A Fit and Healthy Body – 7 Simple Steps
By: Ashley Mahaffey (DME)
A fit healthy body is not achieved in leaps, but in steps. Create your own end-to-end fitness success plan by implementing the following 7 simple steps.
1. Have a Plan
The most successful people in business have a plan. Why is this any different when it comes to your fitness strategy. You will be most successful if you write down your plan. Determine what will be your goal and the workout schedule to get you there. What will be the types of exercise you will do and for how many minutes. Will you be exercising at the gym, your home, or the park.
When it comes to your nutrition, plan your meals on a calendar. This will be your meal planner. Next, create shopping lists for added structure. It’s always best to have ready made snacks in the refrigerator – fruit, crunchy vegetables, and lean meat protein are some of my favorites.
Make room in your plan for missteps. I’m emphasizing balance here. There will be times when an evening out sidetracks you from your goal. Just ensure you know to get back to your position of strength at the next meal.
2. Create Systems
If you have a systematic workout routine and your snacks and meals are thoughtfully planned and executed then the rate of your success is much higher than if you had simply created a plan and dashed off in the dark with hopes of following through. For example, you can put out your clothes the night before and set your alarm clock. When the alarm goes off you get on your clothes and go to your designated workout area to start with exercise number one.
Regarding nutrition, you could have your weekly shopping list generated in a word document so you can find it easily and/or need to change it. The shopping list would contain the ingredients that will make the meals on your meal planner. Instead of leaving your grocery shopping until a time when you can fit it into your week, commit to doing it the same day each week. If you can designate that chore, do so!
3. The 5 minute workout rule
Most days my clients don’t wake up with a smile saying, “Wow! I am so excited to go and exercise first thing this morning.” But what I employ is the 5 minute rule. My clients have to get out the door and begin with 5 minutes of exercise. After 5 minutes they usually find that they can go 5 more and then soon the workout is completed. Try that tactic. You will feel great from all the endorphins that were lacking before started.
4. Trash the Junk
There are many temptations facing us in our culture today. We have to be mindful that removing those temptations establishes a greater opportunity for more blessings to flow our way. The same goes for poor food choices. If there are poor package food choices in the pantry or refrigerator then we are tempted to eat them.
5. Enlist a Friend
It’s important to have a non-judgmental friend to be the cheerleader in your corner – a person who can hold your feet to the fire. It could be a workout buddy or just someone you call and confide in regarding your regular progress. I can’t underscore the power of a buddy enough.
6. Create a Measuring Tool
I like to use body fat measurement. However, a scale can just as easily be used to measure progress.
7. Write It Down
Journaling is proven to be one of the top tools to keep people connected to their exercise and nutrition plan. Each day there should be an entry for the type and duration of exercise. Just as important, you should log food intake. It is amazing what you eat if you actually log it. By glancing over the journal at a time when you are unmotivated or feel like the wheels are coming off you will find renewed strength from your past success so that you can continue to move forward.
Bonus Tip: Create a Reward System
Establishing rewards to mark milestones in fat loss is powerful. The key is to make the reward significant enough to matter. I strongly discourage food items as a reward. Instead, think of a movie that you’re looking forward to viewing, or a night out with your friends. Buy the movie coupons ahead of time and post them on your bathroom mirror as a reminder.
And, if you would like more focus around creating your own fitness strategy you can apply for a 45 minute complimentary session with me here http://www.YourWinningFitnessStrategy.com
Ashley Mahaffey, ACE, CPT – http://AshleyMahaffey.com
Some Organizing Tips for You
February 24, 2009 by drmommy
Filed under Organizing Tips
By Melissa Smallwood (DME )
Organizing is not a personality trait, it is a learned skill. Granted that some of us come by it more naturally than others but it is a skill that anyone can learn. I cringe when people say they want to “get organized” as if that will be the answer to all their problems. Everyone is organized in some aspect of their lives. My goal with a client and now with you, my reader, is to help you become more organized than when you started.
The first step to becoming more organized is to identify the obstacles in your path. If you are tripping over toys is it because the toys don’t have a designated place? You haven’t taught your child to pick up one thing before getting out another? The pace of your life is too hectic to allow time for clean-up? Toys on the floor really don’t bother you? Every one has different internal motivators and different organizing challenges they face. Yours may be clutter, another time management, another piling, another hoarding. Once you have identified the reason behind the problem it becomes much easier to devise a solution!
Here are some tips when beginning an organizing project:
- Start small. The important thing is just to start.
- Resist the urge to feel overwhelmed. Working in 10 to 15 minute time increments, taking breaks, enlisting a friend to help can all be tools to help with this. If you haven’t seen your family room floor in four years you are not going to “organize” it in a day.
- Work with what you have. Until you understand the problem and how it was created, don’t go out and spend lots of money on organizing tools and gadgets. Clear the clutter first. Develop a plan and see what you already have in your home to assist you in making a space more organized before using any other resources (and potentially adding to the clutter).
- Create a place for EVERYTHING. If it doesn’t have a home in your home it shouldn’t be in your home.
- Develop routines and stick with them. This is something we will discuss more in the upcoming weeks.
- Cut yourself some slack. Rome wasn’t built in a day, as the saying goes. Give yourself credit for even small achievements. This will help you stay encouraged and maintain your momentum in overcoming the clutter challenge.
- Keep at it. This is probably the issue people struggle with the most. We have all had a fit of “we are going to get this darn house organized” only to find ourselves in the same cluttered environment a few weeks later. That is because there is a difference between picking up and organizing. We’ll be talking more about that as well.
So, is there hope for your cluttered counter tops? Your juice box infested mini-van? Your “don’t open that door” closet? Absolutely. It just requires effort, motivation and the desire to learn new skills.
Melissa Smallwood (Multi-tasking Mama) has worked with seniors and families as a professional organizer for several years and is the owner of Organized Life by Design, LLC. She has an extensive human services background. She is also the mom of three active boys (one of which has special needs). She enjoys helping people get their lives, calendars and homes organized so that they have time to see and enjoy their blessings!
Interesting Things To Do with Hand Lotion
If you’re like me I can’t live with out my hand and body lotion. Below are some ways to use lotion that will in turn help save some money. Who doesn’t like saving money? Enjoy the tips below:
- Shaving – instead of using shaving cream which can be costly, grab a bottle of lotion instead. An added bonus: legs stay moisturized longer.
- Polish your shoes – dab a bit of lotion on your shoes and buff with a cloth to have a wonderful shine in not time for pennies.
- Say good-bye to frizz – don not apply directly on hair, spread a little over your fingertips and scrunch your hair to remove the frizz. Try it, it works!
- Remove clothing static – rub some lotion on your hands and rub over your clothing and your pantyhose, to remove that annoying static.
- Moisturize under your gloves – place a tube of lotion near your gloves, and next time you reach for your gloves, put some lotion on and keep your hands smooth.
- No more flaky heels – can’t afford a pedicure, no worries..lather your feet with lotion and slip on a pair of socks before going to bed and watch the cracked heels, begin to look better in just a few weeks.
Try these simple tricks with simple hand or body lotion. Have an idea to share? Leave us a comment below.
Fitness Is a Way of Life
By: Carla Birnberg (DME)
As I grow ever closer to turning 40 I have found that Im changing my definition of the word fitness. Gone already were the days where I fretted about how I looked in a particular article of clothing. While friends lamented turning thirty I embraced and adored it. To me nothing was more freeing than the realization that I no longer saw myself through anyone else’s eyes but my own. Now if I donned a pair of particularily snug jeans and like how they fit—mine is the only opinion which matters.
Yet all through my thirties I still focused much of my health & fitness ideas on the outside. I did certain workout routines because I hoped they would allow me to look better (I’ll admit it) and if there was a chance I’d live longer or improve my balance that was merely the low sugar icing on the proverbial cake.
No more.
I now, more than ever before, realize that functional fitness isn’t for old people (of which, yes, I’m quickly becoming one) but for people like me who need to be 100% certain they can hoist their stuffed suitcase into the overhead bin on a flight.
I now, more than ever before, acknowledge that while balance is a buzz word these days (Thanks Oprah!) my life may be more about harmony. Sure, I’d welcome complete balance should I happen to achieve it, but most days I seek to have all facets of my life work in harmony. One way I achieve some semblance of life harmony is through staying active and fit. Meditation, yoga, weight training are no longer means to look younger but a pathway to feeling younger. Increasingly calm. Patient with my Toddler and, always important, about to lift her when she reaches her arms up toward me.
Fitness for me is about taking up space in the world, being calm confident and comfortable in my own skin, and perhaps someday achieving that elusive life balance. Until then living a life where all facets, including fitness, work together in harmony is just fine.
Read more from Carla Birnber, more commonly known as MizFitOnline at http://mizfitonline.com
Vegetarian Stuffed Bell Peppers
February 9, 2009 by drmommy
Filed under Meatless Meals, Recipes
This is a great alternative to the meat version of stuffed bell peppers.
Ingredients
8 Colored Bell Peppers
3 cups of white rice
1 jar of spaghetti sauce
3 Boca burger patties
1 can of pinto beans
One chopped onion (white or red)
3 teaspoons of chopped garlic
Pepper, salt, and garlic powder to taste
Instructions
- Cut the tops off of the bell peppers. Take the core and seeds out so that the bell pepper is hollow. Set the tops aside.
- Cook the rice.
- In a large pan, grill the Boca burger patties, breaking the patties into small pieces.
- Chop one bell pepper (green or red) and mix with the onions.
- Mix the rice and the Boca burger in the pan on warm heat. Add the spaghetti sauce.
- Add the bell pepper and onion mixture, as well as the beans.
- Add the spices and garlic as you please.
- Stuff each individual bell pepper to the top with the ingredients.
- Bake in the oven at 250 degrees for 10 to 15 minutes.
- Put the tops back on the bell peppers. Serve and Enjoy.
