Weight Loss Tip

Get calories from foods you chew, not beverages. Have fresh fruit instead of fruit juice.

Holiday Tip

Overeating is not the result of exercise. Vigorous exercise won’t stimulate you to overeat. It’s just the opposite. Exercise at any level helps curb your appetite immediately following the workout.

Holiday Tip

At a buffet? Eating a little of everything guarantees high calories. Decide on three or four things, only one of which is high in calories. Save that for last so there’s less chance of overeating.

Weight Loss Tip

Eating out? Halve it, and bag the rest. A typical restaurant entree has 1,000 to 2,000 calories, not even counting the bread, appetizer, beverage, and dessert.

Holiday Tip

Always, but especially during the holidays:

Make exercise a nonnegotiable priority.

Holiday Tip

As obvious as it sounds, don’t stand near the food at parties. Make the effort, and you’ll find you eat less.

Weight Loss Tip

Make eating purposeful, not mindless. Whenever you put food in your mouth, peel it, unwrap it, plate it, and sit. Engage all of the senses in the pleasure of nourishing your body.

Holiday Tip

Give it away! After company leaves, give away leftover food to neighbors, doormen, or delivery people, or take it to work the next day.

Holiday Tip

Remember, EAT before you meet. Have this small meal before you go to any parties: a hardboiled Egg, Apple, and a Thirst quencher (water, seltzer, diet soda, tea).

Robin note:

Skip the diet soda ~ drink water or green tea instead

Determination Leads to Satisfaction

‎"You've got to get up every morning with determination if you're going to go to bed with satisfaction." ~ George Lorimer

Metabolism...

As women age, they naturally lose muscle mass. This causes your metabolism to slow, which means you could start building a spare tire by the time you reach your 30s. “When you do weight-bearing exercises, you start revving up your metabolism—and it keeps burning for many hours after your workout,” says Wayne Westcott, PhD, director of fitness research at Quincy College and Prevention advisory board member.

Weight Loss Tip

Resolve never to supersize your food portions—unless you want to supersize your clothes.

Holiday Tip

For the duration of the holidays, wear your snuggest clothes that don’t allow much room for expansion. Wearing sweats is out until January.

Weight Loss Tip

The best place to drop pounds may be your own house of worship. Researchers set up healthy eating and exercise programs in 16 Baltimore churches. More than 500 women participated and after a year the most successful lost an average of 20 lb. Weight loss programs based on faith are so successful because there’s a built-in community component that people can feel comfortable with.

Holiday Tip

Don’t tell yourself, “It’s okay, it’s the holidays.” That opens the door to 6 weeks of splurging.

Weight Loss Tip

Eat at least two servings of a fruit or veggie at every meal.

Weight Loss Tip

Add just one fruit or veggie serving daily. Get comfortable with that, then add an extra serving until you reach 8 to 10 a day.

The Choice is Up to You

HASfit is an excellent website with FREE workout videos and meal plans. Check them out~

Do You have 10 Minutes?

Someone shared this link on Facebook today and I decided to give it a try. It is a quick intense workout that can be done in 10 minutes ~ Tony Horton's 10 minute workout~

Drug of Choice

‎"Someone had to learn the discipline of giving up some things and that someone was me. And those 'things' were poor food choices that were sabotaging my body, my mental energy, and even my spirit.

Food had become like a drug. And honestly, it's a good drug of choice for a Christian woman. Every church event I attended readily provided my drug out in the open with no hesitation or judgment."

~ Lysa TerKeurst (Made To Crave)

Think Before You Eat or Drink...

For anyone struggling with this weightloss journey of theirs. Think, before you drink another diet soda, or go for that cake your coworkers brought to work, or go out for pizza with the family, think. There has to come a time when you say, "This isn't about me and what I want anymore, it's about what's best for my health, my body, and my mind!" ~ Jennifer Paquin (From Reach Fitness Consulting)

What is that Smell?

As a kid I used to dread the smell of New Year's Eve and New Year's Day in our house...because we always had pork and sauerkraut, but now as an adult I like to find reasons to eat it at different times of the year. Sauerkraut has many benefits...check them out...this short article states some benefits are immune system booster, digestive aid and flu fighter.

Required for Change

“In order to change we must be sick and tired of being sick and tired.” ~ Author Unknown

HALT

"There is a popular acronym known in the land of the lean as HALT. It means that when you feel like reaching for food, ask yourself first if you are hungry, angry, lonely, or tired. If you're hungry, then proceed, but if you are reaching for food in response to emotion, then halt your behavior immediately and deal with the problem at hand. There's nothing inherently wrong with putting food to your mouth, but if you're doing it to fill a void that should be handled another way." ~ Candace Cameron Bure (Reshaping It All pp. 60-61)

Key to Health

“Physical fitness is not only one of the most important keys to a healthy body, it is the basis of dynamic and creative intellectual activity.” ~John F. Kennedy

What Would Your Great-Great Grandmother Eat?

“Don’t eat anything your great-great grandmother wouldn't recognize as food. There are a great many food-like items in the supermarket your ancestors wouldn't recognize as food.. stay away from these” ~ Michael Pollan

Chamber or Prison You Choose

"A healthy body is a guest-chamber for the soul; a sick body is a prison." ~ Francis Bacon (1561 – 1626 an English philosopher, statesman, scientist, lawyer, jurist and author)

Doctor of the Future

“The doctor of the future will no longer treat the human frame with drugs, but rather will cure and prevent disease with nutrition.” ~ Thomas Edison

You Choose...

Candace Cameron Bure wrote an excellent article ~ Craving Conquerers for a guest post at Peak 313 Fitness.

"The truth is, we may desperately crave something that isn't beneficial, but we must decide to choose our action; give in or stand strong! If you stick with it, your body will eventually agree with your choice and you will crave to continue to do so." ~ Candace Cameron Bure

50 Body Weight Exercises

Are you lamenting your lack of a gym and wishing you knew how to exercise without the equipment and classes the gym offers...well check out this link ~ 50 Body Weight Exercises and get in shape!

It Isn't Just about the Body...

Sometimes when we think about health we get caught up in calories and exercise, but it is more than just nourishing our bodies and exercising...

"We also need a regular systematic study of the Scriptures. We cannot maintain our spiritual life without it any more than we can maintain our physical bodies without proper nourishment." ~ G. Campbell Morgan

You Change When...

‎"We don't change until the pain of staying the same is worse than the pain of change." ~ Jason Sciscoe

Good for What Ails You

"A vigorous five-mile walk will do more good for an unhappy but otherwise healthy adult than all the medicine and psychology in the world." ~ Paul Dudley White (1886 – 1973 an American physician and cardiologist)

No Time...

"Those who do not find time for exercise will have to find time for illness." ~ Edward Smith-Stanley (three time Prime Minister of United Kingdom)

Decisions, Decisions...

‎"True health does not dictate that you weigh a certain amount or have a waist of a certain number of inches. Health is a state of being. It's about making the right decisions every single day." ~ Drew Manning (Fit2Fat2Fit)

I'm NOT on a DIET

"I'm not on a diet. I'm on a journey with Jesus to learn the fine art of self-discipline for the purpose of holiness." ~ Lysa TerKeurst

Good Medicine

"Movement is a medicine creating change in a person's Physical, Emotional, and Mental states." ~ Carol Welch

What Is Your Mission?

"Remember, fitness isn't in the knowing - it's in the doing. And to stay fit for life, you need to be doing something each day, something that's consistent with your fitness mission." ~ John Berardi

Challenge from Clare

Clare at Peak313 Fitness shared a challenge that starts tomorrow...check it out here.

Standing Ab Exercises

I have significant back issues and ab exercises have always been difficult for me because lying on a flat surface for any length of time causes pain...so I'm thrilled to share a video I found today for standing ab exercises. Note of caution if you have back problems (first check with your doctor to make sure these are safe for you) take it easy with the twists.

Here is the link to Laura London's 12 Minute Ab Exercises on You Tube. The exercise will last for four minutes, so it needs to be repeated 3 times to get you to the 12 minute mark.

30 seconds ~ Jack Knives
30 seconds ~ Side Sculptors
30 seconds ~ Power Punch with a Twist
30 seconds ~ Tight and Tiny Twist
30 seconds ~ Oblique Obliterators (can use weights for more intensity)
30 seconds ~ Ab Dominaters (use stick, broom, or bat, etc. here)
30 seconds (each leg 60 seconds total) ~ Cross Over Crunch

Laura suggests using a Gym Boss timer.

I smiled when she said, "You can do anything for 30 seconds." I give myself that pep-talk frequently, but sometimes it is a bit longer than 30 seconds...

Eat Good Food

"If you keep good food in your fridge, you will eat good food." ~ Errick McAdams

Teaching Kids about Health & Fitness

Clare from Peak 313 Fitness shared a great article about what to teach our kids about health and fitness. Excellent!

Eating Tip

"...feeling lighter is worth far more than the momentary rush I get from overeating." ~ Gary Thomas (from his book ~ Every Body Matters)

Is Sugar Toxic?

This is important info...take a listen to this.

My Fitness Pal ~ Count the Cost

For any of you who tend to be obsessive (I mean detail-oriented) like me... My Fitness Pal ~ might help you better coordinate your food intake and exercise. (Several of you are already using it and for you this is just me being accountable.) Before I started using My Fitness Pal...I basically lied to myself about how much food I was consuming (I eat lots of really healthy stuff). I conveniently forgot that I ate samples at the grocery store and that a friend offered me cheese/guacamole/hummus and whole grain crackers, and I thought if 2 TBSP of natural peanut butter is good then more is better, and let's not even discuss NUTS, etc...

My Fitness Pal is helping me plan my meals AND snacks AND stay within the calorie limit my body requires to function well. One day I ate THREE servings of crunchy Cheetos (my favorite) and punished myself by eating only fruits and veggies for dinner to stay within my calorie limit. I thought I did all right until a friend (Thank you, Cammie!) asked me if I met my protein requirement for the day... The site calculates that information and I discovered that only ate half of the protein needed because I chose (CHOSE) to eat one of my favorite snacks to excess. It is all about choices and what I am willing to pay. Not necessarily in the cost of the food, but in the cost of my fitness levels, energy, and pain management. My health care providers told me that I need to stay on the lower side of my weight range because my back pain intensifies with weight gain. I must count the cost and decide whether I can "afford" that delicacy or not...some days if I exercise a lot I may be able to, but others probably not.

12 “Everything is permissible for me”—but not everything is beneficial. “Everything is permissible for me”—but I will not be mastered by anything. 13 “Food for the stomach and the stomach for food”—but God will destroy them both. ~ 1 Corinthians 6:12-13a (NIV 1984)

I know about health and nutrition. This site isn't teaching me anything I didn't already know, but it is helping me to see in black and white what I am putting into my body and causing me to think about it more. I'm making better decisions and choosing food that will fuel my body for the day and not just make my taste buds happy for a few moments. It is definitely a challenge. I'm not strong at this point and could easily run (not walk) back to the Cheetos, but one day at a time I'm learning to make positive choices for health and wellness. If you see me looking at a bag of Cheetos, do something drastic...like hand me an apple :)

Care to join me?

Every Body Matters by Gary Thomas

For a great book on living healthy check out this post.

Handy Diet Trick

HANDY DIET TRICK
Using Non-Dominant Hand Could Moderate Munching by 20%


Do you often eat more than you should? Join the club. Many of us mindlessly munch out of habit or occasion (e.g., movies, parties). Even the repetitive motion of hand-to-mouth can take on a momentum all its own. Researchers at USC wanted to see if they could break up such unconscious eating behaviors by changing things up on study subjects who were habitual popcorn eaters -- simply by getting them to switch the hand with which they scoop their snack.

When using their dominant hand (for the vast majority of the population, this is the right hand), popcorn aficionados chowed down indiscriminately, regardless of whether the popcorn was stale or fresh. But when asked to use their non-dominant hand (e.g., righties switched to their left hand and lefties switched to their right hand), the habitual popcorn eaters broke the mindless munching cycle, eating 20% less of the stale stuff. By changing hands, says lead researcher David Neal, Ph.D., "You slow down and realize the food is bad for you."

What are some other practical tips for eating more mindfully? One study counter-intuitively found that larger forks actually led folks to eat less. You might also try using chopsticks, chewing slower (and thus savoring) food, turning off the TV during mealtimes, and sitting at a table (not standing by your countertop) to dine. Shed a light on it too: Researchers found that people are more likely to binge in a dim environment. Your best overall bet -- whether you're reaching with your right or left hand -- is to opt for filling, nutrient-dense, low-calorie fruit and vegetables, which are the delicious, nutritious way to maintain a healthy weight.

~ Dole Nutrition Institute

Recipe Analyzer

Analyze your recipes here. Just enter all the ingredients and number of servings and get your grade. Each ingredient receives and individual grade and an overall grade is given for the whole recipe. If you realize something is not good you can make substitutions to improve. Check it out.

Changes...

I went in to see my doctor last week because of a nagging cough that just won't go away...turns out it is Bronchitis...not too big of a deal. While I was in his office I took some time to ask about exercise and his opinions on what the trainer told me about skipping cardio in favor of weight training if my time is tight. He said that cardio is so important and that we need balance. Both weight training and cardio are important. He said they now recommend 60 minutes seven days a week of cardio training. He said that if time is tight I could cut it down to 30 minutes a day in two segments of 15 minutes. He said that he tends to move around at the gym and doesn't stick to just one thing.

I'm still exercising at the gym three days a week. I'm doing cardio for about 45 minutes and weight training for the rest of the time. Because of my back issues he suggested that I use a machine he calls the captain's chair. I'm not sure what it is called, but I linked a picture to give you an idea. I put my back against the cushion in the back of the machine and rest my forearms on the padded area on the side and grip the handles pointing up. Currently I'm doing 4 sets of 26. I started with one set of 10, so I'm making progress. I started fresh with exercising again in October 2011. Also I cheat because I'm not able to pull my legs out straight - I just pull my knees up as far as I can and that is farther than it was when I started. I still call the machine the torture chamber though because it is always a challenge.

Here is a description of how to use the machine in a variety of ways.