Shorter Days Lead To Indoor Workouts

You know fall is here when the weather begins to turn cooler and the days become shorter and shorter. I am not sure that I like it when I leave work in the evenings and it is almost dark outside. So with this occurrence right around the corner I began to think of ways to stay active and get some exercise while being indoors.

Well the obvious first choice would be to join a gym. There are many gym memberships available for individuals and families. I have done this three or four times in the past but my biggest problem was that the most convenient times for me to go and utilize the equipment also happened to be everyone else's best time, so I found myself going less and less.
So if you are flexible in when you can go, then this would be a great option.

Another place that you could go and walk would be a nearby mall. I am not a mall shopper but I know that when I go to the mall I often see people who utilize the mall as their "gym" of sorts. Some times they even carry small weights and wear a pedometer to measure how many steps that they have walked. This is a great option for those who are on a budget and don't want to pay for a gym membership. Bur it also requires discipline because if you do more window shopping than walking you have defeated your purpose in the first place.

An outdoor place that is free to walk is a local park. The only draw back would be the weather and if there were no lights to walk in the evening. Most community parks have a track that you can walk and sufficient lighting for you to put in a few laps in the evening. This can be a great choice during the fall season as you can possibly watch the rec league football or soccer teams preparing for their next game.

There is another way to workout that I have never tried but it seems simple enough and that is working out on steps or stairs. If your home has a flight of steps inside or outside you could do intervals on those steps. Say for instance you have a flight of stairs going up to your bedrooms. You could go and and down those steps ten times, then rest a couple of minutes and then do it again. If ten times is too much in the beginning, try five, or three. You will burn calories, your will build muscle and you will tone what you have. This is another easy and free way to exercise and never leave your house.

Let's say you don't have steps but you liked the above idea. You could purchase an exercise "step" and step on and off 100 times, then rest, and repeat. If you can't do 100 steps to start try 50 steps. The point here is to get your heart rate up and to burn some calories.

I hope these ideas have helped you consider easy ways to move more, and burn some of those calories in the cooler months ahead. With the winter months fast approaching none of us need to get in the hibernation mode. Let's get up and get moving!

Confession Is Our Road To Healing

"Confession is our road to healing" is a line from an older song that I used to listen to by a contemporary Christian group called dC Talk. The title of the song is "Between you and me" and during a recent interview they stated that the song came about because the members of the group were discussing forgiveness, and not going to bed angry with their respective spouses and this line "Confession is our way to healing" was made.


Today on my drive into work I heard this interview and this song. There were several "nuggets" to take away from the lyrics but this line just kept coming back to me. So I believe that I would like to make a few confessions of my own, to help bring about healing while on my journey to a new me.


Confessions are often looked at as something negative, but if they can bring about healing then I am willing to do that. So what do I need to confess? I would like to start by saying I confess that there are days that I do not stop at my 1400 calories. I know that this is a shocker for many of you, but let me try to explain. There are times that it is nearly impossible to "know" what the actual calorie count of something is, even using my favorite calorie counting tool of all time, www.myfitmesspal.com. Some food items are just not easily found so I have to make my best guess. And you guessed it, this is often not so easy.


Confession number two. When using myfitmesspal.com to look up the calorie count of an item, if there are multiple entries for the same or similar item, you guessed it, I always select the one that has the fewest calories. Now I know some of you are thinking, "what's wrong with that?". And the answer is "Nothing, except in the long run it can undermine my efforts to reach my 100 pounds of weight loss in one year goal."



Confession number three. I talk a lot about exercising but I am the worlds worst at actually doing it. On my journey to a new me I have found it easiest to eat the 1400 calories per day than to walk twenty minutes per day. Confessing this now, and seeing the words written is so embarrassing to me. I have begun, rather slowly, incorporating exercise into my daily program. Sunday I worked out twenty five minutes on my elliptical and I thought I was going to die. (and so did my husband). He kept asking me if I was alright. Well yes, I was alright but more than a little winded to say the least. But if this is what it takes to see the scale start moving down again, I am willing to accommodate.


Confession number four. Mexican food is not my friend! I have found that if there is one food that really under mines my efforts more than anything else, it is Mexican food! I don't know what it is about it that is so appealing to me. I tend to eat the chicken vs. the beef so that is a good choice. I never order cheese dip, although I often want to. My husband likes to order a combo number four at our favorite Mexican restaurant. It comes with two tacos, an enchilada and a beef & cheese tostada. He gives me the enchilada and he eats the rest. So the problem is not in what I am ordering. What I find as my biggest down fall than the actual food is the chips and salsa. Just like Chilis Bar & Grill that has bottomless bowls of chips and salsa so do the Mexican restaurants that we frequent.  It is the mindless over-eating of the chips which are made of corn, that keep me from dropping more weight.  I think the reason we tend to go eat Mexican once and sometimes twice per week is out of sheer convenience.  Well now that I have put it out there so to speak, I think it will help me to be more aware of what I am doing.



Confession is not always easy but it does help me to get things off my chest and off my mind.  I have a long way to go and don't need to sabotage myself along the way.  So what about you?:  What should you be confessing?  Even if it is just to yourself, confess the reasons to why you aren't doing something to help you become the most fit and healthy you that you can be.  I feel much better now, I think I will get on that elliptical trainer and work off some of those chips and salsa that I had for dinner tonight. 

If It's Too Big, Give It Away!

Have you ever lost weight and had a closet full of clothes that simply did not fit any more? Well since losing 84.4 pounds since December 11,2010 I am this person, and since I have determined that on my journey to a new me that I am never going to go back to my old ways I felt like it was time to purge my closets.

Some people talk about Spring cleaning, but this was quite a bit more than that. I had tried taking some of my clothes to a consignment shop back in the spring and after 90 days, and 35 items they gave me one top back that wwas unsold and a check for $28.95. That's all that I received for my share of the goods sold. I began to wonder what to do with all my big clothes, and I decided to ask one of my friends if she would be interested in coming to my house and taking some of my clothes that did not fit ay more, and she said yes she would love to.

When she arrived with one of her girlfriends I asked them to join me in my walk in closet and I preceded to empty out almost 90% of my closet for her to enjoy. To say that she was a little overwhelmed is a huge understatement. She was very excited and just could not believe that I had done this. I told her that it was an honor to give my perfectly nice clothes to someone that I knew would wear them and enjoy them for herself,

So with a nearly empty closet, I wondered what to do. Should I go to the mall and begin buying an assortment of things to refill my empty closet or what? I believe that I am learning something very important while on my journey to a new me and that is less is more. Earlier this summer I went out an purchased several pairs of shorts and capris and now they are all way too big. This is a good problem to have but it is also very costly. I think the best plan of action for me will be to only buy what I must have and make do until I get down to my one year goal of 100 pounds.

It has been two weeks since I got to the 84.4 pounds lost mark and it is very frustrating with the scale just sitting there on the same mark, but I refuse to lose heart. I will keep doing what I know to do. I will eat my allotted 1400 calories per day and I have begun to walk or work out on the elliptical several days per week. I will keep you posted on my progress and I hope to hit 90 pounds by my sons birthday on Oct 7th!

Fall Into Good Habits

The weather is turning cooler and crisper as the first day of fall arrives and with it comes shorter days and more reasons than ever to fall into good habits. This is the time of the year that my husband flips between football games and baseball games on TV as one season is just starting and another sport is coming to a close. I love both sports but if I could only pick one then it would have to be football. There is something exciting about watching it and cheering for our teams.

So how can I fall into good habits? What does that mean exactly? The first thing is to stay on track. Don't look for excuses to eat more than my 1400 calories. With the holidays coming up I need to be proactive now with how I can divert the temptation that always comes with those sweet desserts and "second helpings" of my mom's delicious turkey & dressing.

I am currently looking for ways to "burn" calories that will allow me to enjoy a small taste here or there and not feel deprived when the pumpkin pie apinging dumplings are being offered. I like walking with my friend at the local park because it is easy to set a pace of 3 mph or more and before you know it we have walked 2 or 2-1/2 miles and have enjoyed catching up with each other. But I know as the days shorten and the weather turns from cool to cold I will not want to make that brisk walk outside any more. So I am thinking now about other ways to get exercise indoors without joining a gym. I will keep you posted to my ideas and who knows maybe I will begin to utilize that elliptical equipment that is parked in my dining room! But until then, here's to falling into good habits this fall!

Learn To Leave Some Food On Your Plate

When I was a young girl I was always told to "clean my plate."  This was something that most parents believed to be the only way to may sure their children received the necessary nutrients to grow into healthy adults.  But something back fired for me, and instead of learning to eat to be healthy, I learned to over eat and grew to be an obese young adult.  The pattern continued into adulthood and now I am an  obese grandmother.  Today I read an article in the health section of WWW.MSN.COM and it gives some good advice when it comes to encouraging our children to clean their plate.

Leave Some Food on the Plate

In an attempt to make sure they don’t miss out on any nutrients, many parents ask kids to clean their plates, making them more likely to overeat later in life, says Sarah Krieger, RD, spokesperson for the American Dietetics Association and director of the Fit 4 All Kids program at All Children’s Hospital in St. Petersburg, FL. If your kids say they’re not hungry, wrap up their plates, says Krieger, but make them stay at the table until the rest of the family finishes (to avoid a situation in which they choose playtime over full tummy). And if they’re hungry later, warm up the plate of food instead of offering a snack.

I think this is a great idea.  Why didn't someone think of this when I was growing up?  It could have possibly been a valuable key to unlock my over eating and unhealthy lifestyle.  I hope that everyone reading this blog post will consider making this the new norm. We have to teach our children to wait for true hunger signs before eating everything in sight.  This is a valuable lesson in helping to control the obesity in children that is running rampant in America.

5-Minute 400-Calorie Meals

When people hear me say that I am only eating 1400 calories per day since begining my journey to a new me on December 11, 2010 they often ask me what I am eating to only consume 1400 calories per day.  I honestly eat "normal" food but I just don't eat more than my daily calorie allowance of 1400.  Tonight while reading health, and weight loss articles on http://www.msn.com/ I found an interesting entry for 5-minute 400-calorie meals.  Check out some of these ideas and see if you can do a few of these to help you cut your calorie intake.  Who knows you may find something that you enjoy on this list.

5-Minute 400-Calorie Meals

Fast, finger-licking picks for every meal of the day!

Losing weight doesn't have to mean hours in the kitchen cooking healthy meals. These quick dishes rely on few ingredients, packaged foods, and simple instructions — leaving you no excuse to ditch your weight loss goal.

The secret to slimming down? It's easy. Just eat four, 400-calorie meals each day.

See all 10 delicious meals now!

Egg & Cheese Breakfast Bowl
Total calories: 380

This breakfast bowl combines egg whites, cheese, potatoes, and turkey sausage into a hearty and protein-packed morning meal.

 

1. Microwave a Jimmy Dean D-Lights Breakfast Bowl (230)
2. Pair with one slice whole wheat toast (70)
3. Wash it down with 6 oz orange juice (80)

Egg & Cheese Breakfast Bowl
Total calories: 380

This breakfast bowl combines egg whites, cheese, potatoes, and turkey sausage into a hearty and protein-packed morning meal.

 

1. Microwave a Jimmy Dean D-Lights Breakfast Bowl (230)
2. Pair with one slice whole wheat toast (70)
3. Wash it down with 6 oz orange juice (80)

Peanut Butter Soy Smoothie
Total calories: 390

Take a break from same-old cereal and milk. A sweet smoothie infused with creamy peanut butter packs in fiber, protein, and a serving of fruit.

1. To make the smoothie, blend 1 cup vanilla soy milk (100), 1 Tbsp peanut butter (90), 1/2 banana (50), 1/4 tsp cinnamon, and 6 ice cubes
2. Pair it with a toasted whole wheat English muffin (130) with 2 tsp all-fruit jam (20)

Blueberry Nut Oatmeal
Total calories: 390

We combine two of the healthiest foods — brain-boosting blueberries and heart-healthy oatmeal — to make your morning start right.

1. Cook 1/2 cup dry Quick 1-Minute Quaker Oats (150)
2. Top with 1 cup frozen organic blueberries (80), 2 Tbsp cashews (100), and 1 Tbsp honey (60)

Superfast Chef Salad
Total calories: 408 – 428
Creamy ranch dressing and shredded cheese make this healthy salad taste rich and satisfying.

1. To make the salad, mix 2 cups salad greens (20) with 2 oz water-packed drained canned tuna (80) or salmon (60) and 1/4 cup cooked chickpeas (70). Top with 2 Tbsp reduced-fat shredded cheese (50) and 2 Tbsp fat-free ranch dressing (40)
2. Pair it with a small dinner roll (78)
3. After the meal, enjoy a Hunt's Fat-Free Snack Pack Chocolate Pudding (90)

 Barbecue Chicken Pita

Total calories: 405

Make use of leftover chicken in this tasty sandwich that sneaks in whole grains and veggies.

 Stir together 1 Tbsp barbecue sauce (50) and 1/2 cup chopped precooked chicken (120); microwave for 30 seconds or until hot

1. Cut a whole wheat pita (170) in half and stuff each with chicken mixture
2. Top with 1 cup chopped lettuce (10), 2 Tbsp diced cucumber (5), and 1 Tbsp fat-free ranch dressing (10)
3. Pair with 10 baby carrots (40)

Total calories: 390
Vegetarian Chili


Chili is an easy, low-cost way to add fiber and protein to your lunch. Get your serving of greens by pairing with a crunchy, refreshing salad.

 Heat 1 cup Hormel Vegetarian Chili with Beans (190)

1. Pair with a large salad made with 2 cups lettuce (20), 1 tomato (20), salad dressing spray (10). Add two 1/2-oz slices Alpine Lace Swiss Cheese (90), cut into thin strips
2. Eat with one 6" corn tortilla (60)

Confetti Pesto Pasta

 

Pasta cravings? No problem! Lighten your typical Italian feast by sticking to a 1 cup serving of pasta and loading it with lots of veggies and lean protein.

 

1. Combine 1 pint cherry tomatoes (50), 1 1/2 cups cooked green beans (66), 1 1/2 cups diced chicken breast (346), 1/4 cup pesto sauce (230), and 1/4 tsp each salt and pepper
2. Add 4 cups cooked linguine (800)
3. Garnish with 1/4 cup shredded Parmesan (83)

Tofu and Veggie Stirfry
Total calories: 385

 Make your own, healthier version of Chinese takeout even faster than the delivery guy can show up at the door!

1. Sauté in a wok or skillet 1 1/2 cups Cascadian Farm Chinese-Style Stirfry Blend (40)
2. Add 1/2 cup extra-firm tofu (100)
3. Stir into the stirfry 1 Tbsp peanut butter (90) and 1 tsp low-sodium soy sauce (5)
4. Pair with 2/3 cup Minute Brown Rice (150)

Vanilla Macademia Parfait 

Total calories: 370 

For an afternoon snack that will keep you full 'til dinner, try a sweet, nutty yogurt parfait
Spoon into a bowl 1 container Stonyfield Farm Fat-Free Vanilla Yogurt (130)

1. Top with 1 cup Kashi 7 Whole Grain Puffs cereal (70)
2. Add 2 Tbsp macademia nuts (120) and 1 Tbsp maple syrup (50)

Sinless S'mores
Total calories: 410 

For an after-dinner dessert, enjoy two chocolaty s'mores — without major calorie overdose!

 Place 2 marshmallows (45) and 2 chocolate kisses (50) on a graham cracker square (30) and top with another graham cracker square (30); repeat to make the second one (155)

1. Heat in the microwave until soft and chocolate melts
2. Enjoy with 1 cup fat-free milk (100) .   

Labor Day Has Come And Gone

Labor Day has come and gone and with it my next goal to be achieved on my journey to a new me. As most of you know I have a one year goal to lose 100 pounds and in order to make this huge number "do able" I have broken it down into smaller goals. My latest goal was set after July 4th and it was to lose 85 pounds by Labor Day.


We were at the lake during the Labor Day holiday and did not return home until late Tuesday evening so my first day to see if I had accomplished the latest goal was Wednesday morning. I knew that I had done a great job keeping track of my calories and even resisted the yellow cake with chocolate icing that I had made for everyone to enjoy during the holiday weekend.  I will be honest it was tempting but I was good! So stepping onto Mr. Scale on Wednesday morning was exciting.  But what I saw was not so exciting.

The report was not what I thought it would be or what I felt that I had worked so hard to achieve. I was down 82 pounds. A heaviness fell in my chest as I stepped off the scale and with it all the disappointment set in. All those old feelings of "why do I try so hard?" "Why can't I just get this weight off once and for all?" "why was I born this way?" and finally "why didn't I enjoy a nice big fat piece of thar chocolate cake with a nice cold glass of milk?"

I can't explain it but there was a since of failure that had come over me and while getting ready for work I felt a dark cloud hanging over my head.  You may think that this is a little over-kill but this is how I felt.  There was not one day that I did not feel that I had done my very best to stay on track.  My 1400 calories per day have served me well for over 8 months now and I would like to continue to lose weight by enjoying 1400 calories per day.  Someone told me a few weeks ago that if I hit a plateau that I may have to decrease my calorie intake to 1200 or maybe even 1000.  Well I am sorry, but I disagree.  I do not want to take such a drastic measure that I feel like I am on a diet, and therefore do my best to get off of it as soon as possible!

So what to do?  Where do I go from here?  Which way to I go?  How can I jump start my metabolism into moving back down the scale?  I thought about it all day and I found myself texting my friend to see if she would be interested in going to the park and walking around the track.  Well said Yes!  So last night we walked 2 miles in 38 minutes.  That is a better pace than I normally do.  Then tonight we walked 2 1/2 miles in 42 minutes.  So the time is improving little by little.  Who knows I may end up jogging or running before this is over with.

So why did I begin to exercise now?  Why did I get back on the "I need to exercise wagon, again"?  Well to be honest, I don't see myself reducing my calorie intake to 1200 or 1000 calories per day because I would not be satisfied.  But I can burn 300 or so calories per day which would give me the equivalent of eating 1100 calories per day instead of 1400.  This is the direction that I am going to take.  I will keep you posted as to how often that I am able to walk.  I hope to be down 85 pounds in the next week so that I can start working toward my next goal of 90 pounds by my son's birthday, October 7th.  Stay tuned and hopefully I will have some good news in the days ahead!