New Year's Resolution

Happy New Year.

Like many people, I am starting the new year with a resolution to lose weight, get fit and be healthy. This is due to the fact that I did terribly at keeping up with my diet and exercise during the holiday, and sadly, even gained back weight I’d previously lost a couple months ago.

To be honest, that’s mostly why I haven’t kept up my fitness blog here.

Embarrassment.

But I’m doing it, and that’s what’s most important. So today is again DAY 1. I’m starting anew, with a desire to set fitness goals and make plans to reach them.

So, for those of you who may be in a similar situation: welcome to 2012.

New year, fresh start.

Good luck.


Feel free to leave a comment about your New Year's fitness resolution.

Tips to Drinking More Water

Drinking water is an integral part of staying healthy, and is especially important when trying to lose weight. While there are differing ideas on how much water a person should be drinking, the Mayo Clinic has posted the following advice:

So how much fluid does the average, healthy adult living in a temperate climate need? The Institute of Medicine determined that an adequate intake (AI) for men is roughly 3 liters (about 13 cups) of total beverages a day. The AI for women is 2.2 liters (about 9 cups) of total beverages a day.

Everyone has heard the advice, "Drink eight 8-ounce glasses of water a day." That's about 1.9 liters, which isn't that different from the Institute of Medicine recommendations. Although the "8 by 8" rule isn't supported by hard evidence, it remains popular because it's easy to remember. Just keep in mind that the rule should be reframed as: "Drink at least eight 8-ounce glasses of fluid a day," because all fluids count toward the daily total.

Based on these numbers, eight 8-ounce glasses of water may not be enough for many people, and that’s for those who aren’t active! If you’re active, trying to lose weight, or have a job that requires a lot of physical movement or activity, you will have to be drinking more than the 3 liters (for men) or 2.2 liters (for women).

That’s a TON of water!

And let’s be honest, drinking that much water can be tough. The first few glasses aren’t that hard to get down, but after a while, water starts getting bland and undesirable. But we still need to get more water into our bodies. What are we do to?

Well, I have a couple tricks I’d like to share about how I make sure to get the water my body needs:

1. Give water taste. I do this with the travel packets of Crystal Light. These are a great choice because they don’t have any calories and give flavor to the water, making it easier to drink more. I may just be making this up, but I recall an ad by Crystal Light claiming people drink 15% more water when using Crystal Light. With taste, I drink more water, keeping me hydrated.

2. Eat salty snacks. One thing I do to drink more water is keep salty snacks nearby, which keep me thirsty. My favorite are nuts, primarily pistachios. I can eat about four or five pistachios, and the salt from them make me thirsty, which causes me to drink almost a whole glass of water. As I do that throughout the day, I find I am drinking a whole glass of water ever 30-60 minutes. As a side note, this is also a good idea to keep from eating too much at lunch or dinner. Right before you eat your meal, throw down a handful of nuts, and drink a glass or two of water afterward. All that water will cause you to feel less hungry.

Have any other ideas for making sure you drink plenty of water throughout the day? I am interested in any tricks or thoughts you have. And as always, I love comments.

Post Just for Men, No Ladies Please

HA! Gotcha!


You just had to look, didn't you? 

While you're here, I'll give a quick update. I moved my exercises from mornings to nights because it's easier. And I’ve been going every day (except Sunday) and have been much happier with the arrangement.

I am starting to see my weight go down. I have found an eating regimen I am happy with, and am keeping my calories at a healthy, weight-loss level.

I’ll keep you updated. Check out my side bar for my progress!

Time for a Quick Update

Okay, time for a quick update:

As you can see, I didn’t gain or lose this week. This is mostly because at the end of last week, I stopped doing INSANITY. I realized I was just hurting myself, and wasn’t feeling very exercised. Then, over the weekend was General Conference.

For those who read this and aren’t LDS (Mormon), General Conference is like a twice-a-year Mormon Super Bowl. Twice a year, members of the LDS church gather in chapels and homes to listen to our prophet and apostles speak to us about how to more fully life the Gospel of Jesus Christ. You can learn more about General Conference here, and about Mormons there.

And because this event is like the Super Bowl, that means lots of high calorie, tasty food. So any weight I started losing last week was quickly recovered, and then some. In fact, I had to work hard Monday and Tuesday just to get back to square one.

So here I am: square one. Again.

But the good news is I haven’t given up. I have started going to the gym every morning at 5:00 AM, and have burned at least 600 calories per visit, doing both cardio and weight lifting. I have also started using MyFitnessPal (I’ll write another post about this resource soon) to track my calorie intake.

Hopefully this will be the last time I’ll have to give the sad report of no weight lost (or of weight gained). 

Um... Two Weeks and No Weight Lost - Time to Revamp

Okay, this is embarrassing, but I realized today is the second week of my weight loss journey, and I am back to 205 pounds.

That's sad.

I know it takes a little time for my body to get used to my exercise and diet plans, but as I look back on the past two weeks, I can see that while I have implemented some great changes, there are a few more I need to make.

Like to stop eating out. And snacking on crap (i.e. potato chips, chocolate, candy, chocolate milk).

So, even though I have ended my second week with no weight lost, I think I am still moving forward because I have found what I have been doing wrong and what I need to do better. Part of progress is finding and correcting our mistakes. So that's what I will do.

Find and correct my mistakes and shortcomings with my fitness.

I appreciate your support and comments. I definitely need them.

So here we go.....

Again....

A Snack a Day Keeps the Doctor Away... Maybe

Healthy eating is hard. I know, because I’m trying to do it right now. And for many people, including me, the hardest part about healthy eating is the snacking.

As some of you know, I have started drinking green smoothies. When I set out on the green smoothie journey, I wanted to make those the biggest part of my diet. But I’ve run into two struggles with that: 1) In order to get enough calories in my day, I have to be drinking green smoothies constantly, and I don’t have the money or taste for that. 2) It is hard to pass up snacks throughout the day, especially since my green smoothies are all liquid and I want something solid.

Passing up snacks is especially hard when I am at a desk for eight hours a day. I’m not complaining about my job, in fact I love my job. But I get hungry at my desk. And snacks are so easy.

As I thought about this predicament, I realized I am probably not the only one who feels this way. So I decided to look up some good snack choices for work, which are not only healthy (ish) for us, but are also low in calories, so they don’t destroy our diets (and I’m using the term “diet” here to mean “a particular selection of food, especially as designated or prescribed to improve a person’s physical condition or to prevent or treat disease*” and not just a diet to lose weight).

Here’s my list:

Fruits: Fruits are a wonderful snack idea because they are high in nutrients and usually have low calories. They are also good because they are normally easily carried. Some great, and classic, examples are Apples (95 calories), Bananas (105 calories), Oranges (62 calories), Kiwi (46 calories) and Grapes (62 calories in one cup).

Vegetables: Like fruits, vegetables are a great source of nutrients and low calories. And they can also be easily carried or transported. Examples are Carrot Sticks (4 calories per stick), Celery (1 calorie per strip) and Cucumbers (14 calories for one cup sliced).

Nuts or Seeds: Nuts and seeds are a great snack because they can keep your hands and mouth busy, while providing healthy fats and good proteins. While you may not be able to eat as much if you’re on a weight-loss diet, they are still a great source of good nutrients. Try eating Pistachios (80 calories for around 24 nuts – my personal favorite), Roasted Peanuts (6 calories per nut), Almonds (80 calories for 12 nuts), Cashews (156 calories per oz), Sunflower Seeds (135 calories per half cup with shells), Pumpkin Seeds (57 calories per tablespoon).

100 Calorie Snack Packs: Finally, I know there may be many of you who, like me, just have a hard time giving up your chip and cracker snacks. It is so easy (and relatively cheap) to buy a bag of chips and just work on those as you go. But sadly, you are consuming not only more calories per snack, but also a lot of saturated fats. Not good. But if you still need them, I would recommend the 100 Calorie Snack Packs you can find at the grocery store. These offer fewer calories, and are helpful with portion size. I can’t tell you how many times I have purchased a bag of potato chips with the intention of eating a little at a time, then finding, after an hour, that my hand is hitting the bottom of the bag and all I’m getting is crumbs.

Too many 1,500-calories-from-a-bag-of-chips-in-one-hour experiences to count.

Finally, there is actually great benefit in snacking, as long as it is done in a healthy manner. By making sure you are consuming food every 2-3 hours, which you can do with three square meals and a snack between meals, you are keeping your metabolism working. This means it is constantly burning something, helping your body have energy and (if you’re dieting) lose more weight.

And don’t forget the best snack of all: Water! Whether or not you’re using any of these other snack ideas, be sure to drink plenty of water each day. A good standard for daily water intake is eight or nine glasses of water per day. And you should be drinking more if you have an active day (from work, sports, exercise, etc.).

If you have any other healthy snack ideas, I would love to hear them. I also welcome any recipes you may have for healthy snacking. If you comment or send me a recipe I like, I’ll be sure to blog about it!

*From Dictionary.com