Back to Basics
Here's the latest edition of my weekly e-newsletter. If you would like to be on my mailing list send me a message at remymaguire@gmail.com and I'll send you the past 5 editions and you'll receive Thursday's Thoughts once weekly to keep you informed, motivated and excited (I hope) about health and fitness!Back to Basics: Thursdays Thoughts Ed. 6
Exercising, eating well and taking care of ourselves isn't a sometimes thing it's an all the time thing. Carving out time from our busy lives to get to the gym and being mindful about the calories we choose to eat isn't called a 'diet' it's called healthy living. Taking time to rest and enjoying vacations and dessert is part of that good life. Whether you are trying to lose weight or just maintain the weight you are requires some attention to the details. Research shows that people who plan ahead, both meals and fitness, set regular goals for themselves and pay attention to how much the eat, drink and move live longer, fitter and happier lives.
Different techniques work for different people. There are high-tech and low-tech ways to track your plans. It's importand to find something that's easy and works for you.
Goal Setting: Setting goals that are specific, measurable, attainable, realistic and time based prove to provide the most effective guidelines for success. These goals and can be big, little, short-term or long-term. For example: This month my goals are...
-Avoid all prepared or packaged foods other than the twice weekly protein bars I eat while busy at work.
-Focus on most needed triathlon training by swimming 1x/week and running 2x/week
-Get outdoors and camp one weekend.
-Write a personal blog entry twice in June.
Keep Track: Write it all down. You can't change what you don't know. It's important to be aware of what you are doing (or not doing) to reach your goals. I use livestrong.com to track my calories. I plan meals out on Sunday night and make a grocery list for the week. I write on my calendar (in pencil) my workout plan for the week. Then I go back and record what I did, how I felt, how hard I worked and how many calories I burned each day.
Plan ahead: The previous two tips suggest the importance of this task. I love looking through cooking mags and websites on Sunday night to come up with 1 new recipe to try during the week. I often eat the same breakfast and lunches with some variety depending on what is in season. I also prepare for planned dinners out by checking out the restaurants menu on line or adding an extra workout if I know it's going to be a big meal out. Most importantly, I think, I keep my gym bag, purse and even car stocked with small baggies of nuts, protein bars, apple and oranges just in case!
Mind your portions: We almost all suffer from portion distortion. When cooking at home and following a recipe divid the appropriate portions out for your meal and immediately zip lock up the rest for another meal (not an hour later:). Grab a take home box for leftovers when dining out. Don't worry, it won't go to waste. And if you end up leaving something on plate that's ok too. And I promise there will always be more chocolate chip cookies.
Move, move, move: Go ahead, do it now. Stand up, sit down, shake, shake, shake. We all know exercise makes weight loss easier. It is also critical to keeping a healthy and happy heart, lungs and brain. By adding periodic, random bursts of unplanned movement during the day we can avoid stiffness and soreness, rev up our energy and burn a few extra calories to compensate for the Reeses peanut butter cut we ate and forgot to write down.
Here's to the best you! Have a great weekend!
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