CHALLENGES – CHALLENGES – CHALLENGES

Yes, that’s what I said – challenges!  I’m sitting here, reading a book while my husband, Mal, watches his St. Louis Cardinal baseball game, and relaxing for probably the last time in the next 8 weeks.  Tomorrow begins what I’ve been waiting for for a couple of years – a 6 week visit with my Grandson, Jamie!  A week after he comes my niece, Madison, is coming for a week.  The day she leaves Mal, Jamie, our son, Dennis, and our other Grandson, Syd, leave for a week in Las Vegas.  We’ll be home 3 days before our Granddaughter, Kassidy, arrives for a month and, straight from the airport, we’ll go to Sedonna, AZ. for 4 days, be home for 3 and go to Phoenix for 3 days!!!!  After that I open my 3 classes a week at 123 Fit!  So, do you think I might have some challenges coming up.  Now they may be a tad more than you have (or maybe a tad less) but a challenge is a challenge and nothing more.   Webster’s definition of a challenge is: a demanding or stimulating situation.  It’s not an excuse to “forget it all and let’s have fun with the kids” for me.  Instead it’s “figure out how to eat well MOST of the time, walk a lot to make up for the times when I don’t and end up “below the 5 on the scale” when it’s all over.  A demanding challenge, FOR SURE!  A stimulating situation, YOU BET but a “done deal” that I’m going to go off my program – NO WAY!

Remember, I tell you to just get “below the 5 or below the zero on the scale” and STAY THERE!  That is, if you’re 167 get below 165, then get below 160 – only 5 pounds to worry about at a time.  I see too many people get below, treat themselves and go above again.  It’s those challenges that they let become problems!  I’ve never worried about a “quick” few pounds coming on because I subscribe to the theory of “easy on, easy off”.  If you put it on fast, it comes off fast.  I was reading an article last week that told about, “last on, first off” meaning the fat cells you add last will be the first ones off – guess they don’t have time to “stick”.  That’s why it’s important AS SOON AS YOU SEE A LITTLE GAIN – go 110% until it’s off.

Anyway,  I may not write in here for awhile since I’ll be busy traveling and enjoying all our  house guests, and loving every busy minute!  I’ll let you know how I do when it’s all over.  After all, it’s just another challenge!!

GOAL SETTING

How good are you at getting to your goal?  Do you actually GET to your goal?  Do you even know WHAT YOUR GOAL IS?  Come on, how are you going to get there if you don’t know where you’re going.  Let’s pretend we’re going to….say Montana….how are you going to get there?  Are you walking?  flying?  driving?  How long are you staying?  A day?  A week?  A month?  What are you going to pack?  Long Clothes?  Short clothes?  Casual clothes?  Dressy Clothes?  Where are you going to stay when you get there?  Stay with friends? Go to a hotel?  Camp out?  Go to a hostel?

Okay, you can see where I’m going.  It’s really hard to start off going some place without a plan.  With any goal setting you have to be smart – that’s S M A R T!  First off – be specific as to what you want to accomplish.  If it’s to lose weight, make it specific – I’M GOING TO LOSE WEIGHT BEFORE I GO ON VACATION on July 26.  Now, make it measurable – I’ll do it by writing down everything that I eat and staying within my calorie allotment and exercising .  Next, be sure your goal is attainable.  Trying to lose 5 pounds a week IS NOT.  Making your goal to lose between 1 1/2 and 2 pounds a week IS!  Be realistic.  Don’t say you’re going to exercise for 2 hours a day – it’s just not going to happen, but, 3 or 4 hours A WEEK is realistic.  And, last, make it traceable.  Write down each day your calories, how much you’ve exercised and SAVE YOUR RECORDS!  If you have a good week, you just might want to repeat it next week.  If your goal wasn’t met, check what you’ve written and see where the improvements can be made.  Don’t let anything stand in your way of success.  YOU CAN DO IT!  I KNOW YOU CAN!  If you need any help you can reach me through this blog or e-mail me at salleyawitz@gmail.com.  I’m here for you!

WHEN SHOULD YOU EAT?

The answer to that is not, “whenever I feel like it”.  The first step of changing your life is learning why you eat and when you eat.  When I ask people when it’s time to eat I get a lost of diverse answers:  when I wake up;  I go by the clock; when I smell food; when I watch food ads on t.v.;  when I’m with friends: when I go to the show (ballgame, other sports events); when my stomach growls; when I see food (that’s the old “see food diet”); when everyone else is eating; when I’m feeling mad, sad, glad (or any other emotion); when I feel shakey; when I get a headache; and on and on and on.  Do you see YOU there?

So let’s get realistic and really pay attention to what I’m saying here.  It may be the key to you being successful in your weight loss. Look at the scale below:

1. Just Ate
2. Satisfied
3. thinking about food
4. could wait
5. hungry
6. to hungry to care
7. full
8. stuffed
9. Sick

So let’s try and make some sense of that.  After you eat (1) you should just be satisfied (2).  A lot of us eat so fast and so much that we end up at (7).  The way that happens is you wait too long to eat or you aren’t even conscience of what you’re eating.  Let’s say we do it this way:  We eat until we’re satisfied (2).  A couple of hours later we start thinking of food (3) Now’s a good time to have a snack.  If we wait a little longer we get to (4) we COULD wait but if we do we actually get (5) hungry and may eat too fast and too much.  If we wait until (6) too hungry to care, we can really get in trouble.  We’re experiencing hunger pains, shakiness, headaches and we’ll grab anything and scarff it down so fast we won’t even know we’ve eaten it and then we get that (7) full feeling.

See, in my way of thinking we don’t let ourselves get FULL, we just eat until we’re SATISFIED!  Our stomach is only as big as our fist so it doesn’t take a lot of food to get that satisfied feeling.  How do we know we’re satisfied?  We don’t have any of those feelings of hunger!  It takes the stomach 20 minutes to tell the brain it’s full so if we eat s – l – o – w we will eat less and be satisfied in that time.

Okay, so realistically we’ve been letting ourselves get to (5)hungry and (6) too hungry to care, a lot and then eating to (7) full or (8) stuffed or SOMETIMES (9 )sick, right?  If we use the above rules we’ll be eating every 2 1/2 to 3 hours which will give us 5 to 6 eating times a day which will keep our bodies fueled all day long, keeping our metabolism flowing and losing weight FASTER!  How do you do this and stay within your calorie allotment?

I only get 1,200 a day when I’m losing weight.  I’ll have around 300 calories three times and 100 calorie snacks during the day.  That’s just a gauge.  If I have a bigger dinner I’ll omit the third snack.  Play with your calories.  Divide them down to 3 meals and 2 or 3 snacks and THEN plan your meals. Keep those snacks as nutritious as you can like string cheese or some nuts or fruit.  You’ll do great!!  (check MY FAVORITE FOODS category for some suggestions).

If you have any comments or questions please leave them for me by clicking on the COMMENT or NO COMMENT (that just means none have been left yet) link to the right of this message.

MAKE IT A GREAT DAY!

GROCERY SHOPPING and READING LABELS

I put these two together because before I buy any food I check the label so we’ll cover them as one subject.

So…the first tip we always get is 

1. DON’T GO SHOPPING WHEN YOU’RE HUNGRY!That seems pretty menial but we don’t always pay heed to it, I know I don’t and end up paying for it when I don’t listen to my and others advise.  EVERYTHING looks good when you’re hungry and the brain stops functioning, so DO pay attention to this rule.  
2. SHOP THE PERIPHERAL FIRST.  That simply means go around the out aisles and counters first.  That’s where you’ll find your fruits and vegetables and meats and cheeses and other FRESH FOODS!  We want to get that cart filled up mostly with these foods BEFORE we hit the inside aisles!
3. SHOP WITH YOUR EYES FIRST!  Look up high on the shelves and then down low.  We normally see what’s before our eyes which is where we find the company’s THAT CAN BUY THE BEST SPACE ON THE SHELVES!  There are a lot of products you’ve never seen because you’ve never looked!
4. DON’T BUY THE SAME OLD, SAME OLD unless it’s a good healthy food that you love.  So many people go off “diets” because they get tired of eating the same foods over and over.  My question would be:  WHY?  Our rule is every time we shop we buy something new and, if we like it, it goes on my favorite foods list so we don’t forget it!  Haven’t you ever bought something, loved it, forgotten it and MONTHS later you see it again and say, “Boy, if I had had that in the house I could have stay on program”.  
5. So, START YOUR OWN SHOPPING LIST! Go through your kitchen today and write down all the foods you have that you LOVE and are HEALTHY (good calories, not too much fat, good fiber) and, when it’s time to go shopping look that list over and begin your shopping list for the week.
6. ALWAYS SHOP WITH A LIST so you don’t get off track and, except for the one or two new products, STICK TO IT!
7. In order to stick with a list PRE-PLAN YOUR MENUS FOR THE WEEK!  At least do the dinners since they’re the hardest.  If you don’t have the foods in the house YOU’LL EAT ANYTHING!

So, there you have some BASIC rules but….let’s talk about what kind of foods to get according to labels.  What are the important things to look for on a label?

1. The first thing I look at are CALORIES!  
2. The second thing is HOW MANY SERVINGS PER CONTAINER!  These two things are really one thing in my mind.  Why?  Have you ever picked up a small package of something ( looks like a serving) and the calories are low and, after you’ve eaten it, gone back and found out it was something like 2 1/2 servings?  Too late to do something then.  Check out some candy apples – one serving, huh?  NOT! I’ve seen lots that are 2 SERVINGS!  Have you ever shared one?  Of course not!  Some bottles of beverages that LOOK like one serving are actually two!  I’ve even seen an ice cream BAR that was two servings.  Check!! You’ll be amazed!  If you know that once you buy that 2 1/2 serving chip bag that you’ll no doubt eat the whole thing PUT IT BACK AND PUT IT BACK FAST!!!
3. Okay, so next I want to see the fat count.  We need fat in our diet, actually it takes fat to burn fat, but we don’t need TOO much.  Thirty five to forty five grams a day is about right for most of us but we want HEALTHY FAT!  Limit saturated and  trans-fat (found in lots of packaged foods – it’s on the label as hydrogenated or partially hydrogenated oil and should be limited to 1 to 2 grams a DAY).  Then we have polyunsaturated and monounsaturated.  These are the GOOD fats.  To break it down – saturated fats lower the good cholesterol, trans-fats lower the good and raise the bad, polynsaturated lower the bad, monounsturated lower the bad and raise the good!  
4. Next step is CHECK THE FIBER.  If you’re buying whole grain foods and eating lots of fruits and vegetables you’re probably getting some good fiber.  Example – a white flour tortilla has practically no fiber, the whole grain one I use (La Tortilla Carb Cutting) has 7 grams of fiber.  My Fiber One bar has 9 grams.  Popcorn has around 4 grams for 3 1/2 cups.  You want at least 25 to 35 grams of fiber a day.  It fills you up and keeps you satisfied so you don’t eat too much!
5. The SUGAR count is something to check up on also.  Every four grams is one teaspoon so keep it down BUT check the ingredients for what kind of sugar.  An apple would have a sugar content if it had a label but it’s fructose so that’s okay!  We’ll talk about sugars in a later blog.
6. And last CHECK THE SODIUM!  A 2,000 calorie diet (which most of us are eating less than) should stay at or below 2,400 mg.  We all know that too much sodium is not good for our health BUT IT ALSO WILL MAKE YOU RETAIN FLUIDS AND SHOW IT ON THE SCALE.  Leave it to me to find the most important reason not to have too much sodium (kidding!).  But really, eat Chinese food one night and the next day you might be up a couple of pounds.  If you’re in my class I’ll always remind you to drink more and the real number will show the next week.

Okay guys!  If you have any questions about the above, leave a comment and I’ll answer it in an upcoming post or, if you need it, I’ll get right back to you.  Make it a great week!!