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Weight Loss Exercise

5 Healthy Habits

It is time to talk about healthy habits.When you vow to improve your health you don’t have to instantly become a gym-addict or stop eating everything you love. It really comes down to incorporating healthy habits into your daily routine. Here are five habits that will set you off on a new healthy path.

5 Healthy Habits

Health Habit 1 –Drink More Water – Drinking water is the first great healthy habit, will improve your health for so many reasons! For one, if you’re trying to lose weight then it’s a lot easier if you drink water: (a) because it’ll stop you drinking sugary, calorie-laden drinks and (b) because we often mistake dehydration for hunger, causing us to overeat.

5 Healthy Habits

Healthy Habits

Experts recommend that you should be drinking eight glasses of water a day. This may sound difficult, but it really isn’t. Start by getting into the habit of drinking a full glass of water as soon as you wake up in the morning. It’ll help you feel more awake and more hydrated after the long night’s sleep. And it’ll get you off on the right foot for drinking enough water throughout the day.

Health Habit 2 –Get Enough Sleep – These days, very few of us actually get the sleep we need. When you don’t get enough sleep, you’re more prone to stress, unhealthy snacking, and turning to caffeine to keep you alert! This really isn’t good for your health.

We’re all different when it comes to how many hours of sleep we need each night. Adults need less and less sleep the older they get. The magic number for you probably lies somewhere in between seven and ten hours a night. Experts also agree that having a routine is crucial when it comes to getting enough sleep. Try to go to bed at the same time every night. Then, if it only happens every now and again, you won’t feel so many negative effects of a late night. This healthy habit will make you a lot more effective all the time.

Health Habit 3 –Walk More – If you really want to improve your health then start walking every day. A walk doesn’t just help you get more exercise, it’s also good for the soul. When you walk you’re getting fresh air and spending time away from the usual stresses of everyday life. The healthy habit of walking gives you time to think, and time to clear your head of anything that’s bothering you.

There are a few ways to get more walks into your daily routine. One idea is to go for a 30 minute walk on your lunch break each day. Or you could start walking short distances (under 2 miles) where you’d normally drive. You could even start taking stairs instead of elevators. Anything that boosts the physical activity you’re doing each day will help!

Health Habit 4 -Stretch – Try starting each day with a real stretching session. Stretching feels good, and is an excellent way to wake yourself up in the morning by getting your blood flowing. The Mayo Clinic states that stretching can also help to improve your athletic ability and reduce the risk of injury when you exercise. You could take this one step further and incorporate yoga stretches into your routine. You’ll find that your posture improves, you feel more healthy, and focusing becomes easier.

Health Habit 5 –Relax – No matter how much you exercise or watch your diet, you won’t truly improve your health until you learn how to relax! Getting stressed, anxious and angry about things only lowers your immune system and makes you more vulnerable to a whole range of health complications (both physical and mental). Learn to take some time for you. Try getting regular massages, attending a yoga class, learning how to meditate, or unwinding with regular relaxing baths.

Building Healthy Habits into your life

We all have habits and ways of living a good and effective life as well as habits that will hold us back. It is important to always look at our exercise, lifestyle, eating, drinking, resting, and even the people that we do things with to decide what we should be doing or not. Start by incorporating these healthy habits and then find more.

5 Healthy Habits

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Weight Loss Exercise

Thanksgiving in Canada



Today it was my Thanksgiving dinner. Here in Canada we have Thanksgiving in October, I know our southern neighbors have Thanksgiving in November we just get to see the football scores from work that day.

Two things that I noticed at dinner today, we had the big spread with lots of people and even more food. We of course have a couple of drinks before dinner, graze for a while rest for a while and then have pie. This is probably the worst way to eat as the meal takes a few hours and is thousands of calories.

My wife had no food before dinner and just drank water, she had a little of everything at dinner and then after dinner had a fork full of my pie and that was it. On the way home she was saying how great all the food was while I was complaining about how much I had to eat this afternoon and evening. I bet Michelle also sleeps better tonight and feels better tomorrow morning as well.

Some people have until tomorrow to think about this and the rest of you do not have to worry about it until next month.


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General Weight Loss Tips

Dear April

My last entry accidentally got deleted. This has happened maybe twice since I started blogging four years ago and I think it happened when the server updated and it got lost. So I apologize for that, it wasn’t intentional, especially since it took me forever to write and now I have no interest in writing it again.

It’s April! I have so many plans and goals for this month that I’m very excited about. But first, I have some updates:

–No Sugar. It’s been three months without sugar. I loosely say no sugar. I eat sugar in other forms such as fruit, natural sugars (I’ve added honey back in), and I will add sugar to a Vietnamese or Thai dish if it calls for it. It has been hard…some days harder than others. Right now I have cake and cookies in my house. I plan to give them away. It’s nice to not have them haunt me. I have sugar in the house, and I still bake. My treats are in the form of my glucosamine “candies”, Izze drinks, all natural fruit jam on toast/oatmeal/yogurt, and fruit smoothies. I’ve been hesitant to tell people I’m not eating sugar, in fact, if you don’t read this blog you probably don’t know.

I don’t want to be watched and I don’t want “sugar-free” to be confused with carb-free or have people think “oh she says no to ice cream, but yes to pizza! bah!” indeed so. This sugar-free thing is for cakes, cookies, ice cream…obvious sugar. It’s not a dietary guideline, it’s just me trying to get rid of something I have a hard time not overeating. I like rules.

– No TV. I have to admit I’ve gone almost five weeks without my regular rotation of TV watching and will confess I’ve been watching Mad Men on DVD this past week (season four just came out). Not a ton, and not like before when I get obsessed and watch five in one sitting. But, considerably less. I’ve noticed that I don’t miss TV in the mindless sort of way of passing time or procrastinating- I can always find ways to fill my time with work. However- I’ve come to realize that watching an episode of a good show with Josh is a treat for a days worth of work. We both work from home and it’s a nice way to turn off from work and relax together.

– Strength Training. Can I just say that I love strength training? I’ve been doing it off and on for almost five years now and it’s very rewarding. We picked it back up in January and I’m lifting weights that are 10-30 pounds heavier than I was then. We make notes during each session- can we increase the weight or stay the same. On February 3rd I could only do 80lbs. on the pull down machine (for arms, back and shoulders) and said I couldn’t do more.

Today I was able to pull down 120 lbs. That’s a 40 lb. increase in strength, meaning that I’m gaining muscle. This is the same for almost all of the machines I do. Did you know that for every pound of muscle you gain, your body burns 50 extra resting calories? Gaining 10 lbs. of muscle is 500 extra calories burned a day! I love that and I can tell that it is one reason that I’ve not gained any weight since January.

–Insanity. This week marks the 12th week of Insanity! I’ve lost 12-15lbs (it’s goes up and down) so far. I just can’t believe we’ve stuck with it for so long. We are already in our second rotation. I will admit that the past couple of weeks have been harder, we’ve done at least three workouts a week instead of our usual six. So we are getting back on track with six workouts this week.

April plans and goals:

The next two months (and most of summer) are going to be pretty hectic. I really need to step up my organization and will need continued exercise and eating well if I’m going to stay on top of everything. Spring marks the beginning of  of jewelry shows and my freelance design business is growing so I can use all the energy I can get.

I’m stepping up my game this month. I’m dedicated to counting calories and keeping a food journal. My goal it to lose 10-12 pounds this month with continued exercise and food tracking. I have no interest (as usual) in doing this by eating “diet” food, my method is to eat less, control portions, eat from home as much as possible and enjoy the food I’m eating.

Continuing with 5 days of the Insanity Workout with one day of strength. We may add yoga and running back in if the spirits moves us. And speaking of us… Josh is wearing all of his jeans now. All of the jeans that just a month ago would too tight. I am still steadily wearing a size 24/22. I’d love to be in a 20/18 by mid to late summer.

What are your April goals?

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