TAMING OUR SWEET TOOTH!

Have you ever stopped to notice how often you desire something sweet? Usually it is after we eat something salty or even after a nice meal. There are additional times when we just want a quick sweet snack.

These are the times when we need to stop and realize that we have immediate choices. We can either grab something healthful or grab something without really thinking about the consequences.

That's why it's important to always have great "selections" on hand, whether at home or work when we want to satisfy our "sweet tooth".

We can purchase a few of the following on a weekly basis at the grocery store and always have them within reach whether we're at work or home.

Apples, pears, grapes, bananas, oranges, watermelon, cantaloupe, plums, peaches, raisins or any of your favorite fruits.

We can also pop a sugar free candy that we keep in a nearby jar at work or home.

All of these items are great choices in order to satisfy our "sweet tooth" without loading up on extra calories that our body doesn't require to be used as fuel.

Have a great Monday!

Controlling Our Caloric Intake over the Weekend

Many people often state that it is harder to watch what they eat over the course of a weekend. Many find it much easier to stick to a healthy pattern on weekdays.

But if you think about it, it doesn't have to be one way or the other. Certainly we don't wish to use the weekend as a "free for all" when it comes to eating, especially after we've worked so hard to stay "On Track" during the week. We still have the power to make many great choices, just like we do during the week.

Our patterns don't have to change on the weekend. We can stick to the same pattern of three meals and a snack. If we go out to eat, we can certainly choose a basic fish or chicken breast accompanied with freshly steamed vegetables. We always have wonderful opportunities to consistently make healthy choices in what we "choose" to eat whether it's a weekday or a weekend situation.

In fact, for many, the weekend presents a better opportunity to get extra "exercising" in due to the increased flexibility with our time.

So, if we look at "weekends" from these points of view, it's obvious that "weekends" like "weekdays" are excellent opportunities to continue the pattern of eating healthy and exercising!

I hope you have a wonderful productive weekend!

CALORIES CONSUMED FROM BOREDOM!

There's no doubt that many of us eat simply because we can! Sometimes we are not even hungry in the least but we simply need something to do with our hands! Not good and can you imagine the extra calories not needed that we have consumed over the years!

No doubt that's where many of the extra pounds first began to appear! Well, that's exactly why we chose our grabby Octopus as our logo! That's who we become when we randomly reach for food throughout the day. Food that our body doesn't require and foods that add up big time in creating extra fat on our body.

We must break the cycle of random eating and tie up a few of our tentacles! That's right, handcuff them if you have to do but we simply cannot eat everything we see throughout the day. It's not good for us and we certainly don't need the extra calories all throughout the day.

It's important to start off the day with a good balanced breakfast, all while knowing your overall caloric count for the day. This way you can mentally break up how much you're going to eat at each meal. Surely, you have to know your count or you won't be guaranteed to lose weight in most cases. We'll discuss knowing your count in another post but it is important in order to achieve weight loss and maintaining your goal weight once your goal weight is achieved.

Breakfast is important for many reasons. One simple fact is that your body has not had any fuel for several hours and you're pretty much operating on empty unless you refuel at the start of the day.

Another reason breakfast is important is due to the fact that it is the start of the balance of eating for the remainder of the day. We balance three meals out with a healthy mid-afternoon snack. Imagine a clock. 8:00 am - 12:30 pm - 6:00 pm. We can add in a mid-morning or mid-afternoon healthy snack to hold us over until our next meal time. This also prevents us from becoming FAMISHED! Eating on time regulates our body so that we are not uncomfortable in between meals. Of course, we cannot always stick to the times mentioned above but try to find your own areas as close as possible without going over 4 hours without eating throughout the day. That's why we have those little snacks!

Our grabby Octopus is not regulated when we're overweight or obese. In most cases, it eats anything in sight. Yep, when we eat like this, we are treating our body like a Human Garbage Disposal. Suffering from Human Garbage Disposal Syndrome is no fun for sure. Our bodies are simply not meant to take in all the extra calories we consume when we eat in a random manner.

That's why it is so important to set up a healthy eating and fitness pattern for life. We can most certainly "TAME OUR INNER OCTOPUS" and "CURE OUR GARBAGE DISPOSAL SYNDROME!"

We did it; you can do it too!

Are You a Priority in Your Own Life?

Truthfully, most of us are not that good about making ourselves a priority in life. In many cases we put ourselves on the back burner and everyone else we love before us. This is not a good thing. It's certainly not good for us and it's not good for all the people we love who rely on us in life.

It's funny but I think we can all remember different times of our lives when we felt we were operating at our best. A time where we felt we had a great balance in our lives. Maybe it was a time where we felt we had our eating habits under control and in a healthy state. Maybe it was a time when we consistently exercised and felt great and full of energy. The truth is, we've all been there.

If you stop and think about it, from time to time and more often than we care to admit, we all get derailed in life. We're not that much different than a train at times. Yep, there we are operating at full steam and something comes up that seems to knock us off our tracks in life. Do you know what we have to do when this happens? It's simple, we have to get right back on track and continue to make ourselves a priority through it all. Yes, sometimes we may even feel like we are fighting to claim a certain time slot but do it for yourself and do it for all of your loved ones. Think of the tremendous example you will be setting! We can't afford to make up excuses and cheat ourselves from taking the best care of ourselves on a daily basis. In fact, we owe it to ourselves, don't we?

There will always be things that come up in life. That is never going to change. It could be a new job, a dog, a baby, a graduation, etc. The truth is that life is full of these type of changes and events. That's why we can't use any of these changes in life as excuses for getting and staying derailed when it pertains to healthy eating and fitness patterns.

We are all guilty of making up excuses at times. Every now and then we need to stop and re-evaluate our lives and make sure that we are a "priority" in our own lives. Sounds simple but come on, tell the truth, "Have you made yourself a top priority in your own life?"

There's nothing great about putting everyone's needs above your own. There's nothing great about making excuses for not working out or eating correctly. All of us can come up with a load of excuses in life at every stage of our lives. You have to ask yourself, "Why do we cheat ourselves by not making ourselves a priority?" This is not good for us from a mental or a physical standpoint. Please make yourself a priority! Learn how to eat well and make sure to get your physical workouts in consistently.

If you're waiting to catch up on everything else in your life and then get to a point where you'll be able to fit eating healthy or exercising in, it's not going to happen. We have to make these things happen.

We have to make ourselves a priority so that we can be our very best each day of our life and so that we can be healthy and set a good example for all whom we love.

Burning Extra Calories Throughout the Day

New articles are popping up on a regular basis emphasizing better ways of burning additional calories throughout the day. Many wonder exactly how this occurs. It's simple, if you stop and think about it. It's all the little things you do throughout the day that add up to what you will end up burning off at the end of the day. It's how much you move.

It can boil down to common sense. Park farther away from places you shop. Take the stairs instead of escalators and elevators. Make many trips upstairs in your own home when you need a particular item. Get up to get the remote instead of asking someone to pass it to you. I've been guilty of that one but not anymore. Those are my calories to burn off; I'm not going to give them to someone else to burn off! They're too valuable!

It's funny but I don't want to cheat myself anymore and that's exactly what I was doing. I get up to get things more often. I look at it like I am burning additional calories that I would have not burned. Sounds silly but it's not.

I recently read that people who move more in general can burn up to 300 more calories in an average day. That's a lot of calories! You all know those type people, you may be one, the type that can't sit still, well they're burning calories all while we're sitting back trying to figure them out.

I guess I always knew that even the most simplest of tasks that we do on a daily, weekly or monthly basis all add up to a substantial amount of calories being burned. Wow, that's a biggie, right?

Think about that and start making even more of an effort in burning extra calories throughout the day. What the heck, you'll not only burn extra calories, you'll have an extremely productive day in getting things accomplished!

Have a wonderful day!

IT'S A BACK ON TRACK MONDAY!

Wow, there's no doubt holidays, such as Mother's Day are wonderful days in each of our lives. Isn't it great to be able to enjoy a "special event" day and know exactly how to get right back on track to your healthy eating pattern the next day? It sure is for me. This morning I had the following for breakfast:

1/2 of a Whole Wheat English Muffin

1-2 teaspoons of Smuckers All Natural Peanut Butter

1/2 sliced banana

Sprinkle of honey

2/3 rds cup of Plain Axelrod Non Fat Yogurt with Splenda

10 blueberries mixed into yogurt

I did manage to attempt to get outside early to walk/jog but because it was already 9:00 a.m. I had to cut it short with just one lap due to the heat. I just ate breakfast and I will do my 30 minutes of Pilates this morning. I am going to try to get some extra cardio in today inside by doing about 20 minutes of cardio by Denise Austin. I'll choose two of her 10 minute routines. Later this evening when it's cooler, I will get my full 2 miles plus in with my walking/jogging routine.

I have to remember to drink water throughout the day in the proper quantities. That's an ongoing challenge!

You are so right Leslie!

Physical exercise is so important for both of the reasons you mentioned. Exercise is a motivating factor each and every day. It also spikes up the metabolism and provides you with an overall feeling of productivity in that you're doing your best to maintain balance in your life.

You are so right; it certainly automatically lifts your spirits and provides you with a great overall feeling.

We simply have to remember the importance of "Taming our Inner Octopus" by not randomly eating without reason or eating based on our emotions. We must Cure Our Garbage Disposal Syndrome by treating our body properly and refusing to overload it with excess calories it can't handle or doesn't require.

I'm having a half turkey sandwich on Whole Wheat with 1 teaspoon of Olive Oil Mayonnaise. I'm also having a cup of steamed cauliflower/broccoli with a Tablespoon of Ken's Lite. I love those Bread and Butter sliced pickles, so I'm going to have a few of those also.

Hope everyone is having a great productive day!

I'll be doing my Pilates after lunch. I'm going to change it up today and do a 20 minute program off of Exercise TV. It's so important to switch things up so that we can work different muscles.

It's Been Another Great Week!

Isn't it wonderful to be able to enjoy eating in the right way!

I had a half of a Whole Wheat English Muffin this morning with 1 teaspoon of Smucker's All Natural Peanut Butter. I added about 1/2 of a sliced small banana on top and then sprinkled it with honey. I had about 2/3 rds cup of Non Fat Plain yogurt with Splenda and about 10 plump blueberries. That breakfast totals out at approximately 300 calories which includes my creamer for my coffee at 10 calories a teaspoon.

It's amazing and I guess I no longer take anything for granted but it sure is a wonderful feeling to know that you can eat well and in the proper amounts while feeling totally satisfied and not hungry. I strongly feel that is why we continually read the following in so many articles: Eating the correct foods, in the correct amounts will satisfy your appetite.

I'm going to save my 2 mile walk/jog for this evening since I doubled up yesterday by going in the morning and in the evening.

Mother's Day is Sunday. Mother's Day surely falls in the category of a "Special Event's Day". These are the times where many of us choose to eat off track from our normal pattern of healthy eating 95% of the time. Surely, we all know by now that these times are not times to overeat to the point where you feel your stomach could burst. That's not a good goal at any time or for any reason.

These are the times that we do wish to enjoy with our family and friends. We can do this without going overboard and without feeling guilt of any type.

Everything in moderation holds true even on the "Special Event's Day" of our lives!

Have a great day everyone! It's Friday!

Great day of balance today!

I had 2/3 rds of a cup of red beans with 1 cup of broccoli/cauliflower and a Tablespoon of Ken's Lite for supper. I had a half of a tuna fish salad sandwich on whole wheat also.

I went to the grocery and loaded up on all the healthy items we need for this next week. That's the key really, having all the healthy items in your home. It also helps if you have the things on hand so that you can bring your lunch to work.

I did my conditioning DVD this afternoon. I did Denise Austin's Personal Trainer. I did the light upper body dumbbell routine and the lower body high intensity. It is so awesome and each section only takes 10 minutes but boy does it produce tremendous results. Those squats are so awesome.

I'm going to walk/jog again tonight for 30 minutes. It's one of those rare days when I choose to do walking/jogging routines.

Maybe I'm getting ready for the extra calories I will be eating for Mother's Day. We are grilling out and preparing chicken and steak, so that will be fun.

Hope everyone is having a great day.

Remember, it's all about balance. Make yourself a priority always along with everyone else!