Thursday, July 29, 2010

The Living Healthy Lifestyle

One of the biggest lessons I have learned since Freshman year is that being healthy is a lifestyle, not a diet. You have to make a choice that no cookie or piece of cake tastes better than fitting into your jeans. Easier said than done in a society plagued with artery clogging cuisine. Old habits die hard and now-a-days you have to try hard to make healthy choices when you are constantly being tempted with sugar and lat laden food. You can only “diet” for a short amount of time therefore making lifestyle changes that you can stick to is more worth your time than just losing weight. So learn to love veggies and say no to sugar. Cutting sugar out is one of the best and easiest things you can do. I swear, if you stop eating candy, cookies, cake, etc. you won’t miss it anymore. Some people can have just one and be satisfied but not me. I’m a “once you pop, you can’t stop” kind of girl. If I can muster up the self control to say no when it’s in front of me, I’ll be able to forget about it 10 minutes later. But that’s not to say you can’t. Everyone is different and like I said, it has to be something you can stick with. So if you can’t give up that cookie-a-day habit than change something else, refined carbs is another easy way to drop pounds and give you more energy throughout the day.

Wednesday, July 14, 2010

Oopsie poopsie!

So I guess I’ll start with an apology due to my month-long hiatus from blogging. The truth is I have been thoroughly enjoying my last summer before entering the “real world” and in so doing I have not been exercising, consuming three times the daily recommended caloric intake and drinking beer, wine and spirits likes it’s going out of style. Nice role model huh? At least you know I don’t lie, and I’m certainly not perfect.
If there is one thing I have learned on my journey to a healthy lifestyle it’s that consistency is one of the hardest things to achieve. Prior to my disappearance from Bloggyland, I was eating 5 small, healthy meals a day and exercising regularly. I then dived headfirst into a tub of potato salad holding a beer in one hand and a cheeseburger in the other, and haven’t looked back, until now. If you can’t sense my frustration let me tell you, I am at an all time low. I haven’t felt this defeated since the summer after freshman year. Finding motivation now to start all over again is proving to be harder and harder with the new responsibilities that have been continuingly coming my way since graduation.
I know for a lot of you this might sound freakishly familiar so after some deep soul searching (and maybe a little googling) I came up with some things we can do to get us out of this rut and back on track…..again!
1. Something is better than nothing- You may be at the point where you would rather eat dirt than go to the gym in which case I remind you that getting any form of exercise is good. Don’t tell yourself you’ll go tomorrow or later because you won’t. Take the dogs for a walk, clean the house, do something and little by little you will regain the energy and motivation to do more. Just don’t expect yourself to wake up tomorrow and be excited to go to the gym again, that takes a while, so start slow.
2. Don’t cut all at once- You’re body has now become accustomed to eating whatever and however much so start by cutting refined carbs at dinner or chips with lunch. Just don’t decide you are going to redeem all of your food sins from the past month in two weeks of fasting, you will just end up right back here.
3. Back to the basics- when you start planning your meals and snacks remind yourself that a fruit or veggie should be incorporated in every meal time. Fill up on these before you eat anything else and try to stay away from heavy cream dressings and dips. You can still enjoy a cheeseburger just loose the bun and if you can handle it loose the condiments, which are packed with sugar.
4. Drinking counts too- take into account that most beers are in the range of 150 calories per beer. Pop, even diet, has its adverse effects on your hunger as well so just because it’s a liquid don’t consider it harmless (unless it’s water of course which you should increase your intake as much as possible).