Month: March 2011

Categories
Weight Loss Exercise

Spring Into Fitness Week – Day 1

Spring into fitness week

Spring into fitness week

Well I threatened to do a week of fitness to tune up for Spring and I am really just going to run it off the cuff. The idea is that I will come up with a few short posts, well fairly short for me anyway, and give you a chance to look forward towards Summer and start your outdoor or at least your transition to outdoor fitness now.

Oh, and it is snowing in Calgary this week so I may be being overly opimistic about Spring,

I want to let you think about what this season is about and ask you some questions that you can think about as the week and next few months goes.

Partners and Troublemakers

First I want you to look at the people around you and the people that you may need. You need a support system and people to lean on and help yourself. At home my wife works out regularly and she also eats really really well. This helps me a lot. There is a real feeling of fitness as a lifestyle and working out as a way of life in my house and she if really careful with what she eats and feeds the rest of the family (thanks so much Michelle).

I know that I have it good. What are the people in your life like? Do they see the benefits of eating well and exercising? Do they have a vision of how they want to feel and experience things in life? If this is a problem for you it is easy enough in the Spring to join a running club, biking or hiking club, or even fitness classes so that you can meet like minded people. Don’t be shy and don’t be lonely becasue it will only hurt you.

Troublemakers on the other hand are difficult. If you have people around that are negative, eat badly, let there fitness go then you need to insulate yourself. Let these people know how excited you are to make changes or more changes in your life and when you see results show them, don’t be bragging or anything but show them what is happening and don’t expect any congratulations in return, you can help them in this part of your life more than they can help you.

If you are struggling or having trouble you can always lean on the people that are living the same way as you, the people in the clubs you have joined or in blog comments on the fitness blog or other messageboards.

Remember that no matter how excited or how let down you feel over the next few weeks these problems are just small daily emotions. Work through them and the next 8 or 12 weeks will be a great and exciting journey.

Enough for today, have a great day and post what you think below in the comments on this topic.

Categories
Weight Loss Exercise

Spring into Fitness Week – Day 2

Fruit and Vegetables

Fruit and Vegetables

Well today I want to write about eating again. I know that I seem to always be talking about eating and exercise and today is the eating portion.

Drinking Water – While you are getting ready for Spring and Summer and the outdoor weather you have to remember that often the humidity is lower outside and you may need to increase your water intake. Do you already drink a lot of water? I find that it makes a huge difference in my energy when I am drinking a lot all day long.

Berries and fruit are popping up as well. We have been eating a lot of variety of berries all Winter but they are so expensive that I know lots of people are missing out. Getting the fruits and veggies that you need will give you the energy you need and gives you lots of extra water and nutrients, and antioxidants.

White Carbs – If you are looking to lose some weight (many people are), then one of the easiest ways for most people is just to cut down on the white carbs. White carbs to me are things like rice, potatoes and breads. I am not saying to get rid of it all but instead just cut back and see how it feels. Lots of people that try this are shocked at the increase in energy and weight loss at the same time and if you have any kind of gluten allergies that you don’t know about…well this would be great.

Finally crack out the barbeque. Mine has been frozen most of the Winter but eating some nice lean barbequed meat is great, increases your iron levels, helps your muscles heal and gets you outside into the sunshine.

Well hopefully these few tips help you out this week. Try and see how you can integrate them into your current lifestyle. Remember that it is the small changes made today that make for the big changes later.

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Categories
General Weight Loss Tips

Food Focus

Today marks the beginning of week ten of the Insanity Workout. Ten. Weeks. On top of six weeks of yoga (which we’ve completed) and a weekly session of strength training.

Here is (another) list of thoughts from the 10 week mark…

1. The time passed. Seriously, ten weeks passed in a blink of an eye. I didn’t have to exercise, but I’m so glad I did. Some days the 45 minutes to an hour seemed like torture, even before I started. Which brings me to…

2. The only thing stopping me from doing most anything in my life is me. Forcing myself to exercise daily for ten weeks allowed me to see thought patterns and push past them. I was negative to myself, and sometimes down right mean. I think this would have stopped me before. It’s all mental, you know that quote: if you think you can or think you can’t, you’re right? So true.

3. Weight loss isn’t everything. This one is hard to even type out, because often I’ve thought: what’s the point in exercise if I don’t lose this weight quickly? What has changed is this: I exercise because it’s healthy and it feels good. This doesn’t mean I don’t weigh myself or get excited to see that I’ve lost 12 pounds (because I’m thrilled) but because there is a part of me that always thought…it’s ONLY 12 pounds, what’s the point? My perspective has shifted from exercise to lose weight, to exercise for life because it’s a good thing to do. I would have (and have many times) given up in the past. Just thrown in the towel because I was only doing it to lose weight. I’m okay with exercising everyday for the rest of my life if I never lose a single pound.

4. This has nothing to do with exercise (well, a little) but never (ever ever) weigh yourself during PMS. Just don’t do that to yourself. I can gain and lose eight lbs. in a weeks time from water weight alone.

5. My clothes fit better. I feel better.

6. Perfection is not a sustainable goal. I’ve had to really challenge myself to “do it anyway”. To exercise when I didn’t have a good week, to get back on track if I missed a couple of days. The truth is, a “poor week” of exercise now (3-4 days instead of six) is what I good week used to look like. I always aim for 6, but a couple of the ten past weeks weren’t perfect. I had to get over it. There were weeks when I ate wayy too much, more than exercise could work off. I had to get over it and keep moving. There were weeks when the scale went up and down and settled and moved around. I really had to stop aiming for a “perfect week” or a “perfect situation”, forgive myself and move on. This is hard.

Thoughts about food:

1. I have destructive food patterns that I’ve been able to pinpoint in the past weeks:

– If I’m overwhelmed, stressed, don’t know where to begin or procrastinating: I overeat.

– I still have the “all or nothing” , “last meal” mentality

– Keeping busy, staying focused and organized = better eating

2. Keeping a food journal, regardless if I count calories or not, truly helps me

3. Writing thoughts and emotions in this journal is also helpful

4. Being on the right path, having a plan for the day and staying on track with tasks makes it easier for me to go about my day without thoughts of food. Everything is related. I’ve noticed that the more productive I am, the more happy I am and the more productive and happy I am the less intense I feel about food.

5. The next ten weeks will be about eating real, clean food. My goal is this: to keep a daily food journal no matter what (good, bad or ugly) and to eat as much real food (close to nature, unprocessed, five ingredients or less) as possible. I want to really push myself to look for the clean food on restaurants and menu’s when dining out.

Clean eating is my new goal!

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