Before moving onto a new diet for 2014, ask yourself these questions first.......................................
1. Do you feel that you have a balanced diet?
2. Do you eat 3 main meals a day?
3. Have you ever dieted?
4. Why do you feel as though you need to lose weight?
5. How much weight do you think you need to lose?
6. Do you think your food choices are hindering you from reaching your weight loss goals?
7. Do you feel as though you use food for comfort?
8. Do you make poor food choices when you are feeling tired or stressed?
9. Do you feel calm when you eat?
10. Do you enjoy eating healthy food?
11. Do you use food as a reward?
12. Do you feel guilty when you are enjoying a treat?
13. Do you feel as though you self sabotage when you are getting close to reach your weight loss goal?
You have to get real with yourself if you're looking to make lasting changes.
1. Do you feel that you have a balanced diet?
2. Do you eat 3 main meals a day?
3. Have you ever dieted?
4. Why do you feel as though you need to lose weight?
5. How much weight do you think you need to lose?
6. Do you think your food choices are hindering you from reaching your weight loss goals?
7. Do you feel as though you use food for comfort?
8. Do you make poor food choices when you are feeling tired or stressed?
9. Do you feel calm when you eat?
10. Do you enjoy eating healthy food?
11. Do you use food as a reward?
12. Do you feel guilty when you are enjoying a treat?
13. Do you feel as though you self sabotage when you are getting close to reach your weight loss goal?
You have to get real with yourself if you're looking to make lasting changes.
The Harris-Benedict Equation (1919)
Determining Your Basil Metabolic Rate
(BMR)
Women = BMR = 655 + (4.35 * weight in pounds)+(4.7 *height in inches)-(4.7*age in years)
Men = BMR = 66 + (6.23*weight in pounds)+(12.7*height ininches)-(6.8*age in years)
Weight Loss Tips for Soon To Be Moms
1. Prepare your body for your pregnancy with healthy eating and exercise.
Remember, when you are pregnant you can practice everything you were
doing before (within reason). If you do not exercise before the pregnancy it is not safe to introduce new physical activity. You want to look at achieving optimal health before conception to promote a healthy and happy pregnancy.
2. Keep exercising! Even on the days you are feeling more fatigued and maybe even a little nauseous! You will feel better after your workout.........even if you have to modify.
3. Lift weights. Lifting light weights will keep your body strong throughout the pregnancy and leave you toned after the pregnancy!
4. Eat for the health of your baby not for your cravings. Pregnancy is not giving you an excuse to eat unhealthy foods filled with sugar and fat! When you choose your food you should be looking at how the nutrients will benefit your baby. Make sure to eat a lot of leafy greens, foods high in vitamin D, antioxidants as well as DHA.
5. Love your body through the changes! Remind yourself of how amazing this process is, and what you are creating. Everything will change........ Including your body after the baby! After your little angel is born focus on creating your healthiest body. Not the body you had before the baby.
Developing a Positive Attitude
1. Take Ownership of Your Attitude.
We control our attitude. It is not something that is genetically or environmentallydetermined. Each of us can decide what our attitude is going to be. We can choose to have a positive attitude about life.
A ready smile is a gift to all those around you. A positive word or action can be an inspiration and an encouragement to others. The positive you give out will be returned to you many times over.
2. Take Action To Eliminate What Bothers You.
You may have been putting up with more things than you haverealised. Think about what you are tolerating. You may be tolerating things or ways that someone speaks to you that you don’t like. Just paying attention to what you are tolerating will be the first step towards eliminating it. Tolerations infect your attitude; they have a negative impact and can do a great deal of damage to the way you speak to others.
3. Live In The Present.
Let go of living in the past or in the future and enjoy the present. Life is precious, plan for your future but take time for now, enjoy today, whatever you may be doing. Even the most disliked tasks can have a positive effect. Think of how good it will feel to complete the task.
1. Take Ownership of Your Attitude.
We control our attitude. It is not something that is genetically or environmentallydetermined. Each of us can decide what our attitude is going to be. We can choose to have a positive attitude about life.
A ready smile is a gift to all those around you. A positive word or action can be an inspiration and an encouragement to others. The positive you give out will be returned to you many times over.
2. Take Action To Eliminate What Bothers You.
You may have been putting up with more things than you haverealised. Think about what you are tolerating. You may be tolerating things or ways that someone speaks to you that you don’t like. Just paying attention to what you are tolerating will be the first step towards eliminating it. Tolerations infect your attitude; they have a negative impact and can do a great deal of damage to the way you speak to others.
3. Live In The Present.
Let go of living in the past or in the future and enjoy the present. Life is precious, plan for your future but take time for now, enjoy today, whatever you may be doing. Even the most disliked tasks can have a positive effect. Think of how good it will feel to complete the task.
It’s ALWAYS Too Soon To Quit
The biggest single reason for failing is because we quit. We quit trying, we quit caring, we quit dreaming, we quit hoping and we quit loving. In all areas of our lives, including our relationships with our parents, friends, spouses, children and our associates, we will constantly be challenged. But we must not quit. If we are ever to achieve success it requires that we just keep on, “keeping on”. There is no quitting time; we must be prepared to go that extra mile, to care about those around us.
We must give our hopes and dreams a chance to break through.
Once a task has begun,
Never leave it till it’s done
But the labour great or small,
Do it well or not at all
Once we move down a path-marriage, profession or any other endeavour-we must not stop. If we are to find success we must never give up.
Some years ago, Dr. Seuss sent out his first book to a
publisher, the book was turned down.
He kept sending it out and, finally, the 24th publisher
accepted and published it, selling over six million copies.
What if Dr. Seuss had quit trying?
It is always too soon to quit....
But it’s never too late to start!
Plateau Busters!!
Here are a few ideas to help get rid of those stubborn last 10 pounds.
1. Make small changes to your diet!!!
- Reduce your carb intake after 2:00
- Replace your morning coffee with a green tea
- Incorporate more vegetables into your day ( these foods are filled with fibre, water, and vitamins)
- Increase your amount of lean protein
- Incorporate a multi vitamin in the morning
- Eat a larger breakfast in the morning
2. Keep a Food Diary!!!
- This will keep you accountable
- You will be able to distinguish whether you are consuming too many or not enough calories in your day.
- You may find that most of your food is being consumed in the latter part of your day when your metabolism is slowing down
- It will also help you to keep track of how many times a day you are eating (you should be eating about 5 to 6 times a day)
3. Switch Up Your Workout Program!!!
- Change the intensity or duration of your workout. For example, if you have been engaging in longer slower paced cardio sessions, begin to incorporate interval training.
- Provide sufficient rest. Over exercising can cause injury leaving you unable to continue with your workouts effectively.
- Change your activity i.e. running to biking, dumbbells to resistance tubing.
4. Maintain a Positive Attitude!!!
- Anything can be achieved with the right attitude!
- Life is short..........Enjoy yourself; Love yourself, Take care of Yourself.
- Work hard to recognize when a negative thought enters your mind, and replace it with a positive one.
Happiness
A wise women once told me......”don’t look for happiness, strive for contentment”. It made perfect sense to me because most of us don’t even know what happiness truly is? How one individual perceives their happiness is so different from another. Is the idea of what makes us happy defined by what we see on TV? A beautiful home, a perfect body, a prestigious career? How many of you have reached that goal or landed that job only to find that you continue to feel unhappy? When you come to this realisation you may think there is something wrong with you because these“things” are supposed to make you happy.
I want to be clear here, I’m not going to give you the answer to what happiness should be......I’m going to help you to define what YOUR
happiness is.
Begin by asking yourself what made you happy when you were a child? It is important to look at this time of your life when you were mostly free of judgement and negative experiences. Try to wipe your slate clean and look back to a time when you were happy without external influences such as food, alcohol or money. As you wipe your slate clean you will want to look at the 3 key steps for finding contentment: Define, Accept and Simplify.
Define the things that are making you unhappy in order to move toward making change. I have lived by this motto for many years, “If you don’t like something, change it!” Don’t waste your energy on complaining. I’m not implying that change is easy nor does it always happen overnight.
I am saying, begin to devise a plan to make the change. You remember the old saying, “fail to plan and plan to fail”. It’s true!
Accept the mistakes you have made, and use them as learning experiences to help you move forward. Most inventions have been developed
through mistakes! You also must begin to accept the things that you cannot change like the weather, or someone else’s opinion......as these things are out of your control. There is absolutely no point in putting your energy into things such as this.
Simplify your life.......For example, release negative people from your everyday life and let go of energy suckers.......that is, unless you enjoy DRAMA! Work to limit possessions. How many pairs of jeans do you really need? Will it benefit you to have a kitchen full of china that you will never use? Once you are able to let go of the need to possess both things and people, you will begin to feel a sense of freedom!
Lastly, keep your living space open and clean. You will find it easier to think, to breathe and to get things accomplished.
Clutter weighs you down much like a negative relationship.
By implementing these few suggestions, you will begin to see and feel positive changes in each realm of your life.
This will help to bring you much closer to finding contentment.......maybe even happiness!
Remember..........YOU ARE THE ONLY ONE THAT CAN MAKE YOU HAPPY!!! Stop waiting for someone else to do the job and begin to define what YOUR happiness is!
A wise women once told me......”don’t look for happiness, strive for contentment”. It made perfect sense to me because most of us don’t even know what happiness truly is? How one individual perceives their happiness is so different from another. Is the idea of what makes us happy defined by what we see on TV? A beautiful home, a perfect body, a prestigious career? How many of you have reached that goal or landed that job only to find that you continue to feel unhappy? When you come to this realisation you may think there is something wrong with you because these“things” are supposed to make you happy.
I want to be clear here, I’m not going to give you the answer to what happiness should be......I’m going to help you to define what YOUR
happiness is.
Begin by asking yourself what made you happy when you were a child? It is important to look at this time of your life when you were mostly free of judgement and negative experiences. Try to wipe your slate clean and look back to a time when you were happy without external influences such as food, alcohol or money. As you wipe your slate clean you will want to look at the 3 key steps for finding contentment: Define, Accept and Simplify.
Define the things that are making you unhappy in order to move toward making change. I have lived by this motto for many years, “If you don’t like something, change it!” Don’t waste your energy on complaining. I’m not implying that change is easy nor does it always happen overnight.
I am saying, begin to devise a plan to make the change. You remember the old saying, “fail to plan and plan to fail”. It’s true!
Accept the mistakes you have made, and use them as learning experiences to help you move forward. Most inventions have been developed
through mistakes! You also must begin to accept the things that you cannot change like the weather, or someone else’s opinion......as these things are out of your control. There is absolutely no point in putting your energy into things such as this.
Simplify your life.......For example, release negative people from your everyday life and let go of energy suckers.......that is, unless you enjoy DRAMA! Work to limit possessions. How many pairs of jeans do you really need? Will it benefit you to have a kitchen full of china that you will never use? Once you are able to let go of the need to possess both things and people, you will begin to feel a sense of freedom!
Lastly, keep your living space open and clean. You will find it easier to think, to breathe and to get things accomplished.
Clutter weighs you down much like a negative relationship.
By implementing these few suggestions, you will begin to see and feel positive changes in each realm of your life.
This will help to bring you much closer to finding contentment.......maybe even happiness!
Remember..........YOU ARE THE ONLY ONE THAT CAN MAKE YOU HAPPY!!! Stop waiting for someone else to do the job and begin to define what YOUR happiness is!
Benefits of Cross-Training for Runners
Cross-training is any sport or exercise that supplements your main sport -- in this case, running. Whether you're a beginner runner or an experienced marathoner, you can benefit from cross-training. Here are several reasons why runners should cross-train:
1.· It helps balance your muscle groups. Cross-training helps strengthen your non-running muscles and rests your running muscles. You can focus on specific muscles, such as your inner thighs, that don't get worked as much while running and may be weaker than your running muscles.
2.· You'll maintain or even improve your cardiovascular fitness. Many cross-training activities are great cardiovascular workouts, so they build on those similar benefits of running.
3.· It reduces your chance of injury.
By balancing your weaker muscles with your stronger ones, you'll help reduce your chance of injury. Participating in low-impact cross training activities,
such as swimming or water running, will also lessen the stress on your joints, which are often a sore spot for runners.
4.· You'll avoid getting bored with running. Running day after day will eventually burn out even the most hard-core running enthusiast. Cross-training gives runners a much-needed mental break from their sport, which is especially important for those training for long-distance events such as marathons.
5.· You can continue to train with certain injuries, while giving them proper time to heal. Runners suffering from injuries are sometimes told by their doctor to take a break from running during their injury recovery. But, with certain injuries, it is possible to continue with cross-training. Cross-training can help injured runners maintain their fitness and deal betterwith the frustration of being sidelined from running.
Cross-training is any sport or exercise that supplements your main sport -- in this case, running. Whether you're a beginner runner or an experienced marathoner, you can benefit from cross-training. Here are several reasons why runners should cross-train:
1.· It helps balance your muscle groups. Cross-training helps strengthen your non-running muscles and rests your running muscles. You can focus on specific muscles, such as your inner thighs, that don't get worked as much while running and may be weaker than your running muscles.
2.· You'll maintain or even improve your cardiovascular fitness. Many cross-training activities are great cardiovascular workouts, so they build on those similar benefits of running.
3.· It reduces your chance of injury.
By balancing your weaker muscles with your stronger ones, you'll help reduce your chance of injury. Participating in low-impact cross training activities,
such as swimming or water running, will also lessen the stress on your joints, which are often a sore spot for runners.
4.· You'll avoid getting bored with running. Running day after day will eventually burn out even the most hard-core running enthusiast. Cross-training gives runners a much-needed mental break from their sport, which is especially important for those training for long-distance events such as marathons.
5.· You can continue to train with certain injuries, while giving them proper time to heal. Runners suffering from injuries are sometimes told by their doctor to take a break from running during their injury recovery. But, with certain injuries, it is possible to continue with cross-training. Cross-training can help injured runners maintain their fitness and deal betterwith the frustration of being sidelined from running.
