Shake Your Booty

If you haven’t exercised all your life, it can be a hard habit to pick up. Let’s face it, if you actually liked it, you’d already have been doing it, right? Maybe.

Sometimes it just takes finding the right activity to get you started. Sometimes it’s just making yourself do it.

For myself, I find that once I’m actually exercising, I’m fine. I love the way I feel afterwards. But I can really psych myself out, if I’m not careful. You’ve heard the excuses: I don’t have time, I’m tired, it’s boring, etc. I think I may have mentioned before that I’m really great at rationalizing anything I want to do.

How do I get past this? The easiest way is to get up and exercise first thing in the morning. If I don’t have time to think about it, I’m already halfway done before I realize it. Another thing that helps me is music.

Research shows that listening to upbeat music while you exercise helps you work out longer and harder, leading to faster calorie burn. Sounds great, right?

I recently came across a website that groups songs that might be good workout music by genre, decade and beats per minute (BPM). Genre and decade are self-explanatory, but BPM? Yes, you can use music that have a lower BPM to warm-up or cool-down and faster BPM music for your workout. The website is called RunHundred.

In addition to this website, there is an app for your iPod/iPhone called Cadence that will go through the music in your library and find the BPM for those songs.

Have you heard of either of these? How do you find your workout music? What do you like to listen to?

Yoga!

Last week I talked about my foot ailment, plantar fasciitis. It definitely slowed my progress. I took a week off from my exercise class. It seemed to help and I went back. It hurt again. This was a couple of weeks before we planned to leave for the States so I ended up taking all of December off and part of January.

Before I went back to class, I started exercising again with a 3 mile walk with Peanut. By the time I got home, my feet hurt. What to do?

I didn’t want it to get so bad that I needed surgery, but I still needed to work out. I’d made so much progress that I hated to backslide. Then I remembered. My awesome teacher, Sarah, who you met here, also does yoga classes in the evening.

I had taken yoga for a semester in college. It’s something that I had always wanted to try and I’d enjoyed it at the time. Afterwards, I tried to find a yoga class that I liked, but none ever clicked for me and I let it go.

When I thought about the yoga class here, I thought it would be the perfect solution. If it didn’t hurt my feet.

I’m happy to say that the yoga doesn’t affect my feet at all, so I’m able to continue the exercise without injuring myself further. If you’ve never tried yoga, I encourage you to do so.

Many people think it’s just stretching, not real exercise. I would counter that they are wrong. There is some stretching, but it’s so much more than that. You use your muscles in a more gentle way, if that makes any sense, but you still use them.

In fact, my arms and legs have been feeling the yoga workouts more than the Sculpt & Burn workouts I’d done previously. And with yoga, there are other benefits as well.

It increases your flexibility, which in turn, makes you look younger.

It massages the organs in your body. I know that seems weird and you’re probably wondering why you would even want to do this. The stimulation and massage of the organs actually helps keep away disease. A regular yoga practitioner can also develop an awareness of their body that will warn of impending health problems.

Detoxification. By gently stretching the muscles and joints and massaging the organs, yoga pushes the blood throughout the body, flushing out toxins from everywhere. This delays aging and increases your energy level.

Toning. Of course, the toning of your muscles.

So you see, there’s a lot to be said for yoga. I’m enjoying it again and may switch to this permanently.

Have you ever tried yoga? Want to? What do you think of it? Do you find it’s a good workout?

Sometimes it Hurts

I know I’ve talked about getting fit, healthy and becoming more active. I’ve been working at that since last August. What I don’t think I’ve shared is that I developed plantar fasciitis.

I’ve never had it before so for the longest time, I had no idea what it was. I thought my tennis shoes had lost their support since they were about a year or so old. So I got new ones.

It didn’t go away. So I got another pair of new shoes. My feet still hurt all day long. That’s when I decided I needed to get checked out.

The following is what I’ve since learned. Remember, I’m not a doctor or involved with healthcare at all.

The plantar fascia is a tendon that runs along the bottom of your feet, connecting the heel bone to the toes. This is what creates the arch in your foot. When it’s overstretched or overused, it can become inflamed. This is called plantar fasciitis.

When you have this, there is pain in the bottom of the heel. I also noticed that it hurt worse after sitting for a while on the sofa with my feet up or in the morning first out of bed. Apparently, this is one of the ways to tell it’s plantar fasciitis.

So I started following treatment advice. This included:

1. Resting
2. Stretching, particularly stretches that stretch the calf muscles
3. Wearing shoes with good support at all times

At the time, I didn’t realize how long of a process this would be. Since, I’ve found out that treatment can last anywhere from several months up to 2 years, with 9 months being the average.

There are other treatments as well, but since mine wasn’t too severe, the above has been sufficient thus far.

I’m sharing this because one, injuries sometimes happen when you’re more active and two, if gone untreated, surgery could be required for this ailment.

Have you ever had plantar fasciitis? How long before you were back to normal? What other ailments have you encountered while trying to get fit and healthy?

Keep Going

So who made resolutions to lose weight or exercise more? We’re almost 2 weeks into January. Still sticking with it?

Motivation can sometimes be hard to find, to keep up. What do we do when our gas tanks are on low? We go in for fill-up. We can do the same thing with our motivation.

How do we recharge our motivation? There are several ways that help me.

One is being accountable. If I tell someone I’m going to do something, like go to Sculpt & Burn class, I feel that I need a really good reason to not follow through. “Didn’t feel like it” isn’t one. While not particularly motivation, it does help keep me on track.

Two is rewarding myself. I mentioned a while back about a reward plan. If I stay on track and hit my goals, I’ll gift myself with a new CD or book. If I’ve hit a particularly big goal, there are weekend jaunts all over Europe. Spa treatments are good. Yeah, I don’t have any trouble coming up with rewards and that helps me stay the course.

Three is a strong support system. It’s awesome when you can turn to someone when you’re feeling low and they remind you how far you’ve come and that they’re proud of you. I don’t know about you, but that really makes me want to keep going.

Today is my first day back to the gym after vacation. I’ve got a little ground to make up, but I’m confident that I’ll do it. Then I’ll kick it up a notch. I think I mentioned a running club? That should be starting soon. We’ll be training for a half marathon in Prague for the spring. In addition to that, I’ll be adding weight training to my regimen come February.

I’ve got big plans. I’ve got a support system in place. I’ve got goals. I’ve got motivation. I’m ready for the new year and all the changes it’s going to bring.

How about you?

Holidays: The End of your Healthy Lifestyle?

I’m winging my way across the ocean today (plane and weather gods willing) while you read this. Hopefully on Friday, I will be writing from sunny Texas.

Weightloss Wednesday, right before Christmas. What shall we talk about?

Should we discuss all the cakes, cookies and pies everywhere we turn? How about fat-laden mashed potatoes, all the bread you can eat, and the alcohol that flows freely at holiday parties?

What’s a poor girl trying to make healthy choices to do?

Give it all up until after the first of the year? We could do that. But that’s 2 weeks and if you’re anything like me, you’ll take license to eat whatever you want and to damn the rest. When it’s time to start back up again, you’ve gained back that 20 pounds you lost before Christmas.

Deprive yourself? You watch everyone around you shoving all those calories down their throats without abandon. You start feeling left out. Then is desperation, or possibly even spite, you indulge. And indulge and indulge and indulge.

Neither of these options sound all that appealing, do they? With a plan in place, you can weather the holidays, indulging in the traditions that make up your family holiday and keeping on a healthy track. After all, balance is what it’s all about, right?

If you have a holiday gathering, eat a little less during the day beforehand and get in your exercise. You’ll feel more in control and by conserving some calories and burning more with the exercise, the food you eat at the party won’t make a dent in your plan.

If you’re hanging with the family, incorporate some healthy snacks along with the baked goodies. If you eat a bunch of low-cal veggies, you don’t have as much room to hold the high-cal foods. You may even find that you don’t crave them as much as you thought you would.

There’s always lots of alcohol at holiday parties, right? You can still indulge. In moderation. Alternate glasses of wine with sparkling water. Or do like the Germans do and mix half wine and half sparkling wine. That’s a popular drink over here and it cuts your alcohol intake in half.

One important thing to remember is that the holidays are separate events. If you stick to your healthy lifestyle most days and indulge at those special parties or family gatherings only, you’ll still be on track in January.

What are some of the ways you balance your healthy lifestyle with the holidays?

The Skinny on Fat

Today we’re talking about the role fat plays in a healthy diet.

For years, fat has been the bad boy of the diet world, blamed for obesity, heart disease and high cholesterol. With the advent of low fat diets, most people should be able to control their weight better or be healthier. Unfortunately, that’s not necessarily true.

It’s when you factor in the type of fat with overall intake that makes a difference. There’s a lot of info out there and some of it is contradictory. What’s a poor girl just trying to make healthy choices to do? Research!

Despite the bad name, fat is important for our bodies to function properly. It helps brain function, learning abilities, memory retention and moods. Over half, actually 60% of our heart’s energy comes from burning fats. Fats compose the material that insulates and protects the nerves. Our lungs, eyes, digestion, organs and immune systems all use fats to keep our bodies in working order. Whether we like it or not, fat is here to stay.

As I mentioned before, there are different kinds of fats. In order to make the best choices, we need to know what to look for.

Monounsaturated fats are found in plant oils like canola oil, peanut oil, and olive oil. Other sources are avocadoes, nuts and seeds. People following a Mediterranean style diet that incorporates a lot of monounsaturated fats usually have a lower risk of cardiovascular disease.

Polyunsaturated fats are found in sunflower, corn and soybean oils, as well as walnuts and fish. Omega-3 fatty acids are found in this group. These fatty acids are anti-inflammatory and your body can’t make them. They’re also found in very few foods.

Saturated fats are found in animal products like red meat and whole milk dairy products. Tropical vegetable oils such as coconut oil or palm oil are in this family. Poultry and fish contain saturated fat but less than red meat. Our bodies actually produce all the saturated fat that we need if we consume enough of the good fats, making it unnecessary to eat these sources of fat.

Trans fats are vegetable shortenings, some margarines, crackers, candies, cookies, snack foods, fried foods, baked goods, and other processed foods. Trans fat raises your bad cholesterol, increasing your risk of heart disease and lowers your good cholesterol.

I think we’re all smart cookies and know that we should limit our intake of saturated and trans fats. But how much fat do we actually need to maintain a healthy body and how much is too much?

That depends on you. Your lifestyle, your weight, your age and your overall health factor into the equation. General guidelines recommended by the USDA are:

1. Keep total fat intake to 20-35% of your total daily calories.
2. Limit saturated fats to less than 10% of your daily calories.
3. Limit trans fats to 1% of your calories.

The bottom line is that we need to be aware of what we’re putting into our mouths. I’m so guilty of this, but in the last few months, as I’ve made more conscious choices, I’ve noticed a difference.

I feel better. My body thanks me now. I used to get heartburn 4 times a week or more. I can count on one hand how many times I’ve had it since August. I have more energy to do the things I want to do. For the first time, I really get the whole balanced diet thing.

How about you? Do you watch the fats you use? What tips do you have for keeping in the good fat and getting rid of the bad?

Also, I’ve got a poll up on the right hand side under About Me that I’m going to keep up until Tuesday of next week. I’ve been doing Weightloss Wednesdays for quite a while now. I’d like to know if you all like this and want me to keep it up. So please, place your vote.

Friday, Paige Tyler will be here guest blogging with us. Her new book, Dead Sexy, releases that day. Her hero is a zombie and she swears he’s sexy. She’ll tell us more about the premise of her hero and we’ll be giving away a copy for one lucky commenter.

Carbohydrates

First of all, Happy December. Christmas is catching up fast. Are you all ready for it? We've got snow on the ground here and it really feels like winter.

Today's Weightloss Wednesday again. We’ve discussed fruits, veggies and proteins so it’s only right that we discuss carbohydrates in a healthy diet.

In the past few years, carbs have gotten a bad rep. We’ve all seen those high protein/low-or-no carb diets. They’ve been popular for quite a while. Carbs aren’t the villain. As with anything, they just need to be eaten in moderation and there are some that are better than others.

Carbohydrates are an essential nutrient and they’re easily converted into energy by your body. Glucose, which is a sugar, is essential fuel for the brain. Obviously carbs have their place in a healthy diet.

As I mentioned, some are better choices than others. As a rule, the more natural and unrefined it is, the healthier it is. A low glycemic index (GI) is also an indicator of a good choice.

The GI classifies carbohydrates by their immediate effect on our blood sugar. Carbs that are converted to glucose very fast have a high GI value. Those that metabolize slowly have a low GI. Here’s a link to the Glycemic Index so you can check out your own choices.

So what are good carbohydrate choices?

1. Fruits and vegetables. They’re usually low in calories and high in nutrients.
2. Whole grains. Unrefined carbs are higher in fiber and keep you feeling full longer. Companies are making it easier for us with whole grain pastas and noodles and brown rice. Choosing wholegrain bread when possible is another way to make better choices.
3. Potatoes. These have higher GI values. New white potatoes are better choices, but sweet potatoes are the best of all. I’ve even seen sweet potato french fries in the freezer section. Potatoes are fat-free and their higher GI can be reduced by eating them with other low GI foods as part of the same meal.

How many do we need? If we’re making smarter choices and eating less refined carbs, anything between 40 and 60 percent of your daily calories can come from carbs. Lower carb is fine, but try to avoid the very low carb diets except for very short periods of time. Yeah, remember when I said glucose was food for the brain? ‘Nuf said.

I’ve always had a love/hate relationship with carbs. I loved them and they loved me back since they wanted to stick around, but I hated how my body looked. These days, I’ve got a better self-image and I’m making better choices. I’m learning that anything is okay in moderation.

What about you? How do you feel about carbs? Have you done the very low carb diets? How did you do? Would you do it again?

Talking Turkey

So we’ve talked about the importance of water. We’ve discussed the benefits of fruits and veggies. Now it’s time to talk turkey. Sorta.

Protein, preferably lean protein, is an important part of a healthy diet. Why?

For one, protein helps you feel full longer and choosing lean protein lowers your saturated fat intake. Making smart protein choices throughout the day can help curb your hunger and prevent you from overeating.

It can increase your metabolism. Really. According to the National Cattleman’s Beef Association, choosing protein for 1/3 of your daily calories gives your metabolism a boost, which helps burn more fat, even when you’re sleeping.

Fiber. We all need it to maintain healthy bodies and decrease the risk of heart disease and colon cancer. Choosing leaner types of protein will naturally increase your fiber intake.

Lean protein helps us build muscle. We need more lean protein when we workout more to help replace the muscle tissue your body breaks down and burns during exercise. More muscle helps you burn more fat.

Lean protein can be beans, chicken, turkey, and believe it or not, buffalo meat. Tofu is another good source of protein.

I’m going to share a rockin’ chicken recipe that I made last week. It’s is so good. I made it with some couscous and veggies, but you could go farther with the Asian theme, if you wanted.

Grilled Sesame Chicken

6 chicken breasts, boneless, skinless, lightly pounded
2 TB sesame seeds, toasted

Marinade
1 TB sesame oil
3 garlic cloves, minced
½ cup soy sauce
¼ cup rice wine vinegar
¼ cup brown sugar
2 TB ginger root, grated
¼ cup cilantro, chopped
4 scallions,chopped

Combine the marinade ingredients. Add chicken and marinate for 3 hours or overnight.

Remove chicken from marinade and grill over medium-high heat 4 -5 minutes each side, basting with the marinade.

Toast sesame seeds in frying pan over medium heat, shaking to prevent burning. Sprinkle over grilled chicken.

The sesame seeds were really too much, but I saved those that I didn’t use for the next time I make this. You could probably cut them in half, but it’s to your taste.

I hope you give this recipe a try. Let me know if you like it. How do you get your protein in? Do you get enough?

Importance of Fruits and Vegetables

Fruits and vegetables are an important part of a healthy and balanced diet. Many experts suggest 5-9 servings of fruits and vegetables per day. Sounds like a lot, right? Consider this – one serving size is one-half cup of most fruits and veggies. One serving of greens and leafy veggies is one cup and a single piece of fruit is one serving.

Broken down like that, it doesn’t sound so bad. Eat a cup of cooked mixed veggies and you’ve got 2 servings down. I’ve been finding that it does take some vigilance to get enough. I love most fruit and vegetables and still have to plan them into my daily diet.

So why should you make the effort to eat more? There are so many benefits.

They have a lot of vitamins and minerals that help make our bodies strong. Yes, there are supplements out there, but almost every expert will tell you that the body processes natural sources better than supplements. Getting the nutrients we need helps our bodies reduce the risk of chronic disease.

Making fruits and vegetables a part of a healthy diet helps to lose or maintain a healthy weight. They have a lot of water and fiber, which helps to fill you up, but are low in calories.

You can even add some veggies to your favorite baking recipes for lower fat, healthier versions. I have some of those recipes that I’ll be sharing over the next couple of months.

What are some ways to make incorporating fruits and veggies into your diet easier?

Add flavor! Herbs and spices are wonderful flavor enhancers that can really bring out the extra flavor without adding extra calories.

If you must add butter, try I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter spray. No calories and just a couple of sprays can give you that buttery taste you’re craving.

If fresh isn’t available, canned or frozen are good options, but read labels. Don’t get the ones with added sugar, syrups, sauces or anything else that adds extra calories.

Mix it up. Don’t be afraid to try new things. Even if a particular veggie isn’t your favorite, try it cooked a different way. This leads me to the recipe I’m going to share with you today.

Zucchini is not a favorite of most people. I could eat it, but preferred other veggies. Hubby didn’t like it all. Someone pointed me to this recipe and I tried it. Hubby liked it and I LOVED it. I made it for the first time last Tuesday. I’ve made it 4 times since. It’s easy and so good.

Zucchini Fries

Ingredients

    4 spray(s) olive oil cooking spray   
    1 tsp Italian seasoning   
    1 1/2 Tbsp all-purpose flour   
    3/4 tsp table salt   
    3/4 cup(s) dried bread crumbs, panko-variety suggested   
     2 medium zucchini, about 7-inches each, cut into 4 chunks, then each chunk halved   
     2 large egg white(s), whipped until frothy (almost soft peaks)  

Instructions

•    Preheat oven to 425ºF. Coat a baking sheet with cooking spray. In a small bowl, mix together Italian seasoning, flour and salt. Place bread crumbs in another small bowl.

•    Dredge a zucchini fry in flour mixture and then dip into egg whites; dredge in bread crumbs. Place coated zucchini on prepared baking sheet and repeat with remaining ingredients; liberally coat with cooking spray.

•    Roast, turning once, until desired crispness, about 12 minutes. Yields about 8 fries per serving.
Notes

•    Use this technique with any summer squash or eggplant. It also works great with thick-cut onion rings or even green tomatoes.

For extra crispy fries, increase the oven temperature to 500ºF and knock 2 minutes off the cooking time.

One last thing, the CDC has an awesome website dedicated to helping people get in their fruits and veggies. Check it out.

How do you get your fruits and veggies in? Think you’ll give this recipe a try? I’d love to hear your tips and tricks and your opinion of zucchini fries.

Remembering the Journey

Life’s a journey. Pretty simple and straightforward, right?

It’s easy to forget sometimes. I think we get so focused on achieving our goals, that we forget to enjoy getting there. We forget that the achievement of those goals aren't the end, but the beginning.

I was reminded of this yesterday. I was in my Sculpt & Burn class and we were doing baselines for the new month so we could gauge our progress at the end of the month. I knew I wouldn’t do as well as some of the other ladies there, but I expected to do better than I did.

I’ve been working steadily at becoming healthier and more active. To that end, I’ve been watching what I eat, eating more fruits and veggies, drinking more water, going to this exercise class 2x (now 3x) a week and walking 3 miles on the other days. I’ve been doing this for over two months.

Well, I sucked. Big time. The frustration, and yes, the shame, that I couldn’t do more sit-ups and push-ups than I did overcame me and I cried like a big baby in front of everyone in the class.

I have to say, here and now, that the ladies in that class and my instructor, Sarah, are the most awesome people and I’m so blessed to be sharing my journey with them. Anyway, I continued on with the class and at the end, Sarah reminded me that this is a journey.

Sure, I couldn’t do as many of the exercises as I’d have liked, but she reminded me of what I had accomplished. That I needed to be patient. That I needed to keep working at it.

As I thought about her words on the way home, I realized that it’s easy to get frustrated in the pursuit of our goals, regardless of what they may be. In our writing, we’d like to get published sooner, write more words each week, etc. In our quest for a healthier lifestyle, we’d like to lose weight faster, get stronger faster, etc.

When we are this focused on the end result, we tend to miss the little joys along the way. In our writing, it might be the story that the plot falls into place for us, our critique partner loved one of our characters, an editor may have rejected our story but they took the time to tell us why and how we could improve. In getting healthier, it might be walking up 3 flights of stairs without getting winded, going deeper into our lunges and squats, turning to a piece of fruit when you want something sweet instead of chocolate.

Starting today, I’ve got a new goal to go along with all those others I’ve got written down. To take time each week to appreciate the little things that makes the journey so special. To make a list of the things I’ve accomplished. I’m sure I’ll get frustrated again, but when I do, I’ll take out that list and remind myself to enjoy the journey.

What about you? Do you ever forget to enjoy the journey? How do remind yourself?

Going Overboard?

Is it possible to go too far in the quest to lose weight? Most definitely.

We’ve all been there. We’re so excited to start this new phase in our life, to get healthy, to get thinner, that we jump in with both feet. We’re stringent with our diet. We exercise for several hours each day. Then what happens?

We do great for a while, maybe a few weeks, maybe even a few months. We’re losing weight, feeling great. Then something happens. It could be that you get ill, you could have a killer week at work and just can’t get to the gym, or you could just be watching television and that cake the TV character is eating looks so darn good. You slide. With a vengeance.

No more watching your diet, no more exercise. Within a short amount of time, you’ve undone everything you’ve accomplished, especially the new-found confidence and pride in yourself. Sound familiar?

That’s one of the things I love about SparkPeople. They encourage you to take things slowly, incorporating one step at time until it becomes a habit and then adding the next step.
A conversation with an acquaintance really brought home to me how we deprive ourselves sometimes.

As many of you know, I’m an American living in Germany. I love learning about the people and culture here and enjoy experiencing it all firsthand. One part of that is the food. German food is more than schnitzel and bratwurst and it’s pretty tasty. Of course, I can’t forget the beer either.:)

A woman that is in my exercise class said that she won’t eat German food because she doesn’t know how to count the calories. I found that sad. She’s here, experiencing a new country. Many people would love to change places with her and she’s limiting herself. For no reason, in my opinion.

It’s true that most calorie counters don’t list German food. It makes it a bit more difficult, but not impossible to enjoy cultural dishes and still lose weight.

Options include finding a recipe online (easy) and figure it out. Punch the recipe into an online food calculator (like SparkPeople) and let them figure it out for you. I enjoy the food when I go out. I drink the beer. I just make allowances in my diet for the rest of the day. Or, if I happen to over my allotted daily calories, I get back on track the next day.

Am I losing the weight slower? Maybe. I think I have a better chance of keeping it off. I’m not looking for a diet to follow to lose weight quickly. I’m looking for a healthier lifestyle overall. That includes indulgences.

What do you think? Would you eat the food in Germany if you were on a diet?

Rewarding Yourself

A couple of weeks ago on Weightloss Wednesday, I talked about motivation.

Today’s topic, Rewarding Yourself, ties in with motivation.

I spent this past weekend in Austria. I signed up for a spa weekend as a reward for losing weight and finishing a manuscript. At the time of departure, I’d lost 17 pounds. This happened over a period of 2 months. I was quite pleased with myself.

After enjoying a Swedish massage and the thermal pools of the Aquadome, I decided that another weekend there was in order for reaching my 30 pound goal.

Then it dawned on me (I know, duh!) that having set rewards for your milestones are a great way to keep your motivation level high. And while big rewards like a spa weekend are nice, smaller rewards for smaller goals reached are important too.

So what would be a good reward? For me, I can think of lots of things. A new music CD, a movie night with the next must-see, a special night with just my guy and me, new makeup. These are all rewards that don’t have to cost a lot of money.

I think 5 pound increments are great milestone markers. I know I get excited every time I hit that next 5 pound mark. It would be even better if I knew I’d earned a new CD or book too. So I’m going to make up my own reward system. Every 5 pound milestone gets a small reward and 30 pounds gets a big reward.

I haven’t decided on my rewards yet, though. I’ll work on it over the next couple of weeks and then share with you.

What do you think of creating a reward system? Would you create one for yourself? Do you think it would help keep your motivation level high? Would it be enough to make you stay on track?

Benefits of Exercise with Sarah Brown

Today, Sarah Brown is joining us. Who is this, you ask? I’ve mentioned her before, just not by name. She’s the instructor that kicks my butt on a regular basis. LOL

Seriously, she’s the awesome leader of the Sculpt & Burn class I’ve been going to for the past month or so. Exercise is great and has some wonderful benefits. Who better to share them with us than a professional? Sarah’s awesome and so interested in helping anyone become more active.

In addition to these great benefits, she’s agreed to answer any questions you might have. Just leave a comment and she’ll check back. As an incentive, there will be a giveaway. Yay!

Anyone leaving a comment will go in the drawing to win a copy of The Spark. I’ve talked about this book before and love it. Here’s your chance to check it out.

Everyone, please welcome Sarah Brown.

Hello there. My name is Sarah and I am a fitness fanatic. That may not be completely true, but after rewriting this first sentence over 10 times, I figured the AA greeting would have to suffice. 

I have always been passionate about exercise and certified to teach aerobics when I was 18. I have taught on and off for 12 years, run over 20 half marathons, 1 full marathon, and completed 2 triathlons. I also love playing tennis, attending any and all gym classes, mountain biking, skiing, yoga, Cross Fit and dancing in my kitchen. Do you think I’m crazy? You shouldn’t.

Let’s talk about exercise for a minute, shall we? It is UNBELIEVABLY good for you. Why?

*It improves your mood.  When you exercise your brain releases “happy” chemicals. This will leave you happier and more relaxed after a workout. Seriously, with the weather here in Germany, if I wasn’t exercising, I would have some serious seasonal depression!

*It prevents chronic disease.  Exercise has been known to help prevent heart disease, osteoporosis (a serious concern in my family), high blood pressure, and high cholesterol. It can also prevent type 2 diabetes and certain types of cancer. Wow.

*It helps you sleep better.  I am a serious insomniac. This side effect alone is worth it for me.

*Your energy will go through the roof.  The first few weeks may be tough and you may feel tired while your body is adjusting, but after this initial period, watch out! With all the great sleep you’ve been getting and those “happy” chemicals bouncing around your brain, you’ll become unstoppable.

*It will help you manage your weight. Need I say more? When you exercise, you burn calories. This means that (a) you will begin to slowly lose weight or (b) you can eat more. This is what I call a win-win.

*IT CAN BE - - - FUN.  Seriously.  I don’t care who you are, there is an exercise that you will enjoy. Zumba?  Biking? Walking with your family? Playing Frisbee? Dancing in your kitchen? Remember when you were a kid and you ran or biked everywhere? And you never wanted to slow down…ever. Before “it” became exercise, it was play.  Never forget that.  

If you are in love with your current exercise routine – great. If you’re getting bored with it – it’s time to switch it up. If you’ve been thinking about starting a program – now is the time. The above benefits are just the beginning. There is an activity or an instructor that is the perfect fit for you. Go ahead.
You deserve it.

Okay,  I’ll get off my soap box now, but THANK YOU for letting me stop by.  If you have any questions, or things you want to know more about, please don’t hesitate to comment!

Cheers,
Sarah

The Magic of Water

It’s Weightloss Wednesday again. Today, let’s talk about water.

Our bodies are mostly water. Hard to believe, right? It’s true. All of our systems need water to run more efficiently.

It’s also a great diet aid and fat reducer. Yes, water. It suppresses your appetite, reduces sodium buildup and helps maintain muscle tone. It reduces fat deposits by helping the body metabolize the fat stored within the body.

These are just a few great reasons for drinking water, but so many of us are dehydrated. Why is that?
Some say they don’t like the taste, they’d rather drink something else, they don’t want to go the bathroom a million times a day.

How much water do we really need? Most recommendations are 8 cups or 64 oz. per day. If you are a normal weight and don’t exercise or sweat much, this might be fine for you. It’s been said that the heavier you are, the more water your body needs. It goes without saying that if you sweat a lot or have an intense workout, you should up your intake.

In The Insulin Resistance Diet book, written by Cheryle R. Hart, MD and Mary Kay Grossman, RD, it’s recommended that for every 25 pounds you are overweight, add another cup up to a maximum of 12 8-oz cups daily.

That’s a lot of water. How to get it all in? There are lots of tips and tricks out that can help you meet your requirements. I’m going to list a few of mine.

1.    I like sparkling mineral water. Something about those bubbles makes it fun and tasty for me to drink. I buy it in 1.5 liter bottles and aim to drink 2 per day.

2.    Adding lemon or lime to water. This gives the water a zesty zing. It doesn’t add any calories and really jazzes up your water. Don’t want to cut up fruit every day? Try TrueLemon or TrueLime instead. It’s cold-pressed and crystallized fruit. You can buy it in packets or by the container. Tastes the same, I swear.

3.    Crystal Light. You can add those drink on the go packets to your water. It does add a few calories (5), but totally fools you into thinking you’re not drinking water. They have several tasty flavors. I like the cherry pomegranate and the lemonade ones the best.

There are tons more tips. I did a Google search on “tips for drinking more water” and got a bunch of hits.

I know, this is all well and good, but what about the trips to the bathroom? They can be a pain. But I’ve noticed that once I’ve been drinking more water, my body gets used to the extra intake and I don’t have to go as often. Perhaps building up to your full requirement is a good way to alleviate some of the bathroom breaks.

The bottom line – water is good for you, especially if you’re trying to lose weight. Don’t forget about this great tool to help you on your quest.

While on Google, I came across this website that you might find useful. It’s a hydration calculator. You answer 9 questions relevant for that day and it tells you how much water you should drink.

Do you get enough water? Do you like it or do you employ tricks to meet your requirements? Share your thoughts, tips and tricks with us.

Challenge

Today starts the weight loss challenge at the gym where I take my Sculpt & Burn class. My instructor is running it and we get weighed, measured and our BMI figured. It runs for 4 weeks.

We have the option of following Weight Watchers or doing calorie restriction. Since my program on SparkPeople follows calorie restriction, I’m just going to keep doing what I’ve been doing.

During the 4 weeks, we weigh in weekly, we turn in a food journal, and my instructor will hold meetings. She’s got some guest speakers lined up and we’ll share what’s working for us and recipes and such. At the end, we’ll get weighed, measured and our BMI done again. The person with the highest average between actual pounds dropped and change in BMI wins.

What’s the prize? Money! We all pay $25 to participate. $5 of this goes to the gym. The rest goes into the prize pot. The actual prize depends on how many participants join.

I admit that I can be a little competitive, but I think that with the amount of weight I have to lose, it would take more pounds lost than is healthy in 4 weeks for me to win. I’m doing it more for the extra motivation to keep going.

Yesterday was my personal weigh-in. I’m hanging steady at 12 pounds lost, but since it’s been 6 weeks since I started my lifestyle change, it’s an average of 2 pounds per week. Not bad.

On Sunday, I tried on a pair of jeans that is a size smaller than what I’ve been wearing. I haven’t been able to wear these pants for quite a while. Well, not only did I get into them, but they were comfortable. Snug without being too tight. That was such a good feeling.

So, that’s my update for Weightloss Wednesday. How have you been doing? Gotten any new recipes? Anyone try that shrimp taco recipe I linked to a few weeks ago? I’m telling you, those things are wicked good.

Motivation

It’s Wednesday so we’re talking about weightloss again.

Did any of you try out that recipe from last week yet? I’m telling you, it is so darn good. This week, I’ve got 5 more recipes picked out to try – 1 smoothie, 2 main dishes and 2 desserts. I’ll let you know next week what I thought of them.

Good news for me this week. I lost over 4 pounds last week, making a four week total of 12 pounds down. I also measured myself again. I lost a total of 3.75 inches. I’m sure the loss of pounds will slow down soon and that’s fine. It’s nice to have this much of a loss right away, though. Helps keep motivation up.

That leads me into my discussion today. Motivation. For me, that’s hands down, the hardest part of developing a healthy lifestyle. Let’s face it, changing out bad habits for good ones is difficult. When it takes a while to see the benefits physically, what makes you keep going?

I’ve mentioned SparkPeople here before. It’s the method I’ve chosen to institute these changes in my life and I think I chose a winner this time. In fact, a couple of weeks ago, I was talking with an acquaintance I’ve known for a while now and just learned that she’s been doing SparkPeople and lost 75 pounds with this program.

My excitement prompted me to buy the book, The Spark, written by Chris Downie. This is the man that spent 5 million dollars of his own money to provide the free website that millions of people are using to lose weight and become healthier.

I’m about halfway through it and already I know it’s a keeper for the bookshelf. Even if you aren’t trying to lose weight, maybe you’re trying to make other changes in your life. While the book is focused on losing weight and choosing a healthy lifestyle, what he has to say can be applied, and should be, to other situations.

He talks about starting out small so that it’s easier to be consistent. There are four cornerstones that he discusses and that they are interconnected so building on one will help build the others. It’s common sense advice written in a conversational tone that makes the reading easier to digest.

If you think you might be interested, head over to Amazon. You can “look inside” the book to see if it’s something you’d like to pick up. I recommend it.

What motivates you? What do you do to keep your motivation high? What life changes are you trying to make right now?

Weightloss Wednesdays

As I mentioned in a post a couple of weeks ago, I'm committed to a healthier lifestyle. For me, that includes more exercise, more water and healthier food choices. To that end, I'm going to devote Wednesdays here at the blog for weightloss.

My idea is that we can cheer each other on, share tips and tricks, share recipes and discuss things on mind that go hand in hand with a healthier lifestyle.

I'll also start off with an update on how I did for the previous week. So, I drank my 8 cups of water every day last week but 1. I did well following my program on SparkPeople. I only went over on calories one day. It was the day that we went in town for the festival and I indulged in a couple of beers. I still managed to lose over 2 pounds, which brings my three week total to 7.8 pounds lost.

I also joined a class at the gym on post. It's called Sculpt & Burn and it's a combination of cardio and strength training. It meets Mondays and Wednesdays and I went both days this week. It's really kicking my butt and my muscles, particularly my triceps, quads and hamstrings are letting me know how hard they've been working. I'm also keeping up with the 2.5 mile walks 5 days a week with Peanut. She's loving it and I'm feeling darn good.

I've noticed the biggest difference in my energy levels so far. I've got enough energy to get through the day without that period in the early afternoon when I usually start dragging. At the end of the night, though, I'm whooped and have started going to bed a little earlier. I pass out until I hear my alarm the next morning.

Okay, so that's an update on my three weeks with SparkPeople. Email me with your username if you decide to join up and we can partner up.

Now I have to share a recipe that I just fell in love with this week. While in the States, I picked up the cookbooks that went along with the show on Lifetime called Cook Yourself Thin. I've since purchased the season on iTunes and have watched every episode. I'm sure you can probably catch it on reruns there in the States. Great ideas.

Anyway, I made one of the recipes Monday night for dinner and Oh My God, it was so good. It was Sauteed Tequila Lime Shrimp Tacos with Mango-Pineapple Salsa and Spicy Black Beans.

To avoid copyright issues by posting the recipe, I'm posting a link to the recipe on the Lifetime website. I didn't have any tequila so I omitted that part. Some things I noticed.

Using a whole pound of shrimp, you can really get 8 tacos out of the recipe. So add 4 more tortillas and make 2 tacos a serving size. Also, I like spicy food, but 2 TB of red pepper flakes in the beans was just too much. Next time, I'm going to half it.

I wasn't too sure about the mango-pineapple salsa and no cheese (since I'm a raging cheese-aholic), but the salsa was a perfect compliment and I didn't even miss the cheese. From me, that's a bold statement.

So, try the tacos. They're great. Maybe poke around the website. If you'd like to talk about anything in particular here during Weightloss Wednesdays, drop me an email at riley@riley-quinn.com. Are you working on a lifestyle change? How's it going?