Category: Exercise and weight loss

How To Start Something New And Succeed

How To Start Something New And Succeed

My husband and I are in the process of moving into our new home.   Moving can be very disruptive so I’m eager to get our house organized as quickly as possible.

At first, I was attempting to organize each item as I unpacked it.  However, in my attempt to “stream line” the process, I ended up a bit overwhelmed and paralyzed.  We have lived in this house less than two weeks.  It’s going to take some time to figure out what works for us and what doesn’t.

Once I gave myself permission to arrange and rearrange for the next few months, I began unloading boxes and momentum began to occur.  This method turned out to be way more productive than trying to get everything “just right” the first time.

While I was unpacking mason jars and bath supplies, I began thinking about how much my moving experience applies to health and fitness.

I believe it’s important to plan and I am most definitely a planner.  However, too much planning or waiting until the timing is right can keep you from moving forward.  Years ago, a wise mentor gave me some really good advice regarding working toward a goal.  His advice was to just get started and figure out what works as you move forward.  He wasn’t advising me to be reckless, he was simply recommending I start with what I knew I could do right away rather than not start at all.

I firmly believe his advice applies to health, fitness, and every other area of your life.  If you start with one or two things you know you can do right away, then momentum is sure to follow.  That may be  ten minutes of exercise a day or signing up for a meal delivery service.  Or, you may be ready to start cooking most nights of the week and exercising thirty minutes per day.  Whatever your “getting started” looks like is personal and that’s OKAY.

Adding new things to your life like exercise, meal planning, and meal preparation usually require adjustments in your schedule and the best way to figure out what works for you is to just get started.   It may seem a bit messy and chaotic at first so I recommend you remain flexible.  It’s important that you give yourself permission to abandon things that are not working and stick to the things that DO work for you.  Some ideas you may scrap for good, but other goals can be revisited at a later time.

If you’ve been “waiting to have all of your ducks in a row” before you get started on something, I encourage you to take your first step.  Don’t be afraid to experiment, always be kind to yourself, and enjoy the journey.

Make it a great week!

Shared with love,

Jennifer

 

 

Why And How To Avoid Tempting Fad Diets

 

How to avoid fad diets

It’s January, it’s a new year, and almost every magazine or health related email you open this month will have advice on what you should and shouldn’t be eating.

It can be really tempting to try the latest fad diet that the fitness and/or diet industry is promoting.  It’s a normal human response to be intrigued by all the marketing that these industries roll out in January… especially if you’ve gained a few pounds over the holidays.

While I completely understand the desire to want to lose weight quickly, research continues to  show us that restrictive dieting is not very effective long term and can potentially do you more harm than good.

Some of the reasons diets fail you are:

  • They slow down your metabolism
  • They cause you to store fat, not burn it
  • They’re unsustainable for most people’s lifestyle
  • They are a means to manipulate bodies to become a size they were never designed to be
  • When you stop starving yourself and go back to normal calorie-consumption, you WILL gain weight
  • Lack of energy due to being hungry
  • Some diets ask you to eliminate entire food groups and key nutrients
  • They can cause binge eating due to a scarcity mentality
  • They can cause stress which is known to cause belly fat due to hormonal changes in the body

There is nothing wrong with wanting to lose unwanted weight.  I recently lost a few pounds after recovering from a broken foot.  What’s important to remember is that long term, sustainable, weight loss happens when you focus more on health and less on the size of your jeans.

Healthy weight loss is not about counting calories just to reach a number on a scale.  It’s about feeling good, having plenty of energy, feeding your brain properly, creating balance in your life, being happy,  and allowing your body to settle into it’s own natural and healthy weight.   Things like eating the appropriate amount of food, cutting back on the foods and or liquids that you know are excessive,  avoiding overly processed foods, and meal planning are all considered healthy eating, not starvation diets or skipping meals entirely.

HERE ARE Seven TIPS THAT WILL HELP YOU LOSE WEIGHT WITHOUT DIETING

1) Eat enough food.  It absolutely amazes me that there are still diets out on the market today that recommend dangerously low calorie meal plans when the science says otherwise.  Your body will get really good at storing what it doesn’t get enough of.  For example, if you eliminate fat from your diet, your body will not want to burn fat. It will want to store fat.  Sound nutritional research tells us that you need to eat fat in order to burn fat.  I am a firm believer that the low fat and low carb craze has contributed heavily to the weight issues in the United States.

Instead of restricting what you eat, you’ll find more success when you focus on a balanced diet that is centered around whole foods.   A balanced diet includes carbohydrates, proteins, fruits & vegetables, healthy fats, and water.  Any diet that cuts one of these important nutrients out should be avoided.

2) Exercise.  One of the most effective ways to lose weight for good is a combination of eating well AND regular exercise.  However, there are many other reasons we should all be exercising regularly besides a desire to lose weight.  Research shows that exercise can help with depression, lower the risk for heart disease and cancer, reduce the risk of diabetes, and even grow new brain cells.  Exercise is an excellent anti-aging tool!

3) Eat in.    Cook at home as often as you can and bring your lunch.  When I make our food, I get to choose how much butter, oil, salt, and sugar I add.  Sometimes I add more than the recipe calls for and sometimes I cut it back.  I can also make substitutions that I think are healthier for us like swapping out more refined grains for whole grains, adding more veggies, and choosing oils that I believe are better than others.

4) Cut back on liquid calories. Try substituting alcohol, sodas, and other higher calorie drinks with water. Try adding lemon or cucumber for some variation.

If cutting out liquid calories sounds extreme, take a more moderate approach and cut down to half or even a quarter of what you usually drink. You can always go back to your normal consumption if you want to.  This is about figuring out what works for you personally.

5) Get plenty of rest.  Substantial medical evidence is telling us that a lack of sleep affects hormones which are linked to an increase in appetite. Your body becomes less satisfied and you are tempted to eat more food than you may actually need.  Sleep deprivation can also affect your hormones in such a way that your metabolism will literally slow down.  The National Sleep Foundation recommends 7 to 9 hours of sleep per night.

6) Tell guilt to take a hike.  First off, guilt should never be associated with food ever.  When I go into a restaurant I order what I want and I do not feel guilty about my choices.  Guilty thoughts that attempt to beat us up usually come from a desire to be perfect.  And, even though most of us know that perfection is impossible, much of the”professional” advertising we see focuses on displaying perfection as a form of happiness or acceptance.  Thank goodness for social media!  Live raw video helps to remind us that nobody is perfect and to give ourselves a break.

7)  Be yourself.  It’s really important that you know what’s most important to you.  Not everyone wants to be or was designed to look like the models on the cover of fitness magazines.  If challenging yourself to reach an elite athlete status is fun for you and you can achieve it in a healthy way, then by all means go for it!  However, if you know in your heart you’d just like to live a long healthy life, fit in your clothes, and have the stamina to do the activities you enjoy without a whole lot of restrictions in your life, then general health and fitness is for you so please don’t beat yourself up because you’re not “doing whatever it takes” to try to look like a fitness model.  Perfection is overrated and impossible to achieve.  Even fitness models don’t look like their photos all of the time.

Instead of dieting, I recommend you pick as many things from above that you can realistically implement without stressing yourself out and then stay consistent.  Diet and exercise are very personal which is why a canned approach rarely works.  We all have different lives, different goals, and different needs. 🙂

Here’s to a happy and healthy 2018!

Shared with love,

Jennifer

How Lowering Stress Can Positively Affect Your Weight

Lower Stress Positively Affects Weight

 

For most of us, stress is a part of life that we need to deal with.  Unfortunately, research shows us that too much stress can negatively affect our weight.

I personally believe that the stress component in people’s lives is often overlooked by the health and fitness industry.   A client can be eating well and exercising regularly, however if the client is under continual stress it can prevent them from losing weight and in some cases even cause them to gain weight.  Diet and exercise is only one piece of the puzzle when it comes to overall health and wellness.

We recently moved to a slower paced community and have simplified our lifestyle.  One of the first things that changed for me was my sleeping patterns.  I’ll be the first to admit that my sleep was not great before we moved.   I’m happy to report that I am sleeping better and experiencing real rest.  What happened after I began sleeping better was interesting.

Over the past few months I’ve noticed that all of my clothes are fitting a bit looser. I stopped weighing myself regularly years ago due to the emotional stress it can cause so I can’t tell you how much weight I have lost.  However, I know for sure that I have naturally dropped a few pounds.

It’s really important for me to share that I WAS NOT trying to loose weight.  I have not made any changes to my diet and I am exercising at a level that is appropriate for me while I recover from  multiple injuries.  My health and fitness goals are rooted in self care and happiness rather than a number on a scale, which is why I believe my recent weight loss is  a result of stress reduction.  Before we moved,  I was eating well and exercising most days of the week.  I believe that my personal experience helps support the research that if you are under constant stress, diet and exercise alone may not be enough to help you lose and/or maintain your weight.

It’s pretty safe to assume that no matter how good we are at limiting the stress in our lives we will still have to manage a certain amount of it.   Here are five ways to limit stress in your life and protect your body from it:

 

FIVE WAYS TO LIMIT STRESS

 

Ditch diets for good.  Research shows that constant dieting can cause cortisol levels to rise as much as 18%.  When your cortisol levels rise, your blood sugar gets out of whack, first rising, then plummeting. This can make you cranky and super hungry even if you don’t need the extra calories.

Deficiencies in B vitamins, vitamin C, calcium, and magnesium are stressful to your body.  Diets that suggest eliminating certain foods and/or food groups from your diet can contribute to a lack of these important nutrients.  These deficiencies can lead to increased cortisol levels and food cravings.  Start the day off strong with a breakfast that includes stress reducing nutrition.  Foods like oranges, grapefruits, or a large handful of strawberries supply  vitamin C and 6 to 8 ounces of yogurt contains calcium and magnesium.  Make sure to include carbs like a whole grain bagel or toast and healthy fats like peanut butter. Whole grains are loaded with B vitamins, while peanut butter has fatty acids that can lower stress hormones in your body.

Instead of dieting, try eating as many whole foods as possible.  Eating whole foods can help contribute to better energy which is part of self care. Do your best to make sure to choose foods you enjoy and avoid being too rigid about everything you eat.

Get enough sleep.  Substantial medical evidence is telling us that a lack of sleep affects hormones which are linked to an increase in appetite. Your body becomes less satisfied and you are tempted to eat more food than you may actually need.

Sleep deprivation can also affect your hormones in such a way that your metabolism will literally slow down.  I believe that is what happened in my case, and why I lost weight when I started to get more sleep.

The National Sleep Foundation recommends 7 to 9 hours of sleep per night.  A few nights of solid sleep can bring your body back into balance, and getting enough regular sleep helps keep it there.

 

Do a little strength training.  Moving your muscles is an effective, instant stress reliever. It actually sends a message to your body that you are escaping the source of your stress.  Exercise helps your blood circulate more quickly, transporting the cortisol to your kidneys and flushing it out of your system.  Try doing at least one strength exercise per day like squats, push ups, or ab work.  Even taking a stroll on your lunch break will help. In one study researchers found that 18 minutes of walking 3 times per week can quickly lower stress hormone levels by 15%.
You might want to cut back on caffeine.  Total disclaimer, I am a coffee drinker and have no plans to give it up right now so I’m not asking you to.  A certain amount of coffee is actually good for most people due to the many health benefits it offers.  However, if you find it’s keeping you up at night you may want to cut back.
Create a healthy environment.  It’s important for us to be at peace where we live, work, and play.  Things like nurturing relationships, setting healthy boundaries, removing clutter from your home or life, planning family meals, taking time off to visit places that make you feel happy and restored, or spending time with your pets without your phone in hand are all examples of working  toward creating a healthy environment.

Limiting stress in our lives is extremely personal and looks different for each individual.  We are all on our own personal journey.  What’s important to remember is that health and wellness is about self care and enjoying life.  Not a specific number on a scale.

Have a wonderful week!
Shared with love,
Jennifer