Tag: Exercise Schedule

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General Weight Loss Tips

What November May Bring

I spent the weekend in good ol’ West Virginia. Equal parts to see my family, go to the Dunbar fall festival and to see my best friend Jasmine for her 29th birthday. We’re all turning 29 in “the group” of girls I’ve known forever, and we like to tease Jasmine, because she’s the oldest and it means 30 is right around the corner for us all. 30 seems so big and scary. I know I will love my 30s, I’ve heard rumors that they’re great, but I’m embracing the heck out of 28 for now. I also feel a lot of motivation to leave my excess weight in my 20s.

Me and Jasmine posing at the farmer’s market.

My hometown feels haunted to me. Every corner has a specific memory, even the outside scent takes me back to the years prior to college. To high school, when driving around with the music up and the windows down, was the height of excitement for us.  I’m not sure what it is about fall, but I feel nostalgic. The scents, the leaves, the chill in the air. It’s magical to me and a feeling I hope I never lose. I have fall rituals, that probably sound silly, but are incredibly comforting. Such as fall scented candles and car air fresheners in scents like pumpkin, cinnamon or fireside. I like wearing hoodies with flip-flops. I have mix CDs with my favorite fall music going in the car.  I start cooking food like curry and chili for dinner. And I fill my porch with mums, asters and pumpkins. All of these are traditions are incredibly important to me. Am I alone here?

Do you have any fall traditions?

November! I found out a couple of weeks ago that I will be traveling to Los Angeles the first week of November. I will have more details on this trip, as it is blog related, in the coming weeks. But, for now, I am super excited and motivated to continue with my weight loss efforts. I have six weeks before the trip and I’m setting two goals that go along with my September goals. The first one is to exercise everyday with one day off. This means sticking to my exercise schedule of Zumba, c25k, Jillian’s 30 day DVD and stregnth training. I’m also re-setting the goal of tracking my calories every single day for the next six weeks, including the weekends. I struggle tracking on the weekends, because I’m out and about and not able to track on my phone, but this shouldn’t be an excuse.

Ultimately I would like to lose 2-3 pounds a week, but I’ll be pleased with whatever weight is lost from my actions.

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Weight Loss Exercise

Secrets to losing weight

Secrets to losing weight

Many people struggle with losing weight either for a short time in the spring or summer or for their whole life. There are many things that you can do to make the difference between being overweight or not. Based on the way that your lifestyle is there are two big things that you have to concern yourself with, diet and exercise.

Diet is what you eat. We all know that we should not eat food that is bad for us but how about the flip side. How about eating more foods that are better for us. Today at lunch I could have gone out for fast food or I could have stayed in and eaten the soup and fruit that I brought with me. I ate the soup. Today is generally the way that I eat which is eating by design. I plan in the morning what I will eat and then pack it with me so that I do eat it and not something that is more convenient at the time. Tomorrow I may go out for lunch instead but I know that in two weeks I will have eaten all but three meals or so by preparing them myself and not by having a restaurant prepare them for me. I eat what I should and if I eat any prepared food that I know that it is one bad decision compared to all of the good decisions that I make.
Water is also a big part of my diet. I drink water throughout the day so that my body can easily digest my food and also so that I am not hungry and looking for some junk food.

Exercise is the other part of a great health plan and is the basis, to me, of how to best lose weight. I ride a bike to work all summer so I can get two good workouts in a day but on the weekend I take it easy so that during the next week I am not getting too sore to keep up my exercise schedule. Exercising one a day is a great way to get better health and if you can keep up a high heart rate of at least 30 minutes a day it will burn more calories constantly during the day every day. Now that winter is coming I will be balancing my cardio on an indoor elliptical trainer with some weights to gain a bit more muscle. The importance of weight training can not be understated. If you have more muscle your body has to work a little harder to keep itself going, this will burn more calories.

Lastly I think that losing weight has a lot to do with a great, excited attitude. I have always found that when I am in my best shape I have a great attitude about my exercise and my eating. Workouts are a breeze and I am working towards my exercise goals consistently. My eating is really good and I am proud of the things that I am putting into my mouth and finally my outlook is great because I feel excellent about the way I look and feel.

Adopt these tactics and your weight loss will be a lot easier and more fun than it has ever been before

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Weight Loss Exercise

Colder Weather Exercise


The Summer is creeping away here in Calgary. On my ride in this morning the temperature was right at freezing so the nice easy schedule of riding in to work and home will be over sooner than I would hope. Now is the time of year that all of those outdoor activities that keep you in shape so easily are going to come to an end in the northern latitudes.

What will you do about it?

Most people have a bad habit of fluctuation exercise. In the Spring you get sore from exercising outside for the first time since the fall and your body hates you for it, but you endure it and workout through the Summer and in the Fall and Winter get almost no exercise again and have your weight float up a few pounds hoping that you can lose it again next Spring. I will be giving tips all Winter for staying in shape but this is a good chance to look at what you should start thinking about right now.

First prioritize your exercise schedule for the Winter. It may be tougher to work out but of course you can do it if you work out the days and times you will be working out. Most of all be realistic. The best times to workout are early morning before you get caught up with the issues of the day and after work if you have a stable work schedule. If you push dinner out a bit you may be able to either workout right after work before dinner or else get an hour in while watching one of the many great TV shows that eat up our Winter nights.

Next figure out what you want to do this Winter for exercise. A few years ago my family (actually my wife and I, the toddlers had no say in it) bought a good treadmill and exercise bike and then each Fall we go out and replace one of the items and lose a bit on the trade-in but at least have some great new and new to us equipment to keep us interested in the Winter.

Lastly make sure that you have a good mix of exercise. One or two pieces of fitness equipment may not be enough to keep you motivated is make sure you plan on skating, skiing or climbing stairs in an office building to supplement your exercise this Winter. If you can find local fitness events that you can take part in. There are a lot of different leagues in the Winter be they hockey or curling or badminton and volleyball.


One great tip for exercise equipment is to have a running log of your distance. This would be floors for a stair machine or actual miles on a treadmill, bike or elliptical trainer. Using a map it is fun to keep track of the distance that you have covered and you can even try to go city to city with goals in between over the course of the Winter.


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