Health Tip 105 From a Non-Health Fanatic

Buy a scale and if you already own one – use it! How are you supposed to lose weight if you are not able to track your success by some legitimate measurement? How comfortable your pants fit today is NOT an accurate way to determine if you are overweight or on track!

Most of us avoid the scale to avoid the truth – yes you are 10, 20, 30, 40 pounds overweight! The scale can not ease its tone, hold your hand, or tell you things will get better. The scale shows it like it is. Go ahead, step off and step back on – the numbers are the same. Let your toes hang over the edge, maybe it will take off one pound (darn, you have fat toes). Strip – take off those jeans, eliminate the wallet, no shoes of course (everyone knows that rule). Make that scale go down! Typically it doesn’t so people simply ignore it. They hide the scale, throw it away, or even sell it at a garage sale!

If you are going to get serious about losing weight you need to know how much you currently weigh and how much you want to weigh (there is obviously a difference for most of us). The scale is not the enemy, in fact, many of days it is my best friend showing me the results of hard work while also showing me a weekend of poor eating and wine drinking doesn’t amount to a 5 pound gain (Halleluiah)! The scale keeps your butt in line – it is a simple device that says “good” or “bad” by the numbers it displays. If you're up you know to get back on track, work out slightly more. If you are down, kiss the scale and hope that it is not broken! HA, HA just kidding.

The point is simple. You can’t be serious about weight loss unless you know what you weigh as hurtful as that number may appear (think Biggest Loser national TV the whole world knows how fat you are). This is not that bad!

My approach: While trying to actively lose weight I used the scale every single morning (before I had 3 meals)! I knew whether I was up or down and that dictated what I ate and how much I worked out that day. While trying to maintain my weight loss I use the scale twice a week – once in the beginning (Sunday or Monday) and once towards the end. This allows me to quickly catch a mishap and reverse a gain always giving me control of my weight and more importantly my self confidence.

Health Tip 104 From a Non-Health Fanatic

Oh boy, you are not going to like this tip.

Stop making excuses! No, this tip is not about exercising more, counting calories, eliminating carbs, or taking vitamins. This tip is about your desire to loose weight, get healthy, and become confident and comfortable in your own body.

Trust me, I understand the busy days packed full of work, errands, chores, and other obligations that take away time for you to invest in working out or cooking meals. But life is never going to slow down and pleasantly make time or space for you to incorporate getting in shape – you must make loosing weight a priority. By simply committing to set this goal and go after it, you will find the time (whether by waking up early or going to bed late) to exercise, eat more wisely, and enjoy your changing body.

Almost a year later, I still have to remind myself that just as I lost the weight, I can regain the weight. It is a scary thought and sometimes exhausting as I many times do not want to prioritize working out or eating healthy – sometimes it feels easier to give into the temptations around me than to remain dedicated to my self commitment. But when the scale slightly raises and the clothes fit a bit snuck I remind myself of my happiness when being thin. I remind myself of how hard it was to get to where I am and that by reversing this great goal I would experience heartache my self-esteem and health could not bare.
I have stopped making excuses.

When it is hot out. When I am exhausted. When I get home at 8 PM. When in a hurry and unable to find 30 minutes. When on vacation. When PMSing. The excuses are so easy to find, so easy to speak to, so easy to use – I remind myself they are just that – excuses. No real reason as to why I can’t exercise or eat the salad instead of the pasta. This week I ran 5 times and only enjoyed it once.

Find the time to love yourself and love your body. Stop making excuses and commit to becoming healthy and getting in shape.

Health Tip 103 From a Non-Health Fanatic

If dieting was easy and exercise enjoyable woman would hate each other more and men would stay single longer.

More importantly, we would all be a bit happier.

Let’s omit the concern of our health. Health you ask? I respond, “Who cares!” Let’s be vain and think about looking good in that short, lacy, black, sleeveless cocktail dress…that you need to be 20 pounds lighter to fit into. Let’s also imagine looking in the mirror and seeing a reflection back that is curvy but slender and much more slim than in years past – you smile, you are happy.

If improved health results from bettering yourself by becoming a skinny beeatch, then heck, that is an added bonus!

In the mean time, lets learn two more health tips (from a non-health fanatic) that seem simple but are difficult to execute. Read, absorb, implement. Don’t ask questions, I don’t have answers! Save them for the doctors who probably haven’t helped you get fit!

Just remember, I am like you and this worked.

Pass the pepper not the salt. I am neither a doctor nor a nutritionist but I do know two simple facts – salt makes you retain water and as a result, makes you feel bloated. Why do you want to feel bloated when your goal is the complete opposite – to look and feel skinny. Salt is not going to help you in this mission so get rid of this seasoning and supplement it with something else.

Eliminate bread. Bread helps make you fat and keep you fat. Why? Because bread is refined, full of sugar, heavy in carbohydrates, and we never eat it in moderation. We have it in the morning (bagel), we have it during lunch (BLT on bread), we have it with dinner (pasta and garlic bread – extra yum), we have it at home and in restaurants – it is everywhere and it is always welcomed!

Unwelcome the bread! Say goodbye to white bread forever. And when you occasionally need your fix, indulge with whole wheat bread only – be down with the brown not with the white. Why you ask? (I told you no questions!) Fiber! Fiber! Fiber! Fiber makes you feel full and it aids digestion – simply put, fiber does not stick inside of you so as easily as it g oes in so does it go out.

We are not done with this bread conversation yet! When out to eat if you must have some of that hot, full-flavored, smells so good bread – have a piece and then ask the waiter to take the basket away. I do it all the time – there is no shame in this act, only pride that you are on your way to becoming the skinny diva you always dreamed!

*Make sure to check out my previous Health Tip's 101 & 102 From a Non-Health Fanatic to learn more about what worked for me. You never know, it might work for you too!

Health Tip 102 From a Non-Health Fanatic

Run! It is very simple. It doesn't require you to count calories. You don't have to think about portion control. And you do not have to do it more than once a day.

I initially believed that I could start to exercise, not diet, and still somehow manage to lose weight. After a month of proving myself wrong I decided to pay attention to the foods I shoved in my mouth and increase my exercise schedule to not only include 3 days of outdoor conditioning with a trainer but added 2 additional days of self hell - running around my neighborhood.

When running short distances in my conditioning class, I could barely keep up. I kept my inhaler in hand, breathed as if I was giving birth, and regularly stopped in the middle of the lap walking my way back to the finish line. It was embarrassing. I was pathetic. I could not believe I was this out of shape. I did not want to forever be the girl in last place.

I came home, put my work out clothes on, added some motivating music to my Ipod, grabbed my inhaler (just in case) and set out to make it around the one-mile circular roadway adjacent to my apartment complex. I jogged down a small hill and then walked to the first house on the left. Once I reached the mailbox I jogged to the Fire Station on the right. I walked down hill about 15 feet and then attempted to jog up a step hill on a major incline. It helped that the road parallel to this hill is extremely busy with traffic and I reminded myself that if I stopped jogging now all the people stuck at the red light would witness me quitting. In disbelief I made it to the top of hill.

And so I have continued my schedule of running the one-mile lap, shortening the distances in between my sprints and my walking. I know for most, especially those overweight and out of shape, the idea of running, not even the act of it - sickens you. You would rather starve yourself. Only eat vegetables. Never eat bread or any other kind of carb again. Perhaps you can walk you ask? The answer is No. You cannot walk! You cannot starve yourself! You cannot attempt to try and fail again at any of the million fad diets you have already tried in your crusade to look great and feel well. It will not work. Get your ass up and run.

I don't care if you run for ten feet, walk for forty, and then run for another ten. You need to start somewhere. You can run off the fat. I promise. I did it. And every time I ran I reminded myself that I was running the weight off (literally).

I would run and think about the red pair of pants I wanted so desperately to fit into. I would run and imagine looking in the mirror and not thinking 'I looked fat'.

I would run and think about the fight I had with my fiancé, the bills I needed to pay, the job I loved that I didn't have. Over weeks and the following months running became "my" time - it was fifteen minutes in which I self evaluated, it was the time where I pushed my body's limits, reminded myself of its purpose, envisioned the results of each step, and cleared my head of the days thoughts.

There are days I run longer distances than others. There are many days when I move slower, walk more, and curse the whole time I am pushing myself up and down the hills that I move over during the one-mile run. However, the one consistent is that I run - 5 days a week - when I feel like it and when I don't. I do this for myself. I do this for my body. I do this so the days I feel good about myself outnumber the days I feel fat!

It works. I was able to wear those red pants. And guess what? Now even the red pants do not fit --- they are too big.

A Few Tips To Consider:

• Use landmarks to set short term goals. Run to the stop sign and then walk to the intersection. Run to the willow tree and then walk to the fire hydrant. Every two weeks change the landmarks so that there are longer distances in between the starting and ending points.


• Listen to music. Music can distract you and motivate you. Who doesn't get pumped up when ‘Eye Of The Tiger’ is blasting in your headset? On days that I really did not want to run I would purchase a few new songs from Itunes so that I had something to look forward to during the run.


• Self talk. Use the time you run to remind yourself why you are subjecting your body to this physical activity. Envision the results you want to get out of your run - imagine yourself in that black sexy cocktail dress or two-piece bikini.

Health Tip 101 From a Non-Health Fanatic

Several months back when I decided to lose weight and get in shape I really did not know how to begin. My diet at the time consisted of pizza (Ellios was my favorite!), Mac and Cheese (Velveeta is the best), hamburgers, hot dogs (Nathan’s of course) and all things Italian. Give me bread, rolls, croissants, and add a little butter please! My physical activity was low, well actually, it really did not exist except my cardio at the mall (which I visited every Sunday while my than fiancé watched Football). The most common words of wisdom people shared when speaking to my future plans of becoming fit was “eat less and work out more”. The overwhelming amount of diet fads, cookbook literature, workout tapes, and co-worker opinions simply left me unsure of how to correctly approach implementing a healthy lifestyle.

I decided to eat better, and well, start working out.

I solicited the help of Weight Watchers and an Outdoor Conditioning Program and have since lost a total of 26.4 pounds. Weight Watchers continues to teach me foods I can and can not eat and foods I can have every once in a while. My Outdoor Conditioning class keeps me physically motivated by pushing my body to surpass the limits that I had previously set – running a minimum of five times a week has become a regular custom for me.

And throughout the process I have still been overwhelmed by the constant contradictions of how it is best to get fit and be healthy. However, some tips I have heard or read resonated within and now, every so often I would like to share with you my readers, my healthy tip from a non-health fanatic. These are tips that have worked for me and may not work for you. These are daily rituals of the sort that I incorporated into my life style because they are simple tips and easily understood. Counting calories, measuring food – that's all a bit complicated. I wanted to know the small, easy, no non-sense advise that could expedite my weight loss and would not cause me to have oily stools and surprise diarrhea!

Drink Green Tea. Why? Because the celebrities do it and you know those skinny bitches have the highest paid nutritionists and trainers advising them as to what helps facilitate weight loss!

Truthfully, all the tabloid magazines (that I am obsessed with) regularly have features on celebrity diets. Their inserts show before and after shots, and sample work out and diet menus. Green Tea is always a must have. I couldn’t bare to drink the hot Green Tea so I found the cold alternative – Crystal Light On The Go Green Tea Raspberry flavored. There are 14 packets in a box and all you need is a water bottle, water, add the mix and presto you’re no longer drinking soda, juice, or any other beverage that is high in calories and packed with sugar.

Green Tea has been a lasting fad and is regularly correlated with ‘flushing out your system’ – I knew it wouldn’t hurt incorporating it into my daily intake of fluids.

So now you’re wondering what is the real, medical conclusion as to why Green Tea is so highly recommended?

As noted in the October 22, 2007 issue of Healthy Living Made Easy First, Green Tea is full on antioxidants that
“…stimulates thermogensesis the process by which the body uses energy…Subjects who took Green Tea increased their metabolism by 34 percent…”. Antioxidants are also believed to help prevent cancer, heart disease, and stroke.

Take it or leave it folks...just a small tip that has worked for me.


*Blog References:
www.weightwatchers.com
http://www.customfitnessconcepts.com/
www.kraftfoods.com/crystallight/