercise, MAKE THE TIME to prepare healthy meals ahead of time, MAKE THE TIME to learn about how to be healthier. Set your mind to it and get it done!
Do not accept excuses from yourself, empower yourself and believe you can do it and guess what? YOU WILL SUCCEED. If you DO THE WORK, you will GET THE RESULTS. NO EXCUSES ALLOWED!
Friday, September 27, 2013
What does HEALTHY FOOD mean?
I was sitting in a crowded area a couple of months ago, listening in on a conversation between two moms about eating healthy. Both of these moms are drastically overweight, and I think it is GREAT that they were having this talk about how to start eating healthier. What wasn't great was what their idea of healthy food is, it was shocking.
They were talking about packing food to go to the beach and how they used to just eat the concessions food but now they decided to stop eating that "junk food" and pack ahead of time. GREAT! However, they went on to talk about what they packed. They said they were bringing lunchables, chex mix and fruit snacks... ARE YOU KIDDING ME???? Everything they mentioned is prepared packaged food loaded with preservatives, sodium and lacking nutrition. Let's start with the lunchables, this is not healthy and if you give these to yourself or your children please stop. Look at the ingredients, can you even understand half of it? The lunch meat is loaded with preservatives and nitrates, horrible for you. They have well over an entire day's allotment of sodium. Chex Mix not sure why I have to clarify that this is not healthy, but I will. Look at the ingredients, may of it you can't even pronounce which typically means it is not good for you. Again, the sodium content is unbelievably high. Sodium can lead to so many health problems and it also has a lot to do with why even children are so overweight. I will leave the detailed sodium discussion for another blog. Now to the fruit snacks, just because it has the word "fruit" does NOT make it healthy! Again, look at the ingredients and you will see words that are unrecognizable and corn syrup and food coloring, none of which is good for you at all.
So how do you eat healthy when you are on the go. This isn't just about packing for the beach, it's about packing food when you are out and about and how to make healthy choices for you and your family. Sure it is easier and quicker to grab something that is already packaged, but it is not the healthy choice. You first need to make sure you set aside a little extra time to prepare some food to bring. It doesn't have to take long, at the most 10 minutes. We take 10 minutes to stop and put gas in our car, so take 10 minutes to put good fuel in your body too. Grab a cooler and put fresh fruit in it. It takes as long to grab an apple or an orange as it does to grab a bag of chex mix, so no excuses there. Carrots, celery, broccoli, cauliflower and grape tomatoes are another great snack to put in your cooler. Peel your carrots, cut up your vegetables the day you buy them and have them ready to grab in your refrigerator. I do this once a week and it makes my entire week so much easier to stay on track. If you must have a dip with them buy a ranch from the healthy foods section and look at the ingredients! Or make one with plain greek yogurt and seasonings like dill and garlic. Did you know that most mainstream ranch dressings have MSG in them??? So now some of you are probably saying, well I don't like fruit or I don't like raw vegetables... well I don't love them either but I know my body needs them so I eat them. There are so many to choose from, I am sure that you can find some that you will eat and figure out the best way that works for you to eat them. I had to start by flash steaming my veggies and then cooling them - especially the broccoli and cauliflower. I don't love them raw, but I like them slightly cooked and even chilled after cooking them. Now I can finally eat them raw. I also like to cut up a ton of vegetables and marinate them in a light balsamic vinaigrette or a light italian dressing. You can make your own with a little olive oil, balsamic vinegar, garlic and italian seasoning or buy one that has good ingredients. Poor it on your veggies, shake it up and let them soak in it in the fridge.
Basically keep a small cooler handy in your kitchen to load in your healthy food options to bring with you when you are out and about. If you are thinking that your kids won't eat fruit and vegetables as a snack... I bet they will if that is all you have. They are not going to let themselves starve and if you stand your ground your children will also learn to like these foods the more they eat them. I also put Thousand Hills beef sticks in my cooler and Organic Cheese Sticks, my kids love these. Hard boiled eggs are another easy on-the-go snack - just try not to load it with salt and if you do use salt, use sea salt! You need less because sea salt is natural and has so much more flavor in smaller amounts. My rule is that my kids have to eat a fruit or a vegetable before having anything else. They are learning to like more and more veggies by doing this! I also will bake or grill chicken breasts and then slice them into strips and keep it in the fridge. It is another great thing to grab and snack on. Make some lettuce wraps using a large leaf lettuce, some of that chicken and chopped up tomatoes and cucumbers... you can add some hummus or garlic laughing cow cheese. Wrap it up in plastic wrap. Make them ahead of time and keep them in your fridge to grab when you need it, they will hold up for a few days prepared in advance.
We are all busy and can make all the excuses in the world as to why it is easier to grab a packaged food instead of a healthier raw food choice. Stop making excuses and start prepping. Do things that will make it easier to grab healthy choices. If you are someone that thinks things like Lunchables and Baked Doritos are healthy snacks I encourage you to start educating yourself on nutrition and eating healthy. The first step is to try to avoid buying or eating things that come from a package. I know it is not realistic for some people to eliminate these foods entirely, but start to TRY. Start with what you snack on and make small changes, baby steps, to eating healthier snacks. Then start to tackle other meals. I will continually blog about some healthier choices for all of our meals and I hope that you can learn from them. I also hope that people will take some time to comment here on some healthy on-the-go snack choices they like for themselves or for their kids to give everyone more ideas. Now I am craving some marinated veggies, good thing I still have some prepped and ready to grab in my fridge!
They were talking about packing food to go to the beach and how they used to just eat the concessions food but now they decided to stop eating that "junk food" and pack ahead of time. GREAT! However, they went on to talk about what they packed. They said they were bringing lunchables, chex mix and fruit snacks... ARE YOU KIDDING ME???? Everything they mentioned is prepared packaged food loaded with preservatives, sodium and lacking nutrition. Let's start with the lunchables, this is not healthy and if you give these to yourself or your children please stop. Look at the ingredients, can you even understand half of it? The lunch meat is loaded with preservatives and nitrates, horrible for you. They have well over an entire day's allotment of sodium. Chex Mix not sure why I have to clarify that this is not healthy, but I will. Look at the ingredients, may of it you can't even pronounce which typically means it is not good for you. Again, the sodium content is unbelievably high. Sodium can lead to so many health problems and it also has a lot to do with why even children are so overweight. I will leave the detailed sodium discussion for another blog. Now to the fruit snacks, just because it has the word "fruit" does NOT make it healthy! Again, look at the ingredients and you will see words that are unrecognizable and corn syrup and food coloring, none of which is good for you at all.
So how do you eat healthy when you are on the go. This isn't just about packing for the beach, it's about packing food when you are out and about and how to make healthy choices for you and your family. Sure it is easier and quicker to grab something that is already packaged, but it is not the healthy choice. You first need to make sure you set aside a little extra time to prepare some food to bring. It doesn't have to take long, at the most 10 minutes. We take 10 minutes to stop and put gas in our car, so take 10 minutes to put good fuel in your body too. Grab a cooler and put fresh fruit in it. It takes as long to grab an apple or an orange as it does to grab a bag of chex mix, so no excuses there. Carrots, celery, broccoli, cauliflower and grape tomatoes are another great snack to put in your cooler. Peel your carrots, cut up your vegetables the day you buy them and have them ready to grab in your refrigerator. I do this once a week and it makes my entire week so much easier to stay on track. If you must have a dip with them buy a ranch from the healthy foods section and look at the ingredients! Or make one with plain greek yogurt and seasonings like dill and garlic. Did you know that most mainstream ranch dressings have MSG in them??? So now some of you are probably saying, well I don't like fruit or I don't like raw vegetables... well I don't love them either but I know my body needs them so I eat them. There are so many to choose from, I am sure that you can find some that you will eat and figure out the best way that works for you to eat them. I had to start by flash steaming my veggies and then cooling them - especially the broccoli and cauliflower. I don't love them raw, but I like them slightly cooked and even chilled after cooking them. Now I can finally eat them raw. I also like to cut up a ton of vegetables and marinate them in a light balsamic vinaigrette or a light italian dressing. You can make your own with a little olive oil, balsamic vinegar, garlic and italian seasoning or buy one that has good ingredients. Poor it on your veggies, shake it up and let them soak in it in the fridge.
Basically keep a small cooler handy in your kitchen to load in your healthy food options to bring with you when you are out and about. If you are thinking that your kids won't eat fruit and vegetables as a snack... I bet they will if that is all you have. They are not going to let themselves starve and if you stand your ground your children will also learn to like these foods the more they eat them. I also put Thousand Hills beef sticks in my cooler and Organic Cheese Sticks, my kids love these. Hard boiled eggs are another easy on-the-go snack - just try not to load it with salt and if you do use salt, use sea salt! You need less because sea salt is natural and has so much more flavor in smaller amounts. My rule is that my kids have to eat a fruit or a vegetable before having anything else. They are learning to like more and more veggies by doing this! I also will bake or grill chicken breasts and then slice them into strips and keep it in the fridge. It is another great thing to grab and snack on. Make some lettuce wraps using a large leaf lettuce, some of that chicken and chopped up tomatoes and cucumbers... you can add some hummus or garlic laughing cow cheese. Wrap it up in plastic wrap. Make them ahead of time and keep them in your fridge to grab when you need it, they will hold up for a few days prepared in advance.
We are all busy and can make all the excuses in the world as to why it is easier to grab a packaged food instead of a healthier raw food choice. Stop making excuses and start prepping. Do things that will make it easier to grab healthy choices. If you are someone that thinks things like Lunchables and Baked Doritos are healthy snacks I encourage you to start educating yourself on nutrition and eating healthy. The first step is to try to avoid buying or eating things that come from a package. I know it is not realistic for some people to eliminate these foods entirely, but start to TRY. Start with what you snack on and make small changes, baby steps, to eating healthier snacks. Then start to tackle other meals. I will continually blog about some healthier choices for all of our meals and I hope that you can learn from them. I also hope that people will take some time to comment here on some healthy on-the-go snack choices they like for themselves or for their kids to give everyone more ideas. Now I am craving some marinated veggies, good thing I still have some prepped and ready to grab in my fridge!
Friday, September 13, 2013
Schedule your workouts!
Do you find it hard to "find" time to workout? I know I do. There are so many things that need to get done first, four kids to take care of, so much housework and business work, and, and, and.... There is always something and there will always be something in the way of squeezing in a workout if you allow there to be. I definitely am not one of those people that wakes up and looks forward to working out. Don't get me wrong, when I do it I feel great and love it! It's the getting started part that I have a hard time with. Sounds funny coming from a personal trainer right??? I am just being real and honest, I make all the excuses in the world! So how do you overcome this?
Most people use some sort of calendar to keep track of their appointments in their lives. Most people also have it on their phone too, so it is always with them. I live by my calendar with all of the activities and appointments for a family of six people, it is busy. So use your calendar to schedule your workout time. Why should any other appointment be more important than the one to take care of your body? Schedule in a realistic time to workout, set the reminder on it and then stick to it. If your alarm reminder goes off for a meeting with your boss you wouldn't miss that... well your workout appointment is even more important. Look at it that way, put it on your calendar and stick to it. You will be so glad you did and it will help you "find" the time you were looking for to workout!!!
Most people use some sort of calendar to keep track of their appointments in their lives. Most people also have it on their phone too, so it is always with them. I live by my calendar with all of the activities and appointments for a family of six people, it is busy. So use your calendar to schedule your workout time. Why should any other appointment be more important than the one to take care of your body? Schedule in a realistic time to workout, set the reminder on it and then stick to it. If your alarm reminder goes off for a meeting with your boss you wouldn't miss that... well your workout appointment is even more important. Look at it that way, put it on your calendar and stick to it. You will be so glad you did and it will help you "find" the time you were looking for to workout!!!
Wednesday, September 11, 2013
Plan ahead for success!
Do you open your refrigerator door and stand there wondering what to eat? Or worse yet, stare into your pantry and wonder what you are in the mood to eat. You are hungry and you just can't decide what will curb your hunger or your craving. Oh man, that is so typical of what I used to do! Here is how to stop that cycle.
First, lets talk about what you are going to eat. Instead of looking around for something, have it planned out. Take some time to sit down and do a meal plan for the day. If you have time, do one for tomorrow as well. Better yet, take the time to do an entire week. On my meal plans I also create a grocery list off to the side that way I can go through my kitchen and cross off things I already have and there I have my grocery list for the week! Here is an example:
Today:
Breakfast: banana & vitamins (kids: pancakes and banana or berries)
AM Snack: hard boiled egg and apple
Lunch: Romaine Hummus wraps (3-4 romaine lettuce leaves, hummus spread down the middle, chopped tomatoes and cucumbers, roll it up and eat like a burrito) (kids: turkey wraps, grapes)
PM Snack: Marinated Vegetables (broccoli, cauliflower, carrots, zucchini, tomatoes, cucumbers tossed in a light balsamic vinaigrette)
Dinner: BBQ Pork Chops, Mashed Cauliflower and Peas (BBQ sauce: 1.5 T honey, 3 T organic ketchup, 1.5 T braggs aminos (soy sauce alt or use low sodium worcestershire, 1/4 tsp dried ginger, 1/2 tsp dried thyme, 1/2 tsp garlic powder, 1/8 tsp ground red pepper - adjust any of these ingredients to your liking - brush the sauce on your pork chops for a glaze)
Groceries:
Produce: bananas, berries, grapes, apples, romaine, tomatoes, cucumbers, broccoli, cauliflower (2 heads), carrots, zucchini, tomatoes, cucumbers, sweet peas (fresh or frozen)
Deli: hummus, turkey
Dairy: eggs
Natural Food/Organic Section: light balsamic vinaigrette, honey, organic ketchup, braggs aminos, dried ginger, dried thyme, garlic powder, ground red pepper
Meat: Pork Chops
Now do the same thing for the next day adding on to your grocery list. Pretty soon you will have an entire week completed. Then save it! Do it again and create another week of different items, and soon you will have 2 weeks of meal plans finished, complete with grocery lists! If you are watching your calories you can even add quantities, measurements and calories to make it really detailed. That will take more time, but remember, do it once and use it again and again!
The next step is the most important: PUT THE MEAL PLAN ON YOUR FRIDGE DOOR. Make it visible. Instead of looking in the fridge and potentially grabbing something to eat that you shouldn't, look at what is planned for that meal and only grab that. This works great for everyone in your family. I have adjustments on my meal plan for the kids. For example I didn't send them romaine wraps in their lunches, I sent them turkey wraps. They also had pancakes with their banana this morning, so on the meal plan I have 2 entries. The rest of the meal plan is the same. This avoids all of the "Mom can I have ...." Pretty soon I have four kids all wanting something different to eat for a snack or their meal! I don't think so. I simply tell them to look at the meal plan and that is what they get to have. Why shouldn't kids learn to eat healthy right from the start, I wish I had!
I challenge you to take five minutes today to plan out your meals for the rest of the day, or for tomorrow. Let me know what you create... leave me comments or email me: laura@fitnesswithlaura.com It would be fun to share healthy meal plan ideas with each other!!!
First, lets talk about what you are going to eat. Instead of looking around for something, have it planned out. Take some time to sit down and do a meal plan for the day. If you have time, do one for tomorrow as well. Better yet, take the time to do an entire week. On my meal plans I also create a grocery list off to the side that way I can go through my kitchen and cross off things I already have and there I have my grocery list for the week! Here is an example:
Today:
Breakfast: banana & vitamins (kids: pancakes and banana or berries)
AM Snack: hard boiled egg and apple
Lunch: Romaine Hummus wraps (3-4 romaine lettuce leaves, hummus spread down the middle, chopped tomatoes and cucumbers, roll it up and eat like a burrito) (kids: turkey wraps, grapes)
PM Snack: Marinated Vegetables (broccoli, cauliflower, carrots, zucchini, tomatoes, cucumbers tossed in a light balsamic vinaigrette)
Dinner: BBQ Pork Chops, Mashed Cauliflower and Peas (BBQ sauce: 1.5 T honey, 3 T organic ketchup, 1.5 T braggs aminos (soy sauce alt or use low sodium worcestershire, 1/4 tsp dried ginger, 1/2 tsp dried thyme, 1/2 tsp garlic powder, 1/8 tsp ground red pepper - adjust any of these ingredients to your liking - brush the sauce on your pork chops for a glaze)
Groceries:
Produce: bananas, berries, grapes, apples, romaine, tomatoes, cucumbers, broccoli, cauliflower (2 heads), carrots, zucchini, tomatoes, cucumbers, sweet peas (fresh or frozen)
Deli: hummus, turkey
Dairy: eggs
Natural Food/Organic Section: light balsamic vinaigrette, honey, organic ketchup, braggs aminos, dried ginger, dried thyme, garlic powder, ground red pepper
Meat: Pork Chops
Now do the same thing for the next day adding on to your grocery list. Pretty soon you will have an entire week completed. Then save it! Do it again and create another week of different items, and soon you will have 2 weeks of meal plans finished, complete with grocery lists! If you are watching your calories you can even add quantities, measurements and calories to make it really detailed. That will take more time, but remember, do it once and use it again and again!
The next step is the most important: PUT THE MEAL PLAN ON YOUR FRIDGE DOOR. Make it visible. Instead of looking in the fridge and potentially grabbing something to eat that you shouldn't, look at what is planned for that meal and only grab that. This works great for everyone in your family. I have adjustments on my meal plan for the kids. For example I didn't send them romaine wraps in their lunches, I sent them turkey wraps. They also had pancakes with their banana this morning, so on the meal plan I have 2 entries. The rest of the meal plan is the same. This avoids all of the "Mom can I have ...." Pretty soon I have four kids all wanting something different to eat for a snack or their meal! I don't think so. I simply tell them to look at the meal plan and that is what they get to have. Why shouldn't kids learn to eat healthy right from the start, I wish I had!
I challenge you to take five minutes today to plan out your meals for the rest of the day, or for tomorrow. Let me know what you create... leave me comments or email me: laura@fitnesswithlaura.com It would be fun to share healthy meal plan ideas with each other!!!
Monday, September 9, 2013
Back on track!
We all fall off the healthy band wagon, it's normal. So don't beat yourself up if you blew it over the weekend. That doesn't mean you should do that every weekend, it means you should learn from your mistakes so that you make better choices the next time. The weekends are the hardest time for me to stay on track; to continue eating healthy and watching my calorie intake. Without fail I do so well during the week and then the weekend comes, and we eat out more and have people over and the food choices are never what they should be and the extra calories in liquor doesn't help either. So, it is time for me to get back on track and I am going to blog about my journey. Hopefully you can learn something from me during this process.
I am not proud of my eating and drinking choices over the weekend. I did great on Friday, even had shrimp tacos when out to eat. Saturday I blew it. I was craving a burger so badly so I dug in. It wouldn't have been a big deal to have a burger if I hadn't eaten almost the entire thing! I should have had half of it and avoided the onion rings, but I gave in. And it really was good. To balance that I had planned to do a good hour or more of a workout and then it really would have been fine. But the workout didn't happen either. That is the bad part of the whole thing. Sunday I had planned to eat only the fruits and vegetables and a little chicken from the football party food, but I gave in to the other wonderful dips a little more than I should have. And some pizza too. Oooops. Again, could have worked out to balance it out, but I didn't. Not a very good example am I? Like I said, this weekend wasn't a good example of how to balance a healthy lifestyle and realistic choices. Now that it is over, it is in the past and next weekend I will not allow myself so many indulgences.
Back on track for me means that I will eat mainly from the outside of the grocery store, things that are not packaged. The entire outside of almost all grocery stores contains the produce section - fruits and vegetables, and the meat section. Did you ever notice that even the natural foods section is usually found around that area as well? Probably not a coincidence. Eating foods from these areas is the best way to give your body the fuel and nutrients that it needs. This is very similar to the Paleo lifestyle. Notice I said "lifestyle" not "diet". Look at the Paleo way of eating as a way to give your body the proper foods that it needs to be a fat-burning machine. Don't demonize foods that you "shouldn't eat" like grains, refined foods and pasteurized dairy, simply remember that our body wasn't build to properly digest and use these foods for fuel. You wouldn't put diesel gas in your car, so don't put diesel food into your body! Treat your body better than you would your car and it will run better and longer than you ever imagined. So what do people eat on the Paleo lifestyle... well this blog isn't intended to give you a full lesson on Paleo, there are so many great books and websites for that... but I can give you a quick overview and you can follow my menu plan over the next few weeks as I blog about it. Basically Paleo entails eating WHOLE FOODS that provide optimal nutrient rich fuel for your body (lean proteins, fruits and vegetables) and avoiding processed, refined, nutrient poor foods. I tend to do a modified version of Paleo because I allow myself some dairy and I also allow myself grapes in the version of wine. ;)
My meal plan today:
Breakfast: banana and tea
AM Snack: orange and hard boiled egg
Lunch: sauteed vegetables over fresh greens (squash, peppers, mushrooms, broccoli sauteed in a non-stick pan with a dash of olive oil, fresh garlic and a dash of balsamic vinegar all on top of a bed of spring greens) sometimes I add a wedge of garlic and herb laughing cow cheese
PM Snack: mashed cauliflower (steamed then mashed with a dash of pepper)
Dinner: Grilled chicken breast seasoned with fresh lemon juice and sea salt and pepper, garden salad, left over roasted vegetables from lunch
PM Snack: apple or other fruit
Give it a try and let me know how you do! You will be amazed at how eating these whole foods keep you feeling full longer. I honestly have to remember to eat, which is important to keep my metabolism going strong. Eat when you are NOT hungry, before you get that hungry sensation, and you will avoid pigging out. And remember to drink water before you put anything else into your mouth!
I am not proud of my eating and drinking choices over the weekend. I did great on Friday, even had shrimp tacos when out to eat. Saturday I blew it. I was craving a burger so badly so I dug in. It wouldn't have been a big deal to have a burger if I hadn't eaten almost the entire thing! I should have had half of it and avoided the onion rings, but I gave in. And it really was good. To balance that I had planned to do a good hour or more of a workout and then it really would have been fine. But the workout didn't happen either. That is the bad part of the whole thing. Sunday I had planned to eat only the fruits and vegetables and a little chicken from the football party food, but I gave in to the other wonderful dips a little more than I should have. And some pizza too. Oooops. Again, could have worked out to balance it out, but I didn't. Not a very good example am I? Like I said, this weekend wasn't a good example of how to balance a healthy lifestyle and realistic choices. Now that it is over, it is in the past and next weekend I will not allow myself so many indulgences.
Back on track for me means that I will eat mainly from the outside of the grocery store, things that are not packaged. The entire outside of almost all grocery stores contains the produce section - fruits and vegetables, and the meat section. Did you ever notice that even the natural foods section is usually found around that area as well? Probably not a coincidence. Eating foods from these areas is the best way to give your body the fuel and nutrients that it needs. This is very similar to the Paleo lifestyle. Notice I said "lifestyle" not "diet". Look at the Paleo way of eating as a way to give your body the proper foods that it needs to be a fat-burning machine. Don't demonize foods that you "shouldn't eat" like grains, refined foods and pasteurized dairy, simply remember that our body wasn't build to properly digest and use these foods for fuel. You wouldn't put diesel gas in your car, so don't put diesel food into your body! Treat your body better than you would your car and it will run better and longer than you ever imagined. So what do people eat on the Paleo lifestyle... well this blog isn't intended to give you a full lesson on Paleo, there are so many great books and websites for that... but I can give you a quick overview and you can follow my menu plan over the next few weeks as I blog about it. Basically Paleo entails eating WHOLE FOODS that provide optimal nutrient rich fuel for your body (lean proteins, fruits and vegetables) and avoiding processed, refined, nutrient poor foods. I tend to do a modified version of Paleo because I allow myself some dairy and I also allow myself grapes in the version of wine. ;)
My meal plan today:
Breakfast: banana and tea
AM Snack: orange and hard boiled egg
Lunch: sauteed vegetables over fresh greens (squash, peppers, mushrooms, broccoli sauteed in a non-stick pan with a dash of olive oil, fresh garlic and a dash of balsamic vinegar all on top of a bed of spring greens) sometimes I add a wedge of garlic and herb laughing cow cheese
PM Snack: mashed cauliflower (steamed then mashed with a dash of pepper)
Dinner: Grilled chicken breast seasoned with fresh lemon juice and sea salt and pepper, garden salad, left over roasted vegetables from lunch
PM Snack: apple or other fruit
Give it a try and let me know how you do! You will be amazed at how eating these whole foods keep you feeling full longer. I honestly have to remember to eat, which is important to keep my metabolism going strong. Eat when you are NOT hungry, before you get that hungry sensation, and you will avoid pigging out. And remember to drink water before you put anything else into your mouth!
Friday, September 6, 2013
No such thing as a plateau!
I know this is going to be a touchy topic, but there is so much evidence to support this statement: there is no such things as a plateau. Let me explain...
I have gained and lost weight more times than I care to admit. Even recently I have gained back about 15 pounds since Christmas. I am on the path to losing it, but it is hard. I am happy to report that I am down 4 in the last couple of weeks, but these last 11 are the hardest. Is that because of a plateau? No, it is not. And all the times I have lost weight and then hit some magic number that my scale just won't go below, I was tempted to blame it on this theory of a plateau, but that just isn't so. There are many factors that make people feel like they hit a plateau and I will explain some.
My body likes to weight around 135 pounds. For some reason that is where it wants to be. Actually it isn't so much the scale weight as it is the body fat percentage... my body wants to be around 24% body fat, which is where it usually is at 135 pounds. That is at the edge of the "overweight" category and I refuse to be there! So I have to work hard at getting below that scale and body fat number. I have to eat right, count my calories and workout more regularly. I am not talking an hour a day, it can be done with 20 minutes a day, or even 3-4 times a week. Just because my body wants to be at this weight doesn't mean that is a plateau. Now, when I start to dip below this, I usually struggle again to get below 125 pounds which feels like a "plateau" but it is NOT.
What happens during the weight loss process is that people reduce their calorie intake and they usually increase their activity or calorie burn. The body will start out by losing the extra fat to use as fuel. Once the body has lost a certain amount of weight, my body is 10 pounds for example, their needs to be a readjustment in either the calorie intake or the activity level to compensate for the new body weight. In other words, when I weight 135 pounds I can eat around 1500 calories and maintain my weight (without exercising). To lose from here I have to reduce my calories to around 1100 and add about 25 minutes of exercising 3-4 times a week. This causes me to lose 2-3 pounds a week. Once I get to 125 pounds my body has TEN POUNDS less on it, so I can't logically do the same thing and expect the same results. My body needs less fuel because it has less mass! So I now have to drop down to around 1000 calories and increase my activity level to 30-40 minutes 3-4 times a week to continue to lose. That is NOT a plateau, it is a needed adjustment in calories and activity based on a new body mass due to weight loss.
The moral of the story is, if you are blaming your stagnant weight loss on a plateau... STOP. Do something different and stop looking for excuses. If you are accurately (and most people do not do this accurately) counting your calories by weighing and measuring everything and tracking your exercise, you will usually notice that after 10-20 pounds of weight loss you have to make and adjustment. Drop the calories down and increase the activity level. You also do not get to eat the extra calories that you burn while working out if you want to lose weight... that comes when you are maintaining your weight. More about that another time.
And don't forget to eat frequently. The more raw and fresh foods you eat, the MORE food you get to eat and more often. Speaking of that, I am off to go eat a huge salad... yummy.
I have gained and lost weight more times than I care to admit. Even recently I have gained back about 15 pounds since Christmas. I am on the path to losing it, but it is hard. I am happy to report that I am down 4 in the last couple of weeks, but these last 11 are the hardest. Is that because of a plateau? No, it is not. And all the times I have lost weight and then hit some magic number that my scale just won't go below, I was tempted to blame it on this theory of a plateau, but that just isn't so. There are many factors that make people feel like they hit a plateau and I will explain some.
My body likes to weight around 135 pounds. For some reason that is where it wants to be. Actually it isn't so much the scale weight as it is the body fat percentage... my body wants to be around 24% body fat, which is where it usually is at 135 pounds. That is at the edge of the "overweight" category and I refuse to be there! So I have to work hard at getting below that scale and body fat number. I have to eat right, count my calories and workout more regularly. I am not talking an hour a day, it can be done with 20 minutes a day, or even 3-4 times a week. Just because my body wants to be at this weight doesn't mean that is a plateau. Now, when I start to dip below this, I usually struggle again to get below 125 pounds which feels like a "plateau" but it is NOT.
What happens during the weight loss process is that people reduce their calorie intake and they usually increase their activity or calorie burn. The body will start out by losing the extra fat to use as fuel. Once the body has lost a certain amount of weight, my body is 10 pounds for example, their needs to be a readjustment in either the calorie intake or the activity level to compensate for the new body weight. In other words, when I weight 135 pounds I can eat around 1500 calories and maintain my weight (without exercising). To lose from here I have to reduce my calories to around 1100 and add about 25 minutes of exercising 3-4 times a week. This causes me to lose 2-3 pounds a week. Once I get to 125 pounds my body has TEN POUNDS less on it, so I can't logically do the same thing and expect the same results. My body needs less fuel because it has less mass! So I now have to drop down to around 1000 calories and increase my activity level to 30-40 minutes 3-4 times a week to continue to lose. That is NOT a plateau, it is a needed adjustment in calories and activity based on a new body mass due to weight loss.
The moral of the story is, if you are blaming your stagnant weight loss on a plateau... STOP. Do something different and stop looking for excuses. If you are accurately (and most people do not do this accurately) counting your calories by weighing and measuring everything and tracking your exercise, you will usually notice that after 10-20 pounds of weight loss you have to make and adjustment. Drop the calories down and increase the activity level. You also do not get to eat the extra calories that you burn while working out if you want to lose weight... that comes when you are maintaining your weight. More about that another time.
And don't forget to eat frequently. The more raw and fresh foods you eat, the MORE food you get to eat and more often. Speaking of that, I am off to go eat a huge salad... yummy.
Thursday, September 5, 2013
I want to pig out!
I woke up starving, and I hate that. I want to devour everything in my fridge, actually in the freezer because that is where the pancakes are. Instead of giving into this temptation, I put a post-it note on my pantry that says, "you are not really hungry, drink water." I am not sure that will help me all day, but it helped this morning. I made myself scrambled eggs (one whole egg and one egg white) and I put a wedge of garlic and herb laughing cow cheese in them. Only 135 calories for that. And I forced down an orange... don't love fruit but I am eating more of it because I need to. Under 200 calories for my breakfast which is better than what I wanted. I am still dreaming of the stack of pancakes with strawberries and syrup that I wanted to have, which would have cost me about 500 calories. Pancakes are just something I can never eat just one of, kind of like pizza. So I try to avoid them on days where I feel so hungry.
Anyway, I am trying to get back on track from having gained 15 pounds since Christmas. Yes seriously, 15. Stop right there... those of you that know me are rolling your eyes. I know I am not "fat" by society standards, but my body composition (aka body fat and muscle percentages) are off the chart in the wrong direction. I cannot fit into any of my adorable jeans I bought last fall or any of my shorts and capris. I don't like how I feel and my muscle tone is gone. It was a stressful 7 months the first part of this year and I wasn't eating well and I wasn't exercising at all.
So now it is time to get back on track. When I get these urges to pig out I try little things like post-it notes on the fridge or the pantry door. They usually say things like: "Drink water! You are probably not hungry at all!" or "Choose a fruit or vegetable." or "Don't go in here!" It may sound stupid but it makes me stop and think about the choice I am about to make. Most of the time when we think we are hungry we are actually thirsty, so grab water first. My rule of thumb is to drink a large glass of water before I put any food in my mouth, and this goes for all meals and snacks... water first! So instead of giving into the temptation to pig out, I urge you to try the post-it notes and drink water before any else goes in your mouth!
Anyway, I am trying to get back on track from having gained 15 pounds since Christmas. Yes seriously, 15. Stop right there... those of you that know me are rolling your eyes. I know I am not "fat" by society standards, but my body composition (aka body fat and muscle percentages) are off the chart in the wrong direction. I cannot fit into any of my adorable jeans I bought last fall or any of my shorts and capris. I don't like how I feel and my muscle tone is gone. It was a stressful 7 months the first part of this year and I wasn't eating well and I wasn't exercising at all.
So now it is time to get back on track. When I get these urges to pig out I try little things like post-it notes on the fridge or the pantry door. They usually say things like: "Drink water! You are probably not hungry at all!" or "Choose a fruit or vegetable." or "Don't go in here!" It may sound stupid but it makes me stop and think about the choice I am about to make. Most of the time when we think we are hungry we are actually thirsty, so grab water first. My rule of thumb is to drink a large glass of water before I put any food in my mouth, and this goes for all meals and snacks... water first! So instead of giving into the temptation to pig out, I urge you to try the post-it notes and drink water before any else goes in your mouth!
What's for dinner? Salmon!
I am not a short order cook and I never will be. I have four kids and
they would all like to order something different for dinner every night.
I don't think so! My kitchen is not a restaurant and I make one thing
for dinner... most of the time. Some nights my husband and I will have a
late dinner by ourselves, so the kids get to eat a different meal than
us. But 6 out of 7 nights a week we all eat the same thing and it is
usually healthy. Notice I am saying "most of the time" and "usually."
That is because living a healthy lifestyle means that you can have some
things that may not be perfectly healthy by some standards just as long
as you don't do it all the time. I enjoy pizza and burgers and spaghetti
with meatballs with lots of parmesan cheese. We eat out once a week as a
family, it just works with better with our schedules and lifestyle to
do that. More about eating out another time.
So, back to dinner. It works best for our busy family to create a menu
plan. If you have never created one or used one religiously I highly
recommend it. Whether you have kids or not, it helps to keep you
accountable to what you are eating and you can even include calories to
make sure you are staying on track with your caloric goals. Start
creating a menu plan by just planning a week of dinners. Here is our
dinner plan this week:
Monday: dining out night
Tuesday: Steaks, Steamed Veggies and Salad
Wednesday: Salmon, Quinoa (pronounced keen-wah) and Salad
Thursday: Chicken Fajitas, Refried Beans, Salsa and Chips
Friday: BBQ Pork Chops, Mashed Sweet Potatoes, Peas
Saturday: Salad and left overs
I wouldn't consider anything on this list weird, maybe the Quinoa - but
once you have it you will realize it isn't weird at all. Everything has
passed the test of my four kids, and a couple of them are very picky
eaters. Even the salmon gets eaten because when kids are hungry, they
will eat. I am not going to get into parenting here, but I will tell you
that if you enforce a rule that everyone eats the same thing you will
find that your kids will eat, they will not starve themselves, they will
try new things and they will eventually become less picky.
Preparing tonight's dinner:
Quinoa (pronounced keen-wah) can be found near rice at the grocery
store. It is becoming very common because it is a grain that is loaded
with protein! Such a great choice over rice or potatoes. I make the
entire box according to the box instructions not adding salt or butter.
Once it is cooked I add freshly squeezed lemon juice, chopped green
onions (chopped so small the kids don't know they are in there), a
little dried parsley and a little sea salt. It is wonderful! You can
adjust any of these ingredients to your own liking. Note: the reason I
make the entire box is that any left-over I put into zip locs bags and
put in the freezer so I have a quick side dish on a busy evening.
I use salmon from Schwans, the Alaskan wild-caught salmon. I like their
salmon because it is wild so it has all of the essential oils that I
would want in fish, in other words avoid the farm-raised fish! It is
also individually packaged so I know my serving size and calories. One
good size piece has only 120 calories!
It also turns out great cooked from frozen, which makes busy nights much
easier!
Sprinkle some garlic powder or use fresh minced garlic on the salmon.
Then brush a little REAL maple syrup on top - none of that fake stuff
loaded with high-fructose corn syrup!
Put it in the oven for about 20 min at 375 degrees.
Make a fresh salad and choose a healthy salad dressing. Read the labels
and look at the ingredients. Keep reading my blogs and you will
definitely learn more about label reading through me.
So that is tonight's dinner. Healthy not Weird!
Tuesday, July 23, 2013
Is it possible to eat healthy dining out with kids?
For years so many people have told me to blog but I guess I have just been gun shy because I am afraid I will run out of things about which to write! That's like saying I would ever run out of things to say, impossible! So I am giving it a shot. Now that I am out east with the kiddos for summer vacation, I am not sure how often I will blog, but I will try it out and see how it goes. So the first thing that came to mind to get me blogging was during our dinner out last night. I kept thinking during the evening that I should really blog about this and about how there are so many challenges to trying to be healthy, not just while going to restaurants, but with life in general. So if, over the time of my blogs, I am able to offer some suggestions to help someone else overcome a hurdle to their healthy lifestyle, well then it is all worth it. So here it goes!
I am trying hard to eat healthy on my summer vacation with five kids (my four plus one extra for the summer) and I am ready to give up! Last night we were sitting at a local favorite restaurant and scanning the menu, which is rather large, looking for something that isn't in a flour wrap, or on a white bun, or that isn't deep fried! The only option I had was a salad. I was craving broiled fish or grilled chicken, but that wasn't even a remote possibility. Even most of the salads on the menu had well over 1,000 calories each with all of the cheese, hard-boiled eggs, or bacon or other endless high-fat foods that people think they can eat just because they are placed on a bed of lettuce. So remember, just because the word salad is in the heading doesn't make it healthy! The place was very busy, especially for a Monday night, so I know I was about to become one of "those" people that makes lots of weird requests to try and get something healthy. The waitress was clearly swamped and just wanted our order and to move on. So I ordered a large garden salad, no eggs, no bacon, no cheese, no croutons. She looked at me like I was crazy and said, "Then what DO you want on it?" I said, "VEGETABLES... it it is supposed to be a GARDEN salad and cheese, bacon, eggs and croutons don't grow in a garden." She let her guard down and chuckled and said that I have a good point. I said vegetables please, and grilled chicken. Now we approached the dressing part. Of course no healthy options whatsoever, so I said a side of buffalo sauce extra spicy would be great. I know it isn't the best choice either, but it beats the Ranch or Blue Cheese that I wanted and most buffalo sauce doesn't have any fat or sugar, so I gave it a shot. The salad arrived to the table and guess what was on it? Cheese, FRIED chicken, eggs, bacon and croutons. Another server dumped it down and I said it was wrong, she said she would send the server. The five kids got their meals and were happy, I sat there waiting. It took about 20 minutes to get it corrected and in the mean time I was so hungry and surrounded by sides of french fries that I was trying so hard not to eat. I failed. I think I had about 12 fries, not too bad, but I figured it would have been worse. I got my salad, and it still had cheese on it but I ate some of it anyway. I am human and I want to go out to dinner and lead a normal life, but I want to be able to make healthy choices and eat the things that I know are good for me. It is so hard when society all around us makes it seem weird when you try to make healthy choices. It is like the look the waitress first gave me, the look of "You have got to be kidding me!" And I am the one paying the bill! So my goal over the rest of this vacation is to continue to try hard to eat healthy, not give in to temptations just because it is so much easier to eat junk food, and strive to make it easy to eat healthy and not only not BE weird, but I don't have to eat weird things to be healthy either. That we will explore more in future blogs.
I am trying hard to eat healthy on my summer vacation with five kids (my four plus one extra for the summer) and I am ready to give up! Last night we were sitting at a local favorite restaurant and scanning the menu, which is rather large, looking for something that isn't in a flour wrap, or on a white bun, or that isn't deep fried! The only option I had was a salad. I was craving broiled fish or grilled chicken, but that wasn't even a remote possibility. Even most of the salads on the menu had well over 1,000 calories each with all of the cheese, hard-boiled eggs, or bacon or other endless high-fat foods that people think they can eat just because they are placed on a bed of lettuce. So remember, just because the word salad is in the heading doesn't make it healthy! The place was very busy, especially for a Monday night, so I know I was about to become one of "those" people that makes lots of weird requests to try and get something healthy. The waitress was clearly swamped and just wanted our order and to move on. So I ordered a large garden salad, no eggs, no bacon, no cheese, no croutons. She looked at me like I was crazy and said, "Then what DO you want on it?" I said, "VEGETABLES... it it is supposed to be a GARDEN salad and cheese, bacon, eggs and croutons don't grow in a garden." She let her guard down and chuckled and said that I have a good point. I said vegetables please, and grilled chicken. Now we approached the dressing part. Of course no healthy options whatsoever, so I said a side of buffalo sauce extra spicy would be great. I know it isn't the best choice either, but it beats the Ranch or Blue Cheese that I wanted and most buffalo sauce doesn't have any fat or sugar, so I gave it a shot. The salad arrived to the table and guess what was on it? Cheese, FRIED chicken, eggs, bacon and croutons. Another server dumped it down and I said it was wrong, she said she would send the server. The five kids got their meals and were happy, I sat there waiting. It took about 20 minutes to get it corrected and in the mean time I was so hungry and surrounded by sides of french fries that I was trying so hard not to eat. I failed. I think I had about 12 fries, not too bad, but I figured it would have been worse. I got my salad, and it still had cheese on it but I ate some of it anyway. I am human and I want to go out to dinner and lead a normal life, but I want to be able to make healthy choices and eat the things that I know are good for me. It is so hard when society all around us makes it seem weird when you try to make healthy choices. It is like the look the waitress first gave me, the look of "You have got to be kidding me!" And I am the one paying the bill! So my goal over the rest of this vacation is to continue to try hard to eat healthy, not give in to temptations just because it is so much easier to eat junk food, and strive to make it easy to eat healthy and not only not BE weird, but I don't have to eat weird things to be healthy either. That we will explore more in future blogs.
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