Motivation Monday!

Today's modivation is for anyone who has been told that their goals are unachievable, dumb, or been scoffed at in any other way.

My Trick for Beating Sugar Cravings

How many of us get hit with a sugar craving at least once a day? Or for some of us (like me...) its more like every other hour.  And it can kill our best efforts to stay healthy. So I've developed a kind of system for myself that I thought I would share with you in case it works for someone else too.  (If you crave stuff like chips, the same idea can work for that as well.)

It starts with taking all visible junk food and getting it out of sight.  No dishes of candy on the table.  Anything I bake is put in the cupboard.  Just this helps by eliminating the sight trigger.  If the cookies are in the cupboard, you have to think of them on your own instead of seeing them when you walk in a room and all of a sudden wanting a cookie.  Its easy to do and it does help. 

The other thing I do takes a little bit more practice and willpower.  Whenever I want a cookie, I first have a healthy snack.  If I want something sweet or chocolaty, I have an apple with natural peanut butter or some other fruit.  If suddenly I want chips or something salty, I'll have carrots or bell peppers dipped in hummus.  Both peanut butter and hummus are high in fat, but they are the healthy fats that your body needs.  If you don't go crazy, both are good to have in your diet.  A note on peanut butter though: if the ingredient label has anything more than peanuts and a little salt, its more of a dessert than a healthy snack.  Its weird at first to switch to natural peanut butter but it is absolutely worth it, healthwise.  Then, after I have had my healthy snack and some water, if I still feel like I would just love that cookie or a couple little pieces of candy, I go for it.  By first fueling my body with the good stuff, it is a lot easier to just have one and be done. 

Now, some of you may think, well its better to not eat that junk food at all.  You should just never ever eat it.  Well yes, you are right.  There is nothing healthy about a cookie.  But honestly, I like cookies.  If I sit here and forbid myself from ever eating a cookie, eating healthy gets a lot harder because all I want is that stinking cookie that I can't have.  So by having that one cookie IF I still even want it after my healthy snack, I can happily carry on with my normal healthy eating.  (I should add that after the healthy snack, stick with one cookie/ brownie/ whatever or a few hersheys kisses or something...not like a whole candy bar.  That defeats the purpose...)

Its hard to make the first leap and say I'm going to eat an apple before candy.  Once you start doing it, I promise it becomes natural.  And more often, you will find that you forget that you wanted that junk food in the first place because you have given your body what it needs, so it's not craving anything anymore.  Eating is like fueling your car...your body works best when you give it the proper fuel.

To get you started I made a list of a few favorite healthy snack ideas:

-One sliced apple with about 2 Tbsp of natural peanut butter

Sam's After Work Snack- Bananas with Cinnamon!

-One banana sprinkled with cinnamon (cinnamon is SUPER good for you! It may even help keep your tummy flat.  I don't know how, but scientists think it might.)

-Sliced veggies (carrots, celery, bell peppers) with about 2 Tbsp Hummus

-1 cup of plain greek yogurt with apple pieces and a few raisens in it (my current favorite. Yum!)

-Any piece of fruit with a small handful of nuts

- A few whole grain crackers and a couple slices of cheese.

Whats your favorite healthy snack?



Health Is More Than Fitness: A Note On Sunscreen

Health is about more than eating right and exercising.  It involves all sorts of other decisions made each and every day.  Should I floss my teeth? Should I wipe off the kitchen counter after cooking with raw meat? Should I wash my hands after using the bathroom? Okay so we all know that these are pretty obvious YES answers if we want to stay healthy. But here is one you probably also know the answer to.  Should I wear sunscreen?  Most of us have neglected sunscreen in the past and gotten burned for it. I know I've had a couple pretty uncomfortable burns. I have a pretty solid tan going that I got WHILE WEARING sunscreen.  If I hadn't put it on, I can only imagine how much of a walking billboard for skin cancer I would be right now.  But we keep not using it.  And then, to make matters worse, we go to tanning beds and bake some more.  All because we think that a nice tan is prettier than pasty white.  But pasty white is a lot prettier than skin cancer. Below is an article that one of my friends posted on facebook.  Its about a 26 year old girl that dies of skin cancer because she exposed her skin to those rays.  We all think "It won't happen to me..."  I bet she thought that too.  Please, take time to read this article and think about it now that we are getting into the summer months.  You don't need a tan to be pretty.  Healthy is a whole lot prettier than anything unhealthy.

 

A Death By Suntan At Age 26

http://shine.yahoo.com/healthy-living/a-death-by-suntan-at-age-26-1227159.html

(I've never posted a link in here before.  If it doesn't click through, copy and paste it in your browser.  Its worth reading.)

*NEW* Motivation Monday!

I've decided to start something new called Motivation Mondays!  It will be just a little something to kick off your week and your fitness lifestyle. 

So here is your first motivation!



Ever done a Couch to 5K Program?

So my internet has een really iffy lately...I've been getting booted after about 5 minutes of being on.  But I think the problem is fixed so hopefully I can post a little more now! 

So I was wondering if ayone out there has ever done a couch to 5K program.  If you have, I would love it if you would share with me how it went.  Did you like it?  Did you feel good doing it?  Was the pace good for you? Were you happy with your success?  Eventually I want to start my own couch to 5K classes, so if anyone has any experience with a program that they are willing to share, I would really appreciate it!  

So I Almost Hurt Myself This Weekend...

Hey friends!  I'm sorry I haven't posted in a while.  I've been working on my case studies for my exam and they are BRUTAL!  I'm averaging threatening to throw the computer out the window about once a day.  Lovely times. 

Anyways, I wanted to mention something really stupid I did this weekend.  On Saturday I went for a 13 mile run, but I started having some major pain in places that I have never had pain before, like my arches and my hips, as well as in my knee that I have to brace.  I'm not talking about muscle pain.  That can be worked out through, and actually should be. (I know it sounds strange, but if your muscles are sore from working out yesterday, do a light work out today.  It actually helps!) I'm talking about joint pains and other strange pains that are not normal. So what did I do? I got all stubborn and kept running because I "had" to get those 13 miles in.  By the time I was done, I could barely walk. There was a real possibility I had actually injured myself, all because I was stubborn.  Thankfully, I was okay.  A couple hours later, most of my pain was gone. I just felt a little stiff the next day.  I ended up changing to a new pair of running shoes that had not been worn down and it seems to have fixed the problems. 

The moral of the story is to know your body.  You can push through a lot of different pains when running (or working out in whatever way), but be aware of any severe pains that feel like they could be dangerous.  I wish I could give you a list of what those were, but its different with everyone. Usually, if its a stabbing or searing type of pain in joints, I know I need to stop.  If its dull pains, I keep going and am fine.  Long story short, don't stop working out for any old muscle pain, but when you feel something that worries you or you think might be serious, take a break.  If in doubt, call up your doctor and ask if it is a serious type of pain and how to strengthen your body to work through it.  Know your body. Find your limits, push them, but don't hurt yourself in the process.

Sometimes That Scale Just Doesn't Move...Why is That?

Is this how you feel when you look at the scale?  Have you recently started getting into shape by exercising more and eating right, but that scale just doesn't seem to want to move? Arg its so frustrating!!!  When I first started running a couple years ago, I didn't drop a pound in over a month.  I know.  Its frustrating.  You feel like you are working so hard but nothing happens.  If you feel like this, take a deep breath and relax.  You are still getting healthier, even if the scale doesn't seem to agree. (This is why I don't really like scales...they lie too easily.  If you really want numbers to tell you how healthy you are, get a body fat reading.  If you don't have the opportunity to do that, forget the scale and go with how you feel and how your clothes fit.) 

So why doesn't the scale agree?  Because you are not just burning fat, you are building muscle.  Muscle is so important because your muscle is the vehicle that burns the fat. When you have more muscle, your body will burn more fat throughout the day.  Here's a great way to show you what I mean:

 

The gross yellow goopy stuff is 5 pounds of excess body fat. The red thing is 5 pounds of lean muscle mass.  So if you lose 5 pounds of excess body fat, but gain 5 pounds of muscle, the scale will remain the same, but you've made a huge positive change in your body! The muscle that replaced the fat is only good for you and will help you burn more fat later.  And don't worry, its not an endless process.  Eventually, you will condition your muscles enough that you will not need to gain anymore to perform your workouts. 

Even though I'm talking a lot about the numbers on the scale, please remember that those numbers are not the important thing.  Society puts so much emphasis on the scale numbes going down, but the really important thing is living a healthy lifestyle and feeling good about yourself!