Fitness Challenge Update

Hey, gals! Happy Monday! Hey, every day’s a good day when you wake up and are breathing. Remember, today is a gift; that is why it’s called the present. I hope you had a great weekend.
I spent some time hiking up around Caesar’s Head in the rain; I must be part duck.

How’s your fitness challenge going? Has anyone tried the Sabre 12’s? Remember, the key is to get moving, regardless of the method. Successful weight management and optimal health are two sides of the same coin—exercise and proper nutrition. I know it is hard to find time with young kiddos to fit a workout into your schedule. Do it in pieces if you have to, but just do it. Even better, incorporate the kids into your workout. I remember “flying” my girls on my feet when they were young, or doing abs crunches with them sitting on my belly (I don’t, however, do that now ). Put on some music and dance; the looks on your children’s faces will be priceless! You send a fantastic message that exercising can be fun.

Okay, so all the exercise in the world doesn’t help if you don’t watch what you eat. If you have some unhealthy eating habits you need to change (been there, done that; I used to eat half of a half gallon of ice cream swimming in soda as a nighttime snack), build new habits gradually. Recognize that it takes time for a new behavior to become a permanent habit. Start out by setting one new goal a week, such as eating a healthy breakfast or serving a salad with dinner each night. Here are some other helpful hints to manage your weight.

Track what you eat (and drink). Write it down for a week or two; you might see some eating patterns. I drink a lot of water, soy and 100% fruit juices. But a few glasses of juice can pack on many calories very quickly. Sometimes I add a little juice to my water for flavor. I try not to eat anything after 8pm, and I brush and floss my teeth as a deterrent.

Watch portion sizes. Portion sizes began to increase in the 1970’s and rose sharply in the 1980’s. Consider this: Twenty years ago a cup of coffee was 8 ounces, with a little cream and sugar, and had 45 calories. Today, a Starbucks 16 oz. grande café mocha with whip, 2% milk has 330 calories. Twenty years ago a plain bagel was 3 inches in diameter and had 140 calories. Today the average plain bagel is 5-6 inches and has an average of 350 calories, and it counts as three servings of bread. When McDonald’s started in 1955, its only hamburger (imagine that, only one choice) weighed 1.6 ounces; today, its largest patty weighs 8 ounces, an increase of 500%. The original 8 oz. bottle of Coke (yes, back in the stone age when I was a kid and we returned the bottles to the store) had 97 calories; today the 20 oz. bottle has 242 calories (not to mention all that sugar). And, oh yeah, in the early 1990’s the standard size of a dinner plate increased from 10 to 12 inches; cup and bowl sizes also increased. You get the idea. Interestingly enough, companies are shrinking the size of their products in the grocery store and charging the same price—1 ½ quart containers of ice cream instead of half gallons, for example (it’s in everything from boxed foods to canned goods to sacks of chips).

Don’t skip meals. Breakfast “breaks the fast” of not having eaten while you slept. The right foods provide energy for your body to function and get your metabolism going so it can burn calories efficiently.

And here’s an interesting tidbit. Studies have shown that waist size is a better indicator than body mass index (and easier for you to determine at home) of increased health risks for conditions such as hypertension, diabetes and elevated cholesterol. Your waist size, measured around your belly button, should be less than ½ of your height. For me that means at 5’5” my waist should be less than 32 ½ inches. Studies suggest that health risks begin to increase when a woman’s waist size reaches 31 ½ inches, and her risk jumps dramatically when her waist size reaches 35 inches or more. For a man the risk increases at 37 inches and jumps dramatically at 40 inches--definitely food for thought (the nonfattening kind).

All this being said, it really boils down to a choice—countless choices you make every day (you have 86,400 seconds in a day to make your choices, 57,600 if you get 8 hours of sleep, yeah right; I think I did back in 1987), so choose wisely. I’m so proud of you for taking charge of your health. Don’t give up; sometimes it’s two steps forward and one back, but you are still headed in the right direction. Swimsuit season is fast approaching! Now where is that Bee Gees album………Suzanne.