What's your motto?

Dieting and exercise clichés are a dime a dozen.  Let’s see if I can give you your 10 cents worth.

1. 1. “Nothing tastes as good as being thin feels.”
2. 2. “You are what you eat.”
3. 3. “A moment on the lips a lifetime on the hips.”
4. 4. “No Pain, No gain.”
5. 5. “Eat to live, don’t live to eat.”
6. 6. “Everything in moderation.”
7. 7. “Eat wise, drop a size.”
8. 8. “Slow and steady wins the race.”
9. 9. “Quitting is not an option.”
10. 10. “Pain is just weakness leaving your body.”
11. 11. “If hunger is not the problem, food is not the solution.”
12. 12. “Commit to be fit.”

These are all clever; some of them are inspirational, yet others make me want to barf!  It’s often helpful to have words of inspiration to help you with any goal, especially diet and exercise goals.

Your motto should be as unique to you as your goals.  This will take some soul searching.  Write down on paper what your weaknesses are in regards to your goals, and think about where it is that you need inspiration.  You may find that you need to eat better or exercise longer.

I found that my motivation was lacking.  Trying to lose weight for summer, or for a wedding, or to fit in my old cloths wasn’t working so I searched deeper for a reason that was more long term, and also incorporated my exercise goals.

My motto has changed as needed.   For example when I first started exercising I need a goal that would help me finish my work out.  Hence the motto, “I can do anything for 5 minutes” was born.  This motto would go through my head during the hardest point on my work out, and it helped me get over the hump straight through to completion.

Today the motto still stands during more difficult workouts, but a new one has begun to emerge that is more geared towards my eating habits.  The new motto I have is “Do I really want it, and it is worth it?”  If the answer is yes to both than I have it, in moderation.

Everyone is different, so don’t try to cater your individuality into my or anyone else’s program, you’ll need to find what inspires you and go for it!

I’d like to hear your mottos, so comment and let me know!

Good Luck!

Next post: “Step it up!”

Sorry seems to be the hardest word.

Today I need to veer off schedule to talk about my week.  Car troubles, work, school, kids, and money have all assisted in derailing my diet this week. 

So here it goes:
“Oh my diet, I am heartily sorry for having offended you, and I detest all my sins, because of your just punishments…”  Sound familiar? 

The act of contrition is what we tell a priest when we have committed a sin, it helps us get things off our chest and start anew.  Sometimes you feel like you committed a sin when you slip up with your diet.  Days or weeks go by, the weight creeps back on and you can feel like a failure, which is utterly discouraging.

This week has been like that for me; stress has a tendency of put eating right on the back burner. One night of ordering out turns into three, which is a huge roadblock to weight management goals, which in turn adds more stress and creates a vicious circle.

During the weight management program, we talked about how to not let a lapse turn into a relapse.  Essentially what we’re doing when we try to lose weight is to make a lifestyle change.  This is not too different from someone who is trying to quit smoking.  Lifestyle changes won’t happen over night, and lapsing is to be expected, it’s how we deal with the lapse that doesn’t allow it to become a relapse.

Here are some ways to deal with a lapse:

1. Don’t beat your self up about it.
2. Try to identify what triggered the lapse.  Figuring out what triggered the lapse will help you come up with a game plan on how you can avoid it in the future.
3. Realize that you can’t take it back, and that what’s done is done.
4. Say your act of contrition and clean the slate.  Don’t let weeks of hard work go down the drain because of a few days worth of bad meal choices.

So, I’m going to hop back on the horse by perusing some healthy recipes and getting a good night sleep. First thing in the morning, I’m going to the gym and rewarding myself with an afternoon of relaxation.

Next post: “To lift, or not to lift.”

Portion control: Seriously, that’s the entire meal?!

Did you know that the size of the average American plate has increased 36 % since the 1960s, which means you don’t have to back for 2nds anymore, you can just pile more on in one sitting!  If I went back in time and gave my great grandmother one of the plates I use for dinner, she might think it was a serving platter!

Gauging meal sizes can be tricky, and who looks at a piece of chicken and knows how many ounces it is, AND who want to think about that kind of stuff when you’re eating anyway!  Counting calories and measuring out portions is math, and math makes my head hurt, and I don’t enjoy eating with a headache!

You don’t have to eat off of a salad plate or dirty every measuring cup in your house to make dinner in order to make sure you’re not eating too much food.

Here are a few potion control methods that keep it simple:

1. The Divided Plate
1. Divide your plate in ½ and fill it with your veggies (salad, spinach, broccoli, escarole, etc.)
2. The other have of your plate gets divided in ½ again
3. Fill one ½ with your protein (chicken, fish, lean beef or pork)
4. And what’s left is for your grain (roll, rice, pasta, quinoa, etc.)
2. Hand - Palm - Fist
1. Spread your hand out, that your veggies portion
2. Turn your palm over, not including fingers- that’s your protein portion
3. Make a fist and that’s your grain.
3. Object related sizing
1.  Your protein should be about the size of your iPhone or a deck of cards
2. Grains should be about the size of a tennis ball.

Everything is good in moderation and if you (and me) can stick to balancing meals and snacks like this, it makes dieting easier. It also keeps us from trying to justify ketchup and pickles as vegetables! You know you’ve done it!

Eating “good for you” foods in the right proportions gives you more energy, wards off illness and disease, speeds up your metabolism, and will eventually melt off the pounds.  It’s pretty easy to know the kinds of foods that are good for us (refer to the new food pyramid from a previous post.)  We all learned the food groups in grade school, and I don’t remember there being a “cake” group, I WISH, but alas, nope, no “cake group.

Next Post: “Spinning” out of control!

Setting Goals: I can beat that

So losing weight is hard, right?! Why is it that you never see a program geared toward gaining weight?  Gaining weight is easy, thanks to evolution, our bodies like to store extra fat in case we run into some kind of famine, and it’s really hard to get rid of that extra weight with Darwin’s apes on our back!

I decided that 2012 is going to my year to finally lose that baby/winter weight that I’ve been meaning to get rid of for the last 7 years, so I’ve enlisted the help of the Drexel University Center for Integrated Nutrition & Performance (CINP) as well as the Drexel Recreation Center to help me achieve my goals.

Just before the holiday break, CINP announced that they were going to be holding an 8 week weight management program starting January 2012.  Taking that as a sign that I found my new year’s resolution, I registered immediately.  Prior to starting we needed to have a fitness assessment, if you’ve never had one of these, please know that they are almost as a personal as giving blood, there are no secrets left, and what happens during the assessment stays locked up unless you choose otherwise.  Definitely get one though, it’s a great starting point, and it will put you on the right track to fitness, but we’ll get more into that in a later post.

Week one of the program we talked about setting goals, diet goals in particular.  We were told that our goals need to be more than just a number on the scale.  They outlined for us S.M.A.R.T. goals: Specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, and timely.  Now I’m thinking, I want to lose 30 pounds, but that goal is not smart enough for this program and I’ve got homework to do.

The next part of the class talked about Choose My Plate. A while back the government changed the food pyramid, you remember that from grade school right? No? Maybe this will help to jog your memory “You are what you eat”   They didn’t really change anything but make it vertical instead of horizontal, but the Choose My Plate initiative is designed around this update to the food pyramid, and it preaches portion control within a well rounded diet.

They take us to the ChooseMyPlate.gov website, and the first image I see is Michelle Obama. Michelle is the spokesperson for the program, and she’s always on the Disney channel, or making the talk show rounds promoting a healthier lifestyle. This woman is in ridiculous shape, her arms are so ripped, I bet she could break walnuts with her biceps! And she has to be, right?! She IS the first lady of the U.S.A., she has to be tough, and that got me thinking about my goals.  I’m a Philly girl, born and raised. Now, I don’t know where you’re from but around here we like to size each other up.  We eyeball each other’s physical traits and secretly wonder who would win in a fight. Hey it passes the time, don’t judge.  Now I realize that a part of my goal is that I’d like to know that if I met Mrs. Obama in person that I could look at her and think, “Yeah…I can beat that.”

Here is my smart goal for the next 8 weeks: To lose weight and gain fitness endurance through a well rounded diet and regular exercise.

Next post: “Squats…why do you have to hurt so much?”