1. Get rid of the junk food in your house RIGHT NOW!
2. Schedule your weeks on Sundays. Plan for your gym time, running kids around time, shopping time.
3. Watch a workout DVD or TV show and move!
4. Invest in a good pair of running or walking shoes.
5. Start slowly into an exercising routine. The key is to start!
6. Learn to swim. Swimming can burn a ton of calories and it is fun.
7. Lift those weights. Strength training will change your body into a lean mean machine.
8. Hire a trainer. Check their credentials, ask for referrals, and talk to them about your goals.
9. Join a group of like-minded individuals. Whether it be triathlons, Tai Chi, skiing, Masters swim club-friends keep friends fit.
10. Eat small frequent meals throughout each day. Most people start the day off not eating enough because they are ‘being good’. This sabotages their efforts later in the day because they are starving! Hello bucket of ice cream or bag o chips before dinner.
11. Play with your kids. You can burn tons of calories playing tag, having a snowball fight, sledding, and skiing.
12. Drink plenty of water. 8 8 oz. glasses is recommended, but everyone sweats differently. Use this as a guide.
13. The perfect wake up your body routine is a few sun salutations.
14. What about a hula-hoop??? Tap into your inner child, and let your hips go wild!
15. My favorite snack: A thin smear of peanut butter on a crisp apple.
16. My favorite lunch: 2 oz. of organic refried black beans on a whole grain tortilla topped with Verde salsa. Sometimes I will throw chicken on there to be crazy!
17. My favorite drink: Water. Ok I like Diet A&W Root beer too. And the Root beer at St. Elias for dessert!
18. Need a dessert? Try making a tofu banana cream pie. I guarantee no one will know it was made with Tofu!
19. Intervals baby! You need em. After a good warm up pick up your intensity for a predetermined length of time, like a minute, or a commercial or longer, recover for the same amount of time. Don’t forget to cool down!
20. Try a Power Pacing Class at the Fitness Place. Lots of instructors, great music, and you can burn from 500 to 1000 calories in one class!
21. Keep a food journal. Studies show that people who log their foods maintain and sustain their weight loss. There are many generic food logs on the internet, but just writing it down on scrap paper will do.
22. You must Change your lifestyle. Diets are temporary with temporary results. You must change your lifestyle in order to get fit and stay fit.
23. Join an online support group or find a local support group. Changing your lifestyle is not easy, and meeting people in the same situation can make this a whole lot easier. And more rewarding.
24. Take before and after photos. Post them somewhere you see them even if you might not want to. Get a front shot, side shot, and rear shot. After a predetermined period of time, take the same shots again in the same clothing. You will amaze yourself.
25. Make this decision to change PUBLIC! It is all about accountability. And you will find supportive people everywhere. You are less likely to eat a bucket of KFC in front of the people you just told everything??? Come on! Pay attention to labels and don’t buy stuff with HFCS in it. Actually,
26. Fructose is processed differently in the body and once our fructose needs are met, the extra is stored as fat. Hmmmmm Same goes for trans fats. Yucky stuff, and you should be watching your fat intakes anyway.
27. Besides, what kinds of foods typically have trans fats??? FAST FOOD AND JUNK FOOD. Isn’t that stuff supposed to be outta your house by now???
28. Set your goal. Once you have a goal in mind, get a plan on paper. Talk with a trainer or a friend who has been successful and smart about weight loss. Now you’re on to something!
29. Credibility is everything. If you are seeking advice, shouldn’t it be from someone who walks the walk? And this is NOT all about appearances. My point is to do your homework, ask questions, read, research and then go with your own gut.
30. Safe weight loss is 1-2 lbs. per week. Expecting more than that is unrealistic. Unless you workout every day for 3-4 hours and starve yourself…….
31. Many people fear quitting smoking will leave them fatter. Here is a tip, when you feel the urge to smoke, do jumping jacks, situps, wall pushups, run in place for the same time you would smoke. It will take your mind off wanting a cigarette and give you something else to do except snack.
32. Brush your teeth! It will make your smile look good and protect you from heart disease.
33. Get outside in Alaska. We have wonderful places to walk and enjoy the outdoors even in the winter. The Kenai Wildlife Refuge, Tsalteshi Trails, Centennial Park just to name a few. Layer up and get outside!
34. Use a heart rate monitor to ensure you are working out hard enough. You can go to my website to learn how to calculate an estimated zone, or ask your doctor for that information.
35. You must workout intensely enough to cause your body to change.
36. I often overhear people sweating it out on the elliptical at the Fitness Place saying things like, “I gotta burn off the 3 barbecues from this weekend,” or “Woo hoo! I just burned 769 calories. Let’s go have pizza…..” This is not a good strategy for obvious reasons. Have a plan and stick to that plan.
37. Remember to stretch. Stretching feels good and prevents injuries. Stretch when you are warm, and always after every workout.
38. Try racing! Even though it is winter, you can still check out the races for next season. And if you are going on vacation this winter, Google a 5K or 10K that is going on. Or you can plan your vacations around a big event……something to shoot for and train for.
39. Sleep is a great Growth Hormone. It also is when our bodies pump up the growth hormone. This hormone mobilizes fat cells, so get your sleep!
40. Carbohydrates fuel your workouts. If you are in a low carb lifestyle, try eating your allotted carbohydrates before and after you exercise to get the most out of them.
41. The Good, the Bad, and The Ugly…..fats that is. The good would be Omega 3’s found in flax and cold water fish. The bad is too much saturated fat like fatty meats. And the ugly is the Trans fats, hydrogenated anything. Just don’t eat it!
42. According the American Heart Association, the average American eats 22 teaspoons of sugar per day. Go home tonight and measure that out into a bowl. Multiply that by 7 and get 154 teaspoons of sugar!!! READ LABLES, and don’t buy things with sugar, high fructose corn syrup, corn syrup, cane sugar, etc.
43. Sugar is sugar. Organic sugar is sugar. Turbinado Sugar is sugar. Corn syrup is sugar. No matter how you label it, it is sugar. And too much sugar makes you fat. READ LABLES and boycott the extra sugar.
44. Label Confusion 1: Labels that say Fat Free must have less than .5 grams of fat per serving. THE KEY WORDS here are “per serving”. If 1 serving equals 2 cookies and you eat 10 cookies you have eaten 5 grams of fat. Not to mention that these fat free foods are usually loaded with sugar and salt to make ’em taste good.
45. Label Confusion 2 – To qualify as a low-fat, a food must contain 3 grams or less per serving. So a light ice cream has 190 calories 2.5 grams of fat, and 36 grams of carbohydrates (SUGAR) while plain ol’ regular ice cream is 160 calories, 9 grams of fat, and 18 grams of carbohydrates. The full fat version has less calories than the light version.
46. Label confusion 3- Reduced fat or less fat means a food has at least 25% or less fat than the original version. So Sun-Chips advertise they have 30% less fat than regular potato chips. While this is true, this snack has 38.5 % fat and does not meet the criteria for a low fat food. Be aware and when you see reduced fat ask yourself, “Reduced from what?”
47. Label Confusion #4 – Sugar Free means there is less than .5 grams of sugar per serving. So you have a sugar free snack that has 160 calories, 10 grams of fat, and 19 grams of carbohydrates. You have a regular ol’ snack that has 150 calories, 8 grams of fat and 19 grams of carbohydrates. And I will bet the sugar free version is loaded with artificial sweeteners!!!
48. Label Confusion #5 – No added sugar and “without added sugar” means that no sugar containing ingredient was added during processing. Often times this label is used and the food item is NOT “low calorie.” Fruit juice with no added sugar is a good example.
49. Label Confusion #6 – “Light” or “lite” products are often associated with being healthy. A “light” food is one that has 1/3 less calories OR 1/2 the fat as the previous version of the food. A great example is a lite candy bar vs a regular candy bar: regular version is 270 calories and 10 grams of fat. Light version is 170 calories and 5 grams of fat. SOUNDS GREAT….But the servings size…..the light version is almost only 3/4 as big as the original so of course it is lighter!!!!
50. Label confusion #7 – Wheat bread. Good! Whole grains are good for you right and I should buy this bread to be healthy, right? Well, that depends. If the label on the loaf says “wheat bread” then it can literally be made with mostly white flour and colored to look “wheatier.” If you want real wheat bread, the label must say 100% whole wheat or 100% whole grain to be considered a nutritious whole grain food.