What I've Been Up To

As some of you know I now have a desk job. This makes it very difficult to go to the gym after a long day in the office. Food is constantly in my reach. So what have I been doing lately to bring down the scale without going overboard or on an extreme diet?

1. Pay attention to anything I'm putting into my mouth.
2. Exchanging one of my midday snacks with a liquid. This helps me to feel slimmer and it motivates me to keep eating well during the day. I do not drink a protein drink in exchange for a meal. It usually leaves me hungrier than before and I binge.
3. Eating more soups. A hearty soup is a great way to slim down when you don't necessarily feel like being too strict with yourself. I've been having great Spanish soup with rice, black beans, corn, chicken, and broth. It's delicious. Or typical rice, chicken, carrots, celery, and chicken broth with some good seasoning.
4. I'm not on a diet. As soon as you tell yourself you're on a diet, everything you've ever wanted all of a sudden looks so desirable! Instead, I can have a dessert if I make a conscious decision to have one. That might sound silly, but sometimes we have it just because it's there, or we're used to it. But if it's someone's birthday, or it's been a while, I'll let myself have a small piece of razzleberry pie with ice cream. It's good for us mentally.
5. Not missing my midday snacks. When I miss a midday snack it usually means that I ate too big of a breakfast or lunch. I'm trying to be conscious of reminding myself that I don't need to eat too much because I'll be eating again in a few hours. And when I miss the snack, I usually eat more at the next meal because I'm famished.
6. Paying attention to my starches. Starches are what most people refer to as "bad carbs". Although starches aren't always bad. But since I'm trying to shed a few extra pounds, I'm being conscious of switching out a granola bar for a yogurt instead. Or instead of a cold cereal for breakfast I'll have some eggs.
7. Remind myself that food is for fuel. This is a simple concept and yet so easy to forget. Food is our energy. That's what it's for. So treat it that way. Remember we need our lean proteins, complex carbs (fruits, veggies, and starches), and essential fats to function. Try to look at your food by what food group it's in and see if you're a balanced eater.

Food Rules

This is a great, practical book on how to eat healthier. It is super short, which also makes it very cheap :) He gives "food rules" that we should abide by for greater health, like,

"Don't eat anything your grandmother wouldn't recognize as food" - That sounds pretty common sense but there are a ton of foods like that. An example he gives is a yogurt in a tube. Would your grandma (an old grandma) be able to discern that as food? Usually it means it is processed and full of sugar. So stay away from foods like that.

"Eat like an Omnivore" - He isn't saying don't eat meat at all, but try and incorporate as many fruits and vegetables into your diet as possible.

"Don’t eat breakfast cereals that change the color of the milk."

"Eat when you're hungry, not when you're bored."

"Do all your eating at a table."

"You can have all the junk food you want as long as you make it yourself." - The idea is that to actually make junk food takes a long time. Like french fries for example. If you were to take the time to make them, you probably would do it every couple of weeks, which is about how often you could have them anyways.

"Break the rules once in a while."

“Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.” - Sums it all up.

His idea is that you eat real, natural foods, and stay away from the processed foods, and your body will love you for it.

Scheduling

Scheduling is an important part to having success with working out. What does your schedule look like? Do you have one? Here are some key factors that can help you schedule appropriately to get the best results:

1. Have a specific purpose for each workout: If you are too vague, and push comes to shove, you probably won't make your workout. For example, if all you say is, "I'm going to work out this week," you'll take the first best thing that comes along instead of working out. Right? So have something specific so that you will feel more of a need to not miss it. Examples of specific scheduling is: Monday- swimming/sprints, Wednesday- strength training, Friday- Run/Long. That way if you miss one of your workout days, you actually missed something necessary to your fitness, because you need all three of those areas. You would have missed much more than "a workout".
   
2. Be realistic: of course right away you want to work out 6 days a week when you're motivated. But what has worked in the past? If you are already doing that, great, keep it up! But if you're starting over again, take it slow, but steady. Start off with a 3x a week, and every 2 weeks add another workout in until you get to 5 workouts a week. Depending on where you are at, you can add one every 3 weeks.
   
3. Be committed: So at this point you've been realistic about the days you can reasonably go, and realistic about the times, now COMMIT! Don't let anything else get in that way. You've already decided this is a good time for you. Don't let the crying kids stop you, or an unexpected phone call.
   
4. That brings me to my next one, No excuses: I hear WAY too many excuses why people are not working out. It doesn't mean they're not true, but they're excuses. No more, "I'm too tired, my kids don't like the day care, I haven't done it in so long, I don't feel like it, I don't have any time..." the list goes on. Either accept that you can't work out and won't talk about it, or stop making excuses and make it happen. If you REALLY wanted to be in shape, you could do it. I promise. Maybe the question is, why am I doing this? (But that's for another day :) So stop making excuses, and just do what you can do.
   
5. Don't over do it at first: You're already being realistic about the number of days you're going to start off with, but now be realistic with what you're going to do for the workout. Do not start your first week back doing an hour run, with sprint intervals, uphill. You'll get a few days into it and say, "See ya later!" Ease into things and be realistic about what you can do.
   
   
   
   
   

The Healthy Snacks Blog

Need some ideas on healthy snacks? Check out this blog:

http://www.thehealthysnacksblog.com

It has tons of healthy snacks to choose from that you can just buy from the store.

Yummy Snack

Parmesan Pita Crisps

Sprinkle 2 tablespoons of grated Parmesan evenly over a 4-inch whole-wheat pita. Dust pita with ¼ teaspoon dried oregano and broil until the cheese browns. Cut into quarters.

Healthy Substitutes

Some people like to use substitute tactics in place of bad foods that they like to munch on in a regular basis. There's nothing wrong with having a dessert every once in a while, but definitely not every night. Here are a few of my favorites:

1. Sparkling water instead of soda
   
2. Gum
   
3. Tums. Totally kidding.
   
4. Yogurt, instead of dessert or ice cream.
5. A mixed bag of Kashi cereal, dried fruit, unsalted almonds, cashews and pistachios, if you feel like munching on something.
   
6. If water doesn't sound appetizing cut up some oranges, put them in a big water bottle and keep filling it with water throughout the day. It feels a little more special than drinking plain old water.
7. Homemade popcorn, spray with water to get wet, and put on any kind of flavoring: ranch dressing flavoring, cayenne pepper, or other spices.
8. I'm satisfied after eating one Dove Dark Chocolate after dinner when I feel like something sweet.
   

Delicious

Cheese Melt

Spread ½ teaspoon of spicy mustard on a cocktail-size slice of thin whole-grain rye bread. Add a thin square of sharp Cheddar (about the same size as the bread) and broil until the cheese melts, then top with a slice of tomato and a sprinkling of caraway seeds.

I also like to eat this with cottage cheese instead of regular cheese as well.